Lost Finale: We Are All the Smoke Monster

 

I can’t remember the last time I went to a party just to watch a TV show. We were at our friends’ Campbell and Joy’s house until all hours last night for a reverential viewing of the much-anticipated “Lost” finale. Joy, a confirmed Lost fanatic, sent us rules for watching the show (including no non-Lost side conversations) and had us fill out quizzes before the show about what we thought the final episode would reveal.

I can count such memorable episodes of TV series on the fingers of one hand. The final episode of “M*A*S*H,” Rhoda Morgenstern’s wedding, James Bellamy’s suicide on “Upstairs, Downstairs,” the end of “St. Elsewhere” when the entire show is revealed to be the dream of an autistic child, and, of course, the last “Newhart” that is famous only for its classic final minute when Bob Newhart wakes up in bed with Suzanne Pleshette, his wife from his previous TV show.

In this era of cheap and awful reality shows, it was heartening to see that a good old-fashioned TV drama could elicit such passion in its viewers and that its finale after six long and perplexing years could be such an Event. Whatever disappointments I may express about last night’s episode are mitigated by the fact that I so enjoyed the ride and continue to marvel at the show’s ability to hold so many people’s interest for so long, even with huge gaps between seasons, brain-hurting plot twists, beloved characters regularly biting the dust, and massive doses of chutzpah on the part of the writers and producers.

[Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t watched the final episode yet, you are hereby warned that I am going to discuss what happened during the two-and-a-half-hour sendoff.]

Initially, I was not a huge fan of this season’s parallel universe in which Oceanic Flight 815 never crashed and all of the characters simply landed in Los Angeles and went on with their lives. This Sideways world was juxtaposed against the events on the Island, where, mercifully, all of the regulars were back in the “present” (late 2007) instead of ricocheting all over the space-time continuum. For most of last season a group of regulars had been marooned in the 1970s and were working for the Dharma Initiative, the mysterious cult-like organization that was all but forgotten this season. I don’t know about you but I’d rather be ravaged by the Smoke Monster than be stuck in the 70s so I was relieved when the hydrogen bomb that Juliet detonated in last season’s finale sent them back to the 21st century. I only started getting into the Sideways world when some of our Losties started having significant bleedthrough between their Island and Sideways existences. Now THAT was interesting, and I looked forward to a conclusion where the two worlds became one and the characters moved on with new awareness and growth, remembering their island experience even though their plane never actually crashed.

But that was not to be. The first inklings of the sci-fi plot being overtaken by heavy religious allegory appeared a few years ago but this season the Judeo-Christian imagery jumped into hyperspeed, especially with the appearance of the previously unseen Christ-like island guardian Jacob. We finally got the back story for the terrifying Smoke Monster, who turns out to be the the elusive Man in Black, aka Jacob’s twin brother. The two were born on the island in 46 A.D. after their pregnant mother’s ship crashed onto the island (did no one tell Claudia and Danielle Rousseau not to travel when they are nine months pregnant?). A creepy Allison Janney helped to deliver the boys before killing the mother and raising the twins as her own. She eventually showed her boys the “Source” she was protecting, the golden light of goodness that must never go out. Jacob is content with his life on the island, but his brother longs to leave and see the rest of the world. He eventually finds the other survivors of his birth mother’s shipwreck and decides to live with them. After crazy mama kills these survivors, the Man in Black murders her. In anger, Jacob hurls him into the Source and his twin, for some unknown reason, transforms into the all-powerful but evil Smoke Monster who can take on the forms of dead people at will. His 2,000 year mission then becomes to extinguish the “Light” on the island and get the hell out of there. But first he must find a way to kill his brother and all of the “candidates” that Jacob summons as possible island protectors. Are you following?

