Aloha, “Lost”

Re: the “Lost” series finale – I’m still digesting it.  There is so much to be said and yet maybe nothing needs to be said; I could just leave it to the sublime, but really, “Lost” is a show that activates discussion and thought.

On a sidenote: I thought ABC overdid it with the commercials; rendering the series finale into a 2 1/2 hours just for commercials?!  Come on!  I can’t begrudge the network for wanting to profit from the event, but they really got excessive.

My initial reaction to the series finale was of some kind of emotional resolution.  I felt a little teary over seeing Jack seeming to be at peace, with Vincent the dog by his side at the end.  After all that turmoil, perhaps it was a satisfactory ending to realize that the Sideways Universe is a waiting area before the loved ones get be together again to the next life or the next world or whatnot (fitting to whatever belief system one has) and that our castaways were able to find their own resolutions and reunite.

Not that I quite enjoyed the Jimmy Kimmel post-series finale show (some of the Q&A from that audience left much to be desired and the skits of alternate endings weren’t that funny to me), but I liked Kimmel’s title of “Aloha,” as I thought that the phrase “aloha” best summed up the series finale – as a phrase known to be both “Hello” and “goodbye.”

But, ok, aloha…now what?  Good luck and farewell and welcome to the next thing, as Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, Sun, Sayid, Locke, Hurley – and even returning old friends like Boone, Shannon, Charlie, and Claire – move forward.  Is that all?

I ultimately realize what a head-twister (not to mention heart-rending) the finale was.  The “real” universe – well, the island is saved and Jack can let go and … death is death; life is life; and what happens, happens; c’est la vie; love is the answer; and humans are… human.

Was the series about science or faith, or both?  Was it about having free will or power – do we have choices or none at all?  Or was it all of the above?  (For instance, Jack chose to step up and succeed Jacob, and Jacob wanted to give the candidates a choice, which he did not have, because of his crazy adopted mom.  Meanwhile, Hurley didn’t want to be the successor, but it wasn’t like he had a choice; it wasn’t as if Jack, as human as he was, was going to give the job to Ben either.  And, perhaps only Hurley would be so compassionate and willing to ask Ben for help and to be his “Number Two,” I suppose!).

Is it okay or not okay not to have all the answers to the plots?  I probably would have preferred more balance between characters and plots during this last season, and wished we had more time to deal with the implications (or even to have given Eloise, Charles Widmore, Daniel Faraday, Charlotte, Desmond and Penny more time to resolve their stories, and I could have lived without the head-scratching stuff – like the senseless deaths of Ilana and Widmore’s staff) – but I’m actually more okay with not having all the answers or all the mysteries resolved.  (I survived many other series finales and I’m okay – really).

As someone who hasn’t been a rabid fan, speaking as a television viewer who wants good tv, I still stand by what I have said about the season premiere of the last season of “Lost”: I want something entertaining and with some kind of heart.  I would hope that the writers would care about their characters, and I think Cuse and Lindelof did care (at least, I felt that they did in this series finale).  While I cannot quite feel “happy” in the kind of ending that there was – that all roads leads to a life’s end, and boy is that sad or what? – it is an ending and we watched the characters seem okay with that – if not happy to be together again, even if it was in the afterlife, and that of itself is actually uplifting (there’s always hope, in some fashion).

Am I making any sense?  Did the ending of “Lost” make sense?  Maybe not for everybody, not even for me (if I keep thinking about it, and I probably should stop that already!).  I’m relieved that Jack is at peace, even if he never really got to be a real dad to a son (in the alternate universe, he did get to be what he missed out on – where he did resolve his losses, even with his own father – but is it really the same?  Hmm.  Not sure.).  I’m sorry that Jack’s son was never “real.”  (well, he was real enough to Sideways Jack).  I’m pleased that Sawyer and Juliet are back together, even if it might have taken Sawyer awhile to get there.  And, even Kate made her peace with Jack and Claire (in both universes).  But, the ones who were left behind – Sun and Jin’s daughter; Aaron; Walt; Jack’s son who never existed – well, does the Island leave a legacy to them?  To anyone?

The series finale isn’t perfect for not quite answering questions to the plots, but it captured the essence of the show, which made me feel okay and almost wanting to revisit it all over again.  Was it sad?  To me, yes, but it did not feel completely wrong or inappropriate to me.  There was a subtlety that left my imagination going; it seems to me that the discussion on “Lost” will never end, even if the series itself is over.

“Lost” as a series reminds me of something a college professor of mine once said about the great books we read – along the lines that if it makes an impact on us, that if it makes us think or react however way – that is the power of reading a great book.  I think “Lost” as a series has been something really moving and it worked for me.  It’s not perfect, but it made me care.

Great acting from Matthew Fox, Michael Emerson, and Terry O’Quinn; even kudos to the rest of the cast – they held everything together.

Aloha, “Lost.”  See you in the next life.

Update:

I posted a shorter, less rambling version of this on comments on David Bianculli’s blog TV Worth Watching (which is a great blog, by the way, and I liked and agreed with Bianculli’s thoughts about the series finale).

Other posts on the series finale that I’ve taken particular notice: Time’s James Poniewozik with his Lost Watch series finale post; Poniewozik’s post on links to others’ posts; Alan Sepinwall’s thoughts; and the amazingly in-depth posts (part 1 AND part 2!) by Entertainment Weekly’s Jeff “Doc” Jensen.