How was the Lost Finale? POSSIBLE SPOILERS INSIDE

[angela in ohio]

Is that why Locke said, post-surgery, "you don't have a son!"

 

That's my theory, but I'm highly influenced by watching my dh work out the fact that his father abandoned him by being a great father himself. :001_smile:

[BikeBookBread]

Here's a good article from USA Today which does answer some questions.

[Gretchen in NJ]

Finally, I am finished reading this entire thread.:svengo: I was looking for answers about the ending of a show I rarely watched.:001_huh: It appears there are more questions then answers in this thread.;):lol:

 

I left totally Lost.:lol:

[Tap]

Ds knows how much we love LOST, & he's been holding his breath for the day he gets to watch it all. I just "spoiled" the ending for him this morning. Even *he* is outraged & disappointed.

 

He suggested I call the writers on the phone & politely ask for a redo. :lol:

 

The sad part? All thr the finale last night, I thought I had an inkling of where they were going w/ it, & I was so impressed. So, yeah, I could write *something* else. Whether or not it would stand up under the pressure of lost fans is another question, though! :lol:

 

It could be a fun project to watch unfold. Maybe someone could organize a Lost Redo thread and have WTMers submit legit alternate endings-Tying in all the characters (!). LOL I'm a lousy writer so I wouldn't be a contender though.

[elegantlion]

Here's a good article from USA Today which does answer some questions.

 

So the writer from USA Today answered more questions than the show itself. :confused: Today I think that's funny.

[cottagechick]

So the writer from USA Today answered more questions than the show itself. :confused: Today I think that's funny.

 

I think perhaps because I watched the show in its entirety over 2 months (instead of over 6 years), it hung together better for me. I thought the ending was appropriate, I just wish they'd not spent so much time on the sideways plotline. The writer's sorta set us up to believe the bomb detonation in circa '77 was related to the sideways plot, and I think that's led to lots of the confusion about who died when. We invested our 'suspension of disbelief' into that storyline, only to realize at the end, that it really wasn't even wholly connected to the true reality that was happening on the island.

[BikeBookBread]

I think perhaps because I watched the show in its entirety over 2 months (instead of over 6 years), it hung together better for me. I thought the ending was appropriate, I just wish they'd not spent so much time on the sideways plotline. The writer's sorta set us up to believe the bomb detonation in circa '77 was related to the sideways plot, and I think that's led to lots of the confusion about who died when. We invested our 'suspension of disbelief' into that storyline, only to realize at the end, that it really wasn't even wholly connected to the true reality that was happening on the island.

 

You know, I FORGOT about the bomb?!?!?!? :lol: Why didn't they die from the bomb? SERIOUSLY! So what did the bomb do if it didn't send them sideways? Did it change the timeline?

 

Now I'm even more confused.

[Chris in VA]

You know, I FORGOT about the bomb?!?!?!? :lol: Why didn't they die from the bomb? SERIOUSLY! So what did the bomb do if it didn't send them sideways? Did it change the timeline?

 

Now I'm even more confused.

 

I think the electromagnetism "canceled out" the effects of the bomb. Juliet said it worked because she was already experiencing the sideways reality--don't ask how. Just drink the Koolaid...:D

[BikeBookBread]

I think the electromagnetism "canceled out" the effects of the bomb. Juliet said it worked because she was already experiencing the sideways reality--don't ask how. Just drink the Koolaid...:D

 

Glug glug glug.

 

Honestly, I'm not that disappointed with the ending. I never expected all my questions to be answered.

[happyhappyjoyjoy]

I loved how they ended the island story with Jack killing the smoke monster and then sacrificing himself and Hurley taking over, ben staying w/ them, the rest leaving yet we don't see what happens to them....I like to not be told everything.

 

I hated how they resolved the sideways story (ie...the afterlife is reliving your life differently until you realize what your life really was and you meet up with other people in a unitarian church and your dead father tells you, you made your own meet up place.) puke! blah!

 

I was looking for those in the sideways flash to realize that all the struggles they went through on the island were worth the character development they all went through and to choose it....something along those lines.

 

My dissatisfaction w/ the afterlife sequence demonstrates my dissatisfaction with universal thought and moral relativism of our day.....(the afterlife is going to be what ever we want it to be.) and as someone who believes in purgatory per my Cathoilc faith I detest when it is misrepresented. In fact I really wish people would use another word for it when referring to what happened in the show.

