It’s four days later, and I’m still mulling over the LOST finale.  Sure, it was a mostly cheeseball montage of memories from the past five years with some Baha’i cosmology.  And, yes, it failed to answer a lot of questions.  But it does provide meaning that grounds the series into a story of heroism and redemption.

From polar bears to hatches to full island flashbacks, LOST was known for it’s constant mind-benders.  But it was the dedication to telling the stories of the characters that made the unique.  Looking back, we see that each character was broken and alone.  The Island gave them the power to become a hero or a monster.  In the end, many of them died a much more heroic death than they could have lived had they not crashed.

I spent most of the final season upset.  The idea of an alternate universe invalidated the redemptive choices made on the island.  But even there our heroes were far from perfect.  Kate was still a criminal, Claire still a single mom, Jack still incapable of relationships, and Locke still stuck in a wheel chair.  The Shyamalan-ic final twist showed that every sacrifice had a purpose.  Evil was defeated, and the Island survived. Even if they had never crashed, they would have still lived disastrous lives.

In the end, LOST is a series about people who are redeemed by having a purpose and adventure in their lives.  If we want to have meaningful lives, and become the person we know deep down inside that we can be, we must seek an evil to conquer and an Island to save.

For those of you who are itching for more, I suggest the brilliant inspiration for LOST, a classic 60s drama called The Prisoner, which you can view online for free.

Be seeing you.