My LOST Moment

Karen, 20 – Las Vegas, Nevada (USA) :

This is the episode when they find out that one of the survivors, Ethan, was not one of the passengers on board of the plane. The show turned into a whole new direction when it came to the question “Are there others on the island?” Ethan kidnaps Claire and Charlie while Jack and Kate try to find them throughout the episode.
The moment that really got me was when they found Charlie hanging from a tree. Just the sight of that made my heart drop. They cut him loose and Jack was trying so hard to save his life. That was actually the first time the show gave me tears. I never before had cried on an episode of Lost till that scene came (Who knew later on through all the seasons I would cry more).
I felt just like Kate when Jack just started hitting him in the chest real hard. I was screaming on the inside “STOP!” Charlie was one of my favorite characters so the thought of him being dead just touched me like “Wow, these people aren’t invincible, they can die.”
Finally Charlie regained consciousness and I started smiling with tears in my eyes. After that moment I knew this show wasn’t like the rest. It was different, and I actually cared about these characters. This is probably the only show that made me cry, laugh and cheer.

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.

Matthew – Orange County, California (USA) :

The beginning of season two is probably my most favorite time in Lost.  The twist in the Season Opener was a moment of confusion and wonder that was shared by both the characters and the audience.  And as this confusion became frustration, the audience found its voice in Jack in episode 3, “Orientation”.  As Jack pointed the loaded gun at Desmond we saw a man who was desperately trying to find a shred of reason in an otherwise chaotic series of events.  Yell, scream, threaten if you have to, just make it make sense!  We saw a remarkably relatable Jack in this episode, just a man yearning for answers and irate at their inability to surface.  Something the audience would get used to…

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.

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.

Jaclyn, 17 – Morristown, New Jersey (USA) :

I was 11 years old, getting out of the shower on a random night in September. My dad called me into his office to check out the special effects of a plane crash on a new show called Lost. I walked into his office in my towel, not even pausing to dry off and I was in amazement over the plane crash from the pilot. I never missed an episode after that and my curiosity and love for the show kept growing. From then on, everything revolved around this show and even though my friends used to say it was pathetic, it really changed my life, living through the characters and feeling their emotions as though they were real. This might not be a legit moment from an episode in Lost, but I wanted to shout out to everyone who feels the same way, and say thank you to J.J., Damon, and Carlton for providing me with the best six years of television I will ever experience in my life.