Lost: The End

Posted by: David A. Robertson  •  May 24, 2010 @ 2:37pm

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

Consider the ***** rating for both the finale and the series itself. My reaction immediately after the robust 2 1/2 hour series finale was: that was the best series finale I have ever seen and perhaps the best TV episode I've ever seen. There was a parade of memorable scenes but every scene was purposeful and perfectly executed. They were never going to answer all the questions. If you wanted that, you were probably disappointed. What they did was leave some of the answers up to us, as viewers. What they did was make this finale about the characters and their relationships with each other and, in the end, that's what Lost was always about; it was just framed by this incredible, complex story. Some of the amazing scenes from last night:

• Jack leaping at Locke on the rocky flat in an epic final confrontation... wow. I was leaping off my seat in excitement and joy. What a cool scene.
• Jack and Kate saying their final goodbye.
• Hurley inheriting the island.
• Ben showing that he was never turning back to evil and then becoming Hurley's number two.
• The explanation of the sideways world between Jack and Christian.
• The reveal of, and the action within, the cave that houses the light.
• Every montage when characters had their revelation and remembered the island.

I've found that it's too hard to list everything. I'm also not going to recap the episode. I think you should just experience it. And if you have never watched Lost, then stop right now and go rent Season 1 and then the rest of them. You won't be disappointed. It was the most satisfying series from beginning to end that I have ever seen. And as finales go... leaps and bounds. Seinfield? Nope. ER? Nope. Friends? Nope. Cheers? Nope. Nope, nope, nope. And you wanna know why? Because I believe, and I believe this was clearly illustrated, that the creators had the end in mind right from the start. And I am really annoyed by all the nitpicking over this season (but of course everybody's entitled to their own opinion). To me, nothing felt rushed this season. I mean, the whole season took place over the span of, what?, a week? This season was, as the show always was, about Jack and how the characters needed him and he needed them.

The best way I can pay tribute to Lost is by saying that it never insulted the intelligence of the viewer by plugging things in for no reason, by cheating to advance the plot, etc. It always challenged, sometimes confounded, always gave us it's all, always engaged, and never wavered. And for a complex, intricate story, the ending was sweetly sublime and simple. A contrast, yes, but it's pretty cool to see how people are just overthinking today what everything meant. Don't overthink; it was what it was (again, in my humble opinion).

So, major spoilers:

• The sideways reality was not sideways at all. The whole time we were watching a story that happened probably years, maybe hundreds of years, after the ending (when Jack died on the island). It was limbo or purgatory, a place where they needed to come to terms with the lives they had and remember each other before they could move on. And I believe Christian opened the door to heaven. Ben stayed behind because he wasn't ready to move on. Yes, this was the place where people "pass on" to the next, eternal life. Simple. When they're ready, they're ready. And they needed to remember each other to be ready.
• The island reality was always real. It really happened and what they did mattered, just like Jack said. To me, the island was on the earth but stood as the firmament between heaven and hell. It was a cork, just like Jacob said. The creators told us that earlier this season... so why do we have to make other stuff up? The cork, literally, was taken out by Desmond to possibly dire consequences. Jack replaced it, and we're all good. He saved the world and sacrificed himself in doing so. Somehow, the light is both heaven and hell. The bridge between, perhaps.
• So, Jack died in the end. Kate, Claire, Richard, Sawyer, Miles and Chesty left the island to live their lives. Hurley took over and made Ben his second in command. Kate and company probably lived nice long lives. Hurley and Ben? Probably very long lives. But in the end, they were all dead.

There you have it. That's what the island was. And yes, they never told us exactly what the light was... but what if they did? We would never have been happy with that. We got to see the characters fulfilled and rid of the void that brought them to the island. It was a six year journey that ended beautifully.

Tags: Lost, Jack, Hurley, Locke, Ben, Kate, Sawyer, Clarie, Desmond, finale

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David A. Robertson is an award-winning Indigenous author and public speaker from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Robertson is a member of the Norway House Cree Nation. He has published over 25 books across a variety of genres.

Original Comments Posted (8)

metal2000 says...

