The Lost series finale was certainly a big television event. The highly anticipated conclusion to the popular series aired as an epic two & a half hour TV movie, surrounded by massive media buzz and considerable viewer expectation. The question on everyone’s mind as we all counted down to the big moment was, will fans be satisfied with the solution to the convoluted six year mystery? Can Lost deliver the goods or will the finale leave fans wondering why they wasted their time for six years?
People love puzzles. There’s a satisfaction in seeing all those scattered little pieces finally fit together so we can see the big picture. The creators of Lost understood that better than anyone. Those clever fellows gambled on the fact that people would be so drawn into Lost’s web of mystery that they would return week after week to watch a show where not a single viewer understood what exactly was happening. Well, the Lost creators were absolutely right. Fans hung in until the eagerly awaited finale, expecting to be rewarded with the answers at long last. But did they get those answers?
As the end came closer and closer, Lost fans were chomping at the bit to find out what it was all about. Expectations for the revelation were at a fever pitch when the finale aired. There were so many theories out there as to what would happen at the end, they could fill a book. Devoted Lost viewers remember every detail of the show, having analyzed (or over analyzed) every line and every scene. The trick was putting all those disparate, seemingly irreconcilable threads into a coherent narrative. Could it be done?
The answer is no. The creative minds behind the show -- J. J. Abrams, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof - -had publicly admitted that they were not going to answer all the questions they posed over the last six years. They freely confessed that not every mystery would be resolved in the finale. The trio promised that while many questions would be answered in the final few episodes, some things will be “left to interpretation” or simply forgotten.
Lost enthusiasts have often debated over whether or not Abrams, Cuse and Lindelof really had the whole series as meticulously plotted out as they’d like us to believe. New plots were often added, while others were unceremoniously dropped. New characters were introduced and then discarded. For instance, we spend all of season two getting to know the “Tail-enders” but they were all gone by the end of year three. What about the 
Dharma Initiative, who seemed so important in the first few seasons but were phased out and forgotten? And all that stuff about the Island traveling through time ultimately led to nothing except to set up the romance of Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell). It often seemed that the creators were making it up as they went along.
So what exactly was the Island? Was it the source of all good and evil on Earth? We’re told at one point that it’s a “cork” which prevents Hell from entering the world. However, the descent of Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) into the pit seems to indicate that it was merely electro-magnetic energy which was coming from it. Was the Island’s power magic-based (explaining how someone could be transformed by it into an amorphous smoke monster) or was it ultimately of a scientific nature (which would explain how magnetism-resistant Desmond was the key to “uncorking” the island). And how was Ben able to move the island? (We saw the mysterious wheel being built but it was never designed for that purpose.) Who built the chamber the pit was in? Was it the same mysterious people who built all the temples and statues? And who was the “Mother” (Allison Janney of The West Wing) who found Jacob and his brother? Why was she guarding the island and who was she guarding it from before the Smoke Monster came into being? And why is it so difficult to get off the island by boat (remember Desmond’s “snow globe” comment) although some people managed it (Michael left by boat). And how did that pool of water in the temple bring Sayid (Naveen Andrews) back from the dead?
Other mysteries remain unanswered as well. What was the secret of Walt’s power? Why did the Others want to study him and what did they learn from their examination? A similar question hangs over Aaron. What was his special destiny and why was it so imperative that no one else raise him?
What about the “flash-sideways” and the hydrogen bomb? We’re introduced to the “Side-Lost” (which turns out to be limbo) after the H-bomb goes off. Juliet sacrifices herself setting off the bomb and she says “It worked”. Yet it seems that the bomb ultimately had nothing to do with “Side-Lost” and therefore the H-bomb had no real purpose at all.
The biggest argument for the theory that they’ve been winging it is the nature of the series antagonists, known as “the Others”, which has changed dramatically since year one. The Others have morphed in six years from ninja-like super-humans, to hillbillies, to mad scientists, to twisted versions of Norman Rockwell suburbanites, and finally to a hippie commune. You’d think the creators would have a better handle on such important characters if they really had every detail pre-planned.
Unanswered questions are particularly annoying in a series like this because the real appeal of Lost was in trying to figure out what exactly was going on. The series had been labyrinthine with confusing twist and turns. The creators threw endless hints at us, some misleading and some useful. And fans had long speculated over the multiple plot threads and possible clues, each viewer hoping to solve the riddle. Lost fans have become like jigsaw addicts, endlessly trying to fit the pieces together, no matter how long it takes. And in this case, it took six years.
This article isn’t meant to trash the series finale, so in the interest of fairness, let’s look at what was explained. We learned that the whole series was a battle between the immortal 
Guardian of the Island Jacob (Mark Pellegrino) and his brother/nemesis known as the Man-in-black (Titus Welliver). The “Mother” who adopted them (after killing their natural mother) chose Jacob as her successor for the job of Guardian of the Island. This caused resentment on the part of the brother, who sought to learn the secrets of the island on his own and ended up being transformed into the Smoke Monster, who can only manifest himself as dead people. The Man-in-Black impersonated late Jack’s father and John Locke (Terry O’Quinn) among others, in order to manipulate people.
