Take2's GUIDE TO LOST - THE ULTIMATE COMPENDIUM

It's been five years since ABC's mystery drama Lost ended its six-season run on television, and it remains a favourite show of mine. It was also something I reviewed weekly here at Dan's Media Digest - so it holds a special place in my heart as an avid blogger, too.

Take2 Publishing have today released THE TAKE2 GUIDE TO LOST - THE ULTIMATE COMPENDIUM, which features many of the season 3-6 reviews written by me!

Digital Spy: BROADCHURCH and the business of keeping secrets on TV

Over at Digital Spy yesterday, I wrote an article looking at 6 television shows that managed to keep huge secrets from their fanatical audiences, thus maintaining big surprises when important episodes aired. Take a look! And share if you enjoyed reading it.

Digital Spy: What's the Big Idea? How LOST Changed U.S TV

Yesterday, an article I wrote for Digital Spy was published, entitled 'What's the Big Idea? How Lost Changed U.S TV'. It's a brief look at six shows that felt emboldened by the 2004 success of Lost to do something equally imaginative, or was directly influenced by that hit show's ethos and style. Have a look!

10 Years Later, What Did the Cast of LOST Do Next?

10 years ago today, on 22 September 2004, ABC premiered a new mystery drama called LOST. It was an instant success and became part of pop-culture, sending audiences into spasms of delight and frustration in equal measure over the ensuing six seasons. The divisive finale may still be considered a slap in the face by those expecting Answers, but I like to think most people valued the journey, remember the explanations we did receive, and found enough emotional closure to still consider Lost a favourite show. But, ten years after it began, and four years after it ended, what have key members of the cast been up to? Let's take a look...

Question: do pioneering TV shows lose their impact with newcomers?

A mutual Twitter follower was tweeting his thoughts on the first season of 24 last night, which he'd just finished watching. I haven't seen that Fox classic's first year since it aired 12 years ago, but was surprised he didn't seem very keen on the first half—which I recall being the strongest part because the writers hadn't fully plotted beyond then. The show's ratings success pushed them to continue past the story's natural end-point of Jack Bauer rescuing his kidnapped wife and daughter from terrorists.

LOST: The Complete Sixth Season (2010) [Blu-ray]

[SPOILERS] Now the dust has settled, we can reflect on the divisive final season of ABC's Lost with some distance and clarity. As a dyed-in-the-wool fan there's always a danger your love for a TV show makes you blind to its failings, or at least keener to overlook them. Alternatively, it can make you too critical in the moment because you're demanding perfection, making you unable to take a step back to see the bigger picture with a level head.

The sixth season of Lost caused internet quakes when its final episode, the literally tremorous "The End", was simulcast worldwide. There was no way a finale to a complex six-year story involving dozens of characters, multiple storylines, and a plethora of questions, could satisfy absolutely everyone. The writers made a judgement and opted to focus on character and emotion, rather than coldly dispense logical answers. And that's fine. Of course, quite why rewarding answers, while focusing on character and eliciting an emotional response, can't be packaged together, is perhaps the great unanswered question of this series.

I've already reviewed Lost season 6, so won't recycle my thoughts about each episode in an abridged fashion. Instead, please browse my archive of reviews:

6.1 & 6.2 - "LA X"
6.3 - "What Kate Does"
6.4 - "The Substitute"
6.5 - "Lighthouse"
6.6 - "Sundown"
6.7 - "Dr. Linus"
6.8 - "Recon"
6.9 - "Ab Aeterno"
6.10 - "The Package"
6.11 - "Happily Ever After"
6.12 - "Everybody Loves Hugo"
6.13 - "The Last Recruit"
6.14 - "The Candidate"
6.15 - "Across The Sea"
6.16 - "What They Died For"
6.17 & 6.18 - "The End"

With the benefit of hindsight, how do I feel about Lost's swansong four months later, having now read a multitude of reviews and heard the impassioned responses from everyone? Well, I still remain impressed by the overall journey and breathtaking enormity of the challenge in creating a show like Lost, which became the most multifaceted and imaginatively fertile sci-fi hits of the past few decades. Lightning in a bottle we're unlikely to see repeated any time soon.

But the final season did fail in many ways, perhaps crippled by the fact its mythology was in flux for too long. I truly believe that, had the writers been told they had to wrap things up by season 4, during production of season 3, they could have pulled everything together far better at that mid-series point. Instead, knowing they'd been guaranteed three years by ABC meant season 4 and 5 had to create fresh questions for the fans to chew on. They did this by introducing largely superfluous ideas/plot-points (time-travel, a hydrogen bomb) and brand new characters (Charlotte, Miles, Faraday, Lapidus), that bloated the show and ensured the final season became too unwieldy once it arrived. Looking back, with some necessary tweaking, season 4 would have been a more effective finish-line. There's an argument to say that's where it ended spiritually, at the very least, with season 5's twin storylines (returning to the Island, living in the '70s) having little to no impact on the sixth season's events.

And naturally, with a half-dozen years of feverish anticipation from an rabid fanbase who could concoct elaborate theories to explain Lost's many riddles (some of which were better than the eventual explanation), nothing could surpass that voracious hive-mind's inflated expectations. But I think we're forgetting how exciting and emotionally rewarding many episodes of the sixth season were, or how perfect the final scene with Jack in the bamboo field was... so, really, Lost may not have had the perfect ending we craved and deserved, but its legacy's intact because it dazzled for much longer than it disappointed.

