My LOST Moment

Ben, 17 — Ipswich (England) :

I didn’t have the pleasure of watching Lost until after it had finished. But from the moment I watched I was hooked, I watched episode after episode, season after season. I reached Season 5, and I remember thinking that Lost would never return to it’s best, it was still gripping but it wasn’t the flawless show it once was. And then “The Incident” arrived, half a season had been spent preparing for it (though for me it was a number of hours) so I was wishing so badly that it would live up to half a season worth of waiting. And when it finally arrived it didn’t disappoint. No episode had ever been more gripping than it, and no scene more gripping than the Incident at the Swan Station.
Jack, Sawyer, Kate and Juliet all stood around the shaft with a hydrogen bomb that would supposedly reset the crash and take them back to LAX in 2004. Juliet and Sawyer make eye contact, Juliet knowing she’ll never have met him but letting him go because she loves him and want him to be free from the Island. As the bomb falls drown the shaft the characters close their eyes thinking they’ll next open them on September 22nd 2004 to a fantastic score by Michael Giacchino that has stayed in my mind ever since.
The characters wait… Nothing happens and Sawyer opens his eyes before saying one of the most memorable quotes in Lost history: “This doesn’t look like LAX“. Then the chaos begins, smoke begins to fly out of the shaft and then everything metal begins to fly into it, the drilling apparatus begins to collapse and now the characters are thrown into madness. Miles’ dad is trapped under the metal and Miles runs to help before telling him to get as far away as he can. Jack is hit over the head by a toolbox and falls unconscious. Phil attempts to shoot Sawyer, but not before a metal pole flies through his chest. Chains then wrap themselves around Juliet and pull her into the shaft. Kate and Sawyer try to save her, Kate is unable to pull off the chains, her hand begins to slip away from Sawyer’s she tells him he loves him, knowing her time is up and if she doesn’t let go and so will Sawyer’s as the drilling apparatus is about the collapse. Sawyer pleas with her not to let go but she does, flying down the shaft and leaving Sawyer. Kate pulls him away with the help of Jack before the shaft collapses on top of Juliet.
This scene is my Lost moment because it had everything, the emotion as Jack prepares to drop the bomb and as Juliet’s hand slips away from Sawyers. Jaw dropping moments of chaos, the Incident is perhaps the most audacious and incredible moment since the crash. It taught me never to doubt Lost again, it didn’t just make up for a season that was nowhere near it’s best, but it also put all the other incredible scenes to shame. It ends with a cliffhanger as we’re left wondering what on earth will happen. Are they going to return to LAX or has Juliet died for nothing? It will stay with me forever, the perfect combination of emotion and action. Lost at its best.