Now, to some viewers, they were left with a bitter taste … case in point – my buddy from St. Louis, who sent me a text right after the final scene saying, “… if the writers were in front of me I’d punch them in the face …” or something to that effect. Already, message boards are filling with polarized feelings … and if you’ve paid any attention to those “writers” (Lindelof and Cuse), they have said since the end of season 5, the end of the show will do just that; you will either love it or hate it … I am in the former camp. I liked it … a lot.
Probably the biggest divide can be boiled down to perception and perspective. Those who hate the ending seem to have been yearning and looking for answers, while the ones who loved the ending were more searching for resolution. I think it was written in such a way and left just ambiguous enough for each viewer to make their own conclusions about what it was that really mattered, and to resolve things in their own way.
Were there more questions that were revealed in the finale? Absolutely.
Were there existing questions that went unanswered? Absolutely.
Unlike some comments I have already seen, I do not feel the past six years of appointment television, discussions & debate, theories & emotions have been a waste. Just as each of the characters had to figure their way through this journey, so did we; taking the entertainment and story given to us and make it our own.
So, in a different twist on my own article, I’m going to defer the recap to someone else who I’ve read and feel has given it its full due:
I don’t think we could have asked for more from the “Lost” finale. It was what it should have been — a love letter to all the characters and the moments from the past six seasons. It didn’t reveal much more than we already knew, except explaining the sideways flashes, but it ended the best way it could. It was emotional and epic. I’m glad they decided to just let us spend time with these characters. Maybe the explanation for the sideways flashes — all dogs go to heaven — was a little strange, but it was the only way to not undo what had been done. As they kept saying all season, “whatever happened, happened.”
I expected the finale to be part exhilarating and part massively depressing. But it was surprisingly upbeat for a lot of the time, despite the blubbering I did in Jack’s final scene, laying on his back in the bamboo, with Vincent for company. Instead, this was all about the people and remembering those things that make them such amazing characters.
The way they cut between the island scenes and the sideways flashes scenes worked really well, the best it ever has. It was so much fun to see all the Lostees remembering each other in the no-crash world. The first hour or so of the finale was kind of joyous and light. Kate making fun of Jack’s father’s name (“Christian Shephard, seriously?”), Sayid and Hurley recreating their fugitives-on-the-run scenes at the same hotel from the Season 5 premiere, Hurley grinning like an idiot when he knocked on Charlie’s door, and then tranquing him. They were having fun on the island, too. Hurley was quoting “Star Wars” left and right, saying Jacob was “worse than Yoda,” and Sawyer got in a jab about Kate not following him into the jungle.
Things did get serious, of course. The two posses — Flocke/Man in Black and Ben on one side, and Kate, Jack, Sawyer and Hurley on the other — set off for one last scenic walk through the jungle. Desmond was an unwilling part of Flocke’s posse, after having been rescued from the well by Rose and Bernard. It was very cool that they worked in Rose and Bernard one last time.
Desmond was kind of wrong about a lot of things in this episode, but it all worked out in the end. He assumed that removing the cork from the tunnel of light would send everyone into the wonderful sideways world he’d remembered. Which makes me wonder how much he knew when he was busy gathering everybody up in sideways world. Did he know it was a kind of holding place for heaven?
But it turns out that removing the bathtub stopper was necessary. It started making the island fall to pieces, but it also made Flocke and Jack mortal again. Therefore, Flocke could be killed. It was a pretty epic battle scene between Flocke and Jack. Of course it had to come down to those two. It was like something out a Bruce Lee movie — two adversaries charging each other on a crumbling cliff in a pelting rain, and Jack even pulled out a flying punch.
Flocke managed to stab Jack before Kate delivered on her promise and shot Flocke, who was then unceremoniously kicked over the side by Jack. Foolishly, they all thought killing Flocke meant setting everything back to normal. When it was clear it hadn’t, it wasn’t surprising that Jack said he was staying behind to make things right, and not surprising that even after all that’s he done on the island, and all that it’s done to him, that Ben would stay. It’s really the only home he’s ever known. It was surprising, though, that Hurley chose to stay behind. The guy who was always most fearful of the island, and the one who felt the losses of the people who died on it the most, dug deep and decided to support Jack. Kate and Sawyer left, but not before Kate made Jack promise they’d see each other again.
