We had a lot of good discussions about Lost here over the years, so let’s relive old days.
I watched the show faithfully for the first few seasons, intrigued by the frequent religious and literary allusions (I’m sure, somewhere, there’s a list of all the books Sawyer is shown reading), the conflict between faith and reason, as well as the obvious theme of redemption, so clear as the series focused on the Losties’ backstories. I was interested in all the various mysteries, fairly confused by them, and had little faith that the creators really had an endgame in mind – in terms of those mysteries.
I didn’t watch season 6 after Mike died – the mysteries of my own life were enough to figure out without having to wrestle with fictional ones. And I didn’t watch much of this season until the last three episodes, relying on my daughter to explain things to me.
(I did, however, perhaps perversely, go through a period where I rewatched all the Six Feet Under episodes, obsessively, a series that I think has one of the best season-ending episodes ever, and one that also takes us, at the end, into a character’s eyes.)
Watched the finale, though. In one of the several articles about and interviews with the creators that have appeared over the past few weeks, one mentioned the fact that in an episode last season, Jacob was seen reading a book – the Flannery O’Connor short story collection Everything That Rises Must Converge.
That particular story itself doesn’t seem to have much to directly say to Lost: it’s the one about the snooty, educated son escorting his mother to a weight-reduction class at the Y on a bus, and he being determined, as O’Connor’s young, overeducated characters tend to be, to show his mother how provincial she is. The conflict in this story centers on race. And at the end, the mother dies and the son is struck by loss:
The tide of darkness seemed to sweep him back to her, postponing from moment to moment his entry into the world of guilt and sorrow.
If you are determined to find something in this collection that has some sort of more apparently overt connection to this finale, you’d look to the story Revelation, one of the two most commonly anthologized O’Connor stories (after A Good Man is Hard to Find) in which the prideful protagonist has a vision:
“Until the sun slipped finally behind the tree line, Mrs. Turpin remained there with her gaze bent to them as if she were absorbing some abysmal life-giving knowledge. At last she lifted her head. There was only a purple streak in the sky, coming through a field of crimson and leading, like an extension of the highway, into the descending dusk. She raised her hands from the side of the pen in a gesture hieratic and profound. A visionary light settled in her eyes. She saw the streak as a vast swinging bridge extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire. Upon it a vast horde of souls were rumbling toward heaven. There were whole companies of white-trash, clean for the first time in their lives, and bands of black niggers in white robes, and battalions of freaks and lunatics shouting and clapping and leaping like frogs. And bringing up the end of the procession was a tribe of people whom she recognized at once as those who, like herself and Claud, had always had a little of everything and the God-given wit to use it right. She leaned forward to observe them closer. They were marching behind the others with great dignity, accountable as they had always been for good order and common sense and respectable behavior. They alone were on key. Yet she could see by their shocked and altered faces that even their virtues were being burned away. She lowered her hands and gripped the rail of the hog pen, her eyes small but fixed unblinkingly on what lay ahead. In a moment the vision faced, but she remained where she was, immobile,
“At length she got down and turned off the faucet and made her slow way on the darkening path to the house. In the woods around her the invisible cricket choruses had struck up, but what she heard were the voices of the souls climbing upward into the starry field and shouting hallelujah.”
And which reflects more obviously the source of O’Connor’s title for the collection and that first story – de Chardin’s thought (which she was quite taken with) and his sense of all creation moving toward (evolving, he would say) an “Omega Point” – Christ. Everything that rises must converge.
So in a way, the ending was satisfying, in that it brought those themes of reconciliation full circle. I didn’t watch, as I say, the last 2 seasons, basically, but what I’m picking up is the conclusion that the side-realities were Purgatory, in a sense? I don’t know.
I also don’t know if that satisfaction in terms of the general theme totally outweighs the suspicion that all the little mysteries along the way were not worth the energy expended it trying to figure them out. I have no idea if everything that was thrown at the viewer during the course of the series actually fits together at all. There was an urgency to those mysteries at the time that isn’t satisfied by seeing Claire and Charlie together in heaven and Jack reconciled with his father. You know? It’s really not enough.
But is there an existential/theological point to that as well? That the details, the specific mysteries don’t matter in the context of the final ending? But see, I don’t believe that.
So I liked it for that reason – in that the fundamental themes were there and consistent – that (and the creators have said this) in community we find reconciliation and redemption. We help each other toward that end. I have to admit, though, I found the gathering in church a little bit lacking in imagination, and even formulaic, but could I do better? Nope, probably not.
