As the Grateful Dead once said— What a long strange trip we’ve been on. In this case the trip has lasted six years and more than a hundred episodes with only 4 hours worth not actually filmed on the island of Oahu, though various episodes and scenes appear to be elsewhere. The script writers and producers have informed us that the focus of the series was on characterization and character development, rather than mainly on plot, but in fact it was also about character in the sense of moral development as well in various of the story lines.
So what should we make of this final season which had two story lines which occasionally seemed ready to converge or at least touch, if not intersect? Many have reacted to the two part finale of the show as if it were saying something rather like what T.S. Eliot once said— ‘This is how the world ends, this is how the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper’, or perhaps we are led to ask, paraphrasing W.B. Yeats ‘and what rough beast do we find here dragging itself to Bethlehem to be born’? Do we have a post-modern cliche of an ending in which its not about the purpose or meaning of the life and how it ends, its about the journey, and joy in it? I actually think these analyses do not quite get at the heart of the matter. Here are several points that the enhanced comment versions of the last two episodes remind us of—
1) the alternate story line where the Oceanic 815 never crashes and life goes on is neither a flash back nor a flash forward (though we have had plenty of those in this six year drama) but a flash sideways— a what if the plane had not crashed and life went on, story line. This story line is a pleasant fiction but that is just precisely what it is. Call it the dreams of the dead, or whatever, but as Desmond in the last few episodes tries to make clear to the others– the alternate story line is not reality, rather the characters need to be made to realize what did in fact happen— they were in a plane crash.
2) But the real kicker is that the first story line is also not about life in any part of this world nor is it about human imaginings— its about the afterlife, in this case in Hell, as Richard Alpert says so clearly and bluntly in the sixth season. The characters then find themselves in a struggle to prevent Hell breaking loose from its present locale and becoming Hell on earth. Mr. Smoke Locke (i.e. evil) is the one who most wants to escape that prison, by any means necessary and at any cost necessary. But he does not manage to pull it off. And the reason he isn’t able to escape the island of Hell is because some of the other inmates there prevent him from doing so. The island is the cork in the bottle that prevents Hell from escaping into this world— a place where dreams do occasionally become reality. Despite what the Eagles once said (you can check out but never leave), apparently some in Hell think otherwise, and have to be restrained, stopped. finished.
In other words, when that plane broke apart in the sky, everyone died. There was no island life for them, not Gilligan’s island or any other island in this world. They were in the afterlife— pure and simple, which is real enough, but not of this world and not in this world. We could debate whether in fact some of the characters managed to find a way to escape Hell by good deeds etc., in which cases it is rather like purgatory, and some of the final scenes suggest that a few did. But even so this may as well be a pleasant fiction.
What is more certain is that life and people are complex, and why should we expect the afterlife to be any different? The producers and writers suggest a pan-religious afterlife situation (noting the chapel with the stain glassed windows from all six major world religions and the general more impersonal theme of going into the light, and how darkness did not overcome the light). With Jack dying and a dog lying beside him we are led to ask— do all dogs go to heaven, or all people (e.g. the reunion scene in the church in the last episode), so that what once was lost is now found, or do we all remain lost, trapped in Hell ‘dying to be elsewhere’. We have to remember the church reunion scene is in the flash sideways story line, and that story line is not reality. Note however that there is still free will in that story line for Ben chooses not to go in.
This series was a profoundly philosophical and religious series in many ways, and it also explored ideas of quantum physics, time travel and other interesting subjects. Destiny vs. free will, light vs. dark, redemption vs. eternal damnation and more. I doubt there will be another such show like it in the near future. Instead of dumbing down the script the writers thought it better to tease our minds into active thought about profound things—- and we are better for it.
In the end I liked many of the characters and many of the episodes and some of the character development. I liked the fact that this show did not insult our collective intelligence or pander to our lowest desires, interests, or lusts like most television I wasn’t expecting a happy Christian ending, and it did not have one. But it did lets us know that sometimes our dreams are better than our realities, and it is no wonder some prefer the former to the latter. Like Alice in Wonderland we went down the rabbit hole into LOST ISLAND, and in various ways it proved more interesting than the alternative.
posted June 8, 2010 at 12:13 pm
This show really ran off the rails during the last season. What used to be such an interesting and compelling show overflowed with plot twists, alternate realities, etc. In short, it became too convoluted for its own good, and unsatisfying (to me anyways).
