Lost - Series Finale (May 23, 2010)

[ZephyrWiccan]

So...I keep finding myself wondering about two things over and over again...

First off, the 'Flash Sideways' was a sort of 'purgatory'. All of its (spiritual) inhabitants either died on the island, spent substantial time on the island, or were directly connected to somebody in one of those catagories. It is clear from Jacks dads comment (and a few other hints here and there in retrospect) that the dead lostaways and other dead folks of the island (with a few others) effectively created the Flash Sideways realm.

Exactly. If you watched Jimmy Kimmel afterward, he brought up an interesting clip, something I'd been thinking about for a while as the season progressed.

It was the clip from the first episode of the season in the first "flash-sideways" scene, where they hit the turbulence and then nothing happens, and Rose says "you can let go now".

It really makes me wonder if they were giving hints way back then, on the theme of "letting go", and using this "flash sideways" to do so for the characters.

Kimmel also made the comment that he thought that the turbulence there was Jack dying in the real world, and entering this timeless "side reality" where he went through everything that led to him in the church, letting go.

Actually makes a bit of sense when you think about it.

 

[ZephyrWiccan]

Same here. First time I saw it I was disappointed. Second time I loved it. I will miss all my LOST hommies. It's the only show that is right up there with Star Trek. I was so excited when I saw John Locke on a re-run episode of Star Trek the Next Generation on TV a few months ago lol.

LOL, I saw that too. I always get a bit of glee seeing him pop up. A month ago I saw him in a rerun of NCIS, and last summer during a "Twilight Zone" Marathon on SCIFI, I saw the episode he was in.

The thing I remembered him most from, which made me recognize him in LOST when I started watching it, was his role in the TV series Alias (another JJ Abrams show).

I think he (as Locke and as the MiB) will be the character I miss the most. Followed by Hurley.

 

[A Catholic Friend]

What if they told you at the beginning the show was about "Lost" souls that were looking for redemption and the first 5 seasons were just filler to get you to the finale?

What if they told you that instead of a spaceship ending the spaceship was really a church (afterlife) and they all had goofy smiles on their faces waiting to go into the light? Shades of Ghost Whisperer anyone?

I liked the survival aspect of the show at the beginning and then when it became a sci-fi/time travel show I liked it even better. So why did they pull the rug out from under and pull a switch at the end?

It's like if someone was watching Superman or Back to the Future and you are really into it as an adventure or sci fi movie than they tell you it was all in a guys mind as they took him away for observation or something like that.

Did the numbers really matter? They could all have died after the first season before the hatch by a volcano or whatever and they still could have went to that church. Why did it take 6 years to get from point A to point B?

Jack could have passed in LA on the way to hospital after never flying to the island. He still would have ended up in the church facing the light. What was all that crazy stuff in between year 1 and year 6 that did not matter anymore after they got to the church?

There was a movie like this a long time ago. It started out as a scary movie about ghosts then they pulled a switch. They were not really ghosts they were aliens! Come on!

 

[Wicked Willow]

I still can't shake the impressions that the creators really had no clue about the island's mysteries to begin with, and thus chose to ignore most of the stuff rather than trying to unravel the web they had created.

I'm not saying that I am TOTALLY dissatisfied with the finale - there were too many perfect little shots and character scenes in there - but I do feel let down by the creators: LOST relied upon the notion that its weird incidents and mysteries were more than just props, and would make sense to the viewer once the secret behind it was revealed. Well, now it turns out that there was no secret to reveal - the creators themselves made it all up as they went along. If that's not disappointing, I don't know what is.

Furthermore, let's look at this from a merely technical storytelling-perspective: the Flash-Sideways world had no bearing whatsoever on the events on the island, and vice versa: the whole narrative strand around keeping the MiB from leaving was completely irrelevant to this post-mortem get together, and vice versa. Not to mention that Jack's son was just a figment... oh really?
And what's it with Desmond going to the Flash-Sideways? What's with the shot at the beginning of the 6th season, showing the sunken island? What's with Daniel pointing out that the flash-sideways is the result of him detonating the hydrogen bomb?

