LOST ENDING REVEALED

 Binge watching and streaming services has all but killed the long, episodic American television series.  Darling series like Squid Game, a 9 episode kill-fest, keeps Netflix rolling with content. LOST also had its Battle Royale elements with the Others and the Smoke Monster, but not in a concentrated form like SG.

Nonetheless, SG won international fans for the Korean horror-action-game series. One major point was that in the end - - - there was an end! A winner! A clear conclusion!

In the early century, LOST and the Sopranos did something highly unusual: infuriate long time fans with strange endings. LOST's last season sideways arc will always be debated as a bad re-set by writers who wrote themselves into a corner with no way out. LOST never got the clear ending that now another show.

The Sopranos ended with a jarring, sudden cut to black screen.

The crime family was having dinner in a small restaurant when the door opens. Boom - -  no noise, no clue, just a black screen. The End. Fans debated for years what it meant. Did Tony did whacked? Did the family break up? Did nothing happen? Did the creators not know how to end the show?

Show runner David Chase recently spoke to Hollywood Reporter about the show and its ending. Chase said that 2 years before the ending, he was driving from NYC to New Jersey as Tony Soprano often did in the series. He saw a small road side diner. In his head, he thought that would make a good location for Tony's final demise. Yes, Chase always thought that Tony was going to die in the finale. It was just when and where. 

The article stated:

"Because the scene I had in my mind was not that scene. Nor did I think of cutting to black. I had a scene in which Tony comes back from a meeting in New York in his car. At the beginning of every show, he came from New York into New Jersey, and the last scene could be him coming from New Jersey back into New York for a meeting at which he was going to be killed. Yeah. But I think I had this notion—I was driving on Ocean Park Boulevard near the airport and I saw a little restaurant. It was kind of like a shack that served breakfast. And for some reason I thought, “Tony should get it in a place like that.” Why? I don’t know. That was, like, two years before."

Chase said, "I had no idea it would cause that much—I mean, I forget what was going on in Iraq or someplace; London had been bombed! Nobody was talking about that; they were talking about The Sopranos. It was kind of incredible to me. But I had no idea it would be that much of an uproar. And was it annoying? What was annoying was how many people wanted to see Tony killed. That bothered me."

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.

LEGACY

When one looks fondly back at events during a lifetime, what stands out sometimes is the hardest thing to understand.

LOST. It was a show that ended the era of "must watch TV." There were no "binge viewing" services. There were no dark web pirated shows. Fans had to arrange their schedule to watch each weekly episode. You could record it for playback - - - to investigate the nuisances, hints, Easter eggs and theories.

LOST was an academic show. Fans went into chat rooms to discuss each episode. They began to post their own answers to the mysteries. The interaction between people after each show became more important than the show itself.

LOST was about building a community on a dangerous island. LOST fans built their own communities outside of the show because it was confusing, contradictory, fun, reckless, nerdy, nail biting and strange. The search for meaning when the show runners sought to do end runs around the truth was part of the show's charm (and down fall).

People researched to explain quantum physics to other fans. People investigated ancient Egyptian culture to translate the messages on the set props. People found meaning in the soundtrack song lyrics. The compelling back stories helped fuel speculation on what the characters would do on the island.

As weirder the story lines got, the more involved the fans got in the show. It was an addictive cycle of story, action, reaction and analysis. As one person's theory seemed to be vindicated, another tangent would make people's heads spin.

It was a roller coaster ride without rails.

Now, years after the last episode. Years after all the emotional autopsies. Years after the cast and writers said their final words. LOST continues to sit fondly in the memory banks of most viewers.

It is the legacy of the last grand network drama shows. Cable giants like HBO and start up streamers like Netflix have become the critic's darling content producers. But LOST would not be able to live in today's fractured digital landscape. Personal consumption of entertainment has become too personal. There is no longer a need to have a group watch and after-show discussion.  Most programs, including reality shows, are spoon-fed dribble lacking complex story telling.

LOST was a unique show with highs and lows, a rabid fan base, intelligent discussion and the atmosphere of college bull sessions in search of answers that really did not matter.

CRACKED UP

Cracked had an article trying to answer the great unsolved mysteries of television.

Of course, LOST was one of those TV enigmas.

This is how it summed up the series and its ending:

What The Hell, Lost?

It begins with the basic premise question:  were the characters time-travelers, incompetent aliens, sexy magicians or spirits in the afterlife? Was everyone on the show dead? Was it all the dream of an autistic child?

Their  Explanation:

It's not the afterlife, and the island is magic. As for every other question, some were answered in an epilogue on the Season 6 DVD set, though they too can easily be summed as everything was an experiment by DHARMA.

Some DVD question and answers were referenced as support of their argument:

"What's with that giant bird from Seasons 1 and 2?" DHARMA experimented on animals!

"Why do women have pregnancy problems on the Island?" It's the electromagnetism!

"What was that weird thing in Room 23 that looked like a brainwashing video?" A brainwashing video! DHARMA used it to erase memories!

