SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't seen both hours of the Season Six premiere, 1) you won't understand my cryptic references, and 2) you'll be spoiled.
Five reasons why I’m already loving the sixth season of Lost:
1. Everything old is new again.
Think that dialogue sounds so 2004? Probably it is. Jack and Rose once again discuss turbulence, word for word as they did in our 2004 world, which is their present. This time, however, Bernard really does return from the bathroom. Cue Bernard’s and Rose’s love theme one more time.
Even when the dialogue isn’t the same, the scene looks eerily familiar. Jack vainly attempts CPR on a castaway too long oxygen deprived to be brought back. Kate begs him to stop, knowing it’s too late. The corpse this time is Sayid, not Charlie, but the results, like the dialogue, turn out the same.
The Marshal is destined to suffer a headache during Kate’s escape; Sun has to button her sweater, as well as her English-speaking lips; Charlie can’t escape that fugly striped shirt. It’s déjà vu all over again.
2. Jack is not a physicist, or even a very good time traveler.
As I suspected, Jack’s Plan A for setting the future to rights by meddling with the past didn’t exactly account for all the variables. So what’s his Plan B?
Should I worry that island-bound Jack seems far too OK with letting other people lead? Or is he quietly agreeing with Fate that he really should let go of his avocation as a “fixer”?
3. Parting is such sweet sorrow.
With one line, Shannon’s story is forever changed in Lostlore. Boone at least gets a handshake and a smile before we send him on his way. I only wish Charlie fared as well. I realize that in the original timeline, or an alternate version of the timeline that might’ve been, he hasn’t overcome his problems with heroin. Still, I ached to make it better when he growled at Jack, “I should’ve died.” Maybe the writers should’ve left well enough alone, at least for some of the gone but more fondly remembered castaways than the sorry lot departing Oceanic 815. At least Rose and Bernard seem happy, but I worry for her health.
4. I’m making a list and checking it (off) twice.
What’s/Who’s Smoky? Check. Whatever happened to Zach and Emma? Check. Might Richard have arrived on the island as a slave? Check.
5. The island is under new management.
And I wouldn’t tick off the boss. He seems to hold a grudge.
That’s just my Top Five from the first two hours. I haven’t even mentioned how much I love the resonances in music between Seasons One and Six, the symbolism of light and shadow (especially in fLocke’s scenes), the liberal use of irony, or the many symbols old and new. I expected an intriguing, somewhat nostalgic premiere, and I wasn’t disappointed. Suddenly May 23 seems too near, in any timeline, but I’m re-making some great memories to take with me.
Now excuse me. I have to reinforce the magic black circle around my house. Just in case. I’m not sure what may arrive with next week’s episode.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
LOST Radio Interviews on Tuesday
If you live in listening range of the following radio stations, I hope you'll tune in tomorrow. I'll be talking about LOST on these stations:
North Central Illinois 99.3 WAJK: talking with Jon Shap
Columbus, Chillicothe, Ohio 1090 WBEX: talking with Dan Ramey
Fargo, North Dakota WDAY-AM: talking with the Morning Buzz with Ben and Tracy
Phoenix, Arizona KMLE Country: talking with Tim and Willy in the Morning
If you're in driving distance of Cricketer's Arms in Orlando, watch LOST on a big screen with your friends. Check out the Geeks Night Out site or the Facebook page for more information. Talk with me about LOST and what you hope happens during Season Six. This event is a fantastic way to start the new season! Hope to see you there.
Geeks Night Out
Here's the link to the long version of my LOST discussion with Jon Shap. Thanks for posting the link, Jon! I enjoyed our chat.
WAJK interview with Jon Shap
North Central Illinois 99.3 WAJK: talking with Jon Shap
Columbus, Chillicothe, Ohio 1090 WBEX: talking with Dan Ramey
Fargo, North Dakota WDAY-AM: talking with the Morning Buzz with Ben and Tracy
Phoenix, Arizona KMLE Country: talking with Tim and Willy in the Morning
If you're in driving distance of Cricketer's Arms in Orlando, watch LOST on a big screen with your friends. Check out the Geeks Night Out site or the Facebook page for more information. Talk with me about LOST and what you hope happens during Season Six. This event is a fantastic way to start the new season! Hope to see you there.
Geeks Night Out
Here's the link to the long version of my LOST discussion with Jon Shap. Thanks for posting the link, Jon! I enjoyed our chat.
WAJK interview with Jon Shap
Sunday, January 31, 2010
LOST Journeys--The Countdown Continues
What do Lost and The Odyssey have in common?
