Occasionally the Idol can be seen in the background of certain episodes, not directly causing characters' deaths yet still foreshadowing what is to come (e.g., Class Act, Every Litter Bit Hurts, Wipe Out, etc.). It also can be spotted flying off the disaster, and these moments are usually very brief (like in Swelter Skelter). The deaths that the Idol causes are sometimes the fault of machinery malfunctioning, though it also makes objects suddenly appear out of nowhere (e.g., boulders, icebergs), causes animals to fall from the sky, and turns normal sand into quicksand.