17 Times People And Events Simply Disappeared in TV Shows Only To Resurface Randomly Seasons Later

As a viewer, don't you find situations like this annoying?

Damjan

• Published in Interesting
• July 22, 2022

There are shows with hundreds of episodes under their belts out there. And that brings one some problems.

You can't really expect writers to remember what they were writing about a decade ago when they are focusing on the next episode. It's only to be expected that once-important plotlines or characters simply become kind of...forgotten when TV series run for many, many seasons.

However, it can be very irritating for the viewer because we get attached to some characters. But occasionally, a show will pick up an old plotline and give us some closure or a small indication about it.

Even though it's very clear they neglected the subplot for entire seasons, we kind of like it when shows do this.

It makes the show interesting again, gives it a bit of suspense, it keeps us on the edge of our seats... wait a minute! Do you think that show creators actually do this on purpose?

To keep the show more interesting? All this time we were lead to believe that they had simply forgotten some characters and plots, but they were actually keeping them safe for later...

Here are 17 seemingly forgotten characters and plotlines that eventually made a comeback years later. Take a look:

1. In the Game of Thrones Season 3 finale, do you recall when Gendry left?

It appeared as though Gendry had just vanished off the face of the earth (along with the narrative that he was a Baratheon), but in Season 7, he reappeared. The program even poked fun at viewers who joked that Gendry had been on the boat the entire time.

Finally, some resolution

Gendry cooperates with the characters, endures until the very end, and is even recognized as the legitimate leader of House Baratheon. He is present even when Bran is elected king.

In addition, he briefly romances Arya, but she declines his marriage proposal. We, at last, received some resolution after years of forgetting.

Go, Bran

2. Minkus

Minkus from Boy Meets World was another character who was overlooked. He played a rather big role in Season 1, but when Season 2 started, he simply...doesn't exist anymore.

Hi, Minkus

However, Minkus made a comeback in the Season 5 finale, when our main characters were graduating. He runs into Shawn and Corey, who are discussing how this is an opportunity to say goodbye to people they've lost touch with.

He was in the other part of the school:)

To everyone who noted his glaring absence from the show, Minkus makes the amusing in-joke that it's like they haven't attended the same school for the previous four years.

3. Mr. Turner

Additionally, Mr. Turner, Corey and Shawn's former teacher who also kind of vanished, is mentioned in this scenario.

Minkus runs to him

...by having Minkus shout for Mr. Turner off-screen before running off to speak with him.

4. The Burning Boat Festival

For a nine-season show, One Tree Hill has a ton of these, which makes sense. The Burning Boat festival is probably the most egregious example; it was first mentioned as a yearly event that would likely appear in every season before being promptly forgotten until eight seasons later when it was mentioned as if it had always been happening and that our characters had been attending it every year since then.

Haley also mentions it

Haley also remembers a scenario from Season 1 where she deceived Lucas about mentoring Nathan while they were both at the Burning Boat Festival.

Tutoring

It's a sweet throwback to one of the earliest episodes of the program, and it happens in one of the final episodes of the show, but I still find it odd that it went for eight seasons without being referenced at all.

5. Jimmy Edwards

Jimmy Edwards' disappearance is another instance from One Tree Hill. In the first episode of the show, Edwards made an appearance as Mouth's best friend and one of the river court guys, but a few episodes later, he vanished entirely.

Until season 3...

Until Season 3, when everyone was given access to the time capsules, and Jimmy's was essentially a tirade against the entire school.

Plot issue

This character's disappearance was actually brought up and turned into a plot issue that fueled the school shooting narrative. It turns out that Mouth and Lucas had also kind of forgotten about him (although, as Mouth later claims, Jimmy was the one who didn't want to hang out).

6. Tim and Bevin in OTH

Moving on to a more upbeat OTH, Tim and Bevin vanished after Seasons 3 and 4, respectively. Until they both made brief, separate appearances in Season 5, when we learned they were married and had a son, their presence seemed completely forgotten.

In Season 9, Bevin then unexpectedly reappeared. He even appeared in the time-jump sequence during Jamie's game!

7. Similar to Ty Collins, who although playing a significant role in the first season of 90210 and serving as the father of Adrianna's child, vanished entirely after it.

Even when Ade attempted to gain custody of their child, he failed to appear.

But after that, Ty was only mentioned in one dream episode of the program, in which Annie daydreamed about a Kansas-based existence in which everyone still knew Ty.

8. Buffy the Vampire Slayer offers arguably the most enjoyable example of this cliché.

Back in Season 2, Buffy had to kill her boyfriend Angel because he had turned demonic. His soul was saved just before she killed him, but it was too late; she had to carry out the killing nevertheless.

