10 Best TV Show Twists You Never Saw Coming
8. Ned Stark Gets Beheaded - Game Of Thrones
The first of Game of Thrones' many big twists gets an asterisk next to it because, of course, book readers knew precisely what was coming.
But given that Thrones was hardly the phenomenon in 2011 that it is today, general audiences were a lot less likely to foresee the fate awaiting Ned Stark (Sean Bean).
Marketing for the show's first season generally focused on Ned as its protagonist, so for him to be beheaded at the order of King Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson) in the show's ninth episode was practically unthinkable.
Director Alan Taylor does a fantastic job toying with the audience, too, making them believe that Ned will get a last-minute reprieve, only for a remorseless Joffrey to go ahead with the savage execution anyway.
In terms of pure shock value you can argue that the Red Wedding outdid it, but Ned's death was the moment that confirmed to viewers this wasn't just another fantasy show, and that nobody was safe.