The Top Five Reasons You Should Be Watching Lost Again
By Julie Nisbet
I don’t normally devote these bi-weekly diatribes to any one show. As I’ve said before, I’m a network TV slut, not a network TV serial monogamist. But this week is different. This week, I’m going to honor the best comeback of the season just in time for its season finale tonight at 10pm. So, without further ado, here are the top five reasons you should be watching Lost again.
*Warning, there are some spoilers lying ahead for anyone who stopped caring about this show as soon as Echo was killed by the black smoke monster. Oh, I guess that was kind of a spoiler too. Oh well, if you didn’t see that death scene, it was as ridiculous as it sounds.
Okay, NOW without any further ado, are the top five reasons you should be watching Lost again.
5. Because they’re tying up loose ends and giving us some answers instead of constantly introducing new mysteries.
Even if these answers are things that true fans have suspected/predicted for years, it’s nice to get some official resolution. In the past ten episodes, we’ve learned that Clare and Jack are half-siblings, why Clare was kidnapped, how Locke became paralyzed, just how big of a liar Ben actually is and that Locke’s dad was the original Sawyer. Although I still don’t know anything about the damned polar bear, and 4-8-15-16-23-42 mean as much to me now as they did at the end of Season 1, at least I have some peace of mind rather than constant frustration.
4. Because, as embarrassing as it is to admit it, I’m honestly scared again.
I first started watching Lost during summer reruns after its first season (once again, I was late getting on the bandwagon). I would do my laundry and watch Lost. The laundry room at my old apartment was across a dark parking lot, in a creepy dark end unit next to a dark forest with cougars and lions. Okay, the lions and cougars part isn’t true, and it was in downtown Santa Barbara not Twin Peaks, but it was still dark and scary at night! I almost left my laundry in the dryer a few times because I was scared of Lostzilla jumping out of the bushes at me. Now, I’m not that hard to scare, so it’s saying something that I haven’t been too scared to go outside while watching this show since Season 1. That was until last week. We all knew Charlie wasn’t going to die, and we also knew that when he popped up in that underwater hatch, there was no way he would be alone. But awareness didn’t make it any less nerve wracking. I shocked even myself when I covered my eyes in pathetic fear. With that instinctive (and embarrassing) move, I regained my respect for the writers and my faith in the show.
3. Because even the lame filler episodes are being tied back in.
With all the unsolved mysteries, we really don’t have time for yet ANOTHER Hurley episode about his bad luck. We get it – he won the lottery, he has bad luck, I REALLY DON’T CARE ANYMORE! I think the writers thought that if the episode co-starred Cheech, and gave us a break from Jack’s incessant crying, we would be happy. Well, I wasn’t, and that fateful episode was almost the nail in the coffin for me. But then, last week, in a seemingly boring scene reemphasizing that everyone on the island has daddy issues, they showed us that Roger Workman was in fact Ben’s dad!! Okay, it doesn’t make up for wasting an episode on Hurley and Cheech, but at least I’m being rewarded for watching it.
2. Desmond and Juliet.
I love these characters. Desmond is Scottish. Enough said. Plus he keeps having visions of Charlie dying. While I would prefer it if Charlie ACTUALLY died, I’ll take what I can get. Juliet has evolved into the most interesting character on the show. She’s even making the Jack, Kate, Sawyer love triangle almost interesting, and that’s hard to do.
1. Because there’s an end in sight!
ABC recently announced that Lost will only run for three more seasons! Some Lostaholics are upset by the impending cancellation but in my opinion, mediocre ratings are the best thing that could have happened to this show. The countdown has begun! The writers officially have 49 more episodes to explain the damned polar bear, and every other stupid mystery that was trotted out during their “We’re number 1 in the Nielsen ratings and will never be cancelled” phase. Note to the Lost writers: Your days are numbered! Get on with the explaining! And no more polar bears!
