14 Abandoned Twists That Would’ve Saved CW Shows (And 6 That Would’ve Hurt Them)

14 Abandoned Twists That Would’ve Saved CW Shows (And 6 That Would’ve Hurt Them)
by Robin Burks – on Jul 01, 2018 in Lists

For fans, part of the fun of watching a television show is seeing all the plot twists and surprises that writers throw into episodes. These are usually things that leave fans going "What?" and keep them coming back for more. Sometimes those twists are subtle and fans don't even realize that they're even twists until later in the series. Other times they are so glaringly obvious that fans can't help but wonder what will happen next.

But sometimes those plot twists never actually happen. Or they happen, but they lead to nowhere. What's even worse, though, is when writers throw in a major twist and then seem to forget that it even happened. Sometimes there is just no follow through and fans are left forever wondering if that particular plot point will ever get resolved. There are even times when writers throw in something, but then change their minds about it, either due to thinking it just won't really work or having someone higher up tell them that they can't do that on the series. This happens often with DC Comics-related television shows, in particular.

The CW is a great offender of forgetting plot twists and changing how things on its shows play out. Some of these plot twists are better left forgotten and not resolved. Others, though, might have saved a show and made it even better. Whatever the case, fans will always wonder, "Whatever happened to that character or that story?"

Here are 14 Abandoned Twists That Would’ve Saved CW Shows (And 6 That Would’ve Hurt Them).

20 Saved: The Flash Flashpoint

Season one of The Flash ended with Barry Allen going back in time to save his mother. In the comic books, this caused a series of huge events, referred to as Flashpoint, that rippled throughout the DC Comics universe, changing the lives of every person on the planet. As Barry tried to fix the time that he broke, a really interesting story unfolded throughout his comics, as well as the comic books of other superheroes.

On the TV show, though, Flashpoint was a great plot point that ended up getting completely forgotten later on.

The results of Barry changing time lasted for a total of one episode and then it was over. It was a wasted opportunity that could have saved the show, which has had two seasons that most fans consider mediocre at best.

19 Saved: Supernatural Wayward Daughters/Wayward Sisters

Supernatural has a history of mistreating its female characters. They usually end up as plot fodder and generally wind up out of the picture completely. When interest in a project based on Jody Mills, Donna Hanscum and a group of young female hunters started gaining interest on the Internet, The CW delivered by providing a backdoor pilot episode through a Supernatural episode called "Wayward Sisters".

That episode received a lot of praise from fans and critics, but when it came time to pick up a series based on that pilot, The CW faltered and eventually decided not to give fans what they wanted. Since then, the storyline of the group of women who came together to fight demons still sits out there in Supernatural purgatory.

Wayward Sisters was an opportunity to do right by Supernatural's fanbase, which includes a lot of women, but The CW failed them.

18 Hurt: Veronica Mars joining the FBI

Although season 4 of Veronica Mars never happened, there was a teaser video released that showed what Veronica's future might entail. That video, which appeared on the season 3 DVD, picked up three years after the end of season 2. In the short clip, Veronica has just finished college and training at Quantico to become an FBI agent.

This is a plot twist that fans are happy didn't actually happen.

 Veronica was never the sort of gal who liked to work within such a strict set of rules.

Instead, fans got the Veronica Mars movie where Veronica decides not to pursue a career with the FBI and goes to law school instead. Fortunately, she ends up back where she belongs, as a private detective.

17 Saved: Arrow and the Suicide Squad

Arrow almost got really exciting in season two. It was during that time that the series introduced Amanda Waller and A.R.G.U.S.

During that season, Diggle had to team up with Deadshot, Bronze Tiger and Shrapnel, otherwise known as the first iteration of a live-action Suicide Squad.

Even more importantly, there was a tease at the end of the episode with the very familiar voice of Harley Quinn.

This was a great twist that ended up going nowhere, though. Why? DC decided to focus its Suicide Squad efforts on a film, so the company would not allow Arrow to continue to use the concept. Arrow never got its Harley Quinn, which would have made for a far more interesting show.

16 Saved: Supergirl and Maxwell Lord

Supergirl has a really bad habit of introducing characters that seem important to the show's narrative, but then those characters just disappear into the ether, never to get heard from again.

One such character is the technology genius Maxwell Lord, who was a major thorn in Supergirl's side throughout the first season. He was an interesting character who was often both villain and ally to Team Supergirl, but he always kept things interesting when he was around.

Supergirl eventually forgot that he existed, though, which is sad considering that she could have used his help with the fight against Reign and the other Worldkillers. He's gone the way of Cat Grant, once heard of, but completely forgotten.

