The Lost Diary

first

I LOVED IT!

I kind of felt hosed. It was kind of like the end of the Sopranos, only a little bit more beautiful. Maybe watching it a 2nd time's a charm. But yeah...I thought there were a lot of people missing in the church - Walt, Michael, I didn't see Daniel or Miles either, but maybe I have to pause it. Really just kind of unsure what to think. All that build up and time spent for that.

sigh...

I didn't care for it.

Best ending ever. Its still rolling around in my head, and will be for a long time. Thanks to everybody involved. And thank you for an ending that will be remembered along with MASH.

And thanks for a great site!!

Thanks Daniel for writing so many wonderful posts! Been reading them for a while, never posted.
Hope you pick up a new show soon that I can follow with you!
Lost, it was confusing, it was crazy, it was wonderful. See you on the other side!

Thanks for an incredible 6 year run Daniel! Namaste brutha! :)

Eh !!! AAA+++

So wait.... why did I invest 6 years of my life in this show? What really was the purpose? They all fucking die in the end? EVERYONE dies.... why was this a surprise.

I am glad this show died. No more stupid smoke monsters and time travel and unresolved plots. What a waste of time.

gonna miss u daniel. looked forward to the diary every week for years. thanks for the fun

I loved the finale for the most part (those last confusing minutes) but I didn't cry - but I cried to read Daniel gave the show an A+!!! I guess I'm weird. Sideways is Purgatory, Daniel - that's the answer. Makes sense to me.

Remember back in season 2 when everyone cared about the others and the Dharma Initiative? [That was when LOST was good]
If I had told you that for the entire last Season of LOST both would be an afterthought, you'd be upset right? I mean, what was the point of this show?

My issue is with the whole flash side ways being the quest to pass on. It wrapped the show up, but I guess I was disappointed.
Walt who was a big part of the first couple seasons was basically nothing.
Eko didn't return.
I get that Hurley and Ben spent the rest of their lives protecting the island, but from who? Mocke died, no one took his place.
It's tough; the writers said they knew where this was going the whole time, but I just can't believe that.

i thought the ending was superb, haven't been able to stop thinking about it since 11:30pm. As George Harrison said, all things must pass, bummer it's gone.

All I can think is that I don't want anyone at work to ask me about the show last night--still too much to process.

One little question: Did anyone see Miles, Richard or Lapidus in the last group scene in the church?

I'm with you, Daniel: when Jack said he had died, I was like...um,ok. But I still felt satisfied. Tightrope walk for the writers--not bad:)

Also a guy perfected time travel and that wasn't a big deal?
The mystery of the island was never explained. I mean the place can heal people, shouldn't that kind of be huge?

WHERE'S MR. EKO? Boooo!

My take:
On the one hand, it was awesome and I feel very satisfied about what happened to the characters. But on the other hand, I'm super confused and still trying to get my thoughts straight. Finding out that the sideways world was basically their created hold-over to heaven mostly worked for me... but then some things bother me, like why did Jack have a son? Was it to finally fully resolve his own father issues? Did Desmond realize that the sideways world was death? How/when did they create this world? Was it subconscious? Were the first dead souls (Shannon, Charley, etc.) just waiting around for the other souls to die, and in the meantime they created a place to wait? And does this mean that the hydrogen bomb did nothing other than making the island time-skip back to the present? I was under the impression that the bomb created the sideways world, but that must not be the case. I'd like to think that the sideways world began on the Oceanic 815 flight that opened the season, rather than thinking that all the Losties had to live another entire lifetime before finding one another and moving on to heaven.

I think I actually understand the ending, it reminded me of the ending of titanic where rose dies and finally reunites with the rest of the dead passengers, I know it's a stupid comparison but it was just when Christian said "some of them died long before you and some died long after"

i thought the ending was superb, haven't been able to stop thinking about it since 11:30pm. As George Harrison said, all things must pass, bummer it's gone.

I think the light is the bridge between our world, and whatever the next one is. The closest we get to it here on earth is when we are with our Constant.
The finale showed our group, with their Constants, moving forward.

I am so grateful for this show. It made me think, I was engaged; I will truly miss it.

@k-rob - The ones in the church were just the ones that meant the most to Jack - so that's why no Miles, Richard, Lapidus, Walt, Michael, or others that he knew, but - just wasn't into as much . . .

Ok, so....it's what a lot of people thought. The portal between heaven and hell and 6 degrees of separation..but....what is the deal...was it real, was it a dream, what the hell was it???

I have to laugh at all the posts so far.

There was no scenario to conclude LOST that would have satisfied everyone.

Almost everyone has trashed the last 10 minutes of the show. Watch it again!

THIS WAS FINAL RESOLUTION

After years (centuries??) of being LOST, the characters are reunited with those that meant the most to them in their lives --- and they can all move on together, and be with those people.

For everyone who is complaining about the ending..please write a one paragraph finale that would have been acceptable to you!

I would welcome seeing what you wanted to see.

"And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make"

The Lost characters that found love on the island are the ones that went to "heaven" together.

Thank you thelostdiary!

Like I wrote last night, I am still upset about the last 7 minutes.

My take (part II):
My husband is disappointed that they didn't explain what the island is, but I'm satisfied with the giant-pocket-of-electromagnetic-energy-that-makes-crazy-stuff-happen explanation. I think the island is like a microcosm of earth or life itself. There are scientific explanations (island = electromagnetic energy, earth = big bang theory), which you can interpret in many ways (island = some sort of magical/godly/constructed world with rules, earth = created by God(s), etc.). Ultimately you won't find out in this lifetime if your meaning of life theory is correct, and I appreciate that Lost left us in the same position. We can theorize and construct our own way of understanding what the meaning/truth of Lost was, just as we do with life itself. I'm glad we weren't told point-blank.

I loved this show. I thought it was a great finale, but I am so, so sad that it's over.

It wasn't what I was expecting either but it seems inevitable that it ended as it did. The window in the church with the symbols of different religions was a nice touch. I wasn't blown away but I think it gave me closure while still leaving me with questions which is how I hoped it would go.
Thank you for sharing your Lost Diary... I have enjoyed reading it and comparing my reactions with your own (often hilarious) reactions.
Cheers!

The sideways flash was their purgatory. And now that they're all together (the most important people in their lives) they can pass onto the other side; the other life. Lost is and was EPIC.

It was absolutely a wonderful ending... I still have a few questions but it is wonderful to have a show that gets you thinking. I'm happy and sad all at the same time. Best Show EVER!!!

Daniel...Are you channeling Jack in the 9:00 AM post. LOL !

Great way to start the day !

Watching the end, it didn't seem to me that the flash sideways was just Jack's imagination. I really felt that it was happening to all of them. I liked the idea that some of them had gone on and led longer lives that we didn't get to see. Like, how long were Hurley and Ben on the island together? As long as Jacob and Smokey? Pretty cool to think about...

I love Lost. I am going to miss the show. I was a little disappointed in the ending b/c a lot of stuff got left unanswered or unexplained. I feel though that with the way it ended it left an opening for maybe a movie or spin-off. Lets hope anyway.

Thanks Daniel. Reading your thoughts after every episode always made my day!

Re: the finale - A headline says it well: Plot lovers hated it; those who cared about characters loved it. I cared about the characters so I loved the finale.

Never posted Daniel, but I have been reading your Diary since you started it. Going to miss coming on here Wednesday mornings to read your hilarious play by plays!

What an amazing episode. I went to sleep thinking about it, woke up thinking about it and probably will do nothing but think about it all day today. Still have some questions. I still wonder 'what now'? Does that mean they just continue on with their normal lives after they meet in the church? I need to watch it again, for sure. I love that it ended the same way the show began via Jack's eyes. It was pretty dusty wear I was sitting too. Can't wait to read these posts today! Thanks for doing this Daniel!

Daniel, I'm going to miss reading this blog so much!!! Thank you. You've been a great part of LOST for me. Please do another show like you did this one so I can read it again?

Great post for the finale, and I'd even agree with the grade. The ending might still confuse me a bit, but they're happy in the Alt. Line, and the closure is great in the Original Line.

Personally I loved the finale. For a guy I got incredibly dusty with the Claire moments and when Shannon came back. I found that the finale, in its own 'Lost' way, answered a lot of the Man of Science questions.

-- First, the FlashSideways was Purgatory. A place where you would go before you passed over to the other side. When Christian opened the door it allowed them to pass. This was also evidenced by how Locke was able to walk even though his muscles were atrophied.

-- Second, No Walt was very upsetting. I think that Walt eventually got too old and they didn't have the time to properly answer the questions surrounding him. Probably the only let down of the episode

-- Third, the 'Rules' surrounding Jacob were made up by mother. There was no need for an incantation just the passing of a drink to another was all that was needed. The idea that no one could leave the island which is what mother told Jacob was made up - She was a crazy woman.

This show really had it all. Suspenseful moments, dusty moments and it didn't make me feel like I wasted 120.5 hours of my life. Overall I'm very happy

Daniel--truly, thank you for the second best thing about watching LOST...looking forward to your Diary the next day. I feel exactly the same...those last five minutes happened too fast for my brain to completely absorb but in the most classic fashion, it'll be something that will be kicking around in my head for days...weeks? and beyond?

Epic and heart wrenching. An absolutely rewarding end to the wonderous journey that was Lost. Your review brought back the tears. Thanks Daniel and thanks Lost!

Daniel,

I've read your LOST Diary for years and I'm sad to see it all end. The finale didn't disappoint me in anyway...it was done in typical LOST fashion...leaving you scratching your head, going, WTF just happened?!! Thanks for all the years and insight into the best show EVER!!

Oh, and you even got me to tear up in the last bit of your post Daniel. I'm glad I stayed home today.

Thank you so much. I have loved reading your blog during the last couple of seasons. It's been awesome!

Anyway, I see it like this: We all have to die, and what if when we died we transitioned into the life we always wanted and then were brought by the people we cared about into the afterlife? That's what Lost was doing. Everybody dies at different times but our souls wait for the people that are our soul mates.

My man (well..lady) of science is still pissed as hell...but the faith part of me loved it.

Oh and Vincent should have been in the church...just saying

I am still sorting things out in my head. This finale was definitely not what I expected, but I do get it. I got so completely wrapped up in the island mystery, so I am a little disappointed from that aspect. I am, however, very grateful for Daniel and everyone here. This was my first experience blogging and it has been a great one. I have been here from the beginning and mustered up the courage to post after 3 years. Thank you to everyone. I hope Daniel will find a way to keep something going. Good luck to all of you. Thank you very much Daniel for your time and dedication.

What about the NUMBERS?

Thank YOU Daniel... Sometimes I posted often, sometimes months without posts, but I always, always, always read this Diary and the subsequent facebook page. This blog made it more enjoyable to watch and disecting it with everyone here is proof that it is one of the most well-written, thought provoking, and beautifully acted shows of all time.

Thanks everyone! Today is a bittersweet day.

oh and I did really want to see Richard in the coffin all Cryptkeeper-y.

I have already jumped on the sideways = purgatory band wagon. But I just thought of a problem - the enhanced episodes early this season said the sideways world shows what would happen if the Oceanic 815 never crashed. So how does that fit with sideways being purgatory?

I think you nailed why some loved the ending and some hated it. For the Men of Faith it was what they wanted, for the Men of Science something seems lacking. I loved it and plan on watching it a few more times to catch more of it.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us! I'll miss the Lost Diary.

Great series finale! Daniel....thanks for the ride :) I've had fun commenting here every week. And to those of you who were anxiously waiting for Vincent...well, there you go. Vincent the wonder dog made his final cameo. Peace.

I just need to know.....When did they really die? On the first plane? The Reset?- Which is it? Oh and I hate Sawyer with Juliet-sorry had to say it!

Thank you Daniel! I read everyone off your "diaries" and enjoyed them immensely.

I absolutely loved the finale and really though it couldn't have been any better. I mean did we really expect LOST to give us answers? That would have been disappointing!

First, every morning after Lost, I look forward to the Diary.. more forward to the Diary than any other blog, posting, etc about the show. Thank you, Daniel, for keeping it going & sharing your thoughts.

Second, I'm satisfied with the ending..I think. I still have some questions, but I think that's okay..and like you, am looking forward to the blog world today. So sad it's all over. Great finale.

And to answer your question, I'd definitely tell people to watch Lost. Definitely.

Thanks Daniel

I was thinking everyone on the island would have to die to be reunited in the flash sideways and that's how they would spend the rest of their lives. The point being that these people were to end up together anyway. So, was that Jack's heaven??

Great post. First time comment. I have a theory on the last 5 minutes. The theory is that all of the characters are brought to the island/Purgatory so that they can deal with their own individual issues so that they can move on - in other words they are all dead or if not dead they are given one last try at redemption before dieing and moving on - something they could not do in their own lives back "in the real world" - they needed each other to help in that journey. Now for the next level of theory - notice how they all kept saying throughout the show that "Its time to let go" or "Its time to go". My thought is all of the other characters when they have their moment of clarity and remember the island that they have now dealt with their issue and were now able to move on from the island/Purgatory to whatever is next. So in the end my feeling is - the 6 years of this show is told from Jack's perspective of his journey of redemption/ or his dealing with his issues so that he could finally "Let go" and move forward. The scene at the end is a celebration or re-union of everyone welcoming Jack to the next level - something they all have done. I think this fits with Desmond's famous line - "See ya in another life, brutha!"

Just a question.......after Jack punched Locke in the mouth to show him he could bleed, Locke knocked Jack unconcious with a rock. He then left and five minutes later tried to kill Jack in a fight. Why didn't Locke just kill Jack while he was unconscious.......five minutes before he tried to kill him anyways???

@Danielle - They all died whenever they originally died in island time. Christian told Jack that some had died before him and some long after. He told him that there was no "now". So it didn't matter when they died..they all were together again after.

Ok, so....it's what a lot of people thought. The portal between heaven and hell and 6 degrees of separation..but....what is the deal...was it real, was it a dream, what the hell was it???

I knew some people would hate this episode, but for me this final episode was amazing!! I loved every minute of it. I laughed and I cried. Kind of like telling a good friend good-bye. I will miss this show!

I was speechless when it ended, and still am. It was so great to watch, and dusty too. Thanks Daniel for the Diary. I have been a loyal reader from the begining. I think the one thing that would have made it better for me is if everyone who died on the the plane would have been in the church. They should have all gone to the light together...Michael, Walt, Ana Lucia, Mr. Eko...
Today is definitely a melancholy day...I will be thinking about LOST for a while.
See ya in another life...

Daniel!!

I am so glad you realized the impact of the finale: Grade of A+

Totally agree! We have never seen anything like the finale of LOST before.

We have never seen a show like LOST before.

Thanks to Daniel for doing this for 6 years, and thanks to all of you for providing some "verbal intercourse" with all the rest of us!

We were LOST, but now we are found!

Great post. First time comment. I have a theory on the last 5 minutes. The theory is that all of the characters are brought to the island/Purgatory so that they can deal with their own individual issues so that they can move on - in other words they are all dead or if not dead they are given one last try at redemption before dieing and moving on - something they could not do in their own lives back "in the real world" - they needed each other to help in that journey. Now for the next level of theory - notice how they all kept saying throughout the show that "Its time to let go" or "Its time to go". My thought is all of the other characters when they have their moment of clarity and remember the island that they have now dealt with their issue and were now able to move on from the island/Purgatory to whatever is next. So in the end my feeling is - the 6 years of this show is told from Jack's perspective of his journey of redemption/ or his dealing with his issues so that he could finally "Let go" and move forward. The scene at the end is a celebration or re-union of everyone welcoming Jack to the next level - something they all have done. I think this fits with Desmond's famous line - "See ya in another life, brutha!"

still a bit confused about the last 5 min as well but loved it! thanks for the lost diaries daniel you rock, i will miss you

The amazing part is how deeply I care about these characters and how I was sobbing at the end. It was a masterpiece...the entire six year run. The final scene of Jack dying with Vincent lying next to him finished me off...OMG...need a tissue again! A++++

To anwer in less then 5 minutes - LOST is about love, faith and the determination of the human spirit. A really good read that makes sense of the last 5 minutes read The Five People You Meet In Heaven - by Mitch Albom. It makes perfect sense!

I think the "men of science" are the ones disappointed with the finale, the "men of faith" saw it as a perfect and beautiful journey. It is all about love and understanding and not fearing to let go because an end is never an end.

still absorbing everything. I think the the alt reality is the place where they all could play out what would have happened if the plane didn't crash. when they were living during the island timeline...Think of your own life, when some terrible tragedy happens to you, and you keep thinking how your life would have been if that event didn't happen.

Despite loving the show, mostly, what I really wanted was some sort of blend of Island and Sideways worlds, where everyone ended up alive. Sure, it would have been cheesey - it's just what I wanted. :)

This whole season, I've been glued to my seat while watching each episode, but then felt sort of cheated when each was over. For 6 years, we've been told it's not purgatory, but guess what--it's purgatory. It's like they got too far into it and then didn't have the energy to explain it all at the end. What was the point of those great beginning seasons if they were just pushed aside at the end? Still love all the characters, but feel a little cheated.

I was basically satisfied with the ending. But would Locke really prefer to go to heaven with Rose and Bernard, Shannon, etc. instead of Peggy Bundy? And Boone never even met a lot of those people. His real life must have been awful.

I've been reading the diary since '07. I must say your final entry was just as "worth it" as the LOST finale was to me. Although I have yet to figure out the last five minutes either, you really captured the essence of the episode/show when you said you weren't watching alone you were watching with all of the fans. It made me notice the dust in my room. Thanks for hanging in there with the rest of us all these years, Daniel! Good luck! Keep us updated on new shows to invest in!

Thanks for the LOST diary. I have been reading this for years and never posted a comment. I thought the ending was great. Was can be more final than moving on in death. Great characters and a fun ride. I will miss the show. There won't be another show like it.

Thank you, Daniel, for giving us this space, your thoughts and your humor for the past 6 years. I don't have any real life friends who watch Lost, so for me, you've been an integral part of the Lost experience. See you in another life, brutha.

The one thing I can't get my mind around is Desmond. He was the only one who was alive on-island, and also aware of the flash-sideways (purgatory) world. When he went down into where the light was, after he moved the stone, he told Jack "I was wrong". He seemed to think that the exposure would send him somewhere. To the purgatory? off-island? I still don't understand what went on with Des.

As for Hurley protecting the island, the Mother lady was protecting the island alone in the beginning, too. There wasn't an "evil" force on-island until Jacob created Smokie by floating MIB into the cave.

@ L - I think one big theory is not that it was ALL purgatory - just sideways world. Island world, flash backs and flash forwards were all real. And what happened, happened.

But in purgatory - it wasn't exactly that, in the Roman Catholic sense. Sort of like it, where you could work issues out and do penance (Ben) as needed. Before gathering with all most important to you and moving on (last 5 minutes).

thanks for this place, i looked forward to reading this after every episode, see you in another life brother...

While I loved the finale, the only event I did not care for was the reunion of SAYID and SHANNON.

Didn't we all think that NADIA was SAYID's reue love??

Also, someone complained that BOONE was not with anyone --- he died when he was 21 on the ISLAND, and never did have a good relationship with anyone except SHANNON.

I read that Mr. Eko didn't want to come back. They asked, he declined. Not sure why Michael or Walt weren't there, but I really enjoyed the episode. Sure I'm confused, but I'm also satisfied. Thanks for all the diaries Daniel!

Well... last night I was disappointed in the ending. I dreamed about LOST all night long. Like Daniel... I'm a true sci fi fan and I was upset that "some" of my questions were not answered. I truly do not think the creators knew any other way to end the series. I always thought purgatory was involved in the show and the producers said no... not it. I feel they lied a bit about that. I'm glad it's over. I won't be talking about this show for years. I get the ending... but it seemed a like a copout ending. I don't know what I was expecting from the finale. I expected to be blown out of the water. Didn't happen. Thanks Daniel for all the years of good reading and chatting about a show I loved.

It wasn't ALL purgatory. The sideways was purgatory/heaven's waiting room/whatever you want to call it. Christian explained it all...some of them died before Jack, some died long after but that was the place they created where they could meet up again because they were the most important people in each other's lives. The island time was all real...the sideways was after they died whatever death they ended up with.

Wow!!! As usual so many different feelings. As someone already correctly stated emotionally but not not intellectually satisfied! Thanks for all the Lost times with you all.

Thanks Daniel for letting us share our LOST experiences with you as well.

I have to say I was overall disappointed in the finale. If they had given that finale to me after a few episodes with more answers, I would feel much better about it.

I still feel I don't know what the Island was all about. The light cave with Jack and Desmond was just really cheesy.

While I was watching it though, I enjoyed it. But I can't help feeling hosed like someone else mentioned above. I still have so many questions that I just don't even know what I would tell someone when they asked me if it would be worth watching the show. I would probably tell them no unfortunately.