It was fun to see how many Biblical allusions I could notice. In the final episode, it appeared as though Jack filled up his bottle of water from a stone!
I am enjoying my newfound liberation from TV (this was the only show that I watched).
posted June 8, 2010 at 12:44 pm
Ummmm, you really didn’t pay attention to the final episode did you? In the conversation that Jack had with his father in the church at the end his father specifically told him that everything that happened on the Island was real and that that time, the time he spent with all of the other people on the Island was the most important time in Jack’s LIFE. So, they didn’t all die on the plane and the Island wasn’t Hell or any kind of afterlife, they survived the plane crash and everything that happened there was real. All of the people died, some on the Island, some long after and they all ended up in the limbo-like sideways world where they moved on together at the end.
posted June 8, 2010 at 1:07 pm
I agree with Kauko. I think you missed something. The island was real. It was not Hell and they were not dead on the island. The side-timeline was a sort of purgatory. There, they were dead and it was some distant future (or eternal now). Desmond was helping them wake up to the fact that they were dead, but also gloriously reunited. Jack’s dad even tells Jack that this place (the side-timeline) is a place they created so they could find each other again.
What was the island? They never get into specifics, but it appeared to be a very old (eternal?) source of life and death. Many cultures and people had found it throughout time (eg the Egyptians, etc) and recognized it’s importance. But it was real and physical and the people on the plane did survive and live there. As already mentioned, Ben and Hurley appeared to live there for a long time, protecting the island. . . This is why at the end Hurley calls Ben a great #2 and Ben responds that Hurley was a great #1. They are seeing each again in an afterlife — after they had lived out their life on the island.
For me, the whole series was a series of redemption… Not about trying to escape Hell. All the characters had done terrible things in their past and the island ended up being a place where they came to grips with their failures and found redemption — mostly through self-sacrifice for others. Ben, at the end though, is not ready to move on to the next plane in the afterlife (Heaven?). He remains in the side-timeline (purgatory?), because he appears to have unfinished business — most likely coming to grips with what he did to his adopted daughter and her mother.
posted June 8, 2010 at 1:16 pm
Here, I think Bryan Allain has it pretty much right:
http://bryanallain.com/archives/2010/05/28/my-final-thoughts-on-lost/
posted June 8, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Dear Ben Witherington,
though I really and highly appreciate this article of yours, I have to affirm the one thing that Kauko stated before:
Life on the Island was real and not meant to allegorize or display life after death, which was reaffirmed by the show’s writers and some actors as well. Richard Alpert’s thinking of the Island to be hell was nothing more than his personal opinon, not some kind of “revelation” of the real “nature” of life on the Island.
However – thanks for sharing your thoughts on this with us!
Best regards from Germany
Tobias
posted June 8, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Ben, I have to agree with what others have said. You seem to have missed some things that were said explicitly in the final episode. On the one hand, the characters did not die in the plane crash. On the other hand, what was presented to us as a “flash sideways” into another universe turned out in the end to be a “flash upwards” (as one blogger called it): in that reality (and it still deserves to be called that), they are dead, and somehow through the strong connection between them they found a way to find one another before moving on into whatever afterlife lay in the light beyond.
posted June 8, 2010 at 2:37 pm
I agree with these comments. The island was real life, the flash sideways was the afterlife. They were not in both simultaneously. If you remember, in the last episode, Hurley was said to follow Jack in his role as protector, even though we never saw that happen. Life for those living went on even after Jack died. But Jack’s own death was his own final realization that made his afterlife experience come to light as to what was really happening to him after he was dead.
