My LOST Moment

I want it to crash, Kate.

Through the Looking Glass • season 3 • episode 23

Nick, 25 — Chicago, Illinois (USA) :

My Lost Moment came in the last minutes of season 3…
…but first let’s take a step back. I owned a small business called Lombardo Barnyard. Its timeline ran congruent to that first few seasons of Lost. Lombardo Barnyard starting around the first season, and Lombardo Barnyard ending when…
We never made any money and we never had success in the true sense. I was young and it was just something I created with a friend, kind of a joke really, to put on events and impress people. We had fashion shows of transforming dresses and clothes made out of garbage. We hosted dance parties sponsored by Pepsi. We wrote books and created collectable card games featuring our friends as the hero cards. We did this for years all the while losing fans and money until one day, during a poorly attended 24-hour dance party, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I ran home mid-event crying and freezing. I took a nap, but not before sending an email calling it quits to the world. It was over, Lombardo Barnyard was dead.
When I awoke from my nap it was all a rush, I was free, it was over, I was supposed to be happy, right? The next few months I put on a big smile to the world, all my friends, my family, they said, “You look good, more alive.” It was a façade. Inside I was dying. No more events. No more projects. No more standing in front of crowds of people, speaking, dancing, presenting, and having them follow my every word. Lombardo Barnyard was the past. This is when I saw the finale of Season 3.
We find Jack sporting an unkempt beard and sitting on the floor of his apartment surrounded by maps and charts. I saw myself. In the shadows of my own despair, in my moments alone from those who were happy for me, I too would lay facedown and shirtless on the floor. Around me boxes of old clothes I was going to turn into crazy fashions, notes on books I was going to write. Cans of pop were spilled, not from a party, but from my degrading sense of cleanliness. I was falling apart. I was Jack Shepard.
And there he was, a shrived piece of who he used to be. Jack Shepard, going back to the one person who would understand, his partner in all of this, Kate. And he explained the Golden Ticket, wanting the plane to crash, how he’d sacrifice anyone and everything to go back. I’d give it all for one more moment in front of those crowds. On the Island Jack was under so much pressure leading the people. They hung on his every word for survival. People would live and die by his word. How can one man handle such pressure, Jack couldn’t, and either could I, we snapped, both of us. We wanted off the Island. But then we found what was off the Island… Nothing. Nothing is on the other side. I was there. Jack was there. We were there together, same time same place. And he yelled, “We have to go back! We have to go back!” I yelled that to my Lombardo Barnyard partner, and he, like Kate, just walked away. And there we were alone with nothing… with nothing.
When the episode ended all my friends gasped in glee about what treasures were hidden months away in season 4. While they speculated and theorized, I slipped out a side door. No one saw me. I could only stare straight ahead and squinted to keep my tears in. I’ve never felt this way, so connected to a character. He was me, on screen. And I walked for miles alone outside, not able to keep my thoughts and emotions together. After hours of walking I wondered into a gym I had a pass for but seemed to never use. And there, in my street clothes I ran. Tears ran down my face and I just ran.
I ran all night… and I never got back.

You taste like strawberries.

The Glass Ballerina • Season 3 • Episode 2

Emma, 17 — Paris (France) :

Everyone’s favorite moments are already perfect but I wanted to add one that is particularly important to me.
When Kate and Sawyer are back in their cages after their first day working for the Others and after they kissed, Sawyer says : “I noticed something else, too. You taste like strawberries.”
Sawyer is always trying to look like this tough and not so sensitive guy and he has a hard time expressing his feelings and we he does it, you have to translate it! This phrase is his own way of saying that he likes her and I thought it was very sweet. He doesn’t want people to see that he cares but you can just read it in his eyes that he’s falling for Kate.
So I wanted to honor this moment where Sawyer opens his heart in a beautiful way — in my eyes at least !

These team members are not aware that they are subjects of an experiment.

