Televison Special Edition: LOST Finale

Last night's LOST finale came with huge expectations... both from the fans, and the network.  I think we can all agree that the extra half-hour was tacked on simply to extend the advertising time.  Some of the ads were worth it though... Target showed true creativity in their LOST-themed ads, using elements of the show to provide humor.  I especially liked the wild boar ad for barbeque sauce, but the smoke monster selling smoke detectors was pretty funny too.  I would not be surprised if they were all floating around on YouTube somewhere.

My problem with the finale is that, although it was a moving, fitting tribute to all the characters we've come to love (and hate) over the last six years, it answered *nothing* about the island.  It answered plenty about the flash-sideways reality of this past season, but almost nothing about the five years before it.  If you ask me, it was a huge slap in the face of some of the fans.  It's Faith vs. Science all over again... and what we got hit with last night was a big dose of faith, and very little science.  Five years of electro-magnetic pockets, time-traveling rabbits and people, name-changing scientists, whispering in the jungle, pneumatic tubes dumping observational journals into the middle of nowhere, and we get no more than the equivalent of the deep philosophical meaning thought up by the two plumbers who wrote the Matrix.  What is the matrix the island?  Well apparently it's still the question that drives us... whatever that may be.  I'm thinking it might be "What the heck have we been doing for six years?"

Worst of all, there are long-time followers of the show that are confused by the ending.  Have they been dead all along?  Did Hurley create the sideways reality now?  I guess the dog distracted them during a key conversation.

The main questions I wanted answered, such as where the island came from, why do ghosts sometimes get stuck there, why does it heal people, who originally built the temple and the statue, and what the heck was that huge bird that called Hurley's name all about... why, those things are apparently unimportant.  No, clearly what's important is that our castaways created such a deep, lasting bond that they can't go anywhere unless they go together.  Just like teenaged girls at the mall.

The show IS a journey, and one that I think is worth taking... just so long as you can easily "Let Go" of all your questions at the very end.