In the wake of the most recent episode of LOST entitled “This Place is Death” (Season 5, episode 5), an idea occurred to me while listening to the recap of the show on the most recent Jay & Jack LOST Podcast. Because all of what follows assumes that the reader has seen all the episodes up to this point and would thus contain SPOILERS for those who have not caught up, I will place the bulk of the post below the fold.
Life's Paradox
the blog of Eric Austin Lee
Category Archives: LOST
Reflections on LOST Season 4
Now that LOST season 4 is over, here are some of my collected thoughts on the entirety of the latest season, and especially on the finale episodes. As this will all be very spoiler-y, I will place the rest of this post below the fold.
LOST Prediction: The Phenomena of the Reveal and the Question of LOST
My wife Tiana and I, since this last summer, have been catching up on watching LOST in all of its awesomeness. Since buying Season 1 from my friend Mogan we have been hooked. After borrowing Season 2 from a friend shortly thereafter, we received Season 3 on DVD for Christmas and caught up in time for Season 4 to start on January 31st. Like my good friend Charlie, I’ve also been listening to The Official LOST Podcast and The Lost Podcast with Jay and Jack, soaking up theories about the unfolding plotline(s), listening to interviews, etc. — in other words, pretty much becoming a LOST nerd(tm). In spite of all my fandom of the show, I do have one meta-prediction about the show. This really won’t be a surprise to most people, but here it is:
Once LOST is over in 2010, the big reveal(s) of the plotlines are (uhm) revealed, and the denouement breathes its last breath, the following phenomena is sure to happen: people who are not invested in the storyline whatsoever will give it all away who to those who have either 1) not caught up yet to the end or 2) were intending to get around to watching the show someday. Many people will feel cheated, but it is bound to happen in the face of such a popular show. There will be “Now that it is all over, now what?” commentaries and Op-Eds that give away the big reveals of the end of the series and will be readily accessible to anybody not wanting to put the effort forth to watch the show (although it’s a TV show so ‘effort’ may not be the right word! maybe patience?). People like me will probably get enormously frustrated and disappointed because we will have spent 6 seasons worth of episodes getting invested in characters and their story-arcs only to hear people attempt to reduce these characters to some final moments that distort the heart of the characters and the story. Inevitably, I will cry, “but it is not as simple as that!”
So my question then becomes: will LOST ultimately have a of depth beyond mere plot details that will be able to overcome the nay-saying of spoiler mongers? Will one be able to say something like, “But what LOST is about is more than just the reveals of the plot”? Will spoiling plot details be enough to actually “ruin” the show for somebody? I have some thoughts on this, but I want to hear what you think first.