"Lost" Series Finale "The End" Sunday 9-11:30pm NO SPOILERS UNTIL AIRED

[CoinOperatedBoy]

It's been a long time since I've watched Ronin, but I don't remember ever caring what was in the case. I also didn't care what was in the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, and I didn't care what was in the package in Castaway. The contents weren't important.

With Lost there were a lot of mysteries they added to keep you guessing, and they seemed to be important at the time but they weren't. The pregnancy thing was a major part of the plot for a couple of seasons, and in the end it didn't really matter at all. That's what annoys me. They made me guess and wonder about stuff that didn't matter.

I agree. The buildup and letdown are the problem, not just the lack of explanation.

 

[Homerboy]

For those that didn't like it:

Would you rewatch the show knowing what you know now?

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

For those that didn't like it:

Would you rewatch the show knowing what you know now?

I might be inclined to rewatch the first two or three seasons at some point, but not any time soon.

 

[mugs]

For those that didn't like it:

Would you rewatch the show knowing what you know now?

I wouldn't mind re-watching it and seeing what I missed the first time around, but I just don't think it's worth another ~80 hours of my life.

 

[rockyct]

You mean caps?

YES, I MEANT ALL CAPS SORRY!!!ll!!!

 

[soulcougher73]

For those that didn't like it:

Would you rewatch the show knowing what you know now?

Nope, nor would i ever recommend the show to anyone who hasnt seen it but shows interest. Id try to talk them out of it. Great show let down by a crappy ending. Reminds me of The Matrix in a way. Matrix 1 was like one of the best movies ever (at the time), but Matrix 2 & 3 tainted the trilogy and knocked Matrix 1 down a few notches in doing so.

 

[Kev]

For those that didn't like it:

Would you rewatch the show knowing what you know now?

I do recommend it but give them the caveat not to put too much into the weird stuff you see, and that there is not a scientific explanation for anything.

 

[Via]

For those that didn't like it:

Would you rewatch the show knowing what you know now?

I was going to buy the series eventually to rewatch it in 4 or 5 years, but there's no way I'd do that now.

 

[sandorski]

I was going to buy the series eventually to rewatch it in 4 or 5 years, but there's no way I'd do that now.

Other than some Sitcoms, I have a hard time re-watching TV Series. I have never watched a Lost episode twice and I really have no intention of ever doing so. Despite loving it from Start to Finish.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

I just finished. As for those still left with all those questions (the numbers, the shit that happens on the island, etc), I think it's fairly obvious.

The Island is limbo, purgatory, whatever you want to call it. The Others are the keepers of this place, led by a "Peter-at-the-gates" type of person. The decisions that people make on the island (working together, who they follow) affect whether they go to heaven or hell at the end. There was an obvious "Devil" character, prophets, et al.

All of the bad shit that seems to happen when the characters try to leave the island is fate telling them to let go and just accept what has happened.

This allegory seems pretty obvious, given that people who died come back to life to guide others, there are supernatural gifts granted between characters, and, overall, things happen that seem to be unexplainable without divine intervention.


I fucking hated all the sobby reunion get-together crap at the end, by the way.

 

[Printer Bandit]

The Island is limbo, purgatory, whatever you want to call it.

wrong.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

wrong.

Then what do you think? Viewing the alternate timeline as purgatory seems a little off to me; it seems like that's just their ascension to heaven, while their actions on the island are what really affect them.

Think of the island like the trials in Dante's Purgatorio, and when they finally get to the end, that's when they're in the church.

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

Then what do you think? Viewing the alternate timeline as purgatory seems a little off to me; it seems like that's just their ascension to heaven, while their actions on the island are what really affect them.

Think of the island like the trials in Dante's Purgatorio, and when they finally get to the end, that's when they're in the church.

This has all been covered in detail. The writers flat-out denied that the island was any kind of purgatory, despite the obviousness of the allegory. Some speculate that that's what it was going to be, but viewers figured that out too quickly, so they changed their tune. Don't know if that's true, but it's made clear in the final episode that the entire alternate timeline is the supernatural waiting room, not the island.

 

[Kaido]

For those that didn't like it:

Would you rewatch the show knowing what you know now?

I'd probably watch Seasons 1 & 2 again. Like in Season 1 when they found the hatch, the light turned on, and the show ended - I was on the edge of my seat!

I also liked the character growth - Charlie from drugs, Sayid from a torturer, Sawyer from a con man, Shannon from being useless, etc. etc. I would have liked to have seen that focused character growth carried on throughout the seasons. It was much more spread out after the first few seasons. The show kind of got to the point of reminding me about X-Files...the monster episodes were really good, and then there were the boring aliens episodes - yay, another conspiracy episode where the smoking man tells Mulder nothing. Felt like they were just drawing it out without anything really good to move it forward.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

This has all been covered in detail. The writers flat-out denied that the island was any kind of purgatory, despite the obviousness of the allegory. Some speculate that that's what it was going to be, but viewers figured that out too quickly, so they changed their tune. Don't know if that's true, but it's made clear in the final episode that the entire alternate timeline is the supernatural waiting room, not the island.

Meh, if the writers said that, I suppose that's the case.

I still don't buy it, though - you can't set up all this supernatural crap in a nearly unreachable supernatural place and just change what it is. To me, the island is the trials of Purgatory, while the alternate timeline is what those actions really affect - whether the characters go to heaven or hell. You can look at it from a unified perspective, I suppose. The characters are living in two places at once under different circumstances, but both places are just as real to them.


I still have a lingering question, though: What did Locke mean when he told Jack that he "had no son"? I suppose this could be affirmation that the son in the alternate timeline is just a replacement for crying over the relationship with his father, and therefore the life on the Island is the real one, but still...

