Lost: The Final Season

[DrumUltimA]

Danger: potential spoilers

See, the other thing I think is that if you were only watching lost because you wanted to see if they could answer all of the questions, then you were missing out on the deeper meaning behind those questions. We don't know a lot of things, but we did know the effect that it had on the characters--and by the end, basically all of the characters were explained. If they explained EVERYTHING, like what the hurley bird was, and why the island turned the man in black into the smoke monster, and what the light actually was, who put it there, etc etc... it would actually distract from the real point of the show, which is not about the fact that the island is weird but rather the effect it has on the relationships between all those people.

[Vivi22]

Danger: potential spoilers

See, the other thing I think is that if you were only watching lost because you wanted to see if they could answer all of the questions, then you were missing out on the deeper meaning behind those questions. We don't know a lot of things, but we did know the effect that it had on the characters--and by the end, basically all of the characters were explained. If they explained EVERYTHING, like what the hurley bird was, and why the island turned the man in black into the smoke monster, and what the light actually was, who put it there, etc etc... it would actually distract from the real point of the show, which is not about the fact that the island is weird but rather the effect it has on the relationships between all those people.

I don't think giving us some answers would distract from the characters at all, or that I somehow missed the effect that the events on the island had on the characters just because I want answers. They spent more than half a decade building up the mystery and promising answers to things, only to leave us wondering on the most important mysteries the show ever created without even a hint at the truth's behind them.

I never expected answers to everything, nor did I expect, or even want them to just spell out the answers behind the major questions. But the fact is they gave us just next to nothing in the end, and as good as the character stuff was, saying that that somehow was the only stuff that mattered or that it makes up for being strung along for so long is a cop out and little more than an attempt to justify lazy writing. Fact is, when it came time to give us some real answers the writers didn't have a damn clue how to dig themselves out of the hole full of mysteries that they'd dug for themselves and didn't even try. So you'll have to excuse me if I feel somewhat cheated in the end.

[Palpable]

[sOME SPOILERS, THOUGH SRSLY I DON'T KNOW WHO'S GONNA READ THIS THREAD AND NOT EXPECT SPOILERS]

I had mixed feelings about the ending. Very emotional, satisfying conclusion for the sideways-verse. I thought the conversation between Christian and Jack at the end was actually extremely well-done, considering how heavy-handed their explanations have been this season. It was clear about what the sideways-verse was, but it didn't feel too expository. Thumbs up. It would have been nice to see more characters in the church at the end, but I have a feeling getting all those actors together at the same time might have been an issue.

But in the process of wrapping that up they really sold the danger and urgency of the island-verse short. Couldn't we at least have been told once and for all that the Man in Black leaving the island would have destroyed the world? It would have made that battle at the end matter so much more. Otherwise, why the hell do they care that he's trying to escape the island? Why does the island matter at all? I'm not asking for everything to be explained, I just want some indication that in the end, their actions meant something.

[DrumUltimA]

I don't think giving us some answers would distract from the characters at all, or that I somehow missed the effect that the events on the island had on the characters just because I want answers. They spent more than half a decade building up the mystery and promising answers to things, only to leave us wondering on the most important mysteries the show ever created without even a hint at the truth's behind them.

I never expected answers to everything, nor did I expect, or even want them to just spell out the answers behind the major questions. But the fact is they gave us just next to nothing in the end, and as good as the character stuff was, saying that that somehow was the only stuff that mattered or that it makes up for being strung along for so long is a cop out and little more than an attempt to justify lazy writing. Fact is, when it came time to give us some real answers the writers didn't have a damn clue how to dig themselves out of the hole full of mysteries that they'd dug for themselves and didn't even try. So you'll have to excuse me if I feel somewhat cheated in the end.

But, they did answer a lot, and what they didn't answer they left us with a lot of hints...

[Vivi22]

I'm not sure what show you were watching DrumUltimA, but unless I've really just forgotten a lot of hints from the five previous seasons (which I find unlikely since that's really not like me and I've seen most of them two or three times) they really didn't answer much at all. In fact, they left us hanging on pretty much everything major. Namely stuff like what was up with Jacob and the light, or what would happen if the smoke monster got off the island.

Sure we got little answers here and there like the whispers being people who died on the island and Jack's father from the first season being the smoke monster, but we really didn't need those spelled out because they did hint at them along the way and I doubt anyone was really surprised by those revelations. The closest we came to any answers was some vague description of the island as a cork holding back hell. Which I'm cool with, but it still leaves the question of what the hell the light was and why it turned MIB into a smoke monster, why the island was there holding back hell to begin with, who built things like the statue and the temple and why, and how the hell they all traveled through time.

[big giant circles]

[sOME SPOILERS, THOUGH SRSLY I DON'T KNOW WHO'S GONNA READ THIS THREAD AND NOT EXPECT SPOILERS]

yeah really that being said *SPOILER ALERT*

I had mixed feelings about the ending. Very emotional, satisfying conclusion for the sideways-verse. I thought the conversation between Christian and Jack at the end was actually extremely well-done, considering how heavy-handed their explanations have been this season. It was clear about what the sideways-verse was, but it didn't feel too expository. Thumbs up. It would have been nice to see more characters in the church at the end, but I have a feeling getting all those actors together at the same time might have been an issue.

But in the process of wrapping that up they really sold the danger and urgency of the island-verse short. Couldn't we at least have been told once and for all that the Man in Black leaving the island would have destroyed the world? It would have made that battle at the end matter so much more. Otherwise, why the hell do they care that he's trying to escape the island? Why does the island matter at all? I'm not asking for everything to be explained, I just want some indication that in the end, their actions meant something.

