We’d better do a LOST thread, then…

[Seb Patrick]

I haven’t seen it yet, but I’ll lay out the spoiler policy for this thread – if it’s been broadcast, talk about it to your heart’s content. If you don’t want spoilering, don’t read this thread. And it’d be nice if people could be polite and not go giving things away elsewhere on the site.

Go!

Topic

[Jo]

You want the moon on a stick, you do!

Someone smarter than me will probably have answers to all your questions, but I’ll have a go and tell you my theories nonetheless :oD

Non-candidates – The non-candidates were just as important as they played a role in getting the candidates where they needed to be/keeping them sane/playing the role of red-shirts.

Walt – I believe this was a fuck up on the part of the people in charge who didn’t foresee that the actor who plays Walt would grow up in 6 years… so they dropped it quickly!

Charlie – I’d imagine heroin played a major part in him going a bit mental, he was using again at that point wasn’t he? The Virgin Mary statues? Wasn’t his reasoning that he wanted Aaron baptised so that he wouldn’t go to hell or something?

Time-Travel – *shrugs* all to do with the Island’s magical abilities being messed up after the hatch exploded. Best I can do, sorry!

Widmore – I’m guessing the magical healing properties of the island was what he was after, whether for his own use or as a businessman he saw an opportunity to make a lot of money, you’d have to decide for yourself.

Claire – She left Aaron after speaking to Christian/The Man in Black. As she said afterwards if you let him speak to you then you’re already with him.

Sayid – The darkness possessed Sayid, when Jacob (protector of the light) died the temple became territory of The Man in Black and the healing properties of the water worked in a different way.

Jack’s tattoo – It was Bollocks. End of. A really shit filler episode with far too much Dr. Fathead in it.

Shannon/Nadia – Because in the sideways/purgatory he’d already made that decision to let Nadia go, he’d decided that he wasn’t good enough for her and she was with his brother. Plus she knew what he’d done in order to keep them safe (i.e. killing people) and he couldn’t live with that when she’d been up on a pedestal for all those years. Shannon was Sayid’s deepest emotional connection with the island and he, hers. Shannon knew everything that he’d done in the past and already accepted that when they fell in love on the island. (or you know I could just be talking bollocks)

Ben/Locke – Maybe Ben knew he wouldn’t go through with it anyway. Maybe he had to be murdered rather than commit suicide in order for The Man in Black (who Ben thought was Jacob at the time) to use his image. Maybe he just really wanted to kill him as a power trip!

Ben/Smokey – Because The Man in Black let him believe that. As long as it served his ultimate goal then why not let Ben do all the work for him?

So… yeah. That’s all I’ve got at the moment!

[Pete Part Three]

I salute your efforts!

I’ve got more quezzies if you want ;-)

[hummingbird]

>> Lisa – Why are you in a LOST thread risking being spoilered if you’ve not watched it yet?!

I saw there was only one new post so figured I’d risk it. I live dangerously, me ;-)

.
Just to expand on Jo’s answers …

Non- candidates: *everyone* on the island was originally a candidate – do you remember the cave with all the names crossed out? And the wheel in the lighthouse? The final candidates were decided by a process of elimination.

Charlie: he wasn’t using anymore at that point (he says so himself), but he was having freaky dreams/visions and getting pretty paranoid.

Time Travel: although it’s a rather unsatisfying explanation, I see this as a plot device so that they could show us the history of the island.

Widmore: neither Ben nor Widmore were ‘special’, their conflict was all about control of the island … but neither understood its true nature (nor did Alpert)

Jack’s tattoo: Matthew Fox already had the tattoo, and they foolishly tried to write a whole episode around it. The definition of a filler ep.

Shannon/Nadia: The people were linked because of their experiences on the island. Nadia was never on the island.

Ben/Locke: Ben said it himself – he was jealous, and Ben was still trying to get back to the island at that point. It was for the same reason that he tried to kill him every other time; jealous because he was losing control, because Locke was ‘special’.

.
>> I’d also like an explanation for the numbers, but apparently this was covered in spin-off media. Which is lame.

Each candidate was given a number in the cave and on the wheel in the lighthouse, and as the candidates were eliminated the numbers corresponded to those who were left.

[steven87gill]

I’ve posted this on digital spy but i figure i’ll give my two cents here

I think the writers were just being a bit too clever by half with that twist

In the context of what it turned out to be i could’ve done without the flash sideways, i know it was done for american audiences to soften the blow of the ending simply being jack dying, but i bet the response to the finale would’ve been alot more positive without it.

I guess people with more religious conviction than me will get more out of the flash sideway’s/purgatory (and i’ll admit to getting teary eyed at some of the reunions) but for me it felt a little bit too self indulgent and disctracted from the finale series.

And i’ll be honest after A2A i’m just getting a little bit tired of religious/purgatory/afterlife explanations.

