Lost Season 6 - The Final Season

[Kodos]

Perhaps this just wasn't the series for you.

[Noop]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

Jack died. Hurley and Ben stay on the island to protect it and everyone else made it off on the plane.

I agree with the first part but the last part I disagree.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

Jack died. Hurley and Ben stay on the island to protect it and everyone else made it off on the plane.

I get that- not too hard. The narrative was carried forward. The explanation- that's what was lacking.

SI

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Noop

I agree with the first part but the last part I disagree.

They all die eventually, hence the reunion in the afterlife.

[Noop]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

They all die eventually, hence the reunion in the afterlife.

I think they died immediately after they took off to be honest.

[hoopsguy]

What I guess I don't understand is why it took them so long to recognize their "constants" in the afterlife and to then realize that they were dead.

Also, there were a whole bunch of people who died in the afterlife, assuming that is what the side stories were. This doesn't quite add up for me either. I'm less satisfied with the wrap-up of that part than I was with the core story although it sounds like I'm in the minority here so far.

[bob]

Ok, I guess i'm a moron. Can someone explain everything that happened once Jack got to the church with Kate?

[timmynausea]

I actually think it was pretty cleverly handled all together, and I wasn't expecting much. In one of the opening scenes Desmond talks about "no one can tell you why you're here." That along with the closing discussion between Christian and Jack almost played out like the creators talking to the viewers.

"What we shared was important, and that's why we're gathered here today."
"But what for?"
"To remember. And to let go."

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by bob

Ok, I guess i'm a moron. Can someone explain everything that happened once Jack got to the church with Kate?

Christian let him know, and us, that they were all in the afterlife. The alt timeline was the afterlife.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by bob

Ok, I guess i'm a moron. Can someone explain everything that happened once Jack got to the church with Kate?

My simple version (open to interpretation). Jack's dead. This is basically his version of purgatory and all the dead from his time in the island are helping him to move on to, presumably, heaven(?). The "flash sideways" from this season are basically his story of how he finds his way to pass on, with the help of his friends once they all have died.

I could be totally wrong. But I was pretty satisfied with that part of the ending and thought it was quite well done.



I've always wanted to say this (no, not really but I texted it to a friend so I think I'm vaguely witty for saying it, so I'm inflicting it on you): "Damn Catholics are ruining Hollywood!"

SI

[Noop]

I was hoping to see Jack in the coffin to be honest. It would have been a great twist.

[Poli]

Wow. Lots of thoughts in my head...Nothing I want to type out just yet.

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

Realistically, they could not have done a better job of finishing the series in 2.5 hours than they did. The alt-resolution was touching.

[Tasan]

The key is what Christian said to Jack, I think. He said that they all died, some just long after Jack. The island and everything was real, they survived the plane crash. They all met up after they died to go on together, because they had formed such strong ties, again liked Christian said it was the best time of his life. Ben shows Hurley how to send Desmond home via the wheel, Rose and her husband live out their lives on the island, and the pilot gets the few left alive back to the world, where they live out their remaining years.

And if this isn't what is going on, I think I wasted 6 years of TV viewing.

[bob]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

My simple version (open to interpretation). Jack's dead. This is basically his version of purgatory and all the dead from his time in the island are helping him to move on to, presumably, heaven(?). The "flash sideways" from this season are basically his story of how he finds his way to pass on, with the help of his friends once they all have died.

I could be totally wrong. But I was pretty satisfied with that part of the ending and thought it was quite well done.



I've always wanted to say this (no, not really but I texted it to a friend so I think I'm vaguely witty for saying it, so I'm inflicting it on you): "Damn Catholics are ruining Hollywood!"

SI

Ok, that's kinda what I thought. So:
Crash - actually happened
Stuff on island - actually happened
Getting off and back to island - actually happened
Flashsideways = Jack's purgatory

Why was his purgatory all wacky? Had a kid, married to Juliet, etc?

[MrDNA]

I'm really not sure WHAT was resolved. Basically, just as confused as ever. They explained the alternate present, but what the heck was the island? The cork on a bottle of evil, well, that cork was literally pulled out and... aw, heck, I don't even know what I don't know!

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by bob

Ok, that's kinda what I thought. So:
Crash - actually happened
Stuff on island - actually happened
Getting off and back to island - actually happened
Flashsideways = Jack's purgatory

Why was his purgatory all wacky? Had a kid, married to Juliet, etc?

I think that goes to what Christian was saying- he created it in a way that it would all come together to get him where he needed to go, essentially.

SI

[sterlingice]

I'm trying to come up with a list of unresolved things to see if maybe I missed something (tho I suspect it was just not there without major supposition). I'm relatively happy with the ending, but still feel a bit cheated because they didn't want to explain some of the harder stuff. I feel as if they tried to explain things by throwing more pieces on the board, however those just opened up more questions that they didn't want to answer.

