...all fans of “Lost” should have it on their bookshelves.
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WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
"Lost" is the best damn show on television. Period. In fact, I believe it may be the best damn show in television history. "M*A*S*H," "Cheers," and "Married with Children" are three other television shows I have loved in my time on Earth, but nothing has kept my interest nearly as much as J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof´s complicated and intricate story of airplane survivors stranded on an island with more mysteries than the Kennedy family. With the greatest character in television history (John Locke as portrayed by Terry O´Quinn) and a solid supporting cast that includes Henry Ian Cusick, Naveen Andrews, Daniel Dae Kim, Jorge Garcia and the incredible Michael Emerson, not many shows can compete with the ensemble cast gathered for "Lost." Among those names, I did not even mention many of the other stars on the show, Evangaline Lilly, Matthew Fox, Josh Holloway, Dominick Monaghan, Emilie de Ravin or Yunjin Kim. There is another dozen or so supporting and recurring characters not named in that impressive list.
For many viewers, "Lost" is a complicated and frustrating mess. There are a tremendous number of sub-plots and even more unanswered questions that have gathered and festered over three long seasons. Important events that took place in the earliest episodes of season one are still unanswered and for each question answered; there are typically three new questions raised. Every moment of every show needs scrutinized and analyzed to pick up every clue and hint presented by the show´s creators. It truly can be called a jumbled mess, but this is the true beauty of "Lost." Us, the fans are indeed lost. This allows for long water cooler conversations and deep thought sessions about what is actually happening on the show. No other show can boast black smoke monsters, imploding magnetic stations and crippled men who suddenly become the ´Great White Hunter.´ And that is just the tip of the iceberg of unusual happenings and scientific anomalies that captivate and entertain each and every week.
The third season of "Lost" began with a six episode mini-season that aired to provide a shorter summer break between the second and third season and allow for the remaining episodes to ear without the repeat episodes and lengthy breaks that plagued the show´s first two seasons. While audiences were frustrated when "Lost" disappeared for weeks at a time; they were far more frustrated by the seemingly unfocused mini-season that began the third year of the Losties adventures on the mysterious island. Part of the frustration was that "Lost" didn´t contain many moments with the show´s regulars John Locke (O´Quinn), Desmond Hume (Cusick), Charlie Pace (Monaghan), Claire Littleton (de Ravin), Hurley Reyes (Garcia), Jin Kwon (Kim), Sun Kwon (Yunjin Kim) or Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). Jack Shephard (Fox), James "Sawyer" Ford (Holloway) and Kate Austen (Lilly) were the primary returning characters on display for this first batch of episodes and joined Benjamin Linus (Emerson), Mr. Friendly (M.C. Gainey), Alex (Mira Furlan) and Juliet Burke (Elizabeth Mitchell).
These first six episodes centered entirely on the others and what happened to Jack, Sawyer and Kate after the season ending cliff hanger of season two. At the end of the second season, they were hooded and on a dock where the man previously known as Henry Gale (Emerson) was revealed as one of the leaders of the Others. The season begins with them in separate cages. Sawyer and Kate can see one another and appear to be in the former pens of the Polar Bears. There, Sawyer learns how to earn himself a fish biscuit. Jack is kept contained an indoor containment room and is introduced to Juliet, who has similarities to his wife and seems intent on helping bring Jack to civility towards Ben and the rest of the others. The first six episodes also showcase the small village where the Others live that is a far cry from the primitive surrounds of the Losties. They have book clubs, ovens and CD players. They also have the zoology research lab and a submarine.
Juliet turns out to have a colorful history with Ben and has mixed intentions towards her leader. She seems intent on helping his cause one moment, but is ready to help Jack betray Ben and bring an end to his position of leadership. She slowly becomes a love interest for Jack, which may be forced by Ben because of her similarities to Jack´s former wife. This causes jealousy with Kate, but only helps concrete her relationship with Sawyer; whom she has been working as forced labor with under the Others eyes and guns. Kate eventually sleeps with Sawyer and this is witnessed by Jack, which only adds further complications to the infamous Jack-Kate-Sawyer love triangle that now includes Juliet and finds jealousy coming from many different directions. Sawyer even beings to lose his tough guy edge when his feelings for Kate are revealed.
Locke, Desmond and Ecko find different purposes during the first show. They were all left behind in the hatch when it exploded at the end of season two, but are found to be very much alive. Desmond is seen by Hurley running through the jungle in the nude and has taken an almost Jesus-like demeanor. He can also see into the future as an apparent super power. Locke woke up from the implosion without his focus, but is forced back into becoming "Jungle John" when he realizes his friend Ecko has been taken captive by a Polar Bear and must save Ecko from death. Charlie again becomes Locke´s lackey. Ecko is saved from the Polar Bear by the hairspray armed Locke, but finds a sad demise at the hands of the smoke monster he had previously stared down. This was a shock during the third season of "Lost" as Ecko was a fan favorite and his early exit from year three was a big surprise.
Ben reveals to Sawyer that they are on a second island and that the Losties are on a bigger island that is a mile away with dangerous waters separating them. Locke manages to find his way to the Others camp and is on a path of destruction. During one part of the third season he destroyed a communication camp manned by a mysterious eye-patched man. He then took some C4 plastic explosive and found the submarine that Ben had used as a control device towards his people and a means of getting off the island. The Island became its own character and seemed to be talking to John Locke and using him as a weapon towards anybody who wanted to reach beyond the strange and powerful island. Ben offers Jack and Juliet passage off the island, but Locke destroying the submarine ended that possibility.