"Where did the food drops come from?" A warehouse in Guam!

"Why polar bears?" They were good candidates for testing!

>>>> Except, what about the elements not tied to the Dharma folks. Namely, all the island inhabitants, including the immortal guardians Crazy Mom and Jacob?  Does the island magic come from these immortals trapped on the island (for what reason?)? See, the question within the question madness?!

Sure, one can logically state that something out of the ordinary would seem to be "magic" to a primitive culture. For example, an isolated  island tribe with no contact with modern, western civilization could consider a helicopter as "magic" since they have never seen aircraft. But the pilot could "explain" to the tribe the basic principles of flight. In LOST, the explanation of "magic" has no basic principle in which viewers could believe. It is purely used in this context as a broad brush for a fantasy story (which intentionally did not want to explain its elements).

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.

HAPPY ENDINGS

There is a trend that seems to come from Pan-Asian entertainment stories from Japan and Korea. Long lived shows, comics, or  manga seem to need to end happily ever after. In Japan, the Trinity of global manga-anime franchises (Naruto, Bleach, One Piece) is winding down with the Bleach anime ending its run after 366 episodes with a happy ending as the lead regains his powers and heads home. After 15 years of publishing and selling more than 130 million issues, Naruto manga concluded with a two part "Harry Potter" style happy ending set 10 years after the action stops.

The culture must expect a story to have a happy ending; a publisher may demand one in order to leave the fans upbeat for the next franchise. It also may be the creator's vision, since he or she must think that the characters they nurtured for so long are like family, and everyone wants their family to live on happily ever after. You can have the most violent, vile, bloody and evil action series suddenly wrap up with a tortured, stretched but positive ending.

And that is the divide in America entertainment from the Asian ending principles.

In U.S. shows, there is a greater focus on "the anti-hero," characters who are acting outside the norms of society. Their brash freedom and anti-authority beliefs still strikes a chord in the American spirit of independence, adventure and freedom.

So in U.S. shows, the hero character does not necessarily live happily ever after - - -  in most cases the character's adventurous fun runs into the long arm of the law, and is crushed without any moral redemption. Breaking Bad's ending is an example of this, where the main character had no regrets for the pain he caused to others. And most fans of the show expected and accepted this ending.

With all the red shirt killings, evil mental torture, manipulations of people's souls, LOST was barreling down the road to a chaotic and explosive ending where no one was going to be saved from the dangers of the island. So a great deal of fans expected the show to end in a flurry of death and characters unable to come to terms with their faults, their lost lives, or their wasted second chances (as capsuled in Locke's earlier demise). Despite all the adventures, choices, decisions and actions of the main characters, no one found any real redemption from their evil ways, sins or regrets.

But since many fans loved their characters like close friends for six years, they were pleasantly surprised and happy that their fantasy reunion in the after life was the last images of the series. They believed the characters suffered enough in life to have some sort of reward in the next life. And that reward should be shared with their island colleagues.

There is no right or wrong answer to this theme of ending a long running show with a happy ending. It is a creative choice the writers consciously make in order to finish their vision of their characters. And with any creative endeavor, there will be various viewpoints on how successful the ending is perceived by fans.

IS IT POSSIBLE?

Is it possible that someone will be able to take the LOST story and re-work it into a unified climax of the desperate, tangential plots?

Yes, if someone took the time and effort to re-edit the series into chronological order (which I have not seen except the first two hours), then in the buried archeological pit of the scripts there is a lost treasure that ties everything together.

In order to tie every piece of the LOST puzzle together, one will have to consider suspending belief but not to the point of irrational McGuffins. The best science fiction has at its core science principles "extended" by theoretical advancement.

For example, is it possible to survive a mid-air plane separation at 30,000 feet? No. Is it possible to survive a free fall from 9,000 feet (as shown in the Others centric episode showing the crash from Ben's perspective)? Perhaps, but unlikely. Is it possible that since Desmond did not enter the numbers promptly, causing a system failure and release of electromagnetic energy, that the unique EM properties could have acted as parachutes or pillows for the survivors who landed alive on the island? That could be a possibility. With the Desmond error causing an electromagnetic incident, is it possible that based on the FDW's ability to harness the EM to shift the island in time and space, that the EM discharge selectively carried the survivors into a different time, space or dimension (including the afterlife as in Dante's Inferno)? That could be a greater possibility since it links together more key elements of the story mythology.

And this is how it could be possible to use the story clues, stated science principles, island factors, and cause-and-effect relationships to build a detailed model of what actually happened to the characters in a unified story that would tie all the loose ends.

In order to accomplish something this grand, one will need to extract the core mythology elements and make them core building blocks from which "the answers" can logically be found for the show's mysteries. There truly needs to be story rules to avoid continuity issues.

It will be complex, confusing and frustrating. For example, the writers had no consistent concept of "time."  It was linear. Then it was circular. Then it was classified as a moving stream. Each one of these time concepts is different. And when the writers dropped the bomb in the sideways world having "no past, no present, no future, but just now," how does one deal with characters moving forward in a space with no time at all? The "now" is not the present because the present represents the future minus the past. Unless the after life principle is that souls live in a null space, then why would they appear to live "normal" lives along a progressive time line?