Live Together, Die Alone, Part 2 • Season 2 • Episode 24

Rémi, 29 — Paris (France) :

Season 2 is when Lost locked me in.
Its opening sequence is jaw-breaking, and the absurd role of Desmond in the Swan station immediately alludes to psychological topics that fascinate me: routine, mental conditioning, self-motivation… And soon, the whole push-the-button dilemma becomes the next big thing. But the best is yet to come.
When Locke and Mr Eko discover the Pearl station, we start seeing the Swan station from a different perspective, through the explanatory video: “Your duty is to observe team members in another station on the Island. These team members are not aware that they are under surveillance or that they are subjects of an experiment. […] You will record everything you observe in the notebooks we provided. […] Each time a notebook is filled with the fruits of your diligent observation, roll it up and insert it into one of the containers provided. Then, simply place the container in the pneumatic tube and – presto! – it will be transported directly to us.”
Feeling of “Aha!” moment – the numbers-entering requirement was a joke all along, how could Desmond have been such a fool?
Except the joke is on us, we just don’t know it yet.
Because the story does not end there. In fact, it reaches a whole new level in the last episode of the season, when Kate, Jack, Hurley, Sawyer and Michael stumble upon the other end of the pneumatic tube. It’s a dump. A dump of containers. Containers of notebooks. Notebooks that were never being read, notebooks that were never intended to be read.
Desmond thought he was pursuing something, when in fact he was the guinea pig of an experiment, observed by someone else, who in turn thought he was pursuing something, when in fact he was the guinea pig of an experiment, observed by someone else: me.
Second “Aha!” moment, quickly overridden by a puzzling question: What if we were also part of another layer of the experiment? Who is observing us?
I actually never gave much thought to this question, but the simple fact that this question popped in my head, even for a couple of seconds, created a special bond between Lost and I.

Goodbye, Dad.

The Man Behind The Curtain • season 3 • episode 20

Eliot, 19 — Nancy (France) :

My Lost Moment happens in Season 3, when Ben and his father drive to the hill for a beer. It turns out to be their ultimate discussion. Benjamin solemnly asks his father if he really holds a grudge against him for having killed his mother when he was born. Roger can’t really answer him. This is very touching, but Ben is ice-cold. He shows no emotion — then put a gas mask under his father’s eyes, who doesn’t seem to understand what’s happening. Without a glance for his father, Ben proceeds to open the gas cylinder. While Roger spits blood, agonizing, you can feel Ben’s coldness in his eyes, matched by an intense soundtrack. Then he returns to Dharmaville. Terrific piano theme. All those bodies on the ground, innocent people who probably met the same distressed fate as his father… Those images, combined with the music, really are THE Lost Moment that could make me cry, because even if Ben looks unfazed, you can already tell the sadness and remorse in him.

The hatch

Man of Science, Man of Faith • season 2 • episode 1

Matt, 34 — Toronto (Canada) :

I had missed the first few episodes of the first season of Lost, so rather than try to find the missed episodes somewhere, I decided to watch it on DVD. Little did I know I would become hooked so quickly. So when I finished the DVD’s and had to wait for Season 2 to begin in the fall, I was ready.
The episode began with a record playing a tune by the Mamas and the Papas, and appeared to be a flashback… but whose was it? When the reveal was, well, revealed, I knew this was not only my new favorite show, but a brilliant new method of serial storytelling at it’s best. Amidst the compelling emotional scenes, the richness of the characters backstories, and the full mythology of the island, the Season 2 hatch-reveal remains one of the most incredible moments I experienced with the show.

I’ll do it.

What they died for • season 6 • episode 16

Javier, 19 — Maracaibo (Venezuela)

Lost was, is, and will continue to be my life. It may sound like a cliché, but I mean it literally. It all started when I was just 13 years old, and six years later, there isn’t a single friend who doesn’t make the connection of Javier = Lost. There isn’t a single situation I can’t reflect on Lost. There isn’t a single Lost character I don’t feel identified with.
Choosing a single moment pains me. Say, I’m now a medical student, all because of “Do No Harm” — and Jack, my single hero. Or say, crying on the floor, punching it with all of my might, after I saw three of my best friends die on a submarine (saddest day of my life, by the way). But when it comes to picking one, I have to go with Jack taking on Jacob’s job.
Why this moment? Because right there, even before the church scene, is when Jack finally let go. You can see it on his face, hear it in his words. When Jack steps up and says “I’ll do it“, he finally comes to accept everything that has happened in his life. And at the same time he did it, I let go too.
Ever since around the time I started watching Lost, my life had been filled with suffering, and the “show” (I hate that word for it) was the only thing keeping me up. I had cried, yelled, even inflicted harm on myself. But at that right moment, as Jack let go, I was able to do it too. It was exactly the same thing he had told John before — that they could let go at the same time.
Ever since that day, I have never been a miserable person. Of course, I have cried, I have yelled again, but I’m not that miserable dude anymore. Lost fixed me. Jack and all of the others were able to do something I had tried and tried for a lot of years.
Every character death made me feel something breaking in myself. Then comes the final episode, and everything changes: everytime one of them awakes in the Flashsideways, I felt the exact opposite: I felt pieces of myself coming together. I literally felt myself being fixed.
There’s one thing I’ll never let go, and it’s Lost. I couldn’t be more grateful for it. Lost changed my life, made me a better man, and more importantly, Lost fixed me. Live together, die alone.

