TEN YEARS AFTER

As Yahoo UK recently published:

"In the end, it was a Shephard — two of them, actually — who led the lost flock home. Ten years ago this week, the hit ABC series, Lost, brought it’s time-and-reality hopping narrative to a conclusion in the super-sized series finale, appropriately titled “The End.”

The final moments of the final episode feature the show’s hero, Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox), reuniting with his fellow Oceanic Flight 815 castaways in a heavenly dimension as they prepare to move on to whatever realm lies beyond death. “Where are we going?” Jack asks his father, Christian Shephard (John Terry), whose specter had haunted him throughout Lost’s six-season run.

“Let’s go find out,” Papa Shephard replies. At that point, father and son take their place in pews surrounded by the entire cast — even those who died early in the show’s run — and they collectively step into the light.

That may sound final, but “The End” turned out to be just the beginning of the debate over Lost’s place in the pantheon of all-time TV greats. Certainly, the show’s 2004 premiere was a seismic pop culture event, with action that rivalled big-screen blockbusters and ratings to match."

The first takeaway is that LOST was the first epic series that had a complicated mythology and Easter egg fan service to make it the pioneering show for the internet commentary community. Fan sites devoured each episode like an all-you-can-eat buffet.  Fan theories became more complex than the LOST writers best imagination. It was the first interactive television program, some of it in real time chat rooms. Today, some YouTubers live stream commentary during k-dramas, but that pales in comparison to the national media dedicating columnists for weekly recaps.

It was a critical and viewer juggernaut. But as the seasons progressed and the tangential story lines got more convoluted, the show runners hubris took the series down split road to a dead end. The biggest complaint was the land fill sized pile of unanswered questions. When one weaves an elegant story, with mysteries, viewers expected show worthy answers. Rambling into the series finale, Cuse and Lindelof acknowledged there was no way they’d be able to craft an ending that paid off every plot thread and satisfied every viewer.


“We have to have the answers to the mysteries so that there is something to work towards, but what we don't have are the stories,” Lindof said in a 2010 Wired interview.  “J.K. Rowling can sit down and say, ‘Here's how Harry Potter's parents were killed, and here's who killed them,’ but how am I going to reveal that information to the audience in the most emotionally impactful way? So we know what we want to do, but we have very little idea of how and when we're going to do it.”

Second, this confirmed in some people's minds that at a certain point, the writers were making things up on the fly. There was no concrete ending from the beginning. The show drifted on the ocean of fan support. In the end, the show runners confessed they decided to do was to design a finale that emphasized "character over mystery."

 But when you base six years of story on mysteries, many fans thought that was a cop-out. Especially true when the show's producers vehemently denied during the first season that the show was set in purgatory. But the End showed a mixed religious message that main characters had died in the past and the island was some other dimension (further complicated by another universe of the sideways world).

Third, LOST did get into the surreal story writing genre by not only having character flash backs but also "flash sideways," a different  timeline where apparently Jack and the rest of the castaways were back in the real world, albeit leading different lives than what we saw in the flashback sequences that were a major part of previous seasons.

But these did not add a layer of mystery more than one of confusion. A few critics thought this was mere annoying filler episodes. Others thought the writers "stumped" themselves in their original time frame ("painted themselves into a corner") so they tried to "re-boot" the series with another time line.

The evolution of the Man in Black as the personification of dead Locke really did not answer the confinement of Jacob and the Smoke Monster to an island where human beings were used as chess pieces in a sadistic game. But if you look to the religious elements, especially ancient Egyptian culture, one could find a potential answer that the island was the underworld which a soul would have to navigate dangerous tests in order to be judged by the gods in the afterlife.

But the show runners did not want LOST to fall into that realm. They wanted LOST to stand on its own mythology as pure fantasy. They decided that they did not have to answer all the questions or defend their creative choices because enough fans were fully invested (with their own ideas) it did not really matter.

Fourth, there was a sour taste of being hustled by a three card monte boardwalk shark. The End did not tie up loose ends. It made them more tangled as we see Jack "die" on the island while  Hurley and  Ben Linus remain on the island as "new protectors" only to "shut it down" in a hasty DVD epilogue. It did not explain why pilot Frank Lapidus miraculously gets everyone else — including Kate, Sawyer, and Claire off the island. Why were these characters "saved?" What did they do when they returned "home?" How did some find their way to Christian Shephard's church?

In the final scene, Christian opens the church doors to engulf the inside with a bright white light, symbolizing the moment between death and the after life. In the real world, “The End” wasn’t exactly the end that a lot of viewers were waiting for with half the fans found it a comfortable, happy ending while half felt it was a disappointing conclusion in a Hollywood trope way. It did bring to the forefront the debate on whether  the “Flash sideways” universe functioned as a kind of purgatory between life and death — the same theory that was advanced about the island itself when the show first launched. As one commentator put it: “I think the overall lesson is that we're all going to die eventually, so we may as well surround ourselves with as many attractive people as we can.”

Fifth, the LOST legacy may truly be the backtracking by the show runners.  Lindelof heard the criticisms loud and clear, and responded to them in public. “There was a very early perception… that the island was purgatory and we were always out there saying, 'It's not purgatory, this is real, we're not going to Sixth Sense you,’”


But three years later, he said  “Lost was all about mystery and questions and answers and [I wanted] to try to answer a mystery the show hadn't even asked up until that point… A portion of the audience was like, 'Oh, that wasn’t on my list, I'm not interested in that.' But we were.” Even as he stood by “The End,” the online reaction clearly took its toll.

Despite its still-divisive ending, the early success of LOST remains something that TV networks would love to emulate in an increasingly fractured TV landscape. In 2019, ABC hinted that it would not be adverse to rebooting the series.  But do not expect any of the original creative team to return for a potential revival. "I, personally, am not going to be involved with other versions of Lost because we told the most complete version," Lindelof said last year.  "I feel like I spent four years of my life begging them to end it and when they finally said yes, the ending that we did probably should stand as our ending."

LOST was highly entertaining, addictive and mentally stimulating but with all first loves, it had its bad points, questionable choices and nasty arguments.  As a series of intertwined and related episodes, LOST could never handle syndication re-runs because viewers missing episodes would themselves become lost. Syndicated viewers demand self-contained episodes like Star Trek.

It is hard to believe that it has been TEN YEARS since LOST concluded its run. There are very few blogs or sites that still contribute new content to the LOST community. But there are occasional posts of nostalgia about the series. And that is one of the hope's of any television production - - - a nostalgic memory.

TWO LOSTS

There is a position in the LOST universe that says that the fans who hated The Ending never understood it. Or that they were never real fans of the show. Or they expected too many answers to the questions posed in the story lines.

In order to justify this viewpoint, it is said that the final season of LOST was its own universe, its own independent story - - - its own self-contained bubble. It's features and attributes do not reflect what was happening in the island world. In other words, the fact that the characters in the sideways world were dead did not mean that the characters were dead all along. But that in itself is only a supposition.

Except, there were connections between the two worlds. In the sideways world, it was a character's "awakening" that flooded back island memories to re-bond with lost friends and lovers.

But if you do want to separate LOST into two distinct, independent stories, here is what you get:

THE ISLAND world would apparently have ended with Juliet detonating the bomb, killing everyone on the island. Or, as the science would tell, you can't detonate an atomic bomb with a rock (there needs to be a complex chain reaction explosion to detonate a nuclear device), so the bomb did not work. That would mean the island characters were still "alive" and battling among themselves in the Jacob-MIB feud.

THE SIDEWAYS world would be totally different. For example, none of the characters were ever in a plane crash or lived on the island. They were normal people with normal problems. Ben was a school teacher taking care of his disabled father. Locke was a disabled substitute teacher who was happily married to Helen. Jack was divorced but from Juliet. He had a son. Hurley was a successful businessman after winning the lottery; a confident community leader. Sun and Jin had made it to the US. She was expecting their child.

Now, complete separation of the characters time lines has to be part of any independent universe view. In the linear story telling of the show, the sideways events happened AFTER the island events. And that creates a clear paradox. The children were born in the prior island time, but were not born in the sideways world until the end. And the End was a place of death so how can children be born in the sideways world? Again, the theory that the sideways is self-contained means it is not fair to ask that broad question.

