Why it all mattered 

A Response to Reetae 
Written by Christian Høkaas 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This is a response to the video series on YouTube called “Reete reviews Lost”. 
This primary focus of this paper is not to change Reetae’s personal opinion of the show. I would also like to 
acknowledge the amount of time and work that he has put into his video series. This paper is a response to the 
claims he makes in his video, particularly the false ones and a critique towards it. This paper will spoil the show 
for anyone who hasn’t watched it. 
 
 
 
 

Preface 
 
The reason for making this long response is a direct response to what I think has happened broadly on the 
internet the past ten years. Reetae’s review exist in the same type of tendency. Video essays and amateur film 
critics are pulling out details to prove how a film or television show doesn’t work. It’s the “CinemaSins” way of 
making reviews, where they ask why this character didn’t do this thing, or why it’s a flaw (or “plot hole”, even 
though it isn’t) for specific plot or character-elements in the work of art. That it doesn’t make sense for 
x-character to fly sideways in D ​ jango Unchained​. That there is a flaw in ​The Return of the King​ that the eagles 
didn’t fly them to Mordor (it isn’t) and how they proclaim to have the authority to dictate what would be a 
better show. Terms like “objectively better” are often tossed around in these video essays, pointing to us through 
clickbait-titles like “How x does comedy right”, “Why x writing is objectively better” and “How x-plot holes 
makes y-franchise the best in the 21st century” without really getting in-depth in their analysis. Critics like 
Roger Ebert never made film reviews like bullet point-lists of “things that happened on screen”. There’s a vast 
difference between the reviews he wrote, which gave a great taste of his experience watching the film that also 
managed to connect with references to other work. 
With that I’ll add in that this is a mere critique towards this type of reviews and essays. And in this case 
is one I highly disagree with.  
 
 
Part 1 
 
The first part in the review covers the first season. Reetae spends his first three minutes commenting on how the 
ending was bad. That is his subjective and personal taste of the show, and that is completely fair. I also find the 
last season to be the weakest in the show. To back up his opinions, he points out to some articles and lists 
mentioning how ​Lost e​ nded badly. For a more thorough analysis of the show’s ending, I would advise him to 
show how balanced the reception was.  
It was a controversial ending, in the same vein as ​The Sopranos​ or T ​ win Peaks: The Return​. Over time, 
many reviews and finale-lists have gotten more negative, but Reetae provides only sources for the negative ones 
and gives out an unbalanced start to his whole series saying that when everyone thinks of a bad series finale, L ​ ost 
is one of the ones they mention. He doesn’t provide any polls or surveys of this, but he shows this through a 
montage of screenshots to prove his point. The video highlights Buzzfeed-type of articles that are used to 
backup the opinions, without going in-depth of them. Amongst the screenshots in his montage is from T ​ ime 
Magazine​, who gave a positive review of the series finale, not a negative one. The inclusion of E ​ ntertainment 
Weekly​ is extremely odd, because the screenshot he highlights is their list of “Most frustrating finales”, yet 
Entertainment Weekly​ gave out a list three months earlier of “The 20 Best Series Finales Ever”, where Lost got 
the 7th place. They called all the finales on this list for “​The gold standard in TV farewells”1. After ​The End 
aired, E
​ ntertainment Weekly​ gave a positive review and called it “solid, but not spectacular”. It’s an odd choice 
highlighting them as someone to back up his point that the show’s ending is hated. In fact, many of the articles 
and lists he screenshots come from questionable sites: ​Salon (​ a news and politics website, who misinterpreted 
the ending), C ​ elebs​, ​The Celebrity Cafe​, ​Guyism.com​, ​All Womens talk​, R
​ adioTimes​ (who seems to have 
misunderstood it as well), ​TVFanatic​ and ​Esquire​. The last one might be the only one you might’ve heard of, 
but they are a fashion and lifestyle magazine, so it isn’t the best place to find critical analysis of film and 
television. However, he does add in ​Indiewire​, ​The Daily Mirror​, ​The Huffington Post​ and ​E! Online​. And 
there’s also popular news media like ​Uproxx​. However, the very weird combination of sources gives out the 
impression that Reetae just did a Google search for “Lost worst finale” and pulled out a lot of links instead of 
presenting the big variety of critics from television magazines or media websites, on either the positive or 
negative fence, or the ones that were in the middle. 
 
Reetae brings up that George R.R. Martin didn't like the ending, but he doesn’t explain what Martin said. In 
fact George R. R. Martin misinterpreted the show and thought that they were dead all along, saying “How 
many seasons to get to the point where they were all dead?”2 Damon Lindelof corrected him in an ​E!​-article, 
but Martin never responded. He did on a later occasion say to V ​ ulture ​that he enjoyed the show, but not the 
3
ending.  
 
