The LOST Interrobang: THE LIGHT! (S6E17) part I
Posted on 26. May, 2010 by theashcan in Television, The Lost Interrobang
*DEAD*
When we started this LOST Interrobang recap series, our central concern about this show we loved was: “can its creators dish out all the needed explanations without resorting to exposition? Can they keep up the mystery without succumbing to just more mindfuckery?”
We agreed that good LOST episodes were a perfect balance of both qualities: ! and ?. Lesser episodes tilted too much in one direction or the other. Maybe because of that central concern over balance, never once did I imagine a series finale that would fail at both. With “The End”, LOST most certainly does end on exposition, and yet also leaves mysteries hanging, and also reveals that its final season was indeed a mindfuck, which would be OK if it were a good one, which it wasn’t. There’s a lot of territory to cover, so we’ve split this Interrobang into two editions. Tune in tomorrow for the continuation.
SPOILERS and spoilsports, after the jump:
Anupa: Oh man.
We have sooooo much to talk about.
Jef: Haha I know.
Just jump in?
Anupa: Should there be some structure to this?
Jef: Naw fuck it.
Anupa: Lol it’s gonna be a clusterfahk.
Jef: Yeah man.
APPROPRIATELY SO
Let me ask first
How much reading/discussing have you done since watching?
What’s the general consensus?
Anupa: Mostly womp womps all around.
Jef: Lol well make that three womps.
My initial reaction was great, now anyone who googles me can read me saying I have faith in the finale and can accurately conclude that I am an idiot.
THANKS DARLTON.
Anupa: Hahahaha… bigger than that…anyone can google us and find we wasted all that time watching/interrobanging this final, WUTLESS season.
Jef: Hahah
My thing is though, there was good stuff, in the season, and even in the finale.
Which makes the copout at the end even more craaaappppy.
Like it really made me feel like shit after.
I’m not sure what to call this new feeling I had.
I’ll call it shit.
Anupa: No, I know.
I had the exact same feeling it’s called LET DOWN.
Jef: At least have the courtesy to just suck all around then.
Anupa: Like, after it happened me and Rehana were like what the fuck and then tried to forget all about it.
Jef: Honestly man I even spent the next day thinking about all the shit I DID like about this episode.
And then came up with some excuses for the writers on some of the shit I didn’t.
And even after all that, the scales STILL tilted toward shitty.
Anupa: I mean, could you basically sum it up as “…oh?”
I dreaded this interrobang to tell the truth.
Jef: I knowwww.
I thought this was going to be this joyous occasion full of remembrance and stuff.
And now it’s a bitch fest.
Anupa: Let’s start with something overarching… looking back, can you conclusively say the season as a whole sucked?
Jef: I thought about it and the island stuff I’m still alright with.
There were burps and mysteries left dangling and useless developments, but overall, I’m still cool with what happened on the island.
And Jack’s eye-close is still a monster of an ending.
But the sideways flash?
My main thing is that I wanted the series to end on CHARACTER.
And I feel like an asshole now because it DID.
But it did it in the laziest fucking way possible.
Anupa: What feels so bad for me, is that I hate that whole last scene… where Jack is in the church talking to his dad then he goes out and everyone is there and la di da. Like, it makes me so mad to think of it: a) because it makes sense when you think about it, but I don’t think it was explained well enough and relied more on audience sentiment as opposed to anything else, and b) because it completely took me off guard… did we not just spend the majority of six seasons dealing with sci-fi stuff? And we’re gonna end with a scene from Touched By An Angel?
Where Della Reese at?
Like, it didn’t do the INTELLIGENCE of the show justice at all.
That’s my position and I’m sticking with it.
It was pretty much heartbreakingly disappointing.
Jef: Yeah I felt like I got BSGed again with another Christian allegory. Thinking about it later I was like, ok EVEN IF they wanted to go out like that, even if I’m NICE and give them that because I knew from jump one of their main touchstones has been a dude named Christian Sheppard, even THEN…..the best they have is an ending where a guy appears out of nowhere and has to EXPLAIN IT to us?
That’s really the best they got?
Anupa: It felt tres lazy.
Jef: Ugh.
Anupa: Did you get it at first though?
Because I feel really dumb… maybe I was just blindsided, but I was like… huh?
Jef: Hahaha
No yeah I got it. And that’s what made me angry. Right when Jack ended up in the multi-faith church I was like FUCK YOOOU.
Anupa: Hahahhaha I know. NON-DENOMINASHUNAL.
Jef: Also: fuck that multi-faith church!!!!
You cannot throw me a shoutout by putting a ying-yang on the stain glass and think that’s not gonna make me realize this ends with SOULS in HEAVEN.
Anupa: Did it feel more like the conclusion of a season than the conclusion of a series?
Jef: I did feel like it ended the series.
I didn’t like the ending, but there was a lot of stuff in it that’s supported by stuff as early as season one. So yeah.
