My LOST Moment

Jenny, 21 – Portland, Maine (USA) :

Sun and Jin have just been forever lost to us… Jack is dragging Sawyer’s lifeless body onto the beach as Kate exclaims “I couldn’t find you, I couldn’t find you…” Then Kate says to Jack, her voice hoarse, already knowing, without hearing the reply “What about Jin and Sun?”  Jack simply shakes his head, fiercly holding back his tears… Hurley and Kate start to shake with their sobs, Jack forces himself up, instead of comforting them he walks over to the shoreline, hands at his sides, he looks up blinking back the tears that will come eventually, he stares at the night sky and as he sharply inhales, the scene cuts out…
I am a student, a photographer, a writer.  I am a lot of things, and I have been shaped by many people.  Lost has had a profound impact on my life, the meaning of friends has become sharper, clearer to me because of this show.

Emily, 23 – Santa Barbara, California (USA) :

Sawyer: “I was doing just fine until you dragged my ass out to this damn rock–“

Jacob: “No you weren’t. None of you were. I didn’t pluck any of you out of a happy existence. You were ALL flawed. I chose you because you were like me- you were all alone. You were all looking for something you couldn’t find out there.  I chose you because you needed this place as much as it needed you.”

Throughout the past six years of Lost I have always recognized a bit of me within the main characters whether it be: Claire’s abandonment issues, Hurley’s sanity and health, Locke’s struggle with faith and most especially Kate’s need to run. For six years I watched this show with these feelings deeply embedded within me, struggling to figure out the meaning and answers to everything.
Yet near the end of the sixth season, with all its questions remaining unanswered and new ones being created every week comes this speech by Jacob.  Finally.  Finally it has meaning.  This was exactly what I could connect to.  Feeling flawed.  Alone.  It was at this moment everything clicked, although I’m still trying to understand how.  I still feel so many of these things, still am looking for something I can’t, or have yet to find.  Yet amidst all of it, I know that I needed this place, I needed Lost as much as it needed me.

Nick, 25 – Cleveland, Ohio (USA) :

Kate came back for Claire, Sayid was brought back in handcuffs, Hurley was told to by Jacob, and Sun came back for Jin.  But Jack came back because it was his only hope to kill the despair and heartbreak he had of leaving the Island and losing the person he was meant to be with.  Yet stepping foot on that island didn’t solve a single problem, so he tried to blow his problems away.  That just caused more problems to emerge.  It wasn’t until he let go, that he truly became the person he was meant to be.  This episode made him realize how important he was and gave him the definition he had been searching for throughout the series.  My life has mirrored Jack Shepherd’s and I’m just searching for my lighthouse.

Ken – Seattle (Washington, USA) :

There were many moments that I enjoyed in the show, but I’d have to say my Lost moment was in “LA X” when Boone has the conversation with John Locke and he mentions the phrase, “If this thing goes down, I’m sticking with you.” Nothing too exciting about that moment if taken out of context.  It’s just two strangers on a plane chatting. However, for me it was quite a funny revelation.

In January of this year I was on a plane and we hit some minor turbulence. The guy sitting next to me, who I hadn’t spoken to the entire flight, leans over and says, “I hope we don’t crash on the island of Lost.” I immediately burst out in laughter, as did the people in the seats in front and behind us. We then spent the rest of the flight exchanging Lost theories for season 6, which hadn’t started yet as this was still in the hiatus between seasons 5 and 6.

The fact that an off-hand Lost reference was the ice breaker for two strangers to strike up a conversation on a plane, and then a similar event would be portrayed a few weeks later in the season opener was quite funny and quite a bizarre twist of “fate” for me. I had a good laugh over the conversation Boone and Locke had as I thought of how much I enjoyed this show and how art was strangely imitating life and vice versa.

Kelley, 54 – Mason, Ohio (USA) :

Half-way through season 2 I was struck with a spinal stroke that left me paralyzed from the lower part of my chest on down. Like John Locke, I probably spent too much time trying to be or feel normal in a world that is not designed for wheelchairs. Despite my best efforts, and those of John Locke, reality often meets us in the most unfriendly of ways. Sometimes it’s a set of steps and others it is being denied the “Outback Walkabout” you’ve desired so long. I’ve spent five years wishing I could find an island like John Locke, where I could wiggle my toes, stand up and resume the life I once knew.
All that said however, redemption comes less in the getting up and walking and more in the acceptance of what cannot be changed and learning to live, love, thrive and give of yourself to those in need and in worse condition than you. Perhaps most importantly, one must learn to accept the dependence they now require from loved ones. I felt like John was catching that in his sideways world with Helen. His growth there moved me. When John could chuckle after landing face first in the grass to be greeted only by a water sprinkler was a gift of grace, one that I think he was learning how to share, and an inspiration for my daily life.

