In the end, the finale of "Lost" gave me a headache. No, not because I was angry about the sideways world resolution. I wasn't. In fact, I enjoyed its explanation. And not because there weren't a lot of answers provided in those two and a half hours. "Lost" gave what answers it wanted to give in earlier episodes, allowing the series' end to focus on the characters and the narrative. It gave me a headache because a man can only cry so many times in 150 minutes.

Going into Sunday's cinematic episode, I had certain demands of "Lost." I wanted more information about Charles Widmore and Eloise Hawking. I needed to know what would happen to the rest of the world if Smokey ever got off the island. I expected a clearer understanding of the island's rules. And, yes, I thought I'd be unforgiving if we didn't find out who was shooting at our heroes' outrigger last season.

The minds behind "Lost" didn't fill any of those demands. Instead, they redirected viewer attention to what was important: the island narrative of the Oceanic 815 crash and the characters who were part of it. Well played.

I'll admit to a moment of hesitation in the last minutes when Jack realized that he, and everyone else in the Sideways World, was dead. When Christian Shepherd guided his son to this revelation, I feared he was saying they'd all died in the original crash, a fan theory long ago refuted by executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. But the tumblers in my brain clicked quickly into place, and I realized this wasn't the case. What happened on the island happened. The Sideways World was something that happened at life's end.

I understand why this explanation for the Sideways World would rankle many. After all, we devoted half our attention this season to a storyline that had no impact on the island war. No payoff. No direct connection. We were fooled, just like island Desmond was. The castaways didn't get to leave their struggles behind and move to their happier sideways existences, and the sideways incarnations didn't need to choose their island lives to stop the Man in Black's evil machinations.

So why didn't this bother me? For one, with this knowledge in hand, it made me want to re-watch the entire season to experience Sideways World in an honest way. To see how and why the characters' choices were a journey of letting go. There's no doubt that everyone who became stuck in the island's pull would question whether that pull had ruined their lives, and that only upon getting the fantasy fulfillment provided by the Sideways World could they understand how meaningful and emotionally fulfilling their island miseries had been. It all matters. All of it.

I'm also reminded of Stephen King's introduction to the uncut edition of "The Stand," in which he speaks of the breadcrumbs in the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel." The breadcrumbs are not essential to the story. Everything could and would happen much the same without them, yet they make the story better by fleshing out the characters and themes in ways not afforded by the main narrative thread. That's how I feel about the Sideways World. No, it wasn't necessary, but it did have something valid to say about everyone involved. There were some clunker storylines there. The Kate, Sayid and Jin/Sun stories meandered in frustrating ways, but when the stories popped, as with Jack, Locke, Desmond, Hurley and especially Ben, my enjoyment was no less meaningful simply because they weren't saving the world.

My biggest complaint with the Sideways World isn't how it resolved but the fact that it was something of a trick of the light, creating false suspense for viewers by dishonestly suggesting an imminent impact on the island timeline. Much of our investment in the events, particularly in the meandering moments, was based upon faith that it would connect. On its own I have no problem with that lack of connection, but the suggestions along the way that it would don't sit perfectly with me. I do, however, like that Desmond himself was fooled, believing that if he went into the heart of the island he'd be instantly transported to Happy Resolution Land. Thus our being tricked paralleled Desmond's, which takes a bit of the edge off my dissatisfaction.

As for the island, Lindelof and Cuse focused on the direct action necessary to resolve the series storyline. Though knowledge of the show's mythology was necessary to understand the action, this was not a mythology episode. The show wisely exhausted its font of answers in the episodes leading up to the finale. We'll argue among ourselves about whether the answers provided were satisfying, but keeping the finale free of "information download" exposition streamlined the story, allowing for immediacy and deeper viewer connection.

Everything mattered here, too. So much of the debates about the show have centered on what components of the show's chess board were placed by Jacob and which were placed by Smokey. Ultimately, they both needed the same things to set their plans in motion. Both needed the Oceanic Six back on the island. Both needed Desmond there, too. Both needed the stone cork to be removed from the heart of the island. Smokey needed this because the release of evil energy would destroy the island and set him free. Jacob, and by continuation Jack, needed it because it would make Smokey mortal.

