lazypadawan | OT: Thoughts On Lost's Denouement

Geez, ABC, if the show was going to last 2.5 hours, you should've started it at 8:30! Keeping it rolling to 11:30 like a Super Bowl or Oscars broadcast was ridiculous. I didn't watch all of the pre-finale brouhaha, just the final episode itself.

Being my age, I've seen a lot of series finales, including all of the famous ones but for the end of "The Fugitive," because that aired two years before I was born. Overall, I'd say it is a fitting and satisfying ending. How you feel about it probably depends on what you liked most about the show. If you were interested in the labyrinthine plot and wondering how all of the ends tied together, then you're probably upset that not every question was answered. I expected a lot of red herrings and figured there would be things left dangling with as much stuff this show had over the past 6 years. The question is did they leave anything significant up in the air or unresolved? Not really. The important stuff was answered while leaving lots of room for interpretation or speculation. You know, kind of like Star Wars.

If you were interested mostly in the characters, then you're probably really happy with it unless your favorite characters ever were Michael and Walt. Just about everyone who had appeared on the show returns within the last couple of episodes. The characters you cared the most about got their happy ending of sorts but it wasn't gained cheaply without them learning anything.

Early on in the show's run, my mom said, "I bet they are all dead!" Turns out Mom and many other viewers who came up with that theory were pretty close. The Island is a terrestrial Purgatory, complete with its EZ Access to Hell and the merry crew were all there to find redemption, which is the only way they could truly escape. The main characters find that redemption eventually; even Ben Linus has that hope. The problem with the Dharma Initiative and with Charles Widmore was that they tried to use science to research and control something that was ultimately within the realm of the spirit. The Sideways timeline was revealed to be an elaborate plot to reunite everyone so they can welcome Jack to the afterlife. All of the OTPs are reunited, which is nice.

Like I said, a lot is left open to interpretation and speculation. Is Michael's soul still trapped on the island? How long did Hurley serve as guardian? Was Ben in fact still alive and serving as Hurley's successor, and that was why he sat outside of the church? Or was he not quiiite ready to enter "heaven" yet?

The only significant question I don't think they answered is what the deal was with the pregnancies. The only drawback with the merry character reunion is how the writers seemed to have plum forgotten about Michael and Walt. And no Eko? Walt appeared a couple of years ago, and he looks like a young man. They didn't think when they cast a kid in the show that kids have a terrible habit of growing up. So they regrettably had to put him and Michael down the memory hole, though Vincent did make a final appearance. I'm also a tad disappointed Eko did not return. It's not as though he got busted for DUI or anything ;).

I actually anticipated the possibility of "Lost" ending in a rather anticlimactic manner ("X-Files") or with a last-minute lame curveball ("St. Elsewhere") or with something demoralizing ("ALF," "Dinosaurs"). It did none of those things, so that's fine by me.