On Monday morning we set the alarm and woke early to watch the LOST finale live from the USA. I made berry smoothies and marmalade toast and coffee, it was well worth the effort!
When it was over, we weren’t happy. We didn’t understand. It was all very fulfilling on an emotional level; all those lovers reunited in the Sideways world. But what did it mean?
Not since X-Files have I actually had to resort to programme notes to understand a TV show. My instinct is that TV entertainment should be simple enough not to require you to RTFM (read the ahem manual).
But actually why not? Why can’t a mainstream TV show be pitched at a deep enough level that you need to discuss it afterwards?
So I’ve spent some time looking for the best articles about the finale, which might help me to explain what happened, what was going on all along, because really, we weren’t trying hard enough. We had just been watching it an assuming that every t would be crossed and i dotted.
Well, it ain’t!
Last night at dinner I sat down with husband and 17-year old and explained the show/finale based on the various theories I’ve read. 17-year old in particular was delighted and is going to spread the word at her school, where the overall reaction to the finale was negative. Like mine initially. They were all dead? It was all a dream? Dammit, give me back my time!
If you were a keen Lostie who lost it a bit with the finale, maybe like me these articles will help you find your LOST love again.
LOST finale recap: And In The End
Lost Finale Explained Well – allegedly written by a writer who worked on the show
But first here’s a little glossary to Lostie terminology:
- MIB – Man In Black aka the Smoke Monster, Smokey
- FLocke – False Locke aka MIB
- Sideways world – the world that seemed to be ‘created’ when the nuclear bomb went off and the Oceanic flight never crashed.
- Lostaways – the passengers who crashed in the same part of the island as Jack, Sawyer etc.
- Island Magic – anything at all that is a bit weird/magical
- Holy Wormhole – the source of light at the centre of the island.
Just like with X-Files, we’re left with many questions. For example:
- Why is Aaron a baby in the church at the end? We know he was at least three in Real Life. I don’t want to be a baby in the afterlife! Fair enough if you died as a baby but if not…
- Desmond became some kind of super-being immune to EM powers and Island Magic, who didn’t get smoked when he went into the Holy Wormhole, OK. So how come Jack didn’t get smoked?
- How did Jacob manage to leave the island to fetch up all the Candidates?
Not that I have a problem with threads being left untied! The glimpses of backstory that we did see about the island’s long, mysterious past were tantalising; the temple, the statue etc, Mother, only make me enjoy it more.
It’s good to have this to share with the Teenager. I think we’ll be talking about it for a few evenings to come.
So – if you have any answers, theories, etc, let me know!
2 replies on “Anyone else get lost in LOST?”
My theories to your 3 questions:
1) Aaron was in the church because he was the connection that bound Claire and Charlie together in the real world, so his birth in the Sideways world triggered their memories and allowed them to remember and move on;
2)this one I’m not so sure about, but I think Jack didn’t get smoked (like Jacob’s brother did) because Jack went into the HW to do good, but MIB, when he was thrown in, was intent on evil (he just killed his “mother” and wanted to leave the island);
3)Jacob could leave the island because the Protector gets to make up the rules. Remember when Jacob and MIB were kids playing that board game with stones and Jacob asked why a certain move was against the rules and Young MIB said that was the rule and (here I’m paraphrasing) someday Jacob you’ll have a game and can make up your own rules. This goes along with what Ben told Hurley in the finale when Hurley said no on can leave the island; and Ben said that’s the way Jacob did it, maybe there’s another way. I think the island’s Protector can use the magic anyway he/she wants to achieve the goal of protecting the island.
I liked the finale: I’m not religious, but I can appreciate the idea that important connections we make with people while alive will continue after death. I may not believe that, but it’s an interesting theory. Like you, I don’t need all the little threads tied up. The beauty of LOST for me is that it required imagination to watch it and made me think about it long after the episode was over. For example, I enjoy imagining possible scenarios as to how the statue got there and who built it. The fact that I don’t know THE answer (if there is an answer) does not detract in the slightest from my enjoyment of the show. I guess I liked it so much because it’s like my real life: not everything gets resolved or answered and I always get to play “What If?”. Going back and watching old episodes should be that much more interesting now that I know more. I think as time goes by and we mull it over, we’ll all appreciate the show more.
Thank you so much for this Fred.
I think the problem for me is that I assumed it would all make sense without having to think too hard, and you’re right, it didn’t, you had to add some reflection.
Your three answers are interesting – you’re very generous to the writers though, with the idea that the magic can be completely adapted to whatever the island’s protector wants. In the end everything that happens on the island is in fact beyond the realms of possibility and doesn’t even conform to the usual fantasy requirements of well-written magic systems.
Dramatically it can be entertaining but eventually the bottome line answer to the question – why did this happen? is because we needed that to happen for the story to progress.
Clever writers to persuade an audience to forgive that, but for 99% of writers it’s not allowed.
Well 95%.