"Büyük Günahlar" packs two reveals that reverse the understanding of the characters and their motivations.
The climax of the episode reveals that Nihal, one of the party guests, is Aytaç's daughter and the girl who first answered Elif's phone call. She emotionally unravels and reframes Mete's account by telling her side of the story: how much her family suffered because of the phone calls, how long the harassment actually persisted, and how the events led to her father's mental breakdown and eventual suicide.
The final scene returns to Balıkesir and contextualizes the prologue's events, revealing that Aytaç was the vice principal of the school Mete and Elif attended. Although another student instigated the scuffle, Aytaç goes out of his way to scold and humiliate Mete for the fight, slapping him in front of his peers — all which is witnessed by Elif. As Aytaç leaves the school at the end of the day, Elif and Mete watch him before sharing a knowing glance, suggesting that the prank call was no accident but a deliberate act of revenge.
"Karşılaşmalar": While cleaning out a bookshelf, Gödze finds an old photograph of herself and her ex Kerem in better times — only to notice her current husband Onur lurking in the background. She immediately begins to connect the dots, coming to the realization that her now-beloved husband had started stalking her from that moment.
24 pulls these on a regular basis, generally to show which side a character is now on or reveal their true motives. There's too many to list, but the most famous ones are the reveals of Nina Meyers and Charles Logan as villains. Occasionally a character the protagonists were attempting to save is discovered to already be long dead (namely Teri Bauer in Season 1 and Omar Hassan in Season 8).
There's the very first episode in which Sydney learns that she's actually working for The Alliance, an evil organization that she thought they were fighting, and not the real CIA. Some of the major ones:
Laura Bristow was not a lit professor, but actually a KGB spy by the name of Irina Derevko, and is actually alive and is The Man.
Season 2: Sloane assisted in taking down the Alliance for his own means (arranging for the information that Sydney & co. at Oops Central to be available).
Season 3: Sydney actually erased her own memories of the two years she spent "working" for the Covenant.
Season 4: Jack Bristow actually killed a double of Irina Derevko. The real Irina was being held by her sister Elena in captivity. Elena turned out to be Sofia, the woman running the orphanage that Nadia grew up in.
Season 4/5: Six words: "My name is not Michael Vaughn." Sloane's flip-flopping between being good and evil does not count because, honestly, who didn't see it coming?
American Horror Story: Murder House has several, though the two biggest are the revelation in "Piggy Piggy" that Tate is Constance's deceased son, and the revelation in "Rubber Man" that Tate is the Rubber Man.
American Horror Story: Asylum opens with Kit Walker accused of being the Serial Killer "Bloody Face", and promises a big reveal about the truth behind Bloody Face's identity. As revealed in "I Am Anne Frank", it's Dr. Thredson. Grows another layer in "Coat Hanger", when we learn the connection between the present-day Framing Device and the 1960's scenes; turns out that the second Bloody Face is Thredson's son Johnny, and Lana is his mother.
Possessed Cordelia is behind the rise of the Beast.
As well as the return of Lindsey.
In the Season 3 premiere Darla is pregnant.
Annika (2021): The last line of dialogue in the last episode of the first season has Annika telling the audience that Michael, her coworker and old boyfriend, is Morgan's father.
Season 1: The Dark Archer is Malcolm Merlyn, who is the father of one of the Green Arrow's closest friends.
Season 2: A super heroine called The Black Canary is actually Sara Lance, who was believed to have died in a ship wreck.
One of the Green's Arrow's oldest enemies, Slade Wilson, is the true big bad orchestrating events from behind the scenes.
Malcolm is still alive and we discover he has a daughter who is Thea Queen.
Season 3: The Black Canary was murdered by Thea Queen who was brainwashed by Malcolm Merlyn.
Season 4: John Diggle, the green Arrow's partner, finds out his brother is still alive and working for the series Big bad Damien Darhk.
The second Black Canary, Laurel Lance, is revealed to the one who was killed in the flash forward's funeral.
Season 5: The Green Arrow's new protege, Artemis is secretly working for big bad Prometheus.
Prometheus is Adrian Chase, who is the son of one of the Green Arrow's targets from the list.
