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LOST 06.17/18/18.5: "The End" (Everything Else Was Just Progress)

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Nameless

Member
Solo said:
Im so happy that Sawyer and Claire finally got to go home. Everyone else in the main cast of the show either died on the island or got off and came back three years later*. Sawyer and Claire were there for over 3 years. Id like to think that Sawyer reconciled with his baby mama and met his daughter, and Claire was happily reunited with Aaron and her mother. And that all 6 of them that got off were friends until they died.


*Locke is the one exception, as hes the only one who died off-island

The first thing Sawyer did when he got back home is found Hibbs and beat the fucking shit out of him.

Certainly Claire, Kate, Sawyer & Miles stayed close. Kate was no doubt still a major part of Aaron's life and she was already extremely close to both Cassidy & Clementine before going back to the island. Sawyer obviously got to raise his daughter. Miles returned a BO$$ and as I said several pages back I like to think goddamn Lapidus was welcomes as a hero.

But Im most curious about how they explained. the entire fucked up situation. :lol
 

McLovin

Member
B_Rik_Schitthaus said:
I didn't watch the show with that said one question did they ever explain how the massive fat guy stayed massively fat when he was deserted on a island.
The island kept him fat so that he couldn't climb the ladder at the end.
 

traveler

Not Wario
SpeedingUptoStop said:
Possible, but would kind of taint the ending if Jack didn't really die right there.

He could've been the smoke monster (since his body probably wasn't dead/unconcious already when he went down the cave), but just accepted his death anyways [didn't fully understand the power he had/didn't want to].

Originally, I figured the Island was a kind of grounding point for souls, keeping them bound to it (i.e. the ghosts) unless they could learn to "let go" and pass through the light. Without the cork in place, "darkness" overwhelms the world and souls have no way to pass on. Passing into this light should, in effect, kill you by ripping your very soul out but Smokey was a unique situation: he couldn't be killed by his brother due to the rules in place. So, when he was thrown into the cave, his soul was torn from his body and he was cast back, a fate worse than death. (Think Sorcerer's Stone era Voldemort) This is also the reason for the sickness- humans revived by the power of the light well (or whatever you want to call it) are mere shells, robbed of their souls.

Of course, this explanation doesn't really explain child Ben's condition or why Jack wouldn't have been expelled either dead or as another smoke monster, so I'm not really satisfied with it.

The Smoke Monster was most likely a "rule" created by a previous guardian. As someone mentioned earlier, we see skeletons littering the cave of golden light. (or, for this particular theory, the cave of ascension) If they deemed it necessary, guardians could cast off their physical form to take up the form of the smoke monster to better protect the island. And, as we saw in Jack and Flocke's mortality, all previous rules seem to be reset once the cork is unplugged. And it is for this reason that Flocke couldn't take on the smoke form for the final battle with Jack, rendering the confrontation trivially easy.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Nameless said:
The first thing Sawyer did when he got back home is found Hibbs and beat the fucking shit out of him.

Certainly Claire, Kate, Sawyer & Miles stayed close. Kate was no doubt still a major part of Aaron's life and she was already extremely close to both Cassidy & Clementine before going back to the island. Sawyer obviously got to raise his daughter. Miles returned a BO$$ and as I said several pages back I like to think goddamn Lapidus was welcomes as a hero.

But Im most curious about how they explained. the entire fucked up situation. :lol

Yeah, not sure how two surviving members of the Oceanic 6 are going to explain surviving another plane crash :lol And in fact, with the plane intact.. they are going to have a hell of a story to concoct about how everyone else on the plane that clearly didn't crash land died.
 

Jocchan

Ὁ μεμβερος -ου
VistraNorrez said:
You proved Jack's development. By learning to be a father he was able to let go. He sucked at being a dad and then he understood how to be one. You cannot deny that that is development but feel free to argue if it was handled well or not. He had to let go and being a good father (leader), was what let him.

As for the other characters' developments, it was the same goal as Jack: To let go.

Kate had to stop running, had to stop being a loner, stop being selfish. Her first step was meeting up with Claire. She didn't care about getting caught at this point. She put her self at risk to help Claire. She was able to break down her final part of selfishness. It's no coincidence she had her flash while Claire was giving birth.

Sawyer's development was to learn not to lie and not to use people in general, aka being a con man. He used Miles, he used women, whatever else he did. He learned that mostly in his episode. He became more honest with Miles at the end. And he was able to let go when he met Juliet because she was the one person he truly loved (awww), he didn't use her and he wanted to be his true self with her.

