TEN YEARS AFTER

As Yahoo UK recently published:

"In the end, it was a Shephard — two of them, actually — who led the lost flock home. Ten years ago this week, the hit ABC series, Lost, brought it’s time-and-reality hopping narrative to a conclusion in the super-sized series finale, appropriately titled “The End.”

The final moments of the final episode feature the show’s hero, Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox), reuniting with his fellow Oceanic Flight 815 castaways in a heavenly dimension as they prepare to move on to whatever realm lies beyond death. “Where are we going?” Jack asks his father, Christian Shephard (John Terry), whose specter had haunted him throughout Lost’s six-season run.

“Let’s go find out,” Papa Shephard replies. At that point, father and son take their place in pews surrounded by the entire cast — even those who died early in the show’s run — and they collectively step into the light.

That may sound final, but “The End” turned out to be just the beginning of the debate over Lost’s place in the pantheon of all-time TV greats. Certainly, the show’s 2004 premiere was a seismic pop culture event, with action that rivalled big-screen blockbusters and ratings to match."

The first takeaway is that LOST was the first epic series that had a complicated mythology and Easter egg fan service to make it the pioneering show for the internet commentary community. Fan sites devoured each episode like an all-you-can-eat buffet.  Fan theories became more complex than the LOST writers best imagination. It was the first interactive television program, some of it in real time chat rooms. Today, some YouTubers live stream commentary during k-dramas, but that pales in comparison to the national media dedicating columnists for weekly recaps.

It was a critical and viewer juggernaut. But as the seasons progressed and the tangential story lines got more convoluted, the show runners hubris took the series down split road to a dead end. The biggest complaint was the land fill sized pile of unanswered questions. When one weaves an elegant story, with mysteries, viewers expected show worthy answers. Rambling into the series finale, Cuse and Lindelof acknowledged there was no way they’d be able to craft an ending that paid off every plot thread and satisfied every viewer.


“We have to have the answers to the mysteries so that there is something to work towards, but what we don't have are the stories,” Lindof said in a 2010 Wired interview.  “J.K. Rowling can sit down and say, ‘Here's how Harry Potter's parents were killed, and here's who killed them,’ but how am I going to reveal that information to the audience in the most emotionally impactful way? So we know what we want to do, but we have very little idea of how and when we're going to do it.”

Second, this confirmed in some people's minds that at a certain point, the writers were making things up on the fly. There was no concrete ending from the beginning. The show drifted on the ocean of fan support. In the end, the show runners confessed they decided to do was to design a finale that emphasized "character over mystery."

 But when you base six years of story on mysteries, many fans thought that was a cop-out. Especially true when the show's producers vehemently denied during the first season that the show was set in purgatory. But the End showed a mixed religious message that main characters had died in the past and the island was some other dimension (further complicated by another universe of the sideways world).

Third, LOST did get into the surreal story writing genre by not only having character flash backs but also "flash sideways," a different  timeline where apparently Jack and the rest of the castaways were back in the real world, albeit leading different lives than what we saw in the flashback sequences that were a major part of previous seasons.

But these did not add a layer of mystery more than one of confusion. A few critics thought this was mere annoying filler episodes. Others thought the writers "stumped" themselves in their original time frame ("painted themselves into a corner") so they tried to "re-boot" the series with another time line.

The evolution of the Man in Black as the personification of dead Locke really did not answer the confinement of Jacob and the Smoke Monster to an island where human beings were used as chess pieces in a sadistic game. But if you look to the religious elements, especially ancient Egyptian culture, one could find a potential answer that the island was the underworld which a soul would have to navigate dangerous tests in order to be judged by the gods in the afterlife.

But the show runners did not want LOST to fall into that realm. They wanted LOST to stand on its own mythology as pure fantasy. They decided that they did not have to answer all the questions or defend their creative choices because enough fans were fully invested (with their own ideas) it did not really matter.

Fourth, there was a sour taste of being hustled by a three card monte boardwalk shark. The End did not tie up loose ends. It made them more tangled as we see Jack "die" on the island while  Hurley and  Ben Linus remain on the island as "new protectors" only to "shut it down" in a hasty DVD epilogue. It did not explain why pilot Frank Lapidus miraculously gets everyone else — including Kate, Sawyer, and Claire off the island. Why were these characters "saved?" What did they do when they returned "home?" How did some find their way to Christian Shephard's church?

In the final scene, Christian opens the church doors to engulf the inside with a bright white light, symbolizing the moment between death and the after life. In the real world, “The End” wasn’t exactly the end that a lot of viewers were waiting for with half the fans found it a comfortable, happy ending while half felt it was a disappointing conclusion in a Hollywood trope way. It did bring to the forefront the debate on whether  the “Flash sideways” universe functioned as a kind of purgatory between life and death — the same theory that was advanced about the island itself when the show first launched. As one commentator put it: “I think the overall lesson is that we're all going to die eventually, so we may as well surround ourselves with as many attractive people as we can.”

Fifth, the LOST legacy may truly be the backtracking by the show runners.  Lindelof heard the criticisms loud and clear, and responded to them in public. “There was a very early perception… that the island was purgatory and we were always out there saying, 'It's not purgatory, this is real, we're not going to Sixth Sense you,’”


But three years later, he said  “Lost was all about mystery and questions and answers and [I wanted] to try to answer a mystery the show hadn't even asked up until that point… A portion of the audience was like, 'Oh, that wasn’t on my list, I'm not interested in that.' But we were.” Even as he stood by “The End,” the online reaction clearly took its toll.

Despite its still-divisive ending, the early success of LOST remains something that TV networks would love to emulate in an increasingly fractured TV landscape. In 2019, ABC hinted that it would not be adverse to rebooting the series.  But do not expect any of the original creative team to return for a potential revival. "I, personally, am not going to be involved with other versions of Lost because we told the most complete version," Lindelof said last year.  "I feel like I spent four years of my life begging them to end it and when they finally said yes, the ending that we did probably should stand as our ending."

LOST was highly entertaining, addictive and mentally stimulating but with all first loves, it had its bad points, questionable choices and nasty arguments.  As a series of intertwined and related episodes, LOST could never handle syndication re-runs because viewers missing episodes would themselves become lost. Syndicated viewers demand self-contained episodes like Star Trek.

It is hard to believe that it has been TEN YEARS since LOST concluded its run. There are very few blogs or sites that still contribute new content to the LOST community. But there are occasional posts of nostalgia about the series. And that is one of the hope's of any television production - - - a nostalgic memory.

FREE MEMORY

"It takes a huge effort to free yourself from memory."- - - Paulo Coelho

People are often filled with regrets. Regrets are the lingering pain from experience. A bad break-up can haunt a person for years. The memories and "what I did wrong" without answers can led to life long fears and depression.  It takes a conscious effort to erase the past in order to move on into the future.

Some LOST characters were paralyzed by their pasts.  Many were haunted by abandonment issues. Many were haunted by "daddy" or parent issues. Many believed they were abused. Many believed that they were chosen by fate to have lousy lives. Many believed they were be punished for no apparent reason.

Many characters wanted to escape their present circumstances. Many dreamed of grand adventures. Many believed that they had godlike skills. Many thought they could turn back the clock and change their past.

