Thursday, May 27, 2010

Time for Me to Let YOU Talk

As promised yesterday, here are the blog posts of some of my readers writing about The End (I hope I didn't miss any emails coming in!) Some really fascinating writeups, once again making me feel all warm and fuzzy that we've got an amazing group of people on here:

I Screen, You Screen (one of my fave TV bloggers)

Chris Morgan

Ernest Ballard’s Gulf Coast Offense

Ambivalentman

Sagacious Penguin

Jennifer Keeton

BJ Keeton

James McGrath (2 posts from him):
LOST Places In The Heart: Making sense of LOST now that it is over
The Ending of LOST Explained

Rowena Yow

Aaron. This one is less a review than a lead-up to the finale, figuring out what needs to be answered.

PhiLOSTopher, a.k.a. ODM

Jason Flum

Carlos Joao Correia

Mike D

Here’s a podcast on the end with Andrew Fantasia (a.k.a. Question Mark!) and Robin Williams

This is a more irreverent look at Lost, but it made me laugh, and I hope you enjoy it, too!!

From the inimitable Gillian Whitfield here are her thoughts on The End
For more of her blogging, go to her main page

Susan Sternberg (thanks for the mention!)

From our lovely Erin Pugh (and again, thank you for the mention!!) And seriously, you HAVE to see the pic of her polar bear cupcakes!!!

Teebore!!

This one’s from Mandy Keathley

For my Spanish-speaking readers, this one is from Pedro Jorge Romero (you can try Google translation, but then it might turn into something about a Super Karate Monkey Death Car)

One of my faves, this one’s from Sean Furfaro (Sean F. in the Globe chats)

Here’s an interesting take from Coleman Glenn, a Swedenborgian minister

Another unique take from Sara Wilcox

A fantastic take on it from pop culture academic guru (and lovely friend of mine) David Lavery

Adam Gertsacov

Paticus!

DavidB226Morris (my name is in the post title! Yay me! Complete egotist at heart here...)

Shannon Clarke

Alex Moin

Al Hsu, for a Christian take on it

15 comments:

Erin {pughs' news} said...

I'm having so much fun reading all these. Thanks, Nikki!

Zari said...

What about Blam!?

Blam’s Blog: http://blamken.blogspot.com/

blamken.blogspot.com/

Nikki Stafford said...

Glad you're enjoying them, Erin!!

Zari: I read Blam's analysis, and it was excellent, as always. The links here are from people who sent them to me, and I didn't want to link to anyone who didn't specifically send it to me in case they didn't want me to. If Blam wants it in there, it will be added immediately. :)

JS said...

can't wait to read the rest of these - some of them I've already checked out. It is great to see the spectrum of perspectives, now that I have a little distance from it.

percussive note said...

Thank you, Nikki, for your books and insightful discussions about LOST, the most astonishing show ever!

I don't write a blog, or for that matter, seldom comment on blogs or forums, but I feel compelled to share my observations regarding the finale. This seems to be the best place (this blog and this post) to do that. I have not been able to read all of the blogs and/or posts, so my apologies if some of these thoughts have been previously noted.

The finale is brilliant. I got it. Or more aptly, it got me. Emotional, absolutely. But much more than simply a feeling; cognizance.

The stories come full circle. From the obvious (opening scene of ‘Pilot’ to closing scene of ‘The End’) to the sublime (Jack’s last vision of the Ajira flight overhead in life reveals ‘displacement’ to Jack’s first vision at the beginning of ‘LA X’ where he is back on the flight flying over the [submerged] island in the “is no now, here” reality.) Poetic.

In the sideways world, the final scenes in the church are mostly from Jack’s perspective. We get a glimpse of perspectives from Ben, Locke and Hurley, but at this point in the storytelling, it is closing the circle with Jack. ‘Time’ is irrelevant and ‘events’ are infinite and simultaneous--very difficult concepts to portray and understand in the constraints of our linear universe.

Were all the questions answered? For us, no. But that parallels life. Not all questions are ever answered.

But were the questions answered for Jack and the other characters? Probably yes. And if not, it doesn’t matter, and they were probably not answers the characters were seeking.

The adventure, the mystery, the comedy, the drama, the ‘faith versus science’, is in the journey. That makes the story interesting. But in the end, upon ‘awareness’, all that matters is the state of ‘being’ (simply, ‘to be’) and the love that we share. (To quote McCartney, “And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make”, appropriately also from The End.)

We live. We learn. We love.

The Question Mark said...

Can't wait to check these all out! Thanks for the posts, Nikki! And thanks everybody for contributing!

Zari said...

Here’s an interactive cartoon from The [Canada] National Post

“Loved & Lost”: http://www.nationalpost.com/arts/lost/index.html

Zari said...

Sorry, Nikki. I need to mind my own business.

pjorge said...

Somehow, the link to my review of the Finale (the one under "Pedro Jorge Romero") got combined with some blogger stuff. The actual permalink is:

http://pjorge.com/2010/05/24/lost-17-18-the-end/

Thanks a lot for the mention. I was a real pleasure writing about the end of Lost.

Eugen Caitaz said...

Hi Nikki! I send you my post!

Zari said...

“‘Lost’ finale bonus footage on DVD”: http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/

In an interview with G4's "Attack of the Show," "Lost" Emmy award winner Michael Emerson revealed that there is an "epilogue, a lost scene" on the upcoming "Lost" DVD collection that was not part of the series finale this past Sunday.

Emerson hinted that it will be around 14 minutes in length, and will explain more about what happened after Jack died on the island and Hurley and Ben took over as its protectors.

We were given an idea in one of the final scenes that these two were on the island for a long period of time, in an exchange between the two characters while in purgatory, but this is the first time we've been told that we might actually see some footage of their time "in charge."

It's unclear whether this footage will be part of the sixth season DVD set, or only in the full series set.

The Question Mark said...

@ZARI:
Please, please, PLEEEEEASE let all of these cool special features be available on every single incarnation of the DVDs!!!
My world was shattered enough as it was when I found out LOST University was a Blu-Ray exclusive :(

IScreen said...

Hey Nikki --
What about me? Here's my recap of the final episode: http://iscreenyouscreen.blogspot.com/2010/05/lost-series-finale-recap-end.html
And here's my "good-bye" to "Lost," in which I reference a certain blogger/author:
http://iscreenyouscreen.blogspot.com/2010/05/watching-together-crying-alone-end-of.html

Blam said...


Zari, Nikki: I was mostly offline for a couple of days, so I didn't see the invitation. Of course I'd love to be included, although this danged cold means I still haven't given "The End" a full writeup. And I appreciate the compliments. 8^)

Anonymous said...

thanks for including the last link "for a christian perspective" - I found it very interesting...

"It's almost certainly intentional that Jack Shephard's number in Lost was 23, evoking Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd." (And the finale aired on May 23.) Jack's father, Christian Shephard, helped him find his way home.

Christian viewers of Lost can have confidence that we too have a Great Shepherd who finds the lost and leads us home. And we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

I'd thought about Jack's name & Jack's father's name...but never about his number. I found that interesting. It should have been a clue, I guess. I never really expected Jack to die in the finale. Once he was the new Jacob, I thought he'd live a long life protecting the island. I was wrong. Psalm 23...number 23...christian shepherd...jack shepherd...hmmmmmmm