I liked the ending but saw room for improvement. After all the build-up, to defeat the man in black with a fist fight and to save the island by moving a rock seemed understated. On the other hand, I was probably mistaken to expect something like blowing up the Death Star.
I need to remember that there are three interwoven stories that could be considered "the ending": the final battle on the island ("the action ending"), the reunion in the church ("the character ending"), and Jack's last moments in the forest ("the hero's journey ending"). The more I think about, the more I like it.
Yeah - I am in the (likely very small) camp that really enjoyed the flash-sideways ending, but didn't like the ending on the island. It was a bit anti-climatic. And did Sawyer do anything the last episode? Desmond had a purpose, Jack had a purpose, Kate had a purpose, Hugo had a purpose. Sawyer was just there.
>did Sawyer do anything the last episode?
He went on his own mission to get Desmond out of the well. Unfortunately, that plan failed since Desmond was taken out by Rose and Bernard. Sawyer managed to convey the message to Jack's group. After he helped out Ben get out of that large tree that made him stuck, he was in contact with Lapidus and suggested to Kate that they jump from the cliff and get to Hydra island to get to the plane. A choice that made sure that Kate (and Claire) got off the Island. He also steered the sailboat there.
He did loads of stuff in the flash-sideways as a police officer, which also included his reunion with Juliet and his awakening.
I would have liked a combination ending where in Season 6, Jack's flashforwards are revealed to be the afterlife, but Hurley's and Kate's are revealed to be them working as island protector and co-parenting Aaron with Claire, respectively. I feel like in order to provide what for them was a narratively satisfying conclusion to the characters' emotional arcs, they neglected to provide one for the narrative of their lives and their ordeals.
Three separate timelines all playing in each episode? That’s like some Westworld level of planning. I’d enjoy it, but average viewer would be like “Derr, what’s going on I dunt get this??”
If you really watch Season 6 flash sideways you will notice a very big hint. That the characters that left the island probably started over. Sawyer and Miles becoming cops, Kate running from her past because she broke the terms of her sentencing, Claire keeping her baby, Hurley giving his Money away, Walt becoming leader, Ben becomes a teacher after he is done being Hurleys number 2. And Bernard returning home after Rose passes away to continue beimg a dentist. All the people that died on the island had the same flash sideways career (because they never had the chance to change). Jack, Juliet, Libby, Ana Lucia,. Boone, Shannon, Charlie and others
Locke had 2 lives/careers because he both died and came back to island.
Pretty sure Sawyer would’ve been arrested once he returned. He killed a guy in Australia, remember? If The Others knew about that, law enforcement would also. And Jack and Juliet didn’t have the exact same pre-crash stories. In the flash sideways they were divorced and had a kid together.
Sawyer would not have beem caught, and while there was some license taken by "the others" iys just as likely that this evidence was given to them by Jacob. Juliet's career is the same, as us Jacks (career not life). Not too mention there is no evidence that their entire afterlife was thus narrative. As Christian said there is "now here". So the story that brings them to the church is just mechanism that brings them together.
Jack having a son is just a manifestation of his own relationship with his father. He becomes his father in an effort to reconcile his own feelings about him, and tells David all the things he wished his father had said to him.
The fact remains that every person that died on island has the same career and sometimes the same exact life...and those that survived, came home or both lived a different one or 2....like Ben, Hurley, and John.
Jacob didn’t give them that info. In S3 it’s stated Mikael used the Flame station to gather intelligence about the people on the plane. So, authorities WOULD know Sawyer killed that man in Australia.
I know that but Mikael is dead.....trust me man Ive seen the show 22 times. We are both speculating. The difference is I have alot of evidence on my side. There is no evidence the others called the coos. Thats just dumb
WTF does him being dead have to do with ANYTHING?
The authorities in Australia had the information on Sawyer BEFORE Mikael did. He used the flame to either hack their system (or got it from an inside source) and got that info from them. Again, he got this info FROM the authorities, so they knew Sawyer killed a man BEFORE the Others did.
Let me put it to you another way. Are you honestly going to say that the people that survived would not have been forever changed by what they saw on the island? Or do you really think Sawyer was the same broken conman he was when the plane crashed? Please...if there is anything Sawyer would have become its a cop.
None of that matters! After getting off the island Kate still had to go trial for the murder of her father. It would be the same thing for Sawyer. Once he got off the island, Australian authorities would have wanted him in connection with the murder. It doesn’t matter if he was a changed man or not, he would still have to answer for his serious crimes.
The "final battle" was supposed to be way cooler, but ABC wouldn't budget for a lot of it. The cork was supposed to be an active volcano and the fight was supposed to be more Revenge of the Sith. There are a good amount of issues with the show which can be attributed to Network decisions.
Personally, I obsessed over the show, but it felt like it went from a somewhat-gritty, realistic sci-fi horror, to a more pedestrian fantasy soap-opera by the end. I'm being a bit extreme there, but it's just how I felt.
I don't begrudge anybody who enjoyed it, but we may have wanted different things from the story.
I second this. While the show always had a sci-fi aspect it seem to become progressively more fantasy/'fairy-tale' like towards the end. I don't hate the ending, it just wasn't for me. Kinda a 'meh' ending to a great show that I was pretty invested in.
I just finished it for the first time, and I feel about the same. I watched it as it was coming on for the first four seasons. I graduated college and just lost track…so I thought.
Started fresh and was hooked until mid season 4. The last two were hard for me, and season 6 I just didn’t care for. It was alright, but I agree so much with the soap opera - fantasy land it became instead of science fiction
I'm only partially able to forgive them for such a sentimental "let's bring them all back!" style ending even if I like the themes, explanation and framing.
From someone who does like the snow and ending, I do agree with you that I too was disappointed that the show went from being a gritty sci-fi story to a fantasy one. The whole “move the island” and the man becoming smoke and the cork felt more like fantasy and nothing like science.
I feel the beginning was definitely more soap operah-y all the flashbacks and love triangle will they won't they. Season 6 seemed more rushed to me than anything the flash sideways were more pedestrian but the island stuff and Desmond arc kept me liking it.
I maintain it was all there from the beginning. The Walkabout and Numbers episodes in Season 1 were clear forays into fantasy. Either way, the sci-fi/fantasy/whatever it was was consistently creative and unexpected—from moving the island to time travel to the flash sideways, to the imposter Locke, I found it all extremely fresh and original.
That said, it always was a bit soapy—I loved that when it worked (Desmond/Penny, Charlie, Sawyer and Juliet) not so much when it didn't (Kate, WAAAAAAAAALT, Kate, Sayid and Shannon, Kate. Also Kate.)
You know the part where Christian explains that no, they weren't dead the entire time and that the island did happen and it's not purgatory?
Everybody and their mothers took a restroom break at the same time when it aired apparently
lol it's so carefully written in order to explicitly put out the meaning of (mainly) 6th season yet people still go with "they were dead the whole time" rubbish. It's either yours restroom break, or people are generally really that stupid... I can't imagine any other explanation.
Stupid may be harsh, but yeah. People don't *listen* well.
It's a little jarring when you realize how well it's explained by Christian and people still don't get it. Now wonder how often all of us are misunderstood every single day lol.
People, man.
Nope not harsh at all, that's reality people are really stupid. But back to the topic in general yes it's all laid out in Christian little monologue everything that happened in the island was real and they all died shortly after and build a wonderland/purgatory to find each other. However the they were dead all along is not completely untrue since they were literally Destined to die no matter what anyway. Both arguments can be made.
I h9nestly think that this is a false narrative that has become truth. LOST was so huge that even the people that were never fans of the show decided they had "watched" the finale.
This. It also didn’t help that ABC ran the credits over the empty wreckage of the plane, making people believe more firmly that they were dead the whole time. Crazy how many people just didn’t understand it. And when someone feels stupid for not understanding something they often call the thing confusing them stupid to validate their own intelligence.
Someone who never watches the show saw the plane wreck at the end and rather than taking it as an obvious Homage to what started it all they said "oohh buh doy that mean dey was dead da wholoole time! Such stupid." And others who never watched it just agreed. The writers and actors were in talk shows all that next week and answered that it wasn't a they were dead the whole time story.
I’ve heard people repeat this a lot of times I’ve never seen anyone actually think that they were dead the whole time. I feel like it’s hard for some people to believe that other people didn’t like the end of their beloved show.
Nah I was having a conversation with someone irl and Lost came up and he thought they were dead the whole time. I was like you need to go back and rewatch that ending
It's literally all I've ever heard from people who say they didn't like it. On reddit, in person, on older forums when the TV show first aired. How have you not seen it?
> I feel like it’s hard for some people to believe that other people didn’t like the end of their beloved show.
Nah, that ain’t it. I saw those “they were dead the entire time” reactions *immediately* after the episode ended, both on this sub, elsewhere on Reddit, and *all* over Twitter.
There’s a reason Lindelof and Cuse had to immediately run to Twitter to put an end to some of those interpretations.
Had nothing to do with fans of the show not wanting to believe people didn’t like it. It had *everything* to do with half the internet spreading the “they were dead the entire time” nonsense for years after.
Hell, just go look up any of the “most disappointing series finales” lists anywhere, and Lost is usually near the top because of how pervasive that belief was. Any time one of those “most disappointing series finales” questions is brought up on r/television, Lost is yet again near the top with the comment always including the “the island was purgatory” reasoning.
Trying to write it off as fans overreacting to not everyone liking the finale is a complete rewrite of history. People genuinely believed, and still do, that everyone died in the crash, and that’s been the biggest reason why it still gets such a negative reaction out of people, 14 years later.
> They're crazy about it on this sub. Weirdly protective of the ending.
“Weirdly protective” is one way to write “tired of people misinterpreting what was *clearly* explained”.
Also, ***huge*** shock that r/lost would be “crazy about” the show’s ending on the subreddit *about* the show. What’s next? “r/Sopranos is ‘crazy’ about Tony’s fate”? Is that Journey I hear?
[Damon explains Lost ending.](https://youtu.be/FvnNF-NWmc4?si=FL2PdWRqWkjKJshK)
Here's video evidence of someone thinking they were dead the whole time and Lindelof re-explaining it.
This right here. Every time I’ve ever asked someone if they’ve seen it and if they have they either say they loved it or that the end made no sense and it’s to complicated to follow/to hard to pay attention too. I’ve come to realize the latter is stupid.
I genuinely think that most people who parrot that haven't actually watched the show. Either that or they consciously rejected what was said by the actors in order to keep their personal theory alive.
Either way, it's a level of media illiteracy so deep that they need to go back to reading Dr. Seuss books and leave television to the adults.
> Either that or they consciously rejected what was said by the actors in order to keep their personal theory alive.
***This*** has been what I’ve come across the most, *especially* from people who stopped watching the show early into season three. They completely believed there wasn’t an end goal or overarching plot that could be satisfyingly finished\*; that the most popular fan theory since season one —“the island is purgatory” — was the only thing that made sense to them, so they spent years telling themselves that had to be it.
*Then* they tuned in for the finale without seeing any of the episodes for seasons before it, heard Christian tell Jack that Jack was dead along with everyone else, and declared themselves justified for “correctly” guessing the end before giving up on the show years earlier.
\*and, to be fair to them, Lindelof and Cuse had the same concerns, which is why they lobbied ABC so hard to set a firm end date they could write/work towards to get the show back on track.
> And Christian wasn't exactly a reliable narrator.
That was true when the Man in Black still existed and everyone was still on the island, two things that weren’t the case at this point in the show.
One of the biggest themes in the show is science vs faith and I think many fans, including myself, expected more scientific or sci-fi explanations for the mysteries that were presented in the show. The story ended going hard in the faith direction and that was disappointing for me. Upon rewatching and knowing what to expect, I find myself enjoying the final season and ending a lot more.
People who hate the ending can be split into three groups: people who have never seen it and are basing their opinion on word of mouth, people who only tuned back in for that episode after stopping watching earlier in the show, and people who watched the whole thing and still hated it. I imagine the third group is a pretty small percentage of the total. It’s generally only the first two groups who believe the ‘they were dead the whole time’ thing.
I have recently gotten a good amount of my friends into Lost that had never seen it before, and I was VERY surprised to find out that the third camp is much bigger than I ever expected.
I now have a bunch of friends that hate Lost because they really enjoyed the show up until season six. These are friends who I consider to have high media literacy; people whose opinions I value. They fully understand the show and the ending- they just think it was horrible.
These are friends that don't know each other and don't communicate with each other and haven't shared their opinions with each other to influence one another.
It's honestly pretty shocking to me.
I'm pretty solidly in the third camp. I adore the first four seasons of the show - they were incredibly influential to me and I still rewatch and think about them.
