Lost ending: my thoughts (spoilers, obviously)
On the whole, while I think the series remains a good one, the finale disappointed me. More accurately, since it did not fail to meet any of my low expectations, the final season itself disappointed.
I think that much of the debate of Lost is missing the point -- it isn't about whether mysteries are explained or questions are answered. It's about whether plot points are forgotten. It's about whether stories have endings.
I can handle mysteries being unexplained -- How come the island heals people? Why does it heal them selectively? That's strange, but ultimately if the show never makes it all clear, that's fair to me. There's nothing wrong with a Twilight Zone approach, where sometimes strange shit just happens. Then there are questions that don't really involve mysteries phenomena but aren't really character issues, either. What ever happened to that Sickness that Rousseau warned against, the one the Dharma Initiative was vaccinating people against? Is it similar to the Smoke Monster "claiming" people, which they kinda implied? If so, how does that work, exactly? And what about that Dharma supply drop? The writers have invoked Midichlorians as a reason not to ask too many questions about the mysteries of the show, but these dropped story threads aren't in the same category.
But most of all, questions involving, not paranormal phenomena, but character motivation, and story development -- those needed to be addressed. Why did Widmore bring Desmond to the island? What was his original plan? Why didn't Jacob tell people about making Smokey mortal sooner? Why didn't Jack, Desmond, Hurley, Ben, and anyone else in that cave become smoke monsters themselves? Why didn't Smokey figure out that Desmond could make him mortal by unplugging the Island? Isn't that, like, a huge loophole? And why couldn't Smokey leave, anyway?
Was that the Smoke Monster telling Ben and Locke to move the island, back in season four? If so, why did Smokey want the island moved? What did moving the island accomplish exactly?
What did shifting around in time do? What did Desmond's ability to know he was doing it amount to? And, hey, was Desmond somehow moving between life and purgatory in that episode earlier this season?!
Actually, it's pretty clear the sideways universe was not meant to be purgatory from the beginning. In the first episode of this season, the island is under water. How is that part of these people's heaven? And I'm fairly certain Desmond moving in and out of the Island universe and the Sideways universe was not done with any knowledge that the sideways place was an afterlife.
Anyway, back to stories left dangling -- Why was Widmore unable to return to the island? And then why was he able to return to the island after all? What became of Ben's quest to kill Penny?
There are more, but you get the point. The final episode was a decent few hours of television, but the series as a whole is seriously marred by too many story threads which were never seen through....
I think that much of the debate of Lost is missing the point -- it isn't about whether mysteries are explained or questions are answered. It's about whether plot points are forgotten. It's about whether stories have endings.
I can handle mysteries being unexplained -- How come the island heals people? Why does it heal them selectively? That's strange, but ultimately if the show never makes it all clear, that's fair to me. There's nothing wrong with a Twilight Zone approach, where sometimes strange shit just happens. Then there are questions that don't really involve mysteries phenomena but aren't really character issues, either. What ever happened to that Sickness that Rousseau warned against, the one the Dharma Initiative was vaccinating people against? Is it similar to the Smoke Monster "claiming" people, which they kinda implied? If so, how does that work, exactly? And what about that Dharma supply drop? The writers have invoked Midichlorians as a reason not to ask too many questions about the mysteries of the show, but these dropped story threads aren't in the same category.
But most of all, questions involving, not paranormal phenomena, but character motivation, and story development -- those needed to be addressed. Why did Widmore bring Desmond to the island? What was his original plan? Why didn't Jacob tell people about making Smokey mortal sooner? Why didn't Jack, Desmond, Hurley, Ben, and anyone else in that cave become smoke monsters themselves? Why didn't Smokey figure out that Desmond could make him mortal by unplugging the Island? Isn't that, like, a huge loophole? And why couldn't Smokey leave, anyway?
Was that the Smoke Monster telling Ben and Locke to move the island, back in season four? If so, why did Smokey want the island moved? What did moving the island accomplish exactly?
What did shifting around in time do? What did Desmond's ability to know he was doing it amount to? And, hey, was Desmond somehow moving between life and purgatory in that episode earlier this season?!
Actually, it's pretty clear the sideways universe was not meant to be purgatory from the beginning. In the first episode of this season, the island is under water. How is that part of these people's heaven? And I'm fairly certain Desmond moving in and out of the Island universe and the Sideways universe was not done with any knowledge that the sideways place was an afterlife.
Anyway, back to stories left dangling -- Why was Widmore unable to return to the island? And then why was he able to return to the island after all? What became of Ben's quest to kill Penny?
There are more, but you get the point. The final episode was a decent few hours of television, but the series as a whole is seriously marred by too many story threads which were never seen through....