Wasn't blown away at the "last 10 minutes" either, but as usual, after reading some of the posts here, It makes a ton more sense.

I too thought that they all died in the crash, glad to know that they didn't. Also whoever pointed out that Juliet WANTED a son and Jack NEED one, made that part of sideways better for me, though who knew you could get DIVORCED in Purgatory!! LOL!

I did love that the Jack's eye closing and Vincent by his side, as dogs are wont to do when someone is hurt/ill.

Would have liked to know a little more about Mrs. Hawkings and who some of the random things like who was Locke's father and was he the same person driving the car that hit Emily?

It wasn't just you Daniel who had a lot of dust going on last night.
I still have a headache from the hours of crying I did last night, with all the sweet reunions and the strange, but touching last few minutes. I completely lost it when Vincent appeared out of the jungle to lie down with the dying Jack.
Still not completely clear on what the hell happened, nor do I expect to ever understand everything about LOST, but suffice it say, it was some of the BEST TV EVER!

Just answer me one question: Why did Ben decline to enter the church with the rest of them? Hmmmmm?

I thought the whole SHOW was purgatory and that's why the credits rolled over the same plane crash from the pilot episode, except no one was walking around. It was just a plain old tragic plane crash. What else was the purpose of showing all that wreckage for so long?

Best show ever. Best acting. Best writing. Best ending. I feel like I have been to a funeral. Thanks for taking me some place mysterious, thanks for making me think, thanks for making me reflect. It's just a show. Time to now let it go and live life.

Didn't anyone else wonder why Ben didn't go into the church????

LOVED the finale! I cried like a baby.

My question is...WHEN did they die? When the plane first exploded over the island and the picture at the bottom of the sea WAS really them? Or did Jack linger a while after the crash and this was all in his head? Some died before and some died after......

Don't think of it as a funeral...Think of it as a Wake !

If it was a purgatory theme maybe Ben didn't go in because he hadn't done enough penance yet???? One of the questions not answered!!!!!!

Everyone is mentioning the window in the church, what about the various religious artifacts everything from menorrahs, buddahs, other Hindu gods, etc were all over that room.

@ Mr. F and the rest of the Fringies out there - will look for you on the Fringe board when it starts up again in the Fall. I watched the finale over the weekend - I got chills when I saw the back of Olivia's neck. I really thought that Des was going to pull a William Bell to get them into the Sideways world. The ending was a bit confusing.

I noticed some people are asking why Michael wasnt in the church...
Last night on Jimmy Kimmel it was said Michael wasnt in the church because he's stuck on the island, he's still the whispers. Michael still hasnt been able to "let go"

Frankly these writers had the easiest job in television. If, as they say, they already knew how it was going to end, then they could write ANYTHING they wanted and it would not have mattered. They could create any situation or any mystery and in the end it was not about that. In their mind, the island was not the main story of the show, it was the relationships. If you are like me, you were first drawn to the show with the intrigue about the island. They wrote all that knowing that it did not matter. Easiest job ever !!!

Thank you Daniel/TMZ for giving us Lost fans a place to gather, our own little church/ funeral. Daniel, you just opened up the big doors to let us all leave and go into the light, and to bring our good Lost memories with us. Regardless of loving or hating the ending, 6 years in purgatory wondering WTF was going on, now we can move forward.
See ya in another blog, brotha

The producers didnt lie about no purgatory, the specifically said "the island was not purgatory", which it was not. The island was real, their experiences were real, and all the deaths were real.

@leosmama, they all died exactly when we saw them die. Charlie died in the Looking Glass, Michael died on the frieghtor, Boone died in the caves, Jack died in the bamboo, etc... The only ones who we dont know when they died are those who left the island or lived on the island. Like Hurley, Ben, Rose, Bernard, Kate, Claire, Frank, Miles, Richard, etc...

I agree with you 100% Daniel. It's all about being a man or woman of faith. Thank you for this blog, and 6 wonderful years of writing. I will miss u and this blog as much as I will miss my beloved Lost characters. I'll be back after work to read everyone's comments. I'm still in shock that is it over. Thank you Daniel and yes we will see you in another life!

Namaste!

It's funny how some of the commenters want everything wrapped up in a nice neat package. I don't know how anyone could expect that after watching the show for any length of time.

The other missing person from the church should have been HELEN/PEG BUNDY.

She loved LOCKE and I would think she should have been with him into "eternity". She seemed to be the only person LOCKE loved.

I've been reading this blog for a while and have really enjoyed it. The finale was very satisfying for me. Once I learned that a lot of the mysteries wouldn't be answered, and was at peace w/that, I was able to focus on other things. I didn't see the ending coming and I loved that. Great show! It'll be sorely missed.

@ Mr F I only just finished watching (yes tears still) Vincent lay down next to Jack so I'm not making much sense.

My comment about What Happened, Happened debate is because I feel there may need to be a referee for my take on the sideways.

Ben didn't want to go in yet so he is still in Purgatory. One is in Purgatory until they are ready to move on. So in my -- very wanting to muse over lost characters interacting with each other for a while -- Lost Mind the losties et al are in purgatory for a looonng time, living, interacting, before they head for the church and move on.

Maybe I'll just go take my meds and talk to myself for awhile. :) I love this show!!

To clarify my thoughts: The Island was their real life. The sideways was Purgatory.

"But for every single second leading up to those last five minutes, I was certain I was watching the greatest episode of television I had ever seen."

That was exactly how I felt the whole time. I think I even told my fried those exact words this morning.
Thanks for your great blog here. I looked forward to it every week just as much as I looked forward to watching the show.

Ok so i thought it was a great finale. The show pretty much answered many questions and even may have created a couple. List still kept its escence to the end, which was great.
I dont think the flash sideways was all in Jack's head. I believe it was all some sort of afterlife place... Kinda like heaven. And everyone went threre to meet up after they died at some point in each persons life.
As to why not everyon was there, i dont know. But what i do know is why Michael was not there. On Jimmy Kimmel last night, the actor who played Michael said he was not there because he (Michael; his soul) is among the many who could not leave the island and is forced to be part of the whispers.
All in all it was a good last show. Totaly unexpected ending, but i guess thats what makes lost... well lost.
I would also like to thank Daniel. Thanks to you, i will never look at lost or any other show the same again (in a good way). I can let go now.

First off, I loved the finale. I will deeply miss it and I do not think that we will ever have a show on tv like it again.

To Daniel, I want to thank you for all of your posts. It was always my tradition to watch an episode of Lost & then to come read your posts the day after. Thank you for making Lost so much more as well with us all.

Thank God for all of these comments...they have always helped me understand. So, everyone is saying the island time was real time. So, the plane did crash and people actually did survive and actually live through that. Can't be...Jack say his did in the first ep...dead! Help

Ben didn't go in because he was waiting for his "daughter" and the crazy French lady.

I think there should be a spinoff show... Hurley and Ben run the island. It could be a comedy. It would be a great show!!

Loved reading your posts! The show left me with lots of questions, but was pretty satisfactory to me anyway.

and time does not exist in Sideways/Heaven's waiting room-that's why Locke can get up and walk after surgery so soon, Sun got up so quickly after being shot, Ben had no healing cuts on his face, not did Locke, Eloise was setting up for that party a few weeks ago, Desmond didn't find and convince all the Losties in one day, Kate was wearing different clothing from when she entered the church...etc. There was no now in sideways-it was infinite time. I loved it.

Samantha,

In the end credits, they showed the plane wreckage with the shelters. So they had been there, and they finally were all gone. Except Hurley and Ben, of course.

Daniel,

Wonderful post worthy of the journey of LOST. Welcome to the faith!
;->

There's no way everyone is going to be satisfied, and even I have to admit I felt some of the on-island plotting was weak -- Not-Locke/MIB deserved a better death; the weak Indiana Jones "bathtub drain" of the source, etc. -- but emotionally, it took us right where we needed to be. All the mysteries, all the puzzles were great fun, but they paled to the emotional connection we had to the characters. The final dramatic place they took Jack was absolutely where he needed to be, yet surprised me with its full cathartic force ... which is so appropriate seeing that catharsis means "cleansing" or "purging".

(Even if the "secret" to LOST turned out to be the lyrices to a 3 Dog Night from "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead" episode where Hurely starts the VW van.)
;->

"Wash away my troubles, wash away my pain
With the rain in Shambala
Wash away my sorrow, wash away my shame
With the rain in Shambala

How does your light shine, in the halls of Shambala"

My sister turned me on to the show and your blog early on the first season and I've been reading faithfully since. It will be sad to have it come to an end, but it has been an honor and delight to have made your acquaintance here.

Best of luck to you in all.

See ya in another life, brutha.

Bill

jeeez-typos...I meant to write, "Jack say his dad in the first ep...

I must say it didn't tank the entire series for me, but I honestly don't know if I would recommend people watch all six seasons knowing where and how it ends.

I just don't know.

I was really hoping the plane that Jack saw in the sky as he lay dying was Oceanic 815 -- that actually would have saved the finale for me, because that would have been a L O S T moment.

As has been typical for me, I fell asleep during the last 15 minutes. Can you believe it?

Ok, I agree it was a show about the characters, but the writers made the island itself a character. Someone posted yesterday that the show was really about purgatory, but when everyone guessed it right away, they needed to change course. Since the sideways was purgatory, that would prove the writers always knew how it would end, They always intended to a create a show about purgatory. I got closure about all the characters except the Island. They created mysteries, just for the sake of a mystery, knowing they would never have to provide any answers. Here was a thought I had about the "cave of light". Why didn't Jake or Desmond turn into black smoke? There were several skeletons down there already, which would lead me to believe several people went into the cave before. I just want some insights, not all the answers. Why create all the intrigue about a special island as a central character, but not truly address it in the finale.

@magnetowife, exactly, nice post! There was no "when" in the LAX / after life timeline. Once I figured out this was the same concert Eloise was setting up for when we first saw LAX it all began to fit into place.

Take out the "everyone is dead lets all meet up at the church" and we would have had something good there.

@ ChiTownEric
I couldn't agree with you more!! I feel cheated about the answers and wrap-up regarding the character of the 'Island'.

I also think Sayid would have been with Nadia and Locke should have been with Helen. I don't know why some of the characters were left out of the church scene.

Why was Aaron so special?

There are just too many questions left unanswered for me.

I guess I am a Lady of Science.

@ ChiTownEric... "Why create all the intrigue about a special island as a central character, but not truly address it in the finale"...

That right there is the only thing that I don't like about the finale. I can live without knowing about alot of the stuff, but the ISLAND... I wanted to see a flashback about the ISLAND.

I really would wish people would stop asking about Eko. He was a great character but what people don't seem to understand "in real life" he wasn't thrilled about living in Hawaii to film the show so eventually they had to write him out somehow. He was invited to come back for the finale and he DECLINED. The writers can't answer a question if the answer doesn't want to participate! On JKL, Michael explained why he wasn't at the church...the only conclusion I can't draw about Walt is that due to his growth spurt, he's safely back home with his grandmother while Michael walks around whispering to everyone. I was disappointed on them not showing how Whidmore was enlightened by Jacob. It was just like sub-pilons-closet-DEAD. I was curious about how Jack was discarded from the hole like MIB but he was alive. Maybe it's like "crossing over to the other side." I'm glad I was right in my theory that Jack needed to "fix" Locke to kill Not Locke. In a sense "freeing" him from his body which was a living breathing prison for both Locke and Not Locke. I'm even more curious about Eloise Hawking and her role in all this.

DEAR GOD PEOPLE.

Go watch the last five minutes if you really think the island was Purgatory and not the FSways.

Christian clearly says that what happened was real. That people died before (Jin, Sayid, Shannon, Boone, etc.) and AFTER (Kate, Lapidus, Miles, Sawyer, etc.) him. This was Jack's death scene. Those were his important people.

The last shots of the wreckage were just shots of the wreckage meant to pull the viewer back in to the first season. If you looked carefully, there were foot prints showing you that people did survive. THEY DID NOT DIE IN THE PLANE CRASH.

Thanks for a great site to explore the greatest show ever. I was a true pleasure to read and blog and theorize with all of you. It will be missed.

As for the finale.. it was great. I did like the mystery side of the show and would have liked the series to have gone in a different direction, but once the decided to go the way they did, I totally loved it

Hi Daniel,
I am a first time poster but have enjoyed reading your Diary and everyone's comments for years. Thanks!

@ Anon --- you're right. The shelters were there. I forgot. So new theory --- that might get a little confusing. The flash sideways was ALWAYS their world up until they got on Oceanic 815. The stuff we didn't see --- i.e. Jack and Juliet being married, Hurley winning the lottery, Claire getting pregnant, etc. That was the real world. But then when they got on 815 it really crashed when the turbulence started (as Matthew Fox confirmed to Jimmy Kimmel last night, for whatever that's worth). Then the island was the purgatory Jack came up with in his head for them to deal with. The island world never existed -- it was created post-second-Oceanic Flight. Maybe that's why the dates never matched up --- why in flash-sideways world the flight was a month later. They all went back a month in island time? I don't know. Not making much sense I'm sure, but I'm still thinking the island wasn't real the whole time.

On a side note --- LOVED that Vincent made it to the end. I cried like a baby when he just laid down beside Jack.... sweet puppy.

From wikipedia...

After a successful year of integration into the Season 2 cast, Adewele (Mr. Eko) asked to be written off the series after losing both his parents in 2005

First of all- brittany murphy's husband died?

Second, I guess I sort of agree that the ending left us a bit like the sopranos- we can all decide for ourselves if we think the island really happened or if it was some sort of state they were in after death? I have to say that I probably agree with mr f. What happened, happened, when they died they ended up in this 'reality' with the people they cared for most- the survivors of oceanic flight 815

i have to say i loved miles duct tape remark right after bawling. it was some needed comic relief.

the message i got was the island was real. jack is wearing different clothes at the end when he dies. LA X was where they could all connect

those that weren't there at the end was due to they weren't ready to Let Go and move on so have more processing to do.

tho Helen not being there was a little odd however again if they were the most important peeps to Locke then I guess perhaps they trumped her. maybe she is going to join up later when she is ready to Let Go.

I think I loved it - I am still confused... So going by the posts above - the plane did crash and they all died when it crashed and the side-ways world is purgatory? Iguess I am still confused.

I do wish there was more on Dharma and "others" - how did that play into Jack's vision....????

"Live together, die alone". They all had to be together to accomplish anything. They all had to go back to the island. They all had to be there to move on to heaven.

Daniel--thank you; you've done a wonderful job with this blog and I will miss it! I wasn't a fan of The End, but I guess Lost holds different meaning to different people. I'm still on the "Man of Science" train, so I was left a little empty, but I get the end...it will just take me a long time to accept it. On the bright side, not liking the ending, took some of the blow away from the realization that the series ended. So I got that going for me, which is nice... ;)

@ChiTownEric, remember that the Light is the cause of the electromagnetism on the Island. We learned that in Across the Sea. So Des would be the only one who could go IN to the Light and be OK. That's why he survived. Jack didn't go INTO the Light. He went into the cave when there was no Light, and re-established it. Aside -- we all wondered what Flocke expected would happen when the last Candidate died. Now we know. He became human again.

The island represents the "Axis Mundi" the Navel of the world (see Joseph Campbell's work for details). The place that creates the reality we live in seperate from the spiritual dimensions of existence. Same idea as the Garden of Eden, which if you read Genesis, you see that there is an angel who guards it. Mother-Jacob-Jack-Hurley-whomever replaced Hurley as the protector are the guardians of Eden to use a Judeo-Christian term. Most if not all cultures have their own version of where mankind started. Life on the island was real. Life in the flash sideways was the awakening into their spiritual selves after death. The way for them to remember their lives in this lifetime. The story is about redemption of the human spirit through love. They all started out alone, and lost from their true selves. It living on the island for them all to realize that in the end, love is all that matters. Perhaps once they walk through the doors of the church and into the white light, they all truly start the journey again and fulfill the prophecy of Desmond to see each other in another life...Brotha!

Thanks for 6 great years, I will miss the show, and the puzzles it provided.

I just wanted to tell you that I will genuinely miss you as much or more as I will miss Lost. I only started watching because of you. Thank you!

No reason to recap or talk about future points or what may happen. We know now.

Just want to say Daniel if you read these, your analysis was dead on.

Didn't want a character study ending. Wanted a sci-fi ending and some answers. Got the character study ending.

Some of the most entertaining 110 minutes of the entire series.

The last 10 minutes are pure Lost whether we agree with them or not. As many answers as question it generates.

For me, I have to ask myself one question. Could I have written a better ending, a different ending, a sci-fi pleasing ending?

I don't think so. My hats off to the writers, the cast, the crew, and the online commmunity and to you Daniel. It really felt like I've watched many of these episodes with you.

Will recommend to my friends and family to watch it. In order. Pilot to finale.

Including the ending.

Until next time...

Team Vincent.

@jjm. The plane crashed. The Losties lived and the Island world was real. Sideways was a form of afterlife. I wouldn't call it purgatory. More like the narrow heaven in The Lovely Bones, before she's ready to move on from the form of things in this world. A place where they get to resolve what needed to be resolved, and get to live the way they wish they could have lived (eg Ben).

Some of you might want to grab a dictionary and check out the word 'purgatory'...it's not a holding place for dead people before they go to heaven, it's a place of suffering to repent for your sins so that after you have repented enough you might gain entry into heaven. There is no way that was in Lost, jmho.

This is how this group of people choose to spend eternity....as Christian said, the most significant part of their lives was their time together. Walt would not be there. He was on the island a short time as a child and as he said to Hurley in the asylum, no one came to see him later (except Locke).

Eko (who I loved by the way) I don't think would be with these individuals either or wait for them to die to pass on. Eko would be with Yemi. Michael is one of the whispers on the island, he can't move on.

And Daniel even was not as close to these people. His connection was to Charlotte. Whether this causes Elosie to lose her son again in the afterlfe is something interesting to consider. With Richard's long life, the best part of it certainly wasn't his "friendship" with Jack and company or Lapidus' either. Now I am a little surprised there was no Miles but who knows what life Miles had once he returned to the non-island world and who was in it. He clearly was still connected to Sawyer somehow in his afterlife (as Daniel was to Desmond) and that makes sense to me.

I really think they did think this after-life thing out.

I decided NOT to speculate or get all wanked over the impending finale. All I wanted was for LOST to do what it has done *SO* well. And it did.
Thanks to all involved for a great series. And thanks for the Lost Diary.

@jjim, they did NOT die when flight 815 crashed. Those who we saw die, died exactly as we saw them die. Jin and Sun died in the sub, Charlie died in the Looking Glass, Boone died after exploring with Locke, Eko was killed by smokie, Shannon was shot by Ana Lucia, etc...

Why is it getting dusty in here when i am just reading your post! It is the end. I was confused for 6 years, but loving every minute of it. With this episode I will continue to think about the show. Like you said, not what I was expecting, but probably what I needed.

maybe Helen wasn't there because she wasn't dead yet? Just a random thought..

I think Helen wasn't there becuase she wasn't Locke's constant.

If you learn to live together, you won't die alone. Jack did not die alone; he had Vincent by his side when he died on the island and then he had his beloved friends with him when he passed on. But something I'm trying to figure out is why no one could conceive on the island without the baby dying--one of the many questions about the island that were not answered.

Something to consider for people that think all the 815s should have been in the church....

does that include Nikki and Paulo???? :-)

first, thank you daniel for your lost diary, i will miss it, almost as much as i miss lost.

regarding the passing of the torch to hurley, i do believe in one of the opening scenes, when jack was standing in the water he was saying the incantation under his breath. i believe that made it so it was ready when it was time to give the job to hurley.

Still taking it all in! wooosh! what an episode. does anyone have a screen cap of the plane wreckage that they showed at the very end of the episode...during the credits? is that the Ajira plane? thats what i was thinking but wasnt 100% sure

Daniel, darn you! Your final comments sure stirred up the dust in my office! Where's that lousy cleaning lady?

It's been a journey. I have loved reading every single word of your blog over the years. It's like I had not finished watching the entire episode of LOST until I read your comments. It made the whole experience that much more enjoyable! Thank you!

I am really sad but satisfied with the finale. And what can I say but yay Vincent - such a good dog. I also don't believe that everyone was died at the crash but died as shown on the series or as their lives went on after the island. Hurley will be a good protector of the island - he's why Jack was finally able to let go. Oh, oh - here comes the dust. Thank you Daniel for a great Lost Diary.

Loved the ending. I still do not understand it all, but that is okay with me. I cried like a baby especially during Charlie and Claire's scene. So happy Jack and Kate were together in the end. Can't wait to watch it again! Moving a little slow because I had to take a nerve pill to help me sleep last night!!

