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As this site’s mythology guy, it’s my duty to pipe in on the big Lost finale from Sunday. For that matter, I’ve been probably the show’s biggest champion, as far I can tell. I have my niggling complaints, sure, but I’ve expressed my appreciation for the show’s maligned second season, don’t really hate Nikki and Paolo, and had faith the whole time that Lindelof and Cuse knew what they were doing.

It’s been a couple of days now since the big send-off and, after two viewings, I’m still trying to formulate my opinions on both the finale and the show as a whole. I’ll preface everything by stating that, yes, I loved the finale. Big surprise, huh? Thing is, I’ve loved most of the big mega-finales. I liked the infamous Sopranos cut to black. I was moved by M*A*S*H’s maudlin goodbyes. I appreciated Battlestar Galactica’s spiritual wrap-up. I even thought The X-Files finale to be appropriate, if uninspired. (Even I didn’t care much for Seinfeld’s last episode, however.)

The general consensus I’ve seen in the wake of Lost’s goodbye has been, for the most part, pretty positive. To be honest, this surprises me. With a few exceptions - The Shield and Six Feet Under spring to mind - most finales seem to get a pretty negative reaction from fans. I just figured that a show as divisive as Lost would prove just as divisive at the end as it has been throughout.

Yes, there are detractors. There always will be. But somehow, Lindelof and Cuse provide such a cathartic conclusion to pretty much every character’s arc, and that last shot is such sublime visual poetry, that the flaws seem almost irrelevant. They’re not irrelevant, but Lindelof and Cuse trick us into thinking that they are, appropriate for a show that’s always been about narrative sleight of hand.

I don’t want to belabor the point. It seems disingenuous to do so. Still, the one flaw that I don’t think they can ever excuse is the handful of unresolved mysteries. I understand their argument that the show has always been more about the characters than the mythology. I even accept that argument to a degree. I also don’t want to come across as one of the nitpickers, decrying the show as an all-time failure just because we never find out who’s doing the Dharma food drops, but character oriented though it may be, it is still a mythology show, and the mythology feels not quite complete. We’re almost there, but a piece or two seems to be missing from the puzzle.

Cuse and Lindelof claim that many of the so-called unanswered questions are possible to deduce from narrative hints. For example, the fertility issues that The Others face seem to be the result of The Incident, even if Cuselof don’t provide a definitive statement of such within the body of the narrative. They claim that they don’t want to over-explain things, citing Star Wars’ much derided midichlorians as an example of too much explanation ruining the magic.

For that matter, I’ve seen many an irate fan, finding mysteries where none exist. Or, if they do, the solution really doesn’t matter. One of the biggest examples is Jacob and his brother’s mother. Who is she? How does she come to be the island’s protector? The fact is, it just doesn’t matter. To go back to Star Wars, it’s like explaining who turned Palpatine to the Dark Side, or the origins of the Sith. At some point, you need to narrow the focus to the story at hand.

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