Lost

[billy.]

longislandpress?

i'm gonna doubt it's credibility.

[readytoignite]

the alternative reality was purgatory, whatever happened on the island was real. we just won't know how kate, ben, hurley, frank, miles, and sawyer die. the credits showing the wreckage at the end was probably just a little stroll down memory lane. everyone died at different times, because they lived on their lives in the regular timeline until whenever they died. they were stuck in limbo in the alternate reality until they all found each and were ready to enter "heaven" as one.

i don't really buy this as a cut and dried theory. it's not like they all arrived in the sideways world randomly, they were all there.

christian was dead in all but the flashes back so that part is random outside of either jack hallucinating or the remote possibility that it was the man in black bringing everyone back to the island again (he had acknowledged taking christian's form previously, in order to lead jack to a place he needed to go)

but i think the key part is benjamin and hurley's conversation outside the church - which indicates the custodial transition that occurred in the island present time of that episode, had happened in the sideways past. also the widmores seem to completely understand what's happening.

imo the sideways narrative is a fully constructed reality. the concept of letting go relates to the characters finally accepting that they want to be on the island, which is where all the characters found love and peace etc etc.

in any case it's probably better to treat the series on a thematic level - any theory is going to have holes because the whole finale was meant to evoke an emotional feeling of resolution.

[lil brown brother]

longislandpress?

i'm gonna doubt it's credibility.

credibility issue with a tv finale review?

[chantheman]

can sawyer and miles get a spin off as partner cops? i think id watch it

[joelz]

for thos wwho still dont get it..

http://www.longislandpress.com/2010/05/24/lost-finale-explanation-lost-explained/

I'd argue he doesn't get it: the point wasn't that everyone died, it's that everyone dies at some point. Jack died on the island (and he was clearly the main character in the eyes of the shows creators, largely due to his father spelling out a lot of the things we are going to see), the others died at some point in their lives - the plane made it off the island, hurley and ben clearly were in charge of the island at some point, desmond may have even gotten off too somehow.

The crux of the show (in my mind, for now at least) was that the people who were alive on the island were alive for the time that we thought they were (Locke died when Ben hung him, Shannon died in whatever ridiculous way she died, Sayid blew up, etc), and it represented their best time in their lives, and they came back to the church to meet for it and to relive it and to be together.

Did they answer a lot of the questions? No. But I still thought it was an incredibly strong finale, that kept me riveted for the first 2 hours and left the last 30 minutes to the standard post-lost meditation that had to be pieced together.

[Androo630]

It's impossible for them to answer all the questions. This gives them an option to make more $$$ in the future.

[lil brown brother]

I'd argue he doesn't get it: the point wasn't that everyone died, it's that everyone dies at some point.

im pretty sure he did heres the quote:

"Then, they die. Everyone. Not necessarily on the island—we see the Ajira plane with Lapidus, Richard, Ben, Miles, Sawyer and Kate take off while Jack is getting the last suntan of his existence—but at some point, they all do. As Jack’s dad explains when the big reveal in the church is spelled out, some people died when Jack died, and some died later."

[Androo630]

Lost's Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje--who played the iconic Mr. Eko--was offered a guest spot in last night's Lost series finale, but he...wait for it...turned it down.

According to ABC and Lost insiders, Adewale was offered a hearty sum to do one scene in the last hurrah, but the actor wanted five times the amount that was offered. It didn't work out.

Just a random fact.

Also here is the final convo between Jack and Christian:

Christian: Hey, kiddo.

Jack: Dad?

C: Hello, Jack.

J: I don't understand...you died.

C: Yes, I did.

J: Then, how are you here right now?

C: How are YOU here?

J: I died, too?

C: It's okay. It's okay, son (hug)

J: I love you, dad...are you real?

C: I sure hope so...yeah, I'm real. All those people in the church...they're real, too.

J: They're all...

C: Everyone dies sometime, kiddo. Some of them before you, some long after you.

J: Are they all here now?

C: Well, there is no "Now" here.

J: Where are we, dad?

