Every Inside No. 9 Twist Ranked
13. Tom & Gerri - Gerri Is Dead And Migg Is Real
Plot: An unwell teacher named Tom (Shearsmith) allows a homeless man (Pemberton) to move into his flat, but the man soon takes over his life in a sinister manner. His girlfriend, Gerri (Gemma Arterton), tries to help him.
This is a particularly clever twist. At first, you'll think you've worked it out: Migg isn't real and when Gerri says as much, you'll congratulate yourself for working it out.
But then, Tom's friend and colleague Stevie (Game of Thrones Conleth Hill) tells Tom that Gerri died in a car accident some time before and he'd been hallucinating... and then he finds the corpse of Migg in the bath. Migg was real and Tom, thinking he was a hallucination, has killed him.
Not only is this a wickedly smart subversion of what we thought we knew, but on a second viewing it seems blatantly obvious that Gerri is a hallucination and you'll be wondering how the hell you missed it. That's always the sign of a great plot twist.
Additionally, the shocking twist enhances the emotional reveal of Gerri's death, so this is a twist that really lifts the whole episode up.
The episode's Migg story-line never felt very logical so the reveal that this was all real was somewhat jarring, but the twist itself is excellent, and the best from season one.