If you’re a big fan of Lost, chances are you’re already steaming with hatred for whatever my opinion may be after seeing that title. After all, I’ll be attacking your beloved six-plus-year-old child with criticism here. And, like a loving parent, you accept your offspring just as they are, for in your eyes they are without fault and could do no wrong. Your guard is up when they are attacked.
I’m here to tell you that this six-year-old kid of yours named Lost is a lazy, disappointing bully!
See Penny and Desmond up there with the rest of the Losties? Disappointed! Seriously, they look PISSED!
NBC should air a special episode of SNL just so they can do a “Really?!” segment for the Lost finale.
Lindelof and Cuse, the latest showrunners of Lost, made several mentions that they wouldn’t be able to answer all the questions left before the end of the series. Apparently they meant “all” nearly literally, because we barely got any of the ones most viewers were hoping for. I was going over a mental list of things I still want to know the answer to, but I stopped when I got to the point of being kinda pissed off.
There are several different kinds of people who were fans of Lost, but overwhelmingly there were those who watched it for the mysteries involved — the science fiction aspects — like me. I didn’t watch it primarily for the relationships involved. I didn’t watch it for any great acting chops or overly meaningful symbolism and stellar writing styles. I wanted to know what this island was and who were the people involved with it. There wasn’t enough meat on the show to make me care about anything else. And the bully writers decided to screw us.
The showrunners went on the record as saying the island wasn’t going to turn out to be Heaven or Hell, and it appears they were being honest there. However, instead, they made the ending about the afterlife … and I didn’t freaking care. I wanted more island answers, dammit! Explain smokey more. Explain that out-of-nowhere golden light. The what-the-hell stone cork/island tampon? How does the island move? Why did we see the island underwater in the season premiere and it apparently didn’t happen? OK, I’ll stop now, because there’s that rage coming on again.
I’ll soften the blow of this post by saying that I really did like the way we saw the characters reuniting with the people they loved. I also liked the very final scene with Jack dying in the same spot he woke up from in the series premiere, and especially with the loyal Vincent by his side. I also liked that these 2.5 hours were filled with a lot of action and slowed down only for the onslaught of commercials.
In some respects, the ending didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Were the writers trying to tell us that everything we just saw for 6+ years meant nothing in the scheme of things? It was just a story to explain why these people meant something to each other, and that’s it. It didn’t seem to do anything to put them where they were. In the end, the writers decided to say screw it, we’ll end it with Heaven anyway … it’s not as though they’re saying the island was Heaven or Purgatory, so it fits with their promise. And that is where I say it’s lazy — irresponsible, even — that they left things so open with the mysteries of the island, only to cap it off with a character reunion (missing some key people, I might add), leaving the mystery of the island pretty much wholly unexplained. The ending seemed entirely disconnected with the island story!
I see people searching and tweeting today, looking for the ending of Lost to be explained. There’s little to explain. We still don’t know a lot about the island, everyone died at some point and, since time means nothing on the metaphysical plane, they all wound up in Heaven together at the same time. The end. No fade to black to ponder — an ending that, by the way, I now have more appreciation for after this finale.
Sorry, but that’s lazy and disappointing. For a show as iconic as Lost had become, its finale will go down as one of the most anticipated yet forgettable ever. If anyone remembers to make note of that, that is. The writers owed dedicated fans something more, and they didn’t deliver.
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on May 24, 2010 @ 15:00 EST5EDT
I agree about wanting more info on the island. It seemed like the afterlife reveal was something not quite worthy of what the show has evolved to be since the first few seasons.
Like, if all the stuff on the island actually happened, I want to know more about that. Considering all the craziness that occurred there, a reunion in the afterlife seems INCREDIBLY tame and uninspired. More about time travel, please. More existential super-nightmares, more hidden caverns. That’s what I loved most about LOST.
The island was under water in those scenes because of the nuke, no?
I can see why you’re miffed, but for me, (your resident devout Catholic) the continued mystery works just fine. ;)
You are so cute trying to explain :-)
Everything in the flash-sideways was la-la land. A fairytale all the Losties made up so they could find each other in the afterlife. There’s no reason trying to explain anything about the sideways world once they made it clear it was all a fantasy.
It’s an extreme Nelson Munz “Ha ha” thing, you know. They explained _nothing_ about the island in the whole sith season. Not about the mystical power behind the island, not how to get to it, not how to get off it, not what the energy pockets were, not how time travel worked, not how Smokey came to be (think about it: Jacob kills his brother and then floats him down there – down there is just a room. If you think about it closely the Man in Black just dropped down there dead as he was and then “something” happened to turn him into smoke).
There’s absolutely _nothing_ the Finale explained. Zilch. Nada. Niente. Überhaupt nix. Nullo. ничего, 何も
The answer is “Afterlife” and that’s all there is to it. I chose smiling about it and to be happy that they all found each other and NOT to think about what the whole idea behind Lost was. I found that the search for answers angers me and that I understood the whole show wrong. It was always about the Characters and how good the actors were and I like the show for that.
But compared to other shows like “Six Feet Under” this was a complete dud. A giant piece of “meh”.
But I liked the finale the way it was and I was able to let go around wednesday afternoon when Bob told me in a comment that I, (sir) was the one who ruined Lost for myself while others were still able to enjoy it. And he was right.
So I chose to enjoy it and just let it go. I can’t change it anyway. Frustration doesn’t lead to anything and I vented my anger about the fact that Lindelof and Cuse absolutely suck at telling a SciFy/Fantasy/Mystery Story for three years.
I doubt Keith wants to hear explanations what was what. Because after about five seconds you reeeeeeeally get angry. Trust me. I know :-)
I came at Lost the exact same way you did – Island-first, cast-second point of view. Perhaps that is my punishment for hopping on board at the beginning of season 4. I did go back to watch earlier seasons to help fill a few things in for my more full understanding…
As such, I came away from the finale in a very similar way to you – wanting more out of the Island. I know they would not explain everything, because, some things in life are a mystery, but to set so many things up for us over 6 years and to have most of them left unanswered and letting us interpret them as ‘just because’ is a letdown of giant proportions.
