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6.17 The End Jack: "I'm fine. Just find me some thread, and I can count to five." I was deeply moved; I cried and cried. Emotionally, it was an incredibly satisfying finale. But intellectually, I feel cheated, and mildly disappointed. The Island The Island story ended where it began, with Jack dying in the same spot. I was so moved that Vincent was with Jack at the end. I can't even type that without crying. There were so many callbacks and so many great resolutions, and I won't list them all. I'll just note that I especially liked Jack, Locke, and Desmond and the big hole with the light below. That Richard found a gray hair. That the Man in Black's death echoed Locke's fall from the eight-story building. The Jack/Smokey fight at the Cliffs of Insanity was beautifully filmed. Loved Jack kissing Kate goodbye -- a long, sexy kiss, too, instead of something pure. Hurley sort of won the Island lottery, even though he didn't want it. It was so like him to refuse to leave Jack, and to take on the guardianship when he was asked. He got Ben as his new Richard in the bargain, too, which was just marvelous. I loved that Ben was indeed undercover in an attempt to defeat Smokey, and wow, did he redeem himself; this may have been my favorite plotline in the finale. We don't know for sure if 316 made it to Fiji or whatever, but we can believe that it did because we were carefully told that the flash sideways afterlife wasn't limited by when you died. Kate told Jack near the end, "I've missed you so much." I think that suggests she lived a long time after the plane left the Island. Kate and Sawyer could have indeed wound up together; they did jump off a cliff in tandem, and you can't waste symbolism like that. Claire might have returned to Aaron, and raised him. And Hurley may have found a way to get Desmond back to Penny. We'll never know, but it's pretty to think so. The Flash Sideways It's funny how I'm okay with Jack dying, but not with him going to Heaven. Go figure. I remember back in season one when the writers promised that the Island wasn't the afterlife. Guess they couldn't resist, after all. I'm getting tired of science fiction shows that I love ending on deeply religious notes, and I'm disappointed that Lost chose to go out that way. It's not that I don't believe in an afterlife. Sometimes I do. I did a lot of religious seeking when I was in my teens, trying different religions, reading and taking classes. I eventually came to my own conclusions about what I believed. And I think they took the Christian symbolism too far. Jack became a man of faith and was saved; he died to save the world from evil, and went to Heaven, and he even had a wound in his side. I don't care that the flash sideways (or purgatory, or anteroom to Heaven, or whatever) was carefully nondenominational; Christian Shephard of the metaphorically loaded name was the one who explained it all. Deeply moving, as I said. I cried through it. And then I resented it. I wish they hadn't gone there. Alternate universe, yes. Heaven, no. I wanted the sideways to be all of them alive somewhere, and they weren't. Other than that, it was wonderful. It was like a party celebrating the end. "Unbelievably Heartfelt Reunions R Us." And yes, it was the very definition that most people have of Heaven, that the people we love best are waiting for us there. We got it all: Sun and Jin and their baby, Sayid rescuing Shannon, Daniel meeting Charlotte as he was living out his dream of performing with Drive Shaft. We even got the much desired Sawyer and Juliet coffee moment, in front of Jack's candy machine (symbolism alert there), followed by a great big smooch. The one that tipped me over the edge into outright sobbing was Kate delivering Claire's baby again, culminating in that intense Charlie/Claire moment. And I kept crying right through to the end. Again, Ben's story may have been the best: I was especially touched that he didn't think he deserved to join the rest of them in Heaven. We always knew there was a very good man hiding inside of Ben. Okay, we didn't know. We suspected. Were all the trapped souls released from the Island when Desmond popped the cork, or when Jack killed the Man in Black? Christian's presence in the church intimated that that was what happened, and that was why the Sideways Losties could finally go into the Light. What have we learned? I don't have the heart to list more stuff. There were lots of details we never did learn, like why Walt was special, why Claire had to raise Aaron, and so on. But pretty much every character-related string was tied up. Hey, Heaven is pretty much it. Jack's eye closing at the