The most divisive TV ending ever defended by its biggest star-Sabrina Barr-Entertainment – Metro

It’s been 20 years since one of the greatest TV shows ever premiered (Picture: Getty)

On September 22 2004, one of the best TV shows ever to grace the small screen aired its first episode, introducing the world to the passengers of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815.

Over the course of six seasons, Lost took viewers on a rollercoaster journey as they watched characters including Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) discover the secrets of the island that they’d been stranded on while fighting tooth and nail to survive.

While the series created by Jeffrey Lieber, JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof is still hailed to this day, its final ever episode – which was aptly titled The End and aired on May 23 2010 – is a constant source of debate among fans, with some claiming that its one of the worst endings in TV history.

However, others argue that the emotional conclusion wrapped up the story in a beautiful way that couldn’t be topped… and ahead of the 20th anniversary of Lost’s premiere, Metro.co.uk spoke to Matthew to find out what he thought of the discourse.

Warning: spoilers ahead for the final episode of Lost.

In the very last episode of Lost, there are multiple ‘flash sideways’ scenes that show the characters in an alternate timeline, in which Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 didn’t crash on an island and instead landed at its planned destination, Los Angeles.

Dr Jack Shephard quickly takes on a leadership role after their flight from Sydney crashes (Picture: Mario Perez/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)

In the finale, Hurley (Jorge Garcia) becomes the new guardian of the island after Jack’s death (Picture: Mario Perez / Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)

It’s revealed that this alternate timeline is actually a purgatory of sorts, which allows the main characters to reunite after their deaths in the real world, before moving on to the afterlife together.

Over the years, this ending has sparked constant division among fans, with some questioning if this meant that the protagonists were dead all along… the answer to which is no.

So what does Matthew make of the ending, which has sparked a 14-year discussion so far?

‘In the six years of the show, there were so many questions asked. There were so many mysteries introduced,’ he said, having spoken to Metro.co.uk ahead of his TV show C*A*U*G*H*T coming to ITVX next year.

The 58-year-old continued: ‘For me, I loved the way the show ended, and I loved that it was a nebulous thing and there was lots of room for interpretation because the people that love the show, they have their own experience.

‘So I think that Damon Lindelof, JJ, everybody involved in the making of the show intentionally wanted it to be something that can be interpreted by each individual.’

In the final episode, Kate helps Claire give birth to her baby, Aaron (Picture: Mario Perez/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)

After being reunited in the ‘flash sideways’ scenes, the characters meet in a church and then go to the afterlife together (Picture: Mario Perez/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)

Matthew added that he ‘liked that it ended in that way’, before recalling how special a time it was for him and the people who he worked with during their six years of filming.

‘Nobody appreciates that experience more than me. It was an amazing six-year period of time,’ he shared.

‘We were living in Hawaii, our kids were really young. They still have a real bond with Oahu and Kailua Bay. It was a lot of work. Nobody ever anticipated – I don’t think – that the show would become such a global hit, and so there was a lot of publicity requirements.

‘I had to travel a lot. So it did take me away from the house a lot, just being on set and doing all the travelling. But all in all, it was an amazing experience. I’m very grateful for it.’

Expressing how much he loved the ‘incredible memories’ that he had from making Lost, Matthew then looked back specifically at what it was like during their first year.

It’s incredible to believe it’s been two decades years since Lost began (Picture: Bob D’Amico/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)

‘When we were shooting nights and in the jungle, there was something really amazing about working on Lost. When we were not on stage – and that was a good portion of the time and particularly the first year I don’t even think we had stages the first season,’ he stated.

‘Everywhere we shot, everything around you was real. As an actor, there’s something really amazing about that.’

He recollected how ‘brutal’ some of the night shoots were, when they were filming rain sequences that required ‘torrential rain’ so that they could be picked up on camera, and so had to wear wetsuits to cope with the conditions.

‘Even though this doesn’t sound like a really great memory, it was, because there was a certain bonding experience that happened in that first year of all of us going through sometimes fairly gruelling shooting conditions,’ he outlined.

‘We were all excited about the thing we were making. We all had been transplanted from many locations around the United States to this island in the South Pacific. Our lives in some weird way were paralleling the lives of the characters that we were playing on the show. The first season was pretty, pretty awesome.’

C*A*U*G*H*T is coming to ITVX in 2025.

Lost is available to stream on Netflix and Disney Plus.

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