WHAT HAPPENED
We say goodbye to LOST with a finale that was emotionally rich and intellectually abstract…just the way it should be.
“There is no now, here.”
Sideways world is a kind of purgatory where your soul sorts out what you couldn’t sort out during your life. When your soul is able to make a connection or ‘awakening’ — only then are you ready to move forward to the ‘afterlife’. Each one of the Losties had to come to their own realization.
“In the end there are no shortcuts, no do-overs, whatever happened, happened, and all of this matters.”
What really mattered was how the Losties found redemption in each other, the community of people that was most important to them while they were living — they finally let go and asked each other for help — they became each other’s constants. Because the characters in the church learned to live together, they couldn’t die alone.
It’s a bold move for a show to attempt to visually contextualize death and what the afterlife might be like. Anyone who tells you they don’t think about their own mortality, who they’re going to be with (and who they won’t) or what it could be like is lying to you. When Vincent lies down next to Jack, in the same spot where the show begins, you can hear Christian’s words to his son; “That’s why all of you are here. Nobody dies alone, Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you.”
FINAL THEORIES, QUESTIONS, THOUGHTS
Cuse and Lindleof left us with lots to talk about…here are a few highlights and we’ll cover the rest together in the comments…
1. There are two major strings concerning the death of our characters:
- The island ‘happened’, the LOSTIES lived and died at various times…
- Some died before Jack (Christian, Sun/Jin, Juliet, Charlie…)
- Some died after
- (Those who escaped on the Ajira flight (Kate, Sawyer, Claire…))
- Ben and Hurley (who refer to each other as Number 1 and Number 2 — positions they may have held for centuries)
- Those that left the island earlier like Walt
- Everyone died at the same time in the crash
What are your thoughts? Various times? Same time?
2. Christian says to Jack “The most important part of your life was the time that you spent with these people.” The assumption is that if you weren’t in Eloise’s ‘church’ at the end then you weren’t ‘passing on’ or you didn’t ‘make it’. You might consider:
- Some of the characters weren’t there (Walt, etc) because they left the Island and lived a long full life with people that became more important to them than the people they knew during their time on the Island. They will have a different meeting place with different people.
- In addition, Michael (actually Harold Perrineau) confirmed after the show that some souls remain on the island as a consequence of their actions… i.e. their souls haven’t sorted everything out yet (in sideways world). (Ben, Mr. Eko, Ana Lucia, etc) Thoughts?
3. Was the show singularly through Jack’s lens and for the benefit of Jack “moving on” or was this for all of them? I say all of them. You?
4. Why did Eloise, after all we know about sideways world/redemption, tell Desmond that she still didn’t want everyone to know? Desmond said he chose to ignore her. I say it was because Eloise just couldn’t let go of her son. Desmond knew she needed to let go of Daniel to move on. Will she?
5. (Nikki Stafford) Did anyone else kind of feel bad for the Man In Black as his dead body lay on the flats? All he ever wanted was to leave the island and destroy the place that made his life a living hell (literally) and the moment he becomes corporeal again (when the island was ‘unplugged’) he dies. Thoughts?
6. Ben said that Jacob ran things so you couldn’t leave… it seems ‘the rules’ were specific to the person protecting the island, so if Hurley changes/changed them, things change. Cool.
Hard to believe the show is over. It’s been lots of fun — a great diversion from our own e-v-e-r-y-d-a-y. There were many scenes last night that choked me up. Charlie and Claire always get me, Jack, lying in the field with Vincent accompanied by the classic LOST piano score, but I’ll leave you with my favorite quote from the finale. I think, in many ways, it summarizes not only what we expect from a community, but what we need from each other as human beings to survive. Maybe God knows this? I think so.
Near the end of the show, Locke looks at Jack smiles (great smile) and says, “I hope that somebody does for you what you just did for me.”
Post away friends!
…A final BIG THANK YOU to all of you who have written comments, encouragements, theories and analysis to this column (and our email list before that) for the past few years. My wife and I started watching LOST (in season 2) before we had kids, now we have two boys (Jack and Charlie — yes they are LOST names, but they were also named after respective grandfathers). Our lives have changed quite a bit since the beginning of the show. I’m sure you have similar stories. I wouldn’t have taken the time to write each week without ya. It’s been real. So, thanks again — Namaste and Good Luck.