List so far (if someone wants to explain them to me, I'm game)
-what is the island (some geothermal/dimensional fault line on the boundary between purgatory and the "real world"?)
-how does it have its "magical powers" (I guess the above would have explained that but they made no indication of such)
-how did those powers get conveyed to jacob/man in black? explanation of the smoke monster anyone?
-what about the history of the island? how did the people get there before?
-widmore's motivations? he seemed pretty major and we didn't really get anything about him.
-desmond's magical powers?
-origin of the dharma initiative? again, a piece that was put on the board to explain something but it just opened up more questions, none of which were answered.
-what about some of the lesser mysteries that were left unresolved? having kids on the island being death? wasn't aaron being raised by someone else supposed to be the end of the world?

No, kids (writers), open to interpretation isn't necessarily a good thing. A little is fine but a lot means you didn't know what you wanted to do yourself. Modern art has taught us that.

SI

[spleen1015]

It was purgatory for them all. They couldn't move on without each other.

[Honolulu_Blue]

I really enjoyed the finale. Some great moments.

Unlike most, I really watched "Lost" more for the characters and less for the mysteries, so I went away pretty happy.

Despite thinking the finale was fantastic, I do agree that there was a lot left unexplained. What exactly was the smoke monster? What exactly was the light/heart of the island? What was up with Walt?

A dozen questions never answered. Perhaps there are clues that I didn't pick up or explanations that I wasn't able to cobble together.

Still, Lost gave me a number of fantastic moments of television, including several tonight. Good stuff.

[sterlingice]

Agreed- don't mistake my questions for disappointment. I am slightly disappointed at the lack of explanations in the ending as the bar had been set so high. But I still liked the finale and was quite happy that it didn't have a really horrible ending. Unfortunately, that does probably say the bar for series endings is just so low these days with silly things like dreams, unexplained death, etc.

It didn't have a horrible ending, it had a pretty good ending. But it wasn't a great ending and I was kindof hoping for that.

SI

[Edward64]

Enjoyed it. Watched the 2 + 2.5 hours tonight. The sideways/afterlife was a great concept, really thought it was well done. Will be reading the message boards to really understand the 6 years though.

[spleen1015]

The first and last time I watch Jimmy Kimmel.

[sterlingice]

Anyone know if JIMGA ever reads this thread? I had some advertising based questions for him revolving around the Lost finale. I was wondering what the overnights look like when they come in and if he knows the cost for a Lost series finale commercial.

I noticed a couple of odd things. First, Target came up with some "event-specific" ads as they had 3 Lost ads that were only going to be shown tonight, presumably (my favorite was the BBQ sauce one). Also, it seems like the audience skewed towards high income ads (Lexus, Mercedes, some $400 per month Chrysler, Hagen Dazs, etc) so that probably ads a higher premium to the cost.

SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

The first and last time I watch Jimmy Kimmel.

Sounds like something we can all agree on

SI

[timmynausea]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

I was wondering what the overnights look like when they come in and if he knows the cost for a Lost series finale commercial.

I saw the numbers this week. A 30 second spot during the finale cost $900,000. During a regular season 6 episode, it was just $214,000 for the same. Found the link:

The Cost of 'Lost'? ABC Asks $900,000 for Finale - Advertising Age - MediaWorks

[Swaggs]

Thought the episode was fantastic. I'm kind of like HB, in that I enjoyed the characters moreso than the mythology, so I really enjoyed seeing most of the major characters have some sort of resolution. I would have liked to see what happened with Walt (I'm assuming Michael remained bound to the island) and what exactly the Widmore/Eloise Hawking stuff and I have some questions about stuff from the alt-timeline, but overall I really liked it.

As for the overall competion of hte show, I'm in the camp that everything on the island occurred up until Jack's death. The people that died on the island died on the island. Sawyer, Kate, Lapidus, Miles, and Richard got off the island. Hurley, Desmond, and Ben became the caretakers of the island (which I take as the stock answer -- the cork that keeps evil out of the world) until they couldn't do it any longer w/ the rules changing under Hurley's watch. And, time is perceived differently throughout your existence and that is how Hurley was able to "care about others" and bring them together once they all passed away in their respective existinces/timelines. I think the flash sideways was Jack's personal "journey" into the afterlife w/ his people needing to first get acclimated and then help him into it.

No idea what the deal is with Jack's son.

[thesloppy]

That really felt like a bit of a bait and switch to me. As many others have noted, we got a really satisfying finale and explanation to the flash-sideways questions that was brought in this season, and not so much any kind of resolution about the previous 5 seasons' questions. I wasn't all too impressed, but I was always much more interested in the mystery and mythology than I was the characters.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

That really felt like a bit of a bait and switch to me. As many others have noted, we got a really satisfying finale and explanation to the flash-sideways questions that was brought in this season, and not so much any kind of resolution about the previous 5 seasons' questions. I wasn't all too impressed, but I was always much more interested in the mystery and mythology than I was the characters.

