Rarely does a network TV series ponder such existential issues. But on the Emmy-winning drama Lost those questions haunt every castaway who survived the crash of Oceanic Air flight 815—not to mention the legion of young fans tuning in Wednesday nights before scurrying to share theories about the show’s latest developments on Internet message boards. For its compelling characters and cryptic sci-fi sleight of hand Lost has been called “the next great cult-pop sensation.”

This Is the Tale of Our Castaways
ABC’s runaway hit—a mysterious serial that’s equal parts Survivor, The Twilight Zone, Lord of the Flies and The X-Files—began with a passenger jet en route from Australia to Los Angeles breaking apart in mid-air. Pieces landed on a remote tropical island inhabited by polar bears, an unseen beast and who-knows-what-else. The show has focused on just over a dozen of the 48 original survivors, providing initial impressions of each, then challenging those notions with flashbacks from the characters’ troubled lives B.C. (“before crash”).

A no-nonsense surgeon named Jack heroically steps in as the group’s leader. He develops an alliance with Kate, a sweet young woman who, we learn, has had run-ins with the law. Also attracted to Kate is Sawyer, a bitter scoundrel consumed with vengeance. Then there’s Locke, the enigmatic adventurer who respects the island as if it’s a living, thinking entity. Other survivors include a drug-addled ex-rock star, a troubled Korean couple, a former Iraqi soldier and an estranged father trying to connect with the young son he’s just met.

According to producer/writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach, the island isn’t merely a physical locale but a form of exile for wayward people in need of redemption. “A lot of the plots ... are really about being trapped in a place that forces you to confront your inner demons [and] work out things that these people may not have worked out in their lives before. So being in this place with all these other strangers who don’t necessarily get along becomes a catalyst for the baggage that people brought in becoming something new and something dramatic and something that can be worked through on the island.”

When he refers to baggage he’s not talking about carry-ons once securely stowed in an overhead bin. These folks have issues—primarily family issues. Marital tension. Sibling entanglements. Enough paternal conflict to fill a cargo hold. In many ways characters get to start fresh in the company of strangers—that is until the past catches up with them. And it always catches up with them. Moreover, a yet-to-be explained thread ties everyone together.

Desperate to Solve the Puzzle
The monster. The others. The underground hatch. If you’ve never seen the show, they mean nothing. For the faithful, however, they’ve been all-consuming mysteries. Just visit a Lost Web site to feel the buzz. No line of dialogue is too trivial to dissect, no bit of minutiae too small to put under the microscope.

Why are fans investing so much energy? Jorge Garcia, who plays rotund everyman Hurley, said, “We’re not a cop drama and we’re not a hospital [drama] and we’re not lawyers. Our characters are people you want to know more about and want to, you know, come back to.” Indeed, viewers keep coming back—by the tens of millions.

Each episode reveals another surprising piece of a character’s complex backstory. Co-creator Damon Lindelof explained, “What’s cool is you take a character introduced as a hero and then you show, ‘Wow, maybe they’re not really that heroic of a person.’ You could also introduce a character who is supposedly a villain and then say, ‘Well, actually, this person isn’t that much of a villain. How did they get that way?’ Because all of our characters are emotional beings, we want to understand why they are the way they are.”

Such insights are most often revealed via detailed flashbacks, weekly glimpses at a few pages from a select character’s past. The technique is potent. For one thing, it reminds viewers how easy it is to make snap judgments about others when we don’t know their whole story. In its own subtle way Lost may inspire greater patience and compassion within its devotees. For Christians it’s a cultural gateway for sharing John 4:1-26 with “lost” fans who need to hear that Jesus knows their full history (flashbacks and all) and loves them just the same.

Of course, most Lost lovers aren’t digging for spiritual lessons. They just enjoy a well-crafted brain tease. Sleuths eager to unearth clues to the show’s complex conundrums made the DVD box set of Season 1 amazon.com’s hottest seller. The challenge now facing Lindelof and his partners is deciding how long to drop breadcrumbs to fans without satisfying their growing appetite for big-picture explanations. Are the characters in a pacific purgatory? Trapped in a time warp or some alternate reality? Part of an experiment? It may take several seasons to find out.

Producers Tell Fans to Have Faith
Beyond asking viewers to show patience while revelations take time to unfold, the creators of Lost seem intent on exploring faith in the supernatural sense. Miracles. Visions. Chance encounters that aren’t random after all. Is it fate? Karma? Divine intervention? It’s hard to say what the writers believe or want loyal followers to accept since the show’s spirituality lacks context. And it’s all over the map.

Walt, the boy alienated from his dad, has paranormal gifts. In addition, a newborn could usher in tragedy if anyone but Claire, his horoscope-heeding single mom, attempts to raise him (this based on a psychic’s warning). We even get a cursed set of numbers. One minute Hurley is winning a huge lottery jackpot with 4 - 8 - 15 - 16 - 23 - 42, the next his world—including the airplane he’s flying in—is falling apart. Even more bizarre are all the places those numbers start showing up.

Meanwhile, Locke’s odd resonance with the island and his ambiguous faith in destiny raise more spiritual questions than they answer. He’s an even-keeled, worldly-wise figure full of secrets, dogmatic in his belief that everything happens for a reason. This frustrates Jack, a practical man of medicine and science. Producers say those differing worldviews will, in the future, further polarize the pair.

Believe it or not, Lost’s best moment to date actually emerged from this philosophical stew. A minor character named Rose, a Christian who believes her missing husband is somehow still alive, tells a despondent young man, “It’s a fine line between denial and faith. It’s much better on my side.” He breaks down, tearfully asking her for help. “I’m not the one that can help you,” Rose says. Then, holding his hand, she prays, “Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for bringing us together tonight. And we ask that you show…” The camera pans away mid-sentence, leaving them to their private moment and leaving us to wonder how Rose’s Christian faith might impact future episodes.

Sure to Keep Families Guessing
Lindelof and co-producer J.J. Abrams (Alias) pride themselves in keeping fans off-balance. The last thing they want to be is predictable. In fact, just to violate audience expectations they considered killing Jack in the pilot episode. Lindelof recalls thinking, “The big psych-out is the audience will be totally invested in this guy and then he’ll get killed ... people will be like, ‘I never know what’s gonna happen next!’” Cooler heads prevailed, fearing that such a twist would anger viewers.

Nevertheless, not all surprises have been pleasant ones. To date (November 2005), the island's inhabitants have been too busy pondering their predicament, meeting basic needs and warding off death to be sexually active. However, some of the series' most disturbing moments involved flashbacks of Sawyer's con-related trysts and a creepy one-nighter between a society girl and her stepbrother. Violence has ranged from fistfights to torture to fatal shootings and the gory aftermath of attacks by a vicious, predatory creature. And when it comes to language, let's just say the ocean isn't the only salty thing around the island.

Thus, Lost’s desire to keep us guessing makes it hard for families to get truly comfortable in this tropical paradise.

ONLINE EDITOR'S NOTE: Episodes airing after this review have incongruously featured depictions of the staunch faith of a martyred African priest and the heretical assertion by one (influential) character that Jesus' baptism by John was orchestrated to absolve Christ of His "sins." Clearly, the surprises will continue on Lost.