Quick Links
- How did Lost End?
- Did Lost Take Place in Purgatory?
- What was Lost About?
J.J. Abrams was everywhere in the early 2000s, but the project that put him on the cinematic map was Lost. As co-creator with Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, they created one of the most memorable serialized TV shows of all time, depending on who you ask. Lost frequently finds itself at the top of both lists of the best and worst TV shows of all time, dividing the fan base evenly. The most divisive part of the entire series was its finale that aired in 2010, because despite answering a great many questions, it failed to answer burning ones fans had since the first season.
The series finale of Lost was a testament to network television, proving that it’s possible to give a show about time travel and weird science with a large ensemble cast a proper conclusion. It might not have answered every question fans wanted, but it tied up nearly every character’s story nicely and managed to bring back characters from prior seasons as a means to bring it all full circle. Lost is very much the epitome of not being about where people end up but about the friends they make along the way.
RELATED: Why No Other TV Show Can Be Like Lost
How did Lost End?
There were a lot of curve balls thrown at the audience throughout Lost’s tenure. Season five dealt with a lot of time travel that ultimately saw friends turn against each other once everyone returned to the present time period. Sawyer, the smooth-talking confidence man, lost the love of his life Julia after she detonated a hydrogen bomb on the island, sending the small group that was left behind back to the future. The final season simply became a battle between good and evil.
Evil Locke, who the audiences eventually learn is “The Man in Black,” one of the original inhabitants of the island, worked his way through different factions of people, manipulating them until he can find his way off the island. This evil Locke was supposed to represent ultimate evil. Desmond Hume, who had been through a lot throughout the series that eventually made him immune to electromagnetic energy, found the heart of the island where a glowing pool with a stone “cork” of sorts rested in the middle. Desmond pulled the cork from the pool, rendering evil Locke mortal.
With him mortal, Jack and Kate were able to fight him and kill him, essentially saving the world. Unfortunately, evil Locke stabbed Jack during the skirmish, but the good doctor had enough energy to convince Kate to get to the plane where other survivors were waiting so he could return the “cork” back to its rightful spot in the heart of the island. He manages to do so while also convincing Hurley to become the new guardian of the island with Ben Linus as his second-in-command. Jack wandered out from the cave to a forest of bamboo trees, which turned out to be the very spot he first woke up when he arrived on the island. He found a good spot to lay down with Vincent, the dog at his side, and die.
Meanwhile, the survivors gathered together at a church in the “Sideways” world. Jack’s father, Christian Shepherd, meets them and explains that they collectively created this world as a place to meet when they died but before they traveled on to their final resting place. They created the “Sideways” world because the most important time of their life was the period of time they shared together.
Did Lost Take Place in Purgatory?
The most widespread theory on Lost, next to dinosaurs roaming the island, was that all of the characters were dead the whole time, living in some sort of purgatory. The official finale didn’t help matters as it led to those who didn’t watch the show believing that that theory was proven right when it couldn’t have been further from the truth. Did all the characters exist within purgatory on the show? At one point, yes. However, everything that happened in the series also actually happened to the characters. They didn’t die in the plane crash.
There was some confusion in the finale besides everyone meeting in the afterlife. When the finale aired, the final credits rolled over silent footage of the Oceanic 815 wreckage, leading many to believe that the writers and Showrunners were telling them that the characters they fell in love with were dead the whole time. It was a simple misunderstanding because the footage was intended to be a tribute to the crew and the experience in making Lost. It was nothing more than that.
Each season featured a unique storytelling device. The first three seasons used flashbacks to delve further into each character’s backstory. This allowed the audience to get to know the characters and understand their motivations. It also showed the events that lead to them each getting on Oceanic Flight 815 in Australia. At the end of season three and until season six, the series transitioned to flashforwards, which revealed what some of the characters were up to after they left the island. Some characters were still trapped on the island, thus they didn’t receive any flashforward scenes.
The final season did something new. They kept the storytelling device, but instead of seeing the past or the future, the audience got to see every character experience a new life. This was jarring and discombobulating at first, especially because it presented a life where Oceanic 815 never crashed. Sawyer and Miles became cops, Locke and Linus were teachers, and Jack was a father in the Sideways world. This was a place each of the survivors’ collective conscience created to go when they died. It was where they went to meet up before they ventured into the afterlife. They only accomplished this because everything that happened prior to the finale episode happened. They were never in purgatory for the whole series.
What was Lost About?
Lost was about a great many things. On the surface it was about a group of airline passengers who survived a crash on an island. They learned to work together despite different belief systems, upbringings, language barriers, and professions in order to survive the many challenges the island threw at them, including another group of people already living on the island and a giant smoke monster that killed seemingly indiscriminately.
Underneath all of that, Lost was a story about love, relationships, religion, philosophy, found family, diversity, good and evil, and ultimately coming together for the greater good. The series had a large, diverse cast that allowed the writers to show their audience a wide array of stories, but at the very core it was about relationships. Jin and Sun showed the audience what undying love looked like, probably showing the truest form of love. Sawyer, while incredibly unlikable at first, turned his whole life around on the island and forged a strong friendship with many of the characters, especially Jack, which nobody thought would happen.
Sawyer redeemed himself further when he became the de facto leader of those who stayed on the island and traveled to the ’70s, where they became members of the Dharma Initiative. During his time there, he formed a relationship with Julia that rivaled the love Jin and Sun shared with each other. When Julia died, the audience felt Sawyer’s pain.
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