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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far.

TV URBAN LEGEND: Terry O’Quinn accidentally stabbed Matthew Fox with a real knife in the finale of Lost.

SPOILERS FOR LOST AHEAD!

In the final season of the ABC series Lost…

Terry O’Quinn’s character, Locke, is killed off and the Man in Black takes his place by taking on his form (one of the Man in Black’s powers). In the series finale, through various machinations, the Man in Black is finally mortal and can leave the island. Matthew Fox’s character, Jack, tries to stop him.

They struggle…

and in the ensuing struggle, the Man in Black stabs Jack in the abdomen…

Amazingly enough, O’Quinn accidentally used a REAL knife in the scene!!

You see, the scene was filmed with both a real knife at certain points and a collapsible stunt knife at other points. Now a collapsible knife is no joke in and of itself – it can still mess you up if you’re hit with it, so in the scene Fox was offered a variety of different padding to wear under his clothes. He eventually went with a kevlar padding. The kevlar was the only one of the paddings that could withstand a direct blow from a knife without the knife penetrating Fox’s skin.

Well, as it turned out, it was awfully lucky of Fox to pick that kevlar padding, because during the scuffle, O’Quinn accidentally used the wrong knife and stabbed Fox with the REAL knife instead of the collapsible one! Luckily, the aforementioned kevlar padding kept it from entering Fox’s skin, instead just leaving a nasty bruise.

Apparently, they considered doing the scene at one point without ANY padding! Yikes.

The legend is…

STATUS: True

Thanks to Jorge Garcia’s neat Lost podcast, Geronimo Jack’s Beard, for the information!

Be sure to check out my archive of TV Legends Revealed for more urban legends about the world of television.

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com.