The 4-toed statue? What is smokey? Where was Walt? Eko? What did the nuclear bomb actually do? What are the island’s rules – personal choices of the ‘one’? Why was the island shown underwater?
The reality is, the creative team decided the show was about the relationships of the people in it, and they placed a higher value on it to the audience for the finale rather than explaining the island and it’s events.
I gotta’ say, this conclusion wasn’t any better than those who say it was better than BSG’s. I actually felt better about that one…
I, like many others, came at Lost with the island mysteries first. Now many are saying that’s my fault for missing the point of the show but I disagree.
The writers sold us the idea of the “Island” by injecting a lot of mystery into it (heck, from the pilot the whole show has been full of nothing but mystery and intrigue surrounding the whole island).
It now turns out, as suggested in the original post, that everything prior to season 6 meant nothing other than a story to explain how the characters meant something to eachother. Of course, being lazy, they used various plot devices to hook the viewer into wanting to see more, in the hope of getting answers. Clearly, they had no clue about how to write a character-based drama without introducing monsters, time-travel, “others”, dharma, man in white/black, etc…..
Sure, I can take the positives of the show and the emotional ending. And I liked how they resolved the character’s stories. But after investing 5 years in developing the “Island” story they could have and should have done better.
Lazy is IT, same comment I had next to “a bonanza of marketing”. Unless there is some really revealing symbolism with regards to what that big rock plunger thingy was, or why the hold emitting the light looked like a cartoon kitty Satan, I might toss some saving grace its way, but yea, I am a huge fan of LOST and this writing was complete shit meant for a pop-culture audience.
I’ve been watching this show all along, and I can definitely say that the show was more about characters than about mysteries. As the writers said, for them the real mystery of the show was in who the characters were, and if that’s what they say the story is, then that’s what the damn story is. You approached it wrong and so were disappointed. There wasn’t a single episode of this show that was devoted to the mythology behind the island. The one a few weeks ago that we were sure would explain everything, didn’t. Instead, it was the story of two more people. That should’ve been the final clue. Yes, the island was always in the background, always part of the story, but I think to that end the show gave us enough to come up with our own answers if we’re so inclined. The general answer was thus: It’s an island that has unique electromagnetic properties, and being there together had a profound impact on the lives of certain people. The End.
What I’m saying is that the sixth season and the finale were no different than anything else the show has given us. If they explained anything about the island, it was from the perspective of the characters. The time travel was only important in the way that it affected them. Same with the hatch, the monster and Others (who ended up being more characters themselves), the Dharma Initiative – all the “mysteries” were as solved as they needed to be from the characters’ perspectives, and that’s all the show ever offered. To think something else would happen was self-delusion. The final season was the writers’ chance to bring their vision home, and they did that convincingly while staying consistent with everything the show has always been about.
I think you are right. In the end, it all didn’t matter. The island gave them a way to connect because off the island, they were all “Lost”.
They found each other on the island to live happily ever after in the Afterlife.
Well maybe except Ben and Mr. Eko and Michael and Walt and everyone else who wasn’t in the church at the end but you know what I mean.
But, you know, it all has this certain flavor of “It all happened in the mind of an autistic child” and Bobby isn’t really dead, you know :-)
But hey I don’t give a rats ass, every episode was better than Season Six of “24” and I watched that too ^^;
Adam S., out of every single comment I’ve read about the finale (and I feel like I’ve read about a gazillion), yours I couldn’t agree with more. I couldn’t have said that better myself. Sounds like a true fellow Lostie from day 1! Namaste.
I was of two minds after the finale ended and I was surrounded by sodden, crumpled up tissues:
1) I was moved by the closure/solace/peace that beloved characters were able to achieve (though not all of them) in the “sideways flashing” world, especially in the last few scenes. I was a complete sucker for the romantic reunions, especially after they “remembered” their island relationships, and for seeing Jack, in his death scene, relieved that he’d finally fixed things, killed the Smoke Monster and allowed his friends to escape.
2) On the mystery/mythology front, however, the one that was nurtured and encouraged by the show’s creators — including their intentional planting of Easter eggs for fans to find — it was a bust. I was very disappointed that very key, central questions, which consumed so much time and energy in earlier seasons, were simply jettisoned, as if they meant nothing. (Which is what some fans who loved the finale are arguing, that the bigger, more important picture is the people, their faith, their redemption, not the “little” things, those pesky details like, uh, an island that can disappear by turning a wheel, killer pregnancies, and the small matter of whether the “sideways flash” existence was a waiting area, in between death and heaven.)
Where I felt closure on the part of the character’s individual journeys, in the broader picture of the island, I felt the way you did Keith, let down, like a switcheroo had been orchestrated because trying to have everything sewn up would’ve been too unwieldy and difficult, so they went another way.
The disdain for the finale seems to be rooted in the same problem. Every comment I read seems to from people who wanted the show to tell us literally everything, no one wants to make the connections themselves. This problem seems to be rampant in our society. People want to be given everything, and then get annoyed when they need to come up with them themselves. I say stop complaining, there is no way to change it. Make some connections yourselves, and you may find that we were given more answers than are at the surface.
We can all imagine how boring it would be for someone to simply stand on the island running down a list of answers, “1) the island moves by ____;2) the meaning of LOST is this; etc…” That would have been much worse than what we were given. Enjoy it for what it is, don’t let the ending you were expecting to ruin the ending you were given.
*POST AUTHOR*
With that said, fritz, I’d like for someone to take a stab at explaining those connections based on what we’ve seen, and make us nod in agreement that it makes a lick of sense.
Really, those of us who expected answers disappointed ourselves. Why should we have expected more out of the writers when we never got more out of them all along? They were always lazy, and they never improved.
It was always completely frustrating to me that the characters on the show never put their foot down and screamed “I AM NOT MOVING ONE MORE INCH UNTIL SOMEONE EXPLAINS THAT BIG BLACK SMOKE THING RIGHT NOW!” But since nobody ever made such a stand, it was never answered. If nobody did that for six seasons, why would they do it in the series finale? We got more of the same.
“It was always completely frustrating to me that the characters on the show never put their foot down and screamed “I AM NOT MOVING ONE MORE INCH UNTIL SOMEONE EXPLAINS THAT BIG BLACK SMOKE THING RIGHT NOW!””
