Lost Finale Review, Take Two: What About the Storylines? Comments (Page 2)
64 Comments
Chad
May 26th, 2010 2:10 PM
The two main points in this are very lacking:
•MIB is pure evil. He cannot get off the island or else all will perish. This storyline came to an end when MIB was made human and gunned down by Kate. Would mankind truly have ceased to exist if he got off the island? We'll never know, and we never really had any basis for believing it would, considering the Sideways World was in existence this whole time and made it obvious that something existed outside of life on the island.
Why do you need a specific answer about what would happen if the MIB left the Island? He was pure Evil. Why is it out of the realm of possibility to believe that life on Earth would end if he ever left? Sometimes you do just have to beleive. As for the "Sideways world was in existence this whole time and made it obvious that something existed outside of life on the island". Of course something existed outside life on the Island. The entire world, where they all came from and went back to, exist
Kevin
May 26th, 2010 12:18 PM
David Lodge, the British novelist, wrote a novel "Small World", in which he contrasts two literary forms: the Novel (in which a story leads to a resolution) and the Romance (where various stories happen one after another, with no resolution). He captures the tension between these two forms in a plot twist where you are waiting during the entire book for two characters to meet and fall in love, but their meeting keeps being put off by events. The book itself brilliantly veers between the novel form and the romance form without ever resolving. Life imitates art.
The creators of Lost led everyone to believe they getting to the final chapter of a novel only to realize in the last 10 minutes of the show it was just a Romance. In various senses of the word. Magical adventures on a magical island. The lovers united in death. The heroes conquer nemeses but the actual events themselves aren't significant. Only the character of the heroes matters. Fine, if you're living in Homeric Greece.
Granto17
May 26th, 2010 8:28 AM
I meant majority in the sense that 33% was the largest group in the poll. Second was it fully satisfied everything with like 28%.
CNL
May 26th, 2010 1:56 AM
First off to Granto17... you say "the majority, 33%".. is 33% a majority, no.. or did I read the sentence wrong (anyway, that was just bugging me). But I do agree with the rest of your post and I never looked at Desmond that way, as the writers's appeasing the audience's love of him. In reaction to this review... It seems that if the characters were the most important of them all, Jacob and MIB seemed to be the most important characters in the end. I never saw MIB as purely evil (only because they cleared up their ambiguous origins/motives only at the very end. On that note, Jacob always seemed fishy to me, too secretive and not very trusting eyes to be completely on the level). Frankly those two characters I had the most sympathy for... their mother was beaten to death by some crazy woman and then brainwashed to think they're imprisoned on the island. It seems Jacob and MIB had the most issues to work out and they never really got to resolve them. I get that they only really showed up
DB
May 26th, 2010 12:13 AM
Mike, since you seem to have a fuzzy idea of what "answering" questions means, let's get specific by having you tell us the answers to a few of the big questions, which you seem to have received: 1. Why did the numbers show up in the Losties' lives over and over, and especially Hurley's? For example, why did the car his Dad remodeled have the numbers on the odometer? Why were they being broadcast in the emergency signal for the island? The producers gave us those numbers in every single episode as Easter eggs. Don't just say "they were important to their lives." WHY DID THE NUMBERS SPECIFICALLY SHOW UP IN THE LOSTIES LIVES? 2. Why couldn't children be born on the island, except for Aaron and Tom Cruise's cousin? 3. Why did the island time travel? Why did some of the Losties go back in time 30 years and others not? 4. Why was it essential that Claire raise Aaron, and no one else? The hint was that Aaron would be a monster if Claire didn't raise him, but Kate did for 3 years and it didnt
Granto17
May 25th, 2010 11:14 PM
To Jeff, and everyone for that matter:
I am sorry if you missed this, hence why i said i wish i had more time to reply. However that number, 33%, was in no way a number that i just pulled out of my head and is no way fabricated. If you have been paying attention to this site you will have realised that there was a poll asking the general readership what their opinion of the lost Finale was. From what I last saw, the majority, 33%, stated it was "massively disappointing". I'm sorry mate but if you want to get on at me for my facts, you should really put more effort into your own research. This was a poll started by the very website you posted upon.
