The Lost Blog - The Top Ten Twists

LOST built its reputation on raising questions without ever seeming to answer them. As a result it infuriated as much as it elated. But what made LOST one of the most unbelievable and addictive shows over its entire run were the twists which redefined our idea of the island, the characters and in the end the entire show. Below are my ten favourite twists in the history of LOST.

10. The Smoke Monster

The creators of LOST promised The Smoke Monster would be explained toward the end of the show and they did not disappoint. Firstly he takes on the form of Locke, then we discover all those dead people haunting the survivors including Christian Shepherd were the smoke monster all along. Finally in "Across The Sea" we go back to discover that the Smoke Monster was a fate worse than death and his creation or release (depending on how you look at it) was the mistake which led Jacob to bring people the island to replace him. It's amazing when you think back at all the imagery and description (Cerberus protector of Hades) that the final twist was far more interesting and human than anything we could have expected.

9. Locke's Dead

This could well be in here three times. At the end of Season Four we learn the casket Jack visits contains the remains of one Jeremy Bentham aka John Locke. In Season 5 episode The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham we learn how he died, why and who killed him. This is a particularly tragic death as the entire episode epitomised Locke's great weakness - he spends the entire episode trying to get everyone back to the island but fails miserably. Then, in a final moment of desperation he decides to take his own life only to be saved by Ben of all people. Then after Ben has given Locke a reason to live and found out why he is here he kills Locke by strangling him. The third and final twist surrounding Locke's death comes back on the island when he is seemingly resurrected. At this stage, with everything we have seen and learnt, the idea that Locke is back from the dead isn't too surprising, that is until we learn that he is still dead and Locke is no longer Locke.

8. Dharmacide.

We always new there was something evil about Benjamin Linus. But in "Behind The Curtain" in Season 3 we finally get to know the real Ben, and guess what, he is evil, incredibly so. Taken to the island as a boy, he was put upon and blamed for his mother's death by his father. Not exactly a psychologically stable environment to grow up in. One can almost sympathise with Ben for wanting to leave. That he then returned and murdered his own father in cold blood and orchestrated the death of everyone (including women and children) in the Dharma Initiative dispelled any doubts we had about Ben's evil intentions and the lengths he would go to to protect the island. That the episode ends with him seemingly murdering Locke shouldn't have been much of a surprise after this, but actually, it was.

7. How Locke Lost His Legs

Locke, like many of the shows characters, had serious Daddy issues. But his were probably the most severe. After finding his father after 40 years or so of life, Locke seems happy for once, but it isn't long before we realise that Anthony Cooper is less a father figure and more a master conman, stealing from Locke his own kidney. Too make matters worse, we then discover the reason Locke has been wheelchair bound for so long. Being pushed out of a multistorey building by your own father must leave some pretty deep emotional and physical scares and that Locke could never get over it made his existence even more tragic.

6. They're All Dead

How you read the final act of the last ever episode of LOST depends greatly on whether you find it an amazing twist or an annoying cop out. For one thing, it could on one level mean that the events of the island never took place, that it was purgatory all along or that the show had turned into a non too subtle religious metaphor. For me though, after much musing the end of LOST does exactly what Lost has always done. Remind us that no matter how many times we think we've worked it out, we haven't and the creators can surprise us whenever they want. Learning at the end that the flash sideways were not really sideways but more flash afterlife and that everybody was dead was bold, daring, controversial and potentially self destructive, and on first viewing it did feel like a cop out, but watching it again it becomes clear that emotionally it is deeply satisfying, but also extremely poignant as each character realises the true importance of their experience on the island and the sacrifice they made there. A truly wonderous final twist to end the show on.


5. "Do't Tell Me What I Can't Do"

It didn't take long for LOST the utterly confuse and amaze us. The pilot episode was a breath of fresh air and a whirlwind at the same time, so when in episode 4 when we learn the reason Locke has all those knives is that he was in Australia to go Walkabout, but he couldn't because he is in a wheelchair, we were flabbergasted to understand how he'd gone from being in a wheelchair to be able to walk just by crashing on the Island. Suddenly this place took on a whole new level of mystery.

4. "I have to move the island"

When Locke told Ben after his meeting with Christian that he had the move the island i'm fairly sure no one really understood what he meant, but give Ben credit, when he finally went beneath The Orchird Dharma station and revealed the frozen donkey wheel the Island took on an entirely new level of "huh". That the island then just disappeared was even more shocking. Where had it gone? Or more accurately When had it gone, as we later learned. Time Travel very much became a stable of LOST after this moment, and even now it seems surprising that it made so much sense.

3. "We're the good guys"

So, after pretending to be a black man who crashed in his balloon on the island Henry Gale's true identity is finally revealed in the Season Two finale. After leading Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley across the island in a bid to rescue his son Walt, Michael asks the now revealed Benjamin Linus who they are. Ben's reply pulled the proverbial rug from under our feet as he asserts that they (the Others) are the good guys. The blurring between good and evil on the island was rarely so shockingly exposed, but gradually become more and more of a running theme throughout. 

2. "You're Gonna Die Charlie"

The episode "Flashes Before Your Eyes" was really the first epsiode of LOST to introduce the idea of time travel, even if it didn't really feel like time travel. By the episodes end, when we realise everything Desmond has been doing was to try and save Charlie and that as Eloise states the "universe has a way of course correcting" hit home when Desmond revealed to Charlie that he kept seeing Charlie's death. This became one of the biggest hooks of Season Three and its development right up to the season finale make this not only one of the most intriguing, interesting and shocking twists but also the most emotional.

1. "We Have To Go Back"
Whether you guessed this before the reveal or not, the twist at the end of Season Three worked either way. If you guessed that this was not a flashback but a flashforward then Kate getting out of the car might have seemed a little predictable and underwhelming. If you didn't guess it it was possibly the moment you realised you would have to stick with LOST until the end. The big reveal isn't that we are now seeing a post island life but more importantly those famous words "we have to go back". Not only did this make jaws hit the floor but it also baffled that the one character who above everyone else wanted to leave the island was now the guy doing everything in his power to get back. From this point on Lost became a different show and suddenly the prospect of answers beckoned. The end of Season Three was the biggest turning point in LOST until, possibly the end.