Reetae doesn’t bring up the roundtable discussion around Lost’s ending with ​Breaking Bad​-creator Vince 
Gilligan and​ Six Feet Under​-creator Alan Ball that talk about the ending of Lost. 
 

1
https://ew.com/tv/20-best-tv-series-finales-ever/
2
https://www.eonline.com/news/235007/feud-lost-dissed-by-game-of-thrones-author-and-damon-lindelof-is-tweeting-mad
3
http://www.vulture.com/2011/04/george_rr_martin_clarifies_his.html
 Carlton Cuse: “Game of Thrones operates on a very different sort of storytelling mechanism … I 
mean, when you’ve done 121 hours, let’s see how you feel about ending your show. It’s not an easy 
thing to do. We did the version that we wanted to do, and I hope that people will respect that.” 
Vince Gilligan: “I thought it was a beautifully emotional ending.” 
Alan Ball: “Me, too. I really liked it.”4 
 
 
Reetae doesn’t mention the positive reactions to the episode on DarkUFO,5 IMDb,6 and USA Today.7 
Metacritic has it at 74 out of 100.8 TV.com has it as one of their best finales-article.9 Or that the C ​ hicago 
10 11
Tribune and I​ GN​ loved it The last season was also the most Emmy-nominated season for the show and the 
series finale broke all torrent records.12 The phrasing in his review gives out the impression that the ending was 
universally hated by critics, which is not true. What is true is that the show will always have a controversial and 
polarizing ending.   
 
“You can actually calculate the fact that Lost jumped the shark, because from the middle of the 
second season and up to the finale, Lost lost roughly half of its viewers”​ (Reetae reviews Lost: Part 
1) 
 
That’s not exactly what the “jump the shark”-phrase means. It’s a phrase coined from an episode of ​Happy Days 
and refers to a particular moment when it has been clear that they have crossed over into the realm of “just 
pushing it” (Perlow & Cummins, 2016, p. 30). Since L ​ ost ​has many of these big drops in US viewer ratings, it 
might be harder to calculate if and when Lost ever had a “jump the shark”-moment. For instance, the 4th season 
started with more viewers since the 6th episode of the 3rd season. Or the 4th episode of the 6th season had more 
viewers than the season 5-finale. And taking critical reception to this mix (which is crucial if you want to 
“calculate” it), then it doesn’t get better.  
 

 
The Constant​ is the most universally enjoyed single-episode of L ​ ost ​in the opinion of critics and audience votes 
13
(having a 9,7 IMDb-rating), but the previous Kate-episode E ​ ggtown​, which isn’t as well-liked, had more 
viewers. Did ​The Constant​ jump the shark, since fewer people watched it? Almost as well beloved is the 
mythological Richard-story in A ​ b Aeterno​ from the sixth season, that tied with the ​highest-reviewed episode of 

4
https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/exit-strategies#_
5
http://i.imgur.com/EtNPjwP.png
6
http://i.imgur.com/26gJnqo.png
7
http://i.imgur.com/xFj7N8d.png
8
http://www.metacritic.com/feature/lost-finale-review-season-6-episode-17-18?tag=topslot%253btitle%253b1
9
http://www.tv.com/news/best-tv-series-finales-142912045069/
10
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2010/05/lost-finale.html
11
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2010/05/24/lost-the-end-review
12
https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-download-record-shuttered-by-lost-series-finale-100525/
13
https://www.imdb.com/search/title?num_votes=1000,&sort=user_rating,desc&title_type=tv_episode&utm_content=buffer8b7ab&ut
m_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer&page=2&ref_=adv_nxt
the season (​Happily Ever After​) on Metacritic14, but the episode that came after (​The Package​), which wasn’t as 
well-liked, had more viewers​. If it’s easy to “​ calculate the “jump the shark”-moment”​, then I am happy to 
welcome a particular episode or a particular moment in the show where they did that. And since the show had 
many ups and downs, it would probably be very subjective when that actually happened.  
 
One must also add the fact that the numbers Reetae based on are Nielsen ratings. So this is just a study of the 
Lost v​ iewership in the US, not the rest of the world. (Even though he added the British newspaper ​The Daily 
Mirror​ as a screenshot for the “negative review”-montage, but I won’t nitpick much on that). L ​ ost ​was a global 
phenomenon. For instance, in Poland L ​ ost ​had a stable 3 million viewership in season 2, 3 and 4. Not the same 
downfall in viewers (and the show even aired on two different channels).15 I will give him the the benefit of a 
doubt, since the numbers in the many countries that aired the show are harder to obtain. He doesn’t say that he 
will do an international study, but present an opinion-piece, which he tells us in this part. He greatly enjoyed the 
first season, and this is what this part of the review will focus on. I’ll highlight some quotes by him. 
 