Mikel, 22 – Gilmer, Texas (USA) :

Jacob and Richard on the beach, Jacob revealing why he brings people to the island:

“That man that sent you to kill me believes that everyone is corruptible because it’s in their very nature to sin. I bring people here to prove him wrong. And when they get here, their past doesn’t matter.”
Richard asks, “Before you brought my ship, there were others?”
“Yes, many,” Jacob replies.
“What happened to them–”
“They’re all dead.”
“Well if you brought them here, why didn’t you help them?”
“Because I wanted them to help themselves: to know the difference between right and wrong without me having to tell them. It’s all MEANINGLESS if I have to force them to do anything. Why should I have to step in?”

For me, this exchange had major spiritual and moral significance. As a non-religious humanist, I philosophically strive to argue humanity has the capacity to good for the sake of good. At the time, Jacob was seen as an archetypal analogy for God, the benevolent force for good. For us, the people, Jacob has no roadmap or greater plan for divine intervention. If we are to become capable of making the right choices, it must be of our own accord, not because we coerced or threatened with eternal damnation by the Bible or other ancient tomes. Jacob says here that what we do is all about choice, not blind institutionalized faith.

This statement has reaffirmed my belief that if any unseen benevolent force exists out there, in the best interest of human-kind, it would be more like Jacob and less like every other man-made religious constructs.

This statement has literally changed the way I look at the world today, and for me, that makes Lost legitimate literature.

Alan, 32 – San Francisco, California (USA) :

I rented a hotel room just to watch the series finale of Lost. I was staying with my family and knew that I would probably –happily– be a teary mess by the time the show was over and I wanted to be sure that I was somewhere where I could blubber in peace. So I drove to Santa Cruz, CA to a room with a view of the ocean, I thought it would be a perfect place to watch the end of my favorite story ever. I sat through the clip show before the finale, munching on snacks bought at the corner liquor store and started to get anxious. “Was I a complete moron for going to all this trouble just to watch an episode of television?”
Finally 9:00 came and the show started and the very first thing I saw was Christian’s coffin coming out of an Oceanic Airlines plane and immediately I thought: “Oh, God, this whole show has been about Jack reuniting with his father. Of course. How heartbreaking. How beautiful.” (This may have something to do with my own dead dad issues.) I knew, right then, that all the time and energy I had spent on the show for that night –and over the previous years– was worth it. And, once the show was over, after bawling my eyes out (I was right, I was a mess), I went out on the balcony and stared out into the ocean and was happy that I was not a moron. Not in this case, anyway.

Ashley, 27 – Dallas, Texas (USA) :

My mother struggled with chronic health problems for the last five years of her life. In March 2010, she was in the ICU at the local hospital, and it became clear that her days with us were nearing an end. Lost had been a huge part of my life, and the one respite that I had during this particular storm.

On what would turn out to be the last week of my mother’s life, I could not wait for the Tuesday night hour of escape that I knew Lost would bring. I spent the four days leading up to Tuesday, March 16 saying goodbye to my mom, not knowing if she’d still be there the next day when I woke up.

That Tuesday the episode “Recon” aired, where one particular scene greatly stood out to me. Sawyer silently made a frozen dinner and watched television. His program of choice was Little House on the Prairie. This is a show that was my mother’s absolute favorite. Her hearing was bad, and I distinctly remember overhearing that damn theme song blasting from her room daily, from my childhood up until the days before her final admittance into the hospital.

Not only was my mom’s favorite show featured as a part of my favorite show that week, but the Little House clip that they included spoke directly to my aching soul. It told me that people aren’t really gone when they die, and that life is about the connections you make with those you love.

Less than two days later, my mom was gone.

I felt as if that moment was placed in that episode specifically for me to see and witness. It was there to comfort me, and only me. Lost is the one thing that I gave any attention to besides her hospital room that week, and while turmoil and chaos raged inside of me, the message that I so desperately needed to hear was given to me, placed in the one spot I’d be sure to see and absorb it. My mother was unable to speak to me during that week, so her favorite characters spoke for her, while one of my favorites watched and learned alongside me.

I needed that.

That was my Lost moment.

Heather, 21 – Hattiesburg, Mississippi (USA) :

My best friend and I watched the last season of LOST together. Both of us hate when stupid, impractical things happen on TV shows that aren’t consistent with the logic of the show over all. In Season 6, Episode 12 (“Everybody Loves Hugo”), we got so frustrated with Ilana when she was just throwing the dynamite around carelessly. “Really, LOST? After everything you said about the dynamite, you’re going to let her get away with that?” A few seconds later, she exploded. We laughed hysterically, and at that moment we were thankful that a show that can be as crazy as LOST at least sticks to its own logic. It never really let us down.