Another dynamite episode. This show is getting really out of control here. I have lost any ability to figure out what's going on or why, so I'm just along for the ride. I'm sure there are people deep analyzing every bit of this last season. I think I'm happier taking things as they come. This was a pretty fucking intense piece of work, though.

Yeah, I'm with you and have pretty much given up speculating.

Man, I hope all these deaths are justified.

Sayid's death was stupid. Sun and Jin's deaths were emotional and had an impact but Sayid's was just....blank. Why did they spend an entire season making him weird and dark and foreboding and ANNOYING to just end with a quick death. They should have left Sayid awesome this season and it would have made his death have an emotional impact.

He still has to die in the sideverse.

EDIT: Oh wait, maybe he doesn't. I'm going to be sad when this is all over.

They sure are killin off a lot of people as we come into the home stretch. I can't wait to see who explodes next.

Don't forget, he was already dead!

One of the guys at work suggested re-watching the series with Locke as the smoke monster pretty much from the start (from when he first encountered it.) They never do explain how he gets away the first time, they just show him walking out of the jungle. Adds an interesting twist to re-watching.


I think Walt is gonna come and save the day with his bad-ass backgammon superpowers!

WAAAAAALLLTTTT!!!!!!!!!

I liked Sayid's death. If every death is a big deal then it becomes easy to predict, and unrealistic. Every story needs a few random, senseless, and sudden deaths (after all, that's how real life is) or it becomes too soap opera-ish.

The Qwon's ending was sad and beautiful.

The bit about Locke is interesting. But remember the smoke monster has left many people alive that have seen it. Plus, ya know, there was RealLocke's body. That would have been good though, they should have done that (probably...as that would have changed the story quite a bit I think.)

Also...Smoky can't leave the island and Locke was definitely off the island. The Qwon's end was very sad and beautiful. That was nicely put. I dare say we've not seen the last of those two, or at least I sincerely hope we haven't.

With all the deaths in this episode and the parallel worlds going on, is anyone else getting a whiff of the Dark Tower? Maybe the people whose end is bad on the island will find a second chance in sideworld and those who make it out ok in realworld will be able to stay there. I'm not sure I explained that very well, but in my head it sounds good.

What was scary about Sayid ever since his resurrection WAS his blankness. A couple episodes ago he had some scene with Flocke or somebody, and I turned to the girls and yelled, "How is he doing that??" It's the creepy emptiness he's had that's been scary about him. I actually wasn't all that impressed by Naveen Anderson's acting until this season--to be able to just turn off all affect like that really takes talent.

My problem with his death is that it was a sacrifice in the name of saving the last candidate, which shows a bit of humanity that I really didn't want him to be capable of at this point.

The Qwons are still alive in the alt-timeline. Which I suspect will be left as the real timeline, and the island and everything and everyone on it will be the side branch of time. So they're fine. I think we need to be prepared for more candidate deaths--the one left alive on the island becomes NewJacob. That's my working theory anyway.

Yeah, I was impressed with his ability to be void of all emotion. That is how I expected Sayid to act if he never met Nadia.

Since it is the final season, I expect every single character to die either in the side verse or on/around/under the island.

What I don't understand is why everyone trust and follows MIB/John Locke/Smokey to a certain destination without questioning all of his motives? If I were in that situation, hopefully I would be bold enough to question him up front, but after I get an agreement from him that he won't kill me after my questions or comments.

The more main charectors that die the more certain I am that their live counterparts in sideworld are actually going to come to the island. So they can kill whoever they want, in the end they will all be back from the other world in order to stop smokey from leaving.

Did Frank Lapidus die in the sub? I was really starting to like him.

Yeah I think it's safe to presume he's dead. I liked his character too.

Well that answers 1 question from Season 1..

After LOST, Grancey and I switch to The Good Wife, and Jacob's unnamed brother (The Man In Black) has been resurrected as DA Childs. He's allowed to explore his creepy side even more fully on CBS.

Cool episode last night. I wish there was more of the man in black in Lost. His actor is FTW.

Aww man, I thought we'd get to finally know his name. Now I wonder if he even has one?

