I only just discovered the series three months ago, and spent hours upon hours online watching seasons 1-6 so I could catch up to new episodes on TV. Now it's over.
I think that the last of 'Lost' gave us fans plenty to be content with. While the last five minutes certainly seemed to be a turn to religion, I cannot express enough how it was not. The entire story of the series was too complex, spent too much time on other dynamics- philosophy, physics, story telling, the good vs evil. There is no way the producers and writers would let it dumb down to religion. Instead it was a test of us to believe that it's something in each of us that is bigger than how we perceive ourselves. I believe there were many messages throughout the two and a half hours. One being we are connected more than anything by love and the creation of life; that no matter who we are, we are capable of something so much larger than we give ourselves credit for. That life and love are beautiful and can take us anywhere. That we overcome anything when we realize we don't have to answer all of life's questions, but just need those important ones in our life to be close to us as we move along through the stages. As one of the actors put, if you were looking for decisive answers to all the questions then you were probably disappointed; if you were looking for emotional closure to the characters stories then you were probably satisfied. I was satisfied.
However, there was one theory I had that was no doubt shot down. I figured for them to have their "awakening" in the flash-sideways, that everyone needed to die in the real life. Obviously Hugo, Ben, Kate, Frank, Sawyer, Miles, Desmond, and Claire did not die as they either stayed behind on the island (Hugo, Ben) or left via the Ajira plane. Wtf? So there would be two of the latter characters living in real life? Also- Hurley's conversation with Ben outside the church suggests that as they were all meeting there, it was a farther into the future than Jack's last moments on the island. So does that mean what we thought were the flash-sideways really ended up being the flash-forwards? It would coincide with my theory that everyone would have had to die to make it there to the church that day, but at this point who knows. Those are the only things I have left unanswered, but I love that there are remaining questions. The show will never die this way. Goodbye to the greatest show I've ever viewed.
