*Warning: Contains spoilers for all of Lost.*
Imagine: your favorite TV present is about to complete when, proper earlier than the climax, it out of the blue travels again 2,000 years in time for an episode that includes none of your favorite characters.
Well, this precise weekend 15 years ago, that really occurred to followers of Lost – the long-running sci-fi mystery series which, at its 2000s top, was the biggest present on TV.
Initially a few group of aircraft crash survivors who discover themselves stranded on a mysterious desert island, the mythology and complexity of Lost only expanded as each episode glided by.
Featuring an enormous ensemble forged, some of TV’s best-loved characters, and gripping mysteries, Lost was a significant hit and remains to be regarded right now as one in all the best TV reveals of all time.
From one week to the subsequent, viewers had been on the edges of their seats, by no means figuring out what sort of story they had been going to get subsequent – particularly as questions mounted up about the historical past of the island.
One week, you’d be watching three characters fixing up an deserted camper van. The subsequent, you possibly can be watching those self same characters battling a monster made completely of black smoke.
But by the finish of the collection in 2010, followers demanded solutions and had far much less endurance with episodes that departed from the most important threads of the plot.
It was into this surroundings that Lost dropped its most polarising episode, Across the Sea – to at the present time, some followers nonetheless regard it as the one that nearly ‘killed’ Lost proper earlier than the curtain got here down.
Over greater than 100 episodes, the island had been revealed as extra than simply an island – it was, in reality, a gateway between our world and the literal darkness beneath.
A sinister character identified solely as the Man in Black – who, it turned out, was the smoke monster – was being stored there by his brother Jacob, ostensibly to guard the remainder of the world.
Lost creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse wrote Across the Sea to clarify the origins of this battle between yin and yang, however didn’t present the solutions numerous followers had been after.
It turned out the immortal Man In Black and Jacob had been locked of their everlasting battle for nearly a millennium, witnessing centuries go by in the course of.
But not solely had been followers sad with a few of the solutions supplied, in addition they couldn’t perceive why the episode didn’t function any of the most important forged.
As just lately as 2024, Reddit consumer McIgglyTuffMuffin nonetheless argued: ‘I understand how it’s all arrange for the remaining two episodes. But god rattling does its placement carry all the things to a screeching halt. [It’s like the writers said] “Screw it, let’s go back to the beginning of time!”‘
Their ideas had been echoed by BillyDeeisCobra: ‘I loathe Across the Sea, for lots of reasons, and a big part of it may be how it killed the momentum of the season wrap-up in the initial airing.’
Viewers had been additionally sad {that a} present which had beforehand been targeted on character-driven sci-fi tales was drifting additional and additional into fantasy territory.
Electrical_Web8850 concurred in a separate put up: ‘I just don’t get what the writers had been going for with this origin story. [It] actually was arduous to abdomen given the total narrative of the complete present.
‘For me, the episode Across the Sea is the worst episode of the series… I still love the show, but just find this episode completely out of place.’
Lost was critically acclaimed from starting to finish, incomes an total critic ranking of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes – and an viewers ranking of 89% – throughout six entire seasons.
Our ideas on Lost’s most controversial episode
Metro’s Lost professional Rob Oliver shares his ideas…
Many Lost followers say Across the Sea would have been higher acquired if it had been positioned earlier in season six – both as the premiere episode or in the slot earlier than the mid-season break, and it’s arduous to disagree.
However, Lost writers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof would have little doubt thought of placing Across the Sea at the begin and center of season six earlier than finally deciding to position it forward of the climax. Whatever query you have got about one thing a TV present does, the writers have at all times requested it lengthy earlier than you.
To that finish, Across the Sea is a courageous departure episode, and the determination to position it so near the finish is a brave one.
In truth, I’d argue that not solely does it not kill the momentum of the season, it really considerably deepens Lost’s mythology and historical past, reframing a number of prior occasions from the collection and forcing the viewers to re-evaluate the story – proper earlier than the very finish.
It’s a daring and trendy piece of labor, and the type of TV episode you hardly ever get in the streaming age. Across the Sea greater than serves its objective, not simply as an episode of Lost however as a reminder of what’s attainable in longform storytelling.
As of 2025, Across the Sea has a Metacritic ranking of simply 54, with creators Lindelof and Cuse apparently receiving messages saying that they had ‘ruined’ Lost for everyone.
However, the episode had its defenders at the time, and its reception amongst followers has improved significantly in the 15 years since its broadcast.
While they did obtain plenty of hate mail, Lindelof and Cuse additionally acquired messages saying that Across the Sea was one in all the ‘best episodes’ of Lost total.
Nualabear argues: ‘[Across the Sea] was one of my favourite episodes. The ancient history of the island is one of the absolute coolest aspects of the show for me, and this was right up that alley.’
In 2022, Jay Southworth, a co-host of the Lost fan podcast Flashback, referred to as Across the Sea ‘really strong’ and defended it on the grounds that it labored as a ‘Greek or Roman mythology-style story about two ancient characters establishing so many motifs and themes that define Lost’.
Watch all six seasons of Lost on Netflix.
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