LOST: The End of an Era Begins

By Nate Storey

Like all LOST fan(atic)s, I was ecstatic about the coming final season, though this excitement was fraught with worry and hesitancy.  I worried of course about whether the writers would be able to make it satisfactory.  Will we get the answers to our questions (both big and small)?  Will they be able to wrap up all the loose ends that have come up in five seasons?  Will they be able to prove that they’ve had it planned out all along?  Most of all, I entered into the new season with complete bafflement.  What on earth could happen next?  It seemed like one of two things could happen, but with LOST, who knows what will really happen.  And so I waited.

And when the first two-hour-long episode aired, I was met with the realization that instead of going one way or another, the LOST creators had decided to do two things at once!  Needless to say, my jaw was hanging, gaping, open for those two hours. (A note right quick, there are spoilers if you haven’t watched any of this season.) The acting in the premiere was perfect all around.  The pathos we see from Sawyer creates a new side to the character that we had yet to see.  True, heartfelt emotion for someone else.  The resulting anger over Juliet’s death is intense and terrifying.  The only problem I had at this point was that there were too many commercials.  It continuously felt as if we were getting two scenes with a gasp moment and then a cut to commercials.

The second episode was, sigh, a Kate episode.  Kate episodes are to me always the weakest episodes of LOST.  She just doesn’t seem to make smart choices and doesn’t seem to have an interesting story to tell.  The worst part is the love triangle with Jack and Sawyer, which has done nothing for me since about midway through the first season.  Fortunately, on the off-Island/alternate timeline, there is none of this drama.  It is, however, prominent on the Island as Sawyer prepares to get out of Temple-ville, and Kate decides to follow him.  The end of the episode is a cool reveal, but it was clear that this episode is set up for the main part of the season.

Episode three is a welcome Locke-centric episode.  Or, rather a Locke and notLocke-centric episode given that Locke is really Smoky on the Island.  Anyway, this episode features more great acting from Terry O’Quinn and it is utterly depressing to see him back in wheelchair mode at first.  But just as in the previous episodes, we quickly discover that the alternate timeline holds some surprises and changes from the reality we are familiar with from the Losties pasts.  We find that things have changed on the Island as well, what with Richard scared for the first time and Smoke running around free.  Again, there’s a big reveal at the end of the episode, and it turns out to be a huge one, even answering, or partially answering some of our longest-lasting mysteries about the Island.

Last week’s episode continued the exciting feel of actual storytelling from the previous episode.  Jack and Hurley go on a hike and find…a lighthouse!  With more hints at answers!  This leads to appearances by Jacob himself (at least his ghost), with more kind-of-answers to further the mystery in just the right way.  The alternate timeline revealed a big surprise as well: Jack’s got a kid!  And thus continues the Daddy issues theme that has been prominent through much of LOST.  The way that Papa Jack deals with his son turns the theme on its head and results in the most emotionally-engaging episode of the season.

And that brings us to last night’s episode, a Sayid-centric episode, which sadly returns to the set-up nature of the Kate episode.  This was a definite step back, but boy was the ending exciting.  Scary, even.

At this point in the season, I have to take a moment to worry that the purpose of the alternate timeline is to introduce Easter eggs for fans in the form of cameos from previous or current characters in new roles.  I have faith that this won’t be the faith, but it is a worry.  I also hope that it is not as simple as Smoke giving the survivors or at least the Candidates a choice between the Island and the alternate timeline.  Again, too easy.  I want more intrigue, and most of all, I want to have not figured it out yet.  I want more surprises, more jaw-dropping moments, which, in the 12 hours of LOST we have left to us, I am sure are still in large supply.