I don’t think it was an epic fail, but I don’t think it was a fantastic, rousing success either, by any means. The creators set the expectations bar way to high for this kind of ending to be totally satisfying. I like Megan McArdle’s thoughts, here. Except for her final take-away of the “tragic” nature of life, which just goes to show you the difference a worldview can make.
So there it is, in my limited view, and perhaps both O’Connor stories have more to say in relation to this episode that I thought when I first started writing this post: We enter into this world of guilt and sorrow and often act in ways that only bring more. Tossed together in this place that is an inexplicable mix of free will, determinism and nature , we’re in community and we help each other discover reconciliation and redemption, and on we march, on we go, through fire, upward.
I mean, remember the title of this show? Lost? Not just the plane, not just the passengers as numbers, but as individuals. Frequently throughout the series, I would think of how passengers are referred to in aviation. Souls. 155 souls on board, and so on.
When Jack enters the back room of the church, I laughed aloud because of the riot of global religious symbols – it was almost too PC for words, at first glance, but then I adapted because, of course, all world religions posit some sort of continued existence (in a way, even Buddhist nirvana or extinction is a continuation of existence for individual non-existence is a continuation of our true selves…etc…) but then, on further reflection…it doesn’t wash in the end because what Lost was about – the particular shape of the necessity of redemption and reconciliation in order to be whole – is not anything you’re going to find in all of those various world religions. Christian hope is unique – shocking! – and it’s not about a vague hopeful expectation of an afterlife, it’s not about merging the particular into ultimate reality, it’s not about a pleasure-centered reward for obedience to divine will and like it or not and intentionally or not, it’s that more specific Christian hope that Lost echoes, ever so faintly.
The most intriguing element to me was Ben, declining to enter, saying that he still had some things to work out. Not ready.Not yet. That whole “genocide of the Dharma initiative” thing probably had something to do with that.
Beautiful – the overall idea of redemption and the purgative nature of suffering…and then the contrast with every other new show being advertisted on “ABC Summer” – seriously, people, a vampire gated community?
I like your observations, particularly about the way the symbols didn’t really wash with the inchoate sense of what grace and redemption require that was always there in the show.
The symbols in the stained glass were a bit much, but I decided to give the writers a pass… Who knows? They may have gotten the idea from the doors of the LA Cathedral.
And the moment between Ben and Hurley at the end was interesting. I halfway expected Hurley to be more insistent on Ben’s participation, but I liked that it was just an invitation, grace being offered, if you will.
I want to think that the “Coexist” stained-glass panel was making the point that everything on that panel contained a measure of truth, but that the ultimate truth had to be found inside the Catholic Church where they were all meeting. But if that was a point of the final scene, I’m fairly certain it was accidental. Hey, allow me a little wish fulfillment!
An image that was shown even more than the stained glass window was the statue of Jesus outside of the church. Jesus with his arms open, welcoming everyone.
I suppose the co-exist window was there to stop critics from griping about a Christian ending to the show. But – they were in a Christian church. But in the church itself – there were crosses on the wall, not other religious symbols.
By the way…I never thought about Jack’s dad being named “Christian Shepard” until Kate pointed it out. I almost wish the writers would have left it for us to figure out – but I wouldnt’ have realized it on my own.
I’m glad I TiVo’ed–totally missed the stained glass………..must re-watch with intent.
Nope. Thanks for playing, Amy, but the episode was a cataclysmic disaster.
I felt whipsawed by the ending, because I thought it was going in a different direction. (I would have liked to see the two timelines converge into the Los Angeles one, with an awakened awareness of the relationships and lessons learned from the island.) The fact that Christian had to make a speech explaining everything at the end indicates a failure in the writing: it should have been something that the viewer could come to realize on his own.
True. Whenever you’ve got characters explaining things…you’re right. I was thinking exactly on your terms about the timelines converging, interestingly enough.
Not a disaster by any means. I was a bit disappointed last night, but after reading a number of reviews today, I am less dissastisfied and more at peace with the ending.
It’s darn hard to wrap up a long running series with a Wow ending.
They almost HAD to adopt a “all religions ultimately reach toward the same Reality” approach in the finale, whatever their own private feelings may have been. Probably a good idea to be inclusive in a mass-viewing television show. It’s easier in some ways to make an explicitly Christian movie than a TV show.
We all do share a great hope for what lies Next. Even in popular cultural fare you can see it. Shows again how this “New Atheism” is a bunch of crap that the great mass of people are not buying.
