Recap: LOST Finale

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To comment to myself, I"d say that with an evening to mull over the show; I feel more inclined to like the emotional satisfaction the finale offered than the intellectual (which perhaps, was something the fans created more so than the creators, but I don't really buy that).

After sitting with it over night and thinking about it, I liked the ending. I think we, as an audience, were expecting to be blown away, surprised, thrown for a loop, etc. But in reality, the writers were just bringing everything to a close. After knowing now that the whole time, we were seeing them alive, as well as their lives in purgatory, waiting, whatever you want to call it, it makes sense that it was more about the characters and not the island. I think we were putting so much emphasis on the island, the physics of time, etc that we were forgetting that the story itself was very character driven.

Did the writers divert a bit during the 6 seasons, of course. They could have told this story in probably 2 seasons versus 6 but what fun would that be?

Overall I'm pleased with the way it ended. I could totally tell they were careful not to adopt a particular religious view of death and heaven and everything in between. And what I believe as a Christian is only what I have read when it comes to this subject. In all reality, who knows what's going to happen. For all I know I could be dead now! :) All I do know is heaven will be awesome, amazing, and I'm not going to care about any of this.

Given a night to think it through (and a shower as well), here's my thought:

When Jack, Juliet & Co. set off the atom bomb at the end of S5, that caused a split in the timeline — or a new timeline to emerge. All season I (and others) were waiting for these timelines to merge, but they never did and I don't think the writers ever intended for them to. One thing we learned from last night was that we weren't shown/told everything in these "rememberings" everyone experienced. Case in point was Hurley's exchange with Ben at the end when he says, "You were a great number two." To me that implied that what they had seen was the alternate timeline - not just there memories from the island, but their whole life alternate lives where everyone had come together and found purpose within one another instead of by themselves (again, something that Cristian reiterates to Jack at the end).

Are they all dead in the end? I don't think so, but I really don't know what to think. The way I've resolved it in my head is that explosion from the end of S5 started a new timeline, one where the island really did sink but they kept it from sinking in the "main" timeline. Maybe this is an extension of the power of the island. Maybe what we're seeing with the S6 Flash Sideways were set in motion by Hurley & Ben after the story.

There was obviously a lot left on the table. A lot of subplots that were left unanswered. We never really got an answer about what the island is exactly, or how the temple, statute and ceremonial ring at the light source ever was put in place, or even why some people "moved on" in the end and others didn't. Why not Faraday and Charlotte? They both died on the island? Why did the writers abandoned Walt? What was Ben & Co.'s fascination with children? Why couldn't women conceive on the island?

Despite the unanswered questions, my feeling as a whole was I wasn't disappointed but I didn't love the ending. This is the problem with the medium of television though compared to reading. You can't explain things on TV like you can in books, and I think that hurt the LOST story a bit. Not because it gutted the main plot, but because it couldn't support the main plot and all its subplots to the end. The same thing happened with Peter Jackson's interpretation of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. A great series but it's a faint glimmer of Tolkien's books. Jackson communicates the main plot very well (the destruction of the ring), but various subplots get lost in the shuffle.

I feel the same way you guys do. Satisfied with the close; but not completely. The bland spirituality and view of heaven was very Hollywood, and completely obvious. And while I always knew the island was about "relationships", they didn't create the world around those relationships for nothing. I think they just started something they had no idea how to finish; other than to sort of scrap it and repackage it into something they tried to convince us was there all along. Much like most of modern art - the creator typically infuse a pseudo-intellectual meaning after the fact.

I honestly think for me that it all came together in the end. Maybe my mind filled in the blanks but I think it tied it together in a great character driven way.

I think everyone died at different times, but as they explained they all waited for one another before they moved on because their time on the island was their most defining moments in their lives. I think their flash forward err sideways in this last season was their "purgatory" or their nano second as Christian described and Jack was the last to realize he was dead. I think Hurley and Ben lived on to protect the island for many years after Jack's actual death and that was the reason for their conversation outside of the church.

I think they left it open for everyone's own interpretation of what happened and I think it's a beautiful way to end it. I feel bad for those people that were waiting for actual acted out answers for everything because for some of us, they answered all those questions through the stories and my own mind filled in the gaps.

