[Editor's Note: For more on the final season of Lost, check out the CL Lost Podcast.]
Uh … what? Lots to take in this week. Tuesday night's episode of Lost might have been the most controversial (Is that the right word? Maybe 'disappointing' is a better one?) hour of the entire series. I'd been worried about tonight's episode, because I had a strong feeling that the quality of it and whether you liked it or not would be a direct reflection of what to expect in the finale. If that's the case, a lot of fans might not be too happy. Fans lit up forums and message boards after the show with outrage, even petitioning the Lost executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse to explain themselves. (They did, somewhat, in an interview Wednesday.)
I had a lot of mixed feelings about this episode. Generally, I liked some of the mythological components revealed, but didn't like how they were revealed or the fact that they came so late in the series. Would it have hurt us to learn everything in this episode at the beginning of this season? Would it perhaps have given more context to Smokey's wanderings around the Island and recruitment of the candidates? Answering, or merely addressing, the big mysteries of the show is always shaky because it can lend to some really cheesy expository scenes. But in some cases it felt like the writers were wading knee-deep in their explanations, afraid to go any further for fear of stripping away too much mythology. There needs to be a balance between the two. Bottom line: We spent way too much time on certain things (Kate's Sideways episode, Sun losing her ability to speak, the Temple), and could have had a whole other hour of explanation about subplots addressed this episode. Here's some stuff we did get:
This article appears in May 13-19, 2010.