duckroll said:
I finally watched it. While it will take a while to sink in the entirety of the finale, in short it was not what I expected at all, but not something I disliked either. I felt it was really emotional at times, and I'm surprised how it never really clicked as to what the sideways was until the very, very end. Then at that moment, it all made sense. It obviously wasn't a twist they stuck in there, but something they planned from the start of the season. It all made sense why they were living a better life, but still flawed.
The idea of the sideways being a purgatory they all had to live through after death to work out their own issues, and eventually meeting each other again to accept to let go is a pretty solid and acceptable plot direction for me. It didn't make reality any less real, or any of the deaths any weaker. We now know that life went on for those who survived. Hurley and Ben stayed on the island to protect it until they eventually died some way or another. Jack died after putting the light back. Everyone else got to leave the island including Desmond. And presumably Hurley didn't bring people to the island to make his job harder like Jacob did.
I'm pretty satisfied with the ending, mostly because it went for a really different direction and actually managed to surprise me without pissing me off. I love the characters in the show, and to see that the sideways ends as a sort of epilogue to their time in the world between, and seeing Jack finally get closure with his father, well that really means a lot. Jack getting closure with Christian is possibly the one most important thing to me in this finale. More important than any mythology question or mystery.
Thumbs up.
Ducky, you son of a bitch. C'MERE!!
duckroll said:
I'm not exactly sure what is so confusing. The island is a place with magical powers. It holds the source of all life in the world as we know it, and is protected by a guy named Jacob. Jacob brings people who he personally feels are flawed, alone and have no place in the world to the island because he thinks that the island can help them. Most of these people end up dying because there's also a guy on the island who hates Jacob and wants to kill him and anyone he brings to the island. That's the backstory. It's not very important to the show overall.
The story of Lost is the story of one group of people who were brought to the island by Jacob. They are the survivors of 815. While on the island they befriend each other, and build a connection between each other. They find love, friendship, rivalry, etc among each other, and they go through thick and thin surviving the island. Eventually Jack takes up the role of Jacob, and dies in the process on restoring the light. Hurley takes over and makes Ben his assistant. Everyone else who survived escaped the island and continued with their lives.
The flash sideways is purgatory. At some point, everyone dies. When their live ends, they move on to another spiritual state. In that state they exist in a state of reliving their lives until they can learn to let go. If they don't let go, it's possible they can continue living in this existence for as long as it takes for them to be content. Because of the strong connection they all formed with one another while they were alive, it is in meeting one another again that forms their final step of moving on. The island was simply the most important and worthwhile part of all their lives. There are other characters who you notice did not get the same experience. Charlotte, Daniel, Ana Lucia, and so on are "not ready", because it is likely that the island is not the most important thing in their lives. They have other issues they need to work out before moving on, and there are more important people in their past lives than the main characters in the show.
Excellent, again Ducky. it's good to have ya back.
Solo said:
It also occurred to me this morning that the start of the season, when Jack wakes up on O815, takes place directly after Jack dies in The End. Awesome.
Also, loved how Ben was just conning MIB and truly had changed.
Jack's face at the end, not as only as he watches the last people he could save leave the island, but also as he sees his final journey beginning on the plane....it's beautiful thing.
"Get the fuck off my island."
Solo said:
Man, I feel bad for Lindelcuse right now. Not because they are getting ripped on by critics because the episode sucked, but because they are getting ripped on by critics who completely misunderstood the finale and twisted its meaning into something that would have sucked.
It's mindblowing how much fucking stupidity the average critic has. It does not matter to me whether a person likes or doesn't like this finale, but jesus christ, it was not hard to understand if you took 5 minutes to think about it.
I also want to say, what is the deal with people who need to validate their opinion by saying everyone else is delusional? This is for anyone who says something to the effect of "wait a couple days, you'll all see!"; How about you just keep the delusion that anyone really cares what you think to yourself? I am not going to make any attempt to tell people what to think about the ending. I'll help them understand what happened, but the ending was so perfect IMO because it leaves the ultimate objective view of the ending up to the actual viewer and the viewer alone. I'm not concerned with reading reviews and friends didn't like it, too bad. It is of no concern to me. I know what I feel and that is all there needs to be.
Solo said:
Kate's "Ive missed you so much" goes straight to my heart. Goddamnit, the writers actually went and made me love Kate this season. And she KILLED MIB. Jesus!
Yea, she went straight John McClane on MiB. After first, I thought it was dumb she was trying to kill the smoke monster with bullets, but she didn't really know to begin with, and it foreshadowed her saving Jack, which is kind of unheard of.
Napoleonthechimp said:
I assume what is beyond the veil is also beyond limits of time and space so... all the dead arrived simultaneously despite dying at different times.
Basically....god damn.
Solo said:
This reminds me: one of my favorite scenes last night was MIB giving Jack shit about remember the hatch and old times and shit, and Jack's empassioned defense of Locke. "You aren't John Locke. You disgrace is memory by wearing his face". Goddamn, Jack, I could hug you.
