LOST Season 6 - Spoilers - DO NOT READ if you're not current on the show!

[Seren]

So what happened?

[jkn]

I'm not sure how to answer that really easily - there will definitely be recaps later today posted.   I really like reading Jeff (Doc) Jensen on Entertainment Weekly - he usually posted two columns a week on Lost - usually digging into philosophy and his own tangents.   

I liked the finale.  I'm not sure I *loved* it , but it's growing on me the more it settles in with me.

Could there have been some changes or different scenes - yeah - but I like the story they chose to tell.

I'll post some favorite moments later...
   

[Antdude]

Although I thought some individual scenes had emotional heft, mostly due to the actors' talent (Jin and Sun's remembrance, Hurley taking on Jack's burden), what I saw last night was 2 1/2 hours of creative cowardice. I even predicted the very last scene about 30 minutes before it happened. This review  http://weeklystandard.com/articles/we-wuz-robbed  pretty much sums up how I feel.

This week, after six years, the nerviest and most expensive Long Con in history finally reached its end, only its target wasn’t a murderous gangster but the American television audience. Early indications are that millions of people, just like the gangster in The Sting, are going to stay conned. Millions of others are going to figure it out and they are going to be furious—but unlike a psychopathic gangster, they will have no recourse except impotent complaint. And then there are those of us who figured out that it was all a bluff years ago and yet have stayed around to the bitter end.

Put me in that latter group. I already said I knew there was no grand plan, and that any wrap-up was bound to leave threads dangling. One of the most frustrating memes about LOST is when people say it is character-driven. LOST is plot-driven through-and-through. And yet, in the end, that was its greatest weakness. The one big, really important question, 'What is the Island?' was never answered, at all. Instead, we got an emotional farewell, which is the series' hallmark: Its ability to connect to your emotions i.e. Jin & Sun, to the point where the larger questions didn't matter. '"Oh, look. Sayid and Shannon together again." "Hey, Libby came back." The show even dodged answering the biggest questions by abandoning the 'real' timeline and taking refuge in the 'alternate' timeline.

William Goldman once wrote, "Magic is misdirection." The idea that you can distract people from seeing how you pull off the 'trick' by focusing their attention on something else. LOST did this pretty well for 6 years. I'm not angry about the end, just disappointed. I wasn't expecting all the answers, but a few would have been nice.

[jkn]

I read somewhere that there's a possibility some of the long time fan questions about the island mysteries will be addressed in the dvd release. 

Agreed - the epic battle for the island at the end was a bit... ummm - anemic.  I really thought there'd be some climactic battle between Smokey in Smokey form vs. Jack and his new found Island Powers... but nooooooo...   Eh, I decided to let that go and enjoy the end as the writers wanted it told.

My wife and I both agree the glowing light cave - and especially the cork in the pool of water was especially cheesy for a show that has proven it's ability to put on a decent special effect.   (I think the New York Times called it bad even by water park standards...)

However, I really liked the story of the end - and I got caught up in all the characters meeting each other and moving on.   No it wasn't perfect. 

Oh - we also agreed on Sayid and Shannon...  ummm - 6 years of Nadia, Nadia, Nadia...  you'd think that if we're talking about the afterlife - Sayid would be hooking up with Nadia!

Vincent laying down with Jack to be with him at the end... that was perfection.

[Antdude]

Well, hopefully all these questions will be answered next season.   

Oh, wait............shit!

[Paul Vnuk (Ma Ja Le)]

Well...I DVR'd it and just spent the last 5 hrs watching the special, the finally and Jimmy Kimmel.

On one hand I can say Wow! I did like that epic concept of the last 6 years being a surreal journey to the afterlife, I like the fact that all these extra character like the "others", the "Dharma Gang" and "Widmore's Army" essentially being bit players in some "cosmic imagination scenario"...but these are also the elements that I am bummed out by their lack of further clarity...but then isn't it sometimes that very lack of clarity that creates ultimately good drama?

I wonder things like, did they die actually in the plane crash? Were they connected prior to the plane crash and that was just one more chapter in their journey, and if so what really ties them all together?

It seams like they all actually had to die on the island prior to their reuniting as I also think it was alluded to that the last plane also crashed...maybe I am wrong.

I do find the weeks building up to the battle between Jacob and Smokey to be a but strange in its lack of resolve or really its ultimate importance.

I guess I would call this episode a success, only for the fact that if it still raises these questions...then well done. I mean really, other than MASH what series finally has ever been truly satisfying? Especially in this genre?

Paul

[jkn]

Showing the plane wreckage at the end did have me scratching my head.

Christian Shepherd (and wow - was Kate's comment on the name hilarious and spot on - and both Heidi and I had never noticed the significance of his name... humor...cracked me up)

Anyway...  Christian told Jack that there is no "now" -that many died before him and many died long after him.  So I'm thinking the Ajira plane made it back and they lived their lives.   Kate helped Claire raise Aaron.  Richard was happy to be mortal again.   Miles and Sawyer lived their lives, etc... 

Hurley and Ben ran the island for who knows how long... years, decades, centuries?   In that limbo ethereal somewhere between life on earth and whatever comes after...  time had no meaning.   

I like that the church they were in was universal - objects from a bunch of religions were there in the back room. 

In a sense - I get the feeling that if Jack hadn't have re-corked the fire bottle - it would have had deep ramifications throughout the world - not just the island.   Maybe it wouldn't - don't know.

As I mentioned earlier - the more I think about it - the more I like how the ended it.