Season 6: Vigilante is Vincent Sobel, Dinah Drake's presumed dead partner.
Given that the premise of Ashes to Ashes (2008) is that the main character — Alex — has no idea where she is, the show has many big reveals which change the course of Alex's investigation.
Gene Hunt is present in Alex's memories, implying that she has experienced time travel and is not in a coma.
Martin Summers is sharing this world with Alex, which implies that the world is in fact real and not a hallucination.
The world is finally revealed to be a Purgatory for dead coppers, and Gene Hunt has known all along. Chris, Ray and Shaz are also real but have forgotten about their previous lives.
Each of the main characters (including Gene) gets their own revelation of their demise and are shaken by the experience, especially Shaz.
Battlestar Galactica has an on-going mystery about the identity of the twelve Cylon models. The first of many reveals is in the Miniseries, where it is revealed that Sharon must be one of them in the final scene. There are also a few other puzzles:
Season 2: Another Battlestar survived the Cylon Holocaust.
Season 3: Tyrol, Tigh, Tory and Anders are four of the missing five Cylon models.
Season 4.5: The Thirteenth Tribe that colonized Earth were all human Cylon models.
Season 4.5: Ellen Tigh was a Cylon.
Season 4.5: The 'original programmers' were Tyrol, Tigh, Tory, Anders, and Ellen.
Billions offers a twofer reveal in its debut episode: the wife of US Attorney Chuck Rhoades is not only the house therapist for hedge fund manager Bobby Axelrod, whom Rhoades is investigating for insider trading, but also the dominatrix torturing Rhoades in the very first scene!
Boardwalk Empire: In Season 4's second-to-last episode, Roy Phillips, who has presented himself to Gillian as an innocuous businessman and has been romancing her all season, reveals himself to be a Pinkerton agent who's really there to investigate the death of Roger, the Jimmy lookalike whom Gillian murdered so she could have Jimmy declared legally dead. His Batman Gambit (apparently shooting and killing someone who lost his job because of Roy) was a ruse to get Gillian to confess to murder.
Bodies (2023): Episode 5 of this series is pretty much a sequence of reveals. Up until then, Bodies has mostly been dropping clues and broad hints, but now things are made explicit. Maplewood meets the Chapel Perilous, and in one classic reveal sequence, the viewers learn that they are led by the older Hasan — who then reveals the nature of the conspiracy's plot. Mannix tells Hillinghead that he'll tell him the full truth, though actually he reveals relatively little. In 2023, Hasan discovers who Mannix's father is, thus revealing more about the conspiracy's extent and influence, and in the '40s, Whiteman learns something similar.
When Dr. Brennan finds out that her parents were actually notorious bank robbers.
Used when the team discovers that Zack is Gormogon's apprentice.
Many episodes in the second season of Breaking Bad begin with enigmatic Call Forwards showing heaps of debris being pulled out of Walt's pool by men in Hazmat suits, including many repeated close-ups of a battered pink teddy bear. Taken out of context, they make no sense. Then in the Season 2 finale, it's revealed that the debris is actually from a plane collision over Albuquerque that Walt inadvertently caused when he allowed Jane Margolis to die of a heroin overdose, thus leaving her father David (an air traffic controller in his day job) so distracted by grief that he let two planes collide in mid-air. Out of context the scenes were probably meant to trick the audience into thinking that Walt relocated his meth lab to his house, and then it exploded catastrophically, possibly killing him or his family.
In Season 8, after the previous subversion, Twilight is revealed to be Angel.
In the Season 2 (and series) finale of Carnivàle, it's revealed that Sofie is destined to become a sinister figure called "The Omega", and that she possesses supernatural powers very similar to those of her father... Brother Justin Crowe. Earlier than that, there's the revelation that "Management", the mysterious unseen figure that owns the carnival, is actually Lucius Belyakov, the Russian soldier who tried to kill Henry Scudder during World War I. As later learned, he's also the father of Brother Justin (who was born "Alexei Belyakov"), and the previous generation's Avatar of Light]].
