Every Inside No. 9 Twist Ranked

21. A Quiet Night In - Paul Is Actually A Hitman Also Trying To Steal The Artwork

Inside No 9
BBC

Plot: Two robbers (Pemberton and Shearsmith) try to steal an artwork from a mansion. This episode is almost entirely free of dialogue.

Towards the end of this outstanding episode, a deaf-and-dumb salesman named Paul (Kayvan Novak) shows up to sell products to the mansion's owner and soon bears witness to the chaos that unfolds inside the house.

Eventually, the house-owner (Denis Lawson) gets hit on the head by a suitcase and the two robbers stare at their handiwork... before both are graphically shot in the head.

Their corpses fall down to reveal Paul with a gun; he then talks on the phone to someone and reveals he wasn't deaf-and-dumb at all. He's also stealing the artwork... but he picks up the fake one the robbers had created instead.

This isn't a twist that really connects much to the rest of what happened in this episode, but it is very startling and all of these deaths, as well as the fact that after all of that Paul picked up the wrong thing, end the story on a deliciously savage note.

This sets up a common trend throughout Inside No. 9: brutal yet darkly hilarious endings in which misunderstandings cause characters to die for nothing.

Contributor

Film Studies graduate, aspiring screenwriter and all-around nerd who, despite being a pretentious cinephile who loves art-house movies, also loves modern blockbusters and would rather watch superhero movies than classic Hollywood films. Once met Tommy Wiseau.