Top 5 greatest 'Twilight Zone' endings

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Long before M. Night Shyamalan dazzled audiences with "The Sixth Sense" and its mind-bending twist ending, and then proceeded to undazzle us with pretty much all of his follow-up films, Rod Serling's classic sci-fi series "The Twilight Zone" dropped jaw-dropping endings like hungry Scrunts at a Narf party (OK, we'll stop).

So in honor of our favorite mind-trippin' show, we're taking a look at the most shocking endings in "TZ" history. And for those who don't want to spoil the endings, we've hidden each episode's big reveal in white. Just highlight the white space after the 'Spoiler Alert' following each episode description to reveal the ending.

There's the signpost up ahead. Next stop—the greatest "Twilight Zone" endings ever.

Have we missed your favorite "Twilight Zone" ending? Leave us a comment below!

5. "The Rip Van Winkle Caper"
It seems like the perfect crime: After a daring bank robbery, four thieves escape to a secret, secluded suspended animation chamber with millions of dollars in solid gold in tow. The plan? To go into hibernation for long enough so that their crime will be but a distant memory. But when the criminals awake 100 years in the future, jealousy, greed and a surprise last-minute revelation reveals the flaw in their brazen plan.

_{SPOILER ALERT: Turns out, in the future gold can be synthetically manufactured, rendering it valueless. Oops.}

4. "Escape Clause"
Walter Bedeker, a totally jerky hypocondriac, decides to sell his soul to Satan in exchange for immortality (obviously, he's never read "Faust"). The Red One's only revision of the deal: an "escape clause," which would allow Bedeker to forfeit his immortality—and thus his soul—if he ever so chose. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, right?

_{SPOILER ALERT: Wrong. Wishing to experience the thrill of execution, Bedeker confesses to the murder of his wife—and is sentenced to life without parole. He summons the Devil and takes advantage of the escape clause. Oops.}

3. "Time Enough at Last"
The set-up: A character study of a man so smitten wth the written word (and so cynical about the world around him), he wishes for enough time and alone time so that he may truly relish the world's books. That is, until the final, tragic moment, when all of his hopes and dreams are literally shattered.

_{SPOILER ALERT: Four Eyes drops and breaks his reading glasses, leaving him alone with all the time and books in the world. Oops.}

2. "The Eye of the Beholder"
A woman, having undergone extensive plastic surgery to repair facial deformities, slowly removes her bandages to show us what horrors lie within. Decades since we first saw this creeptastic episode, the ending still sends a jolt. What other TV show could ever get away without showing a single face for virtually an entire episode?

_{SPOILER ALERT: Just like the James Blunt song, Janet is actually quite beautiful—by our standards. In her corner of the "Twilight Zone," however, she's a freak. Oops.}

1. "The Silence"
To what lengths would you go to win a bet? A well-to-do man bets his talkative friend $500,000 that he can't remain silent for an entire year. Loosely based on Chekov's "The Bet," this "Twilight Zone" ends with a real gut-wrencher.

_{SPOILER ALERT: Turns out the well-to-do man had his vocal cords severed just before entering the isolation chamber. And his talkative friend is, in reality, penniless. Oops.}