Actually, they more or less did!
– First of all, for much of the series the central characters weren’t in contact with anyone who COULD give them an answer to that question. (Would their fellow crash survivors have known?)
But beyond their group, when asking other inhabitants on the island:
– They asked Rousseau what the smoke monster was. She figured it as being some sort of security system protecting the island.
– I remember Kate asking Juliet about it at one point, and Juliet said she didn’t know what it was, just that it didn’t like the sonic fence.
– Locke also asks Ben about the monster, but he also said he didn’t know what it was. Later Ben reveals that he knows how to summon it…but he still doesn’t know what exactly it is.
With that said, fritz, I’d like for someone to take a stab at explaining those connections based on what we’ve seen, and make us nod in agreement that it makes a lick of sense.
This is where the fun comes in, and what we’ve been doing for weeks. Ask some questions, and I’ll try to answer with evidence from the show.
This is exactly one of the questions which I feel was 99% answered to us as viewers, though it was clearly not told to the characters. In “Across the Sea” we see Jacob shove the man in black down the waterfall and emerging as the smoke monster. What are the specifics? As I see it, his sprit was split from his body and since he was angry and full of rage, he stayed in that state for a very long time. Is this the right answer? Who knows, others may see it differentlly, and that’s what makes it so much fun to be a part of these last six years. As to why the characters didn’t want to know about where it came from/ what it was I have no idea, maybe they were too focused on surviving/ being hunted down by it to focus on those questions. Again, I am just suggesting that they left abiguity so that we could answer some questions ourselves, sorry if that is too much to ask.
Okay Fritz, let’s flip your argument on it’s ear…
If there was no closure – none, zippo, zilch – for the characters and their connection to each other, yet, all of the mysteries of the island were explained or at least summed up and digestible, would you still have the same feeling of;
“…Make some connections yourselves, and you may find that we were given more answers than are at the surface.”
Somehow, from the tone of your email position, I doubt it. I am assuming that you were happy that it was a character-only focused finish. I was not.
I do not want to be spoonfed every detail – I do have an imagination and love unsolved mysteries, but for a show that set so many balls into the air, reveled in their ‘ingenuity’ and was praised for creating this vast mystery, they really missed an opportunity to bring *some* closure to the island.
I would guarantee those people who loved the ending and it’s character focus would be up in arms just as much as some people are today had they *not* given the characters more closure than the island…
I still haven’t fully mentally digested what we were shown in the finale and I completely agree that I expected way more answers than were given and would have loved to see many many more things answered, when that didn’t happen, I was not completely suprised. What has been the most fun about the series is that we had to fill in the blanks from what we were given, why should the finale be anything different? If they just used this episode to run down a list of answers,no one would hve liked that. Any ambiguity in the finale was there for a reason, and I simply feel that jumping to any immediate conclusions would be a waste of time, give it some time to settle. Besides, the producers have said in many interviews I have read that they were only going to answer questions which mattered to the characters, with that in mind I feel that thy succeeded. I apologize that if asking people to give it time and form some of their own conclusions offended anyone.
Perhaps thinking of Lost as a science fiction show when it is actually a more of a fantasy show is the problem?
Magic, faith, love, God, etc.
mister_d;
I don’t think there is a problem in how one looks at a show. I happened to look at it as a very clever vehicle for pitting science, religion, faith, smoke monsters and dynamite onto one little island, introducing some people to it, and showcasing the mythology, mysticism and science they uncover.
To me, it doesn’t really matter how one thinks of the show, but rather, what you want to get out of it.
To me this is just as much a science fiction show as BSG was…
Funny – both ended up being about faith…and don’t get me started on the X-Files…
What a giant disappointment. And this, from someone who loved the Battlestar Galactica finale. The major difference between the two is that while BSG left the big things like God, Gods, Head characters, and Starbuck, a mystery, it concluded the adventure beautifully in terms of finding ‘Earth’ and the characters finding peace with each other and with themselves. And, for the non-religious, it did hint that God and the other deities were perhaps alien beings, neither organic nor synthetic, holographic beings of light perhaps, or the descendents of humans and cylons who exist outside space-time. (Head Six mentions God. Baltar says ‘You know it doesn’t like that name’). In short, Battlestar Galactica had an amazing finale. I always thought so, now I feel it even more keenly, having watched the Lost finale.
Lost tried to follow the same formula of tying up the character stories rather than getting bogged down in the mythology. But the whole thing simply didn’t make much sense to me, until I realized that the ending was reminiscent of the superb Tim Robbins film ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ a film that came out in the mid 80s, and about 15 years before The Sixth Sense.
I’m still not entirely sure if that’s what the writers were aiming for…they had all died on the island when they crashed, and the entire adventure on the island and off, was the afterlife? That’s basically what the finale’s revelation was? They were all clinging on to their existence, not quite ready to let go? Hmmm…Jacob’s Ladder is better. If you haven’t already done so, see this film. It’s amazing.
If Lost’s focus was primarily on the characters, then why didn’t they have Mr. Echo, or Michael, or Michael’s son in it? Why did Sayid end up back with Shannon rather than Nadia? Which relationship was real? I also think the island needed more of an explanation. You could say its not necessary, and that it would be like demanding an explanation of the FTL drive in the finale of BSG. No. The Galactica was a character in its own right, and it had an end, a beautiful send off, as much as any of the other characters.
In Lost, the island is the same. The island is as much a character as the islanders, and as such, it needed some sort of explanation, some sort of conclusive send off, not further mysteries thrown in at the last minute, especially when you consider that while BSG has Caprica and another spin off series, in which previously unanswered BSG mysteries can be explored, the Lost showrunners have stated that Lost is finished: no prequel, no sequel, no big screen outing. Its over. So if you know that its completely finished and over, then surely there’s an obligation to end with some explanation rather than yet more mysteries that apparently will never ever be answered.
Aimed for?
You’ve GOT to be kidding me.
They amed for making a ton of money based on nothing and they did a bang up job doing that. There’s no sense in ANYTHING on the show. It’s all about the characters.
It’s like a chess set without knowing how to play. Lovely pieces, aren’t they.
Bingo!
