Lost again

This post by solarbird captures some of what I was thinking about Lost, but says it better.
Her essential point: Nothing seems to change. It doesn’t appear that Hurley taking over as guardian will affect anything, the Dharma initiative never accomplished anything, Jacob didn’t do anything but continue the cycle, whatever cycle it was.
And her comments, in turn, got me thinking about this post of mine, which discusses the various arcs a story can have: A character arc, a mystery arc (a mystery is presented and eventually solved), a setting arc (you enter a place, explore, leave—hopefully changed), a plot arc.
As a plot or event arc, the Lost ending would have been fine: Everyone’s off the island or dead, the smoke beast is defeated, a new Guardian is chosen. Plot over.
As a character arc it would have been adequate, maybe. It is very much about them all finding a happy ending, but it doesn’t really deal with the character aspects raised in the show other than a kind of deus ex (look! They’re all happy! Traumas over!).
Setting arc? Might have worked. They arrived on the island, they explored, they left.
Mystery arc? There we have the problem. This was never as much about the setting or the plot as it was the mystery (and to some extent the characters): What is the smoke monster? Where did Jack’s father come from? What is the secret of the numbers? Of Claire’s baby? Who are the others and the Dharma initiative? And so forth.
And that’s why leaving so many loose ends doesn’t work. And saying “Well, there could be an explanation” doesn’t work either. And why throwing in the miracle light mid-season—when we’ve never had the slightest hint this cave exists, and still don’t really know what it does—doesn’t work (with no previous hints about it, it feels closer to a deus ex [yes, again] than a revelation).
This show was about cracking the mysteries of the island, and in the end, they didn’t. Or not enough of them.
It reminds me of a comment by the mystery writer G.K. Chesterton about the difference between a true mystic and a phony.
A mystic will show you everything, and you’ll still be mystified.
A phony will hide everything, and when you see the man behind the curtain, it’s a banality.
I know where I’m putting Lost.