Episode 17 - The End

Well, I truly never thought this day would come and as sad as I am to see Lost go, it was quite a ride! It had its ups (Kate and Jack!) and its downs (Nikki and Paulo) but all in all it was a groundbreaking series that transformed the way viewers interacted with television. I hope you all enjoyed the finale as much as I did and aren't too disappointed with the lack of answers, but if you think hard enough about the last ten minutes you'll realize that this was the perfect finale, and not just because Kate ended up with Jack, but because it really ended with what the show was about, the characters.

SUMMARY

Island

Jack and the gang move on to find Desmond to beat Smokey to the heart of the island. Desmond rescued by Rose and Bernard, offered to help him but ultimately sent him on his way. Before he could leave Smokey appeared and threatened to kill Rose and Bernard if Desmond didn't come with him and Ben. Desmond agreed and left with Smokey when they came across Jack and the gang. Kate tried to shoot Smokey but he told her to save her bullets as they didn't hurt him. Jack agreed that they both needed to take Desmond to the heart of the island and he left with Smokey and Desmond. Once they arrived, they lowered Desmond down into the spring and once at the bottom, he got in the spring and removed the cork causing tremors throughout the island. During this time, Jack and Smokey became mortal and fought. Smokey knocked Jack out and ran for the cliffs to get on his boat. Jack catches up with him and they Matrix style fight. Smokey is able to stab Jack and right when Smokey is about to slit Jack's throat, Kate appears and shoots Smokey with her last bullet. Jack kicks Smokey over the edge and returns to say goodbye to Sawyer and Kate. Jack declares his love to Kate and then Hurley, Ben, and Jack return to the spring. Jack gives Hurley the power to become the protector and Ben agrees to be his second. They lower Jack down where he rescues Desmond and plugs the hole back up bringing the spring back to life. Meanwhile Kate and Sawyer find their way to the plane, grab Claire, and hop on board with Miles, Richard Alpert, and Frank Lupidus. The plane starts and they fly away. Jack wakes up outside the spring and wanders through the jungle to the bamboo forest where he initially woke up after the crash. He lays down, is joined by Vincent the dog and closes his eyes and dies.

Sideways Flash

The entire gang was making their way to the concert at the Whidmore's. At the hospital Juliet enters Sun and Jin's room to assess the status of the baby. When she goes to give the ultra sound Sun and Jin remember their past life and are happy. Juliet finds her son and ex husband Jack in the lobby and their son says he's taking Claire to the concert and will meet his dad there. Jack goes into surgery with Locke who wakes up and is able to feel his legs. He then remembers his past life and tries to help Jack remember, telling him he's ready and needs to let go. He tells him he never had a son and needs to go with him. Meanwhile Hurley shoots Charlie with a tranquilizer gun and throws him in the back of the car and then takes Sayid to a bar where a fight is happening outside. A man (Boone) is thrown to the side and once the girl is hit Sayid rushes to her aid and finds Shannon. They both remember and embrace. Boone comes over to thank Hurley for finally coming. Desmond and Kate show up at a church to sign for Jack's father's coffin and asks that it be put inside. He then takes Kate to the concert where she finds Claire and they both recognize each other from the hospital. Claire sees Charlie on stage where he was woken up by Charlotte who finds Daniel back stage and they remember each other. While Charlie is on stage he recognizes Claire who begins to go into labor. Kate goes to help her and they deliver Aaron backstage with Charlie's help. All three remember their past lives and Charlie and Claire kiss. Miles had seen Sayid at the concert and alerts Sawyer to this. Sawyer runs to the hospital to protect Sun and Jin when he comes across Juliet who was called away from the concert for an emergency. Upon seeing each other they remember and Juliet repeats her last lines from before she died on the island. When Jack finally arrives at the concert he's too late. Kate sees him and tells him that he will remember soon if he follows her. She takes him to the church and says everyone is waiting for him and to go around the back. He finds his father's coffin and opens it to see it's empty. His father appears behind him to tell him that everyone is waiting for him. Jack remembers his life on the island and through a series of flashes he sees all the peeople he's helped, lost, and loved. They embrace and Jack lets go. Christian Shepard tells him that he created this place for everyone to reconnect and Jack enters the church to find all of this friends together from the island. Kate holds his hand as they sit down at the church and Christian walks out into the light.

