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« Lost
Are you LOST?
I know I am. So many questions, yet so few answers: a trend that has plagued the show since the beginning of the second season. So what is going on? I used to be a prominent Lost theorist, one of the first well-known ones under the pseudonym PubClear, but my theories have died off since. I know that I have little clue as to what’s happening, but what’s worse is that I have little aspiration to predict future events. It’s not that I’ve lost interest; I am just tired of the routine. It not fair to the audience, creating a viewer mindset that the next episode will more likely puzzle rather than satisfy. The structure worked for the first 25 episodes, but the show has yet to answer many of the mysteries from even the first season.
What is the DHARMA Initiative? Avid fans (including myself) spent all summer on the Alternative Reality Game dubbed “The Lost Experience”, which cast viewers on a rigorous four-month trek all over the Internet with the promise of learning deep secrets of Lost. The ARG, as it would seem, just turned out to be an advertising gimmick, as all that was mainly learned was the acronym DHARMA stood for, what the numbers represent, a little excerpt about the Black Rock, and the overall purpose of the DHARMA Initiative. On the surface, this sounds fantastic. But the more involved viewer would ask the all important question: “How important to the show can the DHARMA Initiative be if the producers are willing to release so much information about it to a very small percentage of the viewers?” I learned, and yet, I feel like I gained nothing.
(If you are looking for credibility of my Lost knowledge, here are links to some of my theories:
Big Thoery:
http://www.4815162342.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3012
This was posted October 15, 2005. The overall main idea seems wrong, but some elements still prevail.
Ockham's Razor:
http://www.dharmasecrets.com/forum/index.php/topic,2954.0.html
Though a misuse of Ockham’s Razor, this was posted March 12, 2006, predicting many events that actually ensued in later episodes.
Valenzetti's Equation:
http://www.dharmasecrets.com/forum/index.php/topic,3252.0.html
Posted around May 15, 2006, the vast majority of this theory was confirmed by the information gained in the Lost Experience.)
The producers claim that we are going to continue to get questions until it hits a boiling point, and then all of the answers will spill out. I pose that we have already hit this point. Viewers are becoming restless, not only with the lack of answers, but also with the tired formula. What was once an interesting concept of seeing certain events in the character’s lives before crashing on the island has now become what seems like filler. This season, thus far, has had three straight pointless flashbacks that provide literally no insight on the characters or on the island that we didn’t already know. Just when it seems like a point will be reached, for instance “Further Instructions”, the flashback is gone, not to be seen again. What ever happened to Locke and his weed-growing cult? We probably won’t find out until season 4. In fact, the only characters that have had consistently good flashbacks are Hurley, Sayid, and Claire.
Pending questions from before season 3 answered so far:
Henry Gale’s real name is Benjamin Linus.
The Others have contact with the outside world.
There is, in fact, an underwater hatch.
Desmond, Eko, and Locke survived.
The Others live in a communal society in the middle of the island.
There is no time warp. They have actually been on the island for 69 days.
Questions posed by this season so far:
Still, who are the Others and what is their purpose?
Where are they on the island right now?
Why are they holding Kate and Sawyer?
Why are they holding Jack separately?
How long have they been there?
How do they contact the outside world?
What is their relationship (if any) to DHARMA?
Who was that other man in the cage that Sawyer met?
What exactly happened to the hatch, besides the implosion of course?
How did Desmond, Locke, and Eko end up outside of the implosion?
After almost 30 episodes without a Polar bear, why are they back?
Whose bones were in the cave of the Polar bear?
Why was there a blanket/banner with the Pearl station logo in the cave?
Why was Desmond naked?
Why can he supposedly see the future?
What, exactly, did the implosion of the hatch do?
What did the beam of purple light do exactly?
This is the ratio of just 3 episodes. You could easily discount “The Glass Ballerina”, since not only did absolutely nothing happen until the final five minutes of the episode, but everyone watching might have seen one of the biggest mistakes in history of television writing. The writers took away the one thing that would have blown the show wide open with possibility: the boat. Imagine where the survivors could have gone. What else is on the Island? The only hope I had going out of season 2 was the boat and what it could do for the show, and now its gone just like every other instance we get close to answers.