Then you have to look at LOST as two franchises. The island and first 5 seasons were the original. The sideways episodes were the "re-boot" of the franchise (as JJ Abrams did with Star Trek). But that seems too confusing and inconsistent with what the show writers were telling fans at the end of Season 5.

One could divide the worlds into one where the gritty danger of real life engulfs a person with one where a person's dreams and imagination of a perfect life controls. If you take the sideways world as the collective dreams of the island characters, folding it like whipped cream into a cake batter, then you would discount Season 6 as mainly unimportant filler.

If, as some fans thought at the time, the sideways world was truly a glimpse of the characters if Flight 815 did not crash, then that would be fine . . . . until the point when the writers merged the fantasy with the island "awakenings" and the poor choices to conclude the series, such as Sayid embracing his alleged soul mate, Shannon, instead of Nadia. In fact, the whole structure of Season 6 was premised upon Eloise trying to keep Desmond and Penny a part in the sideways world - - - because she knew it would open a Pandora's box of memories to the characters which would cause her son, Daniel, to remember how cruel she was to him.

The two LOSTs explanation is one way of looking at the series. Two distinct character studies of the cast members. But that is a dry, academic explanation. And really unnecessary. If you wanted to show the good and moral side of a character, such as Ben, you could have made those changes in the island world story. You could have had the characters leave the island and try to adapt to LA instead of creating a conflicting, parallel universe.

LOST was one show and one series. It has to be accepted as being one, complete, and coherent story. The last part is what continues to cause fans the most problems. The blanket explanation that the show was only about the characters and their actions and reactions to events is shotgun logic. It does not explain the important mysteries the writers gave us to solve. It does not give closure. It just keeps fans debating the merits of the ending.

FINALE STILL CAUSING PROBLEMS

Engadget reports that the LOST finale got its added 18 minutes demanded by the showrunners when it first aired got . . . . lost in transmission.

Any fan rewatching LOST on Netflix got bent out of shape once again because Netflix ran a version missing 18 minutes of the original finale.  

That got the attention of creator Damon Lindelof, who told EW, "love it or hate it, the finale that aired is the definitive finale and to alter it in any way defies explanation." 

However, he quickly added that it was likely a simple error, and recalled that ABC-TV had created a cut-down version for syndication.

HOW LOST IS PERCEIVED TODAY

In the top of some search news pages, there is usually generalized questions and "answers."

Recently, during a scroll down the page the headline "7 Worst TV Show Endings of All Time."

Of course it was click bait, but the first item on the slide show was LOST:

The Answer stated:

After six seasons of intricate plot build-up and a never-ending series of loose ends and questions about the true nature of the island and its inhabitants, the writers revealed they had written themselves into somewhat of a corner.

Instead of answering the audience's questions, the two hour finale "The End" ended up smoothing over most of the show's most important and unresolved problems by explaining that they all were in purgatory, though if they had really been there the whole time, no one knew.

Ask a "Lost" fan about the finale and you're sure to summon rage and frustration years later.

LOST, ESQ.

Esquire magazine had a recent interview with the LOST showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.  In the interview, TPTB made several interesting statements and admissions about their series:

Point One:  TPTB wanted to make sure there was no ambiguity as to whether we were finished. We'll call the final episode "The End," we'll kill every major character off — and then not only kill them off but show what happens to them after they're dead. That's as far as you can go!
We thought about reincarnation but that was just a step too far.


Point Two: The TPTB thought early on that the story couldn't be told chronologically. We understood that one of the challenges of the show was going to be that we had to slow things down. There was a natural inertia of the show for them to get off the island or for them to begin resolving some of the mysteries on the island. The flashback, on a narrative level, became a way of slowing down the storyline but also starting multiple stories in multiple places in time. We wanted it to allow us the largest canvas possible so when you step back from the show and look at the overall image, there were interesting things happening anywhere in the image. So when one place was running low on story you could go start work on another area until you suddenly realized how it connected again. 

Point Three: In the middle of season three, TPTB alleged asked ABC to end the show --- three years out - - - the idea that the narrative device was going to flip out of flashbacks and into flash forwards. Once we did that we assumed people would stop asking us if we were making it up as we went along because you have to move forward on the trajectory you've set up.  Once we had the end date it really allowed us to plan out what it was that we were going to do for the remaining three years of the show.


Point Four: TPTB were aware that someone re-edited the entire series into chronological order. Lindelof said he wished he had the time to watch that and I love it when fans reshape the story to fit their own specifications. But for TPTB, so much time and energy went into designing these episodes. So the idea that someone unwound all that stuff just to tell the show in chronological order makes it the least interesting version of Lost. 


Point Five: TPTB admitted that they trapped themselves into  corners while writing the show.
"A lot of times we intentionally painted ourselves into corners. As Damon used to say, "Well, then we'll just walk up the wall." That was a fun part of the storytelling — to create challenges for ourselves."

Point Six: There were regrets in their stories.  The only place we ever got stuck was when we did things we regretted doing, not that they were narrative cul-de-sacs but like Nikki and Paulo. That was an example of a story idea where once we'd initiated it we regretted having done it. Or, on a smaller scale, when we told the story of Jack flashing back to Thailand and how he got his tattoos, we really regretted that we had decided that was a worthy flashback story. That story became really instrumental in convincing ABC that we needed to end the show. We were like, "Okay, this is what flashbacks look like now so it's probably a good idea if we figure out how much longer this show is actually going to go." 


Point Six and One-Half: The worst episode of Lost was  the episode where Jack gets his tattoos in Thailand.Even the TPTB think it's cringe-worthy, where he's flying the kite on the beach. It was not our finest hour. We used Matthew Fox's real tattoos. That's how desperate we were for flashback stories.

Point Seven:  TPTB knew early on how committed the fans were to the show. The show took on that of a cult life. Which is very rare because usually what defines a cult show is that there are not a lot of people watching it or it's on the verge of cancellation so people are rallying around it. But Lost had this huge viewership and it also had this cult fanbase. One thing we never predicted was that as the show was launching there was also the advent of social media. We were making a show that was intentionally ambiguous and was a mystery. All of a sudden there was this vehicle by which people could communicate with each other over the Internet. The show and social media just happened to come along at the same time, and it was the perfect thing for people to talk about over social media. We benefitted from this natural confluence of events. It was just sort of alchemy. 

Point Eight: TPTB's favorite  Lost fan theory? Cuse said there was a theory that it was all taking place in the dog's head. Lindelof remarked that one of the most popular theories during the first season was that they were in purgatory — that they had all died on the plane. That was not our favorite theory because it feels like we were saying it in season one, we were saying it in season two, and we're saying it three years after the show ended that it wasn't that. Cuse said " It's okay, nobody believes us." Another popular theory was that the island itself was some sort of crashed spaceship and the hatch only fed into that thinking. The idea was when they blast this thing open and go down they're going to be inside of some UFO and then the island is just going to lift off out of the water and blast into space for season two. There was a part of me (Lindelof) that was always like, "It would be so great if we actually did that!" 

Point Nine:  Lost posed a lot of really big questions relating to ideas like good versus evil, science versus faith, and life after death. Did TPTB think it successfully answered any of them? 

"I think those are ultimately non-answerable questions and I think we tried to always be ambitious in our storytelling. We decided the worst thing we could do would be to play it safe. The show had become successful because we had made bold storytelling decisions and we had to continue to make them. We knew that some of these decisions would lead to a polarization among the fans. When you tackle unanswerable questions like "What is the nature of existence? What happens after you die? What is the meaning of our lives?" there are not empirical answers, but we tried to show how our characters were wrestling with those questions," Cuse said.

"When you talk about something like faith and science on a meta level, it doesn't matter what the show said. When the show ends there are still all these questions that are going to exist. Is there always a scientific explanation for everything in the natural world? Is there a God? The show isn't going to be able to answer that. But we were pretty clear and explicit in our storytelling as the show went on that we were committed to what would be defined as supernatural explanations for things versus natural explanations," Lindelof said.

Point Ten: The literary references, images of classic books on the show and music used on the shows had nothing to do with understanding Lost. Even if fans would digest all that literature or music,  it might give you some answers to your life. But it would not give you the answers to Lost. 

Point Eleven: TPTB's favorite episode was "The Constant."

THE SHOWRUNNERS TIMES

Damon Lindelof was interviewed recently by the New York Times. He still seems bitter about the reaction to the end of LOST. Lindelof still not quite over what happened with the community reactions after the final episode of LOST.

