Yes, the old cowboy has decided to live blog the series finale of “Lost.” So if you’re on the West Coast and just can’t wait for some guy to wreck it for you, then read along below the cut line tonight, starting at 9 PM EST.
PAD
Okay, kids. After a pretty good 2 hour wrap-up, we’re off and running.
9:02: Nice series of contrasting images. The mundane and the surreal. Life and death in both worlds.
9:05: On the one hand, it makes sense that Jack would declare himself to be the one who is going to stay and be the island’s protector. On the other hand, it seemed SO obvious that it would be him that one almost wishes there was a twist. Still, we have 2 and a half hours; maybe there will be.
9:07: Hurley does like his Star Wars references.
9:08: “Yoda” and “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” TWO Star Wars references.
9:08: If there’s going to be commercials every eight minutes, this is gonna be a loooooong night. If I weren’t liveblogging, I’d be inclined to record it, go watch the Mets/Yankees game, and then come back at 10 PM and speed through the commercials.
9:09: 4-0 Mets, bottom of the third. Excellent.
9:10: Charlie! Yea!
9:13: “Nothing is irreversible.” Kate unknowingly throws Jack’s own words to Locke right back at him. Nice.
9:13: I’m surprised that Sawyer has made no Lassie “Timmy in the well” comments.
9:14: And it wouldn’t be an episode of “Lost” if someone weren’t punching out Ben Linus.
9:15: Well, look who came out of retirement. I was just wondering about them.
9:17: Aw, come ON! Not Rose and Bernard!
9:17: Wheewwww…and commercials are now seven minutes apart. Holy crap.
9:19: Seven pitch top of the 4th for Santana, game remains Mets 4, Yankees 0.
9:22: Every time he calls him “Linus” I picture Ben dragging around a blue blanket.
9:23: I sure hope they don’t die again.
9:24: Oh good, Juliet managed to break loose from “V” to make a visit. Get it? Make a…never mind.
9:26: And now they can both speak flawless English. Well, that certainly made things easier.
9:28: End of four, still 4-0 Mets.
9:30: I saw a pie chart someone did that was a breakdown of “Lost,” and 75% of the pie chart was “Walking or Running through jungle.” That’s made up 75% of just this minute alone.
9:31: “There’s always the chance I could kill you.” No, that’s Ben’s job. Although on the other hand, Jack’s job may be to kill Master Locke back on the island.
9:32: Holy crap, Richard’s aging. Let’s hope the years don’t start to catch up with him at exponential speed.
9:33: Hey! Unless it’s Smokey pulling another fake out, Frank made it!
9:34: Nope, there’s Locke. That’s really Frank.
9:35: Hey! *I* said he was the obvious choice.
9:36: Six minutes of program and then commercial. Jesus Christ. This is why I’ve mostly stopped watching network TV unless I can blow through commercials with my DVR.
9:37: Jason Bay homers in the bottom of the 5th. His second in two at bats. 5-0 Mets.
9:38: So it’s interesting that in the same (brief) section of program, in the sideways verse, Jack says he’s not going to kill Locke, and the island version says exactly the opposite.
9:39: Jack’s ex is JULIET?! How did I not see that coming?
9:41: Concern about the oncoming storm. Maybe that heralds the arrival of the Doctor in his TARDIS? Maybe that’s what the whole island is, with its timetravelling: One big TARDIS. The light is the heart of the TARDIS. Let’s see if the Cloister Bell sounds.
9:44: Slightly over five minutes of programming before commercial. At this rate they’re going to start a commercial before the show comes back.
9:44: Best Target commercial ever.
9:53: That was bizarre. My site crashed for ten minutes.
9:56: Top of the sixth, two outs, 6-0 Mets.
9:56: Ariel speculates that Desmond will come floating up on a flying carpet. It did have that whole “Aladdin” feel to it just then. Plus they did a nice job of framing it in a way that it harkened back to the hatch.
9:57: “The Gates.” I can see the pitch: It’s “Desperate Housevamps.”
9:58: How many old loves can we connect in one episode?
10:00: You have to give them credit for the number of people–CHANG? Right, of course. I was going to say, you have to credit them for the way they’ve managed to start pulling all the threads together to bring all these people together in one place. Maybe a plane will then fall on them and wipe everyone out. That would be funny.
10:01: Guess whose water is probably about to break.
10:02: My precious…
10:03: He drained it? That can’t be good.
10:04: Yeah, nice job of protecting the light there, Jack.
10:05: So the Man in Black is mortal now? Well, this just got really interesting. Of course, it’ll all be moot if the island goes volcanic.
10:06: Don’t let this all turn out to be a collective dream, don’t let this all turn out to be a collective dream, don’t let this all turn out to be a collective dream…
10:10: At first I thought it was Betty White, but no, it’s Daniel’s mom again.
10:11: So maybe when anyone in the world ever has a sense of deja vu, they’re having a flashback to a previous connection on an island somewhere. That’s why you sometimes run into people for the first time and take an instant like/dislike to them.
10:12: Claire just gave birth to a different baby. There’s a twist.
10:15: If a tree falls on Ben Linus, does it make a sound?
10:17: You might want to take the bombs off the plane, guys…
10:17: Jack’s got the high ground, so that’s something.
10:18: CHRIST! It’s pouring, Jack leaps toward Locke, and we go immediately into Gene Wilder singing from Willy Wonka? And networks wonder why their numbers are diminishing.
10:19: Top of the 7th, it’s now 6-1.
10:22: Well, it just doesn’t get more epic than this.
10:24: That was certainly edge of your seat stuff.
10:25: For a moment I was worried Master Locke had leaped into Sideways Locke.
10:27: In saying “You don’t have a son,” the implication is that the island is the “real” world and all of the sideways is pure fantasy.
10:28: Dammit. Commercial in the Mets game.
10:30: Top of the 8th, 6-1 Mets.
10:31: That storm sure cleared up pretty fast.
10:32: Quickly, physician. Heal thyself.
10:32: Of course it’s not over. It’s got an hour to go.
10:33: Let’s see what else an fall on Linus.
10:35: Hugo is going with Jack. That’s a relief, because if all he had to watch his back was Ben, then he was pretty much screwed.
10:37: That is the worst timing for saying “I love you” since Leia watched Han about to be dipped in carbonite.
10:42: “I don’t believe in a lot of things, but I do believe in duct tape.” That’s an instant button/t-shirt.
10:42: Am I the only one having a Butch and Sundance flashback?
10:43: How’d he know to call him “Doc” if they’d never met?
10:44: Yea! Finally! Sawyer and Juliet, together again.
10:45: I wonder if that trick with the vending machine works in real life.
10:45: If I was doing a shot every time two lovers were reunited in this episode, I’d be totally hammered by now.
