Lost
Well, you know, inconsistencies abound, and I suppose the box sets allow them to clear some things up. I see that Season Six will be out in late August. Looks like a no frills package. I would think it would be nice for Cuselof to offer some insights into the creative process that went into the show, own up to some of the inconsistencies and try to sort some of them out. But, I guess they will save these insights when they come up with the deluxe full box set. Still, I get the hunch they are going to leave a lot of this left hanging, possibly to resurrect these themes in subsequent movies. I think the temptation is simply too great not to return to this series in 2-3 years time.
The complete series box sets comes out at the same time as the sixth season box set. I know that there is suppose to be an entire disc of new special features just for the complete series box set. In both the complete and sixth season sets though, there will be an extra 10-30 minutes added to the final episode. Cuselof say that it will answer some questions they wanted to address but didn’t mind cutting them from the broadcast.
Ben was a deceitful little bastard, so it would not surprise me at all if he arranged the Purge himself since he seemed to hate Dharma, not just his father. Plus, it would have allowed him to clear the “paper trail,” so to speak, of his less than prodigious origins. As Ben was later forced to admit, there was nothing special about him, other than his ability to manipulate others, or “Others” in this case.
This is one of the reasons I feel the Jacob we saw at the tail end of Season Five and in Season Six was a later construct. It seemed in these earlier episodes that Ben was using the idea of “Jacob” to manipulate people. That he had no direct communication with him. Of course one could also say that Jacob was just sitting back watching things play out, seeming to have lost interest in the game he and his brother were playing. But then Jacob seemed to go out of his way to “touch” the Oceanic Six and lead them to the Island.
In a funny way I can see Jacob and the MiB are the screen personas of Lindelof and Cuse.
Dzimas—which would be which.
That’s a good question. I’d have to go with Lindelof as the MiB and Cuse as Jacob, but then Lindelof is the older of the two.
On another note, I suppose the game of “Senet,” Jacob’s brother found on the beach, was a subtle reference to the Egyptian mythology they had set up in previous seasons, but it was odd that Cuselof chose not to deal with the subject at all in their little tale of Jacob and his brother. Of course, we don’t know how old Psycho Mom was. For all we know she could have been Isis in human form, but they clearly gave her a Roman look.
I don’t think it would have hurt to develop a little more of this Egyptian side in that episode. After all, one assumes the Statue of Tawaret was on the island at the time, and Jacob did make the plinth his home, so there would seem to be some significance to this statue. I think it would have made much more sense to have made the statue the gateway to the island’s core, since Jacob seemed to make it his primary residence.
The wells were apparently of Roman origin. The island also presumably “moved” over time, as I remember Eloise showing the Oceanic 6 in her special pendulum chamber, and had a portal to the Sahara, which Locke and Ben used to escape the island. Why the MiB couldn’t do the same, I don’t know? Of course, as we all know the Romans irrigated the Sahara all those centuries ago, and there was the wheel lying there in the well the MiB was digging before Psycho Mom knocked him out, so the link seemed pretty strongly established. But, as I recall it was quite icy in this special chamber, as if it led out through the South Pole.
The lighthouse seemed mostly for dramatic effect, but it too had a Roman quality to it, and one can imagine Jacob having built the lighthouse over the centuries. The only odd thing is that no one saw this lighthouse before on the island, despite all the times someone or another circumnavigated the island. Maybe Jacob projected it to let Jack know he was being watched all these years.
But, Jacob also had a cave, or so we were led to believe, with requisite ladder, also by the shoreline, and also with all the names scrawled on it.
So, Jacob seemed to move between the Foot of Tawaret, the Lighthouse and the Cave, presumably combining three mythologies.
As for the MiB he didn’t really seem to have a home other than the “golden spring,” which he emerged out of as Smokey. He seemed to move mostly underground through a series of ancient passages, seemingly of Oceanic cultural origin. One got the sense that Dogen knew something about the Temple and its passages, but that too was dropped during the course of the season.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that with all these tantalizing pieces lying around, they could have come up with a much more satisfactory final season and closing episode.
What year of Battlestar Galactica do I watch? The 70’s and 80’s versions are available instantly on Netflix.
Cool.
Yes, definitely the re-imagining.
What if:
Christian at the end was MIB, and he had finally tricked them into finally all being in the same place and could lure them into this mysterious light? It reeks of Twin Peaks, but it’s at least way better.
Anything would have been better than how it ended. Christian had long since ceased to be a factor in the series. He made sense in the early seasons, as Jack struggled with his role as “leader,” but to bring him back as a literal shepherd was simply absurd, unless this was intended solely as Jack’s funeral, as we see him fading away on the island.
The problem I’m having is if LA was no more than some aural projection before entering heaven, then what makes the island anymore real? Pretty hard to imagine anyone surviving a plane crash like that, and the writers already said through Michael that the whispers were the “other side.” Maybe, Michael was going through a similar projected “reality” as the other “Lostaways” but we weren’t made privy to it. It would seem to me that if you go with this ending, then the island was just as much a purgatory as was LA.
As to why Christian’s involvement makes sense, it’s because Jack was the most resistant to letting go. The core conflict of his character was an almost psychotic need to “save” people and make things right. He would be most resistant. Add that to his daddy issues and need to forgive his father and the Christian appearance fits.