Also, the island had to be life before death because some were able to go back home and return. That makes no sense if the island was hell and they were dead.
posted June 8, 2010 at 3:50 pm
The ‘island’ is real theory does not pay attention to exactly what Jacob said repeatedly, namely that the island is the cork in the bottle preventing Hell from breaking loose into this world. Furthermore, the producers are clear on these points. Go watch the 119 minute commentary by all the cast and the directors, and rethink.
BW3
posted June 8, 2010 at 4:13 pm
Sorry, but that was just an analogy, I can’t see how in any way the show indicates that we are to believe that the island is literally ‘preventing Hell from beaking loose into this world’. Jacob used that as a simplistic analogy for Richard Alpert who was devoutly Christian and was therefore inclined to think of it in those terms.
Its not a ‘theory’ that the Island was real, its a fact. The finale outright said so. The key to understanding it all is right there in Jack’s conversation with his father:
Christian: “I’m real, you’re real, every thing that’s ever happened to you was real, all those people in the church, they’re all real too.”
Jack: “They’re all dead?”
C: “Everyone dies sometime, kiddo. Some of them before you, some of them long after you.”
J: “But why are they all here now?”
C: “Well, there is no now here.”
J: “Where are we, Dad?”
C: “Well, this was a place that you all made together so that could find one another. The most important part of your life was the time you spent with these people.”
The only possible conclusion from this conversation is that Jack’s father is wrong/ lying or that the Island and all that happened on it was real.
posted June 8, 2010 at 4:34 pm
Dr. Witherington,
I’ve been waiting for this post ever since the finale episode…and alas here it is. Thanks for the interesting thoughts, the true greatness of the show is its ability to be dissected but not exhaust interest even in a post-lost world!
see you in the fall!
Jason
posted June 8, 2010 at 4:37 pm
Can you provide a link to the 119 minute commentary that you mention?
posted June 8, 2010 at 5:08 pm
You’ll find it on the ABC website easily enough—www.abc.com. And as for that conversation between Jack and his father, of course they are speaking as characters who are in eternity, where there is no time. And let’s think for a moment if we can about that plane crash– the plane breaks up in mid-air as seen by those on the island. How many people actually survive such a mid-air explosion without already having parachutes—- come on now. And yet the beginning of this entire show reveals a bunch of people running around on a beach largely unscathed.
But lets take another view point for a minute. Let’s suppose story line A which began in the first season is meant to represent a this world reality. What kind of reality is it when you have a supernatural smoke monster running around killing people? Hmmm…
I loved this show, and I am fine with the notion that storyline A was meant to represent a this worldly reality, but in fact on the night of May 24th, various of the TV commentators who interviewed the writers in the after show special that went on until midnight here in the U.S. were saying what I have said in this post, and adding that its all about characters and characterization, not about plot and its resolution.
BW3
posted June 8, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Two things, I think Jacob was speaking metaphorically and I don’t believe he said Hell, but evil. See:
http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Bottle_and_cork
Though apparently, there was also a literal cork (seen in last episode).
I’d also like to see where the producers are clear on the fact that the island was not real, but Hell and that everyone died. If that’s the case, then as Kauko mentioned, everything Jack’s dad says makes absolutely no sense. Jack’s dad implies that everyone died at different times (some after Jack did). The whole ending implies that some lived on the island and off the island after Jack died.
The very fact that people were able to travel to and from the island from the mainland to the island seems to imply its not some metaphysical Hell, but an actual location on Earth (Jacob, Richard, Ben, John, Widmore and the Oceanic 6 all moved back and forth between the mainland and the island)
posted June 8, 2010 at 5:18 pm
Ben,
I’ll listen to the commentary, but I watched the Jimmy Kimmel special after the series ended and Jimmy’s conclusions were pretty much the same as the comments and Michael Fox agree with Jimmy.
I don’t think the fact that a smoke monster or unusual things happened on the island means it wasn’t supposed to be based in reality, though. It’s still a work of fiction. The island was meant to be mysterious and special.
posted June 8, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Meant to say Matthew Fox.
posted June 8, 2010 at 5:50 pm
“I don’t think the fact that a smoke monster or unusual things happened on the island means it wasn’t supposed to be based in reality, though. It’s still a work of fiction. The island was meant to be mysterious and special.”
