The Island Eulogy: My thoughts on LOST by Jessetobrien

Lost is a show unlike any other - a unique setting, a rich mythology and an extraordinary level of intrigue matching Hitchcock at his peak. It is a story that takes its time to unfold, but is filled with surprises and great character moments that reward its loyal viewers.

It's sad knowing that it is all over. Aside from a glimpse at Hurley and Ben's time as island protectors on the DVD box set, I'm assuming we won't hear much more of this story. Rather than having all the answers we were expecting, the finale actually gave us more questions. But as time goes on I appreciate the finale more and more. These are my thoughts about what it all means, what I took from it all and why I hope it's as meaningful to you as it was, and still is, to me.

LIFE, DEATH AND REBIRTH

In the controversial episode 'Across the Sea,' the island's protector known only as Mother describes the island's energy, seen as a golden glowing light, as 'life, death and rebirth.' This is the best way that a woman in the early 1st century can interpret what she sees. Our modern characters, quantum physicist Daniel Faraday in particular, label the source of the island's powers as 'electromagnetic energy.'

The realist in me, who always preferred it when Lost bent towards the science fiction as opposed to the mystical, was hoping that Mother's words would be negated by the end of the series in place of Faraday's more logical approach. But now, in light of what he know about the way Lost ends, the idea that this energy is the source of life itself is perfectly fitting to Lost's mythology, and always was.

In parallel with Jack and company struggling to save the island, the final season of Lost shows the main characters in a sort of alternate universe in which they never crashed on the island at all. They are unaware of each other and unaffected by the island's influence. It is left ambiguous as to whether or not this universe was created semi-intentionally by the characters at the end of season five, when they detonated a hydrogen bomb above a large pocket of the island's energy. I tend to lean towards the idea that this is exactly what happened, since it remains connected to the island story, and there have been a few instances where the island has granted characters their wishes, but not exactly how they expected. Ben refers to 'a magic box that can grant wishes.' One example could be the Man in Black's creation of the wheel; he wanted the wheel to transport him off the island, and it worked - but not for him. Another could be Locke and Rose's healing upon arrival. The island is a mystical place which, when corrupted, can bring death and destruction. But it also has the ability to heal and transform.

However this side-verse was created, the point of it is in keeping with everything Lost has always been about. Jack's first motivational speech to the divided crash survivors in season one was centred around the idea that 'if we can't live together, we're going to die alone.' And in this afterlife, the characters are finally brought together, remembering their real lives where they crashed on an island. They realise that they are in a place they created so that they can find each other and 'move on' together. I didn't like this at first because of the glowing 'gates of heaven' imagery. But the notion that these characters, because of the island's power of life, death, and rebirth, were given the chance to find each other and move on together, is quite satisfying to me now. None of these people were destined to die alone. They lived together for a common purpose, and now they get to move on together. Imagining this as a possibility at the end of our own lives, it's beautiful.

'Live together/die alone' was a common theme for our characters since the beginning, as was the debate between science and faith. Jack was a man of science, John Locke was a man of faith. When Locke died, the survivors followed Jack, trying to course-correct their lives and reset the events of their lives using the bomb. It was this scientific approach that caused them trouble time and again - but the island's power goes beyond science, and it takes Jack becoming a man of faith, and retroactively believing in John Locke, for the island and their destinies to be saved.

So in essence, Lost was always a show about faith. John Locke, and ultimately Jack, had faith that they were brought to the island for a reason. The audience had faith that the writers would make this a fulfilling story. On one level - the scientific level, where many practical mysteries remain unsolved - Lost didn't deliver. And for this I will always be a little disappointed. But was this the real reason I loved Lost for six whole years? No - the mysteries only made the show more fun. But the reason it is loved, and will remain loved among my most favourite of all films, television shows and stories, is because of its heart, and because of its characters. Aside from a few character discrepancies (Sayid's true love is Shannon, not Nadia? Walt and Aaron weren't really important after all?), this is a level that Lost delivered on abundantly.