Even if one can forge through the serious stuff, can one weave an explanation that would appease, delight and answer all the questions of the die-hard fan? Probably not. And that is why no one has really tried to tackle this ambitious project.

COMMUNITY

In the short burst of LOST memory articles and posts on the interwebs, there is one thing that everyone can agree on: the lasting legacy of LOST was that it built communities of fans who followed the show.

It is one thing to discuss an episode of a show or sporting event next to the water cooler the next morning. That has happened from the dawn of television to today. But the LOST experience went from a one-time, casual conversation with co-workers or friends, to dedicated sites where people interacted, discussed, debated, argued and flipped out over story details for the six days  in between episodes.

This is why LOST has even today so much deep meaning for many people. These community experiences bonded in our inner core. It changed how we looked at television shows. It made us change how we discussed our favorite TV show. It changed  how we digested the show. In the past, entertainment was called the "boob tube" because it was a one-and-one flash of content that was meant to be consumed and slowly forgotten by the time the next show appeared on the TV screen. It was the functional equivalent of brain candy. But LOST made most of us think, and think hard about what was on the screen.

It made some of us dust off old science text books to re-learn concepts of space, space-time and ancient civilizations. Homework is something not connected with television viewing. In fact, it is the polar opposite: kids used TV to avoid doing homework. The first example of this was the appearance of the charging polar bear. WTH? How could a polar bear be living on a Pacific tropical island? Common sense would dictate that polar bears could not survive on the island. Research on the topic would yield information such as this : When you look at the polar bear's white fur under a microscope, it is actually clear tubes, almost glass-like in a sense, that they refract sunlight onto the skin. It's a little like burning ants under a magnifying glass. All those picture we see of polar bears looking playful as they roll and slide on the snow, they are actually cooling themselves off. And from this information, one could start further research to speculation on how the polar bears could survive in hot climates. Then one considers that polar bears live in zoos located in hot weather zones, there has to be a scientific answer for such adaptation.  It was the foreshadowing of the Dharma experiments. It was those type of connect-the-dots thinking that made on-line communities so vibrant.

In reading many comments and posts, the thing most fans miss most about LOST is their fan communities. There was nothing left to discuss after the finale after people expressed their opinions on whether they liked or hated the ending. A few tried to keep their groups going by trying to move their tribe to new sci-fi or drama shows, but it did not have the same appeal as LOST.

WHEN CANON HITS A DEAD END

The British television series, Doctor Who, has lasted for 50 years (with a hiatus period). Today marks another milestone as Peter Capaldi takes the reign as the Next Doctor. The picture above shows all the previous actors who played the iconic role of the The Doctor. As you can count, there are 12 men who have played The Doctor. The reason so many could do so was that early on in the series, the writers came up with the concept of re-generation.

When one actor left the show, a new one could replace him through this biological process that only seems to work with Time Lords. It is like a cat who is said to have 9 lives; in the Who universe, a Time Lord has 12 re-generations, or 13 lives in total.  In reboot Season 8, Capaldi becomes the 13th and final Doctor according to the show's own canon.

Now, I take the position that the producers should embrace the challenge of having the "last" Doctor because it would be a trans formative narrative for a complex character that is still shrouded in much mystery. But the BBC still calls the new Doctor only the 12th. And the producers seem to agree.

But with such intense fandom, and the regeneration process one of the few ironclad rules of the show, this is a potential Jump the Sharknado moment. Some believe that the producers will just concoct another cycle of regenerations (like some believe may have occurred during Matt Smith's final episode in Season 7). But that does not show respect for the original material, and the legacy of the prior creators who kept the series alive, fresh and interesting.

It is a very simple proposition when the current Doctor leaves the show. He dies. But what panic would occur in London if there was no new Doctor? Probably not much, for you see it would be just as compelling for the show to turn its axis point (temporarily) to the biggest mystery of all: who could replace the Doctor? The candidates could be more vast than the standard collection of Who villains. Another Time Lord? Another alien species? The Doctor's "daughter?" Or his last companion? For Doctor 2.0 to exist in the context of the original canon, he or she would have to be an extraordinary being (alien) compatible with Gallifreyan  biology and who would inherit the one item that would bind the new series with the old: the Doctor's pocket watch. The watch contains all the memories and information of the past time lords. It can imprint them on Doctor 2.0. Problem solved from a writing continuity standpoint.

But I find this solution highly improbable. It is too detailed; too "insider" for a network executive to grasp the nuisances. The production company has the brand of the Doctor and does not want to dilute it with a successor, even if he or she is a worthy one.

It is theme for successful shows, including sci-fi epics, that if set canon is violated, the trust with their audience is breached because successful sci-fi shows rely heavily on their own mythology to support the fantasy. Doctor Who is fast approaching such a breach. How the show runners will cope with this event is still unknown.

