And so LOST began, with this shot of Jack Shephard's eye opening after surviving the crash of Oceanic Flight 815 on a mysterious island in the South Pacific, occurring on September 22, 2004. And nearly six years later, on May 23, 2010, the saga ended. Here are my thoughts on the concluding three and a half hours of this tremendous piece of entertainment.
First off, apologies for the lateness of this piece. It’s been two weeks and change since the finale aired, and while my initial reaction hasn’t changed a bit, I’ve needed the time to unpack the super-long episode and what it all meant to me as a long time fan. Also, I suppose that by finishing this, the series would truly be over for me, and I just didn’t want that to be the case. Nevertheless, here we go...
It’s hard to describe how I was feeling on Sunday, May 23rd, 2010, as I awaited the series finale of LOST. I desperately wanted to see how this thing would wrap up, how the saga would end for the characters we’ve come to know and love, and what would become of the Island. But at the same time, I was feeling melancholy; this series, this wonderful piece of art, would be over forever within a few short hours.
For the past six years, this show has meant a lot not only to me, but also to millions of other dedicated addicts all over the country and the world. I remember when it premiered on September 22, 2004; at the time, I was barely a month into high school, and as it ends, I’ve just finished my sophomore year in college. In those intervening years, there have been a lot of ups and downs, but there’s always been one constant, if you will – there was always LOST. Never before had I been party to anything that inspired the kinds of discussions I’ve had with friends and family about this show; there have been many a late night in the dorms talking about what the show is trying to say about faith vs. reason, free will, destiny, etc., and I wholeheartedly believe that that is the true legacy of this show – the fervent debates and theorizing it inspired interpersonally and over the internet. So as I restlessly counted down to the four and a half hour LOST finale event last Sunday, I found myself thinking about a quote from the immortal opening scene of the Season 5 finale, “The Incident,” where Jacob and his nemesis demarcate the underlying conflict which courses through the show: “It only ends once. Anything that happens before that…is just progress.” I truly felt like every hour, every scene, every prior moment (ok, not the Jack-gets-his-tattoos episode) of the show was building to this conclusion for the core characters, to the closing of the circle started nearly six years ago, and I had absolute faith that Damon and Carlton would pull it off. Did they actually stick the landing? That’s up to every viewer to decide for themselves, but to this fan, this seminal series was capped off in the best way possible, and then some. And with that, let’s dive in to The End of all things LOST.
WARNING: This review totally, completely, and irrevocably ruins the finale to LOST. If you have not watched it yet, or plan on watching the series at some point, PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS POST. I would hate to ruin such a seminal viewing experience before it even began. Consider yourselves warned.
The jumbo-sized, two and a half hour series finale of LOST begins with an absolutely phenomenal musical montage. This was a trend in season one, where montages ended certain episodes thanks to Hurley’s Walkman. Those were with pop songs, but here, Michael Giacchino, the show’s composer, is magnificent. The Oscar-winner’s work this year, and on the series in general, has been nothing short of spectacular, and he leaves the musical world of LOST on a grand note. This opening montage, as well as the one at the very end, are probably the two best moments where no other sound than his score is present, perhaps along with the ending of Do No Harm, where the ubiquitous “Life and Death” theme plays over the death of Boone and the birth of Aaron.
Here are a couple links to the two montages from the finale, I highly recommend giving them a listen.
Opening: http://www.box.net/shared/9gaafbaqln
Closing: http://www.box.net/shared/ghgszfsfum
Side note: was it just me, or did the Oceanic delivery guy’s jumpsuit immediately remind anyone else of all the Dharma jumpsuits from last year? I thought it was a nice, subtle little nod to last year’s time in the Initiative.
Desmond’s answer to the delivery guy’s question, “Are you a priest or something?” brings to mind his short time as an aspiring monk, until he met Penny, of course.
Kate mocking Christian Shephard’s name was a cool little
meta-joke, as the audience saw the irony of that name long ago, and now the creators are giving us a little wink-wink as well. Great stuff.
