Over the last six years, I was an on-again, off-again “Lost” watcher. I really got into it when I lived on Oahu. I really got off of it when I was too linear for the show’s own good.

I was a Lapsed-Lost follower.

I hadn’t seen an episode for three years until I was hooked by last week’s hype.

The last show?  Really?  No more “Lost”?  Honest to God?  I was back on the island.

Without benefit of Cliff Notes, it took me awhile to figure out how I was “Lost” all those years. But it didn’t matter. And then it all came together. The “lost” were found, and everyone was reunited in….  Heaven?

I suppose if I was a devotee all these years, this would have been my religious experience.  The family coming together and seeing the light.

But I wonder how else they could have tied things up. People coming together for a journey, but instead of Oceanic 815, they’re sitting in pews at a church. The 8:15 Mass?

The number of Christian references would have bothered me if I were say Buddhist or Muslim.  But since I was in church earlier that day for Pentecost Sunday and had the image of tongues of fire in my mind all day, I was  intrigued how openly Christian the finale was.

Symbols abound: The coffin marked “Christian Shepherd.”  The drinking of the cup, with the words, “Now you are like me.”   Desmond being lowered to the depths of fire and the earth moving–“Revelation”?  Ben apologizing to John, and John saying, “I forgive you.”  Jack the son, with his father, who has all the answers, or not.  But yes, we’re all dead. No Last Supper. But there is a group hug/cocktail-less cocktail party, with everyone ending up in the pews. There are 16 people, 4  more than the apostles. And the father walks down the aisle to open the door.  Let there be light.  Transfiguration? And then it’s all interspersed with  Jack on the  island,  on his back, wounded on his side, a more obvious Christ figure, no? But Jesus didn’t have his dog with him in the end. 

I swear the show was more fun than watching the Church Channel.

I watched the ending again this morning, and if I wasn’t so snarky, I’d say the guilt from missing the last three seasons almost rendered me teary-eyed. But I dare say it was more remarkable a display from the producers than not, and hardly the cop-out as suggested by one major daily.

If you wanted a technical explanation for things, you’re a fool anyway. The producers had it more right than not.  I forgive them their convolution.

When you kill a show, you are attending a funeral. I did catch symbols of other religions on the stained glass windows, so it wasn’t totally Christian, just predominantly so. But the tone was fine for saying goodbye. The story isn’t about physics and science. It’s about human relations and characters, and for something so Hollywood the “Lost” finale was pretty damn moving.

Now on to the end of  “24,”where the devil shall be  vanquished as the day ends.