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Two days ago I watched the LOST finale, the final episode of a show been watching religious for the 5 years, through all 6 seasons. What an ending.  I've had a while know to think about the show and let the emotion subside, so I'd thought I'd document my thoughts.

Some people were not happy with the lack of definitive answers. To all those who are unhappy with the lack of explanation of the donkey wheel, what the island is, Walt's powers, this is fiction. This is not supposed to be based in our reality, never was.  People don't complain about Twilight, even though its set in a twisted version of our reality, and the magic would have been lost if they had to do a Q&A in the finale for all those still reeling for answers. If you're still desperate, rewatch the series: there are clues to what certain things are or mean, just not necessarily in the dialogue along. We're so used to being spoon-fed the plot structure that we've forgotten how to infer! The other explanation could be that the truth behind the phenomena may be beyond human comprehension, and therefore it was be futile to try and do it layman terms. The light at the centre of the island for example, is explained by a theorist over at DarkUfo as

"the closest way to quantify that light and explain it in layman's terms is exotic matter, a black/white hole, or a huge pocket of unbelievably powerful electromagnetism. We will never know the truth, because it is likely something too far out of human comprehension."¹.

Thats a pretty big step in overcoming the lust for answers: realizing that in some cases a literal explanation just wouldn't make sense nor be satisfactory.

However, I will admit that I was hoping for some very definitive answers by the end. Episode 15 of Season 6, Across The Sea, threw me off at first because we didnt get absolute answers, but after pondering over it for longer I found that that was okay. The island was, and hopefully always will be. The message here was you are looking at ONE instance of people interacting with the Island and the light it is protecting. There were possibly people before Jacob and MIB's mother, and there will be after Hurley and Ben. Someone akin to Desmond plugged the light in a long time ago, and it's not important who did it, like the same way its not important who built the concept of a wheel in our world. The island just is, the same way the universe is. And Definitive answers? Starting from this point at the end of Across the Sea, it was a lesson in letting go. The finale itself is the creators telling us to just let go in the same way the characters are, and take in the relationships and memories and forget about the details.

They couldn't have ended it better. We got a gripping resolution for the dark powers of the Man in Black. People will be theorizing for years exactly what he was. Was he Jacob's brother without the light in him, or was his something more sinister that resides underneath that cork keeping the light on and the lava out (perhaps some metaphor for a hell under the island). And the idea of the stopping station before the afterlife was absolutely fantastic. We know that those who left the island probably led full lives afterwards, and Hurley and Ben protected it as best they could for as long as they did. And once they had all passed on, they were all waiting on the otherside for each other. We not only got the ending of the show, but the true end of all those characters lives, a true conclusion.

And for all those who never saw the fuss about LOST, who scoffed at the sight of the polar bear on the island, I'm sure you're watching other series with more fantastical notions such as vampires or space stations. The difference with LOST is that it wasnt afraid to empower the audience, to let us work things out rather than sticking to the rules of television and spelling the plot out for us. It made us think, it made us invest, which is something no other show has done before to such a degree. There were no all-knowing characters, they were all flawed, they were all human, and at some point in the show, they were all lost.

One of the most riveting, fascinating and emotional stories I've ever come across. Thank you so much LOST.

1. Very good article in fact, I recommend reading it: http://theoriesonlost.blogspot.com/2010/05/regarding-end-and-minor-mysteries-part.html [back]