I loved this shot of Jack standing in the river; it seemed almost Biblical to me, like someone in the aftermath of a baptism. After Jacob's last appearance on the show ended with the island demigod passing on the duties of the island guardian to him, Jack seems to be contemplating what's just happened, looking at his hands and the water that just imbued him with immortality and perhaps supernatural abilities. But I believe for all his questions about the job, Jack knows exactly what he must do right here at this moment - stop the Man In Black, whatever the cost, and in doing so, save the Island. Very fulfilling to see his character truly come full circle, from the unbelieving man of science to the dual-minded man of science AND faith who's willing to take on Jacob's vaunted mantle and swear an oath to protect this special, miraculous place.
Sawyer’s burning bush line? Classic.
When the final four – Hurley, Jack, Sawyer, and Kate – hold their little powwow, it made me think all the way back to the end of Season 2, when Ben was revealed to be the leader of the Others and they held those same four people captive on the dock as Michael and Walt sailed away. These four characters have been central to the show since it began, more so than any other of the castaways, so it’s only fitting that they’re here at the center of things as it all comes to a close. As they talk about the heart of the island, I couldn’t help but think how similar their situation is to ours the audience’s. They know it only as the source, a light at the center of the island – just as we do. They’re just as much in the dark on that subject as we are – but they know, as we do, that if it were to go out, it all ends very badly. In a way, that’s all that really matters. After Across The Sea, many fans were upset that such an important location was only disclosed mere hours from the end of the show. But to me, it’s not as important how it works exactly as what it stands for – the good in each one of us, life, death, rebirth, etc. Damon and Carlton has long said that we’d only get explanations to things that were central to the characters, as they themselves experience them. Well, the characters only know that it needs to be protected, and that’s enough for me. There’s enough related dialogue that paints an intriguing enough picture for me as a viewer to create my own answer for that one. What is it, you might ask? I simply believe that this specific island in the South Pacific is the wellspring of an immense amount of electromagnetic energy, and pockets of that energy are interspersed all across the island (see: the Swan Station). The Source, meanwhile, is simply the central hub of all that energy, as evidenced by the hum down in the cave being eerily similar to the noise made during the hatch implosion in Live Together, Die Alone. This energy is what heals people (Rose, Jin, Locke) and why electronic instruments and compasses go haywire around the island. So while I understand why some people may want more specific answers about the island’s energy, specifically down at the Source, I’m more than content to go off of what was presented in the last few hours of the show. Also? I love that it was so close to where Jack woke up at the very beginning, seemingly marking his importance to the island from the outset; it’s just another instance of the show bringing everything full circle.
Ah, Hurley - couldn't end the show without a couple more Star Wars references, could you? The Yoda/Jacob comparison was especially hilarious.
The last floating LOST title card, with the eerie horn noises accompanying it. Very, very weird to realize that. Damn, I'm gonna miss this show.
Interesting notes about the credits – aside from the main cast members this season (Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Richard, Ben, etc.) there are fourteen other former series regulars/recurring guest stars that reclaim top billing for the last episode, bringing the total number of “starring” credits to 28. Included are Rose, Bernard, Pierre Chang, Faraday, Eloise Hawking, Shannon, Charlotte, Charlie, Juliet, Boone, Christian Shephard, Penny, and Libby. Obviously, the episode was written by executive producers and show runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, who’ve written every season premiere and finale since Live Together, Die Alone, along with other seminal episodes such as Deus Ex Machina, The 23rd Psalm, The Brig, The Constant, 316, The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham, and Happily Ever After. Many were concerned going into the final season as to whether these two would stick the landing, but based on the quality product that came before Season 6 (especially since the end date was announced midway through Season 3), I had complete and utter faith in the pair’s ability to bring the series to a satisfying conclusion, and I wasn’t disappointed.
