Attention Losties! I Need Your Help!

44 thoughts on “Attention Losties! I Need Your Help!”

1. I loved the finale Jimmy! It was a beautiful way of coming full circle and a really neat way to teach or explain purgatory to a non-Catholic. It’s not a perfect example, but comes really close!

2. It all came down to this for me:
   In the end you find yourself in a Catholic Church, in front of the altar with a tabernacle right there. ‘nuf said!
   Some people make a little stink about the stained glass and other artifacts in one of the siderooms- but I think when you look at it from a Catholic perspective you understand that this only illustrates what the catechism already tells us. Rather than seeing those elements as some attempt to say all religion is “equal”, you read it as elements of Truth are present in all of these world religions, but the fullness of Truth is Catholicism. After all these other religions are contained in the side room inside the Catholic Church and as I said.. In the end you are standing before the tabernacle =)
   Even if the Lost people were attempting to make some statement that “all religions are equal” the Spirit worked it all out to where I think it’s really clear that Catholicism is IT.

3. Hey Jimmy!
   The thing I liked about Lost was all of the Catholic imagery that was used in a mostly positive way throughout the series…particularly in the finale. Other faiths were hinted at throughout the series, and in the end, it was through a Catholic church that the characters (all of whom have different backgrounds and beliefs) finally make it to heaven. I agree with the first post that it can be an imperfect explanation of purgatory, but I also believe it can be an (also imperfect) example of what Catholics mean by “no salvation outside the Church.”

4. In a media always focused on the negative I was very pleased to see that when LOST came down to a battle of good vs. evil it was the good that triumphed in the end! Granted, a sheer secular idea of “good” but it ultimately had a positive outcome. A constant reminder of how we all impact the lives of those around us.

5. Lost is so Catholic it amazes me. It ended exactly as my wife and I predicted when we started watching from the very beginning. Where else could they be but in purgatory?

6. I sort of kind of didn’t like the finale at all. I didn’t like the afterlife thing for a couple of reasons:
   (1) At the beginning of the last season we were led to believe that the atomic bomb went off and sunk the island in a parallel universe, thus allowing the plane to land in LA. But if the parallel universe is just the afterlife, then what was the point of all the drama about the bomb? The bomb didn’t do anything then, and it was a waste of a whole season that didn’t lead to anything (just like the whole storyline about why women couldn’t get pregnant on the island).
   (2) Jack’s dad said “oh, it’s real”. But that’s a lie. Jack’s son wasn’t real, and we wasted a whole episode learning about his passion for the piano (and Jack didn’t seem concerned that his son just kind of evaporated from the face of the earth).
   I was looking forward to some kind of big dramatic event that somehow merged the two parallel universes. It seems that earlier on they were building up to that. But in the end they just punted with this bizarre afterlife storyline that didn’t have anything to do with the island and it just fizzled for me. Very disappointing!

7. Hi Andy,
   I understand where you’re coming from, but I disagree. I’ll try to write a response soon.

8. Hello Jimmy,
   Great idea. At first I was kind of disappointed in the ‘sideways’ world being a sort of limbo. However, the more I think about it, I think they did a really good job with it, because this is where the growth and redemption of the characters is really shown. Three examples really flesh this out for me:
   1) Jack’s son. In the sideways reality, Jack has a son. This is used as a way for Jack to deal with the issues that he had with his own Dad. Once Jack is ready to move on, Locke tells him that he doesn’t have a son. Why not? Because he has already gotten past the issues he had with his Dad, and so his son isn’t necessary anymore.
   2) Sayid’s relationship with Nadia and Shannon. People keep wondering why Shannon was in the church with Sayid instead of Nadia. One thing that was true pre-island and that is reenforced in the sideways timeline is that, even though Sayid loved Nadia, Nadia was never good for Sayid. Every time that Nadia is in Sayid’s life, he goes down the path of being the torturing, murdering, ruthless Sayid. His redemption only comes once he is willing to get past Nadia and love Shannon. Actually, Sayid is also better for Shannon than anybody else was, too.
   3) Locke’s Dad is shown in the sideways timeline as a vegetable in a nursing home (I hate to use that term, but that’s the best way I can think of right now). This makes perfect sense when you realize that Locke’s Dad was one character who had no redeemable qualities about him. Of course he is shown this way in the place where the redemption of each character is being played out.
   Other examples abound, I’m sure, but these three really stood out to me.