LOST was both a critical and a popular hit when it debuted in 2004. He does not mention in the article that immediate reaction could have led to the series downfall. But the popularity show with a vibrant fan community using the web to interact after each show created an internal pressure to enhance the show with the clues, red herrings, misdirection, blind alleys and smoke monsters. Six seasons later, when the much-anticipated, much-podcasted, much-blogged-about final episode finally arrived, Lindelof and his fellow show runner, Carlton Cuse, felt they had brought the series to a satisfying close. 

They believed that the show’s main character, Jack, dies while saving the world, and there was a well of light, and also the afterlife.  However, a great deal of the fan base did not agree. For once, the ensemble cast was stronger than one main character. Second, Jack dies while "saving the world," but there was no explanation of what danger the world was in - - -  or why Jack had to die in the first place. The "well of light" was a misconstructed concept which was not integrated into either the original story line or explained in any rational science fiction basis as being the key to understanding the series. The Jacob-MIB story arc did little to rationalize why Flight 815 crashed on the island and how the characters could save the world from immortal monsters. And we don't know who or what made up the monsters. Finally, the Season 6 sideways "afterlife" was a lightning rod to certain fans to scream that the producers lied to them in early interviews that the series was not about purgatory or the afterlife.

The show’s most vocal fan contingent was not pleased. After the finale, they took to Twitter, where Lindelof was an active and lively presence, to tell him how he ruined their favorite show and wasted six years of their lives. Critics similarly decimated Lindelof and Cuse; one declared that “Lost” “ended in the worst way possible.” George R. R. Martin, author of the “Game of Thrones” novels and a co-executive producer on their HBO adaptation, summed up the magnitude of the disappointment when he told The New Yorker his biggest fear in ending his own series: “What if I do a ‘Lost’?”

Lindelof was devastated. He’s a zealous consumer of culture writing, and those critics who blasted “Lost” were ones he otherwise respected and agreed with. He tried not to care, to remember that he loved the ending and maybe that’s all that should matter. “But it’s like no, that’s not all that should matter,” he says. “I didn’t make the [finale] up in my head and sit in my room and basically weep and applaud myself for having designed this great TV show in my brain. I put it out on the airwaves for millions and millions of people to watch, with the intention of having all of them love it, and understand it, and get it.”

There were a lot of fans who liked the ending. But four years later, the negative reaction to the ending still haunts Lindelof. Until last year, his Twitter bio read: “I’m one of the idiots behind ‘Lost.’ And no, I don’t understand it, either.” There, he welcomed his detractors, retweeting their most virulent insults.

If the showrunners ended the show the way they truly wanted to, then that is fine. It was their show. But fans expected more from them. The promises that everyone would have an explanation and that the story tangents would be wrapped up in a mind-blowing explanation never came. Instead, the weak explanation was that some mysteries should remain mysteries (or the fans can make up their own conclusions).  As I have written in the past, a writer has certain obligations to his or her readers. One of them is not to write a grand, twisting mystery story then forget to publish the final chapter. And that is the gnawing cancer of the series: the lack of a visionary ending.

The End could have been so much better.  

I think much of the negative reaction of the ending could have been cooled off if the writers-producers went out on a limb and fully explained their series premise and foundation plot points. 

I think more fans would have understood and accepted the afterlife season if the producers told them by the end that everyone died in the crash, but their "lost" souls continued on in a human form on a magical island to stop the disastrous conversion of the real world and a spiritual realm.

I think fans would have also understood and accepted the premise that the 815 survivors were still alive, but living and trapped  in a different dimension in time-space or spirit world. The reason no one could escape the island is that no one could return to the human world. If the fans saw the main characters come to some enlightenment to such a predicament, then we can see a road to the conclusion that the only way to escape this trap was to die and go to sideways heaven.

But by not writing a complete ending of the series, Lindelof and Cruse opened themselves up to the type of criticism they got from the fan community. Some believe they painted themselves into a corner by throwing out major plot twists and new questions just for the sake of keeping fans engaged in the series. But even those twists became unruly and confusing, such as the time travel story line. 

Then the die hard fan base saw the detail in the set designs, especially the Egyptian hieroglyphs, the lighthouse dials, and the various science station experiments, and wondered how all this fit together as the explanation for the events happening in the series. Why did the producers put in such detail but not use it to make a clear and final statement of LOST was truly about.

They did say that the ending was to take their "character driven" story into a final "spiritual conclusion." However, there was little morality or redemption in the final season. Characters were turned into Star Trek red shirts. Evil people like Ben got to the same afterlife nirvana as a good character like Hurley. There was no judgment, no punishment, no moral trials. There was no life lesson being taught in the sideways arc.


All art is opinion based; and each object of art is judged by individuals based upon their experiences and personal tastes. Because LOST left a bitter taste in both the minds of the producers and a large portion of the fan base, that means there was a huge opportunity lost with this series.

ONE OF THE WORST

Around New Year, there are the traditional "Top" lists that publishers, writers and bloggers spit out as filler content in the dead of winter.  One such Top list was "The 7 Worst Television Finales in History" post. LOST was on the list.  Without commentary, this is the summary from the article:

At this point, "Lost" is synonymous with unsatisfying series finales. After six seasons of intricate plot build-up and a never-ending series of loose ends and questions about the true nature of the island and its inhabitants, the writers released they had written themselves into somewhat of a corner.

Instead of answering the audience's questions, the two hour finale "The End" ended up smoothing over most of the show's most important and unresolved problems by explaining that they all were in purgatory, though if they had really been there the whole time, no one knew.

Ask a "Lost" fan about the finale and you're sure to summon rage and frustration years later.

BIGGEST WINNER

If one looks back at the series, who was the character that got the most he or she wanted - - - who came out most ahead in the series?

I initially thought of Eloise Hawking, who in the context of the conclusion of the sideways story arc, got what she wanted: her son, Daniel, would not "awaken" and leave her to join the others in the after life church. It would seem that all of the elaborate trials, hurdles, manipulations and events on the island were orchestrated by Eloise in order to keep the 815 survivors from taking Daniel away from her. Eloise was the one who seemed to know everything about everyone and how this universe operated.

But Eloise's motivations may have been an elaborate singularity. The character who achieve more personal goals was Ben Linus.

Ben accomplished much in his island life:

1. He killed his abusive father.
2. He purged an entire community of Dharma workers.
3. He banished his leadership rival, Widmore.
4. He took absolute control over the Others.
5. He kidnapped Alex and made her his "daughter."
6. He needed a spinal surgeon and one fell out of the sky.
7. He loved manipulating people and events to gain more power.
8. He had people fear his commands.
9. He developed a cult of followers.
10. He also "survived" a fatal chest wound when he was a boy; to be reincarnated at the temple.
11. He had the power to control time.
12. He had the power to summon a violent smoke monster.
13. He got revenge on Widmore for killing Alex.
14. He got revenge on Jacob for not believing in him.
15. He got his life spared by the mercy of one of Jacob's followers.
16. He got a new purpose from Hurley.

Despite all the evil bloodshed Ben contributed to the island events, he would wind up in the after life a humble high school teacher who had concern for his students. He would have a different relationship with his father. He would seek out a relationship with a past bitter enemy, Danielle Rousseau. He got the personal option NOT to move on with Hurley, in order to proceed to with his plan to create A Wonderful Life for himself in the sideways world. How Danielle or Alex would ever forgive Ben for his sins once they awakened their memories is unknown. Like Eloise, if Ben could keep those memories suppressed, he would achieve is ultimate goal of having a real family life with the Rousseaus.

In a bizarre twist, Ben actually came out well ahead of any of the main characters in the end. He really got everything he ever wanted without any truly bad consequences. Ben's fantasy life was lived and coming true in the after life.

STAIRWAY

Try to imagine what it took to get to The End.

Then try to figure out why it took that path.

Trying to work backwards from memory of the key deaths that allowed the main characters to move forward, I found an analogy to the Stairway to Heaven.

It seems that each step needed a death, a sacrifice, a closure.

