In case you are living under the proverbial rock, LOST had its series finale last night. Was it worth the ride?ADHERER
Spoiler Alert: I am not going to refrain from divulging elements of the series finale, so if you haven’t seen it yet, go watch it and then come back. Although, I don’t think I’ll be revealing too much, since very little was actually revealed.
In the end, was there a moral? Was there an overarching theme to the whole series? Good vs. Evil? Soul mates finding each other? The nature of man?
Actually, there didn’t seem to be any single thought in the recesses of the show’s mind. The alternate timeline that was shown for all of the 6th season was never fully explained. Apparently, it was constructed by the survivors as a means of finding each other again.
Uh, what?
Exactly… more questions. And few answers were truly revealed. What is the Smoke Monster? Well, we know he was the Man in Black, but the explanation pretty well ends there. Who was Jacob? Well, we know he was born on the island many years ago (a few thousand?). Again, the explanation pretty well ends there.
In the end, uh, in “The End,” we have a heart-wrenching journey where the show ends almost the way it began, as many “planned” series ends have. But it seemed more an end to the LOST TV show than an end to the story portrayed within the show. I kept thinking it was a panderous effort only to get the cast back together again, but did nothing to really further – or conclude — the plotline.
And the reunited cast seemed to be just whoever they could get back together. In fact, it seemed pretty exclusive. Why wasn’t Ana Lucia with them? We saw her earlier, in the prior episode. Where is Mr. Eko? Or did they only bring back the characters who had found their true loves among the other survivors?
So, in conclusion… or, in “The End,” as it were, I enjoyed it immensely and was teary-eyed throughout the finale, but I somehow still feel LOST.
The ending was like the movie Jacob’s Ladder. The “alternate universe” was a purgatory for a final farewell before they “move on” (after this they never see each other again). Most of the characters have their memory revelation moment within the last episode but all of them reach that moment at different times in life. For Jack, it was when he died at the final scene. For the people that escaped on the plane, we assume they all live long full lives and that Hurley ruled the island for many years before his death. They very well could have shown a flashback 80 year old Sawyer and Kate but that would’ve have spoiled the ending. The “alternate universe” is completely suspended in time.
It was a ever expanding view that there is more to each of us than what our mere perspectives can comprehend. It goes beyond time and space, and all we have to take with us, is what we become through the journey. The questions and the details are insignificant compared to the journeys these souls took to find peace. That’s why it expanded from just a plane crash, to the others, to Darma, to Jacob and MiB. It was a look at the much larger world around us, and our journey through it. It was about the decisions we make, and the influences we have on others. It was a story about life, and more importantly how small this life is in comparison to eternity. We are all LOST, and hopefully working towards that place of restful peace in eternity.
This is word for word exactly how I feel. You couldn’t be more spot on. all I was left with at the end of the show was “um…what?”
VERY frustrating!
Some great comments. I somewhat agree. Since the beginning of the series, many fans have supposed that they never survived the plane crash in the first place, and that the “island” was really purgatory, or hell, or heaven. That’s deep and compelling , but I can’t say I buy it.
The creators of the show have said many times that the show isn’t about the island at all; rather it’s about the people and their interpersonal journeys.
In the end, it was the mysteries of the island itself that kept many of us tuning in week after week and we would prefer some answers. The mystique doesn’t have to be betrayed, but perhaps a little bit of what’s behind the curtain would have been nice.
-Mike