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."

IN PASSING

Actress Mira Furlan has passed away. She was 65.

She will be remembered as Danielle Rousseau in LOST.

Her character was important as a means of telling the story about the Island. She was shipwrecked on the island 16 years before Flight 815.  As the Island Smoke monster began to manifest its evil in her crew, she lived to survive alone. She was pregnant. Her child, Alex, was stolen from her by Ben. It was her sense of revenge that kept her alive (and perhaps that led to the Smoke Monster allowing her to live).

Her story also introduced us to the Temple where the Smoke Monster apparently lived. It also set the stage to tell the story that survivors could co-exist with the Others. The truce would be a fragile one.

It also showed that mental issues were an embedded theme of the show. Living as a hermit for years made Rousseau a survivalist; keen to nature and her surroundings. When she captured Sayid, he was aware of how dangerous she could be. But he believed she was different than the Others.

When she joined the 815 survivors to fight the Others (as a means of reuniting with her daughter), many fans thought her death scene lacked the full potential of a reunion and worthy demise.

 

ISLAND: A NEW SERIES

The lock down of 2020 did spur some changes in entertainment viewing habits. Through streaming services like Netflix, international audiences have been exposed to k-dramas. South Korean television shows have their own set of tropes and story lines which are fresh to new audiences. One gateway series was "Crash Landing on You" which had an unbelievable premise (a South Korean heiress has a paragliding accident by crash landing in hostile North Korea only to find love with a NK soldier.)

A smaller network is promoting a new 2021 series.

The OCN Network is casting a new k-drama that may interest LOST fans.

“Island” is a fantasy exorcism drama based on a webtoon of the same name. It will tell the story of man who needs a woman to end his cursed immortal life and a woman who does not know about her sad and cruel fate. The two are joined by an exorcist priest who is consumed by the guilt of having been unable to protect one girl. On the island that possesses an evil darkness despite its beauty, the three characters who seem unlikely to get along will gather their strength to protect each other.

Won Mi-Ho is the only child of a father who runs the Daehan Group. She is arrogant and selfish, but she also looks sad. One day, she makes big trouble. Because of this, her father banishes her to Jeju Island. She is assigned to work there as a high school teacher. She teaches ethics. Meanwhile, Won Mi-Ho gets involved in a case related to ghosts. The ghosts have sought to get rid of the human world. They target Won Mi-Ho. A mysterious ghost hunter tries to protect Won Mi-Ho.

At first glance, the premise seems to be a concentrated version of the original LOST premise. A mysterious island inhabited by supernatural beings where human visitors need to unravel the mysteries in order to save themselves and mankind.

A LOST RANT

 ScreenRant listed the 10 worst “answers” of LOST:

10. The Whispers are Souls.

The whispers come from the souls of dead people who haven't "moved on" yet like Michael.
It was an answer that gave evidence to the early purgatory theorists, which the show runner continually deny.

9.  Desmond had Mind Powers because of Electromagnetism

Desmond’s powers were nonsense and caused "electromagnetism" stemming from the hatch implosion makes no sense because there were others near the Hatch who were not affected.

8.  The Sideways Timeline is Purgatory

 
The opening of Season 6 seemed to suggest that Juliet had split the timeline.
In one branch, the island remained and nothing changed. In the other branch, the island was destroyed and the events of LOST never occurred. But then we found out that it was not a branching timeline, but purgatory. It caused a lot of confusion — "they were dead the whole time!" — but even those who weren't confused were left bitterly disappointed and upset with the reveal. Even some tried to salvage the sideways branch as being some sort of “dream” state (before moving on?) but it all comes down to Bad Filler episodes.

 7.  Walt’s Special Powers

 
Walt plays an important role throughout the first season, and to some extent, the second season as well. It's very clear that he has some type of special connection with the island, and has some sort of mental powers. He also showed some sort of teleportation powers in Season 2, as he appears to Shannon right before she dies. But a growth spurt exiled Walt from the series and the disappointing answer for his mysterious powers was that he was "special.”

6.   Revived Locke was Actually the Man in Black

Locke dies midway through Season 5, but we were briefly led to believe that he was revived after returning to the island. Of course, Locke remained dead, and the Man in Black was simply using his corpse to have a corporeal form to split the Others from Jacob so he could try to escape the Island. Of course, a paralyzed Locke crash landing on the island can walk, run and hunt like an Outback warrior, but his remains stay dead without resurrection even though Jack’s dad wanders around it at will?

5.  The Confusing Numbers

The numbers were another major mystery, and they were a part of LOST from the very beginning. In the end, we found out that the numbers correlated to Jacob's numbering system for the candidates to replace him. Why would an island god need to be replaced by a mortal?  As if that wasn't lame enough, it also doesn't answer anything else: Why were they broadcasting from the tower? Why do they bring people bad luck? Why are they seemingly cursed? Why do they constantly recur both on and off the island?

4.  The Smoke Monster’s origins

There were countless theories regarding the Smoke Monster, and it remained one of the most prevalent questions throughout all six years of the show. And then we found out it was just the result of some magical reaction after Jacob’s brother (the Man in Black) fell in the magical glowing light cave.


3. Jacob and The Man in Black

For that matter, Jacob and the Man in Black  remain extremely divisive and controversial figures. "Jacob" was mentioned as far back as Season 3, and while there are various "hints" of their existence throughout the first couple seasons,  most people found their existence a total blindside that ruined the show. The show pivoted abruptly to a supernatural fantasy show with no reason. All the mysteries, questions and Easter eggs were washed away by two god-boys playing with humans (spirits) as pawns. There origin story episode was very good but it should have been shown early in Season 1 if that is the true mythology of the show’s creators (which most people believe was not - - - because they wrote themselves into too many dead ends to rationally explain.)

