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What happened at the end of 'Lost' series?

The end of Lost in a paragraph?

  • Could somebody summarise the end of Lost in a paragraph? I can't wade through the post on the green; it appears to be all reaction and not a lot of content. Assume the Wikipedia article doesn't do it for me. Take this summary of BSG (Spoiler!) as a benchmark: Half the main characters were Cylons. We find out that this clash between man and machine and the ensuing voyage has happened again and again across the ages. BSG arrives at Earth in our prehistory. Starbuck turns out to be some sort of mysterious space angel. Head 6 and Head Gaius appear to be some higher form of supernatural being, possibly deities. All the events of the series appear to have been driven by them for some mysterious divine purpose. The Cylon-hybrid kid turns out to be mitochondrial Eve, the mother of what we know as humanity. Many viewers thought the ending was a deus ex machina cop-out. Apologies if Lost is complicated enough for this not to be possible. Please don't take this post as some sort of disrespect for the show - I've enjoyed it when I watched it, and I will watch it all eventually.

  • Answer:

    I don't know from your question how much of the series you've seen, so here's my best bird's-eye view. If you're familiar with most of the Season 6 plot, including the Jacob-centric backstory episode, just skip to the last section. The Island The Island is an http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_mundi of fundamental power, old as the world, and, like most of life's mysteries, ambiguous and imperfectly understood. The well at its heart is the Source of all life, all value, perhaps the soul. Its vast, foundational energies make the Island a nexus of meaning, warping time, space, and probability. This accounts for the many coincidences and synchronicities that permeate the series. Jacob and the Man in Black For thousands of years, the Island has been watched over by a series of protectors, made immortal by its power until they choose to pass the baton to a successor. Jacob inherited the position long ago, but in a fit of anger threw his rebellious, doubting brother (the Man in Black) into the Source, fusing his brooding anger and resentment with the power of that place to form the Monster. DHARMA and The Others The Island has long been inhabited by a secretive group called The Others, hardscrabble mystics that venerate the Island. In the 1970s, a pseudoscientific outfit called the DHARMA Initiative arrives to explore the Island's mysteries. They build a hatch and tap into the electromagnetic forces surrounding the Source, but venture too far, leaving an unstable anamoly that must be safely discharged every 108 minutes. Soon after this violation The Others massacre the DHARMA folk and inhabit their village. Ben Linus is their modern-day leader, and has a psychopathic need for the Island -- and for power over it. The Wager Because the Man in Black is inextricably bound to the Island, he cannot leave as long as the Island exists. And because he is bound to the ancient rules of the Island, he cannot kill the protector Jacob. So he devises a plan. He develops an argument with Jacob on the nature of mankind, that we are essentially corrupt while Jacob believes we are essentially good. To prove the Monster wrong, Jacob manipulates the lives of many flawed individuals to bring them to the Island. He will select one of these Candidates to be his replacement. They crash because Desmond, shipwrecked on the Island and taught to maintain the DHARMA hatch by a lone survivor, fails to discharge the energy in time and it brings down Flight 815. Most of the series Once they arrive, we see the candidates and The Others clash, ally, kill, betray, love, and hopscotch through time as they use and abuse the Island's power for their own gain. A key struggle is between Jack, the rational skeptic, and Locke, the man of faith who believes the Island controls their destiny. Jack and a few others manage to escape the Island mid-series, but Locke's worldview, aided by the calculated off-Island manipulation of Ben, eats away at them all until they finally return, craving meaning. The Bomb and the "sideways" world Time travel shenanigans leave some of the cast trapped in the 1970s, when the Island is first being explored by the DHARMA Initiative. They get their hands on a nuke and detonate it, reasoning that if the hatch is never built, the energy will never be unleashed, and they will never crash. This seems to create two worlds: in the first, they not only never crash, but the Island never existed and Jacob's influence was never felt, so they lead radically different lives that we periodically "flash sideways" to. In the other world, they simply get booted back into the present. The End The Monster takes Ben, who has found himself dismissed by Jacob, and uses his anger and resentment to get him to kill the man. Jacob's ghost appears to the remaining survivors and Jack volunteers to take his place. Both sides converge on Desmond, whose immunity to the Source's electromagnetic power allows him to approach it. They agree to let him disturb the Source -- the Monster because he wants to destroy the Island and finally escape, Jack because he believes it will render the Monster mortal. With the Source disturbed, the light is snuffed, its powers extinguished, and the Island begins to crumble, with unknown consequences for the world at large. Jack and the newly-mortal Monster face off. Jack is stabbed, the Monster is shot by Kate. Jack selects Hurley as his successor (with a repentant Ben as his second-in-command) then ventures to the Source to restore it. He does so, then stumbles into the jungle and dies. The surviving cast flies away on the plane they crash-landed on their mid-series return visit, while Hurley and Ben remain to protect the Island for many years. All this time, the Desmond in the sideways world has been going around "waking up" the main characters and getting them to remember their Island existences. As Jack dies, we discover that this sideways world is not a parallel universe, but a form of purgatory, a timeless place he and the people he valued constructed after their respective deaths so they could (1) see what their lives could have been like had they never come together, and (2) find each other again so they could finally let go and move on. Their souls realize their true nature piecemeal, usually by contact with the one person they loved most. Once they all realize the truth and find each other, there is a joyful reunion in a pan-religious temple, and they pass on into blissful white light. The final shot is of a dying Jack, lying in the jungle where he first awoke in the very first episode, and his eye closing, at peace.