The anti-christ was thrown out of Heaven just as Jacob’s brother was tossed into the light. Drink this cup and you will be like me – sounds like communion. Christian Shepard, Ben and Hurley – whats that movie ? Ben-Hurr, whoa that just came to me. Thanks for your observations Amy, very insightful.
Thanks Amy,
My wife said she thought the show was ridiculous a couple of seasons ago, so we stopped watching and I was ok with that because rarely is there ever anything on prime time television worth watching these days. Now, I have to watch the ending, since you obviously had a reaction to it. Albeit, I can’t tell for sure if it was a good, bad or indifferent reaction, it was a reaction.
God bless you,
Jason
Amy,
I thought I had it figured out, much along the same lines as you and Karen (timelines converging into the LA world), so I was kind of glad that the writers were able to surprise me. I also wasn’t too bothered by Christian’s explaining, since he really didn’t have to do all that much.
It seems to me that there are two sorts of lost fans: those for whom the show was about the “mysteries” and those for whom it was about the characters. The finale was clearly meant to satisfy the latter, not least because there was no way to satisfy the former — the second and third seasons had been too aimless and kept adding puzzles in a desperate attempt to keep viewers hooked. There was no way to tie up all of those lose ends.
As it was, I thought they tied up most of the big questions. Indeed, the questions concerning the Island were largely tied up prior to the finale: the Island contained an energy source that could do amazing things, but could also be exploited for evil. Jacob was responsible for making sure it was not so exploited, and had brought the Losties to the Island so one of them could become his successor. It’s really not very complicated.
What was (at least for me) genuinely surprising in the finale was how they resolved the parallel world.
In terms of the ending: a little cheesy, perhaps, but I rather liked how it picked up on the theme of “Live together, die alone” — they needed each other in order to “pass on.”
I learned from Alias that finding enormous gratification come the end with anything BadRobot Productions does is wishful thinking. Fairly satisfied, yes and I LOVE JJ Abrams … just gonna keep reminding myself to cross my fingers that he grows in this area when it comes time to wrap-up Fringe!
Lots of people are comparing LOST to Narnia, a connection the producers encouraged. But may I also call your attention to a nice little made for TV movie called PURGATORY which has the same theme of second chances and redemption, leading to a similar fade to white ending.
TS Eliot’s “Four Quarters” also strikes me as relevant: “all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well” because the people in the church have achieved “a condition of complete simplicity, costing not less than everything.”
“In my end is my beginning and in my beginning is my end.”
How neat was it that impure Kate Austen (Katherine = “pure”), midwife but never mother, was the Woman who finally destroyed the Serpent?
Just so you know, the church at the end is the chapel of Sacred Heart Academy for Girls in Kaimuki here on Oahu. The exterior shots are the grounds around the chapel.
Until our family attended the Easter Vigil Mass in the Extraordinary Form there this year from 11:30 PM – 2:30 AM I had no idea such a beautiful religious space existed in Hawaii.
The chapel is a magnificent Art Deco jewel. Everything remains except the altar rail of course. The high altar and crucifix are high quality sorry you didn’t get a glimpse of those. Those angelic holy water fonts flanking the entry doors are real not props. The pews with kneelers the actors were sitting in are there not brought in to replace comfy chairs. Choir loft with working pipe organ that you see as Jack and Christian entered is real not CGI.
Only CGI was with the stained glass windows as at night they shine when you are outside the chapel but are are black when you are inside the chapel. The window in the scene with Jack and his Dad (not a real chapel window) and over Locke in the chapel were glowing. I guess you could say that this was caused by the light they walked off into.
Here’s what I would have liked to see:
- Everything as it was up to the gathering for the funeral.
- The funeral is a real funeral, with Christian really dead (closure).
- Dialog along the lines of: “I don’t know what the island was, but I feel like I’ve been given a second chance.”
- Hurley pulls Ben aside, and they leave.
- New scene: Ben and Hurley back on the island, sitting on the beach. One of them looks up to see an incoming plane/boat/whatever. “Here they come.”
- Cut to black. The end.
I did a search on “flash sideways” and in the Lostpedia (of Wikipedia, I think) one of the writers does refer to it as a kind of Purgatory, so your gut feeling was right.
I had a hunch you might have a post on last night’s show. Glad I checked. Peg
I am grateful that Deacon Greg pointed me to your thoughtful post; I really enjoyed reading what you put forth.
I am someone who came to the show late, watching season 1 in a flurry of netflix activity during a period of some depression and then catching up on season 2 via dvr as it at started, I was very much into the show. TV tends to run to some escapism for me but I can’t watch so-called reality tv; things like Lost capture my attention. (And I loved Six Feet Under – every single episode and especially that last one.)
