Feedback: LOST Series Finale “The End”

Dan Koelsch,

This season we at MovieViral have been providing weekly ‘recap and reviews’ for each episode in the sixth and final season of LOST. Instead of going through a full recap for the series finale last night, I’ll just give you a few of my thoughts (obviously spoilers abound), then open it up for discussion in our comments. What did you think of the finale? Was it a fitting end? What questions do you still have?

It’s hard to believe it’s all over after six years, multiple dimensions and time shifts, flashbacks, flash-forwards, and even flash-sideways. We finally got a resolution to centuries long fued between the MiB and Jacob, as well as to what the hell the alternate reality was. Here are my thought below, including facts, opinions, and just observations.



The Big Things

– On the Island: Jack realizes Desmond is the key to killing Fake Locke, so he lets Locke go along with his plan to make Desmond go into the light in the cave. Desmond gets down there, and it’s some structure most likely made by the same Egyptians who made the four-toed statue. There’s a big circle filled with water and light, and something that looks like a big plug. Desmond removes it, the light turns red, and the Island goes to Hell. Jack and Locke are both mortal, and eventually Jack kills Locke, but the Island is still falling apart, so he ends up going back down and replacing the plug, fixing everything before eventually dying of his wounds. Oh yeah, and he made Hurley the new protector of Island, who then asked an honored Ben to help him.
– The Alt Reality: The joke of the series in the first few seasons was that the Island was actually purgatory and everyone was dead. Funnily enough, that’s actually the concept of the alt reality. They survivors can’t pass on until they find each other, so they created this fake world to bring them together.
– My thoughts: Although I hated the alt reality revelation at first, I grew to understand and appreciate it as the only way you can provide closure to the audience without going through a laundry list of explanations for every little question. They went with emotional closure as opposed to loose-ends closure, which makes sense to me.






The Rest

– I love how the final scene mirrors the pilot’s opening scene.
– It sounds like Hugo made a great #1, and I’m glad Ben got to help him out. It looks like Ben chose purgatory over moving on. I don’t blame him.
– I knew they were short-lived characters, but I guess Eko, Ana Lucia, Art, Nikki and Paulo weren’t important, because they weren’t part of this purgatory club.
– Scenes that made me cry: Jin and Sun remembering, Claire and Charlie remembering, and Sayid and Shannon remembering. I teared up a little at the end too.
– Was it Jack becoming the new protector, or Smokey’s super punch that made Richard start to age? I’m just glad he finally got the desire to live and can live normally now.
– Rose and Bernard need their own sitcom. Miles and Sawyer need their own buddy cop show. Hugo and Ben need their own spin-off where they are in control of the Island and get into hilarious hijinks.
– There are still A LOT of unanswered little questions, but I think I’m OK with it.
– Finally, the final scene with the crashed plane that had the credits underneath. What was that? I heard one theory that it was the Ajira flight, thus meaning Kate, Miles, Sawyer, Frank, Claire, and Richard didn’t make it off the Island. That’d be interesting.


So, what did you think of the LOST series finale? Tomorrow we’ll have a special LOST podcast where we’ll dissect this episode and the series overall much more.


Season Six LOST Recap & Reviews:
Episode 1 & 2: LA X
Episode 3: What Kate Does
Episode 4: The Substitute
Episode 5: Lighthouse
Episode 6: Sundown
Episode 7: Dr. Linus
Episode 8: Recon
Episode 9: Ab Aeterno
Episode 10: The Package
Episode 11: Happily Ever After
Episode 12: Everybody Loves Hugo
Episode 13: The Last Recruit
Episode 14: The Candidate
Episode 15: Across The Sea
Episode 16: What They Died For


Update: Our podcast is now live! Click here to listen in and learn some secrets not revealed in the finale!

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Comments (11)

  2. The ending was so bad it made me not want to buying any more lost dvd’s. So bad it looks like they got new writers in and went the’re own way on the story.

  3. I’m with you Dan. The emotional closure was a good way to end the series and I found myself satisfied with that as well. Nice way to say good-bye.

  4. I was completely and utterly NOT satisfied with this hokey ending. It showed a complete and utter lack of competence from the writers.

    Bad Lost Finale . no cookie

  5. The ending was excellent. Like Corey, I was really moved. I’m really glad they went with the direction they did.

  6. I also cried quite a bit during the finale. I do think they cheapened it though with the dog and religion ending though.

  7. All the hours wasted for a bum ending. Even Daad’s explanation that they were all dead but living normal lives (in another alternate dimention?) left me cold. Too rushed of an ending; too many questions left unanswered.

  8. I can’t believe the end Lost like this, absolutely rubbish, nothing has been cleared and millions of question left an answered. Very disappointed with result, absolute waste.

  9. I think the end was perfect. What made it great is the fact that they were actually dead and made up some kind of reality to wait for each other and finally let go. This reminds me of Monroe’s theory of OBE – out of body experience, where you can leave your body, wander to different realities and meet the dead who – as the characters in LOST – create a new reality to wait for the ones they love. LOST is probably the most brilliant, intelligent, thought-provoking, deep and really moving series people have ever watched. I’m gonna miss the characters, I’m gonna miss Locke with his open mind, Jack with his growing to understand, Sawyer and his sense of humour, Hugo, who was so good and noble, Sun, Kate… The finale was a perfect way to say goodbye… Gosh, I think I’ll cry again 🙁

  10. The first words from my lips as the credits began to run
    “What the F–K!!??”
    Did anyone else notice the sneaker haging from a branch while jack was stumbling through the bamboo jungle at the end? AND that he came to ABOVE ground and not in the pool where he was busy dying a few minutes ago? As I understand it we are supposed to believe we are back on the day of the intitial crash and that everyone has died (thus the closing scene of the original wreckage of the oceanic flight WITHOUT survivors) except for Jack and Vincent. And that the adventures on the island were all a figment of Jack’s fevered imagination as he slowly dies of the wound he suffered in the crash (matching the wound inflicted by not-Locke in his dream).
    Except that he’s wearing a t-shirt and jeans and NOT the suit he was wearing on the flight. AHHHHHH
    My head hurts

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