I knew that on some level it'd be disappointing.
You can't build up and build up layer upon layer of mystery and character development with all these quirky twists ("waitaminute, waitaminute ... after flash forwards and flash backs, we're flashing sideways?") without at some point hitting a wall.
And it's not as if last night's series finale of 'Lost' - and man, I wear my nerd badge proudly to say those six words make me a bit sad - was without merit. I appreciated the Jack/Flocke knife fight climax. While I call bull**** on his survival, it was cool to see fan fave Lapidus bobbing there in the ocean. And I'm always going to be a sucker for jerky camerawork and styrofoam boulders falling.
But c'mon. It literally came down to pulling a big rock out of a hole and then putting it back into a hole while bright light was shining everywhere and when the act of doing so was sure to kill you? Did the writers have a slumber party and watch 'Wrath of Khan' at some point?
And I'm still digesting how I feel about the realization that Earth 2 was Purgatory. And thus everything we've been watching there in terms of plot really had nothing to do with anything. And thus half of season 6 really hasn't had a point or a purpose, as it was completely disconnected from the plot of the show. And Jack's kid was imaginary. And the atomic bomb set off on the island years ago apparently had no effect except maybe bouncing the Losties back through time to now. And the whole Earth 2 thing was apparently cribbed from the movie Jacob's Ladder.
Jimmy Kimmel apparently had a good observation, that in the first ep. of this season, during the plane turbulence, Rose told Jack "You can let go," which wasn't about his death grip on his armrest at all.
And ultimately I'm a little disappointed to find out the series was all about Jack's journey. He's been a good character, mind you, but not any more compelling than Locke or Ben. (In a side Jack note, the overt Christian imagery around him came by the bucketload last night, didn't it? From the church ending to the wound in his side?)
There were some fine moments - Ben and Hurley briefly reminiscing about the time spent together as the Jacob and Richard. And Vincent got some screen time, to satisfy the animal lovers among us.
I don't think the finale was a failure by any means. I think not every mystery needed to be wrapped up nice and neat. So we don't know what the deal was with Walt or the Dharma Initiative or why it is Juliet and Desmond on Earth 1 could seemingly briefly see into Purgatory or what the deal is with Hurley being able to commune with the dead the way islanders Miles and Man in Black could. OK, I can live with that. But at the same time, the way the producers have almost been proudly talking about the way they're not going to reveal everything, that that is part and parcel for the show, seems like a convenient cop-out too.
In the end, I was a little more emotionally touched than I thought I'd be with that scene of dying Jack on the jungle floor, watching the jet take off overhead and his eye slowly closing in a nice little bookend to what we saw six years and countless debates ago.
10 comments:
Fringe. Either that or you can slap on your spats and write about Glee.
I'd go with Fringe.
I love a good commercial as much as the next guy, so pardon my French here - Ce qui la baise!
LOST has never been a show where they go on and on with, well, LOST, but the finale was too much. Five minutes of LOST, five minutes of somebody trying to sell me giant crayon drawings walking towards a guy on a park bench. I’ve seen that commercial 100 times and I still don’t know what they’re selling. ABC decided that this was their SuperBowl and they were going to milk it.
OK, the finale: Things weren’t tied up in a bow as they were in 6 Feet Under (most awesomest finale ever) but very nice indeed. Once I put the whole notion that the entire Earth II experience was just the flashing brain synapses of dead or dying people, I was OK with it. The last 20 minutes (minus commercials) was beautiful. You could have heard a pin drop during the final church scene, and when Vincent walked over and laid down next to Jack, I almost lost my manly composure. All right, screw it. I did. Nobody should die alone and nobody needs to make the journey without friends. I think that was the underlying message.
They’ll talk about LOST in bars, around water coolers, in chat rooms and on blogs for years to come. Books will be published, college courses will be taught and conventions will be held. Suck on it Trekkers; there’s a new kid in town. Tom Cruise’s cousin will always have an income once the LOST convention biz kicks into gear.
LOST was a phenomenon of style and substance that will never be solved, and some of life’s best stories should remain just like that because half the fun of something like this is not to be spoon-fed pat answers – it’s discussing the possibilities. This is the movie that you talk about for years, not forget about halfway to your car.
Au revoir, Daneman. I came to this party late, but you did a bang-up job with the entertainment. Nicely done.
I know our little group was pretty evenly split about Sideways world, but I'm pretty sure I fall into the liking-it camp. I'm not a spiritual person, so it's interesting that I ended up happy with it all being some sort of meeting place (purgatory?) until they could walk into the light together.
