I sit here today on Monday, May 24, 2010 and I wonder to myself what do I do now? I feel dare I say …Lost. I know people who don’t love this show do not understand and just laugh at the things I say, and yes, some of it is me and others I’m sure being over dramatic, but at the end of the day I mean what I say. I invested, as did many others, countless hours in this show. Whether it be watching it (over and over), reading about it, talking about it, and even just thinking about it for hours. Trying to figure out the little mysteries and why the hell I was even watching it. Why did I put so much time in a TV show? Well I know why I watched that show. It wasn’t because of the island or that I ever wanted to understand the island. I watched that show because I loved the people on the island; I wanted to hear their stories, and I wanted to understand them and see them get through the struggles that the island presented. I didn’t fully realize why I was watching that show until the finale, but deep down I always knew I was watching for Jack and Kate and Hurley and Jin and Sun and Sawyer and yes, even Ben and everyone else who inhabited that island.
The finale … at first I was lost as to how it ended and I was a little displeased, but after hours of contemplation and working out the details I am generally pleased with how it ended. It ended in nothing more than typical Lost fashion. Left questions unanswered and even opened up some new ones, but honestly you true losties did you expect anything less from those lovely writers. Then have done it for years making us figure it all out, what made you think this would be any different? I expected nothing more than what I got. Many people say it was cop out, I guess I see why you say that, but I disagree. I think it ended in the way it needed to end. I will attempt to explain how I interpreted the ending, agree or disagree that’s your choice.
The first thing I’d like to point out is that it wasn’t hidden that show was about the people on the island not the island, which is why I am okay with the fact that things about the island were never explained. We knew as much as the characters did. I don’t think we were ever suppose to understand the island and why it did what it did or even what the hell it was. We were suppose to watch a journey of Jack and the people around Jack (yes, I love Jack and I am huge Jack fan excuse the bias). I think the show did in a way revolve around Jack and his eventual death, which just about made me cry; I did not like seeing that man die.
At the end of the show the people I was watching it with all turned to me and asked “so when did they die? Plane, island, what the fuck dude” and at the time in my shaking hands and re watching Jack die in my head I did not have an answer. I couldn’t comprehend what I had seen and I will admit I was slightly annoyed, but again that was most likely because it was all over and Jack was dead. Then I sat back and for hours I thought about what I had seen, the different things that were said, and I found an answer to that very simple question that was posed to me. The answer being: No, they did not die on the plane crash, but they died as they died on the island, which meant that the island and all that jazz really happened. I mean honestly how could it not? I have heard theories on why it didn’t, but I could always see flaws in that thinking. Number one if they all died in the plane crash, how did Walt clearly get off the island and back to the real world. Not to mention was the whole getting off the island for the Oceanic 6 all not real too, that’s a stretch for me to believe, so I have to believe that the island happened and they died as they died on the island. This then leads one to see that Sawyer, Kate, Richard, Frank, Miles, and Claire also got off the island because with Jacob dead there was nothing stopping people from leaving; as Ben said, “That was Jacob’s way”. This also means that they all probably had lives off the island, and when they died they found their way back to the people that meant the most to them. I think this particular show focused on Jacks journey from the end of his life to when he died and that is why we never see what happened to the others. This was always about Jack.
The other major thing that allowed me to fully believe that the island happened was that I came to the conclusion that the Flash Sideways were not real. They were a way for the people to remember the important people in their life so they could all move on together after they died.
We see Jack die on the island while he is in that church learning about what has really happened. A few important things happen in the church. The first is Ben and Hurley. They have a conversation outside, which clearly implies that they had a life after Jack died. There was a trust one could see between them and what they said lead me to believe that they, indeed, went on living on the island for who knows how long. Then there was the Jack and Christian. When Christian said that there is no here and now or whatever he says to imply that time doesn’t exist. Some people died before Jack and some died after, but all that mattered was that they were in this church, a place that was built so they could all find each other; the most important people in Jacks life, the people he needed so that he could move on.
In my opinion that was all there really was to it. Those were the people who were important in Jacks life. They were the ones that helped him through life and the ones he had to remember so that he could move on to whatever was next. It was a show about the people; it was about Jacks journey, but it was also if you back away from it about the people on that island surviving and letting go of past things. Jack had to let go of a lot. This is just one theory I thought of I have no idea if it even makes sense, but the fact that Jack had a son in the flash sideways. Throughout the show we watched Jack struggle with his “daddy issues” and the fact that he never believed he would make a good father, but I think somewhere inside him he wanted to be a father. He made an attempt with Aaron. I think from what I gather that he had a son in the flash sideways in order to one let go of his father issues and have the ability to be a father; to prove to himself that he could do it. He was able to let go of things by working through issues with his son. He was able to see from a different point of view which allowed him to move on and let go of issues that were holding him back. That is really all I could make of that part of the flash sideways. It was the part the confused me the most.
In a quick wrap up: the island was real, the flash sideways were the time before death and were not real, Jack was the main character after all, and lastly the show wasn’t about a magical island, but rather a group of people who profoundly affected one another and just had to find each other in the end.
I loved every minute I spent on lost and every minute I will spend thinking this over and talking about it. For me it was the best TV show I ever watched. I personally loved the ending and I loved that they let it just be about the story of a group of people who lived and loved together and eventually died and moved on. It was my life for a long time and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Lost… you are amazing and Jack Shephard I adore you. You may all be dead now, but people of that island I love ya.
