Phew.

It makes you think. And ultimately it was very powerful. Everything was real, but nothing is forever. Even after death, there are things to be had. New worlds to know.

That is one of the beauties of LOST. Each season they clicked back the focus on the story’s lens. First it was very tight, just these people on the beach. Then into the relics of Dharma, and saving the world. Then off to some other camp, then dipping into the future, then diving into the past with Dharma, and finally the ultimate click-back, beyond the boundaries of life itself and into the hereafter.

I love that. I love it that they found a final broadening of scope, and I love it that they did it without anybody (to my knowledge, and certainly not me) guessing their true intent.

This show said something. How many other shows do that? It synthesized so much of our shared culture, our shared understanding of life, into one multi-faceted story, and held up that synthesis up as a mirror for us to look into.

I’m very pleased. The sadness is passing now, and I just feel glad. I feel they went the right way with it. I can’t imagine any other way it could have gone, and given us as much resolution and redemption as it did this way.

My favorite parts-

– Hurley seeing Charlie. He really loves that little guy.
– Locke moving his toes, syncing with him moving his toes on the beach after the crash.
– All of the church scene, especially the final shot of them sitting in the pews like passengers on the plane, as the light erupted behind them just like Oceanic 815 tore in half behind them and sucked them down into the island.
– Realizing that Jack’s appendix scar and throat wound were holdovers from the way he died, and subtle reminders that the flash-sideways wasn’t really real.
– Locke says to Jack- ‘your son isn’t real’.
– The cross-cutting at the beginning, moving through each character on island and in the flash sideways.

By far the best though-

– Jack’s final death walk through the bamboo forest alone, intercut with the scenes of reunion in the multi-faith church. Jack lies down to die, sees the plane fly overhead, then Vincent snuggles up beside him so he won’t die alone. His eye closes. Excellent symmetry with the beginning, excellent book-ends to the story.

And many more.

There is really good in depth commentary by Doc Jensen on the EW site- http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20313460_20387946,00.html

I read a lot of comments on there, and many people seem upset by the lack of ‘answers’. By which they seem to mean- no role for Walt, and Walt’s past role not explained, no scientific explanation of the smoke monster, no explicit statement about how the island and the light relates to everything, and other such things.

I’ll answer these questions.

Walt was never terribly important. Really. He was a kid with some peculiar electromagnetic properties. Birds hit windows when he was around, cos birds have magnetite in their beaks. End of story. There is nothing more to it. He was an interesting phenomenon, but that’s all. But I guess if you’ve been holding out for Walt to be key to everything for all this time- (5 seasons since he had any kind of role), you’ll be disappointed if you find he truly has none.

As to scientific explanations of things, or explicit explanations of things- this just seems silly to me. Do you think the LOST writers somehow know more than the greatest scientists of our age? Do you think they know more than any other mortal about what really drives life, sentience, consciousness?

No. Of course not. Just as you couldn’t explain a nuclear bomb or a Bluetooth wireless headset to a person living even only a hundred years ago. Just as you can’t explain what it’s like to feel emotions to a plant. Any answers they give on these points would sound trite. It’s magic, it’s light. It manifests itself to us, on our instrumentation, as extreme electromagnetism, time travel, and what have you. But at it’s core its a macguffin. It can’t be explained. And that’s what’s best. To be upset about that is to miss the point.

4 stars. 5 stars (+) for the opening and final ten minutes.

That is a good point I hadn’t thought about, how the action on the island did seem un-LOST like and was never edge of the seat thrilling. I mean the whole time in that cave I just kept thinking I cannot believe Jack is putting his back to MIB!

Right, I wanted to see Jack exhibiting some of those new Jacob powers, or at least some kind of visual cue. I was suspicious of how Jack could pass his power on to Hurley with the stone unplugged as he seemed to only be ordinary, as MIB was, at that time. Plus, he did no chant.

From a plot and story perspective, the finale only did barely a competent job. As a farewell to the characters, it did a pretty good job.

WIsh we would have found out why Widmore came back to the island. What did he want with it? Why risk so much to return?

Again, the flash sideways having NO connection to the action on the island shows that the writers had not enough plot/story ideas to sustain a whole other season.

After a good think about it, I’m pretty happy with the final. I accept it as a way to say good-bye to all the characters and wrap up and insanely complicated and mysterious plot, AND tie together the flash sideways with the island stuff. That is quite the daunting task…especially since they probably didn’t know how they were going to do it as they made up a lot of the mysteries. So it was good in that sense.

When I was watching the episode, I couldn’t help feeling that the action on the island just wasn’t the regular LOST quality as they built up to the final moments. It just seemed a bit forced and unnatural…the conversations, the lowering of Desmond and then Jack down the waterfall, and the simple ‘rock plug’ removal and then place back….. never was I on the edge on my seat. The whole Jack drinking the water and becoming like Jacob and then Hurley the same…but not really being any different, kinda bugged me. But I’m just being picky.

I’m ok with how they wrapped it up and the flash sideways being a sort of purgatory, if that is what it was….but I can’t help thinking, what was the point of most of the drama on the island for anyways? Maybe a lot of it was just that…unnecessary drama.

So I gave it a 3. I don’t think it could have gotten a 5. It was just such a tangled web the directors/producers spun, and I feel they also got LOST in LOST…