Please comment below. Remember to keep it civil. Don't assume anything about the people you disagree with. I will delete any comments that are offensive or veer too far off topic. Thank you in advance.
That's all, folks. The end of "Lost." You know you want to write or talk about it furiously, but why bother your friends on Facebook or put up with hardcore trolls on other sites?
Consider this your safe haven to geek out, or bitch and moan, or stammer on incoherently about the finale, aptly titled "The End," and the whole damned show itself. Oh yeah, this is a "Debate" thread, so feel free to argue with each other. Just don't be nasty!
A spoiler warning is in effect, so please stay away if you've never seen an episode of "Lost" but want to, or if you're behind on episodes. And, please, if you're decidedly not a "Lost" fan, or if you have no interest in it, please stay away from this thread. Trolls will not be tolerated.
Let the geekery, er, debate begin! (Well, just wait until the episode is over ... )
Just checking in a little early.
ReplyDeleteGood to see you, ST. Can't wait to read your reactions later. I'll be back in a few hours, but otherwise make yourself at home, "Lost"-wise.
ReplyDeleteI'm watching the recap right now, getting fired up. I'm trying hard to keep my expectations low, though. Well, somewhat low.
I re-watched the pilot earlier today, and I swear every time Locke was onscreen the music turned a little ominous. I was reminded of this bit from McWeeny over at HitFix (http://tinyurl.com/26zs8xz):
"Here's something to chew on. When 'Lost' was picked up but hadn't started to air yet, I went with a bunch of my friends to a drive-in theater here in LA. One of them was a guy who was working on the show as a writer, and he told me a bit about the premise. I asked him how you avoided making the show 'Gilligan's Island with monsters,' and he explained that there was a long game they were going to play, and in it, they were going to split the characters up, and half of them were going to follow one character, and half were goign to follow the other, and they'd be going to war. 'And the bad guy is going to be the dude from "The Stepfather,"' he told me. Terry O'Quinn."
So many scenes that I'd forgotten about were so important to the development of this series as something special. Paired with the amazing score these scenes become almost iconic. Sometimes we don't realize the magnitude of individual steps while we're on the journey, and only see their impact once we've completed it.
ReplyDeleteI'm not watching the recaps, as I generally find them useless. I'm just sitting, fidgeting, waiting for it to start. By the way, has everyone seen this (sorry -- I can't do hot links in the comments -- you'll have to cut and paste): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJVSRqltKsU
ReplyDeleteIt's a brilliant, seemingly improvised bit with Mark Pellegrino and Titus Welliver (aka Jacob and the Man in Black).
I literally can't think of a better prelude to tonight's ep.
Colonel: huh, that is interesting from Drew. Shows that they at least had some idea where they were going in the 1st season.
ReplyDeleteSee ya in a few. Enjoy the evening! It's the Superbowl of Lost!
Okay, folks. T-minus 5 minutes ...
ReplyDeleteI'll be back after the show ends, but everyone should feel free and get their "Lost" on in this space.
I Screen: Thanks for the link! (By the way, I Screen will have her recap up shortly after the finale ends, I'm sure. Her blog is iscreenyouscreen.blogspot.com. She's no mere penniless blogger, by the way. She gets paid to write for a living! A true professional.)
"I expected to be more surprised...you're kind of the obvious choice."
ReplyDeleteSee???!!! What did I tell you?? Locke Mess totally agrees with me about the whole candidate plot.
Let me start by saying I expected more of $900,000 commercials!
ReplyDeleteI don't know. I dig those "Lost"-themed Target commercials.
ReplyDeleteYes, Target commercials are awesome. Wish others stepped up.
ReplyDeleteWell ... let me gather my thoughts, but I have to say I'm satisfied and exceptionally sad.
ReplyDelete@The Colonel - agreed. Definitely need to process but I loved it and extremely sad right now.
ReplyDeleteYes. Satisfied. Happy. Sad. Perplexed.
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm satisfied too, and very, very sad. So apparently it was all about Jack's death. Even though they all died, it seems to have been his death that was central to the storyline.
ReplyDeleteYes, satisfied and much to reflect on. Oh man, I'm not going to get much sleep tonight.
