Trans 2010-05-24: “The End” (Series Finale)

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The end of “LOST.” Six seasons, over 120 hours, culminating in the two-and-a-half hour series finale, “The End.” We can’t believe we’re here. And we’re still struggling to process this final episode. This is our initial reaction “shortwave transmission.” But the full exploration of “The End” will come in our May 30 podcast. Please share your reaction and join the conversation by commenting below. Stay with us. Talk to us. Hold us!

Thanks to Jarred Matthes for allowing us to share his ‘ukulele rendition of Michael Giacchino’s “Life & Death,” originally recorded for the Geronimo Jack’s Beard podcast.

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1,260 Responses to Trans 2010-05-24: “The End” (Series Finale)

  1. aaron r says:

    @Carol i agree with you that the writers probably had the answers. but that makes their position weaker. while i’m good with the ending – and you know why – this argument means that while they had the ability to make some sort of sense, they elected not to. lets face it, there are a LOT of holes in the final shows, if not the whole sixth season. sure they answered a lot of questions. i was one of the ones who really didn’t like ‘Across the Sea’, but it became more clear with the next installments. they could have explained much of the things and people being questioned now, but i feel that they kept introducing ideas until they had dug a hole that they couldn’t fill in the time they had left.

    i kind of laugh when someone says something like ‘i’ll never watch any shows by Darlton again’. look at what they helped create! do people get this worked up and stimulated by Glee? even Fringe, which is the only other tv show i follow, doesn’t create the levels of excitement and attention that i’ve seen around this series. i’ll watch ANYTHING that Darlton does, at least to see if all this was a fluke, or Spielberg-like craft.

    @Carol what do you think about my earlier suggestion? you’re one of the voices (Whisperers?) at this site.

  2. Christy says:

    @KL I wondered the same thing about Desmond, but there really was NO ONE who understood it all in the history of the series. Also confusing? How Charlie was the one who woke Desmond up in the FS, but he didn’t have all of his memories back. Huh???

  3. LReene says:

    @aaron r – I vote for meeting in Hawaii. Just let me know the date and time. I’ll bet anything Ryan & Jen would be willing to set up the conference 🙂

  4. Annietoo says:

    I really want to soothe the wounds of those that feel let down by the conclusion to this story, those that have dedicated and enjoyed the 6 years leading up to this finale. But – I probably cannot. I think its a case of: you either liked the whole enchilada, or, you didn’t.
    I myself do not think that the writers abandoned/ejected promising and fascinating storylines because they didn’t have the answers, I think that they chose (with the storytelling time constraints) not to answer them directly. Are there answers to the many questions eg ‘Why did the Others take children’ ? I think yes, but that in this particular epic, answering it wasn’t vital, because the answer wasn’t a game changer for Jack’s story.
    I could say – don’t be distracted by the minutia, and enjoy the beauty of the revelations that you did get…. but some cannot tolerate the ‘end’ without those specific answers. And for some, the list of really important and unanswered questions is different to the next person’s list.
    Lost had a resolution that was not scientific, and required a spiritual connection to the universe – it was not about (eg) polar bear skeletons in the desert of Tunisia, and for some, that is very a dissapointing revelation.
    Namaste.

  5. aaron r says:

    @LReene i admit i like that one too. i’ll have to save for a bit, tho. maybe we can all camp in Ryan and Jen’s backyard. lol. now if only we could get some of the people from the show to attend. i wonder if any of the principals could stand some more time in Hawaii?

    here’s an idea about the Whispers. it’s to laugh. when i was young, and it looked as if every home in america would soon have a tv, a rumor started that the gov’t or someone has found a way to use the speaker in your set as a microphone, thus listening in on conversations that you were having in the privacy etc etc. this was during the Cold War, when paranoia was sexy.
    so the people in charge at Lost were using this technique (never mind computers, cell phones) and converting what we were talking about at home to Whispers on the show.

    nah, never mind…

  6. aaron r says:

    @Annietoo i’m not worked up about the finale, really. what it was, was. i do think, though, that if, as part of your story-telling, you introduce an idea or a question, then you really should resolve it. especially if it’s an idea that you have used more than once. it’s just sloppy story-telling.
    and i’m sure the people in charge saw what kind of fan-base the show was attracting, so someone must have thought that a more well-rounded presentation would have been a fitting ending. some questions are fine, but so many danglers?

    but it’ll keep The Transmission alive for a while, won’t it? not to mention sell blu-rays.