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http://ask.metafilter.com/154834/The-end-of-Lost-in-a-paragraph#2220040: I can sum it up in one sentence: As it turns out, the entire show has been a farce, and everyone on the show has been dead since the plane crash. You could do that, but you'd be wrong.

mkultra

In the parallel timeline, characters start (commercial) touching (commercial) other (commercial) characters (commercial) and start "remembering" things that occurred in the regular timeline, essentially "waking up". This makes them very happy. Meanwhile, back on the island, Miles and Richard hook up with Pilot guy and decide to return the plane so they can all leave. Commercial. They tell everyone what they're doing, so if anyone wants to catch a ride, cool. Commercial. Desmond goes down into the energy source, since he's the only one immune to the energy. Commercial. He moves a rock from a hole. Commercial. The island starts shitting golden light, making the Man in Black, as John Locke, mortal and causing the island to begin to fall apart. Commercial. MiB has a boat and decides now would be a good time to get off the island. Commercial. Jack and the others follow. Commercial. Jack and Mib/Locke get into a fist fight on a cliff as the island continues falling apart (no one said they were smart). Commercial. Locke fatally stabs Jack, Kate shoots MiB/Locke and Jack pushes him off a cliff to finish him off. Commercial. Jack decides, since he's dying, to play hero and put the rock back on the hole, so he can save everyone. Commercial. Hurely and Ben decide to go help Jack. Commercial. Sawyer and Kate, the love of his life, decide to save themselves and make for the boat, then the plane. Commercial. Along the way they come across crazy Claire and convince her come with them off the island. Commercial. Jack, still dying, makes Hurely the island's protector, then moves the rock back over the hole. Commercial. The island calms down. Commercial. Hurely makes Ben his 2nd in command and they decide to be a different type of protector than Jacob. Commercial. Back in parallel world, a lot but not all of the survivors meet up in a church. Commercial. Parallel Jack meets his dad, who tells him the parallel world is a place they "all created, so they'd remember and find each other when they died". Jack goes into the main church hall where the others are, they all sit down, Jack's day opens the door to the church and blinding white light pours in. Commercial. Back on the island, Jack wakes up in the forest, wanders back to the beach where this all began and collapses. Vincent the dog shows up and licks his face, making Jack smile, then lays down beside him. Jack closes his eyes, The End. Quiet montage of the crash scene as the credits roll. Some people like the finale's focus on the characters. Others are annoyed with the lack of answers. War ensues on forums across the internet.

Brandon Blatcher

A year is well past any reasonable expectation of spoiler courtesy.