We don't know why some 815 passengers died while others survived the crash. We don't know why the Tail Section survivors were killed off to leave just Bernard alive. We don't know why Daniel was killed off by the time skip nose bleeds (considering he was never on the island before and had a "constant" in his own theory). It did not stop the time quirks on the island. We don't know why Charlie killed himself (he had an opportunity to open the station door and leave with Desmond). We don't know if Juliet accomplished anything tangible when she died after she was recovered from the site debris. Ben got his revenge by killing Widmore, but that did not stop or appease MIB. Sayid took the submarine bomb down the hallway (and created a more dangerous situation by not closing any blast doors to minimize the impact of the blast). Sun's entrapment was improbable and staged, as was their farewell which did not take into account their child on the mainland. We don't know if immortals like Jacob or shape shifting smoke monsters like MIB can ever really "die."  But it seems all those deadly steps led to Jack collapsing in the bamboo thicket to die. The place where his island adventure began ended in the same place.

Now, a few people could conclude that Jack never left the bamboo thicket. He was thrown to the ground and laid there, semi-conscious from his injuries. He could have imagined the entire series in his head. Jack, the hero, in his own mind, "fixes" things in a plane load of broken people. It seems more plausible than the apparent random death steps to get the souls to the sideways church.

FORMULAS FOR LIFE

A mathematical formula for happiness:Reality divided by Expectations. There were two ways to be happy: improve your reality or lower your expectations. — Jodi Picoult

H (happiness) equals R (reality) divided by E( expectations).

H = R/E

The same formula could be applied to The Ending of Lost.
Depending on how "high" your expectations were, the reality (the finale) would drastically reduce your happiness toward the series. If you had no expectations, then you had no feelings about the end.

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest value, then if you had expectations of 10, the ending only was a 1 in your estimation, then you happiness value would be 0.1 (0.1 = 1/10)

If you had high expectations and the show's ending was "perfect," then you would have a happiness value of 1.0 (1= 10/10).

Then if you put your number on a grading scale, like in school (multiply by 100), a happiness score of:

90 + would be an "A" or excellent;
80 + would be a "B" or good;
70+ would be a "C" or average;
60 + would be a "D" or below average; and
below 60 would be an "F" for failure.

But this life formula can be viewed in other ways.

For example, it could be modified to be restated as:

H x E = R

Does Happiness times Expectations equal Reality?

H x R = E

Does Happiness times Reality equal Expectations?

For example, if you were a diehard LOST fan, depending on "happy" you were about how Season 6 was progressing or not processing, then you could have high feelings and high expectations (10 x 10) or 100 = Reality.  I don't think even TPTB were ever at that orbit.

If you had high expectations (10), did the reality of the ending meet your happiness level to match your high expectations? It would take a 5 x 2 to equal 10, but that would it still would be a failure. A 10 and a 1 would infer some sort of brain aneurysm. 

Maybe a better way of looking at this is:

L = R /(H x E)

LOST equals Reality divided by the sum of Happiness times Expectations.

BEAUTIFUL PARADOX

This came from a review of a bad, character story line heavy video game:

• Disjointed story that barely holds together through time-jumping structure
• No sense of agency or ability to meaningfully change the story
• A parade of overwrought, clichéd plot points straight out of high school creative writing class
• An utter lack of tension or anything resembling real drama
• Characters that can't hold together coherent motivations
• Insultingly easy quick time events
• Game play mostly boils down to "find the dot to continue the story"

 I immediately thought of LOST, especially in the last season.

For those whimsical souls who thought LOST was a roller coaster and they were going along for the ride, the 180 degree out-of-no-where turn to the spiritual conclusion was fine with them. They were content with The Ending.

Even though the basic questions to that plot twist were never explained:
Who was chosen and who was not?
What was the island if the sideways was purgatory?
When did the sideways world get created when no one knew each other before the crash?
Where was the island? (the first character question posed in the pilot episode)
Why were so many family members and friends left out of the final church scene?
How could one forget the "most important" part of your life while at the same time create a new sideways world?

It is unacceptable and contrary to believe the show's final story arcs were all targeted to the spiritual world from the very beginning. In the final season, we had so many new side stories like Jacob, MIB, Alpert, which seemed like more filler than story movement. Then we had the main characters criss crossing the jungle which seemed like more filler. I recall barking at the screen once "do something!" when the characters sat around a fire waiting for Flocke to return. There was no sense of urgency on anyone part to do anything to escape MIB, Widmore or the island. No one was motivated; they were all spectators which was opposite of their gung-ho, mission approach to survival in the first five seasons. There was little tension, little drama, and events fell off the board like old post-it notes (for example, Desmond in the well was a meaningless asterisk.) The characters kept bouncing back and forth, jungle to beach, to small island, to beach, to small island . . .  wandering aimlessly through the final plot.

On the other hand, there was a surreal beauty in the smiling faces in the church. Everyone seemed happy, relieved, and content. The quiet calmness was in stark contrast to nonstop twists, turns, dangers and anxiety of the first five seasons. In the church, they were all finally safe. Serenity is the goal for any lost soul.

But for the core group to have created the complex sideways world, which contained a fully populated world of people the churchgoers never met, is a troubling disconnect from Christian's speech to Jack. The further inconsistency is that Ben could be awakened but choose not to move on. One of the baddest characters in the series still retains the power to set his own selfish course? How did he earn that right or privilege?

It meant that the sideways world would continue on, even though it was allegedly created by the core group so they could gather and move on together in the after life. It is just as likely when put into that perspective that Christian's statement on the sideways world was totally wrong. Was it truly "real," or was it another smoke monster illusion?

We may never know except that the series was filled with inconsistencies and paradoxes that erased any clear path to a final resolution of the main story lines of the series.

THE GREAT THING

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe. — Anatole France

What was the great event, the great accomplishment, that made the end the LOST saga worth while?

In Season 6, the only conclusion presented was the fact that Jacob and his followers defeated the MIB who sought to leave the Island. No one viewing the pilot episode could have imagined that would be the key climatic event that would end the series. For those who believe that the series went back to the beginning to focus in on the main characters to finish their journey, the Jacob-MIB tangent doe nothing to resolve the deep emotional scars, fears, phobias and anti-social behavior deep within the main characters back stories.

To accomplish a "great" thing, one needs:
1. Action
2. A dream
3. A plan
4. A belief.

How does Jack's apparent victory over Flocke meet those requirements?

Jack fought MIB but he had no plan. Jack was a non-believer in faith, fate or spiritual aspects of life. He led his life in reality, in science, through the lens of a highly trained spinal surgeon. He had no use for politics, cliches, focus groups or public relations.

There are several key unanswered or poorly explained elements to the end.

Jacob is immortal. He has lived on the island for a thousand years. He can grant the gift of immortality. MIB calls him the devil. So how can a mere mortal like Ben kill him? And once he is "killed," he still wanders around the island interacting to various people, including the remaining candidates. 

MIB as the smoke monster is also apparently immortal. The smoke monster is depicted on ancient hieroglyphs in the Temple. It is termed a Cerberus, a security system, and pure evil. It can transform its shape to take the appearance of dead people like Locke, with all his faults and memories.

One must make several long assumptions to try to figure out how an immortal being becomes mortal.
The alleged dislodged frozen donkey wheel made the island time skip. It's core life force was in jeopardy. As a result, Jacob could be killed but not at the hands of his "brother," in the form of MIB, but at the hands of a human. The problem with this logic is that Jacob's brother died so the reincarnated smoke monster image of his brother was not bound by Crazy's Mother's rule that Jacob and his brother could not harm each other. Jacob broke that rule already. For that sin, he was left to a lonely existence.

To somehow make MIB into a mortal Flocke, Desmond and Jack had to "reset" the stone cap in the light cave, a place where intense electromagnetic energy would tear a human a part. Now, Desmond allegedly survived the Hatch explosion-implosion to become an electromagneto superhero. But Jack only took a job title of guardian without any special transformation. Again, there are no rules that grant such powers. The "reboot" of the Light Cave source somehow "trapped" MIB in Flocke's body (not Locke's actual human body because those remains were buried; MIB transformed matter to create Flocke). If one can transform matter, why would putting a stone back on a light source change or eliminate that power?

Even if one goes backward from Season 6, this Jacob-brother dynamic goes past the plane crash to the early beginnings of the island itself, even before Jacob and his brother as children came to this place.

This place, the island, is also a debatable unknown. It seems real, with plants, animals, people, machinery, temples, beaches, food, water and human beings. But even vivid dreams can seem absolutely real to the dreamer.

