Lost Finale Review: Let There Be Light... Comments (Page 9)
343 Comments
Stephen
May 24th, 2010 1:00 PM
@ LikesIt
Despite what some seem to think, no they did not die in the initial plane crash. The events of all 6 seasons occurred as we saw them and the characters died one by one just as we remember they did.
And while we did not see all of their deaths (Sawyer and Kate amongst the other survivors that got away on the plane, escaped the island and got to live the rest of their lives before their deaths) they all met up in the same place in the end.
LikesIt
May 24th, 2010 12:56 PM
I don't want to seem dense and I haven't actually seen the last 15 min before the end (long story) but did they all die in the first plane crash or did they die on the Island? I guess it is the latter. And when did Sawyer and Kate die?
P.S Loved the way it was filmed, very cinematic. Lovely long shots and great music as always.
null
May 24th, 2010 12:53 PM
The Island wasnt purgatory - purgatory was place outside of normal time and space. The flashes were those who had died remembering their lives on the Island when they were alive. The flash sideways was sort of a flash forward most likely in the future after eveyone had died at various points in the real world, with flash backwards for each character buried within among those were in purgatory (the place they themselves had created as a gathering place before they moved on to eternity). After they died, they some sort of amnesia as to their past lives in the real world where the Island was. Desmond apparently caused them to remember their past lives in the real world so they could move on as group.
Thinking about this too much could quite simply drive you mad!!! Maybe that what the creators/producers really were after.
philippe
May 24th, 2010 12:52 PM
The finale did not work for me. Although I enjoyed Lost and stuck with it through all six seasons, I realized by the end of Season 2 that the writers/producers had created a serious storytelling problem.
Despite assertions to the contrary by the creators, it became obvious to me early on that they were largely improvising. Far too many narrative threads were created, tinkered with (fascinatingly, usually) and abandoned for there to be any hope of drawing it all together in the end. However much one emphasizes character over plot, it is simply poor storytelling - and somewhat unfair - to prod viewers to invest so heavily in ultimately unresolved plot lines and characters.
Although Lost may have differed in some ways from typical U.S. television series, it was not quite different enough. Lost became the victim of its own success, as most U.S. shows do. A well-crafted story line would have been wrapped up in at most three seasons. However, since television is business rather than pu
momof2
May 24th, 2010 12:48 PM
About the Sayid and Shannon thing - Nadia was not on the island - that place was created for the ppl on the island that touched each other's lives to meet again when they passed....hello!
Jeff
May 24th, 2010 12:47 PM
They should have shown what happend to the people on the plane. Somehow Richard, the guy that talks to graves, and Lepidus just disappeared they werent in the church at the end or anything.
Jack Deth
May 24th, 2010 12:47 PM
Had the cork never been replaced and Evil Locke made it to the real world perhaps he might have become some sort of Anti-Christ and ended up deceiving and ruling the planet like an ultra evil Hitler? It was said or implied that if the evil escaped the Island the world would be plunged into darkness. As bad as things are in the world they would be 1000 times worse with him running around.
Ryan
May 24th, 2010 12:47 PM
I would have to agree that the finale was a let down. It didn't answer the big questions that I wanted to find out in the episode. They completely exaggerated Desmond's purpose for saving the island and left Lost fans (including myself) questioning the purpose of the "side flashes". After last night's special, these flashes were really flashes into a random future gathering where the main characters of Lost passed into the after-life.
They did a good job but played it safe. I am hoping for at least some explanation in the aftermath episode.
josh4341
May 24th, 2010 12:45 PM
I dont care about the statement ABC released at the end of series 1 saying the island wasnt purgatory....IT WAS!
The first scene of the series opened with Jack opening his eye, and so be it, the series ended with jack closing his eye. I believe that everything that happend in between was his state of purgatory. Im not gonna get into the finer details, but wanted to bring up 2 points.
"Christian Shephard" - as the name implies, was a christian shepherd. He led Jack into the 'light'. There also needs to be mention of the fact that there is no sense of time in purgatory which Christian reinforced by stating "there is no now here"
Anyways thats all,
Luv ya gutz!!!
Vinnie
May 24th, 2010 12:44 PM
Thank you Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse for ruining what used to be one of the best shows on television with your petulant refusal to address the mythology of Lost in any substantive way. Like several commenters above me have indicated, I will never again watch any production, be it on television or theatrical, in which either of you are involved in any capacity.
You are terrible writers who seems to think that writing “weird things” into the plot for the sake of being “cool” is acceptable. PROTIP: It is not.
The last 6 seasons of Lost have all the coherence of the tales that a gaggle of stoned teenagers would produce, all of which invariably start with the phrase, “Dude! You know what would be AWESOME?” This is largely due to the phenomenon termed “Making it up as you go along.”