Blu-ray Review

Picture (1.78:1, 1080p/AVC MPEG-4) This is my first time sampling the delights of Lost in high-definition, and the season 6 box-set didn't fail to impress. There's a depth of colour and detail that standard-definition can't capture, so the 1080p image quality here really "pops" and gives you a fresh appreciation for the show's production standards. Naturally, it helps that Lost's filmed on location in beautiful Hawaii, so the lush scenery in HD is worth seeing alone.

Sound (English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English DD2.0, French DTS 5.1, Spanish DTS 5.1, Spanish (Latin American) DD2.0, Portuguese (Brazilian) DD2.0) Similarly, I've rarely heard Lost in surround sound, and the DTS-HD 5.1 audio track added extra depth to the ambiance of the show. Previously impressive action sequences are now even better with a thriving sound mix, while Michael Giacchino's beautiful score really sings through in HD.

Special Features

Audio Commentaries: Showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse give two smattering of audio commentaries across the box-set, including season premiere "LA X", but the most interesting is for "Across The Sea" because it was such a polarizing mythology episode. If you're a fan of "Darlton"'s official ABC podcasts, you'll know they're an entertaining double-act who are acutely aware of the response and the range of attitudes towards their show. They're once again wary of spoiling any ongoing discussion of the series, by giving "official" answers now Lost is over, which some people may take issue with, but I personally I agree they should leave loose-ends for die-hard fans to chew on. After all, discussion of Lost was 50% of many people's enjoyment, so why not let that continue now the show's over?

That said, they do give credence to a popular fan theory that Mother (Allison Janney) was actually a "Smoke Monster" during the episode (explaining her single-handed destruction of a village's well-armed inhabitants, and why she likely conned her adopted sons into both becoming her successor and killing her). Cuse and Lindelof definitely stick to their guns when it comes to defending this episode, which enraged some quarters of fandom. They deliver a few decent arguments for why "Across The Sea" should be re-evaluated, but none of it's convincing enough for me to forgive the handful of ridiculous answers this episode gave us. I think the key reason many fans were upset is that "Across The Sea" answered mysteries that have been teased for years using information that only appears during this 43-minute episode. How could anyone possibly have guessed the genesis of the Smoke Monster using the clues breadcrumbed throughout season 1-5? It kind of devalues the effort uberfans put in trying to decipher it all, no?

Two other commentaries exist on the box-set for "Dr. Linus" (with writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, joined by actor Michael Emerson) and "Ab Aeterno" (with writers Melinda Hsu Taylor and Greggory Nations, joined by Nestor Carbonell), and both are entertaining insights into the creative process I think fans will appreciate. Of course, it's very frustrating than there's no commentary track for finale "The End", which is definitely the episode most fans would appreciate some insight into. Frustratingly, during the "Across The Sea" yakker, Lindelof and Cuse mention they'll record an audio commentary for the finale one day, perhaps evidence that some kind of "Ultimate" box-set will be released in the future.

Flight 815: A Crash Course (HD, 8m) On Disc 1 you can watch this very entertaining catchup video for the events of season 1-5, narrated by a hilariously deadpan woman.

The New Man In Charge (HD, 12m) Comfortably the most hotly-anticipated extra feature on this box-set is this official coda to Lost's finale -- a canonical "last act" that gives a glimpse of Ben (Emerson) and Hurley's (Jorge Garcia) era as protectors of the Island. Arguably even more divisive than the finale, it's essentially a way to explain a handful of the show's trivial mysteries (who was organizing the DHARMA food drops? What was the "Hurley bird" was? What were the polar bears trained for? What was Room 23 used for?) It basically exists to fan-service anal fans, but even if you don't likes the rather awkward way it dispenses its answers (via DHARMA-brand DVD), I appreciated the thought and it did clarify half-a-dozen minor questions.

Crafting A Final Season (HD, 38m) The key documentary of this box-set takes a look at the creation of the sixth season and Lost's legacy as a whole. It features other TV executive-producers giving their opinions on Lost's journey and its place in TV history, from Shawn Ryan to Stephen J. Cannell, and many of the show's actors fretting about if/when their characters might die. In one particularly moving moment, we see Jorge Garcia reading the finale script and crying when he reaches a significant point for his character Hurley, which is rather beautiful to see. This featurette definitely works very nicely as a glimpse behind-the-scenes as this huge show drew inexorably closer to its end.

A Hero's Journey (HD, 9m) A short featurette on how Lost's storytelling utilizes the principles set out by author Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey".

See You In Another Life, Brotha (HD, 9m) More behind-the-scenes footage taken throughout season 6's filming, paying particular attention to the "flashsideways" plot-device and its use of mirrors. We're also reminded of the many callbacks to season 1, as a means of bringing the show full circle.

Lost On Location (HD) A collection of brief featurettes, each focusing on a prominent episode from the final season. "LAX" (6m) shows us the impressive Temple set made of polystyrene on the lot and the details of its hieroglyphics; "The Substitute" (3m) looks at the dangerous cliff side stunt from that episode featuring Josh Holloway and the stunt crew; "Recon" (3m) reveals how the episode's car crash was filmed; "Ab Aeterno" (5m) features an intriguing look at the Black Rock set and how a "fake pig" was used for one scene; "Happily Ever After" (5m) shows us how Henry Ian Cusick and Dominic Monaghan filmed the underwater sequences following a car crash into an L.A marina; and "The Candidate" (6m) keeps an aquatic theme with a look at the claustrophobic submarine set that was flooded with many of the principle actors inside.

