re: Lost finale

I wrote this after the finale aired:

The way I interpreted the ending of the series was that everything we have witnessed over the course of the series (the island, flashbacks, flash-forwards) was the actual life of the various cast-aways. The sideways world on the other hand was as Christian told Jack, “A place they created so they could all be together” and the light emitting through the church doors I take it was heaven. However, if that were the case, why create a place where Sayid and Kate were in jail, a pregnant Sun is shot in the stomach, and Locke is still in a wheel chair? Christian explains to Jack that there is no past, present, or future (which explained how some characters like Kate and Hurley were allowed to be present inside the church despite still being alive). These thoughts on time were very similar to the novel, The Slaughter House Five. Knowing this, it makes the flashbacks, present timeline, and flash-forwards all the more special.

The church scene is something I interpreted as a place where only good people are allowed into. Many may question why Sayid was allowed in after everything he did but we get a clue to this earlier in the episode when Hurley tells him he is a good person. This explains why Ben was content staying outside of the church. It also explains why people like Michael and Ana Lucia were not seen inside. As Michael said earlier in the season, those who did bad things were not allowed to move on and had to remain on the island for eternity as the whispers. I believe that had they not killed the Smoke Monster and let him finally “go home”, that instead of entering heaven at the church gates, they would all be entering hell instead. To me, the church scene was eerily similar to the Sopranos episode, “Blue Comet”. In it, Tony is dreaming and stays outside of a church where his dead cousin is inviting him in. The audience can hear the voices of Tony’s dead relatives emitting from inside the church. When asked if he will come in, Tony says it isn’t time yet.

As an ending to the series, I could not ask for anything more. I thought the ending to Lost was beautiful, sweet, and touching but I cannot help feel that the producers left out so much information. While the ending was incredibly moving and was able to be both spiritual and philosophical, it merely ended the story. It did not bother with answering the many questions that had been littered throughout the series. Off the top of my head, I can only think of two mysteries that were answered (Why Juliet said “It worked” and why Jack’s neck was bleeding). Despite all of this, it was still a phenomenal way to end the series, I have no complaints there. What I do have a problem with was season 6 as a whole. I just feel that they treaded water with the flash-sideways arc and that it could have been condensed in half the time. The producers may claim that they didn’t have time to answer all of these “minor” questions but they could have if they didn’t drag things out such as taking half the season for someone to finally be enlightened in the sideways universal and limiting the temple scenes. On a side note, in the season 6 premiere, when Flight 815 is experiencing turbulence, Rose tells Jack he can let go now. I think this is the actual moment that Jack died and what transpires in the side-ways world is actually the in-between world between their actual lives and heaven.

Several questions still remained. If this list seems extremely long, it only validates my point. Way too many questions went unresolved. This begs the question of why bother introduce a mystery if you have no interest in concluding it? Now, whenever I watch repeats, I cannot help but pick these errors out which will interfere with my ability to enjoy the story. I get that many of these mysteries were introduced before the series had an end date and they were trying to stretch out the series as long as possible but I cannot help but feel some of the filler in season 6 could have been tossed in place of the following puzzles:

The rules were never explained why Jacob and the Man in Black (who was never given a name, by the way) were not allowed to kill each other. The same can be said for the rules governing Ben and Widmore’s relationship. The mom said if people got to the light, everything as we know it would be over. We saw Jack and Desmond get to it and nothing bad happened. Who was in the cabin and who broke the ash to let them out? We never learn why Sun said “It’s him” when she saw Locke upon arriving to the hospital shortly after being shot. We never were told how Walt was special or how he appeared as “Giant Ghost Walt”. We never were told why mirrors were so prominent in the side-ways world. It was never explained how Jack saw Christian off-island in the hospital in the flash-forward or how Michael saw Christian on the freighter. I assumed this was the Smoke Monster but we were later told he cannot leave the island. We never got the answer to why Libby was in the mental institution in the original timeline. When the castaways were in the outrigger when they flashed threw time, they were being shot at by another outrigger. We never got to see who it was who was shooting them despite a number of instances where this could have been addressed. Instead of Illana dying in a pointless death that we have already seen with Artz, why couldn’t she have been the casualty of Juliet’s bullet on the out-rigger?