Exactly, Kenny. I don’t think that its fair to suggest all of it had to be in an afterlife just because there were things going on on the Island that are fantastic, the show is after all legitimately part science-fiction. Plenty of shows contain elements that don’t exist (as far as we know) in real life, that doesn’t mean you automatically assume that those shows are taking place in some afterlife and not in reality (the show’s reality). Sure, in general it would be unlikely for anyone to survive such a mid-air breaking up of a place, but you’re forgeting that 1) the island is a miraculous place where wounds heal fast, John Locke can suddenly walk, etc and 2) they survived mostly because they were specifically brought there by Jacob. As Jacob has some degree of ‘supernatural’ powers its not unlikely that he kept those he needed as candidates alive in the place crash.
I watched all of the pre-finale special and the Jimmy Kimmel special afterwards and at no point did I hear anything that supports your take on the story. I just don’t see how the show and the dialogue in the finale makes any sense in your scenario. If they were already dead why did so many people die throughout the show (Boone, Shannon, Charlie etc)?
“And as for that conversation between Jack and his father, of course they are speaking as characters who are in eternity, where there is no time.”
I don’t understand how them being in the afterlife for that conversation negates that fact that Christian told Jack that the most important part of Jack’s life (i.e. when he was alive) was the time that he spent with Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Sun, Jin, Juliet and all of the people on the Island. I mean, the ending can only have any emotional impact if you accept that they lived and endured through all of that stuff on the Island in reality, forming this intense bond and connection among them that led to their afterlife reunion when they had all finally died. The point about there being no time in their afterlife was only to illustrate how they could all be there together when ‘Some of them [died] before you, some of them [died] long after you.’
I’ve think you’ve put too much emphasis on Richard Alpert’s assertion that he was in Hell in the episode ‘Ab Aeterno’. I thought it clear that this was just Richard’s take on things based on his Christian faith combined with his guilt over accidentally killing someone and his wife’s death leading him to believe that he was now in hell. The Man in Black takes advantage of his belief and used it to try to get Richard to kill Jacob. Jacob’s later analogy with the wine bottle as the Island containing some great evil that can’t get out doesn’t mean that the Island cannot be a physical place in the real world.
posted June 8, 2010 at 7:11 pm
The problem is of course that the producers deliberately made things multi-valent which is to say, subject to multiple plausible interpretations. If however you believe the comments at the bottom of the enhanced edition of the two part final episode, you come to the conclusion that I am likely to be mostly right about all this. One more point— as the producers say, they would not want to suggest that only what happens in this mundane world is real. To the contrary, they want to suggest that alternate realities such as the afterlife exist, and are equally real. So the issue is not ‘whether’ this or that happened in the first story line, but ‘where’ it may have happened.
BW3
posted June 8, 2010 at 7:15 pm
Let me start by saying I never get involved in these conversations. The show deserves more care and energy than I ever care to put into a comment post…with that said, I completely agree with Kauko on this one. The fact that the island is not Hell is supported by Isabella’s visit to Richard via Hurley that clarified Alpert’s misunderstanding. Her final words to Richard are that MIB must be stopped or they would all go to hell. How can this be a consequence if they are already there?
I also agree with Kauko’s reading of Christian’s statements in the flash sideway, which make it clear that Jack’s time on the island was the most important part of Jack’s life. I agree that death on the plane is definitely possible; basic biology explains that the brain can have residual electrical impulses that last seconds after death. The theory of relativity has been construed to suggest that the mind can experience years in those brief seconds of “afterlife” (see the film Waking Life). If this were the case, Jack could continue to have “life” experiences in his death. But, if this were the case, why would his “my life flashed before my eyes” moment include all of these characters that Jack had no prior knowledge of before they were introduced on the island? How did Jack develop all of these elaborate back stories for each of those characters in the “series present.” I believe that the survivors did just that, survived (it’s sci-fi right?), lived, loved, lost, beat the crap out of Ben, and when their time came, they got to experience the “other side” in both the outcome of the crash and the after life. I would hope that when I die I don’t end up having weird dreams about complete strangers before doing so.
posted June 8, 2010 at 7:38 pm
I can’t find the commentary by the producers and cast that says the island is Hell. If you’re talking about the recap + commentary than ran before the the final episode aired then I’ve already seen that and they most certainly didn’t say that or even allude to that.
