Lost - updated overview

[alemyrddin.livejournal.com]

Hi, folks.
I'm going to drive the van for LOST in the next month.
It's been a while since Lost was last featured here, so here's the updated overview.
I hope you can find it interesting enough to give Lost a shot - it had its ups and downs but overall it's really a compelling show. And the fics are great too. ;)
Recs are coming soon!

Lost: An Overview

So, first of all huge thanks to sparky77: this overview is based on the one she did in 2005, when Lost was in its first season, and she did a great job with it. I’m just updating it with the latest plot developments and new characters.

Then, a big thank you to zelda_zee for patiently proofreading this while at the same time organizing challenges, moderating comms and generally cheerleading the Lost fandom. And of course thanks also to my flist for the useful comments and suggestions, and for the encouragement.

WARNING: this overview contains SPOILERS up to the Season 4 finale.

Lost, as sparky77 already mentioned, is quite hard to summarize, so if I left out anything that people think is important, please let me know and I’ll try to fix it.

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Lost in less than 1000 words
At its most basic level, Lost is a show about the survivors of a plane crash (Oceanic 815, traveling from Sydney to LA) trying to survive on a mysterious tropical island filled with whispering voices, stampeding boars, monsters that we never get to see, and other assorted oddities. The show was created by J.J. Abrams of Felicity and Alias fame. The creators of the show have also mentioned that they were heavily influenced by The Stand and other assorted novels. So it’s not only a story of island survival, but also supposedly an allegory of good and evil. Each episode shows a bit of the castaways’ struggle to survive and set up some sort of working society on the island. And each episode features one character whose background gets explored in depth through a series of flashbacks. Though there are a few exceptions, most of the island residents could not be considered model citizens by any stretch of the imagination.

That was what Lost was about in the first season, and, at its core, still is, but since then things have gotten a little more complicated. The mysterious tropical island turned out to be filled not only with voices, but with creepy people as well, the so-called Others, who are partly the remains of a project called Dharma Initiative and partly some other people previously inhabiting the island, whose presence is still to be explained, called by the Dharma people “the Hostiles”.

In the course of the second, third and fourth seasons, a number of new characters have been introduced, some from the plane – the survivors of the middle section still have the leading roles, but we learned that there were survivors from the tail section as well – and some from the island, like Desmond, a Scotsman who shipwrecked on the island a few years before during a sailing race, and a few belonging to the Others.

More recently, the plot has thickened and we learned that the plane crash was a byproduct of an epic conflict between two evil masterminds, both wanting control over the island’s special powers: Benjamin Linus, the leader of the Others, who killed the scientists from the Dharma Initiative, and Charles Widmore, a wealthy industrialist whose daughter, Penelope, is Desmond’s longtime love.

In Season 4, a freighter, the Kahana, brought a group of men to the island, apparently sent by Widmore: a few were scientists, wanting to learn the secrets of the island, while others were soldiers whose task was to capture Ben Linus.

Time travel is starting to factor in as well: it’s the field of research of one of the scientists who arrived on the island with the freighter, Daniel Faraday. Faraday was able to discover a few minutes of discrepancy between time on the island and the off-island time. People have to be particularly careful when going to and from the island because their consciousness can become lost in time, which eventually will kill them. This happened to a few minor characters, and to Desmond. To avoid dying, one has to find a person who can anchor them in time; someone who has been present in meaningful moments during one’s lifetime. This person is one’s Constant. In a moving scene in Season 4, Desmond was able to reach his love Penny via telephone just in time, thanks to Faraday’s help.

In Season 4, some of the episodes started to represent flash-forwards instead of flashbacks: these showed how the castaways dealt with life after returning home. We learned that a handful of survivors (Hurley, Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sun and Aaron, nicknamed the Oceanic Six) were able to leave the island via a helicopter from the freighter, which then crashed, but the Oceanic Six (O6) were picked up by a boat belonging to Penny. Penny's boat transported them safely to another island, where they were found by local residents, but not before Jack convinced his fellows of the necessity for secrecy about their experience, in order to prevent crazy quests for the island.
The O6 had a hard time adjusting to life after the island and learned from John Locke, one of the survivors who had been left behind on the island but who had somehow traveled to LA and had spoken to at least Jack and Kate, that they had to go back to the island to try to fix things. It’s not known what exactly had gone wrong, but one of the last scenes of Season 4 shows the island disappearing after Ben used an ancient-looking wheel that apparently moved it. It’s possible that it moved in time as well as in space.

Lost is known to end with its 6th season, and there’s a strong suspicion that the next seasons will deal with how to get back to the island and "fix" things, whatever that means.

