Monday, May 24, 2010

LOST: Season 6 Episode 17 & 18 - The End

Hello LOSTIES!!!!  You must excuse me, I am still wiping the tears away from an incredibly emotional 2.5 hour experience!  What an episode, what a conclusion!  The feelings for this episode will, no doubt, be all over the map.  The conclusion to the Sideways Timeline will be the cause for much debate about the whole point of the entire series.  From this blogger's perspective though, I can not think of a more fitting end to the show that captured our imagination for 6 years.  There is only one way to definitively END a story.  They need to show us the very "END"!  And folks, that's exactly what we got!  I will try to weigh in on my opinions throughout the recap of that very point.  But clearly, things are being interpreted in different ways.  And I am guessing this is by design!  The significance of the end will not escape me, but there is a significance in this blog posting at the same time.  This is my final LOST recap (do I detect some tears out there?  There are some right here!).   An era is about to end.  And while this blog is not going anywhere and I will be posting things in the future, there will not be a new hour of LOST to discuss.  So, this may be a bit emotional for all of us.  But we're going to get through it!   I will save my thanks and goodbyes for the end.  For now, I have to say that this final episode of LOST was one great THRILL of a ride!  I was on the edge of my seat, I was crying, I feel like I need to go buy something at Target (man how many commercials were there?  Can't believe I decided to watch LIVE!  The LOST-Inspired Target commercials were very funny though), and of course there was enough intrigue in the episode to leave us talking for days, weeks, months, years!   I cannot help but give this episode a major WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!   And my entire LOST experience one giant SUPER WOW!!!!  I dread this folks, but it's time to get to the next paragraph!


The End - "It only Ends Once, everything else is progress."  Everything that we have seen for 6 seasons and everything that was set up this season all culminates to one definitive ending point.  On the Island, Jack has been dubbed the "Protector of the Island" and he along with Kate, Sawyer and Hurley have been tasked with the need to kill Smokey before he destroys the Island.  Smokey has vowed to destroy the Island with the use of Desmond "the Fail safe".  He has seemingly recruited Ben to help him out in this task.   Richard was blown away by Smokey with his fate uncertain.  And Miles "RAN AWAY" from conflict to save his own tail.   Then in Sideways land, things to be shaping up where people are being "ENLIGHTENED" to where they are.  A Prison Break, a Concert and a Hospital play their parts in uniting everyone to where they need to be.  But there is one stubborn "last recruit" in Jack Shephard.  Considering how this one ended, I think we have to switch up our story lines.  Our Island story is coming first in our final recap!

Disclaimer: It is very surprising for me to see how many people are already coming up with different philosophies on how this show ended.  I definitely will keep to my normal style of recapping by posing various questions to ponder.  But there are some things that I accepted as FACT by the end of this show, and I cannot help but write the recap this way, especially when it comes to the Sideways resolution!  So, hopefully this may clear things up for some who are confused!   Here we go!

The Island

All the events that occur in the following storyline are REAL and happened while everyone was alive.  Don't let anybody fool you into thinking that they weren't! 

Assembling the Attack Plan


We rejoin Jack, Hurley, Kate and Sawyer after their encounter with Jacob.   Jack is standing in the waters where he was "REBORN" as the protector of the Island.  Kate and Sawyer watch from a distance, but then Sawyer moves in for a chat.


  • Sawyer is very confused on everything that has just transpired.  Jack is in the same boat.   He does mention how he doesn't feel any different than he did before.  
  • Gotta love Sawyer telling him to come down from his mountain and tell everyone what the burning bush had to say!  
  • Jack then fills the other 3 in on the big plan.  Go to the bamboo forest close to their old camp (where Jack's journey began).   There they will find the "heart of the Island."  
  • They resolve that the light must stay lit or "that'll be it for all of us."  This is probably something subject for interpretation, but it really seems like when putting all of these episodes together and seeing what was happening when that light DID go out, that if this Island's light went out, it may have had repercussions to the rest of the world.   If not pushing that button in season 2 caused an electromagnetic surge that could have destroyed the world, what's to say that distinguishing this power source and removing the metaphorical CORK wouldn't cause world destruction?   Yes, it is left very ambiguous in the end though and we can only guess.   That's going to drive many people bonkers!   And it probably drives people crazy when I say that I'm cool with it! 
  • Anyway, they realize that both sides need Desmond, or more alarmingly, Flocke needs Desmond to put out the light.  Jack mentions that Jacob never said anything about Desmond, then Sawyer implied that he really didn't say much about anything!    This all set up to 2 more fantastic Star Wars lines to have in this final episode and both come from Hurley. 1.) "That's kind of true dude, he's worse than Yoda!"  We'll wait on the 2nd line for a second.  
  • Because we have another great Sawyer line to get to.  "You all head to your heart of the Island and I'll go get the magic leprechaun out of that well."   I'm gonna miss this show! 
  • Sawyer and Kate have a joking commentary referring to Kate's urge to always follow along with people.  But she sticks with Jack this time. 
  • And then what better line to set up the final conflict than the one line that made it into all 6 Star Wars movies in one way or another?  "I've Got a Bad Feeling About this!"   Damon Lindelof promised at his recent Times Talk Live interview that the first 7 minutes of the episode would include some big Star Wars stuff.  He did NOT disappoint!  (Now, some may argue he DID disappoint in the FINAL 7 minutes of the episode, but alas...so the debate shall rage on for years to come).  
  • Jack, Kate and Hugo head towards the Heart of the Island.  Kate asks Jack why he took the job, and he responds that he was supposed to.  He didn't take it because Jacob wrote his name on the wall.  Ever since he became BROKEN after leaving the Island and ruining his relationship with Kate, he believes that the Island is all he has left.   It's the only thing in his life he hasn't ruined.  
  • Kate pretty much was picking up what he was putting down and let Jack know that he hasn't ruined anything.   She then says something that Sideways Jack tells Sideways Locke in the beginning of this season.  "Nothing is irreversible."   Awwwwwwwwww She still loves him!!  And the Jaters (including me) rejoice!
  • Leave it to Hurley to keep them on task, "This would be so sweet if we weren't all about to die!"  Too true, Hugo, too true!   And they continue on their trek. 

Meanwhile, At the Well
Flocke is pulling up the rope from the well, thinking that it might come in handy in a bit at one of his next stops.  Ben catches Sawyer spying from behind a tree and escorts him towards the well with his gun.



  • Sawyer and Flocke have a conversation about them both needing Desmond.  Sawyer assumes Flocke needs Desmond to destroy the Island. (Love that Sawyer called him Smokey too.  We all have called him Smokey, but I'm not sure he was ever called that on the show!)    Flocke implies that he will be leaving the Island.  We find out later that he has Desmond's sailboat lined up for this plan.  
  • Flocke agrees with Sawyer that he plans to destroy the Island and then gets into the fact that this will, in turn, kill all of Jacob's precious candidates in the process.  Sawyer updates Flocke on the situation that there are no candidates any more.  Then he gives Ben one more elbow to the face for good measure (I'm glad he got one more beating before the show was over!), he grabs the gun and then heads off.   Since there is no more Desmond to be keeping him there.    

  • With Flocke finding out that someone was the new Island protector, he had no interest in anything about Sawyer anymore.  
  • Then in a BIT of a stretch, we find out that Ben thought Flocke was talking FIGURATIVELY about destroying the Island because he had promised it to Ben when he was gone.  So, if Ben had any resolve to help Smokey out, I think he lost the desire after this, just as we had speculated in the last recap! 



  • Flocke apologizes that he left out the part where Ben could be in charge of the Island but that the Island would be on the bottom of the ocean.   Of course, this makes us think that the Sideways land was somehow a result of how things ended in this Island story.  But, it will turn out that the sunken Island has nothing to do with all of that.   He did invite Ben to come on his boat once he gets Desmond to do what he needs to do.  He'll sail away from the Island and watch it sink.  
  • Oh wait, what's this?  A little bit of John Locke's tracking skills are at work as he spots some DOG TRACKS!   Whoever called it that Rose, Bernard and Vincent would rescue Desmond last week, VERY GOOD CALL (Lost Addicts Blog Commenter Paolo called this FYI)! 


Casa Nadler
Welcome back Vincent to the show!  And of course welcome back Rose and Bernard!  We see that Rose and Bernard's life hasn't really changed much after time traveling back to 2007.  They still have their cabin that they built and they're still remaining non-confrontational.  But, they broke this "do not get involved" rule when they rescued Desmond.




  • Rose doesn't even know WHEN they are right now.  They knew they built the place in 75 and lived there for 2 years.  Then the sky lit up again (The Incident) and here they are.  They just don't care though.  They have been living their hippie lifestyle in peace.   She then asks Desmond to move on after he eats.  They do not want any conflict he has brought to interfere with their peace loving ways. 

  • TOO LATE!   Bernard returns with no food but a whole lot of conflict!  Flocke has arrived and he pulls out his knife ready for blood.  Oh man, was anyone else here super nervous?  After seeing him off Zoe so suddenly with that knife, it definitely provided the fear that he might strike the marginally important characters of Rose and Bernard! 
  • He gives Desmond the ultimatum to come with him or he'll kill Rose and Bernard.  While Rose and Bernard tell Desmond not to give in, he did the right thing!  How chilling was it when he told Rose "I'll make it hurt"?   Yikes this guy is creepy!  Kudos to Terry O'Quinn.  Give the man an Emmy for this season.  Seriously! 
  • Desmond asks for Flocke's word that he won't harm them if he goes with them.   Once again Smokey is forced to give his word and he does.  And so it would seem that Rose and Bernard go on to live a happy Island existence and possibly lived a happy and cancer free existence for many years to come!  How do I know this?  It's all in Christian's speech at the end folks!  
  • Desmond says he will do what Smokey wants.  And Smokey tells him chillingly "Yes, Desmond, you will!"  

Collision


Sawyer catches up with his crew and Hurley screams in fear of him coming out of nowhere.  "Easy Bigfoot, it's just me!"   Like I said, I'm gonna miss this show!  Sawyer won't be the only one joining this party.

  • Sawyer reports what he had found out in his "Recon" trip.  Flocke has every intention of destroying the Island.  And of course, Desmond is not in the well, so Sawyer thinks they need to get to him first. 
  • Jack sees the big picture and realizes that it doesn't matter WHO brings Desmond to the Light Cave.  They're all going to the same place.  Jack seems to have faith that he knows how to bring this conflict to an end.  
  • Cue the awesome Michael Giacchino music we hear in every finale when we get some journeying across the Island!  That, and the wide panning camera shots always give these finales such an epic feel! 

  • Meanwhile, Flocke, Desmond and Ben are journeying towards the cave of light as well.  Flocke asked Desmond if he knew where he was being taken.  Desmond said he assumed it was a place with a very bright light!  Flocke seemed alarmed that he knew this.  One could speculate on the reason that Desmond knew this, but I would suggest that he knew it because he had experienced it twice before now and survived it, and knew that is the reason he was here.  And he was hoping that by getting to this light again he could get back to his other plane of existence.  Of course, what he didn't seem to know is what exactly that plane of existence was that he saw.  We'll talk more on this later. 
  • And what do you know?  Jack and crew, and Flocke and crew are marching right towards each other!  Smokey sums it up, "Well this is going to be interesting!" 

  • Before Flocke can even finish his sentence, Kate has grabbed Sawyer's rifle and opens fire!  She is a woman on a mission to kill this man-thing for what he has done!   Naturally, the bullets are doing nothing but flying right through him, around him or whatever!  I love that Ben and Desmond hit the deck! 


  • Sawyer stops Kate from shooting and Flocke just says "You may want to save your bullets." and walks right past towards Jack.  Well, Smokey, little did you know but that just gave Kate her Action Movie "One Liner" for a big event yet to come!  One that almost had me jumping out of my seat and cheering like when Hurley ran over the others with the Dharma Van on the beach! 
  • You have to love Smokey's speech here to Jack.  "So, it's you.  Jacob, being who he is, I expected to be a little more surprised!  You're sort of the obvious choice. Don't you think?"   It was almost like Smokey took the place of Hurley for a second as the Audience's representation on the show!  I have always loved how they address what they think the fan's reaction will be within the show itself! 
  • Jack was quick to clarify that Jacob didn't choose him, he chose to do it himself.   Then Jack, with his confidence at an all-time high, suggests that he cannot stop Flocke from reaching his destination.  Instead, he volunteers to go with him.  And then Jack tells him that Flocke THINKS he's going to destroy the Island, but this is not what is going to happen.   What will happen instead?  "I'm gonna kill you."   NIIIIICE!!!  Even if Jack was wrong, at least he was going down swinging! 
  • Flocke looked a little nervous and just asked Jack how he plans to do that.   "That's a surprise."  Man, Jack got some quality lines in this one!  So, they agree to move onward to the cave together and see which one of them will be right.  




Operation: Blow Up Plane - Take 2
Don't worry, there was plenty to do for our Non-Season 1 and 2 LOSTIES as well!  Of course, we may have only thought that Miles was alive from this crew, but we were happily mistaken!  Miles returns to the barracks to rejoin with his crew.  

  • He radios Ben on the walkie talkie which Ben has to turn down very quickly because he doesn't want Flocke to know he has it.  If there was any question whose side Ben was on, that little move cleared it up for us!  
  • Well guess what guys? Surprise #1, Richard is still alive and Miles found him! 
  • Miles updates Richard on what happened to him and how he got launched into the jungle.  He then offers to get him some help.  I agree with Richard.  Help from WHERE?   Anyway, since they have no idea what was going on with Flocke and Jack's respective missions, his resolve is still to blow up the plane.  Of course, with us being in the know, this really confuses us!  But it quickly makes more sense.   And yes, I remembered that Claire was hanging out on Hydra Island too so that would get her back into the story! 
  • Later on, we see Miles and Richard at the dock getting read to take Flocke's outrigger over to Hydra Island.  Miles notices something different about Richard and then welcomes him to the "club".   Richard has a grey hair!  He is no longer immortal!   I guess maybe this ended with Jacob's death?  Maybe Jack taking over?  If anything, it signified that his obligations to the Island were complete.  But, to Richard, it meant more.  It signified that he still wanted to live!  

  • They head on over towards Hydra Island but here some screaming on the way.  I think immediately we know who is screaming!  Surprise #2!  FRANK is still alive.  The producers did state that the oversight of him not being mentioned in the sub sinking would be corrected.  They sure were right!  Of course, he's been laying out in the Ocean for a couple days now but seems pretty fine a couple scenes later!  But, you know, Jin blew up in a freighter and was out at sea for a few days during some intense time travel.   This is child's play compared to that! 



  • Frank quickly addresses the fact that if they leave on the plane, Smokey won't have a plane to leave the island with.  And, in a nod to the fact that he's been wearing that crazy shirt for 2 seasons now, he tells Richard "In case you haven't noticed, I'm a pilot!"  GOOD TIMES!   So this story does have a "leave the island" plot after all!  It totally seemed like Frank had been brought back in season 5 and 6 for no reason whatsoever when we thought he was killed off a few episodes back. So this corrects all of that!




The Cave of Light
On their approach to the Cave, Sawyer wants to catch up with Jack's plan, since he thinks it's absolutely nuts that they're all going together.

  • Jack tells Sawyer that is surprise to kill Flocke is Desmond.  He isn't exactly sure how it's going to happen but he said there has to be a reason that Jacob brought Desmond back to the Island.  Funny that Jacob implied that he didn't know how to kill Smokey but he knew enough to bring Desmond back?  Maybe he did know and just wanted Jack to figure it out for himself.  Jack refers to Desmond as a weapon.  Loved Sawyer's "That's a hell of a long con, Doc!"  

  • The crew arrives at the outskirts of the bamboo forest.  Flocke thinks that only he, Jack and Desmond should continue on.  Jack agrees with this sentiment.   I love that Hurley runs after Jack and tells him that he believes in him.  Remember in season 4 when Hurley chooses to go with Locke instead of Jack?  So great to see these guys back on great terms.  Jack smiles and heads in to begin the fulfillment of his destiny.  

  • One issue that I will mention about the finale is that they make various references to the weather on the Island, the coming storm.  And yes, it's all metaphoric.  I get that.  But Team Darlton had suggested that we were going to get more information about the Day turning to Night kind of weather that has always been on the Island.  Why we saw Jacob and the Man in Black sitting on a sunny beach, watching the Black Rock arrive and then a huge storm was summoned and sent the ship crashing into the statue in sliding into the jungle.  The Enhanced version of the Pilot episode that aired Saturday spoke of how the rain was used to symbolize that something BAD was about to happen.  That doesn't answer any questions about the elements and how they played a factor on the Island.  My only issue with this is that they said it would be in the show, and it wasn't.  If they never said that I would have been fine with it!   I guess this could be part of the 20 minutes of additional storyline that will be attached to the DVD and Blu-Ray release of Season 6 on August 24th.  I'll be first in line to buy it and blog about it! 
  • Anyway, the reason I brought that up now is because we hear a roar of thunder and then we see Smokey, as John Locke (who always predicted the weather patterns on the Island), saying that it's going to be a bad one.  And it sure was! 
  • They arrive at the cave of light and they spend little time taking the scene in.  They get right to work! Flocke ties the rope to a tree and they begin to lower Desmond down into the hatch...errr cave.  
  • Then we find out what has been motivating Island Desmond ever since his zap of electromagnetic energy.   He begins to tell Jack that none of this matters.  Flocke destroying the Island, Jack destroying Flocke.   He tells Jack that when he goes into that light he is going to go somewhere else where they can all be with the ones they love and never have to think of the Island ever again.    He tells Jack of what he saw in sideways and how they say next to each other on Oceanic 815.   He said how Jack seemed happy and how the plane didn't crash.  He said he'd find a way to bring Jack there too.  And then we get it straight from Jack's mouth.   "I tried that once.  There are no do overs, no short cuts.  What happened happened."  Jack is of course referring to THE INCIDENT.  I guess some will look at this conversation and believe that what Desmond is saying is the truth.  But one thing that Damon and Carlton said in a recent interview (Times Talk Live) was that the Answer is in what they SHOW us, not what people say.  And what they show us by the end of this episode is that what Jack says here is right.   So we did get a big answer tonight folks.  Whatever happened, happened!  Jughead didn't reset anything.  Everything they did when they were in 1977 including setting off that nuke, was all part of what made the incident THE INCIDENT.   And upon re-watching the show, this will make the most sense.  When you watch that DHARMA orientation video and Marvin Candle (Pierre Chang) talks about the Incident, you will picture everything that they went through in that season 5 finale and know that this is what happened!  PERFECT.  Obviously, we need to still talk about Sideways land to get into this more.  But I am 100% sure that this is what we were meant to think.   Island Desmond was speaking the truth of what he saw, but what he didn't realize is what that vision actually WAS.  It was not a "do over."  It was something else entirely.   Everything they are doing, MATTERS. 
  • They head into the cave.  And I am so glad they did.  I'd be the first to admit how hokey the entrance to that cave looked the first time we saw it.  But I didn't realize how big it was and how far the waterfall went down into the cave.  Very cool. 


  • Jack asks Desmond if he knows what to do when he gets to the bottom.  Desmond says that he goes where the light is brightest.  They begin to lower him down.  Flocke starts to talk to Jack about how familiar this all seems.  And they talk about how they lowered rope into the Swan Hatch all of those years ago and Desmond was waiting down there for them.   He said if there was a button down there the 2 of them could fight about whether to push it or not.  Just like old times.  Jack isn't buying into it.  Jack tells Smokey "You're not John Locke.  You disrespect his memory by wearing his face, but you're nothing like him.  It turns out he was right about mostly everything.  I just wish I could have told him that while he was still alive."   YEAH JACK!!  Don't worry, you can tell him anyway!    Flocke continues to refer to Locke as a "sucker" and he wasn't right about anything.  And when the Island drops into the ocean along with Jack, he'll realize that.  While they resolve to see which one of them is right, we do get a shot of them looking into the cave exactly like they looked into the hatch in the final shot of season 1.   AWESOME symmetry! 

  • Desmond gets to the bottom of the cave.  He sees a few skeletons in this cave.  Looks like the Man in Black was NOT the first person to venture in here.  But unlike Man in Black, these bodies didn't seem to be kicked out of the cave either like his body was.  I'm sure I could speculate on this for hours but I need to keep moving for now!  I do not, however, think one of these bodies is EVE (Mother) because her body was found in the other cave next to Man in Black's body.  
  • And then Desmond sees it, the water mixed with the light and the proverbial cork ends up being an ACTUAL CORK plugging in some kind of hole.   I could speculate again about what this all signifies, and I'm sure many people out there will comment and give their theories on it.  I will save it for the discussion.  For recapping purposes, all we need to know is that EVE and Jacob both warned that the light must never be put out or it goes out EVERYWHERE.  This seems like unplugging this hole, while ending up being essential, also could have world wide stakes.  Desmond, without hesitation, moves towards the light with a big smile on his face.   A nice touch that I didn't notice the first time, Desmond's nose began to bleed as he screams and approaches the plug/cork.  That is something we saw various times during all of the time traveling of last season.  He reaches the center, not without some difficulty, and begins to pull at this plug.   We should note that a lot of the sounds that all of this activity was making sounded very similar to things we heard when they were all time traveling as well.  I am sure this, along with Rose talking about the bright white light again, is significant to remind us that all of the time travel that happened on the Island and the movement of the Island were all part of this core SOURCE of energy mixed with the water.  
  • Once successful in pulling the plug, the light diminishes until it is gone.  And the water stops running. Instead, something else replaces this light.  And one might compare the look and sound to something quite VOLCANIC!   This is what I choose to believe since we always new there was a volcano somewhere on the Island.  (why not underneath?)    Smoke and Fire begin to rise out of the uncorked hole.  Symbolic of EVIL being unleashed?   Sure, why not?   But the immediate threat is that it seems the Island is about to start falling apart!  We hear Desmond scream in defeat "NO!!!!"  




  • Meanwhile Flocke temporarily claims victory over Jack telling him that he was wrong.  He then says goodbye to him and leaves the cave. 

  • Outside, the entire Island is shaking and rocks are crumbling everywhere.   Jack runs out and jumps after Flocke and slams him to the ground. Then he takes a swing at Flocke's face!  And then we see the man who cannot be injured in any way, has a cut on the face!!  We immediately think of when Rocky Balboa made Ivan Drago bleed in Rocky IV!   YOU CUT HIM!  He's a MAN!  He's not a machine!!  Another classic Jack line followed:  "Looks like you were wrong too!"  
  • So yes, for whatever reason, unplugging that hole made smokey a mortal human being, capable of dying.  WHY?  We don't have to know why.  Why not?  Because we're not going to find out why!  There could be some subtext to it all and people will find it.  But, for me, it showed that Jack knew what had to be done and he made it happen!  
  • Jack began to choke Flocke, but he wasn't quite done yet.  He grabbed a rock and slammed it into Jack's head.  OUCH!  Flocke runs off, but only so that we could be treated to a scenic and epic final fight on the cliffs.  How AWESOME WAS THAT?!?!  We'll get there in a second.



Catch-up on Escape Plan
Let's take a break to catch up with the other LOSTIES.  Miles radios Ben on the Walkie talkie again.

  • Miles updates them on their plan to fly the plane off of the Island.  He instructs them to get over to that Island as quickly as possible. 
  • While the radio is still on, Miles, Frank and Richard run into the other current resident of Hydra Island.  It's crazy Claire!   Claire thinks they are there to do Flocke's bidding and kill her.  We got treated to a little bit of the season 3 finale when Ben told Tom Friendly to kill Jin, Bernard and Sayid and we heard 3 gunshots.   We see Kate on the Walkie hearing gunshots while Claire shoots at everyone's feet.  Good times!  
  • Richard stresses that they are not with Locke.  She tries to tell Claire that they have a chance to leave this island.  They can be free of everything Smokey ever did to them.  Richard then asks Claire to come with them.  Even though she no longer is posing a threat to them, she still refuses to leave with them.   Looks like she's going to need some convincing from Kate!  



Storm and Island Destruction
After the uncorking of the Island's heart, we catch see Hurley, Ben, Kate and Sawyer struggling to maintain their footing.  A tree collapses on Ben.  Who would have thought that we'd see these 3 other people fighting to save Ben Linus?   But sure enough, they do manage to get him free! 

  • We get one more Sawyer jab at Jack as he states that "Locke was right.  This island is going down."   
  • Miles checks back in with the crew.  We see Richard and Lapidus patching up the plane and prepping it for takeoff.   Finally, they took care of that broken windshield!

  • Kate picks up the walkie and asks Miles about Claire.  She finds out that Claire does not want to join them on the plane to leave the Island.  
  • Lapidus tells them that he needs like 5 or 6 hours to get the plane ready to go.   Richard tells him that he pretty much has one hour.  (seems like a very Kirk and Mr. Scott conversation from Star Trek!)  
  • So now Kate and crew are on the main island and need to get to Hydra island in an hour?   It used to take them DAYS to travel back and forth.  Good thing there's a sailboat nearby!  And Ben had this information since he was "working" with Flocke.  It was/is Flocke's getaway plan.   


Jack vs. Flocke
Meanwhile, Jack wakes up and is a little shaky, he runs into the cave and screams for Desmond.  No response.  He knows he has no choice but to head out after Flocke.    We see Flocke on the cliff looking outward towards the sailboat in the stormy waters.   This is the cliff near the cave that he brought Sawyer back in the beginning of the season.  It provides the setting for one fantastic fight (and one ill-timed commercial break!).

  • We hear Jack scream "LOCKE!!!!!!!"  They face each other from a distance.   And then both of them come running towards each other with one goal in mind.  KILL THE OTHER MAN! 
(pause for commercial)

  • The clash into each other and begin to roll around the cliff.  They get up, they do some more fighting.  The scene was just awesomely shot and choreographed. No explanation from me could do it justice.  
  • In the end, it became a battle for control over the knife.  But as they were laying having each other in a chokehold, what an amazing shot of part of the cliff just collapsing off of the Island!  


