200705241110I am not kidding…I am too busy to spend much time on this women in comics thing today or tomorrow. And with Fleet Week beginning…my week just got crazier.

In the meantime, a few people wrote to get my thoughts on last night’s LOST finale, and here are some brief observations. SPOILER! I MEAN IT! SPOILERS IN THE JUMP!

First off, I went over and watched this on Dino’s HD TV…man people look nasty in HD! But Hawaiian landscapes look awesome!

* We figured out the twist ending about halfway through when I spotted Jack with a Razr. They hadn’t made Razr’s when flight 813 took off, and the producers would never throw in such an obvious 2007 shibboleth.

* I think the flashforward is taking place in the fairly present day.

* I think the island has magical healing powers and makes people Immortals, like Patchy, who can survive anything, and soon Locke. THat is why Patchy is the only surviving member of the Dharma Initiative. Not everyone on the island becomes an Immortal, although it gives mutant healing factor to most people..unless you are a manipulative shit like Ben! I think Jack is an immortal. Even though he is not on the island any more, I think he retains some of his powers. His carelessness around cars, for instance. Also…that was a lot of Oxycontin! You can OD on that stuff! Also…dark beard. Also…RICHARD!

* Charlie’s death was very sad and well done. Of course, he could have closed the door the OTHER way and gotten some scuba gear from Desmond…but he knew he had to sacrifice himself by then.

*Go Hurley! Hurley looks esp. gnarly in HD!

* I do not think the funeral was for Locke. I think Locke stays on the island. Jack and Locke are Faith and Reason…they cannot go the same way.

* The last scene with Jack and Kate was so awesome. . I love the stories that show that no one can ever live happily ever after, because there is no after. It was sad and creepy and yet tender at the same time. They want us to think “He” is Sawyer…but maybe it’s Ben! Ben did make her wear a summer dress after all.

* Jack’s dad. Hm. We know dead people appear on the island, and they never found Christian’s body. Knowing the flashforward trick, half of the times when Jack mentioned his dead it was a Sixth Sense kinda thing, where the people looked at him like ” Jack are you high on oxycontin? Your dad is DEAD!” Obviously there is more to this than meets the eye.

*Naomi’s boat/Penny…boy I don’t know what is up with this! Although I will say that if an attractive new woman cast member is introduced, she is sure to be dead within four episodes — the new RED SHIRT.

Over all…a great ending, some haunting scenes, and with the set 3 year 48 ep. structure…the statues and the aliens, the temple and Jacob will be the focus of Season 4. I look forward to the ride.

UPDATE: Oh yeah…”Scentless Apprentice!”

23 COMMENTS

  1. The unnamed person in the coffin has to be either Ben or Sawyer.
    It would make sense that Ben’s cancer would recur out in the real world and that no one would attend his funeral, so I think it’s Ben. It’s hard to imagine Kate being indignant at Jack’s expecting she might attend Sawyer’s service.
    I assume they will pick back up with them expectin “rescue” until they realize the real bad guys are coming. And I suppose instead of flashbacks we will get flash forwards.
    Overall very impressive. Even the notoriously neative talkbackers at Ain’t It Cool News are overwhelmingly in awe of the finale; much more favorable than they were for Heroes’ finale.
    I’m glad to say I totally guessed the Locke/Walt scene was coming! :)

  3. I wasn’t crazy about the flash forward ending. Felt too familiar.
    But I was totally into the episode up until that point. Happy to see the Losties finally not accepting everything on face value and taking charge rather than being continually accepting of the Other’s mindgames.

  5. I also think it was Ben in that coffin. Who else from the cast would be dead and have no one come to their funeral? It reminded me of that scene in Watchmen, when the only person at the Comedian’s funeral was his enemy.

    I sort of fell off the Lost bandwagon in the second season, saw part of this one, and was glad of that re-cap special before the finale. I dug it.

  7. I figured the person in the coffin had to be either Locke, Ben, or Michael. I ruled out Locke, since he wouldn’t leave the island. I figured Ben would have probably been able to gain at least one convert if he was forced to leave the island, since he seems able to do that, so he would have had somebody show for the funeral.

