Ok, had some time now and watched it a couple of times. We already touched on a strong majority of the show below, but I thought I'd watch it one more time, sort of taking notes as the show went on...
SHOW NOTES:
- For starters, the music on this series is unbelievable.
- Pretty sure that's the director's dog, also the Jacob Cabin dog painting crossing the street when Hugo and Sayid are going to get Charlie. Neat little note.
- Good piece of acting with Hurley being so happy to see Charlie. Or at least it was real nice to see. Like most of this ep.
- I know it made Peter and myself laugh at the size of the bush Sawyer was hiding behind.
- Good to see Rose/Bernard/Vincent (more on him later). At least they weren't so lame this time. (and from the looks of things they probably enjoy a nice island life with Hurley and whatever other fools show up to the island).
- Richard being alive was good to see.
-Juliet is back as the fertility doctor for Jin and Sun, and we get our first "awakening" of the ep. Pretty heavy stuff, if you didn't get chills watching these scenes then you probably should quit reading this and question whether or not you actually have a soul.
- My bro Pete does bring up a good point... why would they be so happy about realizing they were dead? Well, whatever it is they're preparing to leave for must be pretty great and I think they know that. Could also be an understanding that these weren't REAL lives they'd been leaving... kind of shells. Now they're complete... I dunno.
- Richard's got a grey hair! Jacob's dead so now he's aging. Good thing he didn't go all dude from the Last Crusade who chose the wrong grail.
- LAPIDUS!!!!! What a bad ass.
- Two tribes merge again and we're headed to the center of the island.
- Juliet is Jack's ex wife... sort of figured. What I don't get is why David even exists. I guess he was created to help Jack get over his daddy issues and he could "let go". Actually yeah I like that. Sort of a bummer for Davey though.
- I liked that Desmond didn't actually have all the answers he just thought he did. And I really liked his speech to Jack, even if he was wrong. Jack delivers a very important line: "All of this matters"
- Hurley tells Jack he believes in him. good stuff. The Hurley/Jack interactions really got to me.
- Jack and Locke were BOTH right. Locke needed him to take out the island so he could leave, but Jack was right that it would turn him mortal.
-Good speech from Hugo to Sayid (sorry for jumping on and off island, but it does it so much this ep, its almost impossible not to)
- Shannon's back. Sweet sexy Shannon. And Sayid and her flash. I'm sure some people are worked up over him not being with Nadia, but it never worked with Nadia, she kept getting hurt.
- Boone. How d'ya think he got "enlightened"? Seriously.
- They needed Desmond to unplug the island. (by the way, trying to figure out who built these island contraptions, etc is frankly too much at this point for me to grasp). His condition made it possible. Lots of skeletons down there. Maybe from when they were building it.
- Widmore/Drive Shaft concert. Liam shows up for ZERO lines... nice of him to do it though.
- Charlie sees Claire. Thought Chuck had a real strong episode.
- Jack gets knocked out by a boulder from Locke. His brain is mush at this point.
- Was hoping we'd get more from Eloise this year, but it's pretty clear she had been awakened a long time ago, and was holding onto this world because she enjoyed he time with her son. It was actually kind of a sweet scene. I do wonder why she is against moving on, when everyone else seems to be totally for it. Actually one of my bigger questions from this finale... which is par for the course with Eloise Hawking.
- Claire, Kate and Charlie all flash over. Pretty great scene. More Chills. Actually there were more scenes with chills than without in this ep. Sort of true.
- That tree hitting Ben seemed like it would be a pretty big deal... guess not.
- Epic fight scene between Locke and Jack. we see how Jack gets his sideways world scars. Also, I'm sure you've all noticed how Jack was stabbed in the same spot that the big JC was when he was on the cross. I'll let you figure that one out.
- Kate kills Locke. Kinda cool.
- Jack fixed Locke and he WAKES UP! Jack keeps getting closer and closer.
- Great scene with the Suns and them knowing who Sawyer is, but he doesn't yet.
- I guess the plane was in better shape then I remember, AND it wasn't nearly as big. So, while it's still a stretch... I'm alright with those guys fixing it.
- Good final Sawyer and Jack scene (could of used more of them) but even better Kate and Jack scene. There last REAL WORLD interaction.
- A little bummed out that Hurley didn't really say goodbye to either Sawyer or Kate, but it's awesome he stayed with Jack. Also very cool that Ben wants to go down with the ship.