  • Flocke grabs the knife and delivers a blow to Jack's side.  Oh no!!  He then gets the upper hand on Jack and throws him to the ground.  He puts the knife up to Jack's neck and we immediately can draw comparisons to the cut Sideways Jack keeps seeing in the mirror.  
  • Flocke then tells Jack that he died for nothing.  This can't be how it ends can it?   I know as I was watching, I took a break from my finger nail biting to utter these words in hopes that rescue was coming.  "LIVE TOGETHER DIE ALONE!!"  
  • Then, we hear a gunshot and we see it go straight into Flocke's back!   It's KATE!!!   And the crowd goes wild!  (except everyone that hates Kate)  

  • And then in true Die Hard or any Arnold movei fashion, Kate gets to deliver her big catchphrase that Flocke helped set up.  "I saved you a bullet!"  NIIIIIIICE!  
  • The Island continues to crumble and Flocke tells them that they're too late.   Jack has had quite enough of him and decides to just kick him off of the cliff!  And he doesn't just fall into the stormy waters.  No, he falls onto a very hard surface many feel below from where they are.  I would say that dude is SMOKE!  I mean...er TOAST!  


  • RIP Smokey, Flocke, Man in Black - Whatever you want to be called. You were a truly worthy adversary.  And I still like you for taking out Keamy's crew at the barracks and ripping off Montand's arm!     




Goodbyes

  • To expedite the leaving the Island process, Lapidus has to delegate some duties.  Because Miles worked as a maintenance man at some off-island apartment complex, he gets some duct tape and is sent to go adjust some electrical wiring issues!  Good times.  (by the way, I got feedback on Twitter that I use this expression too much.  In my opinion, this just means I never used it enough!)  
  • By the way, we do see Miles working on this later and the only part I want to quote is this "I don't believe in a lot of things, but I DO believe in duct tape!"  GOOD TIMES! 
  • Ben checks in on their status via Walkie Talkie and you gotta love Frank saying "Don't Bother me" and throwing the walkie aside!   Ben's response was quality too.  "Sounds like they're making progress."  
  • Just to remind us that the Island is still falling apart, we get a greatly timed quake.  
  • Sawyer insists they need to get moving.  Kate doesn't understand why it's still happening after Smokey has been destroyed.   Jack suggests that whatever Desmond turned off needs to be turned back on again.  The only man to do this?  Jack Shephard.   He tells them if it doesn't work, they still need to make their way to the plane.  
  • They all seemed to catch on to what was being said.  Just as many had speculated.  In the end, Jack would need to sacrifice himself for everyone else.  It was the only way for this Island drama to come to a satisfying conclusion.  At least, I know I have said that several times.  
  • Kate pleads for Jack to reconsider and that he should come with them.  It doesn't have to be him.  She tells him to let the Island sink.  He says that he cannot.  We are left to wonder why he can't.  But, since he has sworn to protect the Island, I would say that we are meant to believe that the stakes for the rest of the world are real.  Other people would probably argue that it's all pointless.  But I choose to believe there was a point to these 6 years worth of stories!  Of course, even if it was uniting these characters and giving them purpose and a new life, maybe that is enough in the end?  Naaaa, we need WORLD STAKES! 
  • Then the goodbyes begin.  And it was a very emotional time. (have I mentioned I was a crying mess this entire episode??)  
  • Jack and Sawyer have their handshake and reconcile their differences.   Jack wishes him luck, and he thanks him.  FOR EVERYTHING. awwwwww

  • Then Ben tosses the walkie to Sawyer.  I got a little emotional when Ben opts to stay behind.  He says if the Island is going down, then he's going down with it.  Perfect.  
  • I thought this might end with everyone deciding to stay with Jack in one more Live Together Die Alone moment.  But it was enough that Hugo decided to stay.  Of all of the people who would choose to stay in the face of danger!  This really got me!   Of course, he uses the ladder as an excuse!  Good stuff.  "I'm with you dude"
  • He then approaches Kate and tells her that she has to go and get Claire on the plane.   Kate asks Jack to tell her that she will see him again.  He doesn't really respond.  But we know when the next time they see each other will be.  And it isn't in this world!  So, instead we get the moment that every Jater was waiting for.  One big final emotional kiss.  I would say in this moment and a moment we see later in Sideways, it shows that Kate made her choice.  Sure, maybe she and Sawyer end up together off Island.  We'll never know.  But her true love was Jack Shephard.  
  
  • Whew, letting it sink in.  This was rough stuff!  And then they tell each other that they love each other and that is it.  Kate is a mess.  Jack moves on to fulfill his final mission.  





Saving the Island
Ben and Hurley help Jack back to the cave of Light (well darkness right now).   Hurley wants to know how they're all going to get down there.  But Jack informed them that he is going down there alone.

  • Right now they think Desmond didn't make it, and Hurley wonders how Jack will survive.  Jack knows that he is not going to make it.  He tells Hurley that he is already dead.  That stab wound was going to get him in the end.   It's not suicide, it's what is supposed to happen.  What he's supposed to do.  

  • And then he tells Hugo that HE has to become the Island protector.   Major kudos to anyone that called this after Hurley said "I'm glad it's not me" and when Jacob told Jack to hold the position "As long as you can".   Great stuff.  
  • And of course, Hurley didn't want the role at all and he fought it.  But in the end he accepts only in the condition that Jack takes it back when he comes out alive.  So just like Jacob, Hurley is given the role reluctantly, but sorta by inevitable choice.   Very fitting that the passing of the torch is done via an Oceanic Water bottle too.  I guess the latin incantation over the water or wine wasn't important?  Maybe they showed us it being done differently each time to signify that it was up to the protector on how to pass the torch?  I'm fine with that I guess.   Anyway, Jack does tell Hurley
  • And of course, Hurley didn't want the role at all and he fought it.  But in the end he accepts only in the condition that Jack takes it back when he comes out alive.  So just like Jacob, Hurley is "Now You're Like Me" and then he moves towards the cave.
  • Jack is lowered into the cave and he ends up finding Desmond down there who is still alive!   Desmond is very aware that the light did not do what he thought it was going to do to him.  He said that he put it out!   He thought he would leave and end up in sideways.  Jack ends up sending Desmond back up and tells him to go be with his wife and kid.  I just knew they'd end up back together!!  Desmond did try to resist knowing he was the only one that could withstand the electromagnetism.  But Jack had already made up his mind.  

  • By the way, this scene right here where Desmond is telling Jack he was right is the clearest indication you'll get that the ISLAND is not purgatory (I'm responding to 100s of comments on the discussion thread I posted on the blog here).   I cannot even fathom how this episode clarified that for people when the producers have said since Day 2 or 3 (obviously not 1 since we all guessed it in the beginning) that this story is not Purgatory.   Now, when we're discussing the Sideways story, let's raise the issue back up for debate. 
  • You gotta love that Jack tells Desmond "I'll see you in another life brotha" before he goes to plug in that hole.  Great stuff. 
  • Jack goes back, and with all his remaining strength, plugs in the hole!  He then collapses and waits for the inevitable. 
  • After enough time passes, the light begins to shine again and the water begins to run down the waterfall and into the cave's light.  All becomes right with the Island!  But Jack is still sitting in the light.  He is all smiles with what is about to happen to him.  


  • Hurley and Ben realize that he did it and begin to pull on the rope!   But they realize that it is Desmond who is brought up and not Jack.  Hurley screams after Jack.  But there is no response.  
  • Desmond appears to be okay.  Hurley is still trying to cope with the loss of Jack.  (We'll get back to Jack's story at the end)  Ben tries to console Hugo telling him that Jack did his job.   Hurley realizes this is his job now.  And he has no idea what he's supposed to do.  Ben gave him some advice.  Hurley should do what he does best and take care of people.  Awwww  He says he can start by helping Desmond find a way off of the Island.   Hurley wonders how because people can't leave the Island.  Ben shrugs this off saying that this is how Jacob ran things.  Hmmm, are they telling us that the inability to find the island and leave the Island was all Jacob's doing?   If so, maybe we just found out how Jacob and "some" of the others were able to leave the Island whenever they needed to.  Of course, I still wonder how they got Anthony Cooper there so suddenly (Richard did that too...why didn't he just use THAT way off of the Island instead of fixing a plane and flying it?  Oh well, I'm not going to nitpick.  That's my only one for now!)  
  • The point is, Hurley is going to get to make his own rules when he protects the Island.   He can find a better way to do things.  And then in an awesomely unexpected moment, Hurley asks for Ben's help.  He offers the role of his #2 to Ben.   He needs someone with experience.  And Ben humbly takes the role saying it would be his honor.   And there went the waterworks again!!! 


And so the torch has passed to Hugo Reyes to protect the Island for as long as he possibly can.  How long was this?  We never find out.  We only find out how it all ends.  And we'll get there. 





Escape 
Meanwhile, while the Island is still crumbling (pre-Jack "fixing") Kate and Sawyer end up taking a big dive off of the cliff to get to the sailboat, knowing they don't have much time.  Frank and crew are leaving while there is still ground to get off on.   Yikes that was a big jump!


  • Fast forward to Hydra Island, they arrive on shore and the Ajira flight is ready to go.  They see it prepping to leave in the background and also see the Main Island crumbling.   But there is one more thing that must be resolved.  Kate needs to recruit Claire!  
  • Kate pleads to Claire to come with them.  Claire knows that she is a mess and not fit to be a mother.  She doesn't even remember how to be one.  Kate tells her that nobody knows how until they are.   And Kate offers to help Claire.  In the end, Claire does decide to get on that plane.  And no, there will be no fulfillment of Desmond's vision seeing Claire and Baby get on a helicopter and leave the Island.  But we do see Claire get on a plane to GET to her baby! 

  • Meanwhile Frank is getting ready to take off, but then sees Sawyer, Kate and Claire run right in front of them! 
  • They all get on board and then head down the runway built in season 3 on Jacob's orders.  Built by Sawyer, Kate along with Juliet and various OTHERS.  And Richard, Frank, Kate, Sawyer, Claire and Miles all leave the Island safely to live their lives.  Claire will return to her baby and her mother.  There are SOME happy endings along with the uber Sad bittersweet ending.  






Flash Sideways
Are you still with me?  We're about halfway there!  In the sideways land, we continue the enlightenment of our LOSTIES in finding out why things don't seem quite right in Sideways Land.  And why they remember their Island lives.   I have to say just about every scene in Sideways Land had me in tears.  It was so well done, and when I rewatched the final 15 minutes of the show to justify that they had put together a fantastic ending, I cried again!  But let's dive in from the beginning.  

The Coffin / Church
The episode began with a musical montage of where our Sideways Losties are and Island Losties are.  In the Sideways land we also see Christian Shephard's Coffin arrive on an Oceanic Plane.   We see it reach the final destination of the infamous CHURCH where the Lamp Post station was in the Island timeline.  We see Desmond has already arrived there in the Camaro with Kate after their prison break-out last episode.


  • He impersonates someone being employed by the church to sign for the coffin.   He instructs the man to take the coffin around back. 
  • Kate asks Desmond when he returns to the car who died.  Desmond said that it was a man by the name of Christian Shephard.  Kate jokes at the irony of the name.  Really?  I man named "Christian" "Shephard"?   Especially with the heavy spiritual themes this final season brought about, the name is very ironic.  
  • Long story short, this is a setup for a scene later to come.  A scene that I had been waiting for since season 1 and really hoped that it would be in the finale.  But we'll get to that in a bit.  
  • Kate is still not sure what is going on and asks Desmond for some answers.  She wants to know why she was broken out of prison, she is wearing the dress and going to the concert.  She wants to know why she is here.  Desmond tells her that no one can tell her WHY she is here.  And he wasn't referring to the church.  He's referring to this sideways existence.  And it all makes sense by the end, even if it's not what people were hoping!  Desmond assures Kate that he is a friend and what he wants.  He wants to LEAVE.   This is probably meant to mirror the Man in Black's wishes to leave the Island.  But now people want to leave Sideways?  Huh?  Again, no sense in really questioning it, because it all makes sense in the end.   Desmond says that he will show Kate.  And we continue onward to the concert! 




Sayid and Hurley
So the enlightened Hurley is taking Sayid on a few errands to run.  The first is to grab Charlie for the big concert.  It turns out that the concert that Eloise Hawking was preparing for in "Happily Ever After" IS the same benefit that is in this finale.  I just assumed it was over by now.  But then again, it would seem that time doesn't really play a factor here.  Whoops, getting ahead of myself!

  • Hurley brings Sayid to the motel where Sayid's "safe house" was in the beginning of season 5.  If you recall, Sayid broke Hurley out of the mental institution and brought him here.  There were people waiting for them with tranquilizer darts and everything.  And Sayid got shot.   Hurley thought by showing Sayid this tranq gun, it might trigger some memories.  No such luck.  
  • Hurley tells Sayid to stay in the car.  If he doesn't, it's his choice but Hurley assures Sayid he will be happy he stuck around.  
  • Hurley knocks on the door to Charlie's motel room.  He answers.  And...well, the look on Hurley's face says it all.  He is so happy to see his friend.  But Charlie isn't FULLY enlightened yet.  He just saw glimpses of his other life.  




  • Charlie still is not interested in playing the concert.  Hurley suggested that this concert is the most important thing that he would ever do.  Charlie still isn't buying it.  Which led to an awesome scene of Hurley shooting Charlie with the tranquilizer gun!  Nice! 

  • Sayid is shocked at what he just saw.  "That was Charlie, " is all Hurley says and then he drives on.  
  • Note: we do see Hurley drop off Charlie at the concert.   This sets Miles in motion as he sees Sayid in the van!  He calls up Sawyer and sends him to the hospital to check on Sun who survived her gunshot wound.  She could be a target.  Nice! 

  • Next we see them staked outside of a bar where Sayid asks why they're there. Hurley said that he's not allowed to tell.  Similar to what Desmond said as no one can tell them why they are here.   Hurley brings up THE RULES!  Of course, these are different rules than the ones that governed the Island.
  • Hurley tells Sayid that he trusts Sayid as he should trust him.  He thinks that Sayid is a good guy and that he needs to not let other people influence him.   Maybe he heard he WASN'T good so many times that he started to believe in it.  He told Sayid he has to decide for himself who he is.   
  • While Sayid is in denial still a fight breaks out outside of the bar.  We see a blonde woman come out of the bar yelling "Leave my brother alone!"  Hmmmmm  The woman gets thrown to the ground.  The ladies' man and hero in Sayid comes out and he runs to save a damsel in distress! 

  • Who the attacker was makes no difference, but who the woman was?  Well, I think we caught on by now.  It's SHANNON!!  The both look at each other and the memories come crashing back!  Their Island relationship, their love for each other.  They instantly remember everything!  (by the way, I stand corrected on whom Sayid was referring to when he said to the Man in Black he wanted the woman back who died in his arms.  It would appear that Shannon may have been his true love.   Kudos to commenter Holly for calling me on this way back in episode 6 of this season "Sundown")

  • And yes, it would appear that Boone was in on it too!  Poor Boone never had a love interest besides his step sister, but somehow he got enlightened.  We just didn't get to see it.  (Similar to Rose and Bernard who already seemed to be "in the know")   Boone said he went through a lot of trouble to get Shannon back from Australia to be here.   For all we know that could have been a nod to the producers going through a lot of trouble to get Maggie Grace back on the show for this finale!  (she was tied up with conflicting shoots earlier in the season).  
  • The first of many tear-jerking Sideways reunions! 

The Hospital
  • The minute we read the subtitle from Jin telling Sun that a doctor was going to come look at their baby, I think we knew who it was going to be.  I saw this scene unfolding before my eyes.  I could see how they were going to wake up!   The Season 3 Sonogram where Sun finds out the baby is Jin's!  (Episode: D.O.A.) 
  • Before we get the doctor reveal Jin says if everything is alright "We can leave soon."  The word "leave" was used by the writers intentionally to fit in with the Sideways theme.  Jin and Sun just didn't know what they meant by it yet.  They feel like they're going to keep running from Mr. Paik (Sun's father) 
  • So the doctor walks in an sure enough, it's JULIET!  Her last name is Carson here as it would seem she never married that Burke fellow.  (Of course, she did marry someone else, but we'll get to that) 
  • Juliet realizes that neither of them speak english so she gets right down to business and begins the sonogram.  And we just know that it's coming!   She uses some of the same words she used in season 3's episode.  "It's a little cold" as she is applying that gel-like substance to read the ultrasound.  And then it hits Sun first.  She remembers!!  Then Jin looks at the ultrasound and he begins to remember.  The difference this time?  We see them remembering everything all the way up to their death.  So this is the first time where we can state that this definitely happened "AFTER" the Island timeline.  
  • Both Jin and Sun are enlightened and Juliet just keeps talking about the baby's heartbeat.  Except now they understand every word!   She asks if it's a boy or a girl and Sun just speaks in English.  "It's a girl!"  Jin says "Her name is Ji Yeon"  and Juliet, still unaware of what is going on, tells them that their English is just fine!  NICE!  Btw, I was bawling like a baby again here! 

  • Meanwhile Jack is prepping Locke for surgery.   Ironic conversation in more ways than one when Locke asks Jack if he is sure it's going to work.  Jack says yes, but of course there is always the chance that he could kill him.   We hadn't seen it yet, but Jack does finish off the Man in Black who was assuming Locke's image.   And of course the other meaning comes into play at the reveal towards the end of the episode!  Jack then tells Locke that he'll "see him on the other side."  All significant word choices by the writers I would say! 
  • Locke asks Jack if he had ever gotten word on his father's body.  Jack said that he DID get a call and was going to claim him later.  Jack is convinced that if he can fix Locke he will be at peace.  Not being able to bury his father. 
  • And the the next sideways scene is the big reveal of who David Shephard's mother is.  Drumroll......it's Juliet!  Good call everyone who said this from the beginning.  By the time we got to this episode I was torn between Juliet and Sarah, but Juliet definitely made sense for the way this was all going.  Of course, later on we will find out that the very existence of David Shephard is questionable.  Not questionable actually, his whole meaning for existence in this sideways land is to get Jack to deal with this father issues.  But, we'll get to that all! 

  • Jack and Juliet seemed to have ended on pretty good terms because they are all smiles when they talk to each other.  Juliet even jokes about meeting this Claire that Jack has managed to keep secret during their marriage.  Of course, we know Jack had no idea about his sister's existence.  David ends up bringing Claire as his "date" to the big show. 
  • Of course, on Juliet's way out she runs into Sawyer but they don't recognize each other this time around!
  • Later on we revisit Jack after surgery and it appears that he has accomplished what he set out to do with Mr. Locke!  A nurse points out that Jack's neck is bleeding again.   This time though, it immediately follows us seeing the scene where Jack's neck gets stabbed by Flocke in the Island timeline.  The clues were all there, we just needed to hear it for ourselves at the end! 
  • Then John Locke begins to wake up even though he shouldn't have so quickly.  Locke, then tells Jack what Juliet told Sawyer in the Island timeline right before she died.  "It worked"  Of course, Locke is referring to his legs but he is about to realize a whole lot more!  Jack tells Locke he needs to be patient as the recovery will take awhile.  But Locke is convinced that it worked.  He can feel his legs.  We then see John wiggle his toe!  And this sends a rush of memories back to John Locke starting with the plane crash when he realized he had regained sensation to his legs again!   LOCKE IS BACK!!!   Locke asks if Jack saw any of it.  Jack did not see anything.  Locke asks if Jack remembers and he starts seeing some things including the shot of looking down the hatch for the first time.   But Jack, in denial of what is going on, runs away.   Locke is ready to GO now.  Jack is trying to calm him down, but Locke is determined to leave to wherever he's supposed to go.  





  • Jack says that they're not going anywhere and he needs to go see his son.   Locke then tells Jack that he doesn't have a son.   Locke tells Jack that he hopes someone opens his eyes as Jack just did for him.   Jack runs off to the concert.
  • Meanwhile, Sawyer checks in on an enlightened Sun and Jin that just couldn't help but smile at "detective" Ford.   They tell Sawyer that they don't have to go on a hunt for Sayid.  They are safe and they'll see Sawyer there.   Where?  We're getting there! 
  • Sawyer heads down the hallway and bumps into Jack.  They don't recognize each other.  Sawyer just wants some grub.  Jack sends him to the vending machine where he proceeds to pick out an Apollo bar and it gets stuck!  Juliet came back from the concert because she was called there for something.  She happens to run in on Sawyer!  She tells him to unplug the vending machine and that usually lets the candy bar out.  Lots of great flirtation between the 2 but then when the lights go out and she gets the candy bar.  It's fireworks for those 2.  THEY REMEMBER!!   (note that she said "it worked" again!).   Juliet says "We should get coffee sometime" and Sawyer says the machine ate his dollar.  She says the line we've been waiting for.  "We'll go dutch!"  And they hug and remember some more and they remember Juliet dying and man, if people hate the mushy part of LOST, this episode was not for them!   Whew, I'm trying to get this recap done, but I'm all in tears just watching it again and snagging pictures!   And as they're crying and remembering and then Juliet asks Sawyer to kiss him and just like his last kiss to her before she died he says "You got it Blondie!"   

  • Whew rough stuff.  You still with me?  This is going to take years to read I know! 

The Concert
We finally arrive at the concert and everyone who wasn't anywhere else (Hospital, Bar) are here!  Lots of things going on here and of course David, Claire, Desmond and Kate all end up getting seated at table 23! (nice, one of the numbers made an appearance in the finale!)   Meanwhile Charlie is passed out on the couch.

  • It ends up being Charlotte that wakes Charlie up.  Why?  Because he has a note on him that says "Bass Player, Wake me up for show."  Good times!  
  • And then Charlotte and Daniel Faraday (Widmore) have their one scene where they see each other and somewhat recognize each other.  Actually, Daniel already has realized that something is off with this Sideways land.   Daniel is kind of showing off that he's playing in the band with Driveshaft.  But, as we learn later, it is not time for them to be enlightened.   Desmond tells Eloise Hawking that he is not going to take Daniel from her.  Well actually he said he wasn't going to take her son "with him".  So whatever that means, I guess when it was Daniel's time to leave he would leave!  But for now only certain people are to be enlightened and "leave".  


  • When we get to table 23, Kate and Claire immediately recognize each other from earlier in the season.   And then Pierre Chang starts the band off and lots of stuff starts happening.  Charlie recognizes Claire, Claire sorta recognizes Charlie.   Claire goes into labor!  And then she runs off behind stage.  Kate follows!  I think we all saw where this was going too and started to discuss the possibility last week! 





  • Sure enough, we get a scene where Kate delivers Claire's baby just like she did in the Island timeline.  And we get it at this point.  It wakes them both up!   It was highly emotional, but nothing compared to when Charlie arrives with blankets and Kate tells him to go up to Claire.  And then they remember everything.  EVEN THE PEANUT BUTTER PEOPLE!!!!  Ohh it was glorious!   Seriously, never have so many tears fallen in a single episode of TV!  



  • Desmond then asks Kate if she understands.  And she certainly does, but there is one more task left for her! 
  • Later on Jack finally arrives to the concert and we finally have the meeting of Jack and Kate in Sideways land.  Well, the OFFICIAL meeting, since the first time was just a bump on the plane that Kate quickly reminded Jack of.  Kate says this is NOT how Jack knows her though.  She goes up to him and puts her hand on his face.  
  • He starts to see the Island again and all of his experiences with Kate.   She tells him how much she has missed him.  At this point in the episode, we know that they had said goodbye on the Island, so it's important to note that this is the first time they are really seeing each other since then.  And we don't know how long it has been for Kate.  We're getting there! 

  • Jack doesn't understand what is happening to him, but Kate is going to bring him to a place where it all will be revealed.  



The Church
We return to the church where Christian's coffin was taken.  And John Locke is getting out of a cab.  Who is there to great him but an enlightened Benjamin Linus, with his hair and attire back to normal Island Ben stylings!

  • We have some amazing closure with Ben's character when he apologizes to John Locke for killing him.  He was jealous because Locke was special.  
  • John does forgive him for what Ben did.  And Ben says that means a lot to him.  But for some reason Ben decides not to join everyone in the church.  One might suggest that he needs to repent for some of the things he did in his Island life, so he feels he needs to stay there longer.  Maybe he wants to have a love life with Danielle Rousseau for a little bit before leaving.  I'm going to guess the former though, especially when we find out what is going on.
  • Ben then tells John that he doesn't need to be in that chair anymore.  And sure enough, John stands up and heads on into the church! 
  • When Locke goes in, Hurley comes out to talk to Ben.  He tries to tell Ben to come inside.  Ben says he is not coming.  At this point Hurley says that Ben was a great #2.  And Ben called Hurley a great #1.  If there was any doubt of WHEN this Sideways was taking place, that resolves it again right there.  This happened AFTER Ben and Hurley had served their time protecting the Island.  Of course, TIME doesn't really play a role here.  I'll say more in a few lines! 

  • Jack and Kate arrive to the church.  And Jack recognizes this as the place where he was supposed to have his father's funeral.  Kate says that he still is going to do that.   She instructs Jack to go in around back and that everyone will be waiting for him when he's ready (to leave).  



Revelation

Back on the Island

Jack wakes up in the same place that Jacob found the Man in Black's lifeless body.  Jack is still alive though for the time being.  He is a little shaky just like when he was knocked unconscious by Flocke.   He is still bleeding to death from the stab wound that Flocke gave him.


In Sideways at the Church

Jack heads inside and he sees his father's coffin.   Mirroring both the season 1 scene where Jack opens his father's coffin to find it empty as well as when he opened Locke's coffin at the end of season 4, Jack approaches this coffin.  He touches coffin and begins to remember.

  • We see scenes from seasons 1-6 of LOST.  Touching moments between him and all of the castaways, most notably Kate.  But I did see the scene where Sawyer told Jack about meeting his father in Sydney.  (always loved that scene!) 
  • Jack realizes what is going on and when he lifts open the coffin it is empty once again!  But before we have time to dwell on it we hear a familiar voice call out to Jack and we know that the scene we've been waiting for forever finally is happening.  

  • It's CHRISTIAN!  Jack cannot believe his eyes.  How can Christian be here, he died!  A fact that Christian indeed confirms.  So how is he here?  Christian challenges Jack to ask how is JACK here. 

