- Lost Season 4 Plot
- Determining if the crew aboard the freighter is good or evil
- Power struggles: Ben vs. Charles Widmore; Locke vs. Jack; Locke vs. Ben
- Figuring out which Survivors will leave the island
- Christian Shepard's (Jack's dad) deep connections with the island
- Mental time travel: Desmond's need for a "constant"
- The Orchid: DHARMA's station for time travel research
Part 1: On the island
Season 4 begins exactly where season 3 left off which is with Jack making contact with what's believed to be a rescue ship 80 miles off the coast of the island. Over the course of the season viewers (and to a lesser extent the Survivors) eventually learn that what's believed to be a rescue ship was actually sent by tycoon Charles Widmore to find the island and kill Widmore's longtime arch rival Benjamin Linus.
Initially the Survivors are split between trusting the rescue freighter's crew and fearing the crew's ulterior motives might be to wipe out everyone on the island. Locke leads a group to the Others barracks to hide from the newcomers while Jack takes another group to the beach in an effort to finally be rescued.
Daniel Faraday, a scientist from the freighter, is first introduced when he lands on the island via parachuting from a helicopter (that came from the freighter). Faraday becomes the first ambassador from the outside world to contact the Survivors and will remain a pivotal character throughout the series.
Desmond and Sayid eventually leave the island via helicopter and go to the offshore freighter to assist with the rescue efforts.
Due to flying on a slightly varied bearing Desmond begins to suffer mental and physical sickness as a result of his consciousness time traveling sporadically between modern time and his life history of just a few years earlier. Faraday helps Desmond collect himself (essentially saving his life) by assisting Desmond in establishing a constant in the form of his fiance Penny. The concept of a constant is a somewhat important idea to the entirety of the Lost plot. Basically, the idea is that if a time traveler (even just time travel of consciousness) can't identify an object or person important to them that exists in both time periods the shifting between time periods will become increasingly chaotic and lead to sever brain damage or death.
Back on the island there is increasing tension between Jack's beach group that trusts the intentions of the newcomers and Locke's barracks group that believes the freighter crew is not to be trusted.
Through a series of flashbacks we learn the Ben has a mole on board the freighter in the form of former Survivor Michael. Michael had been away from the island for some time and while depressed about his behavior on the island (killing two Survivors and surrendering his friends for imprisonment in exchange for he and his son's safe passage back home) he was manipulated into believing that the best penance would be to blow up the freighter to keep the ship's crew from hurting anyone on the island. This was the seed that master manipulator Ben planted.
Locke's camp is ravished by mercenaries that came from the freighter that are looking to fulfill their objective of killing Ben. About eight people are killed in the attack before Lock and Ben escape. Locke decides the best chance for survival is to find Jacob's cabin and ask the supreme leader how to save the island. Locke eventually finds and enters the cabin and much to everyone's surprise Christian Shepard (Jack Shepard's supposedly deceased father) is patiently waiting for him inside the cabin. Locke has no idea who Christian is or his relationship to Jack but Locke is calmly told he must "move the island." Only Ben knows what this means and how it's done.
While Locke is getting instructions to move the island Daniel Faraday is ferrying Survivors to the freighter with a motorized life raft. At the same time a second group goes to with Jack to the freighter on the helicopter. While the Survivors are en route to the freighter a large bomb linked to the primary mercenary's (currently on the island) heart rate is discovered on the freighter.
The helicopter briefly lands on the freighter, immediately learns of the imminent bomb threat, and takes off during a panicked scene in everyone on board the freighter is chaotically trying to deal with the newly discovered bomb. The helicopter lifts off from the freighter with only Frank (the pilot), Jack, Sayid, Hurley, Kate, Sun, Desmond, and Aaron (Claire's baby) on board and just moments before the bomb goes off (due to Ben killing the mercenary whose heart monitor was connected to the bomb) and a huge explosion destroys the entire freighter.
Devastated by the events that just took place and friends that surely lost their lives the helicopter crew heads back to the island to regroup with the Survivors still there. Before they can land on the island the entire island completely vanishes right before their eyes.
Ben has moved the island through time and space by manually turning a frozen donkey wheel hidden deep beneath the Orchid station. In doing so the island is mystically transported and Ben is banished from the island winding up ten months in the future in the deserted Tunisian desert.
The helicopter with nowhere to land runs out of fuel and crashes in the ocean. Everyone on board the helicopter survives the crash and is rescued by Widmore's daughter (Penny - Desmond's fiance) who has been searching for the island for years (since Desmond went missing).
