LOST Finale - No Longer Lost (In a Good Way)

Well, it’s been awhile since I’ve been on the ol’ blog. So. Here’s my take on LOST’s season finale. It’s hard to believe that we’re going into season four–time certainly has flown since 2004. Speaking of time. Remember the Mittelos Bioscience? Remember how it’s an anagram for lost time? Well…this sort of plays into the season finale.

Jack’s Flash Forward

Jack centric, this episode focuses around him and what will come to pass if he (they) get rescued. It starts with Jack onboard an Oceanic air flight, slinging back a few drinks. He looks rough, too. He has a full beard, which looks like it could nest at least a dozen rats. His clothes are frumpy and look like they haven’t been washed in awhile (in fact, they look like they could be second hand). When he asks the flight attendant for another drink, she says he’s had enough and that they’ll be landing in twenty minutes to which he responds that twenty minutes is a long damn time. So. Like I said, he’s pretty darn torn up on the inside and outside.

Reaching over to grab the newspaper, he notices a story that causes him to become upset. A little bit later, this causes Jack to consider suicide. He stops on a bridge, climbs the ledge, and just as he’s about to jump, we hear a car crash into another. At first, I thought somebody had crashed into Jack’s parked car. However, later we learn this isn’t the case. A woman driving by saw him standing there, ready to jump. She became distracted and ended up smashing into an oncoming car.

This same woman Jack pulls from the burning wreckage. In a way, the woman saved him from himself. He saves the woman and her kid. Then, we see him want to operate on the woman to…I guess redeem himself. Yet, he isn’t allowed by the head doctor to do the surgery. We see him continue to spiral out of control. He ends up becoming a drug addict. It isn’t pretty. In fact, Matthew Fox does an excellent job, really, portraying Jack in his downward spiral.

Throughout Jack’s flashes we continue to see visions of what will come to pass. These flash-forwards, at first, seemed a little confusing, since we’re all used to the customary flashback, but the last few scenes made clear that this was the future, not the past, that Jack was seeing. He goes to a funeral parlor where he expects there to be a funeral for…somebody. However, there wasn’t a funeral–only a viewing that nobody attends but him. The funeral director asks him if he’d like to have him open the coffin. Jack tells him no. The last flash-forward has Jack calling somebody and asking them to meet him at the airport.

He pulls up to the usual spot and gets out of his vehicle. He’s not outside long when a car pulls up. A woman gets out. It’s hard to see who it is at first, but then the shadowy figure materializes into noneother than Kate. That’s when it’s obvious this isn’t in the past but the future. Jack tells her that they need to go back–back to the island? Kate tells him that they don’t and that she needs to get back to him before he starts wondering where she went. She gets back into her car and takes off, leaving Jack alone to his own devices. It turns out he’s been flying Oceanic airways using the Golden Ticket (which apparently the airline has given the survivors of 815), hoping the plane will crash so that he can end up on the island again.

The Beach

Last week, Sayid, Jin, and Bernard volunteered to stay behind and shoot the dynamite. The Others’ assault team attacks but seven of them are, indeed, dashed to pieces by explosions. However, something goes wrong with Jin’s dynamite–it won’t blow up no matter how many times he shoots it. The surviving Others eventually subdue their three attackers. But that definitely was by no means easy for them. Jin took out two of them before they could really shoot back. Sayid also took a few out as well.

Later, Juliet and Sawyer arrive on the scene. Juliet shoots one of the Others. But, nothing prepared me for what happened next. Hugo came rumbling out of the jungle in the old Dharma van. He ran the Others’ assault team leader down. Then, Sawyer shot Tom twice. Oh, and Sayid breaks an Others’ neck utilizing his legs–you’ll have to watch it to see how.

The Looking Glass

Charlie is tied to a chair in typical LOST fashion and has two beautiful and highly motivated female captors, Bonnie and Greta, interrogating him for information. They did a number on him, too. He had blood all over him. Eventually Charlie does tell Bonnie what he’s there for. She laughs and tells him he’ll still need the code to deactivate the jammer and that only she, Greta, and Ben know what it is. The two of them confer with each other and then contact Ben about Charlie.

