Top 20 TV Plot Twists of the Century (So Far)

“Mad Men” (2007-15)

Over the course of season 1, Peggy had to endure negative comments and issues with her clothes due to her sudden weight gain. She was able to push past these problems and pursue her goals until the season finale. When Peggy starts to feel particularly awful, she sees a doctor and learns that she’s pregnant. Before she can grapple with this unexpected news, he goes into labor. Peggy's delivery is quickly followed by an impactful scene where she decides to give up her child. The choice to end Peggy’s season one arc with this emotional story beat made an already iconic “Mad Men” character stand out more amongst the ensemble.

“The Haunting of Hill House” (2018)

Although learning that Nell was a ghost at the end of the first episode was surprising, there was another twist left in store about her life for viewers. Before her passing, she’d gotten terrifying visits from a spectre known as The Bent-Neck Lady. Nell eventually tries to get the bottom of where the spirit came from by going back to the creepy Hill House. She proceeds to have a few ghostly encounters that unfortunately lead to her getting a broken neck. As Nell dies, she travels backwards through time and becomes the Bent-Neck lady at various points in her life. This devastating and absolutely heartbreaking twist still haunts us today.

“House of Cards” (2013-18)

Reporter Zoe Barnes seemed like an integral part of “House of Cards”. Her close relationship with Frank and complex storyline seemed to guarantee her safety. So, we didn’t see anything wrong with her meeting up with Frank in a train station during the first episode of season 2. However, we found ourselves gasping when he suddenly pushed Zoe towards the train tracks. Her sudden end made us realize that anything could happen on “House of Cards”. Unfortunately, Zoe wasn’t the last person who would fall victim to one of Frank’s shocking betrayals.

“American Horror Story” (2011-)

When Violet took a large amount of sleeping pills after seeing haunting visions, a ghost named Tate appeared to save her. Over the next few episodes, she avoids going to school and blowflies start appearing in the house. It’s only when Violet tries to leave the house that she has to come face-to-face with the truth. Sadly, Tate wasn’t able to stop her from passing away and becoming a ghost. He hid this fact from her so that she would be spared the tremendous shock that we all felt watching this episode. The combination of the subtle story hints that led up to this moment and its ramifications on Violet’s story forward made it a horrifying effective reveal.

“This Is Us” (2016-)

In the “This Is Us” pilot, we see how excited Jack and Rebecca Pearson are to welcome their triplets into the world. We’re also introduced to two siblings who share the same birthday with a businessman who just found his biological father. Since each character had distinct plotlines, we didn’t expect their stories to be woven together. But after a tragic scene where the couple loses one of their triplets, they adopt a baby who was left behind at a fire station. It’s only then we realize that Jack and Rebecca are the parents of the other three characters we’ve been following. As soon as “This Is Us” pulled off this ridiculously clever time jump, we knew we had to watch every episode.

“Dexter” (2006-13)

Before his final confrontation with Arthur aka the Trinity Killer, Dexter Morgan tried to get his wife Rita to get to safety. The two men then struggle to stay ahead of the other. But their game of cat and mouse finally ended when Morgan captured and slayed the villain. Upon arriving at a dark home, Dexter listens to a voicemail that reveals Rita returned to their house earlier. When he calls her phone, it rings in the next room. Dexter soon finds that his wife has been slain and that his child has been left at the crime scene. This shocking sight still stands as one of the show's most striking and sobering images.

“Battlestar Galactica” (2004-09)

The space faring humans on Battlestar Galactica endured a devastating surprise attack, survived a conflict with Cylons and had to overcome internal struggles in an attempt to reach Earth. They finally got a chance to achieve their goal in season 4. Upon finally finding the planet, they have a big and justifiable celebration. But they should’ve taken a closer look at Earth before they started to cheer. If they had, the Battlestar Galactica crew would’ve known that the planet was now uninhabitable due to a past nuclear conflict. The pain of this harsh truth can be seen on everyone's faces as they stumble around the surface. It was clear that the crew would never be the same after losing their hope for Earth.

“Alias” (2001-06)

After discovering that her best friend was replaced by an assassin, Sydney is forced to fight her in an intense battle. Although the heroine prevails, she ends up passing out at the end of the fight. Sydney and the audience were stunned when they saw her wake up in Hong Kong a short time later. However, the rug was pulled out from under us again when we learned that there had been a major time skip while she thought she was unconscious. The mystery of how two years could have gone by without her knowing immediately left us hungry for more. This “Alias” twist was a great way to keep us guessing about what would happen next in Sydney’s story.

“Scrubs” (2001-10)

During the “My Screw Up” episode, Dr. Cox is visited by his friend Ben. The camera-toting guest mentions that he hasn’t seen a doctor since his cancer went into remission. Meanwhile, J.D. loses a patient who had an irregular heartbeat. These two plotlines crash together in a jaw-dropping reveal. After Dr. Cox overworks himself while tending to patients to make up for the one that was lost, he heads out of the hospital with Ben. When the doctor arrives at a grassy location, he realizes he’s at his friend’s funeral. This devastating turn was cleverly foreshadowed by details like Ben’s lack of camera late in the episode. Whether you caught on early or not, this was one of the show’s most heart wrenching plots.

