I miss the debates too. Not so much the overdone debates about how the show finished (I’m at major fault for that), but about the mysteries within the show.

I suppose it all depends what you got out of the show to begin with. I obviously loved the “what’s around the next corner?” more than anything (I liked a lot about the show too). But never really truly cared for any of the characters too much. If I did, I’m sure the ending would’ve left a more gratifying taste in my mouth, because it WAS nice to see them all in the same room in the church.

@AES, your #2 comment didn’t show up until today for some reason(?)..like what you said “simply had faith in them long enough to repair themselves enter the next phase of their petty existance”

This is the closest I’ve come to “admitting” that the End (and S6 overall) was not fantastic bacause I’ve been so crazy responding to people’s gripes about unsolved mysteries. The flash-sideways purgatory really didn’t connect so much with anything else, other than, in my opinion, that the Island was the constant and the people were the variables. Liek Desmond said to Jack just before Jack and Smokey lowered him into the Source, “none of this matters, brotha”.

Inquisitor, Thats a good point about the time jumping not being as random as it might seem.
We already heard quotes such as ‘the island needs you’ and ‘the island won’t let you’.
We even saw that the island was powerful enough not to allow Micheal to die even off island, although that still baffles me.

I remember at some point Damon and Carlton talking about the island being a character in itself, could it be that the island somehow knew what moment to jump to, and where the losties needed to be at to do what they had to do? Sounds crazy but it often seemed like the island had a mind of its own.

I think (maybe!) when they negotiated the end date during S3, they knew where they needed to end up and the time-frame they had in which to do it. If there was any disconnect for me it was Season 5 as a whole. The time-travel thing was interesting; it opens up a world of possibilities for the story. However, a lot of the time-jumps/flashes seemed too “perfect”; like, the characters jumped to the exact time they needed to to be successful. What are the odds that Jack, Kate, Hugo, and Sayid end up in 1977 instead of 1851, 1530, 2341, or any other random year? And even more amazing is how they ended back up in 2007 finally. It seemed a little too “convenient”, and I think it was a needed step to get from where they were in S4 to where they needed to be in S6. Of course, maybe there was more meaning or “control” to the time-jumps and it wasn’t actually just random.

I dunno just thinkin.. who knows.

If they decided to make serious script changes at some point, I’d say it happened right after season 5. That last season seemed more disconnected than anything.

@ Chief; I do agree with you somewhat as well. I think the build-up of the show over the seasons gave us a certain expectation of a big finish and for everything to mean something in the ultimate conclusion of the story. I admit that I was, as character-based as I promote the show to be, driven by the mystery and the mythology. I kept theorizing, here as well as to myself out-loud in the car on the way to and from work, all the possible answers to Christian Shephard, the Egyptian influences, the FDW, Locke’s reincarnation, etc. I mean, to be fair, they did answer many of the larger questions by the end. The Smoke Monster was the biggest question since the Pilot. Granted, some of their explanations seemed less than grand when compared to the build-up in the questions themselves.

I think it is a love-hate thing, shephards_flocke, because I for one feel great about the show and about the ending. Perhaps it’s because I was so involved with the characters that I am understating the importance of the “missed-mysteries”.

For me, the 2.5 hour finale was worth it just to see John Locke remember his time on the island and cry in front of Jack. I was a John Locke fanatic since the Pilot and especially so from the time he uttered the phrase “We hunt!”. I was rooting for him throughout the seasons and was so sad when that a**hole Ben strangled him. I still kept waiting and hoping that maybe he was actually reincarnated and EVEN AFTER it was obvious that it was really the Smoke Monster, I kept believing in some way that Locke would reappear somehow. It never happened, because after all, dead is dead. But I was inspired along the way by John Locke, and maybe that’s making me grin one of those goofy-Locke smiles because I almost don’t even care about the rest.