LOST - I Think I Liked It.

I said in an earlier post that BSG was another sci-fi show I hold near and dear to my heart. The ending? Not so much. Harry Potter is also series I invested much of my young life in and derived great enjoyment from. The epilogue is shit. Lost, Lost, Lost. You were doing so well. I got on board right from the Star Wars cold open, "but I believe in Duct Tape" has got to be one of the best lines ever written in the English language, and Sawyer and Juliet's reunion was everything that I could have asked for. That the plane would actually fly again I forgive. That a stab wound wouldn't have KO'd Jack before hour 2 was up I'm willing to buy. The sideways world was an interesting web of connections and love and happiness and mystery and then...

And then they explained it. In the most heavy-handed and yet completely ambiguous way possible. I'll give them props for that. But NO. NO NOT REALLY.

The internets have been set aflame already, the fallout's going to be massive ya'll, and maybe because it's five in the morning here, but I don't feel angry or betrayed or that my time has been wasted. I still love Lost. But they fell for Deathly Hallows Epilogue Syndrome (DHES). I lost it when Vincent laid down beside Jack at the end, but they didn't pull it off completely. What's so heartbreaking is that they got close. How badass was that fight between Jack and Not!Locke? It was the last ten minutes, the Church Reunion Pearly Gates Whatever, that kinda sorta blew it.

I mean, yes, I get it, Jack died. Was it just Jack? Was it everyone? What about his kid? Was Sideways World really just a metaphysical family reunion? Was it all in his head? Did they just St. Elsewhere that shit, or did they go the C.S. Lewis route? Was everyone happy and reunited in his head or was everyone happy and reunited in Sideways World or was everyone happy and reunited in heaven? I assume the Ajira plane get back to wherever and Hurley helped Desmond get back home and they all had happy, happy long lives. But does none of this matter because it was or was not real? That last shot after the title card--did everyone die in the original crash? I guess the takeaway is that these people's lives, in one of a series of universes, mattered to each other and their connections are what redeemed them, enabled them to be found. Or something.

I actually really liked it. This show has always ultimately been about the characters, and it was fitting and proper to watch them take their leave with one last slow-mo montage set to The Giacchino. I'm just not sure Christian Shepherd (seriously?) walking through big double-doors flanked by angles and LEADING THEM ALL INTO THE LIGHT is in keeping with that. Or how to explain the island. Or what happened. At all.

ETA: Oh! The internet has reached a consensus! Sideways World was Titanic Heaven! Now you're speaking a language I can understand.