The Truth About LOST - Part 1 of 2

[@pieroog]

20 years have passed and I still have goosebumps when Locke's smiling at the rain...

[@thedudeabides3138]

Terry O’ Qiuinn and Michael Emerson were the capstones of this series for me.

[@guyledouche7939]

Damn I feel old...

[@harrisonmckenzie4905]

Im currently watching the whole series again for the 6th time, "you're timing is impeccable John" as Ben Linus said.

[@ppsayl1235]

Same here. Uncanny.

[@wompastompa3692]

*your

[@harrisonmckenzie4905]

@@wompastompa3692 it's a minor grammar mistake, I'll leave it like that just to annoy you.

[@wompastompa3692]

@@harrisonmckenzie4905 >doubling down on IESLB Done.

[@mddi1420]

Ben : « How did you know when to be here » Flocke : « The island told me » Follow the leader , beechcraft seen

[@GetYourPull18]

There has not been another show that created the same feeling of awe and amazement as Lost did. My favourite show of all time.

[@Nerazzurra85]

The island isn't done with us, and your channel is the proof!!! Thank you 🙏🏼 If after 20 years from the first episode thousands of people are still here to talk about the show, the stories, mysteries and more is because Lost in more than a tv series!!!

[@lleldridge1]

Every bit of your content is meticulously planned, researched, scripted, recorded, edited, etc... and I appreciate all of the hard work very much. Thank you!

[@UCs6ktlulE5BEeb3vBBOu6DQ]

I truly 10000% believe that the world needed this channel

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

I hope the world finds me. That would certainly help boost my subs count! 😂

[@UCs6ktlulE5BEeb3vBBOu6DQ]

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 The funny thing is your catalog might reach the whole series in length by the time people find you.

[@Choekaas]

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 If it makes you feel better. We both started producing Lost videos at the same time, and you've got 20,000 more than me 😢

[@michaelcorcoran8768]

Honestly, what they needed was the showrunners to pay as much attention to details and story as this guy. Because he has done a better job of trying to make sense it as well they did. I know he's an advocate for the show and defending its production and writing, but I honestly think what he has largely succeeded in doing is creating a mythology that makes sense for the most part to fill the gaps that the original showrunners missed.

[@wheels899]

this channel has the best, most thorough understanding of LOST of any other channel or forum anywhere else on the internet. thank you for making these videos!!!

[@rastaman5354]

I’ve started to rewatch lost.. even tho I’m still lost watching it I have to give them credit.. it’s brilliantly written and stands on its own league

[@g.i.wonder6974]

Same, facts

[@chiri-theoden4264]

The haters work hard, but LOST Explained works harder! What a great idea for a 2-parter. Really loving this so far!

[@Echohoody]

Kudos to you doing Lost content in 2024. I was so entrenched in the Lost mythos back in the day and those reality games they did really worked well in bringing me extra intrigue. Thanks for doing this.

[@PeterBoggs]

Half the characters in breaking bad were originally going to die in season 1, and plans changed CONSTANTLY, but no one accuses the show of "making it up as it went along".

[@josephbrown9685]

I think what a lot of people don’t realize about producing tv shows is that sometimes things don’t pan out the way they think and realizations are discovered along the way about what works and what doesn’t. Why kill off a character that turns out better than initially expected just because that was the original idea? There are opportunities to make adjustments that won’t destroy the overall narrative. If I recall correctly, Walking Dead also did this with Carol.

[@TrentGgrims]

The scene where we see the machine gun in Walts trunk, the writers had no idea yet what they were going to do with that

[@pedroribeiro7984]

There will never be a series like Lost...no words to describe the absolute incomparable genius of the creators...

[@christianthorpe935]

It's a thing of beauty, folks! As always.

[@richardvlogsdisney]

This video deserves so many more views. Should be essential viewing for every lost fan and critic.

[@caughtashot]

Thank you for making this! I was obsessed with LOST to an unhealthy level back in the day. And the truth is absolutely in the middle. I am doing a rewatch and analyzing what they intended when the episodes aired. I think they intended purgatory as the big reveal but the audience figured it out and they called an audible to the flash sideways. They even admitted they didn't develop Jacob and the man in black until between season 1 and 2. The fog analogy or road trip one do indeed explain where the show is going. Something like time travel was probably an ungrounded idea when Cuse mentioned it but it wasn't concrete at the time. And considering this was loosely based on the stand I think the sickness was going to play a bigger role and Walt was the token psychic Stephen King child. I firmly believed he conjured the polar bears from the comics but the show called an audible and created the frozen donkey wheel to explain the polar bears. Things like this kinda explain the writing process as it went along.

[@raeliho]

Hi! I just got caught up on the videos I missed. I got chills watching all of them. And I'm really sad that The Theory of Everything is over. WOW. No words to describe how much I enjoy your content. I think YOU should be the one to write a sequel/requel/prequel. I would definitely watch it❤

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

Thank you 🙏 While The Theory of Everything has ended, the LOST Episode Guide is about to begin. One door closes and another opens. Stay tuned!

[@evenglare]

This is very eye opening. Thanks ! Gives me some ammunition whenever I come across the people who completely bash it saying they didnt know anything. I've always thought, no one ever has a whole story written up in their mind. And even if they do its subject to change. Ask literally any novelist that has ever existed since the beginning of time. Not knowing where you are going is not an inherently bad thing. Of course just like them, any writer knows what big ideas they want to hit on, clearly its the same here.

[@TVirus91]

This reminds me a bit of some things Stephen King once said about his Dark tower series: He talked about his inspirations, one of them being Tolkien with TLOTR. He wanted to write something equal, but he was only 19 and if he had started writing then, it would just became his (Tolkien's) story again. Furthermore he talked about how people wrote to him asking about the ending of the dark tower because they wouldn't be around anymore because of sickness. But he couldn't answer this. He didn't know. He had to write it to discover how it goes! He always said he did not write the dark tower he just wrote down what the Ka (something like fate or destiny in the dark tower universe) showed him.

