fannnish5: Most surprising moments in any canon

[selenak]

Which shall be spoiler-cut, as not everyone on my list is familiar with the fandoms in question, but just might become in the future. Of course, this list is highly subjective and among other things illustrates why it's great to remain unspoiled, because there might be some more moments here if I hadn't been spoiled for them. Also, I chose to define "surprising" in the positive sense, not "oh, show, how low have you fallen, and that makes no sense whatsoever".



No question about it, the triple whammy of War Without End - Future!Londo is controlled by a ghastly creature named a Keeper! Londo and G'Kar are friends at this point and don't kill each other out of hate but because Londo asks G'Kar in order to ensure his keeper doesn't prevent Sheridan and Delenn escaping! Sinclair is Valen! My jaw, it never quite recovered from dropping. And I really pity anyone missing out of the chance to watch this unspoiled. Also, it amuses me that depending on priorities I've seen reactions to this episode going "OMG LONDO!!! - wait, wasn't there also something about some Valen guy?" (andrastewhite) and "OMG Sinclair! Wait, wasn't there also something about Londo?" (nolivingman) As for me, Centauriphile or no, the Sinclair revelation did have almost equal impact - but I must admit the Londo ones did have priority. I constantly switched from fretting about the keeper to being amazed and delighted at the "my old friend" prospect.




Just because I've broken up with the show doesn't mean I don't remember what it felt like when I became captured to begin with. Which happened at the end of the pilot. Until then, I thought it was nice, but nothing special, and I felt a bit impatient for it to finish because it was obvious that Peter would jump, fly and finish that very typical origin story of the Marvel-type hero who starts out ridiculed and then discovers his superpower. Why, thought it, do they drag it out? And then Peter finally jumped. And didn't fly. And Nathan did. And I sat there, glued. An ambitious politician type with superpowers? Now THAT I hadn't been prepared for. At all. Off I went, immediately aquiring the next episode. Despite my break-up grief, I maintain that this final moment, and the way it foreshadowed the season finale, was incredibly well done.




I was unfortunately spoiled for the big Irina Derevko reveal at the end of season 1/ start of season 2, and am reasonably sure I might have guessed anyway because there was no way Sydney's mother and her backstory would have been brought up so often and so prominently in season 1 otherwise. And I was spoiled for the big two years jump at the end of s2. However, I was completely unspoiled for Emily surviving beyond the s1 finale, and so the final ten minutes of The Getaway, in which we find out Arvin Sloane fooled both the Alliance and the CIA, set up Ariana Kane, conned a fortune out of the Alliance and saved his wife to boot remain my favourite Alias surprise twist. Like the best surprise moments, it made complete sense when one looked back to all previous episodes.



The tag scene of the first season finale, To Shanshu in L.A., revealing that the creature Wolfram and Hart went to so much trouble to bring back was actually Angel's dusted sire, Darla. In retrospect, there were signs - to wit, the flashbacks featuring Darla during two previous episodes, reminding the viewers who she was - but at the time, I had no idea, had had no guess as to the content of the box and couldn't wait for the second season once Darla was revealed. Alas I was spoiled for most other twists until season 5, which was when I managed to kick the spoiler habit, including scenes like Angel locking the lawyers with Darla and Dru and firing his friends, otherwise these might have made the cut. But Darla was a complete surprise and still my favourite example of how to bring back a dead character and improving the story by this to no end.



Utopia - "I am the Master." Am I ever glad to have remained unspoiled for that one. I mean, I knew he would be back, because the Independent had mentioned it in a John Simm profile, though there were hasty denials by Team Cardiff later, but I did NOT know John Simm wouldn't be the first actor to play the Master on New Who. All I knew about Derek Jacobi's character in advance was that he'd be a kindly old professor. (Though wee_warrior guessed; she's good at that.) I had an inkling something was up with Yana through the episode, and thought he might be a future version of the Doctor or a descendent of Timothy Latimer at various points, but the entire sequence from the moment he starts to get audio flashbacks to previous Master incarnations and Martha discovers his fobwatch till the end of the episode is just breathtaking, with Derek Jacobi's ability to transform himself from Yana to the Master just via the expression in his eyes remains one of the best pieces of acting on this show. The crowning brilliance of this episode is that revealing the Master as a cliffhanger from another identity is of course a tried and true Old Who gimmick, done dozens of times, which makes this particular revelation both traditional and entirely fresh. I adore it.

Comments

[hibernate.livejournal.com]

I was unspoiled for Utopia too, but I have to say I wasn't all that surprised by the reveal. I still think it's one of the best moments of new!Who (like you say, the whole sequence is just beautifully executed), but in my opinion they left a few too many clues. I love the show, but they are not always very good at being subtle. :)

I completely agree about To Shanshu in L.A, though, it was one of those literally chin-dropping moments for me.

[12-12-12.livejournal.com]

*shields eyes from Alias section*

I might have to do this meme: it's great fun! The moments you mention for Angel and Heroes aren't on my list, because I was spoiled for the Heroes scene (just about the only thing I was spoiled for when I watched the show), and I wasn't seriously fannish about the Jossverse when I watched To Shanshu in L.A. They were undoubtedly great moments, though.