- Got a little bit of a Frodo/Sam vibe from Jack and Hurley in this ep.
- Sawyer/Juliet. Great stuff. A call back to her dying and recognizing the other world earlier in the season.
- Kate tries to trigger Jack. She says "I've missed you SO much". I think that's proof that she made it off the island with the Ajira flight. She lived a long life and hadn't seen Jack in so long.
- I sort of saw the Hurley transfer of power coming a mile away, but it was still a cool moment between those two. Also a great scene between Ben and Hurley. Desmond's ok too... more on that later. At first I thought Ben was going to try and kill them... but watching it again, he just looks genuinely excited to see some island magic going down.
- Jack gets Desmond to safety and plugs up the island. "I'll see ya in another life brother" Awesome.
Not sure why he didn't become a smoke monster once it started up again. I think it must have had something to do with Mother's rules for Jacob and Smokey. When he did a header into the cavem it would have killed him, which Jacob can't do... so there it seperated his evil black soul. Smoke Monster!
- Kate and Sawyer grab Claire and make it to the plane.
- Ajira makes it off the island... sort of neat to see the passengers:
1- Other
2- Freighters
3 - 815ers
- Ben and Hurley will run the island... more on that below.
- Excellent Locke and Ben scene. Ben says Locke was special. That's as close to a Walt answer as you're going to get. Hope that makes sense.
- Hurley lets Ben know he was a great #2 and Ben says Hurley was a great #1. More PROOF that they lived their lives after the crash. There wouldn't be TWO purgatories. (word?)
- Also, Ben decides to stay. Probably for two reasons, A) he doesn't belong with that group and B) he really does still have some stuff to work out, Alex, Danielle, etc. Good for him.
- Jack makes it to the church and sees CHRISTIAN. Other than the character aspects of this scene, Jack and his father finally having their moment they needed since season 1, Christian says some pretty important things:
1) They're all real. Everything that happened to them was real.
2) There's no time here. They all needed to be there, it started after they were all dead
3) Some died before Jack and some after. Again, Whatever Happened, Happened.
4) They built this place together, they needed each other to remember... and to...
5) let go.
- A happy ending as they all see and greet each other again, and ascend off into... well whatever it is. Together... Live together, die alone. Sorry, went for the cheese there, but if you've been reading for this long I doubt you mind.
- Interspliced with this is Jack (who was launched out of the cave, think something like Eko, Desmond, and Locke after the hatch implosion) slowly making his way back to the bamboo forrest where it all started for him (notice the tennis shoe in the tree from the pilot ep).
- Just as he's laying down to die, Vincent comes down (like in the pilot) and lays down with him to keep him company. I think that one scene affected me more than any other in the history of... well tv I guess.
- Jack looks up and see his friends made it, and the eye closes. I actually believe that they had that scene from very early on. Just perfect.
FINAL THOUGHTS ON THE SIDEWAYS WORLD:
- Some think they were dead this entire time, since the original plane crash... couldn't disagree more.
- EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED ON THE ISLAND HAPPENED. Them leaving, them coming back, them time traveling, it was ALL real. I might be wrong. But I doubt it.
- I don't think this is JUST Jack's purgatory (for lack of a better word). They all had realizations, they all built it together. Others there are still waiting to leave. At some point I'm sure Ben, Alex, Danielle, Eloise, Daniel Faraday, maybe even Charles Widmore, and many others will have their own send off. Of course we won't see that. Someone like Eko? Well the people or person most important to him and his journey was Yemi, so he probably left with him. (also he refused to come back for the show unless they paid him a shit load, but whatever)
- Some things I really can't explain like why Aaron was a little kid and not grown if it was his purgatory... and why Miles wasn't there, seems like he had quite an attachment to some of these guys.
- Long story short, I wouldn't get too hung up on WHO was in the actual church, it was just a nice way to send them off. They all get a happy ending... which some people might think is a big cop out, but it certainly made me happy.
- A lot of it was probably unnecessary, like why the island was at the bottom of the ocean? Certainly some misdirection by the writer's kind of unfair, but whatever, they had to keep the storyline alive all season and keep us guessing as to what it really was. In the end, it was a perfect way to see all their "greatest hits" and bring them all together again. Plus, those scenes where they remember... I mean... c'mon.