  • And there it is folks, right before our eyes.  Some of us may have even theorized on it briefly at times.  But Jack is there because he died!  They all died....EVENTUALLY.  The Flash Sideways is revealed to be a place where all of the LOSTIES could meet before moving on.   Yes, some will call it a Purgatory, and with Ben staying behind to do some serious penance, maybe that's right.  But this should no way be confused with the ISLAND events that happened from seasons 1-6.  THAT WAS REAL!  Christian said so himself.  Everything they experienced is real.  And this Sideways is REAL as well.  They all had to find each other and resolve some of their issues and then they were able to move on to whatever is next.  What is next?  Well, as I have stated for many seasons, I never thought that this show would prove or disprove the existence of Heaven or Hell.  And it stayed true to that.  It left it ambiguous for all faiths to be applied.  But they did prove the existence of some kind of afterlife.  But, honestly, they had done that right from the start too.  We have been seeing ghosts on this show from day 1.  And I even started to speculate (but then got scared of being laughed at and backed away from it) what if the Sideways Land was the home of where all of these Ghosts that have visited Hurley and other people come from?  They seem to be all knowing.  Charlie made comments to Hurley like "I am dead, but I'm also here."  Christian visited Jack off of the Island where Smokey couldn't get to.  Christian visited Michael and told him he could go now (of course that may have been the Island or Smokey but I'm not too worried about it).    Ana Lucia told Hurley that "Libby says hey"
  • Another important distinction that Christian brings up is that TIME is of no importance here.  Everyone lived their lives.  Some died earlier, some died later.  But all of this awakening is happening now.   So Hurley may have lived for thousands of years as the Island's protector.   Kate may have went on to live a long life.  But they all ended up in this sideways land together because the Island time of their life was the most important thing that they all went through and they went through it together.   And now they'll move on together.   So maybe Desmond had a near death experience and that's how he saw the Sideways land?  Maybe when he turned that hatch key his life really DID "FLASH before his eyes".   It all really seems to tie together. 
  • I know people do not like this ending, but I think they have had it in mind for quite some time.  And, even if people think that they don't want to rewatch the show now, I most certainly do.  I definitely want to rewatch season 6 to try and pick up on some clues IMMEDIATELY!  
  • But how fitting is it that we get to see the definitive END of all of these characters?   Sure, there's lots of time in between that could be filled in if they really wanted to.  But it has been stated that the time they spent together was the most important.   And they Lived Together and most certainly will not go through DEATH, alone (thanks commenter Penner for that brilliant tidbit!) 
  • And the icing on the cake of this scene is the reconciliation between Father and Son right before Christian "shepherds" the LOSTIES into their next plane of existence.  And what an emotional scene it was watching all of these former LOSTIES in one room, get reacquainted?   We see everyone paired up with their true loves as well.  Sayid/Shannon, Desmond/Penny, Charlie/Claire, Hurley/Libby, Jin/Sun, Rose/Bernard.  Then we have Locke there with everyone.  We have Boone there.  Aaron is there.  And of course Kate and Jack!  

  • Everyone takes a seat to prepare to move on.  Christian opens the doors and a bright white light enters the room.   And the rest is up to speculation on where they went next! 



On the Island
We see Jack walking through the bamboo forest, where his journey began.  He falls to the ground in what we should assume is where he originally woke up.  Just like in the beginning, Vincent comes running out of the jungle but this time he takes a seat next to Jack.   Jack sees the Ajira plane flying overhead and he realizes his friends made it safely off the Island to live for another day and possibly many more years.  His job is done.  He did what he was supposed to do.  He saved his friends, he saved the world.  And now he can die in peace and meet up with his friends someday in the afterlife.  Just like we opened up on Jack's eye in the beginning, we now watch it close as he passes on to whatever is next.


BOOM LOST!!!!

WOW!!!! Just WOW!  Just watching it all again as I wrote this epic finale recap, it all just hit me again how truly great it was.  And how truly "SPECIAL" this show was from day 1 to this very day and quite possibly for years to come.  A perfect show?  Not by a long shot.  But you couldn't ask me to give it a more perfect send off.  It was truly beautiful.   Everyone is free to draw your own conclusions!  But I have no regrets in writing about this show for the past 5 years.  I wish I could do it for 5 more!  Yes, there are mysteries that still need answering.  But in the large scheme of things, I say they are not as important as what they accomplished.   That doesn't mean I won't begin to nitpick them after time passes and I'm ready to start doing so! 

So, let that be my first statement in saying that while the recapping is done, our work at this blog is far from finished!  There will be more posts everyone!  Not as frequent, no.  And I may need a little break after 18 straight weeks of writing them.  But I fully intend to write more!  There are 20 minutes of extra storylines that were filmed this year and will be included on the Season 6 Blu-Ray and DVD!  All with the intent on answering big fan questions!  You can be sure I'll take a stab at them in a blog.  The LOST Encyclopedia comes out the same date as the DVDs.  8/24.  I'll be there to discuss that as well.    We have formed a great community here and there is no sense in letting it slip away!  I will pursue other blogging efforts in the future so I urge you all to keep in touch to see what I might do next.   Definitely follow me on Twitter too!   I will keep people posted there on my next ventures.  

One final note of thanks to everyone who helped make this blog successful.  To all of my friends, family and co-workers who worked so diligently to make people aware of this blog.  THANK YOU SO MUCH!   I am forever in your debt.  To everyone that found this blog out of my shameless self-promotion, thanks for sticking around and spreading the word as well!   To my incredibly patient wife, thank you so much for putting up with me over the past 5 years as I decided to channel my LOST obsession into this blog that only progressively got more complex and busy over the years.  I promise to take you on that honeymoon now! (Just kidding, that's not why we didn't go yet! but it was still funny!)   And thanks for still marrying me last year even though you knew that this February to May period of your life was going to be truly hell!  :-)   Thank you everyone for all of your kind words over the years and for your many insightful comments.  This blog wouldn't have been half as fun without being able to go on the journey with each and every one of you.  And thank you last but not least, for your patience with me getting up this final recap.  It has been a very emotional experience for me but I am finally ready to say goodbye to LOST recapping.  (I think)

As I mentioned, please keep in touch as there will be more to come.  If you are done for good, I do not blame you.  I hope you enjoyed my ramblings as always and I'll see you in another life bruthas!!!   NAMASTE! 


Ending Credits
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Thanks to Apple, my iMac and TiVo Transfer for the ability to capture the wonderful Screen Captures. And by default thanks to ABC too for allowing me to post pictures on the blog! 















717 comments:

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Anonymous said...

A lot of people are complaining that the sideways episodes were a waste of time. I felt they were essential to staging the end. What I thought was a waste of time were the episodes involving the temple. I don't see what that accomplished, if anything, and the whole thing was pretty hokey. I would have rathered seen more sideways and possibly more explanations and skip the temple stuff, but what happened, happened, right?

Also, I like the theory that it was Jacob's RULE that no children could be born. It makes sense to me! I think this is somewhat reinforced by Ben telling Hurley he could make his own rules.

Time to go home and watch more news about the oil spill ruining my precious marshlands! CajunQT

gnni4 said...

I rewatched The End today and cried and blubbered through the whole thing even more than the first time. I needed to lay down and nap after - thankful for days off!

I understand Ben staying outside, perhaps he wants to help Alex and Danielle wake up, or perhaps just experience that - I've gone back to sleep to try to recapture a dream before. I wish that he had gone into the church and been hugged and forgiven, that would have made sense to me. I think that all of the Losties had left all of their angers and resentments and Earthly woes behind by that time, they were truly ready to 'move on'. I think perhaps Darlton knew that the fans might not be ready to forgive him. I am still believing Michael is keeping himself stuck on the island.

gnni4 said...

Who was David Shepherd?

He could have been some kid that Jack operated on that grew close to him, thought of him as a father figure, and needed Jack in HIS waiting time. He could have been some kid that Juliet helped to be born that needed her in his waiting time. He could have been spilt seed.

I am going with Dave's not here!

Think about it,
Hurley's imaginary friend Dave
Libby's husband, David
David Sheppard

It HAS to be more than a coincidence that every character that was named Dave seems to be imaginary or of questionable existence. I can see naming him David being a tip of the hat to Cheech and an inside joke by Darlton.

My son wants me to mention that he still giggles at Hurley's last line to Ben, "you were a great #2", because he is a 5th grade boy, and number 2 has different connotations. I bet Crash giggled at that also.

tombee said...

awesome wrap-up. got choked up just reading. can't wait to re-watch the episode again (and again and again).

I just found your blog this season. Loved your writing style and humor - good times indeed!

Thanks for all the work you put into your blogs, much appreciated and enjoyed!

ant said...

Maybe it was just me but could Saywer have picked a smaller bush to hide behind when spting on Flocke and Ben

Floreen said...

@Mike V - I am not suggesting that they were dead on the island but I can’t eliminate the possibility. I was just reading through the statement made by Charlotte before she died in Season 5 that the place - the island is death and the same thing was reintinerated by Richard and his fellow shipmates in this season. I am following the clues and try to make sense of them.

It is not far fetched to believe that maybe and just maybe the character died some in the in the plane crash, some in other ways in time and place. I know a lot of reading of paranormal phenomena would be involved.

So the show creators aware of this, have created the show with the best kept secret plan ever. The plane crashes, the people die but their souls or their ghosts continued like they would have been alive and well in a life they are now living like a metaphor.

The movie 'The 6th Sense' ends on a twist - Lost has a lot of them, whereas the kid tells his counselor - Bruce Willis, 'I see dead people' because they are both dead but not able to recognise it until the end. That got me thinking that Lost could have taken inspiration from it.

We're talking Lost here for a show, anything is possible. Nobody for one survives that kind of plane crash as the plane literally falls off the skies. In the Season one the mobisode about conspiracies is quite indicative as a clue. Then, Jack wakes up in a bamboo forest opening his eye. Second, any physical body would had been impaled in those sticks. The opening of the eye could symbolise a 'reawakening' as Christian says to the dog; 'Wake him up, he's got work to do.'

I'll reckon that all the characters were dead. In the world of Cantor, a world of infinity within many such worlds, Lost is just showing us a huge, important glimpse only from that big picture. Christian said that when or where for that matter is no longer an issue. So in this case the ending of the series makes perfect sense and that could explain just about any inaccuracy and unanswered questions. Worth considering.

April411 said...

Thank you Mike for another great recap! I enjoyed the finally very much but was a bit confused. Thank goodness for your blog because it clarified many things. I was so happy to see all the couples reunited. It was wonderful to see them truly happy after everything they went through.

I have to say that I actually cheered and woke up my daughter when Lapidus and to some extend Richard were alive and well. Also, Sawyer was classic in the show.. his one liners! Awesome.. "Can you come down from your rock and tell us what the burning bush said." Classic!

I will miss this show. I will miss your blog. I am glad to have had the privilege to have found and been apart of your blog. I know this was a lot of work for you and I thank you for all your efforts! You ROCK!!!! Thank you again!

jfred17 said...

What was the footage of the plane crash then? Damn crazy commercials! It was probably just an advert for BMW. "We used to make airplanes, but now we make cars. It's safer!"

Thanks!

jfred17 said...

@ Ant - Good call, I thought the same thing. Lame hiding spot! He must have always been caught as a kid when playing hide and seek!

Mike V. said...

Thanks for the continued props guys! I'll get to the actual comments in the morning. Just FYI...ABC confirmed that it was THEIR idea to show the plane footage during the end credits...they wanted people to calm down and reflect before the NEWS started instead of showing some promotional material. Who knew it would turn into all of this!?!

@Florin - sorry for the misunderstanding. I saw the 6th sense...and I know all about the twist! But it was because I knew what the twist was is what threw me off in your thinking! lol But you were just talking about Sideways...and yes that makes sense!

I'll get to everything else in the morning! Thanks again guys!

ALBY said...

Mike,

Found this on another site and thought you would find it interesting. This is a comment from Someone from Bad Robots...its thier take on the finale:

Part 1
Quote:

First ...
The Island:

It was real. Everything that happened on the island that we saw throughout the 6 seasons was real. Forget the final image of the plane crash, it was put in purposely to f*&k with people's heads and show how far the show had come. They really crashed. They really survived. They really discovered Dharma and the Others. The Island keeps the balance of good and evil in the world. It always has and always will perform that role. And the Island will always need a "Protector". Jacob wasn't the first, Hurley won't be the last. However, Jacob had to deal with a malevolent force (MIB) that his mother, nor Hurley had to deal with. He created the devil and had to find a way to kill him -- even though the rules prevented him from actually doing so.

Thus began Jacob's plan to bring candidates to the Island to do the one thing he couldn't do. Kill the MIB. He had a huge list of candidates that spanned generations. Yet everytime he brought people there, the MIB corrupted them and caused them to kill one another. That was until Richard came along and helped Jacob understand that if he didn't take a more active role, then his plan would never work.

Enter Dharma -- which I'm not sure why John is having such a hard time grasping. Dharma, like the countless scores of people that were brought to the island before, were brought there by Jacob as part of his plan to kill the MIB. However, the MIB was aware of this plan and interferred by "corrupting" Ben. Making Ben believe he was doing the work of Jacob when in reality he was doing the work of the MIB. This carried over into all of Ben's "off-island" activities. He was the leader. He spoke for Jacob as far as they were concerned. So the "Others" killed Dharma and later were actively trying to kill Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley and all the candidates because that's what the MIB wanted. And what he couldn't do for himself.

Dharma was originally brought in to be good. But was turned bad by MIB's corruption and eventually destroyed by his pawn Ben. Now, was Dharma only brought there to help Jack and the other Canditates on their overall quest to kill Smokey? Or did Jacob have another list of Canidates from the Dharma group that we were never aware of? That's a question that is purposley not answered because whatever answer the writers came up with would be worse than the one you come up with for yourself. Still ... Dharma's purpose is not "pointless" or even vague. Hell, it's pretty blantent.

Still, despite his grand plan, Jacob wanted to give his "candidates" (our Lostaways) the one thing he, nor his brother, were ever afforded: free will. Hence him bringing a host of "candidates" through the decades and letting them "choose" which one would actually do the job in the end. Maybe he knew Jack would be the one to kill Flocke and that Hurley would be the protector in the end. Maybe he didn't. But that was always the key question of the show: Fate vs Free-will. Science vs Faith. Personally I think Jacob knew from the beginning what was going to happen and that everyone played a part over 6 seasons in helping Jack get to the point where he needed to be to kill Smokey and make Hurley the protector -- I know that's how a lot of the writers viewed it. But again, they won't answer that (nor should they) because that ruins the fun.

In the end, Jack got to do what he always wanted to do from the very first episode of the show: Save his fellow Lostaways. He got Kate and Sawyer off the island and he gave Hurley the purpose in life he'd always been missing. And, in Sideways world (which we'll get to next) he in fact saved everyone by helping them all move on ...

ALBY said...

Part 2:

Now...

Sideways World:

Sideways world is where it gets really cool in terms of theology and metaphysical discussion (for me at least -- because I love history/religion theories and loved all the talks in the writer's room about it). Basically what the show is proposing is that we're all linked to certain people during our lives. Call them soulmates (though it's not exactly the best word). But these people we're linked to are with us duing "the most important moments of our lives" as Christian said. These are the people we move through the universe with from lifetime to lifetime. It's loosely based in Hinduisim with large doses of western religion thrown into the mix.

The conceit that the writers created, basing it off these religious philosophies, was that as a group, the Lostaways subconsciously created this "sideways" world where they exist in purgatory until they are "awakened" and find one another. Once they all find one another, they can then move on and move forward. In essence, this is the show's concept of the afterlife. According to the show, everyone creates their own "Sideways" purgatory with their "soulmates" throughout their lives and exist there until they all move on together. That's a beautiful notion. Even if you aren't religious or even spirtual, the idea that we live AND die together is deeply profound and moving.

It's a really cool and spirtual concept that fits the whole tone and subtext the show has had from the beginning. These people were SUPPOSED to be together on that plane. They were supposed to live through these events -- not JUST because of Jacob. But because that's what the universe or God (depending on how religious you wish to get) wanted to happen. The show was always about science vs faith -- and it ultimately came down on the side of faith. It answered THE core question of the series. The one question that has been at the root of every island mystery, every character backstory, every plot twist. That, by itself, is quite an accomplishment.

How much you want to extrapolate from that is up to you as the viewer. Think about season 1 when we first found the Hatch. Everyone thought that's THE answer! Whatever is down there is the answer! Then, as we discovered it was just one station of many. One link in a very long chain that kept revealing more, and more of a larger mosiac.

But the writer's took it even further this season by contrasting this Sideways "purgatory" with the Island itself. Remember when Michael appeared to Hurley, he said he was not allowed to leave the Island. Just like the MIB. He wasn't allowed into this sideways world and thus, was not afforded the opportunity to move on. Why? Because he had proven himself to be unworthy with his actions on the Island. He failed the test. The others, passed. They made it into Sideways world when they died -- some before Jack, some years later. In Hurley's case, maybe centuries later. They exist in this sideways world until they are "awakened" and they can only move on TOGETHER because they are linked. They are destined to be together for eternity. That was their destiny.

They were NOT linked to Anna Lucia, Daniel, Roussou, Alex, Miles, Lupidis, (and all the rest who weren't in the chuch -- basically everyone who wasn't in season 1). Yet those people exist in Sideways world. Why? Well again, here's where they leave it up to you to decide. The way I like to think about it, is that those people who were left behind in Sideways world have to find their own soulmates before they can wake up. It's possible that those links aren't people from the island but from their other life (Anna's parnter, the guy she shot --- Roussou's husband, etc etc).

ALBY said...

Part 3:

A lot of people have been talking about Ben and why he didn't go into the Church. And if you think of Sideways world in this way, then it gives you the answer to that very question. Ben can't move on yet because he hasn't connected with the people he needs to. It's going to be his job to awaken Roussou, Alex, Anna Lucia (maybe), Ethan, Goodspeed, his father and the rest. He has to attone for his sins more than he did by being Hurley's number two. He has to do what Hurley and Desmond did for our Lostaways with his own people. He has to help them connect. And he can only move on when all the links in his chain are ready to. Same can be said for Faraday, Charlotte, Whidmore, Hawkins etc. It's really a neat, and cool concept. At least to me.

But, from a more "behind the scenes" note: the reason Ben's not in the church, and the reason no one is in the church but for Season 1 people is because they wrote the ending to the show after writing the pilot. And never changed it. The writers always said (and many didn't believe them) that they knew their ending from the very first episode. I applaud them for that. It's pretty fantastic. Originally Ben was supposed to have a 3 episode arc and be done. But he became a big part of the show. They could have easily changed their ending and put him in the church -- but instead they problem solved it. Gave him a BRILLIANT moment with Locke outside the church ... and then that was it. I loved that. For those that wonder -- the original ending started the moment Jack walked into the church and touches the casket to Jack closing his eyes as the other plane flies away. That was always JJ's ending. And they kept it.


In the end, for me, LOST was a touchstone show that dealt with faith, the afterlife, and all these big, spirtual questions that most shows don't touch. And to me, they never once waivered from their core story -- even with all the sci-fi elements they mixed in. To walk that long and daunting of a creative tightrope and survive is simply astounding.

Anonymous said...

I feel like crying and crying and crying some more!!!! The sadness of losing LOST has finally set in. It's over. No more. But the ending was totally fitting!!!!! I totally get it. After everyone died they ended up there, and when they become "enlightened" they move on. I think Ben stayed behind, in addition to repentance, was because he wanted to "move forward" with Alex, the closest person to him. Also, at the end of the episode, they showed a scene of a crashed plane, which I'm guessing is the Ajira plane. but I'm also sure I saw a pair of footsteps walking away from the wreckage. maybe it was a reference from the season 1 crash. but it would be kind of ironic if it was the ajira plane, but also kind of expected. heck, in real life, if just one small bolt is out of place, the whole plane could explode. I'm surprised it didn't upon take off. Now what I'm wondering about sideways world is if EVERYONE there has already died, and will eventually awaken and move on. If that's the case, it kind of makes me sad that David will be left without parents. Becuz what we know for sure that Sideways world will continue to exist even after Jack and crew leave because not all of Losties have awakened yet. It wouldn't really make sense if Sideways world was exclusively for the Losties. and what of Eloise Hawking? She asked Desmond if he was going to take her son away. Which would mean she's already "enlightened" too. but has chosen to stay for whatever reason. I don't see how this would particularly worry her becuz she could just leave with Daniel, couldn't she? which makes me think that perhaps she doesn't want to leave. which would make me wonder why. unless perhaps she hasn't awakened yet and just realizes that whatever Desmond is up to would result in her son leaving her. which would explain it. or, if this really is a world exclusive to the Losties.... forget it. I'm not buying that so I won't theorize on it.

In any case, I'M UBER DEPRESSED!!!! it is SO sad to see Lost end. I'm so over my frustrations from last week. I'm just sad to see it go! Desmond "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" I really hope that in the aftermath of the finale that we are left to speculate on, Ben and Hurley find a way to get Desmond back to Penny and Charlie. Someone other than Bernard and Rose need to get a real prior-death happy ending!!!

Just like you Mike, I have no regrets watching this show. The ending did meet most of my expectations. Jack and Christian made up. Sayid was dubbed a good guy and got his love back. Ben and Sawyer were both humbled. All the characters got over their personal issues. Kate was a hero and stopped running. Lapidus and Alpert were confirmed to be alive. We got to reminice of all the good times on the island. I feel like everything was resolved. except one relationship: Michael and Walt. Oh well. I am satisfied to believe that Michael suffered incredibly and was able to relieve Walt from having any responsibility to the island. I am content with that. SOMEONE survived unscathed.

Also, about passing on the torch to Hurley. If I recall correctly, during Jack's coronation, Jacob first scooped up some water in his hands, said the incantation, threw the water back in the pond/waterfall, then scooped some up in Jack's cup. or not. I don't feel like rewatching the ep to find out. but if that was what happened, then it would make sense that Hurley just drinking from the waterfalls's (or river. I never really paid attention to what it was) water would make him "just like [Jack]"

Well that's all I have to say for now. I'm gonna go ahead and read what everyone else wrote now. I atually feel kinda embarassed that the theory I suggested last week was COMPLETELY off course. lol. it was still fun to contemplate.

LOST, I LOVE YOU!!! I feel like crying all over again!!!!

-Lauren

Anonymous said...

ACK! I just remembered something that was never explained (or was it?). Why was the dharma food drops still going on?????????

-Lauren

Larry W. said...

I have resisted the urge to comment for a long time; not just on this blog but any blog. It's really not my thing. HOWEVER, I have enjoyed reading your blog so much these past few weeks and felt like just needed to say a few words.

Mike V. thank you so much for the time and effort you have put into your recaps. I got hooked on LOST a couple of years ago and after watching the first the first three seasons on DVD. I started over when I got my wife to watch them again with me. We have watched every single episode of LOST (usually two or three at a time) from seasons 1-5 on DVD and this was the first year we had to watch it as it was being broadcast. I honestly don't think I could have kept up each week without your recaps and other peoples' thoughts on the show.

I also wanted to thank you for way you moderated this site; never tearing anyone down for their options and reminding folks to keep it clean. It made it a very enjoyable resource to ponder what was going on in this incredible show. I join others in saying that I am as big a fan of Lost Addicts Blog as I am of LOST.

So thanks to you and the other folks who have made LOST a better experience for me. I will complete my collection of LOST DVDs this fall and as I share this experience with other friends and family you can be assured that if there are any questions they may have, I'll point them right here; the best source they'll ever find for all things LOST.

Mike V. said...

Hey guys I'm still being brief right now. I'm typing on phone and will answer fully tomorrow! Couple things:

Lauren - no fear, I am 99% sure dharma food drops will be covered in the DVD/bluray extra footage OR the encyclopedia. I will update this site in august with the info lol. Glad you loved finale!! :-)

Larry - I will write more later but thanks for your huge blog props and high praise for my handling of blogging etiquette! I know I lost my cool a couple times recently but I have always tried my best to keep a happy environment for everone to share their ideas. Thanks for noticing!

Goodnight folks. I'll write more tomorrow!

fablady said...

I agree the final sucked,didn't tell us what happened to Richard,etc,was just a joke. Wasted my time on it,so disappointed in this last season! If I wanted religion program i would of watched one,they could of all got together at the island instead of a church,how lame was that!

Anonymous said...

I think LarryW. said it perfectly! Add me to your very long list of fans MikeV. I found your blog 2 weeks ago and it has been the perfect outlet for my Lost obsession lol. Here were a few of favorite parts of the show:

1. I have loved Hurley's character since Season 1! I love how he transforms from an insecure, unlucky guy on the Island to this lucky, ultra-confident man in Sideways, esp. at the church when talking with Ben. I think the show had such depth to it when it came to character development by showing how each person evolved and came to terms with their lives rather than the typical 2D crap that is usually dished out on TV.

2. I really liked how many of the characters (like Jack and Desmond) decided to take action even when they weren't sure of what to do and how they dealt with it when they found out they were wrong. Awesome!

3. I know a few people have already posted this, but the stained glass window showing the religious symbols behind Jack & Christian at the church was such a cool moment for me. Actually, I only noticed one in particular, the symbol for Om. I've been studying yogic philosophy for 9 years and it blew me away when I saw it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Om.svg Yogic philosophy does not conflict with any of the religions of the world and recognizes that symbol to be sacred. To quote the Raja Yoga Sutras, "Om is the symbol of the spiritual movement that leads to Self-realization."

4. What I've been reflecting on the most is the use of the word *real*. Seriously, what is real? Definitely not MTV's version of the Real World. And the way most people in our world operate on automatic pilot ~ how real is that? The plane crash was a definite wake-up call in this story, even if the Island was on another plane of existence ~ still, very real. Each character was lost ~ for most people, including myself, it takes something very painful to wake up to what is real. It reminded me of The Matrix (another favorite of mine)

Anyways, thanks again!! Your blog is so much fun.

Anonymous said...