Desmond and Charlie find a friendship when Desmond´s visions point to Charlie´s eventual death. Many of the early rescues in the season seemed to find Desmond saving Claire´s life at opportune moments, but it is revealed that he was actually saving Charlie and that no matter how many times Desmond stops the inevitable, it will happen. Hurley and Charlie are concerned with how Desmond came to survive the hatch and how he came to gain his special ability to see into the future, but the answers only raise more questions and the show´s big finale found another somber moment when Desmond´s visions finally came true and Charlie sacrificed himself in an act that he believed would save everybody else and allow them passage from the island.
After Locke, Sayid and others invaded the Others camp to free Jack, the Others decide to leave and head to a mysterious temple. An important storyline details the connection between Locke´s father and Sawyer and returns some of the Losties to the Black Rock. Ben had been promising to reveal many of the island´s secrets to Locke, but he had to break free of the painful bonds that are the memories of his father. Locke could not kill a man, and was surprised when his father showed up on the island via a ´magical box´ that could deliver whatever Ben wished four and he conned Sawyer into killing a fellow con-man. This led Locke on a different path and eventually Locke claimed his first blood when he murdered a woman who was a potential key to getting Jack, Kate and the remaining Losties off of the island.
Two new characters were introduced to the beach inhabiting Losties. Nikki and Paolo were forced upon viewers and never fully accepted. Sawyer and others poked fun at them and constantly questioned who they were and where they came from. They always seemed to appear at unusual times and their actual purpose was never fully explained until the episode "Expose" when male viewers were rewarded with an incredibly sexy for prime time pole dancing sequence with Nikki and a great cameo by Billy Dee Williams. Nikki and Paolo never caught on with audiences and they too met demise on the island when they were buried alive. They were only minor supporting characters, but their exit only proved further that the show´s creators were not afraid to take anybody out at anytime and under any circumstance.
Juliet eventually joins the Losties on the beach when it appears she was ostracized and kicked out of the Others for her actions and for killing a man who was hell bent on killing Sawyer. However, this was just another complicated ruse created by Ben, who seems to have an incredible talent for knowing what is going to happen and to set up complicated schemes that always work to his benefit. Juliet is sent to test the pregnant Sun and find out why pregnant women always die on the island. This is important to solve so that the Others can live on the island and replenish their society. She is also testing other women, including Kate, to find out if anybody else is pregnant. Eventually, Mr. Friendly and some of the other Others will come and kidnap the women and take them away for further testing. However, Juliet announces these intentions and the Losties set up a trap for the invading Others to stop them once-and-for-all. This results in a bloodbath for Ben´s people and a number of his people are killed.
After Locke has Sawyer kill his father and some information is handed to Locke by one of Ben´s most trusted followers, Richard, Ben demands to meet the mysterious Jacob who seems to be the all-powerful leader of the Others and/or the island. Ben takes Locke to meet Jacob, but when they arrive at the shack, there appears to be nobody inside. An odd ash trail surrounds the shack, but that is not the only unusual thing about the visit. In a quick flash, Jacob reveals himself to Locke and begins to talk to the Lostie. This infuriates Ben, who was previously the only person who could see Jacob and talk to him. Ben shoots Locke in the back and leaves him lie in a pit containing the remains of those from the Dharma Initiative and it is revealed that Ben has been taken in and now commands a group of people that were on the island before Dharma and Hanso ever stepped foot on the island.
The season ends with Desmond, Charlie and Mikhail squaring off in the submerged Looking Glass station. This is the source of power to the island and where a cable previously found by Sayid comes from. A mysterious woman, Naomi, landed on the island and hinted to Desmond that his girlfriend Penny was looking for him. Jack leads most of the Losties to a radio tower where they can hopefully communicate to Naomi´s ship. Ben warns them that the freighter is not what they think and that if Jack does contact them that something truly evil will enter the picture. Locke does his best to prevent this from happening by killing Naomi with a perfectly thrown knife in her back, but Jack manages to get through to the boat and asks for help. Before he dies, Charlie reveals to Desmond that it was not Penny´s boat and the season ends with a flashfoward that proves Jack and Kate made it off the island, but that Jack wants to return.
I´ll summarize my feelings on the third season quickly.
I enjoyed the third season of "Lost" and felt it really started to take off after the original six episodes concluded. Many questions were answered and familiar characters returned to form. I loved seeing Locke return to the jungle and once again becoming a powerful enigma that bordered the line between good and bad. I felt Sawyer became a little too ´mushy,´ but he too redeemed himself before the season ended. The characters of Ben and Desmond become strong starring characters, but it was sad to see Charlie and Ecko leave. I had originally wanted Charlie to go, but the writers did an incredible job of making audiences sympathetic to the recovering heroin addict before killing him off. Ecko was sadly missed, but Ben provided a nice companion for Locke. The Sawyer/Kate/Jack triangle continues to frustrate, but Juliet would be my pick between her and Kate. Jacob is a new mystery. Smokey is still a mystery. Who are the Others was explained, but not entirely and I still feel another tribe exists on the island. Hurley is still funny as hell and I loved watching him drive around the island in his VW van. This season wasn´t as good as the first season, but it was an improvement over the second season.
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