I am torn... so torn.

It ended with a focus on the characters and that is what made Lost great from the start. Still, I could spend hours tearing gigantic holes in the inconsistencies and ludicrous story devices used in Season Six and in the final episode. It was some of the lamest storytelling around.

Deep breath...

Still, I am satisfied with the ending. A piece of me wants to leave it at that and not comment further.

But ya'll know I ain't like that

So... lemme start with LAX, the alternate universe, the sideways flashes (a BS name given by people who were trying to trick us-- there was nothing sideways about these flashes). In the end, the entire alt universe was a waste of our time this season. It accomplished one thing-- it gave us some tearful reunions, hugs, and kisses in the final episode. These were emotional moments, in some ways they were the moments I connected with the most of any in the episode, but it was all a cheat.

Purgatory... they were in purgatory. Why do Ben and Elloise want to stay? Heaven awaits and you know you are in purgatory. If Purgatory is superior to Heaven, why wouldn't everyone want to stay? That was really bad storytelling and made no sense. If the implication is that Ben can hang with the Rousseaus and Elloise gets to enjoy her son's piano playing then why is Sayid so eager to move on after finding Shannon? Why does Desmond want to head into the light only moments after finding Penny? What about Sawyer and Juliet? Puh-lease!! It makes no sense at all.

Want more? The purgatory theme was "these people's lives were so connected, they wanted to move on together." Awww, ain't that sweet? Execept half the poeple in that church had never met each other!!! Bernard never knew Boone or Shannon. Penny was in the room-- probably 2/3rds of the people in there had no idea who she was. Juliet was a stranger to a lot of them too. Ben, had he gone in there, would not have known many of them. And what about Christian? Maybe this was supposed to be Jack's purgatory. I dunno, it was just lame, lame, lame... though it was emotional.

Ok, I've wasted enough time on the "sideways" universe... and waste of time is a good way to describe it. It was 99.5% unconnected with the rest of what was going on with Lost. It sucked up vast amounts of time during the final season when we could have been getting more answers and explanation. Gosh, thanks for giving us that little diversion Darlton.

Anyway, onto the action on the Island.

We never learned what Flocke's plan was or what would happen if he got off the island. He went along his "get someone to kill all the candidates" plan for ages but then changed horses at the very end to go with the "get Desmond to sink the island" plan. For a guy who engaged in a decades-long con game with Ben and the original Locke that was incredibly intricate in its planning, it made no sense for him to just abandon everything and swtich to a random "sink the island" plan.

We never really found out what it would mean if he escaped. Did it matter if he escaped once he became human? He clearly wasn't the nasty smoke-monster anymore at the end. For a bad guy, it was awful nice of him not to bash Jack's skull in repeatedly until brains started oozing out after he hit Jack that one time with the rock and knocked Jack out. Either that or he could have just slit Jack's throat. Whew, good thing he did not think of doing either of those things. Lame!!

Lets talk about going into the cave/light. Mother told us it was a fate worse than death. Apparently that fate was only bestowed upon one person, FLocke, because it didn't do very much to Jack when he sat in the pool of light for a while. I know Desmond was immune because he could withstand electromagnetism but Jack sure seemed to die of his stab wound to the chest, not his bath in the light. Pity that the island's magical healing powers had no effect on poor Jack when he was hanging out in the pool of healing with a wound to his chest. Ahh well, that would have been inconvenient to the storytelling so lets just ignore it, ok?

I am dying to know what the rest of the world says when Lapidus lands that plane. Where are all the other passengers? There were some very famous (Oceanic 6) and rich people (Sun and Hurley) on that Ajira flight who have been missing for many days. And now the plane shows up out of nowhere with just a few passengers on it -- including some who were not on the original flight and one (Richard) who has no citizenship or birth records at all from any country anywhere. Woo hoo!!

I am sorry if this post is turning into a rant. I am gonna stop for the moment. I want to repeat that I was satisfied with the ending. I loved watching Lost over the years and had recently resigned myself to it ending poorly, so this episode ended about as I expected it.

Look, here is my biggest problem with the show -- we fell in love with the characters, but the show hooked us with the mystery. For a long time, the two central elements -- interesting characters and a great mystery -- complimented each other beautifully. But then, the time came to resolve the mystery and there really wasn't much resolution. Almost none of the mysterious elements that were dissected and discussed around watercoolers and the internet during seasons 1-5 played a role in the resolution of the show. That's a pity and cheapens all of what we enjoyed over those 5 season.

Alright. I am done for now. I'll almost certainly have more later.

--Jason "my wife is just plain angry right now and wishes we had never watched" Evans