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Not Again

It’s crunch time. It’s the part of the season that gets you all riled up for the season finale. It’s that time again where everyone has their own theories about what happens during the closing scenes.

There’s a bit of a catch this year though. Almost everyone in the show’s lying to each other right now (even Hugo lies apparently). Not only do we have about 12 main characters that we can’t trust on the island at this moment, we need to double that to include their personalities in the alt. universe as well. Who’s going to play a big role in the end? Are they all? You’d think everyone that’s alive on the island right now still has a purpose to fulfill. So what’s Frank going to do that’s so important? How about Claire? Miles? Kate? etc. Are you telling me that there’s still a purpose for these folks, and that they are somehow going to get explained within 4 episodes even though we still need to learn the entire premise of this show in the process?

I’m still assuming there’s going to be an epic showdown/ending of some kind here. There has to be. My thoughts are that the real excitement wont happen until the final 10 minutes of the final episode. I suppose that’s fine, but what do we get until that time? more episodes like this last one? After every single hour of this season so far, I’ve told myself “It’s about to get good next week!” That was over a couple months ago now, when the hell am I going to feel like the show’s finally getting somewhere?

So what? Jack and Smokey are gonna chat it up next week? I’m sure one of them will say, “I need to show you something. How about you take a trip with me to the other side of the island? It’ll only take two episodes to travel that far.” Meanwhile, we see Desmond play Cupid in the alt. universe with another couple. We get the idea. Love acts as a constant. I hope we can progress from that in next week’s alt. universe. Time’s running out.

I know all I do is complain anymore. Believe me, I’m quite aware. I wish I had happier thoughts about this show right now. But you can’t tell me that there’s not a very strange and inconvenient style of writing this season. A style that doesn’t really allow the story to progress very well at all. I’m just not understanding the timing of it. I’m not seeing how in 4 episodes, at the pace this season goes, we’re going to get a fulfilling ending, at all. I’m not expecting a certain ending of any kind. I don’t care how it ends, I just want to feel a little closure. I’d like to smile and say “Oh wow…” when it’s done. Why am I doubting that reality more than ever right now? Because apparently, Michael telling Hurley that “the whispers are trapped spirits” is the writers’ way of explaining a five year old mystery to us. If vague ,”well no shit”, answers are how they plan on hooking up the audience with answers from here on, well, I guess we had it coming.

I know a lot of you are really happy with this season. Dammit, I wish I could see what you all do.
I don’t know what I was personally hoping for this season, but it wasn’t this. I love this show, I’ve put a ton of time into it over the years, and that’s why it bugs me so badly to no longer feel suspense when I should be feeling it the most: Four episodes from the end.

As always, it feels good to vent to other Lost fans. I hope it’s the last time I feel this way after an episode though…

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Written by

Chiefof16

So......I guess LOST was a good show.....WAS a good show.

22 thoughts on “Not Again

  1. And I wasn’t saying that we all knew the whispers were spirits trapped on the island. I’m just saying that it really doesn’t tell us anything. Like, what’s it matter?

    Don’t tell me the island is purgatory.

  2. Hey Chief. If I could offer you a beer or something, I would. For some reason, I’m picturing a Roger Linus “this damn island, waste of my life!” kind of rant, so another beer seems appropriate…

    I’m glad you posted…even if we don’t always agree, because I am one of those people who is loving this season. 🙂 So I wrote something today that I am bummed I couldn’t get posted pre-episode, but it still fits here I think. It was my version of processing the big picture and the impending end and possible resolutions.

    Before I do, I will say that it was very strange to have an episode where something was as predictable as Libby and Hurley connecting in Sidewaysville and her triggering his island “memories.” I guess that’s the thing about The Ending… it’s making things much more obvious yet still rich with complexities. I think this is a weird thing for so many viewers who love the mystery and endless possibilities…time (and story) is limited. It’s time to look forward to going back and re-watching everything to really have a better grasp on what they are doing now. Because as cool as it was with Hurley and Libby, it also messes with my mind that Jack was so open and straightforward…and simple. Things are definitely getting less complicated in some respects, but it’s because they are so focused on the characters rather than the mysteries. Yawn for some, but not for me.

    I’m totally and completely digressing. So back to my thought from earlier today, pre-episode.

