LOST - I once was lost, but now am found

I was one of the many people who was starting to wonder about LOST last season.  Was there really a master plan, a grand answer to all our questions?

Happily the illusion of a seamless, interconnected master plan on LOST has been restored this season. I still have a nagging feeling like they’re making some of this stuff up as they go along, but if that’s true, they’re doing a good job of covering it up.

My faith was rekindled and my curiosity was re-piqued by the 3^rd season finale, which gave us our first glimpse of the Oceanic Six timeline and launched an entirely new sub-mystery. Who are the Oceanic Six? Does Jack think that beard looks flattering? Because it doesn’t.

The two fresh episodes so far in season four have expanded on the Oceanic Six mystery as well as introducing the mysterious and potentially menacing Freighter People – both welcome developments in the world of LOST.

At first I thought the Oceanic Six Timeline was a strange choice and that the LOST creators were writing themselves into a corner, so to speak. If Jack, Kate, Hurley and three others made it off the island, there is no way they can die in the Island Timeline, right? By taking three major characters and putting them in the “safe box” it eliminates a certain element of suspense. If somebody holds a gun to Jack’s head – big deal, we know he’s not going to die, right? This assumes of course that the Island Timeline and the Oceanic Six Timeline are part of a linear and chronological Mega Timeline and that we’re not talking about alternate realities and parallel time, of course, but nothing should be ruled out.

Then I realized that for me, the allure of LOST lies not as much in a sense of involvement in the fate of individual characters (aside from wishing that Nikki and Paulo would die), but rather in the unraveling of LOST’s puzzles and puzzles-within-puzzles-wrapped-in-enigmas. Don’t get me wrong, I was bummed out when Charlie (apparently) died, but the appeal of LOST is in the mystery and wonder, not in the body count. It’s not so much “who is going to survive?” as it is “what the hell is going on?”

On those grounds, the new season of LOST has been a big success so far, rekindling the sense of awe and wonder that the show had in those first two seasons, when viewers felt like they were catching fleeting but incomplete glimpses of a carefully designed stained glass window of awesomeness.

As it should be, each episode parses out some answers and information while leaving the viewer with fresh new unanswered questions. I certainly have some questions I would like answers to:

-Who was in that coffin?  Is he or she one of the Oceanic Six who made it off the island and then died, or did the Oceanic Six bring Dead Person home with them?

-In episode 4.1, why the hell did Jack let Ben go with Locke of all people?

-Is Jack losing it? He would have actually killed Locke if the gun had a bullet. Then he lets Ben out of his custody? Get it together Jack.

-Did Ghost Charlie get an afterlife makeover, or was Hurley hallucinating? Perhaps Ghost Charlie is some sort of ideal, perfected Charlie with fabulous hair that exists in Hurley’s mind only.

-How could Hurley do a cannonball on a big flat beach like that? I think the show creators fudged a little on this one, because everyone knows you can’t execute a cannonball unless you actually jump from a height into water.

- If the Freighter People are just on the island to find/kill Ben, why aren’t they a team of commandos instead of a motley team consisting of drunk pilot, anthropologist, brilliant head case, and rude psychic? Why this particular group of people with these particular skills? What are they really up to?

-What is the Smoke Monster, anyway? I was happy that was the first thing that Locke asked Ben when he had him at gunpoint. It’d be the first thing I’d ask, too. I would die unhappy if I made it off the island but never found out what that thing was…

- Is Ben going to get the crap beaten out of him in every episode this season? He gets smacked once in episode 4.1 and beaten up twice by Sawyer in episode 4.2. Perhaps this is part of a welcome trend, and by the end of the season people will just be lining up to abuse Ben.

-Why did Kate look so fabulous in the Oceanic Six timeline? Isn’t she a wanted woman, or did her freckle-free complexion indicate that she leaves her legal troubles behind her in the future?

It’s nice to have lots of questions about LOST again. They’re good questions, too – better than asking “Is there a point to all this?” Because once again, I believe there is a point, a master plan, and a grand design. And that’s why we signed up in the first place.

--Dave Campbell

Comments

[Steve]

Great season so far, but it needs more Mighty Thor.

[Ken]

YAY! Dave on Lost, I've been waiting and waiting. Everything you say = true.

