I’ve been meaning to write a post on the finale of LOST for some time now. There seem to be two schools of thought on the totality of the show:

1) They didn’t answer many of the questions and so this show as nothing more than a giant con job.

2) They didn’t answer many of the questions but that’s okay because {fill in rationale here}.

Part of me is dumbfounded and makes me wonder if I watched the same final season as everyone else did. I have gone on record as saying that I didn’t expect them to answer all of the questions and figuring that a lot of people would be disappointed. But I was more wrong about what they did answer than I was about what they didn’t. My main questions going into the last season were:

1) What is the island and why is it special?

2) What is the smoke monster?

3) What happens to the people on the island?

4) Who is Jacob and why is he what he is?

5) What was the Dharma Initiative’s interest on the island?

Of those five questions, they answered four. I have some minor questions about the former inhabitants, how they got on the island, and in some cases how and wy they left (Charles Widmore in particular). Their record was spottier on those, but I consider those to be much smaller questions. And by and large, they were questions that I could answer any number of ways. I much prefer those kind of unanswered questions to those that are extremely difficult. When I look over that video with all of the unanswered questions of Lost, with only a couple of exceptions every question falls into one of three categories: (1) They answered that question to my satisfaction, (2) the question seems answerable any number of ways, or (3) it’s not really important. there were only two or maybe three questions that could be considered anything remotely a show-stopped (one definite, two maybes).

And unlike so many other commenters, I really think that they did have a pretty strong idea of where they were going from the outset. Matthew Baldwin suggests that they had to change course with the Jacob-Esau battle because every other possibility had been speculated upon, but when that type of thing typically happens it raises more questions than it answers and I felt like the late introduction of these characters (both of which having been alluded to or ethereally appearing earlier on) explained far more than they unsettled earlier revelations.

So in the end, I really felt like I got my money’s worth. If I don’t find myself employed soon, I may take a couple weeks and watch it from beginning to end. We’ll see if I still feel that way.


Category: Theater

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3 Responses to Lost & Satisfied

  1. Barry says:

    There were a couple of plot points that weren’t explained (the Charles Widmore plot you mentioned being a prime example) that I’ve either heard a speculative explanation from a fan or made up myself that is perfectly plausible and fits in with what we did end up knowing about the island through the finale. And that’s fine with me – I’ll take that as my explanation and move on.

    I can’t really think up many unanswered mysteries that I can’t offer at least one plausible scenario to explain. And if I can’t, then that mystery really doesn’t matter…

    An example of this would be the polar bears..

    1) Q: Why were there polar bears on the island? A: Because the Dharma Initiative brought them there for experimentation.

    2) Q: What kind of experiments? A: Something to do with time and distance travel. That’s why a skeleton with a Dharma collar was buried in Tunisia.

    3) Q: Why did they need polar bears, specifically? A: Who cares? Make it up! Maybe polar bears had more adaptable DNA than black bears. Or platypuses or praying mantids, whatever. It doesn’t matter.

    Mystery #1 was answered in the course of the show. Mystery #2 was alluded to and supported by several plot points.
    Mystery #3 is was too involved and adds nothing to the show

    The people who really cared about mystery #3 are the ones put out by the finale.

    And you can apply that Mystery #1, 2, & 3 rule to a number of the puzzles on lost. Widmore, Dharma, Jacob, Walt, you name it.

  2. Mike Hunt says:

    Dharma showed a lot of initiative in the first episode.

    Otherwise she never would have married Greg.

  3. Abel says:

    Thought the finale wasn’t perfect, I didn’t feel conned or terribly let down. They answered the big questions that needed to be answered.

    We always don’t get answers to all of our questions in this life. May Jack will learn more about the Polar Bears in the next one.

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