10:46: Pedro Feliciano was brought in to get Santana out of a bases loaded jam. Bottom of the 8th, still 6-1.
10:51: So how long before Jack and Kate reconnect?
10:53: Interesting that Jack, who had the clearest vision until now, is the last person in the sideways verse to get into the loop.
10:53: Look out for the styrofoam rocks!
10:54: Maybe Jack will wind up as a white cloud.
10:54: “It has to be you, Hugo.” And Ben’s thinking, “Yo. I’m standing right here. You know I can hear you, right?”
10:56: “Now you’re like me. Except heavier, and with weird facial hair, and, oh yeah, you don’t have a stab wound you’re dying from.”
10:57: So at what point does Ben betray Hugo? I mean, he’s not just gonna stand by and let someone else have the island.
10:59: Never has “I’ll see you in another life” been more accurate.
10:59: But…isn’t the plane still wired to blow?
11:00: Claire has the longest bout of post partum depression in history.
11:02: Don’t you hate when you have to cut making your plane connection so thin?
11:03: A bunch of people whose plane keeps crashing. What could possibly go wrong?
11:04: Jack, you may want to climb out of that…too late.
11:05: “It’s Desmond. We didn’t want Desmond.” And they throw him back.
11:06: Ariel says it’s like pulling up the dinosaur in a toy crane machine when you wanted the teddy bear.
11:07: Top of the 9th, 6-2, Yankees have one out but men on first and second.
11:11: So they remember that Ben killed him?
11:11: Yup, guess so.
11:13: “Here, Desmond. Instead of having your head on the hard ground, let me prop your head with this hard rock.”
11:14: Ben’s got an angle. He’s always got an angle.
11:16: But then who’s Number 6?
11:17: I think every single character in this show has father issues.
11:18: Was that the same statue we saw on the island?
11:19: Let’s hope Jack isn’t in the coffin.
11:19: So the girls, Locke, none of that trip it for him; it’s a stiff. Somehow that’s appropriate.
11:20: Okay, an empty box. Even better. Aaaand now we’ve gone into creep zone.
11:21: Now I’m really lost. Which is even more appropriate.
11:23: Soooo the sidewaysverse is heaven?
11:25: So for years people were speculating that everyone on the island was dead–that the island was sort of a holding cell for heaven–and the show’s producers went with that idea, except they turned it into the sideways verse.
11:26: Wait, the BABY is dead? That’s just not right.
11:29: But wait…there’s more…
11:29: Okay, but…what was the deal with the polar bear?
11:30: I’m gonna be processing that one for a while. We’ll adjourn and take this up in the morning.
I will say this as an afterthought: First, it was a nice touch to bring it full circle with the first shot being Jack’s eye opening and the last one being his eye closing. And second, I thought it was significant that the indestructible dog lay down with him. After all, remember what “dog” spelled backwards is…
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10:03 — Got a little “Spock in the Reactor room” vibe there folowed by a “Taking the Grail out of the chamber” vibe.
I had heard that this was originally to be a 2 hour progam and was expanded to 2 1/2 – obviously ABC sold a hour’s worth of commercial time.
Hugo: “Desmond! NO!!!”
Desmond: “Nice to see you too Hugo”
Locke is like professor X. He is the chair, then can walk, back on the chair, walking again..
Final scene. Jack closing his eyes rounded by bamboo trees?
Well, I’ve never seen ‘Lost’– ever– so I have no idea what you’re talking about here. I just find it sad that you would miss the Empire Strikes Back episode of Family Guy. Where are your priorities?
Considering we bought that episode of “Family Guy” on DVD six months ago, I’d say our priorities are more in place than yours…
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PAD
That’s not so much priorities as good preparation.
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It worked out for me. I watched the Family Guy episode, then I was able to fast forward over the Lost commercials. I try to pay attention to them as they’re zipping by so I don’t feel so guilty, but you’re right PAD, there are just too many to put up with.
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On the other hand, FOX tried having less commercials with Fringe and Dollhouse and they couldn’t find advertisers willing to pay high enough rates to make up the difference. It also didn’t give those shows a ratings boost from grateful viewers. So the networks are pretty much stuck with things the way they are.
..(and wasn’t as funny as the “Star Wars” episode.)
Neither of the Star Wars episodes were very funny. The comedy was, for the most part, lazy and juvenile (even by Family Guy standards). I kind of felt like the writers and animators made these episodes for themselves first, Star Wars fans second, and everyone else, not at all (fortunately, I am a Star Wars fan, so I was at least entertained by them, unlike my husband, who was completely bored).
Thanks for doing this PAD.
I’m also going to have to think about it. Nice symetry with the open scene though.
Christian said: Everyone dies, some before you and some after you.
This is my understanding.
The sidewayverse or heaven or what ever you want to call it is where they all met after they died.
Some might have lived years after the events on the island. Hugo and Ben might have been on the island for 10000 years or more. But eventualy everybody dies.
Once they did they all met up again in the sidewayverse.
My only question is why Micheal and Walt wheren’t in the church.
PAD,
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Thanks for the running commentary. Your quips about the commercials were too true.
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Side note: I thought all the explosives on the plane were taken out by Smoke/Locke and used for the bomb in the sub.
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Not sure all of it made sense, but as endings go, it was better than I thought they would pull off. While I don’t think they fully knew what they were doing at the start, the last three years seem to more or less fit the big pieces.
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They did do what they promised – they ended with a focus on characters. While it somewhat felt like a cheat to have their cake and eat it too (they are dead yet they live happily ever after), the way it was done was good enough I didn’t mind.
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RE: Ben – While I agree I thought he had an angle, he did save Hugo at one point. So it is possible he actually changed (as the end at the church more or less implies).
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Nice bookend. Laying in the bamboo, eye closing.
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Iowa Jim
Forgot to add: When Hugo said (was it last week?) that he was glad it wasn’t him, I knew it would be. As everyone said, Jack was too obvious.
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Iowa Jim
I really enjoyed the mini-movie/uber episode. I thought it was great the way they handled all of the characters and it emotionally felt right, but there is a small part of me that was irked that they sidestepped so many opportunities during the season to quickly answer some questions (without adding more). It definitely ended better than many other shows and I think it will be fun to marathon watch the series.
As best I can tell – and I’m probably way way off – the funeral scene occurs for each castaway at the point of his/her death. Jack’s father said that some of them died before Jack did (Boone for example) and some long after. And that this was the place they all built together. We were seeing it from Jack’s POV as he was dying from his wounds. Perhaps there’s a “Kate” version for her as she (hypothetically) dies from cancer in a hospital bed at age 84 or a Hurley version as he dies of a heart attack in like a week from now. I dunno. I need to lie down.
Much as I hate to use this word unqualified, I thought this finale was [brace yourselves] interesting.
So some qualifiers.
