The "Getting Lost" series is about a Lost newbie's attempts to watch all five seasons of the show for the first time, just as the sixth (and final) one rolls along.

What I Watched on Week 7: Season 2, Episodes 16-24 ("The Whole Truth", "Lockdown", "Dave", "S.O.S.", "Two for the Road", "?", "Three Minutes" and "Live Alone, Die Together")

I didn't plan to be a really, really dedicated Lost fan.  I just started watching to, you know, have an appreciation for the show, and understand it, so I don't have to wear that puzzled face whenever friends-slash-fans have conversations about the show.  That's why I never really did a Google search on theories--that, and because I felt I'd be spoiled further if I looked for them.

Still, I got excited when I realize that I had theories.  It felt like a breakthrough moment, really, in my Lost-watching life.

It was when Michael returned (I don't know if that's the right term) back to his side of the island, when he was stuck at the hatch, when he shot Ana Lucia dead and (inadvertently) shot Libby too, when he shot himself to let Ben (bah, I'll just call him Ben) escape.  Five seconds after I was shocked with the way things happened--I thought killing those two was a more sinister plan!--I already had a couple of ideas: either he wanted to give Ben to the Others in exchange for Walt, much like Rousseau did with Aaron for Alex, or he was sent to get Ben in exchange for Walt.

A couple of episodes later, it became clear that Michael was asked to get Ben out, and I felt satisfied.  For once, I got something right.

Obviously it isn't the case with most of the show.  In an extraordinary week where I got to watch three episodes above my average, I saw most of my ideas flip around so many times, and I think I had my first genuine (yet figurative) Lost-induced headache.  I think I spent an hour of my bedtime up, thinking.  So the Swan Station was a psychological experiment, at least according to the orientation video over at the Pearl Station.  And then it's the complete opposite, because all the notebooks went to some point of the island called Nowhere.  And the button apparently had a point, since seeing washing machines roll by themselves to a wall is freaky, and Desmond's realization that he crashed Oceanic 815 was something I didn't see coming.  And that's just scratching the surface.

Yeah, obviously I wasn't really paying a lot of attention.  Perhaps I should stop writing all those notes down?  At least those notes aren't going nowhere.

The other thing I was paying a bit more attention to are the connections between characters.  (Well, I'd like to think I can follow the plot well, so unless there's something I'm really missing out, I'd say I can follow most of it.)  Maybe it's a case of the writers having a field time at the connections table, thinking, "Why don't we make this guy know this guy who knows this guy who knows him?"

So Libby being in the same institution as Hurley and having met Desmond before?  Sure, I can take that.  Sayid (perhaps inadvertently) meeting Kate's dad and Desmond's former partner at the hatch?  Sure.  But Jack's dad having bumped into Sawyer and Ana Lucia, and possibly Shannon, too?  That's too weird.  Sometimes those associations convince me that there's something mystical with the island, at the same time thinking that there's some scientific or geological anomaly with the island.

But surely my ideas will change once I start watching the third season.  At the end of "Live Together, Die Alone", I had perhaps the same questions you had a few years back.  You know, stuff about Locke and Eko and Desmond.  Or what exactly Desmond did.  Or an explanation about all the structures on the island.  Or whether there are multiple initiatives, with the Dharma Initiative being just one of them.  Or what the heck Penny (and the Widmores) had to do with it, considering the Widmore Labs label on the vaccine Claire insisted on having.  Bah, it's hard putting these things into words.

And it's harder having no one to discuss it with, because everybody else I know is already on a season 5 mindset, and I don't want to know more than I should.  Three seasons to go, then.  And it shall start the moment I publish this.


The series so far:
Week 1: An Introduction and the First Six Episodes
Week 2: I Want My Australian Accent Back!
Week 3: The Week I Felt Like Locke
Week 4: All These Numbers Are Giving Me A Headache
Week 5: I Tried So Hard, Shannon, But I Can't Seem To Like You
Week 6: "I Guess It's All Relative Now, Huh?"





- Henrik Batallones, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
(Image courtesy of ABC)