Did you see that? Yes, I did. But I didn't see it coming. I was never a friend of any purgatory theories, believing somehow in a Jughead-created alternate timeline like in JJs Star Trek, for me everything in Lost was aways 'real'. I settled for the The End with a nice bottle of Shiraz from Australia, after 16 weeks without any drink, and boy, I needed it. Let me go back to my beginnings of Lost for a moment. I watched the pilot on german TV, and while I mistook the Monster for a jungle-roving T-Rex, I got hooked by the mystery of Rousseaus message. My thought then was… this is going to take forever. I did not follow season one on TV, but when it came out on DVD I ripped it down to test the then first video-capable iPod. As I reached the numbers, I was totally trapped. Then it ended, with the open hatch. Lucky me, season 2 was already available, so I did not suffer the one-year-gap before finding Desmond in The Swan. What really rocked my boat was that I had something like a hatch, too. My old darkroom was located in a bunker, and in it were as well an Apple II like the one used for entering the numbers, as an unread copy of The Third Policeman, as in the Swan library. From the moment I glimpsed the book in Lost, I was a believer. I grew up as a scifi/movie buff with a history with Douglas Adams (being a photojournalist helps getting close to people you want to meet), so I embraced all of Losts promises and riddles with an open heart. After sason two ended, I watched it in one go, like the first one, I reached out to the web to find answers. For the forst time I engaged in forums and dicussion boards. I spent the hiatus and season 3 on the ABC board, and witnessed how the line 'like the hatch blew off your underware' was written there and ended up in Hurleys mouth. Later I was on Lostargs, following the clues dropped by DCAAPB at the final comicon panel, fighting with our very own tribe of Others, the foulmouthed print-flippers of Expressobeans. I met friends worldwide via Lost, some I expect to stay in contact with long after the end. I tried again and again to get a question into Damons and Carltons podcast, haha. On may 23, 2009, one year before The End, something strange happened. I got caught with my left leg between a subway car and the platform, but managed to escape in a split second before the train left. As near death experiences go, it changed my life. Sometimes during the seasons I came to the conclusion the Lost was a trick of the universe to tell me something I did not want to know. So I promised to follow the advice the finale was supposed to deliver. I am a pretty stubborn person, often too smart for my own good, unable to let go, but I played along. So the message for me was clearly, forgive your father and move on. Which I did, but the realisation hit me like a hammer. Like the train, one year ago. I embraced both events, and moved on. Lost is over. Of course I have lot's of thoughts on the mythological impact of The End, but this is up for interpretation, and everybody will come to their own conclusions. Some love it, some hate it. From the moment Jack checked out that skull x-ray I was sure he will die. Which was okay for me. I totally loved the end, with him closing the eye that opened the world of Lost for us all these awesome six years ago.
