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About a month or so ago, I promised my response to certain assertions that Lost’s finale doesn’t quite hit the mark, and that it leaves far too many questions unanswered. I realize that I’ve probably written more about this show than most any other in these columns, and I don’t want to bore, but we are approaching the year anniversary of the finale, and I do think it’s time to take a look at the series as a complete unit as opposed to how the last episode measures up to almost impossible expectations.

I probably should go back, do my research, and quote exactly what it was that troubled me so about the comments directed at Lost. I got lazy, though, and am relying on memory. The gist of it, as I recall, is that good though the finale may be, it leaves viewers wanting because it leaves far too many questions unanswered. This would perhaps be the biggest sin of all, considering that mystery drives so much of the show’s narrative.

Thing is, it doesn’t really leave very many questions unanswered. In the year since we lost Lost, I’ve rewatched the entire run and there are very few instances where any given mystery isn’t resolved in some fashion or other. For example, one of the biggest complaints is a lack of explanation for what makes Walt so special. Well, we do find out what makes him special. It pretty much comes down to him appearing where he really shouldn’t be. What we don’t discover is what the significance of this is. Great, so Walt can astral project or something. So what?

Here’s where the crux of it is: it really doesn’t matter so what. What matters is that Walt gets a satisfactory resolution to his arc. Whether this resolution is, in fact, satisfactory or not, well, I could argue that one all day and it’ll either work for you or it won’t. Bottom line, his arc does get resolution.

There are tons of these types of mysteries that lack significance in Lost; Libby in Santa Rosa, Ben’s childhood friend Annie, lots of the details about the Dharma Initiative, and so on. We lack perhaps the mechanics or details of many of the elements of the show to fill in every last gap. The thing is, show runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse claim that these details aren’t what the show’s really about. It’s about the characters.

It’s almost a cliché now, but the comparison keeps coming up of the addition of Midichlorians to the Star Wars mythology. This particular aspect of the prequels doesn’t really trouble me, but to many, it fills in a hole in the story that no one really wanted filled, or knew needed filling in the first place. Luke, Obi Wan, Yoda, whoever are strong with The Force. That’s all, no further explanation required. Midichlorians add a quantitative element to The Force, making it seem less like a mystical energy field binding the universe together, and more like a mathematical equation. Count your Midichlorians kids! Then you’ll know how good you’ll be at moving rocks with your brain!

Lindelof and Cuse stated often that they never wanted to Midichlorianize Lost. Yes, there’s a mythology, but it’s really more about the characters. And I think this was the right way for them to go. I’ve gone on and on about characters and how they are the most important storytelling device of them all. A mythology is only as fascinating as the characters that inhabit it. No matter the frustrations fans feel at seemingly unresolved elements to the mythology, few had complaints with the resolutions to the characters’ arcs.

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