LOST: Final Thoughts

Tonight’s it.  LOST ends.  For good.

Despite not being entirely wrapped up in the sixth season or understanding some creative choices that have been made this year, I expect the finale to be spectacular.  At least at first.

I expect to watch it a few times after it airs and get stuck with what I call “Phantom Menace Syndrome,” which is a movie or TV show was really awesome upon first watching it but subsequent viewings highlight all the flaws that hype/excitement forced the audience to overlook initially.

I posted last week about the mysteries I hoped the final three hours of LOST would reveal.  And in case you don’t read her blog regularly, Nikki Stafford has a nice list of LOST mysteries and the verdict regarding their resolutions.

What I Look Forward To Most:

It being over. One way or another, this is all we get.  No more theories.  No more screaming as the episode ends and we’ve lost track of time.  No more hoping that next season will make a little more sense than the one before it.  We have all the information we’ll ever get.

And that’s a good thing.  It finally gives the audience a chance to hold the power.  We will no longer be limited by the scraps that come from Darlton.  Most of the answers that need to be revealed for a successful narrative will be revealed, and that means that the mysteries we still care about will be solely in the hands of dedicated viewers to ferret out.

Which is a good thing for LOST academics.  We love to overthink pop culture in ways the creators never intended, and LOST being complete will allow for in-depth scholarship that won’t become obsolete by a new season coming out.

Wait, what was that I said about no more theories?

What I Look Forward To Least:

The lack of satisfactory answers. I know that not everything can be answered.  I know that some things we care about were just red herrings.  And I know that some things were introduced and then forgotten because the series and its viewers had moved on.

But there comes a time when I want a real answer.  And not a “just because it is” answer, but a hardline explanation that tells me what, why, where, who, when, and how.  Maybe I’m expecting too much from a show that’s always only dabbled in science-fiction conventions, but one can hope.

I expect the finale to be filled with “answers” to questions that are similar to how we’re told why jacob and his brother can’t kill each other.  The explanation we get is that his mother said, “I’ve made it so that you can never hurt each other.”  That’s it.  A demigod “because I said so.” Now, if she turns out to actually be a manifestation of a god or even God, great.  Otherwise, her answer was no more an answer than when our parents told us “because I said so” when we were kids.

I was also sorely disappointed in Season 6’s handling of the Temple.  I had hoped for either a Dark Tower-esque reality nexus or anachronistic architecture that held clues to the Island’s origins/purpse, and instead I got…a pyramid with a pond.  Whoopee.  I don’t expect the finale to be big on not teching the tech.

The End?

So as we all depart the island we’ve lived on with this cast for the past few years, what are your thoughts on the series?  Has it lived up to the expectations you had when you got hooked?  If not, when did you lose faith?  And, probably the most important question, what is going to fill the void left by never having another new episode of LOST to watch?