S1 Finale - Closing Scene

[Reed]

When I first saw the "closing scene" of Season 1 back when it aired on Channel 4, I remember feeling EXTREMELY ripped off. I was very annoyed due to not only the lack of answers the Finale gave but also the "silly" ending. The moment the camera started backing away from Locke and Jack I knew that was it. However since then I am more patient with Lost and I now realise that it was probably the BEST way the producers could have ended S1.

Did the ending disappoint you? Would you have changed the ending? I often think that no matter what ending we were given, it would still have left many fans annoyed.

Let us take for example it incorporated the S2 "opening scene":

"Jack and Locke blow the hatch, they stare down and the scene suddenly skips to a faceless man in the hatch who is startled by the explosion. End of scene".

I think perhaps it would have been a better closing scene but not by a great difference. We would know there is a man in the hatch and it would have atleast answered one question as to what was in it. Would this have been any better than the final scene we were actually given?

[The Wizard]

I don't remember being very frustrated by the final scene. I was slightly frustrated just because lost was over for a while :P But I seem to remember being more excited than frustrated, especially when they showed the trailer for season 2 straight after with Eko and his stick and the people in the hatch (though we didn't know it then).

[Reed]

Originally Posted by The Wizard

I don't remember being very frustrated by the final scene. I was slightly frustrated just because lost was over for a while :P But I seem to remember being more excited than frustrated, especially when they showed the trailer for season 2 straight after with Eko and his stick and the people in the hatch (though we didn't know it then).

I was usually frustrated most weeks because the episodes used to fly by and we were given yet more questions without any answers. So I really expected the Finale to deliver. Seeing the S2 advert was again frustrating because they said Lost was back in the Spring which was a very long wait.

It finally seemed as though Lost would start providing some answers, which as it turns out was a bluff because the "Others" in the advert was in fact the Tail-End Survivors blended together with footage of Tom's speech to Jack. However the beginning of S2 did provide to an extent, even if it was slow going.

[The Wizard]

I wouldn't say the spring was a very long wait... it's certainly nothing compared to the one we are currently experiencing!!! :P

[Him]

I was slightly peeved - I wasn't expecting answers like everyone else was apparently :P. I think if Season 1 had finished with the Season 2 opener, it would have been too obvious that it was the hatch.
I think I actually thought that the Desmond was Sawyer, at first.

I liked that it was followed immediately by this :P :

This is a Public Service Announcement. On behalf of Channel 4, we can only apologize for the outcome of Lost series one. If there was a metaphor for how we all felt at the end... this shaft pretty much sums it up. Why? Well, because we like you we've put the hours in. We want answers too. Who are the Others? Will Jack and Kate ever get it on? Does anybody care about the polar bears? Well enough is enough! We've brought series two forward because, like you, we want to know what the hell is going on! (Begin flashes of the Hatch Clock, the attack of the tailies on the raft survivors, Desmond holding Locke at gun point, the "Quarantine" message, Kate going down the shaft, and the super bright light flicking on.)

There was another Channel 4 advert moaning about the ending along the same lines, in the run up to Season 2, except it was just Locke on the hatch door from the end of Deus Ex Machina, shouting "I've done everything you wanted me to do, so why did you do this to me? Why?".

[Reed]

Originally Posted by The Wizard

I wouldn't say the spring was a very long wait... it's certainly nothing compared to the one we are currently experiencing!!! :P

Very true - but at the time it felt like a long wait due to the aweful ending. Funnily enough, the long waits we have had inbetween S2-S3 and S3-S4 were/are bearable because of my greater patience with the show. I am not in a hurry for answers like I was during S1-S2 hiatus.

[The Wizard]

Season 2 - Season 3 wasn't a long wait at all...

[Reed]

Originally Posted by Him

I was slightly peeved - I wasn't expecting answers like everyone else was apparently :P. I think if Season 1 had finished with the Season 2 opener, it would have been too obvious that it was the hatch.
I think I actually thought that the Desmond was Sawyer, at first.

I liked that it was followed immediately by this :P :

There was another Channel 4 advert moaning about the ending along the same lines, in the run up to Season 2, except it was just Locke on the hatch door from the end of Deus Ex Machina, shouting "I've done everything you wanted me to do, so why did you do this to me? Why?".

I remember a Channel 4 narrator apologising right after the Finale ended. I never saw the second advert you speak of though it sounds quite amusing given the circumstances.

Well my idea about seeing a man in the hatch [i.e. Desmond] in the S1 Finale would obviously ruin the S2 Opener. But perhaps the S2 opener could have been changed entirely or possibly kept the same as viewers would still be puzzled by what was going on. They would soon realise the man is the same person we saw in the S1 Finale. Though I agree it would not have had the same affect.[/i]

[Reed]

Originally Posted by The Wizard

Season 2 - Season 3 wasn't a long wait at all...

Was it not around 4 to 5 months?

[The Wizard]

Originally Posted by Reed

Was it not around 4 to 5 months?

I don't think so, I think it was about 2 :P

[E Pluribus Unum]

From a story telling point of view, the season 1 finale was genius. Not only did it annoy it's viewers, it got people talking about it too. And with that it had people eagerly awaiting the next season...

From a viewing perspective, it annoyed me to no end. I even remember kicking the sofa when it cut to LOST when it panned away from Jack and Locke, down the hatch. But when I kicked the sofa, guess what I did? I laughed. Because at that moment I saw myself (over)reacting to the end of the finale and realized how brilliantly they'd pulled it off. I thought the season 1 finale, overall, was the better of the 3 finales (for it's pace and action - the best ending has to go to the most recent of finales).

But I loved Exodus: some of my favorite Jack/Locke face-offs, some excellent creepy raft scenes, lots of emotion, fear, and anxiety. Everyone was moving and had something going on - whether it was Jack and Locke searching for 'hope' to save them from the Others, the Rafters trying to find salvation, or the 'Exodus' heading towards 'rape caves' (Sigh, Shannon :P) - I thought it was all excellent... The finale scene, although frustrating, was done to perfection, in my opinion.

I mean, I would even question if the writers knew what direction they were going to go with the Hatch. I mean, Dharma hadn't even been hinted at until this point - all we knew is that there was a mysterious hatch in the ground... I mean, it's a bit funny looking back at it now, but the fact there was actually an accessible entrance just around the corner - for the hatch - seems to point towards 'creative' writing, or poor planning