Friday, April 23, 2010

How Lost Will Probably End


Since there's no new episode of Lost to look forward to this Tuesday I'm left to simmer in my own thoughts about it. It's not good. But look at that white board! Don't you wish you could see it more clearly? I'm directing your attention to an interview in Wired magazine with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. Generally I like Lindelof a little better. How about you? The interview has a couple swear words in it. Beware. They are biggies. 

More about the interview in a second but first you should know that there are Lost spoilers AND Harry Potter spoilers in this post. Nevertheless, stop being such a baby about spoilers, [Hannah]. Heck, I Google "Lost spoilers" every day.

I was intrigued by many of the comments on my last post--very thought provoking. Something I've thought about a lot is how sure I am that Sayid didn't kill Desmond. I am so sure, in fact, that I started to get worried that maybe I'm wrong because that would be a huge shocker and I know how much Lost likes to shock me. Still, I know Desmond is alive--he's got more to do on island. (Like how I used the word "island" the same way Gob uses the word "banner"?) I'm still not sure about Sayid's fate; He seems like a shoe-in for dying as a hero in order to sanctify his assassin's life (sort of like The Professional). How will his life turn out in the sideways world? If he stays bad he'll be behind bars compliments of Sawyer and Miles (Lethal Weapon reboot anyone?) If he does something good, perhaps he will cut a deal with the cops by offering up a terrorist and live in witness relocation--without Nadia. He doesn't get her in the end, I fear. But he might get Shannon who is and always will be Nadia's sloppy seconds.

I'm also dismayed at the notion of  Hurley's ability to see and hear the dead being a trick of the Man in Black (Flocke). This is a worry (in principle--not specifically) I have in real life. I have only recently started to overcome it. I guess I am pessimistic and skeptical by nature and I always question whether something is right or maybe just a trick. Like when I got married I felt good about it but I wondered if I should question feeling good about it and if I was supposed to learn not to trust my judgment or something. (17 years and still happily married--is this some kind of long con? Just kidding.) 

When we bought our house at a questionable auction Christian and I both felt overwhelmingly good about it and that it was really "right." The auction turned out to be a scam and we lost 100,000 dollars to one Cody Moore. When this happened I was devastated and thought that we had made a mistake from the beginning--that we were wrong to think it was "right." And that is really a horrible feeling. We ended up buying the house AGAIN and Christian negotiated a price $100,000 less than the original. He was completely unfazed and didn't view it as a mistake at all. The way he saw it, we were even-steven and it was still a good choice. 

It doesn't seem fair to me that Hurley's "gift" could be used by the Man in Black to lead him astray. That would be like Satan using prayer to get you. Plus, Hurley is one of the few pure-in-heart characters on the show who have always tried to be nice and good.  Then again, John Locke is another pure-in-heart character who was usually a nice guy and look what a travesty is being made of of his corpse. His miracle of being able to walk is debased by the Man in Black inhabiting his body. (Flocke wouldn't be half as foreboding if he were stuck in a wheel chair, with all due respect to people stuck in wheel chairs.) 

If I remember right, it was bad John Locke who told Richard to tell real John Locke that he had to die in order to save everyone. Real John Locke was willing to make that sacrifice and was even going to kill himself. See why Flocke called him a sucker? I always worry about being a sucker. That's why I mistrust people who are so sure of their spiritual confirmations. "The spirit told me to. . ." HOW DO YOU KNOW IT WASN'T FAKE JOHN LOCKE? It's a moral failing on my part. If Hurley is a sucker too for trusting in his gift, well then there goes my belief system. What? Oh, yeah. My entire belief system IS based on Lost.

I did take a lot of comfort in the aforementioned interview and I want to pull out key quotes and expand on them. Lindelof doesn't know it but he just gave away the ending. SUCKER!

If you don't know what's going on with the sideways flashes, take heart. You aren't supposed to know. In fact, according to Lindelof THAT is one of the big reveals at the end. Lindelof explains, "Right now, the characters are not aware that there’s any time line other than the one they are in. But if they were to become aware of the parallel worlds, what might they do about it? That becomes a fundamental question." So, this explains what Desmond is doing and what Charlie was talking about, though Charlie seems to suggest that the sideways time line is somehow less relevant and I don't get that. BUT I think this quote explains a lot and sets the Losties up to make decisions that effect alternate time lines.

