SPOILER ALERT.
First off, I want to make clear that as I write this, I have had the unfair luxury of having read my colleagues' excellent analyses of the finale - both fantastic articles in their own ways.
THE EPISODE...
I'm going to focus more on the last ten minutes or so of the episode because I have little to say about everything that came before it - other than I found it thrilling. My jaw fell when Jack and Locke were fighting on that cliff in the rain - it hit that precise combination of epic scale and rich character-driven context that I loved about the show.
The last ten minutes are difficult to judge because it essentially tries to answer a number of huge questions at once: we found out what the flash-sideways was, and what was 'real' and what wasn't 'as real.' Most importantly, we found out the ultimate fates of our characters - in more ways than one.
Like I said, I had the advantage of reading my colleague's reviews. I think they're the perfect snapshots of the inevitable disagreement among fans. I think they're both absolutely right on some counts.
WHAT WORKED
In the positive, I agree with Dylan that Lost was very much a character-driven show. To memory, it was the first anthology series that disguised itself as a serialized show: most episodes were self-contained flashback/forward/sideways stories about a single character - chained together in an addictive fantasy serialization. To this extent, I'm among the fans that loved the sideways flashes that we've gotten this season. In serialized storytelling, there's only so many times you can tell a story about the same character without fundamentally changing who they are - so much so that the writers eventually had to go forward in time in order to give us new stories about these characters. The sideways flashes took all the elements we've come to know about the characters and presented them in a new way. Ben was an excellent example where the sideways flashes told us how to see the gentler and lovable side of one television's greatest villains.
In this sense, the last ten minutes of the series finale was fulfilling. We found out that the sideways flashes were a limbo/purgatory construct created by these 'lost' souls so that they could help each other remember what made life worth living. I found this to be a pretty novel idea. The sideways flashes were initially an annoying and implausible super-mega-happy ending that I can now tolerate because we now know they are unreal wish-fulfillment and fantasy. It was all happening because the characters needed to have a 'happy ending' in order to accept their deaths and move on to the afterlife.
Butler is right; it would have been unacceptable here if we had gotten a real happy ending. But I don't think we got that. Yes, the characters get a happy ending. But what we the audience got is the reality that there wasn't a happy ending. The final shot of the deathly-silent wreckage of the plane shows us what we really got: a story with a very real sense of death and tragedy. It turns out every character that we saw die really did die (except when Sayid died and came back, which still infuriates me). Likewise, we can presume that every character that survived (like Hurley and Ben) eventually died at some point because we saw them end up in that sideways-purgatory construct. It doesn't matter that they all died at different times, because as we heard, there is no sense of time in purgatory - a very fitting rule given all the time-travel the audience has been put through. What mattered was that they needed each other in order to individually move on to the afterlife.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK
But what kept this series finale from being fully satisfying was that it confirmed the skeptics' assumptions: the Lost writers never had a plan. Sure, I fully believe they always knew the series was going to end with Jack's eye closing as he dies. But it seems just about everything else in the series was tossed in without any regard as to how to resolve the increasingly growing mess of plot devices. By the time we approached the series finale, there was no doubt that they would be unable to answer all the questions we still had. This is why I absolutely hated "Across the Sea" - the episode with the crazy witch mother and young Jacob. Go back and watch that episode - it was only a couple weeks ago. From a storytelling perspective, it raises a million frustrating questions that would be impossible to answer in the series finale - so much so that our entire understanding of Lost would have been better served if we had not spent one of its final hours watching a crazy lady with magic powers kill some random Spanish woman and brainwash her two sons - all for no apparent reason. The fact that Lost couldn't ever answer its own questions truly weakens the series as a whole, and highlights the ultimate shortcoming of the series finale. Butler put it best with his Polar Bear example. In essence, we got HOW things happened (DARMA), but never never never WHY things happened. And that's really dissatisfying for a show that was about 'lost' individuals finding purpose and meaning.
BOTTOM LINE?
Like I said, I went into the finale knowing that they wouldn't answer most of the questions. What I wanted was closure. I would've been super-pissed if Lost had ended on a mysterious cliffhanger. Yeah, a cliffhanger worked for The Sopranos, but there was contextual and artistic support for that ending. The difference is that Lost made a promise - it was telling one big story, and that story needed an ending.
We got an ending. And it wasn't really the awful super-happy fanfiction-flavored ending we got at the end of Harry Potter where the good guys win and everybody loves each other and names their children after deceased comrades. It was an ending that embraced the tragic reality of death, while providing that sense of hope that beyond death lies some supernatural means for us to achieve the happy endings we'll never get in real life. Framed that way, it's actually a pretty fitting end considering Lost's themes. It's not a perfect ending, and might never be truly satisfying given the outrageous questions we still have. Moreover, hating this ending is not an invalid opinion - there are plenty of good reasons not to like it. But it was an ending with closure, which was what I mostly wanted. When Jack closes his eyes and brings the show to its end, I knew that narratively, Lost was finally over.
To be honest? That's probably enough for me.
To be honest? That's probably enough for me.
-Aaron-
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14 comments:
It was a shit ending. I don't want to analyse it because, really, it just left me thinking, what the @#!@$ was that?!!!...hell..purgatory...stupid. What a shit ending to 6 years of my life watching it!
May 24, 2010 at 4:00 AMYou're right, that whole 'thinking' thing is an unjustified response to immediate rage. Stupid indeed. :-)
May 24, 2010 at 4:08 AMThanks for [possibly] reading!
