SPOILERS, DUDE
John Podhoretz is pissed:
Mystery plots offer an unstated pact: You follow me along and try to make sense of the mystery and in the end you will find out if you’re right or wrong. Lost is a 25,000-piece jigsaw puzzle that can’t be assembled into a whole. It’s an incredible violation of the compact between its creators and its audience…
The only question you need to ask yourself now is: Why did I keep watching if I figured out after the second episode of the second season that there would never be any answers? There are two possible answers for you to debate. One: That is an unsolvable mystery akin to Lost itself. Two: I’m a sucker.
Charlie Anders at IO9 is ticked off:
The flash-sideways universe wasn’t an alternate universe at all, it was… purgatory? Limbo? Some kind of afterlife way-station…
And the final moments, after Jack’s dad gave his heavy-handed explanation, and everybody was gathered inside the church from Madonna’s “Like A Prayer” video, and there were handshakes and reunions and a door full of light… I started swearing at my television set. I think I’m still in shock at how lame and idiotic the final five minutes or so felt.
And Defamer’s headline says it all: “The Lost Finale Was Incredibly Dumb.”
I can’t argue with any of it, but for whatever reason, I don’t feel quite as disappointed as they are. Guess I’m just a sucker for “Big Fat Guy Takes Over as Ageless Custodian of Mysterious Invisible Island What’s Got Polar Bears on It for Some Reason We Still Don’t Know and Never Will” stories. I’m like Joe E. Brown at the end of Some Like It Hot. Sure, the whole time I thought the island was a lovely lady and now I see its five-o’clock shadow… Well, nobody’s perfect!
P.S. So do you think Hurley made Ben ageless? Maybe by accident? Jack was able to pass it on just by giving Hurley something to drink, without having to whisper stuff in Latin or anything. Like maybe at lunch one day, Hurley passed Ben a Dharma soda and Ben took a sip and was like, “Hey, wow,” and Hurley was like, “Whoops, dude.” Wonder how long the two of them ended up living on the island together? Oh, I feel some Hurley/Ben slashfic coming on…
P.P.S. Jack Shafer keeps his cards pretty close to the vest: “Goddamn You, Lost.”