LOST 06.17/18/18.5: "The End" (Everything Else Was Just Progress)

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I'm not sure what's unexplained about Walt. He's special in the same way that Locke, MIB, and presumably, MIB's adopted mother were all special. He was a "reincarnation" of, and potential replacement for, the island protector. Across the Sea made it clear that the island protector was always supposed to be a specific person. This person could be found by showing them items they had owned in a previous life - Walt and MIB both inherently knew how to play that game with the black and white pieces - and seeing if they recognized them. MIB fucked up the line of succession because he didn't want the job and spent his natural life trying to get off the island.
 
Foob said:
The only thing I don't understand is why Ben didn't go in with them? Did he just not feel like he deserved to join them cause of everything he died? For some reason this is the thing that's fucking me up the most

Yes.

And there's Alex/Danielle to think of.
 
gumshoe said:
Man, I just thought of something!!

The writers could have explained the mystery about the bird that yelled "Hurley" in a cool way. They could have shown that the bird was Jacob's pet. And since Jacob knows the names of the candidates, the bird could be just repeating something that it heard (assuming it is a parrot).

Missed opportunity!!
I liked the one where Hurley kept a pet parrot in the 70's and released it. They live a long time so it remembered him all those years later.
 
Nameless said:
-What do you mean by other side? But the cave could be found, didn't you watch the finale? She was guarding the island. Why does it matter who came before her, or who came before them? When do the questions stop if that's the kind of pointless shit you're focused on?

MiB wanted to escape from the island because he didn't belong there, so, why he couldn't escape? what was wrong with that?

Introducing vague stuff and then saying it doesn't matter it´s nothing to be proud as a writer, I could do that too. If the questions are worthless, showing them is equally worthless, why bother?

The great writers manage to show difficult answers and answer them, or at least know how to write mistery in a way you feel overwhelmed by it. Lost doesn't achieve any of this.
 
StrikerObi said:
Yep. Everybody was in their "happy place" in the flash sideways. While things weren't perfect there, they were still leading happy lives.

You know, as soon as we met Keamy in S4 I always knew that deep down, he'd rather be making good eggs. I'm glad he got that opportunity eventually. :lol
 
sazabirules said:
It is funny seeing people think it was just Christian symbolism at the end when they didn't even look and see the symbols from the various religions in the room.

The ending was overtly Christian (Jack's Christ-like sacrifice and wounds, the water-to-wine, the CS Lewis ending, purgatory, etc. etc.). I'm guessing the other symbols were in the church so that everyone who is not Christian could still feel included by the ending. However to ignore the strong Christian themes is being ignorant.
 
kame-sennin said:
I'm not sure what's unexplained about Walt. He's special in the same way that Locke, MIB, and presumably, MIB's adopted mother were all special. He was a "reincarnation" of, and potential replacement for, the island protector. Across the Sea made it clear that the island protector was always supposed to be a specific person. This person could be found by showing them items they had owned in a previous life - Walt and MIB both inherently knew how to play that game with the black and white pieces - and seeing if they recognized them. MIB fucked up the line of succession because he didn't want the job and spent his natural life trying to get off the island.
That's what I took from Hurley being crowned at the end too. Well, except I didn't think there was only one possible candidate.
 
Acosta said:
MiB wanted to escape from the island because he didn't belong there, so, why he couldn't escape? what was wrong with that?

Introducing vague stuff and then saying it doesn't matter it´s nothing to be proud as a writer, I could do that too. If the questions are worthless, showing them is equally worthless, why bother?

The great writers manage to show difficult answers and answer them, or at least know how to write mistery in a way you feel overwhelmed by it. Lost doesn't achieve any of this.
Could you really?
 
My mind is still reeling from last night. Fantastic conclusion to a meaningful series. Satisfying on many levels.

And my brain exploded when I realized that the flash-sideways "transition noise" we've been hearing all season was simply the plane flying over Jack's head in his dying moments. Unbelievable!
 
Nameless said:
It boggles my mind why anyone would rather the finale have focused on an ancient statue being erected or explaining why a character who hasn't been on the show in years is special. The island is a profoundly unique & special place, that gave these characters a chance second chance at everything & reunite with each other. The beauty of that would be lost if they gave some answer for it all. Midichlorian-esque answers are never a good thing.
I don't think most people would have rather had the FINALE focused on answering all (or even some) of the questions.. rather, they would have rather had multiple episodes that would have done this. Instead of ya know, poorly introducing new shit 2 episodes before the end. The producers knew how many episodes they had to work with coming into the season... they didn't use them well.