The line between who is good and who is bad/evil is a little blurrier now too... Sure MiB killed his fake mother, but she kind of had it coming, and it was a heat of the moment thing after she slaughtered his people (how did she kill them all so easily I wonder..) And then Jacob did something worse than death to MiB.

Now that we've seen Jacob as a kid I'm starting to think the theory about him being that blond kid that freaks out MiB/Locke in the current-verse is right. So in other words Jacob does revive/regrow. OR maybe it was still his spirit and he looked like that because that's how they knew each other best (when they were kids.) Yeah, I think the latter is more likely. So that explains that kid.

I wonder what they drunk, fakemom and Jacob, that makes them special? She poured it from a fairly normal looking bottle. Perhaps it was her blood, and that's the way the pass down the protectorship and there's a bottle of Jacob's blood somewhere. I was expecting them to do something with that light...

Speaking of the glowy place, what do you guys think it is? It sounds like what Jacob told Richard about the island was wrong, and that it has nothing to do with Hell/evil per se, it was just how he explained it to Richard because of his belief system. It seems like it has something to do with the creation of life, and that putting it out would destroy all of humanity. Which would fit what Jacob said to Richard, just in a different paradigm since MiB apparently has to destroy it to "leave."

Now I'm starting to wonder if by leave, he means die...that all he's wanted is the release of death...I'm pretty sure his fakemom said "thank you" when he killed her, probably because she was tired of living. This also fits his plan better, now that we know he was just trying to get the candidates to destroy themselves. Since he could have turned that wheel anytime he wanted to, which means he must know that he can't actually leave the island. So his real motivation must be to destroy humanity and himself along with it, so that he may finally rest.

What was that? He floated him down the creek into the glowy place, but all that happened was that black smoke blasted out. Did MiB become the smoke, and then transmogrify back into MiB's body outside the glowy place to fall into the trees?

so going into the glowy place was worse than death? I think I would like to be able to transform into all-powerful smoke at will...

Wasn't that the same bottle that MiB smashed a few episodes ago?

I don't think we'll get a clear answer for what the light is. I think it's a MacGuffin like the Briefcase in Pulp Fiction so any definitive answer, be it scientific or fantastical, would ultimately be disappointing. That it's the "heart" of the Island is enough for me.

I like what you're saying about MiB wanting death, especially since his his mother told the boys that going inside the cave was worse than death.

That's what MiB's fakemom said. I think it turned his soul into black smoke, his body remained untouched and came back out the creek. Think of it like being eternally dead and bound to one location as a ghost. That sounds like suck to me.

Maybe, but all old bottles are similar, so maybe not.

Jacob and MiB's black rock/white rock game gets serious:

Yea, pretty much. I was expecting a bit more out of this episode as well answers-wise. All i got were more questions.

If he never finished that wheel then how was it completed for Linus and Locke to use?

How does turning a wooden wheel with light and water get you off an island?

Has the black smoke monster always been there in the glowing hole and the entering of MIB's body release it? Does MIB('s soul) turn into the smoke monster?

If there was no smoke monster before, was the twin's real mother a real ghost? Or *was* it the smoke monster?

How are all the people killed and the hole filled in? Did "bad mom" kill them? or was it the smoke monster? If it was the smoke monster why would it kill them?

Why can MIB see their mom's ghost when Jacob can not?

Is MIB in later episodes really the smoke monster trying to manipulate Jacob? or is it really MIB as the smoke monster?

What was that liquid "bad mom" madeJacob drink, and why do you need to chant before drinking it?

My biggest question: Why the fuck can no one ever fucking answer any questions on the damn show? Why is the answer to every question always "you're not ready yet"? This is the one thing that has bothered me from the start of the show. Even the regular folks on the island never answer a simple question when asked OR ask stupid questions - it's frustrating.

For example: In one of the early episodes when Claire and Kate were in the hatch with the nursery that Claire was taken to when kidnapped Claire asked Kate to help her lift up a refrigerator so she can look inside to find vaccine. Kate responds with "why? what is it?" Its a fucking refrigerator, help her pick it up!

It's a sci-fi show. They proved that in season 4. Why do you need to know the answers to all of this? People drive me up the wall saying they "NEED ANSWERS" from Lost. I couldn't care less if they ended the show without answering anything else. They answered everything I wanted to know in season 4 and 5.

