Please give a big warm DarkUFO welcome to our latest addition to the site. Lyndsey who has been a successful blogger in her own right has decided to start writing some articles for us over here at DarkUFO. She will write a LOST With Lyndsey column each week where she looks at key issues and discussions across the fandom, and she will also be giving joining our team of recappers due to J.Wood not having time this season to write.
So without further ado here is by her second "LOST With Lyndsey". You can read her first one here on the homepage. We've had to post this article in the spoilers as it discusses the upcoming deaths.
LOST With Lyndsey…Finding Stuff Presents: Odds On Death
“You begin saving the world by saving one person at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.” Charles Bukowski
What I am about to share will make 50 percent of you despise me.
What I will disclose next, will do the same for the other half of you.
And for my grand finale, I’ll shall expose a third bit of information which is sure to make revelations one and two seem like trifling bits of rubbish in comparison and send you running full speed towards your ‘Escape’ key…
You’ve been warned.
1. I don’t like cats
2. Nor do I like dogs
3. Kids either
Ugh, I swore I wouldn’t ‘qualify’ this, but I fear that you may equate me with some version of the anti-Christ if I don’t, so here goes…
1. I honestly just do not dig cats
2. Dogs are super high-maintenance and necessitate constant consideration, for example:
He: Let’s take a weekend trip to the coast
She: Aw, that’d be great, but what about the dog?
See? No go…
I demand that those in my life propel me towards the next adventure… certainly not hold me back from it.
3. On kids: see explanation #2…substitute the word ‘kid’ where you see the word ‘dog.’
On a deeper level, perhaps I fear falling in love with something which probability dictates will die before I do.
I know this does not apply to the kid scenario, but do you really want someone who dislikes cats and dogs procreating, anyway?
Didn’t think so…
And while I understand the argument about ‘the love of an animal being the purest you’ll ever experience;’ wouldn’t the pain involved in losing that love, be absolutely excruciating?
I prefer to allocate 100 percent of my ‘excruciating scenarios’ for the real, live humans in my life, thanks.
Thus, my deep and abiding devotion to LOST may well be my undoing, for I have carelessly fallen in love with most everyone on the show, whilst blatantly disregarding the idea that any of the ‘main’ characters could meet their demise pre-S6 finale.
This is what my therapist would refer to as, ‘blocking reality.’
It seems that the Wizards of LOST have decided to kill (as in dead forever, expired, bucket hath been kicked, and ghost given up for good, sorta dead) a ‘much-loved by fans’ character before the end of Season 5.
I find this idea appalling.
And yet, morbidly intriguing.
Look, if an untimely and inevitable end for one of my people is imminent, am I not at least entitled to be intrigued by the ‘how’ and ‘why’ factors?
Will the casualty be at the hand of another (as in survivor)?
Or an Other (as in Hostile)?
Perhaps, an Eko-style face off with Ol’ Smokey could lead to his or her ruin…
After all, we know how fond LOST is of that ‘repeating-imagery-to-make-a-point’ technique…
Still, I shall not bother with any real attempt to determine the ‘how,’ for I am sure my predictions would not be even remotely similar to the way this fatality will actually transpire.
Instead I will focus my speculations on the ‘who’ factor.
As in, who will come out on top and who will end up six feet under?
“The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” Mark Twain
While attempting to envisage anything on LOST is generally a fool’s errand, I do believe the demise at hand will have certain rules which will necessitate strict adherence, in order to ensure smooth continuance of game play.
First, this passing must be fully justified within the story (read: no arbitrary flaming arrows to the chest allowed) and it must have a purpose grander than itself (as in to save those whose journey has not yet come full circle.)
Charlie’s death fit these parameters and though we initially shouted and griped and protested, our acceptance of the event was hastened because we understood it to have a deeper significance.
Per usual, I am loathe to discount even a single possibility when it comes to LOST, but I’m going out on a limb here and stating that I do not think that our nearly-departed is of the female persuasion, for the following reasons:
* Misogyny (actual or implied) is frowned upon these days and we just lost Charlotte.
