July 29, 2009
(continued) The lights dimmed and the famed image of the Lost horizon came up on the projector screen. Slowly all the Season 6 Lost characters faded onto the screen leaving a hole in the middle for a rear facing… John Locke! Woo hoo! Pure awesome. The lights came up and Damon and Carlton strode onto stage like the rock stars they are. They told us that since this is the last year for Lost at Comic Con that they wanted the day to be about fan appreciation. That’s something that’s always been so cool about being apart of the Lost fan base. The guys really care about the fans and go over and above expectations to give us as much cool content as they possibly can. Everything from video games to Oceanic airlines websites to a multitude of mobisodes with extra content for those viewers who will search for it. It’s always special and it’s always spectacular.
Damon also mentioned that they noticed the line forming for the Lost panel the night before and that both he and Carlton went out to visit the folks who were dedicated enough to be there so early. Damon said that as a fan who had camped out himself, it was surreal to see that kind of excitement surrounding his own show. These guys are amazingly real and normal. And did I mention brilliant? It’s funny when you get to the place where you’re more obsessed with the writers of a show than the stars (the one exception being Michael Emerson. We’ll come back to him later)
I’ll spare you all the nitty gritty details of what happened in the next hour because well, if you really want to know you can watch it online here. What I want to capture though is the essence of what took place in the next hour. Something very electrifying, but yet communal took place in that room. As the videos of seemingly innocuous but assuredly seminal content rolled by on the screens, I was in a state of awe of how something so large could be devoid of all sensationalism. It wasn’t big for the sake of being big, it was big because of the quiet undercurrents that have been forming what I can only imagine is a tidal wave of meaning so compelling, but yet so simple, and that will come to full fruition in May of 2010. Because the room was so large there was a camera dedicated to the 100 yard line of questioners waiting to ask Darlton about the mysteries of the universe. When Jorge Garcia came up to the microphone to ask a question, the pandemonium of the crowed was overwhelming. Damon told Jorge that he didn’t have to attend Comic Con like everyone else, that he could have called him and Carlton to get him in, to which Jorge replied, “I did. You didn’t call me back”. Oh Darlton, so, so funny. The highlight within the highlight of my day came in the next few minutes when a non-descript voice came bellowing from above, “Oh for crying out loud, Jorge. What happened to one question per person??!” My great expectations were realized when out of the dark and into frame next to Jorge Garcia came my hero, Michael Emerson a.k.a. Benjamin Linus, one of the greatest characters on television, ever (not to be dramatic or anything). The room erupted once again with applause and screams and Jorge and Michael began a nice little contentious scene that included Jorge accusing Michael of originally wanting the part of Hurley. Cut to audition tape of Michael Emerson auditioning for the role of Hurley. It was gold, pure gold. Love that man.
The rest of the hour consisted of fan-made videos (the Brokeback Island video of Sawyer & Jack being the best), the winner of the Lost theme song contest, and surprise appearances by Josh Holloway and Nestor Carbonell. As the hour wound to a close, a partially tongue and cheek memorial tribute set to the song “How do I Say Goodbye to Yesterday” by Boyz to Men played as a montage of those we lost on Lost played on the screen. The memorial started with a tribute to Gary Troupe. You may remember him as the man who was sucked into the jet engine in the pilot episode. The video ended with a longer and more meaningful tribute to the beloved Charlie Pace played by Dominic Monaghan. It was tear jerking to say the least and to top off this already amazing event was the live and in the flesh Dominic Monaghan making an appearance for the final seconds of what was truly a landmark event. There will never be another show like Lost. There will be other shows, but no show will ever hit the mark as closely or as consistently as this great masterpiece.
So I’m thankful that I was able to be apart of this tremendous event. More tomorrow on other great Comic Con moments.