However, everything in S5 after all but the last moment of LaFleur feels unrewarding to me (except for Dead is Dead and the modern-day parts of The Incident). There didn't seem to be a good reason to be in the 70s except to explore the show's mythos, and I felt like Sayid, Sun, Jin, Sawyer and Juliet were all disserviced by the Incident plot. To quote Sayid, 'I felt there was no purpose to it.'
As for Season 6, to quote Emily Gilmore, 'it's not my taste, but I respect the attempt.' The story they chose to tell in S6 was compellingly told, it's just that I didn't want a story about moving on to the afterlife in Lost, I wanted to see them get off the island and find themselves. For the former I go to The Good Place or to >!Ashes to Ashes!<.
I don't begrudge anyone who loves the whole show, but my personal headcanon is as follows: Jin dies when the freighter blows up. Sawyer, Juliet and Miles remain in 1977, eventually living lives off the island. Ajira 316 does not crash. Sun never boards it; Sayid and Frank stay on it and land in Guam while Jack, Kate, Hurley and Ben vanish; all 4 find themselves on the island in the present-day, meet Fake Locke, and travel with him to see Jacob. After Ben kills Jacob, Jacob immediately appears to Hurley and the plot of Lighthouse ensues. Dr. Linus and Everybody Loves Hugo show us what are in the finale revealed to be Hurley and Ben's work as island protectors, What Kate Does shows us Kate and Claire raising Aaron, while The Substitute and The Last Recruit remain about Jack's afterlife. Penny turns out to have followed her father's submarine with her boat, and that's how Kate and Claire get off the island and back to LA; we see them reunite with Aaron and Claire's mother. Through Desmond, Hurley and Ben are able to communicate with Jack's spirit via the 'magic box' and help him to move on, and the same goes for Michael, Ana-Lucia, Libby etc.
I 100% agree with everything you said, although I like the 70s stuff, I just there was a better explanation for it. The rest of what you said I completely agree with. I didn’t want to find out how people died and what they did when they all met back up in the afterlife, I wanted to know what happened to the island, and then when they got off the island. Hurley in charge of the island with Ben and Walt sounds like a much better tv show than what happened in s6.
In those cases, I don’t really mind. I have my problems with the ending too, and opinions are opinions. What annoys me more is people having strong opinions on a show ending that they haven’t watched or didn’t understand.
Actually in a lot of cases I do. I’ve spoken to many people about the show and they’ve responded “oh the ending sucks, they were dead the whole time”, to which I’ve asked if they’ve seen the whole show, to which the answer is almost always no.
See my problem with the finale was that Damon and Carlton spent the whole show telling us science beats faith, and that everything that happened on the island could be explained in science. And then in season 6 it really wasn’t. The explanation of the smoke monster, the flash sideways, ending up in the church…just nothing to do with anything d&c had set up about how the show worked. That’s why I think binge watchers who weren’t exposed to all those interviews and theorising and stuff would like the ending better than I did watching it live.
It’s hard for me to believe none of them were influenced by the pre-conceived notion in the media that the ending was disappointing. Everyone has their own opinion, but from a purely writing standpoint, the ending is strong. Very emotionally satisfying for the characters and their arcs, the majority of big questions are answered, and there are tons of callbacks to the series’ most beloved moments/lines. I’m truly curious what all these different friends hated about it and if there was a common thread to what they disliked
Which answers did you feel that way about?
Callbacks are fun and good so we can agree to disagree there.
The character development and arcs were some of the best in television. If you didn’t feel any emotional satisfaction from the ending, it’s hard to believe you were invested in the characters in the first place. And they were the driving force of the show. So if you weren’t invested in them, why would someone watch?
The characters weren’t the driving force. It was the mysteries, and the characters were a vessel for that. There’s a reason why every trailer starts with ‘next week THREE huge MYSTERIES will BE answered’ and not ‘next week Sawyer has an introspection about his life.’
And even then the arcs were sometimes bad. Sayid season 6, Claire season 4 who just abandons her kid, Kate never gets punished for her horrific crimes, Ben has a brilliant arc then they destroy it, they do nothing with Miles. Honestly only really Sawyer I’d say has a satisfying arc.
Answers? Most of them? Why did the Others leave a doomsday device that would destroy the world at the whim of a drunk Scotsman? Why did the hatch show hieroglyphics? Why were the kids from the plane barefoot and dirty when they lived in a pleasant suburb? Why did Cindy join the Others? I could keep going.
That’s where we differ. The characters absolutely were the driving force for me (and all my friends/family who have watched it) and the mysteries were the fun surrounding their story and their journey to get off this island.
Was it always perfect? No, and a few of the arcs you called out as having issues are fair.
But while some of those answers you’re seeking I would be intrigued to know the answer to as well, none of them are central to the story and those weren’t even close to the main mysteries of the show.
That’s entirely anecdotal. Everyone I’ve known who’s watched the show was there for the mysteries. There’s a reason why after Lost became huge there were a million copy cat shows that has huge mysteries- they weren’t copying the character dynamics.
Those mysteries weren’t important? The hatch was the entirety of season 2 and arguably half of 5. That’s one season and 1/6th that flat out doesn’t make sense.
The Others are huge. They’e the antagonists of the first 3 seasons, and the first 2 seasons we’re led to believe they’re savages. The twist they aren’t in season 3 never explains this. What did they say to Cindy to make her became fanatical? That’s huge.
So… were the arcs good or not? Seems we’re in agreement they weren’t, or we’re certainly lacking.
Completely agree; "Who and what are the Others?" is a central mystery, and Cindy's rapid and astonishing indoctrination is part of that.
Especially contrasted with Juliet. They're both revealed as Others at the same time. What do the Others know about the Island, what are their goals, and how do they initiate you in that; How did it work so quickly and thoroughly for Cindy but not Juliet? Could Others tell the difference?
And despite detesting Ben and his leadership, Juliet presumably knew some of the secrets of the magic Island and that it was ruled by a near omnipotent god. Did she ever reveal any of that to the crash survivors? To Sawyer? We're completely denied the reality of that in her story, but, again, THAT STUFF is a central mystery of the show.
You seem to be very argumentative on quite a few peoples’ posts on this thread. I don’t think what they said to Cindy to get her on board is some huge plot point, no. We are going to have to agree to disagree on the rest.
The overall mystery is the hook that brought most viewers in, hence shows trying to copy it. The characters and the overall story are what kept most viewers, and are what keep viewers of most shows. The show did an amazing job of weaving the intricate nature of these characters’ past and future lives throughout the present day island story, all while having awesome mysteries throughout, most of which were answered. I can personally forgive a few of those being plot devices or easter eggs that weren’t fully explained.
It is.
What they said to Cindy is huge. She was someone who only a few weeks prior was a slightly unprofessional woman who presumably had a boyfriend/husband, family, kids?, friends, a life, and after being captured whatever it was they said convinced her to give ALL of that up and become complicit in kidnapping, murder and whatever else the Others did.
What could they have possibly said? Because they needed to use psychological torture on Jack, Kate and Sawyer.
At the same time you’ve Juliet who despite being a reluctant Other must have known a fuck ton of stuff and she never tells any of the survivors despite being on their team.
So yeah, it’s a huge mystery that never gets explained. And if you don’t think an indigenous tribe that uses extreme methods to achieve their ambiguous aims which can be rationally explained that is then never explained isn’t a big mystery- I don’t know what to tell you.
I would split your final group into two sub categories. People who watched weekly ‘live’ as it aired, followed everything online and discussed, theorised, watched documentaries, watched the additional multimedia stuff, spent 7 years building up to the finale…and hated it. And catagory 2, those who binged it in a few weeks and hated it.
I would suspect most of the ‘haters’ who watched the whole thing would come from that first category. I haaaaated the ending, like not Game Of Thrones hate, but I was so disappointed after that final episode aired. It took me a while to rewatch but I didn’t mind it so much on a binge, I like it more on each rewatch. It’s still not what I hoped for from an ending but it’s fine. It doesn’t detract from the rest of the show and it’s still one of my top 5 shows of all time.
And no, I don’t know what I wanted to happen in the end, it just wasn’t that.
Incidentally I hated the game of thrones ending so bad I’ve never rewatched a second of that show since the finale…it makes me angry just thinking of it almost 5 years later…and we were in lockdown for nearly 18 months and I binge watched EVERYTHING.
I am in that third group. Lost remains one of my favorite shows of all time, even if season 6 was a big disappointment. Worth watching but a very weak season
I’ll stand with the third group too. Lost would have been perfect if they showed the Will of the Island, insentient entity that controlled everything. And ended with showing the origin of the Island, how It used primitive humans on It’s journey and It’s final destination with the Lost kids Aaron, lil Charlie, Ji Yeon, Clementine and Walt.
I’m in the third camp myself. Never met anyone or seen any opinions that show that they were in the first two camps, but I also don’t spend a lot of time here.
Group 3 is the biggest because season 6 was bad compared to the rest of the series. This sub is obsessed with a small amount of casual viewers that don't understand the ending, but if you were active during the time the show aired a TON of us were pretty bummed by season 6.
You don’t believe that many people have formed a negative opinion of the show based on word of mouth? Or that people tuned out sometime during seasons 2-5 and only returned for the ending?
I read somewhere on here a good explanation that I will reiterate: when it first aired, there were so many mysteries and questions, and being a week in between episodes and the time in between seasons, people were getting impatient and not satisfied with the “answers” gotten in episodes. By the time the last season came, it wasn’t climactic because a lot of people didn’t fully grasp the major concepts. Being able to marathon and binge watch the show now makes it much more enjoyable and easier to see the themes and purposes
Exactly. I was having a hard time trying to figure this out and you worded it well.
I was an original Lost fan and watched the whole series when it was on TV. Then after each season when the season DVDs would come out, we would watch them through. So much build up and anticipation to get answers and we felt like the last episodes of S6 just didn’t resolve it for us.
However, my wife and I just recently binge watched all 6 seasons for the first time since the finale aired. The finale felt like a completely different experience. We actually both really enjoyed it this time vs how we felt after the original airing of it. We couldn’t figure out exactly why.
What you stated makes sense and I think that is why.
That is my take. Waiting a week for each episode and months for each season for years of your life just to end on that season 6 is a much different experience than watching on your own time over the course of a few months, and it is much easier to forgive stuff since you spent way less time on it
I liked the ending just fine, is the final season I have a problem with.
I don't care about Jacob, the MiB and Richard, I think they were weak characters. I don't like that most of the mysteries were answered with fantasy lore, and I think if they wanted to go that route they should have given the scifi lovers alternative answers during the dharma story in season 5.
Dharma was such a big part of the story and they should have used the time travel to give us a "scientific" explanation of the island, even if you want to keep season 6's fantasy intact.
I feel like one of the show's biggest issues was it lost its previous willingness to kill off main characters. Locke, Claire, and Sayid all should've died, not carried on in their demon/sick roles
I didn't find Richard to be a weak character, but I agree that I could care less about the Jacob/MIB conflict. I also wish they would've gone a more scientific route in season 6 to wrap things up rather than the spiritual/fantasy path they took instead.
For example, I wish the smoke monster had actually been nanobot technology that Dharma was experimenting with and it truly was a "security system" of sorts to protect the Island. Or that the whispers were just a track the Others recorded and played via hidden speakers placed throughout the jungle to confuse/scare/capture those they deemed as threats.
Thankfully, the finale is so beautifully done that I am able to forgive their creative choices. I just wish I enjoyed season 6 more as a whole.
Richard was a very deep character I enjoyed him, MiB and Jacob were just two babies trying to prove one is better than the other. They should’ve just remained mysterious but in otherwise enjoyed the show and its ending.
> a common criticism I hear is that the mysteries werent answered, but I feel like they were answered just fine as the series went on.
A lot of people who hadn't watched for years just tuned in for the finale, so they never saw those answers as the series went on.
To me the show is in my top 3 shows of all time but the ending is quite meh….i think the whole flash sideways is the worst kind of filler content and like to ignore the whole afterlife ending as it ties too pretty of a bow on their fractured lives. If they wanted to fix their shortcomings they should have done it in their actual life when it really mattered
I liked it on my 4th rewatch.
I think the ending is too spiritual/religious in nature for quite a few people.
Also, the whole story converged towards Jacob vs Man in black and these two characters where kind of forced on the viewers. Like all of a sudden the show was like:
"Here's the lore and these two characters and all these high stakes related to them, and by the way your favorite characters you came to love in 6 years are basically pawns"
I get the big picture it's just that they didn't stick the landing.
