#lost is theme-driven

[lost-inanotherlife]

when i say that LOST is neither plot- nor character- driven but it's theme-driven this is what I mean:

a few weeks ago i posted a long meta about "316" where i said that in s5 the waters get "murkier" as the distinction between good and bad becomes both more apparent and, simultaneously, harder to see, to distinguish.

in other words we enter a territory where we can't be sure that what we see is that it is.

and then s6 starts and we see literal murky waters in which a dead Sayid is bathed and a reborn/resurrected Sayid has emerged and we're not quite sure what to believe. he is both dead and alive. simultaneously.

but also! we see a different timeline, an alternative timeline in which the losties don't crash on the island and the island itself is deep underwater so we start thinking that maybe, maybeee the bomb plan did work. or, in any case, that this timeline is simultaneous to "our" timeline.

so the theme of things, people, events all being simultanously multifaceted to the point that we can't discern what is what anymore is respected. in a way, we have to have faith in the writers, in the story and be confident that, even if we don't get it, there still is some sense to make out if it.

and, perhaps, this is why LOST "lost" (sorry for the pun) in the end: people had faith in it and felt betrayed. i've honestly given a lot of thought as to why the audience would feel that way but i still can't give a definite answer. perhaps something should be said about the power we give to stories to do "the work for us", to save us, to entertain us, to give us what we want. i can understand this approach but, as time goes by, i think there's a tendency to see stories as products that you buy and if you don't get what you ordered you can ask for a refund or complain about it.

it really doesn't go this way with stories because revelations and ultimate truths are okay only in religious contexts, in storytelling nobody really is interested in giving people any answer, it's always the question that counts in the end.

this is all to say that if you pay attention to the themes in LOST the show made good on all its promises. if you were hoping for something else then LOST is not the show that'll give you something concrete to you. you gotta make your own kind of music, brother.