May 21, 2011, was supposed to be Judgment Day — the Saturday to end all Saturdays, and every other day of the week, too. Cataclysm on the scale of Roland Emmerich disaster porn was going to rip the planet asunder. An extinction event was going to annihilate the human species, making dino skeletons out of us. Rapture was going to strike and carry a select tribe of believers to Heaven, leaving those left behind to parrrrrrr-tayyyy! (With Satan. D'oh!) And yet, today, you — not drunk, not dead, not dodging falling skyscrapers with John Cusack as your co-pilot — are sitting in front of your computer reading a blog post about Lost. Congratulations. You are happy. You are outraged! You are disappointed. Indifferent? That, too. Emotions surely vary about the unfulfilled promise of Armageddon, and life goes on, regardless, at least until another mad mystic millennialist re-crunches the Bible code and reaches a new crazytalk conclusion that the global media will exploit and propagate just for clicks and googles.
One year ago today, millions of people bore witness to another iteration of ''The End'' following weeks, months, even years of tubthump, worrywart, and eyeroll. But this sucker delivered. The earth shook! People died! A pack of souls got swallowed up in white light and taken into the afterlife! (Following a brief stop in a purgatorial Land Of Make Believe, i.e., Los Angeles. Which I like to think was actually part of Mr. Rogers' subterranean sideways-world.) You were happy. Or outraged! Or disappointed. Indifferent? Can't rule it out. Emotions about ''The End'' — the two hour (plus) series finale of Lost — ran the gamut. Debate and discussion ensued over the issue of fan fulfillment after six seasons of storylines and mysteries that many viewers insisted that the finale needed to resolve. I was satisfied with what I got and fine with what I didn't get; in the end I was thrilled with what Lost had become over the course of its evolving and imperfect life. Others felt ''seduced'' and ''betrayed'' by Lost for failing to meet expectations they believed were reasonable, justified and encouraged by the show. Admirers gushed with gooey sentiment. (Guilty as charged.) Haters fumed with furious cynicism. Points of sober, sound, specific critical analysis of storytelling decisions and Big Picture perspective were few and far between. Fanatics are fanatics, disappointed and otherwise.
NEXT: Just what, exactly, did the series finale mean?
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