What happens in the future stays in the future, according to
Lost's co-producer Carlton Cuse. Even though the question of
Lost's flash-forward device was answered somewhat conclusively at the San Diego Comicon, some fans are still trying to grasp the implications within the context of the story, as well as the flow of the story. Since we know that
Lost does not end with our beloved castaways getting off the island, will the show's present tense eventually take place off the island?
In a word, no. At the San Diego Comicon, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof revealed that they had anticipated the flashback device eventually running out of juice at some point, and out of the adversity of that came yet another innovation to add to
Lost's eclectic brand of storytelling. A chunk of the story would take place in the future, but be told through ‘flash forwards' rather than in the linear narrative of the show.
If you are confused, don't worry. You are not alone. At first this seems like an amazingly simple concept, the flash forwards will be a story-within-a-story, of sorts, told in fragments which will, if we are lucky, make sense by the time
Lost does end, wherever that may be. Another grand, sprawling puzzle, but at the same time a concept the brings clarity to Cuse's often used analogy of
Lost as a mosaic being assembled a tile at a time.
Where it gets tricky, of course, is when we consider the Desmond factor. Desmond's character shows us that flashbacks need not necessarily take place within the same time line as that of the folks on the island. Considering this, can we expect the events of the flash forwards to be tied to the time line of
Lost's linear elements, meaning the on-island story that we have been following from the beginning?
Either way, the flash forward device used in this context – to contain a future time subplot – certainly has the capacity to bring a freshness to
Lost equal to the reveal of the device in the
Lost season 3 finale.
- Jon Lachonis, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of ABC)