The Hurley and Sayid scene in the Hummer is very interesting to think about upon rewatch. As we find out later, Hurley succeeded Jack and Jacob as protector of the Island, and held that job for an unspecified amount of time, although we can infer it was a good long while. His lines and actions here with Sayid are very Jacobean, if you will, very reminiscent of Jacob’s scene with Hurley in the taxi in The Incident, especially when he tells Sayid, “That’s your choice.” Jacob was all about giving people a choice since he never was given much of one, and Hurley seems to have adopted that philosophy. However, I was thrilled to see that he’s still retained his essential Hurley-ness after all that time, as evinced by his “yeah, yeah, whatever, dude” retort. It really just makes me happy that he’s still the same guy hundreds, maybe even thousands of years later. Also, his unbridled joy at seeing Charlie again was simply perfect. Those two were best of pals in the early days, and since he’s been off the show for a while, some may have forgotten how big a part Charlie played in the first half of the show’s run, so it was great to see him again here at The End. Oh, and Hurley shooting his buddy with a tranquilizer dart and sticking him in the trunk while Sayid looks on with a dumbfounded look on his face? Priceless.
This shot of FLocke at Jacob’s Ladder, looking out over the raging sea, is, in a word, EPIC. Jack Bender, the show’s go-to director, did such a great job in this final episode, and this shot is but an example of the job he did. Jack screams his name as he prepares to climb down, and I get some goosebumps. There’s a phenomenal shot of them standing, waiting, eyeing each other, and then they sprint for each other, knowing that this fight will only leave one of them still standing. Jack, coming from the high ground, leaps towards FLocke in a Matrix-esque move, and…commercial break! When we come back, they begin. I loved this brawl – it was epic in both setting and meaning, befitting such an important event in the overall narrative arc. This is the climax of the entire LOST serial, and the singular event that Season 6 has been building toward. It’s a pretty brutal fight, and one of the best LOST has ever done (at least, the best without Sayid Jarrah as a participant). They struggle for FLocke’s knife, which was knocked loose initially, and Jack is stabbed in the side – right where his appendectomy scar was in Lighthouse. He wasn’t sure where he got the scar in that episode, even asking his mother about its origin; now, we’ve seen the origin of the wound. Then, FLocke attempts to finish him off, but Jack stops him enough to only get nicked on the neck – the same nick that’s been teasingly showed to us since the opening moments of LA X. It looks bleak for Jack until Kate comes to her man’s rescue, putting a bullet in the now-mortal FLocke’s back. Jack then gets up, and kicks the MIB over the edge of the cliff, very similar to the way FLocke kicked Jacob into the fire under the four-toed statue in The Incident. And just like that, the Jacob/MIB cycle of the island’s history is over. By the way, for those who wanted the MIB to be given a name, he was; but the producers just decided not to reveal it, but according to sources close to the production, the name of Jacob’s fraternal twin, his eternal nemesis, was not Esau, as some predicted, but instead…Samuel.
Back on the island, Kate tells Jack “nothing is irreversible,” mirroring his statement of that same phrase to Locke in the lost baggage area back in LA X. Back then, we might have seen that line as a wink and a nod to the fans due to the possible alternate timeline where everything we’d seen happen was reversed, and Oceanic 815 landed safely in Los Angeles. But now, I see it in a different light – while what happens on island, in real life, is truly irreversible, there’s always time to fix things in the cosmic waiting room/limbo/whatever you want to call what the flash sideways turned out to be. I personally nominate the term “afterflash” to be used in describing the narrative device of Season 6. Also, we see how far Jack’s come since his Doubting Thomas moment in 316 – he now understands his purpose in life, to fix the one thing he has left – The Island.
Sawyer calling FLocke “Smokey” to his face was pretty damn bold, and his “Oh, well” line was a classic. There are some great f*** you moments here, with both Ol’ Smokey and Sawyer giving as much as they get. The best? Probably Sawyer’s “We’re not candidates anymore.” SNAP! Also, LOST couldn’t end without Ben getting one last gratuitous blow to the face, could it? Nope.