    Obviously one thing they are setting up is whether or not there is an actual physical ‘leaving’ of the island coming again for any of the Losties, and the implications if Flocke is part of that leaving. Do the characters (and us viewers) actually believe that somehow there could be a leaving that doesn’t create some sort of monumental discrepancy in the storyline? Even just from a very basic level, the set-up is already in place that the only survivors of 815’s crash were Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sun, Hurley and Aaron. To bring anyone else into that timeline from 815 does not seem like a valid option. Sure they could set-up aliases as John Locke became Jeremy Bentham, but how would that work for someone like Jin?

    So another option is to leave everyone on the island (and the island just continues on somehow) but the O5 (-Aaron), Desmond, Miles*, Frank, Ben and Widmore are free to go. (In other words, it’s dead John Locke, Sawyer and Claire who would have some big discrepancies, so they are stuck there. Miles would be confusing because he would be pulling a Ben and Locke and have unaccounted for time periods of his life.)

    It’s kinda complicated and even somewhat BORING to think about: 1) “Because it only ends once,” so for the love, I hope they are showing us “The end” that Jacob referred to and 2) because of the Sideways timeline.

    The Sideways timeline has given another option to bring a sort of ‘completeness’ to the characters. But it seems as if they might have to die in order for it to be possible, which is something we are familiar with in the LOST mystery kind of ways.

    (“You’re going to have to die John, that’s why it’s called a sacrifice.”)

    This Sideways timeline is Lost-style reincarnation. In “Happily Ever After” it was Charlie and Daniel who started remembering their past lives on the island. (And obviously Libby referred to it in her conversations with Hurley.) Their experiences are prompting Desmond’s memories… and it seems his motivation with aligning or helping “awaken” other Losties or unite them with themselves. The implications of these awakenings are one of the biggest remaining mysteries now…

    So maybe dying will be they key for someone like Sawyer or Miles, and maybe even Kate or Jin. Perhaps their on-island death will trigger not only their Island-to-Sideways memory, but ultimately their character resolution. We saw Sideways Charlie intent on living a new, “enlightened” life. Does that make him the same Charlie that sacrificed himself for Claire and everyone else on island? Not yet. But it’s quite possible, right? (That Charlie loved and was loved, he wasn’t a self-centered, rock-star addict…) And now Hurley is “remembering” the island. But what does that mean for him? We don’t know yet. Does it mean he gets his own “Happily Ever After” that we had wished for him 4 seasons ago – depending on the outcome of this upcoming showdown with Flocke and the candidate(s)?

    So really the most significant dead character once again becomes John Locke. He is dead on the island, yet a part of him is very much a part of “Don’t Tell Me What I Can’t Do”-Flocke. Will John Locke have an awakening in Sideways timeline that allows for him to be the one to ultimately destroy Smokey?

    (This is where I ended my thought pre-episode.)

    Now, post-“Everyone Loves Hugo” I am that much more intrigued with Desmond going after paralyzed Locke because he knows how to make the connections between the two timelines/universe-things.

    Sorry for the freaking long comment response. I’m not trying to convince you to like it, and you are probably right on a few things (like Jack and Flocke’s upcoming heart-to-heart man date). Just throwing a few options out there that I am content to think about for now. But feel free to say that it’s all crap…I won’t be offended. Rant on.

  3. Hey chief! Well said. You wrapped it upreally good, what was bugging me over the last month.

    I’m getting really bored with the new season. Season 4 was still ok… season 5 was not really a revelation either, but i always thought, that the writers want to get somwhere with all happening in S5.

    And now I see that they were mostly killing time over the last 2 years.

    I love this show too, but I will recommend all my friends to stop at season 4…..

  4. Over half of the hour was commercials, too. I understand it’s about making money for ABC but, for the first time while watching Lost, I was ready to change the channel.

  5. Chief i 100 percent have to agree with you. This season seems to be dragging on which would be fine if was answering some of the age old questions us fans have. There is not enough time to build up a every alt character, not enough time to anwser all of the old questions, and i deff feel as if the writers are half assing it now. ie the whispers, really. Like come on, Hugo: i Think i know what they are; bam done. Now you know? well maybe hugo, since your so enlighten you can tell me a few more anwsers, like explain everything that was going on in season 1-3. Again i have to agree with you chief, i have been reading this site for years, i have seen every ep at least 3 times over, and this is they finish it.

