I am finally getting to my Lost review! I have been wanting to do this post for long time. I just haven't had the chance to. This review is going to be my feelings about The End. It also is going to contain a series of questions and answers that people I have talk to and discussed Lost with feel have gone unanswered. I hope I can justify these questions. I am not the best at getting what I want said down in writing but I will do my best.
If you haven't watched the show and don't want spoilers, then don't read on.
First off, I just want to express how much I love the series Lost! I have never been as hooked on a show as I was with Lost. Luckily, I never watched it straight from T.V. I either had it on dvd, dvr or watched it on Netflix or Hulu. It was nice to be able to watch it when I wanted to watch it.
I love Lost because while watching the show you get to know all the characters and their lives before and after they all crashed on the island. There are also different characters that are on the island that weren't in the plane crash. You get hooked on them as well.
As for The End, I know a lot of people hated it, including my own husband. As for me, I wasn't expecting it to end the way it did. I can't say I was exactly happy with The End at first but as I watched it a second time at my Lost party, I feel it ended the way it needed to end. I think the end made a lot of sense. Those of us who watched the entire show saw the majority of the characters die. There were only a hand full of characters that were left alive. I don't think it was necessary to keep the show going just to see how they all died. I think having them all dead at the end makes sense. Plus it was some thing no one was expecting. The writers made us believe that the bomb they set off in the end of season 5 actually worked and made an alternative time zone which is genius because it left us all Lost, and that is what Lost was all about. You never knew what to expect from Lost. As for the rest of the story;
We watched Jack become the protector of the island. Then save the island
from the Man in Black (posing as John Locke).
Then Jack passed the responsibility to the best man for the job (in my opinion),
Hurley!
And Hurley kept Benjamin Linus as his #2. I thought that was awesome!
I loved how the rest of the characters were able to wake up, realize they were dead and find each other, so they could move on all together. I wept through the whole last episode at all the touching moments of the characters waking up and the flash backs the characters had while realizing they were dead. I thought that was the best way to recap the characters lives on the island.
So as for me, I enjoyed The End and I will always love Lost! I don't feel that any questions went unanswered. I have people bring up things to me that they didn't feel were answered and I have to think about it some times but I always find the answer. When season 6 started, it was the first season I watched week to week. With all the other seasons, I waited for them to come out before watching, but I couldn't wait for season 6 because I knew too many people were watching it by then and I didn't want spoilers. But when I started watching it week to week, I couldn't get enough so I started all over from season 1. I almost finished season 2 when Lost ended. And as I watched season 1 and 2, all the questions I had from those seasons had been answered. I could see all of it come together.
Which brings me to my next part of this post, questions and answers.
These are questions that I have had people say they felt weren't answered. The answers come from me, things I looked up on the Internet and my sister-in-law, Krista. Krista is really good at seeing the whole picture of things. I love to discuss Lost with her because she can point out things I didn't even realize and most are not theories. The answers are facts she got from watching the show. Some of the answers to the questions are theories due to the fact that the writers did leave some things to your imagination but they can be backed up by facts from the show. I will let you know which part of the answer is a theory and which part is fact. I hope I can justify the answers to these questions and I hope people read this and feel that their questions have been answered. If, by the end of this post, you feel you have a question that you feel was a big deal and was left unanswered, then comment. I will try and get the answer to you.
Here goes:
#1 Question: Where they all dead the whole time? Did Jack dream up the whole thing?
Answer: Fact: No, they weren't all dead until the very end, during the sideways flashes. Their lives on the island all happened. The sideways flashes were them in purgatory. At the very end Jack's dad explains this, He tells Jack that time didn't matter at that point, that people died before him and some after (some LONG after, since Hurley and Ben are there in the flash-sideways, and who knows how many hundreds or thousands of years they spent serving as Island Protectors?), but at that moment they were all dead and had createded their circumstances in the afterlife so they could find each other and move on together.
#2 Question: What about Jack's son in the after life? Why did they say he didn't exist?
