The Emerging Dimensions of "Lost"
Season Four Provides New Hints About the Future
The four episodes of "Lost" Season Four reveal new facts about the Island, the Rescuers, and the possible fate of our heroes as the show approaches its finale in 2010.
(warning: spoilers follow)
With four episodes broadcast as of this writing, it is clear that the creative forces behind the hit ABC TV series Lost are revealing new dimensions to the show’s storyline. Producers J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelhof have said that there is a clear story arc for the show, which ends in 2010. As such, the latest developments in the story of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 are providing some tantalizing hints about the end game to this remarkable series.
The New Flashes: Not What They Seem?
The flash forwards tell a radically new and almost separate storyline from what we have seen so far. “The Oceanic Six”, those who escape the Island in the future, consist of Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hugo, and Aaron (the sixth has yet to be revealed). We know that they all become celebrities, Kate is acquitted of her criminal charges and is raising Aaron as her child, and Jack returns to his medical practice.
There is a dark side to these flashes as well: Sayid becomes a hired gun for Benjamin Linus, who has secretly escaped the Island; Hugo has visions of his late friend Charlie and returns to his mental institution; and all of the survivors share a dark secret that eventually drives Jack to the state of desperation that we see him in during the Season Three finale.
What did Jack and the others do that was so terrible they couldn’t tell anyone upon being rescued? The Six claim that only eight people survived Flight 815: who were the other two, and why didn’t they return with the Six? What happened to Claire? Why do Hugo and Jack talk about the Island “wanting them back” in John Locke’s terms? At the current rate that the “future” is being uncovered, it is becoming clear that Abrams and Lindelhof are setting the stage for a dramatic return to the Island in the last season, set entirely in the future timeline. This would be the only way to reconcile these new questions for good.
Locke, the Rescuers, and the Island
John Locke has gone from being the joyful shaman we met in Season One to the gritty authoritarian that took half the survivors to the DHARMA Barracks, now vacant after the defeat of the Others. Has he gone mad with power? What is the “work” that Walt has him doing?
As for the Rescuers, we know that they have come looking for Benjamin Linus, indicating that there is more to Ben than meets the eye. We have learned much from the five of them thus far. Faraday’s rocket experiment indicates the Island is offset from normal spacetime by 31 minutes, and Charlotte’s discovery of a fossilized DHARMA polar bear in Tunisia underscores this oddity.
Frank Lapidus knows that the “found” wreckage of Flight 815 was faked, while Miles provides evidence that the dead really do roam the Island. Finally, the late Naomi’s flashback to her assignment to the Island by the enigmatic Matthew Abbadon brings everything full-circle, indicating that the forces off the Island may be far more powerful than we may now suspect.
There are many more questions – why was Jack’s father seen in Jacob’s cabin, and where have the remaining Others gone – but for now, we can be content with the new dimensions that Lost’s storyline is acquiring in Season Four, and that we will know all of the answers by the end of the show’s lifetime.
