History Main / MetaTwist

** Also in ''Investigations 2'', considering that every single other game in the series starts with a straightforward TutorialLevel for its first case where the bad guy is obvious from the beginning and the case is over with very quickly, once Edgeworth starts to home in on someone with an increasingly dodgy story, the player will most likely assume it's almost over. Not so - this case turns out to be a lot more complicated than it first seemed, and throws a few legitimate twists in. However, the effect is slightly lessened by the fake villain being a young woman, when [[FemalesAreMoreInnocent these are (almost) never the bad guy]]; in fact, the whole thing might call to mind Adrian Andrews, who was also a decoy villain.

* The first two seasons of ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'' had their eighth episode be a major WhamEpisode, so fans assumed season three would continue that tradition... said Wham Episode ended up being the ''fifth'' episode of the season, ending with [[SurprisinglySuddenDeath Simon murdering Tuba and Hazel]] [[TomatoInTheMirror turning out to not be human]].

* ''Film/{{Argylle}}'' proudly advertises Creator/HenryCavill involvment, giving him top billing and his character giving the film its name. Being a GenreThrowback to spy thrillers, the twist is that "Argylle" is an unconscious manifestation of Elly's memories of her time as an actual spy, and "Argylle" was her codename. The only scenes where Cavill himself appear are {{Imagine Spot}}s or Elly describing what she is writing.

* ''Film/{{Argylle}}'' proudly advertises Creator/HenryCavill involvment, giving him top billing and his character giving the film its name. Being a GenreThrowback to spy thrillers, the twist is that "Argylle" is a unconscious manifestation of Elly's memories of her time as an actual spy, and "Argylle" was the codename of one of her coworkers.

* During ''ComicBook/TheNewTeenTitans'' arc "ComicBook/WhoIsDonnaTroy" one of the factors driving [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Donna]]'s curiosity about her past is her interest in her birth name, which was lost when Wonder Woman rescued her as a toddler. Dick finally tracks down someone who knew Donna before the fire and as Donna gets excited to learn her name the woman looks at her and calls her...Donna. Evidently her birth name was never lost at all despite all knowledge of it having been missing. This might have to do with Diana's innate connection to the truth.

* Most of Creator/DanBrown's work to date has involved the final villain of the story actually being a trusted ally in disguise, and the obvious villain just doing the dirty work for said person. So it was quite a surprise in ''Literature/TheLostSymbol'' when the obvious villain was the primary antagonist from start to finish.
** Similarly, the Robert Langdon books had always involved Langdon being roped into solving a mystery based on [[LinkedListClueMethodology a series of historical clues]] in order to find a MacGuffin or stop a tragedy. Not so in ''[[Literature/Inferno2013 Inferno]]'' where [[spoiler:the series of clues supposedly leading to a deadly bioweapon to be released were planted to ''waste everyone's time'' as a sick joke while the actual "weapon" (in reality a "mere" [[SterilityPlague sterility virus]] meant to curb overpopulation) was quietly released before the first clue was even ''sent''.]]

* ''Series/BlackMirror'': Given the show's themes, and its universally [[DownerEnding bad]] or at best bittersweet endings up to that point, the heartwarming love story "[[Recap/BlackMirrorSanJunipero San Junipero]]" is surely headed for a spectacularly tragic CruelTwistEnding. With ten minutes left and things going ''too'' well to be true, a first-time viewer is likely filled with stomach-churning dread at how this couple's happiness is going to be destroyed. First they have a bad fight, and you think they won't reconcile. Then you start to think that Kelly's going to stick to her decision to die naturally instead of joining Yorkie in San Junipero; or that she'll change her mind but then one of them will die before they can be permanently transferred. During the very last shot, you might even be expecting the servers running San Junipero to suddenly blow up at the last possible second! But none of that happens. They make up after their fight, Kelly does eventually change her mind, they both live long enough to transfer to San Junipero, and they live happily ever after. It almost literally ends with them driving off into the sunset as "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" plays over the credits. This was the first-ever episode of ''Black Mirror'' to have an unambiguously happy and uplifting ending[[note]](the closest it got before that was "Nosedive", which ends on a hopeful but still bittersweet note)[[/note]] (and they deliberately made the outcome uncertain until partway through the credits), so it's no surprise that it's reduced many a viewer to tears (especially LGBT+ viewers who are used to years of the BuryYourGays trope and are touched). And in a show that can suffer from TooBleakStoppedCaring, this SurprisinglyHappyEnding may be the biggest reason that many viewers and critics rank "San Junipero" among the show's best episodes, even now that it has nine more episodes to compete with.