I think some of the lead-up episodes weakened this a bit. We already knew why they were chosen, the source of the conflict between Jacob and, er, smokey. (Incidentally, in an issue of KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE Dave decided not to give his rpg character a name — so all the other players kept calling him “Monkeyboy.” Glad they didn’t do that for Smokey.) Heck, we even knew who was picked to replace Jacob before the finale!
That said, this was a pretty good closing to the series. As folks (the actors, creators, caterers) have often said, the show is about the connections between the characters, and we had plenty of that: Kate and Sawyer leaving together, Hurley accepting Ben, the big flashsideways reunion of lovers, friends, and corpses.
What I still wonder about is how the early scientific elements (the Dharma Initiative, pushing the button, even the Others) ties in with the later metaphysical Jacob-Smokey explanation for it all. Maybe it was like the Vorlon-Shadows conflict, where instead of going after each other directly they manipulated others into doing their work to promote their own worldview. Or maybe, as the creators said, they didn’t have a clear plan from the start and just winged it until things eventually came into focus.
I also liked the ambiguous ending. Was the sidewaysverse really limbo? (If so, were all the other people there just props or hallucinations? For that matter, if someone is killed in limbo, where do they go?) Was it all a hallucination of the dying Jack? What was with the plane flying overhead? (It wasn’t the one carrying Kate, Sawyer, and the others off: That one had a bent wing, unlike the one Jack saw.) If the Island really was just a prison for Smokey, what is its purpose now that he’s dead? (I half-expected Ben would become the new Smokey, to keep the balance between good and evil.)
BTW, every time they talked about the all-important light that was at the heart of the Island I kept hearing the Smiths song “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out.”
Finally, on tonight’s SIMPSONS they had Bart writing this on the chalkboard: “LOST Finale: It was all the dog’s dream. Keep watching us.” Heh.
From what I got, the after life, regardless of one living longer than another or dieing before another, ends up with us all together at the same time (how else can Heaven or whatever you call it be joyful without all your family and friends being there). Jacks father essentially states that and the talk between Hugo and Ben at the church supports it. Hugo said to Ben he was a great number two and Ben replied he was a great number one. This implied that events continued for the two of them on the island, Ben turned a corner and when they died they were good friends.
I think much of the sideways universe was actually about the characters accepting death. Still confused about Jack’s son but perhaps that was a hurdle Jack put up himself.
This was an awesome ending! Well written all the way through.
An excellent ending for an excellent show.
Since tonight’s show ended I’ve heard and read a lot of comments that many say they don’t understand how the show ended. I thought that the ending made total sense. The sideways universe was actually a sort of limbo, a station that dead souls waited to move on. And like Michael D. writes, this was from Jack perspective. The people in the church were the people most important in Jack’s life (I guess Jack’s ex-wife and mother didn’t make that group though)
Yes, everyone in the church was dead because, ya know, everyone dies, eventually.
I was kinda wondering where the Tailies were. Did we even see Libby with Hurley.
And which one on the island turned out to be the One-Armed Man?
Well, we saw Libby and Bernard in the group. Anna Lucia got a quick cameo, even though she didn’t make it to the church. I guess when Desmond said she wasn’t ready yet, he meant that she wasn’t ready to move on, like Ben didn’t want to move on.
I always imagined the sideways world was a gift of jack, hurley or jacob and that it was a reward for those who took his test. Because jack was the one that kept everyone alive and it was his journey from being a scientific rational person to a spiritual that we watched that is why everyone wanted to be there to watch him pass into the light. I don’t think its a totally perfect ending, but i think it works for what they were trying to do. Definately better than the sienfeld ending.
I watched the first episode again yesterday. Not only was the first thing that happened Jack opening his eyes, but the second thing was Jack looking over and seeing Vincent the dog. They started this journey together and they ended it together.
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Overall, it was interesting. Somewhat satisfying. I felt that the sideways timeline turning out to be a slice of heaven was a little weird. Characters basically said that it was created by the bomb *twice*. Oh well, red herrings are a valid device.
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As for the baby dying, Christian said that some of the people died long after Jack, so this could be thousands of years later, after Hurley found his replacement.
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Still, I’m a little weirded out that Heaven is LA. I used to live in LA, it’s not too bad, but still…
Oh, and I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who thought Jack would turn into white smoke.
Thank you!! Now two people validated my same theory, which I think nicely balances the lesser belief of countless others who thought I was nuts…
Was I the only one who thought that the light at the end of the Sideways thing looked suspiciously like the light of the heart of the Island? I took from it that the light that must never go out was the good that comes from people helping people, etc.
” 11:05: “It’s Desmond. We didn’t want Desmond.” And they throw him back. ”
HA! Love it! 🙂
Great finale. I think it was perfect. It was sad, yet also happy. And I think the sideways universe turning out to be “heaven” makes more sense then the bomb creating another reality. I think if the bomb worked then they would have been off the island, no other reality need apply. Hmm. Def. need to get the last season on blu-ray one of the days and rewatch the whole season with the “heaven” angle in mind.
Hmm. Wonder what the other endings are? I’m watching the Jimmy K special tomorrow to find out (recorded it). Can’t wait!
Man, I am going to miss Lost a lot. *sigh*
The bomb did work – it send them all back to the present. They were expecting it to do more though, which is how it became a red herring.
I didn’t understand all the references, but Garfunkel and Oates did a nice song for the finale. If you search ‘Rikilind’ on Youtube, you can find it, and all their videos.
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I hope this doesn’t make me spam. I don’t like spam any more than anybody else.
I recommend today’s New Adventures of Queen Victoria.
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Never seen “Lost”, myself – didn’t have cable when it first came on, and when we *did*, i figured it would be too much work to get up to speed…
I didn’t watch it because what little I heard made it sound like a serious version of Gilligan’s Island. I had no idea it was all mysterious and fantastical until it had been on for quite some time, and then, like you, I didn’t want to take the trouble to play catch up.
Odd bits at the church:
1) No Walt and Michael? Nor any of the Miles/Daniel/Charlotte set.
2) I think everyone there was with their romantic partner…except Locke. And Helen not being on the island isn’t an excuse; Penny was there and she was never on the island.
I think we have to make some allowances for a) Some actors maybe not being available; and b) Too many ‘non-core’ characters would have spoiled the scene. Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but Locke and Helen were really a ‘thing’ off the island, were they? When she died, presumably she didn’t need or want to wait around for Locke before moving on.
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As for Walt, why did he need to be there? Did he have any unresolved issues? When Locke saw him off the island, Walt was more or less OK. Miles may also have already moved on, or perhaps he, Daniel, and Charlotte were still “not ready.” As for Michael, well, he’s stuck on the island as one of the ghostly whisperers, isn’t he? No peace for Michael, sadly…
Walt we wouldn’t have recognized because the young actor has changed so dramatically. And Michael is stuck being a whispering voice on the island. He is effectively in limbo, never moving forward.
