Lost--Season 6 - Spoilers Abound!!!

[[Syl]]

I would be willing to accept that explanation if Jacob's brother had retained his original body and only gained invulnerability and the ability to turn into the smoke monster. But his original body was discarded and died when he entered the Source...

And Captain Kirk's body was destroyed every time he used a transporter (only Barclay ever expressed a rational horror at the concept)... and then rebuilt. He was still human.

We don't know for sure that the Smoke Monster's first appearance was when Jacob's brother entered the Source.

Interesting. Then the Jacob/Smokie duality represents the good/evil one. Mom was both. Jacob's choice fractured the roles. Or maybe it just abdicated his authority over Smokey. Maybe Hurley was both, too, or gained the authority. Now there's an image.

...otherwise in my opinion they undermined the entire moral and philosophical foundation of the show.

Just names in chalk, according to Jacob. Me, I thoroughly enjoyed the show start to finish.

[Zarathustra]

I sure wish Lurch was around to give us his closing arguments ... or final koans, or whatever.

Sorry to dissapoint..you ask for logical answer...but LOST is not a show based in any Logic. Matter of fact,, any Logic in this show is an Illusion. Ask Jack..every time he trys to be Logical,, Mr Fix It..it goes to schitt in a handbucket...Logic? I dumped that pair of glasses after the opening minutes of episode 1 season 1..People DO NOT survive a plane coming apart at 30, or 20 or 10 thousand feet. This show is just opposite,, its about the Feel, The Texture,, the Inuitive,,the IMAGINATION. The ONLY reality of LOST that is REAL.. is how the Viewer Feels by the end of episode. That is Your Truth. Again as JJ Abramson said at the onset..Lost was originally conceived as the Ultimate Reality Show.

Lurch probably gave the best argument of anyone here for the position that the show wasn't about giving answers. While this arose out of Lurch's own impressive personal philosophy, I don't think this can be justified by the show itself. The show most certainly gave us literal, unambiguous answers by the end. Everything that happened on the island was literally real. It happened. It wasn't imagination. It wasn't a miracle. Smokey wasn't beaten by magic or white gold or laughing at him ... he was beaten by taking his "magic" away, making him mundane and human, so that a bullet + action-movie-one-liner was sufficient to finish him off. And his magic wasn't taken away by faith or personal characteristics of the characters. It was taken away because the island had a LITERAL cork. A fucking cork! Which Desmond could remove becuase he had a resistance to electromagnetism. Not spiritual enlightenment, or strong character, but an entirely accidental attribute that is rendered in literal science fiction terms. He was a "machine." A weapon, as Jack put it. The solution was entirely mechanical: unplug this, shoot that, plug this back in. Mr. Jack Fixit was able to fix it! That's the story of the island.

However, Lost still managed to straddle the fence with the purgatory alt-reality. That part did require "enlightenment," and faith. That part was "magical." And it was built up almost entirely out of imagination, a "reality" created by the people themselves, instead of something imposed externally upon them. A participatory reality, in which we can determine our own level of involvement.

So I think the show was not about: science vs. faith. It was about science AND faith. Literal and figurative. Logic and emotion.

Hey,, you can watch it how you may,, don't get me wrong. Its just ,,all the millions of questions generated by this show ,,are not generated by the show LOST,, but by the mis perception of the Show Lost. So the fans get upset cuz the producers don't answer their questions. The producer's Can't answer their questions because how do you tell a fan that they are mis perceiving the show and keep them as a fan at the same time.? You can live with the the frustration and disappointment all you want. At the end of each episode I don't have questions. I have enjoyment and amazement...

I call bullshit. The show clearly generated its own self-contained questions. Many of these were answered in straightforward, literal ways. And some were left unanswered.

Hey heres one for you.. All of Lost,, and I do Mean ALL,, of LOST is Illusion as Reality..By the end of this shows run.. you will see that LOST is the greatest Reality Show ever. The Truth of Lost is what the viewer finds within himself by end of each episode.

[My emphasis.] No, Lurch was clearly wrong. "ALL" of Lost was not Illusion as Reality. The island was real. This position only applies to the dopey last minute addition of an alternate reality which was never part of the first 5/6ths of this show.

I do think that the creators of Lost infused it with surrealistic imagery and styles. But either they violated it by the end, or it was never intended to be as surreal as Lurch maintained.

I would have preferred Lurch to be right, and leave out the purgatory sideshow, and have the surreal ending be the island itself. But that's not the Lost we were given.