* ''Series/BlackMirror'': Series 3 episode 4 "San Junipero". Given the show's themes, and its universally [[DownerEnding bad]] or at best bittersweet endings up to that point, this heartwarming love story is surely headed for a spectacularly tragic CruelTwistEnding. With ten minutes left and things going ''too'' well to be true, a first-time viewer is likely filled with stomach-churning dread at how this couple's happiness is going to be destroyed. First they have a bad fight, and you think they won't reconcile. Then you start to think that Kelly's going to stick to her decision to die naturally instead of joining Yorkie in San Junipero; or that she'll change her mind but then one of them will die before they can be permanently transferred. During the very last shot, you might even be expecting the servers running San Junipero to suddenly blow up at the last possible second! But none of that happens. They make up after their fight, Kelly does eventually change her mind, they both live long enough to transfer to San Junipero, and they live happily ever after. It almost literally ends with them driving off into the sunset as "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" plays over the credits. This was the first-ever episode of ''Black Mirror'' to have an unambiguously happy and uplifting ending[[note]](the closest it got before that was "Nosedive", which ends on a hopeful but still bittersweet note)[[/note]] (and they deliberately made the outcome uncertain until partway through the credits), so it's no surprise that it's reduced many a viewer to tears (especially LGBT+ viewers who are used to years of the BuryYourGays trope and are touched). And in a show that can suffer from TooBleakStoppedCaring, this SurprisinglyHappyEnding may be the biggest reason that many viewers and critics rank "San Junipero" among the show's best episodes, even now that it has nine more episodes to compete with.

* ''Series/{{Moon Knight|2022}}'': A common theme through most of the preceding [=MCU Disney+=] series has been the BigBad and/or TheDragon being revealed to be a NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist after initially presenting themselves as being NecessarilyEvil.
** Agatha Harkness of ''Series/{{Wandavision}}'' might correctly point out that Wanda's brainwashing of Westview is ''highly'' unethical, but she's only there in the first place because she wants Wanda's magical talent for ''herself''. Similarly, [=S.W.O.R.D.=] Director Tyler Hayward is trying to manipulate Wanda into illegally bringing the Vision back online because he's a GlorySeeker with no care whatsoever for civilian casualties.
** Karli Morgenthau of ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier'' might make many good points regarding the refugee crisis created by the Blip, but it slowly becomes clear that she's getting DrunkOnTheDarkSide and is using the Flag-Smashers as a way to vent her frustrations and anger at the world at large.
** Judge Ravonna Renslayer of ''Series/{{Loki|2021}}'' Season 1 absolutely refuses to believe that the Time Variance Authority's atrocities ''aren't'' actually justifiable because of her falling into the SunkCostFallacy.
** And the respective Meta Twist here for ''Moon Knight'' is that this series' {{Big Bad}}s Arthur Harrow and Ammit are sincere {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s. Even though the former freely admits that his HeelFaithTurn was motivated by sadistic impulses, he's completely genuine in wanting to atone for his past sins through his service to Ammit, and quickly offers up his life upon learning from his goddess that his ''own'' scales are imbalanced. Furthermore, despite the fact that Ammit ''herself'' is a goddess that literally grows in power [[ReroutedFromHeaven with the souls she consigns to the Duat]], both her actions and her conversation with Khonshu in the series finale show that she's completely sincere in wanting to make the world a better place through her {{Precrime Arrest}} murder spree, to the point where she gives the moon god a WeCanRuleTogether offer since she sees them as having the same goals in [[PayEvilUntoEvil punishing sinners]].
* ''Series/{{Loki|2021}}'': The [=MCU=] is famous for its antagonists typically being [[EvilCounterpart dark copies of its protagonists]] with similar abilities, so one would understandably expect the HiddenVillain of this series to be an evil Loki Variant to combat this series' AntiHero Loki Variant. The actual villain turns out to be "He Who Remains", a NonActionBigBad completely unrelated to Loki. They never directly fight each other and instead oppose each other [[{{Foil}} on a more philosophical level]]; Loki and his Variants prove that [[ScrewDestiny people can change]] [[RousseauWasRight for the better]], while He Who Remains believes that [[HobbesWasRight his Variants are evil by nature]] and [[YouCantFightFate that it can't be helped]].

