Seeing Locke talk to Ben was so powerful. Locke was one of my favorite characters of all time and seeing good finally done by him was very rewarding.

Yes, and Locke forgiving Ben was typically Locke. Terry O'Quinn deserves another Emmy for his tour de force performance this season.

man, my internet is capped, so unless I can view it from someone else, I have to wait another week before I can see it.

I never got to watch Lost because we don't get the channel, but all you fans and the hubbub about the series made me curious, now that it is over, about what really happened on that island. So, your summary is helpful, Conan.

However, my favorite summaries of the Lost plot are these...and watching them takes a lot less time than watching 100+ episodes ;):

The Plot of Lost, Explained by Cats:



Fans of Lost attempt to make sense of the series in 2 minutes:

BBC News - Lost the plot? Fans attempt to make sense of series in two minutes...

That is so funny, Erica! Those cats sum it all up pretty well! :)

I'm glad to know that, Liz, since even if I wanted to watch 6 years of episodes now, I wouldn't have the time! The depth of my knowledge of Lost will have to remain at the level of these cats. It sounds like the series was a long and convoluted variation of the ol' good vs. evil theme, mixed with a heavy dose of supernatural phenomena and questions about whether fate exists and whether our lives have meaning beyond just for ourselves.

Based on cats, I rather like that Locke character in the wheelchair who was saved by the island and now wants to make sweet-ass love to it! And I like that angry guy who stayed angry to the bitter end, despite his fling with Kate aka "Freckles."

i have mixed feelings about the finale. it was really great - kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. very emotional, very touching. overall excellent.

but... it just didn't seem to fit the tone of the series. it was all about addressing character relationships rather than the mysteries of the island, and it's the mysteries that i really care about. that's why i watched the show.

i'm especially disappointed about the lack of answers surrounding the temple and its inhabitants. also the statue, and the tunnels...

also the motives of the Others is still not clear. we know that Charles was their leader, then Ben drove him off - but why was Charles so keen to get back? what interest did the Others have in the island anyway?

then there are the missing characters - Michael and Walt for example. and Eko! he deserves to "move on" as much as anyone.

overall it feels like the finale was a convenient way to wrap things up - distracting fans with a huge wave of emotion in order to distract from the fact that they left so many questions unanswered...

i think there definitely needs to be a spinoff to cover events we didn't get to see. just imagine it - "LOST: The Ben and Hurley Chronicles" :D

The angry guy would be "Sawyer", who had the amusing habit of giving nicknames to the other characters on the show. If you were on LOST, Erica, I think Sawyer would probably nickname you............."Vegangelica". ;)

Not really.

The Others, like whoever came before them, were convinced by Jacob that the source needed to be protected. They were Jacob's followers, which is why they weren't keen on new arrivals to the island. Jacob was an awful leader, as it turns out, and let his desire for their free will (more of excuse really) distract him from truly leading them. He was far more involved in leading Charles Widmore, and probably believed in him more / preferred him as a leader. When Ben ousted Widmore, he never truly spoke to Jacob. Or Jacob never truly spoke to him. This is likely because Ben was never supposed to be the leader of The Others, he was seized the position. Charlies wanted to get back because he believed he was the rightful heir to Jacob's throne (?) or he was the rightful leader of the people.

The statue, as well as the ancient tunnels, were clearly built by whoever came before Jacob's adoptive Mother. She was perhaps the last of that civilization, having been anointed the protector in a long line of protectors and escaping their fate. From this I've gleaned that perhaps the light wasn't all that mystical, maybe it was simply the electromagnetic energy that connects to other pockets and soft spots all over the world. The ancients (possibly descending from the Egyptians) developed this whole religious culture behind it. perhaps what gave the protectors their powers is a touch of mysticism within this universe, which we can only assume is what made Walt "special". Now the source of this mysticism is up to interpretation. Sci-Fi buffs are free to say other worldly beings help the ancients build their pyramids and were their Gods, likewise on the island. Spiritualists can say anything is possible and all faiths are legitimate if you believe in them, and that trying to understand is futile. And if you happen to like Classical Mythology, there's always The Gods.

I don't know if I'd be able to stay a vegan on a remote island if I wished to survive, Liz! :( It's good to know, though, that if I'd been one of the Lost and had starved to death, apparently I wouldn't have really died. ;)

Huh. I thought from what you said earlier that a big point of the series was that these people came together and, unbeknownst to them, were able to do something great together. Didn't this somehow involve protecting something good? Wasn't there some sort of struggle between factions (The Others, etc.)? If the Others were killing people, wouldn't they be the "bad" side?

