LOST: WTF?

[cellio]

It's been two days, but I'll still insert a spoiler warning here.

I came to LOST late, just a couple years ago. I watched the first four seasons on DVD over a span of time (courtesy of a friend), then watched the fifth season in the month between when it came out on DVD and when season six started to air, then watched season six as it unfolded. I liked the show and certainly benefitted from the compressed viewing of the earlier seasons (easier to notice things when you're watching a disc at a time; also easier to move past the weaker episodes). And I liked most of this final season.

Those last ten minutes, though? "Extremely disappointed" is insufficient description.

It's not just that I like the ending I anticipated a few episodes in better. I mean yeah, I do prefer it, but it's quite likely that I also would have preferred an unceremonious meteor strike ending it all, y'know? So that's not really saying much.

LOST was to all appearances a science-fiction show. While SF and religion can certainly mix to good effect, just throwing out the SF foundation so you can tell an "and they all went to heaven" story is cheap. Especially since (to my eye) they didn't lay the groundwork early, aside from one suspiciously-named character. We've been seeing time travel for a few seasons; the flash-sideways world was quite plausibly another branch among many worlds, with porous borders. That idea was interesting. Accessing that alternate timeline accidentally, or by way of Jacob (or Desmond), or by way of Losties acting on their own (without Jacob's blessing) would have been interesting. Having it turn out to be something completely unexpected, but supported in the plot (a gotcha! twist), would have been interesting. I could engage with any of those ideas. But a shared heaven subconsciously created by these characters, with the other Losties being the most important people in the lives of every single participant (else it doesn't work)? I'm having trouble making that idea work. I feel cheated, even moreso than by an "and then they all woke up" ending (or even the St. Elsewhere inverse of that, which I have decided just did not happen in my world).

I find myself wondering at what point in the show's development the writers decided on this ending. There have been points where it felt like the writers were making it up as they went along, though certainly not always. I wonder where this plan came from and what ideas they rejected on the way to it (and why). I guess we'll never know.

And as a minor aside, if Vincent is important enough to recur through the series and make the final island scene, he ought to rate a spot in the joint afterlife. Hmpf.

Comments

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

This forum post (http://lostmediamentions.blogspot.com/2010/05/someone-from-bad-robots-take-on-finale.html) purports to be from one of the writers. Of course, the Inernet being what it is, insert your grain of salt as you will, but a number of people on the web who have written pretty extensively about the show are vouching for the author. Whatever its provenance, its an interesting read on the topic of why the ending was the way it was.

[cellio]

Interesting speculation. Thanks for passing that along.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting that link.

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

I'm so disappointed with the ending that I've made a decision to actively fail to care about Lost any more. I don't suspect I'll wholly succeed, but I'm going to try. %^S.