I’ve been trying to figure out how to write about the LOST finale. I’m emotionally satisfied, even though I don’t completely understand everything that happened during the episode’s nearly three-hour running time. There are many questions still left unanswered. I’m ok with this. LOST has always been more about questions than answers. And it has posed some very big questions, THE big questions, like “Why are we here” and “What is our purpose”?

In the end, it was about the characters, the people we have grown to love over the past six years. The last ten minutes seems to have been polarizing for fans. It reminded me a bit of Lewis’s “The Great Divorce”, a comedic fable about the afterlife in which some do not realize they are dead. Did the hydrogen bomb create this alternate dimension? Does it exist in a purely spiritual realm? The debate will go on.

What I find impressive is the decision to not answer everything. The misconception is that by not dotting every i and crossing every t the producers were being lazy. I believe it is the opposite. Answering everything, in checklist fashion, would be the easy (and expected) way out. What they chose to give us is classic LOST: another riddle, to be discussed for years to come.

The finale also confirmed what we’ve known all along: that LOST is a very spiritual show. Christianity was perhaps the focus, but all the world religions were explored to some degree over the course of its six seasons. In the final scene of the finale, the characters come together in a church. In the background, we see symbols from different faiths - Islam, Christianity, Hiduism, Buddhism, and Judaism to be exact. The point, I believe, is that we’re all on different paths, but regardless of our personal creeds, we can’t do it alone; we need each other. The suggestion is that everyone has a chance at redemption, and a ticket to the afterlife.

As a Christian, I disagree with the idea that all roads lead to Rome, so to speak. But I’ll resist overstating my case. It’s long been apparent that LOST is a melting pot of spiritual ideas, without one primary faith in the spotlight. But I find it encouraging that Christianity was explored to such an extent in a major network show.

And although LOST was not told from an inherently Christian worldview, I cannot help but bring my worldview to it. And so, in the heart-wrenching final scenes of the finale, as our friends gather in the chapel in preparation to move on to a better place, I see a poignant picture of what it means to leave this life in anticipation of eternity. I see a beautiful picture of relationships lived out in true community. And my heart resonates with the idea that everyone is in need of redemption; that we’re all broken.

The show ended as I believed it would: with Jack’s eye closing.

What a journey. 

We’ve been mystified, delighted, perplexed, exhilarated. LOST was more than a television show; it was a culture. Its mysteries kept us in constant debate on forums and in coffee shops. For every conundrum, there was a theory (or five hundred). It was a clandestine club. We threw around words like “Dharma” and “The Swan” and “Alvar Hanso” as if they were common speech. We decorated our laptops with secret symbols. Occasionally a bystander would hear us say something inexplicable, like “So back when the Losties were living in New Otherton…” But none of these things would mean anything without characters we cared about. That was the true miracle of LOST: It made us care. 

When I think back on the show, I’m amazed by its scope, its attention to detail, its fascination with religion and myth. Given the current state of television, LOST is a show that should never have happened. I’m grateful that it did, because I am confident that there will never be another one like it. 

Namaste.