Before I start, I have a way of sounding like I hate everything because I analyze things very critically so let me state that I enjoyed the finale of Lost and it was a lot of fun having everyone (except Dan) together for it. Having said that:
So after I went to bed last night I was considering that last episode and I came to a conclusion I'd like your opinion on. It seems to me that that last episode indicates that the writers hadn't planned from the start how they would end the show. My reason for thinking this is that in the season 2-3 time frame lots of viewers started supporting the "current reality is purgatory" theory. In the final episode they turn the flash sideways world into limbo. The flash sideways reality didn't exist back when the purgatory theory started and there was no indication that the show would have to end with limbo being a theme. So it seems to me that the writers changed course at the end and came up with an ending that didn't really call on the story line from the rest of the show in terms of the fundamental plot (the plot associated with the island history not the character personalities). I don't read the Lost websites out there so maybe this is already common knowledge. What do you think?
The ending was kind of weird considering the kind of show it was in the past. The final season built up this island mythology storyline that really seemed to be going somewhere and then turned out to be completely irrelevant like it was a storytelling inconvenience to be ignored as gracefully as possible. If there was any warning signs of this coming it was that for the last few seasons the show had been getting less deep in terms of having less layers. Gone were the subtle Easter eggs like seeing the numbers, the dharma marked shark, the oceanic symbol etc. I just really feel like that element was really toned down at the end. I also feel like plot developments were really shoved in your face like "do you get it? Bla and bla was the one who did it!” All of this leads me to believe the show was dumbed down for a larger audience. The fairytale ending that was entirely character driven was just the continuation of the giving-the-average-Joe-what-he-wants as opposed to exercising anybody’s brains.
I was thinking about how I would have ended it and my first ideas were:
Jack = Jacob, Ben = Smokey (If you wanted smokey to be bad) This time have it be that for some reason for the safety of the island they need to keep Ben off the island instead of keeping him on.
Jack = Jacob, Desmond = Smokey: If smokey doesn't need to be bad.
But I have to admit we would have seen those coming so to be true to the original spirit of the show where we were really surprised by plot twists I tried to come up with something really out there:
It turns out Widmore has brought along Aaron and Sun’s baby as leverage on Jack, Kate, Sun, Jin and anybody else with a soul (we'd have to rewrite a couple episodes). Widmore gets wacked by Smokey, Claire finds a way to steal the kids after Smokey does his thing meanwhile the rest of the Lostees finds Widmore and the rest of his posse and think the kids are dead. Most people leave the Island, maybe the plane goes down as its leaving, Claire takes out some people (at the very least kills Kate) ... Anyway, it ends with Claire and the two babies being the only two on the island (Rose and Bernard can stay). Flash forwards: The kids are 11-12 and Aaron is staring out to sea (maybe Aaron starts having visions of Kate who tells him there is a world outside the island, that she raised Aaron and that Claire killed her. This makes Aaron the new Esau and give credence/explanation to the fortune teller’s insistence that Claire raise the baby) and Sun’s girl is helping "mom" like a momma’s girl. Aaron, Claire’s favorite of the two ends up being the bad one and Sun’s girl is the future Jacob. That ending has the advantage of being a snake eating its tail ending but I feel like someone could come up with something better that uses ever more of the island mythology (black vs white, Egypt, super electromagnets etc) to really tie up a nice satisfying interconnected type of ending.
So my challenge to you guys is to come up with your own ending that would have been better than the real one but it has to be a nobody-would-have-seen-it-coming ending. And then share please.
Alan the eye closing call was badass.
