After the Finale, I´m Still "Lost"

The series finale of the ABC television show "Lost" aired, and it was supposed to be a nice tidy wrap to what had become a very confusing, though entertaining television show over the past six years and 120 episodes. Unfortunately, after spending 2 ½ hours watching the series finale, I came away with more questions than answers and felt the same way that I did when the "Seinfeld" series finale aired; that there is more that needs to happen, but I am just not ready for it right now.

Initially, the island inhabitants were plane crash survivors who were trying to figure out how they were going to survive on an uncharted island while trying to figure out how they would be rescued and allowed to return to their lives. Then, when a small group of survivors managed to leave the island and return home, and then another group of individuals arrived on the island doing scientific study, the show became very strange, leading to a finale that rivaled only the "St. Elsewhere" autistic child daydream tale for confusion.

With people being able to come to and leave from the island seemingly at will, and with Charles Widmore becoming a character crucial to the lives and activities of so many, the island and the show took on whole other lives. Real time was being adjusted, there were people who were living dual lives in separate times some thirty years different, people who were dead on the island were alive back home and vice versa. Also Desmond Wolfe, who it would turn out was the most powerful and important character in the entire show, after being told for years that it was either John Locke or Jack Shephard, was able to be on the island and in the real world at the same time as well as traveling through time, depending on who he was talking to at the time.

This lead to a series finale where we saw Jack, who had been appointed guardian of the heart of the island by Jacob, who was killed by the infamous black smoke that was currently masquerading in the body of the deceased John Locke, engage in a final confrontation with Locke who had apparently "inherited" the black smoke from Jacob´s twin brother. Locke wanted to destroy the island and the world and Jack was obligated to save it. Jack used Desmond´s ability to resist and withstand magnetic forces to trick Locke into becoming human again so that he could be killed, and then appointed Hugo Hurley, the man with the biggest heart on the island, as the new "Jacob", with Jack believing that his last act before Hurley took over would be his true last act. Hurley assigned Ben Linus, who had been at odds with the crash survivors from day one, as his assistant and Jack set about saving the island.

While all of this was happening, in the "real world", seemingly all of the passengers of Oceanic 815 were meeting one another and reminding the one closest to them through touch of their time on the island and of what they meant to one another. Then the survivors began congregating in the church that was supposed to house the funeral for Jack´s deceased father, whose remains were misplaced by the airline.

Jack completes his service on the island and, believing that he had been killed, Hurley sets about his duties as island protector, with his first assignment being, at Linus´ suggestion, sending Desmond home from the island. Oddly enough, the task did not kill Jack, but he would die at the same moment that he found out in the real world that he, along with all of the other passengers of the plane, were actually dead but needed to be together before they could go to wherever it was that they were going to spend all of eternity. This while crash survivors Sawyer, Kate, Claire, and three others who were not on Oceanic 815, were seemingly leaving the island and flying to wherever home was.

Now, Ben Linus, who was not on the flight, was one of the ones who aided the flight passengers in coming together for their final gathering before eternity, but it was never made clear if he was dead or alive, though his last conversations were with, as we would find out, a deceased John Locke and a deceased Hugo Hurley, who was thanking Linus for being his "number two", a reference to their association on the island when Hurley becomes "the new Jacob". Also, Juliet Burke, who was also not one of the passengers, but had a romantic relationship with Sawyer when they joined Dharma after travelling back in time thirty years, was present at the final gathering, which also begs the question of whether or not Linus was dead or alive because though Juliet died on the island, so did Charlotte, the love interest of Daniel Widmore, but she was not included in the final scene.

Also not included in the final scene were Ana Lucia Cortez, Michael Dawson and Mr. Eko, along with Michael´s son Walt. These were also crash survivors who, like many of the others who were present, died on the island, but were left out of the final scene. If you happened to be watching the Jimmy Kimmel show after the final episode, then you learned that since these characters committed atrocities while on the island, their spirits were left on the island, leading us to believe that they would be spending eternity in Hell while the others were headed for Heaven. However, Ana Lucia´s crimes were a case of her doing wrong for the right reasons, and she was a victim of Michael´s crimes. Eko was evil before coming to the island, but became a good person once there, so this is also confusing. Besides, Walt was a child who committed no crimes, either pre or post island, but he was left out of the final gathering, even if the producers would have had to hire a different actor to play his part.

I realize that it is just a television show and that it is not reality. I also realize that the producers did not owe me a tidy ending, but I, along with the tens of millions of others who eagerly anticipated this series finale hoping to get our questions answered, were left feeling as if we were trapped between realities, as the island inhabitants were. I just hope that the DVD set gives us more clarity, which is probably what the producers were planning in an effort to increase sales, making them much smarter than those of us who watched the finale expecting closure.