 

With all that said I can still enjoy the end of the main story line and the 6 seasons I've watched over the last many years. I'll probably watch them all over again:)

[wulfbourne]

You know, I FORGOT about the bomb?!?!?!? :lol: Why didn't they die from the bomb? SERIOUSLY! So what did the bomb do if it didn't send them sideways? Did it change the timeline?

 

Now I'm even more confused.

 

I thought it just caused the island to dislodge from space/time again and pop back into 'present day' from the 70's.

[LNC]

This was a great article from First Things:

 

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/05/24/the-unnecessary-christ-of-lost/

 

I didn't agree with all of it, but I remembered a great literary term. Deux ex machina - The term deus ex machina is often used to refer to a contrived plot device that lazy storytellers use to solve an inexplicable problem.

[cottagechick]

I thought it just caused the island to dislodge from space/time again and pop back into 'present day' from the 70's.

 

Yeah, :iagree:

[Aubrey]

This was a great article from First Things:

 

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/05/24/the-unnecessary-christ-of-lost/

 

I didn't agree with all of it, but I remembered a great literary term. Deux ex machina - The term deus ex machina is often used to refer to a contrived plot device that lazy storytellers use to solve an inexplicable problem.

 

I didn't read your link--dc are waiting for *school* of all things, lol--but yes, I always forget this *term* but that's exactly what I meant about Christian & even the cast party at the end. It means 'god out of a machine,' but I like to call it god-in-a-box. :D

 

Run out of paper? Ink? No problem! Call 1-800-GOD-NBOX & POOF! Your story will be resolved!

[Chris in VA]

I thought it just caused the island to dislodge from space/time again and pop back into 'present day' from the 70's.

 

Oh, that could be.

[LisaKinVA]

I thought it just caused the island to dislodge from space/time again and pop back into 'present day' from the 70's.

 

No... the purpose of the bomb was to allow a complete re-set of the future. The Oceania flight would never have crashed, all of their friends would still be alive, etc. Faraday explained it better. Initially, he thought that you couldn't change the future, but he came back to the Island on the sub because he thought he was wrong.

 

Julia's last words to James were... "it worked." The sideways flashes began after that, which is why people thought it was an alternate reality. That the explosion somehow created two time lines... and eventually they would have to be merged/resolved.

 

The whole Pergatory mess of the alternate reality is confusing, mainly because everyone is there (there is no time)...so we felt so "set-up" to believe one thing, only to have it be more like a "dream sequence." Additionally, Julia's last words to James are made irrelevant, since their expected resolution (plane never crashing, Julia never going to the Island, etc.) did not happen.

[KidsHappen]

This was a great article from First Things:

 

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/05/24/the-unnecessary-christ-of-lost/

 

I didn't agree with all of it, but I remembered a great literary term. Deux ex machina - The term deus ex machina is often used to refer to a contrived plot device that lazy storytellers use to solve an inexplicable problem.

 

Wasn't that the title of one of the episodes, maybe season 1 or 2?

[*Inna*]

Forget the spiritual meaning for a minute: this was BAD WRITING, people! You don't have one guy swoop in & *tell* you what it all means in the last 10 min. And you don't have a cast party & call it an ending.

:iagree:

[*Inna*]

Also, I wasn't expecting a lot of answers, but the ending felt like the writers truly didn't know what to do with all this mess, so they slapped something together and called it a day.

 

I found myself yelling at the screen during all the reunions, "Cut the cheese, people!" :glare:

[Surlygirlie]

Also, I wasn't expecting a lot of answers, but the ending felt like the writers truly didn't know what to do with all this mess, so they slapped something together and called it a day.

 

I found myself yelling at the screen during all the reunions, "Cut the cheese, people!" :glare:

 

 

LOL. A day later I am still upset about how the show ended. Jack was my least favorite character and it seemed as if everyone else was framed to fit his story arc.

 

I'm glad that some people loved it, but I sure as heck didn't. It was like the producers wanted to gloss over story arcs and consistent characterization in order to have all this glowy reunion flashes so that the audience would be so swept up in the emotion of it all that they wouldn't care to think about what was actually happening.

 

Ah well. Give me a few more weeks and I'll be over wondering what those six years of pondering Lost were for. :lol:

[*Jessica*]

Forget the spiritual meaning for a minute: this was BAD WRITING, people! You don't have one guy swoop in & *tell* you what it all means in the last 10 min. And you don't have a cast party & call it an ending.