9. I loved it. True, a lot of answers were not given in the end, but emotionally it was very fulfilling.

10. Andy, you stole the words right out of my mouth. So many elements of the story went unanswered, or they were never brought into place. The final season – far from providing answers and drawing the different elements of the plot together – created more questions before bugging out right at the very end.

11. I think “Lost” is/was the best tv series I’ve ever watched. (“The X-Files” would be my 2nd, although its finale was inferior.)
    “Lost” is character-driven, as was its finale. I thought the finale was entirely appropriate and moving. It was the culmination of these characters, particularly Jack, once being lost and now found. They worked out their salvation on the island by forming a community, becoming less selfess, and searching for meaning. The sideways flsshes were an interesting take on some kind of purgatory.
    It left me looking forward to heaven when I hope to be reunited with so many people that I’ve shared my life’s journey with. I love the image of Christian Shepherd opening the doors to heaven.
    I’d like to go back and watch the series from the beginning and see how everything falls into place.

12. My opinion: don’t waste your time.
    If you just like the characters, it’s an okay show with a decent resolution. If you want to mysteries to actually get any explanation (at all), you’re going to be very disappointed.
    I’m in the latter camp. There’s no ultimate meaning to the show: nothing that happens to the characters has a source and, as a result, has no meaning. In the end, we have characters who just muddle through six seasons, mostly getting killed at random times, with a few being selected for a mission that is never properly explained and follows source-less rules.

13. At first, I found the finale very satisfying emotionally, but lacking in nearly every other way. However, the more that I’ve thought about it, the more cheated, disappointed, and underwhelmed I felt. And it essentially boils down to two reasons.
    First, the limbo-esque nature of the “flash sideways” felt like a complete cheat/shortcut to ensure that the audience got an emotionally satisfying ending that saw all of the beloved characters eventually reunited and getting ready to move on to the hereafter together, rather than an ending that narratively satisfying.
    And second, the ending was completely unfaithful to the mythology that the series had been creating for the last six years. I’m not saying that I wanted every tiny little mystery solved, and I’m glad that the series always focused on the characters rather than the sci-fi conventions.
    Time and again, the producers said that the finale would focus on the characters and not the Island and its mysteries. However, the Island was just as much a character in the show as Jack, Locke, Kate, or Sawyer. The show spent just as much time constructing a history and personality for the Island as they did for any of the people running on its beaches and through its jungles. And to act as if none of that mattered — as if none of the physical world inhabited by and explored by the show’s human characters was, in the end, important — strikes me as just plain lazy and even cheating.
    Ultimately, I don’t have a problem with ending that the producers chose for the series (and I loved the very last shots of the finale, and the symmetry that they had with the series’ beginning). I do have a problem with how the series got to that ending.
    The “flash sideways” ending could’ve been much more solid and affecting had it been grounded a little bit more in the series’ pre-existing mythology instead of the ambiguous, universalist spiritual mumbo-jumbo that was foisted on us. Instead, the ending is divorced from the context that the show had been constructing since the pilot episode, thus creating a thematic and narrative dissonance within the series itself.

14. “And to act as if none of that mattered — as if none of the physical world inhabited by and explored by the show’s human characters was, in the end, important — strikes me as just plain lazy and even cheating.”
    I agree. I’m in the ‘feeling disappointed/cheated’ camp. To me the purgatory/limbo ending gave a far too neat-and-tidy (and thus unsatisfying) answer to the one question I didn’t really have.

15. Jimmy, I very much look forward to your thoughts on the series and the finale, so get busy!
    I was initially disappointed from a logical, plot-wise perspective. I agree with those that have said that emotionally it is very satisfying. The early predictions of the island as a sort of purgatory appealed to me, and I didn’t dislike that theory when I heard it. There are so many themes that Lost toys with, and my favorite has always been that of redemption. I actually rewatched the last fifteen minutes the other night, and it had me in tears yet again. It’s such a peaceful resolution to me and doesn’t feel at all like the writers chose to take the easy way out. I think it plays right in to the theme of redemption.
    And while it seems, based on what I’ve heard from the writers and producers, that they never intended to resolve some of the mysteries of the island, I do think they owed it to their viewers to answer more questions than they did. I still feel like the finale is a success despite this.

