What Happened on the LOST Series Finale?
May 23, 2010 by Kath Skerry
….and then we were done.
It’s been six years in the making, and now LOST has ended. I have no doubt that tonight’s series finale will inspire much speculation and debate. Dan and I will be discuss the series finale in the very last (tears) “The TV Talk Podcast presents….Two Idiots Talk LOST” tomorrow night. But until then, please (respectfully) share your thoughts, ideas, disappointments and praise for all things LOST in the comments below.
SPOILER WARNING!
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at first i was really disappointed bc i couldn’t understand it, but it all sort of fits. they were all dead once the plane crashed but didn’t make peace with themselves. the thing i don’t get is… where was walt and his father!?
Wait, were they all dead the whole time? I thought the “sideways” flash was sort of like a purgatory; a waiting room for the next stage. Even though they all died at different times in the real world (and the island was real) they all wound up in the sideways flash at the same time, since time has no meaning in the afterlife.
I think I need to sleep on it. There are things I liked and things I didn’t. The reunions being something I liked, the cliche writing being something I didn’t. The Sun/Jin/Juliette scene made me cry, though.
This is what I read on a blog right after it ended and it makes since to me…
They did not all die when the plane crashed. Everything that happened, happened. The “flash sideways” is a sort of limbo that they go to when they die. Christian Shepard explained it: Not everybody gets there at the same time, but we all die. Jack died next to Vincent in the bamboo after he saved the Island. Hurley and Ben and Desmond are all left on the Island, and Sawyer, Miles, Lapidus, Richard, Claire, and Kate all leave on the plane. They all live after the show ends, but eventually they all find each other in the church when they die and move on together to the afterlife.
I guess they didn’t spend enough time on the island to make an impression? Ha!
They weren’t dead the whole time. Just the flash sideways stuff was the dead part.
I’m still in shock over the ending. It will take me a few days before I get over it.
I agree, Luke. Sawyer, Kate, Lapidus, Miles, Claire and Richard all went on to live long after Jack died on the island.
I watched every minute of LOST, but never fell into the category of fans who prioritized mythology over characters. (Disclaimer: That’s not to say that there was a right or wrong way to enjoy the show. It’s a matter of preference)
Without a physics background or a passion for philosophy, I remained a loyal viewer to watch the journey. So long as Desmond, Juliet, Hurley, and Ben were around, I was going to stick around. If you haven’t listened to last week’s “Two Idiots Talk LOST” podcast, Dan does a much better job of explaining this point of view.
If I had to guess, this finale will be a letdown to fans who preferred the mythological portions of the show. The closing moments embraced ambiguity and spirituality, and that may disappoint fans who wanted “scientific” answers.
I thought the finale was great. Kind of slow in the beginning, but then it really picked up speed. I really wasn’t expecting them to be dead at the end, but I had no clue what was going to happen. Loved that all the couples got back together and let’s just say that I bawled pretty much the whole time. Lastly, even though I was so sad that Jack died, it was fitting for him to die in the same place where he woke up in the pilot. My only question is what were they trying to show at the very end when they showed a crashed plane? Which plane was it?
I never understood a single episode in six seasons so I don’t know why I was expecting to understand the finale. But there’s something to be said about just going for the ride!
Completely satisfied. That being said, I’m interested in going back know to see if I can make sense out of some of the outstanding questions based on what we learned in the finale. I’m not expecting that there will be answers, and I’m fine if that’s the case, but it’s a fun exercise all the same.
Starting with….
What did Charles Widmore have to do with it all. Time to ponder.
Oh good god, the entire #LOST series finale was based on Debbie Gibson’s “Lost in Your Eyes”
Biggest tearjerker on the finale???
For me it was when Claire and Charlie were reunited. I lost it! (no pun intended)
Completely agree with the Claire and Charlie part!! The tears were running down my face!!! SO emotional…. I loved how everyone came together at the end. Amazing!
I was waiting for the Sawyer/Juliet reunion, and that got to me the most of the reunions. I loved how her season premiere final words came to make sense — the “It worked” about the vending machine, and the coffee. Perfect. It didn’t wrap everything up, but it was a beautiful end to the series and the show, which is what I’d hoped.
Absence definitely made the heart grow fonder. The reunions of Claire/Charlie and Juliet/Sawyer were my two favorite scenes. Amazing chemistry between those actors!
Ok this is what I got out of it all. The island time was real. All that happened on the show really did happen. The sideways world was a limbo heaven because as Jack’s dad said that time isn’t relevant in the sideways world. Some died before Jack and some died long after. It would also explain why Juliet said “It worked”. She was dying and somewhat got a glimpse of the limbo afterlife and thought it was a real world. So what happened with Desmond is that he thought the sideways world was really a reality but in fact he got so close to death that he just experienced what Juliet did before she died. Think Titanic after Old Rose dies and meets Jack again except they all don’t remember initially. With the very end having all the castaways “letting go” and moving on to real heaven/reincarnation/etc.