Helen wasn't there because she had no meaning in Jack's life. He never even met her. While I do believe that certain people weren't there because they would choose to be with others as the most important people of their lives -- Ben with the Others, esp Alex; Walt with the family and friends he found as an adult -- maybe that is too literal for heaven and an afterlife. Maybe they'll all be there beyond the light. And maybe, in a way we cannot comprehend, they'll be there at all ages, in all forms, at the same time. That's why Baby Aaron is there, but maybe Adult Aaron, with his own family, is also in heaven.

I wonder if the Sideways World is the Whispers. They haven't moved on, just as Michael didn't.

@tiny tini

On third re-watch (finally bought it in HD on itunes this AM and watched on AppleTV) I noticed he was on the other side - he was in a different pool where the water was flowing OUT of a cave - that's why he didn't see Ben and Hurley

Did they ever explain where Hurley came from - I remember in a rewatch of Season One that Hurley started to tell the meaning of his nickname, but then said something like, I'm never telling that story

@Mr F - totally agree about the concert being key, not only does time not matter, but time doesn't move in a straight line in LA X

I am not sure it was Jack's reality, but the reality they all created - As I posted yesterday, I now get LA X - they all got the world they needed/wanted

Jack got to fix each people and solve his daddy issues by having a son and being a dad (being a Dad has forced me to forgive my parents for perceived issues)

Juliet got to help people have kids and have a child of her own

Kate got to be innocent

Sawyer got to be a good guy

John Locke got to be with Helen and have a real Dad relationship (Helen wasn't there because their love was one-sided in real life/island time)

Jin got to be not sterile, Sun got a great husband not ruined by her father

Rose and Bernard had no regrets so their life was not differnet

Charlie got to have more than a one hit wonder band

Claire got to raise Aaron

Sayid got to see Nadia happy, gain her forgiveness

Hurley got to be lucky

Des got to get Widmore's approval

Daniel got to do music, not science and be with Charlotte (who never remembered)

Miles got to have a relationship with dad (never remembered)

Ben got to be a father figure to Alex (who got to be raised by her mom)

So they all got the life they wanted to help them be ready to let go - that's freaking cool!

I think everyone's most important time was the time on the island, even though Kate, Claire and Sawyer left the island alive, the time on the island changed their life completely and changed them - this was their heaven too, not just Jack's.

Love the line "Are you kidding - Christian Sheppard"

Love 'talking' with you folks - adding my facebook profile as a URL

so what does everyone think....did the bomb really go off? was Juliet the only one (of main characters) to die then?

A coworker ask me today what happened on the Lost finale and I could not explain it. I still cannot put into words what happened. Even after reading all posts thus far on here, I cannot do it justice. I was not blown away yet it consumes my thoughts today. Season 6 could have went so many directions that could have made for an Epic conclusion and was left up for interpretaion, not concluded for me. Loved LOST. Loved Thelostdiary - Thanks Daniel.

I understand the faith side of and series and how the ending was "jack's story"...... it was a beautiful awesome story of redemption.

BUT,,, why spend 6 seasons building up the "sci-fi/magic" side of the story just to abandon it in the last episode? They made it sound like an "epic" battle of good and evil was coming and they spent 6 years building up the anticipation for it.

It wasn't an epic battle between good and evil. "A magic stone is pulled out of a rock, then they can suddenly kill evil in a three minute hand-to-hand fight" That's it? How anticlimactic!!!

Everybody is saying that it was jack's story all along and it was!!!....... I just can't believe they would use the awesome sci-fi/magic backdrop for 6 years,,,, to tell his story and then at the last minute act like none of that really was important to the show as a whole.

WHAT A STINK'N COP OUT.

I love jack'n redemption and the fact that the end did have some magic to it.... why didn't they take another 45 mins and make it sci-fi part that they have been building have a little more of an epic ending?

The finale of Lost was everything I wanted it to be and more. The thing that was always most intriguing to me were the relationships between the characters not necessarily the island itself though it was interesting. Bringing all of the characters back together to move on to their afterlives was genius.

So a lot of questions were left unanswered? I'm kinda glad. A good show will keep you guessing and questioning things and that's exactly what this finale did. It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me say what the frak. Couldn't have asked for more. I went to bed thinking about the show, dreamed about the show and woke up with it still on my mind. That, my friends, is what you call a great frakkin episode.

Thank you, Daniel, for posting The Lost Diary. Been reading it for years and will miss it almost as much as I'll miss Lost.

Thank you for writing a free blog that I read every wednesday. You never tried to hawk a good or sell a virus..And in today's world...THAT IS PRICELESS...you wrote a great blog that I never missed. I would refresh the page every wednesday just waiting for the new issue to appear...and today you knock out your earliest issue...thank you from the bottom of my heart. please start doing the same thing with fringe!!!!

@suede66, very nice post and I see where you are coming from.

So I was kind of right about LAX time running concurrently with Island time, and kind of wrong at the same time. It was running at the same time, but it was "all" time as in past, present and future. So there was no linear movement, it simply "always" existed.

I would tell people to invest the time and energy to watch LOST. I wouldn't watch 6 episodes back-to-back because I think many episodes are more enjoyable when you let yourself think about them for awhile before you take in any additional information from the story. And when they watch, they should read The Lost Diary after each episode.

What we know...

* Island time was real time, if you died in Island time you died for real. Jin/Sun in the sub, Charlie drowned, Boone died in the jungle, Ana Lucia shot Shannon, etc...

* Everbody did not die when 815 crashed, those we saw survive the crash did indeed survive the crash.

* The wreckage shown during the final credits was of Oceanic flight 815. It verifies that the plane did indeed crash on the island, and people did indeed survive the crash. Backing up the above 2 statements.

* Sideways Flash / LAX was the afterlife, real in its own way. Call it Purgatory, call it Heaven's lobby, call it whatever you want. It was more or less Jack's trip to the afterlife. Those important to Jack were there to ease his transition.

* There is no "time" in the LAX sideways flash, it simply exists outside of time. It is merely a meeting point for this group of people who shared in important set of events.

* The job of protecting the island was NOT simply protecting it from MiB. Remember, their crazy mom was protecting it from "man" long before the Smoke Monster was ever released. So Hurley and Ben kept on protecting it from "mankind" as well.

I looked forward to every Wednesday reading your posts..actually looked forward to going into work, getting my coffee and reading what you had to say! Thanks for watching along with all of us!

I keep running into people today wiith puffy eyes....LOST fans or allergies???????

@ MR. F

-good point about the fact that hurley and ben were protecting it from men.

@ Namaste I have to go back and reread about "Axis Mundi" as its already slipped my mind what it was about. Re: your comment about "they all started out alone, and lost from their true selves" reminded me of how iconic it was at the end.

On flight 815 they were seated, across isles etc., and were very much alone when the crash came.

At the end they were all engaged with the one next to them when the light came. Minus John and Boone having someone, on the left side, Sayid Shannon Bernard Rose Juliet Sawer. On the right, Hurley Libby Des Penny Claire Charlie Jack Kate Jin Sun.

I personally was torn about the ending but now, after sleeping on it, it was a perfect ending. As for all the Helen/Locke comments, this is my theory on that:

Helen and Locke were together at one time but they split up before the 815 crash. When Locke turned the wheel and left the island he looked for Helen and found out that she had died. Remember him visiting her grave? Therefore, Helen had already moved on, without Locke, and was not waiting for him so they could move on together. Shortly after visiting her grave, Locke tried to gather the Oceanic 6 together to bring them back but was killed by Ben. Locke's purgatory did not involve Helen because she was not there waiting for him. That is just my take on it. =)

Good call on Helen's death Bran. Forgot that.

This is my first time posting but I also have been an avid reader every week! Thanks Daniel for this awesome experience & thanks to all the posters for all the great theories I have loved so much for 6 years! I'm so sad but also so happy. I loved the way it ended but I have always sided with faith over science. I will never forget how this show made me feel from beginning to end & don't see how any other show could ever compare. I will definitely be watching it all again & try to get as many people as I can to do the same! Great story, great meaning, great times :)

Thank you Daniel. Your Diary was just as big a part of my Lost Experience as the show was. I looked forward to you both equally.

I think the reason Miles, Frank and Richard weren't at the church was either because they weren't ready, or more likely, the ones who were there were people who were important to Jack and Jack alone. This was JACK's DAY. Those 3 weren't really on his radar.

HE felt that Shannon should be with Sayid. Jack didn't know Nadia, or Helen. He knew Libby was important to Hurley and Penny important to Desmond. Boone was important to Jack because he tried to save him on the island but Boone died, so he failed, and that was another turning point in his and Locke's relationship.

On Sawyer's day, maybe Lapidus would be at the church because Chesty got him off the island. That's the way I want it to go down at least because those three were important characters to me, I don't want them trivialized.

Why did Sawyer call him Chesty????

I loved that I got to see Richard, Lapidus and the real John Locke one more time!!! I wish Mr. Eko could have shown up too.

Nothing will satisfy me a 100% because I didn't want the show to end, but it was close. Daniel, I've enjoyed the Diary too.

Namaste everyone.

I'm so glad you had your man of science meet your man of faith - I felt the same way! I would certainly tell a friend to watch the series. It wasn't about the monsters or the questions, it was the ride. The RIDE! Anyone who reads this blog every week was on that ride, and even if they didn't like the ending (which I loved) they can't deny having been on the greatest ride of their lives. Thanks for everything Daniel, it's been fun.

So sad- gonna miss you!! I so would look forward to read the diary every week.

I'm actually in denial that it's over.
i think that after each of them died they went to their "sideways" life to wait for the other people they were meant to move on with. the people who were on the island together were each others soul mates not just one person, they are all each others soul mates. once they had all died they were able to come back to each other to move on with the most important people in their lives. i don't think they moved to a specific place, it was left open to a persons opinions on after life whether it be heaven or a continuation of their sideways life. i love these characters and i'm going to miss them soooo much! thanks daniel for the great blogs they always made the episodes worthwhile!

Thanks for providing this amazing forum to discuss Lost. I looked forward to getting online every Wednesday morning. I still have no idea what happened last night -- I need time to process -- but I've loved the ride.

The island mysteries could not be explained - after all, how can you explain life, death, rebirth, good and evil? But does anyone understand why the island is at the bottom of the ocean in the sideways world/purgatory? If this was a place they all created to meet again, and none of them "remembered" their island life until the very end, how did they create a reality where the island exists - even though destroyed? What was its purpose or symbolism?

I think once I understand that my heart and mind can rest :-)

I dont think they died when the plane crashed. In the finale Christian said " Some died before you, some died after you" to Jack. I think when they died on the and then went to the flash sideways and that was some sort of purgetory. They all needed each other from the begining and they all needed each other in the end. I loved the ending because it was an actual end. We dont wonder what happend to the characters and how their lives might have been. We got to see all of them at their best and at their worst. That's a perfect Lost ending for me.

Thank you Daniel and all of you for your posts and theories each week. I enjoyed reading them all. Even when you would argue and fight with eachother :) I loved the finale but have to say I was confused in true Lost fashion but can't wait to watch it again. I wonder if the flash sideways was purgatory or not though? Oh really it's the best show ever on TV and I in mourning. Thank you too all of you. Namaste.

No THANK YOU - for the amazing diary every week. Loved it!!!

Daniel-thank you for keeping this "diary" for 6 years and thanks to everyone who commented and made my Lost experience so rich. I loved the finale-IMHO Island life was real and "sideways" was purgatory.

I find it amazing, after watching the Pilot episode on Saturday, that Locke was there holding the black and white backgammon rocks! That just blew my mind. I mean...in the pilot. Talk about a plan. I also thought it was incredible that a few weeks ago Jack looked in the mirror and had a random "appendix" scar...but it wasn't...it was the scar from Locke stabbing him now! The writers are just amazing.

Now, what I don't understand, is if Ben knows he is dead, why is he staying behind. I agree it can only be to enlighten/wake-up Alex and Rousseau. Also...Penny was never part of this group. Yes she showed up and picked them up on her boat, but I can't justify why she was in the church with them...at all. Also...how could they skip over Daniel and Charlotte remembering each other. Faraday was so under used in this episode!

I think the room got dusty with your goodbye. sniff!
Thank you for your amazing take on this show. I loved every second of it, and religiously read your diary every day after.
It's been so much fun to share this tv experience.
I don't think any of us can say it will happen again.
Lost rocked!

People who die go to the Sideways World to work out whatever needs to be worked out before they can "move on." This is why so many of the characters seemed to be so much more at peace here. But this world is not real, and it doesn't follow linear time (Christian: "there is no now here").

Moving on takes two things. Being "ready" (settling their unresolved issues) and becoming aware that this world is not real (the flash memory of their former lives in the real world).

Ana Lucia... not ready and not aware.

Eloise... aware that Sideways World is not real, but not ready. She still needs to work out her son-icide issue. This is why she was pissed at Desmond... she doesn't want her to lose her son in this world.

Ben... aware, but not ready. Getting forgiveness from Locke means he will be moving on soon.

Very cool!!!

Awesome episode Daniel!
I cried thru the whole two and a half hours. The ending did confuse me but they were happy was all that mattered. They were with the ones they loved on the island. It was a show of the love of people for each other thru good times and bad times. There is a heaven! I just loved it and can't stop thinking about it. Will miss your blogs Daniel. Thanks so much!

Has anyone read the books Conversations with God? There is a lot of similarities between them and the Lost finale. hmmmm.

A++ for the finale and A++ for your Diary.

I'm gonna miss you Daniel! Thanks for everything!

Loved it!!! I think it had what I needed in order to say goodbye to Lost. I am so sad that this epic journey is done :(

Though I had to spend like 10 minutes afterwards trying to explain the ending to some of my friends. My sister: "So the island never happened?" "NO the Island stuff did happen! Not the flash-sideways...that was the afterlife" "So they all died on the island" "NO! They all died at some point in their lives"

Anyway...My only disappointment was that *sigh* it ended up being Jack&Kate. I was in denial all season 5 & 6. I still wanted it to be Kate&Sawyer. Sawyer and Juliette still makes no sense to me at all....I dont understand the chemistry or the love it just feels weird.

Oh right, sorry if someone else explained this already but the ONE thing I didnt understand: Why does Jack have a son in the afterlife!? (or at least until Locke tells him he doesnt?)

Daniel,
Thank you so much for posting this blog, I always looked forward to your thoughts & witty comments. It's been a long, exciting journey & I'm kinda sad it's over, even though it was time. I loved the finale & cant wait to get the series in a box set! See ya on Twitter, brutha!

Initially, I thought the ending was lame. However, the fact is a television show has for 6 years generated so much interaction, it's a success in my book. As has been posted above, I don't think there was any ending that could have in 2 1/2 hours satisfied everyone. Bon voyage, Losties.

I just watched the entire episode again and I can't say how much of a difference it makes, knowing the ending. Now, all the things in the sideways world, what Desmond and Hurley are doing, and eventually Kate with Jack - it all makes sense. And when they say they are leaving or they want to leave - it's to the next plain of existance - Heaven, if that is your belief. I cried over and over, when I didn't the first time watching. The music, the acting, the flashes back to this island, the "knowing" of what is really going on - it is so beautiful, the second time around - for those who didn't "get it" the first time around. Wow.

First, Thank you Daniel for adding exponentially to my enjoyment and experience of LOST by writing this blog. You brought us all together with your re-caps and created a place that allowed us to process one of the most mind-blowing shows in TV land.

Second, I wonder if the fog around the "answer" in the final 5 minutes wasn't by design. I mean what better way to keep LOST in people's awareness than create a finale that makes people discuss, question, and ponder it's meaning for a very long time!

Third, Thank you to all the commentators on this blog! You've all added to my experience in one way or another and I'm truly grateful for the effort some of you have put in to finding and decoded the mysteries of this amazing show.

Last, I am not sure I'm entirely clear on what it all meant, but in all honesty I don't need to be. The show was the 1st TV show in a very very long time that captured my imagination and loyalty.

What a journey! I know the ending upset some fans, Man of Science vs Man of Faith, but I found it brilliant and inspired. You see I've always viewed the world using both. Science is nothing more then the explaination of HOW things work. Faith is the explaination of WHY. Lost delivered everything it promised and more. 10/10

Kinda confusing ending that did not satisfy my quest for the islands mysteries from the scientific point of view. I spent hours digesting the finale until it finally hit me. Lost is about us. We are the "lost" ones that needed the island. We are the candidates, each with our set of unresolved issues that we have to let go before we can move on. Each of our individual journeys will take different paths but in the end, it is who we meet and what we have done that really matters.

To all those who keep stating the flash sideways was purgatory:

No it was not. Purgatory by definition is a place or state of suffering inhabited by the souls of sinners who are paying for their sins before going to heaven.

This was not that, nor was it Jack's imagination. This was a place that they had all made in their hearts as a "waiting room" if you will, where they could wait for those most dear to them to arrive prior to moving on. Jack had a son to work out his father son issues and the reason that not everyone was there is a two part answer.

1. Only the closest to their hearts and were dearest to them would arrive.

2. Not all of them are dead yet.

Linus finally got what he wanted and is now the guardian of the island (which by the way IS explained as the "source") and is not dead yet. Thats why he said he was going to wait around for a while.

All in all this was an excellent way to finish the series. Would I recommend someone to start Netflixing it?

Absolutely.

I loved loved loved it. Cried like a baby, multiple times.

I don't see any reason why Peggy Bundy (lol) should have been there. Her death was completely unrelated to the island (she was already dead when locke came back from the island right?) She also was irrelevent to Jack's life.

First of all, I have been reading this blog since probably the end of the 1st season and have never posted but since this is the end I thought I would add my two cents...I really loved how it all ended. Couldn't think of a better ending!!! Why should I have expected anything less from LOST. The way it eneded left me feeling exactly how I felt so many times before when an episode has ended for the last 6 years --- WOW, that was great and I got some of my questions answered but now I have so many more... Also I think Keith has hit it dead on with his explanation of the ending. I think this show was about Jack's journey. Pretty much the same thing was said on Jimmy Kimmel. Thank you Daniel for the "Diary". Along with watching the show, reading the diary the next day was my favorite part. You had me laughing out loud so many times and your parting words had me crying. Sad to see it all end. Will there ever be another show as good as this one??? I think not!!

L A X = Life After X(death)

First of all, I have been reading this blog since probably the end of the 1st season and have never posted but since this is the end I thought I would add my two cents...I really loved how it all ended. Couldn't think of a better ending!!! Why should I have expected anything less from LOST. The way it eneded left me feeling exactly how I felt so many times before when an episode has ended for the last 6 years --- WOW, that was great and I got some of my questions answered but now I have so many more... Also I think Keith has hit it dead on with his explanation of the ending. I think this show was about Jack's journey. Pretty much the same thing was said on Jimmy Kimmel. Thank you Daniel for the "Diary". Along with watching the show, reading the diary the next day was my favorite part. You had me laughing out loud so many times and your parting words had me crying. Sad to see it all end. Will there ever be another show as good as this one??? I think not!!

First of all, I have been reading this blog since probably the end of the 1st season and have never posted but since this is the end I thought I would add my two cents...I really loved how it all ended. Couldn't think of a better ending!!! Why should I have expected anything less from LOST. The way it eneded left me feeling exactly how I felt so many times before when an episode has ended for the last 6 years --- WOW, that was great and I got some of my questions answered but now I have so many more... Also I think Keith has hit it dead on with his explanation of the ending. I think this show was about Jack's journey. Pretty much the same thing was said on Jimmy Kimmel. Thank you Daniel for the "Diary". Along with watching the show, reading the diary the next day was my favorite part. You had me laughing out loud so many times and your parting words had me crying. Sad to see it all end. Will there ever be another show as good as this one??? I think not!!

I understand what those who "got it" are saying and I understand the ending. I'm glad for those who liked it, however, for those of us that are disappointed perhaps I can share why... primarily, the whole flash sideways thing being purgatory is such a bummer because its so unoriginal! I was expecting that these creative minds who started and wrote this whole show for us could have ended it with something that hasn't been written, told, explored and pondered since Biblical times. In other words, they've simply retold and twisted a story (redemption and purgatory) that we've all heard of at some point in our lives before. Why take us on this journey, lead us down this road and con us into thinking that they've created something unique when all along it just ended up being what we all gathered since the first season. I feel like I've been conned and cheated. I was waiting for the next "Newhart" ending that NO ONE saw coming and this is what we got. Those of you that are happy with this, although I'm glad for you, I think you settle too cheaply. For those of us that are upset, well I think we have every right! I think this whole thing was written by Sawyer who just pulled of the biggest con ever.

L A X = Life After X(death)

I thought it was a fitting ending for LOST. Some great on-island moments b/w Jack and Locke, and Hurley and Ben and some surprises, and some things that left us guessing and wondering what happened. Just like it has always been.

I could have done without all the lovebirds coming together at the end, which seemed really cheesy, but it has been a fun ride.

@kris

I agree it's a waiting room, but disagree with 2. Christian's "there is no now here" allows for the presence of all the characters after death even though the deaths occurred at different times.

