Spoiler Pirate says, "Thar be spoilers ahead..."
The best network television program in existence ended last Sunday and boy, was it a doozy. As a regular consumer of the show since day 1, I can say, with all honesty, that the finale was as fully satisfying as I had hoped. Maybe even more so.Were there problems and discrepancies in major and minor plot points. Yes. But the ending made me forget about all of them. Most of which are brilliantly pointed out here: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1936291
Instead, my analysis of Lost is more philosophical. We have to open up our minds to the fact that this little network show has not only reshaped the human parameters of limbo--it has also redefined death. What was amazing in the last episode was the moment when the characters realized what had happened to them. If memory serves, the first two to do this was Jin and Sun. When Juliet was talking to them about the baby and they flashed sideways to the island life, they both knew. In this brief twinge of enlightenment, they both smiled and spoke English. It was almost as if the two parallel versions of themselves converged and their lives "doubled" (part of Chuck Klosterman's theory) at that moment. There wasn't a hint of fear or confusion in their eyes (or any character's eyes after subsequent "doubling") which can only lead me to believe that the writers wanted to drive home the idea that fear of death is the only thing that stops human beings from breaking through to the other side.
A lot of people wanted answers about the death of the island dwellers. Did they die in the intial plane crash in episode 1? Did they die when Juliet hit the bomb? The answer, I feel, is not important. I feel that the Lost community, by and large, are uncreative thinkers who need the answers spelled out to them on a chalkboard. I blame Glen Beck. To me, I didn't really care when they died--I was just glad to know that they'll be okay in the end.The real reason we love this show is because of the characters--not the answer to all the loose ends. A finale that attempted to answer all of the questions raised in the above college humor video would have been absurd. The ambiguity of the show will live on in multiple re-watches and further intellectual juggling. The show will live on because of this fact too. The bloggers will reassess the show with sharper and learned eyes. The new theories and re-hashed conspiracies and dumb internet arguments won't slow down. In fact, I believe there will be renaissance of Lost poking and prodding now that we have the ultimate end in mind. This is why I want to teach the show's unique story arch in a future class. Quite frankly, this a show for the ages.
I compare the experience of watching Lost to that of one of my favorite movies, Donnie Darko. They have relative themes--too many to count really. They both have time travel, monsters, confusion, references to Watership Down and creepy old women that act as soothsayers. Since Lost began in the virginal Autumn of 2004, I have always thought it was a more layered and complex retelling of Donnie's journey. Turns out that my intuition was correct...sort of.
The final fifteen minutes of the show didn't so much pull at my heartstrings s it yanked them out, tied the noose around my neck and did this mutherfucker in. Jack's conversation with his dad (Christian, lolz!) was the crux of what the show was going for the whole time. It was so simple and earnest that it had to make all the conspiracy theorists cry and then get angry at those tears because they still haven't explained the polar bears. The end, I think, was simplistic and that's what made it shocking. If I would have told you the show was going to end this way back in 2007, you would feel cheated, but somehow, this end didn't feel like a cheat...at least to me it didn't.Let me explain further, this ending exemplifies the way I want life to be (or perhaps it is this way?? I just won't know until I mosey into my own personal bamboo forest with a Vincentesque facsimile.) This kind of simple death is what we all deserve. This is what I beleive the writer's final statement was. It wasn't about good v.s. bad or figuring out what the island is or isn't, it's about dying in peace and moving onto something even better. It all we really want when you boil it all down.
We shouldn't be asking why this is happening to them. We should be asking: when will this happen to us? Maybe it already is happening and LOST helped us all realize it collectively. And if it does that, this show is beyond the confines of television, pop culture or even human thought. This thing we call LOST is the answer we're all looking for...maybe. If it is the irony is in the title.
All we need to do is open our eyes...
...so we can ultimately close them.
...so we can ultimately close them.More Brilliance.
