Alternative Timeline is My Anti-Valentine

A happy belated Valentines Day to all the dateless wonders out there. Kennedy, I'm looking at you.

This being my first post, I'm going big picture and discussing the alternate timeline story-telling device. I understand that it's impossible to adequately judge something after such a short time. But I'm going to complain anyway.

First, I think it's a waste of time. There seems to be a lot of story left to tell, and a short time to tell it. The story on the island is as compelling as they come. It's the story that we've been wrapped up in since day 1. It deserves to be center stage in the final season. When the narrative switches to the alternative timeline, its almost as if the show is going to commercial. I move off the edge of my seat, relax, look up Aldo's character entry in lostpedia.com, and wait for the action to resume.

Second, I think its gimmicky and lazy. I'm sure there were people saying the same thing about the switch from flashbacks to flashforwards. But the difference is that the flashforwards followed the same characters who existed in the same universe. Watching the alternate timeline is like watching a entirely different show. They've hit the reset button on the characters we've followed for all these years. Forget the incredible depth established through five years of character development. Forget the intricate web of relationships the writers have created. We're back to a cast of one-dimensional characters who, frankly, I don't care about.

Sure it's cool to see the characters interact in ways never possible on the island. The Jack/Locke scene in the airport baggage claim room was exceptional. But what do I get out of Kate hijacking Claire and then having a change of heart when she finds the stuffed animal? "Wow, despite the fact that she's wanted for murder, this outlaw may just have have a kinder, gentler side!" Thank you for beating me over the head with that message. I get it. You've told me in fifteen minutes of cliched storytelling what you've already told me over the course of five seasons of subtle, nuanced, and intelligent character development. Oh, but I forgot. This time you sprinkled in a healthy portion of Dr. Artz for the "oh, I remember that guy!" effect. And let's not forget Ethan "My Name Is an Anagram for Other Man" Rom. If they end up developing Ethan as an important part of the story, and if his role is linked in some way to his life on the island, then placing him in the storyline may be effective. If not, it's just a gimmick.

Third, it deviates from the Whatever Happened Happened rules (or at least relegates WHH to one of multiple timelines where WHH just so happens to play out as such). I was a big fan of WHH. Seeing how the character's effort to change the past ended up creating it was some of the best storytelling I've seen on the show. Farraday's story was one of my favorites. He is sent to the island by his mother who knows that he will be killed by her younger self. He experiences the death of Charlotte, who tells him about the "scary man" warning her to leave, and he cannot resist but doing exactly that. It was a great story, and it was a ringing endorsement of WHH.

But even after testing WHH's validity over and over again, now the writers have suddenly dropped it in Season 6 in order to pursue this uninspired alternate timeline story. Actually, I wouldn't have minded if they had really dropped it completely. But they didn't. Instead what we have is a middle ground. "You're both right," was the writers' ultimate answer to the debate. Did Daniel Farraday die for nothing?

But ultimately, for all my dissatisfaction, this is the story. And I have faith that the writers will be able to pull it off. I just can't see how they will (which is why I'm not an award-winning Hollywood writer). But I can imagine three possible reasons for the alternative timeline.

• (1) Both stories will somehow become interwoven, with the event in the original timeline affecting the event in the alternative timeline and vice versa.
• (2) It's simply a backdrop against which to view the characters and event in the original timeline.
• (3) The writers are setting the groundwork for a new Lost spinoff where we follow the original cast around their everyday lives.

I don't like option (1). It's too 'out there' for my liking. I can swallow smoke monsters, possessed dead, time flashes, and a moving island. Even if they there is no explanation for these phenomena, I can suspend my disbelief and trust that it's possible by some supernatural power. But I don't think I could ever believe that the universe split into separate timelines, but those timelines can somehow still interact with or affect each other. Unfortunately, I think this is the way that they're going to end up going. Juliet saying "it worked", Desmond on the plane, those deja vu-esque looks the alternative timeline characters have hinting that they know something is up. . .

I wouldn't mind option (2) if it was done well. The season premiere showed how it could work. The plane landing is one of my all time top-five scenes. You see how everyone on the plane, for one reason or another, needed the plane to crash--they needed the island. I especially liked how Jack and Locke were the last to get off the plane, because they needed it the most. They linger there, almost knowing that they're missing something. I wouldn't mind if the show ended there, on a note like that. Or I could see something at the end where Jack is healing Locke in the alternative timeline while facing off against Flocke in the original timeline. There are a lot of possibilities to use the alternative timeline effectively, and obviously the writers are creative enough to do this. But then you have episodes like last week's which have nowhere near the same effect. Hopefully it's just that Kate is the most confused and poorly written character on the show, and they're saving the better characters for later episodes.

Option (3) isn't serious, although the actor who plays Dr. Artz hopes it is.

NEXT UP: Since I mentioned it, my next post will be my all-time, Rob Gorden, Championship Vinyl, top five moments from Lost. Please feel free to post your own.