 

What about Walt? What about stealing all the babies/pg's ending in death? What about *Jacob made me do it*? What about the Others & the Other Others?

 

Dh is pretending this episode didn't even happen. That Hollywood was hit by a giant blackout/flash forward thing & now we'll just never know. He's in utter denial.

 

Me? I think the writers of the show are just pretty faces. The real writers are ghost writers, & there was some kind of coupe down at the LOST factory.

 

There should really be laws against writing this bad. We need to make a citizens' arrest & boycott all LOST products until they fix this. :thumbdown:

:iagree: What a disappointment. *sigh*

[susankenny]

We thought it was a horrible ending. We get what they were going for, but it just didn't seem to actually answer any questions.

 

yes, this was my sentiment exactly. i'm going to read the rest of this thread in hopes for an explanation.

[Gretchen in NJ]

yes, this was my sentiment exactly. i'm going to read the rest of this thread in hopes for an explanation.

:svengo:I did that earlier today and left with more questions then answers.:001_huh:

[happyhappyjoyjoy]

This was a great article from First Things:

 

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/05/24/the-unnecessary-christ-of-lost/

 

I didn't agree with all of it, but I remembered a great literary term. Deux ex machina - The term deus ex machina is often used to refer to a contrived plot device that lazy storytellers use to solve an inexplicable problem.

 

 

THAT BLOG POST IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS SAYING. the writers lack of understanding of sin and redemption left the writing flawed.

thanks for sharing it.

and yes, deus ex machina was an episode title from an early season

[JennW in SoCal]

During the commercial break after the "cork" had been removed by Desmond and the island was being rattled by earthquakes, well, we had a 4.5 earthquake rumble through Southern California!! Talk about your perfect timing!!

 

I LOVED it. Even the last 15 minutes. The reunion of Jack with his dad, the message of the importance of community, friendships and connections. I re-watched it with my 18yo who came home Monday for a short vacation with us, and that reunion with Jack and his dad had me crying. And it made sense seeing it the 2nd time that Eloise didn't want Daniel to join them -- she wanted to be with and enjoy her son.

 

And finally. My fellow Losties. We all NEED to buy this shirt!!!

[*Inna*]

This shirt is AWESOME! :lol:

[Charles Wallace]

THAT BLOG POST IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS SAYING. the writers lack of understanding of sin and redemption left the writing flawed.

thanks for sharing it.

and yes, deus ex machina was an episode title from an early season

 

Well, not surprisingly, it doesn't work like Purgatory because it wasn't Purgatory. That's like criticizing lasagne for not being like fish.

 

The island, the Oceanic 6 world off-island, and the Sideways world were not Purgatory in the usual sense, nor were they afterlives in the usual sense of "heaven" or "hell." They were, in effect, places between life and death in which characters who were essentially profoundly flawed, isolated, on the run, disconnected -- indeed, "lost" -- could come to terms with what they had been and remake a better self on this island, a self that works in "concert" with others to help, to forgive, and to be forgiven. That is their task on the island -- their duty, or rather, their dharma.

 

Over and over, particularly during Season 1, characters tell each other they have a new life, a second chance, a "tabula rasa." Armed with memories of their past, they are able to try a better life on the Island. To cite one obvious example, Sawyer, a con man in his past, can forge a relationship not only with Juliet, but find a new role as head of security -- a move one would think would be akin to giving the fox the key to the henhouse, but instead, one that makes him grow as a man. There's no long con there, only his love for Juliet. To cite another, Kate stops doing "What Kate Does" -- running away from commitment, blowing up her family -- and becomes a responsible parent who has the wisdom to put aside her selfish desire for Aaron and achieve the goal of reuniting Aaron and Claire.

 

Some characters are not ready to do that. Michael. Ana-Lucia. Frogurt.

 

And Locke? The man of faith, who believed in the redemptive, healing power of the Island? He is rewarded over and over by the end of the story as the characters, particularly Jack, the Man of Science, recognizes Locke's value and indeed, takes on many of the qualities Jack once derided as childish and fatuous.

 

The bomb was an attempt to push through that Dharma, that duty of becoming a better person who works in concert with others, too fast. It was Jack's desire to fix things, to find a shortcut, in short -- a method Jack explicitly later rejects in his conversation with Desmond, where he reveals that he has come to understand precisely what the Island means: that it's real, everything matters, what happened happened, and there are no shortcuts. That's why Juliet's statement, "it worked," ultimately was revealed to mean something else: not "the detonation of the bomb," but "unplugging the machine."

