The truly important things in life, and death, are the relationships you make. Those are the things that define and reward you. That’s what I was left with as Lost ended last night. It’s a nice message and one of many that was embedded in the subtext of the epic two and a half hour series finale. But, in “The End,” was that enough?
Spoilers to follow, of course.
The morning after, everyone is talking about and dissecting the ending. And while it was way more cut and dry than The Sopranos, it still left plenty of room for multiple readings not only of the episode, but of the entire series.
Personally, here’s how I see it. Everything that we saw on the island since day one was real. Jack didn’t die until his eye finally closed. However, the “flash sideways,” as it had been called, wasn’t exactly that. It was more like a “flash everywhere.” It was a timeless area where the spirits of our castaways went after they died. People arrived there after they died , whether it happened on the island, like with Jack, or thousands of years later, like Hurley and Ben, who ended up being the island protectors in the end. And in that place, each person had to have their real lives flash before their eyes before they could come to grips with themselves. When that finally happened, this group of friends that so closely defined each other’s lives could move on to heaven, together, as a family. Live together, die alone.
However, that’s just one, more obvious, reading. You could also say that everyone died when Oceanic 815 crash landed and that the whole island mythology was these people being judged. Then there’s the thought that everyone died when Jughead, the nuclear bomb, when off. Or maybe the entire thing was really just about Jack. I believe any of these readings has a strong argument behind it.
I think it’s most satisfying as a fan to believe everything we’ve watched for six years was real. These characters came to the island all broken men/women. Everything that happened – explained or not – actually happened. The island was a mythic, almost unexplainable place. When they left, or died, they were totally different people – fulfilled and rewarded. Or maybe if that wasn’t the case, like with Michael, you ended up stranded on the island. That’s why he wasn’t in the church at the end and probably why Ben wasn’t yet ready to enter.
If you read the first part of this column, you know I’ve been a huge fan of Lost since it began. Now that it’s over, I feel oddly at peace. We got almost none of the “answers” that people had been clamoring for. The islands’ mysteries remain just that. And to have all of my characters dead, albeit it happy, is not the ending I was looking for. But for six years, no matter how it all ended, I was entertained and engaged on a week to week basis. Is there anything more one can ask from television? In the end, isn’t that what we sit down in front of the TV on a nightly basis for?
In that aim, Lost was a total and complete success and the finale was a fantastic piece of entertainment. Awesome action, fantastic acting, intense emotion. Then, at the end, we were given a satisfying, as logical as you could get, ending. Did I want more? Always. But with Lost we always wanted more. And that need for “more” is what will make the series endure forever.
Comments
mandoman
May 24th, 2010 - 12:05:58 PM
Alright let me see if I get it. They crash on some quirky time traveling island because one of them gets tired of entering Hugo's lottery number into the computer but then they discover this island is the Mecca of "do-overs" so they spin the Wheel of Fortune and some of them wind up in the future some in the past, some on the island, some back in LA, but inexplicably the LA group decide to crash on the island again. Unfortunately some of them forget to change their watches on the flight over and wind up in Island Past Time while the others (not to be confused with "THE OTHERS") are in Island Standard Time. Now we find out that the Island is run by Jacob and The Man In Black who are really God and The Devil and regardless of what Einstein said, God DOES play dice with the Universe. The time traveling others decide if they spend another year on the island Hurley’s mass could sink it, so they decide to nuke the island. This of course doesn’t just split the atom, it splits the reality. Now we have Island reality and Non-Island reality, AKA Purgatory. Purgatory is a nice place where fathers get to see their son’s recitals even though they are married to the wrong person and their son doesn’t really exist. Think of it as TV land. Purgatory is where shows get fixed. Unfortunately back in Island reality we have some major holes to plug. No problem! One more chance to smash Ben in the face, let Sawyer dish out a few more witty remarks, and see Kate soaked one more time. Now all that is left for our dwindling supply of heroes to do is unplug the Guiding Light, sweep all the glairing holes down the drain, then put the cork back in and let the Guiding Light wash over all the remaining questions as we all hold hands and sing Kumbaya while the final credits roll.
1
Germain Lussier
May 24th, 2010 - 1:30:17 PM
Yeah, basically. And that's pretty cool I think.
2
syd
May 25th, 2010 - 9:38:37 AM
I second that. It *is* pretty cool. Well written Germain. God, I was such a wreck during the finale. For as flawed at this season was, the final arc was very satisfying.
3
Jonathan
May 25th, 2010 - 1:57:12 PM
I'd actually make the argument that the Island was part of the "flash everywhere" (as you say) world the castaways created, and here's why: 1) Claire was still pregnant at her time of death and never gave birth to Aaron, just like Jack never could have had a son. That was the significance of Claire giving birth in the sideways world too. She brought "baby Aaron" with her when they moved on. Therefore, the flash forwards showing the castaways leaving the Island and returning NEVER happened because Aaron wouldn't have been as old as he was when they went back. 2) Sun had been pregnant right before the plane took off, she just hadn't known it yet. That would always have been a "discovery" in any time period. Her and Jin created the whole Ji Yeon name and idea as part of their purgatory world. This and the Claire storyline tie in to the fact that no one could have possibly had children in the Island world because they were all dead anyway. 3) The final scene of the entire show is the credits rolling showing that the plane had, in fact, crashed on an Island somewhere. This signifies that there were no survivors because the plane is exactly as it was after the accident as if no one had been messing with the fuselage, etc. 4) Desmond was the key to the entire ending from his introduction. In his flashbacks and flash-fowards he always saw glimpses of a past and a future. He simply couldn't put the pieces together until he started interacting with the castaways. However, they all had met and been important to each other before they died and before the island. That's why he'd always say: "See you in another life, brotha!" He's the first to have started putting the pieces together in EVERY afterlife world, including the island. 5) The flashbacks we'd always seen during the early seasons started to show characters passing through each other's lives without understanding the significance of the chance encounters. 6) Some characters weren't ready to "move on" from the purgatory world they were bouncing around in, hence why Ben, Ana Lucia, etc. stayed behind. 7) The point was that time didn't exist in any of the show, that's why the Island could move through it with the castaways. When Christian tells Jack that the time he spent with that group was important to all of them, it was a nod to the viewer that what made the journey worth it was watching them look for each other even in the after life. It didn't matter when or where they'd all met while alive in terms of the show, it simply mattered that they were always trying to come together. If you notice, someone was ALWAYS missing in the various worlds (including the Island) they had created. Until they were all "alive" in the same world and on the same page, they couldn't move on. That was in fact the journey. Everything relating to science, faith and the smoke monster was null and void from day one in the bigger picture. It was all part of the after life worlds they'd created for themselves, and "the others" concept was those in the world they'd created who weren't directly a part of their journey. That's my take.
4
Add your comment