* Kate won the Dharma Immunity Challenge (there’s no such thing) and is safe forever (read: for now.)
* Sun’s transition from submissive Korean housewife to International bad-ass gangsta bitch, has been by turns inspirational and scandalous.
I have heart-ed Sun since the moment she uttered the words “I have to talk to you.” in perfectly flowing, un-accented English to a shocked and awed Michael during S1’s “House of the Rising Sun.”
From her extra-marital affair and the resulting “Whose baby is it?” conundrum to her Coup d’Paik Industries and “common interests” alliance with Charles Widmore, Sun is ever evolving… and by ‘ever’ I mean still happening. As in, ‘not done’. Incomplete. Not quite there yet.
Besides, she is currently T minus (or plus) 30 years from her beloved presumed-dead-until-like-two-days-ago-husband and her poor abandoned child is stuck in who knows when…
Consequently, I think Sun is safe, if only for the sake of resolution.
* Juliet. Sigh.
Oh, Jules…I like you in spite of myself.
Sure, you can be ultra ‘Other-y’ and that incident back in S3 when you handcuffed yourself to Kate and you two mud wrestled until Smokey intervened was slightly awkward, but you do possess excellent linguistic skills (the Latin is especially impressive) and the way you removed Jack’s appendix with those rudimentary surgical tools in that less than sterile ‘operating room’ (actually just a tent) was wholly redemptive.
I’ll admit that I was a fan of the original love triangle, consisting of Jack, Kate, and Sawyer and I was not thrilled with the love square or rhombus or parallelogram that was created when you added your ‘angle’ into the fray.
However, it seems that you make Sawyer smile which displays his heart-melting dimples and for that alone, I appreciate you and do not want you to die.
Still, Juliet is something of a ‘problem-child.’
In the end, we know Kate is going to be the queen of the prom, but the question is whether Juliet will even be present to fight for the crown.
Killing Jules is risky because that automatically qualifies her for ‘martyr’ status, thus giving her that ‘unforgettable, selfless-dead-girl’ appeal, and in turn creating years of acceptable brooding material for both Jack and Sawyer, and we simply don’t have years.
The Purge is looming and we’ve all got to keep our eye on the prize, er, the Island.
If I were the gambling type, I’d say that Juliet will not be around to see the series finale next year, and I’m still on the fence regarding whether it’ll be because she’ll eventually hop a submarine back to some non-Island space in time or if she’ll get killed in S6, but as for the remainder of S5, I think Juliet still has work to do.
So, there you have the ‘who’ and ‘why’ on the people I do NOT think will be getting the ax this season, which was really just a convoluted tactical stall to prevent what I know must come next…
“It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr.” Napoleon Bonaparte
Here’s what we know courtesy of E! Online’s Watch with Kristin:
1. A current series regular is getting killed before the end of season five.
2.The character who will die is someone who is much loved by many of you fans.
While I acknowledge that it’s possible that I could be over-analyzing the wording of the above clues, a couple of things strike me…
By saying that a ‘current’ series regular will be killed, does that mean that the victim was not on the show from the beginning?
This would leave Ben, Daniel, and Miles on the chopping block…
And while Daniel and Miles are certainly ‘much-loved,’ I’m not sure if they are critical enough to the endgame (actually, Daniel may be) or have been around long enough to make an impact of Charlie-sized proportions.
Ben, on the other hand, is not typically thought of as ‘well-loved.’
Still, his character is necessary and interesting as hell, which sorta does make us ‘love’ him, even if it is in a twisted, hate-infused manner.
So yeah, let’s proceed as if I hadn’t just totally confused an already baffling situation…
Ben “Everything I did, I did for the Island” Linus
Why Ben Will Live:
* Ben has had more screen time than any other character this season
* Ben is currently preparing for war with long-time adversary Charles Widmore, hence now would be an extra crappy time for him to meet his maker.