One aspect of the Jacob-MIB relationship was the fact that young Jacob appeared before Flocke during the final back and forth with Widmore's men. Young or ghost Jacob had appeared before in the series, usually warning someone that they could not kill. This young ghost Jacob also appeared at the same time as ghost grown-up Jacob after Ben killed him in the statue. It is odd that dead Jacob would appear at two different ages around the same climatic time.

Or is it?

We have viewed the series through the eyes of adults. We used our personal experience, knowledge, education, research and common sense to try to figure out the island happenings and events. Some of us were disturbed by how TPTB handled and mistreated (or misused) children during the series. But that may be the point. The series would be different if it was viewed through the eyes of a child.

It now occurs to me that the end was an end as the beginning was just that, a new start. The ghost spirits of young Jacob and his young brother never grew up. They stayed children harbored away in a spiritual place we saw as an island. When MIB tells Jacob it is he who "brings" people to the island, it is a metaphor for the imagination of Jacob to create his own "stories" and "adventures" with his mind. The lighthouse is merely a window to the world of the living, just like a television set to a shut-in. There Jacob can spy on actual humans to get a blueprint for how people act, react and behave. There is no moral judgment just observation. That is why there is no moral tone or lesson in LOST. As a lonely unsupervised child spirit, Jacob would have no cause to know the difference between right and wrong.

So a child spirit begins a new adventure story to play against MIB, or his imagined brother. He "brings" people to the island by creating characters and placing them in a situation where they come to the island. Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sawyer, Claire , Charlie, Desmond . . .  they are all figments of Jacob's imagination. The interactive game of characters is just like MIB creates forms out of its matter; Jacob can do the same as he shifted from various states. We have the island more as a holodeck than a real place. We have programmed characters running through story lines created by a child. This is not black or white. It is not a game. It is an adventure like cowboys and Indians, capture the flag, or combat. Children at play. Jacob and his brother at play.

The concept that the entire LOST story is the telling of a tale made up by a child is probably the closest thing we can get to a unified theory. Nothing matters because nothing was real. The characters happy ending was a child's creation for his favorite action figures. They never died because they never lived on the island. It explains why certain family members of the characters who had strong bonds with them were not in the church. It also shows the imprint of loneliness that Jacob had in himself. It is probably Jacob's personality that keeps his brother from leaving the island playground because Jacob does not want to move on. As a child, who did not have a sibling or friend whine that he did not want to play the current game anymore. Kids get bored and want to move on to do something else. Some kids do not, and want to continue playing with or without their friends. In his fantasy world, he is the king and creator. He is the master of his universe. What ever he can imagine, he can make. He lives in the land of illusion with endless adventure stories that he can capture and rerun. 

The great thing Jacob accomplished was to create his own self-sustaining fantasy world.
To accomplish a "great" thing, Jacob needed a plan (the lighthouse to see into the human world to gather observations about people), a belief (that putting various people together in his fantasy world could create vast amounts of entertaining situations and events), action (in the devious plot twists he would throw at his characters) all within the confines of his own child-like dreams.

THE ENDING

Michael Emerson, who played Ben, earlier this year gave an interview about his time on LOST.

When asked about the ending, he said he understood what the writers and producers were doing with the story. He said that by the end, the series have various tangent story lines going out from the beginning, in both time and space. He agreed with the decision to go back to the beginning in order to end the series. He said the TPTB decided to go with a spiritual end.

Many fans would agree with Emerson that the spiritual ending was a fine way to end the series.

But the main complaint of the spiritual ending as it was presented to us was that it did not explain the previous five long seasons of events and mysteries.

LOST exploded on the television scene. It took critics and fans by storm. Like a real explosion, TPTB had to top themselves on a weekly basis by throwing more drama and mysteries at the public. They did so by spoon feeding parts of back stories, adding crazy mysteries like polar bears in the tropics, and power struggles among various island factions. That would have been well and good but for the added madness of time travel, frozen donkey wheels, island disappearing, ancient civilization hieroglyphs and the Numbers of the Hatch. You can't just throw out a dozen new story arcs with crazy attributes and not answer them - - - how they are connected to the main story line.

The main story line itself was lost by the third season. The idea of rescue became a non-focal point. Even the idea of survival from rival tribes seemed to be secondary to the weird science fiction elements that have been thrust before our viewing eyes.

For a show that landed its ending on a spiritual note, there was very little spiritualism in the series. There were some religion icons in the background, but there was no moral center to the series. There was no real punishment for those who did heinous crimes. There were little debate between right and wrong. In fact, just listing the attributes and events of each character would create a long rap sheet for most of them. More than a few of them would have been institutionalized as criminally insane, including Ben.

So the series created a massive among of diverging story mysteries that were analyzed by fans for clues and meaning, but abandoned all those allegedly important stories for a spiritual reunion in the sideways realm. There is a huge gap in logic on why the characters in the church met back up in the after life when in fact most of them had stronger bonds with other people, especially their family members. The spiritual ending did not answer any of the real questions that were posed by TPTB and that drove the rabid attention of fans.

Once TPTB exploded the series into fragments of diverse story lines, scientific principles, strange occurrences, they had no means to reconstruct the early story. In other words, they broke the ceramic plate and they could not put the pieces back together. And this is why the ending still hits a raw nerve with many fans.

They feel that LOST was a great show with a bad ending. Even the most forgiving fans say that LOST was a great show with a satisfying ending. But a great show should have a great ending. When led down the path with great expectations, the show should have delivered a mind blowing conclusion and not another story U-turn.

JACK'S BACK

In our continuing discussion of the sideways world actually coming first in real after life time to that of the island world, how does this affect the central character of Jack?

In the sideways after life, Jack is still a brilliant surgeon who wants to fix every patient, including those who need "a miracle." Jack is divorced from a fellow doctor, Juliet. He lives with teenage but estranged son, David. It seems like the typical suburban LA family life.

He still has relationship issues to work out. He has problems with his father. He has mirrored those issues with his own son, David, by having his professional duties take precedence over family matters.

When Jack landed on the island, what issues did he have to work out? We must down play his alleged lack of leadership (to make the life and death decisions) because as a trauma surgeon, he led his teams through those decisions on a daily basis. The main focus of his attention beyond mere survival was finding a final connection with his dad because Ghost Christian haunted him. One could think that the island's series of tests was to put Jack into Christian's shoes, but that really is not the case.

In the island world, Jack has similar but more serious problems. Yes, he is divorced from Sarah but he has no children. She has quickly moved on to a new husband to start her family. Jack is angry about being alone and depressed; he turns to alcohol and drugs which ruins his professional standing and draws him close to suicide. Clearly, Jack is worst off in the island world than in the sideways world.

Are the island demons Jack's subconscious feelings that need to be conquered and tamed? They seem fairly tamed in the sideways world so there must be a different answer.

What Jack lacks in both worlds is a true soul mate. Someone has stubborn, argumentative and loyal that he is. But does the island world give him an opportunity to work out his relationship issues with women to the point where he finds bliss? This is debatable. We have various women thrown in Jack's romantic path, including Juliet, Kate, Achara, and Sarah. None of them ended well. Even after defeating MIB, Kate did not stay by mortally wounded Jack. No, Kate left with Sawyer to find the plane to leave the island and Jack behind. That was Kate's choice.

If the island was a proving ground for something missing in Jack's after life soul, what was it?

It is not as clear cut as Juliet and Sawyer's awakening and rekindling of their island romance.
It is less black and white of the polarization of Ben's relationships with Danielle in the island versus sideways worlds. 

Was it all the personal sacrifices Jack made on or to the Island that led him to a revelation about himself? No lesson was learned because Jack sacrificed himself like he sacrificed himself to save others in his real life. Jack's general personality did not change between worlds.

Was it as simple as finding out people do get "second chances" and things are not "fixed" in time or space? This would explain his rocky relationship with Kate, its on and off head butting on and off the island, to the non-contact with her until the very end at the church. Jack had no relationship with Kate in the sideways world but connected with her for the next level of the after life. Kate always said she'd have Jack's back. And in the final sense, she would take him back, this time forever.

But the one concern with Sideways Jack is his love and devotion to his son, David. But since we know the sideways world is inhabited by dead souls, who was David? Was he a figment of Jack and Juliet's imaginations? He does not fit into a piece to be worked out in the island realm. He does not figure into the finale either. Jack never asks Christian "where is David?" There is no rule against "moving on" with your children (Claire and Aaron; Christian with his two children). So David is an anomaly in the sideways time is first theory. If Jack's real desire was to a have a normal, stable family life with a wife and child, then that dream is never fulfilled. However, if Jack's dream was to be released from responsibility and commitment (themes of the island world), then death would be the only answer, i.e. the sideways world. Jack's meeting his dead father "in person" awoke him to the notion that his life was over. But at that moment, he did not know who was in the church except Kate.

