Last LOST Musings

from CJ:

I know, I know, Sunday night was the LOST event, the ending we'd all been waiting for, salivating over, debating about for six long years. It came and then....it went.

Like many I was disappointed at first. Puzzled. So it was just a dream flashing through Jack's mind as he died? Or was the Island purgatory or limbo, a big waiting room where lost souls got tortured before they finally decided to get together and walk into the light?

Then, I came up with my own theory. The Island IS real--it's the balancing point, the pivot or fulcrum, that keeps our reality intact. Mess with it and you mess with reality, creating alternative time lines--like the parallel LOST universe we saw this season.

The only way for our reality to survive was for someone to "fix" the Island (by getting rid of the Man in Black who kept trying to escape, thus messing with our reality)--which was what Jack did.

Desmond was trying to "fix" things by cementing the alternative reality (where everyone was happy and united with their one true love, their soul mate) but, as Desmond has been prone to do all along, his good intentions led to greater disaster and danger for ALL realities--the one he was trying to save and ours.

In order for our reality to survive, everyone in the alternative "happy" timeline had to die--and the result of their sacrifice, accepting their deaths, walking into the light, was the plane with Kate, Sawyer, etc being able to leave the Island and re-enter our now-secured timeline/reality.

Got it? Easy as quantum physics with a dash of religious mumbo-jumbo thrown in, right?

But I like my theory (who's to say if it's right or wrong) because, like all good story endings it answers most of the questions (not all--like what happened to Walt?!?) in a satisfactory way that remains true to the "rules" of the story's world.

I hate endings that don't aim to satisfying the reader--tricking the reader, bringing a badguy on stage the last five minutes when we've never seen him before, telling the reader "it was all a dream"....these are all unsatisfying. Worse, they lack imagination as well as a commitment to the story.

Yeah, I know, it's just a story, it's fiction, not reality--but reality is crazy enough. Isn't that why humans invented story-telling in the first place? To make sense of our crazy, mixed-up, unpredictable world?

It's a story--which means it's aimed at an audience. Enchant us, transport us, inspire us, make us think.

But you'd better give us an ending that is going to satisfy, that "ahhhhh....." feeling we all love so much. If you want us coming back for more, that is!

You tell me--is my LOST theory anywhere close to yours? What do you think about the ending? Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Thanks for reading,
CJ
PS: I'm on my way to New Orleans to teach at the Pen to Press Writers' Retreat today, so I might not make it back to answer comments until late. In the meantime, have fun debating!

Images courtesy of TV Guide

About CJ:
As a pediatric ER doctor, CJ Lyons lived the life she writes about in her cutting edge suspense novels and has been called a "master of the genre" (Pittsburgh Magazine). Her award-winning, critically acclaimed Angels of Mercy series (LIFELINES, WARNING SIGNS, and URGENT CARE) is available in stores now with the fourth book, CRITICAL CONDITION due out December, 2010. CJ's newest project is as co-author of the first in a new suspense series with Erin Brockovich. To learn more about CJ and her work, go to http://www.cjlyons.net