LOST–Don’t Question It, Just Embrace It

I didn’t enter the fast-paced, corporate world of blogging to shoot off half-baked theories about “Lost,” but in light of the Season 4 premiere, this will have to suffice as being my first post.

We last left our consistently plagued survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 on the cusp of rescue. Charlie took a tragic hit for the team allowing Jack to get a signal out to a rescue freighter…the rescue freighter that any true “Lost” fan knows isn’t really a rescue freighter. Nope. What else happened in Season 3′s finale? Well, besides Charlie dying (RIP, easily one of the most interesting and compelling characters) and Jack getting the rescue call out, Locke isn’t dead and killed Naomi, the chick who parachuted on the island and essentially is the cause of getting them “saved,” Jack blindsided everyone by admitting to Kate that he loved her, and of course, Sawyer, Juliette, and Hurley saved our boys Sayid, Jin, and Bernard down by the beach. Oh, and now rather than just flashbacks, we’ll be seeing flash forwards as well, which showed us that Jack and Kate both get off the island. Enter Season 4.

Season 4 was not the most explosive season premiere by a long shot, but that’s entirely forgivable because honestly, it was just pretty damn good. Did we learn new things? Not really. At least, nothing we really didn’t see from the commercials. Did we see anyone from the freighter in this episode? No, not until the end and he had one line. Did I have a problem with this? I’ve been watching “Lost” for 3 seasons, it’s called dedication, and honestly, I figured we wouldn’t see anyone from that freighter until episode 4. Lucky me.

All of this brings me to my overall reaction to what I’ve seen this episode. In a word, I saw promise. I saw a promising season on the horizon. We saw a Hurley flash forward that confirmed a few things, such as there are only 6 of them who left the island and they are clearly covering something up. They have some secret. My housemate and I concocted the idea that the 6 left the island without telling anyone else, they probably struck some sort of deal with the crew of the rescue freighter that is clearly not there to rescue them. Furthermore, I’m betting that they may be involved in the old Dharma, being that Ben helped the Others kill the original Dharma and then has been blocking all outgoing and incoming frequencies from the island. In any case, basically, these 6 probably screwed over the other survivors, and Jack, Hurley, and Kate are part of this group of 6, another one of them is probably dead (the funeral that Jack went to). This is crucial. Not everyone leaves the island. There’s a reason why people stayed or were left behind…good enough for me. I’m captivated.

This season premiere didn’t do much for me. It gave me set up, which I suppose works. It wasn’t explosive by any means, but it certainly gave the season an interesting direction. We left off with Jack, Kate, Rose, Bernard, and a wide variety of extras heading down towards the beach to get rescued. Locke lead the majority of the ensemble cast and one of the extras back towards the barracks, all of which took Charlie’s last message as an ominous warning (“Not Penny’s Boat”). This divide is crucial, but it clearly won’t last. Shit will hit the fan. Michael will be thrown back into the mix. Charlie’s dead. Sawyer’s not out of nicknames. Granted, we only have 8 episodes due to the writer’s strike, so hey, a lot of this building excitement will be put on hiatus. Sucks. Regardless, tune in next week. Maybe it’ll be more explosive. Maybe it won’t. Maybe it’ll just further this interesting new direction for the series much like the premiere did. Maybe the new season of “Lost” has given Thursday night an entirely new meaning. Embrace it.

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