Xander did them wrong

Willow, a young witch, cast a spell to restore Angel's soul; in fact, she begged Xander to tell Buffy that she was about to do so so that she might delay murdering Angelus while the spell was casting.  But Xander, who despised Angel, chose not to inform Buffy after all.

Given that Willow's spell works and Buffy didn't receive the message, Xander's error was rather significant. Yet nobody ever learns about his deceit. 

It seems that the show had forgotten about it. UNTIL the penultimate season (five seasons later),  when it is brought up in a discussion and Buffy reminds Xander of what he said. 

Although it's a little difficult to tell, it appears that Buffy is now aware that Xander concealed it from her while Willow was unaware.

9. Amy

Amy is another Buffy character. In Episode 11 of Season 3, she transforms into a rat. 

At the end of the episode, Buffy and Willow are unable to turn her around, and that is the last time we see or hear of her for a very long time.

Despite Willow having a pet rat on a few occasions, it looks like the program has forgotten about her. However, in Season 4, Willow inadvertently renders Amy human once more for a split second before turning around.

Then she's basically forgotten again until Season 6 when Willow all of a sudden decides to try turning her human again

10. One character who vanished from the Madam Secretary pilot was Marn's Roxanne Majidi, Elizabeth's personal stylist and image adviser.

Nevertheless, despite having a desk in the state department building, she quickly vanished... for five seasons.

Then, out of nowhere, she reappears in Season 6 as if she had always been there, though Elizabeth does admit that Ali typically helps clothe her.

11. Raisa from Arrow was another character who first appeared in the pilot before going missing.

She was the queen's housekeeper and appeared to be quite close to Oliver when he got home, but she had vanished by the time the next episode aired.

She returned in the Season 6 opener, five seasons later, to look after Oliver's son William.

But after that, she vanished for a further seventeen episodes, despite the fact that she and Oliver were unquestionably William's primary caregivers.

12. One more person who appeared in the pilot and then vanished... Weeds' Josh Wilson

There is a whole plot about him supplying marijuana to kids and having a relationship with an older man, but then he just vanishes. 

In Season 4, Doug makes a few references to him, indicating that he is still alive.

In Season 6, when it is revealed that he went to Chicago, five seasons after originally going missing, he is also referenced in passing.

In the series finale, when the episode concludes, he makes his long-awaited comeback.

That doesn't, however, fully explain why he wasn't there.

13. The Miss Mystic Falls pageant episode from The Vampire Diaries Season 1 is one that stands out because it establishes the annual nature of the event.

The next year, it repeats again with Caroline, the current Miss Mystic Falls, coming to assist, but despite several years passing, it is then forgotten about for the remainder of the show.

It's not until the last season, Season 8, that Caroline seems to depict Miss Mystic Falls as a yearly task she assists with.

Additionally, the episode revisits Damon and Elena's Season 1 dance, which has only been addressed once previously.

In Season 8, the authors were feeling a lot of nostalgia.

14. In the first episode of New Girl, Coach was introduced as a main character and roommate. However, he vanished without much of an explanation in the following episode.

After being absent for several seasons, he suddenly reappears in Season 3 and is mentioned by the characters as if he had always been a buddy.

Even when Winston offers a feeble explanation for his multiple-season absence, it's still unsettling. 

15. Russel stumbles across Nick and Jess on their first date and requests that they both describe their relationship on the back of valet cards.

Then he declines to show them and leaves without telling us what they say.

Up until the final season, when the show just happened to recall this (five seasons later).

On the day of Jess and Nick's wedding, Russel comes up and miraculously still has the valet cards in his pocket. And we eventually saw what they had to say (though it was a bit disappointing).

16. Tony and Effy's relationship was a central theme of Skins Series 1 and 2.

But Tony was largely forgotten as Effy took center stage in Series 3 and 4.

The fact that Effie had seen him suffer brain damage after being hit by a bus in Season 1 was also significant.

This was the first and last time that Gen 2 mentioned Tony, Effy having a brother, or Tony's accident, until Series 4, when Effy passes the spot where Tony was hit and it causes her to have a breakdown.

 It seemed as though the show had just remembered it in that particular episode.

17. And finally, Walt allowing Jane to overdose was one of the most iconic scenes from Breaking Bad.

We keep waiting for it to come up and be exposed because it was a significant moment for Walt and a major secret from Jesse.

But it doesn't. Not until the last few episodes, when Jesse is going to be taken away and Walt decides at the last second to bring it up. 

One Tree Hill really forgot about the Burning Boat Festival then tried to bring it back in Season 9 like it'd been there all along. And that’s not even the worst case we’ve seen on the list.

What’s the reason for these reappearances? Do writers feel remorse and that’s why they bring them back?

Damjan