The cliffside brawl between Jack and the Locke-faced Monster will stand as Jack Bender's finest moment on the show as an all-out action director. The sweeping camera shots captured the scene in a way few movies, let alone TV shows, do these days. For all the beatings various characters have taken in six years of the show, it really was all leading up to these two men kicking each others' asses.

And having Kate be the one to actually kill the bad guy? Unexpected and perfect. As a frequent damsel in distress on the show, putting the gun in her hands went back to the character's independent origins and allowed her to finally become what she wanted to be long before she came to the island: a protector of the people she loved.

I've spoken to a few people who weren't happy with Hurley becoming the island's ultimate protector, both because they wanted him to get off the island for a happily ever after and because they didn't want Jack to die. For me, this ending rings truer to the show's story than one where Jack spends eternity as protector. For the entire show, Jack has been "The Fixer." Got a problem you need to solve, call the Doc. He devotes himself tirelessly to an immediate problem and gets things done. But if you need someone for the long haul, he's possibly the worst guy you can get. Just ask his ex-wife. And so Jack solved the problem of the clicking cloud of black smoke that wants to wreak havoc on the world. That was his purpose. Once the problem was solved, though, the island's long disrupted status quo returns, and the island needs a protector who cares more about humanity than problem-solving. Looking at the line of succession for island protectors, Jacob's lines from the Season 5 finale ring true:

"It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress."

Each protector we've seen has been progress. Jacob improved upon his island mother by introducing choice into the proceedings. Jack improved upon Jacob by solving the one problem Jacob couldn't: Smokey. And we are left to believe that Hurley will improve upon them all through his compassion. The best evidence we have for this? The Sideways World, seemingly a gift from Hugo to all his friends. Think of it as an extension of the golf course he gave them in the first season. But better, dude.

I saved more than one bullet for you:

• Richard and Frank live! I figured they'd both turn up alive given their earlier uncertain ends, but I'm surprised -- and ecstatic -- they both made it off the island alive.
• Kate, Sawyer and Ben all seemed destined for redemptive death scenes in the finale, yet all survived at the show's end. Given that Sayid provided the series with a meaningful death fitting the redemption story archetype, I'm relieved this concept wasn't beaten into the ground by taking one or all of these other survivors with it. That Ben got what he's always wanted, and gets to be the good guy doing it, had me in tears, as did his heartfelt -- and accepted -- apology to John Locke outside the church. The one big heroic death in the finale, Jack's death in the final scene, wasn't one of redemption at all. It was one of free will.
• I'm happy not knowing what became of Kate, Sawyer, Claire, Richard, Miles and Frank after leaving the island. Since so much of this show is about choice and free will, the uncertainty of their lives ahead embodies that theme perfectly.
• I'd long expected the series' final image to be a close-up of an eye closing, and from the moment Jack awoke outside the cave and stumbled through the bamboo field, I knew where things were headed. Yet I was still surprised at how perfectly that parallel with the show's opening scene worked. And I'd never expected Vincent to come bounding out of the jungle to keep him company in his final moments.
• There's been some complaints that Michael and Walt weren't in the church at the end, but the show told us several weeks ago why we shouldn't expect Michael to be there: He's stuck on the island for eternity because of what he did there. As for Walt? Well, I guess it's just one more casualty of his adolescence.
• Speaking of Walt, a lot of people are still wondering what was so special about him and Aaron to The Others. For me it's no mystery. They're special simply because they're children. On an island where women can't have children, seems like that would be pretty important, wouldn't it?
• Yeah, I've still got questions. First and foremost right now: How the hell did Smokey get onto the freighter to for Michael's death scene? I have plenty of others, but that one nags me from a logical perspective.
• It says something about how much I loved this finale that I didn't mind missing this week's "Breaking Bad" and "Treme" one bit and am still in no rush to watch either.
• EDIT UPDATE: I just went back and watched the season's opening scene on the plane. Rose says to Jack after the turbulence: "It's over. You can let go." This just reinforces my belief that Rose and Bernard were already awake from the beginning of the Sideways World. Why were they awake? Because unlike the rest of the characters, they were the ones who let go in life, not getting involved in the drama. Thus, they only stuck around in Sideways to help everyone else -- Jack and Locke in particular -- wake up.