Everyone loves a good plot twist, but they only really work the first time around. On subsequent rewatches, you can pick up on hints and foreshadowing and see how the writers built up to that twist. But nothing compares to the first-time shock factor of a jaw-dropping twist.

There are certain TV plot twists that I wish I could forget, just so I could go back and experience them for the first time again. Imagine reliving Luke Skywalker’s epic appearance in The Mandalorian or the Michael/Mikkel reveal in Dark through fresh eyes.

10

One Of The Survivors Wasn’t On The Plane

Lost

In the first season of Lost, in order to make himself useful, Hurley gets a manifest from the plane and creates a kind of census system with all the survivors. But he’s shocked to find out that one of the survivors in their camp, Ethan, wasn’t actually on the plane with them; he’s a stranger who’s infiltrated their group.

The revelation that there were already people on the island before the plane crash, and that one of those other people had been spying on the group, blew the story of Lost wide open and defined the rest of the series. I wish I could experience that surprise for the first time again.

9

The Standards Of Beauty Are Flipped

The Twilight Zone

Rod Serling’s classic anthology The Twilight Zone was renowned for its twist endings, from Henry Bemis breaking his reading glasses to the revelation that “To Serve Man” is a cookbook. But the series’ most shocking and profound twist came in the season 2 episode “Eye of the Beholder,” in which a woman is considered so ugly that she’s reached her cosmetic surgery limit.

I, like many viewers, spent the whole episode wondering what she could look like under those bandages. In an iconic twist, she turns out to be beautiful. But all the doctors have sunken eyes and pig noses, so she’s considered ugly in that world. It’s a keenly observed commentary on society’s standards of beauty.

8

The Good Place Is Really The Bad Place

The Good Place

Shocking plot twists are usually reserved for drama series, but Michael Schur’s philosophical fantasy sitcom The Good Place delivered a doozy of a twist in its season 1 finale. At the beginning of the series, self-absorbed Eleanor Shellstrop is mistakenly sent to the Good Place (read: Heaven) after her untimely demise, when she really belongs in the Bad Place (read: Hell).

Eleanor spends the whole first season holding onto that secret, while the Good Place suffers all kinds of malfunctions in her presence. But in the season finale, Eleanor figures out that what she’s been told is the Good Place is really the Bad Place, and she’s part of an elaborate experiment. It got me hooked for the rest of the series.

7

Lalo Kills Howard

Better Call Saul

I’ve never been more horrified by a TV show than when Lalo Salamanca shot Howard Hamlin in the head in Better Call Saul. It stuck with me for weeks after it happened. As harrowing as it was, I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to be that intensely affected by a TV show all over again.

For the first half of the final season, I was invested in Jimmy and Kim’s plot to ruin Howard’s reputation. Their elaborate pranks were always a joy to watch, and they worked a charm. But seeing that it eventually got Howard killed completely recolored that storyline. Now, knowing where it’s going, it’s hard to rewatch that arc.

6

Luke Skywalker Arrives

The Mandalorian

As a lifelong Star Wars superfan, I was bowled over by the fan service in The Mandalorian’s season 2 finale. We knew that Grogu had contacted a nearby Jedi, but we had no idea he’d reached Il Capitano. When Mando, Grogu, and the rest of the rescue team are cornered by a platoon of Dark Troopers, a familiar X-wing shows up in the hangar.

Luke Skywalker himself slices and dices his way through the Dark Troopers so he can take Grogu away to be trained. Jon Favreau and co. did an excellent job of keeping Luke’s appearance a secret, but the cat’s out of the bag now. No subsequent Star Wars fan service has lived up to beast-mode Luke slaying robots.

5

Kenny Is A Pedophile

Black Mirror

Almost every single Black Mirror episode ends with a shocking twist, whether it’s the eye-for-an-eye punishment in “White Bear” or the blind baby in “Crocodile.” But the series’ best twist can be found in the season 3 episode “Shut Up and Dance.” The episode sees teenage Kenny at the mercy of hackers who have recorded him pleasuring himself through his webcam.

As he desperately tries to prevent the hackers from releasing the footage, he does a series of increasingly bizarre and illegal dares. At the end of the episode, even after he meets all the hackers’ demands, they still release the video. As it turns out, he was so desperate to keep it under wraps because he was watching child porn.

The way this episode manipulates your emotions is masterful. In those final moments, your sympathy for Kenny instantly turns to disgust.

4

Michael Is Mikkel

Dark

There was at least one jaw-dropping twist in every single episode of Dark. It’s one of the most captivating, confounding, and cleverly thought-out mystery thrillers ever put on television, with all kinds of time-traveling trickery. But the twist that kicked off the series — the twist that the entire show hinged on — arrived in the very first season.

The first episode begins with a middle-aged man named Michael taking his own life, and ends with a young boy named Mikkel going missing in a cave. The next few episodes reveal that Mikkel went back in time to 1986 and was raised as Michael. This is the twist that got me hooked on Dark and convinced me it would be a masterpiece.

3

Jamie Did It

Adolescence

All throughout the first episode of Adolescence, Jamie Miller insists he didn’t commit the murder he’s accused of. As he’s arrested, booked, searched, and questioned, he keeps saying over and over that he didn’t do it. And he’s genuinely terrified and confused, and seems like such a normal, harmless kid, so you’re inclined to believe him.

But in the climax of the episode, Jamie and his dad are taken into an interrogation room and shown unequivocal evidence that he did, in fact, kill his classmate — including clear-as-day CCTV footage — so that sense of denial is shattered. I wish I could relive that palpable feeling of shock and horror.

2

The Truth About The Bent-Neck Lady

The Haunting of Hill House

The fifth episode of The Haunting of Hill House is arguably its most tragic, as we go back to see how Nell’s traumatic childhood led to a traumatic adulthood and, ultimately, her death. All throughout her life, she was tormented by a ghost with a broken neck, known simply as “The Bent-Neck Lady,” and in the episode’s final moments, we find out why.

After the apparitions of Hill House trick Nell into putting a noose around her neck and her mother’s ghost hangs her, Nell’s spirit goes back in time to all her previous encounters with the Bent-Neck Lady. As it turns out, she was the Bent-Neck Lady all along. This tragic twist exemplifies Mike Flanagan’s signature blend of horror and drama.

1

The Fireflies Need To Kill Ellie To Create A Cure

The Last of Us

I’ve since played The Last of Us games a couple of dozen times each, but I watched the first season of the TV series before playing either of them. When Joel finally got Ellie to the Fireflies in Salt Lake City, I had no idea what to expect (except that, based on the existence of a sequel, they probably wouldn’t save the world without a hitch).

The final chapter of the game, and the season 1 finale of the show, explores an interesting new spin on the classic “trolley problem.” The Fireflies can create a cure from Ellie’s mutated infection, but they’ll have to kill her to extract it. I’d love to grapple with that dilemma for the first time again; it’s a moral conundrum with no clear answers.