[Zarathustra]

I just read the link provided by Xar. I thought it was quite insightful, especially its examination of how poorly the characters were treated. And, as a final response to Lurch's "it's not about answers," the last paragraph was great:

I could go on but I think you get my point. The final season was deeply flawed and poorly executed. But it didn’t need to be. It could have been so much more. It could have served every character well without needing to answer every minor little mystery that may have demystified the island. Instead they opted to demystify the very nature of the universe by answering the age-old question…what happens when you die? Unfortunately, this was the answer to a question that the audience never asked.

How can it be surreal when they definitively answer the "Meaning of Life" and "What Happens When You Die?" in the last 5 minutes? So even the side I was giving credit for being surreal actually turned out to give its own simple, completely explicable metaphysics. A very good point.

[Zarathustra]

We started watching the Blu-rays of season 1 again, in preparation of watching the entire series straight through (season 6 Blu-ray comes out in August). Watching it, I realized something very depressing: now that I know how it ends, I no longer care about this series. It's not just the lame final season, but the whole damn thing. When you watch those classic 1st season moments, and think about what they are leading to, it just takes all the joy out of it.

We got to episode 3, Walkabout. I always expect the Kate episode to suck, so that's not much of a problem. But Walkabout is one of my all-time favorites. However, now that I know John Locke's character never gets resolved, that he dies just as depressinigly and pointlessly as he lived, it's just pathetic. All the "creepy" camera pans around him while he stares menacingly are so obviously a fake-out, a contrived trick, it's no longer interesting in the slightest. It seems that the writers wanted Locke to be "creepy" and prophetic from the very beginning, but then when it came down to giving us a reason for all that build up, they cop-out and make his "dark" or "supernatural" side entirely a product of another character. There is no justification whatsoever in making Locke this mysterious and dark, because he's just an office worker at a box company after all. There is nothing more to him, except his gullibility. He was exactly right in season 5: he's *not* special. Just gullible. He never rises above that, even in the end. He trusts the wrong person, or believe the wrong thing, right up until his very last breath.

The writers should have had the balls to turn him into something disturbing on his own, rather than the cop-out of the MIB taking his form. Otherwise, all that sinister build up is meaningless.

Seriously, pop in disc 1 and try to watch Walkabout. When he yells, "Don't tell me what I can't do," I want to just slap him. He couldn't do shit. He's just worthless and pathetic. There is nothing else to him at all.

[ItisWritten]

He (Locke) couldn't do shit. He's just worthless and pathetic. There is nothing else to him at all.

I disagree. The point of Locke wasn't his failures, but that he kept trying. It's not always about the bottom line.

There were a lot of things that happened TO Locke, but he kept getting up, so to speak, and trying again. That's why Jacob touched him after his fall.

I'm not arguing about what Lost intended with the character. That's what I got out of it.

[Zarathustra]

The point of Locke wasn't his failures, but that he kept trying.

Well, he kept trying right up until he tried to kill himself! I'd count that as a major "giving up." However, he failed at that too! This guy can't even get "giving up" right. Ben takes that away from him, too. And then does it for him.

Locke had such potential. I feel like they killed him off just for a gimmick, for the benefit of having MIB take over his form so they could finally have the "dark" Locke they always wanted, but didn't have the balls to write. So they killed off Locke before they resolved his character, because they were done with him, but still wanted to use his face. So depressing.

[ItisWritten]

The point of Locke wasn't his failures, but that he kept trying.

Well, he kept trying right up until he tried to kill himself! I'd count that as a major "giving up." However, he failed at that too! This guy can't even get "giving up" right. Ben takes that away from him, too. And then does it for him.

Locke had such potential. I feel like they killed him off just for a gimmick, for the benefit of having MIB take over his form so they could finally have the "dark" Locke they always wanted, but didn't have the balls to write. So they killed off Locke before they resolved his character, because they were done with him, but still wanted to use his face. So depressing.

I agree with how the writers dealt with the character. That was disappointing. But I still don't think he did give up. MIB, in the guise of Jack's father, told Locke he'd have to die to convince them to return. Locke accepted that challenge in that moment, but, as you say, suicide is giving up and he couldn't do it. He was incapable of giving up, thus suicide was not possible for him. So, once again, shit happened to him so other people could get what they wanted.

He was a victim, but that doesn't make him pathetic and worthless. It makes him fearful and perhaps foolish for continuing to trust.

