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‘Lost’ but not forgotten

By Susan Young, Film.com

1 Redemption.
“Adrift”
(Season 2, episode 2)
Sawyer and Michael are adrift on a broken
raft when they get a little too close to a
shark. The shark had a Dharma Initiative
tattoo. In that moment, viewers realized
that the series is filled with little Easter
Eggs waiting to be discovered, and “Lost”
became a show you watched and recorded
for later scrutiny.
2 worth noting. In a tribute to “Lost,” we offer up
That one word sums up what “Lost” is all
8
about. The series has been a morality play,
acted out on a stage that looks like a tropical
paradise. Each episode takes viewers through
an epic journey hinging on good vs. evil, fate
vs. free will. Redemption also describes what
the creators hope they will achieve when
“The Shape of
“Lost” finishes its six-year run on May 23.
Things to Come”
Some viewers have pondered every nuance
of the series and the two forces manipulating (Season 4, episode 9)
the island dwellers: Jacob and the Man in The first glimmer of humanity from Ben
Black. Jacob brings people to the island to comes when he calls mercenary Keamy’s
prove to his nemesis that given a choice, peo- bluff to shoot Ben’s adopted daughter if
ple will do the right thing. MIB, also known as Ben doesn’t surrender control to him. Ben
the Smoke Monster and Not-Locke, says refuses. Keamy kills. Ben chose his own
humans are corrupt and the outcome will ambition over his daughter. It was a mis-
always be the same. take he rectified in his alt-life in Season
6’s “Dr. Linus.”
Mythology aside, “Lost” has brought forth
powerful characters with compelling stories,
giving flashes of brilliance in one of the best,
most complex series ever airing on television.
Some may argue that every moment with the
hilarious Hurley or the roguish Sawyer is one
11 moments we’ll never forget. 9

5
“The 23rd Psalm”
(Season 2, episode 10)
While viewers had seen earlier evidence of
the mysterious force that trampled trees
and emitted a strange mechanical sound,
the full impact didn’t hit until the scene
when Mr. Eko stared down the malicious
black cloud. The monster seemed to rip
images out of Mr. Eko’s mind. Looking
back, we can see that Smokey grabs mem-
ories, from black horses to fathers, and
uses them against his prey.
3 flooded chamber, a drowning Charlie
“There’s No Place
Like Home”
Part 2 (Season 4, episode 14)
Ben has been directed by Jacob to move
the island. How does he accomplish this?
“Through the In one of the more outrageous “Lost”
Looking Glass” moments, viewers discover the mechanism
is a subterranean donkey wheel that Ben
Part 1 (Season 3, episode 22)
turns. In a blast of white light, the island is
After Desmond foresees Charlie’s death
gone — traveling through time and space
and tries to save him, he eventually heeds
like it was ripped out of Kurt Vonnegut’s
the advice that the universe has a way of
“Slaughterhouse Five.” And Ben gets
course-correcting when time travelers
dumped in the Sahara Desert. Huh?
attempt to change the future. On a mission
to block a jamming device so Des’ girl-
friend Penny’s ship can get to the island,
Charlie heroically sacrifices his own life to
save others. Outside the window in the
shows Des what is written on his palm:
“NOT PENNYS BOAT.” Somebody’s
coming, and it isn’t good.
10

“Two for the Road” “Through the

(Season 2, episode 20)
Michael had always been portrayed as one
6 Looking Glass”
of the good guys, but his ethics are severe-
ly compromised when his son Walt is kid-
napped. In exchange for Walt’s release,
Michael kills obnoxious Ana Lucia. But
when he also murders sweet Libby, we
realize how good can turn evil in a heart-
beat.
Part 2 (Season 3, episode 23)
One of the most haunting lines spoken
on “Lost,” was when Jack meets Kate on
an airport tarmac and says, “Kate, we have
to go back.” Viewers realized that instead
of the traditional flashbacks, they had been
watching a flash-forward for the first time.
“LA X”
(Season 6, episode 1)
Just before Juliet dies after detonating the
bomb meant to erase the island timeline
and return inhabitants to their pre-crash
lives, she’s unable to tell her love Sawyer
“something important.” Sawyer forces
ghost whisperer Miles to tell him what
Juliet wanted him to know. She told him,
“It worked.” And thus the two timelines of
2004 and 2007 were established.

7
4
“The Man Behind
the Curtain”
(Season 3, episode 20)
Locke is shot and left for dead by Ben
Linus, but he somehow survives — only to
be killed later by Ben. When exactly did
Locke die and The Not-Locke Monster
take over his body? The first time Locke
pleads to an unrepentant Ben, “Help me.”
It’s the same line the first-time resurrected
Locke hears from the Not Jacob voice in
“Cabin Fever” (Season 4, episode 11).
11
“The Constant”
(Season 4, episode 5)
The rules for time travel were set up in
this episode, but it wasn’t the mechanics
that provided the most astonishing
moment. It was the set-up of beleaguered
“Dr. Linus”
lovers Desmond and Penny. After a sepa- (Season 6, episode 7)
ration, a time traveling Des begs Penny to The crucial moment that showed the
give him her phone number and not to importance of redemption came in this
change it. He says he will call her in eight episode, when Ben tells Jacob’s body-
years on Christmas Eve 2004. Just as he is guard Ilana that he has to go with the Man
on the verge of a temporal breakdown, in Black because no one else will have
Des calls. Penny answers. Tissue use sky- him. “I will have you,” she says. No one is
rockets. ever lost when they do the right thing.

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