Cathy, 26 — Santa Monica (California, USA) :
A heartbreaking moment for me was when John Locke is in the hospital in a flashback, after his father pushes him out of a window. John sees his nemesis — that wheelchair — for the first time. The nurse wants to put him in it, and carries him over to the wheelchair, while John is TERRIFIED and pleading for him not to place him there. He then breaks down into tears. Ah, it killed me.
Skyler, 24 — Seoul (South Korea) :
Back in university I lived with my three roommates, a dysfunctional couple and my best friend, Daniel. There were many instances of tension in our small three-bedroom duplex household, everything from whose turn it was to do the dishes, pay the bills, or take out the trash, to friendly debates over religion or politics that escalated into full-blown raging arguments. Lost was always there however, and was a constant that seemed the extinguish all current feuding in our lives.
On May 29th, 2008, we and millions of other Lost fans sat down to watch the Season 4 finale “There’s No Place Like Home”. Everything had been planned weeks in advance; snacks, food, beers. We all huddled around the television eagerly awaiting the rescue of the Oceanic 6 and the revelation of who laid in the coffin.
I remember Benjamin Linus, clad in his DHARMA parka, in that cold, unseen room with what would soon be known worldwide simply as “the frozen donkey wheel”. He huffed and puffed, feet slipping yearning from traction as he slowly inched the wheel round. My eyes began to well up with tears, overcome by the emotions of the struggling Linus on the television screen in front of me. “I hope you’re happy now, Jacob“, Linus spoke, right as out television flicked once and went black.
Initially, I thought this was some sort of Sopranos-esque play, an attempt to capture the audience, as Lost typically did, in equal parts wonder and frustration, but we collectively realized the lights on our satellite box had began flashing an unknown sequence of lights.
Accusations began flying over who had, or rather hadn’t mailed off the satellite bill, but it was quickly agreed upon that the bill had in fact been mailed as it was supposed to have been. Together we began scrambling, one person resetting the satellite box, one checking the upstairs television to see if it was encountering the same problem, one person on the phone calling various other Lost fan around our small little university town to see if they too had lost service.
We were the only ones.
It seemed like an eternity before the television flickered and Lost appeared again on our screen, Ben Linus now in the Hoffs-Drawlar Funeral Parlor speaking to an emotional Jack, hunched over the coffin. We all breathed a sigh of relief, before we had our breath taken away, seeing John Locke, dead in the coffin.
The next day we caught up on the fifteen or so minutes we had missed the night before. Just as we did the night prior, this time with a laptop, we all came together, as a household, as friends, as fan to watch the Island move.
We’ve all since moved on now and out of that duplex. The four of us have all graduated from university, the couple is set to be married in September, my best friend has a solid job in this ever so shaky economy, and I am currently teaching English in Seoul, South Korea. The four of us still talk Lost whenever possible, showing that Lost, like the Island itself, has a way a bringing people together despite the situation.
Jérôme, 25 — Melun (France) :
To me, Lost was a great show since season 1, but something made the fans crazy at the end of season 3: the use of the Flash Forwards, Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse’s new toy. A lot of us expected to see the survivors getting off the Island at the end of the show, but we were WRONG! We would knew mid-season 4 who were the six passengers who made it off the Island: Aaron Littleton, Sun Kwon, Kate Austen, Sayid Jarrah, Hugo “Hurley” Reyes and Jack Shephard.
At the end of “There’s No Place Like Home part 1”, the ♫ “Of Mice and Ben” ♫ music is playing, showing all the Oceanic 6 in terrible situations, all split across the Island. Sun with Aaron on the boat, leaving Jin and Michael to deal with the C4 on the boat. Kate and Sayid captured by Richard and his people. Jack and Sawyer still in the forest, going to the Orchid. Hurley with Locke and Ben in the Orchid.
The first part of this episode ends with Ben asking to Locke “How many times do I have to tell you, John? I always have a plan!” just before confronting Keamy: “My name is Benjamin Linus. I believe you’re looking for me?“.
Even though this season finale lasted three episodes, this was a very nice cliffhanger for the first part. It opened the following question: how all of these six people will be able to get off the Island together?! How will that be possible?!
We got our answer at the end of part 3. We also learnt, finally, the identity of Jeremy Betham in the coffin (!), leaving us speachless for the next eight months. WHAT A SHOW!
Jess, 19 — Lower Austria (Austria):
JACK: You remember what I told you on the beach? The day of the crash. You remember what story I told you when you were stitching me up? DO YOU REMEMBER IT?!
KATE: YES! Yes, I remember!
JACK: When you get safe, you radio me, and you tell me that story.
KATE: Jack, please.
JACK: If I don’t get a call from you in the next hour, I’m gonna know something went wrong, and HE DIES!
KATE: I can’t leave without you!
JACK: Yes, you are. Go!
KATE: Jack! I can’t!
JACK: Go, now!
KATE: I CAN’T!
JACK: Kate, dammit, RUN!
This has always been probably one of my top five favorite moments on Lost. It is so powerful and emotional. Every time I watch it, I could tear up. How Jack has to convince Kate that she has to leave without him and how she doesn’t want to accept it is just heartbreaking to me. “Kate, dammit, RUN!” will forever be one of my favorite lines on the show, especially since Kate is always on the run, but this time, she had to be convinced to run. I think that makes it very special.