Rose & Bernard! And Vincent, too! Making their first appearance since The Incident, the trio looks to be doing pretty well, considering, and they’re still staying away from all the castaway shenanigans. They were the ones the helped Desmond out of the well, and while they did do that, Rose asks him to move on once he’s up and around. Interesting…and also made me think about the very beginning of the season, when after the turbulence ends and the plane is still flying, Rose tells Jack that he “can let go now.” In light of what we learned at the end of the show, that it’s all about finding one another to remember, LET GO, and move on, I wonder whether Rose and Bernard were awakened in the afterflash before anyone else was. Since they were assuredly each other’s constants, they probably found each other long before any of the other castaways would have found their sparks for waking up, and therefore were aware of what that place was before the Oceanic flight. I wonder, too, about Boone, because we never saw his awakening, and his conversation with Locke aboard the plane in the premiere is pretty pointed in hindsight.
FLocke is at his most menacing here, a verrrry believable threat. Props must go to Terry O’Quinn for his outstanding work this season. While his work as John Locke previously was always something to behold, his turn this year as the nefarious Man In Black has been a revelation. For me, the scene that set the tone was in the second hour of LA X, when he was answering Ben’s questions about his true nature. He asks Ben if he wants to know what the real Locke was thinking as he died, and then mimics Locke by saying the line, “I don’t understand,” then slips back into his role as the Monster. Just an incredible job by this guy all season, and I’ll definitely be following his path from here. Also, O’Quinn has always said that he missed the true John Locke, so what a joy it must have been for him to continue playing that character, especially towards the end of the episode when the Locke we know and love makes his final appearance.
The reference to a coming storm makes me think of all the times a freak rainstorm has hit the island. It happened several times in season one, and more sporadically since then. The most jarring example occurs when the Black Rock crashed on the island. When the ship seen by Jacob and the MIB in the opening scene of The Incident, it’s a beautiful sunny day out. When it crashes, presumably not long after that sighting, it’s a violent storm that throws the ship quite a ways inland. This makes me think, can the protector of the island control the weather? Perhaps they can do so to bring people to the island, or it’s just a general reflection of their mood. Think, when Jack and FLocke face off on the cliffs later this episode, it’s pouring rain, almost apocalyptically so. But once the MIB is vanquished by Kate once and for all, the storm immediately abates, and it’s sunny out for the last goodbyes between Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. Just a thought…
Richard’s alive! I had a feeling we hadn’t seen the last of him after Smokey cleaned his clock in What They Died For. Also, this is the last we see of Dharmaville and the Barracks in the series.
I think we all knew that Juliet was coming back into the fold sometime before all was said and done, but it was an especially aha moment when she was introduced as Sun and Jin’s specialist, as in “of course she’s Sun and Jin’s pregnancy specialist!” And then, we get Awakening Scene #1 – the Sun and Jin edition. Here, the moment mirrored the Season Three episode D.O.C., wherein Juliet took Sun to the Staff Station to determine when what would turn out to be Ji Yeon was conceived, and thereby learn the identity of the father. This moment was extremely moving, especially coming so soon after the character’s deaths in The Candidate. Poignantly, they made it together after all. When they started speaking English abruptly, I loved Juliet’s amusement – Elizabeth Mitchell did a great job in this scene.
A quick word on the “awakening moments” – I absolutely loved them. Long-term fans could see them coming a mile away, as they happened in situations similar to ones from seasons past. They were totally earned, as we’ve invested over 100 hours with these characters, getting to know them, coming to understand them. They added a nostalgic element that harkened back to the early days of the series while still totally fitting in to the idea of the afterflash and where that was going. They were simply a great way to pay tribute to great moments of the past while still making the sequences relevant to the individual characters.
And so everyone is heading to the source – remember what Jacob was reading on the bench when John Locke fell out of his father’s apartment building and landed behind him? I do – Flannery O’Conner’s Everything That Rises Must Converge. Well, everything is coming to a head at the source.