The Company You Keep: People can't figure out why Daphne remains so loyal to Maguire when he's in prison and she doesn't try to take control of his operations completely. However, it turns out she's his daughter, which they didn't expect as he's white while Daphne's clearly herself a woman of color (her mother was black, as seen in a photo she has) as shown by "A Sparkling Reputation".
Alex is the avenger in Season 2. She even tied herself up to look like a victim.
The Crowded Room: Ariana, Yitzhak, Jack, Adam and others are Danny's alternate personalities. Of course, this won't be surprised to anyone familiar with the real story that it's based on.
Rudy Cooper, a guy working in the hospital who is dating Debra, is The Ice Truck Killer; the Serial Killer who the PD hunt and who plays friendly games with Dexter.
The Ice Truck Killer is Dexter's biological brother.
From the third season premiere: Rita is pregnant.
From the fourth season finale: Rita was the Trinity killer's last victim.
Late sixth season: Professor Gellar is shown to have been dead for some time and only alive in Travis' imagination.
The Dick Van Dyke Show — The Funny Moment in "That's My Boy??" is a classic. The episode is a Flashback to when baby Richie came home from the hospital. Over the course of the episode, Rob (Dick Van Dyke) convinces himself that Richie has been Switched at Birth with the baby from the Peters family. He invites Mr. & Mrs. Peters over to reclaim their baby, only to learn when he opens the door that that they are an African-American couple. Rob asks, "Why didn't you—?" and Mr. Peters (Greg Morris) replies, "And miss the look on your face?"
"Frontier in Space": The reveal in the final episode that the Master is working with the Daleks. Their involvement was hinted at way back in the first episode by the appearance of the Ogrons, who had previously been seen as Dumb Muscle for the Daleks in "Day of the Daleks", but at the time the Doctor brushed it off by saying that the Ogrons could have been hired by anyone.
The revelation that Professor Yana is The Master (who survived the Time War and hid as a human with a Chameleon Arch), and the Face of Boe's message was a secret acronym hinting at this (You Are Not Alone). Then, when the Master is shot and regenerates, it's revealed that Prime Minister Harold Saxon (an unseen figure frequently alluded to in Season 3) has been the Master all along.
"The End of Time": After four seasons of hints, it turns out that the Doctor ended the Time War the way he did mainly to stop the Time Lords, not just the Daleks. This certainly explains why surviving Daleks kept turning up, but only one other Time Lord.
Who is the Pandorica's intended occupant, the "nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies", the "most feared being in all the cosmos"? It's the Doctor. His enemies constructed the Pandorica to trap him.
"A Good Man Goes to War" finally unveils River Song's true identity. She's really Melody Pond, Amy and Rory's daughter from the future. And, from "Closing Time", she's the one destined to kill the Doctor, at the behest of the Silence.
"The Name of the Doctor": The truth behind the multiple incarnations of Clara Oswald. The one from the 21st century is the "real" one; the others exist because Clara was forced to enter the Doctor's timeline to stop the Great Intelligence from changing it, creating duplicate versions of herself without her memories.
"The Day of the Doctor": The War Doctor actually ended the Time War by trapping Gallifrey in a pocket dimension to save it from the Daleks' onslaught. The Doctor's home planet is still out there!
"Dark Water": Missy finally reveals her true identity: The Master regenerated as a woman.
"The Zygon Invasion"/"The Zygon Inversion" two-parter introduces the mysterious "Osgood Box" as a Macguffin that can supposedly lead the Zygons to victory against Earth, and promises that the Zygons will learn why it's called an "Osgood Box" as soon as they find it. When they do, it turns out that it's because there are two boxes, just like there are two Osgoods. One of the boxes will kill every Zygon on Earth if it's triggered, and one will cause the Zygons to revert to their natural forms; no one knows which is which, just like no one knows which Osgood is human. And, just to top it all off, the Osgood Boxes are actually decoys, containing nothing inside them.
First off, this episode reveals the new arrangement of the theme music and Title Sequence for the first time.
What is the Ghost Monument? It's the TARDIS, stuck in a millennium-long materialization loop as a result of the damage caused by the Doctor's most recent regeneration.
We finally get to see the newest version of the TARDIS console room.
