I loved the ending of LOST.
Just wanted to get that out there first.
This is probably the first in a series of posts as things come to me.
There will be spoilers so if you have not watched your Tivo'd show, don't read any further.
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* VINCENT! I was already tearing up when Jack laid down to die, but when Vincent showed up and laid down next to him to provide comfort and companionship I just began weeping...I'm doing it right now.
* How did they make me like Jack and Kate? That's some damn fine writing.
*In the end the show was about the people and not the mysteries. They were just the hook to get us involved in the lives of the folks on the island.
*And the show was really about Jack's journey to the point where he could let go and tell his father how much he loved him.
*Jesus I cried a lot last night. Each time someone found the person they loved and waited for caused more tears, but maybe Juliet and Sawyer was the best. Though I thought it was so sad to know that Kate must have never loved anyone else but Jack because of how she said she had missed him so much. Everyone who made it off the island alive had a chance to go on and live long lives, but Kate must have always pined for Jack.
*Hurley was always my choice to protect the island and I love that he is always able to look past people's actions and take them "in the now" even with Ben who always just wanted to be respected and special and to belong. Ben was the perfect choice for his #2. Plus Ben has super sekrit spy skills. I would watch a show about their time running the island especially with Hurley making the rules. (in the end Jacob was kind of a dick.)
*Remember that the Dharma wheel of life includes a form of purgatory.
*And since my personal question has always been "what's up with Eloise" I think that all of her shenanigans were in the end about trying to keep herself from killing Daniel and/or figuring out a way for him to have never come in contact with her on the island. It also seems like the "sideways LA" was her construct and everyone else was in her and (maybe) Charles Widmore's purgatory where Daniel is alive and happy and will soon be with Charlotte. The only question is why
she was aware of what was going on and no one else was.
I need to watch that episode she was in with Desmond so long ago.
That's it for now.
"LOST has always had its sympathies with eastern religious tradition, namely Buddhism and Hinduism. A big part of that religious tradition is the focus on questions and questioning and less on universal answers. The belief is that there are very few, if any, universal answers. LOST seemed to hammer that point home over and over again. Locke wants answers, thinks first the answer is in the Hatch and then with Ben and then with Jacob. Each time, those potential sources for answers prove not to have answers at all. Jacob was set up as a Jesus Christ figure and then was revealed to be just a man who had a task to do that he didn't even really choose to do. Meanwhile, the tragedy of Locke is that he couldn't simply appreciate the fact that he was a paraplegic who was now walking around. The obvious contrast was Rose, who simply lived in the moment. No need for answers. She was alive and with the man she loved. That was enough
I found that this was implicit in the LOST story, but unfortunately we have had a lot of shows that fixed on setting up mysteries and then trying to reveal them in somewhat lame ways (X-files and Twin Peaks come to mind). This may have set the expectation for LOST and the writers didn't do anything to dispel that. Let's face it - if Cuse and Lindendorf said, "Hey, LOST is a Buddhist pulp fiction." they could have kissed their shrinking audience goodbye. And so here we are. Anger, confusion, feelings of betrayal. That's what you get if you try to go subtle with a mass medium that's intended to entertain.
I enjoyed the ride, but I also expected very little by way of answers.