For the past several weeks the folks at TV Guide Online have held a contest allowing fans to submit possible names for the shocking twist at the end of Lost’s fifth season finale. Obviously no one knows how the season will end outside of a small circle of sworn blood brothers on a beach in Hawaii and their agents, so coming up with the perfect words to describe this game-changing event was hard. In fact, it was absurdist comedy. The possibilities were endless -The Birdie in the Mailbox; Death on Mars; The Howler Monkey in My Bed; Captain Obvious Comes to Dinner. But as of today we can officially go back to being serious because a winner has been crowned.
Lost executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse chose “The Fork in the Outlet,” a submission by super fan Spindrift Beck. Unfortunately since Spindrift obviously entered under his online name rather than his actual name the prize winning check is invalid and he gets nothing. Okay, actually there was never a cash prize, just bragging rights among other Lost fans.
Each Lost season finale water-glass-shattering event so far has had a similarly bizarre code name. The first season’s New York sized shocker was named The Bagel (with Walt being abducted by The Others.) Last season Ben spun a subterranean steering wheel to move the island in time. As it happens the shocker that season was named the Frozen Donkey Wheel but the code name actually referred to the identity of the man who lay in the coffin. The Frozen Donkey Wheel was a decoy to make fans who stumbled upon rumors of Ben’s frosty machinery think they knew all there was to know.
In all likelihood the goose bump-raising climactic moments of this season’s May 13 curtain-drawer will have something to do with a fork, a socket, a fork in a socket or something clearly analogous to a fork in a socket, but that won’t be the main thrust of the shocker. TV Guide’s ‘sources’ say the title has no relation to the magic moment itself but it’s safe to assume they wouldn’t spoil the surprise if it did.
With other entries like The Zeigarnik, The Zombie Bake Sale, The Exploding Pretzel Jar and The Droids You’re Looking For it’s interesting that they settled on one of the least bizarre and funny names on the list.
What led Lindelof and Cuse to choose the Fork in the Socket? And did they work an appropriate symbolic image into the shooting of the finale? Like some of the world’s worst bad jokes we’ll have to wait five weeks to get the punch line.
-Henry Jenkins, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Guest Columnist, BuddyTV