They better redeem themselves by digging up those diamonds or something...

[Kenrick]

yeah wtf on hurley cannonballing into the ocean! no way he has a vert that would put him into such deep water!

anywho, looks like LOST is finally getting into a good stride, hopefully they will be able to produce a few new episodes now that the writers strike is over.

[ohgrl]

Amen, brother. I feel like the show is back on track, with or without Mighty Thor (sorry Steve).

[Dave]

I think it's helped that the writers now know they have 48 (now 46) episodes left in the series. They're able to pace the remainder of the series like they want to, instead of having to insert "filler" material like Nikki and Paulo because they don't know how long they need to keep the series mythology going.

Of course, I thought the Nikki and Paulo episode was fantastic. It was a little slice of "Twilight Zone" in the middle of the Pacific.

[Woody!]

That's Ben in the coffin.

From the very beginning, I've thought Jack needed to get it together. I've never been impressed with his leadership skills.

And I think it really helped we've got another polar bear mystery on our hands. That's the show's bread and butter.

[Mike Tattoo]

Ah, but that’s only if you believe that Nikki and Paulo were introduced with the intent of being liked. Quite the opposite, I believe that they were introduced with the specific intent of being resented and hated. Maybe they even lied to the actors, like in Russ Myer’s classic Beyond The Valley of The Dolls. They told the actors it was a serious drama but really filmed it as a parody. Cunning move, Russ Myers.

Look at the bathroom scene with the Doucebag Guy. The first time you see it he looks like the dork who just gas bombed your bathroom. The 2nd time you see that scene, from his perspective, you realize all the frantic work he was doing behind the scenes to cover his hiding of those stolen diamonds. Cunning move, Douchebag Guy.

That’s what I dig about Lost. How it can flip the script on you and show you the same scene from a different perspective, and completely flip how you think or feel about the characters and what is going on.
Sure, we know that Jack got off the island, but pre-Crazy Beard he was not at all down for going back to the Island. Now current Crazy Beard Jack is obsessed with going back to the island. What is this show about? It’s not just Gilligan’s Island getting off the island.

And how about Ben dropping his mutant power of Goggle like that? I used to think that Ben was the Doug Ramsey of The Team. Poor Doug Ramsey, he’s like the Rodney Dangerfield of mutants. Even though he was banging Kitty for a while the guy gets no respect. But now I think Ben is more like Tao (of Alan Moore’s Wildcats run). Not only is he a master manipulator, but he has mutant powers that we don’t even have words for yet.

[Jay A.]

There is definite time travel going on. The polar bear had to have traveled back in time to be buried in the sand. Charlie can exist in one time period while he is dead in another. The island and the rest of the world are not existing in the same time. This also explains why the island is so hard to find. The helicopter probably didn't get "hit by lightening"; it was probably breaking a time barrier. The machine that had to be reset most likely involved time-not resetting it caused an explosive wave. The new scientist said something like this last week, "The light here doesn't seem to refract evenly." Again, this has to do with time- what else could possibly affect light? There are clues everywhere.

[Jay A.]

Oh, I forgot... it is not Ben in the coffin. If I remember correctly, the funeral home was in a minority neighborhood. It makes no sense that they would have services for Ben there. And, another clue of time was Ben's picture in 70's clothing. He hasn't aged a bit.

[Mike Tattoo]

There are several anomalies on the island.

Purple Shirt Other Guy has not aged. At all. He’s the same age as when teenage Ben first encountered him. He’s the same age now, albeit with a hipper dot.com power meeting purple shirt. That guy is the Old School Bruce Banner of The Team. He will never be without his purple fashion accessories.

Compasses are all messed up. Even thr original pilot of 815 said something to the same effect. Birds are flying in the wrong direction. All navigational systems go haywire when encountering the island.

[jman]

charlie died, so claire goes up in a helicopter, right?

pretty funny about people lining up to abuse ben...he's becoming fanatical ahab and penny his moby dick. could we witness sayid murder penny in front of desmond...i hope not

i like all the cast members, except keamy and kate. keamy for obvious reasons. kate because the scenes with jack are forced chemisty. Jack belongs with juliet and kate belongs with sawyer.