(This will completely spoil the final episode of Lost. If you haven't watched it yet, turn back now.)

It's Over

Lost is over.

For six years, we've watched the increasingly fantastic/ridiculous adventures of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815. We've watched them search for water, hunt boar and learn to trust each other. We've also watched them face down a raging monster made out of smoke, discover a network of hatches built by the mysterious Dharma Initiative and find themselves in the middle of a centuries-long showdown between two immortal entities.

It's been a ride. However, was it a ride worth taking? Lost has always been a frustrating show, opening every possible door to parody by continually introducing new mysteries without solving old ones and ensuring that characters never ask the right questions and get the proper answers.

And that takes us to the final episode, accurately titled "The End." The Man in Black, having taken on the guise of the long-dead John Locke, plans to use Desmond's bizarre resistance to electromagnetism to destroy the island. Jack has taken over on the role of island protector after a campfire conversation with Jacob's ghost. And, as usual, no one knows anything.

The finale did not deliver answers. It did deliver a rousing final showdown, a number of quotable lines, a handful of new mysteries, the worst CGI plane in the history of CGI planes and the revelation that the alternate timeline we've been watching all season has been, in fact, the afterlife, where all of our characters have been struggling to connect after their deaths. But it did not deliver answers.

"It was a cop-out," my mother groaned. In fact, my entire family, all recent inductees into the Lost fan club after catching up on the show on DVD in the past year, were profoundly and bitterly disappointed with "The End." I was a little more mixed in my feelings. Like with the similarly challenging Battlestar Galactica finale, I needed to process what I had seen. I wasn't sure if this was a good episode of Lost or a bad episode of Lost. I wasn't sure if I had just seen something remarkable or something that will go down in history as one of the biggest middle fingers ever given to a loyal fanbase.

Now that I've slept on it, I think I've managed to wrap my brain around the final hours of Lost. My conclusion is full of contradictions, but can be summed up pretty succinctly: this was the best bad series finale of time.

Wait. Wait. What?

Best bad series finale of all time? That doesn't make any sense!

Hey, it wouldn't be in the spirit of Lost if everything I said made sense, but let's break this down.

Lost has always been two shows. It's been a show about characters, their pasts and their interactions with one another, a story about human beings. It's also been a show filled with weird science, fantasy, and monsters, a story about conspiracies and mysteries. This contrast has always been part of the show's appeal. We get a bunch of interesting, likable people and put them in the middle of countless bizarre and wild situations.

The finale succeeds in tidying up the character side of Lost. Every character gets their moment in the spotlight and everyone's personal story reaches a satisfying conclusion. Even the instantly controversial reveal that the alt-timeline is purgatory and the "flash-sideways" all season have been the long-dead characters struggling to atone for their past mistakes works for me, even if the all-smiling, all-hugging, every-faith-is-real-because-we-don't-want-to-offend-anyone conclusion lends itself to some serious schmaultz. You know what? Screw it. I've spent countless hours with these characters, watched as cowards became heroic leaders and men of science became men of faith. These guys have had so much unfortunate sh*t piled on them over the years that I'm perfectly fine letting them have a happy ending.

What else works? Jack's final battle with Locke in the rainstorm. The equally hilarious and tense plane repair sequence with Lapidus, Richard and Miles. Hurley and Ben choosing to stay behind and protect the island (and yes, I would most definitely watch the amazing island adventures of immortal Hurley and Ben if ABC decides to take things further). Locke standing up and flinging his wheelchair aside. Ben deciding to remain in purgatory to further atone for his many, many sins. Jack's final sacrifice, collapsing in the bamboo field, watching his friends fly to safety, smiling as Vincent lies next to him, his eye closing in a close-up, paralleling the opening images of the show...

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tearing up a little thinking about the things that work, because when they click, they click. A a singular episode, "The End" is an extremely entertaining piece of television. It hits the right emotional notes and puts the characters in an appropriate final place.

But the show ultimately never answers a damn thing.

Unanswered Questions

Sure, we could argue that Lost is more about the characters and less about the mythology. Or we could accept the fact that everyone involved wrote themselves into a corner and had no idea how to resolve the abundance of mysteries that seemed so cool at the time. For starters...

What is the island? What is the heart of the island? What does the heart of the island do? How did the heart of the island create the smoke monster? What is the smoke monster? Where did the smoke monster come from? Why is it a bad thing fro the smoke monster to leave the island? Who were the shooters in the other boat during the season five time-jumping? Who built the massive statue that would later be Jacob's foot house? Why was it an Egyptian god? Who actually installed the frozen donkey wheel? What was the point of Allison Janney, again? What was the sickness? Where does the sickness come from? Did Rosseau's men have the same sickness that Sayid had? Was Clancy Brown hiding in the hatch because he was afraid of this sickness? If so, why would he go out with a torn radiation suit? What was keeping women from giving birth on the island? Was it fallout from Jughead? If it was, why can animals give birth, too? How did Eloise Hawking know so much about Desmond's time hopping abilities? Does she have similar skills? How and why does she know what she knows? Why was Walt special? What happened to Walt?

And did that bird say Hurley's name?

What Matters?

Here's the big question: are these characters more important than the mysteries? I would like to say yes, mainly because that would make me sound sophisticated. However, the writers simply dropped the ball with the Lost mythology this season. I've already written about the turgid affair that is Beyond the Sea, which, in retrospect, is even worse because the finale doesn't address the key issues raised there (mainly, what is the smoke monster, why was it in the cave and is it actually Jacob's brother or another entity that stole his body?). Fans of the mystery side of Lost have every right to be furious with the show.

It doesn't help that the writers have stated on numerous occasions that they have a grand plan and that everything that happens is important. Fans like myself followed the details obsessively, trying to tie everything together, to uncover what exactly was happening on the island. To see hard science replaced with vague mysticism and shades of gray replaced with a simplistic battle between good and evil is disappointing at best and insulting at worst.

I've concocted enough fan fiction in my head to force satisfying conclusions on the show, but that's not the way a show should operate. A show should strive to tie up loose ends, to tell a tight story and to bring everything to a satisfying conclusion. As a single episode, I like "The End" just fine. As a conclusion to the entire series, the whole thing is a giant clusterf*ck.

The End

As frustrating as Lost can be, as infuriating as this "cop-out" ending kinda' is, I don't feel underwhelmed. I don't feel ripped off. I don't feel like my time has been wasted. For all of its flaws, Lost was consistently unique and refreshing, unlike anything else on television. What would you rather watch? An ambitious show that doesn't quite come together or a show that operates consistently but offers no challenges and deeper thoughts? Lost feels like a big experiment. A big experiment that doesn't quite work in the end, but was worth observing nonetheless.

I'm going to miss Jack and his constant "I'm about to cry" expression. I'm going to miss the fun-loving Hurley. I'm going to miss Sawyer and Sayid, whose moral complications always made for compelling television. I'm going to miss the scheming, manipulative Ben, one of the great TV characters of all time. I'm going to miss John Locke, who won't let you tell him what he can't do. I'm going to miss Kate...no, wait, I'm not.

Most of all, I'm going to miss the conversations. Sitting up late with friends, talking about what's going to happen on the next episode of Lost, spit-balling wacky theories that are actually more interesting than what the show ultimately delivers. Lost was something that everyone I knew could embrace. A show with something for everyone.

The good news is that this potentially infuriating ending means that the conversations aren't over. Like Battlestar Galactica and The Sopranos, people are going to be talking about this for years to come. Lost will always be in the pop culture conversation. The show may be over, but it's here to stay.