Damon Lindelof On The Breaking Bad Finale And Coming To Terms With Lost

By Rudie Obias | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

lostA few days ago, the series finale of Breaking Bad broke ratings records on AMC. The finale was five years in the making, as every episode of the hit TV series seemed to be leading to the final moments of the episode. For the most part, series creator Vince Gilligan stuck the landing on one of the most highly regarded TV shows of the past decade. The last time a series finale gained the attention of so many viewers was the end of Lost on ABC. While the series finale of Lost was polarizing, to say the least, many viewers couldn’t help but be angry at Lost showrunner Damon Lindelof all over again after Breaking Bad‘s finale succeeded in all the ways they thought Lost‘s final episode did not.

Moments after the Breaking Bad finale aired, fans began lashing out at Lindelof via Twitter. Keep in mind, Lost ended three years ago in 2010, so it really goes to show that some people just can’t let that show’s controversial finale go. The Internet trolling was so bad that Lindelof penned a guest column on The Hollywood Reporter to clear the air about the series finale of Lost, and to congratulate Vince Gilligan for a job well done on Breaking Bad.

It’s telling that, three years since Lost, Lindelof and fans are still grappling with the series finale. In his THR post, Lindelof says, “I’m still naive enough to believe I can attain some level of redemption,” comparing himself to Breaking Bad‘s anti-heroic protagonist, Walter White (Bryan Cranston). Lindelof doesn’t want to explain why he ended Lost the way he did, but rather to come to terms with the fact that, whatever his intentions, many fans are still unsatisfied with the show’s finale. But, while they might be less vocal, there are also many fans who loved the show’s ending.

Lindelof’s column is less about the merits or failures of Lost‘s finale, and more on his obsession with the angry reactions to it. He compares himself to an alcoholic, but “My bar is Twitter. It’s Comic-Con. It’s anytime someone asks me to write an article even casually relating to Lost.” He wants to make a pact with Lost fans, to acknowledge the divisive nature of the show’s finale, while also admitting that it’s done, it’s history, it’s time to move on.

In closing out his column, Lindelof quotes one of Walter’s best lines from the Breaking Bad finale:

I stand by the Lost finale. It’s the story that we wanted to tell, and we told it. No excuses. No apologies. I look back on it as fondly as I look back on the process of writing the whole show. And while I’ll always care what you think, I can’t be a slave to it anymore. Here’s why:

I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really … I was alive.

Let’s face it, the series finale of Lost was the best-case scenario considering the direction of the show in its fifth and sixth seasons. If fans wanted the Lost finale to be better, everything about the series would also have to be retroactively better too. While Lost‘s ending was disappointing, neither was the series itself perfect or free from its own criticisms.

It’s been three years since the end of Lost. The wounds are so deep that when people watch a satisfying series finale such as Breaking Bad’s, they feel a need to lash out against Damon Lindelof for ruining six years of their lives with Lost. C’mon, it’s just a TV show, you put into it as much as you want to take out of it. Lost was a pop culture phenomenon like no other, and we should be happy that it gave us hours and hours of entertainment for free.