poli/sci/fi

So I had a week to ponder it, read this fantastic explanation of the entire mythology from start to finish (seriously, if you haven’t read this yet, read it now!), and rewatch the finale. My conclusion now? The finale was the single most beautiful piece of television ever created.

My reasoning for this is actually summarized by the final statement in that post: “In the end, for me, LOST was a touchstone show that dealt with faith, the afterlife, and all these big, spiritual questions that most shows don’t touch. And to me, they never once wavered from their core story — even with all the sci-fi elements they mixed in.”

Does that mean LOST was never sci fi to begin with? Was I wrong to assume that the primary conceit of this show was exploring hypothetical scientific concepts on an island? More importantly, did I obsess over the clearly sci fi elements of the show to the point of ignoring the primary goal of it: a discussion of faith, spirituality, connection and relationships.

Now, to be fair, it wasn’t just that the vast LOST audience simply chose to declare LOST as a sci fi show when the true point of the show was something else. This was clearly something that the writers enjoyed playing with from the beginning: getting the audience to obsess and debate over the origins of Dharma, or how they could send bunnies through time, or whether or not Smokey was a cloud of nanobots. Damon Lindeloff and Carlton Cuse (not to mention JJ Abrams) are huge sci fi fans. And perhaps LOST did get (for lack of a better word) lost in its own mythology for a while. But to be honest, whether they had used sci fi as a distraction to propel the story while exploring the relationships of the characters or some other vehicle, the vehicle was never the reason for the show; it’s the journey that matters.

Obviously sci fi fans obsess to a far greater degree than do fans of any other genre of storytelling, especially when the story is laid out as a mystery from the beginning. But ultimately the show was a debate between science and faith, and if only one of those truths can ultimately guide our view of the world, LOST came down in favor of faith. (Note: that’s not to say “religion. LOST, while clearly using religious imagery, and often outright religious references, to tell its story, embraced a multitude of different faith ideas. All you have to do is look at the hospital chapel they end up at in the finale. Their view of Heaven is inclusive and ecumenical.)

Originally my main problem with the finale, nay, the entire last season, was that it went too mystical, when I wanted straight answers.
– How does the donkey wheel move the Island through time? Electromagicism.
– Where did the Smoke Monster come from? Jacob pushed his brother down a stream with a light, his brother died and became the Smoke Monster.
– Why was Sayid with Shannon instead of Nadia in the Finale? Because Shannon was an 815er, and Nadia wasn’t. Oh, and now personifies evil.
– Why was everyone from 815 so important? So they could replace Jacob, and he could retire/kill his brother.
And the best (while not most impacting) one:
– Why was Kate’s name scratched off Jacob’s list? Because now she wasn’t alone… she was caring for a child. Hello? Jin and Sun were NEVER alone! Why was there still a KWON on the list?

I still maintain what I said in my previous post on this: in the finale, Desmond and Hurley were just as much trying to get the Viewers to “let go” as their fellow 815ers. In the “sideways reality” (seriously, it’s not sideways to anything… it’s the afterlife) everyone is still going about their idealized lives, completely ignorant of the fact that they previously had lives together on the Island. But when anyone is suddenly awakened to their past, the flashes aren’t of the Hatch, or watching a Dharma video, or of the sky lighting up. They see their interactions with each other, the people they loved. That’s EXACTLY what the Viewers are supposed to do too. Sure, we enjoyed the hell out of debating the sci fi elements of LOST, but, although it may seem trite to say, we LOVED the show because of the characters. And we need to give up our addiction to answers and details, and remember what we’ve forgotten: the characters are what made this show matter.

So in the end, when Juliet is reunited with Sawyer, it’s beautiful, because as improbable a couple as they might have first seemed, they were perfect together. And when Sayid ends up with Shannon it’s because she was flawed, like him, and even in his idealized “sideways reality” Sayid knew that Nadia deserved better than him. And when Daniel, Charlotte, Miles, Alpert, Alex, Rousseau, Lapidus, Widmore, Eloise, and Ben weren’t in the chapel it’s because they all still had work to do, helping the people that were important to them (either because they loved them, or they’d wronged them, or both) to remember their lives before.

I loved this show. I loved getting into the mystery from the first episode. I loved watching flashbacks and realizing what made the characters the way they are. I loved speculating about who Jacob was, and why the Island was so mysterious (not to mention why it had motives!).

I also was distracted over 121 episodes. Distracted by the Hatch, Smokey, Walt’s psychic abilities, the Black Rock, the Others, Dharma, a blown hatch, flashforwards and time travel. And it was those distractions that made the finale hard to swallow.

But I learned to let go, and that actually makes me even more eager to watch the series over again from the beginning. To see what I REALLY missed… the important stuff.

Namaste.