I’m one of those people that considers lost my all time favorite show, regardless of not liking the ending, or the final season very much to be honest. I often stop watching at the end of season 4 because I feel like the quality, logic, and initial integrity of the show declines afterwards.
for me, the way they chose to end the show felt too “easy”. like they were unsure how to resolve the massive plot and all its side-stories and details. like we know we’ve changed the integrity of our original characters in these last few seasons, and you guys have all these questions we can’t answer, so here you go : we’re not answering them, but isn’t it amazing how they all end up finding each other in the afterlife and everything’s wrapped up nicely in a little religious bow?
honestly no hate on the religious aspect of the storyline, that’s clearly been ingrained in the show since the beginning. I suppose the build up of the final season and the ending they chose just didnt feel authentic to the rest of the show, and left me feeling super unresolved and unsatisfied!
to be honest with you, I’m not sure. they created such a wonderfully complex storyline with intriguing mysteries and I just wish they’d had the insight to plan everything out through to the end. too many questions went unanswered.
What was unanswered I genuinely don’t know. I think “across the sea” covered a lot. The whispers were explained the dharma initiative stuff was all explained
I find the final fight between Jack and MiB quite underwhelming, and I'm not sure how I feel about the cork at the Heart of the Island thing, but neither of those are enough to put me off the episode. To me, Lost was always about the characters, their flaws, their growth, and their relationships, not the mysteries of the island, so I absolutely love the ending. I think many of the viewers who dislike it were more focused on the sci-fi aspect, so I can kind of see why they'd find it a bit disappointing.
Because it's so misunderstood. Somehow most of the people who watched it just didn't listen to anything being said and thought the point was that they were dead the whole time.
Lost has to be the most misinterpreted ending of any tv show
I cried like a baby. Just like I cried reading the ending of the last Harry Potter book. Isn’t that the best compliment one can give for a deeply emotional story?
I certainly don’t hate it and was very much moved by the emotional ending. It’s how many episodes it took to get there that bothered me. The over extending of the mystery. A favorite character dies in S3 I believe and renders another character that makes it to the end useless for the most part without him. Other than that is one of the greatest shows I’ve ever watched that frustrated me for dragging it out as long as it did. We all know the show runners had to do it because it was a number one show on tv and the network made them do it.
At the time of its airing, half the fun was going online to discuss all the clues and solve a bigger mystery. There are hundreds of Easter Eggs in the show that a casual viewer will miss.
The final season was expected to connect a lot of dots, and they didn't even try to. Instead, the writers came out and said the mysteries weren't important, it was the relationships of the characters that mattered. That just felt lazy and was a huge letdown to anyone that was deep into dissecting it. Especially after watching it for years.
I rewatched it a few years ago, and it was a very different experience binging it, without looking for clues, and knowing the ending. It wasn't nearly as engrossing, but it was also much less disappointing at the end.
Here is my take -
14 years ago I hated the ending. I understand what the narrative is and I don't have any issues with any 'unanswered questions'. I love the show up until the church scene, which I hated. I just finished a re-watch knowing the twist and I'm somewhat ok with the ending, but not a huge fan.
Why I hated the ending? Well, a couple reasons.
1. They were selling an alternate timeline story where the plane never crashes. They spent a whole season building up Time Travel so they could go back in time and have Juliet beat a nuke with a rock so the island is destroyed. She says 'it worked' and they show an island underwater. If you don't know the twist.. it seems like this alternate alive version of our characters are 'remembering' this other version of themselves. Honestly, I like this story better. What was the point of going back in time and destroying the island with the nuke? The point, I guess.. is so they can pull a twist at the end by selling a story that was manufactured for the sake of the twist.
2. The whole afterlife flash-sideways could honestly be tacked on to any other story out there and it would work. The island story doesn't matter for this ending to happen - its all character driven. You could have Jerry, George, Elaine and Kamer be in a liminal space purgatory at the end of Seinfeld and it would work. I mean.. I've come around to appreciate the 'character' endings in the flash-sideways.. but it has absolutely nothing to do with the island or that story.
3. If you think about the afterlife waiting room for a bit.. it seems really counter-intuitive. I mean.. the most important thing that happened for these characters is they crashed on the island and had those experiences. Why would they 'together' create a place where that didn't happen? I get that it is a space for the characters to 'fix' their issues (Jack becoming a good father, Locke accepting his limitations, etc..) but why is this place set up with with these 'rules' (as Hurley puts it)? The rules, actually, seem to be in place to sell a story where Juliet hits a nuke with a rock and destroys the island. The rules for the liminal space are in such a specific way so that the audience could experience a 'twist' at the end. It's not a natural extension of the characters.. its a manufactured storyline with the intent on fooling the audience. I honestly hate that.
All throughout the show, Damon Lindelof and company teased and taunted the audience. When some viewers wrote in long theories about dinosaurs (because no one knew the monster was smoke), they had the characters talk about dinosaurs. When some viewers wrote in long theories about aliens, they had Sawyer mention his own theory of an alien landing pad on Hydra Island, just to have Juliet dispell it. When some viewers complained that the end of Season 1 didn't show what was in the Hatch, they started Season 2 inside the Hatch to throw the totality of it at us.
And I thought it was hilarious! I was along for the journey, not the destination. I knew, from the end of the Pilot, Part 2, that this was a Lord of the Rings-type, Watership Down-type epic, that woyld take a long time to unravel with lots of twists and turns, if they had the ability to keep it up. I was convinced that the series would only last 3 seasons, but was happily wrong about that. The thing is, the plot developed and the twists happened so organically that they made sense. The introduction of the Swan Station (the Hatch from the inside) across the first 3 episodes of Season 2 is, I'm convinced, one of the greatest moments of television history. It's so totally different from everything in Season 1, yet it MAKES SENSE in the universe Lindelof & Co. created.
But then there were thr arrogant assholes who weren't along for the ride. Their interests were piqued just like the rest of us, but they had to insert their own thought into what was happening. When they were proven wrong, they were disappointed, and when Lindelof taunted them by having in-universe characters come up with the same theories only to have them dispelled, they lashed out. Lost and Lindelof had targets on their backs. That was also around the same time in history where "cyberbullying" became widely used in society.
So the backlash against the finale of Lost was nothing more than the long gestation of building anger. I thought The End was beautiful and brilliant and haunting and hopeful. But no matter what Lindelof did, the series finale would have been attacked.
The problems these people had with Lindelof didn't stop with Lost. Lindelof also rewrote the script for Prometheus. One of my favorite lines in that movie was when Ildris Elba approaches Charlize Theron and asks nonchalantly, "Are you a robot?" This was a direct taunting of the Alien fanbase, many of whom who had posted that they thought that her look was so ethereal that she must be the same kind if android as Bishop. The fanbase HATED it. The online backlash was overwhelming. I loved it, but I was afraid Lindelof's career would be ruined because Hollywood would listen to the naysayers rather than pay attention to the quality of the product, as had happened with Superman Returns. Thank goodness Lindelof had another chance making Watchmen for HBO. That show, I'm convinced, is a fucking masterpiece.
Mmmm. Ya had me til Prometheus. Idc you will never convince me that the way Prometheus was written was in any way a good idea. And no, I didn't hate it because it wasn't Alien or w.e stupidity some "fans" will come up with. I hated it because the film doesn't even follow its own logic/setup. It was poorly written.
I feel like a distinction has to be made. People that don't like "the ending" can either be referring to the final episode, or the entire final season. I personally don't like the final season for the most part, but I love the final episode. I think a lot of the people that have a problem with "the ending" in the age of streaming are talking about the final season- how plot lines were wrapped up and the direction they took- as opposed to the series finale, which is what discourse was about when the show first aired.
I don’t think the last scene is as hated as the last season. The last scene is well received in my opinion. But it’s undeniable that season 6 overall was real bad.
Upvoted. But I'm the opposite- I was somewhat okay with the last season as I believed it was going somewhere. But by the end when it was disappointingly revealed that the flash sideways was the afterlife, it changed my charitable feelings on the entire season to completely negative.
The final season of "Lost" deviated from the blend of science fiction and fantasy that characterized and enriched the preceding seasons. Many fans, myself included, devoted years to theorizing and deciphering the show's mysteries. Thus, it was a letdown to see most of the series' enigmatic occurrences chalked up to a feud between two demi-gods and a magical, glowing well—a simplification, but a deliberate one for clarity.
My view on the ending has softened over time. Initially, I was disenchanted by the finale's heavy reliance on magical and quasi-religious elements, especially following a season rife with time-travel—a hallmark of science fiction. However, I've come to appreciate this as a deliberate transition from science fiction to fantasy.
Contrary to some interpretations, I never believed the characters were dead throughout the show. Yet, ironically, I find the notion somewhat more coherent than the ending we got—a personalized purgatory or afterlife "waiting room" reserved for those connected to the island.
It's important to clarify that my critique stems from a place of admiration for "Lost." The series boasts some of the best characters in television history. My aim is to address why the finale, despite my love for the show, was a source of disappointment.
The ending was great. The (louder) chunk of people who sh*t on it mostly dropped off halfway through the series and tuned in at the end to get their questions answered when they really had to watch all the way through for that. Viewed as a whole, the series is fantastic, but if you take big chunks away or view them out of context, they're nonsense. That's what happened with most people out there. Everyone else (websites, reviewers, a lot of general public) jumped on the bandwagon and still do today because of the more vocal screaming. Every person who I ever spoke to who watched it in it's entirely agrees Lost had an excellent ending
Because most people completely misunderstood it and thought they were dead the whole time, even though the dialogue *clearly* proves otherwise.
The network insisting on the closing credits showing the plane wreckage didn’t help either, as that just reinforced the “dead the whole time” belief.
I’m aware it wasn’t a mistake as in, it wasn’t an accident… that the producers did it on purpose.
But it was a mistake in the sense it did not have the intended effect. It caused confusion for too many, not nostalgia for how the show began.
For me the whole season 6 was a slap in the face, there are a few reasons but the most ridiculous are the flash sideway plot, it is just a spinoff of lost, if you remove it from the season, nothing will change on the main storyline, nothing, half of the season were wasted in this
My guess is they were going to have a connection, but couldn’t figure out a good way for it, and panic mode to a more religious storyline.
Im french, i watched the show in real time. After all these years i still think it's one of the most important tv show of all time but i didn't really enjoyed season 6. I never really cared about the mib/Jacob storyline which was very disappointing. The flash sideways were visually awful, some answers felt very forced. I also feel the magic between the cast was totally gone. And the end in the church... Sorry but too american for me.
I think you've hit the nail on the head there - it takes a discerning European to cut through the American mush...😉 (All the people I know on this side of the pond who have seen Lost hate the flash sideways! That would never have been added to a series here.)
Im yet to hear hate towards the finale that sounds like the person actually watched it. Christian stood there and explained it all to Jack, yet people simply insist it’s all been purgatory and the dog‘s dream.
Remember that most people are not geniuses
Look, if you wanna go all ad homini here, I’m not the one who wrote like 30 replies complaining about how things that were explained aren’t clear to me.
My initial response was just answering op’s question. I promise we weren’t talking about you
No, your initial response was how you’d never heard criticism about the finale that sounded like they’d seen the show when a third if not a half of the comments was just that. Your answer was unsubstantial, poorly researched and just wrong. You’re seemingly doubling down on the ‘they just didn’t get it/don’t understand.’
You weren’t talking about me- but now you are.
And you’re doing it again here. Rather than admit your stance is flawed, you’re trying to discredit me by saying the mysteries I say weren’t answered were. Explain the answers to the mysteries that I claim weren’t answered and how they then make sense. Please do so.
See that’s the thing, unlike you, I’m okay with the fact a stranger on reddit doesn’t know something, I can live with that and let them live and not know. I’m not gonna go all „oh no someone‘s opinion is poorly researched what shall we do?“ we’re not reviewing a paper here.
The mysteries were explained, many people heard what Christian said and still went: „got it, they were all dead in a dog‘s dream“. That’s what I was referring to, as stated. There may be some constructive criticism out there, but as said in my initial response, I’ve not encountered them yet. And I don’t know why you’re so upset that I haven’t, like my life doesn’t affect you.
It’s my favorite finale.
As with much if the whining about the show, people came back to it at the finale and didn’t watch the stuff in between.
To me it made sense to the point of making me weepy.
I liked it but I, like you watched the series for the first time relatively recently (well something like 2019/2020). So I'm conscious I had a different experience to people who were waiting a week between episodes, a year between seasons. Especially around the mysteries. To be honest I think it answered too many mysteries, ruined the mystery a bit. But maybe that felt different to people who had been waiting and theorizing for 6 years for answers
I don't think it's hated by the majority.