As to the island being purgatory, I don’t follow. There are many unsolved mysteries on the show, but the island’s reality could not be clearer. There is a spiritual element on the island (the light) that can affect souls (MIB, Michael), but it’s not isolated from the physical world at large (and a mythology where you have to pass from one level of purgatory to another level of purgatory is stretching it even for Lost.)
The whole idea of the island containing this special light elevates it to a metaphysical level, which plays directly into the purgatory theme. After all, the MIB wrestled for centuries with Jacob to get out of this place. Once the plug was pulled, he became mortal, if only for a short while. I suppose for that brief period you might view the island as “real.”
The fact of the matter is that you can read this show anyway you like. This is what sustained viewers over six years. It probably would have been better not to offer any “clear” answers in the end, even in regard to Jack, who became too much the focus of the final episode. I almost expected to hear You Can’t Always Get What You Want at the “funeral.”
I just watched the finale again and can safely say it’s even better the second time. Truly great.
I liked the island half of the ending but it would have been nice if the Sideways-verse was somehow real.
At the beginning of the season I thought that the bomb worked, but if they didn’t crash they couldn’t set off the bomb, which created two mutually causing universes, in one of which the plane crashed and in the other it didn’t. That explanation would have made me much happier than the one we got, because then the meaning of the Sideways-verse would have been ‘This is how their lives would have gone if Jacob hadn’t been manipulating them’.
I think the island is real, but it’s also clear the writers wanted that to be open to interpretation. I mean, if you accept any of the magic of the island exists, you accept the island exists.
A lot of people are mad that the finale didn’t answer enough questions. But really, the last season answered almost all of the big questions of the series. It just didn’t spell them out like an episode of House. If you watch the whole series knowing what you know now, you will be able to come up with an explanation for everything. Even why Walt and Aaron didn’t have to come back to the island. The production reason Walt didn’t come back is that the actor got too tall. But if you take into account Jacob’s reservations about taking free will away from children, it makes sense.
Hello,
I’am a big fan of lost and I think that in very episode the story beacome more interesting
I can’t wait to see the next episode . .
Funny link for those who hated the LOST finale
The funniest part, JD, is comparing a show like this with 2001: A Space Odyssey. All though, it did seem that they took most of Season 6 from the Bible_, the Wolverton Biblevirtuemart&Itemid=62&vmcchk=1&Itemid=62 that is.
Lost was perfect! I recently watched every season and I just finished the series finale last weekend. It was perfect. There are no words. Best. Show. Ever.
Wrong again, Courtney!
Opinions can be wrong?
I wouldn’t use the word ‘Perfect’. For instance, they shouldn’t have created an important part for a child actor without forseeing that the actor might, y’know, grow. I liked the island half of the ending but didn’t like the ‘Afterlife’ explanation to the side-flashes.
One of my favorite series of all time, but one that made a fair share of production mistakes.
Yes, few things in life are perfect and Lost is not one of them, however the consistantly high standard of intricate and enjoyable storytelling (not to mention some standout acting from Misters O’Quinn and Emerson) is quite an accomplishment for the usually dopey environment of network television. Even if one wasn’t pleased by the shows ultimate destination (and I have my quibbles), they gave us a hell of a ride getting there.
Never thought to look for a Lost thread on here.
I don’t think anything truly “perfect” exists, but that doesn’t matter… to me, Lost was (and still is) the best TV series I’ve ever seen. Plot, character development, cinematography, twists, suspense, sub-plots, etc… all the intricacies were written to fit together so well.
And although this thread has been dead for almost year… I do have to say that’s it’s pretty dumb when someone tells another their opinion is “wrong”. Way to go. I love how classy people on here can be.
I meant that as a joke, but I guess it didn’t come across well. :/ Actually, it was a Tom Goes to the Mayor reference – that show is perfect to me!
But yeah, I’ll revisit Lost again someday when I don’t feel bitter about the ending anymore. But I don’t think that will be for a long, long time… Maybe I wouldn’t have been as annoyed if I hadn’t watched it on TV and had every episode built up and anticipated, but the first three seasons are great, but then the last three just went steadily downhill to the worst finale I could have possibly imagined.
In retrospect Lost was not a good show, but I still remember how much fun it was to watch, so in that regard, I’m glad it existed.
^ That’s exactly how I feel – it just ended up being such a big disappointment. It’s fun reading back through this thread though… this show pretty much was the funnest thing ever.
Lost was about character/people and human relationships…it was never about the sci-fi elements of the show. Those disappointed in the finale probably did not get the purpose of the show. This is not said with animosity but I believe a great many people were befuddled by the ending.
Lost is one of the best shows that ever existed. It aimed for something higher than mere entertainment….what it means to be human…what it means to have purpose….what it means to interact and exist….it dealt with issues of faith in real ways…something that no TV show really deals with.
I love Lost.
Now I love Walking Dead….a strangely similar show.
J.D.
Ben said “Not so long ago, Jack. I made a decision, that took the lives of over forty people in a single day” (Through the Looking Glass, Part 1). But Widmore was the leader of the “others” at the time, and Ben also said that the purge “wasn’t his decision” because he answered to someone higher up.