I could keep going.

It wasn't worthless either. The show has been forever about them finding their meaning. The X was that final step, and I feel I've written that argument down enough so I won't keep repeating myself. It was necessary and I have not been convinced otherwise.
You know, people arguing that the X-timeline was worthless because it never happened are completely missing the point.
You may not like it, and it's more than fair, but it existed to give closure to the main characters after the story ending (MIB is defeated, Jack dies, people on the Ajira get back home, Hurley and Ben inherit the island).
It's an epilogue where all the characters have their final development, let go and finally - from being lost - they find each other.
The fact you didn't like the concept and would rather not have had the X-timeline entirely is perfectly understandable, but even if it didn't happen in our dimension (by the way, was it a real alternate timeline then very little would have changed... it wouldn't still have happened in our world, and I dare to say it would have been worse because it would have nullified the events of S1-S5 in at least one of the two timelines) it was as real as everything that happened in the show from the beginning, no matter if they were inside their physical bodies or not.
 

Solo

Member
StoOgE said:
Yeah, not sure how two surviving members of the Oceanic 6 are going to explain surviving another plane crash :lol

Kate is the only one of the O6 to get off the island twice.

Sun - dead
Sayid - dead
Jack - dead
Aaron - never went back to the island
Hurley - never left the island a second time


Kate wins again!
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Solo said:
Kate is the only one of the O6 to get off the island twice.

Sun - dead
Sayid - dead
Jack - dead
Aaron - never went back to the island
Hurley - never left the island a second time


Kate wins again!

your right... for some reason I had a brain fart and thought Sawyer got off the first time.

Fucking Kate.

Explaining people being on the plane now who weren't when it left LA should be fun too.
 
Does anyone know where I can purchase some of those great retro style Lost posters that have been floating around? There were some really beautiful ones that need to be mounted above the shrine I have reserved for the six season box set and encyclopedia.
 

bogg

Member
traveler said:
The Smoke Monster was most likely a "rule" created by a previous guardian. As someone mentioned earlier, we see skeletons littering the cave of golden light. (or, for this particular theory, the cave of ascension) If they deemed it necessary, guardians could cast off their physical form to take up the form of the smoke monster to better protect the island.
But the only person we know for sure that was a smoke monster was the MiB, and we also saw his lifeless body being teleported out of the cave, the same thing that happens to Jack. So why didn't these guys get teleported? Why are their bodies still in the cave?
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
bogg said:
But the only person we know for sure that was a smoke monster was the MiB, and we also saw his lifeless body being teleported out of the cave, the same thing that happens to Jack. So why didn't these guys get teleported? Why are there bodies still in the cave?

perhaps people who died capping the well or whatever.

Who knows.
 

Iceman

Member
About this whole Sayid/Shannon/Nadia triangle.. Nadia was the girl he grew up with, a high school sweetheart of sorts. She would tease him and harass him as a way of showing him her affection and he would miss it.. young, immature love. He never really allowed himself to fall in love with her until he was forced to torture her/placed in an odd, coincidental circumstance and then he obsessed over her after they parted ways. He sacrificed himself in some ways to let her go, so she became and indelible part of his life.. he obsessed over her but ultimately it was more about his feelings than his love for her IMO, something internal vs external.

It's like your first love.. by and large, you don't end up with that person.. it's the relationship in which you first learn about love, elation, pain and heartbreak.

Shannon was the woman that he fell in love with with maturity, with a complete understanding of the consequences and potential outcomes. Plus, they met under extreme circumstances and became something stable for each other.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Iceman said:
About this whole Sayid/Shannon/Nadia triangle.. Nadia was the girl he grew up with, a high school sweetheart of sorts. She would tease him and harass him as a way of showing him her affection and he would miss it.. young, immature love. He never really allowed himself to fall in love with her until he was forced to torture her/placed in an odd, coincidental circumstance and then he obsessed over her after they parted ways. He sacrificed himself in some ways to let her go, so she became and indelible part of his life.. he obsessed over her but ultimately it was more about his feelings than his love for her IMO, something internal vs external.

It's like your first love.. by and large, you don't end up with that person.. it's the relationship in which you first learn about love, elation, pain and heartbreak.

Shannon was the woman that he fell in love with with maturity, with a complete understanding of the consequences and potential outcomes. Plus, they met under extreme circumstances and became something stable for each other.