If you want a story of about a group of people pulling together in the face of adversity and overcoming great challenges, this is most definitely not the show for you. It’s pretty much the story of a bunch of severely screwed up people, some searching for redemption, some who have redemption thrust upon them, and some who are just plain creepy, trying to exist on an island that doesn’t make any sense. They fight each other. They torture each other. They flirt excessively with each other. Sometimes they even stop with the fighting and the flirting enough to get something productive done. And as an added bonus, their past lives are somehow all mysteriously interconnected. It’s basically Survivor crossed with Real World crossed with Steven King crossed with Crack. And it’s pretty fabulous.

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In order to help you understand the complex world of Lost, filled with hot men getting wet and rolling around the ground intrigue, mystery, and bunnies, I present Craphole Island: Your Guide to Island Adventure.



Island History

Congratulations on your choice of our island as your vacation destination! We are confident that, whether you chose to come here or whether the choice was made for you, you will enjoy your stay. Please pay no attention to the less-than-flattering nickname for the island. We can assure you that the name arose from love and not at all from total disgust and frustration with our attractive island location and many fabulous amenities. Also please ignore any dead bodies you may encounter in the water or hanging in or possibly swinging from trees. We assure you that our murder and accidental death rate is entirely within the norm for an island of this type.

We know that you have many questions about our island and we will do our best not to answer them in the most thorough way possible. You may be wondering where exactly the island is, or how exactly you got here, or what does the monster look like, and why are there polar bears running free on a tropical island, and is there really a crazy French lady wandering about the jungle; or if you are philosophical in nature you might be wondering if the island really exists, is it the figment of someone’s imagination, does it somehow reflect everyone’s innermost desires and fears, is it a limbo-type place where people are tested and must find their path to redemption or damnation, what does Sawyer look like naked, or does the island in fact contain the last survivors on the planet who now must engage in a apocalyptic battle of good and evil, and why exactly is that hobbit snorting heroin over there?

Excellent questions one and all. And the answer is yes, yes, somehow, maybe, incredibly hot, why not, and what the hell else would a hobbit be doing?

Kidding.

The fact of that matter is we really don’t know what the island is, we only work here and ogle the pretty men and women, but here are all the answers that we have. Our fabulous island of many surprises attracts its visitors with our patented fiery wreck technique that works on both planes and boats. The current island residents are not the first group to inhabit our lovely shores and cozy caves. Most recently a research team was stranded on the island and you can still meet one of the survivors. Pay no attention to her talk about infections, and killing people to save them, and menacing sounding ‘Others.’ She’s quirky, but it’s people like her that make our island the special and unique place that we love so much. You might also want to visit the historical caves and see the remains of our very own Adam and Eve, though whether or nor they really were the first visitors to our wondrous island is a mystery.

You might also hear mention of The Black Rock, a place that seems fraught with historical significance. You might be tempted to journey there looking for answers and we would like to encourage you to visit our lovely waterfalls and enjoy our many delicious tropical fruits. It’s just a rock. Or maybe not, who knows? You might also think that many of the island’s mysteries can be uncovered by opening the strange hatches in the jungle. And we of course encourage you to try some nice roasted boar and are happy to inform you that sometimes our island residents take their shirts off.

And what of the monster that seems to be able to rip off people’s skin and uproot trees? Where did it come from? And can Ben really control it?

Yes, what of the monster?! What an intriguing mystery with an absolutely astonishing and profound answer, which we’re sure we don’t need to explain as it should be quite self-evident.

We hope you have enjoyed this brief history of our lovely island. If you have any further questions, we are happy to direct you to the helpful voices that you can occasionally hear whispering in the jungle that we of course don’t hear because we are entirely sane. There are no voices. Forget we mentioned them and enjoy your stay on our happy island.



A Spotter’s Guide to Island Residents

There is never a dull moment on our island of fun with all the interesting people, flora, and fauna you might encounter on your travels.

Come with us on a magical tour of the island and meet all our unique residents. Watch out for the animals packed with symbolic meaning. From the smallest moth to the largest, meanest boar, you never know when you might meet an animal that represents some aspect of your inner turmoil. Don’t think of it as a nuisance, think of it as free therapy.

Please don’t be alarmed if any of the residents start staring intently off into space. They’re having a flashback. It’s entirely normal and just another happy little quirk of island life.

Over there, notice the leader of our island residents, known as Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox).
A reluctant and often cranky leader, Jack loves rescuing people and brooding over his daddy issues. Before he came to our scenic island he turned in his alcoholic father, Christian Shephard (John Terry), for malpractice, resulting in his father fleeing to Australia and dying as a direct or indirect result of his excessive drinking. On the island, Jack can be found playing golf, participating in a love triangle with Kate and Sawyer, or doing something heroic in an exceedingly attractive fashion. We recommend noticing the arms. They’re nice arms.