2.  Magic Island

Perhaps the biggest question of all contained the most disappointing answer of all. "What is the island?" It's a question that permeated LOST throughout all six seasons, as it was clearly evident that it wasn't just a regular island. There were scientific facts thrown at us to analyze, research and theorize. From an alien ship, to a parallel universe time portal to a secret military base, there were viable alternatives to the explanation that the island was just “magical.”  

1.  The Magic Light

But why was the island magical? The explanation was that the island containing some sort of “magical light” that does magical things and keeps evil at bay from doing what exactly? What is the magic light exactly? Was the magic light the cause for all the crazy island stuff?  Locke's sudden ability to walk?  Smoke Monster's origins?  The ability for the island to literally move through space and time?. Electromagnetic properties of the island? The ability to disappear? Magic as being the answer to all the unanswered questions is a cop-out of epic proportions.

WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?

 AN OUT-OF THE BLUE QUESTION:

WHAT IN LOST WOULD YOU HAVE CHANGED?

 There were plenty of unanswered questions, plenty of angst about the final seasons direction, and curses about the Ending. But generally, what would you as a loyal viewer want to have changed in the original series?

PLOT ELEMENTS? 

Did the show have to have its start as a plane crash survival story? Could have it been set in a different location such as hospital, mental institution, a secluded university campus or secret military base?

Did the show have to have a mixed genre premise? Could it have been a straight drama? Or could it have been a straight action-mystery?

Did the show need to have unclear time travel rules and supernatural smoke monster elements? If you took away the Jacob and the Island story line, would LOST still have delivered on its character goals?

CHARACTERS?

Would you have pared down the ensemble cast into a smaller focus group? Would you have eliminated the Tailies from consideration? Would you have changed the Others from its Ben's cult status to something else (like pagan, primitive natives with special powers such as worshipping the smoke monster)?

Would you have not used flash backs and flash forwards to give us the main characters pre-island stories? Would you have given the broken characters a new chance to live out their lives in their set, reality pain (such as Locke and his paralysis)?

Would you have given a secondary character a bigger role in the main story? Would the Others been better served under Patchy? What if the pilot survived to take control away from Jack? 

THE ENDING?

What did you really want to see in the final episode? Did you need a happy ending or could you have lived with a bitter island bloodbath? Did you need to see a post-island epilogue of the final survivors trying to cope back in the real world (such as Sawyer maybe uniting with his daughter)?

Would you have wanted to erase the flash sideways world in its entirety? Would you like the island stories to end, in context, on the island?

Would you have wanted one last twist - - - such as Hurley in the mental institution playing with an island snow globe?  

Would you have accepted a Sopranos style ending (sudden end to black) which was considered by the show runners?

A WORD FROM THE CREATORS

 At a recent virtual panel at NY Comic Con, LOST showrunner continued his advocacy for LOST. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse said there no plans for a reboot or spinoff of the series which had its 15th anniversary of its premiere. However, they would support another show in the LOST "universe" if someone had a great idea to convince Disney/ABC to do it.

 Lindelof and Carlton Cuse were asked what they both think about any possible reboot or spinoff. 

"It would not be a good idea for us to go back," Cuse said. "This comes up all the time and, I think, Damon and I have been very consistent and forthright on this topic. We told the story that we wanted to tell."

Over six seasons, LOST followed a group of survivors of Oceanic flight 815 who crash landed on an island. As they tried to go back home (and then get back to the island), it was consistently a top-rated show on ABC.

To this day fans love re-watching and discussing the series' few unsolved mysteries — including one Cuse and Lindelof said they'll never answer about the identity of the people on the Season 5 outrigger.

While they have no interest in rebooting "Lost" or exploring any spinoffs, Lindelof said he would be supportive of anyone who pitched a good idea. 

"If somebody else comes along who has a great idea to do something set in the 'LOST' universe and sells that to The Walt Disney Company, they will have our blessings to do that," Cuse said. "We see no reason to do it. It doesn't feel like there's anything that we have left to say that's worth saying. We did it."

Lindelof said Disney has never come to him with any other show pitches since the show wrapped up in 2010.

"For the three final seasons of the show — four, five, and six — we put so much emotional energy into ending this show," Lindelof added of why they have no need to revisit this world. 

After 15 years, the show continues to be a iconic series from the past. To re-create a show with that much detail and location shooting would cost double or triple the old budget (which was already high for its time). Another re-boot problem would be that it was a serial show, where each episode was linked to the next. This made it impossible for secondary revenue like television syndication, which demands intact single episodes of shows (in case people cannot watch everyone in a row).

The LOST universe itself is a cryptic concept. Fans still debate whether it was science fiction or fantasy. Fans still debate whether it was real, imaginary or a hybrid psychotic event(s). For all its flaws, it would be very difficult for another producer to re-create the magic of the Island and its mysteries.

THREE AND OUT

Yahoo News reported on LOST's back story from one of its co-creators.

LOST launched a television phenomenon by creating mysteries and Easter egg hunts like the numbers, the hatch, and The Others.  It had high ratings from the 2004 pilot right up until the finale in 2010.

A common debate has been when the series jumped the rails to go out into filler tangents and story line dead ends. Some believe the middle seasons were merely filler episodes which distracted from the original intent of the show.

Co-creator Damon Lindelof  all but admitted it when he recently said the original outline for the ABC series was a three-season run.

“There were all of these compelling mysteries and so we were saying, ‘We wanna have this stuff answered by the end of Season 1, this stuff answered by the end of Season 2, and then the show basically ends after about three years,’” Lindelof told Collider. “That was the initial pitch.”

“[ABC] were not even hearing it… they were just like, ‘Do you understand how hard it is to make a show that people want to watch? And people like the show? So why would we end it? You don’t end shows that people are watching.’”

Eventually, ABC allegedly agreed to set an end date for the show – but on its own terms: 10 seasons.

That never came to pass, as Lindelof eventually reached a compromise during negotiations around Lost’s third season.

Lindelof was set on a longer fourth season to wrap the story up which still involved “a number of the characters” getting off the island and later returning for the final run. When ABC offered just nine episodes, the two parties settled on slightly shorter seasons up to season six, a marked departure compared to the 20-plus episode seasons we got in the show’s first two years.

