What is the goal behind a twist ending? To surprise I suppose - to take everything you thought about the movie, or book, or TV show, and then turn it all around to some extent - what you thought you saw was totally different than what you had really seen, after finding out about the twist. Of course, the best twists are ones that were foreshadowed earlier, and which enhance your viewing/reading the second time around due to the information you now know. Often, however, there is no way you could ever see the twist, which makes it lose some meaning. Less often, the twist is not even shocking - the huge twist ending isn't even much of a twist.

I bring all this up to talk about what is I believe the stupidest twist I have ever come across. Naturally, this is in a Twilight Zone episode. I've spent far too much time reading synopsis of Twilight Zone episodes on wikipedia over the past couple of weeks, and when you have so many twists, you're bound to hit upon some duds.

The episode is The Midnight Sun. Basically, the premise is this. The Earth, somehow, has fallen out of its orbit, and is moving closer and closer to the sun. The Earth's temperature is heating up rapidly, and it's only a matter of time 'til it becomes a fireball. Most people in the city where the episode takes place have either moved up north where it's colder, or have died from the extreme heat. Two characters, a painter and her landlady, are the focus, as they stay in their apartment building and try to cope with the building heat. The landlady is starting to freak out, having trouble dealing with the conditions mentally as well as phsyically. A man comes in and steals their water and then begs their forgiveness. Eventually this is all too much for the landlady, as she collapses and dies. The temperature continues to go up, and the painter herself collapses eventually.

But that's not it just yet. A twist remains? Perhaps, the Twilight Zone classic, that it was all in the painter's mind, and the Earth is just fine? Maybe it's not really Earth after all? Maybe it turns out they're characters in a disaster movie or a painting, or this is part of a devious plan by aliens to conquer the solar system?

Alas. It is none of these. Well, part of the twist is typical - it turns out it was a dream of the painter's, and the Earth was not moving towards the Sun and everything was not burning to death. No, indeed - it is the exact opposite! Everyone is still going to die, but instead of towards the sun, the Earth is still out of its orbit, but moving away from the sun, and everything is going to freeze over! The temperature is changing, but the exact opposite of the way you thought for the entire episode! Of course, pretty much everything from the episode would remain the same. They'll all die. But of cold, and not of heat!

Now, I previously railed against the twist ending to Matchstick Men, but the problem with that twist ending was that it was ridiculously implausible, not like here, that the ending didn't change the plot of the episode at all. This is essentially like having a movie end with a man hanging himself, and then saying, no, wait, twist, he still killed himself, but by drowning instead. Who cares? How does that change anything?

This I submit is the dumbest twist ending, well, I was going to say of any Twilight Zone episode, but I'm going to go ahead and say of anything I've ever seen.