Please right click/open new tab HERE and listen to the approx. 5:28 minute long "Parting Words" from s1 while you read for better effect..
“Pilot”
On September 22, 2004 I sat down on a couch with my dad and sister to watch a a pilot for a new television show co-starring “the Hobbit Whitney has the hots for”.
The only premise of what was to come was something I had read (I think) where Dominic Monaghan said he is a rock star who survives a plane crash on an island with a resort on the other side unbeknownst to the survivors.
I had no idea I would immediately latch on to this show called “L O S T” but it sure as heck was not how Dom pitched it.
A hot Hobbit
We started with an eye opening and Matthew Fox stumbling around asking himself “WTF!?” - not in the script, but you could tell he thought it - before launching into what we came to recognize as Dr. Jack Shepherd mode. He took charge to fix the situation.
It was a very intense few minutes and then things settled down.
But what kept people watching, or most people?
A few WTF moments.
A polar bear?! A monster?! Some French lady broadcasting a 16 year old message?! Flashbacks to these people’s pre-crash lives?!
But it worked.
L O S T presented us with flawed characters - who at times either infuriated us or made us cheer with their choices and actions - plus a great thick plot and writing.
The season progressed, drawing me in more and more and then it happened.
A hunk of metal was found in the ground and then ... a death. Followed by a character moment with Locke letting it all out, pounding on the hatch with Michael Giacchino’s score playing perfectly in sync with the emotions as a light came from within the hatch.
“WTF?!” indeed.
For six seasons moments just like this came and went in L O S T, always adding a new element to the story and to our Losties’ experience on the Island.
Some were good (the tailies, new Dharma stations, Locke was in the wheelchair!) some were bad (the season 3 hiatus, Nicki and Paolo even though Lando Calrissian had a cameo, Sawyer and Kate locked up and digging the runway, which I suppose actually worked out in the end) and some were just freagin’ great (the Numbers, introduction of Ben, the freighter coming with Dan the Man, time travel, Desmond, quantum physics, Hurley writing “The Empire Strikes Back”).
Always with Giacchino’s score in the background.
Example of a great "WTF?!"
"Whatever happened, happened"
People came together with this show.
They came to watch it with one another. They “SHH”ed each other if someone talked, they jumped in alarm or cried or groaned with disapproval together. And then they talked about what they just watched.
L O S T was - and will be for a while - something people could discuss, theorize and maybe even politely debate about.
We were able to use those almost literary devices picked up from English Lit to analyze and ponder about L O S T. Not because we are losers but because it was fun to do so. The show challenged us to pay attention and think about what we were seeing, what would happen next and what things meant. It, as Andrew Dickerson said, “begged us to dig deeper and investigate the mysterious happenings surrounding the Island.”
People met fellow Losties and friendships emerged because of the common interest, friendships many most likely will carry for a long time or for their whole lives.
That it helped form friendships itself is a wonderful thing.
Besties
“The End”
Two and a half hours.
We knew the end was coming and we found out we would get another half hour to finish it. But still, two and a half hours on Sunday May 23, 2010 and the tale would be told.
So I settled in as I have done for much of the past two seasons - on a couch eating pizza with Keith and Tara (and for the finale, Trevor) with Jabba and Obi making themselves available to be petted if they so wished.
“Here we go,” Keith said as he hit Play on the TiVo remote. “Six years in the making, or in Dru’s case 12 since he watched it twice.”
And in the end “The End” was a proper finish to L O S T.
It was an ending I did not see coming, well not the sideways world. I suppose that was big finale. The ultimate end. THE END.
Over the course of the two and a half hours the show went from “what’s next” to “hold on” to “sniffle”.
Sure we have loads of unanswered or unthoroughly explained questions but I think we got something EW.com L O S T writer Jeff “Doc” Jensen hit on in his recap of the penultimate episode “What They Died For” ... it gave the show meaning.
Unanswered Question number 15
SPOILERSSSSSS
Jack became newJacob last week.
Jack and Flocke this week went to the source. Desmond did his outsidetheelectromagneticrules job and pulled the plug. Uh-oh moments ensued. Jack fought Flocke. Kate killed Flocke. Flocke gets kicked off the cliff and goes “splat”. No more Smokey/TMIB. Jack and Kate declare their love and kissy face. Kate and Sawyer swim for the boat Flocke was going to escape on. Jack knows he has to plug the hole back up. Hurley becomes newJack/Jacob/Islandprotector. Jack fixes his ultimate patient, the Island itself and in a way, his own self. Desmond gets rescued from the bottom of the cave and Ben becomes newRichard.
Whew.
el Jefe
All this happening as we go back and forth from Island to sideways world. People getting the realizations. People showing up at a church. People knowing each other.
People remembering.
It was so, perfect.