Despite the apparent directional conflict with the network, LOST moved forward, with all its flaws, to the controversial finale. Would have a concentrated LOST series have been better? Would more mysteries been solved? Would the End be different?

 Let's look back at the first three seasons as a guide with the help of lostpedia:

Season 1 concentrated on the middle-section survivors and their fight for survival and rescue. This was the modern update of the Robinson Caruso shipwreck story. It is a classic premise to hook viewers with a familiar story told in a new way.

Major plot points included:

Finding a suitable camp location.
Half the survivors, including Kate, Sawyer, and Sayid settled on a beach near the crash site.
The rest, led by Jack, chose to live in the caves which are located in the jungle, near a source of fresh water.
Investigating the Island (searching for food and water, discovering the caves, and learning about the Black Rock).
Confrontations with The Monster.
Getting to know and trust each other (see especially Kate, Locke, Sawyer, and Jin).
There is a relatively long-standing animosity between Michael and Jin: the latter attacked the former in order to get his watch back, which Michael had found in the wreckage of the plane.
The survivors (especially Jack and Shannon) begin to question Locke's intentions due to his lie about Boone's injury and consequent death.
Trying to leave the island.
Building and launching the raft.
Hunting for Claire, after she was taken by the Others.
Opening the Hatch found by Locke and Boone.
Started to tell the survivors' story by introducing and using Flashbacks.

The early story was basic survival: food, shelter and water. Also, a means of rescue.
But the survival group was not unified so individuals personal instincts were more important than uniting around  common leader. This was the early character conflict between those who thought they would lead.

The mysteries were unusual: the Black Rock ship found in the middle of the island; the Smoke Monster, the Others and the Hatch.  The story pivoted from basic survival to danger from Monster, the Others and the Island itself.




Season 1 Finale: As the castaways brace themselves for an attack, Claire's baby is kidnapped, leading Charlie and Sayid on a dangerous chase into the jungle. While the threat of the Others bears down on the castaways, the raft crew continues their flight from the island - but when the hope of rescue appears on the horizon, they will soon learn that appearances can be deceiving. Charlie and Sayid stumble into a trap as they race to confront the kidnapper. Jack and Locke argue as they prepare to blow open the hatch. The raft crew is overjoyed to be discovered by a passing ship, but their elation is short-lived when they realize things are not what they appear. The hatch is opened, and what is inside it stuns the survivors.
 

Season Two focused on the Hatch. To find something scientific and out of the ordinary on the Island filled the castaways with hope (and food and protection) but also doubt (what was its purpose on the island). The writers were praised for effectively using flashbacks to flesh out the secrets of the characters.

Major plot points included:

The Swan, the Numbers, and pressing the button, all of which appeared to have been resolved by the end of the season.
The tail-section survivors, whose stories began and ended in the season, with the exception of Eko and Bernard.
The Others, including Tom, Goodwin, Klugh, and the fake Henry Gale (Ben).
The DHARMA Initiative stations/
Continued to tell the survivors' story by using flashbacks

Finale: Live Together, Die Alone: After discovering something odd just offshore, Jack and Sayid come up with a plan to confront "The Others" and hopefully get Walt back. Meanwhile, Eko and Locke come to blows as Locke makes a potentially cataclysmic decision regarding the "button" and the Hatch.

Season 3 mainly focused on the Others who had become the biggest danger to the castaways survival.

Major plot points included:

The Others (including Juliet Burke, Tom Friendly, Ben Linus and Richard Alpert), who they are, why they are on the Island, the way they live their lives and who leads them.
Contact with the outside world, including Penny; the Flame and Galaga being destroyed.
Desmond's future-telling powers, going back in time and Charlie's imminent death, and to a lesser extent, time.
The mysteries of the island, mainly pregnancy issues and the healing properties (see Mikhail).
The arrival of Naomi and the freighter.
Continued to use Flashbacks and during the final episode of the Season 3 they first introduced the Flash-forward idea that was used throughout all of Season 4.

Finale: Through the Looking Glass:  Jack and the castaways begin their efforts to make contact with Naomi's rescue ship.

"Through the Looking Glass" means where nothing is quite what it seems. In Lewis Carroll's book, it can mean clocks that work backwards or "... a poor sort of memory that only works backwards."
Alice again enters a fantastical world, this time by climbing through a mirror into the world that she can see beyond it. There she finds that, just like a reflection, everything is reversed, including logic (e.g. running helps you remain stationary, walking away from something brings you towards it, chessmen are alive, nursery rhyme characters exist, etc.).

At the end of Season 3, current reflection shows series turned to pure fantasy and not reality.


But by the end of Season 3, LOST could have wrapped up its main stories without jumping the shark (literally and figuratively) with the entire Jacob Temple worship story which attempted to merge ancient religions with an old Greek surreal tale of sibling rivalry.


A three season run would have boiled the LOST story universe into easily absorbed plots:

1. The conflict and tension in the 815 survivors camp on leadership and direction for survival. A passenger class struggle between the middle section and the tail section who had more contact and suspicions about the Others.
2. The external conflict and combat with the Others who claim the Island and its magical properties as their own. The story would have concentrated more on the science cult's obsession with time, pregnancy and mental experiments (which could have easily explained the Monster as being the physical manifestation of mentally ill minds through the Island's unique electromagnetic fields). In other words, the Smoke Monster would have been the island Frankenstein, roaming the island after breaking out of its captivity.
3. The realization that the only way to leave the Island was through the Others assets (boats, communications, etc.) or through rebellion (the freighter coming back to dethrone Ben as the island leader.) It could have been an interesting dynamic on whether Widmore would be as evil as Ben or whether he would have rescued the 815ers then restore the "real" original research of the Island. This would have been a cleaner and more logical ending to the series as it avoids the pitfalls of supernatural beings and clear evidence of a purgatory premise. The main characters would be given an opportunity to "go home" on the freighter or "stay" to live a new life on the Island.