Anupa: I mean, I understand the season one unifier yes… but I feel like the BIG resolution, the BIG ending came with the crossing over shit… and that timeline was only revealed this season.
I mean, I guess they paced it like that, but like you said… sideways reality is angering.
Jef: It’s angering because it’s some magic-show misdirection shit.
There’s SO MUCH in that reality that DOESN’T support it being some sort of stopover city before you fly to heaven.
Anupa: It feels almost like a “gotcha” timeline.
Jef: Yeah, it wasn’t a reveal. It was a copout.
Anupa: Why introduce the son? Why make the mother Juliet?
Why did Faraday have to wear that stupid hat?
He looked like a trenchcoat mafia hipster.
Jef: Exactly. So much of that shit I don’t even wanna get into. Like really, Desmond’s mission was to wake everyone up to being dead? When he first travelled sideways and told Widmore, “I understand,” THAT’s what he understood????
Hahaha
Let’s touch on Faraday a bit later.
Wanna start with the main characters?
Anupa: Sure.
Jef: How’d you feel about the resolution of Jack vs. Smokey? And Jack’s ending in general?
Anupa: Man, that one shot of them coming at each other.
I mean… I don’t know, you know I hated the light and then how the hole had to be physically blocked…
Like, without getting lost in the details that I hated, I can say that keeping with the whole Locke/Jack arc I liked how it ended.
I liked the faceoff between the two. I am glad that Locke died in a very real way. I’m glad Jack went out a hero because we knew he would.
I don’t get why when MIB’s dead body went down into the light he came out smoke, but it didn’t happen to anyone else. And obvi I liked the eye close with Vincent (!)
I mean, yeah, it was in keeping with everything, with some holes, but mostly in keeping.
But I would’ve felt better had that been the ending.
Jef: Haha ending on Vincent would have saved the show.
Anupa: My fav scene was stumbling upon Rose and Bernard in the jungle with Vincent.
I think those three have been my fav characters.
Jef: I think having no one else turn into a smoke monster works for me. I do believe ‘the light’ was crazy corrupted by touching Smokes, which drives home whatever darkness that dude had in his heart. It makes him more special and shit.
Anupa: Did he have darkness in his heart? Tell me, what was bad about Jacob in that origins story we got?
Jef: Yeah that’s the thing, I’m cool with the concept of it. I’m not cool with the execution of it.
And the whole unplugging/plugging-back-in thing was weirdly basic. The writers even basically have Juliette make fun of it by having Sawyer do the same with the vending machine.
But like: I don’t want cutesy meta jokes about how the episode I am CURRENTLY WATCHING is mad basic.
Anupa: I know, we are past meta, we are past Hurley stating the obvious.
Jef: And back to what we were saying, I get that Smokey should be special in the opposite way that Locke and eventually Jack are special.
But ugh, I can’t even talk about that because you’re right. In the end it just didn’t sell.
Here’s the thing: for a show about choices and shades of character grey, in the end the good/evil line fell pretty hard on some people.
MIB = evil
Anupa: ….it deals very much in b&w?
Jef: And there were mad people who didn’t make it to heaven.
Anupa: Why was Aaron a baby?
Jef: Hahahahha for no reason.
GAH.
Ok next character?
Here’s a strange thing:
I kinda liked Kate’s island ending.
Her whole “I saved a bullet” for you thing worked for me, and I liked that she followed Jack YET AGAIN and it paid off. Kate. Following. Guns. Bloaw, she offs the Smokey.
There was this scene waaaay back in season one when they were opening the hatch
And Jack says to Kate, “after we open this hatch, if we survive, we’re gonna have a Locke problem. And I need to know you’re gonna have my back.”
And she’s like, “I got your back homie.”
So that was nice.
It played out.
Anupa: You have a good memory.
Jef: Haha
Anupa: But yes, I was satisfied with Kate as well… her arc played out true to form and she got her closure with Claire.
Jef: I remember because “We’re gonna have a Locke problem” is one of my favourite lines.
Anupa: Tattoo it on your body!
Jef: (And oh they DID have a Locke problem!)
Haha but dude, in sideways purgatory
Her awakening was looking into Claire’s vag???
First off, HILARIOUS.
Anupa: HAHAHAHAHA
Jef: Second, that would be MY awakening.
How’d you feel about her “I love you” with Jack?
Anupa: EWWWW
You’re so gross!
THE FAHK MAN!
Jef: (LOL)
Anupa: UGH!
Jef: But yeah yo, Kate and Jack’s love — did it feel out of the blue for you?
Anupa: Hang on, I need a minute!
Jef: K
Anupa: I know we’re friends, but cahmon!
I’m not your broski.
Jef: LOOOL
Take as long as you need.
There is no “now” here.
Anupa: LOL
Okay, no it didn’t feel out of the blue. They were always meant to hook up…. it just never worked out for them.
