Sunday, May 23, 2010

"The End" Instant Reactions!

Brian's One Word Review: Powerful.


Part of me thinks that we shouldn't jump right into our normal over-analyzing of the episode, nit-picking details and trying to reconcile what we just saw with the previous 119 hours of the show. On a strictly emotional level, the Lost finale was fully satisfying, emotional, epic, sweeping, and felt more important than any television finale I've ever seen. The wife was in tears. I was confused as I tried to work it all out in my mind. In short, it was everything you would want from the final episode of Lost. If you didn't tear up a little when Vincent laid down next to Jack, you do not have a heart. The final ten minutes were about as perfect as anything I could have imagined for the last Lost - and the episode as a whole had everything I wanted - action, closure, callbacks to the major moments from the previous five seasons, and plenty of perfect "character moments" that are really going to make us all miss these characters.

But I suppose I need to give you something, so that you can sound smart and impress your colleagues tomorrow morning at work - so here's my take on the ending.


Flash Sideways. Finally, it all makes sense. Although this is definitely up to some interpretation, here's my Cliff's Notes understanding of the Flash Sideways.

  1. The Flash Sideways were, effectively, purgatory.
  2. The world in the Flash Sideways was somehow mutually created by all of the Lost characters, as a place to "meet up" before moving on. Per Christian Shephard, "this is a place that you all made together so that you could fine 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. No one does it alone. You needed all of them, and they needed you." For what? "To remember and to let go."
  3. The Flash Sideways were a place to work out and accept the things that each person did in life, to come to terms with their lives before moving on to the afterlife - whatever that may be. It's a beautiful symbolism that ties into the overall Lost theme - finding redemption in life, accepting those decisions in death - and then MOVING ON.
  4. Everyone dies - but they didn't all die together. We're trying to fit the Flash Sideways in a very linear timeline, and that's the problem. "There is no now, here." They're a different world - separate from the physical one that we live in. Some characters died long ago (Charlie), some died in "The End" (Jack), and some are going to die, even though we don't know when or how (Hurley, Ben, Kate, Sawyer, Frank, Miles, Claire... and even Richard Alpert - although I didn't see him in the final scene).

Beautiful, hopeful, powerful stuff.

There will be all sorts of full analyses of this episode and the entire series forthcoming - but for now, I kinda want to sit back and bask in the Losty goodness of this episode (and watch Jimmy Kimmel).


But for now - discuss!




148 comments:

Anonymous said...

RIP LOST :-(

Eric said...

I agree, the time for analysis will come, but for now, it worked, and I'm really, really glad about that!

Eric

Unknown said...

No Walt or Michael

Unknown said...

I thought it was perfect. The shot of Jack dying in the bamboo where it all started was one of the greatest things I've seen on TV.

Sam said...

I loved it, but am still confused about the sideways world (like Jacks's son). Need to digest. This will take a while.

Anonymous said...

I agree, it was everything I would have wanted.

However, I have to say there are a couple things I'm working out, which unfortunately distracted me at the end. I'll have to watch it again so I can get the full intended effect. So Mrs. Hawking was just "unable to let go", and that's why she didn't want everyone to leave? How many of these people were "real"?

And also... what was with the final shot of the wreckage of Flight 815 on the beach during the credits?

Sam said...

Nick,

didn't Des tell eloise that faraday would be going but not with him? so, faraday has his own afterlife group?

Rebecca said...

I loved loved loved it. I know there are some things to sort out but it really did feel like closing up a good book. We had all the elements that made the show so awesome, got some big picture answers and had great moments with our characters again. I had several cry moments - each time a couple 'found each other/remembered' I was in tears. When there was about 5 min left I started to wonder if I was going to like the ending but it was perfect.

My tv says Kimmel should be on but the news still was last time I checked. :/ Hope to see it soon.

Unknown said...

The final thought was the wreckage after they'd all moved on.

No Walt, Michael, (or Ben) because they weren't important to the core group. The group was going to move on together because the helped each other get to that point.

Ben may have had another group, Walt and Michael were on the plane that crashed, but not a part of "the group"

Unknown said...

Faraday, Charlotte and Miles may have been in their own group.

Steve said...

Very powerful.. emotional.. epic. I'm satisfied. 'Well' done!

I lost it when Vincent laid down next to dying Jack. Shame he was not waiting in 'purgatory'...


Funny how Purgatory was always the theory since season 1 for the island, but we missed this entirely.

I will say this.. that 'rock' at the heart of the island sure looked like a 'cork' to me.

Jeffrey said...

best.ending.ever.

Steve said...

They couldn't get everybody..
But it does remind me of two things..

1 - Rainbow Bridge.. where 'pets' wait for the owners before passing over...

2 - Southpark "Airplane Purgatory"... that they could not leave the plane until everyone was ready to move on and accept that they were gone.

Anonymous said...

Sam,

I guess, but if this place was created by the survivors, I guess I don't get why anyone else would be there.

Of course, this means the bomb didn't actually 'work', as in it wasn't responsible for creating the other timeline...

Ack, I feel bad for trying to analyze so soon.

murrakp said...

Michael wasn't there because he can't ever move on, he's stuck on the Island. Walt wasn't there because the Island wasn't the most important event in his life.

Chad Peltier said...

I loved how flash-sideways was purgatory. Absolutely perfect. It was almost like a meta-ending; purgatory was the original theory for the island, and then the theory is actually included as the flash sideways. Brilliant.

Anonymous said...

I was smiling in the end. That counts as a good ending to me. I shall miss you LOST.

timcourtois said...

Great episode. I liked the finish, and I can definitely say it didn't "ruin" the series.

One thing that was funny: How the heck did they get that tree off of Ben? It was a huge dramatic moment of, "Oh no, what are we gonna do?!?!?!", and then the next scene he's just walking around fine. Wha...?

Brian - Earlier this season you noted the parallel between the Hatch in season 1, and Jacob/the numbers/the Light-Cave in latter seasons. I think that shot of Jack & Flocke looking down into the cave solidified that parallel.

Unknown said...

First & Foremost Bravo to you & LOST.

Secondly, I think anyone who was disappointed with the ending (like one website where a commenter went: "The ending was just a sop for evangelists.") have to understand there probably isn't a better explanation & happy ending out there. (And also very much made apparent by the glass-stained windows, & other objects there was no "dominant", one-way religion, rather a very prominent notion of an after-life which in my mind best completes the meanings of all the characters & perchance seemingly "unnecessary deaths". [Because it isn't the end.])

Thirdly, it isn't "Purgatory". Not in original, literal, sense, because the actual Catholic Purgatory is a place where people haven't quite made it to "heaven" yet, because they hadn't "earned" it. Thus, people still alive would pay the Roman Catholic Church for their spirits to "move on".

In that sense it most definitely isn't, because as it was aptly described it was simply a meeting place, before "moving on". Yet, I do regress purgatory would seemingly be the best apt description of the flash-sideways.

On a final note: What questions were left unanswered? I could probably come up with a few, but not right now. (Sleepy.)

P.S. Crackpot theories: Time-warps = lost light energy (because time doesn't exist there, thus it disrupted the current time), Cork & Bottle contains souls, worse then death, because you can never die(?). (Thus, go-on.)

brett said...

There are two types of LOST viewers. Those who primarily found satisfaction in the characters and their emotional arcs. And those who primarily enjoyed the intrigue and were looking for answers and -- really, more than solid answers -- internal consistency. Unfortunately I'm on of the latter, and the first type of fans seem pretty satisfied. I really wish I was satisfied, but I think the writers ultimately weren't writing for my type because there are fewer of us.

love jenny xoxo said...

Definitely bittersweet... so sad to see it end! I love most of the finale, but I got a little confused at the end... no surprise there.

I just don't get why purgatory is the way it is... Jack is married/divorced from Juliet and they have a son, but Locke says you don't have a son... why? And Aaron is a baby.. I need someone to explain this to me :) And I agree, Steve, Vincent should have been in purgatory!

Unknown said...

I was not satisfied with this ending AT ALL. It did not feel like an ending.

I know they can't answer every single mystery on the show--and no one would want them to! However, I wish they had at least attempted to add some closure instead of [what I felt was] sloppily tacking on a non-ending.

Yeah, it was emotional and full of symbolism. But they dragged out this show [which I mostly enjoyed] for 6 years! And it was all leading to this???

Anonymous said...

Jack - you're right, it's actually closer to Limbo, not Purgatory.

Tim said...

Go back and watch the last 30 mins again. A couple things threw me off towards the end, and rewatching helped a lot. I was not convinced that Jack handed off the duties to guard the light to Hurley. When Jacob got it, and when Jack got it, there were words said over the water, and you saw something change in their eyes. I did not get that from Hurley's hand-off, which made me think Jack would live. Letting that go helped.