The castaways were ostensibly brought to the island by a fluke electro-magnetic blast caused by Desmond, but actually there was more to it than that. Jacob needed to choose a successor (he must have predicted his own death) and therefore had been monitoring diverse people around the world, all their lives. He finally selected a small group of candidates and maneuvered them all to be on Oceanic flight 815, which he knew would crash on his island. The survivors had all wasted or somehow misspent their pre-Island lives, and were looking for an answer to the mess that they’d made of their past. The island was their chance at redemption. It was stated several times that what they did before they arrived on the island didn’t matter anymore. Jacob monitored the castaways to see what sort of choices they’d make (freewill was important to Jacob) to determine which of them would be the best choice to replace him.
As for Jacob’s rival, the Man-in-Black/Smoke Monster/Fake-Locke, he just wanted to get off the island (which he couldn’t do, for some reason, while Jacob and his candidates were still alive, nor was he allowed to kill them personally) so after manipulating the ambitious Ben (Michael Emerson) into killing Jacob for him, MIB/Fake-Locke wanted to kill the candidates and destroy the Island -- with Desmond’s unwilling help -- so he could 
finally escape, and Hell would be unleashed on the world. Jack (Matthew Fox) became the Chosen One and he killed Fake-Locke, with some help from his lady love Kate (Evangeline Lilly) but was fatally wounded in the process, and so handed the reigns of Protector of the Island to Hurley (Jorge Garcia), who seemed to have been linked to the island all along, via the cursed numbers.
The imagery in the final scene was beautiful. Jack stumbled to the very same spot where he first arrived on the island and laid down to die. This ending scene paralleled the opening scene of the pilot episode in many ways. We see the same white tennis shoe dangling from a branch, and Vincent comes along once again. Vincent was the first “character” Jack saw on the island when he awoke there in season one, and was the last one Jack saw as he died. It was touching that Vincent lay down next to our hero so Jack didn’t have to die alone. The last thing Jack saw was the plane containing his beloved Kate escaping the island. Jack’s eye closes…a reversal on the first moment of the pilot when we saw his eye open. A perfect final image!
Half the series finale was devoted to tying up the Flash-Sideways plot, which had so many people befuddled. We were originally led to believe it was an alternate universe created by the explosion of the H-bomb at the end of year 5, but we now know that it was some sort of limbo, or spiritual holding pattern which our cast somehow psychically created (unbeknownst to even themselves) while they were together, because of their mutual need for each other. When they each died, their spirits lingered in this pseudo afterlife which manifested itself as a version of the real world where the Island didn’t exist and Oceanic flight 815 never crashed. There were strange discrepancies between this spiritual fantasy world and the real world. For instance, Sawyer was a cop instead of a criminal, and Ben was a kindly school teacher.
This alternate, spiritual Lost seemed to be a way for our heroes to get one last chance at dealing with the issues of their life, with a helping hand from their fellow Oceanic travelers. We’re told by the ghost of Jack’s father Christian (John Terry) that the time on the island was the most important part of the “Losties” lives. They needed each other back then in order to survive at the pivotal moments of their lives, and therefore they need each other now, at the end.
Although they all died at different times, this afterlife scenario doesn’t exist in real time so all their spirits are able to gather outside of time and space to have a high school reunion moment with their old friends and lost loves. Sawyer was reunited with Juliet, despite the fact that he left the Island with Kate. Hurley got to hook up with Libby (Cynthia Watros) whose mysterious back-story was only touched upon but never explained in the series. Sayid apparently forgot about Nadia—who’d been his motivation for almost everything he did—and linked up with sexy Shannon (Maggie Grace). Once everyone was paired off (except Locke) they all walked into the light together, led by the aptly named Christian Shepherd.
Certain former cast members were conspicuous by their absence. According to Lindelof and Cuse, the characters who weren’t there had too much heavy Karma to pass into the light and so remain in Limbo. Michael (Harold Perrineau), Ecko (Adewale Akinnuoye Agbaje) and Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriquez) were not there because they just weren’t ready. Ben, despite the fact that he’d turned away from the dark side to become Hurley’s trusted Number Two on the Island, he had too much darkness in his past and knew he wasn’t worthy of ascending to heaven yet. As for Daniel (Jeremy Davis), his mother Eloise Hawking (Fionnula Flanagan), who seemed to know that they were all dead, asked Desmond not to “awaken” Daniel to the knowledge of the true nature of their limbo and 
Desmond agreed. Charlotte (Rebecca Mader) apparently remained because she was destined to be with Daniel. As for Walt, he may not have needed to spend time in Limbo. He might have led a good, happy life after leaving the island. The weirdest thing is that Aaron was reborn in the afterlife as a baby once again. Was that really the most important part of his life? Didn’t he ever do anything more important than being born? For a kid with such a great destiny, he must have led an awfully dull life.
Early internet reactions indicate many viewers were angry, perhaps with justification, that so much of the series finale was devoted to dealing with a plot point—the limbo story—that wasn’t introduced until the finale season. Was the limbo story really necessary? Plot-wise, no; but it did complete the characters story arc in a very satisfying way. We’d already seen the Losties as children and finally we’ve followed them to afterlife. It added new importance to Jack’s season one line “We have to live together or we’ll die alone”. Well, they may have died separately but they “lived” their final adventure together and all walked, as one, into the light. It could be argued that this Limbo, which gave the Losties a third chance to straighten out heir lives was a bridge too far. Most people don’t get three chances at redemption.
So, did the finale deliver? Yes and no. There was no logical way to wrap it all up with a nice bow. Hence, the finale was composed of cherry-picked bits from the series history. In that sense, it was unsatisfying. Yet, as Lindelof, Cuse and Abrams have told us, this is a show about characters. In that regard, the series delivered because this final episode was very touching and brought a tear to many an eye.