 

Just as the Island world was a paradise of sorts, in which characters were literally fed by manna -- or at least Dharma Ranch Dressing -- and were given a life that functioned as a profound improvement over the "real" world they had left, so too was the Sideways world a paradise of sorts for most characters -- a place where, armed with what they had learned from the events on the Island, they could have what they wanted: Locke could have Helen, Jack could have a son, Sun and Jin could have each other and their baby, and so on. Their attempt to move on from the Island before those lessons were sufficiently learned resulted in the dark side of that Sideways world -- the Oceanic 6 world in which Jack is an alcoholic, Locke is a suicidal failure, Sun is consumed by vengeance, Sayid is an assassin, Kate is on the run yet again, and Ben is (again) a murderer. They have, Jack realizes too late, to go back. Their task is not done.

 

Their "dharma" in the Sideways stage was of a slightly different nature than their dharma on the Island: here, it was to unify all the levels of memory from "real world" to Island to Oceanic 6 world, and recognize each other, re-create that community, those bonds between them. It is no coincidence that they all go to a "concert" -- a word suggesting multiple players working in harmony together -- and that each of them must help the other both there and in the Island world. Claire must help Kate by pushing out Aaron; Kate must help Claire by reuniting her island self with her son. Jack must help Locke; in turn, Locke helps Jack by revealing to him that his Sideways son was only a dream -- a harsh moment, indeed, but one that was necessary for Jack to lose one of the illusions that prevented him from being able to move on as he was supposed to do.

 

Just as at the end of Narnia -- a series that was enormously influential for the writers -- we have a crumbling of that world (and its destruction), so too do we have a crumbling of the Island (and its near-destruction). The Island world must be abandoned for the larger, better world that awaits them, just as at the end of Narnia, Aslan leads the children to a truer, larger, and better Narnia that always existed within and beyond the old one.

 

Is this Christian? Not strictly. Is it heavily influenced by Christianity? Oh, most certainly -- it's ridiculous to deny. Is it exclusively Christian and does it toe some kind of dogmatic line? Nope.

 

And yes, each answering of a question provokes other questions. That's as it should be. However, here's a helpful guide. I'll try to keep things to one line.

 

1. Why didn't they die from the bomb?

Because they were already dead.

 

2. Where did the Dharma food come from?

A factory in Princeton, New Jersey.

More seriously, they were fed on the Island because the Island provides you with what you need.

 

3. Was the Sideways an alternate timeline?

No. It was a new level of afterlife.

 

4. What about Walt?

His special powers and communion with the Island made it look as if he could be the new Jacob; however, letting him go was the price of doing business with Michael.

 

5. Why'd they steal kids?

Ben had usurped control of the island and tried to force it to become his own version of paradise -- a suburbia where he could be a father to Alex and be a member of a community. Though community and connection to others is a crucial goal in the Island stage, Ben's wretchedly flawed soul caused him to achieve this goal by means of the Purge, a fatal misunderstanding of his dharma.

 

He was punished by having his suburban paradise be, quite literally, sterile. Stealing kids was the only way he could think to perpetuate the Others when Juliet's mission to cure the fertility problem failed.

 

6. Was the flash-sideways real? Waaah, I think it was all a dream!!!

It was as real as anything else -- it was as real as the Island, as the off-island Oceanic 6 "real world," and as real as whatever world awaits them beyond the doors of the church.

 

7. I didn't see Michael/Charlotte/Daniel/Mrs. Hawking/Widmore/Mr. Eko/Richard/"Mother"/Isabella/Jacob/The Man in Black/Liam/Cassidy/Clementine/Miles/Pierre Chang/Keamy/Scott-or-Steve/Kate's Mom/Kate's Stepdad/Anthony Cooper/Locke's Mom/Nikki/Paolo/The Guy that Wrote "Bad Twin"/Minkowsky/Locke's Jerk of a Boss, Randy/The Four-Toed Statue Model/Radzinsky/The Original 815 Pilot Killed by Smokey/Horace Goodspeed /Claudia /Lapidus/Goodwin/Harper/Annie/Helen/Mr. Paik/Roger Work Man/Matthew Abbadon/Amy/Geronimo Jackson/Kelvin/Mrs. Klugh/Isaac of Uluru/Achara/Alvar Hanso/Mikhail "Patchy" Bakunin/The Marshal/Cindy and the Kids/Dogen/Lennon/Pickett/Ethan/Ana Lucia/Gerald and Karen DeGroot/Yemi/Nadia/Phil/Sarah/Ji Yeon/Mrs. Claire/Mrs. Hurley/Hurley's Solid Gold Jesus/Tina Fey/Ilana/Bram/Leslie Arzt/Naomi/Hurley's dad/Jae Lee/Tricia Tanaka/Waaaaaaaaaaaaaalt!/ Alex/Danielle/Karl/Frogurt!!!/The Guy That Wore Red Tennis Shoes/Patchy's Cat/The Tree Frog Sawyer Killed/Kate's Plane/Vincent! What about THEM, HUH?