THE END REVEALED BY A SLIP OF THE TONGUE

When the Sopranos ended its television run, it did so in such a fashion that it had its fandom up-in-arms, cursing and wondering what the hell happened to their favorite show. It ended with a hard cut to black. No one knew what would have happened next even though the episode built up to a climatic ending. Boom, without warning, the series ended.

With this type of controversial ending now possible, LOST fans worried that its show runners would also try to pull a large "fake out" to avoid answering the calls of diehard fans for answers to the key mysteries.

The writers did try to get out of years of story layers when they thrust upon us the flashforward universe, where the characters were living different lives but apparently in the same island time frame. It began to call into question whether the flashbacks were actually truthful portrayals of the characters prior to the crash landing on the island. For if the flashforwards were not "real" in the sense that that universe was merely a holding world until the souls of the friends could reunite in the after life, then the same could have been true of the flashbacks (which contained some serious medical and legal errors). If the flashbacks were a dream state, what was the island? A collective dream state or purgatory as speculated by some season one viewers.

LOST viewers never got the clarity from the producers about the last season. We were merely told that the show was always "character focused" so they did not have to answer the complaints.

After many years of debate, Soprano fans got their answer. From recent NY Post article:

The Sopranos” creator David Chase accidentally spoiled the finale during a leaked interview for  his book celebrating the Emmy-winning HBO mob drama.

At the end of 2007’s final episode, titled “Made in America,” Tony Soprano (played by the late James Gandolfini) is eating out with his family amid a turf war between the New Jersey and New York Mafia families while an enemy hit man waits in their midst.

The screen then fades to black as Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” blares on the soundtrack, leaving it ambiguous whether the show’s star gets whacked — until now.

Spoiler alert: In the roundtable discussion, co-author Alan Sepinwall asked Chase, “When you said there was an end point, you don’t mean Tony at Holsten’s [the diner], you just meant, ‘I think I have two more years’ worth of stories left in me.’ ”

Then Chase, 74, dropped the bombshell: “Yes, I think I had that death scene around two years before the end … But we didn’t do that.”

Noticing his epic leak, co-author Matt Zoller Seitz chimed in: “You realize, of course, that you just referred to that as a death scene.”

“F - - k you guys,” replied Chase upon realizing his blunder.

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.

THE BIG SIM

One of the Big Theories for the premise of LOST was that the entire series was an elaborate mental dream, a collective dream or a computer simulation. It was not real. It was pure imagination.

Hurley was the perceived imagination engine. He was the one character that actually had vivid, structured and strong imaginary friends. One almost got him to jump off an island cliff, after telling him "none of this is real."

There were other clues that Hurley's mind was in control. The Others lab featured rooms that were based on psychological manipulation to mind control. The lab people were dressed and functioned like the doctors and nurses at his mental institution. Likewise, Hurley was able to move in and out of the institution like he owned the place.

Another strange thing was that Libby was in Hurley's same day rule at the mental hospital, but he did not recognize her when she showed up on the island. Hurley was friendly with everyone at the hospital; just like at the island everyone was his friend. The idea that Libby would fall in love with Hurley is something he could have longed for - - -  recall, he lost the clerk young woman to his best friend.

The idea of the "collective coma" was a theory I stated when the series was still running along. It was basically that a series of coma patients were hooked together on a local area network to track brain wave activities. However, the coma patients minds are much more active than the patients outward appearance, so they have created their own virtual world (all of which predates our current AR and virtual reality headsets). Bits and pieces of the patients memories could have been used by Hurley and others to create the island world, the adventures and action which none of patients could fathom because of their medical conditions.

Locke's miracle recovery when he landed on the island is another example of "mind over matter" imagination. Locke believed he was an Australian outback hunter, but the wheelchair made that dream an impossible nightmare. He created his own path and adventure in the island world.

There is also a possibility that the main characters major accomplishments may have been embellished. Jack had a huge daddy complex. He suddenly became a miracle surgeon, to surpass his father's hospital status. But what if he was not an accomplished surgeon - - - but a mental patient who has hallucinations of his dead father. In order to patch things up, he dreams of a way to show his father that he was worthy of his praise.

It is the same motivational theme with his father's abandonment of him. It was something that stuck in Hurley's mind. He turned to eating to cope with the abandonment. It made him unattractive and unmotivated to succeed in life. He dreamed of being a rich and successful man. The only way that could have happened was the miracle win of the lottery - - - which in turn was his curse that he tried to runaway from.

Kate's own daddy issues made her runaway from reality. Her back story was one of manipulation and adventure but she never suffered any true consequences for her crimes. The unbelievably wrong trial was clearly the outcome of a delusional criminal.

All the bits and pieces of the LOST tangential story lines can be easily merged into one big mental simulation of events. An adventure for those who cannot adventure. Those people who wasted their lives without accomplishment, true friends or a path to enlightenment. Yes, LOST had its sci-fi fantasy elements but those can also be created in the imagination of one or more main characters.

SLEEP

Sleep literally cleans your brain. During slumber, more cerebrospinal fluid flushes through the brain to wash away harmful proteins and toxins that build up during the day.

Harmful build up of proteins and brain toxins can lead to neurological damage. Many dementia patients have a difficult time sleeping. They can never "switch off" their brains in order to rest. The brain is in constant "on" mode which can lead to hallucinations, temper and mood changes.

Throughout the series, the castaways were shown constantly on the move, day and night, mission after mission, worn down by lack of sleep. The physical strains of island survival took a mental toll on them. They became irritable, possessive, paranoid, abusive and sly. Even level headed Sawyer showed those various traits as the days and weeks passed on the island.

If the first theme of the show was the standard "how would you survive on a deserted island," then the basic survival instincts would take charge of your body. The gut instinct of fear of the unknown would be front and center in your mind. What is behind the bushes? What is that noise? Is something out there that can harm me?