Well, I can't even believe that I just wrote the summary to the last every episode of Lost! The flash sideways was hard since it was very choppy and sappy. So I think it's important to say that the ending was left open to a number of interpretations and my below points will detail my thoughts on the finale so I don't know if everyone will agree but I think that was the point, you could kind of decide on your own ending.

1. I cannot describe the extreme satisfaction I derived from being right all along - Jack and Kate would end up together and they would do so in a very Titanic like fashion. Needless to say when Jack and Kate professed their love for each other I was ecstatic. They were the main love story from the beginning so it only made sense for them to end up together, and major props to the creators for making it happen in both story lines - on the island and in Jack's alternate reality!

2. So here is my take on the sideways flash ending. Life on the island was real - everyone really was alive and lived their life as it was portrayed. Some people died on the island (Jack, Boone, Shannon, Eko), some died off the island (Locke), and some died after the island (Kate, Sawyer, Richard, Miles, and Frank) but in the end everyone died. When Jack died, he created this alternate reality in the sideways flash to bring everyone back together. So yes it took place in 2004 but there's not telling when this 2004 took place. In a sense the show "Lost" was all about Jack and his perception of his life and death and every person on the show had their own "Lost" show. We as viewers caught a glimpse into Jack's. So he created this world where they all got to be together. They showed up on the island for a purpose, they were lost within their own lives and couldn't get past the difficulties that led them to where they were before the crash. Once they crashed on the island they had the opportunity to redeem themselves and find hope and meaning in relationships they created with each other. Jack created the alternate reality as a mechanism to help people let go and cure the loneliness and disconnect they had with their previous life. Once the character was able to let go of their past life, they were allowed to join the others in the church and pass on.

3. You can also look at the island as a test. These people were given the chance to redeem themselves to see if they would be allowed to enter their respective heavens. If you see at the end, the very god like "Christian Shephard" as Kate pointed out, was standing in front of a window that represented all of the major faiths in the world. I think Lost left us with this open ended possibility is once these people were at peace with themselves and passed the island's test of humanity, they were able to pass on to their respective heaven. Again I default to Titanic where they lived out their lives, be it they passed too soon or lived to an old age, they all were able to meet up in the flash sideways where they were truly meant to be and with the people they were meant to find.

4. Of the reunions on last night's show I have to highlight the ones between Sayid and Shannon and Claire and Charlie. They were the best of the night and my heart was melting after watching everyone get reunited - it was a veritable love fest and I LOVED it. I forgot how much I missed Shannon and Boone and when Sayid rescued her I almost died. Thank god for Vampire Diaries because I don't know how much longer I could have lived without Boone on my TV screen! But Claire and Charlie's little family unit was adorable, mostly due to the fact that Claire wasn't wearing that hideous wig anymore!

5. When Jack went down the spring we all knew that was the end of him(even though me thinks he should have been healed by the magical spring and if Kate can survive a gunshot wound to the shoulder in a jungle then certainly Jack could survive a measly stab wound). However, seeing the spring and the giant cork that plugged up the entrance to Hell certainly made the wine reference from the beginning of the season make sense. I understand the religious ramifications when drinking the water turned into wine which made you the island's protector but it also worked that the spring was a cork preventing the evils of Smokey from escaping the island, almost like a Pandora's box. But it turns out we needed to uncork it to make Smokey mortal thus allowing us to kill him (and by us I mean Kate being bad ass with her gun and Jack's swift kick over the edge of the cliffs). All of this was a little predictable but we all knew we couldn't just let Smokey escape!

6. As I predicted, Jack was only the protector for a little while (2 1/2 hours I might point out!) and then Hurley took over with Ben at his right hand side. While I think Jack was the obvious choice, Hurley was clearly the better fit for it - as we've seen him in this compassionate role for six years now, of course he should rule protector over the island. Jack on the other hand has always been a hot head, not always thinking things over before acting, which is why he was perfect for the temporary protector from Jacob. He had to sacrifice himself for the island to get done what needed to be done while leaving it in the hands of someone fully capable. I'm happy for Ben too because his whole life he's lived for the island and now he gets a chance to guard it for real this time. I think Jacob left him out of the loop too much which caused his disgruntled attitude and often reckless behavior but now, ruling with Hurley who needs his help, he can achieve his goal of protecting the island he loves, this time with a better outcome.

