Lost is a show you’ve either followed along the entire journey enjoying every single twist and turn, dropped off during a season when they didn’t explain something like “Why was the polar bear there?” (you should have really kept watching) or you’ve never watched.
The show ends next week with a 2.5 hour finale and no doubt some people will be disappointed that Lost hasn’t answered ALL their questions. In a recent podcast with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse gave the best description why they won’t aim to answer everything.
Simply put – THIS:
Perfectly put explaining everything in a movie or show as complex as Lost (like The Matrix) ruins everything the audience loved about the story being told. We have watched from the view of the Losties from Oceanic Airlines Flight 815, discovering everything and been left in the dark along with them. How pointless would all of that been if 4 hours into the story of the show they could have sat down with “The Architect” and had everything explained to them.
This biggest clue that we won’t see a scene like the screenshot from The Matrix: Reloaded is the common phrase that is repeated while talking about Lost: “A question just leads to another question”.
If we ask “How did the island come to be?” and they answer for example “From some aliens” then the show would have to answer “Why did the aliens create the island” and “What was there before the island?” and “Why an island?” … this could just keep going and going. It is basically like asking for a simple answer of “What happened before the big bang?”.
We won’t be told everything, we will find out some of the major elements but just like real life some things will go unexplained for us to talk about. I respect the writers of Lost for taking such bold steps along this journey, none more stronger than last weeks episode “Across the Sea” where with around 4 hours of screen time left, it was devoted to none of our main characters.
Yes some people will hate this, but for me that is why I love Lost. I will miss it.
