'Wayward Pines' Season 1 Spoilers: Finale Reveals Big Twist; Who Died In 'Cycle'?

Who saw that coming? The Season 1 finale of Fox's "Wayward Pines" aired Thursday and did not end the way many fans probably expected. Viewers spent a riveting hour watching Ethan (Matt Dillon) and Kate (Carla Gugino) fight to save the town from the invading Abbies while some of the show's biggest characters met gruesome ends. When it was all said and done, though, viewers were left even further in the future -- a little over three years -- as Ben (Charlie Tahan) found himself in the very same position as his father back in the May pilot.

The consequences of David Pilcher (Toby Jones) turning off the power in episode 9 were dire. The Abbies were soon inside and taking quite a few civilian casualties as Ethan and Kate struggled to get everyone into the bunker. Meanwhile, Pam (Melissa Leo) begged her brother to reconsider his decision and make the current iteration of Wayward Pines work. Soon, Ethan and the remaining residents were inside, but, unfortunately, so were the Abbies, leaving Ethan with a difficult choice. The Secret Service agent sacrificed himself to blow up the elevator shaft and kill the horde of Abbies who had gotten inside the bunker.

Thanks to Ethan's tragic act of heroism, Kate, Theresa and Ben were safely inside, but they still had to deal with Pilcher. The paranoid scientist insisted that only by cleansing the town and restarting with "group C" would Wayward Pines be able to survive. In a tense standoff, Pam shot her brother and make a pact with Kate to rebuild the town right this time, telling everybody the truth and living together peacefully with no reckonings.

Unfortunately, Pilcher, who told Kate she could not "kill [his] ideas," was not done influencing the way things worked in Wayward. The big twist of the finale came when Ben, who had slipped into a coma after being injured fighting the Abbies, woke up in a hospital bed to find Amy (Sarah Jeffery) nursing him in an eerily similar way that Pam was taking care of Ethan when he first woke up in Wayward Pines. She informs him that Jason (Tom Stevens) and the rest of the First Generation seized control of the town after Pilcher's death. All the remaining adults were put back in "suspension" and Wayward's big brother-style surveillance of everyone in the town had resumed. At the end of the episode, Ben walks through Wayward faced with the same dilemma as his dad in the pilot. The episode, which was titled "Cycle," really lived up to its name.

Will Ben pick up the torch from his father and fight to restore sanity to Wayward Pines in Season 2? Will there even be a Season 2? Only time will tell.

What did you think of the finale? Tweet your thoughts to @Ja9GarofaloTV.