I'm mostly very pleased with the finale. Were there a few things I wish they would've thrown in there mythology-wise? Yeah -- it wouldn't have taken much, and as someone else said when I was reading through posts and comments last night, they could've easily cut some of the "getting the plane" ready stuff.

But it was as emotionally-satisfying a finale as I've ever seen, and that's all I could ever hope for.

My theory on the flash sideways was definitely wrong (though I doubt any got it right), but I'm glad to have been correct on predicting not only that Hurley would be final Island Protector (called that at the beginning of the season), but that it would still happen even after Jack was made "the new Jacob" at the end of last episode. It made sense, of course, that Jack would have to sacrifice himself for the survival of others (and the island). It was just poetic that he died in the same spot he woke up in the premiere.

People will be talking about and debating the mythology of the show, and the meaning of this finale, for years to come. But as far as some tragic characters getting some happy endings -- even if those happy endings took place in a pre-afterlife -- everything was black and white... and beautiful.

May 24, 2010 6:39pm

Hutch says...

That was the longest episode of Touched By An Angel ever.

I can't decide what my favorite part was... the part where they used the same CGI scene over and over for the plane flying away or the fact that Kate mysteriously had on different clothes in the church.

At any rate, I am so happy Lost is over. And now I hope everyone can move on and find some decent shows to mysteriously gush over. There's at least a 2% chance the next big show will actually make sense!

PS - I'm allowed to rag on Lost. I, too, watched it. I know what I'm talking about.

May 25, 2010 5:38am

David A. Robertson says...

Everybody is entitled to their opinions. I thought it was pretty clear and people are overthinking things. One thing I will say, though: Kate had on different clothes...come on, man. They are DEAD and transitioning to heaven (or whatever you believe the afterlife to be). I'm quite positive they can wear whatever they want to wear, just by desiring/thinking it. lol.

May 25, 2010 9:29am

gryffin12345 says...

I feel more or less pretty satisfied with the ending of Lost. Although after a few hours of the show's ending, I realized that they never really solved anything.

It's like they had a bunch of different ideas when writing the show (ie. lets have this button here, omg polar bears, time travel) and decided to stick with smoke monster idea and ignore the rest. We could, however, make our own assumptions as to what each of the unfinished storylines were about (ie the button controlled the electro-magantism, that was caused by the light, the polar bears were used during expairments when the Dharma initatives were there, time travel is cool), but in the end they basically wrapped it up by saying that none of this mattered anyways, it was all about the characters.

I'm fine with this. I feel satisfied and happy that I kept up with the show from the beginning.

May 25, 2010 1:33pm

Hutch says...

that's just it, I get wanting to make a show about characters, I LOVE shows about characters, but the shows I love with characters I can understand are that way cuz they aren't surrounded by idiocy and nonsense.

It's not just as if the writers were smoking some kind of drugs while writing the show over the years, they got to the point where they assumed you the audience would be, too. They went nuts making up stuff to hook people into watching their show and then ended it by telling you it wasn't important, the characters are. AKA, the writers had NO CLUE what they were doing the whole time and luckily found an out they could sell to you because the only thing in the show that might have made any sense to you WAS the characters. And that didn't work on me, is all.

I had an opinion about the show throughout the entire series, and it held true. No one I know has been able to discount my idea, which is this: No one on the island made a single proper decision at any point. Ever. Every choice they made was the wrong one. And I don't just mean they had differing opinions than mine, I mean the things they did were not smart, productive, or sensical in any way. It wasn't what real people would do or say in those situations. But oh well, it's over now!

May 25, 2010 1:49pm

gryffin12345 says...

This video sums up everything I feel about Lost

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1936291

May 25, 2010 4:38pm

Hutch says...

That video is now my favorite thing ever.

May 26, 2010 3:32pm

Slackass says...

I also enjoyed the finally. Sure it didn't answer all the questions, but it did answer the important ones. All dogs do go to heaven....oops wrong show lol.

That video was pretty funny. I had forgotten about quit a bit of that. But most of the questions asked by the video where answered, it just would take way to long to go over them all.

So what am I gonna watch now????? I guess V will have to do.

Jun 7, 2010 3:33am

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