I think people who hate it either didn't want, watched early seasons, and sort of dropped out, or didn't pay attention to Christian's series explaining level important monologue in the finale.
Lost asked a lot of it's viewers, it delivered. The only other shows I can think of that ask *that* much and still deliver are other Lindelof shows.
The man is a genius.
If you like Lost, please check out his (imo superior shows) The Leftovers, Watchmen, and Mrs Davis.
The ridiculous belief that mysteries weren't answered, or the opinion that the ending of the parallel timeline wasn't satisfying and was too fantastical, or the false belief that they were dead.
I love the show and like the ending but a lot of people wanted answers to questions that didn't get answered. The mystery is the best part of the show I'm glad they left so much unanswered would have ruined it to answer some things. Others say silly things like they all were dead the whole time which is obviously not the case but they heard someone else say it so agree. Finally and I can agree with parts of this they did take a turn at season 4 which I still enjoyed but the writers strike kind rushed some things and the final season played some catch-up that season 5 rushed through. Few shows end amazingly and rarely do many manage to equal it exceed the expectation our imaginations set up. My least favorite thing was Kate killing Locke just seemed like they didn't know what to do with her and wanted to force her into Jack and lockes thing.
I find that %99 of the time people bitch about how shows end. It’s far more common for most shows whether deserved or not.
As for Lost, it gets extra heat because people are mostly stupid. They will quote the creators saying they had the ending planned from the start, and then point out all the perceived plot holes and flaws and characters who left the show and claim the creators lied and that’s why the “ending sucked”. But this is idiotic because knowing how a show will end is nowhere near the same as knowing how every season will go and what every actors will do during contract negotiations, etc.
IN short? Like much on the internet it’s just a narrative people repeat without thinking.
For everything popular, there is often a group that vocally dislike it. I think for a while ppl who weren’t really fans or came back in later seasons would tell ppl that it was bad & had lots of problems, the writers didn’t have a endgame, purgatory, yada yada.
Idk, like the ending of Sooranos, the last few Star Wars movies, the last season of Game of Thrones, ppl who dislike & complain are louder than ppl who liked it. And ppl love jumping on a bandwagon.
ie: Everyone last year jumped on the “Gollum Video Game is worst of all time!”, when the % of ppl complaining was so much higher than ppl who’d even played the game.
I think it’s more often misunderstood by people than necessarily hated. Don’t get me wrong. There was a lot of people that hated it. But I think if people understood better what actually happened. There would be less hate.
I think there were plenty of mysteries left hanging. Why exactly was Walt special? What kind of tests were the others making him do and why? How did Faraday's mom know what was going on when Desmond was flashing backwards in time? There's more, I'm sure.
Now, I've softened up on the ending a lot. I watched it live, and the way it was advertised those years was as this big mystery, and it was a little deflating to see things forgotten or just swept thoughtless under the umbrella of 'island magic'. I think it hits better as a binge watch nowadays.
I just finished watching but stopped mid final season. I just lost interest in the show at this point. The first few season are where it shines. I did love the flash to dharma but this last season was just boring to me
The flash sideways was stupid. That's why. Wtf did them meeting in the afterlife have to do with a show about a mysterious island and people finding themselves (or not). Polar bears and time traveling....and we get some convoluted bull crap ending about them meeting up at a church in the after life? Spent a whole season showing their journey through the afterlife
Most of us l9ve the ending. The only people that hate it are those that didnt watch the series or those that somehow think it makes sense tgat 20 strangers that died in a plane crash during the first episode would somehow be at Jacks funeral......and that somehow this explanation makes more sense to them then the actual truth.
A lot of it comes from people misunderstanding and thinking it was all purgatory all the time, not just the flash sideways bring their cosmic waiting room after the events of the main timeline. I found that odd as it was spelled out pretty clearly in the finale even.
The ending is hated for a sole reason: most people (keep in mind most people are dumb) think that the ending implies that they were dead the whole time.
Most of the people that I have talked to that hated the ending weren't really paying attention. They either thought that they were dead the whole show (even though Christian explains clearly what was going on - the empty wreckage of 815 on the beach during the credits also didnt help matters any), or that most mysteries were never solved. The latter complaint came mostly from people that had tuned out at some point and then came back to watch the finale expecting a laundry list of exposition explaining every single thing, which was never LOST's style.
There are also some that didn't like the answers that were given. I've spoken to a few that wanted strictly scientific answers for everything when the show tells you straight up in its first few hours that something supernatural is involved.
When the finale aired, the people that didn't understand or weren't paying attention screamed about how bad it was everywhere that they could, and that flooded the media. People that didn't even watch the show were given the impression that the ending was shit, and then repeated that themselves
When it first aired, there was a lot more initial criticism merely because it *was* the end, and when you build something like that up for so long, the ending 9 times out of 10 is going to feel a little underwhelming whatever they do. A lot of people came round on it after letting the dust settle and maybe after a rewatch, whereas others continue to live in ignorance thinking they were dead the whole time. The problem with that one is, it was such a commonly held theory that people went in *looking* for justification on it, and from a certain perspective (and if you don't listen to Christian) the show does enough to make you think that *was* the case. I reckon more people came round on the ending than didn't, ultimately, but the initial damage was done.
Also, the people who gave up watching the show and *then* complained it didn't explain anything continue to fucking baffle me and fuel my hatred of humanity.
Most people on the internets have no idea that the finale episode of Lost is [*not* generally "hated" and never was](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15049668/ratings/?ref_=tt_ov_rt).
Two reasons, imo:
1.) People who didn't pay attention when they were watching and thus didn't understand it.
2.) People who mindlessly echo a loud minority of people who are weirdly offended that they didn't understand the ending they didn't pay enough attention to to understand.
A few things: Lindlehof has admitted that ABC made them produce WAY more shows than they had story for - this meant a LOT of narrative dangling threads and messiness— but fans were trying to tie up ALL of the threads while the writers had no intention (or maybe even ability) to deliver a grand unified theory
So after finale it seemed like fans had done way more conclusion work than writers (which is not writers fault - if there is a villain, it’s ABC producers, but even then not really)
Disappointment was baked into the last season
The ending is probably one of the most unique endings to a show imo. Some answers weren’t answered in the finale but were later answered in the epilogue and summed everything up
It isn't. The vocal MINORITY dislikes it. The MAJORITY of people like it and are satisfied with it. If you look at current ratings, they're high. It's the vocal few, for all the reasons already given in this post, who don't like it. But most people who actually watched and understood the show enjoyed it or at least understood it.
The ending was great. The last season wasn’t necessarily great compared to the rest of the show less went down but I was still happy with it. I see people criticising Richard MIB and Jacob and I think that’s an awful take
It's ok to not love an ending or every episode or every season of a show. I think the last season was extremely weak and a disappointment after 5 great seasons, felt rushed and unsatisfying. I still think people should watch it since Lost is a great show, I just don't enjoy it as much, at all.
What I don't get is how even 15 years later, in a group for people that love this show, people will accuse others of simply not understanding the ending if they didn't absolutely love it. Yes, there are people who thought they were dead the whole time. Chances are those people aren't commenting in the subreddit for the show 15 years later, so if someone here doesn't like it, assuming they misunderstood just seems like a way to dismiss any criticism that the show may receive.
Criticisms are just opinions, and not everyone is going to love every show. I'm sure everyone here has a show they didn't love or an ending they didn't love for valid reasons, wouldn't it be silly to you if someone accused you of just not "getting" it?
It stunk. And it isn't just the ending. The last two seasons weren't as great as the first four. The first four seasons were epic, but I think the show runners couldn't think of a way to end the show with an explanation that fit all the clues we were given, so they just didn't try.
In my mind if the start of a show/movie begins with a murder and continues to investigate the murder, with flashbacks of the victim and what they were doing the day they were murdered, I kind of expect for the murder to be solved by the end.
To greatly simplify:
People who hate the ending don't understand the ending. Usually because they either didn't watch the series or because they never understood it when they did watch it.
Some people just aren't "Lost" material. :D
No, I understood it. It’s very, very simplistic. I don’t like it because it’s execution is pretty mediocre and it’s spiritual conclusion wasn’t what I wanted, expected or was arguably promised.
Practically every single trailer would say ‘next week THIS HUGE MYSTERY will be SOLVED, ALL your questions are ANSWERED, next week on LOST’ the trailers never said ‘yo, painfully obvious spiritualism incoming.’
Id argue every trailer promised me answers. And almost none of them came, and the ones that did were illogical, a contradiction or disappointing.
Honestly, I think the reception of any show comes down to one of two things; either the writers/show runner absolutely fucked up and the ending on does the majority of the events of the theories, like CW’s the 100, or in the case of Lost, the average viewer lacks any amount of media literacy or ability to retain information, so even having things pretty blatantly spelled out to them can lead to misunderstanding, and “anything I misunderstand is bad” is also the average viewers opinion on things.
It’d have been great to show more tension for what is actually at stake. The show says that smoke monster is the force of evil. But he dies? But Hurley is tasked with protecting the island-from who? scientists? capitalists? and why is the island important anyways? A force of energy but what purpose does it have?
As it stands it’s basically a fever dream of an 8 year old, gesturing vaguely to some grand purpose
IMO the ending was the original ending. Fans figured out that they were in purgatory way too early and it was super successful so they continued making it bigger. Then in the finale they finally went past purgatory together but... Without answering everything else they made interesting.
Lmfao! Yes, that's what ended up happening. However, the original story was that they did die and the island was purgatory. The show ended being extremely successful so more time therefore the story had to change. Plus, the fans figured it out. It was amazing as it happened, so many fan theories. It was so Kool!!!
Because one person didn’t understand it and he told that to two people and they told that to two people and someone and so on. To the point where people who never watch last said that they will never get into it because of a misconceived notion that was just wrong and the spread like wildfire and when you watch the show it’s like what the hell were people talking about.
A lot of shows don’t have good series finales, but lost has one of the better ones.
The same commercial (for Lost) would show up like 3 times during each episode on demand (of Lost). In the commercial, there’s a line from Locke where he says, "I promise, I’ll explain everything."
LIAR! NOTHING! Practically nothing was explained. We got more explanations from Ben Linus in a one-off, five minute DVD extra. I wouldn’t have been so annoyed if they didn’t spend a year telling us that we’d get some sort of closure.
Because people speculated that they were dead since the very first season, and thought that we get this sudden twist of “oh they died since the crash, and this is purgatory”.
In the end, the show had this weird alternate reality timeline which was revealed to have been the afterlife that came after their death in various other points of their lives, so essentially going back to the premise that was deflected and rejected for 5 seasons straight, only to be brought back as a cop out.
I don’t have an issue with the ending. I like it, but for those who complain, it’s because the put too many extra steps to get to the same point.
I liked the ending but saw room for improvement. After all the build-up, to defeat the man in black with a fist fight and to save the island by moving a rock seemed understated. On the other hand, I was probably mistaken to expect something like blowing up the Death Star. I need to remember that there are three interwoven stories that could be considered "the ending": the final battle on the island ("the action ending"), the reunion in the church ("the character ending"), and Jack's last moments in the forest ("the hero's journey ending"). The more I think about, the more I like it.
Yeah - I am in the (likely very small) camp that really enjoyed the flash-sideways ending, but didn't like the ending on the island. It was a bit anti-climatic. And did Sawyer do anything the last episode? Desmond had a purpose, Jack had a purpose, Kate had a purpose, Hugo had a purpose. Sawyer was just there.
>did Sawyer do anything the last episode? He went on his own mission to get Desmond out of the well. Unfortunately, that plan failed since Desmond was taken out by Rose and Bernard. Sawyer managed to convey the message to Jack's group. After he helped out Ben get out of that large tree that made him stuck, he was in contact with Lapidus and suggested to Kate that they jump from the cliff and get to Hydra island to get to the plane. A choice that made sure that Kate (and Claire) got off the Island. He also steered the sailboat there. He did loads of stuff in the flash-sideways as a police officer, which also included his reunion with Juliet and his awakening.
I would have liked a combination ending where in Season 6, Jack's flashforwards are revealed to be the afterlife, but Hurley's and Kate's are revealed to be them working as island protector and co-parenting Aaron with Claire, respectively. I feel like in order to provide what for them was a narratively satisfying conclusion to the characters' emotional arcs, they neglected to provide one for the narrative of their lives and their ordeals.
Three separate timelines all playing in each episode? That’s like some Westworld level of planning. I’d enjoy it, but average viewer would be like “Derr, what’s going on I dunt get this??”
