Television needs to shock audiences, there's no denying that. If a TV show wants to create memorable moments and keep audiences hooked, it has to drop bombshells, which requires careful control of information. The audience can't know everything in advance or nothing will shock them. However, there's a difference between a twist and a lie.

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Some shows go further than just misdirecting their audience by telling outright falsehoods. Sometimes, they rely on characters to lie, but other times, the creator lies to fans. Even if a lie isn't stated, it can be heavily implied without the audience being given a reason to think otherwise.

Updated on January 6, 2023, by Isaac Williams: Most TV shows can pull off twists without lying to their audience. However, some choose to bend, warp, or actively deny the truth. This can be for better or for worse. This list has been updated with even more TV shows that go beyond misleading the audience to the point of actual lies.

15 Seymour Skinner Is Armin Tamzarian

The Simpsons

Seymour Skinner standing next to Armin Tamzarian in The Simpsons

Seymour Skinner is a long-running and central character in The Simpsons. He's the principal of Springfield Elementary, often an episode's antagonist, and rarely gets to lead a storyline himself. He's also at the center of The Simpsons' most infamous episode.

In "The Principal and the Pauper," The Simpsons reveals that he isn't actually Skinner. He's actually Armin Tamzarian, a soldier who stole Skinner's identity. This comes out of nowhere and proves that several episodes about Skinner's life were a lie. The episode is notorious for invalidating several years of the character, so most fans prefer to ignore its existence.

14 Jaime Lannister Doesn't Care About The People

Game Of Thrones

Jaime Lannister tells Brienne about Aerys II in Game of Thrones

Jaime Lannister spends much of Game of Thrones as a villain. However, seasons three through eight show him undergoing one of the series' lengthiest redemption arcs. At its core is a central revelation: Jaime didn't kill Aerys Targaryen to help the Lannisters, he did it to stop Aerys burning down all of King's Landing.

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This act of genuine heroism is central to Jaime's character, as is his bitterness over his poor reputation because of it. This act spurs Jaime's attempts to become a better person in Game of Thrones. Then, in Season 8, Jaime abandons his redemption and goes back to Cersei. He tells Tyrion that he never cared about the people. Game of Thrones reveals several years of development to be a lie.

13 Sheldon Cooper's Father Is Nothing Like His Reputation

The Big Bang Theory

Sheldon Cooper's father George Cooper in Young Sheldon show

Sheldon Cooper's father is long dead by the time of The Big Bang Theory. However, Sheldon and members of the Cooper family often talk about him in a pretty callous way. They refer to his drinking, sexism, stupidity, neglect, and frequent adultery.

This isn't shown to be untrue in The Big Bang Theory. Instead, Young Sheldon presents a completely different picture of George Cooper Sr. Instead of The Big Bang Theory's oaf, he's turned into a slightly hapless but well-meaning father. He goes out of his way for his children, fights their corner, and is a loving family man.

12 Eleanor Shellstrop Isn't In The Good Place

The Good Place

Eleanor Shellstrop realizes she's in the Bad Place in The Good Place

Outright lying can be a controversial writing choice. However, it can pay off. The entire first season of The Good Place focuses on Eleanor Shellstrop, who has ended up in the wrong afterlife. She's a terrible person, but an accident sees her arrive in the heavenly Good Place.

Several characters identify the show's setting as the Good Place. The series' advertising plays up the wrong afterlife aspect of its storylines, so the focus is on helping Eleanor earn her spot in the Good Place. However, the Season 1 finale reveals that it's all a lie. Eleanor and the other characters are all in the Bad Place. This is an incredibly effective twist, even with the large amounts of lying.

11 Chandler Bing And Rachel Green Meet Many Times

Friends

Rachel Green sitting with Chandler Bing in Friends

The first scene of Friends has some very impactful introductions. Rachel Green arrives in Central Perk after jilting her fiancé and meets the people who will become integral to her life. In particular, she's introduced to Chandler Bing, seemingly for the first time. Friends gives no indication that they've met before.

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However, several flashback episodes reveal this to be a lie. Chandler and Rachel end up meeting for the "first time" several times throughout their lives. Their interactions before Friends' pilot include kissing, an emergency hospital visit, and nearly being intimate. These flashback episodes introduce clumsy retcons. Because of these retcons, the pilot episode's introduction is a total lie.

10 Very Little Of "Playtest" Happens

Black Mirror

Cooper testing an augmented reality game in Black Mirror playtest episode

Black Mirror is known for its shocking twists. The anthology show has many storylines that end in a revelation, which forces the audience to re-evaluate the entire episode. One episode, however, undoes its events and reveals them all to be a lie. The Black Mirror episode "Playtest" follows traveler Cooper as he tests an augmented reality video game.

A simple test turns into nightmarish horror. The episode layers fake-out on fake-out. It has several dark endings that are revealed to be deeper layers of augmented reality. At the end, "Playtest" reveals that Cooper died before he tested anything. The entire episode is in his head and none of its nightmarish events happened.

9 Bobby Ewing's Shower Undoes An Entire Season

Dallas

Bobby Ewing alive and in the shower in Dallas

Dallas is no stranger to mystery and shock twists. However, most of these are well-foreshadowed, well-written, and don't lie to the audience. The same can't be said for the ninth season's infamous final moments. A whole season after his death, Bobby Ewing steps out of the shower, alive once more.

Dallas retcons an entire season to be nothing more than a dream. All of Season 9, with its many moving storylines and changes in the status quo, is explained to have happened inside Pam's head. Bobby Ewing's shower twist is one of the most infamous in history, as it writes off an entire season of television in a half-hearted retcon.