[@knightridernz72]

I love Lost and this is the BEST KZbin channel on the series. I loved the first season and it's my favourite season. I love how they opened the second season with Desmond being inside the hatch. Totally unexpected but brilliant.

[@molecola5793]

Thank you for your commitment into making this video. Lost is truly one of the few tv shows that i would rewatch for the third time.

[@FelloniusWizard]

I'm caught between selling my DVD:s or just keeping them for the future. After seeing this video, a third option was revealed; Maybe watch them again? Very good video!!

[@meglosthecaramacking]

This has been your best video so far. I’m always glad to learn new information about the creative process behind Lost, so this was invaluable. I’m really looking forward to part 2.

[@cirjaonisim1113]

41:15 If you look closely you could see the smoke monster in Locke's eye ball reflections. And that was as early as episode 4 season 1.

[@corichcortex9454]

I recently finished watching all seasons of Lost for the first time and so far I have been pleased by it all. Aside from wishing Jack had found a way to defeat…Dark John and lived to protect the island.

[@Blindseeker82033]

Excellent argument. So glad the channel's still cookin. Makes me wanna watch again every time.

[@shakespearesmilkshake]

your editing, timing and creativity is sublime. amazing channel

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

What a lovely comment! Thank you 🙏

[@shakespearesmilkshake]

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 yeah youre really talented. have you considered creating another channel about movies in general where you dissect them like you do lost to solve unanswered questions and mysteries. eventually youll have spoken all there is about lost and id love to see you do something else as youre a really smart guy

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

That's true, once I complete the episode guide I will have completed my LOST journey. Although it will take several years to finish the episode guide so there is some time before we reach 'The End', as it were. But you're right, at some point I should broaden my focus. Perhaps once the episode guide becomes a well-oiled machine, I can launch a new channel to run alongside it to discuss other things. It's certainly something I am open to doing, I just need a unique take and approach. Really appreciate the kind words and encouragement!

[@shakespearesmilkshake]

@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Yes!! There's still so much to discover with lost. If and when you decide to do the movie channel, please let Groundhog Day be the first you dissect! I've always wondered what really may have happened to him there, and with your attention to detail, I know you could come up with some solid theories.

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

Great choice! Groundhog Day is one of my favourite movies of all time! 🙂

[@travellingslim]

With all the drivel and slop we have been given over the last few decades by cable network channels, it's surprising to hear how micromanaging the network was on LOST even after the raving reviews of season 1. Smart management should have seen the success and immediately taken a hands-off approach, letting the showrunners do what they do. It doesn't get much worse than executives in a board room ruining a good show because they want something different than what the viewers want.

[@adonwolfe]

Great deep dive about the Behind the scene stuff of the show that I didn't know about. Glad this channel exists for one of my favorite shows. Keep up the good work. And stay Lost.

[@marinabassi3767]

When I saw you had created a new video I just knew my Sunday was going to be good a one. I started to watch Lost for the 21th ? 22nd? 25th? time last week. Can't actually remember how many times, but it definitely won't be the last, and your work plays a big part in it. I'll never thank you enough... And can't help thinking that a drop of the Source helped create this masterpiece and inspired (or not, but still..) all the humans it touched. (OMG, I sound like Locke in the first seasons 😄, but you know what I mean...)

[@chrisfraser5088]

Such a great video! Keep up the good work! Love your videos! Lost needs to stay alive. No other show like it.

[@outofmind9222]

I just finished this series for the 5th or so watch, and decided it’s my all time favorite series. Then I discovered this channel, and you’ve done an EXCELLENT job with your videos. Watching this almost makes me want to start it over again! 😂

[@rickybailey4085]

I do love how the first episode I saw of your channel answered some of my questions. I personally think they had a plan for the show- that they were in Purgatory- but once people started guessing that they had to change the entire premise of the show

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

I think that might have been the “break glass in case of emergency” answer had the show gotten cancelled after 13 episodes. Lindelof speaks about how he thought (and hoped) that the show was going to get cancelled before the Pilot came out. By that point they were about 7-10 episodes deep and developing the middle run of the season. So I absolutely think had the show been cancelled due to low ratings, the writersroom would have triggered a resolution like this in which they could wrap up the on-island story by revealing that the characters had died in the crash. It would have been inelegant and unsatisfying to do it that way, but it would at least have been something. Lindelof says how he was hoping it would become a weird cult classic show like The Prisoner in this way. So, I agree that the purgatory answer might have been considered and discussed early on as there are implications made in the first half of Season One in particular, but I disagree that this idea was reconsidered because audiences guessed purgatory as the solution early on. It was more like a back-up answer in case the Pilot flopped. That’s my take on it anyway.

[@nickgoodlock263]

I love lost and couldn't give a fck if nobody else on earth likes it. I definitely don't care if it was planned or they were winging it. Most people you hear talk about it didn't even understand the ending anyway 🤷‍♂️

[@josephbrown9685]

Well said. Gotta love it when people who didn’t even watch the whole show and clearly don’t understand it like to make proclamations about its quality based on what they heard somewhere online being espoused by fellow ignorant commentators.

[@Gullo_mengozzi]

The details in these videos are insanely accurate, great work! Thank you, as always, for putting in the effort, really appreciated

[@Jh9801]

This was brilliantly well done, thank you so much for spending so much time researching this put this together. I've always been to die hard fan of the show, but I knew almost none of this. I miss the fun i had when watching along back in the day, scouring lostpedia to learn as much as i could. I was doing an internship I hated during s6, but I kept myself sane sending back and fourth thousand word long essays to a close friend, with Visio block flow diagrams trying to explain the timeline. Such great memories. Please keep up this channel, it brings me so much joy. I went to Hawaii with my wife and in-laws last year and under the guise of tourism sneak took them to as many filming locations as I could. It was surreal going for Chinese food next to the place they shot Ekos Africa scenes, then driving a few minutes to go sit on the survivor beach the rest of the day.

