10 Best Lost Plot Twists

Even before Locke’s body was shown in the casket at the funeral home, Lost’s writers hinted that his story might not be over. Through Ben’s insistence that the body be taken back to the Island, and the general unlikelihood of such a pivotal character being killed offscreen, an impression was conveyed that Locke might rise again. Sure enough, the story of Locke’s quest to gather the Oceanic Six, and his eventual death at the hands of a treacherous Ben, was bookended by scenes of a supposedly resurrected Locke on the Island.

It seemed that Locke had finally achieved his destiny, and triumphed over his insecurities and trauma. But the writers had been playing a crafty game, and had a monumental shock in store.

The Season Five finale quickly established that there was something dreadful in the crate recovered from Ajira 316’s hold, thanks to Frank’s memorable reaction to its opening. Even so, it was truly chilling to discover that the crate contained Locke’s body, meaning that Locke had never been resurrected, and that something else had been masquerading as him on the Island. This twist raised the already considerable tension surrounding “Locke” and Ben’s fateful meeting with Jacob to fever-pitch, and gave far greater poignancy to the events of The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham, by showing that Locke’s tragic, lonely end had not been undone, and that dead really was dead.