He made his home in the caves for a while (See our Tips on Island Survival for more information of the caves and their impressive safety record), but was then transferred into the Other’s care (or cage) with Kate and Sawyer after Michael’s betrayal. With a crazy medical stunt on Ben, who needed his help to remove a tumor on his spine, Jack secured escape for Sawyer and Kate, and was afterwards left behind in Othersville - and then reunited to his fellow survivors when the Others inexplicably retired to the Temple, a yet-to-be-shown Dharma Initiative station hidden in some remote corner of the island. During his period in the Hydra cage, Jack learned about the Red Sox winning the World Series, got to know Ben better and was first introduced to Juliet, his food supplier.

Jack is a great person to visit if you want the very best in surly medical care, although he might lose control of his tears a few times while he’s patching you up. Do try not to ask him about his father because it can stimulate more tears, flashbacks and hallucinations of his father’s ghost.

Jack is one of the Oceanic Six. Back in LA, he can be seen drinking in the mornings, having an unsuccessful relationship with Kate, learning that Claire was his half-sister (thanks to daddy’s escapades to Australia) and visiting Hurley in hospital to be sure he keeps on lying about their experience. More recently, he appears broken and desperate, has developed an addiction to Oxycodone and become suicidal, and has been using the free lifetime’s travel on Oceanic Airlines to fly around the world, hoping to crash. He encountered Ben Linus in a funeral parlor in LA where Jack had gone to view the casket of one Jeremy Bentham, aka John Locke. There, Ben convinced Jack to go back to the island in order to right what is wrong.

And the next island resident we come across is Kate (Evangeline Lilly), at least that’s what we think her name is. She has some issues with lying. The easiest way to find Kate is to act like you’re just about to do something interesting and she will most likely pop up and ask to come along. Kate is the mystery girl for our island of intrigue. She’s a wanted fugitive and once orchestrated a bank robbery to get a toy plane. She enjoys being mysterious, lying, adventures, and flirting with Jack and Sawyer. The Others knew this too, and after kidnapping her thanks to Michael’s help, they had her locked in a cage in front of Sawyer’s and enjoyed her climbing in his to have some hot cage!sex that Jack was lucky enough to see on a surveillance screen. Since then, she had taken up the disconcerting habit of calling Sawyer ‘James’, which happens to be his real name, but also one he never gave her permission to use.

Kate is another of the Oceanic Six. She is posing as Aaron’s (Claire’s son) mother and for a while she even tried to build a happy family with Jack (Claire’s half-brother and therefore the kid’s uncle), but eventually lies and mistrust made their relationship fall apart. Upon her return to civilization Kate was tried for her crimes and acquitted, thanks in part to Jack, who committed perjury to testify on her behalf.

And sulking on the rock over there we have Charlie Pace (Dominic Monaghan).
Charlie Pace is our very own island celebrity. He was the bass player for the band Driveshaft; mostly known for their hit single “You All Everybody” and for not being in any way at all exactly like Oasis. Charlie was a good Catholic boy who got lured into the rock star life by his older brother Liam and eventually became addicted to heroin. Lucky for Charlie, our island is also a rehabilitation center and with the help of Locke, a symbolic moth, a cave-in, and some biblical imagery, Charlie was able to kick his habit.

Charlie had a hard time on the island: he had to deal with drug withdrawal, getting hung and killing someone. Charlie likes Claire, peanut butter, his guitar, feeling needed, and hanging out with Hurley, Jin and Desmond.

During S3, Charlie’s life was constantly in danger and Desmond’s role was to prevent his death putting the visions he had of the future (i.e. ‘flashes’) to good use. At the end of the third season, Charlie swam down an underwater station to stop the disturbing signal that prevented communications – and therefore rescue for Claire and Aaron. He succeeded, but in the end he drowned, dying as a hero.

And now let’s take a trip to the beach to meet James Ford, better known as Sawyer (Josh Holloway). Sawyer is really pretty and he often gets wet. Those are probably the two most important things to know about him. There’s also this whole thing about how Sawyer isn’t his real name, but the name of the man, who as part of a con, slept with his mother, causing his father to kill his mother and then kill himself. Sawyer vowed to get revenge, but ended up becoming a con man himself and hates himself because he became exactly like the person he most hated. And he also accidentally killed the wrong man while trying to get revenge. However, a strange turn of fate Ben’s mind brought the ‘original Sawyer’ (who also happens to be Locke’s dad – yeah, it’s a small world, isn’t it?) to the island for Sawyer to kill him at last. That horrible man had it coming, by the way. But that’s not important. The pretty is important. And the wet. And the occasional lack of shirts.

On the island, Sawyer is quite the industrious entrepreneur. He has scavenged anything remotely useful from the wreckage and enjoys the drama that results anytime someone needs to ask him for something. If you ask him nicely, he usually just gives people what they want, which is no fun at all. It’s much more fun when people demand things from him and threaten him and torture him. Not that we find anything involving torture attractive. Shame on you for even thinking that. In tips on island survival we will explain the three best ways to get any supplies you might need from Sawyer.

