'Lost': The aftermath
Hello, my little Lost chickadees. Thought I'd come by and see how you were holding up. Doing OK? You sure? I know it's going to be a long, long road ahead of us before we get any new episodes, but look: we've done this before, and without the benefit of such a vital, engaged, and frankly, downright bizarre group of people. And I mean that in the best of all possible sense. If you guys didn't enjoy Lost Butterworthed (with new images, check 'em out!), I'm not sure I could get up the gumption to write entries on a nearly daily basis.
There are five stages of grief for a Lost fan, just as there are five stages of grief for anyone. Here are the five stages:
Denial
"No way, that can't be the end. We don't know if Jin's really dead! Where did Des/Penny go off to? Why did John Locke get booted off the Island? How did Walt age approximately 37 years since leaving the Island? Surely there must be an episode ahead to explain one or more of these things!"
Anger
"Take your frozen donkey wheel, Darlton, and shove it where the sun don't shine. I've got your negatively charged exotic matter right here, guys. It's called 'my fist in your face' for making me wait eight months for new material."
Bargaining
"OK, fine, fine, we'll play the online, alternative reality game (ARG). Sure, you've essentially negated the previous incarnations, all but calling us fools for trying to glean any essential information from them, but hey, it's shiny, it's new, and it's sorta kinda Lost, so that's OK, right? Right?
Depression
"Sometimes, an ARG is just an ARG."
Acceptance
"The writers, producers, and actors on Lost don't live to serve me. And God willing, no bartenders in the state of Hawaii will serve any of the writers, producers, or actors of Lost, lest they get killed during Season 5."
But hey, I'm here to help you through any of the five phases you might go through in the months ahead. For this week, I'll be looking back at the season finale of Lost, and teasing out a few ideas that didn't quite make my recap. I've already dropped a podcast outlining a few major items. But I want your help in determining topics. I have one in mind, that I'll keep to myself, but what major questions raised in the season finale do you want addressed?
Leave your thoughts below, and I'll answer them this week, either as a full-blown article or as this week's edition of "Letters from The Flame."
Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude.
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first comment....wheeee!
as for your wife's question about Sun not being the head cheese at Paitek: in a male-dominated society like Korea (or at least the way it's protrayed here) for her to take over for her father would 1) look wierd to the rest of the company and 2) probably drive her father to suicide or something. Sun doesn't want to destroy her father's company she wants to use it to as a means to achieve her end goal. whatever that is...
how IS next season going to flow? i'm having flashes of a voiceover saying "back on the island..." which will make me more cranky that those god-awful pop-up-video-esque things on the "enhanced" episodes. i SO hope that's not the case. i think we'll see a lot of Lock since he's the only character free to move back and forth. i don't think he gets permanently booted off the Island.
just my $.02.
Some topics worth discussing:
1. Where did the island "move" to? My guess is the island moved from 2004 to 2005, given that Ben "transported" from the Donkey Wheel place to Tunisia in 2005.
2. Why is Locke in the coffin? Did he **** of the Others? Or was he not the leader the Others thought he was? I figure that since Richard Alpert went back in time and questioned young Locke about the knife, maybe he was proving his theory that Locke wasn't qualified to lead the Others.
3. When Jeremy Bentham told Jack that bad things happened once he left the Island, what can we surmise about the "bad things" which happened? Did Widmore find the Island and start killing people? Wasn't the move supposed to prevent all these things in the first place?
4. And do the Oceanic 6 really need to go back to the Island? What will that accomplish?
Unfortunately, I get the feeling that certain moments in the next two seasons will require some serious suspensions of disbelief, because I can't see every single plotline that has been introduced ending with a smile, sash and bouquet of flowers during the catwalk jaunt towards the series finale. Really, there have been too many threads left dangling for all of them to be addressed adequately, which is fine and dandy as long as they aren't important threads. Having three cats has taught me that leaving tempting danglies usually leads to the attached item ending up on the floor. So it will probably be with some things on Lost. Will we ever learn about the ancient civilization(s) that inhabited the island long before Ben Linus and his ten-year-old revenge plot was hatched? Maybe a taste, but because this is such a character-driven show, I don't foresee a huge delving into the distant past for answers. Instead, we will be treated to two seasons of what happens with those still on the island, the O6's reasons for going back (even the dead ones) and the sturm und drang related to all that. If there is ever a huge companion published around the year 2014, perhaps all this extra stuff will be addressed adequately. I'm just glad there is a definite ending, otherwise Lost could end up very much like Gilligan's Island, which stopped being funny after the 6,262nd attempt to leave ended up going ker-pleft. We shall see. The only thing I fear above all else is that the show might end with a whimper, instead of the bang it (and the audience) deserves. Until then, I guess we'll just have slam our heads against the wall debating all this kerfuffle (my new favorite British word!). A headache, yes, but it's so fun, mwa-ha-ha-ha!
