The End Is The Beginning Is The End

Lost is not just a television show; it has become an epic story filled with mystery that has garnered twenty-three million participants. Some might call them viewers, but a participant of Lost doesn’t sit in front of flickering electronic pixels, seeking to escape life through subpar television programming. Lost requires us to be involved. The story, which has blossomed into a marathon of cultural, literary, scientific, and religious allusions, offers to its faithful adherents ideas worth pondering, books worth reading, scientific theories worth exploring, and ideas that very nearly burn a hole in our pockets. Lost, in all its illustrative, complex glory, demands that we dialogue, research, meet ourselves in the characters, and share our latest discoveries with one another.

What makes this series unique is not merely the distinctive flashbacks and flash-forwards through time, the infinite twists and turns of the narratives, the endless symbolism, clever and often subtle references to philosophy and theology, spellbinding storylines, and captivating mysteries. It is the sum of these parts that has created an entirely new genre of television and attracted what may be the most committed and diverse fan base in television history. College students are discussing the show with their grandmothers, professors are citing the show in their teaching, and adolescent boys are buying posters of Evangeline Lily in the same way my generation bought posters of Farrah Fawcett. Theologians engage the historical and biblical references, blue-collar workers discuss the show on their breaks, white-collar workers debate their theories around water coolers, and on an island off the coast of Honduras, kids in an orphanage raptly and faithfully follow the antics of the castaways via bootleg copies of the series. (from The Gospel According to Lost by Chris Seay)

Tonight the final season begins. Lost has been an incredible treat for me these past five seasons and I am incredibly excited to countdown as final secrets and mysterious are revealed (hopefully).

To say I’m sad that a tv show is wrapping up sounds pretty lame. I mean it is just a collection of stories and scenes and to some these stories and scenes are incredibly weird and disjoined. However, to me, Lost is just plain stinkin’ awesome!

I will miss the hours of entertainment. I will miss the theorizing and guessing with my friends. I’ll miss the “I’ll-have-to-Google-that” moments that drove me to learning about all kinds of things from ancient Egyptian customs to philosophy to Flannery O’Conner to quantum physics and time travel. Lost is a nerd’s dream come to true.

Tonight marks the beginning of the end. I guess everything that rises must converge. I’ll meet you on the island… for one last season. Namaste.