Answer: Fact: Again with the answer from #1, Jack's son was a circumstance that Jack created to deal with his issues with his father, so he could over come it. And he did. Jack's son served his purpose.
#3 Question: Why weren't some of the characters in the church at the end? Namely, Micheal and his son, Walt, Ana Lucia, Jin and Sun's daughter and Desmond and Penny's son, Charlie.
Answer: Fact: Micheal had confronted Hurley in an earlier episode in the 6 season and told him that he was dead and that he was one of the whispering ghosts on the island. That he was not allowed to leave the island due to what he had done. So he couldn't be there at the church. Which also answers the question about the whispering people heard on the island. They are ghosts of those who did something terribly wrong who once lived on the island.
Theory: There is the line that Jack says in the first season, "If we can't learn to live together, than we are going to die alone." Micheal died alone and as for Walt, he was taken from the island for selfish reasons of his father and was raised by his grandmother. So Walt had a whole life of his own not related to those on the island.
Fact: Ana Lucia wasn't there because she wasn't ready yet to know. Desmond stated that when Hurley saw her and asked why she didn't know yet.
Theory: As for Jin and Sun's daughter, she was raised by her grandparents, didn't know her parents and probably wasn't ready to pass into the next stage without the people she grew up with in her life -- or she had passed on already. Kind of like Walt, she had a whole other life.
Theory: As for Charlie, Desmond and Penny's child, their son was never connected to the island. Same as Jin and Sun's daughter. They didn't have a connection to those on the island. In their own time they too would move on -- if they hadn't moved on already. As Christian told Jack, time has no meaning in the afterlife, so who is to say that little Charlie and Ji Yeon weren't already there waiting for their parents to join them
Fact: The "flash-sideways" timeline was an afterlife reality specifically created by the Lost islanders to find each other. Christian specifically tells this to Jack. What does this mean for the other characters, or the rest of humanity, for that matter? Just that when they die, they have other means to find themselves, become "un-Lost," so to speak, and move on. The "flash-sideways" and the final scene in the church just happened to be the means these particular characters had made for themselves to finally, well, be Found.
#4 Question: Why couldn't Ben go into the church?
Answer: Fact: It wasn't that he couldn't, it was because he didn't want to. He told Hurley he wasn't ready that he had things to do still.
Theory: Those things he still has to do have to do with his daughter Alex and her mother Daniel. He just barely reunited with them and wanted to stay with them until they were ready. When it's time, the three of them will probably move on together.
#5 Question: What happened at the very end? What was the light?
Answer: Fact: The light represented them moving on from their purgatory state.
#6 Question: Why were there certain rules to leaving the island?Answer: Fact: The island's rules were governed by those who were in charge of protecting the island.
Jacob was the protector at the time while all of them were on the island. His rules were the ones people followed. This was brought up after Hurley was in charge, Ben tells Hurley that he can make his own rules because he was now in charge. Jacob was immortal by drinking the stream water of the light and was able to do special things. He was able to bring people to the island. Any one who is the protector of the island has special powers, including the power to bring candidates to replace them.
#7 Question: Who was Jacob's Mother and where did she come from?Answer: Fact: His real mother was brought to the island by shipwreck. They lady who killed her raised Jacob and his brother as their adopted mother. She was the protector of the island and she, just like all the other island protectors, was brought to the island by her predecessor; her predecessor was brought to the island by his or her predecessor, and so forth, probably as far back as the beginning of time, or at least the beginning of the existance of the light that needed protecting. Who or what put all of this in motion? Who knows?
Theory: Due to the spiritual nature of the show, and the heavy religious connotations and allusions throughout the show, I speculate that God, or at least a Creator, some intelligent factor, put everything in motion. The light source, and the island that sealed back the gateway to darkness, chaos and evil.
#8 Question: What was the light that the protector of the island had to protect?Answer: Fact: Jacob's mother explains to Jacob that it is the light in every person on earth and if tampered with the wrong way, it could destroy the whole world. That it was the heart of the island. That is why it was important to protect. That it was a special energy.
