InsaneBear

Our Adventures: Lost – “The End”

Well, I wanted to wait a few days to give myself more time to think on the finale and to peruse the IMDB boards in hopes that I’d stumble across some intelligent conversation. Unfortunately, every time I try to think about it my brain decides that there isn’t enough evidence to make sense of everything and shuts down. As for IMDB, pretty much every thread I’ve looked at boils down to either “You’re stupid because you didn’t like the ending,” or “You’re stupid because you liked the ending.” So yeah, I guess I’ll try to give my own scattered thoughts on the conclusion to six of the best years television ever saw.

The more I think about the finale, the more I don’t like it. At first I enjoyed it because it pulled all the right heart strings and gave a nice emotional pay off, but I am not the Man of Faith–I am the Man of Science. And I feel like the ending did the entire series a great disservice by essentially saying, “You don’t fix faith, it fixes you.” So much for all that scientific plausibility we were promised over the years.

I will say that within the context of Season 6 I liked it, but it doesn’t feel like a satisfying conclusion to the entire series. For that matter, Season 6 as a whole, officially my least favorite season, just doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest. The whole thing feels artificially constructed to deliver an ending that maybe didn’t have to come this quickly. I do like the twist that the alternate time-line was actually a purgatory or after-life of sorts–it’s a nice turn on all the people who said the Island was purgatory for years–but in the grand scheme of things, the alternate time-line really has no bearing on the other five seasons. It feels like the writers put it in because they needed to find an interesting new way to use their flash back/forward/sideways gimmick. I respect that the flashes have always been a big part of the show and that the writers might have felt the need to include them, but Season 5 really didn’t utilize them and that’s my favorite season. Granted, Season 5 did have all sorts of time jumps, but we were always in the present of the characters we were watching. I don’t think the show needs the flash gimmick.

But Season 6 did have the flash sideways. It even had a good twist with the whole purgatory thing, but considering the alt time-line has pretty much nothing to do with the real time-line, I just wasn’t too wowed by the big reveal. The writers didn’t earn the shock like they did with the Focke reveal or the flash forward reveal.

Regardless of my feelings on the structure of Season 6 (man, we could have had so many more answers if that damn alt time-line wasn’t there), it is what it is and I’ll judge it based on that. Let’s start at the beginning with that “WTF!?!” shot of the Island being underwater in the alt time-line. Let’s examine this logically. If the alt time-line/after-life was created by…well, first let’s talk about that. Christian tells Jack that “You created it so you could find each other.” Vague much? Does that mean Jack created it with his dying breath? How did he create it? Or did all of the Losties create it collectively? Once again, where are they getting these dimension-crafting powers? Did the Island create it in thanks for Jack rescuing it? Maybe, but that doesn’t really fit with the term “You.” One theory I read is that Hurley created it with his new-found protector powers. That would certainly be a very Hurley-esque gesture, but the protector’s powers were never clearly defined, so we can’t be sure. Whatever the case, it’s a pretty BS explanation, but I’ll live with it.

Living with it doesn’t mean I won’t analyze it, though. Back to the sunken Island now. If the alt time-line was created as a place of joy and reunion for the Losties, why would the Island be destoryed. Metaphorically it works, if we consider that the Island is the source of all life (another “because I said so” explanation) and that the alt time-line contains the souls/spirits of everybody that ever has or ever will die. And while I’m on that subject, why can’t people get this through their thick heads? All the Losties died at different times in the main time-line and time doesn’t exist in the alternate one. All of their spirits are there together because it is an eternal place. So no, everybody didn’t die in a plane crash at the same time. But yeah, I suppose the metaphor works because someday everybody dies and the Island represents everybody. Or you could even just say that the Island was a character and that it needed to die too.

But as I’m writing this I’m realizing the very obvious fact that despite being souls of the dead, the spirits in the alt time-line still functioned as if they were living, breathing beings. So why does the Island have to be shown in a state of “death?” That makes no sense. But what really doesn’t make sense is that if you think about the scenario logically, within the context of the show, the Island being underwater means that the Losties created a realm where the MIB succeeded at one point or another in destroying the Island and leaving. Why would they this to happen? None of this makes sense to me and I feel like the writers just needed a cool visual to open the season with.