That is why the castaways felt compelled to stay together; strength in numbers. That is also why they chose the beach to set up camp; they only had to worry about the land side at night.

Getting past the fear, castaways in this situation would have four things on their mind: food, water, shelter and rescue. The island seemed to have sufficient plant life to provide some basic nutrition. Water was the first problem that needed to be solved which led to exploring the island. Shelter was from the airplane debris which kept the castaways focused on something else besides their plight.

The one issue that did not take center stage was rescue. It was more an afterthought than a compelling mission. Even when they found a way by finding the cockpit radio, things stopped by a tragic death. Only when the Others created a more dramatic need for survival did the main characters, as leaders, tried to find a way off the island. Michael's boat was really the first and last chance. When the freighter arrived, a second set of danger emerged which left most of the castaways unable to escape.

Throughout the incidents, it seemed that main characters stopped thinking rationally - - -  asking the key questions to their colleagues. Information was sparsely communicated on a need to know basis. This led to jealousy and splits among the group. The island began to assert a deranged assertiveness in both Jack and Locke which drove a stake between a combined effort to leave the island.

At one point, Hurley hallucinations became so real that he almost killed himself by jumping off a cliff. His friend, who may have been imaginary, almost got him to buy into the premise that the only way to leave the island was to die.  In some respects, this was a true statement. (Anti-purgatory theorists will not fixate on the Ending church as anything particular to island life.)

Hurley was the world in which the other characters orbited. Hurley was the only character to truly fit into all the castaway sub-groups and with the Others. (He was let go without any torture or retribution.) Some theorists believed that the entire show was within Hurley's own mind. A sleep depraved mind that got the story line farther and farther away from reality as each season ended. Hurley was a known mental patient - - - who seemed to get along with all the day room patients just like he did with the island people. He was not special. He was not a forceful personality. He was not a danger. He was the perfect observer.

Or, in the analogy to another fantasy, he could have been the Wizard behind Oz's curtain.

Collective dream theorists think that Hurley could have been the "thought engine" that connected the various characters subconscious dreams, desires, thoughts and issues to "life" on an imaginary island world. Dreams and a weakened mental state was suggested as the reason why the story lines had so many continuity errors and dead ends.

With so many tangents weaved into the LOST episodes, it is not difficult losing sleep over trying to figure everything out.

THE SICKNESS

It takes a pandemic to put the microscope back on the deadly Sickness that haunted part of the LOST story. In today's world, people fear the coronavirus. It preys on people with pre-existing medical conditions and immune disorders. It is a novel virus which means there is no past immunity. It can spread quickly as it is a respiratory virus.

Characters in LOST were deathly afraid of The Sickness.

The Sickness manifested as a severe mental change on the part of the afflicted. In 1988, shipwreck survivor Robert tried to kill Danielle, his financee. In fact, except for Danielle, her entire party was taken over by the Sickness, which we thought was caused by the Smoke Monster attacking them at the Temple. Danielle began exhibiting what appeared to be similar paranoid delusions, though she claimed to be the only crew member to escape the sickness. Danielle personally killed all other members of her expedition and other characters wrote her off as insane. Sayid, after his infection, killed even more readily than usual, and he said he could no longer feel emotions. The Others were paranoid about the infection. The medical labs were obsessed with reproduction and Claire' baby. They injected her with an alleged vaccine, which did not work.  Claire post-infection became a mentally unstable, paranoid murderer and cradled a boar's skull to replace her baby.

Dogen, the Temple leader, tortured Sayid in order to measure his level of good and evil. According to Dogen, the infection was irreversible. As a result, he tried to trick Jack into poisoning Sayid.


What is believed the infection was in reality a demonic mind possession by MIB (Smoke Monster). It was part of his plan/game to get back at Jacob, who kept his "imprisoned" on the Island. If MIB could develop an army of infected followers, he could take down Jacob to get his freedom. In the last season, MIB was succeeding in the role as fake Locke when he massacred the temple occupants. Those who survived but not directly infected, were controlled by fear. Once there free will was compromised, they could be manipulated against Jacob.

It is a natural human instinct to fear the unknown. Death is the greatest unknown. Something you cannot see in the darkness, is a great unknown. A virus so small it is invisible can enter one's body to reek havoc. In today's panic world, daily updates of confirmed cases and fatalities has the world on edge.

People are told to stay at home. Shelter in place. They have panic purchased supplies including a vast run on toilet paper. It gets to a point of irrational behavior.

Just as in LOST's story line, it plays out in a similar fashion in real life.

FROM THE DARKNESS TO THE DAWN

If one looks back at the legacy of LOST, it was a dark friend who could not find his final path.

It began as an action-drama in the vestiges of tales of shipwreck sailors on uninhabited, savage tropical islands. The viewers were drawn into the story as "what would I do?" "How would I survive?" and "This is what I would do" questions in their minds. But we quickly saw the reality of the situation: death. Tragic death.

It quickly shifted to dramatic politics as alpha males started to lobby the survivors to impose their dominance over the group. Jack was the reluctant leader, over the burning desire of Locke and the self-interest of Sawyer.

But the leadership issue was secondary to the instinctive greed of the castaways. Survival of the fittest was the rule of the day. Sawyer began to hoard valuable things which made him into an outcast, a role that he enjoyed. Because he had no connection to the group, he could con them out of their perceived valuables. Kate also fell back into her pre-island survival tactics: charm and escape.

As the days, weeks and months went on, darkness beset our friend. We would see the return of the inner madness in Hurley as his imaginary friend tried to convince him to kill himself. Sawyer would not hesitate to kill Locke's father in a "deal." The Others, especially Ben, had no remorse in ruling by fear and death.

Even the island's guardian angel, Jacob, did not intervene when his Temple followers were massacred by his brother. We were told that this cycle of human carnage was the norm for the Man in Black in his game with Jacob.