The big difference between american and brit writers:

Lost: Gateway to heaven = Church

A2A: Gateway to heaven = Pub! :)

[pfm]

I remember everyone banging on about it, ‘what about Jack’s tattoos? Will they be explained??’ When they did explain them the episode was shit. When they explained a few things about the island in Across The Sea the episode was shit. When they explained the whispers with a throwaway line that was shit too.

Pretty much every time the writers went into show/explain mode it never felt right IMO. This kind of revelation always feels like it has to be laid out as though explaining to a 3-year-old, simply because of the general audience watching (many who, apparently, now think the characters have ALWAYS been dead since the crash, episode 1…idiots!!!).

THANKFULLY most people can ‘get’ emotional scenes so they can throw in plenty of those and they’re winners (I loved most of those moments in the finale, especially Sawyer and Juliet ‘you got it, blondie…’). They are what you pay your actors for, not for spouting off pseudo-religious or pseudo-scientific bollocks about light caves and time travel.

The Jack/Christian scene at the end is what the whole 6 seasons has been leading to. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit of the whole idea of the flash-sideways/limbo/whatever-you-want-to-call-it came to the writers when they were wondering how they were finally gonna get that father/son moment. They have always been adament that Christian was dead so the only real way of achieving that scene was to have Jack dead also.

I thought of Harry Potter a couple of times during the finale. The ending of that series hinges on love and death in a similar way, and the Jack/Christian scene made me think of the King’s Cross moment toward the end. Those who hate the Lost finale would definitely hate the Harry Potter ending.

[Pete Part Three]

>When they explained a few things about the island in Across The Sea the episode was shit.

I can’t really fathom the response to that episode. I rather liked it.

>Pretty much every time the writers went into show/explain mode it never felt right IMO.

The solution, then, is rather than answering/ignoring barking mad questions, just don’t pose them in the first place. Y’know, if they don’t go anywhere.

>Those who hate the Lost finale would definitely hate the Harry Potter ending.

I’m fairly indifferent to the Lost finale. The lack of answers is irritating as this was the main reason this show caught the public’s imagination. I remember someone telling me about the show the day after it aired on Channel 4 back in 2005. I’d assumed it was a fairly standard desert-island story and hadn’t been particularly interested in watching it. Then they started mentioning polar bears and smoke monsters. I went home and downloaded it.

I have a ton of issues with The Deathly Hallows (sitting in a tent for 200 pages…exciting!) but the ACTUAL end of the story is fine. The Kings Cross epilogue, though, is just utterly redundant. It’s far, far worse than the final scene of Lost (which I didn’t really mind) because it’s so definitive. So, Harry lived a boring life and everyone ended up with the same people they were with at school? Thrilling. Why did I need to know that? Or is just to rule out any further adventures/spin-offs?

[Danny Stephenson]

Or is just to rule out any further adventures/spin-offs?

I honestly think it was literally that. If Rowling had left it open there would have been endless pressure for follow-ups.

[pfm]

> If Rowling had left it open there would have been endless pressure for follow-ups.

Surely killing Harry would have been the easiest way to get out of that??

I think one reason she included the epilogue was to leave herself the chance to go back to that world 19 years down the line, if she really wanted to.

Anyway I wasn’t referring to the epilogue, I meant the King’s Cross limbo/dream scene with Harry and Dumbledore. When Jack touched the coffin and Christian appeared it reminded me of that moment, especially the ‘am I real?’ lines, which are almost the same as in Deathly Hallows.

[Andrew]

Presented without comment (since I never saw the finale):

http://io9.com/5547255/50-questions-lost-needed-to-answer-a-report-card

[Bob Loblaw]

Speaking of epilogues…

http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2010/05/lost-michael-emerson-promises-an-epilogue-on-the-dvd.html

[Pete Part Three]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eomWspUS8B0&feature=player_embedded

Ho hum.

I mean, I’m all for a few ambiguities and dangling plot threads, but fucking hell…

I’ve never watched an episode of Lost more than once and now I’m weighing up whether the whole thing is ever worth a rewatch on DVD from start to finish. I mean, I genuinely enjoyed being stumped by it and it held my attention far more than other TV dramas…but sitting there knowing that this isn’t really going anywhere truly robs it of something, especially when there were so many episodes that had no bearing on the overall arc. I was close to giving up on it in Season 2, but kept the faith when they effectively cancelled themselves, believing that they actually knew what they were doing. I don’t consider it as having wasted my time, just my intelligence! It was stupid to think too much about this show.

Bah.

The equivalent of a batshit crazy girlfriend. Nice to have around for entertainment value, but sooner or later you have to run away and hope to god you never see her again…

[Andrew]

God, I wish it were easier to track down old forum discussions. The Lost discussions from a few years ago would be awfully interesting…

[ori-STUDFARM]

hint hint

[hummingbird]

>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eomWspUS8B0&feature=player_embedded

Sometimes I wonder if these people ever actually watch the show.

