While I was watching the first half of season four of LOST I was taking a blog break for Lent, so there were no weekly LOST posts here at Semicolon. Now, in honor of the return of LOST in just one week, I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on the first eight episodes of the season.
It seems that each of the Oceanic Six, except baby Aaron, has entered into his own personal nightmare. Each one has become what he least wanted to be. Jack is an alcoholic, drug-addicted, suicidal, washed-up surgeon just like his father. Hurley’s back in the mental hospital, talking to dead people, and acting paranoid. And he hasn’t lost any weight either. (Just because you’re paranoid, it doesn’t necessarily mean They aren’t out to get you.) Kate is trapped in a Monica-like life with a child for whom she’s responsible and a court settlement that restricts her movements. She can’t go anywhere, and she certainly can’t run anymore. She’s also trapped inside a lie that makes her out to be a heroine, and she can’t tell the truth or she’ll lose the baby and maybe more than that. Sun has lost her husband, the one person she’s spent the entire island-time trying to hang onto. Sayid’s become a contract assassin, working for Ben, of all people. Sayid said in the third episode of season four that the day he started believing Ben would be the day he “sold his soul.” It looks as if Jack, Hurley, Kate, Sun, and Sayid have all lost their souls, their identities, the essential character that vindicated each of them on the island.
Hurley has a sudden talent for deception. Before they went Through the Looking Glass, Hurley couldn’t keep a secret and couldn’t lie his way out of a paper bag. In episode three, Hurley manages to deceive Sayid, the Human Lie Detector and betray him to Locke. How did Hurley become a deceptive Judas in league with Locke? And Sayid, on the other hand, didn’t even know at first that his girlfriend in Berlin was a liar and an enemy. He’s lost his ability to detect lies and regained his talent for torture and murder. Jack’s no longer a leader; even Kate won’t follow him when he tells her they need to go back to the island. Since when did Kate not follow Jack into the jungle at a moment’s notice?
Have they sold their souls, their integrity, to their rescuers for a mess of pottage?
Stay tuned next week. Same LOST time; same LOST station.
Glad your comments are working now, Sherry! I’m so impressed by your analysis of what’s going on in “Lost.” I’ve never thought of it that way, but you’re absolutely right. I guess this really gives the writers a lot of fodder to work with…here’s hoping all the conflict is resolved by the end of the show’s run.
Hi, Sherry! I came here via Cindy Swanson. I loved this post on LOST! I started to tell my husband and daughter about it, but they won’t let me because they’re “afraid” to learn anything that might tell them too much about how the season might end. I like to write about Lost, but it’s all silly stuff. Yours is actually … intelligent!
I agree! Great insight. I’m holding my breath for the new episode this Thursday and hubby and I are still going back and forth as to who was in that coffin!