Lost: The Finale

ETA: This wasn't supposed to get so long, but I had a lot to say, so read in increments if necessary.

I haven't been writing much about Lost lately, but that doesn't mean I haven't been watching. The problem is, recapping every episode is just so draining because that show was completely PLOT PLOT PLOT this season and trying to sift through the meanings and surprises every week was just too much - more strenuous than just picking Chuck's best outfit, for example. But I've been riveted and totally enjoyed the season. I just hope that next year slows down just a little bit and focuses on character a little more. That would make me happy.


With that in mind, what do we all think about the game-changing season finale? Or was it even game changing? One of the initial complaints I read about the finale was that after Juliet hits the bomb, the show fades to white and there's no "skipping ahead, we have to go back to the island Kate, OMG that's Locke in the coffin" kind of moment. We can't really speculate as to what might happen, or what might have happened, because we didn't get a little peek at what next season entails. I didn't see this at first - there's plenty to guess about with NotLocke and Jacob and "the incident" - but the truth is we have absolutely no idea what's coming. There were no clues.

For example, Miles could be totally and completely right: maybe them setting off the bomb is what causes the damaging, plane-crash inducing energy in the first place. In which case, nothing changes. They just set in motion what was already going to happen. But then the story doesn't move because they all either die in 1977, or they don't, but the past doesn't get rewritten. I doubt this is the way it will go because if setting off the bomb is the actual catalyst for the future, and not the source of it's change, then that means Juliet, Sayid and most likely (because of their proximity to the bomb) Jack, Kate and Sawyer are all dead, yo. They're not killing off half the main cast in 1977 if they're not bringing them back at LAX in 2004. Also, the bomb could have blown up the entire island (possible?) and that kills 90% of the original Lostaways. The bomb had to have changed something in the future.


But what does that mean? Desmond no longer comes to the island? Juliet is still stuck working on the Others' fertility issues? Or did the Others all blow up too? Will Jack and Kate and Sawyer and Hurley get off the plane in 2004 not knowing each other, but feeling some inexplicable pull to one another? Does this mean we'll be seeing Boone, Shannon, Michael, Ana Lucia, Libby, Mr. Eko, Claire and Charlie again? (Maybe Daniel, please? And how would they recast young Walt?) Will the original cast all be called back to work? Cause I see only two possibilities: Either the bomb worked and they do end up back at the beginning (everyone), or it didn't and Sawyer, Kate, Jack, Hurley, Jin and Miles are still stuck in 1977 trying to find another way back to Sun, NotLocke and Ben in 2007. But I just don't see that happening. Especially if it means Sayid and Juliet (and Locke?) stay dead. Basically it's impossible to know how to discuss next season and it's possibilities until we know what that bomb actually did. (Although, if it did work and they all land in LAX, it won't be about the island anymore. Will Jacob be coming by, somehow drawing them all to the island another way? Will they have strange dreams? Or will the plane crash on Craphole island anyways - without Desmond's button-not-pushing energy pulse? I just don't see how this will happen and it's driving me nuts!)


Mystery crap aside, I thought the episode was pretty well-done, with one glaring exception: character motivations! It's all well and good for the love triangle/quadrangle to be alive and very present in the 1977 happenings. And for the most part, I think it's been well-handled. I understand the confusion Kate and Sawyer feel about seeing each other again - both still have feelings but Sawyer obviously loves Juliet and is committed to her regardless of his feelings for Kate, and Kate is reeling from the confusion of her relationship with Jack and grieving the loss of Aaron (btw, thanks for finally doing the right thing in that regard, Kate. I almost liked you for minute) - I love that Juliet and Kate are being very mature with each other and not on the verge of a passive aggressive catfight every minute, and most of Jack and Sawyer's pissing contest has had more to do with their leadership roles than any kind of fight over Kate or Juliet. Basically, I like that these relationship ties are present, but aren't overwhelming the show at every turn.