This was exactly why I gave up in season 2. I knew that would happen. There was so much strange and unexplained crap going on that I knew there is no way they could plausibly explain it all and NOT be one of the more obvious theories. It would need to be super obscure for people not to guess it prior to the finish of the series. It appears they achieved that by introducing a new storyline towards the last couple of seasons and then brought that to a conclusion, ignoring all the other crap that viewers slogged through while scratching their heads in the early days.

[bob]

A few things that still bug me:

- So the flash sideways / after life story line really had nothing to do with the incident (setting off the a bomb at end of season 5), the writers just tricked us / lied to us about that, right?

- Why was Locke/smokey suddenly mortal? And why did he not slit Jack's throat when he had the chance (knocked him out)? At that point, he was bleeding, so he seemed to realize he was mortal. I don't like when characters suddenly act differently for the convienence of the writers.

- I still don't understand why the flash sideways was all sorts of different from their real lifes. Or why the spirits of his friends that were there to help Jack move on had to recognize each other. Or the comment that Christian made that they "built this place" so they knew where to meet up or something like that.

Overall, the writers have said its the story of people with the island mythology being the hook. Looking at that perspective, I'd give it a A-. Still too many distracting holes to be perfect. However, I don't give two shits about whether or not Jack and Kate end up together, etc, unless it relates to what goes on in regards to the mysteries of the island. So from that perspective, C+.

I would still give the series an A though because no show has made me think quite like this.

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

The first and last time I watch Jimmy Kimmel.

I recorded it. should I save myself from the first time?

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by brassmonkey32

What did the mirrors mean on side flash?

Can we assume that Frank's plane with Miles, Claire, Kate, Richard and Sawyer crash?

I thought that was the plane Jack saw right at the end.

also a little disappointed the island wasn't explained better. then again, after the way it had been explained to date (something about making sure the light didn't get extinguished for the benefit of all mankind), it's probably good we were spared that mitoclorrean disaster

[CleBrownsfan]

I couldn't watch it last night because what I thought was a DirectTv problem but was actually a greater Cleveland issue with the feed. The feed was very choppy as it looked like when we have severe weather... not to happy about that!

So the wife and I are going to watch it online tonight

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Draft Dodger

I recorded it. should I save myself from the first time?

You won't be missing anything, really. Kimmel had a couple of dumbass ideas about what the show was all about. I watched it mainly for the supposed alternate endings and they turned out to be joke endings, copying Surivior, the Sopranos, and Newhart.

It was all rather lame.

[Groundhog]

I think my buddy on facebook summed it up pretty well:

I'll say this Goose: next time somebody makes a show that's all about the characters and absolutely not about a mind-bogglingly intriguing tropical island of exciting and strange mysteries, I hope they don't feel the need to set the show on a mind-bogglingly intriguing tropical island of exciting and strange mysteries.

[tyketime]

Originally Posted by bob

- Why was Locke/smokey suddenly mortal?

I'm still trying to digest it all. Had a massive headache when I woke up this morning. But I will try to tackle this one. I think Locke/Smokey was mortal when Desmond pulled the stone out of the "heart" of the island. Once Smokey was killed, Jack went back to save Desmond and then set the stone back into place.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by brassmonkey32

What did the mirrors mean on side flash?

Can we assume that Frank's plane with Miles, Claire, Kate, Richard and Sawyer crash?

Not sure about the mirrors, at all. Hadn't even thought about them for awhile, but good question.

I assume that the plane got away, those guys all survived, and lived out their lives (based on Christian saying that some of them died much later and that Kate said she had waited so long to see Jack).

[bob]

I've read a lot of "professional" bloggers' pieces about the finale this morning, and there seems to be some disagreement as to whether or not the people were alive on the island. I think they were, but I have to wonder if the confusion wasn't caused by a somewhat rushed explanation of the sideways world in the last 7 minutes or so.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

Not sure about the mirrors, at all. Hadn't even thought about them for awhile, but good question.

I assume that the plane got away, those guys all survived, and lived out their lives (based on Christian saying that some of them died much later and that Kate said she had waited so long to see Jack).

I agree. I think the plane made it. Kate, Claire, Miles, Sawyer, Richard, Lapidus all went on to live their lives. Hurley and Ben stayed on the Island and were its protectors until they eventually died and passed the mantle on to someone else.