The Numbers 

 
“Numbers that are very important for some reason. Psych!” ​ (Reetae reviews Lost: Part 1) 
 
 
This is one of the jokes of this review and it is most likely meant to be taken with a grain of salt. But I’ll address 
the fact that The Numbers were highly important to the show. Some were more than happy with what we got 
in the alternate reality game “The Lost Experience” (which was written by Lost-writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach, 
who was part of the writers team that knew the mythological landmarks). They had already talked about having 

14
http://www.metacritic.com/feature/lost-review-season-6-episode-9
15
Most of the numbers come from a Polish blog that cites the TV guides there online, such as this link. There would be too many
links in the footnotes if I included everyone, but they are from week to week:
https://www.wirtualnemedia.pl/artykul/tvp2-w-gore-traci-tvn-i-polsat
some sort of Drake-equation in the show before they shot the pilot (Marxuach, 2015, p. 6). The Drake-equation 
was the estimate of the number of extraterrestrial there were in the Milky Way16   
Others were happy with what we learned in season 6. That they were the candidate numbers and 
corresponded with a degree in the lighthouse that acted as a window to the characters past. But they were also a 
lot more through the six seasons. Their vast appearances can apply a more thematic answer to them.  
Following in the works and history of semiology in cinema, we can add in Roland Barthes who talked 
about which function “the sign” has in its medium and how the medium portrays it. In L ​ ost​, The Numbers are 
both an easter egg, but the show put emphasis on them, like the speedometer in Hurley’s Camaro or the 
medicine in the hatch. Or we can add in Charles Sanders Peirce, who saw the study of semiotics through a 
philosophical point-of-view and had three steps in the analysis of sign. The i​ con​, ​index a​ nd s​ ymbol​.  
The Numbers are numbers and they physically look like numbers, either we see them in a flashback, on 
the Swan computer or the cave wall. ​These he calls likenesses or ​icons. ​They also have an indexicality, since they 
also are connected through character and island (Jacob had a thing for numbers). They have a causal 
relationship, such as smoke is an indexical sign of fire. For Hurley, The Numbers is an indexical sign of danger. 
The third is the most interesting for The Numbers. The shape or occurrence of them doesn’t have a physical 
similarity to an abstract concept such as destiny or fate. A symbol is a learned sign brought to us through a 
convention. In many ways, Lost “answers” The Numbers in the very same episode they are introduced when 
Danielle says “The numbers are what brought me here. As it appears they brought you.” It acted like the 
“language of The Island”, a metonym for destiny, luring them to that place and towards each other. Carlton 
Cuse said in 2007 that “The show in some sense is about how we are all intertwined in our lives”17 something 
that is shown through the massive use of The Numbers as easter eggs and signs in the show. You can also use 
several other theoretical approaches to The Numbers other than Peirce’s system.  
The Numbers were riddled in the flashbacks and on The Island. One of my favorite examples is all the 
numbers that Hurley sees in E ​ xodus ​when he almost misses his flight. The interesting aspect of this flashback 
sequence is that the soccer team isn't visible to him. They have the numbers on their back towards the camera, 
pointing to us, the viewers. Hurley already has his own interpretation of them, but now that the show will end 
its first season, it gives us a relationship with them. This is not only a sequence filled with them, but filled with 
characters such as Charlie or Arzt. The Numbers (and the show) become more meta over time, even popping 
up at the ABC Studios video at the end of the episode, where they communicate with us outside the show’s 
fiction. Seeing as how important it was that they were all brought there for a purpose, seeing The Numbers 
being so present in their lives, makes them important. I will shed more light on them during later parts. Reetae 
might feel that it’s not enough, and that is okay, but they weren’t forgotten after season one. Quite the contrary. 
They even got an explanation, as far as you can explain their roots and purpose.  
 
“A lot of the mysteries in the first season go completely unresolved” ​ (Reetae reviews Lost: Part 1) 
 
This is not true. To illustrate his point Reetae uses three examples in this video. They are as follows: Richard 
Malkin, Christian Shephard’s body and Walt. 
 

16
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/06/140630-drake-equation-50-years-later-aliens-science/
17
2007, ​Lost: The Answers​, television special
Richard Malkin 
 

 
 
As much research Reetae manages to find, he doesn’t bring out the additional scene that was shot. They wrote 
and shot an answer, even edited it in and decided not to air it. It's there on the season 2 DVD and Blu-ray. Why 
isn’t this mentioned by Reetae? 
 