Anyway getting onto the important matters. Right so someone says that Desmond was important because he was the only one that was able to pull the "cork" (where the fuck did that come from?!) out of the island. Right so even if we take this at face value what does it even mean? Desmond has an ability to tolerate high levels of electromag
Jeff
May 25th, 2010 8:02 PM
Granto17,
Its really funny that you used the word "presumptious", then a sentence later completely fabricate a number '33%' as to the unhappy people about the finale. Did you perform some research no one knows about? That is presumptious of you to create a figure you can't back up.
HappyChappy
Its amazing how much detail that you seem to have forgotten. MIB body is in the cave with his mother (not a skelton near the light). Those bodies were in fact shown during the first season, but were detailed more in the episode all about Jacob and MIB.
infrared41
May 25th, 2010 12:24 PM
It was bad writing plain and simple. Bad writing can be entertaining but it's still bad. The LOST writers blew it with season five and they knew it. They were painted into a corner with no way out. Season six was nothing but 16 time fillers leading up to a very enjoyable but positively stupid finale. Over the course of six seasons LOST went from incredibly smart TV to nothing more than a guilty pleasure. In the end it was entertaining but it was bad. Really bad. We all knew it but no one wanted to admit it.
Larry
May 25th, 2010 11:13 AM
I Watched lost for the full six years and agree with your assessment on season six. It felt rushed and the finale was a typical Poltergiest ending, lets take all these wandering soles "into the light". I especially agree with your take on Locke, if he got off the island and could be killed with a gunshot, why so much fear of him??
Mike
May 25th, 2010 9:35 AM
Its really very frustrating to hear people complain about questions that didn't get answered. Especially when most of them did!!! Plus, if Lost had answered every question, it wouldn't be Lost. The unknown is part of the greatness of this show. If we had known what was going on the whole time, it would have been no fun. I don't think every question should be answered.
The producers/writers have been trying to tell everyone throughout the entire series that is was a show about these people. Anyone watching this show expecting to find out every answer was always going to be dissapointed. As a show about these characters, I don't know how this could have ended better. We know for sure now, that everything about the island was real. What these people went through was real. That would have been the real disappointment. Finding out that this world we came to love for the last 6 years was not real would have left me feeling cold. Now, we know that all these people we have come to
Mike
May 25th, 2010 9:28 AM
I don't understand how you can write this review. You are so "lost" its not even funny. First, Desmond was special because he was the only one that could pull the cork of the island which is what allowed smokey to be killed. Remember, thats how MIB became the smoke monster.
Second, The reason smokey leaving the island would be bad is because he had to be human to leave. The only way to make him human was to pull the cork. Its pretty obvious to see that if the cork had not been put back in by Jack, that the world was not going to survive.
Granto17
May 25th, 2010 8:40 AM
Happychappy:
I wish i had more time to respond to your post, but every "detail" you have mentioned there are entirely presumptious. None of those are actual facts. The only fact I can see about Lost right now is that it has alienated 33% of its dire hard fans by refusing to deal with important issues the writers themselves raised.
Rex
May 25th, 2010 6:10 AM
THANK YOU! This is the best and clearest review I have seen on the finale. You summed up perfectly: "Does a positive, emotional message make up for a season's worth of dead-end storytelling? I say no."
So many people get caught in the happiness of the last 10 minutes, they forgot that the message that came with those 10 minutes had nothing to do with the entire last season. Actually, it had nothing to do with the last 3 seasons. It could have fit with the season one or two, maybe, but since then the writers have tackled other themes (good vs evil being the last and the greatest of them). They were obligated to close that door. The finale felt like they closed a door to another house belonging to the same owner instead.
CL
May 25th, 2010 12:48 AM
The show started with Jack's eye opening and ends with it closing. Isn't it anymore obvious the entire story revolves around the life of Jack Shepherd?
Michael
May 25th, 2010 12:07 AM
There will be a sequal for sure.
Having stated that , Lost was not just about the series " Lost " and how individuals developed their lives while lost but Lost is asking us, yes us , " can we develop and evolve our lives from being lost to a life of being " FOUND "
HappyChappy
May 24th, 2010 11:53 PM
It amazes me how much detail people have missed, Jacob explained that the island was like a bottle that held the power of life and death, Desmond pulled the plug stopping that power from following its normal channels. As for Desmond being special that is obvious, his body could survive vast electromagnetic fields enabling him to get close enough to pull the plug. Pulling the plug took away Locke's ability making him mortal giving Jack the chance to kill him as planned by Jacob. Desmond on the island thought the sideways world was another reality, but in the other reality Desmond knew they were dead and why they were there.
