Summary: In the flashsideways, Hurley helps Sayid remember by getting him to help Shannon. Kate is reunited with Claire at the concert and helps her give birth, helping both of them remember. Charlie is there too and also remembers. Jin and Sun remember at the hospital when the doctor, Juliet, shows them their baby. Juliet runs into Sawyer at the hospital and they both remember. Locke remembers after his surgery but Jack doesn't. Jack goes to the concert to find David and instead finds Kate. Kate takes Jack to the church where everyone is gathering. Jack goes in and finds his father and finally remembers. He learns that he died and that the flashsideways is a kind of purgatory world. Jack joins everyone else as they decide to move on together. On the island, MIB finds Desmond with Rose and Bernard. He takes Desmond with him, threatening the lives of Rose and Bernard. Jack's group meets up with MIB and Jack goes with MIB to take Desmond to The Light. Desmond goes in and "removes the cork", destroying The Light. The island starts to destroy itself, but MIB has also become human. Jack chases down MIB and they fight. Jack is mortally wounded, but Kate shoots MIB. Jack kicks him off a cliff and he dies. Everyone else tries to escape. Miles and Richard find Frank in the water and they go to the plane to fix it. Sawyer and Kate go over there on MIB's boat and they find Claire, convincing her to go with them. They all get on the plane and leave. Hurley stays behind with Jack who has to go back to fix what Desmond did. Ben stays behind too. Jack accepts that he will die and makes Hurley the new protector. Ben agrees to help him lead. Jack goes into The Light and puts the cork back in. He has Hurley pull Desmond out. The Light is restored. Jack wakes up outside of the cave and walks to where he first landed on the island and dies there.
The Good: I've had my problems with this final season, but this final episode was a brilliant standalone conclusion for the show. "Lost" has always understood the importance of emotion in storytelling, and that did not change with this last episode. There was excitement and twists, but more than anything, this episode closed out the story for all of the characters, giving us an emotional and memorable farewell to one of the strongest casts of characters I've ever seen in a TV show. I love the decision to focus so much of the show's finale on the characters, and that made this episode exceed my expectations. The opening montage was a beautiful piece of work to kick off the episode. From the first second, "Lost" established a sad, reflective atmosphere for this final episode, revelling in the fact that the show was ending and extracting as much power from that idea as possible. The success of this scene immediately invested me into the episode, and it was a sign of the heavy emotional focus that would permeate the rest of the episode. We finally got to find out more about the flash-sideways world, and I will admit that the conclusion to this storyline was hugely satisfying. Surprisingly, most of this finale took place in the flashsideways and I think that this was the correct call. Unlike previous episodes where I felt emotionally distant from the events in the flashsideways, this time I was invested in everything. The key difference here is that in this episode it was blatantly obvious that the characters I was watching were the same characters who I had been invested in all this time. They were no longer these alternate reality versions of the people I knew, they were the exact same people! Once that realization came in, everything happening in the flashsideways carried far more emotion. All of the various moments of the characters' remembering their past lives were beautiful and heart-warming, a perfect send-off for all of these characters that I've enjoyed watching for the last six seasons. The episode built up to its emotional ending perfectly. There were so many fantastic moments in the flashsideways up until the ending sequence, which I'll talk about later, but at its heart, the ending sequence focused on Jack, and to great effect. In typical Jack fashion, he had been stubbornly hiding from the truth about where he was, and he was only able to finally remember after being faced with the memory of his father. Jack's scene with Christian was fantastic. Not only did Christian provide the necessary context for what this flashsideways world is, but he also had a heavily emotional role in finally resolving Jack's longest running inner conflict: his lack of closure with his father. It's impressive that a show with such scope as "Lost" managed to circle its conclusion back to the emotional heart where it started. Then we had a spectacular final few minutes to close out Jack's life beautifully, and celebrate the relationships between the characters (see: Best Moment). This ending was something special and was executed perfectly. What made the flashforwards work so unbelievably well was the little moments that made these characters feel so real, reminiscent of "Lost" at its best. It was great to finally understand what Desmond was trying to do and what exactly it was that changed him after remembering. The season has been hurt by keeping Desmond's motives needlessly vague for so long, but this does explain things in retrospect at least. The flashsideways story will doubtless be better on rewatch, and I'm pleased that we at least got an explanation for one of the most frustrating questions that has plagued my mind for much of this season. Hurley's trip with Sayid was a blast to watch. It was clearly obvious that this was our Hurley through some delightful moments with him. Seeing Hurley's goofy grin upon seeing Charlie again is one of those really human moments that I appreciate so much. Most TV shows forget the humanity of their characters, but "Lost" rarely does. I also really got a laugh out of Hurley trying to spark Sayid's memory by giving him a gun, calling back to their experience together in "Because You Left" and "The Lie". The storyline went to its natural conclusion as Sayid was reunited happily with Shannon, giving us a nice little cameo from Boone as well. It initially felt weird that Sayid was not with Nadia, but considering how Sayid's story went in "Sundown", I would guess that Sayid doesn't believe himself to be worthy of Nadia after all that he's done, especially after her death. Because of that, having him end up with Shannon at the end makes perfect sense. The many scenes of the