With Much Trepidation Lost Returns for Its Final Run

I have to admit that I was a late bloomer when it comes to the ABC series "Lost." I cannot remember exactly what television show was on against it during that first season but I am betting it is one I am no longer watching now. In fact, I am about 75% sure it was "Smallville" which has since left my viewing habits by becoming unbearably bad in recent seasons. The path that "Lost" had trod is littered with the bodies of other shows that it crushed along the way and those that tried to imitate its style and could never duplicate it.

Now the show is returning for what is projected to be its last season. It has been a very long and very strange road we fans of the show have taken. Even those of us who missed the first season and only became a fan when it was shown in repeats during the summer and then stuck around for the second season, like me. From that point on, however, I was hooked so deeply that nothing could have turned me aside.

The show meandered a bit there in the middle. It lost some viewers, sadly. That is too bad because those who left after that horrible episode with that couple who ended up bitten by spiders and appeared dead and ended up buried alive, have missed a lot. Not long after that show the writers sat down with the network executives and discussed when the show would end. Once they had an end time, well, the writing returned to its stellar form and the show suddenly had a focus. In short, those of you who left after a couple of seasons have missed some truly remarkable television and some dazzling storytelling.

To try and recap the shows plot for those of you who left and are now thinking of coming back to see how it ends would be impossible. Others far better than myself will be doing that over course of this short final season. It would take an article so long that it might take me a week to write it and then, I am sure, there would be true fanatics of the show who would find things wrong with it and correct me. That is just too much of a hassle. For those who are thinking of coming back, let me give a word of warning: don't. Not now. Wait until the show ends and the inevitable DVD package with all of the seasons packaged together as one comes out. Put that on your Christmas list and then fill yourselves in.

"Lost" is not a show for the casual television watcher. It was never meant to be. You have to pay attention to every second of every episode. Yes, during some of the unfocused times there were throwaway episodes. Yes, there were times when it seemed that week after week nothing happened and then BAM suddenly main characters were being shot by other main characters and you were left spinning. That was its insidious nature. That was why it was not a show that you could skip from week to week and catch up on later like some daytime soap opera.

Throughout the show the writers have turned the characters into people we root for and love and weep for. That is an amazing thing in today's super-fast, TiVo culture. It has created one of the most memorable and amazing villains in TV history. Michael Emerson deserves every single award he gets for portraying Benjamin Linus because one week you sort of care about this guy and then the next week he shows his evil nature again and you want him dead all over again. It is an amazing performance that almost never was as his character was not meant for more than a couple of episodes.

The plot has always managed to reveal tremendous secrets and, yet, keep and raise more questions than it answered. That has been an amazing feat and yet, a frustrating tendency for those who watch the show. The entire plot is like the fictional Hydra. For every secret that is revealed, two more secrets pop their head up and say hello. This has kept the show fresh, but it has also set up the show for a major problem as it comes into this last season.

After all of the questions and all of the death. After all of the betrayals and all of the mystery. After all of the things that have happened, all of the questions raised, all of the time travel and dizzying plotlines. How on earth will this show be able to end and satisfy the fans? The truth is, I am sorry to say, that it cannot possibly do so.

Just like Stephen King's Dark Tower series ended and angered more fans than it pleased and the Sopranos left fans and viewers frustrated beyond the capacity for word, so too must "Lost" ultimately disappoint most of its fans. How can it not? The plot has twisted and turned and built and built and built for so many seasons now that whatever the final revelation is on the final episode, it is going to leave many fans angry, disappointed, jilted and frustrated. Those who have stuck through the series from the very first episode are likely going to look around the room, as the credits roll on the last episode, turn to their family and friends, shrug and say, "That's it? THAT was the big deal?"

So, as I write this, I am anticipating the return of this great show on ABC. However, it is mixed with no small measure of trepidation. I came in late, but quickly caught up, and so feel like a fan who has been there with Locke and Jack and Sawyer and Hurley and the rest from the very beginning when the plane crashed. I want the ending to leave me satisfied and exhausted from the journey. I wan to feel good after that last revelation has left me breathless. However, I also fear that this may not happen. I fear that "Lost" may end with a whimper and not a bang. Still, I am going to be there this final season for every single episode.