* On the ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' episode "Brief Interlude", a Canadian woman is found severely beaten, possibly by a random stranger. Then her husband, played by Richard Thomas (who had played a killer in an earlier episode), comes to New York and it eventually transpires that the guilty party was- a random stranger.

** And yet again in the season 6 opener, where what looks like a flashback to the crash diverges from the actual events, and we get our first flashsideways. However, the twist is not the plane's failure to crash, because the viewer was previously informed of the likely creation of a no-crash alternate timeline. Instead, the twist happens when we pan down to see the island submerged underwater. Ultimately, even ''this'' becomes a Meta Twist, taking advantage of the audience's new expectation that the show will play around with the flashback/forward gimmick. At the very end, it's revealed that the "flashsideways" are actually depicting the afterlife of all the characters, at some point in the future after they have all died, meaning that the "flashsideways" had actually all been flashforwards the whole time.

* ''Series/{{Quantum Leap|2022}}'' (2022): On the original ''Series/QuantumLeap'', it wasn't uncommon for an apparently supernatural plot to have a rational explanation, only for a RealAfterAll twist to pop up at the very end of the leap. In the new series' episode "O Ye of Little Faith," which is about an apparent demonic possession, you'd expect some kind of reveal at the end that there actually ''was'' a demon present. But the end reveals that there 100% was no demon present; instead, the ''actual'' twist is that the smoky demon seen during the episode was Janis Calavicci's homebrew hologram glitching out.

** "The Lying Detective" plays throughout the episode with the idea that Culverton Smith, whom Sherlock believes to be a depraved serial killer, is a completely innocent man who Sherlock is demonising out of pure paranoia and drug-related insanity -- something which a number of deconstructive Holmes pastiches have done with Professor Moriarty, most famously the novel and film ''Film/TheSevenPerCentSolution''. It turns out that Holmes is entirely correct.