16. “Lost is so Catholic it amazes me.”
    whatsa? whatsa?
    So they used Catholic imagery and what not, but the USED it for their own good. There was really no connection to Catholicism save some vague idea of a spiritual world. The show was nowhere near Catholicism. I understand you don’t need to throw Catholicism in people’s faces to be Catholic art (Walker Percy, LOTR, etc), but this really was postmodern new-aginess at its worst. I started watching it when there wasn’t much else on netflix instant. I watched through season 5 before I decided it was dumb and not worth my time. I caught up a little for the finale and I must say it confirmed my suspicions that was neither intelligent, nor beautiful, nor worth my time. The finale was nonsense – utter nonsense. But I’m not opinionated am I?

17. I’m in something like the same boat as Jimmy, here. I have seen at most only a few minutes of Lost, but could tell that it was no good trying to pick up the story in the middle. Like Jimmy, I resolved to watch the whole series from the beginning at a later time.
    Fortunately, I have no idea of the characters’ names or their importance to the show, and find most comments (like those that fans breathlessly post on Facebook) indeciperable, due to my ignorance of the story arc and significant events.
    So, I have not been “spoiled” in any major way. Yet.
    You Lost geeks, please have a care for us virgins.

18. Did I like the finale? Yes, I liked it, BUT I did not LOVE it.
    Did I like LOST? Absolutely!!
    Overall, the acting, characters, and writing up until the finale was the best I’ve seen. Especially comparing to what’s on TV these days. (V & Flash Forward aren’t even near the same level)
    One thing I’ve come to realize is how it appears the writers only knew the beginning and end. One such hint is an interview with Ben revealed he was only supposed to be in 3 episodes. This explains why all the random “major story lines” in the middle were not tied up in the finale. Let’s just name a few here: Polar Bears, Mr. Echo (who was my favorite! – & yes, I know about his “contract disputes”), Walt and his powers, the sequence of numbers, pushing the button, the atom bomb, time travel, Richard, the “tailees”, the disappearing island – and I’m sure there are a ton more that are fresh in your mind since you just watched all the episodes.
    Not tying up these loose ends does not cause me to not recommend LOST. Like I said, acting, writing, and characters make the show. One just wishes the writers spent a bit more time trying to tie up these loose ends in the finale, especially with all the failed promises that ALL our questions will be answered (promos in the last season on ABC).
    Enjoy it, Jimmy!

19. In an attempt to stretch the series to six seasons, the writers added way too many superfluous characters and side stories which left most people I know scratching their heads trying to make sense of it all.
    By the middle of the final two seasons it was no longer intelligible and any hope of a clear resolution was gone.
    In the end the writers appealed to sentimentalism by killing off all our beloved characters and Jack too. In this way they didn’t have to answer many intriguing questions that had been raised through the course of the series.
    My wife made a very good point, in several of the ads this season, leading up to the finale, they stated “ALL YOUR QUESTIONS WOULD BE ANSWERED!” Granted I know that the writers couldn’t address every conceivable question but how about some obvious ones?
    What was the island ultimately for? How could it be exploited by man? Why was it important to guard the island in the first place? All those deaths to guard something that ultimately had no purpose seems stupid.
    What happened to Walt? Wasn’t he supposed to be special and important to the island?
    Did Desmond make it off the island?
    I could go on with additional questions but I might start crying again – just kidding. It really was sad though because of all the promise the series had at the beginning.

20. “Instead, the ending is divorced from the context that the show had been constructing since the pilot episode, thus creating a thematic and narrative dissonance within the series itself.”
    I don’t think viewers of a show dealing with apparitions, sixth sense “i see dead people” moments, a monster who can read your sins, debates about one’s ultimate destiny, and filled with religious imagery can claim that the end was a curve-ball. Also, I thought that the conclusion was in a way Catholic:
    1. A son saves the island by fighting evil incarnate, descending into an infernal place, and restoring order, and then dies from a mortal wound in his side and is reunited with his father.
    2. A Christian Shepard leads the saved from the (Catholic) Church through the doors flanked by angels and into the light.
    3. The all religions window was in an anteroom to the actual destination, and was the only non-Catholic symbol present.
    4. Character like Ben and Michael cannot (yet, at least) enter the Church, because of their sinful lives. The finale prompted Non-Catholic Rick Warren to decry the show as promoting salvation through works. How often I have heard that said of the Faith.