“The Good Place” (2016-20)

This fantastical sitcom centered around four flawed humans who tried their best to fit into a heavenly paradise called “The Good Place”. However, they constantly ran into problems with their sanctuary and each other. Eventually, the group is forced to send two of their members to the ominous Bad Place. But it’s then that Eleanor realizes they’ve been in the dark realm the entire time. This genius reveal reframed the actions of all the Good Place employees, made us do a double take and shook up the show’s entire premise. The comedy would go on to shake the show’s formula up with wilder twists as it continued. But the Bad Place reveal stands as the show’s most defining turn.

“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” (2013-20)

It was devastating and shocking to learn that the loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Ward was actually a HYDRA infiltrator. But the show had a bigger betrayal in store. In season 4, the kind Agent Fitz became a sinister villain when he was inside a virtual simulation. His evil self later returned as a separate entity and committed horrible misdeeds. When the good Fitz tried to stop his sinister counterpart, he learned it was impossible because there was no evil entity. It turns out that Fitz had a dissociative episode and committed all those twisted deeds. While the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had one of their own turn on them before, this Fitz twist was the biggest gut punch.

“Black Mirror” (2011-19)

Throughout the famous “White Christmas” episode of “Black Mirror”, we struggle to piece together why Joe and Matt are together in a cabin. The mystery deepens when we learn people can save a copy of their consciousness that can be placed in new devices. Eventually, Joe reveals he committed a crime that resulted in the deaths of two people. After this unexpected turn, we learn Matt was just there to get the confession. But that’s not all! It turns that the Joe we met was a digital copy the entire time. While any one of those twists would’ve been strong on its own, the expert combination of multiple turns made this one of the most surprising Black Mirror episodes ever.

“Doctor Who” (1963-89; 2005-)

River Song was initially introduced as an extremely cool Professor that had a mysterious history with the Doctor that spanned across time. After making a few notable appearances, audiences finally got to see the surprising origins of this character. In the “A Good Man Goes to War” episode, the doctor's companion Amy Pond has a child named Melody. Since this infant was born with alien time lord DNA, she had the ability to regenerate into different forms. The doctor and his friends soon realize that Melody will eventually become the time-traveling River Song. As the series continued, this complex twist was further fleshed out and revisited. While it might take you a while to put River’s time bending story together, it’s definitely worth the effort.

“Westworld” (2016-)

On “Westworld”, synthetic beings known as hosts that look like real humans and animals are programmed to behave in certain ways. Throughout most of the first season, we thought Bernard was just there to help keep these artificial beings running. But the truth was much more shocking. It turned out that Bernard was a host the entire time and wasn’t consciously aware of it. While we were still reeling from this bombshell, his boss forces him to eliminate his love interest Theresa. Although some fans suspected Bernard was a host, none of them could’ve anticipated this one-two punch. It was a story development that made us question the nature of our reality.

“Mr. Robot” (2015-19)

If we looked up the phrase “unreliable narrator” in the dictionary, we’d find Elliot’s face staring back up at us. Although we knew that his version of events could always be questionable, we still weren’t anticipating a huge season two twist. Elliot led us to believe that he spent six episodes of the second season staying with his mom and away from the typical cast. However, it’s eventually revealed that he was in prison for a big portion of the season. This unbelievable twist turned a huge chunk of his storyline upside down. Although Elliot apologized to us for the deception, we weren’t sure we could trust his perspective again after this.

“Breaking Bad“ (2008-13)

When Jesse believes that the son of his love interest has been poisoned with ricin, he immediately accuses his cooking partner Walt of the crime. But after a tense scene, the two agree that crime lord Gus was the one responsible for this heinous action. Jesse and Walt then work together to bring the kingpin down permanently. After Gus has been dealt with, it’s revealed that Andrea’s son had consumed a plant known as lily of the valley. The camera then reveals that’s exactly what Walt has in his own backyard. Knowing that he was capable of poisoning an innocent person just to manipulate Jesse marked a shocking new low for the show’s protagonist.

“Game of Thrones” (2011-19)

We were heartbroken and stunned when we discovered why Hodor could only say his own name. But the show’s most noteworthy twist took place at a wedding. After watching the heroic Robb Stark achieve great victories, he and his mother Catelyn attended a marriage celebration. But the festivities abruptly end once we see one of the ceremony’s guests is wearing chainmail. Over the next few minutes we see Robb, his wife Talisa, Catelyn and his dire wolf all meet gruesome ends. The horrifying events of this night upset the balance of power in the world while axing off a bunch of main characters at once. To this day, mentioning the red wedding to a fan is still bound to bring a tear to their eye.

“24” (2001-10; 2014)

At the start of “24”, Nina was presented as a high-ranking agent who had some romantic tension with Jack Bauer. Neither he nor the audience was expecting the moment she revealed she was working for their enemies in the 23rd episode of the series. Nina quickly demonstrated her true twisted nature after she was exposed as a traitor by fatally shooting Teri Bauer. Having one of the show’s most prominent heroes become a despicable antagonist was a brilliant stroke of genius. Nina’s evil turn made fans want to go back and look for signs they missed. While we hate what she did to the Bauer family, we loved how this brilliant twist shook up the show’s status quo.

“Lost” (2004-10)

Since “Lost” begins with people getting stranded on an island, the show used flashbacks to show us their lives before the crash. So, when we saw a series of scenes about a depressed Jack in the city, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. But everything changed when it was revealed that these story beats take place after he leaves the island. The implication that Jack would escape and meet up with fellow survivor Kate was game-changing. Not only did this twist make us rethink past events, but it opened the door for the show to play with time. While “Lost” had many great turns, the Jack flash forward reveal is the main plot twist we always go back to.