I think Ben chose not to "go on" because he still hadn't resolved his guilt over killing Locke, which is why Locke's forgiveness was so poignant.

@ Stephen - But isn't just Season Six, with the sideways world, that has brought in the definite concept of purgatory-or-something-sorta-like-it? The first five seasons did not have this concept - they had the Island, plus flash backs and flash forwards. Season Six also had the Island, BIG time. So it is like, only 1/12 of the whole series that is disappointing to you. IMO.

In regards to your question, yes I would tell people to watch the entire series. I actually plan on buying it and watching it with my daughter(she's 9 now) when she gets older, just to share the experience with her. If I had to sum it up in five minutes for someone- I would say the show is about a four letter word-Love and what people will and will not do, for love. On another note am I the only person who thought the "peg" was actually as cork. One last thing, I disagree with those who said Sayid should have been with Nadia. Shannon was pivotal in Sayid's life he bacame a different man once he loved her and when he lost her he was different. I think that's why in the sideways world, she was married with children to his brother-she was never "the one" Just my two cents.

In regards to your question, yes I would tell people to watch the entire series. I actually plan on buying it and watching it with my daughter(she's 9 now) when she gets older, just to share the experience with her. If I had to sum it up in five minutes for someone- I would say the show is about a four letter word-Love and what people will and will not do, for love. On another note am I the only person who thought the "peg" was actually as cork. One last thing, I disagree with those who said Sayid should have been with Nadia. Shannon was pivotal in Sayid's life he bacame a different man once he loved her and when he lost her he was different. I think that's why in the sideways world, she was married with children to his brother-she was never "the one" Just my two cents.

I loved the finale (last 5 mins aside) & am relieved that even now it's finished I still hold LOST in high esteem as a brilliant show. However, one problem does really bug me....

To me it seems the ending had NOTHING AT ALL to do with the island or any of the story we had been following.

Hopefully I can be proved wrong.

In LOST does everyone (i.e. even regular people living in the real world) go to a purgatory like place? Was it only the Losties? Can anyone please (hopefully) point out something that links at least part of the story to this purgatory / flash sideways ending - rather than a 'could have been tacked on to any show' ending.

I loved the finale (last 5 mins aside) & am relieved that even now it's finished I still hold LOST in high esteem as a brilliant show. However, one problem does really bug me....

To me it seems the ending had NOTHING AT ALL to do with the island or any of the story we had been following.

Hopefully I can be proved wrong.

In LOST does everyone (i.e. even regular people living in the real world) go to a purgatory like place? Was it only the Losties? Can anyone please (hopefully) point out something that links at least part of the story to this purgatory / flash sideways ending - rather than a 'could have been tacked on to any show' ending.

I loved the finale (last 5 mins aside) & am relieved that even now it's finished I still hold LOST in high esteem as a brilliant show. However, one problem does really bug me....

To me it seems the ending had NOTHING AT ALL to do with the island or any of the story we had been following.

Hopefully I can be proved wrong.

In LOST does everyone (i.e. even regular people living in the real world) go to a purgatory like place? Was it only the Losties? Can anyone please (hopefully) point out something that links at least part of the story to this purgatory / flash sideways ending - rather than a 'could have been tacked on to any show' ending.

Thank you Daniel!! An A+...so happy you didn't have any really bad things to say, besides the Flocke/Jack fight scene...which I agree!

Also, A special thanks goes out to all of you regular posters for your thought-provoking ideas and theorys! I don't know what I'd do without regular posts from Mr.F, fanolost, gleethe1st, lovessteamykeamy and the rest of you guys!!!

Namaste!

@ AmarilloSlim - It was the Island memories that flashed for our Losties, that "awakened" them, and made them realize it was time to "let go and move on."

For non-Losties in the world - would it be any intense, emotional memories? Yeah, I guess that doesn't make the Island memories unique. . .

********* SPOILER ALERT ***********

Hahahaha (Sorry) I just had to throw that out and relieve some of my tension.

Though I'm happy I never have to evade Lost spoilers again, I'm still a bit out of my Everlovin Lost Mind that its over!

@ suede66 great post about them getting what they needed.

All I can say is wow...I'm so sad to see such a wonderful show end, but have to say, I couldn't have asked for a better finale. Sure, there are many questions I still have, but that's the beauty of "Lost." I think I spent the entire two hours crying with each reunion...the characters we have known and loved these past six years are finally "found" and at peace.

@amarillo

Either the island was a big MacGuffin all along, or they purposely left the relevance of its mythology unanswered. I would like to think that the sideways world had at least SOMETHING to do with the island! :)

Daniel....thank you for always keeping me updated and answering a few of the questions I had each week.

This is my first and last post!!......"See ya in another life, brutha ..."

@ wgh:

Good point... Perhaps Ben was not ready to move on or felt he didn't deserve it. The problem that arises there is he then makes it a purgatory of sorts.

But what if Ben as the new Jacob now has no man in black to protect it from. wouldn't he then live forever? Would that make it possible for him to see them off but not join them?

Great ending! It was beautiful and filled with deep profound meaning. Unfortunately, it must have been written for a show I did not watch. To end the show LOST this way was pathetic. I would never recommend to anyone to watch this show. They writers ran out of time and yes ended it with a nice bow, all pretty and satisfying. I'm glad the majority posting on this sight loved it. I feel empty and robbed. I did not watch this show for last's night's ending. I did not want all of the answers but wanted to see the lines connected. Really a disappointment!!

I was "dusty" at the SAWYER/JULIET reunion at the vending machine. (I loved when he called her BLONDIE again.)

I am surprised that people did not want them together --- the were very happy for 3 years in DHARMALAND.

JULIET dying at the end of Season 5 was really touching when SAWYER was holding on to her. They really loved each other.

I thought it was 100% correct for them to be together in the end.

I have a Lost Hangover today, tossed and turned all night thinking about what I just saw. Not sure. After reading some of the posts I'm starting to get a better grip on the Lost ending. I'm going with the everything on the island and the flash forward and flash backs happened. The sideways was the entrance to the next level of existance, but with Jack ending up on his back in the bamboo forest, just like the opening scene of the first show threw me off a bit. It kind of felt like he was tossed there after the plane crash and he dreamed up the whole 6 years. Now I'm thinking that it was more symbolic. I'm sure I will change my view more than once over the next coming weeks. So much to take in.

Would have liked to see Walt back - he was "special" to the others that was never made clear.

When asked if I think investing 6 years of my life watching this show was worth it. I'd have to say "yes". I watch TV to be entertained - and I was.

Thanks everyone that has posted their thoughts on this show - it's nice to get other's viewpoints.

As always LOST left me confused about what exactly happened in the last few minutes but it wouldn't be LOST if that hadn't happened. I will be guessing and theorizing what happened until the writers maybe give insight into it! You've been awesome Daniel! Thanks! I always enjoyed reading your diary! :)

At the end when Kate leave Jack in the car and goes into the church, she is wearing a black dress. When Jack goes into the church and see everyone, she is wearing pants and a turquoise tank top. What is up with that?

@kris

Ben and Hugo's conversation in Sideways World alluded to their time spent on the island as #1 and #2 in their former ("real") lives, but of course doesn't say how it played out. But on the island Ben said that Hurley had no reason to do things like Jacob did, so it's reasonable that neither became the "forever" guardian. What actually happened would be a great story.

Are you out of your MIND? A+? A freaking +? You've officially lost all credibility. Now THIS guy hits it spot on:

Once upon a time, there was a television show about a bunch of people on an island. For six years it was one of the most fascinating things on TV. And then it ended, in the worst way possible.

Lost ended tonight, and with it the hopes and dreams of millions of people who thought it might finally get good again. SPOILER ALERT: It didn't. What did we learn? Nothing. We learned nothing from two-and-a-half hours of slow-motion bullshittery backed with a syrupy soundtrack.

Everyone loves to see characters who haven't been around for a while, right? Juliet! Where have you been? Shannon! Long time since you were around, irritating all of us and ruining Sayid. But good to see you, I guess! Rose and Bernard! Nice beard, bro! And Vincent! The goddamn dog! There you are, doing dog stuff. How great is it to get all these characters back? Not very great at all, as it turns out.

For years, the show's creators and actors have been running the same bullshit line about how Lost is a character-driven show. Here is the thing, though: It is not a character-driven show. It is a show, that has characters! But the characters do not "drive" the show, except in the sense that they do things that help advance the plot. Because it is a "plot-driven" show! Lost is a show that is interesting because it has an interesting plot. Frankly, most of the characters suck! Especially Kate. And Jack. And Sawyer. And, really, all of them, except for Ben.

So what we got was a show with an engaging, mysterious plot, that was constantly being sabotaged by fool writers who thought that what the audience really wanted was, like, a love triangle. A love square! "Yes, Mr. Cuse, I don't give a shit about the donkey wheel. What I really am after is the answer behind the mystery of Jack's hideous tattoo."

And yet, somehow, we all kept coming back. I'm not going to use the "abusive relationship" metaphor, because that's hacky and offensive, but I'll say this: Those guys know how to write a finale. Season after season, it was the same thing: The first five or six episodes were great. The middle ten were terrible—just lazy, premise-stretching garbage—and then they'd pull it together for the finale.

Do you remember the hatch lighting up? Or Jack blasting In Utero and realizing that you were witnessing—I still shit my pants thinking about this years later—a flash-forward? That was why we kept watching the show: The amazing, game-changing, cliffhanger finales.

And so it stood to reason that maybe they would pull together this pitiful excuse for a season with some kind of halfway-coherent, tightly-paced, tightly-plotted finale that would answer some of our lingering questions and wash the taste of C.J. Cragg as Hypatia out of our mouths. Ha, ha! Why did I think that?

What we got instead was another two hours of running around the goddamn island with everyone having feelings and stuff—which wasn't even that bad, honestly!—and then, and I have to type this in caps because it's the only way to really let my rage out, IT TURNED OUT THAT THEY HAD ALL DIED. All of them! And not even all together, simultaneously, in some awesome disaster/explosion. They had all died, at various times, throughout history. (Except for Michael and Walt, apparently!) And then they, like, remembered that they were dead, in this terrible, unfortunate excuse for Heaven they had created, and the Church went to white, and Jack was lying there, dying, with the dog.

The dog. I swear to God, Abrams, Super 8 better be a fucking masterpiece.

Look: I had given up on getting any interesting answers to any of the thousands of questions I still had. When the explanation for "the whispers" came, I hung my head, and thought, "Well, I guess this is how it has to happen."

But I expected more from the flash-sideways (I cannot believe they have compelled me to use that word, "flash-sideways," though I suppose it is technically a "flash-way-the-hell-forward-to-when-everyone-is-dead"). I have taken a creative writing class or two (can you tell?) and do you know this thing they teach you? "Don't end your story with all your characters being dead." It is like cheating. It is worse than cheating! It is the wussiest thing a writer can do. And these smug dickheads went ahead and did it.

So here's my proposal: Let's get another season. We'll all agree to forget the flash-sideways ever existed. Let's just get Ben and Hurley running the island, making jokes and being bros and doing fun things. Is that too much to ask for? Because I don't have anything to be obsessed about anymore. And I really don't want to start watching V.

I've been a long time reader of the diary but due to my hectic schedule I haven't posted in a year or two. I had to post today to say thank you. Thank you Daniel, for writing this diary for us every week. I could not wait to check it every Wednesday morning to see what you had to say about Lost, Wednesday mornings were truly the highlight of my week. And thank you to all of you as well. This show created so many questions for us and we all searched for the answers together. I loved reading everybody's theories and ideas as we all tried to figure out what the heck was going on. This blog was just as big of a part of my Lost experience as the show itself was. As people above have said, I will truly miss this blog as much as the show itself. I would love to think we will all find another show someday that is like Lost, and Daniel will start a new diary we will all follow, but unfortunately, I don't think there will ever be another show quite like Lost. So thanks everyone for an incredible 6 years. And....I have to say it....See ya in another life brutha!

Are you out of your MIND? A+? A freaking +? You've officially lost all credibility. Now THIS guy hits it spot on:

Once upon a time, there was a television show about a bunch of people on an island. For six years it was one of the most fascinating things on TV. And then it ended, in the worst way possible.

Lost ended tonight, and with it the hopes and dreams of millions of people who thought it might finally get good again. SPOILER ALERT: It didn't. What did we learn? Nothing. We learned nothing from two-and-a-half hours of slow-motion bullshittery backed with a syrupy soundtrack.

Everyone loves to see characters who haven't been around for a while, right? Juliet! Where have you been? Shannon! Long time since you were around, irritating all of us and ruining Sayid. But good to see you, I guess! Rose and Bernard! Nice beard, bro! And Vincent! The goddamn dog! There you are, doing dog stuff. How great is it to get all these characters back? Not very great at all, as it turns out.

For years, the show's creators and actors have been running the same bullshit line about how Lost is a character-driven show. Here is the thing, though: It is not a character-driven show. It is a show, that has characters! But the characters do not "drive" the show, except in the sense that they do things that help advance the plot. Because it is a "plot-driven" show! Lost is a show that is interesting because it has an interesting plot. Frankly, most of the characters suck! Especially Kate. And Jack. And Sawyer. And, really, all of them, except for Ben.

So what we got was a show with an engaging, mysterious plot, that was constantly being sabotaged by fool writers who thought that what the audience really wanted was, like, a love triangle. A love square! "Yes, Mr. Cuse, I don't give a shit about the donkey wheel. What I really am after is the answer behind the mystery of Jack's hideous tattoo."

And yet, somehow, we all kept coming back. I'm not going to use the "abusive relationship" metaphor, because that's hacky and offensive, but I'll say this: Those guys know how to write a finale. Season after season, it was the same thing: The first five or six episodes were great. The middle ten were terrible—just lazy, premise-stretching garbage—and then they'd pull it together for the finale.

Do you remember the hatch lighting up? Or Jack blasting In Utero and realizing that you were witnessing—I still shit my pants thinking about this years later—a flash-forward? That was why we kept watching the show: The amazing, game-changing, cliffhanger finales.

And so it stood to reason that maybe they would pull together this pitiful excuse for a season with some kind of halfway-coherent, tightly-paced, tightly-plotted finale that would answer some of our lingering questions and wash the taste of C.J. Cragg as Hypatia out of our mouths. Ha, ha! Why did I think that?

What we got instead was another two hours of running around the goddamn island with everyone having feelings and stuff—which wasn't even that bad, honestly!—and then, and I have to type this in caps because it's the only way to really let my rage out, IT TURNED OUT THAT THEY HAD ALL DIED. All of them! And not even all together, simultaneously, in some awesome disaster/explosion. They had all died, at various times, throughout history. (Except for Michael and Walt, apparently!) And then they, like, remembered that they were dead, in this terrible, unfortunate excuse for Heaven they had created, and the Church went to white, and Jack was lying there, dying, with the dog.

The dog. I swear to God, Abrams, Super 8 better be a fucking masterpiece.

Look: I had given up on getting any interesting answers to any of the thousands of questions I still had. When the explanation for "the whispers" came, I hung my head, and thought, "Well, I guess this is how it has to happen."

But I expected more from the flash-sideways (I cannot believe they have compelled me to use that word, "flash-sideways," though I suppose it is technically a "flash-way-the-hell-forward-to-when-everyone-is-dead"). I have taken a creative writing class or two (can you tell?) and do you know this thing they teach you? "Don't end your story with all your characters being dead." It is like cheating. It is worse than cheating! It is the wussiest thing a writer can do. And these smug dickheads went ahead and did it.

So here's my proposal: Let's get another season. We'll all agree to forget the flash-sideways ever existed. Let's just get Ben and Hurley running the island, making jokes and being bros and doing fun things. Is that too much to ask for? Because I don't have anything to be obsessed about anymore. And I really don't want to start watching V.

If the flash sideways was "purgatory", how is it that Keamy and his goons were able to be shot? How can you be killed AGAIN in purgatory?

Why give Jack a son at all? That storyline went nowhere.

Thank you for writing this blog Daniel. I have watched Lost since the beginning but only found The Lost Diary a few years ago. I have been a faithful reader each Wednesday. Thank you also to all the posters who have helped me muddle my way through this journey.

See ya in another life, brutha ...

If the flash sideways was "purgatory", how is it that Keamy and his goons were able to be shot? How can you be killed AGAIN in purgatory?

Why give Jack a son at all? That storyline went nowhere.

Are you out of your MIND? A+? A freaking +? You've officially lost all credibility. Now THIS guy hits it spot on:

Once upon a time, there was a television show about a bunch of people on an island. For six years it was one of the most fascinating things on TV. And then it ended, in the worst way possible.

Lost ended tonight, and with it the hopes and dreams of millions of people who thought it might finally get good again. SPOILER ALERT: It didn't. What did we learn? Nothing. We learned nothing from two-and-a-half hours of slow-motion bullshittery backed with a syrupy soundtrack.

Everyone loves to see characters who haven't been around for a while, right? Juliet! Where have you been? Shannon! Long time since you were around, irritating all of us and ruining Sayid. But good to see you, I guess! Rose and Bernard! Nice beard, bro! And Vincent! The goddamn dog! There you are, doing dog stuff. How great is it to get all these characters back? Not very great at all, as it turns out.

For years, the show's creators and actors have been running the same bullshit line about how Lost is a character-driven show. Here is the thing, though: It is not a character-driven show. It is a show, that has characters! But the characters do not "drive" the show, except in the sense that they do things that help advance the plot. Because it is a "plot-driven" show! Lost is a show that is interesting because it has an interesting plot. Frankly, most of the characters suck! Especially Kate. And Jack. And Sawyer. And, really, all of them, except for Ben.

So what we got was a show with an engaging, mysterious plot, that was constantly being sabotaged by fool writers who thought that what the audience really wanted was, like, a love triangle. A love square! "Yes, Mr. Cuse, I don't give a shit about the donkey wheel. What I really am after is the answer behind the mystery of Jack's hideous tattoo."

And yet, somehow, we all kept coming back. I'm not going to use the "abusive relationship" metaphor, because that's hacky and offensive, but I'll say this: Those guys know how to write a finale. Season after season, it was the same thing: The first five or six episodes were great. The middle ten were terrible—just lazy, premise-stretching garbage—and then they'd pull it together for the finale.

Do you remember the hatch lighting up? Or Jack blasting In Utero and realizing that you were witnessing—I still shit my pants thinking about this years later—a flash-forward? That was why we kept watching the show: The amazing, game-changing, cliffhanger finales.

And so it stood to reason that maybe they would pull together this pitiful excuse for a season with some kind of halfway-coherent, tightly-paced, tightly-plotted finale that would answer some of our lingering questions and wash the taste of C.J. Cragg as Hypatia out of our mouths. Ha, ha! Why did I think that?

What we got instead was another two hours of running around the goddamn island with everyone having feelings and stuff—which wasn't even that bad, honestly!—and then, and I have to type this in caps because it's the only way to really let my rage out, IT TURNED OUT THAT THEY HAD ALL DIED. All of them! And not even all together, simultaneously, in some awesome disaster/explosion. They had all died, at various times, throughout history. (Except for Michael and Walt, apparently!) And then they, like, remembered that they were dead, in this terrible, unfortunate excuse for Heaven they had created, and the Church went to white, and Jack was lying there, dying, with the dog.

The dog. I swear to God, Abrams, Super 8 better be a fucking masterpiece.

Look: I had given up on getting any interesting answers to any of the thousands of questions I still had. When the explanation for "the whispers" came, I hung my head, and thought, "Well, I guess this is how it has to happen."

But I expected more from the flash-sideways (I cannot believe they have compelled me to use that word, "flash-sideways," though I suppose it is technically a "flash-way-the-hell-forward-to-when-everyone-is-dead"). I have taken a creative writing class or two (can you tell?) and do you know this thing they teach you? "Don't end your story with all your characters being dead." It is like cheating. It is worse than cheating! It is the wussiest thing a writer can do. And these smug dickheads went ahead and did it.

So here's my proposal: Let's get another season. We'll all agree to forget the flash-sideways ever existed. Let's just get Ben and Hurley running the island, making jokes and being bros and doing fun things. Is that too much to ask for? Because I don't have anything to be obsessed about anymore. And I really don't want to start watching V.

@MB Thank you for that. I could not have put it any better !!!!!!!!!!!!1

@ MB: Totally agree 100%.

@mb

Glad I disagree (all 3 times)

MB- Amen to that. I can't write a creative idea if you paid me, however, I could have come up with that ending!

daniel,

thank you for sharing all the laughs, WTFs, and tears with us for the past six years. i've truly enjoyed comparing notes with you -- it feels like you've been my watching buddy, too.

http://bohemeinheels.blogspot.com/2010/05/end.html

see you in another life, brutha!

It was an episode that beautifully summed up what the flash sideways were all about. However, I was so dissapointed that almost none of the questions about the island were answered. I would've come away satisfied if I'd gotten just a little more information!

@MB - Disagree 100%!!!

