The Lost Series Finale was Sunday, May 23, 2010 and while it is not traditionally dealt with here, we thought it would be fun to do so today.  The Lost Finale left a number of questions unanswered, but was certainly an event worth watching.  The remaining questions boil down to the “Man of Science/Man of Faith” dichotomy.  The remaining Lost questions are those for the “main of science.”  The “man of faith” has the answer in the finale. Spoilers below…

Near the end between Jack and Christian:

“I don’t understand.  You died.” — Jack
“Yeah, yes I did.” — Christian
“Then how are you here right now?” — Jack
“How are you here?” — Christian
“I died too.” — Jack
Christian nods.
“Its okay, its okay son.” — Christian
…
“Are you real?” — Jack
“I sure hope so. Yeah, I’m real. Your real, everything that has ever happened to you is real. All those people in the church. They’re all real too.”– Christian
“And they’re all dead?” — Jack
“Everyone dies sometime kiddo. Some of them before you, some long after you.” — Christian
“Why are they all here now?” — Jack
“Well, there is no now, here.” — Christian
“Where are we dad?” — Jack
“This is the place you, that you all made together so you that can find one another. The most important part of your life, was the time that you spent with these people. That’s why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone, Jack. You needed all of them and they needed you.” — Christian
“For what?” — Jack
“To remember and to let go.” — Christian
“Kate. She said we were leaving.” — Jack
“Not leaving, no. Moving on.” — Christian
“Where are we going?” — Jack
“Let’s go find out.” — Christian

The Finale of Lost seems to say that when the characters on the island died on the island, they moved to the flash-sideways.  Once they lived their lives and made peace with themselves in the flash-sideways they could move on to heaven (or a heaven type place) to meet all together.

What Christian says above “This is the place you all made together so you can find one another” he is speaking about the church, not the flash-sideways world.  Where everyone will meet after they have lived their lives.

Locke and Ben outside the church:

“Is everyone already inside?” — Locke
“I believe most of them are, yes.” — Ben
…
“I’m very sorry for what I did to you John. I was selfish. Jealous. I wanted everything you had. ” — Ben
“What did I have?” — Locke
“You were special John, but I wasn’t.” — Ben
“Well if it helps Ben, I forgive you. “– Locke
“Thank you John, that does help, but now there’s more than I can say.” — Ben
“What are you going to do now?” — Locke
“I have some things I still need to work out. I think I’ll stay here awhile. You know I don’t think you need to be in that chair any more.” — Ben
“Goodbye Ben.” — Locke

Alternative explanations that I don’t think are correct:

1. Only purgatory and Heaven?  E.g. the island as purgatory.  If so, where was Michael?  Did we just not see his flash-sideways?  Ana Lucia?  If we believe Christian, all of it was real meaning it was not purgatory.  Regarding the church, where were Richard?  Miles?  Charlotte?  Lapidus?  Alex?  Rousseau?  Jacob?  (Perhaps Jacob didn’t need a redemption).  Widmore?  Walt?  Were none of them important enough to Jack?  Jacob was at least.  Richard perhaps.

2. Or were the flash-sideways real or merely Jack’s imagination?  It would seem that they were not imagination given Christian’s statement about “made together” and that the island was a real place.  (Unless the conversation with Christian was imagination too.)

3. What about the ones who left on the plane, Richard, Miles, Lapidus, Sawyer, Kate and Claire.  Some were in the church at the end, some were not.  Did Ben become the “Jacob” after Hurley died and continue on the island for good? Was this why he wasn’t ready to go on into the church?  Were the others just not important enough to Jack?

4.  Did the entire island experience occur in the time it took Jack to die from the initial Oceanic 815 crash?  Was everyone else just along for “Jack’s redemption”?  Not if we believe Christian.

5. Was it really only Jack who died and all the people from the island were still alive after their redemptions, but at his funeral with island memories?  Not if we believe Christian.

And some of the open questions regarding the Lost Finale that the “man of science” would ask:

1. Who created the island?  Who created the “cork in the bottle”?

2. Who was Jacob and Not Locke’s mother?  How did she get there?

3. What about Not Locke/Smokey/The Smoke Monster?  (Great Target commercial in there with the smoke detector, by the way!)  Why no redemption for him?

4. What was the transformation Jacob’s brother went through?

5. Richard was not in the church and no flash-sideways for him.  Did Jacob’s gift to Richard still protect him?  It appears that when Jacob died, so did his “gift” to Richard (the grey hair), but where was he?

6. “You’re too late” – Not Locke. Was he just wrong again when he said that? I think so.

7. Why could babies not be conceived and born on the island?  It was either/or.  Was it because it was only for “lost souls” and babies would not be lost souls?

8. Why were Walt and Aaron so important to the others?  Were the other’s taking the “innocents” who were not in need of redemption?

9. Where did the healing properties on the island come from?  Was everyone healed so they could have time for their redemption?

10. What was the importance of the electro-magnetism?

11. Did the bomb work?  What were the real effects?  Were the effects the make the flash-sideways and island run in parallel until the person died in the sideways world when they would merge?

12. Why was Desmond so important with regard to the electro-magnetic effects?

13. Eloise Hawking? She preferred the flash-sideways world where her son was alive and a musician.

14. If there was no “now” in the church, that would lead one to believe that Ben was still on the island (his non-flash sideways portion) whereas Hurley was not and had died.

The story was a lot of fun, but was there meaning there?  I sum, I think so, in analyzing the priorities of life.

The message seems to be that life and the world have different meanings and answers to different people with different perspectives.  The mysteries are unsolvable and the important things are the resolution of the issues within ourselves to give forgiveness, love, joy, through faith which leads to redemption.  Resolving those leads to no longer being Lost, but being found.

“I’ll see you in another life, brother.”