The season six mystery of The Sideways was explained when it ended with a final twist that answered all questions of its origins. This doesn’t mean there are not other mysteries left unanswered, but as we have known all along, some of the show is left to interpretation and what it will mean to you. The light can represent many things and how important it was to the rest of the world is up to the viewer.
What this episode did was remind us why we loved these characters and gave us the chance to say good bye to them. It also made the unanswered mysteries irrelevant, because in the end, it was not what actually mattered, because it is the same as life, we will never have all the answers. Sometimes though when we let go, we can see what actually matters.
There are bound to be some who will not get it, but for anyone who is a true fan of the show, who has watched and loved for the past six years and has been satisfied and hungry for more, this was the best series finale of any TV show, of any time , ever. If you didn’t cry or feel something from it upon a second viewing, (since the first was over-whelming) then you probably didn’t ever really love the show, or you are dead inside.
ON Island
This is the House that Jack Built
Jack has been deemed the new Jacob and with it he must now protect the island and stop the Man in black from leaving or trying to destroy the island. Sawyer, Kate, Hurley and Jack figure they need to find Desmond since Fake Locke wanted him dead. Therefore, Jack rationalizes he must be important and a weapon to stop fake Locke. Sawyer decides to go by himself to retrieve Desmond from the well that Sayid told them Desmond was in, before he blew up.
Ben and Fake Locke are at the empty well and Fake Locke confirms he plans on using Desmond to sink the island. Sawyer is hiding behind a too small bush and is discovered by Ben and Fake Locke where he lets them know they are no longer candidates.
“The Sun is the same in a relative way, but you’re older” Time by Pink Floyd
Meanwhile out in the jungle, Miles finds Richard and is still communicating with Ben via the walkie-talkie. Miles and Richard get in an outrigger to head back to Hydra Island to blow up the plane, since they figure this is fake Locke’s way off the island. Richard has received his first grey hair, I imagine with Jacob officially gone, his living forever status has been canceled. Richard finds this amusing and realizes he wants to live.
FRANK!!! Screamed by all watching the finale
During their journey they come upon Frank Lapidius out floating in the water with the submarine debris, now that they have a pilot again, maybe blowing up the plane is not the best of ideas since it is a ticket home. In case we haven’t noticed, he is a pilot. I had hoped Frank was not done in by the door, figuring that he was one of the only ways to possibly get off the island.
"You keep saying the Past is not dead, stop and smell the smoke" – Smoke by Ben Folds Five
Desmond was rescued by Rose, Bernard and Vincent (who is obviously a different and younger dog) Fake Locke finds them and tells Desmond if he doesn’t come with him to sink the island he is not only going to kill Rose and Bernard he is going to make it hurt. Desmond goes with him as willingly as someone could with those set of choices. But wants Fake Locke’s word he will never touch Rose and Bernard. In Desmond’s mind he knows he will be reunited with Penny since he saw it with all that electromagnetism.
Everyone meets up in an island version of draw. Fake Locke, Ben and Desmond are coming up one end of the mesa, and Jack, Hurley, Sawyer and Kate are coming up the other end. Kate unloads several rounds into fake Locke; no one gave her that heads up that he is invincible.
Whatever Happened, Happened
They head back to the secret bamboo field, where only Jack, Desmond and fake Locke head to the cave with the light, which is much dimmer now than when they first saw it. The creation of the smoke monster seemed to have stolen much of the light, and probably explains a lot of the evil goings on, on the island. Desmond is at peace with doing his part since he had that experience in the Flash Sideways where he is a successful man who has Widmore’s respect, and has Penny. He tries to make Jack feel at peace and tell him he wishes he could take him there too; there is a place where the plane didn’t crash. And Jack believes that is not true, There are no short cuts or do over’s, he tried to think that and he realizes everything here matters.
“You’re not John Locke, You Disgrace his Memory by wearing his Face.”