  7. Islandsidhe says:

    I was thinking about the final scene yesterday and how some people have seen the design in the middle of the Unitarian stained glass window at the church as representing particles or atoms. I have developed my own theory which I respectfully present here:

    What if the Sideways and the Light wasn’t the afterlife at all? At least, not in the same sense as we normally think of it. I believe that, if you choose to, you can interpret it as heaven or some all-inclusive afterlife world. But I think, that with the show’s mix of so many different religions and science – especially quantum physics – it could be interpreted in a very different way.

    All through this season some people have been speculating about the Sideways as being a parallel reality created by the detonation of Jughead. The existence of parallel realities or dimensions is theory seriously espoused by some quantum physicists and other scientists, including physicist Michio Kaku who has written an entire book exploring the possibility called “Parallel Worlds”. I don’t fully understand the concepts, thought I’m fascinated by them – so to summarize really poorly, there is a theory that there are separate universes, like bubbles, that touch upon one another but are unseen by one another. It is speculated that something like wormholes might be able to connect these universes, and those wormholes could be created by – you guessed it – massive amounts of energy, that we don’t have the technology yet to build or harness.

    There is a parallel to this theory – pardon the pun! – in metaphysics, where the concept of astral planes is discussed. These different levels of existence are also connected but unnoticed by one another, and it is believed by some that they can be visited by people who train their consciousness to perform “astral travel”. Meditation is usually cited as the way to engage in astral travel. But perhaps being exposed to massive amounts of electromagnetism could work too?

    What I’m getting it is the idea that, what is viewed as the afterlife or heaven through the lens of religion, could be viewed through the lens of quantum physics as a parallel world or plane of existence, or according to the multiverse theory, a separate “construct” created by choices (for more information about this, look up the namesake of our Charlotte Staples-Lewis, the philosopher David Lewis). Metaphysically it could be viewed as an astral plane. “Lost” has made so many references to quantum physics and also to metaphysical topics, that I think it is very possible that – while you can interpret the ending as a purely religious/spiritual one – that might not be the only interpretation. The stained glass window might have been giving us that clue.

    Think about the Island itself. It cannot be seen on any satellite; it moves around in space and time. This reminds me both of theories about the Bermuda Triangle and folklore about the “Otherworld”, a place humans could stumble into where they never aged, where time didn’t operate in the same way as the outside world. It clearly exists in another dimension, connected to our own but removed from it.

    While some people believe that you can access parallel universes or other dimensions through wormholes or meditation, other beliefs have also centered on the fact that these places can only be reached after death, after the lighter “spiritual” body has been freed from the heavier flesh body. I, personally, have a very strong belief that religion and science are different ways of explaining the same thing. For example, you could see the Big Bang as the collision of two particles, period – or the physical manifestation of God’s actions. Science and religion explain different “levels” of the same phenomenon.

    I’m sorry for rambling on so long, and I know this might seem crazy. But I wonder if, with that stained glass window and all the references to quantum physics and “constructs”, we have been given the option to interpret the ending simply or as something a bit more complex. Daniel Faraday actually mentioned this in one Season 5 episode when he was describing time travel and said that at some point, quantum physics leaves concrete science behind and heads into an area more like religion. I think the line between the two is very thin and fuzzy and perhaps the entire series has been pointing to that. After all – who can say that the “afterlife” isn’t another universe we enter, shaped by the choices we made in this one?