Jack and Locke pre-surgery – one of the things I love the most about the afterflashes is all the new, classic Jack/Locke scenes. Since the end of Season 4 (and I suppose a little bit in Jeremy Bentham) we hadn’t had any scenes between these two great characters due to Locke’s untimely demise. But the scene in lost luggage between them in the premier, Jack’s attempts to get Locke to let himself be fixed and Locke finally acquiescing in The Candidate and What They Died For, and their scenes here at The End were just an embarrassment of riches for fans of these two. Adding another layer to that is the fact that Jack has, for all intents and purposes, become the new Locke on the island. Just a fascinating series-long arc between those two leads. Here, there are a couple great lines. “There’s always the chance that I could kill you” – Jack to Locke in pre-op; just a little wink-wink to the fact that they’re gunning for each other on island, got a little laugh from the audience in the Strobel household. Also, John’s line to Jack – “See you on the other side,” is true in more ways than one. On the other side of surgery, but also on the other side of becoming awakened, enlightened to the details of their island lives.
The Miles and Richard scene was great in that it succinctly and quickly tied up Richard’s character arc, which was nice because he kind of disappeared for a while after his phenomenal episode earlier this season, Ab Aeterno. Once he finds his first gray hair (not bad for somebody who’s around 140 years old), he realizes that he’s just found his reason to live again. He’s come a long way from the despondent man who Jacob had to repeatedly dunk in the ocean to get him to understand that he wasn’t dead and wasn’t in Hell, and it was nice to get that moment of development with him. Also, the fact that he’s no longer immortal makes me think that his agelessness was directly tied to the man who gave him that gift, Jacob. Even though he died back in The Incident, his spirit was still alive and guiding his candidates throughout Season 6, meaning Alpert still didn’t age. But once his ashes were burned, and the mantle was passed on to Jack, it would seem that Richard is free from his duty as go-between. In being released from his bond to the island, he’s found a reason to live again.
Throughout this season, the writers have been teasing us with the repeated use of outriggers. Back in The Little Prince last season, we saw Sawyer’s time traveling group was rowing between the main and Hydra islands when a trailing outrigger whose occupants couldn’t be discerned shot them at. It was simply assumed that like all the other time loops, we would see the other side of this incident sometime this year. Alas, this was the one time loop the producers and writers chose not to close for whatever reason, but they kept dangling the carrot in front of us by having multiple characters use the outriggers at several points this year. Not having an answer for this doesn’t make or break the series for me, but it is a mystery I’ll wonder about.
As soon as I saw that hand waving for assistance, I think I heard a wild yell of jubilation from Massachusetts all the way out here in Illinois. Yes, my good friend Pat’s favorite character, Frank Lapidus, survived the submarine disaster to fight another day. You just can’t keep that great head of hair down. One more classic line from him before the end (“In case you haven’t noticed…I’m a pilot”) and the hilarity of him continuously throwing his walkie talkie away in disgust while powering up the Ajira plane. Great stuff.
We get a suitably epic-feeling shot of the two groups coming together on a hillside – never did I think that these groups would meet so soon into the finale, not even a half-hour in. FLocke mentions to Jack that he’s sort of the obvious choice, something I’m sure a lot of fans were thinking last week as well. Looking back, he was Jacob’s choice to save the island, but I feel that Jacob wanted Hurley all along to take up his mantle as guardian of the island. Great exchange here, as have been all the confrontations between Jack and the MIB this year. Both are aiming to use Desmond to achieve their own ends (Jack: destroy the MIB, MIB: leave/destroy the island), but fascinatingly enough, neither knows exactly how that’s going to work. They, and Jack especially, are just going on faith. Definitely didn’t see this very precarious partnership coming, but it led to some great moments a little later, down at the Source.