Deleted Scenes (SD, 10m) As is typical of deleted scenes packaged together, most if not all don't really add much to the conversation. "On Guard", "Bearing Fruit", "Maternal Instincts", "Parched", "A Helping Hand", "Fatalities", "The Lab & The Well", "Epiphany" and "Desmond's Task" all sound a lot more intriguing than they ultimately are. Dispensable.

Lost Bloopers (HD, 4m) This assortment of outtakes isn't exactly side-splitting material, but it's generally good fun if you enjoy seeing actors crack up, fluff their lines, or trip up.

Miscellaneous: The season 6 box-set comes equipped with ABC's Season-Play facility, which is a Blu-ray exclusive way to create a viewing profile that tracks exactly where you are when watching the series, even if you eject the disc and watch something else inbetween. A useful feature for hardened marathon box-setters.

SDCC: Visionaries - J.J Abrams & Joss Whedon

Above and below is a six-part video of the San Diego Comic-Con panel "Visionaries" with J.J Abrams (Alias, Lost, Fringe, Star Trek) and Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse). Check it out.

Poll Result: Which was the best season of Lost?

Last week I asked you to vote for the best season of Lost, in honour of the mystery drama completing its run by splitting fan reaction rather painfully. The results are below, in ascending order of popularity:

6th place:

Season 6

Only 5% of voters thought the final year of Lost was its pinnacle, rather depressingly. Not that I disagree, but it's a shame the final chapter of the series appears to be very unpopular (with good reason). I guess it was always more fun asking questions than having them answered. Well, some questions.

5th place:

Season 3

A widely-hated season of Lost, but more accurately it was the first six episode "mini-season" (where half the cast were stuck in cages) that was memorably bad. The latter half was actually very strong, but this was undoubtedly the season where the diehard fans and casual viewers parted company. Just 10% of you voted this Lost's best year.

4th place:

Season 5

The "time travel season" was popular with 14% of you, although in retrospect I think this was the year when cracks started to appear more noticeably. But it was still a decent season with some great moments. In fact, when you-know-who is rolled out of that coffin, is it best to imagine that was The End?

3rd place:

Season 2

The second season is a curious beast that split audiences at the time, with some enjoying the way Lost spreads its wings and created a deeper mythology, while others disliked the move away from the simpler castaway scenario. Personally, I always really enjoyed season 2, although it would certainly benefit from being a half-dozen episodes shorter. 15% of you seem to agree.

2nd place:

Season 4

My personal favourite, so I was glad to see it do well in this poll. Season 4 attracted 16% of the total vote, probably because its flashforward plot-device was the best post-season 1 method to tie Island events with off-Island events. It was also a mid-series year when the mix of questions and answers was more balaced. This was the year when it really felt possible, even likely, that the writers knew what they were doing and we were in safe hands.

1st place:

Season 1

I was surprised to read anti-season 1 sentiments in comments, but that didn't carry over into the actual voting. The season deemed Lost's greatest by 37% of voters was the debut year from 2004. This was Lost at its simplest, tackling the core concept of strangers stuck on a spooky island, at a time when the flashback-device wasn't irritating, and they could afford to ask lots of compelling questions (What are the whispers? Who's the French Lady? What are the numbers? Is there a monster? What's the Black Rock? Why are people kidnapping children? What's down the hatch?) without needing to provide answers.

And that's it. The first season was the best, the last season was the worse, according to you guys. Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote.

Poll: Which was the best season of Lost?

Lost has come to an end, but now we can look back and gauge which season was the best. Was the purist first season the pinnacle? Did season 2's expansion of the mythology fire your imagination? Was season 3 unfairly derided, in your opinion? Did season 4's flashforwards offer the best narrative device? Did time-travel swell your geek heart in season 5? Or did you enjoy the culmination of season 6?

You can vote by clicking any of the images below, or voting directly in the Flash-driven poll at the bottom of this post:

Season 1: The Survivors
(The Numbers, The Black Rock, The Hatch)

Season 2: The Hatch
(DHARMA, The Tailies, The Others)

Season 3: The Others
(The Hydra, The Barracks, The Cabin)

Season 4: The Freighter
(The Rescuers, The Orchid, The Donkey Wheel)

Season 5: The 1970s
(The Plane, The Bomb, The Four-Toed Statue)

Season 6: The Man In Black
(The Temple, The Candidates, The Cave)

The poll closes on 3 June @5PM (GMT)

Lost writer explains series finale?

An anonymous commenter from the writers' room of Lost has weighed in on the recent finale's meaning, and explained the longterm arc behind the show's mysteries! It's interesting stuff, confirming a few things in my mind, and also (marvellously) answering a few of the alleged missteps involving Ben's role "purging" DHARMA. I've spellchecked the original post and divided it into easier-to-read paragraphs, but it's pretty much verbatim below:

Update: this is apparently fake, but the explanations are still plausible. Just don't treat this as "from the horse's mouth" information anymore...

Good stuff on here! I can finally throw in my two cents! I've had to bite my tongue for far too long. Also, hopefully I can answer some questions about Dharma and the "pointless breadcrumbs" that really, weren't so pointless... First...

The Island: It was real. Everything that happened on the island that we saw throughout the 6 seasons was real. Forget the final image of the plane crash, it was put in purposely to f*&k with people's heads and show how far the show had come. They really crashed. They really survived. They really discovered Dharma and the Others. The Island keeps the balance of good and evil in the world. It always has and always will perform that role. And the Island will always need a "Protector". Jacob wasn't the first, Hurley won't be the last.