What did the people in the church give Jack during his island time that he failed to find in the sideways world? Friendship.

Friendship is the emotions or conduct of friends; a state of mutual trust and support.

The island proving ground did give Jack the opportunity, in a non-medical setting like a hospital, to learn to trust and support other people. To seek judgment, opinions, and options from other people. To argue, make decisions, and make mistakes.  And through all those arguments, decisions, mistakes and events, people did not turn their backs to him. Jack learned how to make lasting friendships. And in many respects, it was a mutual experiment for characters like Locke and Boone. The bonds of friendship is what Jack's soul was missing in its real life.

WORK TO BE DONE

Why did Ben, of all people, have the sole right to choose to stay in the sideways world after Hurley invited him to join the group in the church?

As set forth in the previous post on Sawyer and Juliet, if the sideways afterlife actually came first, and the island world was merely a testing ground for lost souls to fix their moral, emotional or other issues, then many of the sideways choices make some sense.

In the sideways world, Ben is a meek high school teacher. He has no cloud. He has no chance of promotion. He is like his fellow teachers seemingly in the dead end job with little personal gratification. He is also a trapped caretaker for his ill father who lives with him. As a result of this caregiving, Ben has no social life. It depresses him. But here, he accepts his fate.

But if he the opportunity, he would be a different, more assertion - - - aggressive personality. He received that gift when his soul wound up on the island. The island allowed his deepest, darkest and repressed emotions to surface and take hold.

In the sideways world, any repressed bitterness for his lot in life to take care of his ill father was taken out by Island Ben created the grand purge which included killing his father. The death of his father would release him from his duty to him.

In the sideways world, any strong, inherit shyness, introverted or anti-social tendencies were turned inside-out by Island Ben becoming a strong, aggressive leader of the Others. The power made him believe in himself. He could manipulate and control people like a puppeteer. He would always get what he wanted - - - something he would never attempt in his real life.

So we have Island Ben being the exact opposite of after life Ben. So why didn't Ben, knowing his island past, go with Hurley into the church in order to move on? He said he still had "work" to do.

We believe that work was somehow making amends or a connection with Danielle and Alex.

But why would he want Danielle and Alex to remember Island Ben? Ben did not have a loving relationship with Danielle like Sawyer had with Juliet, to be rekindled in the after life. No, Ben was a ruthless kidnapper of Danielle's child. Ben sought to capture and kill Danielle. Ben's decisions eventually led to both Danielle's and Alex's deaths on the island. These are not happy memories for either Danielle or Alex. Once they realize what sideways Ben was to them on the island world, one would have to assume that Danielle and Alex would be repulsed by Ben.

So why would Ben stay in the sideways world? Is it because he could do no better?
Or does Ben get a "second" island proving ground with Danielle and Alex? This time to get it "right." (I don't think that would be a sequel that anyone would watch.)

If the island was a training ground for Ben to learn to be more assertive, more independent, more open to social settings like romance and dating, we get a hint of that in the sideways arc when after Desmond runs him over, he gets the sympathy and respect of both Alex and Danielle, including a dinner invitation. But his change in the sideways world cannot erase the bad things he did on the island. And this is why it is difficult to reconcile Ben's sideways end game to that of Juliet's with Sawyer. Juliet found her soul mate on the island. Ben tortured his alleged soul mate on the island.

Unless there is some magical love potion that is made of an egomaniac losing one's hubris like Ben's fall from power in the island realm, it is hard to imagine that awakening Danielle is going to cause Ben anything but more pain. And maybe that is the punishment that Ben has chosen upon himself. To live out his purgatory existence with the deep dark secret of his island torments in order not to be cast off into the darkness, or become a whisper trapped on the island.

IT WORKED

"It worked."

Juliet said that after the Incident where the bomb or EM energy pocket imploded the Hatch during its construction in the flash time of 1977.

Many assumed that she meant that whatever happened brought them back to the present time period. But in reality, how could a severely injured Juliet, trapped under rubble, know she had time skipped to the present?

In the last big scene, there is a clue:

[Flash sideways - Sawyer is walking down the hospital corridor. He stops Jack has he passes by.]

SAWYER: Hey, you know where I could get some grub around here?

JACK: Uhh... the cafeteria's closed, but there's a vending machine down the hallway.

SAWYER: Thanks, doc.

JACK: Yeah, no problem.

[Sawyer looks on as Jack walks away, pausing for a moment. At the vending machine he flattens out his dollar bill and inserts it into the machine. He presses the buttons for an Apollo bar (G23), but it gets stuck in the machine.]

SAWYER: Oh, come on...
[He shakes the machine but the bar doesn't budge.]

SAWYER: Unbelievable.
[He attempts to reach inside the machine to grab the bar. A woman approaches.]

JULIET: Can I help you?

SAWYER: It's okay... I'm a... I'm a cop.

JULIET: Mmmm. Maybe you should read the machine its rights?

SAWYER: [laughing] That's funny.

JULIET: Mmmm... Can I tell you a secret?

SAWYER: Please.

JULIET: If you unplug it, and then you plug it back in again... the candy just drops right down.

SAWYER: Is that right?

JULIET: Yes, and it's technically legal.

SAWYER: Oh... give that a shot...
[He unplugs the machine and all the lights in the room go off.]

SAWYER: Oops...
[Juliet laughs, grabs the bar from the machine and gives it to Sawyer.]

JULIET: It worked. 

[Sawyer grabs the candy, but as his hand touches Juliet's, they both begin to see flashes of their time together on the Island. They jump back in surprise.]

JULIET: Oh...

SAWYER: Whoa... did you feel that?

JULIET: We should get coffee some time.

SAWYER: I'd love to but the machine ate my dollar, I only got one left.

JULIET: We can go dutch.

[As she says that last line we see her on the Island, they flash to her dying in Sawyer's arms as she says the same line. Juliet holds Sawyer's hand and they begin to experience more flashes of their 1970's DHARMA life; Sawyer holding up a daisy, them hugging, spooning in bed, more hugging and kissing, Sawyer holding Juliet from falling in The Incident, Juliet falling.]

SAWYER: Juliet? Juliet it's--it's me. Ju--

[They embrace and Juliet begins to sob.]

We have to ask ourselves "What worked?"

Juliet's plan to help a stranger game a vending machine worked as Sawyer got his candy bar. But was her phrase "It worked," coupled with a touch the "magic spell" that unlocked their repressed memories of their island life? We still don't understand why the characters in the sideways purgatory after death cannot remember their island past. Or when they do remember the trials, tribulations and good memories of the island they get all euphoric.

But if we take a different perspective on Juliet's "It worked" in the hospital, we may get a different understanding of the sideways world.

Island Juliet could have been remembering how she and Sawyer found happiness in the after life when she said "it worked." Her mind flashed to the hospital vending lounge. She understood her place in the universe. She knew everything would be okay in the end.

This again puts the sideways world earlier in real time than the island world. Considering the time itself was a nebulous concept throughout the series, this is a possible connection between the two worlds. It may hint that one needs to know in the island realm that things will be okay in the sideways afterlife in order to actually die in the island world. It may sound strange, but Christian's explanation of the sideways world (something the main characters created themselves) was actually referencing the characters creating the sideways world to work out their purgatory problems in order to move on. The purgatory characters were using their dreams, fears and fantasies to escape to the island (and not escape from it as shown in the pilot episode) to work out the issues that kept in purgatory.

Perhaps, Juliet was stuck in purgatory because she could not move on in her past relationship with her ex-husband. Her inability to give up her feelings for her ex-husband in Florida mirrored her loneliness in the sideways existence with her cordial but distant relationship with Jack. It was only throwing her subconscious spirit into the island world could she work through her personal demons of clinging emotional behavior to find a new love of her life. She just happened to stumble upon another desperate spirit in Sawyer who also had learn to let down his guard to overcome his commitment issues. They became soul mates because their after life souls found each other in the spiritual proving ground called the island.

MOVING ON

This is how LOST ends: with Christian opening the church doors to bring a wash of white light upon those characters sitting in the pews. This was the moment where they would be "moving on."