“Dude! You know what would be AWESOME? A giant statue! What? What do you mean who built it? It’s a giant Egyptian Goddess! Just, y’know, just go with it!”
“Right, so the
Jack Deth
May 24th, 2010 12:39 PM
About Jacks son. Jacks son was created in Jacks mind as the ideal son he never had but wished he did, while in the "purgatory"(for lack of a better term) timeline in a reality that only existed in for those whom it was meant for. It was based on the real world but wasnt. Locke after his surgery in purgatory, said to Jack something like "You dont have a son." Time and events in the purgatory story line dont necessarily ned to be tied to the real world since the real world was just a template for that reality.
blrssp
May 24th, 2010 12:35 PM
@john
"I have to disagree with the point that show was structured to good versus evil."
I never said that it was -- I said that the *season* was. I agree that it had not been about this up until this point, and I personally enjoyed the moral ambiguity of the show and that is why I commented that I didn't necessarily like this new development. But since they went so heavily with this angle throughout Season Six (constant talk of an impending war and showdown between one side and the other; episodes that seemed ripped directly from the plot of Stephen King's The Stand), going away from it again at the conclusion is another reason why it all felt so unfulfilling.
Al
May 24th, 2010 12:30 PM
John, I didnt think about Alex, etc. good points. I just think to go through all the stuff with Faraday about how they cant change things, and then having him do a full reversal of how they can change things by detonating the bomb at the end of season 5, and then just totally get away from that and turn it into a purgatoryesque waiting room is just not very fulfilling.
John
May 24th, 2010 12:30 PM
Blssrp,
I have to disagree with the point that show was structured to good versus evil. I think it was good with shades of evil and evil with shades of good. There are many examples I could cite, but the one that shows what it's most about is Ben allowing Alex to be killed because he believed he was doing good in service to the island.
I'mSoLooooost!
May 24th, 2010 12:28 PM
You all are quite hilarious. I don't mean this in any demeaning way, it's just always funny to read people's arguments. I guess after reading all these comments and watching all the episodes of Lost, seems to me that the writers were just not good enough for the story they set off to deliver. I like the series a lot, and the part of me that's a lover of faith liked the ending a lot, but the part of me that's a lover of logic and good story telling didn't like so much. Cop out? Yes. But the allusions to literature (especially Stephen King since many of the characters echoed King's own characters in many of his novels), philosophy, religion, physics, and whatnot all did a terrific job highlighting themes throughout the show. I'll give the writers credit for that. Over all, I loved Lost, but my only wish is that the writers would've been more careful with the twists they gave since they weren't good enough to resolve them with logical narration. Also, unanswered questions aside, they had
blrssp
May 24th, 2010 12:23 PM
"Jacob explained to Richard that the island was a like a cork that keeps evil in check."
But when it was uncorked, no evil escaped. In fact, the uncorking allowed the only representation of evil on the island to be rendered mortal. For the entire good/evil thing to have been a red herring is kind of disappointing. I mean, I could have lived without it, but the whole season had been structured to lead to a good/evil showdown that never really happened.
John
May 24th, 2010 12:21 PM
Colleen,
Also, further, the island protected the candidates. Sun wasn't protected since she was trapped. Sayid and Jin died voluntarily.
Stephen
May 24th, 2010 12:21 PM
@ Colleen
There really was only 1 Kwon that was still in the running, nobody knew which one though which is why they were both needed.
It's safe to say though that if Kate had gotten crossed off because of motherhood then Sun did as well.
As Jacob said though, it was just chalk on a wall...
Al
May 24th, 2010 12:21 PM
Colleen,
Kwon could have been Jin as well. Remember the first name wasnt listed on the list.
Great but no Cigar
May 24th, 2010 12:20 PM
John
Sorry but thats just a metaphor that describes a function.
Its not an explanation of what it was.
John
May 24th, 2010 12:19 PM
Colleen,
We don't know which Kwon. But because of Jacob's statement to Kate, you would have to infer the Kwon still on the list was Jin since he had never met Ji Yeon.
John
May 24th, 2010 12:17 PM
Great But No Cigar,
Jacob explained to Richard that the island was a like a cork that keeps evil in check.
colleen
May 24th, 2010 12:15 PM
If Kate was crossed off the list because she was a mother than why was the Kwon's left? Sun had become a mother too?
blrssp
May 24th, 2010 12:14 PM
"But Carlton and Damon said that they weren't going to answer all the questions after season 4, and they wanted to leave a mystique."
That's right -- because they never had "the answers" and decided against undergoing the difficult process of providing them within a consistent context. It's a lot easier to churn out what they did in Season Six and the easy road is what they took.