But in the end, none of them could change their pasts. The only thing they could do was to wake up and acknowledge their past life . . .  and accept it. Accept the consequences of their own actions. Release their regrets and anger against others. To purge themselves of guilt. Free themselves of their own self-pity.

Otherwise, they will continue to rot from the inside to become soul less loners who would contribute nothing to society. They would be crippled by their own memories of a past that was re-written to make them more and more the victim. Victimization can lead to withdrawal and paranoia. It can lead to anti-social behavior. It can lead to a life of perpetual misery.

That is why so many people rely on therapists to help them through their issues. They need to talk their way out of their plight. They need someone to throw them a life preserver. They need someone who believes in them.

LOST's island life was not the true life preserver for the main characters. It was more an amplifier of their fears, anxieties, emotional darkness and loss of life. The island experiences did not set the characters "free" of their memories. No, it reinforced them in a negative way. In some people, like Ben, it emboldened them to act in a more negative manner. Their internal monster's thoughts became a raging real life monster. That is not personal growth but personal destruction because they could not free themselves of the negative memories of their past.

You need to realize that the past is hurting you in the present in order to stop painful memories from stopping you from becoming a better person. We don't think any of the main characters got past their past when they reunited in the church. It seemed like an awkward  25th year high school reunion of long lost strangers than a pivotal change in their lives.

MILESTONE

2016 marks the 12th year since the launch of the epic series, LOST.


Your decision to be, have and do something out of ordinary entails facing difficulties that are out of the ordinary as well. Sometimes your greatest asset is simply your ability to stay with it longer than anyone else. — Brian Tracy


So goes this this blog, one of the few small corners of the internet which still actively discusses the series.


In 2013, the LOST producers decided to finish discussing their series in one last rant while discussing the ending of Breaking Bad. At the Paleyfest TV convention, there was  a LOST 10th anniversary panel. It was more of an awkward high school reunion than a ground breaking discussion of the series.


Since then, LOSTheory continues to post stories, theories, science stories that may tie into the LOST-centric fan communities when the series was at its peak.  This site which started in Season 6, now has posted 1,097 articles. Two years ago, we did not know how much longer we would continue writing posts. But we just hit the milestone of 20,000 unique page views. There still appears that there are fans who still miss the series, and who still want to engage their minds on the ramifications of it.

For the LOST fan community, nothing really has replaced it. No other show has had the layers of complexity, the clues, and the rabid fan theories and story lines.


LOST is like an old friend that you want to stay in touch with even though real life has started to occupy more and more of your time and energy.

THE OTHER STORY

Viewers got a glimpse into the background story of the Dharma Institute. But we never understood how a bunch of 1970s academic researchers "found" the island, and then were able to build massive research stations while surrounded by hostile natives, the Others.

There is a massive black hole in logic and story telling.

Prior to any known character coming to the island, Crazy Mother was alone as the guardian. When a Roman ship wrecks, she steals two newly born children, Jacob and his brother. Jacob's brother yearns to leave the island after he finds a survivor camp. He uses the knowledge of the Romans to try to harness the power of the island to get back "home," which would be Rome. Jacob's brother embraced technology in order to find a way to get to his dream or goal.

Crazy Mother and Jacob did not embrace technology. They lived in a primitive camp, making due on a self-sufficiency level including weaving their own materials.  Crazy Mother destroyed the camp and its technology in order to stop Jacob's brother from leaving the island. At this point in time, Jacob and his brother stopped aging. She decreed that neither could harm the other. But when Jacob's brother killed her, Jacob's rage set off events that eventually killed his brother.

When Jacob's brother's body floated into the light cave, we see the smoke monster fly out. We would later find Jacob's brother's body down stream. Some speculated that the brother's death created a smoke monster, but most believe that smoke monsters existed prior to this event as Crazy Mother's actions in wiping out the Roman camp was the work of a smoke monster. Temple graphics from an apparent earlier age depicts the smoke monster seated in the ancient Egyptian underworld. The smoke monster then took the form of MIB in order to pester and engage Jacob in conversations and games. Both Jacob and MIB were immortal beings, and the "rules" did not allow each other to harm the other.

MIB said that he was growing tired of Jacob bringing humans to the island, since they eventually turn greedy and corrupt and die.  It seems that Jacob and MIB were playing a human pawn game of philosophy or Senet.

So if Jacob was playing a game, and he was the only person who could allow people on the island, then why did he allow technically advanced people (like the ones Crazy Mother hated and killed) to build massive research facilities. MIB was the only person aware that there could be a technology answer to allow it to "leave" the island.  Apparently, smoke monster(s) are imprisoned on the island even though they are thought to be "security systems." If MIB absorbed all the memories, emotions and logic of Jacob's brother, then MIB's purpose probably changed to match his: find a way to leave the island.

So MIB would have wanted technology advanced humans to come to the island, so it could manipulate them to find the answer that Jacob's brother was so close in finding. The question remains why would Jacob allow that? Jacob was stuck on the island for as long as he was the guardian. Perhaps that was the bargain: humans came to the island as candidates to replace Jacob while at the same time puzzle pieces for MIB to find a way to leave the island barrier.

Some believe that Jacob was himself a smoke monster. When he visited Jack at the LA hospital, the lobby smoke detector went off for no apparent reason. So if Jacob as a smoke monster could leave the island, why could not MIB?

This leads to two alternatives. First, Jacob was not a smoke monster so he could leave the island. Second, Jacob was a smoke monster and the off-island scenes we saw were illusions. That would mean that Jacob learned about mental manipulation technologies from the Dharma researchers and used it to create vivid holographic (Star Trek NG) worlds so real that humans could not tell any difference.

So it is possible that both Jacob and MIB wanted new technologies present on the island to meet their own goals. If Jacob truly wanted to release his obligations as eternal guardian, he would need to create such an environment where some human would want to become "a hero" in order to save his friends. The only way to become such a hero would be to accept the island guardianship, thereby releasing Jacob from his duties.

But that does not explain how resetting the light cave cork made MIB mortal or made an immortal being like Jacob dead. One could argue that MIB and Jacob were not real beings but holographic horror projections that seemed so real that the humans accepted them as real.

Which gets us back to the opening question. If Dharma was brought to the island for its knowledge and research, why were there other less tech people (the Others) still on the island? Perhaps the conflict between two groups was part of Jacob's plan to find his "hero."  It also could be that MIB kept certain human "pawns" to play the game with Jacob. Or, another alternative would be that the Others were actually Dharma members who splintered off from the group because they did not like the research paths established by Horus. The latter conflict would have made a good side story on why the Others were so hostile to outsiders and what were the island's true powers.

For if LOST was solely about the origin story of Dharma and the island, it would have been just as interesting as the actual story lines.

BUILDING ON THE PAST

It is a reoccurring theme in human civilizations. In today's modern world, it is playing out on the battlefields of the internet. For many early pioneers like the open source software developers, who believed their code should be open, free and easily modified by anyone. This was more a movement than a business plan. But the usefulness of the core concepts led to mass adoption in UNIX, Linux and GPU. So those early geniuses helped grow the massive internet communications platforms that everyone uses today.

But subsequent evil geniuses have quickly learned to exploit the exploits of their predecessors and use the openness of the internet protocols to hack into personal data and network administration commands. Instead of building upon the past's accomplishments, newcomers sometimes tend to twist and usurp the past's accomplishments into their own game.

