The time-twisting fifth season of “LOST” can soon be yours on DVD. The show’s penultimate season hits shelves on Dec. 8, giving fans plenty of time to re-live and re-think every episode before the show returns for its final season in the first week of February.Executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse dived into the world of time-travel. After planting the seeds and rules in season threes’s “Flashes Before Your Eyes” and season four’s “The Constant,” the executive producers decided no time was better to mess with time.
Season five finds Sawyer (Josh Holloway), Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell), Daniel (Jeremy Davies), Miles (Ken Leung), Charlotte and the others left behind flashing through time on The Island while Jack (Matthew Fox) tries to convince the Oceanic Six to return to The Island.
The Oceanic Six eventually return to The Island and the flashes eventually stop but not before time separates some characters from others by 30 years.
Jack, Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Hurley (Jorge Garcia) and Sayid (Naveen Andrews) find themselves in 1977 and where they discover Sawyer is head of Dharma security, and Juliet, Miles and friends working for the Dharma Initiative.
Meanwhile, Ben (Michael Emerson), Sun (Yunjin Kim), Frank (Jeff Fahey), and a seemingly resurrected John Locke (Terry O’Quinn) find themselves in 2007 and on a journey that will eventually take them to an unexpected and surprising place.
As for time travel, the rules in the “LOST” world are seemingly simple. Daniel explains that the future can’t be changed nor the past, that whatever happened, happened. But what if things can change?
This question consumes the second half of the season, eventually coming to a head in the season finale “The Incident” when the question becomes: what if Oceanic 815 never crashed on The Island? This is the question “LOST” asks as it prepares to launch its final chapter in 2010.
As for those in 2007, Sun’s mission is to find Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) while Ben tries to figure out how Locke can still be alive on The Island and assumes his position as the leader of The Others, after Ben killed him prior to the return to The Island. The Locke story provides the most jaw-dropping and breathtaking moment in the season.
Additionally, in this season, there’s more about Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell), Charles Widmore (Alan Dale) and his history with The Island, Eloise Hawking, The Dharma Initiative and Destiny. The tagline for season five is “destiny calls.” The tagline for season six is “destiny found.”
As for bonus features, the season five DVD is a “LOST” addict’s dream. The DVD set includes a special behind-the-scenes look at the celebration of the 100th episode of the show, “An Epic Day” with Richard Alpert, a “Los Angeles Crew Tribute” with Michael Emerson, “A Day with Josh Holloway,” and a feature entitled “Time Frame and Continuity.”
Also, fan-favorite features return such as the “LOST: On Location,” a feature which will take you behind-the-scenes of seven “LOST” episodes and provide a unique look at how the episode was produced. As always, the DVD set retains bloopers, deleted scenes, and audio commentaries.
Deleted scenes are included in this DVD, Lindelof and Cuse provide commentary for the season five premiere “Because You Left” and Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz provide commentary for “He’s Our You.”
The fifth season of “LOST” does not disappoint at all.
The season has been called a mirror of season two, and it’s worth paying attention to the parallels between season five and season two episodes such as the season five episode “Namaste” and drawing the parallels with season two’s “Orientation” or how the writers reversed the story of season two’s “One of Them” in the season five episode “He’s Our You.”
And remember, “LOST” isn’t a math problem that needs to be solved. It’s a story about people with a beginning, a middle and an end. Season five is an essential chapter to own of this unique and thrilling story.
Chris Monigle is a fifth year studing majoring in Literature. He can be reached at CM660983@wcupa.edu.