Rey Finding Out She Was A Palpatine In "Star Wars" And 16 Other Reallyyyy Stupid TV And Movie Character Reveals
It's always so satisfying when a TV show *nails* a character reveal. The backstory makes sense, but the twist of who the character is ends up still being shocking and cool.
Like, for example, the above Stranger Things reveal...though I won't go into what that was.
Other times, you wait for so long to find out who a character is, or who's behind something...and it's just super, super disappointing. Here are 17 character reveals that I honestly wish they'd go back and redo!
🚨🚨WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!🚨🚨
1.In Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, when it was revealed that Rey is a Palpatine:
Everyone hates this one, because it was stupid and that's just a fact. There was no reason for Palpatine to survive (it makes no sense), and it had also been well-established already that Rey was "no one." That's what made her a great, interesting character — she ended up in this universe without some great significance to a lineage or prophecy or anything like that.
2.On Sherlock, when Eurus was revealed to be Sherlock's sister:
Why oh why must character reveals always be family-related? You can be an interesting character — and especially villain — without being someone's long-lost secret sibling or kid! This trope is way too tired and overly simplistic for such a good show.
3.In Black Widow, when the Taskmaster ended up being Dreykov's daughter:
First of all, this is completely different from Taskmaster in the comics. Second of all, it sort of discounts a really interesting arc Natasha is going on here. We already know about the "red in her ledger" and "Dreykov's daughter" from Natasha's talk with Loki in The Avengers. Having Antonia survive and Natasha kind of "save" her felt a little too sanitized and sweet for a movie literally about a spy who was human trafficked and bred for assassinating people and now is trying to come to terms with her past. I liked it better and found it more interesting when she did kill Dreykov's daughter.
4.In Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, when Luke was revealed as the lightning thief:
Don't get me wrong, I love this reveal in the book. Luke was MUCH more of a behind-the-scenes guy, and his betrayal in the first book is so great because it comes after everything's done. In the book, he lures 12-year-old Percy away, reveals he's the lightning thief, then tries to kill him — after Percy's quest is done. Here...it felt so unrealistic, random, and out of character. Why does he just announce it like that? The dialogue itself even sounds unnatural.
5.On The Vampire Diaries, when Silas revealed his true face/Stefan was revealed to be Stefan's doppelgänger:
TVD has some great reveals, but this is not one of them. Silas was kind of a meh villain, and introducing the Stefan doppelgangers led to a weird "Elena and Stefan are fated to be together" storyline that felt kind of pointless considering their relationship had run its course and in fact did not rekindle for the rest of the show. Also...sorry, but encasing a vampire in a coffin then throwing them into a body of water is a major Angel ripoff.
6.On Pretty Little Liars, when A/Charles was revealed to be Cece:
This felt so unoriginal and really problematic. One of the only major teen shows to have a trans character makes her the villain, and in fact basically explains away her villainy as having to do with her being trans. I was really hoping the show wouldn't go here, so when they did...I was not happy. Also...Cece had dated Jason. Her brother. Gross.
7.And when Big A was revealed to be Spencer's British twin (lol), Alex:
Twin reveals are almost always stupid, and I really can't take the bad British accent here. The only good A reveal was Mona, because it was actually a character we thought we knew.
8.On WandaVision, when "Pietro" was revealed to just be some actor hired to pretend to be Pietro, and NOT the multiverse version of Pietro:
What was the point of even casting Evan Peters then??? It would've been SO cool if they opened up the multiverse here. They just...didn't, and I'm still not sure why. We were all expecting them to! They did it later in the second Dr. Strange with X-Men!!!
9.In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, when Wanda was revealed to be the one after America:
I loved how Wanda was presented as such a complicated character in WandaVision — she was both hero and villain in a lot of ways. And then we get to the second Dr. Strange and she's just...the villain. I would've loved to see them continue to explore her character instead.
10.On Gossip Girl, when Dan was revealed as Gossip Girl:
This made absolutely no sense, and even worse, they wouldn't even commit to it and make Dan a villain. Serena called his incessant stalking and life-ruining a love letter to her and the Upper East Side and married him. Barf.
11.On Riverdale, when Jason's murderer was revealed to be Clifford:
Boy killed by his dad? Yawn. That's not really that shocking. We barely knew Clifford, and he seemed shady. It's more shocking when a murder mystery ends with a character that we know better — honestly, the Black Hood being Betty's dad actually was better to me because at least we knew Hal better. Although, all their parents being murderers quickly became a bit of a meme.
12.In Last Christmas, when it was revealed that Tom was dead — and also the person she got the heart transplant from:
This was SO PREDICTABLE, but still, I hoped they wouldn't go there with such a literal adaptation of the chorus of the song "Last Christmas." Also, it was beyond cheesy. I love a good cheesy Christmas film, but this one just went too far and was too sad for a stupid reason.
13.On Orphan Black, when it was revealed there were male clones as well...and that Mark was one of them:
It should've been Paul!!! Honestly, Mark was a boring character, and so were the rest of the Castor clones. No one can do what Tatiana Maslany can do, and the show should've just stuck with the female clones. This reveal was just underwhelming, imo.
14.In The Haunting of Bly Manor, when the Lady in the Lake was revealed to be former resident Viola:
After the truly excellent reveal that the Bent-Neck Lady haunting Nell was Nell herself in The Haunting of Hill House, I expected something better for the Lady in the Lake reveal in Bly Manor. Instead, it was a new character, who we then spent an entire episode getting to know. The episode was by far the worst of that season, and overall I just felt pretty darn disappointed. It's not like it was something you could've figured out.
15.On The Originals, when Kaleb was revealed to be Kol in another body:
I guess I understand bringing back some of the Originals in a show about the Originals, and truth be told I did miss Kol...but I don't know. If he did come back, I feel like it should've been built up more and been a way bigger deal. It's just sort of random, and he's in this other body, and he has a romance with Davina who literally is like a child (though I guess it's not really worse than Stefan/Damon with Elena)...I don't know, this just fell flat to me.
16.In Frozen 2, when Elsa's mom appeared and revealed that Elsa was the fifth spirit:
I still don't totally understand this??? Was Elsa's mom the spirit before her? Is she actually there in this scene, or is this just in Elsa's mind? The plot was wayyy too convoluted for this reveal to work.
17.And finally, on Ted Lasso, when Trent told Ted someone had leaked the story of his panic attack to the press — then revealed it was Nate:
I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU NATE, WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU!!!! HOW DARE YOU???? Maybe this isn't some huge whodunnit character reveal since it happened so quickly, but it still had me REALLY shocked and angry. I feel like I have whiplash from Nate's descent into villainy, and while I can see it, I think it deserved more time. Also, this didn't feel treated with the weight it should have been. Nate essentially outed Ted's mental illness to the press. That is literally unforgivable to me, and took away any potential piece of sympathy for me to ever have for him again. If they wanted us to understand his side more, they should've had him do something less bad. They better not try to do a redemption arc now.
