As it begins, so it must end. After six strong seasons, one of television’s most profound and baffling dramas has come to a close. Lost – what was it about? What do we know? And did it really matter? Let’s discuss.
First I’ll say the usual blah-blah SPOILER ALERT, because I’m about to talk about last night’s finale. And if you still haven’t seen it and you’re reading the internet, what are you thinking?
All photos below courtesy ABC.com
Gut reaction – I really liked the ending. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but then again I wasn’t sure what to expect. Maybe I thought it was going to be focused on free will and the Losties would end up deciding whether to live in one world or another. But of course what we learned was that this new world wasn’t so much a world at all. It was what I’d call a collective unconscious meeting place. And what a great place – hey, Juliet! Missed you! Oh look, it’s Shannon! Ah…the joy of reunion. Because really that’s what the finale came down to – a way to reunite the characters we have loved and lost over the years in a place of peace. As they said goodbye to each other, we were also able to say goodbye with a smile and a tear. What we needed was closure with our friends, and that’s what we got.
Now, let me tackle some of those burning questions and choice moments from last night’s marathon episode.
So the sideways world isn’t real?
I’d say this is one area left up to interpretation and will be debated for years to come. On the one hand you might say that it wasn’t, as the description from Christian Shephard implied that Jack had created it in his mind. But it wouldn’t make sense that it just sprung from Jack’s mind – take Ben, for instance. Jack’s mind would have no idea or perception about Ben’s storyline involving Alex and a certain woman with a French accent. That’s why I favor this idea that it’s a place of shared experience, and some will be there for some time “working things out” while others will move on when they are ready. I’m still a little unclear as to why Eloise didn’t want Desmond to “take Daniel away,” however.
And the mystery of the island is what exactly?
Clearly the metaphor of the island is mythical. I think of it as Pandora’s box in reverse. In the classic Greek myth, Pandora opens the box and releases all manner of evils into the world – envy, anger, pride, etc. But she closes the lid just before hope escapes. On our island, I think those evils are contained (corked, if you will) and what’s holding them in place is a powerful wellspring of faith and positive energy. By replacing the stone, Jack ensured that evil wouldn’t spill out and extinguish the good.
Which leaves Hurley as the new Cork Protector.
Yes – clearly Jack wasn’t meant to truly replace Jacob. He did what he always needed to do – fix things. His whole life was this constant attempt to perform a heroic act that would be selfless, but somehow it never worked out just right. Finally he was able to do that, and let go. Which leaves Hurley as the true man of faith and protector of the island. Which is what I’d been hoping for last week, anyway. Now he gets to star in his own island sitcom with Ben, in which they get into wacky adventures, occasionally encountering Rose, Bernard and Vincent!
So why was Desmond in the church, but Michael wasn’t?
Christian made it clear that these were the people that had a powerful effect on Jack’s experience at this point in his life, which explains why some non-Oceanic 815 people came to the party – Juliet, Desmond, Penny. But I think this place in space/time/mind might have its own set of rules. And I’m guessing murdering someone in cold blood for personal gain doesn’t go over very well. Sorry, Michael. Looks like an eternity of the whispers for you.
Any other thoughts?
I have to give props to Evangeline Lilly for this episode – I’ve found Kate such a difficult character to get behind for so long. But in the finale she was amazing – I just loved her. Easily her best performance since the pilot. I also loved all the reunion moments and flashbacks, which reminded us how far we’ve come – like bringing Boone back – hello! Sun and Jin made me cry for the umpteenth time. The grins on their faces when they walked out of the hospital room looking at Sawyer – priceless! It was all just well-executed – often you saw what was coming and didn’t care. Then again, I predicted Eko would somehow officiate a service in the church, but I guess that would have been one step too far! Ooh – and I loved that the stained glass window in the church showed many denominations to make it clear this wasn’t a church of a single faith – it’s just a place of spirituality. Nice touch.
And before I leave you, let me offer some parting thoughts on the six seasons of one of my favorite shows. I’m going to borrow from my pal Mr. Robleto (a.k.a. BabyDaddy) and answer his fun questions.