Whether you consider this part of basic human behavior, one or more of the deadly sins in action, or the underemployed with too much time on their hands, it is a basic motivating factor that drives debates in society.

In LOST, we cannot go back to the show's first mythology beginnings. From what was shown in the series, we know that many different civilizations came to the island, left their monuments and cultural markers, but they were replaced by new arrivals. MIB opined it was a never ending cycle of corrupt humanity.

If we look back to the oldest artifact shown in the series, it would have been the Light Cave. It was the source of the unique energy, said to be "life, death and rebirth" powers. However, this cave contained ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs referring to, in part, to ancient death rituals. Whether the Egyptians were the first to arrive at the island is debatable; but at least they were the dominate group to explore and possibly attempt to control the light source.

But if the light source cave is the first historical feature, then who or what is the first historical person on the island?  We assume that it is Crazy Mother, who was apparently alone on the island when Claudia's Roman ship wrecked in a storm. But Crazy Mother referenced her own mother, so she was not the first being on the island, but merely the last surviving member of her kind. Based on this evidence, we could conclude that there is some bridge back to the very beginning of the light source, which is the beginning of life itself.

If we look at the remains of the past cultures that happened upon the island (Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Americans), what do all these historical people have in common? All of them were culturally keen on trying to answer the Big Question: the creation of life.  This broils the science vs. faith debate. Religious people believe a god created humanity. Scientific people believe that the universe's forces unleashed the building blocks of life, and evolution of those components interacting and creating new compounds created life. Neither side can actually prove their thesis.

Another cultural theme expressed in most civilizations is the concept of good and evil. This is usually depicted in black and white terms. In the series, the yin-yang of black and white representation in Adam & Eve's stones, to the appearance of Jacob and MIB, led credence that LOST was attempting to symbolize this ancient philosophy.

Even in science, the expression of light energy, such as the sun's rays, will create dark shadows depending upon surrounding variables. If the island was the source of light (life force), then one could extrapolate that the island would also contain shadows (death forces). The latter could encompass the physical properties of aging or decay, but could also include the human emotional factors that lead to deadly consequences.

So all the elements of past civilizations are incorporated into the fabric of the island symbolism.

Every island civilization came to ask the Big Question, and failed to maintain its existence.

There has been only one island constant in the historical information. Under the temple, there is a depiction of the Smoke Monster opposite an image of Anubis, the Egyptian god of the underworld. As such, the smoke monster predates the earliest known people brought to the island. And those people viewed the smoke monster on par with its own gods.

Instead of building upon this past, subsequent leaders of the island, including Jacob, tended to put themselves above the smoke monster in status and control. The Others worshipped Jacob and not the smoke monster. The Others feared Ben's lethal leadership style, but they did not think Ben as a god. And even Ben was conflicted - - - he sought the approval of his demi-god, Jacob (as a possible missing approval he never got from his father), but in a fit of rage, he summoned the smoke monster to kill Widmore's men. In times of trouble, man often prays for intervention from their god to change the course of battle.

So the smoke monster is both a symbol of darkness and a state of deity. Every civilization on the island recognized the smoke monster as a powerful thing, but slowly removed it from centerpiece of island mythology. For arrogant men took the role of guarding the light away from the smoke monster. If the smoke monster, as an intelligent being, realizes that his sole purpose has been thwarted by newcomers, evil geniuses, hacking into its authority. No one wonder when it bonded with the memories of Jacob's brother, the smoke monster wanted to leave the island because it felt it was not needed or wanted as guardian. There was no respect to its past and its role in balancing the light and dark in the universe.

TOP 10 MOMENTS

There were many important, moving, plot shocking twist moments in LOST. During the original run, there were "game changers," or highly anticipated or shocking moments which made the show great fun. It is always hard to narrow down a list of Top anything, but here is a personal recap of the most important moments in the series.

1. MIB's speech to Jacob on the beach.

“They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same.”
“It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.” 

2. Bearded Jack telling Kate that "they had to go back," which was actually a flash forward scene.

3. The Hatch during a lock down, when the count down timer goes hieroglyphic "He Escapes Place of Death," and Locke finds the Blast Door Map.

4.  Flight 815 tearing a part in mid-air.

5.  After Ben saves Locke from committing suicide, Ben strangles him to death.

6. Ben "summoning" the smoke monster by pouring water down a old drain after Keamy executed Alex.

7. Eko speaking to the smoke monster in his brother's form. Eko refuses to relent from his past, which angers the smoke monster into killing him. Eko whispers his last breath to Locke, "you're next."

8. The Others attacking the raft and taking Walt.

9. From the viewpoint of the rescue helicopter, the island vanishing after the frozen donkey wheel is turned by Ben.

10. Desmond turning the fail safe key which causes and explosion, implosion and purple flash of the Hatch being destroyed.

This is not an exhaustive list. Some shocking honorable mentions include:

Michael murdering Ana Lucia and Libby.

How Locke was thrown through a window by his father.

Dying Charlie note written on his hand to Desmond, "Not Penny's Boat."

Desmond's phone call to Penny in "The Constant."

The O6 return to find Claire a crazy jungle lady with a mummified squirrel baby.

The shining moment to LOST were these type of memorable scenes. They continue to linger in our collective consciousness. Those moments got us thinking and talking. Those moments kept us coming back for more. Those moments kept us driving for answers to our personal questions. Those moments kept us from becoming lost in our ordinary lives.

THE MESS

“ Success is relative: It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things. ” T.S. Eliot

By most objective means, LOST was a successful series. Most American television shows do not last 6 seasons. It had a strong, vocal and loyal fan base. It built on an on-line community that was intensely into their show. It was a good show, but for many it could have been better.

And that is the rub that still divides various fan factions to this day.

Part of the lingering issues deal with expectations and promises.

First, TPTB promised that there would be answers to the major mysteries contained in the series. By nearly all accounts, that did not happen.

Second, based upon the success and action in the first season, and the fan community efforts to analyze and create theories of what was happening inside the show, expectations for a mind-blowing ending were raised by the LOST writers who added layers and layers of questions upon the show's mysteries. The finale split viewers into two basic camps: those who liked and approved the ending because their characters found happiness; and those who felt disappointed that the ending did not resolve their burning questions.

This mess could have been successfully resolved if the writers explained how the characters got to the sideways after life - - - whether the island was a purgatory or real, and if real, was it Earth or a parallel universe, and if so, how did they get there and more importantly, how did they get out of there? Instead, the writers and TPTB refused to explain their thought processes of their own story, stating that certain questions were never meant to be answered at all. 

This mess could have been controversially resolved by not having Season 6 at all; having a Sopranos style ending in Season 5 with Juliet banging on the atomic bomb casing then having a searing white light as she whispered, "it worked." 

Well, mess may be a harsher term now four years removed from the ending. A disorganized clutter of shelved library books would be a better description. For those who had prior doubts that the writers could pull off the great literary feat of neatly tying up all the diverse story lines into a nice dramatic package, they feel a shallow victory because they wanted the answers. And the odd thing is that even if the answers were not what they thought should happen or fit into their view of the show, there would be conclusive answers! End of story. Fin.

COMMENTS

Since the LOST 10th anniversary brought out the good and bad from TPTB, it is probably a good time to review some of the comments in the context of a show community blogger.