[@SameBasicRiff]

Such great and amazing context. Just want to thank you again and say you are - so - awesome - !

[@radagast7200]

First... to get lost. Also, I was rewatching Angel and Sawyer is in the first episode. It was pretty weird to see Vamp Sawyer. Also, the Proto-Dharma idea named Medusa reinforces my idea that greek mythology played a huge role in the story. And that the island is Calypso's Ogygia.

[@Jefersoul]

Your channel is awesome!

[@generalytsubs9759]

I'm the 3rd one here, 9 minutes after upload, I remember saying months ago I'd be here for your next video,and at a convenient time, when I have nothing else to watch

[@notoriousbmc1]

Maybe it has changed over the years, but pretty much every show was made up as they went. Breaking Bad is continually near the top of "best show ever" lists, with nobody ever questioning how they went about writing it. Vincent Gilligan said on a few occasions, at the start of a season, they'd shoot some seemingly unconnected shot (teddy's eyeball in the pool) with no idea where they were going with it. They had Walts' arc of breaking bad somewhat planned out, but not much else. Literally what is the point of a writers room if it's already written? I think this makes it more impressive, that these people can end up with great shows like Lost or BB.

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

I know exactly what you mean here and I agree with the notion that every story is "made up". Of course, no story arrives fully formed, no matter what medium you are working in as a writer. But that's not really what I think people mean when they ask if LOST was made up as it went along. They are asking if the writers knew where the story was going. Did their story follow the pathway of an actual plan or did they make it up without any real planning at all? And if there was no real plan throughout then was the show a bit of a con on audiences? This is what is at the heart of the debate surrounding LOST and why I felt it necessary to make a video breaking down the various evidence inside and outside of the show. For a long time, it's been a very binary argument between fans and detractors of the series and I wanted to make it clear in video-form how exactly the show came together.

[@notoriousbmc1]

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 great video...as usual

[@BigDome1]

The random cold opens, like the teddy bear and the machine gun, contributed to some of the worst moments in Breaking Bad. The plane crash was total nonsense and didn't serve the series in any way. The machine gun ending was utterly terrible. Moreover, whilst the Breaking Bad writers didn't know exactly how it would end, they knew what the POINT of the show was. It was a suspenseful crime thriller, there was no "answer" we were waiting for. It's a narrative that we're happy to see play out. But with LOST, they created a sense of mystery and of questions that needed answering, and many of us feel they just randomly threw together a bunch of crap.

[@juanthompson7395]

Thank you and a lot of things said kept it so great for me as well! A tv show like that with so much ambitions should've been loved and respected but I never took it for granted because Lost is always gonna be up there as the best TV show

[@matwilliams8012]

It’s ironic but I honestly think season 4 is one of the tightest seasons of all time. It pays off the ending of 3 (we have to go back), it has an overarching mystery though the whole piece (the oceanic 6) which are revealed through the whole season, some interesting new characters who are pivotal to the lore and an ever growing sense of dread about what happened to the people who didn’t get off the island - are they alive, are they dead, are they still there? It’s beautifully handled and perfectly put together.

[@illuvattar]

Awesome and very thoroughly and clear breakdown! I always chuckle if I read 'they were making it up as they went along'. Lemme tell you a secret. That is how TV is made, especially at that time. It's how creation goes, things are discovered and expanded upon or reduced. Recently it's changed a little because of the reduced nr of episodes, making it possible to write a whole season before the first episode airs. It's still being made up as it went along, just before it's aired. It's also not always great, cause it often feels like a stretched out movie where you don't have random amazing character episodes like the dharma-van episode of Lost. It doesn't enable you to bond with characters, and it's why older shows with like 70+ episodes are way more popular on streaming. And I think that's where they're slowly moving towards again. Why invest $200M into 6-8 episodes when you can make like 16-18 for less that enables people to become more engrossed and put in more time watching your content. Looking forward to the next part, since the second half isn't covered as much as the inception and the first half! As well as you're episode by episode guide!

[@Tystalls04]

I can literally count on you to post something and it makes me go back and rewatch LOST lol I don’t know who to blame at this point

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

I take full responsibility 😂

[@Tystalls04]

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 could be worse addictions I guess😂

[@Bobody770]

Nice work. I thought I was a lost fan, but most of these quotes I’ve never seen before. Especially from the writers that are not Lindelof and Cuse

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

I provide some links in the further reading section to some of the sources I used. Javier’s essay - The LOST Will and Testament - is particularly illuminating about those first two seasons. Worth a read on its own!

[@donm5354]

Fascinating insight into the story of how LOST came to be the way it came to be and the games showrunners/writers had to play with clueless network executives interfering with the creative process. As with any serialized series-LOST was a work in progres. Looking forward to your coverage of Seasons 4-6. ............... Initially I drifted away early in Season 1 then stumbled onto the episode where the HATCH was discovered and after they blasted it open, I had to find out what happened next and was hooked. Every series of the nature (like Battlestar Galactica that ran concurrently) has seemingly pointless episodes that did not seem to move the story forward-had bits that made sense later on. When viewed as a whole, upon rewatching a few times, it was amazing how sell the pieces came together by the series finale - which many drew the false conclusion "They Were Dead The Whole Time". I was really hoping the 12-minute epilog shown only during the AFTER SHOW and as a special edition DVD, that eventually a sequel series would happen with Hugo, Ben and Walt running the Island. Where they would create their own Dharma Initiative, recruiting scientists and archaeologists to unlock the islands known (and yet to be discovered). With appearance by some of those who left aboard Flight 316. Along with children of the Losties.