The writers kept Malkin a bit of a mystery and not to show the answer. This shows that L ​ ost ​was the beauty of 
mystery, ambiguity and the fans' interpretation. And by editing it out they bring out enough clues for the 
audience to puzzle it out, without handing it on a silver platter. They have been adamant about it since the 
beginning that the final puzzle we’ve created from the clues in the box, might be greater than “giving out 
answers”.  
 
Carlton Cuse: It's crazy, I mean, people put more time into the theories of the show than we 
actually put into plotting the show.18 
 
In the case of Richard Malkin I can give my own interpretation of this scene based on the clues left for us in the 
show.  
 
The interpretation of events by Christian Høkaas: 
 
Richard Malkin have been to the Island or is simply a part of the vast network of off-Island Others. I deduce this 
by the wording that sounds very Other-ish to me. Like he says in ​?: "​ I gather intelligence on people and I exploit 
it" sounds like Ben's line in E
​ xposé​: "Same way I get anybody to do anything. I find out what he's emotionally 
invested in, and I exploit it." 
 

18
​Mysteries, Theories, Conspiracies,​ Lost season 2 bonus material
To point out Richard Malkin in great detail, we need to see what happens chronologically using the show’s 
clues: 
 
The first reading: We know that he is working as the fraud. He starts out with usual information that he 
probably got from someone else. (His daughter Charlotte was maybe friends with some of Claire's friends?), so 
he does his usual things, but the show implies that he sees something. We don't know what it is, but it frightens 
him. Maybe the plane crash, the Island, The Others taking Claire, cutting him out of her womb (like they 
planned on doing in M ​ aternity Leave​)? He stops the reading. The flash might be a product of being on The 
Island (we know it can do that to people) or in contact with Jacob. Littleton is/was a candidate, and if Malkin 
has an Island-connection, this could produce a vision like we've seen on the show many times. 
 
The second reading: Here he goes on in detail for what she must do. This time he gives her specific instructions. 
I like the words he use: "Your nature, your spirit, your goodness, must be an influence in the development of 
this child." 
He tells her to keep the child. That her goodness is crucial. He knows that Jacob is always keeping an 
eye out for special children to join them and Littleton was a candidate. After the horrific images, he tries to 
prevent her from going to the Island. She must stay and keep the baby. He doesn't want her to do an abortion, 
because then maybe some off-Island others, pretending to be a couple, will take the child to the Island to 
experiment on or something. 
 
And then disaster strikes. His daughter "dies". And there was something more which we learn from the scene at 
the airport when Charlotte Malkin mentions Eko's brother, Yemi: 
 
Charlotte: "I saw him when I was -- between places. He said that you would come and see me. He 
said that even though you were pretending, you're a good man." 
Eko: "Who put you up to this? Did your father tell you to do this?" 
Charlotte: "He wants you to know that he will see you soon. He said that even though you don't 
have faith in yourself, that he has faith in you." 
 
So there were clearly something more happening here. Did she visit the flash-sideways for a brief moment, just 
like Des did? And Eko did really die not long after, which Charlotte might hint at. Charlotte’s situation is also 
interesting to revisit after what we learn later in the show. Drowning and being dead. And suddenly, after some 
time, waking up. This sounds like the effects of The Spring in The Temple.  
 
Last meeting: The disastrous event happens before Claire’s last meeting. Suddenly in the end, when she's 8 
months pregnant, on September 21st, he tells her to board Flight 815. It had to be this exact flight at this exact 
moment. He tells her that the couple in Los Angeles are good people. Why did he change his mind? Did Jacob 
interfere with Charlotte’s re-awakening? Was Malkin scared about what could happen if he didn’t send her off? 
 
* 
 
In other words. He was a fraud, but there was something about Claire that he did see and he wanted to protect 
her from The Island. Because of his daughter's death, who was brought back to life by Jacob, Richard was 
forced to send Claire to the Island as a compromise. Malkin had to sacrifice Claire. This is my answer. This is 
what I made of it, through the various components of the show, deducing the clues from both of these episodes 
he was in and the history of The Others. I would be more interested to hear what theories Reetae had for this 
series of events. 
 

The body of Christian Shephard 

 
 
“Where did it go? Who would even hide his corpse? Never even find that out either”​ (Reetae 
reviews Lost: Part 1) 
 
You can tell that this is in the same vein of reviews like I mentioned in the preface. Pointing out details without 
trying to make his own personal interpretation of these events. The show gives us enough clues to this by using 
another example. 
 
