I loved it, but still have a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth. I think this is going to be a long post that is just random questions and stream of consciousness, so just skip it if you don't give a fuck what I think. My biggest question is about the nuke. Is this saying that they all died when the nuke went off? Or what even happened with that? Is that what teleported them around through time? I don't even remember any more. What is the point of literally everything else they showed on the island? I think that the writers may have actually understated how much they believed in the show as a character study. The way the finale plays out, it really does show that they were in this for the characters and not the overarching mythology of the island in general. That is kind of unfortunate, since most of the people watching the show weren't as concerned with the characters as much as they were the mysteries of the island itself. For example, I would be much more concerned with what the source of the light on the island was and what gives it its' properties than I would be concerned with Kate finding redemption from...whatever. It feels kind of like a cop out ending since yes, we do get a fairly definitive character resolution, but the characteristics of the show that drew us in are not addressed in many cases. Walt, MiB's name (yes, I really wanted to know), the rules that bind them, what happens if they leave the island, why/how the island does what it does, the numbers, Hurley's "curse", the true origins of the island, and all of that fun stuff are what I was hoping to find out about with the resolution of the series. In that aspect, I feel as if it fell flat. I know it all can't be addressed to completion, but to leave it pretty much completely out there is kind of lame. They don't owe me anything, but that can't stop me from wishing. I'm still kind of confused about how they wound up together at the end in the flash sideways or whatever it was, so if someone could explain that to me, I'd love it. My friend says it relates to Christian saying that "everyone dies eventually", and that it basically could have been like a flash forward in that sense. They had all died years down the line and met each other in their collective afterlife/purgatory/whatever because of meeting each other on the island.
The writers have said [pretty much] from day one that the show was always about the characters more than the mythology.
I get that, particularly because of the blurb in the recap about how they feel it's a very in depth character study, etc etc. I'm not disputing that. I'm just saying that wow, when you think about it, they really didn't care about tying up any of the loose ends that people have been begging for answers to for seasons.
No, the Nuke WAS the incident, it blasted the electromagnetic energy out of the Island that teleported them 30 years into the future. You have to let go of the need to know WHY. You just need to know that it is. We got the information that mattered. What would have satisfied you? If MiBs name was Esau? What if it was Doug, would that have made you happy? What explanation for the light would have satisfied you beyond the fact that it's the source of all life in the world. Do you want its molecular structure? See what you just wrote? You're actually not confused, because that's correct.
I think this can sorta be compared to Cloverfield. When it was coming out, a lot of the people were pumped to find out about where the monster came from and what not. But in the end it ended up being a love story. These writers seem to be more concerned with character than mythology.
Ok, the MiB name thing is nitpicky. But regardless of how stupid it may sound, yes, I did want to know his name, and yes, I did want to know the specific properties of the numbers that made them appear repeatedly in every character's life across 6 seasons of the TV show. That sort of thing seems kind of important.
Ohh, the numbers. Yeah they never explained that. Oh fuck, nevermind they explained that during the Lost Experience, confirmed as Canon. lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Valenzetti_Equation
One resolution that I really liked was that Shannon was the woman that Sayid loved; and it makes sense, because he did build something with her that wasn't an impossible ideal to live up to (Nadia). The setup to have it happen was kinda weird though.
I know it predicted the end of humanity etc etc, but I don't get the point of why the numbers cursed Hurley, and why they made it a specific point to feature it in 50% of the episodes if it didn't have any real relevance to the endgame for the show. Yes, DHARMA was concerned with it, but we didn't even really see a whole whole lot of DHARMA. I'm not trying to turn this into an argument focused on the tiny semantics of what I say. I'm just saying that there is a fuck of a lot of stuff they just didn't address on the TV show. Any other casual fan that didn't do all the summer games and whatnot has essentially no idea what the numbers are and what they mean. I'd be alright with that, if they didn't feature them at every chance.
[/quote] This is what I don't get. I feel like i just watched the most powerful character resolutions that I could ever expect, and really was touched emotionally by what I saw during every scene when sideways/island world touched. I am just having a very difficult time conceptualizing that purgatory/the afterlife was an alternative universe involving all the characters, with no relationship to MiB and Jacob, who we thought were the big players in the story. In my developing analysis, I think that the mythology of the island was a red herring, or at the very best a shell, for a story about where the Island/Christian Shephard was really a Christian God, guiding us through a redemption story for Jack that happened to take place in a really exciting science fiction environment on a tropical island. I'm OK with that, because the ride was great, I just want to contextualize the last episode with the first 5 years of the show. I wander if ambiguity is the point, or if I'm just confused and reaching for straws given my own particular religious and social upbringing. Maybe both.
This summarizes my thoughts perfectly. It's one thing to want to know "why" for every little thing, and I don't think that that's what I'm asking for here. I'm asking for answers to "why" for things that had entire episodes devoted to them. For example...if they were going to explain precisely dick all about the dynamic of Jacob/MiB, the forces that control and guide them, and the purpose of both of their existences, then why the shit would they have an ENTIRE EPISODE devoted to them? They showed the wheel that Ben and Locke turned at several different points, but didn't explain much about it. Yes, I'm aware that it works in conjunction with the light, but I don't think it's too much for me to ask what it is about the light that makes them able to travel. Like I said in my first post, in terms of closing out each character's arc, they did a magnificent job. I just think that people would want to know the answers to so many of the things that they wondered about for so long.