Later, Ben sends Mikhail on a mission to kill Charlie. Mikhail arrives at the beach just as Desmond is waking up from his little, Charlie-induced nap. Desmond has to duck almost immediately as Mikhail starts firing at him, trying to kill him. The only place for Desmond to go, of course, is into the water and down to the Looking Glass. He makes it down and into the station, arriving as the two ladies are arguing amongst each other. Charlie tells Desmond there’s two of them down there and to hide.

Bonnie and Greta hear Charlie talking. They rush out into the main room and ask him who he was talking to. He tells them he was singing. He continues with “You All Everybody” and Bonnie threatens to shoot him with the spear gun if he doesn’t stop. Then, she goes for it anyway and heads toward the locker desmond is in. That’s when Mikhail pops up in the moon pool.

Mikhail talks to Ben using the station’s radio. Ben tells him that he needs to kill Bonnie and Greta. After some hesitation, Mikhail heads out into the main room and shoots Greta dead. Bonnie goes for her gun when Mikhail shoots her in the stomach. Her gun drops from her hands as she falls to the floor. Mikhail is about to shoot Charlie when Desmond spears him through the back with the spear gun. Mikhail collapses to the floor, apparently dead. Bonnie reaches for her gun but Desmond picks it up and trains it on her while Charlie asks her for the code. She tells him that the control panel was programmed by a musician and follows the beat of the Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations.

Desmond starts covering up the bodies while Charlie goes into the control room to tap out Good Vibrations. Charlie succesfully puts in the code and deactivates the jammer. Almost immediately an incoming message is received. Charlie presses the flashing red button and Penelope pops up on the screen over the console. Initially the quality of the communication is fuzzy but she eventually comes in sharp and clear. Charlie tells her about the ship, which confuses her. She says it’s not her boat. Desmond rushes to the console when he hears Charlie telling him Penelope is on the screen. That’s when there is a tap at the window.

Charlie looks up and sees Mikhail swimming outside, waving a grennade at him. Charlie rushes to close the door. Mikhail releases the grennade’s pin and it explodes. The shockwave breaks the window’s glass and sea water rushes in. Charlie grabs the marker from his pocket and writes something on his hand. He holds it up for a frantic Desmond to read. It says, “Not Penny’s Boat”.

The water quickly fills the small room and Charlie drowns. So. He did die. I knew it had to happen. But, still, it makes me sort of sad, since Charlie was one of the better characters. The interesting thing is going to see if Desmond actually understood the message. Penelope did not send the ship. She didn’t even know who Naomi was.

The Jungle

Jack leads the survivors to the radio tower. Nothing really happens here until they notice only two of the three tents had exploded. Both Rose and Sun begin to get worried, but Jack is able to convince them they need to keep going. A little bit later, Kate says she wants to go back to the beach to see what happened. A little bit later from that point, Sawyer turns and says he’s going to the beach. Kate volunteers to go along with him, but he tells her not to. Juliet goes along instead.

After Sawyer and Juliet leave, Jack continues the trek. Naomi approaches him and shows him how to use the phone in case anything should happen to her. She tells him that it’s a direct line to her ship. All he needs to do is talk and they’ll hear him.

The trek continues for a bit more. Then, Jack stops the group as Ben and Alex step out of the jungle. Ben tells Jack that he needs to talk with him and to give him fifteen minutes. Jack grudgingly agrees and Ben and him step into a small copse of trees–on the way there, Jack takes Ben’s walkie. Ben informs Jack that they can’t leave the island–that the ship off the coast isn’t what he thinks. Usually, we all know that Ben lies (and, in fact, he alluded that he was going to feed Jack a lie in order to change his mind), but the way Ben said it was kind of convincing.

Jack tells Ben he’s taking everybody off the island. During this time, Ben asks Jack to give him the walkie, after which Jack learns that the Others have Sayid, Jin, and Bernard. Ben tells Tom to kill them if he doesn’t hear back from him in one minute. Amazingly, Jack doesn’t cave in and lets it happen. Of course, he beats the snot out of Ben, though. Obviously, later on we learn that the Others just fired bullets into the sand, and Sayid, Jin, and Bernard are very much alive.

When Jack and the rest of the survivors reach the radio tower, Naomi is able to use her phone. But, just as she’s about to talk, John throws a knife, which strikes her in the back, killing her instantly. Jack takes the phone from the ground and John threatens to kill him. However, Jack still uses the phone and is able to get in touch with the ship.