21. I loved the first season of Lost. I’d literally count the days till the next episode. It was all I talked about with my friends. Everyone would come to my apartment every thursday (that’s the day it was on in my country, don’t know about America) and sit on the floor and gasp. During commercial breaks we’d go wild with theories and nervously smoke cigarettes. I was kind of scared we’d all turn it into a life style.
    Half way through the second series I stopped watching. It became clear to me that the writers never had a point to make. They were just making stuff up as they went along. More and more questions, less and less answers.
    Since then I’ve watched an episode every now and then. To see if it ever got any better. It clearly didn’t. I saw the finale. I found it ridiculous.

22. I have never watched an episode of Lost, but here is a link to a review from Catholic News Agency, if you are interested:
    http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/lost-ends-with-catholic-twist/

23. “Hollywood” says it all. Hollywood just isn’t very good at at some genres, such as science fiction, which is why I give the series finale a rating of “Meh”.
    But consider the intended audience for LOST. From what I’ve heard, U.S. network television targets nearly all of its shows towards a female demographic. Generally speaking, feminine fiction tends to strongly emphasize romantic relationships, with good women changing handsome bad boys into responsible men, and LOST did this constantly. In my opinion, some of these relationships seemed forced, put in merely to conform to the genre formula, and were not realistic from a masculine point of view.
    LOST had strong character development, it was one of the fascinating aspects of the show, and I thought it was well executed. Deeply flawed characters grew in virtue in a plausible and often surprising manner. However, it seems that the emphasis on characterization gave the writers a sense of entitlement to ignore important points of plot and setting: but why should these elements be placed in opposition? I was disappointed that many loose ends of the plot were left untied, although perhaps they were best left unresolved: Hollywood tends to make these kind of resolutions prosaic, flat, and boring, which is entirely unnecessary.
    Traditional hard science fiction typically depicts virtuous professionals trying to deal with extraordinary circumstances. The cast of characters are typically all male, their relationships are based purely on a sense of duty and a shared goal: and their relationships with women are typically a quite minor part of the plot. Setting and plot are everything in this kind of genre, and resolving plot lines is all that matters. LOST is not this kind of story.
    Metaphysically, the show is rooted in the more romantic philosophies of the Enlightenment, and not the metaphysics of the Socratic schools and Medieval Christendom. But it was not Marxist or nihilistic, and so atheists seem to hate it. But its distinctly Christian themes were superficial at best: as always happens, every attempt to be non-denominational ends up creating yet another new denomination.
    Some commentators think that many of the literary allusions in the show were wasted, but I don’t think so: if anything, the writers too slavishly followed literary precedents, such as Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, especially when it comes to the meaning of the finale. Too often the show was formal or crude allegory of a more Protestant kind, rather than a more Catholic typology. The naming of characters is notable, but again is something of an artifice.
    The portrayal of good versus evil always seemed problematical at best, until we learn that the main protagonists in the struggle were only human beings, and so strive for greater or lesser goods in a deeply flawed manner, which is rather nicely orthodox, although it can superficially be reduced to pure relativism.
    I am always suspicious of time travel plots, because they end up in contradiction. I think the writers handled this better than any time travel show I’ve seen before, but still it is problematic. A major theme of the show is free will versus destiny, but the portrayal of destiny was metaphysically weak.
    From a Christian – or any orthodox monotheistic – perspective, the Sideways plot is contradictory. So all the non-main characters in that world were automatons? A universe created by and for a small group of people? God does not deceive, yet this is quite a deception. This isn’t the Purgatory of Holy Mother Church, and of course most Protestants don’t believe in a Purgatory, and that doesn’t quite fit in with other religions’ ideas of a cycle of reincarnation. That spirits of some of the dead aren’t able to move on, like the whisperers on the island, is I suppose maybe quasi-orthodox, or at least is a common theme, and is purgatorial insofar as they apparently can’t help themselves out of that state.
    A good book is one that rewards multiple re-readings. A good show is worth re-watching. So in light of the ending, is LOST worth watching again?