I viewed it like the book "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" where everyone has their own personal heaven, but you meet the people who were important to you/you were important to during the first stage, then eventually you move on. Like Christian said to Jack, those people were important to Jack while he was doing the most important thing he did in his life, (everything he did on the island) therefore, he met them all in 'heaven' until they were all ready to move on together. I think Ben didn't go into the church because he needed to wait for his own people to arrive in the 'purgatory' world, whoever they might be.
Anyone else notice that shoe hanging from a branch while Jack was walking through the jungle at the very end? It just seemed like they went out of their way to make us notice it. Not sure if it had any significance. Maybe it symbolized how this finale stinks like an old shoe. Just kidding, I kinda enjoyed it. But I understand why a lot of people are pissed. The biggest thing that kept people hooked on this show all these years was the mystery of the island, and they kinda Soprano'd that shit. As others have pointed out, there were a few subtle things that made the alterna-purgatory thing kinda interesting though. Like how Eloise asked Desmond if Faraday was leaving, and he said "not with me", and also how Ben wanted to stay behind. I guess this means that different groups of people can "move on" with each other in PurgTown USA, i.e. Eloise/Faraday/Widmore, Ben/Rousseau/Alex, Michael/Walt/KFC Variety Bucket, and of course Jack/Kate/Locke/etc.(the group we saw). Edit: on second thought, maybe Michael can't move on cause he's one of those "whispering ghosts" trapped on the island?
They addressed that on the Kimmel after-show. They basically agreed with the notion that he is forever trapped on the island.
Anyone notice the symbols of 6 major religions on the stained glass where Jack finds the coffin in the end? I believe there was Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity, Taoism and I forget the rest.
Goddamn. Claire/Aaron/Charlie/Kate got me just as good the second time around. This whole thing makes so much more sense on the second watch. It's like the twist of perspective when you look at one of those 3-D illusion things from the 90s. One minute, it's gibberish, the next, it's a schooner (a schooner IS a sailboat, you idiot).
I'm not going to lie - I had some serious Jears of my own when Jack realized he was dead. I can understand why some people are theorizing that everyone died in the plane crash: the scenes of the plane wreckage displayed during the credits. When I first watched it I thought that was weird, and a friend asked me if that was implying that everyone actually did die in the crash. Personally, I don't think it would lesson the significance of the island, Jacob, MiB, and everything that happened on it at all if that were to be the case. The writers were pretty clear in pointing out that everything is cyclical and takes place in stages, so whether everything that happened on the island took place during the life-as-we-know-it-stage, or the post-life stage (but before the post-post-life/sideways world stage) isn't a big deal to me. The important thing is that it DID happen, so therefore everyone can move on to the next stage. And that Target commercial w/ the boar was pure fucking genius. Excellent finale. Goodbye, Lost.
I agree with whoever described the finale as "satisfying". And furthermore, I think that even if you disagree with the narrative resolution of the series it's hard to find fault with the execution. It was "LOST" doing what it does best. I didn't think I would appreciate some of the loose threads the way I am, but I'm actually sort of happy that a few things were left the way they were: - For instance, we realize after the big Christian reveal that Eleanor Hawking must have retained her knowledge about the nature of the Lostverse even in death. Her plea to Desmond not to take Daniel to the even greater beyond probably allowed her to spend the time with her son she always knew she'd never have with him. - I thought Ben's storyline wrapped up well, too. I predicted the final flip once Smokey told him he intended to sink the island, and while I thought for a moment his petty jealously might rear itself one last time when Jack gave Hurley the magic Dasani I was happy to see Ben accept the role of trusted advisor to he so desperately craved. I also thought leaving Sideways Ben outside of the chapel struck the right tone; no matter how popular the character was to the "LOST" audience he was never really a member of the characters' family. Similarly, it was good that the writers didn't force Miles and Charlotte in there either. Unless I missed something, the only "non-originals"* that were allowed to pass on with the pilot cast were Desmond, Penny, and Libby with the former being critical to the whole reunion and the latter two getting the "true love" exceptions. - I know it would have been problematic to include them, but the omission of Michael and WALT!!! kind of felt like the beginning-to-end loop is left slightly open. But that's me really trying hard to find fault with something that was so artfully done to begin with. Bringing Shannon and Boone back was a great touch. At least Vincent made the final shot. I'm sure I'll have more to add later. *Strictly speaking, Bernard wasn't part of the pilot crew but that's splitting hairs since "Rose's missing husband" was one of the earliest plot developments.
Specifically, the line from Kate. "I've missed you so much." Ok, I will do an actual write up tomorrow, after watching it the third time, cause I have these crazy good thoughts about a lot of it popping up a lot during my rewatch, but I'm too drunk/engaged to take the time to write them down.