Lost (TV Show)

[Big_Matt34]

can you explain it to me then

THis is the best explanation i have seen.

No, the Island was real. Everything that happened on the Island was real. The Alternate Reality was purgatory (in a sense), that's where the characters went when they died, but weren't ready to move on.

The church was the gateway to heaven, where the characters who were ready to move on gathered together.

They didn't all die at the same time. Sawyer, Claire, Sawyr, Kate, Hurley, Ben, Desmond could have lived until their 90s for all we know. But when they did die, the Alternate Reality is where they went.

It makes sense, Christian says to Jack that they all died at different times. It also explains Hurley telling Ben he was a great number 2, and Ben telling Hurley he was a great #1, clearly they had watched taken care of the Island together. They all lived out their lives, and the flash sideways was where they meet up before going to heaven together.

Loved it loved it, just wish Miles, Richard, and Lapidus went with them at the end, but im guessing they werent ready to move on.

[PosImpos]

There's one thing left unexplained from what I've read so far....

WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THE BOMB?

We only started seeing the flash sideways after the bomb went off, and at the start of season 6, Juliette told Sawyer that "it worked." 

Yet the ending of the series didn't give us any explanation for the significance of the bomb.  The "purgatory" sideways world seems to exist outside of time.  There's no reason to believe that it was the bomb that allowed the characters to "create" it so they could meet each other once they died.

[Truck Lewis]

can you explain it to me then

THis is the best explanation i have seen.

No, the Island was real. Everything that happened on the Island was real. The Alternate Reality was purgatory (in a sense), that's where the characters went when they died, but weren't ready to move on.

The church was the gateway to heaven, where the characters who were ready to move on gathered together.

They didn't all die at the same time. Sawyer, Claire, Sawyr, Kate, Hurley, Ben, Desmond could have lived until their 90s for all we know. But when they did die, the Alternate Reality is where they went.

It makes sense, Christian says to Jack that they all died at different times. It also explains Hurley telling Ben he was a great number 2, and Ben telling Hurley he was a great #1, clearly they had watched taken care of the Island together. They all lived out their lives, and the flash sideways was where they meet up before going to heaven together.

Loved it loved it, just wish Miles, Richard, and Lapidus went with them at the end, but im guessing they werent ready to move on.

that does make total sense...do you think that means, now that hurley is dead, ben is the # 1 on the island?

[Big_Matt34]

that does make total sense...do you think that means, now that hurley is dead, ben is the # 1 on the island?

I think Ben died, probably after being Hurleys right hand man for many years, which is what they were talking about outside the church in the flash sideways. He just chose not to move on to heaven with them because he wanted to spend more time with Alex in the flash sideways/purgatory/whatever, i think lol.

BTW, this Kimmel special is freakin awesome. I just read a quote that summed up how i feel.

I really loved the ending. Just like true Lost fashion, it was exciting, beautiful, and confusing all in one go

[Truck Lewis]

that does make total sense...do you think that means, now that hurley is dead, ben is the # 1 on the island?

I think Ben died, which is why he was in the Flash sideways. He just chose not to move on because he wanted to spend more time with Alex in it, thats my opinion atleast.

BTW, this Kimmel special is freakin awesome.

that mustmean miles must be dead and stayin in purgatory too then

[guava_wrench]

If you think about it, Ben didn't belong with the other group. He was still alone and it made sense that he wanted to follow up the invitation of the French mom.

It was interesting how the story was secondary to the characters in the finale. Definitely a feel good finale, not quite what I expected.

I'm not sure how I feel about the story, but I found the finale very emotionally compelling.

[fairweatherfan]

There's one thing left unexplained from what I've read so far....

WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THE BOMB?

We only started seeing the flash sideways after the bomb went off, and at the start of season 6, Juliette told Sawyer that "it worked." 

Yet the ending of the series didn't give us any explanation for the significance of the bomb.  The "purgatory" sideways world seems to exist outside of time.  There's no reason to believe that it was the bomb that allowed the characters to "create" it so they could meet each other once they died.

The bomb got them back to 2007 at the very least.  Also it was worth it just for the comedy value of trying to detonate a nuclear bomb by A. throwing it down a hole, and B. hitting it with a rock.  Not really how those things work.

Hell of a ride, really enjoyed the last episode. 

[guava_wrench]

can you explain it to me then

THis is the best explanation i have seen.