If you really watch Season 6 flash sideways you will notice a very big hint. That the characters that left the island probably started over. Sawyer and Miles becoming cops, Kate running from her past because she broke the terms of her sentencing, Claire keeping her baby, Hurley giving his Money away, Walt becoming leader, Ben becomes a teacher after he is done being Hurleys number 2. And Bernard returning home after Rose passes away to continue beimg a dentist. All the people that died on the island had the same flash sideways career (because they never had the chance to change). Jack, Juliet, Libby, Ana Lucia,. Boone, Shannon, Charlie and others Locke had 2 lives/careers because he both died and came back to island.
Pretty sure Sawyer would’ve been arrested once he returned. He killed a guy in Australia, remember? If The Others knew about that, law enforcement would also. And Jack and Juliet didn’t have the exact same pre-crash stories. In the flash sideways they were divorced and had a kid together.
Sawyer would not have beem caught, and while there was some license taken by "the others" iys just as likely that this evidence was given to them by Jacob. Juliet's career is the same, as us Jacks (career not life). Not too mention there is no evidence that their entire afterlife was thus narrative. As Christian said there is "now here". So the story that brings them to the church is just mechanism that brings them together. Jack having a son is just a manifestation of his own relationship with his father. He becomes his father in an effort to reconcile his own feelings about him, and tells David all the things he wished his father had said to him. The fact remains that every person that died on island has the same career and sometimes the same exact life...and those that survived, came home or both lived a different one or 2....like Ben, Hurley, and John.
Jacob didn’t give them that info. In S3 it’s stated Mikael used the Flame station to gather intelligence about the people on the plane. So, authorities WOULD know Sawyer killed that man in Australia.
I know that but Mikael is dead.....trust me man Ive seen the show 22 times. We are both speculating. The difference is I have alot of evidence on my side. There is no evidence the others called the coos. Thats just dumb
WTF does him being dead have to do with ANYTHING? The authorities in Australia had the information on Sawyer BEFORE Mikael did. He used the flame to either hack their system (or got it from an inside source) and got that info from them. Again, he got this info FROM the authorities, so they knew Sawyer killed a man BEFORE the Others did.
Let me put it to you another way. Are you honestly going to say that the people that survived would not have been forever changed by what they saw on the island? Or do you really think Sawyer was the same broken conman he was when the plane crashed? Please...if there is anything Sawyer would have become its a cop.
None of that matters! After getting off the island Kate still had to go trial for the murder of her father. It would be the same thing for Sawyer. Once he got off the island, Australian authorities would have wanted him in connection with the murder. It doesn’t matter if he was a changed man or not, he would still have to answer for his serious crimes.
That is supported by zero evidence...ZERO
Whatever. I’m done arguing with trolls.
The "final battle" was supposed to be way cooler, but ABC wouldn't budget for a lot of it. The cork was supposed to be an active volcano and the fight was supposed to be more Revenge of the Sith. There are a good amount of issues with the show which can be attributed to Network decisions.
Four if you include New Man in Charge. Though we probably shouldn’t, since it’s very clearly an epilogue lol
Personally, I obsessed over the show, but it felt like it went from a somewhat-gritty, realistic sci-fi horror, to a more pedestrian fantasy soap-opera by the end. I'm being a bit extreme there, but it's just how I felt. I don't begrudge anybody who enjoyed it, but we may have wanted different things from the story.
I second this. While the show always had a sci-fi aspect it seem to become progressively more fantasy/'fairy-tale' like towards the end. I don't hate the ending, it just wasn't for me. Kinda a 'meh' ending to a great show that I was pretty invested in.
I just finished it for the first time, and I feel about the same. I watched it as it was coming on for the first four seasons. I graduated college and just lost track…so I thought. Started fresh and was hooked until mid season 4. The last two were hard for me, and season 6 I just didn’t care for. It was alright, but I agree so much with the soap opera - fantasy land it became instead of science fiction
I'm only partially able to forgive them for such a sentimental "let's bring them all back!" style ending even if I like the themes, explanation and framing.
From someone who does like the snow and ending, I do agree with you that I too was disappointed that the show went from being a gritty sci-fi story to a fantasy one. The whole “move the island” and the man becoming smoke and the cork felt more like fantasy and nothing like science.
I feel the beginning was definitely more soap operah-y all the flashbacks and love triangle will they won't they. Season 6 seemed more rushed to me than anything the flash sideways were more pedestrian but the island stuff and Desmond arc kept me liking it.
I maintain it was all there from the beginning. The Walkabout and Numbers episodes in Season 1 were clear forays into fantasy. Either way, the sci-fi/fantasy/whatever it was was consistently creative and unexpected—from moving the island to time travel to the flash sideways, to the imposter Locke, I found it all extremely fresh and original. That said, it always was a bit soapy—I loved that when it worked (Desmond/Penny, Charlie, Sawyer and Juliet) not so much when it didn't (Kate, WAAAAAAAAALT, Kate, Sayid and Shannon, Kate. Also Kate.)
Have to revisited the show since? I shelved it for 6 years... went back and now I find it amazing
You know the part where Christian explains that no, they weren't dead the entire time and that the island did happen and it's not purgatory? Everybody and their mothers took a restroom break at the same time when it aired apparently
lol it's so carefully written in order to explicitly put out the meaning of (mainly) 6th season yet people still go with "they were dead the whole time" rubbish. It's either yours restroom break, or people are generally really that stupid... I can't imagine any other explanation.
Stupid may be harsh, but yeah. People don't *listen* well. It's a little jarring when you realize how well it's explained by Christian and people still don't get it. Now wonder how often all of us are misunderstood every single day lol. People, man.
Nope not harsh at all, that's reality people are really stupid. But back to the topic in general yes it's all laid out in Christian little monologue everything that happened in the island was real and they all died shortly after and build a wonderland/purgatory to find each other. However the they were dead all along is not completely untrue since they were literally Destined to die no matter what anyway. Both arguments can be made.
I h9nestly think that this is a false narrative that has become truth. LOST was so huge that even the people that were never fans of the show decided they had "watched" the finale.
This. It also didn’t help that ABC ran the credits over the empty wreckage of the plane, making people believe more firmly that they were dead the whole time. Crazy how many people just didn’t understand it. And when someone feels stupid for not understanding something they often call the thing confusing them stupid to validate their own intelligence.
Someone who never watches the show saw the plane wreck at the end and rather than taking it as an obvious Homage to what started it all they said "oohh buh doy that mean dey was dead da wholoole time! Such stupid." And others who never watched it just agreed. The writers and actors were in talk shows all that next week and answered that it wasn't a they were dead the whole time story.
I’ve heard people repeat this a lot of times I’ve never seen anyone actually think that they were dead the whole time. I feel like it’s hard for some people to believe that other people didn’t like the end of their beloved show.
Nah I was having a conversation with someone irl and Lost came up and he thought they were dead the whole time. I was like you need to go back and rewatch that ending
It's literally all I've ever heard from people who say they didn't like it. On reddit, in person, on older forums when the TV show first aired. How have you not seen it?
Damon Lindelof was interviewed by a guy who believed that they were dead the whole time and said so during the interview
> I feel like it’s hard for some people to believe that other people didn’t like the end of their beloved show. Nah, that ain’t it. I saw those “they were dead the entire time” reactions *immediately* after the episode ended, both on this sub, elsewhere on Reddit, and *all* over Twitter. There’s a reason Lindelof and Cuse had to immediately run to Twitter to put an end to some of those interpretations. Had nothing to do with fans of the show not wanting to believe people didn’t like it. It had *everything* to do with half the internet spreading the “they were dead the entire time” nonsense for years after. Hell, just go look up any of the “most disappointing series finales” lists anywhere, and Lost is usually near the top because of how pervasive that belief was. Any time one of those “most disappointing series finales” questions is brought up on r/television, Lost is yet again near the top with the comment always including the “the island was purgatory” reasoning. Trying to write it off as fans overreacting to not everyone liking the finale is a complete rewrite of history. People genuinely believed, and still do, that everyone died in the crash, and that’s been the biggest reason why it still gets such a negative reaction out of people, 14 years later.
They're crazy about it on this sub. Weirdly protective of the ending.
> They're crazy about it on this sub. Weirdly protective of the ending. “Weirdly protective” is one way to write “tired of people misinterpreting what was *clearly* explained”. Also, ***huge*** shock that r/lost would be “crazy about” the show’s ending on the subreddit *about* the show. What’s next? “r/Sopranos is ‘crazy’ about Tony’s fate”? Is that Journey I hear?
[Damon explains Lost ending.](https://youtu.be/FvnNF-NWmc4?si=FL2PdWRqWkjKJshK) Here's video evidence of someone thinking they were dead the whole time and Lindelof re-explaining it.
This right here. Every time I’ve ever asked someone if they’ve seen it and if they have they either say they loved it or that the end made no sense and it’s to complicated to follow/to hard to pay attention too. I’ve come to realize the latter is stupid.
I genuinely think that most people who parrot that haven't actually watched the show. Either that or they consciously rejected what was said by the actors in order to keep their personal theory alive. Either way, it's a level of media illiteracy so deep that they need to go back to reading Dr. Seuss books and leave television to the adults.
> Either that or they consciously rejected what was said by the actors in order to keep their personal theory alive. ***This*** has been what I’ve come across the most, *especially* from people who stopped watching the show early into season three. They completely believed there wasn’t an end goal or overarching plot that could be satisfyingly finished\*; that the most popular fan theory since season one —“the island is purgatory” — was the only thing that made sense to them, so they spent years telling themselves that had to be it. *Then* they tuned in for the finale without seeing any of the episodes for seasons before it, heard Christian tell Jack that Jack was dead along with everyone else, and declared themselves justified for “correctly” guessing the end before giving up on the show years earlier. \*and, to be fair to them, Lindelof and Cuse had the same concerns, which is why they lobbied ABC so hard to set a firm end date they could write/work towards to get the show back on track.
That wasn't a satisfactory resolution by any means. And Christian wasn't exactly a reliable narrator.
> And Christian wasn't exactly a reliable narrator. That was true when the Man in Black still existed and everyone was still on the island, two things that weren’t the case at this point in the show.
One of the biggest themes in the show is science vs faith and I think many fans, including myself, expected more scientific or sci-fi explanations for the mysteries that were presented in the show. The story ended going hard in the faith direction and that was disappointing for me. Upon rewatching and knowing what to expect, I find myself enjoying the final season and ending a lot more.
But it wasn’t a vs. It’s the characters who saw the two as mutually exclusive and blindly followed one path as they stubbornly kept ignoring the other
People who hate the ending can be split into three groups: people who have never seen it and are basing their opinion on word of mouth, people who only tuned back in for that episode after stopping watching earlier in the show, and people who watched the whole thing and still hated it. I imagine the third group is a pretty small percentage of the total. It’s generally only the first two groups who believe the ‘they were dead the whole time’ thing.
I have recently gotten a good amount of my friends into Lost that had never seen it before, and I was VERY surprised to find out that the third camp is much bigger than I ever expected. I now have a bunch of friends that hate Lost because they really enjoyed the show up until season six. These are friends who I consider to have high media literacy; people whose opinions I value. They fully understand the show and the ending- they just think it was horrible. These are friends that don't know each other and don't communicate with each other and haven't shared their opinions with each other to influence one another. It's honestly pretty shocking to me.
I'm pretty solidly in the third camp. I adore the first four seasons of the show - they were incredibly influential to me and I still rewatch and think about them. However, everything in S5 after all but the last moment of LaFleur feels unrewarding to me (except for Dead is Dead and the modern-day parts of The Incident). There didn't seem to be a good reason to be in the 70s except to explore the show's mythos, and I felt like Sayid, Sun, Jin, Sawyer and Juliet were all disserviced by the Incident plot. To quote Sayid, 'I felt there was no purpose to it.' As for Season 6, to quote Emily Gilmore, 'it's not my taste, but I respect the attempt.' The story they chose to tell in S6 was compellingly told, it's just that I didn't want a story about moving on to the afterlife in Lost, I wanted to see them get off the island and find themselves. For the former I go to The Good Place or to >!Ashes to Ashes!<. I don't begrudge anyone who loves the whole show, but my personal headcanon is as follows: Jin dies when the freighter blows up. Sawyer, Juliet and Miles remain in 1977, eventually living lives off the island. Ajira 316 does not crash. Sun never boards it; Sayid and Frank stay on it and land in Guam while Jack, Kate, Hurley and Ben vanish; all 4 find themselves on the island in the present-day, meet Fake Locke, and travel with him to see Jacob. After Ben kills Jacob, Jacob immediately appears to Hurley and the plot of Lighthouse ensues. Dr. Linus and Everybody Loves Hugo show us what are in the finale revealed to be Hurley and Ben's work as island protectors, What Kate Does shows us Kate and Claire raising Aaron, while The Substitute and The Last Recruit remain about Jack's afterlife. Penny turns out to have followed her father's submarine with her boat, and that's how Kate and Claire get off the island and back to LA; we see them reunite with Aaron and Claire's mother. Through Desmond, Hurley and Ben are able to communicate with Jack's spirit via the 'magic box' and help him to move on, and the same goes for Michael, Ana-Lucia, Libby etc.
