The Beginning of the End

After the credits roll on the final episode of L O S T, there will be a thorough autopsy on whether the creators had known the resolution of the series form the start or if they had simply been making everything up as they went along.

And although that question is mildly interesting, it is largely irrelevant.

Judging by the pilot episode, I would guess the creators had the broader contours of the mythology outlined from the beginning. Locke's description of the game of backgammon is more relevant to the themes of the final season than to anything that appears in the first season. But does it really matter if the creators knew why there was a polar bear on a tropical island when they wrote the screenplay for the pilot episode?

If anything, it is remarkable how well conceived and executed L O S T was given its inauspicious beginnings.

The show did not emerged perfectly formed from the godhead of J.J. Abrams. Instead it was originally pitched by an ABC executive as Cast Away meets Survivor. In the eleventh hour, the project was punted over to Abrams and Lindelof who gave the series its flashback structure and supernatural backdrop. The script itself went through numerous revisions during the casting process. Jack was originally going to die in the first episode. The part of Hurley was created just for Jorge Garcia.

Over the course of its series run, L O S T has had its flaws and the finale might be a complete bust, but I would not place the blame with the creators' plans for the overarching mystery, or lack thereof.