Spoilers ahead! If you’re a Lost fan but haven’t seen the finale, or if you’re planning on watching the whole series on DVD and don’t want to be spoiled, stop reading now. Also, it might be best if you avoid the internet for a week or two. Just sayin’.
Paul and I have been looking forward to the end of Lost for weeks. We were excited to see how it all ended. My reactions are mixed. They did some things that I really, really loved, mostly because I’m a sucker for romance. The scenes where they reunited lovers who’d been separated got me a little choked up, and I nearly cheered when Sawyer and Juliette kissed. Charlie and Claire were remarkably sweet, and Sayid and Shannon were unexpected and made me smile.
But overall, the ending didn’t work for me. I was really attached to the sideways timeline. I was really hoping that everyone would be able to live happily ever after there. Instead, they got their memories back and walked into the great light beyond. The sideways timeline was a weird version of purgatory that they created…why? So they could all wander around with amnesia and slightly different lives? What? And why give Juliette and Jack an imaginary son if they were just going to abandon him at a concert and never see him ever again?
It’s not like them leaving is going to end this imaginary world. Ben is staying. Other people from the island "weren’t ready," whatever the crap that means. Who decided who got to come on the magic trip into the light, anyway? Why was Penny there? She never even set foot on the island. Could they just not get all of the actors to come in and stand around in a church then file out? And why did Christian Shepherd get to be there?
I wanted the sideways world to be real. I wanted it to be a real alternate timeline that the bomb created, and I wanted them all to be able to live happily ever after in it with the wisdom and character growth that they attained on the island.
On the other hand, I liked almost everything that happened on the island. I was so happy to see that Rose and Bernard were doing okay, I liked Jack going into the light cave after handing the island over to Hurley, and I loved the scene where Hurley asked for Ben’s help. Ooh, and the Jack/Locke fight was pretty cool, too. I did want Jack to say "Get off my island," when he kicked Locke over the cliff, though.
The ending wasn’t everything I hoped it would be, but it wasn’t really disappointing, either. Of course, the last big finale I watched was Battlestar Galactica, so pretty much looks good after that.