LOST: The End - Part Four
THE SHEPHARD’S FLOCK
This section includes more general thoughts about the final scene and focuses on the supporting couples that were also brought together in the Afterlife.
Death and All His Friends
If anyone were to show me a scene with Jack being the glue that holds the group together more-so than he does here in the church, as he walks in and watches as everyone lovingly embraces each other, I will probably throw it in their face, because Jack walking into that affectionate gathering of all his friends, it made the picture complete, ultimately.
The Jurley hug, I can’t even…TOO CUTE. The Jawyer hug…waited a long time for that one. The Jack/Boone embrace, I cried at the sight of it, because Boone’s death was so hard on Jack, as he was the first of the core group to actually die, with Jack working so ardently to save him. Everything about the scene gave me a nostalgic tinge that I wondered where all the time went, how we survived all the deaths, and how wonderful of an end it all was. I steadily pinched myself to make sure it was real.
Jack died surrounded by all the people who took part in a time in his life that was the most important. THAT is an end that everyone wants to experience once they die, no one wants to cross alone. Jack thought he would, but was pleasantly surprised.
Even LOVE Has An Afterlife
The Finale was a shipper’s paradise, that is if you didn’t place your bets on Skate, who got irrevocably dissed on the romance aspect, but they showed them as good friends, and Skaters can’t even bring themselves to be humbled by that. OH WELL. Not my damn problem. Karma ate up everything Skate ever was, and she ripped Skaters a whole new one. Damon and Carlton must have called Ashton for the Skaters specifically, because the Finale was the most well-orchestrated episode of ‘Punk’d’ I have ever seen.
Aside from that, every ship known to this show was brought back together, and I wanted to focus on some of the memorable encounters:
James and Juliet - ‘Kiss me James’…’You got it, Blondie’
I was never a Suliet shipper, but after their moment of recognition, I think I went through the ‘Sulieteer’ induction process. They were ADORABLE, and that’s putting it lightly. The immediate attraction, the banter, the chemistry. It was hot in that waiting room lounge for sure. Sawyer fisting for his Apollo bar from the vending machine, another part of his day that’s gone wrong and then here she comes. This golden-haired goddess, legs a mile long, a face round like a heart, an attitude just as quick-wipped as his own. Juliet. She’s his match. In every way.
Their flashes were very emotional for me. James’ eyes, bugged and glued on Juliet as he realizes who she is! YES! It was fabulous. Elizabeth Mitchell’s portrayal throughout her flash experience was incredible. Someone hand the woman her Emmy. Please. As she came to the moment of her death on the Island, there was this palpable pain on her face, and then when she realized that James was there with her and as he kept saying, “I got you”, Juliet loses it. I loved it. Their kiss, so fervent and frenzied, her strained laugh, choked with joy and disbelief, she was alive again, only dead still, but James is there. Who cares about death, when you have a love that completely transcends it?
Jin and Sun - ‘Her name is Ji-Yeon’
I don’t know what to feel or think about Jin and Sun’s story before they flashed. There wasn’t really much of a ‘You’re my soulmate and I would die for you’ feel to their secret, torrid affair. Their union didn’t come off as ‘fated’ to me at all, until I realized that the point of it all was the conception of Ji-Yeon, so that she would bring her parents together in all their destined glory. It was beautiful.
Charlie and Claire - ‘I know her. We're together…’
Charlie and Claire’s moment was just so incredible, while somewhat creepy. Charlie’s unrelenting gaze on Claire from the stage was very romantic, and her steadily looking behind her like, “Who is he really staring at?” was kind of funny. I actually laughed at her whenever she did that, because she’s yet to realize that his steamy stare is all for her.
The moment between them after Aaron was born was just so beautiful. How Charlie said her name…twice and knelt down to be near her. GUH. This little family that steadily broke up over the course of their time on the island finally found each other again.
Hurley and Libby - ‘I’m with you because I LIKE You’
I’ve always loved Hurley and how can I not? He’s so cute and unassuming that you want to just give him a hug…all the time. I always wondered why Libby’s recognition of Hurley was so strong in the restaurant in ELH, but I do understand all too well why Hurley wasn’t confident that Libby was actually sincere in her attraction to him. That right there, his shyness, his trepidation, his uncertainty that Libby liked him for HIM and not his salary, is what makes Hurley all the more loveable and deserving of true love. I’m so glad that he found it.
Sayid and Shannon - ‘And what did you lose?’… ‘The woman I love’
I was actually a bit confused by Shannon and Sayid. While their reunion was sweet, in a ‘Knight and Shining Armor’ kind of way, but I always felt like Nadia was Sayid’s great love, his soulmate, while Shannon was a woman that he indeed loved, but she wasn’t his greatest love. Regardless, I enjoyed this reunion, and wasn’t really all that taken aback by it. I was happy about it.
Sayid has had a tough run of things, and led a very tortured, tragic existence, much like Jack, Locke and Desmond. It was nice to see him ultimately happy, with either Nadia or Shannon. I truly feel like one of the reasons the writers decided to reunite Sayid with Shannon, to end it with them as great loves, was to make the ending in the church about the Losties as a group and the conscious-altering love that came about as a result of their experiences on the Island. Nadia really doesn’t fit into that concept, because he wasn’t a part of the group. Sayid and Shannon, it wasn’t over-done, it was perfect.
Desmond and Penny - ‘I must have quite an effect on you’
Of all the couples, Desmond and Penny were most like Jack and Kate to me, both in story structure and their level of epic-factor. What I love so much about their afterlife tale is that Desmond has seen her face, knows every detail of it, and has only a name (and a sort of nickname at that) to work with. He’s much like Jack throughout his journey to find Penny, he doesn’t know what he felt, he can’t place the emotions, he doesn’t want to label the somewhat spiritual experience, but if he wants to find Penny, he has to.
Their meeting at the stadium is too adorable and is very much like the Jack and Kate encounter in the Afterlife. Desmond has this idea of what she means to him, much like Kate does when she sees Jack standing outside of the concert, although she knows a lot more, everything in fact. Desmond approaches and eventually touches her hand and he might not have flashed (as far as we know), but it knocked him clear off his feet, merging his Island self with his Afterlife self. Kate’s touch did something similar to Jack, as he has to move away from her, struggling to breathe, whispering ‘Whoa’, in order to get ahold of himself. As Jack dies on the Island, he feels Kate next to him, he sees what Desmond was talking about, that place where he's happy. So beautiful.
Desmond and Penny, like Jack and Kate, have always had the Island come between them, and to see Desmond working overtime to bring the group to their true loves because he’d finally found his, it’s remarkable. There’s the adorable joke that Desmond was the show’s St. Valentine, but the joke isn’t funny because he really was. God bless that blasted Scotsman, down to his very soul.
Up Next: Concluding remarks!