I never said i needed answers, but some would be nice. Especially when every episode piles on 100 more questions that never get answered. A mystery is nice, and the best part of a mystery may be trying to find out the answers.. but at the end of a novel/movie the solution to the mystery is usually revealed. Seeing as how we're pretty much at the end of this mystery is it really unreasonable to expect some answers?

---------- Post added at 09:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:57 AM ----------

Edit: Just curious, what from season 4 and 5 did they answer for you?

In season 4 and 5 they proved that the show is a sci-fi show and not just a show where we're supposed to believe that there's a huge secret we haven't figured out yet. It started with The Constant (best episode of the entire series).

Who used to sit on the beach with Locke back in season 1 and play backgammon with him? Where is he now?

By the way, Stephen King's TV series Kingdom Hospital ended with a potentially telling twist. Apparently, all the doctors, nurses, and patients we were watching were living in the alternate reality (which was a bit kooky and slightly "off"), and they repaired everything in the last episode by pulling the alternate reality back to the "correct" reality. Maybe the stuff on the island is the "alternate" and what's going on with the sideways flashes is the true reality?

Walt? Walt left the island and has reappeared on occasion.

An excellent idea and maybe that is how it is going to happen in the series finale.

I am still a little confused about the origins of the smoke mist monster. As other members have stated in this thread, the smoke mist monster appeared after MIB went into the light. Was MIB dead or just unconscious when he went into the light cave?

I feel this episode should have been placed in the middle of last season since that was when we were introduced to Jacob and his brother.

Haha, that's actually them. Pretty sneaky, bro.

I'm pretty sure that the smoke monster is in fact the Man in Black, just based on Jacob not being able to kill him. The theory that strikes me as making sense is that the 'heart' of the island took what was good of MIB and expelled the evil.

I would like to have answers not so much becuase I need them, but because on all the previews they keep telling me that 'answers are coming', and, as someone said above, all I get are more questions. :p

I'm thinking the twist might be that the light is pure evil. Think of the hints.
1) there's a little bit in every human
2) it turned MiB evil when he touched/went into it
3) If Witmore et al exploit it (release it?) all is doomed
4) Jacob's explanation to Richard about the island keeping evil in
5) the island seems to have an aura of madness around it (think of all the people its made crazy)
6) Sayid' case...if people die and are healed by its waters they come back evil
7) its Lost, they fuck with your mind

I like where you're going except in Sayid's case. They made a big deal about how the waters had gone murky instead of clear.

One detail I liked about the episode was how the people's village was in the same location as Dharmaville thereby emphasizing the cyclical nature of the battles over the island.

But, if the light is pure evil, why is it so important that it doesn't go out? The 'mother' said that she has to protect it, and when the boys asked why, she said that if it goes out there, it goes out everywhere... if it's evil, wouldn't that be good? Unless the 'mother' herslef was just evil and wanted to keep evil in the world...

Yes, and I also liked how they referred to them as 'the other' people.

I saw that as more literal. As in, it will "go out" of the island and "go out" of people everywhere and consume the world in darkness. I saw "go out" as in leave, not extinguish. However, thinking of it like that, its probably more likely that you're right.

omg omg omg this Sunday show finale omg omg omg

:D

Is the mom also a smoke monster? How did she kill all the villagers?

It's a good question and one I doubt we'll get an answer to.

I personally don't think she was a smoke monster because that seemedc to involve getting hit on the head and making contact with the light.

However, as an Island Guardian she has some measure of immortality like Jacob and MiB.

The rules on how Island guardians die and are killed are vague but I imagine a scenerio where the villagers were unable to kill her and she could just kill them one at a time zombie-style.

I wonder how much power Jack has now being a Guardian himself.

Yeah, I think we'll find out now that Jack is The One and knows kung fu. The finale is 2.5 hours long, so here's hoping its packed to the brim with answers.

Supposedly, Jimmy Kimmel's going to show alternate endings, too, so maybe there will be even more answers in those...

I anticipate that it will be packed to the brim with commercials.

