LOST *contains spoilers*

[Fez]

I remember thinking to myself on the first episode of LOST, where Locke finds out he can walk.

"They're either in purgatory, they're dreaming or we'll never know."

[Simmzay]

I guess you two were under the impression that they were always in purgatory and the Island itself was a form of it, which is completely untrue. The notion of purgatory was only introduced in S6 via an entirely different alternate dimension which is not parallel with the events of the Island over the six seasons. They did not all die at once and they weren't dead when they met each other. Purgatory was used to reunite people who actually all lived together at one point and it is impossible to guess this conclusion from watching season one.

[Tash.]

I thought the ending was done spectacularly. Attention to detail was fantastic and the way they sort of cut away everything else right at the end to focus on the people I thought was quite brave. I'm sure they will recieve a large amount of criticism for leaving so many unanswered questions but I personally thought the ending was fitting to the series. It was really sad, the viewers are saying goodbye to the show and the characters are saying goodbye to one another, just brilliant. I don't mind admitting it made me cry, no sob actually, though that may have had something to do with my tiredness but still, amazing. Very sad to see it go, and although I wanted the answers to the questions as much as anyone, I don't feel cheated or badly done to, to not recieve them.

[Charles]

I've watched three or four episodes of Lost in my entire life and worked out the conclusion in a passing joke yesterday. Shows how intelligent that show was.

Are you a moron? I'm sorry but you seriously can't be saying that if you intend to be answered reasonably.

For me, the Finale was brilliant. Emotionally exhausting through each turn, especially the reunited parts (Charlie/Claire importantly, and then Sawyer/Jules). I loved how it ended, I don't care about answers, I watched the show for 6-odd years to be entertained and damn right I was.

I found a nice summary of 'LOLPURGATORY':

The Source is supposed to be the source of all life.

When they detonated Jughead, it caused two worlds:
1) the ORIGINAL world where The Source still exists and Jughead didn't change anything, and
2) an ALTERNATE world, just like the original, except where Jughead destroyed The Source, sinking the Island.

Because there is no Source in the alternate world, there is no LIFE, effectively making it an AFTER-life.
However this is an afterlife ONLY to people that had significant ties to both the Island AND each other.


Because this afterlife was created by the survivors' act of detonating Jughead, that is why Christian Shephard refers to this afterlife as "the place THEY created."

[-Danube-]

At first i was a little bit disappointed by the ending. I was really annoyed that they hadn't answered most things like pregnancy issues, hurley bird, walts powers etc so i came straight online and did a little bit of searching and found this theory by someone on another forum. I think it sums it up really, makes sense. I think i was thinking about the show too logical, that everything would be answered, but it wasn't, the whole show was just like a metaphor for life.

Here's what the person put.

Show Hide

I think it is wrong to call the alt-timeline "purgatory".

It seems more accurate to call it rebirth? I may be wrong in this account, but after all the Buddhist imagery (as well as other religious imagery): dharma, namaste, hurley (buddha) etc., it seems that when you die, you move on to your reborn life. You don't necessarily start this life at birth, you just inhabit it. And there are always clues as to your previous life (appendix removed, bleeding neck). But unless you are able to MOVE ON or LET GO and realize that all of these things in life (mysteries of creation, afterlife, happiness, etc.) are simply THINGS holding you back from enlightenment, then you will simply repeat the cycle.

This cyclical viewpoint is throughout the show: eye opening, eye closing. Mother is the protector. Passes and dies. Jacob is the protecter. Passes and dies. Jack is the protecter. Passes and dies. Hurley is the protecter. Passes (to Ben, the reason, along with Alex not yet letting go, he remains in his reborn life, he realizes his past life but is still not ready to move on, perhaps he is still alive as the protector of the island, immortal and unable to move on) and dies.

The "mysteries" of the island seem to simply (for the most part) be red herrings, pointless things to detract our attention from the one truth: enlightenment. Just as we as viewers LOST ourselves in the endless mysteries of the island, the characters were LOST in the mysteries of life, just as most of us are. What is the smoke monster? Where did the island come from? Why is everything egyptian? What is the light? These are very similar to, What is God and Satan? Where did I come from? Does my life have a purpose? Where do I go when I die? But, the point is, in the end, none of these mysteries matter because there is no answer. Just like in the LOST show, we were never given an answer to our mysteries. Why? Because there is no answer. Same for the big questions about life. The point is not to find out the answers to our grand questions about life and death and the mysteries surrounding them, but to realize that, in the end, they are of no worth and we simply have to let go and allow enlightenment to happen.

But the church stained glass indicated this enlightenment is not unique to just christianity. Perhaps, since we are (for the most part) raised as christians in America, Jack's father (Christian Shephard) acted as the Shephard for those with a Christian background, shaping the symbols and imagery for those understanding christianity. That's why everyone calls it purgatory, because that is a christian concept. But, in reality, the enlightenment is for any all religions. It is simply truth, light, beauty, eternity. All religions are attempting to tap into this, but disagree on the earthly principles. Much like the island. On the island, everyone disagreed about what the island was and how to protect, destroy, sell it. In life, all the people of the world disagree about the afterlife, and we fight endless wars with each other (like the wars on the island) to prove ourselves and gain an upper hand on the truth. But in the end, all the fighting and war (on the island and on earth) are simply distractions, lies that separate us from one other and convince us that we are different, that we are all trying to reach something different, when in fact we are all just searching for the enlightenment, the light, to move on.

I dunno. Maybe.

