Spoilerific Question: Ending of Lost

[Kchrpm]

I barely watched Lost when it was on (only an episode or two), but have heard tons about it, including conflicting recounts of the ending.

The "popular" understanding of it, that I have heard several people complain about, is that the island is some form of purgatory, everyone died on the plane crash and they've all been dead since the first episode. In the final episode, they meet up in heaven/the church. That seemed silly to me, because apparently there were several episodes that were "flash forwards" that followed people back in the normal world after they got off the island, but having not seen any of this stuff I didn't know.

I finally chose to read a summation of it from some wiki on it, I can't remember if it was Wikipedia or a Wikia, and it had a very different interpretation of the ending. It said that the island was a real place, not purgatory, and the scene in the church was actually happening long after the events of the series. It said that the church was some form of heaven, and that the castaways were all reuniting there when they died because they had become family through their experiences on the island. That seems to make a lot more sense from what I know of what happens in the series, but again that's all just through Wikis and overheard/skimmed discussions.

So which is it? Is the island purgatory and the show is about dead people, or is the island not purgatory and no one is seen in the afterlife until the church scene? Or is there a third option?

[Freude am Fahren]

The creators themselves suggested that everyone was indeed alive on a 'real' island and basically what you read on wiki, if I remember correctly. But I think they also, along with many others say you can interpret other ways, and they wont say matter of fact, what it was. This is going completely from memory of interviews shortly after the series ended.

During the run, they were adimant that it was not purgatory, as the prevailing theories stated, and that the island was real. I kinda think that it was inteneded to be purgatory, but when everyone cought on early, they decided to change it up, and things got kinda shaky.

I've also heard claims from somewhere that the island was real, but no one ever really left. Anything that happened after the crash off teh island was some kinda of purgatory/dream, or something.

Basically, how I took it was mostly how the wiki claims. Everyone experiences time differently on the island, and even though some may die years apart, they all go directly to the church and meet up at the same 'time' when they die. So say person 1 died one week after being on the island. Then person 2 dies 40 years later. The first person sees the second at the church right away, while the second hasn't seen the first in 40 years.

Anyway you look at it, it felt like a bit of a cop-out, and I was disappointed.

[speedpimp]

I thought it was all on one island but in different realities. TBH, I've never watch a single episode.

[Rob]

Early on in the second season, it was readily apparent that the writers were just making it up as they went along. I gave up at the end of S2 and read a summary of the rest and it only confirmed my suspicions that nothing remotely coherent was going to come from it.

[MR2 Fan]

I did watch the whole series of Lost, and in the final episode...the father of the Jack says "Everything that's ever happened to you is real" or something like that, meaning it all happened.

As to the "making it up as they went along", that is true, and also why there were tons of questions about the show that were never really answered.

[Dicknose]

It did have some fun bits right up to the end.
But trying to tie it all up, the left some thread unexplained (the immortals on the island) and other bits seemed to contradict what the creators had said (it's not purgatory)

A fun romp.
The flashes were interesting, especially when you weren't sure when they occurred.

But yes, let down by a weak ending.

[Mortavian]

Man, I was just thinking about Lost today. Weird.

Anyhoo, to add my own irrelevant two cents to the whole mess, I thought the whole series was supposed to be "actually happening" (including the flashbacks and flash-forwards) up until they detonated the A-bomb at... when, the second to last season, I think? At that point, I thought the last season and the weird flash-sideways or whatever were supposed to be some sort of purgatory/possible-what-could've-been universe all rolled up into a huge poorly written mess.

[novicius]

Early on in the second season, it was readily apparent that the writers were just making it up as they went along.
This style of showrunning worked for BSG.

[Kchrpm]

I did not realize there was an atomic bomb detonation.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Don't remember the details much, but I do remember I had great expectations for the show, but was let down by the ending.

This latest mysteriously missing Malaysian plane reminded me of the show.

[FaultyMario]

Early on in the second season, it was readily apparent that the writers were just making it up as they went along. I gave up at the end of S2 and read a summary of the rest and it only confirmed my suspicions that nothing remotely coherent was going to come from it.

This. Pretty much.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Well, I kinda doubt they were making things up as they went along the whole time. Some of the plot twists had to be planned before hand... however, I think some things obviously ended up out of their control near the end. For example they had to kill off characters simply because they were fired mid-season...

[Alan P]

I gave up on this show when there was what appeared to be a Polar Bear. On an Island in the middle of a tropical ocean.

[Reverend Jim]

Yeah, polar bears on an island requires a huge leap of logic in a world where things like zoos and animal experiments exist. GOOD CALL!

[Rob]

Well, I kinda doubt they were making things up as they went along the whole time.

http://www.cracked.com/article_19043_6-classic-series-you-didnt-know-were-made-up-fly_p2.html

[21Kid]

Getting 'Lost' Answers 10 Years Later: Were They All Dead the Whole Time? (http://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/tv-news/12-highlights-from-the--lost--paleyfest-panel-054715551.html)

1. Were they dead the entire time?
"No. They were not dead the entire time," Cuse said. Happy now?!

[Kchrpm]

Nice, thanks Kid!

[21Kid]

Lucky coincidence. ;)

[Crazed_Insanity]

10. Easter eggs that were never laid:

An audience member asked about the Easter eggs that "Lost" became famous for, and Lindelof said the one he was proudest of was an egg that was never meant to be an egg.

He recounted that someone sent him a screencap from the pilot of Walt standing in front of the fuselage. There was a burn mark on the fuselage that looked like the Dharma Initiative logo — but this was before the writers had even conceived the Dharma Initiative. "Whoa, this is an Easter egg that we did not hide," Lindelof said, jokingly adding, "And I lost all faith in religion."

This is one of the things that I find the show's creators claims of making things up as they went along unbelievable.

I think the shows creators are probably just too ashamed to admit that they tried something and failed miserably... so if they pretend that they were just making shit up on the fly, then what happened in the end of Lost can be a bit more excusable. ;)

[Rob]

"Lindelof said the one he was proudest of was an egg that was never meant to be an egg."

Did you genuinely miss the bit where he said it wasn't meant to be an Easter egg? The whole show was a collision of bullshit. Anything that formed a pattern was almost entirely by accident. The revolving door writing team confirmed this.