end made me think that maybe the Island was a metaphor for life's journey. We're born -- eye open -- we struggle through our lives and hopefully learn and grow, and... in the end, we're right back where we started? No, that doesn't work in a karmic sense. You know what? I'm going to just leave this. I've written enough about metaphor and meaning in Lost. I'm done. Character bits: -- Hurley told Jack, "I believe in you." Jack said it back to him. -- I loved Jin's face when Sawyer said he was LAPD. "Hello... detective." One of my favorite moments. -- Juliet's last name was Carlson and of course, she was an obstetrician. We all knew she'd be Jack's ex. -- Sideways Kate had Island hair and no makeup on top of that gorgeous dress and heels. It was an odd look but it made sense. -- Rose and Bernard got Desmond out of the well. I like to think of the two of them and Vincent living out their retirement on the Island, possibly getting together with Hurley and Ben occasionally for tea. -- Did Boone already know the score in the season opener? He was so serene. He was the first to die, so maybe he had the most time to work through his issues. -- I'm glad Christian (John Terry) got to be in the finale. Alan Dale wasn't. I guess Widmore is still working out his issues, like Eloise and Ben. And Nadia. And possibly Keamy. What was Jack's son, David, though? David never existed. And will Aaron be a permanent baby in Heaven? -- Sawyer got in several instances of "Son of a bitch" and some great nicknames: Bigfoot, Blondie, Doc, Chesty, and so on. He even called the Man in Black "Smokey," which made me think last week's "Flocke" was deliberate. -- Six people left the Island in a plane: Sawyer, Kate, Claire, Frank, Miles and Richard. The Ajira Six. Bits and pieces: -- The episode began with the Oceanic plane's eye opening, sort of, as Christian's body was unloaded. And ended with Jack's right eye closing. -- The opening cast list was simply beautiful. I loved that they listed everyone, not just the official stars of the show. -- Several Lost episode titles were worked into the dialogue, like "The Long Con" and "What Happened, Happened". I'm sure I missed a lot of them. -- The concert was at the Golden State Museum of History, or whatever. "Golden State." What a pun. -- Charlie's tatt, "Living is easy with eyes closed" had the second line on it: "Misunderstanding all you see." -- A dirty plastic Oceanic bottle got to be the holy grail this time. Very appropriate. -- In my opinion, the last Lost special, "The Final Journey," was the best Lost special. The actors talking about their memories of the show and their favorite scenes made it a thousand times better than the usual straight exposition. And it was narrated by Titus Welliver (Man in Black). The "Final Transmissions" were also fun. My favorite was "Roses are red, violets are blue, 4 8 15 16 23 42." -- The Losties sat at Table 23 at the benefit. This finale aired on the 23rd, and was 108 minutes long. With 108 minutes of commercials. Quotes: Jack: "Jacob didn't say anything to me about Desmond." Sawyer: "Doesn't sound like he said anything about anything." Hurley: "That's kinda true, dude. He's worse than Yoda." Sawyer: "All right. Y'all head to your heart of the Island, and I'll go get the magic leprechaun out of that well." Sawyer: "I'd ask you along, but that'd take all the fun out of me telling you you can't come." Kate: "Guess I'll just have to resist the urge to follow you, anyway." Hurley: "I got a bad feeling about this." This is the line that was in every Star Wars movie. Hurley: "This would be so sweet if we all weren't about to die." Jack: "I'm going to kill you." Smokey: "How do you plan to do that?" Jack: "It's a surprise." Jack: "You're not John Locke. You disrespect his memory by wearing his face, but you're nothing like him." Kate: "I saved you a bullet." Yippee ki-yay... Miles: "I don't believe in a lot of things, but I do believe in duct tape." I was tempted to make this my lead quote, but I felt it would be dissing Lost. Desmond: "You were right, Jack." Jack: "There's a first time for everything." Jack: "I'll see you in another life, brother." As we've all acknowledged several times, it was impossible for the producers and writers to satisfy every fan with the conclusion of this show. But even though I was unhappy with where they went, I believe this finale was a masterpiece. (Hey, at least it didn't turn out to be someone's dream.) I'm not sorry I spent six years writing about this show. It's been a helluva ride, and I got more than my money's worth. Four out of four polar bears, Billie View all comments or post a comment. |
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