* Ben’s got some splainin’ to do; The Purge, Widmore, Annie, the real Henry Gale, that creepy non-emo, non-blinking stare…there is so much info. that Ben still owes us, I truly don’t see how he can just up and vanish in a puff of smoke.
Why Ben May Vanish in a Puff of Smoke:
* Ol’ Smokey and Benny are set to have a showdown during Ep.12 “Death is Death” (scheduled to air on 4/08.)
While we don’t yet know the exact nature of the Smoke-ster, we do know that he represents some sort of ‘judgment,’ and there are a heck of a lot of judge-able Ben moments, that could make for a gnarly, possibly deadly skirmish…
* If Ben did attempt to make good on his promise to kill Widmore’s daughter (a.k.a Penny,) he will eventually have to deal with a vengeful Desmond.
This would be bad.
Enraged Scotsmen are senseless, I say.
A Ben/Desmond fracas is pretty darn likely considering Mrs. Hawking’s claims that Des must return to the Island, and a grief-filled confrontation does seem like the perfect reason, but whether or not the outcome of said fracas will have fatal repercussions, is debatable.
Ben may scuffle with the D.I. and grapple with morality now and again, but I do believe that he is in this war for the duration.
Ben is still the General.
Privately, I call him the ‘Beneral’ (groan.)
James “And after that we can sing Kumbaya and do trust falls” Ford
Why This Shit SHOULD NOT Happen:
* Because women and gay men the world over will be sad.
This will be equivalent to the 2nd Great Depression. Oh, wait a minute…
* Because the Jack/Kate scenario minus Jack’s drugs and Kate’s fallback guy could get, dare I say, boring?
Why This May Actually Happen:
* He is certainly ‘well-loved.’
* Sawyer’s character is one of the few who has fully evolved.
He has developed from heartless con man to full-fledged romantic hero and is currently sitting atop the Ferris wheel of life, enjoying the view.
If he lives, what happens next?
Does the cycle continue and deliver him back from whence he came?
Does he de-volve back to that angry, lonely and isolated place?
Sadness wash! That would be awful.
Like, awful, awful.
Sayid “That’s not good diplomacy” Jarrah
Why Sayid Could be a Goner:
* Sayid is also ‘well-loved,’ and I believe his character has come full-circle as well.
* The difference between Sayid and Sawyer is that Sayid has already been on the proverbial Ferris wheel for far too long…
He was a torturer, then a hero, then a torturer again, then a respectable member of society and happily married man, then a vengeful assassin, then a builder of houses for impoverished families in Santo Domingo, and last we saw, he was cuffed and being lead onto 316 by that Ilana chick.
* After Ben stopped using him to do his bidding, Sayid’s character fell way off the grid.
Why Sayid May Squeeze Past the Gauntlet:
* LOST tends not to kill characters unless it’s really gonna sting.
* While we heart him for the past we’ve shared, this season’s abandonment of any serious Sayid-centricity may be the very thing that saves him.
Hugo “Let’s look death in the face and say: “Whatever, man!” Reyes
Why It May be Curtains for Hurls:
* His stake in the ultimate end appears to be somewhat inconsequential (though the very numbers 4,8,15,16,23,42 did originate with the big guy.)
Still, he isn’t a Shephard, his mom wasn’t named Emily (uh, that was a Ben/Locke reference,) and he can’t chat with Jacob on the regular, which makes him ‘not special.’
* He’s had resolution with his Dad, his love Libby and BFF Charlie are dead, and a man can only throw so many Hot Pockets at his enemies heads, before he’s got to move on, so…
Why Hurls May Still Have a Few Rides on the Mystery Ship Left in Him:
*Like Sayid, Hurls has pretty much been demoted to day player status throughout S5.
Remember the ‘death that hurts so good’ scenario I painted before? That applies here.
Hurls just simply hasn’t had enough to do as of late, to shock us silly, if he does kick it.
