Lost’s fourth episode transformed a survival drama into a mystical story about faith, destiny, and miracles

The best twists totally recontextualize everything that’s come before them. Mystery-box series master Damon Lindelof (Lanterns, Watchmen) once cited The Sixth Sense as the definitive example: The movie works if Bruce Willis is simply a psychiatrist helping a child who sees dead people — even if it’s a child hallucinating these haunting visions. The revelation that Dr. Malcolm Crowe was dead all along, however, changes not just the ending, but the entire movie. Lindelof told Vox in 2004 that the reaction is, “Oh, I didn’t even think I was sitting in that movie.” The twist makes The Sixth Sense “completely and totally transcendent.

At the time, Lindelof was discussing his new series, Lost — which just four episodes in, had pulled off a mind-blowing twist arguably on the same level as The Sixth Sense. For its first few episodes, Lost seems like an ambitious survival drama with a dash of horror. Oceanic Flight 815 crashes on a seemingly deserted tropical island. Its survivors contend with dwindling supplies, a rampaging monster, an inexplicable polar bear, and the unfortunate realization that rescuers are probably searching a thousand miles away from where they actually crashed.

The flashbacks Lost uses initially seem pretty straightforward. Many of them jump back to just before the fateful flight. Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) is secretly addicted to heroin. Kate (Evangeline Lilly) was a captive fugitive being escorted in handcuffs on the plane.

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