Lost: Flashbacks vs Flashforwards
By fred | August 3, 2007
Ever since last season’s grand finale of Lost, every one has been wondering as whether or not flashforwards would come back or not, and how. A lot of people said that they thought they would eventually replace flashbacks, others envisioned that they would become the “present”, while time on the Island would be the flashbacks.
I for one actually never thought we would see any flashforwards again. I really doubted it, for one reason : the Island is the time that matters. I couldn’t believe the show would become about the Losties having left the Island and dealing with Island withdrawals or whatnot, what happens on the Island always was what mattered most since day one, and going away from it would simply not work, IMO.
And the “problem” with flashforwards, are revelations. They manage to do one and dealing with it nicely, but that was because we did not actually know it was not a flashback but a flahsforward (even though some guessed it from the clues along the way), and because it was the first one. But now….
Because really, we now know that Jack and Kate are safe. On Lost, unlike other shows, we had that feeling that pretty much every character could die at any time, without warning. Some we don’t see them going anywhere, like Hurley, Locke or Desmond, but we couldn’t really be sure, not 100% sure.
Not anymore, Jack and Kate are 100% safe. They got out of the Island, so they can’t die there. Showing one other character, is revealing that same info about him and therefore taking away part of the suspense of the show and mystery that exists on the Island.
And I doubt they could make stories that took place after they left the Island, without having them dealing and talking about their past, specifically on the Island. Look at Jack FFS! Sure Kate seemed some other place, but this is also why following her then, wouldn’t probably be that interesting. If there are no links to the Island time and clues about what happened back there/then, I have a hard time seeing how stories could have a real purpose.
But during last Comicon, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof revealed that they had anticipated that flashbacks would eventually go old after some time, and then came up with a new idea to not get stuck and disappointing fans, or having to only be on the Island - as they didn’t want to.
This is when they came up with the concept of “flashforwards”, where another story would be told. A story entirely told through those flahsforwards.
As simple as this idea sounds, do not forget this is Lost we’re talking about here. This could be just a story within the story, a story that would “complete” the main story (on the Island), and by the end of the show the two stories would finally meet, blend together in some unexpected ways and suddenly get a brand new meaning, or give to one another a new way to look at it.
But I still have my doubts about how they’ll manage to do that without affecting too much the main story.
Again though, let’s not forget this is Lost. I’m also saying this because, as I said before, I think flashforwards will be just like flahsbacks, as in not “real”.
I never believed that flashbacks were really past of the Losties lives a they actually really occurred. And seeing how Desmond was able to go through his past again with memories of his time on the Island, for sure there’s something fishy there.
So could the flashbacks actually be on the future, and the flashforwards on the past? Or both mixed. What if the Island isn’t on any timeline that really exists, could events from both flashbacks and flashforwards have taken place either before, or after those on the Island.
Or be a mixed of both, if the Island is within a wormhole, on a place linked to two different timeline, maybe events from the flash-back/forward are coming from both those times…
Either way, with the great minds behind Lost I think we can be sure to have some exciting seasons ahead of us. If only we could time travel then, instead of being stuck here where time goes by so slowly and February seem so far away…