So I've read a couple of comments and everyone seems to agree that the sideways story was from Jack's perspective which would explain several factors (that everyone appears as he remembers them). However, if it were, that why is Aaron still a newborn baby and not the 3 year old he temporarily raised with Kate?

that is my one objection to the selection of characters at the end. To be honest, as awesome as that sounds, the "End" being different based on whose perception you're seeing it from, and as much sense as it makes, I really think it's us fans overthinking things. I'm guessing the explanation for why only certain characters were chosen to be enlightened and move on together in the church was because the writers were just trying to conclude the relationships between characters they elaborated a lot on. Short term characters like Ilana or Arzt just didn't make the cut they were borderline characters. I like my theory that everybody in sideways world is dead and has yet to awaken. Just think. then EVERYBODY EVER gets a happy ending. even MIB, Jacob, and their "mother".

I just thought of something. I find it kind of funny that it was a bullet, a human weapon, that killed a once supernatural being. although that was kind of the point. Kare's line was awesome....

You know, I am totally content with this ending. Like you said, no better end than actually showing us the characters' end. a complete story from beginning to end. I think I will be mourning LOST for a very long time.

thank you Mike for your wonderful blog. I only discovered it just last season but it really helped me digest every episode and put two and two together. You make very meticulous observations and accurate predictions to the point you almost ruined the show for me. jk jk. :) but you did get me hooked on questioning events and words and analyzing clues.

I will totally keep up with whatever you decide to do after this.

btw, I'm almost sad to hear that that last scene wasn't the Ajira. Poor Kate. Poor Kate. Poor Kate had to suffer without Jack. the sadness of their separation is still so fresh in my heart I'm tearing just at the thought of years of Kate missing Jack. Sawyer lost Juliet earlier and had pretty much recovered by the finale so it doesn't strike my heart as much. oh poor Kate, alone for so long. aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh. I'm crying again... poor Hurley! alone for thousands of years. Poor Ji Yeon! No loving parents to raise her! Poor that guy from the temple who never got to see his son again! Poor Jacob! Poor nameless MIB! Poor Claire with no Charlie to be her baby Daddy! oh its all so sad! no matter how you look at it, it's so painfully sad.

It's a good thing I believe in afterlife. It makes all the suffering in this earthly life worth it.

speaking of Juliet, referring to what she said at the beginning of the season, what was it exactly that "worked"? jughead didn't reset anything. we know that now. so what was it that worked?

good grief, my thoughts are all over the place. I guess sleepiness does that to ya...

-Lauren

Steve said...

"who healed an animal???"

Walt. Remember in his flashback, when we see him with his mother and adopted father? A bird flies into a window, dies, and Walt brings him back to life. This freaks adopted dad out, who wants nothing to do with Walt.

Mike V. said...

I'm back! I'll do my best to get to all of these comments in the next 30 minutes! I'm sure some will have to wait.

@Cajun - I agree that the Sideways was very relevant and essential to staging the end. Yes, it was different than what we expected. But I LOVE the fact that it had nothing to do with Jughead. It means that the RULES were never broken! I still didn't mind the Temple stuff, but we'll see how I feel on a rewatch!

@gnni - I now am jealous of YOU too for rewatching! LOL I agree with everyone saying that Ben knew he wasn't part of that LOSTIE group and he shouldn't be in that church with them. I also agree with everyone that he wanted to keep living that dream of Rousseau/Alex and Him. Maybe he needs to wait until they wake up or whatever. I also agree that he wants to repent for the things he has done. Definitely open to interpretation but all scenarios seem to be acceptable! Interesting idea that Michael keeps himself stuck on the Island. I guess we are free to interpret that! I'm sure this will be a question to Darlton whenever they emerge from their hiding place. The difference between Ben and Michael and Michael being trapped on the Island. A better example would be WHY WAS KEAMY in SIDEWAYS? No redeeming qualities whatsoever. Unless he was like a DAVID and didn't really exist there.

Interesting ideas on David. My wife was thinking along those lines...like maybe David was an orphan in real life and in Sideways had 2 parents. Yeah, but 2 DIVORCED parents?? I dunno...I'm going with the fact that he doesn't exist either. Very good point about all of the DAVEs on the show. I never thought Libby's husband was imaginary though! But a very good point.

@Tombee - Thank you very much! I got choked up writing it, so you're not alone lol As I have mentioned, I am really anxious to watch the episode again when I get a chance. I'm glad you enjoyed the blog and thanks for finding the humor in it too!

@Ant - LOL Yeah, it was a very poor hiding job on Sawyer's part!

@Florin - I stand corrected on my last comment to your post. It DOES sound like you're saying they may had all died in the plane crash. I just cannot agree with this concept and have stated my reasons why in the blog and in various comments here. So, while your ideas are very intriguing, I have to just decline to comment! lol

Mike V. said...

@April - Thank you! So glad you found clarification in the recap. I definitely cheered when I saw Richard and Frank too! Loved the Sawyer lines as well. And Hurley! I am glad that you have been part of this LOST community and thank you for your readership and comments! Don't forget, we're not done! There will be more posts. I don't know how many more, but I'm gonna milk this thing for all that it's worth! LOL

@Jfred - Funny on the BMW thing! lol As I mentioned above, it looks like ABC was the one that put that footage at the end to let everyone reflect on what they had seen before cutting to the local news. I am still shocked that it caused so much of a stir!

@Alby - Yikes! That's a huge post. I did start reading it last night, but I'll try to read it in more detail later. Thanks for sharing!! From what I read, I definitely am liking their thought process!

@Lauren - I think I responded to you last night too but great comments! I agreed above in another response with your sentiments on Ben. Although, I do highly disagree that we were shown the Ajira crash at the end. ABC confirmed that this was all them with the crash footage. Yeah, they are all interesting questions about if everyone was real in sideways. I'm inclined to think that David isn't, but who knows? It would seem Eloise, Daniel, Charlotte among others were real....just not ready to move on. I don't think it was exclusive to the LOSTIES so I agree with you there. Interesting about Jacob saying the incantation in the water. So it was "consecrated" for Hurley too. I dunno...maybe it was just more of a ritual thing and the protector made up the rules for how to do it! lol Don't worry about your theories being off course...that's all part of LOST. And honestly, I don't even remember what it was! :-) Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I also answered your question about DHARMA Food Drops above too!

Mike V. said...

@Larry - I think I responded to this pretty well last night but again I wanted to thank you for your major props on the blog and my moderation! I'm glad that the site has helped you keep up with the show! Thanks for continuing to share anyone with questions to this site!

@Fablady - I understand your frustration and sorry you didn't enjoy the finale! It was bound to not please everyone. I think we found out that Richard became "MORTAL" again as his hair was turning grey. He said that he wants to live, so he probably lived a normal life from middle age until death. Why wasn't he with the LOSTIES at the end? Probably because he wanted to be with Isabella. That's my thoughts anyway. Thanks for sharing your feelings on the show!

@Anonymous 12:52 - Thank you for your props and echoing Larry's sentiments. It means a lot to me! So sorry you just found the blog so recently, but I'm glad you still found it a great outlet! Loved your thoughts #1 through #4 but I am still insistent that the Island story existed in REAL LIFE. The fact that everyone left the Island and went back to the "real" world and came back is enough to prove that to me! Great points about the Symbology on that stained glass as well! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

@Lauren (again) - I still absolutely Disagree that Sideways was from Jack's perspective. I think it was from all of their perspectives. It does help explain several factors, but I'm still not buying it! We had central stories to each character throughout the season and they all WOKE up. It kind of takes away from that. I know some say that the FINAL SCENE was from Jack's perspective...but I don't know why they'd just start then. So I agree with your 2nd paragraph....OVERTHINKING is at play here! Even Damon's last tweet was "Remember. Let Go. Move on. I will miss it more than you can imagine" Or something like that. lol Loved Kate's line when killing Flocke as well! Glad you agree on my thoughts on seeing the character's definitive end!

HEY!!! Thanks for the props but not funny about me ruining the show with my "AMAZING" predictions! LOL j/k Good times. I appreciate you deciding to stick around with whatever I do next! Who knows what it will be!?

Ahhh I see you read my comment about the Ajira not crashing. Yeah..but doesn't it make Kate's comment to Jack in sideways so much more relevant? "I've missed you so much" or something like that. It was just great. I don't care how cliche' or "any show can end this way" it was. It was perfect! lol Keep letting out your tears. LOST ADDICTS BLOG is a place for mourning right now! I feel your pain!

Good question on Juliet saying "it worked"...maybe she thought that Jughead worked...it would seem though that she had her entire Sideways experience in a nanosecond and then wanted to tell Sawyer that it worked. That they would be together again. Eh, I don't know! But that's possible I guess!

Thanks for sharing your sleepy thoughts! LOL

I gotta get to work!! Thanks everyone!

Mike V. said...

@Steve - sorry, I do not EVER remember Walt healing that bird. The foster dad was so freaked out at Walt for making that Bird appear....and then the next scene we see is him telling Michael that the mother died (forget the names)....and then he tells Michael that "things happen around him" If you go back and watch, you'll see that Walt never made that bird fly again! I think I would remember if he was healing things with his touch! lol

But hey, there's a chance I forget something :-)

rhinoceros said...

Thanks mike. You really cleared up a bit with your recap.

The message i got is that Hope is Eternal.

Look forward to future epiphanies on the show on this site.

A truly unique show; Lost, it transcended boundaries of genre and so forth. Gave us some incredible characters and made us think a bit, when most shows, I feel, are dumbing us down.

It wasn't perfect, like the basketball "rocks" bouncing down the hill in the finale, cringworthy but nevertheless always immersive.

tough last 5 minutes said...

The biggest issue I have with the show ( and I was and still am a huge fan) is that the Island was the MAIN CHARACTER. All the others including Jack were supporting cast members. They did an outstanding job with the finale reconciling all of the supporting cast. However if they want us to believe the island was real how can they ignore almost every single mystery still out there. It is much easier to believe that the island might have felt real to them and the experiences they had are still with them but it was actually a purgatory type place. It just fits better. Otherwise you now have some strange island with all sorts of weird science fiction stuff happening with absolutely no explanation. I know we were watching a SciFi show but all along they have led us down the path that we would get some answers so we could believe it was real within our Scifi heads.

To finish of the story and leave the main character out there with such HUGE question is ridiculous. Like I said I really liked the ending except for the fact we know nothing more about the island then before it started, we actually have more questions now. WHY!

If they didn't pigeon hole themselves right from the start by saying the island wasn't purgatory the would have been much better off. The explanation that they made the island in there collective minds to find redemption and then went off to heaven ( "the place the made") it would have sat much better with me.

Anonymous said...

Awesome job with the recap! one comment though

I do not understand why Smokey knows how to build a bomb connected to a watch (which jack took down in the sub), but is not able to use his knowledge of the past centuries to kill off the contestants or troublemakers (for him) much quicker.

he managed to get jacob killed via ben so he needs people, but afterwards he couldn't just build traps all over the island that would just require one little touch from someone?
-have a button connected to some hidden C4 that says: PUSH FOR BEER

I guess I am unhappy with the inability of the smoke monster in some moments, and his tricks and knowledge in other moments

Anonymous said...

Speaking of David, there was another "imaginary" Dave during our time on LOST. Remember Hurley's "friend?"

Anonymous said...

I think as this final season started coming to a close, we all collectively realized we weren't going to get all the answers. So, we started to accept that there were some answers that didn't matter and would not effect the outcome either way. However, judging from the comments, and my own personal reaction I feel there were some, maybe only a few, questions that originally seemed like they were going to play a large role in the unfolding of Lost.

I still thoroughly enjoyed the ending though. Lost has always been a character-driven show and the ending was emotionally satisfying for me, having spent the past few years forming bonds with the characters.

It's been a great run and I can only hope as we all start to rewatch we can formulate our own theories to these burning questions...or maybe we can LET THEM GO. ;)

Mike V. said...

@Rhino - Thanks! The message of "Hope is Eternal" is a great message to get out of the finale. I hope that I DO have future epiphanies on LOST....but encourage all others to share theirs too! I would agree that a lot of shows out there do not encourage too much thinking. LOST was great and inique in that rite. Of course, one might say it encouraged TOO much thinking that it led to people inevitably being disappointed in the end. Which is why I'm even more impressed that they pulled off the ending they did....I still think it was fantastic. Can't wait to watch it again when I get a chance. LOL on the basketball rocks. I didn't even think about it!

@Last 5 minutes - I disagree that the Island was the "MAIN" character. They definitely wanted us to think of the Island as a character, but there is little doubt in my mind that jack was the MAIN character. All of the characters had significant roles, but Jack was the main focus in the beginning and the end. (I still disagree with those who say sideways from his perspective) I feel your pain on their "ignoring" of SOME of the big mysteries out there. I think they hit the major ones, but there were always going to be questions that they couldn't get to. And they're going out of their way to answer SOME of them for us on the Season 6 Blu-Ray/DVD. I full accept their idea of not wanting to get too "midi-chrlorian" on us and start explaning HOW some stuff worked. Their response is "it just does"...But I understand why this isn't enough for some people. I don't think they pigeon holed themselves by saying it wasn't purgatory. I think it clarified that the life and death stakes on the Island were very real. We're all free to have our own opinions! :-)

@Anonymous 8:52am - THANKS! Good point with Smokey. I think it had something to do with the RULES that he had to get around to kill the LOSTIES/Candidates. With making a bomb...yeah..MIB was "special" so some things he just knew how to do. I hear you though...if we sit here and think about it...we can get frustrated with a lot of things on this show! :-)

@Anonymous 9:32 - Yep, good point on the Imaginary DAVE. Someone above made a reference to how this might have meant that David was real in sideways either. And of course Libby's dead husband was David as well. (the one who named the sailboat after her..the one she gave to Desmond) I would love to get more of Libby's story in this extra Season 6 dvd footage!

@Anonymous 10:33 - I agree that we knew we wouldn't get all of the answers. Well, MOST OF US KNEW. Some people were just convincing themselves they weren't going to enjoy the final episode because they weren't going to get all of the answers and they got their wish! I totally agree that there are questions out there (probably on my list of 23 I did before the season)....that we felt would play a larger role and just didn't. I'm fine with it though. It was a great ride and I wouldn't trade it for anything! I certainly don't regret all of the time I spent writing about it! I don't want to LET GO just yet to theorizing! But maybe one day :-)

Anonymous said...

i think the idea of a continuation of LOST the Hurley years would be an excellent idea!

Mike V. said...

@Anonymous - if anything, it is a great opportunity for some "Expanded Universe" novels to be written. There's tons of things to write about...and I would totally read them! Hurley and Ben's adventures.

A less interesting story would be Kate's return to the real world. She was not supposed to leave the state of California, but she did on a flight to Guam. Would she be on the run from the law now? What about the uncovering of the truth about Flight 815? Sawyer and Claire are back from the dead? Hmmmm Walt may find out about his father returning and dying. What about Sawyer's relationship with Clementine...would Kate introduce the 2 of them?

Then of course...some exciting stories with Miles, Richard and Frank returning. Maybe Sawyer and Miles WOULD go into the police force together LOL And we can get our spinoff! Ahhh good times.

I'm excited to see how ABC keeps the LOST brand alive. I also am scared if they try to keep it alive TOO much! :-)

Candidate said...

Just finished the recap Mike. I took my time and savored every word. I'm glad you decided not to rush through the recap although you were under some serious pressure. It was well worth the wait. I like how you say "good times." Although I am aware many people use that term I consider that all yours. Of course I am still convinced that the Hurley Shout out "good times" was a shout to you. I plan on doing a "Reread" kind of a like a rewatch of all your Lost recaps.



My thoughts on MIB leaving the island. Perhaps the home that MIB was looking for was his own death. Remember Fake Mother said entering the cave would result in a fate much worse than death. Of course we know MIB had to spend 2000 years or more without a body..(only an appirition or a mask) so MIB wanted to pass on (Die a normal death) in order to go home. (Although unless some sort of redemption happened for Jacobs brother I would have a "bad feeling" that the island would be a better place to dwell as opposed to where MIB was going.

On Ben not being ready. I would like to think that Ben became the island protector as Hurleys replacement. I'm on board with Hurley being the island protector for 2000 years. That is going to make some great fan fiction. Speaking of fan fiction there is plenty of room for us to come up with our own stories that were left open ended. Like who built the statue or who that skeleton was in the cabe of light and so on it goes forever in mediums of novels comics short stories. @Florin I would like to see some Lost comics maybe a Walt centric story.


I am about a day and a half behind on these comments but, hey we have our whole lives to discuss this

@ Marie on Walt.
Absolutely agree on your take of Walt and Ben's Jealousy. Another thing I posted a few weeks back is in Season 4 when Locke says (refering to Walt) "He's been through enough"

I have to check out for now and will resume reading the comments this evening.

Candidate said...

I'm not sure if anyone posted this. I think crash said something about "The End" reruning on Saturday. I just checked and it will be airing on ABC. I have heard that this will be the enhanced version. So there is a little more coming up. Oh Mike I love the expired symbols for the next show countdown

Mike V. said...

@Candidate - Thanks for appreciating the time I took with the final write-up. I definitely could have skipped a lot, but I just didn't want to miss anything! And thanks for appreciating the "GOOD TIMES" usage! lol I will agree to believe that Hurley's shout out was to me :-) I think a "Re-Read" of my blogs would be high comedy for all! If you do it...drop a comment in each of those recaps...I'll be sure to read them and comment along....even if it's just to laugh at some of the things I suggested at the time. At the time...we all were thinking that crazy stuff! lol

Totally agree on Fan Fiction...or even actual authors being granted the ability to write LOST stories...kind of like they did with Star Wars. It started with those awesome Timothy Zahn novels...and then it blew up into so much more. I think there is a market for LOST with that stuff. We'll see! Comics would definitely be another idea! yeah.

As for MIB wanting to die...I argue that he told Sawyer that he "didn't want to be killed" after the temple incident. I did think that for awhile when he first said he wants to go home. But I think his desire to leave the island superceded all of that. Why? because he had never been there. Would it have caused great tragedy for the rest of the world if he DID get off the island? we'll never know!

Anyway...I gotta run too but I'll be back more this afternoon! Thanks for the props again!

Mike V. said...

Can't take credit for those symbols...but I love them too! LOL I got that from some other site years go and it just updates all the time! No longer though :-(

I was wondering if Saturday would be enhanced or not...that's pretty cool..i'll have to tivo it as I'll be watching the STANLEY CUP! GO FLYERS!!!

ant said...

"You will find, as you look back upon your life, that the moments when you have really lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love"
-Henry Drummond

It seems to me this quote applies well to all those who have gathered in the church.

The End said...

I can see why you liked it, but to me far more satisfying would have been a flash sideways where they were alive and it connected to the island story. I came up with an alternate at lostreimagined.blogspot.com that I thought tied it together nicely.

Max Jones said...

Mike,
Thank you for everything. You have been very loyal to your blog and all of it's commenters. I have a couple of questions.

1st
After the party, right after Jack kisses kate and is enlightened, kate says something to him in like 3 words. I rewound the dvr like 5 times and never could understand what she said. It was like she was speaking in tounges. I'm pretty sure it was right before the commercial break with the signature lost boom right after. Do you have any idea?

2nd
Perhaps this was addressed in previous comments? I didnt have the energy do read through all 250+. I still dont understand the island on the bottom of the ocean at the beginning of the season. Is this part of the "no time" thing whereas somewhere in the future perhaps after Hurley's watch was over it was eventually destroyed?

3rd
When Christian says, and I paraphrase "You made this place to remember...." Do you think he was referring to the church specifically or the entire sideways realm?

Thank you for your time.

Mike V. said...

@Ant - Nice quote!

@The End - I'll try to check out your link some time, but I totally understand that you had different expecations!

@Max - You're totally welcome, thanks for the compliments! 1.) Jack and Kate didn't kiss after the party...but I think you mean when kate touched him right? She said, "I've missed you so much" I don't recall her saying anything else to him but I'll check the video to see. 2.) The Island being underwater....I see it as the Island not factoring into sideways..this realm they created is an ideal world where the Island didn't factor into their lives. I don't think there is any implications of anything that happened during the "LIVING YEARS" 3.) I think this was left pretty ambiguous. Considering that Eloise, Faraday, Charlotte, Ana Lucia were all in Sideways (among others) and they were not part of this Church crew...maybe it is the CHURCH that they made as their meeting place. But it also makes sense with them making this ideal world where the Island doesn't exist. I dunno...you're asking the right questions, but I'm not sure there are concrete answers! LOL Except that first one...I just have to double check it. I'll let you know!

JSchaf said...

If you watched the "Aloha to Lost" special with Jimmy Kimmel...when Matthew Fox first comes out and Kimmel is explaining to him his theory of the ending, Matthew starts discussing some spiritual beliefs that you have to realize your own death before you can move on to whatever is next. This confirmed for me that the Island happened and was real, and that the Sideways world was the "in-between" where everyone waited to "remember" their life and death before moving on together.

Then Kimmel says he thinks that Jack died on 815 when Rose tells him he can "let go now" and Matthew said it was "possible", but you could tell that he didn't believe that at all.

So I completely agree with Mike's recap and interpretation of the ending. Thanks, Mike! I've loved following your blog and I will truly miss such a great show.

Mike V. said...

@JSchaf thanks for the props and for agreeing! lol I still never thought it was even a debate! But I also did watch Kimmel too and thought Matthew Fox had some great stuff to say about it. It was great to see how emotional he was after having just watched the episode. (He said recently in an interview that he never watches the show because he doesn't like to watch himself lol but he watched the finale! and it really got him choked up) Yeah, I thought Kimmel was reaching with his theory but he was dead serious with it too! Unless he was saying he died in the Island world...and then him being on the plane was the first moment of his existence in the sideways land. That seems to be possible!

Max Jones said...

Sorry Mike. I was wrong. It's not what kate says to Jack. It's what she says to Desmond right after delivering Claire's baby. Desmond comes in the room and says "do you understand?", then Kate says "so know what?" Just rewatched it on abc online and it was as clear as a bell. For some reason, on sunday night I was incapable of hearing the words. Guess it ultimately wasn't that critical of a line anyhow. Thanks again, Mike!

max Jones said...

uggg "now not know" as if it matters at this point

Glenn R. said...

My thoughts as of Day 3 P.L. (post Lost)

I agree with those who are saying that any great show, or book, will leave questions unanswered. Damon & Carlton certainly did a GREAT job at that! ;-)

However, I think there is SKILLFUL leaving open of many questions, and there is UNSKILLFUL leaving open of many questions. And as of today, my feelings are that C & D really did not handle their choices of what questions to leave unanswered very skillfully.

In other words, they could have delivered just as satisfying an emotional / character development ending as they did, AND left open many of the deeper questions in Lost, AND still answered/closed more of the key plotlines that they opened.

To cross the line into GREAT storytellers, that is what they needed to do, in my book.

Ultimately, I will always love Lost. But it won't go down as being AS great a show as it could have been, and D&C won't go down as being as great storytellers as they could have been.

In an interview during season 3, Damon said the following:

"[Critics complain that] ...we're not with the characters we love enough" or "You're not answering enough questions." We find as storytellers you can't accomplish both goals. We have to sort of commit to one or the other. Sometimes mistakes are made."

Well, for me, great as the finale was in many ways, that doesn't change the fact that mistakes were made.

But then again, who knows what I'll think/feel in a week or a month...

Glenn R. said...

Maybe we should look at Lost like an R.E.M. song -- emotionally satisfying, but who knows what the heck they are saying in the lyrics!

rhinoceros said...

@MV. LOL on the basketball rocks. I didn't even think about it!

I doubt they had the budget for the finale that they did for the pilot. Many of my friends, on their accord, noticed that, ie. Rocks, shakey cam, CG stuff.

I have decided to ignore it in anycase. Perhpas blu ray will bring it up better.

Candidate said...

@Josume
The three part post.
I like your take on things. Fun to read and clear. I would agree on most things in parts 1/2/3.

@ Mike.
One more prop. I like how you recap in a more linear style than lost. Keeping the storys together with a "We'll get there."
As far as catching up with those comments... I'd save it for a rainy day. Although there were some worthwhile posts most of that blow-up was irritating and somewhat of a joke. (Not your fault..no need to apologize. I am happy that we got a clean slate for this discussion.
Still reading Tuesdays comments

Candidate said...

On Eko
the actor that played Eko had a serious issue w/ his storyline and mostly back story. I am actually surprised how good of a job he did acting the role. He didn't like his characters back story nor did he like the drug dealers involved with the churches. He felt he was being basphemous to his people and background.
Well I say too bad pal. You signed a contract and are lucky that the producers were too busy to pursue a law suit. Yes he burned the producers and us as fans. When actors don't fulfil their word it becomes damaging to the storyline therfore probably why we got some off episodes in season 3...but still we got mostly awesome ones in s3 too.
As far as Maggie Grace was concerned I'm not sure what she was doing that was soooooo important to not come back on the show but I guess it worked out after all. I hope they didn't pay her to much for those little parts.

gnni4 said...

Well, reading the lyrics again to Pure Imagination from Willy Wonka really sums it up and we just looked right past it, huh?

PURE IMAGINATION
from Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory

Willy Wonka: [Spoken]
Hold your breath
Make a wish
Count to three

[Sung]
Come with me
And you'll be
In a world of
Pure imagination
Take a look
And you'll see
Into your imagination

We'll begin
With a spin
Traveling in
The world of my creation
What we'll see
Will defy
Explanation

If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Wanta change the world?
There's nothing
To it

There is no
Life I know
To compare with
Pure imagination
Living there
You'll be free
If you truly wish to be

If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Wanta change the world?
There's nothing
To it

There is no
Life I know
To compare with
Pure imagination
Living there
You'll be free
If you truly
Wish to be

alex said...

