"LOST" - MISSING YOU ALREADY

Back to the beginning: Except for Rose and Bernard,

here's the original cast we came to love so much:

Front Row: Charlie, Jack, Kate

Second row (on the right): Sawyer, Sun, Jin, Walt, Michael

Back row: John, Hurley, Boone, Shannon, Sayid, Claire

Dear "Lost":

It's taken me a few days to absorb and process the ending of my favorite TV series ever. The initial episode was love at first sight for me, and I followed you faithfully for season after season, even when you kept me in the dark at times. But the plot was ever secondary for me. It was your characters I loved: Jack, the reluctant hero; Kate, the beautiful, strong, kick-ass girl; Sawyer, bad boy with a mile-wide good streak. You had affable, lovable Hurley; enigmatic John Locke; handsome Boone and pretty Shannon, his step sister; troubled couple Sun and Jin; ever-loving couple Rose and Bernard; father and son pair Walt and Michael; very-pregnant Claire; rock star/drug addict Charlie; and Sayid, whom we knew to be a stand-up kind of guy, good to have on your side, even if he had been an Iraqi "interrogator". I stuck by you even when you killed off some of my favorite characters.

Then, toward the end of Season Five last year, we were separated by circumstances beyond my control and I missed at least three episodes. So when you returned in February (PS - I never did like it when you started showing up for the spring season only) I was a little cold toward you because when I paid my eagerly-anticipated first visit I saw people there I didn't know. Like you, I was "Lost". I didn't know who Jacob was. I had a hard time remembering that John's body was being inhabited by The Smoke Monster. I couldn't get into the back story of Richard Alpert, the guy with eternal life. And I was totally at sea with the episode "Across The Sea". I'm ashamed to admit it but I was unhappy and consequently cheated on you with "American Idol" several times.

But in the end I came back to you, and I'm so happy I made it for the finale. Unlike a lot of people, it didn't really bother me that all the questions about the island were not answered. No, not even when you promised they would be answered. It didn't matter that you never explained why the characters time traveled to the 1970s, or how Ben could move an entire island by turning a giant wheel, or what Eloise Hawking was doing with that pendulum and circle. I don't even care that it never made sense that Hurley didn't lose weight on a diet of fruit and roast wild pig and all the exercise he got.

Daniel Faraday's equations, the polar bear, the hatch, all that button pushing, the "golden light" with its genie-in-a-bottle stopper, the Dharma Initiative, the hydrogen bomb, The Others, Dogen and the Temple People, ... what were they all about? We'll never know, although I suspect people will be speculating for a long, long time.

But I don't really care. No, all I cared about were things like, would Jack and Kate ever get together? I was rooting for them. I liked Sawyer too, and didn't want him to be left out in the cold, romantically speaking, so I'm happy about him and Juliet. I smiled when I saw Boone again after all this time, and I cried when I saw Charlie again. Dear, dear Charlie. You know me, I am the Queen of Denial and never really believed that Boone, Charlie or even John Locke were dead. I mean, dead for good. After all, the island was magical - it cured Rose's cancer, it fixed Locke's legs, why couldn't it resurrect the dead?

It was really nice to see Rose and Bernard one more time. And Vincent the dog. We all wondered about Vincent. It would have been nice to see Michael and Walt again but I guess Michael's spirit is trapped on the island and Walt is happy back home in New York. Whatever.

And Jack. Valiant Jack, who made the ultimate sacrifice. I would really, really have been pissed off if you left Jack to die all alone there in the bamboo grove. But then, Vincent showed up and lay down next to him. How fitting that the series began with Jack opening his eyes and ended with him closing them, coming full circle.

Just to let you know, I would have been heartbroken if you had left Jack dead on the beach and not explained the flash sideways story. Thank God (Christian Shepherd?) for showing us The Afterlife. Sorry about all the dim bulbs who couldn't comprehend it, even after Christian explained it very well to Jack: It was "the place they made together so they could find each other."

All those beautiful beaming faces, together again at the end! Claire and Charlie finally sharing a kiss. Hurley the good No. 1 Island Protector and Ben (!), his good No. 2. Desmond the  - what? The reunion organizer, the spiritual mother hen, an angel gathering the shepherd's flock? Jack, the savior of mankind? That was closure, and it enabled me to leave you on a joyous, rather than sorrowful note. 

Thank you "Lost". You showed me believable, beloved characters, people who fought the good fight against evil, to the bitter end. You made me think about science versus faith, about destiny versus free will, about regret and redemption, about atonement and sacrifice, about love and abiding friendship. That time on the island WAS the most important part of all those lives, wasn't it? It was a big part of my life too.

I'll be "Lost" without you, but there's always the DVD collection!

Thank You,

Love, Julie

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For anyone who still doesn't get it: No, they did not all die in the crash of Oceanic Flight 815 (are you listening, Bill W.?). Everything that you saw happen on the island was real. The flash sideways stories were about the characters in the afterlife (but it is not purgatory). The characters died at different times. Ana Lucia, Libby, Boone, Shannon, Charlie, etc. died on the island. John Locke died after the Oceanic 6 survivors returned to L.A. Sayid, Sun, Jin and Jack died after they went back to the island. (When Jack hands the torch to Hurley and says, "I'm already dead" he means "I've been mortally wounded and I'm going to die.")

Hurley and Ben stayed on the island to be its protectors and to prevent The Smoke Monster from leaving the island and destroying the world. Desmond fulfilled his mission and was sent back home to Penny and their son. Kate, Claire and Sawyer, among others, made it off the island in the Ajira plane. Those three may have lived very long lives. However, now everyone is together in the church (where there is no "now") and they are crossing over to the other side together. All except for Ben - he stays outside because he's not yet ready to go - he hasn't redeemed himself enough yet. Got it now???