'Lost' is Lost … Almost

Like millions of TV viewers around the world last night, I watched the series finale event of my favorite television series that ended after a six year run – Lost. I was just a little surprised at my reaction to the closing events.

I admit I’ve felt nostalgic and emotional watching series finales before – Hill Street Blues … L.A. Law … Third Watch … ER.

But never the way I felt last night. Each moment of “remembrance” brought tears to my eyes and I could feel the corners of my mouth turning down as if to presage a misty rainfall of tears. My vision blurred and I felt elation inside as my breath deepened.

Then, when Jack Shephard’s father, Christian, opened the doors of the church and the bright light flooded in, that’s when I lost it completely and tears of happiness, nostalgia and reverence flooded down my cheeks.

So … it’s kind of what I expected. The final moments represented Jack’s ascent to … Heaven? Nirvana? As Christian Shephard called it, “moving forward.”

I interpret the final 15 minutes as Jack’s process. We learn how he died – replacing the stone to reincarnate the extinguished golden light. But we don’t really know when he died. The assumption would be that he died when his eye closed after seeing the airplane fly overhead, ostensibly returning Sawyer, Kate and Claire (original crash characters) join Lipidus, Alpert and Miles to civilization.

I believe all of the characters had died by the time Jack entered the church – all who were there to join him and to send him on his final journey. I believe all of the “flash sideways” scenes were symbolic of the lives the survivors had lived, and that their “remembrance” scenes represented their deaths and reunions in that other place. Forget chronological time; it has ceased to exist.

I believe those who were not present at the church – Michael and his son Walt, Daniel, Lipidus, etc. – either were still alive at the time of Jack’s moving forward, or were not of consequence in Jack’s life.

I believe all that transpired up to the point where the nuclear device exploded actually happened to the Lost contingent, and that the splitting-up of their existence (the flash sideways) represented their journey to the other world. I believe that the episodes of their remaining behind were a test of Jack’s humanity.

Finally, I believe that the one-hour Jimmy Kimmel special show that followed was nearly a complete waste of time for me. I had expected to see three serious alternative endings, but instead was treated to caricatures of three famous series endings – Survivor, The Sopranos, and Newhart. But I did laugh a little, so maybe it wasn’t all that bad.

Live on in our hearts, Lost … live on.