other characters remembering were all brilliant. We got to see a nice moment at the concert as Claire's birth from season 1 was recreated, allowing her, Kate, and Charlie to all remember. Plus there's the really funny scene where Charlie sees Claire in the crowd and creepily stares her down in shock. At the hospital we get some delights. Jin and Sun remembering while Juliet shows them their baby was really emotional, helped along by the fact that we know that Jin and Sun died too soon a couple episodes ago. Their brief encounter with Sawyer was another pleasing delight, especially with how happy Jin was to see him again. Then we got the magnificent scene between Sawyer and Juliet, who were as amazing together as when we last saw them. I was thoroughly pleased to learn that Juliet's last words "we should get coffee some time" and "it worked" all had to do with what she would tell Sawyer in the flash-sideways. Lastly, I come to Jack's excellent scenes with Locke and Kate. Terry O'Quinn is as loveable as ever, and Locke remembering was thoroughly heartwarming. I especially loved the brief smile that washed over his face when he recognized Jack's signature stubbornness. Kate and Jack's scene was surprisingly sweet. Kate took it easy with him, and it was evident how happy she was just to be seeing Jack again, echoing in her statement of "I missed you so much" that she had lived out the rest of her life before reuniting with Jack here. Some other great moments in this storyline came towards the end of the episode with Ben. I appreciate that Ben decided to stay behind a little longer. It wouldn't fit for him to be in the church with everyone else, plus he would naturally want to be with his daughter a little while longer. I enjoyed his apology to Locke, and their scene together was fittingly sweet as Locke forgives him, and they share a moment as Locke stands up for the first time in this world. Lastly, we have a lovely little interaction between Hurley and Ben, hinting at the friendship they developed during Hurley's time as protector. The island story was far more straightforward than the flashsideways one, but it was still filled with excellent scenes with strong storytelling. It was good to see Rose and Bernard one final time, showing that they did jump back to the present along with the others, but they continued to live happily together. I also really liked the small moment where Richard discovers a gray hair, and realizes that he wants to live. Desmond telling Jack about the flashsideways world and how that's where everything matters was really strong too, highlighting why Desmond has changed so significantly. He literally got a glimpse of the afterlife. It also gave Jack a nice moment to show how he has changed by telling Desmond that he knows that he can't change the past and has to accept what has happened. Jack finally felt like a genuine hero by the end of the episode, which was the right way to end his story. It was tense to see him working with MIB to set up Desmond destroying The Light. We got a nice callback to the hatch in season 1 which allowed Jack to talk down to MIB and defend Locke's ideals. Once The Light went out, we got what was a fairly simple final battle between Jack and MIB. It was a bit cheesy at times, but it was delightfully cheesy and led into a pretty solid action sequence, ending with MIB's death. I appreciated Kate shooting him down early in the episode, and there was pay-off to them when she delivered the mortal wound to him. MIB's death mirrored Jacob with Jack kicking him off the cliff, just like how MIB kicked Jacob into the fire, a nice parallel. But it was after MIB died that Jack's heroism stepped up. He decides to sacrifice his life to save the others as well as the island, deciding to stay back while Sawyer and Kate leave. His farewell with Kate was another powerful moment in an episode that was filled with them. It was clearly outlined here that Jack was sacrificing his relationship with Kate to fulfill his destiny and save the world. Another lovely scene is Jack helping Hurley realize that he must be the next protector. Jorge Garcia did a terrific job here of highlighting Hurley's fear, and his tears upon realizing that Jack has to die were genuinely powerful. I enjoyed the funny irony of Hurley becoming protector by drinking water out of an Oceanic water bottle, and his constant denial of his new position was completely sensible. I found Hurley asking Ben to help him out to be a touching scene, and Ben's humility at being asked this question is a perfect indication of how nicely he has developed into a likeable character, leaving his days of lying and manipulating behind him. The Bad: While I praise the decision to focus the end of the series on the characters instead of on mythology and the island, there are still consequences of this approach. The most significant consequence is that Lindelof and Cuse have broken their promise to the fans that all of their questions would be answered. Constantly asserting that things would be answered has distracted the audience from the story and made them focus too much on the plot during these final episodes. As such, an incredibly moving episode like this may not be appreciated from the legion of fans who were disappointed with how the rest of season 6 went, and that is understandable. Had there not been so much hype on solving the mysteries created by Lindelof and Cuse, I believe that this episode would be much more beloved than it currently is. Instead, this wonderful episode is a polarizing experience, not through any fault of its own, but because of a lot of unsatisfactory storytelling throughout season six. The flashsideways were given an excellent resolution, and looking back, I appreciate them more as a complete story. However, I have to question if this story was a necessary one. Did we really need the flahsideways to exist in every single episode when they are essentially just an extended epilogue for the characters? Surely it would have been better to include the flashsideways in "LAX", "Happily Ever After", "The End", and maybe a few other choice episodes instead of throughout the entire season. A lot of the time spent with the characters in their centric episodes feels like wasted time now, even if there were some good storytelling ideas for them. There is no way that Frank survived the submarine sinking, that is entirely unbelievable. Furthermore, I don't understand why he is suddenly fine with flying the plane off of the