Which is why Jack and Juliet's motivations in the finale pissed me off so badly. It's all well and good for Juliet to notice the lingering attraction between Kate and Sawyer, but does it have to be the catalyst for all of her decisions involving detonating a hydrogen bomb. There were plenty of reasons for both stopping Jack and helping Jack and none of them had to do with Kate and Sawyer:

• Pros for Stopping Jack: He doesn't know what he's doing and is reacting to a lack of purpose and destiny, he may very well cause the event he's trying to stop, he may blow up the entire island pointlessly killing thousands of innocent people (i.e. children and spouses of Dharma Initiative assholes, Rose and Bernard - btw, thanks for finally showing us what happened to them!).

• Pros for Helping Jack: Daniel was right, the entire destiny of the passengers of Oceanic #815 has been caught in a bloodbath between Charles Widmore, Benjamin Linus and the mysterious deity of Jacob, Jack, Kate, Sawyer and everyone else were never supposed to come to the island so it is only right to stop the cycle before half of them die.

Do you see "Because Sawyer still kind of has feelings for Kate" on that list, Juliet? No.

But Juliet's reasons for initially helping Kate stop Jack seemed to be that she wanted Kate and Jack out of their hair so she and Sawyer could escape without guilt, and her reason for the sudden about face was that Sawyer looked at Kate and Juliet realized she didn't want to one day lose him to her. AHHHHH!!!! Why writers??? I think rather than have Juliet shift allegiances so quickly based on a look, it would have been perfectly reasonable for her to notice the looks between Kate and Sawyer, say nothing about them, and instead be swayed while talking to Sayid and Hurley (while Jack and Sawyer are talking in the woods), because Sayid could certainly explain the pros of the Help Jack plan more clearly than Jack (even with a bullet in his gut) and Hurley could bring up the possibility of having his friends Claire, Charlie and Libby not die needless deaths. Juliet's decision could easily be a combination of doing the right thing and knowing that she has to let Sawyer go to potentially save his life so he never has to come to Craphole island. Knowing how much she loves him, this seems like a more reasonable reason for her change of heart than all this "If I never meet you then at least I'll never have to lose you" crap. The love between Sawyer and Juliet will still be well established by the end of the episode with that heartbreakingly tragic crying and falling into the hole death of hers.


And Jack's reasons aren't any better. For all his talk about finally knowing what he was supposed to be doing there, and his new special destiny (God, was he jealous of Locke), when it boiled down to it, he just wanted Kate back. And somehow wiping out all their history and leaving it to fate (a fate that possibly brought you to Craphole in the first place) will win her back. Well, I'm with Sawyer on this one: "Well damn, Doc, she's standing right on the other side of those trees. You want her back? Just go and ask her." Seems a lot easier than blowing up an entire island, especially since it seems like Kate would probably take you back with minimal groveling on your part. See? There were plenty of good reasons for Jack to blow up the island (saving the lives of all their fellow passengers and friends who have died on this island for no good reason seems like a perfectly valid argument to me) but it has to be about Kate. Wouldn't it be more bittersweet and touching if he were blowing up the island, changing their futures, for the right reasons, to save lives, to make their lives better, and doing so with the knowledge that he might lose her forever as a consequence of the right thing, rather than just so he gets a cosmic clean slate with Kate? I was kind of like, "You had me, Jack. Then you lost me."

And why didn't anyone but Kate ever bring up the valid reason they shouldn't change their futures: that they won't know each other anymore. (Okay, yes, Sawyer brought that up briefly as well.) I'm not saying that it justifies all the deaths, but without the island, Jack never would have made internal peace with his father because he never would have heard what Christian said to Sawyer about loving his son. Kate would most likely have gone straight to jail and without Jack's character testimony, the infamy of being one of the Oceanic 6, and being a (false) mother, Kate would be rotting in jail right now. Sawyer would still be a no good conman, without a chance to work for redemption. Charlie would have probably died anyways, of an overdose. Hurley would be crazy and friendless and still convinced he's bad luck in a mental institution. Rose would have died of cancer. Locke would be rolling around, without purpose, in a wheelchair. And Sun and Jin would be distant and out of love and she never would have gotten pregnant because in the real world Jin is sterile. About the only person who comes off that plane the better for never having gone to Craphole is Sayid. He never would have become a killer again. So I as least understand why he's doing this. But everyone else's motivations are suspect. I have no problem with what they all eventually did, but their reasons were so badly written.