Locke forgave Ben who in turn had just motivated John to walk again. Then Hurley asked Ben to come inside, and after a polite “no thanks, I have some things left to do” Hurley said’s Ben was an “awesome number two.”
“Thanks, you were a great number one.” Ben said in reply (or something like that) as he sat on a bench outside a church.
And then it alllll started to come together.
Jack arrived with Kate who says she will meet him inside with the rest of the others. Jack goes in to see his dead father’s casket and touches it. Flashes happen.
Bam.
Remembering but not understanding. Not understanding and scared.
And then daddy comes in and explains it all ... what the sideways world is.
Queue the wet eyes on my side of the couch.
They are dead and are meeting up with each other so they can go on together with the people that meant to the most in their life.
But surprisingly to me the sideways world was nothing to do with the present or past but a future of sorts for our L O S Ties. It was the waiting room of all waiting rooms. Meaning came finally to Jack as he joined his friends - no longer strangers - to journey together into the light ... of the afterlife, Heaven, Paradise, whatever you want to call it.
Jack walked out into the church to see his friends and journey to Heaven happily ever after as we see Island Jack walking out of a stream, through the bamboo and lay down where it all started.
With Vincent giving him comfort so it is not “Live together, die alone,” L O S T ended exactly as it began, with Jack laying in a bamboo clearing and the camera on an eye.
Except this time, rather than open to confusion and disaster it closed after seeing a plane carrying those he cared and protected fly away safe.
Beautiful.
And I could not help but have wet eyes and a smile on my face.
Me Sunday night, kinda.
A dual meaning was accomplished. The Island was protected and much of our cast met up and walked into the light, happily at peace and together.
To me the finale gave meaning to the show, to the characters, to the idea that is L O S T even if it didn’t flesh out all the unanswered questions.
They were brought - broken, flawed, lost - to the Island by it’s protector Jacob as a way to fix his mistake of killing his brother and creating Smokey. And it worked. And then, in different times of their own lives, they died and met each other so they could go to Heaven together.
“The End” indeed.
"Closing Credits"
Over six seasons we have met characters who were all, as I said, broken, flawed and lost. People with daddy issues, trust issues, relationship issues, honesty issues, self-esteem issues , drug issues and many other burdens.
Through it all they grew, for the most part. Or at least we could see they tried to change.
People attached to these characters for different reasons: they were attractive, had a specific demeanor or attitude, or were just plain cool.
We learned about these people and why they did whatever it was they did on the Island and what they did before the crash of Oceanic 815.
And it was because of the geeky lore the show threw at us mixed with these characters that made it a success.
Who wasn’t completely intrigued by Dan the Man? Who couldn’t pull for Charlie to kick his habit and didn’t feel their gut bottom out when he bravely died? Heck all the deaths were pretty tragic, except for the girl that drowned in season one. Who was that anyways? And maybe Arnst.
Dan the Man
Dammit.
We had Team Jacob and Team Flocke. Skaters and Jates. Sullietes and ... Jack/Julliette?
Of course, the characters would not be there if not for the actors portraying them.
While there were little nuances that were annoying in some portrayals (Jackface) I think we can all agree it made the characters real.
Watching Michael Emerson specifically over the years as Benjamin Linus is what really sticks out to me. Through him and his facial expressions we really didn’t know what Brad Bagby calls “that bug-eyed bastard” was up to until the very end.
A Bug-eyed Bastard / the Island's Severus Snape
Other excellent casting choices were Terry O’Quinn as John Locke (especially when it came down to Locke playing two different characters this season) for making Locke’s faith passionate and believable. On my second time through the series Josh Holloway‘s Sawyer - or rather the pain and yearning to be a good guy - was very evident. I always liked Matthew Fox as Jack. I liked how he really showed a broken and confused character who always had to fix something and was steadfast in whatever it was he believed in.
Hell, I won’t lie ... 99% of the cast had to be in it to make this thing work and it feels a disservice not to mention them all.
L O S T also was just as rich in exposition as it was in plot and characters.
There were aspects of faith, free-will, destiny, science, theoretical physics, time travel, Volkswagen buses, Dharma beer and the many head-nods to geekdom, literature and famous names just to give extra meaning to most of the story.
We even got L O S T fanbands (see The Oceanic Six “Good Morning Charlie”).
Dharma beer. Mmmmm.
L O S T and I have been close friends since day one because of all these reasons.
I came into Scrubs late but it had an enormous impact on my life and continues to be one and the emotional impact of the true finale (not Scrubs 2.0) was large, similarly to that of L O S T's
With this said it is still hard for me to say L O S T is my favorite show ever (I Love Lucy always has been, I say) but is it possible to have three favorite shows, especially if they are different genres?
Because as far as I am concerned it should be allowed and after reading this at least my case should be spelled out.
Farewell L O S T and thank you for all the memories. You will be missed.
