Lost Series Finale: "The End"

[Trippy]

During the credits, there was a crash scene, with footprints in the sand moving away from it.

My take, it was just a goodbye to the set of Lost.

 

[Hober Mallow]

During the credits, there was a crash scene, with footprints in the sand moving away from it.

My take, it was just a goodbye to the set of Lost.

Oh, okay, I get it. I misunderstood.

 

[startrekwatcher]

Just found this post over at DarkUFO. The guy claims to work for Bad Robot and may have been a writer's assistant or something because he alludes to goings on in the writers' room.

I don't know if he's legit or not. I could go either way on it. But regardless of whether he's the real deal or not he offers up what I think is a pretty good explanation for what was going on in the finale.

Worth a read at any rate.

If that had been onscreen as part of the exposition or made clearer it would have made me feel a bit better about the mythology. But unfortunately unlike this guy I wasn't a writing assistant/insider privy to the thought process Carlton and Damon were employing with some of their creative decisions.

I'm fed up with needing supplemental material to appreciate a show--the final product should speak for itself. As it stands there were holes and not enough information to connect those particular dots.

 

[DeafPoet]

But, from a more "behind the scenes" note: the reason Ben's not in the church, and the reason no one is in the church but for Season 1 people is because they wrote the ending to the show after writing the pilot. And never changed it.

Sorry, that explanation doesn't work. Desmond was at the church. So was Penny. It wouldn't have been any effort to have Ben in there. I don't buy this,

The writers always said (and many didn't believe them) that they knew their ending from the very first episode. I applaud them for that. It's pretty fantastic. Originally Ben was supposed to have a 3 episode arc and be done. But he became a big part of the show.

This is a common misconception, although there is some truth to it. Henry Gale, not Ben Linus, was suppose to die after three episodes. The leader of the Others was then going to be introduced in season three. What the writers did was combine the two characters, so that Henry doesn't die and then we find out that he is actually the leader of the Others. Hardly a major story change, and to say "Ben Linus" was only going to be on the series for three episodes is factually incorrect.

Yeah it's stuff like this that makes the guy smell a little fishy. Still, I basically agree with his take on the rest of it.

 

[Hermiod]

^^What's "House of M"?

It is a comic book series by Marvel. It tells the story of a character who recreates reality giving a group of people what they most want. There are a few characters who still remember their past lives and want to set reality right. They then search out all the other people and restore their memories preparing for a big confrontation.

Oh, that sounds kinda interesting.

Surprised you don't know what the House of M was, exodus. "Daddy... No More Mutants!"

Come to think of it, the House of M and the Flash-Sideways both began with a flash of white light.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Listening to the Life and Death theme now puts a whole new spin on things.

 

[doubleohfive]

During the credits, there was a crash scene, with footprints in the sand moving away from it.

My take, it was just a goodbye to the set of Lost.

I took it to mean that even though most of the Oceanic passengers had either died, left, or simply moved on, the wreckage was still there -- along with the footprints -- because it was a testament to their having been there.

Because that's part of what Jack tries to impart on Hurley before going down the waterfall -- everything they did mattered. That wreckage, those footprints, their proof that Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Locke, etc were there, the same way the temple, the hieroglyphs, the Tawaret foot, the Black Rock, the Dharma Barracks, the Adam & Eve skeletons were still there as representative of all the other people who had come and gone to and from the island over the course of time.

The message being, we all want to be remembered, we all want to leave behind a legacy, a footprint.

 

[RoJoHen]

Which is all fine and dandy, except that I'm pretty sure they made a big deal about the wreckage being swallowed by the tide, which is the main reason they ended up abandoning their original camp.

 

[Ryan]

I'm sure having the island be real and the flashes being purgatory sounded like a cool twist on fan speculation in the writers' room but it sure didn't work out that way.

 

[exodus]

It is a comic book series by Marvel. It tells the story of a character who recreates reality giving a group of people what they most want. There are a few characters who still remember their past lives and want to set reality right. They then search out all the other people and restore their memories preparing for a big confrontation.

Oh, that sounds kinda interesting.

Surprised you don't know what the House of M was, exodus. "Daddy... No More Mutants!"

Come to think of it, the House of M and the Flash-Sideways both began with a flash of white light.

I haven't read a comic book in like 15 years.
I don't think I've read one since "Preacher" ended.

 

[Jax]

Always makes me laugh threads seem full of haters when polls always show the opposite...(over 75% in this say it was above average or Excellent)

LOST was never going to end well for some people it built itself up so much but I just can't help thinking I've been treated to 6 years of some of the best TV out there and I look forward to restarting the journey very soon.

 

[label]

I've since rewatched most of the finale and now that I've stopped looking for "answers" to some of the mythology behind the story and focused on the journey these people went through, that was an absolutely amazing ending. It was as powerful and emotional as any I've ever seen.

 

[Electric Coleslaw]

Just found this post over at DarkUFO. The guy claims to work for Bad Robot and may have been a writer's assistant or something because he alludes to goings on in the writers' room.

I don't know if he's legit or not. I could go either way on it. But regardless of whether he's the real deal or not he offers up what I think is a pretty good explanation for what was going on in the finale.