C: This is a place that you--that you all made together--that you could find one another. The most important part of your life was the time you spent with these people. That's why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone, Jack. You needed them and they needed you.

J: For what?

C: To remember....and let go.

J: Kate--she said we were leaving.

C: Not leave--No--Moving on.

J: Where are we going?

C: Let's go find out.

[billy.]

credibility issue with a tv finale review?

it's a shot at long island.

chill bro.

[lil brown brother]

^ oh ok ... my bad im kinda slow today ... well im slow everyday

[homi29]

best review ive read about the finale

WARNING WALL OF TEXT INCOMING

'Lost' - 'The End': See you in the other life, brother

Posted on Monday, May 24, 2010 By Alan Sepinwall

'Lost' - 'The End': See you in the other life, brother

Jack and Kate share a moment in the "Lost" series finale.

Credit: ABC/Mario Perez

A long and rambling review of the "Lost" series finale coming up just as soon as I believe in duct tape...

"I'll see you on the other side." -Jack

How you respond to "The End" will depend largely, I think, on how you approached "Lost" over these last six years.

If you were on board with Darlton's thesis that this was a show about character first and foremost - if you mainly cared about Charlie and Claire, or Jack and Hurley's friendship, or unlocking the mystery that is Benjamin Linus - then I suspect you loved "The End. After all, it was loaded with reunions of characters both dead and living - or, at least, who were living when Lapidus flew the Ajira jet away from Craphole Island, since we learn that the secret to the sideways universe is thateverybody's dead and hanging around in purgatory until they can all go off to Heaven together(*) - that tugged early, often and appropriately on the heartstrings.

(*) I leave it to the people with more grounding in theology to debate exactly what plain of the afterlife the sideways universe was supposed to be, factoring in all the different denominations and creeds represented on the stained glass window in the church office where Jack and Christian spoke.

If, on the other hand, you cared more about the mysteries than the people in it - if you wanted to know more about the rules, or the fertility problem, or Taller Ghost Walt - then I imagine you found "The End" to be quite maddening. Even keeping in mind Darlton's pre-season warning about not answering every question, we end season six, and the series, with an awful lot left perfectly muddled, with a lot of story resting on the golden well of souls we were introduced to only two weeks ago, and with the sideways universe revealed to have no relation to the plot of the series, except in the sense that death is the end to every story(**). (As we saw with the famous "Six Feet Under" finale.)

(**) Though ultimately, I suppose, my "epilogue in advance" theory was correct. Just not in the way I meant it at the time. Don't ask me why in this construct of purgatory some people are getting along splendidly while others are miserable; this was still the end of everyone's story, sometimes moments after they left the island (like Jack), sometimes years (Hurley, Ben, Kate).

Of course, those are two extremist views of "Lost" - all plot vs. all character - and I suspect most of you fall, like me, somewhere in between. And because of that, I'm still wrestling with my feelings about "The End" (and will almost certainly feel compelled to write another review down the road, maybe in days, maybe in much longer).

As two and a half hours of television - as an extra-long episode of "Lost" - I thought most of it worked like gangbusters: the reunions in the sideways (Sawyer and Juliet in particular, but all of them were splendidly played), the farewells in the real world, the final battle between Jack and Smokey on the cliff, the very-not-dead Lapidus (whoops) just barely getting the plane off the runway Kate and Sawyer built, etc. You would have to be made of stone to not get choked up at one or multiple points, whether it was Jack passing on the protector job to Hurley (an appropriate end for the fan surrogate character, and the scene that finally wrecked me) or Kate and Charlie again helping Claire deliver Aaron, or Locke forgiving Ben, or one of a dozen other moments like those. Really, up until those last minutes, which I'll get to in a bit, I thought it was a wonderful episode, with Cuse, Lindelof and director Jack Bender once again teaming up to heighten the emotions and action of a bonus-length "Lost" finale.

[homi29]

part 2

But as someone who did spend at least part of the last six years dwelling on the questions that were unanswered - be they little things like the outrigger shootout(***) or why The Others left Dharma in charge of the Swan station after the purge, or bigger ones like Walt - I can't say I found "The End" wholly satisfying, either as closure for this season or the series.