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PAD
Miles/Daniel/Charlotte(and Frank) didn’t have as big an effect on Jack’s life. Remember, Jack spent what, 60, 90 days on the island with most of these people. The Freighter Four, just a short amount of time.
I guess they could have CGI’d a young Walt, but frankly, I’m guessing that Walt didn’t have much of an impact in Jack’s life, like all the other plane red shirts that survived the crash.
My only question with the assembly of the people who meant the most/affected him most at Jack’s “letting go” party, was his mother (Veronica Hamel) there? If not, that’s someone who should be, IMO.
Not sure about Walt, but Michael, Miles, Daniel and Charlotte are maybe all in the “not ready to move on yet” category? Of them all, I would have expected to see at least Miles there. As for Locke and Helen, I think his relationship with her in the sideways-verse is as “made up” as Jack’s son David. Locke’s relationship with Helen was never as good/strong as we see here, and so it feels like a bit of wish fulfillment. Locke’s greatest love was probably the island if anything!
Two things, which may have been said already but I just finished reading your piece.
1) Desmonds head was placed on a folded shirt, I think. Not a rock.
2) The plane was no longer wired to blow. Locke took the C4, put it in a satchel, and gave it to Jack. It was used to blow up the submarine.
I always thought the polar bear came from the zoo run by the Dharma Initiative. You know, the cages that Sawyer and Kate were kept in circa Season 2. Granted, if Dharma was primarily active in the 70’s, can polar bears live to be thirty-something on a subtropical island? [Yes, I do realise the absurdity in that question]
So nice of ABC to make it possible to see most of the Mets-Yankees game during the two hours of commercials. I suspect this will be much better viewing on DVD because the ads really hurt the flow of a complex and sometimes difficult show.
Anyone else think it was weird that after being told that the Island is a “cork” for evil we see a literal cork in the cave?
Ell-Oh-Ell!
I’ve never watched a single episode of Lost, and this is the exact reason why: because hearing people talk about the show is the most deliciously, hilariously random non-sequitur stream I’ve ever heard! I’m still shaking in my seat, laughing at your live-blog, as my brain tries and fails to make any connection between ANY of the plot points you mentioned. Volcanoes? Plane crashes? Babies? Sideways Universes? Polar bears? Master Locke? (I think I have one of those on my storage unit) I can’t even begin to follow any of this, and it’s funny as hëll!
Whereas I find people voicing opinions in matters about which they’re utterly ignorant to be hilarious, because they actually think they have something worth saying.
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PAD
Thanks, Peter. I’ve said this on a couple of other websites. Ticks me off no end.
My TV went boom a couple of days ago so I went on internet silence at 9PM (EDT)so as not to be tempted to hit the blogs. ABC really got the show up on the website early and during the final hour they just let the show flow. None of those little 45-second mini commercials to sit through.
I am very satisfied with the way it ended. Personally, I had been hoping that Ben would have a redemption (I was hoping that Lindelof and Cuse would go the Stephen King route) and was so happy when Ben found peace.
Linda, I agree about Ben. I think one of the most powerful things in the Alt-Timeline was Ben getting forgiveness from Locke. However long Ben was alive on the Island with Hurley, which could have been an extremely long time, he kept that guilt with him. I like that he spent a long time contemplating what he did and I like that he came to some peace with Locke over it.
Michael Emerson has been brilliant in the shadings he brought to Ben. (The gold standard when it comes to playing an ambiguous character. There are those who can learn from him – I’m looking at you, James Callis.) Despite all the horrifying things Ben did Emerson never played him as simply a bad guy. LOST became “LOST” for me when Emerson joined the show; I’ve never seen an actor hijack a program (and I mean that in the best way possible) the way he did.
And props to Kate for saying, “Christian Shepherd, really?” That name was so obvious but not as much as had been made of that as some of the other memes in the show.
Hey, I wasn’t criticizing. I’m sure it’s an excellent show. I might even enjoy it, if I had the time to actually watch from beginning to end. I just thought your post was amusing for the sheer outsider-perceived randomness of it. No affront was intended. But hey, take it how you want to.
This is not a criticism, Peter, just surprise on my part: I can’t believe you didn’t see Juliet-as-Jack’s-ex coming. Most people I know had that one pegged ever since the “Lighthouse” episode earlier this season.
I think that is what is called sarcasm.
I’ve read several spoiler-laden reviews of the episode, including this live-blogging, and I’m still, appropriately, lost on wtf actually happened.
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Granted, I didn’t watch the show. My wife did for the first couple of seasons, which is why I have vague ideas of what is going on (or what is supposed to be going on). But then she then she gave up on the show. I’m glad she did because from what I have been able to grasp I think this finale would’ve pìššëd her off. And I heard enough after the Battlestar Galactica finale. 🙂
To me the series was about letting go and moving on and how love can help you do that. The focal point was Jack. It started with him and ended with him. The flashforwards were introduce with him and so were the flashbeyond (I no longer want to call them flashsideways).
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Jack always had time letting, go even in death. That is why he was the last one to realize they were dead. Love help them move on. For Kate it was maternal love for Aron, for Jack was fraternal love with his father, for Locke was the love and kindness of a stranger willing to help him walk and for most of the rest was the love within a man and a woman.
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Two errors in the second paragraph.
1. Jack always had a hard time letting go, even in death.
2. …for Jack it was paternal love…
Miscellaneous thoughts:
So there was no real explanation of the number sequence?
I like the earlier post of the analogy to the Shadows/Vorlons and Jacob and Smokey making everyone do what they cannot do themselves because of their rules.
I think the white light ending was sort of cheesy and over done–certainly like the Harry/Dumbledore reunion in the last HP book.
I wonder if Hurley really needs to be on the island once Smokey is dead or alternatively, Hurley becomes the next Jacob and Ben takes the place of Smokey since Ben won’t come into the white light. Didn’t everyone else on the island either die or fly off except Ben and Hurley–leaving them both there? Hurley as #1 and Ben as #2?
I am a sucker for reunions.
I DVR’d the recap and the last episode, started about 90 minutes late, skipped the commercials, and still thought I was skipping a lot of commercials.
I think any satisfying explanation to unexplained threads is due to the authors not really knowing where they were going from the beginning. They just threw up a lot of crap on the wall to see what stuck and just kept at it. No real end game planning until a couple of years ago.
Thanks for the blogging.
The numbers weren’t assigned so Jacob could keep track of everyone using the lighthouse. No, there’s no explanation beyond that. This is one of the things where the writers said that trying to explain it not only wouldn’t be satisfying, but it would be counter productive. The example they gave was that midiclorians being the explanation behind the Force was not only lame, it was so lame that it made the earlier movies lame retroactively.