Anyone have any theories about the Sawyer/Juliette renuion. I just don't believe that the writers would be that "cute" with the resetting the candy machine, the lights going off and finally "it worked" line. Which is what Juliette said to Miles through the grave. I wonder if like Desmond had the ability at times to move between reality and the Sideways perhaps miles ability was not simply to one on one communicate with the dead but perhaps hear things from sideways. Perhaps Juliettes awakening didn't happen concurrently with Sawyers but seperately. I have a feeling that everyone in Sideways didn't necessarily exsist they were just creations for the fantasy to play out for each characters consciousness. Evidence being the island not there in Sideways, why wouldn't it be the same for people. One could even fathom that David did exist because he was was Jack as well. And when Jack woke up David didn't cease to exist he just became part of Jack. I'm starting to believe that because Claire's baby in the church would have happier memories then being a newborn! It was actually just a manifestation of Claire's Consciousness being when she was happiest with Charlie. And all this makes me believe that though we were privvy to people's awakenings that inside the church when Jack steps in that was his moment. And the way he viewed people otherwise 7 degrees of Kevin Bacon would have taken over and they would have needed a much bigger church! Mostly interested in the Julliete/Sawyer/Miles business if anyone has something for me. Thanks.

ant said...

ok...I tink I am ok with everything then I come up with another question....

knowing that Ben remembers his life on the island from his awakening from his but kicking from Desmond plus his acknowlegdment from Hurley that he was a good number 2

...that being said, is the fact that he is hanging out with Russo and Alex are they "real" in sideways world or or they imaginary like Jacks son David as a tool for Ben to work through his issues.

I would find it hard to think that Russo would voluntarily be there with Ben in sideways world considering everything that went on at the island

David Salako said...

@Gnni4 - Very cool observation on the Willy Wonka lyrics!

@Alex - I think I am on the same page as you regarding the complex Sideways realm. The writer's of the show were attempting to represent something that is very multi-dimensionally complex and not linear at all or from only one person's perspective. Each character's "tale" in Sideways world would be a little different - depending on what their life triumphs and struggles were - although those connections and "coincidences" with other characters would still be there albeit occur in perhaps different ways or maybe the same!
I am sure Hugo's mother must play an important role in his own "exit"!
The series began in "Pilot" with Jack's perspective and confusion in the first few scenes and ended with Jack's perspective and epiphany in the last scenes of "The End".

Mike V. said...

Hey guys, I gotta catch up with the comments tomorrow. Just wanted to share. Michael Emerson was on ATTACK OF THE SHOW on G4 tonight. He revealed that Hugo and Ben will appear in a 14 minute Epilogue on the Season 6 DVD/Blu-ray. It will provide some answers and show a little bit of what happens into their reign on the Island! Nice. I'm not sure if this is part or in addition to the 20 minutes of extra story we'd be seeing.

But he also said we'd see more Walt. There is speculation that maybe they'd catch up with Walt a few years later when he's 18 for some reason and we'd get some answers to him too!

Nice. Anyway, sounds like a cool idea. But I want my DHARMA Food Drop answer too! LOL

Good night folks, catch up with you tomorrow!

Jeff Z said...

Check this out:
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1936291

haha

Let's try answering some of that?!

gnni4 said...

Mike V., Thanks for the tip.

http://g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/moviesandtv/70885/Michael-Emerson-Explains-Lost-Finale--Hurley-Epilogue.html

Here's the site in case anyone else wants to watch, I tracked it down and it was cool. Where the heck did you hear about that Mike? I'm glad that you did!

David Salako said...

Noticed that the sound the Ajira plane makes flying overhead as Jack dies is the same "transition sound" to the Sideways realm we have been hearing all through season 6.

Mike V. said...

Gnni - I get emails from lost marketing agencies because of the blog. Lol but it was also all over Twitter! I'm telling you guys. You need to follow me! :-)

Goodnight again lol

Candidate said...

Anon poster may 25 4:00 pm ish on Juliet
You had me goin on the first 1/2 of your thoughts. I like that theory but you lost me at the end. "banished back to the real world." but I do like this first 1/2 I will paste it here

wonder if the whole children mystery was tied into the fact that once a character became a mother/father she/he was no longer a valid candidate to take over the protector role. Maybe this was one of Jacob's rules to keep as many potential candidates around to take over the role. Like he mentions to Kate in one of the last episodes that she was crossed out in the cave b/c she became a mother and now had purpose and meaning in her life. Perhaps the others were just following Jacobs orders??


I like it

Candidate said...

On my theory of Ben becoming island protector after Hugo. the SW scenes are in still a bleed through mode. I think that Ben hasn't actually died yet in island timeline. therfore not ready to walk through the door in the waiting room.
@ Florin
As for Eloise... you were right on her motivation. It was all about her screw up with Daniel

David Salako said...

Ben is dead, that is why he is in Sideways realm.
They are ALL dead.
Some in the past, some in the "present" and some in the future.
There is no linear time or "when" in Sideways.
It is kind of like flash-back, flash-forward, flash -sideways, flash - any other possible dimension, all rolled into one crumpled existence that is "outside of time".
Another way to think about it is what many believe is the realm God exists in - outside of linear time.
God is in the past, present and future all at the same time according to the belief. It is the reason God is omnipresent and omniscient and we are not - because we are currently in a linear time line existence.

Floreen said...

@candidate - Thank you for the prop. I guess it was the obvious reason. Paolo did made a good call on Rose and Bernard saving Desmond from the well. So a few of us did hit the points. As I said, 'not been ready' was the code for 'let me have what I want and then you can have what you want.'

I think 'the numbers' referred to the candidates left in the running at the end. There was a lot of questions about that.

Mike V. said...

My apologies for misleading you guys last night. Apparently, this Hurley/Ben epilogue is ONLY on the "COMPLETE" LOST Series DVD/Blu-Ray collection. Ugh...I'm not so sure I'm going to want to pony up 200 bucks or whatever it is for the 14 minute scene. I may have to wait for it to end up on YouTube or something! Or maybe Netflix the disc or something if it's available. I already own multiple copies of season 1 and 2! lol (DVD and Blu) BTW, apparently, Emerson wasn't supposed to spoil this, or he was rethinking it after he mentioned it. So, maybe since the cat is out of the bag...people will complain and it will get put on the season 6 copies too. But I'm sure they're going to try and use that as leverage for people to shell out for the COMPLETE series. I guess I could always sell my versions and buy that!

@Max - ahhh that makes more sense now. No problem!

@Glenn - I agree with everyone who says they could have done more with the mythology in season 6. I do think Darlton's "Life has many unanswered questions" is a pretty big cop-out. That all said, I still loved the story of season 6 and I am not upset at all that they went for it. It was highly enjoyable and I understand the bind they were in with answering ALL of the questions. I really think we wouldn't have been happy if they tried to explain it all. It wouldn't have made any sense. Yeah, maybe that cheapens the show a little. But I wouldn't trade this 6 year experience and many more rewatches for anything! Totally agree that they made mistakes. And I think another commenter summed it up best. It was a show about humans MADE BY humans. And Darlton even have said that by making mistakes, they learned from them and it led to some of the greatest episodes of the series. When you take risks...they're called risks for a reason. You can't get the reward without taking them! Okay, I'm done. (funny on R.E.M. lol)

@Rhino - Yeah, I agree. I'm guessing the finale didn't cost $12 million lol I still thought they did a great job. Of course, I must say. "Shaky Cam" is definitive J.J. Abrams. Jack Bender may have done it as an homage to him! lol

Mike V. said...

@Candidate - Thanks for the props on my blog format. If you read some of those older ones I was just all over the place. I felt like I had arrived at a good way to dish out the info too. Combination Recap/Speculation along the way. I wasn't sure if the "we'll get there" bit would get on people's nerves as it took me forever in each recap to get to the meat of the story. But it made for some good comedy when I'd spill the beans a little early because I couldn't wait until the end! LOL Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the heads up on those 450 comments...I am checking them out on occasion. There is some good stuff in there. But I know people just had to vent after seeing a big event episode like that! Enjoy reading these comments!

As for Eko - the spin the producers have been putting on the actor is that he was homesick and wanted to be with his peeps in London. And he was halfway around the world. I didn't know he had issues with his character. That's a little strange. He was an AWESOME character. But I guess it makes sense with the Churches and Drug Dealings. Of course...the dude is BRITISH...so it's interesting to see him take issue for "HIS PEOPLE" lol I eat spaghetti and meatballs but don't feel like I'm offending True Italians who don't consider that their best dish! LOL (well, I don't either, but you get my drift right?!) I think the issue with Shannon is that they wanted her back earlier...and maybe that would have flushed out hers and Sayid's story for the final season. But, in the end, we were left wondering why Shannon ended up being Sayid's true love and not Nadia. I was still fine with it and just the way Sayid said "Shannon" in his moment of realization sold me on it!

Mike V. said...

@Gnni - Thanks for getting that song stuck in my head! LOL

@Alex - It's a good theory about not everyone's sideways being the same. But, personally, I don't really want to believe that. And we can all interpret it different ways. I thought the whole candy machine, unplugging, it worked...all of that stuff was nice mirroring to stuff that happened on the Island. I think Juliet "MAY" have experienced her entire sideways in a nano second and then when she died...maybe then she moved on. So she tells Sawyer as she is moving on everything she saw. Maybe Jack was smiling when he died for the same reason. TIME doesn't exist in Sideways land...so I could see it all happening like that. All up to interpretation though.

@ EVERYONE - I still maintain one thing NOT up to interpretation is that the Island experiences were real and they were all alive. I know, that is so 4 days ago, but I wanted to bring it up because Emerson discussed it on ATOS as if it was fact too. It was never meant to be part of the debate.

@Ant - I think Rousseau and Alex are REAL in sideways. I think most of the LOSTIES that we see in Sideways are real...maybe even everyone in Sideways is real but they all move on differently. I don't know if people really "VOLUNTEER" on where they want to be in the afterlife lol But hey, maybe! Even the comment that the losties "MADE THIS PLACE" is a little vague and open to interpretation. How did they make it? Through their connections with each other? or with some Hammers and Nails? LOL Or did Hurley wave a magic hand on the Island as protector and say "I HEREBY DECLARE ALL OF THESE PEOPLE WILL MEET ME IN THE AFTERLIFE, BUT I'LL LET DESMOND THINK THAT IT'S ALL HIS IDEA!!!" LOL Ahhh good times. Anyway, my point is....well no...I don't really have a point. I guess at this point I just don't want to overthink it too much because I know I'll find holes! :-)

@David - I still think everything you're saying about sideways makes sense. I just still don't think that's where they were going with the story. But as we have all been saying...it's all up to interpretation!

@Jeff Z - LOL All very good questions and I still have many of them! I got nothing right now LOL At least I know the Food Drop answer is coming!

@David - thanks for making me bawl like a baby again watching that final sequence to hear the PLANE! lol It did sound kind of like the transition to sideways..not sure if that was the intent or not....but pretty cool if it was since that's where he was going!

@Candidate - as for the children mystery and Jacob's rules...yeah...the rules are pretty open ended. I guess he magically could have prevented women from conceiving on the island...and killed them off in the process. Seems kind of mean but I guess it keeps him in control of the candidates. More stuff left open to interpretation! lol Agree with David about Everyone being dead in sideways!

That's all I have for now!!

Glenn R. said...

Hey Mike, didn't mean to make you reiterate all that again. I've just been venting, trying to find my comfort zone with this whole thing. I think I've said what I needed to say and am now ready to join the debate about the unresolved questions, and appreciate the other two-thirds-full side of the glass!

One interesting thing: Have you seen this writeup by some guy who apparently was an intern writer on Lost for the first three years of the show (before he was let go), and was in on all the inner workings of the show during that time. He is clearly no longer associated with ABC, but he put forth his thoughts and perspective on the unanswered questions about the show at the link below:

http://lostmediamentions.blogspot.com/2010/05/someone-from-bad-robots-take-on-finale.html

MJ said...

Geez - I've off the grid for days. Had to do 2 12's at work.

Tried to read the recap monday am but it didn't get posted in time - but will def catch up to it. Hopefully it's nicer than the temp area we were in for discussion before the recap was posted though
Loved the finale!

Saw this today - sorry if it's already posted.
http://www.tvguide.com/News/Lost-Hurley-Ben-1019000.aspx

Guess I'll never see it. I already own several seasons and will not be buying a whole set just to get some extra footage. Damn them !

Mike V. said...

@Glenn - Hey....like Jack...I'm not ready to LET GO and MOVE ON yet! lol It's gonna take me some time. Any excuse I have to reiterate things or try to elaborate or add to what I have already said, I'm gonna take it!! I don't think what I said to you was a reiteration lol Just me agreeing with you but choosing to look past all of the questions. There certainly are lots of them!

As for the link: I have yet to read it but someone did post the whole thing in these comments! LOL I'm getting to it!

@MJ - I'm so sorry I was late with the recap. If it's any consolation, people are saying the wait was worth it! :-) lol and the mood in the comments is much better than those 450 comments in the "SIDEWAYS - Waiting Room" post of Monday LOL As for the Epilogue Hurley/Ben thing, yeah I posted about it last night and this morning (when I realized it was only on the COMPLETE SERIES DISCS). I don't know how I'm gonna get to see it either. But, I will almost guarantee that it will end up on YouTube and on Dark UFO, ODI, SL LOST, all of those crazy sites. And if so, then I will most likely be sharing it here too! I guess they needed some incentive to sell those COMPLETE SETS because I'm sure many people are in our boat and bought the individual ones immediately.

Funny that you own some of the seasons though, yet you claim to have only watched each episode once! :-) lol Hey, I'm not judging! Just observing!

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry if this was explained in the comments already but I haven't read through all 200+ of them...but can someone please tell me what significance the shoe hanging in the bamboo field had during Jake's final scene???

Mike V. said...

Anonymous -

The shoe was hanging there from the crash of Flight 815 3 years before. It was there to let us know that Jack was right back where he started and his death mirrored when he first woke up on the island....in the bamboo forest with Vincent...and a Shoe hanging from the plane crash. The shoe looked like it was worn down from the 3 years of hanging there. Some would argue that this is one of Christian Shephard's shoes (that we found out were Jack's last season)....but I think it could be as simple as a sneaker that fell off of someone in the crash and is hanging in the jungle. Just a location marker. But great to see it there!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Mike...I knew I could count you...your blog was by far the best out there...I followed it "religiously" over the years...GOOD STUFF!!!

Mike V. said...

Thanks a lot for the very kind words! I'm glad you stuck around over the years and you're totally welcome!

Kath said...

Nadia vs. Shannon

The more I dwell on this the more Shannon is making sense to me.....She afterall was his island companion....no real obstacles in their love story...aside from being trapped on an island. Nadia on the other hand was more of a forbidden love.....something that wasn't easy and was never accessible given the backstory of Sayid/Nadia.

Sayid found true happiness with Shannon because there were no limitations and it was completely mutual....

Afterall....if Sayid was REALLY holding out for a future with Nadia he never would have hooked up with Shannon on the island.

David Salako said...

@Kath - "Afterall....if Sayid was REALLY holding out for a future with Nadia he never would have hooked up with Shannon on the island."

I agree with your overall comment except the portion above. Not to paint us males in a bad light but I think that might be more of a female perspective. :-)

Plus Sayid had been shown to have a weakness for pretty ladies - The German Lady, Nadia, Shannon, Ilana...

Mike V. said...

@Kath/David - Yeah I am fine with the Shannon/Sayid pairing in the end. I did wonder about it for a bit though. I think they really wanted Maggie Grace in the beginning of the season to get that arc started. Yeah, Sayid did love Nadia and his whole point for being on that plane was to get to her. But, we did find out right before Shannon got shot that Sayid fell in love with her. And, to the writers' credit, Sayid was the one who mourned the longest for a character on that crazy show lol One could argue for Sawyer this season. It was always a joke how quickly Claire got over Charlie, but the problem was the seasons got shorter so the mourning period had to be shortened too! (again, exception for Sawyer! lol) David - funny about the Female vs. Male perspective!

MJ said...

Damn ! What an episode ! ONly just now got to read your recap Mike - it's been killing me for days that I haen't been able to finish it (started it twice) due to work issues.

So - Flocke never did have any intention of getting poor Claire ? So much for our hypothesis that MIB has to keep his word.


Mike V wrote: "I love that Hurley runs after Jack and tells him that he believes in him. Remember in season 4 when Hurley chooses to go with Locke instead of Jack? " Well I thought of this season when Hurley was getting instructions from Jacob, Jack told Hurley that he believed in Him.

MikeV said "He said he'd find a way to bring Jack there too. And then we get it straight from Jack's mouth. "I tried that once. There are no do overs, no short cuts. What happened happened."" Besides the incident I also felt that Jack was alluding to the O6 going home and how it was the wrong thing to do.

The Desmond thing confuses me. I get that Des had it wrong but it doesn't make sense as Des is telling Jack that he'll find a way to get him there - but he already KNOWS that Jack is there !

But I'm very happy with the show and the ending as a whole. Sure, would have liked to understand a few more things, but I am truly now ok with the thought that whatever little mysteries kept us wondering were in the end unimportant to where our fave characters were going.

Now I'm going to try to read the comments and catch up on everyone's thoughts. At least the non-obnoxious ones. I get that alot of people could be disappointed - but here's hoping they were respectful that the rest of us here were not. But after reading the immediate thoughts on monday morning - I'm not holding my breath.

Thanks again Mike for all your hard work and devotion to the blog. I'll be hanging around with you to continue discussing for weeks to come.

MJ said...

LOL MIke V ! I got season 1 - 3 for christmas in January (family had a wedding so we were late with some celebtations). I got sick and watched just season 1 before season 6 started. And I think I confessed that I did watch seas 1 since Darlton said how important the S1 deets would be for the last season. But dang you have a very good memory MikeV !! I AM impressed.

Mike V. said...

@MJ - glad you finally got to read the recap!

Good points on the Hurley/Jack stuff. I was just happy to see it all come full circle, and the quote you reference was part of all of that too. Jack even tells Hurley he believes in him at the end of THIS epiosde as well.

Makes sense that maybe Jack was alluding to the Oceanic 6 going home. No do overs...they couldn't pretend that their Island life never happened and leave it unresolved. Very true.

Good point that Des knew Jack was in Sideways land too! This is probably where the producers would tell us to "Let go. Move on." LOL But wait, didn't Desmond tell Jack that he saw him there? Maybe that's what he was saying...maybe he thought it was his destiny to get them all there into this state of euphoria?

Yeah...I will say that much. The producers did an excellent job convincing people that the answers were unimportant LOL They didn't convince everyone but they got to a lot of us. That either makes them brutally honest or the greatest CONMEN of us all! I still would love some answers though. Maybe the Bonus features on the Season 6 Discs will meet my needs!

Don't worry MJ, the comments got a lot better. But I'm sure you'll read this after you get through it! LOL

Thanks for the props on the blog as always. And thank you for being a dedicated reader and commenter! I look forward to our continued LOST discussions!

Mike V. said...

@MJ - yeah...I remember silly things LOL But yeah...I think I was more impressed about how much information you had retained from just 1 viewing! It's easy for me to remember! lol Enjoy the read!

David Salako said...

I think that even though ISLAND Desmond "saw" Jack in the Sideways realm, ISLAND Desmond did not fully grasp the "timelessness" nature of that realm. Sideways Desmond understood but ISLAND Desmond didn't realize that Jack could have died long after him and they will still meet up in Sideways.
Much like many of us are still trying to get our heads around that concept. :-)

Mike V. said...

Agreed David!

Anonymous said...

I loved "The End".... Great Recap Mike 5!

I just have one question. When they all met up at the Church how were the Losties 100% sure that Locke was not actually MIB? They should have found Oldham from "He's Our You" to force a little truth serum down his throat before allow him in to the Church.....

Bryan said...

I started reading the 450-comment 'waiting room' post at work first thing Monday morning and finally just finished reading those and the comments on the actual recap post here right now.

Thanks to Mike V and everyone for making this a great place to spend Wed mornings and more.

My wife knows how much I love this show and how hard it will be to 'let go' (which I am absolutely not ready to even start thinking about doing!) When the finale ended and I muted the television, she let me sit there in silence for about 2 minutes and then asked "So... what did you think?" and I whispered "It was perfect" like 3 or 4 times.

I still feel exactly that... I can't imagine a more perfect ending.

As a Jater all the way, Kate's line "I've missed you so much" was an amazing moment for me. If they ever revisit Lost, years down the road, I'll repeat that line of Kate's with almost as much meaning as her.

Floreen said...

@Mike V et all - I was wondering if the ending credits of the series, season and episode ‘The End’ are a clue to a full circle with the pilot episodes. We see the crashed and splattered wreckage of the Oceanic 815 plane with no survivors running around as in the pilot episode.

Charlotte says the island is death, Richard says that the island is not real, everyone is dead, etc.

So what if the candidates were the last ones to die in the Oceanic 815 crash and their need for redemption kept them running as ghosts animating the physical bodies until that redemption was complete for all of our characters and only than they could walk into the light.

I think that the plane flying off the island was Jack’s ‘obsession’ to leave the island with his people, and that materialized in that picture. I was just wondering.

Mike V. said...

@Florin - I guess you missed all of the hoopla around those ending credits. I still don't understand why everything thought it was significant. Every episode of LOST ended before the "BOOM" Lost...and in this one Jack's EYE CLOSED! I mean...his eye opened in the beginning! It was the perfect ending, and (yes I'll keep saying it) predicted by yours truly!! lol

Anyway, ABC has come out and said it was their idea to put the shots of the wreckage at the end of the episode...it had nothing to do with the actual show and it wasn't Damon and Carlton's idea. It was supposed to be reflective and letting us all take everything in before cutting to the local news.

So therefore, I will not speculate AT ALL at the significance of it :-)

The plane Jack saw was the Ajira plane leaving the Island. Jack knew they got away and was happy that everything worked out right before he died. That's it!!

Mike V. said...

@Anonymous 4:52 - THANKS! Wow that is really looking into things a bit isn't it? lol I just think once these people woke up they all just knew. If Man in Black was in sideways he would've been played by Titus Welliver because that would've been his DEAD self! (my opinion at least) Funny stuff with Oldham though!

@Bryan - I can't believe you read through all of the comments on both posts! But I had the same exact feelings that you did when the episode ended. It was fabulous! Thanks so much for the props and I'm glad I'm not the only one not ready to let go. Feel free to keep visiting here until you're tired of it. You're in good company! :-)

Snafu11 said...

@Florin - interesting thought on your last post but I would doubt it. After reading all the post here I don't believe there are any new major revelations that could be entertained as true possibilities, especially with it being over. A tweak here or there, a slight nuance that may be different but it is what it is at this point. Thanks for keeping the chatter going during the late nights, you always bring interesting things to the table. Hey Florin, is Super Natural coming back next season, I recall you commenting on it?

@Mike V - Awesome recap as usual and I enjoyed following your blog.
I've also enjoyed reading many of the varied interpretations of the Finale. Although, some feel cheated with not getting enough answers or the answers being a bit short changed--I'm more then OK with what we got. Sorry you didn't get that outrigger scene you so desperately wanted--Let it go-LOL. I did read somewhere they have the footage and that they were actually shooting at themselves ;-)

It was the best ending to any major TV series that I can think of. Newhart was the best for a comedy. I know some have said MASH had a better ending then LOST. I do recall it being good but come on, how tough was it to close out that story line--the war is over, say goodbye. It was done nicely and I loved that show but it pales in comparison to this series.

Candidate said...

@ Ginni4
Nice posting on the lyrics. I never knew them all... And very clever posting about the Dave's not being real in the series. I never actually picked up on that until now. That said, I've always thought of the Dave (Libbys husband who passed on) and the Dave as Hurleys ghost or imaginary friend being the same person/soul. Since reading your post I'm now speculating that perhaps these two Daves might be two different people altogether.
Obviously I'm thinking too much.

Speaking of Dave
@ DavidLasko and Mike
On my theory of Ben posted last night.
O.K. sometimes a theory pops up in my head and I get excited about it than run to the computer and post it before thinking it through. You're right on the no time thing. oops! My theory on Ben absolutely makes no sense if there is no time in SW.
The no time thing is kind of a hard one to grasp. Refering back to ginni4's post on the simple but yet profound string analgy of time. A string in a straight line than crumpling it like a ball.
My point is (yes there is one)
is the bleed throughs were throwing me off a bit. For example on the show in SW time Jack has a cut which we were shown and perhaps misled to believe, that cut was simulataneous with the island time cut done by Flocke....But because there is no time in SW land, there would be no simulataneous. There is no "NOW" only "Here" ref to Be Here Now title by Rom Das AKA Richard Alpert. Oh yes and I wont forget "Together"
Although the writers haven't said that Hugo serves as Island Protector for 2000 years, I would like to believe that and will continue to do so until I read differently on some sort of forum that would be considered canon.
Ben being SW land and not entering through the door has no bearing on if Linus died 4 years after Hugo or 1000 years before.

Wow! These writers are brilliant!

Mike V. said...

@Snafu, Florin can respond to that but I did hear Supernatural is returning. It's going to be paired up one last time with Smallville. Both shows will end next season and will air back to back on Fridays.

Thanks for your apologies on the outrigger scene! lol I knew after the TIMES TALK LIVE that we definitely wouldn't get it. They confirmed it. They knew who was shooting at them, but the scenario never worked out for them to film it. I think they could've made it work if they wanted to but oh well! I guess it would've been in season 5 if anything! It makes sense that they would've been shooting at themselves. But someone got shot on that boat didn't they? I wanted to know who! oh well...I totally agree that they ended it the best way they could.

I never saw the MASH ending but I'm a little after your time! lol I certainly heard about it...and everyone knows about the NEWHART ending. It is NOT easy to end a show and have everyone love the ending. I think they did a fabulous job!

Thanks for the props on the blog. I too have enjoyed everyone's thoughts, including yours! It is what made this blog even more exciting. Much more fun than when I was talking to myself for most of season 2! lol So thank all of you for making this blog what it was always destined to be!

Now...onto that FlashForward finale recap!

Snafu11 said...

@Mike V - Wanted to say that the whole waiting room board was a great idea, even if half of it were folks venting. The other half seemed to like it more, they must of actually got some sleep before commenting. Then of course there was Crashes half. ;-)

Mike V. said...

Thanks Snafu on the "waiting room" .....I didn't want the "what they died for" recap to get infested with Series Finale comments...and people definitely wanted to comment! The hardest part was for me to "let go" and not comment while you guys were all having a heated debate. Hopefully, my efforts on the recap were worth it!

@Candidate - Totally agree on the brilliance of the writers! They did a great job with it all!

seriously...onto that FlashForward recap! (I really can't LET GO! LOL)

Floreen said...

