LOST: The Final Season (Spoilers)

[Plane Sailing]

The last episode I saw was the one with Hurley's numbers. Yeah, I know it was a long time ago

Was anything ever explained about them?

Cheers

 

[coyote6]

They were kind of explained a couple of ways. I had to look it up to confirm the details (see here), but the short version:

First, a Dharma Initiative training video said the numbers were the "core environmental and human factors of the Valenzetti Equation"; said equation was one that supposedly predicted when humanity would die off.

Second, the numbers each corresponded to one of the candidates to replace Jacob -- one of the main cast members. The lighthouse had a mirror, that when turned to the appropriate number (not sure if the numbers corresponded to degrees -- I don't remember if the circle had 360 spaces on it or not), the mirror showed the home of that particular candidate.

The Lostpedia link lists which number corresponded to which Oceanic survivor/candidate.

Note that no explanation as to why the numbers were being transmitted, or showed up so much. Call it coincidence or fate or the power of the island.

 

[Merkuri]

I watched all of LOST (yes, all six seasons) in about a month and a half since they made it all available on Hulu, and I've been avoiding this thread because I didn't want any spoilers. Now I come back to it and see that it's 22 pages long and waaay to much for me to read it all.

Did anyone else expect Jack to turn into a new smoke monster when he started to climb down into the cave with the light? I thought it would be poetic if they kept the balance somehow, though I really could not see Jack ending up as a force of evil without some major badness happening to him.

I actually watched the last episode in two parts. I missed the "live" showing on Sunday and Hulu didn't make it available until Monday night, but Monday night is my game night, and between the game, work, and other basic necessities I could only watch an hour of the last episode on Monday. I watched the rest early this morning before work.

I think the fact that I watched it so early in the morning when my brain was still half asleep made me a bit more susceptible, but I cried during the second half. Several times. Just about every time a character in the pocket-afterlife had an epiphany of their life on the island I started choking up, especially the Kwons and Claire/Charlie. I don't know why those scenes touched me so much. I blame sleep deprivation.

 

[RangerWickett]

Hehe. Well, there are still a few loose ends: Unanswered Lost Questions - CollegeHumor video

 

[Jack7]

but I cried during the second half. Several times. Just about every time a character in the pocket-afterlife had an epiphany of their life on the island I started choking up, especially the Kwons and Claire/Charlie. I don't know why those scenes touched me so much. I blame sleep deprivation.

I didn't cry, but at the end I had to really fight against it, and I did lose my voice. (Not that I was saying anything, but if I had to, I probably couldn't have.) And I'm not a guy who cries about much even in real life, though sometimes I feel like it, so it's very rare for me to cry about something fictional.

However Lost was one of those very rare fictional efforts that seemed worth crying over. I see no shame in it.

I can honestly say say it's one of the few shows in my entire life that I feel came close to the wonderfulness and meaning of a real life experience, and I'm probably better off for having seen it.

I hope that this means that in the future television will only get better and better. Though now the bar is pretty darn high.

 

[Banshee16]

It was the flash-sideways that was the alternate universe.

But as for myself I'm somewhat disappointed in the ending.

First of all, Jack shouldn't have died. He was given the power of immortality by Jacob through spring waters. Now, I can see how removing the cork can temporary disrupt that, but he was point blank when it reset. And unless you have to drink from the waters again to restart the immortality, being there point blank should have been enough.

This same disruption allowed Kate to shoot smokey and kill him.

So I guess the rules were just things that Jacob made up. After all, when they were kids his brother said "when it's your game you can make up the rules". So I guess that's how Kate was able to kill smokey and smokey was able to kill Jack. Prior to this, smokey could not directly kill Jacob because that was the rule.

The smoke monster will never be fully explained. I halfway expected Jack and anybody else down there to be transformed as well. Or to see more smoke monsters come out of the hole after the cork was removed. So I guess there was only the one. Maybe you have to be killed, like Jacob killed his brother, in order to transform?

The sinking of the island will never be fully showed. I fully expected to see it sink in this episode.

If the springs give true immortality, Hugo and Jack shouldn't have been in the Church at all at the end. True immortality means you simply don't die and you'll even outlive the universe. So I guess longevity is the operating word. But this is also a matter of semantics.

I can see all others being in the church because I think that when the cork was removed it would've disrupted their immortality. But the difference is the distance. Remember, JAck was point blank when he restarted the well.

And the final kicker is....


The flash sideways was actually the afterlife. I tell ya, if my afterlife is no different than my life, then I will be really disappointed. I really wanted it to be a true sci-fi style alternate universe rather than an afterlife situation. But I guess technically the afterlife is some sort of alternate dimension. But that's a matter of semantics.

And of course, Kate's horse will never be explained.

Still, overall I liked the episode. So I give it a B.

I've been thinking, and am wondering...

We've assumed all season that the island on the bottom of the ocean showed in the Flash Sideways was a sign of the nuke or whatever......but maybe that's not what it is.

At one point this season, Jacob said that the light in the island had to be protected, and if it ever went out, everything would end.