- Most heartfelt moment: Well you know I’m a sucker for my girl Sun. And her scene at Jin’s grave in “Ji Yeon” just about killed me. Runner-up – Rose being reunited with Bernard in season 2. That’s faith!
- Best turnaround: Benjamin Linus, who turned from evil to good so often he’d give Dr. Jekyll a run for his money.
- Most shocking twist: I still remember shouting out loud near the end of season 1 when Locke pounded on the hatch, and the light came on. Whoa!
- Most confusing Islander: I’m going to have to go with Walt. Due to his premature exit from the show we never really closed the loop on what it was he could (or couldn’t) do, and why the Others wanted to capture him.
- Most frustrating writing slip-up: Introducing Nikki and Paulo at all. And giving them a full episode to star in. Boo! Heck, I’d take another Ana Lucia episode over “Exposé.”
- Best of a bad situation: Sex in the bear cage. Pretty much the only redeeming quality of that time on Hydra Island.
- Worst of a bad situation: Fish biscuits.
- Worst episode to date: “Stranger in a Strange Land” in which we learn that the origin of Jack’s tattoos is boring, and Bai Ling is a terrible actress. I give this a slight edge over “Exposé” which at least featured a cool scene of Sun slapping Sawyer.
- Best episode to date: Not a cop-out – it’s the pilot episode. It was a cinematic tumult of characters and action that left me reeling and hungry for more. And I came back every week for 6 seasons!
That’s it for now, folks. Please feel free to add your questions and comments below. I could talk about this for days, seriously.
Eloise killed her son. She wants time to make it right with him.
My take on some of the questions:
* Most heartfelt moment: At the end of the finale, when Jack turns the protectorship over to Hurley. Followed by Sawyer losing Juliet.
* Best turnaround: I’m going to with Locke/Non-Locke on this one.
* Most confusing Islander: Although not an Islander for most of the series, I’m going with Widmore. I still don’t know what he did to get exiled and I’m not sure what his motivation was at the end; kill MIB or use the island to his advantage?
* Most frustrating writing slip-up: Dharma food drops. They just stopped. As far as we know anyway.
* Best of a bad situation: Charlie and “not Penny’s boat.”
* Worst episode to date: Agreed, “Stranger in a strange land.”
* Best episode to date: Season 2 opening. In the hatch. Followed by Season 3 opening, in Dharmaville. Great music and a great way to pull you in. What? We are in the hatch? What! WHOA! Holy crap!!! OMG it’s the plane. Holy crap! WOW!
I was wondering why Michael and Walt weren’t at the church, but I like your explanation. I like Scott’s explanation of why Eloise didn’t want Daniel taken yet – I’d forgotten about all that.
I noticed the non/all-denominational figures in the window and statues at the church, but Josh had a simple explanation I hadn’t thought of… a lot of places where funerals tajke place have things of different religions represented because all sorts of different funeral arrangements must be made. Then again, one of his clients is a cemetary/funeral home, so he would know.
I agree that Kate, finally, did a good job in the finale. I’m still piecing a few things together though – why did the Others kidnap children and why couldn’t women get pregnant (well, maybe that one is just the electromagnatism of the island…). Why were Sun and Jin not married in the flash sideways a couple of weeks ago? Why did Locke tell Jack that his son didn’t exist in the finale? I can’t remember, was Richard at the church at the end? Why not? Because he didn’t have an effect on Jack? Same with Lupidis and the Asian scientist dude? Why didn’t “Christian Shepherd” as a name ever strike me as odd until Kate mentioned it?
Lots of other questions but I totally agree with you that the finale was just right. I don’t need my questions all answered.
Lady B., now that you mention the kidnapping of the children, I have a sort of theory. At the end, there was a comment about “the way that Jacob ran things.” I’m wondering if The kids were kidnapped because of Jacob’s own experience as a child, when he finds out about his origins from the Woman? So, maybe he’s kidnapping kids to find a young, un-flawed candidate to take his place? Maybe he was interested in Walk, until he realized that Walk was “special.” But since that storyline kind of ended, we don’ t know for sure.
Also…back in Season 2…was it season 2? When Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley were on Jacob’s list and they were traded for Ben’s release…those were the four left at the end of the series. Small thing, but kind of cool.