1. I don't have a problem with the producers-writers believing that they achieved what they had started to do with LOST. It was their story. It was their show. They were driving the bus; fans were merely passengers enjoying the (bumpy) ride.

2. I don't have a problem with where the producers-writers ended the show. I, like many other people, had a problem in how the show got to the ending. Today, TPTB indicate that the purpose of the last season and last episode was to raise the Big Questions, like what is life? What is the after life? What is human spirituality? It is proper for a creative team to raise these historic and grand questions which mankind has thought about since the existence of human time, but to raise them without answering them is wrong. The solution of allowing the viewers to grasp their own insight from the final season seems like punting the ball on second down and one yard to go.

3. I don't have a problem with the producers-writers killing off all the characters by the end of the series. Hell, I was an early proponent of the crash-purgatory theory. In many ways, that theory still makes the most sense in trying to explain the sideways-afterlife ending. But again, if TPTB wanted to keep the claim that the passengers of 815 survived the crash and the events happened to live human beings, then they should have been much clearer about that point - - - and told us when each person "truly" died (i.e., when did Sayid die - - - in the war, in the crash, in the temple, or on the sub?)

 4. I don't have a problem with fans who were satisfied with the ending. I believe these fans stripped the event story lines from their focus on the characters themselves in order to conclude that the happy ending was good. That is what entertainment is about: getting a personal connection and interpreting it. However, I don' agree with the interpretation that this is the only rational conclusion a fan can have when the series ended.

5. I have a problem with the TPTB's criticism of fans who believe they were "making it up as they went along." By their own comments, the producers-writers used flashbacks to "slow the story line down." They became obsessed with the flash backs and moving the story line away from a linear progression in order to elongate the series. Then flashbacks became filler; and filler became inconsistent canon. LOST started out as an action-adventure-drama of plane crash survivors, but it veered off course by Season 3 into a science fiction-fantasy world. The problem is that TPTB never explained this significant change of direction in the story elements. By making promises that there would be a rational explanation for the events, then not delivering on that promise, supports the criticism. Even today, TPTB have had ample opportunity to explain what the premise and how the story event interacted in the grand scheme of things - - - but they choose to allow all those questions to remain mysteries.

6. I understand that the producers and writers claim that their vision of LOST was fulfilled when the series ended. They ended the way they wanted it to end. That is their right. But for viewers, there is still the open question: could LOST have ended better?

GROUPING ORIGINAL ELEMENTS

If one looks back at the original writer's guide as the story outline for the series, it is clear that there would have been many different connections to explore amongst the various groups.

The proposed island inhabitants would include four groups plus the smoke monster:
1. The savages who attacked Vincent;
2. The others who would attack/abduct 815 castaways;
3. The survivors of Flight 815; and
4. The submariners, a military group, that runs ashore at the outer reef.

All these groups have the following common traits:
1. The will to survive.
2. Territorial protection of the island.
3. The need to gather, store and consume necessary resources.

There are three basic grounds proposed in the guide:
1. The 815ers beach camp;
2. The jungle; and
3. A vast underground facility which would be found later in the series.

The inference is that the underground facility has been abandoned, so the castaways would move into it as their home base on the island. This also means one of two things: the facility had a prior island group that was wiped out (like the Dharma story line), or the Others abandoned their facility to live on the land.

I like the idea that the island has multiple groups competing against each other for survival. I like the idea of a band of island savages, a primal group that would seek to cut off expansion of any new group on their island. I could see this primitive group worshipping the smoke monster for protection.

The Others on the other hand are a mixed bag. They could be other people who shipwrecked on the island like the 815ers, which would put them into same mindset as the castaways (as allies). However, the story lines indicate that the Others would be attacking the castaways, so is this island group the remains of a failed scientific research facility, abandoned military outpost or some other group such as prisoners sent off to rot on a penal colony?

The submariners add the twist of adding a group with the actual means and skill set to leave the island with modern technology. It could be that they could team up with the 815ers to use the underground facility to manufacturer and repair the submarine for seaworthy rescue. Or, the submariners could be a trap to confine, enslave or wipe out all people on the island to reclaim it as their own secret base. As indicated earlier, we don't know who these military men are because the uniforms are different (leading to the possibility that they are even time travelers, for whose existence must be kept secret from the rest of the world.)

One could imagine the various branch story lines from the interaction between these groups. The 815ers and Others could be at odds, but there could be some castaways, led by Locke, who could splinter off and join the Others. Likewise, there could be some in the castaway group who would want to try to communicate, trade and find peace with the savages, especially as a means to acquire the island power to fight off the Others' attacks. The submariners could be the wild card, playing each group off each other to achieve their own goals.

The key to control of the island appears to be the underground facility. Whether it is functional, operational is an open question, but it would provide the best secured location on the island. Once it is found, it could lead to a siege by the other groups who want or need it.

WHAT WAS THE POINT?

Even after reading and digesting the LOST's writer's guide, there was still no clear path in story direction. What was going to be the point to LOST?

Was it going to be purely a castaway show, where the characters settle in with no real chance of rescue like Gilligan's Island?

Or was it going to be an action-adventure show, where the characters would fight, claw, battle and innovate a way off the island to a climatic, series ending emotional rescue at sea?

Either one of those alternative endings would have been fine.

Can you build and sustain an island community with 48 plane crash survivors? Sure.
Can the viewer feel "invested" in their struggles to find food, build shelter, and protect themselves from the dangers of the island and its other tribes? Sure.
Could they have build a new home and lived out their lives on the island? Sure.

In addition, there are several key forks in the story road to consider before running blindly down them.

Was LOST going to be a survival story? The stories would be self-contained on the island, and the drama would be the day to day struggles for the basic necessities for life.

Was LOST going to be an adventure story? The stories would be broader and more full of active dangers, threats and physical altercations, something almost all the main characters had no experience with during their pre-Flight 815 lives.

Was LOST going to be a science-fiction story? Would the story of survival include elements of science fiction such as advanced technology, hidden worlds, or time travel? If this was the case, then the island was not merely an island, but a portal for unbelievable change in how the characters would perceive their world and themselves.

Any one of those story paths would have been fine.

But when the writers began to mix and match elements of those paths into a lumpy porridge of conflicting plot lines, many viewers themselves got lost amongst the growing jungle vines of intersecting and story strangulating questions.

In the alternative of what was guide's story outlines, there could have been crafted a four-person chess match over the island. Four distinct groups of people on the island would want to control it for their own safety and survival. The savages, the native people, who have a spiritual bond with the island - - - and worship its guardian spirit, the smoke monster. The Others, scientists or explorers, who build a vast, secret underground station to monitor the unique properties of the island.  The 815ers, who have crash landed on a place foreign, mysterious and dangerous - - - people who actually don't want to stay but for some reason they cannot leave. And the submariners, a mysterious group of military men who also have crash landed on the island.

The series could have easily gone down the sci-fi path with the introduction of the submariners. It could be the premise of Philadelphia, where a military vessel goes through a time vortex into the past. But in LOST's case, the unrecognizable uniforms stated in the guide could mean that this sub was from the future. As a result, and following the laws of literary time travel, the crew would not want to create paradoxes or reveal the future of anyone they come into contact with . . . which would create intense friction especially if the crew knows what the Others were doing on the island.

