The third season finale introduced flash forwards to the show. ("Through the Looking Glass")
A flash-forward (or prolepsis, also sometimes known as a flash-ahead) in a narrative occurs when the primary sequence of events in a story is interrupted by the interjection of a scene representing an event expected, projected, or imagined to occur at a later time. The flash-forward technique is used less frequently than its reverse, the flashback, or the flash-sideways.
In Lost, the flash-forward technique was introduced in "Through the Looking Glass", although it wasn't made clear that it was a flash-forward until the end of the episode. The first episode to feature a flash-forward that was clearly shown to be one from the start was "The Beginning of the End". "Ji Yeon" was the first episode to intertwine flashbacks with flash-forwards, although the flashback element was only clearly revealed to be in the past at the end of the episode, making its temporality a plot twist.
List of flash-forwards[]
- "Through the Looking Glass" - Jack
- "The Beginning of the End" - Hurley (briefly shifted to Jack)
- "The Economist" - Sayid
- "Eggtown" - Kate
- "Ji Yeon" - Sun
- "The Shape of Things to Come" - Ben
- "Something Nice Back Home" - Jack
- "There's No Place Like Home, Part 1" - Oceanic Six
- "There's No Place Like Home, Parts 2 & 3" - Oceanic Six
- "316" - Jack
- "LaFleur" - Sawyer