TV Round-up 1: Lost s05e06 "316"
****SPOILER ALERT*****
Lost is a TV show that, over the years, has required a considerable amount of patience, perserverance and commitment from it’s viewers. You’d think that with this amount of effort involved that it’s legions of fans would drop away like flies. Well, some have, in part, but Lost will never lose it’s popularity too much because it’s pay-offs are always huge. The juice, as they say, its worth the squeeze.
One of the aspects I’m thorough enjoying this season, is the emphasis on time-travel. I prefer Lost when it’s goes all sci-fi and it’s going all out on the front these days. Daniel Faraday has become Lost’s very own Marty McFly. He seems to be all over the place, time-wise and not due to the flashy-bits either. His brief appearance during the building of The Orchid, and Charlotte’s death-bed confession that she had seen Daniel living on the island when she was also living on the island… as a child, would all suggest that Daniel’s connection to the island is as strong as that of Charles Widmore’s, Locke’s or anyone else who hasn’t died thus far.
Charles Widmore is another interesting one. It was apparant early on that he’d been to the island as he seemed to know so much about it. He didn’t have that Dharma feel to him so he was most likely an Other at some point. Seeing him much younger under Richard Alpert’s command upon the island didn’t have too much of a shock factor, more like a piece falling into place. What I am waiting for now with his character development is to discover who else he is related to. It seems to be a thing with Lost to have convoluted familial ties between characters and no doubt Widmore is connected to a major character in a key way.
Out of the scientists that Widmore sent to the island, they’d all obviously been picked for a specific reason. Charlotte because she’d lived there with the Dharma Initiative as a child (although, her character was sacrificed when I felt her character had much left to develop), Daniel perhaps merely because he is Eloise Hawking’s son and potentially a more important Other than we have previously come across, but Miles? What is Miles’ connection to the island? How does he fit in and what has brought him all this way? It’s a question that certainly won’t be answered for a while and even then any future hints are subject to change.
One of the reasons I really like Lost is that it’s so open to debate. Many a fevered conversation concerning the intricacies of it’s plot-lines currently rage across internet forums, facebook walls, pub table-tops and lover’s pillows. Personally, I think this is exactly what motivates it’s viewers to continue watching- it’s simultaneous need for faith and for questioning.
When Frank Lepidus steps from his cock-pit to find Jack and the remainder of the Oceanic Six aboard his plan, it is almost like tumbling down the rabbit hole once more as he utters “Wait a sec… we’re not going to Guam are we?”