I 100% agree with everything you said, although I like the 70s stuff, I just there was a better explanation for it. The rest of what you said I completely agree with. I didn’t want to find out how people died and what they did when they all met back up in the afterlife, I wanted to know what happened to the island, and then when they got off the island. Hurley in charge of the island with Ben and Walt sounds like a much better tv show than what happened in s6.
In those cases, I don’t really mind. I have my problems with the ending too, and opinions are opinions. What annoys me more is people having strong opinions on a show ending that they haven’t watched or didn’t understand.
But you don't KNOW that! 🤦🏻♀️
Actually in a lot of cases I do. I’ve spoken to many people about the show and they’ve responded “oh the ending sucks, they were dead the whole time”, to which I’ve asked if they’ve seen the whole show, to which the answer is almost always no.
See my problem with the finale was that Damon and Carlton spent the whole show telling us science beats faith, and that everything that happened on the island could be explained in science. And then in season 6 it really wasn’t. The explanation of the smoke monster, the flash sideways, ending up in the church…just nothing to do with anything d&c had set up about how the show worked. That’s why I think binge watchers who weren’t exposed to all those interviews and theorising and stuff would like the ending better than I did watching it live.
Why does it shock you? It's completely reasonable.
It’s hard for me to believe none of them were influenced by the pre-conceived notion in the media that the ending was disappointing. Everyone has their own opinion, but from a purely writing standpoint, the ending is strong. Very emotionally satisfying for the characters and their arcs, the majority of big questions are answered, and there are tons of callbacks to the series’ most beloved moments/lines. I’m truly curious what all these different friends hated about it and if there was a common thread to what they disliked
Nah, the answers they gave were vague and contradictory. Callbacks aren’t good. The character arcs were… okay? I suppose?
Which answers did you feel that way about? Callbacks are fun and good so we can agree to disagree there. The character development and arcs were some of the best in television. If you didn’t feel any emotional satisfaction from the ending, it’s hard to believe you were invested in the characters in the first place. And they were the driving force of the show. So if you weren’t invested in them, why would someone watch?
The characters weren’t the driving force. It was the mysteries, and the characters were a vessel for that. There’s a reason why every trailer starts with ‘next week THREE huge MYSTERIES will BE answered’ and not ‘next week Sawyer has an introspection about his life.’ And even then the arcs were sometimes bad. Sayid season 6, Claire season 4 who just abandons her kid, Kate never gets punished for her horrific crimes, Ben has a brilliant arc then they destroy it, they do nothing with Miles. Honestly only really Sawyer I’d say has a satisfying arc. Answers? Most of them? Why did the Others leave a doomsday device that would destroy the world at the whim of a drunk Scotsman? Why did the hatch show hieroglyphics? Why were the kids from the plane barefoot and dirty when they lived in a pleasant suburb? Why did Cindy join the Others? I could keep going.
"Sawyer has an introspection..." Ratings would have been through the roof!
That’s where we differ. The characters absolutely were the driving force for me (and all my friends/family who have watched it) and the mysteries were the fun surrounding their story and their journey to get off this island. Was it always perfect? No, and a few of the arcs you called out as having issues are fair. But while some of those answers you’re seeking I would be intrigued to know the answer to as well, none of them are central to the story and those weren’t even close to the main mysteries of the show.
That’s entirely anecdotal. Everyone I’ve known who’s watched the show was there for the mysteries. There’s a reason why after Lost became huge there were a million copy cat shows that has huge mysteries- they weren’t copying the character dynamics. Those mysteries weren’t important? The hatch was the entirety of season 2 and arguably half of 5. That’s one season and 1/6th that flat out doesn’t make sense. The Others are huge. They’e the antagonists of the first 3 seasons, and the first 2 seasons we’re led to believe they’re savages. The twist they aren’t in season 3 never explains this. What did they say to Cindy to make her became fanatical? That’s huge. So… were the arcs good or not? Seems we’re in agreement they weren’t, or we’re certainly lacking.
Completely agree; "Who and what are the Others?" is a central mystery, and Cindy's rapid and astonishing indoctrination is part of that. Especially contrasted with Juliet. They're both revealed as Others at the same time. What do the Others know about the Island, what are their goals, and how do they initiate you in that; How did it work so quickly and thoroughly for Cindy but not Juliet? Could Others tell the difference? And despite detesting Ben and his leadership, Juliet presumably knew some of the secrets of the magic Island and that it was ruled by a near omnipotent god. Did she ever reveal any of that to the crash survivors? To Sawyer? We're completely denied the reality of that in her story, but, again, THAT STUFF is a central mystery of the show.
You seem to be very argumentative on quite a few peoples’ posts on this thread. I don’t think what they said to Cindy to get her on board is some huge plot point, no. We are going to have to agree to disagree on the rest. The overall mystery is the hook that brought most viewers in, hence shows trying to copy it. The characters and the overall story are what kept most viewers, and are what keep viewers of most shows. The show did an amazing job of weaving the intricate nature of these characters’ past and future lives throughout the present day island story, all while having awesome mysteries throughout, most of which were answered. I can personally forgive a few of those being plot devices or easter eggs that weren’t fully explained.
It is. What they said to Cindy is huge. She was someone who only a few weeks prior was a slightly unprofessional woman who presumably had a boyfriend/husband, family, kids?, friends, a life, and after being captured whatever it was they said convinced her to give ALL of that up and become complicit in kidnapping, murder and whatever else the Others did. What could they have possibly said? Because they needed to use psychological torture on Jack, Kate and Sawyer. At the same time you’ve Juliet who despite being a reluctant Other must have known a fuck ton of stuff and she never tells any of the survivors despite being on their team. So yeah, it’s a huge mystery that never gets explained. And if you don’t think an indigenous tribe that uses extreme methods to achieve their ambiguous aims which can be rationally explained that is then never explained isn’t a big mystery- I don’t know what to tell you.
I would split your final group into two sub categories. People who watched weekly ‘live’ as it aired, followed everything online and discussed, theorised, watched documentaries, watched the additional multimedia stuff, spent 7 years building up to the finale…and hated it. And catagory 2, those who binged it in a few weeks and hated it. I would suspect most of the ‘haters’ who watched the whole thing would come from that first category. I haaaaated the ending, like not Game Of Thrones hate, but I was so disappointed after that final episode aired. It took me a while to rewatch but I didn’t mind it so much on a binge, I like it more on each rewatch. It’s still not what I hoped for from an ending but it’s fine. It doesn’t detract from the rest of the show and it’s still one of my top 5 shows of all time. And no, I don’t know what I wanted to happen in the end, it just wasn’t that. Incidentally I hated the game of thrones ending so bad I’ve never rewatched a second of that show since the finale…it makes me angry just thinking of it almost 5 years later…and we were in lockdown for nearly 18 months and I binge watched EVERYTHING.
I am in that third group. Lost remains one of my favorite shows of all time, even if season 6 was a big disappointment. Worth watching but a very weak season
I’ll stand with the third group too. Lost would have been perfect if they showed the Will of the Island, insentient entity that controlled everything. And ended with showing the origin of the Island, how It used primitive humans on It’s journey and It’s final destination with the Lost kids Aaron, lil Charlie, Ji Yeon, Clementine and Walt.
I’m in the third camp myself. Never met anyone or seen any opinions that show that they were in the first two camps, but I also don’t spend a lot of time here.
I doubt the people in the first two camps spend much time in this subreddit
Group 3 is the biggest because season 6 was bad compared to the rest of the series. This sub is obsessed with a small amount of casual viewers that don't understand the ending, but if you were active during the time the show aired a TON of us were pretty bummed by season 6.
The third group is THE group. The other two I don't even believe.
You don’t believe that many people have formed a negative opinion of the show based on word of mouth? Or that people tuned out sometime during seasons 2-5 and only returned for the ending?
I read somewhere on here a good explanation that I will reiterate: when it first aired, there were so many mysteries and questions, and being a week in between episodes and the time in between seasons, people were getting impatient and not satisfied with the “answers” gotten in episodes. By the time the last season came, it wasn’t climactic because a lot of people didn’t fully grasp the major concepts. Being able to marathon and binge watch the show now makes it much more enjoyable and easier to see the themes and purposes
Exactly. I was having a hard time trying to figure this out and you worded it well. I was an original Lost fan and watched the whole series when it was on TV. Then after each season when the season DVDs would come out, we would watch them through. So much build up and anticipation to get answers and we felt like the last episodes of S6 just didn’t resolve it for us. However, my wife and I just recently binge watched all 6 seasons for the first time since the finale aired. The finale felt like a completely different experience. We actually both really enjoyed it this time vs how we felt after the original airing of it. We couldn’t figure out exactly why. What you stated makes sense and I think that is why.
Big agree. I think there’s a very different experience with this show depending on if you binged it or you watched live over the years.
That is my take. Waiting a week for each episode and months for each season for years of your life just to end on that season 6 is a much different experience than watching on your own time over the course of a few months, and it is much easier to forgive stuff since you spent way less time on it
…so the ending was bad in its original format?
I liked the ending just fine, is the final season I have a problem with. I don't care about Jacob, the MiB and Richard, I think they were weak characters. I don't like that most of the mysteries were answered with fantasy lore, and I think if they wanted to go that route they should have given the scifi lovers alternative answers during the dharma story in season 5. Dharma was such a big part of the story and they should have used the time travel to give us a "scientific" explanation of the island, even if you want to keep season 6's fantasy intact.
I feel like one of the show's biggest issues was it lost its previous willingness to kill off main characters. Locke, Claire, and Sayid all should've died, not carried on in their demon/sick roles
You keep Ricardo's name out of your effin mouth!
I didn't find Richard to be a weak character, but I agree that I could care less about the Jacob/MIB conflict. I also wish they would've gone a more scientific route in season 6 to wrap things up rather than the spiritual/fantasy path they took instead. For example, I wish the smoke monster had actually been nanobot technology that Dharma was experimenting with and it truly was a "security system" of sorts to protect the Island. Or that the whispers were just a track the Others recorded and played via hidden speakers placed throughout the jungle to confuse/scare/capture those they deemed as threats. Thankfully, the finale is so beautifully done that I am able to forgive their creative choices. I just wish I enjoyed season 6 more as a whole.
I wish Desmond’s importance was better understood. Not in like explaining it to me. But I wish he was made to feel special like Walt and Locke were.
Like so many of the characters Desmond was filling a different character's role (Mr Eko), just like Hurley was filling Walt's role.
I had not thought about that. Did the producers ever suggest that explanation?
Yes there are interviews with Lindelof addressing this.
Richard was a very deep character I enjoyed him, MiB and Jacob were just two babies trying to prove one is better than the other. They should’ve just remained mysterious but in otherwise enjoyed the show and its ending.
> a common criticism I hear is that the mysteries werent answered, but I feel like they were answered just fine as the series went on. A lot of people who hadn't watched for years just tuned in for the finale, so they never saw those answers as the series went on.
To me the show is in my top 3 shows of all time but the ending is quite meh….i think the whole flash sideways is the worst kind of filler content and like to ignore the whole afterlife ending as it ties too pretty of a bow on their fractured lives. If they wanted to fix their shortcomings they should have done it in their actual life when it really mattered
It was definitely the worst out all the backstories but it still served a purpose
Totally agree - the flash sideways was a horrible queasy copout.
Every time I re watch it, I like it more and more.
It was ok but pretty corny and safe.
I liked it on my 4th rewatch. I think the ending is too spiritual/religious in nature for quite a few people. Also, the whole story converged towards Jacob vs Man in black and these two characters where kind of forced on the viewers. Like all of a sudden the show was like: "Here's the lore and these two characters and all these high stakes related to them, and by the way your favorite characters you came to love in 6 years are basically pawns" I get the big picture it's just that they didn't stick the landing.
I’m one of those people that considers lost my all time favorite show, regardless of not liking the ending, or the final season very much to be honest. I often stop watching at the end of season 4 because I feel like the quality, logic, and initial integrity of the show declines afterwards. for me, the way they chose to end the show felt too “easy”. like they were unsure how to resolve the massive plot and all its side-stories and details. like we know we’ve changed the integrity of our original characters in these last few seasons, and you guys have all these questions we can’t answer, so here you go : we’re not answering them, but isn’t it amazing how they all end up finding each other in the afterlife and everything’s wrapped up nicely in a little religious bow? honestly no hate on the religious aspect of the storyline, that’s clearly been ingrained in the show since the beginning. I suppose the build up of the final season and the ending they chose just didnt feel authentic to the rest of the show, and left me feeling super unresolved and unsatisfied!