MarkMclovin said:
Was Aaron in the church with them? Fuck, I can't remember.
Yes, as a baby.
 
shagg_187 said:
Ben vindicated in my eyes when he called Hurley his number one.


:(


:'(

Ben was vindicated from his breakdown in Dr. Linus, man. What has followed since is the complete redemption of the character. Widmore was the exception, not the rule - Ben could not let that pass. But everything else, leading up to his apology to Locke, was perfect.
 
Solo said:
Ben wanted to make things right with Alex and Rousseau. Locke, Jack, and the ones who did go were "ready", and had made their peace. Ben had not yet.

Yup.

I think that Ben wants to let Alex grow in this "afterlife", he knows that he is the one that got her killed in his real life, and I think he just wants to do it right this time, even if she is truly dead already.
 
Catalix said:
My mind is still reeling from last night. Fantastic conclusion to a meaningful series. Satisfying on many levels.

And my brain exploded when I realized that the flash-sideways "transition noise" we've been hearing all season was simply the plane flying over Jack's head in his dying moments. Unbelievable!

By the way, someone go dig through the early season threads. I said right from LA X that the sound was a plane, and many didnt agree.
 
LCfiner said:
no it wasn’t.

it wasn’t real. Christian nails this point at the end. there is no time there. it is not a real place (not just the church. the entire alt timeline where these people had their flashes back to their old lives.)

Christian said it WAS all real. It didn't exist at a set time because they didn't all die at the same time. It was a reality that existed outside of time so it didn't matter when they crossed over.
 
LCfiner said:
no it wasn’t.

it wasn’t real. Christian nails this point at the end. there is no time there. it is not a real place (not just the church. the entire alt timeline where these people had their flashes back to their old lives.)

Didn't Christian also say everything experienced was real?

I'm taking it that reality doesn't have one definition. The purgatory was as real as anything else Jack or the other Losties went through, but that doesn't mean there weren't different rules there. It was the next level, or even the final level. It's the rebirth concept in Buddism.
 
(reposting this cause it was at the end of the last page)

I was having a discussion (focused on Sayid's true love) on a different forum but I will share it here as well. My thoughts on the sideways is this.

The way I see it with the alt, it was a place created by the losties, it focused on their time on the island. I am sure a bunch of them have loved ones after or before the island but that place was for their time on the island. The storylines throughout the season was their visions of the kind of life they wanted to have but it was still tainted by guilt or that ability to not let go. For Sayid he loved Nadia, but even in the alt he couldn't have her, she was like goal unreachable and Sayid blames himself cause of the guy he was, he did many bad things in his life and he could let go of it. Kate was arrested again but in this world she says she is innocent, she desperately wants to believe what she did was right, she doesn't consider herself a murderer but that guilt rages on. Jack created a son cause of his father issues and so on. In the end they all learned to let go of the life they wanted to have and accept what happened. That world and church was only for them, not the others they loved, it was a place to reconnect about what happened on the island. For all of them the most important time of their life was the time they spent on the island, as Jacob said they were all alone until they met each other there. This was like their afterlife reunion.
 
Solo said:
Ben was vindicated from his breakdown in Dr. Linus, man. What has followed since is the complete redemption of the character. Widmore was the exception, not the rule - Ben could not let that pass. But everything else, leading up to his apology to Locke, was perfect.
This I completely agree with. Ben, beyond everyone else for me, changed the most, and even though the X world was bullshit, it still demonstrated how close being a great man is to being a corrupt man. Something media doesn't play with all that often, and is a personal belief of mine.
 
Solo said:
By the way, someone go dig through the early season threads. I said right from LA X that the sound was a plane, and many didnt agree.

Was it? The CC's kept saying "magnetic hum" or something like that.
 
verbum said:
Anyone think they will come out with a "Lost" movie? X-files comes to mind.

Nope.


I do expect the series to live on somehow, but not a movie.

Comics or something? Probably. Lindlecuse have said as much in the past. Not that they themselves are all gungho about continuing the series, but they basically implied that there would be too much money left on the table for somebody to not continue this story in some fashion.
 
John Harker said:
Here we actually disagree. Jughead didn't factually do anything in terms of the 'flash sideways narrative'. Jack was wrong, and even admitted it. The term "flash sideways" is itself the final red herring, they weren't flashing to anything... this was a reality created after death by those whose journey we saw in life. This was their journey after death.

