Zoe, 15 — Columbus (USA):
I only recently watched Lost with my family, my mom actually watched the season two premiere in the hospital after my birth. My mom loved Frank Lapidus, as one should. She told us this was one of her favorite lines from the series, and I think it’s mine too. It leads you into this new stage of the show, going back to the island. It’s the perfect way to tie it all together, and whenever I hear Guam, I think of this line.
Aman, 18 — Birmingham (United Kingdom):
I first watched Lost when I was 12 and fell in love with the TV show. Rewatching it with older eyes makes me appreciate how beautiful it was and how it taught many lessons to me, even though I was too young to understand.
My Lost moment occurred to me whilst rewatching recently as an adult. [It] is when Jack and Sawyer are talking in an episode of season 5. Sawyer brings up his tragic past to Jack but tells Jack something that has stuck with me for life. He goes on about how he could have hopped on the sub last year and stopped his father from killing anyone.
But he didn’t because “what’s done is done.”
That resonated with me quite profoundly as I saw a lot of myself in Jack. Jack was someone who couldn’t let go, he always believed he could “fix it”. However life is suffering and we have to let go and move on, even when we don’t want to or can’t see how to. I lost my grandfather recently and I’m still trying to let go as it’s not easy, but it’s important that we all know we should be trying to move on and continue forward. Not try and fix the past but experience the future.
There are many other great moments in Lost but this has to be my moment , where I truly realized this was more than a TV show.
Nicolás, 18 — Barcelona (Spain):
I’ve known about this website for ages and I thought about contributing and sharing my Lost moment with all of you, as Lost has been, is and will always be extremely special for me. So here it goes.
I didn’t have an absolute favorite Lost moment until I rewatched it for the fifth time (I used to have a life before Lost…). It was on 05×15, “Follow the leader”, right before “The Incident”. Eloise just killed Daniel, and Jack and Kate are caught by Eloise’s people, and they are in a tent, waiting for Eloise. And, here’s my moment:
KATE: You know, before we were caught… [panting] you said that we needed to put things back the way they were supposed to be. What did you mean by that?
JACK: If we can do what Faraday said… [sniffs] our plane never crashes… Flight 815 lands in Los Angeles. And everyone we lost since we got here… [chuckles] they’d all be alive.
KATE: And what about us? We just… go on living our life because we’ve never met?
JACK: All the misery that we’ve been through… we’d just wipe it clean. Never happened.
KATE: It was not all misery.
JACK: [Sighs] Enough of it was.
OK, so let me break it down for you. You may very well remember the reason why they want to detonate a bomb in The Swan Station, as you may infer by the quote or remember from the show, they want to put things back where it were supposed to be. By doing that, everything that happened in the island will disappear, as it never happened. The bad things (all the deaths, suffer, misery), and the good things (joy, laugh, LOVE). That’s why Kate says “It was not all misery“, referring to her relationship with Jack. Jack’s answer devastates her “Enough of it was“, meaning that it was worth not meeting Kate if by that, everyone who died on the island and all the pain they’ve been through would never happened.
I burst into tears every time I remember that scene… It’s so powerful and sad, and, as a Jate fan, I love all the Jack/Kate scenes, but this one is just so powerful…
Damn, now I’m nostalgic, I guess it’s time for the sixth rewatch…
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.
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.
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.
Taylor, 17 — Arcadia, Florida (USA) :
It is nearly impossible for me to pick one moment in this beautiful series. But this scene simply is too stunning to go unnoticed.
Ben Linus: Thomas the Apostle. When Jesus wanted to return to Judea, knowing that he would probably be murdered there, Thomas said to the others, “Let us also go there and we might die with him.” But Thomas was not remembered for this bravery. His claim to fame came later when he refuses to acknowledge the resurrection. He just couldn’t wrap his mind around it. The story goes that he needed to touch Jesus wounds to be convinced.
— Jack Shephard: “So was he?”
— Ben Linus: “Of course he was. We’re all convinced sooner or later, Jack.“
This story explains Jack so perfectly. “He just couldn’t wrap his mind around it.” This one scene show’s Jack’s growth, show’s how far he has come sense September 22nd, 2004. It gives me chills every time Michael Emerson delivers this line.
Daniel, 22 – Tallahassee (Florida, USA) :
“Nice to meet you” – Locke to Young Widmore. It was wonderful because you could see all of Damon and Carlton’s pieces slowly falling into place. It was wonderful because you felt like you were being propelled towards answers we lusted for so badly. It was surprising and shocking and extremely funny. It answered questions. It was nice to see some of our heroes (in this case, Locke) make light of the time travel that was frustrating some viewers. More than anything it was nice to see someone we rooted for finally have the upper hand when we were so accustomed to both us and the characters being dragged along in the dark.
Justin, 28 – Hampstead, New Hampshire (USA) :
In trying to think of one Lost moment, one that many others might not reference, I was reminded of Kate’s story in “Whatever Happened, Happened”. Say what you want about the character of Kate (and I have chimed in on occasion), there have been moments of redemption, individuality, and strength – when she wasn’t used as a pawn for the feelings of Jack or Sawyer.
In particular, her taking on the responsibility of raising Aaron, and Cassidy’s conclusion that she needed Aaron as a sort of replacement for Sawyer, made me step back and think. I imagine in that moment, revealing to Claire’s mother that she had been taking care of Aaron, and she was going back to find Claire, wasn’t easy for Kate. In fact, I imagine it was one of the most difficult things she’d ever had to do. She loved that little boy, even though she knew she was never meant to raise him. She had to be unselfish, and motivated by something other than fear. She says “Bye, bye, baby” to Aaron, and we know she truly is losing something.
This episode marked for me, a turning point in Kate’s character. When she came back to the island, although there were residual feelings between Kate and Sawyer, she was not there to ignite them once again. She stuck to her purpose, and in the end became essential to the entire piece of the Lost saga.
To me, Lost has always been about the characters, and this moment solidified just how much we had come to care about them, even if at times we were unhappy about the road they’d been on.
Lisa, 24 – Eskilstuna (Sweden) :
It’s of course very hard to choose only one moment from a series as epic as Lost. The moment I finally chose, I think, shows a lot of the things I loved about the show. The show for me was about weird and impossibly things happening and people reacting to those things. It was also a show about an almost infinite number of characters who all got their own story to tell even if we didn’t get to know all those stories.
Therefore my Lost moment is when Miles, in 1977, watches his father read to himself as a child. I chose this moment because it’s so impossible and paradoxical but at the same time also very real and emotional. You can understand how Miles feels even though this is not a situation any of us will ever experience.
I also love that the show actually gives a moment like this to a character like Miles, who we previous of this episode knew little about and who frankly wasn’t that relatable. With the entire episode and especially this moment, Miles becames a character that we understand and care for. We understood why he was like he was and what his motivations were. Also I just love the expression on little Miles face during this scene, he is just so adorable when he is giggling. This is also a great contrast to adult Miles who always who seems bit bitter and have trouble connecting with people. At the end of the scene, when Dr. Chang comes out and tells Miles that he needs him, Miles answers very eagerly and you can almost feel his longing to have the love from his father that he clearly had as a child. It leaves us wondering what happened that took that away.