It’s at this point that I can only summon the words of my compadre William Shakespeare:
“I am amazed and know not what to say.”
If you were looking for an elaborately-detailed grocery list of mysteries and questions that you could swiftly tick off as “solved” and “answered” you were likely very disappointed tonight.
If you were one of the folks shouting “PURGATORY” from the end of the pilot episode, only to have your theory rebuffed, you may have ended tonight with a puzzled expression on your face
If you wanted to know why the Others couldn’t have babies and why Walt could kill birds and who the heck was shooting at the time travelling castaways in the outrigger and what in the blue hell the numbers REALLY mean, you were likely pretty angry tonight.
Call me a fanboy, call me an apologist, call me a hack and a puppet for ABC and the Walt Disney corporation if you wish. But I think I represent a contingent of Lost fans who realize the show is not now, nor has it ever been about those things.
For as elaborately complex and ornately constructed the 2 1/2 hour series finale “The End” felt as it was unfolding, when it was all over, the show’s overarching themes of loss, redemption, community and destiny reigned supreme. For 6 years now, I’ve tried to pinpoint exactly what Lost is all about. It’s about those themes I said before, sure, but “The End” open my eyes to the fact that the word that best sums up the entirety of the series’ arc is: Control.
When the show began, it was about a group of people in a mess. Chaos and explosions and lost limbs and all the typical plane crash fare. Then, it became clear that not only were they dealing with surviving a plane crash, they were doing so in a place that was filled with otherworldly challenges. Living plumes of black smoke. A secret society of baby-napping bad guys. An unnamed sickness. Time travelling. The whole shot.
From the moment they landed, the characters, and namely, Jack, tried the best they could to exert control over their circumstance. First, the goal was to get off the Island. Eventually, that happened, but it never seemed right for anyone. Then it was about getting back. Then it was about finding your destiny. Then it was about killing the Smoke Monster. All of that happened. And while it did matter, season 6 enlightened me to the fact that the show is about embracing that which you cannot control. Letting go. And it’s only when you let go that you can remember what’s most important. For Jack Shephard, his father said it best when he told him, “The most important time you spent with your life was the time you spent with these people.”
And while the story was very clearly Jack’s journey, the notion of this pocket of time being the most important to ALL of these people was immensely evident. I don’t think that bevy of emotional “crossover” scenes, wherein the castaways became cognizant of their true existence, were just for show. It is this time and these people that made them who they are. And only by relinquishing control could they come to fully understand it. Jack tried so very hard to suppress it at least twice before touching his father’s casket.
Schematically, you had to know that we were never ticketed for a gift-wrapped, exposition-heavy final hour (or two and a half). I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the stained glass window behind Christian in the church was adorned with imagery spanning a multitude of religious ethos. Depending on your perspective, the glowing white light of the church might mean any number of things. I have some thoughts, of course, but as I said earlier, those thoughts require some time and space to accurately contextualize what I’ve just experienced. Until the morning, friends.
Namaste.
