Inside the controversial ‘Lost’ ending — and what the cast has said about it

No, they weren’t useless the complete time.

The ending to “Lost” has been a controversial subject matter for television fanatics for the last 10 years and a fifty percent — and the conversation is reemerging now that the hit ABC sequence is streaming on Netflix.

The brain-bending demonstrate, produced by J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, premiered in 2004. It follows a group of aircraft travellers who crash on a mysterious island.

The solid involves Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Terry O’Quinn, Jorge Garcia, Naveen Andrews, Ian Somerhalder, Maggie Grace, Emilie de Ravin, Josh Holloway, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Dominic Monaghan, Michelle Rodriguez, Henry Ian Cusick, Michael Emerson, Elizabeth Mitchell, Nestor Carbonell, and far more.

All through the series finale that aired in 2010, the islanders all reunite after their fatalities in a “sideways timeline” that is unveiled to be a sort of purgatory. They meet up in a church and “move on” with each other in the ultimate scene of the show.

However, lots of viewers misinterpreted the ending to imply that the figures were lifeless the total time. It didn’t assistance that the last credits showed the wreckage from the plane crash from the very first episode.

But the statements that “they have been lifeless the full time” have been persistently debunked by the forged and creators.

More than the yrs, these concerned with the show have spoken out and defended the controversial ending.

Here’s everything they’ve stated.

Evangeline Lilly

Lilly, who played Kate Austen, discussed the “Lost” finale at Dragon Con in 2018.

“Art is intended to, every single time devoid of fail, change the dilemma back on you, and asks you to search at what you’re looking at, hear to what you are listening to, practical experience it, and then appear at it in the mirror of your soul, and figure out what it usually means to you,” the now-retired actress claimed.

Elizabeth Mitchell

Mitchell, who performed Juliet Burke, told Enjoyment Tonight in 2021 that she’s satisfied with the show’s conclusion.

“I imagine Damon and Carlton [Cuse] ended up so delighted, rightly, with the way that they were being in a position to convey to their story. The way they were being able to have a commencing, and a middle, and an conclude. There’s something about that which is truly rather magical,” she described.

“It didn’t go on lengthier than it should have. And it ended way a lot quicker than I think most of us wished that it had, me included,” Mitchell extra. “It would have been charming to carry on to investigate Juliet, but I feel it had its very own minor bit of perfection with the way that it did.”

Jorge Garcia

Garcia, who performed Hugo “Hurley” Reyes, talked about the ending with The Independent in 2020.

“It’s certainly accurate that a whole lot of persons misread the ending and imagined they have been useless the complete time,” he explained. “I consider there have been a whole lot of things that contributed to that. 1 of the issues they believed may well have been the explanation was that, just after it finished, throughout the closing credits – in the US, at the very least – they had some B-roll of the authentic crash website, which was just variety of meant as a point for individuals to sit and decompress with as they watched the closing credits. But some persons read through that as, ‘Oh, we have been at that crash site this total time.’ “

Josh Holloway

Holloway, who played James “Sawyer” Ford, did a “Lost” oral history for Vulture in 2021 with other forged associates and the producers and creators.

He admitted that he’s “still confused” by the ending.

“We could have all been lifeless. Or we could have been in like this purgatory detail. I generally imagined that, and however do sort of truly assume it was extra that,” the “Yellowstone” actor stated. “To me, that’s what can make a lot more sense. Then they kind of sidestepped it with the parallel daily life at the conclude.”

Terry O’Quinn

O’Quinn, who performed John Locke, told Vulture he frequently been given “negative” comments about the ending — but he “didn’t consider it personally.”

“I generally believed in the study course of the generating of the show, if you really don’t get it, you are just not paying out focus or it’s just not your cup of tea,” said O’Quinn. “It was written well enough that the complete matter, if you’d only viewed and paid consideration, you would fully grasp what they ended up striving to say. Or at the very least arrive to some conclusions your self.”

O’Quinn also introduced up the ending of “Game of Thrones,” which was equally panned by critics and lovers in 2019.

“I considered that appeared like they sort of hurried out the door, they threw their clothes on and they have been gone,” he stated about the HBO collection. “But I wanted to generate them a letter and say, ‘Welcome to the club.’ “

Michael Emerson

Emerson, who played Ben Linus, admitted that it took him time to understand the show’s conclusion.

“I really don’t think I could have defined the ending to someone at the second,” he stated to Vulture. “But I will have to have watched it once more afterwards. And then it began to tumble into put for me, and I began to be able to explain what I believed it was or what it meant in a a lot more effective way. And then I grew happier and happier with the ending around time.”

In April 2024, the “Fallout” actor confirmed some appreciate to “Lost” in an interview with Jake’s Usually takes.

“The ending is a good ending. And it’s the major grievance I get on the streets,” he said.

Damon Lindelof

Lindelof criticized the supporter theories about the “Lost” ending in the Vulture short article.

“That thought — they have been lifeless the complete time — it negates the full display, it negates the total stage of the show,” he reported. “I’ve occur to believe over time — irrespective of whether I’m correct or I’m erroneous, this is exactly where I come across solace — that the people who truly consider they were being lifeless the complete time did not view the closing season of the demonstrate, they just viewed the finale.”

Carlton Cuse

Govt producer Carlton Cuse instructed Vulture they made a mistake displaying the plane wreckage in the remaining moments of the series finale.

“The problem was that the viewers was so accustomed on ‘Lost’ to the plan that all the things experienced that means and goal and intentionality,” he claimed. “So they read through into that footage at the conclusion that, you know, they have been lifeless. That was not the intention. The intention was just to create a narrative pause. But it was too portentous. It took on a further that means. And that indicating I believe, distorted our intentions and assisted produce that misperception.”

Cuse added, “I think we could have finished some points to make it very clear that that wasn’t what you had been meant to just take absent. But just one of the significant intentions of the show was intentional ambiguity and giving folks the chance to digest and interpret ‘Lost’ as they want to if they desired to. And at some level, you know, you just cannot have it both techniques.”

In 2016, Cuse explained at a “Lost” reunion concert, “Damon and I acknowledge that the show is what it is, warts and all. Anything is a element of it. So ultimately, is there anything I would transform? The answer is no.”