A RESETTERS GUIDE TO RE-WATCHING LOST

I've been too busy this too short summer to hop on board any of the great rewatches happening around Lostwebbia. By now the hunting parties are deep into the jacktastic jungle of Season Two, so that's a road untaken for me. But I think it's for the best. Slogging through five long seasons would be too, too much work for this Fishbiscuit. And besides, I'm not sure it's necessary. I was struck by some of the quotes issuing forth from our dear leaders when they were doing the press rounds during Comic Con.

Things like:

"Season six will feel a lot like season one," says Lindelof. "The focus comes back to the characters with whom we began. We've been winnowing away everyone else who came along. "

And like:

"That was a conversation that started back between seasons one and two of the show," says Lindelof. "We are following the plan pretty much to the letter, although there is room for improvisation." Lindelof says next season - which will be the Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning series' last - will bring things full circle.

Let me connect the dots from these quotes to the last sight we had of Jacob's chosen few being bombed back to the beginning, and here's how it all reads for me: Is it possible that everything we needed to know about Lost was contained in Season One? At the end of Season One, the creators of Lost decided on exactly the ending to their story that we are about to have revealed to us in Season Six. All the intermediate seasons were a case of slowboating it to a port that wasn't all that far away at all. They were elaborate distractions, if you will, designed to deliciously prolong the agony (and keep the ad revenue pouring in) while the writers waited to unleash the story they really wanted to tell. And now it's time!

Season Six is almost upon us. But I've realized, if it's going to be a reprise of Season One, then I for one am woefully unprepared. I haven't seen the magical first season since the first time I watched it. I've forgotten everything!

I need a refresher course. I've forgotten what it felt like back when shock endings were worth their weight in WTF.

I've forgotten when characters drove the plot and they intrigued me more with every new thing I learned about them.

I've forgotten when the themes seemed simple

even if the questions were not.

I've forgotten when the mysteries made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

"In the first season, the characters were running around the jungle, things felt intense and surprising,” said executive producer Carlton Cuse. “We have a way that we're going to be able to do that in the final season too.”

Carlton says they can do that again. They can recapture the magic. Is that even possible? I don't know, but I know that if it is, then I want to be prepared. I want to look back at Season One to see which clues were laid out for us early on, which ones have come to fruition and which ones have died on the vine. I want to look at the ways the writers have developed their characters and their relationships and try and figure out what that might mean for our final (sob!) trip to Lostylvania. I want to try and winnow out the themes that have lasted, the ideas that were always meant to be important, to try and understand - using all the knowledge we now have from Seasons Two through Five - where this great big magical mystery tour might be headed now that it's circling in for the landing.

As always, I'm not afraid to guess wrong. I'm not even afraid to guess stupid. I'll try to guard against the Lostmaniac's affliction of apophenia. (Look it up, we all do it.) And of course, I'll do my best to keep it fun. Over the next weeks and months, I'm going to review all the Season One episodes in various groups of 2 or 4 or 6, depending on what feels right. I won't be on any timetable, and updates are likely to be erratic, so if you're interested, keep checking back in.

And so, with no further ado....Avast! Ahoy! All aboard for Fishbiscuit's Reset Rewatch!

Let's see if there's anything new to discover before all our discovering is through.