Lost

Just amazing...I have a lot to say, so skip this whole post if you don't watch Lost!

The whole finale was about character and relationships and everyone coming together. I cried through most of it. I loved that Desmond was who was responsible for bringing everyone to each other. I love that he, Hurley, and Kate did it by action - pointing people in the right direction - and not by words. I love that we got to see real Locke at the end and not Smokey Locke too much. I can't even organize my thoughts...I just loved it. I definitely want to watch the whole series over again. I also would really like to know what parts were planned and what parts were improvised over time.

I spent some time this morning reading through some of the comments on Pop Candy about the series finale. Here are some of the notes from people that helped me start to pull together what was going on.

1) We agree that the island time line is the real time line. People died, other people lived. It's only when all those people died that they went to the sideways world in order to find each other and be united upon entering the afterlife. So Sawyer might have lived to be 90, but upon his death he reverted back to his island age because, as Christian put it, that was the most important time of all their lives. What happened on the island was their real lives. Sideways was what you are calling Purgatory

2) The island - housed a power present in mankind that can tip towards white or black. Good and Evil are represented by both Jacob and MIB, thereby keeping the balance of power even. Black has a leg up on the competition in that it has a free floating entity in the form of the smoke monster. Candidates - flawed and victimized human beings are brought to the island and given a chance at redemption and to eliminate the threat of evil empowering humanity via the MIB (escaping the island).These candidates were the first successful bunch in that they were redeemed and able to defeat the MIB, thereby, containing the island's power source in the heart of the island. The survivors of Oceanic 815 could not have done this alone and they needed each other to redeem their souls and rebalance the power in favor of white (good).The sideways world. Purgatory. A chance for those who have lived, been redeemed and Lost a chance to reconnect with soul mates, reconcile with and forgive enemies. Together they lived, alone they died and remembering their lives collectively and how they needed each other - allowed them to move on to a better place - heaven.

3) I especially loved when Vincent laid down to be with Jack as he looked up in the sky to see the airplane fly above his head

4) On the island, Jack is next to the DOG. In the other universe, he is next to GOD

5) In the sideways world, the island was sunk because the light was out. The sideways world people needed to find the light, they needed to make a connection with their past. Looking in the mirror reminded them of what they did. Touching one another recalled how they needed each other. It some more time than others to realize what is happening (i.e. Jack) and others it was very easy (i.e Hugo).

6) I think they all died in the plane crash and the whole series was about Jack's journey to crossover into heaven. When you look back throughout the seasons, Jack was directly involved with everyone, whether it be through loving them, healing them, saving them, being related to them, or mentoring them. We saw everyone's back stories every week, but what we were really seeing was Jack's story as a whole. It was all about Jack all along...

7) The only way the island's evil could be killed -- the supposedly unkillable smoke monster, the MIB -- was for someone first to let the light out, giving him the opportunity to escape (but making him mortal), THEN for someone to physically kill him, THEN for someone to sacrifice him/herself to put the light BACK IN thereby restoring the rightful balance in the universe, AND for that person to have lined up a replacement. That's a tall order. And quite a loophole to the rules MIB thought he was playing by. Without Desmond's special characteristics AND Jack's sacrifice AND Hurley's volunteerism, things wouldn't have turned out as well as they did.

8) In the end, the light didn't strike me as particularly good or evil, just powerful. If there was a struggle between good and evil, it was within each of the characters. Was the light a metaphor for the choices we make? I guess we don't know for sure which was the "real" life or if it matters. It is clear that time is irrelevant. Christian said some died before and some much later, yet they were waiting for him. Maybe waiting isn't so bad when time doesn't really exist. At the end, those who loved were together and seemed happy to be leaving. Loved the full circle. Jack opend his eye on the first episode, and saw Vincent. At the end, he saw Vincent and closed his eye. I loved Vincent staying with him.

9) There were 40+ people on the plane but there were no more than 20 in the church. Where were those other people? Why was Claire's baby there. Wasn't it allowed to grow up. If they died in the crash then the baby would never have been born. If they survived and then all died later then how did the baby end up back on the island even though when Kate left it to go back it was a young child? Where was Jin's baby?

10) I think the reason Eloise didn't want Des to take Daniel is because she didn't want him to move on. She wanted him to stay with her in the sideways world. Considering she killed him in the island (real) world, being together with him in the sideways timeline was probably her "heaven".

Some more thoughts after reading some of the comments (as of 2pm there were 600 comments on the Pop Candy blog!)...
1) The whole Sayid/Shannon thing doesn't totally work for me. Nadia was the love of his life until he came to the island so the fact that they came back together to move on seems not quite genuine. I guess the argument could be made that when he met Shannon he was starting to find his redemption and redefine himself, but it's loose. They didn't know each other that long. Who knows, maybe surviving a plane crash together does something for people! I think they shortchanged his character...he used to be one of my favorites..they ruined Sayid this season.

2) I loved watching Sawyer/Juliet, Claire/Charlie, and Jack/Kate all come together. I didn't like Charlie at all until the episode where he died and I was so touched watching him find Claire and Aaron and the whole birth experience.

3) Why did the Others want the children? How do Aaron and Walt come into play? There was such a focus on women not being able to conceive, kids being valuable, Walt having "abilities" that I feel wasn't addressed. Maybe because they weren't flawed yet?

4) Interesting that Desmonds "mistakes" were what brought Oceanic 815 down to begin with in the beginning and that Desmonds removal of the rock from the light was what started to destroy the Island so that MIB could be killed at the end. I wonder if he was intended to be the thread that carried the story through?

5) I kind of feel like Jacob/MIB should have come into play in this finale somehow or in the church or beyond or looking on or something.

Okay, between Lost and the new guy with the hair piece and cologne, I've gotten NOTHING done today. Ugh.