After a long St. Patrick’s Day debate with some close friends about LOST over tacos (because what’s more appropriate for St. Patty’s Day than debating the merits of one of the greatest TV Shows of all time [read: the TV show that's sucked my life away for 6 years so it better turn out damn awesome] over chipotle tacos and Marg O’Ritas), I was finally able to put my finger on the thing that has been bugging me throughout season 6. I miss Locke.
Locke’s deep faith in the island’s strange powers set him apart from the rest of the characters because he was the first to realize that maybe getting off the island wasn’t what he wanted. I was so drawn to his desire to embrace the island and all its mystery, and his fervent belief that the island needed to be protected. Now that Locke isn’t really Locke, I’m confused. It seems appropriate that Locke’s character is the one that the Man in Black used to manifest himself, but I can’t help but be skeptical. I can’t help but hope that his passionate love, faith and dedication to the island has paid off in some way. At the same time I suspect that his faith betrayed him, that he is really dead, completely and totally dead, and that this Smoke Monster/Man in Black dude is just messing with us.
Locke isn’t the only one I miss. I miss Sayid, Jack and Kate, too. It seems like their awesome storylines that took 6 seasons of development are now being lost under the whole Fate vs Free will debate. The Jacob/Man in Black thing is cool, but the flash sideways scenes are getting to me. Am I supposed to mourn that Jack’s life would have been better if he had never come to the island, or that Ben could have been a happy science teacher instead of a hated leader? Am I supposed to feel bad that Sayid still would have been a killer, or that Sawyer would have still been consumed with revenge? I can’t place the alternate reality–what purpose does it serve other than to make me focus on what could have, should have, or would have happened if Oceanic flight had never landed.
Throughout my tense relationship with LOST, the writers have always come through at my most frustrating moments and delivered something fantastic, unexpected, and solid. Please, guys, don’t let me down! I’m starting to hope that the show will pull a Cowboy Bebop and just END. End in some way that surprises and enthralls me but at the same time ties together the threads that I didn’t even know were the ones that mattered most. I’ve got my eye on the finish line…. Come on, LOST, finish strong!
I’ve written before that the best thing about LOST is that there’s so much to debate, but now we’re getting down to the wire and I’m getting nervous. Some of my most irksome questions are below. I will be posting another poll after each episode from here on out, so be sure to come back and vote again next week.
[POLL QUESTIONS]
1. Richard–Friend or Foe?
After last week’s teaser for the upcoming episode, Ab Aeterno, I’m hoping my biggest questions about Richard will be answered. How old is Richard? Why can’t he die? But biggest question of all–is Richard a good guy or a bad guy? Should we trust him, or is he too bound to the island to help anyone escape?
(more questions after the jump)
2. Who will be the new Jacob?
Going off the theory that Jacob’s numbers correspond to a set of candidates who will be his replacement, who is most likely to be the new guiding force behind the island’s darkest mysteries?
3. Is Widmore a good guy?
I HATE Widmore! I hate what he did to his daughter, and to Desmond. But now looks like the only option for any of our heroes to get off of the Island.
4. Will Jack nuke Widmore’s submarine?
I think Jack is the one who is most likely to mess up Sawyer and Kate’s only hope for actually getting off the island… and Jack will probably have some sort of heroic yet self-sacrificing motive, too. Thoughts?
5. Are we going to be totally disappointed with the Jacob/Man in Black relationship?
Is the Fate vs. Free Will debate going to completely overwhelm what our heroes have been fighting for all along–to simply get off the island–leaving it’s faithful readings feeling betrayed and jilted?
6. Was Walt ever really important?
Or will that whole “kids on the island are special” thing just die out unresolved?
7. Will Claire and Aaron be reunited?
Or will fake Locke’s ominous words to Kate about how Aaron now has a “crazy mom” lead Kate to kill Claire in a moment of crazed, foster-motherly love?
8. Will Sawyer kill Kate?
I can imagine that Sawyer and Kate, in a chilling yet tragically heroic turn of events, are faced with some kind of a fatal choice that would result in one killing the other. Just trying to hypothesize here.
9. Does 42 refer to Jin, Sun, or Ji Yeon?
… do we care anymore?
10. Has Widmore come back to the island to help people escape?
It seems much more likely that he’s there to ensure that a certain camp wins, but right now he seems like the lesser of two evils to me.
Totally agree about missing Locke. He was such a complex, fascinating character. Same with Sayid. Why do they insist on making everyone interesting a zombie/dead??
Ok so my roommate and I only discovered Cowboy Bebop last year, but we were SO PISSED at the ending, for obvious reasons. But I agree, I wouldn’t be able to deal with another season of Lost, they’ve dragged it out as long as they can.
While I also don’t really see the point of the alternate reality or whatever, Ben as a science teacher is hilarious. Though I totally called Alex being one of his students.
