Every Inside No. 9 Twist Ranked

37. The Understudy - Kirstie Engineered Jim's Rise To Fame

Plot: In a loose retelling of Macbeth, an understudy (Shearsmith) is encouraged by his fiancee (Lyndsey Marshal) to get the main role in a production of Macbeth.

The Understudy is one of Inside No. 9's worst episodes and this twist plays a big part in that. The reveal that backstage worker Kirstie (Rosie Cavaliero) engineered understudy Jim's rise to fame - by doing things like causing the original actor to have a horrible accident and getting the company director fired - is uncharacteristically awful for this show.

Since Kirstie is such a minor character who barely appeared during the episode and didn't even interact with Jim much, this reveal feels totally unearned. The ending, like many of the worst plot twists out there, also negates what we've previously seen.

The episode hinted at Laura being the story's Lady Macbeth and at supernatural happenings, but both these plot-lines went nowhere. As well as this, the ending implies Kirstie is a crazed fangirl for Jim, but this was never hinted at during the rest of the episode.

Laura also kills herself at the end of the story but it isn't explained why she did this, so this was just a thoroughly poor ending all around. This deeply illogical and un-earned twist is easily the show's worst and it's not even close.