Let’s just be out with it. My initial response to the Lost finale was not favorable. I felt betrayed and lied to. The minute that I realized that the “flash sideways” was purgatory and they were going to walk in to a light lead by [a] Christian Shepherd, I was infuriated. Lindelof and Cuse promised that the island wasn’t purgatory and that’s when I stopped myself…
Lindelof and Cuse promised us that the island wasn’t purgatory.
The island ended up not being purgatory. They created something totally different called a “flash sideways” and THAT was the purgatory. To me purgatory has always been a proving ground for entrance into heaven. It’s a place for people who aren’t bad but still need work in order to “move on”. In that sense, the island was a sort of proving ground and the “flash sideways” wasn’t. Purgatory has also been described as a waiting area until it is decided that you will “move on”. This totally describes the “flash sideways”. My real question that if this “flash sideways” was created by the Losties, when did they do this? How? Why? Right before Jughead and Juliet?
Also, notice how Ben Linus didn’t join the other Losties that were going into “the light”. His reason was that he still needed to work on some stuff and because of that, he couldn’t “move on”. This is very purgatorial.
If you ignore these questions and accept the episode for what it is, it was a really sweet ending. The careful weaving of the “flash sideways” and “island present” was impressive. You also got to see all of your favorite characters together again. Everyone was clean, with combed hair and stylish clothing. THAT MADE IT ALL WORTH IT! I enjoyed that characters got a chance to reunite with their loved ones. Seeing them recognize each other was heart warming: Claire and Kate, Clair and Charlie, Sayid and Shannon, Sun and Jin. I cried a few times; even on the second viewing.
Let’s face it. This is some of the cleverest storytelling of our time. The most important feature of Lost is the flashback. It gave the writers a way to tell a story and create a history on the island that made sense. It gave the appearance of a carefully woven entertainment tapestry. Their balance of the ridiculous and the sublime was epic. In most television shows if you add a smoke monster and time travel, the next season you’re signing up for a campaign for Syfy to save the show. If the show is too heavy on love and relationships, it’s demoted to chick flick status. If it’s too spiritual, you run the risk of offending a religious group. If you have too much diversity, everything starts to feel forced and unrealistic.
After a second viewing of the finale, I decided that I’m satisfied with how Lost ended. It wasn’t the ending that I wanted or even expected but it’s over. I have a science fiction bias so I wanted it to be some bizarre-o time travel twist with alien overlords and a space battle. *pew pew* That isn’t what Lost is and that is the reason why the show was so successful. Lindelof and Cuse found a perfect balance and told a story in such away that it appealed to a massive amount of people. They successfully told a story that kept people from all walks of life engaged and that is no easy task. It combined Survivor with Quantum Leap with a dash of Grey’s Anatomy and The Odyssey. We were treated to subtitles, war, politics, mystery, spirituality, action, horror and most importantly love.
Do I still have questions? Yes but they just don’t matter at this point and I’ve decided to let them go. The most oft repeated reason you hear for Lost being so successful is because they made you care about the characters. Even if you didn’t like the ending, I think the the mark of a great show is the ability to keep the audience coming back for more because of a connection with the characters. Everyone can agree that the mysteries and puzzles of the island were fascinating. Everyone can agree that there was something very basic and human about the show that makes it easy to relate to. Because Lost did all of this, it will go down in history as one of the most important television shows in our time.
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