ReplyDeleteHere's my initial take. EVerything that happened on the island really happened. they really survived the crash there...all the dharma stuff happened, etc. The flash sideways is the afterlife bus station, waiting to take you to 'beyond'. It was here that everyone was meeting up to go together. So, some people in purgatory died early on (like boone) and others might have lived decades longer (claire, kate, sawyer off island), and possibly centuries (hurley)...but they all meet there at the same time, since purgatory knows no time constraints (like Jack's dad said). It just ends on Jack "fixing" the island, and dying from his wounds, with Vincent at his side, in the same place he awakened from the crash. I liked it, and give it an A.
ReplyDeleteSo sad it's over. But loved that pretty much everyone came back.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I found really interesting was that, people had been saying almost from the first episode how they had all been killed in the plane crash and the island was purgatory/heaven/hell/whatever. But no one seemed to suspect that with the flash sideways, which wound up being that.
I think in the sideways world, when they were having their flashbacks and recognizing people, it was in the order that they died in real life maybe?
ReplyDeleteI'm very satisfied as well, with no questions to ask in the end. The over simplified symbols of spirituality with the breakdown of the mysticism of it all by Christian Shepard threw it all in the realm of easily acquired knowledge, yet still still easily identified by any one of the followers of the stained glass window.
ReplyDelete@STLost re: initial take - I agree. Great analysis.
ReplyDelete@ST, Dan: I think it's not the order in which they died, because Sawyer and Kate get off the island on the plane, and Jack dies before they do. I think it's that even in death (the simulacrum/sideways world) Jack is ever the Doubting Thomas and the last to let go.
ReplyDeletePlus, I must say that image of Vincent at Jack's side as he draws his dying breaths was very poignant. The episode was full of terrific, beautiful images. Even the cave, which looked a little too fake in "Across the Sea," came across as a very powerful image, inside and out. Anybody else get a Frodo at Mount Doom vibe?
ReplyDelete@ The Colonel - was just agreeing with ST's initial reaction; the second comment about the deaths I didn't agree with because more than likely Hurley survived them all and he was one of the first to become enlightened.
ReplyDelete@Dan: Oh yes, I definitely agree with ST's initial reaction.
ReplyDeleteSo ... the last shot of Jack's eye closing ... second best final shot behind "The Godfather"?
ReplyDeleteOK folks, my recap was just posted. Go check it out here: http://iscreenyouscreen.blogspot.com/2010/05/lost-series-finale-recap-end.html
ReplyDeleteOr, just click on the "IScreen" above this comment.
IScreen: nice! I like it!
ReplyDeleteCross-posting my comment from iscreenyouscreen.blogspot.com:
ReplyDeleteAll season long I had a feeling the sideways world and all the interactions therein were a little too "perfect" or "coincidental" because it was some kind of artificial reality. I'm glad to see I was somewhat vindicated!
Having slept on it, the more I think about the ending, the more annoyed I get. The idea that the sideways world was not real, makes it more confusing as to why so many things would be different from reality there. And what does that mean for the bomb being detonated? It all seemed to fit the idea of an alternate reality nicely, and now the ending takes away the one answer I thought I had.
ReplyDeleteIn a way, I wish the island and not the alternate reality was the purgatory. That would have helped me suspend my belief and not thoroughly question things like the mysterious light or time travel.
My email tells me Eddie posted something, but the blog isn't showing it yet, but I want to respond before my thoughts spiral down the shower drain. So consider this thought brought to you buy an island "flash."
ReplyDeleteThe bomb being detonated merely balanced out the blast of electromagnetism and brought the main castaways back to the "present," putting them into a position for the endgame. For me, the sideways reality as a constructed reality works for me because it was always the more "artificial"-seeming of the two realities this season. Everything seemed to come together a little bit too easy, which, in the end, was a point.
Why were things different from the actual, physical lives that we've been following? Because it's a created reality, made up of a mix of their hopes, expectations and bits of their real lives. I, for one, am very happy that the island world was the "real" world. I wouldn't have wanted all six seasons taking place in a simulated reality, thus "explaining" all the weird shit that happened. Other than the characters and the philosophical underpinnings, what I loved the most about the show is that it made all these things seem possible in a "real" world.