  6. I’m with you, Chief. It’s like they have a checklist of what they think we want answered and then write one line and check it off.

    How much better would it be if theyd spend a tad more time priming us and toying with the answers than just dropping them like a rock and moving on. Take the whispers. Maybe they could have played them a few more times throughout the season making you both creeped out and wanting for an answer.

    We’re puzzlers, not romantics!

    Shoot, no one even got Illana on ’em! (BTW: ‘going back to season one’ should not equal ‘repeating’)

    I liked season 5 btw … season 6 is kinda’ a snore.

  7. i felt like you did at the beginning, and then started liking this season. This last episode was ok, and while it had some good elements (ilana blowing up randomly and the whispers answered) i felt like the alt was lagging. except of course for the beginning of the episode where pierre was introducing hurley. that was gold. and whose that damn kid?

    buck up kiddo, i think the entire season finale is gonna be full of explosions and death and answers.

  8. kimberly – I know you’re digging this season, and I’m glad. It gives me hope that maybe I’m just seeing this season from the wrong angle.

    I suppose if you strictly focus on the characters hard enough, this could be an enjoyable season. It IS rather interesting seeing how calm and collected Jack is now. The fact that he has “let go” means that bad news is around the corner for him. You know how everyone dies when they decide to change their ways…..

    I like your thinking within your theory, but it raises another concern. How complicated is this going to be? In order for us to understand something as simple as a DEATH in this show, is it going to require us to write formulas, or should we make assumptions? Guess we’ll just see how it all plays out.

    Scarab – I thought the second half of season 3 was about the only real downer throughout this entire series (aside from the season 3 finale). I bet watching this current season on DVD wont be so bad. Waiting a week at a time to watch the show progress, only to be let down every episode is what kills me.

    Roland – Whoa, really? I’ve never considered changing the channel on Lost before. Sounds like you’re overdue for your very own “rant” post.

    Xmas747 – Yeah, if they’re going to answer everything in the same fashion as the “whispers”, I’d rather they didn’t answer anything. When done, all I want is to be able to rewatch the series and catch things I couldn’t catch before.

    waycurious – Agreed, season 5 was actually really entertaining. I’m not a big fan of them dropping an answer on us out of left field either. I know beggars can’t be choosers, but there’s got to be a better way to solve a mystery rather than Hurley saying, “Oh, I know what that is!”.

    ekolocation – The intro to the episode was refreshing, and it’s nice to see the writers go for something different every once in a while. I hope we see more of that in the coming weeks.

    …and more explosions would be nice.

  9. Yea this weeks ep was pretty freakin boring. I also HATED the “answer” to what the whispers are!
    I think next weeks ep is going to be along the same slow-moving lines of this and most of the other episodes this season. However, the week
    after next we have a break and after that, it’s gonna get good. I don’t want to give away any spoilers and I don’t know that much in the first place (just the ep titles and who they are centric to) but the finale and the two episodes before it are going to be awesome, have faith.

  10. I want to give you encouragement, Chief, I really do but all I can do is give you guys easter eggs and maybe tell you to get 420 friendly, that makes everything better (so I hear not from experience or anything).

  11. For people who don’t like the way things are getting answered…

    Initially there were a ton of complaints that they weren’t answering questions, then there was a bit of satisfaction but still arguments over whether the questions that were answered were really answers (like, John Locke really isn’t the Smoke Monster even after he said he was?!)…and now, they write some pretty direct answers and it still pisses people off?

    So what kind of answers will be satisfying? I think that’s a big dilemma: people’s expectations are all completely different. And maybe even impossible to satisfy, so yep, you are pretty much in for being disappointed.

    The writers are like parents to a bunch of spoiled whiny teenagers…they pretty much can’t do anything right at this point. But I was a whiny teenager who thought I always knew better and eventually I liked my parents again. 🙂

    Chief, I admire that you keep coming back for more even if it ticks you off for the entire hour. Way to stick with it. You absolutely don’t have to see things from my perspective, we all have preferences, so feel free to hate away. I doesn’t make me insecure for still liking it. 🙂

  12. Again, I understand beggars can’t be choosers. In ways, I DO feel like a brat with some of the things I’m not really caring for. The “whispers” thing was rushed though, and it just didn’t feel like it fit there at all. How are they going to answer questions from here on? I don’t know. The writers got themselves into this mess, hopefully they have found a creative and entertaining way to get out of it, with very little time left.