** In the episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E132NinetyYearsWithoutSlumbering Ninety Years Without Slumbering]]", an old man is determined to keep an old grandfather clock from ever running down, because, as his father and grandfather told him, when it stops, he'll die. [[CassandraTruth Nobody takes him seriously]], and eventually he's put in a situation where he can't wind the clock. This being ''Franchise/TheTwilightZone'', something bad is bound to happen when that clock stops, right? Well, what actually happens is that the old man decides that it really is silly to believe that the clock stopping will kill him, and he wakes up the next morning in high spirits, telling everyone "[[SurprisinglyHappyEnding When that clock died, I was born again.]]"
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E100ISingTheBodyElectric I Sing The Body Electric]]," a widowed father buys an android caretaker for his children. "Grandmother" is soon adored by most of the family, but daughter Anne remains distrustful. Again, savvy first-time viewers who know what kind of show this is will be waiting for Anne's doubts to turn out to be well-founded. But in fact, Grandmother eventually wins Anne over, and the worst thing that happens is that [[ButNowIMustGo she goes back to the factory once the children are grown up]], [[BittersweetEnding to be rebuilt and reused for another family]].
* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' toys with viewers who read the [[ComicBook/TheWalkingDead original comic]] when it gets around to adapting Negan's introduction and [[EnsembleDarkhorse Glen's]] infamously brutal death scene. In the show's version, there's more people in the heroes' group that get captured and instead of attacking Glen, Negan decides to kill the comparatively unpopular Abraham, whose death — while still vicious — is pretty tame compared to Glen's in the comic, making it seem like [[HopeSpot the writers decided to alter that scene to keep Glen alive as one of the main protagonists and wanted to tone down the violence a little]]. [[spoiler:And then Negan abruptly turns and starts beating Glen to death too… and if anything, ''it's even more brutal than in the comics''.]] For bonus points, right before that happens, Negan gets a line about how "there are no exceptions", seemingly [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall taunting the viewer]] for thinking any of the characters had PlotArmor.
* ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "End Game" had what was technically a twist, but might have been intended as a meta twist. This episode and the preceding episode "Colony" concerned alien clones and the apparent return of Samantha Mulder, so to have the woman claiming to be Samantha turn out to be a clone seemed too obvious. On the other hand, had she turned out to actually be Samantha it would have been a strange card to play at that point when the show was virtually guaranteed a third season.

** ''Film/{{Scream 1996}}'': Billy is set up to be really, really, [[DevilInPlainSight ridiculously obviously the killer]], but [[RedHerring of course]] it’s NeverTheObviousSuspect and the killer stabs him to death… except not really. Not only is he the true killer all along, the big twist is that he’s actually been working alongside an accomplice the whole time! The accomplice [[FakingTheDead pretended to murder him]] at the start of the third act just to throw the other characters off the trail.
** After two movies of each having two killers in tandem, ''Film/{{Scream 3}}'' has only one killer. For bonus points, it meta twists the first movie's meta twist by having the guy who's very obviously his partner this time around actually be completely innocent.
** The first film famously based much of its marketing around Creator/DrewBarrymore's character, only to shockingly kill her off in the opening scene. The following three films followed suit in having a DeadStarWalking or DecoyProtagonist be killed off at the start of the movie, with ''Film/Scream4'' even parodying this trend by having two fakeout openings in which Creator/LucyHale and Creator/AnnaPaquin are killed only for these to be revealed to be scenes from the ''[[ShowWithinAShow Stab]]'' films, before the true opening kills off Creator/AimeeTeegarden and Creator/BrittRobertson. In the opening of ''Film/Scream2022'', Creator/JennaOrtega's character Tara is set up to receive the same fate as she's attacked in her own home by Ghostface in a direct CallBack to the first movie, only for her to not only survive the opening scene, but go on to become a main character and survive the entire film.

* Though many viewers thought that ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'' would reprise ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' in the [[ContinuityReboot rebooted continuity]], others took Spock's words in ''Film/StarTrek2009'' to heart and thought that it would resolve in some other way. It was reprised alright, [[CompressedAdaptation along with the rest of "The Spock Trilogy"]], but with ''significant'' differences, the most obvious being that Kirk and Spock were swapped, making ''Into Darkness'' fit both this Trope ''and'' NotHisSled, each with regard to a different movie.

--> '''Q:''' What do you call a Black/Chinese/Indian/etc guy flying a plane?
--> '''A:''' A ''pilot'', you racist asshole!

* ''Series/MoonKnight2022'': A common theme through most of the preceding [=MCU Disney+=] series has been the BigBad and/or TheDragon being revealed to be a NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist after initially presenting themselves as being NecessarilyEvil.

** Judge Ravonna Renslayer of ''Series/{{Loki 2021}}'' Season 1 absolutely refuses to believe that the Time Variance Authority's atrocities ''aren't'' actually justifiable because of her falling into the SunkCostFallacy.

