History Main / MandatoryTwistEnding

As you might expect, it also has the side effect (for good or ill) of making audiences become GenreSavvy and ''expect'' there to be a TwistEnding at the end. At its worst, the audience decides [[DarknessInducedAudienceApathy they shouldn't bother even caring or watching.]] This trope isn't [[TropesAreNotBad a negative one though]], authors can make this an element of their style. It's ''overuse'' or ''misuse'' that causes problems as the page quote shows. Clever authors can use the existence of this expectation to use a MetaTwist, the ''[[AvertedTrope absence]]'' of the expected twist.

In works where this is exceedingly common you can at best get an "TheEndOrIsIt" ending that, while not altogether happy, is ambiguous enough that the viewer can delude himself into thinking so (and write copious FanFiction on it). May happen after the SnicketWarningLabel. Contrast WhamEpisode.

* The season finale of ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'' had an absolutely merciless one of these, which might be Gainax parodying itself. People expect [[{{gainax ending}} their endings to be completely out of left field]] so they took their expectations and went UpToEleven. At the end, [[spoiler: the BigBad is defeated, all is well, the crew returns home, and then suddenly out of nowhere Stocking kills Panty, chops her corpse into 666 pieces, and announces she was a demon all along, even though this makes no sense. Garterbelt then explodes for no reason. The villain then comes back to life (also for no reason) and announces that the surviving characters will now have to gather all 666 pieces of Panty to bring her back. Then Garterbelt un-explodes (again for no reason) and announces that this will be the premise of season two. Also, season two may not actually exist.]] Well played, Gainax.

* The more realistic-styled show ''Series/AlfredHitchcockPresents'' also tends to feature a mandatory twist. Considering there's usually no sci-fi element, it's less out of the blue and can be pretty easily guessed. And then there are the twists that were forced on Hitchcock. For episodes in which the bad guy wins, Hitchcock was forced by the Network to add a little story at the end, describing how the bad guy eventually met their fate. Parodied in the 80s remake about an alien invasion, when Hitchcock appears at the end in a cell, because the aliens were very angry he broadcasted his plan to conquer earth at his tv show.

* ''Series/{{Lost}}'', though not so much a mandatory twist ''ending'' as a mandatory twist at ''some'' point during the episode (especially in the first few seasons with back story [[TheReveal Reveals]], the most significant of these probably being the one from "Walkabout"). However, the season finales are of special note-- it is so well known that there will be a twist at the end of each season that the producers give the twist scene a special name-- The Bagel: [[spoiler:Walt gets taken]], The Challah:[[spoiler: the first off-island scene indicates Penny is searching for them (and may have found the island)]], The Rattlesnake In The Mailbox: [[spoiler:The flashback is actually a flash''forward'', with Jack and Kate off the island]], The Frozen Donkey Wheel: [[spoiler:Locke is revealed to be dead off of the island]], and The Fork In The Outlet (named in a contest by fans): [[spoiler:Jacob is stabbed by Ben.]] Whew. The fourth one's name is even a red herring - judging from the name, you'd expect it would refer to the scene where [[spoiler:Ben turns a literal frozen donkey wheel to move the island]].

* ''Series/TheEvent'' was probably ''too'' dependent on this. The most ridiculous example probably being the third episode's "twist" which revealed that [[spoiler: the previous episode's twist was a fake out.]]

* Bread's "The Diary" has a twist ending. The singer finds his girlfriend's diary under a tree and is amazed to read so many wonderful things about himself that his girlfriend is apparently too shy to show him in person "Wouldn't you know it, she wouldn't show it." [[spoiler: he finally reads that the person she is making all these complimentary remarks about is another guy and not him. The song refrains once more. ''Wouldn't you know it, she wouldn't show it.'']]

* A common criticism levied toward ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'''s controversial original ending.

* ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange'' has - similar to Stories Untold above - multiple episodes, each ending with a twist.

* ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' uses copious amounts of this trope. This is largely facilitated through some odd combination of [[AlternateReality Alternate Realities]] and/or [[GroundHogDayLoop Groundhog Day]]-ing the plot (it hasn't been quite explained thus far) so that dark twists can occur repeatedly throughout the series and often to the same characters. Some episodes have twist endings that change the twist endings of other episodes based ''entirely on whose perspective it's from.''