I was listening to a local radio show this morning and they were talking about "Lost" and I guess I didn't quite realize how many other interpretations there were. They were of the belief that the Island itself was purgatory and that everyone on the island was already dead. They based that on the fact of the shot of the wreckage during the end credits. I saw that final shot as nothing more than an homage to what had become, for the show at least, the iconic image of the wreckage of Oceanic 815. I figured the show really ended, like it began, with Jack lying in the same spot, the camera on his eye. Anything that came after wasn't meaningful.

[Easy Mac]

That's because bloggers are idiots.

[Draft Dodger]

I also think that final shot was to reinforce that yes, the crash did happen

[Draft Dodger]

amusing (to me) that the one appearance of Ekko in the 2 hour recap was a brief flash of his hands in a scene. that dude must have really burned some bridges with the producers.

[bob]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Hurley and Ben stayed on the Island and were its protectors until they eventually died and passed the mantle on to someone else.

Given that pulling the cork made Locke/smokey mortal, can it be assumed that when Hurley drank the water from Jack he didn't become immortal?

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

Jacob obviously wasn't immortal.

[bob]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs2

Jacob obviously wasn't immortal.

Fair enough. But he didn't die of old age anyway.

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

I don't think there's a right answer. I mean, Jacob lived for thousands of years as protector, but was able to be killed. One of the reasons we get to speculate and theorize about this is because the writers never decided to explain any of it.

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

That really felt like a bit of a bait and switch to me. As many others have noted, we got a really satisfying finale and explanation to the flash-sideways questions that was brought in this season, and not so much any kind of resolution about the previous 5 seasons' questions. I wasn't all too impressed, but I was always much more interested in the mystery and mythology than I was the characters.

This pretty much sums up my feelings. It amazes me that people have been baited into this ending. They didn't explain anything. The only thing of significance that was given a resolution over the past two seasons was something that was introduced this season.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by bob

Fair enough. But he didn't die of old age anyway.

No, he didn't. Maybe Hurley did die of old age or something else killed him. Maybe he finally found a new "candidate", passed it on and then died. Who knows?

Remember what Ben said at the end when they were talking about trying to get Desmond off the island? Hurley mentioned something about how people can't leave the island and Ben said that was one of Jacob's rules and that Hurley could make his own rules now.

Like Ronnie D said, since there was so much left unexplained as to the island, what was the power, how did it work, etc., there is no use trying to nail it down or find inconsistencies or limit any kind of speculation. I think all we can do is speak in generalities:

The island was a place of mysterious power.

It had a light at its Heart that seemed to be the source of its power and very important.

If the island was destroyed, a great evil would be unleashed/get out into the world.

Those are some pretty broad concepts.

[bob]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

since there was so much left unexplained as to the island, what was the power, how did it work, etc., there is no use trying to nail it down or find inconsistencies or limit any kind of speculation.

Agreed, but I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Hurley mentioned something about how people can't leave the island and Ben said that was one of Jacob's rules and that Hurley could make his own rules now.

This part didn't really make sense to me given that TONS of people had left the island under Jacob's rule, but whatever. Didn't really bug me.

[Honolulu_Blue]

As much as I enjoyed the finale and thought it provided a lot of great moments, I do agree that it didn't quite achieve what it could have. I am somewhat divided on it. It really abandoned much of the mysteries, sci-fi aspects, ect. that were built up over the past 5 seasons or so. Sadly, based on the direction the show took, they were never going to be able to do that. I doubt the folks in charge even have the answers.

I do think it's wrong to take the view that the finale only gave "a resolution over the past two seasons was something that was introduced this season." The resolution of the side-ways story-line gave a resolution to all of the main characters.

Island plot-wise, it gave resolution to Jack, Hurley, Ben and the Smoke Monster. And I suppose those that got off the island.

Character-wise, there were a few things that felt off. Sawyer really didn't have much of anything to do all season. After Juliet died, he pouted angrily and then just sort of hung around trying to be clever and get off the island. I love Sawyer, but his character arc was over and he just sort of existed, in his own, cool Sawyer way the last season.

The Sayid thing also bugged me a bit, but it always has. His character flip-flopped a lot:

1. At the beginning he was all: "Nadia, Nadia, Nadia, Nadia..."
2. Then he was like: "Oh! Shannon!"
3. Then he went back to being: "Nadia, Nadia, Nadia, Nadia..."
4. Finally, at the end he was back to: "Oh! Shannon!"

His "am I a bad person or good person" arc was much more interesting than his love story arcs.

Overall, the finale provided some great moments. But, in total, I think that's what the show did as well. It provided some absolutely stellar moments. Just some wonderful pieces. At the end of the day, however, I don't think the whole quite matches up to the pieces.

Even with its flaws and unanswered questions, it was still better than 95% (or more) of the other crap on TV and I don't regret being with it for the entire ride. (Well, maybe not the entire ride, since there are still like 3-4 episodes I missed during Season 3, when I temporarily gave up on it.)