As for Jacob and the story line abut what would happen if Locke left the island, it was clear Jacob also had limited information, he had learnt everything from what little his mother had told him.
For example Jacob did not want people to leave the island yet when Hurley became in charge the rules changed, this is why the plane could leave, also the plane flew of
@Ausman. I like your analysis but I don't get the comment about Jesus and Christian teaching. On the contrary Catholic teaching absolutely says this life matters. You only get to the "light" if you lead a "good" life, and even then no-one dies in a pure state of grace. There's still a sideways world to navigate as well to get to the "light". But the better your mortal life, the better yourchances of reaching the light.
I would say the sideways world in Lost, was more of a purification world for those preparing to enter the light, rather than a purgatory. In theological terms, purgatory is not a place you want to be. Maybe some of the survivors got to the sideways world from purgatory. Who knows, but these dimensions as explained by Christian Sheppard are not bound by time. The Lost gang simply existed in the "sideways world." There was no "when".
About Ben, he didn't go with them because he wasn't ready. He still had work to do in sideways world. Maybe in these dimensions, one just
Jake
May 24th, 2010 11:02 PM
Oh thank god (and any manifestation of him/her in the church would do) that FINALLY a reviewer said exactly what I've been feeling about this great series of unfulfilled potential. The finale did help in bringing back the spirit of the 1st season but it never atoned for the endless McGuffins lobbed at us week after week. I always felt like the writers were stalling and ultimately became lazy after season 2. And sadly they stiffed the best character of the series in the end - the character that inspired the whole series - the ISLAND.
Granto17
May 24th, 2010 8:59 PM
Emily:
I do agree with you there, and as i said in my previous post, there really seemed to be absolutely no emphasis placed upon the island or the events that transpired there. The only thing that seemed to matter was the resolution of the flash-sideways reality. I know that for many people that was a satisfacroty emotional ending, I however think they created an emotional ending that was in no way a logical progression from the begining of the series.
M.L House hits the nail on the head some people took pleasure from delving into the vast array of questions lost raised. I dont think any fan with half a brain expected them to answer them all, however attempting to answer some would have been enough for me.
I do get the argument that they did this on purpose, they ended lost the way it has always been, open ended and open to interpretation. However sometimes a degree of closure can make you feel a bit more satisfied about the amount of time you have invested in seeing what th
Bee
May 24th, 2010 8:56 PM
I agree with Dean's comment. I think David Shepard was really Jack Shepard's inner child. The relationship with his inner child helped him resolve his issues with his father, Christian Shepard.
Emily
May 24th, 2010 7:15 PM
Did anyone else feel like the finale only explained the sideways universe, but nothing else at all?!!
Emily
May 24th, 2010 7:02 PM
Okay- thanks to everyone who answered some of my questions. I have more, why was the island so special? Why did it cure Locke of his paralysis, and the other women (cant think of name) of her cancer? Why couldn't women have babies on it? Oh and why didn't Ben want to go with them? HAHA if someone would answer one of these questions it would be awesome!
marlen
May 24th, 2010 6:00 PM
o my god , what a horoble ending!!! they are all dead
figureditout
May 24th, 2010 5:43 PM
I have figured it out. We will see more of LOST. They left the window open for more. We will see what happened during the days of HUGO and BEN as protectors of the island! We will see how things turn out off the island with our real survivors who escaped on the ajira plane as Jack died.
Israel
May 24th, 2010 4:59 PM
MATT:
I like your thinking. We share most of the same thoughts.
Just a couple of things that made me doubtful, though:
1) Desmond is special. Ok. How come he was having these visions about a future in which Jack was supposedely happy (he was obvious seeing his own purgatory/waiting-for-reunion-room future. And in there, he seemed sure that he needed to reunite everybody and make them remember - or should I say REALISE they were already dead? Did he know, then, that he was also dead?
2) I understood Kate's words to Jack ("I missed you so much") just as you did: she lived on and etc. However, whose plane wrecks were those at the end of the episode? I'd say Ajira's, since Oceanic 15's were at the other island, and as we have seen before, it was impossible to fly off of the island... so, WHAT THE HECK happened to them? I guess we'll never know...