[@nimayahya5243]

its 2025 and im still keep watching Lost over and over again! cant stop it! Best show ever

[@sandythompson3525]

As ever, thank you for the awesome content!!!

[@SupaJ777]

Been waiting!

[@nickbrown1663]

"Oh they were dead all along"

[@Ryusevi]

Great video and your whole channel is great. As someone who spent countless hours on lostpedia back in like 2009/2010 and doesnt have the patience to put all this together i salute you. I love this show so much and despite not really needing explanations it‘s almost like a rewatch of a different kind to experience the show in this manner

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

That’s music to my ears! 🙏

[@sparkycjs]

Hey! I was on the lostpedia forum back in the day too. Spent ages there discussing theories with people. Fun times!

[@Ryusevi]

@@sparkycjs Yeah i loved the theories and reading all the whisper transcripts etc.

[@sparkycjs]

@@Ryusevi I remember when they were theorising a map with the stations etc too.

[@84bombsjetpack23]

When “Alias” was pitched to the network, I wonder if JJ Abrams made it clear that there would be supernatural elements? Eventually it became a somewhat spy version of Buffy so of course there were fantasy / supernatural elements. But like Lost, we didn’t really realize this until near the end of season 1.

[@GeneralShermansMarch]

Ill always feel a bit cheated. If you dont think monetary gains dictated keeping the audience on edge over completing an arc or resolving a mystery for good story telling and art then...youre wrong. These same models are seen in f2p games today. Spike people's "fever" and then give them minimal doses to supress withdrawl. I still love the show and it was good....but the criticism is 100% credible.

[@ThousanWhite]

31:53 You nailed it. It's all based on a personal bias/belief system that has to utilize a contradictory logical fallacy to be true. Having a "lack of plan" is a relatively nascent/bandwagon-jumping complaint permeated in internet culture imo. It's exactly how people seem to hate the recent Star Wars movies because they "didn't have a plan" but in reality, when George Lucas made "A New Hope" he has mentioned MANY times in public that he didn't have Empire or Return of the Jedi mapped out either and yet the criticisms for those OT films are completely absent.

[@poupidoupidou8548]

Didn't have time to deeply check your channel, but I will! Was the showrunners making it up? I don't care, the result is great and Lost will always be my favorite TV show, not objectively the best, let's be honest, but my favorite, a marker of my life.

[@Seomus]

I write long epic fantasy books and I rarely have more than the current book plotted. Then I build on things. I plant seeds and grow them over books. I have the advantage of writing words. I don't have to worry about the actor playing my character quitting or dying or budgets considerations or time constraints. I don't have set hours of programming that i have to fill. Each season of the show feels outline, espeically the last three stories. I can say, I know that sometimes your plans seem good, but don't work when you go to implement them and force you course correct. Sometimes, inspiration hits you deep into a series that can take you in an unplanned direction. Creating longform fiction is a messy process for a novelist working alone. And if you don't realize that, ask yourslef why GRR Martin hasn't released the next SOIAF novel in 13 years.

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

Great comment! And totally agreed. I'll be touching upon this a little bit in the next part -- the difference of being a sole author with full creative control over a novel versus running a TV show that employs roughly 500 people and not having full control over every aspect of that production as a result. There's a lot of nuance to what happened behind the scenes of this show.

[@benmascioli1133]

AHHHHH new Lost Explained dropped!!

[@WitchChangkyun]

Babe, wake up, new video from Lost Explained dropped

[@lostcause78]

I was one of the big fans that were disappointed with the ending and the 6th season as a whole. Been re-watching it for the first time in 14 years with my wife, who is a first time watcher and so far I have enjoyed watching Lost over again far more than I expected. Plus I've been coming to this channel to have some things make sense and I might actually end up enjoying the overall show much more on a my second run.

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

I hope these videos help you to see the ending in a new light, so to speak. I have had many people (who felt angry with the last couple of seasons) get in touch with me to say that the show held up better upon a rewatch after digesting the videos on this channel. So, I hope that also proves true for you too. 🙏

[@therelics7415]

Great video. Even as a huge lost fan I actually never knew all of this about how the writers had to trick the network about being self-contained. Your point about people being overly nostalgic about season 1 is really good. Even though I love season 1, I agree that it is was less good than the other 5 seasons because it had less purpose. It also makes so much more sense now why the pacing of the last 3 seasons was so much better now.

[@otohora6537]

Lost is the greatest show ever written!

[@nacierkan]

Thank YOU for this video.

[@trentodahare2469]

u should make a video on how season 4 was supposed to be since it was ment to be longer. love the show. re watching rn for the 4th time. showing it to my girl. were almost thru season 5!

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

I will discuss the impact that the writers strike had on Season Four in Part Two.

[@Brellowcrop]

You've done a fantastic job exploring and deepening the mythology of Lost. A show which I loved. Yet, they clearly had a rough road plan, but no real plan. You've also got to remember how many episodes a season there was back then. It sounds like it was absolute chaos behind the scenes. I, personally enjoyed the time travel parts back in the Darma initiative. That shit was kewl

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

Yes, during Season One I think it was chaos behind the scenes. But they found their equilibrium by Season Two and I think they had more than a rough road plan by that point. They had the backstory of The Island and the major mythological milestones of where they wanted to take the overall story (which I shall get into in more depth in Part Two). The problem was the treading water between the milestones, which for a long time was a result of the network's paternalism over not ending the show nor revealing the answers behind mysteries. However, I would agree that producing 22-episode seasons was a big part of why the show ended up being so uneven generally speaking. Had they been making 10-episode seasons from the start, it would have been a tighter narrative, but we would have lost all that time with the characters, building those emotional connections. I also love the time travel stuff! Wouldn't lose that for anything.

