Monday, May 24, 2010

LOST talk

If you don't watch LOST, then don't bother reading this post. I really shouldn't do this. I don't really have time, and this is not really the place. But the show LOST has been a big part of our culture over the last 6 years, and Trent and I are huge fans. We were both crazy excited for the first season to come out on DVD in September 2005, and we talked about the show all summer, waiting not-so-patiently to find out WHAT WAS DOWN THAT HATCH? That first season was just STELLAR. Oh, by the way, the season 2 premiere we watched in the hospital, the DAY CARSON WAS BORN! Ha! And we had heard it is fun for the husband to get the wife a little "push present" and give it to her during labor. Mine? Was the Season 1 DVD! Ha! I still remember watching it in the middle of the night as I was nursing Carson. See? We're big fans.

SO. Now it's over, and I'm still a fan. They almost lost me a few times during the 6 years (Paulo and Nikki, anyone?), but knowing they had to wrap things up this month kept me hooked. I knew there was no way they could answer all the questions I had, or that you had, but I think they kept true to the nature of the show, which was about the characters themselves, whom we had gotten to know so well. I loved the themes about good and evil, love, sacrifice and redemption. Awesome! The finale was emotionally satisfying, if not logistically satisfying. Just great storytelling.

I've been on several different message boards, and to be honest, it's a little too overwhelming! I have a dozen or so questions, and don't have time to read through 25,295 posts to see if someone answered it, or if 25,000 of those posts were die-hard fans with bad spelling or angry fans with bad spelling. So, I'm creating my own little forum and invite your input.

My interpretation of the finale was this: that everything that happened on the island was real and actually happened. The crash, the hatch, the bomb, the time travel, Jacob, Smokey, moving the island...all of it. It's a magical, mysterious place and this show is part fantasy and part sci-fi. But the Sideways world was some sort of in-between life, or purgatory, where all the characters met many, many years later, after ALL of them had died at different times. It was a place for them to be reunited before they went on to heaven or hell or whatever the writers or characters think happens next. Here's a list of questions and comments that I can think of right now. I may add more later in a different color font:

*Why did the Others kidnap a select few of the Tailies, including the nice flight attendant and the children? Did Jacob tell them to do that?

*Did we ever learn what was up with Walt's special powers?

*Why couldn't women have babies there?

*What's the deal with Widmore? I'm not exactly sure what he was doing back on the island this season, and his death was SO anticlimactic for such a central part of the plot. Also? Why was his wife Eleanor trying to STOP Desmond in the sideways world? What's her deal?

*Very happy to see Rose, Bernard and Vincent alive and well. That scene was great.

*Not even one moment for a reunion with Desmond and Penny?! COME ON!

*Also? Nadia was Sayid's true love, not SHANNON!

*Why did Kate switch from a black dress to tank and skirt in the church?

* Christian said the characters "created" the Sideways world so they could be reunited with the most important people in their life. Did you interpret that the Sideways world was created by Juliet blowing up the bomb?

*Why weren't Miles & Pilot Frank in the church? They had become main characters that were well liked. Why didn't Ben go in?

*Was there any significance to the shots of the wreckage at the very end, or was that just a final moment of nostalgia and bookending?

*Jack's eye closing was PERFECT in my opinion. When I saw him walking through that bamboo, I called it. Loved it.

*Still a little unclear about how Desmond knew about the Sideways world in real time on the Island, just as he was about to be lowered into the light. He told Jack about a place where they'd all be happy and together. Did he "go" to that place during one of his electro-magnetic shocks? And was his whole purpose that he could withstand the electro, so he could be lowered into the light cave and pull the plug?

What are your unanswered questions? Comments? Answers to my questions? Do share! Please be respectful.

9 comments:

Brian said...

Good questions Jen and I can't answer a single one. I think the writers left it this way to mess with us.

I'm going to be much more satisfied with the way "24" ends tonight.

Unknown said...

Great questions Jen!

TOTALLY agree with your point about Nadia and NOT Shannon.

I love the show and I am not sad I dedicated 6 years of my life to it :) I do agree with you, I thought Juliet created the sideways world too. I saw it as a place where they realized that people will play an important role in your life even if circumstances are different. Interesting purgatory thought. Kelly thought the same thing. I just have an issue with Sayid killing people in purgatory.

It was fun to hear the writers point of view in the 2 hour special before. I like that they said LOST was more about the Characters being LOST themselves and finding themselves than being LOST on the Island. More about the human interaction than the Island being a destination where they were lost.
I might still have questions... but I don't feel tortured by them anymore. It was closure enough for me. :)

The Unlikely Pastor's Wife said...

Great questions, some of the same ones I was thinking.
I also wondered about Jacobs cabin and that plotline, how did MIB escape the cabin if had that ash stuff around it?

Then only semi answer I have for you is about eleanor. I likened it to the "the great divorce", some people just don't want to move on even though they are enlightened.

Jane Seale Gramenz said...

I think women couldn't have babies because the ship that Richard was on crashed and broke that statue which was a fertility god, therefore the island couldn't have babies being born--no fertility god, no babies.

