Oh Lost. Ooohhh Lost.
Look, I knew that people were going to have to die, and as we’re quickly running out of time, people were going to have to start dying fairly quickly. But it just seems so vindictive, and so utterly under-developed, for Sun and Jin to spend whole seasons trying to find each other, only to die immediately after their reunion. Lost has certainly employed this formula before, where a character achieves happiness and then immediately kicks the bucket, but it’s unnerving that neither Sun nor Jin brought up their now-orphaned daughter in their final moments. It’s so inconsistent with what we’ve come to understand about these characters that the formula in this instance seems marred by incompleteness. Similarly, Sayid is magically transformed into a zombie thanks to some infection for which we get no explanation, and then three words from Desmond seem to roll back the zombie incursion, and suddenly he’s all, “I, the Middle Eastern man with the terrorism connections, am going to blow myself up to save this submarine full of white people!” The change into zombie Sayid was given so much weight that his redemptive gesture comes entirely out of the blue.
The deaths in this episode did succeed in putting pressure on two somewhat opposing realizations about Lost: The Final Episodes. First, I had considered myself at least marginally protected from feeling much of anything about these characters. They have been pawns in this absurd game for so long that I truly believed myself to be immune to their emotional turmoil (Juliet’s death hardly bothered me, and Charlotte’s death last season left me cold). Meh, I thought. It’s going to be a blood bath. As it turns out, Sun and Jin’s death angered me much more than I thought possible on this show, or at least, much more than I thought possible for any character-related circumstance. (My anger at Lost’s habitual and childish reliance on pronouns to sustain suspense knows few bounds. “She is coming.” “He already knows.” “He’s waiting for you.” “You’ve killed her!” “He only wants to hurt you.” “They don’t know the difference.” “They want you dead!” Would it kill you to use a proper noun once in a while?!) Sun and Jin’s death was a reminder that I do still care about these characters, and I’ll tell you, I’m as surprised as the next person.
At the same time, all of the deaths in this episode were indicators of just how crucial it is that we understand exactly what the sideways world is doing, and how it impacts the primary timeline. It calls into question how seriously we’re supposed to take Sun and Jin’s deaths, how permanent they are, and what it means for any one to live or die on the island – after all, even Charlie’s death has been rewritten. It was so disconcerting to watch Sun and Jin experience that disturbing, albeit Titanic-esque drowning scene, only to then watch Jin stroll past John Locke in the sideways world hospital, carrying a bouquet for his wife. The lullaby that Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof have been singing about this last season is that although the audience may not get the answers to every picky question they have about the island – what about that one bird that said Hurley’s name?! – the show will focus on bringing the characters to meaningful resolutions. Until we grasp which of these realities will win out at the end, all of these deaths and resolutions are provisional.
So many questions; so little time.
In other Lost news from last night, the finale on Sunday, May 23rd has been extended to a whopping 2.5 hours, bringing the total running time of Lostapalooza up to 5.5 hours. And with the announcement of that extended run time, I suddenly realized that I am going to be out of town on May 23rd. Somewhere in the middle of Arizona. Possibly in a tent. With no electricity. As you know if you follow me on twitter, this realization caused me no little amount of distress. Hooo boy.