# Genuinely clever foreshadowing **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 10, 2012, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575 "2012-12-10T05:18:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575/21 "2012-12-11T00:34:58Z")
> [@NitroPress](#): > > Nothing has ever touched B5 for sheer storytelling coherence. I love that an issue raised in the pilot is not resolved until the very last episode of the series (not counting the two postscript eps). I always loved the callback to the pilot episode that Lyta got at the end of Season 5: _“Oh, and you mentioned wondering what my pleasure threshold is. I just recently found out. .. I don’t have one. Have a very, very nice day, G’Kar.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575/22 "2012-12-11T01:21:13Z")
LOST Just kidding. Seriously, though, I do like Arrested Development’s callbacks to earlier episodes. Some of the best in-jokes/foreshadowing I’ve seen. Babylon 5 is a natural choice as well, of course. I love when Sinclair says, “No matter how long it is, one day we’re going to have to leave this galaxy. Our sun will go supernova and we either leave or die.” I know that is a terrible paraphrase, but when he says it, we don’t expect to see it later. And, of course, _we_ supernova the sun. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575/23 "2012-12-11T01:31:41Z")
In **Hill Street Blues** , toward the end of the first season, J.D. has a serious drinking problem (that had been building for several episodes). He finally goes to an AA meeting and discovers Frank Furillo (his boss) is there. This seemed to me at the time to be a cheap plot twist until I remembered that, in previous episodes, whenever he was in a situation where drinks were served, Furillo ordered a club soda. It was never remarked upon, and usually was shown without any particular emphasis, but they were clearly setting up the fact that Furillo was an alcoholic himself. The first couple of seasons of [BMisfits/B] did this all the time. It’s hard to talk about the show without spoilering it, but there was a big honking clue to the main mystery of the first season about halfway to the show that wasn’t obvious except on retrospect, and in one second season episode, objects in one of the character’s apartment was a clue to his secret, again, not obvious except at the end of the show. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575/24 "2012-12-11T01:49:40Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I always loved the callback to the pilot episode that Lyta got at the end of Season 5: Exactly what I was referring to. Lyta’s second-best line in the whole series. The first, of course, being the utterly banal (out of context) and terrifying (in-context) “Pleased to meet you, Mr. Garibaldi.” ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575/25 "2012-12-11T02:02:18Z")
> [@NitroPress](#): > > My favorite in this category is the inverted foreshadowing of Star Trek II. What did everyone (unavoidably) hear about this movie in advance? Spock dies. > > What happens in the opening scene? Spock ‘dies.’ And in the next scene, he gives Kirk a birthday present: _A Tale of Two Cities,_ in which one of the protagonists sets himself up to die, knowing that it will be a meaningful death; meanwhile, one of the villains is shot to death by her own gun. ---
**Author:** ![irritant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@irritant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irritant)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575/26 "2012-12-11T02:57:51Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > In the lamentably overlooked Oscar-snubbed film _Wayne’s World 2_, there is a seemingly innoculous scene wherein the protagonist encounters some gentlemen doing a day’s labour on a public street. Wayne, the protagonist, and his stalwart companion Garth have a brief conversation with a labourer credited simply as “Chicken Man”. Chicken Man explains the tasks of each of the street labourers. > > **Wayne:** Excuse me, what are you guys doing here in the middle of the street? > **Chicken-man:** Well, I’m putting these chickens in crates, and stacking them right here. Jim’s job is to make sure we always have plenty of watermelons. > **Wayne:** Oh, so you’re selling watermelons. > **Jim:** No, no sir. We just have to make sure we have plenty of them stacked at all times, just like with these here chickens. > **Garth:** What do these guys do? > **Chicken-man:** Well, their job is to walk back and forth with this big plate-glass window every couple of minutes. > > Now, originally I had just thought that this scene was inlcuded simply to color and fleshout the narrative landscape. As the scene concluded, I thought nothing more of it. Later in the film however . . . > > There is a chase scene. The chase ends up taking a path down this very street where we met the innocent labourers. Various destructive collisions occur as the chase tears down the small street. The watermelons are smashed, exploding bright pink and green across the scene, the crates of chickens are disrupted sending escaped chickens to startle about in a flurry of feathers, and the unsuspecting gentlemen carrying the large plate-glass window are left stunned each holding on to an edge of the glass as it is shattered when the chase crashes right through it.Without the earlier scene, this later scene would have made no sense, but I was floored with awe when it all came together. I was not alone in my admiration. At the first screening of the film, when this pay-off scene played out, Shakespeare, Poe, Joyce, and Faulkner all rose from there graves to applaud. I’m not sure if this is foreshadowing, or something more like a [Brick Joke](http://http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BrickJoke) (Warning: TV Tropes link and blah de blah blah.) ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575/27 "2012-12-11T03:07:16Z")
One of my favorites from **Babylon 5** was Vir’s response to Mr. Morden’s question “What do you want?” in season 1, and how it turns out three seasons later. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575/28 "2012-12-11T03:51:11Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > One of my favorites from **Babylon 5** was Vir’s response to Mr. Morden’s question “What do you want?” in season 1, and how it turns out three seasons later. Was Vir’s response in season 1? I don’t remember. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575/29 "2012-12-11T04:06:01Z")
