DonnaK:  Just in case you missed the warning above…. SPOLIERS!!!! SPOILERS!!!! Everything in this post will be a spoiler! If you don’t want the show spoiled STOP READING NOW!!!! This will be a general policy for all my Lost posts, so you have been warned.

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Still here? Cool. Now we can talk.

Before I get going I just want to get an opening statement out of the way. You all know how hard a time I give Tim Kring and Heroes for their continuity and writing problems. I think I’ve established the fact that I’d like to see at least some kind of effort on the part of show creators and writers to keep continuity, to not ret-con things to death, to give the plot moving forward and to not be in a state of constant contradiction to yourself. Season three of Lost had me swearing about as badly as this last season of Heroes has. I thought Abrams et al were being lazy, smug, disrespectful writers who didn’t care that they had totally and completely lost the plot to their own show (pun fully intended)

Season four changed my mind. I truly believe that the writers of Lost, knowing that they now had only 23 episodes or so to wrap this whole mess up, sat down with an enormous list of all the problems and loopholes and contradictions they had created over the years and began a concerted effort to try and fix as much as they could. I think that they made great strides towards tying things together in season four and I was very happy with how it went. I went from being nearly done with the show to being extremely excited to see if they could continue what I felt was a good trend.

Now, I recognize that the Lost people shouldn’t have put themselves in a position where they have to go back and work so damn hard to tie everything together. If they had been paying attention from jump they wouldn’t be in this mess, and for some people this will always be a block to their enjoyment of the show. For me, the fact that I see that Abrams et al are actively trying to fix their won mess is enough for me to give them quite a bit of leeway. So if you’re here hoping to hear a Heroes-type rant, you won’t be getting one. And if/when Kring and Fuller start trying to clean up their mess on Heroes I’ll start cutting them more slack too. In my mind, the guys from Lost have earned some slack and I’ll give it to them as long as I see they keep trying.

Okay… off my soapbox. On to the show. I’m going to do this sort-of Heroes style - bullet points to talk about various elements of the show and to open discussions or give my theories as to what I think is happening. I’ll also make every effort to get these posts out in as timely a manner as possible in the future - I truly apologize for the lateness of this first post.

Let’s begin:
—I do have to begin with a problem. In my memory serves me correctly, at the end of season four the people on the raft saw the island disappear. Yet at the very beginning of the first episode, the island is there and Daniel claims they must have been inside the island’s time radius. Am I crazy or was that ret-conned? Anyone?
—I am SO grateful to finally have a timeline that is fixed. We now know for certain that “present day” is three years from the moving of the island. No more guessing as to flash-forwards or backwards or sideways. It was refreshing to get that cleared up - it made for a much less confusing viewing.
—I do wonder about the final fate of the freighter. Do you all think it truly sunk? Is there any chance Jin is alive? My theory is that the freighter did sink and Jin did die a martyr, but there is always the chance that the boat was close enough to the island’s energy that “something” could have affected that. I hope they keep it simple though and just let all those characters go, I truly do. I think the more they keep pairing down the cast the easier it will be to both follow everyone and care about who we’re following.
—I’ve seen online that A LOT of people had trouble following the “time jumps” of the people on the island. I didn’t have a single problem with it nor did I have any issues about it. In fact, I thought it was and is a pretty brilliant way to remind people of certain key events and to keep the action flowing. I greatly enjoyed the time travels and hope they continue to be handled well.
—Since we’re on the subject of time and how the island and it’s inhabitants are currently bending the fabric of space and time, let’s talk for a moment about Desmond. He’s always had issues with time, right back to when we first met him. Could this event on the island (or a similar one in the future or past) be the thing that “bent” him (so to speak)? If you think about it, Desmond has been both on and off the island as it’s been moving through time. We also know that he and Daniel have a connection and he’s on his way to Oxford to try and right things. Is Desmond caught between timelines? Has he ALWAYS been caught between timelines? Daniel claims emphatically that the past and future are fixed, but I believe the actions of both Desmond (in his repeated sucesses in saving Charlie) and Ben (in setting up his whole life off the island) prove him wrong. However, I can buy that at some point Desmond got “caught” in time and because of that has always had parts of his consciousness in multiple timelines. What do you guys think? Am I crazy or onto something?
—I’m quite intrigued as to why Locke has to die in order to help stop the time issues on the island. I realize that Locke sacrificing himself for the island plays into the Locke-as-Christ metphor (and Jack as Doubting Thomas BTW), but I can’t quite grasp how his death will help yet. I don’t think we have enough information yet, but this is a plotline I’m very interested in following.
—Off the island and to the present for a bit. Let’s start with the obvious question - why do the six (plus Locke and Ben) need to return to the island to stop it’s movement through time? What is it about these people that the island seems to need? Locke told Jack before Jack left not to go, that the island needed them, that everyone NEEDED to stay. Why? My theory - the plane crash was NOT an accident as Desmond has been thinking for so long. I think the island, for whatever reason, needed some of the people on that plane for some purpose. I think the crash was forced by the energies of the island and that these people need to serve a function for the island. What that function is or could be we have no way of knowing yet, but again this is something I will be paying VERY VERY close attention to.
—Interesting plot dilemma - will Sun’s baby have to go back to the island too? Sun was barely into her second trimester if memory serves. Would her fetus count as “a person”? I think the writers mayhaps have tripped into something here… like a pro-life debate. If Sun’s baby doesn’t have to go back then she wasn’t yet a person, but if she does then she was, even at such a young stage of development. This could be a sticky situation. Add in the fact that I can’t see ANY way Sun is going to bring her baby back to the island - let alone want to go herself - and I think we have ourselves a problem. Here’s another one - what about Walt? Does he have to go back? Who is important to the island? Why are these people important to the island? Is it a question of quantum mechanics - certain pieces of energy were needed and these certain people had that kind of energy? It’s clear none of the “Others” have to return like Jack and company do - why not? This whole thing is very fascinating to me - I really really hope the writers stay on top of this and try to have it make as much sense as they can.
—What was the final straw between Said and Ben? Why would Said warn Hurley to never ever trust anything Ben said? I know we saw Said and Ben “break up” in season four, but I don’t recall anything so serious as to turn Said that much against Ben. Did I miss something or have we just not been given that information yet?
—Why didn’t Hurley listen to Ben when Ben gave his impassioned speech to return to the island at Hurley’s house? Hurley KNOWS that Ben is right. He knew everything Ben was saying was in fact true. And we also know that Hurley told Said on the boat back home that one day Said would ask Hurley to do something important and Hurley wouldn’t listen to him because Said agreed to the lie. So why did Hurley side with Said and not Ben at that moment? Reason says he should have gone with Ben, emotion says we would trust Said. I just wish Hurley knew was we as the viewers know….
—Sun’s motivations confuse me. It was Whitmore’s crew that sent the freighter that directly led to Jin’s death, not Ben. So why would she want to align herself with Whitmore against Ben? This one makes no sense to me - anyone got an opinion here?
—Questions yet to be even touched on: What about Claire and Jacob and the shack… what the hell’s going on there? How many spirits are still caught in this island’s energy? What the hell with Daniel being in the opening sequence of the episode in the building of the Orchid station WAY back in the past? How the hell did he get there… or is he originally from there and did he travel to this timeline? And the big one, the one that I swear better be answered somehow or I will go postal on someone… WHAT THE HELL DO THE NUMBERS MEAN???

Okay, that’s all I’ve got for the moment. I open the floor - what do you guys think? Opinions? Comments? Debates? Let’s hear them!