8 Wildest Twists In Lost We Still Can’t Believe Happened

Lost was a revolutionary TV show that changed the face of television, and part of its magic was the way it created unbelievable twists that were impossible to see coming. The best TV show plot twists share certain elements that make them great, and Lost set itself up to incorporate many twists by establishing early on that nothing in the story was ever what it seemed. Created by Jeffrey Lieber, J. J. Abrams, and Damon Lindelof, the series aired for 6 seasons and is well-remembered for its captivating two-part pilot that is considered one of the best of all time.

The story revolves around the lives of a group of plane crash survivors who land on a mysterious island that soon reveals itself to hold dangers the characters can only dream of. Some disappointing Lost mysteries seemed important but paled in comparison to the biggest twists of the show. While not every character made it through all 6 seasons alive, mainstays like Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lily), and Locke (Terry O’Quinn) came to define what people thought of when they thought of Lost as they experienced some of the biggest revelations.

8

Michael Killed Ana Lucia & Libby In One Scene

After disappearing to search for his son

Michael (Harold Perrineau) and his son Walt (Malcolm David Kelley) are among the original crash survivors, and much of season 1 involves them bonding as father and son. However, Walt has a special connection to the island, and in the finale of season 1, when they try to build a raft to find help, they’re intercepted by the Others who live on the island, and they kidnap Walt. It’s a moment that changes Michael forever and ultimately leads to his actions when he kills two of the other survivors.

After Walt is taken, Michael leaves the group and tries to find his son. No one knows where he is or what he’s been doing until he suddenly reappears many episodes later. However, it turns out he has an ulterior motive and has been sent to release Ben Linus (Michael Emerson), one of the Others that the survivors took prisoner, in exchange for Walt. To get Walt back, he shoots and kills Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez) and Libby (Cynthia Watros), alternating how the other characters and the audience see him forever.

7

Locke’s Father Is Sawyer’s Conman

The two survivors share a deeper connection and hatred for a cruel man

One of the most enjoyable parts of Lost is finding out the character’s backstories, as tales from their past mirror their present struggles. John Locke’s past is one of the saddest on the show, as he’s reunited with his father late in life, and he convinces Locke to give him a kidney but then abandons him and cuts Locke out of his life. It’s a classic Lost moment that made fans cry. Conversely, Sawyer (Josh Holloway) has been hunting for the con man who caused the death of his parents all his life to kill him and get his revenge.

In season 3, they find out that these men from their pasts are the same. Locke’s father, Anthony Cooper (Kevin Tighe), is on the island, and when Sawyer meets him, he recognizes him immediately, and another thread that connects the passengers aboard the flight is exposed. While Lost establishes that more than fate is drawing all these people together, Sawyer’s conman hadn’t been on the audience’s minds since season 1. So much was happening on the island that it didn’t seem as important. However, some of Lost‘s greatest twists happened when viewers were least expecting them.

6

Ethan Is One Of The Others

The introduction to the human threat on the island

In some ways, Lost season 1 is completely different from the rest of the series because so much is still unknown, and most of the major plot points that dominate the later seasons haven’t appeared. However, toward the end of the season, the show shifts from a survival narrative to something more sinister. The turning point comes when Hurley (Jorge Garcia) realizes that Ethan (William Mapother), a man who has been living among the survivors, isn’t listed on the flight manifest. He wasn’t on the plane, but somehow he was on the island.

This twist tips everyone off to the existence of the Others, the group of scientists, researchers, and families living on the island and studying its properties. While the Others become less mysterious over time, at this point, it’s jaw-dropping that there are other people on the island and that they’re not going to help them. Ethan being an imposter was already bad enough, but almost as soon as his true identity is known, he kidnaps Claire (Emilie de Ravin) and nearly kills Charlie (Dominic Monaghan).

5

Locke Is The Man In Black

He’s already dead and being impersonated by the force of evil on the island

In the later seasons, Lost grapples with serious questions about the nature of good versus evil and posits that this battle occurs on the island, and the survivors have become caught in its web. Jack represents the role of goodness, while The Man In Black, who represents evil, chooses to appear as Locke throughout the seasons, even if Locke isn’t on his side. However, the powers of The Man In Black become clear in season 5, when it’s shown that Locke is dead, and The Man In Black has been pretending to be him throughout season 5.

