More perfect an ending than any fan could have hoped for This review may contain spoilers.
After six seasons, “Lost” ended its run with a stunning and emotional two and half hour event.
There was no way it could live up to the stunning amount of hype that preceded it. Certainly, there was no way the creative team would answer every question they raised. And logically, they couldn’t bring back nearly every original cast member in a meaningful fashion. The finale was destined to disappoint.
But it didn’t. Not even close. Instead, fans of the series were treated to what should go down as one of the most satisfying season finales in television history.
I remember when the incredibly popular, long running series “M*A*S*H*” ended its run in 1983. I have long since forgotten the details of the episode, but I remember working that night in one of my meaningless, adolescent era minimum wage jobs. We all watched it on a portable 13 inch set because it was not an event to be missed.
For some reason, I don't believe I will ever forget the end of "Lost".
I also remember the end of “Seinfeld” in 1998, which set the bar for atrocious series finales. It is memorable because it strayed so far from the original basis and premise of the show and the endless string of cameos through a courtroom setting was sickeningly contrived and ridiculous, even for “Seinfeld”.
Somehow, “Lost” managed to stay true to its formula until the end, flipping between the island and the “alternate realm”. They brought back most of the important characters, albeit briefly, so we could say goodbye. And by the end, I understood everything. I always suspected that the title “Lost” spoke more about the characters’ social and spiritual existence much more than it did their physical predicament, but this episode drove that point home.
Tearful reunions were the order of the night; Sun (Yunjin Kim) and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), Sayid (Naveen Andrews) and Shannon (Maggie Grace), Jack (Matthew Fox) and Kate (Evangeline Lily), Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell), Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) and Claire (Emilie deRavin), and finally Jack (Mathew Fox) and his father Christian.
And when reunions weren’t taking place, reconciliation served a satisfying substitute. Locke (Terry O’Quinn) forgave Ben (Michael Emerson). Jack (Mathew Fox) finally understood Locke, and found a place of mutual friendship and respect with Sawyer.
Yet in the end, it was all about redemption, and fittingly, it was the story of Jack that ended the series. Regardless of who your favorite character was, this show has always been about Jack, proven by the fact that all of the Oceanic survivors waited for him, before moving on to their eternal reward. It was fitting. It was beautiful.
I teared up a few times during the episode. A little when Jin and Sun gained their awareness. A bit more when Charlie and Claire reunited. But most when Vincent came back to lie by Jack so he would not have to die alone. And when Jack looked up, the plane flying overhead looked like a cross. It was beautiful and painful at the same time.
Some may argue that the end was not satisfying enough. Others may be angry that the “alternate reality” was a waiting room toward their final reward—a holding place so they could all move on together. Those looking for a happy ending may be angry because all of them are indeed dead. At least we know there won’t be any reunion shows to destroy the wonderful legacy it leaves behind.
Most likely, the final image, which shows the wreckage of the plane on the shore of the island, is likely to cause years of speculation and debate. With no sign of a human camp or survivors, people are bound to wonder if it all really took place.
For me, it simply reinforced the fact that the crash indeed did occur, and some struggle for salvation took place. It really doesn’t matter if that struggle took place on an island or within the hearts and souls of those aboard; the struggle led to salvation and redemption. For what it’s worth, there is ample evidence in the episode that the island and the events were indeed real.
In the end, it was all really simple. For six years the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 were “Lost”. In the end, they found their way. How could it get any better than that?
What Worked
Ben did not move on with the others. Apparently, he knew he needed more time at redemption. It was logical. He did not deserve to move on yet.
Lapidus (Jeff Fahey) survived the submarine explosion. Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell) got a gray hair.
I loved Kate’s line when told Jack’s father’s name, she said, “Christian Shepherd—are you serious?”
What Didn’t Work
It would have been nice to include Walt (Malcolm David Kelly) and Michael (Harold Perrineau). It may have been nice to see Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) again also. Still, they did a remarkable job bringing back most of the key players.
Giving Credit Where Credit is Due
“Lost” stars Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Terry O’Quinn, Josh Holloway, Jorge Garcia, and Michael Emerson. “The End” was written by Calton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. It was directed by Jack Bender.
“Lost” aired on ABC.
In the end, time didn't matter.
"There is no 'now' here," Christian Shephard told his son gently.
And after all the present-future-past machinations on this show, time did seem to stop in the last 20 minutes of the "Lost" series finale. The closing sequence was a hymn, it was an emotionally cathartic sendoff, it was a beautiful reunion and a testament to what the show was about: Creating your own world. Creating your own fate. Creating a community of people that you can't exist without -- in any sphere, before or after death.