However, Jacob had to deal with a malevolent force (MIB) that his mother, nor Hurley had to deal with. He created the devil and had to find a way to kill him -- even though the rules prevented him from actually doing so. Thus began Jacob's plan to bring candidates to the Island to do the one thing he couldn't do. Kill the MIB. He had a huge list of candidates that spanned generations. Yet every time he brought people there, the MIB corrupted them and caused them to kill one another. That was until Richard came along and helped Jacob understand that if he didn't take a more active role, then his plan would never work.

Enter Dharma. Dharma, like the countless scores of people that were brought to the island before, were brought there by Jacob as part of his plan to kill the MIB. However, the MIB was aware of this plan and interfered by "corrupting" Ben. Making Ben believe he was doing the work of Jacob when in reality he was doing the work of the MIB. This carried over into all of Ben's "off-island" activities. He was the leader. He spoke for Jacob as far as they were concerned. So the "Others" killed Dharma and later were actively trying to kill Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley and all the candidates because that's what the MIB wanted. And what he couldn't do for himself. Dharma was originally brought in to be good. But was turned bad by MIB's corruption and eventually destroyed by his pawn Ben. Now, was Dharma only brought there to help Jack and the other Candidates on their overall quest to kill Smokey? Or did Jacob have another list of Canidates from the Dharma group that we were never aware of? That's a question that is purposely not answered because whatever answer the writers came up with would be worse than the one you come up with for yourself.

Still... Dharma's purpose is not "pointless" or even vague. Hell, it's pretty blatant. Still, despite his grand plan, Jacob wanted to give his "candidates" (our Lostaways) the one thing he, nor his brother, were ever afforded: free will. Hence him bringing a host of "candidates" through the decades and letting them "choose" which one would actually do the job in the end. Maybe he knew Jack would be the one to kill Flocke and that Hurley would be the protector in the end. Maybe he didn't. But that was always the key question of the show: Fate vs Free-will. Science vs Faith. Personally I think Jacob knew from the beginning what was going to happen and that everyone played a part over 6 seasons in helping Jack get to the point where he needed to be to kill Smokey and make Hurley the protector -- I know that's how a lot of the writers viewed it. But again, they won't answer that (nor should they) because that ruins the fun.

In the end, Jack got to do what he always wanted to do from the very first episode of the show: Save his fellow Lostaways. He got Kate and Sawyer off the island and he gave Hurley the purpose in life he'd always been missing. And, in Sideways world (which we'll get to next) he in fact saved everyone by helping them all move on ... Now...

Sideways World: Sideways world is where it gets really cool in terms of theology and metaphysical discussion (for me at least -- because I love history/religion theories and loved all the talks in the writer's room about it). Basically what the show is proposing is that we're all linked to certain people during our lives. Call them soulmates (though it's not exactly the best word). But these people we're linked to are with us during "the most important moments of our lives" as Christian said. These are the people we move through the universe with from lifetime to lifetime.

It's loosely based in Hinduisim with large doses of western religion thrown into the mix. The conceit that the writers created, basing it off these religious philosophies, was that as a group, the Lostaways subconsciously created this "sideways" world where they exist in purgatory until they are "awakened" and find one another. Once they all find one another, they can then move on and move forward. In essence, this is the show's concept of the afterlife. According to the show, everyone creates their own "Sideways" purgatory with their "soulmates" throughout their lives and exist there until they all move on together. That's a beautiful notion. Even if you aren't religious or even spiritual, the idea that we live AND die together is deeply profound and moving. It's a really cool and spiritual concept that fits the whole tone and subtext the show has had from the beginning. These people were SUPPOSED to be together on that plane. They were supposed to live through these events -- not JUST because of Jacob. But because that's what the universe or God (depending on how religious you wish to get) wanted to happen. The show was always about science vs faith -- and it ultimately came down on the side of faith. It answered THE core question of the series. The one question that has been at the root of every island mystery, every character back-story, every plot twist. That, by itself, is quite an accomplishment. How much you want to extrapolate from that is up to you as the viewer.

Think about season 1 when we first found the Hatch. Everyone thought that's THE answer! Whatever is down there is the answer! Then, as we discovered it was just one station of many. One link in a very long chain that kept revealing more, and more of a larger mosaic. But the writer's took it even further this season by contrasting this Sideways "purgatory" with the Island itself. Remember when Michael appeared to Hurley, he said he was not allowed to leave the Island. Just like the MIB. He wasn't allowed into this sideways world and thus, was not afforded the opportunity to move on. Why? Because he had proven himself to be unworthy with his actions on the Island. He failed the test. The others, passed. They made it into Sideways world when they died -- some before Jack, some years later. In Hurley's case, maybe centuries later. They exist in this sideways world until they are "awakened" and they can only move on TOGETHER because they are linked. They are destined to be together for eternity. That was their destiny. They were NOT linked to Anna Lucia, Daniel, Roussou, Alex, Miles, Lupidis, (and all the rest who weren't in the chuch -- basically everyone who wasn't in season 1). Yet those people exist in Sideways world. Why? Well again, here's where they leave it up to you to decide. The way I like to think about it, is that those people who were left behind in Sideways world have to find their own soulmates before they can wake up. It's possible that those links aren't people from the island but from their other life (Anna's partner, the guy she shot --- Roussou's husband, etc etc).

A lot of people have been talking about Ben and why he didn't go into the Church. And if you think of Sideways world in this way, then it gives you the answer to that very question. Ben can't move on yet because he hasn't connected with the people he needs to. It's going to be his job to awaken Roussou, Alex, Anna Lucia (maybe), Ethan, Goodspeed, his father and the rest. He has to atone for his sins more than he did by being Hurley's number two. He has to do what Hurley and Desmond did for our Lostaways with his own people. He has to help them connect. And he can only move on when all the links in his chain are ready to. Same can be said for Faraday, Charlotte, Whidmore, Hawkins etc. It's really a neat, and cool concept. At least to me.

