Fancy Fembot

Let’s just be out with it. My initial response to the Lost finale was not favorable. I felt betrayed and lied to. The minute that I realized that the “flash sideways” was purgatory and they were going to walk in to a light lead by [a] Christian Shepherd, I was infuriated. Lindelof and Cuse promised that the island wasn’t purgatory and that’s when I stopped myself…


Lindelof and Cuse promised us that the island wasn’t purgatory.





The island ended up not being purgatory. They created something totally different called a “flash sideways” and THAT was the purgatory. To me purgatory has always been a proving ground for entrance into heaven. It’s a place for people who aren’t bad but still need work in order to “move on”. In that sense, the island was a sort of proving ground and the “flash sideways” wasn’t. Purgatory has also been described as a waiting area until it is decided that you will “move on”. This totally describes the “flash sideways”. My real question that if this “flash sideways” was created by the Losties, when did they do this? How? Why? Right before Jughead and Juliet?
Also, notice how Ben Linus didn’t join the other Losties that were going into “the light”. His reason was that he still needed to work on some stuff and because of that, he couldn’t “move on”. This is very purgatorial.





If you ignore these questions and accept the episode for what it is, it was a really sweet ending. The careful weaving of the “flash sideways” and “island present” was impressive. You also got to see all of your favorite characters together again. Everyone was clean, with combed hair and stylish clothing. THAT MADE IT ALL WORTH IT! I enjoyed that characters got a chance to reunite with their loved ones. Seeing them recognize each other was heart warming: Claire and Kate, Clair and Charlie, Sayid and Shannon, Sun and Jin. I cried a few times; even on the second viewing.





Let’s face it. This is some of the cleverest storytelling of our time. The most important feature of Lost is the flashback. It gave the writers a way to tell a story and create a history on the island that made sense. It gave the appearance of a carefully woven entertainment tapestry. Their balance of the ridiculous and the sublime was epic. In most television shows if you add a smoke monster and time travel, the next season you’re signing up for a campaign for Syfy to save the show. If the show is too heavy on love and relationships, it’s demoted to chick flick status. If it’s too spiritual, you run the risk of offending a religious group. If you have too much diversity, everything starts to feel forced and unrealistic.





After a second viewing of the finale, I decided that I’m satisfied with how Lost ended. It wasn’t the ending that I wanted or even expected but it’s over. I have a science fiction bias so I wanted it to be some bizarre-o time travel twist with alien overlords and a space battle. *pew pew* That isn’t what Lost is and that is the reason why the show was so successful. Lindelof and Cuse found a perfect balance and told a story in such away that it appealed to a massive amount of people. They successfully told a story that kept people from all walks of life engaged and that is no easy task. It combined Survivor with Quantum Leap with a dash of Grey’s Anatomy and The Odyssey. We were treated to subtitles, war, politics, mystery, spirituality, action, horror and most importantly love.





Do I still have questions? Yes but they just don’t matter at this point and I’ve decided to let them go. The most oft repeated reason you hear for Lost being so successful is because they made you care about the characters. Even if you didn’t like the ending, I think the the mark of a great show is the ability to keep the audience coming back for more because of a connection with the characters. Everyone can agree that the mysteries and puzzles of the island were fascinating. Everyone can agree that there was something very basic and human about the show that makes it easy to relate to. Because Lost did all of this, it will go down in history as one of the most important television shows in our time.





[Lost Finale Poll. VOTE!]

[Lost Finale Poll. VOTE!]


1) What is the island?
The island is a place that you cannot get to unless you are invited by its guardian.


2) Who is the guardian?
To our knowledge and in this order: a crazy murderess called Mother, Jacob, Jack and Hurley.


3) Where is the island?
It is thought to be some where near Australia. In truth it is always moving which is why it is so hard to find.


4) How do I find and get to the island?
You cannot get to the island unless the island needs you. It is hidden by a powerful electromagnetic force that keeps it off the radar. Most people will never be able to find the island.


5) What is this electromagnetic force and why does it need to be guarded?
It is called “the light”, “the Source” or “the heart of the island”. It is supposed to be the life-force of all humanity. It is believed that if all of humanity has access to the light that they will diminish it. Supposedly, if the light goes out, evil will reign the world.


