Why I love LOST, part 1

Tomorrow night marks the beginning of the end for LOST fans. The final season will kickoff with a 2-hour premiere, and we will be watching. When LOST first started, we were still avid Alias fans (still are really), so we decided not to watch LOST. But then we moved to Oxford and some of our new friends insisted we check it out. Now, here we are, almost 4 years later, and anxiously awaiting the start of the final season.


LOST is possibly one of the most intelligent, well-written and yet frustrating shows I've ever watched. Intelligent because of the philosophical, biblical, and historical undercurrents that make up the show's complex story line. Well-written because it has so many pieces that all seem to fit together...I think. Frustrating because you never really know what's going (which is what we hope the final season will reveal).


But for all that, and the fact that Oceanic 815 crashed on my birthday, September 22 (it's true, look it up); there are two main reasons why I love LOST.

LOST is a show built on the stories of people.


This could be said about any show, but LOST is unique in that almost every episode of the show through Season 3 follows a character's life before the crash. Through these flashbacks we learn who these castaways are, what they've done, and how they came to be on the plane that eventually crashes on The Island.


If not for these flashbacks, we would have no real connection to the characters. Our opinions and emotions toward each character shifts as we learn more about who they were before they came to The Island. We see them as real human beings with real human problems and real human brokenness. We see The Island gives these castaways a second chance, a way to redefine their lives. If not for the flashbacks, the only thing we would have to shape the characters are their present actions, and who really wants to be judged solely based on what people see in the here and now.


Think about it. When you are with a new group of people, what do you spend most of your time doing? You tell stories about yourself, usually things that happened in the past, and you hope that people will receive who you are not based solely on your present actions, but on your history as well.

LOST Example: Kate. Kate is the girl next door (or grass hut) on The Island. She is the middle of a love triangle, she is strong yet vulnerable, pretty yet rugged, sweet yet sassy. If the show were only about what happens in the present, we would think Kate to be the perfect heroine, and the dream girl of every guy. However, we learn as early as episode 2 in Season 1 that Kate is a fugitive in the custody of a U.S. Marshal. It takes time for the rest of the picture to fill in, but we learn that Kate is far from the girl next door. Kate murdered her abusive father, robbed a bank, married a guy under a false name, etc. etc. The thing that characterizes Kate most is her ability to always run away. Instead of dealing with life head on, she runs.


Island Kate starts off in a similar fashion. She desperately wants off The Island so she can avoid what faces her back in Iowa (murder charges). She also remains fickle as to her allegiance, running which ever way seems to meet her needs. BUT, by the end of Season 5, Kate is done running away. In fact, Kate has the opportunity to leave The Island behind and forget it all while sitting in a submarine heading toward America. Instead, she convinces Sawyer and Juliet to join her in running back to try to save the others!


And this is what makes LOST so great! Kate is a prime example of the personal transformation that happens on this show, and the power of one person's story to pull us in to the bigger story. Kate is only one example of many, because LOST is about how all the different characters, with all their different backgrounds come together for something big and momentous (which we don't really understand yet). BUT, the show is driven not just by what happens on The Island, but the stories of those involved.


Reason number two comes tomorrow...