In the Fall of 2004, I wandered down to the common room of my college residence and found a few neighbours watching a show about a plane crash. There was a pretty girl on the run from a cop in what appeared to be a flashback heavy show, not dissimilar from Prison Break. I always figured shows like that were unsustainable because the circumstances of the show (eg. a plane crash or a prison break) forced the climax to come too soon (eg. escaping the island or prison). After all, how much can you write for characters stuck in one space for so long?

Of course I dismissed the show and thought it was no good. I then proceeded to forget about it entirely for the next 3 years, save for a brief moment where I caught a glimpse of an episode where two characters were underground looking at television sets. I thought, “What in the world has this show come to?” In the winter of 2008, a co-worker proclaimed it the best show on television. Still, however, I remained unconvinced based on my initial impression.

Another year passed and when the show’s fifth season was on, I finally decided to give it a chance. I downloaded the first 10 episodes and uploaded them to my iphone. Without considering the morbidity of it, I watched the first episode on a plane to Florida. Even on the tiny screen, I was utterly captivated. The opening sequence of Jack rescuing people from the plane wreckage was more intense than anything I’d ever seen on television.

The rest is history, really.

I quickly made my way through all of the first 5 seasons (my record was watching 12 episodes in a day) and caught up to where the show was airing live with 3 episodes left to go in the fifth season.

This year I watched the show’s sixth and final season along with everyone else and became somewhat of a superfan. Like much of the internet fan base, I partook in extensive theorizing about the show’s many mysteries. It made it more fun, trying to piece the puzzle together. Along the way there were times where I got heated about some of the decisions made by the writers, especially when it came to revealing (or not revealing) all of the island’s mythology, but mostly I was very enamoured by all the twists and turns.

Last night, the show ended. It was a glorious two and a half hours where I felt like I was saying a heart-wrenching goodbye to all my best friends. The final ten minutes sealed it all for me and erased any qualms that I had about unsolved mysteries and the decision to spend 50% of the final season on an alternate reality. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t yet seen it (other than with the image above), but it was so incredibly moving. The music, the acting, it was all just so stunning.

Now I’m not quite sure what to do with myself…