Also, when Vincent comes out of the woods at the very end, they briefly show him as a pup (to establish the parallel to the crash), but then when he gets to Jack and lays down he's all grown up. So that got me away from the distraction of thinking Jack died in the plane crash, which he definitely did not. That's why I immediately thought the whole island was purgatory, which would have sucked.

Here are MY cliff notes.

- Jack dies in the cave. When he wakes up outside, they start flashing back and forth between that and him walking into the church, talking to his dad, etc. His walk through the bamboo is his final realization of his death, and acceptance of it.
- The flash-sideways is not purgatory, per se. It's like a staging ground where they all find each other so they can be there when someone is ready to "move on."
- They just showed us how they all came together for Jack's death, but they didn't really all die or "move on" together. Don't think of the flash-sideways on a linear timeline. If it was for Hurley's passing, they would have all come together differently.
- They "live" in the flash-sideways just waiting on each other, but don't put too much stock in the details. It was just a plot device to bring everyone together at the end. So don't sweat Aaron's birth, the fact that they all had the realizations on a similar show timeline, etc. This may be how they all end up realizing at different times, but like Christian said, "there is no now, here."
- That flash sideways universe was just there to show how people work things out in their death, whether it is easy or hard for them to let it go. I think it confuses you more to think that was all happening on any linear timeline, much less one in sync with what was happening on the island. Think of Hurley and Libby meeting there totally died at different times.
- They only showed things all converging for the sake of the show. Hurley could have gotten to his acceptance point years differently than when Jack did, but they showed them all coming together just to close the character arcs on the show. The point was, for Jack, all the people he loved would be there when he finally let go.
- Jack does not necessarily go to heaven, he just lets go and moves on, whatever you want that to mean. That makes me feel better too...it's really not about purgatory and heaven. It's about being prepared to move on. Think Sixth Sense, not Jacob's Ladder.

I feel MUCH better about this whole thing. Deeper than I caught at first. Listen to everything his dad says in the church..."this all happened...all of these people are real."

Desiree said...

Brian, this was a wonderful review. Spot on.

I thought the show ended beautifully. I absolutely loved how everything came full circle.

If you are still looking for answers, you're asking the wrong questions.

Unknown said...

I have one problem, I don't understand the whole bomb thing. This is where the flash sideways begins. But all of that on the island leading to jack's stabbing and death still happened, because Hurley tells Ben that he was a good number 2. So I guess i don't understand the bomb??

Unknown said...

What an amazong ending. The moment with Christian waslking into the light was a little cheesey but I can overlook that. All-in-all it was a beautiful epsode that had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. (I was even holding my breath when the airplane was taking off) Beautiful moments over and over again...especially when Sawyer and Juliet reunited and in the final shot where the series came full-circle and ended in the same way it began. What wonderful closure.


I am happy.

Sawyer5665 said...

@Eric

The bomb didn't serve the Flashsideways. It was and always was (Whatever Happened, Happened) part of the island's timeline. It moved Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and company back through time to where they belonged. Jughead didn't cause the Flashsideways is what I'm trying to say.

Beautiful episode and awesome ending!!!!

Unknown said...

I loved how Jack smiled at the end when he saw the plane overhead. He had done what he said he would always do - get them off the island. Plus he did what he was meant to do - save the island. And when both of those things happened, he was reconciled with the life he had lived. Then he was able to wake up in the Sideways world to the people he loved, and he was able to let go and move on.

Anonymous said...

I loved it. I'm a little confused about some things, but I felt like it was a beautiful way for the show to end. I cried during most of the episode and sobbed hard when it was finally over. Jack dying where he started on the island (with Vincent) was a nice touch and a moving scene. I'm already having LOST withdrawls.

LZC said...

Question,
What is the significance of Jacob, MIB, and Widmore. Never really got that, are they then sort of protectors, just wondering because earlier MIB told Jacob that he had brought many people to the island and it all ended the same.

Sheebs said...

PHENOMENAL FINALE!

Kudos to the writers and to the actors to the LOST in general!!!

I must admit at first like others, the ending did confuse me a little bit in the church but Jimmy Kimball and Jack/Matt’s explanation of things cleared any doubts or misconceptions I had. This was a great show and really captured the essence of things and captivated the viewer just look the pilot show did….

I do not think the ending was rushed so much but after 30 minutes a lot had already happened and after 90 minutes Flocke/MiB wad dead and I thought, wow!, this is moving along-what next?

I also thought it was interesting how at the beginning of the show, Ben had a gun to Sawyer’s head, ready to shoot him ( also someone who had Sawyer thrown in the cages a while back) and then two scenes later, Sawyer is trying help free Ben from a fallen tree. I knew Ben would end up good but he has some letting go before he could move on.

I think it was good how his father was there to explain things to him and he could also have that closure & good conversation with his father whom he did not have before his father went to Australia and died. Many times in Christian faith, many feel and have been told in NDE that they see loved ones greeting them and helping them guide them along the way like Christian did for his son Jack. Very symbolic… just like the symbols above the window of Christian Shepherds coffin of all different faiths, Christian, Judaism Buddhism Islam etc. Nice touch LOST.

One thing I notice of interest is that Jack was the only one of the characters who needed several people or things to touch to come to his realization to remember. It just took him longer because he was Man of Science before transitioning to Man of Faith. He first touched Locke's foot and body and had little glimpse and then Kate touched his face and he had more but he walked away from this strong memory or connection rather than trying to touch her again like Juliet & Sawyer and then it really came with the closure when he touched his father's coffin and spoke with his father. The other key characters did not need this but I am sure the show was just trying to explain all their closures or realizations coming together so the all could "move on and let go."

I will miss you LOST but have enjoyed the RIDE for sure!

Unknown said...

The one thing that comes to mind is the end of Evangelion. (The last two episodes, not the movie called "The End of Evangelion".) The main character comes to a heartfelt realization, and a major psychological breakthrough, and at the end everyone stands up and applauds him. And it pissed everyone off.
This ending didn't piss me off... but it still seemed to be an ending that didn't want to end anything. I'm not sure if it could have been different... but as it is, I wish they hadn't promised so much more than they could deliver.

nodo31 said...

I have never been more satisfied with the conclusion of anything...including both Harry Potter and Six Feet Under (which is saying something). Words such as "amazing" and "epic" do not satisfactorily describe what the series finale of Lost encompassed. Adjectives such as these are perfectly adequate in describing such stories as those previously mentioned but no, the Lost finale was a work of art that tantalizingly succeeded in evoking a vast array of emotions that I before, thought, only existed in fairy tales. The epilogue was so simple, so brilliant, that my only gripe upon the conclusion of this Story is that future generations will not be able to take this 6 year journey as we have. After all, the journey makes the story...not the conclusion. And that journey, well, it simply meant the world. Well done my friends, well done.

jon. said...

I smiled and/or cried through much of it. I love how it was less action packed than one might have suspected. Fight with fake Locke, yes. Island rumbling, yes. But no smoke monster extravaganza. They got the focus and tone exactly right.

I'm so glad for following this story. And for having Brian as cicerone along the way. Thank you!

paint said...

Best message from a viewer: “I never could understand Trekkies until I became a Lostie”, says it all.
What an Amazing finale!!!...More than I could have ever asked for. I have never cried so much for a TV show in my life. Especially, the Jack and Vincent scene, wow, somebody commented on the Rainbow Bridge, OMG…I am crying again reading these comments, very emotional.
This was beyond my biggest expectations and so satisfying!!!
This whole Lost experience for me and I am sure for many others, would not have been as gratifying if it wasn't for Brian's Blog. Brian has always been right on the money with practically everything. I am going to miss waking up every Wed. Morning to read Brian’s quick after thoughts. If It wasn’t for his explanations and the comments that follow from all of you, many things would have just went right over my head and I never would have been able to understand the show, it just added the details that made this six year journey completely enjoyable.
Through the years I have tried to pass this blog onto so many people, many of who ignored the advice; however I can bet they did not get the full experience of Lost that I have gotten and it is a shame.
I just want to thank my fellow “Losties” for a great ride.
BTW, did you get a load of those Target commercials, lol they were the best!!!

Joani said...

I'm sad to say I didn't love the end as much as you all did. I wish I did. Maybe I just don't get it yet. It didn't seem like anything was really worked out in the Flash Sideways, just different. Charlie worked things out more on the island than in the Flash sideways...or was it just closure (via seeing Claire) that he needed. Did it even matter that they spent so much time protecting/saving the island? I loved all of the scenes with teh characters recognizing each other and remembering, but I thought all of the dialog with Christian at the end was cheesy. Maybe once I give it more thought I will appreciate it more.

italiangirl2392 said...

Ok...I dont get any of this!!
1.) Did they all die on the inital crash of 815?
2.) If the Island is purgatory,what was the point of having to enter the numbers,the polar bear, the Dahrma initative?
3.)when they left the island and Kate and Jack were living together and Kate was on the phone,she explained to Jack that she promised to do something for sawyer...did all of that not happen?
4.) was the whole entire show of them being dead?!