@ MB finally someone who has a brain. thank you. we should all be angry. i can't imagine how some that i had thought were smart are trying to spin this ending to make it ok and even amazing. it was total bs. boo

Hey, MB, (08:45 AM)
I just want to say I really enjoyed your post.

Maybe it seems like cheating, but if you just watch it again, knowing how it turns out, you'll see how it all hangs together beautifully and is a great and fitting end to the whole series.

Here's the problem with shows ending: NO ONE WILL EVER BE SATISIFIED. We can all bitch moan and complain on how we wanted it to end, have all of our questions answered....and you know what? People would STILL COMPLAIN. It's a show. It was entertaining. I loved it, you liked it, you hated it. WHATEVER. Stop expecting YOUR VERSION to be how you wanted to end.

Amazing, beautiful ending to a wonderful series.

Daniel, thanks for The Lost Diary. It's been wonderful to post here and read everyone's opinions and thoughts.

I thought it was a great ending.

@Tiny Tini, you are 100% correct

@MB

I can totally understand your anger. I felt the same way last night. I've rewatched the show and I'm more okay with it all. The one thing I think they should have addressed to some point is the one last character in the show.... which was THE ISLAND! The island in and of itself was a character and they didn't give me closure on that. I just needed a few more answers. The ending with everyone "moving on" was okay. Pretty neat after I thought about it. But this finale still failed in addressing what initially drew me to the show in the first place. The island.

@ berky I think you said it yourself, the first 5 seasons had nothing to do with this concept. All of you insulting those who expected more from the ending need to remebrer that.

Glad for all the comments, I was struggling with the alternate reality this morning. It must be a "Heaven's Waiting Room" place. I guess Jack had his son because he wanted to resolve his daddy issues that way.

I'm going to miss LOST, The LOST Diary, and all the posters here. Hope we all can find each other somehow...

i think lost was totally a character-driven show. obviously it helps that crazy interesting stuff is happening in the plot, but who gives a crap what's going on if you're not invested in the characters. FOR EXAMPLE flashforward had an interesting premise, but the characters were shallow and lame. i didn't care if they all died or had affairs or broke hearts or whatever. lost spent so much time getting me emotionally involved in the characters, that no matter what the plot was, whether i understood it or not, i cared what was happening to the people.

so maybe i'm stupid or shallow or whatever, but i loved the ending.

'remember that'. Sorry to the spell checkers, I'm at work and multi-tasking.

LOST came to a close last night in one of the best series finales I've ever seen. I spend hours awake afterwards thinking about it, thinking about life, the afterlife and all the questions in between. If a show can do that, then its a pretty good show I think.

So here is what we learned after 6 years of being LOST with these characters ....

While what the actual Island is/was will always be more open to interpretation, we do know that it was a "real" place that people were drawn to or were drawn to it. My interpretation is that the island was a sort of spiritual "weigh station" that gave people (especially the more flawed ones), a place to redeem themselves and find an inner healing, happiness and purpose. That kind of spiritual healing can be very appealing (like DHARMA's desire to study it), and very addictive and alluring for others like Locke and the actual Others, who never wanted to leave this pseudo "nirvana" state. Eventually Jack, the man of science, even realized he needed to go back and finish healing and discover his purpose, which ironically (or not) was to protect the island.

The island thus could be equated to the literal manifestation of a "spiritual journey." or as the song Amazing Grace says ... "I once was LOST, but now am found..." Every thing that happened on the island cannot be explained. It was clearly a magical place with no beginning, no end and no real location. Is it on this plain or another we may never know ... kinda like having Faith.

However, the journey of the characters on the island was real, and more importantly, they were able to find love and build relationships that they all had failed to create in their lives up until they boarded the plane in Austrailia. The island was their place for redemption.

So all that happened on the island (and off) really did happen. All the characters who died during the run of the show really died including Jack during the final beautiful island scene. All those who escaped like Kate, Sawyer, Claire and Aaron , etc. went on to live their lives off the island, and eventually died later on sometime never seen by us. Christian Shepherd explained that pretty clearly to Jack at the church.

So in the end, the Flashsideways introduced this season were actually super flashforwards into all of their afterlives where these particular set of characters who had meant so much to each other during their time on the island, had decided to "meet-up" at the church once everyone had died and were ready to "go on" could go on together.

In the end, the show was about a lot of things, but the Island was really about its people who came there... their stories and how they impacted and loved each other. To see that they had chosen each other to live on together in their afterlife was pretty awesome.

@MB, might want to try a creative viewing class, then maybe you would understand the ending of the show. They didnt all die in the end, Jack died in the end as Frank, Miles, Kate, Claire, Sawyer and Richard all left the island.

Oh well you cant please everybody and not everybody can understand what they are watching. Life goes on.

Thanks for all of the great posts throughout the years, Daniel! I will miss the Diary almost as much as I will miss Lost! Your thoughts on the finale totally mirrored mine. It was an awesome journey and well worth every minute.

As much as I loved the scene in the church in the back of my mind something bothered me. Today it hit (flashback, flash forward, flash sideways, whatever) - that scene was very close to the final scene of Titanic, where elderly Rose dies in her sleep and ends up back on the Titanic with the important people to her who died on the Titanic- especially Jack - there to welcome her. Anyone else see the similarities ?

I think the writers dropped the ball with the island theme. I keep going back to the first 3 seasons, and remembering how I felt after each episode. Feeling like what the hell is this place and how cool of a show lost is. I never felt the same way with seasons 4-6. I still think this is/was the best show going and probably wont be surpassed. The get the last scene, but I didnt like it

@ Mr. F I'm really disappointed that you are behind this ending. Having read anything here most of this season bc it's not the same show and sucks. I remember old posts from you being fairly intelligent.

@Mr. F I think that MB "gets" it. I think that the finale was a "simple" answer to a complex show. They took the easy way out. They may even have stolen the premise from a book. Have you ever read Conversations with God? Very similar!

I even teared up seeing that A+.

I was so unbelievably happy with last night's finale.

And I told you all to leave Kate alone. <3

you got to wonder....so if Frank, Miles, Kate, Claire, Sawyer and Richard land somewhere in civilization, how do the explain who they are and where they came from? It must have been "breaking news" that the Oceanic 6 were on the Ajira flight and it went missing? Now the plane comes back with some different people on it and a lot of others missing.

Daniel,

Thank you for being there with us every step of the way. You, like Lost, will be dearly missed. I suspect for quite some time I will instinctively find myself on this site on Wednesday mornings.

Namaste

i think that the directors of LOST should make a new cop chow about miles and sawyer cause it would be hilarious

I once was LOST, but now I'm found....

See you in another life, fellow Losties. :)

I must say the ending satisified the faith side of me and the way things worked out for the characters we also cared (or not) the most for. To me it seemed to follow that we create our own reality and choose those other souls to be with that will help us advance to whatever the next level will be.
The science (and sci-fi) part of me would have liked more anwswers about the island and its mythology also. But as I thot about it I realized the Losties never had all the answers either. How many times on the show were they confused and just making it up as they went. So why should we the viewers have all the answers and know more than the characters themselves? It's like they say - always leave them wanting more.
Anyway, thanks for a terrific blog that helped feed my "Lost" addiction and I'm sorry I discovered it only a few years ago. I enjoyed reading all the comments and theories and couldn't always get up the courage to post. I will miss it all.

It really just did suck!

i totally agree with christa. i wrote this to my friend this morning:

I think the island was the island. A magical place but very real. I think all of the losties died in their own time (some on the island , some off) and when they went to heaven they, in their minds, all
created a place where they could fine each other. The island was where they found their soulmates or themselves and that connection to each other remained in death. They had to find each other as
christian said 'to remember and let go' so that they could move on
to the next level. Ben, for example, was not ready to move on so he
didn't go with them. Faraday and charlotte were not soulmates which is why they didn't connect and he didn't move on. I thought it was beautiful and profound and when vincent laid next to jack when he died I went into the ugly cry at my friend's house and sobbed when I watched it again at home.

There were a lot of things I wanted answered (did hurley and ben
stay on the island forever? How did desmond get home? What the f was
so great about walt? What is the bright light EXACTLY?) I am actually fine with it. I don't think they negated the past 6 years with a trick ending. Though I don't think the sideways world was necessary to the whole 6 seasons. I think it was a seperate storyline that resolved itself over the year.

Though the one thing I thought about last night was: I think the
island really did end underwater in the end.

oh and another thing- i think in the sideways world jack and juliet had a son bc they both died before they could have children. and they were in love once. and since kate and sawyer were still alive it makes sense that they would come together in heaven and try and have the life they never had when they were alive. i do wonder what happened to sawyer and kate since they seemed familiar in heaven but were not a couple...

@ MB --right on, couldn['t have said it better.

I can't believe we got a f*cking "Jacob's Ladder" ending... the flash sideways demean the rest of the entire series. I totally expected the "sideways" to mean that they were supposed to meet certain people in their lifetime or something. ie. Hurley missed Libby in the mental institution, they end up meeting on the island. In the sideways, they miss each other on the plane, instead they meet in the restaurant b/c they were supposed to. Nope they were all dead. LAME!!!!!

Daniel, thank you for voicing my thoughts much more articulately then I ever could. In my group, I was woman of science in a way with my brother as man of faith ;)I was extremely surprised to find myself very satisfied and moved by this ending despite the fact that it addressed virtually NONE of my most pressing questions. My brother, on the other hand, feels despondant and betrayed. He felt like the ending meant that their lives and the answers to all those questions didn't matter and that made him feel empty. But I disagree. I think the writers WERE saying it didn't matter--but in a positive sense. I think we go through life all the time knowing only pieces of the puzzle at any given time. The only thing we can truly hang on to is our evolution and growth as human beings, our relationships, how we effect each other and the world around us. I didn't take it as a cop out. I feel it was a very well crafted message that they wanted to get across. I liked and appreciated that the they gave me exactly the opposite of what I wanted or expected and still made it work. I respected them for doing it on their own terms and making 2.5 hours of moving television. If I ponder it for a while, YES, there will be answers I want and it will irk me not to have them (Charles Widmore?? What the hell?? WHY?? Sigh...) But I still find myself satisfied and I am definitely still thinking about the episode and know that I will for days to come-in that regard, they succeeded.

so sad that people are angry about the end - interesting MB post tho i don't agree.

i agree with Mr. F can't make everyone happy.

tho i have to say i was pretty distracted during the fight scene with Jack and Locke - it reminded me of that one famous Star Trek scene where the landing thingy keeps tilting back and forth. are spock and kirk fighting in that one i think? forced to or whatever...i am not a trekkie but married to one. i kept laughing that if my husband woke up he would comment on it being ripped off from trek. the knife out of reach etc.

Thanks again for the diaries. They were always entertaining and were part of my next day post-Lost wrap ups.

BTW, I am shocked you got through these entire two hours without making a Charlie joke.

des most likely got home on the elizabeth that locke was going to use. kate and sawyer just used it to get to the plane. des did use it to get there so would make sense if used it to leave

very disappointed in finale. prob wont even discusss it but...

...GOODBYE FRECKLES! YOU WILL BE MISSED!

Such a sexy, romantic, enlightening eppy!!! Super FLOVED it. Not dissappointing at all....did you see the last X-Files season or second movie???....waaaay the hell sucky!! Honestly, ITA with Daniel in the sense that regardless of what meanings we had attached to the Island/Characters, etc...there has never been anything like this on TV before....perhaps never again. I cried 6 times or some shit..and I'm an icy bitch...lol It was mesmerizing and I found myself caring more about the characters and the reconnections than the stupid ass island. Focus was just where it should have been...on the core losties. The momentum just continued to build with each connection brought about by the constant and his domino effect. I enjoy how the writing crew stayed loyal to many of the shows core myths...the constant being most impactful. We will all interpret this differently, and that is the beauty. IMHO...the island is what brought these peeps together to work out all their shit.....they all died in the crash...and yes, I think that the island was purgatory keeping the sinners/weak/lost, at bay. The church was Heaven's Gate..NOT Purgatory ...Ben couldn't go in...as he does not see himself as "Heaven" material. Some that died long ago were probably Penny/Rose/Bernard/
Christian/Desmond. Everyone else died in the initial crash. Jin/Sun's daughter was never born. The same thing brought ALL the pople to the island (yes...even Allison Janney..lol).....DEATH. Side-life was heaven-esque...the "what if..bettter versions".....the "losties" needed each other to find their way...out of "purgatory" and misery of past failings...and into the light of happiness/forgiveness/
heaven with each other....proving that nothing is irreversable and all that matters is the afterlife in the end. A+ for entertainment value alone. Can't please everyone....but romantics should eat this up!!! I'll miss your sexay ass Daniel!! Smoochies!!
~Sio

Thank you Daniel for the Diary. It was a great read the following day! IMO, I thought the finale was excellent and purposefully left open for interpretation. I am sure it's meaning will be discussed for years to come.

They all lived together so they didn't have to die alone.

Thank you Daniel for all the insight, humor and time to do this blog. I don't want to move it from my top sites. So I'll leave it open for a time. Maybe they'll be another great show will come along to fill the void. Kinda don't think so, but we can hope.

I wonder if some people, who are angry now because they wanted details and answers, did get lost in the big picture. I don't mean to offend anyone. But to me, they DID explain what the island was, not in the last episode but earlier in the season. They gave us an answer AND room for interpretation. Same with the whispers. And Dharma. On top of that they managed to create a finale where everyone is alive and dead at the same time (in the sense of awaiting whatever is to come next). I don't quite get what more you can ask for. To me it was perfect.

Love the blog, as always. I just can't get behind this final episode, though. I didn't need all the answers, but I needed more than "They all die, and some of them go to Heaven. The end."

Well said @Fue! I agree 100%. This episode was perfect in every way. I can't get it out of my head.

@Fue No offense taken. I just feel that the ending was such a cop-out. They could have written anything at all for the past 6 years about the island since they knew it would end like this. I just feel a little let down. BTW...I am not angry, just disappointed.

At the end of Season 5 when JULIET was saying good-bye to ROSE & BERNARD, she was offered a cup of tea by BERNARD. She sort of held her stomach area ---- this lead some to believe that she was pregnant.

Was JULIET pregnant then? (Deos it matter now?)

As I said earlier ---- LOVED the finale; Loved LOST for 6 years.

disappointing is understanding. i suppose i was just thinking that what i have loved most about lost is that is takes what speaks true to each writer of the show and attempted to make another try and explaining the meanings of life and ultimately everything is a distraction from what should be the constant focus. love

@Anon, I had some "fairly intelligent" posts in the past? Why thanks... I guess.

No it wasn't my ideal ending, as mine was much more sci-fi then they chose to go. I had 5-6 scenarios in mind for the ending, and none of them came to be. I dont know if you read any my posts today, but never once have I addressed grading the episode nor stating my feelings on it.

Like Daniel said above, the "Man of Faith" in me is satisfied with how they chose to end it. But the "Man of Science" was left wanting more. The people of faith are satisfied and happy today, but those of science are let down. I can relate to both sides.

For folks like myself, there was going to be NO perfect ending. I cant satisfy my faith side and science side without taking something away from the other. So all I am left with is THEIR vision of THEIR show.

I can take a small amount of satisfaction knowing the Island was real and was always real. That the Sidways world was not reality nor ever was. That WHH prevailed, whatever happened happened. That Desmond played a critical role in the end game brutha! I had quite a few theories and predictions come true in the end. Granted, got a few wrong along the way, but had an incredible journey along the way.

I feel smarter having watched this show, I found some great connections here and on other sites who shared my passion for LOST. And LOST got to end on their terms, and not ABC's or Disney's terms. While the ending was "perfect", it was pretty dang good and at least tied up a few loose ends along the way.

How selfish would I be if the only way to be truly satisfied with the ending would be if I wrote it myself? So I simply accept what I was given and try to see what they wanted to show us.

OK.....If a may give the only realistic logical explanation for this ending. Network shows being what they are, there was NO WAY in the first couple season the writers could know whether or not it was going to be picked up or for how long. (look what happened to "Heroes") So they came up with a lot of mysteries hoping to hit nerves & enamour more viewers while holding on to the ones they had. By the time ABC gave them a commitment going to the endpoint, they had too many different paths to go so they had to try to find a solution that (again) would enamour more viewers while holding on to the ones they had. They wrote the end, doing the best they could after painting themselves into a ton of corners. That's why the ending was "open to interpretation". Sadly, that is just the nature of the beast for commercial network television. They did the best they could with the constraints put on them by the "suits"

@lost in over

I bet if you take a break and then, at some point, watch the show over again, you'll feel like more of your questions will be answered during the show itself. Once you have that feeling, you will see the final episode in a different light. At least that's what I hope for you.

The interesting part is: They really could have written anything they wanted. The moral of the story is that its about the bonds you create in life. Yet they created interesting, fascinating, mysterious storylines and resolved most of them, sometimes almost unnoticed - although every single answer still leaves you to interpret it in your own way. To some that might be a cop-out. To me it's Lost. Really wish you'd feel better about how the series ended.

and thank you to daniel for your efforts despite how it came out your intentions were always good and your motives seemingly pure.

i started reading on tmz and was a quick addict and avid reader and enjoyed all theories despite if they were in agreeance with. one thing i have attempted to communicate with my spawn is that despite what happens - if you broke it - try to fix it after you say your sorry. and not to let fear stand in your way of anything that you want. these were main themes that lost attempted to tackle and for that i salute them. everyone. even the nikki and paolo epis - tho it shames me to write it. as you even all of it out it still comes head and shoulders above most if not all network shows.

no more sonofabitch

The crash, the island, the dharma group, flash forwards, flash backwards, all that was real. it happened. what happened, happened! the flash sideways was their purgatory, limbo or whatever you want to call it. that was their place for redemption before moving into the afterlife. remember when jacob says they were chosen because they were lost, flawed (can't remember his exact words..my interpretation). well the flash sideways was where they were able to redeem themselves. that's why jack had a son..he needed to resolve the father/son issues before moving on. The people at the church were the ones that meant the most to him. finally, the flash sideways wasn't created by the h bomb, or the electromagnetic energy or anything. the flash sideways just is...and we'll all have a flash sideways..i hope!! you really need to tap into your john locke man of faith side to truly enjoy the ending. if you hold on to your man of science side, you'll be disappointed and frustrated. great show, great ending, great six years...i will miss those characters very much!! thank you daniel..

Thanks for the years of recaps Daniel! Although I didn't always agree with your grades, I understood your way of thinking. And thanks for making me laugh during the reading of your recaps each week! Will miss your posts now that - sadly - LOST is over. It's the end of an era!

@fue, you probably loved Star Wars episode 1 & 2 as well?

@Mr. F.

i have appreciated your input about your various theories and the speculations behind them supporting why even if they didn't end up being what you thought. it shows a high level of tolerance and understanding and the dalai lama would be proud. i found interesting that recently he has been going on the path of buddhism as a science and studying the areas of the brain and happiness and all that is involved. a university in wisconsin. very intriguing

Daniel, what you said of being converted to a "man of faith" was completely epic...loved the episode, although the logic was confusing, the heart and soul of the show is about the people, and you just know they're all going to be okay.

Quote Mr F: "Oh well you cant please everybody and not everybody can understand what they are watching. Life goes on."

I agree. Not everybody understood what they were watching. What mystery would life be, if the answer to every question was handed to one on a platter? I think it was a better ending for the show that there are some mysteries.

Thank you Daniel for this wonderful blog and to all of you who have shared such interesting ideas. I really am going to miss this show and am open to suggestions for what now to watch. This is the only show my hubby and I watch, the rest is Nick Jr. Maybe because I am an emotional person or because I miss those who have gone on....but I really felt the episode was great. I would like to think that my dad and son are waiting for me when my time has come. Thank you, thank you all involved in this show! I will really miss it!!

i would love to have seen radinsky(sp) and his descent into madness.
it would be a great role for that actor. to watch kelvin ?) and him scratch out the map on the bomb blast door?

that would be an interesting series.

@Ano:

Surprise: I didn't. And if I did, it wouldn't matter. I like or dislike a show for what it is or isn't - to me. I realize I'm lucky to be satisfied with how Lost went. I just hope that everyone who's disappointed will get over it quickly.

Let me start by saying that I thought the finale was absolutely brilliant. I loved every minute of it and I've enjoyed thinking about it since it ended and reading up on all the posts about it.
I can understand that some people are upset about unanswered questions and all, but last night should have brought you to the same conclusion. I, like many of you, have plenty of unanswered questions and have vented my frustration on this site, in this comment section plenty of times, especially this season. What last night made me realize (after much though and reflection) is that all that doesn't matter anymore. As was repeated several times the past couple of seasons, "What happened, happened". Our questions don't and didn't matter and it took 6 seasons (for me at least)to realize that.
I think Jacob summed it up best last season. "Anything that happens before... it's just progress."

