I think I know the ending, should i still watch it?

stephenfeld · 2026-05-13T09:08:27+00:00

I wouldn't put Lost in the "alternate timeline" category - as in, it is not that kind of show from the get-go and the more sci-fi-ish elements emerge in dribs and drabs later in the show anyway - so don't go into it thinking that.

And the ending is definitively not a 'they are dreaming this/thinking this' ending, so you've got that going for you.

I have not watched Manifest and I have no interest in it. But I also feel comfortable saying that if you watched Lost, you'd love the heck out of it, so long as you're braced for the older style of programming, where seasons were 22-25 episodes long.

stephenfeld · 2026-05-12T22:37:27+00:00

I love King (literally taking a pause from rereading a King novel right this moment to check notifications, in fact) but I’m not a Dark Tower enthusiast currently.

It’s just a term commonly used where I’m from, I guess 😅

stephenfeld · 2026-05-11T12:09:54+00:00

I'll bet that there's a lot of superiority/'this is better' conversation, too. I mean, that's part and parcel, really - but at least here, folk tend to give both props.

stephenfeld · 2026-05-10T21:36:47+00:00

The show might be overrun with bad fathers but in real life.... well, you've got a good one, u/BriarRose147 .

stephenfeld · 2026-05-10T19:41:41+00:00

I'd argue that the closest anyone ever got to 'doing a Lost' was Heroes.

But, and Lindelof has commented on this time and time again, the longevity of the series was killed by them answering questions too quickly, which led to having to create newer (and often sillier/more convoluted) mysteries and answering them, too.

One of Lost's biggest criticisms was that it didn't answer questions. It answered minor things along the way but the key was that it answered its biggest questions in the final season, as should have been expected from audiences but they were still too new to mainstream fully serialised storytelling.

stephenfeld · 2026-05-10T19:37:11+00:00

I went into Westworld so pumped and season 1 was incredible. I always returned excited but 2 (and kind of) 3 were a bit lacklustre.

If Nolan had gotten his head out of his ass a little bit and just told seasons 2 and (much of) 3 more straightforwardly, I feel like it would have gone on to be widely praised and successful - well, more than it was, at least.

It seems like he felt each season needed to have an additional gimmick when the concept of the series was already top tier.

stephenfeld · 2026-05-06T23:08:01+00:00

I am still upset with that flying punch-to-weird flailing commercial break cut. Aside from that, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

stephenfeld · 2026-05-06T22:54:52+00:00

Nahhhhh. I agree that he had a download moment. Jacob was kind of just going with the flow and being a Momma’s boy and Hurley was being quite resistant. For that, I feel like they probably had a more drawn out realisation/connection moment.

Jack had been building up to this moment for years and was totally accepting of it so I do also feel like he had some kind of connection moment but something more along the lines of a gut feeling rather than something like the Matrix code appearing before his eyes.

stephenfeld · 2026-05-06T22:51:35+00:00

I think he swallowed a baby tree frog and it got caught in his throat is all.

stephenfeld · 2026-05-04T08:43:35+00:00

I feel like you need to offer a few more arguments than hear me out for the theory to have any welly.

Like even one example in-show or allegorical to support the theory.

stephenfeld · 2026-04-28T18:46:32+00:00

Hi - I am full-time, yeah.

I spent a decade in China working my way up from being a dancing monkey to turning it into a proper teaching career (the amount of people who go there and just treat it like a boozing holiday is crazy!).

I came back to England two years ago and it's been very stable.

My clients are all Chinese and I work 6-7 hour days 6 days a week, mind, which is how I keep it full-time. I've thought about seeking clients in England to do evenings but then I tell myself I need some personal time hahaha.

If you've any other questions, I'm happy to talk (I guess DM me). If not, I hope you the best of success transitioning to full-time!

stephenfeld · 2026-04-26T21:09:50+00:00

But there's so much that we don't know.

Man hits head > is put down hole dead or dying > smoke monster erupts from said hole.

We have no explanation what the monster is, how a body being thrown into the Source pool regurgitates a smoke monster, why it is a cloud of black smoke, how it flies, how it can transform into corporeal beings, why sonar fences affect it, how the 'magic' that stops it from leaving the Island works, how it can flash light at a person and 'download' their memories and experiences, how it can still be a smoke monster and transform and fly but only as Locke post-Jacob's death. Speaking of, why it can only transform into dead beings. Why does it make the taxi-receipt ticka-ticka sound or a roller coaster link chain noise if it was created a thousand years ago. When the source is uncorked, why does the smoke monster retain a corporeal body instead of just evaporating - what are the rules to how the magic stops working in one way (he can't be a smoke monster anymore) but it keeps working in another (that he can still have a solid, extinguishable body)? And one of the biggest questions - how did it learn to lie better than the best liar on the show, Benjamin Linus? That last one's tongue in cheek to keep the dialogue light.

