Son of Godzilla said:
Oh come on, surely you can appreciate the difference between a show earning it's moments and just turning on the cheesey music and roilling a flashback clip.
I agree with this. The end of the first season did more for me emotionally. The Sawyer and Jack conversation about meeting Christian in a bar was utterly incredible, it wasn't cheap, it was completely justified within the arcs of those characters, it was beautiful. The Jin/Sun ending to season one was equally stunning, and equally valid.
The End did decide to go with a less subtle means to communicate it's intent. The over exposed cuts were, for me at least, a poor decision. The clean, silent cuts in The Constant would have been preferable I think, and would have articulated the characters confusion over the situation. In The End, it felt they were more for the viewer than the characters.
robertsan21 said:
question regarding the island.
why did it need protection?
and what did father sheaperd mean when he said "some died before and some after" or something like that.
and why couldnt the smok monster leave, I know they said it would kill everything..but he looked like he would be a good guy once he would be off the island,why would he destroy the world he would be going to?
It needed protecting because it was over keeping evil/hell/corruption/etc from spilling out.
Christian meant, that some of the people in the church died before Jack, such as Boone, and some died a long time after, such as Hurley.
We don't really know why Smokey couldn't leave. I actually don't believe there was a legitimate answer, beyond he could kill the entire population with impunity.