Now that it has been almost two weeks since the LOST series finale, I have had enough time to collect my thoughts on the series and how they ended it. Although I was satisfied with the ending when I first watched it, the more I think about it, the more I hate it. The final, taken by itself, was an excellent episode. Like nearly every episode of LOST, it had great acting, a compelling story, was visually beautiful and left the viewer with a lot to think about. The problem with it (and the entire final season) was that none of the mysteries that drove the LOST series in the first five seasons were answered. Sure, they answered the “flash sideways” but that didn’t even exist until the final season. Looking back now, it feels like the writers were just making things up the entire time with no plan at all. While watching season 2 of LOST, I said to myself that there is no way they were going to be able to explain everything so I was prepared to deal with the fact that not all would be explained. But to explain nothing at all? How lame!
Before the start of the 6th season, I bought the first 5 seasons of LOST on Blu-ray with the plan that I would watch the entire series again. I was assuming that I would be able to watch it with a totally new perspective knowing how it all ends. I would be able to pick up clues, hidden meanings and piece together what was really going on – similar to if you watched Fight Club or the Sixth Sense for a second time. But forget that. While we were led to believe that all the events and people in the first 5 seasons of the show had this deeper meaning and significance to be explained later in the show, it all turned out to be a ruse. It’s like the writers could say “Hey, let’s pretend that Walt is the key to everything in this episode”, then never explain it. I don’t think that every single mystery need to be explained, but at least explain something! Off the top of my head, here are just some of questions I have that were never answered.
- Why does this island have magic powers?
- How come no one can find/get to the island?
- How come babies can’t be born on the island?
- Why does the island allow for time travel?
- How did all of the survivors survive the plan crash?
- How come John Locke wasn’t paralyzed once he came to the island?
- What’s up with Walt? He went from being super important to never seen again?
- Why was Michael (and other whisperers) stuck on the island?
- What happened after the Bomb (maybe?) went off?
- When and how did the island go under water?
- How does the island move?
- Why when you move the island by turning the donkey wheel do you end up in Tunisia?
- How come Hurley, Miles and others can see dead people?
- Why does Desmond have special resistance to electromagnetism?
- How did Jacob have the power to heal people and make Richard live forever?
- How come no one on the island ever came across a huge lighthouse at the top of a hill or the glowing yellow light from the last episode?
- Why did the smoke monster turn into the smoke monster?
- Why could the smoke monster not leave the island, not travel over water and not go through a line or ring of ash?
- Why could the smoke monster take over dead people’s bodies?
- What is the significance of the numbers (i.e. why those numbers)?
- How come no one could kill Man in Black or Jacob, except Ben could kill Jacob?
- What was up with the water that brought Sayid back to life?
I could go on and on… virtually everything that has happened on LOST has had no explanation.
Going into the final season of LOST, with the right ending, I thought that it had a chance to catch the Wire as my favorite TV drama ever. But after realizing that nothing from the previous season was going to add up, I might have to move LOST down a few spots – below Sopranos, Mad Men, The Tudors and Rome. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a great show and well worth watching for all these years. But looking back, I feel cheated and let down that the writers had no plan at all.
For more on Lost, check out these links…
- The Official Lost Site
- Lostpedia
- Lost Podcast with Jay & Jack
- Lost Transmission Podcast
- Lost at Amazon
