LOOOOOOOOOOOOST!!!!! (spoilers, duh) (Page 4)

runningwoof - 2010-05-24 1:46 PM I loved the ending.  The more I think about it, the better I like it.  My husband cried out Nooooo when he found out they were dead and that the sideways universe was not completely real.  I disagree with the purgatory thing.  From what Christian said, this was the place they made to find each other.  I see it more as the boat that they ride to valhalla rather than a place of atonement.  It was where they could all "move on" to their final destination together.  The island was real.  The people were real.  

Many questions were answered, but not in the way we expected or fully.  The numbers corresponded to the names of the potential candidates that were left alive. The smoke monster was the man in black.  His mother said that if they entered the cave, they would suffer a fate worse than death.  Maybe it was suppose to be the blackness of his heart that caused him to become a monster, thus the reason jack did not.  My husband believes that after putting the stone back, nothing happened until jack touched the water, he thought that he was giving his life back to the island.  I don't know about that, but it sounds good to me.  I don't think every question needed to be answered.  

As for the Christian over tones of the show.  They have been in lost since the beginning.  Jacob is a biblical name, father  of the tribes of isreal.  Since the beginning there has been this idea of faith and leadership and sacrifice.  And as overt as the idea of Christian Shepherd is, I did not feel like they rammed it down my throat.  Oh and I am a neo-pagan and often feel like christianity is rammed down my throat.  I didn't with this.  I like the idea that these people of vastly different faiths, all moved on together.   I think that is the reason why their were soooo many multifaith symbols in the chapel.  (plus a funeral home chapel normally is non-faith / non denominational as to serve the whole public, although the giant statue of Christ out front may sway it towards christianity a little more than I would have liked).

Almost everything in this show is up to some sort of inturpretation, and maybe that is what I love about it.  It doesn't matter what someone else took away from the show, but what I (you) took away from the show.   

TriToy - 2010-05-24 2:34 PM

uhm yeah - that is the old testament, the Torah - Jewish not Christian

TriRSquared - 2010-05-24 11:02 AM

Was not sure what the make of that either.  I thought maybe it was people who tried to "steal" the light and died.  But the pool spit out both the MIB and Jack's bodies.  So why not these bodies?

And if Desmond was the only one would could withstand the "electromagnetic" stuff in the pool why did Jack live?  It just got sloppy towards the end.

IMKO it was just a prop the makes the place look dangerous and spook.  No further thought was put into them.

SCamp07 - 2010-05-24 2:53 PM

And, why did the MIB become Smokie when he went down but no one else?

SCamp07 - 2010-05-24 1:53 PM

And, why did the MIB become Smokie when he went down but no one else?

Gaarryy - 2010-05-24 3:20 PM

 He didn't

the MIB died, when he went down,,, the smoke moster was released and was able to inhabit/assume/ duplicate a life form that looked like the MIB. big difference.   the actual MIB was found by Jacob in the stream, and laid to rest. Just like when the smoke monster was appearing like Locke,, Locke's actual body was in the coffin/box then buried

megtrow - 2010-05-24 9:45 AM Well, I slept on it... and I'm still disappointed with the ending.

I understand what they were going for, I understand that the Sideways reality was actually a Purgatory-type of thing and that everyone was able to cross-over to wherever it was that they were going once they were all together and remembered the most important parts of their lives (which had occurred on the island, together).  I get that.  But I don't like it. 

[As an aside, why were baby Aaron and Penny in the church??  And why not so many others?  Anyway...]

My biggest problem with this ending is that they never answered any of the main questions.  None of them.  Even though they have always pushed the Science Vs Faith angle, Science went completely out the window this season.  And if the Island Timeline was actually the real timeline where people lived and died... that means that we still had the Dharma Initiative, the four-toed statue, Charles Widmore and his crazy quest for the island, the island "moving" and flashing through time... there are so many crazy things that really did occur, and we've been expecting answers for, and we've never gotten them.  I felt like this ending was an excuse for them to not have to answer any of the questions I had.  And I'm sad because of that.

gearboy - 2010-05-24 11:55 AM

Except that there are plenty of versions of christianity that require works, or have predetermined destiny, that the main issue in seeing Christ-allegories are the actions of the main characters.  Like the Narnia books - very clearly christian, and yet no mention (that I recall) of Jesus.