  8. Tori says:

    Thanks for everyone’s great posts! I am a serious LOST fan, and have tended to be fairly uncritical of most of the writers’ choices– willing to go along with the ride and generally awestruck by the concepts and execution, even if some it has been flawed (how could it not be?).

    That said, I’m surprised to find myself a bit cheated by the ending. My sense is actually that it simply needed more time… I always thought it needed 7 seasons, or better yet, 108 episodes. I think they needed more time to bring characters and ideas together, and that would have solved the issue of (at least for me) it feeling too crunched at the end, with too much left unresolved. For instance– it felt contrived that Jack and Kate are suddenly together, while the spark between them had died many episodes ago. And certainly there was a better way of combining some of the sci-fi/mystical wackiness stuff, with the more human stuff and the more traditional spiritual stuff. I think it would have been even more brilliant to infuse the sci-fi into the human stuff– thus creating something really new.

    Anyhow– it’s a testament to the show that I’m still jonesin’ over it and will be for a while… Some of those scenes were incredible– Jack’s last moments with Vincent– the chat between Locke and Ben– etc…. Deep stuff that truly touches the heart. Don’t go away, LOST!

  9. Annietoo says:

    Yeah – the writers of Lost are very familiar with stories that didn’t provide the answers to the mysteries that were raised – many of the novels that cropped up during Lost could be described as enigmatic. My own worst favorite movie experience was Memento. It didn’t answer any of my questions, and it drove me nuts for months trying to figure it out!
    But I think that Lost was a great story, it left many dangling threads, but in the end, I had enough information to round out my experience. I love that there are some things we didn’t get explained, it would have been a failure, imo, if nothing were answered.

  10. aaron r says:

    @Islandsidhe Wow, i really like that. not sure that i buy it for Lost, but your idea has a certain elegance. i wrote down the book and the author, i’ll check with B&N today.

    @Tori i agree completely.

  11. Carol from Boston says:

    @aaron R- I don’t have conferencing on my computer, and as much as I would love to go to Hawaii I can’t really do it. It is pretty expensive to go from where I live.

    Thanks for the thought, it would have been fun.

  12. LReene says:

    @aaron r – Oh yes, I remember those days where people thought their TV speakers were transmitting back what they said too. You mean they actually aren’t??? 😉

    I do agree with you on the idea of introducing story lines, using them through multiple episodes (and even season), and then dropping them like a hot potato is sloppy story telling. I guess for me, that was one of the disappointing parts. I just didn’t think D & C would do that.

    @Islandsidhe – I LOVE your theory here. I guess I will have to rewatch all episodes afterall, and go back and study my Lost University notes again. There was a LOT of time spent in a couple classes strongly hinting at what you just got through explaining. May be more truth than poetry here. I again say, if this is the case, we better get in touch with Walter Bishop. He can probably show us the way. Then again, JJ Abrams probably could too. 🙂

  13. LReene says:

    @Carol from Boston – In all honesty, the cost of visiting Hawaii really isn’t that bad. My wife & I have been going there at least once a year for the past 30 years, and the past few years, I have been making multiple trips a year. A lot depends on how a person approaches it. If you look at it as a “once in a lifetime trip”, and do all the expensive tourist stuff, yep, it can get to be REAL expensive. But if you think of it as visiting any other place, it is possible to keep the cost in a range where you can enjoy another trip, and another and another. Just my 2 cents worth.

  14. aaron r says:

    not giving up so easily Carol. it doesn’t really have to do with the computer. it’s just a website. you need a cam and a mic would be a good idea for this.

  15. aaron r says:

    and Islandsidhe i’m picking up “Parallel Worlds” @ b&n this evening, thanks for the mention. i’m always iso reading material.

  16. Carol from Boston says:

    @LReene- what I don’t get about Darlton is that they know what this fan base is like and how each episode is taken apart for every little thing. So how could they possibly think that they could get away with not answering so many things without angering fans.

    Their response “if it doesn’t matter to the characters, it doesn’t matter to us” well how about “it matters to the fans, so it SHOULD matter to us” We are not asking for every question answered but the important ones would be nice.

