I gave up watching Lost at the end of series 2. And I discovered that the final episode was shown yesterday. So here’s a question, can someone explain the bloody ending? I’ve ascertained that the island was some kinda holding place, purgatory (?) before transcending to a some kind of heaven after they have ditched their ‘emotional baggage’. Have the writers been in discussion with the writers from Ashes to Ashes? What is about about parallel universes, and holding places for troubled souls, seems to be a popular device at the moment. Expect to see a re-cycled version (if not already) in a Dr Who episode.
The metaphysics of nonsensical twisty-turny plot devices and storylines. Don’t tempt me into a discussion on the material process of existence….ghosts in the machine, consciousness or neurons and atoms (though I did watch a very fascinating programme on BBC3). Ooo..now my head hurts.
So answers on a cyber postcard explaining the finale of Lost (can see a PhD in the making here…
I don’t think that the Island itself was purgatory (Christian said that everything really happened; the creators always denied this was the case etc.), it was just the ‘flashsideways’ of season 6 that was purgatory. Since all the people on the Island had such a strong bond they all had the same purgatory – even if they didn’t actually die on the Island, again Christian said that in purgatory time didn’t matter, hence why people who died to different times nonetheless all ended up existing at ‘the same time’ in purgatory. This is also why Hurley says to Ben ‘you were a good number two’ – indicating (I think) that Hurley did in fact assume the Jacob role for some period of time before dying.
I use to absolutely adore Lost but I gave up at the end of Season 4.
Moving the island was too much bollocks to take.
Basically at that point whichever event was being undone or twisted by using the weirdest most unfeasible “explanation”: parallel universe, back to the future, movign the island, transcendental meditation, the shits, you name it. People who’d died were alive and kicking and it just turned into crap.
I stuck with Lost throughout it all. I think I enjoyed it best when I had the distinct feeling that the writers had no idea where it was all going. Usually you put yourself in the hands of an author and have faith that they will lead you through a coherent fictional-universe, even if the conclusion is open ended. Lost seems to have abandoned this for a time, nothing seem to add up. It seemed utterly incoherent and open. I thought that was quite refreshing. I wich they hadn’t tried to tie up the loose ends and bring it to a conclusion. What would have been wrong with just leaving the whole thing wide open. The idea that in the end it was all some sort of purgatory was just such a pedestrian conclusion to what had otherwise been a great big, rambling shaggy dog tale?
Well I was upset when it went to Sky, so I could not longer watch it.
1. The island is a magical island where the lame walk, the terminally ill are cured, pillars of smoke kill people, ageless demigods talk in infuriatingly obtuse phrases, US soldiers, vicious natives and hippy scientists duke it out, time travel is no biggy, and all manner of plots and mysteries are dropped without explanation because the writers don’t know how to conclude them.
2. In the final season, the writers – having had to deny early on in the series that the island was purgatory – decide to bring back what was obviously their original plan before being found out, and create an ‘alternative universe’, which is revealed to be purgatory after they all die in different ways on the island. Everyone dies happily ever after.
3. When people complain about the unexplained mysteries, they claim it was all about the characters, conveniently forgetting that Lost probably wouldn’t have done too well if it was set in a white-collar office.