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Yeah, Hurley needs to be on the Island. The Island will always need a protector because people will always come to the Island seeking its power. This was true when Jacob’s mother was the protector and it will always be true.
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There are a few things I’d liked explained more, like Walt’s powers or the fertility issues. However, having a bunch of little mysteries that are never solved is fitting. The show is set on a mysterious Island. Do we really want to drain every bit of mystery from it? It’s a place where magical things happen and that’s part of the structure of the show. It wouldn’t be right to lose that at the end. So I don’t want to know about the Hurley Bird, the glass eye, who built the statue, or how the ash works. If there’s a good story behind these things, fine, but I don’t want two hours of Ghost Micheal calmly explaining everything to Hurley.
How long before they release “Lost: the Movie” to explain all the unresolved plot lines like the polar bears, infertility, and what-not?
DVD or Blu-Ray extras is more likely than a movie.
I’ve never understood the antipathy towards midiclorians. Why is it lamer for the Force to be created by microscopic organisms than it is for it to be created by “all living things”?
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Regardless, the writers of Lost are calling the kettle black there.
The midiclorians were lame because they were lame. The Force is not a great, mystical power of life force that connects our souls, it’s bacteria. The thing that lets people lift a space ship out of a swamp is one chromosome different from the thing that gives us a cold. In exchange for mystery and power we get a pseudo-scientific answer that doesn’t actually tell us *anything*, but makes the Force seem very mundane.
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At least when we found out that the Great and Powerful Oz was actually a little old man behind a curtain it was played for laughs.
“The midiclorians were lame because they were lame.”
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The io9 blog had a great post a while back, arguing that the real problem with midichlorians isn’t just that they are an awful idea (which they are,) but moreover that people don’t understand why they’re an awful idea, which “misunderstanding allows storytellers to get away with saying they won’t explain stuff which they really should explain.”
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Great post, worth reading: http://io9.com/5478314/the-real-problem-with-midichlorians
Tommy, I’ll agree with that article that part of the problem with midiclorians (a large part) is that it was a particularly bad explanation for the Force, as well as being unnecessary.
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However, I disagree that it “allows storytellers to get away with saying they won’t explain stuff which they really should explain.” I think there’s value in vague, unexplained stuff. Really, Obi Wan saying that the Force is “an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together…. A Jedi can feel the force flowing through him” doesn’t explain squat about the Force. It’s energy. Great, anything that can do something has a relation to energy. It surrounds us. Like air? Like radiation? Nobody knows. How can Jedis feel it? Obi Wan’s explanation doesn’t actually explain anything more than Smokey saying, “Ben had a thing for numbers.” It’s just that the Force was presented as magic so people accepted it as magic and stopped asking questions.
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Lost slowly worked people up to the idea that what was happening on the Island was magic. The numbers were an important part of that. Did people really expect a logical explanation for how Hurley using the numbers caused a meteor to land on someone and for his uncle to have a heart attack? There’s no logic to that, it’s completely random.
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That’s what makes it magic. Science Fiction is fantastical story telling that may not explain everything, but it at least let’s the reader feel that what’s happening in the world is logical and rational. Fantasy is fantastical story telling that presents powerful forces as mysterious and possibly unknowable. Lost is a combination of both and that’s integral to what people liked about it. Trying to explain something like the numbers could only make the show less interesting because it would rob it of magic.
For me, the whole midichlorian thing can be resolved with that pesky “certain point of view” jazz.
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Basically…Qui-Gon has it backwards. Midichlorians aren’t responsible for the Force. Rather, the Force draws midichlorians like moths to a flame. This still allows for midichlorians to be used to determine and quantify an individual’s potential strength with the Force…the brighter the “light,” the higher the midichlorian count. It can also be used to explain Qui-Gon’s admonitions to be mindful of the “living Force,” if his views on the midichlorians are seen to represent a particular school of thought about midichlorians and their relationship to the Force.
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–Daryl
The way I understood it the numbers don’t mean anything, they were just the serial number for the hatchway. Everything that happened to Hugo was just Jacob or ‘the island’ screwing him so he would be in the plane. Just like something prevented Michael from killing himself until ‘the island’ was done with him.
So the numbers explanation was one of those ‘show not tell’ moments.
At first I thought midichlorians were lame but I grew to like it. Like every religion there are different points of views(like Han Solo’s comments in the original Star wars). Some look for scientific explanation, others are Jadi, Sith and there are a lot of different view of the force in the expanded universe.
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I liked the midichlorians-are-atracted-to-force-users theory. First time I hear it is here.
The sideways timeline was a “Touched by an Angel” episode that would have worked as a non-sequitur finale on any show.
“Jo, you’re my constant. That’s why you, me, Tootie and Mrs. Garrett are all here.” “I love you, too, Blaire! Let’s head into the light together.”
Still, nice to see happy endings even with many unanswered questions.
You can add my name to those who knew the island protector job would be Hurley’s once he’d said he was glad he hadn’t gotten it. Shouldn’t tempt fate like that, Hugo.
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Michael D. said, “As best I can tell – and I’m probably way way off – the funeral scene occurs for each castaway at the point of his/her death. Jack’s father said that some of them died before Jack did (Boone for example) and some long after. And that this was the place they all built together.”
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I think you’re pretty much on target. Now the question is whether all these people converged on this one point, regardless of when they’d died, or whether, as you speculated, this was from Jack’s POV. The strongest argument that it was from Jack’s POV is that, in many ways, the most important people in his life were those he met during his time on the island. Presumably, Rose and Bernard (for example), from their points of view, were with family and friends (and possibly same Oceanic 815 survivors as well) at a “church” scene from their points of view. And presumably the gatherings for others would be at a Synagogue, Mosque, Temple or none of the above, depending on their belief systems.
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The strongest argument that all these people converged via their individual paths is that the flash sideways storylines were not all Jack-centric. Other characters had storylines that didn’t involve Jack at all. Sayid, for example.
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I think we can safely say the flash sideways “universe” is some sort of limbo. I won’t call it “purgatory”, because that word has connotations of punishment. Here the characters essentially get to live the lives they’d have wanted to live until they’re ready and able to move on.
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Presumably “moving on” involves reuniting with loved ones who’d gone before, etc., because while the flash sideways lives of the characters are somewhat better than their real world lives, they’re not perfect.
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When the now awakened Locke tells Jack he doesn’t have a son, that suggests the boy was created in Jack’s mind as a sort of wish fulfillment. But that doesn’t explain some other people we saw in the flash sideways universe. Artz, for example. Ben never met him; wouldn’t know him from Adam. So he’s not a product of Ben’s imagination. Presumably that was the real Artz, and his own flash sideways “life” was intersecting with Ben’s.