Lost finale "This is a place that you all made together so that you could find each other," Christian said (and he did turn out to be a Christian shepherd, guiding his lost sheep, didn't he?).
Who didn't, in that moment, think about the people that mean everything to them? As that church reunion unfolded, I couldn't help but think that I'd find my loved ones no matter what barriers of time or space or life or death separated us, given the chance.
Finales are hard. And I must admit that my expectations for the "Lost" finale weren't high. Perhaps later in the week, I'll go into the reasons that caused me to lower my expectations. Suffice it to say, I just wanted Sunday's finale to be … not bad. I was hoping for a middling ending, to be honest.
Yet "The End," the show's final episode, was so much more than middling. The first two hours were exciting and emotionally engaging, especially when the island castaways in the Sideways world began remembering their "real" lives. Those "flashes" were powerful and many cast members did some of their best work in those scenes. I got chills as I saw Juliet and Sawyer talk about that coffee date. Sun and Jin, Charlie, Kate and Claire -- all their recollection moments were moving and powerful.
But the last half hour or so took the finale to another level. "Nobody does it alone," Christian said, and truer words were never spoken. We saw the characters we cared about get a beautiful sendoff from writers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof and director Jack Bender as Michael Giacchino's haunting, gorgeous music played.
Sorry to get all religious on you, but, well, it was hard to miss the spiritual themes in the finale, and speaking of music, these lyrics came to mind:
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
They once were lost, but now they're found. They got to leave on their own terms. They got to "let go" surrounded by the people they loved.
It'll be that much harder now to let go of this show.
Lost finale In some ways, "Lost" is actually all about time, if I may disagree with the good Shephard for a second. There are different ways to experience the show, and that's part of what makes it such fun. Week to week, I even shift between what I'll call the "structural mode" and the "emotional mode."
The structural mode has to do with the filling in of answers and with puzzle-solving and with being patient enough to see whether the answers line up with what I'd predicted. It's the more analytical part of being a "Lost" fan, and it can be a lot of fun (or incredibly frustrating, depending on what happened in that week's episode).
Lost finale It's the kind of thing that will allow us to go on for months or years debating whether we should have spent so much time in Sideways world before we really understood what it was and whether all that Temple time was necessary, etc. All of that kind of thinking/writing/opining is perfectly valid, and I expect that when I come down from my post-finale high, I'll shift more into this mode. Even as I write this, I have some questions and will be scratching my head about them for a while, or at least until I read the reviews of people who are demonstrably smarter than me (there are a lot of them, thank goodness).
But then there's also the emotional, "here and now" mode of enjoying the show. That has to do with how the show makes me feel within that hour and the feelings and reactions it elicits in the moment. I love it when any film or movie or performance reaches down into the pit of my heart or soul and creates visceral, physical reactions -- fear, tension, tears, joy, elation, sadness. It's just the lizard-brain part of my not analyzing anything and living in the "now" -- maybe a version of that timeless space that Christian talked about.
So, here's how the finale landed for me: The emotional part of the finale worked so well that I don't care much about the analytical/structural stuff.
Lost finale I'm OK with the fact that the MGC (the Magical Glowy Cave) remains a wobbly, vaguely unsatisfying MacGuffin. The MGC and the GGL (Glowy Golden Light) are just plot devices, and honestly, the less time the show spent on them, the better. They have sort of mystical underpinnings to them, and as they were conceived and presented, they're not much to hang the whole enterprise on. Some podcast listeners took issue with my anger over "Across the Sea," the May 11 episode. They were not pleased that I was just now irritated by the supernatural/fantastical elements of the show.
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2010/05/lost-finale.htmlChecked it out,Too many pics.I guess Primal is rubbing off on me...Lazyness
Everyone dies (eventually). We never find out what the island really is. The sideways universe didn't (really) matter. Simple questions like what happened to Walt and why he was special will NEVER get answered.
But none of that matters. The finale was still spectacular, because what Lost delivered last night wasn't the logical conclusion many hoped for, or even the "character drama" the writers promised. It was an emotional conclusion, a literal and figurative goodbye funeral for your favorite show, a finale that eased you into the passing of a dear friend. And better still, it left you with the promise that everything and everyone you loved on the show would be okay.
http://scifiwire.com/2010/05/how-lost-tricked-you-into.phpWell what do you think of the ending??? Here my Bride Was Crying me a river!!! I said what the heck man.Then she got the Nerved this with the Travesty to the last Episode Of Babylon 5,When i had a Miskito Fly right in my eye damit.
GTO