Also i was really happy to see Juliet back, she was my favorite character and they hadn't used her all the way through season 6, so i was glad to see her ...

Also there is one thing i myself would have changed in the story line.... Adam and Eve. I think there was a much better story here that could have been used. Rose and Bernard, they took themselves away from the losties and thus i think they should have become 'LOST' in the timeline. And they could have done a reveal that actually Rose and Bernard had gone back 100's of years and decided to live in the caves, died their together in peace. This would have made it look like they actually knew where they were going with the story line, it kinda did look like this had made this bit up as they had gone along. The only thing that wouldn't fit into the Rose and Bernard story line is the White and Black stones, unless they used this as their ancestostry, Rose being of African origin and Bernard being caucasian, although this seems to having nothing to do with the storyline and could come across as being raceist with the colour black being seen as evil in lost.

Plus in an episode an anagram was found:

Only fools are enslaved by time and space

Which can be changed around to say

Bones of Nadlers may lay deep in lost cave

Nadlers meaning Bernard and Rose Nadler.

[LoveToStack]

Are you a moron? I'm sorry but you seriously can't be saying that if you intend to be answered reasonably.

For me, the Finale was brilliant. Emotionally exhausting through each turn, especially the reunited parts (Charlie/Claire importantly, and then Sawyer/Jules). I loved how it ended, I don't care about answers, I watched the show for 6-odd years to be entertained and damn right I was.

I found a nice summary of 'LOLPURGATORY':

The Source is supposed to be the source of all life.

When they detonated Jughead, it caused two worlds:
1) the ORIGINAL world where The Source still exists and Jughead didn't change anything, and
2) an ALTERNATE world, just like the original, except where Jughead destroyed The Source, sinking the Island.

Because there is no Source in the alternate world, there is no LIFE, effectively making it an AFTER-life.
However this is an afterlife ONLY to people that had significant ties to both the Island AND each other.


Because this afterlife was created by the survivors' act of detonating Jughead, that is why Christian Shephard refers to this afterlife as "the place THEY created."

I think that this is now the general consensus. I'm beginning to warm to the whole final episode. At first I was right annoyed at how they left everything unanswered but the character redemption makes up for it. It's easy to forget all the character struggles that went on throughout the show but the finale wrapped them all up nicely.
I admit I cried during the episode. Cried when Kate said goodbye to Jack, cried when Hurley didn't want Jack to "commit suicide", cried when Jack died and I cried hard when they showed Jack's stupid happy-smile in the church at the end. MANLY TEARS.

[Dan2nd]

When they detonated Jughead, it caused two worlds:
1) the ORIGINAL world where The Source still exists and Jughead didn't change anything, and
2) an ALTERNATE world, just like the original, except where Jughead destroyed The Source, sinking the Island.

I disagree I personally think the Jughead did nothing more than send them back to their time.

The whole Alternate world thing was a plot device used to trick the audience into guessing the wrong things.

in my opinion Yes this fake world was created by them but not to stay forever in an after life, it was created so they could reunited in sort of a 'limbo land' and move on together into the after life (hence the bright light when the church doors opened) The island was underwater in this limbo land as it was not needed, as it was a limbo land for the dead

Christian Shepard lived up to his name and helped Shepard the Losties into heaven or what ever else you think the after life may be (although I'm going with the christian theme becuase of his name)

[LoveToStack]

Anyone else feel like everything that went on during seasons 1-5 on or off the island is essentially made void by this ending though. It was all pointless as far as I can see in terms of the story.

[Charles]

I disagree I personally think the Jughead did nothing more than send them back to their time.

The whole Alternate world thing was a plot device used to trick the audience into guessing the wrong things.

in my opinion Yes this fake world was created by them but not to stay forever in an after life, it was created so they could reunited in sort of a 'limbo land' and move on together into the after life (hence the bright light when the church doors opened) The island was underwater in this limbo land as it was not needed, as it was a limbo land for the dead

Christian Shepard lived up to his name and helped Shepard the Losties into heaven or what ever else you think the after life may be (although I'm going with the christian theme becuase of his name)

Yeah, I've pretty much moved away from the Jughead theory now. I was caught up in the excitement of the finale and was eager to find some kind of 'reasonable' explanation.

Get reading some finale recaps, I've found quite a lot to be very interesting.

[Tintinnabulate]

When they detonated Jughead, it caused two worlds:
1) the ORIGINAL world where The Source still exists and Jughead didn't change anything, and
2) an ALTERNATE world, just like the original, except where Jughead destroyed The Source, sinking the Island.

No... that is incorrect.
All the jughead did was send them back to real time. THE ALT IS PURGATORY. Its afterlife. People seem to fail to understand this simple thing.

I thought the ending was done spectacularly. Attention to detail was fantastic and the way they sort of cut away everything else right at the end to focus on the people I thought was quite brave. I'm sure they will recieve a large amount of criticism for leaving so many unanswered questions but I personally thought the ending was fitting to the series. It was really sad, the viewers are saying goodbye to the show and the characters are saying goodbye to one another, just brilliant. I don't mind admitting it made me cry, no sob actually, though that may have had something to do with my tiredness but still, amazing. Very sad to see it go, and although I wanted the answers to the questions as much as anyone, I don't feel cheated or badly done to, to not recieve them.

I thought you cried cos I called you an idiot for liking such a crap ending? The island was a bloody character itself. They realised they cant answer it so they moved us on to the characters and people fell for it.
LOST writers need to watch 24 on how to do a real series and show finale.