In a sense, whether you thought it was true or literary, our island friend was in purgatory; a place where one could not leave on your own - - - trapped in the deepest, darkest and troubled portions of your personality. 

It has been said that it always darkest before the dawn. Before the final duel with MIB, the island was in chaos. Splinter groups hid in terror or joined the hunt to destroy the remaining castaways. It was only when Jacob "died" to give Jack the magic power to defeat his brother, did only a handful of people could break their physical and mental chains to leave the island cesspool of damnation.

We never saw what the dawn of a new day would have brought to the survivors who flew off Hydra Island in a broken airplane flown by an alcoholic pilot because the show diverted into a parallel universe. The flip side of darkness, a lighter more gentle (almost medicated) view of the main characters. But even then, they were subconsciously haunted by their island past.

In the end, when the full light engulfed the church, no one can say for sure that anyone found true redemption, true happiness, or even hope of enlightenment. The white light like white noise was a background element that erased the moment only to leave lingering questions in its wake.

LEADERSHIP

Joe DiMaggio said, “A person always doing his or her best becomes a natural leader, just by example.”

In LOST, there were various characters who pushed to become leaders. It was a mix of office politics and mortal combat.

Jack was the Reluctant Leader. He got the job from the 815 survivors because he was a doctor. There were injured people who needed his help. He gave instructions . . . people listened to him. But a few did not like Jack because he got the respect they did not. Sawyer, for example, wanted the appreciation of being a leader without the responsibility. Only after the time flash skip to become the sheriff of the others did Sawyer learn what it took to protect his people.

Locke was the Hopeful Leader. He always wanted to be acknowledged and accepted for his skills so that he could be one of the popular kids. The fact that his foster home orphan upbringing gave him the anger and bitterness that would shape his adult life and decisions was not lost on the writers. For every opportunity to take a leadership role, he failed because he demanded too much. When he came back to camp with food, he thought he would be accepted as a leader. But Jack was still the man. Locke never let go of that rivalry. When Locke was thought of the chosen leader of the Others, one who could dethrone Ben, he took the chance to seize total control over the group. But the one condition he could not meet: killing his own father.

Ben was also an outcast. He grew up in the environment of an alcoholic father who blamed him for the death of his mother (in childbirth). As a result, Ben was a shy, bitter boy who dreamed of controlling his own destiny. When the Others were in a leadership flux, he took control by means of violence - - - slaying his rivals to seize total control like a military dictator. He used fear and threats to become the Absolute Leader on the island. But being a dictator brought detractors in his own group who wanted to have someone to remove Ben from power.

Leadership is a double edged sword. It can be used to offensively consolidate power, direction and support for the common good. Or it could be used defensively to hold onto power, unilaterally force decisions and abuse authority for corrupt purposes.

All of those elements were seeded in LOST's story lines. None of the main character leaders had a good final result. There leadership strengths would turn into their personal weaknesses. Even Jacob, the islands real, True Leader, succumbed to his own hubris.

DREAM RESEARCH

One of the stronger theories of LOST addicts is that the entire premise of the show was one trapped in a dream.

Whose dream is an open question. As is why humans dream at all.

Scientists are still not sure why we dream.  But new research in mice suggests that the brain might be using periods of deep sleep to clear out residual memories to make room for fresh ones.

Published in the journal Science, researchers in Japan observed the mice's hypothalamus while the mice slept. During their deep REM sleep - - -which is associated with dreaming in humans - - - a type of neuron that produced a hormone called MCH had a sharp uptick in activity. The MCH neurons also appeared to be targeting neurons in the hippocampus, the brain region that consolidates memories.

In an experiment, researchers isolated MCH neurons in the mice's brains for observation. The mice were allowed to sniff and play with two toys, which were removed when the mice had become familiar with them. Later, the mice were given a familiar toy and a new toy. With their MCH neurons artificially activated, the mice sniffed them both—suggesting that their memory of them was worse. When the neurons were artificially deactivated, the mice were able to remember that they had already been exposed to the familiar plaything.

The ability of MCH neurons to go patrolling the hippocampus during REM sleep led the paper’s authors to suggest the brain might use this dream stage to do some neurological tidying up, getting rid of non-crucial information so fresh data can be processed.

Why would we want to forget things? An abundance of information can be overwhelming and inhibit the ability to make sense of new knowledge. But if something is truly important—a birthday, a PIN number, a vacation—the brain will hang on to it.

If you want a technology analogy, it is like de-fragmenting your hard drive. Bits and pieces of computer information (code) is randomly stored on your hard drive media. But over time, accessing bits of information get stored in different places on the drive. When you run a preventative maintenance program, it rejoins the associated information bits for better access.

One of the reoccurring oddities of the show was the frustrating part that the main characters "forgot" key information at important moments. As a viewer, "how stupid!" was a common reaction to a character falling into a known trap. This study could be an explanation that the characters' memories were being erased by new memories (or brain washing).

Also, if the story engine was in the mind of one character, such as Jack or Hurley, then certain stimulus or an overactive imagination could jumble up aspects of his fantasy world to create continuity errors.

Story continuity errors was a big gripe during the show's run. It was bad enough that certain questions were asked but never answered, but drastic errors made some people wonder if the writers were getting lazy or there was a deeper meaning. The consensus in the end was the former.

The dream theory also gets some credence because of the Sixth Season's forced "happy ending" in the church for the main characters. The story and show premise did a 180 DEGREE turn on the adamant "this is not set in hell or purgatory" show runner promise to an after life after show.

This current science study may be a small point in the larger picture of what we do not know about ourselves. Likewise, it also shows how much we still do not know about LOST, the series.

STRANDED

Waltzing through the deep cable channels, I came across an old Simpsons episode. One of the sub-plots was about Homer's obsession with a TV show, called STRANDED. Yes, it was a parody of LOST.

