Well, there it is. It’s over. No more Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Sayid, Desmond, Ben or Locke. No more Smoke Monster. No more Island. No more flashbacks, flashforwards, flashsideways. No more Lost.

I’m gutted.

And yet I’m glad. Not because it’s over - I already miss these great characters and the Lost universe – but because of the send off. After six years of enjoying Lost, it all came down to the 2½ hour finale. And in my opinion, it was…perfect. To me, it ranks right up there with the series finale of The Sopranos. Maybe not as ambiguous but still leaving the interpretation in the hands of the viewer. It was like a Rorschach test – make of it what you need to make of it. But above all…it actually moved me to tears. That’s right. To tears. It was that beautiful, that moving.

Fans are coming down on both sides of the fence on this one. Some love it, some hate it. Did it answer all the gazillion questions throughout the six seasons, did it wrap up everything nicely. No. But it didn’t have to in my opinion. That’s life. And life is what Lost is all about. Death, too. And the characters. Great characters. But also intricate storylines that – storylines that sometimes, I’ll admit, got a little too intricate for their own good. But I loved it.

After 121 episodes it is hard to let go but as one of the characters wisely stated: Remember, and move on.

While I'm not in the "That was it?! After six years, that's what you give me?!" camp, I didn't find it wholly satisfying, either. Yes, I enjoyed it, but I thought the Man in Black's demise was a real anti-climax, and also felt there were just TOO many questions that they made absolutely no attempt to answer.

I think I agree with someone I read who said: emotionally, it was satisfying. Intellectually, not so much.

SPOILER WARNING

I think they finished it with the story they began with. Despite everyone that came and went, the story was Jack's. He was the first person we saw in the first episode and the story went from there. The "flash-sideways" in season 6 was Jack's as well. Even though "everyone" was there, we only needed enough for Jack's side of it.

Did it answer all of the questions? No. Would I have liked to have seen how Hurley and Ben ran the island? Of course. But it wasn't their story. We know they worked well together though. They told each other that right at the end: "You made a great number 2." "You made a great number 1." But if you were to order the Lost series in chronological order, the season 6 flash-sideways would go dead last since it occurred after everyone had died, and since Jack was the last one we saw go, everyone else clearly died sometime after he did.

I would have liked to have seen an alternate reality indicating what would have happened had the smoke monster escaped. That would have been cool. I would have liked to have seen how Richard handles the modern world. I would have liked to know what the heck the light is. But I got enough answers to formulate my own ideas. And that's what a great story does.

What a frustrating show! It was a decent ending but there's so much I'd still like to know, it actually felt like a bit of a cop out in the end. I actually doubt if the writers had all the answers to begin with. There were times when I wanted to give up on watching the show but I kept going as I knew they were only doing six series and I'd get the answers I wanted. Very disappointed.

I hope the 24 series finale doesn't let me down as much as this did...

Absolutely terrible ending IMO, I wanted to pick up my TV and throw it out the window! I am sure they must have fired all the writers at the end of season 5 and just told the work experience kids to knock something out for season 6.

Sure it was about the characters, there is no denying that. But the fact is this was set on the island, and it was a HUGE part of the show. To not answer any of the questions about what the island actually is, the light, what happens if the MIB gets off the island, the Egyptian statue and hieroglyphics etc. is a massive cop out.

Ultimately I wonder if the writers/producers knew any of the answers to these questions or if they were just making it up as they went along. Very disappointing end to what was a great show.

Has anyone here watched Alias? The show that made J.J. Abrams famous, and the reason he didn't do much on Lost other than co-write and direct the pilot (barring bits here and there). That show lasted five years, and the series finale was actually really good. Characters' fates resolved in fitting ways, but also answers to mythology questions that had been running throughout the show's lifetime.

I know that Abrams had a big hand in coming up with the original premise and characters for the show, and I can't help but think that if he had been more directly involved throughout its entire run, it would have managed to stay more cohesive, focussed, and ultimately would have been able to conjure up a more satisfying, less "Oh, you decide" ending.

I never watched the series before. I wanted to, just to see the plane crash, but I missed it and figured it wasn't worth looking up. I watched the last 20 minutes of the final episode, and as touching as the ending was, it was pretty much a lazy, shitty way to end a series. Really? Did they go that way? It's one big slap to the audience's faces. 6 years of this show, and the best way they could end it is by practically shoving in our faces that everything that had happened after the plane crash was pretty much a dream? Honestly, I thought screenwriters who make it big enough to become the authors of one of the most popular television shows were smart enough to avoid cliché endings such as the final episode's itself.

But don't get me wrong. I had no idea who any of the characters were, but the last five minutes with silence from the characters and everyone getting ready to "move on" was pretty touching and stirred my emotions quite a bit (not as much as my mom's though, as she was practically bawling after the episode ended). But the fact that they chose THAT way to end the series made me happy and reassured me that the show wasn't really worth watching in the first place.

Sean

There will be plenty of specials and reunion shows, I'm sure.

I was never really certain how I felt about this show.  I've watched a number of episodes and they were fun and somewhat intriguing but it really lacked any kind of substance. You could kind of tell they were just making it up as they went along - not that there's anything wrong with that.

