Lost: Reaching "The End"

Lost's finale, "The End," did not redeem or retroactively improve my journey through the show's sixth season. I remain steadfast in my opinion that most of the season is riddled with pacing problems, muddled storytelling, and an unwelcome, almost hurtful distancing from the characters I have watched for six years. Most of these issues are due to the flash-sideways thread that ran parallel to the story occurring on The Island. Though these flash-sideways house characters who look, sound, and, for the most part, act like the characters I know, they are, simply, not them. They are posited as different beings altogether. Different, but the same. As alike as two sides of a coin, in that they are, intrinsically, a part of and comprise one thing, but undeniably unique in description, feeling, and purpose.

Spending time with these wraiths of the characters I'd grown to love did not exactly endear me to the season as a whole. Week to week, I was more frustrated than I ever have been with the show, because, for me, the show has always been about its characters. Its mythology, plot, and mystery have both been interesting and maddening, but Lost's characters have always been special. Beautiful. Everything else takes a distant second to the people I watched week in and week out. And Lost's sixth season robbed them from me more often than I was willing to extend my trust. Or, I suppose one could say, my faith.

However—and though my journey can not be altered, for what's happened has happened—"The End" paid off all that had come before it in miraculous fashion. The finale was executed more beautifully, more poetically, more right than I thought possible. Upon its conclusion, I sat in awed silence, weeping. Not for its end, but for its resolution. Of my issues with this sixth and final season, well, the finale informs those flash-sideways in profound and intriguing ways. I am excited and empowered to revisit the season (and, of course, the series as a whole) now mindful of the revelation of the end. And it's all because the finale is wholly about its characters. Those people: Jack, John, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Ben, Desmond, Penny, Jin, Sun, Juliet, Claire, Charlie, Richard, and all the rest.

While, yes, the people in the flash-sideways were not, upon first watch, the people I knew, they did become those people. They are awakened. They are enlightened. They are not ghosts, but constructs created for the very purpose of that enlightenment, resolution, and redemption. Thinking back, Jack's son is no longer just Jack's son, but instead Jack's son is Jack and Jack is his father, Christian. He is able to become the father he always wanted for himself. Kate realizes and embraces a mother's love. Desmond is both grim reaper and arch angel, depending on if one's ready or not. And Ben is finally able to repent... for just so much.

Whether the flash-sideways is a construct of some spiritualism or a gift bestowed by Hurley during his reign on The Island, it is exactly what these characters needed to resolve themselves before finally letting go. And though I am not a man of faith, it is a nice thought that one will be rewarded for doing good with the time one has, for treating everything like it matters, but that one will be able to redeem one's transgressions. Atone and change. At least, be given the choice to do both. It's also nice to think about the value of community, of love and friendship, of brotherhood and family. That through these and experience, we are linked. That without each other, we could not have reached the point where we are right now. It's especially wonderful in the context of Lost, where through this Jin and Sun are given their due (finally), Kate, at last, does see Jack again, after waiting for so long, out-living him off The Island, where Jack sacrifices himself to save those who he's been protecting all along (believing in himself, once and for all), but is able to do so without dying alone. And do so knowing he's succeeded. And where Desmond and Penny are finally able to have their life together, here and after, forever.

I love this finale. Because it is not an explanation or a justification, but a resolution. That's all I wanted. For these characters who have been through so much to finally find peace. And no, this peace does not negate what they endured, for they still endured it. It was real. It happened. It mattered. And through it all, through them, we see ourselves. Our flaws and our mettle projected and amplified. In the end, it's all of that that's brought them—and kept them—together. At the end, them together is what matters most.

That and eating peanut butter from an empty jar with only your fingers.

And kissing your constant as often as time will allow.

And being together, no matter where, when, why, or how; what happens, happens, but the choice is yours alone.

Choose to see.

Thank you, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof and everyone involved in the conception, realization, and resolution of Lost. It's been a wonderful, beautiful, at times exasperating, but ultimately revelatory six years. I will miss it, for sure.

But I am so, so very fulfilled.

Comments

[Barbara]

GREAT ARTICLE!!!!