Lost: "See you in another life, brother."
May. 25th, 2010 05:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
infinitejestHere's what I wrote about Lost the day after the finale:
I am one of those infuriated by the Lost finale. It is not because I do not understand it, or "get" it, or grok it. It is not because I was watching the show for the "wrong reasons." It is not because I require an answer to every single little mystery.
However, I do think the mysteries on the Island were important, and that they deserved much more attention than some hand-waving as ill-conceived hokum. I feel that the flash-sideways and the culmination there were trite, sappy, and robbed all the emotional power of the various sacrifices made. It was fanservice for a very specific type of fan. I am not that type of fan. I found no emotional fulfillment in What Dreams May Come hand-holding. It robbed us of the full impact of Jack's death scene, and also the entire flash-sideways storyline robbed us of time that could have better been spent exploring the character's actual lives rather than a communal hallucinatory-afterlife at some nebulous point.
As the writers so often stated, they were more concerned with the story of the characters. Okay. So, what did Richard do with his new lease on life, a man many hundreds of years old, yet still in the prime of his life and no longer in service to a mystical Island? Did Kate and James hook up, hearts lassoed until death do them part because of their chemistry and their communal grief over the loss of their loves? Did Claire recover from her madness enough to be an adequate mother? How long did Hurley and Ben serve in their capacity as protectors of the Island? Did Hurley perpetuate the cycle of protection? Did Rose and Bernard stay aloof all those years, or did they come into the fold of the new Hurley/Ben regime?
None of those questions are about the Island. They're about the characters, and the relationships between them. But that's apparently not as important as some saccharine afterlife waiting room.
And my further thoughts concerning the flash-sideways resolution:
I am not really fond of explicit "and then these particular characters were reunited in the afterlife to fade into glory" storylines for several reasons. The one that most bothers me here concerns who was present in the church and who was absent.
See, as stated by Christian Shepherd in the episode, these people all died at separate times. Juliet died at the beginning of S6 in the Incident. Faraday died the previous season when he was shot by his own mother. Charlotte also died in that season due to all the jumping in time. Jack died on the Island at the end of S6. Libby died in S2. Kate, James, Miles, Hurley, Ben, and Desmond clearly lived for varying, undisclosed lengths of time after all the events shown in the series. And so on. The point is that several of these people had lives beyond what we were shown.
Christian then went on to explain to Jack that these people (those in the church) and being together - that was the most meaningful part of these characters' lives. So much so that they all created a communal hallucination outside of space and time and beyond life... just to find each other and reunite and move on together.
Well, pardon me, but that doesn't work for me.
Kate and Claire were both maternal figures in Aaron's life. Unless something tragic happened to them after the Island, they likely worked together to raise Aaron. Kate was already well-connected to Aaron past his infancy; I imagine they both were proud and loving of him as he became a young man and then a man. But that Aaron wasn't there; there was only infant Aaron.
Did Claire remain alone the rest of her life, romantically? I also find that hard to believe. If she can survive the Island and recover from her madness, she was young and resilient enough to fall in love again. To build a life with a new partner... sure, she'd always love Charlie. He'd always mean a lot to her; but he'd also be a treasured memory in her heart, of a beloved friend who she knew for a few remarkable months on an insane Island. I can buy her wanting to see him again in "heaven" - but what about the grown Aaron? What about whoever she built a life with?
(Also, not sure... but was baby Aaron in the church with them? If so, eeeeesh.)
What I've said above goes for Kate too, although I'm willing to let it slide a bit if Kate and James got together. (But where was James' daughter? I don't believe he didn't try to become a part of her life when he managed to survive.) Also, given how loving of a mother Kate was to Aaron, I imagine she might want to have her own kids as well. Would her own children have meant less to her than her time running as a con in the early 2000s? Than her months on the Island, and with Jack? I'm not suggesting they necessarily would have to mean more, but I sure as hell figure they'd be at least equal.
The love of Sayid's life was Nadia, straight-up. The show never tried to convince us differently; sure, he dallied with Shannon, but it wasn't the same caliber of love. Nadia was essentially his soulmate, or that's what they sold us. And then they expect us to believe that it's Shannon who is his constant, who reminds him of all that happened before, and gives him the strength and desire to move on? Er, no.
Also, why were Rose and Bernard there? They stuck with those people for a while, but then made a deep and comprehensive commitment to live apart from them. I fully believe that Rose (or Bernard, whoever went first) would only wait for the other before moving on. They didn't need anyone else.
I could go on (Desmond and Penny's son?), but I'm having carpal tunnel issues and my right wrist is killing me.
This is why I roll my eyes at that aspect of the show, why it leaves me irritated and disgusted at the time wasted on it. It lacks internal consistency and doesn't stand up to a few sharp jabs with a stick. It's all saccharine, brightly-colored hot air. An illusion of happiness and peace to make the fans float away from the show on a tide of "awwwwwww" and full hearts.
My heart's not drinking the kool-aid, though. I refuse to believe that these people lived empty lives apart from the Island, and that all they ever wanted, loved, or needed was in that church at the end of everything. Lindelof and Cuse dropped the ball, and their conception of the close of the series was inconsistent and slipshod.