Jack and Fake Locke lower Desmond down in the cavern in the same way Kate was lowered down the hatch to find Desmond. Fake Locke jokes to Jack about fighting over pushing a button, and I am glad Jack told him off. Desmond seems to know what to do and removes some big heavy rock that was keeping the light lit. Once he did though, it seemed to work as a backwards drain and all the water stopped flowing. Red hot gases poured out of the area where the stone once was, giving the impression he was opening the fires of hell. Desmond is disappointed because he thought doing this was going to send him to his other self.
However doing this made Fake Locke mortal again, apparently this light has kept Jacob and him alive all that time, and would have done the same for Jack. But since it went out, Fake Locke could finally bleed, and everyone is now susepticable to death as the healing powers of the island have been extinguished.
“Cause there’s battle going on, just south of Babylon, so why don’t you just fade away” D’artagnen’s theme –by Citizen Cope
The island becomes end of the world dark and is experiencing earth quakes that are knocking rocks all over the place and trees. Ben in a heroic moment pushes Hurley out of the way from being clobbered by a tree and gets pinned under it. And despite all the crap that Ben has put Kate, Sawyer and Hurley through they still lift that tree off of him.
Fake Locke heads over to the cliffs by the secret cave of names where the scales were housed. He has the Elizabeth docked just off shore. I wonder if he knew he would of needed a baring to get off the island? Jack shows up and in an epic battle they fight. Fake Locke delivers a major knife wound to Jack and begins to try to cut his throat but is interrupted by Kate.
Saved you a bullet
Kate comes up the mountain all Rambo-style and takes out the Man in black / fake Locke finally. Jack kicks his lifeless body off the cliff, which was great since too often the bad guy comes back to life, you know because crazy people are hard to kill.
They need to get to the boat docked off the island since the island is crumbling beneath them, and looks like the man in black was right about that. It was on its way to sinking and fear grips us as we had seen the flash sideways begin with a sunken island. Jack knows he still has work to do and cannot leave the island; he needs to put the rock back in its place so the island doesn’t sink. Jack and Sawyer say goodbye and Sawyer thanks him for everything. Jack and Kate give a tearful and heart tugging good bye knowing they will never see each other again, Kate finally tells Jack she loves him, he smiles with almost a laugh to himself to say...well finally and then he and he announces it back in the way all girls want to hear. Excuse me, need a tissue…or a box
Sawyer and Kate jump off the cliff to swim out to the boat so they can make it to the plane. Kate is still determined to find Claire and bring her back home. They meet up with her, and Sawyer, Kate, Claire, Miles, Richard and Frank get the plane working and take off to leave the island finally, forever.
“We would sing and dance around, because we know, we can’t be found” Octopus’s Garden by the Beatles
Hurley and Ben decided they would go with Jack, Ben being the captain of the ship for so long, decides if the island is going to sink he is going down with it. They head back off to the field of bamboo and Jack initiates Hurley with an oceanic water bottle ‘drink this’ to take his place. Desmond was a weapon after all, since it was the only way to stop Fake Locke was to make him human again. But the island still needed to be protected because whatever the light means to us individually, it is meant to be in the world.
See ya in another Life Brotha….literally
Hurley is and has always been the most innocent of them all, besides the children and even Claire to some extent. Jack knows it was always suppose to be Hurley to be the protector since taking care of people is just what he does. Jack knew his purpose was to put things right, and that he was the only one who could of done that.
Hurley, Jack and Ben go back to the heart of the island to put the rock back in its place and save it. Jack finds a still alive Desmond and has him tied onto the rope to be saved by Hurley and Ben. Hurley and Ben agree that Ben should be his number two, and they would find a way to get Desmond home to his wife and son. There are still other people on the island and they stay there to protect them and it.
“I don’t believe in much but I do believe in Duct tape” Me too Miles, me too
During this entire important save the world stuff, Frank, Richard and Miles had to find away to save their butts and are trying to fix the plane. They had previously come across Claire who was shooting at them and feeling unworthy of going home, since she is all crazy now. They get the plane functioning and are about to taxi down that familiar runway.