I’m just going to assume the cork thingy was a hellmouth like in Buffy. Least that way in my mind I can pretend I got the questions answered AND character resolutions. Also in my mind Scrubs ended in season 8, Star Wars never had a prequel, and Al Gore won the 2000 election.
And “Friends” ended right around that episode where Rachel’s coworker stood on the balcony of the appartment. Season 9 episode 16 or something. They didn’t kiss, Ross and Rachel find each other and it ends after Season 9 THE END.
:-)
what-the-hell stone cork/island tampon?
LOL!!!
Nothing to say, the show runers were just a couple of dudes with a story that went out of control…
lol Lost = chess set with beautiful pieces but no coherent strategy, good one also agree about Scrubs (only because I feel bad for the actors that tried to make 9 work), Star Wars because Lucas was so in love with CGI that he forgot how to make films, and Al Gore because Bush cheated the election, started an unnecessary war in Iraq (secretly and in reality positioning troops for a possible confrontation with Iran in the future), allowed the banks to ruin the world economy, and halted almost all research into stem cell technology for 8 years. What a guy.
All across the net those who saw this show as sci-fi and invested themselves into the mythology are upset and dislike the finale. I’m not sure if they understand or not but I think it is clear from both inside the show and comments made by people outside the show that the show was never about the island, the mythology or mysteries.
Think of them as the rich tapestry (hint) that the show about these characters lives played out on. The drama was always about them, never about the island. If you thought it was, or failed to come to that understanding I think you will always fail to understand this show. For those who want that mystery and the answers I say watch Fringe, I know I am.
As mentioned in Bob’s post previously, there was no possible way all the mysteries could be resolved. Getting into the meat of this season, that seemed a pretty good bet. And, I wondered: Would many of them really make a difference in the end? As it turned out, no.
Except to “the obsessed” …..
It was all part of the mythology of Lost. And – as I said before – Wasn’t that what we really enjoyed about the show?
Cripes … there was tons in the finale so rich with metaphor you could choke on it. It made me forget (albeit temporarily, but with a smile and some tears) the answers I had to the questions posed.
Metaphor: Water. Metaphor: Light. (Both were prevalent throughout the episode.) Metaphor: Religious references up the wazoo: Sawyer asking about what “the burning bush” had to say … so many stating “I believe in you.” Metaphor: The “Now you’re like me” references. Cripes … Lapidas even flew off the island with an “Amen”.
The ultimate reference? As if it wasn’t evident way back when, how ’bout Christian Shepherd … ??? Yes. “Christian” “Shepherd”. Jack’s father explained he was with people “who had impacted him the most during his life”. When he asked his dad what Kate had meant by the fact that they were leaving, Christian said “Moving on.”
And it was Christian who walked to the church doors, opened them and “let in the light”.
And that’s lazying writing? No. It’s outstanding. Outstanding in that it wrapped up a ton of questions.
Just not the ones that really didn’t make that much difference.
A good series leaves you hanging in some says. Else … what would you talk about ’round the water cooler?
The Powers That Be of Lost doned goodly. You just have to know where to look, s’all …..
*POST AUTHOR*
Forget about the sideways world and the ending, that they were all in Heaven at the end. Of course there was symbolism in that respect, and it was all fully up front and in our faces. But where the hell did that come from? It came out of nowhere, when most of us were waiting for the big answers to WTF questions we had for six long seasons. I didn’t care where the hell they were ending up or where they were going.
To leave THAT much up to “the interpretation of the viewer” is just a crappy excuse for “we didn’t know either *shrug*.” They gave the smoke monster mechanical noises because it sounded cool — no deep, outstanding writing there.
I’m of the impression – whether they admit it or not – they did a lot of “Hey! This is cool! Let’s do it an screw with how it works later on down the line!” type of writing. They did what they did to work it in where they could; when it worked, it was brilliant.
But, again, you can only keep up that pace for so long. At some point you’re up to your eyeballs in alligators and there’s only so much you can do once you reach that point. Then looms the finale. Guess what? Some viewers and fans are going to lose.
You didn’t care where the hell they were ending up or where they were going? Why not? since it was the point of the show. Think of it this way, if the show was truly the way you viewed it, why the season after season of character drama? everything served the character drama, the flashbacks, flashforwards, even the flashsideways(purgatory) all were merely designed to enhance the drama of these characters lives.
Ok here’s maybe a simpler explanation, everything you wanted answers too was nothing but a part of the stage. All the worlds a stage as they say, in this case the island and its mysteries were the stage. You don’t walk out of the theatre with questions about the curtains, or the trapdoor in the stage. You watch it for the drama occurring on that stage.
I was sucked in as much as anyone to the mysteries of this show, many people were but in the end it was 99% drama and 1% WTF moments. I came to understand the 1% WTF was not the point. For that I watch Fringe :D
This was the same argument that I saw when the Sopranos ended. One side was angry that there was no payoff to their investment. One side thought the “open” ending was the most brilliant thing that had ever been done in the history of television. A lot of arguments were thrown around about how people should “use their imagination more” and “this type of ending will start a dialog that will far outlast this show even in syndication.” It didn’t. Worse, the creator, David Chase, basically said that anyone who didn’t like his ending could kick sand and refused to discuss what might have been. It angered a lot of people.
My opinion: what’s wrong with explaining everything? Since when did it become uncool to wrap up loose ends in stories? Why make a story so convoluted that it’s riddled with plot holes and inconsistencies that had to rely on some “deus ex machina” to move the story along?
It’s frustrating. Everyone is asking things like: “I wonder what happened to X… wait, I didn’t introduce X, YOU did, why do I have to figure it out?” It’s not an unfair question. Honestly, if anyone read a novel that committed the same sins that Lost did, it would get a 4 out of 10 on Amazon.
I find it interesting that unlike other shows that have ended poorly, after the initial frustration, this one gets an almost universal response of “Oh well, I didn’t expect much. I mean, after the (insert your choice of: polar bear,disappearing island,time travel,”ghost Walt”,etc. etc.) I pretty much new the ending was going to suck.”
For those who watched this show as sci fi as opposed to drama, what did you want? A laundry list of answers to all your questions? Have Jacob sit down on a rock and tick them off his finger one by one? As I wrote above, I don’t think this show was ever about that. It was about the characters lives set against this backdrop of this mysterious island.
