In the sense that we were misled into thinking that it was closely connected to, or even concurrent with, immediate events on the island. It was not. Desmond didn't go there when Widmore dosed him with electromagnetism, although we were supposed to think he did. Small to large events, from the sunken island under the Oceanic flight to Juliet's dialogue while she was dying, weren't related to their apparent counterparts in the other worlds. There was a whole lot of misdirect that has left me very pissed off.
I wasn't looking for answers to every question - I don't mind that Walt's psychic abilities aren't relevant, or that we don't know what gave the numbers their power, or that we don't know who built the temple and why, or even that the light at the centre of the island is never going to be explained. But I did expect more than a deus ex machina ending that appears to have been entirely unrelated to the rest of what happened in the season. I mean, seriously? Christian telling us everyone's dead? I thought the Lost writers could do better. Or at least, could do slightly more coherent.
It wasn't. The church was multidenominational.
I saw that. But it's hard to explain purgatory and walking into the light outside of a Christian context. OK, maybe just about. But it felt very Christian imperialist to me, after many seasons of fantastic pagan temples and pantheistic imagery.
Alternate endings: [link]
sunken island under the Oceanic flight
Since the Sideways world was a collective construct of the Lostaways', I've decided they sunk it psychically.
Juliet's dialogue while she was dying
That was
completely
related to the Sideways world. When you die, you download to Sideways Purgatory. As she was dying, she got some bleed-through; her coffee line is right after the download.
Cindy's recaplet is up at TWoP, btw.
The Man in Black's name revealed!
(That's not a joke link, by the way. It's seriously his name, so don't click if you want it to remain a mystery forever.)
There was a whole lot of misdirect that has left me very pissed off.
I'm sorry you feel like it was a misdirect intended to fool the viewers, but I don't see it as a misdirect. I see it more as the episode "Enemies" on BTVS, where it seems like the Mayor found a way to make Angel into Angelus, and "Angelus" conspires with Faith against Buffy, but then it turns out that it was all a setup in the first place -- only the viewer doesn't know that from the outset. Maybe that IS a misdirect, if you assume that you the viewer have to have all the information right up front.
But I gotta say, with Lost, I have never assumed we had all the information right up front. Partly because I don't think that the creators and writers even had all the information, because I don't think they knew what they were doing for a good 4 seasons. But anyway, I don't find the sideways world a misdirect.
But, you know, everyone's going to react to it differently, and I'm sorry you're so pissed about it.
The Man in Black's name revealed!
Huh. That's as good a name as any, I suppose.
I'm just glad it wasn't
Esau.
Did anyone else flash to the end of Buffy with the final island scenes?
her coffee line is right after the download
Again, I understood that. (I'm having a day of wording things badly.) It linked 'we could go Dutch' etc. to Sawyer's lack of dollar. But what was its relevance, other than that? We were made to believe that her "It worked" meant the bomb had worked. Of course, it was about nothing more than a candy bar. Yes, fun bleed-through. Not relevant all the same.
And to some extent I can see that these reframes could be fun. But they're also deeply unsatisfying. I feel lied-to without any payoff to make that worthwhile.
At the beginning of everything, when we* were arguing over whether the island was Purgatory or not, a lot of us were sure the complex plot was about so much more than that. I'm feeling let down that they essentially returned to that (obviously with a twist), without linking more of the other five seasons' worth of mythological development to the ending. Maybe that's my failure, as when some Buffy viewers used to demand certain plot developments from Joss. But Joss and the other Buffy writers, while they had many 'You did what?!' moments, never made me feel like they could have done so much better and just didn't.
I shall think more about what I mean, and re-watch if I can hack it.
*The collective internet 'we', I mean. I obviously wasn't here then. I should read back over threads from season one discussions, though - could be interesting.
Edit because it really is a day of making no sense at all. I blame the Man in Black.
