not surprising that marn and maxxx don’t understand
I can probably try to decipher what the hell happened for a week or two, but for now I’m calling Seinfeld a better finale than Lost.
theres a difference between flashbacks and flash-sideways. flashbacks happened in real life; flash-sideways happened in the afterlife. the character’s past will have some sort of reflection on the present. the same can be said about the character’s afterlife, except for one problem: they had to remember their past life first. in the flash-sideways stuff, the characters were slightly different from the real-life counterparts until they became “awakened”. throughout the season, it was mostly only desmond who played a big role of being “awakened”. they decided to wait until the very last episode to “wake” everyone up. it was filled with emotional moments of everyone “awakening” but since they awakened so late, thats all it was, an emotional experience rather than being able to flesh out more details. i mean it did a good job in this regard, everytime a character remembered, it filled you with an awwww moment, and it definitely felt like closure. the problem i have is that the build-up throughout the season left us with a lot they could have done, and they just decided to do a “montage video”, as one previous poster stated.
Man, if this had been the finale it would’ve ruled.
ROFL 
I can’t stop laughing
I understand the difference, but what I’m saying is the show has always had a main plot, and a side plot that compliments it(flashbacks,flashforwards,Flashsideways). The island story in the final season gave us exactly what we needed to wrap up the main story. While the sideways was a form of closure to our favorite characters. I don’t see the problem with that at all. People are acting like the sideways nullified every event in the show, which is not the case what so ever. It made the island events more meaningful. It proved to be the most important time in any of the characters’ lives.
lolololololol
Holy shit… instant Emmy right there.
Anybody else going back and watching from the beginning? I’m already picking up a lot of little stuff I missed or forgot about since the original airings.
1.What the smoke monster was.
I know how he came to be, I don’t know what exactly he is besides a different form of man in black. Is he a symbiote of some sort? They didn’t answer this fully.
2.What the numbers mean.
Like number one they applied additional meaning to the numbers (representative of candidates), they didn’t explain how they were so potent. The numbers were the winning numbers for the lottery, it happened to be the flight that they were on that crashed (8 and 15) there were several iterations of 108 (all of the numbers combined). These numbers were pervasive throughout the entire show and while they provided an excellent easter egg, they were so prevalent and so important notwithstanding their relation to the characters that one has to assume they were providential. We still don’t know if they were and that makes me upset. This was a mystery.
5.Where jacob came from.
Did jacob’s mother (fake mother) call them to the island? What caused them to come. This is not really important, but the following is: We understand that he was made to live forever, but how? There are amazingly supernatural things that happeend on this island that was supposed to be sci-fi but based o reality. There are rules to these things. You don’t just say “oh btw, jack can fly in this reality” you explain it.
9.what the island was. It kept evil out of the rest of the world? In that way, we can say it was a cork. Really?
10.what the temple was.
A temple…not much else known about this tmk.
12.What makes the island special.
Enlighten me, outside of the light, we don’t know about half of the happenings on that island.
13.How jacob could do the things he did.
Really? How did he give people the ability to live forever? Don’t just say “he can do that because his mother made him that way.” That leads to more questions as his mother said it would. The problem is, it is true and I want some answers.
18.Why the man in black needed someone else to kill Jacob.
Why? His mom made it that way but what does that mean? How did she make it that way. You don’t just say these things and then say “in this show its crazy, so you just must accept this to be true”. Imagine for a second that she said “by the way you can time travel, I made it that way, and you can stop the world from turning as well.” Thats cool but we need an explanation. The fact that you have the urge to list out the questions answered is most likely indicative of your agreement to the opinion that we are entitled to know what is happening on the show.
19.Why none of the others had ever actually met Jacob.
I admit this was probably answered, but I don’t remember this. Please explain.
21.Who built the wheel near the center of the island.
How did they know it would work the way it did? (if they did) there is just too much assumption there.
etc.
I don’t want EVERY single question answered that can be figured out on my own (like your wonderful explanation of why echo was killed). I want answers to the questions that are unbelievably supernatural and therefore inconceivable by non-fictional/non-science fictional answers. As I’m not the author my theories are without merit and groundless. Therefore they don’t satisfy at all. I can create any theory for the show I want to, and if it isn’t verified it is just a question stated in theory form. I.e. I can say they received their powers by aliens…sure it is a possible explanation but it is meritless and empty. Don’t tell me a joke w/o a punchline. Likewise don’t tell me a story that needs explanation because it causes me to accept things that don’t fit the realm of the natural, but then not explain what is necessary for comprehension. This is unfair. I.e.: A black man and a peanut are running down the street chasing after a bus…who got to the bus first?..The peanut. Now be satisfied that I gave you an answer. Nevermind the fact that you still don’t understand why…I’ll just say “Hey they both won the lotto 20 years later and were very happy.” While this is cool, I still have several questions. I’m using analogies to hope you and everyone else can see, that this ending is a disrespectful misdirection.
@SRKohnyner
Im with you homie. I wanted the answers. People can say its about the characters, but i dont remember Lost Forums full of people speculating about CHARACTER development for years. Nope, it was Nerds speculating about the islands mysteries that kept Lost on constant interest.
