the plot thickens

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

the situation has become more complicated, mysterious, or interesting, with new information or developments that add layers of complexity to what seemed a straightforward state of affairs; the phrase originated in dramatic and novelistic narrative as a description of a story becoming more intricate, and has migrated into everyday speech as a way of noting — often with ironic pleasure — that a situation one is involved in or observing has taken an unexpected and complicating turn; it is used both genuinely, to signal genuine dramatic development, and ironically, to mock the excessive complexity or apparent self-importance of a situation