10 TV Finales That Messed With Your Brain

From the beginning, Lost presented a twin narrative: a present-day storyline featuring the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 and the mysterious island they crashed upon, and a series of flashbacks intended to reveal more about their backstories and motivations. Around the middle of the series, the show began employing flashforwards instead, radically changing the dynamic of the show and keeping everyone at home on their toes.

Then, in season six, Lost changed the rules yet again, showing us a parallel storyline that this time didn’t seem to be in the past or the future. Featuring the same characters from the present day timeline in what seemed to be some form of alternate universe, the ‘flash-sideways’ narrative kept viewers guessing for months until ‘The End’ finally revealed what was going on... to screams of outrage from viewers.

The ‘flash-sideways’ arc was a form of Limbo, existing outside of time. Every major character in Lost’s history had been brought back together after their various deaths (some during the present day story arc, others years or even decades later) to reconnect with one another and reach some form of closure with their lives, before moving on to whatever was next.

It made sense: Lost was a show about a mysterious island in the same way that Breaking Bad was a show about chemistry. Built around the fundamentals of Lost’s compassionate mysticism and show-don’t-tell style, ‘The End’ was a moving character piece, not an explanation of all of the island’s mysteries.

Those who properly understood Lost loved ‘The End’. Unfortunately, it seemed that plenty of the show’s audience hadn’t been paying attention to the show they were watching.