Dude! The first season finale of "Lost'' was a total letdown.
The hit ABC drama left viewers with more questions and not enough answers in an ultimately unsatisfying two-hour episode. The biggest shock - and it was a doozy - is that it's not Claire's infant son who has been in danger. It's Michael's son, Walt (Malcolm David Kelley). In a chilling, terrifying and brilliantly executed scene, Michael (Harold Perrineau), Sawyer (Josh Holloway), and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) cheer when they think they have been saved by a fishing ship. Their effusive joy is short-lived. "The thing is we're going to have to take the boy,'' the man on the ship said matter-of-factly before snatching Walt and blowing up the raft.
The finale did address some of the more rabid theories that have been bouncing around since the show's premiere. "Do you think all this, all we've been through. Do you think we're being punished?'' Sun (Yunjin Kim) asked Shannon (Maggie Grace). While Locke (Terry O'Quinn) asked Jack (Matthew Fox), "Do you really think all of this is an accident?'' Are they being penalized for past transgressions? No clear response emerged.
Woven into the story were flashbacks to what the characters were doing right up until the moment they got on the doomed Oceanic flight. It played out like Character 101 for viewers who may have joined the series late in the game. Hurley (Jorge Garcia) had bad luck. Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) had a drug problem. Locke was paralyzed. It was the same setup as the show's pilot episode but after a full season, it was too elementary for devoted fans.
Contrary to rumor, no main character died (although Sawyer was shot), but the series wisely killed off the far too annoying Dr. Arzt (Daniel Roebuck). Before his explosive death, Arzt got in some great lines. "Some of us have actually lost weight while we are here.''
And viewers still don't know what's in that blasted hatch. The final shot was of a ladder heading down a deep, deep hole. But where it leads and who and what is in there remains a mystery. Other smaller storylines were planted for next season. Charlie took the drugs that Boone (Ian Somerhalder) and Locke had found on the smuggler's plane. Jack told Kate (Evangeline Lilly), "We survive this. We survive tonight. We're going to have a Locke problem.''
The biggest concern is the show's constant use of Hurley's lottery numbers (4815162342) which are also on the hatch. The flight left from gate 23. The man who turned in Kate got a $23,000 reward. When Hurley gets a flat tire, the numbers on his dashboard are 42, 16, and 23. All right already. We get it. The numbers are important. But soon, the show runners are going to have to tell the audience why. Patience, even with a smart, sophisticated series, has an expiration date.
By Amy Amatangelo
BostonHerald.com
May 26, 2005
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05-28-2005