Why not change the show up a bit? Why couldn’t the writers ditch the flashbacks of the first two episodes and use that extra time to cut back and forth between those captured by the Others and those caught in the implosion? Three episodes have been wasted to close the “cliffhanger” of season 2, and now we are only left with 3 more before the hiatus.
An even bigger disappointment is that the producers have stated that season 3 will focus more on character relationship and development rather than the mythology. How can that even be considered a possibility? We haven’t seen the monster since January 11th 2006 (ignoring the claim made by the producers that we saw the monster at a later time), we haven’t seen Danielle nearly enough, we haven’t visited the Black Rock since season 1, and we now no longer have the hatch to intrigue us. It just makes me more skeptical to the fact that maybe the minds behind Lost actually do not know where the show is going. I would really hate for that to be the case, but it seems more and more likely.
One of the more interesting aspects of Lost is that the fans are a lot like football fans, demanding a quarterback change during a hard point in the football season. Everyone hated Ana-Lucia, whereas I believed that Ana-Lucia was one of the most important characters in the show. It has to do with something I dub the Continual Hate-Transfer of Lost. When the show first started, there was one generally disliked character, and it was Shannon. She was the spoiled bitch of the island and her behavior was completely reprehensible. However, after the death of Boone, Shannon became more human, and the unrealistic beliefs of Locke made him the hated character of the show. This continued through the beginning of the second season, until Ana-Lucia killed Shannon, and then the hate transferred to her for a long period of time. Then, Michael killed Ana-Lucia and Libby while letting Henry Gale go free, making Michael the hated character. He led Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley into the other’s captivity. Once Michael was freed from the island, the hate then transferred to the Others.
So where does the hate go next? My theory is that it goes to Jack. I believe, that based on the events of the first three episodes thus far, that the Others will turn Jack, making him a pawn in their desires just so that he can get off the island. He will go back to the camp after being “:rescued” by Locke. I believe that Jack will try to convince some of the survivors to do what the Others want them to do in order to get off the island. Some will follow Jack, some will not, and this will be the concept of “Us versus Them” as the producers described the show structure for the third season.
Another thing to consider is the fact that the Others can apparently leave the island. What if the people that the Others took/captured were sent off the island to find rescue? Maybe the Widmore corporation, having heard the stories of the survivors, is trying to find the island as a rescue effort. Remember, the Widmore corporation has connections to the island, such as past involvement with the Hanso Foundation. Also, the crashed hot air balloon had the Widmore logo on it. Penny Widmore, the love of Desmond, appears to be looking for the island, as they were able to detect the magnetic anomaly at the end of season two. It was also inferred that they had detected it before on the day of the crash. It makes no sense for Penny Widmore to just be looking for Desmond after many years, without any trace or idea of where he might be. I think that the Widmore corporation is heading up a rescue operation based on the stories told by the survivors that were captured by the others and subsequently released from the island.
The lack of answers would somewhat make sense if a large portion of the overall plot involves current events outside of the island, but we need some major disclosure, and the powers that be need to be willing to give the audience just that. Another issue might arise in the conflict of interest between the writers and the viewers. What the writers may believe to be a significant reveal might not coincide with what the viewers have in mind. We are dying for something big. We can taste it. We don’t want it leaving a terrible aftertaste in cliffhanger form. What is the monster? Why is the Black Rock there? Who, in full, are the Others? What is Danielle’s story? Why can the Island heal? What do the other hatches do and what happened to DHARMA? Something. Anything. You’ll be gone for four months. Give us a reason to get Lost when you come back.
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Oct 24, 2006 11:56 PM
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If I am Lost, I'm loving every minute of it. I have not been disappointed in this year and if anything I'm more addicted than ever.
I really believe if we get the answers to soon there will be no where to go. I'm fine getting a little at a time. I think some of your questions have had clues to the answers in the show. It's fun to guess and wonder, in my opinion.