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Or maybe Hurley told Ben about Artz at some point, and Ben generated the image based on that.
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If the flash sideways “universe” represents the characters’ lives as they wish they’d been, it’s curious that whatever else was different, everyone still made a flight from Sydney to New York in 2004. What’s more, you’d think that James Ford’s “better life” wouldn’t be that he became a cop, but one in which his parents never died. You’ve got to figure he carried a lot of survivor’s guilt with him, and probably spent much of his youth wondering if he could have stopped the murder/suicide somehow.
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James Lynch, I think the plane Jack saw as he lay dying was the Ajira plane taking Frank, James, Kate, Miles, Richard and Claire back to civilization. Any issue with the condition of the wing was probably an oversight on the part of the producers. Yes, it’s possible a plane just happened to be flying overhead at that exact time, but it’s more likely that Jack was seeing the escape of his friends (whose plane was taking off at that time; unless Jack’s awakening in that stream occurred hours later, and given the severity of his wounds, that’s doubtful).
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PAD said, ““It has to be you, Hugo.” And Ben’s thinking, “Yo. I’m standing right here. You know I can hear you, right?””
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I think Ben knew he wasn’t island protector material, that because of his checkered past, he’d do more harm than good. Or as Hurley might’ve said, “dude, this job needs a Jedi. Ben’s mostly Sith.”
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What’s more, I think Ben would feel very much at home as advisor to the island’s protector. And apparently “Jedi” Hurley saw enough good in “Sith” Ben to give him the job.
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Several unanswered questions remain: Why did Jacob’s brother (whose name we still don’t know) become the smoke monster (or release the smoke monster, as the case may be; I’m still wondering if we might’ve had an Alec Holland scenario) upon going into the light cave, when both Desmond and Jack avoided such a fate? Was it because he went in unwillingly and had been in a state of rage at the time? That’d be my guess.
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Other than Rose and Bernard are none of the other original Oceanic 815 survivors still alive? Apparently not.
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How much of the truth came out when the Ajira plane reached civilization? In past seasons, I’d imagined we might eventually see the rescue of the remaining survivors by the returning Oceanic six, with the exposure of Widmore’s deception. Did that still happen?
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What about Walt? What, if anything, was special about him? I know the actor couldn’t be in the episode given how much he’s grown, but Walt wasn’t even mentioned.
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How long will Michael (and the other whispering ghosts) have to remain on the island? The fact that he wasn’t in the church suggests that either Jacob didn’t establish that rule or that Michael felt he wasn’t ready to leave (On Jimmy Kimmel Live later last night, Harold Perrineau said Michael wasn’t in the church because he was still on the island, whispering.
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We can only speculate about what happens during Hurley’s “administration”, but presumably he allows people (such as Desmond) to leave the island without having to follow a narrow compass bearing, while simultaneously keeping the island more or less “cloaked” from the outside world. Somehow, I don’t see Hurley opening it up to the tourist trade. Unless he’s able to buy it or otherwise take legal possession of it.
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Wonder how long Hurley served as protector of the island before passing the job on to someone else? Of course, he didn’t have to seek out candidates like Jacob did, but since he was at the church, we know that he stepped down at some point.
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Like PAD, I liked that they brought it full circle, from Jack’s eye opening in the first scene as he awakens after the crash, to it closing in the final scene, as he dies.
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On Jimmy Kimmel Live, we saw three alternate endings provided by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. Far and away, the third was my favorite.
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Rick
“Presumably, Rose and Bernard (for example), from their points of view, were with family and friends (and possibly same Oceanic 815 survivors as well) at a “church” scene from their points of view. And presumably the gatherings for others would be at a Synagogue, Mosque, Temple or none of the above, depending on their belief systems.”
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Christian Shepard said that this was a place created by all of them, not just Jack. The point of the place was for all of them to find each other, so the people there were real, it wasn’t just a nice image for Jack’s benefit, they were all there. When Christian said that he was standing in front of a stained glass window that had symbols from several religions, not just Christianity. So the “Church” wasn’t quite as clear cut as it seemed.
That should, of course, have read “a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles”, not New York. Where I got New York from I have no idea.
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Rick
It seems Maximus’ quote in Gladiator is appropriate for the Losties, “What we do in life echoes in eternity.”
I enjoyed this finale.
My biggest question is: if everyone in the church is experiencing it after they died (no matter what year that happened in) does that mean that Aaron, whom we know from the previous season survived to be at least three, and hopefully had a long happy life beyond that, is now a more mature soul trapped in the body of a newborn infant getting carried around by Claire and cootchy-cooed by everybody? That’s a tough way to move on…
I figured some people were absent from the church because (a) not all of them had the flashback experience, but probably would later (such as Anna Lucia, “not ready yet”) or they know but would choose to go later by choice (Ben, who I’m guessing wants to reunite with his daughter, or Dan Faraday, whom Desmond said would leave, but “not with us”, when talking to his mother).
I also wonder about characters who died in the sideways-verse without ever remembering “reality”, like the mercenary who killed Ben’s daughter. If he had not been killed by Sayid, but instead had a near-death experience and remembered, where would he have gone? Or is he just a mental construct (like, one assumes now, Jack’s son was? That makes the brain hurt a bit).
It would have been fun to see more cameos in the church, like the agent who was Kate’s guard on the plane. Amidst all the hugs and smiles it would be fun to see him bump into Kate and (even more awkward) Sawyer.
I think the ending also adds a different element to things. In the beginning it was the mother who represented a pagan earth god to Jacob and MIB who represented Jewish thought with Jacob eventually representing a vengeful and sometimes irrationally cruel god to Jack Shepard who represented a Jesus figure one who is only god-like for a moment who is picked, but also chooses his own destiny and in many ways the openning scene with jack represented jesus in the garden deciding weather or not to accept his fate as savior. In the end it is the buddha that enters the fray in the form of Hurley. Sure he looks the part, but he’s also a great representation of taoist philosophy. I remember many of my friends reading the tao of pooh in college and it fits with Hurley pretty well.
“From the state of the Uncarved Block comes the ability to enjoy the simple and the quiet, the natural and the plain. Along with that comes the ability to do things spontaneously and have them work, odd as that may appear to others at times. As Piglet put it in Winnie-the-Pooh, “Pooh hasn’t much Brain, but he never comes to any harm. He does silly things and they turn out right.” (21)
oh and did anyone notice that jack was in the pose of the MIB when he died the first time when he got out of the cave???
Thoughts?
Dhole said, “My biggest question is: if everyone in the church is experiencing it after they died (no matter what year that happened in) does that mean that Aaron, whom we know from the previous season survived to be at least three, and hopefully had a long happy life beyond that, is now a more mature soul trapped in the body of a newborn infant getting carried around by Claire and cootchy-cooed by everybody?”