I'm hoping each episode next season is 50/50 on-Island and off-Island. Sure Locke/Bentham will tie most of it together, but there is equally enough to see on both sides.
I'm kinda thinking Abaddon becomes the next leader of the Others after Locke. Locke is forced to use the 'frozen donkey wheel' again, which gives way for Abaddon to take over. This may be the favor he asked of Locke. However, Locke may just end up coming and going as he pleases as Ben and Others did all those years.
As for the 'big bad' Bentham refers to as happening on the Island: Maybe the move somehow resurrects Nikki & Paulo and they start btrwrthn people all over the Island.
Looking forward to sharing all the theories and fun times here with you all. Maybe we should start a therapy session every Thursday night at 11pm for ole times sake.
I second the "how will season five flow" question. Given that the producers have said S5 will be more mythology related, I'm hoping we get a lot of questions about the island out of the way so S6 can be more of a character wrap up. (Of course, I don't think the numbers or Smokey will be cleared next season. More like the 4 toed statue and such.)
Btw, I was channel surfing the other night and I stumbled upon The Andromeda Strain, which I didn't watch, but I know it had Daniel Dae Kim in it. I watched a few seconds of it and the next thing there was was a Mrs. Butterworth commercial. This was after ther finale, though. Maybe I should've watched TAS to begin with. It tried to warn me.
Jiiiiiin! Please be alive. You dived off the end of the boat, swam through the fiery wreckage, and made it to within range of being able to move with the island before you collapsed from exhaustion and various injuries, right? Right?
Hmm. Guesss that's denial maybe.
Oh, and also, every season they bring in a group of new characters. While they did a great job of it this year and last year, I don't really think we need too many new characters at this point. We've barely scratched the surface of the freighter four's backstories. I hope next season, instead of bringing new people in altogether, they can bring some already existing recurring characters to the forefront, a la S3. I already heard Richard Alpert will play a greater role. Perhaps as a main character? I'd also like to see Charlew Widmore, Penny, and Matthew Abbadon become main characters. But I won't hold my breath as Sonya Walger and Lance Red**** are both regulars on other shows.
So, I guess my question is, who do you think we can expect to see more of in season five?
First of all I want to say that the three hour finale was: Crack. TV. At. Its. BEST!
My TiVo didn't record the finale like it was supposed to (and it is still in time out... will never forgive it for that) so I had to wait till the next day to see what happened. I shouted. I cried. I threw things at the computer screen and my friends... and I snorted. If LOST is the TV Addict's answer to blow then I OD'ed and went to Heaven.
As everyone else has probably already discussed the finale to no end on the other blog, I just wanted to add my two cents right quick. Michael went out with a bang, literally and figuratively; Walt has to go back to the Island... When Ben said all of them, people thought just the O6, but Locke/Benthram visited Walt as well so he is included in Those Who Must Go Back; Did Juliet get shafted for screen time or what? And the whole Sawyer coming up on shore as Juliet's next conquest? I will love to see Jack and Kate's face when they see these two together...; How many of you thought it was Locke in the casket? I would like to shake you guys' hands, and finally, for now, the biggest debate till next season is the fate of Jin. The Lostpedia website has him listed as being only "Missing or Unknown" and they have Michael as dead as a doorknob. Now, everyone here knows how much I am a big fan of Michael, but I know he's dead. But Jin is another story. So...
And two things before I go. One: WHERE THE FRACK WAS BERNARD?!?!!? And two: PLEASE LOOK ON YOUTUBE FOR THE ALTERNATE ENDINGS OF WHO WAS IN THE COFFIN!!!!!
I'm wondering if Locke could even freaking walk anymore once he left the island....
Here's a topic I'd like to see you address Ryan. Christian's character has my mind runing in circles. I get that he's sort of the island's represntative and showed up to relieve Michael of his earthy duties (great redemption by the way) but where does he fit in the grand scheme of things? Why was he in Oz when he drank himself to death? Did he know that he had to impregnate an Australian woman so that he could have an Australian child and thus grandchild? How deep in this is he? Is he on Ben's side or Widmore's?
I've got a doozy of a question for you Ryan; one I've had since it was first intimated at the beginning of Season two:
According to Locke, each one of the survivors of Flight 815 was brought to the Island for a reason. After this season's finale, we know those who left were not supposed to leave and now have to come back to right the wrongs that have happened since they abandoned the Island. So...
Quite simply, what is the reason the Island needs them? To narrow it down a bit, what is the reason the Island needs Jack?