This article contains spoilers for the entirety ofLost.
ABCs classic genre hitLostis remembered fondly in the annals of TV for many reasons.
The characters were satisfyingly complicated, the philosophy was on point, and the mysteries were intriguing.
And whispers guess what: the ending wasgood.But we can argue that particular point over here.
And the formula it chose for doing so was a simple one.
Some entire episodes ofLostare as shocking and unexpected as anything youll ever see on television.
So lets remember 15 of those truly stunning hours now.
The 83-minute story opens as Dr. Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) awakens on a beach to pure chaos.
And thats just the first 10 minutes.
The rest of this supersized installment would establish many of the series-long mysteries thatLostwould become best known for.
Theres the looming specter of a monster out in the wilderness, a mysterious decades-old S.O.S.
signal, and a rampaging polar bear in a tropical environment.
This installment follows the mysterious and soft-spoken John Locke (Terry OQuinn).
The John Locke of old was a meek pencil-pusher looking to go on an Australian walkabout to prove himself.
And the reason he was rejected for that walkabout?
He was confined to a wheelchair!
Talk about a BOOM LOST moment.
Outlaws, the shows second James Sawyer Ford (Josh Holloway)-centric installment is a prime example.
But this first example remains the most shocking and unexpected by far.
But in the immortal words of Lee Corso: not so fast my friend!
Thankfully,Lostrectifies that issue with the superb season 2 premiere.
The episode definitively answers the season 1 mystery of Whats in the Hatch with Some Scottish guy named Desmond.
After 25 episodes in the jungle, its genuinely unmooring to see the trappings of civilization inside the hatch.
And its even more shocking when Jack just so happens to recognize the man living in it.
Character deaths were a frequent occurrence onLost.
By this point in the shows run, it had killed two major characters and many more recurring players.
The two deaths featured in Two for the Road, however, are particularly shocking.
This episode sees the return of Michael (Harold Perrineau) after his time with The Others.
We are first introduced to Desmonds time-hopping abilities in the season 3 episode Flashes Before Your Eyes.
In reality though, Locke, Jack, Sawyer, and Benjamin Linus (the aforementioned Michael Emerson a.k.a.
Henry Gale) all get equal play here and it rules.
Oh, and hes on the Island.
Oh, and Locke blows up a submarine.
But its in the present where things really get going.
Ben has made mention of some sort of Island deity named Jacob to Locke.
But surely, there is no such thing.
That leads into two of the most surprising reveals in all ofLosthistory.
Honestly, if youve only heard of oneLostmoment, its probably one of these two.
Thats right, friends, this is the We have to go back!
Case in point is season 4s The Shape of Things to Come.
The real shock, however, comes with something a little more traditional.
Ben declines and just like that, that rat bastard Keamy shoots and kills a teenage girl.
For the folks watching the series in real time though, that classification took quite awhile to crystalize.
And it does so in the most surprising fashion with episode 8 LaFleur.
And a damned good one at that.
The Variable serves as a spiritual sequel to season 4s The Constant as Daniels background is revealed.
This show is wild.
Its difficult to even catalogue all of the shocking twists that the show packs into this two-hour installment.
The first scene is astonishing: the god-like Jacob (Mark Pellegrino) is finally revealed and surprise!
He has an equally god-like, yet evil brother (Titus Welliver).
This is just a preposterously stuffed episode of shocking reveal after shocking reveal.
Would it merely get the Oceanic 815 survivors back to their correct timeline on the Island?
Would it create an alternate timeline where their plane never crashed?
Or would it just kill everybody?
Indeed Jack and company end up back on their correct timeline on the Island.
The Island portion of this premiere isnt too shocking.
It only features a mysterious temple and the zombification of Sayid (Naveen Andrews).
But the reveal of a flash sideways universe is one ofLosts biggest surprises.
You will not see theLostseries finale The End after it.
Our reasoning is two-fold.
One, theres no value in relitigating theLostfinale until we have the energy to do so.
Thatll have to be a whole separate article.
Two, save for one reveal at the very end, theLostfinale isnt that shocking!
Its more of a warm goodbye to the characters audiences spent six seasons with than a revelation fest.
Instead, however, lets talk about the fourth-to-last episode ofLost.
The Candidate is shocking in its brutality.
This installment kills three main characters, a record for any episode of the series.