The series could have gone further into this realm by the appearance of a mysterious parachutist. One could imagine that this parachutist was a famous person from the past - - - like Amelia Earhart. That would confirm to the castaways that the island is not what it seems - - -  that there is a time vortex that threatens their very existence. In order to solve this sci-fi premise, everyone on the island would need to gather information on how to solve the problem to get back to their real time lines.

The series would then lead up to a final solution on how to get the time lines back to normal so the castaways could get rescued or leave the island.

This simple outline leaves little open ended fragments in plot points. And it was not that difficult to extrapolate from the writer's guide's notes. It would have eliminated many of the bitter fan disputes that continue to haunt the series: that the characters were alive, that they were on Earth, and that they had to work together in order to solve their most important problem, how to get home. Instead, we got seasons filled with ghosts, candidates, immortals, shape shifting monsters stealing memories and dreams, a parallel reality in the after life, and the characters being clearly all dead in the end.

In the past five or so years, I have seen many movie and television reviewers take hard lines on the entertainment they have seen . . . it is not necessarily snark, but an opinionated dissection of the show, the characters and plot. I continue to read reviewers who keep writing that the show or episode was disappointing because "it could have been better executed" based upon the prior episodes, the characters, writers or reputation of the producers. After reading the guide and looking back at the totality of LOST, I have come to the conclusion that yes, LOST could have been a better series. It could have had long lasting staying power if the episodes were self-contained stories (so it could be readily accessible in syndication). It could have had a more clear main story line focus, especially if it kept on one story path, one genre. If that was true, then the last season would have had a coherent story line to realistic conclusion instead of a deus ex machina plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problems are suddenly and abruptly resolved by the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability or object.

It is still unclear to this day what the original meetings had in store for LOST as a series. What was the goal? Where was the story finishing line? How was the series going to end, or was it supposed to just fade away if it was cancelled abruptly by the network? You can throw as many strange plot twists, unexpected deaths, new devious characters and sci-fi elements into the show so long as they make sense in the main focal story line of the show. But LOST along the way lost its main story line focus. And that is the point between the discussion of what LOST was and what it could have been.

DIFFERENT CHARACTER DYNAMIC

In the LOST writer's guide, the producers proposed a different character alignment that what was actually filmed and shown in the series.

The guide outlined what one could call a "pair system" to the main characters. Two characters would be closely connected, with other characters attaching themselves to that pair bond in tangential ways.

The main pairing was going to be Jack and Kate. They would become the group's leaders. Jack would be the analytical leader and Kate would be the practical leader. This would lend support for balance if the group was going to create a new community on the island. Under the guide plan, Charlie would be accused of murder, and Kate would defend him. Jack, in the mean time, would probably treat Charlie for his withdrawal symptoms and therefore back Kate in the island trial. As a result, Charlie was supposed to become Jack's assistant. At the same time, Locke would be an adversary against the Kate-Jack leadership group.

The next major pair would have been the Sawyer and Shannon relationship. There pairing would be the show's first island hook-up. Shannon has a lazy golddigger's spirit, and Sawyer was the hoarder of material goods so he fit her profile. Boone, her brother, would always be her protector, so much so that he would be at odds with Sawyer. In the guide, the two have a vicious fight but don't allow the group in on the reason for their dispute. Later on, they have to work together to rescue Shannon from kidnappers.

The third major pairing was going to be with Sun and Michael. Sun was to have a more assertive and active role in the camp, as an alternative medicine healer. She was to be Claire's nurse maid during Claire's pregnancy. Since Sun was estranged from her husband Jin, there was supposed to be a long flirtation between Michael and Sun. Jin would be jealous of this, but had no means to communicate his anger. So he has to forge an alliance with Walt in order to learn English. It is not mentioned, but it is possible, that if the back story of Sun and Jin contained the infertility issue, then it would make some sense that Sun would gravitate toward Michael, a single parent, in order to form a family bond with him and his son. Likewise, Jin could also have the same feeling about having a family, and he could gravitate toward Claire and her new baby. Such as rotation of bonds and emotions could lead to several story lines on how each of them would cope with their new suitors and situations.

Though not put together in the guide as a team, it would seem that Hurley and Sayid would become good friends because each of them were practical problem solvers. The guide had Hurley's character being an international repo-man who could charm the collateral from debtors. Sayid was supposed to be an independent man who fled his country on a mission to find his true love. It would seem that these two characters would work well together as mediators between the group's potential factions.

It could be said that the original guide's character relationship road map was better plotted out that what actually happened in the series.

A DIFFERENT DYNAMIC

One of the major points gleaned from the leaked writer's guide is that the original vision of the LOST saga was going to be different than what was actually filmed during the series. In more a Survivor tribal vibe, there were going to be at least four other major groups on the island.

When the 815 survivors begin to settle down in the beach camp, the first signal that they are not alone is when Vincent is found with a human bite mark on his ear. This evidence would lead anyone to believe that there are savages on the island. This would immediate raise the tension level in the camp because there is a now a known threat (beyond the smoke monster) in the jungle.

Shortly thereafter, two young men would be seen in the jungle. We suspect that they are from The Others, another group of people on the island. The guide did not flesh out who the Others would be (friend or foe, scientific researchers or utopian hop-heads). But having another "organized" group on the island could lead to conflict over "scarce" resources (one of the early themes in the guide outline). There is also a potential plot point in the guide about abductions by the Others of Kate and Locke, so we can assume that this group would be hostile at some point to the 815ers.

Later, a body washes a shore and the castaways see a submarine has been beached off the coastal reef. They will launch a salvage operation as the submarine could be the means of rescue, but would quickly find out that the sub is not abandoned, by staffed by military men in unrecognizable uniforms. The question is who are these submariners? Are they friends, foes, lost souls or even time travelers?

Lastly, there is sighted a parachutist who lands on the island. When the castaways find the parachutist, all the guide says is that they find a "unique visitor." It does not say whether he/she/it is even human. Depending on who or what fell onto the island, the main story line could have multiple tangents.

The idea of give or more groups interacting on the island does lend a "game like" story engine.

The 815ers have to interact with these new people in one of two ways: fend off attacks or go seek them out (as in rescue missions).

Then, like a deck of cards, these groups could have been shuffled during the series into different alliances. Each element brings its own unique skill set to the island party. The 815ers are a diverse group, but none seem to be the skilled outdoorsman. The savages would have been long term inhabitants of the island, who know it better than anyone. The Others could be considered interlopers by the island natives. They would have brought some technology and protection to the island in order to stay. The submariners would bring military skills and weapons. The parachutist would be an open-ended wild card twist.

Each group would have its own agenda. The 815ers would first want rescue, which would be similar to the submariners. The Others would want to keep their island "secret" so they would attempt to sabotage any means of escape. And the savages would want to rid their island of everyone, possibly using their island god, the smoke monster as the means to that end.

This alternative puzzle from the writer's guide would have made it easier for writers to mesh story lines in a coherent manner. But for some reason, the writers decided to pare back the island features to that of the Others against the survivors, and the survivors against themselves. Later, when running low on plot twists, the writers added Widmore as the Others main foe. And when that was not promising to involve the main cast members, the story of Jacob's candidates for island guardianship was thrown in as a attempt to resolve everything.