Meanwhile, two thought-dead characters Richard and Frank Lapidus — weren’t dead after all. I was surprised about Richard, not about Lapidus. Anytime they don’t show you a body, the person probably isn’t dead. Plus, somebody had to fly the plane. I cheered when he raised his arm out of the wreckage — there’s one Grizzly Adams who can take a licking. So the new Three Stooges — Lapidus, Richard and Miles had a new, much better idea — let’s not blow up the plane, let’s fly it off the island. And Richard is starting to age — he’s about the happiest a person has ever been to find his first gray hair. By finally wanting to live again, he set himself free from the curse of immortality.
I suspected that Jack might not end up being the final, final candidate. Flocke even referenced it himself by saying Jack seemed like the obvious choice. Instead, Jack passed those powers over to Hurley, the guy who least wanted the job, but the one who was always best at taking care of people. It was a really interesting scene with Ben and Hurley, when Hurley finally accepted that Jack wasn’t coming back from the tunnel of light, about being the new protector of the light. Hurley asked Ben to be his No. 2, the guy with experience, and Ben was clearly touched. No one had ever asked Ben to be their support guy before. He gave everything to the island, even his daughter, and did everything for Jacob, but was never really a partner. So instead he schemed and plotted and strangled and gassed. But with Hurley reaching out to him, asking for him help, he finally felt needed.
Ben also brought up an interesting point about Jacob’s tactics of keeping people prisoner on the island. He said Hurley could find a new way to keep the protector lineage in tact. A much easier job when there’s no Smoke Monster around to eat your candidates. It’s kind of weird to think about Ben and Hurley living out their lives on the island together. (Assuming they shipped Desmond back home, ironically probably on the ship he rode in on, the Elizabeth.) Maybe they occasionally popped in to have lunch with Bernard and Rose, or played a round of golf or took a Dharma van for a spin. I wonder how long Hurley did the job, and who he found to be his successor.
Back in sideways world, the connections and memories were ramping up. Miles spotted Sayid, and it was not in handcuffs or an orange jumpsuit, so he knew something was wrong and sent Sawyer to protect Sun at the hospital. Fittingly, Juliet is of course the obstetrician who comes in to see Sun and Jin. In sideways world, everybody needs a big jolt to remember their pasts. Sun and Jin get theirs when they connected with their daughter via the sonogram. It was pretty hilarious that along with remembering the island, they also remembered English. Memories intact, they were wearing goofy grins when Sawyer showed up.
Once Jack and Juliet exchanged “hello doctors,” it became clear that Juliet was Jack’s ex. They seemed to have a pretty amicable divorce, especially since they were still able to work in the same hospital together. I’m don’t see the significance of having this relationship in the sideways world, and of giving Jack a son, but maybe since Jack and Juliet were dead long before Sawyer and Kate, they were marking time. They might have been happy together, but still weren’t quite right, so got divorced.
And yet another couple reunited — Sawyer and Juliet. Who thought a vending machine reunion could be so romantic? Sawyer didn’t have to let her go this time. He got to say, “I got you,” and mean it.
Hurley did a lot of the “remember your past” matchmaking in the episode. He took Sayid to witness a bar fight, and the girl involved just so happened to be Shannon. After getting a “you’re-not-a-bad-dude” peptalk from Hurley, Sayid jumped out to break up the fight, touched Shannon and they both instantaneously remembered, and start making out. Nadia, who? It was a nice to see Sayid stop torturing himself as much as he ever tortured anyone else. Maybe it was Shannon, not Nadia, waiting for him on the other side because Shannon was a fresh start, not a remnant from his past. Boone apparently had already remembered on his own, and helped Hurley set the whole thing up.
