2nd attempt
Lost…………….SPOILER ALERT………………If you haven’t watched the finale, read no further.
After reading lughnie and robin reeds reviews, which were amazing as always, it was time for me to get my thoughts together. Now I wracked my brain trying to come up with a clever opening, but Marli used the best possible one ever so here it goes……………….
For awhile I was ambivalent about the ending and felt a bit cheated but after a few days I have become ultimately satisfied with the ending. I had always wanted closure and redemption for the characters because it was really all about people, not polar bears. Did everything wrap up exactly as I had hope-no. But you can’t always get what you want (I got a song title in-hee hee) Questions remain, but if there weren’t what would we have to talk about?
What I hated about the finale:
1. I really felt cheated by the sideways life for I always thought it was meant to show what would have happened had the plane never crashed. The being said see below for what I loved about the sideways.
2. The aha moments for some characters came too quickly and some weren’t even explained. The Sayid aha moment really should have been with Nadia, his true love or if not with another major character that had some depth-Jack, Sawyer, Hurley, Locke would have all sufficed. It seemed forced and abruptly entered because Maggie Grace became available. I will admit I hated Shannon’s character and not just because she got to kiss Sayid. It was because she was a vapid, bitchy, blonde twit with no redeeming characteristics whatsoever. I hated her from the pilot-sunbathing, painting her toenails, in the midst of all the tragedy around her showed what a self-centered girl she was. I never for once believed that translating a few lines of French would of should have given her status in the group. Admittedly I have never cared for beautiful helpless females -it’s just too much of a stereotype. (I have always said from the Breck commercial-Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful. Not, I hate you because I’m not.)
Sayid and Shannon’s relationship in the real world would have amounted to nothing more than a booty call-he was stuck on the island and his options were limited-Kate who was torn between Jack and Sawyer, Claire-pregnant, Rose and Sun -married. So that just never worked for me.
Now, where the hell did Boone come from and what was his aha moment-it would have been nice to see him come into contact with Locke who had served as a pseudo-father figure for him.
And while I realize it may have been productionwise impossible, couldn’t they have done something with Walt-he was so special and an integral part of the storyline. If they really knew where they were going with the storyline from the start, they could have filmed a moment with him and Locke while the actor was still young and inserted it into the sideways world.
2. Poor Hurley and Jorge Garcia. The one truly good character who really deserved to get off the island was stuck in place he did not want to be. I was really annoyed at the completely extraneous insult that came from Ana Lucia’s character-calling him tubby. Hurley and Jorge deserved better than to be attacked like that. Wasn’t it enough to show she had not come to her resolution because she was corrupt? I was also annoyed at the implication that Hurley was forced to stay on the island because his character could not climb down the rope ladder-in the end they jumped so he was capable of doing that. I think he deserved the dignity of choosing to stay because he wanted to help Jack-something Hurley had always done-take care of people. After he stood up to fake Locke, dealt with Jacob, ran around the jungle saved them by driving the van into the camp, he had proven himself and deserved better.
3. The pit of light-could they have come up with something better than a Freudian act of putting a phallic symbol into a hole? Seriously guys-it could have been a door, a cap, even just a big rock rolled over the hole, but in typical male fashion, they save the world with their dick. Enough said .
Now what I loved………
1. The sense of humor that carried through until the end. Hurley’s Yoda remarks about Jacob, the stuck candy bar in the vending machine, my personal favorite; Sawyer to Jack “Why don’t you come down off the mountain and tell us what the burning bush had to say” and the tongue in cheek way they made fun of the name ‘Christian Sheperd’-it would have been one of the things I hated if they had just allowed a christian to shepherd the survivors into the light-especially because Sayid was Muslim and the Kwons were probably Buddhists.
2. Ben remaining outside the church-they kept his status as an “Other” intact. He was never part of the Losties, and on the island he may have redeemed himself in some ways and was supportive to Hugo, his real crime was taking Alex from Danielle and he had to resolve that on his own before he could move on.
3. The church itself representing many if not all the world’s religions-what a beautiful way to embrace all faiths. If we don’t learn to live together, we are all going to die alone goes for more than the island, it applies to world order also.
4. While I wish Hurley had gotten off the island, I loved seeing him humbly accept the mantle of island protector and finally realizing that Jack respected and trusted him.
5. The sideways world brought us such touching moments(not all of these were from the finale) -Jin being able to at last see his daughter, even if just for a moment. Jack coming to terms with his death, how he cried and held his father made me cry. Seeing Charlie and Claire together holding Aaron, the way it was supposed to be. John Locke reunited with Helen, what the man always deserved-to be loved. Hurley being a happy multi millionaire, enjoying his wealth and reuniting with Abby-he finally got his kiss. Seeing the reunion of them all in the church, and I loved how they filmed it without words, just let the images speak for themselves.
To those who think the island wasn’t real I quote Christian “It all happened. It was all real.” and “Yes, they are all dead. Some died before you, some long after you.” Besides why would a group of complete strangers all concoct the same exact hallucination of an island with black smoke monsters, polar bears, nuclear bombs, temples and shipwrecks? It all meant something, it was all for a reason.
In summation (sorry I tend to be wordy) Lost was never really about smoke monsters, polar bears, immortals, Dharma initiatives or plane crashes. It was about us, all of us. Living and loving each other. The power of faith in things we don’t understand-how boring would life be without some questions. I love that they left us with questions-that way Lost will never really be over.