Worth a read at any rate.

If that had been onscreen as part of the exposition or made clearer it would have made me feel a bit better about the mythology. But unfortunately unlike this guy I wasn't a writing assistant/insider privy to the thought process Carlton and Damon were employing with some of their creative decisions.

I'm fed up with needing supplemental material to appreciate a show--the final product should speak for itself. As it stands there were holes and not enough information to connect those particular dots.

But it was on-screen. Every bit of it. Some of it was implied but some was stated. People who don't get it may need to review "Across the Sea" again. That episode may have been very underwhelming and overly subtle but the answers were actually all there.

 

[stj]

How can those be footprints? Compare the size of the holes with the size of the fuselage. Also, where do they come from and where do they go to?

 

[coolghoul]

I'm fed up with needing supplemental material to appreciate a show--the final product should speak for itself. As it stands there were holes and not enough information to connect those particular dots.

THIS. (in all caps!)

I have been a fan of LOST and while I'm ok with everybody making up theories (some very plausible - like Ben was waiting for Alex or something) - they are just *that* -Theories. While I'm ok about making up theories of why Ben didn't join the group (and I'm not specifically asking for that to have been explained in the finale), I wanted more of an explanation about the main LOST island stuff.

Seeing Desmond unplug a drain and then seeing Jack plug the drain back - it was pretty lame without any explanation. It was like the writers saying - Desmond does stuff and the island starts breaking up and then Jack does stuff and the island no longer is breaking up. Nothing more than that. And I wanted it to be a bit more than that.

Oh well... It is what it is...

I quite enjoyed the circularity of having it end with Jack's eyes closing and really enjoyed all the montage sequences.

But no frelling answers!!! That's crazy....

Deep breaths...

Deep breaths...

It's all good...


Well - at least it was a great ride for me, even if I didn't like how it ended (but that will prevent me from picking up and viewing this series again).

Edit: And I did read the DarkUFO post from the writer/assistant too. It still leaves me a little mystified as to why they would create a life for themselves where Kate would still kill her father and be on the run and stuff - I guess it defines her too much. But why would they "dream up" or "create" a world where Keamy would beat up Jin?

 

[Hermiod]

I haven't read a comic book in like 15 years.
I don't think I've read one since "Preacher" ended.

Okay, basically - Scarlet Witch goes crazy, a few Avengers die, bad stuff happens, Avengers and X-Men talk about solving the problem, Quicksilver assumes they're going to kill her, she uses reality warping powers to change the world so mutants are the dominant species, Magneto is the King of the World and humans are dying out, all the main Avengers and X-Men have happy lives but know something is wrong, they get together and try to force her to undo what she did, she reacts by putting everything back the way it was but with one caveat - there are now only 198 mutants left in the world.

The part where everyone has a happy life but then suddenly recalls their 'real' life and comes together as a result is very similar to how Lost ended.

 

[exodus]

I haven't read a comic book in like 15 years.
I don't think I've read one since "Preacher" ended.

Okay, basically - Scarlet Witch goes crazy, a few Avengers die, bad stuff happens, Avengers and X-Men talk about solving the problem, Quicksilver assumes they're going to kill her, she uses reality warping powers to change the world so mutants are the dominant species, Magneto is the King of the World and humans are dying out, all the main Avengers and X-Men have happy lives but know something is wrong, they get together and try to force her to undo what she did, she reacts by putting everything back the way it was but with one caveat - there are now only 198 mutants left in the world.

The part where everyone has a happy life but then suddenly recalls their 'real' life and comes together as a result is very similar to how Lost ended.

I think someone else told me a part of this story.
Is this the one where she casts a spell that makes all the mutants loose their abilities?

 

[LitmusDragon]

Now that I've had 48 hours to recover from the finale () I like it better than I did initially. It's not really purgatory. It's some kind of other made up thing- sort of a Jungian take on the afterlife. Like the collective unconscious and purgatory had a baby or something. So it's more creative than I'd initially given it credit for.

I think my biggest remaining gripe with the finale is the lack of a new twist. I was hoping to have my expectations flip-flopped, and that didn't really happen. In fact they played into things that we had pretty much already expected or had been told before, including a giant literal "cork" that needed saving.

It's surprising that it didn't end on more of a question than it did. Though, I guess that would have annoyed some people.

 

[Aragorn]

Anyone ever listen to ESPN Up all Night with Jason Smith on the radio? Obviously, it's a sports talk show, but Smith actually spent some time talking about Lost the other night -- even though he admitted he didn't even watch the finale, he just read what had been written about it.

So it shouldn't have come as a surprise that he missed the boat entirely when talking about the show. He kept repeating that the six years of the show didn't matter because of the ending (which, again, he didn't watch). Over and over and over again, He just kept saying "it didn't matter."

The only people I personally know that have ever listened to his show think he sucks as it is, but to repeat a talking point over and over again that is completely wrong is just idiotic and embarrassing.

 

[RobertScorpio]

^^ repeating stupid topics is a Sports Channel must!

I'll Lee Hamilton..and I want to talk sports with youuuuuuuuuuuuuu....

Rob