Brilliant ‘Lost’ finale defies lazy criticism

Mere hours after the “Lost” series finale, Los Angeles Times television critic Mary McNamara wrote about the episode as if she had never seen the show before. She criticized the final 10 minutes even though she obviously wasn’t paying attention to what actually happened.

In a nutshell, McNamara dismissed the six-year story as a tropical “purgatory,” where the fated passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 never survived the plane crash in the first place. She came to this conclusion despite three specific moments in the finale that explicitly refuted this theory.

McNamara wasn’t the only viewer to make the mistake. Message boards were flooded with similar confusion, and some viewers (not the die-hards, obviously) hooted and hollered about being “confused” and “cheated.”

Such misinterpretations are bound to happen with a show as dense as “Lost.” And who knows? Perhaps even us hardcore Losties missed some profound bit of evidence that proves the whole Island-As-Purgatory theory (doubtful).

That, however, doesn’t make the rash, thoughtless critique by the Los Angeles Times any better. At what point did the country’s most authoritative critical outlets start rushing reviews to publication without taking the time to understand and report even the basic story?

I’m guessing it was around the time people started getting their news from personal blogs and message boards.

The LA Times review especially irked me because it propelled a complaint about the show that I never believed: That the writers of the show made the story up as it went along.

Nope. The writers of “Lost” never strayed off course, at least not too far. Nevermind the polar bears, time travel and Dharma beer, “Lost” was always about character, and how a group of broken, damaged souls came together to find redemption.

In the days leading up to the finale, so much of the media hype surrounded the show’s longstanding mysteries. What is the island? What did the Dharma Initiative have to do with anything? And where are Walt and his special powers?

These questions are all off point. “Lost” never gave closure to questions that couldn’t be answered within the story of these destined castaways. In the end, the audience learned as much about the island as the characters did, which was just enough to lead us all through a satisfying, and incredibly powerful final twist.

And anyway, “Lost” already answered most of these so-called burning questions. The island, the Dharma Initiative, the numbers—all of these have been explained in previous episodes to a point where a reasonably intelligent person could at least theorize a satisfying and logical conclusion.

Now, onto those controversial final minutes of the series, where the polarizing “flash-sideways” storyline of season six was revealed to be a purgatory-like place where all the dead castaways were destined to reconnect. They had to find the people that helped them through what ended up being the most important moments of their lives, if not the world.

The island was real. The castaways really survived the crash. And all of them played an instrumental role in saving humanity.

While many viewers dismissed the finale as a bunch of pseudo-religious hogwash, I was moved by how these characters came together again in death. I don’t consider myself a particularly religious person, but I was always enthralled by the show’s bold devotion to the idea of faith. These characters had to reach out not only to the unknown, but also to each other in order to find redemption.

And the final images of Jack in the jungle alongside that adorable pooch? Perfect. All the best things end with dogs.

Now if only I can get all the doubters and LA Times critics to agree. Perhaps they should, I don’t know, wait a few days before making judgments about things they can’t understand yet. Maybe an enlightened Super-Desmond can visit them and help them see the truth.

The finale may not have been the greatest series finale of all-time, but for the legacy of “Lost,” it was as close to perfect as these things get.