WHATNESDAY

[cleolinda]

Okay, what?

Someone explain to me what just happened. I mean, yes, I get it, Jack died. Was it just Jack? Was it everyone? What about his kid? Was Sideways World real? Was it all in his head? Was everyone happy and reunited in his head or was everyone happy and reunited in Sideways World or was everyone happy and reunited in heaven? What about Desmond back on the island after they fished him out of the glowcave? What about Ben and Hurley? WHAT ABOUT BEN AND HURLEY HELPING DESMOND GET HOME? Did the Ajira plane get back to wherever? Does none of this matter because it was or was not real? That last shot after the title card--did everyone die in the original crash? I don't? What? WHAT?

ETA: Yes, I know it was purgatory, MATTHEW FOX, WHO SPENT SIX YEARS SHOUTING AT PEOPLE THAT IT WAS NOT PURGATORY, I just don't understand how much of it was purgatory--was it all purgatory in Sideways World? Was Jack's Kid just totally imaginary? Was it not purgatory at all? Are we going to split hairs, MATTHEW FOX, and claim that it is not literally purgatory, it's just something where They Were Really Dead All Along WHICH IS WHAT WE ALL MEANT BY "PURGATORY"? I JUST WHAT I DON'T KNOW.

I actually really liked it. I'm just not sure what happened.

Oddly, it reminded me a little of the ending of Places in the Heart. Or that last shot of V for Vendetta.

However! There will apparently be three alternate endings on Kimmel in about twenty minutes? MAYBE ONE OF THEM WILL BE A NON-PURGATORY ENDING.

ETA: Okay, the clearest consensus I am getting--in case passersby are getting confused--is that everything on the island was real, and Sideways World was everyone getting ready to move on after they had died, in this weird kind of all-times-collapsed-together thing where people who had died and were dying and would eventually die all came together at the same time to move on. And lo, Christian Shephard (NO REALLY) led them all into the light. Or something.

ETA: Oh! Sideways World was Titanic Heaven! Now you're speaking a language I can understand.

Comments

[megalosaurus.livejournal.com]

I'M SO CONFUSED TOO ;_; but I'm also kind of really satisfied on an emotional level. so. yeah.

I thiiink the last shot wasn't supposed to mean anything? like, I think it's supposed to be that after they died (which I don't think we know how anyone but jack dies after the finale) they go to 'purgatory'->sideways universe, and then from there they all have to go wherever is next.

I DONT KNOW I WAS ALL VERKLEMPT AND THEY WERE ALL SO HAPPY AND CLEAN~

[megalosaurus.livejournal.com]

(last shot= the one of the crash after the credits. I think it was just a sort of...I DONT KNOW)

[redcurrantbasil.livejournal.com]

Okay.

All I can say is that I am crying so hard right now.Omg tears are streaming down my face. Vincent and Jack omg :(

Flash sideways world was real.It was the afterlife for everyone. Jack died on the Island.The island was restored and Hurley took Jacobs place.He could do what he wanted and Ben was his number two.He made sure the plane could leave and probably got Desmond home. Sideways world was the afterlife for everyone. They were living out parts of themselves and reconnecting. They all died at different times.At the end they were leaving the part of the afterlife that was only temporarily there in order for them to reconnect because they were so important to each other.They all had to have what they needed to move on in the end.They survived the initial crash and everything was real.The flashsideways was the afterlife.

I am balling so hard jesus christ.JACK AND VINCENT FFS

[warren-locke.livejournal.com]

I think the key takeaway from the end is what was said - their lives mattered. What they did in the "real" world mattered. And then they all go to the same place in the end.

While I feel a little disappointed that the "big" questions weren't answered - what really was the island, the electromagnetic stuff, who was Jacob's fake-mom, etc... really, I don't know that there was an answer that wouldn't have been an anticlimax by now.

I'm digesting, but I think I liked it.

[scornedsaint.livejournal.com]

I don't think the "big" questions ever could be answered. The Island was always just a MacGuffin, which oddly, I'm fine with.

[sphynxle.livejournal.com]

From what I've gathered, the entire Island was some sort of purgatory for the "survivors". I'm thinking the "Sideways" world was their version of a "perfect" world.

I don't know. I'm still reeling.

And yes, all of them were dead :?

[redcurrantbasil.livejournal.com]

I thought the Kimmel endings were just stupid skits that he inserted himself into?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

They keep advertising them like they're serious, IDK.

