3. There's Always a Twist
Joss Whedon is almost never straight with you. In Buffy, we see the pretty blonde girl who almost always dies first in movies kick the monster's ass without a second thought and without any outside help. In Angel, a vampire goes from being a scourge of mankind to its protector. Let's face it, there's always a twist down the line and that's what makes his work always interesting and always a little bit of a jaw-dropper. Tara's death in Buffy S6 is one of the most famous - just as we were happy with she and Willow's renewed relationship, it's torn away cruelly, breaking our hearts. A planned twist for the final ever Buffy episode which would have seen Buffy granted a wish and bringing Tara back for Willow would have been both a suckerpunch to the gut and a deliriously joyous ending to the series. My favourite example though is with Dollhouse's Mellie - introduced as a sweet neighbour to FBI agent Ballard, Mellie's relationship with him looks set to be torn away when Adelle orders a disgraced handler to have Mellie killed to silence her and send a message to Ballard. The handler attacks Mellie - just as Adelle calls Mellie, activating her with a sleeper phrase, simultaneously allowing Mellie to effortlessly kill the handler and revealing Mellie as a sleeper Doll. It's such a brilliant, pseudo-empowering twist that Whedon pulls off with panache and something we always want in his work.