Also the Ending afterlife thing i thought was un necessary. There was so much more about the mysteries that could have been explained or got into more detail. But Instead they choose to introduce something completely new and it just felt tact on. I just look at the ending and go “uuh…thats what the afterlife is like huh?..thats nice…anyway theres alot of shit going on at the island…can we go back to that plz” I almost wish the island was the afterlife, at least then it would hold more relevance to the past 5 seasons. Seriously you could do that shit to ANY season Finale.
Imagine if in the last season of Seinfeld They flash sideways to an alternate story where Jerry, George and Eleane never met. But Kramer remembers and gets them all together then they all remember they knew each other. Oh yeah its all smiles and Montages now its the afterlife. and no they are not dead there is just no time in the afterlife. I mean its neat, but it has nothing to do with why we started watching the show in the first place.
So it turns out that the quote FMJ posted was by an ex employee of ABC. - http://lostmediamentions.blogspot.com/2010/05/someone-from-bad-robots-take-on-finale.html
Keep in mind that a lot of the answers you will find to the show will lead to more questions. The writers knew this. “what started the universe?”. Answer “Big Bang”. What was before the Big Bang. Bigger Bang. It’s a really unsatisfying answer.
The writers knew that if they tried to answer every single question, it would lead to more questions and it would still be unsatisfying.
That being said, I’ll post my thoughts on the possible answers. Keep in mind though, you’re simply going to ask more questions.
I believe it’s the soul of MIB. You get tossed into the tunnel of light, you lose your humanity. Out comes the soul in the form of a black smoke. I think any scientific explanation about this would just sound silly.
The valenzetti equation. This was touched upon in the alternate reality game between seasons 1 and 2 or 2 and 3. I can’t remember. Basically the Valenzetti equation was a mathematical equation that predicted the end of humankind. The numbers were constant factors in this equation. One of the Dharma Initiatives’ goals was to change at least one of these numbers. They would broadcast the numbers via the radio tower. Since the numbers didn’t change, we can only assume that the Dharma Iniatiive was not successful. The numbers were broadcast until Rousseau changed the transmission.
It’s possible that Jacob’s mother called them to come. She was looking for a replacement after all. I suppose this is one question that they could have adrressed.
I don’t think they could come up with a satisfying scientific explanation about immortality. You just accept it. Anything they come up with would sound silly.
The explanations to all of these would simply lead to more questions. There’s no scientific/logical explanation as to how to prevent someone from leaving the island. It would just sound silly.
I believe Dogen met Jacob. Not sure about anybody else. Jacob ran things from behind the scenes. He felt that people should be able to do what’s right without him telling them to do so. He didn’t want to interfere.
I believe it was MIB (in human form) who built the donkey wheel at the bottom of the well. As to how he knew it would work… MIB’s explanation was that he’s special. Yes I know. Completely unsatisfying. But anything else would be just as, if not, more unsatisfying.
The writers realized that if they gave answers to every single question, it would simply lead to more questions. I’m sure that’s why they focused more on the characters instead. And that’s the way it’s always been for Lost. Characters first. Mysteries second. Answers third.
…why. isnt. Jack. the. new. smoke. monster.
If you want answers, forget it. You’ll never get them.
Why all of the Egyptian references?
Who built the temples and the giant statues and for what purpose?
What year was it when Jacob and his brother were born?
Were the numbers worth a damn?
Why did the water heal people?
How did the water make people evil afterward?
Was Hurley REALLY the only person to see ghosts or was every other occurrence the smoke monster?
If there was a atomic explosion that killed most of the Dharma Initiative who did Ben kill and how were any of them alive?
When Lock didn’t push the numbers in the hatch, did anything actually happen?
Why did the Dharma Initiative CONTINUE to drop food stuffs on the island, even after the island had been moved?
How was Jacob leaving the island?
How did Ben know that moving the island was possible if he has never actually talked to Jacob? Smoke monster ghosts?
Who was the old Bearded man we saw in Jacob’s cabin?
Why did Charles Widmore want to go back to the island? Really, there was no reason at all for him to go back.
How was John Locke miraculously healed when reaching the island with what we know about the island now?
What the hell was the point of Walt?
Why was smokey able to change forms?
How did smokey have Jacob’s brothers memories and form after the island light spit out the smoke monster and him corpse?
Yeah, you’re never going to have definitive answers to any of these.
I think the numbers were Jacob’s calling card. Wherever they were recurring, is where he was manipulating things. (Best Example: Hurley winning the lotto).
I doubt Jacob was manipulating the crazy guy that told them to hurley or the fact that they were on the hatch and the fact that they were ALSO the numbers to put in FOR the hatch. Also, the final candidates had those numbers in front of their names.
Maybe they stood for how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop?
[I believe it’s the soul of MIB. You get tossed into the tunnel of light, you lose your humanity. Out comes the soul in the form of a black smoke. I think any scientific explanation about this would just sound silly. ]
Jack, Desmond, all sorts of people went into the tunnel of light and didnt get changed
Well Desmond was a “weapon” of sorts who could survive high levels of electromagnetic activity? Maybe that’s how he was immune.
Jack went down when the light was out… but he was still down there when the light came back on. Good point. Not sure how he didn’t change. Perhaps the island granted him immunity.
Yes I know. My answers are unsatisfying. But that’s LOST for you. If you’re looking for a resolution to the mysteries… you’ll be disapointed. If you’re looking for a resolution to the characters… you’ll be content.