Neither Locke nor Jack won Lost, even though their rivalry reached extreme heights when they disagreed about the best course of action. However, seeing that Locke didn’t escape death in season 4 and his arc had ended was a blow to the characters, especially since this meant their enemy had been working alongside them this entire time. However, even in death, Locke was right about the power of the island, and the fact that The Man In Black chose to impersonate him meant that Locke had the power to influence people all along.

4

Desmond’s Mistake Caused The Plane Crash

In the moment when he almost didn’t press the button

Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) quickly became a fan-favorite character on Lost, as his tragic backstory was so harrowing it was impossible not to root for him. Early in season 1, Locke finds a metal hatch in the middle of the jungle and becomes obsessed with it. Though some of the other characters write it off as just another meaningless island quirk, Locke remains determined to enter the hatch, and when it finally opens, it’s Desmond and the most powerful button in the world that waits behind the door.

Desmond had been placed there to continuously press a button that prevented a devastating release of energy. The button’s purpose within the narrative is to illustrate the illusion of free will juxtaposed with the power of choice and faith. Over the years, while Desmond is trapped in the station, there are moments when he doubts whether he should press the button or not, but in one of these moments, the release of energy reaches out and causes the plane to crash. However, based on the general philosophy of Lost, this was always meant to happen and isn’t entirely Desmond’s fault.

3

The Survivors Detonated The Bomb

Once time travel enters the story, the plot becomes even more tangled

Some viewers felt that as Lost progressed, the plot became too convoluted and jumped the shark. While there were moments that stretched the audience and character’s imaginations to the breaking point, there were also great full-circle moments that created satisfying payoffs within the complicated twists and turns. Later in the series, the island starts to move through space and time because of the electromagnetic energy it possesses. Some of the survivors, including Jack, are sent back to the 1970s. It’s there that they detonate the bomb that causes the energy to be released in the first place.

How the island moves through time on Lost is less important than the fact that the survivors believe this means they can change the past and future. Determinism is a topic frequently touched upon in Lost, and it’s the human belief that history can be rewritten, which inevitably causes the event the survivors were trying to prevent. Learning that it’s their actions that cause the eventual plane crash is a brutal reality, but it illustrates the magic of Lost. There would be no story without their actions, but it’s because of them that the story is set in motion.

2

We Have To Go Back

And the flash forward reveal

Lost was exceptionally clever narratively, as it understood the power of a framing device and setting up audience expectations only to flip them on their head. Throughout the first several seasons, the backstories occur in flashbacks, and a good portion of every episode takes place in the past. This made the audience believe that what they were seeing in season 3 was more flashbacks to life before the island. However, it’s reversed in the season 3 finale, and it dawns on the audience that everything they’ve witnessed is the future after Jack, Kate, and the others escape the island.

Even more shocking than this, the final words out of Jack’s mouth in the episode are, “We have to go back!” The juxtaposition between Jack, whom the audience knows from the present, who’s so determined to leave the island, with this shell of a man who is desperate to return leaves more questions than answers for season 4. This moment is one of the greatest examples of Lost at its best and how to create a masterful plot twist. Though not as magical as other plot points on the show, it’s the simplicity of the twist that’s so effective.

1

Not Penny’s Boat

Charlie’s final warning and sacrifice

In the season 3 finale, Charlie’s message to Desmond warns that the freighter coming to the island isn’t his girlfriend Penny’s (Sonya Walger) boat but her father’s, the man who trapped Desmond on the island. Between this reveal and the flash-forward with Jack, it’s hard to determine which is the best of the series, especially since they both occur in season 3. However, Charlie telling the survivors that it’s “Not Penny’s Boat” has become so iconic within the Lost canon that it’s hard to imagine that anything could dethrone it for the best twist of the series.

This is especially true because it’s the last episode that audiences get to spend with Charlie, one of the kindest and most genuine characters of the series who works so hard to be a better man. Not every shocking reveal must be accompanied by sacrifice for it to be emotionally poignant, but in this case, Charlie’s death is demonstrative of what’s to come in the future of the show and how many questions are still left unanswered. Even as they learn new information, the survivors remain just as in the dark as the audience.