A series that, for many fans, redefined episodic television, Lost made waves during its time on the air. The series ran from 2004 through 2010, over the course of six epic seasons. Many critics and fans praised Lost as one of the greatest TV shows of all time. But the series finale caused considerable controversy.
Many viewers weren’t happy with the way various storylines wrapped up. Others claimed that the extreme supernatural element woven into the final season made sense in the context of the overarching story. Interestingly enough, the Lost creators had a different vision for the finale — including an incredible scene with a massive volcano.
Why was the ‘Lost’ series finale so divisive?
Lost depicted a group of plane crash survivors stuck on a mysterious island somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean. Utilizing flashback sequences as well as lots of action and drama, Lost was a new kind of television viewing experience. It required fans to embrace their speculative sides and dive into the strange and supernatural.
Still, the series finale seemed to go even heavier into uncharted territory. In the final season of the show, there were two separate timelines — one in which the survivors are sent to the present day, and one in which the main characters live in a version of reality where the plane never crashed at all.
As reported by Looper, this alternate timeline, known in the fandom as the “flash forward” timeline, is shown in the series finale to be a form of purgatory in the afterlife where survivors from the island are reunited after death. However, the presence of other characters not involved in the crash confused many viewers, who claimed that the finale quite simply didn’t make sense. To this day, fans debate over the ending of Lost, with many fan theories thrown around in online circles.
What was the original plan for the ‘Lost’ finale?
Originally, series co-creators Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof had a very different plan for the Lost finale. In a 2017 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Cuse and Lindelof shared their original idea for the finale involved Jack and Smokey fighting over the fate of the island. “The volcano had been dormant for the duration of the series,” Lindelof said. “but based on moving into this endgame, the island had become unstable and the volcano was going to erupt.”
Lindelof continued. “We were going to have lots of seismic activity, and ultimately, there was going to be this big fight between the forces of good and the forces of evil, which ended up in the series manifesting as Jack and The Man in Black, in the midst of magma,” he shared. “Magma spewing everywhere!”
‘Lost’ won multiple awards and received critical acclaim
In the end, it would have simply been too expensive and time-consuming to film the finale that they wanted. “ABC was like, ‘Guys, we love you, and we’re letting you end the show; we can’t let you bankrupt the network in the process,’” Lindelof mused.
While the Lost finale turned out to be incredibly divisive amongst fans of the series, there was no denying that critics loved the show overall. According to IMDb, Lost won multiple awards, including the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 2005. These days, it is widely considered to be one of the greatest TV shows of all time.
