By Dante Spado
Nearly two years ago my roommate Randy and I struck a deal. If I watched Breaking Bad (the show he considers to be the greatest of all time), he would watch LOST (the show I consider to be the greatest of all time). I’ve since watched Breaking Bad all the way through twice. Randy had a point, it is a really great show, probably the best ever. But I still love LOST. And finally. FINALLY. After the better part of two years since the deal was made, Randy finished season one. Along the way, I watched a few episodes with him and it brought back a wave of nostalgia.
Season one is an absolute masterpiece. The characters, setting and storytelling style via flashbacks instantly make it stand out from any other show. The drama is gripping, the action is good and the mysteries are quite mysterious. Why is there a hatch in the ground sealed off from the inside? Is there a group of “Others” hiding in the shadows? Why is the Island seemingly undiscovered? The show poses several questions that the viewer immediately is intrigued by. It’s not every day that a tropical island has a polar bear on it.
Last night Randy and I watched the season one finale titled “Exodus Part 3.” It’s the one where they finally open the hatch. Watching that episode brought me back to my sophomore year of high school when I watched the show for the first time. I KNEW what was going to be in that hatch. But I was actually anxious with anticipation to see the door blow open and watch the finale close on the iconic shot of Jack and Locke looking down the tunnel. And Randy, if you’re reading this, it’s probably a good time to stop, because I’m about to dive into some spoilers.
I see the opening of the hatch as a huge turning point in the show’s story. Think of all the narratives and ideas that are introduced in the following episodes and seasons because of Desmond Hume, the hatch and DHARMA.
Let me get something out of the way- I love Desmond Hume. I truly and fully believe he is the best character across any TV show ever. Desmond is the perfect character. His amazing backstory, his cool powers he gains and his accent and catchphrase of, “I’ll see ya in anotha life brotha” are just some of the reasons I love him. I’m also a sucker for his love story with Penny. It might help that we have the same personality type, but before I even knew that, I was a Desmond disciple.
Some people think the previously mentioned aspects of the show that Desmond brings with him end up making the show worse, but I completely disagree. The show ends up leaning pretty heavily into sci-fi elements, the main one being time travel. Yes, from watching the first season of the show, you’d never expect time travel to be something that comes up, but boy does it. I, if you couldn’t already tell, am a big fan of this element because I think LOST does it so well. They use it to explain a lot of the mysteries of the Island, such as why the button has to be pressed every 108 minutes and why there were polar bears on the Island.
I can see the argument that someone would make. “I did not sign up to watch a show about a time-traveling island.” But does that not sound a lot cooler than just a regular island? If there was nothing special about the Island, there would be almost no story to tell. Eventually, it would get really boring to just watch the Oceanic 815 survivors sit around on a beach waiting to be rescued.
Then of course there are the numbers. 4 8 15 16 23 42 (is it a coincidence this is my 23rd blog? Or, as John Locke might ask, is it fate?) These numbers pop up during the show’s entire run, and they just might be its greatest mystery. In true LOST fashion, the answer for them is a little out there. Jacob, the immortal protector of the Island, assigned everyone on the plane a number and hoped to use one of these “candidates” as his replacement.
This idea then leads to the series finale, “The End.” You either love it or you hate it. You’re either confused by it or you just get it. It’s not the easiest thing to understand, but it sure is beautiful. I have no shame in admitting I cry every time I watch it. If there’s one thing everyone can agree on it’s that the finale has some of the show’s most beautiful character moments. Hurley becomes the Island’s protector, the survivors escape from the Island once and for all and of course, the thing that gets me every time, Jack’s death. The shot of him laying in the bamboo dying next to Vincent the dog, which mirrors how the show starts when Jack wakes up in the bamboo forest to Vincent barking at him, is the final nail in the coffin for me. It’s an amazing finale, and you’ll never be able to change my mind.
Watching a few episodes of LOST again was great. The show acted like a time machine itself, taking me right back to when I was 15. I’m probably gonna sit in on a few more of Randy’s viewing sessions before we graduate, too. Until then, I’ll see ya in anotha blog brotha.