** [[spoiler: ''Geekboy: Homecoming'' then reveals Season 2 ''did'' happen, entirely offscreen, then adds a few twists of its own at the end: Panty's memory gets reset, she's back to her old maneater ways, and she and Brief now travel with an amnesiac that CameFromTheSky that after Panty blew a hole through Corset. Said boy also happens to be from [[Anime/SpacePatrolLuluco an alternate universe]] that's not even owned by Gainax.]]

* Arguably ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' falls into this, especially during the middle of ''World Tour,'' when the writers seemed to go out of their way to invent some kind of "twist" for every elimination--Chris decides to throw out a random intern while ''admitting'' he just wants to keep the rightful loser in, someone accidentally votes for themselves, someone accidentally votes for the wrong person to cause a tie and one contestant [[ContrivedCoincidence randomly is allergic]] [[OverlyLongGag to the type of plant the tiebreaker challenge requires touching]]...without using their hands.

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* Parodied in ''Detention Of The Dead'' where zombie!Janet pops up at the last moment, but is immediately put down by soldiers.

[[folder:Videogames]]

** [[spoiler: ''Geekboy: Homecoming'' then reveals Season 2 ''did'' happen, entirely offscreen, then adds a few twists of its own at the end: Panty's memory gets reset, she's back to her old maneater ways, and she and Brief now travel with an amnesiac BoyFromTheSky that came down after Panty blew a hole through Corset.
That boy also happens to be from [[Anime/SpacePatrolLuluco an alternate universe]] that's not even owned by Gainax.

* The ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' films. A twist at the end is more or less expected, ever since the [[FilmSawI first film]].

* Arguably ''TotalDrama'' falls into this, especially during the middle of ''World Tour,'' when the writers seemed to go out of their way to invent some kind of "twist" for every elimination--Chris decides to throw out a random intern while ''admitting'' he just wants to keep the rightful loser in, someone accidentally votes for themselves, someone accidentally votes for the wrong person to cause a tie and one contestant [[ContrivedCoincidence randomly is allergic]] [[OverlyLongGag to the type of plant the tiebreaker challenge requires touching]]...without using their hands.

* ''[[Creator/ThisIsIt Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared]]'': The Teacher in every episode turns out to be EvilAllAlong. [[GenreSavvy Even Duck Guy has become aware of this by the fifth]].

* Happens at the end of almost every chapter in the first few ''{{Dragonlance}}'' trilogies by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

* Someone dies in every episode of ''WesternAnimation/HappyTreeFriends''.

* ''Franchise/BioShock'' had twist endings in the first game, the DLC for the second game, the third game, and the third game's DLC.

-->--'''Creator/MNightShyamalan''', ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken''

* OHenry put so many of these in his stories that the phrase "O. Henry ending" was once a common part of the language.

As you might expect, it also has the side effect (for good or ill) of making audiences become GenreSavvy and ''expect'' there to be a TwistEnding at the end. This trope isn't [[TropesAreNotBad a negative one though]], authors can make this an element of their style. It's ''overuse'' or ''misuse'' that causes problems as the page quote shows. Clever authors can use the existence of this expectation to use a MetaTwist, the ''[[AvertedTrope absence]]'' of the expected twist.

* The clients in ''NightmareInspector'' hardly ever have their chapters end without some sort of horrid twist.

* ''VisualNovel/HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi'' uses copious amounts of this trope. This is largely facilitated through some odd combination of [[AlternateReality Alternate Realities]] and/or [[GroundHogDayLoop Groundhog Day]]-ing the plot (it hasn't been quite explained thus far) so that dark twists can occur repeatedly throughout the series and often to the same characters. Some episodes have twist endings that change the twist endings of other episodes based ''entirely on whose perspective it's from.''

* ''Film/{{Inception}}'', dealing with layered dreams, has to end with a shot that reveals at least one more layer.

* The ''Film/{{Saw}}'' films. A twist at the end is more or less expected, ever since the first film.

* The season finale of ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'' had an absolutely merciless one of these, which might Gainax parodying itself. People expect [[{{gainax ending}} their endings to be completely out of left field]] so they took their expectations and went UpToEleven. At the end, [[spoiler: the big bad is defeated, all is well, the crew returns home, and then suddenly out of nowhere Stocking kills Panty, chops her corpse into 666 pieces, and announces she was a demon all along, even though this makes no sense. Garterbelt then explodes for no reason. The villain then comes back to life (also for no reason) and announces that the surviving characters will now have to gather all 666 pieces of Panty to bring her back. Then Garterbelt un-explodes (again for no reason) and announces that this will be the premise of season two. Also, season two may not actually exist.]] Well played, Gainax.