Early in the series they set up tension between Locke as man of faith versus Jack as man of reason. Lindelof explains that the issue between faith and reason has played out and "Now the question has been boiled down to its essential root — is there a God or is there nothingness?" His words. Not mine.

The creators suggest that they won't (can't?) answer everything. They have also taken a vow of radio silence once the show ends. But don't worry. They are giving it a proper end--it's not all a dream and they won't leave it vague. Lindelof promises,  "At the end of the day, if Jack and Locke were to sit down and say, 'Well, we were kind of both right,” that would not be satisfying.'" It's going to be so satisfying to see this sucker play out.

But here's where Lindelof tips his cards.  "The paradigm has shifted [to], were we brought here for a very specific reason, and what is that reason? Locke is now the voice of a very large subset of the audience who believes that when Lost is all said and done, we will have wasted six years of our lives, that we were making it up as we went along, and that there’s really no purpose. And Jack is now saying, 'the only thing I have left to cling to is that there’s got to be something really cool that’s going to happen, because I have really, really suffered.'" 

OK, so, if it's between God and nothingness and nothingness represents fans who poo-poo Lost and say the creators don't know what they're doing, guess who will win? Now that we know that bad John Locke embodies Lost's worst critics, I think we can enjoy seeing him go down hard, bad, and ugly. So I don't think (as some people do) that the sideways world is a place where the fruits of a contract with bad John Locke are born out. And I do think that good/God/Jacob/anyone who believes they are there for a reason/ will win. It will be a hard fight and I think Hurley, Sayid, Ben, Miles, Kate, and maybe even Jack will die. I figure all of them equal one Dumbledore.

Or, if you like:
Hurley=Hedwig
Sayid=Sirius Black
Miles=Fred Weasley
Ben=Remus Lupin
Kate=Tonks
Jack=Dumbledore

The beauty of it is that they can kill off everyone and we still get to see them in the alternate time line. So, I think it's going to be really good and meaningful. I can't wait. And when it's over I'll be sad.

23 comments:

  1. Dude, Ben as Remus Lupin? Ben is SO Professor Snape.

    As I was reading this post my husband went, "What are you reading that's so freaking important?" because he was apparently asking me about something and I wasn't hearing him.

    I need to digest this and will come back with all sorts of sparkly thoughts.

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  2. Oh, Nat the Fat--we think alike! I had an extra paragraph about how Ben is really like Snape but Snape doesn't die and I think Ben might die--but my post was already so long (as your husband knows) so I cut it. Why can't we just be having lunch and talking about Lost?

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  3. I can't tell you how reassuring it is that someone else out there spends as much time thinking about Lost as I do.

    My big question is, how did Juliet know that "it worked," referring to the bomb -- her (almost) dying words to Sawyer, courtesy of Miles.

    P.S. I've been a lurking fan of yours forever. A few years ago my husband made me leave the room while I was reading your blog because my intermittent (and profound) laughter was drowning out the TV. I had to get up with my laptop and go laugh on the floor of the bathroom. It was totally worth sitting on the cold tile floor -- and still is. Thanks.

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  4. My guess as to how to make sense of Juliet's last words is that in the sideways world we will see her and Sawyer meet--probably for coffee. I think as she was dying she became aware of the other time lines, just like Charlie and Desmond are now becoming aware.

    You should comment all the time, Betsy. It's fun.

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  5. i need to watch lost with you. i have to pause it all the time to digest it and ask my husband questions to which he says, "don't try to understand it, robin... just enjoy it."

    well, i can't just enjoy it! i need to analyze it like you! so thanks for doing all this thinking for me. i appreciate it.

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  6. I just read that entire Wired article and now my brain has turned to goo.

    My husband and I think that in the end it will all boil down to a one-two Faraday/Desmond punch, and that the sideways castaways will recall their island selves and somehow merge the two. (Did you see on that chart thinger the number of connections Faraday had?) But as to who will stay on the island as the next Jacob (assuming that happens at all) my money is on Hurley. Desmond is too cool for that and Jack has too much to live for in the sideways world, and as the writers seem to set him up as the real hero of the story I can't imagine him staying. I want Aaron to be the next smoke monster. But how does he get to the island?

    (I keep hoping Sawyer does not meet up with Juliet in the sideways world on account of I am team Sawyer/Kate, thank you very much.)

    (Sun and Jin are something big to this story, I just don't know how yet. AND PLEASE, why are Sun and Jin not married in the sideways world but are married in the island world? ???)