He lived with Nadia in LA after he got off the island.
 
StoOgE said:
So how did Charlie "grow" in x-universe. By going on a drinking binge and getting shot in the back by a dart? What did Sun and Jin learn? To love each other? They already did that on the island. Jack already "grew" as a character on the island. Locke learned to trust in Jack by writing the letter and hanging himself (or getting choked out by Ben). Juliette? What did she learn? The importance of going to concerts with your fake son? What did Shannon learn? Be a drunk slut and let some guy beat you up in the alley so an Iraqi can rescue you?

The X-universe just "reset" the characters back to where they were when we met them in slightly different circumstances and then made some of then relearn lessons we already saw them learn through the years... while the others just sort of wandered around leading fake lives aimlessly until they touched each other. and as soon as they did? Everything they "learned" in ex-universe was wiped clean and they became the people they were when they died/or we last saw them for those that didn't die on air.

That is the biggest counter argument to the X-verse being a way for the Losties to find themselves in the afterlife. The problem with them having to learn to let go is that none of them did. What really happened was Desmond and later Hurley forcing them to remember, it wasn't done naturally. That is a big flaw, one I totally am ok with cause Desmond was so bad ass about it. This is exactly what I am talking about with the debating the finale, both sides have great points.
 

Jex

Member
MiamiWesker said:
That is the biggest counter argument to the X-verse being a way for the Losties to find themselves in the afterlife. The problem with them having to learn to let go is that none of them did. What really happened was Desmond and later Hurley forcing them to remember, it wasn't done naturally. That is a big flaw, one I totally am ok with cause Desmond was so bad ass about it. This is exactly what I am talking about with the debating the finale, both sides have great points.

This is pretty much what I already mentioned, but I mostly ignored it for the same reason you did. Which was Desmond being a fucking BOSS.

Most of them didn't learn anything - they just remembered something and they completely accepted it. The people who seemed to struggle with the whole thing were Jack and Locke. Obviously Ben also did some stuff, and so did Sawyer (to a lesser extent) but everyone else...
 

Jocchan

Ὁ μεμβερος -ου
MiamiWesker said:
That is the biggest counter argument to the X-verse being a way for the Losties to find themselves in the afterlife. The problem with them having to learn to let go is that none of them did. What really happened was Desmond and later Hurley forcing them to remember, it wasn't done naturally. That is a big flaw, one I totally am ok with cause Desmond was so bad ass about it. This is exactly what I am talking about with the debating the finale, both sides have great points.
They probably would have done so naturally sooner or later (see Locke resisting and then accepting on his own the surgery, or the Kwons waking up completely on their own), Desmond just accelerated the process because he's that awesome.
 

GDJustin

stuck my tongue deep inside Atlus' cookies
A couple things -

- All this debate over whether the writers did or didn't have things planned out, and whether that makes the proceedings legitimate or illegitimate are missing the point. The writers could have had every season arc plotted out and the show could suck, or the writers could leave things loose and open and it could be awesome.

So I don't understand the point of people saying "THEY HAD IT ALL PLANNED! VINDICATED!"

At the end of the day, whether it is planned or made up on the fly, it needs to be entertaining, compelling television. And it was.

- Regarding the mysteries, for me, the fun of LOST's mysteries was chewing the fat over them, and guessing about them. The fun has never been finding out the truth. The truth is almost always incidental. Right from the Pilot, it has been "OH SHIT looping French transmission!" "OH SHIT Sayeed found some crazy rope/cable running into the Ocean" "OH SHIT they are in the arctic now!"

Half the fun of LOST is just waiting for "WE HAVE TO MOVE THE ISLAND" moments.

The answers are not as much fun as the questions. I'm shocked this has to be explained to people. How often when you were little (or maybe as an adult) have you been excited about a Christmas present sitting under the tree? SO EXCITED to open it... thinking about it for weeks. Then when the moment comes and you do open it, even if it's a sweet gift, it can't match that anticipation.

Ditto for the anticipation over sex with a new partner, anticipation over playing a new game you've been hyped about, etc.

For me LOST was an "Oh shit POLAR BEARS!" show and I basically didn't care where they came from, as long as the show didn't end up being completely random (and it didn't).

There is a pretty reasonable framework/mythology that the show hung all its "polar bear" moments on, and that is enough for me.
 