I am still not convinced that sideways was purgatory. I am still thinking the island was purgatory. It had the good and evil present. The people that were there all had major issues to resolve, and they had to find themselves (their true selves when pushed in such trying circumstances), and only then could they escape the island.

My question; Miles said that Juliet told him (via his special communicate with the dead power) that she said, "It did work!" That's where I think the sideways comes in. I think sideways shows that if the crash didn't happen, or they had made different decisions prior, and didn't "need" the crash to be lost and then found, they all would have met in each other anyway because it was fate or destiny. Just a different environment.

Sorry if there are too many run-ons or incorrect grammar. It's hard to concentrate on that and get all of the running thoughts out clearly.

Jane Seale Gramenz said...

P.S. My whole thought on the island being purgatory is because purgatory is supposed to be a place to be punished and redeemed before moving on to Heaven. It is the place to pay for your mistakes in life. These people had to resolve these mistakes before moving on. They did their time and now they can move on from the island.

eets said...

OK, I also am feeling a bit overwhelmed with so much to discuss, so I'm going to just bite off one or two digestible chunks and let the rest behind the floodgates come out in controlled bursts...

First to Eleanor...I am pretty close in agreement with "Unlikely Pastor's Wife". I don't think she was trying to stop Desmond. What I felt I saw in her eyes was "Please don't separate me from my son in this little bubble I've made where we are together and I think I'm happy". Desmond knowingly touched her hand with pity? love? and said "I'm not taking him with us yet". Yet is the key word in my mind, which leads to...

Lupidas(sp?), Miles, et al. Remember Jacob in season 5 finale... "everything until then is just progress". Trying to get in the writers' heads; I believe they set up a universe where everyone has a spirit on a journey which ultimately ends at letting go of this material world and embracing the eternal light. I am going off the room in the church where Jack and Christian spoke. There were representations of every major religion. Seems like the writers used pieces of every religion. Hindu in particular seemed to stand out ...spiritual journey until you get to higher plane. As for the characters not in the church...they may just have not been ready yet, or they may already be at the light. Remember Christian said "There is no 'now' here". They are in a spiritual plane which could be millions of years later to our understanding or it might be a moment after dying on the island. The point is, each spirit is on their journey and this group just happened to embrace it together, at the same time. While it doesn't match my theology, I think it's a very uplifting idea which we all want to embrace...we are all leading to the light regardless of the path we take and will get there one day ("everything else is just progress"). It's also why I think the writers made so many characters' morality relative. So many of them moved between bad and good throughout the storyline. It wasn't about where they were at, but where they were going.

I am with you...believe the island activities were real (though I have many questions). I think this is why the show ended with a shot of the wreckage. Showed us it really physically existed (not just spiritual).

Lastly (for now)...I also called Jack closing his eyes once I saw he was walking to the bamboo and TOTALLY agree...perfect bookend to episode one's eye opening scene.

More later (?)

The Brandt Clan said...

SOOOO many questions on my end... I'm not even going to bother you with them. But I'll keep reading your discussion board to maybe find some answers. And, next time we get together, we can chat about it!

Steph said...

AAAAHHHHHH! So good. Honestly, there are a million questions in my head - those you raised, many about the Dharma initiative, how they got there and knew about the island, how they and they alone were able to travel on and off the island, polar bear anyone? However, my frustrations were also somewhat lessened by the beautiful reunion at the end. I love the idea of each of them on their own journey and I LOVED how when they touched one another, the memories came flooding back. For some reason, the exchange between Sawyer and Juliet was my favorite, with Charlie and Claire a close second. HELLO TEARS! I just loved the realization of "this person's" significance in their life. I wish that there would be some sort of book that would lay out all the unanswered questions, just for curiosity's sake, but I am happy with what they left us with, because what you said is true. The show was truly about the characters. And I loved them. I still love them.

If you weren't moved by the way Kate was looking at Jack in the church, you have a heart of stone.

How amazing was it when Locke said to Ben (something like), "If it makes any difference to you, I forgive you." And the look on Ben's face. Or Ben's face when Hurley asked him to be his #2. Tears! I think Ben wasn't ready to enter the church b/c he didn't feel he deserved to move on yet. He was such a conflicted character - never truly being able to decide if he was good or bad. I think, in the end, he was good, but he had to reconcile his past within his own heart.

Also, in my opinion, they were going to Heaven. I mean, Christian walked into a bright light, not burning flames (if we're being symbolic). Also, what kind of ending would THAT be??!?!

Wow, long comment! I have one more thought, but I haven't really thought about it long enough to articulate it. I like to think that Jacob (then Jack, then Hugo) were like angels on Earth. When they drank from "the water" they were enlightened in some way, and their purpose was to guard the island, but they also helped people, guided others, led others to a higher purpose - a better road, if you will. Their hearts were pure and desired what was right (no matter how conflicted). Like I said, just a thought.

Okay, I'm done for now.

Jane Seale Gramenz said...

I was just reading the EW you gave me and Josh Holloway (Sawyer) also had my same "island is purgatory" theory, although now he says he doesn't know anymore".