Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Post-Mortem Notes on Lost by The Boys


 
"...move on."
     -Christian Sheppard 

It has been a long and strange and wonderful trip. From the day of the crash to rumblings in the jungle to Jack seeing his dead father to Michelle Rodriguez to punching numbers into a computer to light in a cave, the Lost Boys have had our minds blown and our hearts melted along the way. Like many other Lost fans, the show has become part of our lives. Ryan is convinced that time travel exists. Our friend Brian even named his cat Charles Widmore. Ruben now has a good cry once a day. 

We would like to say thanks to everyone who has dug our little lost words. This has been so much fun. Also, ten big thanks to Lana…and Hashem. But what the F was really up with Dharma?

This write-up has been so difficult to produce. It has taken Ruben and Ryan over a week and many tears and many re-watchings of the final episode, titled The End, to finally come off with some rewarding and deserving words. First and foremost, no other network television show in the past or the future will capture people’s hearts and minds like Lost. The finale was indeed a tear-jerker. Ryan was about to give up on the show, but the divine ending brought him back around. The Lost Boys are trying not to think about it too much. But that is proving impossible. We aren't going to talk (much) about the trivial details, like the light cave and Desmond's purpose, or the different religious symbols in the church at the end, etc. We have soul. Live together and you won't die alone.

Life is a test. The test’s results are afterlife and beyond and what is received by the soul. Lost was a program all about Jack’s test. That being said, in its simplest form, the show about Jack’s test was absolutely amazing. Hindsight.

Ruben cried like a little girl when Jack saw the plane fly over the Island and then his eye closes. Kleenex time. Lots of pacing. Ruben called his folks and told them he loved them. Ryan prayed.

But what about everything else? Everything else!

The more we think about it, the more we feel tricked. We are not alone when we say this, doubtless. Everyone watching this show wanted to know answers to certain mythology-based plot devices. And at the end, we were told it wasn’t about that at all. It was about the characters. Lame excuse for a lightning strike. We’ll get to our biased theories in a moment.

So the Flash Sideways Timeline was more like Purgatory, if you will. This was a no-place, no-time soul-mind creation so these people could be together again in the Beyond. Heaven? Maybe. Another life? Maybe. We were left with nothing but maybes. But why wasn’t Sayid reunited with Nadia? And how long had they been living this Purgatory lie before they saw the light? The Lost Boys think the Purgatory long con went on too long. They could have saved us the stupid Kate episode, second in the season, and given us more blood, please, more links in the chain, instead of squeezing it in at the very last second. And where were Michael and Walt? Michael’s soul was trapped on the Island. Walt’s story is one of the things that was left high and dry. This is an example of one of the things we try not to think about.

The only certainty is that they all died at some point, but their time together was the most important in their respective lives. But what is the Island? And what is the Smoke Monster? And why did Ben kill Dharma? And why didn’t we get more resolution on the subject of Dharma. We got a good chunk, but we didn’t get why, say, Goodspeed was building Jacob’s cabin. We can come up with hundreds of things Lost left unexplained. And this is why we think Lost is not done. In one form or another, whether it is in books or plays or graphic novels or spin-off shows, mark our words, Lost is not done. Why, if it didn’t matter to the plot, did Eloise send her son back to the Island to be killed. It didn’t really matter, so why not save him? Why were the Others wearing fake beards? And on top of every little detail left aloof, they really didn’t explain the Jacob-MiB story all too well. Everything we have seen and grasped onto was utterly inconsequential. We were let down a little. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Again, this is why we try to not to think about it too much. We try to think of the series as a whole. A great series with an okay final season.

Here is our wayward theory: The Island is God. We think of God as an omnipotent man in the sky. Shed that notion for a second and think of God as giving life. Like the Fountain of Youth, if you will. The Island is God. This is why people want to kill for it and will stop at nothing to get more of it. It is the bearer of life and death and once someone or something comes into contact with it (or crash lands on it), their mission is to feel it. Discovery is a terribly wonderful thing. The Island is God. Because times doesn’t matter to God. Time didn’t matter on the Island.

Frank Lapidus!!!

So, until we see some spin-off show about Hurley and Ben in an odd-couple-like sitcom with a laugh track, the Lost Boys would like to bid farewell. The good news is that Ryan has taken the role of movie critic for the LANALOGUE. Not only will he be writing about new movies, like Iron Man 2, which was awesome, he will also be reviewing older films like Starship Trooers, which sucked. We don’t have a name for that one yet so if anyone can come up with a catching movie critic blog byline, Ryan is open to suggestions. Again, Ryan and Ruben would like to say muchos gracias to Lana and everyone who has read the Lost Boys. Peace out. 

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