Anonymous said...

I don't see how anyone could be disappointed in the finale, and again the LOST writers manage to save a HUGE twist that NO ONE saw coming.

I will miss this show but it goes to remind us all that the people you meet/affect in life is your legacy.

Unknown said...

I took all the extra bits such as the button pushing etc to be metaphorical for the way as human beings we get distracted along our paths? i think brian said the same thing. In the grand scheme of things they werent relevant at all but they distracted them along the way. I absolutely loved the ending and i howled the whole way through it. I love the fact that i genuinely started questioning my own life and things iv done after watching it. The whole message seemed to be about the importance of love, learning lessons and moving on from mistakes. I am so sad its finished.

Jesse said...

This is my first time checking out the blog. I'm sorry I didn't know about it till now, but I'll be going back through and reading the posts and trying to piece it all together. Good stuff!!!

somaserious said...

I'm still crying! That was a beautiful piece of TV. I'm going to miss that show...

somaserious said...

I'm still crying! That was a beautiful, beautiful way to end Lost. I'm going to miss that show...

Stef said...

Very well said. Thanks so much, Brian!

Unknown said...

As for the relevance of Jacob/MIB....I feel that the Losties broke the cycle.
This group that Jacob brought was different in that ultimatley, they saved the island and we are to assume that Hurley's rules were quite different from Jacob's

Eric said...

@italian girl and joani-

I don't think we are to believe they died in the plan crash ... everything that we witnessed on the island happened in reality. Because it was such an important series of events in their lives, they all set up a place to meet us after they died. Some of their deaths happened early in the series (Boone, Shannon), some late (Jack), some well after the series ends (Hurley, Ben). The flash sideways was this place they all meet, but it exists outside of time. Thus we're not supposed to think that they all died in the plan crash -- it is only the details of the sideways reality that don't matter that much.

Eric

Janny said...

Brian, thanks so much for all your insights, and Tim, your comments were great as well. I loved the finale, it gave me the satisfaction I was hoping for. I was telling a friend that I was hoping for the kind of feeling I got when I finished "A Prayer for Owen Meany" and wanted to go back and re-read it to see all those early actions in a new light. This did the same for me. When Jimmy Kimmel re-played the clip from Season 6 Ep 1 of Rose telling Jack, "You can let go now," that just clinched it for me. And to think the cut that Jack kept seeing on his neck in the sideways Flash was from his final battle with SmokeLocke, that was brilliant. Plus a nice nod to Sherlock Holmes in the Moriarty-like death of MIB. Sad to see it end, happy they did it so well.

Unknown said...

Um. How can the people on this blog not be INFURIATED by this ending just like I am.

The show never answered any of the major questions about the island! All it did was use some cheesy lighting effects and a brand new alternate timeline to duck them all.

ARGH

Anonymous said...

I loved the journey you and the LOST creators took us on. I am going to miss the show - and reading your analysis following each episode. I feel bad that all future viewers will not experience what we did - anticipating the next episode, etc. It definitely was an adventure.

A few comments though - I believe the plane that Kate, Sawyer, Miles, Claire, Richard and Lapidus was on exploded and that was the wreckage at the end. Didn't Widmore say he already rigged the plane with explosives. I was waiting for someone to warn them, but it never happened. I think Jack was happy to see the plane because he believed it left safely. In addition, Kate questions Christian Sheppards name. She says "really?" I immediately thought of something at that moment - Christian was shepherding them all to the after-life. Not that it was only Christians but I think perhaps you can see my point.

Thanks so much Brian - truly enjoyed it all!

mark said...

epic.

jess.modaff said...

Where was Mr. Echo????

Anonymous said...

Took me a bit to "get over" the ending of LOST; kept waking up in the middle of the night to think "Yeah, but what about?..."

So purgatory, which is what many thought - just not that they would have created this "life" together to work through what they needed to work through from that past life to be able to move on.

I loved loved LOVED the reunion of Sawyer & Juliet and Charlie and Claire. Both made me cry!

LOVED the ending with Jack "dying" in the bamboo forest, as the show began, but with Vincent lying next to him. Perhaps Vincent came back from the Rainbow Bridge to escort him to the next life?

LOVED the ending showing the wreckage on the beach showing the finality of the end. They've all moved on.

LOVED that "Christian Shepherd" was the only original dead person on the plane that crashed and eventually showed everyone the light.

LOST - you will be missed. Some seriously superb writing and acting. Thanks very much!

smacky said...

The comments are really helping me process the finale. I felt completely satisfied with it on an emotional level. It's hard after six years of analyzing every word, glimpse of something, whisper(!) to "let go." I agree that we are to assume those who did survive to the end (Sawyer, Kate, Claire, Hurley, Ben, Miles, Guyliner, Frank) went on to live out their lives, and the flash-sideways world was like a customs point where you got your affairs in order and met up with the others.

smacky said...

Of course now I wonder how long Hurley and Ben lived on the island. Was Hurley immortal (until such time he wasn't)? And did he pass some of that immortality juice to Ben so he could be his #2 (until such time he wasn't)?

Schewter said...

Never read a blog on LOST until this morning (withdrawals I guess)...very thought provoking I must say. For me, the ending is like a song in the sense that it means something different to everyone who watches it. I enjoyed the series, it entertained, mystified and stirred emotion...pretty good for a TV show. Doesn't really need to be any deeper than that.

Unknown said...

I will miss Lost, but I enjoyed the ride. I loved the Finale, and can't imagine it ending in any other way. It was far more emotional then I thought it would be for me, especially when Vincent laid down next to Jack. I am satisfied with the ending, but I do have some obvious questions regarding the supernatural stuff we were told was so important and about Walt... that's the only story line I sad never got explained. But, overall, I loved it and will start watching it over very soon.

Thank you, Brian, for giving us all of your insight each week. I started reading your blog this year, and am not sure what I'm going to do next Wednesday morning when there's not a new analysis up.

RIP Lost.

Steve said...

I'm shocked at the general negative response outside of the blogs. Seriously, this was Epic, wonderful. It hits on 'life'...

This is about distractions, about missing what's important. We get so stuck in material world(not just physical, but mental as well) that we lose sight of what's important.

I've always loved the mythology on this show but in the 'end' a few details are really not what's important.. it's about letting go, moving on, focusing on what's important and not 'pressing the button' or finding faults or getting angry over meaningless details. When you can "let go" you are no longer "Lost" and can move on.. and not just from "purgatory" but also move on with your own life.

I say this because so many this morning are bashing the finale.. because that's what people like to do. They've obviously missed the point completely. And honestly, I feel sorry fo them. As Locke said to Jack "I hope that one day someone can do for you what you did for me". He wasn't talking about walking again... he was talking about awakening.. about letting go and moving on!

Which brings me back to a few weeks ago.. the conversation between Locke and Jack about "moving on" not has so much more meaning now. Very deep...

Some may never get it.. apparently they are "not ready"..

I also loved that room with Jack's dad, having symbols from ALL the major religions. They ALL offer ways to these truths... because with religion, we all miss the point sometimes and get caught into pushing our own "buttons" and miss the point that religion is mans way of finding God, and there is more than one path to truth. Of course, get out of it what you will, this is just my take.

As much as I have loved the mythology, it all seems unimportant now!

Steve said...

Got to let go of Walt, it's a long series and it just didn't pan out. They considered killing Jack in the Pilot, and Ben was only supposed to be there for 3 episodes. Eko was also supposed to have a bigger role. They had to manage a massive group of actors and outside factors over a course of 5 years. I'm not concerned that they dropped the Walt story, just as I'm not concerned about the answers about children being born in the island.. This novel was written on the fly and they couldn't go back and rewrite.

As Ben said "that was Jacob's rules, not yours, perhaps there is a better way... and yes, I think that settles out all the little stuff we can't answer.

Also I think the Whispers are answered better now.. pretty much, these are people in the 'parallel' world...still working out their stuff before they move in. They are.. in fact.. themselves.

Good.. Deep.. stuff...

Steve said...

Oh.. and yes, I cried...

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Very good finale! Could of been a lot better but I liked it.

Brian, you said "and some are going to die, even though we don't know when or how (Hurley, Ben, Kate, Sawyer, Frank, Miles, Claire... and even Richard Alpert - although I didn't see him in the final scene)."

I thought Christian said "some have died before you and some long after you". I took that as their all dead, also Hurley said "You WERE a great #2" which I took as they aren't #1 or #2 anymore (ie Dead).

I don't know though... the final 10min is still confusing. Can't wait for you analysis.

Robert said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

One more comment - can I just say having Miles say to Richard "Welcome to the club" and reach over to pluck a gray hair from Richard's head, and Richard's dawning realization that he was aging was a GREAT moment!

Robert said...

