I can't imagine it was a lie...it was way too description, especially with her husband being happy and seeing him with another woman... and frankly, the thought that it was a lie and that she never went through would ruin the finale.
His time as president didn't actually exist, I'm guessing it's a condition from a procedure given the fact that he died 4 times
Or ripping. Key out of his heart did have an effect on the real him.
Before she maybe-dies in episode six, Laurie helps Nora track down the scientists. At the beginning of the finale, Nora is sitting outside the LADR truck, her last moments before entering the machine that will take her … somewhere, or nowhere. Inside the truck, the scene is mostly dialogue-free. But there are plenty of script directions; Lindelof’s tend to be almost freestanding vignettes, complete with metaphor, rhythm, and profanity. “And so,†the LADR sequence reads, “she walks toward it. Slow and deliberate … but without hesitation … she walks the entire length. A bride coming down the aisle. A prisoner approaching the electric chair. Or just a woman. Ready to be ****ing DONE with a place that reminds her how deeply sad she is.†Then, a page later, the mysterious moment where she maybe chickens out: “And she OPENS HER MOUTH, ALMOST AS IF SHE’S ABOUT TO SHOUT SOMETHING at the TOP OF HER AIR-STARVED LUNGS and WE — SMASH TO BLUE.€
Nora implied that the 2% were simply happy to still have each other, which is exactly opposite of the world of the 98%. Thought that was interesting.
As someone who grew disillusioned with the show as it went on, I loved the finale. I take Nora's story at face value.
In the show, there was some science behind the departure (the levels of radiation they noticed) so it's plausible that at least one person in the world managed to create a machine that could recreate the conditions that inexplicably created the departure. I personally didn't believe it. I thought that people were just vaporized and they'd never know that, since they're vaporized, and the people sending them there had no real way of knowing. I thought it was going to be about coping with loss.
But in a nice twist, it turns out these people really were onto something, and they could manufacture departures. And though the departure itself is not explained (and good, it shouldn't be), we find out that the departed think the exact same thing happened to everyone else on the other side. Their world is much more bleak.
Three things that bothered me:
1. They never showed the "alternate" world where the 2% remained.
2. If this scientist emerged on the other side and proved his machine worked, why did it take Nora hunting him down to convince him to create the machine again? If I was that scientist, the first thing I'd want to do is immediately go back to my own reality, screaming "IT WORKED!!! IT WORKED!!!"
3. In the end, what really was the point of the Guilty Remnant?
Side notes:
- They never once addressed the "end of the world" that was supposedly coming. It obviously wasn't, and life went on beyond that, as it always does when lunatics think it's coming.
- Has anyone else thought of that medical lab where Laurie was in episode one? In the alternate reality, everyone disappears and we're left with a fetus on a table dying.
Kevin's genuine joy in seeing Nora again was so amazingly endearing.
I still don't get why he went to so much trouble with his lie.
Looked like Tommy Lee Jones.Old Man Garvey was charming as ****