Jack concocts a story to fool the media and the world into the believing that only six people survived the Oceanic Flight 815 crash and that these six people have been living on a remote island in Indonesia (Indonesia is amazingly truly made up of 17,508 islands). These six people which include: Hurley, Sun, Sayid, Jack, Kate, and Aaron come to be known around the world as the Oceanic 6 survivors. Frank, Penny and Desmond will go into hiding as there being with the Oceanic Flight 815 Survivors wouldn't make sense.
Jack's motives in lying about their experiences are believed to be (1) the true story doesn't seem believable, (2) hiding the truth will in some small way protect the Survivors they left behind on the island (the first group that found them tried to kill them), and (3) Widmore and potentially other dangerous unknown characters won't come after the Oceanic 6 if they believe they aren't any threat to their stop at nothing objective of finding and presumably somehow benefiting from controlling the island.
Part 2: Post rescue - off the island
The coast guard rescues the Oceanic 6 from their staged spot on an Indonesian island. The Survivors are flown to a press conference, become worldwide celebrities, receive settlements from the airline, and are reunited with loved ones. Reporters ask any probing questions but the group sticks to their story.
For the most part each member of the Oceanic 6 goes back to a pretty normal life, except for Sun who morns her lost husband Jin who was on the freighter when it exploded. The Oceanic 6 remain at best casual friends.
Jack and Kate eventually live together and raise Aaron, telling the media that Aaron is Kate's child (it's really Claire's).
In Iraq Ben makes contact with Sayid and recruits him for his war on Widmore. Ben willingly gets Sayid on his side by convincing him that Widmore is responsible for the recent death of his wife. Sayid becomes a hit man of sorts for Ben as he picks off Widmore's worldwide agents one by one.
Gradually the lives of the Oceanic 6 begin to fall apart for a variety of reasons which have foundations in their time on the island and the secret of their experience they're suppressing. Hurley is living in a mental institution in Santa Rosa and is playing chess with the ghost of Mr. Eko when Sayid comes to visit Hurley. This is one of the few chess references and it's unclear if Mr. Eko knew how to cheat at chess because he was a ghost. Hurley played the black pieces, Eko played the white chess pieces.
Jack learns that Claire from the island was his half sister as a result of his father having an affair with the Australian woman that would become Claire's mother. Aaron, Claire's son that Jack and Kate take care of together is now a constant reminder of his father's indiscretions. This is a contributing factor to the fallout that Jack and Kate suffer that eventually culminates in Jack being alone and spiraling into a deep depression.
Several of the Oceanic 6 members begin to receive visionary messages from the Survivors they left behind. These messages are generally delivered in delusional episodes from visitors (either on the island or deceased) and in the form of surreal dreams.
After some time has passed Locke travels from the island back to the rest of the world (under the name Jeremy Bentham) where he visits with many former Survivors. In his visit with Jack Locke informs him that terrible things happened on the island after they left and it's because they left. In order to rectify these problems they must somehow return to the island. Jack, now a shell of the man he once was, longs to be back on the island where he was a leader and his life had purpose.
Lost Season 4 Closing Scene
Jack later learns of Locke's reported suicide by hanging himself in his apartment. Jack attends Locke's viewing and is the only person present.
Jack's obsession with returning to the island mounts and after failing to to convince Kate of the necessity of their return Jack breaks down and visits Locke's funeral home again. Ben is coincidentally visiting Lock at the same time and Jack and Ben meet for the first time in years. Ben confirms Jack's notions that returning to the island is of the utmost importance. Ben actually has the knowledge as to how to return but it won't be easy. The season concludes with Ben informing Jack that in order to return to the island every member of the Oceanic 6 (plus Locke's body) must return together.
Closing Thoughts on Lost Season 4
Life off the island hasn't turned out to be as wonderful as any of the Survivors imagined.
The island has amazing properties that may or may not be able to be explained by science.
Time travel is introduced in a "believable" way and may hold the key to explaining many of the islands anomalies and unanswered questions.
There is a constant struggle between science and faith. Jack is traditionally the man of science and reason while Locke plays the role of faithful believer. These two ideologies play significant roles in the development of the story.
Lost Season 4 Characters
The seventeen main characters in alphabetical order (by first name) are:
There are thirty-five supplemental characters during season 4. There's no reason to elaborate on all of those characters for the season 4 summary this page describes.
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