I was an emotional mess during the Lost finale

[spuffy_noelle]

I FINALLY FINISHED!!

I was basically choked up or crying from the time that Jin and Sun "died" in the submarine. I don't have a whole lot of coherent thoughts at the moment, but would love to talk about the show now that I've finished. I'd love to know what it was like when the show was on the air and actually ended.

I thought the alternate timeline throughout the last season was very interesting, especially as the characters started remembering in the last episode.

I guess I should mention that I knew on some level that they were all dead from when I began watching the series. I had no clue where it would go, or how they would reveal that the characters were all dead and I was afraid that it was going to be ambiguous so I was very happy when Jack's father came out and said it.

Can someone explain the alternate timeline to me. Were they in both places at once? It just doesn't make sense that if they died like for example Juliet that she would go to this alternate place because say Hurley never "died" on the island, but he was in the alternate place. I will definitely be googling all about Lost, but it'll probably have to wait until tomorrow because I've exhausted!

Overall I have to say I was very happy with the finale. I thought it was going to be majorly disappointing, but to me it really did the season justice after a whole lot of mind fuckery.

Oh, and any fanfic recs would be GREATLY appreciated!

Comments

[spikessweetgirl.livejournal.com]

When the show was on the air and actually ended...wow...the fandom was so much fun back then with the theories and the fanfic challenges. The shipper people, especially the triangle shippers were disappointed, but everyone else who loved the characters and missed the people that died were happy with the reunions. Lost finales were the best part of the seasons in my opinion and i for one was very satisfied with how it ended. My charlie and claire and their turnip head back together again lol

The alternate timeline was the purgatory where they waited for everyone who was on the island to die and then they were reunited. Hurley did eventually die on the island and when he did, he went to the alternate timeline and was reunited with everyone. Like when Charlie died...that was his purgatory until Claire eventually died and they were reunited. Or when Jack died and was reunited with Kate, who eventually died after living her life once they escaped the island.


As for fanfic, the site is dead now, but there are some great fic there lostsquee: http://lostsquee.livejournal.com/ there are master lists of some fic challenges that had been posted. You can also find fanfic at fanfiction.net. I hope that helps:)

[badboy-fangirl.livejournal.com]

This is a common misconception--many people didn't understand that they weren't dead on the Island the whole time. But like the above poster said, the alternate timeline was where they waited until they were ready to understand their deaths and move on (to heaven, or whatever term you are comfortable with), it was just that they needed each other before they could move on. For Jack it was Kate, but for Kate it was Claire and Aaron, etc, each of them interconnecting in the alt-verse like they had in real life--like Sayid and Shannon needing each other to realize what had happened.

The other purpose of the alt-verse was for the characters to try to build something that made sense and still correct their *mistakes* -- like Sawyer working as a cop, and Jack having a son because he was still trying to work out his daddy!issues. The alt-verse really helped me cope with my shipper feelings because I was always hardcore Kate/Sawyer, and even though I loved Juliet (she was my favorite character of the whole show), it was harder for me to accept that Kate and Sawyer didn't end up together--so the alt-verse helped me come to terms with the fact that Juliet and James were better together, but since Kate and Sawyer got off the Island, I chose to believe they lived their earthly lives together--and that's why when Kate meets Sawyer in the alt-verse, they still have a little something, just like in the alt-verse, Jack chose Juliet to be the mother of his child, because they were all interconnected, even if the one who would bring them to awareness was the other person. That's why I loved that Kate's awakening had nothing to do with either Sawyer or Jack, but was instead about Claire and Aaron, very powerful.

I too think the finale was so good, and I cry (WEEPING, REALLY) every time I watch it. There are a few moments that always pound me heavily, and one is James and Juliet's reunion, but the other is when Boone and Jack see each other in the church--it's just so powerful. And then of course every moment with Jack and his father. Ben and Locke, Ben and Hurley. Just, AUGH. Best show ever, really.

I do remember being devastated by Jin and Sun's so brief reunion, only for them to turn around and instantly die, but the stakes were just that high--it forced me, going into the finale to realize they were all going to die--and to have a philosophical moment, which I think was part of the larger story the writers were sharing--that we all die. At some point we will make that journey, and who will be waiting for us in our church when we get there? With LOST it was never about the answers people wanted, it was always about the questions they might ask, of themselves and of the universe. That's why, even now, 3+ years since it ended, I'm still so full of emotion about it.

Thanks for posting your thoughts so I could revisit it.

As for how it was received at the time--there were people who hated it, especially those who thought it was too *Christian* in its interpretation of death, but there were people who loved it, and were moved tremendously by it. All told, I am just grateful that Damon and Carlton got to tell the story they wanted to tell, because I found it beautiful, on every level.

[youcallitwinter.livejournal.com]

Oh, LOST <3 It was such a brilliant six seasons of my life, so well crafted and imagined and executed, just, guh. Also, as for the finale, the sideways-verse, as far as I know, is sort of a metaphorical purgatory? Like, everyone wasn't already dead on the island, they died at different points in their individual lives, but because of the connection that the island had forged between them, they landed in the same place/alternate timeline post death, where they'd have to remember their past, as such, before being able to move on. That maybe even if the island had not existed, their lives would be different, yes, but also the same in a lot of ways, which means that there could possibly, not conceivably be a time in their lives that the island had not existed, since it's the effects which defined it and not the material "thing" itself. It also means that post-Island, in the usual timeline, they could've lived completely different lives, like maybe they never saw each other again etc., but in the alternate timeline, they HAD to come to terms with their past and their issues to be able to move on.

As for fic, you should check out these!:

http://lost-fanfic.livejournal.com/profile

http://lostfanfic.livejournal.com/profile

[ever-neutral.livejournal.com]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Jin/Sun death was magnificently devastating. Lost was good with the sadism.

I never understood 99% of what actually happened on the show tbh, I was basically just here for the emotional manipulation, lol! Such well-executed emotional manipulation tho. ;D

As for recs, I have a few in my memories you might enjoy.