sammi says

Here are my final thoughts on the series finale of "Lost."

What happened on the island happened. Oceanic 815 crashed on September 22, 2004. Some survivors stayed on the island, some left and some even came back. Jacob, the smoke monster, the Dharma Initiative and the time travel were all real. Jack died on the island, Hurley and Ben stayed to protect it and the others flew away on Ajira 316. That much I can say with certainty.

The alternate reality or flash sideways world is where things start to get tricky. I really do believe that the creators wanted to leave this up to our own interpretation. I believe Christian Shepard explains it all. He tells Jack that he and all the others in the church are very real. Alive, not so much...Real, yes.



We were assuming that the sideways timeline was taking place in September 2004 after Oceanic 815 landed safely. Yet, Christian explains that there is no now. They are in a world that transcends time. Once Jack realizes that he's dead Christian explains that these people all died at different times, some before Jack, some long after Jack. Life went on for the remaining survivors after Jack died on the island. When Hurley greets Ben outside the church he says, "You were a great number two." Ben tells Hurley he was a great leader. This leads me to believe that Hurley and Ben stayed on the island for some time and share a history together after Jack's death. When Kate kisses Jack and is trying to make him realize what is going on, she tells him how much she missed him. She misses him because she had to live the rest of her life without him after she left the island.

Now onto the plot in the sideways world leading up to the church scene. Why were they all back in that time? Why were the meeting up with each other. If they all died at different times how come they look the same age? Christian tells Jack that the time they spent on the island was the most important time in their lives. These were the people that mattered most. So in death, they still needed each other to let go and move on.

All these people were brought back to this time in their lives because it dealt with the ultimate "what ifs." What if Oceanic 815 had never crashed? What if Ben was never brought to the island as a child? What if Alex grew up with her mother? What if Sawyer became a cop instead of a con-man? What if Desmond had not met Penny? In the alternate reality the characters were still dealing with the choices they made and similar situations that led them to the island in the first place...like Jack dealing with the death of his father.

Which brings me to this point...Jack's son was not real. After Locke wakes up from surgery, wiggles his toes and has his 'awakening' he even tells Jack, "You don't have a son." Jack and his son's relationship represents the relationship Jack had with his father. Which is ultimately the most important relationship Jack had in his whole life. Jack worked things out with David, which gave him a better understanding of what went wrong between he and Christian. Jack needed to do that to be able to move on to his afterlife. Christian had to wait for Jack, too.

The entire series has been about the big questions...Life, death, fate, destiny...So it's not surprising to me that the end of the show took a more spiritual route than some maybe were hoping for. When you think about it, how else could they have ended the show and wrapped up the alternate timeline? I'm under the suspicion that people would never be truly satisfied. Say that the alternate reality really was real- so what happens when Kate, Sawyer, Claire and the gang land the Ajira plane back in LA? The two timelines can't both exist. I agree with the popular opinion that it would have been a real let-down if the sideways world turned out to be a dream or just a fantasy.

I am very satisfied with the ending. I think it was great way to make it ok that all of our favorite characters had died, knowing that somehow, someway they did get their happy ending. Many of us pray and hope that we will see our own loved ones when we die and that we will all go on to a better place, so why can't it be the same for TV characters? I loved that we were able to see some of our old favorites again before the show ended for good. The reunions between Sawyer and Juliet and Claire and Charlie had me crying my eyes out. "Lost" has always been about the characters and I think it was fitting that it ended with the typical music and panning shot of everyone reuniting...Something we've seen at the end of several "Lost" episodes.

So why were some people missing? Ben told Hurley he simply isn't ready. I like to imagine that he is going to make things right with Alex and Danielle Rousseau. I loved that Ben apologized to Locke for killing him. Desmond mentioned in the previous episode that Ana Lucia wasn't ready either. Eloise Hawking kept telling Desmond it wasn't time. She was worried that Desmond was going to take her son, Daniel Farraday with them. Eloise hadn't let go yet of the fact that she killed her own son, so they stay put...same with Charlotte and Miles. We learned earlier this season that Michael is roaming the island as a lost soul, which brings us to Walt. Walt was on the island for a much shorter time than everyone else...maybe it wasn't the most important time in his life like it was for the others. Or maybe he wasn't dead yet, which I'm assuming is the case with Ji-Yeon (Sun and Jin's daughter) and Charlie (Desmond and Penny's son).

As for the the action on the island- I thought it was amazing. I knew Lapidus was going to turn up sooner or later. I wrote in my last recap that he was going to eventually wash up on shore to serve his final purpose, to fly the plane off the island. Remember that Lapidus was supposed to be the original pilot of Oceanic 815. Claire finally gets to be reunited with Aaron and will learn how to be a mother from Kate. I could not have asked for a better ending for these people.



Having Jack and the Man in Black peering down into the cave felt so poignant and of course reminded us of when they were looking into the hatch in the season one finale. The dialouge between Jack and the Man in Black was perfect...Jack telling him that John Locke had been right all along and how it was a disgrace for the Man in Black to be taking his form. Desmond finally played his part. He removed the stone, extinguishing the light making it possible for the Man in Black to die. It was fitting that Kate got to be the one to kill the Man in Black to avenge Sun and Jin's deaths. Hurley was destined to become the protector of the island. He was the only one that is completely pure of heart and deserving of the job.



Jack sobbing and laughing as he put the rock back into its place in the cave was such an emotional scene. And let me tell you, when Jack laid down in the bamboo field and Vincent stayed with him, I lost it. I'm losing it right now just typing about it. It really was the perfect ending. It was genius to put Jack right back where he started and to end on his eye closing. Jack had finally fulfilled his destiny.

Everyone's saying they still have questions. I feel like all of my questions have been answered. I mean, maybe not the ones about the physics of time travel, the space time continuum, and what happens after you die- but who can answer those anyway? As for the shot of the Oceanic wreckage over the credits, I think it is nothing more than a red herring and I'm pretty much disregarding it all together (see update below).

I will miss "Lost" like crazy. It was one hell of TV show that told a really great story. Most of all, I'm going to miss the characters. Thanks to the creators, crew, actors and everyone who made "Lost" possible...You took us on a great ride that we won't soon forget.

Goodbye, "Lost." I'll see ya in another life, brother.


UPDATED 5/25/10: I just read a great theory on Doc Arzt on what the images of the Oceanic wreckage over the final credits of "Lost" could possibly mean. They say that it's similar to the Black Rock, the Dharma stations, the temple and the four-toed statue...The wreckage is what our characters have left behind. Life goes on and when the next group of castaways or explorers are brought to the island the Oceanic wreckage could be just one of the oddities or mysteries they could discover.

For some reason these images lead a lot of people to believe that the crash survivors were dead the whole time which is just simply not true. Yes, for half of seventeen episodes in the last season they were dead, but not the whole series! I don't think the flash sideways timeline was a cop-out. In every other season there were flashbacks and flash forwards. How could they have done flash forwards when most of the cast dies over the course of the final season? It definitely would have taken away a lot of the suspense and shock surrounding the deaths of Jack, Sun, Jin and Sayid. It just simply wouldn't have worked for the show. I also think we would have felt cheated if there wasn't any kind of alternate timeline. We would have been worn out if this season only took place on the island.

SECOND UPDATE: Fifteen minutes after I posted my previous update I found out that ABC has released a statement saying the the final images over the credits were added by ABC not the producers of the show and were only put there to soften the transition between the ending and the following program. So that solves it once and for all. Here's the link to the statement.

(Pictures from lost-media.com and lostpedia.com)