6) That’s it? Then WTF was the whole 6 year drama about?
Yes, that’s it. No one really knows and you were screwed.


7) Are all the people on the island dead?
It is my personal belief that after Juliet set off the bomb (season 5 finale) that everyone died. You don’t set off any type of hydrogen bomb, modified or not, and not destroy your immediate vicinity, not to mention the radiation poisoning.


8) That’s bullshit Cat! They were alive in season 6. What about the events that took place in “island present” and the “flash sideways”?
Ok, fine. Daniel modified the Jughead bomb’s core so it would react with the electromagnetic force on the island. It did not work as planned and some how all of the Losties were moved to “island present” time.
The “flash sideways” doesn’t exist in reality. It is a purgatorial or limbo existence. (Lostpedia had this definition on their website but removed it. If you go to http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Purgatory , you will find an extensive entry on the “flash sideways”.)


9) Is the “flash sideways” purgatory?
It depends on how you define purgatory.


-If you define purgatory as the state of those who die in God’s friendship, assured of their eternal salvation, but who still have need of purification to enter into the happiness of heaven.
The “flash sideways” is everywhere & nowhere in time and can be described as purgatory. The Losties where ghosts walking around the “flash sideways” until they figure out that they where dead. The candidates and loved ones agreed, off-screen, that they would meet in this place to “move on”, as lead by [the] Christian Shepherd, into the light.


-If you define purgatory as a celestial waiting room where Christians are punished so that they may atone for their sins before passing into heaven. Purgatory is very unlike hell in that it is simply temporary.
This totally describes the island and all the madness that “The Others”, Jacob, Smokey, etc put “The Candidates” through. The island happens to be “real life” so can’t be called purgatory… or can it?


-If you just want to relax and take the writers at their word. The “flash sideways” is just a place that isn’t purgatory because it isn’t controlled by God but the Losties. They created this place, they wrote their own ticket for their soul’s departure.


10) Ok, so what is the “flash sideways” again?
It was a Lindelof and Cuse primetime public circle jerk. :-D


11) Why were these people brought to the island in the first place?
Jacob, the island’s guardian, needed a someone to take his place. He somehow picked these then people influenced things in their lives so that they could be on Oceanic Flight 815 to crash on the island and partake in the island saga.


12) Why did he pick so many people? Why didn’t he just explain the island to one person & perform a transfer of power?
Jacob was in constant battle with his brother Man-In-Black (MIB also known as Samuel) because MIB wanted to leave the island. Because Jacob wouldn’t let MIB leave the island, MIB vowed to kill Jacob. MIB told Jacob that he’d kill him and anyone that was a candidate to replace him. I assume that with so many people, MIB didn’t know who to kill. He didn’t just kill everyone because not killing the Candidates was part of “The Rules”.


13) What are these “Rules”?
They could never leave the island.
They could never kill one another.
Assumed rules are that they could not kill candidates for island guardianship. And that they would live forever, a really long time or until someone took their place.


14) WTF was the smoke monster?
Apparently, MIB, not being pure of heart, was thrown into “the Source” by Jacob. After his entrance, he exited as black smoke. No one really knows the mechanics of the black smoke, how it happens, why it can assume the shape of any dead person & access their memories or how he retains his own memory of his time as a human.

Also, leaving the island was a desire of MIB as a human. It is never revealed why as the smoke monster he wanted to leave the island. People always assumed it was for evil and that he would destroy the world.


15) Jack went into “the light” and didn’t turn to smoke. What is up with that?
He was “aborted” from “light” and gingerly placed on some rocks outside of the cave with “the light” just like MIB.


16) Desmond went into the light and did not die, turn to smoke or get laid gingerly on the rocks outside of the cave. Why?
Desmond, somehow survived an electromagnetic explosion which not only gave him the ability to predict death but time travel (or at least his send his mind through time). Him being able to withstand electromagnetic events is the reason why he could go into the heart of the island unaffected.