Well-said. I was happy that everything was resolved for the characters, but it's almost like the plot itself was abandoned just so we could know that all the characters can appear in a warm-fuzzy after-life-ish reunion. And while that is good for warm fuzzies, it basically tells us "oh, all that other stuff wasn't really important in the first place."

Here's an example/analogy I've been thinking of. If Lord of the Rings started the story right about where, say, Return of the King begins, and then doesn't really explain what led to the sequence of events unfolding before you, and then just as the ring is making its way up the slopes of Mt. Doom the movie cuts over to a sideways-reality in a similar fashion and everyone is just living their lives normally until, say, Gandalf decides to round them all up and explain that they had all died, and this alternate-reality was just a way they could all gather to sail to the undying lands, that would be a reasonable comparison to how the ending of Lost made me feel. Yeah, it's great to see a "happy ending", but I want to know what happened in the "real" world. I'd want to know where the ring came from, and why the hobbits were trying to destroy it, and why it made Frodo invisible, and why Gollum was following them, and why etc etc etc etc etc. That's exactly the case here. There were sooo many episodes and characters that apparently didn't matter (again, I'm guessing that was partially the network's fault because they elongated a series that was originally intended to be shorter than it turned out). And I guess that's what's going to bug me in perpetuity here. It's not a perfect analogy, but I think it explains my perspective a little at least.

Concerning

It would have been nice to see more characters in the church at the end, but I have a feeling getting all those actors together at the same time might have been an issue.

I wondered that as well. And don't modern film-editing techniques offer plenty of ways around that? Where were half the characters there? I really feel like them showing so few characters in the chapel only added yet another gaping, never-to-be-answered-only-speculated-upon hole in the face of what might have otherwise been a more satisfying ending.

But, they did answer a lot, and what they didn't answer they left us with a lot of hints...

I'm not sure what show you were watching

Yeah really

Again, all in all, as I've said, I think the ending was reasonably executed, at least from a "Character round-up" perspective--after all, the show is called "Lost" so it only makes sense that they all "find" each-other in the end, more or less (but mostly less ). But I'm afraid the lack of reasonable explanation for so many of the other strange, and seemingly urgent/important issues in the series are going to leave me with a perpetually disappointed feeling that will conflict with my ability to enjoy the series with complete (or near-complete anyway) satisfaction. And knowing that after all the time I've invested into the series that many questions will NEVER be answered is saddening to me.

********************************

If Lost was a submission to OCR, my vote would go like this:

Pretty decent track, great use of instrumentation (characteres). One of the most amazing intros I've ever heard. The first minute of the song is fantastic, I could listen to just that part on repeat. After that however, the song sort of coasts and starts to lose focus. Some instruments just pop in or drop out (or both) at random and it's a little distracting. The mood and progression of the song are interesting enough, but the pace just becomes ridiculously plodding around the 4 minute mark, and the instrumentation and progression of the song has become a little hollow. The ending is executed very well and leaves me on a warm fuzzy note, so nice job on that. Ultimately however, there's just not enough substance here to carry the track for a full six minutes. Quite frankly, this really ought to be cut down to 3-4 minutes tops. The instrumentation needs to be reworked to be a little more consistent throughout the piece so that the ending, while warm-and fuzzy, is also actually cohesive.

NO (resubmit)

Hope that explains things on my end

[Schwaltzvald]

So hey is it okay for me to say when the show ended, nothing of value was lost..?

Seriously as far as a couple of associates told me plainly, "It started with a plane wreck and it ended with one" with little to nothing answering anything.

If this is the case, I'm glad I ignored it the second the show ever started airing.

If this is wrong do explain this briefly to me please.

[Palpable]

Pretty decent track, great use of instrumentation (characteres). One of the most amazing intros I've ever heard. The first minute of the song is fantastic, I could listen to just that part on repeat. After that however, the song sort of coasts and starts to lose focus. Some instruments just pop in or drop out (or both) at random and it's a little distracting. The mood and progression of the song are interesting enough, but the pace just becomes ridiculously plodding around the 4 minute mark, and the instrumentation and progression of the song has become a little hollow. The ending is executed very well and leaves me on a warm fuzzy note, so nice job on that. Ultimately however, there's just not enough substance here to carry the track for a full six minutes. Quite frankly, this really ought to be cut down to 3-4 minutes tops. The instrumentation needs to be reworked to be a little more consistent throughout the piece so that the ending, while warm-and fuzzy, is also actually cohesive.

NO (resubmit)

Heh. I like to think of it as a six-minute electronic song that becomes a gospel song in the last minute and you ask the remixer "what happened to it being electronic?" and they tell you "psh, it was always a gospel song."

[big giant circles]

Heh, gotta love The Onion.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/lost-possibly-still-airing-in-parallel-dimension-d,17485/

NEW YORK—Desperate fans of the recently concluded television series Lost are speculating that the program is continuing on in a parallel dimension somewhere, and that alternate versions of showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse are currently writing new episodes of the series. "It's very possible that a sideways world running concurrent to our own exists, and that a facsimile of myself is happy, fulfilled, and already gearing up for the season seven premiere of Lost," said 36-year-old Kevin Molinaro, who, along with more than 20 million other hopeless fans, has recently booked multiple roundtrip tickets from Los Angeles to Australia in hopes of traveling through a vortex in the space-time continuum. "I just have to find a way to get there. We all do." According to data from Google analytics, searches for "How to build/detonate/use a hydrogen bomb to open up a multidimensional wormhole" have increased 10 millionfold since the episode aired.

[DrumUltimA]

I actually think a lot of the mysteries of the island itself weren't supposed to be explained--especially considering you all know that if they were explained, nobody would be satisfied with the explanation. I think that's part of the reason why there was so much reference to Egypt through the entire show. We have theories for why those Pyramids are there, and pretty strong ones too--but in the end, we can't really say for sure how they were built. I mean, when I was in like, elementary school, I had a teacher who told me that some people believe aliens helped them build the pyramids--which I think is funny, because I remember hearing people speculate about aliens being involved in lost.