No, the Island was real. Everything that happened on the Island was real. The Alternate Reality was purgatory (in a sense), that's where the characters went when they died, but weren't ready to move on.

The church was the gateway to heaven, where the characters who were ready to move on gathered together.

They didn't all die at the same time. Sawyer, Claire, Sawyr, Kate, Hurley, Ben, Desmond could have lived until their 90s for all we know. But when they did die, the Alternate Reality is where they went.

It makes sense, Christian says to Jack that they all died at different times. It also explains Hurley telling Ben he was a great number 2, and Ben telling Hurley he was a great #1, clearly they had watched taken care of the Island together. They all lived out their lives, and the flash sideways was where they meet up before going to heaven together.

Loved it loved it, just wish Miles, Richard, and Lapidus went with them at the end, but im guessing they werent ready to move on.

that does make total sense...do you think that means, now that hurley is dead, ben is the # 1 on the island?

Richard wouldn't make sense because he was not from their time.

I need to re-watch because I'm not quite sure who wasn't included in the group. It is interesting that Miles never remembered anything, nor did Daniel or Charlotte. Daniel had the episode where in the flash sideways he knew about the bomb, but it seems those three and Lapidus don't belong with the others.

[jdpapa3]

Had to re-watch the last 30 minutes again to make sure my thought process was right. Gotta say that the way they ended it was just awesome and I can't imagine another way being better. I knew my man Hurley had a special quality about him.

And ya, Pos. Not sure what the bomb did. Perhaps it just sent them further in time and that's it?

Went way beyond what any other show has done for me when it comes to emotional reaction and involvement. Seriously epic ending scene.

[LarBrd33]

The finale (and the series as a whole) sucked.   Bottom line.  End of story.  That finale was total fail.

I stuck with this series, because I had already invested 100+ hours into it and wanted to believe that the writers actually knew what they were doing and weren't going to end it with some ridiculous deus ex machina (like Battlestar Galactica).  I'm not surprised when I read this earlier today:

When the similarly teasing Battlestar: Galactica ended last year, a lot of fans were disappointed by what they saw as a shoddy, deus ex machina conclusion. Many complained that the ending had negated six years' of nail-biting viewing, that it had been a big waste of their time.

Cuse and Lindelof are acutely aware of this problem. Although both are fans of The Sopranos' controversial fade-to-black ending, they swear theirs will be clearer.

I'm not even mildy surprised, though.  It was obvious it was going to suck.  It was confirmed for me when I listened to one of the writers on a podcast with Bill Simmons a couple weeks ago.  He admitted that in the first few seasons they were pretty much flying by the seat of their pants and writing stuff on the fly.  Basically just throwing crap against a wall and seeing what would stick.  They figured at any time the show would get cancelled (and actually kind of found that to be an appealing scenario), so they were just throwing polar bears and smoke monsters in there to create ratings.   When they finally did set an end date, they had to find a way to wrap up the mess they created.   He also admitted that throughout the series they wrote certain aspects intentionally ambiguous with no real explanation so that they could create internet debate.   I lost all faith at that point.  

Battlestar Galactica ended with some half-assed "they were angels... yeah... angels" explanation...

Lost ended with some wonky over-the-top contrived purgatory-ish explanation that involved some makebelieve "good and evil" twins and some beam of light (while ignoring countless questions that were created during the course of the series)  Bleh...  They would have been better off had they just ended it "It's a Wonderful Life/Christmas Carol" style.  Simply put... Jacob finds a bunch of "flawed" individuals and brings them to the island to give them a "second chance".  They all sacrifice a part of themselves and Jacob gives them another chance at life (the alternate reality where everyone is happy).   Instead... for whatever reason... they decided to make the alternate reality purgatory and said they were all dead for finale shock factor.   Not a fan.  Fail.

[Bahku]

Have to say I was a bit disappointed overall ... not because it was wriiten disjointedly, or because the finale wasn't what I wanted to happen, or because it was obviously thrown together as they went along, (because they still made it work, to a certain degree), but because what they started with could have progressed into something much, much more impactful and substantive.

The directions they went in after season two especially, just became progressively less believable and more incoherent, and it served to magnify the fact that this was a "think-it-up-as-we-go-along" kind of production. Highly intelligent and creative writers, though, and that's why it was still successful.