DWRoelands

I'll take a stab at this: Jack makes Hurley the new Jacob, Ben stays on as his assistant. Jack kills Locke (the smoke monster) and then dies. Kate, Claire, Sawyer, Richard, Miles and the pilot repair the plane and get off the island. Rose and Bernard have built themselves a home on the island with Vincent (the dog) and have been keeping themselves out of trouble. It is implied that Desmond gets off the island but not shown. The island is real and everything that happened on it happened but really no more explanation than that is given.The flash-sideways reality turns out to actually be purgatory where they all meet up after they die so they can move on together (which is why there are inconsistencies in the alternate reality - Desmond being on the plane, Jack having a son with Juliet etc). Through various circumstances (usually by meeting someone they were in love with on the island) they all come to realise what has happened and gather together in a church where Christian Sheppard leads them into the light.

missmagenta

I think it's important to say (and I'm brainstorming what will probably be a superlong blog post about this, so I'll keep it brief): The show's main theme is that, when choosing between rational skepticism and faith, you should choose faith. Remember that early in the series, Jack and John Locke were at odds largely because Locke believed the island had some sort of mystical purpose for him, and Jack disagreed. That Locke was right is stated directly during the last episode. Jack tells the evil monster who is inhabiting John's body: "Locke was right about pretty much everything, and you disrespect his memory by wearing his face." A few episodes ago, a character was dissuaded from asking questions about the island's nature at all when he was told: "Every question I answer will simply lead to another question." What's important, according to the show's philosophy, are the people around you and the time you spend with them. In the last ten minutes of the show, Christian tells his son this: "The most important part of your life was the time that you spent with these people. That’s why all of you are here." (This is hinted in other ways, too; for example, in "Purgatory," neurotic scientist Daniel Faraday is a happy musician who doesn't understand quantum physics at all.) The producers have always said the show was about the characters, not the mysteries. In light of this, I suspect these messages were as much aimed at the audience as the characters. Your mileage may vary, though, as to whether you find this satisfying as both a theme and a resolution.

PhoBWanKenobi

mecran01

Someone posted this on reddit, and it summed it up perfectly for me. Not one paragraph, but this was the best summary I found. LOST explanation, chronologically: The island has been there since the beginning. It is neither fully hell, heaven, purgatory, or earth. It is a 5th kind of place, like an intersection of all these. It is a "cork" which prevents the evil (hell) from descending upon the earth. There needs to be a protector, Jacob wasn't the first. But after Jacob is the protector, he protects the cave which has the light. The light is a part of heaven that shines through. Jacob kills and tosses MIB into the cave, where MIB is reincarnated in evil, full of greed. He wants to kill Jacob, but can't due to "rules" (by god) protecting the protector of the island. Hundreds of years later Jack etc. crash on the island, because Jacob brings them there. He wants to have candidates to succeed him if MIB does kill him. Jacob is allowed to make his own rules too, and one is that people he brings can't leave the island. Jack etc. are still alive, not dead, since this is a new kind of place not talked about in other stories. Jack etc try and try to get off, and a part of the group does leave. But the rules are the rules, and they eventually come back (seemingly of their own free will). After they come back MIB really starts interacting with the Candidates. As per the rules, a candidate is allowed to kill the protector. So, MIB manipulates ben and kills Jacob. Jacob hangs around as a ghost until a new protector is selected, and Jack is selected to be that protector. Jack and Locke put Desmond in the cave. Desmond thinks the rock ("cork") he is removing reveals heaven, but instead it reveals a fiery red hell ("the red wine"). It is only in the absence of hell, that heaven shows itself as light. Jack and Locke become regular folks while hell is about to descend upon earth (or at least the island), and Jack kills Locke and Locke injures Jack. Jack gives the protector power to Hurley, who makes Ben his Richard, and goes in the cave to plug up the hole. After Jack puts the cork back on the bottle, Heaven shines again and Jack dies a little later. Kate, Sawyer, Lapidus, and Miles make it off the island and die of old age or other circumstances. Hurley and Ben die when they get succeeded by someone else. But, they all meet in purgatory at the same time, since there is no sense of time here. They meet here and they all move on to Heaven, except notably, Ben, who stays behind, because he isn't ready yet.

Sufi

A wizard did it.

banshee

I can sum it up in one sentence: As it turns out, the entire show has been a farce, and everyone on the show has been dead since the plane crash. This is entirely wrong.

InsanePenguin

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