Tyler Anderson

Well this is it. The last post I’ll write about Lost, at least for the foreseeable future. It’s been a tough week. I don’t know how many times I’ve re-watched the finale, and I can still say that I get teary-eyed at some point with every viewing. Damon and Carlton have urged viewers to move on from the show, but I don’t know anyone who truly loves the show who is ready to do that. I know I’m not. Anyway, I have just a few more talking points to discuss about the finale, so let’s get into them.

The Ending Was Obvious

Of course, I didn’t see it coming either. If you read through my previous blog posts you’ll see theory upon theory based on the modal reality concept. I was totally certain that the bomb had created an alternate reality, and that the survivors were existing in a world where the Island was no longer there. Desmond, apparently, was convinced of the same fact. This is presumably because what Widmore did to Desmond earlier in the season must have had his consciousness jump so far forward in time that it jumped past his death into the world that he and the other survivors created. For a brief moment in a scene in the finale, he was the voice of the viewer, telling Jack that there was another world, where everyone was happy, and that he could take Jack there. It’s here that Jack talks to Desmond, but really talks to the viewers. He tells him that there are no shortcuts, that “all of this matters,” and that what happened, happened. In the end, I’m glad they went with the ending we got. Everything makes so much more sense the way they ended up explaining it. But I’ve said all of this before. In this section I’ve got just a short list of some of the things from the past season that made the ending pretty obvious.

1. Jack’s neck - Okay, so Jack’s neck was bothering me all season. I just couldn’t figure out what its significance was. The same can be said for him pointing out his appendix scar. However it’s revealed in the finale that both of these things are battle wounds from his final confrontation with Flocke on the cliff. His “appendix scar” is from where Smokey stabbed him, and whenever his bloody neck acts up, it’s a reference to him almost getting stabbed through the throat. Sneaky sneaky, Lost writers.

2. “You can let go now.” - Okay, so the writers gave us a HUGE hint about what happens in the finale and what the sideways world was all about in the first 10 minutes of the season, when the turbulence hits flight 815. As the shaking on the plane subsides, Jack is left still gripping his hand rests, and Rose tells him he can “let go now”. Funny it took his dead dad showing up and telling him the same for us to finally realize the gravity of this statement.

3. “I hope it brings you some peace.” - Even in the finale, the writers were still dropping hints on us about what was really going on. When Jack was talking to Locke right before his surgery, Locke asks about his father’s body. Jack tells him that it’s been found and should be arriving that day. Locke tells Jack that he “hopes it brings [him] some peace.” And it does just that: Jack’s father finally helped Jack to remember so that he could move on and rest in peace.

Keeping It Serious, But Not Too Serious

Lost is not a comedy. If you came into this post thinking it was, you’ve obviously never seen the show. Still, every serious show has to have its light moments, or no viewer would truly enjoy watching every episode. Here are a couple of ways the writers kept the finale serious, but light.

1. “Dude” – Hurley continued being his Duderrific self. He has some of the funniest lines in the finale, from his Star Wars references to lines like “None of this is ringing a bell, is it? You me, tranquilizer gun?”

2. Self References - The finale was filled with references to previous seasons in the show, including lines that only those who had always watched would understand. Kate jokes with Sawyer about following him into danger and makes fun of the obvious meaning behind Christian Shephard, Desmond tells Jack that he was right and Jack replies “Well, there’s a first time for everything,” and Flocke remarks on how Jack is the “obvious choice” for Jacob’s successor. Each one of these flirts with the line of being too much, but they never cross it, and that’s what makes them perfect.

Tidbits

1. Christian’s Travels - Let’s take a look at the box Christian Shephard’s coffin was shipped in:

There are four stickers on that box, and I’m assuming those are the airports that it was shipped to. Three of them are obvious: LAX (Los Angeles), GUM (Guam), and HKG (Hong Kong). The fourth one, however, I’m not so sure about. It’s BWN, which stands for Brunei International Airport. The Nation of Brunei is located on the northern coast of Borneo in Southeast Asia. What importance this has, if any, I’m not sure.

2. Richard Ages - It only got a couple of minutes of discussion, but it was revealed that Richard has started aging again. This is because Jacob’s now been officially replaced by Jack. Once that happened, all of Jacob’s effects on Richard were removed.