I am one of those infuriated by the Lost finale. It is not because I do not understand it, or "get" it, or grok it. It is not because I was watching the show for the "wrong reasons." It is not because I require an answer to every single little mystery.
However, I do think the mysteries on the Island were important, and that they deserved much more attention than some hand-waving as ill-conceived hokum. I feel that the flash-sideways and the culmination there were trite, sappy, and robbed all the emotional power of the various sacrifices made. It was fanservice for a very specific type of fan. I am not that type of fan. I found no emotional fulfillment in What Dreams May Come hand-holding. It robbed us of the full impact of Jack's death scene, and also the entire flash-sideways storyline robbed us of time that could have better been spent exploring the character's actual lives rather than a communal hallucinatory-afterlife at some nebulous point.
As the writers so often stated, they were more concerned with the story of the characters. Okay. So, what did Richard do with his new lease on life, a man many hundreds of years old, yet still in the prime of his life and no longer in service to a mystical Island? Did Kate and James hook up, hearts lassoed until death do them part because of their chemistry and their communal grief over the loss of their loves? Did Claire recover from her madness enough to be an adequate mother? How long did Hurley and Ben serve in their capacity as protectors of the Island? Did Hurley perpetuate the cycle of protection? Did Rose and Bernard stay aloof all those years, or did they come into the fold of the new Hurley/Ben regime?
None of those questions are about the Island. They're about the characters, and the relationships between them. But that's apparently not as important as some saccharine afterlife waiting room.
And my further thoughts concerning the flash-sideways resolution:
I am not really fond of explicit "and then these particular characters were reunited in the afterlife to fade into glory" storylines for several reasons. The one that most bothers me here concerns who was present in the church and who was absent.
See, as stated by Christian Shepherd in the episode, these people all died at separate times. Juliet died at the beginning of S6 in the Incident. Faraday died the previous season when he was shot by his own mother. Charlotte also died in that season due to all the jumping in time. Jack died on the Island at the end of S6. Libby died in S2. Kate, James, Miles, Hurley, Ben, and Desmond clearly lived for varying, undisclosed lengths of time after all the events shown in the series. And so on. The point is that several of these people had lives beyond what we were shown.
Christian then went on to explain to Jack that these people (those in the church) and being together - that was the most meaningful part of these characters' lives. So much so that they all created a communal hallucination outside of space and time and beyond life... just to find each other and reunite and move on together.
Well, pardon me, but that doesn't work for me.
Kate and Claire were both maternal figures in Aaron's life. Unless something tragic happened to them after the Island, they likely worked together to raise Aaron. Kate was already well-connected to Aaron past his infancy; I imagine they both were proud and loving of him as he became a young man and then a man. But that Aaron wasn't there; there was only infant Aaron.
Did Claire remain alone the rest of her life, romantically? I also find that hard to believe. If she can survive the Island and recover from her madness, she was young and resilient enough to fall in love again. To build a life with a new partner... sure, she'd always love Charlie. He'd always mean a lot to her; but he'd also be a treasured memory in her heart, of a beloved friend who she knew for a few remarkable months on an insane Island. I can buy her wanting to see him again in "heaven" - but what about the grown Aaron? What about whoever she built a life with?
(Also, not sure... but was baby Aaron in the church with them? If so, eeeeesh.)
What I've said above goes for Kate too, although I'm willing to let it slide a bit if Kate and James got together. (But where was James' daughter? I don't believe he didn't try to become a part of her life when he managed to survive.) Also, given how loving of a mother Kate was to Aaron, I imagine she might want to have her own kids as well. Would her own children have meant less to her than her time running as a con in the early 2000s? Than her months on the Island, and with Jack? I'm not suggesting they necessarily would have to mean more, but I sure as hell figure they'd be at least equal.
The love of Sayid's life was Nadia, straight-up. The show never tried to convince us differently; sure, he dallied with Shannon, but it wasn't the same caliber of love. Nadia was essentially his soulmate, or that's what they sold us. And then they expect us to believe that it's Shannon who is his constant, who reminds him of all that happened before, and gives him the strength and desire to move on? Er, no.
Also, why were Rose and Bernard there? They stuck with those people for a while, but then made a deep and comprehensive commitment to live apart from them. I fully believe that Rose (or Bernard, whoever went first) would only wait for the other before moving on. They didn't need anyone else.
I could go on (Desmond and Penny's son?), but I'm having carpal tunnel issues and my right wrist is killing me.
This is why I roll my eyes at that aspect of the show, why it leaves me irritated and disgusted at the time wasted on it. It lacks internal consistency and doesn't stand up to a few sharp jabs with a stick. It's all saccharine, brightly-colored hot air. An illusion of happiness and peace to make the fans float away from the show on a tide of "awwwwwww" and full hearts.
My heart's not drinking the kool-aid, though. I refuse to believe that these people lived empty lives apart from the Island, and that all they ever wanted, loved, or needed was in that church at the end of everything. Lindelof and Cuse dropped the ball, and their conception of the close of the series was inconsistent and slipshod.