Thoughts on The Beginning of the End

I try to be unbiased about Lost. I don't want to be some geeked out fanboy who will scarf down even the crumbs from the desk of Cuse and Lindelof. I want to watch and review each episode with the cool objectivity of some seasoned TV critic. So why is it then, that after most episodes, all I can manage to cough up from my college-educated, English-major vocabulary is, "THAT WAS FREAKIN' AWESOME!"

And actually, it seems like even those cold, seasoned TV critics are wetting the bed in anticipation of this final lap of Lost. This is what we've all been waiting 8 long months for, and the way I see it, this premiere was a promise--an engagement ring, if you will, which turns out to be a perfect symbol on multiple levels. We are circling back, back to Oceanic flight 815, where it all began. More than that though, this is a pledge, from the producers of the show to the fans, that this season will be every bit as awesome as Season 1. Let me clarify.

I'm definitely not one of those people who think that Season 1 was great and it just all went downhill from there. Lost has certainly had its ups and downs (a lot more ups, imo), and personally, I thought Season 3, especially the latter half, was sheer brilliance. But on the whole, there's just no denying the superiority of Season 1. I'd be willing to bet that almost anyone who has gone back and watched that first season after having seen 1-5 will say the same. And the remarkable thing is that Season 1 had very little of the mythology that has engulfed the show now. Sure, it held out some mysteries and teasers to get us curious and searching for answers (What's the monster? What's in the hatch? Who else is on the island?). But ultimately, what Season 1 did better than anything else was it got us invested in the characters. It wrenched our hearts with a handful of stories about people whose unfortunate status of being lost on an island was merely a microcosm of their need for rescue in the real world.

It's easy to see how Season 6's ongoing question, "What would have happened had they never crashed?" is functionally the same as Season 1's ongoing question, "What happened before they crashed?" For over 5 seasons now, John Locke has been telling the other castaways, as well as us, that there is a reason they crashed. It was no accident; they were brought to the island by someone/thing. What better way to test that theory than to to be able to see precisely how things turn out when they don't crash? I get the feeling that Locke will ultimately be vindicated.

Going forward, each episode will now be character-centric; that is, each one will focus on one particular character. (There'll be a Kate episode, a Locke episode, etc., etc. SPOILER ALERT: I hear we'll finally get a Richard episode!) We're now getting to the true heart of the show, and by the end of the season, we will know the answers to the most important questions: Why are these people on this island? and How will they find redemption? And oh yeah, along the way we'll find out more about the Smoke Monster, Jacob, Richard, the Island, etc. And don't get me wrong--I'm no mythology-hater. I wouldn't be very happy if these kinds of questions weren't addressed. In fact, next to the exchange between Jack and Locke near the end, my favorite part of the premiere was when Locke/MIB morphs into Smokey, throws people around like some pissed off giant squid, then tells Ben with a confident smirk, "I'm sorry you had to see me like that." Are you kidding me! I jumped out of my chair when he said that!

So I'll just say right now that I'm throwing any pretense of objectivity out the window of an 8-story building. Season 6 will be the ultimate ALT version of Season 1: character-driven, redemptive stories, but this time with answers instead of questions. Freakin' awesome.