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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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.
I’m not sure if this is foreshadowing, or something more like a Brick Joke
(Warning: TV Tropes link and blah de blah blah.)
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.
Not exactly. Because,
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.
“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?
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.”
From Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters
(snipped for length)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.