It’s been a few days, and I think I’m finally ready to write about the series finale of LOST. Remember, I only saw LOST for the first time a few months ago – and then I devoured the show whole.
It’s been quite an interesting experience; on the one hand, I didn’t have the years invested that others did. On the other hand, I was able to quickly view the series as a whole, without dwelling too much or creating my own theories. I wasn’t distracted by the mundane current events like the Writer’s Strike that might have shaped my perception of the writing. And now, in less than six months, I’ve seen a show that spanned six years in its entirety.
Oh, the finale. I was excited all day on Sunday, and even watched that extended clip show beforehand (and I can’t stand clip shows). Unlike many people, I didn’t cry once when I watched the finale; I might have been choked up a few times, but I think I spent all my tears for this show in the episode that featured Sun and Jin.
The episode made perfect sense to me – that is, until that very last shot during the credits, but I’ve since decided I was struggling to place too much meaning in it. I’m not going to waste time explaining the end; there are countless sites across the Internet that will do that for you (or even Jimmy Kimmel). Thus, with the assumption that you’ve already seen it, let’s discuss the finale, as well as the conclusion of the series as a whole.
I’ve never disliked the episode, but for a few days I wasn’t sure if I liked it, either. Immediately after watching it I felt that the episode summed up the final season, but it didn’t quite feel like it had provided closure to the entire show.
Upon reflection, however, I couldn’t really think of Big Questions that weren’t addressed in some form or another. Oh sure, I could think of little questions – Who made the four-toe statue and why? Why was Walt “special”? What was the deal with Ben’s little friend Annie? – but they could either be inferred or they weren’t really central to the plot.
I think what frustrates some people is that questions about the Island were, indeed, answered, but only so much as it directly affected our little group of castaways. We know about the most recent batch of Island protectors; we do not, however, know what happened In The Beginning. In a show that posed some epic questions about heady topics, the answers were not truly the answers to Life, the Universe and Everything. Maybe the sort of people who really wanted those epic answers are those who want them equally as badly in their own lives. Or maybe they just want a Silmarillion of the Island.
I find it sort of disconcerting and fascinating at the same time, how some of the answers were so much less epic and so much more… human. Take the MIB, for example. That first shot we see of him, sitting on the sand with Jacob and telling him he hates him? So bad ass. It truly seemed like the Island was at the center of the eternal struggle between good and evil.
In reality, however, it was more a microcosm of that struggle. For all the black and white, good and bad metaphors, the MIB and Jacob were truly just two men passing the time instead of God and the Devil. Mixing things up even more, the MIB wasn’t all that bad as a human; capable of guile, but really his flaw was that he wanted to think in larger terms. Jacob, on the other hand – simple, good Jacob – doomed his brother to a fate worse than death.
The Island was something beyond the petty struggles of the MIB and Jacob. It was the cork – maybe holding back evil, maybe just holding back chaos – but the only struggle on the Island was the one Jacob created. It’s implied that Hurley – a less stunted, more complete, empathetic individual – ushered in a better era. And there’s no telling what Jacob’s Fake Mother was like as Island Protector, but I imagine her reign was less eventful as well.
Now to the Sideways world/Purgatory issue. I’m okay with this, on the whole; I don’t feel like it’s a cop-out. I think having the entire series as Purgatory would be a copout. I do wish the last meetup scene had been somewhere other than a church; I get that it was connected to Jack and his central daddy issue, but literally having the waiting room of the beyond be a church felt a bit heavy-handed. Even Narnia, as it clobbered you over the head with metaphors, was not in a church.
I’m generally okay with the feel-good mushiness of the reunions, as well. After all, with all the horrible situations we’ve seen these people in, it’s refreshing to see a show finally throw its poor people a bone. Sayid and Shannon, however… ugh. We’ll leave it at that. Supposedly that scene was taken exactly as it was written in the first season – maybe a little tweaking could have been done, guys?