(***) Several people asked me what I was referring to when I pressed Darlton about this at the end of the post-"Across the Sea" interview. Quick refresher: at one point in season five, Sawyer's band of time travelers are in an outrigger on the water when another outrigger appears behind them and opens fire on them, and Sawyer and company are saved by a fortuitous time jump. All throughout season five, every other time loop got closed at some point or other - we saw how Richard knew to bring Locke the first aid kit, for instance - except that one. And I will admit that even here, in the finale, after I'd been told that this would not be something that would be answered, as soon as Miles and Richard got in the boat, I couldn't resist wondering if Darlton had played me, and that we would finally get closure on that one right at the end. Oh, well.

Jack tells Desmond at one point, "Trust me, I know: All of this matters," and that's a very similar sentiment to one espoused by Lester Freamon on "The Wire" - a show where all the pieces did, in fact, matter, and everything that was introduced paid off down the road. It's not a fair comparison, both because "The Wire" is the greatest drama ever, and because it was telling different kinds of stories in a different way from "Lost." But when I hear Jack say something like that, at the end of a series at which a whole lotta things wound up not mattering at all, it's hard to ignore the thematic dissonance.

Even leaving behind issues from seasons past, I'm not sure how well the structure of season six holds together now that we're at the end. It had always been my hope that knowing what the sideways universe really was would give us a different perspective on those scenes, but I don't think "What Kate Does" will improve any with the knowledge that Kate, Claire, Marshall Mars and the rest are all already dead. Desmond's dual role in both realities as the man with the plan, meanwhile, amounted to much less than I had hoped for. I'm not exactly sure how Widmore's electromagnetic device somehow sent Desmond into the afterlife and back, but it turned out that island Desmond didn't know nearly as much as had been suggested earlier, nor was it clear why Jacob thought that having Widmore bring Des back would help stop Smokey.

And given what we ultimately learned about the nature of the sideways, I'm no longer clear on why Desmond was the special one who was responsible for bringing everyone together. (Charlie, after all, was the one who tipped Desmond off to their real lives, yet he was still largely in the dark until Aaron was born.) And all our speculation on bleeds between the two universes - whether Sun lost her English because alt-Sun didn't speak it, or whether it was a coincidence that most of the characters who could most clearly remember the real world were ones who had died in it (when, as we learned here, everyone was already dead, because time has no meaning in the afterlife) - proved meaningless. And that's not to mention Dogen and the temple folk, or Widmore and his crew, or the many trips back and forth across the island, and between the main island and Hydra, and the various factions splitting apart and coming back together. There are narrative dead ends in every season of "Lost," but it felt like season six had more than usual, perhaps because it was the last one.

And I still don't know how I feel about the scene in the church, and about Christian's suggestion that the people everybody met on the island are the ones who matter the most to them now that they've crossed over. While I think that's a nice nod to the idea of "Lost" as this show that matters so much to those of us who stuck around through the end, the conceit doesn't seem to hold up to the "it's all about the characters" philosophy. Why would Sayid's heavenly soulmate be Shannon and not Nadya? Why would Jin and Sun be okay going into the light without Ji Yeon? If this is only a reunion for people who were on the island, why is Penny (who never set a foot on the place) there, while Daniel, Charlotte, Miles, Ana-Lucia and so many more are not? (Won't someone please think of Nikki and Paulo?) Couldn't Ben just bring Alex? Do Jack and Juliet no longer care about their imaginary afterlife son?

I'm not saying there's a right or wrong answer for any of those questions, but when you deliberately go vague and spiritual on your ultimately resolution, you inevitably run into the same kind of fuzzy afterlife logic that leads Robin Williams to star in "What Dreams May Come."