I just love this scene so much.
Claire, 35 — Auckland (New Zealand) :
There are so many moments that defined the series for me and got me more and more hooked, right up to the end. I think one of the most significant moments was the start of Season 3. Very much like the start of Season 2: an “unknown” and strange location, music, the back of someones head… was this a flashback? So captivatingly intriguing. Questions flicked into my mind: pre-island? Who are these people? And then the realization: THE OTHERS LIVE IN HOUSES. ON THE ISLAND.
Oh, the georgousness of it all! Then the shot with the plane overhead splitting and crashing. Such a pivotal moment. I introduced my best friends to Lost and there were certain episodes that I wanted to watch with them to see their reaction (“The Constant”, Charlies’ death, “Flashes before your eyes”, etc.) and this was one of them. They sat there stunned and then both exclaimed THE OTHERS LIVED IN HOUSES!
I wonder how many others around the world had the same reaction. For me it was pure bliss. The show had changed direction and my perceptions were wrong, there was a whole new concept. Thanks Lost for so many great moments!
Taro, 40 — Barcelona (Spain) :
It’s hard for me to choose an intense and original Lost moment after so many contributions to your project. They are all “my moments” too… Lost is plenty of great and epic moments, in every season, in every episode and even in every scene.
In Lost we saw many hugs. They leave, they come back and reunite again and every time there are “hugs moments” and we love them… and usually they are happy moments. But there’s one really sad hug for me and it’s in season 3’s episode 21, “Greatest Hits”, when Charlie and Desmond are leaving the shore and Hurley arrives because he’s “sick of trekking” and wants to “help you guys out. I’m a really good paddler” and he doesn’t, but — sigh — we all know that Charlie is going to die. They are friends and it will be probably the last time they will meet together but Charlie has to be rude. He says “You can’t go, Hurley. Because… you’re too big! You won’t fit in the boat” and when Hugo leaves Charlie hugs him and it’s really a sad but nice hug. For me it’s the true “goodbye” of Charlie probably more than the “Not Penny’s boat”. There will be no big celebration for Charlie’s death in season 4 but I consider that little hug the biggest goodbye ever for a main character… and yes that’s my moment. I miss Lost.
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.
Steven, 20 — Mount Pleasant (Michigan, USA) :
Getting to know the background of Jack has always been insightful. In episode 20, “Do No Harm”, Jack says to Sara, “I didn’t write any vows. I’ve been trying to for a month, but I couldn’t. So I started to wonder why that was. And as time went on it only got worse, because I’m not good at letting go. Or maybe I’m afraid of what will happen if I fail. But I know one thing. I would have never been able to write anything as beautiful as what you just said. And last night, Sarah, when you were talking about the accident, you got it all wrong. I didn’t fix you. You fixed me. I love you, Sarah, and I always will.” It’s the kind of love that isn’t only understandable, but down right real. It’s the transition that Jack finally makes in the finale of acceptance that brings this side of Jack full circle.
Laurent, 25 — Orléans (France) :
This moment is magic because it’s a simple one, and because it couldn’t work if the characters didn’t have the consistency they earned season after season. This is also a scene sublimated by a music which reinforce the mythology.
We find ourselves with Hurley, Sayid, Miles, Jack and Kate near a Dharma Van. Jack just fought with Sawyer, his face severely damaged. Now he prepares himself to lay the bomb down the hatch of the Dharma Station under construction. Kate watches him, she half-says a phrase she can’t finish – Jack is already gone. There’s decency between the two, the decency of two lovers who lived too much, experienced too much and whose passion has cooled down. They aren’t able to express what they feel for each other anymore. Facing such an intense moment, they don’t know how to act.
Jack goes alone fighting the Dharma, his shoulders heavy, not knowing what he does. This clean and dull character lost himself along the way for a season, but now he finally comes back as a tormented – and way more interesting – hero.
He crosses Sawyer and Juliet. They glance at each other. Juliet sees Jack as a possible way out of the Island. Sawyer meets his old antagonism. This time though, it’s Sawyer who try to preserve lives, and preserve a society against Jack, who has become a savage, anarchic force, menacing to blow everything up.
This tiny scene reunites four characters thickened and matured by five seasons. We as viewers are too much involved not to fear the final issue of Jack’s mission: a general, back-to-the-plane amnesia, or the destruction of the Island.
Stephen, 13 — New Hampshire (USA) :
My Lost Moment was found in the season 3 episode “The Glass Ballerina”. It was when Jack was in captivity of the others on Hydra Island. Ben went to talk to Jack. Jack didn’t believe Ben had contact with people off the Island. So Ben said that since Flight 815 had crashed, Bush was reelected, Christopher Reeve had died, and The Boston Red Sox had won the World Series. Jack, being a die hard Red Sox fan, didn’t believe him at first, because it had been 86 years since they had won. Then Ben showed him a tape of the last inning of the world series. The tape gave me the chills. I am a very big Sox fan. It brought the biggest smile to my face. I remember watching the game live and it was amazing seeing it once more. That is my Lost moment.