I have just watched the highly anticipated finale to Lost – possibly one of the greatest TV dramas ever made. For six years viewers have watched the plight of the remaining Oceanic Flight 815 passengers, as they struggle to get off the island and ultimately understand all that they have experienced.
I have not spent the last six years watching Lost as I only started seeing it for the first time last year, thanks to buying the first five seasons from iTunes. I was hooked straight away and have enjoyed it immensely; getting to know the various characters and trying to understand what it all means.
With the arrival of season six I have been watching it with even more excitement and interest, knowing that these episodes would be leading up to the finale, and waiting each week for possible answers to all of the questions that the show poses. After each episode I would spend a few hours analysing all that I had just seen trying to make sense of it.
Like everyone else I had my own theories about what Lost was really all about, and how it would end in order to explain everything that had taken place up to that point. I also knew that it would be impossible for the finale to answer all the questions that we viewers had, because there were just too many. This I accepted – after all being a TV drama you have to allow a certain amount of poetic licence with the storyline. However, I did expect some kind of explanation to be given otherwise why did it’s creators introduce so many weird and wonderful moments?
So I watched the final ever episode with a mixture of excitement and sadness, but also hope for a satisfactory conclusion. However, having now seen how it ended, I have to admit that I feel a little disappointed. Maybe even let down by the team behind the programme for not being braver and really giving us an ending that matched the rest of the Lost events that had occurred.
Let’s be honest, I am sure I am not the only one who had already wondered if infact the characters were actually dead, not surviving the crash, and were living out their state of purgatory through the six seasons ( would also explain why Hurley could see dead people – bit like the kid in Sixth Sense ). With a surname of Shepherd I also thought that Jack would end up being the one who would be end up having to look after the island. I also pondered early on in the show whether or not the basis of the show was about peoples faith – religious faith or just faith in other people. Clearly the programme had an underlying religious theme with the frequent religious references, eg. the use of black and white ( the stones) good vs evil ( Jacob vs MIB and maybe these two characters even meaning god vs the devil ) the smoke monster vs the healing powers of the island etc… .But I also thought this theory was far too obvious for such a clever and original show, and I kept looking for a far more complicated explanation to the meaning of Lost. Sadly I was wrong 🙁
The finale was gripping and must see television, don’t get me wrong, but because I was expecting something more, once the credits came up on my screen,I felt gutted that was how six years of Lost came to an end. Bit of a cop out maybe? It was great to see the Losties reunited and happy, and at last they were able to understand what happened to them. Lets face it,after all they had been through they deserved closure and a happy ever after (even if it happened when they were dead and after a long time in limbo!)
But what about the Lost fans and our understanding of it? I am still not 100% certain whether or not the characters died when the plane crashed, or whether they did survive and what we witnessed did happen to them and some died along the way and some died after. I guess that is up to us the audience to make sense of. I do feel that a lot more questions were left unanswered than I was expecting – too many unfortunately, and although I would have liked more of them explained, I guess it is up to me to decide what it all meant. With it having so many complex layers, maybe there was never meant to be a clear conclusion to Lost. Just like the mysteries I feel were not explained within the show, Lost will remain a mystery too.
Despite my disappointment though, the ending does not take way my overall enjoyment of the show because it was ruddy brilliant (Even though I feel that the ending I came up with was better, which I won’t go into because it is too complicated to explain lol).
Therefore, in the words of Christian Shepherd I “must let go and move on” and accept Lost the finale for what it was, and even though I am still a bit Lost I am also glad to have watched such a brilliant programme. What will I get my teeth into now? Well I suppose I could watch it all over again!
Thank you xx