I agree completely - the ending just made me more Lost than ever! I do agree with you on the fact that the writers were making this up as they were going along. I'm glad it's finally over.
May 24, 2010 at 4:42 AMNow - onto watching the 24 series finale tonight! Can't wait!
The emporor has no clothes, people. Don't pretend this ending is in any way acceptable. One of the motivations of 6 year discipleship is faith that the end matters. This religion failed miserably. I am now apostate.
May 24, 2010 at 5:21 AMI agree, its like they had to end it as JJ Abrams was getting board! So what was the one way they could do that without having to answer all the questions they had created… oh well, their all dead!! …a cop out and I feel pissed off and cheated by what was a great show up until the final 2 episodes!
May 24, 2010 at 5:37 AMThe best ending to a drama has to be 6 feet under… that's the way it should be done!
I loved the ending.. I always thought it would end with them all dying at some point or another on the island.. and all getting back together.. loveed it..
May 24, 2010 at 5:54 AMI agree I loved the ending but there are still too many unanswered questions.
May 24, 2010 at 7:59 AMSix Feet Under was the best finale ever!!!
The British series 'Life on Mars' (created before LOST) followed by 'Ashes To Ashes' had a very similar conclusion, only they answered everything very clearly. Plus in typical british humour the place of salvation leading the lost souls to the light wasn't a church - it was the pub! LOL!
May 24, 2010 at 8:05 AMDeath for some of the character would have been acceptable but death of all the character unbelieveable. And Sawyer, Kate,Miles, Richard,the pilot whose name i cannt remember left the island where did they go. Hurley apparently did not die, Ben did not die. ?
May 24, 2010 at 8:12 AMNo I sorry the final ending was extremely unsatisfying. It disappointed hugely.
And if we are honest such a story line would only have been constructed by a fantasy/science fiction writer, therefore it could not ring true that so many different people had the same fantasy so they could all be together. No it is a copout.
wow your way of explaing he ending to me, really made alot of sense, and to everyone here i completly disagree i truely feel it was teh ending i was expecting... its lost, i know i didnt think i would end the show with all my questions answered, then it wouldnt feel like lost.
May 24, 2010 at 9:10 AMi loved te ending and cant wait for the box set to come out
thanks for helping me understand more.
I don't think you fully understand what happened.
May 24, 2010 at 9:36 AMThey didn't "all have the same fantasy" as such. As explained by Jack's dad at the end, the flash-sideways were a kind of "waiting room" where everyone would eventually meet the people who meant the most to them in their lives, so that they can help move on to the afterlife.
Also, the waiting room/purgatory/middle ground had no concept of time, again as explained by Jack's Dad. So while all (well, most) of the characters may have appeared all together at the church, they didn't necessarily die at the same time. Again, Jack's dad explained that as well. Some of them died early on in the series, some of them died at the end (i.e. Jack), some of them lived for many years afterwards (such as Kate, Sawyer etc), and some of them could have lived for hundreds of years (Hurley and Ben). But when it came to accepting their fate and moving on, they all needed each other to do that, and so that's why they were all together at the end.
The "waiting room" flash-sideways stories also gave each character a chance to redeem themselves for past mistakes. The reason they were all together in the church at the end is because they'd all "lived" for a time within the flash-sideways, acting out their lives like they would have LIKED them to be... allowing them to make up for any mistakes that they have made in the past. The ones that appeared in the church are the ones who felt like they had done just that, and that they could finally "let go and move on", which is something Desmond said to Locke, and which Christian said to Jack at the end.
It explains why some of the characters weren't in the church. Anna-Lucia hadn't changed her ways - she was a crooked cop, still taking bribes etc. That's why Hurley said that they weren't going to "take her"... because she "wasn't ready". It also explains why Ben told Hurley that he wasn't going into the church. He still feels as though he needs to make up for his actions on the island that got his daughter killed. And by staying behind, and taking care of Alex, he'll become a father figure for her, and be the dad that he should have been on the island. Only then will he finally be ready to leave.
I think you've taken the ending a little too literally. All in all, it doesn't matter why the island exists, or what would have happened if Locke had escaped. What matters is what happens to the people. That's what the show is about. And in that regard, the ending was one of the best endings I've ever seen. Awesome.
Hm. I don't know if you my review since you seem to be laying out exactly what I descibed about the waiting room. In fact, u seem to have interpeted the limitations and purpose of the waiting room the exact way I just described them. Though I'd urge you to reconsider whether it was a shared event. I watched that scene a few times and sat on it and still think that is what Christian meant, even though I fully agree the fact there is no sense of time in limbo allows the characters to have all died at different times. As we can assume hurley and Ben had crazy adventures together before eventually joining the dead. But you're right, that's something where there is a lot of room for interpretation.
May 24, 2010 at 11:31 AMThanks for commenting though!
it sucked for me.
May 27, 2010 at 1:00 PMOne of the best shows ever! Loved the ending (although I was disappointed right off the bat, but after thinking about it, I loved it!). It was all about the characters. It's like (real) life; we never really know the answers to everything. What really matters is each individual's reality. And that is something LOST shaped beautifully for all the characters.
November 2, 2010 at 7:46 PMRemember, the writers kept on saying for years that there are some questions that they have no intention of answering. And the reality is that no matter what the writers had said the Island is, we would've been unsatisfied. So in a way, this was for the best.
All good things must come to an end...
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