WIRE TO WIRED

With all the time shifting devices, DVD box sets, and people having a little too much time on their hands, "binge" viewing of television shows is getting more in vogue.

WIRED Magazine recommends one show to binge this summer, but couches its recommendation like that of a roller coaster, abusive relationship. Here is how the writer "sells" LOST:

If nothing else, let J.J. Abrams go down in history for his singular knack for torturing his fans. From the aughts’ Felicity and Alias to Fringe and the Star Trek from which we expected so much more, the Hollywood impresario has for decades kept audiences, all of them millions-strong, leaning forward on their couches, howling at unbearable cliffhangers, and convening in huddled enclaves to debate intricate theories and minute plot details. But perhaps the best brain-bender he ever orchestrated was his and Damon Lindelof’s profound, infuriating, terrifying, bizarre, exhilarating philosophical thriller Lost.

When it began, the show attracted viewers by masquerading as a clean-cut adventure show about an airplane full of people who crash-land onto a seemingly deserted island and have to figure out, as protagonist Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) puts it, how to “live together or die alone.” Of course, that simple intrigue was short-lived, and before you could say, “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” the show’s turbine engine had sucked you into its vortex of insanity, a nonstop barrage that kept audiences’ jaws on the floor as they turned to one other to ask in disbelief: “What the hell is going on?” Thanks to these infinitely cryptic puzzles and mythologies, Lost quickly and easily became one of the prototypical “prestige” dramas that truly cultivated the kind of raging, passionate online discussions that have only accelerated in Lost’s wake to become an inextricable cornerstone of how audiences consume television today. (Its intellectualism even made it into the halls of the academic elite.)

But of course, that kind of breakneck velocity and teeming volume has a cost, one that has, in in the four years since the show ended its final season, become somewhat of a cautionary tale, even to its creators. What with electric black smoke monsters that violently murder people (but sometimes choose not to?), polar bears that menace the survivors for a season and then inexplicably disappear, confusing deities that have been waging war on each other for centuries, time-travel and parallel universes, curses, haunting numeric patterns, and general existential despair, there were so many things happening on that damn island that by the show’s final season audiences were overtaken by the sinking realization that there was absolutely no possible way that every question stuffed into every corner of this beloved hellhole could possibly be answered. That, of course, is why Lost has gone down in history as one of the most frustrating, fascinating, and ultimately doomed shows of all time.

Which of course, isn’t to say you shouldn’t binge-watch the hell out of it anyway. While its narrative waxed incredibly heavy-handed at times (a bunch of characters are named after philosophers and characters from The Wizard of Oz, for example, just in case you were in danger of forgetting just how much attention the Lost writing staff paid to completely meaningless details), Lost’s insanity is what makes it so incredibly fun, especially for intrepid television adventurers. As long as you go into this show with the expectation that you won’t know all the answers, and you won’t know which details are important until the very end, not only will you successfully side-step having to talk about the ending in therapy, it will be one of the most fun shows you’ll ever watch.

Why You Should Binge:

Listen, I’m not going to lie here: There’s a very good chance you’re going to come out of this with more than one chip on your shoulder about having to spend over three straight days of your life on this infuriating piece of television history. Still, as I mentioned before, keeping this fact in mind will make it better. It’s still a fantastic ride, one that has become, in just a few short years, a classic. It’s also got a deep, involved, and kind of scary fandom who have put together any and all materials and answers you might need—philosophical, academic, narrative or otherwise. Plus, it’s important you know these references!

Well, if that does not get a curious "new" LOST viewer into the fold, what will? Anyone who wants to know American culture needs to watch a "prestige" show and LOST will be "one of the most frustrating, fascinating, and ultimately doomed shows of all time." 

WIRED also gives a potential viewer some clues on how much investment is needed to watch the series. The time requirements are 90 hours (3.75 days). Each episode averages about 43 minutes, so if you clock 10 hour-days (600 minutes, or about 14 episodes) on Saturdays and Sundays, it’ll only take up a cool 4.5 weekends, or nine days, of your life. Wanna stretch it out? Watch four episodes per night (that’s three hours) for 30 days. (That’s without going back and re-watching episodes to pick up the minutiae, in which case, may the gods have mercy on your—nay, our—souls.)

RELATIONSHIPS

It was explained by TPTB that LOST should be viewed more as a character study than anything else. The focus was on the characters and not on the mysteries.

And that is still a sticking point with some fans. As one blog commentator said long after the show concluded:

If the entire series turned out to be just about the characters and the relationships they/we build in life and how important they are, following us even into the afterlife, then what about all the relationships that Sawyer, Kate, Miles, or any of the survivors made AFTER they got off of the island? Reason I even bring this up is because of what Christian said to Jack in the church and what everyone else mentioned as well, “Some died before you, some died long after you”. So....we are to assume then that when Sawyer or Kate or any of the survivors died, whether it was right after Jack or 30 years after him, that NONE of the relationships that they built were important? What if Sawyer went on to get married and have kids. When he dies the ONLY person in his life that ever meant anything was Juliette?!! Also, a huge lesson we were all supposed to learn was to “let go” of the past. Well how the hell is having them all meet up in the church together letting go of that past?! Even in death they (whomever made it off the island and died sometime later) were still holding on to the experiences from the island, the past!!! 


