History Main / StrangerBehindTheMask

* In the original ''Film/FridayThe13th'', the killer turns out to be Pamela Voorhees, who first appears seconds before TheReveal, and whose only foreshadowing was a random throwaway line about a boy (her son, Jason) who drowned in the lake decades ago uttered around the beginning of the film.

* At the end of the first Nancy Drew game, ''Secrets Can Kill'', Jake's murderer ultimately turns out to be a suspect who was never seen or mentioned in the game until the third act. The Remastered version fixed this by introducing the suspect halfway through the game, and then [[spoiler: including ''another'' culprit--this time, Nancy's contact Detective Beech.]]

-> ''"You tricked and fooled your readers for years. You've tortured us all with surprise endings that make no sense. You've introduced characters in the last five pages who were never in the book before!"''

Wait, who's ''that''?

Typically a WriterCopOut. If what is revealed also isn't particularly consistent with the story, it's an AssPull. Compare with DeusExMachina, where the unpredictable event is a solution to an otherwise unsolvable problem, and with TheDogWasTheMastermind, where it is revealed that it was a minor character that nobody would have suspected, but had been previously introduced. Often relies on ContrivedCoincidence to keep the audience interested. Though often seen as unsatisfying, this is often a case of TruthInTelevision.

When PlayedWith, this can turn from Bad Writing into a very skillful twisting of the story.

By the nature of this trope, all examples will inherently be mild spoilers.
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!!Examples:

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[[folder:Comic Books]]
* There was an early ''SpiderMan'' storyline, in which a costumed crime-lord was built up as a huge mystery, before he was revealed to be someone neither Peter nor the reader had ever heard of. SteveDitko wanted to repeat the gag with the Green Goblin, but StanLee thought it only worked once.

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[[folder:Film]]

* In the original ''Film/{{Friday the 13th}}'', the killer turns out to be Pamela Voorhees, who first appears seconds before TheReveal, and whose only foreshadowing was a random throwaway line about a boy (her son, Jason) who drowned in the lake decades ago uttered around the beginning of the film.

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[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* The "333" sub plot in ''CSINewYork'' lasted for several episodes (with Mac constantly getting a silent phone call at 3:33 every day, getting his luggage back with a padlock set to 333, etc). When the episode which finally had him uncover the truth it turned out the one behind it all was [[spoiler: a childhood friend who was motivated to call Mac out for freezing up when his brother was being beaten to death after he was touted as a hero in the papers after the [[DieHardOnAnX previous season's finale]]. He hadn't appeared once (not even earlier in the episode when the flashback of the event took place) until TheReveal.]]

* Starting around season five, [[TwentyFour 24]] set up a huge conspiracy with who was behind the events that carried over for that day, and partly leaked over to season six as well. Come the second half (and especially the last third) of season seven, the conspiracy is played out once again, and assumed to be reaching its endgame, come the season seven finale. Finally, the viewers watch rogue agent [[spoiler: Tony Almeida]] get to TheManBehindTheMan, and made some [[MoralEventHorizon rather nasty decisions]] to reach him. So when we see the guy, it's...[[spoiler: Alan Wilson]], someone the viewers never spotted at any point or have any connection to, whatsoever. What made this twist even more jarring is that during this very season, the writers introduced [[spoiler: Jonas Hodges]], a much more engaging and charismatic villain who could've been a worthy choice to be the conspiracy leader. But instead, we have this.

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[[folder:Video Games]]
* The identity of the Shadow Broker in ''MassEffect2'' is widely discussed, both by the fans and in-universe. The announcement of the DLC "Lair of the Shadow Broker" drove speculation to a fever pitch. In the end, it was revealed that the Shadow Broker was a yahg, a species never before seen or mentioned in the ''MassEffect'' universe.
* ''UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'': {{Discussed}} and {{invoked}} by Battler, in order to avoid having to accuse one of his family members of murder.

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[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''ScoobyDoo Where Are You'' episode "Spooky Space Kook". The villain at the end (the guy wearing the costume) was someone the audience had never seen before.

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[[folder:Other]]

* The Italian Horror film ''DeepRed'' initially presents an extremely minor character as the killer, but at least the killer was a character. Then a few minutes later it's revealed that the killer is actually [[spoiler: the absurdly minor character's mother.]]
* ''DonnieDarko''--but it actually works. Rather than being a plot-related reveal it deepens the surreality of the film.
* ''TheHouseOnSororityRow'' leads us to believe the killer is the NotQuiteDead Mrs Slater. [[spoiler: Turns out it was her before-unmentioned son Eric born mentally unstable and physically deformed and saw the girls from the attic window]]. It's not fully explained in the film and you'd have to look up a full synopsis to get the proper details.
* Ben Willis in both ''Film/IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer'' and ''I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer''.

* Technically happened in the TeenTitans cartoon. Viewers and the Tians never saw Slade's face, not even at the end. Viewers unfamiliar with the comics complained that we never found out who he was until pointed at the comics--turns out he's Deathsroke the terminator operating under his first name due to cartoon censors. So we knew his name the whole time.

* After three seasons' worth of build-up, Jack, the mysterious serial killer on ''{{Profiler}}'', turns out to be... some random guy we've never seen before.

When PlayedWith, this can turn from BadWriting into a very skillful twisting of the story.

**

*** In this case however, the readers were the only ones who supposed that [[spoiler: Lord English]] was someone that the readers had seen before -- the comic itself indicated no such thing. Ultimately, the reason [[spoiler: only his coat and eyes were ever shown]] was both to build up suspense and to [[spoiler: hide the fact that he is quite obviously possessing Doc Scratch's now hideously mutated body, amongst other notable features.]]

When PlayedWith, this can turn from BadWriting into a very skilful twisting of the story.

* In "Study in Pink", the first episode of ''{{Sherlock}}'', the serial murderer turns out to be [[spoiler:a random taxi driver, whose reason for the murders had nothing to do with the victims themselves.]]

* In ''{{Homestuck}}'', Vriska's appearing suddenly in the fifth act and proceeding to dominate the plot afterwards is stated by WordOfGod to be an experimental attempt to make the entire plot dependent on a character who had not been previously encountered.

** it didn't even work that time.

* It was subverted with the reveal of the Hobgoblin being Ned Leeds a recurring character at the Bugle, and then retconned into playing it straight with it being revealed that Leeds wasn't really the Hobgoblin but some guy no one heard of was.