TV Addiction: R.I.P. - LOST

Part of me can't believe I got up at 6 in the morning to watch a TV show (and cancelled my rehab session this morning)... but then part of me feels like a 10 year-old again sneaking down to the TV room at 6h30 on a Saturday morning to watch cartoons. That sense of anticipation... in this case a feeling of sharing in something epic (it's been shown simultaneously in 59 countries!)... and LOST did not disappoint! :o)

Ok, so if you haven't seen the final episodes of LOST, you'd better stop reading NOW, because I'm going to ramble on about it for a while. I'm home alone and none of my friends here are into it so I don't have anyone to talk to about it (my sister will watch the re-broadcasting later tonight in the UK, my Aunt set her dvr and will see it at some time this morning), so I've just got to let it all out here! Read on if your a Lost fan and share your thoughts, pass on if you're not.

First, the END: LOVED!!! that final image which mirrored the first in the series, Jack bleeding in the bamboo, accompanied by Vincent (about time he showed up again! lol!). It just felt, right. The series started with Jack opening his eyes, it ends with his closing his eyes. A lot of things in these final episodes have mirrored the beginning (Jack sewing up Kate instead of the other way around), that it's been a way to bring us full circle back to the beginning and help us understand that it all meant something.

I'm not going to pretend that I know what the Island actually is (that's one mystery Lindelof and Cuse will be taking to their graves), but I'm glad I've finally figured out the Alt-LA world: it's a kind of "purgatory/limbo" where each of our characters sort of "re-lived" their lives as if there had been no plane crash, a better life than the original, allowing them to come to terms with their lives while waiting for them to all die in the "real world" (as Christian tells Jack "everyone dies sooner or later") and for them to be ready to be awakened and brought together by Desmond so they can move forward together. I loved Christian telling Jack that these people were all very important to each other (the creators have mentioned many times that what was important was the characters and relationships, not the mythology, and this ending shows that) "no one needs to die alone", very poetic and brings back to mind that epic speech from the first season once again looping us back to that epic beginning...

As for a sign that they all died at different moments: that exchange between Ben and Hurley outside the church "you made a great second, and you made a great first" which would indicate that they lived on for a while on the Island working with each other.

Whatever Desmond did when he moved that rock and "put out" the Light is what changed the nature of things and allowed Smokey to be killed, and that it be Kate who saved Jack... perfect! And it also felt very right that Jack be the protector chosen to "fix" things (and that he sacrificed himself to do so), and then that Hurley replaced him as caretaker. It was always going to be one of those two (or Locke if he hadn't died), so it's even better that it was both!

I've been listening to the newscasters on Canal 4 here in the background (the channel showing Lost in Spain), and they're driving me nuts! me están sacando de quicio!!! They make it very obvious that they just don't "get it". Too cynical, too blasé. No faith. This is not an Island for people of reason but people of faith (and I'm like Jack, the person of science who became a person of faith where matters of the Island are concerned). It was an island which showed the importance of free will and gave people a chance for redemption... even all time baddie Ben!

Imagery: I loved all the quick flashes as people re-connected with each other and remembered... particularly the Charlie-Clair, Sun-Jin and Juliette-Sawyer. And who knew Sayid's true soul mate was Shannon and not Nadia?

And the music... hauntingly beautiful as always.

Disappointments? More Questions? Yes of course:

• What's the final deal with Widmore and Eloise? I never quite "got" them. 
• What about Dharma? How did they get there and what were they truly after?
• And of course we can't know what happened to the people who left/stayed on the Island, but I like to imagine Claire got to raise Aaron with Kate's help and that Desmond made it back to Penny and Charlie (since people not being able to leave the Island was Jacob's rule, and as Ben says Hurley can change the rules). 
• And I wonder how/when Ben and Hurley died and who replaced them? 
• And what would Richard do in the "real world"? Is he still immortal now that Jacob's gone? We didn't see him in the Church at the end... (or Lapidus for that matter. Now that I think of it were any of the non-Oceanic 816 people there other than Juliette? I don't remember seeing Faraday or Miles Charlotte...)
• And who is really David Shepherd? Did he only exist in this "Limbo" to help Jack deal with his issues, what becomes of him as Jack and Juliette (his supposed parents) move on?

Other random thoughts:

• Glad to see that Lapidus and Richard survived their respective off-screen supposed deaths.
• Finally found out what happened to Rose and Bernard (and no they weren't Adam and Eve!) and Vincent!
• Hadn't Widmore rigged that plane to explode? Did Locke remove all the explosives for his plot with the sub? I wouldn't have thought so...
• Juliette! FINALLY!!! :o)

I think I'll have to re-watch it. At one point there was a problem with the transmission (the subtitles slipped a couple of times but that wasn't a pb for me). One second F-Locke/Smokey had a gun pointed at Rose and Bernard and telling Desmond to go with him, the next he was walking towards the cave WITH Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Ben and Hugo... huh? I think we missed a bit there. Definitely need to re-watch it.

Oh, and since we got to watch it without commercials (YAY!!! I hate the thought of commercial breaks in the middle of such an intense experience), I think we actually saw the END about 1/2h before the people in the US (west coast), ha! ;o)

I think I'm going to stop by saying there's no point trying to rationalise Lost (even though it's a lot of fun). In the end either you felt it, or you didn't. And I was definitely feeling a lot during these final heart-wrenching, emotional episodes, and I think the finale wrapped it up nicely. I wish there were more, but it wouldn't really be Lost if they laid it all out for us would it? Leaves space for the imagination, for debate, for continued pondering. And makes for wanting to see it all again from the beginning! Can someone get me the full series on dvd for Christmas please? ;o)

If you care to read someone else's highly interesting and insightful thoughts on the matter, I highly recommend Cultural Learnings. I've been reading his reviews for a while (I waited this time until I'd written my own thoughts) and they're always very intelligent and thought-provoking. He mentions something about Richard noticing his hair going grey that either I completely missed or happened in that bit I think was missing from the transmission I saw. In other words: must see again! lol!

As another favourite series of mine stated when ending: "All good things must come to an end", and so we have reached a satisfying (for me at least) end to Lost. What do you have to say about it all?

image by "the madbutcher" at "deviantart"