[eliz.livejournal.com]

I want official answers (damn them for the radio silence- how much of this is really them wanting to see what shakes out as the fan answer to all this and acceptable rather than they have an idea too ;) )

Hurley gives them the church. Hurley and Ben that is because Hurley can choose to do things differently than Jacob. If Jacob could appear off the island, then getting Desmond home to Penny (one question- WHERE WAS BABY CHARLIE) was not going to be difficult at all.

Sideways world is just that- it is an alternative reality that was created- with the bomb because that happened in "reality". There was no crash. They have a life in the sideways world. But since it is just a sideways world- this is why they have the experiences that remind them of what's happened in the "real" world.

For me the key (after this first viewing at least) is what Christian tells Jack-- he confirms that yes he died- but that everyone dies- some before, some after. I don't think it's purgatory- but a place that Hurley could bring everyone together again as a reward for what they did and gave to help the others/Jacob/island.

Note- Michael, Artz, and Walt, and the Others did not return to the island or were drawn to each other/the church in sideways land. They were not instrumental in the way things happened on the island.

Just some first thoughts to through out there.

[xelegantusagix.livejournal.com]

yea i was wondering about Micheal and Walt. Micheal said he was stuck on the idea because he couldn't move on with what he had done in life.

but on this thought...Libby was there she didn't do a whole lot. idk though.

Course the story line about walt being special kind of fizzled out over the series i thought.

[komalow.livejournal.com]

I loved it. Thought it was as good as it could have been -- especially the last few moments of Jack walking through the bamboo field and finally lying down. And then Vincent. DEAR GOD, Vincent.

[redcurrantbasil.livejournal.com]

I started shaking so hard when he was walking through the bamboo.

[roseredhoofbeat.livejournal.com]

Okay, this is why I am so pissed off. Now that I have calmed down more.

Juliet said it worked. She said that it worked, the bomb-thingy. That sideways world was a real, alternate reality. Where Nadia was married to Sayid's brother, and Jin and Sun weren't married yet but she was pregnant, and Charlie was still a crackhead, and Claire was gonna give Aaron away, and Ben was a teacher and not evil, and Danielle never went to the island and had Alex, and Locke was married to Helen and his dad wasn't a con-artist, and Miles and Sawyer were Buddy Cops, and Hugo was the luckiest man alive, and Rose was with Bernard, and Eloise didn't kill her son, and HAVE I MISSED ANYBODY?

That doesn't make sense. What about all the other shit that happened? What about Sayid's brother and him shooting everyone- why would that be in his version of Heaven? Why would Sun get shot? Why does Jack have a son? Why would Kate get captured? AUUUUGH I HATE YOU SHOW.

[vega-ofthe-lyre.livejournal.com]

Just jumping in here to say that I don't think this reality as it was constructed by them is supposed to be a perfect reality, but a way for them all to come together AND resolve issues in their emotional lives before they all move on together. It doesn't shake out perfectly, though, I agree.

[brandyllyn.livejournal.com]

Okay, as for the final scene during the credits, I thought I spotted some campsite detritus, which means that the writer's were simply giving us a farewell from where we started. Jack in the jungle with Vincent, the Oceanic plane wrecked on the beach.

It was a nice full circle but like I said on twitter, I'm going to have to rewatch the entire show before I can make any kind of reasonable opinion on this finale.

[eliz.livejournal.com]

I'm with you- it was just a shot to show where we came from on this journey - before the crash they didn't know each other, etc- they were all "Lost" but now they've "Found" each other at the church.

I saw what I thought was camping area set up- so definitely thinking it was just what was left of their collective time on the island.

[michawhiplash.livejournal.com]

I wish I had bought a lottery ticket with THE NUMBERS for today. Would have been a great keepsake but was afraid of THE CURSE.

[aurora.livejournal.com]

Gah, the lottery numbers popped up on the bottom of my screen in the last 30 min and I went "OH FFS!!"

...and then I started looking for the numbers

[surrexi.livejournal.com]

Everything we saw in the show happened in real non-dead life, and everyone died whenever they died, whether it was on the island, off the island in flash-forwards, on the island the second time, or off the island in the case of Frank/Kate/Miles/Claire/Sawyer, whose plane Jack saw getting away right before he died.

Everything in sideways world was purgatory-or-whatever-you-want-to-call-it.

So it wasn't ALL purgatory and they weren't all dead the whole time. They died whenever they died, and they created "a place where they could all be together" afterwards.