Part 1's climax includes the startling revelation that O, the Doctor's MI6 contact, is actually The Master, who murdered the real O and stole his identity on what would have been his first day at the intelligence agency.
Then, Part 2 reveals that the Master discovered an Awful Truth about the foundation of Time Lord society that was so terrible, so utterly awful even for him, that he razed Gallifrey to the ground, making him and the Doctor the Last of Their Kind once again.
"Fugitive of the Judoon": The fugitive is Ruth Clayton — who is actually a previously unknown incarnation of the Doctor that Thirteen can't ever remember being, and vice versa. And Ruth is being hunted by the Time Lords, indicating she comes from a time where Gallifrey hasn't been destroyed at all.
"The Timeless Children": The Doctor is apparently the Timeless Child, a being from another universe that certain inhabitants of Gallifrey adopted and experimented on, gaining the ability to regenerate from death, later becoming known as Time Lords. The Doctor has lived countless lives before what she thought was the first, the memories of which have been wiped.
Mombi had been using magic to disguise Tip as a boy since infancy.
"Lions in Winter" shows that not only is Eamonn the show's version of the Cowardly Lion, as revealed by his armor that's adorned with a lion's head, but he's also the one who murdered King and Queen Pastoria.
"No Place Like Home" reveal that Karen Chapman is not Dorothy's birth mother, Jane is.
In the Season 3 ER episode "Night Shift", a patient who is badly mangled after jumping (or falling) onto the tracks in front of an elevated train is rolled into a trauma room. Dr. Benton tells a nurse to page Benton's favorite medical student Dennis Gant, and everyone is horrified when the patient's beeper goes off — it's Gant on the table!
The Five (2016): Karl is really Jesse Wells. He was kidnapped by his birth father, in grief at losing his daughters, then given another identity and raised by him.
Season 1: The Flash's mentor, Professor Wells, is an imposter and a time traveller called Eobard Thawne who is just using the Flash to travel back into the future.
Season 2: 'Jay Garrick' is a timeline remnant of the speed-devouring villain known as Zoom whose spying on them, and his real name is Hunter Zolomon.
Season 3: The crime scene investigator Julian Albert is chosen by the so-called god of speed, Savitar, as his chief disciple.
Savitar is later revealed to be a future incarnation of Barry Allen.
Season 4: The mysterious girl that had been bumping into various members of Team Flash throughout the season is really Barry and Iris' daughter Nora, who has time traveled from 2049 to 2019.
Season 5: Iris finally reveals that the person who trained her and has been directing her to make changes in the past is actually Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash...
...and then it's further revealed Thawne's motive for helping Nora was all to change the future so that he could escape from his execution in the future.
Again in the first season, this relationship has begotten the supposed offspring of King Robert, meaning that Joffrey isn't the true heir of the throne.
There is No Name Given for "The Boy" before the Season 3 finale, it is finally confirmed on screen in "Mhysa" that he is Ramsay Snow.
Joffrey's killer is revealed that to be actually Lady Olenna.
Petyr 'Littlefinger' Baelish had Lysa Arryn poison her husband Jon Arryn and made Cat believe that the Lannisters did it. He has been playing with everyone since Season 1.
Shae has also a sexual relationship with Tyrion's father Tywin.
Valyrian steel can withstand the ice weapons of the white walkers.
Bran himself is the source of Hodor's handicap as he accidentally skinchanged into Hodor's past self, causing him brain damage in a Stable Time Loop. Hodor is short for "HOLD THE DOOR!", the final order Hodor received before his death.
Rhaegar Targaryen annulled his marriage to Elia Martell and married Lyanna in secret. That makes Jon trueborn, and therefore, he, not Daenerys, is the rightful heir to the Iron Throne.
Henry is his son and accomplice, making him the killer out of the main group.
Although Henry is just as psychotic as his dad, he has different plans than him; turns out that unlike Wakefield, who simply wanted to wipe out everybody, Henry wanted to kill everybody except for Abbey, and then keep her with him for the rest of their lives to live out his deranged childhood fantasy.
And in the Season 1 finale, both the above twists turn out to be related: Very Bad Santa used to have a Not-So-Imaginary Friend of his own before scaring him off.