We need to remember that the island is a character in and of itself. It had powers to heal people. That is how Locke was able to walk and Rose was healed from her cancer.
#9 Question: Why was the Dharma initiative on the island?Answer: Fact: They were there to test the magnetic energy of the heart of the island.
#10 Question: What was Desmond's special power? Why was he the one make sure every one had their wake up?
Answer: Fact: In the episode where Whitmore takes Desmond into a magnetic chamber, he and his people tell us that Desmond is special -- that he has a resistance to magnetic power.
Theory: I feel it has some thing to do with him being down in the hatch for so long. Also, he survived the massive electromagnetic explosion that ocurred when Locke refused to push the button. Whether he already had a special ability to withstand the electromagnetism that was just part of his nature, or whether this very event granted him that power, is up to debate. But the fact remains that since that event, he also had the ability to see the future for important events, such as Charlie's death.
Fact: As for the wake up, we knew his constant was Penny. Desmond was the one to wake every one because he was the first to wake up, first with Charlie under the water and then when he met his constant Penny and touched her hand. Every thing was clear after that. So he knew what he had to do to wake the others.
#11 Question: Who were the skeletons inside the cave where the light was?
Answer: Fact: The island had been around for thousand and thousand of years, probably from the beginning of time. Jacob's mom talked about people wanting to take the light for their own gain.
Theory: Those skeletons had to have been people who went into the cave trying to take the light and were killed.
#12 Question: How was the Smoke Monster created ed?
Answer: Fact: The day Jacob's mother made Jacob the new protector of the island, Jacob's brother,
the Man in Black,
killed their mother. Jacob found his brother at the heart of the island and, in a rage, he knocked him unconscious on a rock. The Man in Black then floated down into the cave by the current of the stream. His soul was not pure and because he entered the light, his soul was sucked out of him and transformed into the Smoke Monster. The man in black was then doomed to stay on the island. He was also made immortal at that point. And he couldn't kill Jacob or any of his candidates because they had been touched by Jacob. He had to manipulate people into killing each other. But any one else was fair game. He could also take on the identity of people who had died like Jack's dad, Christian Shepard, and John Locke.
#13 Question: Why were the numbers so significant?
Answer: Fact: Each number represented a candidate. In season 6 the Man in Black takes Sawyer into a cave that is hidden above the ocean off a cliff. In that cave you can see names with numbers next to them. With some of the names crossed out. 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 belong to 4-John Locke, 8-Hugo Reyes (Hurley), 15-James Ford (Sawyer) , 16-Sayid Jarrah ,23-Jack Shepard , 42-Jin or Sun Kwon. These people were all touched by Jacob at some point in their lives before the island. And Jacob chose them because they were all flawed people.
Theory: I find it significant that those are the numbers that were on the hatch door and those were the numbers being entered into the computer. And the Swan Station/hatch was the exact thing that brought them to the island
Fact: As for where the numbers originated, it is strongly hinted in the show that Hurley himself is the one who, once he became Island Protector, went back in time and planted the numbers himself to put things in motion -- even his own "number curse." In the episode where Jin goes back in time and encounters Danielle Russo's scientific expedition team, Jin finds they have been drawn to the island by a mysterious radio transmission of the numbers. In the brief moments that we are allowed to hear the transmission, we hear that they are being spoken in Hurley's voice. This confused a lot of people until the season finale, and the big reveal that Hurley became Island protector.
#14 Question: How was Jack able to kill the Smoke Monster? And vice versa?
Answer: Fact: Desmond (who was immune to electromagnetism) was able to pull the plug to drain the light. Once the light, the source of power, was gone, at that moment Jack and the Man in Black became mortal again. That is how they were able to harm each other. Once the Man in black was killed, Jack went back into the cave and put the plug back. Still, the damage had been done to Jack and so he died at the very end of the episode.
#15 Question: How did Jack get out of the cave?