I loved Jack from the beginning, even when he constantly fumbled the ball trying to fix things (although my love for Desmond and Hurley certainly rivaled it). I think it's pretty fitting that in the end, it all revolved around him so much. And I believe he had to have Desmond pull the rock so he and Locke would be mortal and removed from the rules long enough to off one another. It was the one time he didn't f'up everything even though he thought he had.
Matt, thank you for Lost Talk.
I think I'm getting more okay with finale as I reflect on it. I'm okay with Dharma being a metaphor for how people try to mess with "the light"
The reunions in Sideways world were touching. Some great lines, especially for Hurley, getting off the Star Wars favorite "I've got a bad feeling about this."
But I guess though, my central problem is that as you correctly point out Daneman, all this build up was over "the light" and I don't know that the writers did a good enough job getting people emotionally invested in the concept.
Since we went all religious last night (Christian Shepard!) why would a God that creates a love that allows an otherworldly reunion like that let His/Her creation blink out because somebody moved a stone.
That's my biggest issue. I suppose I have to suspend my disbelief on that one.
I'm more than okay with the finale. It struck the perfect emotional tone, and Jack's death scene provided perfect storytelling symmetry - his eye closing as the plane takes off.
The only BIG problem I have is Sayid/Shannon - give me a freaking break!
Even though Darlton wisely (I guess) refused to call this show science fiction, I loved it for its sci-fi references, from The Prisoner to Star Wars to Star Trek to the Matrix. Seriously - all I could think of during the Desmond- down-below scene was Wrath of Khan. And every time Jack had to wipe the blood off his neck in Sideways world I kept waiting for Morpheus to show up and offer him the Red or Blue pill.
I personally won't call Sideways World Purgatory, but I'm okay with it having served a similar function throughout this season's episodes. I quite like the idea that all of these folks had been waiting for and looking for each other on the other side. And I liked it, too, that Christian Shepard was their guide in those final moments. Sad, though, that Ben didn't feel worthy to join them yet. I wonder how long he and Hurley ran things on the island?
I wondered that as well, what kind of interesting stories there were to tell with Hurley/Ben as the island protectors. Did they build up another group of Others?
I know I never will (I still haven't done my 'watch all three Lord of the Rings flicks in marathon session' I keep promising myself), but I'm really tempted to rewatch the series on DVD knowing now what I know to see if I appreciate it any more or less.
Meanwhile, I think this blog will be repurposed into Thursday Glee Talk, because Glee is so frickin' awesome.
I used to think I'd buy the DVD box set and slam it down (minus commercials, that should lop about 50 hours off of it). I don't think I ever will though. There are so many hidden Easter eggs and alleged sentences of significance that one would go insane looking for every grassy knoll and dissecting every single prophetic word. Nobody is that clever; not even the LOST writers.
Still, never say never. A tasty box set under the Christmas tree wouldn't go unwatched.
And not only do I want to know more about Hurley and Ben on the island, I wonder what became of the rest of the Losties as they lived out their lives. Did Claire raise Aaron? How did Richard Alpert cope with his newfound mortality? What did the rest of the world think when Lapidus et al flew back onto the radar?
Assumedly, not many of the Losties did anything during the rest of their lives which rivaled their time on the island. That's why they were all drawn together in the afterlife.
That little plot device is nice because it helps me cope with some of the absences at the end - Miles, Charlotte, Daniel, Walt and even Richard. They are absent only because they have gone to some other 'purgatory' probably. (Admittedly, this is hard to swallow, especially in Richard's case, but at least there is an attempt at an explanation.)
As for watching the show again - I might do it since in the past I have found that second viewings are the best, but it's a big time commitment. I did it a few years ago with Babylon 5. I watched an episode each night while I prepared dinner in the kitchen. I don't eat in enough these days to get through LOST any time soon.
Good point Kristin. What happened when Al-Jira 316 landed weeks (months?) after disappearing...with two of the Oceanic Six on board?
I'd also like to think Ben was going to make peace with sideways Widmore before feeling himself worthy to go into the church.
I wondered if each of the Losties in the church had had, at some point, his or her own church scene. By that I mean, here's this purgatory that is somewhat Jack-centric - people find each other and reunite, but ultimately it ended at the church with Jack's father. I wonder if, say, Sawyer at some point in Purgatory also had an Earth 2 experience that involved Jack but ended being Sawyer-centric. And again and again and again there are these Earth 2 storylines until everyone has their moment of understanding and explanation. Purgatory being timeless, you could do that.
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