Lost Season Finale Tonight

No spoilers here, but I am speculating about what might happen, so if you don't want to read that, you should pass on this entry. 

All of you Lost fans out there know it is a complicated show with an active online community. The producers of the show will frequently throw in little details, inside jokes, non-cannon elements, that only the hardcore—you could say obsessive—fans will pick up on. (No dig intended here; I'm one of those obsessive fans.) It's not necessary to understanding the show, so if you don't pick up on it, it doesn't hurt your understanding of the show one bit. But it's fun if you catch it. 

One of these jokes is related to the "red shirts" phenomenon. This joke dates back to the original Star Trek series. The show, infamously, only had one extra costume for actors to wear when the crew went out on planetary expeditions. So, it would be Spock, Dr. McCoy, Captain Kirk, and some random dude in a red shirt. When bad things went down and someone died, guess who it was? The guy in the red shirt. 

So, producers of Lost will often put the extra who is going to die in a red shirt. Here's the story of one such unfortunate soul. 

In a big finale of a show that is definitely not afraid to kill off major characters, viewers are no doubt wondering whether someone will be killed. 

Well, several episodes ago, the character Juliette had a wardrobe change, and she's now wearing a red shirt. 

It makes me wonder. 

Torture on Television

Once again on Lost last night we saw that torture works as a means of extracting reliable information. 

Experts in information gathering repeatedly tells us that torture is not a way to gather reliable information, and yet TV shows like 24 and Lost continue to show it as a way of finding out the truth. 

In last night's episode, the truth that was found out was so outrageous, no one believed it anyway ... but it was actually the truth. 

I love Lost, so I'm not turning against the show because of this facet of it, but it does continually annoy me that they insist on glorifying the usefulness of torture. 

Manipulation or Good TV Drama?

Those of you who read this blog regularly will know that one of the few TV shows I follow with any regularity is Lost.

When last year's season came to an end, the fate of one of my favorite characters, Jin, was left up in the air (almost literally). Jin was on an exploded freighter, and under reasonable circumstances could not have survived ...

but Lost does not operate in the realm of the reasonable. And we've all seen enough TV to know, if the show's not reasonable, you can't count the character dead until you see the body.

After an eight-month hiatus, Lost returned last week with two new episodes. We saw what has been happening to the Oceanic 6. What's been happening to the survivors on the island. But no sign of Jin, dead or alive.

So, it seems we will have to wait longer to hear Jin's fate. Maybe we'll find out in tonight's episode. But somehow, I have a feeling this will get drug out for at least a couple more weeks.

I posted at the end of last season that I felt manipulated by these maneuvers. Am I wrong? Is this just good dramatic storytelling? Obviously, there have to be shifts in the story, big changes, surprises, unknowns, titilations to keep us guessing, keep us holding on to some level. I just felt like, intentionally holding one character off to the side, and telling the viewers, "We're not going to let you know whether he's dead or alive," for months and for multiple episodes, went too far. Especially since, they did this to Jin twice in season four.

What do you think?

Torture on TV

So, this is only about death in an indirect way, but this video and this argument are very compelling, and I want to share.

You've probably heard this argument in one form or another before, but the way torture is shown on television is not accurate. On television, torture always works, which isn't true to life. And one of the problems this causes is that actual military recruits, when they come to training, think they can use torture to coerce suspects—because they saw Jack Bauer from 24, or another television character, do it.

Here's a video from Human Rights First that lays out the case beautifully:


I don't watch 24, so it's pretty easy for me to condemn the show ... but I am a huge Lost fan, which is also mentioned in the video. And this video has got me to thinking, there is a lot of torture in that show, both with Sayid, who was an actual torturer in the Iraqi Republican Army, and with other characters. (Think Locke with Miles last season.) And I'm a little conflicted about how I feel about all of that. Actually, I'm not so much conflicted as I feel a little gross about it, and I'd like to pretend I don't. Especially since, if you watch this video, Lost producer Carlton Cuse, weasels out of any real responsibility for what they're showing on screen. He's basically saying, it's TV, it's not real life, it doesn't matter. That's a cop out, and I don't like it. Damn! My guiltless pleasure just became a guilty pleasure.

Needing Some Avodart Action on Lost

Have you seen those commercials for the enlarged prostate drug Avodart where the tagline is essentially let's "bring this down to size." I need a little of that prescription for Lost right now. (BTW: Don't read this entry if you haven't watched the finale yet. And you can do that for free online.) For the second time in the same season, the producers left us hanging as to whether Jin was alive or dead. The boat he was on exploded into essentially nothing, so it seems like he is gone, but this show blurs the lines between life and death/past and future so readily, you can't ever be sure until they really spell it out for you. And Michael, who was on the same boat was essentially welcomed into the afterlife by Christian Shephard. I guess he's become the island's resident spiritual guide? Anyway, I'm overwhelmed and exhausted by this development.

As I wrote yesterday, Jin is one of my favorite characters, and I've enjoyed watching him for several years now. I really feel manipulated, and it sounds overly dramatic to hear myself even say it, but the only way I know how to process to confused emotions I'm feeling about this manipulation is to limit the extent to which I care about this show. I have to shrink up the part of me that cares about Lost. Let's bring it down to size.

Lost Finale Tonight

So, I'm a huge Lost fan. It's maybe the only episodic TV show that I actually follow week to week. And tonight, in the season 4 finale, death is sure to play a part in at least a minor, if not a major way. First, it has been rumored that one, possibly several major characters will die.

I'm a little worried that one of my favorite characters, Jin, will die tonight since earlier in the season they showed Jin's grave back in Korea as part of a flash-forward. This may have been a ruse to help the Oceanic 6 keep up whatever their lie is, or Jin may actually be dead and we have yet to see how he dies. (The date of his death was the date of the plane crash, so they clearly lied about how he died, either way.) From the previews, everyone looks to be in peril, although we know the so-called Oceanic 6 cannot die in tonight's episode. That means Jack, Kate, Aaron, Sayid, Sun, and Hurley are safe.

I have to say, I'll really be sad if Jin dies. And part of me recognizes that he's "just" a television character. But I have watched his development from a controlling, emotionally abusive husband to a loving, caring man who just wants to get his wife and baby off of the island so that they will be safe. And I can't shake the feeling, as a former English major, that it will be so fitting, with all of this buildup, if he sacrifices himself to save Sun and their child. :(

I recognize this isn't like losing a person in real life. But have you ever felt loss at the death of a television character?

On another note, tonight, we may finally find out what Charles Widmore wants with the island. I've been speculating that he was the original money behind financing the Dharma Initiative's experiments—hence Ben's indictments of him saying Widmore never understood what the island was about and Charles's indictments of Ben saying he stole the island from him. Anyway, one theory is that Widmore is trying to capitalize on the island's potential for immortality. The NY Times delves into that a bit in an excellent article about Lost:

"Widmore apparently wants to exploit the island’s mystical property — but what does it grant, exactly, the power of immortality? The island can heal cancer in some and paralysis in others, but it negates the ability of human beings to reproduce. Pregnant women die there. An occasionally appearing eerie smoke kills people."

The entire article is off topic for this blog, but if you're a fan of the show, I highly recommend reading the piece.

I'm sure I'll have something to write tomorrow once the smoke has settled and we find out how death has taken its toll on Lost.