diff -u b/core/modules/big_pipe/tests/src/Functional/BigPipeTest.php b/core/modules/big_pipe/tests/src/Functional/BigPipeTest.php
--- b/core/modules/big_pipe/tests/src/Functional/BigPipeTest.php
+++ b/core/modules/big_pipe/tests/src/Functional/BigPipeTest.php
@@ -58,15 +58,27 @@
    * This test disables the automatic <meta> refresh checking, each time it is
    * desired that this runs, a test case must explicitly call this.
    *
+   * @param bool $block_redirects
+   *   Set to TRUE to block all redirects during the meta refresh.
+   *
    * @see setUp()
+   *
+   * @return int
+   *   The number of refreshes done.
    */
-  protected function performMetaRefresh() {
-    $this->getSession()->getDriver()->getClient()->followRedirects(FALSE);
+  protected function performMetaRefresh($block_redirects = FALSE) {
+    if ($block_redirects) {
+      $this->getSession()->getDriver()->getClient()->followRedirects(FALSE);
+    }
     $this->maximumMetaRefreshCount = 1;
     $this->checkForMetaRefresh();
     $this->maximumMetaRefreshCount = 0;
+    $count = $this->metaRefreshCount;
     $this->metaRefreshCount = 0;
-    $this->getSession()->getDriver()->getClient()->followRedirects(TRUE);
+    if ($block_redirects) {
+      $this->getSession()->getDriver()->getClient()->followRedirects(TRUE);
+    }
+    return $count;
   }
 
   /**
@@ -454,9 +466,7 @@
    */
   protected function assertBigPipeNoJsMetaRefreshRedirect() {
     $original_url = $this->getSession()->getCurrentUrl();
-
-    // Perform the MetaRefresh without following any additional redirects.
-    $this->performMetaRefresh();
+    $this->performMetaRefresh(TRUE);
 
     $headers[0] = $this->getSession()->getResponseHeaders();
     // First response: redirect.
@@ -466,8 +476,13 @@
     $this->assertTrue(empty(array_diff(['cookies:big_pipe_nojs', 'session.exists'], explode(' ', $headers[0]['X-Drupal-Cache-Contexts'][0]))), 'The first response varies by the "cookies:big_pipe_nojs" and "session.exists" cache contexts.');
     $this->assertFalse(isset($headers[0]['Surrogate-Control']), 'The first response has no "Surrogate-Control" header.');
 
+    // Remove the big_pipe_nojs cookie so we can follow the full redirect.
+    $this->getSession()->setCookie('big_pipe_nojs', NULL);
+
     $this->drupalGet($original_url);
+    $count = $this->performMetaRefresh(FALSE);
     $this->assertEquals($original_url, $this->getSession()->getCurrentUrl(), 'Redirected back to the original location.');
+    $this->assertEqual(1, $count, 'One refresh was done following the <meta> refresh');
     $headers[1] = $this->getSession()->getResponseHeaders();
 
     // Second response: redirect followed.