I do think it would be nice as a 'bonus' dvd item or an ABC web video if they answered a few of the more "nitpicky" island mystery questions... but in the end - the story wasn't really about the island quirks and mysteries.   

[Paul Vnuk (Ma Ja Le)]

Ok I liked your explanations and assumptions the best so far.

[mgriffin]

Christian Shepherd didn't say there's no "now" at all, he said "there's no now here," meaning the church.  Some of the people in the church died before (Boone, Shannon, Sayid, Libby and so on), Jack died in the jungle at the end of the episode (NOT after the crash from the pilot episode), and others died after Jack.  The church and the whole "flash-sideways" reality was not an alternate reality caused by the explosion of the bomb (as everyone guessed) but a subjective time/place bringing together in death (even deaths that would not occur until well after Jack's death) all those who had been important to each other throughout the course of the show and afterward.

Saw this little summary online that covers it pretty well.



The producers managed to confuse things by dwelling on wreckage of the pilot episode crash at the very end of the finale, leading many people to guess everyone had died in the first crash and the whole six years of Lost was one big confusing purgatory.  I thought that aspect was poorly handled.  If you're going to use vague, metaphysical elements to resolve a storyline which, while fantastic in parts has always been grounded in consensus reality and a timeline everyone could agree upon, you have a responsibility to make clear how that resolution relates to the rest of the story.

I thought the finale was somewhat satisfying with respect to the characters and the emphasis on relationships, but I thought most of the six years of accumulated mythology was shrugged-off by the writers at the very last minute.  "Nevermind all that stuff, it's really all about the PEOPLE!"

At least prior to that we got our answers about some elements of the island, like Richard Alpert, Jacob and so on.

[Antdude]

The producers managed to confuse things by dwelling on wreckage of the pilot episode crash at the very end of the finale, leading many people to guess everyone had died in the first crash and the whole six years of Lost was one big confusing purgatory.  I thought that aspect was poorly handled.  If you're going to use vague, metaphysical elements to resolve a storyline which, while fantastic in parts has always been grounded in consensus reality and a timeline everyone could agree upon, you have a responsibility to make clear how that resolution relates to the rest of the story.

This is literally the first time I've heard about the wreckage/titles sequence. Here in San Diego, as soon as Jack's eye closed and the LOST title card came up, the local news kicked in and didn't show the credit sequence at all. So I saw none of that, although I'm not sure it would have changed my outlook on the finale that much. I still think the ending was a copout and plays conveniently for the producers into the whole "It's about the characters" meme. In my screenwriting class at RIT, that would have been called lazy storytelling.

[mgriffin]

Agreed, this was an object lesson in lazy storytelling.  In one of my screenwriting classes we talked about "Chekov's gun," meaning the playwright and not the Starfleet officer.  The "Chekov's gun" rule stated something along the lines of "if you're going to show a loaded pistol in act one, that gun must be fired by act three."

The Lost finale gave us all kinds of emotionally-satisfying elements to grab hold of, but I'd have to say Lost broke the television world record (previously held by X-Files) for "most act one guns left unfired by the end."

[mgriffin]

Roundup of reactions to the Lost finale:

http://kottke.org/10/05/lost-finale-roundup

There's a mix of everything from "satisfied" to "disgusted" here. 

If I look at the finale (and really the entire final season) from the most charitable, accepting of perspectives, it seems OK I guess.  If I'm honest with myself about my expectations, though, I have to say I think the writers failed to do justice to their premise.  A huge number of of plot points were never had any payoff.

[mgriffin]

Oh, and here's a list of some of the many dead ends or red herrings or loose threads.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1936291

[Resonant Drift]

I guess I may be in the minority but I really enjoyed the finale.  Also, I was fine with not getting all the answers.  I thought the ending had more meaning to discuss and I found that fun.

[mgriffin]

I actually enjoyed myself with the final season and the finale, I guess.  The more I think about it, though, the more I realize the writers made a conscious effort to ignore a great many things they had set up.  I still consider Lost one of my all-time top 5 favorite shows, and I'm very glad it had some sort of closure, rather than the kind of "ending" we received with Deadwood and Firefly, two of my other recent favorites.

[Resonant Drift]

I agree with you on Deadwood.  Now that was frustrating.

[Brian Bieniowski]

Oh, and here's a list of some of the many dead ends or red herrings or loose threads.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1936291

This was incredible.  I enjoyed watching the Lost finale, but after it was over I almost broke my brain trying to understand how the producers/writers thought they "wrapped it up."  Absolute unmitigated handwaving cop-out.  They should have ended it with the nuke going off at the end of Season 5.  Now THAT would have been satisfying ambiguity.

[mgriffin]

The way Lost really SHOULD have ended:



...via The Daily What http://thedailywh.at/post/634520031/animated-gif-of-the-day-how-lost-should-have-ended

[mgriffin]

Michael Emerson, the actor who plays Ben (definitely one of the great surprises of the show, in my opinion) says the blu-ray release will include extra features that will shed light on what happened between Hurley's ascendance to "Number One" (the echo of The Prisoner bothers me here) and the "reunion" in the afterlife-y church.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/45259

[Antdude]

The way Lost really SHOULD have ended:



...via The Daily What http://thedailywh.at/post/634520031/animated-gif-of-the-day-how-lost-should-have-ended

Priceless! Now that would have been a great ending. Better than Patrick Ewing in the shower. As Brian said, 'satisfying ambiguity.'