I think trying to understand the island is a lost cause......it's a t.v. show after all. I think it made for a wonderfully complex story that kept everyone tuning in week after week trying to figure it out. I think the mystery is one of the greatest things of the whole experience.

Being stranded on an island - where weird strangers steal babies and other kids, a black smoke thing drags people into a hole, polar bears suddenly appear - their most defining moment; no kidding?

I don't think anyone expected everything answered, that's an over simplification. I think they expected cohesion; and what we had was 2 different shows. I think the writers didn't figure what they wanted to say till season 5.

I thought the finale was entertaining, but ultimately unsatisfying. When the credits finished I turned to my wife and said, "Huh?" (which I think I've said at the end of every season). She shrugged--she gave up on Lost a couple seasons ago.

I thought it was great to bring the characters back together at the end. That was pretty cool.

But what the heck did it mean? So everybody's dead? Then what was real? What was all the drama of finally getting the plane off the island and saving a handful of folks if they were all dead and it didn't matter? Or are we supposed to assume that those folks went off and lived their lives and died and then they go to show up in purgatory/church land?

And what was with the scenes of the crashed plane on the beech over the credits? The obvious answer seems to be that everybody died in the crash and the past six seasons have been some kind of purgatory (lame!).

I didn't really expect to have all my questions answered (they've made it pretty clear they weren't going to do that), but I hoped for something that made a little more sense. I think I'm also with you, Paul. The story they were telling at the beginning had very little resemblance to the story they were telling at the end (or at the very least, the part of the story I enjoyed the most was there at the beginning and not at the end). That's kind of frustrating.

I'm eager to chew on it some more and I don't consider all my time spent watching this show to be a waste (that seems silly to me--if you enjoyed the ride along the way, a bad ending doesn't spoil that enjoyment).

Plot-wise, last night's episode didn't attempt to explain the mysteries that had been revealed in the earlier seasons, only to conclude season six (the sideways world and the island mythos) while bringing the character arcs to a close. The things that were introduced this season make sense now ... and they inform some of the things that happened before (without necessarily needing to explain them).

But in reality, it's not about plot. LOST was and remains a story about lost people ... people with something missing, unable to move on or find resolution. Some of these people never found it (or were never found themselves) ... but those who did eventually did so through (and together with) the significant relationships in their lives.

Accurate? Perhaps.
Beautiful? Absolutely.

Overall, I'm glad I watched the series; it really altered what (network) television could do - a serialized show, that was complex (albeit, without a clue) and could draw an audience without pandering to a networks desire for "one offs".

Although I can understand the deep beauty of relational resolution that the finale presented- I was left feeling remarkably unsatisfied. I understand that LOST is about character tranformation (surely that's why I've watched it for 6 years, as I don't favor Sci-Fi). What I don't understand is why the series was unnecessarily stymied with so many crazy ass island secrets.

Sure- there's no rule saying that the creators of a show have any obligation to tie up loose ends in a finale. They don't have to tell how or why. But when that finale ends in everyone's best guess for what was happening all along - without going into any details that have inundated the prior seasons - that's odd. I understand the poetic beauty of the journey that we experienced. The finale did great job of ending that journey. But why weave such a great story through a fruitless foray into time travel and alternate realities?

Personally - I was derailed by Dharma and time travel, the others... etc. The list goes on. In some cases, I understand the metaphorical importance of the mysteries. In most cases, I didn't understand what was happening then, and I still don't understand. This detracts from the story for me. I don't feel alone here - mostly because when a trusted show like LOST spends years probing certain issues, you make an investment in them, as you logically expect them to have some level of importance in understanding the story.

At the end...I had two thoughts. The first was "what?." The second was "this would make a great second to last episode".

Maybe that's why it's a great show.

as for the creators/writors ignoring michael and walt, michael was already shown to be in purgatory on the island a few episodes ago. he's one of the whispers in the jungle. walt didn't die on the island, he got off so he would not have been there in the end. the only one to actually not be wrapped up is mr. echo. even anna lucia was there as the prison transport driver.

i LOVED the episode. i thought the spark of remembrance and instant connection and realising that you have always loved someone was really powerful and moving.

