Friday, May 28, 2010

LOST :: but not forgotten


background:
i started watching lost in late 2007. this is when i found out the glory of abc.com and the fact that they had included every single episode of lost online. this means that i have watched the entire series from my laptop, the screen merely inches from my face and earbuds in my ears (not necessarily for the whole surround sound effect but to make sure i didn’t disturb a sleeping roomie {hey anne!} since I usually watched between the hours of 11pm and 4am). i never got officially caught up and have never discussed lost with anyone for fear they would tell me something i didn’t already know. and i like surprises so i have been careful to not have anything given away.

{{SPOILERS! i talk about stuff. so don't continue if you don't already know}}

enter season six:
season 6 has been amazing mostly because it started answering some major questions and had everything come together in a way other than “it was aliens the entire time!” and seeing how i watched the entire thing in three days it was a very intense three days as people were getting killed off right and left. and then there was the finale. the awesome, perfect finale. i loved it. i loved how it still left room for interpretation, i loved how they all came together, i loved how the entire season (and series for that matter) was building up to this episode. it was perfect how it ended cause it still left some mystery and people could come to their own conclusions which basically has been the premise of the entire show. the writers didn’t spoon feed you, they would give you some info and then let you take it however you would. so basically this is my take on the finale…

the last episode: the end of an era: where my heartbreak beings:
they’re all dead in the end. but like jack’s dad said it's only because we all die eventually. also, hurley said to ben when he talked to him outside of the church that ben was a good number two so this also made me assume that this is all taking place long after everyone has eventually lived their lives and died. jack's dad also said that this was the place they created so they could all come back and remember. it's basically their heaven. all of the flash sideways were them just trying to find each other after they had already died. to me it seemed like this in-between world where they weren’t together yet and therefore not able to continue on, or not willing to let go and move on yet. these flashes were also showing them as their true selves. sawyer becoming a cop instead of a conman, kate being truly innocent instead of a murderer, jack actually turning into a great dad, sayid being a good person. and how did daniel faraday write that mathematical equation when really he was just a musician? well, he was in the afterlife already and beginning to remember the life he did live. so out of their entire lives their time on the island is what truly formed them and helped them to see who they really were. they fulfilled their purposes and then it was the love and relationships they had created that transcended all. how beautiful is that! like families being together forever! love is what ended up being the most important thing to all of them. the one thing they would be able to have for eternity. jack and locke talked a lot about letting go in the flashes and everyone had to learn how to “let go” and therefore experience the love.

that is why lost is the greatest show ever created. the thought and writing that went into building all of the characters and this complete world that continued on being interesting and yet not really giving anything away until the end is amazing. i'm already ready to watch the whole thing over again.

what are your thoughts on the last season? finale?

also, i don't know if you're aware but there are a ton of "easter eggs" throughout the entire show where the writers intentionally included hidden content. just small stuff like the numbers chosen happen to be all retired yankee jersey numbers (among other things), and faraday is actually a real english physicist who studied electromagnetism back in the 1800's. then there's tons of words scrambled together to make names and such and apparently if you listen to some of the audio backwards you can hear different things (not that i have any idea how to do such a thing). just really interesting stuff that makes me love the writers even more. also, the official lost encyclopedia is coming out in september and i'm gonna get me one.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

dude. that was beautiful

Myke said...

I don't think they were dead the entire time. (Moreover, saying they were dead all along makes it seem like they were dead during the entire series, which wasn't the case.) If you remember, Jack's dad said "there is no here now"... meaning that the alternate reality that existed in Season 6 did not have an actual timeline or physical location. Therefore, they weren't dead the entire time. They could only all exist in that alternate reality -- dead or otherwise -- because that reality had no time or place (you might have to have Faraday explain how that might be possible because I certainly don't get it). Rather, the fact that everyone dies simply allowed them to be there in that alternate reality.

That said though, I really really love how they used the alternate reality to redeem the characters. Throughout the entire series you see Jack messing up left and right, Sawyer is a criminal, Kate a murderer, etc. But in the alternate reality you see them helping each other. Jack has a son and seems to have a good relationship with him. Sawyer is a cop. John is engaged to Helen. Etc. Providing an alternate reality where everyone is happy and successful, and where they eventually realized their ties to (and love for) one another was the perfect way to redeem these characters who usually had the best intentions during their pre-Island lives but just couldn't seem to find happiness or approval from the ones they loved. Pure awesome.

Also, I'm so glad the finale spent more time resolving character relationships instead of wrapping up the plot. There were just so many awesome character moments -- like how Claire giving birth was so similar to how it was on the Island with Kate and Charlie there. And when Charlie and Claire recognized who each other were. Same for Sawyer and Juliet. And when Jack transfered his Island overseership to Hurley and Hurley got all sad when he realized that Jack wasn't gonna make it out alive. When Jack and Locke-Smoke Monster-Man in Black were lowering Desmond down and Locke said something about it being just like old times and Jack totally owned him and said that he was nothing like the real John Locke and how he was a disgrace to his memory, etc. Awesome.

I love Lost!

chelsea :: stock said...

