It says a lot about a TV series that I would celebrate Greg’s birthday by taking us to a nearby hotel and staging an island party just so we could watch the series finale of ‘Lost’ in a suitably festive atmosphere. And Greg was completely okay with sharing natal-day-honors with a TV show, as I knew he would be.

It also says a lot about a show that its particular lexicon and paradigm enter your own vocabulary somewhat effortlessly. So when we were packing up to go, Greg gave me the last sip of his Diet 7-Up when I had my hands full of suitcases and then said solemnly, “Now you’re like me.” And we both cracked up.

Now, if you didn’t get that reference and haven’t been watching the show, you’re probably thinking everyone should shut up already and get a life. Which is always a suitable response from a non-fan to a fan, because fans always sound a little whacked. But as a Lost fan, can I make a pitch? If you’ve been in the habit of eschewing all things shown on big screens and little screens because they’re such utter dreck, I totally agree and could cite the long list of blog posts on the subject to back me up.

But I would also say that you might want to make an exception in this case, because I think this is some of the most inventive and creative storytelling I’ve ever seen. And although the meta-messages and The Point of the show (which is what everyone is still filling screens and screens parsing out) was not overtly religious, as most people understand it, I thought it was actually on its way to being downright Orthodox.

So if you’re at ALL inclined to take a peek and see for yourself, I’d say rent the first DVD of the first season and just watch the first show, and if at all possible, do it without thinking of all the over-the-top hype that it has gotten. Just watch for yourself and see what you think. I did that in ‘07 and Greg and I were hooked. (If you’re the type that cannot function without spoilers, you should read the first link I’ve got below, but I think it may actually make things more difficult, rather than easier.)

So that’s my pitch to the non-fans. Now, if you are a fan … how ABOUT that finale?

To begin with, I don’t think I’ll try to add to the really good (if somewhat obsessive) speculation and analysis that’s out there right now. Here are two good places to go to see some of the best of it:

• Best summary of the entire show in a few paragraphs HERE
• One person’s take on the 50 questions the show needed to answer in the last episode, with a scorecard of how they did HERE.

As for my own thoughts, mostly I’m thinking what I’m always thinking when TV shows and movies go epic, which is that when people go epic enough, they always end up brushing against the Christian narrative. Sin and redemption, life and death, this life and the next, the rational world and the mystery of something beyond that, good and evil, reward and punishment … and so on and so on.

It’s for certain that there were Christian Lost fans who were disappointed not to have the Christian messages not be more overt, but I think it’s tremendously more significant, under the circumstances, that the show got criticism on secular sites for being “too religious.” Because even though surveys tell us that Christians are out in there in large numbers, you wouldn’t know it to watch television or movies. And if some fans are complaining, there are probably a lot more that may be wondering. Not that they’ll end up ‘making their decision’ (or whatever the evangelical parlance is), but they may start to think that there’s something to talk about. They may take a peek inside a Bible or go talk to an old friend who’s a believer, just to see if there’s a hint more about that irresistable mystery that made the show so appealing.

For my part, I think I need to watch the finale again, and I might have some more specific points that cry out for a blog post (because there aren’t nearly enough out there already on the subject, right? :-/ )

But in the meantime, I think the best point I’ve heard about the big narrative of the show was something Greg brought to my attention: The rules of the Island, which everyone spends most of their time trying to figure out, aren’t actually rules. They can be bent, depending on the circumstance and who’s in charge. So when Jacob is in charge, no one can leave the Island; when Hurley’s in charge, people can leave if they want to.

If that doesn’t make much sense, I may have to think it over a little bit myself and see if I can put it in a better context. But it seems profound to me. Which is what you could say about many, many moments in all six seasons of the show. And that again is something that makes it stand apart.