Grancey and I are heading out to finish all our chores for the day and wrap things up early. We have our chili cooked and ready to go.

We're ready for tonight! Bring it on.

This is gonna be a commercial fest, you're right. Oh well let the end begin!!!!!!!

Tivo FTW! I'll blow past all those commercials!

I'll be satisfied if another show is as good as Lost in our lifetime; what a great finale

I agree...awesome. I guess Jack was too scared to admit that he was actually dead, and everyone, including us, were waiting for him to come to terms with it, accept it and "move on". Well done Jack.

What a great series. Thanks for being a part of my life. I appreciated it.

I don't know. I am not so satisfied then with the rest of the mythology that they built and the rest of the back stories of the other characters. In some ways I feel a little betrayed in the same way that Patrick Duffy awoke from a dream, although I wasn't a Dallas fan.

Well, At least everything on the island really happened and only this last season's alternate reality was the afterlife.

was it? or was it just minutes after the crash he was wandering the jungle?

So:

A) I think that was 50% commercials. When they expanded it to 2.5 hours, I think they just inserted another 5 commercial breaks and called it a day. Fuck 'em for that.

B) I waited through an hour of Jimmy Kimmel's awkward finale special show for alternate endings, and I got...jokes? Goddamit! That's an hour of my life I'll never get back. Plus, that whole special will 100% show up on the DVD anyway.

C) Line of the night: when we saw Jack's body, bloody and damaged, after he heroically restored the Island, my buddy goes: "Now he turns into a cloud monster!"

D) Those Target ads were actually pretty clever.

E) I don't even know. I've got to think on the rest.

I'm very disappointed.... dish network kept "experiencing technical difficulties" so the vast majority was all broken up and pink screened (PINK??? WTF COLOR TO BLUE SCREEN A TV)... but the best part was the commercials seemed unaffected we got those clearly.

I guess they are going to rerun it "in it's entirety" Saturday at 8. which if someone took tonight off work or had a party for the show and I were them, I'd be extremely pissed right now.

As for Lost, I've never really watched it so I have nothing to add :p

Yeah, I think it was real. Jack's Father tells him that they are dead, some died before him and some died long after, I'm guessing the ones that died first were waiting in the afterlife for their little going into the light afterparty. Then Hurley tells Ben that he was a great #2 which seems to me that they spent quite a while watching over the island together before they eventually died. So yeah, I'm saying the Island was real.

Also, Pan, My DVR decided to not even record LOST tonight and I just happened to check about 25 minutes into the show and see it's not recording.

Oh and Frank Lapidus lived! WOOT!

I said exactly the same thing, and, for a fraction of a second, was completely convinced it was going to happen. I ran through a whole scenario where Jack became the Man in Black and that Christian was the Man in Black on the alternate timeline, and the series ended with the plane exploding over the island and the church exploding as Christian walked out.

It would've been an interesting alternative.

Either way, I was 100% satisfied with the finale as it was and I agree entirely with Lasereth. I said sometime earlier in this thread, at some point I stopped worrying about "the answers" and suddenly I started enjoying Lost much more. And this episode confirmed completely that that was the correct attitude to take towards the series. I teared up every time someone "woke up" and when I was trying to talk to my wife about the end, I definitely started crying. And I'm ok with that.

In the pre show they talked about how, at the end of the day, Lost was about relationships, and looking back on the series, I think that's probably true. Those of us who loved the show, I think, loved it because we loved the characters. Maybe not who they were as individuals, but who they were together. I don't really care what the end "meant." I really cared about seeing everyone come back together over the course of the season. And I felt very satisfied by the end, in whatever context they were back together, and whatever it meant for Jack to close his eye as the plane flew overhead.

I will miss Lost. I will miss the mystery and the mythos and the characters and the sounds. It was a great, if sometimes inconsistent, ride, and it will enjoy a happy place on my bookshelf for whenever I need it.

I enjoyed the 2.3 hour series finale and thought it was fantastic when Jack flew through the air colliding into Locke with a super punch.

Before watching the finale, I expected everyone on the island to die and in a way I am right, but I do have a slight problem with the ending because it seems like having all the characters finding out they are have been dead since the plane crash is the easy way out. I am not sure if the writers were stuck half way through the series and were just trying to figure out a way to end the show, but I felt it could have been different.

