The Lost Season 4 Review – Part 1

The Oceanic six  make their escape from the island.

lost season 4

If there was any doubt that Lost was the best show on television, and I don’t think there was, Season 4 completely put those suspicions to rest.  Even though it clocked in at a meager fourteen episodes, the fourth installment of Lost managed to pack in more thrills, twists, and edge-of-your-seat shockers than any of the previous three.  The fact that such a statement can be made is a testament to the creative genius of the show’s writing staff.  Usually by the time Season 4 rolls around even the biggest of hit shows tend to find themselves a slump.  At this point in the game pretty much every storyline, romance, and surprise that the creators brainstormed at the start has been played.  In essence, the writers have shown their entire hand and unless they can manage to reshuffle the deck and keep their viewers egaged, most shows are destined to either follow the path of The OC to extinction or wallow around in mediocrity like the more recent seasons of 24 and Grey’s Anatomy.  

Lost, however, managed to buck the trend by re-inventing itself in Season 4 by changing flashbacks into flashforwards and turning the original goal of escaping from the island into a quest to return.  I’ll admit, I wasn’t entirely sold on the flashforward concept from the start.  Part of the intrigue of Lost was that you never knew what was going to happen next.  By relying heavily on flashforwards the writers were essentially removing that vital element from the show.  Yet in all of my skepticism I completely overlooked the fact that learning the “how” could be even more satisfying that discovering the “what”.

Think about it.  How secretly disappointed were you when you found out “what” was inside the hatch?  I mean, Desmond and the station were kind of cool, but we had waited months and months for the answer.  It felt like there should have been more.  However, if we’re really honest with ourselves, there was no way that anything could have lived up to that amount of hype.  By the same token, I’m sure that when we find out “what” the island really is, that answer will also fail to live up to the six years of speculation.   On the other hand, discovering “how” Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun, and Aaron managed to make it off the island was a season long thrill ride, and I’m sure the journey to discover “how” Locke ended up on the coffin will be just as good.  I personally can’t wait to start getting those answers in a few days, but before we do, here’s a little character by character recap of Lost Season 4.

 

Matthew Fox
(Dr. Jack Shephard)

What can I say?  Season 4 was yet another stand-up season for Jack.  While certainly nothing could top his Season 3 performance, Matthew Fox was still spot on as the insanely determined hero who will stop at nothing to get the castaways off the island.  If there’s one gripe to be had with Season 4, it was perhaps the episode where Jack got appendicitis and attempted to go through his surgery without anethesia.  As somebody who’s only been a part of surgeries as an observant medical student, I can tell you that there’s absolutely no way that somebody is going to be able to sit still through an appendectomy, let alone watch in a mirror and give instructions to the person holding the scalpel.  I would think a neurosurgeon like Jack should have known he was biting off a whole lot more than he could chew with that one.  For me, that was the one moment where Jack crossed over the fine line between the admirable “insanity” of Kevin Garnett and the outright insanity of Stephon Marbury.

 

 

Evangeline Lily
(Kate Austen)

For three seasons I’ve gone into obsessive-compulsive analysis of the Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle and the many reasons why I feel that Jack and Kate shouldn’t end up together.  I’ll admit that the majority of this stemmed from my personal bias that doctors should be able to do much better than “convicted murderer” when it comes to their love lives.  However, after getting a glimpse of the future and seeing Jack and Kate engaged and in love, I can now unequivocally  say that these two should definitely go their separate ways.  The entire time they were together, it just seemed competely and utterly “forced”.  The chemistry simply wasn’t there the way it was when Kate and Sawyer were locked in that animal cage in Season 3.  I’m sure those of you hoping for the “traditional” ending to this love saga will disagree with me, but if you really want this story tied up with a pretty bow and everyone to live happily every after, then consider my proposal for an ending.  The con artist and the murderer ride off into the sunset together, and Jack goes back to being a world class neurosurgeon and starts dating Rachel Bilson.  I dare you to come up with something better than that!

 

 

Josh Holloway
(James Ford a.k.a. “Sawyer”)

I felt that Season 4 was a complete let down for Sawyer.  Once again the writers really played up his “kinder and gentler” side.  Well, as much as kinder and gentler may be characteristics that I appreciate in a roll of toilet paper, I personally like the version of the con man that’s rough as sandpaper and tough as nails.  Unfortunately, we saw next to none of that in Season 4 as the writers did everything but cannonize him as a patron saint.  Sawyer spent the majority of the season trapsing through the jungle with Locke and Hurley cracking jokes and acting like one of the good ‘ol boys.  It’s almost to the point where he’s becoming a charicature of himself, sort of like The Rock did when became “too” popular.  

You see, before The Rock became a WWF megastar, he was an angry, brooding, loudmouth, who would occasionally break out with a hilarious line.  He was an amazing bad guy and somebody that you simultaneously loved and hated.  As his popularity grew, the powers that be decided that it would be a good idea to turn The Rock into a good guy and subsequently over-exposed him and had him doing ridiculous stand-up routines with Mick Foley and forming the “Rock and Sock Connection”.  The majority of the mindless WWF fans out there at this stuff up, just like I’m sure there are millions of housewives out there swooning over the new “sensitive” Sawyer.  But as for me, I miss the old Rock and the old Sawyer.  Hopefully when James finds out that he jumped out of that helicopter only to have Kate shack up with Jack, the con man will go “old school” on us once again.

 

Terry O’Quinn
(John Locke)

In Season 1, Locke was, without question, my favorite character on the show.  The fact that he saw the island for what it truly was and stood his ground against Jack’s “science” made for some great moments during that initial run.  After a mild slump in Season 2, Locke came back incredibly strong in Season 3 and started wreaking havoc on the island with his seemingly irrational beliefs.  This fourth time around, Locke hit another lull and wasn’t necessarily a major player.  To be fair, though, the majority of this season focused on those who were trying to get off the island, and John’s solitary goal was to stay on it.  Still Locke managed to make his presence felt in a big way by hooking up with Jacob and setting the plan in motion to move the island.  I can only imagine what the “man of faith” has in store for us in Season 5 as he becomes the official leader of the island and somehow winds up in a coffin.


We’re only half-way through the recap of Lost Season 4.  There’s loads of more characters to break down and discuss.  Click the link below to hit up Part 2!

Continue on to Part 2 of The Lost Season 4 Review

 

About Derek Hanson

Doctor by day, blogger by night, Derek Hanson is the founder of the Bloguin Network and has been a Patriots fan for more than 20 years.

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