Jin “Everything’s going to change. Have a cluckity-cluck-cluck day, Hugo” Kwon
Why Jin’s Number May Be Up:
* Again, endgame, endgame, endgame… Jin’s role in it doesn’t seem to be uber-relevant.
Why ‘tiiiiimmme is on Jin’s side, yes it is…’ (Uh, that works better if you read that to the tune of The Rolling Stones song…):
* Jin JUST pseudo-died on the Freighter. To have him die again seems like, well…overkill.
In conclusion, I do apologize for not definitively calling a clear winner (or loser, I suppose) in the ‘S5 LOST Death Match,’ but in the words of the great Jack Kerouac “I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.”
She: Aw, that’d be great, but what about the dog?
See? No go…
I demand that those in my life propel me towards the next adventure… certainly not hold me back from it.
3. On kids: see explanation #2…substitute the word ‘kid’ where you see the word ‘dog.’
On a deeper level, perhaps I fear falling in love with something which probability dictates will die before I do.
I know this does not apply to the kid scenario, but do you really want someone who dislikes cats and dogs procreating, anyway?
Didn’t think so…
And while I understand the argument about ‘the love of an animal being the purest you’ll ever experience;’ wouldn’t the pain involved in losing that love, be absolutely excruciating?
I prefer to allocate 100 percent of my ‘excruciating scenarios’ for the real, live humans in my life, thanks.
Thus, my deep and abiding devotion to LOST may well be my undoing, for I have carelessly fallen in love with most everyone on the show, whilst blatantly disregarding the idea that any of the ‘main’ characters could meet their demise pre-S6 finale.
This is what my therapist would refer to as, ‘blocking reality.’
It seems that the Wizards of LOST have decided to kill (as in dead forever, expired, bucket hath been kicked, and ghost given up for good, sorta dead) a ‘much-loved by fans’ character before the end of Season 5.
I find this idea appalling.
And yet, morbidly intriguing.
Look, if an untimely and inevitable end for one of my people is imminent, am I not at least entitled to be intrigued by the ‘how’ and ‘why’ factors?
Will the casualty be at the hand of another (as in survivor)?
Or an Other (as in Hostile)?
Perhaps, an Eko-style face off with Ol’ Smokey could lead to his or her ruin…
After all, we know how fond LOST is of that ‘repeating-imagery-to-make-a-point’ technique…
Still, I shall not bother with any real attempt to determine the ‘how,’ for I am sure my predictions would not be even remotely similar to the way this fatality will actually transpire.
Instead I will focus my speculations on the ‘who’ factor.
As in, who will come out on top and who will end up six feet under?
“The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” Mark Twain
While attempting to envisage anything on LOST is generally a fool’s errand, I do believe the demise at hand will have certain rules which will necessitate strict adherence, in order to ensure smooth continuance of game play.
First, this passing must be fully justified within the story (read: no arbitrary flaming arrows to the chest allowed) and it must have a purpose grander than itself (as in to save those whose journey has not yet come full circle.)
Charlie’s death fit these parameters and though we initially shouted and griped and protested, our acceptance of the event was hastened because we understood it to have a deeper significance.
Per usual, I am loathe to discount even a single possibility when it comes to LOST, but I’m going out on a limb here and stating that I do not think that our nearly-departed is of the female persuasion, for the following reasons:
* Misogyny (actual or implied) is frowned upon these days and we just lost Charlotte.
* Kate won the Dharma Immunity Challenge (there’s no such thing) and is safe forever (read: for now.)
* Sun’s transition from submissive Korean housewife to International bad-ass gangsta bitch, has been by turns inspirational and scandalous.
I have heart-ed Sun since the moment she uttered the words “I have to talk to you.” in perfectly flowing, un-accented English to a shocked and awed Michael during S1’s “House of the Rising Sun.”