I am not touching THAT live wire with a 10 foot pole - having gone to a Catholic university and married a Catholic girl, whose family is still Catholic.  By most standards I am aware of, Catholics are Christian.  And that's all I am going to say about THAT.

marmadaddy - 2010-05-24 9:54 AM BTW, did anyone else think that the skeletons in the light pool were supposed to be previous "Jacks" who had saved the world before him? That the writers were hinting at a neverending battle between good and evil? 

cardenas1 - 2010-05-24 1:59 PM

Just have to go on record I may be only person out there that has never seen this show.   Never intentionally avoided it, but I always felt it was like a good book or movie where you had to start at the begining and I never had the time to that. 

hamiltks10 - 2010-05-24 3:00 PM

Also, MIB wasn't exactly a terrible, horrible person before he became Smokey.  He just wanted to get off the damn island.  He hadn't done anything really that bad....well, excpet killing his fake mother, who'd killed his real mother.

mattb1 - 2010-05-24 3:05 PM

I'm in the same boat.  I've never even seen 1 second of it.  Not really sure I have an desire to watch it either. 

Bripod - 2010-05-24 1:21 PM 
...

 I think what Brynn was getting at was, while there were some parallels to Christianity, there were several key components missing (one of them JESUS CHRIST), enough so that it wasn't really a "Christian religious lesson" at all. Oh and to help you on the whole purgatory thing, even the current pope admits that the prooftext that Catholics have been using to support their belief in purgatory (don't remember which letter to the Corinthians, but it's one of them) doesn't have anything to do with such an idea, nor does it support it. So this whole "If you remember how you died, then you can move on" thing is in no way analogous to Christianity which says we are all inherently evil and only by the shed blood of Jesus can we be granted forgiveness and everlasting life IF we will repent and put our trust in him. No repentance, no trust in Jesus, not even as much as a mention of Jesus. Therefore no "Christian religious lesson", at least in terms of true Biblical Christianity. But this is a thread about LOST, not Christianity, so... /rant

gearboy - 2010-05-24 3:18 PM



The point I think you are missing is that there is a LOT of christian allegory literature out there.  Most of it never explicitly mentions Jesus (Again, Narnia comes to mind; but I also remember from my HS english lit "Billy Budd" as another).  The point of being literature is that it uses metaphor and allegory - much like Jesus himself allegedly did - to tell the story. As someone who was raised jewish, I am very aware of and sensitive to these in the popular media.  

Renee - 2010-05-24 5:32 PM

I did not get a sense of an overriding Christian story. Yes, there were SOME elements, but it certainly did not dominate the story. In fact, I saw it as a sort of Buddhist message - when you sort yourself out, then you can leave the cycle of rebirth. Some had more work to do, some were ready to move on. Enlightenment, anyone? En-light-enment.

The stained glass window in the chamber where Jack and his father spoke - it had symbols from Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, a Chinese or was it Japanese character (Confusionism? Taoism?). There were either 6 or 8 symbols (I haven't rewatched it yet).

LazyFatDog - 2010-05-24 6:16 PM  Too bad the whole flash-sideways universe is a season six phenomenon and has nothing to do with the first five seasons. 

So what answers did the provide about the rest of the series?  How about the big one, i.e. what was the island?

Bripod - 2010-05-24 6:29 PM 

...

 The point I think you're missing is that an allegory attemps to re-tell the same story using types and shadows of the real thing. Yes, C.S. Lewis (a Christian) wrote the Narnia series where Aslan (type of Jesus) atones for the sins of his people, is resurrected, defeating death and evil, and takes those who have faith in him home to glory. I think the point I'm missing is when the heck that happened anywhere in LOST! If it was an allegory, though it certainly borrowed some things from Christianity, (as well as eastern religions, paganism, and other mystical beliefs) it was not an allegory of Christianity. From the article linked by Fatdoggy: "The show is a reflection of our beliefs." - Carlton Cuse So there's your allegory - whatever those dudes believe, the show was an allegory of that.

TriRSquared - 2010-05-24 6:46 AM

I almost do not want to focus on that too much because it makes the "real" story line pretty weak in it's ending.  Bad guy gets killed by good guy, good guy sacrifices himself for the good of others.