Lost Redux

Ok, so I lied, more Lost thoughts:

The biggest questions remaining focus on the sideways resolution.  The obvious focal point is going to be: who gets to attend the going away party?  Shannon but not Nadia; Penny?  Baby Aaron but not baby Ji Yoon? While the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind, I think my take, and that of other folks, is that this was the Island community.  Sun and Jin's baby was never on the Island and was not known to the Island community whereas Aaron, as a baby, was a focal point for much of the show, even the last season as Claire's obsession.  Nadia was never known to the rest of the community--only to Sayid, and that is what distinguishes her from Shannon.  If it was just about soulmates, then Sayid and Nadia would be together but not with anyone else, and Rose and Bernard would be together but not with anyone else.  But then there is Penny.  Why is she special?  Well, she is special because she was defined as such in "The Constant."  Plus she had a connection in her interactions with the Ocean Six, rescuing them.

If one makes the ending to be all about Jack, then this makes more sense.  I don't want to see the entire show was about Jack's journey because so many of the other characters had complete, intriguing, involving arcs.  They were all brought there for a reason--to entertain us.  Jack was central, but so were the rest of the "us" and a few of the others: Ben, to name one. 


Some folks believe that Jack was never alive for long on the Island, but I think they are mistaking a circular story resolution to him being dead the whole time.  This time is different if only because Vincent does hang around. 

I wonder if the ending bothered religious people more or less than non-religious people.  I was very much moved by it, and I am in the latter camp, even though I do see that this falsification of the sideways world does raise more than a few challenges for what "mattered."