24. Dave,
    I think some of the mysteries have been answered.
    1. Polar Bears: brought to the island by the Darma Initiative, for experiments. I think this was answered.
    2. Mr. Echo: I hated his conclusion, but the writers should be cut some slack because the actor didn’t want to stay on the show.
    3. Walt and his powers: Ditto. For my part, I think Walt, could summon things to himself (the bird) in the same way Jacob summoned people to the island, so Jacob brought him to the island. It’s too bad the actor was 8 feet tall, or they could’ve told us.
    4. The sequence of numbers: Yes, it went unanswered, but at least they warned us.
    5. Pushing the button: In the 70s, ‘the incident’ required that the DI build the swan site to contain the electromagnetism. Desmond failed, crashed the plane, and the answer was Yes, pushing the button mattered.
    6. The atom bomb: Not clear. By hitting it, the losties went back to the future. I think they also caused the incident which necessitated the swan site, and the radiation caused the women to die in childbirth.
    7. Time travel: This is a big rule of the show: electromagnetism 9from the donkey wheel and elsewhere) is used to travel through time and through space.
    8. Richard: two words: “Ab Aeterno.” 😀
    9. The “tailees”: I too would like to be clearer on what happened to cindy and the kids before “The End.”
    10. The disappearing island: simple: turning the donkey wheel makes the island un-stick from time and reappear in a different location.

25. Jimmy, don’t buy all the DVD’s at once. After a few shows, things just got too stupid for me, and it was evident that the writers were only interested in making mysteries go nowhere on purpose.
    “Keep watching… and we might tell you something important, maybe, right after this commercial or five.”

26. A.M.D.G.
    “Lost” was my favorite t.v. show ever in a landslide. Incredible acting, writing, scenery and music. I miss it already. I thought the finale was perfect and I honestly feel sorry for folks who never watched it.

27. I was going to do a post on this because I wanted to get some things off my chest. Although I enjoyed the show immensely, I had to suppress my “disturbance n the force” feeling for many episodes, especially the finale.
    Better here than there.
    1. My take on the finale is that the writers pigeonholed themselves early this season and saw this as the only way out. At least this is how it seems.
    2. Despite what others may say and/or think, for me, the finale galvanized my opinion (in the “coexist bumper sticker-style stained glass) that the producers/writers have no faith in particular but draw on plenty of Christian imagery to represent “strong” faith or the impulse to the same. Just look at the whole dynamic that the earth can only be saved by some ancient physical force on an uncharted mystical island. And that the 2 most supernatural beings are some type of “elevated” humanity – not even angels (thanks LOST people for not going there).
    3. I had a problem with the children: Sun’s unborn and Claire’s born. Both of these kids were born and died (we assume) in the “natural” timeline, which I did not have a problem with BTW, yet their presence in the “church” remains caught in the state of kiddies.
    4. This leads me to the point that the religious angel is definitely anti-Catholic inasmuch as there is no adherence to even the a minuscule amount of dogma – from any religion (see point 1). The presentation of “purgatory” whatever you believe it to be, did not have anything to do with God or redemption – people were sinning all over the place…just bad theologically. Even when they were all gathered together they still did not know where they were going next! Everything they did or became after death was tied to the material.
    5. In my opinion, these people were all going to spend eternity with the “real” Smoky because everything that occurred in the theology of LOST was contrary to the Gospel (Gal 1:8-9)
    I still liked it though.

28. Lozeerose,
    The lack of an endorsement of Catholic Theology does not, for me, ruin the show. It is, as Mark Shea puts it, an allegorical “pagan mythology,” but with hints of Catholicism.
    I would disagree with your statement that the sinful pasts of the characters didn’t matter. On the contrary, Sayid, Charlie, and Jack suffered as a result of their sins, and were only redeemed after acting selflessly. I like the surprise that many of the worst sinners were in the church – it reminded me of Jesus’ warning to the pharisees that the harlot’s and tax collectors would enter heaven before them. God’s mercy is infinite, and he could forgive Sayid, Kate, Sawyer, etc.
    The finale’s somewhat vague approach to the after life – all you need is to love and be loved to “let go” and “move on”- isn’t, in my view, opposed to the Catholic belief that there is a Loving God rewards those who love Him.

