Lost (**season finale spoilers inside**)

[MikePizzoff]

Never watched a single episode but for some reason I find myself extremely intrigued on how they wrapped up the series. Anybody feel like writing up "LOST for dummies" ?

[JDFP]

Never watched a single episode but for some reason I find myself extremely intrigued on how they wrapped up the series. Anybody feel like writing up "LOST for dummies" ?

SPOILERS!!!!


SPOILERS!!!!

SPOILERS!!!

SPOILERS!!

SPOILERS!

and, in case you missed that...

**** SPOILERS ****





They were all dead from when the plane crashed. The whole series was based on them in Purgatory and coming to grips with letting the past go. My original theory in season 1 was that they were all dead and in Purgatory -- seems I was right all along.

I, personally, loved the ending. I thought it was the best and most logical ending for the series. Of course, it left me with a few unresolved questions. The people that were killed in this Purgatory that weren't in the cathedral (Mr. Friendly, Mr. Ecko, Walt, etc. etc.) are they still trapped in Purgatory? Will they only be able to 'move onward' after they realize what has happened (their death) and accepted it and let go of the past?

Likewise, it makes the whole question of Jacob/Man-In-Black more interesting... were they a manifestation of grace and despair? By defeating despair (man in black) was Jack able to allow himself/his followers to move onward into grace?

Anyway, wonderful series, and I thought the ending was absolutely groovy as hell.

j.p.

[paulannett]

I watched and loved the first season of Lost... I watched and really enjoyed the 2nd series. But when it became apparent they weren't going to explain a damn thing, I stopped watching.

My theory from the first series was that they all died and were in purgatory... guess I was right too, going by what JDFP said.

[wayzim]

I watched and loved the first season of Lost... I watched and really enjoyed the 2nd series. But when it became apparent they weren't going to explain a damn thing, I stopped watching.

My theory from the first series was that they all died and were in purgatory... guess I was right too, going by what JDFP said.

If we're to judge the show by the ending, there'll be alot of grumbling around the water cooler today. But as oft said, it's not important where you get to but How.
For the most part, Lost was a fun journey, indeed.
I was happy to see Juliet(Elizabeth Mitchell ) once again. Of all the Lost gals, she was a favorite.

Wayne Z

[Danny]

Just watched it and it sort of cements that the whole show was a big boondoggle about answer questions only to lead to more questions when it turns out everything like why jacob brought down the plane that lead to his death to defeat who killed him or desmond in general and the whole nuke causing this shift into purgatory and other purgatory deal.
Honestly it was an entertaining end but i think it seals the deal that they didnt know how it would end around season 2. Like too many people thought "there dead and the island is hell/purgatory" and so they tried to make it science fiction instead but couldnt end it any other way.

Honestly the whole things pretty stupid, like anything that happened in season 4 with the second wave of characters coming to the island or just what made them crash in the first place so i can imagine it to be a big fuck you to a lot of people- or to quote sawyer "thats a hell of a long con doc" but honestly i started watching lost a few months ago so it was a mediocre ending to some mindless sci-fi/supernatural entertainment that i sat down fora few weeks and spent some time on so i cant realy find myself that irked by the ending since i didnt "put 6 years into this" like im sure so many rabid lost fans will rage about.

I whent in thinking they had no idea what they were writing and came out the same way but the performances from the actors made the show worth it regardless of asinine whole riddled plot yknow?


-also, i called hurley being the new jacob at the end.

-and the complete absence of walt.


honestly though i think we could have done without the flash sideways universe ending with anything other than they lived happily ever after and the island universe just ending with jack dying. Everyone is saying the 15 minutes at the end ruined it and i agree. the best mysteries are left unexplained and open to interpretation.

-and how ironic is it that lost pisses off its fans by giving answers :lol:

[Skippy911sc]

Did everyone notice the stain glass window at the church? Or how about the religious icons in the back room when Jack was talking to his father? I thought the end sucked! I don't think they were in purgatory I think the island did exist and that they could only move on to the "next place" when they all had died. His father said something to this (I thought). I also thought that the producers talked about this idea of the island being purgatory after season 2, and said it was not... I don't know I think they jumped the shark a long time ago, but being who I am I had to finish what I started. Blahhhh!

[Danny]

after thinking about it dont think the answer IS "they all died and the island was purgatory" i think the whole of season 6 is just about jack dying. and the flash sideways are all set AFTER he dies on the island. Everyone else died of something before or AFTER the ending and they all look the same age because of the nature of the fantasy world made to help jack finally move on.