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

Meh, if the writers said that, I suppose that's the case.

I still don't buy it, though - you can't set up all this supernatural crap in a nearly unreachable supernatural place and just change what it is. To me, the island is the trials of Purgatory, while the alternate timeline is what those actions really affect - whether the characters go to heaven or hell. You can look at it from a unified perspective, I suppose. The characters are living in two places at once under different circumstances, but both places are just as real to them.


I still have a lingering question, though: What did Locke mean when he told Jack that he "had no son"? I suppose this could be affirmation that the son in the alternate timeline is just a replacement for crying over the relationship with his father, and therefore the life on the Island is the real one, but still...

The alternate timeline did not occur at the same time as the on-island scenes in season 6. Christian explained in that bullshit scene toward the end that time was meaningless there, but the fact that all the characters were dead would tell you that it happened long after the events on the island. The idea that the island is some kind of test isn't ruled out by anything on the show, but the writers have explicitly stated that everything that happened there is "real."

As for Locke's comment, he knew that Jack had no son in reality and was giving him a hint. And yes, it seems the son was just a way for Jack to work out his daddy issues. Kind of bogus. They could have just kept Christian around in the alternate timeline and achieved the same thing.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

The alternate timeline did not occur at the same time as the on-island scenes in season 6. Christian explained in that bullshit scene toward the end that time was meaningless there, but the fact that all the characters were dead would tell you that it happened long after the events on the island. The idea that the island is some kind of test isn't ruled out by anything on the show, but the writers have explicitly stated that everything that happened there is "real."

As for Locke's comment, he knew that Jack had no son in reality and was giving him a hint. And yes, it seems the son was just a way for Jack to work out his daddy issues. Kind of bogus. They could have just kept Christian around in the alternate timeline and achieved the same thing.

I think the meaning that the writers are going for is that "real" is entirely subjective. IMO, the events on the island impacted where the characters went in the afterlife, which is about as real as it gets.

I don't think the events in the alternate timeline happened "long after' the events on the island at all. I think they happened at exactly the same time. Christian's point, again IMO, is that time is meaningless because the events on the island impacted the characters' alternate lives, despite happening on a separate timeline. This makes fate about the morale character of the, well...characters, rather than forces outside their control (such as time).

I like to think that if Jack had failed to kill Locke, or if he had failed to re-ignite the light, then they would have all gone to hell.

I also think that the Smokey/the Monster/MiB is a result of Jacob trying to interfere in the affairs of the island. In turn, he realized his mistake and tried to correct it by only guiding the actions of others, rather than taking direct action. It may not be important, but Sawyer did say at one point that "Jacob doesn't seem to say anything at all," and the others agree with him.

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

I think the meaning that the writers are going for is that "real" is entirely subjective. IMO, the events on the island impacted where the characters went in the afterlife, which is about as real as it gets.

I don't think the events in the alternate timeline happened "long after' the events on the island at all. I think they happened at exactly the same time. Christian's point, again IMO, is that time is meaningless because the events on the island impacted the characters' alternate lives, despite happening on a separate timeline. This makes fate about the morale character of the, well...characters, rather than forces outside their control (such as time).

I like to think that if Jack had failed to kill Locke, or if he had failed to re-ignite the light, then they would have all gone to hell.

I also think that the Smokey/the Monster/MiB is a result of Jacob trying to interfere in the affairs of the island. In turn, he realized his mistake and tried to correct it by only guiding the actions of others, rather than taking direct action. It may not be important, but Sawyer did say at one point that "Jacob doesn't seem to say anything at all," and the others agree with him.

All the characters had to die to get to the place in the "alternate" timeline, which isn't an alternate timeline at all, so the events were clearly not simultaneous. Since we're not shown the fates of the people who survived and escaped the island, we can only say that their deaths happened some indeterminate amount of time later. The events of the island impacted the alt timeline only insofar as the characters had to come to terms with their actions before moving on. The rest is all open to interpretation, so I won't bother commenting.

I just found the whole thing extremely hollow, and the ending played deeply off of religious beliefs I already find goofy enough without being translated into the kind of metaphysical nonsense we saw in this final season. Some may say that the beauty of LOST is that each viewer can make his own interpretation and take what he wants from the show. I don't see a message of any substance coming out of LOST, sadly.

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBbApe8cUdw

 

[rockyct]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBbApe8cUdw

Waaaaaaallllllllllllllllltttt Waaaaaaallllllllllllllllltttt Waaaaaaallllllllllllllllltttt

 

[13Gigatons]

The show sucked after Jughead exploded. It was all downhill from there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rBS0HTIsNY

 

[UpgradeFailure]

The show sucked after Jughead exploded. It was all downhill from there.

Jughead never exploded.

 

[TridenT]

Jughead never exploded.

This.

The device inside jughead went off possibly, but it looks as if it never did and they all just flashforwarded.

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

This.

The device inside jughead went off possibly, but it looks as if it never did and they all just flashforwarded.

What really happened was the writers had a really intense coke binge and forgot the original plot, but it's okay, because viewers will buy anything if you mention time travel and make them think stuff about God and the afterlife and maybe make them cry a little.

 

[UpgradeFailure]

What really happened was the writers had a really intense coke binge and forgot the original plot, but it's okay, because viewers will buy anything if you mention time travel and make them think stuff about God and the afterlife and maybe make them cry a little.

It was never implied that the bomb would shoot them back to the present. It was implied that if "it worked", it would re-write history and they would never crash. The bomb never went off. They were taken back to the present by the island (or Jacob) itself (Just like when Jack/Kate/Hurley were taken off the plane in 2007 and ended up in the 70s)