* Parodied in ''Film/MysteryTeam''. The case is solved, Duncan is [[spoiler: going off to college]] and everything seems well.... Until [[spoiler: a man comes running out of the woods, castrated, unaware of his name and carrying of a picture of himself in a lab]] having sex with a panda.

* The more realistic-styled show ''Series/AlfredHitchcockPresents'' also tends to feature a mandatory twist. Considering there's no sci-fi element, it's less out of the blue and can be pretty easily guessed. And then there are the twists that were forced on Hitchcock. For episodes in which the bad guy wins, Hitchcock was forced by the Network to add a little story at the end, describing how the bad guy eventually met their fate. Parodied in the 80s remake about an alien invasion, when Hitchcock appears at the end in a cell, because the aliens were very angry he broadcasted his plan to conquer earth at his tv show.

* A staple of ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' and ''Series/TheOuterLimits''. It can get so bad it's an ''exception'' when there's an ambiguously good or open ending. ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' revival of the 1990's was much worse about this than either of the originals.

* Rest assured that nearly every "Sci-Fi Channel Original Movie" will finish the last two minutes with "Yoink! The monster isn't dead and he's slaughtering the main characters!" even if it ''makes no sense.''
* Likewise, most if not all slasher movies end on a note of relief that the near-invulnerable psycho killer has been finally killed once and for all - except, whoops, oh no, he's still around. This is especially the case for the popular characters, such as Freddie, Jason, etc.
** Creator/BruceCampbell lampshades and mercilessly makes fun of this in ''Film/MyNameIsBruce''. As the monster comes back for its surprise scare at the end, the film cuts to the screening of the movie. Bruce gets up and starts complaining about how horror movies always end like this, even when they don't make sense. He implores the directors to give the audience a little more credit and give the characters a happy ending for once. The "new" ending is then played, where Bruce, his love interest and her son are dressed as [=WASPs=] and talking formally about how wonderful their lives are and how happy they are, all in front of a green screen display of a beautiful mountain lake. Bruce then realizes how stupid this is, and calls the monster back to kill them all.

* ''HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi'' uses copious amounts of this trope.
** This is largely facilitated through some odd combination of [[AlternateReality Alternate Realities]] and/or [[GroundHogDayLoop Groundhog Day]]-ing the plot (it hasn't been quite explained thus far) so that dark twists can occur repeatedly throughout the series and often to the same characters. Some episodes have twist endings that change the twist endings of other episodes based ''entirely on whose perspective it's from.''
*** A pretty big example is an early episode ends with [[spoiler: one character killing two others in self-defense]], and a later episode revealing [[spoiler: that it was all a misunderstanding that went too far.]]
*** A character [[spoiler: smashing another character's face at the end of an episode? In another episode, the first character had already died by that point in time.]]

* ECComics did this all the time, even in stories that didn't start by promising a "shocking final twist" or similar. The most contrived might be "Sugar 'n Spice 'n..." (''Shock [=SuspenStories=]'' #6), whose ending reveals not only that the nasty old woman is really a witch, but [[spoiler:Margie and Johnny are really just English names for Hansel and Gretel. One might recall that the witch in the original story came to an unfortunate end, but you can forget that part]] because "this is an E.C. magazine!"
** EC influenced horror comics so much that authors routinely did a double-twist since everybody was expecting a twist anyway.

* Author Peter Chimaera's fanfics, which have a tendency to end on a dark note. The most famous tale, ''[[Fanfic/DoomRepercussionsOfEvil Repercussions of Evil]]'', featured a dark ending where [[spoiler: after the radio tells protagonist John Stalvern he ''is the demons'', John becomes a zombie for no particular reason. Or maybe he was one all along. We're not quite sure.]]

** Others include:
*** ''DIGIMON SAVEZ THE WROLD!!1111'': [[spoiler:But he found that on the way home there was no road. It was too late like the scientist said. He had already destroyed the road and the people were trapped on the island that they were trapped in. There was nothing he could do. So he went home and cried.]]
*** The sequel: [[spoiler:When good Digimon came back he wanted find his girlfriend but she leaved. It was too late. "Sarah! You moved to England too soon and I didn't say bye!" But she was gonr.]] Note that this character has ''nothing to do with the rest of the story''.
**** That one gets even better in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8InFnyZ7zI the machinima]], where [[spoiler:the reason Sarah gives for leaving Digimon is because she realized she was dating a Digimon in the first place.]]
*** And best of all, ''Quarter-Life'''s epic twist: [[spoiler:"Hooray I succeeded at winning the mission" "Not so fast, Mr. Gordon" What happens next? You decide!]]