Thoughts

At first, I’ll admit, after watching this episode, I thought, “What the hell was that?” I was somewhat disappointed. But then, the next day I realized how cool it really was. I guess I’ve been expecting too much out of TV as of late, since I was sort of disappointed with Heroes’ finale as well. However, I think the LOST is beginning to go in the right direction, finally. LOST’s finale ended with the last bit of Jack’s flash-forward–the part where he meets with Kate.

My thoughts are: they aren’t going to be rescued. The ship has some sort of ultra-secret, ultra-covert group onboard that wants to take over the island. Jack and company (the Others included) are going to have work together and fight off this new threat. And I have a feeling we’re about to learn a lot more about the Smoke Monster. All in all, I can’t wait for the next season to begin. As I understand, LOST has been renewed for three more seasons, though apparently, they’ll be abbreviated–whatever that means.

I’m LOST

OK, OK, obviously, I’m talking about LOST, the TV show. Lately, things have been winding down to the finale. In fact, there are only two more episodes to go before the season finale airs. I’m definitely interested, but nearly confused at the same time, as to where the producers and writers are taking the story. Why?

Well, first off, the metaphor of the “magic box” that Ben keeps using. Oh, and how he had kept referring to Locke being “special”. Then, in last night’s episode, the Brig, Locke ends up confronting his father who is tied to a weird ceremonial-looking pillar while Ben taunts him. He tells John he’s got to let go of his past, because he is special. He must kill his father. All right. But, as we all know, even when you know they deserve it, you can’t simply kill your own father (if your sane), no matter how much wrong they’ve done you. And, of course, Locke just can’t do it. Ben tells him he’s a nobody, he’s not special, after he backs down. Oh, and what does Locke get out of the entire affair to begin with? His daddy bites his hand!

All right, all right. So, why am I confused? Well, the next day after Locke’s strange encounter, the Others start packing up and heading off into the jungle. Ben tells John they’ll leave a trail for him to track, but that he better not come back unless he brings his father’s dead body with him. Yeah, that was sort of weird. Then, we fastforward to Locke arriving back at camp and sneaking up on a lone Sawyer who is trying to take a leak. Locke, through several hesitant minutes on Sawyer’s part, finally convinces Sawyer that he’s got Ben tied up in the jungle and that he needs him to kill him. Sawyer ends up following Locke but tells him he’s not going to kill Ben, but instead bring him back to the camp.

So, fastforward again, Locke and Sawyer eventually end up reaching their destination: the Black Rock. Yeup. The old slaver ship is back in the story. Heading inside, Locke takes Sawyer to a barred door at the back of the ship. There are some noises and what not coming from the room. Sawyer goes inside while Locke waits outside the door. Then, guess what happens? Locke locks Sawyer in the room with somebody who is hooded and chained to a chair. Of course, Sawyer freaks (like I think any of us would have) and spends a good amount of time cussing and yelling at Locke to open the door. Eventually, Sawyer gets tired and decides to de-hood the captive. Guess who it is? Locke’s daddy.

At first, I was wondering, why? Then, it hit me. Sawyer gets daddy talking and we learn that he was indeed the man Sawyer’d been looking for. So, it ends up with Sawyer strangling the man. You could see there was a bond between Locke and Sawyer after this, too. Although, we learn that, indeed, Sawyer is no murderer–even though he did the deed (twice). He ends up (like most sane people would) getting sick to his stomach over the entire thing. However, here is where things get confusing. Locke tells Sawyer he’s not going back with him. I’m confused because, I wouldn’t expect Locke to actually do what Ben wanted. Then again, he’s all about finding his path.

Therefore, it looks like Locke is going to be the x-factor from now on–sort of like Rousseau. Speaking of Rousseau, she showed up onboard the Black Rock while John was patiently waiting for Sawyer to do his dirty work. She was picking up some…dynamite. Hmm…I wonder what that’s for…

Seriously, though, when Locke picked up his father’s dead body and slung it over his shoulder (albeit the body was in a sack), I thought that it was sort of strange for him to do. He dislikes Ben, that’s obvious, and he has always had a stubborn streak in him. Yet, he did it anyway. It should be interesting to see where the writers go from here.