Lemme go through step by step and try to defend my perspective:

Namely stuff like what was up with Jacob and the light, or what would happen if the smoke monster got off the island.

Throughout the whole show there have been biblical/spiritual/supernatural references to these guys--whether it was by the name Jacob, the two of them being called the devil, the adam and eve thing, the cain and abel comparison, etc. The Bible sure as hell doesn't explain how a serpant could talk, or what was put into the apple to make it so, uh, "intelligent". Now, I know it sounds silly to compare lost to the bible (even though I've heard people say "lost is my religion lol) but it's the same idea. One, the facts aren't as important as the story, and two: if it was explained, none of these characters would be quite so "special". If any character in the bible could be explained, well, I guess that's why we have skeptics but you see where I'm going with this. I think it's simply a literary device.

Also, wondering what would happen with the smoke monster/mib leaving... i mean, i don't know, he would've turned into godzilla or he would've started an evil corperation or something. But, what we do know is that he could turn into smoke and kill things, that he was not human any longer, and that there were "rules" that were somehow preventing him from leaving. We don't know exactly what would happen, but we do know that it would've been bad. If nothing would've happened had he left, then the black and white motif that was pounded through this entire series would've been pointless. So we don't know what, but it'll be bad. The end of mother 3 is the closest thing I can think of to this scenario, so play that game

what the hell the light was and why it turned MIB into a smoke monster, why the island was there holding back hell to begin with, who built things like the statue and the temple and why, and how the hell they all traveled through time.

Once again we don't know what the light is--but only that somebody had been there long before anyone else was and had found a way to harness it (the cork in the cavern, which was a nice reference to Jacob's comparison). We also know that there probably was a smoke monster (maybe many? multiple skeletons in the cavern) before our smoke monster--there are ancient egyptian references to it (both illustrated and by there being a smoke monster temple), and at the time of the man in black's birth, everyone was speaking latin. Ancient Egypt started long before people were speaking latin (at least according to wikipedia), so that should give a good reference to how old the island is. I know that it's possible that people were just choosing to write/speak in hieroglyphics and draw and build egyptian looking things even though it's the wrong time period (which could be proven by the hatch and the numbers turning into hieroglyphics), but I don't think that would necessarily explain why everything else was so, well, egyptian. I guess it could also be an error that latin was chosen, and maybe jacob and the mib were supposed to be from egyptian times, and all of that stuff was built by the island dwellers while they were alive. I like the idea of all of that having already been there better, personally.

Why was the island holding back hell? Well, jacob was holding back hell, and when he was the boss of the island, that's what it was for. Before our smoke monster, it wasn't for that, and now that the smoke monster is gone, it's no longer for that. hence, ben saying "well, that's how jacob ran things".

As for time travel--we know that the island's electromagnetic qualities (which we can assume was "the light") was capable of manipulating time and space, and we know that during the man in black's time before he became a smoke monster, the people had figured out how to harness and manipulate that energy. They built the wheel to do so. Even though we don't know scientifically how it works, we do know that it manipulates the light to move them through space--but also through time. Why does the light move things through time? Well, that's why the dharma initiative and the science team and charles widmore and everybody who has ever studied the island was there--to figure that out. Nobody ever did, and everybody died trying. I think Farraday was the closest to figuring it out, but honestly if they tried to give us a good explanation the science buffs watching this show would complain about how ridiculous and unrealistic it is. Obviously. Also, it would've compromised the characters of jacob and the mib etc which I've already stated.

It would have been nice to see more characters in the church at the end, but I have a feeling getting all those actors together at the same time might have been an issue.

Now, I don't know how many of you were trying to watch this on comcast hd, but they fucked up big time and there were tons of glitches throughout the showing. One of them was when desmond was talking to ellouise, and at the time I didn't hear any of what they said. I went back and watched it on hulu, and in that conversation ellouise makes it clear why she doesn't want desmond waking people up. She says "you're not going to take my son from me, are you?" desmond says "no". All of the characters who were brought to the church were all people who had something on the island that they didn't have in their ideal world (namely love and relationships, but for others it was different). As soon as they each found what they were looking for, they could move on. However, some characters couldn't move on. I THINK Ben linus didn't want to move on because he wanted to really be alex's father, which he had in the flash sideways world. Michael cannot move on because of how he betrayed his people (which is why they prob didn't seek him out lol), which is why he's still on the island as a ghost. Also, a lot of the characters that weren't in the church didn't have a lot to do with everyone's journey, like mr. eko and ana lucia (and paolo and nikki lol). But yeah, by desmond telling ellouise that farraday wasn't coming, he was suggesting that this was a private party.

The one thing I'm not satisfied with is Walt. I wish they had explained his "specialness" a bit more. There were a lot of "special" characters... Hurley, Miles, Richard... but Walt was one of them, and we didn't get that much insight to his "gifts". Maybe it was part of being touched by jacob?

The season finale took two and a half hours. The way I see it, it could either have done what it did--provided closure with the characters and brought the show around full circle. Or, it could've spent that whole time explaining everything, without necessarily providing the character closure. Which would you have rather had?

holy shit that post is huge what the fuck is wrong with me

i need to practice

[Vivi22]

I actually think a lot of the mysteries of the island itself weren't supposed to be explained--especially considering you all know that if they were explained, nobody would be satisfied with the explanation.

