Spoilers after the jump.
I’m going to watch this a few more times for study.
But my initial thoughts/emotions:
I think I liked half of it.
The Island half.
I enjoyed the action here. There were some great moments. Sawyer elbowing Ben in the face and taking his gun. Lapidus(!) showing up, bobbing in the ocean awaiting rescue. Richard alive! These were great little surprises on the way.
At first, I couldn’t get behind DarkLocke and Jack working together in order to prove each other wrong when lowering Desmond into the cave. But once I thought about it, these two cannot hurt each other at this point. They are playing by the same Man In Black/Jacob rules, and can’t harm each other. As soon as Desmond depowers the island, all bets are off, and the two of them are free to kill each other. At first, I kind of chuckled at their superhero battle on the cliff, but it was brutal enough, and Kate’s rescue of Jack felt right. It was the only way he would have survived.
Ben didn’t really have the plan I thought he had. I thought he joined up with DarkLocke with ulterior motives, but he had really run out of cards. When DarkLocke told him the Island would indeed sink and be no more, then Ben decided to switch sides, but he was only reacting. He had no scheme for once.
The cave. It will definitely take awhile for me to logically explain to myself how all of this functions. I dug the glyphs on the “cork”, and the ancients that lived on the island must have figured out that by corking the hole, it created an electro-magnetic result that gave the Island balance. It also had some interesting side effects like healing the sick, giving ghosts form and sound, and creating smoke monsters. Where this seemingly, scientific explanation crashes into what is presented as a mystical and sentient Island is where lines blur. If it is only an electro-magnetic effect, then why can only the Island Protectors become immortal by drinking the water or giving it to others?
DarkLocke. A little over an hour into the finale, DarkLocke dies. This leaves the rest of the episode (movie?) with no antagonist. There’s nothing left to watch but Jack commit suicide and, in the Sidewaysverse, denying what is happening to him. The structure confounded me at first, but there were so many character stories that had to be wrapped up and there was only so much time. Still, it felt a little anti-climactic for DarkLocke to die so early.
Now, the other half of the show.
The Sidewaysverse. Or, as we know it now, The Afterlife.
It was kind of a spin on things to realize what we had been watching all season long was not a parallel story but an epilogue.
Again, there were lots of things to like about this story-line. Friends reunited — my favorite being Hurley and Charlie. Lovers being reunited — my favorite being Charlie and Claire. Finally seeing Driveshaft play live, if only for a moment. There was a sense of happiness throughout this segment.
Then we find out they’re all dead.
I cannot figure out the logistics of this.
At some point, they had all agreed to meet here at this church and then move on from this plain?
When?
When did they all decide this? It was never when they were living. As thoughts race through my mind, I come up with this: Desmond had a near death/electro magnetic experience when Whidmore tested his machines. That enabled this Desmond to have contact with the Afterlife/Purgatory Desmond, and that Afterlife Desmond realized what was happening. He remembered his life on Earth, and he realized he was the one who had to make all of the others remember so they could move on. How long were they all waiting for this to happen? I mean, Hurley was now immortal and could have lived for another 2000 years. There must not be any concept of time for that existence. Also, everyone left behind will stay there until someone or something jogs there memory? There are so many questions that arise with the introduction of this concept, but I have to go with my gut on this:
In the last episode of a series, it is a bummer to know the characters you have followed for six years are all dead.
Sure, we all have to die sometime. And I understand where it might be perceived as a cheat and demeaning of the sacrifices made by all of the characters who died throughout the series. But — coming from a series where time travel has been the basis of the entire fifth season, these characters all had aces in the hole. I truly believed these characters would use an amalgamation of what they learned from The Others, The Dharma Initiative and their own trips through time to come up with a final solution that would finally empower them OVER the Island instead of the way it has been throughout the series. I thought they might actually start making the rules.
In the end, I feel that these characters deserved some kind of happiness and none of them found it until they were all dead. But there are unwritten years, I realize. Perhaps Sawyer, Kate, Claire, Richard, Miles, Lapidus, Ben and Hurley actually did find that happiness during their remaining years. Too bad we’ll never get to see it.
I still cherish this series, but it will be some time before I can go back and watch the entire run again. I will re-watch this finale and try to garner more of its message, but at the moment, I have a heavy heart.
Regardless of how it was tied up, the creators of this show have built an amazing vision, something that has never been attempted in media before and will not soon, if ever, be repeated. They should be commended on the quality of art they have presented to us all and have certainly raised the level of television entertainment!
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