Would it be nice if they had all gotten to live full lives? That Sun and Jin had raised their child and Charlie hadn’t drowned? Maybe – but this is acceptable to me. If you accept the Island as real, you have to accept the events as real as well. And the knowledge that they were able to be together in some form, before they moved on to Heaven or reincarnated or something else, is probably the next best thing.
Do I still think the show is worthy? Absolutely – it remains one of the most consistently written shows I have ever seen, even with its imperfections. The dialogue remains some of the most sensible and believable I’ve ever heard (LOVED the moment when Jacob said, “I don’t know where to begin” and Hurley, well, told him what we were all thinking). And I’m okay with mixing my sf with the metaphysical – this show has done it from the very first episode.
The answers might not have been the ones we were expecting – but they were answers, nonetheless. And a full, complete story over the course of six years, on a network TV show, does not come around often. Whether or not we agree with every aspect of the show’s conclusion, I think most can agree that we’ve witnessed a phenomenon, one worthy of respect.
About j
I thought the finale was fun, but not all that good. I wanted answers, but I blame ABC for that. If you’d watched it season by season, with the announcer in the previews constantly assuring us that “All will be revealed” or “All your questions will be answered” and then there were no answers… it irked me.
Another thing that irked me was that I felt manipulated. We started seeing the purgatory-bubble right after the bomb went off, so it was obvious to assume that the two events were connected. To come to find out that they weren’t just felt… cheap to me.
I honestly enjoyed the hell out of Lost in the early years. For me, it wasn’t as much fun once people started getting off the island.
I wish i could have enjoyed the finale as others (heh) have. But, in all honesty, I cannot.
It boils down to this, this show was not only about characters and relationships. It had a major plot and mystery that needed a better resolution than “because I said so”.
Telling me that the island has an immortal guardian because the last immortal guardian gave him the job, is not an answer. Taking the pain and suffering that they all went through simply so that they could BFF in Hebben is not satisfactory. And throwing out names of a bunch of philosophers, shouting the word “faith” and “belief” are not deep philosophical themes.
No, I am disappointed by the finale and by the sixth season overall.
I agree wholeheartedly with your post, J. I think just as the show made a point to state that there really IS nothing that’s black and white, everything’s a shade of grey, it also said that there are some questions we’ll never know the answers to. While I understand the rage some are feeling about the latter point, it’s one that I’m ok with and appreciate.
That, and Lapidus came back!!! Wooo!!!
My experience watching Lost is very similar to J’s… it was
just a few months ago that I started watching, and I crammed in
6 seasons into a very short time. I’m glad I hadn’t invested
six years of my life into this show. Don’t get me wrong, all
in all I love Lost but I felt the final season was pretty bad
with the exception of “Ab Aeterno”, which was actually one of
my favorite episodes.
As to the finale… blech. I didn’t much care for it. I admit
to getting a little teary at the reunion of Sawyer and
Juliette, and I absolutely loved the final scene of Jack
closing his eyes. But the whole purgatory/limbo mess disgusted
me. I generally don’t like the insertion of spirituality into
any sci-fi show. Not that I’m against spirituality in any way,
but as a plot device I consider it a major cop-out. “We can’t
think of any way to bring things to a close.” “I know! Let’s
say that it’s all philosophical! That should cover everything
nicely!”. Major cop-out. BSG, I’m looking at you too. Well,
staring daggers, actually.
As you can probably guess, I’m one of those that wanted answers. I wanted an ending that would have seamlessly melded events on the island with those of the alternate flash-sideways timeline in a supremely clever ending that would leave me sitting stunned and slack-jawed, unable to do anything more than utter a Neo-like “whoa”.
Instead, what I got was an ending to the entire SERIES that I felt was anemic compared to any one of the previous SEASON finales.
I think that in the equation of “Man of science, Man of faith”, The man of science got royally screwed over by how the series ended.
