‘Lost” fans were split between being hopelessly befuddled and pleasantly astounded by the long-awaited premiere of the ABC series’ final season.
Tuesday’s two-hour episode revealed a dual scenario in which the “Lost” characters are at war with each other on the island in 2007 — while simultaneously exploring a 2004 world in which Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 didn’t crash on that fateful trip from Sydney to Los Angeles.
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Over at ABC’s official “Lost” forum, “Odee79’s” immediate reaction was “I’m confused and LOST, I feel as if I’m going through final exams week. These writers are killing me.”
Seconding the emotion was “evilcow” who, on the lost.com forum, wrote that “my first impression is no, I didn’t like [the episode] much. It seemed like such a cop out, having two realities . . . it just turned into, yeah, this was the easiest thing [writers] could do.”
But, for every disgruntled fan there are an equal number of who were pleased, including lost.com member “refnu” who, based on the strength of the premiere, is “positive it will turn out great . . . I’m extremely excited about this season. This is building to be a great roller coaster ride.”
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Likewise, “JD” on blogprophet.wordpress.com wrote, “I thought it was an awesome start to the final season. Questions? Yes. But without them, it would be boring!” To all the naysayers, he added, “this is not a sitcom where everything is solved in 30 minutes.”
“Lost” expert Nikki Stafford, author of “Finding Lost, Season 5: The Unofficial Guide,” agrees, saying that fans should go along with the initial confusion — it’s all part of the series’ game plan.
“I loved last night’s episode,” she told The Post. “Going into the final season we knew, for the first time, that we were going to get as many answers as new questions.
“The writers have told the story in flashback and flashforwards, and now they [have] switched gears to present what the fans are calling the ‘flashsideways,’ or an alternate timeline where Flight 815 didn’t crash and instead landed safely at LAX.
“It’ll be interesting to see what story lines were always destined to happen,” Stafford says, “and which ones could be changed through different choices.”