And I see in looking back on what I've already written that the negative seems to be far outweighing the positive, and I don't want that to be the ultimately balance of my take on "The End." Because I did greatly enjoy so, so much of it. I loved the reunions (did a fist-pump when Rose and Bernard made their annual appearance) and I loved all the callbacks and recreations to moments from earlier in the series: Jack and Locke peering down another deep hole in the ground with Desmond at the bottom, the re-birth of Aaron, Jack lying down in the same place where he began the series (and with Vincent once again running by to provide him company), this time with his eye closing as the appropriate final shot of the series.

Really, if it's possible to remove a judgment of "The End" away from expectations of what a "Lost" series finale must be - and we can debate whether that is in any way possible - then my only major objection to the episode as an episode is that Ben turned out to not have much of a plan, whether it was being Smokey's henchman or running a con on him. He was just wandering along, letting other people make things happen. (And he was miraculously freed from the fallen tree trunk, and unharmed in the process.)

Yet even that was alleviated by that great moment when Hurley invited Ben to be his number two. It's a job Ben held for many years, but not in the way he wanted. Jacob never appeared to him, never seemed to treat him as a person of consequence, and so much of Ben's rein can be written off to either Smokey's manipulations or Ben just being an *@*. Here, though, the island's new Jacob isn't hiding from Ben. He asks for his help directly, says he values his expertise, and it's clear how much that affirmation means to him - and Hurley and Ben's brief conversation outside the church suggests that once he got that affirmation (and some leadership from Hurley that was less obnoxious than how Jacob ran things, or how Jack might have had things stayed predictable), he turned out to be a damn fine number two. So even though Ben declines to go into the light - whether to repent more for his many sins, or simply to enjoy his time with Alex and Danielle - things work out relatively well for him in life. And in death, he gets forgiven by Locke, as Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson get one final superb moment together playing their original characters (or more contemplative metaphysical versions of them).

Ultimately, "Lost" didn't succeed because of the mythology. We've seen too many examples of mythology-heavy, character-light series fail over the last six years to think that. "Lost" succeeded on emotion, whether that emotion was fear of the monster in the jungle, or grief over Juliet dying, or joy at Desmond reuniting with Penny, or thrills at Sayid's breakdance fighting and Hurley riding to the rescue in the Dharma bus. When "Lost" was really and truly great, it locked you so deep into the emotions of the moment that the larger questions didn't really matter.

So many moments in "The End" lived up to that standard (excuse me while I pause this review to watch Juliet and Sawyer again... okay, back) that I don't want to complain too much. But knowing that this is it for the series - that there aren't any more opportunities to say, "Okay, I can wait a little longer on the big stuff, because that moment there was so cool" - I do wonder how I'm going to feel about this episode tomorrow morning, next week, or five years from now when I stumble across a repeat of "The Man Behind the Curtain."

With every episode now out there to be analyzed, I don't know how "Lost" hangs together as a large narrative, but as a series of moments, it was often incredible, right up until "The End."

[JSFU]

wtf was that last episode about

[billy.]

Lol >

[MGC3]

MhGNvzWIxgM

[readytoignite]

that sepinwall piece was pretty good.

another weird thing i realized is that if the sideways universe is purgatory, there is also a purgatory on the island where people who die there end up being the whispering voices a la michael.

[Androo630]

[chantheman]

juilet's boobies in the black dress were like POW

[chantheman]

[Magsåvningsreserven]

this show is annoying me so much now when I think about the ending and its implications.

It may or may not be among the best TV produced over the years, but it surely has be one of the most divisive.

[Bigyen]

http://perezhilton.com/2010-05-25-so-you-want-some-answers-from-lost

[ikol]

awesome awesome ending. In fact playing it in the background right now...

I think it was very well executed considering the circumstances. In terms of plot and mystery, the purgatory explanation was probably what they intended all along since almost all the weirdness makes sense in light of it. However, once that idea got wildly popular, they had to move away from that resolution and did random shiz along the way.

After every possible idea and their respective permutations were proposed and evaluated by the fans and the writers, they probably figured ( or probably knew very early on) that no explicit explanation for the mythology would be satisfying for the entire audience. So they went back to the purgatory idea with a slight variation and tried to seal the deal with emotional impact.

