Lost features one of television's all-time best cliffhangers, but it took two years for the payoff to come to fruition. Two of the greatest strengths throughout the hit series' six-season run were Lost's plot twists and cliffhangers. From Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) and John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) looking down the hatch at the end of season 1 to characters traveling through time, the show consistently found a way to surprise its audience and to make them eager to see the next Lost episode.
This is an impressive feat under any circumstances, but especially for a series that aired more than 100 hundred episodes over the course of six years. The best cliffhangers often focused on overarching mysteries, like the hatch at the end of season 1, but sometimes they focused more specifically on the personal journeys of Lost's best characters. The show had no shortage of equally memorable and tantalizing cliffhangers, although the Lost season 3 finale cliffhanger was in a class of its own.
Lost Season 3's "We Have To Go Back" Is One Of TV's Greatest Cliffhangers Ever
It Changed The Structure And Presumed Endgame For The Show
The two-part Lost season 3 finale, "Through the Looking Glass," seemingly featured flashbacks from a particularly low point in Jack's life. In the finale's final moments, Jack met with Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly), and it became clear that these scenes had not been flashbacks, but were flash-forwards to when Jack, Kate, and other characters escaped the Island and returned to the outside world. This revelation became even more shocking when Jack, who had always been hellbent on escaping the Island, told Kate "We were not supposed to leave" and "We have to go back!"
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Every Lost Character Still On The Island When The Show Ended
Many of Lost's characters either died on the island or escaped it, but several characters were still there by the end of the show's present-day story.
This was one of television's all-time great cliffhangers because it recontextualized and upended the entire show. After three seasons of episodes alternating between flashbacks and the present-day timeline on the Island, Lost changed its episodic format by introducing flash-forwards. Beyond changing the show's structure, the flash-forwards confirmed that simply escaping the Island would not be the show's endgame, and that something drastic would have to happen to completely change Jack's perspective, all of which made the remaining seasons even more compelling to watch.
The Oceanic Six Didn't Actually Return To The Island Until Midway Through Lost Season 5
The Series Had A Great Deal To Address After The Season 3 Cliffhanger
After delivering the game-changing "We have to go back" cliffhanger at the end of season 3, the payoff did not occur until halfway through season 5. This was because season 4 first needed to establish Lost's Oceanic Six, explain how they got off the Island, and gradually explore the motivations behind Jack and several others wanting to return. The first half of season 5 then needed to show how all the members of the Oceanic Six, except for Aaron Littleton (William Blanchette), would reunite, and end up on Ajira Airways Flight 316, which would take them back to the Island.
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Jack Shephard |
Matthew Fox |
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Kate Austen |
Evangeline Lilly |
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Hugo Reyes |
Jorge Garcia |
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Sun-Hwa Kwon |
Yunjin Kim |
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Sayid Jarrah |
Naveen Andrews |
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Aaron Littleton |
William Blanchette |
The cliffhanger was intriguing because it told the audience that Jack, Kate, and likely several other survivors would leave the Island before it happened in the series. At the same time, the drawback to this cliffhanger is that it meant there was significant ground to cover on and off the Island before the story could catch up with Jack saying "We have to go back!" "Through the Looking Glass" aired on May 23, 2007, and it was not until the episodes that aired in the later winter and early spring of 2009 that the Oceanic Six's return would be shown.
"We Have To Go Back" Typifies The Most Frustrating Thing About Being A Lost Fan
The Setup Was Sometimes Better Than The Payoff
Lost's mystery box storytelling and penchant for cliffhangers sometimes meant that the setup was better than the payoff. The characters returning to the Island in season 5 is satisfying, especially when they reunite with the characters who were left behind, but the payoff arguably was not as strong as the iconic setup of the "We have to go back" scene. Between how effective the setup was and the two-year wait for the payoff, it would have been difficult for anything to meet the high bar that had been raised.
Season 3 explained that the polar bears were part of the Dharma Initiative experiments on Hydra Island, and these experiments were further detailed in "The New Man In Charge" epilogue, but these answers were underwhelming in comparison with the initial tease in season 1.
The polar bear mystery in Lost is another example where the setup was better than the payoff. A polar bear charging out of the jungle on a tropical island raised many fascinating questions in the pilot episode. Season 3 explained that the polar bears were part of the Dharma Initiative experiments on Hydra Island, and these experiments were further detailed in "The New Man In Charge" epilogue, but these answers were underwhelming in comparison with the initial tease in season 1. The reception to Lost's payoff was often mixed, but few can argue how well the show handled its setup.
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