Sawyer was kidnapped along with Jack and Kate by the Others and kept in a cage where he enjoyed a fake but nevertheless scary heart operation and some small talk about bunnies and two different islands. He eventually escaped with Kate thanks to Jack’s con at Ben’s expense.

Sawyer enjoys brooding on the beach in his tent, flirting with Kate, flirting with Sayid, and annoying Jack. He also has excellent taste in sunglasses and is an expert shot when shooting polar bears, but not so much at shooting a man to put him out of his misery. He also enjoys giving people nicknames and playing "I never."

He was last seen relaxing on the island beach after jumping down from the chopper and swimming back to the island in a heroic gesture that allowed the Oceanic Six to be rescued. His current situation, along with the exact island location, is unknown.

And on the beach, we find Sayid (Naveen Andrews). He is also pretty. Sayid can often be found fiddling with electronic gadgets. He likes trying to build complex devices in order to boost radio signals, constructing elaborate signal fires and map decoding. It’s a good thing he’s so pretty or we might be insulted by his interest in leaving our attractive beaches and exciting jungles of adventure. Before coming to our island, Sayid was a member of the Iraqi Republican Guard and tortured people for a living, though he often angsts about doing the wrong thing. During his time in the Republican Guard Sayid even tortured Nadia, a childhood friend and woman he had a romantic interest in. In the end, however, he risked his life and allowed her to escape. He returned to his torturing ways in order to get information from Sawyer. Or it might have been a weird sort of flirtation, we’re not really sure. Sayid enjoys being smug and subtly mocking people, flirting with Shannon, flirting with Sawyer, the occasional bit of torture, and building things. Since coming to the island he has been hit on the head, strung up, tortured, injected, and severely wounded. You would think he would have learned his lesson about trying to leave.

Sayid is now one of the Oceanic Six and after a brief marriage with his long lost-and-found-again love Nadia, terminated when she was murdered – apparently by one of Widmore’s men – Ben recruited him to work as a hired gun. Against his better judgment, Sayid accepted, forced by some kind of threat over his friends’ lives.

Our most enterprising island residents are the married couple Sun (Yunjin Kim) and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim). Sun often spends her free time gardening and finding useful herbs. Jin likes to spend his time fishing. Their marriage got off to a rocky start when Jin agreed to work for Sun’s father in exchange for him letting Jin marry his daughter. He soon learned that his job involved being a hired thug. Sun wanted to leave Jin because he had become cold and consumed by work. Jin hated his job and wanted to flee to America with Sun. Sun secretly took English lessons so that she could run away from Jin, but changed her mind at the last minute because she still loved him. Jin enjoys fishing, brooding, being cute with Sun, telling ghost stories and laughing at Hurley. Sun enjoys gardening, being useful, taking off her clothes, and occasionally being a badass.

Sun was able to get on the chopper and returned to civilization as one of the Oceanic Six, while Jin was last seen on the exploding freighter. He is probably dead, though with Lost you can never be sure. Sun gave birth to Jin’s daughter, Ji Yeon, because of the island’s magical qualities that made it possible for them to have children despite their infertility. Recently Sun was also seen trying to get Widmore into a strange alliance against Ben, possibly driven by revenge.

If you have any problems or concerns at all while visiting our island we recommend talking to Hugo “Hurley” Reyes (Jorge Garcia) though whatever you do, don't call him crazy, he doesn't like that. He is always eager to lend a helping hand and was instrumental in building our lovely golf course. Hurley is our richest island resident, having won the lottery using possibly cursed numbers that can also be found in other random locations scattered about the island. Hurley likes saying ‘dude,’ listening to his walkman, making jokes, being the voice of reason, hanging out with Charlie, being practical and sensible when no one else is, and talking to crazy French ladies who agree with him on the subject of cursed numbers.

After getting back to civilization as one of the Oceanic Six, Hurley found himself unable to cope with too many visiting ghosts and got himself committed to a mental institution. In the last episode of Season 4 Sayid made him escape from the institution, in order to protect him and, presumably, reunite him with the others in order to get back to the island.

We're quite excited about our next island resident, Claire (Emilie de Ravin). When the plane crashed, she looked like she was about to have a baby any second now. Claire had been about to give her baby up for adoption, but had been warned by a psychic that terrible things would happen if she didn’t raise the baby herself. At the psychic’s suggestion, Claire decided to go to LA to give the baby to another couple who could successfully raise the child. However, Claire later came to believe that the psychic had tricked her and that he had intended her to come to this island all along. We don’t really know. We’re just happy to have her baby.
Claire has had a bit of a rough time on the island. After a few rather upsetting nightmares, she was kidnapped by Ethan Rom and spent several days as a drugged-up captive of The Others and when she wandered back to the group several days later she had no memory of her time on the island. Claire enjoys spending time with Charlie, astrology, imaginary peanut butter, and being excessively cheerful in the face of adversity.