> [@irritant](#): > > I’m not sure if this is foreshadowing, or something more like a [Brick Joke](http://http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BrickJoke) Not exactly. Because, > [@bienville](#): > > **Chicken-man:** Well, their job is to walk back and forth with this big plate-glass window every couple of minutes. _that line_, all by itself, instantly and completely telegraphs that there will be a chase to crash through that glass. The actual chase is a kind of callback, but you know it has to happen. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575/30 "2012-12-11T04:21:32Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Was Vir’s response in season 1? I don’t remember. “I’d like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up into your lifeless eyes and wave like this. Can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?” ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575/31 "2012-12-11T04:24:26Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > “I’d like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up into your lifeless eyes and wave like this. Can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?” Sure, but was that season 1 or 2? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575/32 "2012-12-11T05:28:33Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > LOST > > Just kidding. > Seriously, though, I do like Arrested Development’s callbacks to earlier episodes. Some of the best in-jokes/foreshadowing I’ve seen. > > Babylon 5 is a natural choice as well, of course. I love when Sinclair says, “No matter how long it is, one day we’re going to have to leave this galaxy. Our sun will go supernova and we either leave or die.” > > I know that is a terrible paraphrase, but when he says it, we don’t expect to see it later. And, of course, _we_ supernova the sun. He says the sun will grow cold and go out.. And the last bit is “all of this - all of this - was for nothing. Unless we go to the stars.” ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575/33 "2012-12-11T08:19:50Z")
From Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters (snipped for length) > [@](#): > > She caught sight of the mirror over the mantelpiece and looked down at the crown. It was tempting. It was practically begging her to try it for size. Well, and why not? She made sure that the others weren’t around and then, in one movement, whipped off her hat and placed the crown on her head… > > And froze as she heard the screams, and the thunder of horses, and the deadly whisper of arrows and the damp, solid sound of spears in flesh. Charge after charge echoed across her skull. Sword met shield, or sword, or bone -relentlessly. Years streamed across her mind in the space of a second. There were times when she lay among the dead, or hanging from the branch of a tree; but always there were hands that would pick her up again, and place her on a velvet cushion . . . > > Granny very carefully lifted the crown off her head – it was an effort, it didn’t like it much – and laid it on the table. > … > > ‘You’d have to be a born fool to be a king,’ said Granny. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575/34 "2012-12-11T14:29:15Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Sure, but was that season 1 or 2? To be honest, I’m not sure. I thought it was late season 1 but it may have been early season 2. Still, there were at least two full seasons between setup and payoff. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575/35 "2012-12-11T14:39:04Z")
Breaking Bad is loaded w/ great foreshadowing… Even the episode titles in season two give a clue as to a big event in the finale. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575/36 "2012-12-11T14:52:09Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > Breaking Bad is loaded w/ great foreshadowing… Even the episode titles in season two give a clue as to a big event in the finale. IMVHO, the worst aspect of that excellent series. It’s SO heavy-handed. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575/37 "2012-12-11T14:54:23Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > _that line_, all by itself, instantly and completely telegraphs that there will be a chase to crash through that glass. The actual chase is a kind of callback, but you know it has to happen. All of this reminds me of the repeated events in\* Lola Rennt\* (_Run Lola Run_). As the story cycles through, there are a dozen repeated elements that foreshadow later turns. One involves four workers carrying a huge sheet of glass, and… …won’t spoil any of the iterations. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575/38 "2012-12-11T15:45:34Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Sure, but was that season 1 or 2? Season 2. However, for even better foreshadowing, some existed in the very first episode: [ol] [li]G’Kar said that he expected to die along with Molari with their hands on their other’s throats.[/li][li]When Kosh is introduced to Sinclair, one of the words he says is “Valen.”[/li][/ol] One of the great things about watching the show during its run was that you could try to figure out what events in each episode might be foreshadowing for future episodes. One neat bit of foreshadowing in **The Usual Suspects** : when Mr. Kobiyashi gives out the packages to the group in their first meeting, he names them in the order they die in the film. There are also many more clues that point to the identity of Keyser Sose spread throughout the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575/39 "2012-12-11T16:59:30Z")
I like a lot of the foreshadowing in Moffat’s Doctor Who. I think he does a great job, with clues for the sharp viewer, and still manages to take many people aback. Hidden in plain sight. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575/40 "2012-12-11T17:03:39Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > When Kosh is introduced to Sinclair, one of the words he says is “Valen.” Specifically, he says “Entil’zha Valen.” (“Leader/Founder of the Rangers Valen.”) Unfortunately, that voiceover was added after the first showing of the pilot - I’m not certain when, but I think it was for the second showing just before the second season premiered and the Sinclair/Valen arc was set in stone. So it’s a retcon, and thus slightly asterisked as foreshadowing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genuinely-clever-foreshadowing/643575.md?page=3)