Yemi crashed on The Island in the Nigerian beechcraft. Eko finds him in T ​ he 23rd Psalm​ right after The Smoke 
Monster scanned his memories. In T ​ he Cost of Living​, Yemi appears before Eko pleading him to confess. This 
drives Eko back to the beechcraft, but the body is missing. Someone moved the stone in front of the entrance 
and removed the corpse. That is a sick and twisted trick to play on the one person that has an attachment to the 
person in this plane. What happens next? The Man in Black poses as Yemi and tries to make him confess, when 
he doesn’t, he kills him. And later (in 2007) the body is back where it was supposed to. This is easy to piece 
together as the Man in Black hiding Yemi’s body, just as he did with Christian Shephard. It worked with Eko, 
but it would take much more to break down Jack. He almost fell of a cliff, but John saved him.  
 
We could have a scene where the characters stumble upon another cave with a dozen old bodies were hidden, 
such as Christian and that rugged old body that was in Jacob’s cabin. There’s nothing wrong with getting an 
idea that this is something that could’ve happened off-screen, just as picturing the long trek Bruce Wayne had 
getting back to Gotham in ​The Dark Knight Rises​. But is it necessary to show it? It’s not, because all we needed 
from the scene in ​White Rabbi​t was Jack realizing that this place is different and made him see his dead father 
walk around, something of vital importance for Jack’s character arc and was partly the reason why he started 
popping pills after he returned to Los Angeles. 
 

Walt 
 
The third point Reetae makes is for Walt.  
 
“He can control the weather”​ (Reetae reviews Lost: Part 1) 
 
The show doesn’t make this statement, but you can still interpret it. I want to elaborate more on this scene. The 
“I'm going to get your dog back as soon as it stops raining” is a very classic “Be careful what you wish for”-trope. 
In ​Home Alone​, Kevin McCallister wishes his family didn’t exist and suddenly finds himself home alone. Does 
Kevin have supernatural powers? This trope is very common in film and television. This is a common joke. 
However, ​Lost ​is a mystery show, so no one stops you from interpreting it as some weather control. Walt is, as I 
will talk about later, closely associated with The Man in Black and acts almost as a foreshadowing to several rain 
scenes. Many people theorized that The Man in Black caused the rain storm the evening after he talked to Jacob 
at the beach, causing the Black Rock to ride the tsunami into the island. This act caused Captain Magnus Hanso 
to die.  
 
“He can magically guide a knife to a point just by thinking about it”​ (Reetae reviews Lost: Part 1) 
 
 

 
 
This is illustrated through John Locke teaching him about living in the wild. Walt is smart and a quick learner, 
but he throws the knife just like any human being. Reetae tells it like it happens magically. This is not 
telekinesis. Reetae brings up these two points after that: “He can summon birds” and “He even delivered Locke 
a cryptic warning about the hatch, when he shouldn’t have even known about it”. The first one is true. Walt has 
a power that disrupts the birds navigation. In the 1970’s, experiments were done to birds where they placed a 
magnet on them to see how it affected their navigation. It made them disorientated when they didn’t have other 
cues to navigate by.19  
We’ve seen premonition many times on the show. When Richard Malkin touched Claire, he seemed to 
get a disastrous vision. When Mother gave up her role as Protector, she touched him, which is something Jacob 
did with all candidates as well. Walt saw something bad about the hatch and we are left to make up our own 
stories about what he saw. Maybe he saw Michael killing two people down there, which later made him 
adamant of getting on the raft with his dad and get as far away as possible? 
 
Then Reetae mentions that ​Walt manifested the polar bear through the comic book​. You can interpret it 
that way, but the show later told us that the polar bears run wild in the jungle. The writers were constantly in 
cahoots with the network, because they wanted it more grounded, but the writers liked the inclusion of the 
supernatural, fantasy- and sci-fi-elements in the show. Javier Grillo-Marxuach, one of the writers in the show’s 
early stages said “Damon and JJ nevertheless gave themselves a backdoor into this area by putting the bear in a 
comic book that appeared both in the pilot and thereafter in series” (2015, p. 19). If the show had been 
suddenly cancelled after one season, then sure, it would be a manifestation of his mind. But a show is something 
that grows. It became a massive hit and we got our first clue in the orientation film (which also Marxuach 
wrote) that they were brought there for testing by the DHARMA Initiative (a corporation planned since the 
beginning).  
 
