It’s September 22nd and that’s Lost Day.
“‘Lost’ Day?” you ask? Yes, ‘Lost’ Day. The anniversary of the day the ill-fated Oceanic Flight 815 ended up…. well…. somewhere. It’s hard to say, but it’s definitely an island that serves as a metaphor for something.
It’s odd that as I write this article, I’m literally sitting on a plane. Even more odd, we’ve hit quite a rough patch of weather, and everything shakes and shimmies at odd and disconcerting times. It’s times like these I’m glad ‘Lost’ taught me why I keep my seatbelt on.
Is it strange that I think about that every time I get on a plane? That I think “better make sure my seat belt is on so I don’t get launched into the carry-on luggage bins right before my plane breaks in half and I end up on an island that is definitely a metaphor for something I still haven’t quite comprehended?” Maybe it is.
You’ve guessed it. I’m a Lostie. Have been since Season Two. I made it through the mess of Season Three, and I marveled at the wonders Brian K. Vaughn can do as a story editor in Season Four. I also really hate the last episode. I’m a Lostie through and through.
Now, this month I had the distinct pleasure of attending DragonCon. I lamented because of all the fandoms I’m in, the most lonely is ‘Lost’. Tumblr is dominated by ‘Star Trek’, ‘Glee’, ‘Supernatural‘, and ‘Doctor Who‘. Where were my brethren? It was the highest rated show on network television forever. How could it be so easily forgotten? Was I Sayid’s long lost love in the face of Shannon?
That’s right. ‘Lost’ reference. Boom.
This computer finds me friends everywhere I go.It turns out, Losties are the shamed fandom. We hide in the corners of all the others, watching in silence. And while I saw two people dressed up in Dharma uniforms (something which I attributed to easy/lazy cosplay in my jadedness), it wasn’t until I attended the Lost panel that I realized just how strong we really were. Sure, we may have dispersed to find other places like ‘Sherlock’, ‘Supernatural’, or even ‘Under the Dome’, but Losties are always Losties at heart, and the panel room was packed to the brim. People lined the walls, sat on the floors, and sat outside the door to hear the latest theories about a show that has questions that still hasn’t been completely answered. Also, it turns out every single one of us still hates the episode “Stranger in a Strange Land”, or as we all call it with derision “Jack’s Tattoo”.
That’s what I love about the show. While you can doubt the veracity of the writers when they state that they had nearly everything planned (aside from some of the actors’ rather precipitous leavings), they really had everything so thoroughly thought out that the fans are still finding the answers 5 years later. Whether the writers trapped themselves in a corner by announcing when the last episode would be without really understanding how many things needed to be wrap up, or forgotten to tie up some loose ends, I truly believe that the lack of answers in a show that has a strange underlying current about faith is its most attractive element. I like guessing and supposing what’s going, and I like discussing it with fans even more if I could only just find them.
So, if you’re a Lostie and you’re reading this, don’t lose hope and comment below! We are out there! And we still love the show.