I must admit that I have not read everything you guys have written (though I intend to because I think this is interesting). I do want to say something with regard to Ben’s first point about character developement–which I think is Lost’s greatest acheivement.

What makes Lost such an interesting show is not so much the wildly unbelieveable events that take place, but the character’s interactions with each other in the midest of those struggles. That is what all goood science fiction does–it places characters in a highly bizzare or incredibly tense or incredibly confusing situation and lets the characters respond to and struggle with those events.

I think some of the characters have already been redeemed on some level. Examples in my mind would be Charlie, Sawyer, Jin, and Desmond. Sawyer was for a long time a very selfish person and throughout the story begins to learn the value of selflessness and eventually the value of love with Juliet. He no longer lives for himself. His outburst against Jack has now been tempered considerably–the old Sawyer would have remained embittered irreprably against Jack, but now he actually blames himself and takes responsibility on some level. I think he will end up sacrificing himself further to help those on the island. His jaunt into the jungle was driven by his past selfishness–I think he has changed and we can expect to further prove himself to be a hero.

Desmond was a fearful whimp–now he is a faithful husband and father. Jin similarly was a controlling husband and now is a forgiving and loving husband. The wild and crazy world of the island and those who have inhabited provide the intense senarios without which Lost’s characters would not learn much needed lessons and thus would not grow. Redemption is what keeps me watching Lost and I think some characters are still awaiting redemption (Jack and Kate) and it will be interesting to see if all the characters find it. I think some of them certainly will not.

I think this is where perhaps the infection will play itself out, the Island appears to have incredible potential to transform people (both physically and spiritually), but I suspect the infection seeks to undermine that and probably will undermine that for some characters.

It will be interesting to see.

Given that circumstance, I can understand how Sawyer would revert back to “pre-Juliet-and-nice-domesticated-life” Sawyer. He does seem to have grown some in and of himself, though. His actions in this week’s episode show him to be more thoughtful and introspective than the Sawyer of seasons 1-4 seemed capable of.

It’s not so much that I want Sawyer to be stoic. I am quite comfortable with anger and bitterness. But here’s where I don’t think Lost has done a great job considering story and character implications: time changes people.

In the case of Sawyer, he had years to reflect on his experiences with the Oceanic survivors, and to sort through all the emotional discoveries he made during that time. Further, he had a loving partner with a calm and thoughtful nature sharing that time with him. And yet he suddenly reverts to his character from before that time when she dies? Unlikely.

I agree that season 1-4 Sawyer may have reacted somewhat like the premiere. But I feel they ignored the power of time and relationships to change people, and it fell flat to me.

Sawyer has always been a hard character for me. I feel the same way about him as I do about Anakin Skywalker: Sure, people act and talk like that, but they are immature and kind of annoying. So I’d say it makes sense for Sawyer to get angry with Jack, but it did feel a bit melodramatic to me. And I also was expect a bit more out of Sawyer. I honestly was annoyed by his character up until season 5 when they made him grow up a bit. But maybe it is asking too much to expect him to mature in one season (or “three years”). It may not have felt appropriate for Season 5 Sawyer to want to kill Jack, but it did seem appropriate for Seasons 1-4.

I have, in fact, seen every episode of Lost. And the vast majority of people I speak to about the show love it. And I am a fan of the show!

I agree that repetition can be a helpful tool for exploration of a concept. As a huge literature fan, this much is obvious. The problem is that Lost isn’t, in my view, repeating to explore, they’re repeating just to repeat.

For instance, in the most recent episodes, the characters are all about 4 years older. In that time they’ve been challenged in new ways, become much more developed in their character, learned new things about self vs. community… and these are all reasons I love those show. However, though I see them learning new things about people, I do not see them learning or exploring new themes about faith vs. science, though that theme is repeated constantly. To me, that is a theme that never advances or experiences development of its own. They simply run into the same sorts of decisions over and over, and pick one or the other. They never talk about what they’re experiencing as a group, never argue about WHY they should trust science or trust faith (just WHETHER), never work through common agreement on what is behind the experiences they’re having.

The point about seeing this struggle in various individuals is all well and good, but we learned most of that in season 1. I’d just like to see advancement of the theme, so that we’re taken to a new place artistically.

And I disagree about Sawyer. The show went out of its way to show what a changed man he was in a variety of ways… sacrificing himself for others, placing the group above himself, becoming a leader, etc. Further, it advanced him in terms of how he viewed his own life. I simply do not think it is faithful to the story arc to have him suddenly decide to kill Jack for something they all agreed to without certainty of what would happen. A little misdirected anger is fine (such as getting yelling and hollering about Jack’s leadership generally), but misdirected blame to the point of threatening murder doesn’t really make sense. I think in the most recent episode he’s back to where he should be, and I’m excited to see what happens… but the detour was a time-waster in my eyes.

I really like the show for a lot of reasons, especially its advancement of the characters’ maturity and growth over time. But I still say the faith vs. reason “theme” is poorly done and the Sawyer story arc for the premeire of season 6 was a departure from where that character should have been.

As to the issue of repetition… Repetition has, forever and ever, been a method of adding emphasis to a point already made. Peruse scripture, particularly the poetry and wisdom books, and you will see words, phrases, entire ideas, and sometimes even the stories themselves repeated. It is a literary device to add emphasis, not new meaning. I think the amazing thing is, though, that often when we repeat something over and over, we begin to find new meaning in it. Take scripture again, for example. You can read the same passage or verse dozens of times and experience or learn something different each time.

I’m not trying to say that Lost is on par with scripture, but the principle holds. I think the faith v. science/reason question has come up over and over again so that viewers get an opportunity to see what that struggle looks like from the perspective of a spinal surgeon, a paraplegic, a lottery winner, a scoundrel, a drug addict, a single mother, etc., etc., etc.