@Mike V - I guess I did, but that's because I don't put much stock in what they say at ABC or the creators for that matter. They create a lot of marketing buzz and that's fine. But we're not idiots and not see through 'the smoke and mirrors.' One can't have both the electrical negative and positive charges going through the same one wire. Is either all time-lines are real or they are both fake.

But than, what's real and for whom? In my dream everything is just as real as it can be, that is until I wake up.

How can we explain that they are all dead in the church - the candidates that is and have been so for various reasons at various times? I never seen Jack been killed during the 6 seasons?

For a ghost, the world that ghost lives in, is just as real as the live and world of us the real people.

Last night I was having a few more clues in mind but I lost them while asleep. I guess they'll come to me.

This is how I personally make sense of the show, how I embrace it and make it my own. Otherwise, I would've or would loose interest in it and that would be a bad outcome considering the otherwise wonderful job all the people involved in Lost has done.

Candidate said...

On my Eko posting
I didn't mean to imply that the actor who plays Eko was nigerian when I refered to "his people." After reading it I can see that IS how it looks. What I meant by his people, I meant people he works with as well as family. No matter what is the REAL reason be it homesick or not liking his backstory portraid the way that it was the Man burned us. I refuse to even type his name. Yeah I got a bee in my bonnet about it I know. Regardless, his sudden desire of departure was damaging to the storyline. The writers and creators of Lost have been very cool about publicity concerning Eko and not Blackballing him from the industry as he has starred in a few movies since smokey nailed him.

Mike V. said...

@Florin - That's cool to have your own interpretation of the show. But, in my opinion, those interpretations have to be within the boundaries that the writers defined for us. And one of those boundaries is that Flash Sideways was the LAND OF THE DEAD! You DID see Jack die. He died in the very last shot of LOST. And Jack, in sideways land, became aware that he died. There really is not any other way to interpret that. Christian even says that everything Jack went through was REAL...everything his friends went through is real. And they were all REAL in Sideways land...just in another plane of existence.

It will confuse me forever down the road for anyone that does not eventually reach this conclusion about the end of LOST. Even people involved with the show have stated that this is what happened. Just not Damon and Carlton because they are still in radio silence.

As for the GHOSTS...there are still questions about that...but I have to think it is tied to our Characters in the sideways land. Maybe it's after they move into the LIGHT...become one with the source or whatever....things that Ghost Charlie said to Hurley in season 4 seemed very much like it could be tied to these Dead Enlightened Souls....trying to help out the living versions of their friends. WHY? I have no idea...THAT is all subject to interpretation. But since time plays no role...these Ghosts could appear at these key moments whenever they want to or need to. I dunno.....definitely lots of holes there and plenty of things to think about.

But the basic principle is pretty straightforward. At least to me...and I know many others. Maybe I'm just misunderstanding what you're trying to say....but I think what the ISLAND Timeline was and what the Sideways Timeline was ....is CLEARLY defined by the end of LOST. THE END (pun intended) lol

Floreen said...

@Snafu11 - As Mike said, I had to google it actually, they will return for at least one more season for now with a new writer Sera Gamble who's replacing Eric Kripke who's five-year plan came to a close. It will run Fridays at 9 pm instead of Thu.

Thank you for the props, yes I like to find my own answers and share them with you my fellow Losties.

Mike V. said...

Gotcha Candidate....damn...that ruins my whole Italian joke :-) lol

Candidate said...

@ Mike on Shannon
They wanted Maggie for the Pilot. That's what all the trouble was about in the news. The End may have been different or not. Probably not. At least she made it to the waiting room. lol

Floreen said...

@Mike V - '...just in another plane of existence.'
Bingo. Now you see what I am saying all along. Thanks. You have no idea how many times you did came around and saw it as I intend it although you used different words.

Mike V. said...

@Candidate - Yeah...not the PILOT...they wanted her in the Season premiere. (I know that's what you meant lol) But yeah I knew they couldn't get her because she had a conflict. What I was saying is that they may have built that arc out a little more. Instead, they kept it very vague throughout the season who Sayid's true love was in case it HAD to be Nadia in the end. That's my theory anyway!

@Florin - I'm not seeing anything you're saying. I'm saying what I've been saying since the episode ended! lol

Mike V. said...

Didn't mean for that to come off rude, by the way! But I still don't get how we both said the same thing!

Mike V. said...

Nevermind, Florin. I get what you're saying. Like you said...just in different words!

Anonymous said...

My husband just came in the room and asked me what I was reading, and I told him it was the LOST Blog. His reaction -- IT'S OVER!!!! Some people just don't get it!!! Cajun QT

James said...

question: How did jack get out of the cave and why did he end up on the exact same log as the man in black did when he become the smoke monster?

Jill said...

Mike, amazing recap! Thank you for taking the time to do this.

I would only add the likeness to Star Trek 2: when Jack replaces the "cork" it reminded me of when Spock restored power to the ship, just in time before it was all over for them. not an exact analogy but maybe you get my point.

Also, I don't think the final scene was meant that Jack's father was "shepharding" them to another place. I think it was more revolved around Jack finally able to let go of the issues with his father, and so Christian was finally able to open the door to leave. Then the rest of them, including Jack, sat down for however long they wanted, catching up, being with each other. I don't think they were meant to literally follow his dad at that point. Why would they, aside from Jack?
But that they would get there after spending some time together again, just being there like old times.

Just my $.02

Mike V. said...

@Jill - Thanks for the props! Well, I mainly said the whole Christian SHEPHERDING line as a play on words with the name that kate made fun of earlier. LOL But, I do think they all wanted to "LEAVE" It was the constant theme of the episode. Desmond started it telling Eloise he was ready to leave. And then they all started saying it afterwards. And Christian told Jack it was time to leave. Or something like that. I'm pretty sure they were all heading into that light...or the light was heading into them or whatever! But...like we've all been saying...definitely open to interpretation!

And yes...that Cork scene was VERY MUCH like Star Trek 2...I was totally going to bring it up in the blog, and I'm not sure why I didn't! :-) Thanks for bringing it up!

@Cajun - THE NERVE OF HIM! LOL

@James - I guess we're meant to assume that if you come in contact with THE LIGHT....that rock is "the exit" it kind of reminded me of when people turned the Donkey wheel...that they all ended up in the same place in Tunisia...not exactly the same but all dealing with THAT LIGHT. As for why MIB lost his body and became smoke...and Jack didn't? No clue...but Jack was a PROTECTOR of the island...he did pass up his role to Hurley...but he was destined to do something on that island...so maybe the island wasn't going to turn him into this dark creature. Or this DARKNESS was already defeated by the Candidates and couldn't be replicated again?? I dunno.

Just some thoughts....obviously again, all up to interpretation!

Good night folks! More discussion tomorrow I'm sure!

David Salako said...

My theory on why Jack didn't turn into a Smoke Monster - I think it has something to do with the intent of the person heading into The Source. MIB's desires to "harness" The Light for his plan to escape The Island consumed him and created a kind of darkness within him.
This darkness was amplified by the dark side of The Light and stripped him of his humanity.
In Jack's case, his intent was for the good of The Source, The Island and his friends. He sacrificed himself. He was no longer the Protector and died like Mother did.
An analogy I use is like the all powerful Ring in the Lord of the Rings saga. Depending on the nature and intent of the person wielding it, there were different consequences.
Don't know if this makes any sense?

Mike V. said...

Makes perfect sense David! Love the LOTR analogy!

Floreen said...

@Mike V - I should change my avatar to a stary night and my name to ‘night thinker’ which shouldbe easy I think.

You didn’t came in as rude Mike and I’ll give you that is not easy to see it right away. When I was studying those things, I got the literal meaning of ‘my head hurts’ and ‘you have to wrap your head around it.’

Here’s a more plain English version of what I was wondering off based on my reading of many sci-fi, philosophical, paranormal, etc. and connecting them with Lost.

I will not going to bother you with the sci-fi lingo, not because you’re not able to understand it, but after a day’s work, I might put you to sleep faster than you can say Ambient or Lunesta... :-) So let’s get started.

You and your wife go to sleep. While at it, none of you are aware of the reality surrounding you because; You’re both asleep.

Your wife wakes up to get a glass a water.
Primary reality - She’s now awake and aware of the reality of it.
Secondary reality - She’s thirsty.
Tertiary reality - You’re sound asleep like a baby and she can see since she’s awake and conscious.

What she doesn’t see or know is that you’re in a dream state where you’re sitting in the driver seat of a red-hot Corvette in your driveway and rev-up the engine, enjoy the purr sound of the engine and throw open the throttle in a vrrrrr and you go in your mind; ‘That’s the life baby.’

The fact that you are asleep is no reality for you, is reality only for your wife while been awake that is. Perception here is key. Your consciousness is not aware of the fact that you’re asleep. But the dream is Reality for you and you feel every of it.

So what’s reality in this case and for whom is that reality real may I ask?

Next...

You, I and Snafu11, gnni4, crash, to mention a just a few, we beach land on the island with a NTSB mission. Oceanic 815 rescue. We rummage through and we find all the bodies. They’re all dead. Now our mission is recovery, which we do, than we look for clues and answers as what caused the worst plane crash in the aviation history.

That’s our plane of existence, Our Reality.

While we write our reports at night in or camp on the beach, in a different plane of existence and reality, unseen by us and us unseen by them, on the same location in a simultaneous and yet concomitant time and space, Jack delivers the famous ‘...live together,... die alone’ speech. We’re inches apart physically, but worlds away in terms of spiritual existentialism. So now, who’s reality is real and again for whom?

Desmond has flashes before his eyes, of a life past that is still to happen yet in the future. Which one of them is the real reality?

Ours is for us. We go about our lives off the island when done investigating, the wreckage is hauled away by a barge. The candidates and the rest of survivors - ghosts, continue their adventures on the island, even the wreckage disappears somehow from their world, but we went back home off the island while they are left behind to charter their imaginary life for lack of better words, trying to get back to a life as they know it, which is no longer in our realm and they don’t know it yet. Both realities are real for the participants in their own plane of existence.



Could this play on realities be the underlying plot of the show for all those 6 seasons, I ask myself? And the more I look at the clues, the more convinced I am that it is so. Interestingly, your opinion Mike and mine are not necessarily exclusives.

Anonymous said...

Tremendous recap!! I mean that in a good way. I watched the finale for a second time and it reinforced how much I liked it the first time. I think it may have been even more emotional. I immediately decided to look for a blog and stumbled upon yours, which is very well done. I can't believe I hadn't checked it out over the 6 seasons. I even downloaded the musical score for Lost from iTunes while reading your recap to further the effect. I know, I'm a dork, but it really was a great finale. Anyway, my compliments to you for a job well done brutha.

gnni4 said...

@DavidSalako - great observation that the transition sound to sideways was the same sound as Ajira, nice catch. I also agree that sideways Des knew what was going on, but Island Des didn't 'get' sideways.

@Mike, I sadly do not Twit, can you do that without a cell phone?
I don't own any of the DVD's and may have to invest in the entire series when they come out.

MJ, we missed you! Glad to have you at the after party! Made me laugh when you and Mike refered to the temp blog comment board as the waiting area, good times!

Was anyone else lonely and out of sorts Tuesday night and Wednesday without Lost and the blog, I had to vacume and do laundry since there was nothing else to do. Drag.

gnni4 said...

@candidate - simple, but yet profound? You make me blush! Thank you, it was a simple analogy to describe a very difficult concept…but when you get it, it is mind blowingly amazing, isn’t it? Very Tralfamadorian. I personally think that most of the people that hated The End just didn’t really get it.

Unknown said...

I just recently watched the LOST finale and I must admit that I was slightly confused and disappointed. I was expecting something great and wonderful and the fact that everybody ended up dead was not a big surprise. After all these seasons of being LOST I expected to conclude with a clear and concise answer to all of my questions and I still have so many. What exactly is the light in the cave and how is it keeping the island above water? Why didn’t Jacob just let his brother leave and save everybody allot of trouble? Why was Penny in the church at the end and she wasn’t one of the Oceanic survivors? I did however like the fact that the island wasn’t just a dream or an afterlife, that part was good.

gnni4 said...

Florin,
Thank you for inviting me to survive the plane crash instead of killing me off.

While I understand your thoughts, and can see that premise working in some kind of Science Fiction story, I don't agree with your assessment that it applies to Lost.

I feel very strongly that the island time was reality, the only reality, the 815ers life. Sideways was an afterlife, NOT an alternate reality as we were led to believe during the season. The 815ers (and others) do not physically reside in sideways. Sideways is a fantasy, an unreality that their collective consciousnesses’ created for them until they all accept the truth that they have died, and are ready to move on. Move on to what? We are not privy to know that, it is open for interpretation.

I believe that Christian saying this makes it cannon, it was not meant to be ambiguous.

Your dreams may seem extremely real to you, but no matter how real the dream is - it is illusion, mindplay, not reality. I don't agree that reality can be equated with perspective. Perspective is subjective; it can be skewed, whereas reality is, well, real…truthful…actual.

Your many dimention thoughts are interesting and have been used quite succesfully in Star Trek Next Generation, by Heinlein and many stories, but I do not see them applying to Lost.

Anonymous said...

@ Florin. Thank you for your summary. That perfectly explains what I was trying to say earlier (not sure if you caught my posts above) but I could not quite explain it properly.

The main point is what is real? Everyone keeps saying Christian said it was all real so it must have been real. Well he also said the sideways was "real", if the sideways is "real" but is also the afterlife why can't it be true that the island time was "real" to the Losties just not as we think of it.

I totally agree that our theory of Lost really isn't very far from the majority on here. As I said above, it is not a big leap to go from "the island is just a special place in the world where weird stuff happens" to "the island is a special place in a different plane of existence". The two are pretty much interchangable.

Anway thanks for your post it gives me some comfort that I am not alone!!

Matt

Floreen said...

You’re very welcomed to me inviting you surviving instead of the killing and as the show goes, I have no greater pleasure but to see all our heroes redeemed, plus me not having to answer in a hurry resulting in poor English composition, punctuation and grammar. I would be lost without my computer spell checker. Thanks to all of you who endured my English as a third language here. I am sure Mike replying my posts understand why the confusion and I feel for him working extra hard to get my point. My apologies Mike...

Also thank you gnni4 for understanding the premise I have proposed and yes - disagreeing with. But why do you (and Mike) stop short? Just like Mike, you gravitated around the fact that my new theory has a valid point - thank you, but you refuse to explore it to the fullest potential.

To be remembered at all times, I am not pushing theories on anyone, disagreement is welcomed, I am not forcing people to agree with me either, and you all know that by now. I am just toying with solutions and your imput is greatly appreciated.

First, Lost in my opinion is a sci-fi story, but granted to your credit - nothing like the Star Trek or the SG series.
Lost is a realistic sci-fi in my opinion, one where we all can recognise ourselves as potential participants because of the emphasis on the human element rather the sci-fi. I could easily see my self as Hugo and why? I’ll let you in a personal experience here. I won a lottery when I was a kid, and the results were the complete disintegration of my own family leaving me for an orphan with my grandma to raise me. Is this a reason why the character Hugo is a favorite of mine and I sympathise with? Yes. Me and this fictional character went through the same humane experience and it could have happen to anyone of us.
I could be Jack because here I could be perceived as Mr trying to Fix it with my theories I am bombarding everyone even at the risk of becoming Mr Artz.
That’s one of the sci-fi beauty of Lost. As for the Star Trek, I do not see myself been Commander Ryker under any circumstance, not even one. That series is a futuristic, pure sci-fi, while Lost is a close to home type.

That dream in my prior post, I was attributing it to Mike, but if I would be married myself, it could apply to me as well. Fantasy, dream, etc. are all realities within themselves for that duration only. Kids do that all the time. The play is make-believe, the fact they are playing is reality. As soon as I wake up, of course the real reality kicks in. Isn’t it what brother Des did with our characters leading to the end? Waking them up to the real reality? I would think so, we all saw the episodes.

You say canon. Okay, that results in one reality. I go outside the canon and what do you know? A new reality gets formed. Is like the Russian dolls all contained in one package or the Chinese boxes all contained in one box.

Consider this: Lens A gives us Answer A. B gives us B etc. As long as we keep A with A, that reality is real, the answers are valid. Same goes for B. I think that this is another beauty of Lost and why the creators don’t want to answer some questions. Depending on what reality you consider, you could have a variety of answers, all legit and congruent. Mix lens A with answer B and you get an error however. The island is real, the action is real, you are correct, but each and everyone of those worlds individually taken are their own reality.

Floreen said...

cont...
Let’s say that I visit you in Seattle, a beautiful city by the way, wish I would be living there, and you take me to the harbor and show me SW and say; there’s where Hawaii is. Do I or you see the islands? No, but we know that in that distance under the curvature of the Earth, those islands are there. So here are two different realities; We don’t see the islands but - Berkeley and the optic theory, just because we don’t see Hawaii from Seattle, doesn’t mean Hawaii ceases to exist. Same goes for Mike looking from Oahu toward NE not seeing Seattle and that’s yet another reality and none of us would be aware that we are looking toward each other in the same moment.

Here’s another one. The show was filmed in Hawaii. Reality for them but not for us because we were not there. We watch the show on our TV’s in our living rooms. Reality for us, not for them since they are not in our living rooms. Are those two realities less, together or separately considered? No.

So what brotha Des does? He brings all those legitimate realities when taken individually and forges the real reality the characters needs to know. Just like we buy the dvd series. We have 3 realities. One is the show WAS filmed in Hawaii, we were not present in person there when it happened. The second reality is that we are not in Hawaii life when it happened but in our living rooms long after the episode or series were filmed. The theirs is that the whole thing is contained as data of a thin plastic widget. When the images are showing on the screen, all 3 realities comes together in one reality - Des style, under One roof where we’re at and that’s the final reality, legit and valid in its own, and none of those 3 (components) realties are mutually exclusive either alone or combined.

Besides the ‘Ockam razor’ and one line answers we got for those issues of no ambiguity, the beauty of Lost as a concept is that the creators left enough room for those parallel universes-realities potentially in place for us to piece them together as we please, knowing that there is no One single right answer, but that pending on what lens we’re looking through, they could be many answers and all legit. At least that’s how I see it. end of post

Mike V. said...

@Florin/Matt - Okay it might appear we're on different pages still lol But I'm not going to try to convince you of what the majority thinks. I think you get that anyway! I get what you're saying too...and I get what Matt is saying. I'll say this...I think both the Island and Sideways were REAL. The ISLAND timeline is what we would consider REAL because it is what we're going through in life now. They were alive, everything they did had life and death stakes. The SIDEWAYS is real in the sense in that it comes AFTER death. It wasn't supposed to be metaphorical, a dream or anything like that. The producers went the next step to say that they were going to show us a little bit of what the afterlife looks like in the fictional TV of LOST. Considering they already introduced GHOSTS to us long before, now we see the "origin story" of all of those ghosts, per say. So when Christian says that everything that happened was real and that he is still real...this is what he means. They didn't want sideways to be cheapened because they revealed that they were all dead. It still MATTERED. They all found each other...they moved on together. It HAPPENED in the afterlife. It's REAL. See what I mean? I'm sure you do...and you guys just aren't buying it. And hey, that's fine. But I think that's what they were meaning to convey!

@Gnni - No, you don't need a cell phone to tweet, but it does enhance the experience! You can do it all on the web as well. You can subscribe to Twitter feeds to always stay updated on whoever's tweets you want to read. Or you can just log onto twitter and read them all from your main page (you'll see whoever you're following). If you want to see my tweets they're always at www.twitter.com/lostaddictsblog

Tuesday and Wednesday were very bizarre for me...I think reality will his next week when there is absolutely no episode to look forward to. :-( I got really thrown off by LOST being on Sunday this week. I kept feeling like yesterday was Friday. Oh well...it's Friday now!

@Alecia - We're all entitled to our own opinions and I DO think the ending was great and wonderful. I think the fact that they actually took the risk and implied that half of season 6 was telling the story of how the LOSTIES reunited after death was a BIG surprise. I didn't think they would go there. But, in the end, it was the only way that I can imagine them resolving that timeline and keeping the rest of the show intact. As for the questions...yeah, it will always be a complaint that they skirted around some of the questions. They argue that answering each question will only lead to MORE questions and that giving DETAILED answers could lead to the show being boring and MORE confusing. So they decided to leave it open to interpretation. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing but I support their decision on where they went with season 6. I believe it was a truly beautiful experience!!

I'll try to write more later guys! BTW - I found out why my pictures weren't posting so after work or sometime this weekend I'll look to clean up those god awful UGLY pictures that aren't posting correctly! lol (I might be a little too lazy to add pictures to FlashForward but we'll see!)

Mike V. said...

YAY! I fixed the pictures! If you guys want, go back and check out the Sideways Storyline for the full experience now! So sorry I had all of those issues!

Snafu11 said...

@florin - Thanks for the island invite. I follow what your saying about the dream state being a reality for the perspective of each individual as a given point and time. Hell, I'm sure we all remember puberty if any concrete proof is truly needed ;-)
I think it a bit of a stretch to apply it to LOST. The examples you give are so subtle and does fly in the face of the intent of how the story closes. If I've read one complaint about S6 is that the answers that are given are pretty much here-it-is. If this were S3 or S4 perhaps we'd have more to agree upon or at least discuss. But sadly it is over. There are still some mysteries to discuss but the major arc of the story is done and everyone may have a "slightly" different spin on it--that's ok! Whatever happened, happened.

Before we all move on together, we have to be awakened to this fact. The writers wrote the ending in a specific way, to give you 98% of the frame work of what they intended the ending to be.
The consensus seems to have been reached here. Desmond, oops I meant Mike is trying to make you see;-) Its time to Let go.

Then we can all get back to nit picking about some of the minor mysteries we will never get the answers--at least those topics are up for debate.

Candidate said...

I just joined Mike's following on Twitter. Couldn't do it before the finale but still made the party. So I signed up for a Brand new account never used twitter before... very different from FB.

@ Mike yes on Shannon I meant the s6 LAX 1 and 2 and the Italian joke was stll funny. the word people in that context was more like Have your people call my people and we'll fax each other lunch

Candidate said...

We are going to do a "REDUX" of our second part in our Lost series tonight. We've decided to make it an ongoing series. Once ot Twice month we will perform a new or installment. We've realized that in a way these radio broadcast are Fan Fiction and yes absolutely NON Cannon. That said we have more stories up our sleeve now that we know THE END.

Stream it tonight @ 10:00 PM -
1:15AM ish EST

www.wgdr.org press the listen live button

Kath said...

@David and Mike

Regarding the Shannon/Nadia debate.....Why do you think that in Sayid's Flash Sideways...he didn't just create a world where he had Nadia? Instead he created a world where she was married with kids and completely off limits......off limits from a female perspective that is...lol

Candidate said...

Another thought on Shannon and the final scene. Remember Jack didn't know Nadia but knew Shannon. Nadia was not on the island and the island was the most important time for all of our losties.

Mike V. said...

@Snafu - agreed! I'm past the outcome of the show...and back to the other mysteries that are still up for debate too!

@Candidate - Thanks for following me on Twitter! And very nice that you're gonna keep the radio show going!

@Kath - Good points on Nadia being off limits. Makes sense to me. As for Sayid "creating" this world...I guess that part is still up for debate. Maybe his mental state and who he truly connected to in his life is what "created" a world where Nadia was off limits to him. Good stuff!

Mike V. said...

@Candidate - you know a few people have brought that up about Jack not knowing Nadia. I have 2 responses to this:

1.) It does not matter. Some people are saying it's all from Jack's perspective (sideways). I do not agree with this. Each character had their own sideways revelation and centric story. Jack was not part of all of them.

2.) Jack DID meet Nadia after they left the Island. They all hung out for awhile when they became the Oceanic 6. And the best scene I can direct you to his Hurley's Birthday party where they are all present! lol

Mike V. said...

Interesting information on possibly why FlashForward didn't work vs. why LOST did and ironically it has to do with Having a plan (flashforward) vs. letting the show grow and tell you what it is (LOST). Lindelof is quoted.

And another show I keep hearing about, Terra Nova...might be one to think about covering next season! That and "No Ordinary Family" seem to have the most potential right now.



EW Article Link

Mike V. said...

btw...the latest LOST Podcast with Jay and Jack is a Q&A interview with Jorge Garcia. It's really good! Jorge talks about filming the finale and all of that. Fun stuff.

gnni4 said...

Florin, I totally understand the concepts that you are explaining -I understood them the first time, and after many rewordings, I still am understanding the concept. I am just not accepting this perspective as fitting to my view of Lost.

You are completely free to enjoy this view, but I do not share it.

Like a work of abstract art, we are each enjoying the painting, but having different opinions on what it means. No matter how many times you explain to me what you are seeing, I can understand, but I am simply enjoying my own view of the work.

Mike V. said...

And of course, gnni, I'm taking it one step further than you to say that I do not believe it was ever intended to be interpreted that way. Lots of stuff open to interpretation but the basics of LIVING WORLD - Island and AFTERLIFE WORLD - Sideways ...it's just really straightforward! But, anyone is free to interpret the show how they like.

BTW - that podcast I referred to, Jorge Garcia is EQUALLY as shocked as I was how many people looked into the closing credits!! He said "it doesn't even look the same...our show was recorded on FILM. That was DIGITALLY SHOT!" (you can tell the difference for what it's worth) And then he said "no one ever looked at our credits before and asked...ooh why is that background so black? Oh boy..there's that robot again!" LOL That cracked me up. Oh well, it's a very analytical audience that LOST brings to it and people just didn't want to give up until the final LOST-related moment ended. It still just amazed me.

Clearly, I can't get over it, right? :-)

David Salako said...

@Kath - To be quite honest I really didn't understand what the writers of the show did with some aspects of the character Sayid's tale.
He seemed to be happy with Nadia during their brief period together in the "oceanic 6" years.
Perhaps he accepted on some level that he and Nadia were never supposed to be together?
All Sayid's lady friend/love interests died on the show - Nadia, German Lady, Shannon and Ilana.
I didn't understand Sayid's 2 hour death in the Temple either nor his zombification and eventual restoration.
I guess Sayid being with Shannon in Sideways just conveniently completed the original "Losties" reunion?
My personal opinion is that Nadia was a better choice than Shannon but I was not a writer on the show! lol!
Perhaps the Encyclopedia will be more revealing?