I’m not sure what Ben means by looking at the comments? Are you suggesting that you’re right about the ending because some lost fans agree with you on the ABC webpage?
I think that if the island was meant to be either Hell or Purgatory or some afterlife it makes so many other things make absolutely no sense (like that people apparently die on the island, leave the island and come back to the island, the side-timeline ending, etc).
I guess you’re free to view the end of Lost any way you please — as you said, the writers I think meant to leave it a bit ambiguous, but I think you’re version is absolutely unsatisfying.
posted June 8, 2010 at 8:39 pm
Uhhhhh….Daniel. You just contradicted yourself.
Well, it looks this will not be Ben’s final thoughts on LOST. Looks like he is going to have to defend his theory, which I agree with.
If you read the last entry of THINGS I NOTICED, you will recall him saying, “Despite Christian’s assertions that everything was real, an argument could easily be made that all of our characters actually died in the crash of Flight 815.” The only problem is that they did die and everything was real.
Sometimes I think that LOST fans don’t want to believe the alternative: that the island was not present reality. The problem is that by saying it didn’t really happen doesn’t mean it wasn’t real. I think some folk just assume that for something to really happen it has to be present reality. Otherwise, than what good is it. Well, it was real, just not in the way you project. And it did happen, just not in the way most fans wanted it too.
posted June 8, 2010 at 8:51 pm
sorry the english is bad. had to write fast. Gotta run.
posted June 8, 2010 at 8:54 pm
No, the reason I don’t want the island to be some sort of afterlife is that 1) It’s a cop out and 2) It’s not consistent with the story they’ve been telling for 6 years:
Apparently, the U.S. military visited Hell and left a nuclear bomb there
Egyptians visited Hell and built statues and temples
Scientists visited Hell to study it.
Someone was dropping food and supplies to Hell
You can die in Hell — but then if you die there, you may show up in purgatory and be able to go to Heaven.
You can come to Hell by submarine (as Juliet and others did).
You can leave Hell by submarine… and come back too.
And so much more… Why show people survive the plane crash (which apparently they didn’t it was just Hell) only to show a guy getting sucked into an jet engine in the first episode?
The Island = Hell isn’t just unsatisfying (which it is), it makes no sense.
posted June 8, 2010 at 9:26 pm
I thought the ending was great, but I think Dr Ben might be slightly off in regards to there being originally no survivors of the plane crash, though if he is right it does certainly explain why Sawyer always had a perpetual unshaven ‘manly’ stubble going on.
I hope the producers sell-out and make a spin off called “The amazing adventures of the great Hurley and Linus!”
posted June 8, 2010 at 11:07 pm
Six years it’s been since we were LOST
Six years the cost – in front ‘the black box
Waiting to see what end would come
Who would have suspected this
thing so glum.
The main message – to say that we’ve all one?!
No matter if you did good or bad, right or wrong?!
No Savior, just people – all happy together –
Da-Da-Da-Dom!
Last screen moments – we see a window
stained in colored hues of death
symbolic doggerel – satan’s beckoning call
choose one, who cares – ‘I accept you all.’
Six years – STILL LOST – the end.
posted June 9, 2010 at 1:56 am
I find Ben’s argument the more persuasive.
posted June 9, 2010 at 7:58 am
For those of you who can’t imagine Hell being an interesting and complex place, I would suggest you read one of the influences on the show LOST— namely Dante’s Inferno in the Divine Comedy. As I said, I am not opposed to the theory that storyline A happened in the mundane world, but I would suggest my theory better explains all the data of the show.
posted June 9, 2010 at 9:18 pm
I think you didn’t get the series finale…
The island stuff, everything that happened was REAL. The flash-sideways was a world created by the survivors of the original crash in the island time-line so that they could be together, remember the events of their island life, let go of their past and move on together. It was a world between real life (the 6 years we viewed) and the after-life. Some of them (the most obvious example is Ben) were not ready to move onto this afterlife because they couldn’t let go of their past. I think you all should rewatch the episode and listen carefully to what Christian Sheppard says to Jack.
posted June 10, 2010 at 11:09 am
Ben,
Sure it can be an interesting and complex place, but your theory still doesn’t make sense with what we see in the final flash-sideways ending.