If you watched last Tuesday's rerun of "The Incident," you probably read those informative but annoying blurbs on the bottom of the screen. Now I pride myself on analyzing just about everything on screen on Lost, but I admit that I missed the lines from The Odyssey Jacob wove into a tapestry. Loved the Eye of Horus motif and the allusion to weaving the fates of future castaways, but didn't translate Greek fast enough. So, for once, I'm really glad that I read the episode.
The Odyssey has always fascinated me. I read it as a student. I make my students read it. It's an ancestor text (one of hundreds) for Lost. Desmond's and Penny's story in many ways parallels the life journey of Odysseus and his Penelope. Odysseus struggled with tests, challenges, and frustrations from being stuck on an island for years, just like our Lostaways. All these characters return home only to discover it's not the way they remembered it.
Of all the aspects of "The Incident" to include in those Lost for Dummies blurbs, why were certain lines from The Odyssey highlighted? Why was the emphasis placed on both Romans and Greeks? Do they somehow refer to conflicts between Jacob and the Man in Black? Between Greeks and Romans? Among other ancient warring peoples? We know that some islanders converse in Latin. Did they learn it because it's their leader's first language? Or are these lines just linguistic red herrings to distract us from the many Egyptian hieroglyphs scattered across the island? Are these hints leading us to better understand Season Six? Or are we reading too much into the (sub)text again? A shout out to The Odyssey in one scene can prompt a season's worth of questions about what it might really mean or why The Odyssey has come up yet again in a Lost episode.
Lost's Season Six undoubtedly won't answer all my--or anyone's, everyone's--questions. I'm relieved that Darlton promise character development instead of 16 hours of Q&A. I'd much rather find out what happens to my favorite characters instead of knowing definitively what Smoky is. So if a decade from now I'm still wondering why Jacob wove those particular lines from The Odyssey into a neat little wall hanging, that's OK.
Lost continues to be a journey of discovery and self-discovery for me. In some ways the series has been better than grad school. It not only prodded me to read and re-read literary classics as well as obscurities, but it embroiled me in countless discussions about fate, destiny, and redemption. Lost continues to be an Odyssey, and I am impatient to take one final voyage with the Lostaways. It's time to set sail.
If you watched last Tuesday's rerun of "The Incident," you probably read those informative but annoying blurbs on the bottom of the screen. Now I pride myself on analyzing just about everything on screen on Lost, but I admit that I missed the lines from The Odyssey Jacob wove into a tapestry. Loved the Eye of Horus motif and the allusion to weaving the fates of future castaways, but didn't translate Greek fast enough. So, for once, I'm really glad that I read the episode.
The Odyssey has always fascinated me. I read it as a student. I make my students read it. It's an ancestor text (one of hundreds) for Lost. Desmond's and Penny's story in many ways parallels the life journey of Odysseus and his Penelope. Odysseus struggled with tests, challenges, and frustrations from being stuck on an island for years, just like our Lostaways. All these characters return home only to discover it's not the way they remembered it.
Of all the aspects of "The Incident" to include in those Lost for Dummies blurbs, why were certain lines from The Odyssey highlighted? Why was the emphasis placed on both Romans and Greeks? Do they somehow refer to conflicts between Jacob and the Man in Black? Between Greeks and Romans? Among other ancient warring peoples? We know that some islanders converse in Latin. Did they learn it because it's their leader's first language? Or are these lines just linguistic red herrings to distract us from the many Egyptian hieroglyphs scattered across the island? Are these hints leading us to better understand Season Six? Or are we reading too much into the (sub)text again? A shout out to The Odyssey in one scene can prompt a season's worth of questions about what it might really mean or why The Odyssey has come up yet again in a Lost episode.
Lost's Season Six undoubtedly won't answer all my--or anyone's, everyone's--questions. I'm relieved that Darlton promise character development instead of 16 hours of Q&A. I'd much rather find out what happens to my favorite characters instead of knowing definitively what Smoky is. So if a decade from now I'm still wondering why Jacob wove those particular lines from The Odyssey into a neat little wall hanging, that's OK.
Lost continues to be a journey of discovery and self-discovery for me. In some ways the series has been better than grad school. It not only prodded me to read and re-read literary classics as well as obscurities, but it embroiled me in countless discussions about fate, destiny, and redemption. Lost continues to be an Odyssey, and I am impatient to take one final voyage with the Lostaways. It's time to set sail.
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