For the hard-core fans, take heart, I still enjoyed it very much as entertainment, but to me, what they began with bespoke and eluded to something much more epic and intense, and what I was sure would develop into one of the greatest shows of this generation, just plain got in it's own way, and came up far short of what it could have been.

In my humble opinion, what started out as an A+, ended up as a B-.

[LarBrd33]

Have to say I was a bit disappointed overall ... not because it was wriiten disjointedly, or because the finale wasn't what I wanted to happen, or because it was obviously thrown together as they went along, (because they still made it work, to a certain degree), but because what they started with could have progressed into something much, much more impactful and substantive.

The directions they went in after season two especially, just became progressively less believable and more incoherent, and it served to magnify the fact that this was a "think-it-up-as-we-go-along" kind of production. Highly intelligent and creative writers, though, and that's why it was still successful.

For the hard-core fans, take heart, I still enjoyed it very much as entertainment, but to me, what they began with bespoke and eluded to something much more epic and intense, and what I was sure would develop into one of the greatest shows of this generation, just plain got in it's own way, and came up far short of what it could have been.

In my humble opinion, what started out as an A+, and ended up as a B-.

TP.   I think my problem with Lost was that the way it was building with the mystery of Dharma was being done so well that I thought maybe the writers had some sense.  That entire thing peetered out and they ended up running in circles for a couple seasons until going the religious route.  I think that's a total copout.  Same reason I hated the finale of BSG and their "angels"

[byennie]

It's impossible to please everyone with these things. There's always a group of people who moan about how awful the finale is. Battlestar, Seinfeld, Lost, it doesn't matter.

I thought it was pretty cool.

It's not really fair to expect them to blow your mind with some amazing twist that nobody ever thought of, that answers every little question... what made Lost so great was the years of mystery with everyone hanging on their seat. If the writers did anything wrong, it was giving in to the press and admitting that the whole thing wasn't totally planned out, so that people could nitpick about it.

All I can say is, here we are discussing it on Celtics Blog. Bravo, awesome show. I wish I could forget it and relive it all over again.

[FallGuy]

SPOILERS BELOW (of course)

I don't regret the ride at all, and found the final episode satisfying on an emotional level (and this from a guy who rolls his eyes at all the heaven/afterlife stuff). Got dusty in the room more than once. In particular, I've always had a soft spot for Charlie and Claire (Charlie's death being one of the series' emotional high points).

But ultimately, I think Lost is gonna be seen as a crazy ambitious failure, much like Twin Peaks (where both once seemed like they had the potential to be amongst the greatest shows of all time). There's NO WAY I'd ever go back and watch this thing front-to-back again, especially knowing that Cuse-Lindelof asked you to invest so much in dashed off, purposeless mythology. I think that's a fair complaint even for those who aren't into the whole puzzle-piece aspect of the show. I could, frankly, never keep it all straight and didn't really need to, trusting that some semblance of purpose would eventually emerge from the details. On a human level, for that final 2.5 hour stretch, it was enjoyable and even memorable. The "awakening" bits were incredible. But I doubt it'll live in the memory the way the really great series finales do.

Alas - not a bad ride, but not a great one either.

[LarBrd33]

It was a failure and a MASSIVE cop out.  I'm sorry, but if you got wrapped up in all the emotional "pulling at the heart strings" moments in the finale, you did exactly what the writers hope you'd do... forget the fact that the show stunk and cry a bunch.  Luckily, I hated most of the characters on the show  (especially Sun and Jin) and didn't get caught up in that cheese.  Fact is, they set up a mystery show about the dharma initive, the others stealing children, walt's magical abilities, the nature of the island, etc etc etc... and instead of explaining anything, they just decided to razzledazzle everyone in the final 2 seasons by creating a couple angel twins.    

So what exactly was the story?  If in 10 years they decided to adapt the series into a 2 hour feature film, what would it entail?  Two angel twins control a magical island...  some strangers crash-land on the island as pawns in the "good" angel's chess game.   With the help from the strangers, the angels kill each other off... everyone eventually dies and the strangers end up in purgatory.   That about it?  You skip everything else, right?

New theory on what actually happened on this show...

Jack goes to pick up his dead father in Austrailia... the plane home crashes on a remote island.  Jack and the dog are the only survivors.   Jack snaps... survives by eating the remains of all the dead passengers.. hallucinates everything we have been watching for the past 6 seasons... and ultimately dies on the beach from food poisoning next to the dog.  Makes more sense.