Westworld and Lost have always shared a certain resemblance. Both stories are driven by mystery, slowly drip-fed to a ravenous audience, who are so fiendishly good at devouring clues, they spoil the show for themselves.
Both stories take place inside a self-contained, warped reality, where the inhabitants are desperate to escape into the real world. Both utilize multiple timelines to mix up the narrative, provide bonus character development, and obscure incoming plot twists. Both even have a character known as The Man in Black, though, admittedly, Westworld’s is way better than Lost’s smoke-monster-man, who was both a symbolic representation of Satan, and the physical embodiment of fanboy disappointment.
Lost changed television, in more ways than one, but mostly by showing the value of unanswered questions; give the audience a grand mystery, and the feverish speculation provides a kind of free marketing, keeping the viewer’s minds fixated on the show long after the credits roll. The more mystery, the merrier, even if the long-awaited answers are kind of underwhelming.
And in the second season, Westworld has been openly acknowledging Lost’s influence with homages to iconic moments from the show. The premiere of season 2 opened Bernard’s story with Bernard waking up on a sandy beach, confused, dressed in a dapper suit.
It’s even revealed, in the same episode, that the park is actually an island - I half expected to see broken pieces of plane on the sand. Hell, at this point, a crossover between the two fictional universes would be almost feasible, as a kind of middle-finger to the fans for forseeing too many plot twists.
Then, in the latest episode, “The Riddle of the Sphinx,” James Delos’ clone host is introduced in a musical montage that was almost identical to Desmond’s iconic reveal, way back when we didn’t know what was inside the Hatch, and were all kind of confused when the answer turned out to be “a Scottish man.”
If Lost taught us anything, it’s that we should over-analyze every single frame of every single episode, in order to fully appreciate the fact that sometimes screenwriters are just making things up as they go along.
So, in the spirit of obsessive fandom, what exactly is Westworld trying to communicate? Is it merely an acknowledgment that both shows share a similar tone and theme? A Marvel-esque hint that this is all taking place in the same universe, and that, one day, Dolores and Maeve will form an awkward love-triangle with Jack Shephard, and finally escape Westworld, only to be faced with the realization that they have to go back?
Or perhaps, it’s a hint that we’re all building up impossibly high expectations that cannot be fulfilled, that J.J. Abrams’ mystery box is not supposed to be opened, because it’s empty? That the next Star Wars film is destined to be just as controversial as The Last Jedi because nobody knows what they want the franchise to be anymore?
Sorry, got a little off-topic there. But I think the comparison to Lost is an apt one, because as disappointing as the finale to Lost was, (I actually had to look up the official explanation because it wasn’t all that clear), it was the journey that made the show so memorable, not the destination.
Like Lost, the next few seasons of Westworld are unlikely to resemble the first, because the first was such a mind-bender. It was high-concept sci-fi on steroids, and although the host’s awakening was technically just another “robot uprising” narrative, the way the story was told was so fiendishly clever and convoluted, it seemed like a completely new concept entirely.
I don’t know if Westworld can continue spinning mysteries with jaw-dropping reveals, because they must be pretty damn difficult to write. But, like Lost, the show boasts extremely strong, complex characters with murky pasts, each flashback revealing something unexpected.
That show gave us John Locke, Sawyer, and Ben, three memorable, undefinable characters who walked a line somewhere between hero, villain, and side-character.
That was the true legacy of Lost, and I think the legacy of Westworld will be much the same.
If you enjoyed reading, check out my recaps of Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10, and my recap of Season 1.
