What better time to go back and re-watch Lost from the beginning than right before the final season? Supposedly, this will be where the road ends, tying up the questions we’ve been asking for six years. Needless to say, watching season 1 is refreshingly easy. The only questions we’re forced to grapple with are what the hell is that monster chasing the losties through the jungle and what could be in that damn hatch? Outside of that, it’s just a real kick getting know these characters and piecing together each of their sordid pasts.
What was great about season 1 is that it really focused on the importance of characters. Sure, many viewers stuck around for 5 years because they desperately just have to know the answers to their burning questions, but ultimately, fans stuck around because Lost has one hell of a cast of characters to follow. More than that, it’s great to see the dynamics between these characters, and season 1 is responsible for providing a strong introduction to who these characters are, where they’ve been, what they’ve been through, and the relationships they form with one another.
It’s in season 1 where Jack (Matthew Fox) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) first form their rivalry [mostly revolving around Kate (Evangeline Lilly)] yet also become reluctant allies. Similarly, Jack and Locke (Terry O’Quinn) emerge as leaders with distinctly different opinions on their survival. As for the other characters, they all deal with their respective problems and pasts, while also dealing with their new circumstances of survival. Kate is a fugitive trying to hide her past, Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) is a has-been rock star trying to kick a heroine addiction, Michael (Harold Perrineau) is coping with his new found responsibilities as a father, Sun (Yunjin Kim) and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) deal with their own marital problems as well as a language barrier, and the list of characters goes on. More than that, it’s interesting to see characters like Jin, who spent his life escaping his past where he grew up in a poor fishing village, but here, that experience is the most useful thing he could have had.
On a final note, something has to be said about the first death of a major character. Yup, when poor Boone (Ian Somerhalder) bit the dust, it was clear that the writers had done their job, because dammit, this arrogant kid’s death struck a major chord. It was necessary though. It helped fuel the divide between Jack and Locke, and actually give Boone’s spoiled sister, Shannon (Maggie Grace), something to do besides tan on the beach.
As for the finale…well, nobody knows how to do a season finale quite like J.J. Abrams and company. Michael, Sawyer, and Jin set sail for rescue while Jack, Kate, and Locke finally set out to blow the hatch with the looming threat of the so-called Others supposedly making their way to camp. Sure enough, the Others never arrived on the beach, but they did manage to head-off Michael’s boat where they took his son Walt (Malcolm David Kelley), and left the boat in ruins. As if that wasn’t enough of a cliffhanger, we were left with a shot of Jack and Locke peaking into a shaft beneath the hatch that lead to God knows what. Damn that, now onto season 2.
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