In the underground cave scene, both Jack and Smocke was right. They needed Desmond to turn off the light to make Smocke mortal so he could leave the island or die at all.
I was just happy to see boone…Ian Somerhalder is hot :p
I never watched one episode and now I know that I saved myself from six years of stupidity.
Wow, I really thought that they all died with the plane crash and the island and sideways world was all a form of purgatory. I guess you could interpret the “island” world as real also but either way there are too many unanswered questions to make a solid argument for both.
I think that is why Jack ended up in the same spot he “woke up” in the first episode. He never really moved, his physical body had been there the entire time. Also the ending credit scene of the destroyed plane implies desolation and death, I can’t imagine Hurley, Ben, and Desmond still moving rummaging through the wreckage. It was a glimpse of the reality where everyone did actually die on the plane crash.
If they all died in the plane crash and had their purgatory/afterlife together, why would Penny have been there in the end?
Also, why would people have “died” on the island, if that was part of the purgatory?
What did jacob and the man in black’s back story have to do with it? The fact that they had one makes me think the island was real and everyone died at different times.
I was worried the ending would be stupid like “It was
all a dream” or “this was an idea for a TV show” or
“Jack almost died, and this is what he was thinking of”.
Now I wish that the ending was easy and stupid. The
ending last night was unsatisfying, convoluted and does
not add up at all.
OMFG if i read one more post about how they were all dead i will scream. For those of us who payed attention, they DID NOT DIE when the plane crashed. jacks dad told him at the church some died way before him and some way after …. if that doesnt spell it out for you that they all didnt die then idk wtf can. and another thing jacks dad said that they spent the most important part of their lives together and here is a hint IT WASNT A PLANE RIDE…. it was while they were on the island. The bomb didnt kill them. The bomb is what created the “alternate universe” which turned out to be purgatory so that they could all reunite and go to heaven together. it doesnt make much sense and questions werent answered but if thats what you expected then you obviously have never understood the point of the show.
ok a few questions here for the people with more lost wisdom than I.
1) If you kinda feel the Island was in a sense purgatory, Harold Perrineau (Michael on the show) said on Jimmy Kimmel when asked why his character wasn’t in the “church” moving on said, he remained stuck on the island with the other whispering voices who can’t move on. That leans people to believe they all died in the initial crash
2) If you buy the “island as Purgatory” scenario it would align with all the stuff Jacob said, hence “island is a cork to keep the evil from escaping out”
Any people with some helpful thoughts? I of course know that part of the Lost phenom is everyone keeping the buzz going with all the interpretations, which , in my mind, is what makes this a special television series!!!
But listen to what was said not a hunch you have obviously.
I started tearing up once the show started knowing that this was the end. I couldn’t stop crying throughout with all the reunions and awakenings to their Island lives. I was absolutely thrilled that Kate and Jack said “I love you” one last time in the real world and that in the sideways world, all the true loves from the show ended up together forever. I’ve read some comments elsewhere that people questioned why Sayid & Shannon ended up moving on together instead of Sayid being with Nadia. I think that while Nadia was obviously an important love of Sayid’s – I think the show was saying that their lives on the island was the most real and significant part of their lives, so the people who were with them on the island were the ones they needed in order to move on. Also, even though Penny wasn’t on the island, she and Desmond were always connected (even through time travel!) so that made sense to me that Penny was at the church with everyone.
I thought the finale was perfectly fitting for the show – alll along Damon & Carton said that the show was about the characters and Damon said at some point that the show was always a love story – the ending was about how Jack and everyone else needed each other to move on because they were all important to one another and loved each other because of what they all experienced by having come together on the Island. I know the ending won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I thought it was absolutely beautiful and fitting and just re-affirmed the love I’ve had for this show and its characters for 6 years. The finale was such a love letter to all the fans and it also tried to tell us to remember them, but to also let go and move on. Stunning finale and so satisfying to me as a fan!
Steven, while I respect your opinion please be respectful of others.
They were not dead the entire time. When they died on the island they went to the “flash-sideways” universe. They stayed in that universe until they made peace with what had happened in the true living world (which includes the Island), they then went to the meeting place and moved on to the final afterlife.
I think they all died on the original plane. Whose to say that what happened after that wasn’t real? What is real? It could be that it all happened in another limbo type world, but that sideways world was the ultimate purgatory. Jack and the others still need to experience the island world to get where they needed to go. To get a better understanding of themselves and these other people. To find love. Once they did that, they either died on the island or afterwards and all met up at the ‘vanishing point/purgatory” for their final voyage together.
The reason I keep coming back to “they all died on the original plane crash” is this.
1. The somber view of the Oceanic flight 815 debris on the beach. Why show this if not to imply that is how they all died?
2. The fact that Jack “died” in the same exact place where he landed when the plane originally crashed. He had his entire island experience in a blink of an eye.
So, what’s with all the supernatural stuff going on the island if it was a “real life” place? Magnetism you say? What kind of magnet on drugs would summon a polar bear on a tropical island? And what/who exactly Jacob is ?
