‘Lost’ Finale Punks Me (in a good way)

A scene from the finale of Lost which made me cry. In turn, it distracted me from entering that “WTF” zone

As I sit here, licking my emotional wounds from the Lost series finale (and waiting for the Jimmy Kimmel special), I am slowly realizing that a lot of questions still haven’t been answered — but I really don’t care.

My eyes even began to mist over during the two-hour “wrap-up” before the big show. I avoided Twitter and Facebook at all costs in order to avoid any and all spoilers. Executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse gave a satisfying conclusion to a series that was a special six year investment of mine.

Bottom line: the show was a character study. The creators made us care so much about these people that in the end, we just wanted to see them happy — and we did. In addition to the usual suspects, we saw familiar faces from the past (Rose! Bernard! Juliet! Vincent! Boone! Shannon!) and wondered why we didn’t see others (Walt? Michael? Mr. Eko? Paulo? Nikki? — maybe it’s good that we didn’t see those).

This forced all those other “mysteries” of the show to the back burner. In turn, they “punked” us. It’s like showing us a bunch of cute puppies in order to distract us from all the messed up shit that is going on in the world. They were very sneaky about this.

Still, even more philosophical queries were birthed in the finale: Did they all go to heaven? Were the “flash sideways” scenes real? Why weren’t Richard and Miles in the church with them? What did the island represent? Am I currently in a flash sideways? Does love conquer all? Why weren’t there any interviews with J.J. Abrams? Did they ever consider an alternative theme song? Why didn’t Drive Shaft perform “You All Everybody” one last time?

For the weeks leading up to the finale, I’ve heard interviews with some of the cast members and the creators and I’ve heard a variation of the following statement: “We wanted to leave it up to the audience’s interpretation.”

That they did.

I’m quite satisfied, moved and unbelievably gracious to have had such a television show in my life — so much that I got so delusional and thought it was real at some points. I even had the opportunity to eat breakfast at a table next to Benjamin and Desmond at a TCA conference in 2007. I even chatted with a bunch of the cast members during that same conference (mainly I stalked Asian American actors Yunjin Kim and Daniel Dae Kim)…ah…the memories…

It may not have tied all the loose ends and answered every single question — but the show is called Lost. Would you expect anything less?

What were your thoughts on the finale? Are your eyes puffy? Or did the finale leave you with a case of TV impotence?