I was willing to buy everything up to this point but here is my major beef with the finale: the simplistic, anti-climatic way they handled the struggle between good and evil, light and dark. Yawn. Back in Latin-speaking times, Jacob explains that the island is like a cork, holding in the Dark Forces that, if let loose, would extinguish the Light throughout the world. Like most religious tales, this idea was better left to our own interpretation and imagination than to actual scenes. In the final denouement of the series, Desmond is regarded as key, a “failsafe” to the plan that both Jacob and his brother have to reach their goals. Lowered into the “Source” of light (how come that didn’t turn HIM into a smoke monster?) by Jack and the Man in Black (in his new form as Fake Locke), Desmond uses all his strength to move a heavy cork-like device (really, writers? you’re going to be that literal with the cork imagery?) from the hole in the ground that is producing the Light. Suddenly the light goes OUT, replaced by some scary hell-like fire. At once the island starts to collapse in on itself. Was Fake Locke right all along? Would he destroy the entire island and all of mankind by snuffing out the Light? (And if it was that freaking easy, why didn’t he do it centuries earlier?)

When Jacob passed the torch to Jack to protect the Source, the moment took on the air of a Catholic mass. Jack drank the water that Jacob blessed. Jacob said “Now you are like me.” Jack did the same thing to Hurley before he went back down to the Source to try to bring back the Light. He was successful but had to sacrifice himself to do it. My issue lies with how the showdown between Light and Darknes was depicted as a separate-from-us scenario based on the physical dynamics of the island. Wouldn't it have been far more interesting if the link had been made to the forces of Light and Darkness, Good and Evil, that exist inside all of us? Making the Smoke Monster the personification (the smokification?) of all that is BAD on the planet feels like a cop-out that let's us off the hook from our own moral and ethical responsibilities and choices. I wish they’d used Marianne Williamson as the spiritual consultant for the show, the ending could have used a healthy dose of Course in Miracles philosophy. But I suppose you could also make the case that, like the stories in the Bible, everything on the island WAS an allegory and therefore these opposing forces did represent what’s going on in each of us. At least that’s what I had to tell myself to avoid hurling something at the screen. It’s clear that many of the characters DO undergo personal transformations because of their time on the island and that as they confront their demons, some eventually do find the Light inside. We once were LOST, and now we’re found.

 

I loved that Desmond played such a key role in the final happenings on both the Island AND the Sideways world. I predicted that he would but I truly thought that his Sideways goal was merely to merge the two parallel universes and have the characters go on from there, “enlightened” from the awareness of their growth on the island. Even with the simplistic corking in of good and evil, I was still into the finale until the last scene in the church. I started getting nervous when our tough-talkin’ Kate met Jack at the concert and suddenly was an all-knowing soul with a Stepford Wife smile, encouraging Jack to follow her to some unknown destination. Up until the last moment I never believed that Sideways world was some kind of transitional purgatory where all of the characters were already dead. Oh, crap. One of my favorite moments of the finale was when the pre-englightened Kate laughed upon hearing the name “Christian Shephard.” Why didn’t I ever think of the importance of that name? Probably because I never dreamed that asshole philanderer would in the end represent the Father of us all and Jack’s salvation. When Christian finally walked out of the church at his own funeral and a White Light was seen when he opened the door, I audibly groaned for the first time in my six-year history of watching “Lost.” Walk into the Light, Christian. Oy.

In the end, there really was no way to satisfy everyone with this finale, there were just too many expectations and unanswered questions. In the world of “Lost,” as with our own life experiences, the journey is more important than the destination. And with this ending, the writers continued to do what they’ve done so well all along—make us think and argue and interpret what we’ve just seen. It was time for the show to end, and even though we all found ourselves writing little scenes in our heads that would have provided the fulfilling closure we were looking for, the show still succeeded in gripping millions of people and making us think about life, redemption, and salvation.

I fear it may be a long time until we see the likes of a show like “Lost” again. Considering how expensive it was to produce, I’m amazed that the network coughed up the bucks for the show’s stellar production. Most of the actors were superb throughout the series and deserve to have a rich post-Lost career. But it’s unlikely many other shows like it will be green-lit anytime soon. I wouldn’t be surprised if ABC replaces “Lost” with more episodes of dumb, cheap-to-produce shows like “The Marriage Ref.”