And I’m going to add my next answer:
*Most Shocking Twist: John Locke in a wheelchair. The first sign that the island had something special going on.
Excellent theory, ScottE – I concur. That makes a lot of sense with the kids. It might have been true for other people the Others took as well, like Cindy the flight attendant.
And I had been thinking about the 4 being kidnapped and then ending up at the end. A connection to Jacob’s list of candidates, perhaps.
Re: how Jacob ran things… rules vs. free will (Jacob had almost no free will, Jack had free will choosing himself as the Savior)…
I hadn’t really thought about the Jacob/MIB-as-kids stuff we saw, until I watched last week’s video recap/thoughts at the end of this guy’s Lost blog: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20313460_20387946,00.html?ew_packageID=20313460%3Fxid%3Demail-alert-lost-20100524-item1
I sort of wish I’d been reading him all along because he helps pose some good questions. But better than his writing are the weekly videos (go to the end of this article, I think it’s 7 pages, scroll down, and view the video from last week – clock on the picture of the Final Four, the clip starts with Sawyer saying “and I thought that guy had a God complex before).
Best Fight Scene: The ninja guy (Dogen) and Sayid at the temple.
Smart friends! Y’all are knocking this out of the park. I have to say the one big question before the finale that I felt MUST be answered was the reason for the kidnapping of children/ no kids born on the island/why Walt is special. Then, after it was all said and done, I didn’t care a lick about it – especially after that Juliet and Sawyer scene at the vending machine – who knew a snack food could be so damn romantic?!
* Favorite episode – just because I feel like we waited so freaking long for it, was Ab Aterno. I HEART Richard and really was so gratified to see some of his background that even though it broke the pattern of the series, I wanted it and loved it.
* Most frustrating writing slip up – Including Zoe in this last season. In the words of Seth Meyer on Saturday Night Live – Really??? REALLY?!
* Best of a Bad Situation – I gotta give it to my gal, Juliet, who gets thrown back into the 1970’s, hooks up with the hottest islander, puts away her doc credentials to join the motor pool of the Dharma initiative.
I’m down with the sideways world as an afterlife of some sort (kinda reminded me of the book THE LOVELY BONES). However, the traveling through space/time thing, while awesome, still kinda confusing and not readily apparent how all that worked aside from some electromagnetic mumbo jumbo… or why that all was really necessary. Come on, Carlton and Damon – even A WRINKLE IN TIME written for 11 year-olds attempts to esplain how all that works. I have a college degree for crissakes – try me!
I have only watched the last episode once, but I’m going back to see what I missed. With LOST you can do that and see it entirely differently. I’m gonna miss the re-watching most 😦
Ooo – good call on Zoe. She was a real waste of space.
I just thought of something, one of the ultimate ironies of LOST. This is based on one of my assumptions to an answer…
So, I assume that it was the Incident, the bomb going off, that meant that women could no longer have babies on the Island.
Who was the person brought to the Island to treat the women and try to figure out why they couldn’t have babies? Juliet.
Who was the person who made the bomb go off? Juliet.
Ayep. Cool!
J-Lo, great write-up and great discussion here. I loved it, and the more I think about it the more it feels just so right.
I wish I could write like you as Margaret Laurence once said \”When I say \”work\” I only mean writing. Everything else is just odd jobs.\”
Sent from my iPhone 4G
Ha, adding to this a little late, but I agree with all your thoughts on the finale! I sobbed pretty much through the last fifteen minutes (and… about ten minutes after it ended).
While I take away a lot of questions still about the Island, about Jacob, and so on, I think this is a finale (and a show as a whole) that will keep people talking and wondering for years to come. At first, I was a little disappointed that Darlton would be keeping radio silence for some time after the finale, but it gives us all a chance to interpret meaning for ourselves.
Side note: My mother called me from work the day after the finale and said, “So they were DEAD THE WHOLE TIME?” I said, “Uh, no, just in the Sidewaysverse. The Islandverse was real.” She said, “You need to explain this to me and my co-workers,” and put me on speakerphone so I could explain to them all how the Sidewaysverse versus Islandverse worked. She’s funny, my mother.