May 26th, 2010 2:10 PM
The two main points in this are very lacking:
•MIB is pure evil. He cannot get off the island or else all will perish. This storyline came to an end when MIB was made human and gunned down by Kate. Would mankind truly have ceased to exist if he got off the island? We'll never know, and we never really had any basis for believing it would, considering the Sideways World was in existence this whole time and made it obvious that something existed outside of life on the island.
Why do you need a specific answer about what would happen if the MIB left the Island? He was pure Evil. Why is it out of the realm of possibility to believe that life on Earth would end if he ever left? Sometimes you do just have to beleive. As for the "Sideways world was in existence this whole time and made it obvious that something existed outside of life on the island". Of course something existed outside life on the Island. The entire world, where they all came from and went back to, exist
May 26th, 2010 12:18 PM
David Lodge, the British novelist, wrote a novel "Small World", in which he contrasts two literary forms: the Novel (in which a story leads to a resolution) and the Romance (where various stories happen one after another, with no resolution). He captures the tension between these two forms in a plot twist where you are waiting during the entire book for two characters to meet and fall in love, but their meeting keeps being put off by events. The book itself brilliantly veers between the novel form and the romance form without ever resolving. Life imitates art.
The creators of Lost led everyone to believe they getting to the final chapter of a novel only to realize in the last 10 minutes of the show it was just a Romance. In various senses of the word. Magical adventures on a magical island. The lovers united in death. The heroes conquer nemeses but the actual events themselves aren't significant. Only the character of the heroes matters. Fine, if you're living in Homeric Greece.
May 26th, 2010 8:28 AM
I meant majority in the sense that 33% was the largest group in the poll. Second was it fully satisfied everything with like 28%.
May 26th, 2010 1:56 AM
First off to Granto17... you say "the majority, 33%".. is 33% a majority, no.. or did I read the sentence wrong (anyway, that was just bugging me). But I do agree with the rest of your post and I never looked at Desmond that way, as the writers's appeasing the audience's love of him. In reaction to this review... It seems that if the characters were the most important of them all, Jacob and MIB seemed to be the most important characters in the end. I never saw MIB as purely evil (only because they cleared up their ambiguous origins/motives only at the very end. On that note, Jacob always seemed fishy to me, too secretive and not very trusting eyes to be completely on the level). Frankly those two characters I had the most sympathy for... their mother was beaten to death by some crazy woman and then brainwashed to think they're imprisoned on the island. It seems Jacob and MIB had the most issues to work out and they never really got to resolve them. I get that they only really showed up
May 26th, 2010 12:13 AM
Mike, since you seem to have a fuzzy idea of what "answering" questions means, let's get specific by having you tell us the answers to a few of the big questions, which you seem to have received: 1. Why did the numbers show up in the Losties' lives over and over, and especially Hurley's? For example, why did the car his Dad remodeled have the numbers on the odometer? Why were they being broadcast in the emergency signal for the island? The producers gave us those numbers in every single episode as Easter eggs. Don't just say "they were important to their lives." WHY DID THE NUMBERS SPECIFICALLY SHOW UP IN THE LOSTIES LIVES? 2. Why couldn't children be born on the island, except for Aaron and Tom Cruise's cousin? 3. Why did the island time travel? Why did some of the Losties go back in time 30 years and others not? 4. Why was it essential that Claire raise Aaron, and no one else? The hint was that Aaron would be a monster if Claire didn't raise him, but Kate did for 3 years and it didnt
May 25th, 2010 11:14 PM
To Jeff, and everyone for that matter:
I am sorry if you missed this, hence why i said i wish i had more time to reply. However that number, 33%, was in no way a number that i just pulled out of my head and is no way fabricated. If you have been paying attention to this site you will have realised that there was a poll asking the general readership what their opinion of the lost Finale was. From what I last saw, the majority, 33%, stated it was "massively disappointing". I'm sorry mate but if you want to get on at me for my facts, you should really put more effort into your own research. This was a poll started by the very website you posted upon.