As Locke said after he awakened: Jack had no son. None of these people were real. I know some people will be disappointed with this, but this was the ending for those "men of faith." LOST was a journey from birth to death and after for these characters, and all we saw this season was the culmination of that. There was no part of the sideways that even existed that wasn't part of these LOST characters lives. The island was sunk because they needed to move on from it - it even needed to EXIST because some of them were born on it (Charlotte, Miles, etc). Even Ben visited the Island, but we learned in the flash sideways they moved off it young.

The island needed to go away for everyone to continue to exist and reunite, so in this purgatory, it was removed. In that sense, the 'bomb worked' - but again, it was all a spiritual illusion. Until each person "awakened" - i.e., came to the realization and acceptance of their own mortal death, they are born, died, and renewed within this karma cycle. Some people are ready (Jack, Locke, everyone we saw in Church) some are not (Ben, Ana Lucia as told by Desmond, Hawkings, etc) and some never will (Michael, Whispers, etc). After these people in the Church go to their deserved afterlife, all that will not touch the remaining people still in this purgatory lives... ceases to be.
That's how I see it. Well said.
 
MarkMclovin said:
Also, if we are to assume that the people who got away, led their lives after the island, why do they look exactly the same and not older?

Because what was important was the time they spent together. So that's the age at which they all came together.
 
MarkMclovin said:
Also, if we are to assume that the people who got away, led their lives after the island, why do they look exactly the same and not older?

I believe Christian said their time on the island was the most important point of their existence. Plus it helps to be able to recognize all those people you care for most. Their prime so to speak.
 
Nameless said:
Christian said it WAS all real. It didn't exist at a set time because they didn't all die at the same time. It was a reality that existed outside of time so it didn't matter when they crossed over.


No. it’s not real. if it were a real place, jack and juliet wouldn’t abandon their real son and go off to church and then to heaven.

if it were a real place, jack wouldn’t be seeing fresh scars pop up that are resulting from his memory of his fight with Locke.

if it were real, the casket wouldn’t be empty and jack wouldn’t realize that he was dead and his dead dad wouldn’t be telling him that there is no time in this place and that everyone waiting for him had died.

it’s not real.

Christian was most likely referring to jack’s flashes of the island being real. Since this new jack is seeing them for the first time and has to reconcile all these new memories.
 
MarkMclovin said:
Also, if we are to assume that the people who got away, led their lives after the island, why do they look exactly the same and not older?

They do this in a lot of shows/movies/books/etc dealing with the afterlife.

People tend to look how the audience knows them. It's just how it's done.
 
Solo said:
Ben was vindicated from his breakdown in Dr. Linus, man. What has followed since is the complete redemption of the character. Widmore was the exception, not the rule - Ben could not let that pass. But everything else, leading up to his apology to Locke, was perfect.

Yeah, but that apology and Hurley sequence really broke my heart... I wanna see the finale again for I never got a chance of pouring my heart out since my friends were sitting with me and kept on STARING AT MY FACE WHENEVER SOMETHING EMOTIONAL HAPPENED! >:(

Just thinking about these moments gives me misty eyes... :(
 
Even in purgatory, Anna Lucia still takes bribes.

Also, LOST doesn't need answers because whatever happens someone will come up with an explanation for it, so the writers don't need to really cover it.
 
Amneisac said:
And having Jack die next to Vincent at the end was basically the writers saying, "We can't come up with a fulfilling ending, so here's some sappy emotional apology ending for you to have a good cry and remember only the good times."

That was a fulfilling ending for me though.

YoungHav said:
Exactly. If you have any experience in writing fiction or have seen better programming, you can only come to this conclusion. If Lost were put in book form, it would be gibberish as far as plotpoints introduced and then forfeited or given an explanation that was all too convenient.

:lol :lol

Loving the pretentious bullshit from some of you.
 
StuBurns said:
That's what I took from Hurley being crowned at the end too. Well, except I didn't think there was only one possible candidate.

Yea, I don't either. That's why I put 'reincarnate' in quotes, because it's not a direct line of succession. Locke and Walt were alive at the same time, but only one was going to have the chance of running the island.
 
Liara T'Soni said:
Nope.


I do expect the series to live on somehow, but not a movie.

Comics or something? Probably. Lindlecuse have said as much in the past. Not that they themselves are all gungho about continuing the series, but they basically implied that there would be too much money left on the table for somebody to not continue this story in some fashion.

