Last Thursday was the 12 year anniversary of the premiere of LOST. The beginning of an era. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this was a show that would change my life, even shape my relationship. I didn’t start watching it until the fall semester of my junior year in college. 2009. I watched it alone in my dorm room, thousands of miles from my binge partner – Sohrab. We had been dating mere months at the time, and I’d call him screaming about something in a language that resembled English. We bonded over LOST. I finished 5 seasons in one semester of school, just in time to watch season 6 live; each episode coming out an excruciating week after the last. Somehow, in amongst the tears and cheddar popcorn, I passed all of my classes that year.
Last Friday, Sohrab and I revisited this time in our lives in the form of a live concert at Ford Amphitheater, featuring the original orchestra conducted by musical genius Michael Giacchino. This man has shaped so many of our playlists, he might as well be writing in our living room. Carlton Cuse led the pack, braving the crowd without his cohort, Damon Lindelof, who was stuck in Australia filming The Leftovers. Michael and Carlton opened up about their experience with the show, bringing the crowd together into a litany of giggles and tears.
Sohrab and I looked knowingly at each other every so often, smiling at the memories we formed while oceans apart. Now, I could reach out for his hand while we listened to Oceanic 6. We didn’t watch an episode together in the same room until we attended the season 6 finale in downtown LA, hosted by Jay and Jack (on behalf of their LOST podcast). I had returned to the mainland just in time to attend.
Fandoms create friend groups. I have Harry Potter friends. I have LOST friends. Most of our LOST friends were made a couple years ago at the LOST 2014 weekend meetup in Hawai’i, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the show’s premiere. We ventured around O’ahu together, forming bonds that remain strong. Many of them were at the concert in LA. Many of them will return to Hawai’i next October for LOST 2017. Hardly any of them live in Hawai’i or Los Angeles. Long distance relationships, made stronger by LOST.
LOST has brought so many people together, shaped so many relationships. Even those of us who got a late start are welcome to the beach party, As our main man Jack said,
“If we can’t live together, we’re going to die alone.”
