This is a pretty good summation of what everyone thinks right now IMO. There are mainly two camps, one who loved the finale because it brought closure to the characters, and the other that hates it because it answered nothing. I am kind of in between, and I switch sides all the time. Sometimes I look back and the finale hits me emotionally that I love it. These are some of the best, most well-developed characters ever. I am glad that the entire island stuff was real, if they had made it so everyone died in the initial plane crash, it would have been the worst finale in history and would have ruined the show for me. In terms of the characters, the finale was amazing and I don't think they could have done much better. As for the island/mythology thing, they somewhat dropped the ball here, starting with the origin of Jacob/MIB episode, which was underwhelming in the answers that they gave(they gave none, really). I was expecting something on the lines of Ab Aterno, which was a top 3 episode this season(not including finale). Oh well, I suppose they can't satisfy everyone.
A lot of things aren't "nitpicking" though. They were giant mysteries that loomed over us for years hoping we would get an explanation that totally got ignored. While I was watching the finale, I did get very emotional and got even teary-eyed at parts and when the last scene was over I felt that it was a beautiful ending. HOWEVER, now that it is the morning after and had some time to think about it, there were so many big questions left unanswered that the more I think about it the angrier I get. I also find that the attitude "oh, it's not about answers, it was all about the characters all along" as such a cop-out. Whoever is embracing this nonsense that the producers are trying to sell now, if you were told this was how it was going to end after say, the episode about Michael and Walt all those years ago when you were thinking "WTF is up with this kid?" would you not have been furious?
I kind of agree, especially since one of the most iconic lines of the entire series was Charlie's "guys...where are we?" The island and it's mysteries were always a central part of the series...at least equal billing with the characters.
So Kev, can you just go ahead and explain the nature of your corporeal existence? You know, gravity, the source of the big bang, how consciousness arose from the primordial ooze? The fact is, we all have to exist with the big questions left unexplained and yet somehow try to find peace of mind. You strive for that the way the characters in Jack's mind did: love (Sawyer), caring (Hugo), being needed and appreciated (Ben), being forgiven (Sayid), being accepted (Jack), achievement, redemption etc. etc. The conceptual superceding the literal is what distinguishes literature as an art form. How do those Transformers change into shapes that have a different mass?
I thought the idea that the kids were the most ideal candidates pretty much answered the whole Walt thing. I see your point, however. I thought the explanation for the statue being broken was a cop out. I also still don't understand why kids can't be born on the island and things like that. I just figure that things are not going to be perfectly wrapped up without either the answer being a huge let down or sparking more insane questions. Back to my point, I was speaking more about people that are getting upset because we didn't see the tree get lifted off of Ben or camera angles being different after commercial breaks.
the little things like the statue or the hierolglyphs or the temple can all be answered by the thousands of years of the Island's existence. does it all really matter who built it, when or why? they did it to either protect the Island or to help the protector for whatever reason. maybe the statue served the same purpose as the Lighthouse at some point in time. why does the destruction of the statue matter so much to so many people? the arrival of the Black Rock marked the beginning of a new story on the Island. the Black Rock came in on a tsunami and wrecked the statue. I am satisfied. my lingering questions are more about the inherent battle between good/evil and how different characters through the series straddled that line. Most specifically, I am referring to the Dharma Initiative, The Others, and Charles Widmore/Eloise Hawking... not to mention the Hanso Foundation, Mittelos Bioscience, the Goodspeeds, etc...
lol does anyone have a .gif of the Jack falcon punch in the rain??? That was one of the most epic things I have ever seen.
Nicely said, Across110. I think -- think! -- I have enough on Dharma, as they established that, decades ago, men were aware of the elctromagnetic pockets, and they sought the island to exploit that energy, and thus comes Dharma. You can fill in the blanks on the rest: these scientists, while pursuing the island's energy, also do other experiments and psychological tests and what-not. I'm okay with all that. I'm less satisfied with Whitmore. They really built him the hell up to be almost "Smokey Man from X-Files" stature, and then he gets shot like a chump, without much explanation. Still not exactly sure how he fits into all of this, aside from being part of the shadowy arm of Jacob/Island.