I have always been with you.

The Little Prince • season 5 • episode 4

Anna, 15 — Munich (Germany) :

Marina started watching Lost a long time ago. She was always talking about it and when we watched a movie together in which an actor from the show appeared, she was always like, “Oh my God, s/he is from Lost!” And I was just like, “I don’t really care…”
Last year, when we had no school for a few days, almost everyone made a little trip. But I stayed at home and had no idea what to do. Before Marina had to say goodbye, she gave me the first season of Lost on DVD. And she promised me, I would like it. After I’ve watched the pilot, I was totally addicted to it. Now, we are re-watching it together. It’s the best show ever.
The “I have always been with you” scene means so much to me, because I always wanted Jack and Kate to be together. And I was very sad when Kate and Sawyer were close but Jack was alone. In this scene, Kate finally admits she always loved Jack! This made me so happy that I started crying.

I know that we’re supposed to be together, you and me.

Maternity Leave • season 2 • episode 15

Marina, 16 — Munich (Germany) :

I watched Lost a very long time ago for the first time. I was so fascinated by the show that I was talking like day and night about it. When I bought the seasons on DVD I just said to my friend Anna: “You HAVE TO watch it!” Well then she watched it and just got as obsessed as I was — actually I made five other classmates watching this show. Now we’re rewatching it again. Lost is the best show I’ve ever seen — well, we‘ve ever seen. [Laughs]
My Lost moment is at the end of episode “Maternity Leave”, when Claire gives to Aaron the socket she made while she was with the Others. It’s such a heartbreaking moment when she tells him secretly that she wanted to leave him with the Others, but she now has realized that they are meant to be together and that they have to protect each other. When she starts crying, you can’t hold back your tears.

You wanna go to hell?! You wanna go to hell?!!

The Brig • season 3 • episode 19

Jack, 19 – Portsmouth (England) :

To me, this is one of the most important and emotional scenes for Sawyer. In this Lost moment, Sawyer finally meets the man that ruined his life by conning his mom and dad when he was a kid.
When I was watching this scene my eyes were glued to the TV, I started to feel what Sawyer was feeling, I could see the emotion in his face, and after he killed Antony Cooper, I felt happy for him but at the same time I worried that we might not have the Sawyer we all love anymore and that this moment might change him as a person. I think we did see a new Sawyer. What’s extra special is that this guy who Sawyer just killed was John Locke’s father, and killing him helped Locke move on with his life too. Overall this is a tense, emotional moment that sums up what Lost is… Character redemption, and moving on.

The End

The End • season 6 • episode 17

Matt, 31 — New Jersey (USA) :

It was THE end of “The End”. I had watched all six seasons of Lost with my parents; it started when I was a single college student living at home, and it ended with them joining my wife and me in our own home.

I had spent the six seasons living and dying with every episode. Usually I would pause and think out loud, my mother joining in to the half-baked, literary discussion, my father patiently waiting. During the course of the six seasons my girlfriend-then-wife had been brought up to speed in the beginning, then her interest waned, then she came back for the final few episodes.

So there we were, my wife, parents and I, watching the finale conclude. Since the end date had been announced three years earlier, we had all asked ourselves “How will it end?” And then, in what seemed to be a single moment, it was explained: they lived, they died, they were together, they moved on. The love they felt for one another on this world would keep them together in the next.

It had been daylight when we started watching; it was deep dusk as our characters faded to white, as Jack died, and as the white “LOST” appeared on blackened screen, a resolved, happy, harmonic cord playing. We sat in stunned silence; my cheeks were wet with my tears.

There was no discussion while the credits played. We were stunned —we were heartbroken— we were fulfilled.

As I turned the TV off (and kept the lights off, for I didn’t want my father to see that I had cried), I shared aloud a personal flashback aloud: standing in a convenience store in September 2004, seeing in a magazine that one of those hobbits was in the plane crash show… deciding to give it a try.

Lost had found me. I’ll be eternally grateful.