It’s been over a year since the greatest television series ever made* bowed out with a finale that split its loyal following in two. Over the past two months or so, I’ve rewatched all 6 seasons of the show with a unique perspective. Unique to me, anyhow, for it’s the first time I’ve seen any of the episodes more than once, and as such the first time I’ve done so knowing what’s going to happen.
SPOILER ALERT: If, for some unfathomable reason, you’ve not yet seen LOST but are planning too, it’s only fair I should warn you that there will be plenty of spoilers coming up in this post.
Everything has a beginning, a middle and an end. Except LOST. One of its greatest storytelling tricks was to use the bane of many a writer’s existence—flashbacks. LOST firmly started in the middle of its story, with so much important stuff happening before Jack first opened his eyes after the plane crash.
That very first scene, nay, that first shot of one of Jack’s eyes opening, laying in amongst a field of bamboo, was iconic, and from that first shot one of LOST’s main themes was introduced (eyes). It was the first of many, and along with the unending list of questions that every episode seemed to ask and the aforementioned storytelling technique, it was a recipe for an overnight hit.
I can still remember the trailer for the first season here in Britain, with the actors dancing with each other on the beach, all bloody and injured, with the burning wreck of the plane as the backdrop. It was haunting, and cool. It immediately told you this was no ordinary show, and it wasn’t.
Fastforward to my second viewing, and I found myself feeling an equal amount of shock and awe from the very first episode. But it was different. For this time I knew what the island was and I knew why the survivors had been put on it. This put an interesting spin on an already intriguing series. As it had been so long since I saw those first few seasons, I found I’d also forgotten exactly what happened next, remembering things only as they happened.
You see, the big overall storyline is easy to remember, but it’s the small things you forget. Like when, in a very early episode (possibly episode 3) John Locke is introducing the young Walt to the game of backgammon. He says it’s a battle between two sides, one black, the other white. Wham! I sat up and took note. Right there in one of the very first episodes, a character has effectively told the audience what the whole series is all about.
That’s another theme, by the way, the whole black and white thing. At one point two of the biggest themes are merged when John Locke appears in a dream with one black eyeball and one white. Genius, and only one of so many examples of foreshadowing.
As I watched season after season, there were many times when I picked up on the smaller things that would’ve been missed first time round. There were so many hints to things that would come, it was a pleasure to see just how completely the whole story had been planned.
There were quite a few haters who insisted that the writers were making it up as they went along from a very early stage. Obviously with serial television where you (the writers) don’t know if there’ll be a next season or not, there has to be a certain amount of this. But I truly believe after watching it all for a second time that the overall story was always planned out.
A lot of criticism was thrown LOST’s way in the 5th season, for example, with the whole time-travel thing. Yet, watch it again, and you’ll see that it was hinted at for quite a while before it happened. A lovely little hint very early on that time-travel would play a part was when Hurley and Sayid picked up a radio signal, and it was playing music. Sayid wonders where it was coming from. Brilliantly, Hurley wonders WHEN it was coming from.
There was actually SO MUCH stuff that happened which related to later events, that it couldn’t all have been fortunate coincidence for the writers.
And so finally I got to the controversial final season (it was never referred to as season 6, always The Final Season). By this point we’d had the flash-backs and the flash-forwards. Now we were introduced to what was quickly tagged as the flash-sideways.
An alternate universe was what everyone thought these were, and so adament were they that the real question wasn’t so much what the flash-sideways were, but how they would convene at the end with the original thread. I think this is why the finale was such a Marmite moment (love it or hate it). When it was revealed to be the afterlife there was nothing short of a nuclear fallout.
I must state at this point that I am not religious. I don’t believe in God and follow no religious movement. However, I loved the finale, and found it very emotional (possibly more-so second time around after watching the whole thing in such a short period of time). But even then, it was so wide open to interpretation. Christian (Shephard – Jack’s father) states that it was a place they all made together so they could find each other, and at no point is faith or religion or God actually mentioned. Perhaps, then, it’s not the afterlife as such, but something unique to those who have been on the island.