Now that it's over and not a moving target, I'll probably rent it and watch the complete series.  Maybe I'll appreciate it more then.  

I would have liked more questions answered.  What was the deal with Walt's powers.  Who built that statue?  Over six years, this show had so many characters, plotlines and mysteries it became hard to keep track of them all.  However, I have begun to appreciate the finale a bit more after a few days to digest it.  The whole flash sideways being the afterlife really makes you look back at this whole season and ponder.  I'm still not entirely sure why Jack was the last one to make it to the church, especially if Hurley and Ben had presumably been guardians of the island for decades, if not centuries.

Ah, well.  Never missed an episode.

I was a fan of the show -- the first season was often breathtaking television, exquisitely crafted -- but they kind of lost their way somewhere around the third season.

But I did enjoy every episode -- even if it sometimes left me confused -- and that includes the finale.  Sure, I think it could have been better, but that does not mean I didn't like it, you know?

And they surely were making up some things as they went, despite what they say.  The character of Mr. Ekko was supposed to be much larger, apparently, but he left for reasons of his own.  And Ben was only supposed to have a 3-4 episode arc, but they kept him around for the duration.  To me, that counts as making stuff up.

I found this video amusing, though I could not figure out how to embed it from the site.  Fans of the show will like this -- lots of stuff I had forgotten:

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1936291

Quoted from Zombie Sean It's one big slap to the audience's faces. 6 years of this show, and the best way they could end it is by practically shoving in our faces that everything that had happened after the plane crash was pretty much a dream? Honestly, I thought screenwriters who make it big enough to become the authors of one of the most popular television shows were smart enough to avoid clich� endings such as the final episode's itself.

Evidence that you didn't watch the series. The crash and everything that happened on the island was not a dream. The season 6 "flash sideways" was a sort of afterlife sequence that occurred sometime in the future after everyone died. Given that Jacob and his brother lived for quite a few hundred years, this could have been a long time in the future after both Hurley and Ben died. It is plainly stated, "They're all dead. Some went before you, and some after you." The island was reality.

Of course, to explain my experience, I watched all six seasons in one long marathons these last few months leading into the final. I managed to catch up just in time to see the next-to-last episode on TV. Hence, the whole series was fresh in my mind when I saw the end. I didn't have to try to remember anything.

And if you're trying to figure out people's powers, remember that the man in black was a shape shifter, and would have appeared as Walt on several occasions.

Quoted from George Willson And if you're trying to figure out people's powers, remember that the man in black was a shape shifter, and would have appeared as Walt on several occasions.

True, but several times they showed Walt displaying his powers before he came to the island.  I think this is one of those plotlines that was originally going to be big, but the producers decided it was ultimately leading nowhere and they killed it off.  And i would agree with Bert that the producers were making a lot of this stuff up as they went along, to try and throw people off the "it's all purgatory" path.

Quoted from George Willson Evidence that you didn't watch the series. The crash and everything that happened on the island was not a dream. The season 6 "flash sideways" was a sort of afterlife sequence that occurred sometime in the future after everyone died. Given that Jacob and his brother lived for quite a few hundred years, this could have been a long time in the future after both Hurley and Ben died. It is plainly stated, "They're all dead. Some went before you, and some after you." The island was reality.

I am aware that everyone died, but the fact that they did die and really the majority of everything that happened on the island didn't actually happen (or so I suspect) ultimately fits in the category of the whole "it was all a dream" ending, which is a trap that all writer's should avoid. If it ended up never happening, it's a cheap and easy way to end something, and is an insult to the audience by leading us with false story-lines that end up being unnecessary and irrelevant.

But then again, I've never watched the series. So this is all based on what I saw in the last 20 minutes of the final episode, which is, in fact, the only episode I've watched out of the entire series.

Sean

I assure you that everything that occurred on the island was their reality. It all actually happened. I don't recall much of any of it (of any significance) that was overtly a dream. I guess I'll have to see about Walt's powers since I don't recall them too much. Probably cause they killed off the plotline. haha. They did establish, though, that pretty much every supernatural appearance of someone dead (who was not seen by Hurley) was the man in black aka the smoke monster.

I enjoyed the series for all its turns. Watching it end to end was not too bad.

Quoted from bert And they surely were making up some things as they went, despite what they say.

I'd rather call it "adapting". "Making stuff up as you go along" sort of implies that you don't know where you're going. In the cases with Mr. Eko and Ben, the producers simply had to adapt the storyline to fit real life. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (who plays Eko) didn't like staying in Hawaii so they had to cut short his stay on the show. With Ben they were just blown away by Michael Emerson's performance (as a lot of us were) that they decided to make him a regular.

Jeff Goldsmith, the editor of Creative Screenwriting, just uploaded a new podcast in which he interviews Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof (the show's producers). The podcast was taped in 2008 I believe (right after season 4) and it's really interesting to hear that the end had actually been planned somewhere around the end of season 3. They are also joking about how they have to switch identity and move to Iceland because some fans will hate the ending. They also explain - indirectly - why some questions on the show will never be answered.

Check it out it's really good.