Usually, I’d go back over previous episodes, toss in a crazy theory, maybe a little character exposition, but this week I’m not feeling that, I instead want to prepare you all for the final week in a different way, but first let’s at least set the stage.
Hurley, Jack, Sawyer and Kate are on the beach (which beach, Hydra or Island?), these four started season 3 in captivity to the Others, they are all candidates in some way, even if Kate is 51, and not one of the REAL numbers. UnLocke and Claire are leaving the submarine dock, UnLocke is ready to finish the work he’s started. Desmond is at the bottom of the well. Ben, Miles and Richard are off someplace in the woods, and Widmore et al is hiding inside his sonic fence. That will cue the final 3.5 hours. Now, moving on.
How to sum up 6 years of AWESOME and prepare for this final week. Here are some suggestions.I think we’re already working through the seven stages of grief. Two weeks ago as we watched Sayid, possible Frank, and definitely Sun and Jin die on a watership downer, we began the shock & denial phase, we went through a bit of pain and guilt. Shock and denial that the deaths we’d just witnessed didn’t matter, “they’re still alive in sideways, it’s okay, Ji-Yeon has practically grown up with her grammy, she’ll be fine. Sayid was already dead, he’s at least got to prove he has some good inside in his sacrifice.” *wipes tear* Pain and guilt followed quickly as we watched the four candidates sob on the beach, the Hurley breakdown, the epic Jears. A bit guilty that our survivors cheated death and we’re still alive, and had a slightly miffed smoke monster on the way to finish the job.
Last week, we got into anger and bargaining. A whole lot of discussion has blown through the bandwidth of the LOST blogs as people digested Across The Sea and either loved it, thought it was meh-ville or hated it with firey passion. Bargaining set in as people started trying to plot out what their real answers should be, that this was a missed opportunity, that there had to be a different path, please, let us back up a week and give LOST a do-over.
I think this final week, it’s like we’re setting up for the depression, reflection and loneliness phase, already beginning to feel the loss of our good, but a little wacky and crazy, friend. That steadfast companion that made the fall and winter a little brighter, inspired our summers, and lit our imaginations with it’s madcap craziness. We’re depressed that there even has to be a finale week, feeling kind of betrayed that we’re not getting a full week to grieve, but instead squeezing the final two episodes inside of 5 days. It’s not fair, and we start to reflect, rewatching the Pilot on Saturday will help with that, along with some nostalgia as we think about our favorite episodes and moments and characters. Then we’ll feel loneliness, feeling the vacuum of no LOST at ComicCon, no time-slot to anticipate and adjust our social calendar around. We’ll feel a little empty.
Allow yourselves to move through those phases, they’re natural for people that have lived through 6 years of awesomeness on the Island from the crazy part of the universe.
Let’s take into the finale a little bit of the upward turn. We’ve got 3.5 hours of LOST television left. Our characters in their various universes will be back, we’ll get to see them again, get to celebrate their story arcs, and be invested in the final end game climax of LOST. Then as the final *FOOM* sounds, and we get the final fade, we can let loose and cry, and be emotional. We can work through some emotions while watching Kimmel celebrate its legacy. We can work through and reconstruct what the series has meant to us, the genius of Lindelof and Cuse, the value of our beloved cast, the new friendships that have blossomed in talking/chatting/podcasting about this show. That will work out through the week following the finale mind-melt.
Finally we’ll be able to approach the acceptance and hope that comes with the final phase of grief. We’ll be able to order our LOST box sets on DVD or Blu-Ray, we’ll start plans for re-watches, keep an eye out for fan conventions, follow the cast as they move to new shows, scan the television blogs and news for where the LOST creative team will move to next, realize that we can celebrate LOST for what it is, a wonderful television show. We’ll return to being people that love good quality intelligent entertainment, and foster the relationships we’ve gained in the previous six seasons of slightly (or extremely) obsessive show watching.
Whatever happens to us fans this final season of LOST, LOSTblog plans on sticking around and celebrating the legacy this show will leave.
Namaste.