I am a little sad that David apparently didn't really exist.

But I am in love with this ending.

[zoethe.livejournal.com]

Then why did they show us the original wreck with no survivors?

[dafnap.livejournal.com]

This was totally the long-form sequel to TITANIC, wasn't it? I mean. Same heaven and everything. Just less dancing.

[roseredhoofbeat.livejournal.com]

LMFAO.

[laura47.livejournal.com]

I am tots with you on really liking it but not really being clear what happened.

It just didn't seem very... purgatorial?

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

"Purgatorical," I think, just in the sense that it's a state between states and not a destination in and of itself, not necessarily "purgatorical" in the sense of suffering and misery. It's like Denny's. You don't go to Denny's, you just end up there.

But that's just my take. I'm still building some coping mechanisms.

[mermaidkween.livejournal.com]

I think the sideways world didn't move at the same pace as the real world. So even if everyone made it off the Island/back to Penny/whatever, they materialize in sidewaysland as their Island-age self, since it was their happiest time. The entire flashforward timeline is now moot, and served only as a way to get them back to the Island to detonate Jughead. :x

[misachan.livejournal.com]

The entire flashforward timeline is now moot, and served only as a way to get them back to the Island to detonate Jughead. :x

It all still happened. Christian explicitly said that everything that happened on the Island happened.

[veracity]

I'm calling it Titanic Meets Dallas myself.

Or possibly Forest of the Dead meets Titanic. Either one works really.

I'm suddenly, brilliantly glad I gave this show up when Shannon died.

[cupcakery.livejournal.com]

I gave it up when Boone died. Now I have a peaceful existence with Ian Somerhalder over on the CD with The Vampire Diaries.

Ah, everything can be likened to an episode of Doctor Who.

[hazakaza.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'm shocked that Snape killed Dumbledore during tonight's Lost.

[brachiosaurid.livejournal.com]

MY FAVOURITE COMMENT EVER.

[cherrymaryberry.livejournal.com]

I'm not entirely sure what happened I like going with the fact that the island was real but the sideways universe was what they made up so they could find a way back to each other and be together. I'm happy that I got to see the characters that I loved be together somehow. I'm a total sap, I really don't care what people think. There are things that really should have been answered that weren't and while it annoys me somehow I'm not too pissed about it because in the end in someway people got a happy ending. And for me it's enough.

That may have been totally cheesy but it's the only way I can explain it.

And I just want to say thank you Cleo for these wonderful Lostnesday post. It made viewing LOST so much more fun and I will miss them just as much as the show.

[xerinmichellex.livejournal.com]

I'll join the minority and say I liked the ending. Oddly, I think it fits the show; though I can't explain how. Grrr! Lost still giving me headaches.

What I took away from it was everyone on Oceanic 815, when they died, were in this "trapped" state, and fixating on what their lives could have been, or they constructed completely new lives. Only when a large group of them met up, could they "move on" or "let go."

[redcurrantbasil.livejournal.com]

SHUT UP if Vincent didn't go to heaven I hate everyone

[redcurrantbasil.livejournal.com]

WTF I don't like his theories

[xelegantusagix.livejournal.com]

Glad to know Kimmel was as confused as everyone else

[redcurrantbasil.livejournal.com]

I was super happy that we got a final SON OF A BITCH this episode as well as a few dudes and brothas.

[jharrison19.livejournal.com]

does someone have that gif of hugo throwing the chicken wing at ben, cause that needs to be in the opening sequence of their tv show.

nevermind, HOT POCKET

[jharrison19.livejournal.com]

[veracity]

Also: those in Atlanta, Kimmel will be playing after the sports updates...because that's more important than Lost, you know, the show that's been on all dang day practically.

Just so y'all know and are aware that we're 30 minutes behind the rest of the world.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

SAME HERE

[smu.livejournal.com]

I don't watch Lost, so I'm a total outsider, but it sounds like the show pulled a total C.S. Lewis here.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

This is a fairly good approximation of the Sideways Timeline. But everything else in the first five seasons (and half this final season) was real.

[zoethe.livejournal.com]

No heaven for doggies.

I'm most disturbed by the shots of the beach with the original wreckage and no survivors. What's that telling us? Was it ALL fake?

[veracity]

Personally, I'm running with the theory that a five-year-old's imaginary world was realized better than this show.


But that's me and my former imaginary shape-shifting chicken friend world speaking.