Dead Man Walking

My first reaction after seeing that closeup of Jack's eye wide shut in the final frame was, "so this was what Lindelof and Cuse had in mind all along?! That Jack Shepard would die in the final scene, even though they mentioned time and time again that the character of Jack was originally supposed to die in the pilot?!"  No wonder they've gone into radio silence.  They're probably thinking, "Gotcha, suckers!"

But, to their credit, even if the entire series was bookcased with Jack's eyeball,  then I'm glad I never figured out what that final frame was going to be.  Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss.  And for me, all the wild and unpredictable plot turns, twists, flashbacks, flashforwards, and flashsideways were pure TV bliss.  The actual ending of the series may have sucked - depending on your expectations - but for me, it will always be about the journey this show took me on. 

Having said that, I still enjoyed a lot of this final episode. Mainly all of the epiphanies the folks in Sideways World had when they finally made that connection with their past.  It did seem a bit Stepford Wives-ish as they all came to the conclusion that they were all walking zombies late for a rendevous at the Church of the Inner Light (the way Kate smiled a knowing smile at clueless Jack as she led him to the church, the way Jin and Sun nodded and left a clueless Sawyer standing in that hospital room, and the way Hugo bid farewell to Ben, who obviously still had some issues with letting go).

I feel for all of  those Lost fanatics who wanted more of the Island's mysteries solved, but honestly, would it have made any difference?  Maybe the lesson for them is to also learn to just let it go.  Life is confusing and unexplainable, get used to it. Sure, we never did find out how turning  the Donkey Wheel makes you land in Tunisia, but then, the answer might have been as lame as what was finally revealed inside the Glowy Cave.  Now that we know that the island was - literally - a giant cork holding the evil of the world at bay (I guess) I have to admit I felt a  little letdown.  That giant cork plugging up that hole seemed pretty lame.  It took the Smoke Monster hundreds of years to find someone to crawl down that hole and unplug that cork?!

So, for me, even though I came away from the finale feeling a bit disappointed with how things were wrapped up, I now look back on the series with a great deal of fondness.  And I actually appreciate the fact that not every single mystery was solved.  I also liked the fact that Hurley and Ben lived on to rule the island as #1 and #2 for (evidently) many years.  And  l liked that at least some of the castaways actually made it off the island.  It was a great suprise to see Frank Lapidus alive and well and wise-cracking his way into the horizon with a still-living but now mortal Richard Alpert, Kate, Sawyer, Claire and Miles.  I would have liked to see Desmond end up with Penny, instead of being stuck on that kooky island with Hugo and Ben, but in The End, he and Penny still had each other in Sideways World, and on into eternity...I guess. 

Honestly, there was no perfect ending for such a convoluted and complex series like Lost.  I'm sorry to see it go, but I'm still really glad I got to experience the ride.