“Cause I’ve got to be free, to face the life that is ahead of me”
Captain Frank Lapidius, Miles, Sawyer, Kate, Claire and Richard all buckle in and take off down that old runway that both Sawyer and Kate lent a hand in building, guess they are probably happy about that now.
The Circle is complete
Jack gets the rock back in place, the water is flowing and he cries with relief and joy knowing he was right, he fixed it. He gets flushed down stream and winds up in a similar if not exact location where the man in black’s body wound up. He is still dying and walks as far as he can, which is back to the bamboo field where he first woke up on the island. He lays down and out comes Vincent, just as he did in the beginning, who lays down with Jack as dogs do when they know the end is near for their master. In his last moments Jack sees the Aijira plane fly over head, and figuring they were safe and on their way home, he closes his eyes and dies….and there is not enough tissues, had to get a roll of toilet paper.
Flash sideways…first stop before the after life
“Where everything is better, everything is safe” Walk on the Ocean by Toad the Wet Sprocket…well as long as you’re not a bad guy like Keamy, then you get shot here too and left for dead.
All of our people have been gathering by Desmond to attend this little concert. They will be making their own kind of music, Charlie with Driveshaft and Dan ‘faraday’ Widmore will be accompanying them on the piano singing their own special song, even if nobody else sings along.
In a final twist, LOST reveals that the flash sideways were a place the characters created to find each other first before going to the after-life, or whatever is next. This is up to your own interpretation, you could think they are going on to a heaven like place, or maybe be reincarnated and that is part of the reason why there are so many times people just 'know things". Maybe the keep doing this over again after they meet up in the flash sideways world?
They real joke is, for seasons people theorized the island was purgatory and how befitting for them to create a place that would be like purgatory or limbo whatever you want to call it. A place in between, time along side of real time. Of course most if not all of our characters did not realized this is where they were at first, and hence all of the awakening that needed to happen.
The sideways being used in the show, allowed full closure with our characters. A way for us to say good bye to them, to remember all of the wonderful moments of why we loved them to begin with. It is the characters of LOST that makes the show what it is, all of their struggles and growth and how that is tied to all of the other references in the show. It is what they went through, that makes LOST important, without them it’s just a crazy island with a polar bear and a guy who turned into smoke.
“Don’t let other people tell you, who you are.” Hurley reminds Sayid
Hurley and Sayid went to pick up Charlie at the same hotel that was a “safe house” last season when Sayid was protecting Hurley. (And also the same place Locke lost Helen when he couldn’t let go of what his dad did to him) Hurley goes to get Charlie and is beaming with happiness, because this is the first time he has been able to see Charlie after he died that wasn’t in a creepy ghostly way. This is a real Charlie, Charlie just doesn’t know it, and Hugo had to restrain himself somewhat from hugging him.
Sayid doesn’t remember anything until they are outside a bar though and he sees a damsel in distress. Hurley points out to Sayid that he has listened to people tell him who he is for so long, he has begun to believe it. “You don’t know me” Sayid tells Hurley who he doesn’t remember and just thinks is crazy. Hurley responds“I know A LOT about you…dude” and goes on to show him by setting him up. One man is beating the snot out of another, and a woman gets involved who is tossed into the garbage like a rag doll, this prompts Sayid to take action and get into ass-kicking mode. Sayid has always been a good guy to me; his past didn’t matter as it was a matter of circumstance much like Eko, where you don’t really have a choice, kind of like Jacob being the protector. Sayid though has always defended those he loved, and those who were weak.
Two for the Road
Boone was part of the plan to help wake up Sayid and to also help wake up Shannon!!! Sayid’s love on the island that also died in his arms, Sayid remember each other and have their reunion, well he was unlucky in love in this life, glad that after it will work out, guess he wasn’t meant to be with Nadia after all, come to think of it, that seems pretty clear now.
