Lost

I have a tendency to think an X files style ending to leave room for a movie, but that could be antithetical as it was with X files. The ultimate failure with X files, as was with Twin Peaks, was it weaved too much unanswered chaos disguised as mystery and then never pulled it together. Rather gave few answers and the rest just dissipated into thin air as if it never was.

I don’t know there are a fair amount of plot lines one wonders about. Some heavy Christian themes for sure. Like the baptism of the baby being protective and Mr. Echoe’s doing it, urging it and he was the one that saw the dark cloud as evil when he looked into it, as opposed to John Locke who saw beauty. Who is the opposite to Jacob? Essau? Other? Curious given the shows penchant for name use.

Siede’s (spelling ???) confession near his death was something, confessing to all the murder and torture he did and worrying that where he’d be going “was not good”. Yet, he has this quasi baptismal ceremony in which he drowns and then comes back to life…yet the real lock is still dead. There seems to be a kind of redemptive under score for the real “bad guys” in life in the show.

Too much for me to attempt to pull together.

Larry

Hadn’t gotten a chance to watch the season premiere yet. Thanks for the spoiler warning, Larry. 😐 I think I need to go crawl into a cave until I can start watching the show again…

As for the ending, I’ve been thinking they may try to pull a Samsara ending, although I’d be open to a Hamlet ending, since most of the characters–with a few exceptions (i.e., Sawyer, Jin, Desmond)–have become rather despicable…or are already dead. Whatever the case, my faith in the show’s writers is still quite strong, seeing as how they’ve gotten us this far without jumping the shark–or “nuking the fridge” (a la Indiana Jones 4), as some have called it.

Lost is still airing?

I think they will do the Soprano ending. Right before they wrap it all up it will fade to black.

Cap,

Sorry about that. I didn’t think about it.

Larry

It’s still about the only decent effort TV show going. One’s other options are, yaaaaawn, pardon me, where no talent as to writer or actors are needed:

1. The, plethora of reality based TV shows.
2. Lawyer firm shows X, Y and Z.
3. ER Hospital shows X, Y and Z.
4. Cop/detective shows X, Y and Z.

Its almost like they don’t even try anymore to be creative at their “art”. It kind of paralles mass production techniques in the market place, no real hand craft and artisanship, just stamp and punch.

Larry,

No lasting harm done. At least it was a relatively small spoiler. And there are 4815 more to go this season, so I’m sure I’ll still be surprised by what happens. 🙂

I was being silly for the most part. I really don’t watch the major broadcast channels anymore. Don’t watch “on air” shows much at all anymore. I got hooked on hulu.com, where I watch a lot of Scifi Channel and USA original shows.

I, too, was drawn in to Lost. (though I wait to watch it on dvd. )

It’s got to be an x-files ending. Explaining and resolving everything would destroy the very thing that makes it compelling.

I do love your catalog of stock endings, though. My own favorite is the “scooby doo” ending, with the nod for most hated going to “Samsara.” That one drives me nuts!

Now you’ve got me thinking about great movies with bad endings.

How about, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail?”

The Illyiad ending – heroes die, cowards live, an island burns, but room is left for a new story…oh wait, that is the X-files ending.

I don’t care how it ends. “Lost” lost me many years ago when the plots became so convoluted, and I haven’t missed it at all.

“Lost” lost me when it became a glorified soap opera in Season 3 and when it dawned on the writers that they didn’t know where the heck they were going with the story.

My pick is not listed, so I’ll go to the liberty of doing so in an attempt to accurately formulate what I think the proper ending for the show should/might be.

I call it the “wake me when it’s over” scenario.

It also goes by the “shark-jumper” scenario.

Perhaps you have likewise envisioned a similar end-game; my epiphany came sometime during the last couple of seasons, when I became firmly convinced that, even though the writers repeatedly stated that they had a definite wrap-up in mind that would explain virtually everything (even that which we had not yet considered!), the existing plot-threads had become far too convoluted, contrived, and car-sick for me to actually care a single whit what happens to these characters any longer.

Hint: they’re all glorified soap operas these days.

There is also the Michael O’Donohue “How To Write Good” Course, which teaches that in the end, “they all get run over by a truck.” I suppose you covered that, by O’Donohue is much more specific.

The secret to a good ending is humor and irony. If they try tying all the loose ends together without those, it will ultimately have been several years of futility. As for me, I did my glorified soap opera penance with Battlestar Gallactica. There are only so many of these you can do, but I suspect they all have a lot of story telling similarities.

Since no one took a serious stab at it, I will. Just for fun. (Though I still think explaining it would ruin the story.)

-It will be the old “alternate dimensions” plot. The properties of the island are different because the connection between two ‘realities’ is thinner there, blah, blah. They will somehow get a glimpse at an alternate version of themselves on another island–maybe a character or two will cross over just to make it interesting–right before the rift closes permanently.

That’s my guess. Book it.

You neglected to mention the possibility of a The Prisoner ending, where it was revealed that the entire series was an allegory of the human condition. Fans of the 1960s show were so outraged that Patrick McGoohan and family moved from England.

Either that or Sawyer and anti-Sawyer will meet each other and the entire universe will implode in a sudden burst of witty, sarcastic repartee.

Lost has had its twists and turns but they key to everything is Jacob and his nemesis. Will Jack and Sawyer end up in their positions? I think this show will reveal it’s roots in Atlantis mythology, either way its a pluralists dream. For the crybabies out there this is a spoiler warning. The temple is Aztec, the symbology is Egyptian, the leader is Asian. Christian is probably Jesus and Sayid is probably Jacob. I don’t know about the alternate reality bit, but I am really sure this is going to be highly allegorical. I think, right now anyway, that at the end they may have to decide between the island post-bomb and landing at LA X. Which will be the actual events?

I’m guessing the episode’s title is telling: not “LAX,” which is the LA Airport’s real designation, but “LA X.” What it might signify, I couldn’t say.

While their plot has been sometimes mercilessly convoluted, the writers have done what “The X-Files” didn’t: the Main Thing stayed the Main Thing. In Lost’s case, that’s the island–its origin, its significance, its future. That remains the case, even in the current splintered reality.

I’m pulling for a Scooby-Doo-ish ending, where things are resolved and the real villain is exposed. Jacob was almost a Maguffin last season, with everything driving toward him.

I’m wondering, though, if we’ll get a Donnie Darko ending, where the reality without the island must be resolved so it matches and sets things right in the “real” reality.

I agree that it might be a Donnie Darko ending. I would like that.

I don’t think it could be the samsara ending. Hugo has seen way too many dead people. Miles can also talk to the dead. So they aren’t running off to start all over again.

I think the only ending I would hate would be an oversimplified ending like : it was all aliens! They must plug all holes and fix all loops. I can’t wait to see how Jacob is connected to the Fountain of Youth we see Sayid dipped in.