Lost Finale

[ticklishfan]

Hey everyone, what did you all think of the Lost Finale? I thought it was a good episode not a great one. It was a fitting end to the characters on the show and it was a very sad ending but overall was enjoyable. The one big question I wanted answered though was what the hell is the island? lol

spoiler, final scene of series


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and the music played at the end great soundtrack

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[venray]

It sucked...plain and simple...

 

[TklDuo-Drew]

It sucked...plain and simple...

Yeah..........what he said.



Drew

 

[hotdog]

Incorrect. That was a great end to an incredible series.

 

[venray]

Incorrect. That was a great end to an incredible series.

They open the series with a plane crash...everyone dies and the next 6 years they spend going through purgatory and working out life issues so they can move on....

If they said that from the beginning in some way instead of sci fi ing it up with smoke monsters and magic islands with bright lights, it might have meant something....

to toss it in at the end that it was what it was because they couldnt explain things any other way was just silly...

So sorry....in my opinion...it sucked...plain and simple...

 

[Oblesklk]

Hey everyone, what did you all think of the Lost Finale?

Absolutely brilliant in scope, purpose, and execution.

 

[hotdog]

They didn't die in the plane crash. Everything that happened on the island was real. I suppose you could call the sideways world purgatory, but it was subconsciously created by the group as a place to exist after death until they were able to find one another and move on together.

If they came out and said that blatantly from the beginning there would be no mystery and the show is centered around mystery. However it wasn't just tossed in at the end. These themes have been present throughout the series.

Jacob and the island needed the castaways as much as they needed the island to become unlost. The sci-fi aspects surrounding that relationship were very well integrated into the story and character development, and made the show that much more interesting.

I don't see where there was trouble explaining things. We know where the smoke monster and Jacob come from, their purpose on the island, The Dharma Initiative, The Black Rock and Richard Alpert, The Others, etc. Not every last detail was explained, but in fantasy many things don't have explanations. The island was magic. Once you know how magic works it stops being magic. If they explained every last detail away with science, the mystery, imagination and magic of the show would be compromised.

Maybe the ending didn't live up to everyone's expectations, but it never could. The show not ending the way you'd like is different than it simply sucking. It wasn't perfect, but it definitely did not suck and for those who saw the show differently, the ending was incredible and very befitting of Lost.

 

[MySoCalledLaugh]

They open the series with a plane crash...everyone dies and the next 6 years they spend going through purgatory and working out life issues so they can move on....

But that isn't exactly what happened.

In the scene with his son Jack, Christian more than implies that Kate, Sawyer, and the other survivors went on to live their lives off island. This, after Frank Lapidus (he of the amazingly strong chest hair which can deflect steel submarine doors) got that plane in the air, the sight of which provides a dying Jack much happiness. The folks still alive on the Island, with the exception of Jack, all went on with their lives too, and the conversation between Hurley and Ben in limbo/purgatory/the flash sideways confirms as much.

It's true that the alternate timeline, in which flight 815 lands safely in Los Angeles, is a purgatory, a consensual reality created by the souls of the Losties as a way for them to rediscover each other before moving on to the next spiritual plane. And yeah, it's also a place for the characters, all of whom have heavy baggage, to let go (which is why those characters not ready to let go, like Ben or Michael or Ana Lucia, didn't end up in the church at the end).

But does that mean they all died? Well, they did all die, but not at the same time. Everything that occurred on the island really did happen, including the escape of Kate, Sawyer, Claire, Miles, Frank and Richard on the Ajira jetliner; again, Christian explicitly says that some of them died a long time after Jack did (Kate's "I've missed you so much" to Jack heavily implies that, as well). Hurley and Ben stayed behind to run the island and also lived out their (presumably, very long) lives, as did Rose and Bernard and even Vincent. In limbo, however, time doesn't matter, it isn't linear -- again, this is explicitly stated by Christian -- so the souls didn't meet up there until everyone was dead.

There may have been other problems with the finale, but the above was, I thought, spelled out fairly clearly. Well, as clearly as such an esoteric concept can be dramatized.

My only problem with the finale was that they went with such a traditionally Judeo-Christian version of an afterlife, with a touch of Hinduism thrown in. Though the Christian symbolism was always there (and most heavy handed during this final season), dramatizing it so blatantly was a surprisingly conventional, even schmaltzy choice for a show which always tried to break away from convention.

 

[ticklishfan]

in the end they focused more on the characters then the mythology of the island. I thought they did a great job with that but like I said before I wish we could know what the island is

 

[venray]

Sorry..I found it lame from what I watched of it....I normally like scenarios that make you think and wonder but this series did none of that for me...

 

[MySoCalledLaugh]

in the end they focused more on the characters then the mythology of the island. I thought they did a great job with that but like I said before I wish we could know what the island is

I agree that the show runners made a wise choice in emphasizing character over plot in this final season, and I loved that. Ultimately, what I most cared about were those people, no matter what hoops in plot, space and time they were forced to jump through. The rest? *shrugs* While LOST's mythology was intriguing and thought-provoking, it was always secondary to it's characters, and I think that may have been one of the points the writers were trying to make. I didn't need to have everything explained by the end, you know? I saw the bigger picture they were trying to paint.

There are a number of ways to look at the island. You could regard it as a metaphor -- it's "earth," and the Losties were all archetypes. The "light" was representative of any number of spiritual concepts, any of which can redeem or help or corrupt or repress or be exploited, etc.

Or, if that feels impersonal or too artsy fartsy, you can look at it as a literal energy nexus of sorts. What seems mysterious and "sci fi" to the people of Jacob's time, for example, is actually a powerful pocket of electromagnetism or anti-matter or quantum energy (or some combination of any of those), around which physics goes wonky. That was Daniel's theory. And even then, it either literally helped folks heal, or figuratively played a role in redemption, or corrupted people trying to exploit it, etc.