“… but the execution of the episode (Special) apparently left plenty of wiggle room to give us 
plausible deniability -- even as Damon would regularly come into the writers' room, throw up his 
arms and declare "Of course Walt's psychic." In other cases, these things would come in through 
backdoors and leave the same way very quickly. There was a time when -- in order to appease the 
network's fear of sci-fi -- the polar bear would simply be explained away as having been on the 
plane as freight. Needless to say, this idea came... and then went”​ (Marxuach, 2015, p. 19) 
 
Walt and the Spanish comic book is now served as a clue and foreshadowing for things to come. For instance, 
when that S.H.I.E.L.D.-worker in M ​ arvel’s The Avengers​ sits on his computer he plays a game of Galaga where 
he is defending Earth from invading aliens as they descend on the planet. That doesn’t mean that this 
S.H.I.E.L.D.-worker manifested the aliens at the end of the film. 
 
The Others took Walt. Richard said in Jughead that the process of finding a new leader starts at a young age, 
and there are undeniably many things about Walt that would make him a perfect candidate. Things did go way 
over their head and they were talking about Walt as a threat. They got him off The Island. Some special people 
have a connection with The Island before they even get there. Christian Piatt saw Walt’s powers as forces of 
darkness (2006, p. 21). The writer Pearson Moore has argued that the questions surrounding Walt are simple: 
his powers came from The Island.20 Seeing as Walt had some similarities to The Man in Black, it’s easy to say 
that it would be too dangerous to keep him there. Maybe Jacob thought The Man in Black would use him as a 
loophole? Or recruit him? We get scenes like the Hurley (the future Protector) constantly losing to Walt in 
Backgammon. His powers are shown in a negative light. Getting his mom killed and possibly Shannon as well. 
And even whispering that they shouldn’t push the button, which would lead to disastrous consequences. 
19
https://ornithology.com/ornithology-lectures/migration-navigation/
20
https://darkufo.blogspot.com/2010/08/lost-mysteries-resolved-vozzek69.html
 
Reetae then mentions that in the “Lost-what-we-know-so-far-TV-specials” the executive producers ​never 
mention Walt’s powers a single time.​Not true. There were 14 recap-specials that aired, but the executive 
producers ​only a​ ppeared and talked in four of them. They didn’t have anything to do with how ABC marketed 
the show, since they weren’t part of the marketing team. They first appeared on the clip show in T ​ he Lost 
Survival Guide​, the Entertainment Weekly-clip show, and this aired right before the season 3 premiere. After 
Walt’s main story was more or less over. He was just a guest star in season 2. Also, to be a little nitpicky, Walt’s 
powers ​are​ in the specials, such as ​Destination Lost.​ And his mysterious power to appear to Shannon was 
addressed by Damon and Carlton in the recap ​Lost: The Answers.​ So this is incorrect by Reetae, but it’s true that 
Walt isn’t exactly prominent in the recaps. 
 
“The most they (the executive producers) ever did was say that Walt’s character had to be knocked 
off”​ (Reetae reviews Lost: Part 1) 
 
This is also a lie. The executive producers went in great detail about Walt throughout the six years. They were in 
constant dialogue with the fans, through interviews, podcasts and fan conventions. Everything from the Season 
3 Blu-ray material (​Access: Granted​) which had three segments for Walt21 or for instance in the official Lost 
podcasts. They addressed to the media that there will be more information on him after season three22They also 
addressed him long after the show was over, such as talking about his powers at Comic-Con 2011 or Paley Fest 
2014. Here’s an example from the podcasts: 
 
Damon: One of the things that's frustrating for us as storytellers is we have these designs and 
we've known since early in season 2 we'd have this bit with the computer where Walt...where 
Walt - parentheses, question mark - someone claiming to be Walt at least...would communicate 
with Michael. And once Michael got back with the fuselage folk, he'd go rogue and go running 
after Walt. 
 
Carlton: This episode sets in motion the story line "We need to get Walt back." ...Clearly the 
Walt story will be resolved this season and you will get your answers about what happened to 
Walt. 
 
Carlton: Viewers watching the show wanting just answers are bound to be frustrated. We hope 
the character stories will be compelling and we will be providing some answers to question while 
raising others. But the ongoing nature of mysteries and the fact that the show will be on for a long 
time means that some questions can't be answered. If we answered those questions, there'd be no 
core to the show left. 
 
Carlton: We are answering questions this year. You will know a lot more about the others, you 
will know where Walt has been, what happened to him, among other things, including, hopefully 
another chapter of Jack's marriage and finish that run of episode.23 

21
http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Access:_Granted
22
https://www.cinemablend.com/television/Lost-Executive-Producers-Actually-Answer-Some-Questions-13781.html
23
2006, February 23rd - Official Lost podcast
 
So the primary focus is about where Walt has been (the Hydra facility), what happened to him (they tested him 
and it didn’t really go that well) and will he be reunited with his father (yes). And they had to address Walt 
bunch of times because he was a fan favourite. This is the equivalent of everyone making a huge deal of Darth 
Maul, that they had to bring him back with robot legs and address him not only in ​Star Wars: Rebels​, but in the 
new S​ olo: A Star Wars Story​-movie as well. He’s just so beloved by fans, even though he has so little screen time 
and so few lines.  
 
