We get drama; answers, not so much

By Chris Oliver and Ken Sury

In the harsh light of day, Chris Oliver and Ken Sury resume their review of the series finale of "Lost."

Chris: OK, there's no point in going through the key plot points in this episode as we normally do. The show is over, so there's nothing to anticipate for next season. Let's start with our reaction at the end. You said it was more emotionally satisfying than intellectually, and I agree with that. The episode could have been "everything you wanted to know about 'Lost' and have asked repeatedly," but that would have left us empty.

It was great to see all these characters together again, even if it was in the afterlife. But I thought Walt was supposed to be in that episode? Carlton Cuse said he would be, but I didn't see him. I couldn't have missed him, the kid is taller than LeBron James now. I really wanted a little more on his story, but we didn't get it. And I'm still not clear on what Eloise is.

Ken: I was much happier to have a finale drive by narrative after our investment in the characters these last six seasons, but I wish more answers to some of the island mysteries would have been given -- but not in the finale. The finale was not the time to answer things like the infertility issue on the island, or why the Others grabbed the kids, etc. It would have been nice to have had those answers sprinkled into the final season at various point along the way.

I'm also wondering where the heck was Walt after I heard show runner Cuse promise that he'd appear in an interview last week. Because I was so engaged in the story I didn't start thinking "Where's Walt?" until the big reunion scene in the church. He wasn't there. Neither was dad Michael, whom I guess is still a Whisperer on the island until he finally gets to move on. Maybe Cuse forgot that a Walt scene ended up on the cutting floor?

As Christian Shephard told Jack, some people died before him and others died after him, so we can't look at the ending linearly and try to make sense of how everything transpired. I was a little troubled by Christian's appearance to everyone in that church. Supposedly, these were the people brought together and who cared deeply about each other. But Christian's only tie to that group (beyond being a corpse on the flight) was Jack, Claire and Aaron (and then again, it wasn't Christian but Smokey in Daddy's form who appeared to Claire and held Aaron on the island). I don't think Christian meeting Sawyer in an Australian bar counts, either.

I think some people are going to say that sideways-world was merely Jack's purgatory, but I don't buy that when you consider all the other sideways happenings to the characters that had nothing to do with Jack. Your thoughts?

Chris: Yeah, that's definitely open to interpretation. It was like Christian and Desmond worked together to shepherd these people together. I'm still kind of torn on the flash-afterlife storyline. On one hand, it's a beautiful thing to be able to see everyone meaningful in your life, to be reunited with people you left behind. And as I said, I loved the awakenings. But, on the other hand, the afterlife concept seems overdone. My initial response was "oh no they didn't." Sometimes I wonder if the producers just like screwing with us. All this time they said it was real and not purgatory, but then in the last season they throw in a storyline that is purgatory (but still real, I suppose).

I think it was everybody's afterlife, not just Jack's. If it was just Jack's, there would be no point in seeing Sawyer and Juliet, Sayid and Shannon, etc. Speaking of which, did you think it would have made more sense with Sayid to end up with Nadia?

Ken: Nadia was his longtime love, but I think you can make a case for Sayid/Shannon in that Shannon was sort of redeemed by her love with Sayid. She was an unlikable and selfish character when she was arrived on the island. Once she and Sayid became an item she was less irritable. Sayid was always needing someone to tell him that he was a good person, like Hurley did in the finale. Nadia certainly saw the good that was in Sayid, and I would like to think they were a better match. But if Sayid is with Nadia in the end, then Shannon ends up as a Whisperer.

As for her step-brother, Boone, his island enlightenment was already a done deal by the time we saw him in the finale. Makes me a little curious how he attained knowledge of the island life. His best connection was Locke. His best memory of Locke? Falling off a cliff in a plane stuffed with heroin-filled Virgin Mary statues. Not a whole lot for Boone to flash on, was there?

Chris: Hurley got Boone to get enlightened somehow. He wasn't an important enough character to dedicate a big chunk of the finale to. It was cool to see him at the end, though.

I loved the idea that Hurley became the new Jacob and that Ben was his right-hand man. I don't know if I'd feel safe with Ben in the vice president role, but apparently it worked. Ben told Hurley he didn't have to follow Jacob's rules. He could make his own, allowing Desmond to get back to Penny. Hurley and Ben are a pretty good mix. One is selfless and will try to use the island for good, the other is skeptical enough to know when the island is in trouble.

Moving on, I wonder if it would have been more true to the island mythology if Jack had become the smoke monster. I wasn't clear on how the MiB became corrupted but Jack didn't. I mean, I can see why Desmond wasn't corrupted, because we saw he could handle the power of the island. But Jack didn't have that power.

Ken: If the black smoke is somehow representative of an individual's soul (and I don't know whether it is, this is merely my take on it) then it was imbued with Man in Black's desire to go beyond the island, that there was something out there for him. With Jack, he really didn't have anything off-island to return to. He returned to the island with the express wish to fix himself and find his purpose. He told Kate that he ruined everything in the outside world, an idea she tried to rebuff, but Jack believed his destiny was to save the island. He had no other place he wanted to go.

Perhaps he even thought he inflicted his own form of evil by screwing things up off the island. Wouldn't it have been awesome if the island healed his wounds and Jack could turn into white smoke?

Chris: Yeah, that is a good point. Jack wasn't filled with anger like the Man in Black (I just found out his name was supposed to be Samuel, but they decided to leave him nameless). But the ending was perfect, although having Vincent run in was laying it on a bit thick.

I was glad everyone got a fair amount of screen time. After a season of wasting their talents, Miles, Richard and Ben came to the forefront again. And Frank's survival was a little implausible, but I like him so I got past it. Richard got his first gray hair, which made him happy. I wasn't so happy when I got mine.

In our next blog post we'll take a further look at Ben and hit some other topics as well. How is the purgatory or afterlife concept sitting with you?

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