How would you feel about a slightly ambigious ending to Lost?

[Chess Piece Face]

As an example of what I think is a good finale, I will say Six Feet Under. Best of all time. You got to see what happened to each character in a general way. Not every single detail of their life, but enough to get the gist.

Second best: Deep Space Nine - you got a nice arc leading up to the end, wrapping things up, with a mystery about the main character's future that made sense and was appropriate. It left you wondering about his future IN A GOOD WAY.

 

[Daddy Todd]

I really think that most of the questions have been answered to my satisfaction. They laid it out pretty clearly in Season Five. The principal plot-driver for the season was "Esau," Jacob's "Other,"

Spoiler: Esau

who appeared in many guises. Smoky, "Alex," "Christian" and "Flocke" are the same entity. Any time we've seen dead people on the island, we were seeing Esau assume their form.

All I really hope for is an explanation of who and what Jacob and "Esau" are. And my main concern is whether they can stretch those revelations out over a whole season, even an abbreviated one.

 

[gh4chiefs]

In response to the original post, I'm fully expecting the ending to be more than "slightly" ambigious. I fully expect a LOT of stuff to never be explained. I hope I'm wrong, and time will tell.

A random example of something that I think will never be exlplained would be Walt showing up, soaking wet, and talking backward to Sayid and Shannon (I think?). I'm sure that's one of many things that will just fall off the radar, meaning it wasn't relevant at all to the main story, just randam shit the writers made up to get people to talk about their show. And it's stuff like that, that will keep me from watching any further shows from these producers. They got me on LOST and I've stayed to the end. But never again.

 

[Joe Washington]

I always thought that Walt incident was his first attempt at astral projection, him being the one with specially gifted abilities. His second attempt at astral projection was when he stood near the pit where Locke fell in after being shot and told Locke he had work to do.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Well I've got a feeling the whole Walt substory will be dropped all together, but we'll see. Like I said, I would love to be proven wrong and get everything tied up nicely, but I don't see that happening. If for no other reason than they simply don't have time. And I fault them for just throwing too many balls up in the air early on.

 

[LitmusDragon]

The things that I'd like to see answered-

Richard's origin story (hooray, this is confirmed to be in there)
Who or what Smokey and Essau and Jacob are. I assume Smokey is Essau, but who knows.
What exactly Jacob is trying to do by bringing people to the island.
Who lives and who dies at the end.

That's about it, I think.

Things I don't expect to see answered

Why the island is the way it is. I think the only possible answer is "by magic" or "by magnetism" or some other mumbo jumbo.
The connection of each and every ancient culture to the island. I think maybe we'll get a flashback to ancient Egypt, but the Greek and Roman and other stuff on the island will probably never be explained.
What happened on flight 815 that saved the survivors. I think the answer of "the Island saved them" is good enough. I'd be surprised if they actually showed them floating down from the sky or something.
More explanation of the numbers. It would be nice if they could work that into the story again, but I get the feeling it has been dropped and/or written off as a coincidence / Hugo's obsession.

 

[gh4chiefs]

In addition to the things you've mentioned, I'd like to see an explanation of why these people were chosen and why were their lives so intertwined. I feel a little more hopefull we might get some explanation of that.

I don't think I'll ever go back and watch this show on DVD because I'm afraid that I'll end up finding stuff that I've since forgotten that won't be answered. Another example that came to mind was from the first season when Jack thought he was seeing his dad on the island. OK if we're to believe that was another form of Lostzilla/Essau, then what happened to the body? IIRC when Jack found the coffin, it was empty. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong.)

But when Essau took over Locke, Locke's actual body was still there. So why the difference?

 

[LitmusDragon]

But when Essau took over Locke, Locke's actual body was still there. So why the difference?

You know, I've never seen that pointed out before. That is a really good question.

 

[Joe Washington]

This is how I think the Smoke Monster's ability to assume the forms of dead people works. He can only assume the forms of dead people if their bodies are within the area of the island. Think about it. Boone, Libby, Ana-Lucia, Ecko's brother. They all died on the island and their bodies were all left on the island. It was Jack's intention to bring his father's body to the outside world so he can be buried. The Smoke Monster knew it and didn't want Christian's body to leave the island because it felt it still had some use for it as a part of his master plan, whatever it is. So I think the Smoke Monster took Jack's father's body and has it hidden somewhere on the island.

 

[gh4chiefs]

What about Kate's horse?

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

But when Essau took over Locke, Locke's actual body was still there. So why the difference?

You know, I've never seen that pointed out before. That is a really good question.

So there could be a dramatic reveal on the beach?

Seriously though I'd like to see this addressed a little bit too. We always kind of assumed that Esau re-animated Christian Shepard's body somehow because we never found the body, but its possible that, if a body is dead before coming to the island, Esau/Smokey/whatever can somehow scan it and reproduce it, memories intact.

 

[Nardpuncher]

What about Kate's horse?

that's something I can see NOT being answered and will just go down as one of those magical things the island does.

They can't take the time to answer every little thing as the last few episodes may turn into one long exposition.

 

[Hober Mallow]

A random example of something that I think will never be exlplained would be Walt showing up, soaking wet, and talking backward to Sayid and Shannon (I think?).

Perhaps it was MIB. Considering what happened to Shannon when she went chasing after him, it's possible. Not to mention that he seemed to appear as an older Walt to Locke in "Man Behind the Curtain." If that's the case, what we need explained is why MIB/Smokey could appear as Walt being that Walt is still alive.

 

[gh4chiefs]

What about Kate's horse?

that's something I can see NOT being answered and will just go down as one of those magical things the island does.

They can't take the time to answer every little thing as the last few episodes may turn into one long exposition.

Well my question was in direct response to Joe Washington's theory about Lostzilla can only appear as dead people who are on the island. If the horse is Lostzilla, then that shoots that theory down. Odds are, we'll never know WTF the horse was all about. Just another one of those random moments thrown at us for no apparent reason other than to make us go .

See this is my whole problem with the producers and this show. The show itself, the overall story, the actors, ect, is a very good show. But in these, what is it now, 6 years, they've thrown so much shit at us, so many moments, that they can't possibly explain them all.

So my question becomes, what's the point of it all? Why throw things like "backwards talking, wet Walt" and never explaining them? It's like reading a mystery novel and the last chapter is missing. It's why I'll never watch a show by these producers again.

Which is kind of sad because I discovered that Carlton Cuse was one of the creators of one of my favorite shows, Nash Bridges. But unless they really surprise me in this final season and tell us EVERYTHING, I just won't ever trust them again enough to be interested in a show they're involved in. Hell, I almost didn't see Star Trek because of their involvement.

 

[Ryan8bit]

gh4chiefs, I hear ya on the whole mysteries thing. I don't like a show that presents something for the sake of being edgy without any intention of giving proper resolution, and with the full intention of just pulling viewers in. It reminds me of Enterprise where they tried to mimic shows that had an arc format, but they were clearly pulling things out of their ass with no plan at all. For me, that totally ruined that show. Those producers were hacks though, so I still have some hope for Lost. However, I might not check out any further serials until they are done and on DVD.

I don't like the idea of enticement with no plans for follow through. If this show ends up being a cock tease I will not buy the DVDs.

 

[Starbreaker]

I don't expect them to answer everything. It was just a horse. We saw that Mikhail had horses, and it was possible that one of them wandered off. I think Kate was just reconnecting a memory of another black horse... same thing with Sayid and the cat.