LOST.. my final thoughts by Scalesse27

The Final Season of LOST began with the tagline, “Destiny Found”; and as we all watched our tragic hero, Jack Shepherd, close his eye in the same place where he opened it 6 years ago, we understood why that motto was picked. Jack Shepherd found his destiny after six long seasons. At the end of the day, he did what he always did best: fix something. This time it was putting a cork back into the Island to save it, and saving all of his friends in the process from imminent destruction and death. Jack risked his life to save the ones he loved. And that is what this story has been all about from the beginning… understanding your fate. Previous seasons had taglines based around this idea: Season 2 – “Everything happens for a reason”, Season 3 – “Find Yourself”, Season 5 – “Destiny Calls”. All of our characters were searching for a purpose, and by the time the finale concluded, they all had found it:

Jack – risking his life to fix the island and save his friends
Desmond – uncorking the Island so that the smoke monster could be defeated
Hurley – taking his place as the new protector of the Island
Ben – becoming Hurley’s right hand-man on the Island
Kate – killing the Man in Black, as well as getting Claire off of the Island and back to her son
Lapidus – flying our characters safely (or so we think) off the Island

But beyond these physical purposes that these characters had in relation to the Island, they all had a much greater purpose, which I will touch on later.

What we began to see in the “flash-sideways” as the season went on was that most of our characters were inescapable to certain destinies (Kate as a fugitive, Locke in a wheelchair, Sawyer looking for the man that conned his parents, Hurley as a lottery winner), however, these destinies were just a hair different. Perhaps Kate really was innocent as she told Claire in “What Kate Does”. Locke put himself in the wheelchair after crashing a plane on his first flight with his dad as his 1st passenger. Sawyer was able to look for the man that caused his parents’ death in a legal way, as a cop. And Hurley had good luck instead of bad luck after his lottery win. The most glaring and important difference in this “flash-sideways”, however, was that Jack had a son, named David. David was just a creation in Jack’s afterlife in order to help Jack learn how to become a better father than Christian was to him. Jack was in denial that he would never reconcile his differences with his father, especially since his father died before Jack could understand how much he was truly loved. Thus, David was created in his mind so that Jack could get over these “daddy issues.” Little did he know that David was one of the major strings Jack would need to break before he could be fully redeemed and move on to the next stage of after-life. When Locke told Jack, “You don’t have a son,” something clicked for Jack even though he initially rejected it. Jack needed to believe himself that David was never real, and until he did so, he wouldn’t be able to flash on his Island-life. Once Jack believed that David was in fact not real, the next step was the final step on the path of enlightenment for our hero. A step that we’ve been waiting to see for six long seasons, Jack getting to talk to his father one last time. Christian helped Jack finally understand that he had indeed died, and what Jack thought was a life he was a living in the “flash-sideways” was only just the first stage of after-life.

As the final scenes of LOST played out, and we slowly realized that the flash-sideways was not an alternate universe, but rather a purgatory of sorts, we all realized what we’ve been witnessing since the season premiere is something a lot bigger than what we originally surmised. It’s no wonder that all of our characters were all somehow able to interact and be a part of each other’s lives after “Oceanic 815” successfully landed at LAX… because this was not reality; this was an imaginary place for all of their spirits to reconnect so that they could all move on, together. And that’s the most important word here… together.

Our characters needed each other, the people that they spent the most important part of their lives with. Their purpose in life was to all form this unbreakable spiritual bond on the Island. On this magical Island they all grew as human beings, they all loved and lived life in its purest and simplest forms. I believe that they were put on that Island so that they could all start from scratch again. Just like they did in the “flash-sideways”. When they crashed on the Island back in 2004 they began life anew. And however many years later, when they all passed away, they began life anew for a second time. This time however, they were at peace. And as Christian Shepherd opened those church doors and the bright light shined through, we all witnessed the peace of mind and happiness that engulfed all of our characters. They were no longer lost, they were now free.

I don’t want to delve much further into certain things because I feel like the great recappers, Vozzek and Doc Jensen, have nailed everything right on the head and I wouldn't do it any justice because their finale recaps were absolutely amazing. (Doc Jensen Part 1: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20387946,00.html and Part 2: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20313460_20388269,00.html and Vozzek: http://darkufo.blogspot.com/2010/05/things-i-noticed-end-by-vozzek69.html)

Well, it’s been quite a ride my fellow LOSTies. The friends and bonds that this show have given me will never be lost nor broken.

See you all in another life.