    How did Jack get out of the source without any one pulling him up? Was he thrown out on the rocks like MIB?

    Jacob and his mother both had to say some latin words over the water, Jack just put some in a bottle, said drink it, and now you are like me. He didn’t do anything special with the water.

  17. LReene says:

    @Carol from Boston – Oh OH!! With your last post, It sounds like we have turned you “To The DARK SIDE” hehehehehehehe

  18. Embie says:

    @ Michael J – lol over the Clue reference, because up to the finale I though the answer might be Mikhail (Colonel Mustard?) in Room 23 with the dagger.

    @ Carol – yes I too believe the writers had more answers. But in some sense, if it is Jack’s story and Jack doesn’t know the answers, how would the audience? I know it doesn’t seem fair but it depends how you frame it. And then there’s the question of finding time and space to fit it all in.

    And speaking of time and space, @ Islandsidhe, I think that’s a genius idea. Makes so much sense to me from both perspectives. I referenced the June issue of Scientific American much previously – an article about “Is Time An Illusion?” – here’s a link – I don’t understand it all completely (that’s why I read puzzling articles) but some of you might do better than me. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=is-time-an-illusion

  19. greenberry says:

    Thanx @ Rufus ~ I now have a better handle on the Jacob/MiB dynamic

    As a whole I loved LOST, and will always treasure that. It will be fun to rewatch the whole series with the focus on Jack (and Jacob?) in mind. I am now wondering how the series would have gone if the writers had killed off Jack in episode 3???!!!

    I would go to Hawaii in a flash!! (back, forward, side, or even hot) ~ I would be willing to meet anywhere in the U.S. or Canada too. However, I am NOT computer-savvy!

  20. Islandsidhe says:

    @Embie: Thank you for the link to the article, I look forward to reading it!

  21. Carol from Boston says:

    @LReene – No you haven’t turned me to the dark side. 🙂 but like I said I try to be fair and see everyone’s side, I do see everyone’s point about the answers and I think they should have thought ahead to everyone’s reaction.

    re: Hawaii – My husband and I can’t go to Hawaii unless my whole family can go, so it means also paying for our kids as well. And then what are the chances they’ll let me take off and leave them. The airfare alone would be thousands as the cheapest flights I have seen are about $700.

    Right now I am only working part-time and for the third year in a row I am not getting a raise. I hope to find something better soon and then I can use the money for vacation instead of using it to pay off our oldest Daughter’s college loan. Working in a public library doesn’t pay well, but hey I get free fines so at least there is that.

    Aaron R- If you end up setting something up and I know the logistics I’ll see if I can manage it. Believe it or not I am shy, so I like writing better than having to talk in person.

  22. Tawl says:

    @Pete.. I enjoyed your explaination of the food drop, although I see a few holes in it (as in.. it doesn’t explain continuous food drops).. still it’s probably one of the most creative answers I’ve seen so far.

    @Pete.. here is another challenge. Can you explain how The Numbers dribbled out into the real world? I assume each candidate was assigned a Number from what we saw in the Lighthouse episode. OK.. but how does that explain Numbers popping up everywhere the Losties went before the Island? Oh.. and they were on the Hatch too!

  23. Tawl says:

    One more challenging question… Why were subs needed to get to the Island? Yet planes came in with food drops?

  24. LReene says:

    @Angel – Thanks so much. The video was very good. And Michael pretty well confirmed that in order to get that special epilogue video of Hurley & Ben on the Island, a person will have to purchase the whole series set. Thanks a lot ABC for the way you have treated those of us who have purchased the seasons as we went along!

  25. Coolpeace says:

    Hey all :

    You may be interested in listening a very well thought out discussion about the Lost finale – I enjoyed the debate.

    It is from the IGN TV crew, you can download it from this link or from iTunes (search for IGN Channel Surfing):

    http://ie.tv.ign.com/articles/109/1092895p1.html

    @ Angel : thanks for the link – I also found the behind the scene video with Emerson quite good as well.