That's not what happened. They are all dead at the end but they all died of different reasons. Jin and Sun died on the sub, Jack died on the island at the end, Sayid on the sub, Charlie in the dharma station, etc. Christian said there is no when, they simply all met up for an afterlife party before moving on. All 6 seasons were real. The only trick was that the alternate time line of season 6 was actually a post-death era where they needed to get their shit together before moving on.

Grancey found an article two weeks ago that explained this (so you should ask her if you want more details, old buddy). It had something to do with some kind of debris in the orbit of the TV satellites, and they knew it would effect people on the evening of May 23, but they didn't know exactly who would be the most effected or to what degree. We were lucky that our good old Charter cable didn't screw up.

I'm so buying the bluray in August. It's been years since I've seen the previous seasons.

Years ago, when I read the finale of Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" series, I made a desision to never fault a writer for how they want to finish the epic they were writing. Even if I disagreed with it or wanted characters to end up different ways and do different things, as long as it wasn't completely divorce from the reality of what had come before, I was going to be ok with it.

It served me well reading The Dark Tower, it served me well at the end of The Soprano's, and it serves me well here.

Did I get all the answers I wanted? Nope. But I'm looking at the island as a dusty, skipping record. So much weird shit has happened there that it skips and pops, making a different piece of music than was originally intended. The numbers start out as one thing and end up as something completely different. It twists and turns so much because of Jacob's rules, or the way Dharma or "The Others" deal with them, or the way folks off the island react to coming in contact with them, that they lose their original meaning and become something different all together... like winning lottery numbers perhaps.

I don't need everything answered and I don't need everything spoonfed. Sprawling epics like this are going to get dicey in places, so you have to trust the writers that got you through the parts you enjoyed. King did it with TDT, Chase did it with The Sopranos and I think the Lost guys did it here. (Even though Newhart's probably done it better than anyone.)

Also, I'm going to be out in front of the ABC offices picketing for a new series of Hurley and Ben on the island. Anyone care to join me?

:thumbsup:

Overall I'm very satisfied with the ending and it left a little bit left unsaid to ponder over.

I'm looking forward to the spin-off: "The Adventures of Hugo And Linus" :icare:

My buddy at work is a fellow fan of LOST, and he and I discuss it frequently. This morning, he told me he hated the finale and was very disappointed. I loved the finale, and feel very satisfied.

I suspect there will be a lot of that going around.

I enjoyed it, loved the series, etc. But there is a part of me that is annoyed too. I thought the show was scifi not fantasy, but I guess not. There just ended up being too many holes I thought were going to be filled in, but none were. Like was said previously, there's no reason Jack shouldn't have turned into a smoke monster like MiB. There's no way that plane could have taken off though it was nice for symmetry.

So a nice piece of art I can enjoy, but not science fiction like I had hoped.

I totally cried.

I don't necessarily think that Jack HAD to become a smoke monster. There's a critical difference between his experience and the MiB - the light.

When Jacob kicked the MiB into the cave, the golden light was in full effect. Actually it was probably the brightest we ever saw it. Maybe that's relevant, maybe not. Jack only went into the cave after Desmond (who's apparently immune from the effects of whatever electromagnetic energy is present) pulled the plug. That apparently stopped whatever mechanism created the smoke monster since the light was distinctly red until Jack replugged the hole. The only question, for me at least (and only this sole topic :) ), is whether or not the smoke monster-creating mechanism is in proximity to the pool jack sat in. Willing suspension of disbelief lets me assume that it was far enough away not to change him.

Then again, maybe that's what Hurley and Ben protected the island from post-show. ;)

Couldn't be; different clothes. In Pilot, he was wearing a suit. In The End, he was in casual clothes.

Not to mention he'd been stabbed.

Naw we saw Jack out of it and alive/dieing as he looked up at the plane.

But we saw the MiB's body in Season 1 (in the cave with his mom's). Was he dead when he floated into the cave? Or was he still alive? There were at least 2 other bodies in that cave. Perhaps there's always a smoke monster.

Or not.