Wow, sorry for the rant, but I couldn't believe no one brought all this up on the show. That is straight where my mind went.

As for the Jacob, NotLocke, Ben stuff, I really don't know what to make of all that. It was great to finally see Jacob, get some idea of who he is, but I don't know how that will play out next season. Is he good or bad? He certainly seemed like a decent guy, it seemed like he was looking out for all of our Lostaways at various points in their lives, he was calm and reasonable and didn't like Ben. All good points. But were the Others and Richard always taking their orders from him? Did he really have Ben gas the entire Dharma Initiative and then live in their houses? (Now that I've met the Dharma Initiative I'm less upset about that, but still, that was harsh!) Did Jacob really tell Widmore to steal Rousseau's baby? It's impossible to know whether we can trust Jacob or not until we know exactly what he has ordered and why and exactly what his purpose on the island is. And who are these new people on the island who're supposedly the "good guys," and who are there to help Jacob. What's their deal? I'm at a loss.


As for the guy who hates Jacob? (Don't know his name - IMDb doesn't have a name listed - but the writer at TWoP has cleverly been calling him Esau. Check your bible stories about the birthright between brothers Jacob and Esau to see what that's all about, although I have no idea if that's what the Lost writers intended since I don't know if that's his real name. Would be cool if it was.) Apparently he hates Jacob and has been trying to figure out a way to kill him for centuries. And now he finally found a way: get Ben to do it. But Ben was only doing it because he thought this guy was Locke, which is wasn't, and because the Smoke Monster told him he has to do everything Locke says. But the writer at TWoP had another theory: what if the the Smoke Monster is this Esau/Not Locke guy. And I also think he's been masquerading as Christian Shepard, giving bad advice, stealing Claire's soul, etc. But what is his beef? I don't know. Does Jacob need to be killed? Is he actually a bad guy? No idea. (See the ep recap, which includes all the theories, here.)

So the finale sets up this great reveal about NotLocke (and btw, kudos to Terry O'Quinn for playing him so well because he was still Locke-like but with this greater confidence and kind of creepy edge and it's been so fun to watch), that he's trying to kill Jacob and that Locke is really dead, but we know next to nothing about these characters and how they really fit into the story. So the episode felt like it simultaneously spent too much and not enough time on these guys. Also, if the great Bomb-Time-Reset of 1977 works, doesn't that just wipe out the killing of Jacob? Is that what Jacob meant when he said, "They're coming" or was he talking about the Shadow of the Four-Toed Statue people? I'm so confused. Did Jacob bring everyone to the island to save himself from this killer? AHHHHHH!!!!! I don't know what any of this means.


Final thoughts:

1.) I really enjoy Miles as a character and a second source of comic relief. Keep him around. Although I still want Daniel back - he was fun and strange and twitchy. 2.) Favorite moment was definitely that tragic Juliet and Sawyer scene. Fantastic acting from both. First time I cried all season. 3.) Please find a way to keep Sayid and Desmond around more next season. I just plain like Desmond and Sayid is about the only character I always trust. 4. I hope we do see Charlie again next year. I liked him. Or maybe I just like Dominic Monaghan. 5.) I felt for Sawyer being yanked around all episode. His incredulousness to Juliet after she changed her mind was priceless. 6.) That fight with Jack was awesome and a long time coming. 7.) Never make me watch that asshole Radzinsky ever again. Hate. With the fire of a thousand suns. 8.) I feel a little cheated out of a Jin and Sun reunion. An entire season and the only scene they shared was the flashback to their wedding day (where they did look fantastically happy). 9.) I actually really liked the moment when Jack dropped the bomb and him, Kate, Juliet and Sawyer looked so hopeful and sad at the same time.


Overall, I was pretty pleased with the season and though the season was a tad plot heavy, I enjoyed every minute while it was happening and really appreciated getting answers about the Dharma Initiative, the island, Jacob, the Others, and just having the characters talk about whether they have a choice in all this or not. And I think the finale has set up next season nicely, I just have no idea what that will be. So if the show will just slow down a little next year and allow me to like some of the characters again, that would be really nice.