  13. one thing about the whispers is that it doesn’t totally explain them. when the frieghter people first came, the other’s shrink lady appeared mysteriously when there were whispers all around to tell juliette to stop faraday and charlotte. she wasn’t dead, and if she was juliette wouldnt see her.

  14. That’s amazing, I was just thinking about that scene (She was Goodwin’s wife right?). So what the hell does that mean? We can assume that when there are whispers, it’s not Smokey, it’s just trapped spirits. Like you said though, how was Juliette seeing her?

    Either Juliette (and everyone else that’s seen something after the whispers) has Hurley’s ability as well, or Michael wasn’t being entirely truthful in last night’s episode.

  15. I don’t know if we can say for certain that she’s alive though, right?

    Wouldn’t we have seen her again by this point (at the Temple) if she was alive for that vision? I know that Juliet and Jack could see her, but I think everyone has the potential to see visions (especially of the dead) on the island. It hasn’t only been Hurley that has seen people. It seems like the dead have communicated/revealed themselves for a purpose, because that’s part of the bigger picture of why people are on the island, Jacob/MIB’s plans, etc.

  16. Yeah, I don’t remember her being alive either actually. Anyway, is it safe to say that Hurley’s been led to believe that he’s the only one that can see the dead, but he’s not?

  17. I think Hurley believes he’s the only one who regularly can see and communicate with the dead.

    But we know that he’s not the only one. And if Hurley remembers… Jack did tell him about seeing his dead father and the whole coffin thing as they trekked towards the lighthouse. That was like, what 3 days ago for them?

  18. Apart from a few exciting things happening, the first 8 episode were pretty boring. I’ve been more entertained when i’ve watched Ray Mears stroll around in the jungle than i have been with most of this season.

    since Richard’s episode though, i haven’t really minded the episodes. The Desmond episode was by far the best of this season and i think one of the best of the entire series. It went back to the basics of Lost whereby it really mindfucked with you but in a good way. We sort of found out what the alt universe was (FINALLY) and this has added more depth to the story.

    This most recent episode wasn’t too bad in my eyes either. For a start it was nice to see libby back just for the eye candy which has been lacking for us guys for a while. Claire looks just dead rough, no shannon, no Nikki, no juliet and kate is wearing very thin now. Anyway, i think this episode was meant to show that it isn’t just desmond whose mind is connected between the universes, all of the losties are probably connected.

    I do think that after next weeks episode we may see just brief glimpses of people meeting up and the minds connecting with their Islands memories. i don’t think they will go into as much depth as they did with Hurley.

    I will be interesting to see who Jack’s soulmate is: Sarah, Kate or Juliet???

  19. Des’s episode had story progression, and it was one of the fastest hours of TV I’ve ever seen. Which means it was a good episode for sure in my eyes.

  20. Hey Chief, easter eggs always make me feel better and gives me something to obsess over for a little while. This episode had a lot, just let me know if you want them, some of them are pretty cool and not so out in the open.

  21. I am also really disappointed with this season. And the explanation for the whispers was just thrown in there and stuck out like a sore thumb (and was also too lame IMO). I feel like the ending is just goign to be a really obvious Good vs Evil battle, with no creativity behind it, which sucks as a show we have all been so invested in. The writers did say they will go into hiding, like ‘The Prisoner’ and with the season so far, i don’t believe we are going to get explanations for many fo the things which seemed ot be quite important features of the show. With only 4 episodes to go, i am not expecting to be staisfied by the ending – I think it will just be a basic end – not creative or “WOW” at all. *sigh*

  22. Man, no thanks cocoadoll.

    As much as I’d love to see them, I’m afraid it would just ruin a little bit of the pleasure of trying to find things on my own. I hope you’ll remain a part of the site though even after it’s done, so you can fill me in on what I’ve missed. I’m sure I’ll miss a lot even though I’d have seen all the episodes by then.

    I’m not trying to come across as a Lost hater or something. I still love this show dearly. It’s possible to be disappointed with something but at the same time, try to enjoy it. I just wish the enjoyment factor was a little higher right now.

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