Just because you didn't see them in the church doesn't mean they're not there in the beyond. It also may be that like Ben, they are not yet ready to move on.

 

8. What about Ben?

Ben said it himself: he has things he needs to resolve before he can move on. When he's ready, he'll go.

 

9. Why was the Island underwater?

In this stage of the afterlife, the memories of the island were submerged for the people in the Sideways world. Their dharma was to remember and (symbolically) un-submerge.

Edited May 26, 2010 by Charles Wallace

[cjbeach]

Found this LOST theory on scribd

http://www.scribd.com/doc/31889226/Lost-Theory

Good theory, IMHO.

[Oak Knoll Mom]

I loved how they ended the island story with Jack killing the smoke monster and then sacrificing himself and Hurley taking over, ben staying w/ them, the rest leaving yet we don't see what happens to them....I like to not be told everything.

 

I hated how they resolved the sideways story (ie...the afterlife is reliving your life differently until you realize what your life really was and you meet up with other people in a unitarian church and your dead father tells you, you made your own meet up place.) puke! blah!

:iagree:

[MelanieM]

Excellent post, Charles Wallace! Though I disagree with your suggestion that they were dead on the island (mostly because the writers explicitely said that isn't the case), I love your theory and comments overall!

[Charles Wallace]

Excellent post, Charles Wallace! Though I disagree with your suggestion that they were dead on the island (mostly because the writers explicitely said that isn't the case), I love your theory and comments overall!

 

I think it's a matter of how they're defining "dead."

 

I'm defining "dead" as in "Gone from the world we see around us, the world we call 'reality.'"

 

Are they "dead" in the sense of "Ceasing to have a continued existence in some form"? Well, clearly not -- and I think the writers are dancing around that definition, just as they danced around the "Is it Purgatory?" question. The answer to both "Are they dead?" and "Is it Purgatory" is both yes and no -- or not exactly.

 

The fact that they're "dead" (as in "having transitioned from the world you and I are familiar with as 'reality' and gone to the next stage") doesn't make what happened to them not real. It was real in every sense that truly counts, and what they did there mattered.

 

Does that help??

[Charles Wallace]

Found this LOST theory on scribd

http://www.scribd.com/doc/31889226/Lost-Theory

Good theory, IMHO.

 

 

I enjoyed this!! This was very cool. I don't agree about the babies, but I found many of this person's arguments persuasive and compelling. Thank you!

[Firefly]

Excellent post, Charles Wallace! Though I disagree with your suggestion that they were dead on the island (mostly because the writers explicitely said that isn't the case), I love your theory and comments overall!

 

I agree-- excellent post by CW but I do believe everything that happened on the island was real/did not exist in a different plane of existence.

 

I was very happy with the ending overall. My only disappointment is in that I wanted to know more about the island itself-- MIB/Jacob, what the light source was... it seemed like that whole storyline was for nothing. :confused:

[kokotg]

I'm with the PPs in my overall love your post but quibble with the island as being a place between life and death, CW...so you're arguing that when Hurley, Kate, Sawyer, et.al. fly away they immediately go hook up with Jack in Sideways world? How does this reconcile with Christian saying that some people died before Jack and some people died long after? And what about all the on-island/off-island fraternizing elsewhere in the story? Ben leaves regularly and comes back, Widmore leaves the island and has Penny, etc.

 

Doc Jenson's EW columns are up now. Overall he is, not surprisingly, a big fan of the finale, but he makes an argument that the sideways plot didn't fully work...I can see where he's coming from...it's a lot of time devoted to a device that could have served the same purpose emotionally and rhetorically by not showing up until the final episode. It felt in some ways like a gimmick--like a way to satisfy the audience's expectation for a big twist at the end. On the other hand....well, it satisfied my expectation for a big twist at the end. And it was kind of fun. I'm looking forward to watching it again knowing how it turns out. Yeah, that's how I end all my LOST posts: "I can't wait to watch it again." When will my kids get old enough to watch LOST with me already?!