Though the guide does not state this, having multiple groups compete for control and peace on the island seems to have been a given. The inference that the main characters would have to build a new society on this mysterious island was the cornerstone pitch to the network. What better conflict point would be having neighbors who can't stand you?

ORIGINAL PAIRS

In the LOST Writer's Guide, which attempted to outline the first season of LOST, there were several clear pairings of main characters that would be part of the foundational story line of the show.

Jack and Kate were paired as the original leaders of the group, with Kate slowly becoming the more practical leader amongst the group. Off to the side, Locke would take his chance to be the leader of the group, mostly through his hunting skills. He would have a run in with both Jack and Kate, especially when she defends a drug-withdrawing Charlie on the charge of murder. Charlie would become Jack's island assistant.

The first romantic relationship mentioned is a Sawyer-Shannon connection. This makes some sense because both characters have a back story of "using" other people for profit. There would be a kindred spirit between the two - - - just do enough to get by on looks or charm. It was described as Boone having a violent relationship with Sawyer; the two brawl over an unknown issue.

The second romantic relationship mentioned is a Sun and Michael flirtation. Sun is supposed to become an independent woman on the island, free of the control and Korean traditions of Jin. Since Sun speaks English and has herbal medical and nursing skills, she becomes a valuable member of the group. As such she takes care of Claire. In the mean time, since she could not have children, she may be drawn into the Michael-Walt family dynamic. The Michael-Sun pairing will have a negative impact on Jin and Michael, since Jin is still her husband. The guide indicated that Jin would have to get back his standing by learning English - - - so he turns to Walt for lessons.

The other pairing is one of practical problem solvers. Both Hurley and Sayid are described as problem solvers - - - men who have experience getting things done after evaluating the situation. They would be more likely to be neutral in the politics of group leadership, thereby enduring themselves to most everyone in the group. Hurley repo negotiating skills could turn him into a valuable mediator and mission leader, and Sayid has the drive to seek rescue, including taking the plane raft out to see to find help in the shipping lanes.

These initial pairings are quite different than in the actual show.

Instead of JACK and KATE, the first seasons have JACK andLOCKE in the leadership box.
Instead of SAWYER and SHANNON, it is SAWYER and KATE who get it on.
Instead of SUN caring for CLAIRE, it is CHARLIE.
Instead of SHANNON with SAWYER, there is a brief fling with SAYID, who retains his problem solving role.
There is only the brief SUN and MICHAEL flirtation which amounts to very little in the series.
WALT does not connect at all with JIN.
And BOONE winds up as LOCKE's handy assistant.
But the biggest change is HURLEY, as he is paired with no main character, in romance or skill set. His biggest contribution is humor and levity.

DOUBTS

One thing is clear from reviewing the LOST's Writer's Guide, the creators and network executives had some doubts whether the idea of lost survivors could be a sustainable series. It is also clear that the producers of the show DID NOT have the main story line set in stone from the very beginning, including the end.

Even after the grand, cinematic pilot episode was finished, the producers still had to sell the network to green light an entire series. How could TPTB maintain the survivors' stories? How could a diverse ensemble of characters sustain the stories over several seasons? And the unanswered question: what would be the payoff to the viewers?

There were many things in the writer's guide that I found good and interesting concepts or story ideas.

Fans today have a wishy-washy opinion on Kate. We now know that Kate was supposed to be a stronger character in the series. But Kate's role changed from a co-leader to a wishy-washy secondary player/love interest. Even her revealed deep, dark secret of murder was blotched by poor writing and unbelievable plot twists. Instead of the spunky Midwest girl-next-door character, Kate turned into a loathsome cardboard figure to some fans.

The same holds true with Hurley. The original Hurley character was supposed to be an international repossession man, which means that he had well developed problem solving skills and social charm to be the top in his profession. Instead, the writers downgraded Hurley to a meek, loner with mental problems.

Also, instead of dancing around the mental issues floated during the series, the original guide had us headbutting with a more developed character of Boone, a dangerous schizophrenic off his meds. The original Boone would have been headstrong, confrontational, abusive, and paranoid, which would have immediately set him off from the other characters. It would have created a major predicament for the survivors camp unable to handle a deranged mental patient - - - what to do with him? Banish him (and lose Sawyer's stash of supplies since he was to hook up with Shannon early in the show), cage him like an animal or kill him? The latter would hark to elements of Lord of the Flies, and the harsh judgments in places where there is no civilized law and order.

Even Shannon was supposed to have a bigger role. She was going to be the "it girl," the one the island men would want to be around. She would use her good looks to play them off each other. In the pilot, Charlie was immediately enamored with her, so much so when she went on the first mission he joined in even though he had nothing to contribute. If Shannon was to hook up with Sawyer, that would have caused more tension in the beach camp - - - the means of creating splinter groups within the whole community. People having to take sides would have brought out more character development.

Even the undeveloped concepts of a new visitor no one expects to parachute into the story, or the human bite mark on Vincent's ear, or the mysterious fruit orchard and cocoons, or the Others, or the military submariners, do lead to possible interactions, clashes or alliances of the 815ers with other islanders. The guide actually points to numerous groups on the island besides the Others: the submariners, the primitive inhabitants who attacked Vincent, and a flight path for potential smugglers, drug dealers, explorers, etc.

What the guide does not extract is the supernatural elements that found their way into the series. In fact the more supernatural elements that were brought into the show, the more the show started to come off the rails because there were no plausible explanations presented to explain the diversion from original concept. In fact, the use of supernatural elements (such as time travel, immortal beings, magic, smoke monsters, shape shifting, and unique light force energy) opened the door to criticism of the entire premise of the series (including it being all in the after life, to it all in Hurley's head.)

What was really lost from the guide's original proposed story line is the sense of building a new community on the island. All the elements in regard to re-creating a new society, a potential utopia, were discounted and disregarded by the writers. It seemed that the writers fell into a format of throwing something strange at the main characters to just get a reaction. There was no practical application of action to build a better settlement, to instill a moral code or rules on their own behavior, or a sense of community to work together to solve problems. It was all individual decision making that moved the stories forward with no touchstone of community belief. So nothing that was done could truly be deemed right or wrong.

Also, many of the story ideas in the guide had the group muster themselves "to action" such as salvaging a reefed submarine in the hope that it could lead to rescue. But in the story format that was in the actual show, the characters merely "reacted" to things happening around them. Initiative, questions, demands for answers, and open problem solving discussion were sparse to non-existent in the group.

Another thing that led LOST off its story rails was leaving the island. No one should have EVER LEFT the island. In retrospect, all the off-island stories were sub-par to unbelievable. If the goal of the show was to have a sense of community building along with the hope of rescue, rescue should have never been accomplished because the "returns" to the island by characters made little to no sense.

Many people had no doubts when the producers told the viewers that they had "everything" worked out to the climatic end of the series. Well, there is no evidence that is true. Instead of building a solid foundation of characters and continuity facts, the show began to meander its own course, especially in the realm of not resolving mysteries from episode to episode. The biggest failure of LOST was the fact it did not follow its original network mandate: self-contained episodes with a beginning, middle and end. By stringing along mystery upon mystery, the writers were only stringing along viewers to continue watching the show. If the writers had doubts on whether they could answer the questions or mysteries they posed in the series, then they should not have done it. But I guess the overriding concern from TPTB that LOST had to have its own edge, and constantly be "unexpected." As a result, you have a series of edgy plot points that never got resolved or at best, abandoned, contradicted or lost in continuity errors.

