The end.
WHAT HAPPENED
We say goodbye to LOST with a finale that was emotionally rich and intellectually abstract...just the way it should be.
"There is no now, here."
Sideways world is a kind of purgatory where your soul sorts out what you couldn't sort out during your life. When your soul is able to make a connection or ‘awakening' — only then are you ready to move forward to the ‘afterlife'. Each one of the Losties had to come to their own realization.
"In the end there are no shortcuts, no do-overs, whatever happened, happened, and all of this matters."
What really mattered was how the Losties found redemption in each other, the community of people that was most important to them while they were living — they finally let go and asked each other for help — they became each other's constants. Because the characters in the church learned to live together, they couldn't die alone.
It's a bold move for a show to attempt to visually contextualize death and what the afterlife might be like. Anyone who tells you they don't think about their own mortality, who they're going to be with (and who they won't) or what it could be like is lying to you. When Vincent lies down next to Jack, in the same spot where the show begins, you can hear Christian's words to his son; "That's why all of you are here. Nobody dies alone, Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you."
FINAL THEORIES, QUESTIONS, THOUGHTS
Cuse and Lindleof left us with lots to talk about...here are a few highlights and we'll cover the rest together in the comments...
1. There are two major strings concerning the death of our characters:
- The island ‘happened', the LOSTIES lived and died at various times...
- Some died before Jack (Christian, Sun/Jin, Juliet, Charlie...)
- Some died after
- (Those who escaped on the Ajira flight (Kate, Sawyer, Claire...))
- Ben and Hurley (who refer to each other as Number 1 and Number 2 — positions they may have held for centuries)
- Those that left the island earlier like Walt
- Everyone died at the same time in the crash
What are your thoughts? Various times? Same time?
2. Christian says to Jack “The most important part of your life was the time that you spent with these people.” The assumption is that if you weren’t in Eloise’s ‘church’ at the end then you weren’t ‘passing on’ or you didn’t ‘make it’. You might consider:
- Some of the characters weren't there (Walt, etc) because they left the Island and lived a long full life with people that became more important to them than the people they knew during their time on the Island. They will have a different meeting place with different people.
- In addition, Michael (actually Harold Perrineau) confirmed after the show that some souls remain on the island as a consequence of their actions... i.e. their souls haven't sorted everything out yet (in sideways world). (Ben, Mr. Eko, Ana Lucia, etc) Thoughts?
3. Was the show singularly through Jack’s lens and for the benefit of Jack “moving on” or was this for all of them? I say all of them. You?
4. Why did Eloise, after all we know about sideways world/redemption, tell Desmond that she still didn’t want everyone to know? Desmond said he chose to ignore her. I say it was because Eloise just couldn’t let go of her son. Desmond knew she needed to let go of Daniel to move on. Will she?
5. (Nikki Stafford) Did anyone else kind of feel bad for the Man In Black as his dead body lay on the flats? All he ever wanted was to leave the island and destroy the place that made his life a living hell (literally) and the moment he becomes corporeal again (when the island was ‘unplugged’) he dies. Thoughts?
6. Ben said that Jacob ran things so you couldn’t leave... it seems ‘the rules’ were specific to the person protecting the island, so if Hurley changes/changed them, things change. Cool.
Hard to believe the show is over. It's been lots of fun — a great diversion from our own e-v-e-r-y-d-a-y. There were many scenes last night that choked me up. Charlie and Claire always get me, Jack, lying in the field with Vincent accompanied by the classic LOST piano score, but I'll leave you with my favorite quote from the finale. I think, in many ways, it summarizes not only what we expect from a community, but what we need from each other as human beings to survive. Maybe God knows this? I think so.
Near the end of the show, Locke looks at Jack smiles (great smile) and says, "I hope that somebody does for you what you just did for me."
Post away friends!
