Obsessive Behavior

So. Wow.

Lost is over now, and there are so many thoughts swimming through my head now, but a rather large proportion of those thoughts involve the controversial final scenes of the finale. So I wanted to write a few words on those scenes.

But then it turned into a massive and rambling blog post. So here it is, without too much editing.

Prepare for much spoiling after the jump.

There was a part of me that was a little disappointed that the Flashsideways world ended up being a sort of gateway to the afterlife. Very early in the show’s run, the producers debunked the popular fan theory that everyone had died in the crash and that the Island was an afterlife, so I won’t deny that it felt a bit flat when we saw the same theory applied (albeit in a very different way). On top of that, it seems like far too simplistic an answer for a show that usually shunned that type of explanation. Setting it in a church didn’t help much, and even though the church was apparently non-denominational and involved the symbols of many faiths, the Christian imagery in the finale was perhaps a bit overbearing for a show whose spiritual side is meant to be more universal. But the more I think about the ending, the more it appeals to me, and the more I see that even though it’s not “universal,” it’s very appropriate to these characters and especially Jack.

Despite its religious trappings, the ending doesn’t really have much in the way of religious meaning, because it’s really just about who these people are—and isn’t that so very Lost? In this show, characters are named after philosophers who are more or less irrelevant to their personal arcs, so such pseudo-meaningful imagery course: it’s all there to evoke a feeling, not any specific belief or philosophy. The fact that Jack’s father is named Christian Shepherd (which, in one of the episode’s best moments, gets an eye roll from Kate) is really kind of irrelevant because aside from the name parallels and the fact that he leads them to their final destination, he’s not really a Jesus figure in any meaningful way. He’s not some savior of all mankind or even a particularly remarkable person. His function in the narrative is very personal and exclusive to Jack and Jack alone.

“One of the best things about Lost is the discussion it fosters, and the nature of the flashsideways reality is certain to be discussed for years.”

One thing I was wondering about the flashsideways is whether it was really some kind of actual “purgatory” in the theological or spiritual sense, or whether it really was an alternate timeline created when the bomb went off, that the characters just used as their own personal purgatory via Island magic. It would have been nice to have a bit more clarity on this, but in the end it didn’t need to be answered. One of the best things about Lost is the discussion it fosters, and the nature of the flashsideways reality is certain to be discussed for years. My take on it is that when Christian tells Jack that this world is something they created for themselves, he is literally referring to the fact that the other world was created in the Incident, and through the power of the Island it became a sort of way station for them when they died. Which gives a nice little bit of added resonance when you think that the Incident is what actually caused them to crash on the Island in the first place, and that Desmond, who somehow became cognizant of the two different worlds, spent three years of his life pushing that button to keep the effects of the Incident at bay. It’s a nice little bit of circularity, even if it’s one that I made up and that the creators didn’t intend.

Ultimately, though, whether you choose to view the flashsideways world in a purely spiritual way, or to mix that with the science-fictional concept of the alternate timeline, what matters most is the basic fact of all of these characters coming together in one place. The major theme of the show’s first season was the coming together of all of these characters and the importance of the community that they build— the “Live Together, Die Alone” mantra encapsulates this. But as Christian says, “nobody dies alone.” That’s what’s we should take away from this finale: although these characters have been separated and all died in different times and places (some before Jack, some long after), they find each other in the end. It’s a powerful theme which has been reiterated throughout the series and particularly during the past two years, as we are constantly told that in order for the characters to accomplish something, they must do so together. So while it was important that the finale wrap up the plot of this season, the Jack/Smokey conflict never really felt like the culmination of the story of the castaways that began in the Pilot. The flashsideways brought things full circle and allowed the fans to properly say goodbye to the entire show, not just the thing it had become.

“Perhaps it’s best not to ask about such things.”

Which is not to say that there’s no intersection between season six’s Island plot and the “Live Together, Die Alone” theme that culminates in the church. After all, it was through Jacob’s intervention that they first came to Live Together on the Island. One might wonder if Jacob somehow knew about the flashsideways universe, or the purgatory, or whatever we call it. When Jacob brought everyone to the island he knew most of them would die, something Kate deeply resented last week and Jacob simply apologized for. It was a valid complaint at the time, but the fact that they get to “See You In Another Life” certainly seems to take some of the heat off of Jacob for making that call.

Yeah, there are some issues with the church scene, and while Ben being left on the bench outside is appropriate and even moving, it would have been nice to get a better sense of why other important characters were absent, like Faraday, Charlotte, Miles, Lapidus, Ana Lucia, et cetera. The implication is that those characters somehow matter less than these—and perhaps that’s fair, except in the case of Miles, who certainly mattered to Saweyer in both universes. And what about the children? David Shepherd seems to lose both of his parents, and I’m not sure I want to think too hard about the newborn Aaron, (does he, like everyone else in the church, have full memories of his life in the other universe?). Perhaps it’s best not to ask about such things, just like it’s best not to ask whether the brilliant light is Heaven, Nirvana, complete cessation of consciousness, or, as  @nedroid on Twitter once suggested, “another, more mysterious island.”

In the end, what really matters is that the church scene is a fine conclusion to the arc of Jack Shepherd, a character who wasn’t always the most interesting or likeable figure on the show but who, in seasons five and six, emerged with a really strong arc and earned his place as thoe show’s star. In fact, I might go so far as to say that his arc toward the show’s end retroactively makes him more interesting, by making his likability in seasons two, three and four seem deliberate. So in the end, even when he hands power over to Hurley, Jack is the real hero of Lost and given that, I can’t think of a better way to wrap up his story than this.