 

[A Catholic Friend]

Think about it. If the island was "real" and the flash sideways was not where did Widmore send Desmond after he got zapped in the giant metal coils?

How could he go to the flash sideways "fake" world then come back and know what to do in the island "real" world?

Come on!

 

[Wicked Willow]

Think about it. If the island was "real" and the flash sideways was not where did Widmore send Desmond after he got zapped in the giant metal coils?

How could he go to the flash sideways "fake" world then come back and know what to do in the island "real" world?

Come on!

That's just it: the threads don't add up, not with Christian Shepard making his declaration of universal deadness in the Church-of-all-faiths.

 

[latteda]

I would like to point out that I really enjoyed Sawyer in the last episode. His sarcastic wit was running strong and reminded me of how he was in the earlier episodes.

 

[sf49erfan]

I was thinking of Richard landing in L.A. without a passport. Can you imagine the immigration interview? "HOW old are you saying you are?"

 

[USincognito]

(Richard aging for the first time, awesome,

Agreed.

the many "awakenings" (each reunion made me cry),

Agreed.

The final scene, Jack closing his eye, and Vincent laying down beside him to comfort him on his way out -- it makes me teary-eyed just writing about it.

Agreed.

The more I think about it, the more I would love to hear Kate trying to explain her reappearance.

"So let me get this straight...you crash in the middle of the Pacific and show up months later with 5 other people (including a baby) who you say are the only survivors. Three years later you board a plane with four of the other five survivors of the first crash, and crash in the middle of the Pacific AGAIN. You show up weeks later in the same plane with the pilot, two people from the ORIGINAL crash who you claimed were dead (including the baby's mother), a guy who also disappeared 3 years ago and claims he can talk to dead people, and someone who says he's 250 years old. Now what's your explanation again?"

{truncated version of someone has to say it}

Really? This is the one plot flaw you cannot suspend disbelief for?

{/truncated version of someone has to say it}

 

[snoochface]

What if this whole subforum has just been a dream?????

 

[AirPo]

Actually, I think we'll all be meeting back here some day !

 

[desmalia]

I was thinking of Richard landing in L.A. without a passport. Can you imagine the immigration interview? "HOW old are you saying you are?"

LOL, yep. And what about the plane getting away from the island to begin with? Wouldn't they have needed very specific coordinates so that they didn't all end up displaced in time and eventually dead with blood running out of their noses? Was that solved after the island jumped around a bunch of times? I didn't find that made clear at all.

 

[snoochface]

Actually, I think we'll all be meeting back here some day !

The years we spent here together, discussing Lost, were the most important years of our lives. We couldn't have done it alone. We needed each other.

LOL, yep. And what about the plane getting away from the island to begin with? Wouldn't they have needed very specific coordinates so that they didn't all end up displaced in time and eventually dead with blood running out of their noses? Was that solved after the island jumped around a bunch of times? I didn't find that made clear at all.

I think when the Hydra station was destroyed, and the signal-blocking transmissions were turned off, that allowed the island to be plottable again. Between that and Jacob's rules being superceded/changed by Hurley's rules, I think they would have been able to find their way out.

 

[Wicked Willow]

You want confirmation that the writers were really just making it all up as they went along?
Think of the numbers. As per season one, they were broadcast before Rousseau replaced them with her own SOS-message - and they caused weird things to happen.
They were also to be found on the hatch itself.

Now, as per season 6, they were simply "coordinates" associated with the lighthouse, pointing to our heroes - who were just the latest in line of a long, long list of "candidates", and not that special after all.
As a matter of fact, the only thing that made them candidates to begin with was their being "broken" in some fashion. (Whereas the MiB supposedly thought that the Candidates WERE imbued with special qualities.)
And then, Kate was taken off the list "for being a mother" - yet the Quans weren't.

 

[snoochface]

You want confirmation that the writers were really just making it all up as they went along?
Think of the numbers. As per season one, they were broadcast before Rousseau replaced them with her own SOS-message - and they caused weird things to happen.
They were also to be found on the hatch itself.

