Last Night on Lost

Note: I don't think there are any spoilers in this I tried to not give anything away as some people have not seen the episode


As I am sure you are aware last night was the last episode of Lost. I don’t usually write about this kind of stuff but I feel like adding my 2 cents. First off, I really liked the ending. If you hated it I am sorry you spent 6 years watching something only to decide that it didn’t meet your outrageous expectations. I say outrageous for a couple of reasons.

First on a show like Lost where there are lots of mysteries and strangeness people have built up ideas in their head as to what explains the mysteries and when the writers endeavor to put answers to those mysteries they are not going to be as cool at the answers you have made up in your head. One of the reasons books are usually better than movie because the books allows you some wiggle room for your imagination to fill in the cracks.

Second NO ending is every entirely satisfying! Can you name a single TV show or book that after you partake of the massive journey from the beginning to the end you were totally happy with how it ended? Cause I can’t think of any. Take every Legend of Zelda game, you spend all this time running around solving problems, you defeat Gannon and then either the world is reset or some other crazy thing that basically makes all your effort for nothing, but you had a good time getting to the end (except of water temples). Endings by nature never live up to the events that took place before the ending, because it’s an Ending! There is nothing more after that, there is no more room for interpretation or surprises, it’s over and people have issues with things being over.

Third, Lost was never about the answers. Lost was always about the questions, if you thought it was about the question you are wrong. It’s not answers that make things interesting, questions make things interesting. We (myself included) thought what we wanted was the answers, but the answers either just lead to more questions, or to answers that put a final nail into questions, some answers were good, and they needed to at least touch on the big things, but for them to go through and try to answer everything takes the fun out of it. The “Island” is mysterious and that is what makes it cool, Lost is not House, there does not need nor should there be an explanation for everything. I have heard the argument that this is bad storytelling, people basically bitching that since they wrote things into the plot they had to answer them, I totally disagree, there are thing in the plot that needed to be answered, but there are many other things that are purely there to flesh out the idea that the Island is a mysterious place where things beyond what is dreamt of in your philosophy (Horatio) are possible. Science tries to find the answers to things, with the seeker of that answer embarking on a quest to get those answers through trial and error. TV is not like that, the audience does not try to find the answers, no amount of theory or trial and error is going to affect the answers, we get the answers when the producers and writers decide to give them to use, and since we don’t really “earn” those answers, I don’t consider sitting in front of a TV screen a justification for earning something, any answer is going to be unsatisfying, especially if that answer is different than the answer you imagined in your head. That was one of the best parts about Lost, sitting around sounding like an idiot to anyone that did not watch the show, and trying to figure out what is going on. For me this was half the fun of Lost, I loved watching the show, but after I watched it I couldn’t wait to discuss it with other fans or check the Lostpedia for some crowd sourced info and theories.

Finally, Lost, depending on when you started it was a 6 year trek. If you have decided that you hated the last episode you are doing yourself a disservice. You are letting something be ruined for you because it didn’t live up to your impossible expectations. Lost is over and we got the ending, remember that it is not the ending that is important it’s the journey that got you there, so if you enjoyed watching the show, “let go” and chill out on the ending. I would be too bad to have something you have enjoyed for 6 seasons, be ruined by 2.5 hours of content, and you know what? If you really hated the answers you were given, re-watch the series, and just don’t watch the last episode and the Lost can continue on however you want it.

If you can think of anything as epic as Lost that has a satisfying ending let me know… but I doubt it