Heroes is not only fond of this trope but loves to do it multiple times on the same subject.
A specific case would be the bomb that will/might/did destroy New York City, which is "revealed" to be caused by one person, then re-revealed to be actually caused by someone else, then...
The episode "Five Years Gone" contains another: President Nathan Petrelli is actually Sylar, using the illusion power he obtained from Candice Wilmer. This is revealed as Sylar is cutting open Claire's skull.
The fact that this actually comes partly true, Sylar replaces Nathan, is more than slightly disturbing.
The Duchess of Wharfedale to whom Hornblower is supposed to give passage to England is revealed to be no duchess at all. She's Katherine Cobham, an actress. Horatio is horrified that he entrusted her with Admirality's super important dispatches. Although a commoner, she's actually more than a decent person who can be trusted and depended upon.
"Duty": There comes a young newlywed aboard Hotspur who is definitely from the French-speaking region of Switzerland and definitely not anybody important. He has an American wife Betsy. Much is made from the fact when Hornblower guesses correctly what B stands for...
Hornblower: Madam, might I see that locket? I thought I recognized this crest. A prominent family, I believe. The B does not stand for Betsy, does it? DOES IT? Who do I have the pleasure of addressing, sir? This B is for? Jerome: Bonaparte. I'm Jerome Lucien Alexandre Bonaparte. I'm the brother of Napoleon.
Howdy Doody combined this trope with a massive Tearjerker. Throughout the entire series, Clarabell Clown never spoke a single word, using his face and a horn to communicate with other characters. The last episode, aptly titled "Clarabell's Big Surprise", promised that the clown would reveal something huge to viewers. After dropping hints throughout the episode, the "big surprise" was revealed — Clarabell was able to talk! Buffalo Bob urged him to prove his secret, as it was his first and last chance. A drum roll played as the camera zoomed in on Clarabell… and he softly whispered "Goodbye, kids." This was the final moment of the program.
Season 7 begins and ends with Ted at a friend's wedding. A Red Herring appears, but Robin is revealed to be the bride of Barney's.
Season 8 concludes with, at long last, the Mother's first appearance (though, with all the clever twists and turns that happen on this show, we're never quite sure of anything).
Season 9 is just Reveal after Reveal about how Ted's relationship with the Mother will go.
Annalise's husband Sam was Lila Stangard's secret lover.
The body the students carry out to the woods is Sam Keating.
Annalise knows about the murder almost immediately and helps cover it up.
Annalise knew Wes's mother.
The Imperfects: The man we know as Alex Sarkov is actually the result of genetic engineering, presumably by the real Alex Sarkov.
In the Dark: Dean murdered Tyson to cover up the fact he was working for Nia.
Jack & Bobby pulled this off in the pilot episode, waiting until the very end to reveal which of the show's two brothers would grow up to become President.
JAG: In "Boot", Private Schuler's killer was Private Whitley, who appeared to be the nicest character in the episode.
Jejak Suara Adzan: The final scene of episode 6 reveals that Putra's parents are Dika's adopted parents, while the next one reveals that Putra has a birthmark on his left arm just like Dika. It all but explicitly confirms who is Dimas' missing brother, which the characters only realizes at the last episode.
Katla pulls a number of relatively minor reveals in Episode 7 of Season 1, moving the plot along significantly. DNA testing identifies a body discovered several episodes earlier (though that information is no real surprise to viewers), Darri determines that there is a meteor with some very strange properties under the glacier which provides some explanation for the paranormal events of the series, Gunhild tells Þór that their son Björn‘s condition is the result of a botched illegal abortion attempt, and a flashback shows that Gríma and Ása’s mother killed herself — and Gríma and Ása witnessed the event.
Liar (2017): Laura actually did kill Andrew. It was self-defense though. Since the police don't have evidence to show that she did anything wrong, the case is closed.
The Orcs are enslaved Elves from Beleriand and are known as Moriondor.
Halbrand is not the King of the Southlands as he previously claimed, but is actually Sauron in disguise. Turns out he was taking a vacation from being evil until Galadriel rekindled his desire for order.