From her extra-marital affair and the resulting “Whose baby is it?” conundrum to her Coup d’Paik Industries and “common interests” alliance with Charles Widmore, Sun is ever evolving… and by ‘ever’ I mean still happening. As in, ‘not done’. Incomplete. Not quite there yet.
Besides, she is currently T minus (or plus) 30 years from her beloved presumed-dead-until-like-two-days-ago-husband and her poor abandoned child is stuck in who knows when…
Consequently, I think Sun is safe, if only for the sake of resolution.
* Juliet. Sigh.
Oh, Jules…I like you in spite of myself.
Sure, you can be ultra ‘Other-y’ and that incident back in S3 when you handcuffed yourself to Kate and you two mud wrestled until Smokey intervened was slightly awkward, but you do possess excellent linguistic skills (the Latin is especially impressive) and the way you removed Jack’s appendix with those rudimentary surgical tools in that less than sterile ‘operating room’ (actually just a tent) was wholly redemptive.
I’ll admit that I was a fan of the original love triangle, consisting of Jack, Kate, and Sawyer and I was not thrilled with the love square or rhombus or parallelogram that was created when you added your ‘angle’ into the fray.
However, it seems that you make Sawyer smile which displays his heart-melting dimples and for that alone, I appreciate you and do not want you to die.
Still, Juliet is something of a ‘problem-child.’
In the end, we know Kate is going to be the queen of the prom, but the question is whether Juliet will even be present to fight for the crown.
Killing Jules is risky because that automatically qualifies her for ‘martyr’ status, thus giving her that ‘unforgettable, selfless-dead-girl’ appeal, and in turn creating years of acceptable brooding material for both Jack and Sawyer, and we simply don’t have years.
The Purge is looming and we’ve all got to keep our eye on the prize, er, the Island.
If I were the gambling type, I’d say that Juliet will not be around to see the series finale next year, and I’m still on the fence regarding whether it’ll be because she’ll eventually hop a submarine back to some non-Island space in time or if she’ll get killed in S6, but as for the remainder of S5, I think Juliet still has work to do.
So, there you have the ‘who’ and ‘why’ on the people I do NOT think will be getting the ax this season, which was really just a convoluted tactical stall to prevent what I know must come next…
“It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr.” Napoleon Bonaparte
Here’s what we know courtesy of E! Online’s Watch with Kristin:
1. A current series regular is getting killed before the end of season five.
2.The character who will die is someone who is much loved by many of you fans.
While I acknowledge that it’s possible that I could be over-analyzing the wording of the above clues, a couple of things strike me…
By saying that a ‘current’ series regular will be killed, does that mean that the victim was not on the show from the beginning?
This would leave Ben, Daniel, and Miles on the chopping block…
And while Daniel and Miles are certainly ‘much-loved,’ I’m not sure if they are critical enough to the endgame (actually, Daniel may be) or have been around long enough to make an impact of Charlie-sized proportions.
Ben, on the other hand, is not typically thought of as ‘well-loved.’
Still, his character is necessary and interesting as hell, which sorta does make us ‘love’ him, even if it is in a twisted, hate-infused manner.
So yeah, let’s proceed as if I hadn’t just totally confused an already baffling situation…
Ben “Everything I did, I did for the Island” Linus
Why Ben Will Live:
* Ben has had more screen time than any other character this season
* Ben is currently preparing for war with long-time adversary Charles Widmore, hence now would be an extra crappy time for him to meet his maker.
* Ben’s got some splainin’ to do; The Purge, Widmore, Annie, the real Henry Gale, that creepy non-emo, non-blinking stare…there is so much info. that Ben still owes us, I truly don’t see how he can just up and vanish in a puff of smoke.
Why Ben May Vanish in a Puff of Smoke:
* Ol’ Smokey and Benny are set to have a showdown during Ep.12 “Death is Death” (scheduled to air on 4/08.)
While we don’t yet know the exact nature of the Smoke-ster, we do know that he represents some sort of ‘judgment,’ and there are a heck of a lot of judge-able Ben moments, that could make for a gnarly, possibly deadly skirmish…
* If Ben did attempt to make good on his promise to kill Widmore’s daughter (a.k.a Penny,) he will eventually have to deal with a vengeful Desmond.
