Long Live Lost

In defence of the perfect series ending

Long dead shows are facing a popularity revival. The West Wing is being ardently binge-watched by people desperate to escape into a fictional political show that they wish was real. Hey Arnold! is making a return. The Jetsons are even flying back to our screens. So what’s the problem with awesome shows coming back as talking points? When the fans don’t understand them. Lost was arguably the greatest TV show ever and yet still fans just don’t understand it.

Fans have begged Lost to return and there’s even rumours of a season seven script. The chatter around this show fails to die. Its influence can be seen in the most popular shows today. Yet, this is in spite of the fact it had the most contentious ending of any show. It’s been nearly ten years so let’s just get this straight. THEY WERE NOT ALL DEAD.

Lost was infamous for its twists and turns. The entire point of each episode was to leave the audience with more questions than answers. This was true in the final. To have given every answer would have gone against the entire point of the show which was to make us ask questions. However, on the most simple point of the finale people still don’t get it. The irony is enormous when the one clear cut answer people got and still there are debates over it.

The entire point of each episode was to leave the audience with more questions than answers

So we need to clear this up because it’s the most drawn out debate ever. Even Lindelof has refused to answer questions on the ending.

For those who never watched the show, basically a plane crash landed on an island and weird shit happened. There were polar bears, time traveling, the island moved, dead people walked around, one dude was centuries old, there was a smoke monster, almost every mode of transport blew up and even a hydrogen bomb went off. It gave us so many questions and the finale tried to give just some answers. Christian Shephard was the designated explainer and he was pretty clear.

“The most important time of your life was the time you spent with these people.”

“Some of them died before you and some long after”.

He literally tells Jack that he spent part of his life on the island therefore Jack could not have died in the first plane crash (yes, there was more than one plane crash on the show). If the island was the most important time of Jack’s life then Jack had to have been alive to experience that.

If the island was the most important time of Jack’s life then Jack had to have been alive to experience that

They were, however, all dead when they met back up in the church because “everyone dies some time”. They were not, though, dead the entire time. Otherwise it would just be a bunch of random ghosts meeting up who had never actually spent any of their lives together. The show was odd but there was at least basic logic to it.

Kate even told Jack that she had missed him so much. The last time Jack had seen Kate was to watch her finally fly away from the island as Jack lay dying in the bamboo forest. If Kate had not left the island and spent some considerable time away from it then she cannot possibly have missed him. She’s not going to have missed him so much if she hadn’t had to live without Jack.

They were all dead at the end.

Some died on the island, some not.

They were not all dead the whole damn time.

The island was not a purgatory, except for Michael who was trapped there but he didn’t die in the crash and had lived on the island too.

It was one of the only things Lost explained. There are bigger questions we still need answers to, such as:

Where was dead Vincent??? Do dogs not get to go to weird church place too?

Why didn’t Vincent get his own episode?

Why was baby Aaron there? Does he have to go through death as a baby? Was the most important time of his life when he was a baby?

How did Charlie get a haircut when he was dead?

Is the show actually supposed to be in all caps just to emphasise the sheer chaos of it all?

#BringBackLostButMakeItMoreQueer #CaseClosed

In issue 2 of Stand Up, we examine why The West Wing is still as popular as ever. You can still order issue one of Stand Up magazine here.