Fresh Off the Boat Lost Episode

Let me take you back to 2018 when Fresh Off the Boat had a mysterious unaired episode entitled, “Emery’s Flashback.” This episode was filmed between February through July 2017 for a potential January 22, 2018 airdate during the fourth season; but American Broadcasting Company (ABC) mysteriously cut from the airwaves due to many uncertain speculations. I worked at ABC as a video programmer at the time and I’ve gotten a few dozen emails speculated that this was because of poor timing and it was after an mass shooting going on recently on which explained why a few seconds of the opening was interrupted by a news report of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in mid-to-west coast affiliates. Those who have seen that few seconds opening at the time recalled Emery Huang purchasing an M27 firearm before running out and causing a massacre. There were complaints after complaints. Half of which seemed out of character for the poor feller making the following episode way to violent; while half complained about the episode being interrupted with a news report about the school shooting thus feeling overwhelmed and disappointed about the rest of the broadcast during the remainder of that night.

The other information I have gathered were from cast, crew, executives, and the creator (Nahnatchka Khan) who was an staff writer of Malcolm in the Middle and worked during the airing of the show; even though I’m afraid to reveal any details within my behalf of the ABC executives. If you want any information, however; according to the fourth and fifth season DVD and Blu-ray commentaries; three episodes from the respective seasons; one entitled, “King in the North;” and the other two from Season 5, “Fresh Off the RV” and “Cousin Eddie;” had some of the same locations reshot and some scripts rewritten to cover up the lost episode. Plus, during a 2021 Discord “Ask Me Anything” Fresh Off the Boat 6th Anniversary Reunion with Randall Park and Hudson Yang, there were a few questions asked about that lost episode; but those questions resulted in a series of permanent bans from Park, Yang, and the mods themselves after feeling annoyed and enraged about being asked these same exact questions over and over again about what happened few years prior.

One other piece of the puzzle is the tape in question. The production code for that episode was originally 4AXT17, which explains why if you look up the Fresh Off the Boat’s episode list on Wikipedia, IMDb, or anywhere else; the episode “Let Me Go, Bro” just 3 weeks prior; has always been the production code. Little did anyone know, that same production code was the one just to cover up the unaired episode in question and is labeled as 4AXT17-B. The other one (known as “Emery’s Flashback” and has been labeled 4AXT17-A) has been hidden under ABC News footages of all places. The tape is still in my possession under the network’s oath and I’m afraid I have given you many behind the scenes information. I will, however, do my best to describe in detail the episode in question.

The episode opens up with an overhead view of Louis Huang awaking from what seemed to be some kind of worst experience he’s been experiencing as of that moment. He looked noticeably worrisome, lonesome, and even a bit jerky at times. There was no narration spoken by Huang, there wasn’t any music playing, or sound effects, or even just straight up sound playing for the whole one minute scene; nothing but silence for this one whole scene alone. The entire one scene (consisting of one reverse shot, two overhead view shots, and one bird’s eye view shot) is with Louis looking in the window, noticed his friends and family were dead for a few weeks or have been on the verge of dying. His room was in a complete mess; dirty fabric all over the floor, leftover dishes; while the show is about Taiwanese American family in Florida in the 1990s; just not in a very unusual, depressing state.

At that point, the audio began working with Jessica Huang furiously knocking on Louis’s door. He opens the door and she hands him the telephone while she is seen sobbing rather loudly, depressingly, and hysterically—all at once. She says it’s Emery and he has written his manifesto about his life and his terrible deeds of what he has caused. Emery explained the reason on speaker phone and what he may do next. “I’m sorry dad. It’s not you who's been in deep suffering throughout your miserable life. Just remember to take care of yourself. Don’t tell the CIA, the FBI, or the mass media.” Louis hung up the phone after a millisecond of static noise and both he and Jessica were in fear by what they have just listened to. Keep in mind, their reaction in their faces didn't seem to look comedic; but more painful. Louis breaks character for a second as he said quietly, "I'm sorry, I just—I can't continue. I gotta leave." You could hear several crew members and directors mumbling while he tries to exit the stage and phone his agent; but yet the guards keep pushing him back onset. However, this isn’t the worst part.

The next scene features a funeral home with Louis and Jenny Huang sitting at a black-cloth dinner table. Louis gets up from his seat as the scene cuts to the blowing of leaves coming from the trees. Camera pans out and Louis looks down. Jenny gets up from her seat and stared at Louis and—you know, this is hard to explain; but the scene cuts to both of them watching on TV the presidential speech from Richard Nixon about the Watergate scandal. I giggled inside; remember we shot the episode back in 2017 and this was supposed to air during Season 4; even more so is that the TV they were watching was a Roku with Charter Spectrum Cable box.

In the final scene, it was back to Louis’s room where he woke up out of bed; scared as hell; as if it were some horrifying nightmare. I mean, given that whole entire traumatizing experience, I wouldn’t blame him. Louis walks downstairs to the kitchen and he greets Jenny a good morning. Jenny however asks him, “Say the other day at work, the kids were doing a show and tell at school, and I give them a collection of frogs. Wanna see some?” Louis snickered and said, “Come on Jenny! Don’t you understand? We are the frogs!!” The camera then pans slowly to his face as his eyes became slivered like almonds.

The episode abruptly ends right after this scene; the episode is nine minutes long unlike other episodes (the show's runtime clocks in usually 22 minutes without commercials). Following afterwards is 14 minutes of dead air—the rest of the tape contains news broadcasts recorded over by the network all were news before 2018. One being a report about Westside School shooting, the other being Columbine High School shooting, the third being being the 9/11 attacks, the fourth being the Timothy McVeigh execution, and the final one is being the killing of Osama bin Laden.

I could never watch Fresh Off the Boat the same way ever. I mean, what was that?! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!! I was so shocked that this happened. I told the ABC staff the next day, nobody believed me. They think I'm insane, but this happened. Please! God! Don’t let ABC gone bankrupt, shut down, Go out of business and the network will be Defunct!