[lurch]

...Concerning Lost..Lost season 6..and The Finale...If you want to comprehend it all..end your disappointment..stop blaming every one else but yourself...simply do what they did in the show..KILL YOUR JACK. Yep..rite there in front of you, they showed you the way..KILL YOUR Man Of Science off..your need for Logical and Reasonable answers. I warned you early on..You have disappointment. I have fulfilment and satisfaction..The ONLY question is..if you really are a big fan of LOST..what will you do to be fulfilled and satisfied..?? They ain't rewriting the show for you..so its You who have to make the change,,not them. So do it..KILL YOUR JACK..Stop with the logic and reason..It will get you what Jack got..frustration and disappointment.

As Cuse put it early on.." of course its all metaphor. " So let the logic and reason go..and open your mind to the metaphor.

[Cagliostro]

Great to see you around again Lurch. Lots of us were hoping you'd re-emerge during the showing of the 6th season. But I'm glad to see you've at least come back to comment on it after the fact. Some of us missed your insights this last season.

[Zarathustra]

...Concerning Lost..Lost season 6..and The Finale...If you want to comprehend it all..end your disappointment..stop blaming every one else but yourself...simply do what they did in the show..KILL YOUR JACK. Yep..rite there in front of you, they showed you the way..KILL YOUR Man Of Science off..your need for Logical and Reasonable answers. I warned you early on..You have disappointment. I have fulfilment and satisfaction..The ONLY question is..if you really are a big fan of LOST..what will you do to be fulfilled and satisfied..?? They ain't rewriting the show for you..so its You who have to make the change,,not them. So do it..KILL YOUR JACK..Stop with the logic and reason..It will get you what Jack got..frustration and disappointment.

As Cuse put it early on.." of course its all metaphor. " So let the logic and reason go..and open your mind to the metaphor.

Maybe that response applies to some of the people you've addressed in the course of your discussions elsewhere, or others in this thread, but certainly not me. If you'll look upthread I said this:

I would have preferred Lurch to be right, and leave out the purgatory sideshow, and have the surreal ending be the island itself. But that's not the Lost we were given.

I don't think my problem is that I would have only been satisfied with straightforward logical answers. That's not the satisfaction I was looking for. In another post deeper in this thread, I said that I didn't care if they never answered another question again as long as they kept writing powerful character scenes like the one where Ben said, "... because he's the only one who will have me." [Referring to Smokey.]

My problems with the 6th season were more technical than philosphical. I don't think they did the characters justice. But this technical criticism doesn't mean I'm forcing a logical interpretation on a something that's essentially a metaphor. Metaphors can be analyzed, too. They can succeed as stories, or not, even if their aims are figurative rather than literal. Lost isn't a religion. I'm not required merely to have faith that it was a good story. There can be explanations for my dissatisfaction other than a lack of faith. Lost can succeed as a metaphor and still fail in its narrative depiction of that metaphor.

[lurch]

Great to see you around again Lurch. Lots of us were hoping you'd re-emerge during the showing of the 6th season. But I'm glad to see you've at least come back to comment on it after the fact. Some of us missed your insights this last season.

My apologies Cag. I got heavily involved in LOST without really aiming to. It just happened. Last year's comic-con had a forum with Damon and Carlton. The theater was packed. No, I wasn't there. But,,very soon afterwards the word spred that the first guy in line to ask questions of D&C..presented them with a Black Velvet painting of D&C with a Polar Bear between the two. He waxed on and on about Lost and D&C and of course ended by suggesting to every one to visit his web site. The fellow turned out to be an up and coming comedian, Paul Sheer. His website was mostly a darkish humor take of things LOST..like a poll on which character had the best Gun Face. Anyway..I had my fun there and yes, contributed heavily. I was having Fun!..About two weeks in on this.. receive a fed x package and inside was a letter from Paul..hand written..thanking me very much for my contributions to his website,,and a 8x10 giclee print of the original Damon, Carlton and a Polar Bear Painting..autographed by Paul and serial numbered..#9 of 30. Pretty neat. Two days later I get a registered Fed X enveloe..yes,,had to sign for it..Enclosed is a formal letter from Ronnie MidFew Arts..claiming they had the sole rights to LOST Intellectual Property,,and that they knew I had just received a print of the D&C and a Polar Bear painting. I was not allowed to make copies of it and blah blah blah and Paul Sheer was in for trouble. hhhhmmm.. I smelled a..." Alternate Reality Game afoot. Sure enough,,events quickly unfolded to the exquisite LOST FAN APPRECIATION Alternate Reality Game (ARG). For a full understanding of that..google LOST ARGs..the website will explain everything. By the end of it all..I had traveled to Tucson for a Lost bookmarker soveneir,,travelled to L.A. for the 16th poster unveiling where I met many LOST Argies I had been posting with..met Paul Sheer, met Damon, Carlton, and members of the production crew with whom I and others had discussion with,,and got Damon and Carlton's autographs on the D&C and A Polar Bear print. Soon after that..I found my self going to Hawaii..to be part of the season 6 Premier Event..Not only did I tour the many many LOST shooting sites on Oahu but also got Kims, Evies and Matts autographs..tons of pics, partied with the most devoted LOST Fans from around the world..yes. from .finland, turkey, france germany england scotland and even a gal from lebanon Theeeennnn..went to L.A. and did the LOST Finale at the Orpheum Theater thing. In all that..only once..was I able to ask Carlton Cuse The Question. ..I asked him " So, who is the Andre Breton expert in the Production Staff?" He did not say anything. I asked again. He did not say anything. So I asked with consideration.." Is that a question you can't answer until later?" He replied..." Much Later!"