29. I did like the show & the finale. Quite a lot.
    Is LOST Catholic? No. It’s filled H’wood’s version of spirituality; it uses Catholic trappings & sensibilities, perhaps, but inconsistently, lacking understanding in Catholic thought & teaching, for the most part. Some fairly obvious things the writers just get wrong. But . . . I don’t expect H’wood writers to get anything right about Christianity, especially Catholic Christianity, so I’m willing to suspend my disbelief to get to the story.
    LOST is more interested in myth than religion. Just as Tolkien wrote LOTR from the POV of a philologist’s experiment to create myth from language, & then made it more expressly Catholic upon revision, LOST is myth from the POV of *post-modern* man, for lack of a better way of putting it. Though I don’t think it has as many of the typical & negative post-modern aspects to it that so many other TV shows & movies do these days. As a dialogue on free will vs. fate, it was a fascinating thing to watch.
    Let’s get this clear about the Island now: LOST was never about the Island! The Island is just the vehicle (sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally) to help these characters get from where they are to where they should be. I really like some of the pieces I’ve read on the finale that compare it to Lewis’ The Great Divorce. The case is compelling, IMO. Not that it was necessarily intended by Cuse & Lindelof, mind you, in the same way Professor Tolkien intended Christian themes & images in LOTR. But in the Lost Universe, the Island did not need a formal explanation because it’s the McGuffin of the show. (I use the term in the sense that George Lucas uses it, in that it’s the thing that sparks the plot incidents (the Lost Ark, for example or the Force, which is 1 reason why the prequels didn’t work), not in the way that Hitchcock used it, in that it’s the thing that throws the viewer off the path of figuring out the mystery. The Island remains mystery because . . . not all mysteries are knowable to us but also because it’s not necessary to resolve in order for the character’s get to be what they should be. The important thing is that they get there & are changed by the experience of being on the Island, which were very real & meaningful ones. Here’s a good piece on this. There’s another one on the Harry Potter site, The Hog’s Head.
    http://tonyrossi.blogspot.com/2010/05/afterlife-of-lost.html
    It’s typical of H’wood to use specifically Catholic imagery for all of Christianity because it’s easily recognizable. The Virgin Mary statuettes that contain cocaine that temp Charlie is just 1 example. I don’t think there was a *there* there, respecting religion until season 3, when Cuse & Lindelof knew they were going to end the show at season 6. That choice enabled them to pinpoint their focus on specifics & that’s when the mythology exploded in resonance, usually through Catholic imagery. Frankly, I just don’t think they know where they were going in the 1st 2 seasons, either story-wise or thematically. When they finally figured it out, the show got rockin’.
    The Sideways world is not a *dream* but a necessary reality created by the characters to allow themselves to actually BE the people they were becoming on the Island. As stated by another poster, Jack has a son because he has to work out his father issues before he can move on. (I must think more on Sayid’s Sideways experience. Perhaps it’s that he realizes that Nadia isn’t for him & never was to be for him. Her memory is what drove his choices on & off the Island, generally.) IMO, the Sideways reality is every bit as real as what happened on the Island, it was a necessary step in their . . . fulfillment, I guess puts it as best as I feel I can. Through Sideways, they are cleansed. An imperfect, H’wood Purgatory, but an effective one, IMO.
    I believe that all Christian imagery in the last 4 seasons (which were all excellent) was specifically place there by the writers/creators; everything has meaning, from paintings on the wall to music, both diagetic & non (except, of course, the incidental score), to character names, like Faraday or Jeremy Bentham, to the alligator statue. These are clues but not always direct ones. The LOST wiki is an excellent help with this. Everything is there for a reason.
    So much more to say. In the end, I believe LOST works quite well & is very resonant, myth-based drama the like of which we won’t see for quite some time again on TV, despite the onslaught on imitators already appearing or about to appear.
    Interesting that the last shot of the show was the 1st shot of the show: Jack’s eye, a small symbol of the cosmos. In the end, it was fate AND free will, it was faith AND reason that ruled the day. It was both/and, not either/or. That resonated with me as a truly Catholic thing. Was LOST a “Catholic” show? No. Did it end up resonating Catholic sensibilities & thought? Yes.

30. Too many apologists for the finale hold that, as it was a “character-driven” show, it successfully brought resolution to the characters and their struggles. Unfortunately, a story that is just character driven is inferior to one that is character-driven, with a beautifully-woven plot.
    Lost started out with both, but jumped the shark on the plot after many were invested in the characters and the plot. Lost promoted itself, both in advertisements and in scripting, as a show built around an explanible mystery. The producers actually stated, early on, that everything that happens can be explained by science, even if far out science. However, that all that happens on this island was built around a mysterious light that had mysterious powers was a poor delivery on what the show sold itself as. There is science fiction where the explanation of the fantastical doesn’t matter, such as in Bradbury’s beautiful stories, where one doesn’t care why the rocket works, simply that it does and now people from earth and people on Mars are interacting in interesting ways. Lost, however, was not a Bradbury type of science fiction. A show like Quantum Leap was, and its nebulous ending worked for me. Lost set up for answers to lure viewers along and then let many down.
    Secondly, every story must opperate according to rules. Even the most far-fetched of fiction (let’s take the Lord of the Ring’s series) operates by rules. One would not expect Hobbits to suddenly sprout wings and fly away when confronted with danger because this is against the nature of a Hobbit as the series defined them. Lost had no rules. Sure, there was plenty of talk in the final two series about the “rules”, such as that Jacob and the MIB could not kill each other, but the writers had let the series get so out-of-hand that they kept having to throw the word “rules” in to trick you into thinking there were some solid ones. It was the television version of Calvin-ball.