But, from a more "behind the scenes" note: the reason Ben's not in the church, and the reason no one is in the church but for Season 1 people is because they wrote the ending to the show after writing the pilot. And never changed it. The writers always said (and many didn't believe them) that they knew their ending from the very first episode. I applaud them for that. It's pretty fantastic. Originally Ben was supposed to have a 3 episode arc and be done. But he became a big part of the show. They could have easily changed their ending and put him in the church -- but instead they problem solved it. Gave him a BRILLIANT moment with Locke outside the church ... and then that was it. I loved that. For those that wonder -- the original ending started the moment Jack walked into the church and touches the casket to Jack closing his eyes as the other plane flies away. That was always JJ's ending. And they kept it. For me the ending of this show means a lot. Not only because I worked on it, but because as a writer it inspired me in a way the medium had never done before.

I've been inspired to write by great films. Maybe too many to count. And there have been amazing TV shows that I've loved (X-Files, 24, Sopranos, countless 1/2 hour shows). But none did what LOST did for me. None showed me that you could take huge risks (writing a show about faith for network TV) and stick to your creative guns and STILL please the audience. I learned a lot from the show as a writer. I learned even more from being around the incredible writers, producers, PAs, interns and everyone else who slaved on the show for 6 years. 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 waivered from their core story -- even with all the sci-fi elements they mixed in. To walk that long and daunting of a creative tightrope and survive is simply astounding.

Happier now?

LOST 6.17 - "The End"

WRITERS: Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof
DIRECTOR: Jack Bender
GUEST CAST: Elizabeth Mitchell, Dylan Minnette, Maggie Grace, Ian Somerhalder, Rebecca Mader, Jeremy Davies, John Terry & Neil Hopkins

[SPOILERS] The curtain finally closes on this epic six-volume mystery, eliciting a mixture of feelings in me as a loyal fan. Was I entirely satisfied? No. Was it frustrating that so many questions were left unanswered? Of course. Did it end the series well? The debate won't die about that. For me, while I wasn't intellectually stimulated (and hopes for a mindspinning final twist were cruelly dashed), I was moved to tears on a handful of occasions during "The End", and that has to count for something in a series finale -- right?

This episode worked very well as a means to remind its audience of touchstones moments from preceding years, and relationships that met often tragic ends. If the intention of Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse was to find a way to gather everything into emotional snowballs and throw them at the audience in rapid succession, I gratefully accepted the hits. I enjoyed the bittersweet experience of watching the end of my favourite TV show, although I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel gypped at times...

Like all of Lost's finales, there was a huge amount of logistical back-and-forth and the narrative jumped around like a flea, so it would quickly bore everyone to attempt an extensive, linear recap. I'll just do my best to cover the broad sweep of the story, together with what worked for me and what failed:

Having become Jacob's successor as protector of the Island, Jack (Matthew Fox) decided on an improvised strategy to stop Locke/Smokey (Terry O'Quinn) from destroying the Island; surprisingly this involved an alliance between Jack's clique (Hurley, Sawyer, Kate) with Locke and Ben (Michael Emerson), once it became clear they'd already found Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), and both parties agreed to extinguish the Source of the Island's power by lowering Desmond (the "failsafe") into the cave to perform said task. Jack believes that Jacob wanted Widmore to bring Desmond to the Island to accomplish this very task (for some unknown, positive outcome), while Locke believes Desmond's actions will sink the Island forever, allowing him to escape in a yacht.

Meanwhile, Miles (Ken Leung) and Alpert (Nestor Carbonell) retrieved Lapidus (Jeff Fahey) floating with submarine debris in the ocean and travelled to Hydra Island, hooking up with Claire (Emilie de Ravin) and intending to get the Ajira plane operational so they could leave the Island. It's a bit irritating how Lapidus has been kept around for three seasons purely because he's the only character that can fly an airplane, don't you agree? Anyway, I appreciated the moment when Miles noticed a grey hair on Alpert, proving his immortality has been removed following Jacob's death. Let's just hope that folicle isn't a sign his years will catch-up with him rapidly, and he'll soon be a wizened skeleton.

In the flashsideways, the measured pace of character "awakenings" quickened because Desmond had managed to bring key people to Daniel Widmore's (Jeremy Davies) outdoor birthday party, as most people connected to Flight 815 were either guests or serendipitously wound up there. Across town, Jack had performed surgery on Locke, surprised to find he was already able to move his feet shortly after his anaesthetic wore off; Sawyer (Josh Holloway) met true-love Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) at a vending machine (why are Apollo bars so damn popular?); Sun (Yunjin Kim) and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) had their memories restored during an ultrasound scan; Daniel met DriveShaft groupie Charlotte (Rebecca Mader) backstage; Hurley (Jorge Garcia) reunited Sayid (Naveen Andrews) with lover Shannon (Maggie Grace), before getting Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) on-stage for the Widmore bash; and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) helped Claire give birth to Aaron, again.

Every moment was in some way anchored to an emotional beat from earlier in the series' run, relying on audience's connection to the characters and beloved memories. As a fan since the day Flight 815 snapped in half over the Pacific, this device worked brilliantly as a shorthand way to remind us of the highs Lost has given us over six years. I found Claire's labour particularly moving, thanks to excellent work from de Ravin (who was sadly wasted elsewhere) and the odd appeal of her forming a little family with dopey Charlie. In both senses of the word.