The Stranger is one of the Istari, with the implication of him being Gandalf.
Tal-Palandir is a King On His Death Bed, and that's the reason his daughter rules in his place.
The Dweller, the Nomad, and the Ascetic are unmasked as Wraiths akin to the Nazgûl or Barrow Wights.
Famous early example in Lost is the nature of Locke's "miracle", revealed at the end of episode 4. There are plenty more from the series.
The two biggest reveals come at the third and fifth season finales: what we've thought is a pretty standard despondent-alcoholic-Jack flashback is actually a flashforward, with Jack and Kate off the island and Jack wanting to go back, and the man we've thought is Locke this whole time is actually the series' Big Bad, who has taken the form of John Locke, who was not miraculously brought back to life by the island but has been dead since Season 3 (technically), respectively.
The series finale has the Sideways timeline reveal that their "alternate lives" are actually their afterlife and the entire cast will eventually be Together in Death.
Malcolm in the Middle: The final episode, after Malcolm learns that his parents kept and squandered a $10,000 college grant meant for him, Lois reveals that it had always been the "plan" to make Malcolm work his way through college and eventually become President of the United States to give blue-collar folk like them some slack. This had been the plan from the very beginning, meaning that everything that happened to Malcolm throughout his life (and the series) was mapped out, and the whole family (yes, even Dewey) was in on it.
The big one at the end of the first episode, revealing who the Mandalorian's 50-year-old target is: A baby of Yoda's species.
In Episode 8, we finally see the end of the Mandalorian's flashback, when his village was attacked by Separatist battle droids. His rescuers were Mandalorians, which wasn't a surprise. The bigger surprise for viewers experienced with Star Wars: The Clone Wars is that they were Death Watch.
Episode 13 contains major revelations about the Child's identity and past. His name is Grogu, and he was a Jedi youngling during Order 66; he had to go into hiding in order to survive during the era of the Empire.
The biggie is when Colonel Blake completes his service and is flown stateside, or so everybody thinks, until Radar gets a message reporting that his plane was shot down with no survivors
In the series finale, Hawkeye has gone insane and is under therapy by Dr. Sydney Freedman so he can go home having completed his service. The therapy traces back to an incident when he was trapped on a stalled bus with some locals behind enemy lines with enemy soldiers close by, necessitating absolute silence. He angrily harangued a Korean woman to silence her chicken, which was clucking loudly, with the result that she had to kill it. Late in the episode it is revealed a laThe Three Faces of Eve that he had repressed the actual memory where what the woman was holding (and was forced to kill) was not a clucking chicken, but a crying baby. In classic All Psychology Is Freudian form, this makes everything better and Hawkeye is able to get home, although he doesn't get a chance to personally say goodbye to Hunnicut.
Mighty Med: Midway through Season 1, it is revealed Wallace and Clyde, the cashiers at The Domain who seek to destroy Mighty Med, are really two separate halves of the villain Catastrophe, who was split in two after the Dyad of Nebulan was broken apart.
In Season 4 of NCIS, Tony's relationship with Dr. Jeanne Benoit was allowed to progress for many weeks, and to get quite serious for both of them, before it was revealed that he'd engineered the relationship to investigate her arms-dealer father, and hadn't even told her his real name.
The Night Agent: At the end of episode five, "Eyes Only", it's shown that the mysterious man behind the plot is the Vice President, Maddie's father.
Noah's Arc has plenty, but a major one that stands out is Junito's HIV status.
NUMB3RS has two massive ones in the Season 3 finale/Season 4 premiere two-parter. Admittedly, the second Reveal is that the first one's not true, but it's done in a way that makes it work.
Once Upon a Time is practically made of Reveals. Here are just a few:
Baelfire = Neal Cassidy.
Peter Pan was the father of Rumpesltiltskin
Ingrid was Emma's adopted mother.
The Wicked Witch is Regina's sister.
The arrival of Queen Elsa. Yes, THAT Queen Elsa.
Zelena was pretending to be Maid Marian all throughout Season 4.
Janae was the one who was revealing their secrets at first on Simon's About That blog. She did it because she genuinely thought one of them killed Simon. She eventually had her access taken away from her.