Hurley says to ben "you were a great number 2" on about him helping him on the island. This points out they spent a lifetime together doing things on the island. and jack only says "im dead". He was the one who kept getting flashes that he sort of fought off. everyone else was sort of brought to the sideways world and rebooted as it were to the island versions of themselves to help jack move on after his death after putting the stone back. Only he needed the pushes he got from all of them.

It doesnt explain any of the gaping fucking plotwholes- like desmond in general but im pretty sure on reflection its not actually they are all dead in hell but jack learning to drop the emo guilty bollocks from season 5 and just move on.

[MinionZombie]

Wasn't the "flash sideways" portion the only bit actually set in purgatory/the afterlife?

All the island stuff (set in 2007) was actually happening with people being alive - as Jack's dad says in '2004', this purgatory exists independently of whenever each of the characters died. In other words, some died early on (like Boon and his sister) or died just after the whole thing had been resolved (Jack in the bamboo field next to the dog) and others went on to live their lives (those who escaped the island on the plane, and those who stayed behind on the island but survived - indeed Ben said to Hurley 'why don't you change the rules so that people CAN leave the island ... e.g. Desmond).

2007 was reality - they did survive the plane crash and all that crazy shit did happen - and the season 6 'flash sideways' was the only part that was set in the afterlife/purgatory. As has been said online elsewhere, the key players all worked to bring themselves all back together again in purgatory so they could 'move on' into the white light outside the church together.

As Jack's dad also said - the time on the island was the most important time in any of their respective lives, so it's this bond which brings them all back together in purgatory after they have all died when they were supposed to die before/in/after the 2007-set stuff.

So the island stuff wasn't purgatory ... this seemed pretty clear to me to be the case when I watched the finale earlier today.

[Danny]

losts alternate endings:

gmURzuIUPSU

[JDFP]

Wasn't the "flash sideways" portion the only bit actually set in purgatory/the afterlife?

All the island stuff (set in 2007) was actually happening with people being alive - as Jack's dad says in '2004', this purgatory exists independently of whenever each of the characters died. In other words, some died early on (like Boon and his sister) or died just after the whole thing had been resolved (Jack in the bamboo field next to the dog) and others went on to live their lives (those who escaped the island on the plane, and those who stayed behind on the island but survived - indeed Ben said to Hurley 'why don't you change the rules so that people CAN leave the island ... e.g. Desmond).

2007 was reality - they did survive the plane crash and all that crazy shit did happen - and the season 6 'flash sideways' was the only part that was set in the afterlife/purgatory. As has been said online elsewhere, the key players all worked to bring themselves all back together again in purgatory so they could 'move on' into the white light outside the church together.

As Jack's dad also said - the time on the island was the most important time in any of their respective lives, so it's this bond which brings them all back together in purgatory after they have all died when they were supposed to die before/in/after the 2007-set stuff.

So the island stuff wasn't purgatory ... this seemed pretty clear to me to be the case when I watched the finale earlier today.

This makes the most sense of the different theories I've heard, but how do you reconcile this with the last few shots during the end credits of the finale?

During the last few shots we see the crashed wreckage of Oceanic. This coupled with Jack laying in the same spot where the show began and he opened his eye with Vincent running towards him led me to believe that the entire series (up to the crash killing everyone with no survivors except the dog) of the island plus the flash-sideways were all in Purgatory after Jack actually died on the island.

What you're saying makes more sense of things, but I'm just still scratching my head at the wrecked plane showing no survivors and wondering if they didn't all really die in the actual plane crash?

I'd have to argue with you on anything "Lost" ever did as being "pretty clear" though. :p

j.p.

[Danny]

During the last few shots we see the crashed wreckage of Oceanic. This coupled with Jack laying in the same spot where the show began and he opened his eye with Vincent running towards him led me to believe that the entire series (up to the crash killing everyone with no survivors except the dog) of the island plus the flash-sideways were all in Purgatory after Jack actually died on the island.

What you're saying makes more sense of things, but I'm just still scratching my head at the wrecked plane showing no survivors and wondering if they didn't all really die in the actual plane crash?


That was just the typical "going back to where it began shots" i knew we'd see the plane wreckage and jack lying down in the bamboo because they mentioned "remember the bamboo forest from episode 1" about 8 times in 3 hours of airtime.

[DubiousComforts]

Wasn't the "flash sideways" portion the only bit actually set in purgatory/the afterlife?
That is correct. The events on the island actually happened and the characters didn't all die at the same time. Hugo and Ben acknowledge a history together following Jack's death.

The Prisoner, the series upon which LOST is based somewhat, ends exactly same way: the first shot of the first episode is also the last shot of the last episode. They just didn't take six years to get you there.

