The Closing Statements on Lost

Lost was always an easy show to get pulled into. There were so many different mysteries, character archs and mythology to shift through. What started as a two part pilot for ABC became a fan favorite and launched six seasons of back and forth story telling. Of course from its very inception, Lost always seemed like the type of story with a twist ending. Fans were always speculating about the varied ways the show could end. So no matter what the writers were going to come up with for last night’s final episode, it would never have come close to anyone’s high expectations. However, after six seasons of stringing their audience along for the ride, it seems like Jeffery Lieber and Damon Lindelof gave up on most of the elements that made Lost so intriguing. Instead they opted out for a dramatic character driven ending that rang full of eager sentimentality. Not to say that is a bad thing, but not the right way to go for a show like this. Especially since, they kind of decide to finish everything in a way contrary to their stated promises. The “It is all a dream” or “They are all dead” theories weren’t far off. The writers kind of subtly switched it around and ordered up the typical expected ending with a means of plausible deniability. Basically, yeah, the whole sideways universe was purgatory, but everything that happened on the island is real. Now this is where the final episode goes off the tracks. It spends too much time resolving the sideways universe and not enough time on the island. Sure, certain events are resolved in reality, but none of it culminates into a satisfying ending. The most memorable moment was the final scene of Jack slowly dying in the same bamboo forest he woke up in at the beginning of the pilot. There a few other moments like that throughout the episode, but none of them culminate into anything impressive. Most of the concern was put on the characters and their reunion. Now there are two camps of Lost fans: those who like more of the character driven aspect and others who like more of the sci-fi/mythology/ fantasy adventure side. I have always been part of the latter camp. If I wanted a true character driven drama then there are many other shows that could satisfy my needs just fine. Nevertheless, with Lost it was the adventure and the sci-fi fantasy elements that kept me coming back. The characters were always important within the context of it all, but I never thought of them as the prime focus. The ideas were always more interesting than the people. Every one of the character’s different flashbacks and back-story are mostly same old character drama that could be developed elsewhere. What was really important was how the island influenced and affected each one of the characters. There was always a fate versus free will theme running though the issues of each season. None of this is tackled in the last episode, the characters are given a somewhat proper closure, but the island is never given that benefit. Nevertheless, the final episode does end the series on a positive note and there was always a religious undertone to most of the proceedings on the show. So the idea of most of the characters meeting in purgatory before they go to heaven is an optimistic conclusion to it all. It’s almost too bad that I could care less about anything that occurs in the sideways universe, since it was just all a set up for communion. Why would they throw out six years of mythology for this? Maybe it’s because the writers basically pinned themselves in a corner and had no idea how to write themselves out of it. Hence, they probably decided in their minds, we will just use the excuse of proper character send offs and to hell with everything else. Therefore, as it stands it seems Lost is the kind of show that sets up ambitious and intriguing ideas, but never fully develops or executes any of them.