In any case, I was planning on rewatching but now I must given some of the things I read here and in the comments.
As for the comments – @M Swaim, I love that line of thought!!
Sandra, I love the T. S. Eliot quotes. Very apt. And I hadn’t thought of the import of Kate killing the monster; but that’s an interesting line of thought.
This may or may not have been intentional, but on one level, the finale was a fairly direct contrast to “The Sopranos” closing arc, where there was an unambiguous set-up and pay-off for the proposition “when you die, nothing.” Blackness, at least 18 seconds worth anyhow.
“Lost” goes for an extremely contrary position, where there is a complex, rich, vital, multi-layered reality after your death, even interpenetrating your world before it ends in an earthly sense. They half-heartedly tried (CGI garish red ‘n yellow window, mainly) to avoid over-emphasis on the Christian tradition that mostly leans on, but the Sacred Heart statue outside was used in some pretty avoidable ways in the earlier Lamp Post ep, and in the closer. I’ll give ‘em the multi-culti shout out in the vestibule, as would Dante Aligheri were he on the writers staff . . . which he may not have been, but he sure might have been on their shelves.
I only saw a few episodes scattered though the years this series was running. But I decided to watch the final episode.
A TV show linking de Chardin with Flannery – genius.
The white trash and black folks and misfits marching up to heaven with the proper people trailing behind – marvelous.
Now I’m intrigued and will put Lost on my NetFlix list.
BTW Does anybody know where that preliminary 2 hours of summary can be found? I tuned in late and only saw the explanation of the last season.
Ah, so you’re of the “Tony died” camp? I don’t know. I eventually settled on the interpretation that with the series, we came into these character’s lives in the midst of it, and we will just…leave. I hated the finale when it happened, but since, I’ve come to decide it was the best choice. I’m an agnostic on whether T died or not.
I was satisfied with the subtleties of the ending, because it left you thinking, didn’t conflict radically with Christianity and carried the bulk of truth with it. Upon second watching, I saw that John Locke stood up after he forgave Ben, which is neat, and letting go is a big part of forgiveness. There was always an emphasis on choice, or free will, which was also good, not to mention the entire comunal message that we need each other.
I tried to ignore the fact that almost all the couples had been guilty of fornication or adultery (that’s a given in this generation) which seemed to be a biggie with Our Lord, and wondered what Michael and Walt had done so wrong that they didn’t even get an invite to the Wedding Banquet.
I want to throw out a slightly different perspective on the very interesting discussion of Christian themes in “Lost.”
The final episode is being discussed a little bit at a blog I follow which deals with the infilitration of New Age deception into monotheistic religions.
http://www.cumbey.blogspot.com
The consensus amongst the regulars who post at the Cumbey blog (there are Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish contributors) is that the themes of the show are decidedly New Age, specifically in its emphasis on the blending on religions.
Here is a comment from peacebringer:
Now perhaps you wisely stay away from Television and the propoganda. I still am hooked on stories and weaning off. I did watch the full series of lost and the finale was emotional yet quite disturbing. It was filled with symbolism rife of new age and where things are moving. There was a church at “end” which had cross, menorah, and bhudda. It had stain glass with 6 symbols including cross, ying yang, crescent moon and one was a wheel as in wheel of life. I think more and more this kind of message and imagery will be used. This show was watched by millioins if not billions globally.
Here is another from Dawn:
I had watched the end of Lost as well. I had watched it on and off for the last six seasons. It was heavy into eastern religions and blending of faith throughout. I noticed that they would have enough Christian parallels to keep us interested. It was that old trick of having just enough of what we agree with and things that we don’t.
Amy et al,
The following link discusses the symbolism of the “Coexist” bumper sticker:
http://www.theignorantfishermen.com/2009/08/coexist-movement-and-delusion_24.html
As a Catholic I cannot endorse everything this writer says (and I cannot vouch for his blog as a whole, only this one article), but I agree that the “Coexist” symbol is a propaganda piece for the coming “one world religion” which is being pushed in mainstream culture now including in popular music, TV, and movies and also from within many Christian denominations (including parts of the Catholic church) which have been infiltrated with the deceptions (heresies) of the New Age movement.
For more information on the push toward a one-world religion and what it means for all of us, a good place to start is Rich Peterson’s excellent blog on the UN’s Alliance of Civilizations:
http://www.pineline.blogspot.com/
I don’t wish to hijack this thread–I just wanted to give readers here enough information to get started if they are interested in looking more deeply into the “Coexist” symbolism and how it ties into the themes of “Lost.”