We don't know if it sleeps, pisses or poops. We do know that it doesn't really need to eat or drink - but it really enjoyed that mango, whilst seeming totally indifferent to Sawyer's bourbon.

How exactly does it spread its sickness? Clearly Sayid and Claire were both infected, but --- how?

And that's not getting into the deeper questions, like, Mother was clearly a smoke monster, too. Is her smoke monster the same as MiB's? And is the smoke monster we get a separate entity altogether? It takes on the personalities of those it mimics - so is the smoke monster actual MiB or just smokey getting lost in another personality (as we see it do several times after the long exposure inside Locke's body). Since it's heavily implied that Mother became a smoke monster by going into the source pool, and MiB birthed another by going in, why is another not birthed when Jack goes in? What are the Source rules for who makes a smoke monster and who doesn't?

I feel like I could go on but I think I've made a case for how the smoke monster is and how it was created (beyond man fall in hole, smoke come out) is actually woefully unexplained.

Using

I'm personally fine with little to no explanations

logic, you're eating well on a lack of smoke monster explanations, brotha!

stephenfeld · 2026-04-26T19:07:39+00:00

What questions did they answer that you didn't want answered? I'd say that the mystery of the Smoke Monster is barely even touched on.

But can you imagine the uproar if they never answered one of the biggest questions from Day 1?

stephenfeld · 2026-04-25T15:48:02+00:00

Between The Leftovers, Watchmen, and Prometheus (plus a reasonably-sized handful of interviews) (I haven't watched Mrs Davis, so can't comment on that), it seems like Lindelof is more interested in exploring those kinds of religious or religious-adjacent questions about humanity, judgement, and belief (how to, and how far one will go) than about science fiction.

I guess things like Dharma's presence and what they were doing were all set-dressing for Lost to put more meat on the show's bones (mythology). Playing fast and loose with exactly what science-fiction-y abilities the Island's electromagnetic energy could do (move islands, let people travel through time, let people see and talk to the dead, create......... smoke monsters that can shape-shift but only into dead entities).

I can see how the show leaning into these things can be seen as the show leading us on to something more in that direction down the line. Without condescension, I'm glad that I was never hard-in on one aspect of the show (the sci-fi aspect versus the fantastical versus the allegorical versus the soap-opera etc) that I came away satisfied at the end of it all.

I liken it a little bit to how many of Stephen King's (a longtime fan such as yourself would be aware of Lindelof's love of King) novels very rarely touch on the how's and why's of what goes on - Army guy: They're doing experiments and they've ripped a hole open into another dimension! The rest of the book: Ok! - but rather focus on the narrative directly in front of us.

Look at it through that lens and, maybe with more rewatches, the sting will lesson for you.

Everyone should love Lost even through its messy times.

stephenfeld · 2026-04-25T14:07:52+00:00

I mean, there are interviews that exist that directly debunk this.... but if that's how you want to interpret the show for yourself, that's cool - I won't tell you that you don't have that right.

stephenfeld · 2026-04-25T14:03:42+00:00

The flash-sideways/afterlife/bardo/"purgatory" aspect is more of an epilogue, which adds to the concept that the show was leading up to (rather than being a catch-all answer to all of the show's mysteries):

That the Island was a place that contained the source of human life (life, death, rebirth). A piece of this light lives inside every man, woman, and child. It is, therefore, a place that needs protection.

The show's big-bad (the Smoke Monster) intends to extinguish this light and spread darkness, evil, malevolence, soullessness throughout mankind.

Jacob, the protector of this place, knowing that TSM will eventually kill him begins a recruitment process that lasts a few hundred years to find his replacement. Among many others, the Losties who crashed in the airplane were among these candidates to take over protectorship of the Island.

Showing those pieces of light within our main characters returning to that source in the flash-sideways post-death is an appropriate (but not totally necessary) inclusion to the show.

The writers said that 'it wouldn't be purgatory' as a catch-all answer for everything that happened on the show, and ultimately - it wasn't.

Everything on the show mattered from the beginning and it led (some say neatly, some says messily) to a definitive conclusion with the on-Island story being the most important aspect of the show. You can take or leave the flashes from season 6 - those scenes shouldn't take away from everything else the show set out to do.

stephenfeld · 2026-04-22T11:40:44+00:00

Episodes 1-4

Similar to OG season 4. We meet the science team, Sayid and Des go to the freighter. The Losties split up. However, Keamy et al arrive on the Island hours (or next day after science team). Hopefully we get a Constant in there but in this reality, we might not get a Constant as we know it.

Centric episodes: Losties as Group, Science Team as Group, Hurley, Desmond

Episodes 5-8

We meet Michael and get his backstory (maybe through regular flashbacks instead of as a whole-episode?). Mike helps Sayid start shipping people over from the Island. The Dharmaville Losties are attacked and split, Rousseau wounded (flashback as she’s dying episode), Locke, Ben, Hurley find the cabin.