2 thoughts......in the very first episode of the final season...Jack is in the plane...and after the turbulence, Rose looks at him and tells him "you can let go know...its ok"...It was at this point Jack had just died and was now in the next level (flash sideways)...and the end of the final show (series finale) is him able to move to the next level...

Also Feraday's mother was very aware of this level and wished to remain here longer as she was now able to be with her son, who she missed in the previous level (her life).. Thats why she tried to stopped Desmond, she was afraid her son would be leaving her to move on to the next level ..and perhaps she was unable to???

And I wouldn't call the flash sideways purgatory....as the meaning of such does not show evidence...It is more of an stepping stone to the next level...whatever the writers had in mind...heaven...or an stairway to heaven...There is no sense of time in the flashsideways..just here and now (as in the concept of Eternity there is really no sense of time)...some died before Jack, some after...but along the timeline of life...they all ascend to the next level at the same point but not the same instance in life....think of an upside down fan....an central point at the new level where they meet (prior to going to the next level) and lines extending in all directions downward to an timeline of when they died at different times...But not all make it to the next level....Michael (stuck on the island with others..unable to move on...)

So was the island an level in itself??

Still trying to figure out the island somewhat tho....Overall good show....

JJ Sobey said...

satisfying is not how I would describe it.

I'm OK with the explanation of the flash sideways. It's all the other unanswered BIG questions that are pissing me off.

Uff said...

Brilliant! Amazing! Now we know what the word 'Lost' meant. Sure, some open questions (did mother have 4 toes? why would Smokey pretend to be a prehistoric bird just to say 'Hurley'?), but great to the end. Explains also Walt, Eko, Aliana, etc..
Only issue I have is that TV IS NOW RUINED!!!.
solution: rewatch all episodes. Jack's appendix scar...ep 1 starts with Jack's eye opening, finale, it closes.

Eat naturally said...

I agree with a few of the theories on here that says the sideways life was not really purgatory. But I also had a theory about the entire island being purgatory. Maybe (just humor me) they actually died in the plane crash but it was their destiny to save the light so that they could 'go to the light'. I know its a bizaar thought, but I started thinking terms of lessons learned. Fighting for the faith that something good would happen to you if you just kept fighting for what you believe in. Jon always believed he had a purpose on the island and in the end Jack believed he did too. It was to keep the light alive. Just like in our lives-we must keep believing in 'something' so that in the end we get to go to the place we've always dreamed about.

Dave Harty said...

I enjoyed the finale for what it was, a completion of the story arc of the major characters.

But the big questions remains, and my guess is that's the way the producers wanted it. Did they all die in the plane crash? That was the message I got. The uninhabited beaches with the wreckage on flt 815 was a big hint for me. If so, what is the point of the "island"? None of what the survivors did there mattered - polar bears, Dharma stations, black rock, etc.

But if they did not die in the crash, and they actually physically crashed on an island, then I think we need a little more closure on a real island that contains the source of all life.

My best guess, after watching the show last night, was that the island was hell (or maybe the doorstep to hell) and that the sideways world was some sort of purgatory that gave people one last chance to change their lives for the better.

I don't mind not getting specific answers to specific questions (polar bear, time travel, MIB's name), but I'd like a little clearer understanding of the premise of the show that I've spent so much time following.

Obviously the producers wanted to leave the ending open to interpretation to extend the mystique of Lost beyond the finale. But I can't help but feeling that while they wrapped up the major characters' story lines, they never defined the biggest character on Lost, the island.

dj (David Jones) said...

At the end of the day, the writers ended this show the way that they wanted to end the show. Good for them. You can't please everybody, so don't give a rat's (_l_) what they think. If they had really wanted, they could have done the show some real injustice and had this one big messed up dream of Hurley's in the mental institution. I personally loved it, and I think it was the best ending of a series that I have ever seen.

falcon said...

Great episode, satisfying ending. Very dense 2.5 hours with loads of content to please both the casual and hard-core fans. And at the end, it was all about love and a very positive view of the afterlife - what's not to like about that.

I cried at the soulmate (literally) reunions - I'm a softie for such things - and it made me even more thankful to be in love with Mrs. Falcon (my own "blondie" as I told her last night).


Yes, there many loose ends (why was Boone at the reunion but not Miles, as well as many unanswered questions about island history, mythology and mysteries) but still a great evening of entertainment.

At one point as the various watercraft made their way to Hydra in the rain/quakes, I said to Mrs. Falcon that perhaps the producers head-faked us after all and we were going to get an "outrigger reveal" - but they meant what they said about it not being that important to their story-telling.

At the end, that's what it was - a great story, told by some very fine yarn-spinners. Yes, some elements of the middle and final seasons seem a bit like filler in hindsight (especially the temple dwellers). But the finale returned to the character-driven themes of the first season, and even featured many of the same "trudging across fields in the mountains" camera angles. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Craig said...

I'm an atheist, but I wouldn't mind this ending being my 'heaven': simply, and without flourish or an Almighty, a meeting place for your friends and family, people who have helped you, kept you from being alone, listened, held you. A last goodbye before 'moving on'.

For me that white light at the end is really that, it and nothing more, so its nice to let the permanence of that idea be sweetened just a little by an idea like this ending.

Stream Weaver said...

I've watched from season 1. Hated it.

Typical lost fashion. There were zero answers. Can't believe so many people loves this.

What a joke and a waste of time.

Bea said...

The most confusing part of the ending, for me, is the Jack-centric focus of the last fifteen minutes or so. Does this mean that the Flash-Sideways purgatory/limbo/afterlife exists only for Jack? That doesn't seem to harmonize with the way that story has been told all season - it seems to be a place in which ALL the characters are working out the things that they left unfinished in their lives (not just Jack). It seems important that the Flash-Sideways was made as much for people like Daniel and Eloise as for Jack and the Lostaways.

So is it just the gathering at the church that is "for" Jack? All the people HE needs with him are there to accompany him into the light? That seems to be the way that Christian has set it up, but it also seems to be true that this gathering is equally important for all the other people present - all of them have become ready to move on and have found the people they need to move on with. It would stand to reason that the passengers of Oceanic 815 have their most important bonds with one another. Most of the characters got on that flight disconnected and alone, and most of them died on the island. Those who went on to live their lives (Kate, Sawyer, Claire) still have their most powerful connections to one another: Kate and Claire raised Aaron together; Sawyer never got over Juliet. (Kate's reference to how much she missed Jack suggests to me that the Ajira plane did make it and Kate had some years in which to miss Jack.)

Everybody in that room has with them the people they need in order to "move on." In that sense, this roomful of people is just as much "for" Kate or Sayid as it is for Jack - though perhaps only Jack needs ALL of them there, since his desire was always to protect and lead them all.

The one thing that doesn't quite fit for me is Jack's son. Was he simply an illusion created within the Flash-Sideways so that Jack could work on his daddy issues? When Jack realizes that he's dead, he realizes that his son never existed? That seems a bit off to me. Everybody else in the Flash-Sideways seems to be working out their issues with the real people that they were really tangled up with in life. An imaginary son doesn't seem to fit. When Christian says that everything Jack experienced was real, does that include the Flash Sideways - does that mean that people can be born and live their entire lives within the purgatory/limbo/afterlife, without having an existence in "our" world? I'd like this ending better if the people in the Flash Sideways were all "real" people, people they knew in life.

logankstewart said...

I loved it. I've put up my reaction at my blog if anyone's interested. Now, to ponder a bit more...

Steve said...

Bea,

You're getting caught on the details.. you need to 'let go'.
That's the whole points... and it's a lesson to us all.

I guess for 6 years of my life, I needed some sort of 'lesson' and this delivered. It wasn't empty. it is about life...

Steve said...

Craig, the light is whatever you want it to be. I see the whole things as learning to 'let go' and move on. You can see the whole thing as an analogy... but it could be heaven, nirvana, reincarnation.. it's what's 'beyond'.

There's not religion in this.. yet it is all faiths.. including not believing.

Unknown said...

So who won the game... Jacob or MIB?

I'm guessing that since Jacob said it only ends once and everything else is progress he was referring to his game vs. MIB.... maybe and since Richard got grey hair and jack died that Jacobs "blessings" that he put out during his game were done when Desmond pulled the plug on the light and that was gameover. Just wondering who claimed that victory.... MIB or Jacob.

Kristen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Philippe S. said...

Oh, very emotional, sure, nice ending with all those loving characters...
But, sériously...

- who were the others
- what was the statue? the temple?
- what was the numbers?
- what was the "powers" of the island?
- Walt ???
- Dharma? The Purge and all...?
- why the time travels?
- why Desmond so much important?
- what was the purpose of Widmore?
- why the wheel and its teleporting power?
- what was the light?
- what the hell was the black smoke?
- WHAT WAS THE ISLAND?
- why, why, why, etc...

Please come on, you all amazed people, tell me :
WHAT WAS LOST ?

Unknown said...