* ''Series/Loki2021'': The [=MCU=] is famous for its antagonists typically being [[EvilCounterpart dark copies of its protagonists]] with similar abilities, so one would understandably expect the HiddenVillain of this series to be an evil Loki Variant to combat this series' AntiHero Loki Variant. The actual villain turns out to be "He Who Remains", a NonActionBigBad completely unrelated to Loki. They never directly fight each other and instead oppose each other [[{{Foil}} on a more philosophical level]]; Loki and his Variants prove that [[ScrewDestiny people can change]] [[RousseauWasRight for the better]], while He Who Remains believes that [[HobbesWasRight his Variants are evil by nature]] and [[YouCantFightFate that it can't be helped]].

* ''Series/QuantumLeap2022'': On the original ''Series/QuantumLeap'' it wasn't uncommon for an apparently supernatural plot to have a rational explanation, only for a RealAfterAll twist to pop up at the very end of the leap. In the new series' episode "O Ye of Little Faith," which is about an apparent demonic possession, you'd expect some kind of reveal at the end that there actually ''was'' a demon present. But the end reveals that there 100% was no demon present; instead, the ''actual'' twist is that the smoky demon seen during the episode was Janis Calavicci's homebrew hologram glitching out.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' fans know that Cartman is always, ''always'' doing good deeds for his own twisted reasons, which may range from PokeThePoodle to all-out MoralEventHorizon in scope. No matter how good he ''seems'', fans and the characters can bet that he's really being manipulative. This makes his subplot in "Major Boobage" something of a surprise, when he really ''does'' take in all the town's cats (which had been recently outlawed) simply because he's a cat lover and felt sorry for them. It does, however, lead to some humor when Cartman, a well-known anti-Semite, gets compared to Schindler helping Jews hide from the Nazis.

* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'':

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Homer Simpson is not a smart man, nor one known for having any kind of scientific prowess or a clear enough sense of the world to understand how things might play out when, say, a comet is bearing down upon Springfield and threatening to wipe the town off the face of the earth. So in "Bart's Comet", when Homer predicts that the nuclear pollution from the power plant would burn the comet down to a small rock no larger than a chihuahua's head, nobody (in universe, or out) takes him seriously. And then that's exactly what happens. There's even a chihuahua conveniently nearby for scale. Bart, Lisa, and ''Homer himself'' are terrified by this.

** Furthermore, most of the series depicted Shark as a more aloof expy of Jonouchi, the AlwaysSecondBest FriendlyRival of the main character. ''He's'' the one who becomes tragically opposed to Yuma, upon regaining his memories of being the Barian leader.

* ''Film/KnivesOut'' plays with both the usual expectations of the Murder Mystery genre and director Creator/RianJohnson's reputation for subverting popular tropes. The film at first plays out as a {{Deconstruction}} of the genre, as the murder turns out to have been a complete accident, the killer, Marta, is [[ReverseWhodunnit revealed early on]] with most of the film revolving around her attempts to evade justice, and the lead detective, Benoit Blanc, seems to be a complete buffoon rather than a BunnyEarsLawyer. This makes it actually surprising when it's revealed that there was a murder plot after all, the killer was [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk the most obvious candidate]], and Blanc is a genuinely brilliant detective who knew all along about Marta's involvement in Harlan's death but chose to keep it to himself in order to find out what was really going on.

** At the apparent end of [[Recap/DoctorWho2014CSLastChristmas "Last Christmas"]], the Doctor discovers that Clara was actually attacked by the Dream Crab as an old woman, and that it's over sixty years from her frame of reference since the end of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E12DeathInHeaven "Death in Heaven"]]. This looks like exactly the kind of DiabolusExMachina twist that the 21st-century series has frequently relied on to forcibly and angstily part companions from the Doctor. Then it turns out that it's just another layer of dream trap, and when they wake up completely she's young again and happily leaves with the Doctor for more adventures. This one's RealLifeWritesThePlot, though: The actress had been leaning ''against'' returning for the following season, so it was written so that it could be Clara's exit. The "nope, still dreaming" bit was added when she decided she would return after all.

