Lost: The End --- Jess says ...

Note: Given that Lost is a show that invites multiple interpretations, Billie asked her guest writers if we’d like to provide our own perspectives on the recent finale and/or the series as a whole. I’ve put together some thoughts based largely on comments I posted on Billie’s Lost discussion group. If you read both, sorry for the repetition!

I don’t think I’ve ever been so emotionally overwhelmed by an episode of Lost. Some of the plot and mythology beats were a bit cheesy and over-the-top, and I certainly have some quibbles, but, overall, the emotional moments and the larger story resolution were so powerful that I leave Lost with a deep sense of satisfaction.

I’ve spent a good bit of time today reading the comments here on Billie’s site and at several of my other favorite haunts, and have seen a lot of bitter (and not so bitter) complaining about the lack of answers and the degree of spirituality in the finale. Even Billie noted that she was dissatisfied with the religious nature of the final resolution. But aside from the raw emotion of the various awakenings --- and some of the on-island beats with Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Ben --- I think the final revelations about the Sideways universe is what affected me the most and helped me process the series as a whole.

I’m not a religious person. Like Billie, I’m more of a seeker, taking bits from various belief systems and finding the spiritual story that speaks to me. I’ve long been drawn to the idea of reincarnation, and I’ve come to hope that when you die, there is a place where your soul waits until all the significant souls in your life are gathered and ready to be born anew, to tread once more familiar paths. A space between, if you will. A Well of Souls.

In recent years, I lost an aunt and uncle to whom I was very close. They were what many would consider soul mates. One of those couples who got married as teenagers and were still the happiest couple you’d seen, even after 30-odd years. When my uncle passed away, this idea that his soul was waiting for my aunt’s got me through some difficult times. When she died a year later, the notion that they were somehow reunited before passing into the next life (or may yet be waiting for my husband and I) was potent, and comforts me still.

With ‘The End,’ the creators of Lost so perfectly encapsulated a version of this idea that I had a good long cry when the show was over last night. Even today, I’ve spent the bulk of the day crying because they managed to strike such a deep chord within me. I think they did a marvelous job of reflecting our search for meaning in a chaotic world, and the importance of the connections we make, without ascribing to any one religious view. I’m probably a little biased, because what they showed us so closely mirrors my own non-religious views. But then again, I’ve seen many commenters today expressing that they were equally moved because it also reflected back their own religious beliefs. So maybe it isn’t just my bias.

However, for every positive review I've read, I’ve seen an equal number of negative reactions (if not more). I understand that everyone brings their own viewing lens to the show and that over the years we have all experienced and appreciated Lost in different ways. That’s part of what made watching and discussing the show fun. I wish that everyone could have enjoyed the finale as much as I did, but I fully expected to see the boards covered with bitter cries of “I didn’t get my answers!” and “So, basically, we are getting this ‘God did it’ crap again!”and "Darlton should give up the creative business because they suck, suck, suck." And, boy, were they.

It’s not surprising to see so much backlash, but I am a bit puzzled by some of the complaints. I keep seeing “we didn’t learn what the island was” and “what was the point of the last six years” and “the sideways stories were basically pointless.” I couldn’t disagree more. Yes, there were lots of lingering threads put out there over the years that may have been left unresolved. But I don’t think we were left hanging on the biggest questions. And I’m feeling like when I go back and watch the series, it will flow thematically, because the characters' journeys and what was ultimately accomplished in the finale did matter.

We learned in ‘Across the Sea’ what the Island is. It is the home to what I call The Source. The heart of the Island is where “the spark of life” resides.* This life energy is a kind of powerful electromagnetism and is linked to all sorts of other “magical” powers on the Island, but basically, the Island is like a Well of Souls. If that light goes out --- the spark of life --- than the world as we know it is destroyed. There is no more afterlife. There is no more rebirth. We are soulless creatures bound for annihilation. Life as we know it would end. (And perhaps the dark hell fires shown under the "cork" would be released raining destruction down on first the island, then the rest of the world.)