[@ATMyles]

I’ll always wish that they’d kept the Smoke Monster, conceptually, as a security system/Cerberus. One created by the DHARMA Initiative would have made even more sense, and given their experiments with psychic phenomena, the mind-reading element could’ve have remained. I wonder, could the series have moved forward and reached a satisfying conclusion if they retained the good vs. evil mythology but not introduced Jacob and The Man in Black as the avatars? I think it could have. Those two characters were, for me, the midi-chlorians of the plot. Most of the things caused by them could have been attributed to The Island. I wish they’d kept Claire’s astronomy hobby, too. It would have added more depth to her character. Thank you for another great video. Looking forward to part 2.

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

The problem with Smokey being nanobots created by DHARMA is that it would have resolved that question by Season Two because we all guessed that. And I think that reveal would have been as disappointing to viewers as The Island turning out to be purgatory and that everyone on it is dead. While it would have been a cleaner answer, it also wouldn't have been particularly imaginative nor exciting. The smoke monster was clearly a major threat to characters from the start and for it to be just a malfunctioning guard dog would have been underwhelming. At least, for me (I can only speak for myself here). What they went with -- Smokey having ancient origins that are connected to the power beneath The Island -- was far more comprehensive and satisfying. And it tied Smokey into the show's whole concept of consciousness and souls. Whereas had Smokey just been a machine made by science experiments, it would have felt very disconnected from the overall mythology, if you know what I mean? Could they have explored the good vs evil ideas without Jacob and MiB? Yes, for sure. They had started to do that a bit with Oceanic 815ers going to war with The Others, until those relationships and dynamics between the groups became more complex and not so black and white. But they eventually needed two characters to embody those light and dark concepts so they could explore and deconstruct them. Could The Island really have stood in for everything Jacob & MiB did? I think it would have been difficult to tell the rest of the story without someone or something coming to embody good and evil within the story as physical beings. The smoke monster was an obvious choice for embodying the darkness while a character representing the light needed to be created to give a balance to the equation. A version of the show without Jacob and MiB is hard to imagine for me, because I personally like that part of the mythos. However, I can absolutely imagine a version of the show that only lasted three seasons (as Lindelof originally hoped for) that never introduced the Jacob vs MiB conflict. And I think plenty of people might have preferred a more concise, less mythologically dense narrative. Although I just cannot picture what that final season would have been about in terms of the big conflict beyond more battles with The Others, which felt played out by the end of Season Three. I think the story needed those bigger stakes to create a climatic final season. Also, with shortened seasons, it's impossible to know what would have been lost, if you'll pardon the pun! The flashforwards, the time travel, the flash sideways -- they wouldn't have been able to fit all of that in. For some that might be preferable lol! But I wouldn't give those arcs up for anything since they are my favourite overall movements from the series. Anyway, fascinating to think about what might have been! Make the smoke monster a machine and you change everything basically.

[@ATMyles]

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 thank you for the incisive reply. To be clear, I loved ‘Lost’, and I was very satisfied with the ending. Still, I’ll always regret that there wasn’t more…consistency? Cohesion? Clarity? I would have liked a more science or science-fictiony, less overtly supernatural explanation for some of the Island’s mysteries. In fact, a few could have remained mysteries, as far as I’m concerned. In any event, your videos have only made me appreciate the show more, even those aspects with which I was slightly disappointed. Thanks again. P.S. The whispers should have been The Others!

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

I know what you mean. Had the narrative been clearer and more consistent then there would be far less sour grapes out there! I personally like the balance struck between science fiction and the supernatural, it's an unusual mix we don't often get in stories (usually it's one or the other). But I totally get where you are coming from and I appreciate what you are saying. p.s. I would have accepted the whispers coming from The Others only if The Others turned out to be supernatural themselves, otherwise the idea that people like Tom and Danny were hiding in the trees and whispering random, creepy phrases at people is too silly for me to accept lol.

[@ATMyles]

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 ha! Yes, Tom and particularly Danny aren’t subtle enough for whispering or hiding. That would had to be delegated to the many nameless background Others. Ethan’s first fight with Jack, who admittedly was caught off guard, and the way he managed to single-handedly subdue Claire and string up Charlie, gave the impression that The Others were supernatural. I wonder if that was an early idea.

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

I did a breakdown of all the whispers on the show in my video on Faith and the Supernatural, and I counted the number of times they were correlated with appearances from The Others. It's not as many as it seems. In the first season episode 'Outlaws' the whispers include a voice that repeats Frank Duckett's last words to Sawyer -- "It'll come back around" -- which makes these voices clearly connected to the realm of the dead. I think it would have been hard to then make the whispers non-supernatural in nature, which is maybe why the writers flipflopped on them so much. I agree that during the first season the writers left the origin of The Others open so that they could make them into a supernatural group if they wanted, hence their initial conflation with the whispers. Had the show been cancelled in Season One, or naturally ended at Season Three, perhaps that would have ended up being the case. So many possibilities!

[@TomGallagherSuperboyBeyond]

Wait... people don't like the episode where they fix the Dharma bus? I love that episode! Honestly one thing i wish Lost did more was give them vehicles. The boat was cool. Maybe a new raft which is only designed to take them around the outside of the island would have been cool. Instead of an escape, it's for exploration. If the island is this huge, a few expeditions a season which lead to smaller mysteries which can get solved along the way might have helped keep it interesting. Doesn't even always have to be Dharma or egyptian stuff. Just finding evidence of other people having been stranded there. Like mini-detective stories. Could even change up the format of the flashbacks a bit, focusing on these survivors from long ago. Giving the cast a break.

[@benmascioli1133]

Fantastic as always. Can't wait for Part 2!!

[@paolaferrari66]

Stavo aspettando questo 😅 e ...grazie,... come sempre, sembra 😊ieri. Ogni volta.❤ Grazie.

[@JonathanHassingerChannel]

Countless shows and movies made after LOST, are imitating LOST.

