Lost - A new season

For anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis, it's no surprise I've become a huge fan of Lost. I started watching it mid way through the season last year after reading on LLB's blog how much she enjoyed it. I was hooked from the first moment and haven't looked back. I try and talk everyone I know who isn't already a fan into giving it a try. The new season has just started and the first season is out on DVD. Although I haven't got it yet I plan too - 8 hours of extra features - kewl. But I fear the cost may be quite prohibitive. I was talking to a friend last night who is going to give it a try. I wrote up a summary of the characters and some of what we have learned so far so she has a clue as to what is going on. Since I spent so much time doing it, I thought I would post it here too for anyone not familiar what the show is all about and think they might give it a try. So without further adieu I give you my version of last season's Lost!!!!

Nicole - you may want to skip this



for now

After Oceanic Air flight 815 tore apart in mid-air and crashed on a Pacific island, its survivors were forced to find inner strength they never knew they had in order to survive. But they discovered that the island holds many secrets, including the intense howls of a mysterious creature stalking the jungle, as well as a polar bear, a marooned and possibly crazy French woman, a mystical boar, a mysterious group known only as "The Others," a ship called The Black Rock and... a hatch



Jack: is a dedicated surgeon who reluctantly is becoming the leader of the group. In his flashback we learn he turned in his surgeon father when his father botched an operation because he was drunk. His father left for Australia and Jack’s mother instructed Jack to go bring him home. Once Jack arrived in Australia, he learned his father had dies so he was bringing back the body. On the island Jack has caught glimpses of his father alive and well and has tried following. Is his father just a ghost?


Sawyer: is the resident “bad boy”. He seems to be profiting from the plane crash. He collected a lot of the luggage and things and uses it to ‘trade’. Whenever anything is needed or goes missing everyone assumes Sawyer has it. He refuses to defend himself and the vast majority of the time we learn that people have jumped to the wrong conclusion. He doesn't help himself when most of the time he refuses to defend or explain what the other passengers accuse him of. In his flashback, we learn Sawyer was hiding under a bed as a young boy when his father shot and killed his mother before turning the gun on himself when they were fleeced by a con man. In a twist of irony, Sawyer became a con man himself. He was in Australia to track down the man responsible for destroying his family and kill him. In a horrifying scene Sawyer and the audience learn he has killed the wrong man. In one of those odd coincidences that happen regularly on the show, Sawyer was in a bar and met up with what turned out to be Jack’s father before he met his end. Jack’s father was telling this stranger, how proud he was of his son and that he (Jack) did the right thing by turning him in. In a very poignant moment and proving that Sawyer isn't all bad, he told Jack about the night he met his father.


Kate: We still know very little about Kate. She was a prisoner on the flight being extradited back to the States but we don’t know why she had been arrested in the first place. Her real name isn’t Kate but she has had a number of aliases and we don’t know her real name. There seems to be a triangle between her, Jack and Sawyer. She longs for the “good” doctor, but nevertheless is attracted to the ‘bad boy” Sawyer.


Locke: He is another mysterious type of person. In his flashback we learn he was in Australia to go on a walkabout – a kind of man against nature test. He has spent a long time preparing for his journey. At the last moment, once he had landed in Australia, we learn he has been turned down – because he is wheel chair bound. This is a fairly recent event because in another very poignant flashback, we learn he was conned into giving up his kidney to his previously unknown father. After the operation, his father refuses to see him again. Locke is quite spiritual and has a special affinity to the island as after the crash, he is no longer crippled. He is in no hurry to leave and of all the survivors, sees the clearest that the island is not what it seems


Charlie: when the crash occurs, he is a drug addicted musician whose band had one big hit. We learn in flashbacks that when the band first started, he was an idealistic musician who only cared about the music but gradually over time he is seduced to the dark side of the business. The band has since broken up but he still thinks he is the famous musician he once was. He was in Australia trying to talk his now reformed and family man brother into starting the band back up to make money to fuel his habit. Once on the island, with the help of Locke, he finally kicked his habit. He has taken under his wing Claire, a young pregnant and abandoned Australian girl.


Claire: after being abandoned by her boyfriend, Claire is on her way to the US to meet with a couple interested in adopting her baby. In flashbacks we learn that Claire has been urged by a physic to keep her baby – that there is something special about the baby. While on the island, she was mysteriously kidnapped by a man who was not one of the passengers. She reappeared as mysteriously as she disappeared, with no recollection of what happened to her. The menacing stranger was later shot and killed by Charlie before we could learn who he was or where he came from – and what he was doing on the island.


