Three Clues To Get Lost

Lost. We're all fans of it. If you're not, everyone's talking about you behind your back. Last night's episode in Australia was a recap episode. The kind they're always doing for big shows like that now. At least down here they are. (And remember, readers from elsewhere in the world, you're probably well ahead of us in the series -- or possibly behind us -- so let's all just be very wary of spoilers, okay? There may be some in this post for anyone who hasn't yet seen up to the episode fairly early in season two that featured Kate's flashback about her parents and her encounter with the black horse on the island.)

Well, this was our Lost season two recap, much earlier than I expected it (the one we got for season one was right near the end of the season). The 'tailies' haven't been with the original gang for very long yet, and already we're having a recap episode? The producers are hoping to attract new viewers to the show, I guess, by making it seem appealing and even possible to 'catch up' with past events.

But for some reason, JJ Abrams (co-creator of Lost) was out here (filming or promoting his movie Mission: Impossible III, perhaps?), so he'd filmed a few segments to 'book-end' the show and supposedly reveal three secrets about Lost that he was only revealing to Australia.

So because people from outside Australia may read this, I'm not telling you what the secrets were.




... Okay, you talked me into it.

Actually, I'm wondering if they're really that impressive. They certainly didn't seem to be, from my perspective ... but maybe others thought they were just fabulous; I don't know. It's possible, of course, that our North American friends have already seen the relevant episodes further down the track to know what these three clues allude to (well, maybe not Clue # 3, which doesn't directly relate to the show, actually - but the other two, certainly), and therefore this will seem like nothing much at all. If so, fair enough. I guess I'm speaking mainly to any Australian viewers who may be reading this.

Let's break the clues down one at a time, and see what we can make of them.



Clue # 1 - Hurley "may or may not be" the only survivor on the island to have spent some time in a mental institution. Well, okay. Presumably it's not "may not". Why say someone else may have done something if it turns out they haven't? That's not a clue; that's a lie. So surely we're safe in assuming that someone other than Hurley has spent some time in a mental institution. (REMEMBER, PEOPLE: If you already know the identity of this person, we don't want to know! Thank you.) It could be one of the 'tailies' (about whom we know very little, other than Ana Lucia at this point), such as Mr Eko or that blonde woman whose name I can never remember, and who said she was a psychiatrist (sounds like excellent potential for her previous life to have crossed paths with Hurley's in some way, don't you think?). Or I guess it could have been Charlie, Claire, Michael, Sawyer, Kate, Locke ... let's face it, until we know more about the characters in question, it could have been anyone! That's the whole point about the show ... we learn new things about the characters (and the parallel going on between that situation and the current happenings on the island) via each new flashback. So until they want to tell us about someone's past looney bin attendance, we're not necessarily going to know. But my question is: Is this really a clue? Or more specifically, is this really a worthwhile clue? Sure, we can play guessing games about who it might be as each week passes, but this could be something they don't reveal for a few more seasons yet! (Bear in mind that they've [perhaps loosely] plotted what's going to happen to the characters for the first six seasons at this stage.) And if it's going to be revealed to us eventually, it's highly likely that it'll be something we don't see coming until it surprises us with its revelation. And/or, that it won't mean anything to us until that point. So is this a helpful aspect of 'working out the mysteries of the island'? I'm not so sure that it is. However, it was probably the most concrete and (on the surface, at least) 'useful' of the three clues.



Clue # 2 - When we see a piece of the monster in next week's episode (and I'm sure it will be a lightning-quick flash), look out for the hidden clue/s secreted away in that shot. That's pretty rough. Clearly we'll need to tape it and watch it back in freeze-frame (not that I would, of course - seeing as that contravenes numerous copyright laws, etc). But if it's going to be our only glimpse of part of the monster on the island (and I'm sure it will be both fleeting and disappointingly minimal), I don't want to waste what I'm sure will be an all-too-brief moment, scanning the surrounding trees for a carving of Big Foot or whatever. I wonder how helpful this is going to be, but I guess if American viewers weren't warned to look for this clue before the episode in question went to air in the US, then we may have a decent heads-up on this one. We'll have to wait until next week before we know if this is a worthwhile clue. Did any Aussies watching last night feel ripped off with this clue?



Clue # 3 - JJ has hidden a reference to Lost in his new film, Mission: Impossible III. ... What the ?? This wasn't a clue about the show at all! This was a nice little amusing tidbit, sure - but it's mainly a way of trying to get us to go see the movie! I truly felt robbed of a third clue with this one. I doubt very much that the reference within the movie is going to be something revealing about the island. No way. I'm certain it'll be something like Charlie's band Drive Shaft's single "You Are, Everybody" (or whatever it's called) playing in the background somewhere for a second or something. Maybe there'll be a newspaper article on missing flight Oceania 815 that the camera will pan past. Maybe someone will work for Hurley's box company. Or maybe Ethan Hunt will walk through a department store and we'll see the DVD boxed sets of season one on a shelf behind him. Whatever it is, it's not going to enlighten us to anything on the show!



As usual, I blame Channel Seven in Australia for their poor decisions with the advertising used for Lost. They continue to promise us stuff in the ads that simply isn't in the shows they're promoting. The result? People watch for the promised revelations, don't feel that they get them, and then get angry and annoyed and resentful towards the show. AND THEN THEY STOP WATCHING! Listen up, Channel Seven big-wigs! This is why fewer and fewer people are tuning in each week, and why you have to resort to catch-up episodes. Stop making it sound like each episode is going to "finally reveal the biggest secret on the island, ever!" It's not meant to reveal stuff to us all the time - the show is a suspenseful drama, so the appeal is in how all the various mysteries continue to build and build, and in the clever juxtaposition of the flashbacks to the troubles currently brewing in the present, and in the weird occurrences and other unknown occupants on the island. Stop trying to make it sound like it's going to answer all our questions! I for one don't want it to. I enjoy the show too much the way it is; revealing everything would leave it nowhere to go. And all you're doing is making the dunderheads who think the show should be entirely resolved in one week (and don't realise that it would have to be over at that point) get angry ... and then us clever cookies have trouble convincing them that the show rocks. Because all they're focused on is the fact that you promised them they'd see the monster, or what's down the hatch, or whatever the next mystery's going to be, and they're continually let down because the show is not meant to satisfy every mystery as we encounter it.

Boy, that makes me mad. I don't know why people thought the show was just a three-part mini-series when it came out, and why they think it should have ended at the first season's finale, with them getting saved and ending the whole story. Bizarre. And those who hate the flashbacks and had hoped that they'd finish with them after the first season. Bizarre. And those who think the monster and everything else should be shown to us straight away, not thinking of how that would kill an future mystery in the stories thereafter. Bizarre.

I guess some people just don't get it.

But anyway, I'm kind of glad that JJ's three clues were less-than-Earth-shattering. If he'd shown us the monster properly, or explained who The Others are, or gone into detail about the originals of the computer countdown in the hatch and what DHARMA means, I'd have been extremely pissed off that we didn't get the chance to watch the show and work it out for ourselves - or at least have the answers revealed to us as they get revealed to the characters.

To spell it out for us any more than that would have spoilt the journey for all of us.



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