We, the viewers of Lost, are The Variables

While the cool kids were learning the fate of the Idol-wannabes, us nerds were learning the fate of those who had already experienced this moment 30 years ago.

Even though at 9:59 PM on Wednesday, April 29, 2009, we hadn't yet witnessed the events that were to transpire in Lost's 100th episode, "The Variable," they had already happened. Our minds just didn't catch up until we saw the fictional events unfold across our TV screens. They had already happened in the sense that they had already been filmed; in reality, the actors that play these beloved characters had already acted out these scenes in front of cameras. But even within the Lost universe, these events had already happened. The proof? 2004 Eloise Hawking sent her son off to a certain death by her own hands (that had already happened) and 2008 Eloise Hawking lamented to a distressed Penelope Hume that she had no information on upcoming events, all within a matter of a few moments.

I get it now. No, not where this MindF@*k of a show is actually heading, but rather I get where they've been. Every episode of Lost has featured either a flashback or a flashforward, which, of course, the mere presence of the latter begs the question as to whether we were watching a flashforward of post-Island events or rather the Island events were the flashbacks themselves. No matter now of course, because we've come so far beyond a simple narrative direction of present day and past, or present day and future, because now on Lost, the past is the present and the present is the past.

Even back in season 1, whether we knew it or not (and of course we didn't), they were prepping us. The characters' flashbacks we saw were a simple narrative device, right? Just a way to fill in back story so the entire hour wasn't filled with a couple plane crash survivors walking through the jungle, right? Maybe, in the sense that it did break up the monotony of overgrown beards, tattered clothes and the constant sight of trees and rocks, but more importantly, the writers were preparing us for what was to come: Time Travel. Because what is a flashback, as a tool to tell a story, if not the simplest, most non-abrasive form of time travel?

What is a flashforward, if not an extremely less subtle hint of what's to come?

Lost didn't turn into a story about time travel. It's always been a story about time travel. Our minds, as viewers and participants, just hadn't caught up yet.

Unfortunately, for Daniel Faraday, either in spite of, or despite of, all of his knowledge of quantum physics, some of his final words, "anyone of us can die," came to fruition in the most ironic of ways - he had already died. He just hadn't caught up yet.

No wonder he cried at the TV screen showing the (fake) flight 815 wreckage. His future, in the past, had no future beyond the past.

This is why Lost will go down in history as one of the greatest time travel stories ever. Not only are it's characters' pasts just as important as their present, their present is defined by their future.

Our future, as viewers of Lost, however, is still yet to be told.

Source: Examiner