Every Inside No. 9 Twist Ranked
26. Private View - Jean Is Elliot's Mother And The Killer
Plot: At an art exhibition, originally created by a new deceased artist named Elliot (Johnny Flynn), the guests are murdered one by one in an And Then There were None-style scenario.
This is one mixed bag of a twist.
On the one hand, the reveal that Jean is doing it is dropped far too early, so this episode basically messes up its big reveal. As well as this, the very final scene of the episode is incredibly confusing and doesn't work at all.
On the other hand though, Jean is a great villain who's very well-written and brilliantly played by Fiona Shaw (AKA Petunia Dursley), who gives one of the best performances in Inside No. 9 history and makes Aunt Petunia seem positively saint-like.
It turns out that all of the guests received transplants from Eliot after his death from a brain tumour and Jean is killing them all because she feels they squandered her son. This is a very good motivation and it's cleverly built up through many references to organ transplants throughout the episode.
Basically, the reveal is badly done and the very final scene sucks, but Private View did still give us a terrific villain regardless of how poorly she was unveiled.