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Monday, May 24, 2010

Lost Afterthoughts: The END of an EPIC show.

As much as I dread attempting to put my thoughts into words about last night's epic finale, I know I would never forgive myself if I didn't at least try. So I'll do what I must, as I listen to this Lost-inspired playlist and stare at my empty Dharma water bottle. How to begin? Well... Lost has been a part of my life for 6 years and will go down as one of my top 5 TV shows of all time. Scratch that. Top 3. And here's why...


CHARACTERS...

Looking back, the reason for my personal attachment to Lost was its ability to create believable and inspiring characters. With the exception of Kate (who I felt, eventually, found some purpose), I grew to care about these fictional strangers and their lives-- be it past, present, future, or sideways. Particularly, I grew to care about how they each connected with one another since they barely knew each other before landing on the island and yet by the end, they had endured *so* much, together. With that said, I feel that Lost has always been about the connections-- not the answers. At its core, Lost is a show about people rather than mythology; the sci-fi and mystery stuff was just an added bonus that we got used to because the writers were just that damn creative. But it was never the heart of the show. For me, the finale was beautifully filled with moments that did honor this tradition of character growth, community, and family. It conveyed a bittersweet and honest message:


There are some people we meet that will truly change the course of our lives. And it is these same people that join us when we leave. So that we can all move on... (to wherever)-- but together. In the end, they all fulfilled the idea of living together and NOT dying alone. Even poor Jack was joined by Vincent in that bamboo field so he wouldn't have to do it alone. And in the flash sideways, he was joined by all the people he had gotten to know and grown with for 6 years. Without sounding like too much of a nutcase, I can honestly say that in a similar way, I felt like I was in that church. Being reunited with all these characters that I had grown to love. Yes, even Kate. What a heart-tugging way to end it.


Still Feeling Lost...?

Now for those of you who are going crazy about the unanswered questions concerning Walt, Widmore, the Dharma Initiative, or the entire first half of Season 6... do yourself a favor and don't miss the grand scheme of things. The finale was meant to honor your emotional investment in these characters... not answer all your geeky questions. And while we're on that subject, do you really want all the answers? Don't you instead, revel in the fact that you'll still have something of Lost left to theorize about, debate about, and just plain think about? Lost, if anything, has given us such a wonderful opportunity to exercise our minds unlike any show that we sometimes forget how to just enjoy the story we are being told.


But seriously, of the questions that people bring up all the time (and annoys the freakin crap out of me), there are two that stand out that I want to address myself. 1) Why was Walt so special? 2) Why wasn't Mr. Eko, Michael, and Ana Lucia in the church? Ugh!! Come on people! Clearly, Walt wasn't THAT special! And I've seen him, he's all grown up! So who cares?! In fact, didn't we finish his story when Locke found him 8 ft tall, in school, and fine with the fact that his deadbeat traitor dad was dead? What more closure do we need? In my opinion, Walt was left to live the rest of his life out of all that Island drama because its not his fault his dad was an asshat and betrayed the other Losties. And let's not forget that TV has its limitations people! Why wasn't Mr. Eko, Michael, Ana Lucia, et al in the church reunion scene? Well gosh, it's not like we can bring everyone that's ever been on the show back for the finale. Not only is that fiscally impossible, but completely unnecessary. My take on that is only the people most closely connected to Jack and each other were in that church. It's no wonder Ben chose to stay outside. He was never part of that family unit to begin with. Ok, enough of that nonsense...


BEST MOMENTS

- ALL the flash sideways: especially Sawyer and Juliet! Claire and Charlie! Even Kate and Jack!

- Miles, Lapidus, and Richard getting off that damn island and living to see another day.

- Jin and Sun busting out with perfect English and surprising Juliet after seeing sonogram of Ji Yeon

- Hurley's obvious joy at seeing Charlie again and then shooting him with a tranquilizer

- Jack and MiBLocke's Western-style showdown

- Michael Giacchino's awesome score

- Target commercials: the Smokey/Smoke Alarm one was the best.

- Jimmy Kimmel's montage soundtracked to Debbie Gibson's "Lost in Your Eyes"


*** a special thanks to those special candidates that came out for the finale on Sunday. Hope you enjoyed the Dharma dranks and Wild Boar Adobo among other food & beverages. ***


BAD ROBOT.

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