1. FINALLY. We finally get Richard’s story.
4. It all depends on when Jack finds out about the sub. Is Widmore who Jacob wanted to find the island? He seems to have found the island without any help (unless Jacob had a Plan B that we haven’t heard about yet), so maybe not. But if he is, then it all depends on what Jacob wants Hurley to do and if he tells him about the sub. But as far as Jack messing up the escape plans, probably. He’s done it before.
6. The kids that disappeared in Season 1 (-ish) were at the temple, but exactly nothing has been said about them. And everyone else at the temple is now dead, so we’re probably not going to find out unless they, the flight attendant, or Jacob tell us. This is where I start to get really fed up with this show, when they (seemingly) drop plot lines like this.
8. Sawyer would do almost anything to get off the island. He’s just so tired now, of the island, of all the crap that keeps happening to them, of everything, especially since Juliet died. But I think Kate is one of the few people he couldn’t kill. They don’t have a relationship anymore, but look at the way he reacted to finding her dress at the Hydra station.
9. Does 42 refer to Jin, Sun, or Ji Yeon? … do we care anymore?
hahaha exactly. While it’s an interesting possibility that it might be their kid that’s the one, they need to start wrapping up and explaining the plot lines, not introducing new ones. Because their kid is back in Korea.
The problem with asking a poll question like the one about Richard on this post is that it ignores everything that Lost is about. Friend or foe to who? Who are “we” rooting for anymore? It seems inevitable that Sawyer and Jack are going to end up on opposite sides of the board at the end of the series (white versus black and whatnot, although who can tell which of these is good and which of these is bad, because the show certainly doesn’t know). Which one is the protagonist, the good guy? No one on Lost is “good” or “evil”, despite the fact that they would like us to think that this is the case. Richard cannot be a friend or a foe, because he is probably both – and in any case, I am more apt to think that he is neither. He is either morally grey or just totally uninterested in morals, doing what he thinks is “best”. Ramble ramble, but my answer to the poll is “C”, none of the above.
Locke was one of my favorite characters! I do miss him, but I’m also interested to see where this man-in-black storyline goes. I wish we had more of an indication of his power and plans so the tension could build about whether we want to cheer for him or against him.
Lost has a strong history of surprising me with very cool and exciting things, just after I’ve been feeling very confused, so I haven’t lost hope that this will turn out totally kick ass.
And about those flash-sideways’– forget about how you think you’re supposed to feel about them. I think the point is missed when you focus too much on how characters make you feel. If they pull this off I think it will be remembered as one of the most interesting new ways to tell a story that has ever been put on TV!
I love this show! Keep the posts a-coming!
6. yeah, i just really really loved the storyline about why the children are special on the island, and why people can/can’t get pregnant/give birth on the island… and i think that storyline died with Juliet. Sad…. it was such a compelling plot thread. i don’t want to just chalk it up to the time travel/mangnetic whatever properties of the island. i want some believable fake science!
lost should have ended with season 3. that was such a PERFECT ending; ‘we’ve gotta go back’
says it all, and it wouldn’t even matter if other stuff was left unsolved.
but since lost DIDN’T end with season three, i’ve found it’s best not to get into any discussions because they always manage to surprise/irritate us. like everyone, i just want it to END
but a fun thought occurred to me during the last episode, while ‘Locke’ was talking about his mother. it would be awesome if, in yet another sick twist of the timeline, it turned out that the man in black IS Aaron
Just want to comment on the flash-sideways bits. They are not “what would happen if they did not land on the island” they are “what would happen if the bomb went off & Jacob never touched/called them” I find that much more interesting. That said, the flash-sideways bits are starting to annoy me & they had better have some serious relevance by the end of the season.
@Jays– why do you say the flash sideways scenes are “what would happen if the bomb went off…”? i agree completely that they are what would have happened if Jacob never touched them. And obviously we know that somehow Ben and his dad got off the island safely, but do you really think it’s because the bomb went off? I’m thinking that Dharma left or was destroyed for a different reason…
i say that because in the season opener when they started the first flash sideways they showed the island on the bottom of the ocean, it seemed the obvious conclusion to me. But you are right, it may have happened from something they havent shown us yet, Abrams is tricky like that.
Gentle disagreement about the side-flashes. I found it poignant that Jack was able to connect with his son and resolve some of his daddy issues. Maybe this is me as a dad talking.
Same with Dr. Linus doing the right thing after all.
I *should* mind that it seems to undercut the subtext or premise of the show: That these people needed the island to find themselves. So I understand the gripe.
When LOST wraps I’m killing my tv. I share the apprehension about the ending. After the last half-hour of BSG I will of course never love again.:)
Wouldn’t it be great to have a scene where Hurley sees both “Locke” and Locke’s ghost. That would be great.