This is second in a series of posts about the LOST finale, “The End”. How many will be in the series? I don’t know! Stay tuned to find out!
The questions: Why weren’t Michael, Mr. Eko, Walt, Ana Lucia, Nikki or Paulo in the church to move on with the rest of the Losties? For that matter where were Daniel Faraday, Charlotte Lewis, Miles Straume or any of the Kahana crew?
John Locke and Jack Shepard greet each other before they move on to their "next step."
When all was said and done, the most important characters on LOST were all accounted for in that Los Angeles-area church at the end of the LOST finale Sunday evening. But there were some notable exceptions. Why? Where were they? Who mattered? Who didn’t? WAAAAAALT!!!
Lets start off with the easiest explanations first:
Is this scene the reason that Michael was not with everyone else at the church? Probably.
Michael, who was among the survivors of Oceanic 815, and a major player in the first two seasons of LOST, had been accounted for earlier this season. His “spirit” or whatever you’d like to call it was stuck on the LOST Island itself. If the “flash-sideways” time line was an intermediary between “life” and the “next step.”
Michael’s actions on the Island (killing Ana Lucia and Libby and selling out his friends for safe escape with Walt), prevented him from even getting to the go-between of the intermediary stage. His spirit is stuck on the island, joining the “whispers” which gave the LOSTies so much trouble in earlier seasons.
Christian Shepard, in attempting to explain the plane of existence to Jack, his son, in the final moments of the finale, says they all needed to come back together before moving on because their time spent on the island was the most important of their lives. For Nikki, Paulo and Ana Lucia, this is probably not the case. Nikki and Paulo were also criminals who had killed a man in order to escape with millions of dollars in diamonds. Remember that? Yeah, probably not.
However, we do see Ana Lucia in the flash-sideways time line, but not in the church, so maybe her time will come. In the episode preceding this one, Hurley says “she’s not ready yet” so maybe her time approaches.
The Kahana crew, including Charlotte, Miles, Frank and Daniel all are absent from the church corridors as well. They may all fall into the same category as the funky bunch mentioned before, or maybe on their way to moving on. As it seems, it looks like Daniel’s mother, Eloise Hawking, is keenly aware of the reality of the flash-sideways time line and asks Desmond not to take Daniel with him. Daniel does not attend, but does have an encounter with the one person he loved and lost, Charlotte at the same concert where all the connections are made, so there is still hope for them yet.
A fan-favorite, the character of Mr. Eko had his time line cut short when the actor portraying him wanted out of his contract.
Mr. Eko and Walt are enigmas. Apparently actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje was offered a chance to return to the cast, but negotiations broke down. In fact, Eko was supposed to have a four-season story arc, but on-set tensions cut that way short. So did he actually deserve to be in the church? Was his time on the Island the most important of his life? We’ll also probably never know.
Actor Malcolm David Kelley, who played Walt, is now 18 and apparently looks nothing like he did when he played Walt all those years ago. And with everyone looking and feeling like they did on September 22, 2004, he likely wouldn’t fit in. So did the producers leave him out because it wouldn’t work? Or are we to believe that he falls into the “Island wasn’t important to me” category as well? Its not entirely clear, but we are left to make our own interpretations.
The crew that ends up walking through the gates behind Christian Shepard is the core group that we grew to love and cherish throughout the six seasons of LOST. What else could you want?
Thanks for the question!
-AAA
Mr. Eko Could Have Returned! [UGO]
Theories on the LOST Finale [Lostpedia]
Ask Asher Anything 