There’s a lot to cover from Thursday's season finale of Lost. I thought it was a hit! I was really pleased that ABC actually had a 2 hour episode. I usually get my hopes up and then feel jipped because the 1st hour is recaps or a previous episode. But ABC got it right and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole show. For those of you who haven’t seen the episode yet, I highly recommend going to ABC to watch it online. Otherwise, here goes the recap.
I thought it was brilliant to open the episode at the same spot it ended in Season 3. Through Jack and Kate’s argument, we learn that Jeremy Bentham is the person in the coffin. Now I actually found this quite distracting because for the remaining hour and 54 minutes, I tried to figure out who this Jeremy Bentham character was. Seriously, I Googled the name during the commercials. In my web surfing hunt, I did find something about the real Jeremy Bentham that I should have remembered from my college economics class.
Jack, Sawyer and Hugo make it to the Orchid and find Locke. Jack and Locke have a confrontation where Locke asks Jack to stay on the island because it’s his destiny. The conversation between Locke and Jack reminded me a lot of the Man of Science, Man of Faith episode; Locke believes in miracles, Jack doesn’t. Locke tells Jack if he gets off the island he’ll have to lie.
In the meantime, Kate and Sayid strike a deal with the others to save Ben from Keemy and his crew in exchange for freedom. The plan works and Keemy’s team goes down just after hearing some familiar whispering. Keemy survives after taking a beating from Sayid and then getting shot in the back by Richard.
Ben goes back to the Orchid to give Locke his final instructions. While he busies himself about the station, Locke watches another Orientation tape complete with time traveling bunnies. Keemy pays them a visit and reveals that he is wired to the bomb on the boat and if his heart stops, boom! Ben didn’t give a flip about the people on the boat and went after Keemy full force, ultimately killing him.
Meanwhile Daniel is still ferrying people from shore to ship and he asks Miles and Charlotte to join him on the next boat ride. Miles declines immediately while Charlotte accepts but she changes her mind and decides to stay after Miles questions her reasons for leaving.
Back on the boat Michael, Jin and Desmond frantically try to deactivate the bomb. Michael comes up with the idea of freezing it with liquid Nitrogen as a temporary solution. They have no idea what triggers the bomb and when Keemy dies, their time is up and they try to evacuate the ship. While all the action is going to on the ship, Hugo, Kate, Jack, Sawyer, Sayid, Sun, Aaron and Frank are in the helicopter on the way to the ship. The helicopter gets a fuel leak and Sawyer jumps into the ocean to make it lighter and conserve fuel. Thankfully, he was able to swim back to the island, just in time to meet up with Juliet who was drinking rum and lamenting the ship explosion.
The Oceanic 6, Frank and Desmond are safely on the helicopter when the ship explodes. Michael stays below to continue freezing the bomb battery and Christian Shephard appears to him just before the explosion. Jin makes it to the deck but it was too late. Sun watches Jin die and goes into hysterics. It was quite dramatic and actually got me choked up.
Back on the island, Ben gives Locke some final instructions and then says goodbye. He tells him to go meet Richard and the others who would be ready, willing and able to follow him. Ben goes through a tunnel created when he blew up the “time traveling cubby” (that’s what I’m calling it anyway) and goes down to a cold cavern with a wheel. After quite an effort, he cranks the wheel and there’s a bright light and…POOF! The island disappears.
The helicopter is on the way back to the island when it “moves” and they end up crashing in the ocean when the fuel runs out. They’re all in an inflatable raft when they spot Penny’s boat and signal for rescue. At that point, Jack tells them all they need to lie since it’s apparent someone wants the world to believe they’re dead. Once they get near the ship, Desmond recognizes Penny and the two are reunited. One week later, the group has devised a plan to sail to the island of Membata on the life raft and give a convincing survivor spiel to the world.
The scene then flashes forward to Jack again as he heads toward the funeral parlor. Ben comes in behind him as he’s starring at the body of Jeremy Bentham. They chat briefly and Ben tells Jack that they all have to come back to the island and he has a few ideas on how to help. Jack turns to leave with him and Ben tells him they have to bring Jeremy Bentham too. Then we finally get a shot of the body in the coffin and it is…wait for it…John Locke!
The flash-forwards from this episode feature all the Oceanic 6 in one way or another and we learn some interesting things. Hugo is still in the mental institute and he gets a visit from the new puberty version of Walt. Walt tells Hugo that Jeremy Bentham came to see him and questions why they’re all lying. Sayid visits Hugo at the mental institute while Hugo is playing chess with Mr. Echo (invisible to everyone except Hugo). Sun goes to London to meet with Charles Widmore. Kate has a dream where Claire tells her not to bring Aaron back to the island. Then of course there’s Jack’s visit with Ben.
I really liked the throwbacks to old episodes with the whispers and the orientation video but two things did bother me about the episode. I thought it was ridiculous the way Jin died. When I saw the bomb in the last episode I figured that would be how he’d meet his end but why was he so stupid? Hello! Bomb alert Jin! You may want to jump in the water if you can’t get on the helicopter or I don’t know, maybe you shouldn’t have hung out with Michael until the last second. Perhaps he’s coming back though, you never know with Lost. Supposedly dead people tend to resurface. One person that’s not coming back is Michael. Harrold Perrineau confirmed that in an interview following the finale. It’s kind of disappointing because I thought there were more things that could be done with his character. But that is not the other thing that bothered me. What I could not get over was Aaron. He must be Super Baby! When exactly was the last time that kid ate? Claire’s not with him and I didn’t see any bottles of formula around. He survives a helicopter crash into the ocean without a scratch and he barely whimpers the entire time. Maintenance free babies? Sign me up please!
Still, the episode was awesome and if left me craving more Lost. I have tons of questions to ponder for next season. I’m just going to prattle them off and hope ya’ll will leave some insightful comments.
Where did the island go? What bad things happened after the Oceanic 6 leave and why is it so important for them to go back? What happened to the people in the boat with Daniel Faraday? Why is the person who moves the island banished from it? What did Sawyer whisper to Kate? Why did Charlotte spend so much time trying to get back to the island and then tell Daniel she was still trying to find where she was born? What are Sun and Charles Widmore’s common interests? Is Sun planning to do business with Widmore to counter Ben? Does Sun really blame Jack for the death of Jin or is that just what he believes? Does Locke not remember Richard coming to test him when he was a kid? How does Locke get off the island to go see the Oceanic 6? How does Locke get the name Jeremy Bentham? Is the negatively charged exotic matter the smoke monster? Is the Casimir Effect what allows the island to move?
We have until February 2009 to brood over these questions and more!
