LOST: The End

Spoilers for “The End”

If you haven’t seen the episode yet, please don’t read this blog until you’ve watched all 2.5 hours of “The End.” Then, please, interact with my blog by leaving comments here or continuing the discussion on my Facebook page. I’ll warn you—my review is positive. I enjoyed the episode and was moved by it. I’m not an apologist for LOST; in fact, I’m often critical of it. However, I was satisfied with the ending, and in the following blog, I’ll explain why.



“The End” provided all the elements of my favorite LOST episodes and illustrated what the series has done well over six years. It provided

- Character moments for the Oceanic 815 survivors

- Action on the island

- Multiple storylines that somehow fit together, even if the “answers” are too ambiguous for some fans or lead other clue-seekers in a direction different from what they theorized

- Mythology

- Pop culture references (my favorite of the evening: Yoda)

- Sawyer’s nicknames for those friends and foes

- Repeated lines, repeated or mirrored scenes, revisited imagery (Even that Apollo bar has an important role.)

- References to fate and destiny

- Symbolism (in this episode, much of it spiritual but not always specifically Christian)

- Life, death, and the afterlife (more dead characters walking around)

- Ambiguity, multiple possible interpretations, and remaining questions to be discussed for a long time to come



What I specifically liked is that the LOST story is Jack’s story, brought full circle. It begins from his perspective—the obvious opening of his eye—and it ends with his perspective—his eye closes. The story is over. No matter that some photos of the empty beach with wreckage from Oceanic 815 are the images with credits at the bottom of the screen—the story ends with Jack closing his eye.

Here’s what I loved about the finale, in addition to it being true to LOST’s unique brand of storytelling:

Reunions—I don’t care if they’re in the afterlife. I don’t care if they specifically show the soul mates who are supposed to end up together, and some fans may not like the ultimate pairings. What I care about is the celebration of love and the idea that, even if life is very short or lovers don’t have that happy ending on earth, the afterlife is a real and loving place.

I’m not one who cries easily. In another fandom I’m most equated with Spock. But when Claire gives birth yet again, and Aaron once more brings together Claire and Charlie—I was happy and cried. Sure, I wish that they had had a long life together on the island or in California, but the promise of being reunited in an afterlife with loved ones and finding peace and eternal love is very satisfying to me. There was a lot of kissing in this episode. None of the ultimate pairings surprised me, but I was glad to see the couples get one more moment together before I told them goodbye.

The most important item for me, emotions aside, is that the island experience is real. This point seems to be the most contentious among fans and the reason why so many online posts are negative about the finale.

Christian Shephard explains to Jack that all of his experiences are real. The island is real. Everyone on the island who survived the crash (or their own method of getting to the island) lived a real, human life while we watched. Everyone on Oceanic 815 isn’t dead in the pilot; Jack isn’t dead throughout the series. As one person wrote in a review, the island is full of ghosts flitting around—everyone has always been dead. That’s not my perspective at all, and I think it’s borne out by Christian’s explanation to Jack.

We see Jack’s real life on the island and in the flashforwards. We see his real and only death at the end of “The End.” The sidewaysverse is an afterlife. Everyone dies at some time (but we don't see how or when Kate or Claire dies, for example, but one day they did). So at some point everyone arrives in this afterlife. Because Jack’s island relationships were the most important to his earthly life, those are the relationships he finds again in “heaven,” which is Jack’s interpretation of the afterlife.

Look at the “ascension” metaphors surrounding Jack in the final scenes. He comes into the church by the back door but will “move on” via the front door. (I also like that “moving on” is left to the viewer’s interpretation. It could mean living in heaven for eternity, according to Jack’s Christian upbringing. It could mean moving on to another plane of existence. It could mean reincarnation to move on to another life. It could mean no need for any type of life at all but final, resting peace.) But back to that ascension. Jack walks by a statue of an angel before he ascends the stairs to meet his loved ones in the sanctuary. He walks toward light. After the reunion with his loved ones, Christian touches Jack’s shoulder as he walks to open the doors to blinding white light. On either side of the door is another angel. On the island, when Jack is dying, he sees the Ajira airliner ascending, just at the moment that his spirit ascends from his body.

One image I didn’t particularly like is the way Jack and his loved ones sit down in pews in the church before Christian opens the door. In some ways it looks like they are seated as if in an airliner—rows separated by aisles—but the scene leaves the impression that they’re just sitting around waiting. Not the best final image of the group, even if I sort of get the analogy to the plane—which is where they all came together for the first time.

Another aspect I like is Hurley as island protector. He is the everyman character, the one who represents "us." When Jack passes the cup--or water bottle--to him, he doesn’t feel up to the responsibility of being the protector of the source of goodness. How symbolic of humanity—we everyday people don’t want to be the ones responsible for the good of each other, much less the whole world. But, like Hurley, we need to accept that responsibility and get on with it. I love that Hurley does take care of everyone—even Ben—in both the island world and the afterlife. Hurley not only survived the crash and the island, but he became the chosen one who protects goodness. I can't think of a better vocation; it's a continuation of all that Hurley did in LA and on the island before becoming protector. Hurley, as I always suspected, is really the good guy of this series, even if he isn't always the hero.

What is the meaning of LOST, at least to me? Both the island experience and the afterlife experience are real. Love conquers death. Redemption is possible for everyone. Everyone dies, but everyone also has an afterlife. Good can overcome evil. People can and do change for the better.

How does LOST reflect the meaning of life, as I interpret it? Everything we do has a purpose, and we each have a purpose, even if we’re not always sure what it is. We have an impact on those around us. As Jack tells Des, who believes he’s failed after “uncorking” the stone in the cave didn’t turn out as he expected, everything that happened is important, even if his (our) actions don’t always turn out as we hope or expect. The meaning of life is re-iterated on the 23rd of May. How very LOST.

I don’t know how and why the island is so “magical.” I don’t have a scientific explanation for how it works or moves or heals or becomes the cosmic focal point for battles of good and evil. I don’t have specific answers to specific questions about characters' lives. LOST leaves a lot of room for interpretation, but I don’t feel my six years were wasted.

Just like I suspect when I die I’ll figure out about some details of life, the details on LOST about which I sometimes obsessed didn’t turn out to be the biggest clues to the mystery of LOST--or the meaning of (Jack's) life. The people I think I failed the most (like Jack and his father feel toward each other in life) may turn out to be the most loving, redemptive relationships in retrospect. Like Jack, I’m flawed, and I may not be able to make a difference in the way I’d like, but everything I do has an impact on someone or something else.

In The End, it’s all about love.