It’s been four days, so I’m going to have to finally give my reaction to the Lost finale. It’s been tough to know what I think.
When I was watching the 2-hour episode, I was very emotionally satisfied, but I wasn’t expecting answers of any particular sort. At some point, I remember thinking, “They’re not going to give us any answers at all and I don’t care.”
But then we got to the final 15 minutes. Everyone in Sideways world has “woken up.” Now, we’re going to find out what Sideways world means!
Annnnnnd… we get that scene between Jack and Christian Shephard and the resulting scene in the church that ends with a door opening onto a glowing light.
Lots of people were guessing how the show would end. I bet nobody predicted that one. I didn’t know how to take it.
But then something occurred to me. Another trick had been pulled.
Remember “Through the Looking Glass,” the 2-part episode that ends Season 3? We see Jack in L.A. and assume it’s a flashback, because that’s what we’re used to. But then it turns out to be a flash-forward.
As Season 6 began, we were wondering if the detonation of the hydrogen bomb had worked to correct the Island timeline. Then we see our castaways back on Oceanic 815, and the plane doesn’t crash. So, we assume we’re in September of 2004, in an altered timeline. But that’s an assumption we made.
The finale tells us that we’re actually in a way station, a purgatory for dead people who aren’t ready yet to move on to the Afterlife. And since Christian specifically tells Jack “Some [died] before you, some long after you,” this means it’s long after Jack’s death (which probably occurs in December of ’07 or January of ’08). And “long after” means that Sideways world is a flash-forward, even though that world is probably outside of time and space as we know it. As Christian says, “There is no now, here.” But I would still argue that it’s the future.
All of this means that although we saw the events of Season 6 intertwined, it’s better understood as watching the Island time of 2007, followed by the Sideways time of the future. If we had seen everybody run around the Island, defeating the Man in Black – resulting in the death of some and the escape of others – and then we had jumped back on the airplane, with Jack staring out the window at clouds (a very heavenly image), we would have understood that this was happening in some post-death existence.
Remember the movie Memento? It’s told mostly in reverse chronological order. On a special edition of the DVD, there’s a version of the film cut in proper chronological order. It’s perfectly clear what happens. It plays as tragedy, rather than as mystery. But the motives of the main character, Leonard Shelby, also change when you watch it that way. He seems less of a victim and more of bully, setting himself as a hitman to kill Teddy.
Similarly, I think if we re-edited Season 6 into its two timelines, it would all be pretty clear.
I’ll have more to say in another post about how this structure is typical of Lost. Things have often proved to be much simpler than they first appeared to be.
2 Responses
-
Steve Says:
I’ve been thinking for a few seasons that it would be interesting if they issued a special set of DVDs with the entire series recut, scene by scene (and in some cases shot by shot) in TRUE chronological order.
Starting with the first scenes in this seasons “Mother” episode and ending with the walk to the light (and placing most of the scenes from season one in the middle), it would be a very interesting story to watch.
-
The Pop View » LOST: More or Less Than Meets the Eye (Part 2) Says:
[...] In my previous post, I made this claim about Lost: Things have often proved to be much simpler than they first appeared to be. [...]