31. Well put Spencer.
    Defenders of the series finale are trying what all heretics do; making a false distinction between two elements of the same thing holding them in opposition to each other.
    Which in this case, Lost was either a character driven show or plot driven show; at the beginning it sure appeared to be both to me too.
    I just can’t help it being Catholic I like both/and not either or scenarios. 🙂

32. If you insist on watching everything from the beginning, don’t bother taking copious notes. Everything you need to know is in the first episode. Everything else is a complete and total waste of time. In fact, I think you could watch the first episode, and the last episode (with the one about Richard too because that was my favorite for the season) and you’d pretty much get what Lost was all about.
    I think the writers were overly ambitious, I don’t think they had the skill or the know-how to finish what they started.
    All that said, it was a fun six years, but I have to laugh at all the times I turned stuff down because “Lost is on tonight!” Considering the way it ended, that was a mistake and I would have been better off just enjoying my own sideways universe!

33. There was a really good episode of Beavis & Butthead called “The Final Judgement of Beavis” where Beavis meets Saint Peter during a near death experience. Yep–Beavis & Butthead was a Catholic show, I guess.

34. Lucien Syme,
    “Defenders of the series finale are trying what all heretics do; making a false distinction between two elements of the same thing holding them in opposition to each other.”
    Whoa, back it up a sec. I thought we were talking about a TV show, which reasonable people are free to have differing opinions on, not dogma. I seems to me that many are dismissing enthusiasm for the show as misguided/self-deceptive/dupes for jaded TV execs, and I don’t think equating us with heretics is helpful or reasonable in an ultimately minor debate. I hold Lost to be a fascinating Character study that didn’t resolve all questions, while others hold it to be a fascinating mystery show with which failed by not answering all the questions.

35. That was a joke David, I just didn’t put the smiley face early enough for you I guess.
    I know it is only a TV show and everyone is entitled to their opinion regarding it.
    God Bless.

36. I should clarify that my reference to criticism ought not be applied to the commentators here (outside the heretics thing), but to the larger web treatment of enthusiasm for the show.
    P.S. Plot-driven films aren’t everything. For example, pretty much everything Jerry Bruckheimer has touched is loaded with plot, but not much point. In contrast, the average Chaplin film is driven more by characters than plot points, and “The Big sleep,” overloaded with plotting and twists, is pretty much indecipherable, yet both are much better than Bruckheimer’s work. Why? IMHO, Character.

37. Lucien Syme,
    Smiley face noted; peace out. 😀

38. (My first post here, yeah for me…)The ending was so rushed, just poorly written. Would have been wonderful if the island was purgatory. The final scene could have been, Jack in his bloody t-shirt lays down, the camera focus on his closing eye. At that point, the camera pulls back and shows Jack in his suit. Making the whole time on the island purgatory. The show didn’t have to be theologically correct. Jacob could have been a arch angle and the smoke monster a fallen angel. If Smokey left the island he would star Armageddon. I’m glad I watched, just wished I hadn’t devoted myself to the show.