Or, you can look at the off island sequences as our "real" world of science and reason, the flash sideways as the world of the spiritual, and the island itself is a place where science/reason and faith/spirituality collide. On and on...

That really was the frustrating beauty of LOST: it would toss all these concepts -- and so many others -- up in the air, often without clarification or literal explanation, and essentially let the characters (and therefore, the viewers) decide for themselves what resonated, what was meaningful and "real."

I'll miss this show every much, flaws included, but I content myself with thoughts of The Amazing Adventures of Hurley and Ben Through Time, dude. ;-)

 

[Sandrock74]

I liked it. It wasn't what I expected, but I liked it.

I did wonder why Frank, Miles and Richard Alpert weren't in the "purgatory church" at the end, but after thinking about it, I guess Richard would have preferred to have gone off to be with his long ago departed wife in the afterlife, instead of hanging out with the castaways. As for Miles and Frank? I dunno. Maybe they just didn't like the castaways? (We never did see Frank in the ALT timeline/purgatory...but Miles was there)

I also wondered about Daniel Faraday/Widmore and Charlotte. He seemed genuinely happy to see her and he also appeared to "be in the know" in the ALT timeline/purgatory, while she seemed clueless. I suppose she/they were simply not ready to move on yet?

And what about Martin Keamy? He was killed in real life on the island...and later killed in the ALT timeline/purgatory too! Talk about a raw deal! I guess he doesn't get to "pass on"? He was a bad guy in both situations.....

There is one thing I noticed about the final season. It almost seemed like they were setting up back door pilots for spin-offs. Think about it:

John Locke in a sitcom where he is trapped in his wheelchair and constantly getting run over by cars and/or beat up. What hilarity would ensue! Co-starring Ben Linus and Helen.

Move over Magnum, P.I.! Here comes the Sawyer and Miles cop buddy show! 'nuff said. (actually, I would LOVE to watch this one)

The Hurley and Ben whacky adventures as guardians of the island show. Maybe it would be called "Found". Dude!

Of course, we can't forget about the Kate Austen in a women's prison show! This one should be a cable program. That's all I got to say about that.

Anyway, for better or worse, it's all over now. This was my final television show I followed, so no more network tv for me. Haven't even turned on the tv since Sunday night!

 

[TklDuo-Drew]

I'm really surprised that nothing has been mentioned yet about those whiny "LOST final transmission" texts that were played thoughout the recap show before the finale.

Talk about annoying:

"Goodbye dear wonderful fictional television personalities!!!!"






Drew

 

[JourneyMan19]

I found it somewhat devoid of action, lacking that big, momentous finish a finale to a good series requires in my opinion. The only real action scene was Jack's face-off with Locke/the monster. A crumbling cliffside fight in pelting rain (sorry for spoilers) wasn't bad, albeit short and over quickly but I was hoping Locke would take on his smoke form at least once throughout the episode. I suppose the producers will have wanted to build on the whole Jack-Locke counterpart history and end it in a fight to the death, even if that wasn't the real Locke. Not bad as I said but not quite what I was hoping for.

Other than that I found it enjoyable and very emotional throughout. The flashes back on past seasons everytime the afterlife characters touched each other were particularly moving for me. As I have discussed since, that final scenario is one we'd all like to believe in, that after we die we get to reunite with all our loved ones and move on in each other's support, one big happy family. I'll admit here that the culmination of all the various relationships had me on the brink of tears at times but then again I get too easily caught up in that kind of thing.

Considering all the show and the characters had been through, I thought it wasn't the best ending but far from the worst they could have done.

 

[ticklishfan]

thought this was pretty helpful, lol

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[baldadonis]

I loved the ending of the finale. I don't think as a whole it was one of the best episodes, but I thought the ending brought a lovely emotional closure to the characters' journey.

I liked the plot in the island timeline, but thought it was a bit devoid of action other than the final battle between Locke and Jack. I also thought the special effects for the cave, as well as the destruction of the island were a bit hokey at times. But in the end the story resolved their relationships nicely. Kate forgives Jack for his past wrongs, they express their love, and accept that this will be the last time they meet in this life. Jack and Sawyer part as friends, and Hurley finishes a series long evolution from good-natured comic-relief to become the new leader and hero.

Most of the flash sideways reunions worked for me and found very touching (Sawyer and Juliet; Charlie, Kate & Claire, Jack and his father). While it was nice to finally see Shannon return, I just didn't find it believable that Shannon and Sayid were each others true loves when all indications throughout the series, especially this season, was that Sayid's true love was Nadia. But I liked the idea that reliving their strongest memories from their time on the island made each of them flash on their past life. These people were always meant to be together in real life, and in the afterlife as well. And it would seem that this world is the result of Jack's success on the island, as opposed to going to hell if Locke had succeeded in leaving the island.

I loved the ending personally. I felt it made a lot of the frustrations of the series seem worthwhile. Unfortunately, they didn't bother to address too many unsolved mysteries to even count. The problem the writers had early in the series is that they had no idea they had to stretch the series so they kept coming up with bizarre mysteries to stall the ongoing narrative. Then when they decided to wrap in 3 abbreviated seasons, they didn't have enough time to satisfactorily resolve those questions. The writers should be faulted for not planning better as they went along. But, Lost was always about a group of people who weren't just Lost on an island, but were lost souls in their lives before the island and needed each other to become complete people. Looking at the series in that way, I thought it wrapped up as nicely as it could, given the messes it made along the way.