'Lost': My plan for the offseason
How ya doing, "Lost" fans? Because I worry about you. Indeed, I do. Course, I worry about myself as well, given the level of Hatorade dumped on me when I expressed disappointment with some parts of the Season 5 finale, "The Incident." My "Let's Kick The Elderly In the Shins '07" tour didn't get this much blowback.
So I'm writing here from my newly purchased secret hideout, far from yelling and/or sniper fire, to seek your burning questions in lieu of the finale. And Lord knows there is an embarrassment of confusion from which to select your inquiry. I want to know your specific questions, so I can try and sort out some possible answers over the next week.
One thing I'll say, all kidding aside: as I thought while watching, the episode divided the audience pretty much in half. One one side, there were those that loved it like a fat kid loves cake. On the other? Those that started treating Darlton like George Lucas during the era of the prequels. But what I strove to do in my recap was to bridge the gap between the online version of the Army of the Light and the Army of the Dark. I think healthy debate about the show is necessary; I find personal attacks on differing opinion tiresome.
There's room for both criticism AND praise of the finale, and my assertion that this was the weakest finale so far doesn't mean I viewed is as some "Stranger in a Strange Land" disaster. But here's the point I want to really get across as we start the long haul towards Season 6: I want this place to continue to be a place where personal opinion gets debated, not attacked. I'm not any more "wrong" for disliking the way the show treated Juliet in the season finale than another person is for liking it. But you'd swear from comments stated both here on the blog and over on the recap that there's indeed ONLY ONE WAY TO VIEW THINGS.
Which is, of course, malarky. (I have another word for it, but TPTB suggested I tone it down.) I'm psyched that it looks like my Cabin Christian theory has legs, but that just means I'm now 1-108 in making correct prediction, increasing my previous score of 0-107. It's not about being "right" for me; it's about providing enough food for thought that contributes to a conversation not only between the readers here, but the online community that "Lost" has engendered.
And with the slate wiped almost completely clean with the fade-to-white ending, we have a unique opportunity to look at the show from a variety of plausible perspectives in the coming months. You could look at this in a negative way, but honestly, how many shows have this much mystery left in the tank this late in the game? I celebrate it, and not just because it means I'll never run out of things to talk about in the offseason. Rather, I celebrate it because I know it'll probably be a long time before we have a show like this again.
So it's in that light that I'll be carrying on the blog here in the offseason, continuing to strive to present a place in which everyone feels free to contribute thoughts about the show knowing those thoughts will be challenged, but respected. But most of all? This should be fun! It's a TV show, not swine flu. I want this site to be a virtual table at your favorite bar, where you're shooting the breeze, making jokes, and chipping in your $0.02 about "Lost."
You in?
Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude. He invites you to join the hundreds already in Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to subscribe to the Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed.
I'm in Ryan. Sorry about the Hatorade hopefully it didn't stain. My question (wrapped in a theory): Do you think the Man in Black is the smoke monster? There was a presumed connection between the monster and the statue and Jacob appears to embody the statue. Also, NotLocke only shows up after the Monster dissipates at Ben's "judging."
I'm totally in :)
Ok, time for a "Letters" question:
- What do you think the shape of Season 6 to come will look like, based on what went down (or didn't) in "The Incident"?
Personally, I've been thinking alot about that final "Lost" logo, with the white and black colors inverted, and I think they're hinting at one of two things:
1) The "Lost" logo for 5 seasons has been white letters over a black background. One could argue this represents the forces of light, surrounded by a veritable army of darkness; controlled, contained, closed off. The logo after "Incident", though, was the complete opposite; black letters enclosed by a sea of white. Maybe they're saying that, with Ilana's group merged with the Others and the 1977 crew potentially on their way back to present times, and maybe Jacob dead like he possibly wanted all along, the dark forces are about to lose or become trapped and marginalized.
2) The logo might represent the old sci-fi cliche' of the "Evil Twin" universe. Maybe what they're hinting at is, in wake of Jughead exploding, an alternate reality will be created which is a mirror image of the "Lost" universe as we've known it; Juliet could be leader of the Others and Ben the scientist she just won't let go home; Jack could be a scoundrel and Sawyer a succesful doc; and Kate might NOT want to go with anyone to anywhere.
There is some evidence to suggest this could occur; after all, Season 5 saw Locke and Jack reverse roles as man of science & faith, and Sawyer went from follower to leader and traded affections for Kate for those of Juliet. All of these could have been a training-wheels primer on part of the writers to prepare us for a universe in Season 6 where everything is flipped on its head.
There was too much noise to effectively weigh in over in the It Happened Last Night thread, so I'll keep it pithy here and say that I'm totally on board with your take on the episode. Weak sauce compared to previous years. I rank them thusly by season, best to worst: 3, 2, 4, 1, 5.
I'm totally in. While I will always challenge people's opinions (Sometimes a little too much - bah, who am I kidding? Often a little too much!), I don't attack them personally. I only reserve slander for people who plagiarize my favorite writers :)
I'm totally in.
My major question/theory right now has to do with Jacob's cabin. What I want to know is - what was the purpose of the ash circle? In my experience, ash circles are used to magically contain something.
From that vague premise, I've begun to develop a theory that perhaps it was never Jacob in the cabin to begin with, but rather he was holding TMIB there. The person we saw in 'The Man Behind the Curtain' did not look very much like Jacob, and since that point (since the circle has been compromised) we've seen a lot of Cabin Christian (the smoke monster?) in there.
This leads to many questions, such as "why would Ben tell John that was where Jacob was?" It leads me to contemplate why Ben would have never seen Jacob, and think about the allegiances of Richard Alpert.
Lots of questions, not enough answers, but I thought I would see if I could get you thinking with me about it. Thanks!
I am in as well!!!
And I have a question......as always.......So, without further ado
JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACOB!!!!!!!!
Do you think that Frank Lapidus might possibly be the new body for Jacob to inhabit?
"In my experience, ash circles are used to magically contain something."
*makes note to never ever hang out with bluestockingchic*
YAY NO HATORADE!! not only does that stuff stain, it sting a little if you get it in your eyes...unless one is gl***.
(that was a shout-out for you, JeffC! :-))
ok, on to questions....bear with me, i'm kind of typing as i think.
1) how long did Elena, et al know about the 2 Lockes? b/c BetaLocke was hanging out at the campfire with the rest of the 316-ers, right? could the same thing have happened to the rest of Danielle's crew as happened to BetaLocke? so they're all dead under the temple, but BetaFrenchDudes are all nuts and wandering around. but they're killable, with guns and stuff. hmmmmm, not making a lot of sense here...i'm basically wondering how many other Beta versions of people are wondering around that we don't know about.
2) CabinChristian didn't seem able to interact with physical objects, but Locke seems pretty handy with things. what's up with that, or did i totally miss something?
3) other than to tug at the heartstings, why did Sun find Charlie's ring? or is this a "sometimes a ring is just a ring" thing...
i'm sure i'll think of more later...
VIINNCCCENNTT!!!
What can I say - it was good to see him. And I'm with you - let's all slip in some Three Dog Night and celebrate some Dharma hippy love on this web-blog!
Lost seems to hint that Jacob and TMIB seem to have different rules applying to them. My question is: What rules mutually apply to Jacob and TMIB, and what rules, if any, are different?
"In my experience..." in literature, just to clarify.