Juliet is now revealed, as I’d speculated, to be David’s mother, and Jack’s ex-wife, in the afterflash. The exchange here between Jack and Juliet is very cordial, even playful, suggesting that they’re on great terms for being divorced. This is a perfect time to discuss the idea of the afterflash being a construct that the individual characters help create for themselves. At episode’s end, Christian says that this place was something they all made together so that they could find one another. Well, it seems like the minds and souls of our castaways created a reality where they could confront their deep-seeded issues in ways they never could in life. Jack has a son to help him get over the issues he had (and never fully resolved) with Christian, and an ex-wife with whom he gets along with (unlike his fractured relationship with Sarah). Juliet is delivering healthy babies, unlike all the failure she experienced on-island. It’s a fascinating idea that there’s a place beyond this mortal coil wherein we can resolve issues that may have plagued us all our life, and upon gaining that closure, that resolution, we can move on to a better place. And in hindsight, the entire season has shown us these characters struggling to remember their lives, and ultimately let go of them in the process of moving on. Simply beautiful stuff, in retrospect. This season, and the series as a whole, is going to be fascinating to re-watch, something I may do write-ups for on this site.
Sawyer’s response to Jack’s plan for using Desmond (“That’s a helluva long con, Doc”) is a great callback for that character to the episode where he stole all the firearms in the hatch right out from under everyone’s noses. Long cons have been a big part of the LOST universe, and the biggest (and most fateful) one has to be the Man in Black’s gradual seduction and eventual impersonation of John Locke. That is something that, upon re-watch, I will definitely be delving into a little more deeply.
Desmond and Jack’s conversation outside the source is quite an interesting one. Desmond, having briefly flashed to the world of the afterflash, is convinced that nothing that happens on the island has any meaning, because they’re all about to be transported to a world where “we can be with the ones we love, and never have to think about this damn island again.” He saw Jack there, sitting next to him on Oceanic 815, reinforcing the idea that time means nothing in the afterflash, and takes that to mean that they’ll be taken to this better place. What he doesn’t understand, though, is that it isn’t “another life, brotha” – it’s the afterlife, or the proverbial waiting room for the afterlife. While Jack doesn’t know this, he does know, thanks to his failure with Jughead, that Des is wrong, that there are no cheap shortcuts or do-overs, and repeats the mantra that “whatever happened, happened”. It’s also interesting that when Widmore blasted Desmond with all that energy in Happily Ever After that he actually got a glimpse of his post-death self; based on his consciousness’ previous sojourns across time and space, I guess it’s not so crazy to think that thanks to all the time he spent in the hatch exposed to that electromagnetism, and the great dose he received when he turned the Swan’s failsafe key, he would be “uniquely and miraculously special” enough to glimpse his life after death before actually dying.
The pairing of Sayid and Shannon in the afterflash, and their awakening after finding each other, has been a source of great consternation among fans. Many believe that Sayid’s one true love was Nadia, the woman forever just out of his reach. But I think the point being made here is that Sayid and Nadia were never supposed to be together – even when they did marry, Nadia was violently killed; even in the afterflash, she’s married to Sayid’s own brother. It was never meant to be between them, unlike, say, Desmond and Penny. Shannon, then was the loved one who he’ll spend eternity with – and she was the one he bargained with the MIB for in Sundown. It’s great to see Boone again, and it’s intriguing that he’s in on the plot with Hurley despite the fact that we never see his awakening. Perhaps it happened even before Oceanic 815 and the events of LA X; if you follow that train of thought, look back on his conversation with John Locke aboard the plane – it’s very pointed in hindsight, containing several oblique references to their time on-island waaaay back in Season One, working on unearthing the Hatch.
Back on-island, Jack and FLocke lower Desmond down into the source, and we get one of the best scenes ever shared by Matthew Fox and Terry O’Quinn. FLocke brings up the point that this is very reminiscent of the time when they blew up the hatch in Exodus, and the camera shot a few minutes later directly references the final shot of Season One.