John
May 24th, 2010 12:13 PM
Al,
The problem with the alternate time line becoming the real time line has many problems. If Dead is Dead, where did Charlie, Frogurt, Danielle, Alex, et. al. come from? Also how do you resolve Jack's son? And how can the remember what's happening in 2007 when the plane lands in 2004?
May 24th, 2010 1:00 PM
@ LikesIt
Despite what some seem to think, no they did not die in the initial plane crash. The events of all 6 seasons occurred as we saw them and the characters died one by one just as we remember they did.
And while we did not see all of their deaths (Sawyer and Kate amongst the other survivors that got away on the plane, escaped the island and got to live the rest of their lives before their deaths) they all met up in the same place in the end.
May 24th, 2010 12:56 PM
I don't want to seem dense and I haven't actually seen the last 15 min before the end (long story) but did they all die in the first plane crash or did they die on the Island? I guess it is the latter. And when did Sawyer and Kate die?
P.S Loved the way it was filmed, very cinematic. Lovely long shots and great music as always.
May 24th, 2010 12:53 PM
The Island wasnt purgatory - purgatory was place outside of normal time and space. The flashes were those who had died remembering their lives on the Island when they were alive. The flash sideways was sort of a flash forward most likely in the future after eveyone had died at various points in the real world, with flash backwards for each character buried within among those were in purgatory (the place they themselves had created as a gathering place before they moved on to eternity). After they died, they some sort of amnesia as to their past lives in the real world where the Island was. Desmond apparently caused them to remember their past lives in the real world so they could move on as group.
Thinking about this too much could quite simply drive you mad!!! Maybe that what the creators/producers really were after.
May 24th, 2010 12:52 PM
The finale did not work for me. Although I enjoyed Lost and stuck with it through all six seasons, I realized by the end of Season 2 that the writers/producers had created a serious storytelling problem.
Despite assertions to the contrary by the creators, it became obvious to me early on that they were largely improvising. Far too many narrative threads were created, tinkered with (fascinatingly, usually) and abandoned for there to be any hope of drawing it all together in the end. However much one emphasizes character over plot, it is simply poor storytelling - and somewhat unfair - to prod viewers to invest so heavily in ultimately unresolved plot lines and characters.
Although Lost may have differed in some ways from typical U.S. television series, it was not quite different enough. Lost became the victim of its own success, as most U.S. shows do. A well-crafted story line would have been wrapped up in at most three seasons. However, since television is business rather than pu
May 24th, 2010 12:48 PM
About the Sayid and Shannon thing - Nadia was not on the island - that place was created for the ppl on the island that touched each other's lives to meet again when they passed....hello!
May 24th, 2010 12:47 PM
They should have shown what happend to the people on the plane. Somehow Richard, the guy that talks to graves, and Lepidus just disappeared they werent in the church at the end or anything.
May 24th, 2010 12:47 PM
Had the cork never been replaced and Evil Locke made it to the real world perhaps he might have become some sort of Anti-Christ and ended up deceiving and ruling the planet like an ultra evil Hitler? It was said or implied that if the evil escaped the Island the world would be plunged into darkness. As bad as things are in the world they would be 1000 times worse with him running around.
May 24th, 2010 12:47 PM
I would have to agree that the finale was a let down. It didn't answer the big questions that I wanted to find out in the episode. They completely exaggerated Desmond's purpose for saving the island and left Lost fans (including myself) questioning the purpose of the "side flashes". After last night's special, these flashes were really flashes into a random future gathering where the main characters of Lost passed into the after-life.
They did a good job but played it safe. I am hoping for at least some explanation in the aftermath episode.
May 24th, 2010 12:45 PM
I dont care about the statement ABC released at the end of series 1 saying the island wasnt purgatory....IT WAS!
The first scene of the series opened with Jack opening his eye, and so be it, the series ended with jack closing his eye. I believe that everything that happend in between was his state of purgatory. Im not gonna get into the finer details, but wanted to bring up 2 points.
"Christian Shephard" - as the name implies, was a christian shepherd. He led Jack into the 'light'. There also needs to be mention of the fact that there is no sense of time in purgatory which Christian reinforced by stating "there is no now here"
Anyways thats all,
Luv ya gutz!!!
May 24th, 2010 12:44 PM
Thank you Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse for ruining what used to be one of the best shows on television with your petulant refusal to address the mythology of Lost in any substantive way. Like several commenters above me have indicated, I will never again watch any production, be it on television or theatrical, in which either of you are involved in any capacity.
You are terrible writers who seems to think that writing “weird things” into the plot for the sake of being “cool” is acceptable. PROTIP: It is not.
The last 6 seasons of Lost have all the coherence of the tales that a gaggle of stoned teenagers would produce, all of which invariably start with the phrase, “Dude! You know what would be AWESOME?” This is largely due to the phenomenon termed “Making it up as you go along.”
