My Thoughts on Lost
This is mostly just to get my feelings/interpretations out in order to better understand the finale myself. If you don't watch Lost, yes, I am crazy and please don't try to read my insane ramblings :P
Initial thoughts: I had no idea what was going on.
This is what I finally think the ending means, gathering up different interpretations. But maybe writing it out will help me understand. Lots of rambling. Maybe this is wrong, and much of it is my own fantasies. I just have to let it out!
Apparently, the sideways universe was the afterlife. They created it so they could be together. So it's not real life or an alternate universe. They're all dead. The people in the sideways, like Jack's son, aren't in real life, they were just there to help the characters "let go" of their issues so they could move on. Once the characters were able to let go and realize they were DEAD, they could move on. There's no sense of time in the afterlife, whenever they died in the real timeline (the island and all = REAL), they moved to this sideways world where they were dead. I don't want to call it purgatory, but that's SORT OF the basic idea. In order to realize this they had to remember, like Christian Shepherd said, that their time on the island was the most important time of their lives and they had to be with those people to move on into the next stage of the afterlife...which can be whatever the viewer wants. You could think of the sideways "afterlife" like a test they had to pass to move to the next stage. They had to remember the beauty and love in their lives and the fact that they were dead before moving on. Okay, getting repetitive here, sorry.
So Jack died on the island. I realize now how amazingly touching and perfect it is to end with him dying. He sacrificed everything for the island, becoming the man of faith he never was in the beginning. He redeemed himself. Even though Kate professed her love for him they were never "together". Kate, Claire, Sawyer, etc. went on the plane and lived out the rest of their lives, however long they were, before dying and going to the sideways world. So it's also up to you what you want to happen in their lives before they died...Kate either went to jail for majorly violating her probation (hah) or helped Claire raise Aaron. (Or, in my ultimate shipper fantasy, raised Aaron with Claire because their connection is awesome and Aaron's sideways birth scene was amazing (as was the original birth scene, lovely. Aw, Sawyer loved that scene too). She can also hook up with Sawyer or at least be good friends with him because EXCUSE ME, I don't care, but I loved that pairing. It was dysfunctional but hot so what can I say. And at the core, there was love.) I don't care if they weren't meant to be like Sawyer/Juliet and Jack/Kate were.
Also - After the "Oh, look Richard, you've got a gray hair" said by Miles, I now believe Miles and Richard are a couple. Okay, that's all my opinion and not true, you can make up your own, haha.
The reason Juliet and Sawyer had to find each other in the afterlife and Jack and Kate (And Sayid/Shannon, etc.) too was because these were their ultimate true loves that they never got to experience in real life. (If you want to believe the true love stuff). None of the relationships in the afterlife ever got to have happy endings in the real world, so the afterlife gave them that chance, which I quite like. There's the love theme. Whether we like that or not.
Hurley and Ben stayed on the island and lived out their lives as protectors of the island, seemingly for a good amount of time as Hurley referenced it before going into the church. Hopefully Desmond got to leave the island and be with Penny and their son and lived happily ever after.
Ben wasn't ready to move on at that time. My guess is that you have to fully let go, like Jack, to be able to move on. Ben still had issues, like Alex, he wanted to hold on to in the sideways before he was ready to move on.
Moving on can be anything. The window in the church had symbols of all the major religions. So they could go to heaven, be reincarnated, etc. Or you could subscribe to the suggestion that they returned to the light on the island, the source of all life. That one makes sense to me. Or...if you don't want to believe their afterlife is "over" maybe they went back to a peaceful, perfect version of the island where they could all live at peace together, in the place where their lives' most important moments took place. Personally, I like that one. Ever since the beginning I thought their island lives, free of their pasts, had so much more potential. Things got more complicated, but I always felt the island was where they belonged. That's just me.
So now that I've lost sleep over this, I think I get it more and I like the idea of it more and more. There's lots of room for interpretation but in the end, it's less about the mythology and more about the characters and their connections. Which I like. There aren't really any questions left that I can't somehow justify with what we know about the island.
My only wish:
More moments in the church. It seemed everyone was paired off and I would have liked some of the friendships getting more moments. I would have liked a Kate/Sawyer glance or a hug that was actually visible on screen. I think that scene, although it ended up being centered around Jack, could have focused on every relationship. And yes, I'm being rather selfish but all the Kate/Sawyer moments and connections in the whole series deserved one little mention. Not even romantic, just a recognition of all they had. I know it's there, just not for us to see. Ending ship nonsense. Whatever, I shouldn't feel guilty for wanting that just because everyone makes fun of Skate shippers. I still liked it.
But overall, since I can interpret things how I want, I'm happy with it. I wish during the episode I would have realized all of this instead of yelling BULLSHIT once it was over. I was confused. Now that I can accept that Jack was okay in this episode, I can appreciate it. My Jack hate can subside, even though he's so damn stubborn. Now that I get that, it was very moving.
