[Bianculli here: In addition to this review, which was posted after the finale, listen for Monday's Fresh Air with Terry Gross
on NPR, for another analysis from me. I liked it, both times.]
The ending of ABC's Lost, whatever it turned out to be, wasn't going to be able to please all of the people all of the time. But even with an unsettling core "explanation" and some frustrating unanswered questions, Sunday's 2.5-hour finale was one entertaining movie-length wrap-up...
It should go without saying that if you haven't seen the Lost finale yet, save this column and return when you have. It should also go without saying -- but I'll say it anyway -- that if you didn't watch this in real time, you missed one of the last times broadcast TV will be serving up such a treat to a sizable, attentive mass audience.
And now, to some quick, final points:
While Desmond, and then Jack, were in the subterranean cave trying to plug the island's hole and stop/restart its life force, writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse were busy trying to plug plot holes. And overall, they did a very good job, providing viewers with satisfying off-island, memory-triggered reunions of Sawyer and Juliet, Sayid and Shannon, Sun and Jin, Desmond and Penny, Claire and Charlie, and so on.
Overlooked, though, were Walt and his dad. And internal logic was overlooked a bit, too: On the island, Desmond agreed to let evil Locke capture him in exchange for sparing the lives of Bernard and Rose. But if Bernard knew their fates already, why would it matter?
The big reveal, flirting dangerously close to Twilight Zone territory, is that everyone was dead already. But the subtext -- that everyone was happier, and happily reunited, in the "sideways" world -- was a prism through which the show, like its characters, found redemption. And when Jack died, and why, all turned out to be very important.
The most satisfying parts of the finale included these:
Essentially rewinding the premiere episode's opening images so that the ending of the finale presented them, more or less, in reverse. The first image in the pilot episode was a close-up of Jack's eye opening, after which the camera zoomed above to show him in the cane field, and suddenly met by a dog. In the finale, the dog was there, and the cane field, as Jack collapsed to the ground, having saved the island but suffering mortal wounds.
And the last shot being Jack's eye closing -- for a series finale, that was a literal sense of closure.
Of course, referring to the start of the premiere at the end of the finale won't always please people, either: That was how Seinfeld ended. But Lost, in its final hours, had plenty of playful, clever touches. (My favorite: the sideways-world birthday bash which most of the characters attended, mostly because the banquet tables had some very familiar numbers on them. Claire and Desmond, for example, were seated at table 23.)
The general tendency, after a show this complicated says goodbye, is to pick it apart and complain about every untied plot thread, every final inconsistency, every forgotten character. But I'd rather just thank Lost for the ride, and for providing such unforgettable characters and performances, and presenting a series of such originality.
It's been 20 years since ABC's Twin Peaks, which lost its way and never even ended, yet we still think of that show very fondly --- and should. And my guess, my prediction, is that in 20 years from now, we'll be remembering and revering Lost just as affectionately.
Don't be annoyed, in the end, by the inconsistencies and unresolved mysteries. Just follow the final advice of Jack's father, as Jack realized his own quest was over, and the two of them were equally dead:
"Remember. And let go."