but, my enjoyment for the episode ended when jack and his dad started talking. it suddenly became this cliche of things we have all seen thousands of times. for a series so original and creative to take the easy, unimaginative route out and just say "oh, it's purgatory" and have them all carried away by a white light was totally lame. i knew things wouldn't be answered, but i didn't think the cop-out finale would actually make the entire series irrelevant. basically nothing over the last 6 years mattered. Widmore's struggle to get back to the island and his war with Ben didn't matter. the survivor's battle against the others didn't matter. Jacob vs johnny cash (the man in black) didn't matter. all the awesome scientific electromagnetism and time travel stuff didn't matter. the mythology didn't matter. Dharma didn't matter. because non of it was real. they made it all up. because they all died in the first episode. or at best they all died at the end of season 5.

in the end, i was not satisfied at all. it was nice to see the redemption and the characters get all feel goody. but, for me, the overarching through line of the show was completely ignored and made irrelevant.

I believe Lost has a couple layers. The first is for mass consumption. It's the story that's being presented and everyone is intended to understand. In that story the writers and producers actually mean what they say. So when Christian Shepard says what happened on the island was real and that different people died at different times, some a short time and some a long time after, we have to take it at face value. The only storyline that the purgatory idea negates is the flash sideways. Which is still lame but at least it means that the past 6 seasons on the island really took place. The events on the island were real. Since they state that there is no frame of time in the purgatory world everyone is free to arrive when they die and still interact with everyone else. Kind of a cop-out but at least they explained it.

The second layer is of Lost is for the more hardcore fans. It's really just extra. Why does the statue have 4 toes? What books are on the shelves in the hatch? Where do these theories of time travel originate from? It's cool the show is that deep but it's not really necessary to understand the main plot. So using those easter eggs and other hidden devices to try and come up with alternate conclusions about what really happened is fun but it doesn't change the fact we are being presented with a story of the writers own design. Often the simple answers are the right ones in the show.

So my take is that the purgatory reveal was lame but most of the rest of the episode was still pretty good. What happened on the island was real. I didn't love it all but I'm glad I watched the series all the way through. I'm sad to see it end but if anything this season has shown that it was time for it to run it's coarse. I was pretty turned off by the glowing hole but I was starting to buy into it by the end. There are a lot of things I wish happened that didn't but it has still been a great ride.

wow, I'm pretty turned off by the phrase "glowing hole."

Click my name to go to a lovely, snarky review of last night's finale. I mostly agree (that the show was propelled by the events surrounding the characters, and the characters developed around their response to those events).


The purgatory doesn't make sense to me in that why are people that aren't dead there? The only way Jack would see people who aren't dead (like Claire or Sawyer or Kate) would be if ALL of it was in his head, or it wasn't at all the time period of around his death (but another time, or no time, at all).

#Ben - so what you're saying is that the writers were essentially saying "Your mom is a glowing light hole"

Some how I knew all anyone would read in my comment was the words "glowing hole". But of coarse I wouldn't let that stop me from typing it.

The actor who played Mr Echo left the show and left the Lost creators out of the loop. I read some years ago that the producers had more for Mr. Echo, but he wanted to be done with the show, so they had to kill him off.

I think the Island was real. The characters weren't dead. The Island was a place where Jacob brought "lost" people to try to "let go." The beauty of it is wrapped up in the Man in Black's character. He was the force of the island who could not let go. He could not let go his past, his mother, his brother, his responsibility and it played out wonderfully. It was great that he embodied Locke, the character who let go right away. I think the Island does matter. It's the place that defined these people and gave them answers on how to let go.

"Dead is dead" is real. They were alive on the Island. The sideways/alternate timeline was the not real world. Jack never had a son. It was a purgatory, a holding pattern for the characters to be awaken by each other to move on to nirvana, heaven, love place, etc. I don't think there is any time in the sideways world. This is evident in that the sideway world includes people who had died at different times (Charlotte, Juliet, Boone, Shannon) and those that went on to live past Jack like Ben and Hurley who probably lived on the island for a long time after and past it on to someone else.

The last scene was an arbitrary time where all of them are ready to go on to nirvana.

Honestly, I thought the Christian speech was too heavy handed and spelled too much of this out. I thought the show could have been more effective to let us figure this out instead of Christian telling us as much, but I think more people would be confused and pissed off.

