Thursday, Dec. 09, 2010

Lost, "The End"

I know some fans would put this polarizing finale on their list of worst episodes of 2010. And the final reveal (spoiler alert) that Season 6's flash-sideways scenes depicted a kind of purgatory made that part of the season, in retrospect, an extended (if artful) red herring. But as 2½ hours of TV, Lost's final episode was moving, epic (majestically shot by Jack Bender) and true to the series' themes of community. The closing moments were a lyrical coda, tracking, shot by shot in reverse, the start of the pilot as Jack lay down to die after his sacrifice. And that afterlife? To this viewer, not a religious statement so much as a reaffirmation of Lost's communalism, as the characters ended not in heaven but literally in "a place [they] all made together." (ABC)