But let’s gloss over that and touch on my biggest issue with the alt time-line. Why in God’s name does Jack have a son? The realm was created by someone as some sort of purgatory where spirits go until they are ready to move on. The spirits of the Losties weren’t ready to move on because they are so close to each other that they can only “move on” (I’m just assuming to Heaven, considering Christian Shepherd shepherded them to a door of brilliant light lined by statues of angels. But maybe they were just moving to that big ball of electro-magnetism in the sky) with each other. They’re only ready to move on when they’ve remembered their experiences together, through either love or hate. So everybody has their own special person to help them “remember” and in turn reunite with their friends. So please, explain to me why Jack has a son. How does David help his father find closure and move on? The only reason for his presence that I can fathom is that the writers wanted to show that Jack loved Juliet at one time, and David is tangible evidence of that, but that Kate is ultimately “the one” for him. Still, that seems entirely unnecessary. Maybe David is supposed to represent the seed that Jack planted in Kate to turn her into Claire before they got on Ajira 316. Then again, the writers give no indication that Kate was ever impregnated and it wouldn’t make sense for David (Juliet’s son) to represent Jack and Kate’s kid. I honestly can’t think of any reason for David to be in that universe. Someone please help me.

Speaking of kids, how about the surprising and upsetting lack of them in the finale? The writers spend years making Aaron out to be some messiah or something because he’s the first child to be born on the Island since the Incident and he ultimately means nothing. Same for Walt and how supposedly special he was. And what about little Charlie, Clementine, and Ji Yeon? All of these kids are nothing more than easy devices for developing the characters of their parents? What a crock! And there is no conceivable reason why Walt wasn’t in the spirit church with the rest of the Losties at the end. I can buy that Michael was stuck on the Island for the sins he committed there (and I guess Ben can redeem himself but not Michael), but Walt was pure and a major character in the story for years. He should have been in that church.

I’m losing a bit of my focus here, so I’ll try to wrap things back to the finale. Why don’t I discuss the exciting climax? Jack has faith that lowering Desmond into the light will destroy Focke. Focke has seen the heart of the Island and bases his belief–that Desmond will destroy the Island–on science. So Desmond goes down there, sees a bunch of skeletons that apparently weren’t resistant enough to electro-magnetism, makes his way to a spinning pillar in the middle of the light and pulls it out. This pillar also happens to be covered in Egyptian cartoons, implying that the same people who built the Statue and Temple constructed this mechanism that keeps the vitality of all human life going…except for their own lives? Who the hell knows? I guess the writers don’t understand that not explaining things isn’t actually how one goes about creating a good mystery. I’ll just say it was aliens and that they created human beings with a big light machine. Or maybe people existed before and they gave themselves souls with the light machine. Guess we’ll never know.

But anyways, Desmond pulls the plug, hellfire rises, the Island starts falling apart, Jack and Focke lose their immortality and special powers (can the MIB really hurt the world if he escapes the Island with his powers?), then they fight to the death. They have a ridiculous rain-soaked fight that is ruined by Kate making herself important with her big gun. Jack then returns to the light so he can reactivate it, because if at first your faith fails you, then you should just continue believing until something goes right because there’s obviously a plan bigger than you. One thing I did like about this is that Jack made Hurley, the purest, most innocent and good human being on the show into the Island’s protector. That seems fitting to me. But yeah, Jack descends into the light, ties Desmond up to the rope for Hurley and Ben to pull back up, and then he re-inserts the pillar into its hole in a scene very reminiscent of Locke turning the Donkey Wheel in Season 4.

That previously mentioned grand plan comes into place here, with the light re-activating and Hurley and Ben saving Desmond. I like that Hurley pretty much makes Ben the new Richard, completing his redemption cycle and showing that he is finally one of the group. Ben also admits that Jacob was not the divine entity we were led to believe he was for so many years when he tells Hurley to run things the way he wants. Jacob was a very flawed man who made a game out of people’s lives because he was jealous of his brother his entire life. He wanted to be proven right just once, so he kidnapped people from all over the world for centuries upon centuries to play his game in hopes of proving his brother wrong, even if his brother has been long dead.

While we’re on this topic, I’m going to try to sort some of that non-sense out. It is my belief that Jacob and MIB’s (can’t believe they didn’t give him a name) mother was a Smoke Monster herself. How else can we explain the way she slaughtered an entire village and filled a well within the time frame of a few hours? Plus, she thanks the MIB for stabbing her in the chest before she could speak a word. Sound familiar? I think she was the Island’s protector for a long time, got curious, went into the light and became a Smoke Monster, which isn’t necessarily an evil thing, went on living an isolated existence, and when she found the twins she saw her opportunity (after all, immortality tends to give your plans some scope). She played her “sons” for years, orchestrating her own murder, which would finally release her. I think the case of MIB and Jacob is special, in that their mother made it so they couldn’t harm one another and that’s why Focke had to get Ben to kill Jacob. I think the essence of the Smoke Monster returned to the light when MIB killed his mom, and the mom influenced Jacob, whom she made immortal, to throw his brother in there. That “killed” the MIB, as we saw when Jacob placed his brother’s body with his mother’s, but it also merged his spirit with the essence of the Smoke Monster. If we follow the rules which state that Jacob and MIB cannot harm one another, that means that the Smoke Monster must be at least part MIB and not a completely separate entity simply impersonating his body.

