Summary
TV is a powerful medium for telling stories that change and shift over a long time, and some shows manage tocover up the true villainfor a long time. I won’t lie, it’s a point of personal pride to be able to pick out when people in shows will have an arc that will lead to a darker future. However, there are a few shows that manage to keep their villains a secret thanks to clever writing and exceptional performances from the actors.
Whether the character starts their journey as a hero, a lovable goofball, or even the victim, there are lots of times on TV where these characters follow a typical journey to becoming more confident and well-liked by the audience. On the other hand, some writers take things in a different direction, with a character being wronged and becoming obsessed with revenge to take a villain’s path. But, when a character seems to have a clear trajectory in one direction, and then they have a huge reveal as the actual villain, that can be even more satisfying and surprising when handled right.
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10Billy Butcher
The Boys
From the start ofThe Boys, it was clear that Butcher was never a “good” guy. His methods were unorthodox, his language was foul, and even his best friends kind of hated him. All of that said, it was clear that he was good at his job, and there were few people more capable of handling supes than the man who would do whatever it takes to put them in their place.
However, Butcher’s story saw him transform from being an anti-hero who was wronged by the supes and Vought, to becoming a monster with no redeemable qualities remaining. Butcher has continued to push his humanity down, and become the monster he believed was needed to control the supe problem, but its left him becoming something else entirely. Pushing away Ryan, brutally murdering Neuman, and giving in to his dark side, Butcher is no longer the anti-hero, instead he’s become another monster that needs to be handled.
9Ross Gellar
Friends
Ross first appears inFriendsas a goofy guy with a tragic past. Despite his young age, he has already been divorced, and he struggles to put a sentence together when he sees a pretty face. Ross tries to make connections, and achieve success to make his adoring parents proud, but the truth is, Ross is incredibly selfish and thoughtless.
Over the course of the show, Ross fails to sustain a real committed relationship and constantly pines for Rachel. When they are finally together, he destroys it by cheating while they were “on a break,” and he only ever puts effort into his own problems. He isn’t the friend that people call when they need something, because he’s too busy handling his own life. However, this leads him to break up a beautifulrelationship between Joey and Rachel, where the pair clearly care for one another on a deep level.
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8Daenerys Targaryen
Game of Thrones
From her first appearance inGame of Thrones, Daenerys is shown to be incredibly mentally resilient, but she is physically overpowered by people who treat her more like an object, like her brother, and her husband, Khal Drogo. However, despite the cruel treatment, Daenerys manages to improve her situation due to her intelligence and her careful planning. While she does what she needs to in order to change things, she remains kind, compassionate, and good.
However, later seasons ofGoTsee Daenerys undergo a transformation that makes her unrecognizable from her former self. Her family was once one of the most powerful ruling parties in all of Westeros, but they carried a trait that led to their ultimate downfall. The Targaryen trait for insanity led the family to make questionable choices that ultimately destroyed them, and likewise, it les Daenerys to become a brutal killer and cruel leader.
7Will Graham
Hannibal
Will Graham was a gifted criminal profilerwho could get inside the minds of serial killers due to his perfect empathy. For a long time, Graham aids investigators to capture the most terrible criminals, but it comes at a great cost to his own mental health as he embraces the mindsets of killers. It was clear that Will was not well, but he was also disturbed and disgusted by the horrific violence he investigated.
So, when Will makes the leap from investigator to murderer himself, and begins to follow in the footsteps of the man whom he is convinced is the mastermind murderer, only to become dear friends, it’s pretty shocking. Yes, technically, it was always to be expected, but it still feels like a massive betrayal when he finally crosses the line and becomes a killer himself.
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6Chuck Shurley
Supernatural
Supernaturalreally knew how to play the long game with a show that ultimately had 15 seasons over 15 years. When Chuck first appears in season 4, he’s a weird writer who found a small but dedicated fanbase for hisSupernaturalseries. But somehow, the stories he writes are a perfect account of the adventures of Sam and Dean Winchester. This is explained by revealing that Chuck is a prophet, and with more prophets introduced soon after, it made perfect sense.