The recent weeks of posting the writer's guide with commentary was to further explore the show which most fans never really get to see: what the insiders themselves were thinking about at the very beginning. With that insight and with hindsight of the actual series, there is no doubt in my mind that there were several core concepts that the writers did not use that would have made the series much better.

GUIDE STORY IDEAS PART FIVE

The LOST Writer's Guide continued with three story ideas on the same theme.

MURDER
When a murder takes place in the camp, Locke uses the fear and suspicion of the castaways to start a witch-hunt and ultimately it is Charlie who becomes the most likely suspect - a situation exacerbated by the onset of Charlie's WITHDRAWAL and more importantly, the fact that he himself is unsure as to his innocence or guilt. TO BE CONTINUED IN ~ 

KANGAROO COURT

While Locke would like to see Charlie bum at the stake, Kate steps forward as the voice of reason and calls for a fair and unbiased presentation of the facts - but civility goes out the door when
justice can only be reached by full consensus (think TWELVE ANGRY MEN, Survivor-style). Ultimately, Kate plays defender to Locke's prosecutor in a trial which is just as much about the "outing" of Charlie's addiction as it is a presentation of the considerable evidence against him. 

ABDUCTED
Kate wakes up to find herself bound and gagged in a dark cave, a captive of the Others. Without knowing why she's been taken or what they plan on doing with her, Kate is entirely helpless - -  until another captive is thrown into this makeshift prison- Locke. Despite their differences up to this point, the two must work together in order to escape their mysterious captors. 

I have been critical of how LOST made basic and critical legal errors throughout the series. Setting those plot execution errors to the side, one major theme in the original LOST writer's guide was going to be "crime and punishment." In the three ideas above, there was going to be plan on how the castaways were going to deal with crime as they built their new community.

One standard mystery is the solving of a murder, so it is no surprise that this was an original story idea. It would appear that this story idea was going to be an early one, since Charlie's withdrawal symptoms would start to manifest shortly after his small stash was consumed. The idea that strangers would begin to suspect each other for a camp crime is believable considering their current ordeal. And the idea that Charlie does not know because of his medical condition is plausible. So the premise of this plot is reasonable.


It is where the kangaroo court gets involved where things get tricky. The guide had indicated that early on the group dynamic would not be workable until a single leader, Jack, would emerge from the chaos. The idea of a court of law on the island is noble, but its execution as a process would seem flawed. It seems that TPTB wanted to meet the network executive's original vision of the series as being a "real" Survivor show by incorporating elements of that reality series, such as the elimination/judgment ceremony. So this story plot point fit into the wheelhouse of network expectations.

One could see the game role of Locke being the accuser/prosecutor to try to persuade the other camp members to take his side. But at the same time, the guide indicated that the group distrusted Locke because he was secretive about his hunting finds. Also, the idea that Kate would be "the voice of reason" to become a defense attorney for Charlie would be a stretch considering how Kate was actually portrayed in the series as a criminal on the lam.

The guide does not state how Charlie's trial was going to end. In the actual series, actual crimes against people on the island did not have the formality of a trial or punishment. In fact, one of the main criticisms about the show was its lack of a moral center when it came to bad behavior.

None of the beach camp legal system made it into the show. The producers did not incorporate the outside world view of a structured civilization upon the survivors camp.

Now, the idea of castaway abductions was used repeatedly during the actual series. It was a means of introducing the concept of "The Others," mysterious inhabitants of the island who apparently have evil intentions.  The idea that Kate and Locke would not get along is fine. The idea that Kate would be kidnapped then have to work with her camp nemesis, Locke, in order to escape could have been on the edge of stereotype storytelling. The guide does not tell us the reason why Kate or Locke were captured and put into a prison. And that gets back to the idea that the producers did not have a defined main story line after the pilot episode.

If the writers could have made a reasonable story arc about how the castaways would deal with internal crime and punishment, it would have been okay. It could have stood as a contrast on how the Others perceived crimes against them and their brand of punishment. But this plot idea was never truly explored in the series - - - as the characters were basically on their own in a Wild West fashion.

GUIDE STORY IDEAS PART FOUR

The LOST Writer's Guide continued with more story ideas for the first season of the show:

JEALOUSY
An unexpected flirtation begins to build between Michael and Sun and both their counterparts ain't too pleased about it. Eager to win his wife's affection back, but too entrenched in his own cultural bias, Jin finally caves and allows Walt (feeling abandoned and thus motivated to throw a wrench in his father's new romance) to begin teaching him English lessons. 

In the actual series, there was a very short flirtation between Michael and Sun, but that was abruptly stopped when Michael backed off. That made sense in a way, since Michael was trying to create a family bond with Walt, so destroying a marital bond between Sun and Jin would make little sense. Jealousy would be a minor theme throughout the series. In the actual series, Jin did try to win back Sun after their marital arguments, but his solution was to help build the raft to get her rescued off the island. As stated previously, the Jin being able to understand English without lessons was another story hole that TPTB let slide through. The idea of Walt teaching Jin English would have corrected that plot issue, but it was never done in the series.

THE CAT PROBLEM
A series of flashbacks drastically counterpoint Locke's former life as an office drone with the warrior he has always dreamed himself to be when he boldly decides to hunt down the three PREDATORY JUNGLE CATS that are raiding the camp and devouring the dwindling food supply. 

This story idea was never used in the show. There are a couple of problems with the concept. Jungle cats avoid human contact. They live off capturing fresh meat, something the beach camp would not have out in the open. Even with a boar catch, 48 people would quickly consume the meat, or if not, would have to smoke it, make jerky, etc. in order to preserve it. Locke as the self-proclaimed hunter would have probably wanted to take down dangerous animals to increase his status amongst the group, but once the smoke monster was introduced in the pilot, what could be more dangerous than that?

THE DIG
When the survivor's discover a tiny piece of metal jutting from beneath the rocky ground, a massive attempt to UNEARTH it begins... but the digging instruments are rudimentary and put a strain on already scarce resources. The dig continues, however, ultimately revealing a LOCKED HATCH- impossible to breach, but offering up a fascinating new dimension to the island's unexplored territory. 

Instead of hunting jungle cats, Locke became obsessed with the Hatch. His belief that the Hatch would answer all their questions about the island (which would be wrong) led him to recruit a few members of the group to open the facility. We assume that in the guide's earlier sections, this hatch was supposed to be the gateway into a huge underground complex where the 815 survivors would move to en mass. But that never happened. The core leadership kept the Hatch, and its comforts, to themselves. Some fans to this day believe that the Hatch story line was a fumbled opportunity to enrich the series mythology. But the reason for the input of the Numbers, the incident, and what was the unique electromagnetic energy were never clearly answered in the show.

THE STILL
Fed up with Sawyer's-monopoly on alcohol, Michael and Hurley decide to build their own still, requiring considerable outside-the-box thinking and a fascinating MacGyver-esque version of Island invention. But when Sawyer finds out what they're up to, we learn what INDUSTRIAL SABOTAGE looks like on a tropical island... 

