Now that the finale is over and all the questions that are ever going to be answered are out on the table I have to keep telling myself one thing. It was a great journey, and you can't let the ending take away from how much fun you had along the way. There was no possible way to present an ending that would totally satisfy. It just couldn't have been done no matter how much time they spent on it.
This is a long one, keep truckin'.......
I didn't hate the finale. I actually thought it was quite good. It contained a lot of the things that made the series great at the beginning; a lot of the things that had been missing over this past season and a half. It gave us explanation without spoon feeding us answers. I'm not saying I liked all the answers we got, but they were at least presented in a way that felt mostly organic. I liked some of the season 1 flair that was thrown in. But the finale was far from perfect for me.
Most of the "mistakes" in the show are entirely forgivable, and the vast majority of viewers won't dwell on it. However, I am not as forgiving as most. It is understood that the mythology and plot are primarily there to offer a backdrop for the character growth and development. I am fine with that, but you cannot focus so much attention on the mythology, providing clues along the way, then never have it amount to anything. We find out early on that the island has power. What is this power? It is electromagnetism? It is the power to heal? It is the power to travel through space and time? The power of the island was THE mystery from the beginning. Last night we see that it all comes from a hole in the ground with a rock in it. If you take the rock out, the power is gone. I didn't expect to learn all about the origins of the island, but you have to give me something more than a rock in a hole. The rock in the hole is arbitrary. I understand that. It doesn't matter. However, it should at least have some meaning in the context of the show.
This series has presented us with an underground hatch that releases the island's built-up energy; an underground wheel that can move the island in space and time; a gigantic 4-toed statue that served no purpose other than to house the island's curator; a temple with a magic pool that could bring back the dead; a magic box that could give you anything you desired; an underground toilet that would summon the smoke monster when flushed; and finally an underground hole with a rock in it that somehow was the origin of all the island's power. None of it means anything. We have no context for how any of this worked, or why. These are all details in a larger story; a story that promised us wonder and amazement. Well, I didn't get that from the finale at all. The over-arching story turned out to be much simpler than the evidence would have suggested. They took us to a under-stated, almost lackluster destination, but chose a very complex and convoluted path to get us there. I enjoyed the journey very much, but cannot say I was extremely happy with the ending. And when I say ending I am not only talking about the final show, I am talking about the entire final season and all the events that led up to the climax.
The underlying strength of LOST was always the characters. They started with archetypes, and were molded into people. The characters are why we loved the show, but the mythology is what got us excited. The ending had to address both of these sides of the series. To me the ending felt pretty cheap. We watched these people endure hardships and losses. Our sympathy went out to them. In the end, they devised a way to give us our cake complete with a ton of sweet frosting. How can anybody really "hate" a finale that shows loved one reunited? While I liked to see these people finally together and happy, it all felt like a bastardization of the show we once loved. The mythology was used as a vehicle to give the relationship fans a "satisfying" conclusion, while at the same time not explaining or tying back much of the mysteries. If you didn't like it you seem like a jerk for not wanting these characters to be happy.
Before this post gets too incredibly long I guess I should tell you what happened, or at least my version of it. It was slightly confusing at first, but I don't feel like there was much left up to interpretation. There are still some point that don't seem to make sense, or I don't understand, but those are details....
Everything that happened on the island was real. "What happened, happened." The plane really crashed. They really discovered a hatch and pushed the button. They really traveled through time. They really fought the smoke monster. Hurley really took over as protector of the island. It was not a dream or an afterlife. They didn't die in the crash. They didn't imagine it all. It all really took place and the island ended up killing most of them. Those that survived went on to live out their lives, whether it be on the island or back in LA.
When we saw them trying to blow up the h-bomb in order to change the future... it didn't work. There were unsuccessful is destroying the pocket of energy, and it still ended up crashing their plane in 2004. There is a bit of a time loop paradox that still doesn't make total sense, but I am not gong to dwell on that too much. The alternate universe that we have been watching all season is not the result of having blown up the hatch. Nothing that happened in the flash-sideways was "real". This universe is not occurring in parallel time like we thought it was. This universe is independent of time, and all of our favorite characters are actually dead. They just don't know it until they see the memories from the lives. The specifics of this universe I do not understand. I do not know why Jack had a son. I do not know why they spent so much time showing it to us in this final season. I seemed to be a way to show the characters achieving redemption. In real life, few of them had the opportunity for redemption.
So, if the bomb did not create this "other place", then what did? I think the relationships and love that these people shared somehow set up this place where they could all meet up before moving on to eternity. They needed that. Even if Kate and the crew on the plane lived out their lives and died decades after Jack, this "in-between world" still gave them a place to meet up before continuing on into the afterlife. While they were living they never had the opportunity to connect like they should have. In death they needed to have that chance before they could "let go". The writers had said that the island was not a purgatory. However, that is exactly what the flash sideways world was. The ethereal nature of that revelation detracted from the rest of the story that took place.
There were a ton of things that didn't get answered by the finale. I was expecting unanswered questions. I wrote a post before the season started listing the main points I wanted resolved. Most of them were answered, but those revelations didn't have near the impact I expected them too. Just like the entire final season, it just felt... meh.
As a huge fan of the series I reserve the right to be critical of it. I have sang its praises for many seasons. In the end, I didn't think it lived up to hype that was built. Maybe I will continue to think about it and like it more and more, but right now I feel disappointment. If the writers had this ending planned from the beginning, then it seems like they were being kinda arrogant by throwing all that other crap at us. The overall story, and how it was all woven together wasn't nearly as tight as I thought it would be. Still, it is the best show I have ever seen on television, and will likely remain that way for years. It was definitely a fun ride.