@fue

i'm with you, i feel lucky. i feel like i got closure to the show, the finale was a big juicy cherry on my big lost pie.

@crista.. Totally agree with you, you just gave the best explanation of what happened last nite.peace

Brilliant recap Daniel. You made me cry all over again. I've looked forward to reading your blog every week almost as much as watching the show. I agree completely with your A+ score and that it was one of the most brilliant (and moving) final episodes of all time. Thank you so much for your commitment to the blog- and to us- we were always there with you.

@victoria, thank you for the kind words. :)

Guys
The LOST show was all about Soul, Moksha and Nirvana.
Did you not get it by watching the Finale?
This is as per Hindu teachings that if someone dies and they have unfinished business then the soul is still lingering. The soul can't get the Moksha. It tries to accomplish the things it could not.
I thinkk LOST was all about that.
These all people on Oceanic were in all ways unfulfilled and they died with a huge burden of duty and sense of unfullfillment. Then what happens on the island is about their souls trying to accomplish the things.
Get it now?

Another interesting connection... we now know where Jack's mysterious "appendectomy" scar came from.

I think it is wrong for people to assume that those who are not satisfied with the ending are not as intelligent as those who accept the finale. We are all entitled to our opinions, no matter how different.

Also, so was Jacob watching the candidates afterlives in the lighthouse? Remeber that the image Jack saw was his childhood home, where he happened to be in his flash sideways at the time. Perhaps Jacob was instumental in assisting each candidate in "moving on". Maybe he was watching their afterlife to see who had awakened. Thoughts?

I forgot to say thank you Daniel for this site. I started reading on TMZ as well and just happened on here when it was taking too long for it to come up on TMZ. Someone mentioned Fringe as your next thing. I'm four episodes behind because LOST was the only showe that no matter what time I got home, I watched it, but if you start a Fringe diary I'll read it! Thanks again for a great ride!

For now, I'm going to be satisfied that the show redeemed my faith in intelligent, thoughtful, thought-provoking, mind-boggling television. It can be way, WAY more than just an "idiot box." For that, I'm very thankful.

As for ideas & thoughts about the show, I'm still pondering. However, since this is my first time commenting, I have this for Daniel:

My wife reads the Lost Diary to me every Thursday morning while driving her to work (we don't go in on Wednesday), & I've really appreciated the thought you put into this. While I've not always agreed with you (I've always been "Team Jack" rather than a big Locke fan, but maybe that has more to do with my views on religion than it does with my appreciation for any one character), I always come away from the Diary with something new to think about. For that, I thank you. I will miss the Lost Diary almost as much as I'll miss the show.

Thank you Daniel! I will miss your blog. I loved the finale - it was the best way to say "goodbye" to these characters. I cried and cried and cried! Yes, upon reflection, I still have questions but, I guess that is the beauty of LOST. I'm assuming that Kate, Claire, Sawyer, etc died on the plane sometime after it took off since it was rigged with explosives by Widmore.

Did anyone notice whether Jack's mother was in the church in the last scene? I would have thought she would have been there since (given the flashbacks) she was important to Jack throughout his life. If Christian was there, she should DEFINITELY have been there.

First time poster...

First, I kinda discovered the Lost Diarylate in the game last season, but have enjoyed it since, So thanks to Daniel!

Initially, I was a little disappointed in the last few mintues of the show. Was I emotional? Yes. I was choked up throughout the show and shed a few tears at the end. I was ok with the ending, but yet, it all seemed a bit lazy to wrap up the characters in a neat little bow like that. Not a huge fan of everyone basically dead at the end. I was also confused about the Flash Sideways immediate after. After thinking about it at, I agree with the conclusion that the Island was real. And the purgatory/waiting whatever was the Flash Sideways. That is a plus.

I know that ending the show when they did, they warned that they couldnt answer everything...but really? They really didnt answer any of the mysteries of the Island.. I think if they could have just given us one more season, a better balance could have been struck between resolving the charater's emotional/spiritual issues issues as well as some of the more pressing Island questions.

I still love the show, will probably watch the whole thing again... I will come to terms with the end... but I feel the finale was rushed.

Daniel,
I'm just as sad to see your weekly diary end as much as Lost itself. Every morning I couldn't wait to get to work so I could read your take on the last nights show. Your comments each week were PRICELESS!
Thanks brutha!

Oh, and I too kept waiting for the plane to explode since the last we heard it was rigged... sigh. Guess we wont know.

Daniel,
Thank you for helping give perspective when I was confused, or LOST, after each episode. I never commented however I would read every one you wrote.

Thank you!

Not much time to I will try to get my thoughts out in one post (not likely).

The ending was beautiful and all the time spent in character development really paid off, so much that even though I am about to offer some criticisms, I still enjoyed this finale very very much.

First - a lot of my predictions came true! Not that I was the only one to have them but several things such as Jack dying and passing the baton to hurley and that if anyone got off the island it would be with lapidus on flying them off, I could list more but who cares anymore really?

THE FINAL SCENE - I agree with Jimmy Kimmel - WHERE WAS BERNARD? Only thing I can think of is that he passed over whenever Michael and Walt did. Wait was Michael in that last scene? can't remember. Likewise I am sure Ben stayed behind for Alex to be ready to pass over (for lack of a better term). Same as Miles - he is waiting for who? His father? Why do some people not want to go? Daniel is waiting for Charlotte and Eloise will go when Daniel does. Lapidus is a big mystery we only know of his island related stuff - he probably went right away - but he did something MORE important than help save the universe or did he wait for someone else? huh. Richard went right away I am sure as his wife was probably waiting. Because Hurley had a good long term as #1 my guess is that this 'there is no now' time is very very far into the future even though the managed to create that interim pre-heaven universe that was in the 'now.'

THE FLASH SIDEWAYS
This is the part I am not happy about. So they all had the same interwoven hallucination that allowed them to not recognize they died and had to pass over? So I can see that some did it to get what they never got on life - Jack had a son (poor jack really never had a son it seems that is so sad), Juliet to have a life and love and a kid of her own (but not really), Sawyer got his respect, Hurley got his good luck, Jin and Sun had each other and a happy relationship, Sayid created a platonic life with Nadia who he loved, but was still there because he hadn't found his real soulmate Shannon etc. But WHY would Kate create herself that reality of being a criminal on the run? Because...

GETTING OFF THE ISLAND
So I think it is safe to assume Kate and Sawyer got to go have the relationship that Jack and Kate, and Saywer and Juliet had the chance to... but if so it was only a time killer til the found their soul mate again? Kate was no longer a criminal, got to to reintroduce Claire to Aaron, etc. so WHY again would she create herself as a criminal in 'purgatory''?

These are the questions that puzzle me and will continue to puzzle me.

I will say it makes it easier to get over lost - it had a very touching ending, one that certainly can't go on because they are all dead.

I think my mom will like watching the DVDs now, my dad not so much.

@crista,
You are right on and I couldn't have said it better myself

Everyone, please stop asking about Mr. Eko. FOR THE LAST TIME, he did not want to come back! It has nothing to do with the LOST creators or the finale story line. Blame THE ACTOR not the creators and for God's sake do not base your judgment of the finale on whether he appeared or not. Now with that said, moving on. I thought the finale was brilliant. It evoke emotion from me the whole episode and the last 10 minutes was no exception. LOST has a different meaning/interpretation for everyone, and like the creators already said, some will like it and some will not. It can't end how everyone wants it too - that would be impossible. It was GREAT for some of us and a disappointment for others. That is the way it is folks. THE END.

@Jen, I actually think it was his appendix scar, wrong side for the stab wound, also because he died from the stab wound and the neck wound was open, they wouldn't close in the LA X world

@Mr F - thanks for keeping us (me) on track and factual - I don't think it was JACK's day, I think it was all of them, it was a joint day, their day - they each had their redemption/wish come true in LA X and were equally important, Jack was the last to come around because he was the Man of Science - Miles, Ben, Helen, Daniel, Cooper, et. al. didn't crash on 815 - so they didn't experience the complete surviving and depending on each other - IMHO, it's not to ease Jack's moving on, it's so they could move on TOGETHER because they were a team (even Shannon and Boone).

Locke saying, I hope someone can do for you what you did for me means it wasn't about helping Jack, it was about each member's journey individually and together... maybe?

@all the unsatisfied folks - I had to remember that any concrete end to the mythology as factual would have been picking one faith/religious explanation over others and clearly the island was The Source of life in us all and it didn't matter what religion one was, everyone comes together in the end to return to the Source, The Light - Through a 'church' with most major religions represented - I liked that

I loved that there was mythology and philosophy across all religions were represented and if any of the best philosophers and theologians throughout time have not been able to reconcile differences in beliefs, why should the writers of a TV show be able to do it in 2.5 hours or 120 hours for that matter - they raised questions and provided an answer - in the end we all come back together at The Source - I like it

@Jen, I actually think it was his appendix scar, wrong side for the stab wound, also because he died from the stab wound and the neck wound was open, they wouldn't close in the LA X world

@Mr F - thanks for keeping us (me) on track and factual - I don't think it was JACK's day, I think it was all of them, it was a joint day, their day - they each had their redemption/wish come true in LA X and were equally important, Jack was the last to come around because he was the Man of Science - Miles, Ben, Helen, Daniel, Cooper, et. al. didn't crash on 815 - so they didn't experience the complete surviving and depending on each other - IMHO, it's not to ease Jack's moving on, it's so they could move on TOGETHER because they were a team (even Shannon and Boone).

Locke saying, I hope someone can do for you what you did for me means it wasn't about helping Jack, it was about each member's journey individually and together... maybe?

@all the unsatisfied folks - I had to remember that any concrete end to the mythology as factual would have been picking one faith/religious explanation over others and clearly the island was The Source of life in us all and it didn't matter what religion one was, everyone comes together in the end to return to the Source, The Light - Through a 'church' with most major religions represented - I liked that

I loved that there was mythology and philosophy across all religions were represented and if any of the best philosophers and theologians throughout time have not been able to reconcile differences in beliefs, why should the writers of a TV show be able to do it in 2.5 hours or 120 hours for that matter - they raised questions and provided an answer - in the end we all come back together at The Source - I like it

@Jen, I actually think it was his appendix scar, wrong side for the stab wound, also because he died from the stab wound and the neck wound was open, they wouldn't close in the LA X world

@Mr F - thanks for keeping us (me) on track and factual - I don't think it was JACK's day, I think it was all of them, it was a joint day, their day - they each had their redemption/wish come true in LA X and were equally important, Jack was the last to come around because he was the Man of Science - Miles, Ben, Helen, Daniel, Cooper, et. al. didn't crash on 815 - so they didn't experience the complete surviving and depending on each other - IMHO, it's not to ease Jack's moving on, it's so they could move on TOGETHER because they were a team (even Shannon and Boone).

Locke saying, I hope someone can do for you what you did for me means it wasn't about helping Jack, it was about each member's journey individually and together... maybe?

@all the unsatisfied folks - I had to remember that any concrete end to the mythology as factual would have been picking one faith/religious explanation over others and clearly the island was The Source of life in us all and it didn't matter what religion one was, everyone comes together in the end to return to the Source, The Light - Through a 'church' with most major religions represented - I liked that

I loved that there was mythology and philosophy across all religions were represented and if any of the best philosophers and theologians throughout time have not been able to reconcile differences in beliefs, why should the writers of a TV show be able to do it in 2.5 hours or 120 hours for that matter - they raised questions and provided an answer - in the end we all come back together at The Source - I like it

LOVE the Almost Famous shout out!

Everyone, please stop asking about Mr. Eko. FOR THE LAST TIME, he did not want to come back! It has nothing to do with the LOST creators or the finale story line. Blame THE ACTOR not the creators and for God's sake do not base your judgment of the finale on whether he appeared or not. Now with that said, moving on. I thought the finale was brilliant. It evoke emotion from me the whole episode and the last 10 minutes was no exception. LOST has a different meaning/interpretation for everyone, and like the creators already said, some will like it and some will not. It can't end how everyone wants it too -that would be impossible because we all have different ideas on how it should end. For me and others it was GREAT, but it was a disappointment for others. That is the way it is folks. THE END.

@Christina, the plane was rigged, but remember Flocke removed all the C4 and placed it in Jack's backpack. The explosives that were once on the plane (set by Widmore), were removed (by Flocke) and put in Jack's pack (by Flocke) to blow up the submarine. Therefore the plane was free to fly away without worry of exploding.

Glee - maybe Kate still believed killing her step dad was the right thing to do to protect her mom. so she was wanted for murder for that only.

Hey everybody...I haven't been on this blog since around season 4, but wanted to say I'm sad to see this show, and Daniel's diary, etc come to it's end. So happy to have an ending to it, but how bittersweet is it. Question...will any of you be re-watching/commenting on an organized re-watch of all 6 complete seasons? I'm planning on starting over ASAP and would love a forum to continue my LOST fix. Thanks!

Sorry for triple post!!!

@Glee - she got to be innocent - on the run, but innocent - so she didn't run with guilty conscience

I've never really posted on here, but I've been a faithful reader of this blog. I want to thank you so much, Daniel! After every episode, I would anticipate the next morning so that I could read your thoughts. Thank you for making LOST more fun, and thank you for giving this episode a well deserved A+!

@ Daniel

Thank you for this blog we’ve been watching with you as well.

Your review was awesome and befitting the finale.

To address your pondering at “10:51 -- I can't decide if I think Island Kate is hotter than Not Island Kate tonight. Tough call.”

The reason you can’t call it is because this Kate had a hot dress on, but still looked like island kate – messy hair and no eyeliner/little make up. Best of both worlds right?

I feel so let down

Thanks Mr. F!! I forgot about that....

I'm not so much of the purgatory camp. I believe both the island and the sideways stories were real, and that Hugo and Ben lived for years on the island just as Jack, Sawyer, Miles, Kate, Juliet, etc. lived on for years in L.A. Some of the characters found each other "earlier" in time and some "later" in time, perhaps living out their lives together with their soulmates. The recognition/reconciliation of embedded memories deepened their relationships with each other and led to an acceptance of life, destiny, choice, and oneness -- hence the happy smiles. Christian states clearly in the church that "there's no 'now' here", and I take that to mean that the group reunited at a "space" rather than at a "time." So some may have died many linear years before others, but when everyone was ready to let go and move on, they did so as a group. I also think the purgatory camp vs. the parallel lives camp could be a further aspect of the faith vs science focus of the show -- remember, there were a lot of physics mini-lessons involved.

I thought the finale was A+++. As several have said, it's up to the viewer how to interpret and move forward with many of the issues involved, but I thought the story and philosophical/spiritual suggestions presented were powerful. I loved it; I miss it; I thank you Daniel!

hahaha! Daniel actually wrote " who does #2 work for"? !!!1 ahahha!!

i don't get the very very end, with Vincent laying next to him, did he die too, wtf? im so confused. im assuming that they did crash on an island, but the flash sideways were like Jack's final 8 mintues of brain activity going off? help!

It's a TV show, not a religion.
Did you learn anything about the connections that make the stranger next to you on a plane meaningful for your life?
Use that connection to elevate your humanity......

@suede66, thanks for the kind words. And thanks for opening my eyes to different takes of the same scenes. Hopefully we were both the yin to each others yang. Namaste!

So many people to thank here, I probably shouldnt try and list them all in fear of forgetting someone. Kudos to everyone who shared the views, gave their opinions, provided a theory, shed some light on subjects and came back week after week to do it all over again. It has been one heck of a ride, so glad to have been a small part of it.

And a big thanks to Daniel, for providing a home away from home for all us LOST souls.

I agree with Mr. F. that there could be no "perfect" ending that satisfied everybody. Look at The Sopranos..I HATED that and I have friends that think it was the best thing ever. I loved the finale to Six Feet Under and I have friends that hated that. I've seen so many series finales that left me feeling NOTHING that I am quite please when a show leaves me feeling anything at all. This finale, to me, was 100% amazing and beautiful. Was it what I expected? Not one bit.

I think that most people, at some time in their life..especially if you have children, wonder where you will go and who will be with you after you die and the thought of not having those with you that mean the most is..literally..Hell. We saw the people we grew to care about get their "ever after" with the people that meant the most to them and I am more than 100% satisfied with that.

The only difference for me is that when those doors opened and the light poured in, all of my pets would have come running to meet me.

@suede66..the place where jack was stabbed by flocke is where the appendix is located however wasnt there an episode where jack had and appendectomy by juliette

I think Keith summed it up great. sorry i cannot remeber the time of yer post... makes more sense.

@ A SCOTT, you're right. Jack did have an appendectomy by Juliet. Interesting choice by the writers to have him stabbed in the same spot. I'm guessing that wasn't a coincidence. Right?

@lostchi - Nice catch!

@lostchi thanks..question, did jack ask his mother about not remembering his appendix being removed, and did she tell him yes he did? that would make sense because in LAX time its whatever jack made it to be until he was made to remember the island

I wanted to take this time to thank you Daniel. I've been reading your Lost Diary for as long as I can remember..when a Lost episode is finished I'd head straight for your site. The two go hand in hand to me and I wanted to let you know that I will miss it.

I am one of those who loved the finale. I still have questions, but am mostly satisfied with what the writers chose to show me. I am usually a science person, so I am surprised at myself. Maybe it was having Vincent stay with Jack so that he wasn't alone when he died. That really got me. What I really am is a dog person.

One thing that has had me curious for a long time is Mr. Eko. My understanding is that the actor chose to leave the show and I wonder if that is true. He seemed to serve as a guide to the audience in some way through his faith and knowledge of the Bible. He was so conspicuous in his absence in the preview show. I would love to know why.

Great episode, but a few things confuse me: how did Jack end up dying in the bamboo fields? I thought he was at the bottom of the waterfall by the light when he died....

Also poor desmond!! They brought him back to the island for what?!? He never got to be with Penny again until he died...very sad.

Also great to see Vincent return :)

Daniel, I just wanted to say thanks for the great diaries every week. I have been reading faithfully for years (although I never commented before today), and looked forward to reading them and the discussions every week.

This is a fairly negative recap, but still funny-interesting:

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/05/lost_recap_finale_the_end.html?f=most-commented-vulture-7d5

I believe there were so many mysteries left at the end to mirror life and the mysteries of creation and death. No one knows for a fact how we all came to be here on planet Earth. A lot of us believe God created everything but no one really knows for sure. We've just always been here. The same thing about death. No one knows while they are living what comes next-until they die-and then it is not like they can come back and fill everyone else living in on the big secret. The sideways flashes served as a waiting room for people to wait for their loved ones or most important people in their lives to also pass away so they could move on together. Once the others arrive, their lives are remembered (ala life flashing before their eyes????) They "aren't ready" (to quote hurley) until they other people that are important to them are dead too. I think the show did a good job of being true to everyone of any faith in that they did not use the words heaven, hell, purgatory, God, creation--they used "let go", "move on", "waiting room", "light", etc. Superbly done!!!!!!Did everyone notice the table numbers at the concert???? (4-8-15-16-23-42 anyone?)Awesome touch, "you don't have a son Jack"-John Locke and "I missed you so much"-Kate Austin (proves she and the others got off the island and lived awhile past Jack died on the island. The only question I have is-since Hugo and Ben are dead now (the whole you were a great #2-you were a great #1)-who is the keeper of the light now??????????????????????

I think, while I don't regret for a second watching this past six years, I might hesitate to really push it for someone wanting to, say watch it on Netflix. It's very different to me watching a show on DVD, one episode after another, verses in realtime. I think watching LOST in 6 months, instead of 6 years, would be very different, and maybe not in a good way.

This was a show to watch with people, to talk with people about, to think and hypothesis continuously about. I know it's been said before many times, but it is true. Thank you, Daniel and fellow commenters for watching LOST with me.

You guys will love this: My daughter just came in from school, looked at me and said, "God Mom, put on some make-up! You look like your best friend just died."

@ A SCOTT - you're right - my bad! I thought Appendix was on left - I was mistaken - oops

OK, I'm a cry baby, just like my screen name. Such a baby that I cried when I read Daniel's A+ grade. That's how twisted I am over this show. Daniel, I was hoping your Man of Faith side would take over, because otherwise, I thought you'd hate, hate, hate the ending. My mother called me this AM BAWLING because she was so mad. She thought everyone was dead the whole time.

Nope, it was all real. They were meeting way in the future on their way to heaven. THAT'S the part that gets me every time I think of it. So bittersweet to think that Kate probably survived many years without Jack, the love of her life. Same goes for Sawyer, living a lifetime without Juliet. And now they're all together.

Makes me think about what we can all expect as we're about to cross into the unknown.

Sigh. I'll miss you Daniel. Thanks for the wonderful years. And thanks to everyone on here for many, many years of great reading.

@luvsawyer, dont pity poor Desmond just yet. I thought Ben's line to Hurley was key in understanding what became of Mr Hume.

While it is open to speculation, I am thinking Desmond simply finished what he began a long time ago... He finished his sail boat trip.