SO WHAT HAPPENED AFTER WHAT WE SAW?
- Well, everyone's moved on... they "live" in the afterlife, and all is swell.
- How about in the more immediate future... let's do a final check of where were at:
- The final shots of the beach have been generating a lot of debate. I think it was just a nice shot of the beach again, cuz unfortunately we never really saw it this ep. Also, the typical theme music there is pretty ominous and suspenseful
- Hurley and Ben run the island, with Bernard, Rose and Vincent, and probably the rest of the Others who survived. I'm guessing they find Jack at some point... I hope at least. I like Ben's last line... do it your way (paraphrasing) I'll assume that means he got Desmond off the island... was probably even able to visit his folks and let them know he'd be ok. Hopefully someone talked to the Kwons, and Jack's mom as well.
- Also fun to think about what happened to those guys on the Ajira flight afterwards.
- Frank probably went back to his normal life.
- Miles, same deal, hopefully he had those diamonds still.
- Richard, probably used one of his Mittelos identities to blend in.
- Sawyer, Kate and Claire? That gets a little trickier. Especially for Kate. They're all supposed to be dead, and Kate told everyone that was the case. Ahhh... I'm sure they'll figure it out.
Well... that's about it for now. It's definitely one of my favorite eps of the series, and my favorite series finale ever.
If you've got any more comments let's hear em! What did you think? What did I miss?
Oh, also, mostly for my own benefit, I'll definitely be going through all the eps again and if we don't have an answer for an outstanding question from the show... well... we'll make one up!
A good run. This was fun. Thanks for all who participated.
TV will suck now.
PS. This took a long time to type so I didn't really proof read anything.
2 years ago
Your spelling checks out at 93%
ReplyDeleteWhen is the "Lost Encyclopedia by Mr F." coming out?
Nice recap Finn. Lurked for awhile, but thought this was my last chance. Here are some of my interpretations of some of your questions. I'll also post what I think it all means...
ReplyDelete- I think they were happy to realize they were dead because they knew that becoming enlightened meant they would soon be getting to go wherever you interpret that white light at the end to lead. Plus, if you think about it…almost none of them were really happy in that life...except for maybe Jack. At least not as happy as when they were on the island.
- My take on Nadia/Sayid is that Nadia was the girl that Sayid always THOUGHT he was supposed to be with…and it caused him to do a bunch of bad things to be with her. Yet, each time they were finally together something horrible happened. While I don’t really think that Sayid and Shannon were much better I think they just wanted to get her onto the show.
- I don’t think that Eloise was against moving on. I think she knew that she could never go to the same place as her son because she killed him. So, she was desperately trying to maintain a world where her son would stay with her. If she and him tried to move on they would’ve ended up in different places I would assume.
- Agree that the tree falling on Ben really made no sense. Or how quickly they caught up with Jack and Locke. Makes you wonder if there was a scene they cut that showed them getting him out.
- As for the Juliet scene with Sawyer and the call back to the previous world. Part of me wonders if when she told Miles “It worked” it was her way of saying that the bomb had allowed her to enter their special purgatory. Other then Penny (who I assume gets an “I’m with the special guy who saved your life” exemption) she was the only other person not on the plane who was in the final scene.
- I don’t think that Jack turned into the Smoke Monster because he went down in the well with a pure heart and good intentions (blah, blah, blah) and most importantly as a believer. Man In Black didn’t believe and was also thrown down by his brother. I’m still not sure the “rules” really existed (more on that later).
- Ben and Locke scene was very, very good. I think Locke was special because he always believed in the island (again more on that later) as a whole no matter what. Ben believed in Jacob (or the MIB), which is different.
- I agree with all of your interpretations of the Sideways world. The thing that confused me the most was reading/listening today and people talking about how this was all about Jack. That thought didn’t even cross my mind and I don’t even really get why anyone would think these things. Yet, it seems like one of the biggest theories out there.
- Aaron was seen as a kid because I think the writers realized that they had to show the cast as we knew them or else we’d all be completely confused. That is one thing people seem to be missing…while I think the writers had a huge story behind the theory…it was also a TV show and you can’t just do random things on TV without explanation.
- The island being underwater doesn’t seem totally unnecessary to me. Granted, it sure helps that it also helped create a misdirection in the TV show…it would make sense if you thought they are going to create this magical fake world. They would’ve created that fake world that would’ve started with “what would’ve happened if the island didn’t exist”.
