I remember when Jack first woke up in the jungle, dazed and confused, searching for answers. I remember again when Jack awoke in the jungle, still confused and in search of answers. I still don't understand how 48+ people survived a plane crash, moved an island, survived another plane crash, time traveled to 1977, returned to the present, remembered their lives in another universe, and, most importantly, kept their beards trimmed the entire time. Nor do I care.
What was Lost about? Was it really about the mythology? Or did we fool ourselves into believing the origins of the Frozen Donkey Wheel and Ezra Sharkington were more important than the lives of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815?
Granted, the central mythology of the show makes up the body of the show, but the characters are its backbone.
Don't tell me what I can't do!
Much like how Ben was never born on the island, I didn't find Lost until the hiatus before the third season. A program aired on direcTV (one that recently re-aired on the 101 network) advertising the sale of the Lost DVD box sets.
I was a kid then, still am. My daily programming primarily consisted of whatever aired on the Disney channel and ESPN. In fact, when the ads first popping up for the first season, the show scared me. I recognized the guy from Lord of the Rings (the brialliant Dominic Monaghan), but the premise frightened the hell out of me. Something about plane crashes just shook me, somehow. Heck, Castaway with Tom Hanks kept me up for nights! And the images shown on the promo were especially realistic and spine tingling. I never thought this show would eventually grab my imagination the way it would.
Besides, a scripted version of Survivor wasn't my cup of tea, but Lost, despite it being a show about plane crash survivors, wasn't really about that.
Obviously, Lost caught the imaginations of many others. While I continued following baseball scores and/or the upcoming Disney channel movies, many others, excuse the pun, got lost in Lost! It became a global phenomena, ranking in some of the best ever ratings for a science fiction program. Millions became entrenched in the quips of Sawyer, the mysteries of the impossible to enter Hatch, the numbers, smoke monster, Sawyer's abs, Jack's redemption, Kate, Locke, it goes on and on. A great number of those people devoted themselves to fan sites to decode the questions making up the mythology. Lost, almost overnight, had become the watercooler show of the internet age - and I missed out on it.
Still, I redeemed myself as best I could. Something about that advertisement grabbed my attention. I don't know what exactly, but I have my suspicions. Most likely it was the scene they showed with Jack and Locke during the finale. This sequence would later be known as the famous "Man of Science, Man of Faith" interaction between the two core characters. I was fixated on the mysterious, scarred old man telling the young, flawed doctor that he did, despite his denial, believe. There was a magic to their squabble, a unique substance to their words I hadn't heard since first watching the Star Wars trilogy. I instantly fell in love with this show.
Everything happens for a reason
I liked Lost at first, but didn't love it. I watched the first three episodes and half of Walkabout before taking a break from Lost.
Sure, I liked it alot. The opening sequence was unlike any other. The acting was great. I liked the pacing plenty. But still...something lacked, and I couldn't explain what exactly.
Then, I decided to stop watching. I put the DVD set back on my shelf and let it gather dust for six months.
I watched other shows, mostly Friends. I still saw plenty of baseball, but I grew out of the Disney channel - no more Goofy for me. I started trying other shows, too - That 70s Show and The Simpsons, for instance. Mostly comedies, with the rare exception of Nip/Tuck. Which scared the living crap out of me.
Then, one random summer day, I got bored. I stopped playing my PS2 and decided to give Lost another chance. I decided to finish watching Walkabout.
Not remembering where I left off, I began from the beginning.
This is destiny!
Once again, in the middle of chaos, Locke wiggled his toe. The mysterious, scarred old man, whose faith versus science speech got me to buy the DVD in the first place, repeated the same motion with his toes.
I had no idea what to make of it. I just took it as nothing. After miraculously surviving the plane crash, he probably just wanted to check to see that everything was okay.
I found the remainder of the episode to be watchable but mediocre television, the same exact thoughts I had when I last attempted to view this episode. I enjoyed the Locke bits, of him being a badass hunter, but besides that...nothing much impressed.
That is, until the episode's final moments. As Locke stared into the fire of the burning corpses, he revisited a memory, a devastating recollection for this tormented hero.
Somehow, someway, Locke had been in a wheelchair. This man, who throughout the episode was viewed as some sort of heroic hunter, was nothing in his previous life but an angry, crippled old man. Shouting at the heavens about what he could not do, Locke yelled out his frustration.
Then we cut again to a familiar scene. This time Locke stood up and the sequence took new meaning. The island gave Locke a second chance, he could finally be the hero he always wanted to be. All at once, behind the brialliant score from composer Michael Giacchino, I realized what this show was about.
It wasn't about running away from monsters or decoding the mysteries of the island - Lost was about its characters, the individuals who got a new life in an unexpected place. At its heart, Lost concerns people, the mistakes they make, the lies they tell, the secrets they keep, the anger they feel, and the love they share.
With the finale dawning upon us, I want to remember not the end but the beginning. Sure, the answers may not be what you expected, but, as Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse keep repeating, this is a show about its characters. This became most apparent when the question of what was the monster became who is the monster. Very slyly, the writers turned one of its biggest questions into a character study.
With The End nearing, I hope for a finale that puts an end to many great character archs, including those of tragic heroes Sawyer, Ben and Richard. Because that is what Lost is really about.
Though, I still hope to find out what the hell that light is!
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