The idea that Sawyer turned into an alcohol robber baron may have been appealing to a writer's group, but it would have been out of character. Sawyer understood and respected the "every man for himself" mentality. He would selfishly guard his material stash, not necessary to barter or exchange, but more to consume himself since he had the ability to con material goods from other people. This idea also reinforces the original description of Hurley being a more "doer" than causal observer. The still story line was also not used in the series, even though there was some brief conflict over resources after the initial crash.

TWO DAYS OF DARKNESS
After a 48-hour ECLIPSE, the castaways are intrigued by the appearance of thousands of strange viscous COCOONS in and around their camp. Curious, but unwilling to cut one open and investigate, a debate rages as to how to deal with this bizarre new development. And the cocoons are HATCHlNG... 

Now this story idea would place LOST into full science-fiction mode. In an earlier (not used) story idea about unidentifiable fruit, the emergence of strange "vicious" cocoons surrounding them would create an immediate danger that would have the survivors in real peril. One could readily imagine that the placement of the cocoons around the camp meant that the emerging beings would be close to their new food source: humans. This adds to the other non-used Vincent story idea that the dog was bitten on the ear by a human. Potentially, the group has to deal with two savage predators on the island. 

It would seem that farther along in the original story line list, the less likely it was for the writers to actually use or incorporate fully these ideas. There may have been some pressure not to use too many sci-elements in order to concentrate on character development through the means of constant, long form flashbacks. However, the 48 hours of darkness/cocoon story as well as a strong, take charge Hurley character would have been a interesting development in the show.

GUIDE STORY IDEAS PART THREE

The next set of story ideas from the LOST Writer's Guide are a part of the initial 12 episode outline to convince ABC that the producers could maintain an ensemble survival story for an entire season.

LANGUAGE BARRIER

In a moment brought on by crisis, Jin catches Sun speaking fluent English (a secret she has shared only with Kate). At first enraged that his wife has kept this secret from him, Jin soon realizes that he must now rely almost completely on her if he wants to communicate with the others. 

This story idea played out in some respect with Sun confiding with Kate. However, Jin's inability to speak English was not used as a constant barrier - -  and at some point the pretense was dropped totally and suddenly Jin could understand and speak English. The idea was that a proud, traditional Korean man would have a hard time relying upon his wife to provide basic communication and support in the camp on his behalf.

SAWYER'S DEAL

Having cornered the market on alcohol by liberating all the booze from the fuselage, Sawyer refuses to tum over some of his booty to Jack, who needs it for his makeshift infirmary... but when Sawyer finds himself in that same infirmary after a run-in with a wild boar, the "negotiations" take on a whole new tack. 

Well, since the beach camp never set up a new settlement, there was never an "infirmary" set. Sawyer did hoard many things in the initial episodes, but that story idea quickly faded away. Sawyer was seriously injured not by a boar, but by the Others and thrown into a pit by the other 815 survivors. By the time Sawyer returned to the main camp, the Hatch provided all the medical supplies needed to treat him. There was no critical bargaining to save his own life. In fact, Sawyer really never made any long term "deals" with anyone on the island. That was not his style.

THE TRAP
When Hurley falls into a PIT (actually a trap of Locke's to catch food), it takes the combined efforts of four of our castaways to get him out... a rescue that highlights his obesity and further alienates him from the others. 

Besides a couple of fat jokes, Hurley was rarely placed into danger. The most serious was when his imaginary friend, Dave, almost convinced him to "wake up" by jumping off a jungle cliff. If Libby did not show up out of the blue, Hurley probably would have followed Dave.  Hurley was self-conscious about this appearance, but he never "alienated" himself from the group. In the original guide description of Hurley being an international repo-man, the alienation idea makes even less sense. It is also interesting to note that in the character description for Locke, he keeps the mystery of his first boar catch a secret (for no apparent reason). If he used a pit (which he did not in the series), why would that be a great secret? You would want to warn your fellow survivors to stay off the animal paths. This was not well thought out.

VINCENT MUST GO
With food scarce and Vincent the Labrador a mouth to feed himself, a very serious debate breaks out as to what to do with the dog. Michael finds himself confronted with a hard choice - piss off the entire camp, or risk breaking the already tenuous bond he holds with his son. 

This story idea never came in to the show and I am glad it did not. It makes very little sense. The island was filled with plant and animal life - - - a dog could forage on his own to find food. Instead of using Vincent's appetite to create an early conflict between Michael and Walt, the writers used Walt's initial friendship with Locke as that plot point.

FORBIDDEN FRUIT
When our survivors come across a grove of trees which bear a ripe, yet unidentifiable fruit, the only thing that stops them from immediately picking it and bringing it back to the others is a mysterious SIGN posted at the grove's entrance. Unfortunately, the words written on it are in a script and language they have never seen before... 

This is another story idea which did get into the actual series, which was probably a big mistake. There are a couple of key elements to this idea which became fundamental themes. First, the unknown language sign (could be forerunner to the hieroglyphs later in the series) which sets the stage for the ancient origins of the island. Second, a domesticated orchard brings into focus that there is a well settled but unknown community on the island. Third, an unidentifiable fruit could be the reason for "magical" properties on the island - - - or the means to explain why characters see real ghosts from their memories, how a person can speak to the dead or why people with cancer are suddenly cured. LOST failed to provide a concrete object to latch its "magical" plot twists which led to viewer confusion. The one issue with the forbidden fruit idea is that it harks to Biblical story of Eden. If TPTB did not want any religious connotations in the series, a secular view of survival on an uncharted island, than Eden references would not make good plot points. It would also throw the concept that the characters survived the plane crash into some doubt, because some could call this Eden garden a sub-set in the after life.

WARGAMES
Several of the castaways awaken to find something sharp sticking in their sides - BLOW DARTS. Adding to their growing horror, someone has painted tribal markings on their makeshift shelters. Paranoia dictates that "The Others" are finally planning an attack which necessitates our group's first real attempt to build up their defenses... until it becomes clear that the threat might not be coming from outside, but from WITHIN. 

We constantly heard that "there was a war coming" to the island. It spread panic among the castaways. They were being drawn into a long past feud, initially between Ben and Widmore, than in the Jacob-dead brother story line. Danger and violence coming to the island with the freighter crew was a real threat to everyone's survival. But the beach campers really never cared much about fortifying their camp, running to the caves or making weapons or traps. The only true group military operation was the ambush of the Others on the beach. And that did not end well until uncharacteristically, Hurley smashes the VW bus through the camp to rescue his friends taken hostage.

The Others did make raids on Ana Lucia's group, kidnapping several people including the children. Eko regretted killing at least two of the attackers. Ana Lucia killed one of her own she thought was a spy, then killed the real one. So in some respects, there was no reason for such gross violence except for quick mutual suspicion.

The idea that the survivors would have to battle the Others for "control" of the island never came into focus. The Others were better armed and trained so there would have been no real fight until Locke found and opened the Hatch. The idea that some 815 survivors would "betray" their fellow passengers in such a conflict would have made good drama, but that was not really explored except for the story of Michael's deal with the Others to get back Walt in exchange for Kate, Jack and Sawyer.

The real story of the island was a series of uneasy truces.

Of the above story ideas, only bits and pieces were used in the actual series. A few, like the Vincent food story, really had no plot substance. But the idea that the island had its own mysterious fruit could have been the foundation to explain so many island concepts and questions, but the writers missed that opportunity. Badly.