After watching LOST with our good friends and neighbors (John and Bea) for the past 6 years, all four of us spent 4 1/2 hours together last night watching the finale. I haven’t started reading much of what others thought (and I could be completely wrong on my understanding of what happened), but here is what I thought happened and why I enjoyed the LOST finale:
- Jack sacrificed himself for those he loved. After not being able to fix the one thing he desperately wanted to fix – their situation on the island, he finally was able to do so. Jack became the hero we all knew he could become.
- Jack defeated UnLocke. Good triumphed over evil.
- The flash sideways showed a purgatory-type place where the characters found redemption and forgiveness. Even Benjamin Linus asked for and received forgiveness (although he does not enter the church). Of course, I would have liked to have seen all of the characters find redemption before death (and maybe they did since for example, Benjamin seemed to change in his final scene with Hurley when on the island), but the writers did such a great job with these flawed characters, you could not help but want them to find peace in spite of all they had done.
- In the flash sideways, it was beautiful and touching to see the characters remember their lives from before when reconnecting with someone they loved.
- The impression I got was that those on the plane in the last scene had the opportunity to live long lives back on the mainland. If you died on the island (Sun, Jin, Sayid, etc.) you actually died.If the entire series had been in a state of purgatory, that would have been really disappointing.
- Although the show was not written from a Judeo-Christian worldview, I wouldn’t expect it to be. Even still, LOST did a great job of bringing up issues of faith, belief, our actions have consequences, our need to find rescue and redemption, the power of sacrifice, destiny vs. free will, and the priority of our relationships.
One of the most powerful aspects of the show for me was the way they constantly worked through the power and importance of relationships. With an international cast, this message stood out even moreso. Perhaps the entire message of the show could be summarized by Jack Shephard in the very first episode. Just after the crash, Jack rallied the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 and said: “If we can’t live together, we’re going to die alone!”
Can’t wait to continue the debate and read my friend Chris Seay’s book The Gospel According to LOST.
What did you think?
i agree with you eric – a beautiful ending to an amazing series. it wasn’t so much about answering all our questions but more so about pressing into relationships and the power of a redemptive and life giving community….
you can read my thoughts here http://wp.me/pxcgW-7k
What an incredibly powerful finale…. I honestly don’t think I could have come up with a better way for them to have ended it all. While there are those who are complaining about a lack of concrete answers, the show has always been about the characters, their relationships and the redemption they’ve found through each other. Still trying to process it, but yeah, thought it was amazing!
I have a friend who loved the finale and plans to start watching the dvds for the first season next week and plans to go through the entire series again. I imagine he will have some interesting insights after all of that!
Someone suggested they could do a spinoff show with Hurley as the new Jacob and Ben as the new Richard Alpert. That could be interesting. 🙂
Eric,
You have expressed well some of the things that been trying to put into words. There was an appeal to this show over these years that had everything to do with the quality and depth and complexity of the the characters…THANK YOU!
Blessings!
After all the temples – it was surprising it all ends in a traditional looking church. My impression was all the other holy sites of the statue, the caves, the temples, were places people of the past created to join together before they pasted on into the light – afterlife. I did find the philosophy of the show some what predictable. All the good people earned their way into the church and light. The bad people Miles all about money, Michael murderer, Richard suicidal and selfish, did not make it to the church or light. Even Ben had to go do some more good deeds before he felt worthy. I do think this idea that religion plays on people was represented well in the church by the stain glass and other symbols of all the world religions. It was sad that the cross and a statue of Christ was included with the others. The world’s view of Christianity is pretty much be a good enough person and you will spend eternity in the light. Overall I enjoyed Lost just for the simple fact that it led to larger than life discussions and opened the door to share the gospel.
Tim
The show definitely created great conversations! I agree with you, Tim!
The many unanswered questions gives us even more reasons to keep the conversation going. 🙂