The show that started it all — well, for me and my roommate when it comes to watching series finales of shows you could’ve cared less about. Everyone was talking about it, so we tuned in and could not understand what made this show last for six seasons. It’s safe to say we’re well, lost, but I’m sure a lot of longtime viewers walked away feeling more or less the same. Those thinking they understood it are probably the same people who think Donnie Darko makes any sort of sense. Lord knows when it came time to refresh myself with the Lost finale, I didn’t want to. It wasn’t pleasurable the first time around and the feeling was about the same the second time around.
Name of Episode: “The End”
Premiere Date: September 22, 2004
Finale Date: May 23, 2010
Site: Lost
Impact on Pop Culture
When I think of this show, I think of not being afraid to kill off characters. Of course the core of the cast wasn’t going to die but long before The Walking Dead would just axe a beloved part of the series, Lost went there. Plus, with just watching one episode two times now I can say that this was a show that made you think. Shows that revolve around theories live on longer than ones in syndication, especially now with the Internet, because fans can’t and won’t give up understanding them.
Facts & Stats
- The first draft of the show was called Nowhere.
- Matthew Fox wasn’t the first choice for Jack — Michael Keaton was, but when that character was supposed to die in the pilot, they dropped the idea of Keaton.
- The pilot cost around $13 million.
- First on, first off. Ian Somerhalder was the first actor cast, and the first to die.
- Charlie’s heroin in the show was merely brown sugar.
What I Knew Before Watching the End
Having a friend that actually watched and being that it was on during a time where I was more willing to wait in an alley behind a talk show to take someone’s picture, I knew what a lot of the actors from the show looked like. Fact: Dominic Monaghan is one of the nicest guys to his fans and Evangeline Lilly is stunning in person. As for the show though, I knew it was some confusing take on Gilligan’s Island, at least that’s what commercials led me to believe.
Final(e) Thoughts
WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT? Seriously though, I am going to start ranking these finales and have a countdown at the end of the series. Future planning aside, I have never sat through something with so much confusion on my face since taking my last math class in college. Numbers are the worst and so was this finale.
Taking place on the island and not, two things were going on simultaneously. Jack was trying to stop John from destroying the island, Kate and Co. were trying to get the hell off the island, and off the island everyone’s lives were intersecting and some magical meeting was supposed to happen in the end. So on the island things go down, literally. Jack kills John, most of the gang catch a plane out of there, Hurley is left in charge of the island, and there’s this meeting of all of them at the end. Let’s talk about… well, I’m not sure where to even begin.
I guess we’ll go with the island and this whole promising to protect it. Who cares if it’s protected? I was immensely frustrated that Jack and Hurley were risking their own lives for the sake of this place. Was life on the mainland that bad that you’d just opt out of it like, well — now I’m the mayor of this island, oh well — it’s my duty? No, that’s the saltwater talking. It was also crazy to me that Claire was not willing to leave and it took Kate one millisecond to convince her otherwise. That only made me believe her character was flighty the whole time. Am I right? Someone who watched let me know.
Guess we’ll head to the other side of things where they weren’t on the island. After having watched this and knowing Abrams played a part in this show and of course Star Wars: The Force Awakens — now the whole scene with Rey touching Luke’s lightsaber and having that moment seems completely cheesy to me. Great, Lost finale, you ruined that moment for me. Every time they were off the island and they met someone and had these flashbacks to the island, it was like the most horrendously done soap opera was taking place. The only thing making Rey’s moment in Star Wars not as horrible? It was devoid of hazy effects and mood music.
What was this place outside the island though? Having no clue what came before these last moments and never having any intention on watching the series, I am going to give my two cents and theory because, why not? So they all have their soap opera moments, reconnect and come together at the church where Jack was planning on having his dad’s funeral. His dad’s, I guess, ghost was there and said some pretty poignant things about that time on the island being the most important in Jack’s life and that some of those people died before and way after he did. That made me think back to that book turned TV movie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Basically you go through life and come across all these faces, but in the end only x-amount really matter when it comes time to cross over.
To me the finale wasn’t ever about the whole lot of characters. It was about Jack and his death. This whole other world never existed, it was merely this crazed state of mind going through Jack’s head before he passed away at the end. Why else would all of these people come together at this place special to his life? When you die, there’s no telling what the hell will happen but on this show and like in that TV movie, perhaps you come together with the people who impacted you the most, dead or alive — they’re there to help guide you into the next phase, whatever that may be. So in the end I believe it was Jack’s tale coming to an end and all that off the island thing was just his imagination of “what if we’d never crashed” coming into play.
Was this a great finale? No. It left you with more questions than answers and didn’t really wrap it up for fans. I think they would’ve liked a more cohesive ending instead of one that made them spend hours upon hours reading fellow fan theories and questioning every little thing. I will say though, it was way more fun to write about than to watch.