3. Religion In The Finale - Some people complain about the Christian imagery in the finale. They either complain that it was to overly Christian, or that Lost limited itself to one religion at the end. This is simply not true. Take a look at the below screengrab:

As you can see, there’s plenty of religious symbols of varying faiths to be found in the church, especially in the stained glass window. This is all despite the fact that it’s all located in a western church, but I’m just gonna ignore that.

4. Live Together, Die Alone - In the end, the castaways found a way to live together. Because of this they didn’t die alone, and were able to find each other before moving on.

Who Was In The Church… And Who Wasn’t

Let’s start the discussion of who was in the church off with a screenshot:

Now, looking at the image we can see that, starting from the back left, the people in the church are: Boone, Juliet, Sawyer, Christian, Desmond, Penny, Hurley, Libby, Sayid, Shannon, Bernard, Rose, Charlie, Claire, Sun, Jin, Locke, Jack, and Kate.

Some people theorize that the reason why these characters are in the church and others aren’t is because they were in the first season, and they were written in that way because the writers wrote this last scene from the very beginning and didn’t want to change it. However I don’t believe this theory to be true. There are characters we weren’t introduced to until season 2, like Desmond and Penny, that are included in the final scene. You could argue that the writers knew about those characters, but in reality the writers weren’t even sure there was going to be a second season to the show when they were working on season one, so that’s probably not true. Don’t take this as me saying the writers have just been making stuff up, because they haven’t been doing that, and I’ll fight anyone who says they have been. Anyway, each one of those characters in the church are important to each other, it’s as simple as that.

As for characters who aren’t in the church, I’m sure everyone has their own opinion about who should have been included and who should have been left out. There are two categories of characters who didn’t belong in the church: those who weren’t important to this group and those who don’t deserve to be included. Characters, like Miles, Lapidus, Faraday, or Charlotte for example, fall into the first category if they have others who were important in their lives. Those characters I just listed have their own place that they created to find one another, outside of this church. Each one of them, although they may be getting flashes of memory, haven’t fully realized where they are or what they need to do. They’re on their own journey of discovery with the people closest to them. Same goes for Ben, who needs to help Alex, Rosseau, and others. Characters, like Michael, don’t deserve to be in the church. These characters are still on the Island, forced to live out the rest of their lives there because of the things they’ve done.

Now whether the way the group is sitting, their placement or their positions (like looking back, forward, etc.) means anything, well that’s something you’ll have to decide for yourself.

Not leaving, Moving On.

I thought I was prepared for it to all be over. Really, I did. I prepared all of last Sunday for the finale, even making Oceanic tickets for my fellow Losties that I watch with.

However, in the end I wasn’t anywhere near prepared for Lost to be over. Ever since my junior year in high school the show had been there for me. It was always a rock during the best and worst times. I made so many connections from the show both online and off, the most notable of which being my two favorite Losties, Aubrey Therkelsen and Ashley Getsinger, who I would be remiss not to mention in this final posting. We didn’t start watching together until this final season, but through the show I made an amazing friendship with them. A lot of the ideas and theories you’ve read about on my blog have come from either discussions with them or directly from their mouths, and I’ll never forget the fun times talking into the night about Jacob and Eli (inside joke, sorry). However the connections made don’t end with those made in real life. Some of my best online friendships have been made through Lost, like those with @Desmondia and @flimgeeks. I guess what I’m trying to say here is that Lost doesn’t just end with the relationships the viewers make with the characters, but it extends outward to the relationships the viewers make with each other. Outside of Star Trek, no other show that I know of has the same kind of community that Lost does, and that’s something special that we’ll all hold on to for years to come.

And with that, this ends my last blog post on Lost, because like it or not, Damon and Carlton are right. It’s time to move on. Or attempt to, at least. It’s going to be a rough couple of months here accepting that fact, and I fully expect to have some long nights, crying and eating ice cream while watching past seasons on Hulu. I want to thank you for following my thoughts and ruminations on the wondrous experience that is Lost, and I only regret not writing during previous seasons. You’ve been a great audience, and I hope you still come back here to read about whatever I find to write about next. Here’s some final jears (Jack tears, for those not in the know) for you, faithful reader. Good luck, and namaste.