It’s appropriate that “Lost’s” two-hour final-season premiere (8 tonight, ABC) airs on Groundhog Day. Like the Bill Murray movie, “Lost” has done a lot of circular storytelling. First the characters were in 2004, then they jumped back to 1977, then we jumped ahead to 2007 to follow the characters who didn’t go back in time, and now we all want to know what will happen to everyone in 2010 — the show’s future, our present.
At one point in “Groundhog Day,” Murray’s character tried to kill himself several times, but he just kept waking up to start the day over again. On “Lost,” too, death doesn’t mean much; the only show where a character’s death is more meaningless is “24.”
John Locke is one of two audience surrogates, Jack being the other. Locke embraces the spiritual aspects of the Island, having blind faith that its machinations and meddling in his life are leading somewhere, just as fans of “Lost” have blind faith that the story is going somewhere. Locke was killed off awhile back, yet it hardly resonates. Entertainment Weekly called Ben’s killing of Locke “arguably the show’s greatest scene ever,” and I don’t even remember it.
Richard Alpert, the character who doesn’t age, also comes to mind in this “Groundhog Day” comparison (Murray matured intellectually, but not physically, as he repeated the same day).
And, of course, there’s the time travel. “Groundhog Day” involved a friendly higher power intervening until Murray could get his life back on track. The Island, perhaps, is doing the same thing for the characters. On “Lost,” time travel is not something that happens painlessly — some characters have to physically, consciously participate in it (Ben cranks a big ol’ wheel in the bowels of one of the hatches), others bounce back and forth through time against their will (Daniel Faraday and Charlotte, who dies when she can’t handle all the back-and-forth). But as with “Groundhog Day,” some characters got a do-over when they went back to 1977 — Sawyer and Juliet in particular embraced the Dharma life.
And when Juliet blew up the 1977 Island in the fifth-season finale, it raised the question of what that will lead to: a) Everyone is dead, or b) Everyone is fine on another timeline where the Island doesn’t exist.
Obviously, when you’re in close proximity to a hydrogen bomb that goes off, you’re dead, so that’s not as much of a mystery as some people make it out to be.
However, because “Lost” takes place in the past, present and future all at once, and it sometimes doesn’t tell us what point in time we are seeing, we’ll be getting after-the-bomb stories, starting tonight, where all of our old pals will be just fine. Word has it that some deceased characters — like Charlie, Michael, Boone, Libby and Juliet — will be back in Season 6.
Groundhog Day (the holiday) involves prognosticating the near future — an early spring, or six more weeks of winter? Will “Lost” give us answers in compelling ways right away, or are we in for another season of confusion and convoluted twists?
Again, the answer is obvious: We’re in for more confusion and convoluted twists. “Lost” fans, if they truly have faith, shouldn’t mind. After all, they’ve made it this far, and they’ve liked what they’ve seen.
I’ve made it this far as a viewer, but I emotionally checked out quite awhile ago (“Lost” made my top 10 TV shows of 2004, but none of my top 10’s since then). Like Jack, I wanted off the Island, but I couldn’t escape. It’s too much of a pop-culture force to not tune in. I programmed my DVR for the final season like Locke pressed the buttons in Season 2. There wasn’t much enthusiasm behind the act, but it somehow seemed important.
So let the end of “Lost” begin. Share your thoughts, hopes and fears for Season 6 in the comment thread below.
Comments
Warning: Possible Spoilers
One word: Disssapointing.
Locke is not Locke… wow big surprise. Locke is dead.
Juliet didn’t blow up the island. Instead they jumped through time right at that point. What a great way for the writers to escape having to explain how they survived a bomb explosion.
Hey look! Its the other ‘others’! That must be a big friggen island.
Oh and an alternate timeline in which nothing happens and nobody knows each other…and its boring.
I am guessing that the point of all of this is that somehow fate will bring them all together in the alternate timeline as well and they will all end up meeting each other anyway.
The way that you express frusteration with 24 is how I feel about Lost. If I hadn’t invested 5 years of my life into the show and it wasn’t a pop culture phenomenon I would never even bother.
What did you think of the show?# Posted By Shaune | 2/4/10 1:51 PM
Your review is right-on, but I wasn’t disappointed because my expectations are set lower than yours. I still like most of the characters, so I tune in for that reason, not because I expect to blown away by plot twists (I didn’t like how Sawyer was threatening to kill Jack, though — I wish they could get along a little better).
Even though the hype about “Lost” is that we’re supposed to be surprised by what happens, the show itself isn’t written that way; everything that happens is clearly foretold in advance. My friend Another Matt loves “Lost,” but even he admits that he predicts everything just before it happens.
Locke being dead wasn’t a revelation in this episode; we already knew he was dead. I think they keep showing his pristine corpse so that he can come back to life later this season. “Lost” has to end with Locke being the hero — he is the audience surrogate, the guy who doesn’t give up his faith in a better world even though he keeps getting crapped on in this one. It’s like Giles in “The Wish” when Anya asks him what makes you think the other world is any better than this one. “Because it has to be,” he says.
The really interesting question now is “What is the real world?” There are two timelines going on right now, simultaneously: One on the island (with the Other Others, and Un-Locke and Back-to-Life-Sayid and all that) and another one where the plane lands in L.A., but like you said, everyone meets each other anyway (even Desmond, who wasn’t on the plane in the original timeline).
As you note, “Lost” is about fate, like some things will happen even if you try to change it. For example, when Charlie says, “I was supposed to die,” after Jack saves his life. (However, little things are different, such as Boone not picking up Shannon in Australia, like he did last time — I’m not sure what we’re supposed to make of that.)
So my verdict is that I still don’t think “Lost” is the greatest show ever, but I am interested in seeing what happens between the clash of the timelines, and getting to see Locke be the hero.# Posted By John Hansen | 2/4/10 4:26 PM