Hello there, It's been a while since I posted (anything) on the blog, but most importantly, it has been about four days since the series finale of LOST and I am just now getting around to writing this up. This can be attributed to several reasons, which I will now share with you in the following order.
1. I didn't get to watch it until mid day Monday.
2. I cried a little afterwards, so I didn't want to write it then.
3. I felt I needed to go do lots of research to formulate correct thoughts
4. I kind of just also needed a day or two to wrap my head around it. I didn't know how to structure a review/opinion of the end of a lifestyle for me for the past 5 years.
5. It's the LAST EPISODE OF LOST EVER. I think I thought if I put it off, and I didn't make it final, then this maybe wasn't going to be true.
Alas, enough time has passed and I need to get on this like white on rice....unless it's brown rice. Then...brown on rice?
Since this episode was so dense and so....just huge, I will be dividing the review into two parts; the Afterlife and the Island.
We will start with the most important thing to walk away with from this episode.
Everything that happened on the island was real.
If you read around the message boards and some of the usually reliable review sources seemed to have completely missed the boat (no pun intended) on this one. Christian completely and matter-of-factly states that this is the case.
The very end of the episode was the big reveal that the entire "alternate timeline" story arc that had become so frustrating throughout the season as we realized that answers weren't coming as long as they were spending time with what seemed random, was indeed a sort of afterlife. Christian explains that there is no "now" in this place and that they "created" the area to find one another in order to cross over.
All of the flash-sideways (as they had become known as) were essentially one big long con from the creators of the show. They timed it perfectly with season 5's "reboot" plan. The entire season, I felt completely confused as to how the "alternate" Losties would end up mattering in the long run. I was also terrified that this timeline would "win" out, as I stated in the previous review. I'm very glad that they decided to make every single action on the island matter in some form or fashion (to an extent, we can touch on that later in part two).
The last ten minutes were both insanely beautiful and apparently very dividing of the LOST fan base. Some people cried foul while others rejoiced at what they called an almost perfect ending. I, somehow, managed to land myself in between these opinions. I thought it was a poignant ending, but it certainly was not the best LOST had ever offered us.
I have always been an "answer" person and I was, admittedly, disappointed when almost nothing was explained. We didn't get any kind of definite answer on a number of pressing questions from seasons past such as:
1. Why couldn't the women on the island have babies?
2. Why was Walt special? (where in the gay hell WAS Walt?)
3. Who built the temple?
to name a few of course. I do remember the writers saying not too long ago that if "it didn't matter to the castaways that it wasn't going to matter in the final season". So I was prepared to enter the show not finding out too much, but it was disheartening to be correct.
On the other hand, the ending was, from a character standpoint, entirely satisfying. Every character from Oceanic (aside from Walt of course) found one another in the place they created and they all are able to go into the next life full of joy and love. It was sad learning that all of the characters we loved over the course of these years died, but as Christian says; "Everyone dies sometime, kiddo."
The revelations of their current situation were also, for the most part, beautifully done.
Jin and Sun seeing their daughter for the first time jarred the memories of their lives into their minds and they suddenly know that everything is going to be ok. It also means that this Ji Yeon isn't real, but we won't focus on the orphans from this fact. I do, however, find it odd that their daughter isn't really involved in the crossing over process. I know that neither of them ever really knew her that well, but she is their child.
Speaking of children, it appears that Jack's son David is a completely imagined entity. One reviewer stated that David represented what Jack longed to be as a child: able to forgive. Perhaps David was created to help Jack get over his issues with his own father and finally "let go" as Rose so wisely said back in the first episode of the season. When Jack starts to have his flashes of his actual life, Locke rather bluntly states that he doesn't have a son and that just sends Dr. Shephard reeling, eventually leading him to run into Kate at the benefit concert and beginning his journey of discovery about his life.
Kate, Claire and Charlie share their flashes together. While Claire has Aaron in this timeline, the trio all realize what is going on and also start to put the pieces together. Here another child-problem presents itself in my opinion. At the church, in the end, Claire is holding Aaron. As to whether this is the real world Aaron and that he has died too, I'm somewhat confused on.
Sawyer and Juliet's encounter was one of my favorites, while it changed the entire vibe of the season premiere's exchange with Miles. When he is "speaking" with her body he tells Sawyer that she says "it worked". Since we know now that did not refer to Jughead at all, we are left to possibly interpret it as him just picking up bits and pieces of the conversation that she has with Sawyer in this episode. She can be referring to a vending machine. That kind of tripped me out, I'm not going to lie. I'm very very glad that Sawyer and Juliet ended up together in the end, because Sawyer and Kate never did it for me in the slightest.
Also speaking of odd relationships. This episode provides us with another twist that Shannon, not Nadia, is Sayid's "soulmate". Color me surprised I suppose. One of the reviews I read stated that Nadia was perhaps more a "pipe dream" and that Shannon's love was more pure, with her knowing exactly what Sayid did before. (although, now that I think about it, that doesn't really justify it, because when the Oceanic 6 came back, Nadia was there with Sayid knowing far more about his past than Shannon ever did). I shall have to ponder this even more.
This episode also provided us with one of the most sought-after moments for me. The return of the real John Locke. It had been over a season since we caught a glimpse of the man responsible for some of the best moments LOST had to offer. When he's in the hospital bed and begins to move his toes, I kind of got a little teary. One fact that almost broke my heart in the long run was that Helen was not with John when the group crossed over. If Penny can be there, why in the world can't John's one true love?
Regardless, the exchange between Locke and Ben outside the church, when you realize that Ben wasn't "ready" to cross over (that totally makes more sense now when Hurley was talking about Ana Lucia in the last episode, by the way) was classic LOST. The two spoke like old friends, while acknowledging their intense animosity in life. Locke being full of forgiveness spoke to the man of faith Locke had shown himself to be the entire series.
On to Ben. I'm not 100% sure I buy the him being part of the "cool kid's club" bit yet. It may take more time to completely swallow that pill. I realize that since the place is timeless, Ben had several years to redeem himself as Hurley's "number 2" on the Island. It still just feels weird to think about it in those terms though, seeing as how he killed Widmore in cold blood in the last episode and up until early in this one, he was in cahoots with what we've come to know as evil incarnate.
Some people have complained about the finale being "overtly religious" and while there are a few Christ references in Jack's death (see part two in a day or....two). I thought that the writers did a very good job making the afterlife seem as vague as possible. The doors opening to reveal a light doesn't speak to any religion specifically and could lead to a number of things. This is one of the things LOST left open ended and was all the better for it.
There's also questions of whether focusing purely on the endgame in the distance for all of our characters if the finale somehow negated the Island events. Sure, it all mattered, but if everyone ends up in Happy land, did it all really matter? How do you guys feel? Was the character resolution more important than the answers or a more "immediate" ending?
Stay tuned for part two where we'll be discussing events on the Island and having some general final comments.