I *love* being unspoiled, because I'm no good at seeing plot twists coming and am therefore wonderfully surprised almost every time. It's hard to stay away, though. I think Lost is the only show where I have no problem with it.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Keep shielding your eyes re: Alias, there are some great twists in that show, and I wish I had been able to remain unspoiled for all of them (but only managed some).

Are you waiting with Lost or are you watching right now, btw?

[12-12-12.livejournal.com]

I tried to wait, but caved and watched the first two eps last night. *g* The show is definitely more fun when you don't have to wait for the next episode, so if I can manage to restrain myself, I think I'll wait to watch the rest of the season until it's complete.

[elisi]

Very much agree with the AtS, DW & Heroes moments!

To add a couple of my own - for BtVS it was Spike getting his soul. I didn't even know that fandom *existed* in those days, so was totally unspoiled. Can still remember being utterly gobsmacked and stunned, and that single moment was what kicked off my obsession. (I'd watched the show religiously until then, but suddenly I cared on a whole new level.)

And Torchwood managed to surprise me with the stopwatch scene - not that I didn't see the potential for Jack/Ianto, it was more that they *actually* went there. And how. Did they just say what I thought they said? Still one of my favourite scenes ever. (The whole episode is brilliant though - rewatched it the other week, and I think it's definitely the highlight of S1!)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Alas, I was spoiled for the soul. (Didn't quit Buffy and Angel spoilers until s7 for BTVS and s5 for Angel, so the only Buffy twists I was unspoiled for were very early - Faith showing up at the Mayor's doorstep, stuff like this.)

TW: that episode was They keep killing Suzie, wasn't it? It was a good episode - I loved Indira Varma in it - , though my prize for best s1 episode would go to Out of Time. The stopwatch scene actually bothered me at the time and I only now have reconciled myself to it. Back then, I just couldn't understand how we got from the end of Cyberwoman to this, and it in a way epitomized why I felt unable to muster any enthusiasm for Jack/Ianto - I thought it was an underwritten and unbelievable relationship. However, the Fragments flashback changed my mind because now it looks to me, to slightly paraphrase someone else's summary, as if Jack and Ianto were in a sexual relationship pretty much from the get go, Jack realised he had been screwed in more ways than one in Cyberwoman, and Ianto signalled that service as usual was ready to resume by the stopwatch scene. Which all makes sense, and doesn't ask me to believe the big relationship jump happened between Cyberwoman and They keep killing Suzie.

[elisi]

TW: that episode was They keep killing Suzie, wasn't it?
Yes. Very twisted and actually wellwritten. And 'Out of Time' is excellent too! *makes note to re-watch asap*

The stopwatch scene actually bothered me at the time and I only now have reconciled myself to it. Back then, I just couldn't understand how we got from the end of Cyberwoman to this, and it in a way epitomized why I felt unable to muster any enthusiasm for Jack/Ianto - I thought it was an underwritten and unbelievable relationship.
You know, it's a funny thing. I loved Ianto from the get-go (the whole butler thing was brilliant, I thought), but then Cyberwoman went and trampled all over his characterisation (as far as I could tell) and I got very grumpy. But - here's what I wrote about him in 'Countrycide' (unspoiled!):

Ianto. Why is he there? I mean he appears to hate everything, so why hasn’t he left? I’m sincerely hoping they’re going to give him some sort of reason for hanging around - because currently he’s just annoying me. He’s obviously ‘the outsider’, doing a bit of ‘telling, not showing’ when the need arises. Please, please let him have a crush on Jack...

So the stopwatch scene was like a dream come true - and not just that, but it was *subtle* too. But I agree with you re. Fragments - it makes the whole thing *far* more believable, and their interactions in Cyberwoman work so much better if they're already in a relationship. (The Captain's Blog does of course also a great job of filling in the background.)

ETA: From my original post on 'They Keep Killing': Although of course I *loved* the ending! I'd never thought a stopwatch could be used for innuendo, but there you go. Very effective. Of course it makes no sense continuity wise, what with Ianto's evil robo girlfriend of only 4 episodes ago, and the whole "You're the biggest monster down here!", but if we choose to dismiss that sorry mess as some sort of dream I think it could work rather nicely! :)

[greenpear.livejournal.com]

You must have been extremely good at avoiding spoilers. The whole Derek Jacobi/John Simm thing seems to have been everywhere.

And it is better to be surprised when things like that happen. I like to pick and shoose what spoilers I might be exposed to.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I guess I was lucky. Aside from the Independent profile that mentioned John Simm was cast as the Master (not Harry Saxon, which was what the BBC officially said), I hadn't read anything spoilery. I did read endless speculation as to how the Master would have survived the Time War, but none of said speculation came up with "he got fobwatched into Derek Jacobi!"