[@josephbrown9685]

LOST is essentially a Netflix or Hulu original series before such a thing even existed.

[@Bartooc]

Remember when the show aired, internet was on the rise and all the crazy theories after each episode.

[@infinitas2004]

I love this show. I watched the finale on a movie theatre screen with 300 people (max cap). I went alone but I made friends I still connect with there, and dinner afterwards because we didn’t want the night to end. But this video fails to convince me that there was a plan, that the showrunners didn’t bait and switch, or that they didn’t lie by doing things they said that they wouldn’t do. Make all the excuses you need to for “why”, but the facts of “what” is well presented in this video. Still, I love this show.

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

The video isn’t saying there was a plan from the start, only that one emerged as the show evolved in those first few years, and that plan was constantly being hampered by lack of control over the narrative end point. There is plenty of documentation that proves the writers absolutely had many of the later ideas of the series in mind from the start, or close to. It takes an incredible level of obstinance to deny that and to continue to say they made it up as they went along without any plan. There is a nuanced backstory to what went on behind the scenes, and not a binary yes or no answer to the primary question. And I’ve tackled it as even handedly as possible.

[@guyledouche7939]

Completely unrelated fun fact (that you probably already know) is that only 2 scenes were shot outside of Hawaii. It wasn't when Said was in Germany. It wasn't when Locke was in the Tunisian desert. It wasn't any of the scenes in Korea or Thailand. It was when Sun confronts Whidmore, and also later when Ben confronts Whidmore in his hotel room. Every other scene in the show was shot in Hawaii. It really showcases just how innovative the set designers/location scouts were.

[@ThoseBackPages]

has it really been 20 years? wow.

[@josephbrown9685]

September 22 this year is the pilot episode anniversary!

[@serf6355]

Some aspects were no doubt deliberate, including the often repeated one eye symbology shown throughout the show. That always tells me that there’s a mysterious agenda we likely wont uncover..

[@dongrimshaw149]

I just rewatched, for the first time, after all these years. I appreciate this channel and all the videos, but the show felt weeks to week that is was an overall display of what happens when each character makes the wrong decision, more than 60% of the time.

[@JonBonZombie]

The idiots who think it was a " scam " dont realize that the ones FUNCING the Show need to see results ..THe show was the biggest show at its time

[@motta_x]

Back watching your videos as I am currently in the middle rewatching the series. I really appreciate the insight you have and the effort you put into these videos, truly remarkable. One question though - I’ve very picky about shows in general and LOST is pretty much the only series I have a deep connection with. I’m assuming LOST is also your favorite show, but can you recommend any other shows that are similar?

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

Thank you 🙏 LOST is probably my favourite show - it’s certainly the one I have the deeper knowledge of. Although I also have to give love to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X-Files for being my formative TV experiences as a young lad. I think those two shows had a heavy influence over LOST as well in terms of their mythological elements. I have never seen any show that did what LOST did. It really is unique. The closest I have ever come to something like it was a British miniseries called The Third Day starring Jude Law, which often felt like LOST meets The Wicker Man; sort of an English folk horror version of The Island. Imagine a traditional John Locke episode where he is following weird signs and forces while The Others try to crown him their leader only it is stretched out as its own standalone story. It’s a very different show, but it has similar concepts and vibes. Otherwise, I’ve seen very few shows that come even remotely close.

[@generalytsubs9759]

Just finished it, so when is the next upload, part 2?

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

Won’t be too long of a wait. I’m just completing the final edit of it now. It will be released to Patreon first then it will go live on KZbin a couple of weeks after that. Should be some time in March 🙏

[@generalytsubs9759]

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Okay, thanks, I'll be here waiting.

[@rulas_6656]

Why doesnt the Smoke Monster just go over the ultrasonic pylons? We know it's possible to go ver and under them because locke, sayid, kate and the others did so, why didnt he do it? Considering they're there to protect everyone from the monster

[@TokyoXtreme]

Why didn't they just let him off the island? That's all he wanted, and it's not like he was bad guy - much more sympathetic than Jacob. The whole "The world will end" seemed like a lie.

[@rulas_6656]

@@TokyoXtreme they didnt let him off the island because everyone (rightly or not) thought that the world would end if they did so, also he clearly wasnt a good person, he killed many people, also when he was talking to Claire he said that after Kate had finished helping him get Sawyer and Jack off the island she could have killed her

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

If you watch that scene back, you'll see that the smoke monster doesn't actually make it close enough to the pylons to go over them. A human being can literally walk between the pylons before being affected by the sonar waves (it's like once they are directly between the pylons that they become affected), which can either kill or incapacitate them. But the smoke monster can't even get that far between the pylons. He hits the invisible barrier like a brick wall. Smokey doesn't react the same way to the pylons as people do. The field repels him instantly. He can't get close enough to go over them. He's bound by different rules than human beings.

[@williamarbuckle3342]

I remember Damon saying in a podcast that the idea for "the incident" (first mentioned in s2) was always that the characters were going to go back in time and end up causing it

[@catthompson3427]

Just started rewatching, while I'm currently living on a tropical island in Cambodia 😂

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

Sounds like an awesome environment to rewatch the show in!

[@HeatherHolt]

Patiently awaiting your new videos ❤❤

[@MySpiritAnimalisADorito]

My problem with 'Lost' has never so much been about whether or not the writers/creators had a plan... it's that the finale came off like an endorsement of religion over science. Essentially, "don't worry about all the facts and figuring things out in life... just have faith." The entire series was basically a study in how to fail at the principle of Chekhof's Gun.

