From a media perspective, the remainder of Sunday and much of Monday will be devoted to discussion of the series finale to ABC’s game-changing “Lost.”
A detailed recap will follow, but as avoiding spoilers is the priority right now, the short way to describe the ending is that it remained true to the series. During the show’s six seasons, each reveal has meant more questions–and a lot of polarized fan reaction along the way. That was the case with the final five minute sequence of “Lost,” which went off the air for good at 11:30PM EST.
As was also expected, the show ended with more emphasis on the characters than the island or its mechanics. While there was indeed some fantasy and science fiction in the final revelation, the show found a way to dismiss so many of the questions related to the very nature of things like the island’s powers and why Jacob and his mother could do what they did. Instead, the show focused on how the events witnessed on the show impacted the characters, who were always the heart and soul of the series.
Fan outrage should be expected for two reasons–many of the aforementioned “explanation” questions were never given and that the ending, without giving it away for those who have not yet watched, effectively means that some of the desired “happy outcomes” were never realized for key characters. But if fans were into the human nature of the show, they presumably will at least appreciate what Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse and company did in working to weave the story together. And, beyond that, how can one argue with how touching and emotional the various “reconnection” moments were throughout the 150 minutes?
What did you think? Did “Lost” do its six years justice with the finale? Or, was it a cheap way out?
Feel free to weigh-in below:
Weak son! That shit was weak!
1st
I need to give it time to sink in. I can’t say how I feel. Except I wan’t to know what the numbers are
So… they were in heaven the entire time during the side flashes? I’m a little confused… were they alive on the island then??
WTF! IT WAS TOTAL NONSENSE!
A better ending would have been Locke waking up from the dream 🙂
I thought the finale was great!!! Sure it was a cheap way out, but it was still the perfect way to end it. After all as Dumbledore said, “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”
So… me too- so the island was heaven? And the plane at the end means they lived or died or…Is there going to be a sequel called FOUND with the answers?!!! And Jack’s “son” was from…??? Oy.
I think I get it (as much as you can, anyway!), but Desmond is confusing me. His knowledge of the sideflash world on the island doesn’t make sense. Help!
Island was real….side flashes were “flash forwards” to after death for all Losties. Hugo said to Ben, “You were a great #2”. That meant they both lived full lives on the island.
Kinda weak going with the “heaven” ending, but smartly done. At least just the flashes were heaven and not the whole series.
Desmond didn’t know anything on the island about side flashes. He just had a theory about the island and the light. He was wrong. They threw that at us to keep everyone off-balance.
I think the island was all real and how everyone did or didn’t die was real. Eventually, when they all died, they found each other when they were ready. So Kate and Sawyer, etc made it off and lived. Thus the note on time. ‘Now’ isn’t really now there. But Desmond doesn’t quite work with this. Gah!
It will be up for debate…my understanding, largely by virtue of Christian’s speech, is that the final scene took place in some sort of pre-Heaven/purgatory type place. It had no time, meaning, it was not necessarily in 2004, in 2007 or in 2050–it was just at a later point at which all the characters had died.
Because the events on and off the island meant so much to who these people were, it was imperative that they re-connect so that they could proceed to the afterlife together. That was the purpose of those scenes in which the characters “remembered” what happened–it re-connected all of the characters and assured they could get together to move on.
Jack definitely died in the “present” as far as the island is concerned. A lot of the characters were already did. Hugo and Ben apparently lived for a while after the events we saw.
Granted, this could have all been from the perspective of Jack (they might have all had their own “version” of this story).
Thanks Scott. Clearly it worked!!
what a cop out ending. seriously, this was the most mystifying show of ever and the end was just so corny. I can’t even believe that this was “the big reveal.” So not happy.
That made no sense, but I’m going to shoot my ak-47 into the air to celebrate a wonderful show.
My take: the people from the island were in Jack’s “purgatory” or the afterlife when he died and were reunited.
I thought it was beautiful; especially with Vincent lying beside him at the end when he died so he wasn’t alone.
a disappointed ending for me! nothing was actually resolved or answered. they probably run out of ideas within the time frame left, and just made a half-hearted ending to keep everyone guessing for more. what a stupid ending show this is!
I have been a massive, devout fan of lost, but with this final episode I must also put my chips into the “disappointed” category. While the ending wasn’t necessarily bad, it was painfully and obviously an easy “cover all our bases” type of final chapter. I can just hear the discussion around the writing table: “Let’s just focus on the key aspect: resolving the main characters’ stories, and leave all the logistics and mythology and science ambiguous and open ended, so the viewers can discuss and re-watch in a tangle of various interpretations and frustrations from now to eternity. It’s good for DVD sales 😉 ” Again, not NECESSARILY a bad move, however, what I believe gave the series its true originality and power was the intricate web of interconnected details, science, and mysteries, with the internal character dramas a solid foundation that kept the series grounded and believable. To focus the final episode only on this latter aspect seems to disregard what made the series unique in the first place. Plus it devalues so much of the Lost “Universe” by not giving it proper resolution. *sigh* Well, I guess the show is exactly like life: “No matter how hard you look, finite answers are just not there….”
the Devil was in the Details, that it was this intricately woven web, these mysteries of the islands and how everything came to be, that propelled the show, and to completely disregard that in order to focus on a slow, methodical character-driven ending, is just plain weak and incongruent with the rest of the series. Loved the story, but needed more meat to bite into. Plain and simple.
I think the was something important in the image of the credit role at the end . . . a crashed plane at the end. I thought this was the original plane that crashed, meaning that none of them actually survived the first fe minutes of the pilot. I suppose it could be the the flight that just took off as Jack looked up at the end, but there was far too much luggage on it I think?
The finale kinda confirmed to me that after a successful 1st season, the writers must have been like “holy @@@@, how re we going to keep this going for more than one season?” and they started spinning tales they didn’t have a clue in the end how to finish. The last few minutes felt like the creators saying “Haha, you just wasted 6 years of your life following a show in which all the characters died and you don’t know what was real or not about them.” They said it wouldn’t be like The Sopranos fade to black, and it wasn’t. It was a fade into the white light.
So we will NEVER know what the Island was or why the Black Smoke wanted off the island or what the glowing water was all about or why there were polar bears or why the island heals people or why Desmond was the key or why… … …
The writers won – people will discuss this show for ages and it wont die.
hated it…..hated it…..hated it.
All season long, ABC has advertized “ALL YOUR QUESTIONS WILL BE ANSWERED!” A lie!!!
The writers let us down!
We – the most loyal fans of all time – were robbed.
We deserved better.
Even the measly one season show: “Life on Mars” was able to answer ALL the questions AND resolve all character issues in a single SIXTY MINUTE finale.
Yea i got to agree with the whole mysteries being used just to drive rating ups.
I mean it was about the characters?? really they were all lame!!!uhh interesting a redneck con man falls in love with some blond whore, wow broken love stories are so original.husband and wife are reunited after a long time apart OMG!! The only original part of lost was the extremes they went to for ratings. i never thought the show had interesting characters I would often fast forward when they flashed back to the alternate universe or whatever the F it was, because really it answered nothing about he mysteries which was the only interesting part.
People who actually think that lost was this well thought out show from season 1 are really just stupid.
They remind me of people who say they like swing jazz… gimmie a break you just listen to make yourself seem more cultured or whatever, fools. You got duped (just like me) good thing i didn’t make a lost is the greatest show ever web page that tracked every little detail, then they never get answered and so instead of admitting the obvious…. you say ohh that wasn’t important to me anyways. lol
should have known better then to watch a show made by chrisitans they dont do enough drugs to make anything original or creative.