* ''VideoGame/AITheSomniumFiles'' was written by Creator/KotaroUchikoshi, who's well-known for crafting late-game MindScrew twists that throw the entire story on its head. ''Somnium'' seems to be leading towards a big revelation about its characters learning of the alternate timelines caused by internal StoryBranching, much like the twist of Uchikoshi's earlier work ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors''. Main protagonist Date inexplicably knows information after it gets revealed on other story routes, and one character even declares that parallel worlds are real and factor into the game's mysteries. So there's inevitably going to be big multiverse shennanigans, right? Nope! In reality, Date is merely working through his LaserGuidedAmnesia to remember stuff that he learned years ago, and the person spouting parallel universe theories was actually suffering delusions brought on by a brain tumor. Alternate timelines are implied to ''exist'', but are ultimately irrelevant.

* ''VisualNovel/MasterDetectiveArchievesRainCode'' is built around being a SpiritualSuccessor to the ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' series, crafted by the same creative team with many similar character archetypes, minigames, and overall artstyle. One major carryover seems to be [[BlackBlood blood depicted as being pink]]; ''DR'' had it as an out-of-universe StylizedForTheViewer element, with dialogue indicating that in-universe the blood is red, and ''Rain Code'' seems to do the same thing. Except, the final case reveals that the blood ''[[AlienBlood actually is pink]]''; all the characters had noticed it was unnatural and different from normal red blood, but for various reasons didn't bring it up. Pink blood is really a trait of artifical homunculi, and the fact that the detectives kept seeing it throughout Kanai Ward sets up the big reveal that ''everyone in the city is a homunculus''. It's a rather ingenius way to keep some major foreshadowing HiddenInPlainSight.

** The "ChickenJoke" is the quintessential example, where the humor comes from the unexpectedly prosaic punchline as opposed to something off-the-wall and silly. [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny This is unfortunately blunted by it being the among the first jokes most people ever hear]], which usually just leads to a very confused youngster trying to figure out ''why'' it's supposed to be funny.

* ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL'' is very fond of its SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute versions of characters from [[Manga/YuGiOh the original series]], and a common RecurringElement in the franchise is to [[SixthRanger introduce a character later on]] who has some kind of supernatural involvement, forms a close connection to the protagonist and is forced to battle them for reasons beyond their control despite them being good at heart. Later on, it introduces Rei Shingetsu, as an amiable fast friend of Yuma who seems to have some kind of connection to the Barians and recurring villain Vector. As he's a dead ringer for Bakura in many respects, and Bakura was a guy who was only made dangerous by a SuperpoweredEvilSide, this means a lot of people were wondering when he would be possessed, have an EvilCounterpart, or in some way end up tragically opposed to the protagonists. As it turns out, none of these things are true: Shingetsu ''is'' Vector, and his initial friendly interactions turn out to have been entirely fabricated, with him being one of the most genuinely evil characters in the series.

** The first five ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books follow a specific pattern: the people Harry suspects are never the actual bad guys. In ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half-Blood Prince]]'', Harry is actually ''right'' about who's responsible, but [[CassandraTruth no one believes him]] because his habit of jumping the gun and getting TheoryTunnelVision about [[RedHerring red herrings]]. Even better, the culprits are Malfoy and Snape, both of whom had consistently been used as blatant {{Red Herring}}s in previous books. There's a slight twist, admittedly, but the reader doesn't find that out until ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]''.

* Discussed in ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation'': Yahtzee feels that the "shocking" moment in the ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' games has become so token that by the end of the third game, it'd be more shocking if there wasn't one.

* ''VideoGame/TheCommunitree'': Unlike the original ''VideoGame/CandyBox'', trying to throw 10 candies on the ground in the Candy tab just makes the game decline the action.