    Michael was neither friend nor family to Jack, not after he betrayed everyone to get him and his son off the island. When Kate said “Why would I go to the funeral,” she didn’t seem to have the kind of emotion I would expect if the funeral had been for Locke or Ben. Why didn’t Walt show? He’s on the island again. Or his psychic projection is, which maybe means he’s dead. I don’t know.

  9. I think the Walt-sighting was meant to stand for the Island/Black Smoke Monster manifesting and speaking to Locke. That is, that *wasn’t* Walt (and the previous Walt-projections may not have been Walt, either) — It was the island empowering/telling John to get movin’.

  12. Sledgeweb’s been trying to get better and better shots of the obituary. This is the best he has so far: http://lost.cubit.net/viewEgg.php?id=294 Yes, he thinks the obit’s for a “Jeremy Bentham”. Click for some interesting nuggets of info.

    I don’t think it actually matters who’s funeral it is… it’s just symbolic for how everything went wrong for the Losties after they got rescued, just as Locke and Ben were trying to tell Jack.

    I think Heidi’s right, the flash forward is actually the present. I expect Season 4 to now be set within this Jack as a Drug Addict world with the flashbacks actually set on the Island detailing the rescue. In this new present Jack will be trying to get the gang back together to return to the Island, while in the past we gradually see how things went wrong. If that’s how it goes down Season 4 may be the best of them all.

  13. It might be harder to dress up Hawaii for longer shots of non-island locales (was that a bridge in L.A. or a bridge in Oahu?). They’ve stretched it a little in some episodes (downtown London looking a bit dubious, for example).

  14. >>>I think Heidi’s right, the flash forward is actually the present. I expect Season 4 to now be set within this Jack as a Drug Addict world with the flashbacks actually set on the Island detailing the rescue. In this new present Jack will be trying to get the gang back together to return to the Island, while in the past we gradually see how things went wrong. If that’s how it goes down Season 4 may be the best of them all.

    Dude! That would be like Tolkien’s THE RETURN OF THE SHADOW, set in the Fourth Age!

    For nerds, all things come back to Star Wars or Lord of the Rings.

  15. Given all the pseudo Science, literary references and parallel worlds, I’d like to think it all comes back to Silver Age DC Comics. Or maybe Grant Morrison.

  16. Two items of interest, sparked by the comments here:

    1) Guessing rationally at who it might be in the coffin is exactly what the writers want us to do. There’s three more seasons to come, and all hell is about to break loose, if Jack’s choice has some invading force come and rip the island and its inhabitants to pieces.

    What is likely to happen is that some character will rise to prominence for some reason that we don’t suspect and that character will get greased in some fashion, or their life will go down the toilet as a consequence of what happened after Jack made that call, and this is Jack feeling the heavy guilt. We can guess, but I suspect the writers are wringing their hands in glee at how they’ll prove us wrong.

    That said, I bet it’s Ben that Kate has to get back to. Would it surprise anyone if Ben turned out to be a hero (since he had warned them of the on-coming storm) and Kate shacked up with him? Think not? Well, that’s probably a reason why it will happen. If we base all our guesses on events to date, it doesn’t take into account all the things that will change.

    2) It’s intriguing that next season will be present time with bearded Jack trying to get people to go back, but I agree that this would be tough to stretch over the long haul.

    Initially, I took his comments about returning as just desperation at how bad life for him has become, as if the island gave his life meaning that it is now lacking on the outside.

    There could be events that caused only a few to get off the island, and that’s why he’s in the spiral, but then Kate seemed pretty indignant about even the notion of going back, as if that’s a period of her life that is closed. Jack, obviously, can’t let go, but is it because there’s really unfinished business there, or because he’s now just an empty vessel, devoid of meaning, or too ripped apart by whatever will happen in the next 3 seasons.