Greg-
I interpreted those two moments differently than you did. I thought that the wreckage was a way to remind us of the journey of lost, and as a nod to the pilot and the beginning of the series. Everything started when Oceanic 815 crashed, and it was a nice callout to that. The theme of this season seems to have been ‘everything that happened, happened’. I have heard numerous characters say it, and I think that it really applies to the finale.
Also, Jack dying in a similar position to how he woke up after the crash struck me as more poetic than anything else. I thought it was beautiful to have him literally come full circle as a character. It brought such amazing symmetry to his character and to the show, and i couldn’t think of a more perfect way to end the finale. From the moment he opened his eyes to the moment he closed them, Jack was on a journey to find himself and fulfill his destiny, and everything that happened, happened.
For the people who think everyone died in the plane crash, how do you explain the moments of recognition between all of the characters? If they aren’t remembering reality, what was happening?
For the finale to make sense to me, I have to believe that what happened was real. If Lost is a show about characters, it would make no sense for them to all have died before anything happened. I doubt that Cuse and Lindeloff would end the show that way.
I just have to say that the Claire/Charlie and Juliet/Sawyer revelations were incredibly tearjerking, but the part that had me a sobbing, blubbering mess was everything from the scene with Jack and Christian on. Every time I thought I was done, it kept socking me in the gut. That dang Lost music, those characters, THAT DOG! Ugh, I get teary just thinking about it. And did anyone catch Matthew Fox getting all veklempt on Jimmy Kimmel? A man after my own heart!
Drake, I can see that but I still think that it can be “real”. What is “real”? Does it have to be what we think of as “real”. Can’t what happens to you in your mind still be real? I see the poetry in him ending up in the same place, but I also see the poetic in the fact that all that happened, happened to him in a blink of an eye. To each his own. Maybe Cuse and LIndeloff will explain one item (such as the plane on the beach scene) that will cause it all to come together, or more likely they won’t say anything, because much like the show was to each character, the ending is an individual experience. Either way, I don’t mind, I though the 6 year journey was very entertaining.
“What kind of magnet on drugs would summon a polar bear on a tropical island?”
– The polar bear was brought to the island by the Dharma Initiative as part of the experiments.
The plane crash at the end was nothing more than showing us an empty set at the end of a series. It has no meaning to the story. The story was over once Jack closed his eyes.
The bomb allowed them to jump 1977 to the present of 2007. I don’t think it created the alternate timeline.
Damon&Carlton have said from the being that ‘the island’ wasn’t purgatory and they didn’t lie about that. The flash sideways was their own version purgatory. A place they could gather and move on to the afterlife together.
All that took place on the island was real and not in the blink of an eye real. Hurley and Ben took over as protecters after Jack died. Claire/Miles/Sawyer/Lapidus/Kate/Richard all got off the island and went on to live their lives afterward. (as an advocate for Kate/Sawyer, I’ll think they were together off island).
Ben didn’t go in the church because he wasn’t ready to move on, but he was dead. Possibly, because he still wanted to spend time with Alex and Russo. (Where was Carl btw?)
Here is some clarification on the wreckage at the end. It was put there by ABC and not supposed to be part of any narrative.
http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/05/26/lost-final-scenes-wreckage/
That being said, the obstacle of them dying in the initial crash is now gone. They survived the crash and the island was “real”. Now if I could only figure out when the bombs were disarmed on the plane.
Nevermind. The MIB took the bomb and that was the one that killed Sayid in the sub.
I can’t be the only one to realize that the only reason Hurley became the new protecter of the island was because he was too big to go down the ladder on the side of the cliff. He took one look at that thing and said ‘I think I’ll stay with you Jack.’
And I found it funny that earlier in the season Hurley managed to beat everyone to the Black Rock and blow it up just before they arrived. WHAT?!
it was alah!
The ending was lame. It was too easy to say ,well everyone was dead and going on to the after life. I was really expecting loose ends and old characters to be tied up. Walt and his father? Nada. The other two children? Nothin. How about Annaliseia(sp)? She was in one scene with cops but no lines or even a close up. Weird. How about mr. Echo? The only one who even tried to bring a Godly presence to the island. Not one word. Idiotic. It also gives the impression that it doesn’t matter what or who you believe in, you still get to go to “The Light”. It also made no sense that Jack “thought” he had a son with Juliet. Why bother with that. It was a waste of time. Why was Arran who represented so much given no place at all in the finale? It was dumb. Waste of talented writers and actors.
What happened to Miles, Ben and Ricardo, Rose and Benard at the end?
I think the writers of the show should make a sequal for lost that was 6 yrs to really clarify the ending. I feel we were left in limbo. I took it when Jack through the bomb that changed everything gave them all another chance of life . We could really all use some answers .
It seems to my that the writers got carried away and had too much to answer for at the end. I think Lisa has got it right. There should be a sequal.