Our pastor has said, if i repeat it correctly, that with free will we choose whether or not we get to heaven or end up spending time in Purgatory. Think that Ben decides that he is not deserving and needs more time.
Agree that bringing Walt and Michael back into the finale and then not to the church. Everyone did time for their sins.
Does this coexist window actually exist in the Sacred Heart Chapel? or was this a series artifice to appease all.
Best explanation I’ve seen comes from:
http://www.reelnerds.com/2010/05/lost-evaluation.html
” What we learned from the finale is that every device used, every reference and allusion, and every strange occurrence was a red herring, meant only to keep us interested while the writers were getting us attached to the great characters they created.”
I posted this comment, although the theological judgment probably better belongs on a column such as this one:
Only problem is, character means nothing without a story, a history. So even the light at the end is an illusion. There is no bliss to receive them, since there is no judgment of divine acceptance. Without a personal history, there can be no judgment because there is nothing to judge. (Which world do you judge? What is the skein of responsibility as one moves from one world to another?)
Well, without BSG and Lost, I don’t need to bother with network TV. So I can turn my attention to other things.
The earlier Hawaii commenter, inhocsig, was pretty specific that the side room (vestry?) did not have the multi-culti window, and that it was a CGI insert.
I agree with the commenter who said that he or she knew any production from Bad Robot was going to fail J. J. Abrams must be tried for criminal mischief. I knew — knew! — that his godlike power to *not* end a story well would destroy the finale — yet I watched anyway, because of his sorcerer’s grip on me! Damn him! I know now that he will be the one reading stories to me in hell, should I find myself there, every night torturing me with tempting tales and junior-high creative writing class endings. President Obama, save us from J. J. Abrams! Put him in Camp Gitmo, please!
I’ve seen lots of posts about the multi-culti or coexist window.
Lots of folks complaining about the window being “new agey” or something added in to satisfy or appease other religious faiths.
I just took it to be a visual representation of what is said in the Catechism of the Catholic Church in CCC 843:
“The Catholic Church recognizes in other religions that search, among shadows and images, for the God who is unknown yet near since he gives life and breath and all things and wants all men to be saved. Thus, the Church considers all goodness and truth found in these religions as “a preparation for the Gospel and given by him who enlightens all men that they may at length have life.”
I’ve gone back and looked on Hulu at the scenes filmed in the chapel. (My family sat in the same pew as Desmond and Penny.) What I found remarkable was that the only change to the chapel was the removal of a grand piano near the side door that Hurley enters through after he talks to Ben outside.
They didn’t take down the Stations of the Cross from the walls. The show didn’t remove those big angel holy water fonts. They lit all the prayer candles in the racks. And I missed when watching live that the low altar table for the Ordinary Form of the Mass was visible at the bottom of the screen and it had lit candles.
I just think it is significant that after six years of creative work, millions of dollars spent, its time for the big finale and those making the show walk into a real Catholic chapel and all they do is hire a piano mover.
It wasn’t just the stained glass window; the sacristy itself was filled with symbols from various traditions.
http://doxaweb.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/stained_glass.jpg
http://doxaweb.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/sacristy.jpg
Whatever your conclusions about the use of all these symbols, it seems clear the writers didn’t commit themselves to the scandal of particularity that is Christianity. Consider this audio clip from Across the Sea, in which Jacob’s foster-mother describes the Source at the heart of the island:
http://www.doxaweb.com/assets/audio/life_death_rebirth.mp3
A little late here on commenting, tho’ I did read some of the thread early on. Thanks for your insights, Amy. I have been heartened to see others making comparisons to CS Lewis, since the more I think about the show and the finale the more Ludovican (if you will!) parallels I see. It struck me that the ending seems very similar to that of the Last Battle: that realization post facto that one is dead but that it doesn’t really matter since one is now “moving on” to what is really real.
I was also immediately reminded in the reunion btw Jack and his father of another CS Lewis work: Till We Faces. Jack’s tearful, “Are you real?” seems to me like Orual’s (the heroine of Till We Have Faces) response to meeting her old mentor “The Fox” in a vision of Hades and being shocked and delighted that she is able to embrace him:
“But you’re real and warm. Homer said one could not embrace the dead… they were only shadows.”
To this the Fox replies that the poets are often wrong. This is a hint of the Christian doctrine of the Resurrection of the Body. I’d like to think there’s a hint of it in that scene in Lost as well.