I like the story line and totally disagree with you, Paul that it felt different than past seasons. I think the producers knew exactly what they were doing and of course real things like Walt growing up to look like he's 40 and Mr Echo not wanting to continue or the writer's strike, some plot holes, some bad acting and the like were there, but i thought the overall arch was strong. The Island was a great MacGuffin to explore theology, mythology, human nature and all the other fun things science fiction does.

Maybe this is cheesy, but I like this idea that we all have defining moments in our lives and they are the ones we share with others and our God and that all the rest is purgatory leading us to be awaken together.

Christians believe that we are put on this island called Earth to connect with God with each other in a perfect kingdom without sin and that a schism happens and that kingdom that was supposed to happen is laid dormant and that when we connect with Jesus we get a glimpse of what that kingdom is supposed to look like and we are supposed to help wake everyone up and share that connection with as many people as we can. And one day in some other reality we are all going to be together living in this heaven on earth. God keeps trying different ways to wake us up, so that we remember that our car payments don't really matter. He set apart Israel to be the light of the world to wake us up. He sent his son down to wake us up. He sent his holy spirit. He awakens many of us to help each other wake up. When we are awaken we are reborn and it doesn't really matter if we are alive or dead.

I think it sucks! It seems like the writers do not know how to end the story they have been trying to tell for 6 years...Maybe they have forgotten how the story started because it's been too long. Very disappointing!..One big family at the end...Yawn!!!

The Jack vs. Locke fight scene was a long time coming...

I feel pretty satisfied with how it ended. In the end, Jack, the man of science, became the man of faith and sacrificed himself to save the others and the island. I think that was pretty consistent with what the series was about.

Sure, in the end a lot of the "answers" were still pretty vague...(there's a light that gives sepecial powers to its protector...and it spews a bunch of electro-magnetism...) and they left a lot open to interpretation. Perhaps that can be seen as a cop-out, but it's still giving everybody something to think and talk about, which was something this show excelled at. Boy am I gonna miss that.

#Jim - I agree with your overall assessment; they opened to the door a great dialog of faith and science, in a way that only science fiction truly seems able to explore without being pandering or preachy (though even they failed in the end). I'm not sure the formula of answers to questions are needed to be resolved to equal a good mix of mystery and finality (and I believe the writers intent was to put to rest these characters in an eternal state of reward/happiness for what they endured). It's a shame for many of us who have followed the series from the beginning to feel somehow duped -- which is the danger with any long series that is based on a continual storyline -- that they plot evolved (and like I said, the about-face left some of us by the wayside).

Also, click my name (down there to the bottom right) and watch this clip from 2005. Clearly the writers and JJ didn't see eye to eye - as the finale pseudo eludes to (and technically, the island _isn't_ purgatory, but the element that some of the show was is semantics).

And just so it doesn't seem like I'm bitching about how many things were unresolved, there's a nice list of things that mostly go unexplained (a vast majority of them I'm fine with -- but it's an AMAZINGLY huge list). CLICK MY NAME to see it.

On first viewing, I agree with your post entirely, but I've since re-watched and read a lot (a LOT) of stuff online.

And now? Now, I feel much happier with the ending. One of the articles I've read over the past few days is the one from one of the Bad Robot writers (click my name).

I like that summation Ronnie, thanks for posting it. I can see how that all fits together (though, there are still some weird inconsistencies, but nothing drastic). I guess it is like Battlestar, for me, in that it will take me time to process what was done, in light of retrospect. I'm softening more and more toward the finale.

Loved the snarky link, bro. :-) As I've been thinking the whole time, it's a neat show but doesn't really know what it's doing with any real focus. I'm guessing BSG was planned out from the start (even if some details may have changed). I think of it as much of 70s progressive rock lyrics - fun to look at, dramatic, mysterious, but doesn't really make any sense if you look to close. I quit paying close attention after the first season ended and didn't care until this last one because they were forced to have a direction.

I did like the finale mostly for emotional closure. Only thing that annoyed me was Sayid's true love (what about Nadia???), but that's because I never liked what's-her-name. I still feel like the alternate reality was limbo because I thought Christian Shepherd's speech about he & Jack being there but being dead and everyone has to go sometime" told us this was in the future once they're all dead. Once they find a purpose (love?) they get to move on. It actually reminded me a lot of Haibane Renmei, a beautiful and neat anime with themes similar to the finale.

I'm feeling the need to rewatch BSG now....