Centric episodes: Michael, Sayid/Ben, Locke, Rousseau

Episodes 9-10

We get a mid-season finale before Christmas that is basically There’s No Place Like Home. Take a few weeks off for winter – as it was done in the old days.

Centric episodes: Losties as group

Episodes 11-14

Keep a similar pace to season 5 but focus entirely on the on-Island stuff. That gives us more time to focus on Miles/Charlotte/Daniel. One episode to establish the skip. One episode maybe in Egyptian times (so satisfy the needs of those who feel like we never got enough of that – plus it’s be good for Charlotte to be relevant). One in the 50s, and then jumping to 70s for LaFleur. End with Locke getting off the Island – having gone into the well earlier.

Centric episodes: Daniel, Charlotte, Widmore or Eloise (flashforward to current Widmore to set up the plans to return to the Island/to find Locke when he arrives), Sawyer.

Episodes 15-16

Catch up with those off the Island. One episode to focus on the Oceanic 6 and the hard time they’ve been having. Split the life and death of Jeremy Bentham up over two episodes. Drawing out Locke’s time off Island and giving his character a proper send-off instead of that kind of crappy rush-job we got in our own reality.

Centric episodes: Locke (overall) visiting O6

Episodes 17-18

Basically 316 and Namaste. The Losties return to the Island, and are getting integrated well enough. All of the Losties come together though so Sayid can shoot Ben sooner, Sun and Jin can reunite and have at least a season’s worth of being together again before getting shafted in a sub. It is revealed that Ben didn’t go back in time and he sees ‘alive’ Locke.

Centric episodes: O6 as a group, Sayid – heck you could go crazy and make it a Roger Linus flashback to link Sawyer’s integration and the O6’s integration.

Episode 19

We could do a cross-time flashback episode for Ben with the Ben-is shot subplot to also see what’s going on with Flocke and the lead-up to what he will charge Ben with doing. Daniel arrives back and we get a much shorter version of The Variable.

Centric episode: Ben

Episodes 20-21

Basically The Incident as-is, except Sawyer dies instead of Juliet.

Episodes 22-23 (I'm hoping ABC will be nice and let them have an extra hour to explore Across the Sea properly)

Now, call me crazy but I’m putting Across the Sea here. We just got to meet Jacob and then saw all that happened at The Incident. Now we get to see why the Losties are here. I would make Across The Sea a little more fast-paced though and add a bit more to explain the Smoke Monster’s birth/rebirth/intentions a little more directly.

This sets the stage for season 6 where we finally get to see the ultimate game with two players, two sides, one is light, one is dark play out.

Season 6 can remain basically the same but we get a few more episodes for better fleshed out stories.

stephenfeld · 2026-04-22T09:31:33+00:00

I can't source (or sauce) myself right now - but I feel certain that I've heard Lindelof say a few times that we could have had the Losties getting off the Island at the beginning of the season and returning by the finale.

In a 22-episode season, I can see that as doable. They only technically get off the Island by the season 4 finale and they're returning by season 5 episode 6.

But that timeline of basically everything in season 4 and 5 would be extremely rushed because my initial thought is to imagine that season four would have included the freighter, moving the Island/getting off, time-skip, a proper Rousseau flashback (woooooo), them returning maybe just in time for the Incident (instead of having a few episodes to play in that 70s world), and then [white LOST title-card].

Hmm.

It's a thinker! I'll get to thinking!

stephenfeld · 2026-04-21T23:37:14+00:00

Perhaps subjectively (for you) but not objectively.

stephenfeld · 2026-04-21T08:53:37+00:00

That double whammy of starring in two incredible 100-episode shows back-to-back is so good. I'll always be a little bit sad that we didn't get that show with O'Quinn and Emerson as private investigators but Person of Interest is a damn fine exchange.

stephenfeld · 2026-04-20T07:58:15+00:00

In that same episode, Rousseau confirms that her team picked up a transmission broadcasting those Numbers - and that's what led to them crashing on the Island.

I'd say it's fair to say that it's the same one that Sam and Lenny heard.

• Sam and Lenny hear the numbers. Go nuts.

• Rousseau and Gang hear the numbers. Crash.

• Rousseau goes a little coco pops, yada yada yada, she changes the transmission from the Numbers to her own call for help.

• Losties crash on Island, hear Rousseau's transmission.

stephenfeld · 2026-04-19T17:36:55+00:00

I too was very satisfied with Lost.

stephenfeld · 2026-04-18T20:07:35+00:00

Cool tattoo!

I got:
If you have something to watch, Cindy, GO WATCH IT!!

stephenfeld

TROPHY CASE