Answer: Theory: The same way Jacob's brother's body got out. They both ended up down stream from the cave. The curent flushed them out of the cave. The difference was that Jack's soul was still in his body and he was still alive, whereas the Man in Black's body was dead because his soul had been ripped out to become the Smoke Monster.
#16 Question: How was the statue and temple built on the island? Why was the statue there? How was it broken? And why did it have 4 toes?
Answer: Theory: The statue and the temple just show how long the island has been around and showed how long people had been brought to the island to protect it. They, as well as many other ruins, artifacts, ect, all reflect the time period and beliefs of the people drawn to the island throughout its long history.
Theory: Apparently Egyptians had to be living there at one time, as the statue is of the Egyptian goddess Taweret.
Fact: The statue was broken when the ship called The Black Rock that Alpert was on, crashed into the head of the statue.
As for the four toes:
Fact: As mentioned, the statue represented the Egyptian goddess Taweret. Taweret was a fertility goddess, the goddess of birth and rebirth -- very appropriate themes for the island and any of its inhabitants. This goddess statue has four toes.
Theory: I find it interesting that statue was broken and that afterward there was a problem with women getting pregnant on the island and living through the pregnacy and birth. I difently think the two are connected.
#17 Question: Why didn't Richard Alpert age? Why was he on the island for so long?
Answer: Fact: In the episode about Alpert, you get to see how long he had been on the island. He was brought on a Spanish slave ship in the year 1867 and didn't even speak English when he first got there. This also helped show how long Jacob was the protector of the island -- at least since 1867, and probably much much longer. In this same episode, the Man in Black tries to get Alpert to join him, but when he meets Jacob, Jacob grants Alpert with a wish. Alpert asked that he would never die. Jacob touches him and grants that wish.
That is why he never aged.
And he never really wanted to leave the island until the very end.
#18 Question: Why did John Locke have to die to bring all of those who left the island, back to the island?
Answer: Fact: It was the only way to get Jack back to the island. Every one else went back to the island for different reasons but Jack would not have gone if he hadn't seen John dead. After that, Jack had the motivation and understanding that Locke had been trying to teach him the whole time they were on the island. While Jack was back on the island he was able to ponder those things, and those were the things that made him realize his destiny, and take charge of that destiny, and save the island once and for all from the Man in Black.
Well there you have it!
I now just want to share some of my favorite characters. I love all the characters and I could spotlight every one of them and why I love them but I just want to share about my top favorite characters.
Juliette
I just loved her and her story! I loved that she was also a doctor and helped out in so many ways. She was the mediator between the plane serviors and the Others. She understood both sides. And she supported those who had ideas of survival. She sometimes had the last call. If Juliette said let's do it then, then every one would do it.
I felt for Juliette, for being taken away from her sister who had cancer. She thought she was only going to the island for 6 months but ended up spending the rest of her life there. I felt for her living in the shadow of Kate with Jack and Sawyer. But I loved it when she and Sawyer fell in love. It was a much deeper love than Sawyer had for Kate. His love for her changed him in many ways. She finally had someone truly love her. But I felt Juliette's death was the hardest to watch. I bawled my eyes out and I couldn't wait to see Juliette again in the sideways flashes. And when she showed up in the last episode, I lost it! I cried for joy, espeacialy when she and Sawyer were awakened together by a single touch of their hands. It was so touching! I also loved that it was the Lost candy bar that made them touch!
But out of all the characters, I couldn't get enough of Jin and Sun and their rollar coaster of repairing their marriage, and finally getting pregnant after not being able to before the island. Then they were seperated, and Sun thought Jin was dead. Then seeing them reuinted and dying together. I think I shed more tears over their relationship and their joys and their sorrows than any other characters. Other than Juliette's death.
I think the hardest part of The End was that it ended. I was so sad that it was over! I loved seeing new episodes. I love the story of Lost and now I can just go back and watch and learn more and more each time I watch. Between me and my Dad we own all the seaons except for season 6 of course. And you can be sure that when it comes out, I will get it!
And to all those who felt they were robbed, didn't you enjoy the ride any way?