Claire was able to have her baby (Aaron) successfully, much to the Other’s and in particular Juliet’s surprise (see below), but Season 4 has probably marked her last appearance on Lost. She was last seen either dead or not completely sane, in Jacob’s cabin, completely uncaring for her baby’s whereabouts, though she likes to visit him as a ghost in the future.

Our next island resident can occasionally be a bit tricky to find, but if you give him an opportunity for a dramatic entrance, he will almost always take it. John Locke (Terry O’Quinn) is our most enthusiastic resident and a great spokesperson for our fabulous island. Before arriving, he was wheelchair-bound and worked at a boring office job where his boss ridiculed him. Since coming to our island he has miraculously been cured and is able to walk and hunts boar for the rest of the group. He has also functioned as a spiritual advisor and has helped several of our residents with various crises. Sure, his methods are sometimes a bit questionable and he keeps secrets and teaches young children to play with knives, but he is only trying to make sure all the residents of our island get the most out of their experience and we support him 100 percent! Locke enjoys looking mysterious and morally ambiguous, playing with his knives, telling symbolic stories, and indulging his delusions of grandeur.

Locke is the character who was most fascinated with the island from the start, and we learned that he was probably destined to be its leader in some way. After the Oceanic Six left, he passed some time being the leader of the Others, a position that Ben had left vacant after he moved the island – once one did that, one could never return, apparently. In the Season 4 finale, we last saw Locke under the name of Jeremy Bentham in a casket in a funeral parlor in Los Angeles. We have no idea how or why he died – though the press reported it as suicide – but we know that Ben wants Jack to bring Locke’s body back to the island.

Generally following right behind Locke, you could once find Boone and often not far behind Boone, his stepsister Shannon. Boone (Ian Somerhalder) and Shannon (Maggie Grace) have some issues of the flowers in the attic variety. Though they are stepsiblings, they identify themselves as brother and sister. Boone seems to have spent most of his adult life in love with Shannon and Shannon appears to have spent most of their adult life running from place to place and trying to con money out of Boone by tricking him into paying off her various boyfriends to leave her. Shannon enjoys being bitchy, singing, flirting with Sayid, and harassing her brother. Boone enjoys following people around like a puppy dog, being incompetent, screwing things up, stalking his sister, and playing with Locke in the jungle. He also holds the distinction of never having won a fight with another island resident.

Boone died at the end of the first season, falling from a cliff in the biplane relict he found with Locke. He was “a sacrifice the island demanded”, in Locke’s words. Jack tried to save him, to no avail.

Shannon engaged in a romance with Sayid, but was shot dead by Ana Lucia – the leader of the tail section survivors – when the second group of survivors met the middle section survivors for the first time and misidentified each other the enemy.


And now we come to Michael, (Harold Perrineau Jr.) his son Walt, (Malcolm David Kelley), and Walt’s dog Vincent. Michael and Walt were reunited after the death of Walt’s mother. Walt’s mother’s husband had not wanted Walt because he claimed that Walt was weird. Walt appears to have caused a bird to crash into a window when he was angry, he has astonishingly luck with dice, can possibly make polar bears appear because he saw them in a comic book, and burned down a raft his father was building because he wanted to stay on the island.

Michael enjoys building rafts, lusting after Sun, fighting Jin and making stupid parenting decisions regarding Walt. Walt enjoys playing backgammon with Hurley or Locke, playing with knives, being vaguely creepy, and playing with his dog. Vincent enjoys food, being played with, Walt, and roaming around the jungle tricking people into thinking he’s the monster.

Walt was kidnapped by the Others at the end of the first season because they knew he had some kind of mysterious powers, though we don’t know exactly what they are. Michael agreed to betray his friends in order to get his son back and killed Ana Lucia and Libby (another tail section survivor) before leading Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley into a trap. Then Ben allowed him to take a boat and leave the island with Walt. Upon returning to civilization, things fell apart with Walt and Michael was convinced by Tom (one of the Others) to return to the island (on the freighter) and be Ben’s spy, hoping to redeem himself. He kind of did, sacrificing himself in order to buy some of his former island colleagues a few more seconds to escape the soon-to-be-exploding freighter. He is, to our knowledge, dead. But the timely appearance of Daddy-knows-it-all-Shephard at the moment of the explosion might indicate otherwise.

Walt, on the other hand, is very much alive and extremely tall, and was last seen talking to Hurley in the mental institution, hoping to hear something from him about his father. It seems possible that we might see him again.

Somewhat quieter and less noticeable than the above 14, you might encounter some other island residents near them. The most talkative and noticeable of this group is Rose (L. Scott Caldwell), a woman with a strong backbone and unshakeable spiritual faith. Rose believed that her husband was still alive somewhere else on the island even though he had been seated in the back of the plane, where no one appeared to have survived.
She was proved right in S2: her husband, Bernard (Sam Anderson), was indeed among the tail section survivors. Rose likes praying and helping hobbits out of their sulks.