Before I hang up my Dharma jumpsuit for good, I feel compelled to list a few more WTF moments from the “Lost” finale:

Is “Lost” sponsored by Match.com? I loved seeing some of our tragic lovers reunited at the end of the show. Sawyer and Juliet had a meet-cute at a vending machine that brought back their memories of their blissful years as 1970s Dharma hippies and by the last scene they were all lovey-dovey in the church pew. Nice touch (that everyone predicted) that Juliet was Jack’s ex-wife and the mother of his Sideways son (who I guess doesn’t really exist). Sawyer and Jack passed around so many women you’d think they all met at a key party. Unlike beloved Lost couples like Sawyer and Juliet, Sun and Jin, Rose and Bernard, and Desmond and Penny, I truly never thought that Kate and Jack would end up together. For me the chemistry just wasn’t there. And WTF was Sayid doing with Shannon? I liked it when the two got together after Boone’s death, but Shannon was killed a short time later by Ana Lucia. For six seasons we heard Sayid go on and on about his one true love, his supreme soul mate, Nadia, but now here he is in the church deliriously happy with Shannon with not a single word about his former love. Ridiculous. And if Shannon gets to be there, why not some of the other former cast members? What was Shannon’s big redemption—taking care of Vincent the Dog for a few days? If she gets to be in the church, I want to see people like Nikki and Paulo, Richard Alpert, Ilana, Doc Arzt, Cindy the Flight Attendant, Zack and Emma (the two kids from the flight that Cindy was taking care of), and for that matter, some of the Others. I know, I know, it’s just people that really bonded together on the island (with a special dispensation for Penny who never set foot on the island). We last saw Cindy, Zack, and Emma alive and aligned with the Man in Black. Where are they now? And speaking of couples, for a show that boasted such diversity in its cast, they were shockingly heterosexual. Would it have killed them to throw in a gay character or two? Boone could so easily have been gay. Why not Ana Lucia? Well, there was one “Other” who was eventually revealed to be gay (sorta), the murderous and depraved Mr. Friendly. Oy. And while we're at it...where are the Jews?

But what if I don’t want to be enlightened? I jumped for joy at the "reunion" between Ben, Danielle, and Alex in Sideways world. “You’re the closest thing to a father Alex has ever had,” beamed a non-crazy Danielle Rousseau to the kindly Benjamin Linus. I loved seeing her again, especially since I read the actress was off in Europe and had refused the offer to reprise her role. Rousseau was one of my favorite characters and I loathed the way they killed her off so casually after finally reuniting her with her long-lost daughter. I thought it fascinating that Ben was “redoing” these relationships and it was quite clear that he and Danielle were going to become romantically involved. But unlike everyone else from the island, we never see Danielle remembering anything from those days. And it’s a good thing. An “enlightened” Rousseau would remember that Ben kidnapped her baby to raise as his own child. For all those years Ben committed one evil act after another, and wanted nothing more than to have Danielle dead and gone. So while I liked their final scene, it also reminded me of that common (and appalling) storyline on soap operas when rape victims fall in love with their rapists and marry them. Quelle horreur! I do think Ben was a fantastic, complex character. He was supposed to only appear in a few episodes but the amazing actor who portrayed him parlayed the role into a regular spot.

If it was this easy to kill me, how did I get to be 2,000 years old? The biggest anti-climax for me was the way that the Smoke Monster/Man in Black got killed. If all it took was a temporary removal of the absurd “cork” to turn the Smoke Monster back into a mere mortal, why didn’t someone try this centuries earlier? For that matter, if anything, I thought the extinguishing of the Light would strengthen the Smoke Monster, not the other way around, and I think he thought so, too, since that’s why he sent Desmond down into the Source. And then, if the Light going out meant that the “powers” of the island were also gone, and the Man in Black was trapped in Locke’s human body, he should have immediately become paralyzed from the waist down since that’s how Locke was before the island “healed” him. Or would it have looked too bad for our hero Jack to kill a crippled man? But it wasn’t even Jack—it was Kate, of all people, who shot Fake Locke in the back. Did the special effects money run out by the end of the show? Couldn’t they at least have had Fake Locke, upon his death, turn back into the black smoke and dissipate?