Sayid: He is a former member of the Iraqi army. In his flashbacks we learn that although he was a communications expert, he also dealt with torture. He became completely disillusioned with the army when he was ordered to ‘get information any way he could’ out of a young woman he grew up with and had deep feelings for. He was recruited by the Americans to act a spy. He agreed only because they knew the whereabouts of the young woman he was trying to find. He is the communication expert on the island and discovered a mysterious message from a French woman that had been going out from the island for over 16 years. Ashamed when he resorted to torture against Sawyer, he struck out on his own to track down where the message was coming from. He was captured by Danielle the French woman who told him about the ‘others’, another group on the island. She claimed years ago the ‘others’ had killed her people and stolen her young son. He managed to break free and return to the passengers.


Michael: He is father just getting to know his son. We learn in his flashback that years ago, his girlfriend, very much against his wishes, took their young son and immigrated to Australia. He recently learned his former girlfriend had died, leaving Walt, their son behind. Her husband and Walt’s stepfather wanted nothing to do with Walt after her death because there was something different about Walt. The relationship between Michael and Walt is very fractious as they don’t know each other. Michael is overprotective of
Walt – to the point of driving him away. Michael is determined to get off the island and has been building a very elaborate raft to take him, Walt, Sawyer and Jin, a young Korean husband, off the island.



Jin and Sun are a young Korean couple. Jin has been working for Sun’s father for a number of years. He has been deeply involved in the job to the point of ignoring his young wife. He has learned recently that her father is actually the head of a criminal family and he is desperate to get free of his father-in-law. In one last ‘job’ he plans on traveling to California with Sun to deliver one last package – a watch – before he disappears with Sun. Although still in love, their marriage is in deep trouble, due in large part to the guilt Jin feels. Because they are Korean, the language barrier keeps them separate from the rest of the passengers – or so it seems. Unbeknownst to Jin, Sun does speak English. Although she still loves Jin, his overbearing attitude and insistence that they stay away from the other passengers drives a wedge between them. This wedge is made even wider when Jin finds out that Sun has been able to speak English all along. Jin is full of remorse for what he has made Sun suffer and is determined to escape the island and get help for Sun. He feels his life is over, but he is determined to save Sun.


Hurley: he offers a bit of comic relief, yet he also has mysterious problems. We learn in his flashbacks that while in the hospital he ran into a rather agitated patient who kept repeating a series of numbers – over and over and over. Hurley decides to use these same numbers in the lottery. He wins the highest amount ever awarded in a lottery, but following this strange and bad things begin to happen. His grandfather dies, his house burns down, where he works is destroyed. Hurley slowly begins to realize it’s not a coincidence and there is something very strange about the numbers. He tells his story to a few of his fellow passengers but no one believes him.


Shannon: she seems to be a spoiled, rich young woman. She uses other to get what she wants. Sayid has developed feelings for her when they worked together trying to decipher clues to the mystery of the island as she speaks French and might know what the French woman is trying to say. Is she really as spoiled and shallow as she appears? She had been living in Australia with yet another useless boyfriend when they concocted a scheme to defraud money from her family. Showing up to ‘save’ her as always was her step brother Boone.


Boone was a young heir apparent. We learned in a flashback that Boone had very strong feelings for his step-sister Shannon whom he was constantly trying to save from her follies. One night they gave in too their passion for each other. He and Locke developed a friendship while hunting wild boar together. They stumbled across a mysterious hatch one day and Locke became obsessed with trying to open it. With Boone's help Locke tried to crash a small engine airplane that had crashed on the island some time in the past onto the hatch to try and open it. Boone was trapped in the airplane when it hung suspended in a tree and was critically injured. Locke carried Boone through the jungle to Jack in order to save Boone’s life. Although Jack made a valiant effort to save Boone with the limited resources he had, including giving Boone a transfusion using his own blood, Jack was unable to save Boone. While Jack was trying to save Boone, Claire was giving birth.

This is just a small glimpse into the phenomenon that is Lost. There is so much more to it and I hope if anyone who isn't a regular watcher is even a little bit intrigued, they give it a chance!

There are all kinds of theories that have developed arount the show but to me, the show is bout redemption. Each one of the characters needs a second chance - and the island is providing it.


'til later