The Island-based story was awkward in many ways, as there wasn't really much story being told, and the writers were obviously unable to throw up fresh material and new questions because this was the final chapter. Still, I was pleased that the widely-derided "Glowing Cave" from "Across The Sea" somehow felt more plausible after we'd ventured down inside it, over an interior waterfall, to find a luminescent pool of electromagnetic energy that's been stored by a stone-plug only Desmond can wade through safely. There was a more appealing mystical feeling to the Cave and the Source in this episode somehow, where before it felt like naive fairy tale nonsense.

Also great to still see Jack and "Locke" as opposing forces throughout the first part, especially once Jack had helped cause the destruction of the Island by getting Desmond to remove the stone-plug, and the weather took a turn for the worse as the ground started to tremble from violent earthquakes. This led to a Matrix Revolutions-esque fight sequence in the pouring rain between Jack and Locke (who had become mortal as a result of the pool's energy being drained -- just go with it), which ended with a surprisingly early death for the Smokey after being shot by Kate and kicked over a cliff's edge.

In many ways, the problem with "The End" was that it was two extended episodes full of emotional moments that came in regular bursts, but not so much a genuinely enthralling story. Some moments worked better than others, and I'm glad enough clicked to keep me engaged, but there just wasn't the narrative drive forward you usually got with Lost's finales, perhaps understandably. "The End", for me, became less about the plot and question-answering (of which there was very little) and more about enjoying seeing these characters, one final time...

I loved how Jack (mortally-wounded by Locke during their fight) relinquished his Island protector role to Hurley, partly because Hurley's the perfect sasquatch-like deity a jungle should have, but also because it felt right that the most trusting and honest character should ascend to the top. It was also rather wonderful that Hurley appointed Ben as his "Number Two" (a.k.a the new Richard Alpert), considering how much Ben has wanted that position since he was a little boy. Ben's role in the finale wasn't as integral as I expected, or wanted, but this was a deserved and redeeming grace note for his character.

The final moments of the finale were of mixed success, although the symmetry of having a dying Jack lie down in the same bamboo field he first woke up in, this time closing his eye (and with it the series) was a perfect and retrospectively obvious way to bring Lost full circle. The fact Vincent the dog snuggled up to Jack as he watched the Ajira airplane successfully fly overhead, headed for home, tugged at the heartstrings perfectly. I really couldn't have asked for a better final scene.

But it's season 6's divisive "flashsideways" that most people will pour scorn on, as they ultimately proved to be something of an unfortunate misstep for the show. After hearing all the theories for what the flashsideways are, or represent, it all came down to that hoary chestnut of purgatory/limbo. Worse for British viewers, Ashes To Ashes' finale just three days prior did much the same thing! Fortunately, despite the fact purgatory was a common theory back in season 1, the writers at least managed to avoid explaining the entire series that way (although many people online appear to have totally misunderstood that!) Let me clarify here: only the flashsideways were a plane of existence people enter after death, where you're joined by those significant to your life (who died before and after you, because time has no meaning in "limbo-land") It was a kind of spiritual reunion party for everyone, then. Just don't ask why the deceased have to lose their memories, and certainly don't ponder why the Island was seen underwater in this year's premiere (as that makes zero sense, and was responsible for many armchair theorists hitting mental walls...)

I don't wholeheartedly like the purgatory explanation. I didn't totally hate it, but it did feel like a copout on some levels. Fortunately, the flashsideways only formed part of this final year, and were still a fun way to stir some emotion and spend time with dead characters we've grown attached to. I loved seeing Locke forgive Ben for murdering him, and it was poignant for Jack to have everything explained by his "dead" father Christian (John Terry), whose missing body's been one of Lost's longest-running mysteries. In fact, a mystery that wasn't answered in the reality of the series -- another irritation?

Overall, there were several moments of catharsis in "The End" that I responded to truthfully and honestly; partly due to the effects of watching the conclusion of a TV series that's eaten up six years of my leisure time. The good did outweigh the bad for me, making me forget whatever problems I had with how the story panned out. It didn't wrap everything up with a neat bow (I didn't really expect it to), but there's probably enough information for fans to stitch together a clever unifying theory without the problem of future episodes muddying the water now. Somehow that seems fitting for a series that always seemed to owe 50% of it success down to what audiences experienced inbetween the episodes, amongst themselves. There's still lots to discuss and ponder about the show, which I'm quite happy about.

I've spent many hours watching Lost, nearly as many writing about it, and I've been particularly entertained when debating theories with friends and family. It's a show with flaws and problems (is any show perfect?), but it was by far the most enjoyable, ambitious and compelling mystery I've ever engaged with (in film, TV or literature.) Sure, there are many questions left unanswered, but most aren't questions I was demanding to have explained. The core mythology of the show was demystified adequately this year (even if I didn't agree with the turn into spiritualism late-season 5), and all the loose-ends aren't a big deal to me.

So goodbye DHARMA and cryptic numbers. Farewell polar bears and subterranean hatches. Au revoir crazy French woman and the Black Rock. Bon voyage Smoke Monster and the Others. Bye-bye Locke's moobs, Jack's stubble, Kate's freckles, Claire's bulge, Sawyer's chest, Desmond's hair, Sayid snapping necks, Hurley's sweat patches, Ben's bug-eyes, and all the others. My TV's going to be very boring without you guys wandering through the jungle, stumbling upon underground stations, sonic fences, one-armed scientists, four-toed statues, one-eyed Russians, and frozen donkey wheels.

Thanks for the memories, brother.

