While it’s true that 2016 may not be remembered as a stellar year — we’ve lost a lot of pop culture greats, after all — on the whole, fans of movies, TV, and games have had quite a lot to be happy about. As the year comes to an end, it’s time to look back on the best of the best and select the winners of our Year in Fandom Awards. Have a look at the nominees, and cast your vote below!
Here are the nominees for Biggest TV Plot Twist:
Jon Snow Resurrected (Game of Thrones)
Game of Thrones is a show notorious for ruthlessly killing off its main characters. Set during a time of conflict within a fantasy realm, violence, sex and bloodshed reign supreme. But remember when everybody thought Jon Snow was dead, apparently killed at the hands of Night’s Watch traitors? “Not Jon Snow!” they said. “Anyone but Jon Snow!” However, attentive viewers were casting their minds back to an earlier episode when dark magic brought a character named Beric Dondarrion back to life – for the sixth time. Could the same work for Snow? Well, yes – in actual fact it could, and audiences were chuffed to get their hero back.
Negan Kills Glenn, Too (The Walking Dead)
The finale of Season 6 of The Walking Dead left fans hanging as to who would meet the business end of Negan’s barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat, Lucille. We knew it would happen, we just didn’t know who it would happen to. Speculation was rife. Would the show’s creators follow the storyline of the comic books, or would they choose another victim? As Season 7 struck viewers a brutal blow with its bloody opening episode, it slam-dunked a double whammy taking out not only a resolute Abraham but also Glenn. Audiences were left reeling by the relentless brutality of the episode and the graphic nature of the deaths (from which the group is still recovering as The Walking Dead takes its mid-season break) – but it proved to be one of the highest rated episodes for the show ever.
Bernard is a Host and an Arnold Replica (Westworld)
Westworld has posed a conundrum for audiences this year. Running concurrent timelines with no obvious techniques employed to delineate them, and leaving audiences questioning who’s who, who’s human and who’s android, Westworld has given its fans lots to mull over and lots to discuss. There have been more twists and turns than the maze at the centre of its plot. One of its biggest twists, however, has been the revelation that Ford’s right-hand man Bernard is not only a host (aka robot) but also one made in the image of Arnold – Ford’s former business partner. Not only that, but Ford has been pulling the strings, manipulating Bernard’s behaviours and getting him to do some shocking things, all unbeknownst to Bernard who – like all the hosts – has his memory wiped on a regular basis. As the season approached its finale, Bernard apparently killed himself but is this really the end for one of the show’s best-loved characters?
Chuck Recorded Jimmy’s Confession (Better Call Saul)
As Season 2 of “Better Call Saul” progressed, relations between Jimmy and older brother Chuck became increasingly strained, as Chuck tried to break up Jimmy’s burgeoning relationship with Kim, and Jimmy forged legal documents to humiliate his sibling. Things came to a head at the climax of the season’s final episode, when Chuck fell ill, Jimmy rushed to his side, and having been lulled into a false sense of security, spilled the beans about those documents. But unbeknownst to Jimmy, Chuck was recording the conversation, doubtless to use it against his brother in Season 3.
Alice is Alive (The Missing)
The first season of The Missing was a hit. The second season outdid itself. As the plot twisted and turned, it kept audiences guessing. It eventually became incontrovertibly evident in Episode 7 that Alice, who had been missing for 11 years and thought dead, was in fact alive. And the story of exactly what happened to her came when her captor, Adam Gettrick, bought a creepy monkey toy – the same kind as the one Alice used to fight over with her brother – and handed it to a dirty, pallid Alice cowering in a dark corner. He’d driven all the way to Switzerland with Alice in the car boot and constructed an elaborate ploy to throw everyone off the trail.