[greenpear.livejournal.com]

I've taken my fandom in another direction by using software from work to map out the entirety of the Whoverse. Nothing like taking a government sponsered program and using it to map out one of sci-fi's most interesting connective network. :P

I'd like to invite you to check it out at dwnetwork

[wondygal.livejournal.com]

Dear lord, I remember all the flailing and jumping up and down and smiling obnoxiously and mysteriously at everyone after The Getaway, because I was so thrilled my show was just so excellent. Up until the end of s3, I watched Alias as it aired on Brazilian tv, and even though that was many months after it aired on the U.S., I was never spoiled. That type of reaction happened often on Monday nights, really. I miss Alias! I could make a Top 5 like this just from that show.

I wasn't spoiled for the Master, seeing as how I started watching the show at exactly that point, so I didn't know who he was - but I still got chills, and loved the hell out of Utopia. I miss this show too.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I was on a hyper high when watching The Getaway for the first time, no kidding. Also in possession of the entire second season on dvd, so, you know, naturally watched the next episode post haste. And yes, one could make a list of Five Best Alias Surprises alone.

[meganinhiding.livejournal.com]

I'm rarely surprised since I seek out spoilers. One memorable exception was season 3 BtVS when Faith went to the Mayor and said he had a job opening. Another one was Walt being kidnapped on Lost.

[nolivingman.livejournal.com]

Looking back, I think I always suspected that there would be more to the Londo and G'Kar story than that simple choking flashforward was telling us. Like, if JMS was spoiling that so early on in the show, there had to be a reason, had to be more to come. I think that's why the end of their lives didn't surprise me. The Keeper revelation was creepy and scary and very surprising, and on my rewatch of the series it was like a punch in the gut. The Sinclair thing is the showy moment.

I was unspoiled for Alias, aside from one death in the finale. That was an excellent thing; it always made me happy with its surprises.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I think I always suspected that there would be more to the Londo and G'Kar story than that simple choking flashforward was telling us. Like, if JMS was spoiling that so early on in the show, there had to be a reason, had to be more to come.

I thought there had to be more to it, too, for that reason, but my guess was that either Londo's vision was symbolic rather than factual, or (as we didn't know yet how this show handled prophecies and time travel and timelines) it was a warning for a future event which could be prevented.

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Like the best surprise moments, it made complete sense when one looked back to all previous episodes.


I may be able at guessing other plot twists, but I confess that I still don't understand exactly how Arvin did it, and I watched this three times. I'm usually handwaving it as "Arvin Sloane is smarter than all of us." As it were.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

How Arvin did it:

1) S1 finale: He told Emily the truth. (Yes, I know this was originally just supposed to be a confession, but due to the filmic choice of not let us listen into the conversation, the show was later at liberty to enlargen its content.) While he was at it, he also must have told her the plan and gotten her to agree to same. Given how much she loved him, I can believe that, especially if he vowed this was his way of getting out of the business once and for all, too.

2) Between s1 finale and s2 first two episodes: he faked Emily's death. Given the prominent use of wine in the finale and Hourglass two seasons later - where Jack pulls a certain stunt and mentions he did give Arvin a hint, because apparantly the two had done something similar on a mission back in the day, I think it's reasonable to assume he could get his hand on one of these superspy death faking drugs which fool Alliance doctors. (Hey, if they fooled the CIA execution guys...) He also must have contacted the tech guy we later see in Getaway, and told him to get busy working on something that would allow him to disrupt the listening device the Alliance was about to insert him a few months hence.

3) He then got made partner and got that surveillance device inserted. Only then, and not before, did the pseudo Gaslight stuff start, first at his house, then via mail. Why the pull the Gaslight stunt at all? Presumably in case anyone in the Alliance got the idea of checking Emily's coffin at some point.

4) Arvin plays the guilty widower while Emily sends messages and ultimately a piece of her finger. (Emily is hardcore. Essay on Sloanes and their ability to sacrifice limbs if necessary yet to be written.) He also requests Ariana Kane when the Alliance wants an investigation about why SD-6 is doing so badly lately. Ariana Kane whom he knows used to be an item with the late Jacques and thus has a personal and plausible reason to have it in for him.

5) Money, supposedly ransom for Emily, is handed over, which as we see in The Getaway ended up with the tech guy. (Not the poor sod kept it for long.) Fingers are sent, Ariana hones in on Jack, Arvin plays along out loud while sending Jack emails, Jack figures out the Ariana-Jacques connection in time (and with Irina's help), Arvin dramatically rescues Jack from Irina and can report Ariana as the traitor who kidnapped and killed Emily and got the money in order to revenge herself on him. The money, of course, is nowhere to be found and Ariana denies it, but at this point, who believes her?

6) Arvin makes his getaway, meeting the tech guy who has written that he has the surveillance disrupter ready, collects his money, shoots the poor bastard and reunites with Emily who presumably after that finger operation left post haste for the Philippines. Presto!

[neutralalienist.livejournal.com]

Angel - I ended up spoiled for a lot just because I started watching late, but that I had no idea about at the time, and it was a treat. Especially since the Darla/Angelus of the flash backs really caught my attention.

Doctor Who - I totally knew and I was still on the edge of my seat, I think because Jacobi is Just That Awesome. I wish we could have kept him longer. (I love Simm, generally, but I have...issues with his Master. Which might have got foisted onto Jacobi's anyway, so.)