15 Saved: Jesse Turner returns

Remember Jesse Turner on Supernatural? More than likely most fans will because he was one of the key figures of the series in season 5.

Jesse was a powerful half-human and half-demon child who, according to Castiel, would become the Antichrist and help Lucifer win the war against Heaven. However, after meeting Sam and Dean, Jesse gets reminded that he is half-human and that he can choose his own fate. In the end, he chooses to leave his family and disappears.

The child meant to become the Antichrist is still out there, completely forgotten by the show's writers. Supernatural slogged through several seasons after that, although it had the perfect villain, Jesse, that it could have brought back from obscurity.

14 Hurt: The Vampire Diaries with vampires controlling the weather

The Vampire Diaries loved to bring up things like vampire powers, only to have them used in one episode and then never mentioned or used again. It's convenient for storytelling, but it drives fans crazy, even when the powers are just goofy.

In the first few episodes of the series, there is a lot of fog creeping around, fog that fans later learned was caused by the vampire Damon Salvatore.

Damon had the ability to control the weather, or at least he could create creepy fog.

However, he never got to do that again, which is probably for the best, but why introduce it in the first place?

13 Saved: Supergirl and CADMUS

One of the most interesting twists of Supergirl concerned the covert group Cadmus, a group run by Lillian Luthor (Lex and Lena's mother). This group spent most of its time and resources an researching the alien threat, particularly in an effort to eliminate it.

It played a large part in the storylines of both season 1 and 2, but by season 3, it seems that everyone forgot that Cadmus ever existed.

Here is a group that went rogue and got labeled as a terrorist organization, but they completely disappear when a new alien threat starts rampaging its way across Earth. Wouldn't Cadmus want in on the fight against Reign and the Worldkillers? Wouldn't that have made season 3 so much better?

12 Hurt: Supernatural Bloodlines

There is an episode of Supernatural that most fans refuse to even acknowledge as far as its existence goes. That episode was so bad that it is, probably, best left forgotten. The episode, "Bloodlines", aired during season 9 and was a backdoor pilot for a new spin-off series of Supernatural.

In that episode, Sam and Dean arrive in Chicago to learn that there are monster families basically running the city like they're the mob. The series introduced other hunters, who would serve as the new show's leads. Fortunately, the CW didn't pick it up.

It was a weird (and bad) plot twist to the series that really didn't fit and it's definitely something that would have hurt the show, spinoff or not.

11 Saved: Huntress returns

Huntress is one of those cool anti-hero types of superheroes that fans really love. She really was a perfect fit for Arrow, which introduced her in season one. She was out there helping Green Arrow and his team whenever she could well into season 2.

The series still mentions her occasionally, although a mention isn't the same as seeing Huntress doing her thing on a TV screen.

She was a great plot point in the Arrowverse, but the show never got around to doing her much justice. Huntress was such a missed opportunity, but the writers never seemed to know what to do with a woman who was just as good, if not better, than Green Arrow himself.

10 Hurt: Supernatural and Chuck/God

Probably one of the biggest twists ever given to Supernatural fans was the reveal that Chuck, previously known as only a writer and prophet of God, was actually God himself. When that reveal came, fans cheered and hoped to see a lot more of the character.

It was a great twist (although everyone saw it coming), but it proved not to have much sustaining power on the series.

With God in the picture, things became a little too easy for Sam and Dean, so now that he's gone, things are complicated again.

Sure, God is cool and all, but it's way more interesting not having him around all the time (although fans might appreciate a cameo here and there).

9 Saved: Riverdale’s Lodge vs. Muggs family

Riverdale introduced Ethel Muggs in season 1, but it wasn't until later that fans learned about the Muggs family's connection to the Lodges.

Ethel's father, Manfred, was once business partners with Hiram Lodge: Manfred invested a lot of money with Hiram and his businesses. Then things went south and Manfred nearly lost everything. This dragged Manfred into a deep depression and he eventually attempted to take his own life. Even Veronica blamed her father for Manfred's  attempt.

Manfred wanted to testify against Hiram in an embezzlement trial, but that plot point hasn't come up on the show since.

That's a shame, because it was an interesting twist for the stories of both Ethel and Veronica, but nothing came of it.

8 Saved: Supernatural's Werewolf Hunter

One of the best recurring characters to ever appear on Supernatural was Garth Fitzgerald. Garth was not exactly a great hunter when Sam and Dean first met him, but he eventually went on to become very good at his job. Garth even managed to take over for Bobby after he passed on.

It seemed like Garth would continue to appear on the series for a long time, but then the writers decided to have Garth become a werewolf.