7. The fight between Jack and Smokey was awesome, and I so called it going Matrix style. Smokey needed that beating and I never say no to Jack looking awesome and muscular while fighting bad guys. When Kate showed up to save the day it just made everything better. Few problems with that whole scene though - when I jump off cliffs (which you might not think this but I am adventurous) I don't jump head first, I tend to go feet first, for safety reasons. So come on Kate and Sawyer, don't you think it was a little risky? Also I think once Smokey was shot, I probably would have done something else to just make sure he was dead before I threw him off the cliff. I mean this is an evil pillar of smoke we're talking about here people! I wouldn't change a thing about the Kate and Jack embrace except I'll add a "take that Juliet and Kate lovers!" muahahah.

8. So why were some people in the church and others weren't? I think some are obvious - Michael was stuck on the island for eternity and Ana-Lucia, come on, I think we're all happy she wasn't there. I am curious as to why Miles wasn't there with his dad but then again I think this is Jack's alternate world and had the people there that were important to him. Also important to note is Ben's refusal to enter the church. He said he wasn't ready to let go which seems to be how you are able to enter the church. Everyone else found their redemption through love, romantic and friendly, Ben however was only ever to achieve his goals with deception and violence therefore he wasn't ready to pass on. He mayb able to achieve it someday with the help of Danielle and Alex.

9. While most of the mysteries were solved, some were not. We can't act surprised since we knew we wouldn't get all of our answers and I will let the creators slide since I don't think they even realized the beast they created in the beginning. A few questions I would have liked to seen answered would have been 1. Walt. Why was he so special and why did we never find out his importance to the island and his control over animal life? My assumption is that this was poor casting - he grew too fast and couldn't figure out how to get him into the story line so they just sent him away to live a happy life off the island. 2. Mother. How did she get there and why did she choose Jacob over Smokey? I'm assuming that we were never intended to get an answer to the island origins, just that it was the beginning of time and much like we don't know how we got here for sure, we won't be finding out how lostie island came to be. 3. The island. Why did they time travel, how come no one could find it and how the heck did it move around? I think all of those questions relate to each other, it was hard to find because it moved and it had to move to stay hidden. We also couldn't think of time as linear, we could bounce back and forth and sometimes skip certain parts - but I think everyone agrees we had to leave behind our sense of reality with the series as a whole. So those three questions are the biggies for me in being unresolved and that's too bad.

10. Way back in the beginning the producers said it wasn't purgatory. Many, many times they confirmed it wasn't, and in the end it was and it wasn't. The island was not purgatory, but a means to reach it. Jack created his purgatory and through their redemption on the island, they were able to find who and what they needed in purgatory. Once they entered the church they accepted their lives and moved on, with Christian Shepard leading the way to heaven. Heavily religious but any world with Kate and Jack together with Jack in a suit, I'll take it!

I think when I sat down to watch the pilot way back in 2004 I never expected that a show could draw so many thought provoking questions. I also appreciate and thank the show for making the science fiction genre much more mainstream and myself much less dorky .... oh wait, a science fiction blog still makes you dorky? okay whatever! I've always loved television as much as I love books and music and to find something that I can discuss on all levels was a treat. While my grammar has been less than perfect in my blog I hope my enthusiasm for the show and the love of the discussion has come through and you were able to disregard the fact that I was an English major (thanks Mom and Dad for the education!) I hope I was able to clear up a few of the mysteries and really get you thinking from a different perspective. I've always loved interactive stories and this show was just a perfect escape for a weekday night. Whether you're a fan from the very beginning, watching it on DVDs, or just eager to be in the loop, I think you'll be happy you stuck it through. I certainly am and I hope you all enjoyed reading along and thank you for indulging me while I put my thoughts out there. You guys are the best!

xo

B