by Andrew Osborne
The Seinfeld finale was aggravating because it had a different (and far more sour) flavor than the rest of the series. The Deadwood and Twin Peaks finales were frustrating because they were inconclusive and came too soon, when it seemed like the shows had more to say.
But the frustrations, inconsistencies, satisfactions and overall entertainment value of the Lost finale perfectly encapsulated the engaging and exasperating nature of a uniquely compelling show that never quite lived up to the promise of its pilot episode and yet will definitely be missed around here (even though I’m thankful it’s finally over).
For example…was it just blind luck that Lapidus flew his plane out at exactly the right trajectory to avoid the deadly electro-magnetic miasma surrounding the island? (But on the other hand: how cool was it to see Lapidus again?)
And was my theory (somewhat) correct that the light represented spirituality and/or religion and/or faith itself, so that when Desmond pulled the big stone carrot (as my wife dubbed it) out of the shiny hole and extinguished the light, Locke/Smokey/Satan/The Void lost his supernatural mojo (and ability to scare us)?
But then, of course, Jack got to eat our cake and have it, too, by replacing the cosmic carrot so he could at least fantasize about a happily-ever-afterlife reunion with his loved ones and…uh…Penny and Libby, who he didn’t really know that well (but NOT his odd-looking theoretical son, who he didn’t seem to miss very much)…though I’m also glad the show finally acknowledged that Jacob was kind of an asshole, too.
Yet, whatever the show did or didn’t mean is, of course, beside the point. As Scott Von Doviak astutely observed, “My Lost is not your Lost…” — in the end, however much you put into the show and however much you got out was (and had to be) its own reward, since ultimately the series was a sloppy pile of pieces from at least a dozen separate puzzle boxes, which ultimately didn’t fit together into any kind of big picture, but were kinda fun to play around with and connect as best we could.
Anyway, What’s Alan Watching pretty much summed up my feelings, but here’s a mini-live-blog of my experiences watching the pre-show tribute and the final episode:
8:03 PM
The greatest hits show is reminding me how incredibly stupid Charlie’s death was.
8:08 PM
Uh, okay…my wife pointed this out, but boy she’s pretty damn right: not ONE mention of those troublesome tailies in the flashback show!
8:14 PM
Oh, yeah, and…why exactly did Ben kill Locke? And why did Jacob never care about Ben, even though Ben took a Jacob bath? I mean, why wouldn’t young-pre-killing-everybody-Ben be a candidate? Well…guess everything will soon be explained. Right?
8:57 PM
And if Sun was a candidate…why didn’t she travel back in time? Boy, this show was aggravating.
9:57 PM
And yet, also…so goddamn satisfying. Lupidas, Richard, Juliet, Bernard, Rose and Vincent? So far, so good!
11:38 PM
AAAAAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!!!!!
Perfect.
> For example…was it just blind luck that Lapidus flew his plane out at exactly the right trajectory to avoid the deadly electro-magnetic miasma surrounding the island?
I’d say it’s either because a) The Cork of Doom was unplugged long enough to “lower the shields”, as it were, or b) because Hurley let them leave, because he was now running the island by different rules than Jacob.
I hope to check in a few years from now and find out if Hurley has opened a Mr. Cluck’s franchise on the island. His island, his rules!
SVD