Am I the only person that thought they may be some wise old man in the light chamber that would explain the entire island. The second I saw that it was just another room I realized we will never get the answers and I learned to let go.
 
shagg_187 said:
Fucking Kate. It should've been Ben that should've killed MIB and not Kate. Or better yet, it should've been Richard.

I'm just glad that they gave Kate something to do. Also,

Tom Cruise: Jack killed the Man in Black. Kate just shot him.
 
Kate ended up being kinda great. I can't think of a single character they didn't make perfect by the end of the show. I guess Claire did little to make me LIKE her, but I certainly didn't hate her.
 

DjangoReinhardt

Thinks he should have been the one to kill Batman's parents.
Given developments like the tailies, I think the writers pretty well telegraphed the fact that there was no blueprint being followed. I think the on-screen product communicated - repeatedly, over the course of several years - to viewers that the mysteries could not be solved through careful observation and that many of the mysteries were not even important beyond their in-the-moment curiosity value.

When a story is unabashedly using magic, time travel, and alternate reality, I think the audience has plenty of warning that there's only so much weight that should be placed on the sanctity of the plot at a given moment.
 
Jexhius said:
This is pretty much what I already mentioned, but I mostly ignored it for the same reason you did. Which was Desmond being a fucking BOSS.

Most of them didn't learn anything - they just remembered something and they completely accepted it. The people who seemed to struggle with the whole thing were Jack and Locke.

And those are the two characters they should focus on so it turned out well. They were the only two that seemed to come to some sort of journey in the X-verse. I am ok with that since they are the heart of the show.
 

big ander

Member
Solo said:
You have no soul if these dont get to you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT3zz6oWJS0 (I completely lose it when it shows the freighter blowing up again and Sun's scream)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WStOpoGtOGE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BJiQLS_D0c
;_; dammit man

Kate was given an awesome ending in the show, but so was everyone else. Seriously, I can't think of a single character who's arc I absolutely hate now. So damn good.

Yeah, their lie the second time might be lame, but they're still rich from 815. Maybe they used cash to say they just went on a vacation? And Miles just returned, nobody cares about him. Richard and Claire though... :lol who knows.
 

bogg

Member
TheGreatDave said:
Kate ended up being kinda great. I can't think of a single character they didn't make perfect by the end of the show. I guess Claire did little to make me LIKE her, but I certainly didn't hate her.
Considering she was mentally unstable, and her friends which one of them is her half brother tried to ditch her on the island, she was pretty cool.
 
I didn't really like Claire's arc to be honest. It was decent but didn't make much of an impact on me. I liked her earlier in the season when she was trying to kill shit and singing lullabies to polar bear skulls.
 
brandonh83 said:
I didn't really like Claire's arc to be honest. It was decent but didn't make much of an impact on me. I liked her earlier in the season when she was trying to kill shit and singing lullabies to polar bear skulls.

I kinda agree. They didn't do anything too crazy with her.
 
Mr. Snrub said:
I don't think this is even a possibility. To me, the smoke monster became mortal and died w/Flocke--the "smoke" aspect didn't "return" to he heart of the island, it's just straight up dead.
Thats what I just disproved in the next sentence :lol
 

big ander

Member
brandonh83 said:
I didn't really like Claire's arc to be honest. It was decent but didn't make much of an impact on me. I liked her earlier in the season when she was trying to kill shit and singing lullabies to polar bear skulls.
I like her better when you take her age and situation into account. She was really young, and had a whole bunch of stress. Add being abandoned onto an island on top of that, and you can see how she would be so desolate. I think the way she turned it around was good.
 

Jocchan

Ὁ μεμβερος -ου
MiamiWesker said:
And those are the two characters they should focus on so it turned out well. They were the only two that seemed to come to some sort of journey in the X-verse. I am ok with that since they are the heart of the show.
Honestly, I'm okay with how they pulled it off. Everyone had already enough screen time, didn't really need more, and honestly the ending in retrospect justified to me all the time used for the sideways throughout the season (I've been heavily critical towards the screwed up pacing in the first half of the season for a while, blaming the single centricity format for this).
We got shown these people living different lives where they're outside the influence of the island, but still as lost as ever. Some of them get a whole episode of screen time, some of them just cameos.
And the most important characters (Jack, Locke, Desmond, Ben) are shown more in detail, with more scenes throughout the whole season, making their character development more evident.
 

Solo

Member
The characters that they really rounded out wonderfully this year were Ben and Kate and, sigh, Jack for me. Everyone else was either already developed to their full (Locke, Desmond, etc.) or never quite got there (Claire, Sayid, etc.).