This would be bad.
Enraged Scotsmen are senseless, I say.
A Ben/Desmond fracas is pretty darn likely considering Mrs. Hawking’s claims that Des must return to the Island, and a grief-filled confrontation does seem like the perfect reason, but whether or not the outcome of said fracas will have fatal repercussions, is debatable.
Ben may scuffle with the D.I. and grapple with morality now and again, but I do believe that he is in this war for the duration.
Ben is still the General.
Privately, I call him the ‘Beneral’ (groan.)
James “And after that we can sing Kumbaya and do trust falls” Ford
Why This Shit SHOULD NOT Happen:
* Because women and gay men the world over will be sad.
This will be equivalent to the 2nd Great Depression. Oh, wait a minute…
* Because the Jack/Kate scenario minus Jack’s drugs and Kate’s fallback guy could get, dare I say, boring?
Why This May Actually Happen:
* He is certainly ‘well-loved.’
* Sawyer’s character is one of the few who has fully evolved.
He has developed from heartless con man to full-fledged romantic hero and is currently sitting atop the Ferris wheel of life, enjoying the view.
If he lives, what happens next?
Does the cycle continue and deliver him back from whence he came?
Does he de-volve back to that angry, lonely and isolated place?
Sadness wash! That would be awful.
Like, awful, awful.
Sayid “That’s not good diplomacy” Jarrah
Why Sayid Could be a Goner:
* Sayid is also ‘well-loved,’ and I believe his character has come full-circle as well.
* The difference between Sayid and Sawyer is that Sayid has already been on the proverbial Ferris wheel for far too long…
He was a torturer, then a hero, then a torturer again, then a respectable member of society and happily married man, then a vengeful assassin, then a builder of houses for impoverished families in Santo Domingo, and last we saw, he was cuffed and being lead onto 316 by that Ilana chick.
* After Ben stopped using him to do his bidding, Sayid’s character fell way off the grid.
Why Sayid May Squeeze Past the Gauntlet:
* LOST tends not to kill characters unless it’s really gonna sting.
* While we heart him for the past we’ve shared, this season’s abandonment of any serious Sayid-centricity may be the very thing that saves him.
Hugo “Let’s look death in the face and say: “Whatever, man!” Reyes
Why It May be Curtains for Hurls:
* His stake in the ultimate end appears to be somewhat inconsequential (though the very numbers 4,8,15,16,23,42 did originate with the big guy.)
Still, he isn’t a Shephard, his mom wasn’t named Emily (uh, that was a Ben/Locke reference,) and he can’t chat with Jacob on the regular, which makes him ‘not special.’
* He’s had resolution with his Dad, his love Libby and BFF Charlie are dead, and a man can only throw so many Hot Pockets at his enemies heads, before he’s got to move on, so…
Why Hurls May Still Have a Few Rides on the Mystery Ship Left in Him:
*Like Sayid, Hurls has pretty much been demoted to day player status throughout S5.
Remember the ‘death that hurts so good’ scenario I painted before? That applies here.
Hurls just simply hasn’t had enough to do as of late, to shock us silly, if he does kick it.
Jin “Everything’s going to change. Have a cluckity-cluck-cluck day, Hugo” Kwon
Why Jin’s Number May Be Up:
* Again, endgame, endgame, endgame… Jin’s role in it doesn’t seem to be uber-relevant.
Why ‘tiiiiimmme is on Jin’s side, yes it is…’ (Uh, that works better if you read that to the tune of The Rolling Stones song…):
* Jin JUST pseudo-died on the Freighter. To have him die again seems like, well…overkill.
In conclusion, I do apologize for not definitively calling a clear winner (or loser, I suppose) in the ‘S5 LOST Death Match,’ but in the words of the great Jack Kerouac “I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.”
