(S06E17/18) I was right! I was right! Well, I was probably more wrong than right, but I was right about one key thing, which makes me very happy. Happy not just because I'm right, but because what I'm right about is just so appropriate; so perfect for this series finale.

As finales go, 'The End' will definitely go down as one of the more satisfying ones; even though it didn't come close to answering all of our questions about the Island and its special properties. But creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse promised that we would be satisfied with the conclusions of the character arcs, and in that regard I think they're right.

At two-and-a-half hours, I'm still digesting everything they threw at me. I struggle at times to sort out a typical one hour episode, much less a feature film length one. But I'm glad the finale will linger with me in the weeks to come, because it is bittersweet saying goodbye to 'Lost.' There has been nothing like it on television, and there may never be again. That it succeeded at all is a miracle.

The question of when the beta-verse occurred has finally been answered, and while it was 2004, it wasn't at the same time. The beta-verse was an equivalent to the Purgatory many religions believe in. As I indicated, it was a place where everyone seemed to be doing better; they'd achieved their root desires and passions, but it was by no means perfection. As such, it could not be Heaven. If this is to be equated to that belief system, then it was appropriately Christian Shephard who opened the doors to Heaven, awaiting all of them who'd come together.

The characters we'd come to know and love needed one another, and that's what the Island gave them. They needed to find one another in the beta-verse as well, to emotionally resolve their experiences on the Island. For most of them, that trigger was love. For Benjamin Linus it was brutality and violence, which is why he did not go into the church (notably of many faiths). He did not feel he was yet ready to transcend, or move on, to the next plane.

It's still unclear exactly what the Island was, though I'm sure many have theories already. I'm sure I'll come up with one in the next day or so, but right now it's a little too fresh and muddled in my mind. That thing i was right about? That Hurley would ultimately take on the mantle of protector of the Island. Perhaps the Island is the spiritual center of our world. The "other Mother" from a couple of weeks ago was the sole guardian for a long time.

It was only happenstance that a set of twins came along to be the next generation, unless you believe it was by design. Only one could be the guardian, so what role could the other play. Perhaps there is only ever supposed to be one guardian, and when there is things are peaceful. Because the Man in Black existed, and became what he was by killing the "other Mother" and enraging Jacob, the Island became more tumultuous.

Hurley selecting Ben as his "#2" fulfilled Ben's lifelong passion of being special, but it was done in the real world. In Purgatory, he was a far kinder man than he'd been on the Island, but he didn't have Alex as his daughter; instead he had her as a student. As it turns out, he may well be on his way to a relationship with Danielle Rousseau, depending on how the properties of that world work.

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If the gang in the church go through the light, does that version of Purgatory still exist, and if it does, are they still a part of it for Ben, or will they have all mysteriously vanished? Time has no real sense there, so I'm sure everything can happen however it needs to.

I'm pretty satisfied with the beta-verse being a level of the afterlife, awaiting the opportunity to move on to something even more perfect. The only thing needed to do so, is the ability to forgive. Not only those around them, but most importantly themselves their shortcomings.

At the same time, there's a part of me that things making it all about explaining the beta-verse was a pretty clever way to get out of explaining most of the mysteries and secrets of the Island. I'd liken it to when a magician uses misdirection to keep the audiences eyes away from the sleight of hand.

I'm not saying I needed to know all of the secrets of the Island, but they certainly left a lot more open to interpretation than I expected. By the way, if Desmond pulling the plug on the light made Jack and MiB-Locke lose their immortality and powers, how was Jack able to transfer the role of guardian of the Island to Hurley? How could the water have still had any of those properties?

We are left to wonder if and how Ben and Hurley got Desmond off the Island, and what happened next to them, but those are questions I don't mind lingering. I'm not sure why the Island had to be sunk in the beta-verse, or how it would have come to be that way. It's also still a mystery how they traveled through time, what the light was (as well as its dryer, redder alternate), how you can move an Island, why it is so hard to find from the outside world and vice-versa, who the "other Mother" was, and why the light needs to be guarded. We also never learned why Walt was special.

But again, if it was about satisfying closure for the characters, we got that in spades. Even the characters we didn't see seemed appropriate. Ana Lucia wasn't ready yet, as Desmond said, because she's not ready to ascend. Michael, likewise, is probably not ready to atone for his sins. Perhaps we are to believe that Walt was not dead, even though time didn't really matter in the beta-verse. I'd like to think rather that he wasn't in need of this stage of the afterlife an went straight on to what was next.

I enjoyed every single connection moment that trigger memories of their real lives back on the Island, Kate again helped to deliver Aaron, while Charlie and Claire rediscovered their love. Sawyer found it over a candy bar with Juliet, while Sayid saved Shannon from a beating. Locke's coming when he wiggled his toe is perfect, as that was the defining moment of his personality on the Island. Jack, of course, resisted as long as he could, but eventually succumbed to the flashes of truth when touching the casket that did not contain the body of his father.

Visually, It was appropriate that Jack made his way back to the exact place he awoke on the Island, passing one of the tennis shoes his father was wearing in the casket, and even had Vincent by his side when we had our closing shot of his eye closing, rather than opening. While there are a lot of unanswered questions, we are supposedly promised additional scenes (about 20 minutes of them) on the DVD set that will answer yet more of them, as well as other answers given by the creators.

That ought to give them some extra time to come up with them.

STRAY THOUGHTS & QUESTIONS

--Juliet said "it worked" about the bomb, but it doesn't appear that it did. They all died at different times to go to the beta-verse, so what worked?

--So they introduced a brand new concept at the beginning of the sixth season, and that's what they explained in the finale. What about the first five seasons of questions?

--My theory on the people in the church was they were the people who were ready to move on. Some people weren't there, which means they either weren't ready or didn't need this step in their afterlife progression at all, like perhaps Walt and Faraday.

--Perhaps the other people around them in the beta-verse weren't even those people. It's more like Aaron was a construct of the beta-verse to serve a purpose, but the real Aaron's "soul" wasn't in that body as he, like Walt, maybe didn't need this time in Purgatory. The same would apply to most of the other peripheral characters.

--What? No Nikki and Paulo? Oh yeah, straight to Hell for those two.

--Why did they have to go back to the Island in the first place? Because Hurley and Jack were off the Island? Nobody else left was good enough? Sawyer was there, and he was a candidate.

--It was a new "Oceanic Six" that left the Island, including Frank Lapidus, who flew them out the first time. This time around it was him, Miles, Richard, Sawyer, Kate and Claire. Only Kate and Frank got to escape the Island twice.

[Relive all your favorite moments with clips and full episodes of 'Lost' over at SlashControl. Check out the full version below.]



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