Footage From LOST's Finale Is Missing On Netflix

UPDATE (1/7/16 5:19 PM ET): Netflix has issued a statement, claiming to be searching for the missing LOST footage and will restore it as soon as possible.

@EW We aren't either! We are in the middle of correcting now, and will have the uncut version back streaming as soon as possible.

— Netflix US (@netflix) January 7, 2016

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What happened, happened. You can't change it, no matter how hard you try, Netflix!

The online streaming service, which is known for offering up television series in their entirety for binge watching, has clipped 18 minutes from the hit ABC series, LOST, which originally ran 104 minutes.

After catching the attention of several viewers re-watching the series, like yours truly has at least seven times, word spread to LOST's writer/producer, Damon Lindelof.

"I am totally befuddled by all this," Lindelof said in a statement to EW. Love it or hate it, the finale that aired is the definitive finale and to alter it in any way defies explanation. Something tells me that this isn't Netflix's fault … that it's an honest mistake and something got miscommunicated — I seem to remember ABC had to make an edit for rerun airings that tightened the show into 'format' (42 minutes to accommodate commercials), and somehow that [version] mistakenly got sent to Netflix. This sometimes happened with our finales — we'd ask for extra time and ABC would agree to air, but then we had to do another tighter version for subsequent airings and/or international [markets]. We usually left these (painful) cuts to the discretion of our editors… but as the show lives on in DVD form and on Netflix, there is ZERO reason to have the shorter version out there."

Hmm...LOST was cut down to 42 minutes for commercials. Number coincidence? I think not!

Back on topic, some viewers claim to have seen the finale in its entirety on Netflix in the past. The sudden change to the episode is likely a result of the change in the Netflix back end.

As for a remastered, revisited, or special edition of The End, it's not happening. "I have no intention of 'changing' nor Special Editioning the finale … we continue to stand by it, but this is a fix that needs to happen, so at least people can love or hate it in its entirety," Lindelof added, smashing all of our hopes of going back in one swift statement.