Like I said, there are things that didn't need to be explained or shouldn't have been and I would have been fine with that. Problem was, stuff like what the island was, what the light was, etc. were the central reasons that everything happened on the show and we got no explanation of what they were or why they were important. All we got was Jacob's Mom saying that the light going out would be bad and you can't let it happen. Trust me.

Bullshit. Don't build this stuff up for six seasons only to never even explain why it's so important. And for the record, I'm not looking for big sciency explanations because I know they'd never work. But we didn't even get half-assed metaphor's.

One, the facts aren't as important as the story, and two: if it was explained, none of these characters would be quite so "special". If any character in the bible could be explained, well, I guess that's why we have skeptics but you see where I'm going with this. I think it's simply a literary device.

I'm going to call bullshit on this again, largely because we were promised explanations about what was so special about the island and why it was important. We were told the writers had a plan, but that plan was apparently "it's important because we said so". I have no problem with faith being a theme in the show with a number of characters as it was, but the fans who stuck with it, especially through the last couple of seasons deserve a little more than that. And I also don't agree that characters like Jacob would have been less special if they explained more. For starters, I don't feel they would have had to undermine all of the mystery behind them in explaining some things, and second, they already did undermine just how special he seemed in his flashback episode. Turns out the guy manipulating everything and making people live forever started off as a know nothing kid who got the job because his brother had mommy issues. They literally made the guy who seemed to have all of the answers look like he never knew as much as he let on to begin with.

The season finale took two and a half hours. The way I see it, it could either have done what it did--provided closure with the characters and brought the show around full circle. Or, it could've spent that whole time explaining everything, without necessarily providing the character closure. Which would you have rather had?

I would have preferred they explain more of the island during the course of this season instead of wasting a lot of time. Of every season they've ever done, they honestly seemed to drag this one out the most, and much of it struck me as pretty pointless to be honest. Had they sprinkled in some more answers throughout they could have easily done this very same finale and I wouldn't have minded a bit. As it was, they spent a whole lot of the season on filler and wasting time until the end, which is a big part of the reason that I wasn't really surprised when the finale came and went and proved that they didn't have a damn clue where to go with most of the mystery behind the island.

[bladiator]

The season finale took two and a half hours. The way I see it, it could either have done what it did--provided closure with the characters and brought the show around full circle. Or, it could've spent that whole time explaining everything, without necessarily providing the character closure. Which would you have rather had?

I'm going to apologize in advance because I don't watch the show, but I have a friend that was obsessed with it, so I'm interested to see how it all "came together" at the end now that it is over.

Regarding the 2 1/2 hour show: they know coming up to the end what has or hasn't been said and how they want to end it. They could have just explained more of it BEFORE the last second so that you can have an ending AND all the answers. But I don't think they want to answer everything somewhat to just leave it out there and let people talk about it for years, and also somewhat because they wrote themselves in a hole and needed to just let some of that stuff go.

I've many times read that the creators had an idea for the beginning and for the ending, and then didn't know what would come between. Since the network seemed to have lengthened the show quite a bit past where the writers originally intended on having it, then they probably had to write a lot of filler stuff in the middle to keep it going. But is that really a reason to just say "annnnnnd, all that stuff was not real and you were all dead"? That just makes me wonder over and over if the writers original outline said:

I. Cast of characters come to island (unsure why)

II. Characters mingle

III. The island is ... (protected? saved? I'm still not exactly sure what happened because no one in this thread or the others that I have read through today really lay it down .. probably so they don't give away spoilers)

IV: Everything else that wasn't tied up this way didn't happen.

I know I'm oversimplifying it here, but there's a difference between a TV show and a movie: I expect sometimes that a writer of a screenplay gets a great idea, and they get it made into a movie, and it makes a great point, and they leave it open ended so that you think about it for a while, and tell your friends "hey, watch this movie, it will make you think afterwards." They only have 2-3 hours to get you to this point, so it makes sense.

A TV SHOW however (this one as an example) had what ... 80-100 hours to tell its story? So at the end of that, when they are tying up loose ends and coming to a close, I really don't want stuff to be open to interpretation, because you already spent 100 hours of my life explaining it to me little by little. You had all the time in the world to get me all the answers that you needed to. And unless you're planning on doing "Lost 2", then its never getting answered, and people spent a lot of time not getting answers that they waited every week to get.

Yes, I'm hating on Lost with little or no right to, but just place any TV show in here (Sopranos?) that leaves the end open after taking your time and feeding you advertisement for 6-7 years.

[Global-Trance]

Well I guess I'll throw in my two cents on this one.

I personally found the ending of Lost and all of its character resolution to be beautifully well written. It left me with a deep and profound sense of satisfaction. But let's face it. I think most of us were expecting more when it came to explaining more of the mysteries on the show. After pondering over the ending and the show as a whole, I started to realize the mysteries themselves were not exactly the focus of the show. Looking back I was seeing how this show was really all about these characters coming from all different walks of life, with different beliefs, different personalities, and with different flaws all coming from around the world brought together by a calling of unexplainable power. It was really about these people with all their differences struggling with their past and struggling with their NEED to coexist and eventually find their destiny. Throughout the show, nobody ever really went "Hey I'm going to find out all about these ruins or why this Island does this or does that or I'm going to find out where everything came from." The Island's mysteries, as enticing as they were, just wasn't what Lost was all about. If anything, the Island was an incredibly mysterious backdrop for a story with humanity at its core. All the remaining mysteries left can be explained with "maybe" possible answers left over from the breadcrumb trail of clues the producers have left behind and I think that's part of the beauty of Lost. It's generated so much discussion about the "what if" about everything. There are plenty of things in this world that "just are the way they are" and when we ask what they are, sometimes the answers will only lead to more questions. And I find that very true for this show as well. There are plenty of things that should be left alone. Demystifying some things make things lose their magic. Without this sense of wonderment, our imaginations would be left to rot.

