A Lost Star Defended the Show’s Controversial Ending 15 Years Later (& He’s Completely Right)

15 years after Lost came to an end with one of the most divisive finales in TV history, Daniel Dae Kim still defends the choice to leave many questions unanswered. Developed by J. J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, and Carlton Cuse, Lost became one of the most notable, popular, and revolutionary TV shows in history throughout its six-season run between 2004 and 2010. Following the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 that crashes on a mysterious island with an unusual backstory and even more unusual inhabitants, Lost set a very high standard for sci-fi adventure shows to come.

Lost has been celebrated as one of the greatest TV shows of all time, and received hundreds of awards nominations throughout its run, winning numerous. This put a lot of pressure on the season 6 finale to give the series a satisfying ending, and, by all accounts, it succeeded. However, many viewers were displeased with how Lost ended, as many questions from the mystery series remain unanswered, and the fates of many characters are still unclear. 15 years after the finale aired on May 23, 2010, Daniel Dae Kim, who played Jin-Soo Kwon in Lost, defended the show’s polarizing ending.

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Daniel Dae Kim Has Defended Lost’s Controversial Finale

“I think I have some understanding of it,” Daniel Dae Kim explained to PEOPLE back in May 2025. “I was able to talk to the showrunners and I enjoyed it. I know it was controversial, but I enjoyed it because it provided closure for the characters, and that’s the thing I wanted most from that finale.” Kim refers to the very ending of Lost’s finale, “The End,” which sees Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly), and all their island family members reunite in the afterlife and move on to whatever’s next together.

Some found this ending seriously confusing, but Kim (and we) suggest it was actually the perfect way for the series to conclude. The concept of the “flash-sideways” was introduced in Lost season 6 to propose what might have happened had Oceanic Flight 815 never crashed on the island. However, it soon became clear that the potential survivors had too many connections in this timeline for it to be an alternate timeline. Instead, the flash-sideways were revealed to be the afterlife, with each of the survivors finding each other to remember their lives and how important they were to each other.

This was a beautiful way to bid farewell to Lost, and even introduced some fantastic lore to the series right at the very end, as the concept of the afterlife was officially confirmed. While this left the present-day fate of many characters unclear, it was brilliant to see most of the original crash survivors back together, contributing to one of TV’s most emotional moments. Daniel Dae Kim even comments on this, suggesting people still come up to him to talk about Lost, stating that it’s “very special [and] very unique.”

Lost’s Finale Changed TV Forever 15 Years Ago

Daniel Dae Kim is clearly right about Lost’s finale. TV shows don’t actually need to wrap up every loose end to give audiences a satisfying finale. The joy of Lost is that the lives of the final survivors — Kate, Sawyer (Josh Holloway), and Claire (Emilie de Ravin), as well as Frank Lapidus (Jeff Fahey), Miles Straume (Ken Leung), and Richard Alpert (Néstor Carbonell) — continues on after leaving the Island once and for all. Other individuals who managed to get away also have unresolved storylines, but that’s okay, as they eventually reunited in the afterlife, no matter what lives they led.

During a show of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen back in 2016, Daniel Dae Kim stated, “It didn’t matter all the questions that got unanswered and the minutiae of kind of details that everyone was obsessing about… I liked to see that they were moving off together because they spent some of their lives together. Now they were gonna spend eternity together.” This ending, which left many questions unanswered, the true nature of the Island unexplained, and many mysteries unresolved, was game-changing for TV, as audiences were so used to having every tiny thread wrapped up.

In the 15 years since Lost ended, and even during its six-season run, many TV shows have tried to replicate the show’s impact and become “the new Lost.” None have successfully matched the prominence and impact of the ABC series, however, and Lost persists as one of the most iconic and memorable TV shows in history. There’s no doubt it will hold this title for many, many years to come, even though we might never get answers to some of the finale’s burning questions.

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