But look closely at the picture. Does it give us any final clues?

On the left side of the picture, we have the following characters from the front row back:

1. Locke, who is looking back
2. Sayid and Shannon off to the side by themselves, leaning forward but looking back
2. Bernard and Rose, looking forward
3. Juliet and Sawyer, looking back
4. Boone, looking back

On the right side of the picture, we have the following characters from front row back:

1. Jack and Kate, looking forward
2. Sun and Jin, looking back
2. Charlie, Aaron and Claire, looking forward
3. Desmond and Penny, looking back
4. Hurley and Libby, looking back

On the left side, 6 people are looking back towards the light.
On the right side, 6 people are looking back towards the light.
Does this represent that these people are content to embrace the after life?

On the left side, 2 people are looking forward away from the light.
On the right side, it appears 4 people are looking forward away from the light (Aaron is covered).
Does this represent that these people are not sure about moving on into the light?

The people looking back toward the light have some commonality.
Locke and Boone are sitting alone, far a part.
Sayid and Shannon are also sitting away from the main aisle, leaning forward which
may show uncertainty.
Juliet is full turn while Sawyer is half turned toward the light.
Sun, Jin, Hurley and Libby are sitting farther away from the main aisle, but looking back.
Desmond and Penny are fully turned toward the light.

But in front of them, Charlie and Claire are heads together looking forward.
Bernard and Rose are sitting up straight and stoic while staring ahead.
And Jack and Kate look forward with childish grins on their faces.

The left side of the picture contains more people that have less bonds with Jack than those on the right side of the picture. Those on the left have traits of being loners, self-reliant. The people on the right side had more important contact and interaction with Jack. The right side characters are fully paired off in couples; while the left side has two singles.

Jack was the last person we know of who realized that he was dead. Therefore, he was the last person in the church to accept that fact. Perhaps, he has yet to come to grips with it so he stares ahead contemplating the moment. He may have thought that the joke was on him all along.

Desmond was probably the first person in the sideways story arc to understand his own demise. This may be why he is turned toward the light. He understands where he is and he had nothing further to do accept it in order go on with Penny by his side.

Charlie and Claire's sideways awakening was always problematic because Aaron's "rebirth" leads to complicated real world questions or the possibility he was just a "prop," but their reunion was the longest in time because Charlie died on the island. So they may have also needed more time to reflect on the situation before turning to the light.

Bernard and Rose seem out of place. They are together, looking forward but in the last moments of the scene, they do not look happy. Perhaps Rose knew before anyone that the plane crash was symbolic passing to purgatory to judge everyone's character in death. While others around them embrace the idea of the after life, Bernard and Rose may be pensive because they knew that the island was also part of an after life construction - - - and the next stage of existence could be either Heaven or Hell.

We assumed a happy ending for the characters. But we are not sure what they were about to move on to (including the cryptic Christian who said he did not know.) But if we have one final look at Numbers, a repetitive theme throughout the series, we have 6 on the left looking back to the light, 6 on the right looking back to the light, and 6 people looking forward: 6-6-6.

WHAT IS REALITY?

There are two positions in regard to the end of LOST.

The pro-ending viewers said that the way the series ended was in a satisfactory conclusion where their favorite characters finally found resolution from their troubled lives. However, the majority of the pro-enders believe that though the characters were dead in sideways world, the characters were "alive" and survived the plane crash on the island.

The anti-ending viewers thought the series ended in an unsatisfying way for numerous reasons. First, many thought that the sideways church ending was a cop-out for not explaining the long, twisted science fiction mystery story lines of the island. Second, a minority of the anti-enders thought it was totally inconsistent (to the point of irrational) to believe that the sideways world could have been "created" by the characters at any point in time. Third, many thought the concept that the characters created their own sideways world - - - but failed to "remember" their island pasts as being a red herring. How could one create a fantasy sideways world (and actually participate and live in it) but not remember it?

Both sides of the question focus in on the pivotal conversation in the waning moments of the final episode: when Jack speaks to his father, Christian:

JACK: You...are you real?
CHRISTIAN: I should hope so. Yeah, I'm real. You're real, everything that's ever happened to you is real. All those people in the church...they're real too.
JACK: They're all...they're all dead?
CHRISTIAN: Everyone dies sometime, kiddo. Some of them before you, some...long after you.
JACK: But why are they all here now?
CHRISTIAN: Well there is no "now" here.
JACK: Where are we, dad?
CHRISTIAN: This is the place that you...that you all made together, so that you could find one another. The most...important part of your life, was the time that you spent with these people. That's why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you.
JACK: For what?
CHRISTIAN: To remember...and to...let go.
JACK: Kate...she said we were leaving.
CHRISTIAN: Not leaving, no. Moving on.
JACK: Where we going?
CHRISTIAN: [smiling] Let's go find out.

So what is "real?"

First, let us look to the definition of the word.

1. actually existing as a thing or occurring in fact; not imagined or supposed;

2. (of a substance or thing) not imitation or artificial,  genuine;

3. [ attrib. ] informal complete; utter (used for emphasis);

4. [ attrib. ] adjusted for changes in the value of money;

5. Law of fixed property (i.e., land and buildings), as distinct from personal property;

6. Mathematics (of a number or quantity) having no imaginary part;

7. Optics (of an image) of a kind in which the light that forms it actually passes through it; not virtual.


So what was Christian telling Jack?

"Yeah, I'm real. You're real, everything that's ever happened to you is real. All those people in the church...they're real."

Second, here is a literal translation:

"Yeah, I actually EXIST. You EXIST, everything that's ever happened to you is GENUINE. All those people in the church . . . they EXIST and they are not imagined or supposed."

Next,  Jack asks the question that is supposed to answer the question of what is the sideways world:

"They're all dead?"

The big twist in the finale is that everybody was dead. "Everybody" meaning the key players. Exactly who those players are remains open for debate and remains one of the show's most enduring mysteries. The finale revealed that a gathering of memory-restored Oceanic "survivors" in the sideways world have in fact been running through an elaborate fantasy, one designed to bring their group together before they step over to the afterlife. The major question that remains is when during the run of the show that break between life and death occurred. Life could have ended for the Oceanic passengers as far back as the pilot episode. The plane crashes, everybody dies, but this group is left behind because of unresolved issues within their individual lives. The trials they go through surviving on the island serve as a sort of purgatory. This would render certain key figures — Jacob, the Man in Black, Richard Alpert — as utter fabrications. That's just one theory. Another read could put the time of death for Oceanic 815's survivors as the hydrogen bomb blast at the end of the show's fifth season, which raises a whole new set of questions as to the nature of certain supporting characters. It is now a question of acceptance of this death premise in the mythology of the series.

The word "dead" is defined as follows:

1. no longer alive, as in a dead body;
• (of a part of the body) having lost sensation; numb.
• having or displaying no emotion, sympathy, or sensitivity;
• no longer current, relevant, or important;
• devoid of living things;
• resembling death;
• (of a place or time) characterized by a lack of activity or excitement;

2. [ attrib. ] complete; absolute;
• exactly:
• straight; directly;

Clearly, the sideways world characters were "no longer alive."

But, they were "real." 

And here is where the viewers become split in their perception of the show.

In the pro-ender camp, since we are told that everything was "real" that must mean that everything that happened on the island (including time travel and flashback back stories) was also "real."

However, the anti-ender camp points out that in the context of the sideways church statements, "real" means "dead." They would state that since the sideways world was "real" but "dead," then the island world being also "real" would also be "dead." For if the "dead" characters can create an elaborate fantasy dream purgatory in the sideways world (with marriages, children being born, etc), why can't the "dead" characters also "dream" of a fantasy adventure world called the island?

The pro-end fans would counter to say that Christian explained it.

"This is the place that you...that you all made together, so that you could find one another. The most...important part of your life, was the time that you spent with these people. That's why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you."

But then again, the anti-enders say finish the passage:

JACK: For what?
CHRISTIAN: To remember . . .

"Life" is defined as:

1.  the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death;
• living things and their activity;
• [ with adj. or noun modifier ] a particular type or aspect of people's existence;
• vitality, vigor, or energy;

2. the existence of an individual human being or animal;
• a biography;
• either of the two states of a person's existence separated by death (as in Christianity and some other religious traditions);
• any of a number of successive existences in which a soul is held to be reincarnated;
• a chance to live after narrowly escaping death (esp. with reference to the nine lives traditionally attributed to cats);

3. (usu. one's life) the period between the birth and death of a living thing, esp. a human being.