Loved it, and cried more than during any other finale I can think of. Sleeping in Light (Babylon 5) might have come close though!

Totally satisfying on the emotional level, and still leaves a lot of thinking to do on a plot/mystery level. I think the folks who totally focused on that aspect of the show are a lot less happy than those who really followed Lost for the characters. Read Brian's entry for the full episode of "Across the Sea" and you will understand.

Unknown said...

I want my 120 1/2 hours back!! I feel this ending was such a copout - the creators set up all these mysteries and made it so they never had to bother answering the questions that arose...very lazy scriptwriting. Yes the characters were interesting but so was all the plotlines with Hanso, the Dharma Initiative, the Egyptian statue etc. that were never cleared up.

They wrote themselves into a corner re the island and left so many mysteries unsolved. It was for those answers that I stuck around for all these years. It came across as a humongously long episode of “The Twilight Zone”.

So if all that happened on the island was “real” did that mean the grownups took off leaving little Hank and Emma to fend for themselves? Or had they already been killed off by Widmore or Smokey. See it’s stuff like this that’s making me so mad.

And can you imagine what happens when that plane touched down somewhere and people wanted to know what happened to the others on board and where it had been - “oh we were on a magic island with a smoke monster.” And Richard - can a man from the 19th century find his way around the 21st? All in all a frustrating mess :(

Tim said...

After thinking more about everything, and reading others' comments, I do have some remaining concerns.

@Phillipe and others are correct - there are an incredible amount of unanswered questions/mysteries.

There are 2 main storylines in this show, the character arcs, and the mysteries of the islands. Obviously the character stories are an important component of this show, and they chose to give us closure there. The story of the Island and it's mysteries is a separate storyline, and they gave us no closure on that.

Up to you how you feel about that, I guess. I liked the closure of the character stories, but I did not get into this show because it was a character drama. I got into it because it was a sci-fi mystery show, and I spent the first 3 years trying to solve a puzzle. The writers created a monster (pun intended) that they could no longer contain, so they copped out on answering the mystery and refocused on the characters in the final season.

Like I said, up to you how you feel about the ending, but they did leave us hanging on a ton of details. They changed the course of this show at some point, and I just think they could have been more honest with the fans as to that fundamental shift.

Lamb said...

Thank you. I seriously don't understand why people are so confused about the "alt universe". There is no alt universe! The flash sideways was a dupe, the atom bomb WAS the incident and the flash sideways was placed there to trick the viewer. It is an afterlife, and Christian says that almost verbatim in the episode. And people are so hung up on everyone being dead...any kind of afterlife exists outside of space and time. Don't bother trying to explain it, because it's not exactly a scientific incident.

musica said...

First post ever here :) I think that the famous poem "Ithaca" by Konstantinos Kavafis, is such a great relief right now and describes for me what Lost has been about.

"As you set out for Ithaca
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them:
you' ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbours you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind -
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaca always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.

Ithaca gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaca won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean."

Lost was like life. The journey. The mystery

Dean said...

I love fLocke's quote (paraphrasing): Oh it's you, Jack. Well, that's just the obvious choice."

It's like the writers were smirking at us. :-)

Emily said...

I didn't really read the sideways reality as purgatory, or even a staging area, so much as an alternate dimension, in the sense of Feynman's notion of multiple realities existing at once. Whereas the core group of Losties used the second reality for the purpose of reuniting--their karmic task or something--for others living lives in that dimension, it was just life. Ben, for example, chose to stay. I think he wanted to try being decent for a while longer, and maybe was hitting it off with Danielle Rousseau at that. Hence, I was a little weirded by Jack and Juliet voluntarily leaving their teenage son parentless as, evidently, his life would go on. Christian did say, after all, it's all real.

Dean said...

I'll say this. This is #2 on my series finale list. #1 always will be Babylon 5 (though I can't watch it at all without bawling).

Zooky Shirts said...

I thought the finale was satisfying -- I think it fit into the style of this last season, and it brought together different pieces as it connected couples and answered the question as to what was going on the whole time. I take it that the characters died in the crash and went to purgatory (or limbo) to work out their lives before moving on. (For more of my thoughts, see my blog at zookyworld.wordpress.com.) Thanks for your thoughts on the finale -- it's interesting to hear what other viewers thought.

Anonymous said...

I loved it. Where is it that everyone is seeing those negative reviews?

I loved the Jimmy Kimmell/Bob Newhart alternate ending skit. That Newhart ending was still the best I have ever seen and was a total surprise when it happened, but last night's was right up there too.

jejic said...

The more I think about the finale the more I love it! I cheated and started watching Lost last August. Kudos to all you who made it through 6 years of waiting - I would have been a basket case.
I agree it would have been lovely to have all of the answers in a neat package, but I kind of think that is the point. Jack was a man of science - a man of science would want all of the answers. The whole show was this journey of not having to know the why and just believing.
I have reconciled much of the island in my head as such: We were told that Jacob would draw people to the island to prove his brother wrong that people were inherently good, not bad as the mom and brother believed. If you look at the life of the "others" and the Dharma Initiative, and folks on the island up until Oceanic 815, Jacob had failed miserably. When man was involved in protecting this good housed on the island they indeed became power hungry, manipulative, greedy, etc. There was this thirst to understand that the island was and how they could manipulate the powers of the island for their good. It wasn't until the Oceanic 815 crew came to the realization of self sacrifice and of good greater then themselves that the island could be the good intended. I love when Ben told Hurley that he could be different - run things differently than Jacob.
This was a story of the growth of the people on Oceanic 815 and the hope for a happy ending. I think the finale offered closure on the "fractured" lives of those we grew to love with a happy ending and the peace and love needed to move forward.
Lost was an amazing show!

jack said...

One of the most poignant finales I can remember in TV history. We were rewarded with both sufficient revelation and resolution with this 6 year saga. Questions and endless analysis will be forthcoming...in the meantime, sad to see this story come to a close.

Thanks Brian for your diligence and insight making this a far more enriching and enjoyable journey for us all.

Woof410 said...

Can someone help explain how Desmond knew everything that he did in the SideFlash? Was he simply the first one to reunite with his match (Penny) and realize that he was dead? He seemed to take it upon himself as his job to reunite everyone so that they could move on ... let me know your thoughts

Matt said...

It's amazing to me that so many longtime fans really thought they would have all of their questions answered by this finale. Lost has always been a show that raises questions and gives you just enough information to come up with your own theory to answer them. That's what made it such a great interactive experience, and led to thousands of hours of theorizing and blog postings like we are doing here. You'll notice that a typical procedural show doesn't enjoy this type of fan involvement. It's also what led to disappointment a lot of the time when they actually tried to flat-out answer a question.

Also I'm surprised by the number of people (not just here) who seem to think that they have been dead the whole time on the island when Christian all but came out and told Jack that wasn't the case. I think a lot of people need to re-watch that scene.

And finally, am I the only one that would TOTALLY watch the half hour sitcom spin-off of Hurley and Ben protecting the island? Since Hurley could make any rules he wanted, I bet that island suddenly became a lot more fun!

jack said...

Emily.....Jack, in reality, didn't have a son. Locke pointed this out to Jack while in the hospital.

Michael said...

It was an extremely emotional and touching series finale to possibly the greatest show to ever appear on television. I shed a few tears at times.

I can't say I feel that the finale concluded the show for me though. Explanations like questions will only lead to more questions, the point was to learn to let go, and its about life and love ring very hollow to me.

See, maybe I'm a jerkface for saying so, but I didn't need this show in order to contemplate my life. I didn't need it to try and answer the big questions about life and existence. I see from the comments that a lot of people did, and as such, they are satisfied.

But you know what I needed? Something entertaining and frivolous to think about, and the show delivered that in spades... up until continuity went out the window (personally, I peg this moment as when the island moved and the time travel started). Because once the story wasn't cohesive, and things that had been important weren't important anymore, it was like working on a puzzle with a bunch of pieces missing, and being told not to worry about it because the joy is in putting the pieces together.

But where's the fun when you don't have all the pieces?

There is so much that we don't know about things that had been so hugely important RECENTLY, let alone from the first few seasons. For example, where did The Shadow of the Statue people come from? Why was Ilana in a full body cast when Jacob visited her? Outriggers?

See, you cannot tell me these questions are irrelevant, because like, man, it's about letting go and moving on, man. (I'm doing my darndest to make this sound like stoner logic) Those questions are relevant because they were placed on the show in a way that made them relevant. These things were front and center, and then they were ignored, under the guise that if the characters didn't care about them, then we shouldn't either.

Well, that's just poor storytelling.

The question I ask myself is this - if Cuse and Lindelof start another show (and rest assured, it will happen someday) will I be a viewer?

No. Why would I commit to follow a game where the goal posts can move at anytime?

Unknown said...

I was definitely not satisfied with how it all ended. Lost was always about the island more than the characters on it for me. And the closure for characters was definitely not enough.

Unknown said...