I agree with the article wholly. Here it is plainly, if by “What they Died for” you hadn’t felt enough questions were answered other then the final struggle between good and evil, then Lost was completely wasted on you. The finale be it cheesey and yes could have used a bit more zest, specially the actual battle between Jack and Flocke, was decisive, conclusive and more then anything a true representation of the ongoing struggle of dark and light in the Lost mythology. If by season 4 you felt that all the answers concerning what the island is, was, or might be were going to be answered then you should have stopped watching then! The show was called “Lost” not “The Island”. I do agree the whole church, opening the door to a bright light was to much. The flash sideways should have been more interwoven to the events on the island, this was what made Desmond’s character so intriguing through all of season 6, and if anything I feel the man of Science came along way and Desmond got screwed. The jaw dropper would have been that somehow those two story lines came together in a heated battle between Jack and Flocke. I understood why MIB couldn’t leave and why he needed the Candidates to die for that to happen. I understood that for our characters the events on the island were real not some dream state invoked at the moment of death. I understood that yes there were survivors of oceanic flight 815 and no they didn’t all die in the crash. The concepts were given to us all… What happened, happened… Live together or die alone… and Dead is Dead.
This was the over all theme… and I think the writers took us on a brilliant ride through so many stories of different characters to truly invoke these ideas.
Overall, I liked the ending, but I think it had its flaws. Like many people, I expected that the two realities were going to converge somehow, so I was surprised to learn what it really was. It might have been more exciting if it had been, but I like what they did for two reasons:
1. They didn’t do what people expected. Throughout the series they’ve had a habbit of making things not what they seem at first and turning the viewer’s perspective on its head when the truth is revealed. They wanted us to think that the alternate reality was created by the blast, just like they wanted us to think that the flash-forwards were flashbacks in season 4. It didn’t feel like a cop-out, they planned it that way from the very beginning. I think it was those kinds of “head fakes” that made the show interesting.
2. I thought it was very respectful of the characters, which was a big part of what Lost was about. Before they “remembered” their past lives, it showed each character living a life that was a reflection of who those characters were, as if they’d constructed their own reality without consciously realizing it. Some things were the same as their past lives, but some things were different, and I think both of those told us things about what made those characters tick. Desmonde got the approval of Penny’s father that he’d always wanted, Hurley was lucky, Kate is still running, and so on.
My only disappoinment in the finale is the resolution of the plot. It basically boiled down to a not particularly memorable hand-to-hand fight between Jack and Locke that is ended with a single gun shot. For a struggle that we’ve been watching for six years, it seemed very anti-climactic.
From what I gather, the whole basis of the show boiled down to that classic geek cop-out: ‘A Wizard Did It’.
I loved Lost, and watched it almost 3 times through.
Kudos to the well-developed characters and the ongoing sense of drama and mystery, and great writing.
Now, my complaints with the finale:
1.) There has been an ongoing theme of dichotomy, especially faith vs reason. I think it would have been better had they simply left out the “ultimate answers” Christian gives – leave it open to interpretation, are they all in heaven? Are they all in a scientifically-created parallel timeline? Its up to you. But instead they hammered us with faith.
2.)The fact they all are in purgatory is dissatisfying from the perspective of the season and its plot arcs and characters. Essentially everything that happened in the flash-sideways universe doesn’t count. Jack’s son? Doesn’t exist. Sun and Jin? They WON’T be having a girl – they died when she was 3. Nadia and Sayid’s relationship, blocked by his brother? Nope. Another thing that irritated me a bit, if this is pre-heaven, and as Christian says, time is irrelevant in eternity, shouldn’t Jin and Sun’s daughter be there? Helen?
Overall, I was satisfied with the finale – I didn’t feel all questions should be answered in a curt, easily understood manner – life isn’t like that, and some of the themes need YOU to make up your own mind. If they would have just taken out the church scene, left things a little more vague, it would have been more satisfying for me.
Overall though, 6 seasons that were phenomenal TV.