The season finale is what it is and I can’t change that but I don’t understand any of the fans supporting or being okay with it. Makes me think that most people have no idea what’s going on in life and just skate through it blindly. 

Taking the writers words at face value was a critical viewing experience. Fans were led to believe that the show was a well crafted literary masterpiece of characters, action, drama and mysteries.

There is a valid point to what Christian told Jack about everyone in the church waiting for him died before and after him. If this is a true statement, and that the island time was most important to the characters that they had to reunite in the afterlife in order to move on to eternity, then

a) the characters like Sawyer, Kate and Claire left brutally lonely and unfilled lives after Jack died. Which is hard to believe considering Sawyer had a daughter he cared about. Claire had a son. And Kate had her freedom from the law. None of these characters would not have had any new relationships at all?

b) when did the characters who died long before Jack "actually" die? This may be one of those misdirected throwaway lines the writers used to get out of explaining what is happening in the story (equivalent of a fumble in football), but it seems to erase any "good" times that a character had before the island. For example, Locke had a great relationship with Helen. Why was that erased by the island time so that Locke is in the church alone? Boone had no one as well? How sad is that? Boone could not have been reunited with his mother or father? 

Since time was handled as a nebulous concept in LOST, when people died may be irrelevant to the analysis of Christian's final speech. 

For example, if this is a character study, it is just as likely it is a character study of lost dead souls than of human survivors of a plane crash. If the characters were already dead before getting on the plane (symbolic of taking the ferry across the River Styx), then maybe this was like a test of lost souls who really did not have any strong personal bonds to carry them through to the afterlife.

But since the writers failed to clarify what the sideways world represented in relation to the island world, viewer's personal answers to the gaping holes in the story line are just not as fulfilling as knowing what the show's creator's really wanted to express with the climax and ending. Taking from what the blogger said above, it was the writers who had no idea what was going on in their characters lives and just skated through blindly to the Season 6 ending. 

People cannot really disagree on the ending because the ending is obtuse. 

If TPTB came out and said this is what the ending means, then people can then accept it on face value or disagree with it. But leaving it open to speculation is a Soprano cop-out to conclude the show. Just calling it a show about relationships is another weak point. Every show is supposed to be about character relationships. Otherwise, the show would be about watching paint dry on a wall. 

And even if the crux of the show was about relationships, and finding lost soul mates, then no one can really defend why Sayid, who pined for Nadia for 6 seasons, would wind up with Shannon in the afterlife. If the island was the test for Sayid to give up his past (Nadia), and the way he passed the test was to get in the sack with Shannon, what sort of metaphysical-intellectual system are we dealing with here? 

And then the opposite was also in the church at the same time. Rose and Bernard did not purge their past in order to make it to the church. Quite the opposite, Rose and Bernard's strong bonds from the past kept them together through the island ordeals. So, on one level, they did not "let go" of their past in order to move on in their afterlives.

When you don't know what to say, you say things that are vague gibberish hoping that the listener will take those words and create their own interpretation and understanding. Politicians do this technique all the time in order to bolster support without saying much of anything. But LOST was not a political stump speech. It was supposed to be one of the greatest action-adventure-dramas in television history. 

Perhaps the lasting relationship of the series was that between the fans and TPTB. In some ways it is still a strong connection. In some ways it is still a simmering disappointment. In some ways it is like a parent who loves their child but knows he can do better. 

WHAT WE MISS

In much of the 10th anniversary discussions, there have been many posts about what fans truly miss since LOST concluded its television run.

A summary of some of the comments:

1. We miss the characters. In a certain respect, a devoted television show creates characters that become one's surrogate friends and family. We want to get together and see them week after week.

2. We miss the adventure. Every week there was some strange plot twist that would make us squirm or jump off the chair in a WTH? moment. It was a series with a grand scale and good cast. It seemed like it was filmed like a summer movie and not as a staged set production.

3. We miss the community. LOST was one of the first shows in which the Internet brought together fans from all over the world to discuss their TV show in nearly real time. It was the community aspect of the show that many miss the most - - - the debates, the personal theories, and the research of the clues that spread knowledge about literature, music, physics and Egyptology among commentators and bloggers. It also brought together people who in turn became good friends.

4. We miss scheduling time to watch. Perhaps it is just a coincidence, as time goes on and each of us grows older, we have less time to schedule a set appointment to view a show. Today, with streaming services, internet show pages and DVR on demand, fans don't need to have any appointment viewing in order to watch a show. It takes away from the "shared" experience back in the day. No one talks about discussing a show the next day over the "water cooler" at work.

5. We miss the "what if" wonder of the series. As many of the actual characters had transference moments within their own personalities, viewers were captivated and transformed into the fantasy world of the show as close bystanders to all the action. Rarely does a TV show put the viewer in the front seat where the action was.