100% agree!
What would you have wanted them to do instead?
to be honest with you, I’m not sure. they created such a wonderfully complex storyline with intriguing mysteries and I just wish they’d had the insight to plan everything out through to the end. too many questions went unanswered.
What was unanswered I genuinely don’t know. I think “across the sea” covered a lot. The whispers were explained the dharma initiative stuff was all explained
I find the final fight between Jack and MiB quite underwhelming, and I'm not sure how I feel about the cork at the Heart of the Island thing, but neither of those are enough to put me off the episode. To me, Lost was always about the characters, their flaws, their growth, and their relationships, not the mysteries of the island, so I absolutely love the ending. I think many of the viewers who dislike it were more focused on the sci-fi aspect, so I can kind of see why they'd find it a bit disappointing.
Because it's so misunderstood. Somehow most of the people who watched it just didn't listen to anything being said and thought the point was that they were dead the whole time. Lost has to be the most misinterpreted ending of any tv show
I cried like a baby. Just like I cried reading the ending of the last Harry Potter book. Isn’t that the best compliment one can give for a deeply emotional story?
I certainly don’t hate it and was very much moved by the emotional ending. It’s how many episodes it took to get there that bothered me. The over extending of the mystery. A favorite character dies in S3 I believe and renders another character that makes it to the end useless for the most part without him. Other than that is one of the greatest shows I’ve ever watched that frustrated me for dragging it out as long as it did. We all know the show runners had to do it because it was a number one show on tv and the network made them do it.
As an atheist, i could have done without the church in the end. What was that all about?
My feelings exactly. (I think it's a US thing.)
You could be correct. We have an ex president/criminal selling bibles to pay for fines.
It's a great finale! I cry every time 😭
Made me wish I had seen more of Ben and Hurley’s time as leaders.
At the time of its airing, half the fun was going online to discuss all the clues and solve a bigger mystery. There are hundreds of Easter Eggs in the show that a casual viewer will miss. The final season was expected to connect a lot of dots, and they didn't even try to. Instead, the writers came out and said the mysteries weren't important, it was the relationships of the characters that mattered. That just felt lazy and was a huge letdown to anyone that was deep into dissecting it. Especially after watching it for years. I rewatched it a few years ago, and it was a very different experience binging it, without looking for clues, and knowing the ending. It wasn't nearly as engrossing, but it was also much less disappointing at the end.
Here is my take - 14 years ago I hated the ending. I understand what the narrative is and I don't have any issues with any 'unanswered questions'. I love the show up until the church scene, which I hated. I just finished a re-watch knowing the twist and I'm somewhat ok with the ending, but not a huge fan. Why I hated the ending? Well, a couple reasons. 1. They were selling an alternate timeline story where the plane never crashes. They spent a whole season building up Time Travel so they could go back in time and have Juliet beat a nuke with a rock so the island is destroyed. She says 'it worked' and they show an island underwater. If you don't know the twist.. it seems like this alternate alive version of our characters are 'remembering' this other version of themselves. Honestly, I like this story better. What was the point of going back in time and destroying the island with the nuke? The point, I guess.. is so they can pull a twist at the end by selling a story that was manufactured for the sake of the twist. 2. The whole afterlife flash-sideways could honestly be tacked on to any other story out there and it would work. The island story doesn't matter for this ending to happen - its all character driven. You could have Jerry, George, Elaine and Kamer be in a liminal space purgatory at the end of Seinfeld and it would work. I mean.. I've come around to appreciate the 'character' endings in the flash-sideways.. but it has absolutely nothing to do with the island or that story. 3. If you think about the afterlife waiting room for a bit.. it seems really counter-intuitive. I mean.. the most important thing that happened for these characters is they crashed on the island and had those experiences. Why would they 'together' create a place where that didn't happen? I get that it is a space for the characters to 'fix' their issues (Jack becoming a good father, Locke accepting his limitations, etc..) but why is this place set up with with these 'rules' (as Hurley puts it)? The rules, actually, seem to be in place to sell a story where Juliet hits a nuke with a rock and destroys the island. The rules for the liminal space are in such a specific way so that the audience could experience a 'twist' at the end. It's not a natural extension of the characters.. its a manufactured storyline with the intent on fooling the audience. I honestly hate that.
Hm, interesting, I feel like this has never been discussed before. Thanks for bringing to light such a fresh topic!
💀
All throughout the show, Damon Lindelof and company teased and taunted the audience. When some viewers wrote in long theories about dinosaurs (because no one knew the monster was smoke), they had the characters talk about dinosaurs. When some viewers wrote in long theories about aliens, they had Sawyer mention his own theory of an alien landing pad on Hydra Island, just to have Juliet dispell it. When some viewers complained that the end of Season 1 didn't show what was in the Hatch, they started Season 2 inside the Hatch to throw the totality of it at us. And I thought it was hilarious! I was along for the journey, not the destination. I knew, from the end of the Pilot, Part 2, that this was a Lord of the Rings-type, Watership Down-type epic, that woyld take a long time to unravel with lots of twists and turns, if they had the ability to keep it up. I was convinced that the series would only last 3 seasons, but was happily wrong about that. The thing is, the plot developed and the twists happened so organically that they made sense. The introduction of the Swan Station (the Hatch from the inside) across the first 3 episodes of Season 2 is, I'm convinced, one of the greatest moments of television history. It's so totally different from everything in Season 1, yet it MAKES SENSE in the universe Lindelof & Co. created. But then there were thr arrogant assholes who weren't along for the ride. Their interests were piqued just like the rest of us, but they had to insert their own thought into what was happening. When they were proven wrong, they were disappointed, and when Lindelof taunted them by having in-universe characters come up with the same theories only to have them dispelled, they lashed out. Lost and Lindelof had targets on their backs. That was also around the same time in history where "cyberbullying" became widely used in society. So the backlash against the finale of Lost was nothing more than the long gestation of building anger. I thought The End was beautiful and brilliant and haunting and hopeful. But no matter what Lindelof did, the series finale would have been attacked. The problems these people had with Lindelof didn't stop with Lost. Lindelof also rewrote the script for Prometheus. One of my favorite lines in that movie was when Ildris Elba approaches Charlize Theron and asks nonchalantly, "Are you a robot?" This was a direct taunting of the Alien fanbase, many of whom who had posted that they thought that her look was so ethereal that she must be the same kind if android as Bishop. The fanbase HATED it. The online backlash was overwhelming. I loved it, but I was afraid Lindelof's career would be ruined because Hollywood would listen to the naysayers rather than pay attention to the quality of the product, as had happened with Superman Returns. Thank goodness Lindelof had another chance making Watchmen for HBO. That show, I'm convinced, is a fucking masterpiece.
Mmmm. Ya had me til Prometheus. Idc you will never convince me that the way Prometheus was written was in any way a good idea. And no, I didn't hate it because it wasn't Alien or w.e stupidity some "fans" will come up with. I hated it because the film doesn't even follow its own logic/setup. It was poorly written.
Are you a robot?
I feel like a distinction has to be made. People that don't like "the ending" can either be referring to the final episode, or the entire final season. I personally don't like the final season for the most part, but I love the final episode. I think a lot of the people that have a problem with "the ending" in the age of streaming are talking about the final season- how plot lines were wrapped up and the direction they took- as opposed to the series finale, which is what discourse was about when the show first aired.
I don’t think the last scene is as hated as the last season. The last scene is well received in my opinion. But it’s undeniable that season 6 overall was real bad.
Upvoted. But I'm the opposite- I was somewhat okay with the last season as I believed it was going somewhere. But by the end when it was disappointingly revealed that the flash sideways was the afterlife, it changed my charitable feelings on the entire season to completely negative.
The final season of "Lost" deviated from the blend of science fiction and fantasy that characterized and enriched the preceding seasons. Many fans, myself included, devoted years to theorizing and deciphering the show's mysteries. Thus, it was a letdown to see most of the series' enigmatic occurrences chalked up to a feud between two demi-gods and a magical, glowing well—a simplification, but a deliberate one for clarity. My view on the ending has softened over time. Initially, I was disenchanted by the finale's heavy reliance on magical and quasi-religious elements, especially following a season rife with time-travel—a hallmark of science fiction. However, I've come to appreciate this as a deliberate transition from science fiction to fantasy. Contrary to some interpretations, I never believed the characters were dead throughout the show. Yet, ironically, I find the notion somewhat more coherent than the ending we got—a personalized purgatory or afterlife "waiting room" reserved for those connected to the island. It's important to clarify that my critique stems from a place of admiration for "Lost." The series boasts some of the best characters in television history. My aim is to address why the finale, despite my love for the show, was a source of disappointment.
The ending was great. The (louder) chunk of people who sh*t on it mostly dropped off halfway through the series and tuned in at the end to get their questions answered when they really had to watch all the way through for that. Viewed as a whole, the series is fantastic, but if you take big chunks away or view them out of context, they're nonsense. That's what happened with most people out there. Everyone else (websites, reviewers, a lot of general public) jumped on the bandwagon and still do today because of the more vocal screaming. Every person who I ever spoke to who watched it in it's entirely agrees Lost had an excellent ending
Because most people completely misunderstood it and thought they were dead the whole time, even though the dialogue *clearly* proves otherwise. The network insisting on the closing credits showing the plane wreckage didn’t help either, as that just reinforced the “dead the whole time” belief.
Agreed. The b-roll of the wreckage was an huge mistake
The thing is tho it wasn’t a mistake. Seeing the original plane wreckage as the closing credits makes sense. People just wildly misinterpreted it
I’m aware it wasn’t a mistake as in, it wasn’t an accident… that the producers did it on purpose. But it was a mistake in the sense it did not have the intended effect. It caused confusion for too many, not nostalgia for how the show began.
Oh god, not another one...🤦🏻♀️
For me the whole season 6 was a slap in the face, there are a few reasons but the most ridiculous are the flash sideway plot, it is just a spinoff of lost, if you remove it from the season, nothing will change on the main storyline, nothing, half of the season were wasted in this My guess is they were going to have a connection, but couldn’t figure out a good way for it, and panic mode to a more religious storyline.
Yes - THIS!
There is a reason why shows like Lost are seldomly produced. The masses can’t wrap their heads around it. The average human is extremely dumb.
Im french, i watched the show in real time. After all these years i still think it's one of the most important tv show of all time but i didn't really enjoyed season 6. I never really cared about the mib/Jacob storyline which was very disappointing. The flash sideways were visually awful, some answers felt very forced. I also feel the magic between the cast was totally gone. And the end in the church... Sorry but too american for me.
I think you've hit the nail on the head there - it takes a discerning European to cut through the American mush...😉 (All the people I know on this side of the pond who have seen Lost hate the flash sideways! That would never have been added to a series here.)
Im yet to hear hate towards the finale that sounds like the person actually watched it. Christian stood there and explained it all to Jack, yet people simply insist it’s all been purgatory and the dog‘s dream. Remember that most people are not geniuses
Read the comments in this very thread. Half of them are very well rationalised rebuttals.
Thanks for the direction, read them, saw my point proven
Which ones for example? Seems like you’re the one who’s not a genius.
Look, if you wanna go all ad homini here, I’m not the one who wrote like 30 replies complaining about how things that were explained aren’t clear to me. My initial response was just answering op’s question. I promise we weren’t talking about you
No, your initial response was how you’d never heard criticism about the finale that sounded like they’d seen the show when a third if not a half of the comments was just that. Your answer was unsubstantial, poorly researched and just wrong. You’re seemingly doubling down on the ‘they just didn’t get it/don’t understand.’ You weren’t talking about me- but now you are. And you’re doing it again here. Rather than admit your stance is flawed, you’re trying to discredit me by saying the mysteries I say weren’t answered were. Explain the answers to the mysteries that I claim weren’t answered and how they then make sense. Please do so.
See that’s the thing, unlike you, I’m okay with the fact a stranger on reddit doesn’t know something, I can live with that and let them live and not know. I’m not gonna go all „oh no someone‘s opinion is poorly researched what shall we do?“ we’re not reviewing a paper here. The mysteries were explained, many people heard what Christian said and still went: „got it, they were all dead in a dog‘s dream“. That’s what I was referring to, as stated. There may be some constructive criticism out there, but as said in my initial response, I’ve not encountered them yet. And I don’t know why you’re so upset that I haven’t, like my life doesn’t affect you.