God damnit, I just gotta post this again:
Solo said:
Im so happy that the final Locke we saw wasnt MIB, wasnt Locke X (who as it turns out, doesnt exist), and wasnt any other permutation. That was straight old Locke. Him forgiving Ben for murdering him was incredibly touching for both characters. You're all heart, John.
Locke: "Ben....what
did I have?"
:________________[
Deadly said:
So who did Hugo and Ben lead exactly? Were there still other people left on the island or did they actually keep bringing people to the island?
IIRC, there were still some Others scattered about after the mortar attack. I assume they helped them find a way home or a peace with their lives. Because that's how Boss Hurley and Jr. Boss Ben get shit done in my mind.
John Harker said:
I just typed up my thoughts on the finale itself and wanted to post it.
Some of it is a rehash of what I posted before I suppose, some of it has already been discussed, but just wanted to collect it in one place for myself.
Sorry it's so long.
The basic narrative of LOST as I see it:
At it's core, LOST is about a plane full of strangers who crash on a strange island (strangers in a strange land). Everything that is important to the narrative of LOST is seen through the eyes of these individuals. The setting of LOST is very important, but essentially it is a small snapshot in the whole timeline of this special island. The show was never about the creation or resolution of the island or its mystery, it was about a plane full of people who crash on this island and their reasons for being there. We saw their lives before the crash, during their stay, and the ultimate resolution of their very souls. To me, that's was really powerful and ultimately what moved me the most during the finale.
The Bilateral Ending:
In my eyes, there were two separate parts to the finale: one to satisfy the 'men of science,' and one to satiate the 'men of faith."
Plot Ending (science):
From a narrative perspective, the part of the overall mythology of LOST that pertains to our characters begins when a random pregnant woman is shipwrecked and by coincidence finds herself on our Island in 23 A.D. This is neither the beginning nor the end of the Island story, but it starts the events that are part of our journey. This women is ultimately murdered by a mysterious, very lonely woman who kidnaps and raises her two children. This confused and tormented women we later learn is a Guardian (someone who has been tasked with protecting the sanctity of this special place). Through a series of unfortunate events (that mainly was due to desperation and loneliness of our Guardian friend) one of these brothers is burden with the guilt of killing the other and by violating sacred oaths, brought into being the physical manifestation of the darkness in man - giving bodily form to the corruption inside who he murdered - and his desire to undue what he could potentially unleash to the rest of humanity. This takes place 2000 years ago and ultimately Jacob realizes his brother (Man in Black) will find a way off this island by removing him as a Guardian, and comes up with an elaborate job testing program to bring Candidates to the island who can replace him.
Our story ends rather simply, by Jack Shepard electing (very importantly, since Jacob himself was never given any choice - thus he created all these rules to maintain his Candidates free will) of taking up the reins of Guardian and finally killing the Man in Black. Desmond was needed here since he had the unique ability to withstand large amounts of electromagnetic energy, i.e. the physical source of the 'special qualities' of this Island - he was the only one who could remove the cork to seal up MiB's Smokey powers). This was his ultimate destiny and he gave his life to do it, and thus he died after fulfillment of his task. Hurley was given Guardian duty, and he elected Ben to be his "Richard" - so the two of them lived untold years together protecting the island. Kate and Claire and Sawyer with a handful of other people escaped on the downed Ajira plane and lived out the remainder of their lives in 2007 and onward. That's the end of LOST.
Spiritual Ending (faith):
There was never any parallel universe or timeline ... the bomb never worked, and as Jack said, "he's been wrong before." This was part of something the Losties faced constantly - they were mistaking coincidence and fate, and so were the audience. Anyway, The 'flash sideways' name is a red herring - what we were really watching was a form of purgatory where the souls of all who went on this Island journey in life gathered after their ultimate deaths. Here these special individuals were rewarded in death, as they got to spend some time together before their souls were ready to 'move on.' It was really touching. Michael wasnt there since he hasnt forgiven himself (or been forgiven for) for the murders he committed, he was still trapped on the island, helping out others in the form of ghostly whispers etc. While Ben is now aware he is actually dead, he hasn't finished atoning and wasnt ready for the afterlife either - he was content spending more time inside this purgatory, waiting till he was cleansed enough "being good" to complete his soul's journey. Same with the other characters such as Ana Lucia (as Desmond said, she "isn't ready yet"). That story was resolution for the 'men of faith' out there, but had no bearing on the actual story itself.
I can see people being disappointed since the flash sideways had nothing to do with the show narrative - the real resolution was Jack's sacrifice, a few people making it home alive, and Hurley ultimately inheriting the duties of Guardian ( to something we wont ever fully understand ) but the "flash sideways" gave us beautiful, spiritual resolution. They've been stuck in this place between worlds for who knows how many life cycles, till Desmond was able awaken them to accept their deaths and become aware of, as Christian said, the 'single most important thing in their lives' - the acceptance of what their fate was. They were then given peace and closure so they can move on.
