Twenty years ago,Lost, created byJ.J.
(I would soon abandon it entirely.
It didnt take long for me to go from arms-folded standoffishness to embracing it with all-in swoony ardor.
Matthew Fox as Jack Shepard on ‘Lost’.Mario Perez/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
In fact, it took exactly seven days.
The hour ended on a WTF?
After the smash to black and ominous, kick-drum Bom!
Evangeline Lilly as Kate on ‘Lost’.Mario Perez/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
that would become the shows signature sonic sign-off, my wife was sufficiently wowed.
That wasreally good,she declared.
I couldnt disagree,buuuuut… Was there really a series here?
Terry O’Quinn and Matthew Fox on the ‘Lost’ episode ‘Walkabout’.Mario Perez/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
The characters were well-cast but rather thin; could they evolve into something more than archetypes?
message in French, recorded 16 years earlier, begging for help, warning of something murderous.
AfterLoststwo-week pilot event ended on Charlies instant classic line Guys… where are we?
Yunjin Kim, Matthew Fox, and Ian Somerhalder on the ‘Do No Harm’ episode of ‘Lost’.Mario Perez/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
I turned to my wife and told her she was right: This showwasreally good.
And it kept getting better.
MyLostfandom looked a lot like everyone elsesLostfandom during that near-perfect, pop phenom, Emmy-winning season.
The ‘Exodus’ episode of ‘Lost’.Mario Perez/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
Like mostLosties, the fourth episode, Walkabout, absolutely knocked me off my feet.
While the mysteries were capturing my imagination (The Whispers!
The Adam and Eve Skeletons!
Harold Perrineau as Michael on the ‘Lost’ episode ‘Pilot’.Mario Perez/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
The Hatch, oh my God, THE HATCH!
), they werent running away with it, either.
They played like delightfully strange textures or promises of things to be explored later.
Watchmen # 1 Comic (1986).DC Comics
I was in no hurry for resolution.
The more grounded and visceral the writers could make all that, the better.
And the two-part, three-hour (!)
The ‘Lost’ series finale episode, ‘The End’.Mario Perez/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
Lostdescended into the shadowy, nothing-is-what-it-seems (unless it is?)
I clearly did not get this memo.
Or at least, I didnt take it fully to heart.
Jorge Gargia as Hurley on the ‘Pilot’ episode of ‘Lost’.Mario Perez/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
It was in the vault of mystery that was The Hatch that Doc Jensen was born.
arc, determined to crack the case along with Agent Dale Cooper.
During the early years ofAlias, I would send theEWstaff epic emails about the Rambaldi mythology.
H.M.Wynant, Robin Hughes, and John Carradine in ‘The Howling Man’ episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’.Courtesy Everett Collection
Writing theories aboutLostbecame part of my job atEW, but it was always a very personal crusade, too.
What didnt get passed onto me was his intellectual carefulness and common sense.
Writing aboutLostalways gave me joy.
Titus Welliver on the ‘Ab Aeterno’ episode of ‘Lost’.Mario Perez/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
It was the time I solvedLost a feat that I only just recently realized I accomplished.
Yeah, yeah, I know.Why?
Well, back in season 2, the underlying logic of this conjecture wasnt all that outlandish.
(I think?)
Moreover, if youre going to investigate a possibility like this, you gotta start somewhere.
So, I wondered: What if the numbers was that code key?
My next step was obvious.
It was also home to a man in a locked room who just howls and howls and howls.
David isnt sure whether to believe Jerome, and the howling man seizes on his doubt.
(In the words of John Locke, from the season 2 finale ofLost: Oops.)
I was crazy forLost.Literally.
After the show ended, I tried to theorize about others.
In some cases, readers told us flatly: Stop.like.
They considered the show much too high brow for my low form of analysis.)
I hear its really good.
