(DISCLAIMER: if you haven’t seen the finale or watched any of the show, DO NOT read this lol, it will ruin it!!!)
LOST – a show that has enthralled audiences ever since Oceanic 815 crashed back on September 22, 2004 came to an end Sunday night. One of the most anticipated finales of all time would finally reveal the fates of our beloved castaways and reveal any last secrets the island had to offer us.
When we left everyone at the end of the last episode – What They Died For – Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sawyer were on their way to kill Locke, and Jack had just volunteered to be the next protector of the island after Jacob. Locke and Ben were on their way to find Desmond and destroy the island. Back in the “alternate reality”, Desmond continues bringing people together, orchestrating something for the finale that we’re not quite sure of yet. Then the finale begins –
On the island, Jack and Locke take Desmond to the heart of the island, lower him in, and have him remove the sort of rock cork in the center of it. Desmond is unafraid of the challenge because he has seen what is happening in the alternate reality, but when he moves the rock he finds himself still in the heart of the island. This causes the light to drain out and the island to begin to be destroyed, fall apart, and ultimately start sinking. This also negated the powers of Jack and Locke to not be able to hurt one another. As Locke attempts to leave the island, Jack engages him in a hard-core fight. Jack is wounded badly in the fight by a knife, but just as he is about to be killed, Kate shoots Locke who is then kicked off a cliff by Jack. As the island continues to self-destruct, Sawyer, Kate, Claire, Lapidus, Miles, and Richard attempt to get to and fix the plane before they go down with the island. Jack returns to the heart of the island with Hurley and Ben to try and reverse what Desmond did and save his friends. Jack established Hurley as the new protector, knowing that being exposed to the light would kill him. With reluctance, Hurley accepts the duty and lets Jack go. Jack finds Desmond alive down in the hole, and gets him the rope to be hoisted back out. Jack puts the cork back and the light returns, preserving the island and his friends. Jack lies in the cave. We see Hurley and Ben commit to running the island together, while the others take off on the Ajira plane.
Back in the alternate reality, Desmond has continued his mission of somehow making people “let go” and remember what happened on the island. He, with Hurley’s help, leads each person to a person who changed their life on the island. Each scene was super emotional. We saw Sayid reconnected with Shannon (Boone was there too), Sawyer reconnected with Juliet; Jin and Sun are brought to reality during their daughter’s ultrasound. Probably the most emotional one, besides the ending with Jack, was when Claire, Kate, and Charlie’s eyes are opened. While attending a concert featuring the musical talent of Daniel (Farraday) Widmore, Claire goes into labor and is assisted, just like on the island, by Kate. Charlie helps too and during the birth, Claire and Kate both are hit with the flashbacks of what happened on the island – a really, really emotional scene shared by these characters. As the show neared its end, everyone began to gather at the church where Jack’s father’s funeral was to be held. The casket had been delivered earlier that day. Ben sits outside and makes his peace with Locke and says goodbye to Hurley. He tells him he isn’t coming in yet because he has some more things to settle. Jack and Kate arrive, and Jack enters through the rear of the church. As he places his hands on the casket, his eyes are then opened to what everyone else has seen. He remembers all that happened on the island. He is then approached by his father who tells him why everyone is there. They had all died, some before Jack and some long after. The place they lived was something they had created to find each other. The time they spent together on the island was the most important of all, and they needed each other to remember, to let go, and to move on. Jack then walks out into the sanctuary to find all his friends from the Oceanic flight. Everyone mingles and hugs as they are all finally reconnected. Intermixed in this scene is the final scene from the island. Jack finds himself out of the cave and alone on some rocks. He stumbles through the woods, finding himself back in the bamboo forest he first woke up in. Clenching his knife wound, he falls to the ground in that same opening. Back in the church, Christian Shepherd walks out the front door of the church, which opens to reveal a bright light which then begins to fill the church. As Jack lies on the ground, Vincent runs back out of the woods and lays down next to Jack. We then see Jack’s right eye close, and the series comes to a dramatic, emotionally charged close.
So what’s my take on the whole thing? First of all, I wanna say that the writers/creators of LOST are brilliant. Writing like this does not happen often. What they created, however, was a show so complex and with so many details that it was nigh impossible to answer everything. Also, it’s nearly impossible to please everyone. A show that could have taken us in so many directions is bound to disappoint some people who wished it went in a different one. Personally, I loved the finale and what they did with the ending. It’s ends in true LOST fashion, ultimately being connected by the characters and love, not mythology and mystery. Also typical to LOST, it ends with some room for interpretation. The “flash sideways” world seems to be a type of purgatory – some kind of holding place for the people who are already dead but haven’t passed on to the next life. Though I’m not completely sold on this idea, I like the notion that blowing up the bomb at the end of Season 5 created this alternate world. Juliet told Sawyer that it worked, though clearly they were still on the island. It did, however, create a reality that they all lived in which seemed to be free from the hand of Jacob. Desmond, because of his freaky “powers” got a unique taste of and look at this reality, prompting him to open the eyes of all his fellow castaways. Regardless of interpretation, I really enjoyed the way they wrapped things up. My only complaint would be that they shouldn’t have wasted so much time at the beginning of the season on things like the Temple. More time could have been used to go into more detail about the origins of the heart of the island, Jacob and his brother, and the purgatorial world that the characters “created for themselves.”
It’s weird for me to write about this. I don’t generally watch much TV, but for years now we have been immersed in this world. The characters are SO good and SO well developed that we feel like we know them all personally. I don’t typically cry during any movies, much less during a tv show, but this episode had me going at several moments, including the entire last 5 minutes. It was almost a Lord of the Rings moment for me when it ended. A world and story that’s so intriguing and emotionally involving, spanning several years, is finally over – so what do I do now lol? The characters finally found rest and a new life with each other – similar, to me anyways, to Frodo being taken to the Grey Havens after his incredible journey ended. It’s just hard to believe that Jack and the crew won’t be showing up again next season. SO again, I would just like to congratulate the creators and cast for presenting such a solid show. LOST will truly be missed amongst a sea of otherwise predominantly dull television programming.
Namaste.
The Weezer Rant 