One Of Lost's Best Episode Endings Was 'Stolen' From A Major Horror Movie Franchise

If there is one thing writers on "Lost" excelled at, it was dramatic endings — with the possible exception of the controversial "Lost" finale. So how did the writers continually manage to come up with such brilliant endings? In one instance, showrunner Damon Lindelof stole an idea.

"The third season finale of 'Lost' was stolen from the movie 'Saw 2,'" Lindelof said in a Buzzfeed interview. "If you have not seen 'Saw 2,' all you need to know is that Donnie Wahlberg is in it and that the twist at the end involves tricking the audience into thinking they're watching something unfold in present time, when in fact, it is unfolding in the past."

Lindelof and fellow showrunner Carlton Cuse used the concept of the twist in "Saw 2" to shape what became one of the highest-rated episodes of the entire series. Up until that point, every episode of "Lost" featured flashbacks, but Lindelof and Cuse wanted to introduce the concept of a flash-forward.

The two-parter Season 3 finale "Through the Looking Glass" featured scenes of Jack off the island and struggling. "Lost" showrunner Damon Lindelof said it was the perfect setup. "The divine inspiration of 'Saw 2' led us to the inevitable conclusion that the best way to do this would be to make our first flash-forward look like yet another flashback," Lindelof told Buzzfeed. "And then in the final scene, we drop the hammer. Boom. You're in the future b***hes!"

"Lost" aired during a time when some of the best TV ever was running. Still, the show was criticized for spinning its wheels and having no plan. Lindelof said the problem was not having an end date. "We realized that eventually if we had a destination our airplane was going to get there, but we were just going to have to keep circling it until we ran out of gas," Lindelof told the Writer's Guild Foundation. "And we all know what happens. It's not the nicest landing." So, in Season 3 they negotiated an end date which allowed them to put their plan in place.

The episode dramatically ends with Jack meeting Kate off the island. In the Buzzfeed interview, Lindelof said writing that scene was a seminal moment for him. "My eyes were wet. I was inside the thing, feeling what these characters were feeling, knowing we were, at long last, working toward an actual ending now," Lindelof said. "And finally, for one fleeting moment, I felt peace."