Okay, now I need to stop, and like Jack, MOVE ON! I have a million more questions but as Allison Janney so ickily but accurately said to Jacob’s mother just before she bashed her head in, “Every question I answer will simply lead to another question.” How did Janney’s character know about the magical Source to begin with? How did she get to the island? Why did she thank her son when he killed her? How much did Widmore know about the Light? How did Eloise Hawking become so all-knowing? What happens to Claire’s son Aaron? What about Sun and Jin’s daughter? Who is Penny's mother? Why didn’t Penny get a single freaking line of dialogue in the finale? Why was her new show (“Flash Forward” also starring Charlie Pace) already cancelled when Juliet’s “V” gets another season? 

Did you know that in the Sideways world I’m a much better blogger who writes very concisely about things far more important than TV shows? In fact, Sideways Danny just got a seven-figure book deal. Now, just follow me and Step Into the Light…

Comments

[Helen]

Just came across this on twitter [@absintherobette]. One of the main points you're missing is that Desmond is immune to electromagnetic energy. That's why he was the key: he couldn't be killed by the power at the source of the island. It's also why he survived the destruction of the hatch, and it's what Widmore was testing when he brought him to the island. So it wasn't just that easy to remove the cork - only Desmond could have done it. Jack ought to have died when he experienced the same level of electromagnetic energy, and I think his death resulted from that rather than his knife wound.

[Sarah]

This was, by far, the most understandable recap of the show I've read. We watched the first 3 seasons obsessively and got bored mid-4th and quit. Thanks so much for the Cliff's Notes version!

Also, next time there's some sort of pivotal TV event (Jersey Shore starts again in the fall! :) ), I'd love to see (read?) you live-blog it.

[Danny]

Ah, Helen, that's a good point about Desmond and his odd powers (how did Widmore know that Desmond was special in that way?). I retract my statement about how "easy" it was to uncork the Source but still wonder if Smokey knew he'd become mortal again when the Light went away. I really don't understand that, that should have signified his big "win." OR, did he know that would happen and WANT to become mortal because that was the only way to leave the island? That must be it.

Thanks, Sarah! The premiere of next season's "Jersey Shore" is our equivalent of uncorking the Source and snuffing out the Light. Snooki IS the smoke monster...

[Julie R.]

Danny, sorry to say, this is the first of all your posts that I can't appreciate, never having watched "Lost." I can't wait until late July when the "Mad Men" analyses begin!

[Sarah]

The names of the Jersey Shore housemates have become synonyms for STDs in our house (i.e. "Once I was careless in college and got The Situation. A round of antibiotics cleared it up." "What's that weird rash? Is that Snooki? How'd you get THAT?")

[Leslie]

“Every question I answer will simply lead to another question". Please bash my head in with a rock...but apologize first. I can't take it anymore with my inner dialogue and debate.

[Kirk]

If the H-bomb didn't create the sideways world, what DID it do?

[Judy]

I'm also someone who never watched an episode of the lost. After reading your blog, I'm glad I didn't waste my time. I'd rather read the Torah any day. Especially if they're not any Jews, but the twins sound suspiciously Jewish to me.

[charla]

"still wonder if Smokey knew he'd become mortal again when the Light went away. I really don't understand that, that should have signified his big "win." OR, did he know that would happen and WANT to become mortal because that was the only way to leave the island? That must be it."
-i think that MIB's goal at that point was to sink the island and leave. he thought that "uncorking" would destroy the island (along with possibly extinguishing the light throughout the world?).... jack thought that it would somehow facilitate a way to kill him. they were both right. uncork-kill smokey corkback-save the world. :)

"If the H-bomb didn't create the sideways world, what DID it do?"
-i think that it put them back in the present time. (though i'm not sure and have wondered that as well.)

i'm just a random reader... i enjoyed your recap and thoughts.. i love the application of "every question will lead to another question" soooo true. i cherish shows "with a plan" and wish more could be in the vein of lost.