6. We miss the answers. Yes, there are many viewers who upon reflection have "moved on" without their personal questions being properly answered, but there are still a few who quietly lament the fact that they were disappointed on how the show wrapped up. Even 10 years after, the opportunity is available for the writers and creative team to give us their vision of the unsolved mysteries, but they care not to share or explain. So even in the joy of the series, there is some melancholy.

COMMENTS

Since the LOST 10th anniversary brought out the good and bad from TPTB, it is probably a good time to review some of the comments in the context of a show community blogger.

1. I don't have a problem with the producers-writers believing that they achieved what they had started to do with LOST. It was their story. It was their show. They were driving the bus; fans were merely passengers enjoying the (bumpy) ride.

2. I don't have a problem with where the producers-writers ended the show. I, like many other people, had a problem in how the show got to the ending. Today, TPTB indicate that the purpose of the last season and last episode was to raise the Big Questions, like what is life? What is the after life? What is human spirituality? It is proper for a creative team to raise these historic and grand questions which mankind has thought about since the existence of human time, but to raise them without answering them is wrong. The solution of allowing the viewers to grasp their own insight from the final season seems like punting the ball on second down and one yard to go.

3. I don't have a problem with the producers-writers killing off all the characters by the end of the series. Hell, I was an early proponent of the crash-purgatory theory. In many ways, that theory still makes the most sense in trying to explain the sideways-afterlife ending. But again, if TPTB wanted to keep the claim that the passengers of 815 survived the crash and the events happened to live human beings, then they should have been much clearer about that point - - - and told us when each person "truly" died (i.e., when did Sayid die - - - in the war, in the crash, in the temple, or on the sub?)

 4. I don't have a problem with fans who were satisfied with the ending. I believe these fans stripped the event story lines from their focus on the characters themselves in order to conclude that the happy ending was good. That is what entertainment is about: getting a personal connection and interpreting it. However, I don' agree with the interpretation that this is the only rational conclusion a fan can have when the series ended.

5. I have a problem with the TPTB's criticism of fans who believe they were "making it up as they went along." By their own comments, the producers-writers used flashbacks to "slow the story line down." They became obsessed with the flash backs and moving the story line away from a linear progression in order to elongate the series. Then flashbacks became filler; and filler became inconsistent canon. LOST started out as an action-adventure-drama of plane crash survivors, but it veered off course by Season 3 into a science fiction-fantasy world. The problem is that TPTB never explained this significant change of direction in the story elements. By making promises that there would be a rational explanation for the events, then not delivering on that promise, supports the criticism. Even today, TPTB have had ample opportunity to explain what the premise and how the story event interacted in the grand scheme of things - - - but they choose to allow all those questions to remain mysteries.

6. I understand that the producers and writers claim that their vision of LOST was fulfilled when the series ended. They ended the way they wanted it to end. That is their right. But for viewers, there is still the open question: could LOST have ended better?

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."

A PROVERB FOR LOST FANS

“ Do not anxiously hope for what is not yet to come; do not vainly regret what is already past. ”

— Chinese Proverb

VIEWER DATA

This is a chart of the six seasons of LOST based upon IMDb viewer ratings for each episode.

The two highest rated episodes were S3E22 "Through the Looking Glass" at 9.7 and  S4E5 "The Constant" at 9.7.

The two lowest episodes were S2E12 "Fire and Water" at 7.2 and S3E9 "Stranger in a Strange Land" at 7.2. 

S6E23 "The End" rated only a 7.9.

The rankings for each season opener:

1: 9.4
2: 9.2
3: 8.7
4: 8.9
5: 8.8
6: 8.8

Throughout the series, the median rating line from start to finish is 8.8 to 8.5.
The first season had a slow decline. The second season started off lower, and slowly went back to the level of the first season. The third season started lower than the second, but quickly moved up to surpass the high of the first season. The next season started at the level of season two and moved up a little. Season 5 started out lower than Season 4 but finished the same. Season 6 started very low and stayed pretty much up and down, with the second half cratering to the end.

UNHAPPINESS

I read recently a fan post trying to explain why people who were unhappy with LOST's ending. The poster said the reason was that those fans were unhappy in their own lives.

I disagree. It is disconnected conclusion. Even if fans were unhappy in their personal lives, they use entertainment like LOST as a means to escape their dreary lives. Fans who invested a great deal of time and energy in the complex story lines were promised and then expected a grand finale. If fans were disappointed by the ending, it was not because it mirrored their own personal lives. Quite to the contrary, LOST was supposed to fulfill happiness in them.

The disjointed "happy ending" that many fans enjoyed for the main characters is a throwback to some cultures were stories have to have a happy ending. Fairy tales are a good example. But dramas are not fairy tales unless things get mixed up along the way.

CHANGE: Don't just talk about it, go out there and do it. Don't just meditate about it, go out there and create it. Don't just pray about it go out there and take action; participate in the answering of your own prayer. If you want change, get out there and live it. — Steve Maraboli

Why LOST so drastically changed course on itself is a mystery. It was not answered at the 10th Anniversary Reunion or any subsequent interviews. 

