That image is one I’ve seen 120 times in the last few months. Yes, I just admitted I watched that much TV (online via Netflix streaming). But hey, most of it was while I was cycling on a stationary bike or pumping on the elliptical. I’m down 24 pounds and have 30+ to go. I credit most of that loss to well, Lost, actually. Each 41 minute episode made for a much more exciting workout time.
But apart from the health benefits I received as a byproduct of watching every single episode of Lost again, what else did I gain from it? That’s what this post is about.
First a little background. My daughter and I starting watching the series right before its second season. We’d each had a friend tell us they thought we’d like it. That summer we got one of those Blockbuster video deals (yes, before they filed for chapter 11) where you could rent as many DVDs by mail as you wanted for $10 a month. We had a free one month trial so we watched that first season courtesy of Blockbuster (and well, by forgoing most other socializing for the period of time it took to watch).
After meeting Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Sayid, and the rest, we were hooked (my daughter even named her hamsters Sawyer and Jack). I’m not sure I could tell you exactly what grabbed us. Certainly the characters had traits that were at the same time familiar to others we’d seen and unique in the way they were developed. The scenario of being stranded on an island wasn’t really the appeal. Neither my daughter nor I are the least bit outdoorsy, and had we been characters, would likely have been mauled by a polar bear or struck down by the smoke monster after a few short episodes. Maybe it was the writing. While we made fun of a few lines here and there, for the most part we agreed it was well-written, produced, and directed.
Whatever the draw, we were glued to the set for that hour each week. My husband might join us now and again, but frankly, if you watch the show you know that if you didn’t see every episode you were, well, lost. Initially if we were going to miss an episode we’d videotape it (which later gave way to DVR’ing it – I know that’s not a word but we all use it). By the time the final season aired, we’d gotten pretty busy with life, and it didn’t hold quite the draw it once did. We also agree (in discussing it now), that we cared very little for most of the characters in that final season. We cared about Sun and Jin, and of course how could you not care about Hurley? But we were ready for it to be over. And I think we both felt a bit disappointed with the way it wrapped up. We didn’t quite “get it”, though we had theories. I read a little online and some seemed to see what I did in it. Others were more elaborate in their analysis. I just felt a bit, well, yes, lost still. There seemed to be so many conflicting things that happened. Or storylines and action that negated prior or subsequent storylines, etc. I felt alternately like it wrapped up too neatly or it hadn’t really wrapped up at all.
Time passed, and we moved on to far more important things than pondering the meaning of life, er I mean, Lost. Then a few months ago when I began working out, I decided to watch the series again on my iPad as a way to keep motivated. Today I watched the final episode. And this time, I felt differently about it. You could say I “got it”, though I’m not sure that’s accurate. A twitter pal commented that the main theme is redemption and I can see that. Several of the characters had need of redemption for their acts, and were portrayed as unable to move on until they found it. And that was granted not necessarily by an unseen deity or savior but in some cases by another character (as in Locke forgiving Ben, although Ben still felt he had “work to do”, maybe with Alex). In some cases it seemed the character needed to forgive himself, such as with Sayid. He didn’t see himself as ever being able to be with Nadia, because of all he had done, but he could be with Shannon because he accepted Hurley’s view of him that he was good.
And that brings me to the other thought I had after watching the whole season again: good versus evil. In some ways, I see the show as similar to the biblical view of either eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or choosing the tree of life. When we eat from the former, we’re always caught in comparisons, in wanting, in striving to be good to gain something, in damning ourselves (or more often, others) for past sins. We see everything as either good or bad (if not quite evil). But when we eat only from the tree of life, we see the world differently. It all just is, we just are. Acts, while they have consequences, aren’t in and of themselves good or bad, nor are people. A friend spoke on this (the temptation to do good) quite eloquently a few years back, and you can
read that here if you like. On the show, I think the majority of the characters bought into the good vs. evil worldview. The only ones who didn’t were Rose and Bernard, who chose to remove themselves “from all that drama” (in Rose’s words) and live on their own on the island. And Desmond, who is by far my favorite character, did to some extent. It may be interesting here to note that Henry Ian Cusick, who played Desmond also played Jesus in a film version of the Gospel of John. Look at his role in the final season, having to get everyone to “let go” and “move on”. He didn’t judge any of them as having done evil nor did he grant any of them redemption. He just “was”. He was there to get them where they needed to be.
Okay, so you could say I’m reading too much into a TV program. But come on. It’s Lost; it begs analysis, and this time I was ready to give mine.
What do you think? Have a different view on Lost? Have another suggestion for a series I can watch on Netflix streaming while I workout? I’d love to hear from you.