Simon was in a relationship with Maeve.
Jake killed Simon because Simon recorded evidence that could reveal Jake as the mastermind behind the whole idea of Simon's poisoning.
Fiona it turns out is Simon Says in the second season.
The end of the first episode reveals that Mabel and Tim knew each other, and he was part of the Hardy Boys group that she had earlier talked about with Charles. She keeps their history a secret from Charles and Oliver, until Oliver's son remembers her and gives the info to them.
The Arconia is filled with secret passageways and an elevator system the original designer used to spy on tenants.
In Season 2, Ed has been romancing attractive scientist Janelle. Only to find she's Teleya, a disguised Krill with a major beef against Ed.
The two part "Identity" turns the entire series on its ear as the robotic Kaylon race is revealed to have slaughtered their human creators and now ready to embark on genocide on the entire galaxy. Oh, and Isaac was planted on the Orville as a spy to learn Union secrets.
In Season 1, Bortus reports that a female born to his Moclan race only happens once every 75 years. In Season 2's "Sanctuary," the crew find a hidden colony of female Moclans. Their leader tell Bortus "this will be hard for you to accept" before informing him that female Moclans are quite commonly born every generation but are kept quiet by the leaders for fears it will destroy Moclan's single-sex culture.
The true reason why Matthew doesn't want to apply for DACA status is because he's transgender and his birth certificate identifies him as a girl.
"Mexico" reveals that Javier and Gloria are contemplating separating, because without the kids tying her down, she's no longer sure that she loves Javier.
Powerpuff: It turns out that Mojo is still alive, but he is now inhabiting the body of his lab monkey. The pilot ends with Jojo and Monkey Mojo swearing revenge on the Powerpuff Girls.
The episode "Balcoin", Isaac reveals that not only is Cassie the child of John Blackwell, but someone else in the Circle is as well. This is just one of many during the series, though...
"Crystal" reveals the child to be Diana.
So far, every episode of Sherlock has had one of some kind.
"A Study in Pink": The killer is the taxicab driver, and he got the victims to commit suicide by forcing them to choose between two pills at gunpoint (one harmless, one poison).
"The Blind Banker": The spray-painted symbols are ancient Chinese numeric symbols — each referring to a page in a London street atlas that leads to the smugglers' hideout.
"A Scandal in Belgravia": Irene's cellphone contains evidence of a secret Ministry of Defence ploy to save a group of plane passengers from a terrorist attack. Mycroft wants to replace the passengers with stolen corpses so that the terrorists don't realize that Military Intelligence has cracked their codes.
"The Hounds of Baskerville": The "monster dog" that killed Henry's father was really Dr. Frankland, seen through the eyes of a hallucinating Henry. Frankland and Henry's father previously developed a hallucinogenic chemical agent while working together on a CIA project called "H.O.U.N.D."; the chemical caused Henry to see Frankland as a monstrous dog because he was wearing a sweatshirt with "H.O.U.N.D." written on it.
"The Reichenbach Fall": Moriarty has been living a double life as a television actor named "Richard Brook". His ultimate plan is to discredit Sherlock by convincing the world that he staged the two's rivalry as part of a publicity stunt.
"The Empty Hearse": Lord Moran arranged his "disappearance" by detaching a subway car in the London Underground and using it to hide his explosives. Also, Sherlock faked his death by falling on a hidden inflatable mattress, temporarily stopping his pulse with a squash ball, and paying members of his homeless network to pose as paramedics.
"The Sign of Three": The Mayfly Man was plotting to kill Major Sholto all along, and he infiltrated John's wedding by posing as the wedding photographer. He kills his victims by stabbing them with a blade so fine that they don't feel it, and positioning the stab wound so that the victim's belt puts enough pressure on the wound to hold it closed — allowing him to escape before his victims realize that they've been killed.
"His Last Vow": There's no vault in Appledore. Magnussen stores his blackmail information in his mind, because he's able to use the same "mind palace" technique that Sherlock uses. Mary is actually a former assassin. Moriarty is possiblyNot Quite Dead.