nvm, I found it It's even more hilarious because it looks like Jack goes all out on that punch and misses completely :grin:
Regarding the unexplained mysteries, I actually prefer not knowing "what the island is". To me, the character of the Island is defined by it's mystery. If you explain the mystery scientifically (mido-chlorians), you destroy the character. You set it up so that if you look on earlier seasons in retrospect, it seems really lame. The other way to explain some mysteries would be with more mysterious mythology. They did that in "Across the Sea" with the reveal of the light cave and explored it more last night when saw the contents of the cave. I really think that the kinds of answers that a lot of you wanted would have "ruined" the Island. You want answers, but if you had gotten them, you would have been left disappointed because the thing that made the island "the Island" would then be gone. As for the other stuff, I'm OK with that too. I understand the Walt situation. What made him special? Well, what made Locke special? What made MIB special as a child? Hurley? Miles? Faraday? Desmond? The Candidates? They were all special too and while we got to spend more time with them, we didn't know exactly what made them the way they are. So why get hung up on Walt? He's just one of many special people on the Island. He just happened to leave. Knowing that Walt was special and that his storyline took him off the Island is enough for me. My biggest peeve was the outrigger and that's only because that scene strongly indicated that we'd see the other half of that encounter and it came at a time when the writers/producers had an end date to work towards and supposedly had everything planned out for the final 3 seasons. But I'm not even really upset about that either. This was a GREAT show and I'm not going to let a few loose threads ruin the entire series, just like I didn't let Nikki and Paulo (or Zoe) ruin the series. FWIW, I read some spoilers for the finale after it aired. It was reported that Macolm David Kelley (Walt) was seen filming scenes at Santa Rosa with Ben and maybe some others. Maybe it ended up on the cutting room floor. There's supposedly going to be 20 minutes of footage cut from the finale on the DVD/BluRay Box Set. If the spoiler was correct, maybe this Walt scene will be in there.
Whitmore's purpose was to bring Desmond back and put him through that EM field machine. After that, the island was done with him.
My friend sent this to me and its a pretty good explanation of things... he island is a way station between life and death and it has been around forever. People have been coming to the island since the dawn of time and have brought their cultures with them which is why the island has influences from so many different societies. The island exists in real space but it is hidden from mankind and exists outside of time. Use whatever place makes the most sense to you (hell, purgatory, Eden after the fall). It is simply Gods place for souls that have to be redeemed in some way but the souls still have free will and must choose dark or light. The people who were brought to the island were people who had unfulfilled lives in some way. Basically they were all broken. They were seeking something in life that they could never find. They were brought to the island upon their death to be fixed and to find what they needed to have a fulfilled life. Everyone on the island was dead except the Dharma folks. The Dharma folks managed to cross over to the island using science. They were there to study the island and its properties and the fact that they arent dead is why they were prevented from truly exploring the island. Ben died when Sayid shot him and was resurrected on the island to become the leader and to fulfill his destiny to play his part in saving the island. Michael died without ever truly redeeming himself so he is trapped on the island. I think Echo and Anna Lucia may be trapped too. Roses fulfillment and the thing she needed fixed was to have a life of peace with Bernard. The flash sideways part of the this last season represents another way station between purgatory and heaven. They each were waiting for all the others to be ready to make the passage onward. They have to make the journey together. Basically they had been fixed first then had to move on to a place of fulfillment before they could accept their own deaths and make the final transition. The ones in the church were important to each other because they had a hand in each others redemptions. That is why Penny was there. She was the key piece to Desmonds redemption. Lupidas, Miles, Walt, and Richard are not critical to the group in the churches redemptions and will make their journey to heaven in their own time with their own groups. That is why Desmond told Eloise Hawking that he wasnt taking Daniel with him. In the end only two things survived the crash. Vincent survived. Jack lived through the crash long enough to awaken on the island for a just a moment. Between the opening scene of the series of Jacks eye opening and the last scene of finale of Jacks eye closing only a moment has passed. Everything else from the six seasons happened in that flash of time. This is just one theory. After watching the finale and watching what the actors said on Kimmel, it's very apparent that with how much religous influence the writers ended up putting into the show towards the final season, they made the ending so open ended, it is all about how YOU yourself interpret it.
Oh and here's my favorite part of last night. I was over at my friend's house watching LOST and after the finale ended and the scene in the church finished we all just sat there in silence for about 10 seconds followed by a burst of laughter erupting in unison. How was everyone else's reactions to the ending? I was one of those people that during this entire season I was screaming out "They better give us answers damnit" but I'm actually at peace with how it ended
Theory doesn't work. They all were alive through the seasons. Plus in the pilot, Jack is wearing a suit. In the finale he's not. I don't understand how so many people think they were dead the whole time. I thought Christian explained it so that there was no doubt.
Is that not possible though? The scene at the end where it shows Oceanic 815 crashed onto the beach with its parts split everywhere, shows no survivors and no one running around like they were in episode one. They included that at the end for a reason I've tried to break LOST down from both angles, them being dead and them being alive on the Island. In this theory everyone dies immediately from the crash, and The Island is purgatory that offers people a chance at redemption. With this theory, I asked my friend...so how does the flash forward timeline coincide with this theory? Then I thought, the flash forward time line was a look into a darker side of the characters and what would happen if they failed to achieve redemption. The ones that left the Island during this part of the series had several things wrong going on in their lives...Jack was a mess, Kate wanted to find Claire to rightfully bring her back to Aaron, Sayid was killing people, Sun was LOST without Jin, so they all needed to go back to "achieve their redemption."