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

I think LOST is non-denominational. It's not a religious ending, more so a spiritual one. But that doesn't mean it is throwing the science out. I have discussed and explored the show’s mythology from the POV of both science and faith in depth in my videos. It doesn't choose one over the other IMO. It presents both and effectively says that they are two sides of the same coin. So, if DHARMA represents science's overreach of nature then we have to also analyse how so many characters of faith are manipulated into doing terrible things out of faith. The Others represent organised religion and they are portrayed as the bad guys for most of the show until their faith effectively wipes them out. John Locke is the key man of faith throughout the series and his whole character arc becomes a cautionary tale on blind faith. His beliefs are used against him and he is manipulated into his death. Sure, they all end up in a Catholic church at the end in an afterlife construct, but this is also the same church that exists in the real world Los Angeles. They have been there before when they were alive. And it has a DHARMA station beneath it (representing science). In other words: faith is above but science is beneath. Two sides of the same coin. I make a comparison between Mother and Faraday in my video on The Origins of The Island. They both understand and explain the light beneath the island based on separate interpretations: Mother explains it in mystical terms, while Faraday explains it with physics. But both are essentially explaining the same thing in different ways. LOST is definitely a spiritual show, but it doesn't come at the cost of science. It strikes a balance between its two major themes.

[@chrislawson1988]

I liked season one but love most of others cause the wierdness and island mysteries was in foreground more mythology loved it wanted more of it Moe weirdness the better wilder the better loved the season two finale loved Desmond omg and the hatch loved time travel others was so intriguing anything with the island was intriguing lol and epic

[@Retardelito]

Dude!! What a wicked channel!! So many things I didn’t quite get, links I would have never gotten around to understanding if I’d watched the whole thing another 5 times. Brilliant work. I’m 41, didn’t think anyone younger than me had ever given the show a try, wicked to hear the show is still alive in some ways ✌️❤️

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

Thank you 🙏 I am very pleased to report that the LOST fandom is alive and well. And thanks to the show rotating on streamers like Hulu and Netflix and Amazon, new audiences are frequently rediscovering it.

[@marca5883]

I absolutely loved this series💚🇬🇧🌱 no denying it was stretched to far, would of been the greatest show ever if they did it in four awesome seasons rather than an iffy six...

[@TJMalana]

ABSOLUTELY LOVE how many times you shouted out "Desperate Housewives" in your video. "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" were and STILL ARE my two favorite TV shows from NETWORK TV. Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, and Lost all became iconic and instant hit show all at the same time in the same year. Desperate Housewives went through a similar conundrum of trying to end their series they way Marc wanted to end it. These networks are so greedy that they were willing to let hit TV shows go on and on and on till it faded away from existence but when the ratings kept going down ABC finally caved and let Marc Cherry end his serial Comedy/Drama series the way he wanted. This is me just theorizing at this point. Since Grey's Anatomy is going on to 20th season it seems to be the ONLY show that is still bringing high ratings to the network ABC is currently doing to them what they TRIED to do with "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" and milking for everything they got. We're seeing in REAL time the consequences of a show like "Grey's Anatomy" overstaying their welcome. Ending Desperate Housewives and Lost was right decision to make. PS: The Creator of Lost and Desperate Housewives did an interview together regarding 2008 writers strike if you want to see it and use as a resource for Part 2 of your vid.

[@TJMalana]

@@SirReptitiousOh yeah Grey’s Anatomy is going last I checked. I don’t think they made it all up. I had to do Wordpress article for school about my favorite TV shows and I referenced Desperate Housewives and Lost because it was the TV shows I grew up watching and seeing how both shows evolved. The first three seasons of Lost were slow because I’d all the expeditions but the last three seasons really showed clear purpose and direction and a lot of the story arch’s circled back around to the beginning. In my opinion no TV show has ever come close to the phenomenal that Lost was. I’m sorry you feel like the entire show was made up.

[@TJMalana]

@@SirReptitiousI be curious to know what about Lost you thought was made up. Any examples you can provide?

[@llokuta]

I will say this about the Dharma van: It did become relevant when the people who stayed behind at the beach used it to run over the "Others" when they tried to surprise attack them. The second I saw that scene I remember saying to myself "See, everything they introduce DOES come around full circle"..........

[@dont_follow5777]

So glad I'm finally watching this one.

[@ikilem]

I’m a huge lost fan, think it was the best show ever and don’t get me wrong I love your videos and I’ve seen all of them, but I gotta disagree with you on the idea that the writers had some grip on things. I think they just threw in mystery after mystery to keep us intrigued and then when they couldn’t find a way to explain their way out of all of it they suddenly changed from sci fi to spiritual mystery and found some lame excuses like “we don’t like the exposition scenes from star wars or the matrix so we’re just gonna leave it to the audience” lol. I really like some of the explanations you came up with but they still feel forced at times. I really loved lost and it was a completely unique experience that I think we may never match again but I really think the writers screwed us over with season 6. Still thanks for this channel and your videos though, I really enjoyed watching them.

[@writeralbertlanier3434]

To begin with, most of Television writing has been "making it up.as you go along". Most TV shows have been written during the course of production over the history of television. Thus TV shows didn't get 22 scripts or 15 scripts or 10 scripts written and rewritten ready to go at the beginning of filming in the summer. You may get 2-3 scripts ready at the season but unless you are doing a cable or streaming show where you shoot all the episodes in a period of time and then release it, you write scripts as you go along - so to speak

[@guyledouche7939]

1:48 Don't remind me of this episode. I remember being fully invested in the show, to the point where I was skipping my night class in college just so I wouldn't miss the first 10 minutes of the show. Waiting a week between each episode was torture for me, and when Locke found his father and blew up the submarine, it was the only thing I could think about all week. Then, they took a break from that massive cliff hanger to give us an episode that had 0 bearing on the plot. The only thing that actually happened of consequence was Charlie confessing to Sun that he attacked her, and it was never brought up again. Everytime I rewatch the series I skip this episode. The memory of it infuriates me.