"The Abominable Bride": With the case itself, Emilia Ricoletti faked her suicide long enough to kill her husband before killing herself for real. She and her friends were members of a women's rights group that were murdering the men who abused them. More broadly, the episode is not actually an AU-version of the normal show, but is connected to the main plot; it's Sherlock's drug-overdose-induced hallucination to try to solve and cope with the reappearance of Moriarty. Sherlock also concludes that Moriarty really is dead, and his "reappearance" is someone else impersonating him.
"The Six Thatchers": "AGRA" is not actually Mary's real initials, but the initials of the first names of the four members of the assassination/black ops group that she was a part of. "AMMO", the mystery person on the phone who sold them out, is not actually Lady Smallwood, but her secretary, Vivian Norbury.
"The Lying Detective": Philanthropist and public icon Culverton Smith really is the serial killer Sherlock accused him of being. The woman who visited Sherlock at his flat claiming to be Culverton's daughter Faith really was there (and not a drug hallucination as Sherlock feared), and she, John's new therapist, and the woman John flirted with on the bus in the previous episode are all the same person: Sherlock's and Mycroft's sister Eurus Holmes.
"The Final Problem": Redbeard was not actually Sherlock's dog. It was his (human) best friend that he used to play pirates with (and the boy's pirate name was "Redbeard"), and Eurus killed him out of jealousy because she wanted to play too.
Stargate SG-1: In "Prometheus Unbound", Daniel is the only person left aboard the Prometheus with one of Anubis' Super Soldiers. After Daniel is captured and tied to a chair, the Super Soldier hits on Daniel, who is understandably disturbed. Then the Super Soldier removes its helmet to reveal Vala Mal Doran.
Kirsten's roommate Camille is secretly a member of the Stitchers program.
By Season 4, Supernatural seems to be doing an average of one an episode. From off the top of my head, we've had the Reveals that: Dean was rescued from Hell by an angel! Big Bad Lilith plans to raise Lucifer! Dean tortured souls in Hell! By torturing souls, Dean allowed the first seal to be broken, making Lilith's plan possible! Sam can now kill demons with his mind! There are some angels working to help release Lucifer! There are plenty more. To give you some idea, the last 3 reveals were in just one episode.
The Trickster is the archangel Gabriel who, when it comes down to it, is just a bitter, jaded kid who didn't want to see him family fight.
Lilith was not working to break the final seal, she WAS the final seal, and Ruby was manipulating Sam to get him to kill her. "The first demon shall be the final seal."
The colt doesn't work on Lucifer.
Season 6: Sam is soulless! The Campbells are working for Crowley! And up to eleven in the last 4 episodes of that season: Crowley isn't dead! Castiel is working with Crowley to open Purgatory! Cas raised Sam from the pit! Cas is the Big Bad!
Some pretty huge ones in Season 11: The Darkness is GOD'S SISTER! God HAS a sister! and of course, what many fans just suspected was finally confirmed and revealed to Sam and Dean. That scruffy, poor, nerdy little writer scared of his own shadow from Season 4 and five? Yeah, he's actually God Himself.
Strange Empire: Morgan Finn is physically female, and a transman (not that the concept was current in the era).
René Lenier is actually Drew Marshall, a man who killed his fangbanger sister and then fled his hometown, and was the perpetrator of all the murders during Season 1.
Maryann is a Physical God hellbent on sacrifice. Tara accidentally summoned her in Season 1.
Bill was working for Sophie-Anne, having been specifically sent to procure Sookie. He then constructed a gambit in which two psycho's beat Sookie within an inch of her life so he could feed her his blood and build a connection with her.
Russell Edgington murdered Eric's family.
It was Marnie who was controlling Antonia, not the other way around.
The Umbrella Academy (2019): There are a number of reveals throughout the series, but some of the most plot-relevant ones include:
Leonard has been manipulating Vanya and is, in fact, the owner of the glass eye.
Vanya not only has powers but is the cause of the apocalypse.
Vida: Doña Lupe revealing that Vida sent Emma away, not because she had a problem with her daughter's sexuality, but to protect her from her father, who flew into a rage when he discovered young Emma kissing a girl.
Watchmen (2019): It turns out Will Reeves was Hooded Justice.