Desmond got sent to the AR by Widmore and I assume realised from that point onwards what it was all about

andreas.sauer said...

I am completely with you there, neal.
My emotional satisfaction with the finale couldn't be any better. Never having been a hardcore fan, in the aftermath i totally feel I didn't follow the series close enough. Must have been because of s03 and s04 that came up with an unsatisfying question/answer ratio.

What bothers me most is, that whilst the last ten minutes of the finale, the theory fixated in my head, that there never were any 'flashbacks'. Only glimpses of what Jack made up in his afterlife to conclude all his friends into the church scene.

Somebody please point me to the evidence i missed or that i don't remember, that separate those, so my head can finally give into the limbo-theory, which seems to conclude it all so much better.

Woof410 said...

that makes sense but when and how did widmore send him to the alternate reality? when did i miss that? if the alternate reality was a waiting room of sorts, how did desmond get there if he wasn't dead?

janjstuart said...

One question that doesn't seem to have been answered (but some may not care about)...

What was the point of focusing on Walt's being "special" and the weird things that were going on when he lived with his mom...the bird hitting the glass door while he was reading a book about birds. And there were also the comments his step-dad made to Michael about weird things happening when Walt was around (I think I'm remembering this correctly?).

Was this just an idea they thought of pursuing and then decided to drop it?

Unknown said...

I was an Across the Sea hater, but for some reason I really loved the finale. I was totally caught offguard by Jack and Kate's lovestory having such an effect on me. It hadn't been foreshadowed at all in Season 6, but I found myself yearning for them to come together again (and I'm a dude).

Honestly I think the writers wrote themselves a kind of 'wildcard' to explain the island's mysteries, with the Alpert aging scene. All the crazy shit that happened was allowed under Jacob's rules, but as soon as Desmond went into the light cave he either became the new smokey, thus stripping Mib's power and making him bleed, or reset Jacob's rules, taking away Mib's power and all of the other supernatural things with it, like Miles' ability and Hurley's speaking with the dead.

Unknown said...

I watched a video that said the LOST DVD set is supposed to feature & explain the purpose of Walt according to "inside sources".

A link to the video can be found here: http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b182505_lost_want_know_man_in_blacks_real_name.html

It also pertains to answering some otherwise not-so easily answered questions.

Rebecca said...

So many tears ... of joy !!! What an emotional and epic ending to a fantastic series. I will miss LOST characters like family that have passed!!!!!

DaveD said...

I've been reading this blog since "Lockdown," and Brian, you have made this LOST experience soooo much better for me! Thank you so much for all of your hard work!

I watched LOST for the characters AND the Syfy aspect of it. While the finale was cathartic and I was happy to see all the reunions, I feel cheated. I wasn't expecting to get ALL the answers in this finale, but I was expecting to get a general idea about the purpose of the island, what would have happened if Flocke had escaped, and what the island has to do with time travel. I feel like the writers just created tantalizing episodes to hook viewers each week without ever having any intention of revealing the mysteries. Let's face it, the writers hooked us with the mystery of the island, not just the characters, otherwise there wouldn't have been so many unanswered questions about the island to begin with!
I really WANT to be satisfied with the ending, but I'm just not. I can deal with the Dharma mysteries because they are not necessarily island-related, but I need SOMEthing about the greater purpose of the island before I'll be satisfied. I'm hoping that Brian's analysis will show me something I've missed, something substantive that I can cling to in order to make these 6 years worthwhile.

Matt said...

@Joe Everyone dies sometime. That was the point of Christian's speech. Even if Desmond died 50 or 100 years after Jack did, there is no "now" where they were all gathering. So, they could all be there together.

Sam said...

a lot of good comments in here.

i agree with The Observer in that this is a TV show after all, and we shouldn't just 'let go' because they said so. we want a tighter story.

i did love the first 95% of the show, and 95% of the series, so i am not dissatisfied by any means.

i do agree with the point of Lost being that there are a lot of things in life that we get caught up in that distract us from what is important - relationships and love.

and the characters and their arcs made a great show.

Bea's questions about the sideways world are what i am still questioning. This 'created' place - when did they decide to create this place to meet when they died?

i do like all the discussion.

Audrey Brown said...

The only reason it didn't work for me was because all of the advertising this year was all about answers. They were pushing answers to their own mythology, when what they mean tto say was, "closure". Two very different things and my expectations were set by the writers and the advertising.

Megan said...

Here's a page with two videos - the first is reactions to the finale and then second contains some answers given by D&C or show insiders... like what the script originally lists as the Man in Black's name! It's an interesting watch: http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b182505_lost_want_know_man_in_blacks_real_name.html

Steve said...

- who were the others
People/societies that Jacob brought to the island to prove that humans were capable of doing the right thing(and that they do not always end in greed and destruction)

- what was the statue? the temple?
One of Jacobs many attempts to bring people to the island. They built this stuff.

- what was the numbers?
One of those things you don't want explaine.. if nothing else, it's the numbers that represent the final candidates... it could also be the numbers for the valenzio equation, but I think to answer this would be bad for the story.

- what was the "powers" of the island?
See "The numbers". It's an ancient, magnetic power that may or may not be life force, or may be corked. Up for interpretation, but I don't want this answer.

- Dharma? The Purge and all...?
This was answered in season 5 wasn't it? And earlier?

- why the time travels?
See powers of the island... and that dang wheel that smoke monster installed near the heart.

- why Desmond so much important?
He's the only one that can get close to that sort of power/magnetism. Jacobs failsafe.

- what was the purpose of Widmore?
Father of Faraday and Penny, had been tricked into turning donkey wheel and exiled from the island, wanted to return. To bring Desmond to the Island...

- why the wheel and its teleporting power?
To get off the island, explained in "across the sea"

- what was the light?
See what was is the power of the island.

- what the hell was the black smoke?
Again, see 'across the sea'.

- WHAT WAS THE ISLAND?
It's a cork, holding evil in place. It's open to interpretation, but I take it that instead of the light being good, that it's 'corked' in..(see what Desmond removed. If you remove the cork, the power is realeased. People assumed Jacob was talking about Smokey, but I think he's talking about the 'heart' of the island. Just my take.


And this is why the show is so great! It doesn't spoon feed you, it makes you think. Half of these questions were explained for most of us.. and those that weren't would be better left unanswered.

JD said...

Two things I would like to say:

1. My crazy idea about Jack's son. What if Jack's son is actually Jack, and Jack is his father? There was no closure in between Jack and his father and this was a way to do it. Jack was a surgeon because he thought that this would bring him close to his father, which never happened, but maybe his dream was to be something else. That is why in this "other" life or limbo, Jack's son is a musician...because there is a father-son relationship and the son can pursue his actual dream. Juliette as the mother? This is a creators twist to the plot. At the beginning Juliette falls in love with Jack, not with Sawyer...and Jack is close to her because he has seen Kate with Sawyer.

2. Jack's death. The gathering is for him because he is the only one to die alone. Everytime one dies, there is someone next to him/her, but in Jacks case, he dies alone in the bamboo. He is the only one to stay in limbo the longest and he takes over Jacob and dies as Jacob.

Steve said...

Lamb, you are exactly right...

People have a hard time with time travel.. and this is even a harder concept.. that there is no 'time' in the 'purgatory'.. that it's a place outside of time. doesn't matter when you die! I am still alive, my mom passed in 2004 and my dad in 1996, however, if I were in this 'purgatory' we would all be there.. because there IS no time, we're always there after the fact of life. Is that really do hard to comprehend?

Hurley and Ben probably died a thousand years after Jack, aaron did NOT die as a baby, but he was raised by other people.. and had a different group for 'passing over'.
As Desmond said, he's not taking Daniel with him. He's not ready.

So why have aaron being born again? Well, because the tie of all these people are flight 815.. to the setting was 'post' flight 815. It's hard to say the details as it's besides the point, the point is that we have to let go of our attachment(for these details) and move on. This was an awesome show, and while I was disapointed with many episodes this season, the Finale exceeded my expectations.

Steve said...

Dang it everyone! The water ceremony is symbolic! It's ritual. It's like taking communion, it doesn't REALLY do anything.. what happens takes place in your heart. Are we all really all that literal?

Unknown said...

@People asking about Walt - the writers said they had bigger plans for Walt but he grew too fast for them. Was in an interview from a while back. Just gonna have to let all the Walt BS go because the only answer to "Why did Walt not turn out to be special after all the first two seasons blah blah blah???" - Answer is "Puberty". The End.

The first 3 seasons of Lost were the best Television ever made (just from a 26 year old's experience) and season 4 was Pretty damn good too. Season 5 and 6 = Meh.

The finale was catered towards both the Emotional fans and the Action/Mystery fans. The first hour + some of the end were real fast-paced and action packed. The middle hour of the finale was all SAPPY hugs and cries. I enjoyed it, but I will remember Lost for the first 4 seasons which were amazing.