However, while the brothers try to track down God himself for many years, they come up empty-handed, and it appears they will never meet the man behind the curtain. Then, thereveal that Chuck was Godall along, and he’s simply grown bored of his creations comes as a huge surprise. But beyond this, when Chuck goes from benevolent, but disinterested creator, to malevolent destroyer, the twist is one of the best payoffs on TV.
5Walter White
Breaking Bad
Walter White has a slow and steady journey from an ill and unfortunate elderly man to a menacing drug overlord. I got into the show slightly behind the curve, so I saw the promotional material that featured a bald Bryan Cranston in a prison uniform looking menacing, but when I started watching and saw a version that looked more like Hal fromMalcolm in the Middle, it was hard to resolve that the man in season 1 was the same as the one appearing on the posters.
Walter White was a feeble man, who struggled to get respect from anywhere, and was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Despite this, he transformed himself to become something new in his last few years that was unrecognizable. But he still felt like a victim of circumstance for the first few seasons, until he began settling into his new life as a crime lord and a cold-blooded killer obsessed with making more and more money.
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4Harrison Wells
The Flash
The early seasons ofThe Flashfeature thegenius Harrison Wellsas a dear friend and mentor for Team Flash. While the team are trying to learn how they can do the most good for their community in Central City. These characters all have individual touching moments with Wells, who helps guide and direct them in their efforts and helps them accomplish a tremendous amount of good.
However, it isn’t long before Wells reveals his true identity, and the fact that he is actually a time traveler named Eobard Thawne. The same man, in fact, who was responsible for killing Barry’s mother, led to the imprisonment of his father, and Barry grew up without his parents. He is also known to the team as the Reverse-Flash, a villain who has been causing havoc for the heroes, but was working right alongside them the entire time.
3Michael
The Good Place
WatchingThe Good Placefor the first time was such a wonderful and fun experience. My wife and I would settle in after putting the kids to bed, and tune in to Netflix to see the adventures of a group of misplaced mediocre bad people who were mistakenly sent to heaven. However, what started out as a simple comedy show with a talented cast turned into something so much in the final episode of season 1, when Eleanor reveals her theory that they are actually in the Bad Place, and Michael drops the act for the first time.
This cliffhanger was an outstanding moment of TV, with anincredible performance from Ted Danson, who was able to physically transform with just the expression on his face. Before this moment, there wasn’t even a slight suspicion that he was anything but a struggling angelic architect who wanted to make The Good Place the best it could be and kept on making mistakes. In fact, the problems that arose seemed more like the fault of the unwelcome guests. Easily one of the best villain reveals in modern TV.
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2Grant Ward
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
From one epic villain reveal to the next,Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.also included an incredible twist late in season 1. Grant Ward is the man who first recruits Skye to S.H.I.E.L.D., and he becomes her mentor and dear friend. The two even begin to see sparks fly when they begin to have a mutual attraction. However, in season 1, episode 17 “Turn, Turn, Turn,” Ward reveals his true colors when he is revealed to be a Hydra sleeper agent.
Ward was a lovable and endearing character up to this point who clearly earned the trust of his colleagues, and grew from a lone wolf to becoming a committed team player. However, he was also a spy, working in a world of spies, and it simply turns out he was the best liar in the room. Seeing Ward reveal his allegiance and leave the team behind was utterly devastating, and a moment that I desperately wanted to see reversed at some point later in the show, but unfortunately, that wasn’t to be.
There was a storyline which revealed an alternate version of Grant Ward in the Framework, who was mentored by another agent and remains loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D., but this was not the real Ward.
1Love Quinn
You
Youis absolutely one of the most compelling TV shows on Netflix, thanks to the captivating performance of Penn Badgely as thedangerous Joe Goldberg. Throughout season 1, the character begins to expose their dark side, and slowly reveal their more villainous nature. However, the bigger twist has to be from season 2, when Joe moves onto his next target, Love Quinn. Love seems like a perfectly normal young woman who is set to be Joe’s next victim, but the truth is far more twisted.
Love manages to uncover Joe’s secrets, learning that he is a killer, and she embraces him wholeheartedly, because as it turns out, she’s also a murderer. Love killed her former husband when he recovered from cancer and chose to leave her. This twist was an incredible highlight for the series, turning the tables on Joe, and suddenly seeing the hunter become the prey. And yet another moment where the characters who appeared to be victims, heroes and protagonists suddenly becomes a villain.
