Well, it’s over. I can’t believe that there’s no more ‘Lost’. This is going to be a major hole in my TV-watching life. I intend to have a full recap with a lot of thoughts about the finale soon, but I’m short on time and still processing it. For now, I can just give my immediate gut reaction.
Overall, I found it pretty satisfying. There were a number of really amazing, overwhelmingly emotional moments in the episode. However, I’m of mixed feelings about the ultimate twist revelation about the Flash Sideways storyline. On the one hand, it makes perfect sense. On the other hand, it does feel like something of a cheat. It’s not anything like that atrocious ‘Life on Mars’ finale, mind you. And thank heavens I was way off base with my kooky theory on Friday. Still, I need some time to think about this and sort out my feelings.
For what it’s worth, I don’t buy into Jimmy Kimmel’s “one brief moment” theory. At all. But I’ll cut the guy some slack. He had to host a live special immediately after the episode had just finished airing. He probably needs more time to think about it as well.
More to come on this. It may be a day or two, though. I have a two-hour ’24’ finale and a two-hour ‘Chuck’ finale to watch tonight. Season finale time can be pretty stressful!
FreddyC
I look forward to reading your thoughts. I believe it was probably the right ending, but I didn’t find it as satisfying, simply because everyone kind of had a good idea that they were dead, and it detracts a little from what happened between seasons 1 and 6.
Just MHO
Freddy
Josh Zyber
They weren’t dead in Seasons 1 through 6. Everything that happened on the island really happened. Sawyer, Kate, etc. flew home at the end. Only the events of the flash-sideways were purgatory, after all the characters died at various different points in the past and future.
JoeK
Josh is right, everything in seasons 1-6 that happened on the island DID happen. My only real concern is what about Michael and Walt? The dog was there at the end, but where were Mike and Walt?
Josh Zyber
AuthorHarold Perrineau was on Kimmel afterwards, and explained that Michael was still a soul trapped on the island as one of the whispering voices in the jungle. That could also be used to explain several other characters who died on the island.
Walt has still not been accounted for, however.
besch64
Walt’s not there because he was only a child who was stuck on the island for a very brief amount of time. The defining moments of his life were definitely not from what happened to him on the Island. It was more like a brief pit stop in his life.
For everybody else, the Island was their purpose. Even characters like Boone and Shannon went through major, life-altering changes on the island right before their death.
The only thing that doesn’t entirely work for me is the fact that Eko wasn’t there. But in the end, the fact that the actor is a douche who shat on the writers’ story arc and whined until they let him leave probably doesn’t deserve closure for his character.
Josh Zyber
AuthorI like this theory, but why was Aaron a baby in the church at the end? He shouldn’t have been there at all.
Eko’s absence can be explained as him being a whispering voice trapped on the island with Michael. Eko did still have a lot of things to atone for in his life.
Prayformojo
I agree with you guys, Island was real, flash sideways was some kind of post-death waiting area, but I am not sure why Aaron is in the church at the end and why Sayid ends up with Shannon. Otherwise, I really dug the finale.
EM
I chuckled upon seeing this blog article’s title because, as I was watching the final episode draw to a close with some major questions still unanswered, I hypothesized exactly what the article’s title proposes! 🙂
jgslima
After have seen this final episode, more than the flash sideways end I didn’t like the flash sideways themselves. Sideways were not used to explain something of the past of the series, not used to fill the gaps or add something to the story we had seen so far. This was brought just in the final season, so I would prefer a final season with a normal end.
I didn’t see any interview with the producers, but what I think that happened was this: authors thought that the series should still have some “flash something”, because since the beginning Lost episodes had this dynamics of changing between the “current” time and other timeline. But flash backs… we had had enough of it and it could not add anything valuable to the series. Flash forwards would be possible, but probably much more hard to authors, after all one thing is to have some flash forwards in the middle of series like seasons 3 and 4, that reveal something of the middle of the story. Another thing would be a flash forward revealing the end of the entire series. It is not easy to do that in a way that still keep people interested to see what is coming on. So they came with this flash “sideways”.
Josh Zyber
AuthorIn one way of looking at it, the flash-sideways were really flash-forwards.