Mainly because, after it ended, you’re left with a sense that the story isn’t over yet. And that’s what I love in all the franchises I have ever been obsessed with. Star Trek, Star Wars (before the new trilogy)… there’s so much left open that people will be stretching for back info for years to come. Lost was the framework to hang stories in the past, present, and future.
After the episode ended, I was wondering things like:
- What will the island be like under Hugo and Ben? Will they hang out with Rose and Bernard, or will they be hands off?
- What of the kids: Walt, Ji Yeon, Charlie, and Aaron? It’s been established that kids who spent any time on the island develop paranormal skills. Will those four manifest anything?
- It’s accepted that Jack died at the end… but perhaps that’s not so. He ended up in the same position as the Smoke Monster. Did he create the birth of a new Smoke Monster? Perhaps, since Jack was noble and heroic, one that is a force of good this time?
- Hugo and Ben know that others will be coming to the island. Will this set up new tensions as they, like their predecessors, learn to use the Dharma facilities and the ancient temples?
- What happened in the intervening years between the creation of the island and our survivors? Like, who built the statue? The temple?
Like I said, I’m glad Lost wrapped up the way it did. Too much explanation could have sunk the show. The final two seasons of X-Files is one of the first things that comes to mind: missteps there have more or less caused the show to be banished from popular culture.
But Lost? The thing keeping the show has always been the crazy theorizing, and with all the loose ends, I think there will still be crazy theories for years to come.
Rooktopia 