Television Was the ending to Lost really THAT bad? | Yes

[Samid]

Most of those things are explained if you watch all 6 seasons.

 

[Mr Pigeon]

Oh, another couple of years have gone by and one of my kids just asked what the show is about...

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

Most of those things are explained if you watch all 6 seasons.

You're funny.

 

[Wumminator]

I will at some point getting around to answering them - they are indeed mostly answered.

Edit: the polar bears are referenced in most seasons for example. It’s also weird to complain about the show going “magic” when there is obviously no other answers for the mysteries in the first season. There are literal dead people walking around, polar bears on a tropical island and a pilot pulled through the roof of an airplane by an invisible monster in the first few episodes. A man starts walking again after being paralysed for life FFS. The answers were always going tk by mystical in nature.

Edit two: one of the complaints is about the smoke monster not being in the first episode when it clearly is for example.

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

The ending of LOST had a good-mixed reception when it came out. The people who didn't like it have been very loud and created the false impression that the ending is widely disliked, but it's just not true. The rating on IMDB for the finale (averaged proportionally from Pts 1 and 2) is 8.4. This would put it in the middle of all episodes (highest rated are 9.7, lowest rated are 7.1). I would note, though, that it is the lowest ranked finale (8 of the top 10 ranked episodes are parts of a season finale).

GoT and LOST are quite different in how they work. In GoT, the plot and the characters are one and the same. The story is mostly about the interaction between different characters and the groups or institutions they belong to. The White Walker stuff is the more "plotty" part, but it takes up very little screentime. In LOST, there is more separation. There is a "plot" involving mysteries, lore, etc. that the audience can speculate on, and there are characters, who are mostly randos and bystanders that are trying to survive.

I think this is why the reception to both finales was quite different. There is less hatred of LOST finale because you can separate plot and characters. Few people object to what happens to the characters. Most of the people who dislike the ending didn't care about what happened to the characters, they don't like the finale because they wanted more/better focus on the plot/mystery.

I'd emphasize that its rating on IMDB is in the middle, but most people did not rate it on IMDB at all. The End (part 1) has 12,000 votes. The End (part 2) has 2,000 votes. Lost averaged 19 million viewers per episode, so 12,000 out of 19 million is a rounding error. The finale was mocked and ridiculed, and no one was satisfied with it. There were a couple weepy moments - who wouldn’t be sad with the final realization that

Spoiler

Jack and Kate were never going to work out-

but overall everyone felt ripped off. Fans were fuming. It was almost the same reaction to season 8 of GoT.

 

[VeevaVee]

I might finally watch the last season one day. Lost interest once I realised there were no answers to the questions they kept raising.

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

I might finally watch the last season one day. Lost interest once I realised there were no answers to the questions they kept raising.

That was the thing: early on, the writers claimed everything they were showing had a scientific explanation. They also promised the characters were not in a type of limbo or afterlife or alternate timeline. They lied about both things. Lindelof bragged that he was paid to come up with ideas, not answers. The success of season 1 forced them to change a ton of shit they had planned. Such as, Tom Cruise’s cousin William Mapother (Ethan) was supposed to be a huge character , but then they decided to give that stuff to Ben.

 

[Wumminator]

That was the thing: early on, the writers claimed everything they were showing had a scientific explanation. They also promised the characters were not in a type of limbo or afterlife or alternate timeline. They lied about both things. Lindelof bragged that he was paid to come up with ideas, not answers. The success of season 1 forced them to change a ton of shit they had planned.

No they didn’t. They were not in an afterlife or limbo!

 

[jasT1981]

That was the thing: early on, the writers claimed everything they were showing had a scientific explanation. They also promised the characters were not in a type of limbo or afterlife or alternate timeline. They lied about both things. Lindelof bragged that he was paid to come up with ideas, not answers. The success of season 1 forced them to change a ton of shit they had planned.

They weren't.

Everything that happened on the island, and after the island for many happened. They were all alive.

It was only the 'season 6 flash 'sideways' that was purgatory to make peace with their lives and it was explained that when they died, they went to the flight as a fixed point in their afterlife and it landed, and they lived out a life there until they all went to the church together and met up to enter what I assume was heaven.

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

They weren't.

Everything that happened on the island, and after the island for many happened. They were all alive.

It was only the 'season 6 flash 'sideways' that was purgatory to make peace with their lives and it was explained that when they died, they went to the flight as a fixed point in their afterlife and it landed, and they lived out a life there until they all went to the church together and met up to enter what I assume was heaven.

Does that actually make sense to you -- or contradict what I wrote?

 

[Wumminator]

Does that actually make sense to you -- or contradict what I wrote?