Anyways,the creators are saying they're gonna answer some of the mysteries they didn't get to resolve in the dvds. More footage or something. I know not to hope for a scene where jacob explains the "island is a crashed alien spaceship that helped spark life" or "island is the province of the egyptian gods responsible for the underworld" but I would take anything at this point...give me something...anything... MOAR

[islandboi8204]

where the hell is vozzek69's recap

[chantheman]

got emailed this today

First ...

The Island:

It was real. Everything that happened on the island that we saw throughout the 6 seasons was real. Forget the final image of the plane crash' date=' it was put in purposely to f*&k with people's heads and show how far the show had come. They really crashed. They really survived. They really discovered Dharma and the Others. The Island keeps the balance of good and evil in the world. It always has and always will perform that role. And the Island will always need a "Protector". Jacob wasn't the first, Hurley won't be the last. However, Jacob had to deal with a malevolent force (MIB) that his mother, nor Hurley had to deal with. He created the devil and had to find a way to kill him -- even though the rules prevented him from actually doing so.

Thus began Jacob's plan to bring candidates to the Island to do the one thing he couldn't do. Kill the MIB. He had a huge list of candidates that spanned generations. Yet everytime he brought people there, the MIB corrupted them and caused them to kill one another. That was until Richard came along and helped Jacob understand that if he didn't take a more active role, then his plan would never work.

Enter Dharma -- which I'm not sure why John is having such a hard time grasping. Dharma, like the countless scores of people that were brought to the island before, were brought there by Jacob as part of his plan to kill the MIB. However, the MIB was aware of this plan and interferred by "corrupting" Ben. Making Ben believe he was doing the work of Jacob when in reality he was doing the work of the MIB. This carried over into all of Ben's "off-island" activities. He was the leader. He spoke for Jacob as far as they were concerned. So the "Others" killed Dharma and later were actively trying to kill Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley and all the candidates because that's what the MIB wanted. And what he couldn't do for himself.

Dharma was originally brought in to be good. But was turned bad by MIB's corruption and eventually destroyed by his pawn Ben. Now, was Dharma only brought there to help Jack and the other Canditates on their overall quest to kill Smokey? Or did Jacob have another list of Canidates from the Dharma group that we were never aware of? That's a question that is purposley not answered because whatever answer the writers came up with would be worse than the one you come up with for yourself. Still ... Dharma's purpose is not "pointless" or even vague. Hell, it's pretty blantent.

Still, despite his grand plan, Jacob wanted to give his "candidates" (our Lostaways) the one thing he, nor his brother, were ever afforded: free will. Hence him bringing a host of "candidates" through the decades and letting them "choose" which one would actually do the job in the end. Maybe he knew Jack would be the one to kill Flocke and that Hurley would be the protector in the end. Maybe he didn't. But that was always the key question of the show: Fate vs Free-will. Science vs Faith. Personally I think Jacob knew from the beginning what was going to happen and that everyone played a part over 6 seasons in helping Jack get to the point where he needed to be to kill Smokey and make Hurley the protector -- I know that's how a lot of the writers viewed it. But again, they won't answer that (nor should they) because that ruins the fun.

In the end, Jack got to do what he always wanted to do from the very first episode of the show: Save his fellow Lostaways. He got Kate and Sawyer off the island and he gave Hurley the purpose in life he'd always been missing. And, in Sideways world (which we'll get to next) he in fact saved everyone by helping them all move on ...

Now...

Sideways World:

Sideways world is where it gets really cool in terms of theology and metaphysical discussion (for me at least -- because I love history/religion theories and loved all the talks in the writer's room about it). Basically what the show is proposing is that we're all linked to certain people during our lives. Call them soulmates (though it's not exactly the best word). But these people we're linked to are with us duing "the most important moments of our lives" as Christian said. These are the people we move through the universe with from lifetime to lifetime. It's loosely based in Hinduisim with large doses of western religion thrown into the mix.