I went with the flow of this LOST thang. I had fun at Pauls website which turned into a fantastic , fully enjoyed, and positive experience. Did I mention I even made it on CNN in their coverage of the Lost Fan Appreciation Event? Thats another story. Anyway..It was a hoot. I'd do it all over again.

I say all that..because I had to be free to experience it. Kevins Watch was but one of many things I let go off for awhile. Strange it is that on return. I find the Surreal of SRD even stronger.

btw..Congrats on the son!!He appears to be growing fast. May good luck and fortune be his!

Season 6 began with Kate hangin from a tree branch..a Great visual metaphor for..Free Will out on a limb...Damon and Carlton were going to do it their way and have a blast doing it .They had nothing to lose....Fascinating it is..that as D& C put it..the Sideways Flashes,,or season 6..was a What If..a projection into the future..creating a future, and in AATE..the Author has the characters discussing " IF".

[Orlion]

...Concerning Lost..Lost season 6..and The Finale...If you want to comprehend it all..end your disappointment..stop blaming every one else but yourself...simply do what they did in the show..KILL YOUR JACK. Yep..rite there in front of you, they showed you the way..KILL YOUR Man Of Science off..your need for Logical and Reasonable answers. I warned you early on..You have disappointment. I have fulfilment and satisfaction..The ONLY question is..if you really are a big fan of LOST..what will you do to be fulfilled and satisfied..?? They ain't rewriting the show for you..so its You who have to make the change,,not them. So do it..KILL YOUR JACK..Stop with the logic and reason..It will get you what Jack got..frustration and disappointment.

As Cuse put it early on.." of course its all metaphor. " So let the logic and reason go..and open your mind to the metaphor.

Maybe that response applies to some of the people you've addressed in the course of your discussions elsewhere, or others in this thread, but certainly not me. If you'll look upthread I said this:

I would have preferred Lurch to be right, and leave out the purgatory sideshow, and have the surreal ending be the island itself. But that's not the Lost we were given.

I don't think my problem is that I would have only been satisfied with straightforward logical answers. That's not the satisfaction I was looking for. In another post deeper in this thread, I said that I didn't care if they never answered another question again as long as they kept writing powerful character scenes like the one where Ben said, "... because he's the only one who will have me." [Referring to Smokey.]

My problems with the 6th season were more technical than philosphical. I don't think they did the characters justice. But this technical criticism doesn't mean I'm forcing a logical interpretation on a something that's essentially a metaphor. Metaphors can be analyzed, too. They can succeed as stories, or not, even if their aims are figurative rather than literal. Lost isn't a religion. I'm not required merely to have faith that it was a good story. There can be explanations for my dissatisfaction other than a lack of faith. Lost can succeed as a metaphor and still fail in its narrative depiction of that metaphor.

Agreed. Though I have one more criticism to add. The last season seemed to make a point that nothing that happened before mattered... that the sacrifices were for nothing, and quite frankly, if the island got destroyed, nothing else would happen. If Jack stayed with science or not, it would not matter. If the MiB succeeded or not, it would not matter.

So if the creators are going to encourage people to consider mysteries and be surprised when people are pissed off when those mysteries matter, they are really dumb. Also, I get that they are Stephen King fans, I don't need to continually see Lost-ified scenes from King books continually.

Finally, even metaphor has at its foundation logic. You reject logic completely, you render the metaphor meaningless and worthless.

