This was a great question that @ASHATL posed after the live tweet last night.
First in Twitterese:
@ASHATL QST: 1 of D purp. of #WFTB is 2C if our percept. changes w knowledge of S5. Any thoughts aftr watching D eps? Anything there you saw?
I had trouble parsing that, so I asked her to send me an email with her question and here it is in real. live. engrish.
One of the purposes of #WFTB is to see if our perspective of past episodes change w our understanding of happens on Season 5. Have you seen anything on these past episodes that allude to that?
Also, the producers said that they always knew where the story was going. Now that we are #WFTB do you agree with that or do you feel that they are trying to piece/tie the story together.
So it’s become a two part question. Twitter is awesome at the instant and the quick response, but limited in how well we can answer good questions like that. This is when I’m glad we have a blog.
Being that I’m the faciliator, I get first shot at answering, then it will be y’all turn.
1. My perspective has changed a bit, mostly from watching the first scene of The Incident. Darlton have said they’ve always told the story out of order, and I think first scene is really the very first pane in the comic. That interaction between Jacob and the MIB is the start of the whole story, specifically this bit:
MIB: I don’t have to ask. You brought them here. Still trying to prove me wrong, aren’t you?
JACOB: You are wrong.
MIB: Am I? They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same.
JACOB: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.
Their clashing worldviews, I’ve seen time and again in the first few episodes. The unrest in the camp revealing MIB’s understanding, the growth of the inter-relations proving Jacob’s faith in progress over chaos. It’s quite revealing how that theme loops around the drama resetting, twisting and turning.
2. I heard Carlton admin, on one of the last few podcasts, that they have these signpost, markers that they know they want to tell, and then they have to write the episodes to spread the story between these tent posts (my paraphrase). So in a way they have/are making some things up as they go along, but I think its remarkably consistent in the long run to have these same themes play throughout the narrative.
It will certainly become evident, I think, as we continue to watch, where we’ll see places where the writer’s are stuck, vamping, waiting to continue the story (season 3). Just as I think there will be places where we might be able to perceive areas where they rush through some spots to get to a much anticipated milestone ( the rationale behind droping Jughead down the shaft. Where it all ends we won’t know until Season 6 wraps. I’m looking forward to the ride.
Now its your turn, what are your answers to @ASHATL’s questions. Let’s see them in the comments.
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I think we’ll have a greater understanding of the themes because are able to see them in the larger context. We’ll be able to look for themes we didn’t see for the first time. The biggest, obviously, is the good/bad theme. We already knew about it, but that last episode of s5 took it to a whole new level!
Thanks for the thoughts, Kristin. Agreed, the first season exploded the Black/White, Good/Bad theme. It was woven between the episodes through out, with Ben saying ‘we’re the good guys’ as well as others.
Well yes, now we know at least part of what we’re looking for in these early episodes. Also, we know where the characters are headed, which adds a lot of depth to the experience. Our experience of the beach and the survivors is now richer than it was when we first encountered the them on the beach.
Anyway, from what I”m seeing in the early episodes, the creators really foreshadow a lot of what we learn in season 5. These episodes tentatively confirm my opinions of what happened in the s5 finale. But of course, LOST can pull the rug out – hence the “tentatively.”
I tried doing this here, but it got too big so I’m moving it over to my blog. I’m not done, but I guess I’m done. I don’t have any time left to devote further to it.
http://zachzmind.blogspot.com/2009/05/lost-s1e7-moth-in-light-of-s5.html
Maybe I’ll be able to finish it this weekend. =( Hope it makes sense in its current condition.
thanks for the posts ccollinsmith and ZachsMind. I may I say, ZachsMind is a very deep pool, and I’m glad you’re watching with us, I enjoyed your blog post very much.
Thank you both for being a part of the re-watching experience.
ZachsMind’s post has led me to expand a bit on where my perspective is changing as I get increasing Lost in LOST. Enjoy reading the post and feel free to comment.
I think that watching from the beginning has certainly made it clear to me that Jack and Locke are on different sides of things. Perhaps this is obvious for everyone, but it sort of hit me hard after watching the first few episodes again.
One puzzling thing to me is the change in Locke during season 2 (dreading when I think of Ana Lucia). That to me, doesn’t add up. I am suspecting that this change has something to do with his second encounter with Smokie (which was not as “beautiful” as the first time). Maybe that put him out of sorts…or maybe he met the other Smokie (some of you know that I think there are two Smokies (black and white). Althought there are other elements I thought interesting, this one was what stuck out the most to me.
So to summarize, we are dealing with good vs evil, Jack vs Locke, white Smokie vs. black Smokie. I know I am simplifying this and perhaps stating the obvious, but I am interested to see if my hunch about Locke pays at the end.