Bernard and Rose never tried to get away from the island, because Rose believes it has cured her of cancer, much as it cured Locke’s legs. They are currently on the island, whose location in time and space is – as of now – unknown.

Other tail section survivors included: ex-cop Ana-Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez), who introduced herself by killing Shannon by mistake; Libby (Cynthia Watros), a not-completely-sane shrink and Hurley’s shortlived love interest; and Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) a reformed Nigerian war lord and drug smuggler posing as a priest, who apparently became more convinced of his faith every day until he was killed by the smoke monster. Ana-Lucia and Libby were both killed by Michael when he helped Ben escape from the hatch.


If you look extra-hard you might also meet some of our very special island residents.

You might run across Danielle Rousseau (Mira Furlan), a lovely French lady who was part of the research team that came to our island as part of an earlier group. She used to enjoy sending out ominous-sounding distress calls, but later expanded her favorite activities to include asking people relentlessly about the whereabouts of her daughter Alex and kidnapping and tying up pretty men (and who doesn’t enjoy doing that?).


Alex (Tania Raymonde) was raised by Ben as his daughter and was reunited with her mother, who she had previously thought dead, only at the end of Season 3. During Season 4 however, both Danielle and Alex died, shot to death by Widmore’s men. Alex was murdered in front of Ben’s eyes, who then took his revenge by killing the mercenary who killed her, Martin Keamy.

Hidden in the hatch was Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), who had been sharing it for three years with Kelvin Inman, one of Ben’s men. Kelvin taught Desmond that it was crucial to push a button located in the hatch’s computer room every 108 minutes without fail in order to keep the world from ending.


The day Desmond followed Kelvin out of the hatch and discovered he’d been lying about the non-breathability of the air outside, he ended up killing him by mistake and at the same time almost missing pushing the button in time, which, in turn, made the crash of Oceanic 815 occur.

After his failed attempt to leave the island on his sailboat and the explosion of the hatch, Desmond joined the camp of survivors, and discovered he was gifted with a mysterious ability to see flashes of the future, with which he predicted Charlie's imminent death. During the helicopter ride to the freighter, Desmond's consciousness began drifting in time. It became clear that he was at risk of it causing his death, until he was able to made contact with his constant, his long-lost love, Penelope Widmore (Sonya Walger), thanks to Daniel Faraday’s intervention and Sayid’s technical savvy. Desmond was rescued along with the Oceanic 6 by Penelope herself, and they went into a life of hiding from her father, Charles (Alan Dale), and from Ben.


Creepy and bug-eyed Benjamin Linus (Michael Emerson) arrived on the island as a child with his father, who worked for the Dharma Initiative. At some point, he allied himself with the Hostiles, a mysterious tribe of apparently native island-dwellers, and gassed to death all the members of the Dharma Initiative, thereby becoming the leader of the group of survivors known as Others.

Ben was kept prisoner by the Flight 815 survivors for a while, because he was believed a spy, and was released by Michael, in exchange for his son Walt. In the Season 4 finale, Ben fulfilled Jacob's orders by moving the island and was banished to the Sahara desert ten months into the future.
He is currently hunting down the Oceanic Six in order to get them back on the island, and Penny Widmore in order to kill her, in revenge for Widmore’s killing of Ben’s step-daughter, Alex.

Innocent blonde Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) hardened a lot during her three years on the island, and is now one tough cookie. She came to the island by being recruited by Richard Alpert, one of the Others, allegedly for Mittelos Bioscience. Juliet has been working as a fertility doctor on the island since then.

The island, in fact, despite having miraculous abilities in fixing various sicknesses, also causes every women to die during their pregnancy, therefore effectively preventing any baby from being born. Juliet was therefore very shocked by Aaron’s birth. Juliet’s loyalty has been in question for a while, apparently shifting from the Others to the survivors, until she ultimately betrayed the Others revealing their plan to Jack and therefore allowing the 815 survivors to kill the men Ben sent to kidnap the women – especially Sun, who was pregnant. Juliet can be seen falling for Jack, and remaining stranded on the now-disappeared island with Sawyer and the other survivors who were left behind.

Another characteristic sight of the island are strange people that we like to call ‘the Others’, or Udders, as Jin taught us.

You will mostly likely not encounter one of our favorite Others, Ethan Rom (William Mapother). He was shot several times and buried by Charlie, but you never know, he might just pop up when you least expect him. You can never tell what’s going to happen next on our wacky island! Ethan liked pretending to be one of the plane crash survivors when he had really been on the island all along. He also enjoys tormenting hobbits, kidnapping pregnant girls, murder, popping up out of nowhere and being incredible creepy.


Never-aging Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell) was probably the leader of the hostiles, and the one who pushed Ben into killing all the Dharma people with gas, during the so-called purge. He is now residing on the island and has welcomed Locke as his new partner in leadership, after following Locke’s ‘career’ in the outside world for a while. He was also the one to recruit Juliet and bring her to the island.

