Spoiler alert: In the end, Lost had its moments
After a mostly lacklustre season, I feel like the creators of Lost are a lot like a very good student who just handed in his essay after pulling an all-nighter.
Now, after seeing the finale, I’d have to give it a B+ on its merits, but part of me that still can’t forgive the slow, languid pace that came during the year leading up to it.
If you haven’t seen it, avert your eyes, as we’re going to do a quick recap.
Basically, all main characters in the parallel lives touched their meant-to-be true loves and flashed back to their island lives. Jack is the only one who seemed resistant to the flashes of his other life.
In the end, it’s revealed that the flash sideways is a shared reality created by the group; basically, a waiting room before death where all cast members could come together before they moved on to the next world.
On the island, Jack and Locke had their final showdown. Desmond moved the rock in the cave of light – which was the literal cork holding the island’s power – and as he moved it, the island started to come apart. Jack sacrificed himself by putting it back in place, but before doing so, he anoints Hurley as his replacement.
Frank gets the Ajira plane working and Richard, Miles, Sawyer, Kate and Claire fly off the island.
In the closing moments, Jack talks with his father and realizes he’s dead. The rest of the cast await him in church pews and in the end, light washes over them as they move on. Jack dies on the island with the final shot being a closeup of his eye.
I think the majority of fans loved this finale, as it really did get back to one of the best things about this show – the characters we actually care about. It also allowed them to be happy and in some ways was a lot like a post-series reunion show with all the returning characters – including Shannon, Boone, Bernard, Rose and heck, even golden retriever Vincent, who is one damn cool dog.
I kind of felt it was made for the female fans, as much of finale was blatant emotional manipulation created to make them cry. By reading Twitter and Facebook during the show, on that front, it worked.
The easiest complaint to make is that other than the flash sideways being a shared reality between the characters, it was rather short on answers.
There are many who will say that is beside the point, particularly after such a clear-eyed, straightforward finish. But that’s the thing – looking back, so much of the show now feels like obfuscation simply for confusion’s sake.
The creators have often talked about how it was important to ask questions, as opposed to answering them. However, this ending proves they didn’t have the answers, and well, were basically screwing with the viewers.
One of my biggest problems is that Lost is one of the few American hit network shows that actually got the chance to telegraph out its ending, deciding that it was going to end in three years.
Much of this season seems like the show was dragging its feet to get here, so in a sense, it feels to me as if the luxury of planning out the ending was wasted. Even the “Across the Sea” episode, which only served to explain the bodies in the cave. Even last episode where Zoey and Widmore were killed as if they were nothing.
Why bother bringing Charles back, and introducing Zoey this year if that’s all they were going to be used for? And really, chalking everything up to a still mysterious cave of light? Try explaining that to someone who’s never seen the show and there is no getting around how stupid it sounds.
Despite my problems with this year’s writing, I do feel it was obviously an important show, and in particular, I loved the fifth season’s time-shifting and hydrogen bomb exploding finale. The last show did reward encyclopedic fans of the show, with many shout-outs, scene and visual cues that pointed to the show’s history and mythology.
As well, I remember Steven Johnson, the author of Everything Good is Bad for You, posting about the show on Boingboing.net, talking about how interesting it was that such a challenging show had become a hit. He once wrote: “That a mass audience is willing to embrace this kind of storytelling innovation is truly remarkable, and has a kind of sign-of-the-times quality to it.”
I agree, and the show should be commended and hailed for the many things it tried. Unfortunately, looking at the television landscape and the failure of other serialized shows (in particular, the Lost-esque clones like FlashForward) and even the series’ declining ratings over the seasons, the show truly is an anomaly. That is reason that any smart television fan should be sad to see it go.
As a fan, I have to say I was glad to see Hurley got to step up as caretaker of the island. He also got in the best line of the finale, with his Yoda putdown of Jacob.
All in all, it was a good enough ending to this series. The creators really did put all their chips down on the ending and went out on their own terms. The show has always looked beautiful, and this episode, for the most part, was no different – although, the falling rocks did seem pretty fake as they bounced around the supposedly falling-apart island.
While I had to watch it in real time to file a quick recap for the paper, there is no better argument for a PVR than the incredibly intolerable amount of commercials they crammed in this supposed super-sized finale. Really, it’s obvious the network added time so they could cash in on the island one last time.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainmen...er-alert-in-the-end-lost-had-its-moments?bn=1
