J.J. Abrams wants YOUR ideas for how Lost should have ended
I think it's curious that the guy who left the show early is still worried about what his audience thinks.
Months later and I only now see this thread... Not sure what was going on with me when it was posted, but of course I have opinions on this!!
First my disclaimer: I loved the ending. It wasn't perfect, but I thought the mythology was intriguing and second, I can't fault them for some of the production problems with cast members leaving, a writers strike and just the format of writing an episodic AND large story arch series with multiple variables over which the writers had no control and which limited the kind of ending they could have had were they to have known exactly where it was going.
Writing a novel you get the creative beauty of free flowing characters and story plot and then get to go back and edit out the pieces that didn't fit with the theme and add in little fun bits to enhance the direction that was working best. Lost was amazing because there was so much of that creativity going on, but bugged a lot of people because as much as it would have been a thrill to have Shannon saying something when she died that corresponded to her and Sayid meeting up and remembering each other, it's impossible to go back and edit a show that's already been filmed. (Unless you're initials are GL.)
So, now, how would I have ended Lost? I'll address the articles problems first:
1) Show us what happens when the Man in Black gets off the Island.
I disagree that this is necessary or desirable. A major theme was faith, and not blind faith.
Beginning in Jack's life with his young messed up father's lack of belief in his own son through his denial that the island was special and even that it just disappeared before his eyes through his experience off island where he finally stopped blaming his dad and realized HE was the broken one, to his return to the island to find out that Jacob believed in him, Richard's suicide scene in the Black Rock to taking the cup because he KNEW he was supposed to do it.
Jack was a man of science who would not accept what he didn't see, who found out what he didn't see wasn't because it wasn't there, but because he wasn't looking.
Christian screwed up as a drunk, but he tried to make it better, he DID believe in Jack and this was thrown in our faces in The Incident right before Jacob touched Jack when Christian says, "Are you sure it's me who doesn't believe in you, Jack?"
For someone to say Lost would be better if they showed us what would happen if MIB got off the island makes me wonder 1) if they mean to show Jack because they didn't understand Jack's story arch was culminating in him not needing to see it. or 2) If they weren't looking at what and who the Smoke monster is.
Now - I'm very, very upset with Ilana going *BOOM* not just because I love her character, but because she was in the middle of revealing something only someone close to Jacob would know - but, why then? Why did they do that? Why not just let her finish telling Jack what would happen if 'that thing ever get's off the island'?
It would have taken away something from Jack's faith story line. I think it was intentional and not just to mess with us fans. Well maybe a little.
So, if JJ asks Guri, I say leave what happens if MIB leaves a big mysterious metaphoric, everyone you know will die/go to hell. It was enough for Jack, and it's enough for me. (Besides, it's obvious what would happen, he sees people as a means to an end, he'd never find 'home' and he's got super powers. duh.)
2) Raise the stakes. The big sudden threat in the final episode, "The End," is that the Man in Black is going to "destroy the Island." Which basically translates to, "I'm going to kill nine people." Plus Vincent, the dog.
:rolleyes The show states the stakes over and over again. The island is special - Jacob has to protect The source, the Source is the Source of Life, Death, Rebirth. It hints at being the source of goodness that everyone has a light inside of them, and everyone wants more. In a cut scene, Desmond, everyone's favorite Lost romantic says it's 'Love'. We are told that the darkness is like a sickness that can put that light out....
So, if the island sinks, the Light goes out and all of that goes away.
Oh, and that bit about 'we all go to hell' - if the island goes down, there's no more protecting the light, it's destroyed and I took that to mean that they are not just saving the lives of the living, but the souls of the dead.
High stakes.
Not once did I calculate how many people were on the island and think that was all that was going to die. The mythology was my favorite part, so I was thinking about all of that going away being very bad and I assumed Jack knew that.
If anything about this would change at all, maybe when Kate tries to talk Jack out of staying and letting it sink Jack could tell her, "If the island goes down, all of this was for nothing. If you wake up tomorrow, and there's still love and goodness in the world, you'll know I did it."
3) Make it a team effort. If there's one theme that resonates through the early seasons of Lost, it's the importance of the whole community on the Island, pulling together. Unfortunately, by the time you get to the final episode, most of the cool characters are either dead, or spent.
:confused Jack would not be who he was had those people not been in his life! Jacob brought them all there and while there they learned to care about each other and mean something to each other. The fact that John Locke was dead did not lesson his contribution to Jack's being able to do what he did. Just the opposite - the people who died - there was even an episode named after it! "What they died for." Were vitally important to driving Jack (and Hugo) to being the heroes they turned out to be.
4) Show us what Jack's learned over six seasons.
*FACE PALM*
Sometimes I swear I didn't watch the same show as other people. I answered this one above.
5) Finally, go for the poetry. What amazes me, rewatching the final episode, is how prosaic it is. At least, the parts set on the Island — the final episode seems to rely on the "flash sideways" scenes to add emotion and wonder to the story, but I skipped those parts, since they didn't actually "happen."
...
I'm not saying it had to get cheesy, or overtly psychedelic, but a bit more poetry and weirdness in the last episode would have made it feel more like an epic conclusion.
What's more weird than a sideways world that's real but not real where people have to wake up to meet each other and go into the Light - I mean really, it's like saying 4 toed statues aren't weird enough, it should have been six toes.
Also, there was plenty of poetry, but maybe not enough and not blatant enough.
If you watch the parallels between Jack's sideways and on island you'll see things like - Jack is looking for his father's Will RIGHT at the time on island Jack is looking for Jacob's Lighthouse to go figure out what Jacob wants from him.
Off island Ben teaches about Napolean on an island losing all his power and is referred to as Napolean (by his daughter) right when on the island Ben has lost all his power. And then Ben is forgiven by Ilana "Jacob was the closest thing I ever had to a father" and was told that he was the closest thing Alex ever had to a father - the one person he wants forgiveness from most. NO POETRY??
There are more like that - like with Locke and Jack... but you get my point hopefully.
J.J. Abrams apparently feels like he hasn't gotten to hear people's ideas for how the show should have ended. So we should help him out. What are yours?
It's been a while since I watched The End and I can't help feeling I should go back and rewatch before I try to do a good job here, because I did have some ideas... but I'll do a bit and maybe come back later.
First, I'm assuming we can't have more time and this question isn't referring to all of Season 6 - because if it were, I would have done a lot differently with Sun, Jin and Sayid. I also would have made Flocke darker and kept more of the end of Sundown feel to him.
So, the End... Richard and Lepidus needed to have a cameo at least.
I'll have to come back. I know I have a few ideas.
