i am on the side of the fence that feels let down by the finale. but not because it didn't answer questions. i think great art is supposed to leave room for interpretation, but this finale was based around ideas that were not rooted in the narrative at all. the limbo church ending could have been tacked onto any season finale of any show. that undermines the journey we've invested in, and cheapens the promise made by writers that everything we've seen serves a grander purpose. good storytelling runs on drama, and drama through emotion. watching jack fight locke, i didn't feel anything because there was no stakes. in the sideways world, everyone is gathering at the concert, but again, no stakes. without stakes, drama cannot exist. so for me, the issue is not the answers that were left unanswered, but the way the overall arc concluded. it felt dry.

I was very satisfied with 'mystery in the box'. And being a huge fan of Jacob's Ladder and other such topics involving the afterlife, I enjoyed the final season even more.

I thought several pressing questions about the island were answered, and I was happy with that. Sure, there were plot lines that stopped and were left hanging. But I was happy with the ones they chose to create answers for. Life's full of unanswered questions, why would it be any different story?

Lots of Lost fans are saying they liked the finale, because there is no way they could have answered everything in the last episode...but it's not like this was a surprise cancellation. They've had multiple seasons leading up to it, during which they could have answered at least a few of the questions that were raised.

Instead, I felt like they just started making up new stuff. Considering how adamantly JJ Abrams insisted the island was not Purgatory - it sure seems like that's what it ended up being. Perhaps not technically precisely the same as Purgatory, but something a lot like it.

I have no problem with open endings. But this whole series was full of false leads and oddities that were forgotten about or went nowhere. That's not the same thing. An open ending is: "ah, it could be A or B but we'll never know." Not "huh-what? Wait what in the world was that?"

It felt like even the writers didn't know the answers. Or even the realm the answers might be in.

Agree totally with Mr. Nichols.

I've been running alternative through my mind and I see at least three different ways it could've ended that would've been more dramatic, more breathtaking, more intense, and woulr've produced a buzz in the room instead of crickets. Turning the alternate universe into limbo(which I would bet was a decision that happened DURING season 6) took the narrative and completely negated it. I don't care much about all the unanswered questions. That was expected. But much of the final season and the finale felt contrived and didn't reach the level it should have. You cannot make the argumen that it was "just good enough." these are professionals on the biggest TV show since The Twilight Zone. There are absolutely no excuses for mediocrity.

Hey they answered what was up with the numbers.

I liked it because it was about the characters.

I liked the finale very much.

But I would have liked it more if we'd known all along that the 'sideways' story was the aftermath in purgatory.

The fact that we were lead to believe it was a parallel story, running concurrently with the main plot, made us think it would directly impact the drama on the island - that somehow the characters from that happy alternative reality would've to give up that happiness to defeat the monster, for example, making a dramatic sacrifice.

Even though it was an afterlife, not an alternate reality, I think it would still have been more dramatic if it impacted the main plot. We had hints that Desmond on the island had some sense of the afterlife and this influenced his actions -- but he was shown to be wrong about a lot.
It would have been tighter, I think, if a pivotal character had a clear vision of this afterlife, and that knowledge allowed them to do something necessary to win the struggle against the monster.

But: Watching the last half hour again, knowing what it was, made it much more powerful than on first viewing -- and it was plenty powerful the first time.