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Oct 25, 2006 1:17 AM
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An avid fan from the beginning I am now
feeling completely lost and if I have to sit thru another back story which does nothing to advance the story I will let LOST be LOST and I will FIND something else to watch, Always more questions than answers on this show. So unless LOST cleans up its act and actually tells us something, not everything but at least something, this LOST watcher will find another Island on Wednesday night to watch.
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Oct 25, 2006 4:48 PM
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excellent article! I feel the same way, in fact I've stopped watching and just check recaps to see if they've revealed anything interesting(they haven't).
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Oct 25, 2006 11:04 PM
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I love LOST.
Yes...I have a lot of questions that
of course, aren't always answered.
BUT I am a patient person ...and I really
like shows that keep you guessing.
TONIGHT was a great show...SAWYER
focused. I happen to LOVE SAWYER.
He's my favorite character.
Lost is a different tv show.....like
the XFILES was very different.
UNIQUE......good drama.
We hope someday all our questions get
answered...but will I give up on it ?
No sir.
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Oct 26, 2006 2:26 AM
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Again, more questions, no answers! Are Sawyer and Kate that dumb that they did not know they were being watched and listened to? I did. Now they are telling us there are two island?, and Jack's group never saw this,they did have a boat and what happened with the boat? what happened to SunLee, did she drown? Is there an undersea tunnel from one island to the other? Perhaps is the OTHERS gave Jack some indication as to their purpose he would be more cooperative - again only question answered is that they did not implant a pace-maker in Sawyer, yipee!, big revelation folks. I will watch this fisasco till the end of the season and then I think my boat will depart for a more believable locale.
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Oct 26, 2006 3:08 PM
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I'm wondering if the creators are Lost. Do they know where the story is going? Do they know what the story is? It certainly is getting frustrating to watch the show that last year I really enjoyed.
The other problem I have with Lost is will it end like the X-Files, with a 2 hour marathon explanation of what was going on... that was pathetically full of holes. This time, I don't feel like waiting all those many years to find out, and then be disappointed.
If something doesn't come together in the next 4 episodes, I'm pulling it off my TiVo list. I've really had it.
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Oct 26, 2006 7:37 PM
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Quite frankly, I am lost. That is not my concern at this point. What does concern me after this season's episodes is the blatant use of blood, guts and violence. The first two seasons did not need to resort to this battering of the viewers. It was mystical, magical and had explanations for any frightening aspects of people's dark sides. What we are seeing now is testosterone with cruel and inhumane treatment. What gives?
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Oct 26, 2006 11:29 PM
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I agree wholeheartedly with serena. Lost is really going down hill... I was initially attracted to the show for it's mystery and character development, but the violence and torture I saw last night made me sick. If I wanted to see thugs beating up on people and tramatizing them, I would watch the Sopranos, which I don't, for that very reason!
Get Sawyer and Kate out of those cages and back with Jack and tell us what the point of all this violence is!
Whew @#$%, rant over.
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Oct 27, 2006 12:02 PM
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Well at least me know for sure now that Jack was taken so he could operate on Henry but why Kate and Sawyer? We once again saw the smoke monster in greater deail and watched in horror as he killed Ecko-what a shock. Now it looks like betrayl is underway with the others wanting Jack to kill Henry. One more episode left, lets see what is revealed and what we are left hanging with until February.
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Nov 2, 2006 4:44 PM
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the flash backs this year do seem to be a waste of time. I think Jack is being tested by Ben to see if he will save him during the operation. also in a season one flash back, didn't Jae tell Sun he was moving to New York ? Why would they have him commit suicide this year? if we are 70 days on the island in the third season, the Losties will be on the island for less than a year in the sixth season and will have aged six years. how will the producers explain that ?
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Nov 2, 2006 8:39 PM
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The shows direction is doing fine. Sure I want to know what, when, why, but they took a chance in revealing the "Others". They are at a point where there will have to go in another direction and it is driving me crazy waiting for it. I would though like to get some early answers to some of the mysteries. They could use it as they did in killing off characters. One more thing, does anyone know when the season finally is?
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Nov 8, 2006 5:22 PM
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 "> I am a little lost, but bit by bit it will all come to a head, but not too fast please because that could mean the ending of a great entertaining series!!!
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Feb 13, 2008 2:45 PM
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