[danlo]

Fascinating lurch!! Very, very cool! (I hope they paid for your trip to Hawaii!)..I'm still waiting for the show to end...LOL

[Zarathustra]

Lurch, I'm very happy for you and not a little jealous. That sounds awesome, man. When you chastised us for not liking season 6 due to our own spiritual failings and lack of comprehension, and urged us to accept the blame for it, you neglected to mention your own unique perspective ... If I had the access and experiences that you did, it might have been enough to push me over into the "loving the 6th season" camp along with the rest of you. I imagine experiences like that form strong connections with your overall experience with the show. Good for you. As someone who merely watched it, and didn't live-and-breath it, I had a slightly different perspective.

[lurch]

No Z..I ain't lettin you get away with that. Because I had researched out Surrealism..including Breton, Magritte, et al..I had already figured out what was to come. As far as the show,,what was actually presented..not the side shows..TPTB fulfilled all my expectations. LOST picked up where Breton's " Nadja" left off. LOST was basically a modern version, an update, of Breton's " Nadja" along with his What Is Surrealism lectures and aspects of his later books. Of course there was elements of Magrittes take on Surrealism and Dali as well.

So..for example..the Finale..the two part END of LOST..was just a fulfillment of what I knew had to happen. I did not know HOW they were going to do it, but was certain what had to happen. The Reunions or Rememberences. of the individual LOSTIES ,,each was a classic metaphor of what It IS to be a Human Being..our Humanity. JIN and Sun..the machine is but a Tool that brings the Koreans to their reunion...the machine is not our Humanity but only a Tool that brings us to it...Sayid and Shannon, at our basic,,there are basic truths that when offended we are inspired to act..the Claire delivery scene..WOW..that was so primal, creation with no idea what was to become of it..forget the worries just do it!..and oh man..Sawyer and Juliette,,yea,,that one got me..reach for the kleenex time..See..Apollonaire, a French Poet,,is the one who coined the word..Surreal. Sawyer had to..and did..trust Juliettes non logical directive to unplug the machine and plug it back in to get his Apollo Bar...LOVE was the common thread thru these " reunions". Jack..well..Jack had to come to the realization that he..Man of Science..Mr Logical..Doctor Fix Everything..was the biggest worst enemy of all. Worst Enemy to what or whom? Worst enemy to self identification.. Who Am I ( the question he screamed at Bai Ling in season 3)..or to Being A Human Being. Jack was his own worst enemy.

LOST began with a crash.. a coming apart. The book " Nadja" ends with a news report of a plane disappearing over an Island..Therefore all of LOST has been the slow rebuilding of what came apart, As Damon said in the NYT Interview,,Lost is about Self Identity..so..the crash can be seen as metaphor for a..nervous breakdown..or what ones experiences when one wakes up realizing one is addicted to a drug..or handed divorce papers out of the blue..or answering the door bell to find a policeman with an arrest warrant..or be on the loosing side of a War..etc etc..point being..a life shattered. LOST was the slow process of putting it back together.So the final scene in the church...all that..was the Unification..made Whole. Breton saw Man as divided by his diametrically opposed perceptions.. The external world and the Inner world. Breton and the Surrealists saw a Unification of these opposites inorder for a man to be at peace with himself. This Unification could be achieved by " working" the opposites into a 3rd reality.. the Surreal.. the extra real..The final scene at the church.. was great metaphor of all that...imho.

Again..I knew this was to happen. I didn't know how TPTB would pull it off..but was brought to tears as they did.

I can't argue about this . There is no argument. It can't be taken away from me. LOST was always about the individual viewer. Like I've said..LOST made me smell peanut butter while I sat in the barco-lounger in the living room. Nobody can take that away from me. Same with season 6,,and the finale. It all clicked,,it worked for me from epi 1. Al the side show business was just icing on the cake.. and I had already ate most of the cake. And Yes..i met a lot of folks who also felt LOST clicked for them as well. With them.. the real beauty of LOST blossomed.

[Orlion]

You keep talking about how awful it is to be a Man-of-science, and that we should "kill our Jack" and so forth, but you seem to ignore the implications of the Man-of-faith embodied in Locke (or you just haven't gotten around to it yet ) Locke viewed the embodiment of evil as a pillar of light, he was essentially the tool of this being that almost led to the destruction of the Island and presumably, though I'm not convinced, the world. It was the Man-of-science that opposed this evil, and the Man-of-faith that exacerbated it.