It does sound like there were a lot of loose ends in the story, like noise said. The cat version seems a lot clearer.

Having a "good" and "bad" side of the story doesn't mean it's archetypal good vs. evil. Every faction had a motivation, and every faction was willing to do something "evil" to achieve their goals, noble as some of them may be. We got to know best the Oceanic 815 survivors, but we are shown the story from everyone's view point. They were protecting something that needed to be protected, and they did it. The journey they took is the real highlight, is what I'm saying.

And some journey it was, from the sounds of it! :)

Ah, I see. The show showed how all people can be willing to do "evil" to achieve their goals. That sounds fairly realistic. But if they were protecting something that "needed to be protected," wasn't that the ultimate "good" within the plot?

you're just makin' **** up ;)

i understand the hypotheticals here - i was just hoping for was something more concrete.

Just watched the final episode... I loved it. I'm really glad they didn't go with the whole "they were dead the whole time" theory. I really wanted the island to be real, so I'm happy with that. I also think it was really touching... how they all found each other in the afterlife, they needed each other to move on because the island and the people there were the most significant parts of their lives. Also, whenever one of the characters 'remembered' or realised where they were and what had happened, it made me all fuzzy inside.

fuzzy inside - it think that's what they were going for ;)

but once that fuzzy feeling wears off, and you start thinking about all the unanswered questions, won't you feel like they pulled a fast one on you?

i sure do.

in truth, the ending had nothing to do with the island, or even with the main story. and the flash-sidways had nothing to do with the bomb going off, like we wre lead to believe. really, we could ignore the whole flash-sideways timeline, it's not at all essential to the plot. all that comes of it is 'oh yay, they all get to see each other again and they all forgive one another for being murderous wretches'. great.

but what about the island? the light? the temple? the tunnels? jacob and mib's mother? walt's powers? (where is he by the way?) the electromagnetism? it all just floats out there, completely unexplained. ugh.

well they pretty much all died at one point or another the makers of lost were very good at killing characters without actually killing the characters

Of course they all died at some point, nobody lives forever, everybody dies. The ones who made it off the island and Hurley and Ben who were guarding the light could have lived for ages after before they died.

I want to know what happened to Vincent, though, was he at the church? Don't dogs go to heaven :(

And why wasn't Lapidus at the church either? Because he was a minor character the island wasn't the influencing factor of his life/ it didn't give his life meaning like the other so he didn't need them to 'move on'?

^Agreed that confused me too

Watch the scenes in Season 3 where Eko dies very carefully. You'll find that he had come to terms with his life, and was at peace with it. That's why he didn't confess any sins to his "brother" - he felt that with his life, he did the best he could. When he dies, we see him walking down a dusty road in Africa with his brother - truly happy. Maybe he was in his form of heaven. He had moved on. I think that when Eko died, since he was at peace, he was already ready to move on.

Maybe it's the same story with Frank?

Yes he was happy because maybe his presumed alcoholism was gone maybe

The show sounds like a really, really bad dream where nothing makes a lot of sense and you end up feeling rather...for lack of a better word...lost. Though I've never watched a Lost episode, thanks to that video now even I will be haunted like the rest of you by the burning question: who made that giant 4-toed foot sculpture?!?

Got to say erica that cat thing rocked loved the Sayid cat

Jacob's Mother's people, duh! :p:


Seriously though, rent the DVDs. NOW. You'll really be glad you did.

^hahahahahaha

Fantastic ending, the only thing that took a bit of the gloss over it was that Life On Mars/Ashes To Ashes did pretty much the same thing for their last ever episode just a few days earlier, only they did it in a pub not a church :laughing:

Honestly you follow 2 TV shows for 5 odd years and they both end pretty much the same way :(

Oh, and... I'd like to know the answers to some of these questions, too. Anyone game?

well for humour's sake they just listed every question on the show, even the answered ones. anything in particular that sticks out?

Yeah I know it was mostly for humour, but I still wonder a few things:

- Why did the Others want Walt again? I forgot. And why did he tell Locke not to open the Hatch, and how did he apparate???

- Why are supplies still being dropped on the Island after the purge and by whom?

- Who built the four toed statue and why does it only have 4 toes?

- What are all the hieroglyphics everywhere?

- Why can't women have babies on the island and why is that relevant? (Or isn't it?)

- Why did Ben give Juliet that weird mark on her arm as punishment? What does it mean?

- Why did Desmond see the future at times? And go back and forth between timelines? I don't get Desmond. Why did he see Claire and Aaron leaving on a helicopter? And why did Widmore's electromagnetic experiment send him to the afterlife and back? Someone explain Desmond to me.

