September 17, 2024, 8:07 am | Read time: 6 minutes
You follow a series and its characters for many years – only to say goodbye to them in a “messed up” finale. Famous examples of this are “Game of Thrones,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “True Blood,” and “Supernatural.” For many, however, one series takes the cake: “Lost.”
The TV series Lost is considered one of the most successful and yet most controversial series of all time. The main reason for the latter is the ending. Many fans were not satisfied with the ending and felt that the explanation was too simplistic. Since then, Lost has also been regarded as a prime example of what happens when the creators let their own story slip away. Since the final episodes aired in 2010, showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have repeatedly commented on the outcome. They actually had a completely different ending in mind for Lost.
“Lost” is still a phenomenon today
In the series Lost, a group of survivors on a desert island after a plane crash quickly discover that all sorts of eerie things are happening around them. In other words, things even more sinister than a plane crash. The mystery series ran from 2004 to 2010 and ran for a total of 121 episodes.
Lost triggered a rare hype at the time and, looking back, revolutionized the TV series landscape for good. It was one of the first productions to dispense with the typical episodic storytelling à la “Case of the Week” and instead focus on a larger narrative. This narrative also includes several complex interwoven time strands. These show both flashbacks and flashforwards as well as alternative realities in addition to the present. Added to this is the general technical development in this area. This took place at an extremely favorable time for Lost.
Added to this is the plot, which is fascinating for long stretches, and the time the series takes for its characters. For many fans, their development is the heart of the series. Today, many say that Lost failed with its ending because expectations were far too high. It is now known that many other factors also played a role. The series creators emphasized one of them in an interview with “Entertainment Weekly”: money.
The end of “Lost” explained
However, the series finale that was actually broadcast is still misunderstood by many today. The reason for this is the parallel timelines that are opened up. Attention, spoilers!
The final season of Lost introduces the idea of parallel realities, which is only resolved in the last episode (“The End”). The characters on the island, above all Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly), and Sawyer (Josh Holloway), find themselves in “reality” and fight the many-faced evil there. But there is also the so-called “flash sideways.” These are a kind of shared purgatory in which the survivors process their unresolved inner conflicts and relationships before they can “move on.” This presents itself as an alternative reality in which the plane crash apparently did not take place.
A common misconception is that the supposed survivors were actually dead all along. In this argument, the island is just an illusion. This is based on the fact that the group meets again at the end in a kind of church. Here, they seemingly take the next step into the afterlife together. However, the makers of the show have already made it clear several times that this is a false interpretation.
The characters in the church are indeed dead, but they died at different times, not in the plane crash. Some are even said to have died long after the events on the island, which were, therefore, absolutely real and not an illusion.
According to the makers, the end of Lost should mark the end of these characters and their interpersonal relationships with each other. The individual development that the survivors in the “Sideways” universe go through in order to find peace at the end is crucial. The scene in the church can, therefore, be seen as a kind of epilogue. On the actual level, the island is also saved and can, therefore, continue its task of keeping evil away from the world.
The creators’ actual vision
However, it is also clear that the ending of Lost deliberately leaves a lot of room for interpretation. For example, lead actress Evangeline Lilly said in 2018 that the main aim of the series was actually to encourage viewers to think about important philosophical questions. This suggests that not all questions are meant to be clearly answered by the series itself.
Despite this explanation, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse revealed in the aforementioned interview with “EW” that they themselves had actually planned the end of Lost differently. Among other things, it was supposed to be even more symbolically charged and, above all, more action-packed. There is an inactive volcano on the island, which the two showrunners see as a separate character in the series.
This should erupt during the final battle with the “man in black.” This was intended to emphasize the island’s role as the eye of the needle between good and evil, which it actively fulfills as if it had a will of its own. In this version, the decisive final battle between Jack and the “man in black” would not have taken place on the edge of a cliff but in the middle of a bubbling magma field.
Sounds very spectacular – apparently a little too much so. The producing broadcaster ABC put a stop to this. The reason given was that the whole thing would be too expensive. This decision ultimately had a major impact on the writing process for the final season.
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End of “Lost” originally planned after 3 seasons
And there was another important point where the broadcaster exerted a great deal of influence on the makers. Lost was actually supposed to be much shorter than the six seasons released at the end. According to Damon Lindelof, the original series concept envisaged an end after season 3.
In an interview with “Collider” in 2020, he said: “There were all these intriguing mysteries. And so, we said: We want to answer these things by the end of season 1, these things by the end of season 2, and then the series sort of ends after about three years. That was our original pitch, but they didn’t want to hear it.”
At the time, the broadcaster was hoping for the huge success of Lost, which the series actually achieved. The concept behind this is one that still applies to broadcasters like HBO today. Before series are produced in their entirety, they first have to establish themselves via a so-called pilot, a first episode that acts as a pitch. If the audience receives the pilot well, the green light is given for the complete series.
However, this also means that broadcasters are taking a big risk with their series. In the worst-case scenario, a pilot film alone can sink many millions of euros. However, this also means that a good series should be designed to run for as long as possible. Clearly limited plans, as in the case of Lost with its three seasons, are not envisaged in this approach. Streaming series like Dark (three seasons) or The Boys (five seasons) have already led to a rethink among broadcasters. This was recently demonstrated by House of the Dragon, for example, whose end after season 4 was communicated even before the start of season 2.