'Lost': Reboot Anxiety? Be Thankful!

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READER MAIL! (cont.)
Dear Mr. Bibb, and to anyone else dreading a Jughead reboot,

First of all: ''Piece of scum'' is pretty genius. I hereby adopt a new nickname for pre-Island Sawyer: ScumPiece.

Second: The fact that so many fans are sweating reboot anxiety speaks to perhaps Lost's biggest accomplishment last season. Usually by the time a show gets to its fifth season, we know the drill. Yeah, there'll be a cliffhanger — and yeah, we know most everyone will make it out alive. Lost 5.0 had the added challenge of being the penultimate chapter of the Lost saga; we all watched, knowing that we were still a year away from The Stuff That Really Matters. But the function of a penultimate chapter is to ramp up the peril, bring the story to crisis, and make us fret for the survival of the characters. Reboot Anxiety = Mission Accomplished. If you're approaching season 6 wondering if our castaway heroes' oddball odyssey has all been for naught, that their tortured trek toward change and redemption (or not change and damnation) is about to go up in smoke — well, that kinda means that season 5 kinda did what it was it was supposed to do, right?

Third: As I mentioned earlier, the producers of Lost went to Comic-Con and teased fans with a series of short videos that included subtle inconsistencies with the Lost saga. A mock commercial for Oceanic Airlines touted the company's unblemished safety record. But such a commercial would make no sense in a Lost world where Oceanic 815 went missing in 2004. In another video — a clip from America's Most Wanted — we learned that Kate was wanted for killing a guy named Ryan Milner, who worked for her skuzzy father/presumed stepfather. But that makes no sense in a Lost world where Kate was wanted for actually killing her father/presumed stepfather. Did the producers screen these videos to tease the reveal that yes, season 6 will take place in a Jughead-rebooted alternate world? Possibly. But I also think they could have been impishly poking at reboot anxiety — and at the same time, assuaging it. The message: We know you're sweating this — and we want you to know that we know you're sweating this.

Bottom line: For all y'all wracked with Jughead dread, I offer my Dr. Strangelove solution: embrace it. Put on you cowboy hat, saddle up on that bomb's frightening belly, and ride that scary thing all the way down to the ground with yowling Yahooo! in your heart. Okay, maybe evoking the image of thermonuclear annihilation isn't the most comforting allusion for the last season of Lost. But I hope you get my point. Stop worrying. Learn to love the Jughead reboot angst. And have a little faith that the producers will keep faith with their creation — and with your investment in it. Yeah, it sounds a little Pollyanna, but life is more fun when lived with hope. Besides, as my wife likes to remind me: it's just a TV show. And who knows? Maybe she's actually right.

That's it for this week. We'll be back next week with a deep dive into Jacob/Man In Black theory, plus some other nifty stuff. I'm looking forward to our final foray into Lost land and the crazy discoveries waiting to be found along the way. Until then, I wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving.

Namaste,
Doc Jensen

Follow me on Twitter at ewdocjensen and email me at docjensenew@gmail.com