[Legion2213]

I watched and loved the first season of Lost... I watched and really enjoyed the 2nd series. But when it became apparent they weren't going to explain a damn thing, I stopped watching.

My theory from the first series was that they all died and were in purgatory... guess I was right too, going by what JDFP said.

So you gave up sometime around season three then? Thats what I did, it was obvious that the writers were making it all up as they went along. It must be one of the most overated TV serials ever IMO

[MinionZombie]

So you gave up sometime around season three then? Thats what I did, it was obvious that the writers were making it all up as they went along. It must be one of the most overated TV serials ever IMO
Right when they stopped screwing around, cut the seasons down in length, and had the final three seasons mapped out entirely. The first three seasons had saggy middles, but seasons 4 through 6 have all been tight, always interesting and always going somewhere. Even the odd episode that isn't so hot has always been providing the viewer with background info and propelling it all forward.

[shootemindehead]

Watched 4 episodes of season 1 and thought it was terrible. Also had the ending sussed 6 years ago too.

Anyone who has seen 'Jacob's Ladder' should have got it

I've heard a lot of people are pretty pee'd off with the last episode. I'm not surprised.

[JDFP]

I've heard a lot of people are pretty pee'd off with the last episode. I'm not surprised.

Alot of people would have been pee'd off with the ending regardless of how it would have ended. I think the ending was fantastic, personally, it ended the only logical way (wrapping up the story of the island the survivors) it could have really ended. How else could it have ended without ticking a ton of people off?

Have the survivors switch to the flash-sideways reality after saving the 'light' and causing everything that happened on the island to never really take place? There goes everything that happened the last 6 years.

Yet another time-travel episode in which they are all somehow transported back to before the plane crashed? Again, cancelling out 6 years of everything that has happened.

I think another good ending would be Smokey ending up defeating the Lostites and then escaping the island. This would have certainly made everyone happy. :D

j.p.

[DubiousComforts]

Anyone who has seen 'Jacob's Ladder' should have got it

I've heard a lot of people are pretty pee'd off with the last episode. I'm not surprised.
Right, because LOST has actually has very little to do with Jacob's Ladder, particularly the first season. :p
People are peeved because the "purgatory" angle (which only applies to the flash sideways storyline from the last season) doesn't explain any of the events from the last five years. Since last year, they'd been promoting Season Six as answering "all questions."

[MinionZombie]

Right, because LOST has actually has very little to do with Jacob's Ladder, particularly the first season. :p
People are peeved because the "purgatory" angle (which only applies to the flash sideways storyline from the last season) doesn't explain any of the events from the last five years. Since last year, they'd been promoting Season Six as answering "all questions."
Exactly - the "purgatory" thing only applies to the Season Six 'flash sideways' ... even a critic for the L.A. Times didn't get that. I thought it was pretty damn clear that was the only purgatory bit in the entire Lost mythology - Jack's Dad spells it out pretty damn clear when he's talking to Jack.

So anyone who claims "I knew the end from season one" is actually wrong. :elol:

[shootemindehead]

I remember discussing 'Lost' with a load of "Losties" and the "They're all dead (and in purgatory/hell)" came up.

Personally, I thought that someone had died in the crash and what was happening was what was going on in his/her mind before death kicked in...al la 'Jacob's Ladder'.

So :p

[Kaos]

This makes the most sense of the different theories I've heard, but how do you reconcile this with the last few shots during the end credits of the finale?

During the last few shots we see the crashed wreckage of Oceanic. This coupled with Jack laying in the same spot where the show began and he opened his eye with Vincent running towards him led me to believe that the entire series (up to the crash killing everyone with no survivors except the dog) of the island plus the flash-sideways were all in Purgatory after Jack actually died on the island.

What you're saying makes more sense of things, but I'm just still scratching my head at the wrecked plane showing no survivors and wondering if they didn't all really die in the actual plane crash?

I'd have to argue with you on anything "Lost" ever did as being "pretty clear" though. :p

j.p.

They were not dead from the start. ABC confirmed this. The empty beach were just inserted shots for transition purposes.

http://scifiwire.com/2010/05/abc-clarifies-that-everyone-on-lost-was-not-dead-the-whole-show.php

[MinionZombie]

Yeah but it doesn't work, really, because if that had been the case you'd have seen Jack - in 2004 plane-journey clothing (a suit) - lying dead in the bamboo field. Not 2007 'been through years of crazy shit that seriously actually properly happened as it wasn't purgatory at all' Jack with his jeans and sweaty-ass bloodied t-shirt.

