6 Thriller Shows That Completely Change Once You Know the Twist

Image: Elizabeth Fisher / ©USA Network / Courtesy Everett Published Oct 2, 2026, 7:22 AM EDT Ryan Heffernan is a Senior Writer at Collider. Storytelling has been one of his interests since an early age, with his appreciation for film and television becoming a particular interest of his during his teenage years. This passion saw Ryan graduate from the University of Canberra in 2020 with an Honours Degree in Film Production. In the years since, he has found freelance work as a videographer and editor in the Canberra region while also becoming entrenched in the city's film-making community. In addition to cinema and writing, Ryan's other major interest is sport, with him having a particular love for Australian Rules football, Formula 1, and cricket. He also has casual interests in reading, gaming, and history. Sign in to your Collider account The following article contains spoilers.From fantasy sitcoms like The Good Place to old-school medical dramas like St. Elsewhere, television has a long and decorated history of experimenting with narrative understanding through plot twists that completely change the nature of their stories. No genre has been as commanding nor as daring in this regard as thriller TV, with everything from intense, character-focused miniseries to sprawling alternate history epics becoming famous for how they recalibrate themselves with one clear, earth-shattering revelation. Of these six renowned thriller titles, many of them gained critical acclaim and immense public interest for how masterfully they implement a sharp turn that changes the dynamic of their stories for good, but some have also backfired, cheapening their depth and initial focus with an abrupt spin that feels gimmicky and inorganic. Be they controversial or commended, these thriller series change exponentially when watched by audiences who know the twist that is coming. 6 'Sharp Objects' (2018) Image via HBO One of the best crime miniseries of the past decade, Sharp Objects unfurls with an agonizing, slow-burn intensity that revels in the atmospheric richness of its Southern Gothic allure while delivering a brilliant adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s novel. It also has a penchant for stunning plot twists, with crime reporter Camille Preaker’s (Amy Adams) return to her hometown to investigate the murder of two young girls loaded with shocking revelations as it oscillates between the grimy details of the crime and Preaker’s own trauma stemming from her difficult childhood and strained family relations. The final episode is a procession of major twists that completely recalibrate the morbid tone of the story, but the miniseries saves the best and most earth-shattering for its final minute when it is revealed that Camille’s sister is the true culprit. The harrowing discovery completely shifts the audience’s perspective of Amma (Eliza Scanlen), transforming her fragility from a byproduct of her trauma to a devilish façade. The twist also douses the series in a sense of pessimistic tragedy, illuminating Camille’s efforts to help her struggling sister as a frightful miscalculation as her family’s toxic cycle of abuse manifests into a monster in the most unexpected form. 5 'The Haunting of Hill House' (2018) Image via Netflix Netflix’s hit 2018 miniseries may be more at home as an outright horror series rather than a supernatural thriller, but there is no doubt that The Haunting of Hill House’s slow-burn approach and weighted emphasis on character drama bestows it with a suspense that feels very traditional to thriller storytelling. The zenith of this is the reveal of Nell’s (Victoria Pedretti) horrifying connection to her ghost, the Bent-Neck Lady, when she returns to Hill House to confront her traumatic childhood only to hang herself, leading to a chilling sequence backwards through time that reveals she was her own ghost all along. In isolation, the twist is a bleak note on internal grief, mental health, and tragic inevitability, but in the context of the series, it shifts the haunted house ghost story from being a creeping supernatural horror to a visceral meditation on trauma. It brilliantly exposes that the ghosts aren’t merely spooky malevolent forces haunting the Crain family, but piercing and nuanced manifestations of their internal struggles and psychological scars. The revelation of the true nature of the “Red Room” is similarly incisive as it makes a predatory paranormal evil out of what each family member thought was their own safe space amid the turmoil of their time at Hill House. 4 'The Man in the High Castle' (2015–2019) Image via Prime Video It is always interesting to explore how a twist ending recontextualizes the story when the twist itself proves to be so divisive among a fanbase. That was certainly the case for The Man in the High Castle, which largely runs as an alternate history thriller that envisions a world where the Axis powers won the Second World War, with 1960s America operating as a dystopian hellscape split between the rule of the Greater Nazi Reich and the Japanese Pacific States. Much of the series sits comfortably in this isolated world as resistance movements try to undermine the tyranny of their fascist leaders, but the final minutes introduce an entirely new idea when a portal opens, connecting the story world to an expansive multiverse of possible alternate realities. While some fans viewed it as an interesting sci-fi spin, others felt it cheapened the urgency of the story, reducing what was a fiercely dramatic descent into the totalitarian, extremist nightmare into a multiverse gimmick. The impact the twist has on the story when audiences know it is coming is quite surreal, turning what was a gritty and hard-edged alternate history drama into a mystical philosophical question concerning the possibility of infinite realities. Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Netflix Character Would Be Your Best Friend? Dustin · Emily · Wednesday · Gi-hun Some friends drag you out of the house. Some sit with you on the worst night of your life. Netflix has written both, plus the one who tells you the truth you have been avoiding all week. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually do friendship, and find out which of them was always going to end up in your corner. 🧢Dustin(Stranger Things) 🗼Emily(Emily in Paris) 🕷️Wednesday(Wednesday) 🟢Gi-hun(Squid Game) FIND YOUR BEST FRIEND → 01 How do you usually end up making a new friend? The origin story says a lot about the friendship that follows it. AWe got loud about the same obsession and never stopped. BThey invited me somewhere before we had properly met. CWe bonded over disliking exactly the same thing. DThey noticed I was struggling and stayed with me. NEXT QUESTION → 02 What is a perfect Saturday with your best friend? Friendship is mostly built out of very ordinary hours. AA ridiculous plan neither of us should attempt. BSomewhere new, photographed heavily, ending very late. CSomewhere quiet, few people, zero small talk. DSomething simple, and a conversation that actually matters. NEXT QUESTION → 03 You call them at two in the morning. What happens? This is the real test of a friendship, and everybody knows it. AThey are already putting their shoes on. BThey answer instantly and turn it into a plan. CThey answer and say something unflattering and true. DThey listen for an hour and never check the time. NEXT QUESTION → 04 What do you want from them when you are clearly wrong? The best friendships are the ones that survive being corrected. ASupport first. We can review the mistake later. BA relentlessly positive reframe of the entire disaster. CThe blunt version. Do not soften it for me. DPatience, and no judgment about how I got here. NEXT QUESTION → 05 What do your friends actually value about you? The friend you attract says something about the friend you are. AI am all in, always, about everything. BI can turn almost any situation into a good time. CI say the thing nobody else in the room will. DI look after whoever is having the worst day. NEXT QUESTION → 06 You have a falling out. How does it go? How a friendship repairs itself matters more than how it breaks. ALoudly, briefly, then back to normal by Tuesday. BThey apologise first, enthusiastically, with a gift. CCold silence, then one dry joke that fixes everything. DWe talk until we both understand what actually happened. NEXT QUESTION → 07 What do you actually need a best friend for? Everybody is missing something. The right friend fills that gap. ATo make my life bigger than it would be alone. BTo push me out of the house and into my own life. CTo catch me when I start lying to myself. DTo be the person who never gave up on me. NEXT QUESTION → 08 Ten years from now, what keeps the two of you close? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who you get. AWe would still drop everything for each other, instantly. BWe still make plans, and we still actually go. CWe still cut through each other's nonsense in one sentence. DThey stood by me once when it cost them something. REVEAL MY BEST FRIEND → The Group Chat Has Spoken Your Best Friend Is…Four Netflix characters, four completely different ways of showing up for somebody. This is the one who fits how you actually do friendship, and what having them in your life would be like. Dustin HendersonYou do not do friendship at half volume, and neither does he. What you want is somebody who says yes to the plan before you have finished describing the plan. Dustin is the friend the entire show runs on: loyal past the point of sense, enthusiastic about everything, and incapable of leaving anybody behind. You have the same instinct. Your friendships are loud, specific and slightly ridiculous, and they last for decades because of it. He is also the one person who would take your strangest interest completely seriously, which is far rarer than it sounds. You would have a group chat. It would never once be quiet. Emily CooperYou are the friend who makes things happen, and so is she. Together you would be mildly exhausting to everyone around you and completely delighted with yourselves. Emily treats an ordinary Tuesday as something that could be turned into an occasion, which is either the best or the worst quality in a friend depending on your energy levels. You share her refusal to sit still. Neither of you has ever accepted a night in when something was happening somewhere else. She is far more loyal than people give her credit for. She defends her friends loudly, publicly, and occasionally before checking the facts. She would post the photo