Lost: The beginning of the end

Abandon hope to all who enter – or at least continue reading – there will be plenty of spoilers ahead, as we pontificate pointlessly about what we learned from last night’s season premiere of the final season of Lost. What follows is what my very random thoughts and reactions from this long awaited show, including what I think are the three most important things said on last night’s show.

As we begin, I’d like to start with a sum up by absolutely butchering Robert Frost: “Two roads diverged in the jungle. I took both, and that has made all the indifference.”

The long awaited post-hydrogen bomb reveal happens, and Jack and co. are back on the plane. Oh no, not again. And not again was right, as the real news is that this season’s gimmick is the flash-sideways or flash-parallel, which looks to explore what happened if the plane landed in L.A. and our lovable castaways all went on with their “sad…pathetic existences” as one seemingly, exceedingly key character described it.

Which brings us to the first important utterance: “It worked,” which was said by Miles, but came straight from a dead and buried Juliet. Of course, how would she know? Oh, people, let’s not get bogged down by details or, you know, clarity. It is Lost, after all.

Before we get to some of the specifics of the episode, let’s talks ramifications. By showing the parallel lives of the characters, it really lowers the stakes moving forward. The rest of the year will likely show emotional payoffs for the main players, and gives the writers two different realities to let people have their moments.

My wife likened it to Sliding Doors, a Gwyneth Paltrow movie I can happily say I have never seen, but what it reminds me of – and I’ve been saying this for years – is several episodes of Star Trek. And my long standing joke amongst friends is what Star Trek can do with an episode, Lost can drag out things for years. Which is kind of impressive, in a way.



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