I just finished a rewatch of Lost – the first time I’ve seen it for probably a decade – and I was caught off guard by how much I enjoyed it, and not just because of nostalgia. I had actually put off doing a rewatch of it for a while because I wasn’t sure if it was worth it, since I had some mixed feelings about the second half of the show. I know Lost gets some shit for piling on twists and mysteries as well as confusion regarding the ending, but I was never someone that disliked the show even after it had concluded; I always thought it was still a really good show. But in hindsight, it’s even better than I remember.
Lost is a very unique and original show. How would you even classify it? A retro-science fiction story that takes place on an island, about good versus evil? There are two sides: one light, and one dark. The first half of the show, so seasons 1-3, are enthralling. The very first episode by itself is captivating if only for the airplane crash, but it ends with a glimpse of something more sinister and unknown that sets the tone for the entire show. Seasons 1-3 are more character driven rather than plot driven (most of the time), and I love the way that those first few seasons introduce us to characters and flesh them out through flashbacks – it’s a great narrative tool. Sure some episodes are lackluster, whether it be through a boring flashback story or not much going on in the main story, but the majority of them are really well done. Lost does a great job of being science fiction that very gently eases you into the sci-fi and time travel stuff so that you’re comfortable with it by the time it takes hold. I think season 2 is a fucking masterpiece – the entire dilemma about whether or not to sit in that retro Dharma bunker and push the button that may or may not be saving the world that permeates the entire season is just perfect.
Back when Lost originally aired, people hated when some new mystery was teased and you had to wait an entire week for any kind of explanation, or even entire seasons – however watching in streaming format eliminates that entirely, and only adds to the enjoyment of watching. That being said, streaming did highlight some of the episodes that were duds; seasons 1-3 were long seasons (like 25ish episodes each, I believe) that probably could have benefited from being a few episodes shorter, but that’s just how network TV was done at the time. When you get to seasons 4-6, I will readily admit that the show changes – it becomes more plot-driven at that point, trying to finish up the narrative since we know the characters very well by that point. I think season 4 is easily the weakest season, but in fairness that probably had a lot to do with the writer’s strike at the time; if it had been business as usual, I think the season would have been a few episodes longer and a few of the new characters and storylines would have been fleshed out much better in typical Lost fashion. Then we get to season 5 and by then the show has really abandoned the old single-character based episodes, but you don’t even notice because it’s so fast paced and exciting with the time jumps, which was a fun way to start filling in unanswered questions that had been initiated in earlier seasons. Season 6 did not do the rest of the show justice, I'll say. I think that the ending they were getting to did not feel deserved.
But I digress because most importantly, I need to take a moment to talk about John Locke. There are a lot of great characters on the show, and I’m not going to waste time talking about how awesome Desmond and his episodes are (I don’t know how lackluster season 4 managed to give us The Constant) or how badass Mr. Eko was and how I wish he hadn’t left the show – because the best character is by far John Locke. John Locke is introduced on the show as a mysterious character with all these knives who seems to know exactly what he’s doing, and then that is immediately flipped on us when we get a glimpse into his pathetic life where he was a wheelchair-bound loser working at a box company. The show continues to repeat that same cycle with John Locke several times: every time he seems like he knows what he’s doing and has a purpose (the hatch, the button, becoming the leader of the Others, recruiting the Oceanic 6 to return to the island), he completely fucks it up and reverts back to his old pathetic self (getting Boone killed, telling Eko “I was wrong” as the hatch is imploding around him, being unable to kill his father in front of the Others and being ridiculed by Ben, basically convincing no one to come back to the island except maybe Jack).
Locke is stubborn and keeps bouncing back to fulfill his perceived “purpose” despite these repeated failures (DON’T TELL ME WHAT I CAN’T DO). He has a loyalty and faith in the island as an entity, which is understandable since it healed him and made him able to walk again. Unfortunately, this faith is exploited by Ben, Widmore, and The Man In Black who reinforce the idea that Locke is special and has some higher purpose so that he will do the things that they need him to do, and he ends up being nothing more than a pawn. You can’t really blame Locke for taking the bait – he did miraculously regain the use of his legs, and after an entire life of being a loser that was manipulated by his father and rejected by the only woman he ever loved, it’s not hard to understand why Locke latched on to the idea that he is special and has some higher purpose.
And at the end of his life, when Locke has again failed and was unable to convince the Oceanic 6 to return to the island, he contemplates suicide. On the surface it may seem like Locke is going to go through with hanging himself because he had been told (AKA manipulated) that he would have to die if he wanted to bring everyone back, but I actually think he knew that wasn’t the case. This is actually hinted at in a conversation he has with Matthew Abaddon where Locke states he doesn’t have a choice about dying, and Abaddon implies otherwise. I think Locke did realize that he didn’t NEED to die, but he made the decision that he wanted to commit suicide because the weight of his shitty life and all of his shortcomings finally and poignantly broke him. So he tries to hang himself because it’s a “win-win” situation in his mind: he can justify it under the pretense that it his destiny in regards to the island, but also it will finally allow him to be free of all the pain that he’s experienced his entire life. The only reason he didn’t kill himself is because Ben convinced him (manipulated him) into not doing it, but then he dies anyway. So the story of John Locke ends tragically, with him dying in some shitty apartment or hotel room or something as a direct result of being used for other people’s gain. He didn’t even get to spend his final days on the island, which was the only place where he ever seemed to find any semblance of peace.
RIP John Locke, you pathetic bastard.
Submitted September 29, 2020 at 07:21PM by wicked-and-wily https://ift.tt/36pvaKS
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