- Agree that the shots of the wreckage were just a closing shot and that the plane did not crash.
- And finally…yes…TV is going to suck now.
As for my belief on the overlying theory of the entire show…
ReplyDeleteMy take away from the show is that this was the writer’s representation of their feelings on the concept of faith and religion. Taking away all the actual physical aspects of the show I think the Island is supposed to represent any particular religion. I say any because despite some of the Jesus references (which I think was done just to make people at the network happy…and cause it is the easiest symbolism for most of us to understand) it seemed pretty clear in the final scenes around the coffin that the writers were trying to show all the different symbols for the religions around the world.
So, if you think of the Island as the concept of religion then you would see that in every religion there is some sort of central belief/faith that it is based upon. If you were a “Man of Science” you’d assume any of those things that represent the key faith would be silly…so it sort of makes sense that the key faith within the Island is some cheap looking yellow light that is at the bottom of the hole.
Once you have the concept of religion and the representation of the faith nailed down you can start looking at all the people that were in that Island and how they acted. First you have the supposed protectors Mom, Jacob, Jack and Hurley. If you noticed, they seemed to create a bunch of rules. They created these rules because they believed that it helped their religion protect their faith. But, in the end…most of the rules were basically pointless and/or misguided. This would be no different than a religion that says you can eat a certain type of meat. We have absolutely no idea if eating said meat is actually against the faith, but someone who was important said that it was the case so people blindly follow this decision.
The next thing I noticed is that many of the thing mystical locations that were built to supposedly celebrate the faith all ended up being more or less pointless as well. The statue was knocked away by the Black Rock and the Lighthouse was destroyed by Jack. Even the temple ended up being more or less completely pointless this season. They spent how many episodes in the temple and it really served no purpose. Even the people who believed in Jacob (not the island) were killed pretty unceremoniously on the show. This was because they didn’t necessarily believe in the faith of the Island, they just believed in what Jacob was telling them to do.
This is getting long so I will try to tie it up. Long story short…I think that the writers were trying to show that faith and religion are significantly different things and you need to be careful from letting the latter cloud your judgment and taking the former for granted. Religion is just a man made interpretation of a faith. None of the answers in religion can possibly be proven to be true or false, so it is pretty easy to be led astray (like what MIB did to Locke).
This is also why I think that so many of the “questions” weren’t answered or were answered pretty ambiguously. They wanted the viewer to look at some of these questions and come up with their own interpretations. Just like they want the viewer to think about faith and come up with their own interpretation (along with the friends around you) and not just rely on what some random person tells you is or isn’t the truth. If you can do that (like I am doing here) and have confidence in what you believe happened then they achieved their goal…everyone’s interpretation is going to be different…and Im completely fine with that.
Great stuff! I especially like your Island rules/religion comparison. Very good!
ReplyDeleteI'm reminded of a line from, Dogma, of all places, and I'm not quoting it directly, but it's essentially saying it doesn't matter what your faith is... just as long as you have faith. And maybe in this case, a belief in those around you is just as important as a belief in a higher power.
Definitely going to be watching the show again with a new view.
And Mitch, just waiting on the publisher who let's me be me.
Wow Mike, really well said. I like your broader view and definitely think that's a great interpretation of the show. I think your dead on on where the writers wanted to go with faith and religion.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great little article to read and Finn, I believe backs up your theory:
ReplyDeletehttp://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/25/geek-out-five-unanswered-lost-finale-questions/?hpt=Sbin
Thanks for driving traffic away from the site Kate! Just kidding, that's a good link. Pretty on par with what I've been saying here I think. Sort of the neat (or frustrating) thing about the finale, is it really is open to your interpretaion. Unless of course you think they all died in the original plane crash. In that case you're just all kinds of wrong.
ReplyDeleteSorry Finn! Everyone knows yours is the best!!