The conceit that the writers created, basing it off these religious philosophies, was that as a group, the Lostaways subconsciously created this "sideways" world where they exist in purgatory until they are "awakened" and find one another. Once they all find one another, they can then move on and move forward. In essence, this is the show's concept of the afterlife. According to the show, everyone creates their own "Sideways" purgatory with their "soulmates" throughout their lives and exist there until they all move on together. That's a beautiful notion. Even if you aren't religious or even spirtual, the idea that we live AND die together is deeply profound and moving.

It's a really cool and spirtual concept that fits the whole tone and subtext the show has had from the beginning. These people were SUPPOSED to be together on that plane. They were supposed to live through these events -- not JUST because of Jacob. But because that's what the universe or God (depending on how religious you wish to get) wanted to happen. The show was always about science vs faith -- and it ultimately came down on the side of faith. It answered THE core question of the series. The one question that has been at the root of every island mystery, every character backstory, every plot twist. That, by itself, is quite an accomplishment.

How much you want to extrapolate from that is up to you as the viewer. Think about season 1 when we first found the Hatch. Everyone thought that's THE answer! Whatever is down there is the answer! Then, as we discovered it was just one station of many. One link in a very long chain that kept revealing more, and more of a larger mosiac.

But the writer's took it even further this season by contrasting this Sideways "purgatory" with the Island itself. Remember when Michael appeared to Hurley, he said he was not allowed to leave the Island. Just like the MIB. He wasn't allowed into this sideways world and thus, was not afforded the opportunity to move on. Why? Because he had proven himself to be unworthy with his actions on the Island. He failed the test. The others, passed. They made it into Sideways world when they died -- some before Jack, some years later. In Hurley's case, maybe centuries later. They exist in this sideways world until they are "awakened" and they can only move on TOGETHER because they are linked. They are destined to be together for eternity. That was their destiny.

They were NOT linked to Anna Lucia, Daniel, Roussou, Alex, Miles, Lupidis, (and all the rest who weren't in the chuch -- basically everyone who wasn't in season 1). Yet those people exist in Sideways world. Why? Well again, here's where they leave it up to you to decide. The way I like to think about it, is that those people who were left behind in Sideways world have to find their own soulmates before they can wake up. It's possible that those links aren't people from the island but from their other life (Anna's parnter, the guy she shot --- Roussou's husband, etc etc).

A lot of people have been talking about Ben and why he didn't go into the Church. And if you think of Sideways world in this way, then it gives you the answer to that very question. Ben can't move on yet because he hasn't connected with the people he needs to. It's going to be his job to awaken Roussou, Alex, Anna Lucia (maybe), Ethan, Goodspeed, his father and the rest. He has to attone for his sins more than he did by being Hurley's number two. He has to do what Hurley and Desmond did for our Lostaways with his own people. He has to help them connect. And he can only move on when all the links in his chain are ready to. Same can be said for Faraday, Charlotte, Whidmore, Hawkins etc. It's really a neat, and cool concept. At least to me.

But, from a more "behind the scenes" note: the reason Ben's not in the church, and the reason no one is in the church but for Season 1 people is because they wrote the ending to the show after writing the pilot. And never changed it. The writers always said (and many didn't believe them) that they knew their ending from the very first episode. I applaud them for that. It's pretty fantastic. Originally Ben was supposed to have a 3 episode arc and be done. But he became a big part of the show. They could have easily changed their ending and put him in the church -- but instead they problem solved it. Gave him a BRILLIANT moment with Locke outside the church ... and then that was it. I loved that. For those that wonder -- the original ending started the moment Jack walked into the church and touches the casket to Jack closing his eyes as the other plane flies away. That was always JJ's ending. And they kept it.

For me the ending of this show means a lot. Not only because I worked on it, but because as a writer it inspired me in a way the medium had never done before. I've been inspired to write by great films. Maybe too many to count. And there have been amazing TV shows that I've loved (X-Files, 24, Sopranos, countless 1/2 hour shows). But none did what LOST did for me. None showed me that you could take huge risks (writing a show about faith for network TV) and stick to your creative guns and STILL please the audience. I learned a lot from the show as a writer. I learned even more from being around the incredible writers, producers, PAs, interns and everyone else who slaved on the show for 6 years.