[happyhappyjoyjoy]

Well, not surprisingly, it doesn't work like Purgatory because it wasn't Purgatory. That's like criticizing lasagne for not being like fish.

 

no it isn't. what jack's father said at the end revealed that the whole sideways sequence was jack after death before he was ready for 'whatever the after life is in the writer's eyes'. most people would refer to that as purgatory in a general sense.

[BikeBookBread]

I think it's a matter of how they're defining "dead."

 

"Dead is Dead."

-Season 5, episode 12

[MelanieM]

I think it's a matter of how they're defining "dead."

 

I'm defining "dead" as in "Gone from the world we see around us, the world we call 'reality.'"

 

Are they "dead" in the sense of "Ceasing to have a continued existence in some form"? Well, clearly not -- and I think the writers are dancing around that definition, just as they danced around the "Is it Purgatory?" question. The answer to both "Are they dead?" and "Is it Purgatory" is both yes and no -- or not exactly.

 

The fact that they're "dead" (as in "having transitioned from the world you and I are familiar with as 'reality' and gone to the next stage") doesn't make what happened to them not real. It was real in every sense that truly counts, and what they did there mattered.

 

Does that help??

 

Oh, I understood what you were saying the first time around. I just don't agree that it was about a level of dying, however you define it. In other words, I don't think they left their current plane of reality, in a physical sense, when their plane crashed. But again, I love your perspective overall. :D

[Charles Wallace]

I'm with the PPs in my overall love your post but quibble with the island as being a place between life and death, CW...so you're arguing that when Hurley, Kate, Sawyer, et.al. fly away they immediately go hook up with Jack in Sideways world? How does this reconcile with Christian saying that some people died before Jack and some people died long after? And what about all the on-island/off-island fraternizing elsewhere in the story? Ben leaves regularly and comes back, Widmore leaves the island and has Penny, etc.

 

Hurley stayed on the island, didn't he? When Kate and the crew fly away, I think they united with their sideways selves--they were done with the island stage, in essence.

 

I think, though, that time itself becomes less and less relevant with each stage, so I don't think "immediately" has much meaning in this context. As far as some people dying before Jack, well, consider that Christian died before Jack, for one. Secondly, I'd have to peek again at the dialogue, but I got the sense that Christian's "some people" included not just the crew in the church, but those beyond it.

 

As far as on/off-island travel, let me give that more thought!! Good question!

[kokotg]

Hurley stayed on the island, didn't he?

 

whoops, yes! ha--pretty major plot point for me to mess up on there.

[kokotg]

I was thinking today about how much I like what they did with the sideways Mrs. Hawking story. We're expecting her whole "you can't do this" thing with Desmond to be more of the same old protect the space-time continuum at any cost Eloise--but then it turns out to be all because she doesn't want to lose Daniel again. So in her life she was this woman so devoted to the island and a particular view of truth that she was willing to sacrifice her son for it, and then in the afterlife she doesn't have any purpose other than being a good mother to Daniel and indulging his every piano playing whim.

 

Questions I want to hear Damon and Carlton talk about on the DVD:

 

1. Did the bomb really go off? Doc Jenson says no, which surprised me--it hadn't occurred to me that it didn't really go off. I initially thought the bomb created the sideways world, but then abandoned that when the lightbulb went off and I realized "it worked" was what Juliet said to Sawyer at the vending machine. But I still thought the bomb was "the incident" and necessary to keep Dharma from finding out to much about the island. Now I dunno.

 

2. Minor point, but I'm curious: did the characters live full sideways lives before finding each other, or did the sideways world start up when the plane passed over the island and they all have fake memories of sideways lives? I would guess the latter, my primary evidence being when Jack asks his sideways mom about his "appendix scar" and then seems very confused as to whether he remembers it happening or not.

[kokotg]

Interesting (ABC is sorta dumb): http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/05/26/lost-final-scenes-wreckage/

 

ABC added the final shots of the 815 crash.

 

The images shown during the end credits of the Lost finale, which included shots of Oceanic 815 on a deserted beach, were not part of the final story but were a visual aid to allow the viewer to decompress before heading into the news,†an ABC spokesperson told the Times.

