LOST - The Ending Explained : Why Did Everyone Hate the Series Finale?

Like pretty much everyone on the planet, Megabucks and Tycoon were obsessed with Lost when the TV show first came out. We loved the crazy realistic plane crash (and the crazy unrealistic plot that followed!). Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Jin, Sun, Hurley, Boone, Locke, Claire, Shannon, Charlie, Desmond, Michael and Walt, Rose and Bernard, Mr. Eko, Ana Lucia, we fell in love with them ALL!

But the ending? Meh. Not so much. And we weren't the only ones. A LOT of people didn't like the ending of LOST. Some people didn't understand how (and when) the show ended. Did everyone (including Ben, Juliet and the others) just die? Were the Losties in purgatory the whole time? And just how did the whole flash sideways thing fit into the original plot anyway?

Other people have explained the finale in great detail for those of you who still don't get what happened. But the question the AniMoguls want to answer is: why are the people who understand the ending of Lost still so mad? How come they don't like the ending? Why aren't they satisfied with the ending when the writers of Lost (Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof) are happy with the story the way it is?

We have a theory for you involving the origin story of the island, so check out the video if you want our take on things!

[chieefin]

My biggest unanswered question is why Hurley didn’t lose any weight the whole time

[jordanollestad]

The one girl sounds like she needs to clear her throat the whole time OMG i can't take it

[arinahalias]

just finished season 6 😭 im gonna miss this show so muchhh

[camerrill]

It was a masterpiece! Are you kidding? I cry through the finale every time we watch the whole thing again every year!

[danked]

How the fuck did sawer get into Australia with a criminal record

[bettystroh]

The man in black becomes the smoke monster because his body is sent directly into the source. He becomes pure consciousness and the light in him was re-absorbed by the source.
The source is life itself. Time doesn’t exist within it.
That’s why proximity to it heals Rose and Locke and Ben, and that’s why bathing in it brings Sayid back to his previous state of living.

[JurassicRod]

I'm a fan of sci fi and fantasy and didn't have a problem with a little of it sprinkled in but the series jumped the shark once they started time travelling. Even before that the show seemed to lose direction just lumping mystery upon mystery to the point it seemed silly and lazy. The magic elements also gave off the air of lazy writing too. You could tell by the third season the writers didn't really know what they were doing and were making it up as they went along which made it feel a waste of time paying attention to things before considered clues. If a mystery has no answer until one is made up then there is no point even trying to solve it.

[solen]

I agree 100%. I literally was just saying this, the journey is the meat and potatoes of this story. I personally didn't care much about the ending, the rest of the show was just that good. There hasn't been another show that has done this for me. Great TV show, definitely worth a watch, and re watch. I feel they did explain the island in a way though.. Saying the light was the good in all man, and if disrupted or put out, would be bad for everyone. That to me kind of satisfied my island explanation, I always considered the island as HOLY, a mix of good an evil. Progress, jacob said. He kept bringing people, but no matter how it ended progress was mad. To me, this meant that each group of people the trials they faced on the island "Good-no answers (faith) against the darkness (the monster, the things they could see -Darma). Anyway thanks for the video.

[DaniyanKeras]

Lost's success formula is its unanswered questions, period!

[eviljuan]

Loved LOST i agree. It was about the journey, not the destination

[mikestibor]

People always feel they need everything explained, and don’t realize how disappointed they’d be if it were. The island is magical. That’s it. If they explained everything, it would lose its magic. The show was never really about the island. The island was a means to have the characters find themselves. Like the creators have said, the show is called LOST not because the plane crashed on an island that no one can find, but because the people on it were LOST.

[henriqueaugustus]

Look, for me, that explanation in "Across the Sea", when we see the island on the past and we get to see the origins of Jacob and the Man in Black, we get a brief explanation that there's evil and basically that island is supposed to hold that evil from getting out to the outside world, just like the wine cork holds the liquid inside, like he shows. So I just learned that and was happy with it. The island is essentially holding all evil from coming out, but at the same time, there is a lot of good there to hold it together, creating a perfect place for weird phenomena. 

And the interactions of those magical events with our characters, make them discover truths about themselves, especially because the title of the show is LOST, not just because they are stranded on an island, but also because they are lost in their lives and it all works together to create a perfect mixture of chaos and great storytelling. AND I AM PERFECTLY SATISFIED WITH THIS UNDERSTANDING OF THE SERIES One of my favorite tv shows ever.

[ashleen]

i found the ending to be a letdown but i didn't hate it. it was a very purely spiritual ending, and i thought that it could be explained so many different ways, depending on one's belief system and way of viewing the world. a lot of buddhist philosophy/other philosophy was subtly worked into the show (locke's name being the biggest example), and the ending seemed like a payoff for that, rather than a payoff for the more physical aspects of the show.

more than anything, this reminds me of the revival season of twin peaks. i know a lot of people were hoping for answers to the more physical aspects of the show, but instead got an ending that only half explained this and focused more on the philosophical/spiritual parts of the show. i think the biggest difference is that twin peaks from the beginning was a very very oddball and philosophical show, so this wasn't that unexpected. set that against lost, which was marketed as a lot more action-y and physical, and i think you find the key to all the audience disappointment.

personally, i guess i kind of saw the ending as the characters reaching a sort of "nirvana" or "heaven" (however you want to think of it), and finally being reunited with each other because they had all reached peace in some way through their experiences on the island, and this tie to the island tied them to each other and brought them back together. the "magical" good v evil powers of the island, etc. all, factored into this somehow. a tolerable conclusion, but still very unsatisfying. that being said, the show is still TOTALLY worth watching because the characters are so incredible and you connect with them so much, and you want to know what happens to them.

thanks for reading my mini analysis :))

[HorrorLover]

I'm sorry, but honestly everything really was explained. Most things they outright told us, everything else they told us in pieces, if people can't figure that out, it does not mean "there are no answers" or "they made it up as they went along", it means you are not paying attention.

[Rockstar]

Just now completed 118 episodes of lost, gonna miss this show and all the characters of this great series..❤️

[DiscoveryNewsNow]

My unanswered questions are why would Kate not completely forget about Jack with Sawyer around. Oh and I have tons of questions about Elenore and Desmond that's it.

[hariscloset]

The writers was lost after season 3 that they put everything on the movie

[Flummelum]

Just rewatched Lost, and I don't understand what people disliked.

[deftgio]

Just finished watching Lost, it was amazing with it's story, characters. Ending was little bit unclear but I enjoyed the show. Favorite part for me is Season 2 as many things happen in this season and characters past is revealed.

[rendopatto]

The rocks move because of rain water freezing and wind blowing the rocks or something like that, it was solved not to long ago.