[Danny Stephenson]

A: Have you ever actually seen any of it?

B: I’ve seen… the US Pilot, that’s based on one of them…

A: No, but have you actually seen any?

B: Not all the way through no, But I can quote some though!

A: Well, go on then!

B: [prepares self] ‘Change…’ That’s all I can remember…

A: What’s that from then?

B: Polymorph II, you moron, that great “Change” speech. Change.. something something something”. It’s brilliant. Unforgettable…

[pfm]

Danny, how dare you bring Red Dwarf into this???

[Danny Stephenson]

Sorry… *skulks away*

[Jo]

>Non- candidates: *everyone* on the island was originally a candidate – do you remember the cave with all the names crossed out? And the wheel in the lighthouse? The final candidates were decided by a process of elimination.

Interesting that you say that, because I don’t think that’s the case at all!

[Seb Patrick]

Yeah, the vast array of names didn’t cover all of Oceanic 815 – it was the people who’d been candidates over however many decades/centuries…

[Bob Loblaw]

This would explain why Smokey was able to kill the pilot in the Pilot. He wasn’t a candidate and therefore the “rules” didn’t apply to him.

[pfm]

Just seen the smoke monster described as a polymorph elsewhere which is…interesting and totally non-Dwarf-related…

It’s pretty obvious that the original idea the writers had for the smoke monster was that it could turn into anyone or anything it could take from people’s memories (the part where it ‘scanned’ Eko, that now seems pointless). That’s why they had it appear as the black horse that Kate nearly crashed into in her flashback. They did try to ‘explain’ that later by showing horses grazing near another Dharma station (the Flame, I think) but it’s obvious the horse was meant to be the monster, and that huge bird that appeared a few times earlier on in the show.

[ori-STUDFARM]

Eko was originally going to become the smoke monster until the actor left. I heard on the Remember When Podcast that they asked him to return for the finale, but he wanted 5 times the money being offered…

[ori-STUDFARM]

This was what I was expecting….

[Jo]

It turns out it was all Bouncer’s dream!

[Dave]

I wasn’t expecting to have an opinion on the Lost, but I really liked this:

http://9gag.com/gag/23897?

[Pete Part Three]

What do people think about Lost almost a year later? Anyone re-watched it from the start from the perspective of knowing how it will end?

[hummingbird]

I keep meaning to do a complete rewatch, but it’s a hell of a lot of episodes.
I suppose you could do a season per week if you put your mind to it, but I just don’t have that many hours to spare.

[Muzzy]

As much as the last series/episode was a huge disappointment in that it didn’t really answer a lot (apart from showing that the islands mysterious powers were in place due to some equally unexplained light in a cave!) I always liked the ending and closure it gave to the characters. Apart from all the questions, Lost was really about the characters and we saw many of them before the island, on the island, escaping the island and then coming back to the island! Over the 6 series I really got close to a lot of them, so to see the majority of them getting back together and finding redemption and happiness in the end did move me quite a bit. It completely screwed up most of the weird island stuff, but as a character drama I do think Lost is one of the best there is.

[Jonathan Capps]

We started a rewatch a while ago (Series 1 in HD!) but it stalled because of the ridiculous amount of good TV we have to watch.

At the time I really liked the finale, but the more I’ve thought about it since the more I’ve realised it was a bit bobbins. Definitely need to watch the whole thing again, though, because at its best (Series 2) it was incredible.

[pfm]

One of, if not the best, pilot episodes ever made, along with four of the greatest season finales in history (seasons 3 & 4 in particular, so powerful…), the odd bit of guff in between but, up until the season 5 opener, we had some classic television right there.

Unfortunately…well I’m not even gonna go any further than mentioning how all that potential, all that promise was slowly but surely pissed up against the wall as seasons 5 & 6 went on. Some bright spots, especially Terry O’Quinn’s performance…but the season 4 finale…Ben pushing the wheel with the awesome version of his theme over it…that’s Lost’s real peak.

Maybe the biggest mistake they made was coming up with more interesting characters and ideas (Desmond, Faraday, Ben vs Widmore setup etc.) that, when it came down to it, they had to cast to one side like they were nothing in order to get back to the ‘core’ story.

No…an even bigger mistake than that was even attempting to explain ANYTHING about the island. The whole thing with the ‘light’ at the heart of the island should never have come into the story at all. Why do it? The show should have ended with all its mythos intact, the island keeping its secrets. Sure, the writers might have been lynched for giving no ‘answers’, but I think that would have been preferrable to what we DID get!

The characters got a great ending but the island, the story, the mythology…talk about dropping the ball…

[Author]

Replies