16 Plot Twists That Got People Hooked On TV Shows, And 15 Plot Twists That Made People Want The Show Canceled Immediately
We've asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us what they considered to be the worst and best plot twists on TV shows. Here's what they had to say:
🚨Obviously, there are massive spoilers ahead!🚨
1.Good plot twist: When it was revealed that the dead body the students were burning was Annalise's husband, Sam, on How to Get Away with Murder.
"It's probably one of the best pilots I’ve seen that made my jaw drop to the floor, plus the rest of the show did NOT disappoint with crazy unexpected plot twists."
Watch the moment here:
2.Bad plot twist: When Ezra revealed he met Alison and knew who Aria was and that she was underage before they "first" met in the bar on Pretty Little Liars.
"Ezra was originally working undercover and planning to seduce Aria for his book about Alison, which he also had a thing with."
Watch the moment here:
3.Good plot twist: When Ted said, "And that's how I met your Aunt Robin" at the end of the How I Met Your Mother pilot.
"Watching the show as a teen, for me, that was a big plot twist. But we all know how downhill that went."
Watch the moment here:
4.Bad plot twist: When Love Quinn told Joe that she was also a stalker and murderer on You.
"It was stupid and clearly only done so the finale would have a plot twist. Ruined the show for me."
Watch the moment here:
5.Good plot twist: When it turned out all of the families were related at the end of the Modern Family pilot.
"For some reason, I remembered being shook that all of the families on Modern Family were related. It makes total sense when you think about it, but I was so invested in the separate stories that I hadn’t yet considered they were related."
Watch the moment here:
6.Bad plot twist: When Alex left Seattle to be with Izzie on Grey's Anatomy.
"The entire show, he grew from being hated to being a great surgeon in a stable relationship with Jo just to abandon ship. I understand the actor left abruptly, but I would have rather his character died with his integrity than to be written off in a way that destroyed his entire story arc."
Watch the moment here:
7.Good plot twist: When it turned out that Rebecca and Jack's scenes in the This Is Us pilot took place in the '80s and that Kevin, Kate, and Randall were actually their children.
"I literally gasped and then cried. Learning how everyone was connected, they did such a fantastic job of showing that. It was really a great first episode!"
Watch the moment here:
8.Bad plot twist: When Cece was revealed as "A" on Pretty Little Liars.
"Aside from the many other plot holes and misguided writing choices, making a trans character, Cece, the super villain is an overused and extremely offensive trope. Additionally, using a cisgender actor to play a trans role takes away an opportunity from a trans actor."
Watch the moment here:
9.Good plot twist: When Eleanor revealed that she had no idea what she was doing in the Good Place and she was not the person everyone thought she was in The Good Place.
Watch the moment here:
10.Bad plot twist: When 13 Reasons Why revealed that Justin Foley had HIV-1 that progressed to AIDS, and then he suddenly died.
"How do you give a character who had so much growth — he was a person we hated in the first season and eventually became the absolute favorite — that kind of ending?"
Watch the moment here:
11.Good plot twist: When Alex showed up at the same prison as Piper in Orange Is the New Black.
"Throughout the episode, Piper remembered some of the memories with Alex that got her into prison in the first place and then Alex appeared at the end."
12.Bad plot twist: When Rory told Lorelai she was pregnant at the end of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.
"I know these were Amy Sherman-Palladino's treasured final four words if she had written Season 7, but the fact of the matter is, she wasn’t writing Season 7. She was writing a revival that took place nearly a decade later and she ruined tons of character development because she didn’t get to write Season 7. Nobody wanted Rory to end up pregnant with Logan’s baby while he’s engaged to someone else. And the whole 'full circle' explanation is a complete cop out and it’s really lazy writing."
Watch the moment here:
13.Good plot twist: When the smoke monster appeared in the first episode of Lost.
"I knew from then that this was going to be about a lot more than a plane crash."
Watch the moment here:
14.Bad plot twist: When Logan was killed off on Veronica Mars.
"Not only was it a terrible move for the show, but the WAY in which he died was even more infuriating to lots of fans. It kinda felt like a big 'screw you' after such long-term dedication from fans."
Watch the moment here:
15.Good plot twist: When Sarah spotted the woman who jumped in front of an oncoming train, and they had the same face on Orphan Black.
Watch the scene here:
16.Bad plot twist: When Chuck found out his father, Bart, had faked his death on Gossip Girl.
"It was so pointless and random, and he was just going to die the next season. He should have just stayed dead."
17.Good plot twist: When the pilot of Mad Men ended with Don going home to his wife after the episode made him seem like a bachelor.
"It was so well done."
Watch the moment here:
18.Bad plot twist: When How I Met Your Mother is revealed to actually be a story about Ted's love for Robin and not the mother.
"The ending is all kinds of messed up, and quite frankly, disrespectful to Tracy."
Watch the moment at the 4:50 mark here:
19.Good plot twist: When it was revealed that Judy was the driver in the hit-and-run that killed Jen's husband on Dead to Me.
20.Bad plot twist: When Riverdale revealed that Charles and Chic were dating.
"I really groaned at the scene. Charles, Betty’s long-lost half brother, was dating Chic, the guy who pretended to be Betty's long-lost half brother."
21.Good plot twist: When it was revealed that someone knew the girls were on the island in The Wilds and that them being "stranded" was intentional.
"That show excels at plot twists in general. It is so intriguing and felt so well done."
22.Bad plot twist: When David turned out to be alive on Revenge.
"The whole point of the show was for Emily to literally get revenge on the people responsible for her beloved father’s death, only to find out he was still alive. To top it off, his character was pretty unlikable and nothing like this amazing loving father we’d been seeing in flashbacks."
Watch the moment here:
23.Good plot twist: When Prince Charming turned out to be alive and lying in a hospital bed on Once Upon a Time.
"That moment was the whole reason I kept watching. I was hooked from that moment on."
Watch the moment here:
24.Bad plot twist: When A.D. turned out to be Spencer's long-lost British twin on Pretty Little Liars.
"It seemed like they took random fanfiction ideas and threw them together last minute. There were so many plot holes that it wasn't even possible that it would be the case."
Watch the moment here:
25.Good plot twist: When it was revealed that Mabel knew Tim Kono, the murder victim, in Only Murders in the Building.
26.Bad plot twist: When Rufus and Lily met their secret son on Gossip Girl.
"He was there for a couple episodes, then it was never mentioned again."
Watch the moment here:
27.Good plot twist: When A-Train suddenly ran through and killed Hughie's girlfriend in The Boys.
"I definitely wasn’t expecting that in the first five minutes."
Watch the moment here:
28.Bad plot twist: When Olivia got kidnapped on Scandal.
Watch the moment here:
29.Good plot twist: When the princess was released by her captor right before the prime minister had sex with a pig on television because he was told that was a condition of her release in Black Mirror.
"Everything the prime minister put himself through to save her ended up being unnecessary."
30.The last bad plot twist: When Jane found out that Michael was still alive on Jane the Virgin.
"I know it's a telenovela staple and the show is a parody of telenovela tropes, but we watched her grieve for YEARS and slowly fall in love with Rafael. Then they brought Michael back with amnesia and made him and Jane hate each other. They spat on Jane and Michael's relationship when it was originally really lovely."
Watch the moment here at the 1:40 mark:
31.And the last good plot twist: When everyone found out that vice principal Martin Harris was Kate's kidnapper AND Kate accused Jeanette of seeing her while she was being held captive in Cruel Summer.
Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
