"The End" of "Lost"

So now we know the complete story and plan that Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse had for one of the greatest shows on television. An ending that has everyone talking. I was pleased to see that the series concluded with a final struggle of good triumphing over evil. (And, yes, the MIB was evil. How could any good person threaten Bernard and Rose?) Jack sacrificed himself for the sake of the island, and for all the people who still remained there.

There were so many great moments in the final hours. Jack turning over the island caretaker role to Hurley. Sawyer and Juliet remembering each other by some vending machines. Claire deciding she didn't want to be crazy anymore and choosing to go with Kate and Sawyer on the plane. Kate and Charlie helping Claire to deliver Aaron... again. Locke forgiving Ben for murdering him. Vincent coming to Jack in the bamboo reeds, just as he did in the first moments of the "Pilot" episode.

I like Denny Burks' statements about the show here.

As I’ve said before, the Lost story was not your run-of-the-mill postmodern critique of metanarratives. Good and evil were in a pitched battle, and the good won in the end. Viewers saw in this story what they already perceive to be true about their own story. The world that they live in is broken, something has gone wrong, there is evil afoot, and something needs to be done about it. Everyone living in this broken-down world is broken-down themselves and in desperate need of redemption.

I think it’s easy to see why viewers have been attracted to Lost’s mythology. They feel a yearning that what was true in Lost’s story might be true in their own. They hope to find that what they did here did have meaning and a purpose and that good will win-out in the end. The Christian gospel teaches that this universal human yearning does have an answer. It teaches that good does in fact win-out in the end, that there is a purpose to it all, and that redemption is possible—even for the vilest characters in this drama (1 Timothy 1:15). There was really a man who was pierced for our transgressions to make a new world and new life possible (John 19:34; cf. Isaiah 53:5; Zechariah 12:10). Only this man didn’t live in a mythological TV-world. He lived here, was one of us, and has gone on to prepare a place for those who know Him by faith (John 1:14; 14:2-3).

“Lost” highlighted the itch that only the gospel can scratch. This was the unwitting genius of the show, and it is why people will be talking about it for years to come.