There I go again, losing my focus. Pretty much, I think there was a long line of protectors before Jacob and that all of them didn’t have to deal with the Smoke Monster because Smokey was contained within the light at certain points in time. I think the mother might have been the first protector to become a Smoke Monster and that she couldn’t deal with an eternity of being incorporeal so she hatched this plan to pass her protector role onto one son and her Smoke Monster role onto the other, thus freeing her from any chains keeping her on the Island. But I guess none of this really matters.

What does matter is that now Hurley is immortal and he’s running the Island with Ben and presumably the surviving Others. We know that Hurley must die at some point in time since he’s in the church, so maybe he finds a willing replacement to give him peace at some point down the road. We also know that Ben declines his opportunity to enter the church and move on, which shows just how noble he has become. He still doesn’t feel worthy of being included in the group and he says he still has things to do, which I interpret as meaning that he is still trying to make up for all the terrible things he’s done even though the powers that be have clearly forgiven him by granting access to the church. He’s probably trying to be a better father to Alex in the alt time-line so he can make up for getting her killed in the real one. But yeah, I was glad that they didn’t try to throw away Ben’s whole redemption arc like it seemed they would in “What They Died For.”

Ultimately, Sawyer, Kate, Claire, Miles, Richard, and Frank fly off the Island and presumably live happy lives. Maybe Sawyer and Kate end up together, or maybe Sawyer finally goes to help raise his daughter. Whatever Kate does, I’m sure it involves being an aunt to Aaron, whom Claire will be raising now. Miles…well, why exactly is Miles alive? I mean, I like the guy, but was his grand purpose really his expert duct-taping skills? Maybe he goes on to do something cool with Dharma. Or maybe he becomes a cop. Anyways, Richard is just happy to finally be mortal again and says he’s ready “to live.” I’m sure he probably finds new love or something. And lastly, Frank served his purpose as the pilot. Now he’ll probably become a private tour guide who flies tourist over landmarks and spouts off witty zingers along the way.

Jack, Hurley, Ben, and Desmond stay on the Island, as we know. Hurley and Ben become the Island’s new leaders and use their new-found powers to help Desmond get home to Penny and Charlie. Jack is spit out of the light to the spot where Jacob found the MIB’s body after the Smoke Monster possessed his spirit. It is unclear why Jack didn’t become a Smoke Monster himself, but we’ll just say that cutting the Island’s power supply off and then rebooting it either permanently or temporarily blocked Smokey’s possession abilities, so Jack was just spit out as plain old Jack. He was still alive, but bleeding to death from that nice knife wound Focke gave him. So he crawled out to where it all began and laid down to die with Vincent next to him, for no apparent reason other than it looked sweet and cute. Hey, maybe Vincent really is important and he’s the one who made the alternate time-line for Jack and the others as a parting gift. I’m going with that theory. But yeah, Jack sees his friends flying away and laughs, which gives the show a happy ending without the crazy after-life time-line, but I’ll stop complaining now. The final shot is Jack’s eye closing, knowing that he’s finally found peace.

In the end, the show came down to science vs. faith. I don’t think it’s religious faith, though. I think it’s more about faith in your friends and in the goodness of humanity. When Jack was a man of science he always wanted to leave the Island with little thought as to why. He’s on a crazy fantasy island far away from home and just naturally thinks escaping is the logical thing to do. But he needed the Island just as much as it needed him. He needed the Island because it gave a lonely man loved ones that he never would have had before and because it showed him that there is good in humanity, just as Jacob had been trying to prove for so long. Jacob went about it in a very hypocritical way, but by believing in each other, Jack and the Losties eventually proved that all humans aren’t bad and corrupt. It just takes a little faith to bring that goodness out.

There’s a whole lot more I could say about the finale, let alone the series as a whole, but I’m pushing 3000 words right now, so I suppose I’ll wrap it up. I feel like the finale was satisfying on an emotional level and gave the main characters satisfying closure, but it didn’t even try to answer any of the countless mysteries we’ve all been waiting on for years. Anyone who tries to tell you that Lost isn’t about the mysteries is a liar, because it was very clear from Season 1 that the mysteries are what made this show special. So to not answer some of the most important ones is a major letdown. And if people try to tell you that Lost is a character-driven show, you just tell them that the Island itself was a character that never had a satisfying conclusion to its development.

So there you go, Lost was a great show that sort of faltered in the final season but that doesn’t stop it from being great. I’d really appreciate it if we could get some good conversation going on this, considering it’s probably the last time we’ll ever talk about this show on InsaneBear. So yeah, give me your theories!

Author: Cody

Tags: lost, lost season 6, lost theories, Our Adventures, the end