- Why can Hurley see dead people?

- What are the 'rules?' and why do they exist? (When Alex gets killed)

- If the smoke monster can't leave the island, how come Jack sees his dead dad off the Island?

- What is the deal with the frozen wheel and the light on the island? Who finished building the wheel? What is the light? And why does the wheel combine "light and water" and what does it do? Why do they end up in the middle of the desert when they turn it?

- Why did the Oceanic 6, including dead Locke, HAVE to return to the Island? And why did they have to recreate the exact same circumstances?

- What is the deal with Eloise? How come she is in the purgatory place, is she dead, if so, then why isn't she 'moving on' and why isn't Faraday at the Church? And what is with that pendulum thing Eloise shows them earlier on in the show?

- Why can Jacob leave the island but his brother (smokey) can't?

- How did Sayid come back to life and why are he and Claire 'infected' and need to voluntarily take poison??

- How does the magic drinking of liquid work when somebody takes over the role of protector of the light and why does it make them "like" the previous person ("you're like me now").

- What was the deal with Widmore? What did he want? I know this has probably be answered or inferred in the show already but I'm confused.

Well, I thought it was a good finale, the last scene with Jack was pretty powerful I think.

But I'm still pretty iffy about the whole "sideways timeline is actually purgatory" thing, I sure hope that was just symbolic because I thought the writers would come up with something less cliche than that.

I can accept most of the things the writers threw our way. Polar bears, magic black kids, electromagnetic islands, crazy scotsmen in hatches who are immune to radiation, evil smoke monsters, haunted cabins (they never explained that one), mediums, time travel, fountain of youth, fate.

But purgatory? No, that's going too far. And as Lateraus said, many unaswered questions.

Like the big one for me is, what the f*ck happened to Michael, Walt and Mr. Eko? Where were they during this big happy reunion in the afterlife? Apparrently Michael is still trapped on the island as a spirit, well that isn't fair, is he being punished for killing Ana Lucia and Libby? Well what about Ben and Sayid? They killed a sh*tload of people and in a much more cold and sinister manner, all Michael wanted was to get his kid back. And WHY did the smoke monster kill Eko? Also a question never answered.

Is there just a "no darkies in heaven" policy?

Well Rose was there so that's not it. :confused:

Likely, Samuel (the man in black) was wanting to see if he could use Mr. Eko to do his bidding, maybe even try to occupy his body. That first time he "judged" Eko, he could have been thinking.. alright, this guy might be useful to me (same as with Locke). But for whatever reason, when Eko expressed that he was at peace with his life - he didn't want to confess sins - he became useless to the monster and he simply discarded him.

I believe Eko wasn't there because he didn't need to be. He didn't need the others to move on. He was already at peace with himself when he died. To quote the character, "I did not ask for this life I have been given, but it was given nonetheless. And with it, I did my best." When Eko dies, the last thing he sees is himself walking down a dusty road with his deceased little brother, who he loved and always protected. Are they in heaven together? Maybe. Another theory is that that was Eko's purgatory - could be either one... I personally prefer the heaven one because it didn't seem like Eko needed to "let go" of anything.

Same! Its used to be cool. The Charlie died and I stopped watching :(

rose is a house n****r, she doesn't count. the rest went to hell.

Well it seemed like the others had a special interest in children, evidenced from taking the two children from the tail section survivors and their failed attempts to take Claire's baby. But Walt was pretty special in particular, but the writers never fully explained what his actual powers were. But the others probably wanted to experiment with him to find out, he did tell his dad that they were giving him "tests", we never find out what kind of tests they were.

It's possible that Walt was just a tool to get Jack, Sawer and Kate in the end but that would be a very anticlimatic answer.

Walt probably warned Locke because he knew all the chain of events it would lead to.

The Walt issue bugs me more than everything else that this show failed to resolve. I mean it was such a huge plot point, the writers shouldn't get away with raising all these questions without answering them. There's a difference between ambiguity and just f*cking around with you.

Dammit those are all good questions, the last one probably has some pseudo-scientific explaination involving the electromagnetism of the island or something.

Just a reminder I think.

Remember when Desmond took the vaccines while still in the hatch to fight the "sickness" or whatever? My theory is that it was Jacob's magic glowing water or whatever he calls it, that gave Desmond special immunity to radiation. But after the fail safe incident, somehow he traveled in time, HOW? I have no goddamn idea, but it was that experience that gave him the abillity to predict the future.

