Spoilers ahoy! If you don’t box yours, please at least name the book/show/movie/play you’re spoiling near the top of your post and leave some blank lines in the midst. That’s what Aslan would do if he were about to spoil one of the best Angel episodes, which I’m about to.
Not long ago, while getting ready for work, I was watching an Angel rerun on TNT. It was the third-season epsiode after Angel’s infant son Connor is kidnapped by his friend and partner, Wesley, and given to Angel’s arch-enemy, who then takes the baby off into another universe, presumably to be eaten by rabid mongooses. Wesley commits this betrayal out of love, not perfidy; he’s trying to avert a prophecy that Angel will murder his own child, presumably fearing this means that Angel’s evil alter-ego, Angelus, is about to return.
At the end of the episode, Angel visits Wesley in his hospital bed (oh, just watch the episode) and tells Wesley that he understands why Wes did what he did ad that that he hasn’t changed back into Angelus; it’s very important that Wesley understand that this is his friend and partner talking, not the soulless villain.
When Wesley nods, Angel immediately scowls, grabs a feathered smothering implement, and initiates to the attempted murder part of the evening’s entertainment, screaming. “You think I forgive you? Never! You took my son! You son of a bitch, you bastard–”
–and so on till he’s pulled off.
Now this was fairly effective dramatic set piece. But I have to wonder: who could possibly have been surprised by the final twist? The list of men who wouldn’t react to such a betrayal in this way consists of Jesus, Buddha, and the sage Mahavira, and I’m not sure about Jesus. Superman would be roasting Jimmy Olsen inch by inch in the same circumstance; it’s utterly unreasonable to think that an ensouled vampire would be willing to forgive.
Which brings us to the thread question: what supposed plot twists stick out your mind as being entirely predictable because they were so completely inevitable? Andy, by contrast, what plot twists have been overlooked even though there seems no belivable way to avoid them?