If the Flash Sideways was actually the afterlife, or this purgatory or whatever, what if the island on the bottom was basically an indicator that sometime in the future the light *was* extinguished, and the world was destroyed.

At that point, the Losties were released from their "purgatory" or whatever, to be able to move on.....which is what the process of the Flash Sideways depicted, culminating in the finale.....with Christian Shepherd being analagous to a a supreme being leading them to the next phase of their existences.

Banshee

 

[John Crichton]

I've been thinking, and am wondering...

We've assumed all season that the island on the bottom of the ocean showed in the Flash Sideways was a sign of the nuke or whatever......but maybe that's not what it is.

At one point this season, Jacob said that the light in the island had to be protected, and if it ever went out, everything would end.

If the Flash Sideways was actually the afterlife, or this purgatory or whatever, what if the island on the bottom was basically an indicator that sometime in the future the light *was* extinguished, and the world was destroyed.

At that point, the Losties were released from their "purgatory" or whatever, to be able to move on.....which is what the process of the Flash Sideways depicted, culminating in the finale.....with Christian Shepherd being analagous to a a supreme being leading them to the next phase of their existences.

Banshee

While I don't really agree with you I love that the show sparks thoughts like your post. That really speaks to its greatness.

 

[Merkuri]

First of all, Jack shouldn't have died. He was given the power of immortality by Jacob through spring waters. Now, I can see how removing the cork can temporary disrupt that, but he was point blank when it reset. And unless you have to drink from the waters again to restart the immortality, being there point blank should have been enough.

He gave those powers to Hurley before he went into the well, though. At least, that's how I interpreted it. And I don't think they ever implied that Jacob was truly immortal. He seemed like he would have lived forever if he wasn't killed, but he obliviously could be killed (since Linus killed him).

So I guess the rules were just things that Jacob made up. After all, when they were kids his brother said "when it's your game you can make up the rules". So I guess that's how Kate was able to kill smokey and smokey was able to kill Jack. Prior to this, smokey could not directly kill Jacob because that was the rule.

Some of the rules Jacob made up (like, perhaps, the difficulty of finding and leaving the island), but I think that particular one keeping Jacob and Smokey from killing each other was made up by their mother, who was the guardian before Jacob.

The smoke monster will never be fully explained. I halfway expected Jack and anybody else down there to be transformed as well. Or to see more smoke monsters come out of the hole after the cork was removed. So I guess there was only the one. Maybe you have to be killed, like Jacob killed his brother, in order to transform?

You can't expect everything to be fully explained in a show like this, simply because if you explain magic it becomes less magical. We never found out exactly what that light was in the middle of the island, other than something pretty that'll kill you (or worse).

My guess is that the creation of the smoke monster had to do with the fact that Jacob was not allowed to kill his brother per his mother's rules. Either that, or it was a personification of all the hate both brothers had when the nameless brother died in the light.

If the springs give true immortality, Hugo and Jack shouldn't have been in the Church at all at the end. True immortality means you simply don't die and you'll even outlive the universe. So I guess longevity is the operating word. But this is also a matter of semantics.

Yeah, I never interpreted it as true immortality. The wording was always "as long as you can," not, "forever." I imagined that some time down the road, perhaps hundreds of years, Hurley got tired of protecting the island and found a replacement so that he could quietly live out the rest of his (already extended) life on the island and eventually die.

The flash sideways was actually the afterlife. I tell ya, if my afterlife is no different than my life, then I will be really disappointed. I really wanted it to be a true sci-fi style alternate universe rather than an afterlife situation. But I guess technically the afterlife is some sort of alternate dimension. But that's a matter of semantics.

I think it was more interpreted to be a pre-afterlife. I've seen a lot of movies and read a lot of books where they suggest that the very "early" afterlife is just like your real life to sort of ease you into being dead. They obviously moved onto something different at the end.

And of course, Kate's horse will never be explained.

Wasn't the horse one that had died? If so, I think that horse was Smokey, trying to unsettle them.

 

[Diamond Cross]

You can't expect everything to be fully explained in a show like this, simply because if you explain magic it becomes less magical. We never found out exactly what that light was in the middle of the island, other than something pretty that'll kill you (or worse).

No, not everything, but definitely the major things.

Wasn't the horse one that had died? If so, I think that horse was Smokey, trying to unsettle them.

There's no on screen explanation of the horse. But why would smokey just visit Kate in this form to unsettle her? Why would he visit any of them at all? It seems to me that if he could visit any of them he would in order to make their lives even more miserable and maybe even get them to kill each other or get them killed long before they even got on the Oceanic Flight rather than wait for the island?

 

[John Crichton]

There's no on screen explanation of the horse. But why would smokey just visit Kate in this form to unsettle her? Why would he visit any of them at all? It seems to me that if he could visit any of them he would in order to make their lives even more miserable and maybe even get them to kill each other or get them killed long before they even got on the Oceanic Flight rather than wait for the island?

Seriously? People still care about the frickin' horse thing?

Really?