I think those outraged at the finale miss the point. You all got so involved in the background elements of the show; you ignored what was happening up front. Every episode was about the characters, the mysteries and mythology only came into play as to how they effected the characters, the mysterious were not the focus.
Then why make the mysterious so “in” focus? Why let the island have a dial that makes it disappear, have characters get shot trying to get to the dial, have whole side events happen after the dial is turned, if in the end, we are supposed to ignore the dial? I would hardly call something that was used as a cliff-hanged element from one season to the next a “background element” yet many facets of the island were used just for that purpose season after season.
For some writers, the backdrop is just that… scenery. Sometimes it is pretty or ominous, but in the end it’s something that is in the background and mostly unimportant. But for this show the island WAS a character. It had it’s own storylines, history, multiple fates, rules, etc.
You assume that everyone who didn’t like the ending didn’t “get” the character development and direction. From what I’ve seen here, people did get it. Some teared up and felt the tugs on their heart. I was moved. Does that mean I can’t want more or that my feelings are invalid?
*POST AUTHOR*
If these “background elements” weren’t supposed to mean as much as we’re making them out to be, then why have them at all? Because they looked cool? Not good enough.
Seriously, the way the series ended — with Jack and everyone in the church — could have ended that way if they’d all just been on a plain old deserted island with nothing at all cool about it. They just all bonded because they had to survive together. So, instead, we were given a buttload of oddities and mysteries to make it a more interesting story … but then decided that was all just some old man behind a curtain we should pay no attention to.
I don’t think they were ever the focus other than as tools to create drama. Think of Star Trek, the ship for example was just the stage, and technobabble was used for the most part as a tool to aid the drama. We didn’t have episodes where warp field theory was explained to us, we had episodes where it was used to serve the drama.
But was it? Was the Island a character? I agree many think it is you including but I don’t think it ever really was, its own history was never discussed was it? things and events ON the island were referenced, hieroglyphs etc, but what does that show? simply that the losties were neither the first nor the last (I assume) to set foot on this island. The hieroglyphs for example were history of previous peoples, not history of the island itself.
About the only thing I believe that was unique to the island was the light and I have to ask, did you want an answer to what the light was? Or do you prefer the mystery of it? No answer to that could please everyone.
I think it means that you viewed the show from a different perspective than what the show was truly about. No harm in that, I did as well. I was sucked in to the mysteries as much as anyone but I realised it wasn’t the point and being moved by the story of these characters as you said you were was.
I think that Lost season 6 completely should be rewritten. It was a mistake. Let me explain:
Until the end of season 5 everything was going fine, good riddles were waiting to be answered and things could have been explained logically. The writers had to choose betwwen these two: an alternative universe or an infinite time loop. Latter was the easiest and the most reasonable. A branching in the timeline was too difficult for them to handle and explain but the could not foresee this.
According to the infinite loop theory season 5 would end just the same as the beginning of the season 1: Jack opening his eyes in the bamboo forest with the suits on to see the plane crash. The events between the beginning of the show and the end of season 5 would repeat over and over again. There was no need for an addition to the last scene of season 5, people would understand this.
So in season 6 none of the crashees would appear since their story would have been told already. Instead the history of the island, Jacob, rules, the source of the energy, etc would be explained with whole new characthers and their dramas. The mysteries would be enlightened without giving birth to new questions as in the case of Richard’s story. Jacob’s mother idea was also an effort to do this but it did not answer from where she had come and was awkard and inconsistent.
I may contribute if anyone wants to remake season 6.
The last scene in lost was not jack closing his eyes, it was the crash site from the pilot, except this time no one survived all the people were disinigrated into a pergatory world where anything can happen, and anything did happen.
“The last scene in lost was not jack closing his eyes, it was the crash site from the pilot, except this time no one survived all the people were disinigrated into a pergatory world where anything can happen, and anything did happen.”
The last scene over the credits seemed like just a call back to the start of the series, and I don’t think was meant to be interpreted as being part of the story.
‘That they all actually died in the crash’ would make no sense in the context of everything we heard and saw just within that final episode:
– I believe Jack’s father mentions towards the end that some of these people died before him and some after him.
– Throughout the episode we see these same people having flashes of events that transpired on the island which they never would have experienced if they had all died in the crash.
– Ben apologizes to Locke for killing him. Why would Ben do this if Locke died in a plane crash?
– Why would Juliet be there when she wasn’t on the plane in either world?
– And just overall most of these people would never have even known each other if they had all died in the crash. What would be so special about only these people reuniting at the church?
Showing those final shots of the wreckage at the end was probably ill-advised and caused some unnecessary confusion, but again I don’t think they were meant to be taken as part of the story.
At least one of the answers wasn’t Midichlorians… so there’s a plus to not getting what you ask for ;-)
In principal I can buy the whole church ending, a group of people coming together to move on, I can accept that. They all died at different times, but came together out of time, I assume in the form appropriate to their initial island experience. I can a buy that. What does bug me is the people that made up that group.
The church group wasn’t the people in the front of the plane because Penny, Desmond & Bernard were there, indeed Ben was even potentially going to be there but he wasn’t ready or something, plus loads of other people weren’t there. Certain (minor) characters were shown to be experiencing memories, but weren’t there either. It also wasn’t just the candidates, so essentially it was just the main/popular characters, albeit without any justification as to why they were grouped together other than to satisfy fans. Penny never even met the islanders, she just new Desmond! Why wasn’t there kid there? Will Aaron be stuck in Heaven as a baby?
The other thing that annoyed me is that whilst I can accept not having some questions answered, a lot of the stuff now seems like padding, especially since most of the final episode related to things we were only first shown in the final season. Going back the others seem largely redundant.
Obviously part of who was or was not there depended upon actor availability, it is a TV show after all with actors.
As for your questions, they were together because that shared experience revolving around the island had the most profound impact upon their lives, surpassing anything else that did or may have occurred in their lives. I would say Penny was there because if you recall she spent a great deal of time tracking Desmond down and than finding him so you could argue that was the most profound thing to happen in her life. As for Aaron, I think that to Claire yes that was Aaron but the ”real” Aaron is in his own place e.g. Jacks son only existed because Jack needed him to exist.
