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Lost Update 02/22/2010
Greetings from another dimension of sight, sound, and imagination. Prepare yourselves for another Lost / Twilight Zone comparison. (The Twilight Zone was a classic science fiction television series created by Rod Serling that aired from 1959 to 1964. Each episode intertwined the supernatural with topical moral events in today’s society ending with a twist convoluting the outcome. I argue that the same can be said about ABC Lost. The castaways are more than just stranded on an island. There are mysterious forces at work of powers unknown. And just like the Twilight Zone, a twist is inserted in the story convoluting the outcome.)
The Twilight Zone had a standard format. Each episode began with a prologue, usually with the host, Rod Serling doing the voice over introducing the characters and setting. At the end of the show, Serling would offer up a final narration of what the viewer just witnessed.
Tonight’s offering is from season two, episode number 56, original air date, March 03, 1961, titled, Static.
As you read the opening monologue, plot synopsis, and epilogue, think about Lost and the season six premiere. As usual, I will explain the tie in below.
Monologue:
Retired old Ed Lindsay retrieves his ancient radio from the boarding house basement. He asks one of the boys intently watching him, "Don't you know what a radio is?". The boy says that of course he has, just not quite lick that. Rod Serling appears standing at the top of the basement steps:
"No one ever saw one quite like that, because that's a very special sort of radio. In its day, circa 1935, its type was one of the most elegant consoles on the market. Now, with its fabric-covered speakers, its peculiar yellow dial, its serrated knobs, it looks quaint and a little strange. Mr. Ed Lindsay is going to find out how strange very soon, when he tunes in to the Twilight Zone."
Plot Synopsis:
Ed Lindsay is an irritable bachelor in his late fifties. He lives in a dull boarding house where much of his time is consumed watching what he calls worthless and mindless programs. Not able to take it anymore, Ed retrieves his old radio from storage in the basement. When Ed was younger and happier, he enjoyed the radio and was one of his favorite forms of entertainment. Ed brought the radio to his room and plugged it in. He was amazed as to what he heard playing. It was programs from the 30's and 40's from big bands no longer alive. He tried to tell the others of his miraculous radio, but when he turned it on for them, all they heard was static. By making several phone calls, he found that the radio station he was listening to was off the air for over 13 years.
Later we learn that Ed intended to marry the love of his life twenty years ago but he kept letting other things get in the way until it was to late. Vinnie, a 50 something female boarder tells Ed that the past cannot be recovered and he should let it go. She leaves Ed's room and returns to her own. Ed turns on the radio once again and magically Ed transforms into a much younger man, twenty years younger. Vinnie runs into Ed's room young again as well. The radio offers Ed another chance to relive his life and finally get things right this time around.
Epilogue:
Around and around she goes, and where she stops nobody knows. All Ed Lindsay knows is that he desperately wanted a second chance and he finally got it, through a strange and wonderful time machine called a radio.... in the Twilight Zone.
Lost Tie In:
Remember way back in season one when Sayid and Hurley had the transmitter high atop the hill? Do you remember what they heard from the transmitter? That's right, they heard 1930's and 40's big band music. Sayid remarks, "What is that?" Hurley replies, "When is that?" Sayid looks at him strangely and then Hurley tells him, "Just kidding dude!"
Lost has always been about redemption, righting the wrongs from the past. The castaways have been given that opportunity in the form of traveling back in time, approximately 20-25 years, to fix what was broken. It doesn't mean that they will succeed, but they were given another chance at life.
just like Ed Lindsay from the Twilight Zone was given. What they do/did with that chance yet remains to be seen.
LURKING ON THE GRASSY KNOLL
