Lost: The End

*SPOILER ALERT*

First: I loved it. I was satisfied; I didn’t feel cheated or let down. (I teared up at the very start of the show because it really hit home that this was it.)

Was the episode perfect? No, not by any stretch. There was some seriously clunky dialogue; there were little predictable bits; some things were left hanging.

And I’m okay with all of that.

My two biggest pet peeves: One, those stupid Target commercials. I just am not ready for Lost to become a major marketing angle of the “get it?” variety. Two, Claire’s birth scene — er, Aaron’s birth scene, rather. Bar none, in the history of television and movies, that was the least realistic birthing scene ever. EVER. (I might make an exception for Rosemary’s Baby.)

The labor and birth scene kind of ruined Claire and Charlie’s reunion for me; plus I thought Charlie was already enlightened. Isn’t he the one who got Desmond on board with the whole idea of Island Enlightenment?

See, already, I’m picking. And I don’t mean to.

I can’t wait to see who loved and hated the episode (and/or the show) based on the finale. I know that we Losties are a unique breed, and we can really get on people’s nerves.

And I’m okay with that.

I cried the most during Juliet (Juliet! FINALLY) and Sawyer’s reunion; and then again at the end of the show. Wherein, pretty much, Jack made his way back to where he started, to end. It was a nice full circle, for the show as well as for our tortured (and at times torturing) character.

I liked how they held Juliet in reserve until the finale. I don’t think anyone was surprised to see her, find out she was Jack’s ex-wife, and mother to their son (in theory). That was well played — not surprising, but well played.

The only real surprise of last night was the unlikely survival of (say it with me) Frank the Penis. Not that I should have been that surprised — Lost has been full of unlikely survival stories. But it gladdened me to see good old Jeff Fahey get his moment in the sun. He threw the damn walkie talkie too much though.

Little moments that I found touching included Eloise Hawking (Widmore) asking Desmond if he was going to take her son; and Kate saying to Jack, “I’ve missed you so much.” In a show with a lot of big, emotional moments and reunions, these little exchanges were gold.

I don’t know if any of the griping out there is about the whole idea of the redeeming power of love, which is pretty much what I took away from last night’s finale. I wonder if people are scoffing at the thought.

But as an avowed Roman Catholic, I completely buy into the idea. Not that I’m going to turn Lost into a religious allegory, but let’s face the fact that is was a show chock full of mythological and religious symbolism. The writers and producers were very clear to steer clear of terms like Heaven, Hell, god or goddess, etc. It was, ultimately, a show about mortal characters and about the idea of an afterlife.

What was brought home to me was the idea that we are put here to love one another — Jack’s message from Season 1: To live together or die alone. I liked the thought that due to what the survivors had gone through on the Island — a kind of cork between the darkness of chaos (if not Hell with a capital H) and the rest of the world — united them to such a point that they needed to find each other again to move onto the next level. That felt, within the context of the show, like karmic destiny of the best kind.

I may come back to this post once I get out and read what else other people are saying. I just know that I was happy with the conclusion.

Dan and I watched the first two seasons on DVD, and then from Season 3 forward watched the show in “real time”. We’ve been with these characters for four plus years.

I’m going to miss them.

I need to find a new way to spend my Tuesday nights.