Having said all that, the only part that was a little cheesy and spoilt it a little for me was when Christian opens the doors of the church and there’s nothing but white light beyond. Hmmm.
But again, this whole afterlife thing, it’s something that’s foreshadowed throughout the series. The most obvious hint (besides certain characters saying they’re all dead) is Desmond’s favourite saying; “See you in another life, brother.” It’s first said in the second season, in the first scene we ever see of Desmond. He repeats it thoughout the series, and even in the finale it’s referred to when Jack says it back to Desmond. And of course, the beauty here is that it’s Desmond who brings them all together in the “afterlife”.
So then, to all the haters, how can it be a copout if it was the plan all along?
Another big complaint was that it didn’t answer all the questions that it had asked over the past six years. Firstly, I think it’s good that it didn’t. There should be some things left open for interpretation. But secondly, I think there were far fewer questions left unanswered than people think.
Again this was an advantage of rewatching. The problem was that almost every episode asked a new question. Only the questions answered within a relatively short space of time would be remembered. But other questions weren’t answered for so long, that by the time they were, viewers had forgotten what the question was… they just knew that there WAS a question. Take the moment in season 5, for example, after young Ben is shot by Sayid. He’s taken to the Others, who take him and heal him, but we don’t see how. We only see him being taken to the outer wall of a temple we, the viewer, still haven’t seen.
How was he saved then? We don’t find that out until season 6, when it’s Sayid who’s taken to the temple, into the healing fountain. When I saw that first time round I’d completely forgotten about young Ben being shot. But second time round, when he’s taken to that outer wall, I’m in my chair going “ohhh, of course!”
So to end this essay, as it seems to have turned into, I’d like to state for the record that I still think LOST was one of the best, most intriguing series ever created, with stunning character development made better by stunning performances from every cast member. Never before have I been so into a series. Even on this second round of viewing I wanted to watch the next episode more than anything else on TV. Now that’s gotta count for something. (Plus, y’know, that Kate’s a bit of alright.)
If you’re interested in all things LOST, may I direct you to the LOST Encyclopedia. And if you have any ideas on theories or just wanna give an opinion, comments are always open.
I’ve also embedded two versions of the now infamous Channel 4 promo, the first being the only one I can remember with the actors claiming what kind of person they might be. The second is a version I didn’t see until searching for the first, and is a more complete cut of the video. Apparently this promo alone cost millions to make.
* my opinion only… I’m well aware it’s not shared by most 
Ummm…I’ve never seen a single episode. Are we still friends?
Of course, so long as you watch all six seasons between now and, hmm, lets say this time next week. You don’t need sleep, do you?
Okay should I also tell you that I have NEVER seen ANY of the Star Wars movies? EVER?! Also, when are you updating this blog of yours? zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Thank God, someone else who thinks they tied up a lot more than they’re given credit for.
I’m another UK viewer – I must have been 14 when it started here. I vaguely remember the ad although never actually watched when everyone else did, which is annoying. Finally caught up on the first five seasons in the summer of 2009, then watched 6 in realtime, having waited nearly as long as everyone else since *that* fifth season finale.
I got four episodes into a rewatch earlier this year but found it was too soon – I’d really like to at some point, though. To this day I can’t work out what I think of season 6. Incredible finale and some awesome episodes and revelations, but I also think I missed having stuff like DHARMA around, and in retrospect, stuff like the temple episodes and the Widmore emphasis seem like red herrings.
That said, I’m not totally sure why people hated the resolution – no made-up scientific explanation would have been any better than ‘a magic light did it’, as far as I’m concerned. And any time I read someone’s mistaken rant about how it turned out they were dead the whole time, I cry inside.
So, yeah, my two cents. I kick myself now that I missed a lot of the hype (while giving stuff like Heroes the time of day?!) and was only up to speed for the final year, but, wow, was it worth it. Fantastic, fantastic show.