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Some say television will rot your brain, but Jeff Jensen has turned it into an intellectual exercise, getting thousands of Lost fans to read 10-page analyses of a one-hour show. ABC's hit show, which ends Sunday (7/6 Central), has raised theological themes about faith versus reason and fate versus free will. Jensen, who writes a column called "Totally Lost" for Entertainment Weekly, says that fans have had to take a leap of faith that the finale will satisfy. He spoke with Sarah Pulliam Bailey about why he's not concerned with finding answers to the show's questions, the relationship between faith and Lost, and the writers' portrayal of redemption.

You've written such detailed recaps of each episode. Do you think you'll be satisfied after watching the finale?

I am different from a lot of other Lost fans. People want answers. They want Lost to put specific names to all sorts of philosophical concepts and themes that are swirling in the text and subtext of the show as metaphors or abstract ideas. The producers have made it clear that they're not going to do that. One of the most polarizing episodes, "Across the Sea," made it clear that Lost is going to explain itself metaphorically through story. It wants to be studied. It wants to be a text that people enter into, find clues and ideas, and apply them to all of Lost and come to these answers themselves.

One of the executive producers, Damon Lindelof, told me recently that one of the formative texts of his youth was Encyclopedia Brown. They're 5-page mysteries loaded with clues, and at end of every chapter, Encyclopedia Brown solves the mystery. The author asks you, "Can you find out what Encyclopedia Brown found out?" You turn upside down or go to the back of the book and find out the solution. Damon said one day his father came up to him and asked him, "What are you doing?" He took the book and he ripped out the section with all the answers, he gave the book back to Damon and said, "The answers are there in the story. You can figure it out." I think that's what we're supposed to be doing with the Lost text. I'm not apologizing for that. It's a really romantic notion if you're an artist or writer, but if you're a reader, a consumer of entertainment, you might find that extremely frustrating. If you want the detective to enter the room and explain it all, you'll probably be dissatisfied. If you love the mysterious puzzle and coming up with your own conclusion, it could be very satisfying.

I think where Lost can win is if it's emotionally compelling, if they tell us a story that reminds us why we love these characters and bring them to a powerful, incredible, emotional conclusion, which they can do independent of giving us answers to the island. We'll be crying, and we'll be laughing at the end, and then an hour will pass and we'll realize, "Wait a minute, they never told us the answer to this."

Do you see any similarities between the show and religious faith?

I am religious. I am a Christian, and I have thought a lot about that. To be a Lost fan these past six years is to take a leap of faith. It was a leap of faith in the beginning that the show was going to be a mystery show, and it would ever give us answers.

Jack and Locke are the two great characters of faith in the show. Jack only had faith in himself. That philosophy came from his intellect and that bias [toward reason] was created from damage in his childhood. His whole worldview was broken down and rebuilt into something: "I think there is something bigger than myself, and I think there's something out there worth pursuing." That makes him in many ways the defining hero of Lost. Locke, no dummy himself, was even more so a product of damage, and all he was was a huge ball of yearning. He wanted something to believe and something to believe in him. He was looking for anything that would give him meaning and purpose. He lacked good discernment in terms of what was right and good. He got suckered by a devil into believing in something that wasn't true. In many ways, Locke represents a critique of religion and faith that agnostics and atheists believe about religion. Jack represents a view a lot of people of faith believe. There's something more, and if they can seek it out, they can find it.

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May (Web-only) 2010, Vol. 54

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