ReplyDeleteFrom that site, I read a few comments and here was one that stood out. I'm still with most of everyone that I think what happened on the island, happened, but thought this was an interesting take:
"May 25th, 2010 2:37 pm ET
Another early literary reference in Season 2, Locke in the hatch looking for Dharma movies, comes across the book An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Obvious in some ways, yes, but the series can be explained (to the extent it needs to be) with the notion that in the last nano seconds of life, Jack's life flashes before him, and he fantasizes about the possibility of living, so in flash he imagines falling safely onto the proverbial tropical island with the images of those seated immediately around him, of becoming the ultimate hero–starting with the run from the bamboo and saving crash survivors and culminating with defeating evil and saving life on earth itself (Total Recall anyone?)–and imagining how he could fix his life back home would he ever get there (having a son) with all its fits and starts and frustrations (doesn't work relationship-wise). These people become important to Jack because in the last seconds of life he uses their existence (real or imagined) to provide a vehicle for him to construe life in a way that allows him to accept the death of his father and himself. As soon as he accepts he is dying, he is dead. Maybe his nano second of semi-consciousness was during his fall through the air. Other passengers have similar nano-second flashes. After all, your plane is over the Pacific and what else do you imagine but landing on an island with all the people around you . . . take it from there. So, no purgatory, no one was dead, but just in the last glimpses of consciousness. All the mythology is a genuine projection of culture and the meaning of existence because that is what folks consider in dying moments. Why these people–because they are lost and in the last moments of life and consciousness they struggle to create a reality where they can accept "what comes next."
Nope. Not buying it. If I'm wrong then I'm wrong. But I'm not. Why have two seperate realities that you flash to in your nano second, with strangers. Doesn't work for me.
ReplyDeleteAnd the strangers flashes are all linked? Sorry.
ReplyDeleteFinn - Do you think the island was supposed to have an impact on humanity as a whole or just the people on it? It seems in Jacobs explanation of why he brought all the candidates there that it was more for his own benefit in finding a replacement. Also it benefitted the candidates because they all were all struggling in their personal lives. For all the effort it took to keep MIB from leaving the island there wasn't really any hinting at what would happen if he was able to leave. I'm glad it didn't turn into a scenario where you protect the island or everyone on earth dies but if thats not the case, what was the bigger issue at hand?
ReplyDeleteI think we were led to believe that IF MiB got off the island it would be the end of the world. At times it seemed like he just wanted to leave the island, but then again he did say he hated humanity and we were worthless. i guess it depends on how much you believed Mother. She said if the light went out on the island, it would go out for the world. And since MiB needed it to go out to leave, well... I guess that's why he needed to be stopped and the island needed to be saved.
ReplyDelete- I agree with Finn in not buying the "Owl Creek Bridge" scenario. However, I can admit that this may because it would force me to accept that most of the events on Lost were essentially meaningless.
ReplyDelete- The one piece of my theory, which I have a hard time defending is the whole concept that Jacob supposedly touched each of the people and "brought them to the island". But, that is also one of the pieces of Lost I don't really understand in the first place.
Jacob claimed that each person was brought to the island because none of them had any connections and their lives sucked off the island. That would (maybe) make sense for Jacob, Locke and Hurley. But, how did he know how the lives of Kate and Sawyer would turn out...and why would he have brought the Kwons?
I think he saw there lives through the Lighthouse. It allowed him to peer into their futures and pasts at different times. Now how he got off the island? No clue.
ReplyDeleteHe probably brought the Kwons because he knew they wouldn't be able to have a child anywhere else. He also said there love was a special thing, and they clearly needed the island to bring them back together.
This is a great clip that brings up a lot of great questions:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.collegehumor.com/video:1936291
Yeah, that's pretty good, but I had to stop watching, because honestly, at least a third of those questions we have answers to. Some of them might not have been slammed in your face, but if you think about it at all, you'll figure it out. For instance... How did Walt communicate with Michael in the hatch? He didn't it was the Others. That's just dumb.
ReplyDeleteTHE SERIES FINALE WAS PERFECT!
ReplyDeleteSTAND OUT SCENES FOR ME, THE KWONS AT THE HOSPITAL, SAWYER AND JULIET AT THE VENDING MACHINE AND WHEN JACK TALKED TO HIS DAD AT THE CHURCH. FOR THE FIRST TIME JACK WAS ABLE LET HIS GUARD DOWN AND BE EMOTIONAL.
THIS SERIES FINALE WAS PERFECT! WOW!
FINN, I WANNA THANK YOU FOR INTRODUCING ME TO THIS SERIES AND ALSO FOR ALLOWING US INTO THE LOVE AFFAIR YOU HAVE WITH THE SHOW. THANKS FOR TAKING US ALL ON YOUR JOURNEY!