    P.S. This whole having lunch thing/discussing Lost can SO HAPPEN.

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  7. This is how the Lost writers can end that whole New-Jacob thing amicably in my mind: BEN LINUS AS THE NEW JACOB.

    Does that trip your mind/make you feel warm and fuzzy inside like me?

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  8. You and I are similar creatures in so many ways it's a bit weird sometimes.

    I have so many thoughts about Lost right now that when I attempt to put them down I get bogged down in the grandness of it. Kudos to you for doing it because I am loving it.

    "I want someone who won't talk during Lost"
    Amen, Liz Lemon, Amen.

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  9. What Harry Potter books did you read? Because I distinctly remember Snape dying...

    I like the Ben/Snape parallel personally because, in spite of myself, I kinda like Ben now.

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  10. Yeah, I don't remember. I thought he died NOT in the big battle but later when Voldemort kills him. Or Nagini kills him. So Ben would be a great Snape.

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  11. finally, some recognition.

    i like these theories. so much, in fact, that i'm going to propose them as new sunday school curriculum.

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  12. Ok, so I saw this post earlier but didn't have time to read it all. I got up an hour early to study my Sunday School lesson and I am going to admit that I read your post instead. I am so glad, because now I have something way more interesting than Joseph of Egypt to discuss with my 15 yr olds!

    If you could compare the characters of Lost to the ones on Gilligan's Island, who would you choose as MaryAnn? I'm stumped with her but I have the rest down:

    Jack-Professor
    Sawyer-Skipper
    Charlie-Gilligan
    Kate-Ginger
    Jin-Turston Howell III
    Sun-Lovey
    Flight 815-The Minnow

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  13. I would probably switch Kate out for Mary Ann and have Shannon be Ginger. And maybe Daniel Faraday would be the professor and Charles Widmore would be Thurston Howel...lot's to think about.

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  14. Kacy, I must put your mind at ease about this Hurley fear. Hurley's gift is true and untainted by Flocke because he saw Richard's wife, and she didn't die on the island. SO far, in the world of LOST, Flocke can only take on the appearance of bodies who show up on the island (Jack's dad, Ben's daughter, Eko's brother) so I don't believe he is causing Hurley's visions. If anything, Flocke would probably be shocked that a pure in heart person (like Hurley) would have access to such miracles.

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  15. And also, I am livid about there being no episode this week because Ben will be out of town and we could have organized a viewing of it together.

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  16. OK, so on that Web of Intrigue thing in that article, it shows that Jacob touched Mr. Eko. ????? When did that happen? I loved Mr. Eko and I feel sure I would have remembered that!

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  17. Oops, I'm sort of an idiot. The thing was pointing to Sawyer and not Eko. That map is kind of hard to read sometimes.

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  18. Anonymous7:32 PM

    Have you listened to the Lost podcast available through iTunes? I haven't listened to any of this season's yet but last years' were highly entertaining. But I'm not going to read the Wired article, I sort of have a spoiler phobia.

    (I did kind of predict the ending of Harry Potter--I missed some major plot points, but I said that the key mystery of the books was the meaning of death and that it would have to be addressed, possibly through Harry dying and being resurrected. I think that was a pretty good call. But I don't have any predictions for Lost; I'm just really hoping that the writers make good on their promise that it will all make sense.)

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  19. I'm thoroughly lost on Lost, since I haven't seen much except for the first season. But I do have to say I'm certainly glad your family made the right decision and bought the house you did.

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  20. You have more ideas about Lost than I do.

    I think you are right about Sayid/Desmond. Sayid cannot have killed him. Desmond is too important to the storyline. I am also interested in whether Charles Widdemore is there for good or for bad.

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  21. Love love love all of it. I SO wish you live in San Antonio. We'd be best friends. We'd eat french fries together and talk Lost. Our b-days are one day apart, and we have kids similar ages...so we'd have LOTS to talk about. Don't be creeped out. I'm sure we'd be bffs.

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  22. Anonymous8:54 PM

    I just got around to watching your Google Search stories. (I thought it was going to be harder than that so I put it off.) Very funny.

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  23. I love looking inside of your brain! This is the kind of stuff that I loose sleep over, so thanks for giving me more fuel for thought.

    I really want some resolution with Daniel's mom's story. She seems to know everything before it happens. Is it just science or something more?

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