Anyway getting onto the important matters. Right so someone says that Desmond was important because he was the only one that was able to pull the "cork" (where the fuck did that come from?!) out of the island. Right so even if we take this at face value what does it even mean? Desmond has an ability to tolerate high levels of electromag
May 25th, 2010 8:02 PM
Granto17,
Its really funny that you used the word "presumptious", then a sentence later completely fabricate a number '33%' as to the unhappy people about the finale. Did you perform some research no one knows about? That is presumptious of you to create a figure you can't back up.
HappyChappy
Its amazing how much detail that you seem to have forgotten. MIB body is in the cave with his mother (not a skelton near the light). Those bodies were in fact shown during the first season, but were detailed more in the episode all about Jacob and MIB.
May 25th, 2010 12:24 PM
It was bad writing plain and simple. Bad writing can be entertaining but it's still bad. The LOST writers blew it with season five and they knew it. They were painted into a corner with no way out. Season six was nothing but 16 time fillers leading up to a very enjoyable but positively stupid finale. Over the course of six seasons LOST went from incredibly smart TV to nothing more than a guilty pleasure. In the end it was entertaining but it was bad. Really bad. We all knew it but no one wanted to admit it.
May 25th, 2010 11:13 AM
I Watched lost for the full six years and agree with your assessment on season six. It felt rushed and the finale was a typical Poltergiest ending, lets take all these wandering soles "into the light". I especially agree with your take on Locke, if he got off the island and could be killed with a gunshot, why so much fear of him??
May 25th, 2010 9:35 AM
Its really very frustrating to hear people complain about questions that didn't get answered. Especially when most of them did!!! Plus, if Lost had answered every question, it wouldn't be Lost. The unknown is part of the greatness of this show. If we had known what was going on the whole time, it would have been no fun. I don't think every question should be answered.
The producers/writers have been trying to tell everyone throughout the entire series that is was a show about these people. Anyone watching this show expecting to find out every answer was always going to be dissapointed. As a show about these characters, I don't know how this could have ended better. We know for sure now, that everything about the island was real. What these people went through was real. That would have been the real disappointment. Finding out that this world we came to love for the last 6 years was not real would have left me feeling cold. Now, we know that all these people we have come to
May 25th, 2010 9:28 AM
I don't understand how you can write this review. You are so "lost" its not even funny. First, Desmond was special because he was the only one that could pull the cork of the island which is what allowed smokey to be killed. Remember, thats how MIB became the smoke monster.
Second, The reason smokey leaving the island would be bad is because he had to be human to leave. The only way to make him human was to pull the cork. Its pretty obvious to see that if the cork had not been put back in by Jack, that the world was not going to survive.
May 25th, 2010 8:40 AM
Happychappy:
I wish i had more time to respond to your post, but every "detail" you have mentioned there are entirely presumptious. None of those are actual facts. The only fact I can see about Lost right now is that it has alienated 33% of its dire hard fans by refusing to deal with important issues the writers themselves raised.
May 25th, 2010 6:10 AM
THANK YOU! This is the best and clearest review I have seen on the finale. You summed up perfectly: "Does a positive, emotional message make up for a season's worth of dead-end storytelling? I say no."
So many people get caught in the happiness of the last 10 minutes, they forgot that the message that came with those 10 minutes had nothing to do with the entire last season. Actually, it had nothing to do with the last 3 seasons. It could have fit with the season one or two, maybe, but since then the writers have tackled other themes (good vs evil being the last and the greatest of them). They were obligated to close that door. The finale felt like they closed a door to another house belonging to the same owner instead.
May 25th, 2010 12:48 AM
The show started with Jack's eye opening and ends with it closing. Isn't it anymore obvious the entire story revolves around the life of Jack Shepherd?
May 25th, 2010 12:07 AM
There will be a sequal for sure.
Having stated that , Lost was not just about the series " Lost " and how individuals developed their lives while lost but Lost is asking us, yes us , " can we develop and evolve our lives from being lost to a life of being " FOUND "
May 24th, 2010 11:53 PM
It amazes me how much detail people have missed, Jacob explained that the island was like a bottle that held the power of life and death, Desmond pulled the plug stopping that power from following its normal channels. As for Desmond being special that is obvious, his body could survive vast electromagnetic fields enabling him to get close enough to pull the plug. Pulling the plug took away Locke's ability making him mortal giving Jack the chance to kill him as planned by Jacob. Desmond on the island thought the sideways world was another reality, but in the other reality Desmond knew they were dead and why they were there.