We have discussed a theme of change before in reviewing LOST. One could find unhappiness in all of the main characters:

Jack: unhappy with his personal life to blame his father for everything wrong with it.
Hurley: unhappy with his personal life to blame his father's abandonment for his situation.
Locke: unhappy with his personal life to blame his father for betraying and stealing from him.
Claire: unhappy with her pregnancy because she came from a one parent home and can't handle responsibility.
Charlie: unhappy with his personal life because his band was his family unit when it broke up.
Kate: unhappy with her personal life because her mother loved an abused man more than her.
Bernard: unhappy that his wife had incurable cancer and he was desperate to find a miracle cure.
Sawyer: unhappy with his need to revenge his parents death that he turned into the man he hated all his life.

Every person has unhappiness in their lives. Life is a roller coaster, with highs and lows.

Many of the main characters did little to relieve their unhappiness. Exceptions included Kate, who blew up her house to "save" her mother. But that led to even more unhappiness and a fearful flight from justice. Also, Sawyer killed an innocent man because of his own personal demon for revenge.

Even during the series, the characters did not actively try to change their circumstances. They more often than not allowed things to happen to them. They were content to allow circumstances control them like a swift current carrying their body downstream. The merely accept where the current will take them, instead of swimming to their own shore.

And if LOST was a character driven experience of adventure, enlightenment and change, very little of that made it into the pages of the scripts. In the sideways church, they all appeared to be happy, but why? It would seem the reunion made each of them happy because they shared a common experience on the island. But for most, they never survived that experience. They never came to terms with their personal unhappiness. In the finale, all that happened was that their souls came back together in the after life. That reinforces the unhappy fact that the characters did not change at all. One could say that fate brought them all together; and fate would take them back into the light.

And that is a better reason for fan unhappiness with LOST's ending than trying to blame the fans for their own unhappiness.

ACROSS THE SERIES

I just finished watching fanmade episode 01x1, Across the Sea, on facebook/chrolost.

It was something I thought years ago somebody should try to do - - - put LOST in chronological order.

It was brilliant.

In certain respects, if this was the pilot, it would have made the series premise clear from the very beginning; why the island was special and magical.

But there was still the distraction of the time travel arc. It doesn't work when scenes are put in the right time line. The jumpy around for brief moments with characters is disjointed to the story and to the viewers.

However, after this first 49 minutes of the series, including the earliest time skip to the full Tarewet statute and Charlotte dying of nose bleed time skip, by pure accident there were some key points. First, the nose bleed. When Jacob and his brother were kids, Jacob got in a fight when his brother wanted to leave. That left him with a nose bleed. It would be symbolic of his future demise.

Second, Crazy Mother told Jacob's brother he was special because he was a good liar. And that she wanted him to take over as guardian, but he rejected that because he believed he could leave the island. She said no one could ever leave (which probably was the reason as a child she refused to answer his question "what is death?")

Third, the boys lived and grew for 43 years on the island, until Jacob's brother found a way to make the frozen donkey wheel and "leave" the island. Crazy Mother stopped that plan, and killed all the villagers. We always assumed that she did it because she was a smoke monster. But she had given the guardianship already to Jacob at the light cave, saying "you are now like me" to Jacob. Did the wine ceremony give Jacob the full knowledge of the island and the light cave - - - stopping his aging to become an immortal smoke monster.

Fourth, Crazy Mother was stabbed to death only because she did not see it coming or spoke a word to her killer. This is what Dogen would tell reincarnated Sayid to do to Flocke, but Sayid failed in his assassination attempt. However, this "rule" was not followed when Ben stabbed Jacob. They had a long conversation before Ben killed Jacob (or did he?)

Fifth, it is still unclear whether Jacob killed his brother and dumped his body into the stream or whether MIB died when he fell into the light cave. The result was that MIB turned into a smoke monster, flying out of the light cave and dropping Jacob's brother's body down stream. Crazy Mother said that Jacob should never go into the cave, because the result would be "worse than death." If a person goes into the light cave and turns into a smoke monster, then why did not Desmond or Jack become one in Season 6? The "resetting" of the stone cork in the light cave somehow made MIB mortal so he could be killed - - - but that procedure was not in effect to kill Crazy Mother, who was still an equal (smoke monster/immortal).

Sixth, the "special" guardians of the island have the dark or evil streak in them. Crazy Mother killed Claudia in order to secure her successor. Ghost Claudia came to young MIB to tell him about a way to go "home." If Claudia was a messenger or angel from heaven, she was trying to lead her son out of the island darkness to rejoin her in heaven. But it took 30 years of work and pent up rage in MIB, who agreed with Crazy Mother that the villagers, the humans, were greedy, corrupt and selfish but he only stayed with them as "as means to an end."

