‘Lost’ has its work cut out in finding its way back
We know Jack Shephard needs to play God. The guy has a savior complex -- he's fixated on being the Good Shepherd for his "Lost" flock. Tonight, when ABC's "Lost" picks up precisely where it left off three months ago, Dr. Jack will be enacting yet another of his feverish power plays, this time to free Kate from Otherville.
For those who play "Lost" drinking games and swig whenever actor Matthew Fox does his tortured, twisted, rubbery "Jackface," tomorrow night's hour will be a drunken one indeed.
Playing God is one of the great themes of ABC's "Lost," a show that cultivates lofty ideas -- Kantian philosophy, Christianity, free will, literature -- in the guise of a tense mystery-adventure series. The new episode, at 10 p.m. on Channel 5, finds Jack preparing to let the anesthetized Ben die in surgery unless Kate and Sawyer are allowed to go. He takes charge of the Others' game. And without mentioning specific spoilers, I will say that the hour also gives us Juliet's back story, in which we learn that the fertility doctor played so calmly by Elizabeth Mitchell has a Jack-like taste for playing God. Juliet may not use "Jackface" to exert her force, but she's got determination to spare. After you see the episode, you will understand why the field mice of the world may not think very highly of her.
The producers of "Lost" also like to play God, and fans have been their willing subjects. Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, and J.J. Abrams have been lording over us since 2004, stoking our hunger for answers by creating new questions, shepherding us into and out of false impressions of the island world, expecting us to have faith in them -- faith that, indeed, they do have an endgame.
But on the "Lost" bulletin boards, some fans say they're losing faith, fearing that the producers' only final reveal will be that there is no reveal. It's called "The X-Files" hustle. As the "Lost" mythology has thickened, particularly with last fall's shift away from the original cast to the bizarre Others, fan disillusionment has eroded viewership numbers. Ratings declined during the fall's frustratingly short six-episode season, when we spent absurdly little time with the primary characters we'd grown fond of and interested in -- Charlie, Hurley, Sun, Jin, Sayid, and Locke.
And the fall's Jack-Sawyer-Kate plot also failed to captivate defectors, as the triangle devolved into a media event, a way to promote the series rather than an organic story development. When Kate and Sawyer finally made torrid love -- in public, no less -- the show underwent a major Gorgonzola cheese moment.
Tonight, ratings may drop further, as "Lost" moves into the 10 p.m. time slot. The motive behind the move is to dodge "American Idol," but many of the families who watch "Lost" together may not stay up that late. When a show gets shuffled around -- this will be the third timeslot for "Lost" in as many years -- there is a greater risk of audience alienation.
In an effort to do damage control, ABC sent out an advance of tonight's episode to critics -- something it hasn't done in years. When a network sends previews of top shows such as "Lost" or "ER," it often signifies ratings anxiety. Also, ABC is airing a recap episode at 9 p.m., hoping those who've fallen out will fall back in.
Alas, no network's or producer's God complex can control the Nielsens.
I was heartened by tonight's Juliet-centric episode. It doesn't share The Answer to All, of course, or even The Answer to Anything Big. But it does provide clues and references, including a cool nod to "A Clockwork Orange." And the episode reaffirms the idea introduced at the end of Season 2, when we saw Desmond's beloved, that the island is probably a real place in the real world -- and not a hallucination, or limbo, or any of the other more supernatural "Lost" explanations. When it comes to "Lost," you're either in or you're out, and I'm in, for now.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com">gilbert@globe.com. For more on TV, visit boston.com/ae/tv/blog/.