    @ LReene : maybe ABC will reconsider … of course there is always the Internet, i am sure Youtube will have it. But I agree – annoying!

  26. rascal020978 says:

    Earlier this evening, my girlfriend asked me about my reaction to the LOST finale and, in answering her question, I had an epiphany about why I was ultimately satisfied with the finale.

    As I noted in my previous post, I just started watching LOST with the beginning of Season 3. However, in reviewing the various posts it seems pretty clear that most of the “unanswered mysteries” were introduced and/or expanded upon during the first 2 seasons, including the food drops, the pregancy difficulties/the Others’ preoccupation with kids, the whole Why is Walt special. As such, I had no strong need for resolution of such mysteries because my interest in the show was limited to the characters and the mysteries that were answered (to my satisfaction), ie Who is Jacob, What is the Smoke Monster, What’s in the Temple, Where did Richard come from, What’s with the statue. Therefore, I was satisfied whereas those viewers who had invested six years versus my four were understandably less satisfied.

    Just wanted to explain myself for the record.

    NAMASTE

  27. Angel says:

    @ LReene and Coolpeace – No problem. I’m sure we’ll all be able to see the epilogue on the Net at some point. I think there is some agreement that we would like to see the gaps filled in some way. But, is there a desire for LOST novels. I ask because another insanely popular show, Battlestar Galactica, has not had a lot of success with novels. Would you buy LOST novels (comic books, spinoffs, etc.)?

  28. rascal020978 says:

    re: tvscif @ May 27th, 2010 at 3:50 am:

    Okay, as I noted, I skipped most of Seasons 1 and 2 so maybe I’m missing something here but … here goes:

    WHISPERS
    If the whispers are the bad souls trapped on the island,
    1. why do we hear voices of people who didn’t die on the island like Christian and the man Sawyer killed (I’d chalk that one up to Sawyer having an audio hallucination, but later other people hear it too).
    2. Also why do the whispers show up on the coroner’s tape when that dead girl comes back to life?
    3. Why are the whispers taking about using equipment? “Hand me the scope,” etc. If they are ghosts why are they using equipment? The also talk about shutting doors and windows.
    4. Why are they worried about being seen and having their hiding places discovered?
    5. Why are they worried about being accidentally shot?
    6. Why are the first whispers we hear (when the smoke monster is killing the pilot) make is sound like the smoke monster is made up of multiple people (they are actually worried about being seen and argue about what the mission is)
    7. Why is Michale trapped as a ghost when he found redemption at the end (and actually died at sea, not on the Island).

    I think they had a scifi intent for these whispers, then later changed their minds.

    Reasons 1 & 2: Which episode are you referencing here?

    Reasons 3 thru 5 (I assume) are based upon viewers deciphering the whispers using technology of some sort. If so, I consider this “irrelevant” evidence as unless the sounds were intended to be decipherable, the actual content can’t be considered a clue.

    Reason 6: I’m not sure what you’re talking about here … I thought the first time we heard the whispers was during Solitary? I only heard the “chka chika” sound when the Moster attacked/killed the pilot.

    Reason 7: I respectfully disagree regarding Michael’s redemption — I interpreted Christian’s message to Michael (The island’s done with you”) to mean just that — not that he had redeemed himself for killing Libby and Anna Lucia. As for the geographic location — guess I’ll say a freighter offshore is close enough for Island ghost purposes and leave it at that.

  29. Faith Kaplan says:

    Back to the questions: Pardon me if this was answered already. All of the Losties encountered each other by surprise. Why then were Sawyer and Miles together for so long with no “memories”. As cops, surely they had life threatening encounters. Did they have to wait for Desmond to come along for them to regain their island memories?

