It has been almost a decade since Lost went off the air, but the effect of its presence in our cultural consciousness continues to be felt across the airwaves today. Aside from contributing to our new culture of narrative television, co-creator, and showrunner, Damon Lindelof has returned to the medium as the creator of the new HBO hit series Watchmen, based on the DC comic series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
While viewers of Watchmen wait patiently for the finale of its first season (and for many questions to be answered) Lost viewers, even ten years later, are still left with questions about their groundbreaking television show. There are a lot of them too. Here we focus on one character, in particular, James Sawyer Ford.
Outrigger Chase
In season 5, when Sawyer was separated from most of his main friends from flight 815. After a time jump, they find their camp in a state of disarray and board a canoe to search for extra supplies. As Sawyer and Juliet row out into the ocean along with some of the remaining Island dwellers, they find themselves chased by another small watercraft.
That boat also begins shooting at them. Who was on the other boat? Why were they shooting at our long-suffering favorite characters? It’s been ten years, and it doesn’t look like anyone will ever know.
Reading
Quite a library washes up on the mysterious island in Lost. From Of Mice and Men, to Watership Down, and A Wrinkle in Time, there was something for everyone. Yet, even on an island, with very few entertainment options, and an oddly simple survival structure (hello mangos and wild boar) no one except Sawyer seems to read. Sawyer is even prescribed reading glasses in season one due to headaches from all his reading. While it’s true Sawyer hoarded a great deal of the reading material, the fact that he’s the only one who really reads is still a shocking mystery.
Healing Powers
Jack had his appendix out, Charlie gets hung by the neck, Claire almost drowns, but Sawyer seems to get beaten up just a little bit more often than everyone else. Punched, tasered, tortured, shot, the list goes on. When Sawyer is shot on the raft his injury, and journey to return to the island camp, leaves him septic and very near death. Despite the discovery of the hatch and all the supplies it has to offer, everyone believes Sawyer will die. He doesn’t. He regains his health and lives. Like Locke’s healed spinal injury the full extent of or reason behind the island’s healing powers are never fully explained.
Submarine
Charles Widmore (very sketchy industrialist, and native of the mysterious island) brings quite a few of his own questions with him. The one pertaining to our man Sawyer has to do with a submarine in season six. Widmore returns to the island of his origin in hopes of capturing the man in black. Who does he actually capture? James Sawyer Ford. Widmore certainly never watched Lost because he decides to trust Sawyer to help bring him the man in black. Why does he trust Sawyer? We will never know.
The Chosen
In season six Sawyer (of all people) is told by the “Monster” who is posing as Locke that the survivors of flight 815 were “chosen” by Jacob (yes! someone else who lives on the island) to potentially take his place someday, to protect this terror trap of an island.
No one seems to have asked the survivors if they were interested. Why specifically were they chosen? Why were their lives manipulated? No one ever tells viewers why these particular individuals were chosen, Sawyer included.
The Little Boy
In season six Sawyer, once again being told he is very important. While traveling with the man in black (disguised once again as Locke) they both travel across the island. Locke promises Sawyer answers. What they both find is a young boy in the jungle who tells Locke, “You know the rules, you can’t kill him.” Does this mean Sawyer? Again, viewers are never told.
To See or Not To See
Season six was quite the season for questions and answers, although always more questions. Viewers, along with man in black/Locke are also never told why it is that Sawyer can see the little boy, who we learn is sort of Jacob’s spirit as a child. Locke seems just as shocked as viewers that Sawyer sees anything at all. But neither the man in black nor the viewing audience is ever told why it is that Sawyer can see island spirits as well as those with much more magical backstories.
Polar Bear
Like our main cast a polar bear makes its first appearance in the pilot episode of Lost. While writers try to explain away its appearance (and Sawyer showing up to shoot it) and later on say they were used in experiments by the DHARMA initiative or even used to turn the wheel to manipulate the island’s energy. But this doesn’t happen until much later in the show’s run.
However, magical kid Walt is seen in season one reading about a polar bear in a comic book. Many still wonder whether or not Walt conjured the original bear that Sawyer put to death.
Time Travel
Poor Sawyer is left almost alone when the island goes on the fritz and starts time traveling. (Our other faves escaped on a freighter that Sawyer sees has blown up). So he is left behind, but why does he travel through time on the island when others do not? What about Danielle and Ethan? They don’t seem to notice the changes or the flash of light when the island moves. Sawyer both travels through time and notices that he can? Time travel and all of the timelines don’t come together nicely at series end, but here it’s Sawyer we question in particular.
Building What?
Right before Sawyer has a fake pacemaker put in, he is told there are two islands and has all sorts of other information dropped on his head, the audience is once again offered a hanging thread. As part of their capture and torture, Kate and Sawyer are forced to move rocks. They are told the Others are building a runway. Really? For what? It’s never used, and we never see it again. Like so many happenings, it is left behind for us to ponder, and nothing more.