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I think we’re seeing Baby Aaron from either Charlie’s POV or that of the collective gathering, most of whom only knew him as a baby. What’s more, I don’t think that’s the actual Aaron, but a representation of how everyone remembers him. For one thing, he’d have no memory of his time on the island, so his “church scene” wouldn’t have involved all those people, unlike the adults. Yes, he might well have interacted with some of the survivors subsequent to Claire’s rescue, but from his point of view they’d be older.
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We might also be seeing Aaron from Jack’s POV, if we believe the entire church scene is from Jack’s POV; but you’d think Jack would’ve seen toddler Aaron. Maybe he does, but it’d have been too confusing to the viewing audience to show both a baby and a toddler.
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Another unanswered question: If James had listened to Jack and hadn’t pulled the wires out of the bomb, allowing the sub to leave without incident, who would have protected the island with all the remaining candidates gone? Would ghost Jacob have approached Rose and Bernard, who weren’t initially candidates, and said one of them had to take the job? Or would he have given the job to Richard? Or Miles? Frank? Claire? Ben? Somehow, I think it’d have fallen to Rose or Bernard, if not Richard.
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Rick
I think that if the sub hadn’t exploded, Jack would have patched up Kate and then asked to get off at the other Island so he could get out without Smokey around.
I admit I’ve never watched the show either, but once again I seem to relate the show to another older show, in this case “Gilligan’s Island” ^_^
The old, tongue in cheek theory about that show was that they were also all dead, and the island was actually Hëll, with Gilligan being the Devil Himself!
In one way or another, each castaway represented one of the 7 Deadly Sins:
Skipper = Wrath (always beating Gilligan on the head for his screw-ups);
Professor = Pride (belevied he was smarter/better then everyone else);
The Howels = Greed (their wealth hoarding);
Mary Anne = Envy (wanted to be like Ginger, even becoming her after a bonk
on the head);
Ginger = Lust (Slinky, sexy actress who used her feminine wiles to get what she wanted)
Gilligan = Satan (it was his duty to keep them in ‘Hëll’ by messing up all their escape attempts ^_^)
That leaves a few, but you could probably apply others to multiple castaways.
No, no no.
Skipper = Gluttony (though some say he is Wrath, too)
Professor = Pride
Mr Howels = Greed
Mrs Howel Sloth
Mary Anne = Envy
Ginger = Lust
Gilligan = GOD: keeping everyone on the island until they learn to change their ways
When I first read this theory, it was:
Gilligan = sloth
Professor = pride
Mr. Howell = greed
Mrs. Howell = gluttony (with the definition being stretched, I guess, to mean craving of material possessions)
Mary Ann = envy
Ginger = lust
Skipper = wrath
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But now that I think about it, Gilligan wasn’t slothful, so this doesn’t really work.
I just found out that ABC is rerunning “The End” saturday at 8…
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…and TitanTV is listing it as “2 hrs 5 min”! I’m assuming this will be due to a few less breaks and far less commercials overall.
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As for my own reaction to it all, I was a loyal fan over the entire 6 year run, but am ambivalent about this ending. So far it still feels like too much of an “it was all a dream” (or much of it was, anyway) cheat to me. But I may yet be able to amend that feeling when I rewatch it in a day or so. I’m still glad I watched the show and particularly this final episode because I enjoyed it immensely for the most part.
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However, it seems to me like it was all a jigsaw puzzle with pieces scattered haphazardly about a room. We now have all the pieces and even have some small sections of it assembled, but we are still missing the box lid with the overall picture showing exactly what it should look like, how the pieces really fit. That’s not always a bad thing, I guess, but I think for this show I wanted there to be more of an explanation, a clearer overall picture, one that wouldn’t negate (or cast doubt on) a lot of what we’d seen over the years.
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If “what happened, happened” why am I now left wondering… Uh, OK, did ANY of it happen after all beyond the plane crash? Or maybe just some of it, but if so then WHICH bits? I, for one, am still scratching my head.
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I guess for now I’ll give them an A for effort, for trying to be a little bit different and surprising. Plus I think that no matter what they came up with there would always be numerous “Wait a minute, what about when so-and-so…” moments to question. Any Grand Explanation (whether clearly presented or not) was bound to have holes and therefore leave at least something more to be desired, imo.
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For now I will choose to remember the great characters and episodes over the years and try not to let any ultimate disappointment of the last 10 minutes taint the memory of a gripping show that sucked me into its universe(s) and was truly must-see for me.
Terrible ending, IMO. They conned everybody by revealing a mystery that nobody was really concerned about. Nobody cared what the flash-sideways universe was independent of the island. We wanted to know what the flash-sideways was related to the island. The island was what we wanted to see resolved. After years of trying to figure out what the deal was with this creepy island, the gigantic twist ending has nothing to do with anything. Basically it seems they wanted to do a purgatory story, chickened out when people guessed it, and then hastily made another purgatory story to wrap things up.
Just two random thoughts–
#1. the color of the dog’s coat was the same color as Jacob’s clothes–sort of a light tan.
#2. I understood more about the finale from the above discussions (and a couple of other discussions I have read elsewhere on the web) than I understood from watching the finale. I’d say it’s a tossup between my being that stupid or the finale being so poorly written. Or both.
Jason M. Bryant said, “I think that if the sub hadn’t exploded, Jack would have patched up Kate and then asked to get off at the other Island so he could get out without Smokey around.”
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Right. I completely forgot that Jack had intended to stay all along.
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Daddy G. said, “Uh, OK, did ANY of it happen after all beyond the plane crash? Or maybe just some of it, but if so then WHICH bits? I, for one, am still scratching my head.”
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Everything concerning their lives on the island happened. The flash sideways stuff essentially represents how the characters wish their lives had been. Or perhaps one such wish.
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Rick
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P.S. We kept seeing Smokey, but where was the Bandit?
“Everything concerning their lives on the island happened. The flash sideways stuff essentially represents how the characters wish their lives had been. Or perhaps one such wish.”
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In addition, Christian made a point of saying that everyone was real. I think this was the writers way of saying that it wasn’t all a dream, these were the same characters we’ve followed all along. The only dream part is that they created the environment that they were in. Other than that, their interactions with each other were still based on who they were and what they had learned.
So am I the only one that was extremely disappointed by how it ended? For a series that always answered questions with more questions this just seemed to be a lot of build up with little pay off. Maybe it’s just the pay off that gets on my nerves. I’ve followed this show from the very beginning and here are some of the things I’ve taken from this finale, and the series as a whole, regarding the big reveals and the reveals that by the end never came:
~ It was nice that by this last season they finally answered a lot of the questions about Jacob and the Smoke Monster, but when they revealed this almost Biblical rivalry to be just two guys stuck on an island they missed out on a lot of potential for aspects of that rivalry to be much bigger than it actually was, even with Jacob’s globe trotting to find his replacements.
