Although I haven’t yet been able to shake my bitterness over LOST’s disappointing ending, it makes me feel better to think back on some of LOST’s best scenes.
Here, then, is my take on LOST’s top ten moments.
1. The moment that Locke was revealed to be in a wheelchair, at the end of the Season 1 episode “Walkabout,” was one of the best moments in all of television ever, and it was the moment when I became completely hooked on LOST. When Locke yelled “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” I got chills.
2. The cage sex. C’mon, you know that was good. Sawyer. Kate. Hot hot hot.
3. The first time they went into the hatch. After waiting in suspense all summer to find out what, if anything, was at the bottom of the hatch, it was a thrill to find out that there was something there – and that it was as weird and intriguing as anything Alice found after falling down the rabbit hole into Wonderland.
4. Anthony Cooper showing up in the “magic box” in “The Man in Tallahassee.” Creepy!
5. Sawyer and Kate’s first kiss.
6. Sawyer talking to Juliet on the dock. (Are you seeing a pattern here? Ha. Any love scene with Sawyer is a good scene.)
7. Henry Gale (not yet known as “Ben”) asking his captors if they had any milk. Michael Emerson gave an amazing performance in those early scenes where Henry was locked in a room in the hatch. Bug-eyed, glib, funny, and radiating menace, he was one of the best screen villains ever. It’s easy to see why the producers extended his stay on the show far beyond the originally-planned three-episode guest spot.
8. Miles and Hurley trying to figure out time travel. So funny! The writers did a great job of letting Hurley and also, at times, Miles and Sawyer be the voice of the audience, expressing our doubts and concerns, without ever breaking down the fourth wall.
9. Hurley throwing the Hot Pocket at Ben, when Ben shows up in Season 4 to try to get him to go back to the Island.
10. Jack having a breakthrough in his relationship with his son in the flash sideways, a moment when he came to peace with his own Daddy issues by becoming the father that his own father never was.
There you have it. Ten great moments out of a six-year run filled with great moments. Hundreds of such moments were packed into a show that was at times brilliant, quirky, innovative, moving, scary, thought-provoking, and funny. Though the writers inexplicably settled, at the very end, for an easy, conventional, sentimental ending, LOST will mostly be remembered for the writers’ willingness to take chances and for the way they refrained from talking down to their audience – and for the astonishing story-telling that was the result.
Do you agree with my picks for the top ten moments of LOST, or would you have picked other moments instead?
