Lost - SERIES FINALE! - 5/23/10

While I do wish we would have gotten more on the Island history, I figure it two ways:

1) The story was really about the Oceanic 815's experience on the Island, and while we did get some forays into the Island's past, it was more or less to show us that everything the Losties experienced has happened before in different permutations. As someone else put it on another site, the Island is a universe and we were only meant to be looking at a galaxy.

2) From a narrative standpoint, I think Jack's quest is supposed to be the audience's quest. In that, in the end, it didn't matter why things happened they way they did, just that the right thing had to happen. Jack really didn't need to know anything past letting Smokey out would be bad (and I think that was Jacob's, the fallible "god," reasoning and it wasn't really going to be Armageddeon) and I think the audience was supposed to feel that way too. If so, it would really color the "They never ask questions" complaint. But this is the ultimate fanwank

As for as the child birthing thing, we know the last child conceived and born on the Island was Ethan Rom. Soon after, the Incident happened, so we can suppose that combining electromagnetic energy with nuclear fallout caused the problem. However, there is the chance that Mother's killing of Jacob and MiB's mother set a course for Mommy issues on the Island.

Alternative ending!



(Apologies if it's been posted already)

I liked the series and the finale, however I still maintain that the writers/producers just made it up as they went along with no clear idea of how to tie it all up.

For me the finale summed this up, I did enjoy it as it went back to what the show was about - the characters, however the finale brilliantly side-stepped giving most explanations while still being kind of satisfying.

As Jack is told "Everything that happened to you was real", we can presume the island was real and that the 815-ers did not die in the crash. So although we got a reunion at the end, they managed to avoid giving full explanations, which I don't think they actually have.

That being said, I found the finale emotional and the last 5 minutes were beautifully handled.

I'm not going to lecture people on how their viewing experience is supposed to be.

BUT For those who have complained about the finale not being about answers I'll simply say this. From day one all answers left the viewer with even more questions. Also from day one they have given insite into peoples lives through flashbacks, flash forwards and side ways. The show has always been about and focused on the people, their pasts and their interactions. The show is and was always about the human condition. The "mysterious" island stuff was merely a way to amplify to the viewer who these people are and what makes them tick. I understand the little itch in the back of the brain wanting to know exactly what [island feature X] is but to focus on those questions really is missing the point of the show. The show is about the drama of life and peoples interactions; what helps us move forward and what keeps us back......under the backdrop of a tropical island with polar bears, whispering dead people and time travel; of course.

There are answers out there, I've heard a few already. But because they didn't give them doesn't mean the experience is less profound or anyone has been shortchanged. We got the show they always intended to give us. Sure it ended up being more about friendship and love and personal connections than science fiction. Personally I'll take an emotionally moving-cathartic finale over an informative one. This was literally The End, it needed to feel that way. (My thoughts at least)

One also has to realize that the show was filmed in the real world. So the answers for the mysteries surrounding Walt and Eko, for example, were hindered by the problems with those actors. Yes, Lost could have just told us directly what the answers were, from the mouth of another character, but look at how people reacted to being told what the Whispers were: they wanted to be shown, not told, or at least have the show more heavily imply than tell us, so the audience can infer. People were complaining all season long that Lost was telling us the answers, not showing them or leaving them for the audience to discover on their own. Which is kinda ironic, in hindsight, because some of the mysteries people are complaining about not being answered, there is enough evidence to infer an answer (things concerning Dharma, for example).

Truly, Lost is a better experience when talked about with other people. That way, everyone can brainstorm and you can find out waht you missed. I think if you don't have that group experience, yes, you are going to have some unanswered questions

Flying Jack-Punch is my new favorite word.

Is there a list somewhere of the island mysteries that were deliberately left as island mysteries (and aren't mistakes/bloopers)? Or is that all still being pieced together?

More random thoughts:

I contended once they were introduced that the good/evil of Jacob/MiB wasn't as clear cut as it seems. It did, though, turn out that it was pretty much true in the end. But as Ben pointed out to Hurley, Jacobs methods were crap and maybe there is a better way to do things. Does anyone else think that Jacobs way of dealing with the island and his "rules" were a direct reflection of the way he was raised....essentially alone with no knowledge of the outside world or how people interact.

I wonder if Jacob had people crash into the island over the years out of a sense of loneliness? Given that Ben implied Hurley could make it where people didn't have a hard time leaving, does anyone else think Jacob made it hard to leave so he could have those people around him by convenience? Was the game that Jacob/MiB played as children transformed into a more grown up "game" of watching people come to the island and seeing what their interactions (or lack thereof) would do to them, as implied in an early discussion of theirs.

And is it the fact that Hurley had a much different upbringing and understood and truely cared for other people the reason he turned out to be "a great number one"?

Just a few thoughts.

I had to look up "outrigger shoot-out" as I couldn't remember that scene at all. Turns out it was fairly inconsequential anyhow so I'm happy to ignore it.

It is fun to read people on various Lost dicussion forums agonising over it though, hehe.

Reading my first two sentences I realized I worded them a bit confusing.

In the end it was said that releasing the MiB to the outside world would be catastrophic, so it's apparent who the "bad guy" was. And while Jacob could be considered the good one (meh....) I think his lack of interaction with other people and being raised by batshiat crazy mother made him just a tad bit callous and allowed him to use humans as game pieces for his own personal amusement/loneliness.

The Complete Series on DVD set will include a 12 to 14 minute epilogue regarding Ben and Hurley, says Michael Emerson

Jacob-darnit! I already have Seasons 1-5 on DVD, so I am not going to buy the complete series, though I would really want to see that sequence!

Time for some Wild Mass Guessing!

The Island is actually an old lost TARDIS!

The heart of the island is also the heart of the TARDIS!

This is why it can't be found unless you know what you're looking for, because of it's perception filter. A perception filter is also why you can't find it's entrance unless you know where to look.

And of course why it can travel in time and move from place to place.

And now you're thinking "That makes a disturbing amount of sense."