Lost Finale and my life *Major Spoilers*

Don't read this if you don't want to hear about Lost.

Maybe I am crazy for comparing a TV show to a tragedy that brings strangers together, but I feel that trying to explain what happened in the finale of Lost can't be explained to people who haven't experienced it. Just saying what happened can no way have the same emotional impact as the experience it took to find out what happened.


I have spent the past 6 years of my life talking to anyone who will listen about my theories on Lost. Last night was the culmination of those years as I, along with millions of others, awaited answers to our most desired questions. We did not receive these answers in black and white, many of them we didn't receive at all. But, now that it is over do the answers really matter? I find that the ending was more than satisfactory (it did however take almost 12 hours to set in)

What was the light on the island?
What was the MIB's name?
Where did mother come from?
Why did those numbers keep popping up? I understand the lighthouse and all that, but how was Jacob or whoever able to have those exact numbers be the lottery numbers that one fateful day for Hurley?
How were Jacob/MIB/mother immortal?
Who fathered Jacob/MIB?
How did Dharma get to the island?
Why did Widmore stage a fake plane in the ocean?
How is Widmore rich?
What did Widmore want with the island?

There are hundreds more, but after watching the finale I honestly don't care about any of these questions or answers. Here are a few things I took away from the finale.

*The island was real. The sideways timeline was the afterlife.

*Kate told Jack she has waited a long time to see him again when they met at the concert which leads me to believe that the plane actually made it off the island (that we see fly over Jack right before he dies) and Kate lived out a long life. She had to wait until she died to see her true love again.

*"It only ends once, everything else is only progress" This was said by Jacob in the season 5 finale. Could it be that the Losties were trapped in an endless loop until they all got things exactly right (like groundhog day). Each character had to do 2 things to move on, find their one true love, and let go of the one thing they could never let go. Jack being the fixer couldn't let go of his baggage (his issues with his father) until he helped all of the other Losties solve their issues. The biggest hurdle was to help and understand John Locke, once he did this he was able to move on.

*Juliet told Sawyer in the season 6 premiere that 'it worked' and they could get coffee one day and go dutch. As she lay dying on the island her mind was in both planes of existence. Since time doesn't exist in the other plane she already knew that everything worked out and her and Sawyer ended up together, she was able to die peacefully knowing that blowing up the island with the nuke allowed every Lostie to be reunited with their true love, have no hard feelings towards each other, and be able to move on peacefully into whatever comes next.

*I believe Eloise wasn't ready to move on because she wanted to spend time in 'purgatory' with her son Daniel since in real life she killed him. She was one of the first to understand where they were but didn't want to change anything because she is afraid where she might end up if she walks into the light. For her, until Daniel decides to move on, her 'purgatory' is heaven.

*Ben wants to stay behind to build relationships with both Russo and Alex. He is a good guy at heart but made horrible choices in his life. He wants Russo and Alex to see the flash and remember but wants to show them how sorry he is things happened the way they did and then he will decide to move on.

The show as a whole kept playing up that everything that happened happened for a reason and if the Losties didn't do everything just right the world would end. But, after watching the finale I don't think that is entirely true. It all began with Jacob/MIB/mother. I don't think it was a coincidence that the skeletons found were called 'Adam and Eve'. Things had to play out a specific way for thousands of years leading up to the final meeting in the church. The Losties were trying to save themselves, not the entire world. But, think about it, everyone was looking out for number one, and their world was all they knew, so to them saving the world and saving 'their' world are really the same thing. The outside world wouldn't have changed in the slightest, since everyone has moved on from the Oceanic crash, and no one knew the island existed anyway.

Much like real life the show left a lot of unanswered questions. We were lead in one direction for 2.5 seasons, then the focus suddenly shifted once we learned about Jacob. We spend the next 2.5 seasons wondering about Jacob and the MIB and then again in the last episode the writers throw another curve and we forget about Jacob and MIB ( I really don't even care what his name was anymore ) and start to feel something new. The show spent 6 years building these characters and in the end all that mattered was their friendship/soul mate/redemption. The more I think about it the more satisfied I am with the ending. It isn't about answering questions that makes life so interesting, that is just what keeps you going until you find the one person who makes you forget all about the unanswered questions.

I didn't think I felt emotional attachments to any character and expected the ending to leave me feeling empty. I watched Lost because I was drawn in by the mystery and folklore. The writers did a great job of emotionally attaching me to characters without me even knowing. By the end of last nights episode I felt as emotionally attached to every character as I did to Desmond and Penny in "the constant' which I think is the best hour of any tv show that has ever been on tv (the season 4 finale of dexter is a close second)

I had several flashes of the past 6 years, thinking about milestones in my life that happened around the airing of certain episodes of Lost. My life, like anyones, is full of 'what if' scenarios, unanswered questions, and mysteries.

Who were the 'Yakuza' guy and 'buff Kid Rock' who walked through the mall?
Was leaving Sears the right choice?
Why didn't I go to a different college?
Who drives the bat mobile and mystey machine in Lexington?

When I first asked these questions they were very important for me to answer, but now, I don't care. Although these questions do have answers, I will never know them. As it turns out, those aren't the important questions to be answered anyway. Just like Lost, not everything was answered, but in the end it didn't matter, things turned out like they were supposed to. Fate played a huge part, and I am starting to believe more in fate.

The thing about life is you can easily draw correlations between two seemingly unrelated events. If it weren't for 104.5 the cat playing MmmBop all summer long back in 1997, facebook, and the cat I wanted to get being adopted litteraly 5 minutes before I tried to adopt it, and my current cat literally tapping me on the shoulder through the bars at the humane society to let me know she was the one I needed to get I would not have met Jenny. The answer to most of my unanswered questions became insignificant once I met Jenny. The purpose of my life became apparent to me and everything else became irrelevant, just like the unanswered questions in Lost. Life can be strange sometimes, but that is what makes it interesting.


In conclusion,

I feel a pretty big void today, I have never had any tv show/media have such a stranglehold on my mental ability before. My favorite aspect of the show was the mystery and the hundreds of theories I concocted and others I read online. I could sit and talk/think about what I thought happened for hours. But, now that the show has ended the answers to some of the questions just don't seem important to me and I am left with a feeling of love and redemption for the characters. Life isn't about unanswered questions, it is about living and loving. I never expected a tv show to make me examine my life this much, but it has, and I am thankful for it