There are a lot of reasons for why Season Three is my favorite. For one, there are so many answers given to previously established mysteries. We learn how Locke’s legs became paralyzed, we learn about Jack’s tattoos, we learn a whole lot about what’s going on with the Others, and we certainly gain a better understanding of the Smoke Monster (hint: I don’t think it’s nanobots!).
Smoke Monter
When the Smoke Monster encountered Eko in Season Two, it flashed images of his life-story. It would appear in Season Three that Smokey has used this information in order to learn what form it should take to best get Eko’s attention. When Eko sees Yemi, the “ghost” says “You talk to me as if I was your brother,” and the executive producers confirmed in their podcast that this was an incarnation of the Smoke Monster.
So we learn that Smokey can take the form of people (and horsies!) and that it probably does so for a set purpose (to lead the characters towards an enlightenment experience?). Since Eko gets beaten to death by the Monster after refusing to apologize for the crimes that haunt him, I think it’s safe to assume that Smokey, at least in part, is on the Island to lead the castaways to redemption.
Shipper Friendly
Another awesome part about Season Three is that it is incredibly shipper friendly. Kate and Sawyer get-in-on while Jack watches, Jack and Juliet start their relationship, Claire and Charlie kiss, we learn that Ben had a mad crush on Juliet, and Jack tells Kate he loves her. It’s also really interesting to watch any of the scenes between Sawyer and Juliet, knowing what happens in Season Five. I could even be convinced that Juliet knew what would happen between her and Sawyer in future-1977 should some wacky story-telling lead us in that direction.
The Others
One of the joys about re-watching Season Three was that this time around I could really like Ben and Juliet. Well, with Ben it’s more of a love-to-hate type reaction. Learning about his history on the Island in “The Man Behind the Curtain” was crazy-fun and also exciting because I know there’s a chunk of history missing there that I hope will be revealed in Season Six. What happened to Anne? What happened between his first encounter with Richard and the Purge? I bet we’ll get some answers.
Speaking of Richard, we learn a significant amount about him in Season Three, but not nearly enough. (BTW: How does he get the Man from Tallahassee without the aid of the submarine and so freaking fast?) I think one of the ways that the writers will reveal much of the Island mythology next year is through a Richard flash-back episode and that would be AMAZING.
And we also hear a lot more about the Super-Mega Other: Jacob. Was he really the one in the cabin telling John to help him? Or was that the Man in Black? We know now that Ben couldn’t really see or hear anything in the cabin, so has Ben ever really gotten directions from Jacob? The list with the names of Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley was said to be from Jacob in Season Two, but in Season Three we see Juliet and Ben discussing who to put on the list in the Pearl Station… so Ben’s actual relationship with Jacob is still a bit of mystery.
Expose:
One of the weirdest episodes in all of Lost history is "Expose." How bizarre to have a complete filler episode on a series that had for two and a half years prior been relying on a reveal-some, question-some pace. I remember being completely baffled and frustrated when watching this episode live because it was essentially a waste of a week for someone who wanted answers. This time around I enjoyed the episode because for one, I think getting buried alive is crazy compelling. For another, it really illustrated how the creators and writers listen to the fans. They heard that the fan community wanted to learn more about the whole slew of other castaways (called the "socks" by the writers), so they introduced Nikki and Paulo. Then they heard the tremendous backlash against these idiots, so they took an episode to get their story-line out of the way and kill 'em off. I love that they respect their fans and were able to react to the response in a timely manner.
Finale:
Season three is made all the better by it’s awesome finale. Whether or not you knew right away that those were flash-forwards (like co-blogger Metta did), it’s still a cool change of pace! The mysteries were a lot less frustrating when you knew that the characters would be reaching a certain destination at some point, it was just a matter of how they got to that point and where they would go from there.
Repeated Lines:
We have to indoctrinate Charlie in the “Don’t tell me what I can’t do” crew. We also have a new repeated line when Locke quotes Eko saying “don’t confuse coincidence for fate.”
Questions:
Of course there are still many questions. One of which is why can’t a nice show like Lost afford good wigs? Some of the hairdos in the flash-backs were beyond laughable.
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Finale:
Season three is made all the better by it’s awesome finale. Whether or not you knew right away that those were flash-forwards (like co-blogger Metta did), it’s still a cool change of pace! The mysteries were a lot less frustrating when you knew that the characters would be reaching a certain destination at some point, it was just a matter of how they got to that point and where they would go from there.
Repeated Lines:
We have to indoctrinate Charlie in the “Don’t tell me what I can’t do” crew. We also have a new repeated line when Locke quotes Eko saying “don’t confuse coincidence for fate.”
Questions:
Of course there are still many questions. One of which is why can’t a nice show like Lost afford good wigs? Some of the hairdos in the flash-backs were beyond laughable.