I came to pretty much the same conclusion.

i love LOST.

and ben not being ready to come be with everyone yet? so awesome. is it because he had more to work out, more evil deeds to atone for? thoughts?

Jeff said...

I'm with you on your interpretation Afton. Good stuff. I also thought it was a really cool idea that as your life comes to a close you start to catch up with a sideways reality where the people you love the most surround you and soften the blow of the realization of death. A very comforting idea and probably some elements of truth in there.

So many people throughout the series thought the island was Purgatory and they were all dead, but in the end, I think the Sideways reality is Purgatory. Not necessarily a place of misery but a place where as Myke said, the characters can redeem themselves. I thought one of the more touching moments was when you realize that Eloise Hawking is aware of what Desmond is doing, she's aware that some may move on, but she's hanging on to the Sideways reality so she can finally be a mother to Daniel. She doesn't have to force him to be a scientist to fulfill his time travel destiny, she can allow him to pursue his passion for music and put on big charity events to showcase him. Pretty cool.

The one thing I can't decide on is whether the flash Sideways was just Jack's "Moving On", or was it truly everyone's "Moving On"? It seemed so Jack-centric. It made me wonder if each character would have their own Sideways reality and moving on party, perhaps with other people who were also important to them. In the end, Lost was about Jack, so it doesn't really matter either way.

I would also say that the whole "Letting Go" theme was not only about experiencing love, but also about forgiving themselves of their own mistakes, which they had to do to really love and allow themselves to be loved.

How great was the closing of the eye at the end? Classic.

kayleen said...

myke, didn't jack's dad say "there is no now here." - that's how i remember it, but i have part hearing/speaking dyslexia so you could be right. the flop of thos two words changes everything i based my original conclusion on as far as any timeline.

find out for me what the correct quote was. or i could just google...nah, you just let me know.


good job, sister. best television series ever.

kayleen said...

oooh another easter egg i don't think you mentioned is christian shephard "led" them into the light at the very end. CHRISTIAN SHEPHARD. i don't think it was just a lucky accident that they named his character that. which means there was a lot of foresight into the entire series, not just "making it up as they go" as some believe.

Jeff said...

Kayleen, I think you have the quote right. "There is no now here", which supports what Myke was saying that in the sideways reality they could all be there at once even though in reality some died before Jack like Charlie or Locke, or after Jack like Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, etc.

That, along with Hurley's comments to Ben suggesting that they had many years of experiences together after Jack's death, makes me believe that what happened on the island was reality.

Good call on Christian Shepherd. I never even thought about that one.

Myke said...

Yeah, I didn't listen too closely on what exactly Jack's dad said, so yeah, Kayleen, you probably had it right. I just know that it was an explanation on how the sideways reality could exist. Maybe we should find Faraday to explain that for us.

Maybe one day when we have all passed on to the next life we can all get together and watch all six seasons of Lost together.

afton said...

trevor - thank you! lost is dear to my heart so that comment was appreciated beyond words.

myke - i think we feel almost the same about everything except for the actual definition (and how it actually took place i guess) of what their flash sideways were. to you, an alternate reality. to me, the beginning of their afterlife, the part before you move on. i just don't think my mind can hang with thinking about it as an alternate reality. and that's the best part of lost, everyone coming to their own conclusions based on their own knowledge and experiences ya know. i really loved how you explained it as the characters redeeming themselves! that explains perfectly how i was thinking about it. them having their second chance of fulfilling their good intentions. and i've mentioned this to you before but the charlie and claire remembering each other and claire giving birth and having it all flow back to her was amazing! also, the sun and jin's moment with the ultrasound was beautiful!

chelsea - good to hear my conclusion was the same for some. and with ben i feel like he just wasn't quite ready to join the group yet. he seemed very reflective/repentant and i think he just was taking it all in still. i love how loving and forgiving both locke and hurley were to him when they talked to him. it was almost as if ben couldn't believe he was being forgiven for some of his actions (i mean he tried to kill most those people in the church at one point). he always seemed to have good intentions though and in the end was just as deserving of the love as everyone else.

jeff - i never thought about eloise hawking that way! i love it! and i think as a whole it was everyone's "moving on" story but jack was always the hardest to convince of things of faith so in the end he was the last one to be able to move on. and jack is lost so it just worked.

kays - check this site http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Flash_sideways
it has the actual script between jack and his dad at the end. just reading it makes me tear up. it's beautiful. also, i want to buy the lost book so i can read about all the easter egg's and then watch the whole thing again with a new knowledge. CHRISTIAN SHEPHERD! those writers knew what they were doing the WHOLE TIME!

all in all a good discussion guys. thanks! i could sit and talk about lost for endless hours. it really is the greatest. here's to the LOVE!

Amy Jo said...

BLOG AGAIN>

Tommy Olsen said...

I know I'm a little late to this, but wow, I loved reading this and everyone's comments. I just finished watching Lost for the first time, and at first I was little perplexed by the ending, but the more I thought about it the more I loved it. It was such a unique ending for such a fascinating and complex shoe. I feel like Jack now "We have to go back!"