    Just a thought: What if starring in Lost was the best time of all of their lives, such that one day they will actually be sitting in that church together, being guided to the next plane of existence? Art imitates life and life imitates art…

  30. HeyKir in NYC says:

    @Islandsidhe REALLY loved your thoughts about the sideways and the quantum physics connection! And yes! We DO need Walter Bishop! lol

    And about conferencing?? What about Google Wave? I have 23 invitations left…

  31. Faith Kaplan says:

    @Islandsidehe – great thoughts and I am definitely going to buy the book (or try to get it out of the library). Another book I was reading concerning worm holes and teleportation was The Physics of The Impossible. It goes into a lot of detail and is fascinating to ponder.

  32. Are only the nay-sayers still coming? I read the last 20post and I see more people not happy than happy people… I think I can came up with about almost all the answers except season2: food drop, Dharma stuff (but when they did not addressed them last year I knew they would not) and the Canoe… And yet they said they would explain at least the food drop, but not this season! And just the same day they said this on the podcast I learned they would release a “Lost Encyclopedia”… And now I learn about DVD extras… I guess we will have all the extra answers you are so waiting for all of you.
    I had just a wonderful time! It was so much fun, moving, funny and so many call-backs! I think we had the best last season possible due to that and not a stupid quiz show at the end with Jacob (Who Wants To Be A Candidate? And now question 15 for taking over the Island: Christian Shepard is? An Angel/mib/dead/whisper… Jack what is your final answer?)!

  33. Mike B. says:

    I’ve been relistening to all the songs that appeared in episodes and promos with finale eyes to see if they hit me in a different way. There are two songs that seem worth noting here. (So far.)

    The first is (surprisingly) “Xanadu”. The lyrics tie into the sideways amazingly well. I got chills relistening to it the first time.

    The second is “Visions of Johanna” which is a Bob Dylan song that appear in episodes or promos but which Damon said very early this season that reminded him of season 6. I couldn’t see much of a connection until after the finale, but I do now!

  34. Mike B. says:

    Oops, typo! “Visions of Johanna” *doesn’t* appear in any episodes or promos. Sorry, I have two left hands!

  35. Coolpeace says:

    @ Yann : You made me LOL with your “Who wants to be a Candidate” analogy!! you are right of course, because any answers they provided must be within the context of the story and not just thrown in willy nilly. I loved it too Yann, and more so now than after my initial viewing.

  36. Embie says:

    @ Yann – I’m happy, at peace, with the ending. I think some people have unanswered questions that bother them (I’m one of those, but not too bothered – perhaps 23 on a scale of 4 to 108) but I am curious. Some people feel they are being taken advantage of in that they will have to pay a lot of money to purchase a DVD set to learn more.

    Islandsidhe had a great long post May 27 at 9:35 am (I guess that’s Hawaii time) expounding a very interesting perspective linking the physics and the metaphysics. I think we’re all still chatting, still lost, and enjoying ourselves. Yes, there’re some negative reactions, but overall not so bad as you might imagine.

  37. steve says:

    Interesting tidbits for those who didn’t read spoilers.

    Things that didn’t make it into the show:

    Samuel was the name originally given to Man in Black.

    Ilana was Jacob’s daughter.

  38. aaron r says:

    @Islandsidhe picked up ‘Parallel Worlds’ last night. last one in the store, we had to dig. i live very near CalTech, so there can be a demand for this kind of stuff. i plan to start it this evening. oh boy, new ideas.

    @Carol i’ve purposely not mentioned the condition of the world and our pockets while posting here. the realities are overwhelming, and one of the attractive things about Lost and places like this is their ability to be a path to step away from the grind. and still make our brains work, to boot. i am not currently working so hawaii would be a stretch for me, too. if you’ve never been, you really should go when you can.

  39. Carol from Boston says:

    @TVscifi- those were cute, I really liked this one

    http://twitpic.com/1qjen1

    @Yann- you are funny, when can we put that show on the air?

    @Coolpeace – I watched the episode a second time and liked it even more now that I know the “twist”. I think Rose and Bernard knew from the first episode this season, she was pretty calm during the turbulance and told him to “let go” plus Bernard was joking as well. They weren’t worried about crashing since they knew they were already dead.