[@alfredvickers4054]

I'm just starting the video, but I have to say that "They made it up as they went along!" is a funny criticism. That's true of pretty much every series. When George Lucas made Star Wars he didn't yet know precisely everything that was going to happen in the next 2 movies. He hadn't definitively decided on Vader being Luke's father, for example. Or that Leia was Luke's sister. When Tolkien wrote The Hobbit, he had no plans for a sequel. Bilbo's magic ring was not the One Ring, the Necromancer of Mirkwood was not Sauron. Until he wrote The Lord of the Rings. When CS Lewis wrote his Ransom Trilogy or the Narnia series, he made up each story as he came to it, yet each series is a cohesive whole. Though I haven't read it, many people love Steven King's Dark Tower series, even though he was making it up as he went along and didn't know the ending when he started the series, and even went back and rewrote the 1st book to fit better with the rest. Even when someone has a general outline of how their planned series is going to go, they don't know every detail along the way until they actually take the time to write it, and even then some parts of the original plan can change. So in the end, even if the showrunners of Lost didn't have any ideas of where they wanted to go with the series, that wouldn't automatically make it a badly written series. Such a ridiculous criticism.

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

I agree with what you're saying, that every long-running story is ultimately decided piecemeal and any changes/alterations to that narrative are par for the course. That is just how writing a story over the course of many years, movies or episodes works. You can have a general outline of where it is all going, but anything can happen to change the direction of that outline, especially in the television world. Although I think this particular criticism about LOST is slightly more complex. To cannibalise a response I made to another comment on this video: When viewers ask if LOST was made up as it went along they are really asking if the writers knew where the story was going. Did their story follow the pathway of an actual plan or did they make it up without any real planning at all? And if there was no real plan then why did the writers say there was? Does that make the answers we got to long asked questions a bit of a bait-and-switch? This is what is at the heart of the debate surrounding how the show came together and why I felt it necessary to make a video breaking down the various evidence inside and outside of the show. For a long time, it's been a very binary argument between fans and detractors of the series and I wanted to make it clear in video-form exactly how the show was put together, and why it's not a simple yes or no answer.

[@florenciabalori3625]

What enrages me most of the time about people criticizing LOST is that they take for granted today's TV shows, and don't acknowledge the huge impact lost had on what we see today, 20 years on and still going strong. Back in the early 2000's when Lost started they were creating as they went because there was nothing to model it on, it is imperfect because they didn't expect the success they had and the network wanted to milk it to the very last drop they couldn't believe the success they were having. Now we can see well-rounded, high budget, high quality 10 episode miniseries like True Detective thanks to lost making the mistakes it made while being successful nonetheless. It is imperfect and plotholes and some stories make me crazy but I give it the grace it needs, and creating so many magnificent, memorable, iconic characters is no small feat. so kudos to them and thank you.

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

I agree with you 100%!

[@agitatedzone]

LOST was one of a kind

[@worstxb1playertylerteehc635]

What annoyed me as a UK viewer was the fact that only a few seasons in, enough to get you hooked onto it, it was then bought up ? and SkyTV a subscription based TV service that knowing its popularity at that time, put it behind a paywall. I thought it was a shitty thing to do.

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

Yes! This drove me nuts too! A lot of American shows would air here in the UK (usually on BBC or Channel 4), gain a decent audience, but then only a couple of years later the channels would decide that licensing the rights was now too expensive, so they would drop the shows mid-run. And yes, quite often Sky would pick them up... and who had Sky back then?! And this happened across multiple shows for me: Buffy and 24 on the BBC (had to wait for the video boxsets to come out in order to catch up), and later with Angel and LOST on Channel 4, who gave up both shows after two seasons each. British audiences got really screwed back in those days as there were little to no alternative options in the early 2000s.

[@worstxb1playertylerteehc635]

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Now it is on NF I may watch it again and finally get to the end. I didnt watch it out of general principle. But I am not sure I could put up with it now as it was a zeitgeist thing in the moment. New TV. But now I am sure I will be picking it to pieces now I am just a miserable fella. I can moan about everything. Thanks for the reply. I will be watching your other videos no doubt throughout my rewatch. SO thanks for the reply.

[@lordspuddington3012]

Here we go!

[@ImpGimp]

I never took any issue with where the story went. I was happy that the viewers were able to come to their own conclusion of what everything meant.

[@bigbigfizzi]

This show was enthrolling. I really loved it, until midway thru season 4. Not a hater by any means and am a big big fan of this show and thanks to you i have understood a lot of things that were just left unanswered. So, thank you for your efforts. I do really wish that this show was able to go on for a few more seasons to truly flesh out the important parts that were... LOST by finishing way to early. Maybe if they omitted all the Kate and Sun episodes, they wcould have fitted everything into 6 seasns.... Maybe??? (Not saying that Kate was a bore or that Sun was uninteresting... hmmmm...) Cheers.

[@OceanSoul1969]

I loved season 4 but seasons 5 and 6 were definitely the weakest for me. When they tried to craft in the mythology and time travel it just didn’t do it for me. Especially the whole remembering your life so you can move on.

[@Itryo]

I thought that your last video was perhaps the last one. SO happy to be wrong!

[@LOSTEXPLAINED108]

After this two-parter is done, I'll be launching an episode guide to go through the show episode-by-episode. So, still lots more to come on this channel!

[@Itryo]

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 😍 gold mate, thank you so much 🙏

[@RegalHankHill]

LOVE the content and absolutely BRILLIANT, we;; thought out and perfectly time documentary on the story shaping of the best series ever! you're work is well appreciated and ty!!(id love to hear your take on Game of Thrones if u ever get a second channel!)

[@lastpme]

One of the things I find interesting about the van episode is that Ben never went back to van to bury his father’s remains, he just left his father’s in the van. That is a lot of hate towards his father. Glad that episode was in the show because it showed how the MiB could manipulate Ben to kill Jacob. He had to make Ben feel neglected by Jacob like his father once did to him as a child.