10 TV Shows That Cleverly Foreshadow What Happens
9. Arrested Development - Buster's Missing Appendage
There are a ton of running gags spread throughout Arrested Development, and while most aren't meant to foreshadow as much as they rely on callbacks, there's one foreshadowing series of events that stands out. Buster eventually loses his hand when a "loose seal" bites it off, but it was foreshadowed for two seasons before it happens.
In seasons one and two, there are several key moments, which appear completely unrelated at first, but clearly, stand as foreshadowing events on second viewing. In the episode "Out On A Limb," Buster takes a break on a bus bench, which features an ad for Army Officers.
While sitting there, he's obscuring part of the ad such that it reads only "Arm Off." Before this event occurred, Buster found his long-lost hand-shaped chair his mother had given the housekeeper, and when he sees it, he exclaims, "Wow, I never thought I'd miss a hand so much!"
Of course, it wouldn't be long before Buster was actually missing one of his hands, and the series would play off his disability from that point forward. Looking back, those foreshadowing events were pretty obvious, but without already knowing he would lose a hand, who could guess?