Tuesday, September 22, 2015

LOST






11 years ago today , Lost debuted on ABC on a Wednesday night. Created by J.J. Abrams, Jeffrey Lieber and Damon Lindelof , and then later showrunners Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, this show told the story of the passengers of the crashed Oceanic Airlines Flight 815.  For six seasons, this show was able to give us wonderful characters to root for and get to see grow and ones that infuriated us and we pitied. In those seasons, we got polar bears, time travel, smoke monsters and a little glimpse of heaven. So in honor of one of my all-time favorite tv shows, I am going to name 4 of the best moments of the show.







1. The pilot


When the show first starts, we see Dr. Jack Shepherd awake in the middle of a jungle somewhere battered and bruised. He gets up and finds out that he is on a island. At first it looks deserted but then it ends up he has walked right into the middle of a huge crash site.  The next several minutes are chaotic as Jack tries to help his fellow passengers and try to make sense of what's hapening. We even get some getting sucked into  airplane engine before we are 5 minutes in!


This is one of the best pilots I've ever seen as it establishes the main characters and is able to give you so many mysteries right off the top. So many great scenes are here too : Jack and Kate's first meeting, John Locke being badass as hell, our first glimpses at Sawyer, Sun, Jin, Sayid, Boone, Shannon and many more. Another important scene is when Jack , Kate and Charlie, a drug-addicted musician find the pilot of the plane in the jungle. You think the pilot will live but no he is suddenly taken by a unknown force and killed. This shows that do not get used to anyone. That is ends with the immortal line "Guys, where are we?" is icing on the cake.






2. The First meeting with the Others /The Hatch

If you don't count Ethan (that slime) , our castaways have their first meeting with the island dwellers known as "The Others". In the episode , Jin, Sawyer, Michael and Walt are on a raft sailing to get help. They spot a boat in the dead of night during a rain storm. As they wave them down , the find out that the people on the boat have unsavory intentions as they want the boy, Walt. A fight ensues with Sawyer getting shot and The Others over powering Michael and kidnapping Walt. What made them so scary was that not only were they the big bad but also were always one step ahead of the group no matter what they did.  Later we would see why as they were led by one of the most interesting characters on television in the last 10 years, Benjamin Linus.



Meanwhile, at the same time Locke, Hurley, Kate and Jack are investigating a hatch that first Locke and Boone (RIP) found a few episodes before. Jack and Locke disagree on why to open the hatch but both agree to blow up the hatch to figure out what is inside. They set up the dynamite but then Hurley see numbers on the hatch. (the cursed numbers is a whole 'nother thing that would take hours to explain) Hurley freaks out and tries to stop it but Jack is able to stop him and the hatch is blown. It opens and the last shot of the season is Jack and Locke looking down with the camera view from coming inside the hatch. Lost always did a wonderful job of creating suspense , especially for their season-ending episodes whether it was a hatch , a bomb exploding or something else entirely. It was such torture waiting to see what Jack and Locke would find in the hatch, brother.






3. NOT PENNY'S BOAT

Lost always had great season finales and season 3 was probably their best. Charlie and Desmond end up going to a sub underwater to shut off a device that is blocking all radio transmissions. They are able to over come the Others (including a young Regina Mills) and Charlie is able to stop the blocking device. He is then contacted by Penny who tells her that the boat Naomi, who parachuted onto the island, is not hers. Then one of the others blows up the room and Charlie is trapped in the room. He sees Desmond in the window and in his last act writes NOT PENNY'S BOAT on his hand to show Desmond.

Desmond's death is honestly the most painful one ever on the show as we all fell in love with Charlie. We had cheered as he overcame addiction and became a protector for Claire. We felt sad when Charlie lied to Claire about the Virgin Mary statue and we felt happiness when Charlie and Claire reconciled so when he died , we all felt the pain that Hurley and Claire would feel when they found out. Charlie Pace is a great example of having a audience care for a character and then root for him and get our hearts broken when the character dies. Much credit to Dominic Monaghan for his wonderful performance through three seasons and getting us hooked on a song for years after it aired. "YOU ARE EVERYBODY"










4. FLASHFORWARD



For the first three seasons, Lost would do constant flashbacks of every character. EVERY character even the hated ones (Nikki and Pablo, I liked you guys a little) got a backstory via flashbacks. So in the season 3 finale we see Jack, bearded and depressed, stealing pills and going to a memorial service. We all think this is a flashback perhaps but then the final scene shatters that. Jack is watching airplanes flying in a fenced area near the airport. All of a sudden a car pulls up and we see that it is Kate who asks Jack what she wants which leads to a immortal line that Jack says when Kate tells him that she'll never go back to the island. "WE HAVE TO GO BACK!!!"  (Me and my brother always say this line to each other). This  would change the show as now we would get flashforwards as the Oceanic Six got off the island in the end of season 4 while the flashforwards showed what was happening to them after they did.










So I can name many more moments that made this the show I love. "The Constant" which one of the best episodes of tv ever and one of the most romantic scenes ever on television.


 Other moments such as the love between characters like : Sun and Jin, Sawyer and Juliet, Kate and Jack or Sawyer. The back and forth mind games between Ben and Locke. The polar bear cages. These characters and this show was a big part of my life for 6 years and I will always have a space in my heart for this show no matter how weird it got in season 6. (spoilers : VERY).







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