Reetae calls it a massive oversight that Walt was introduced as such an important character. He claims that they 
should have a master plan from 2004 . 
 
“But in 2004, if they really cared about what was gonna happen to the show in 2010, surely 
someone in the writers room should have stood up and said “Hey, the guy playing the kid is gonna 
have his balls drop soon. Maybe we shouldn’t create all this elaborate mystery around a character 
who will have to get rid of in a season or two?”​ (Reetae Reviews Lost: Part 1) 
 
Lost wasn’t created with a six-year plan. Rarely do you see that with any shows. No one predicted how big of a 
phenomenon it could be. ​ ​When making a Pilot of the show, you don't know you'll have 4, 6 or 10 seasons or 
that the show will be a massive hit. V ​ ariety ​reports that a little over a quarter of the pilots that are produced turn 
into series,24 and less are produced after a script has been written.  
 
Constructing the show in 2004 was evident from a the lack of time. ABC greenlit the pilot from a story 
treatment (not a script) that was 21 pages long (Vaz 2004, p. 23). And problems would ensue with Abrams 
being to busy with T ​ he Catch​, find out where to shoot it and then finding a big enough cast. Sarah Caplan, the 
producer, said the six weeks of pre-production was the narrowest she had had. This is all very apparent in the 
season 1 bonus material on the DVD, such as ​Before they were Lost​ and​ Genesis of Lost: Making a Pilot​. In other 
situations, you could have writers with a set of characters for months, but here they had to create characters out 
of the actors that auditioned. Such as the idea of Sun and Jin came from Yunjin Kim speaking Korean and being 
a star in South Korea25 or that they caught Jorge Garcia on C ​ urb your Enthusiasm. ​Creativity came on the spot 
through the various ideas coming from Abrams, Lindelof, Bryan Burk and casting director April Webster and 
from the actors themselves. But going on a fast pace, after seeing a big plane getting torn into pieces, ready to be 
shipped to the filming location, we have ABC who had now greenlit their most expensive pilot ever, who was to 
be shot overseas on Oahu, with a massive cast, big visual effects that started from a short page story treatment 
that had many ideas. They even called J.J. Abrams when he was on set asking if they could shoot an alternate 
ending and make it a standalone movie instead (Vaz, 2004, p. 30). The network/Disney (after Braun left and the 
show had no advocate anymore) was pretty much against the show. After they finished the pilot they even 
suggested that they make 6 more episodes to conclude the show (Marxuach, 2015, p. 17). Any plan whatsoever 
wouldn't have mattered anymore in that case. Walt would never have been an issue. 
 
When casting for Walt, it’s ridiculous to think that they should have a six year plan for the actor. That is not 
part of the job. All characters had a set of motives, a little backstory and some notes. And then you write and 
24
https://variety.com/static-pages/slanguage-dictionary/?layout=slanguage_result&slang=busted+pilot&x=0&y=0
25
​Before they were Lost​, Season 1 bonus material
plan after you know how much you have control of or are contractually obligated to. When Malcolm David 
Kelley auditioned for Walt he tried to act as the popular kid, but was told otherwise in directing. “They made 
me play him like I have special powers and I’m an outsider. Walt can think of something and it happens, he just 
doesn’t know how to use his powers yet” (Vaz 2004, p. 50) and that is the amount of information you’ll have 
when creating a character. It’s a simple explanation of him as someone who has special powers, because he 
makes stuff happen when thinking about them. For many viewers this is enough of information to accept as an 
answer about him. Who is he (Walt. The son of Michael), what’s his deal (he has special powers), what can he 
do (he makes things happen when thinking about them).  
 
Obviously, we got a lot more about that, but if you needed an answer to what biologically is causing it or the 
date when he first managed to do his powers, then you are bound to be disappointed.  
Actually the role of Walt could show that they had an idea for the end game. A show like L ​ ost ​COULD 
be a one-season hit. That it got too expensive, maybe just got a few million viewers and not the amount they had 
and had to wrap up at the season 1 finale. Then you could easily have Walt as "The Desmond" of season 1, using 
his powers to cripple the monster. When Walt was carefully written out of the show, other special characters 
turned out to be there instead. Desmond is a prime example. And the way this reviewer talks about "answering 
Walt", he wants to be spoon fed the answer. This is how bad exposition is done. There are lot of things that are 
"between the lines" or answered through symbolism and visual cues, not only in "Lost" but in the area of film, tv 
and literature. Walt is an example of things to come, with characters that have a "communion" with The Island. 
More special characters arrive during the course of the show. And that is what Walt's legacy is. 
 