Am I still disappointed that I didn't get some of the answers I was looking for? Yea, for sure. I'm right there with you guys that wanted to know more. I think it kinda sucks the way they left it in some aspects but overall I think I understand what it is they did and why. And for taking the road less traveled, I applaud the producers and the writers.

Farewell, Island. Wherever and whenever you are. My mind will always be wandering looking for the answers.

[big giant circles]

Whether you want to tear down the series or white knight it, you have to admit, this video is pretty darn funny

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1936291

[Alexis]

First of all, get ready to have your mind blown. This is the last scene of LOST as it was shown, compared to the very first scene of LOST, but played backwards. It's pretty cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK7CJ_2K-1E&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1%22%3E%3C/param%3E%3Cparam

Some spoilers ahead.

When LOST was first introduced, the concept of the show was about all these characters. Remember when it first came out? All the talk was about how many main characters there were...not just four or five, but a whole plane load of people. I think that it was fitting that the show went out in the same way - focusing on the characters rather than the island mythology.

Think about the episodes that most people disliked:

- The Nikki and Palo centric episode (can't think of the name) - people were PISSED at this episode. It came right after the episode where Locke's father turned up on the island. We found out some things about the one station in the middle of the island, and that was about it. We learned NOTHING about the main characters in this episode. Nothing.

-Ab Aeterno - Richard centric. So we care a little bit more about Richard than the other characters, but still not enough to warrant this little mini movie. The biggest complaint I have about this episode is that it didn't need to take an entire show to explain what happened to Richard. His wife is dying, he breaks the law trying to save her, and is sent to the island on a slaving ship. That alone took up half the episode. We also don't know any of the characters in this episode aside from Richard, Jacob, and the MIB. We briefly see the main characters at the beginning and end of the episode. And that's it.

-Across the Sea - We should have loved this episode. It explained so much of the island's background and where Jacob and MIB came from, how MIB became the smoke monster, etc.

I didn't like it though. It concentrated on Jacob and the MIB. While they are prominent characters on the show, as viewers, we haven't known them that long. These are fairly new characters to us, even though they've been on the island for thousands of years. It's also another episode where we're sidetracked from the story of the main characters - Sun and Jin just died, and MIB's on a rampage to kill everyone...and this is the next episode.

That's off the top of my head. Those episodes all explained something regarding the island, but nobody really loves those episodes as they don't deal with any of the main characters. I'd much rather of the finale that focuses on the characters, than a finale that is more island back story than anything else.

ALSO:

[Inimitable]

You switch back between "we" and "I" a lot.

Personally, I loved the recent Richard and Jacob/MIB-centric episodes. I thought they were both very well done. Same can be said for a lot of the other episodes that didn't move the overall story forward in any way as well. A lot of people are just now coming to the realization that Lost's focus was always the characters, but for some of us it's always been that way.

[ZealPath]

I actually really liked Expose' (the Nikki and Paulo episode), purely for its silliness. Absolutely, it didn't accomplish much in the grand Lost storyline if anything, but it was entertaining, combined with the fact that it killed these two characters we all loved to hate (why the producers thought people would be ok with them randomly interjecting two people who had supposedly "been there all along" who knows).

Really though, the fact that it opened to the tune of Wreckx-n-Effect's "Rumpshaker" will always be what I remember about it. I still remember just thinking "What... the... #%^&..." as the episode began to that song. I'm sure a lot of people just thought it was stupid, but for me it was mostly hilarious and definitely entertaining. Sawyer's "The hell's Expose'?" line always cracks me up as well.

I was fine with the Richard episode since even though it only followed Richard, I know I wanted to know his story, and seeing the Black Rock arrive on the island and destroy the statue was cool as well. Maybe I'm easy to please but this episode was just fine with me. It also finally confirmed my brother and I's long suspicion that Richard arrived on the Black Rock which was fun.

NOW, as far as the Jacob/Smokey episode goes, I couldn't agree more. This SHOULD have been one of the best and certainly most revealing episodes yet, but for the most part their "explanation" was so vague it was almost more frustrating then anything. I am on the "I wanted a little more information side" of the coin when it comes to Lost fans, I know a lot were ok with how it ended since the characters' development was given priority, and it was always a character driven show. I don't dispute that, but for me a lot of the intrigue of the show was with the island's mysteries, and in some cases I don't quite feel like I got my answers.

I still can't really bring myself to comment on the finale, other than than it was mostly good and Lost will certainly go down as one of my favorite shows ever.

[Linkjing Donuts]

yea I don't know what you're talking about, the Richard episode was probably my most favorite episode

[big giant circles]

I still maintain that half this crap should have been answered or otherwise just left out entirely.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1936291

I feel like the writers pulled some kind of "bait and switch" bs on me, keeping me interested by introducing all these mysteries and making it seem like they were going to be important to the plot and then leaving everyone completely high and dry.

I think the ending was beautiful for the characters, and I think we all fell in love with them to various degrees, but half the show was just bad or false writing. And I don't see how anyone can argue differently. It's one thing to leave something open-ended, but it's another for it to be completely nonsensical without any hope for reasonable explanation.

I think it's sad that the college humor video can go on in a zero-punctuation-style for nearly 5 minutes full of legitimate questions that I had throughout watching the series.