Ricardo said...

Huh?

Was that "Lost" or "Touched By An Angel?"

One of the many great things about the show was the commitment to the (occasionally shifting) physical universe, subject to laws and nature.

Instead we got a cheezy "sideway-flash-as-purgatory" explanation. Lame, cheap, and lazy. Made much worse, mind you, by Christian's ridiculous evangelical claptrap. We were held hostage to a Sunday evening sermon.

The action, though, was awesome. Jack dying in the bamboo grove? Incredible.

Look, I knew all secrets wouldn't be revealed. That was expected. But the writers have ALWAYS respected their viewers. Not so last night. They used their bully pulpit to espouse their nonsensical religion. Absolutely shameful.

If there's a way to delete all "sideways" scenes, then season six was very satisfying.

Hurley as #1, Ben as #2? Another series!

Eric Antoine Scuccimarra said...

My response to people that are angry about not having major questions/mysteries answered: How much angrier would you be if they had been resolved w/ unsatisfactory answers. And honestly I can't think of any satisfactory answers to the bigger questions like "what is the island." Anything that I can comprehend completely disappoints me.

I think we got just as much info as we needed to have some thoughts, any more would have certainly led to disappointment.

I'd rather have the show leave a lot of things open ended, and open to interpretation, than tie everything up neatly with a bow on it. Any definitive answers they gave would certainly have made more fans angrier than the info they did give.

Last night I wasn't sure, but today, while I'm not completely satisfied with everything, I think at least the end of the show stuck to the spirit of the show. And that's enough for me.

Unknown said...

I didn't suffer many of the ups and downs everyone else did--at least, not in the same way. I caught up with the series over the Winter (and damn glad I did it that way).

I loved the ending, but, then again, I wasn't looking for an answer to all my questions. Life doesn't provide them, so why should an alternate life? For me it was all about the people--the characters populating this world. And I was a bit disappointed that a few didn't make it into the finale, but it wasn't a deal breaker.

And, really, I look at the ending as the chance that they arranged to gather together to walk into the next great adventure with those who mattered most to them, those they trusted above all others. Nobody knew what comes next, but they knew who they wanted to face it with.

I thought it was a very satisfying ending, emotionally. But intellectually? I doubt anyone whose focus was on those things will be satisfied. But I'm okay with that.

Steve said...

Jack doesn't die alone.. he's with Vincent.

Desmond was 'unlocked' by charlie in the car crash.

That's it, I'll let brian handle the rest in one big long post!

Unknown said...

I agree with Ricardo - at the end of the Finale I said "what the F did I just watch?" and my friends agreed. LOOOOTS OF SAP in the episode. And that's fine because they needed some happy endings to please everyone.

I wasn't expecting a lot of answers and honestly I don't care for that many because I like trying to make up what is gonna happen next. But a lot of the show doesn't make sense now that the season is over with. And that has nothing to do with Lost's "great mysteries" but more the writers being on drugs and taking this show into candyland for the 5th-6th season.

They kept introducing more questions in seasons 5 and 6 and the questions just got more and more absurd. It went from "who is henry gale? / Are the people on the freighter bad?" type questions to "who is gonna put the plunger back into the magic light hole? How do we get onto a plane and teleport back to 1977? Should we use the Atom Bomb that Doc Brown burried back in 1950 to blow up a pocket of energy and shoot us 30 years into the future?"

The questions got dumber and more twilight zone oriented as the last two seasons went along. And I'm not saying it was terrible, it was actually very entertaining. But if I'm real bored I can throw in a random disc from seasons 1-4 and start watching and love it. I doubt I ever rewatch much/any of seasons 5&6 in the future

adri said...

I remember Richard telling Jack on the island that 'they were all dead' ....so...I still dont understand...

Woof410 said...

@Matt, i completely get that, i was just wondering was Desmond is the only person who is cognizant of being in the Sideways Flash ... he gets kate and everyone together at the concert with the purpose of getting everyone to move on ... my only question is how does he know all this when everyone else is otherwise clueless?

Rocket Science Mom said...

I have to say that first, my enjoyment of the program was hampered by technical difficulties. Our affilliate here in Cleveland botched the signal and it all came out choppy. There were many conversations that I didn't hear the ending of or crucial parts of because the feed skipped.

That having been said, this finale was exactly the goodbye I was hoping it would be.

It did break my heart, but it let me say goodbye, with some peace and respect, to the characters and the show I have loved or six years. In my mind, that was exactly what I was hoping for.

I went into the finale having gotten all of the answers I wanted or needed. All I desired was to see how it would end and bid them goodbye.

For me, this was near perfect and I love Damon and Carlton more than I can say.

Unknown said...

Can someone give me an honest answer to what the purpose of the A-Bomb detonation was to the show?

This consumed half of season 5 and was the "reason for the flash sideways" this season that turned out to be "waiting room" for the Losties to wake up in.

As far as I can see - what did detonating the bomb do? - Nothing. made a crater in the ground and gave Juliet internal injuries? The past didn't change. All the stuff we thought we were seeing "how the bomb changed the lives of everyone as a what-if the island was at the bottom of the ocean etc etc" was BS b/c the flash sideways was a Waiting room, not a "what if" scenario. So juliet died from the bomb - kinda she looked half dead when she was hitting it with a rock. Nobody else got hurt by the bomb. it just blew them 30 years forward in time. That is ABSURD Darlton.

The Temple - huge waste of half a season. You learn about Dogen - WGAS about that guy he died and was never mentioned again. Learn about "testing people for darkness" - obviously false because Sayid ended up not being evil in the end anyways. The Healing Spring = once Jack was the new Jacob it should be back to normal and could have been used to heal jack yes?

Why did the heart of the island turn MIB into Smokey but Desmond and Jack were perfectly fine after being in it?

How could the Losties build a purgatory/waiting room and fill it up with people like Keamy that would force them to be evil and kill - Sayid and Jin kill people in "Heaven's waiting room" just before going in??? Woooooooooow......

These aren't questions that have to do with "Lost's Great Mysteries that are better left unanswered." These are more questions asking why team Darlton was on drugs for the last 2 seasons and taking us with them on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. It feels like a complete cop out.

And lastly - Smokey being Locke as a vessel to leave the island is real silly. You're gonna go try and live a nice good life as a 60 year old loser with nothing to live for in the real world? Maybe has 10 good years to live his life in that body. I would have taken Boone's body and actually tried to live a little in the real world

kate said...

what was going on in that one episode that had jin "flashing back/forward" and taking a stuffed animal to the hospital for someone having a baby (not sun)??

Jana said...

Please don't hate me for drawing this parallel, but this reminded me a lot of the ending to "Titanic". Jack and Rose meet in the afterlife on the grand staircase of the ship, and they look just as they did in 1912, even though she dies as an old lady. That time and that place were the defining moments of their lives, and it's the same for the characters on LOST. They may have gone on to lead lives off the island or on it for many years, but the time and place that defined them was Flight 815. So the final scene in the church is just like that scene on the grand staircase, when they are all with the people who matter most to them.

And just like the end of "Titanic" I cried like a baby.

Michael said...

@ noemailformeadows, the problem with the Walt thing is that the producers said that the actor playing Walt growing up wouldn't be a problem for their storytelling. Supposedly, they had planned on that happening.

I have a hard time believing the plan was to make a character hugely central to the first two seasons of the series completely irrelevant.

And yet...

Unknown said...

Observer. I'm with you it seems a little ridiculous. Walt didn't even seem THAT old when Locke went to visit him at his school. But I'm pretty sure that Puberty was the reason/excuse I heard from team Darlton in an interview at some point this season when they were asked "if walt was making a surprise comeback" and Harold Perrineau (sp?) also gave the same reason/excuse last night on Kimmel after the show.

I don't like it, but I was just throwing that info out there b/c I saw a lot of people asking about Walt and pretty sure this is the best explanation they are gonna get

smacky said...

@noemailformeadows After Desmond "turned out the light" and Jack punched Smokey and made him bleed, Smokey realized an unexpected side effect was that he was now human again. He didn't know that was going to happen! Now he's stuck in the body he's been using.

From a narrative standpoint, Smokey seemed to enjoy unnerving everyone by looking like Locke, and he showed an evil glee when he said Locke was a fool and died for nothing. Jack told Smokey he was disrespecting Locke's memory.

(From a television standpoint, I'm glad they chose to continue to use the actor who played Locke to be Smokey in season 6. I wouldn't have wanted a full season of Boone running around!)

Unknown said...