I think this works brilliantly since, as they said all along: Everything on the island, happened. That was the factual events of Lost. The sideways was simply the close of our character's karmic cycle, and some people are not yet ready for resolution (Another example, Eloise Hawkings obviously was the first of all of them 'awakened' first when she saw her grownup son and having not killed him - asking Desmond not to end it for Faraday), but I loved it.
But... What about THE ANSWERS?!:
There are lots of 'mythology' stuff you can dissect if you put enough thought/discussion into it - The Others, Dharma, the Egyptians, etc - and there are lots of "expanded universe" stuff made specifically for the Internet - such as the Valenzetti Equation videos about what The Numbers are - but ultimately these things weren't seen by or important to the eyes of our characters in our initial plane crash, so wasn't touched on in the ending itself. I can see some disappointed here myself, but I think a lot of that would have been out of place given what the finale focused on.
Rambling now so will stop, but I'll miss ya LOST
You truly deserve a new tag.
Truly.
Solo said:
It was an Oceanic bottle. Bringing things back to the pilot.
Yea, it was the one Ben found in Dr. Linus, right? Sweet stuff.
StuBurns said:
One thing the ending does is actually make the sideways even less meaningful. Until they 'wake up', those characters are truly meaningless.
I don't see it like that. In the X world, they resolve their character issues. Waking them up blends the two characters into one and thus brings them to the final conclusion of their souls.
itsinmyveins said:
Well, clearly a character returning from the dead is considered character development rather than some type of mystery.
Like a guy regaining the use of his legs?
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 :lol Yes, If I had seen better programming, I could come to a better conclusion. Sure. Should I rewatch The Wire again? Or what?:lol I'd seriously would love to see your reaction to a Haruki Murakami novel. The amount of "unanswered stuff" would blow your mind and then you'd be telling the critics who praise him that if it were put into a TV show, it would've been gibberish.:lol Seriously man, you can let it go. You don't need to validate your opinion by telling everyone they're less refined than you.
Live Alone, Die Together. Agreed with another dude, I wouldn't mind have this framed.
Byakuya769 said:
"hey Desmond, I know you could do this and survive easily, but I think i need to do this. I was MEANT TO DO THIS."
"wait, brothah.. oh, well okay. You're pretty persuasive."
"See you in another lifetime."
Gaf - OMG, OMG brilliant!
normal human being - but that doesn't make any sense...
GAF -SHUT UP.
it's really kind of sad that you can't comprehend that Desmond kind of got his ass wooped by stepping into an incredible amount of energy that would destroy a normal human. It's not really hard to understand that at all. But please, continue to believe your opinion is valid because the people who enjoyed it are dumber than you. :lol Clearly, this post proved you were the smart one all along.
Slacker said:
Yep, telling the truth will sound something like this:
:lol :lol It's amazing how much of that actual story you have to leave out for you to end up getting
this out of the story.
Zeliard said:
They also formed the sideways as an opportunity to get over any final, lingering issues that they couldn't on the island. That was their final task before finally moving on and achieving final enlightenment.
- Jack gives himself a son in the sideways, so that he could be the father he was never able to be, as well as the father that he never had in his own life.
- Jin and Sun are able to experience the pending birth of their child together, an opportunity that was taken from them in the real world.
- Sawyer is still angry in the sideways, but he's a cop and he doesn't pursue the other Sawyer with the same unrelenting rage and vigor, killing innocent people in he process. He ultimately learned to fully let go with the help of Miles, Kate and Juliet.
- Hurley no longer carries around bad luck in the sideways. It's the direct opposite. He's able to live a life where he purely helps people, with nothing getting in the way, which is what he always wanted.
- John Locke is miraculously fixed by Jack and is able to walk - this repairs and greatly strengthens both his own resolve and his relationship with Jack. This does the same for Jack himself. The two old rivals find peace in each other.
- Ben is forgiven by Locke, who he had killed. Locke was already at peace. Ben finds peace.
- Charlie finally got over his heroin addiction and found peace with Claire.
- Sayid ultimately realized that Nadia was not the right person for him. She belonged to another. Shannon, who he met on the island, was.
And so on.
GOD DAMNIT, YES!
BenjaminBirdie said:
I'm kind of amazed that I'm even more impressed with the finale today than I was yesterday. The idea the sideways stuff was an exploration of coming to grips with the realities of your life as it was, not as you might have wished it was, is really quite profound to me.
I really didn't pick up on it until Nameless' post, but it just adds a whole new level to an already immensely satisfying finale.
And it also explains SO well why certain people weren't at the church. You have to reach a point where you realize your life really wouldn't have been better off if the plane had landed in LAX. For people like Ana Lucia, Ben, Daniel, Charlotte, and Eloise, that is a much harder pill to swallow.
God damnit, YES!