* The remake of ''{{Planet of the Apes}}''. Since they couldn't use the original's EarthAllAlong, they threw in a pointless MindScrew that made ''no'' sense whatsoever.
** The ending to the remake is actually much closer to the original book than the first movie. However, in the book the MindScrew made more sense in that the story's FramingDevice is that a couple finds a {{Message in a Bottle}} while on a space cruise- and once they finish the story they decide it's too ridiculous to possibly be true.
*** [[spoiler: The reason they dismiss the story is because they're apes and they find the idea of an intelligent astronaut human to be preposterous]], but that's neither here nor there.
** In the [=DVD=] commentary, Tim Burton says the ending was a SequelHook for a sequel that was never made. After Leo leaves for Earth, Thade retrieves Leo's original capsule, follows Leo through the time warp, arrives on Earth several centuries before Leo, and proceeds to turn Earth into a second Planet of the Apes.
*** Which would seem to make sense, except that it seems to suggest that he began a race of intelligent apes on Earth which eventually replaced human life ''by himself''

* ''Perfect Stranger'': The least likely suspect to have been the killer is the killer of course. Duh.

** Or does it ?
*** Part of what makes this film work so well is that the twist at the end is that it doesn't matter if it's a dream or not?
**** Or does it?

* A staple of ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' and ''Series/TheOuterLimits''. It can get so bad it's an ''exception'' when there's an ambiguously good or open ending.
** The ''Outer Limits'' revival of the 1990's was much worse about this than either of the originals.
*** On the other hand, the original set of ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' didn't have anywhere near as many twists as it's famous for.
** The more realistic-styled show ''Series/AlfredHitchcockPresents'' also tends to feature a mandatory twist. Considering there's no sci-fi element, it's less out of the blue and can be pretty easily guessed.
*** And then there are the twists that were forced on Hitchcock. For episodes in which the bad guy wins, Hitchcock was forced by the Network to add a little story at the end, describing how the bad guy eventually met their fate. Parodied in the 80s remake about an alien invasion, when Hitchcock appears at the end in a cell, because the aliens were very angry he broadcasted his plan to conquer earth at his tv show.

* Many, many ''Series/QuantumLeap'' episodes have the following template: Sam leaps into a situation involving some possibly supernatural occurrence like ghosts, aliens, or the Bermuda Triangle. Al completely buys into the possibility, while Sam refuses to believe it and does everything he can to prove Al wrong. In the end, it appears Sam was right, but just before he leaps out there's some hint that [[RealAfterAll maybe Al was right after all]].
** This was also reversed in several episodes: The UFO episode had Sam enthusiastically embracing the possibility of alien contact, while Al was dubious at best.

* ''Series/{{Lost}}'', though not so much a mandatory twist ''ending'' as a mandatory twist at ''some'' point during the episode (especially in the first few seasons with back story [[TheReveal Reveals]], the most significant of these probably being the one from "Walkabout"). However, the season finales are of special note-- it is so well known that there will be a twist at the end of each season that the producers give the twist scene a special name-- The Bagel: [[spoiler:Walt gets taken]], The Challah:[[spoiler: the first off-island scene indicates Penny is searching for them (and may have found the island)]], The Rattlesnake In The Mailbox: [[spoiler:The flashback is actually a flash''forward'', with Jack and Kate off the island]], The Frozen Donkey Wheel: [[spoiler:Locke is revealed to be dead off of the island]], and The Fork In The Outlet (named in a contest by fans): [[spoiler:Jacob is stabbed by Ben.]] Whew.
** The fourth one's name is even a red herring - judging from the name, you'd expect it would refer to the scene where [[spoiler:Ben turns a literal frozen donkey wheel to move the island]].

** [[Series/LawAndOrder The main series]] only really got to this level at the end of Elizabeth Rohm's tenure (seasons 14 and 15), where, in an attempt to define Serena Southerlyn as something other than "Really Pretty", would often have Serena PullTheThread that pointed to a suspect other than the one they'd spend 40 minutes trying to convict.

* Bread's "The Diary" has a twist ending. The singer finds his girlfriend's diary under a tree and is amazed to read so many wonderful things about himself that his girlfriend is apparently to shy to show him in person "Wouldn't you know it, she wouldn't show it." [[spoiler: he finally reads that the person she is making all these complimentary remarks about is another guy and not him. The song refrains once more. ''Wouldn't you know it, she wouldn't show it.'']]