If the 'it was all Jack's purgatory' theory was to be the case, you would have had to see Jack as he was in 2004 moments after the plane crash in that suit of his. We didn't see that, ergo, the season six 'flashes' were the only part which was purgatory - Jack's father says so pretty clearly too.

From Lostpedia:

Christian explains that they are real, Jack's life was real, the people in the church are real. Jack realizes they are all dead because as Christian points out, "Everyone dies sometime kiddo. Some before you son, some long after you." Christian explains they are all here now because "there is no now, here". This is just the place they all made together to find each other, because the most important part of his life was the time spent with these people. It is for them to remember and to let go and to "move on".

[Kaos]

I agree, I did not need ABC to tell me they were not dead all along. I think the strongest points were made within the last show that everything on the island definitely happened. I am glad that ABC did go ahead and state what I thought was obvious. If only to quell unnecessary bickering over a misread ending.

[Danny]

read two things today:

1: abc confirmed that the hots of the wreck are nothing to do with the plot they are, in there own words "to allow the audience to decompress 6 years of television" or some other pr bull for "its filler".

2: if you "pony up" for the box set when it comes out theres a 15 minute epilogue of ben and hurlys lifetime on the island and they have guranteed that will be a spin off in the future but the current people will not be working on it. cant remember why but i think there was some possibly snide comment about "because disney runs abc" or something.


Honestly i could well see then starting lost again in some fashion. The show was all about the fight between jacob and the man in black but that hasnt been the only thing to ever threaten the island since there have been "other jacobs" before and after him. Now darmas gone, the others are gone and the islands essentially swept clean we have a new gameboard with a new protector and right hand man. If they wanted to swing back to sci-fi they could even set it in the future since noone knows how long hurley and ben actually lived. did they live for centuries?, millennia? inevitably someone else will find the island so this aint the last we will hear of it regardless you can mark me on it.

[Rottedfreak]

NBC probably thought the audience would be too dumb to get what was happening and put in the shots of the plane wreck to say "They are all dead and gone to heaven."

[ProfessorChaos]

i only saw about 10 minutes of a single episode of lost and didn't care much for it and frankly don't have the time to catch up on 6 seasons....

however, i saw this the other day and had a good laugh, and figured this would be a good place to share. enjoy, dudes:

uAPKB6-DYOY

[MinionZombie]

I agree, I did not need ABC to tell me they were not dead all along. I think the strongest points were made within the last show that everything on the island definitely happened. I am glad that ABC did go ahead and state what I thought was obvious. If only to quell unnecessary bickering over a misread ending.

ABC had to confirm the ending? :rolleyes:

Well I guess if even professional TV critics can bugger it up (one for the L.A. Times for example) can read it wrong (how on earth they could though, it's pretty damn clear what's what in terms of the purgatory thing), then this is why ABC had to come out and explain the ending ... sheesh.


read two things today:

1: abc confirmed that the hots of the wreck are nothing to do with the plot they are, in there own words "to allow the audience to decompress 6 years of television" or some other pr bull for "its filler".

2: if you "pony up" for the box set when it comes out theres a 15 minute epilogue of ben and hurlys lifetime on the island and they have guranteed that will be a spin off in the future but the current people will not be working on it. cant remember why but i think there was some possibly snide comment about "because disney runs abc" or something.

1) Clearly it was a nice way to end the show, a closing moment, and a little thing that just says 'this is the thing that caused all this crazy shit to happen' - it's the catalyst for the entire show - that's why it was there. A nice little moment ... nothing more.

2) They should leave Lost alone now. It's finished, and it's best left alone now. I think a spin-off show would just be kinda silly.


i saw this the other day and had a good laugh, and figured this would be a good place to share. enjoy, dudes:

uAPKB6-DYOY

lulz were had... :D

[wayzim]

So you gave up sometime around season three then? Thats what I did, it was obvious that the writers were making it all up as they went along. It must be one of the most overated TV serials ever IMO

Which would place it polar opposite with one of the most underated TV shows, this little SF series with a definite 5 yr story arc. The name of the place was Babylon 5.
JMS (J Michael Strazynski )called B-5 his novel for TV, with each season a chapter, constructing an intricate and ultimately satisfying saga of the founding of a new Galactic Alliance. Took a couple seasons to really hit its stride, but when it did - wow.
The finale was one of the best ever on TV.
Oh, and B-5 was really the first show to have extensive internet contact between the producers, some of the stars, and the fan-base.

