Lost, which has just been added to Netflix in the US, has the most misunderstood finale of all time.
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The final ever scenes of Lost are intercut between events on the island and an alternate timeline known as the flashsideways – scenes that replace the flashbacks and flashforwards for the entire final season.
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These flashsideways scenes present a purgatory-of-sorts, where these characters come to when they eventually do die whenever that may be.
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So, to clear up the confusion: in the flashsideways scenes, these characters are dead.