With less than one week until the final season premiere of Lost, I think it's time to devote a little time to what's at stake for this season. Unlike a lot of other shows, being a dedicated fan/writer of the Lost universe means watching the show repeatedly and knowing all the connections so as to be able to formulate theories and hypotheses as to, you know, what the hell is going on. Despite being with the show since the almost beginning (I caught up on the seemingly extinct creature once know as "summer reruns" after season one) I'm not quite a Lost-scholar, so I'm going to look ahead more than I'll look back.
Where are we now?
Spoiler alert: Season 5 ends with a flash of white light that may or may not have killed everybody or reset the timeline or burned off Richard's eye shadow--nobody can say for sure. As such, this season could start anywhere. It may start exactly where we left off, the white light having no effect at all; it could be the exact way Season 1 opens, our familiar characters again strangers on a plane; or maybe it'll be hundreds of years ago with those two dudes (one of them is Jacob) from the beach. Nobody knows! I remember feeling this way after the dynamite Season 3 finale (the one where Jack meets Kate at the airport and proceeds to blow our minds) in that it was possible (though it didn't happen) that Season 4 might take place complete off of the island and follow the Oceanic 6 in LA or wherever they'd migrated to. Basically, anything is in play for Season 6, in regard to time, place, and characters.
Why did it have to be that way?
There were multiple occasions last season when I had to postpone my judgement on a plot twist as I needed to see if it was paid off in the last season. That is, a few things that happened last season seemed more than a little arbitrary, justified with no more explanation than someone declaring, "It has to be that way!" or something. For example, "recreating" the 815 flight seemed a little suspicious to me. Sure, this version of the flight is missing 90% of the same people, but, we gotta have Jack's dad's shoes! Let's just say that kind of device (which occurred more than a few times last season, though not being a Lost-scholar I can't recall them all [remember, this a blog, not a court case] but, trust me, this wasn't the only offense) can either come to make sense in the final fabric of Season 6 or will be exposed to be a manufactured obstacle to inject a little more drama into the last season.
Who are those guys?
Speaking of contrived, I hope I wasn't the only one who was more than little put-off when Lost seemed to so proudly pat itself on the back for tricking us into thinking Locke was still alive (will he be alive somehow in S6?) by making the other-dude-on-the-beach inhabit his body. That guy was never in any episode before that last one and it seemed a little deus ex machina for that to be the secret. Speaking of deuses, check out this Lost preview...
Is this just because Spanish Lost fans are more intrigued by the notion of Gods, or is that guy from the beach some kind of God? Is Jacob a God? Are they some kind of all-powerful aliens? Is this another Matrix-type Architect thing? To re-suggest what I mentioned in bold-type-section #1, could Jacob and his adversary be two of the more major characters in this season? With much of the action taking place a hundred or two-hundred or a thousand years ago?
When it's all over...
I swear that I wasn't forcing this whowhatwherewhenwhy thing until this point, the first three just happened that way...anyway. It's hard to believe, that this is all going to be over and we're going to get some kind of closure or, gasp, answers about this story. I was never one to complain that Lost gave ten questions for every answer. I, in fact, liked that*. I like putting in time for a pay-off later. That said, there better be a pay-off. If Lost thinks (and yes, by Lost, I mean Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, I imagine the show as a bizarre, smoke-like entity of its own) it's going to give us a Sopranos, No Country for Old Men, or 2001 type ending, there are going to be a lot of very unhappy people. Not that I think they will, but how can there possibly be an ending that's going to make everybody (or even most people) happy? The show has gotten into such a crazy place (time-travel, magic) that the revelation of what's happening isn't going to be some sort of simple solution, it's going to be nuts. Aside from what the ending is, it'll be kind of sad when it's all over. TV is about enjoying the ride, not getting to an end point (though Lost is perhaps a game-changer in this sense) and it will probably be an empty feeling when it's gone forever. Though, if the ending is good, watching it all again for clues and to better understand the arc may be fun as well. If end-theories are your thing, check this out one from a blogger who knows fifty times more about Lost than I do.
* If I have one complaint about Lost, it's that the dialogue and dedication to character has kind of been on the back-burner as the episodes become more and more jam-packed with plot and information. This is why I think Season 1 is the best, because it raises sufficient mystery and has a really engaging story, but also dazzles us with character building.
What...uh...What...hmm...
Just kidding. Obviously I could've come up with a title that started with "what." This paragraph is basically a continuation of the one before it anyway. Now, before everything gets wrapped up, there is still one highly-antipated season of Lost. Since Lost is more of a super-movie instead of a regular TV show, so much depends on this final season. Newsweek even ran an article this week discussing how pivotal this season is to the legacy of the show, basically, this is season is the show's legacy. If this season is a miserably failure (it won't be, but consider it anyway) this show is a failure in hindsight. If the grand plan is a house of cards, in a sense, then people will always be able to say that the only reason anyone liked it is that it built up the expectations for an unattainable climax. On the other hand, if Season 6 is a huge success, does Lost become one of the great shows of all time? Right now, it seems like it could be headed for the legacy of an ambitious show that bit off more than it could chew, but took it too far (and, honestly, has another show ever traveled farther away from where it was in Season 1?) and didn't work. However, it could end up as a triumph of storytelling, a masterfully crafted epic that was always three steps ahead of even the smartest viewers, right up to its final, tour-de-force season.
We'll see. For a show that's brought such stunning highs, I wouldn't be surprised if it pulls it off. And if it's not? We'll always have Season 1...that and Mad Men.
* One last note, while I was writing this I read that Howard Zinn died. He will always remind me of this quote from Matt Damon's character to Robin Williams' in Good Will Hunting, "If you want to read a real history book, read Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. That book will knock you on your ass." May he rest in peace.
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