Namaste.

Answers, Answers, Answers?

No, not everything was explained. Did you really think it could be? At least they got the main stuff covered in season 6 (what the Island is, what the Smoke Monster is, what the whispers are, why people were brought to the Island, what the numbers meant.) But, here's what we'll just have to debate forever more:

• Why was Walt special? I guess we'll only have found out if the actor somehow cheated the ageing process, although considering how Lost jumped forward in time 3 years, it was feasible they could have brought Malcolm David Kelley back fulltime.
• Why couldn't mothers give birth on the Island? I guess it was because Jacob won't allow it, because he gets to select who can come?
• How did DHARMA get air-dropped supplies? A clear mistake of season 2, when the idea that the Island was "hidden" hadn't taken shape yet.
• How did Claire manage to give birth to Aaron? Jacob allowed it? Not sure why.
• What was the significance of Aaron? I guess there wasn't one, no matter what that soothsayer told Claire in season 1.
• Why was there so much Egyptian statues/hieroglyphics everywhere? I assume Egyptians arrived on the Island after Jacob became the Island's protector, and explained the strange they saw or encountered using their spiritual beliefs? They clearly saw Jacob as "Tawaret" (God of fertility) and built a statue in his honour, then the Temple around a spring connected to the Source, and knew of the Smoke Monster.
• Who was trapped in Jacob's Cabin surrounded by ash? For me, this is the most maddening question left unanswered. It makes sense that it was Smokey (imprisoned there because of the ash perimeter, and posing as Jacob to Ben), not least because that's where Smokey-as-Christian took Claire, but how come Smokey was often seen terrorizing the Island? Who was breaking the ash perimeter to let him go free sometimes?
• Why did ash keep Smokey at bay? I'm going to assume that Smokey (as the remnant of a dead man's soul), can't cross paths with other human remains, such as the ash from cremated bodies. Sounds feasible to me.
• Why did Jacob tell Hurley to save Sayid's life by getting him to The Temple, if doing so turned him "evil" (temporarily)? And what turned the spring's water dirty? Why was Sayid "zombified"? I have no idea. That whole Temple section of season 6 was pretty dumb in retrospect.

24 MAY 2010: SKY1/HD, 5AM

LOST 6.16 - "What They Died For"

WRITERS: Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz & Elizabeth Sarnoff
DIRECTOR: Paul Edwards
GUEST CAST: Alan Dale, Kenton Duty, Mira Furlan, Sheila Kelley, Dylan Minnette, Mark Pellegrino, Tania Raymonde & Michelle Rodriguez

[SPOILERS] This penultimate episode (ever) returned to the season's core narratives after last week's polarizing fraternal flashback for Jacob (Mark Pellegrino) and the Man In Black. "What They Died For", referring to those killed during the sinking of the submarine (Lapidus, Sayid, Jin and Sun), certainly worked well to focus minds ready for the imminent, extended series finale.

X-Timeline '04: Ben, Jack, Locke, Desmond, etc.

There's still no "Eureka!" moment to explain the nature of these flashsideways, but at least Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) is increasingly active in his mission to "enlighten" the Flight 815 passengers to their "true" histories. Here, after brutally beating Ben (Michael Emerson) on school grounds -- prompting a similar Island-set memory of violence in Ben -- Desmond gave himself up to Lt. Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and also confessed to being the hit-and-run driver who hospitalized invalid John Locke (Terry O'Quinn). He was promptly jailed alongside Sayid (Naveen Andrews) and Kate (Evangeline Lilly), only for the trio to escape during a vehicular transport, thanks to driver Anna Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez) being paid $125,000 by Desmond's disciple Hurley (Jorge Garcia). And now Desmond has both jailbirds owing him a favour...

Ben also had a touching subplot, when he was taken to see Alex's (Tania Raymonde) mother (Mira Furlan) and realized he's become a father figure to his favourite student. This wasn't a substantial storyline, but that moment in particular was poignantly played by Emerson, whose relationship with Alex has arguably been a lot more interesting post-mortem. The ripples of Desmond's violence also spread; Ben told Locke about Desmond's claim he only ran him over in an effort to make him "let go", making Locke sense a divine guidance because Jack (Matthew Fox) used the same words during their last meeting. Lifted out of his self-pitying funk, Locke went to see Jack and this time accepted his earlier offer of cutting-edge spinal surgery to allow him to walk again. I did wonder why Jack acted so bemused by Locke's serendipitous beliefs, though, as he's been having similar thoughts that Flight 815's passengers are connected recently.

I still continue to find the flashsideways quite a frustrating element of the final season, although I have faith their explanation will retrospectively improve things. Maybe it's down to a frustration that I can't fathom a working theory to explain every facet of them, or formulate a hypothesis for what will happen in the finale (that I'm 100% happy with.) I'll either be overjoyed by the cleverness of the writers after the finale or (perhaps more likely?) deflated there was never a water-tight reason for them to exist, beyond whimsical value.

Also of concern: the possibility that Lost's dead characters will be restored to life once fully "woken up" in the flashsideways (I mean, more so than Hurley appears to be), and I'm not convinced that resurrecting everyone for a trite happy ending is the way to go. It would cheapen all the deaths up until now, wouldn't it? Plus, nobody wants Anna Lucia back.

The Island '07: Ben, Widmore, Locke, etc.