The benefit concert with Faraday and Driveshaft was apparently the big social event of the season and everybody turned up. It was cool to see many of the dead characters, along with some of the living, reunited in one spot. Desmond, Kate and Claire of course sat at table No. 23, and Claire and Kate got a bit of a “Twilight Zone” moment when they spotted each other. Later they reenacted one of Lost’s many powerful scenes — Kate helping deliver Aaron. It was by mirroring this pivotal island moment — Kate helping bring life into the world, Claire meeting her son and Charlie being reunited with his “family” — that all three got their memories of the island back.
Jack was, not surprisingly, the hardest one to crack. He needed several jolts to get him moving. First, when he fixed Locke, he got a little down-the-hatch-hole vision. And even when Kate touched his face, he didn’t remember everything, or was still fighting it. There was one little clue tossed in there that not everything was normal, Kate telling him, “you don’t know how much I’ve missed you.” Making it seem like it had been a long, long time since they’d last seen each other. It took Jack touching his father’s coffin to finally get enough mojo to remember it all.
There was one more important reunion to take care of — Locke and Ben. These two have always been like brothers — the kind that shoot and strangle each other. They’re worthy of having their own name mashup, Blocke maybe? Ben finally apologized for all his heinous deeds and Locke very simply forgave him. Ben did redeem himself in the end, even if he couldn’t quite bring himself to join the rest of the Lostees. He’s still got some penance to dish out for himself. Locke, though, in getting his legs fixed, finally felt whole.
I liked the surprise about Christian Shephard’s body. When Jack opened the coffin and it was empty, I started thinking maybe Flocke/Man in Black was fibbing that he’d been the only one in the starring role of Christian on the island. But then there was that “Sixth Sense” moment when Jack realizes he can see Christian because he’s dead, too.
So what to make of the sideways flashes? Apparently, they were a kind of waiting room for heaven or whatever constitutes “moving on.” The sideways world was all about people correcting their mistakes, finding the people they love, forgiving the people who hurt them most, and forgiving themselves. It was kind of a purgatory. They were all just waiting to be rejoined with the people who meant the most to them from the most important part of their lives. As Christian explained it, everything that happened to them on the island was real, including the deaths. Some died on the island before Jack did, and some died off it much later. But they’re all together now.
There were some people notably missing from the collection — Michael and Walt, Mr. Eko, Miles, Ana Lucia. But for people like Michael, they might have moved on as soon as they were reunited with the most important people in their lives, in his case, Walt. It will be interesting to go back and watch some of the Season 6 episodes and look for any hints of the outcome. There were a few I can think of. Jack’s constantly bleeding neck was a big one. It was from the cut Flocke gave him on the island, and a sign that what was happening in sideways world, was not really reality. And when Hurley asked Desmond if they were going to “wake up” Ana Lucia, he said she wasn’t ready yet. Maybe she hasn’t had her moment, improved her character (she was taking bribes), or let go of the past. Because that’s what Desmond said he was trying to do, help people let go. Apparently, it wasn’t Miles’ time either, and Desmond let Daniel stay behind with Eloise Hawking and Charlotte. That’s their own version of heaven, and they’re already with the people most important to them.
Presumably, when Kate, Sawyer, Miles, Lapidus, Claire and Richard (the Ajira 6), flew off the island, they made it back safely and lived their lives for awhile. Maybe Kate and Sawyer made a go of it for a time, maybe he also went back to be a better father to his daughter and Kate helped Claire raise Aaron. Maybe Richard did a little dance with every gray hair and wrinkle he got and Lapidus retired and opened a buttons-optional clothing store with Richard. It’s hard to think of their lives going on without some of the people on the island, but in the end, most of them came back to be with the people who impacted their lives the most.
That final scene was a gut-stabber, in a good way. Jack on his back, seeing the Ajira plane go overhead, and knowing he hadn’t died for nothing. And then his eyes closing, mirroring the pilot scene when his opened his eyes for the first time. Talk about coming full circle.