...A final BIG THANK YOU to all of you who have written comments, encouragements, theories and analysis to this column (and our email list before that) for the past few years. My wife and I started watching LOST (in season 2) before we had kids, now we have two boys (Jack and Charlie — yes they are LOST names, but they were also named after respective grandfathers). Our lives have changed quite a bit since the beginning of the show. I'm sure you have similar stories. I wouldn't have taken the time to write each week without ya. It's been real. So, thanks again — Namaste and Good Luck.
10 comments
Elaine Iliff
Thanks Adam. It’s been quite a ride and I’m going to miss our weekly “get together’s” here on the site.
Mr. Eko's Ghost
If you need some cheering up after the finale, check out this EPIC “LOST” parody:
http://blog.digitalfuntown.com/dft-blog/2010/5/23/the-ultimate-lost-parody.html
I just watched the finale. Thank you, Adam, so much for this column and all of the obvious time and work you put into it. Until I found this colunn, I was the only one I knew still watching this show.
My favortie moment of the finale was Hurley and Ben talking together outside of the church. It was good to see Ben making amends, and it was good to see that he still has a barrier to overcome before he’s able to achieve redemption.
I think that perhaps the symbolism of the church is that, along with the fact that we don’t die alone, neither are we alone when we’re ready to leave Purgatory/Sideways. Everyone there was with someone they loved. This was Jack’s time, but I got the feeling they’d all had their individual “times.” Am I making sense?
The Pilot, Miles, and Alpert were not in the Church. But Sawyer and Kate were, Is that because Sawyer and Kate both loved someone who had died on the island, whereas the others did not?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/arts/television/25lost.html
This is the best write-up about the finale that I’ve seen so far (and, sadly, one of the few that isn’t ridiculously stating that “they were all dead the whole time OH MY GOD WHY??!”
Good comments/postings tonight… Elaine/Tracy - you’re welcome, thank you for making it work. The Hurley/Ben scene was really good. My best guess on why lapidus, miles, richard weren’t in the church is simply that they may have had a different gathering at a different time/place…or, like Ben, weren’t ready quite yet.
Eko - good parody, thats some funny shiz.
The NY Times review is decent, thanks for posting Mike. It wasn’t a perfect finale, but I think it’s impossible for a show with a scope like LOST to meet everyone’s needs. In some senses, the qualities everyone loved about this show, were the same qualities that frustrated people at times. Want to be spoonfed? Lots of shows will provide that. Want to be intellectually stimulated, order HBO, they always have a few winners, but they all require patience. At the end of the day, here’s a fact - LOST changed prime time television. No other TV show of this magnitude had people talking about things like the Mathematical Forecasting Initiative while looking up hansofoundation.com DURING an episode…Not to mention simultaneously providing strong acting, casting and character development (as covered above). For that I am grateful.
just got a chance to watch the finale this morning. beautiful, beautiful stuff.
thanks, adam, for breaking it down here every week. i think i speak for myself and many others when i say that it made the experience of the show much richer. namaste.
Ryan
http://lostmediamentions.blogspot.com/2010/05/someone-from-bad-robots-take-on-finale.html
this is a writer from Bad Robot’s insight…
Might give clarity to some….
Thank you Gillian. It’s been a lot of fun.
Ryan - thanks for sharing the link above…I thought it was insightful and helped to color in gaps…from what I’ve read it’s legit from Bad Robot, but who knows…
Josh Healey
i am almost totally ignorant of the show, and had seen less than an hour of the series until sunday, but watched because my roomies had seen all of it, and i was curious. my question is, (and roomies couldn’t answer) WHY was the island so important? i know i may sound like a fool, but it all has a ‘Waiting for Godot’ feeling to it. i suppose the way i feel about the finale is the feeling of intrigue fans have had all along about the series, and i guess that’s pretty unique these days in network television. just thought i’d throw an outsider perspective in there.
Hey Josh -
Check these out…
General: http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Island
The recent post above does a nice job concerning it’s ‘Importance’: http://lostmediamentions.blogspot.com/2010/05/someone-from-bad-robots-take-on-finale.html
That should do it.
Take Care—
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