As for Jacob and the story line abut what would happen if Locke left the island, it was clear Jacob also had limited information, he had learnt everything from what little his mother had told him.
For example Jacob did not want people to leave the island yet when Hurley became in charge the rules changed, this is why the plane could leave, also the plane flew of
Rank: New User
May 24th, 2010 11:26 PM
@Ausman. I like your analysis but I don't get the comment about Jesus and Christian teaching. On the contrary Catholic teaching absolutely says this life matters. You only get to the "light" if you lead a "good" life, and even then no-one dies in a pure state of grace. There's still a sideways world to navigate as well to get to the "light". But the better your mortal life, the better yourchances of reaching the light.
I would say the sideways world in Lost, was more of a purification world for those preparing to enter the light, rather than a purgatory. In theological terms, purgatory is not a place you want to be. Maybe some of the survivors got to the sideways world from purgatory. Who knows, but these dimensions as explained by Christian Sheppard are not bound by time. The Lost gang simply existed in the "sideways world." There was no "when".
About Ben, he didn't go with them because he wasn't ready. He still had work to do in sideways world. Maybe in these dimensions, one just
May 24th, 2010 11:02 PM
Oh thank god (and any manifestation of him/her in the church would do) that FINALLY a reviewer said exactly what I've been feeling about this great series of unfulfilled potential. The finale did help in bringing back the spirit of the 1st season but it never atoned for the endless McGuffins lobbed at us week after week. I always felt like the writers were stalling and ultimately became lazy after season 2. And sadly they stiffed the best character of the series in the end - the character that inspired the whole series - the ISLAND.
May 24th, 2010 8:59 PM
Emily:
I do agree with you there, and as i said in my previous post, there really seemed to be absolutely no emphasis placed upon the island or the events that transpired there. The only thing that seemed to matter was the resolution of the flash-sideways reality. I know that for many people that was a satisfacroty emotional ending, I however think they created an emotional ending that was in no way a logical progression from the begining of the series.
M.L House hits the nail on the head some people took pleasure from delving into the vast array of questions lost raised. I dont think any fan with half a brain expected them to answer them all, however attempting to answer some would have been enough for me.
I do get the argument that they did this on purpose, they ended lost the way it has always been, open ended and open to interpretation. However sometimes a degree of closure can make you feel a bit more satisfied about the amount of time you have invested in seeing what th
May 24th, 2010 8:56 PM
I agree with Dean's comment. I think David Shepard was really Jack Shepard's inner child. The relationship with his inner child helped him resolve his issues with his father, Christian Shepard.
May 24th, 2010 7:15 PM
Did anyone else feel like the finale only explained the sideways universe, but nothing else at all?!!
May 24th, 2010 7:02 PM
Okay- thanks to everyone who answered some of my questions. I have more, why was the island so special? Why did it cure Locke of his paralysis, and the other women (cant think of name) of her cancer? Why couldn't women have babies on it? Oh and why didn't Ben want to go with them? HAHA if someone would answer one of these questions it would be awesome!
May 24th, 2010 6:00 PM
o my god , what a horoble ending!!! they are all dead
May 24th, 2010 5:43 PM
I have figured it out. We will see more of LOST. They left the window open for more. We will see what happened during the days of HUGO and BEN as protectors of the island! We will see how things turn out off the island with our real survivors who escaped on the ajira plane as Jack died.
May 24th, 2010 4:59 PM
MATT:
I like your thinking. We share most of the same thoughts.
Just a couple of things that made me doubtful, though:
1) Desmond is special. Ok. How come he was having these visions about a future in which Jack was supposedely happy (he was obvious seeing his own purgatory/waiting-for-reunion-room future. And in there, he seemed sure that he needed to reunite everybody and make them remember - or should I say REALISE they were already dead? Did he know, then, that he was also dead?
2) I understood Kate's words to Jack ("I missed you so much") just as you did: she lived on and etc. However, whose plane wrecks were those at the end of the episode? I'd say Ajira's, since Oceanic 15's were at the other island, and as we have seen before, it was impossible to fly off of the island... so, WHAT THE HECK happened to them? I guess we'll never know...