The finale didn’t answer many questions, but it was hugely emotional and importantly all about the characters. It ended kind of the only way it could because undoing all that happened on the island would do an injustice to the show. The ending was a little rough, and a little cornball, and will probably cause all sorts of panic that the Lostees have been dead all along (Christian Shephard says no to that one), but the island happened, it wasn’t all a dream, and the sideways flashes were a chance to correct what went wrong. So mostly, it was a happy ending while maintaining the “whatever happened, happened” mantra. “Lost,” you’ll be missed.
Lost is an action-adventure and science fiction series on ABC centering on the survivors of a plane crash, Flight 815, which landed them on a mysterious island It was created by Jeffrey Lieber, J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof. Lost is a critically acclaimed series winning Emmy Awards, Writers Guild of America awards and Screen Actors Guild awards to name a few. The cast includes Matthew Fox, Josh Holloway, Evangeline Lilly and many more. The series ran from the pilot in September 22, 2004 to the finale on May 23, 2010. The plot largely consists of the mysteries of the island and the circumstances of the passengers’ plane crash. Lost has also developed a strong cult following of fans who discuss the mythology and mystery.
Not until LOST had come to its end did I find this show. I think I remember hearing about it back when it started (same time as LOST?), but never did get into it. But after one weekend of four seasons on Netflix (yeah, I was tired) this show quickly became one of my favorites … only to hear that it’s also at its end.
One of the strangest shows in terms of sucking you in with pointless plot lines and maddening character development. I originally was intrigued by this show because my family is in the ad business, and I cut my teeth in the real world in the ad business, but now I’m hooked and I can’t stop staring … oh wait, where’d that Sir Mix-A-Lot line come from?
How about a family-friendly show about a family who somehow goes to Brazil and comes back with super strength, speed, brains and mind reading? If you’re a Chiklis fan looking for something to cure your withdrawals from The Shield, then this may be your thing.
For those of us looking to fill the void left by LOST, Hawaii Five-O can sure do the trick. Set and filmed in Hawaii and starring 
Not since NYPD Blue has there been a really, really, really good cop show. Detroit 187 isn’t quite NYPD Blue level yet, but with this being its first season, who knows how good it can get. It’s already one of our favorites, shot with a gritty perspective and film grain, it makes you think this show is the real-deal.
The longest running show on this list … and for a reason. Just when you think “what could they possibly do next?” … they go and do and entire season off-the-wall. So many plots within a plot within a plot on this show. One of the greatest attributes this show has is that they have plots of each episode that get wrapped up, while the overarching season has its own long-term development plot to keep you coming back for more.
I wasn’t too sure how this one was going to pan out. Truthfully, I got bored and fell asleep for the first couple of episodes, but soon after, they flipped a switch and I was hooked. Like “No Ordinary Family” with Chiklis, this brings in The Shield alum Walton Groggins (also of Major League: Back to the Minors).
Magnum, P.I. all grown up? Well, kind of. Tom Selleck is back! Alongside Donnie Whalberg, Bridget Moynahan and Len Cariou, Blue Bloods is a dramatic TV series from CBS featuring a family of New York City cops. The family business may be serving justice, but they argue over policing methods, including police brutality, ethics, and, presumably, whose turn it is to do the dishes.
Honestly, not one I got into at the beginning, but have Netflixed past seasons to catch up with this latest season. Bryan Cranston (Walter) is a high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer in the pilot episode. Determined to secure the financial future of his pregnant wife and teenage son, he resorts to cooking meth with a former student and burnout junkie. Together the pair dive head first into the local drug trade, and quickly hit some major roadblocks. As Walter’s sickness worsens, so do tensions within his family, as he struggles to keep his second livelihood a well-hidden secret. To make matters worse, they have a close relationship with in-laws Marie and Hank, who is a DEA officer assigned to track down the source of the mysterious blue meth that has surfaced across the Southwest. Each episode of this critically-acclaimed series will have you on the edge of your seat.
Fan Stop Central is your one-stop-shop for sporting news headlines, television and movie reviews, sports blog insights, team information, video game topics and gear, gear, gear.