Wayne Z
"But I still have so many questions. "
"As it should be. "
The final conversation between Capt John Sheridan and the immortal Lorien.
Babyon 5 finale; Sleeping In Light

[Skippy911sc]

So wait...Its the Dogs Dream?? ;)

[AcesandEights]

So you gave up sometime around season three then? Thats what I did, it was obvious that the writers were making it all up as they went along.

That's pretty much when I fled from the series, myself and for similar reasons.

[BillyRay]

So wait...Its the Dogs Dream?? ;)

No, it was an extended dream sequence of Bob Newhart's.

Or the vision of a little autistic boy.

[AcesandEights]

No, it was an extended dream sequence of Bob Newhart's.

Or the vision of a little autistic boy.

I've tried to explain to people who never saw the ending to St. Elsewhere how whacked it truly was and people always just end up staring at me in complete incomprehension.

[Legion2213]

Which would place it polar opposite with one of the most underated TV shows, this little SF series with a definite 5 yr story arc. The name of the place was Babylon 5.
JMS (J Michael Strazynski )called B-5 his novel for TV, with each season a chapter, constructing an intricate and ultimately satisfying saga of the founding of a new Galactic Alliance. Took a couple seasons to really hit its stride, but when it did - wow.
The finale was one of the best ever on TV.
Oh, and B-5 was really the first show to have extensive internet contact between the producers, some of the stars, and the fan-base.


My B5 "Complete Universe" DVD Box Set agrees with you. :)

Legends...
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.tvsquad.com/media/2008/08/babylon-5_080804.jpg

[wayzim]

My B5 "Complete Universe" DVD Box Set agrees with you. :)

Legends...
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.tvsquad.com/media/2008/08/babylon-5_080804.jpg

Always glad to hear from a fellow Fiver.

B5 was the only series I'd successfully taped during it's entire run, despite the schedule changes, frequent preemptions for sports, and the jumps from WB(formerly PTEN ) to UPN and the 5th season on TNT(which rocked because they showed back to back old episodes every night to catch new viewers up. )
I finally got the last season on DVD a few years back.

During its run, I was a heavy fan participant on largely AOL forums.
I didn't realize just how involved JMS and John Copeland were with these groups until several comments I'd made showed up in magazine interviews(uncredited, of course. Thanks guys. :p), including the term 'Stealth Show. ' (meaning a show which flew below the radar of most Entertainment Media, (except for TV Guide. Matt Roush was a huge 5 fan )

Was very happy with the finale, less so with Crusade, especially since it was understood B5 wasn't Trek. I collected the series guides, but only read a few B5 novels ('To Dream in The City of Sorrows. ' and the PsiCorp series. )

And with Lost, who showed up in the cast? Mira Furlan( Delenn) as a gun totting crazy French woman. It meant Life did go on for the actors after Babylon 5 ended.

Man, that was a good show.

Wayne Z

"No Boom today. Boom Tomorrow. There's always a Boom. "
"Hey! Someone has to have some damn perspective around here. "
"One day ... Boom. "
Claudia Christian as Lt Commander Susan Ivanova (the definitive Anti-Chekov Russian(Walter Koenig, who was also Anti Chekov in his wicked cool role as amoral Psi Cop, Alfred Bester )

Ok, I'm done.

[Danny]

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y91/khazrak/2OXLq.gif

[Danny]

Cop a ganders at some new Ben footage from the mini episode "the new man in charge" off the season 6 box set.

W7uzGKl7flE

Honestly, if they continued lost in the same universe with ben and hurley in a new storyline with a new cast i would watch that. No more kate whining, jack crying or swayer....sawying.
It'd give em a chance to tie up things like walt, like i said when it finished the islands basically a clean slate now but theres still things they could do, was walt going to be hurleys replacement? someone had to be.
I just think theres a bit of life left in the islands story even though Jack's story is over y'know?

[Danny]

Just watched this via a dodgy spanish website and goddam those crafty motherfuckers. That was a Prologue, not an epilogue...

So Ben plays the guys who have been packing all the dharma food for 30 years a hydra dvd that explains the bears, the pregnancy, room 23, the hurley bird and a few other things.
Then he picks up Walt from the same mental hospital Hurley was from in the blue vw wagon saying he needs him to help his father, that he is special.
He gets in the van and hurley is in the back seat in jacob attire, but black, not white and he tells walt that he needs to come back to the island, that he was always meant to be there.
It ends with walt agreeing to hurleys 'we got a job for you to do' and it ends with hurley saying "lets go home, weve got work to do"

IF THERE IS NOT A SPIN OFF ABOUT HURLEY SETTING THINGS RIGHT AND TEACHING WALT TO TAKE HIS PLACE I WILL EAT MY TIRLBY HAT.