Jana, I see the Titanic thing too. Very similar and was the first thing I thought about the episode after it was over. I am like you Brian, I fall in the middle. The emotional stuff was great, but I wanted more mythological stuff thrown in there too. They did this beautifully with the Constant (even though we were left with questions after that episode too). I totally get the ending and I am very satisfied on a emotional level……. I just would have preferred more answers about the Others, why was it soooooo bad if MIB go out (other than hey the world is doomed!) etc. This finale felt like this: A person who had never seen LOST before could have watched that finale and totally understood it...simply knowing that the show was about a plane crash where they end up on a freaky/mystery island was enough to understand that finale. And I just wanted more for the people that invested 6 years into it. Of course, a newbie wouldn't be able to catch the little things (like the date on the sonogram, etc.) but they would be able to understand and catch on quick. Would have been nice if the writers would have thrown us....the loyal 6 year viewers more of a bone....in the mythological sense.

Andrew McMillen said...

Brian, from Brisbane, Australia to you, thanks so much for writing this blog. I can't believe I've been clicking in here after every episode for six years. You (and the community here) have made my experience watching Lost very enjoyable and gratifying. Take care.

NaughtyPinkBallerina said...

I get the point to the 'Flash-sideways' but i don't like it. I became very emotionally invested in the characters and how their lives had changed for the better in this alternate reality. My theory was that the 'Flash-Sideways' reality was linked to these characters getting what they wanted most...
There was a moment when I thought it was going to be because of Jacob or Smokey that the 'Flash-Sideways' existed, not because the bomb went off and stopped the plane from crashing as most would have predicted at first.
It seemed Jacob had the power to 'grant wishes' if you'd say, like the time he allowed Richard to become immortal as Richard asked him to make it so that he would never die (he believed that because of his sins that he would go to hell and never get to be with his wife again). Somehow, Jacob managed to make Richard immortal.
And then there was Smokey, who manipulated Sayid into helping him by saying he could give him the one thing he desired as his reward - it was suggested that he could also magically grant wishes.
This theory worked for me in the 'Flash-Sideways'- Sayid got to see Nardia again and she had the life he thought she deserved, Hurley was lucky, Jin and Sun were in a passionate love affair, Kate got to help Claire, Claire got to know about Jack her brother and be part of a family, Sawyer was a cop and got to help people instead of ruining their lives like he did as a con artist, Ben got to be close to Alex, Locke was 'special' in the eyes of the woman he loved, Desmond had the approval of Penny's father and Jack got to be the father that his father couldn't be.
Maybe Hurley, once 'The Protector', changed the rules like Ben suggested he do and made it so they could all live out their desires in this special place they go to when they die?
Too much happened in the 'Flash-Sideways' to think it was just a 'waiting room' until they all connected and were ready to move on...it's hard for me to accept it.
I also would have really loved it if the writers united Juliet and her sister, who we saw in Juliet's flash backs had cancer and became pregnant because of Juliet and was the main reason Juliet wanted off the island so bad. This would have been a heart-felt moment for all those invested in Juliet's character.
Also, I wished that someone told Claire that her mother was the one looking after Aaron. We saw that in Claire's flash-backs that her mother ended up in a coma after her and Claire got into a car accident and that Claire blamed herself and it was very emotional at the time that Claire had to go through her pregnancy without her mother. I think it would have been touching to see Claire's reaction to know her mother came out of the coma and got to be part of Aaron's life! i guess i just have to assume that once they left the island they would have been re-united but still not the same...

Unknown said...

LOST spin-off sitcom on the cards: Miles, Alpert and Lapidus share an apartment in uptown New York. The story focuses on the guys showing Richard the ropes; integrating him into contemporary American society etc. The pilot will see the trio attempt to pick up some chicks at a club. Richard gets drunk and has a great time. All his hairs will be grey.

zimmerman said...

is there nobody that also thinks that jack is the new black smoke. he was lying just like the man in black and nobody had him seen coming out of the cave

Unknown said...

My initial reaction is that I thought the finale was fantastic! I was blown away, both visually and emotionally, although there were a few cheesy scenes that could have been done better, but oh well. I too Brian, am a character guy over the sci-fi, but the intermingling of the two was what really attracted me to the show. All the characters were very likable, one way or another, and I saw myself over the years rooting for all them to get what they desired.

The fact that Jack didn't turn into the smoke monster after he was vaporized tells me that there was only one smoke monster. So when MIB was sent down the stream, he couldn't have been "recreated" as the smoke monster, but that he assumed the smoke monster. I know that is not how the producers explained it in the Pre-finale show, but how can it be otherwise?

I thought the flash sideways purgatory reveal was the only thing that could have made sense, even though I did not see anyone predict that. Most people were focusing on the island as purgartory, rather than the flash sideways world.

Overall, I felt very satisfied with how things turned out, but of course I will miss Lost as most of you will as well.

Odditur said...

Why did Locke tell Jack that "he didn't have a son" when Jack was leaving his hospital room? That confused me.

Odditur said...

Why did Locke tell Jack that "he didn't have a son" when Jack was leaving his hospital room? That was confusing.

RecycleCindy said...

Fantastic story and I loved the finale. Everyone got to be back with everyone they loved. What a emotional and touching story told so well and ended so sweetly. RIP my dear Lost characters -- You will be missed!

ShaunaC84 said...

I think that Richard Alpert wasn't in the final scene because he probably hasn't died yet, and he's still living out his life in "the real world". Walt and Michael weren't in the final scene most likely because they are still stuck in purgatory. Michael hinted at that possibility when he showed up when Hurley heard him "whispering" to him. Vincent wasn't in the final church scene either, at least not that I had noticed. I find that a little bit sad. I loved the beautiful emotion and closure of the characters. It was a great ending. The only pain in the butt is trying to explain everything and all its symbolisms to friends that didn't quite understand the ending lol.

ChibiOne said...

Eloise and Christian seem like they were people who purposefully did not move on in order to help others do so. Sort of like the legends of the various Buddhas, I think.

Also, remember Michael said he was trapped on the Island because of what he had done (Libby, Anna-Lucia, generally being an annoying douche).

At least now I know when I rewatch the series that I can just skip any scenes with him in it, as they end up being totally meaningless in the broader arc of the series. =)

Anonymous said...

chibione

Kinda like Jar-Jar binks

Unknown said...

Odditor - Locke was trying to convince Jack that he needed to "let go", and to "remember"....which is the way all the other main characters in purgatory were able to do.

Unknown said...

Odditor - Locke was trying to convince Jack that he needed to "let go", and to "remember"....which is the way all the other main characters in purgatory were able to do.

Unknown said...

Re: Brian's Sideways interpretation of the Sidways storyline as a place/time where each individual could work out and accept the things they had done in life, and meet up with each other:

What's up with the Sideways story about Locke's guilt about crashing his father in the plane? What was he working out? Replacing his anger with his father in the flashback story, with guilt in the sideways story? His being happier with his father as a victim rather than the monster that he was?

wataruse said...

My rambling thoughts on the whole point of LOST, and why nothing else needs to be for certain, because everyone in Life is looking for different answers...

I think that to the characters of LOST, through out the whole series what became most important to them was everyone trying to leave The Island together. This was such an emotionally intense time for everyone, that nothing they would ever do in their lives would feel so important and so necessary. When they died, whether it be on The Island or later in their lives as survivors, they were left unfullfilled. The one thing all of them lived and died with was the regret of losing those people, and that place unfinished. When each one of them died they could not move on, because they were still waiting for everyone to feel safe again. Always holding onto the regret of not doing the RIGHT thing to get everyone HOME safely, and how their own decisions subsquently became life and death situations for each others lives, not just their own. The time of their lives on The Island as survivors, was them constantly looking death (or life) straight in the eye trying to survive. This made them constantly reflect on theirselves, their worth, and their meaning to the world (or island) and to each other. What they all had in common in the beginning was doubt. Doubt of themselves and doubt of OTHERS. This made them self reflect to believe in themselves. Some needed to believe in OTHERS to be led to believe in themselves. In the end what they had in common was FAITH in themselves as OTHERS, and belief in the deeper meanings and connections of life.They connected peices of their stories with each other, as nothing you do in life can be done entirely alone. By forever holding onto that regret and that hope, they were not able to move on until they found each other safe again, the right way, with no regrets. Their redemption was redeeming each other, in the beginning and in the end.

Sarah said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sarah said...

Ok, you all HAVE to check out this great video of the unanswered questions of LOST. Too funny!!!!
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1936291

LL said...

I think that saying the flash sideways was a purgatory was a bit of a copout because it meant the producers couldn't find a compelling way to tie the island adventure to the flash sideways. At lostreimagined.blogspot.com I try to present an alternate ending that would have accomplished that.

Anonymous said...

To The End... you are implying that the writers did not know it was Purgatory/Limbo when they introduced the Flash Sideways this year.... that COULD NOT BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH. They knew the whole time.

lee said...

best show and finale, love it more and more as i think about it

btw has everyone seen this???!?!
http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/lost-michael-emerson-series-finale-15751/

michael emerson revealed that in the dvd extras there will be "12-14 minutes" of what happened to hurley and ben after hurley became number one and the scene between them at the church!!!! to kind of fill in the gaps!!!!! :O