Ben's S6 arc was the most profound for me.
 

Jocchan

Ὁ μεμβερος -ου
Solo said:
The characters that they really rounded out wonderfully this year were Ben and Kate and, sigh, Jack for me. Everyone else was either already developed to their full (Locke, Desmond, etc.) or never quite got there (Claire, Sayid, etc.).

Ben's S6 arc was the most profound for me.
I agree. And I shudder thinking of the last thread where people were "WTF NOW BEN IS EVIL AGAIN???". This show ain't Heroes, dudes.
 
StoOgE said:
So how did Charlie "grow" in x-universe. By going on a drinking binge and getting shot in the back by a dart? What did Sun and Jin learn? To love each other? They already did that on the island. Jack already "grew" as a character on the island. Locke learned to trust in Jack by writing the letter and hanging himself (or getting choked out by Ben). Juliette? What did she learn? The importance of going to concerts with your fake son? What did Shannon learn? Be a drunk slut and let some guy beat you up in the alley so an Iraqi can rescue you?

X-verse was one "reality" created individually by each person. Some made it so their lives were better (Hurley, Desmond), some made it so they couldn't let go of who they thought they were (Sayid, most notably, and even Shannon), others were in between. Charlie, even though he got a flash early on, still considered himself to be a useless drunk with no purpose in life, and then he sees Claire and the baby he helped father.

Sun and Jin learned to not be ashamed and afraid of their love and not to run from it. A huge obstacle was her father in their lives. Once that tie was cut (can't return to Korea/father empty handed and on bad terms with the Keamy gang), it made it easier for them to open. Shannon's problem was always selling herself short and never being able to elevate herself--Sayid did that, just as he did on the island.

Some of the characters are a little ambiguous. Bernard in particular was interesting...something about him seemed "awake", like Faraday's mother.

MiamiWesker said:
That is the biggest counter argument to the X-verse being a way for the Losties to find themselves in the afterlife. The problem with them having to learn to let go is that none of them did. What really happened was Desmond and later Hurley forcing them to remember, it wasn't done naturally. That is a big flaw, one I totally am ok with cause Desmond was so bad ass about it. This is exactly what I am talking about with the debating the finale, both sides have great points.

Not really. Jack didn't immediately know what to do when he got his flashes. He didn't truly let go until his father confronted him.
 

Veidt

Blasphemer who refuses to accept bagged milk as his personal savior
honestly, I wish I could make myself forget LOST. So I can rewatch it :(
 
MiamiWesker said:
So how are you guys debating with those that didn't love the ending. I don't mean people that didn't understand it or never watched the show. I mean fans like you that wanted answers, that felt that ending was weak. As much as I love the ending their point is totally valid. I could easily see the ending as a cheap way to get an emotional ending, but that is not what I saw. This is one of those endings where I can't argue much, I will say it fit with the themes of the show, I will say it was brilliantly executed and it told the story the way the creators wanted it to be told, it wasn't about the answers. But I can't argue much with the flip side cause their views are valid as well.

I loved the ending, but there are, without a doubt (FACT) things that don't make sense from seasons 4-6.
 
TheGreatDave said:
I kinda agree. They didn't do anything too crazy with her.

Yeah, this. It seems like everyone got something to do besides Claire.

Jack: killed MIB, fixed the sink
Desmond: not sure yet but something crazy happened down there
Sawyer: IMO already "fixed" before the finale. may have gotten the tree off Ben. who knows.
Kate: shot MIB, crippling him to let Jack get the killshot
Hurley: became protector of the island
Ben: became Alpert-lite
Lapidus: flew them the fuck out of there
Miles: blessed the duct tape, allowing safe transport off the island
Alpert: finally became mortal and found peace
Vincent: gave Jack some company before he died

Claire: sat on the beach and bitched
 

JDSN

Banned
Hahahah wow I just watched this, what a badly paced uneventful finale with a very unfitting ending. It was basically a grand tour of fanwank-fueled nostalgia with way too many sappy scenes of couples remembering stuff and hugging each other. I feel like im the MiB and im free of this piece of shit season.
 
I think the intention of the X-universe was not to provide further character growth; we've had five seasons flashbacks and flash forwards to do that for us. It was meant to facilitate closure for the characters and the viewers. It was the culmination of changes and growth that these characters had over the previous seasons. To me there is a great symmetry between x-universe and the flashbacks/forwards.
 
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