 

yes. Decompression. how, err...helpful.

[happyhappyjoyjoy]

I was thinking today about how much I like what they did with the sideways Mrs. Hawking story. We're expecting her whole "you can't do this" thing with Desmond to be more of the same old protect the space-time continuum at any cost Eloise--but then it turns out to be all because she doesn't want to lose Daniel again. So in her life she was this woman so devoted to the island and a particular view of truth that she was willing to sacrifice her son for it, and then in the afterlife she doesn't have any purpose other than being a good mother to Daniel and indulging his every piano playing whim.

 

 

see this is more of why the sideways resolution makes no sense to me....why would she not get to stay with daniel after they are both dead????

[GWOB]

I stayed up until 2:30 last night catching up on my missed episodes and finally watching the finale. I was ..... underwhelmed. I mean, it certainly tied up loose ends and left you with that WTH? feeling, as most episodes did, but the whole touchy-feely love fest was kinda cheesy. I know the whole show was about relationships, redemption, and all that, but it could have been a little less lame. Now, I still have one burning question that I fear will never get answered. Where does Richard get his endless supply of guyliner?

[kokotg]

see this is more of why the sideways resolution makes no sense to me....why would she not get to stay with daniel after they are both dead????

 

I don't know that it was so much that she wouldn't get to stay with him (although they do seem to be pushing the idea of one soulmate, which presumably would mean Charlotte and Daniel) as that she wasn't ready to deal with who she was/what she did to Daniel during her life. She needed to hang out and play perfect mother for awhile longer. Or she was just worried that Daniel would be moving on with the losties instead of staying with her and whatever group she's in with.

[MelanieM]

see this is more of why the sideways resolution makes no sense to me....why would she not get to stay with daniel after they are both dead????

 

I think the whole point is that they don't know they're dead until they 'wake up' to it. She didn't have the peaceful look of someone who had woken up, so I would assume she simply didn't know what was going to happen after moving on.

[mom to 3 boys & 1 girl]

I was also surprised to read that Doc J. thought that the bomb didn't go off. I think that the bomb did go off. When Desmond was talking to Rose she said something like they built there camp in 1974 and lived there a few years when the sky lit up again, so who knows when we are now.

 

I think the sky lighting up was the bomb going off. I think the effect of the bomb was that it brought everyone back from the 70's to present time. The people on the island had not been in the 70's all season because the DI was no longer running around the island and Ben's house was, well Ben's house (and he was only a child in the 70's).

[SproutMamaK]

I assumed that Eloise, with her cryptic comments (and her referral at one point Desmond's past life and how he finally had Widmore's approval, shouldn't he be happy, etc), that she had regained her memory. I just thought she was trying to keep Daniel from regaining his earthly memories so that he wouldn't remember that she killed him, and be in a "soul group" with Charlotte, Miles, or the other Losties rather than her. She'd rather he never move on than be separated from him. So while she is indulging what her son in what he would always have wanted - she's still holding him back.

Edited May 26, 2010 by SproutMamaK

[stripe]

Now, I still have one burning question that I fear will never get answered. Where does Richard get his endless supply of guyliner?

I think he stole it from Charlie's stash.

[happyhappyjoyjoy]

I think the whole point is that they don't know they're dead until they 'wake up' to it. She didn't have the peaceful look of someone who had woken up, so I would assume she simply didn't know what was going to happen after moving on.

and that just brings me back to my dissatisfaction with the whole bit....people not knowing they are dead...........and another reason why it doesn't make sense....desmond seeing the parallel reality when he was hit w/ the electormagnetic shock by widmore and then trying to 'wake' everyone up....why would he need to wake everyone up if it was just jack's post death amnesia bit

 

per richard's eye liner i thought in the recap before the finale the producers said something about his infamous eye liner and that he doesn't really wear any??? does anyone else remember that....

[SproutMamaK]

I think the whole point is that they don't know they're dead until they 'wake up' to it. She didn't have the peaceful look of someone who had woken up, so I would assume she simply didn't know what was going to happen after moving on.

 

Sorry if this repeats some from a prior post - I think, given her comments to Desmond about his getting what he always wanted, she remembered her life and had "woken up". I think her lack of peace is due to her fear that Daniel will also "wake up" with the other Losties around, and will remember that she killed him (and also that she sent him back to the island, knowing full well that he would be killed by her).

 

One more unanswered question - who's Penny's mom? Widmore is her father, but Eloise isn't her mother...