Now compare this to the ending of the American remake of Life On Mars, in which the title turned out to be somewhat literal as we were essentially watching a group of astronauts living out a simulation while on an actual journey to Mars. It’s fair to say that this ending was met with a degree of mockery that has retrospectively turned that remake into even more of a punchline than it already was.

But here’s the crucial question; while plenty guessed the beloved ending of the British series, how many people figured out how the American show would wrap up? In theory, didn’t the American show have the bigger, more explosive twist?

Recently a good friend of mine started watching Westworld. This coming several months after the much talked about season finale, I was of course curious as to whether he had heard about the now infamous twist in the final episode, infamous precisely because just about everyone seemed to have figured it out by at least the halfway point of the series. He knew nothing about it and of course I didn’t give him any hints; when then moment came for the Man in Black to reveal his identity I received shocked texts from both my friend and his wife, neither of whom had seen this coming.

I won’t lie, I was a little jealous. I’m sure I never would have guessed the twist myself, but reading fan theories online meant that coming into the final episodes of the season I couldn’t unsee all the clues that now seemed to be pointing in one very obvious direction. Had I stumbled on Westworld later like they did I suspect my mind would have been blown by a twist that is not only quite brilliant, but makes sense in the context of everything we’ve seen and enriches the story, giving everything we’ve seen thus far an air of real tragedy that makes Westworld more than just some clever sci-fi.

But see, this is exactly why guessing Westworld’s big reveal in advance didn’t ruin its popularity at all: Westworld had enough going on that a great twist was just icing on the cake, and all the ultimately correct speculation prior to the eventual reveal ended up just being part of the fun of watching the show. When the twist came it was satisfying rather than disappointing, because everything the show had put into place until then was leading to it and as such it was suffused with a sense of grim inevitability rather than any disappointment. The story earned that moment, even if it didn’t shock us as much as we would have liked.