Mysterious Jacob, apparently incarnated in Christian Shepherd’s form, is said to be the leader of the Others and the person from whom Ben received his instructions. The only ones able to hear or see Jacob up to now are Ben, Locke and recently, Hurley. We don’t know about Richard, though it’s likely he can communicate with him as well. Not much more is known about Jacob and his powers, but he was last seen in his cabin, together with Claire – whethere she was a ghost or still alive, we don’t know.

The freighter brought a few weird people to the island, even if we don't know much about them: red-headed Charlotte Lewis (Rebecca Mader), a cultural anthropologist who apparently has been on the island before; Miles Straum (Ken Leung), a sort of ghost-whisperer; Frank Lapidus (Jeff Fahey), the chopper pilot who is now safely on Penny's boat and Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies), a brilliant physicist and the weirdest and most adorably stuttering of them all.

While Charlotte and Miles stayed on the island, Daniel was out at sea when the island moved. Therefore we don't know precisely where (or when) he is now. What we know is that he knows more than he lets on, he's a terrible liar, he has issues with memory and he knows a lot about time-travel. A guy like Daniel can probably be very helpful on an island that moves in space and time.


If you are extraordinarily lucky you might also encounter our exciting and mysterious monster, our fun loving boars, and our special breed of comic book polar bears.




Some Tips on Island Survival

Shelter:

We have many fabulous possible places of residence to meet the needs of even our most discriminating island residents.

Option 1: Our attractive beachfront serves as the home for those of our island residents who have not yet fully committed themselves to the fun and life-altering experiences that our island can offer. Our beachfront residents enjoy arts and crafts activities such as building signal fires and boats. We think it’s cute and are most definitely not at all responsible for the occasional sudden change of tides that causes them to scurry.


Option 2: Other island residents chose to live in our lovely and scenic caves. Don’t mind the occasional cave-in, it’s just our way of saying “Hi!” And we urge you to enjoy the waterfall and the fresh water and to ignore any dead bodies or creepy dolls you might find in the area or that rumor about the pregnant girl with the nightmares and the people attacking her with needles. We most certainly think the nickname ‘rape caves’ is a bit much and stand by the safety and comfort of our cave location. Moreover, the caves are currently vacant, so why not take advantage of all that free space?

Option 3: If you are feeling especially angsty or pensive we highly recommend our special ‘wandering around the jungle aimlessly’ package. We will be sure to provide you with fun hallucinations, traps, animals, and colorful people to meet to help you resolve whatever problems you might be experiencing. Let our jungle turn that frown upside-down!

Option 4: If you are tired of being outdoors when the rain of doom comes, we suggest you to find one of the many Dharma Initiative stations (a.k.a. hatches) scattered around the island. One for every taste, we like to say. There’s the basic model (the Arrow) and the deluxe one (the Swan). If you like mindgames we suggest the Pearl, while the Orchid is the perfect place for gardening. Other activities include immersions near the Looking Glass and visiting the zoo at the Hydra. The Staff is endowed with first-aid kits and major medical equipment, should anything happen. We are not saying it’s likely you’d be hanged or need a leg amputation or a C-section, but… it’s better to be prepared, right?

A handmade map of the hatches can be found behind the blast door in the Swan, or in the Flame, the Dharma Initiative station Mikhail Bakunin (Andrew Divoff) – a twice-believed-dead-yet-still-alive former Russian soldier and Other – was in charge of (yes, he appears to be dead at last. An exploding grenade would do that to you). If you are lucky, you can have Ben draw you another map, but, being the jolly fellow he is, that would probably lead you into some kind of trouble. Otherwise, you can simply “lift up your eyes and look north”, as Mr. Eko put it, and hope to stumble upon one by chance. Think at is as your very own treasure hunt!

Option 5: If you prefer something more civilized, with water and electric supply, then… why are you on the island at all?

Kidding.

We have the place for you: Othersville is a lovely village with barracks that can host up to 40 people, hostiles or not. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that it’s a bit hard to find a room here, despite the high turnover of people coming and going (Others, hostiles, prisoners, survivors…): Othersville is the island’s very own 5-star accommodation!

Food:

Every meal is a virtual feast in our island paradise. We have colorful tasty fruit of all shapes and sizes and tasty boar and fish if you desire something more substantial. It you want a more exotic treat try the sea urchin, but be careful about trying to catch your own, they sting! If you do happen to get stung by urchin, you DO NOT have to get someone to pee on it, though it is hilarious if you do.

Whenever you’re hungry for processed food, trust the Dharma Initiative to literally drop it in your lap – watch out, the crates are heavy!


Recommended reading material:

Watership Down – It’s either a book about bunnies or a social commentary on the struggles to set-up an effective government and society. Mostly, it’s about bunnies.