"The son’s gonna rise in a mile, in a mile you’ll be feeling fine and in a mile you will see after me you will be out of the dark and you’ll get your shot.” Son’s Gonna Rise by Citizen Cope
Charlie recognizes Claire from when he was choking on the plane, he had seen a vision of her and remembered something about her but not much because Jack brought him back. Claire looks at Charlie on the stage and looks around because she almost doesn’t believe he is looking at her, but something about him is familiar. Then labor begins and she goes off to have the baby, Kate who still follows people even here, joins up to help deliver Aaron again and they are all reunited with each other. Claire finally back with Aaron the baby. Most likely real Claire got to be with Aaron on some level, the plane probably landed safely since we did not see Frank or Richard.
“Maybe you’re going to be the one that saves me” Wonderwall by Oasis
, sung by Charlie season3Claire really was the one that saved Charlie, as well as Locke. Once he remembered all that he was through he was all himself. Claire and Charlie’s memoires elicited more tissues, the imaginary peanut butter, the baby carrier Charlie made Aaron, all of their moments and how their whole relationship was mostly a beautiful friendship, never consummated, and I think they only kissed that one time shown in their memories.
Jin and Sun see Ji Yeon with Juliet and awaken. It was fitting that it was Juliet since she gave Sun the first glimpse of their baby, and Jin never got to meet the baby. They have memories of their journey on the island, their many times being separated and being reunited, their relationship being repaired, and their eventual death together.
Sawyer enters their room later to protect Sun, and they just smile knowing it's him, but he doesn’t know it's them. “Hello…detective” loved that, because it is funny that Sawyer made himself a detective. He and miles did spend three years working as Dharma security, and I imagine when they got off the island they remained friends, so it is fitting they are still partners.
Sawyer and Juliet with the candy bar. Let’s go out for coffee, we could go dutch. When Juliet died in Sawyers arms in the season premiere she said these words, because she crossed over to the afterlife/sideways land and we wondered if she said it worked was because the bomb worked. But really what worked was unplugging the machine so he could get his candy.
It was whatever happened happens, the debate is now officially closed
We can say now that the bomb didn’t work they way that they had hoped, but in reality they had to do that otherwise the results would of messed up the space time by not negating the energy and possibly destroying the island back in 1977. In essence they created their own suffering, by ironically trying not to do so. I would bet the pregnancy problem was from the bomb also, which is why Juliet wound up on the island to fix a problem she actually created. Madness!
The flash sideways for me was going to be one of two things that I figured were to be answered in the finale, and it turned out it was neither. I figured it was an altered reality depicted and it was either from the bomb going off if that never happened the first time, thus creating a new reality on a separate time line. Or, the bomb was suppose to go off to negate the energy but if it didn’t then the island would sink and the flash sideways was to show they would of never wound up on the island because they never time traveled and never helped with that bomb. Almost like a prologue to the story before time travel and wheels turning.
Ben figured it out and once he remembered those parts of himself he had more to do with himself before he felt worthy of “leaving” I think he wanted to spend more time with Alex. Ben was a better guy in the flash Sideways and I think it was because of the way he begun to change himself from the point he apologized to Illana. Since he and Hurley were left on the island for who knows how many years, Ben probably continued his own metamorphous so that he was better off in the FS.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town, waiting for someone or something to show you the way. Time
Locke in the Flash sideways was happy in some areas, better for some of what he did learn on the island. But his belief in destiny was gone, probably because Ben took that away from him with the whole murder thing. He does get his awaking from his toe moving. He remembers crashing on the island and what happened there, teaching Walt to throw the knife, finding the hatch. He looks at Jack and remembers him, and seems happy to see him and realizes that Jack has made his own improvements, Jack was the one all this time trying to repair what he did to Locke. For now he did believe in things, and thought nothing was irreversible. Locke repeats his ‘come with me” to Jack, and Jack almost remembers looking down the hatch, but pushes the thoughts away. Jack tells him he has to go to a concert with his son, when Locke says, “you don’t have a son”.
