What It Felt Like to Watch the Lost Finale: A Non-Spoilery Metaphor for Non-Fans

[voiceofkiki]

I thought I'd write this little hypothetical scenario to help those who had never watched Lost understand what it felt like to be a die-hard Lost fan at the ending moments of the finale last night.  I know some fans don't agree with me, but I think this will more or less sum up the feelings of the vast majority of posters I've seen online since

Comments

[meewunk]

And I'm almost done with chapter one :D Yay!

[jannyblue]

So, I take it they never explained the numbers thing?

That was the only thing I actually wanted to know, assuming it was a math puzzle of some sort.

[voiceofkiki]

I've put it to a few other people this way: Think about any question you've ever heard people asking about Lost. There is a 98% chance the answer to the question "Did that ever get resolved?" will be "NO!"

[emiofbrie]

Basically, from your description, the correct answer to "Did that ever get resolved?" is not just "no", but rather, "It's a moot point, as it never really mattered anyway..."

[miriampenguin]

... huh.

Never did watch Lost, but I can appreciate the metaphor - you wrote it well.

[darthparadox]

This right here is why I never bothered getting into Lost. I knew that, once it was all wrapped up, I could rely on people who had been watching it to tell me whether it actually ended reliably (since there was a lot of doubt about that in the fandom as early as the first season).

(This is also why I'm waiting until Sora (and Sanderson, of course) finishes the Wheel of Time and tells me what she thinks before I'm even picking up the first book...)

[voiceofkiki]

Well, if Wheel of Time ends badly, you at least have the knowledge that it might not have sucked if not for the unfortunate author existence fail. Lost can't even hide behind that.

[scifantasy]

By the end of the first chapter, the author has presented us with several important questions.

...

Continuously through the chapter, the author keeps repeating the same questions.

...

Soon you begin to think that maybe you care more about the characters than the questions the author has posed. But the author is having none of it. He begins to pepper those questions into the body of the chapters now and not just at the end.

...

In the subsequent chapters, you begin to wonder if the author had the end of the book planned when he started. Events are muddled and characters act strangely. You read an interview with the author in which he assures you that he's known the ending all along.

...

There are a few subplots that begin to be wrapped up and answered.

...

"It turns out the answers to those questions weren't that important after all. Instead, enjoy the knowledge that this bunny lives in a happy home and gets plenty of carrots every day."

I didn't watch Lost. But I know this feeling. I already watched a show with that