That and even the guy who plays Hurley doesn’t agree with your assessment. I just finished listening to the Jay and Jack Lost Podcast where they interviewed Jorge Garcia (Hurley) and ask him what he thinks about people who believe everyone died after the plane crash (Jay and Jack also don’t believe that) and Jorge confirms what they believe saying he doesn’t understand how people could think that the whole show was purgatory or an afterlife.
http://www.jayandjack.com/2010/05/27/lost-podcast-mp3-ep-5-34-qa-with-jorge-garcia/
I say listen to this interview (I think its about half-way where they ask Joege that question) and see for yourself. Or watch the finale again. I think you’ve missed things. Important things.
Jay and Jack’s commentary on what the end meant is spot-on in my opinion — and I only listened to this yesterday because I was thinking about this blog post — so they didn’t influence my thinking on the end — they just confirmed it:
http://www.jayandjack.com/2010/05/26/lost-podcast-aac-ep-5-33-the-end/
posted June 10, 2010 at 11:16 am
And I would completely disagree that Hell makes more sense of the data. I think it makes less sense of the data. Everything we know about the island makes it seem like a place that exists in the “mundane” world. Several people come and go on and off the island. Not everyone on the island was there from the plane crash. Some arrived by boat (Jacob, the man in black, the natives, Richard, Daniel, etc), some by submarine (Rousseau, Ben, Juliet)… Some left and came back: Widmore, the Oceanic 6, etc.
Babies were born there (Aaron, Jacob and MiB), many people died there.
Different Civilizations visited there.
If the whole experience was life-after death, then what does the side-timeline mean? That exploding an A-bomb in Hell will allow you to escape and bring your friends?
No. The side-timeline was actually an extreme flash forward to a time in the eternal future after everyone died… Some on the island, some not on the island… Some died before Jack (Locke), some after Jack (Ben and Hurley, who apparently worked together on the island for many years later), etc.
posted June 11, 2010 at 11:22 am
I have just one last (I hope) comment about this…
If all the people on the plan crash died and The Island was Hell or an afterlife of some sort. How do you explain Juliet? Richard went to the mainland to recruit her to help figure out why babies weren’t being born on the island. Was the Mainland also Hell and Juliet was already dead? Or was Richard able to leave Hell and bring Juliet to Hell? Same goes for Ben and his father. Were they dead before they got to the island and his dad was hired by Dharma?
Similarly. When Charles Widmore was kicked off the island. Was he kicked out of Hell? Or just a piece of Hell? Was he still dead and in Hell on the mainland as well? What about Widmore’s children Penny and Daniel? Were they real people? It appears that Charles had lived on the island for a long time… and that Penny and Daniel were born after he left the island. Were they born in Hell?
I just don’t see how everyone dying on the plane crash makes the most sense of “the data.”
If we want to draw Biblical parallels, I think it might make more sense to think of Lost as Eden. A special place that God his from mankind and established guardians to protect. The Island and its special properties have been around since the beginning of creation and it was corrupted when man disobeyed God and tried to use The Source (the light in the cave) for evil. Since creation, different civilizations have managed to find The Island (Eden) and try to understand its powers / special properties. Most people tried to understand it within the context of their culture — hence the Egyptians built statues, etc and worshiped it like a false God. Mother understand it from her perspective, and Richard from his (pre-Enlightenment Christianity). Dharma tried to study it scientifically.
All the fantastical elements of Lost can be explained as part of the mundane universe because it is this very special place — and that’s why people have tried to exploit it and understand it.