“These Feelings won’t go away, they keep knocking me sideways, I keep thinking in a moment that, time will take them away.” Sideways
by Citizen CopeJack of course would be the one to take the longest to let go, all of our characters had issues with letting go, but Jack had it the worst. He was resistant to any visions he was receiving when Kate touched his face, when he was with Locke, I think he thought he was going crazy. He goes with her to the church where they will be having his father’s funeral.
“Into Battle, and in your Shadow, your daddy loves you still” The man I use to be by Jelly Fish
Jacks touching of the casket brought a lot of his memories back, but not his death, and he opened it to find his dad not in it. Christian appears which confuses Jack because Christian is dead. “How are you here Jack?” he asks him when Jack realizes he is dead also. Jack and him talk about this place where there is no time, and there is no now that was created by survivors to find each other. He lets Jack and us know everything is real, every thing that ever happened to him is real and that he had to let go so they can go to the next destination. Which could possibly be to do this all over again, the end being also a beginning.
I hope that in the end, when he was laying out in the bamboo field he too experienced this “sideways world’ like Juliet did, this way when he died, he wasn’t alone. Especially since they did learn to live together, when I first watched the finale it made me sad for Jack that he was the champion of that saying to only die alone, but then I thought about it and figured he did not. Vincent was with him anyway, and how beautiful was that? Full circle, the dog was there to wake him and was there when he went to sleep.
All of our main characters connected at the church with the absences of a few that needed more time to move on. Ben, Alex, Danielle, Widmore, Eloise, Dan, Charlotte, Miles and his dad most notably. It seems that those in the church, who were so connected to each other throughout different times of their lives, not just on the island were there for each other. Maybe that is a nice idea that we all have people connected to us to be there when big things happen.
“And all the Roads we have to walk are winding, and all the lights that lead us there are blinding” Oasis, Wonderwall
Lost, even though it was a TV show, was not just a TV show. Never before have I been collectively a part with people who create the program. For everyone that truly loved it will tell you it was so much more, it was a learning experience, it was an opportunity to think and theorize, it allowed people to bond with their questions and their beliefs, It tested those beliefs and it gave us all much hope. It inspired us to read books, learn languages, study physics, LOST was more inspirational in the area of education, then all the years I spent in school.
Fans interacted with each other and with the creators. I will miss “Darlton’s” pod casts and they way they would converse with us, I would be glad to follow them down whatever rabbit hole they want to journey next, and would be most interested in working at any capacity.
Overall the series concluded with a message that we will always have more questions; we will not know the answers to everything and in the end that doesn’t matter. We have to let go. When watching the finale once you do let go you can see how everything about the ending was a goodbye. Their lives flashing before our eyes, our eyes who have loved these people, who rooted for them, laughed and cried with them throughout the series. We get to revisit all those moments that made us love them. And it made me realize how much the people who created this show, genuinely loved it as well.
This is how I felt about the finale after I watched it a second time, with no need for expectations. I let go of them, and I was left with just the emotions, the imagery and the clear realization that everything did matter, but I didn’t need to know who built the statue, it is just a bunch of rocks after all.
“So many battles, So many wounds to be healed, Time is Relentless, only true Love preservers” 2000 years by Billy Joel
LOST ended its series with both a tragic ending and with the mega-happy ending. It answered all of the issues with the sideways; it left open the possibility of what else happened after the island. Because, in the end, there really is no end, nothing is ever over. LOST didn’t end, it simply concluded the tale it was telling.
Now that it has concluded and we have to let go and carry on, I leave you with the song White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane. Which was also an episode title in season one. The song itself does capture a lot of LOST imagery because of all of the Alice and Wonderland
references in the song and LOST. And within it is one of the best aspects of LOST, and in LOST fashion I will not tell you what that is, you need to decide for yourself.“When the men on the chess board get up and tell you were to go and you just had some kind of mushroom and your mind is moving low, go ask Alice, I think she'll know.....when logic and proportion have fallen so I'll be dead and the white knight is talking backwards, and the Red queens off her head, Remember what the Door mouse said, Feed your head”
Namaste...Thank you Lost
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