David Salako said...

Really tried to like "Flash Forward" - it just seems like everything about the show seemed a little bit forced and self conscious.
The "lead couple" - Sonya Walger and Joseph Fiennes are both Brits playing Americans and I just kept thinking that she - Sonya - needed to be back in North London gal mode and be with Desmond! lol!

Candidate said...

@ Mike.
Can you..would you retweet my tweet on the broadcast tonight?

Fan fiction and pro writers.
I've read alot of those Star Wars expanded universe. Alan Dean Foster and Timothy Zahn are fun reads. Check out Shadows Of The Empire or Tales From Jabba's Place (I might have that title wrong.)


On The Airplane shot at the end of THE END. actually after THE END.

There were LOST parties happening everywhere in the style of say Super Bowl Sunday. By the time this digital screen shot denoument happened I would guess that people were pretty wasted. I figure that people were drinking island mai tai's and beer...plus stuffed themselves with chicken wings and so on. Probably starting before 7:00 PM.
ABC as we know put their grubby little paws on it and thought this digi screen shot was a smart idea.
It was a bad idea obviously and even hardcore fans misinterpreted it whether they were intoxicated or not.

just my thoughts

Mike V. said...

@Candidate - What's your twitter name? A couple people started following me today, but none of them look like they'd be you! I need to know it to see your tweet and retweet it because I'm not currently following you. lol

@David - Maybe the encyclopedia will shed light on this in some kind of BIO description of Sayid. We'll see! As for FlashForward. It had its pros and its cons. The pro was the concept of the show was AWESOME. I loved everywhere it was going. It was just the execution that needed a lot of work. Character development was iffy, and some of the stories that were focused on were just kind of bizarre at times. Didn't really care about Aaron and his Daughter...or Bryce and Keiko. The whole GLOBAL impact of the Blackouts/Flashes could have been amped up a little more too. It was an ambitious show that needed a little more tweaking. But I thought it showed a lot of promise! And yes, it didn't help that we all wanted Penny to be with Desmond!

@Candidate - I actually didn't read Shadows of the Empire...but I definitely played the video game! lol It was pretty revolutionary at its time!

It makes sense that maybe some intoxicated people misinterpreted the final scene. But I'm sure some people in the silence of their own home interpreted it that way too. And if we want to go on a little tangent...I don't know how anyone would want to have a party and not be able to focus on the final episode of LOST! No...I get it ...I'm just messing around. But there's no way I could enjoy the final episode like that! But, a MOVIE THEATER experience of LOST? That would be fantastic. From the few scenes I saw at TIMES TALK LIVE...it was just an amazing experience. I want more! :-)

David Salako said...

The big screen digital projection movie experience would be amazing.
Especially for all the season premieres and season finales!

Candidate said...

@ Mike
It's Candidate Radio.
I joined a few days ago.

Candidate said...

@ Mike
lol. The Lost movie theater expierance would be awsome. As far as not being intoxicated at the of The End...yes it was confusing for many who were not partying as well. I had to do a a quick rewind because I was like woah!!! wait a minute....and than ...OH..O.K.

On tonight we will get your redemption song request and a shout out. probably around between 11:00 and 11:45 PM est

Floreen said...

@Snafu11 and Mike V - You're welcomed for the invite Snafu11, and Mike I was wondering what was the problem with the pics. I thought is a copy right bug from Tivo or dvr is at fault, and you were already busy to bring it up.

So we are on the same page, I guess is only the degree to which we're orbiting around it as in how high or low of an orbit we chose. You Snafu11 understood nicely the percentage of frame left for us to piece together.

I know is hard how to consider those realities real, more or less so. I do use pen and paper when doing this mental exercise and I wanted to share it with you and have fun flipping it around until the cows come home.
I guess the one big dif is that I do not always take the studios or the creators for their full word. They say things as They want them to be perceived, but I do go outside the canon and ask what if?...

Here's another thought provocative question to bounce around.

Which reality seems more real and in line with Reality as we know it;

In the IT, Locke gets Miraculously cured of paralysis and Rose of terminal cancer.
In the SW, Rose make peace with the inevitable and Locke gets cured by a physician. Now there’s a twist.

As per Jacob in the IT they have each other for friends and do the things they always wanted to do such as Locke been the hunter and be out of the wheel chair even miraculously. I am thinking that Ironically, the SW worked ranks higher in the Reality Meter than the IT which is quite funny when you think about it.

I don’t know if you - Snafu11 saw this week Supernatural ep but it carries an interesting twist like in Lost. I don’t want to spoil it for you.

plumbarius said...

Mike V.

This won't be a 500 word post...not my style anyway but;
I have followed your blog for about three seasons and it was a Saturday morning ritual that really got my weekend off to a good start!

1. Thank you for the dedication that you put into this show/blog and especially in the last year as a newlywed, what an understanding partner!

2. I'm not a "kater" but also not a huge fan but I had no issue with her shooting MIB and I thought the last time Jack and Kate were together on the cliff was unbelievable and then when she tells him in Sideways how much she missed him...WOW!! (to steal a phrase) And that short dress....double WOW!

3. I am very satisfied with the ending and after reading the recap and watching it again, I actually have a clearer understanding of the whole story line. I was worried this might end up as a Seinfeld type finale v. a M*A*S*H or Bob Newhart ending that to me were home runs. As soon as the final lost boom appeared my reaction was, they hit it out of the park!

4. I'm glad you'll still be blogging in the future and look forward to hearing all the insightful comments from this loyal and intelligent group of Losties.

Uh oh...did I hit 500 words? :-)

I thought we'd be over the 700 posts by now :-) No more predictions for me!

Randy said...

Any take on Desmond and Jack chance meeting at the football stadium? Season 2? Not sure but I think he said "see you in another life brotha".

Mike V. said...

@Candidate - I was able to retweet it. I saw someone else retweeted my tweet so hopefully it helped! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to tune in again...Friday nights are tough since I usually find myself at a bar lol I'm glad you got the "Redemption Song" request played though. If it's available for DL I'll try to check it out then. Thanks!

@Florin - Good point on Sideways more reflecting "ACTUAL" reality lol That is, until Christian opened the door to the bright white light! And of course...experiencing things from their prior existence when coming in contact with the other LOSTIES! But it is funny! lol

Plumbarius - Thank you so much for your support over the years and for your great comments! You're totally welcome for the blog! Glad that you were able to enjoy Kate's big moment in the finale and that you were satisfied with the ending. I finally rewatched the finale today and my feelings have not changed one bit. It was a PERFECT way to end the show. I'll have words with anyone who thinks otherwise! (j/k - I fully understand the varying opinions lol) I agree too that Seinfeld's finale was not too bad. How else would you end a show about nothing? lol put them in jail! Good times.

I look forward to you sticking around for future discussions whenever they may be!

As for 700 comments...if you add in the comments from the "WAITING ROOM" post...we are well over 700! I just couldn't get the blog posted quickly enough before people were "FLOCKE"ing to the site. So I posted up a quick paragraph that got 450 comments. Go check that out if you ever want a good laugh! People were so fired up! lol

Anyway, thanks again for the props and for sticking around!

@Randy - I think Desmond and Jack's "chance" meeting at the stadium was just like all of the other LOSTIES' chance meetings. Their lives were all connected by the Island.... And yes, that was Desmond's trademark line so he definitely said it! LOL The greatest part was that Jack said it to him before he did his heroic duty to the Island....and of course...Jack and Desmond once again met up in Sideways.... We could argue that the producers knew what they were doing all the way back then with the introduction of Desmond.... or we could just say that the were ingenius in tying it all together!

Mike V. said...

btw...for the final week of the show (starting sunday and going until midnight tonight)....we have reached over 50,000 hits! 51,278 and counting. 30,000 hits alone on the Monday after the finale. Yeah...could have been a lot of refreshes to see if the blog was posted...but there was a crap load of hits from Google searching "Lost blog" Crazy stuff!!

Grand total is 341,768 Hits since February 2007. It grew at an exponential rate. My initial goal was 10,000 by the finale...then 250,000 when we started this season....then we changed it to 300,000 a few weeks ago....and we just kept topping it! THANKS FELLOW LOST FANS for your dedication to this blog!

Maybe by the time the LOST MOVIE or LOST REBOOT happens 10-20 years from now, we will get to that 4,815,162,342 hit count!! Of course, maybe then the Internet will be as old fashioned as pen and paper! LOL

Anonymous said...

ok Im a little ignorant but since I am new to the boards..( and a little dissapointed I never never came here before last week)...I have seen it written

Jater and Kater


I can speculate what that means based on comments but couls someone provide an official definition

Thanks

Bret W. said...

Hey Everyone!

I was wondering if people have discussed why Australia was the departure 'place' for the story. Is it because it's an island? Or the 'Land Down Under'? Do you there was any special intent by the writers in choosing Australia?

Peace,

Snafu11 said...

@Florin - As for the comaprison of which was more real IT oe SW--I guesse SW would have to get the nod because life is as we know it. The one thing I (and others)had commented all season was how cheesy the dialogue was in SW land. Sawyer's dialogue looked like a bad police drama. Plus, Jack & David chummyness was bit over done. In retrospect, this just reinforces how it ended as this was a place they invented--that's why the dialogue was soo hokey--LOL. Therefore I'm gonna waffle and say IT was more real
;-)

I'm all caught up on my Super Natural as the season ended the week before last. I definetly thought the Prophet closing statements on closing out a show was prophetic and definetely a nod to the up coming LOST finale.

I don't know quite what to make of the closing scene with Sam. I don't know how they come back after this past season's story line for one more. Maybe Sam and Dean will end up on a island ;-)

@Mike V - My new wallpaper, Jack's closed eye. It replaced the screen shot of the outriggers ;-)

Floreen said...

@Snafu11 and Mike V - You actually opened my eyes to a good point you’re on. IT - Extraordinary Circumstances lead to Extraordinary Dialogs so I agree with the 'waffle.'

I just watched the Lost finale replay - more emotions going again, on ABC and in the green box where we get the side info, we were told that Christian Shepard’s ghostly apparitions were the work of Smokey and that statement leaves no ambiguity about it or the other apparitions. Obviously, Jacob had nothing to do with that issue.

So Mike V. was right in wondering about the smoke alarm in the apparition in the hospital/clinic. And I was right that Smokey had to be the manipulator. With 90% of the frame for me to fill, my ‘Flichard theory’ combined with the ‘they died when they crashed’ and the subsequent happenings as the multiple realities comes in so handy in explaining a lot of the questions that were left dangling. According with Access Hollywood, upper 60% of fans didn’t liked the finale but I guess they don’t like to make their own answers creatively either.

Not Lost affiliated discussion.
In Supernatural you did caught the scene where the two characters, Dean and Sam are told like in Lost that they are dead. I didn’t saw that one coming when you consider that they did died - visibly so, compared to Lost at the stages where they were saving each other from the deals they made with the evils and it was under my eyes all the time. I should say like Locke; ‘Now I feel like a fool.’

But there is this Lost thing, where dead characters have a far much wider range to work with since they are no longer corporeal in nature, so that should explain a few things especially when demons and demonic angels pretending to be whatever, are at war with each other. When Sam appeared under the lamppost you noticed the flickers.

I was impressed by our Jacob actor doing a such wonderful work in portraying a widowed father been manipulated by the dead wife like Michael in Lost.

Back to Lost.
Little has been made out of No 2 - Ben, saving No 1 - Hugo. That’s the reason the Losties jumped in to save Ben from under the tree.
I am working now on a explanation as why as soon as Smokey became mortal, he was still in Lock’s body since Lock was buried, but I guess as a ghost, it didn’t matter anymore.

The numbers I though are the six candidates left in the run and in the hatch the numbers appeared on the dial as the doomsday in Egyptian hieroglyphs. The candidates numbers punched in the computer, represented those candidates chosen by Jacob and thus nullifying the disruptive power of the energy pocket, which could had been Smokey trying to get his way.

I was wondering when Desmond got in the hole and we see those skeletons, could they have been in one of those underground temple corridors where those French guys were pulled in and the water used in the temple came right from that source? Maybe that’s why Danielle says that her team mates were changed, sick and why Richard says that child Ben will not be the same since the healing powers were not there anymore with Smokey on the prowl.

Oh well, enough for now...

Anonymous said...

@Florin - Please spare us these outlandish "re-writes" of a beloved show many of us are here to discuss and reminisce about.
"Lost" is Team Darlton's and attached writers vision and it is THEIR vision we are here to enjoy.
BTW, this is not a blog for the show "Supernatural" either...
Could Michael's and the Oceanic 6's "glimpses" of Christian Shephard, Charlie Pace, Libby "Smith" and Claire Littleton OFF ISLAND have been a result of their exposure to the electromagnetism when Desmond turned the key and the sky turned purple?
Perhaps they had a "glimpses" of the afterlife?
Charlie Pace's words to Hugo Reyes outside the asylum are identical to Christian Shephard's words to Jack in the Church - "I am dead, but I am also here"....
- Henry

Mike V. said...

Hey guys, just stopped in for a few minutes before heading out for Memorial Day festivities! Here are my comment responses!

@Anonymous - 7:01 - It's actually JATER and SKATER....whoever mentioned Kater earlier just had a typo or just didn't know lol it's people who supported Jack/Kate (Jater) vs. Sawyer and Kate (Skater)....maybe he just meant by Kater that he wasn't a supporter of KATE at all lol But there you go!

@Bret - I actually have no idea why Sydney was chosen as the departure place. My guess was that it made the most sense for a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles to be the flight because they wanted this island to be based somewhere in the South Pacific. (you know until we learned that it was a moving island! LOL)

@Snafu - LOL on the Outrigger wallpaper! I had a good laugh about that one! I still am annoyed they didn't get to that scene! But I'll get over it.

@Florin - I forgot to TiVo the enhanced version of the finale but I'll probably check it out online. I cannot imagine though that they would have made that statement and made the assumption that "ALL" apparitions of Christian were Smokey....I have to think that the people behind the enhanced lost do a good job at tying things together...but they may not think of a few tidbits here and there. It depends how tied to the writers of the show they are. I refuse to believe that Christian's off island appearance has anything to do with Smokey...I used to think that but now that we know Smokey couldn't leave the island...it cannot be him! The freighter one..I could buy it a little more but it still doesn't make sense.

Mike V. said...

@Henry - First off, if the Supernatural comments got out of hand, I may have made a comment about it...but Snafu and Florin were just passing some small information about the show back and forth. Not a big deal. I'll leave your other comment alone about Florin's "re-writes". I have no issues with them and just choose not to agree!

As for the glimpses of GHOSTS that the islanders have been having...I too made comments about Charlie's appearance to Hurley and all of the other ghostly appearances. I thought this somehow had to be connected to sideways...maybe it's after all of them "MOVE ON" into the light...they are enlightened and can appear to the LOSTIES at key moments in their journey. Of course...if that was the case...why would ana lucia tell Hurley that "libby says hey".....Hurley would have been there already since time doesn't exist. Of course...living Hurley wouldn't have known that. A lot of it is left open to interpretation. As for everyone being exposed to electromagnetism which may have causes these visions....it's as good a guess as any. I'd have to see if any of these visions happened during season 1 and 2 though. I think most of those visions were just dreams! (since we confirmed that the vision of Christian on the Island was smokey) I dunno....some of this stuff may just not have any answers. Maybe the candidates were given the gift to commune with the dead somehow. And Miles lol (he was on the candidate list..just crossed off)

Anyway...I totally agree though that Charlie's appearance to Hurley seems very much like how the Sideways LOSTIES were acting once enlightened.

Mike V. said...

btw...for any star wars fans (and anyone that knows anything about star wars) you gotta see this:

http://youtu.be/Wt4aO8bCYd4

LOL

Candidate said...

5/27 Anon

Just lol'ed at your post concerning Locke and Oldham.
Very Funny

@Mike
Redemption was a great request and got a HUGE positive response on that one. The calls just poured in with people's confessions and fears. My answer to them was a mirror of Damons Tweet "To remember and to Let go." It was quite a moving moment overall with some who were sharing stories w/ People they have loved and lost.
Thanks for retweeting this tribute to Lost. The whole production has been theraputic for me as I try to fill my own personal void of the show not airing or producing any more new episodes. It's been one week and I feel that time has seems to move much more slowly w/out a new season to look forward too.


Checked out the enhanced ending. No commenst or "pop ups" during the final scene. interesting.

Mike V. said...

Candidate - that's great that the request went over really well. Let me know if and when it's available for download. I'll check it out! I agree with you on time moving slower now that LOST has ended.

Hey that just means we have more time to watch it all again and again and again! :-)

Have a great Memorial Day everyone!

(btw..Star Wars eps 1-6 on Spike TV today. Random, I know...but I can't help but watch! LOL)

Candidate said...

@ Anon On Florins Comments
I enjoy Florins posts and I think it's a good excercise to think and post new possibilties and theorys. Even if "I" disagree on some of these theories they are still valid thoughts worthy of discussion. Supernatural...I've never seen or heard of this show until the finale but because M.P. was a star on both Lost and Supernatural it does tie in a little. IMHO


I think it's great to see our Lost actors playing in different roles so quickly. I'm currently watching Deadwood for the first time and love seeing John Hawkes and Titus Welliver as well as other truly great actors work different roles and and presentations. Friendly is in Happy Town and Razinsky was in Modern Family. I've also seen Libby guest star in a show called In Plain Sight (Which is not bad but not worth recapping.) Too many to mention as well as FF and a slew of other appearances.

Candidate said...

Star Wars ??? YAY!!!!
I just started recording the middle of Ep 2. too late for ep 1 and a Star Wars concert as well. thanks for the heads up Mike.

Kath said...

Just a few thoughts...It's been 1 week since the finale and yet LOST is all I can think about...I couldn't bring myself to watch the 'enhanced' re-run last night so I taped it......I've never been affected by a TV show like this!

That being said...a few thoughts that keep jumping around in my head:

I love that Sun and Jin choose to be un-married in their 'waiting room' story.....since they really were happiest before getting married.

I also think that Rousseau and Alex were 'made up' in Ben's 'waiting room' story...just as Jack's son was.....I can't imagine that these ladies would choose each other...having not known each other in life....much less choose to be with Ben in the 'waiting room'....afterall he did steal Alex from Rousseau and then gets her(Alex)killed later in life......I think Ben's penance is be a proper father figure and to bring Rousseau some happiness...something she never had on the island.

I'm also really suprised that Kate would leave Jack on the island in 'the end'. She spent 6 seasons following him everywhere...then in 'the end' she chooses to head home without him. She really didn't need to go....she had done her 'job' of getting Clare on the plane...Aaron was with his grand mother and a reunion would have been inevitable.

I'm thinking that Kate really did love both Jack and Sawyer...both.....I think her and Sawyer did lead a life together....probably a somewhat screwed up life together but none the less....I think in choosing to leave the island she was choosing Sawyer. No we didn't see a love scene but we didn't get to see one with Penny /Desmond either....Then in the flash sideways Kate and Jack found each other again as did Sawyer and Juliet.....putting everyone with their 'true' loves....

David Salako said...

Watching "The End" again, I am even more impressed with Matthew Fox's acting in the Sideways realm. Especially from the point Locke tells him he doesn't have a son until the final; scene sitting in the church pew. His looks of befuddlement and really trying to "hold on" to the fantasy he built is brilliantly acted.

David Salako said...

A Richard Alpert and Isabella Alpert reunion would have been nice to see although they were not central characters to the tale Team Darlton and company crafted.
Also interesting - Penelope and Charles Widmore - even though they never shared a scene together in the entire show.

Floreen said...

@Henry - I think we have the freedom of expression Henry so we post that which we think is important. Feel free to skip over my posts however if you feel they don’t meet your expectations. I stil read your posts tough. Many people talked about other shows here, many posted what can be considered irrelevant, but I didn't got upset with it. And for Supernatural, I just posted about our actors showcasing in other shows, and things which topic wise paralleled Lost. So tangentially, I’ve been on the topic plus and I posted a polite warning for those that don’t care for other shows so they can skip over for their convenience.

Floreen said...

@Mike V & Losties - This post is meant to be humorous so be patient, Happy Memorial Weekend everyone. So, on a lighter Lost-Jimmy Kimmel note...

... Awhile ago there was a conversation about the Nikki and Paolo and Jack’s Tattoo episodes.

I argued that maybe the episodes are a breather from the main series’ plot and a way for the creators to showcase that there’s more happening to the show than just our main characters doing their things and I might still be right about it.

The general consensus there was however that we don’t know what to do with those episodes. I mean really, what’s the meaning of this, what’s the meaning of life, why are we here, why are you here - really, why are you here? It reminded me of another Canadian character by the name Evangeline Lilly McFlintock - quite a pistol she was, or a rifle - I don’t remember, also known as Kate Austin Fits, no! it’s only Kate Austin and known for her famous, historic saying to Rotschild SepticTank Sewing & Sucking Services dude and I quote: “Who brought you here? Do I know you? Get off my property!” End quote.
Ah, quite the fun up there in Canada, eh?
Wait!... This is embarrassing, that was the Red Green Show... never mind... so we were quite confused as where to fit those Lost episodes.

In the light of the series ending episode underlying not so subtle plot line no more I say to myself; I think I know what’s with Nikki, Paolo, the tattoo and its meaning.

I think it was meant to be an early clue and a play on death, life, planes of existence and redemption. Both characters in the dvd extras came this close to repent for their crime but miscommunication took them in a different direction. Sawyer who’s a con gives no interest to the diamonds, wait! is he a con or not? Hm... Nikki and Paolo get paralysed by the spiders. To the Losties it looks like they are dead when they were not, but they get buried alive and subsequently killed. I guess an imaginative mind could tie this in the Lost canon and give a lot of meanings to it.

Jack’s tattoo says and I quote: “He walks among us, but he’s not one of us.”
‘What does that mean?’
‘Dude! Isn’t it obvious? He’s in Asia, the only European we see in the scenes, come on?’
‘Wait! There’s got to be more Europeans among so many Asians there.’
‘So what? What’s you point?’
‘My point is that there’s more to it.’
‘Well! you go figure it out genius. You’re the one arguing and talking to yourself on this post, in public domain, on Internet.’
‘Say whaaat? Yikes... I need a life or anther TV show to watch, I mean, this is humiliating now, a new low even for me... post Lost blues, withdrawal symptoms?

So seriously, what’s the meaning? Another early clue perhaps, to indicate in a subtle way that Jack was dead already? I mean; He walks among us, we can see him, he came here to find himself on this island, hint?, but he’s not one of us, cause we are physically alive while he’s dead. Or we’re the dead ones and he’s alive? really, what reality is real here cause we’re confused ;-) That’s how I interpret those episodes, some early clues, which I guess didn’t really fit well, until one sees the finale that is.

An anonymous was wondering about why Australia as departure point? The ‘land down under’ would be a nice play, ‘Austral’, which could be interpreted as out of this realm or above it, or it’s just a convenient way to crash Oceanic on an island since there’re so many right there. I guess my guess would be as good as any.

Floreen said...

Thank you Mike V and Candidate for the prop, my prior post surely didn't let you down.

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Anonymous said...

So, what do we know? Nothing. We know absolutely nothing for certain. Which I like. Very scientific.

Much has been made of Christian's speech to Jack in the church, which appears to offer some certainties, albeit with a great deal of wriggle-room. Let's accept what he says at face value.
He tells Jack that his memories are real. He tells him that everything that happened to him was real.
Does this mean (as most people are suggesting, from what I can gather) that Jack and the others survived the plane-crash and everything that happened to him on the island really happened?
Emphatically, no.

Jack asks his father if he is real and Christian confirms that he is. Jack's father is, at best, dead and a ghost or, at worst, a figment created by Jack's dying mind. If he's a ghost, then the term "real" also applies to stuff that happens to you after you die, therefore everything that happened on the island could just as easily have happened after Jack died. The only requirement of "real" is that you have a memory and a conscious awareness of your existence. That's a pretty loose definition of the word "real" by any standards.
If Jack's father is merely a creation of his dying mind, then his words only shed light on Jack's perspective at the point of death. The only thing Christian says which is undeniably true is so painfully obvious that it's hardly worth mentioning: everybody dies sometime. Thanks for sharing, Ghost Dad!

But I'm not dismissing what Christian said by any means, because I think it was brilliantly crafted to allow the viewers to believe whatever they want to believe. Excellent writing. Another reason why the ending is growing on me. Nonetheless, Christian's appearance proves absolutely nothing.

It's not about proof. Whether we're prepared to admit it or not, we're in the place beyond proof where it's about what you believe and what you want to believe.

Keri said...

I think that Ben didn't enter the church because he was going to hell. When Jack's dad opens the doors to the church and that light spreads through the room...obviously the group in the church was being allowed to enter heaven. It wasn't that Ben didn't want to go in but that he was not allowed in...
And btw...that was an excellent play by play of the finale. You did a great job writing that all out. Good for you!

Floreen said...

@Final - What makes you think I didn't like the finale or the series? Why would I be here if so?

In my mind I put things in perspective, IMHO and my own, I am just sharing here with you. Read all my posts and the disclaimers.

Floreen said...

@anonymous - You realize that in a few short sentences you contradicted yourself, right? We know for sure the basics and we connect the rest that much you're right. Every reality is also a reality and a valid one from the point of view of the subject to that reality.

Floreen said...

@Keri - I have to disagree with your position about Ben. He said clearly that he has a few things to take care of before crossing over. He got redeemed finally and totally when he took the No 2 position to Hugo and did so on his Free Will.

Mike V. said...

Just catching up on comments again.

No prob on the Star Wars Marathon heads up Candidate. I was out all day but I managed to see parts of Ep 1, 2, 4 and 5....mostly watched 4 lol Even though 5 is hands down the best!

