Lost

Gotta blog about the final episode of "Lost." Spoilers follow.

Way back during the first season, I speculated that the island on "Lost" was actually Purgatory. Back then, I regularly listened to the show's podcast, and the producers denied it. Perhaps they were thinking, "No the island is not Purgatory, but the side forwards we're gonna show you in the final season is."

What makes "Lost" a remarkable series is that it's one of the few mass-market entertainment that honestly looks at spiritual issues, even Christian ones, with the character names and the literature references. Another thing that makes it unusual is that it's rooted in history and literature. It's smart, and it assumes that its audience is also smart, even if sometimes it isn't.

I'm specifically thinking of the post I read, just yesterday, in which the writer expressed her wish that the writers had been more clear about Jack's dad's name, Christian Shepherd, before the finale when Kate commented on it. Makes me wonder if the poster got the significance of Jack's name, either. Or the significance of the title of the series--how all of the main characters were lost in some way, and how the island and their relationships with each other brought them to redemption.

It's been said that "Lost" is a character study. I agree, because for me, all the questions that didn't get answered matters little to me. The finale was satisfying to me because I cared deeply for the characters. After Sun and Jin's death, my favorite characters and my favorite storyline, I cried everytime they were on screen. I spent a great deal of time in tears during the finale, because the end of their journey touched me profoundly.

There were plenty of the little "moments" I'm so fond of in my media. For me, the best moments were when each character realized the nature of the flash sideways. "Did you see it?" they asked each other. I loved how Jack volunteered to be Jacob's replacement, and how Hurley (who I thought would be the ultimate replacement) stepped in. I loved it when Hurley told Ben that he was a good "number two" and how Ben wasn't ready to join the others in the church. I loved how both Ben and Hurley were there, even though their deaths obviously happened later. (I do wonder what happened to everyone in that plane, though.) I loved how Locke was able to tell Ben that he forgave him.

I loved it that "the Man in Black" was never named, although in my mind, I called him, "Esau." I mean, he was Jacob's brother. And finally, I loved that the series ended as it began, with Jack on the ground and looking at his eye, and with all these characters I grew to love through the years experiencing true love, acceptance, and forgiveness.