~ The big villain in the entire show, his presence revealed all the way back in the Pilot, never gets a name. Really? So this whole time he’s just going to be known as the Man in Black? I could’ve sworn in “Across the Sea,” after MiB stabs his mother, she lays there and says, “Esau.” Or it might’ve been just, “It’s you.” For two people that know his name, if he has a name, they go out of their way not to say his name. “Where’s your brother?” “Goodbye, brother.” “Hey, you. Yeah, you. You just stabbed me…you.”
~ None of the survivors ever find out that Locke was a paraplegic before the first crash. What’s more, Locke never once tells Jack, “Hey, there’s something more to this island because before I came here I was in a wheelchair. Don’t believe me? Then why is there a wheelchair on the beach?” I don’t know, this just kinda bugged me.
~ Whole lotta build-up about Walt with no follow through. Now I can understand the kid grew three feet in a year, which would cause problems logistically, but if they’re going to build an entire second season about the Others taking him because he’s “special” (even before he came to the island) you would think they would reveal that same potential for being “special” in another character that is already grown. Well, now that I think about it there was Hurley and his ability to see dead people, but by then it seemed to be really no big deal to everyone else.
~ Motivations sometimes didn’t make sense. After Desmond is lowered into the cave and told to “go where the light is brightest” he just arbitrarily decides, “Well, I migh’ as well pick up this big rock and see wha’ happens. You know, while I’m here and all. Ow, my face is all tingly! Crap, this thing’s heavy!”
~ By the way, did anyone else notice that as Bad Locke and Jack lowered Desmond into the cave Locke’s hands were bleeding from the rope, even before Desmond pulled the plug on the light source? Was his body anticipating becoming mortal?
~ The final confrontation between Jack and Bad Locke on the cliff face was pretty epic. I also thought it was very cool that Jack kicked Bad Locke off the cliff the exact same way Bad Locke kicked Jacob into the fire in “The Incident.”
~ Throughout most of this last season I expected Good Locke to eventually confront the Man in Black that looked like him, this big moment when Good Locke steps out of the jungle and sort of redeems himself while on the island because of all the bad things Bad Locke did. Now that would’ve been good TV. Doesn’t matter that he’s dead because you have Michael and all the rest of the whisperers. Doesn’t matter that he died off the island because you have Richard’s wife.
~ But the ending, the explanation of the sideways universe, seemed like an add-on. I could understand the alternate timeline. I could even understand the survivors starting to remember things from the original timeline. But to reveal the whole thing to be limbo, or whatever? It just felt like the producers lead it all up to this and said, “Okay, they remember the other timeline…now what?” They’re not going to go back to the island yet again, but they apparently needed to end it with something more substantial than, “Hey, I remember you.” Not everyone at the funeral was dead, but they explain that as “well, they’ll be dead eventually.” So this is the present for some, the past for others, and the future for a few others? The final moment was perfect, though. Talk about your full closure.
I don’t know. I think I just need a few days, or weeks, to digest it all. Regardless, this was the only show I managed to follow religiously from beginning to end, and it’s going to suck not to be able to come back to it. Well, time to pull out the Season One box set and start over again.
Oh yes, I almost forgot:
WHAT WAS THE DEAL WITH THE POLAR BEAR???
The Dharma Initiative brought several animals to the Island for experimentation. I believe they claimed the polar bears were for determining how well polar bears could adapt in a warming environment.
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Considering that polar bears have started breeding with grizzly bears (not a joke, not part of the show, that’s real life), I think that’s actually pretty believable.
It escaped from the Darma initiative zoo? Time traveler from when the island was in an ice age (past or future)? Albino black bear?…
“The Force is not a great, mystical power of life force that connects our souls, it’s bacteria.”
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But it was never mystical or magical. It’s “an energy field created by all living things.” Whether it comes from our actual bodies or organisms within our bodies is, to me, just splitting hairs.
“An energy field” is meaningless. When Gandalf the Grey is throwing out lightning bolts, aren’t those bolts made of energy?
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Obi Wan was a wizard. Luke was a knight. Together the rescued a princess with the help of a scoundrel. It was all part of a fantasy story set in space. Everybody accepted the Force as magical and disputing that would be the real hair splitting.
The problem I had with the introduction of midiclorians was that I felt it diminished the Jedi Knights. The way the Force was presented in the first three films, it was a cosmic energy field that binds us all together. It was theology, it was mysticism. And one presumed that the Jedi Knights were the purest of hearts, the ones who had studied the longest and had devoted themselves to a theological concept. “May the Force be with you” was the equivalent of “May God be with you,” i.e., may your endeavor be of sufficient moral caliber, and may you be brave enough, that the universe will shift to your side and give you victory.
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By making it a biological concept, “May the Force be with you” means nothing. It no longer matters how devoted you are, or studious you are. You can become a Jedi Knight only if it turns out that, after you’ve peed on a stick or something to measure it, your midiclorian count is high enough. If the count isn’t high, then the Force isn’t going to be with you no matter how much you wish for it. The Jedi are, in fact, a super race, born with a predisposition for TK and other mind powers, rather than a group of devoted individuals who believe in the greater good and have worked and trained and studied to achieve a greatness that we all have, but most of us don’t have the discipline to reach.
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To quote another film: It was a bad call, Ripley. A bad call.
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PAD
But if it was as you say it was, why was the Force particularly strong with the Skywalker family? Leia did nothing to devote herself to study or training, and yet she was supposed to be the next great hope for the Jedi, after Luke. The only reason for that is genetics, which rather belies the mystical angle.
I have no trouble with there being a predisposition for certain talents running through family lines, much as some people might have a natural talent for, say, music. They have perfect pitch and they have a pure, beautiful singing voice that can belt out an aria without ever having a single lesson.
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On the other hand, there are people who do not have that natural born talent who can still, through training and dedication, become formidable singers in their own right. Maybe not as great as those born with a natural skill for it, but they compensate with training and dedication.
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That was how I was perceiving the ability to tap into the Force. Some people may have a natural skill at it while others have to work way harder. But time, dedication and purity of heart could be a levelling influence.
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The introduction of midiclorians eliminated that. If you don’t have midiclorians, that’s the way it goes. The Force isn’t with you. You’re either born with it or you’re not.
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PAD
Plus, now you know that beating a Jedi is as easy as finding some penicillin.
After all this people are asking about the Polar bears?? Season 3 explained the Darhma brought the Bears to the island for experimentation. The bears broke free from the Darhma zoo and swam to the main island some time after the big purge. This hasn’t been an unanswered question to ponder for 3 years now people!
There are several small unanswered questions but every major mystery was answered. And they’re not all dead. It’s more like they all one day, eventually, will be dead and this where they’ll go.