I was born on this island; not many of my people can say that. Most of them were recruited and brought here, and as much as they love this place, as much as they would do anything to defend it, they need to know that they can leave if they want to.
—Benjamin Linus
Lost premiered on ABC on September 22, 2004, and almost immediately it became a television phenomenon. It had a great hook (People survive a plane crash and are stranded), a large cast of interesting characters, and a polar bear on a tropical island. The story from there took dozens of twists and turns. The Island apparently was able to heal the sick, and it had a hatch where numbers had to be pressed every 108 minutes, which was constructed by a group called the Dharma Initiative, only it was now controlled by a group called The Others, who had the capacity to actually move the island, which made the survivors travel through time.
If this sounds confusing to anyone who doesn’t watch Lost, it may be even more confusing to people who do watch Lost. The show has more unanswered questions than a high school dropout’s SAT test. There’s a lot of talk about what questions need to be answered as the final season begins, and many are demanding no less than every single mystery solved and everything to make sense after the final 17-18 episodes have aired. These people will be disappointed, because that’s not what the show is about, and that’s not the story the writers are trying to tell.
Lost is ultimately a show about free will vs. pre-determined destiny. Faith vs. Science. The theme of the show is told through the characters, where they’re going and how they’re going to get there. The plot is advanced through the different mysteries about the island. The numbers, the smoke monster, Jacob, and even the Island are just red herrings. The answers surrounding those mysteries may or may not be revealed, and if they are, they will be done in ways to service the story which is used to service the overall theme of the show. The ultimate question about the final season of Lost is: Are the characters in the situations they are in because they chose to be there, or were they meant to be there at the same time? That’s the only question that needs to be tackled in full during the final episodes of Lost.
Others will disagree with me. And that might be the greatest achievement for the creators and everyone who worked on Lost. It’s a show that’s many different things to different people. Some love it for the different character stories. Some love it for the mysteries. Some love the increasingly preposterous Jack-Kate-Sawyer-Juliet love rectangle (Jack wants to blow up the Island so he can have another chance at Kate? Really?).
There’s something for everyone. As long as they can deal with confusion.
WOST.