without asking. You would forgive her, because it is a very good photo. Wednesday AddamsYou have no patience for pleasant lies, and she has no ability to tell them. What looks like coldness from the outside is the most reliable friendship on this list. Wednesday never says a kind thing she does not mean, which makes the rare ones count for an enormous amount. You would rather be told the truth than be made comfortable. She is constitutionally incapable of offering you anything else. Underneath all of it she is ferociously protective. She simply refuses to make a performance out of caring. Do not expect a birthday message. Do expect her to ruin anyone who wrongs you. Seong Gi-hunYou look after whoever is having the worst day. So does he. It is the least strategic way to move through the world and the best possible quality in a friend. Gi-hun is not the strongest player in Squid Game, or the cleverest. He is the one who keeps choosing to protect somebody else, over and over, at genuine cost to himself. You have the same instinct. You notice who is struggling and you stay with them, long after anybody would blame you for leaving. He is a flawed friend, and that is part of why it lands. He lets people down, then comes back and tries again, which is more than most manage. He would give you his last chance and never once mention that he had done it. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 3 'Behind Her Eyes' (2021) Image via Netflix Another series that introduced a controversial twist that completely re-augmented the nature of the story, Behind Her Eyes effectively transforms from a grounded and confronting relationship drama into a high-concept sci-fi. The miniseries’ opening episodes explore domestic conflict, workplace affairs, and gaslighting as it revolves around the strained marriage of Adele (Eve Hewson) and David (Tom Bateman) as David begins cheating on her with his co-worker, Louise (Simona Brown). Louise finds herself becoming increasingly involved in the couple’s life, but the story takes a perplexing turn when it reveals that Adele is not actually herself, with concepts of astral projection entering the fold. The piercing dramatic urgency of the first few episodes certainly loses some of its pointedness with this revelation, but while some found the twist to cheapen the miniseries’ narrative of betrayal and domestic disputes, others felt it energized the story by introducing a bold and completely unexpected turn into the mix. There is no doubt that watching Behind Her Eyes with the twist in mind changes the nature of the miniseries entirely, shifting what was a tense and concentrated marital thriller into a body-swap nightmare with a distinct evil villain defined by ambition, obsession, and unconquerable power. 2 'Lost' (2004–2010) Image via ABC Perhaps no series in the history of television has enjoyed a great twist as much as Lost, with the groundbreaking survival thriller show reveling in its mysteries and shock revelations as it follows a group of survivors stranded on an island after their plane crashes somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean. While everything from the nature of the smoke monster to the discovery of other human living on the island provided noteworthy narrative jolts, the biggest turn came in Season 3 when the supposed flashbacks detailing backstory details of characters’ lives are revealed to have been flash-forwards. “We have to go back, Kate” completely flipped the narrative on its head, unmooring viewers from what seemed like a simple non-linear structure as a bizarre puzzle of time-jumping drama thundered into contention. It meant that the dream of getting off the island was no longer a happy ending, but another narrative spin steeped in disaster and tension. Granted, Lost also featured a series-defining twist in the form of Season 6’s flash-sideways purgatory arc, but that more allowed for a spiritual reinterpretation of the story, whereas Season 3’s twist obliterated audience expectations, set the show on a new trajectory entirely, and brought a renewed sense of enigmatic intensity to the survival suspense of the island. 1 'Mr. Robot' (2015–2019) Image via USA Network A pulsating techno-thriller, Mr. Robot follows Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek), a computer programmer and hacker plagued by social anxiety and dissociative identity disorder, as he is roped into a hacktivist organization determined to break into E Corp’s databases and erase all economic debt. However, the nature of the series changes exponentially in its final two episodes, where it is revealed that the Alderson viewers have followed is an alter ego known as Mastermind that weaponized Elliot’s simmering feelings of rage while the real Elliot remained asleep in his own mind, shielded from his childhood abuse and lingering trauma. Upon rewatch, audiences notice many signs of foreshadowing, but knowledge of the twist also recalibrates how the story unfolds, with every human connection and emotional breakdown coming across very differently when viewers know that the spiteful and vengeful Mastermind has overtaken Elliot’s mind. It sees Mr. Robot become a fascinating exploration of identity, motivation, and purpose as well as an exhilarating, high-stakes techno-thriller about social order and corporate power.