LOST is Back for Season Number Five

Lost returned this week with a rocking back-to-back two episode opener. I love the show but I have a few concerns.

On the recap episode that preceded the premiere, the writers said that season 5 was about answering more questions than asking. What? Here are just a few questions the premiere raised for me:

1. How did Dr. Dharma-guy (Edgar Haliwax) and his wife have a baby on the island?
2. Who do those lawyer guys coming after Kate work for? (Incidentally, it's nice to see that the dad from My So-Called Life has found work again).
3. Is Sun going to be totally evil and get revenge on Jack?
4. Where the F is Claire? She needs to cume bick fer hir baaiiiiby!
5. How does Richard "eye liner" Alpert know that the next time he sees John Locke he won't recognize him? And how come the others do not jump in time with the castaways?

And my biggest concern of all. Time-travel storytelling! In this episode, my favorite new Lostie Daniel Faraday tells Sawyer that nothing they do can affect time as things either happen or they don't. Thank you! Finally, a show that sort of makes sense in terms of the lazy-ass physics I believe in. But then, five minutes later, Daniel is able to knock on the Hatch door and interact with young Desmond.. Because Desmond magically is not subject to the rules of time.

Uggh.

A while back, I made a number of bull-shit predictions about LOST. One of those predictions was that Desmond would somehow travel back in time and prevent the airplane from crashing to begin with. Although that might not happen exactly, it does look like Desmond is going to time-travel back and change something. This. Sucks.

Why? Time-travel that is used to change events is the biggest cop-out in storytelling since the ancient Greeks invented having Zeus come down and change shit with his lightning. It is lazy. Remember how annoying the end of Donnie Darko was? "Oh, wow, the last two hours didn't even happen because that guy time-travelled and changed things. All that action and human drama that stole our hearts meant nothing." Now, how about six seasons on television that mean nothing? Boo.

Yeah, I understand that this is a show and none of it is real. But to bring in the time-travel ending makes the show feel even less real. Why did I as an audience member get so interested in these events? Why did I bother to make connections and theories and try to see parallels in the back-stories of characters when none of it matters? All of those questions that I have unanswered will simply never be asked. I really hope the show doesn't come to this. I would much rather have the show use the ending where time-travel changes nothing and the characters are stuck in an unending, life-is-futile, time-loop à la Twelve Monkeys (inspired by La Jetée).

Of course, I'll still watch the show. Cause it's great.

This entry was posted by Sean, on Friday, January 23, 2009. You can leave your response.