The recent comments from Lost producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse on the end of The Sopranos stirred the otherwise fading Lost fan community into a frenzy of discussion this week; at the center of the discussion, just how will Lost end? The varied viewpoint of fans on the topic is a testament to Lindelof’s stark pragmatism that you cannot please everyone.
Some alarmist Lost fans were taken in by Lindelof’s approval of The Sopranos‘ cut to black, make-your-own-ending approach. The thought of Lost ending on a quick cut to black incited riots on fan boards around the world. Of course, Lost having never done anything typical, it is quite unlikely they would borrow The Sopranos‘ enigmatic cut.
In fact, in the search for an answer to the question of “how will lost end?” fans had a tendency to either create a laundry list of popular motifs like the Hitchcock ending, the “Rosebud” ending (Citizen Kane), and The Twilight Zone ending, amongst others, or surrender to the most realistic option that Lost will end in a way that is distinctly Lost.
With the recent admission that Desmond did indeed travel through time galvanaizing fans of the science fiction persuasion, one might expect an epic island-sinking close to the show. On the other hand, Lost has always been about its character’s complexly interwoven pasts, a fact that shows us less about why they are connected, but more of a sub-textual treatise on what they have in common – a need for redemption.
It may be impossible to predict, at this point, how Lost will end, but the known facts are that it will end definitively, with no hope of spinoff or sequel, and will end with closure to its own story. Of course, the best thing about the ending is that it is still a long ways away. Forty-eight hours away to be precise. Now, if we could just do something about the wait in between.
-Jon Lachonis, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image © 2007 ABC)
(Additional source The New York Times)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