Flocke, calling upon John’s memories, mentions that “if there was a button down there to push, we could fight about whether to push it or not.” This sets Jack off, putting him in full-on defense mode of his late Island mentor, and he retorts with a classic comeback: “You’re not John Locke; you disrespect his memory by wearing his face, but you’re nothing like him. Turns out, he was right about most everything. I just wish I could have told him that while he was still alive.” Jack – I wish you had believed me – JL This instantly brought to my mind Locke’s suicide note to Jack from 316: Jack has finally come full circle, and proves it here. No longer is he a Doubting Thomas – he fully understands what Locke meant now, and intends to honor his memory by fulfilling his destiny, which is and always has been inextricably linked to the island John loved so very much.
Charlie’s sign = classic; just too funny. Charlotte is here, and is looking quite good. She never really got the chance to shine on-island, but here in the afterflash, in this episode and Recon, she’s showing why Daniel Faraday was so smitten with her. I’d hoped she and Faraday would have an awakening scene of their own backstage, but alas, apparently they’re not ready for what comes next. Hopefully those star-crossed lovers will be able to move on together at some later point, and share together what they never could in life, but this was a nice moment nonetheless, and provided closure for that story thread. Immortal Charlie line of the night – “I was shot by a fat man.” Table 23 – nice, one last sly reference to the numbers. Charlie sees Claire at that table once Driveshaft begins their set, and literally cannot take his eyes off her. He doesn’t even begin to play the bass guitar, he just stands there. So while Charlie saw a vision of a woman he instantly knew to be his soul mate while choking on his heroin before Jack saved him in LA X, he never had actually seen her until this very moment.
The new set built for the Source cave is highly intriguing, and holds tantalizing clues to the mythic history of the island. Desmond walks by skeletons, trespassers who weren’t able to withstand the great energy contained within. There’s a central pool filled with glowing light, with viaducts leading away (possibly to other parts of the island where there are great pockets of energy? The Swan? The Orchid? We’ll never know for sure), making this the central hub of the island, the center of a wheel, if you will. Makes me think of Radzinsky’s UV map Locke discovered in Lockdown, although instead of Dharma stations, this time it’s a circle of energy pockets leading back to here. All roads lead here – Jack to Locke, regarding the hatch, all the way back Season 2. It seems all of the energy on the island does lead back to here. Desmond wades into the glowing pool, and starts to get fried by all the energy – it’s clear that he’s the only one who can withstand this. He finds a literal cork in the center – Jacob wasn’t kidding when he gave the “island as a cork” metaphor to Richard in Ab Aeterno. Des pulls it out, and the same humming noise that accompanied the hatch implosion is present here, clearly relating the two incidents with the similar ingredient of electromagnetism, as if we weren’t sure already. The water stops flowing, the light goes out, and the rumbling starts. The hole the cork was stopping turns an angry red/orange color, and starts belching smoke. In this moment, I remembered something from The Man Behind The Curtain. When young Benjamin Linus was in school in Dharmaville in the 70s, his science class was doing one of those baking soda volcano experiments, and his teacher mentioned that there was a dormant volcano somewhere on the island. Could this be it? I think it might be at least related to that obscure reference some seasons ago.
Meanwhile, outside at the streambed, Jack and FLocke begin their epic struggle as the island begins to sink into the Pacific. Jack socks the MIB across the face, and to his dismay, blood fills his mouth – he’s mortal now. Whatever Desmond did when he pulled the cork, it suspended the “rules” that forbid the protector and the MIB to harm each other. Either that, or the electromagnetism at the source had something to do with Smokey’s power – after all, he was forged down there thousands of years ago when Jacob threw him down. Once that power was turned off, perhaps then he became mortal. FLocke beans Jack on the head with a rock, and while he’s dazed, FLocke hustles off to the cliffs in an attempt to escape the dying island. Interestingly enough, both Jack and MIB got what they wanted from Desmond – Jack can now kill the MIB, but at the same time, since he’s lost his “essential smokiness,” the MIB is no longer bound to the island and can leave. Either way, none of this happens without Des back on the island, serving his ultimate purpose.