And that's not to take away from the sideways world, either. It was as "real" as anything else, to the characters, it was just that the characters had more influence in creating it than their "previous" life, which involved the island. The purgatory world is really just an elevated level of consciousness in which they were more sensitive to "awakening."
ReplyDeleteActually, there were two endings last night. The island saga ending, where good triumphs over evil, and the world (and universe?) is saved. Hurley now is the protector, and since there is no evil smoke monster, only has to protect it from humans that come to the island and crave ultimate power.
ReplyDeleteThe second ending is basically showing all of the main LOST cast dying and moving on, with emphasis on Jack. I don't think it's Jack's story so to speak, it just emphasizes on him as the last to let go and realize where they are heading.
I've heard complaints about Jack's son. I'm still trying to figure that out.
Did it not post my comment? I lost it? ahhh!
ReplyDeleteST: Agreed about the two endings. Time constraints, I guess, prevented the writers from fully delving into the others' sideways awakenings. It made the most sense that we see it through Jack's "eye" because he's the (a.) main protagonist and (b) because his journey toward letting go, from rejecting faith to accepting it, was the arc that best displayed the difficulty of coming to faith.
ReplyDeleteOn Jack's son: I'm a little hung up on that, too. Part of me hopes that he's actually Vincent reincarnated in human form, only at a higher plane of consciousness.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting idea (RE: Vincent/Jack's son).
ReplyDeleteLooking back, no wonder Desmond was so happy and ready to work with Widmore after he was shocked with the EMP. He saw the afterlife and realized what it was. But also, he probably saw the rest of his life too, up to when he dies, and he probably saw being married to Penny, their kid(s), graduations, grandkids, trips, etc. since he was in his afterlife body. Pretty interesting.
@ST: It's more wishful thinking than anything.
ReplyDeleteI believe Jack's son, David, was just a construct of Jack's mind/spirit/experiences, a self-created symbol of his desire to atone with his father.
It's kind of sad to think that this lovable, sweet kid was just that, though. To take this theory further, I believe that the sideways/simulacrum world, even though it was a creation of the castaways' love for each other, is very real unto itself, meaning that David's life there is very real and will continue, albeit without his dad and mom. You could start a spinoff starring just the "left behind" people trying to figure out what happened to their loved ones, if this were the case. These people, including David and Peggy Bundy, would be "Lost" themselves -- lost in an existence, a metaphorical island, created by others.
Maybe this line of thinking holds the key to the existence of the island itself, too: that it was created as some other group of people's step toward even greater enlightenment.
Ah! Don't start going "bigger picture" on me with that "island is a construct created by other people"....my brain can't take it!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I'm still processing both the finale and the overwhelming sadness, I can see the sideways world as a sort of "purgatory" although not in the strictly Christian sense. (Christian Shephard? Seriously? LOL) I like that it was a place to work out the final reintegration that these flawed people needed before they could move on to whereever you think they were going. The seeming perfection of this place reminds me a little of the Windows 7 commercials, where the people are always just a little bit better looking in their fantasies than they are in "real life." But if we consider it as the place where they finally become fully themselves as they are meant to be, then it makes sense. As for the unanswered questions, well I'm kind of glad they exist. I think I would have been upset if they tried to answer everything, because answers don't always satisfy as well as we sometimes expect them to. I'm still working out the island itself as some sort of "testing ground" where people who need redemption are drawn. Perhaps Jack et al are the first "success stories" of this testing ground, since the MIB and Jacob have been sorely disappointed in the past groups who have come to the island. Ok, that's it. I've got more thinking to do.
ReplyDeleteI like this article a lot: http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/05/24/lost-finale-theories-explanations/?ncid=webmaildl2
ReplyDeleteI also have some feelings about the show based off of similar works (Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five" and "Sirens of Titan" and the lesser known movie "Things to do in Denver While You're Dead") but I think I need to save these thoughts for after my rewatch of the show.
41 comments? Crazy. This is better than the pope debate! And for that, I must declare this finale a success.
ReplyDeleteThey may not have answered every question, yet emotionally I walked away feeling as if I had the answers I was looking for. I tossed and turned all night internally debating the possibilities, and awoke to find such feverish debate among everyone I knew. Despite all that was stacked up against them, they accomplished what they set out to do. Bravo.