(*I confess that when I first saw the glowy cave in ‘Across the Sea,’ it struck me as so completely cheesy that I was pretty turned off by the core mythology they were presenting. The visuals of the light well and the hell fires beneath in ‘The End’ didn’t fare much better in the eye-rolling department. But I've started thinking the problem is that something so ethereal and spiritual is just hard to visually depict. It is bound to look somewhat cheesy. The more I think about it, the more comfortable I am with the notion that the Island was essentially the Source of life, or the Well of Souls. Even though it looked ridiculous.)

Who created The Source doesn’t matter. You can assume it is God, or some other all-powerful universe-creating force. It is open for interpretation (which as noted by many, is the beauty of the show and the finale). The Source has been there since time immemorial and it has always had a protector. When another protector comes along from wherever, the previous protector dies.

Jacob became the protector through his mother’s manipulations and, in a fit of rage, sentenced his brother to life as a disembodied soul hell bent on destroying Jacob and getting off the Island. Because he knew his brother was actively plotting to kill him, he needed to find a replacement and started his grand search for candidates. He wanted someone that didn’t have attachments and needed the island as much as it needed them. That’s how our “lost” Lostways were drawn to the Island. Because their arrival also coincided with Smokey finally finding a way to kill Jacob, it fell to our band of damaged heroes to take on the job, destroy Smokey, and protect the island. The whole show has been about them finding redemption, community, and purpose so that several of them would reach the point where they would choose to make the sacrifices necessary to protect the Island and thus save all of humankind.

What they saved wasn’t just the Island, but the space between this life and the next. The Sideways universe. The place that presents an opportunity for closure --- closure that may not have been achievable in life. By fixing the Source, Jack preserved this place where souls can work out lingering issues and be reunited with those that were most significant in one’s life. If we are something more than a sack of meat bound to this mortal coil, then this space between that makes letting go and moving on possible matters. As such, the Sideways reality is an equally important part of the journey (for the characters and the audience).

So it all mattered. What they did in life mattered. The painful losses and sacrifices mattered. The journey that put them through hell and back mattered. The shared alternate reality in the Sideways ‘verse mattered. The final destination (eternal rest, rebirth, what have you) matters. Sure it is more a "man of faith" answer than a "man of science" one, but if you are going to tackle big themes like life, death, redemption, community, and what it means to be human (which to my mind are themes and ideas that have been the core of the series since Season 1), then you are probably going to end up more in a faith-based place than a science one.

It is funny. I absolutely expected to be deeply confused when the finale was over. I thought I'd be running to the message boards to have it all explained for me. But, instead, I was emotionally engaged throughout --- from Jin and Sun waking up, to Aaron being born, to Sawyer and Juliet finally talking about that coffee date, to discovering Richard and Lapidus survived, to Kate shooting Locke, to Hurley choosing Ben as his Number Two, to the plane taking off, to Locke and Ben’s final heart-to-heart, to Jack and his dad hugging it out in the church, to the happy reunion of the Lostaways inside the church, to that brilliant and absolutely perfect final shot of Vincent laying down next to Jack and Jack’s eye closing --- and when that last title card came up, the basic arc of the series as a whole felt very complete and clear. For once, I understood what the show had been about (with room for interpretation, of course) and what it meant to me, and it made sense in a beautiful and profoundly resonant way. I couldn't have asked for much more from the ‘The End.’ (Except for maybe an explanation of how Ben got out from under that tree.)

Final Note: It’s been a joy sharing Lost with Billie. It is through this show that I have come to know her and to have the wonderful opportunity to share my thoughts on this and other shows with her readers. Thank you, Billie, for sharing your Lost love through this blog and your discussion list, and for inviting me to be a part of the Billie Doux community. I’ve been enjoying it immensely.

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