Help me identify the 25 Most Important Moments in 'Lost' history
I'm always looking for new topics to talk about in the "Lost" off-season. Trust me, it's not always easy to generate topics in a vacuum such as this. As such, I try and think of various ongoing series in order to have fall-backs when topics are escaping me. Otherwise, I'd churn out entries like, "The symbolic use of ferns in Dharma stations" and "Juliet Burke: I'd hit it." Honestly, no one needs to reads entries like that.
Sure, I already have the "Light vs. Dark" and "Six in Six" series, both of which will see new additions in the near future. But variety is the spice of both blog AND life, so I'm currently prepping a new series that will roll out over the next few months: The 25 Most Important Moments in "Lost" History. Let's be clear: this is not the 25 Greatest Moments. It's the 25 Most Important Moments. And there is a difference.
What I will be looking at are the 25 moments that were instrumental in getting the show to the end of Season 5, with Juliet detonating Jughead and notLocke kicking Jacob into the eternal flame under the statue. Since the show is one large narrative, we can go back and look at the key moments that led to the final set of circumstances in "The Incident." How did these particular people get to that point? And who may have stage-managed things from afar?
Here's an example that hopefully clarifies what I'm hoping to achieve with this series. If you were looking purely at the greatest moments in the show's history, I'm sure Jack/Kate scene outside of LAX at the end of Season 3 would top 9 out of 10 lists. Hard to argue with that choice in terms of greatness, shock level, or overall ballsiness. But its importance lies in its relationship to the audience, not the story. It's still a Top 25 Most Important Moment, to be sure. But in the grand scheme of things, Cabin Christian telling Locke to move the Island in "Cabin Fever" is more important in determining the story of the show.
While I start to make my list and check it thrice, I want to solicit your input. Some of the big ticket moments seem self-evident, but I'm curious about the more minor ones. Like, for instance: what was a more important moment, Des turning the failsafe key or Penny writing the note that gave him the courage to hold out that long? These are intriguing questions that I hope get addressed in this series. Because while the grand gestures usually get identified, they are often in response to something much more subtle but far more important.
So leave your thoughts and suggestions below. If I use them in the series, I'll be giving you explicit props for addressing them. If more than one person suggests the same thing, that's fine: credit will be given to all when the time comes. Hopefully our combined efforts yield something that sheds a great deal of light on the show as a whole.
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one of the most defining moments in LOST has to be been from the season 2 episode "Lockdown". When John Locke becomes pinned under the Swan Blast Door and sees that map of other stations, including the "?", it sets in motion everything from the discovery of additional stations to Locke's questioning of his destiny and the subsequent destruction of the Swan itself. Defo a HUGE LOST moment for me!!!
A few to consider:
-The plane crash (obvious, but could/should be listed as Desmond not entering the code on time)
-Widmore telling Desmond he's not good enough for Penny, causing him to break up with her and go on the sailing race
-Charlie unblocking the signal at the Looking Gl***, causing the freighter to come
-Richard saving Little Ben's life at the Temple
-Keamy shooting Alex (changing the "rules" with Widmore)
-Michael's shooting spree, leading Kate, Jack, Sawyer, and Hurley to The Others
-As separate events: Locke and Ben each moving the island
-Ben "killing" Locke (did he or didn't he? Will our favorite protagonist rise to save them all?)
I agree with fourtoedfoot. However, if Locke's discovery of the blast door map is of top 25 importance (and it should be), could we say that Radzinsky's decision to create the map in the first place is equally important?
I have to say this is still one aspect of the show that I'm completely perplexed about. Why create an invisible ink map of the island on one side of a blast door? For that matter, why did the hatch even have a blast door? I could go on for hours from here.
So perhaps the importance of the map can't really be determined until we discover the reasons behind it. But if there was one moment in the show's history that made me decide to see the whole thing trough to the end, the blast door map was the moment.
CHRISTIAN SHEPHARD: So, you want to tell me what happened?
YOUNG JACK: A couple guys jumped Mark Silverman.
CHRISTIAN SHEPHARD: A couple guys jumped Mark Silverman. But they didn't jump you?
YOUNG JACK: No.
CHRISTIAN SHEPHARD: I had a boy on my table today. I don't know, maybe a year younger than you. He had a bad heart. It got real hairy, real fast. Everybody's looking at your old man to make decisions. And I was able to make those decisions because at the end of the day, after the boy died, I was able to wash my hands and come home to dinner. You know, watch a little Carol Burnett, laugh till my sides hurt. And how can I do that, hmm? And even when I fail, how do I do that, Jack? Because I have what it takes. Don't choose, Jack, don't decide. You don't want to be a hero, you don't try and save everyone because when you fail. . . you just don't have what it takes.
END QUOTE
The light coming on in the hatch in season 1 was a very big moment. It gave Locke the 'sign' he needed after Boon's death, and in return Locke's banging and shouting gave Desmond the hope that he wasn't alone which meant that he kept pressing the button.
Also interesting how that scene was seen from 3 different viewpoints in different seasons: Locke (season 1), Desmond (season 2) and the time travellers (season 5).
Sawyer strangling Cooper to death. It allowed him to finally let go of his past. The result: the heroic Sawyer we see in Season 5 (and hinted in Season 4).
Some to add:
> Claire's dream with Locke (black and white eye)
> Jack saying "We have to go back" (revealing the first flash foward)
> Faraday's rocket test with the timers
> Hurley seeing the cabin
> the big reveal that Locke has been dead since season 3 and never resurected.
> Ben meeting ageless Richard Alpert in the jungle.
> Juliet making jughead go boom
> Locke & Eko's differing perspectives of facing the smoke monster.
>Phil getting killed...not important but I loved seeing that weasel get skewered.
Also:
> Desmond using the fail safe on the hatch
> Any moment from the episode "Jughead" (Widmore is/was a other, Jughead, Faraday's mum)
The moment Rousseau finds Ben hanging from a trap in the jungle. I mean, Be is an essencial part of the show now. What would the show be without that moment?
Also, Bai Ling's appearance, wich was absolutely essencial to the overall story arc of the show, as you have mentioned many times before, Ryan.
The most important moment ever is the Black Rock's arrival during the latest Jacob/MIB spat. If Richard was on the Black Rock as most everyone thinks, then the scene would be the first step in the Others being formed, since Richard was the charter member. And the journal of the BR's first mate was purchased by the Hanso family before Widmore bought it. So since the BR's arrival made the journal island-centric, it probably led to the Hanso Foundation founding DHARMA after they got the journal.
So there's a good chance that this scene was not only the very beginning of the Jacob/MIB experiment that is all of "Lost" but possibly began the origins of both the Others and DHARMA. It's hard to top that in mythological importance- though that all depends if Richard really was on the Black Rock. Otherwise the scene is probably just in the top 10.