I sort of understand the series finale after numerous explanations here and various other articles explanation. I would like to know what happened to Jack's son after the party? Did he vanish or did he never exist?

I don't think he ever existed. Once Locke became "enlightened", he insisted that Jack didn't have a son while in the recovery room.

In one of the early episodes i think it showed that Jack's wife was pregnant(?). I'm thinking Jack conjured up his son in the afterlife to experience what i would have been like to have a son before moving on.

This

I didn't mean to suggest that Jack HAD to become the smoke monster, rather that I had a brief moment of "How are they going to fuck with us now?" in which Jack did become the smoke monster, the explosives that Whidmore brought took down the plane just as it was leaving and that the church full of happy people went kaboom, followed by LOST and the music. I'm not saying it would've been a better ending or anything (far from it), just that after all the endless twists in the show-and in particular in the season finales-the very paranoid corner of my brain was desperately trying to figure out what the tragic twist would be here, so I'd be a bit more prepared for it. Though I revel in it, I'm still a little shocked that Lost had, for most intents and purposes, a happy ending.

As far as genres go, I think Lost never full committed to one, and it certainly never attempted to be full of answers and explanations hard sci-fi. It happened to attract a lot of fans of hard sci-fi who enjoy fiction that really breaks down how plot elements "work" at least within the confines of a given fictional universe, but I don't think we were ever given any reason to believe that Lost would fill in all those holes. The only answer I really remember being promised us is that of what happened to the survivors, and we got that answer pretty directly.

Please add me to the ever-growing group of people who would happily watch "Hurley and Ben Protect the Island: Electric Boogaloo."

I liked it. I can't pretend I didn't want some answers about the island, but I didn't expect them.

The main problems the people I know that didn't like the finale had were 1) lack of answers and 2) too much of the finale took place in the 'alternate universe' and not enough on the island. I think they just wanted more action and less drama, but as was said above, the series was about the relationships between the people, so this was a good ending.

Yes, now this pissed me off.

Yeah, Kimmel can go fuck an enraged polar bear.

Best finale ever. I literally don't think I could have ever come up with a better ending. So perfect for a perfect series. I am sad it's gone, though.

Dude. Jimmy Kimmel...

How can you tune into a Jimmy Kimmel show and have the nerve to act surprised at jokes?

I think the Alternate reality(afterlife) was more of a way for the people to experience what their life would had been if Jacob hadn't interfered.

---------- Post added at 12:01 AM ---------- Previous post was Yesterday at 11:59 PM ----------

Seriously, Didn't you see the Connect 4 million game he did? Youtube it..

About the ending, I think Mike Hale got it right.

Television - No Longer ‘Lost,’ but Fans Are Still Searching - NYTimes.com

Cool article, and great assessment. One of the premises the ending seemed to push (and which seems to infuriate everyone) is that in the end, the only things that truly matter are the relationships. Technology, work, hidden meanings, religion, conflict, catharsis - all of those things pale when compared to the fundamental righteousness of relationships. And the LOST series seemed to tell us that at the end.

Is anyone else having post Lost blues? I am now having flash backs/flash forwards and moving side ways. WE HAVE TO GO BACK!

I agree as well. Good article. I'm not really feeling the loss of Lost at this point, being a casually interested watcher. The one thing that I didn't get: What was the point of the island?

OK, here's the spoiler to end all spoilers. This is purportedly written by one of LOST's writers. I believe it.
Someone from Bad Robot's take on the Finale | LOST Media Mentions

Wow. This really brings everything together for me.

Wow, thanks for posting that. I really like that explanation! It does make the things I saw as pointless seem less so, and it's a good reasoning for those absent at the church. :thumbsup:

Great find and great read, Redlemon. Thanks very much for posting it.

Redlemon, my wife asked me to thank you for that article, and I will add mine as well. We both enjoyed it immensely.

the more i think about it the more i'm satisfied with this interpretation. it is what i understood from watching it but i don't always trust my own intuitions.

Original Ending, Bob Newhart Style.


http://i.imgur.com/2OXLq.gif

Thanks for posting that article. It's just how I thought it worked out.

I just finished watching the finale (thanks iTunes) and I loved it. Very satisfying.

I am going to miss this series, immensely.