 
“None of this is elaborated on”​ (Reetae Reviews Lost: Part 1) 
 
Not true either. Walt's role is highly important foreshadowing. His powers are very similar to the Man in Black 
and Jacob. Both that have demonstrated teleportation or what they called in season 2 "appear in a place he 
wasn't supposed to be". Walt being less present in the show makes perfect sense in the complicated landscape 
that is mid-2000's television. Planning a show many years in advance from the Pilot is not how the television 
industry worked at that time. It doesn’t even work like that now. Especially at something that wasn't necessarily 
a super hit (look at the behind the scenes for season 1 at how they shook their heads at the "Nowhere" script). 
Javier Grillo-Marxuach, one of the writers, worked on different shows after ​Lost a​ nd has said that the amount of 
planning they had on L ​ ost f​ ar excelled many other television shows he worked on. They had a DNA of the show 
which was presented to them on the very first day the entire writing staff on February 24th (Marxuach, p. 5). 
This was the day before they handed in the script for the pilot. Among them were: 
 
“On the first day alone, Damon downloaded on us the notion that the island was a nexus of 
conflict between good and evil: an uncharted and unchartable place with a mysterious force at its 
core that called humanity to it to play out a primal contest between light and dark.”​ (Marxuach, 
p. 6) 
 
Which is a good idea for The Island. This is after all, in many ways, what it turned out to be many years later. 
Meaning at that point in time Jack was still supposed to be killed off. Things change, ideas evolve through the 
collaboration of cast, crew, network, friends and the audience. Changes lead to other changes in a chain 
reaction, which makes creating elaborate plans pointless and counter-productive.  
For a long time it was still unsure if they were to be renewed for a second season. It was all about 
surviving through its first half, episode-by-episode while still maintaining the big landmarks they would hit. It 
was in February 2005, mid-way in season one where Abrams and Lindelof met once again to contemplate the 
show’s first part and then the road further, when they learned it would get renewed.  
But back to the characters. They are at first much more simple than they end up in the show. Y ​ ou just 
need to have characters with clear motives that can entertain and charm us for one episode's length. Shannon 
was constructed as the dumb "Paris Hilton" of the group26, and that works for the pilot, because the surprise is 
that she is the only one who uses a knowledge the others don't have to complete the mission at the end of the 
pilot (what is the distress signal).​ ​Another character you can see in American fiction is the one called "Magical 
negro". Often an Afro-American who has some mystic powers or is some spiritual guide to the rest of the white 
characters. It's a stereotype, but it's interesting to analyze this. We got two. Walt and Rose, but Walt was more 
like this type mixed with the "creepy child"-trope seen in countless of horrors, thrillers and mystery films. The 
"special character" or the “creepy kid”/child prodigy that ends up having some knowledge or understanding of 
something in the climax of the story, like being the only one that have "entered the other side/dimension", 
"communicated with the monster", "the only one the alien understand", "the one who can see the dead", "the kid 
who can see the future" and so forth. The one that is wise beyond their years, introverted and have something 
odd about him from the start, that is resolved at the end.​ T ​ his is a classical character and he is written like this, all 
the way from the mysterious kid in ​The Twilight Zone​-episode​ It’s a Good Life​ to Haley Joel Osment’s character 
in T
​ he Sixth Sense​. This is further elaborated in season two, such the “creepy wet kid” you can see in Japanese 
horror film. ​Writing the show is a collaborative process and the child prodigy might work for a short series than 
a longer one.   
 
Reetae is using a​ mount of dialogue to signify how little importance Walt is in later seasons​. It is true 
that his role is diminished for the things they had in mind for the show. Just look at how much of a key 
character Desmond became to the story now. However, this doesn’t really mean anything. I guess the little 
amount of dialogue Hannibal Lecter has in T ​ he Silence of the Lambs​ also means how little of importance he is to 
that film. 
 
He uses two interviews to signify his points. One being where they said “you’ll see Walt again. Trust us” and 
another where they ran into a problem with him getting older and didn’t fit with what they were doing on the 
show. The claim “not elaborated on” he makes could be rephrased to “not elaborated enough on”. I also wish 
we’d gotten more of Walt, especially towards in the last season. But that is not what they wanted. Seeing as 
Desmond Hume became one of the show’s most favourite characters and helmed the show’s most universally 
beloved episode, the change in special character from Walt to Desmond seems to be a good change. 

26
Before they Were Lost​, Season 1 bonus material