Unlike other werewolves seen on the series, Garth was still one of the good guys. He offers to continue to help Sam and Dean, but they decline. This was probably one of the biggest wastes of a plot twist ever seen on Supernatural.

7 Hurt: Macallan on The 100

Singer/songwriter Shawn Mendes was a huge fan of The 100, so The CW arranged to have him become an actual character on the series.

That character appeared in season 3 as Macallan. In his first scene, he tries to steal a bracelet, but gets caught by Raven. After getting threatened by the others, he earns his escape by performing a song on the piano. He does this and that inadvertently gets him into a fight with Jasper.

He only showed up in one episode, and then just sort of disappeared - probably because of Mendes' recording and touring schedule.

He proved an interesting enough character that fans might really appreciate him returning at some point.

6 Saved: The alien President in season 3

One of the best plot twists on Supergirl was the reveal that Olivia Marsdin (portrayed by Lynda Carter) was actually an alien. She grew up on Durlan, but after her people became enslaved to another alien race, she escaped and found refuge on Earth. As such, her policies are decidedly pro-alien.

She didn't appear in season 3, when a new alien threat in the form of Reign and the Worldkillers arrived.

This season could have certainly benefited from a story involving her, particularly with people challenging her pro-alien policies.

She never appeared and season 3 suffered for it with an overall plot that never quite seemed to ground itself.

5 Saved: Supergirl saving Bizarro

As previously mentioned, Supergirl is really good at creating plots and then totally forgetting that they ever happened.

Although Bizarro was a main villain, Supergirl recognized some good in her, and instead of locking her up in a cell, she vowed to help Bizarro become "normal," or at least as normal as a clone of Supergirl can ever become. Kara made that promise way back in 2016, but no one has seen Bizarro since and Supergirl seems to have completely forgotten that she vowed to help this poor and tragic young woman.

This is a character that could help save a show that got  way too bogged down with Reign and Worldkillers to the point of obsession this past season.

4 Saved: The Flash and the other Metas absorbed by DeVoe

Most fans of The CW's The Flash have complaints about this past season. Not only did it have a weak villain whose motivations still aren't entirely known, but it also seemed to throw plot points all over the place just to see where they would stick.

One of the twists is that DeVoe was not only absorbing metas for their powers, but that at least one of those metas remained alive and well inside DeVoe's head. That was Ralph, which allowed Barry to go inside DeVoe's head to save him.

What about those other metas? Couldn't they have been there, too? Barry mentions that they weren't, but why not? Wouldn't the season have been better had he been able to save all the metas absorbed by DeVoe?

3 Saved: The Vampire Diaries and The Brotherhood of the Five

Right before Klaus and the older vampires went on to star in The Originals, The Vampire Diaries decided to introduce a group of villains known as the Brotherhood of the Five. This was a group of ancient hunters who only lived to destroy vampires. They were so feared that even Klaus was afraid of them - and Klaus rarely feared anything.

With Elena just becoming a vampire, she still had no way of controlling her powers enough to fight them off. This was a nice little twist to add drama to the series.

In the end, though, the story went on to focus on releasing Silas and the actual vampire hunting got completely forgotten.

Always being hunted could have served as a nice constant source of plots for the series, but it just didn't happen.

2 Hurt: Legends of Tomorrow and Vandal Savage’s ashes

Vandal Savage started out as a formidable enemy for the Arrowverse, particuarly during the first season of DC's Legends of Tomorrow, but he eventually became sort of mediocre, at least as far as villains go. Fans got tired of his whole quest to end Hawkman and Hawkgirl, and his motivations eventually became really blurry.

After his demise, there was a scene where Malcolm Merlyn picked up his ashes and put them in a container, suggesting that even burned to ashes, Vandal Savage still had some sort of regeneration powers.

This plot twist was never built upon, though, and with Malcolm Merlyn now officially out of the Arrowverse, it's probably for the best if this villain never returns.

1 Saved: Smallville and Doomsday

One of the most famous villains to ever go up against Superman is Doomsday, a creature so powerful that he actually managed to end the Man of Steel in DC Comics. Doomsday also briefly appeared on Smallville, The CW series about Superman's life in the town of the same name, where he grew up simply as Clark Kent.

A different more humanized version of the character was one of the main antagonists on season 8 of the series. but Clark eventually defeated him and trapped him below the Earth, believing that the human side of the character might one day be saved.

Jimmy Olsen destroys Doomsday, right before perishing himself. Doomsday isn't so easily eliminated, at least in the comics, so this was a plot twist that never felt right. Bringing Doomsday back later might have saved Smallville.

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What abandoned CW plot twist do you wish had happened? Let us know in the comments!

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