19 Times TV Writers Clearly Forgot About A Storyline Then Tried To Pretend Like They Hadn't
TV shows tend to forget things from past seasons, leading to dropped storylines and unanswered questions that can be really frustrating.
But every once in a while, they randomly pick back up a storyline from seasons before, or make a nod to a disappeared character that tells us they didn't actually forget. Sometimes, it's just a little reference to the storyline, and sometimes, they fully pick it back up.
Here are 19 times TV shows finally seemed to remember old storylines, and either picked them back up, gave them some resolution, or just provided a cute nod to them:
1.Remember how Diego started out The Umbrella Academy as a vigilante? He was a much more serious character, and it seemed like this would be a major plot point, but then it was just sort of...dropped.
But not to worry! Because the show finally remembered the moment in the middle of Season 3, when Diego briefly mentions his past to Allison.
2.You probably want to forget, but I'm sure we all remember El's sister Kali from that one Stranger Things episode everyone hates.
The writers smartly chose not to revisit the plot-line, but Kali did get a blink-and-you-miss-it reference two seasons after she appeared, when Henry briefly mentions a time when El and Eight (Kali) were growing up together:
3.Another character that essentially vanished into thin air was Seven from Married... with Children. He was introduced in Season 7, but then a few episodes later, it was like he'd never even existed.
Until a brief moment in Season 8, when you can see his face on the back of a milk carton. To me, this example is less cute than wildly creepy. It's truly one of the weirdest TV mysteries ever.
4.Another character to essentially disappear was Rachel on One Tree Hill. After becoming a series regular in Season 4, it was weird not to have her in Season 5. She did come back for a few episodes, during which Brooke vowed to help her with her drug addiction. But then she stole money from Brooke for drugs and left.
And that was all we saw of her for two seasons!!! This was super frustrating because not only was she a main character, but it seemed extremely unlikely Brooke wouldn't try harder to look for her after fighting so hard for her. She literally isn't even mentioned for years. When she does come back, she apologizes to Brooke, but then that's basically all we see of the Brooke/Rachel friendship that was so huge in Season 4.
5.Sometimes, it's relationships that disappear. Like Cordelia and Wes, who had a thing on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But when Wes showed up on Angel, becoming a series regular with Cordy, there was basically no reference to this fact. For seasons.
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Until finally, Cordy and Wes are talking about his feelings for Fred, and Cordy finally brings up the fact that they once almost had a relationship. In Season 3, four years after their relationship first aired.
6.Another relationship that seemed to disappear was Caroline and Nick's relationship on New Girl. They get back together at the end of Season 1 and plan to move in together.
Jess doesn't think Nick should go, and tries to stop him, but Nick decides to do it anyways...until he shows up at the end of the episode, making it clear he's changed his mind. Except there's literally no mention of what happened between him and Caroline.
Until two seasons later, when Caroline randomly shows back up and asks Nick why he left. As the show liked to bring back exes, I suppose this wasn't surprising, but it was weird Caroline went so long before being mentioned.
7.This one was more of a fun reference to an old storyline, but I always thought it was weird that after Shelby and Winston broke up on New Girl, she was literally never mentioned again — especially since the show did bring back a lot of other exes.
But in rewatching the show, I noticed she actually did get a quick reference in the same "Exes" episode when Caroline comes back.
8.Remember how Elena started out The Vampire Diaries always writing in her diary? Hence the name of the show? And then that just sort of...stopped?
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