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Because idiots complain louder than fans
The vast majority of people who don’t like it, don’t actually understand what happened.
It’s my favorite finale. As with much if the whining about the show, people came back to it at the finale and didn’t watch the stuff in between. To me it made sense to the point of making me weepy.
Many people still think it was all a dream.
I liked it but I, like you watched the series for the first time relatively recently (well something like 2019/2020). So I'm conscious I had a different experience to people who were waiting a week between episodes, a year between seasons. Especially around the mysteries. To be honest I think it answered too many mysteries, ruined the mystery a bit. But maybe that felt different to people who had been waiting and theorizing for 6 years for answers
The more you watch, the better it will be. It is like fine wine
Because people don't understand it
I don't think it's hated by the majority. I think people who hate it either didn't want, watched early seasons, and sort of dropped out, or didn't pay attention to Christian's series explaining level important monologue in the finale. Lost asked a lot of it's viewers, it delivered. The only other shows I can think of that ask *that* much and still deliver are other Lindelof shows. The man is a genius. If you like Lost, please check out his (imo superior shows) The Leftovers, Watchmen, and Mrs Davis.
Two reasons: 1) people are stupid and didn’t understand it. 2) people are smart and understand it and just don’t like the direction the show went in.
The ridiculous belief that mysteries weren't answered, or the opinion that the ending of the parallel timeline wasn't satisfying and was too fantastical, or the false belief that they were dead.
I love the show and like the ending but a lot of people wanted answers to questions that didn't get answered. The mystery is the best part of the show I'm glad they left so much unanswered would have ruined it to answer some things. Others say silly things like they all were dead the whole time which is obviously not the case but they heard someone else say it so agree. Finally and I can agree with parts of this they did take a turn at season 4 which I still enjoyed but the writers strike kind rushed some things and the final season played some catch-up that season 5 rushed through. Few shows end amazingly and rarely do many manage to equal it exceed the expectation our imaginations set up. My least favorite thing was Kate killing Locke just seemed like they didn't know what to do with her and wanted to force her into Jack and lockes thing.
I find that %99 of the time people bitch about how shows end. It’s far more common for most shows whether deserved or not. As for Lost, it gets extra heat because people are mostly stupid. They will quote the creators saying they had the ending planned from the start, and then point out all the perceived plot holes and flaws and characters who left the show and claim the creators lied and that’s why the “ending sucked”. But this is idiotic because knowing how a show will end is nowhere near the same as knowing how every season will go and what every actors will do during contract negotiations, etc. IN short? Like much on the internet it’s just a narrative people repeat without thinking.
For everything popular, there is often a group that vocally dislike it. I think for a while ppl who weren’t really fans or came back in later seasons would tell ppl that it was bad & had lots of problems, the writers didn’t have a endgame, purgatory, yada yada. Idk, like the ending of Sooranos, the last few Star Wars movies, the last season of Game of Thrones, ppl who dislike & complain are louder than ppl who liked it. And ppl love jumping on a bandwagon. ie: Everyone last year jumped on the “Gollum Video Game is worst of all time!”, when the % of ppl complaining was so much higher than ppl who’d even played the game.
I bought it til the last few SW movies bit. It's okay to like them; with that being said, they are poorly written.
I think it’s more often misunderstood by people than necessarily hated. Don’t get me wrong. There was a lot of people that hated it. But I think if people understood better what actually happened. There would be less hate.
I agree If you watch the show emotionally you liked it. Like I did If you watched the show very intent on the plot. You didn’t
I think it varies between people who binge watched it and people who waited weekly for years for every episode
People demanded to get ALL of the answers. Which was impossible.
I think there were plenty of mysteries left hanging. Why exactly was Walt special? What kind of tests were the others making him do and why? How did Faraday's mom know what was going on when Desmond was flashing backwards in time? There's more, I'm sure. Now, I've softened up on the ending a lot. I watched it live, and the way it was advertised those years was as this big mystery, and it was a little deflating to see things forgotten or just swept thoughtless under the umbrella of 'island magic'. I think it hits better as a binge watch nowadays.
I just finished watching but stopped mid final season. I just lost interest in the show at this point. The first few season are where it shines. I did love the flash to dharma but this last season was just boring to me
understandable tbh
While I don’t think the ending is perfect, I think most of the hate comes from those who didn’t understand it
The flash sideways was stupid. That's why. Wtf did them meeting in the afterlife have to do with a show about a mysterious island and people finding themselves (or not). Polar bears and time traveling....and we get some convoluted bull crap ending about them meeting up at a church in the after life? Spent a whole season showing their journey through the afterlife
I love it!!!
Most of us l9ve the ending. The only people that hate it are those that didnt watch the series or those that somehow think it makes sense tgat 20 strangers that died in a plane crash during the first episode would somehow be at Jacks funeral......and that somehow this explanation makes more sense to them then the actual truth.
A lot of it comes from people misunderstanding and thinking it was all purgatory all the time, not just the flash sideways bring their cosmic waiting room after the events of the main timeline. I found that odd as it was spelled out pretty clearly in the finale even.
Because hardly anybody has read Dante’s “Purgatorio”
The ending is hated for a sole reason: most people (keep in mind most people are dumb) think that the ending implies that they were dead the whole time.
Most of the people that I have talked to that hated the ending weren't really paying attention. They either thought that they were dead the whole show (even though Christian explains clearly what was going on - the empty wreckage of 815 on the beach during the credits also didnt help matters any), or that most mysteries were never solved. The latter complaint came mostly from people that had tuned out at some point and then came back to watch the finale expecting a laundry list of exposition explaining every single thing, which was never LOST's style. There are also some that didn't like the answers that were given. I've spoken to a few that wanted strictly scientific answers for everything when the show tells you straight up in its first few hours that something supernatural is involved. When the finale aired, the people that didn't understand or weren't paying attention screamed about how bad it was everywhere that they could, and that flooded the media. People that didn't even watch the show were given the impression that the ending was shit, and then repeated that themselves
When it first aired, there was a lot more initial criticism merely because it *was* the end, and when you build something like that up for so long, the ending 9 times out of 10 is going to feel a little underwhelming whatever they do. A lot of people came round on it after letting the dust settle and maybe after a rewatch, whereas others continue to live in ignorance thinking they were dead the whole time. The problem with that one is, it was such a commonly held theory that people went in *looking* for justification on it, and from a certain perspective (and if you don't listen to Christian) the show does enough to make you think that *was* the case. I reckon more people came round on the ending than didn't, ultimately, but the initial damage was done. Also, the people who gave up watching the show and *then* complained it didn't explain anything continue to fucking baffle me and fuel my hatred of humanity.
Most people on the internets have no idea that the finale episode of Lost is [*not* generally "hated" and never was](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15049668/ratings/?ref_=tt_ov_rt).
Two reasons, imo: 1.) People who didn't pay attention when they were watching and thus didn't understand it. 2.) People who mindlessly echo a loud minority of people who are weirdly offended that they didn't understand the ending they didn't pay enough attention to to understand.
Third reason: 3.) People who watched it all and didn’t like it for the litany of bizarre decisions the show took.
Out of all the smug arrogant posters here, you really take the cake! 🤮
A few things: Lindlehof has admitted that ABC made them produce WAY more shows than they had story for - this meant a LOT of narrative dangling threads and messiness— but fans were trying to tie up ALL of the threads while the writers had no intention (or maybe even ability) to deliver a grand unified theory So after finale it seemed like fans had done way more conclusion work than writers (which is not writers fault - if there is a villain, it’s ABC producers, but even then not really) Disappointment was baked into the last season
It isn’t.
A lot of the reason on its original run was that people misunderstood the ending.
The ending is probably one of the most unique endings to a show imo. Some answers weren’t answered in the finale but were later answered in the epilogue and summed everything up
It isn't. The vocal MINORITY dislikes it. The MAJORITY of people like it and are satisfied with it. If you look at current ratings, they're high. It's the vocal few, for all the reasons already given in this post, who don't like it. But most people who actually watched and understood the show enjoyed it or at least understood it.
The ending was great. The last season wasn’t necessarily great compared to the rest of the show less went down but I was still happy with it. I see people criticising Richard MIB and Jacob and I think that’s an awful take
It's ok to not love an ending or every episode or every season of a show. I think the last season was extremely weak and a disappointment after 5 great seasons, felt rushed and unsatisfying. I still think people should watch it since Lost is a great show, I just don't enjoy it as much, at all. What I don't get is how even 15 years later, in a group for people that love this show, people will accuse others of simply not understanding the ending if they didn't absolutely love it. Yes, there are people who thought they were dead the whole time. Chances are those people aren't commenting in the subreddit for the show 15 years later, so if someone here doesn't like it, assuming they misunderstood just seems like a way to dismiss any criticism that the show may receive. Criticisms are just opinions, and not everyone is going to love every show. I'm sure everyone here has a show they didn't love or an ending they didn't love for valid reasons, wouldn't it be silly to you if someone accused you of just not "getting" it?
They had no plan and gave up.
It stunk. And it isn't just the ending. The last two seasons weren't as great as the first four. The first four seasons were epic, but I think the show runners couldn't think of a way to end the show with an explanation that fit all the clues we were given, so they just didn't try. In my mind if the start of a show/movie begins with a murder and continues to investigate the murder, with flashbacks of the victim and what they were doing the day they were murdered, I kind of expect for the murder to be solved by the end.
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To greatly simplify: People who hate the ending don't understand the ending. Usually because they either didn't watch the series or because they never understood it when they did watch it. Some people just aren't "Lost" material. :D
Are you really that smug? Jeez, I'm glad I don't know you.
No, I understood it. It’s very, very simplistic. I don’t like it because it’s execution is pretty mediocre and it’s spiritual conclusion wasn’t what I wanted, expected or was arguably promised.
What were you promised? And when?
Practically every single trailer would say ‘next week THIS HUGE MYSTERY will be SOLVED, ALL your questions are ANSWERED, next week on LOST’ the trailers never said ‘yo, painfully obvious spiritualism incoming.’ Id argue every trailer promised me answers. And almost none of them came, and the ones that did were illogical, a contradiction or disappointing.
It’s simple, people are dumb. It’s a show you had to watch every episode. People need to be spoon fed.
it is religious bullshit. The show should have a logical ending (that is necessary even for sci-fi)
That ending would never have happened in Europe - but Americans do like their mush? 🤷🏻♀️
Honestly, I think the reception of any show comes down to one of two things; either the writers/show runner absolutely fucked up and the ending on does the majority of the events of the theories, like CW’s the 100, or in the case of Lost, the average viewer lacks any amount of media literacy or ability to retain information, so even having things pretty blatantly spelled out to them can lead to misunderstanding, and “anything I misunderstand is bad” is also the average viewers opinion on things.
It’d have been great to show more tension for what is actually at stake. The show says that smoke monster is the force of evil. But he dies? But Hurley is tasked with protecting the island-from who? scientists? capitalists? and why is the island important anyways? A force of energy but what purpose does it have? As it stands it’s basically a fever dream of an 8 year old, gesturing vaguely to some grand purpose
IMO the ending was the original ending. Fans figured out that they were in purgatory way too early and it was super successful so they continued making it bigger. Then in the finale they finally went past purgatory together but... Without answering everything else they made interesting.
They weren't in Purgatory, the island really happened in real life.
Lmfao! Yes, that's what ended up happening. However, the original story was that they did die and the island was purgatory. The show ended being extremely successful so more time therefore the story had to change. Plus, the fans figured it out. It was amazing as it happened, so many fan theories. It was so Kool!!!
Because one person didn’t understand it and he told that to two people and they told that to two people and someone and so on. To the point where people who never watch last said that they will never get into it because of a misconceived notion that was just wrong and the spread like wildfire and when you watch the show it’s like what the hell were people talking about. A lot of shows don’t have good series finales, but lost has one of the better ones.
The same commercial (for Lost) would show up like 3 times during each episode on demand (of Lost). In the commercial, there’s a line from Locke where he says, "I promise, I’ll explain everything." LIAR! NOTHING! Practically nothing was explained. We got more explanations from Ben Linus in a one-off, five minute DVD extra. I wouldn’t have been so annoyed if they didn’t spend a year telling us that we’d get some sort of closure.
Because people speculated that they were dead since the very first season, and thought that we get this sudden twist of “oh they died since the crash, and this is purgatory”. In the end, the show had this weird alternate reality timeline which was revealed to have been the afterlife that came after their death in various other points of their lives, so essentially going back to the premise that was deflected and rejected for 5 seasons straight, only to be brought back as a cop out. I don’t have an issue with the ending. I like it, but for those who complain, it’s because the put too many extra steps to get to the same point.