My apologies if this topic has been exhausted by now, but I just finished the finale and I'm still processing it.

I liked it, not necessarily fell over backwards, but thought it was a decent conclusion outside of the sentimentality.

Is everyone disappointed because they left some things unanswered?

Or are you happy with the way it ended?

Your thoughts? Issues? Stances?

It didn't exactly ruin the show for me, but it did drive home something I've been thinking for years now: Lost is a big, masturbatory pile of fluff carried almost entirely by good chemistry and strong acting.

the stuff on the Island was good imo, thought it left questions unanswered it would have been pretty good by itself as an ending.

the "flash sideways" stuff has been pointless all season and end pointlessley aswell, all it did was take time away from the main story on the island which they could have expanded on.

I liked it, but I wish they had answered a few questions. Overall a 9/10 for me.

It was fine. I don't think they could have made a better ending that pleases everybody.

i just feel like the writers went the easy way
so many unanswered questions

Great finale, the show was character driven and not about the island.

The best ending doesn't aim to please everybody, it finishes the saga.  This ending was the worst stunt those writers ever pulled on us.  No concrete answers and instead we are told we've just been watching Jack's afterlife purgatory for half the season. Great, now the show is over but they made us still want more episodes.  This is an ending for the people who watched the show for character relationships (which is the shows weakest point) rather than those of us who watched it for the sci-fi thriller aspect.  Bah

On the other hand, the alternate timeline trick in this last season was a very coherent choice with what the authors have been saying.

Seasons 1 to 4, we had character building through the flashbacks, and then the delicious stunt of the surprise flashforwards when the oceanic six left the island.

Then in season 5 it seemed like the show had abandoned some of its bashfulness about what it really wanted to be, and went to a relatively down-to-earth past-timeline/present-timeline mingling. It really seemed like it had moved into bread and butter SF.

That seemed to extend into the sixth season, only now with two alternate present realities. Parallel universes, minds resonating from one to the other. It really seemed a "safe" choice in some way.

In the finale it all came tumbling down: what we thought was a SF plot device, was really something different. It was a meta-content way to remark that the show was not about the rational SF elements, it was about what the characters made of them in their relationships. It was a statement about the other half of the season, and the show overall. Given that statement, the "main" plot obviously closes without explaining the numbers, or smokey, or the illness. Because they were just props.

Frankly, it's eeringly similar to the ending of Evangelion (the real one, not the movie nonsense). It was never really about the angels or the S3 device or the sephira, it was all about a boy being put on a stage, overcoming his fears of others.

I liked it :)

The unanswered questions are kept to feed Lost myth. It was not done to please us as viewers. It was done for prosperity.