Archive for April, 2011

The End

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

Matt, 31 — New Jersey (USA) :

It was THE end of “The End”. I had watched all six seasons of Lost with my parents; it started when I was a single college student living at home, and it ended with them joining my wife and me in our own home.

I had spent the six seasons living and dying with every episode. Usually I would pause and think out loud, my mother joining in to the half-baked, literary discussion, my father patiently waiting. During the course of the six seasons my girlfriend-then-wife had been brought up to speed in the beginning, then her interest waned, then she came back for the final few episodes.

So there we were, my wife, parents and I, watching the finale conclude. Since the end date had been announced three years earlier, we had all asked ourselves “How will it end?” And then, in what seemed to be a single moment, it was explained: they lived, they died, they were together, they moved on. The love they felt for one another on this world would keep them together in the next.

It had been daylight when we started watching; it was deep dusk as our characters faded to white, as Jack died, and as the white “LOST” appeared on blackened screen, a resolved, happy, harmonic cord playing. We sat in stunned silence; my cheeks were wet with my tears.

There was no discussion while the credits played. We were stunned —we were heartbroken— we were fulfilled.

As I turned the TV off (and kept the lights off, for I didn’t want my father to see that I had cried), I shared aloud a personal flashback aloud: standing in a convenience store in September 2004, seeing in a magazine that one of those hobbits was in the plane crash show… deciding to give it a try.

Lost had found me. I’ll be eternally grateful.

Yes, you do. You just don’t know it yet.

Friday, April 1st, 2011

Natalya, 16 — Brussels (Belgium) :

There are so many great scenes in Lost, that’s been hard to choose one moment but I would say one of my favorite scene is the dialog between Jack and Locke in the final episode of Season 1 : “Exodus”.

JACK: Look, I need for you — I need for you to explain to me what the hell’s going on inside your head, John. I need to know why you believe that that thing wasn’t gonna-

LOCKE: I believe that I was being tested.

JACK: Tested?

LOCKE: Yeah, tested.

LOCKE: I think that’s why you and I don’t see eye-to-eye sometimes, Jack — because you’re a man of science.

JACK: Yeah, and what does that make you?

LOCKE: Me, well, I’m a man of faith. Do you really think all this is an accident — that we, a group of strangers survived, many of us with just superficial injuries? Do you think we crashed on this place by coincidence — especially, this place? We were brought here for a purpose, for a reason, all of us. Each one of us was brought here for a reason.

JACK: Brought here? And who brought us here, John?

LOCKE: The Island. The Island brought us here. This is no ordinary place, you’ve seen that, I know you have. But the Island chose you, too, Jack. It’s destiny.

JACK: Did you talk with Boone about destiny, John?

LOCKE: Boone was a sacrifice that the Island demanded. What happened to him at that plane was a part of a chain of events that led us here — that led us down a path — that led you and me to this day, to right now.

JACK: And where does that path end, John?

LOCKE: The path ends at the Hatch. The Hatch, Jack — all of it — all of it happened so that we could open the Hatch.

JACK: No, no, we’re opening the Hatch so that we can survive.

LOCKE: Survival is all relative, Jack.

JACK: I don’t believe in destiny.

LOCKE: Yes, you do. You just don’t know it yet.

I thought this scene was very interesting when we consider Lost as an ensemble. This fight between Jack and Locke has been one of the major themes of Lost: during six seasons we’ve had this tension between faith and science, before faith finally overcome reason in the final episodes. And the last sentence of Locke couldn’t be more warning of Jack’s conversion to a man of faith.
In my opinion, this scene is very powerful: it’s incredible to see how Locke was right from the beginning. They were brought here for a reason: they were brought by Jacob because they were candidates. But it’s funny to hear Locke say “The path leads to the hatch.” Because the hatch was just a tiny thing, a tiny piece of the puzzle. And when Locke is going to realize there’s no hope in the hatch, that it is just a hatch, he will be broken. Beautiful scene.