OT: Thoughts On Lost's Denouement

[lazypadawan]

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.

Comments

[may-child.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched Lost since the first season, but your reaction to the finale is pretty consistent with what I've seen Lost fans say in general. Many were tearful, most noted that the finale did not tie up all the loose ends, but didn't really expect, or want, it to. When watching the first season on DVD, the possibility that they were dead occurred to me as well, but since I didn't watch the subsequent seasons, I more or less filed it away in the back of my mind and didn't look for it again until now.

So, they actually are dead...not that surprising, but not tiresomely predictable either. I've no real attachment to the show, but I will say that it's a good thing the show didn't go out like St. Elsewhere, trying for a jaw-dropper but instead delivering an eye-roller; nor did it attempt to use a variant of the it-was-clever-for-Newhart-but-not-for-anything-else finale of it all being a dream, like Roseanne.

[miana-dude.livejournal.com]

No Eko because the actor wanted 5x what they offered him for a cameo.

As for Michael, I think his soul's still trapped on the island. I'd like to think that Hurley in his time as keeper of the island figured out a way to help those souls move on.


As for Walt... well, the kid has grown up, so I know that's one reason. The theory that a lot of people are spouting is that for the people who weren't there (Daniel, Charlotte, Miles, Frank, etc), they moved on with the people that mattered to them more, as opposed to our core group of Losties who really only had each other.

[leia-naberrie.livejournal.com]

LOL! I wonder what Michael, Walt and Mr Eko have in common that made them conveniently disappear from the finale... *eyeroll*

[darth-pipes.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed the Lost finale. I found it to be very satisfying. In the end it was always a show about characters more than the plot. I'm usually very good with these kind of things but I cried several times during the finale. The reunions were wonderful. Having Jack confront his father at the end was perfect too. He spent so many years looking for his father after arriving on the island that it totally worked.

I really would have liked to have seen the Eko actor back but as stated, he apparently asked for a ridiculous amount of money. I got the impression that he was one of the only actors on the show that didn't get along with everybody. Terry O'Quinn was commented as saying after Eko left that he didn't really miss him. I've heard Michelle Rodriguiz isn't the easist person to deal with but she did come back to the show two times. I wondered if Boone's great line about it being a pain in the ass to get Shannon back was also an inside joke about Maggie Grace. ;)

I read on a website that the people in the church at the end were all bonded in some way and that Michael really wasn't that close to them. Michael's fate is puzzling. He did an awful thing when he murdered Anna Lucie and Libby but several of the characters present at the end did bad things before and after they got on the island. Maybe it had to do with that he killed Libby, who was at the church at the end. Maybe there's a rule about that.

There are a few questions I would have liked answered. The fertility question and Walt are the two big ones.

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

5x what they offered him??? Unless they offered him $500, I think I would forget all about him too, heh heh.

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

Raaaacisssts!!!

(Unless you consider Rose.)

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

Supposedly there will be more answers on the DVD set.

Given Lindelhof's prequel bashing, I am somewhat amused by the fanboy griping on the internet about the "lame" and "stupid" conclusion who felt they were owed explanations for everything and didn't want a "sappy" religious ending. Shoe, meet the other foot!

[darth-pipes.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the shoe is definitely on the other foot now. It just goes to show that you can't please everyone.