Now, as per season 6, they were simply "coordinates" associated with the lighthouse, pointing to our heroes - who were just the latest in line of a long, long list of "candidates", and not that special after all.
As a matter of fact, the only thing that made them candidates to begin with was their being "broken" in some fashion. (Whereas the MiB supposedly thought that the Candidates WERE imbued with special qualities.)
And then, Kate was taken off the list "for being a mother" - yet the Quans weren't.

I don't think that proves they were making it up as they went along at all. I think it only proves that there are mysteries of the mythology that have gone unanswered. We expected that. There are myriad reasons why Jacob may have chosen those numbers for the candidates, why the numbers are significant and mystical enough to appear everywhere - they just didn't answer those questions.

As for the Kwans being taken off the list, only ONE Kwan was on the list, and the prevailing theory is that it was Jin. Jacob told Kate that she was removed from the list because she had become a mother; it stands to reason that Sun, then, was also removed from the list when she became a mother, leaving Jin as the Kwan on the wall.

But even then, Jacob said it was just a line of chalk on a wall, and Kate could have the job if she wanted it.

 

[Tamara224]

What if it meant both of the Kwans? Jacob wouldn't have taken their name off the list because if Jin and Sun were both going to guard the Island then they could raise their baby together on the Island?

 

[snoochface]

double post

 

[Chimes]

I thought the ending was sad, confusing, and finally silly; in that order. The last part where they were all just sitting there, smiling at one another so peacefully, for what seemed like an eternity (joke implied), was just too much for me. What's the point of sitting in the church pew, all cuddly & happy? If there is joy at the realization of what has happened, then why not have everyone be up, moving around, running out the door to greet their new existence, or flying up toward heaven, or SOMETHING, but not just sitting there smiling like a bunch of dufuses.

Disappointed in the end: 30%
Still happy to have seen it: 30%
Wishing there was another show next week with a better explanation: 40%

I still want to watch it all over again, beginning to end, but not for a while. Maybe next winter, when I'm snowed in. That sounds like the perfect time.

 

[snoochface]

I read an interesting take on the ending today. The theory was that this ending, the meeting in the church, was for Jack's "letting go" only, not necessarily for everyone else's. If it were for everyone, lots of other people would have been in the church - Hurley's parents, Nadia for Sayid, Clementine for Sawyer, Helen for Locke, etc. They all pass through their own version of the church at some point, with their own "most important people in their lives", but they came together at this time, in this church, for Jack.

The people in the church were the people who were the most important part of Jack's life, which occurred when he was on the island. It was his ending and his ultimate redemption that the entire island story was basically about. It started with his eye opening, ended with his eye closing, and he was the protagonist throughout. We got to enjoy the others' stories too, but it was all really about Jack being the hero, saving these people, and finding his redemption story.

That would explain a lot of the missing people at the end, and ties up some of the loose ends for me.

 

[Gnarwhal]

Boy I sure felt unsettled after it ended.

Did anybody notice the stained glass window in the church when Jack was approaching Christians coffin? That kind of tainted everything for me.

Also, I'm curious. Why wasn't Michael there? Because his name was never written on the wall? I don't think Boone's, Shannon's or Libby's names were on the wall either but they were all there...

I read an interesting take on the ending today. The theory was that this ending, the meeting in the church, was for Jack's "letting go" only, not necessarily for everyone else's. If it were for everyone, lots of other people would have been in the church - Hurley's parents, Nadia for Sayid, Clementine for Sawyer, Helen for Locke, etc. They all pass through their own version of the church at some point, with their own "most important people in their lives", but they came together at this time, in this church, for Jack.

The people in the church were the people who were the most important part of Jack's life, which occurred when he was on the island. It was his ending and his ultimate redemption that the entire island story was basically about. It started with his eye opening, ended with his eye closing, and he was the protagonist throughout. We got to enjoy the others' stories too, but it was all really about Jack being the hero, saving these people, and finding his redemption story.

That would explain a lot of the missing people at the end, and ties up some of the loose ends for me.

That is an interesting perspective. Wouldn't that contradict what Christian said about the church though? Something along the lines of "you all built this place together".