[Palpable]

I really don't buy the line that it was all about the characters (the one the producers have been dishing out recently that many fans have agreed with) because there were PLENTY of times over the course of the show where they sacrificed character for mystery or plot. The last season was a great example of this. Sayid did so many things that never got explained. Sure, I'm able to buy that they don't want to explain the things that happened to him, like why he came from the dead. But I thought it muddled the internal conflict they had going for him, when we couldn't tell why he would suddenly get drive to do something, then become despondant, or have him be on Smokey's side only to be against him the next episode. When they make him act like that, he's barely a character anymore, he's just a device where they make him do whatever the plot needs. Or when Kate or Sawyer would leave the group, not want to be a part of it, yet an episode later return to help. Or remember a couple seasons ago when Sun suddenly became a cold-hearted person making deals with Widmore, for like two episodes? If you want to serve the characters, explain their motivations. Tell us why they changed the way they did. To me those are clear examples where they screwed the characters "it's always been about" to maintain the plot.

It's really disingenuous for them to claim the show's always been about the characters; the show has always been about the characters and the plot. In the best episodes, both were served. Too many times, such as the finale, one was served over the other.

[Jaybell]

The ending was beautiful, probably the closest I came to crying since The Constant or Walkabout.

I don't really care that it didn't answer every single mystery ever and I don't want to get into that argument. You can easily argue that each answer would lead to another question, but you could also make the case that it does not excuse bad writing, and around and around the carousel of typical Lost discussions go.

For all of it's flaws (and it has a LOT of flaws), I still really enjoyed Lost (mostly) from start to finish.

[Alexis]

I still maintain that half this crap should have been answered or otherwise just left out entirely.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1936291

Ooooh, I'm gonna try to answer some of these.

Why did the monster kill the pilot?

He wasn't a candidate, and therefore unimportant, so he may have just killed the pilot because he could, and to scare the Jack, Kate, and Charlie.

What did Locke see when he first saw the smoke?

He says that he looked into the eye of the island and what he saw was beautiful. We know now that he saw the smoke monster, so it could be that the smoke monster showed him his "purgatory" life where he was happily engaged to Helen. Locke would see this as the "island" telling him what to do, when in reality it was the MIB trying to kill Locke so he could inhibit that body. That's my theory, anyways.

What's with the polar bear in Walt's comic book?

Where's Christian Shepherd's body if it wasn't in the casket?

My first thought was that perhaps MIB found the body and buried it so that he could take on Christian Shepherd's form and turn Jack to his side, since Jack is a candidate. He buried the body so Jack would think it was actually his father, and not a ghost.

Why did the psychic say that Claire had to fly on Oceanic 815 and why did he insist that her son be raised by Claire?

I think he saw two flashes which he perceived to be two different realities, when they were actually the same. He saw Kate in LA raising Aaron with Jack, and saw Claire with squirrel baby and assumed that Kate was the adoptive mother and this is what would happen if she gave Aaron up for adoption. He also saw Claire on flight 815, crashing on the island, meeting Charlie, and saw the two of them taking care of Aaron. He assumed that the these were two different realities, and told Claire that she needed to get on flight 815 and raise Aaron herself, otherwise she'd go all nuts and make a squirrel baby.

Why did the others want Walt so bad?

This is still kind of fuzzy. We aren't really sure what Walt's power is exactly, but I assume it's like Hurley's and he can talk with the dead people on the island or something. Also he seems to be able to make himself appear to people on the island. Maybe when he's dreaming he can put himself in places for real and appear to people? I dunno.

Maybe Jacob really wanted Walt to be with the others before he became corrupted by MIB or the other survivors.

Who sent Kate the letter telling her about her mother being treated for cancer in the hospital?

Jacob - it set off a chain of events that led Kate, a candidate, to the island.

Why does Walt know about the hatch and why does he warn Locke not to open it?

Maybe Walt had a bad dream about a hatch on the island and saw what happened when the button wasn't pressed.

Why does the smoke monster make mechanical sounds?

Who cares?

How was Walt able to apper before Shannon?

I'm stickin with my theory that Walt can transport himself around the island while he's dreaming and talk to people.

How does Walt communicate with Michael using the Swan computer?

Either Walt wanders in and finds a computer, OR IT'S NOT WALT. Maybe it's one of the others trying to lure Michael to them so they can make a trade for Ben.

What is the deal with Kate and that horse?

I don't remember much about the horse, but isn't the horse linked to her past somehow? Maybe MIB scanned her, saw that, and decided to creep her out with the horse.

Why are Dharma food supplies still being dropped on the island after the purge and by who?

Remember how when they came back to the island, some of them flashed back to the 70's and some of them stayed in the present? Same deal with the food. Plane flew over, flashed to the future when the food dropped.

What triggered the lockdown and why on earth would anyone design it so during the lockdown black lights go on?

Either Ben somehow managed to set it off, or something malfunctioned. They made the hatch in the 70s. Black lights were the shit in the 70s.

What happened to the original Henry Gale?

I think it's like Ben said. Henry came to the island in his balloon and crashed in a tree. He somehow died - either starvation, polar bear, or others - and Ben found the body and saw the identification on the man, and buried him. As he was going back to camp he tripped into one of Rosseau's traps, and decided to steal Henry Gale's name and claim the grave was his wife's.

What happened to the original time line Libby between the mental hospital and getting on the tail section of flight 815?

We know her husband died and she gave Desmond a boat. Perhaps after her husband's death she went a little nuts, ended up in the mental hospital, and was later released.

Who built the four toed statue?

We've seen the whole statue now, it's an egyptian statue carrying an Ankh. The Ankh means , eternal life, and we know Jacob lived underneath it, and Jacob doesn't age. Most likely it was built by people who came to the island, and thought Jacob was some sort of god, and built it for him.

Why does only one specific bearing get you off the island?

Because of the strong magnetism properties of the island, you need to stay on a specific bearing. Not following the bearing can lead to side effects as seen in The Constant.

What are the hieroglyphics on the Swan countdown timer about?

We know there's been a lot of Egyptian culture on the island. Maybe Dharma thought it'd be cool to use the hieroglyphics instead of YOU'RE GONNA DIE RUNNNN.

