I seriously do not understand the number of people who think that the finale said that everyone died in the crash and the Island was Purgatory. I thought it was pretty damn clear that the Island story was real; THAT WAS THE POINT.
Once again, you and I are as one.
The recap show from last night is free on iTunes, and we didn't watch it, so I'm DLing it right now. Mostly I want to see the montage of Ben getting beaten up.
All day I've kept flashing on the final shot of Jack and Vincent and tearing up. This is partly because I need my antidepressants adjusted (for realz), but partly because I WAS FINE UNTIL THE DAMN DOG CAME OUT. Pulling the canine card is NOT FAIR.
The only thing that confused the point for me were the shots of the wreckage over the end credits. However, since none of it was smoking, I assumed it was just the leftover wreckage.
I've read elsewhere on the Interpipes that since the show made it fairly explicit that the island stuff was real, that means that the people who survived did *actually* survive, and that that final shot of the wreckage was kind of a "here's what started it all" message from the creators.
Although there are people elseweb who are adamant that the wreckage was the Ajira plane. Which I really don't think so, because I think we're meant to understand from Kate's "I have missed you for so long" to Jack that she got back in one piece and lived a good long life. Which would mean that the Ajira plane didn't crash.
Tangentially related to the Ajira plane, I loved when Frank barked out that someone needed to fix the hydraulics, and did either Richard or Miles have any mechanic skills. All I could think was, "I'm a ghost whisperer!" "I'm from the 1800s!" "FIX THE DAMN PLANE!"
Hence the duct tape.