Lost's Ending

[Red Saxon]

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WARNING - SPOIL ALERTZ

Who else was pissed at the ending of Lost? I've watched it two times now to try and understand what really happened and I really couldn't understand all of it. Were they dead the whole time, and was the alternative universe like purgatory?

[Chimurenga.]

I'm in a similar position... trying to piece everything together. My opinion, the island was purgatory and the plane crashed and everyone died the first time around. The final meeting place was a place that everyone could meet, accept forgiveness (especially with Locke and Ben), say what they never had the opportunity to say before, and finally move on. Richard and the man in black said throughout the show that everyone was dead. In typical Lost fashion (which I love), the ending is open to interpretation.

I thought the ending was great. They left a lot of people out though like Mr. Eko and Ben's daughter, for example.

[Jimmie Higgins]

I was enjoying the finale until the last 10 minutes.

I don't think it was that unclear, I just thought it was a narrative cheat. The Island stuff was all real as Jack's dead dead told Jack at the end - it was the "sideways" story that was fiction - a metaphysical place created by all the castaways so they could be together before "crossing over". Lame, imo - and it broke a "Lost" narrative rule of not presenting things to the viewer that were totally fabricated (i.e. a dream or whatever).

I was always "anti-answer" and so loose-ends didn't bother me as much as a clean "Scooby-Doo" ending would have. I was always into the show for the characters and the WTF moments, not for some puzzle to be solved. I was hoping for a socialist "Buffy" ending where Jack gives his leadership over to all the remaining castaways as in: Live together or die alone. And I'm a bit disappointed that Fake Locke was just plain Voldermort evil rather than more complex like the series had been regarding "bad-guys" in earlier seasons. But oh, well, it was such a fun and engaging ride that not having some private expectations met is no biggie.

That being said, I cried at a lot at the character stuff (I had to leave the room for a minute and rage at the sky for a minute like Jack did when Sun and Jin died (http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100506025843/lostpedia/images/thumb/7/7e/Jackcries.jpg/800px-Jackcries.jpg)).

I've been trying to think about how the ending fits into some of the over-arching themes of the show and I think the "Answer" to much of "Lost" can be summarized by this famous Marx quote:


Men make their own history but not in circumstances of their own choosing.

That's the meaning behind the fate vs. free-will conflict in the show. Do coincidence or fate really matter - either way the objective situation (fate) is out of our control and so what really matters is what we do when delt those cards (free-will). Or to put it in a Lost way: "It only ends once, until then it's all progress". We are fated to die regardless of any supernatural deus ex machina strangeness and so what matters is what we do with our time and who we spend it with. We can not change the past, what happened, happened and so what matters is what we learn from the past and how we let go of the harmful habits.

In the end many of the "bad" people were "bad" because they had given up and become zombies like Sayid or were convinced they were no good like Sawyer originally. They thought they were trapped by their bad experiences in the past or by bad habits and deeds. The "good" people were the ones who tried to progress and when they couldn't change their objective situation, they often sacrificed themselves to make things better for others: Charlie (fated to die, but chose to do so in a way that helped his loved ones); Sayid knew the bomb was going to go off and he would die, so he used the time he had to sacrifice himself in order to increase others chances; Jack and Locke also sacrificed themselves (putting the plug back in the Island's drain/leaving the Island to get the Oceanic 6) so that others could be rescued.

I was hoping for more castaway solidarity in the end and something to echo some of the good slightly socialist themes of the series such as Steinbeck's "a man aint nobody unless he has somebody" or the "live together or die alone" I mentioned above. Again, it was fun and I will miss the weekly does of OMG, WTF!

It felt more like the end of a really good book to me more than the end of a show. I hate most network TV and this show (along with the Sporanos and the Wire and some other good ones over the past decade) really opened up storytelling on television and brought characters who did not simply have a straight character arc like in movies (Character starts at A then is challenged and has to change themselves to end up at B), they could go back and forth and get derailed or fall back into old patterns. Just think how good television storytelling could be without the constraints of meeting economic expectations - shows like this show us a glimpse of the kind of creativity that could be possible if the point of storytelling was not just filling space between commercials.

RIP Lost, it's my new Star Wars, warts and all.

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100524042203/lostpedia/images/thumb/2/2f/6x17TheEnd.png/250px-6x17TheEnd.png

[Kenco Smooth]

It was very emotionally satisfying if not a bit intelluectually frustrating. But thanks to the former I find it hard to be annoyed at it.

Poor Jack. :(

[rocker935]

It was very emotionally satisfying if not a bit intelluectually frustrating. But thanks to the former I find it hard to be annoyed at it.

Poor Jack. :(

The fact that they only made it to be 'emotionally satisfying' for the masses that it only left me pissed and completely unsatisfied in every way.

Not to mention that it took 2.5hrs of waisting my time to reach the 'emotional satisfaction'

[Jimmie Higgins]

I read that the DVD extras will have a 10 minute self-contained short about Ben and Hurley after the events in the finale.

[Tatarin]

*spoiler warning*

I don't "got" the ending. How is it known that the "everybody-in-the-church" ending was fiction or real? Desmond, when he gets put in the box with the EMP-machine, (at least how I understood it) got to the other reality, thus he comes back happy and ready.

Actually, season 5 was pretty cool with all the time-moving stuff, and left off with some thoughts about if the time-thing was meant to happen or not. I think what pissed me off most was how it was never explained what the "light" was - it is mentioned as being both electromagnetism and "inside all of us"? How did the "black smoke"-man know what would happen by sticking a wheel in it and spin it a little bit?

I kind of "foresaw" this already in season 4, that is, when the island disappeared at the end of season 4, the immediate thought was "they're never going to explain all this, they've made it too big."

But it was a good series after all, better than most of the BS that's going on.

[bcbm]

as much as it pains me to say this (ask kevis), i think the final season of lost was really, really fucking weak. a few episodes shone through and got me excited, but for the most part i was dissapointed, including with the finale. after the end of almost every episode in previous seasons i just wanted more but i felt like i had to force myself to watch most of this season. jacob and smokey? don't care. flash sideways? was mildly interested but the ending pretty much killed it for me. "oh you all made a magic place to be together because your time together was the most important time of your life." what??!! fuck you lost.

[brigadista]

I hated the sentimental and mawkish ending, Lost was so great but the ending made nonsense of all the great scientific stuff which had possilbilities- I think the writers overreached themselves and couldnt answer it all.

S 6 was really weak and the good vs evil thing ridiculous- it was like the last series was written by completely different writers

Please just how does Sayid end up with SHANNON ???

I really enjoyed lost but the end has spoilt it all for me- in the end it was a case of the emperors new clothes

[Sugar Hill Kevis]

as much as it pains me to say this (ask kevis), i think the final season of lost was really, really fucking weak.

Preach.