Why did Tom feel the need to wear a fake beard?

They wanted the plane crash survivors to think they were living off the land and weren't very well off. Didn't want them knowing they had houses and stuff.

Who was Libby's previous husband that gave her a boat to give to Desmond?

Some rich guy we don't know.

Who are the skeletons in the polar bear cave?

Unlucky Dharma school children.

Where did the toy truck come from?

Unlucky Dharma school children.

How did Locke and Eko escape the hatch implosion?

This is one of those things that bugged the crap out of me, like Juliet surviving a bomb. It just happened and this is one I can't think of any logical answer for.

Why couldn't Locke talk after the hatch implosion?

Laryngitis.

Why did the monster kill Mr. Eko, and why didn't he just do it the first time they met?

The first time they met, smokey scanned Mr. Eko. He then tried to appear to him as Yemi, thinking that it he could get Eko to ask forgiveness of his sins, he could use Eko as a pawn to get to the candidates. Eko did not ask for forgiveness, so he was not longer of any use to smokey.

What did Mr. Eko mean when he said "you're next" after he died?

Maybe he knew Nikki and Palo were gonna died next from their spider incident.

How disgusting was it when Hurley was eating from that tub of ranch dressing?

Pretty disgusting.

Why Danny say Jack wasn't on Jacob's list when in fact his name was clearly written in the cave?

Jacob made a lot of lists. Jack wasn't on all of them.

Also, Danny doesn't like Jack and wanted to kill Jack.

Why can't women on the island have babies AND WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?

We know that they used to be able to, so it probably has something to do with the incident and the magnetism. It doesn't really have to do with anything, but it was mostly to add a bit of drama so when Sun was pregnant, she had to get the heck off the island to not die.

What was that Russian letter in Mikhail's typewriter?

http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Mikhail's_document

Why is the supply drop menu hidden behind a game of computer chess and I mean...computer chess???

Dharma didn't want some idiot to blow all that crap up. And yes. Computer Chess. Too bad it wasn't Battle Chess. That would've been awesome

Remember when Ben gave that weird mark to Juliet as punishment, what was that about?

Since she was about to go undercover and spy on all the pregnant ladies, it made it a little more convincing that she was an outcast now that she's branded.

What is the deal with Jack's tattoos? (Actually, you know what, I don't care about that.)

We know where he got the one. He also might just like tattoos. I like tattoos.

Desmond knew a monk, how did that monk know Eloise?

Maybe Eloise came to that church after she left the island.

Why does Ben see his dead mother?

MIB.

Who decided it was time to kill the others in a purge?

Jacob. or MIB.

What happened to Ben's childhood friend, Annie?

She's one of the skeletons in that polar bear cave.

Why did Desmond have a false vision of Claire and Aaron leaving the island on a helicopter?

Desmond also had false visions of how Charlie died. Aaron technically did leave on a helicopter, and then Claire later left on a plane, so the universe still course corrected.

How does Mikhail keep coming back to life?

Cause he's awesome and Russian?

Why does Walt tell Locke he still has work to do?

Walt was bored in his dream and wanted to mess with Locke.

What was that eye in the cabin? We know it wasn't the smoke monster because Christian Shepherd was there too and the smoke monster was Christian Shepherd the whole time.

They actually said who it was in some interview - not the character on the show, but the person who's eye it was. It wasn't anybody we know, but I'm going with it was the smoke monster again, smoking up to the window real quick and looking out.

Where did Miles get that picture of Ben?

Widmore.

Who is the R.G. on Naomi's bracelet?

Her boyfriend.

Why was there a 31 minute and 20 second difference between the time? (Payload drop)

Again, the island seems to be constantly moving through time. The boat was far enough offshore that it wasn't in the same time as the island.

Who is the economist and why did Ben want him dead?

Ben likes making Sayid do stuff. I can't think of anything for this one.

Why was Ben so surprised they could kill Alex and what are the rules?

Since Ben took Alex from Rosseau and never killed her, it was some unwritten rule that Ben would raise her and nobody could touch her. Ben just didn't think somebody would actually kill his daughter in cold blood.

If the smoke monster can't leave the island, how does Jacks dad appear at a hospital in LA?

Jack is seeing things.

[Alexis]

How did the monster get into Jacob's cabin? And why ask Locke not to tell anyone he saw Claire in the cabin?

At that point we know it wasn't actually Jacob's cabin anymore. Maybe the ash line around the cabin had been broken and the smoke monster could get it. He didn't want Locke to tell anyone because he wanted to corrupt Claire and use her.

Why does Horace come to Locke and tell him to go to the cabin and that Jacob is waiting there, when it was really the smoke monster?

Horace was the smoke monster too.

Why do the Oceanic 6 name Charlie, Boone, and Libby as the other survivors? What's the logic in that?

These are some of the people who were dead for real, and they knew that even if the truth came out, there's no way that these guys were coming back. It's not logical at all.

Why does Miles decide to stay on the island?

His life off the island sucked.

What is the deal with the frozen wheel? I mean, combines light and water?

I've always thought frozen donkey wheel was stupid. Always thought that the idea of a steering wheel for the island was a little ridiculous.

Why does Ben insist that the Oceanic 6 as well as Locke have to return to the island?

The only way for Ben to get back to the island is to recreate the conditions of Flight 815 as close as possible. Locke is a replacement for Jack's father. Ben insists because Eloise tells him that this is the only way he's getting back.

Why don't the rules of time travel apply to Desmond?

Cause Desmond is magical.

Who were the men who tried to capture Sayid and Hurley but got thrown into a dishwasher full of knives in one of the sweetest LOST fight scenes of all time?

Not sure. Could be guys hired by Widmore?

