LOST: The Final Season (Spoilers)

[John Crichton]

It's quite possible that the immortality is passed on. "Mom" passes it to Jacob, who passes it to Jack, who passes it to Hurley, who passed it on to someone years/centuries/millennia later.

I don't see the flash-sideways as the afterlife, but rather as either a sort of temporary construct within an afterlife or, more likely in my mind, an opportunity for reflection before moving into a full-on afterlife (which could be a heaven-like thing, or reincarnation, or whatever). Remember that Christian Shepherd said it was an opportunity for remembering.

Yup. He said that it was something they made together.

That means it's different for everyone.

It also means it's possible Ben is roasting in hell somewhere.

It's all open to interpretation which is totally fine by me as the show has always been about that.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Its not "the" afterlife but a "stage" in the afterlife. A Purgatory. Or Gehenna. Or the Shadowfell. Likely a few other religious (or RPG) analogs that escape me. Its an intermediary stage between death and the final beyond.

I think the phrase you're looking for is "The Lobby"

 

[Remus Lupin]

I agree that it's supposed to be a construct, a realm of reflection. Not, NB, purgatory in any traditional sense, but LIKE purgatory in that people move on when they're ready. That's why Ben stayed. Of all of them, he still had a lot more to work out (perhaps more even than Syaid), particularly with Danielle and Alex.

It does raise a question though -- what happens to all of those left behind, like not only Ben, but also Faraday, Eloise, Charlotte, the rest of the members of Driveshaft, etc. If this world is simply a reflection of the collective will of the castaways, does it disappear with them? What happens to Jack's son? It's implied by Locke's comment that Jack's son exists only insofar as he's necessary in this world -- "You don't have a son."

So, when the last Islander moves on, will this pocket universe cease to exist?

As for the nature of the afterlife, it's pretty clearly some version of the Christian heaven, to which they have been guided, in the end, by Christian Shepherd (the obviousness of which even Kate comments on!), but I liked the line: "Let's go find out," thus leaving the whole thing up in the air to some degree.

Despite all of the claims along the way that this was science fiction, in the end it was pretty clearly a straight up Christian allegory.

 

[coyote6]

Kate's horse must've been Smokey, messing with people (like Christian's initial appearances on the island, and some of the bear appearances, and so many other things).

For me, here's the thing: it (the show) was both a kind of spiritual allegory (Christian, yes, but there was enough dharma being tossed around that calling it solely Christian seems wrong), and a sci-fi tale. Yes, there was the afterlife, and redemption, and good & evil, and choices, and the meaning of actions & those choices. There were also electromagnetic phenomenon, psychic powers (at least three -- Hurley, Miles, and Walt were all psychic in some way), time travel, teleportation, and who knows what.

The island's light was somehow tied into both the spacetime continuum and the EM spectrum (get your Grand Unified Theory, right here), and -- if Jacob is to be believed -- something of the (metaphysical) source of life itself.

That mystery -- what it was, exactly -- was left unexplained. Indeed, I don't think anyone on the show ever knew what it was; it was supposed to be ineffable, and thus would never be explained.

 

[Mistwell]

I enjoyed it.

I will begin my LOST game* soon. It amuses me that the plot basically comes down to: "An immortal bad guy wants to get off the island. For him to do that, he has to climb down a hole and unplug a drain. That will cause the island to sink, but renders him mortal. You can keep the island from sinking if you put the plug back in the drain within a few hours. He doesn't know where the hole is, and the guy who does know is a secretive douche who refuses to explain things to people. Hope you can get out alive."
QUOTE]

My current intepretation is a bit different

Jacob's foster mom seems to have gotten the job to protect the light. The light is where dead people are supposed to go, hence why men seek it out.

the island is a sort of purgatory, where souls get sorted out and then head for where they're heading (presumably the light).

Jacob's mom got confused on all this, and basically tried to block this from happening. So when she passed the job onto Jacob, he didn't know much about it either.

Thus, everybody on 815 is dead, and all of this was just a wierd "I'm dead" dream.

That's sounding a lot more like Dallas.


I'm not wholly satisfied with the ending, as there are some holes in my explanation (which I shouldn't have to assemble my own explanation after the series finale).

Why did we waste so much screen time on the airplane escape, when it wasn't even going to matter?

What about Walt and Michael, and Eko?

The ending was incomplete.

Naw, that is not my interpretation at least. The "dead" part is just about the flash-sideways universe. The Island stuff was all real. If it were not, the dead part would also not make sense, since the most important people in their lives would not be "people on the plane with me right before I died". Plus, Jack is told some people die before him, some after. So, the island is not the purgatory part, they were not all dead all along, and the "dead" part is just in reference to the flash-sideways universe of this last season.

 

[coyote6]

BTW, did anyone else see the "alternate endings" on Jimmy Kimmel Live?

 

[Diamond Cross]

It shouldn't be at all assumed that Ben or Hurley were immortal. They do the job as long as they can and nothing more. All the protectors eventually die and move on. Even Richard.

The reason why I presume immortality is because Richard didn't age because he was touched by Jacob and Jacob was presumably centuries old.

 

[RangerWickett]

Yes, there was reality and it mattered, so 5.5 seasons of the show were important to the plot. That still leaves half this last season which was presented as being important somehow, when all it was was an extended, interwoven denouement.

Seeing it with hindsight, I still feel like they chose this ending very late in the show's run. Like middle-of-this-season late. The resolution doesn't seem to match with other things they hinted at throughout season 6.

Sure, maybe Juliet, dying in the hole, somehow saw into this pocket heaven and decided to quote it to Sawyer before she died, but then why did she say, "It worked," as if in reference to their desired goal of creating an alternate timeline?

Sure, maybe Smokey was just blowing smoke up Sayid's ass when he said that he could give Sayid exactly what he desired, but it sure sounded like Smokey thought there was some way to create an alternate reality.

And I suppose Desmond, when zapped with electromagnetism by Widmore, had a near-death experience and somehow managed to share his consciousness between reality and the timeless pocket heaven, but in the flash sideways Faraday makes it sound like setting off the nuke actually did something. If we accept that the flash sidewayses were just glimpses of the pocket heaven, then the entire nuke thing was kinda pointless.


The rewrites and continual changes to the 'truth' behind the show are egregious enough that they keep me from enjoying it without reservation. Like I said, I enjoyed it, and as a character drama it was really good. But as a sci-fi/fantasy show with a consistent world, it disappoints me.

 

[stonegod]

BTW, did anyone else see the "alternate endings" on Jimmy Kimmel Live?

I did. The first was a groaner, the second a nice send up, the last meh.

 

[weem]

BTW, did anyone else see the "alternate endings" on Jimmy Kimmel Live?

I did. They were okay (imo).