by Megan Bailey, Staff Writer

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the show being covered here wouldn't exist.

With season three’s game-changing cliffhanger, we’re faced with many, many questions going into season four. Notably, ABC confirmed the show length toward the end of season three, so they were full speed ahead on the final three seasons. This definitely helped the writers focus on wrapping up storylines and getting to their endgame. But the most interesting thing about the season is how the WGA strike affected the show, as well as how people remember the strike affecting the show.

Season four was initially planned to have sixteen episodes, but the writers had only completed eight episodes before the beginning of the strike. The eighth episode served as a mid-season finale until the strike was resolved. And once it was, the writers got back to work on five more episodes. But upon realizing they needed a three-part finale to wrap up the storylines, the season ended up being fourteen episodes long.

The season began with a return to the high viewership they had earlier on in season three, but the numbers went down steadily (from 16 million down to 12 million for the finale, just to put that in context). Before we dig into the meat of the season—and some of the recent revelations from Maureen Ryan’s Burn It Down—let’s dig into the 2007-2008 writers strike for a minute, given its effect on LOST and the WGA strike currently going on.

The WGA went on strike from November 2007 to February 2008. Negotiations between the WGA and the AMPTP broke down over DVD residuals, “new media” (that is, streaming), and jurisdiction of reality and animated programming. Primarily, the WGA would not back down on the “new media” issue, which ended up getting them the slivers of rights they currently have (though they deserve, and are currently striking for, more clear-cut, fair rights for streaming productions now).

Many, many shows were affected by the 2007-08 strike, but LOST is often cited as a show that never recovered from it. In fact, the show basically never returned to the heights of its viewership after season four. As mentioned, the season was cut short by two episodes, but the episodes were added to later seasons, so nothing was lost, right?

By my estimation, the pace picks up in season four, and I could definitely feel where some plots felt shortened or simplified. There are rumors that the episodes left out of the season were focused on Charlotte and Rousseau's backstories, respectively. And the present storylines would have been spread out a bit more. Of course, LOST, up to this point, had taken longer to answer questions because of the uncertainty with the end date and the longer season orders, so this may have just been due, in part, to the agreed-upon six season run from ABC. But now it’s common practice to blame the strike and move on.

Ultimately, it’s impossible for me, a random person on the internet, to know exactly how the strike affected LOST and the many other shows airing during that time. Likewise, we won’t know the specifics of what’s happening to shows right now, during the current WGA/SAG-AFTRA double whammy strike. All I can say is that any media lost or affected by it is worth the inevitable outcome—writers and performers getting the money and fair treatment they deserve, or at least getting closer to fair money and treatment.

Season four is primarily focused on our group of survivors and the freighter. Who sent the freighter, who’s on it, and can the survivors get on it to escape the island? Should they even want to get on the freighter? This season answers a lot of these questions (often with answers that lead to even more questions), which I think is important to mention. LOST does answer a good number of the questions it brings up, even if viewers don’t remember that. And beyond that, it focuses on the Oceanic Six, who leave the island, and deal with how to go back to regular life—if they even can.

In typical LOST fashion, Jack and Locke represent the two sides of the freighter argument. Jack, who promised to get everyone off the island at the end of season three and who we know does safely get off, is gunning to get everyone rescued. Locke is against leaving the island at all and convinces a good number of the group to go with him. Over the course of the first few episodes, we discover who the Oceanic Six are and how they’ve fared after getting off the island.

One of the most interesting, and underutilized, twists of the season is the reveal that Kevin Johnson, who’s been on the freighter, is Michael Dawson (Harold Perrineau). He’s only in about half the season, but we’re finally shown what happened to him after leaving the island with Walt. It’s disappointing, given how incredible an actor Perrineau is, that he was let go from the show so early in the run and only brought back for this part of the season. After bringing up valid concerns with the showrunners during season two, he was released from his contract for season three.

Perrineau spoke up again, this time publicly, about how his character fares in season four. He noted the cliche of Black male characters abandoning their children, as Michael and Walt aren’t speaking to each other after leaving the island, and Michael leaves to do Ben’s bidding on the freighter. ABC later asked him to retract the statement, though he did nothing wrong.

It’s notable, with Michael gone for season three and half of season four and Walt removed after season one, that there are very few other Black characters on the show. Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) was introduced in season two and then killed off in season three. (Maureen Ryan reports, in Burn It Down, that one of the showrunners made racist comments about his death scene.) Rose (L. Scott Caldwell) only shows up intermittently throughout those seasons, but she never really gets a sustained storyline across an entire season. This is just one facet of a larger, noticeable Issue with LOST’s storytelling. Ryan’s Burn It Down, which we’ll talk about more next month, goes into a lot of the behind-the-scenes issues.

While I think Yunjin Kim has been incredible throughout the show, she’s outstanding in season four. Especially toward the end of the season, she’s really, really effective at showing Sun in the flash forwards as part of the Oceanic Six and before she leaves the island. Her standout moment is in the helicopter, as they see the freighter blow up.

Overall, this season feels tighter, even—dare I say—a little rushed, but the plot elements are all pretty strong. The mysteries of the freighter, the Oceanic Six, Charles Widmore, and so on, keep you locked in over the course of the season, and I’m excited to see where it goes from here. However, especially in light of Maureen Ryan’s Burn It Down, it’s impossible to talk about this show without mentioning the behind-the-scenes abuse and, to be clear, unacceptable behavior from the showrunners specifically. I’ll dig into that more in next month’s piece.

Notable episodes:

“The Constant” — just an all-around incredible episode that deserves its place in the television history books.
“There’s No Place Like Home (Parts 2 and 3)” — as always, outstanding season finales.