[/quote']

[chantheman]

part 2 .

In the end' date=' for me, LOST was a touchstone show that dealt with faith, the afterlife, and all these big, spirtual questions that most shows don't touch. And to me, they never once waivered from their core story -- even with all the sci-fi elements they mixed in. To walk that long and daunting of a creative tightrope and survive is simply astounding.[/quote']

[aho]

^thats probably one of my favorite Lost write-ups and considering it's supposedly from a Bad Robot source it does carry some weight...Pretty much how I feel about the whole finale/series in general...

http://lostmediamentions.blogspot.com/2010/05/someone-from-bad-robots-take-on-finale.html

[mis]

So JJ knew from ep1 that the show was going to end with the castaways constructing their own form of a purgatory to meet and move on?

After watching the final ep, I felt that they really only answered one big question: What the alternate universe was. And looking at that alone, its a pretty satisfying ending, but if you think about it, this alternate universe didnt even exist untill the last season, its almost like they decided to construct this alternate reality to give everyone a happy, emotional reunion.

But what was the point of them being on the island in general? What was the point of everything that happened on the island? So that the characters could develop relationships with each other? There are an infinite number of ways that could have done that without involving shit that cant really be explained like the magical light, or a smoke monster, or time travelling. It just didn't seem like a satisfying ending considering that the 5+ seasons of lost were centered around the characters being on the island.

[chantheman]

[chantheman]

iggE4ImYwyc

[into the rain]

what i dont get is... if that light in the cave is so important why wait until 2 episodes before the SERIES FINALE to introduce it?

im not even going to bitch about how they didnt answer "questions" or "mysteries."

my biggest complaint is that the ending seems really arbitrary and at the same time it renders all the previous seasons into meaningless bullshit. and by meaning, im not referring to some profound philosophical-religious type of shit (why anyone would want to look for this in a TV show is beyond me). instead, im talking about the narrative in general. honestly, did we really need 6 seasons to arrive at this cavern of light? it's not like they explained what it is at the end or that somehow watching the previous seasons allowed us to understand its nature at all.

the moment that i realized that this show is bullshit happened in season 6 when Jack and Hurley find Jacob's lighthouse. Hurley says something about wow how come we never saw this before? and Jack responds i guess we didnt look hard enough or some shit like that... really? fuck man come on.

i dont really have a problem with the whole afterlife thing. we've seen ghosts since season 1 and their implications of an afterlife should come as no surprise. the show was always spiritual/supernatural. what i do have a problem with is the actual narrative in "reality."

any narrative presented in any medium has to have some logical flow. i mean it doesn't matter whether you mix-up timelines and all that shit, but the fact is that it all comes together in the end. but Lost somehow arrived at an ending that seems completely detached from the previous seasons.

it's like this: Lost season 1,2,3,4,5,6 up to episode before "Across the Sea" has somewhat of a consistent flow (it has its gaps and holes but i was willing to overlook them). then the show hits us with the whole Jacob/MiB backstory bullshit episode ("Across the Sea") where they first introduce to the audience the MOST IMPORTANT THING ABOUT THE ISLAND AKA THE LIGHT AKA THE "HEART OF THE ISLAND." this is like the episode or two before the series finale. there is an obvious gap in the narrative created by introducing such a thing so suddenly at the end, and the show never tries to explain it to bridge that gap.

with that said, i will always like the show. however, i cant say its finale gave me any sense of closure to the narrative as a whole. i mean if you approach the show with the whole "it's about the journey not the goal" kind of mindset, then you might have a different idea than me about the show.

but think of it this way: THE GOAL TOTALLY FUCKED UP THE JOURNEY. like i said, the fucking ending turns the entire journey that spanned 6 years into something that is entirely arbitrary, since it pretty much had nothing to do with how the show ended. so im not sure how those people can still value the journey over the goal.

i will still miss watching Lost though. i will admit im frustrated, but i think it's better than me feeling completely ambivalent towards the show.