As for those who were not there, they explained they were not ready to let go. Talking about letting go, they foreshadowed this in the first episode of season 6, after the turbulence stops, Rose says to Jack, you can let go now.
Don’t bother trying to rationalize who was and wasn’t there
It’s beyond reality and beyond the scope of imagination. Time doesn’t exist. Nothing is relative to anything else. It is both real and unreal.
We were basically told that spirits will find other spirts who were significant to them in their past lives and remember those lives which allows them to move on to whatever lies ahead — if anything.
Here’s my question for the people who think the character based ending was successfull. Supposedly they created this place they could all meet up in, a waiting room per say. But in this waiting room they all have complete lives that include fictional people like Jack’s son and John’s fiancee…And if they couldn’t tell that those people weren’t real, and that they were indeed dead, how could they have “collectively” created this place to meet up? Did they all say, “let’s make this place” and then just conveniently get amnesia, or if indeed they did create this together weren’t they already in one place to meet up? How does any of this make sense? And to have people almost die in their already dead afterlife waiting room?
“oh, but we have to have this place in order to wait for everyone to be ready to move on.” If thats, the case and you have that awareness, and you decided to do this together..well you see where I’m going with this…
I am a spiritual person, and I got hooked on the character’s connections to each other and they were important, but the writers gave them a purpose on the island, to solve the mysteries and make the world right in a frame of reference that we the viewer could understand. This was not like “big brother.” It was not meant to be a peeping tom type of show. So when we as viewers were lead by the nose to a stream of plot lines, these plot lines should have been executed to our satisfaction and they just weren’t.
I think they patched an ending together because their creation got away from them. Pure and Simple. They asked too many questions that they, in the end, just couldn’t answer. But it was their job to bring a logical resolution as well as an emotional one. You can’t just say, “Okay, 2+3=5 in this instance, get us to go, “Okay, why?” and then just say, “We’ll explain later, just keep watching.” and then just hope against hope that we forget, even though you knnow that we are sitting here, with baited breath, waiting to find out why.
I have to admit that I keep thinking most viewers left with the reaction or Annie Wilkes in “Misery”
“I know that, Mr. Man! They also called them serials. I’m not stupid ya know… Anyway, my favourite was Rocketman, and once it was a no breaks chapter. The bad guy stuck him in a car on a mountain road and knocked him out and welded the door shut and tore out the brakes and started him to his death, and he woke up and tried to steer and tried to get out but the car went off a cliff before he could escape! And it crashed and burned and I was so upset and excited, and the next week, you better believe I was first in line. And they always start with the end of the last week. And there was Rocketman, trying to get out, and here comes the cliff, and just before the car went off the cliff, he jumped free! And all the kids cheered! But I didn’t cheer. I stood right up and started shouting. This isn’t what happened last week! Have you all got amnesia? They just cheated us! This isn’t fair! HE DID’NT GET OUT OF THE COCK – A – DOODIE CAR!
lol, sound familiar?
Why in your questions do you assume they had to do any of this consciously? I don’t think it was ever implied that they had a big meeting and hashed out the creation of sidewaysville. It was simply their shared experiences in life merged to create this world and in this world their emotional baggage if you will created Jack’s son etc, that is until it was time to let go.
I see where you are going with this JT, and I respect your opinion. I just can’t fathom a waiting room, a matrix, created by people that don’t know they created it, even subconsiously (sorry about the spelling). And the waiting to let go thing doesn’t hold water because both Sawyer and Charlie still had major issues. Charlie’s were so bad that Hurley had to shoot him with a tranquilizer gun to get him to meet with everybody else. I don’t call that being ready to let go.
And Jack loved his son so completely that I can’t believe he would not for one moment question or grieve his non-existence. The same goes for Helen and John. And Aaron. And Jin and Sun’s baby. And awful things happened to them in the flash sideways. It has been proven by phycologists that even in a hypnotized state, you can not be made to do things you don’t want to do.
And what of Ben? If this was truly a made up world, wouldn’t it end once the hive collective had left for the afterworld. So does he disappear into thin air, or will he take off with the next scheduled church departure in someone else’s made up Matrix. It just doesn’t make any sense at all to me.
I do believe in the afterlife and I do have faith, just not in the Lost “afterworld” waiting room….
Agreed, they both still had issues but those issues were resolved the moment they reconnected, Charlie with Aaron and Claire, Sawyer with Juliet.
I think once Jack was ready to let go, he would instinctively know that he had no son, that he imagined him into being so I don’t see why he would grieve for someone who never existed. John may have loved Helen but it was waking up and feeling his legs on that island that began the experience that was the most profound for John. Same with Jin and Sun, their experience on the island had the most profound effect on their cut short lives.
No because Ben was creating his own little slice of this world as much as anyone else, that continues. Once he is ready to let go, he too would take the bright light trip while others like Eloise simply refuse to move on.
Why not? It is no more or less than any other afterlife example.
You make very valid aha points JT..The Eloise thing was one I never thought about before..
In fact, now I have to go back and rewatch…Glad I didn’t delete it..lol.
I still have issues but I like your explantation to the ones you addressed..
Thanks :)
Well, I respect your opinion JT, but I gotta tell you…. if we look at this board as a microcosm, 2 (you and Fritz) are okay with the way it was written and 20 of us “others” think it was a poorly written rushed final season. At the very least, a reasonable person would expect that a well written show would resonate with more than just 10% of the people who view it.
I think the real difference between our 2 groups is that your group became frustrated with the mythos of the island 3+ years ago and decided to just ignore it. I envy you. Without the burden of analyzing the mysteries, it does sort of become this neat little love/loss story.
However, for the rest of us, turning off the reasoning process for, what amounted to, 25 percent of the show is just not possible. Heck, even just dealing with the other 75 percent (the character drama) you have to admit that the ending was a little sloppy.
In another week or so, I’m sure I’ll stop caring about the mysteries of this silly island, mainly because I know no answers will ever be coming. Maybe in the future I’ll wax nostalgic about the relationships and the metaphors like you are now. I do know that if the writers intentions were exactly as you say, I, along with a lot of others, feel very unsatisfied.
