Lost Finale Thoughts (Spoilers)

I actually thought the series finale of Lost was fairly solid -- not great, but with series finales, my rule of thumb has become 'Be happy if the creators don't shit the bed on their way out.' Finales in which I think the creators truly and royally shit the bed include Seinfeld, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise. Lost reminded me more of the Star Trek: Deep Space 9 finale: satisfying, but with a lot of missed opportunities (in DS9's case, the gigantic missed opportunity was the admission of Bajor to the Federation, which the series set up at the beginning as sorta being one of the points of the whole series. Oops!).

I do love the Internet because one gets to see plot ideas that people think are clever (and which may be clever), but which would leave the vast majority of viewers wanting to kill J.J. Abrams, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. I call this the Meahan/Ryan Postulate, in honour of the Buffy conclusion a couple of friends of mine came up with that would have resulted in 80% of Buffy viewers forming a torch-and-pitchfork-wielding mob and surrounding Joss Whedon's house.

My nominee for Internet plot twist that fulfills the Meahan/Ryan Postulate is 'A horrified Jack becomes the Smoke Monster! That would have been awesome!' Yes, and it would also have been awesome if Star Trek II featured Spock shooting JFK from the grassy knoll to save history as we know it, an actual plot twist repeatedly pitched as a Trek movie idea by Trek creator Gene Roddenberry after he was removed from all actual power over the franchise after Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The Internet makes one thing perfectly clear: some people will actually watch a show they hate for years just so they can complain about it. Years! Read a fucking book, why don't you?

As to my major missed opportunity in the Lost finale...it falls under the category 'Show Don't Tell.' We needed some indication that the Island's impending destruction really was affecting the world outside. As we had lots of familiar characters and places to call upon, some reaction shots to earthquakes and red skies appearing in Hong Kong, LA, New York, Eko's African village, and so on, and so forth would have made the whole thing seem a lot realer and more urgent. As it was, the stake seemed a bit theoretical, even at the end, and having shots of worried characters like Jack's ex-wife, Penny, Walt and Aaron and his grandmother looking up at impending doom would have really put this one over the top.

On the other hand, any finale that makes use of non-linear time has my vote, though Jack's father neglects to mention that if you're outside time, not only is everyone dead, but everyone's also alive.

Also, I was glad to see that I was right and that Lapidus was still alive.

Spoilery Lost Speculation post-"Sundown"

A long time ago, the producers of LOST talked about how Stephen King's THE STAND had influenced some elements of the show, most notably the character of fallen rock star Charlie, who they compared to King's Larry Underwood character in the behemoth-sized post-apocalyptic novel about a tussle between good and evil.

Such comparisons now look a lot more workable. In THE STAND, the 'leader' of the forces of good, Mother Abigail, dies with a fair bit of the book to go, leaving our merry band of good guys to figure out how to battle Satan-surrogate Randall Flagg by themselves. In LOST, Jacob is now dead (though remarkably loquacious, at least to Hurley), and the battle lines seem to be being drawn being a small band of good guys and a larger band of bad guys congregated around Not-Locke.

Like the stereotypical Devil, Not-Locke offers bargains that seem too good to be true, while Jacob's offers always involve some sort of sacrifice (as Dogen's monologue about his son highlights). Oh, that Devil!

Will this all turn out to be a battle between Good and Evil, or will some clever destabilizing of such a bipolarity occur a la BABYLON 5's undermining of the Vorlon/Shadow dichotomy during the climax of the Shadow War? I'm thinking a bit of both.

I'm also thinking that the Jacob/Not-Locke argument comes down to Parent/Child relations, if only because Parent/Child relations drive about 75% of the angst of all major LOST characters. Though it's entirely possible that Not-Locke is the parent and Jacob the child -- Not-Locke does bear more than a passing resemblance to the Old Testament Yahweh in that he's something of a murderous, manipulative jerk.

Poor Sayid! Though I assume he, like a few others, will have a chance at redemption before the story's through, a path the always annoying Benjamin Linus already seems to be walking. Though if I were to bet on someone running a long con on Not-Locke, it would be Sawyer.

Did Jacob know all this would happen once Sayid was raised from the dead? Destroying the Temple inhabitants changes the power dynamic on the Island, but that dynamic didn't seem all that healthy anyway -- Jack may be a jerk sometimes, but Dogen's manipulations and plots make Jack look like a saint.

Which may be the point.

Or not.