Homer started watching the show on the Internet on his TV. He quickly became addicted to it, trying to solve all the theories with the show. Homer held a meeting to discuss the show with his friends, but he has only seen the first three seasons. Homer gets mad that  they keep telling him future episode spoilers.  Marge, now annoyed at Homer's addiction to the show, then revealed the full plot to the show, upsetting Homer. Homer eventually was invited to her Stranded-style bedroom where Homer was happy to go to bed with her.

 The plot of the fictional (parody) series is described as:

A plane crash leaves several people stranded on an island. One of the islanders opens up a coconut to find his childhood pet cat with the plane flight's number on its collar. Another islander was telling someone else not to believe anything he said in the past because that was not him, but it was him now, but in less than a second he would be gone forever. Then, the lava being takes him away. In an episode stated to solve one mystery, the islanders find a wall covered in a strange writing.
It is revealed that the island is 15 miles from Long Beach , Throwaway 3 leads to Hell, despite the series creator's insistence that it did not lead to Hell and the entire "Strandiverse" is a piece of gravel in a cosmic kitty litterbox. 

Homer is shocked to learn that the characters were stranded on the island due to a plane crash, and also is baffled by a flashback raising more questions than it answered. Eventually, one of the main characters, while opening a coconut, discovered a cat he had as a child inside, as well as his nametag having the numbers of his flight, with the cat purring "purgatory" and their wondering where they were. Homer got so attached to the series that he ended up spending more time watching the show than actually exercising. A major antagonist for the series was the Lava Being. Marge eventually discovers Homer not actually exercising and gets mad, especially when he had earlier blew off the series with her. Eventually, she spoils the last episode, revealing that the island was 15 miles from Long Beach, that the Al, Doorway Three led straight to Hell despite the writers insisting it did not actually go there, and the whole "Strandiverse" was merely a gravel in a cosmic kitty litter box, outraging Homer, although he forgave Marge when she offered a romantic evening to see the last episode.  

While the Simpsons will continue to be shown for eternity on every imaginable broadcast distribution method, LOST will continue to ride along as be a footnote in parody episodes.

GOLDEN PASS

Daniel Dae Kim has built a golden pass after LOST.

In a recent conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Kim also discusses his preparation for his role in the reboot version Hellboy, and reflected on his moments on the Lost set, as well as his reflections on his final scene as Jin on LOST.  FROM THE INTERVIEW:

Fifteen years ago, you arrived in Hawaii to film Lost's pilot, and it sounds like you haven't left since.

That is correct. If you would've asked me when I was a little kid growing up in Pennsylvania whether or not I would spend the majority of my career in Hawaii, I would've laughed. But, stranger things have happened, and they actually have. I'm here, and it really feels like I found home for me and my family.

Do you still feel Hawaii's laid-back vibe despite living there?

That vibe really does exist, but like any other place, once you're there for more than just a vacation, you learn a lot more about the people and the location that deepens your knowledge base. That can be both positive and negative. It's still an amazing place to live, and the fact that I'm choosing to live here — even though I'm not working here any longer — says everything.

Is it tricky navigating Hollywood from afar? Are you flying back and forth constantly?

Yes. (Laughs.) It's very difficult. I think I've gotten platinum status on two different airlines in the past year. I literally flew 200,000 miles in the last calendar year.

There's a Lost "golden pass" joke that practically writes itself here, but I'll refrain for now.

(Laughs.) Right! But, it's worth it. My family loves it here. My children got to spend their entire childhood here. It's a pretty special place.

When you reflect on Lost, what are some of the smaller memories or in-between moments that surprisingly stick with you, such as Terry O'Quinn playing guitar offscreen?
That's a good question. The first things that pop up are the moments in between takes. Because we were all friends, our time together — between takes — was as special as the time that we were actually shooting. The moments where the guitars would come out, all of our set chairs would be in a circle, so we could all see each other and talk to each other. There were several of us who play guitar and a lot of us who sang. So, spontaneous sing-along sessions would just kind of break out, and certain times we would get so passionate about them that we would delay shooting because we needed to finish a version of "Roxanne" that we were all singing. (Laughs.)

Co-showrunner Carlton Cuse used to talk a lot about how Jin and Sawyer tested at the bottom of cast in the early days of the show. After all you were both antagonists, so you're not supposed to be liked. By the end, your characters were beloved by test audiences. Since you probably didn't know the entirety of Jin's massive arc as of season one, did you lament Jin's reception at first, even though you were fulfilling the role as the writing intended?

Yes. Absolutely, I did. I was very concerned about it. Though I was reassured that the character was going to grow and develop, what I wasn't sure about was how the show would be received. If, for instance, we got four or five episodes on the air and then we got canceled, the entirety of Jin's character would be what you saw at the beginning. To me, that was problematic because it represented a number of stereotypes that I worked so hard to avoid in my career. So, that was my concern. I had a lot of faith in J.J. [Abrams] and Damon [Lindelof] that if the show continued, the character would grow and deepen; they had assured me of that. So, it wasn't a matter of trusting them, it was just a matter of trusting whether or not the show would be successful.

Many fans consider Jin and Sun to be Lost's greatest romance. Their conclusion on the submarine affects me each and every time I see it. Since the show has now been off the air for almost nine years, has your rationalization of Jin's decision to leave his daughter behind changed at all?
 
I can see both sides of that decision, but the thing that I keep coming back to is that he had wronged his wife in many ways. The decision to stay with her was part of his atonement. That's the emotional place where that decision came from. I think there was the rational question of whether or not he would've made it out alive, and I think all of those combined for him to make the choice that he did. To me, it was a very powerful statement about love and making that sacrifice for an ideal and a feeling that is undeniable.

LEGACY SHOWS

Since LOST there have been many iconic and epic television shows that critics and fans stressed over.

Breaking Bad was a media darling based upon its premise, its script and its compelling actors.

Currently, the fantasy epic Game of Thrones is on everyone's radar. The coffee room talk is very high on this series as fans are eagerly anticipating the climatic ending.

But it is very hard for a show to keep itself on the rails when fan expectations are so far ahead of the ability of the writers and staff to meet those expectations.

