thoughts on LOST

So for the past 4 or 5 years Bonnie and I have been watching LOST. To us it has been a show full of fantastic acting, intriguing characters, riveting mystery, and some great story telling. As a lot of you probably know it showed its final episode this past Sunday. Bonnie and I sat down to watch it Monday night and loved it. I must say it took about an hour of digesting for me to get to the point that I decided I loved it but now the more I reflect on it the more fantastic it is.

So here are some of my thoughts on the way things wrapped up. If you don't follow LOST then this probably will make no sense. If you haven't seen the finale then stop reading.

Let me start with the Island. It was real. It was not a dream. In fact it was the only time line in this season that was real in the earthly sense. Sideways world turned out to be nothing of the sort. It turned out to be, for lack of better name, purgatory (or some sort of multi-faith version of it). I really had to let go of the fact that Sideways word was not what I thought it was before I could grapple with what happened on the Island.

When the Losties set off the H-bomb they did not create an alternate reality. They simply put themselves back in the correct place in time, from what I can tell that is it. Nothing split, nothing changed in time, everything went back to the way it was before Ben jacked it all up by turning the wheel. Once I came to grips with that the Island world was amazing.

We saw characters rise and fall. We saw Jack become a secure leader. We saw Ben, Kate, Sawyer and others find redemption. We saw the MiB become human again, and in turn saw "John Locke" die for the second time. We saw people get off the island (Frank, Miles, Richard, Claire, Kate, Sawyer = the new Oceanic 6 or technically the Ajira/Freighter/Blackrock/Oceanic 6). We saw Jack die in the same place his new Island life began.

We saw what made Desmond so "special" (anyone else would have died before even reaching the peg in the water as evidenced by all the bones). We saw that Desmond didn't have all of the answers. He thought, like a lot of us, that Sideways world was a sideways world. He was wrong.

In the Purgatory world we got an interesting commentary on the afterlife. It seemed to be some sort of take on people either needing to let go of their life, be refined, or realize they are actually dead before going to... somewhere. "A Better Place" maybe? I don't theologically agree with that aspect of the show but it certainly gave us a fantastic twist in the last 2 minutes of the show's existence. If you were invested in the show for its characters and their stories then it gave you some of the most emotionally charged reunions/enlightening moments you could have imagined. And not to be forgotten it gave that great shot of most of the cast gathered together again one last time.

Another thing that made the finale interesting was we made a dinner bet with our friends Andy and Lindsey. The bet was that we would each make 10 predictions about the finale and whoever got more correct would win. The predictions could be anything at all. Here they are (italics means correct):

Meyers:
1. Hurley says "dude"
2. Ben will end up being good.
3. Juliet is Jack's sideways wife
4. Jack won't operate on Locke.
5. The smoke monster will cease to exist in the end
6. Richard is still alive in the beginning of the finale.
7. Claire will be reunited with Aaron
8. Rose and Bernard help Desmond out of the well. (This was a 2 pointer because it was a risky choice)
9. The island will continue to exist.
10. Hurley and Libby will end up together.
8.5 out of 10
*I give 7 a half because Claire does get off the island and I think we should assume they reunite.
*10 is a technical "no" because sideways world was not a world at all so how could any one "end up together."

Pattons:
1. Kate and Jack Kiss
2. Someone Explodes
3. Someone says, "this i the reason i'm here." or some variation.
4. Desmond Dies
5. The man in black doesn't die
6. Richard is Dead
7. The island is not destroyed
8. The candidates who aren't Jack go home.
9. Hurley sees a dead person
10. Someone goes into the light.
5 out of 10
*On 8 Hurley did not leave
*9 is a technical yes since Purgatory Hurley saw people and everyone there was dead. Although he was dead too so...

I am pretty proud of our victory.

My final thought is that I love how the show was also a commentary on itself. I'm reminded of lines like:
"Jack, weren't you kind of the obvious choice to take over?"
"Every question I answer will just lead to another question."
"Christian Shepherd, that's his name, seriously?"
I know I butchered most of those but you get the idea.

Lost I will miss you.