LOST: The End

There are blogs out there that are entirely devoted to the series of Lost. An examination of the characters, the mythology, how the entire world connects. I thought that by doing a post on the series would be a discredit to what others were doing. I was saddened to hear that people didn't like the series finale of Lost. This post will not change the minds of people who did not like it, but rather provide a defense as there was no other way to end the series.

If you plan on starting to watch now that the series is wrapped and you can watch it without all the nonsense spewing from all the Lost fans then I feel sorry for you. Half the fun of the series, as it is with any mystery, is the debate with friends and fellow viewers. Sure the fans are annoying as all hell and I really couldn't care that Wallace is number 108 at the lighthouse, but the dissection and the conversations that took place is why this series became so important.

In the world of Hulu and the Internet and DVR you no longer need to watch a fictional series in real time. Lost did what reality TV has been able to get away with and created must see TV, if you miss it you know you are going to get it spoiled for you. If you miss Community and find out that Jeff and Brita had sex its not that big a deal because while that's spoiled for you you will most likely still be able to enjoy the series. If you hear about the reveals on Lost well that's gonna destroy it for you. And there were a lot of them.

The series that started 6 seasons ago was unsure they were going to make it out alive but with the pilot costing somewhere between 10 and 14 million dollars you knew that ABC was going to give it a fair shake. The show has been imitated several times Ala Invasion and Flash Forward but has never been duplicated.

J.J. Abrams relates this series to Jaws. I found this link in one of my favorite blogs on the series. While it may be too late to really enjoy his stuff as the show has ended you might want to check out some of the later posts of Doc Jensen, some of the stuff he does can be really funny. Jensen found the clip of Abrams talking about the mystery of Lost and he equates it to Jaws. What most people try to do when taking from the movie is they steal the most famous scenes the very beginning when the girl gets taken under, or the final scene when the shark takes down the boat. But J.J's favorite scene is when Chief Martin Brody is sitting at the dining room table reflecting on all that has happened and his son is sitting with him imitating his movement, this character development and the attachment we feel is what make the shark scarier. If we don't connect with our characters then the members of the audience won't feel as if anything is on the line, and I think that is what has been done so well with Lost.

Did they know where they were going from the beginning, I believe they did to an extent. I think they knew that the story was going to serve as redemptive properties and that there were going to be many allegories and you see that with the inclusion of Adam and Eve. But in the same breath by knowing the big picture they didn't know how to include all the details they were leaving for themselves. Such as having a doctor state that the skeletons are about 50 years old and then later revealing they are more like 2000 years old. That's quite a discrepancy. I don't think that was a detail that was ever supposed to be included. But its tough to have your cake and eat it too. The series created such a fan following that sites like Lostpedia can thrive, but then demand answers like who are Adam and Eve. So while Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse may not want to, they owe the fan base that created them some answers and they get jammed in a corner. That may be why that the episode "Across the Sea" didn't work, it gave the answers. I think that's why the Peanuts cartoons always bothered me, when I was young I used to imagine how Charlie Brown and Lucy sounded but when the cartoon came out and the voices they were given didn't match how I imagined they would sound.

Luckily Cuse and Lindelof have been able to have fun with the demand for answers, like finding Shannon's inhaler in "The Lighthouse" when she lost it in "Confidence Man" or by having Hurley state popular fan theory about Adam and Eve. The only resolution that they felt compelled to answer were questions their characters had and the relationship of the sideways world and the island world. Lost in the wayside are why Walt was so special, and why the women have pregnancy complications in the second trimester. In my estimation these are the fans that felt disappointed in the series finale. But I rather enjoy the contemplation about it, I'd rather make theories on Walt being similar to Myles and Hurley as they have a gift, but him being so young he still needed to develop it. Or my belief that the women's inability to have a baby on the island was due to Jacob and his brother's debate on human culture and any addition to the sample group they had taken may have thrown off the study, so instead Jacob made it so it can no longer happen. The viewers who became burdened with the mythology forgot what originally made them fall in love with the show. The characters.

SPOILERS AHEAD LOOK AWAY NOW FOR FUTURE ENJOYMENT

The finale was a perfect wrap to the series. It took a second viewing this morning to get that the sideways world (and not the island world as many suspected) was purgatory and them coming to grips with death. There was no present for them in the sideways world, some had died earlier like Boone and the Kwon's and some would go on to live much longer lives like Sawyer and Kate. This would be the most important part of their lives and had the biggest influence on them. But people like Walt escaped the Island earlier and his connections and impacts were much different. And for a man like Richard Alpert who lost his gift of eternal life, for him the passengers of Oceanic 815 were just a tiny blip of his radar and he did not need to move on with them.

If your first love is the characters then this finale was probably something you enjoyed. You were able to get emotional with the island enlightenment of the characters. For many of you it may have been the Sawyer and Juliet meeting, but for me it was the Kwon's as their connection and sub plot drove their characters plot line for years and fated them to die together. And if you didn't feel a bit of relief to know that Vincent was still there to comfort the survivors and laid down next to Jack or the symmetry of the series ending on Jack's eyes closing then you may never get to enjoy the brilliance of the writers creativity when allowed to write the show they wanted to write.

The show had it all, the commercial breaks felt well timed and left us dangling with Jack and Smokey about to face off on the cliffs in the pouring rain. Or the Kwon's getting their enlightenment with each having tears in their life together. It felt like the episode was well paced and I'm appreciative that ABC gave the producers another 30 minutes to work with as I don't know what they could have possibly left out before the additional timing. I also appreciate that the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Board of Governors has allowed this episode to be Emmy eligible as I'm sure there will be actors that receive nominations and I'm certain that Michael Giacchino will win an Emmy for his musical composition for the series as his score was beautiful and worthy of constant praise.

Do I feel frustrated about some of the direction the finale took, sure. Like why did Sayid feel his biggest love connection in his Island life was Shannon and not Nadia. How about the writing, you bet. Many of you may not agree with me but I don't like Hurley becoming the new Jacob. It seems like a great idea to have the character most concerned with love to take over the job, but doesn't he deserve more, especially since he states that he doesn't want the job. But I do like that Ben helps him realize he can run it his own way and doesn't need to follow the rules Jacob created. His new reign as the man in white can send Des back to Penny and baby Charlie. But I do still feel confused as to why Ben remained outside the church. Is it because of his need to still be forgiven by his daughter and Rousseau before he can move on? Or is it the guilt of how he treated the survivors and maybe his own belief that he doesn't deserve to move on with them? Either way I enjoy the future conversations I'm sure to have with fellow fans about it.

SPOILERS OVER

I feel bad for people who couldn't get past the mythology and the need for answers and everything to be wrapped up in a nice little package. So rarely in life does that kind of satisfaction ever come to pass so most shows feel the need to wrap things up nicely. I feel much more satisfied with the way they left it, with the remains of the original flight still scattered on the beach. The series is left open to interpretation. And hopefully in a few months when you can get over it or when you buy the season 6 DVD set and go to the special section where the producers have agreed to answer some of the remaining questions you will be able to appreciate the series and its last act. I personally will not be making this purchase as I like the way it ended and the producers vision of the series. Some answers are better left unsolved and I enjoy the feeling I get by knowing that somethings I may never totally understand but will never stop trying to figure them out.

Big ups to BU in the Morning as without that show I may never have felt the need to catch up and engage you all in this conversation. Namaste! A-