Lost has final episode which never aired on TV that has only just been discovered by fans

This article contains spoilers for Lost

Lost’s final episode features one of the most controversial twists in TV history, but viewers who watched it live and never thought about it again actually missed an epilogue that takes place after the show ended and answers what Hurley did after the show ended.

Lost was at one time the biggest TV show in the world, drawing in record ratings in the mid 2000s and at one point sitting as the second most watched show on TV.

The series centred around the survivors of a plane crash becoming stranded on an island and facing off against supernatural threats.

The ending to the series was deeply controversial as many felt it did not pay off the numerous mysteries built up across the six seasons, but there has always been a key misunderstanding about what actually happened.

Despite popular theories, Lost did not end with the reveal that the character's were 'dead all along' (ABC)

Lost has been known for years now as the show that ends with the idea that the characters were ‘dead all along’. This came about through ‘flash-sideway’ scenes which showed what appeared to be some sort of alternative timeline.

The misunderstanding comes however with the idea that this shows the events on the island never happened, which isn’t the case. The show ends with Jack lying dead on the beach intercut with all the characters from the show dead or alive meeting in a church. This is not a sign they were always dead however, but instead was supposed to be them all being reunited in the afterlife.

In the original airing this final scene was incredibly controversial, but maybe it wouldn’t have been quite as disliked if they had included the epilogue they filmed and did not air on TV.

Fans on X have rediscovered this with one superfan page The LOST World posting: “Did you know LOST had an official bonus epilogue that never aired on TV?”

The epilogue mini-episode is 12 minutes long, which can be watched below, and is called The New Man in Charge.

The episode answers a number of questions that are left unanswered by the ending to Lost which, whilst mostly quite niche subplots, wraps things up very nicely.

It, essentially, answers the question of what Hurley does after taking over leadership as the protector of the island at the end of Lost.

As part of this it answers some of the more bizarre questions left unanswered from the show such as ‘what’s the deal with polar bears on a tropical island’, and ‘why was there a room that could brainwash people’.

Hurley also shuts down a lot of the secret bizarre experiments and food drops that were taking place.

The episode answers some huge questions about Lost the show never answered (ABC)

The mini-episode was released on DVD, with one fan on X saying: “I remember this was released as a bonus for Season 6 on the DVDs, and I heard at the time it was because people weren't happy the ending didn't answer all their questions.”

Another post said: “I didn’t know this existed. What a treat getting a little piece of new Lost content 16 years later. Thank you. The only downside is I really wish we had gotten a Hurley driven spinoff.”

Lost is available to watch on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US.