Time to Get LOST

The anticipation for the final season of Lost is building up to the February 2 debut on ABC. I have been a faithful follower of this Byzantine, part drama, part sci-fi series since its debut in 2004. From the first season with its Lord of the Flies meets Survivor set-up, through the second season's diluted, meandering story arc; all the way through to Season 3's game changing finale that made me fall in love with the series all over again, Lost has always been a great human drama with smart science fictional underpinnings. Even with my love affair of this program, I resisted buying the DVDs as I'm waiting for the series to end this May. I'm holding out for all of the seasons packaged together in one big box set. And maybe it will be encased in a miniature metal hatch. One can dream.

My ultimate love for Lost will hinge on how well creators Damon Lindelof, J. J. Abrams and Jeffrey Lieber will finish this sixth and final season. If plotlines and threads do not come full circle and complete with some form of logic, then it may as well be the TV equivalent of the Matrix Trilogy: promising and riveting story completely undone by plot holes and its own self importance. Others may argue that any logic was shredded with the time jumping shifts of the island or the introduction of the black smoke monster. That may be so, but there has to be a continuity and logical sequence of events in order to make this fictional world believable. The suspension of disbelief is predicated on the fact that everything can be plausibly explained within the confines of that fictional world.

Which brings me to one particular example: Hurley's numbers. We see in last season that the infamous 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 were the serial numbers etched onto the outer metal casing during the construction of the Hatch. However, the origin of the numbers still need to be explained adequately. I remember from Season 1 that Hurley lifted those numbers from a fellow inmate during his stay at the mental asylum. He constantly muttered them in OCD succession, so when Hurley played the lottery, he naturally thought to play this series of digits for no other reason than they were stuck in his head. The origins of the man that Hurley came to meet still needs to be explained. How did he know about those numbers? Was he a worker at the Hatch? I don't think it ever got explained, but I hope we get to find out the real meaning of these numbers, along with other threads that need to be sewn up. There are blink and miss moments everywhere in Lost. And when I get all six seasons of the DVD, I'm sure I'll pore over every episode, every scene to make sure no stone is left unturned. And I guess that's also part of the fun of Lost - connecting the dots to see how all the characters and back stories intersect each other.

Fellow Lost fans: is there a plot thread you noticed that has gone unresolved or unexplained so far? Ultimately, what is the island and its origin? What's up with that statue and who is Jacob, really? Theories and analysis welcomed as we await February 2 for more great storytelling!