There are the big, deep film franchises like Avengers: End Game which will set in the next few weeks a world wide box office record of more than $3 billion.

But there are iconic series, like Star Trek and Star Wars, who have had their spin-offs, sequels and prequels not being received as highly as the original shows. Some of that is viewer burn-out of the franchise's story. In some cases, the original show fan base has aged out and the material does not hook younger viewers. There are more diversions now for people to spend their entertainment time, such as video games, YouTube broadcasts and Twitch streams.

LOST is still considered a legacy show because it long running series that captured the imagination of both critics and fans to the point of obsession on every detail. Game of Thrones has many similar attributes as fans are trying to figure out who will survive to the End. And the End is the key to the legacy of a series.

For many, LOST's ending was weak to a fail. For others, it was the perfect happy ending for their favorite characters. Many thought the questions had to be answered about the mythology of the show. Others thought the final character development was more important. Insiders have tried to conceal many of the production issues which partially caused major shifts in scripts and settings which may or may not have caused the strange, disjointed final season to come together.

The debate of LOST's End is a continuation of the in-season debates about the motivations of the characters, who was good, who was evil, and what everything meant to mean in the Big Picture. This on-line fan community debates were just as important as the show itself.

The only problem with LOST's legacy is that it is frozen in time. People still remember it, but memories will fade over time. It is not in syndication because it is a series that builds upon each previous episode. It is not like a sit-com that has a self contained 30 minute story line resolution. As such, LOST does not have the continuing traction of Star Trek, which continues to be syndicated and shown on a daily basis across the cable spectrum. In that regard, LOST will never be as popular as Star Trek.  But it may be more important to future screenwriters on the pitfalls of expectations in creating a legacy show.

LOST IN PRODUCTION

In a 2017 article, Jeff Jensen wrote that LOST producers were banking on a massive volcano story line to wrap up the island origin of the smoke monsters, but ABC refused to pay for it.

The use of the volcano was supposed to show us how the smoke monster was created, by Jacob throwing his brother into it. In many cultural myths, sacrifices to the gods used volcanoes as part of the worship rituals. The producers wanted to use a temple with the volcano scenes, but ABC balked because creating temples were expensive.

The show did show a temple with very detailed ancient Egyptian signs and symbols. It was the place where the Man in Black took his angry revenge on the remaining Others. This temple appeared to be the root of Jacob's power over the people he brought to the island. Its priest held forth a cult in which the spirit or smoke monster could not enter until it reached human form.

A BBC article stated:

Often cultures have seen active volcanoes as the abode of gods - typically gods quick to anger.

“I think the creation of myths is essentially the human reaction to witnessing a natural process that you cannot explain, says Haraldur Sigurdsson, a U.S. volcanologist  “So you attribute it to supernatural forces and you say it is a battle between the giants and the gods.”

Was the island story a battle of angry gods, Jacob and his brother?

If true, then how could simple human beings defeat them?

The Man in Black, smoke monster, believed he was trapped or imprisoned on the island. Jacob claimed that he was the guardian of the island. Was Jacob the prison guard to MIB? Was his sole purpose not to unleash an evil spirit upon the world? The island was phasing in and out of the Earth realm to be hidden from humans, because they would be drawn into using the evil to destroy the planet?

Was Jacob bringing humans to the island a means of appeasing MIB? Instead of playing ancient board games, the two devised a game using humans as pawns.

But at a certain point, the brothers grew tiresome of their company and their mutual curse of being trapped on the island. For Jacob to be released, he would have to trick a human to become the new guardian. For MIB to be released, he would have to die which is difficult for an immortal spirit.

It is interesting that the show runners and the network were at odds on production budgets to the point where the story had to change. This confirms some skeptics who said the writers were making up the show on the fly. The fly was the network not allowing them to produce their vision.

But would have the volcano story line "solved" the ending issues?

No. Even if the whole general premise was overlaid with Polynesian mythology of volcanoes, gods and sacrifices, it does not explain the sideways world, the parallel universe, the Flight 815 plane crash and the ending in the church.

THE END GAME

The Sopranos, the crime family drama, is having its 20th anniversary. Some reports state that there may be a sequel in the form of a prequel that begins where the original show ended (in a diner with a jolting, quick fade to black).

It was that ending that inspired other creative types (writers and show runners) to mess with their audience. One of the prime directives of a writer is to tell a compelling and interesting story through characters and their actions. There is a beginning introduction, a middle part of conflict and options for resolution, and a climatic ending to resolve the main plot points of the show. Usually, the ending involves the main character learning a valuable lesson or makes a statement on social commentary. In essence, that is the unwritten entertainment contract between show and its viewers. But the Sopranos ending changed that covenant.

The show just . . .  abruptly ended.

It left the world to scratch their heads in disbelief. What just happened? Something was about to happen. What was going to happen?

Then a simmering vent of anger; WTF?

Because viewers spent a lot of time on getting to know the characters, follow the story, "experience" the events shown to them, they felt entitled to a proper ending. That is not to say they are guaranteed a "good" ending.

Viewers fumed because they thought they were "played" by the writers. Or that the writers "copped" out on wrapping up the loose ends of the plot lines so they just decided to leave everyone, including the characters, hanging in limbo.

Hollywood creative types loved the idea of an ambiguous ending. Instead of offending one group of viewers with a creative choice, you can confuse all the viewers with no choice at all.

It gave other shows the license and cover to not wrap up story lines. In a complex, tangential world of LOST, that is how the writers got out of the corner they painted themselves in. Instead of answering the big questions, they punted with a side world reboot to give the main characters a happy ending (or so it seemed). But that made many viewers madder than a hornet. They felt let down, betrayed by a series that they embraced and discussed in minute detail with friends and other fans.

It was like reading a great novel, only to find out that the last chapter is missing.

In today's more fragmented entertainment consumption model (on demand, binge watching), shows probably cannot get away with this type of shocking ending.