"Remember" is a verb meaning:

1. have in or be able to bring to one's mind an awareness of (someone or something that one has seen, known, or experienced in the past);
• [ with infinitive ] do something that one has undertaken to do or that is necessary or advisable;
• [ with clause ] used to emphasize the importance of what is asserted;
• bear (someone) in mind by making them a gift or making provision for them;
• (remember someone to) convey greetings from one person to (another);
• pray for the success or well-being of; and
• (remember oneself) recover one's manners after a lapse.

2. The word is derived from Latin "to call to mind" or mindful.


The characters represented the most important part of their collective lives, so that is why the created the sideways soul oasis. But "which" life? Some would say their human life. Others would say, based upon the mythology and images shown in the show, "any number of successive existences" including reincarnation. So when Christian says "life" it can be an ambiguous concept, especially in the Lost story.

But Christian tells Jack that he and his friends created the sideways place (where they are dead) in order to "remember" their past "experiences" together. Some will postulate that the sideways world was created AFTER the characters first met, and formed during their island world adventure. That could explain why there were ghosts and visions on the island.

But others would balk at that assertion that the ghosts were sideways world messengers or souls in charge of the construction of the sideways world. Dave, Hurley's vision, was not a part of the sideways story. We were told that Jack's vision of Christian was a smoke monster projection.

Further complicating any reasoned analysis is the statement from Christian that the sideways world contained no "now" or "present" time. It is an undefined magical statement to show how characters who died long before Jack and died long after Jack's death could co-exist together in a complex sideways world - - - for which we saw linear time events occur.

But an open question remains of "when" the characters "actually died."  Pro-enders believe that the characters survived the plane crash, and died when they did on or off the island. There is no room for reincarnation, or a purgatory level to the island so there is no belief that the characters souls manifest in human form such as the spirited smoke monster after dying in the plane crash. But these lost souls may have died at various time prior to the Flight 815 crash; a theorist would argue that the plane crash (like all the previous wrecks on the island) were mere metaphors of souls passing through one level of existence to another.

How can one reconcile the "nothingness" of sideways time and space which showed about a week's worth of linear time events to the "reality" of the island time and space which went on for months (on the island) and years (off-island)? You really cannot unless you make assumptions to fit a unified theory. One could argue that the survivors of plane crash only "lived" as long as the sideways world permitted (one week or so); meaning that the survivors minds raced through the island adventures like REM dreams and nightmares.

To "awaken" memories of a sideways soul means that those memories had to have be repressed; what represses memories? The existence of repressed memories is a controversial topic in psychology; some studies have concluded that it can occur in victims of trauma, while others dispute it. According to some psychologists repressed memories can be recovered through therapy. Other psychologists dispute this arguing that this is in fact rather a process through which memories are created through a blending of actual memories and outside influences. According to the American Psychological Association, it is not currently possible to distinguish a true repressed memory from a false one without corroborating evidence.

Memories can be accurate, but they are not always accurate. For example, eyewitness testimony even of relatively recent dramatic events is notoriously unreliable. Misremembering results from confusion between memories for perceived and imagined events, which may result from overlap between particular features of the stored information comprising memories for perceived and imagined events. Memories of events are always a mix of factual traces of sensory information overlaid with emotions, mingled with interpretation and "filled in" with imaginings. Thus there is always skepticism about how valid a memory is as evidence of factual detail. Some believe that accurate memories of traumatic events are often repressed, but remain in the subconscious mind, from where they can be recovered by appropriate therapy. Others believe that truly traumatic events are never forgotten in this way, although often people may not disclose their memories to others.

So, is the whole story of Lost boil down to a collective repressed memory of a plane crash? Who would "forget" surviving a plane crash? Why would such highly charged, emotional memories be repressed in one's after life?  Is this part of a dynamic that upon death, the conscious mind and the subconscious mind separate and a soul cannot "move on" in the after life without their mind being whole? The show writers did not intend to give a clear answer to any of these questions.

It comes down to a personal interpretation of the meaning of "reality" in the context of the Lost story.

REBOOT FINAL 4 THE END

It was a melancholy end to LOST.

Lost in the actual series ending was the huge community "sigh" that the reviews, debates, theories, and spirited discussions for the last six years had come to the end. The discussions were more about the on-line friendships and sparring partnerships than on the actual events depicted in the final episode.

THE END


The ending of LOST came down really into two camps: one which liked the final ending in the sideways church as a touching moment for the characters to reunite in a happy place; and one which disliked the ending since it was not based upon six years of monsters, time travel, crazy people, missions, science and a final battle to the death between an island guardian and Smoke Monster.


But even with the undeniable fact that the characters were all dead in the sideways world, the show remained open to vast interpretation.

The ending did not surprise me because I had been in the vocal minority that the characters were dead from the beginning. That said, there is plenty of room to criticize how the story was wrapped up the by the writers. At least the Big Premise was clearly stated in the end: they were all dead.


But many viewers did not like the idea of deceased characters running about in fantasy land for six seasons. Many base that view from TPTB comments from season one adamantly telling the world that the show was not about purgatory or hell. Well, in some respects, those viewers were conned or lied to by TPTB. Another part of the queasy reaction to the series conclusion is that the writers did have an opportunity to wrap a science-sci/fi explanation into the layered after life premise.

I strongly believe that the characters were dead before 815 crashed; so it appears that the crash was the symbolic transportation of lost souls into purgatory setting created by the flashbacks (part truth, part individuals' dreams, part nightmares and fears) constructed by the comic book world mindset of Hurley and the bookish nerdy historian Ben. The island was nothing more than an after life simulation. The answer to all the island questions is "it does not matter." Everything was a illusory prop to get the characters to find their redemption and bonds.

In a mind over matter setting, the island world seemed totally real but it was not; it was like a spiritual maze. Once you realized you were dead, and accept it, and some one else helping your along the journey to the next level, then your soul can be "awakened" in the sideways world (which in itself is another waiting room in the after life for passing the maze) to "move on." One cannot pass on without a strong, pure, emotional bonds and finding your "soul mate" to share eternity.

But many commentators did not buy the "soul mate" idea. Who was Boone's soul mate? And Locke? They were bachelors. They had no one in the church. Why?

And the concept that the sideways world had no past, present or future, just "now" seemed to be a convoluted statement so as NOT to explain the time lines, time skips or whether the passengers on Flight 815 ever "survived" the crash onto the island.

At least one person thought about the characters not present at the church. About MIB, does no one out there feel sorry for this guy? Wasn't he pretty much a victim? Okay, he developed a mean rage that would have seriously challenged Jack Nicholson in Anger Management. But before that, he just wanted off the island. And he was thwarted at every step by Crazy Mom. Killing her, which was somewhat understandable, is what led to Jacob's revenge for which this poor guy became, well, a monster. And, yes, he was a BAD monster, but do we have no sympathy at all for him?

Unanswered is why anyone had to die on the island, if Christian is to believed in the church that everyone there died "long before and long after" Jack died. We assumed that Jack died next to Vincent in the bamboo forest. We assumed Sayid died from the gunshot wounds,  but turned into a zombie ghost from the temple. Many assumed the people survived the plane crash, too. We knew Locke died off island, but he was all better in the sideways world. For if the sideways world was the "real" one, then what was the island world? People no longer wanted to debate that topic or grapple with the implications of the sideways final reveal.

No, the fans who liked the ending decided that the characters were more important than the story lines. That the island life was a path of redemption and sacrifice to create and live on in the sideways after life. In some ways, that simple ending to a extremely layered, tangential and layered plot lines was the only way out of the writer's painted corner. Just like in the community blogs, when the show was over, the give-and-take on-line friendships were also over. It was like the high school graduation; everyone said their goodbyes to move on to the next stage of life.

What everyone thought and obsessed on for the first five and half seasons came to naught.  In the after show commentary, people were not that upset that their personal questions remained unanswered, but the realization was at this point it did not matter. The finale put the final nail in the coffin for every character, literally and figuratively.

The ending was a mirror image of what we thought we saw and felt during the six year run.

What Happened, did not Happen.
Live Alone. Die Together.

And the final lesson learned: LOST's ending was like every Cub season since 1908.