The author has no answers, he created mysteries and a whole story without even thinking what will be the end of it…The alternate reality was an easy way for him to avoid giving the answers (he hasn’t them).
Agreed with bahra, looks to me that the writers just wrote, episode after episode, season after season, convincing themselves, entangled in their story, that they could always find answers later… finally last season comes and they’ve got nothing in their bags! The poorly written end is hardly giving any answers. It’s like they said, “well guys, let’s say everybody’s dead and going to heaven and we’re finished!” What about Dharma? When did the ones who escaped on THE plane die? Is everybody dead from episode 1? etc. etc. etc.…
I loved the finale and I have always been a fan of the mysteries of the show. Going into season 6 I wanted to have a lot of questions answered, especially about the pregnancy issue and the nature of the island. I was really frustrated with ‘Ab Aterno’ when it aired, because I didn’t really understand the cork thing. Somehow over the course of the finale I was really moved by the characters reconnecting with each other and let go of the mentality that the writers had to definitively answer all the questions that seem to be so important so many years ago. I think that all those questions can be answered with information provided in the series, even if the weren’t explicitly stated.
Answers:
So were they all dead in the end?
Yes and no. All the stuff that happened on the island happened while the characters were still alive. Yet, we all eventually die. The characters are mortal. Even the characters that we thought were immortal demigods of the island were fallible and human. The show just showed us the final iteration of these characters as they passed on to the unknowable. In the island timeline at the end of the narrative of the show, Kate, Sawyer, Miles, Lapidus, Richard, Claire, Hurley, Desmond, and Ben are still alive. They all eventually end up in the sideways universe but at different time periods in their lives post show.
What was up with Walt?
He was special. So was Hurley. So was Miles. So was the Man In Black. So was John Locke.
What does it mean to be special?
It means having an ability or greater destiny. Some people like Walt get to escape their destiny. Other like The Man In Black and Locke aren’t so lucky and are manipulated or manipulate people to their own ends.
What was up with the Egyptian Stuff? Who built the frozen donkey wheel?
People other than the people who mattered to the overall narrative of the story. It was elaborate window dressing letting us know that the island was around long before our characters ever set foot on it and will be around long after. Certainly the man in black had a vested interest in seeing it completed and it played an important role in his deception of John Locke
Why couldn’t women conceive safely on the island? We have seen several examples of women giving birth on the island, but they usually went crazy, were murdered, or had their children stolen. Perhaps someone was trying to keep that cycle from repeating itself, but the side-effect was that it caused expected mothers to die. Another possibility is that this was only a problem that affected the others, an organization who had fallen out of favor with Jacob. We saw Horace’s wife deliver a baby on the island much like Claire and Rousseau. It seemed from the conversation about the birth of Ethan that the Dharma folks knew that the Island’s properties were dangerous for expectant mothers as they usually gave birth off the island. The Others under Ben’s rule wouldn’t allow anyone to leave to give birth and they suffered for that.
What was up with the Dharma Initiative and the drops made to the 815 survivors?
Well we know that several key Dharma Initiative members eventually figured out that they were infiltrated by time travelers some of which they were related to. The Incident happened and it was always an event where an exploded nuke releases a dangerous amount of electromagnetic energy. Many of the Dharma team survived the incident finished the station and were eliminated in the purge. The Others knew that the button was real and left some people alive to keep pressing it. The food drop could have been made by widmore or some surivor of the dharma initiative that knew the 815ers were on the island. And it seems a lot of people knew they were still alive. Hell with the time travel elements of the show for all we know the drops could have been made in the 70’s or 80’s.
I could go on trying to answer things, but I’m tried. My point is that we have the information to answer all the mysteries of the show. I like that they are open ended though. I wasn’t one of the people who made up a lot of theories about the show while it was still on the air although I did have some in the past. By leaving a lot of mysteries open ended it allows that fan interaction with the show to continue even after it is gone, it lets them continue to theorize. I loved the finale for the character resolution like many other people. I’m not going to say the mysteries didn’t matter though. I think they matter as much as they are a part of this fantastic addition to pop culture that was L O S T.
I thought everyone would get a kick out of this video of every unanswered question from Lost. Even if we can’t agree on how things were handled, we can definitely laugh out loud:
College Humour Unanswered Lost Questions
Jenn
“You guys wanna get into ‘V’?”
Muhahahahaha! :-)
“And what’s the deal with Jack’s tattoos… actually, you know what? I don’t care about that.”
Priceless.
*POST AUTHOR*
Damn, I need to get comment voting enabled so I could vote you up to infinity. That video was a pretty good summation of why I’m frustrated with ‘Lost’.
I couldn’t have blogged that better myself. I don’t understand why the writers didn’t choose to dazzle us with some kind of Sci-Fi extravaganza. I thought some of the regular episodes were more complex than the finale. (i.e. The Constant)
I too was disappointed!
That video from College Humor was great! This is coming from a true fan…this article hit the nail on the head!! LOST was like a guy who strings this girl along for 5 years even giving her a ring and then decides, “Eh, I am not interested in marrying you anymore!” For my people and I, it wasn’t just about the finale because how weak would it have been to jam pack a ton of answers in 2.5 hours. Sensory overload. In retrospect LOST really took a turn for the worse starting in season 5. Though a great season at the time (so we thought), looking back now it just created more issues that did not really connect or satisfy and the past issues up to that point. Supposedly that is when J.J. Abrams left the show’s writing so the other peeps started just making up crazy nonsense like let’s introduce the Dharma because it’s “cool” or lets time travel all over the place to confuse our fanbase and distract them from the real questions like: What is Widmore’s story? Why was he banished? Why isn’t Hawking on the island? Was she banned too? What is the island? How did this all start? What’s all these fertility issues? Why do the Other’s women only die at childbirth? Why is Christian Shepherd’s casket empty? Who was shooting at Sawyer, Juliet, etc on the boat? Why is Walt special? Why lead us to believe that Aaron is special and then say in a LOST movie special that he never was? Why am I wasting my time writing this post? lol I guess it’s a necessary venting process!! We knew that season 6 would be terrible when we saw the island underwater..we thought, “These guys are just going to play with us now all season!” The bottom line is that the LOST creators were great question creators…they had us intrigued for years…But they were terrible question answerers. We gave them too much credit and they just were unable to deliver.
