I'm really surprised that you ...
Question: I'm really surprised that you and so many people seemed to love the
Lost finale and the whole "game-changer." I've been a devoted fan from the beginning. I defended the first half of this season, rejoiced in the brilliance of the second half and was expecting the best finale yet. But to change things up by showing what happens to Jack after he gets off the island feels like a cheat. Don't get me wrong, I loved the rest of the episode. It was incredible and still the best thing on TV, but it just left me with such a hollow feeling at the end. It reminded me of the season finale of
Alias when Sydney woke up two years later. I felt cheated out of seeing the progression of the characters and seeing the pivotal moments, and the subsequent season fell well short of making up for that. I know there are several ways the next three seasons can go from here, but if it focuses too much on this dim future, I will be heartbroken. Leaving the island so quickly just feels like someone read me the last page of a really great novel while I was only halfway through.
Answer: Another justifiable fear, though I caution anyone from turning against any show just because another show that took a similar leap (in this case,
Alias) ultimately blew it. Much as I loved
Alias, it's no
Lost. Going back again to the first question, one critical perception that I will maintain throughout the life of the show: The island is the franchise.
Lost is about what happened to these fascinating characters
on the island. This flash-forward just gives us a new framework from which to tell those stories. I think.
This does, however, prompt me to share this observation, from Barry C.: "Thank you for your comments regarding the Lost finale. As I was reading them, the phrase from Jack, 'We have to go back,' all of a sudden reminded me of the scene near the end of Brigadoon where the two guys are back in New York in a bar and decide that they have to go back to Scotland to find Brigadoon. Not sure why, but that just sort of jumped into my head."
Not just Brigadoon, but the Shangri-La of Lost Horizon (the book, the film, even the hilariously awful musical). I love the fact that there is literary precedent for this sort of fabled retreat, and no one can question that there's magic on this island. (Even the title of the finale, "Through the Looking Glass," evokes Lewis Carroll's vision of a wonderland.)
