So, you are one of the three people on the planet (or maybe just your family) who have not seen an episode of Lost. Just what the heck have you been doing? Now you are tired of hearing about Sawyer, monsters and the never ending theories and want to know what all the fuss is all about.
Never fear – I’m going catch you up, fill you in, and make you appear that you actually are in the know with my Lost guide for the Uninitiated (better known as “Lost for Dummies”)
First I’ll try the easy way out – Lost in 10 words.
Plane. Crash. Island. Survivors. Monster. French Lady. Others. Hatch. Numbers. Henry Gale. White Light!!
Ok, that’s 11 words, but who’s counting. Do you get it as yet? No, didn’t think so.
Let’s try a few more words.
Flight 815 is on its way from Australia to Los Angeles when it hits turbulence. The plane is 1000 miles off course. It crashes. On an island.
Plane. Crash. Island
The crash leaves 2 sets of survivors on different parts of the island who initially don’t know about each other. They have no way to contact the outside world.
Who are the survivors, you ask. Ah, now this is where the beauty of the show is. We have a bunch of misfits and crazies who must now not only learn to live together but trust each other as weird events begin to unfold.
We have a doctor, a murderer, a con man, a hobbit hooked on heroin, a heavily pregnant woman who gives birth on the island, a rich step brother and sister, an ex-Iraqi solder, a fat guy, a father and son, a Korean couple who apparently can’t speak any English and a guy who had been paralyzed but can now miraculously walk.
Learning to get along
We also have a whole host of unidentified survivors known as red-shirts, who rarely get much screen time or get named. Except Steve and Artz and that Froghurt guy. But a word of wise to the red-shirts, if you get a name, well then…you know your time is almost up. At least Artz got 2 episodes of screen time and went off with a bang…literally.
Bye Bye Artz
On the other end of the island are the 2nd lot of survivors from the tail section of the plane (now to be known as tailies, and collectively, all survivors are known as losties). We have a Nigerian drug lord turned Priest, a psychologist, and old white dude, and the tough cop leader of the group called Ana-Lucia.
The tailies make their grand appearanceSo, they are on an island, trapped. What’s so interesting about that? Not much really, except for the fact that the island is crazy! And there seems to be a monster on it. Although we can’t really be certain, as we have only seen it once, and
that can’t really be classified as a monster. Well, what it lacks in CGI, it makes up for with noise. Is that thing loud or what!
Trying to stare down the "monster"We have also learnt that the island was the base for an experiment (run by the equally mysterious Dharma Foundation) which went wrong. Hmm. Maybe then would explain why we have seen not one, but two polar bears romping about in the jungle.
And a gigantic bird too.
We have also learnt that the island has electro-magnetic properties, which possibly hide the island from the outside world. We also know that there’s a
four-toed statue
and an old ship in the jungle.
Added to the island mystery, is a hatch discovered by Locke (the miraculously walking again man).
When the hatch is eventually opened, Desmond reared his Scottish head from within the hatch. We know that if somebody doesn’t enter the numbers onto the very ancient computer that’s in the hatch every 108 minutes, something catastrophic will happen – supposedly the end of the world!
We also know that apart from our losties, on the island is a French woman who was stranded on the island 16 years previously.
The French chick
We’ve also learnt that the island is inhabited by a mysterious bunch of people known as the “Others”.
Their bite is worse than their bark
The Others may or may not be lead by a man
not named Henry Gale.
The man known as Henry GaleUnlike Danielle (the French woman), the Others are not peaceable (although according to them, they are the “good guys”) and they have kidnapped children as well as adults and murdered some red-shirts too. The Others are scary, and don’t wear shoes.
Now, the final piece of vital information is that if the numbers are not entered in time, Desmond has a fail-safe key to shut the electro-magnetic pulse, which when activated causes a great amount of white light and also causes the hatch to explode.
Stay away from the light!!! Stay away from the Light!!There, now you should know everything! What’s that… you still have questions!! That’s ok, there’s not a person around who’s watched the show (except for JJ Abrams – the creator of show) who doesn’t have questions, but you will have to wait for Part 2 for more info.
Part 2: Who's who