@Kath - Great speculations. I choose to disagree on the Rousseau/Alex thing. I think they were as real as anyone else. And of course, the irony of the whole situation is that Alex still saw Ben as a father figure in this sideways land. And she really did love him in the Island timeline...even if she questioned his actions. I really don't know who is real or who is fake...but I guess my stance is...if we know the person existed in the Island timeline, then they're probably real. If they didn't, aka David, then he didn't exist! As for Kate...yeah I would have loved for her to stay but I disagree that she had already done her job getting Claire onto the plane. She had to jump off a cliff, get on a sailboat, go to hydra island...and then convince Claire to get on that plane. Oh yeah, and the Island was falling apart at the time. Jack already knew he wasn't going to live and he was the one that convinced Kate to go. She probably did love both Jack and Sawyer...and yes we can speculate that they did have "relations" after they went off island. But the show clearly showed that Jack was her true love and Juliet was Sawyer's. Good stuff! I also think that Kate leaving the island made their "reunion" scene in sideways so much more poignant. It seems like Kate has missed jack for a VERY long time. She probably lived a full life before dying. Crazy stuff!

@David - Yeah I thought Fox did a great job throughout the 6 years but his finale performance was fantastic! As for Richard/Isabella reunion, yeah would've been nice to see...but I guess we can just assume that it eventually happened! As for Penny/Charles - yeah still crazy that we never saw them in a scene together! Same episode many times, but never in a scene together. Good times.

Mike V. said...

@Florin - good stuff with the analysis of Jack's tattoos lol You have thought about that much more than I care to ever again! :-) BTW...I don't think "FINAL" was talking to you specifically. It's just someone trying to promote their site on my site. lol

@Anonymous 3:53 - As I've said many times. We are all free to speculate what we want about the show. But I still think it's within certain boundaries of what was defined within the show. In the final 15 minutes of the final episode...if we have Christian Shephard telling Jack (a scene we have been waiting for for 6 years) that everything was real, I think we can believe him! So, I'll say this one more time (until someone forces me to say it again): Island Experiences - REAL Sideways Experiences - REAL but in the next REALM after death. The "waiting room" to meet everyone and move on. Where they move on to? ALL SPECULATION.

I know we all think the writers of LOST are GENIUSES. And they have put together a brilliant 6 year work of art onto the small screen. But sometimes, I think a little over analysis on our parts lead to us making these writers even smarter than they ever thought they could possibly be! LOL Just my thoughts though!

@Keri - Thanks for the props on the blog! It makes it tougher for me to disagree with you, but in this case I must! :-) I totally disagree with Ben going to hell. Of course, the actual existence of HELL is not defined within the show so that's based upon interpretation and what the actual viewer believes. So yeah, maybe Ben could be going to hell. But one cannot forget (as Florin mentions) that he probably spent many many years working with Hurley to do GOOD things on the Island. Yes, Ben is very sorry for the things he did in his life and he may want to "work out some issues" before moving on. But, I personally do not believe that means he is HELL-BOUND!

Glenn R. said...

Just came across this comment someone left on another website, about the Hurley-Ben scene that is supposed to be on the Complete Series DVD coming out in August. Well, if this is true, then it might be on the Season 6 set too. Have you heard anything, Mike?

"The official press release from Buena Vista confirmed that the epilogue IS on the Season 6 set as well, both BR and DVD."

Glenn R. said...

Someone is making a movie about the hundreds+ people who did Lost podcasts. Thought you might be interested, Mike. Trailer is here:

http://vimeo.com/11838904

Mike V. said...

Thanks for sharing Glenn. I actually read similar things from Matt Mittovich on Fancast.com today. I sure hope it's the case!! Of course, the sad part of this is...that the epilogue is probably 14 minutes worth of the 20 minutes of new footage and not "in addition" LOL But I think Darlton are doing a Q&A on the bonus disc too.

Each season has had some excellent special features, but I have a feeling they're going all out for this final package! Can't wait!

And thanks for the video link...I'll check it out! lol

David Salako said...

Re: the enhanced episode version of "The End", one fact I did find revealing was that Eloise Hawking pushed her son to be a physicist in the hopes that he would find a way to PREVENT her from killing him in '77.
Previously, I was never quite clear whether she pushed him to be a physicist because she truly believed that "whatever happened, happened" or not.
Hopefully, the Encyclopedia will reveal some more about this very enigmatic character and her history.

Anonymous said...

I think Ben stayed behind because he wanted to get it on with the crazy French chick. And I don't blame him because she scrubs up extremely well, thanks very much. And she can cook.

Either that or he wanted do something more high-minded (and boring, lol) like atone for what he did to her and Alex.

In any event, get in there son!

Mike V. said...

@David - that is pretty interesting...although it seems contradictory to things that Eloise had said....like the first time she met Desmond and she told him all about Course Correction. I guess I kinda saw it both ways....like she couldn't help but give into fate but at the same time she was hoping he might find a way out of it all. Of course, she had supported Jack on his plan to reset TIME which was Faraday's plan....and she would have known at some point after this that nothing had really changed! But yes, I too hope the encyclopedia or the bonus disc on season 6 gets a little more into this stuff. I'd even support some Expanded Universe Novels about the Widmore/Eloise Hawking era in Island and Post-Island history....it would be great if these novels were written with the seal of approval from Damon and Carlton so that they could be considered pseudo-canon lol But...I'm sure they won't have time to dwell on all that since ABC owns LOST and they'll be moving on to other things. Oh well..still an interesting idea!!

@Anonymous - 4:17 - Good stuff! lol

Candidate said...

Hi Mike and all
tribute to Lost part 2 is available for download. It's just under 100 megs and easily transferable. Go to this web page

http://www.wgdr.org/cgi-bin/archive.pl

Set the start button at June 1 2010
and the time at 13:15

Set the end at June 1 2010 and the time at 14:45


The focus on this installment is The Lighthouse and Character Couples. Oh yes and a Shout to Mike and the Lost Addicts Blog.

Happy listening for your Tuesday night void.

Candidate said...

More Lost actors guest star appearances. A show called Saving Grace last night ran a clips show.
The Actors who played Walt, David Shepard, and Ben's Lawyer in season 5 all appeared in this one episode that ran last week. Just FYI. It was nice seeing all of these guys working.

Candidate said...

Oops. I mean it ran a few days ago and I saw it last night.

Floreen said...

@Mike V - Okay, I haven’t seen that coming, advertisers you say, well his link didn’t work for me anyway. Even if it would, I wouldn’t waste much time on it.

Thanks for the prop Mike and every time I’ll see that episode again, it will make sense. Is how I am, I like to put things in perspective.
In the Nikki and Paolo ep I liked the tie in with Jack in the pilot opening his eye, Nikki doing the same thing in the end that was a real end for her and that would be one of my ideas of ties.
That episode is memorable for me for John Locke and that part of him I like, a gentle giant. In the “?” station he candidly says; “Now, I feel like a fool” when Nikki speed-figured out that it was a two people hatch connected to many other stations. Even Sayid had a long face about it.

“Kate has missed jack for a VERY long time. She probably lived a full life before dying. Crazy stuff!”
You hit a big chord with me on this one, deep thinking Mike. I can’t imagine how she has felt all that time.

gnni4 said...

I'm not much of a TV watcher, but am been feeling a bit off my schedule without Lost. So tonight I was looking at what else is one the tube, bored. I watched The Good Wife for lack of anything else on, and was suprised to see Titus Welliver on the show. Then there was a commercial for the remake of Hawaii Five-0 with Daniel Dae Kim. I loved that show when it was originally on, I am hoping that the remake will do it justice. Nice to see Daniel getting to stay in Hawaii and speak English! Went to CBS's website to see the extended preview and the first commercial was Evangeline Lilly's shampoo bit, so I saw 3 of my charactors to fill a bit of the void!

I might be the last one to know about Titus and Daniels gigs, but it was nice to see them have work.

@Candidate: Dylan Minnette (David Shephard)was on Saving Grace for a couple years before doing Lost, and then Malcolm David Kelley (Walt)was on last year before Dylan came to the show. I like that show, too bad it is cancelled and coming to an end.

Gosh, what are we going to watch now?

David Salako said...

@Gnni4 - I hear you on filling the void left on Tuesday nights! The Hawaii-5-0 remake is apparently keeping the same thrilling score fro the original so it might be entertaining. The beautiful Hawaiian and Polynesian locations should give it an edge to. Not too sure how episodic cop shows fare these days in terms of ratings? Endless "Law & order" franchises - I saw a British version the other day - surprisingly good!
Saw "Mr. Tom Friendly" on the FX show "Justified" the other night, it had the Evangeline Lilly shampoo ad air during the break to! Good Times!

Mike V. said...

@Candidate - I downloaded the radio broadcast and heard the shout out! Thanks man, I appreciate it. Good job with the show too!

Love all the shout outs to LOST actors in other shows. We must not forget that Alan Dale played the all-powerful villain of Newport Beach - Caleb Nicol on The OC! LOL It took me awhile to forget that when I first saw him playing Charles Widmore on LOST back in the season 2 finale. As for future shows...yeah I'll probably check out Hawaii 5-0 for a little while. There is also lots of interest beween Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson to do a show together...something totally different than LOST but where they can continue to act together. So they'll be on the look-out for something like that. I'd be signed up in a minute! I think Emerson also expressed interest in doing a guest stint on his wife's show -True Blood. He'd be a fantastic Vamp! lol One thing is for sure...Matthew Fox is done with TV, so he'll be venturing into Movie Land full time. Josh Holloway wants to take his shot at movies....Hollywood would be foolish not to sign him up into something awesome (I heard rumors of him possibly being cast in the Avengers Movie? nice) But Josh also said he wouldn't mind returning to TV either.

My wife wants to catch up on the Good Wife this summer, so I'm sure I'll see some Titus in that. Oh and by the way....I know the show never had an official end....but if any of you haven't seen Deadwood seasons 1-3...you owe it to yourself to watch them! Fantastic shows...and lots of LOST Alums in that. (it's really lots of Deadwood Alums in LOST lol) I also want to watch THE WIRE this summer, and obviously there are some LOSTIES on that show too. So much TV, so little time!!

But GNNI, don't worry...we're going to find a new show(s) to follow! Don't you worry! LOL

@Florin - Glad I made you think a little more about Kate's line to Jack. There is so much more to think about with those final 15 minutes once you put it all into perspective. Such a beautiful scene! (of course...that Kate/Jack scene happened before the final 15 lol)

I started rewatching season 6 this wknd too (slowly...i'm not even done LA X yet)....but there was already a funny line by Charlie in Sideways once Jack saved him. "Am I dead?" Jack - "No, you're alive" Charlie "Terrific" LOL Ahhh good times. And of course Rose tells Jack after the turbulence "It's okay, you can 'let go' now" We all knew "let go" was a major theme in the final season...but it's nice to watch the final season with "enlightened" eyes.

Mike V. said...

Comments are getting less and less here. Inevitable but sad :-( Glenn R. had sent me some ideas to keep the blog going throughout the summer. I'm not sure I have the energy in me to do it but it was a pretty solid idea. Figure out the 10 biggest unsolved mysteries of LOST and have some of our regular blog dwellers here take their stab at solving it. I could post everyone's ideas and we could vote. It would be one hefty commitment on my part to keep it going all summer. And I'm in major need of a break! LOL Of course, I guess If we figured out the top 10 unanswered questions....you guys could just start emailing me your theories and then I could post them when I have the time!

Any interest out there in doing something like that? I'm open to suggestions! (just speculating right now, don't want to give anyone false hope that it actually is going to happen! LOL)

Some mysteries off the top of my head:
Walt and his Powers
DHARMA Food Drops
Eloise's Knowledge of Everything
Why Women Can't get Pregnant on Island at least after 1977
How Jacob/Richard/Tom Friendly left the Island and Returned with ease.

I'd have to double check the "23 Mysteries POSTs" to see if I'm missing any big ones. But enough to get people's wheels turning for now! (if anyone is still out there! :-))

MJ said...

Wow - 385 comments ! I VOW to catch up to all of you, even though I am so late. My work got really hectic, and had a family illness that took me away, but all is good now.

I loved the finale, cried loads. Then rewatched it over the Memorial weekend - and I think I cried even more the second time.

Sure - there were things I wanted to know that didn't get answered. I def feel that they made such big deals about some things (fertility issues ) and I do regret that they did not even try to address some of them - but I DID love the finale.

The one thing that disappoints me is that due to so many issues not even being addressed, what will future re-watches hold ? I mean - I envisioned that I'd rewatch the show start to finish and since I had the answers this time I'd see so much more while watching the earlier seasons. But now - kinda feel that I won't be seeing any 'more' but will just be watching stuff and telling myself to not worry about it as it never does bear any meaning in the end.

For instance - we all became soooo invested in Aaron and what the psychic told Claire. But in the end Aaron was just some kid who would spend the first few years of his life without his true mom. The producers at TimesTalkLive went to far as to state that they told us ages ago that Aaron is not special at all - the psychic was found to be a fake and that that was supposed to tell us that the whole Aaron thing was nothing. I felt cheated. While I know that Eko proved the psychic a phony I guess part of me thought of it like Whoopi in Ghost - that he was a fake but had a true vision for Claire and Aaron. I mean - the dude was terrified of Claire NOT raising that kid. No fake psychic would keep after her about it. So no - I do not buy that that did not really mean something. And now when I rewatch, how do I get excited by that whole episode when it is not nothing but false and i know it will be unresolved??? Hmmm.

David Salako said...

@MJ - I agree with you and did feel that Carlton Cuse was a bit too dismissive regarding the "Aaron specialness" issue at the NYT Talk Live event. He failed to remember that the "fake psychic"'s own daughter had a very real vision from Mr. Eko's brother - Yemi. This at least indicated that there was some sort of psychic ability that ran in the family. There were also scenes where Aaron - who we were told by Claire can sleep through anything - would burst into crying fits like immediately after Charlie Pace drowns in the "Looking Glass" station. The staging of these scenes was deliberate.

MJ said...

Mike V said : "Lauren - you took the words right out of my mouth! (well, except the "AWESOME RECAP" part...I wouldn't be that cocky! lol" Awwww - now WE can't do a Star Wars reference and say
'don't get cocky kid". ROFLMAO. Sorry could not resist. ;-D

In case this hasn't been posted - the final shot during the credits with the old plane props on the beach was not part of the show. ABC did that to give viewers a small moment of peace before moving on to their other programming.

The time-traveling thing has me put out now that we know it had nothing to do with anything. They spent a lot of time and effort there - and it was really for no reason. I guess they just wanted to geek-out and have time travel on their show ? I was not sure before what Jughead did, but I thought for sure that the actual fact that they HAD traveled time would have an effect on the end of the show.

Doc Jensen's opionion of why the island was shown submerged was prety good - that this way it is hidden from their minds and dubcconsciousness while they live in the 'waiting room' that is sideways.

Still not fully caught up yet - but hardly any mention of the guy who delivered the coffin ? Hubby and I are SURE we know him from Lost and cannot come up with it !

MJ said...

I'm only just done with the first screen of comments (200). WHew.

Alot of people are/were talking about who wasn't at the church. That didn't bother me. And I just kinda assume that Michael DID get off that island now, but he did not feel that the whole island thing was his defining moment in life and felt no need to hang around in the waiting room for the rest of them. Walt too. As for Jack's mom - she had no affinity to anyone in the waiting room besides her son, so she probably moved on long ago to be with other loved ones. Sappy - huh ?

Strangely I am fallling in between Deebo and MikeV here. One one hand I am a sucker for sappy - so I truly loved seeing them all together and happy - even if they were all dead. I did not hate sideways at all, I looked at it as I got to see charecters I knew and loved getting to (for the most part) lead a slightly happier and better existance.

I still enjoyed the finale despite not getting all answers, but I feel that any future watching will be marred by NOT getting some of those answers. I never cared about Annie, or the Hurley bird - they were just fun.

But I feel jipped that the time travel had nothing to do with anything. It was all a ploy. And that we don't know why there were such fertility issues. And that the producers have come out and said we lied when we said Aaron was special - he's not and we told you so but you obviously were not paying attention.

It's mostly the character mysteries that I wanted. Why did Eloise always seem to have such info? I felt like they made her a big honking deal - but she turned out to be a nobody in the end, unimportant really. Why could Hurley talk with the dead ? They never showed him do it before the crash - so was that a new talent ? Etc.

But as much as I keep complaining that I wanted more, I still really did like the finale.

So how contrary is that !?!

David Salako said...

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0701561/
John Pyper-Ferguson played the airline delivery man with Christian Shephard's coffin.
He currently appears in "Caprica" and has appeared in many shows listed at the IMDB link above.
I was surprised to see him playing such a bit role but I think his ties with Carlton Cuse go way back and is probably a fan of the show "Lost"!
He is originally from Australia.

MJ said...

Snafu and Florin - I am a BIG Supernatural fan so just wanted to say - yes they are coming back next year. Mike was right - moving to Fridays. Sera Gamble is taking over as show runner from Kripke - but she is NOT new - she has been with the show from day one and has been instrumental in the creation of the whole mythology that just ended. But - I think they are moving on from that whole story any way. The apocolyse was averted.

Now - back to Lost ! Sorry folks.

MJ said...

Disagree with the LOTR analogy - the ring was evil and pure temptation and not handled well by any one. Frodo did better than most as he had a bigger heart than most - but in the end it corrupted him too. Everyone who spent time with the ring tried to steal it - starting them becoming evil. Remember Boromir ? Thinking about it Sam was truly the only one who was never tempted by that ring - and he spent as much time with it as Frodo did, though not on him personally

David Salako said...

I think the mind bending time traveling in season 5 served two purposes:
1) It was a clever way to highlight a slice of time in the very long history of the different groups of people and civilizations that have been coming to THE ISLAND for eons. It was a period of time different from the 21st century - the hippie/tripping seventies! Namaste!
2) It also drove home the point for the series finale that "there are no do-overs" like Jack said. What happened, happened and what happens, happens. Cannot change the past or the future, we can only do what we choose to do and make the best of what is thrown in our paths.
"Jughead"'s explosion did not change anything.

MJ said...

Cajun - I feel ya ! My husband liked the show, but he's moved on. When I rewatched it Mem weekend he was upstairs doing his thing and came down to go to an appt. I was sitting there bawling away and he's like ' what happened, are you ok ?' Told him I'd literally just finished watching the finale - he was like OMG - I thought some thing was wrong. LOL Then he felt bad leaving the house with me sitting there with tears coming down my face. Too too funny.

Gnni - I just have to ask after all these years - what on earth is that a picture of ? Even when I enlarge it I can't figure it out! I have been intrigued for a long time now. ;-D And I don't 'tweet' either. Mike I'm a big fan - but just can't join twitter for ya !

Yeah - last week was exhausting. First Lost, then 24 which was great. Then Frige - while predictable was still good. Then the FF finale. Brutal week.

Cajun - are you in Louisiana? I know you said you were going to go follow the news about the spill, and your nickname seems to point to you being there.

David Salako said...

Re: the LOTR analogy, my point wasn't to say it was exactly the same type of scenario but to show that different people coming into contact with a seemingly supernatural thing or object were not all affected exactly the same way.
The fact that Samwise Gamgee had every possible opportunity to steal "The Ring" and actually was a Ring-bearer for a little while but still ended up happy and content with wife and kids at the end of the movie shows a difference.
Even Gandalf and the Elf Queen knew that they would not be able to resist the overwhelming power of The Ring.
Jack's destiny was to do what he did and I theorize that his very nature to fix, help and save others prevented a new Smoke Monster...

Anonymous said...

I felt there could have been more about the Hurley/Ben tenure on the island.

for what it's worth, here's what I would have done:

a scene with Hurley staring into the flames of a fire. Ben comes up to him. he's carrying something.

Ben: "I found this on the beach."


it's the game that Jacob and MIB used to play.

Hurley: "Dude, awesome! A game! I wonder how you play it?"


Then you hear the unmistakable sound of the smoke-monster. Ben and Hurley exchange a terrified look.

Has the island reanimated Flocke? Was Jack turned into the new Smokey by the light? A being infused by his decent personality?

We have to guess because that's where the scene ends.

Mike V. said...

WOW, naturally, I have a 3 hour meeting and people decide to start commenting again :-) lol j/k I love catching up!

@MJ - I totally feel your pain on issues they brought up that were never resolved. And I think I eventually address a lot of that in the comments as "COP OUTS" by the producers. But also, opporunities for discussion and for further elaboration by novelists and all of that fun stuff. Looks like Carlton Cuse may have been interviewed today about ABCs plans to keep the brand alive. If there's a link I'll share it!

As for future rewatches...I think at least 1 more is in store to relate it to the answers we DID get. And possibly answers we might "figure out on our own" based on those answers. Yeah, there will be certain things that won't add up...but I still feel the show was amazing enough to stand on its own as great TV and not having to worry about the mysteries all of the time. Usually when I rewatched them it wasn't to investigate further...it was just to ENJOY the amazing tv show. And I did...every time. And I will again...and again...and again! lol

Totally agree with you and I brought up how I didn't buy their answer to Aaron or Walt. You know what I thought about though after thinking through the whole scenario? Remember when the girl (the psychic Malkin's daughter) that died and came back to life told Eko about seeing Yemi?? That was some "AFTERLIFE" discussion even in season 2. Stuff like that makes me think that maybe they did have this stuff in mind back then. And if not...they tied it together nicely. But yeah...I always thought that Malkin scene would come back into play.

@David - Funny, everytime I bring something up you seem to have already chimed in on it! (Malkin's daughter) But, of course, I brought up the fact that maybe the daughter had an actual "near death" experience and experienced some kind of sideways world where she met Yemi. As for Aaron crying when Charlie drowned....I thought this was more just beautiful storytelling than anything. I never thought it meant that aaron was special. But, now that you mention it, yeah it would make sense lol

Mike V. said...

@MJ - Hysterical with the Star Wars reference....and the ironic thing is...I thought about that when I originally said it! lol Yep, the end credits thing has definitely been stated many times throughout these comments. I had to keep bringing it back up because people kept talking about "THEY'RE ALL DEAD!" lol

I'm sure you remember my mentality from season 5. I never thought that things were going to escalate to the point where they would change time. They had already put the rule in place that they wanted to do non-paradoxical time traveling. So, I was looking forward to them getting to that big incident...how they would all end up working together to make it happen...but in the end..the fact that it was their motivation to end up participating in an event that ALWAYS HAPPENED. I was very interested in this idea and it does not take away at ALL from the storytelling in season 5 for me. We still got to spend some time with the DHARMA Initiative and this was their method of doing that without things seeming stale from a Flashback perspective. I'm fine with it!

I'm fine wiht Doc Jensen's interpretation of the underwater Island! As for the Coffin guy, looks like David comments on this later. But I had pointed out in the comments that it definitely was NOT Lennon, because Matt Roush at TV Guide seemed to think it was lol

Your interpretation of who was at the church works for me. I still don't know about Michael though. I think he may still be trapped on the Island. But I'm not going to lose sleep over it! lol

Sounds like we may get more information about the Hurley Bird in the Season 6 Blu-ray/DVD epilogue! lol There was a Q&A with Jorge Garcia with podcasters Jay and Jack....someone had asked if he thinks Hurley decided to teach a bird how to say Hurley and send it back in time to mess with himself and the others LOL Jorge's response was "you will hear more about the Hurley Bird in the epilogue" Good times!

Still don't feel jipped by the time travel storyline . Of course, through most of season 5...i was under the assumption that this was their entertaining "stall technique" since season 6 would be the end-game. They may have not originally intended to do an entire season of time travel....but when they had to figure out a way to do 3 seasons of 16 instead of 2 seasons of 24 each....that was how they broke it up. I'm still fine with it! I like the fact that they were involved in setting up their own fate on the island. Locke's entire reason for coming to the island seems like it was because he told Richard to go check him out in the 50s. That is cool stuff, I don't care who you are! LOL

I still want more info on Eloise...this is why it's still on my list of TOP mysteries I want resolved. (the one I proposed just this morning as future topics for the blog that I want collaboration on. Of course, based on the response I have gotten - NONE - I'm guessing it's a bad idea! LOL)

As for Hurley talking to the dead? Yep...I still don't get that either.

I hear you...I figured there would be things I would nitpick at for years to come. But nothing can keep me from hating that finale. I think we're going to get more answeres on the DVD and the Encyclopedia...we just have to be patient! After that? It's up to us! lol

Skipping the LOTR Analogy stuff to save my fingers some strain! :-)

Mike V. said...

@David -I like your justification of season 5 in addition to why I enjoyed it lol

@MJ - It's okay that you guys aren't joining Twitter! I don't blame you. I was anti-twitter for awhile, but since I joined I cannot believe how much I have grown reliant on it for information! But, as long as you guys check back at these sites, I won't keep you in the dark if I try something new. As for still crying at the finale the 2nd time? GUILTY HERE too! It's going to get me every time just like those 5 minutes in THE CONSTANT except 2.5 hours of it! lol

LOVED FRINGE!! Finally caught up with it. yes predictable but whatevs! still good stuff!

@Anonymous 4:32 - If you pick up Season 6 or the Complete Series on DVD/Blu-Ray on 8/24 - you'll be happy to know there will be a 14 minute Epilogue with Hurley and Ben on the Island! (nice scene though!!! )

All caught up! now I can look for that Carlton Cuse info i mentioned at the top of this rant!

Mike V. said...

Here is what I referred to. And, yes, you can thank TWITTER for me finding this info! :-)

Carlton Cuse talks about ABC keeping LOST Franchise Alive

Mike V. said...

Well, nevermind...that link didn't have much more information than we had at the beginning of the season! lol

Glenn R. said...

MJ -- You said "I still enjoyed the finale despite not getting all answers, but I feel that any future watching will be marred by NOT getting some of those answers."

Your feelings mirror mine perfectly.

Glenn R. said...

MJ & davidsalako,

The time travel is one area about which I feel content with the answers given.

I still subscribe to the theory that MIB (or can we call him Samuel now?) was manipulating where the Losties ended up specifically to manipulate John Locke. If you watch those episodes again, something happens in each one to deepen John Locke's commitment to "the Island." But in fact, each experience deepened his willingness to do MIB/Samuel's bidding, as the final piece of his loophole plan to kill Jacob.

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