The Elizabeth was there for the taking, once Sawyer and Kate left it for the plane ride home. So why couldnt Desmond take his boat back and sail home to the love of his life? Desmond is reunited with Penny and Charlie Hume. See you in another lifetime brutha!

I wonder what in the world Widmore whispered to Flocke in Ben's hidden room right before Ben killed him? HA!

Daniel, I can't even remember when I first started reading the lost diary. It's just the natural thing for me to do after watching the show every week. I have enjoyed your diary and reading all the comments and theories. I was really confused lastnight and didn't get to bed until after 5am. I finally understand the ending, but I am not satisfied with it. I still feel like we got ripped off. I'm not hating, I've watched this show for 6 years and I feel like the ending was completely unoriginal. I know they couldn't satisfy everyone, but it was bad. Like others have said, the island was a character as well and we still don't really know what it was. It was really upsetting to think they are all dead now. I don't expect everything to be neatly wrapped up in a bow, but you know what, to answer your question if I would recommend that someone invest the time watching Lost, is it worth it for the ending they gave us? I don't think so. I don't regret the years I spent watching the show, I just feel that the writers could have given us something so much better. I feel sad that it's all over!

@ Jacksacrybaby - That's a great point that needs repeating - when they meet up in the church, ready for the next plane of existance, it is FAR IN THE FUTURE! I have been reading other boards where they say things like, the plane Frank was flying must have crashed because Kate and Sawyer and Claire were on the plane, but yet they are in the church. Christian explained it - there is no time.

Great post!

@ Angel2480

me too my pets would be waiting for me!

The very last scene with Jack and Vincent when the plane flew over was heart stopping. How much more peaceful it must have been to have Vincent there. That really got to me!

Thanks Daniel for your insights every week. Reading all the posts for one last time is fun, but kind of sad. I agree with MichelleH perfectly, and as Jack said 'It just feels right.' What a great show and finale.

See you all on the other side.
Stephen

Thanks Daniel for your insights every week. Reading all the posts for one last time is fun, but kind of sad. I agree with MichelleH perfectly, and as Jack said 'It just feels right.' What a great show and finale.

See you all on the other side.
Stephen

I was thinking today that the island is like life itself....things happen we can't explain, miracles happen all the time, and there is magic all around us. Stop trying to figure out WHY and LIVE in the place where magic and miracles are NOT out of the ordinary.

Daniel, thank you for the grade, thank you for the years of Lost Diary. Maybe it's pregnancy hormones, but when I read your A+ it made me smile and cry all at once. I loved the finale. It's just a tv show, but somehow those 2.4 hours brought back some faith in humanity I had lost the past year.
I've had so many thought-provoking conversations today over the finale, so even after the show is over it continues to draw me in. See you in another life, brutha

little side note: I loved that, at the concert, everyone was seated at table 23 - Jack's number :)

Doc Jensen is finally up!

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20313460_20387946,00.html

@avalons eye, I love what you said about the island. I'm still crying! So sad that it's all over! Thanks to everyone for your comments. I would still be very confused if it wasn't for you guys lol. This has been a wild ride!

I'm definitely still trying to process it myself, and I agree that the last 5 minutes were separate from the rest of the ep in my analytical mind, but it was quite a ride. Except Shannon. Can i just block that part out? Loved seeing my old Locke again. I missed him. Glad to share the crazy LOST ride with ya brutha and with everyone else here!

Ok, so here's my take on the whole thing;

The Flash-Sideways world was what happened after all of the characters died in the island world. It was purgatory.

By the way, Ben got the walkie talkie from Widmore.

thanks Daniel

Michelle, you have the best take on not only the finale, but the entire show. What you wrote makes sense of "Lost". Brilliant! I'll bet the Bluray extras this fall will reflect your theory about what the producers had in mind when they created this phenomenal TV show.

Daniel, thank you for a great site to allow us fans of the show express our ideas and questions. I'm gonna miss ya brutha!

Daniel,
I have been reading you for years and i am truly sad for this to end. I know this sounds so cheezy but it's true! I don't have many friends who watch LOST but i always knew i could count on you to 'discuss' it with me the next day. Thanks for being my LOSTie friend :)

If someone's said this before sorry but I've been thinking about David and I get that Jack had no son and that David was because of his father issues. Isn't it possible that David was just a version of young Jack? Everyone on the show kept saying "he looks just like you" and they both played piano and David felt rejected by his father but they got to work through it. He couldn't work on those things with Christian because he was dead (and Jack knew that). There were two Jacob's as Jacob awaited moving on (child and adult).....

Okay, trust me this is not a worm or something terrible.I loved the ending and it reaffirmed my bUcket list.
This is what I wrote about it today.It affected me deeply..
Linda

http://open.salon.com/blog/emileeeeeee_mcpheeeeee/2010/05/24/how_the_tv_show_lost_duct_tape_reaffirmed_my_bucket_list

@ Angel2480 I still haven't finished reading the posts but.... I teared up again when you mentioned my biggest question in life, Who will be with me after?

And now I'm busting out laughing 'cause I don't dare look in a mirror right now and luckily it's the middle of the night so no one's around to see me! :)

I have been reading this blog from the beginning, but I haven't posted in a while. As for the ending, I can say that I am happy that it was not what I was expecting. Knowing only that watching the end was going to require Kleenex, I was bracing myself for what I would consider to be the worst ending - all the remaining Losties perishing in some horrible fashion and there being absolutely nothing left. I am happy that it ended with a "happy ending" and that these characters that I grew to love/hate/love will be together forever. Do I still have questions? Yes. Would I LOVE the answers to some of them? You betcha. But I am a sucker for a happy ending and I got one. Thank you LOST writers/actors/crew et al for creating this amazing show. I will miss it. And thank you Daniel for entertaining us with the blog. Yours was the only one I ever read. Namaste!

I simply loved the ending.
Thank you, Daniel, for all the posts, for bringing all of us together...all the souls intertwined in each others' lives because of a show called Lost.
This is The End.
I have simply loved all of you all these years.
Thank you.

Oh, almost forgot. Vincent KILLED me! I was actually fine up until that point. When he came and laid down next to Jack so he would not die alone, I "lost" it. It reminded me of when I read the article about Oscar the hospice cat who curls up next to terminal patients right before they die. Ugh! Heartbreaking.

Question: Do you believe that Season 6 was the islander's creation, created in order for them to get a chance to find each other?

Or do you believe that the entire 6 seasons were the created reality? A chance for individuals who were NOT ready to die in a freak airplane crash to get a chance to redeem themselves before entering into eternity?

I, for one, believe it's the later. That's why Christian showed up in S1E1.. That's why Jack died in the exact spot he awoke in. I kept expecting the screen to flash any second and he would be back in his black plane suit for the last second of the finale....

I'm suffering from P.L.S.D. - Post LOST Stress Disorder.

Two things that also got answered thankfully:

- why libby was crazy - I think she was crazy because in real life she saw her afterlife and in the afterlife she knew she was dead! that's enough to drive anyone crazy.

- Desmond wasn't worried about killing locke by hitting him with the car - because he was already dead!

Just continuing my above thought (Angel2480) "Was it what I expected? Not one bit."
I agree, I was thrown for a loop.

"I think that most people, at some time in their life..especially if you have children, wonder where you will go and who will be with you after you die and the thought of not having those with you that mean the most is..literally..Hell."

The opposite of that Hell would be what our Losties achieved. A community of spirit. Zen Buddhists Hindu Yogis Kabbalistic Jews Islamic Sufis Christian Mystics... all believed in this, called by some of todays physicists - quantum interconnectedness.

Not hating on the finale, I liked it. A lot. Though I am slightly disappointed in the purgatory choice as a conclusion, as it seemed to be the easy thing to do. Clearly, this has always been a story about characters and redemption, particularly Jack's.

However, if the show were to have ended by using more of the mythology and overall plot, then it could have gone something like this:

The sideways characters experience semi vague/hazy flashes, like Charlie's early flash on the plane and Jack's bits and pieces, but struggle to figure out what is going on. Desmond, as the intermediary, due to his (in Charles Widmore's voice) "unique resistance to electromagnitism", and the experiment Widmore ran on him, has knowledge of both worlds/timelines/universes. So he gathers the gang together by enabling these mini flashes/connections to their alternate selves, but none of them truly know what is happening yet. Meanwhile, after killing MIB/FLocke, Island Jack goes back to the light, then replaces the stone. Everyone in the sideways timeline has been gathered together (at the concert, hospital, funeral home, however/wherever you want) by Desomond. As Jack replaces the stone, the light builds into a full on white flash, causing a time/space skip which effects the sideways world as well (the opening of the doors of the church, or whatever), and everyone flashes, regaining conciousness of the Island world and their history together, uniting the timelines back into one. Everyone sees and recognizes each other and "reunites". Meanwhile, we see Jack, on the Island, during the flash, getting affected much like the time travelers did, but to a much greater extent. He falls down, and...we watch his eye close.

Does anyone remember why Libby was in the insane asylum in real life (as we see in the real flashbacks in the first seasons)? Wasn’t she seeing the other timeline? Or am I remembering this completely wrong?

It's not the way I would have ended the show...but it wasn't my story to tell. I am still a bit confused... like about Jack having a son, but then it wasn't real? SO nothing in the sideways was real? Just their imaginations? Please enlighten me...

it's so annoying how you hate on kate so much... it's like you're doing it to be funny & you're not...

@ Mr F You remain at the top of the "theory game".
Comments from MB and some others brought this thought to mind:

When an audience is presented with a theory that is 1 level above their understanding, they find it inspiring. When the information is 2 levels above their comprehension, they fall asleep. At 3 levels, they become angry; and when the data reaches four levels above the level of the level of the audience, they want to kill the presenter.

I will miss reading your diary. It was part of my LOST ritual, I would make sure to read it a day after a new LOST episode. Thank you!!

@lostonislandoz - just because someone does not agree with a theory, that does not make them intellectually inferior. That would be arrogance on your part.

@Berky:

Thanks for the kind words. Remember when Kate said to Jack "I've missed you so much" or something to that effect. Just broke my heart to think how long she lived without him.

@Michelle

Thanks for bringing up the number thing, I COMPLETELY missed that. Another point up for interpretation: Added by the Losties as part of their created waiting room or actually the answer to what the numbers where from the start: the end/the resolution/ THEM (the Losties) all along.

I love all the comments from people today whom I have never seen on here!

The producers are getting EXACTLY the reaction they wanted to get.

LOST finishes great, and keeps the mysteries going!

Well done!

I agree with Daniel and some others about the first hour and 20 minutes feeling really epic. I cried, I laughed, I yelled at the TV. If you look at the whole series, the writers just wrote up to a point, and then started working back to season 1...the same view down the waterfall as the hatch, Jack waking up/dying with Vincent there, etc.

So, the island was "real." Everyone that died on island really died then. The flash sideways really didn't have a time...sort of like a purgatory, where everyone had to wait for everyone else to become "enlightened" so they could all go together--really, they all had to be on 815 together and certain ones on 316 to get back to the island--so this makes sense.
I don't know. Still trying to wrap my head around it. Would have been awesome to see Ben and Hurley running the island. How did they find the other candidates to get off the island and "let go"?
Others have mentioned that the church scene could have happened years in the future. That opens some questions too.
Some people were going to love the ending no matter what they decided, and others were going to be disappointed. I don't feel like I wasted time watching, but I do think that someone could have watched the two-hour special before the finale and understood what happened. Thanks for rewarding those of us who paid attention and debated about what all of the mysteries meant by hardly including any of it!

I'm still processing my thoughts on the finale, but I just wanted to say thank you Daniel for six years of great recaps. I only posted a few times, but I looked forward to reading this blog each week almost as much as I looked forward to the show.

I shall miss this place.

This ep had me crying too!!! Loved loved loved it. I will miss your diary. I hope somehow you can repost the other seasons again. that would be fun knowing what we all know now :)

I get it now. I just wish I 'got it' last night while watching the show. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more instead of being so bloody confused! Can't stop thinking about it, and can't stop crying! Thanks to Daniel and everyone for a great ride!

LOST was the greatest television show of all time, until the last five minutes. IT DID NOT END.
Reminds me of The Matrix Reloaded.
The part of Jack's eye closing was great, but the sideways world ending up being where they ended up after dyinig to find eachother was super cheesy.
The whole series, as incredible as it was, was believable to me. All the crazy island stuff and timetravel stuff was believable. But the afterlife reconciliation thing just didn't fit logically with the rest of the show. I feel like I was dumped.

So the side of me that has invested all this time in the characters is happy with the way all of this has ended, with resolution of sorts. But, the part of me that has invested all this time trying to figure out the mysteries and mythology of the Island feels slighted. It seems as though this finale just made the Island life seem like any other person's most significant time, and the writers didn't really address it. I don't know how they could have ended it differently.

Has anyone seen the move The Others, with Nicole Kidman? This ending was very similar to the ending in that movie. The family went on "living" as if they were alive and had to remember how they died and the events leading up to it, only when they were ready, and then they could move on.

Still disappointed that some people's favorite "character", the Island, was way underused in this finale...and under explained.

Daniel, I have enjoyed reading your Diary every week, and thank everyone that posts to giving me insight that I wouldn't otherwise have on my own. And to answer your question, I would recommend people watch Lost. If you watch shows to be entertained, then this show fully delivered, whether the ending was disappointing or not.

Really quick, perhaps it may help to think that Desmond had some sort of 6th sense or psychic ability, and that's how he could bounce back and forth between realities, much like a psychic medium can communicate with those on different planes of existence.

I'm definitely gonna have to watch that again, I mean the whole show. I hope to get some of my friends and family to watch it with me this time, because I wouldn't want them to miss out on this amazing experience.

I had tears in my eyes quite a few times during the finale, whatching Sun and Jin, Sawyer and Juliet remembering their time on the Island, Hurley seeing Charlie again, and I cried watching the final scene with Jack. The fact that he has been my favorite character all along didn't make it easier. That and seeing Vincent there beside him...

Later I came here to read the Diary, as I have been doing for almost 2 years after each episode, and got emotional all over again. I love this brilliant show, I love reading the Diary and your thoughts. Even thogh I have posted here only a couple of times I want to thank you all for being part of this great experience. And thank you, Daniel, because ever since I first read the Diary, I couldn't imagine watching an episode and not coming here to see what you and everybody else had to say about it.

I will miss this show and everything about it so much!

Daniel, are you going to post on TMZ if you ever come up with a new blog for a new series?? I would thoroughly enjoy reading it. As it is, since finding this blog a long time ago I always made comments to those watching with me "Uh-oh... Daniel's not going to like that one." LOL

Also, to the regular posters on here.... I think this has been so awesome. Mr F, there was rarely a time I didn't agree with 90% of your theories, Glee the 1st, SK, so many more of you... Thanks for watching with me because nobody in my close circle of friends fully understood just what a great show this was.

You guys rock! See you on a different blog, I'm sure!

Aw KzooMom yer gonna make me cry again!

Even though..., sorry about the grammar mistake in my previous post, it's 1.00 AM over here and I've been to work for about 10 hours on Monday, trying to concentrate while all I could think about was that LOST was already over and I could only watch the finale after work. Just my luck...there was no way I could've taken the day off.

A big shout out to Daniel and the Diary. I'm going to miss my Wednesday morning fix and all the people who posted. One thing for sure, though, when I see an advertisement for Will Smith's new movie, MIB III, my thoughts will wander to a dusty island far far away.

Me too. :::sniff sniff :::

@Mr. F 9:42am
Well said. I feel the same way, but you say it much better than I ever could.

I will miss Daniel's recap and the input of all the losties as much as I will miss this incredible show.

There was no way to end it to satisfy everyone. I can't even get my family of three to agree on dinner.

Here is a link to an interesting blog trying to answer some island mysteries:

http://screenrant.com/lost-finale-explanation-kofi-61464/

I posted earlier, but I forgot to say thanks to Daniel for this blog.
I only disovered it last year, but have read every one and looked forward to each new edition.
I will miss you Daniel, as much as I will miss the characters of LOST!

Des already had his flash sideways once....eloise was there too, really need to re-watch that

It would b e fun to have Daniel's reaction to all the posts since last night regarding the finale.

I'm going to miss you Daniel....Please do another "diary". Whatever you choose, I'll watch.

As for our final episode, I can't say I wasn't a little dissapointed. It was beautiful, and I dont regret not one hour watched of this show for almost 6 years....however; I suppose I wanted more. Just a little more for the time I spent researching easter eggs, and trolling the net and library shelves for "clues".

I also had a dust problem last night. Gonna have to fire my cleaning lady too.

So about you doing another "diary"...please if you haven't already go to Facebook and vote for Miles and Sawyer to have their own cop show. That would be so kickass! (Would also probably ruin the integrity and credibility of Lost forever-but would satify our lust for Lost.)

I'm just saying I really have no idea what I'm going to do with my Tuesday nights now. None. In a way I feel like I've been set free. go figure.

Namaste!

I watched and read along the next day all of your posts and got further insight or affirmation to what I thought. I just know I wouldn't have missed it for the world! Thank-you Daniel for giving us this time and space to agree and disagree.

What a let down!

Loved the series, but the ending was lame. If the show was about the main characters then why the hell did they keep introducing new ones every few episodes just to leave their stories hanging.

Did we really need Widmore back on the island? How exactly did his presence enrich the main characters' story. They certainly didn't bother developing him enough to make it worthwhile. And what the hell was Zoe there for (other than to annoy the crap out of people). What about Lennon, the kung fu guy, and the most under used and under explained character; Eloise.

What I loved about the show were the frequent WTF? moments, where nothing made sense. By trying to have a "happy ending" they kind of blew it.

Meh, I can't even be bothered to continue my rant.

I think I'm going to miss The Lost Diary the most. I've enjoyed it through the years. Thanks Daniel for bringing insight to the show when I felt Lost.

I've posted a couple times today but believe I forgot the most important thing. Thank you Daniel for all your time and effort with this blog. I have enjoyed your comments and those of the posters here immensely. Thank you again.

Daniel -- Thanks for all of your witty and profound comments over the years. I started reading you on TMZ and faithfully followed you when you branched out on your own. You are the BEST...thank you for the laughter & tears. Now that "Lost" is over, what will your new obsession be on TV?

I thought last nights LOST was awesome. I will have to go back and watch it again, especially the last fifteen minutes. I'm still confused about the "here" and "now" stuff. Actually, just still confused... I feel like if I watch it again I may have a better grasp on it. Maybe I am just trying to give myself an excuse to rewatch it.
A great TV "experience", that is what I would tell a friend who asked for a 5 minute recap. That LOST was more of a mind boggling experience than a show. Because did we really just watch LOST? At least, I mean, yes we watched, but it was more than that. There was watching, pausing, rewatching, laughing, yelling, crying(some of us ere dusting),researching, moments of speechlessness, blogging, posting, etc. Sometimes all in one episode, last night for expample. I would also add that it was a show that made you think beyond the show it's self.
I will miss this, my routine of watching LOST then reading LOST Diary and all the posts. I had never really been all that interested in any "blog" until I found the LOST Diary after the first few entries. I have read every one since then after watching LOST the night before.
I really found it refreshing that everyone was respectful to each other. Especially with some of the topics that were discussed. Really nice to see in today's world.
THANK YOU DANIEL AND FRIENDS!

p.s.
INCEPTION does look like an excellent movie, and definitely not a wait for the DVD movie.

one issue i think they tried to hammer home is that choice and attitude are really all you have. you can only control yourself and your reactions to others.

the part of jimmy kimmel i loved was how they all seem to really like each other genuinely as people the actors. sayid was so lovey dovey he may have had a few in the green room but he was smooching on everyone and i loved that. i loved the banter with locke, ben and jack (terry, michael and matt) and just all the levity despite everyone in the audience having been in tears. the appreciation and gratitude they all have for the experience is above all nice to see

They will re-run the Finale on Saturday night, and I am just hoping, hoping that it might be an 'enhanced' episode for one last final LOST!

My thanks also to Daniel for this blog and to all of you who I have read week after week but never really contributed. I guess I never had much faith in my theories. But your discussions provided much needed clarity on so many points I have to thank you all for truly contributing to my LOST experience!

I will miss it beyond words, and all of your thoughts as well.
Joey

If you're gonna read ANYTHING, READ THIS: The perfect ending for "Lost" should have been that the Sideways Reality became THE reality, ending with a memorial service for Jack attended by everyone from the Island. And the end scene is of a troubled child being comforted by an adult, with back to camera, and then the camera swings round as the adult puts their hand on the child's shoulder, the camera pans up to reveal a smiling Jack utter the words "Everything's going to be OK" and our fave musical stringed note plays with the camera fading to black.

What I'd like to know is this:

Did the writers have this ending in mind when they initially mapped out the show in the beginning? Was this what was planned from the start? Or did they at some point go, "we need to figure out an explanation"?