    I too liked the whole notion that this was a flash-forward, although had a problem reconciling it with the mention of his father being upstairs, drunker than him, in the hospital when Jack was speaking to the new doctor. That’s what had me thinking it was a flashback. The problem there was I couldn’t get this nagging feeling out of my head that they were sending the season finale on Jack just being upset about his ex- having a baby. That’s what I thought he had read – some story / announcement about his ex- that mentioned a baby on the way.

    A very satisfying ending in many ways, especially with the show having the “courage” to off Charlie (didn’t that porthole look big enough for a small guy like Charlie? And the cyclops guy made it around there in one breath! Odds that he survived the grenade too?) but also Tom getting shot by Sawyer. The writers were doing some nice tidying up there, and done satisfyingly with Sawyer’s last words to Tom.

    Just finished the whole run of Twin Peaks too. Many comments about how the two series just doled out tidbits so patiently, and does today’s audience (or even the early 1990s audience?) have such patience? Ratings suggest no, perhaps.

  17. to Steve M:

    That was definitely L.A. in the Jack flashforward scenes. The bridge is just east of downtown.

  18. Just re-watched it, and noticed at the end scene with Kate, Jack says, “I’m tired of lying. We made a mistake,” and then goes into his whole “we have to go back routine.”

    Does he mean he, Kate and the now-dead guy got off, but maybe others got left behind? Is that why he’s so out of it? Or are we really to believe that Jack would get all drugged up because of post-island depression?

    If he feels they made a mistake leaving the island, one would suspect it’s because he feels they left something/someone behind.

    Maybe the “lying” is that they had to make a terrible choice that involved them getting off the island, and now Jack’s deep in regret, and wants to go back to “fix things?”

    Regretting this 16-episode-starting in Feb thing already. 8 months versus 4? Ugh.

  19. I know that you can explain it away in some fairly weak fashions however it sucks that Walt is now twice the size he was when he got to the island 90 days ago. However the episode was pretty good overall. Here’s my thoughts…..

    I think it’s obvious that the island heals people and I’m assuming it is only if the island (via the black smoke) judges you worthy, and clearly the island is interested in Locke.

    I’ll be interested to learn more about Jacob, of course.

    My initial thought was the funeral is/was for either Sawyer or Ben, but there’s other interesting possibilities such as a new character that has yet to be introduced (as that seems to be a favorite M.O. of the creators).

    I also am wondering about Jack’s dad and why he said “go call my dad.” Though personally I’ll find it to be lame if the island brings him back to life and he gets on the helicopter with everyone else.

    I’m glad that Jack is back to the slightly crazy Jack that hates the Others instead of the slightly happy-go-lucky Jack that we saw after he returned with Juliet.

    Probably some other ideas here and there, but that’s it for now.

  20. I think Jack and Kate at the end are in an alternate universe. Jack’s dad is still alive. Kate is free and not wanted by the police. I think in this reality Kate is married to Nathan Fillion’s character and doesn’t want to go back to a life on the run. I figured the body was Sawyer. Neither friend nor family to Jack. Jack wants to go back b/c he knows he doesn’t belong there. I think the island is a nexus to alternate worlds. Maybe Ben was right and he wasn’t the bad guy. Imagine him trying to explain that to Jack and making him believe it. Maybe Jacob is like a Guardian of Forever for a multiverse and Ben is trying to protect it. His camp never actually killed anyone in the main camp. I’m not sure if they killed some of the tail section passengers off screen. Ben helped eliminate the Dharmas but perhaps they were trying to use the powers of the island for no good and Jacob told Richard or Ben to kill them all. Ben kept the doll the little girl gave him for his birthday so he is sentimental. That’s all for now.

  21. The Jeremy Bentham thing is too obscure for it to not be the case. We already have numerous theorists cum characters in the series, Locke, Desmond, and the relation of Bentham’s ideas to the grand daddy of all intricately woven television series, The Prisoner, is just the kind of referential material I know I as a writer would love to write into episodes.

    Plus, Christian being alive on the island almost guarantees the revelation of Jack and Claire’s kinship, and just how old is Richard (and dammit I love to seeing Bat Manuel in action!)

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