Keith, I’m glad I read your review before watching the finale. Thanks to you, I had low expectations and, as a result, was not disappointed. I just enjoyed it for what it was. ;-)
Same here. All hope was lost for me after the penultimate episode :-)
I know I’m still bitching (a lot) but I really liked he finale for what it was. I like lovey dovey ^^;
Reading many of the negative comments here and elsewhere makes me wonder what people were really ever expecting from Lost.
Lost is a masterpiece precisely because of the nature of the questions it created and the way it went about it. The viewers searched for answers, just like the characters (specifically Jack, the man of science) where the only answers to be found were ultimately one of the following: faith, fate, love, God, or “just because”.
Man will always seek answers and to rationalise the irrational. From day one every viewer, especially the most dedicated, was helping to create the whole experience and shape the ultimate moral of the story. The mysteries of the universe and just that: mysteries.
The numbers are the most obvious example. From very early on they were frequently inserted in to the show to grab viewers attention and to encourage people to discuss the mysteries surrounding Lost. Eventually the numbers were given an answer: they’re the last 6 candidates on Jabob’s list. But, as with life, all answers lead to questions. Why those numbers? Why did they seem to have such a special power or significance?
The show is about life and death. It’s about our quest for answers, our search for love, our battle with faith, and our mortality.
I was okay with the ending. When they said not everything will be answered, I lowered my expectations.
They also reminded us that the show was always primarily about the characters, not the mythology.
I tried to make sense of everything as much as anyone. But there comes a point in every story where you just have to take somethings for granted. I didn’t watch “Lord of the Rings” and complain that I didn’t understand why Sauron was a giant eyeball of fire, or how destroying a ring would destroy him, too; it was just part of the story.
Admit it, when George Lucas tried to give a scientific explanation for “the Force” being present in someone, it lost a little bit of its magic.
Same goes for Lost, which was science fiction mixed with fantasy mixed with spirituality with a hint of fairy tale thrown in. In stories like those, you just have to take some things on faith. You don’t ask why an animal is talking to you. You take it’s advice, because it will help you with your quest.
I’m not being defensive because Lost is my six-year-old. I’m just saying–that’s kind of the nature of Story, isn’t it? I think Darlton & co did a good job of honoring their craft with an excellent story of redemption.
Dude you have it in a nutshell, that was the worst crappy copout ending ever. I mean yes I knew there was a semi purgatory aspect to it, that was obvious, but essentially the jacob vs MIB all the smoke monster stuff, everything it was unexplained. Or maybe I am just not smart enough to understand it…
Pretty dissapointed and didnt answer 99 percent of my questions only created new ones.
I think they just wanted an end before actors started dropping out of contracts or demanding too much pay.
I now hate Lost … and I hate you too if you loved the finale.
Right On! Let’s pack them all off to heaven – what a crock!!
I was a massive Lost fan but after that crap it is definately my most hated show ever!!! Well done wankers u FKD it!!
I totally agree with you. All of you. What a piece of something…
To me, it went down the hill after season 1.
I hate how die-hard lost fans keep saying that the show is a masterpiece and that you need to be “intelligent” to understand it. The plot is nonsensical garbage. You have to be an idiot to think it’s a masterpiece – Hello, a cave with flashy gold light… Where water falls into a pool with a giant rock bathtub plug… Do you honestly think this is good writing? A 5-year old can write better than that. What did the “heaven-meeting” reunion ending have to do with the main plot / island story?
What is the stupid light and why does it need to be protected by one person? How does the water they drink make them live so long? How does Jacob know how to pick the candidates? Why did the other brother turn into a machine-sounding smoke monster? These are just some of the questions left unanswered… What does the island / events on the island have to do with the heaven reunion ending?
It’s the same kind of crap rationale terminal hipsters bring to unfunny crap like ’30 Rock’. You have must belong to some ‘special’ highly intelligent group in order to appreciate the ‘deep’ meanings, or the ‘subtle’ humour. Of course this is all arrant nonsense. There’s no depth or subtly to be found in either of these otherwise inexplicable media phenomenons, only a blatant pandering on the writers’ and creators’ part to their viewership demographics’ need to preen themselves that they exist on an ever-so-much-higher plane of intellect and esoteric knowledge than do the rest of we poor, brain-dead lumpenproles.
What happened to the rest of the survivors from the original plane?
The writing is sporadic. In the beginning the Others were the bad guys and the “Losties” killed a bunch of them. Then the Others became the good guys and teamed up with the Losties. During the final season we are told that the smoke monster is “Ultimate Evil” and cannot be allowed to leave the island. Then we find out he was a man who wanted to get off the island and was turned into the smoke monster by Jacob. Why is he the ultimate evil? Why can’t he leave the island? WHY WHY WHY? Because the story is convoluted garbage.
True dat!!!
I think you are right on the money Keith. I almost switched sides and wanted to see Lock get off the island and shake a few cages.
All of the intrigue and mystery on the show was “cleverly” written to keep you watching. J.J Abrams is very skilled at this. This was in my opinion the objective from the start. There was never any intention to provide answers to the myriad of questions that the show generated. It was, like most things in this day and age, an exercise in making money. Someday one of the writers or producers may stand up and admit it. It was however achieved with some very good and clever writing. It’s just a pity that they didn’t put in a little more effort to leave fans satisfied. I have like so many others watched the show from the start and like them I feel that I have been taken for a mug. I will not be buying the box set or watching the repeats. Booo lost writers and producers, when you have stopped counting your money I hope you feel at least a little shame.
I thought it started falling apart at season 5 it felt like they were just making it up as they go with no real direction, but it was still interesting. When we came to the last two episodes though it’s like they just crapped them out to give us a half ass ending.If you look at the actors in the final seasons it seems like even they were becoming disillusioned with the thing.
Agreed…the ending was lame, lazy and inconsiderate to the people that followed the show for 6 years.
It’s been months since it finished, and I still get angry thinking about how crap the end was.
It’s right up there with the Dallas/Pam Ewing “it was all just a dream” U turn that wiped away several years of Dallas (for those old enough to remember).