10 TV Plot Twists That Were Hiding In Plain Sight

7. A Familiar Shadow - Futurama

Buster Arrested
Fox

Taking the art of foreshadowing quite literally in its pilot episode way back in 1999, Matt Groening's first Futurama outing by the name of Space Pilot 3000 came equipped with a blink-and-you'll-miss-it occurrence that would completely change the fate of the animated show's leading light.

As revealed later down the road in the aptly titled The Why of Fry Season 4 episode, none other than the seemingly innocent being by the name of Nibbler was actually responsible for Fry's eventual leap into the year 3000. Seen during this aforementioned first-ever entry, it was the fleeting shadowy figure of Lord Nibbler of the Nibblonians who pushed (or blew) Fry into the cryogenic tank way back when, something which is then eventually played out in said Season 4 ep, too.

Far from being any old shadowy accident, Groening would actually reveal in the show's DVD commentary for the pilot:

"What we tried to do is we tried to lay in a lot of little secrets in this episode that would pay off later."

Contributor
Contributor

Lifts rubber and metal. Watches people flip in spandex and pretends to be other individuals from time to time...