I'd be all for the Hurley/Linus Buddy Years. :D
 
For people who liked this, please, please, please go watch the incredible film from Hirokazu Koreeda, After Life. I wonder if the producers got some inspiration from it? There are definitely some similarities.
 
Nameless said:
It boggles my mind why anyone would rather the finale have focused on an ancient statue being erected or explaining why a character who hasn't been on the show in years is special. The island is a profoundly unique & special place, that gave these characters a chance second chance at everything & reunite with each other. The beauty of that would be lost if they gave some answer for it all. Midichlorian-esque answers are never a good thing.
It's about balance. There are plenty of stories that have left things up to the viewer's imagination without making them feel totally cheated out of answers.

I could accept that the Egyptian stuff was just remnants of a lost expedition/civilization, whose purpose had been lost as time marched on. But that's not a proper appraisal of what the show actually conveyed. Dharma's countdown clock had Egyptian symbols, Ben knew about the donkey wheel room, Smokey killing Jacob at the statue's foot seemed significant, Dogan seemed to have a grasp of what the temple was for and knew exactly what to do when he got a Big Ankh Fortune Cookie Telegram. By every indication, those Egyptian remnants had something important to do with the island, and there were people existing recently that at least had a tenuous knowledge of why and how. Then the finale comes and goes and the whole issue is totally ignored.

"Leaving blanks for the viewer to fill in themselves" is not the same thing as "not telling the viewer shit". When the writers decided that they were going to play up certain mysteries and layer them deeper and deeper, that naturally gave people the expectation that they would at least hint at some reasons for it. Instead, many of these issues just spontaneously disappeared with no rhyme or reason. People are right to be upset at that, it's not good storytelling.
 
Catalix said:
My mind is still reeling from last night. Fantastic conclusion to a meaningful series. Satisfying on many levels.

And my brain exploded when I realized that the flash-sideways "transition noise" we've been hearing all season was simply the plane flying over Jack's head in his dying moments. Unbelievable!

What?! Holy shit!
 
Solo said:
By the way, someone go dig through the early season threads. I said right from LA X that the sound was a plane, and many didnt agree.
I always thought it sounded like a jet plane engine too, but I never thought they would've connected it in such a powerful and literal way. So awesome.

This goddam series :')
 
Haha, people are incredibly pathetic. I absolutely loved the ending, but I'm not going to go around trying to convince people to do the same. There are obvious reasons as to why some would enjoy the ending, and some wouldn't. I gave up caring about the mythology after AtS (which is what the whole point of the episode was, I guess. A way to get us to "let go". To forget about the addicting chase of "the answer"). I became a strictly character person, and I absolutely loved the ending. I also really don't mind metaphysical and religious twists. A religious twist in Lost is really not that far reaching, given the material we've had to work with over the past 6 years. I was fine with the religious twist in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and that came out of FUCKING NOWHERE. So, compared to that, Lost's religious/spiritual spin is actually somewhat predictable. Someone who only wants answers to mythological questions and a logical, scientific explanation for everything would clearly not have enjoyed the finale. These are Men of Science. I am a man of Faith. There is no amount of complaining, bitching about inconsistencies, plot holes, lack of explanation for electromagnetism or Taller-Ghost-Walt that is going to turn me into a Man of Science. Lost has become a show faith rather than science. Of magic rather than nanomachines. Of supernatural rather than electromagnetic. Why do you find it so hard to believe?
 
Zoe said:
He doesn't have a son.
Yeah I know that :)
Just confirming who was in church since so much was happening in finale that I couldn't count the characters! :P

In other news:

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/24/two-lost-tracks-coming-soon-to-rock-band-network/

Harmonix knows that you and your crew of Losties will be looking for something to do on Tuesday nights now that there's no more Lost to watch, and has stepped in to help. Now you'll be able to turn those watch parties into Rock Band parties, as you play along to two songs featured in the show.

G4 reports that, in the near future, the Rock Band Network will play host to both "You All Everybody," the hit song from Charlie Pace's band Drive Shaft, and "Dharma Lady," by '70s band and frequent hidden reference Geronimo Jackson. The Rock Band Network status means it'll be released on Xbox 360 first, and then possibly brought to Wii and PS3 later.

It's probably a bad idea to use this music to try to introduce someone to the show. These songs are hilarious as in-jokes, but on their own, they're ... well, still hilarious, but not in a good way.
 
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