The last season with the flash sideways and Jack realizing that he is dead is a complete rip off of the movie Jacob's Ladder.

0n the whole I liked it. Nice happy sort of ending. Pretty much based on "faith". However. What the hell? Lots of questions left unanswered. The smoke monster? The others? The Dharma Inititive. The guys in the hut in the middle of the arctic at the end of Season 2 who were reporting to Penny? What the hell? what was that stuff about?

It was interesting and entertaining. I'm hoping there will be a book that explains some of the unresolved issues...

Does anyone have a theory about Clair and baby Aaron being together in the church? Did he die in the plane crash along with Claire? I'm so confused! But I loved the finale!

I was very disappointed in the finale, until I started to really think about it. There is a poem that described it so well, and every time that I read that poem I choke up. I really think that the writers based the finale on that same poem, here it is,,,,

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

You see, the flash sideways were the Rainbow Bridge.

BTW thanks to Daniel and to all of you special people who have made the Lost experience such a great one for so many years.

ok maybe I missed something but didnt Widmore say that he put C4 on the plane so if it took off it would blow up? Then we saw Floke walking around the plane looking at the C4. My questions is how was Lapidus able to take off and fly the plane without the explosives detonating? I was thinking that is how Kate, Saywer, Claire, Miles and Richard die, but I think the writers would of wanted us to see the plane blow up mid air?????

I think the reason Ben was sitting outside of the church and didn't enter--was because he was the NuJacob---and he planned it and put together all the paople in the church at the end.He did it for Jack-since he was the canditate and gave up everything-and his life for the island when he went down the cave to the golden light.He restored the light and the golden water-and his purpose was then finished.

It was a crazy scene when they were all gonna meet for a concert--then all at once the charcters were meeting up in a church!? I felt like something big was missing!
PEACE!

I cared about these characters, so the ending was emotional for me. No, it didn't answer everyone's questions, but it was heartwarming to see everyone together in the end, even in death.

Thanks for the lost diary. I will miss this show! Loved it.

interesting to see on the blogs how some come to incite...

also interesting to observe that for most the answers have been given. it is up to the individual if they choose to listen and accept the answers as truth or not

one can either choose to agree to disagree or kill or be killed. choose to see things in black and white or shades of grey

i think matthew fox can safely say he has surpassed his performances on Party of Five (i didn't watch the show however can gather that this was a much meater role)

it is all about challenging your perceptions and questioning for yourself

looking at an event through different lenses to see the varying perspectives

lost has taken all of these themes plus most religious and scientific theories and put them into one thread of a story to show the differences and similarities in core beliefs

attempting to have something for everyone for some that seems like a form of cheating i suppose however like ben told hurley just because something was done before doesn't mean it is the only way.

go BEN!

i am all for starting a LOST book club. i belong to the LOST diary facebook group and going to suggest as a possibility. as long as not starting with ulysses - it is so so many words to have to comprehend. my brain go boom

ok so my take is that this is jack's version at the end. there seems to be a lot of speculation of why aaron represented as a baby?

jack was a father figure to aaron for those years after they got off the island even in his drunken stupor - as an uncle or father or whatever it was the version at the end he came up with.

No one mentioned when Kate said "Christian Shepard-....?!" Can't rememeber the whole line, but to the effect that religion was part of the equation. That was my first glimmer of something epic coming... :)

she said something like you have to be kidding me right?

also major component that i enjoyed was the balance factor. that everything needs a check and a balance. a main theme that is being battled in the US with our government. Things tipping too far one way and the results due to 9/11 reaction

the only key is accountability. measurable outcomes and systems in place to do so. corruption will always occur however with a check and balance it can be caught and corrected. this is the only way of hope

Dan,
Fist off, thanks for the diaries. Secondly start a new thread at exactly 815 comments. It would be fitting.

Hours after the finale ended, I had an epiphany about what Christian meant. This came to me after being woken up by my daughter and not being able to go back to sleep. What else can you do at 2:00 A.M.?

Basically, every thing that happened on the island, including the Oceanic 6 leaving, and their subsequent return, was real. To die on the island, or after leaving, would mean waiting in purgatory, thinking that Oceanic 815 never crashed.

What we saw during the flashes-sideways were, in a sense, purgatory. Christian helps Jack to see that he died, along with everybody else waiting for him.

Christian said that they all passed on at some point, presumably with Juliet being the first, which could explain her and Jack being married and divorced.

Along comes Desmond, who is the first to remember, and essentially becomes the catalyst in bringing everyone together.

Christian also tells us that some of the survivors lived long lives. This could lead us to believe that the people that left with Lapidis lived off of the island for a period of time. Because of this we can also assume that Hurley and Ben lived on the island protecting it untill the island did not need them anymore, or they found a replacement.

The actions that took place on the island meant something different for everybody. Jack had his need to fix everything justified, and in the end fixed the island so that the others could leave. Kate, Sawyer, and Sayid got to prove to themselves that they weren't the bad people they thought they were, etc. This is why this was the most important time in their lives. At the same time when watching the flashes-sideways, we see these needs materialize and be fulfilled by everyone, which allows them to remember, and be ready to move on.

To conclude this ridiculously long post, they all lived, loved and lost. In the end they all were able to find each other again, and as a group of friends and survivors were able to move on. And as much as Desmond was their catalyst, Jack was the glue that could hold them all together.

I just re-watched it again, making sure I noticed things you guys pointed out that I missed before. You guys have some good eye for detail! ;)

Anyway... this is completely unrelated to anything debatable about the finale, but something I noticed in the church scene between Ben and Locke. It appears that they intentionally left one side of John's face completely in shadow. When they showed Ben, the lighting was fine (that church was lit up like crazy, wasn't it?). When they cut back to John he was clearly divided between light and black shadow down the center of his face. That couldn't have been an accident, could it? Not saying the MiB tagged along with John into the church to "let go"or anything, but maybe as more of a symbolism thing. I don't know... just thought it was interesting.

Last 5 minutes I was balling, and nothing ever makes me cry.

I'm glad they didn't explain their whole island experience as just a death dream scape. That would have been a disappointed for sure. I can live with, and somewhat touched that the sideways was an afterlife moment.

Daniel & all the lost lovers, it's been an experience that I will soon not forget.

Glad they ended on a high note.

Okay my question is, why was Daniel's mother so resistant of Desmond bringing all the Losties together in the after life?

And she didn't want Desmond to take Daniel with him. Is that b/c she is in Purgatory and she didn't want to be left alone.

More questions, even at the very end. Uhhhh!

She wanted more time with Daniel in the afterlife cause she wasn't ready to let go, knowing she shot him in the back. She had to live with the fact she killed her own son, she wanted more time with him

I've watched the last 10 minutes a few times now and every time I have gotten choked up and cried. I think seeing all the Losties in the church looking so happy and at peace, with the people they love, is what gets me but also Jack laying there with Vincent watching the plane fly over head. I love it because Jack's goal from Day 1 was to get them off the island and even though he tried in the past and failed he never gave up and so when he sees that plane fly over head and that smile comes across his face, I think its because his "purpose" on the island was to get them off of it. I love this ending, perfect ending to one of the most amazing series' I've ever watched. I will miss it terribly

Daniel - I've never posted here before though I've followed you faithfully for years. The finale was most definitely an A+. Brilliant. Sweet. Touching. Funny. And Sad. I could barely breathe by the final scene. All day today I've felt very lonely, like a good friend has died. Thank you for helping all of us enjoy LOST just a little more each week. I've looked forward to your write-up every Wednesday morning for years. I'll miss LOST and the Diary very much. Take care and God bless.

Just rewatched the last 15 minutes of the finale and cried harder than I did last night. I understand more the 2nd time around and everything makes more sense - the unanswered questions just aren't important now. I feel sad but so 'Lost' anymore.

I don't believe for a second that the producers/writers knew all along how they were going to end this. I'm sure I saw an interview with them a while back where they admitted they got in over their heads at one point and had to figure out where to go next. I realize they can't please everyone but I think they took the easy way out. Lost was my weekly fix. My weekly escape from life. I'm not satisfied with the ending, but I'm going to miss the show. It certainly was a wild and crazy ride that I've enjoyed taking with all of you!

For those of you who've missed it and are still looking for some answers (Eloise, Walt, island): search for the "times talk live - behind the scenes of lost" on youtube. 11 parts, interesting are parts 8-10. Some answers by the writers might be disappointing tho.

I have looked forward to your posts for years. Thank you. I have to say, though, that if you weren't sure if you would recommend the show until after seeing the finale, I'm a little perplexed by that. It's been the greated televisiion event in history as far as I'm concerned, even if all technology had come to an end before the finale was broadcast. I wasn't crazy about the whole Jacob's ladder sideways thing, but I did love the finale. For the record, I LOVED Jack and Not Locke running at each other. Thanks for all the faithful comments.

I hated it!!! I wanted some answers, but there were none at all...I am so disappointed :(

So many favorite parts of the finale to choose from. First off, I'd say this episode could have done more to answer some questions which would have been cool but it also could have done less to open my eyes which would have sucked.

My take is that the crash happened and all of the stuff from the island happened which is why all these people were on that island somehow through Jacob & the MIB's games or just by their own circumstances. I think this is why the island is the constant for this group of people. Jacob must have had the power to recruit his replacement candidates, hence the titles of the episodes. There are so many questions about what happened on the island and why such as; what’s the deal with Mr. Eko? (I think the Mr. Eko had the same experience and ended up in a church with the people that affected his life the most but due to the one hour weekly and 6 seasons of the show we did not see that part of the story) This leads to the opening of my eyes explanation about the show. Whatever happened, happened. Some of it mattered to the story more than less but some of it was just there and did not really need to be finished for us because random crap just happens for no reason and no explanation all the time. One could say the best advice is to just bury it and move on. Only you know what is important to you and how you will deal with the people and situations you come across in your lifetime. Examples of random things are; Nikki & Paulo, The Dharma initiative, the atomic bomb, the black rock. Jacob may have caused some or all of these to happen because it seems like the bet between him and the MIB was; MIB:(They come, the fight the destroy, they corrupt. It always in the same. JACOB: It only ends once, anything that happens before that, is just progress." So you see, some of the story is just progress and the rest is working towards that final ending since like they say, "It only ends once."

The flash sideways situation, what the heck was that all about? This became clear to me on the final because I had read, researched, heard, and thought that the island was a "Purgatory" for these people but that fact has been flatly denied by the producers. The finale would paint a picture that L.A. was purgatory if you want to give it a name. In the case of Lost, L.A. is where you live up to your potential and get a chance to be the person you should have been before that darn Jacob gave you the touch. I could try to go more into detail here but I think that covers it. There really are not many solid answers just like in religion which is a big pink elephant in the room during this series. The man of faith and man of science theory makes me think that nobody is exactly right, it's somewhere in between and each individual has to either follow somebody or decide for themselves. Jacob and the MIB did let people try and decide for themselves for most of the series. I guess Jacob was wrong for picking his team so to say because he jacked up these peoples lives and changed the natural flow they would have lived their lives much like in the flash sideways. The MIB was robbed, he was the talented one with the gift, Jacob's pride made him corrupt, he fought, and he destroyed the MIB. (Anybody else notice his skeleton in the inner island chamber?) The MIB had this gift that made him question being a follower like Jacob. He had the power to do anything he wanted in his life just like we all do. The difference is we don't have a jealous brother named Jacob that tossed us down a lighted island water park ride.

The islands power in my opinion is just like you thinking that a 4 leaf clover has good luck. Except that some ancient culture or (Aliens) built this magic chamber with light and stone corks. It's a nicely sculpted natural stone hot spring waterfall that puts off a healing energy as long as you do not get to close.

The finale was great because it showed the light to these people and let them remember what mattered in their lives. I guess the best example is Jin & Sun, did anybody else notice that when they did a sonogram with Juliet at the end and flashed the island life, they were not happy and smiling because of the sonogram, it was because they remembered what happened and how much it meant. Their baby was not the bond between them, it was their love they had on the island. They also learned English pretty quick in that sonogram which compares to why Sun lost her English for a bit on the final march at her island experience. This proved that they all the sudden were enlightened to the life they really lived on the island before they died.

Jack, our fearless leader had lost his power a little the last couple seasons but really came through in the end. He and Hurley did help people along with the angel Desmond. I think the show is really got to come back to these three guys that had the most pivotal roles. Jack was a natural reluctant leader; his problems with his father are a reason why he realized that he needed to love his son for who he is in the flash sideways "L.A." life. He went from the glib dad to the caring dad that loved his son for who he was. Juliet being his ex might have been her want of a good man and baby but nothing to actually do with Jack in partcular. Same goes for Sawyer, Kate and some of the others. Ben linus was saved by these people, he had become corrupt, destroyed and all that jazz in his own timeline but these people showed him the light. I think he sat outside because the storyline with Alex & Rousseau were not finished yet in Ben's life. He was still guarding an island that did not need to be guarded anymore because Hugo did it his way. Hugo had to be with the people that meant the most to his life to so he left the island to be with them in the afterlife. Desmond was a pawn in the game but his inexplicable power was the reason he became the willing Sheppard for this particular group of island pawns. Why is he special? Could be another one of those unanswered questions that are up to you to decide if it's faith or science.

I could get into all the symbols and statements by different characters at times but that is not what matters. You can write off most of these side stories and unanswered questions to that is just what happened in that persons life and that all the people you did not see in that final scene had their own final scene that was the place their people built so that they could find each other.

I'm tapped but would love to discuss serious issues and questions with real fans of the show if you care. brian utah at msn dot com.

@AlaskaDJ,, it was not MIB skeleton in the inner chamber, we saw Jacob put it in the cave with Mother, there were actually 2 skeletons in the water cave that I saw, but MIB was the original Adam and Eve in the cave.

interesting reads peeps

@alaskaDJ

you had me up until the MIB skeleton in the waterfall? his skeleton is with mama CJ in the caves where the losties found them with the black/white rocks.

there were a few skeletons on the way to the stopper plug pool - i supposed they were people that were seeking the light/source that were killed in the process. like looking for the fountain of youth.

one thing i was hung up on was why some flashed to the seventies and some didn't.
sun had been touched but didn't flash. did that mean she was no longer a candidate due to being a mama or never was one? i know it was a plot device as well.

some seem to think they either died in the crash 815 or in the bomb blast. i think the bomb just blew them back to the present when it negated the energy from the swan station. it was again a plot device to get them back to the future.

interestingly i have had this as my email tagline for over 5 years

Awareness and acknowledgment are the keys to personal responsibility and growth.

You are right about MIB bones, I was mistaken about that and I'm sure other things..

Absolutely FANTASTIC!!

To Daniel, a big thanks for the site - it definitely added to the experience.

To the whiners complaining about not getting answers - for the most part, they're all there, you just don't like them.

I'll have to go back and re-watch season 6, but there should have been some hints that the flash-sideways were the afterlife. But the explanation given by Christian couldn't have been better.

@ Posted by: JoAnn | May 24, 2010 05:06 PM

I don't think Claire died in the crash. Some people died before Jack, and some did after. These were all people in the church who were important to Jack in some ways. Aaron was Jack's nephew, and he helped to raise him for a little while with Kate. They all were dead in the alt. line, but in the original line, it really did happen, they didn't pass in the crash. If that answers what you asked... I could have answered it totally wrong...

After watching the last 15 minutes again and thinking about it for a day, and at the risk of being "attacked", I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed the finale until the last 10 minutes. I loved the reunion of the characters, many that we have not seen in years. I loved seeing Sawyer and Juliet reunite. I cried like a big baby. I loved the scene in the hospital with Jin and Sun after they remembered. I love seeing the "old" John Locke. That being said, I did not like the last 10 minutes. Before someone attacks me for my lack of intelligence for not "getting" the ending, I get it !!! I just did not care for it. I watched LOST not only for the characters, but for the mystery. The island was a character of the show. Without the island, it would have been a nighttime soap opera. Although we got many answers to the mysterious happenings of the island and I understood that we would not get ALL the answers, I still feel a little disappointed by what was left out. Many on this site spent years debating the mysteries that kept us interested each week (and I enjoyed reading them for years). Frankly, if the writers knew this was how it was going to end (as they have previously said), then they could written anything they wanted for 6 years knowing that they would not have to provide a conclusion for some of the storylines. Don't get me wrong, I loved, loved the show. Again, I "get" the ending. It was beautiful. It was uplifting. I guess I was looking for a more sci-fi ending to LOST. This is only my opinion, so please take it for what it is worth. I am not angry as other posters have indicated if someone did not like the ending. I am not intellectually inferior to those who enjoyed the ending. I was just hoping for a different end to this amazing show. Lastly, thank you to Daniel for 6 amazing years. I have enjoyed this site so much. I learned so much from so many smart and insightful people (I even got some sight-seeing information - thanks Flashest). Thank you to everyone. I appreciate and respect everyone's opinions. Good luck to everyone in your daily life. It has been great !!!!

I am surprised at how many students of Lost are posting on this board complaints about the last episode for things that were explained.

-815 did crash and they did live on the island as we saw... they showed the wreckage and the shelters that they built to prove that and to show that the plane flying over jack's head could not be interpreted as flight 815 but actually the aijira plane

-the sideways was not just for Jack it was for everyone, Jack was not involved in all aspects of what was happening.

-Why wasn't Peggy Bundy in the church, easily the MOST obvious of all, Locke never actually had a real relationship with her that mattered. Before the crash Locke was paying a phone operator to be her and when Locke was given the opportunity to leave the island with the Oceanic 6 he did not meaning he had given up on her and realized he could never be with her... more importantly he realizes his importantance on the island. I understand why his flash sideways was with her but ultimately they had no mutual connection to one another.

-Boone was deeply connected to the people of the island, he gave up his life for them. Jack could have done more to save him but Boone said no he would use all their resources and he said it was not worth it. Boone loved his sister in every way and he never had an opportunity to have that connection with anyone else.

-Sayid and Shannon represented each others redemption.... Sayid did not kill Ana Lucia for murdering Shannon and Shannon became a better person (arguably the best version of herself) when she was with Sayid. I think the people in the church had to be there for one another meaning it could not be one sided. Also Nadia was never on the island or with any of the island people except at Hurley's bday party so she may not have known how to find them as she was not there when they created the place.

-The dharma initiative was the way candidates were chosen. There were tons of names in the cave that Jacob wrote maybe Whitmore was his outside number 2 to fund this initiative to get people to the island.

-The island is what balances good and evil.... I think that was very clear... do people really feel like they do not know what the island is... there was an entire episode about it.

My question is Kate's sideways had her still running.... is that really what she wanted for herself even in her ideal world... I think what she wanted was sacrificed for the story, there is no way that was her ideal life.

I always knew that Jack was the main character and Desmond was the one who would get them off the island and be a central character in moving the story along.

For the record:
Yes, I would recommend it to a friend
I LOVED every minute of the finale including the end (ultimately I think alot more people will as time goes by I like it more and more as I think about it)
I would summarize the show to a dying friend this way: read the last post from the Lost Diary

I was always a Man of Science for 6 years I kept saying I better get answers and I honestly thing I got enough answer (except about Walt, what was up with him)... But deep down I was a Man of Faith because I am more statisfied with the character stories than I thought I would be.

Thanks for helping me make sense of it... great blog... hope there is another show we can talk about like this.

I feel like an addict to this site - took off yesterday, to blog, watch the entire finale again, watch the very ending again several times - and I have a lot to catch up on at work now, but just can't give up my fellow Lost fans.

I keep trying to work out a theory where not everyone is dead in sideways world - it's just that WHEN they die, they go to the place Christian said they constructed - the church - not the whole sideways world. Make sense to anyone?

@berky, that could make a lot of sense actually... maybe that's why we didn't see WAAAAAAAAAAALT or Michael there. Or some of the other characters.

Exceptional site, where did you come up with the knowledge in this piece of writing? I'm happy I found it though, ill be checking back soon to see what other articles you have.

You own a very interesting blog covering lots of topics I am interested as well.I just added your site to my favorites so I can read more in the future... Please continue your marvellous work

Wow, I must say that after the finale I was left, well, LOST. I just didn't "get it". I was upset like a lot of people that they totally neglected the sci-fi part of the whole series that just kept me coming back for more for teh past 6 years. But then I watched the finale again last night and I was able to appreciate the ending a little more. Watching this show and searching the internet and blogs for theories has really made me feel like a "thinker". That is the beauty of LOST. It makes you think and ponder and it kept you entertained. I loved the show, appreciated the blogs and insights and will miss it dearly. Thanks a bunch people!

Namaste.

Boy, two days after the finale, and we're already getting spammed here, lol.

Watched again last night --- I have liked the finale since I saw it on Sunday ---and it is even better watching it again!

Is anyone else worried that twenty or so years from now, someone is going to try to remake LOST in a movie? That would suck, all different actors and stuff. Just had that thought after seeing a trailer for the A-Team movie coming out this summer...