WhenLostfirst started airing in 2004, it offered enough mysteries that a “LostExplained for Dummies” guide might have helped lead viewers along. Anyone watching the show now has an even bigger disadvantage. WhenLostaired, a massive discourse surrounded it, with fans sharing theories and discussing the twists and turns as they unfolded. This is also likely why the sci-fi series ultimately disappointed so many of us, because what some people imagined wasn’t what the showrunners had planned.
Lostran for six seasons and followed the surviving passengers of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815, which crashed and left them stranded on a seemingly uninhabited island. However, from the start, the island presented strange mysteries,including polar bears, a smoke monster, a possible group of people living on the island, and a deep mythology that remained unresolved in the finale. It wasthat last problem that disappointed manyLostviewers, but the final episodes ultimately paid off for those who followed the story and characters through the six seasons.
What Is Lost About?
Plane Crash Survivors End Up On A Mysterious Island
The first episode ofLostremains one of the greatest season premieres in television history. It opens with Jack Sawyer (Matthew Fox) opening his eyes while lying on the ground and looking into the sky.He then realizes he is the survivor of a plane crash,and the episode then shows Jack finding a beach where the plane he was on has crashed and is on fire, with the survivors trying to survive amid the wreckage. The show’s opening was one of the most intense in television history, and the journey was just getting started.
As the series progresses,Lostsoon explores more about these characters and why they might have been chosen to end up on this island. More people show up, a mix of other survivors and people who have been on the island for years, and the main characters have to figure out what this island represents and why they might never get to go back home. Through it all,Lostwas one of the most discussed shows during its run and had some of the wildest fan theories in television history.
Who Are The Characters On Lost?
The Main Survivors Are Later Joined By Other Characters
What makesLostsuch an incredible journey is that it features a large cast of well-drawn characters. As the first episode shows,Jack is one of the main characters, and the series even ends with a shot that replicates thefirst time viewers met Jack, with him lying on the ground, looking up at the sky. Jack is a doctor and is one of the people who takes a leadership role with the survivors. The other three main characters are Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Sawyer (Josh Holloway), and Locke (Terry O’Quinn).
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However, this is just the tip of the iceberg forLost. It is the characters' backstories and journeys, their secrets and inner demons, and their relationships with each other that were as important as any mysteries of the island on which they found themselves trapped. These stories are told in flashbacks to their lives before the plane crash, and each person’s past ties in to what is happening on the island.
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The series also adds new cast members, as other survivors are discovered on the island, as well as the overarching mystery of what this island is about and the people tasked with keeping the “machine” running.This includes some major players, such as Michael Emerson as Benjamin Linus, Henry Ian Cusick as Desmond Hume, and Ken Leung as Miles Straume. These characters exist to explore the island’s mysteries and reveal the connection between the plane crash survivors and the island’s overall purpose.
How Is Lost Formatted As A Narrative Series?
There Are Flashbacks, Flashforwards, & More
Lostcan be tricky to follow at times because of its format. However, simply put, the characters' journey on the island parallels their lives before the plane crash.These stories are told in the first three seasons as flashbacks, with each episode focusing on a different character’s backstory. Very few of the flashbacks are told in chronological order. While this may seem confusing at first, it works as a puzzle, with information about each character being dropped until the complete picture of who they were before the plane crash is uncovered.
Lostswitched from flashbacks to flashforwards in the season 3 finale.
However, things changed in the season 3 finale, when the show presented a flashforward — events that happened after the survivors returned home — which had not yet occurred in the main timeline of the series. These were the “Oceanic Six,” consisting of Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun, and Aaron. This caused even more confusion, but things played out to show why some of the characters ended up returning to the island in the end.TheLostflashsSideways scenesin season 6 cause more confusion.
What Are The Mysteries On Lost?
Polar Bears, Smoke Monsters, Men In Black, & More
One of the major complaints about theLostseries finale was that not all the mysteries were resolved. However, the biggest mystery was finally explained:what the deserted island onLostrepresented. There were countless theories about what the island was, ranging from a lost island in the Bermuda Triangle to an alternate reality, time travel, or Purgatory. The show finally explored the island’s origins, starting in the fifth season.
However, there are also little mysteries that the survivors discovered on the island, which prove that this is not a natural location. This is a deserted island, and somehow, the characters see a polar bear in the first season. There is also a scary Smoke Monster that seems to attack them at different times, and even kills at least one character early in the series. While the show doesn’t answer every question, there are clues given that these are not all fantastical, although the Smoke Monster does border on the supernatural.
Of course, time travel is involved, and that plays into the later seasons, where characters travel to different points in history as they discover the identity of the overarching antagonist, the Man in Black, and how this character affects the life of one of their own. All this led many fans to theorize that the characters all died in the plane crash, and this island was their purgatory, which is where they awaited the fate of their afterlife. This wasn’t what the island was about, but it did play into the controversial finale.
Why Was The Lost Season Finale So Controversial?
The Lost Finale Paid Off One Theory
Without giving away too many spoilers, the theory that the island fromLostwas purgatory was inaccurate.The final season explained what the island was, why it was so important to keep the people on it, and what would happen if everyone abandoned it completely (it could mark the end of life on Earth). This was all a sci-fi explanation of the show’s biggest mystery. However, fans who predicted that it was purgatory got that idea paid off in the end, and not everyone was happy about it.
Ultimately, there was a fantasy aspect to theLoststoryline. The Man in Black was part of that storyline, a great evil that gave a human face to the threat, alongside the world-threatening dangers. The Man in Black wasn’t originally a supernatural being, but a man who had to be kept on the island to prevent his evil from infecting the world. However, the Man in Black was thousands of years old and had powers to torment the survivors, using the Smoke Monster, while his brother sought out the survivors to help him protect the island—and the world.
However, what made theLostfinale so controversialwas that the final scenes included everyone from the island who had died meeting together in a church, waiting for the rest to arrive to head into the afterlife. This was purgatory, but it wasn’t what the island represented. What many people didn’t seem to accept is that the show never intended to explain all the mysteries. In the end,Lostwas about this specific group of characters and their fates. The finale showed them together one last time and closed the door on their story, making these characters the most important part of this amazing journey.
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Lost is a mystery drama series created for TV that follows a group of survivors of a plane crash and tells its story between the past, present, and future via flashbacks. When Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 crashes and lands on a mysterious island in the pacific ocean, the castaways discover their new temporary home may have a mind of its own, as strange supernatural events keep them locked to the island. From an unknown black smoke creature to dangerous islanders, the passengers must work together to survive the island’s seemingly deadly intentions.
