Episode 18 - The End (2)
30 May 2010
Review
Present: MIB fatally stabs Jack on the cliff side overlooking Desmond's boat. Kate shoots MIB and Jack kicks him off the cliff to his death. Kate and Sawyer sail the boat to Hydra Island. Hurley and Ben take Jack back to the heart of the island. He swaps places with Desmond and puts the cork back in so the light returns. Frank manages to get the plane off the ground with Sawyer, Kate and Claire on board. Hurley becomes the new Jack and asks Ben to help him out. Jack is spat out of the cave and crawls back to the place where he first landed. There Vincent lies with him as he dies seeing the plane fly safely away from the island.
Flashback: Sawyer grabs an Apollo candy bar with some help from Juliet and they remember one another. Locke wakes up from surgery with feeling in his toes and remembers. Jack arrives at the concert and meets Kate. Ben apologises to Locke and thanks Hurley, explaining that he isn't ready to leave yet. Jack opens Christian's coffin and finally remembers. Christian appears and they embrace. Christian explains that this place was created so that they could all be together once more. All of our survivors and their loved ones embrace and it's time to move on.
The Good: They really captured something good in the end. The weight of emotions finally hit me when Jack embraces Christian. That is what he has waited the entire show to do. To finally make things right with the man who made him who he is. To see Jack crying his eyes out having come to the end of his journey really was a touching scene and felt very much what the end of Lost was all about. On the island to have Jack return to his first spot with his friends leaving, his work done, was also very fitting. More than just those pieces being in place, I think the episode really ended with a successful emotional farewell. The episode communicated the producer's desires to sum up the show. These characters went through such intense and traumatic times and they succeeded. They saved the world and each other from destruction. Corporately they all needed to thank one another for their parts in what took place on the island. So regardless of when they passed away, the flashsideways allowed them to come back together "to remember and to let go."
I liked a lot of the other moments and details leading up to the final moments too. There's nothing quite like John Locke's facial expressions. The warmth of his smile after the surgery as he wishes Jack well was so different to the expressions on MIB's face. There is real skill on display there. Juliet and Sawyer too displayed their impressive chemistry in their brief scene together. It was a nice irony that Juliet's "it worked" had nothing to do with Jughead but was about a simple candy bar. Ben saying sorry to Locke and Locke finally walking on his own were what you would expect. What were extra nice touches were the flashes of the lives we will never get to see lived. As in the warmth which Hurley and Ben showed one another. Clearly they went on to live out their lives on the island and formed a real bond and it was an excellent touch to give us a tiny hint of that. Similarly when Kate touches Jack after the concert she says "I missed you so much!" Again reminding us that she went on to live again in the real world and have a whole life remembering the man she loved. I thought it appropriate that Ben didn't go into the church, after all the terror he caused those people it was best to leave him out for now.
On the island it was suitable payback to see MIB kicked to his death the way he did to Jacob. Jack and Kate got to have one final kiss goodbye which was absolutely right. Hurley becoming the new Jacob makes a lot of sense and I thought he played his emotional reaction to that really well. I appreciated how he was scripted to still be in denial while accepting his new role ("it's only temporary"). To use one of the original Oceanic water bottles for that ceremony was a nice symbolic moment too. Hurley choosing Ben was nice closure for our old bitter friend, he will finally legitimately be the Island's leader.
I think the producers were smart to cover the Church with every religious symbol possible to avoid offending anyone (as silly as it may have looked in certain ways).
The Bad: It was marginally odd that no one queried Ben's loyalties after he held a gun at Sawyer in the previous episode. I suppose he did then save Hurley from being hit by a tree but still, a minor quibble. One actual oversight was Sawyer's walkie-talkie still working after he dived into the sea. Claire saying bluntly that the island had made her crazy just didn't ring true. Like Sayid, her character was poorly handled all season and it was probably for the best to just address it here quickly and move on. Rather like Frank and Richard still being alive, I won't dwell.
Upon rewatch I found the episode quite moving and very fitting for the story the producers intended to tell. But upon first viewing there was a frustration in me which I expect some fans will have felt too. The flashsideways was in essence meaningless. To some extent it feels like a device which could have been introduced just for the finale. Many of the plot points and details which fans were clearly encouraged to invest in and discuss were of no meaning at all. The sideways world may have helped many of the survivors to pay for their sins or find happiness but it didn't in every case. It also spawned new people like David and you have to wonder what his existence really means.
The finale also makes you question the whole MIB storyline. Part of me was amused and bothered that he had no idea what would happen once he went down toward the light. It makes it clear why he was so frustratingly vague all season, because he had no real plan for how to get off the island! If Desmond had suffered a heart attack or been impaled on a stalagmite then what would he have done? Rather like all the major mysteries on Lost it would seem the producers didn't think a detailed explanation would be as satisfying as the simple character interaction and threats which he issued. Once he became human again was he still malevolent evil but just made flesh? Throw in Claire and Sayid's unsatisfying stories and it does make me feel like Season Six was something of a waste of time.
Another feeling I had during the finale was how much the producers loved season one. A lot of flashbacks which we saw as characters remembered their pasts seemed to cherish all that time on the beach more than anything else. There was a certain tone which almost came across as if all the freighters, time travelling and smoke monster stuff was just drama which happened rather than crucial battles to save the world. Certainly from the weight of its narrative, Lost was not a show about love stories more than the overall journey. Many of those couples were only together for very short times compared to the amount of time spent debating island related matters. It all rather fit with the feeling that Lost on some level kept a segment of fans guessing and waiting only to disappoint them.
The Unknown: Who \ how was the flashsideways created? A mystery I don't need answered.
Best Moment: I will give it to every moment from when Jack touched the coffin onwards.
The Bottom Line: For me Lost always seemed to communicate that it was a snapshot in time of the lives of these people who came to the island. The narrative always focussed on their lives in relation to the island. The island was as much an important character as any of them. In the end it feels like the producers lent more toward those characters and didn't give the island itself the attention which it deserved. I don't think that is a harsh statement, nor do I feel betrayed or upset by the way the show went. I think it could have been a better show, but then I probably always would have.
As for "The End" itself, I think it was a success. The producers pushed hard to give an emotional character-centric send off and that is what they delivered. Their most important characters received plenty of attention and reached pretty satisfying conclusions. The unarguably most important character, Jack, finally resolved his biggest issue. And on island he saved his friends and saved the island. He did not screw that up and he did fix the island as best he could.
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