Back at the rock concert in the afterflash, Eloise Hawking sits down next to Desmond and the two share a final scene together. Like always, she is completely aware of what’s going on, but this time, so is Desmond. She wonders if he understood her instructions that these people aren’t ready to go yet, and he says he understood completely – he just chose to ignore her. She’s uncertain, maybe even a little scared, at this development, and it’s because she doesn’t want her son Daniel to go with them. She is completely aware of what this place is, and also of what she did to her son, and simply wants more time with him here in the cosmic waiting room. I maybe would have liked a little more about her, and how she knew everything all along (maybe it was Daniel’s journal she got in 1977 after killing her own son while pregnant with him at the same time – woah), but it’s not my biggest concern.
And here comes Aaron, being born for the third time (Do No Harm, here, and when Sawyer saw the event while time traveling early in Season 5). Of course Kate helps Claire in an unfamiliar place away from everyone while Charlie is off looking for water and blankets. He’s the impetus for the awakenings of Kate, Claire, and Charlie. Kate goes first, and establishes that an awakening isn’t always triggered by finding a lover, like most of the others – it’s simply triggered by finding someone you love unconditionally, and since Kate cared for Aaron as if he were her own son for three years, that’s totally understandable. Even though her soul mate is Jack, they were not the impetus for each other’s awakenings – instead, something that was integral to their deep-seeded issues (Kate’s son gives her a reason to stop running, Christian’s casket represents his daddy issues) gave them their island enlightenments. Evangeline Lilly does some of her best work in this scene, and this episode as a whole is probably her finest hours of the entire series. Claire then flashes when she holds Aaron for the first time, and she sees Charlie coming back shortly thereafter. She touches his hand, and his memories come flooding back as well. The island’s nuclear family is finally reunited, and it’s a joyous thing to see – I’ve missed Charlie more than I realized at first. He was such a tentpole character for the first three seasons, and his death is among the most affecting LOST ever subjected us to. But he’s been gone so long, three seasons to be exact, and it was really great to see him back in the fold this year in the afterflash.
Back on-island, things are really starting to go to hell. Ben sees a tree falling on Hurley, and pushes Hugo out of harm’s way, getting trapped himself in the process. Annoyingly, he just appears, up and walking, a mere act break later, with no explanation whatsoever as to how he escaped. We get one last “sonuvabitch!” from Sawyer – no epic LOST episode is complete without one.
Then, we receive a gift of a scene, an all-timer in my book: Locke awakening, literally and figuratively, after Jack’s successful surgery on his spine. He groggily comes to consciousness, and tells Jack that “it worked,” echoing Juliet’s line from LA X which she’ll repeat again shortly. Jack warns him that he wouldn’t be feeling any positive effects just yet, but then Locke wiggles his toes under the blanket, and Jack lifts it up to see his foot working again (very reminiscent of the similar scene between Jack and his future wife Sarah in Man of Science, Man of Faith). Instantly, Locke receives his awakening via the flashes of his island life, starting with the great mirror image of him awakening on the beach in the pilot and wiggling his toes for the first time in four years.
After he sees these visions, the real John Locke has returned to us, and he gives Jack (and us) such a beautiful smile, as if to say, “yeah, it’s really me.” He asks Jack if he remembers, too, but Jack is confused. Just then, Jack receives his first brief flash of his time on the island, fittingly the moment when he and John looked down the hatch in Exodus that the MIB mentioned earlier in the episode. But it will take more than just John Locke to awaken Jack. Locke tells him they need to go, and asks Jack to come with him, to believe in him one more time. But this version of Jack is still stubborn as all hell, and immediately uses his son as a crutch to hang on to this plane of reality. But Locke then delivers the line “You don’t have a son, Jack,” which is a huge red flag not only to Jack, but to the audience about what this place really is and what it means to our characters. And the final line, where John wishes that somebody “does for you what you just did for me” just adds to the emotional heft. But this is not the final line between these two titans of LOST…that will come later.
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