Things are moving fast and furious as “Lost” approaches the start of Season 6. The panel at the Television Critics Association press tour only fueled the speculative fire for the show’s final season. Make sure to read Zap2it’s live reaction from the event here.
Go ahead, I’ll wait.
No, it’s fine, I have a snack here.
Back?
With Season 6 just around the corner, we’re starting a new series here at Zap2it. My colleague Rick Porter has graciously agreed to step in on a weekly basis and debate a singular topic with me over email. I, in turn, will post our back-and-forth emails in one singular blog entry for general perusal. Once the season starts, we’ll be looking at burning topics in the previous episode, but for now, we’re breaking out topics that we’ve informally been discussing during our weekly mani/pedi/karaoke outings. Let The Great “Lost” debates begin!
Ryan McGee: So Rick, thanks for stepping up to go toe-to-toe on a regular basis as “Lost” kicks off its sixth and final season. I’ve been reading your work here on Zap2it for a while, and though we’ve never met, I’m not ashamed to say I have a picture of you in my locker. But mostly, I’m excited for the chance to get an additional voice here on the blog. Because if we can’t blog together, we’re going to die alone. So what’s on your mind as the season approaches?
Rick Porter: My pleasure, Ryan — and it’s good to know that the “R + R 4-eva!” doodles in my reporter’s notebook haven’t been for naught.
So what I’ve been thinking about mostly as the final season approaches is how “Lost” is going to address, if not resolve, its big issues. I’m not talking about things like “Who put the statue there?” but things more central to the show’s themes. Like the whole “man of science, man of faith” thing that’s been bubbling along for five seasons now. Jack and Locke were separated, physically and temporally, last season, so what implications does that have for the two would-be leaders now?
OK, “Lost” fans, today’s topic is one I never thought I’d have to address. Seems to me this puppy was put to bed three years ago, but as season 6 approaches, so does this topic. Damn zombie puppy topic.
The topic? The future of “Lost” after season 6. No, really. Despite all the hoopla about landing an end date to the show during season 3, and how that decision directly impacted the storytelling ever since, ABC/Dinsey suddenly seems insistent that the show will go on, not unlikel Celine Dion’s cold, black heart. Quoting from this Variety article on the matter:
“We’ve been talking about this for a couple of years now,” says ABC marketing exec VP Mike Benson. “We want to keep it alive but make sure we maintain the integrity of the franchise. We’re not about milking this thing for all that it is right now; it’s important to see this live for years to come.”But “Lost” exec producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse won’t likely be a part of those plans. The duo have made it pretty clear that they have no intention to keep the show going after the finale, and would like their work to stand on its own once “Lost” slams the hatch door shut.
“People deserve an ending, and to promise a continuation of the story in any form in some way negates the finality in some way,” Lindelof says.
As a person who deems himself eminently quotable, I enjoyed putting together a gallery of The Top 25 “Lost” Quotes. OK, maybe I’m not as quotable as luminaries such as Ben Linus, James Ford, and Hugo Reyes, but can they make as many unintentional typos as me? HA! I THOUGHT NOT!
A few quickies about the gallery before getting to the link:
I thought that trying to rank them from 25 – 1 seemed a bit silly. Of all the Top 25 galleries we’ve putting together in anticipation of Season 6, this seemed the most subjective. In addition, while there are a host of characters on the show, that number dwarfs in comparison to the sheer amount of dialogue produced on the show.
As such, the gallery is arranged chronologically according to episode. I’ve got quotes ranging from the “Pilot” episode through “The Incident.” In addition, each page in the gallery links back to my full review of the episode in question in the “We Have to Go Back” gallery. We’re full service around here.
I tried to balance lines that I thought were cool/funny/interesting/heartbreaking with those that are iconic. Some of the show’s most famous lines are pretty prosaic, but take on added weight given their placement in the show’s history. I also took into account your personal preferences in trying to balance what I thought were the best compared with what caught your personal fancy.
A host of “Lost” fans are going all Dan Brown on a recent promotional photo for season 6. You’ve probably seen it by now: It’s the cast of the show arranged in the manner of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting, “The Last Supper.” But since it debuted in Us Weekly, I honestly didn’t pay it much analytical heed. Next thing you know, I’d have to be posting entries like, “Lostaways: They’re Just Like Us!”
But now the promotional still has showed up on ABC’s press site, so we can assume that the network either created the image and sold it to Us Weekly like so many Jonas Brothers wedding photos or recognized the buzz surrounding it and put it at the forefront of its own marketing campaign. Personally, the behind-the-scenes machinations don’t interest me much. I want to know if there’s something in here we can glean heading into Season 6.
Above and beyond anything else, we shouldn’t try and assign a one-to-one meaning to elements of “The Last Supper” and elements of “The ‘Lost’ Supper.” That way lies madness. We shouldn’t channel our inner Robert Langdon and look for images of he sacred feminine on the Dharma wine bottles. Central to the conceit lies the juxtaposition of Jesus Christ and John Locke. What can we glean from their similar placement?
Let’s be honest: when drawing up a list of All-Time Great “Lost” episodes, few fans would put “Fire+Water” on their lists. Not every show can be consistently made of win, and by most accounts, “Fire+Water” is made of more maudlin stuff. But the “Light vs. Dark” series might just give this episode a little bit of redemption. After all, the series is all about looking back at older episodes of “Lost” and seeing if Jacob or The Man in Black might have had a hand in previously inscrutable moments in the show’s history.
