Setting us up for the finale

Not too much to say about last night’s Lost. It felt like last season’s first hour of the three hour finale – putting the pieces where they need to be for the final two hours, albeit a bit less intense than last year.

It was a quality hour, but definitely not in the top tier of season five episodes.

Richard’s boat in a bottle. The Black Rock? Confirmation that’s where he’s from? Incidentally, are there old Others? Could the Island be pulling a Wolverine on the people on it? Maybe Richard doesn’t age because he’s reached adulthood? Widmore and Ellie advance to old age because they are off the Island. Ben aged until adulthood. So maybe they age until whatever their optimal age is? Or to whatever point they would start to decline? Why did it take me so long to come to this conclusion?

“I watched them all die.” If this is true, then I think we’re heading for a reset. If Richard is just speaking in general about the Purge, then it could be either a reset or the truth. (More below.)

“Afraid I’ll stage a coup?” I love snarky Ben.

Chang and Hurley’s conversation = awesome. Actually every time these two have shared dialogue over the past few episodes has been awesome.

LOVE self-assured Locke. And I think he’s a very different Locke than the wishy-washy Locke of seasons 2 and 3. I feel confident in his leadership ability this time around.

Locke as the architect of his own destiny? That’s two times now (the first being sending Richard to visit him off-Island as a kid) that Locke directly influenced the shaping of his own life. I find that really interesting. And I loved seeing the scene with Richard and Locke at the Beechcraft from the other perspective. That was pretty cool.

Phil needs to go. Really, he’s been mildly annoying, but just that, annoying. Now he hits a shackled Juliet. Hits her. It would be one thing to threaten Juliet, but to actually hit a bound woman. Argh. I’d feel the same way if it was Kate. Hell, I’d feel the same way if it was Nikki.

Ellie in charge. It seemed that everyone answers to Ellie, even Widmore. At least, that’s the impression I got.

Was not expecting Sayid to show up. And for a second, I really did think that that dude shot Kate. I had completely forgotten that Sayid was around. Now I gotta wonder what he’s been up to…

Jack: “This is why we’re here. This is our destiny!” Kate: “Do you know who you sound like?” Finally, Jack, a real reason to like you. Not only does he sound like him, but I could swear that Locke said that exact quote at some point to Jack.

“I’m glad you talked me out of it.” I actually don’t remember why I wrote this down, but I did. Don’t even remember who said it. Hmmmm.

“At least you’ll put us out of our misery.” And now I am officially on Sayid Death Watch. He really seems like he has nothing to lose – which I suppose is true.

Sawyer and Juliet on the dock and then in the sub. Those two have shared some real nice moments this season, especially on the dock (like in “LaFleur”). I hope they both make it through the finale, but all their happiness, even when things have crumbled around them, has me worried. Closure is never a good thing on this show.

Stupid Kate! I think if you look up “cockblock” in the dictionary, you will see Kate’s stupid face. And I’ve come a long way with her in recent weeks, but still…what a freakin’ mood killer.

Locke to kill Jacob to save him? When Locke said he was going to kill Jacob, I immediately thought of his first encounter in the cabin (and my memory may be faulty here) when it sounded like Jacob said “Save me.” (Or was it “Help me!”?) I think that is Locke’s plan, to free Jacob by killing him. I think Jacob is trapped in some way, and this is something that I have thought since that “Save me.” Maybe a spirit or essence trapped in the cabin (there was a ring of powder around the cabin), but whatever Jacob is, I think Locke’s intent is to save him and set him free.

Paradox reset or whatever happened, happened. That’s what I think we are headed for next week. Either Jack, Sayid, Ellie and Richard will do something that will screw up the time-space continuum so much that a good portion of history will reset (kinda like a computer rebooting) or whatever they do causes something to happened that has always happened. I still think it’s the latter, but how crazy would a reset be? And where would the reset start? What would it mean for next year? That would be quite a cliffhanger.