After the End - An assay about the purpose of the 6 seasons by agraciotti

It's over. is there anything after the end?

Lost showed us the purgatory concept as many have imagined before, but not this way. It was not a final answer, but a symbolism to the journey of life (even thinking that the term "purgatory", being a catholic concept, does not embody everything the show wanted to represent).

This finale was not only truly honest and respectful with everything the fans have imagined and created through the six seasons (it finally assumed the fans as part of the show), but also defined the series not as a "puzzle", like many insisted to see, but as a sinuous and figurative journey trough life and the evolution of man's understanding of the world...and the path from the science view to the spiritual view of life.

If we take a second look to the six seasons now, we will understand this journey:


SEASON 1: mundane and verisimilar situations: a plane crash and survivors dealing with the search of food and water.

SEASON 2 and 3: then, a science perspective of that place, they start to wonder "how" the island work and how these things happen. They then meet the Dharma iniciative and its scientific experiments.

SEASON 4 and 5: Physics takes place. They start to wonder "when" and "where", dealing with natural and supernatural situations, things that transcends regular science and rational understanding of the world.

SEASON 6: the next logical step of human mind: faith. where science, physics and logic can't fit. They start to wonder "why", facing the perspective of a "God", some superior being responsible for everything. Then, they had a spiritual view of life.


Isn't it perfectly fits with everything we deal in life, since we born till we die? Aren't these exact questions, on this exact order, that come to us as the human mind evolves and ripens, and we start questioning about the world and our purpose in life?


That's why ALL these six seasons WERE necessary. That's why Jacob and MIB conflit had to appear ONLY at the final season. The characters NEEDED all these steps; they must have passed (and us, the audience, as well) through all this journey of ripen and evolution of comprehension of life ("everything else it's just progress"). They, and us, must have been ready in order to reach a spiritual and a metaphysics view of life.


Even the controversial episode "Across the sea" got a new perspective now that we saw "The End". those who criticised it (me, included) now have to admit how essencial it was to embrace - and make clear - the real purpose of the sixth season. It took away "god"(jacob) from some divine pedestal, filled him with human errors, justified the recruit of men by his own image, and, most important, introduced us the importance of rituals. The once ridiculous "magic wine" was not magic at all. As we've seen from the following episodes, it was not about the liquid, not about the recipient, but it was about the ACT. The ACT OF FAITH passed on. So, why so many people demanded straight answers and a logic conclusion for everything if, for instance, the catholic rite of baptism works on very similar codes and intentions as the ritual from naming the protector on Lost? It was actually a brilliant way of showing us how we already deal with our doubts and mysteries of life by abstract values, acts, rites and metaphysical perceptions. It is not about logic, but about the intention. If you MEAN it, it is legit, it is true.

The final scene in the church converged the search of ALL religions: how to face death. While many were expecting some answers about Walt, the others, the numbers, the ghosts and everything else, Lost did what life always does: it said "deal with it". And it's clear for me that the show did not ignore its mysteries for negligence or apathy, but because it offered an answer to the biggest mystery of all: the meaning of life.

In 6 seasons, Lost patiently built its path along to discuss the human existence. The ideas of science, reason, faith, quantum physics, mysticism, spiritualism..... were just tiny pieces from the big picture, small roads that needed to be crossed to find a bigger purpose for life.

Lost starts its legacy from here. For us, that fortunatly have so many talk and discuss about it, and for the next generations that, even if they won't EXPERIENCE the series like we did (speculating and anticipating the next week's episode), they can still enjoy one of the most profound, mind-blowing and ambicious things ever done on pop culture.


So, is there anything after the end? Of Life, certainly. Of Lost, maybe we still need some time "lost" to figure it out, even knowing that sooner or later will be our time to remember and to let go.