So let’s take a gander back at Charlie’s dream in this less-than-stellar episode. Might have either of the show’s Island Titans had a hand when the Driveshaft bass player dreamed a little dream?
The Episode: “Fire+Water“
The Sequence: Charlie has a series of dreams in which Aaron is perpetually in trouble. In the first, Aaron gets carried away to sea inside a piano. In the second, people in Charlie’s life posed as a religious painting on the wall of his childhood home tell him that the child needs to be saved. Charlie interprets these dreams to mean that Aaron needs to be baptized. However, in his attempts to do so, he ostracizes himself from both Claire and the general camp by starting a fire in order to bring Aaron to the ocean undetected. However, by episode’s end, Claire does get both herself and her child baptized by Mr. Eko.
Over the past five seasons of “Lost,” more than a few seismic events have happened that changed either the course or the very nature of how we as an audience view the show. Finding the hatch. Turning the fail safe key. “Not Penny’s boat.” Flaming Frogurt. The list goes on and on.
But we’re not going to deal with those big moments in today’s edition of “Six in Six.” We’re going to look at the little things that might just become a huge deal in the show’s final episodes.
Each episode of “Lost” is overstuffed with items, actions, and events that either don’t garner attention on first viewing or quickly fade out of the forefront of our memory when analyzing the show as a whole. Some items, such as the on-screen shout-outs to major and minor works of literature, send fans scrambling to Al Gore’s interwebs in order to glean insight to the show. But the following six things aren’t getting enough attention, in my opinion, in terms of looking at the shape of things to come in Season 6.
Desmond’s vision of Claire/Aaron
In “Greatest Hits,” Desmond tells Charlie that if he flips the switch inside The Looking Glass, Claire and Aaron will leave the Island on a helicopter. Now, obviously, this has not happened. Yet. Or in the reality that we knew it before Juliet took a swan dive down the Swan well. Will this vision come true in Season 6 in some fashion, or were all of Des’ flashes part of some master plan devised by a higher power?
Let the debate begin, “Lost” fans! Thanks to your input, I’ve compiled the 25 greatest characters in the show’s history. Now, lists like this are naturally subjective, so there’s no way to make everyone happy. But hopefully I’ve minimized the number of people that will storm my house wielding pitchforks and Hot Pockets.
Now, before getting to the list proper, a few honorable mentions:
Matthew Abaddon: Fascinating when introduced, but never fully paid off narratively. He might re-enter the picture should he make an appearance or three in Season 6, but for now, his untimely death in “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” still leaves a bad taste in this blogger’s mouth.
Charlotte Staples Lewis: A victim as much of the writers’ strike as the time flashes, her entire backstory was confined into a dying monologue. None of the Freighter Four got the storytelling shaft as much as she did due to the reshuffling of the show due to a compressed Season 4.
You did such a good job with naming your favorite “Lost” characters of all time yesterday that I’ve chosen to given you another assignment. After all, this is how things go down in the business world: once you’ve proven yourself capable of one thing, you’re given four more to do. So why should this blog be any different? What, you thought this site was a respite from reality? In the immortal words of Martin Heidegger: HELL to the no!
Next up: the 25 All-Time Greatest “Lost” Quotes! These are the lines that thrill the soul, that tickle the funny bone, that make you scratch your head and wonder if “Lost” could possibly be more cryptic. They stick in your head, become part of your everyday discourse, and ensure either blank stares or wide-eyed joy if you drop them around the proverbial water cooler. And I want to know your favorites.
Two things before you drop some knowledge in the comments section:
1) I’ve decided against ultimate ranking these quotes in any meaningful way. When it comes to topics such as “Favorite Episode” or “Favorite Character,” it’s still as subjective as “Favorite Quote.” But it’s much easier (as well as worthwhile) to defend an entire episode versus a simple quote. Other than being more memorable than those that don’t make the final cut, don’t assume I’ve given preference to one over the other when I post the final results in January.
I knew that I would get a response for these Top 25 “Lost” lists this week. But you all have gone above and beyond the call of duty in telling me your favorite characters and quotes from the show so far. I’ve compiled your replies for those and will be posting the final results in January. But we can’t stop now; we’ve got perhaps the grand-daddy of all these lists: the Top 25 “Lost” Moments.
Now, a “moment” can mean many things. Perhaps it’s as simple as a look between two people. Perhaps it’s a short scene between two people. Perhaps it’s the moment in which a huge chunk of mythology clicks into place. I’m not going to try and put a lot of parameters on this one, as it gets to the heart of what makes the show click for you. Who am I to put a boundary on your enjoyment?
When all is said and done, we will have a list that fans can point to whenever they need a quick reminder of all the small and large moments that have combined to help make “Lost” the show it is. These moments aren’t simply the cliffhangers or the game-changers (though obviously both will end up on the list in some fashion), but also the small, singular moments that favor character over spectacle. Here are a few not-so-obvious choices that potentially could make the list:
The Sawyer/Kate game of “I never” in “Outlaws“
Juliet tells Sun her “D.O.C.“
Hurley and Ben share a candy bar in “Cabin Fever“
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