Thoughts?
Initial thoughts: I had no idea what was going on.
This is what I finally think the ending means, gathering up different interpretations. But maybe writing it out will help me understand. Lots of rambling. Maybe this is wrong, and much of it is my own fantasies. I just have to let it out!
Apparently, the sideways universe was the afterlife. They created it so they could be together. So it's not real life or an alternate universe. They're all dead. The people in the sideways, like Jack's son, aren't in real life, they were just there to help the characters "let go" of their issues so they could move on. Once the characters were able to let go and realize they were DEAD, they could move on. There's no sense of time in the afterlife, whenever they died in the real timeline (the island and all = REAL), they moved to this sideways world where they were dead. I don't want to call it purgatory, but that's SORT OF the basic idea. In order to realize this they had to remember, like Christian Shepherd said, that their time on the island was the most important time of their lives and they had to be with those people to move on into the next stage of the afterlife...which can be whatever the viewer wants. You could think of the sideways "afterlife" like a test they had to pass to move to the next stage. They had to remember the beauty and love in their lives and the fact that they were dead before moving on. Okay, getting repetitive here, sorry.
So Jack died on the island. I realize now how amazingly touching and perfect it is to end with him dying. He sacrificed everything for the island, becoming the man of faith he never was in the beginning. He redeemed himself. Even though Kate professed her love for him they were never "together". Kate, Claire, Sawyer, etc. went on the plane and lived out the rest of their lives, however long they were, before dying and going to the sideways world. So it's also up to you what you want to happen in their lives before they died...Kate either went to jail for majorly violating her probation (hah) or helped Claire raise Aaron. (Or, in my ultimate shipper fantasy, raised Aaron with Claire because their connection is awesome and Aaron's sideways birth scene was amazing (as was the original birth scene, lovely. Aw, Sawyer loved that scene too). She can also hook up with Sawyer or at least be good friends with him because EXCUSE ME, I don't care, but I loved that pairing. It was dysfunctional but hot so what can I say. And at the core, there was love.) I don't care if they weren't meant to be like Sawyer/Juliet and Jack/Kate were.
Also - After the "Oh, look Richard, you've got a gray hair" said by Miles, I now believe Miles and Richard are a couple. Okay, that's all my opinion and not true, you can make up your own, haha.
The reason Juliet and Sawyer had to find each other in the afterlife and Jack and Kate (And Sayid/Shannon, etc.) too was because these were their ultimate true loves that they never got to experience in real life. (If you want to believe the true love stuff). None of the relationships in the afterlife ever got to have happy endings in the real world, so the afterlife gave them that chance, which I quite like. There's the love theme. Whether we like that or not.
Hurley and Ben stayed on the island and lived out their lives as protectors of the island, seemingly for a good amount of time as Hurley referenced it before going into the church. Hopefully Desmond got to leave the island and be with Penny and their son and lived happily ever after.
Ben wasn't ready to move on at that time. My guess is that you have to fully let go, like Jack, to be able to move on. Ben still had issues, like Alex, he wanted to hold on to in the sideways before he was ready to move on.
Moving on can be anything. The window in the church had symbols of all the major religions. So they could go to heaven, be reincarnated, etc. Or you could subscribe to the suggestion that they returned to the light on the island, the source of all life. That one makes sense to me. Or...if you don't want to believe their afterlife is "over" maybe they went back to a peaceful, perfect version of the island where they could all live at peace together, in the place where their lives' most important moments took place. Personally, I like that one. Ever since the beginning I thought their island lives, free of their pasts, had so much more potential. Things got more complicated, but I always felt the island was where they belonged. That's just me.
So now that I've lost sleep over this, I think I get it more and I like the idea of it more and more. There's lots of room for interpretation but in the end, it's less about the mythology and more about the characters and their connections. Which I like. There aren't really any questions left that I can't somehow justify with what we know about the island.
My only wish:
More moments in the church. It seemed everyone was paired off and I would have liked some of the friendships getting more moments. I would have liked a Kate/Sawyer glance or a hug that was actually visible on screen. I think that scene, although it ended up being centered around Jack, could have focused on every relationship. And yes, I'm being rather selfish but all the Kate/Sawyer moments and connections in the whole series deserved one little mention. Not even romantic, just a recognition of all they had. I know it's there, just not for us to see. Ending ship nonsense. Whatever, I shouldn't feel guilty for wanting that just because everyone makes fun of Skate shippers. I still liked it.
But overall, since I can interpret things how I want, I'm happy with it. I wish during the episode I would have realized all of this instead of yelling BULLSHIT once it was over. I was confused. Now that I can accept that Jack was okay in this episode, I can appreciate it. My Jack hate can subside, even though he's so damn stubborn. Now that I get that, it was very moving.
Thoughts?