“Dude! You know what would be AWESOME? A giant statue! What? What do you mean who built it? It’s a giant Egyptian Goddess! Just, y’know, just go with it!”
“Right, so the
May 24th, 2010 12:39 PM
About Jacks son. Jacks son was created in Jacks mind as the ideal son he never had but wished he did, while in the "purgatory"(for lack of a better term) timeline in a reality that only existed in for those whom it was meant for. It was based on the real world but wasnt. Locke after his surgery in purgatory, said to Jack something like "You dont have a son." Time and events in the purgatory story line dont necessarily ned to be tied to the real world since the real world was just a template for that reality.
May 24th, 2010 12:35 PM
@john
"I have to disagree with the point that show was structured to good versus evil."
I never said that it was -- I said that the *season* was. I agree that it had not been about this up until this point, and I personally enjoyed the moral ambiguity of the show and that is why I commented that I didn't necessarily like this new development. But since they went so heavily with this angle throughout Season Six (constant talk of an impending war and showdown between one side and the other; episodes that seemed ripped directly from the plot of Stephen King's The Stand), going away from it again at the conclusion is another reason why it all felt so unfulfilling.
May 24th, 2010 12:30 PM
John, I didnt think about Alex, etc. good points. I just think to go through all the stuff with Faraday about how they cant change things, and then having him do a full reversal of how they can change things by detonating the bomb at the end of season 5, and then just totally get away from that and turn it into a purgatoryesque waiting room is just not very fulfilling.
May 24th, 2010 12:30 PM
Blssrp,
I have to disagree with the point that show was structured to good versus evil. I think it was good with shades of evil and evil with shades of good. There are many examples I could cite, but the one that shows what it's most about is Ben allowing Alex to be killed because he believed he was doing good in service to the island.
May 24th, 2010 12:28 PM
You all are quite hilarious. I don't mean this in any demeaning way, it's just always funny to read people's arguments. I guess after reading all these comments and watching all the episodes of Lost, seems to me that the writers were just not good enough for the story they set off to deliver. I like the series a lot, and the part of me that's a lover of faith liked the ending a lot, but the part of me that's a lover of logic and good story telling didn't like so much. Cop out? Yes. But the allusions to literature (especially Stephen King since many of the characters echoed King's own characters in many of his novels), philosophy, religion, physics, and whatnot all did a terrific job highlighting themes throughout the show. I'll give the writers credit for that. Over all, I loved Lost, but my only wish is that the writers would've been more careful with the twists they gave since they weren't good enough to resolve them with logical narration. Also, unanswered questions aside, they had
May 24th, 2010 12:23 PM
"Jacob explained to Richard that the island was a like a cork that keeps evil in check."
But when it was uncorked, no evil escaped. In fact, the uncorking allowed the only representation of evil on the island to be rendered mortal. For the entire good/evil thing to have been a red herring is kind of disappointing. I mean, I could have lived without it, but the whole season had been structured to lead to a good/evil showdown that never really happened.
May 24th, 2010 12:21 PM
Colleen,
Also, further, the island protected the candidates. Sun wasn't protected since she was trapped. Sayid and Jin died voluntarily.
May 24th, 2010 12:21 PM
@ Colleen
There really was only 1 Kwon that was still in the running, nobody knew which one though which is why they were both needed.
It's safe to say though that if Kate had gotten crossed off because of motherhood then Sun did as well.
As Jacob said though, it was just chalk on a wall...
May 24th, 2010 12:21 PM
Colleen,
Kwon could have been Jin as well. Remember the first name wasnt listed on the list.
May 24th, 2010 12:20 PM
John
Sorry but thats just a metaphor that describes a function.
Its not an explanation of what it was.
May 24th, 2010 12:19 PM
Colleen,
We don't know which Kwon. But because of Jacob's statement to Kate, you would have to infer the Kwon still on the list was Jin since he had never met Ji Yeon.
May 24th, 2010 12:17 PM
Great But No Cigar,
Jacob explained to Richard that the island was a like a cork that keeps evil in check.
May 24th, 2010 12:15 PM
If Kate was crossed off the list because she was a mother than why was the Kwon's left? Sun had become a mother too?
May 24th, 2010 12:14 PM
"But Carlton and Damon said that they weren't going to answer all the questions after season 4, and they wanted to leave a mystique."
That's right -- because they never had "the answers" and decided against undergoing the difficult process of providing them within a consistent context. It's a lot easier to churn out what they did in Season Six and the easy road is what they took.
May 24th, 2010 12:13 PM
Al,
The problem with the alternate time line becoming the real time line has many problems. If Dead is Dead, where did Charlie, Frogurt, Danielle, Alex, et. al. come from? Also how do you resolve Jack's son? And how can the remember what's happening in 2007 when the plane lands in 2004?