DAY 13
Send a letter to a Mass Murderer.
For this task I chose Richard Ramirez aka The Night Stalker. 13 victims, currently on Death Row in San Quentin Penitentiary in California… he also has amazing bone structure.
Dear Richard Ramirez,
This has been a subject that I haven’t touched on in my blog. I told myself I wouldn’t be THAT guy and write about this. Everyone was doing it and everyone was doing it the exact same way. Big deal, who cares. But I feel it is as good of a time as any to tackle this because at least you’ll be willing to listen as I doubt there’s actually much else for you to do. And you won’t argue back either which makes me “right” by default.
Fact of the matter is, I’m not sure I actually liked the Lost finale.
As an episode it was solid. The Jack and Locke battle on the edge of cliff was, as the kiddies like to say, pretty fucking epic. As Jack foolishly dove toward the knife-wielding Locke, I felt a sudden rush of adrenaline that carried me through that inconvenient commercial break. Even the opening of the finale was fantastic as it set the general tone. When the show ended, I felt satisfied.
But then a few days passed and I realized I actually kind of wasn’t.
I’m not gonna go into what was answered and what was not. Do a quick Google search and you’ll find people who will bombard you with some list. Why did this happen, why did this person say that, what was that thing from Season 3 that I saw etc etc. For the most part these lists are fairly accurate and that’s what bugs me.
You see, vague endings are fine. Christopher Nolan…
My hero
My god
The one man I’d go gay for
has blessed us with such endings in the past. Throughout his films, things happen that can’t quite be explained. But the beauty of it is, he’ll leave plenty of clues and imply a lot of things that can help the viewer along and answer some questions. Eternal Sunshine…
the greatest movie of all time
also did this very well. Almost to the point where it’s a little scary. But the Lost writers didn’t quite accomplish this and I’d go as far as to say they didn’t even try. When you leave an ending that vague you have to leave clues for your viewer throughout. It’s almost required. I want to be able to do a massive rewatch and suddenly “get” everything. But I know for a fact I won’t be able to. Even if I went back to specifically find some answers, I’ll only be more confused:
“We’re gonna use the wheel to channel the light… and the waterrrrrrrrrr THE FUCKING ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!?!?!?
Now I don’t mind a good mystery. You murdered 13 (or so) people apparently. You created a mystery for the people who chose to pursue you. You kept the authorities guessing. You frustrated them. Lost was very good at this. But in Lost, there was no orange Toyota (…why would you steal an ORANGE Toyota?). There was no “A-ha” moment. Only “A…ha? I guess? I don’t know…”
We all watched this show under the impression that eventually things would be explained, but goddammit Rich they never were. In the end, you and I are supposed to believe that this show was completely about the characters but I don’t buy it. This show was constantly about the island and it’s mysteries. So much in fact that in many scenes, I often felt the characters were acting against themselves in order to protect these mysteries. I can’t count how many times I said to myself “shouldn’t he be asking him about [insert obvious question here] instead of having this mundane conversation about this one thing that barely matters?”. And lest we forget:
“Hey Jacob where’s your BROTHER? Have you seen your BROTHER… Jacob? (I’m not gonna say his name like any normal person would because the writers won’t let me)”
It was tiring. Even more tiring were the conversations where two lead characters would sit down for what you assumed would be a revealing conversation. They would sit across from each other, there would be long pauses, dramatic camera angles and maybe even a commercial break in between. Then in the end, you would be nodding slowly, squinting your eyes trying to take in what was said and all of a sudden you’d be hit with the realization that THEY DIDN’T SAY JACK SHIT!!@!
Through it all Rich I do still love lost. I think seasons 1-4 were completely brilliant and even 5 had some great moments but I still can’t give it a pass. In the end, I’m confident this letter helped you understand better just what it means to take a life. As you sit in jail awaiting your demise, I can only hope that you don’t perish cursing your country for doing what had to be done. Because when all is said and done, who are we to say which way the wind should blow?
