So LOST changed the game tonight, or did it? What everybody wants to know is, was this a one time thing? Or will this be how things go from here on out? After all, last year they showed us a couple of guys in an arctic listening post discovering the location of the island, and we haven’t seen hide nor hair of them since. Don’t know what I’m even referring to? Skip on through for a quick update, or if you prefer to be surprised… don’t. Spoilers ahead.
So here is how it went. In the flash back sequences tonight; we followed Jack through a very dark time. Frantically trying to reach somebody while his life falls apart. He nearly commits suicide, he steals drugs from the hospital and gets caught, attends the funeral of someone he neither likes nor is related to (!), all the while making call after call to a mysterious someone.
In the end, we found out that this someone was Kate. The flashback was not a flashback at all. It was a flash forward. Moreover, in the end, it seems Kate doesn’t want much to do with Jack, who is pleading her to go back to the island. A prospect she does not find the least bit appealing.
So, what does this mean for the future of LOST? First, it tells us that the story does not end with them getting off the island. At some point it is possible these flashbacks will collide with the central flow of the series and we will see a season that takes place off the island. Perhaps the series ends with whoever left returning to the island to face some end game that they shied away from.
Moreover, what about Jack mentioning his father in the flash forward, as being alive and well? Were we really watching the future from the world we know? Could this be why his father’s coffin was empty? Because time was altered in such a way prior to the crash that for some reason Christian never died? Are we looking at the by-product of Desmond’s time trip?
Of course the use of ‘game changer’ to describe this certainly indicated that we are in for massive changes to the structure of the show. It would be cruel to jump away from the repercussions of the phone call, the temple, and Locke’s return, so it is difficult to imagine that they will go that far with it. What would make the most sense is to continue the island story, probably up to their rescue, but instead of continuing with the flashback motif, tell a second linear tale from various character’s perspectives that explains why Jack is so desperate to return.
– Jon Lachonis, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Copyright © 2007 ABC)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