On island, Kate was too sketched out and tempted by Sawyer… off island Jack was fucked up.
Jef: Haha true, Jack is so not a catch off island.
I liked it, I felt it sorta, but still, it woulda been nice if Jack and Kate had ANY meaningful scenes sometime during this season.
If they did, I can’t remember any. The wound stitching I guesssss.
You know?
And also, Kate couldn’t fully wake him up in sideways mindfuck land.
Psh, some soulmate. I’m just saying.
Anupa: Haha but dude, it was all about what gave them purpose and what really fucked with them.
For Kate it was Aaron being born.
For Jack it was knowing what happened to his father.
Jef: Haha no yeah you’re right.
It’s just funny to watch all these star-crossed lovers getting their reunion flashback moments
And then Kate comes up to Jack and all she gets is nothing.
That could hurt someone’s self esteem you know!
Anupa: How’d you feel about Shannon and Boone?
Also, I kinda refuse to believe that Shannon was it for Sayid… like he was willing to fuck over so many people to get to Nadia/get revenge for Nadia.
Jef: That’s true!
And also, sucks for Boone that he gets no awakening scene. Because really, what was the Big Moment for him?
Going to work for Locke?
Anupa: I know… hahahah plot device.
Jef: LOL his time on the island sucked pretty much.
His sister wouldn’t kiss him and then he died.
Anupa: EW
What about Sawyer?
How do you feel about that?
I will say I CRIED when him and Juliet reunited.
That was my shit.
Jef: YES. That was the only awakening where I got emo.
Juliet sold the shiiiit out of that.
Anupa: Okay wait hang on hang on:
Basically when we saw Juliet die… that was the same moment… she was flickering between “crossing over” and being in reality?
Jef: You talking about the white flash?
Anupa: No, when she said to Sawyer “we’ll go dutch” the first time we saw it.
Jef: Oh no yeah that was bullshit.
That was such a red herring.
But yeah, I guess she caught a glimpse of the future in which they would all die, I dunno.
When she said “It worked,” like what? What worked?
I guess she THOUGHT the purgatory she was seeing was actually a second reality? Just like we did?
Anupa: HUH?
THE VENDING MACHINE WORKED
OHHHH
Jef: Hahaha you think?
Anupa: I think.
I think she was having her re-awakening moment then.
Jef: Hahahah you are right. Oh man, her dying words are about a candy machine.
Anupa: I mean, the sideways timeline maybe happens within the blink of an eye.
Fuck this is stupid.
Jef: Well yeah, there’s no time there.
Anupa: I hate that I’m talking about this.
Jef: Hahahahha ok yeah let’s not give them the satisfaction of trying to figure that out.
Because likely they don’t even know themselves.
You mentioned Sawyer –
My thing with how Sawyer’s story ended is this larger problem I had with the finale in general.
He didn’t do anything!
I expected the final mission of killing the Smoke Monster and saving the island to be this big team ordeal tying together everyone’s skills and core characteristics and shit.
So yeah, Kate’s part was good, as was Jack’s.
But I wanted Sawyer to pull a con on Smokes.
I wanted them to need Miles to talk to the dead.
Lapidus flew the plane, okay, but what about everyone else with cool skills you know?
Anupa: Richard’s skills failed (not-aging skills).
Even Hurley’s eating and/or humor skills could’ve been put to use.
Instead he cried like five million times, WHICH BROKE MY HEART EVERY SINGLE TIME.
Jef: Haha yeah he’s a sad puppy.
Okay yeah: Hurley as the island guardian!
That was a curveball. It was almost too much of a curveball. I liked it. But the writers didn’t really earn that I don’t think.
Anupa: It was too much of a curveball.
Why Hurley? Like I don’t get it.
Is it because the bird yelled his name?
Jef: That bird knew everything!
I mean, I feel it on a certain level.
Hurley’s cool, he’s nice, it’s a good way to break the pattern.
He’s Mexican and bashful, which breaks the white-saviour complex cycle.
But like yeah the overall feeling is still HUUUH?
Anupa: Yeah, that’s how I feel.
Like, oh, nice.
But, to quote Scooby Doo, “Arrooo?”
And his patna was Ben… who confuses me so much, was he bad or good? He baited out Widmore and co. so that Smokey wouldn’t kill him but then he switched allegiances, yet again.
Jef: Yeah I still feel it’s messed that a mass murderer like Ben gets a chance to go into the light (even though he doesn’t take it), whereas someone like Michael is damned for eternity.
At least Mike was driven by his love for his son. Ben was mostly driven by ambition and just straight up neediness.
Anupa: But he was a nice guy during his sideways timeline.
Jef: Well shit, like I’m sure Michael would be a nice guy too in fantasy no-issues land, if his soul wasn’t stuck on the island.
I think I’m just salty I didn’t get my Waaaalt moment lol.
Anupa: My head hurts.
To be continued…
