Lost: The End Review

Because we need one more person weighing in on the Lost finale via their blog...

I have watched Lost since the first couple episodes aired. I have gone through years of intrigue and frustration. I have praised it and cursed it, and so it seems fitting that the ending would leave me with mixed feelings. I wouldn't read this if you haven't watched the finale yet.

I knew going into "The End" that there was no way Lost could conclude as cleanly as I wanted it to. I went in ready to give the creators a pass on a lot, but I still left the theater (I watched it at Bagdad Theater in Portland, Oregon) without any real sense of gratification.

The episode bounces between the remaining survivors on the island and the "flash sideways" world while explaining how the two are connected and concluding both threads. In one of the better moments, the story on the island ends with a final shot echoing the beginning of the series that is both satisfying and completely predictable. There are some strong moments leading up to it as well (Hurley and air punches), but just as many that seem pointless and not just a little silly (uncorking and corking the island). This time would have been much better spent attempting to answer at least a few of the many lingering questions of the island.


I think most people like Vincent more than Jack by now.

The "flash sideways" world is full of great moments where characters remember their time on the island with each other. Most of these scenes effectively pay off the emotional arcs running through the series. After a while though, it just starts to feel like a checklist of necessary character moments. I was close to tears a few times, but I felt less invested in where everything was headed than I have since early in season three.

Lost has some of the most effective character work in genre television. That is one reason it has been as successful as it has, whereas many genre shows fail to catch on. I am more or less happy with the endings the characters receive emotionally, but the show has always been sold as this epic mystery and, in later seasons, science fiction story. In the end, the show is just another character drama, one that happens to be wrapped in genre details. And not just a few details! There have been dozens of ideas planted throughout the show as late as this season (Why the hell do Jack and Juliette have a son if the "flash sideways" is just some post-life/pre-afterlife waiting room as opposed to an alternate reality?) that have been flat out ignored with this ending.

To end Lost with the island being this vague magic place and the "flash sideways" being this purgatory/limbo (which only makes less sense the more you analyze it) feels so cheap on both counts. So sure, emotionally you could argue this finale was a success. I have certainly seen worse. But to give this episode a complete pass, as many people seem to be doing, is crazy. This ending is a betrayal of the basic premise of the series in too many ways to ignore. I am glad the characters got theirs, but think of the mysteries! This ending makes way too much of the entire plot feel like sloppy storytelling at best or conscious deception to create buzz at worst.


Bummer that Aaron had to revert to being a baby in the afterlife.

As frustrated as I am by some of this finale, I cannot say I would not watch Lost again. It has been a viewing experience unlike any other. Besides the hours spent watching the show, there have been countless more arguing about it with friends and reading about it online. Some single episodes rank among the best television I have ever watched. Sure I would have liked the ending to wrap up with a few more concrete details, but maybe watching it again in a few years without that expectation will prove I did not need them all along.

Probably not, but at the very least, Lost beats Battlestar Galactica.

3/5