8 Ted Mosby's Story Isn't About The Mother

How I Met Your Mother

The Mother's death in the How I Met Your Mother finale

How I Met Your Mother's central premise is in its name: Ted Mosby tells his children about how he met their mother. Several long-running storylines are simply used as build-up to the fateful meeting. The show even suggests that Barney and Robin's wedding is so important because it's where Ted meets the mother.

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In its finale, How I Met Your Mother reveals that it's all for naught. The Mother is hardly relevant, as she dies in the finale, several years before Ted tells the story. Instead, the show's focus is on how Ted met and fell in love with Robin. After years of lying about the Mother's importance, fans were bitter to see her be treated as a secondary concern.

7 Gallifrey Isn't Destroyed

Doctor Who

The Doctors plan to save Gallifrey in Doctor Who

A major part of Doctor Who's revival is that the Doctor is the last Time Lord. He destroys Gallifrey to end the Last Great Time War and is almost the only Time Lord to survive the destruction. The Doctor's loneliness is a major theme of Doctor Who, as is his guilt over total genocide.

"The Day of the Doctor" completely undoes this. It retells the last moments of Gallifrey and reveals that the planet was never destroyed. Instead, the episode shows several versions of the Doctor sealing it in another dimension. This twist makes several seasons of Doctor Who, and several major episodes, downright false. It's also inconsequential, as Gallifrey gets destroyed again soon after.

6 William's Story Happens Many Years Before Everything Else

Westworld

William becomes the Man in Black in Westworld

Westworld's first season follows several diverse storylines helmed by the Man in Black, Bernard, William, and Dolores. The audience isn't given any major reason to believe that these storylines aren't happening at the same time, as Westworld cuts back and forth between them without any indicators of time.

The first season's major twist is that William's story takes place well before anyone else's. William and the Man in Black are the same person, the latter simply hardened by 20 years of murder in the park. There are hints throughout the episodes and plenty of foreshadowing, but Westworld goes out of its way to lie to audiences to make the reveal more impactful.

5 Tara Is Only Made A Main Character So She Can Die

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Tara Maclay death's by stray bullet in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is notorious for its character deaths. However, it deliberately builds up the audience's hopes to make one death hit harder. Tara Maclay is a significant presence throughout several seasons, but she's never a main character.

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In the season six episode "Seeing Red," Tara finally rejoins the main characters after several episodes. Her actor, Amber Benson, also gets a spot in the opening credits. Audiences are led to believe that she's become a main character and has a big role in the future, but this was all a lie. Tara dies in the same episode, meaning her importance was lied about to make her demise hit harder.

4 The End Of Rick Grimes Isn't Much Of An End

The Walking Dead

Rick Grimes on the bridge in his final episode in The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead kills off plenty of characters, but some seem untouchable. For a long time, Rick Grimes was one of them. He was the show's protagonist for most of its run and the leader of the survivors. The ninth season's first half focuses on Rick entering increasingly dire straits. These episodes were promoted specifically as the 'end of Rick Grimes'.

The Walking Dead and its showrunners try to make the audience think Rick is going to die. In particular, the real-world media buzz touted it as the likely possibility. In The Walking Dead, Rick's end isn't particularly final. He survives, despite his horrific injuries, and is escorted away by a helicopter. He's due to get a new miniseries in 2023.

3 Moriarty Doesn't Return In The Final Episode

Sherlock

James Moriarty sitting in his office in Sherlock

Jim Moriarty is Sherlock's most impressive villain. However, he dies in the episode "The Reichenbach Fall" after his plan seemingly works perfectly. From the third season, Sherlock hints that Moriarty might have survived. This seems to be confirmed in "The Final Problem." In that episode, an entire sequence shows Moriarty arriving on Eurus' island to talk.

The episode deliberately delays revealing the timeframe. In actuality, the scene takes place five years before the rest of the episode. However, Sherlock doesn't reveal this until Moriarty starts talking to Mycroft. It lets the audience have hope that Moriarty has returned to taunt the titular detective, only to dash it shortly afterward.

2 Aang's Blocked Chakra Isn't A Problem

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Sozin's Comet in Avatar: The Last Airbender

"Sozin's Comet," the final storyline of Avatar: The Last Airbender, deals with several running issues. Two involve Aang's fight with Firelord Ozai. Aang struggles with the idea of taking a life, robbing him of the will to fight. More pressingly, he's unable to use the Avatar State after his maiming at Azula's hands.

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Aang has a blocked chakra that prevents him from using his full power. The Last Airbender suggests that this isn't easy to solve. In the fight itself, Aang accidentally unblocks his chakra when Ozai throws him against a rock. The blocked chakra goes from a major stumbling block to something that is easily done away with.

1 Kate Wallis Is Right All Along

Cruel Summer

Jeanette Turner hears Kate Wallis call for help in Cruel Summer ending

Cruel Summer hangs on one question: whether Kate Wallis is right that Jeanette Turner left her imprisoned in a basement. The show leaves the circumstances deliberately vague, building up to these events in three different timelines. Cruel Summer gives plenty of evidence for either side, but sometimes, these storylines lie to the audience.

Jeanette is a central, sympathetic character. The audience is made to believe her, and the final episode even confirms her innocence. Jeanette isn't the one who sees Kate in the kidnapper's house, but instead, it was Mallory. However, the very final scene flips this on its head. Jeanette does break into the house, hears Kate calling for help, and leaves Kate to her fate.

NEXT: 10 Most Tragic Plot Twists In TV Shows