Ben asks his butcher friend who was watching Locke's body if Gabriel or Jeffery had checked in yet...who are any of these people?

Others.

What was Ben hiding when he took something out of his bed and put it in his bag?

I don't remember this.

When the gang was unstuck in time, who was that shooting at them from the outrigger?

It was in the future I think, so that probably happened some time after the finale. Probably some of the people who are still on the island.

Who sent Sun and gun and pictures of Jack and Ben?

Eloise, maybe?

Who attacked Sayid at the hospital and why does he have Kate's address?

Well we know it was Ben who was after Kate, so the guy might've been an other.

Why was the smoke monster at the temple? When did the smoke monster become like an anti smoke monster fortress?

Smoke monster wasn't at the temple, he was under it. Jacob might've built the temple after he discovered that a circle of ashes kept smokey out.

How did the producers of the hit TV show Expose deal with the death of their two lead actors?

Either cancelled the show or hired new actors.

How did Eloise come to run the Lantern?

Dunno.

How does a pendulum predict the island's movements?

SCIENCE.

WHy do those returning to the island need to recreate the circumstances of their first arrival?

It might not be that they have to recreate the circumstances, but that those people are all candidates and need to go back. That might just be an excuse.

How did Jack, Hurley, and Kate, get from that Ajira Flight to the 70s and why didn't Sun?

Part of the plane flashed through time and the the other part didn't? No idea, really.

How did Richard bypass the sonar fence?

Richard can't knowingly kill himself. Walking though the sonar fence wouldn't kill him unless somebody pushed him through.

How did Ethan go from a member of the Dharma initiative to the Others?

He was bffs with Ben.

What's with all the hieroglyphics underneath the temple?

Dunno.

Why did Widmore tell Ben to kill Rosseau and her baby, and why did he then let Ben keep the baby anyway?

He doesn't like the French. Baby wasn't french yet, and Widmore didn't want the nickname of baby killer.

Why did Daniel leave the island in the 70s and why does he tell Jack he doesn't belong there?

He left to go do research off island with Dharma, and develop all kindsa cool stuff because he's from the future. Don't remember him telling Jack he doesn't belong there, and I'm not sure why he does.

Why does Richard think he saw everyone in the 1977 Dharma Initiative die?

Because he saw a bomb go off and like every other logical person assumed that everybody died, and wasn't sent forward to the future.

Who broke the circle of ash around Jacob's cabin?

Vincent.

Why can Jacob leave the island but the smoke monster can't?

Nothing bad happens if Jacob leaves. Evidently the world gets covered in darkness if smokey leaves. Also, Jacob's still alive when he leaves the island. Smoke monster is technically dead.

Jacob uses his last breath to say "They're coming", but who are they?

Widmore's people

What's the deal with that pool that brings people back to life? And why did it bring Sayid back with an English accent?

I think it's water from that stream with the cave with the light. Somehow it can heal people. The actor who plays Sayid has an English accent. He messed up.

What is "the infection"? How did Claire get infected? How did Sayid get infected? Why does he have to take a poison pill especially when he could be uninfected with a simple argument for love?

The infection is when the smoke monster fully turns somebody to his side and has almost complete control over them. Dogen wanted Sayid to take the poison pill cause he'd rather kill off Sayid than argue about love with him.

Why is smoke monster/locke/whoever he is confused that Sawyer can see young Jacob?

Because young Jacob is actually dead Jacob, and since Sawyer is a candidate he can see Jacob, but MIB doesn't seem to know this rule.

What's the magic lighthouse about?

Jacob's facebook

How is Dogen simply being alive keeping the smoke monster out of the temple?

I dunno.

What happened to the flight attendant Cindy and the kids?

We know they became others...they might still be out living in the woods with whatever others are left.

Why didn't Sun tell Jin to go just so their daughter wouldn't be an orphan?

Cause she wanted to make out with Jin instead before she drowned.

Where did Jacob and the smoke monster's mother come from?

Some shipwreck.

Where did Jacob and the smoke monster's other mother come from?

Meh. This could go on for awhile. And where did her mother come from....and her mother....and her mother... Who cares?

Who finished the magic wheel that combines "light and water" and when did it become frozen?

Maybe after MIB became the smoke monster he finished it. It probably froze whenever the island moved somewhere in time when it was really fuckin cold.

What is the nature of the light?

Good.

Magic wine? I mean, seriously?

Seriously.

Why does that Tina Fey lady want the electromagnetic map of the island?

So she can figure out where the light is?

How did Widmore's electromagnetic thingy send Desmond to the afterlife and back?

Maybe it was a near death experience for Desmond, so he saw what happened when he dies.

Wasn't Sayid's soulmate Nadia, not Shannon?

I was ok with this, because I liked Sayid and Shannon better than Sayid and Nadia.

Why wasn't Michael, Walt, Eko, Lapidus, or any of the other characters at the church?

We know Michael is one of the whispers on the island now...he's wandering around there, stuck as a spirit. Walt left the island before he could be important enough to be in the church. Eko and Lapidus were apparently not important enough either.

You guys wanna get into V?

No.

[Radiowar]

Wasn't Sayid's soulmate Nadia, not Shannon?

this seems to be a point of contention for a lot of people. i thought the show went to great lengths to show that sayid and nadia were not meant to be together. it was only in the flashsideways that sayid finally admitted it. like jacob said, the candidates were people who were looking for "something they couldn't find out there".

then again i suppose you could make the argument that shannon died too. but then that messes everything up so dont

[big giant circles]

lol, wow Alexis, you are a hardcore dedicated fan

I give you props for your taking on the questions. Not sure I'm satisfied with all of them, but to be fair, you did remind me of a few things I'd forgot about.