If the flash sideways are any indication, I'd say that the lesson to be learned is that both philosophies could lead to undesirable results, (as was in the case in the real world) but they can also lead to good results as well (as when Jack operated on Locke in the fake world).

Once again, I'm not convinced that this was done as effectively as it could have been done. It was not a total bust, but if the lesson can not be learned from the show without stumbling onto some works I've never heard of before... then I tend to think that something is wrong with it as popular entertainment (even if it is a good modern commentary on surrealism).

[Zarathustra]

You keep talking about how awful it is to be a Man-of-science, and that we should "kill our Jack" and so forth, but you seem to ignore the implications of the Man-of-faith embodied in Locke (or you just haven't gotten around to it yet ) Locke viewed the embodiment of evil as a pillar of light, he was essentially the tool of this being that almost led to the destruction of the Island and presumably, though I'm not convinced, the world. It was the Man-of-science that opposed this evil, and the Man-of-faith that exacerbated it.

If the flash sideways are any indication, I'd say that the lesson to be learned is that both philosophies could lead to undesirable results, (as was in the case in the real world) but they can also lead to good results as well (as when Jack operated on Locke in the fake world).

Very good points. As I said above: I think the show was not about science vs. faith as much as it was about the paradox embodied by science AND faith. Logic and emotion. All of the characters died. I see no reason to single out one death over another as the key to comprehending the show.

The man of faith was wrong. Or maybe he was right for the wrong reasons, or wrong for the right reasons. But in the end it was the man of science informed by the man of faith who achieved the victory. If you want to look at our own history, a similar pattern can be detected: first we were mistakenly too faithful (or superstitious). Lightning actually isn't Zeus's wrath. Then the Enlightenment happened, and (as Nietzsche said), we killed god. But the science that arose from the ashes of that death was a little too sure of itself, way too Absolute, and a little naive. And now we're working our way back towards a version of science that embraces some of those concepts we discarded when we killed god: inconnectedness, nonlocality, relativity, probability, spontaneous order, rejection of man as a machine (functionalism), etc.

No Z..I ain't lettin you get away with that. Because I had researched out Surrealism..including Breton, Magritte, et al..I had already figured out what was to come.

I'm not saying you're wrong in your opinions of Lost. It's a work of fiction; I don't believe it has one Absolute Interpretation. But I do think you are wrong to place the blame on us if we don't like it, or to say that we don't comprehend it merely because we don't emphasize the same aspects and interpretations that you find useful.

There were aspects of the finale which really moved me. Brought me to tears, too. I loved all the reunions and I agree with your points on unification (see above: science and faith). However, I don't think unification can be achieved by killing one aspect of ourselves, but rather by integrating all aspects of ourselves.

Lots of people figured out what was coming, without the help of Breton. People had been suggesting "Purgatory" ever since season one. The writers denied it, but in the end that's what they gave us. I'm not trying to take anything away from your experiences (though you have no problem undermining the validity of ours). I simply refuse to accept that yours is the one privileged interpretation. From your own recounting of the event, it sounded like Cuse had no idea who Breton was. Maybe he was just being mysterious and coy. But it seems like there would have been some kind of clue in the wealth of clues generously given to us by the writers if that was an explicit source--indeed, the main source--of inspiration. I agree that many of your insights fit the show well. But so do many insights that don't arise from that particular perspective. It seems that Lost was inspired by a much larger, more comprehensive body of work than just one branch of philosophy.

However, I'm not personally invested in my perspective on Lost. I'd gladly welcome a definitive interpretation that proves my misgivings to be unfounded and brings me the same joy and contentment that you experienced.

[danlo]

Great points all--I'm a student of surrealism, as well--I'll continue to wait, like Godot, for the next season to begin...I'm serious, the show will never end for me...

[I'm Murrin]

Jack was also a "man of faith", though, wasn't he? His struggle was in accepting that side of himself. The episode from which we're getting the "man of science, man of faith" dichotomy was one in which Jack represented both.

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

Two ideas: first, if the show's meaning is up to the viewer, then if the viewer decides it sucked, then it did suck. There's no condemning it; "You could've interpreted it differently," would be false or else miss the point.

Personally, I think the entire show might make sense, if thought about hard enough. (But then (atheist I may be) I still have faith that the Trinity makes sense, too.) The writers denied that the island was purgatory. But we ended up shown purgatory leading to paradise. However, it's our mistake if we too quickly jump to the conclusion that the island alone anteceded heaven. Instead, it could be easily believed that the entire world in which the conflict on the island was set was that antecedent.