UNSOLVED MYSTERIES

There are many subplots on Lost that were never brought full-circle, in some cases despite entire seasons of focus. The most glaringly obvious is the fact that women have difficulty conceiving and giving birth on the island. With such a focus on this topic, and entire characters devoted to solving this issue, it was strangely omitted from importance in the last two seasons. This type of neglect will lessen Lost's rewatchability, because we know there was never going to be a payoff. But for the most part, I feel like I have enough information to fill in the gaps on a lot of the mysteries, such as:

The Dharma food drop. As we know the Dharma Initiative was on the island until the 1980s. Shortly after the Oceanic 815 crash in 2004, the survivors found a nice crate of Dharma food that parachuted down from the sky. I'm happy to assume that it's based on the unique time properties of the island. This was demonstrated by Daniel Faraday when he rocketed a stopwatch from an off-island freighter to the island and found that the stopwatch's time was no longer consistent with the freighter's time. This suggests the time discrepancy between the Island and the rest of the world is variable in nature. I'd say it's safe to assume this particular food drop could have been dropped years ago at the wrong angle, or the wrong time, and arrived twenty years too late.

The Hurley Bird. It might be forgotten by most casual fans, but a giant bird was seen on two occasions (in the seasons one and two finales) with a massive wingspan and a call that sounds a lot like Hurley's name. I don't have a great explanation for this, but I'd like to take a stab and predict that it might have something to do with the future. Time doesn't work normally on this island, and it's entirely possible that this bird somehow knew who Hurley was, like a parrot who can say its master's name. Given that Hurley is the island's future protector, is this much of a stretch?

Bodies, Souls, and the Man in Black. The mysteries surrounding the show's many ghostly appearances can be explained by the idea that the energy at the heart of the island is the final resting place for our souls. While Jacob is in touch with this light during his time as the island's protector, it would make sense that the Man in Black gets the scraps - our dead bodies. Without the life energy at the heart of the island, we are just tissue. Bodies without souls. I believe that when Sayid died from the gunshot wound, his soul moved on then and there to the next stage (the sideways universe). The temple waters brought his body back to life, but because Jacob was dead, the Man in Black had access. Somewhere inside, Sayid knew he wasn't meant to be alive again on that island. Which would have made his noble sacrifice that much easier - his soul had already found redemption. The reason the Others are so concerned about burying their dead is that the Man in Black can use unburied bodies and make projections of them. He appeared as Ben's daughter Alex, as Christian Shephard, as Eko's brother Yemi, among many others. The reason Christian's body was never found after the plane crash? Who knows. Probably just a writers' trick to make us think it was Christian's flesh and blood walking around after all. The most confusing part of the Man in Black's powers is how he could appear to Jack off-island, but I'm going to pass this off as a rare error on the writers' part.

In other words, to sum up the mysteries, most of them could be possible explained by the power of the light, which illuminates souls, bends time, and reanimates bodies. It's quite a blanket explanation, but until we get any official word, it will have to do.

BEST LOST MOMENTS

Learning that Locke was in a wheelchair before the crash.
Desmond is the man inside the hatch.
Dr. Artz teaches us about the dangers of dynamite.
Charlie's sacrifice.
'Paulo Lies' was actually 'Paralyzed.'
Ben's man on the freighter is Michael.
Hurley fixing the Dharma van.
Jack and Locke duking it out in the rain.
Jack's eye closing.

To sum up, there will never again be a television show quite like Lost. It began as a movie-quality pilot; thrilling, exciting and mysterious. It ended in much the same way, with Jack and the Man in Black's battle on the cliffside more epic than the Anakin/Obi Wan showdown. But it also ended as a reflection on mortality, the afterlife, and destiny. Is this what anybody expected Lost to become? No, but it did. And for that reason it's more than just a television show. It's entertainment that made us laugh, cry and consider what we want our own lives to be. In other words, it's everything that storytelling should be.