Lord of the Flies- Jack is Ralph. Sawyer is Jack. Hurley is Piggy. Or maybe not, to any and all of the above. Boars are still boars and signal fires are still signal fires and we still don’t understand who the Lord of the Flies is supposed to be, though that might be karmic justice of a sort because we never show anyone our monster.

The Stand - If you think our story moves slowly, go read the revised and extended edition of this book about a post-apocalyptic battle between good and evil.

A Wrinkle in Time - Along with Watership Down, one the many fabulous books that you can enjoy in Sawyer's book club. It has outcasts, time travel, people who get lost and then found, and a discussion on free will, but sadly no bunnies.

Other useful pieces of information:

1. Your compass may not work due to electromagnetic anomalies, just one of the many wacky things that make our island the exciting place that it is. You might try the tracking method to get around or if you are feeling especially heroic, you might try the Jack method of wandering around and trusting that your heroic nature will cause you to find things that allow you to act heroically.

2. Learn the difference between a dog and a big, scary monster. It will be very useful if you choose to wander about in the jungle.

3. If you need medical care, you might try Jack, but if you actually want to get better we suggest trying Sun and her herbal remedies made with native island ingredients. We do not recommend using Locke’s paste on any wounds you might get unless you enjoy the occasional vivid hallucination.

4. If you need something, Sawyer most likely has it. There are three ways of getting something from Sawyer. You can ask him nicely. This will be successful, but it is rather boring. You can be rude to him and threaten him. This is fun for everyone else, but you most likely won’t get what you want. You might also consider the fanfic way that involves the age-old tradition of exchanging sex for goods. It’s entertaining for everyone involved and you get what you need.

5. Don’t trust creepy men who say they are from Ontario or Minnesota.

6. Whatever Boone is doing, it’s best to do the opposite.

7. Keeping secrets is fun, and a favorite activity of all island dwellers. Don’t ever tell the whole truth and never, ever volunteer information, it will confuse and frighten everyone.

8. Love the island and it will love you.



Island Resources

If you are looking for more information our island, you can visit the following places:

Lostpedia is a complete wiki dedicated to Lost. You can find almost everything about characters, episodes and theories over there.

DarkUFO is usually among the first sites to post about news, spoilers and promos, including videos.

lost_newsletter is the main source of news on LJ. It has news and fic sections and it’s an incredibly useful tool.

Fic can be found at ficinabottle, lost_slash, lost_fanfic, lost_recs and lostquickfics. Or you can also try Lost Fan Fiction Archive.

Very useful also: lostficfinders.

lostsquee is a very active community, often promoting challenges and festivals dedicated to Lost fanfic.

At lost_fic_awards you can nominate and vote monthly for the best fics in different cathegories, or you can brows the winners list to read some beautiful fics.

Other interesting Lost comms are: lostfichallenge and lostpicksix for challenges; thelostlist for recs; thequillstation for discussions about writing fanfic.

For recaps, there’s Television Without Pity.

If you are interested in transcriptions of the episodes try Lost Hatch.

For general info and discussion try lost_news, lost_tv, or castaways. Or you can try Lost Media and The Fuselage, a messageboard where the writers and actors have been known to post.


We hope you've enjoyed this brief guide to our magical island. Please come and visit us soon!

Comments

[nic]

Woah. This show got even more complex after I stopped watching. Thanks for the awesome overview!

[alemyrddin.livejournal.com]

lol. Lost is bordering insanity, but I love it.
Glad you liked the review. :)

[toestastegood.livejournal.com]

Squee! I'm so excited about seeing Lost here again for this month. ♥

[alemyrddin.livejournal.com]

yay for Lost being recced! I hope my recs can be enjoyed by a lot of people!

and yay for my recbuddy! *highfives*
:)

[alemyrddin.livejournal.com]

I'm very happy to hear there is some interest for Lost! I hope you can enjoy my recs.
Glad you liked the overview. :)

[twigged.livejournal.com]

Thanks again!

[alemyrddin.livejournal.com]

thank you for keeping the van running - must be quite the job!
:)

[vowel-in-thug.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I miss Lost so much! This just made me miss it more!

Can't wait for your recs :)

[alemyrddin.livejournal.com]

I'm very happy to hear there is some interest for Lost! I hope you can enjoy my recs.
Glad you liked the overview. :)

...and yeah, february is still a long way down the road, but fanfic can help you cope! ;)

[lilian413.livejournal.com]

I stopped watching Lost after season 2, but your review kinda makes me wanna watch it again. Although it probably won't be as much as fun as your review, because damn, I think I fell off my chair laughing!!! :-)

[alemyrddin.livejournal.com]

well, I'd give it a shot... Seriously, Lost is bordering insanity, but it can also be very good.
...and, you could always try reading fanfic in the meantime - Lost is coming back only in February. ;)

Glad you liked the overview, I think most of the merit goes to the original compiler that set the ironic tone of it, I just tried to stick to it and if I could make you laugh, then I'm very happy. :)