Friday, June 5, 2026

Lost Was Purgatory; Now We’re in Hell

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“Lost” is finally over.

And, as I surmised–and many others did a long time ago–the survivors of Oceanic 815 were in a kind of purgatory. All that flashing forwards and backwards and sideways was their lives flashing before them.

The best line of the night went to Kate, after Desmond told her someone named Christian Shephard had died. “Christian Shephard? Seriously?”

Back in the ether of my Fox News column I did say a long time ago that Jack’s father was named for a reason. The show had highly Biblical overtones, and they call came together tonight.

But, as with everything to do with “Lost,” and most series finales, this will be debated for a long time to come.

There were a lot of clues along the way. I’ll trust the folks at Lostpedia to sort them out, and all over the ‘net on forums devoted to the subject. But Jack’s neck wound coming and going should have been one, certainly. And last week, it made no sense in linear time that Michele Rodriguez‘s character, Ana Lucia, could have appeared in a flash sideways after she’d died on the island. But neither did it make sense in the same episode that Rousseau and her daughter, Alix, could have existed in Ben’s story.

The question will be: did the Oceanic passengers survive at all? Did the Oceanic 6, as they were known, return to the mainland, and then return to island only to die? And what about all the other people, like the bad guys from the Dharma Institute, and the Others? Th questions will go on and on.

But you know, “Lost” had to end eventually. And remember that that Damon Lindelof and Carleton Cuse always said they knew what the last shot would be from the beginning. And so it was.

Mantime, Cyndi Lauper was pretty damned good on “Celebrity Apprentice.” And is it any surprise that Bret Michaels won? At least he’s alive and not in purgatory.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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