Yes it makes sense and yes it contradicts what you wrote.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Does that actually make sense to you -- or contradict what I wrote?

yes & yes

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

That was the thing: early on, the writers claimed everything they were showing had a scientific explanation.

Did they really? What scientific explanation were you expecting for a paraplegic suddenly being able to walk again after surviving a fecking horrific air crash? Or ghosts walking around the fecking jungle?

Kinda sounds like some people desperately wanted LOST to be something that could happen, with no elements of the supernatural, despite it being clearly obvious from within a few episodes that it wasn’t the case.

 

[The Corinthian]

Does that actually make sense to you -- or contradict what I wrote?

Yes to both. I’m surprised that you don’t get the flash sideways in the final season given it’s probably one of the least ‘confusing’ mysteries of the show.

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

Yes to both. I’m surprised that you don’t get the flash sideways in the final season given it’s probably one of the least ‘confusing’ mysteries of the show.

I was numb at that point. I had given up.

 

[SirAF]

That was the thing: early on, the writers claimed everything they were showing had a scientific explanation. They also promised the characters were not in a type of limbo or afterlife or alternate timeline.

Once again, Jack's father spelled it out in the series Finale. I don't understand why so many struggle to understand this.

JACK: You...are you real?

CHRISTIAN: I should hope so. Yeah, I'm real. You're real, everything that's ever happened to you is real. All those people in the church...they're real too.

JACK: They're all...they're all dead?

CHRISTIAN: Everyone dies sometime, kiddo. Some of them before you, some...long after you.

JACK: But why are they all here now?

CHRISTIAN: Well there is no "now" here.

JACK: Where are we, dad?

CHRISTIAN: This is the place that you...that you all made together, so that you could find one another. The most...important part of your life, was the time that you spent with these people. That's why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you.

 

[The Corinthian]

I was numb at that point. I had given up.

Kinda feel the same given this back and forth with you bro.

 

[The Corinthian]

S1 E12 - Whatever the Case May Be

Kate centric episode. Bit tight for time this weekend, so here's a copy paste of the episode synopsis:

While swimming, Kate finds the marshal's locked case. Jack agrees to help Kate open the case if she will show him what is inside it. There are guns inside and a toy airplane. Kate says the airplane belonged to the man she loved—and killed. Shannon helps Sayid translate some of Danielle Rousseau's maps. Flashbacks show Kate robbing a bank in order to recover the toy airplane.

I'll be honest, it's a pretty boring episode. There's some casual flirting between Kate and Sawyer to begin with (great shots of Kate swimming in her swimming gear) but the episode is the first one in season 1 where I felt it was more filler than anything else. From the backstory we learn how desperate Kate was to get this deposit box, even being part of a fake heist to get into the area. Also, interesting tidbit - the deposit box number is 815, (which is a call back to Oceanic 815) and the number that reoccurs throughout the show. Locke and Boone are still working on the hatch, but other than that not a lot happens. There's some interesting scenes with Shannon and Sayid too. There's some scenes for Rose as well, as she helps Charlie overcome his PTSD from being hung. The first 11 episodes have been pretty rough for Charlie - plane crash, drug withdrawals (and bee stings) and now he was almost killed. Claire is still missing.

 

[The Corinthian]

S1 E13 - Hearts & Minds

Shannon's relationship with Sayid gets more personal. Locke and Boone try to get into the hatch they found. Boone wants to tell Shannon about the hatch and Locke gives him a drug that causes him to hallucinate, sending him on a mental trip which eventually helps him to let go of Shannon. In flashbacks, Boone tries to get rid of Shannon's abusive boyfriend by paying him off, only to find out that it was all a scam perpetrated by Shannon, who proceeds to sleep with Boone.

So this was Boone centric episode - one that I had forgotten a lot about, but we really see the lengths of Locke's...doucheyness here. He knocks Boone unconscious, drugs him, and leaves him tied up in the jungle with ol' smokey lurking. And he does this because Boone wanted to tell Shannon about the hatch! Crazy. The interesting thing is Boone sees Shannon being killed by ol'smokey when he's having his hallucination...and Locke interestingly says, 'So that's what it showed you?'.

Which makes me think - whatever Locke was shown by ol'smokey in episode 4 or 5 whenever (when he said 'I've looked into the heart of this Island, and what I saw was beautiful') is basically driving him to become more and more fixated and obsessed with staying on the Island (and we know it's he who knocked out Sayid and destroyed his radio equipment although they haven't revealed that in the show yet. So yea, @Samid is correct, he's a douche in this first season.

It's also nice to see Shannon and Boone get some screentime - they've been fairly peripheral so far. Also Shannon is beautiful.