39. I LOVED the finale, and the entire series. It’s an intellectually stimulating show that makes you sit up and pay attention. It also makes you think, and you can even be led to the Bible to know what the characters are talking about. Lost has always been a series that emphasized faith. And while at times, it seemed like it was hinting at predestination, one can see that it only shows that we all have something we are destined to do, but we have to choose to do it. That seems perfectly in line with Catholicism to me.
    The finale might not have answered EVERYTHING explicitly, but I don’t think it needed to. It was satisfying as a conclusion to these characters, and Lost has always been a character-drama at it’s heart. The show’s themes of forgiveness and overcoming sin has always put it above the pack of modern day television.
    And the end, brilliant in terms of TV. All of the characters attained salvation through a Catholic Church. I think that was just so brilliant.
    I will admit, the show is not 100% theologically correct. And it has a fairly Hollywood view of Purgatory, but the fact that they acknowledge it’s existence at all is great. And I don’t think it should deter people from watching the series.
    Ultimately, I consider Lost one of the most satisfying experiences on television. It has much religious relevant and thought provocation in it. It seems as a nice series of parable-like tales. While it has some sex, it is considerably less than than the standard modern-day show. And it has a very favorable view of religion and many Christian principles throughout it’s run.
    Lost really is one of the best shows out there. It’s good, really good. It is what I think television should be: Extremely entertaining, yet providing much spiritual matter to chew on and discuss. It’s entertaining, but it has much benefit for us as Christians when seen in the right mindset. Lost kept me on the edge of my seat for 6 years and I think it is unlike anything on TV before it or likely after it. I enjoyed it from start to finish. It may have had a few missteps along the way and the ending may not be the best way to teach Catholicism, but for a mainstream hit television show, the theme and faith-driven message is astoundingly satisfying.

40. I have to agree with what some others have said – the ending was great in that it nicely tied up the story of all but one of the major characters, and did so in a very emotionally satisfying way. It was terrible in that it completely failed to even try to address the character that has been arguably the most important from episode one, season one – the island. The writers claim that this has always been a story about the characters and that the nature of the island isn’t important. That’s not what they were saying three, four or five years ago. They built up the island as a major character.
    So it was great, but it really stunk. 🙂

41. Just to throw this out there, there were of course very strong Buddhist overtones to Lost too (which jives well with the secular ideal religion, only it’s iconography isn’t as familiar to the western mind as Catholic iconography. Cf. http://www.theoriesonlost.com/2010/05/a-lost-perspective/)…throw in some kabbalah agnosticism, and unexplainable altruism, and you’ve got the ingredients for a great Hollywood Stew.
    Years back friends loaned me the first season, and I was hooked. I loved the first two seasons, when all was shrouded with mystery and intrigue, and began to get bored once the mysteries of the island became more focused but nevertheless remained hazy. But I kept watching, hopeing for more. No single episode ever let me down until the end. I’ve waited to pass judgment on it, and may still abstain, but I’ll say this:
    When I saw how it ended, it felt unreal in the sense that I couldn’t believe that this was how it was going to happen…it felt to easy and unsatisfying, and yet made enough sense that I couldn’t fault them for going that route per se, but only for not going further.
    Meh.
    In 20 years, I’ll re-watch the whole series in 20 minutes via a cortex-download in my ibrain, and then I’ll weigh in then.
    Pax.

42. I loved the show as a whole, and there were awesome aspects to the conclusion. And I agree with David B. that they answered many questions.
    But there are still some dropped bits that will become more obvious if you try to watch the show twice. Among them, the most annoying are these:
    1. Cindy was a member of Ana Lucia’s group, which had been terrorized by the Others. She and the children are captured by the Others. Then when we see her in season three — and again in season six — she’s a happy Other. Why? This makes no sense unless the Others can very effectively brainwash new recruits. Yet the only time we saw any kind of brainwashing was when Ben tried to brainwash Alex’s boyfriend Karl, and it was completely ineffective.
    2. David B., the radiation did not cause the problem with childbirth. Alex was born on the island in 1988. And Juliet, a pre-natal expert, would have been able to diagnose the problem if it was radiation. Somehow in the 1990s, women started dying in childbirth, and then in 2004 when Aaron was born the problem vanished. This was never explained.
    3. Did the atomic bomb have anything to do with the purgatory world? It seems the answer is no. And in fact, there were clues about this throughout season six (Ben’s father is alive in the purgatory world, but he certainly would have perished if the atomic bomb destroyed the island in 1977). But then why did they show the Island underwater in the first scene of season six? Was this just to confuse the viewer? That seems unfair.
    But there are mysteries that were answered. My favorite is the polar bear. Remember, Charlotte found a polar bear carcass — wearing a Dharma collar — in the Tunisian desert. This can only mean one thing: After the Dharma Initiative found the wheel that turns the island, one of them must have turned it and vanished. The DI got spooked, and then trained polar bears to turn the wheel instead of humans! And they chose polar bears because the cave with the wheel is freezing cold! Very subtle, yet brilliant.

43. Remember the movie ‘Jacob’s Ladder?’
    Same idea…

44. The fact that such possibilities are being discussed about one of the most popular shows in television history reminds me of the old adage, “God writes straight with crooked lines.”

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