All six seasons of Lost are coming to Netflix in just a few months’ time, thanks to an agreement reached between Disney and Netflix back in December. That deal actually covers 14 popular TV shows in all, including hits like Grey’s Anatomy and How I Met Your Mother, but none of them come remotely close to the singular, groundbreaking nature of Lost — which won multiple Emmys throughout its run from 2004 to 2010. Indeed, from the flash-forwards and flashbacks to the countless Easter Eggs, superlative writing, and unforgettable characters, Lost was a show like no other.
Needless to say, for those of you who never got around to watching it during its run on TV, you’re in for quite a treat once the show comes back to Netflix (it’s also currently streaming on Hulu, by the way, but the show’s return to Netflix will obviously open it up to so many more people). Plot-wise, the show begins in a pretty straightforward way, with a plane crash on a mysterious island. You sort of assume, at least at the start, that Lost is going to be an uncomplicated survival/search-and-rescue story.
But, no. That’s just the appetizer.
In reality, Lost is a show about, well, the nature of reality, and about the line between science and faith. In unpacking all of the backstories of the characters, the show gave us an addictive and compulsively bingeable examination of destiny and free will, of philosophy, and of the mind-bending possibilities of time itself. This was the first show of the modern era that I can remember getting sucked deep into, thanks to the fan blogs that dissected even the smallest blink-and-you’d-miss-them elements of each episode. It’s that good.
We had to know who The Others were, and so we went down the rabbit hole in between episodes. The same goes for learning whether the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 would ever make it off the island; plus Benjamin Linus’ backstory; what the heck the Dharma Initiative is; who Jacob is; the identity of the Smoke Monster; and so many other mysteries. Lost, in short, is also one of those TV shows that’s so good, devotees like me can come across just a single clip online — or read some of the best quotes, like those I’ve included below — and it instantly makes you want to dive back into it all over again. Dr. Jack Shephard was right: “We have to go back, Kate!”
Without further ado, these are some of my favorite quotes and exchanges from across all of Lost’s six episodes, which will be available to stream on Netflix starting July 1 (Fellow Lost fans, tell me some of these don’t bring back memories!):
- Locke: Don’t tell me what I can’t do!
- Jack: If we can’t live together, we’re going to die alone.
- Desmond: I’ll see you in another life, brotha!
- Sawyer: The only letter I ever wrote is to the man I’m gonna kill.
- Jacob, to the Man in Black: Well, I see you found your loophole.
- Benjamin Linus: If I was one of them — these people that you seem to think are your enemies — what would I do? Well, there’d be no balloon. So I’d draw a map to a real secluded place, like a cave or some underbrush. Good place for a trap, an ambush. And when your friends got there, a bunch of my people would be waiting for them. Then they’d use them to trade for me … I guess it’s a good thing I’m not one of them, huh?
- Mr. Eko: I did not ask for the life that I was given. But it was given, nonetheless. And with it… I did my best.
- Desmond: I love you, Penny. I’ve always loved you.
- Ben, quoting Of Mice and Men to Sawyer: A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you. I tell ya…I tell ya, a guy gets too lonely, and he gets sick.
- And Benjamin, to Locke: Picture a box … you know something about boxes, don’t you John? What if I told you that somewhere on this island there is a very large box. And whatever you imagined, whatever you wanted to be in it, when you opened that box … there it would be.
And, finally, I just have to include this extended exchange between Benjamin and Charles Widmore that made every single Lost fan’s head explode when we watched it the first time (it’s the climactic confrontation that occurs in Episode 9 of Season 4, titled The Shape of Things to Come):
- Widmore, to Benjamin: Don’t stand there looking at me with those horrible eyes of yours and lay the blame for the death of that poor girl on me. When we both know very well — I didn’t murder her at all, Benjamin. You did.
- Benjamin: No, that’s not true.
- Widmore. Yes, Benjamin. It is. You creep into my bedroom in the dead of night, like a rat, and have the audacity to pretend that you’re the victim? I know who you are, boy. What you are. I know that everything you have you took from me. So, once again I ask you: Why are you here?
- Benjamin: I’m here, Charles, to tell you that I’m going to kill your daughter. Penelope, is it? And once she’s gone … once she’s dead … then you’ll understand how I feel. And you’ll wish you hadn’t changed the rules.