17) If Desmond could withstand “the light” why didn’t he put the cork back into the island instead of Jack?
Jack needs to be a hero. I believe even the writers was sick of Jack’s whining and gave him the hero’s death that he had such a hard on for.


18) Then what was the whole Charles Widmore experiment about?
Desmond was lead to believe that if he did what he was supposed to do on the island that everything would reset and he would transport to the “flash sideways”. He thought the “flash sideways” was the prime reality. Instead, he was responsible for making everyone in the “flash sideways” aware that they were dead and needed to “move on”.


19) What was Charles Widmore’s role in everything?
He started out as an “Other” and took orders from Richard Alpert. He had an off-island relationship that resulted in Penny’s birth which got him kicked off the island by Ben Linus. Every since then, he searched for the island to get revenge on and kill Ben Linus. Widmore was so aggressive that he sent mercenaries to the island to kill everyone. Eventually he was visited by Jacob. Jacob told Widmore about his struggle with MIB and the importance of getting Desmond back to the island to fulfill his role and save humanity. Charles was rewarded with a bullet to the chest by Ben Linus.


20) Who were these “Others”?
They were also known as “The Hostiles”. I believe “The Others” have been on the island as early as the murderess Mother which was supposed to be the classical Roman era. They are a combination of people who crashed on the island with Claudia (Jacob and MIB’s real mother) and indigenous people whom may have lived there the whole time or arrived there by an arranged accident by Jacob. Due to the warhead’s introduction to the island in 1954, women became unable to get pregnant on the island. “The Others” seemed to have gotten organized under Richard Alpert’s rule and are vicious when it comes to protecting the island. They killed a US Army unit in 1954, purged the Dharma Initiative in the 1970′s and were extremely aggressive with the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815.


21) Wait, the US Army was on the island?
Yeah dude. Pay attention. Back in 1954, they wanted to use the island for weapons testing. That’s where the “Jughead” bomb came from. The audience finds out about the bomb after Ben turns the donkey wheel and the island skips through time.


22) What was the “Dharma Initiative”?
DHARMA stands for (Department of Heuristics And Research on Material Applications). They were “a large-scale communal research compound where scientists and free-thinkers from around the globe could pursue research in meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, electromagnetism”, etc. They found the island with Eloise Hawking’s Lamp Post. Dharma survived on the island for about 20 years until the truce with The Others failed. The Others, lead by Dharma traitor Ben Linus, killed the entire Dharma crew including his own father. “The Others” now live in and use the resources left by Dharma.


23) Why wasn’t Michael or Walt in the finale?
Uneducated and ridiculous answer: Because Hollywood hates Black people.
Uninformed answer: My guess is because Malcolm David Kelley now looks like a 30 year man and they couldn’t find a way to write around it.
Actual answer: I don’t know.


24) Who is alive in “island present”?
Hurley, Ben, Kate, Sawyer, Claire, Aaron, Frank, Milo, Richard, Michael*, Walt, Rose, Bernard, Penny, Desmond, Eloise.


25) What was the statue about?
It is a statue of the Egyptian Goddess Taweret also known as Tuat. She is the goddess of birth and re-birth. We still don’t know who built it and for what purpose. We do know that it was destroyed when Jacob brought Richard Alpert to the island. He flung the Black Rock ship through the air which crashed into the statue and broke it. Jacob also lived in the chamber below the foot of the statue.


That was fun! Most of the answers I knew, some are speculation and some are just for laughs. I fact-checked and quoted a few things using Lostpedia. It’s a great resource if you still have questions about LOST. Namaste!

Here’s what I’m watching this summer. It doesn’t seem like a lot really. In fact it seems like slim pickings. Don’t forget that Doctor Who isn’t considered a summer show but I’ll be watching it as well. I’m on the fence with Burn Notice because I got a little bored with it. The Gates is new, it has vampires and it’s a maybe. I don’t watch Futurama with any regularity. I’d like to though.
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Now that the finale is over. Was Lost worth it?

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What happened here? Merely shouting “FlashForward sucks” and walking away doesn’t really cut it. This show had everything going for it: a top-notch cast, great time-slot, a compelling premise, a great network, good looking sets. Why did this show fail?
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