As for Claire, she probably was supposed to leave the island but puff the magic smoke man f*cked all that up when he manipulated her to stay on the island.

Also I'm not really sure but what if they really did create an alternate timeline? Juliet said it worked didn't she? If there never was an alternate timeline, then WHY? What was the hole in Faraday's theory?

It's possible that it really was an alternate timeline and the whole purgatory thing was just symbolic but that doesnt explain Christain popping out of the damn casket and also the whole "leaving" thing wouldn't make any sense. So I dunno.

I dunno but it makes me wonder if that Dave guy was really just an imaginary friend, maybe he was a dead guy?

No idea.

Maybe that time it was the real deal?

Well in the Jacob/MIB episode the guys ol smokey was chillin with created a wheel so they could "leave" the island, I dunno if it's the same wheel that Ben and Locke used under the Orchid station, since Locke found it after falling in a well which is where the smoke guy was building his, I think they're one in the same.

But the one the smoke guy was building was destroyed by his crazy mom killer lady so someone else rebuilt it.

Man you conjure up all this stuff I forgot about, maybe that's what the writers were counting on. Again no idea, what caused the second crash anyway? How did that old lady know it would crash?

Well Desmond told him he wasn't taking Daniel, we don't know why but it's probably because Desmond knew she couldn't part with him.

The pendulum thing was designed by the dharma people and was part of an off island Dharma station called The Lamp Post, it was hidden underneath a church in LA, possibly the same church from the finale.

I think the pendulum is somehow connected to the Valenzetti Equation, which was part of the Lost Experience alternate reality game which I think is canon, it's an equation that the Hanso Foundation used to predict the fate of the world. The core numbers of the equation are you guessed it. 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42.

Probably because his brother is dead and like all the other "bad" spirits he can't leave.

Again, if only "good" spirits can pass on, then what in the HELL was that Keamy guy (crazy rambo dude from the freighter) doing in purgatory?

I dunno if this is meant to be taken literally as a real sickness or what. Drawing a blank here, I got nothing.

It's magic.

I think Widmore was simply being a collosal assh*le.

Cotdayum.

For some of those questions there are pretty good theories, but the ones that most bother me are.

-Who made the four toed statue?
-What is the sickness?
-What was the lockdown all about and who sends the supply drops?
-Why were Kevin and Desmond making a map of an island they couldn't explore anyway? Why wouldn't Dharma already make a map of the island?
-What was the cabin and why was it surrounded by powder? Was it to keep the smoke guy out or keep him in? It seemed to have failed on either count
-What was the significance of Walt and his powers? If any
-Why did Jacob/Widmore want Danielle and Alex dead?
-What were the actual reasons that Daniel, Miles and Charlotte were brought to the island?
-Why was that creepy black guy who worked for Widmore urging Locke to go on a walkabout? Was Widmore using Locke somehow? Why?
-Was Widmore going to take the island from Jacob? What were his plans?
-Why did Ethan join the others?
-What was the magic box that brought Locke's dad to the island?
-Why did Faraday leave the island and where did he go?
-WTF was with Sayid being with Shannon in the end? Did he really choose her over Nadia, a woman he spent years of his life searching for? For a woman he'd spent time with for like, a few days?

And here's some really big ones that REALLY bother me.

-So was this purgatory or not? If there never was an alternate timeline, why not? How did Daniel's plan fail?
-How did everyone survive the explosion and why did they travel to the present? I mean how in the F*CK did Juliet not die immediately? She smashed a goddamn atom bomb with a rock for crying out loud.
-Who WAS the crazy old lady who raised Jacob and smokey?
-How did going into the cave turn the man in black into smoke but not Jack or Desmond?
-How exactly would the smoke guy leaving the island mean the end of the world? Because the only way he could leave the island was to destroy it's power source? What is the significance of the island to the rest of the world?
-How did Hurley never lose weight?

My take:
- Yes, it was purgatory. Pretty sure the producers identified that it was after the show was aired as well?

- No idea how they travelled to the present but we don't even know if the bomb goes off. I don't think the bomb goes off.

- Obviously someone who was on the island before them, who was the protector of the light. Would like to know how people first arrived on the island though.

- I was wondering the same thing. No clue.

- The light on the island is obviously some sacred force - "life, death and everything" so if it was extinguished then it would be catastrophic for the world. I would like to know more about this light and the island and it's significance to the rest of the world as well. They turned the last episode into about the PEOPLE rather than about the ISLAND.

- Hahaha.

I recommend reading this... it's a two part, very cohesive recap of the finale and the writer gives a very convincing interpretation.