Ben's touching moments in the flashsideways were in stark contrast to the emotions he displayed in the Island storyline. Ben had returned to the abandoned Barracks with Alpert (Nestor Carbonell) and Miles (Ken Leung) to retrieve C4 explosives to destroy the Ajira plane -- a plan that's now pointless, as explained by Widmore (Alan Dale), who's arrived with lackey Zoe (Sheila Kelley) to reveal how he was summoned to the Island by Jacob and has effectively turned over a new leaf as a result. Jacob should really have had a quiet word with Widmore a few years ago -- y'know, to protect the Island from him and his freighter of mercenaries. That is Jacob's sole purpose, isn't it? What a dummy.

So now, Ben and Widmore, the two great rivals for control of the Island, are on the same side, but for Ben there's no chance of a coalition with the man who ordered the death of his beloved daughter. Indeed, when Locke's later spotted returning to the main Island in an outrigger (prompting Miles to flee into the jungle and Widmore to hide in Ben's secret room with Zoe), Ben made the unexpected decision to ally himself with Locke and reveal Widmore's hiding place. A choice that led to Zoe's throat being slashed open with a knife, and Widmore forced to whisper his Desmond-based masterplan in Locke's ear to spare Penny, seconds before being shot dead by Ben over the unfairness of his daughter's killer getting a chance to save his own child's life.

I wasn't totally convinced by Ben's decision-making here, but I have enough of a suspicion to believe he's conning Locke to let my disbelief rest -- for now. After the beautifully emotion scene where Ben decided to join "Team Jacob" with Ilana awhile back, it feels like a dumb reversal of that breakthrough moment. There may be those who relish how quickly Ben's allegiance can flip, but I'm not one of them. I can only hope that Ben's just hoping to assure short-term protection as Locke's aide (he's someone who can kill on Smokey's behalf, so it won't break Jacob's "rules"), while actually intending to betray and kill him at a crucial stage. It would be very unsatisfying to me if Ben's story ended without some redemption, basically.

As for Widmore's death... well, it was inevitable but deserved that Ben was responsible, but it was a little anti-climatic when you consider all the Ben/Widmore machinations of season 4. A similar letdown was the throwaway line that Ben "summoning" the Smoke Monster in season 4 (by draining that puddle of water in the "secret-er" room) was just a misguided belief and the Smoke Monster was never on a leash. Do we buy any of that? No. I really hope the finale isn't littered with other loose-ends being treated so poorly.

The Island '07: Jack, Hurley, Sawyer, Kate & Jacob

Possibly the nicest surprise of this episode was seeing Jacob finally just sit down with the remaining candidates (Jack, Sawyer, Kate and Hurley) and explain things. While often cited as a lazy way to tell stories, having someone just lay things out in words felt like such a relief. The visual storytelling of Lost is more for the benefit of the audience (with its flashbacks/-forwards/sideways), so spare a thought for the poor characters living through this linearly! In particular, I really don't think Kate has a clue what's going on.

Jacob demanded that one of them become his replacement, or face the inevitability that everyone they've ever known will die. Jack, of course, stepped forward and accepted the position as protector of the Island. Was there really any other choice? So Jack drank a cup of water from a nearby stream, blessed by Jacob, watched by his fellow candidates, to become like Jacob. For a dead man, Jacob's ability to touch and be seen by the living like this is certainly the easiest "death" I've ever seen. The MIB's loophole wasn't that tight, if he person you finally manage to kill is still able to communicate and interact with the world. And now that Jack's the new guardian of the Island, will he have any "special powers" with which to defeat MIB, or will there be a tenuous reason why he doesn't, or has to let things play out without interfering in that way. Rules, rules, rules.

In Summation

There are sticking points with this episode, as we race towards a conclusion that's revealing how porous Lost's mythology has been in certain areas, but "What They Died For" was still a great deal of fun and made some headway with Jacob/Jack, while the flashsideways plots are growing thicker with incident as characters "find" each other. The stage is set for a final chapter that could, possibly, tie everything up in a jaw-dropping way to leave us breathless and intellectually nourished... or, more likely, provide a few hours of huge entertainment and emotional closure, particularly if you've followed these characters and engaged with this story for six years. Whatever the outcome, however it ends, I'm ready with a mixture of excitement and sadness.

Questions, Questions, Questions!

• How does Locke plan to use Desmond to destroy the Island?
• What happened to Richard? He's assumedly still unable to be killed, so Smokey must have just tied him up somewhere again. Will Richard lose his immortality when Jacob finally passes over?
• Where's Desmond gone? Did Sayid rescue him from the well?
• Why was Ben able to kill Widmore when he couldn't in "The Shape of Things to Come"?
• Why are we seeing the "ghost" of Jacob in both child form and adult form? Is there significance there?
• If Jack is now the new Jacob, what's to stop him making everyone immortal to defeat Smokey, or simply changing "the rules" to their advantage? Thinking ahead, will Jack end the series as sentry of an empty Island it's already extremely difficult to get to, or will he also have a "nemesis" to do battle with, in an echo of the Jacob/MIB situation? If so, who?
• What was the equipment Widmore told Zoe to get from the outriggers?
• In the flashsideways, what is causing Jack's neck to bleed?
• What isn't Ana Lucia ready for, according to Desmond? Sounds like a vagary because Michelle Rodriguez just isn't available to be utilized more. Speaking of which, I must admit I'm disappointed so many actors didn't want, or couldn't, get involved in this season. It would have been great to see Sharon or Mr. Eko in particular. And I really hope Juliet turns up in the finale. In fact, maybe the finale's going to be a huge surprise and everyone we didn't think would be back gets some screentime? In a way that's not detrimental to the story, of course. I don't want the finale to be a fan-servicing load of nonsense.

21 MAY 2010: SKY1/HD, 9PM