    @Steve- Samuel huh? I guess MIB sounds scarier, lol.

    You know this week hasn’t been too bad because Lost is still fresh, but a few weeks from now when we have moved on, I’ll be sad.

  40. aaron r says:

    i’ve been watching everybody talk about the Whispers. i guess y’all watch Lost at a higher volume than i do, as i never really got anything specific from them. but after reading the posts, i guess the explanation given for the Whispers was meant to throw everyone off. clearly they were some sort of overlap between the world of the Island that our friends were in and some other group and/or place or time. sorry, the way they wrote it makes it not so clear. why else would they be saying things in such a purposeful manner, and talking about technical matters.
    the explanation was probably meant to mislead us, and became one more plot twist that never got corrected.

  41. Carol from Boston says:

    Can someone post the link for the whisper transcripts?

    Thanks!

    @Aaron, my husband and I both have discussed going to Hawaii at some point, it is one of the places we plan to visit someday. It will happen! I am putting off long plane rides till my youngest gets a bit older as well. I have a vacation fund started. We had a nice amount in there till our van died, and then real life interceded and we used it towards a new mini-van. Ironically we bought a Toyota on the same day all the recalls came out. I couldn’t believe it when we got home. Talk about timing.

  42. mel from düsseldorf, germany says:

    i’ve been thinking about the finale for a couple of days now. i still don’t think that it was the most brillliant ending possible, but then i have to remind me what LOST has really always been: a great character show.

    none of the characters are shallow, or just “good” or “evil”, everybody always has a history and a motivation. certain actions/modes of behaviour don’t just “happen” as a singular event, they are part of a context/chain of events, just like in real life. all characters are credible and depited in pretty realistic ways.
    i just loved it time and time again when the show was able to engage my sympathy for a character i had previously disliked.

    the well written characters (& the great storywriting in general) and of course the beautiful island setting was what drew me to the show in the beginning and kept me going for all those seasons.

    the mystery element was something introduced very early on in the show (in the pilot actually!) and i still don’t feel that the writers/producers did all the mysteries justice. ok, sometimes it’s just cooler to leave stuff to the imagionation, but after all the anticipation after season 5 i still feel it’s a bit thin what the producers gave us in the last season.

    i personally understand the “sideways flashes” as something that happens after jack dies, but apart from time & space, just like christian shepherd put it: “there is no HERE NOW”

    it doesn’t mean that they are all dead NOW and that everything we saw on the island never happend. (again, christian said “some died before you and some died a long time after you”)

    so really the sideways world was a mean to show us an alternate “how it all could have been” or “favorite moments reviewed”. (some of the stories just didn’t catch me, but seeing sawyer and juliet together again was a huge payoff.)

    LOST was (and will be) the best on tv EVER.
    it is an epic tale about “the human condition”.
    and with that knowledge, i can also accept the finale.

    LOST is now something that will continue away from the screen in our hearts, minds and of course online.
    we can all continue to theorize about how long before egyptian times “mother” was on the island and how she got there, how kate, sawyer, desomond, miles, richard alpert and lapidus continue their lives off island (and if they will ever come back…) and how ben helps hurley protect the island.

  43. H from Philly says:

    I’m still absorbing but I want to say thank you to Ryan and Jen. I found you years ago and you greatly enhanced my viewing experience of LOST. Looking forward to your next endeavors. Aloha.

  44. steve says:

    A couple of more loose ends:

    G23 – The number to get the Apollo bar from the candy machine.

    G? The 7th letter of the alphabet. 7?? G??

    102 – Charlie’s room number. 102 = 108 – 6? 6??

    May 23rd – the date, the producers said, was a coincidence.

  45. steve says:

    Don’t mistake coincidence for fate (ha ha) 🙂

  46. Carol from Boston says:

    Table 23 – where Desmond sat at the concert. I kept looking for a “walt” sighting at the concert. No luck.

  47. Embie says:

    that twitpic stuff is hilarious:

    http://twitpic.com/1p12gf

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