Seventh, when MIB and the Roman villagers were killed, the frozen donkey wheel chamber was not complete. However, in the next time frame, Locke is in the completed FDW cavern during the Egyptian island period. Lostpedia cites Claudia's death at 1 AD. This means that the Egyptian island period was the early Greco-Roman Egyptian period after the dynasties had come to an end. (However, this may still be a writer's continuity error). Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire when Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII were defeated at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. The conquest of Egypt and its incorporation into the Roman empire inaugurated a new fascination with its ancient culture. Obelisks and Egyptian-style architecture and sculpture were installed in Roman fora. The cult of Isis, the Egyptian mother goddess, had an immense impact throughout the Roman empire. But this begs the real question: who finished the FDW and who built the statute and temple?

Eighth, both Crazy Mother and Claudia state that they came to the island "by accident." That if any person tries to take more of the life source, it could go out. And if it goes out, then everyone's life force goes out. But it must have been Jacob or those he brought to the island that completed the FDW and built the monuments on the island. It was part of the "game" that Jacob created with MIB/smoke monster now that his brother was dead (now Jacob could make the rules). As such, Jacob also fell into the trap of being selfish, corrupt, and dark - - - by trapping people on the island for the sole purpose that he could find his successor. As in the cycle of life, there appears to be a cycle of successors with similar stories to guard the light cave.

Ninth, MIB as Christian in the FDW with Locke means that smoke monsters can also time travel with the island. Which means that Jacob could also time travel with it. How or why the island can time travel is never explained, but MIB tells Locke to see Eloise Hawking for answers. Likewise, on another part of the island, Daniel tells a dying Charlotte that he told Desmond to find his mother so she could help them. 

Tenth, since the island was the place of life, death and rebirth, it is possible viewing this chronology episode to see that Crazy Mother could have been "reborn" as Eloise. That is a new twist, which could really explain why Eloise knew everything about the island. If Crazy Mother was reincarnated for another life, then to Jacob and his brother would be in line for that promotion once the island was restored with a new guardian. The island was then not really a cycle of life, but a cycle of death.

THANKS

The LOSTheory blog has just turned a corner. More than 10,000 unique visits have been logged on this site. So, there must be still some interest in the series from fans. Therefore,  we will forge ahead with the discussions that is LOST.

SUSPEND BELIEFS

In many forms of entertainment, one has to suspend belief in order to enjoy the show. This is different than suspense, which is the creative choices to lead a viewer down a path of twists and turns to a climatic end. This is part of the creator-consumer bargain.

To suspend disbelief temporarily allow oneself to believe something that isn't true, especially in order to enjoy a work of fiction.

First, was the survival of a mid-air plane separation at high altitude. It is highly remote that anyone would have survived a terminal velocity fall into the ocean, beach or reef. But we accepted the premise that several people did survive the plane crash in order for their stories to move forward.

Second, was the appearance of a "smoke monster."  All supernatural things are unknown in our daily lives so we must forget reality and accept that monsters can exist in our entertainment world.

Third, was the mysterious "healing" properties of the Island. Rose was cured of her terminal cancer. Locke was cured of his permanent paralysis. We must accept that miracles can happen, just as in Jack's backstories about his miraculous spinal surgery results.

Fourth, that the island was a) unseen; b) moving; c) had strange light properties;  d) was surrounded by some type of snow globe barrier, and e) disappear without displacing any ocean water.  The acceptance of something unworldly and defies natural laws of physics begins to stretch the supernatural aspects of the story. But some people can buy in to the premise that the Island is not a island in the conventional sense.

Fifth, that characters meet horrific deaths but somehow come back to life. For example, Mikal (Patchy) had more lives than an alley cat including incineration by the sonic fence. Sayid was dead but somehow was resurrected at the Temple.

Sixth, that Desmond could have survived the Hatch explosion-implosion, then survive the megawatt EM shed which fried a workman. The ability of a human to transform into a superpower being is standard fare in action science fiction comics.

Seventh, that there is an unknown element called the Light Force which represents "life, death and rebirth."  And that this force somehow needs human intervention and protection in order to survive.

Eighth, that human beings can "create" their own purgatory to have happy reunions in the after life. Modern religion conventions seem to state the opposite.

Ninth, that an unknown entity that can shape shift, capture memories of the dead, and take human form can be killed by a rifle bullet. The smoke monster attacks on islanders was vicious and unstoppable. Sayid could not kill Flocke in its human form. We have to believe "something" changed to allow Flocke to die.

It is fine that the LOST mythology presented various aspects of our existence which we, as viewers, had to suspend our current knowledge, experience, and beliefs, in order to accept the story. But each of those belief suspensions now have to be taken with a grain of salt.

It is fine that writers create situations where they ask you to suspend your beliefs to go forth in a science fiction or supernatural world. But it is also the writer's responsibility to educate or explain why you should take that leap of story telling faith. In the above examples, the TPTB did not explain their fictional basis for any of these major plot points. There was no explanation of how these plot points could exist in the LOST world. There was no explanation of why these plot points were important to our understanding of the characters or the story arcs. The writers never tied these plot points together to explain any of the island mysteries.  Strange twists left hanging is like staring at a clothes line on a windy day.