'Lost': Letters from The Flame, Volume 2

OK, if you read yesterday's entry, you'll know that I'm kinda mad at Lost right now. And here's why: in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse went on record as stating the majority of the alternate reality game Find815 was not in Lost canon. As I stated in yesterday's comments, this largely renders an experience followed by millions in anticipation of Season 4 as nothing more as fanfic with one morsel of actual canon information inside of it (Christiane I finding the wreckage of Oceanic 815 in the Sunda Trench).

What this means, in short, is that both the protagonist of Find815 (Sam Thomas) and the group heavily hinted at being responsible for the placed wreckage (The Maxwell Group, a subsidiary of Widmore Corporations) DO NOT EXIST as far as Lindelof and Cuse are concerned. Now, if you didn't follow the game, this factoid probably doesn't matter to you in the slightest. But chances are, if you're here reading a Lost blog, it does matter, and, if I may cite what I wrote in yesterday's comments, here's why it matters:

I'm really not going to try and convince anyone to be outraged by this if they are not. Not a terribly interesting proposition to me.

But it seems to me, if you're constructing a mystery, then you owe it to the audience to give them a chance to solve it. That doesn't mean the audience should solve it 60% through the story (like Lost is, essentially), but you can't make it impossible for them to guess, is my point.

Going through Find815, and many loyally did, only to say, post-facto, "Oh, that's not canon," seems to me a slap in the face for those who looked to Find815 not merely as a mild diversion, but as a way to reward intense show loyalty by giving them valid hints of things to come. These were things that, like the discovery of Black Rock, would eventually be revealed within the show proper, but also provided hints that would reward the most rabid Lost fan.

Such a violation of the "rules", as I see them, makes any further conjecturing that much more difficult. If the extra ancillary material is non-canon, state so up front (and they finally were seemingly forced to in terms of the video game), or make sure you stick an associate producer on every extra piece of Lost narrative and make sure everything falls in line with Darlton's master plan.

You can't have it both ways and expect people to continue to discuss the possibilities of future plot developments.

To further this point: Lost is a genre show, and as such, possesses the often ravenous, rabid fanbase that accompanies such shows. Things like "Missing Pieces," "The Lost Experience," and "Find815" are predicated on such interest, exploit such interest, and in doing so, keeps their show fresh in the minds of their audience. By essentially telling that rabid audience that the work they put in doesn't matter, it insults the goodwill of these fans and puts Lost in a tough situation down the line when they want to produce ancillary material.

To further my point, let me take the first question of this week's "Letters from The Flame," which I answered in my podcast, but takes on a whole new perspective after today's revelations. This comes from reader Shaggysteve:

We saw that Elsa had a similar bracelet to the one worn by Naomi.  It would seem that Sayid is killing off those connected to Dharma.  So the major question right now is Who is RG?  Considering the picture with Desmond & Penny, maybe someone with Widmore Industries?

In this week's podcast, my wife and I debated this topic for about five minutes. We thought perhaps it was literally the same bracelet, while accepting that as a very remote possibility. I mentioned that the whole thing had a Kill Bill vibe to it, almost as if "the economist" had a habit of giving them to his lovely lady assassins. But we both agreed this was a strong signal that, if nothing else, Naomi and Elsa work for the same organization.

But hey, what do I know? Let's see what Darlton had to say about this in Entertainment Weekly:

I got some e-mails from people who wondered if there was a connection between Naomi's bracelet and the bracelet worn by the woman Sayid killed in his flash-forward. There is no connective tissue. Sometimes a bracelet is just a bracelet.

Well, then.

Here's why this falls flat for me. Maybe I'm reading his tone incorrectly here, but he seems almost bemused that fans look at two similar bracelets and strive to make a connection. As if such sleuthing comes from the deranged psyche of the masses as opposed to a show that has trained it that no detail, however small, is unimportant.

Case in point: there's a section in the Season 3 DVD called "Lost Book Club," in which examines the resonances of novels featured (however briefly) on-screen in the show. One example of how the show used literature as a clue concerned the novel "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," which, IN THEIR WORDS ON THE DVD, was inserted as a way to foreshadow the arrival of Hurley's imaginary friend Dave some five episodes later.

But, remember: sometimes a bracelet is just a bracelet.

See the problem here? Yes, sometimes a bracelet IS just a bracelet, but not on Lost. Not anymore. Probably not ever. You can't have "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" signify the imminent arrival of an imaginary character AND a bracelet that's just a bracelet, anymore than you can invite fans to watch a sanctioned alternate reality game and then state, after the fact, that barely any of it matters to the show.

It's literally not fair. Trying to have it both ways prevents the audience from having a fair chance to actively engage in the mystery of the show. And having cultivated that audience over the past four years, I just don't think it's the smartest move the show can make at this point. I don't remember The X-Files every telling me, "Sometimes an alien is just an alien," after all.

Am I going to stop watching? Course not. For one, um, my bosses here might get a wee bit annoyed. Secondly, this isn't a make-or-break thing; it's just a disappointing thing. I appreciate that trying to construct an elaborate narrative such as Lost already poses more problems than the average Joe could possibly overcome, and as such, I laud the show for getting its main narrative so right so often (especially since the episodes after the mid-Season 3) hiatus. And I applaud them for trying to sate our Lost needs by branching out into ARGs, mobisodes, and video games.  Trust me, I do.

But if these ancillary elements are not canon, for the love of God, Darlton, tell us ahead of time. And if you can't make them canon, I'd advise forgoing them altogether going forward. You have your hands full over the next forty-five episodes; focus on that. Honestly, I don't need to follow characters in ARGs if you yourselves can't be bothered to follow them.

Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude.

E-mail

• Digg
• Facebook
• Fark
• Yahoo Buzz
• Stumbleupon