island. Wasn't he against this possibility a few episodes ago because the condition of the plane was uncertain? Why change his mind now? This was one plot development that was way too convenient and undercooked. Claire's role in this season was just awful. Her storyline went nowhere and her scenes in this finale were tedious, consisting of characters just trying to convince her to join them until she gives in. I wish Claire had been handled better this season. Claire was "crazy" this season, and apparently that meant that the writers could write her illogically and nonsensically. That's not how "crazy" works, there should still be some consistency to her even if she is crazy. The Unknown: How did the flashsideways world get created? How did Jack survive The Light? Is it because he was the protector? How did MIB become human again after The Light went out? Best Moment: The final few minutes of the episode were mesmerizingly beautiful. One of the most emotionally powerful sequences of television I've ever seen. Contrasting Jack's death on the island after having saved his friends with everybody finding their inner peace and moving on in the flashsideways was fantastic stuff. It even nicely came back around to the show's central theme of letting go. But more than strong storytelling, this sequence was put together in a way that felt highly emotional and nostalgic. The score, acting, pacing, and editing added so much to this sequence and I really felt something seeing everybody hugging it out after finding each other again. Furthermore, the decision to have Jack go back to where he woke up was wonderful, and it added some extra emotion in this final scene by allowing us to reflect on how far the characters and the show has come since that first episode. And of course, ending the show with a shot of Jack's eyes closing was the poetic cherry on top for what was a fantastically emotional final scene. Character of the Episode: Jack. Conclusion: As a standalone episode, this was fantastic. There was so much emotion here, and "Lost" did something really special here by choosing to focus on the characters, their relationships, and how much we care about what they have been through. This felt like a celebration of the show, and I will absolutely miss it now that it is over. Season 6 as a whole was a bit disappointing. There were some stand-out episodes like "The End", "Across the Sea", and "Ab Aeterno", but these were mostly only good as standalone experiences. The story as a whole didn't come together very well this season. The pacing was strange, too much time was spent in the flashsideways, we didn't get enough answers for important aspects of the show like the others, and some of the characters like Sayid, Claire, and Widmore were given a weak storyline throughout the season. That being said, there were lots of enjoyable episodes and season 6 was an easy-to-watch season with plenty to love; it was just a step down from the excellence that "Lost" displayed in seasons 4 and 5. If I had to rank all of the seasons I would go with 1 > 4 > 5 > 2 > 3 > 6, but I firmly believe that every season is great and has different strengths and weaknesses. As a whole, "Lost" stands the test of time as one of the all-time great TV shows. If anything, it is better to watch the show now because people binging the show will not be bothered by the lack of answers problem that ruined the show for so many people back in 2010. But overall, "Lost" is a magical experience. There are better shows out there, but I don't think there is any TV experience I have had that tops the first time I watched "Lost". I enjoyed the show thoroughly from season to season, flaws and all. The show was never boring, and there were always characters to invest in, mysteries to unravel, and stand-alone episodes to enjoy. One of the best things that "Lost" did was reinvent itself with each passing season. The show was never afraid of changing and growing, allowing it to stay fresh for its entire 120 episode run. I hold a very high opinion of this show to this day, and I think that it is essential television to watch. Score: 81
4 Comments
Joe Y
10/28/2021 02:30:31 pm
The flash-sideways stuff and its resolution is what ruined this season for me, and is why I don't consider it a satisfactory conclusion to the three great and two pretty good seasons that preceded it. The idea that it's all this purgatory for *everyone on the planet* to work through their issues...just doesn't sit well with me. It's not a strong enough idea to hinge the entire season on. "The End" features a lot of good material in it, though, and I can't argue too hard with you giving it the score you did. It is in some ways one of the better Season 6 episodes.
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Aaronic
10/30/2021 10:45:16 am
I somewhat agree with your statement on the flashsideways. I was able to suspend my disbelief more on the feasibility of this world, and I believe that this purgatory world was only created for the main characters who formed close bonds to one another, rather than for everyone in the world. But there are plenty of questions about the nature of this world that don't quite add up (Ex. Eloise seemed to be aware and she wasn't one of the major characters, so how was she part of this world?), so I agree that there is a degree of unsatisfaction here.
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Joe Y
12/1/2021 02:27:54 pm
Yeah, if they'd done that, and focused on making the island stories the best they could be, I think for many people, myself included, that would have been a satisfactory ending. The one this great show deserved. I know I didn't want a Wikipedia article for a finale that answered every single lingering question the show ever brought up.
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Aaronic
12/13/2021 09:35:48 am
I watched Lindelof's interviews after finishing all six seasons, so my expectations watching the show were not skewed by his words. It was a major error to promise answers and then not deliver them to the fans. I'm certain that had he not promised answers, the ending of the show would not have been as poorly received. I've been easier on the show's ending than most people and I firmly believe that it is because I watched the show without having the expectations given by Lindelof himself to get every little thing answered satisfyingly.
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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