Monsters of Television

“We could go Dutch.”

Aside from Noel’s review, each of the writers for Monsters of Television will provide their takes on Lost, from their own perspectives. Below, Matt discusses the nostalgia the finale engaged and the love of his life, regardless of when or where, Juliet.

We the audience should approach our relationship with Lost the same way Sawyer and Juliet decide to treat their sideways date: meet in the middle. Of course not every question is going to be answered and no not everyone is going to be completely satisfied. We all have to give a little up but we’re sure to receive in return.

Before I dive in it’s probably important to note that I did enjoy the finale. Was it perfect? No. Was it what I expected? Hell no. It was different. After thinking about it and talking through it with members of my viewing party I realized the brilliance and forgave the things that I thought would make me rage. Perhaps I’m too much of a fanboy. But again I say it wasn’t perfect. My thoughts on “The End” can best be broken down into three words: nostalgia, unexpected, and Juliet.

Boy did they pile on the cameos for the finale. The sideways world has brought back beloved characters all season but my most shocked character return was when Rose and Bernard appeared on island again. I didn’t think we’d ever see them again and so I was pleasantly surprised early on. Shannon made a brief (thank god) appearance as well and we finally saw sideways Juliet, but more on that later.

Nostalgia isn’t just about seeing familiar faces, it’s also about reliving past events. We were being awakened (or rememberized as one of my friends aptly put it) as each of the characters were. As Sun remembered finding out about her baby, so did we. As Claire and Charlie rememberized their relationship, so did we. We were being warmly reminded of important character events of the past as we moved forward. This nostalgia is even more significant with the realization of what the sideways storyline actually is.

Let’s go on ahead and touch on that. I don’t care who you are, where you’re from, or what you did, you did not see the sideways reveal coming. Get your hindsight bias away from me. It was different, unexpected. And beautiful. People seem to be having problems accepting the ending. More answers were wanted. Well remember how “Ab Aeterno” and “Across the Sea” turned out? Is that what you wanted for your finale? We were given epic battles and grand character realizations and sweet, sweet Lapidus and all of it was topped up with an enlightening and very meta message.The sideways world was an in between; a living waiting room for our characters to come together, remember their past lives and move on to the next world together. That ending wasn’t just for the characters, but the actors as well. This family had come together and the final scenes in the church symbolized them coming together and remembering the past six years before moving on to their next endeavors. Even further it resonated with the audience. We got to remember, to see our favorite characters, relive our favorite moments and then move on as well. Such a fitting message for the end.

That’s enough trying to be smart and deep and all that. Now it’s time to fanboy about the greatest character on the show and yes I would say on all of television: Dr. Juliet Burke (Carlson). In a weird change for Lost we were given a mystery that almost the entire collective community knew the answer to from the get go: who was David’s mother? Durr, Juliet of course. But this easy answer didn’t take away from the reveal at all, it made that much more sweet and exciting. The parallels! No matter the universe, Juliet starts with Jack, wakes the fuck up and ends up with her soulmate Sawyer. They both have such great smiles. Their awakening scene will go down as one of my favorite scenes in the history of the show.

One popular post-finale conversation point seems to be the one question you wanted answered and didn’t get. Mine? Walt. I refuse to just accept he has powers.Where did they come from? What exactly are they? For such an important catalyst for many of the events in the first 2 season, they sure do throw that aside. Sure Malcolm David Kelley hit puberty so they supposedly couldn’t do what they wanted with the character but give us something. Without it, it seems like so much of the first few seasons are just no longer important. It also cheapens one of my favorite Lost scenes of all time.

Also, who decided who got to ascend with everyone? I wanna see the checklist that enabled or denied people to be in the church with everyone else. No freighter folk? No Ana Lucia? No Walt? At this point I’m just looking for problems as a digression. Get used to it, people are going to be doing that until the end time. But again I say I loved the finale so get off my back!

Lost is a show about characters and we were given a very appropriate character finale. It may not have been the ending you wanted or expected, but it was one hell of a good one. It reminded me a lot of the finale of Felicity or Friends. One final bringing together of these characters in a type of celebratory look that transcends the show itself. This review comes just 24 hours after it aired and while I have talked and cried and meditated it’s still rather reactionary. I plan on watching the series again in its entirety once the final DVD set is released. Of course I’ll be getting the blu-ray because DVDs are for neanderthals. The finale and the series itself will be the source of much discussion and emotion and other -ion words for a long time. The show has ended but the party has just begun. Let’s get to it.

You can also read thoughts about why the ending wasn’t responsible for tying it all up in a pretty bow by Nick, and Karen provides thoughts on what the show, as a whole, meant for her.