Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A | 5959 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT I Once Was Lost, But Now Am Found
By Cindy McLennan | Season 6 | Episode 17 | Aired on 2010.05.23
The Lost finale promo was set to "The End" by The Doors, rather than "The End" by The Beatles, and now we know why. Spoilers for the entire series were secreted away in the grooves of Abbey Road more than 40 years ago: And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. For all its Colonel Kurtz posturing, it turns out Lost isn't so much about heart-of-darkness-y badness -- it's about purging oneself of it, in order to bask in the warmest light you'll ever feel.
There are points of this epic series and its equally epic finale that don't work for me (and I won't skip 'em), but I got what I needed above all -- emotional satisfaction. Earlier this season, I said: Look, I'm just trying to enjoy these few remaining hours without putting on my ranty pants. Darlton should thank Ronald D. Moore for lowering the bar with his Battlestar Galactica series finale. If, when this series bows, I refrain from beating my head against the fieldstone wall in my backyard, Lost totally wins.
My head and wall are still (mostly) intact. In one sense, that's because I gave up on the mystery, years ago. After a while, it seemed to me that the characters were far more important (to the writers, that is) than the mystery or mythology; they certainly became more important to me. I suspect some Pavlovian extinction thingum is to blame, but I'm too satisfied and spent to conduct the sort of postmortem needed to prove my baseless accusations. It largely comes down to how I've learned to watch TV.
On December 15, 1998 (right after "Amends" aired), Joss Whedon (riffing on DH Lawrence) told the fans at the then official Buffy message board: "Trust the tale, not the teller." It stuck with me, and not just because it aligns itself nicely with my know-it-all-itis. Joss also once said, "Stop watching and the pain will go away," but er...that's hardly helpful after a series finale, huh? Um...let's put that in a magic box and stick to Trust the tale...