Where do we go from here?

This is gonna be a tough one. First off, in general, I loved the finale. It held a good mix of what I expected and some stuff that surprised me. And, oy, what a cliffhanger…

So…they killed my favorite character. Well, they probably killed her. Ever since the first episode that she appeared in, Elizabeth Mitchell has been a dynamic presence on Lost. Even when she was saddled with storylines I wasn’t fond of (the Jack-Kate-Sawyer-Juliet quadrangle) she always made me believe it. If she is done on Lost (and I think she pretty much is), I’m really, really going to miss her.

On the other hand, they killed one of the most repulsive characters on the show too. Good riddance Phil. I only wish you could have been impaled more than once.

So I read a bunch of other Lost-related blogs and lately, I’ve been noticing a lot of focus on certain characters doing out of character things. I can only imagine that this will continue after this episode. My thing with in character and out of character actions is that being inconsistent is what makes these characters human. Yes, it’s very easy to paint a picture of Jack or Sawyer in broad strokes, and I could see an argument being made for Sawyer’s actions last episode and the beginning of this one as out of character for the Sawyer he has become. However, does anyone really do anything the same way all the time? I think these are desperate people who are just flying by instinct. And instinct can change from one moment to the next. Maybe it’s a cop-out, but even the best of people are going to do things that are out of character, and it’s most likely going to happen when they are at their most desperate. So, yes, I think there has been some flip-flopping and characterization bouncing around a little, and honestly, I really didn’t like it, but it does make sense to me. (And Juliet’s flip-flopping was redeemed, and heretofore will be ignored by me because of her Awesome (capital ‘A’) final scene with Sawyer. To never again see the two of them in a scene together is tragic.)

My biggest problem with the finale: Jack’s reason for setting off the bomb – so he can reset with Kate. Really dude? I know you’ve got the tunnel vision when it comes to her (well, actually he has tunnel vision when it comes to pretty much EVERYTHING) but, really dude? (I think if Jack had said something like, “I want to do it for her and to save everyone that we lost.” I could be on board a little more, but whatever.) It seemed that a number of critical decisions were made because of Kate, and while I really don’t get it – and I don’t ever think that I will – I’m also looking at it as an outsider. If it were me on a crazy island trying to survive, would I make all of these crazy decisions for someone I’ve grown so attached to? Maybe. And I think that’s almost a problem with Lost – we as an audience see all the blemishes, see all the character flaws. But this is a discussion for another day, I think.

Anyway, it wasn’t a perfect finale. In a way it reminded me of the first season finale, and I think if I didn’t have 5 seasons of trust in Darlton, if I didn’t think they know where they are headed next year, I probably would have really disliked the finale. At the end of season one, all I wanted to know was what the hell is in the Hatch? That’s what I wanted from the finale. And at that time, I know I really liked Lost, but I had no real reason to trust that the show knew what it was doing. So the first season finale is still my least favorite finale because I have that lingering disappointment in the back of my mind. Actually though, looking back, it was an action-filled, creepy, exciting finale, with a disappointing (yet iconic) final shot. And I saw definite similarities in “The Incident.” I was on the edge of my seat the whole time and emotionally invested, but when it ended I wasn’t pissed like I was after season one, I was almost at peace, because I know that the answers will come, though I have to wait 8 months for them. My mind is still spinning with all the information, but I’m almost glad for these 8 months, so I can prepare for the final season and over-analyze every last thing from this season and previous seasons.

I really don’t want a reset. I truly don’t. Unless they can do it in such a way that doesn’t make the past 5 seasons meaningless, I do not want a reset. But, I do trust Darlton and I’m with them till the end, so no real judgment until it all plays out.

Onto that first scene: We’ve got Jacob in white and the Big Bad (Esau?) in black. This is the war that is being fought. Jacob controls/rules/embodies the Island and Esau (I’ll just call him that till we get a name, if he has one) wants what he has. We see the Black Rock off the Island and Esau says that Jacob summoned it. So we’re in the 1800s. We see the profile of the statue. Esau says he wants to kill Jacob, but he can’t. Could Esau be the smoke monster? Or at least working with the monster? Evidence: the monster has no name, Jacob did not give Esau a name; the monster appeared as Alex and told Ben to follow whatever Locke said, and AjiraLocke is being possessed(?) by Esau.

We see Jacob interacting with these characters: young Kate, young Sawyer, O6 Sayid, Ilana, pre-Island Locke, pre-Island Sun/Jin, pre-Island Jack, O6 Hurley. What are we to take from all this? He says in Jack’s flashback “Guess it just needed a little push.” Is this what we are seeing? Jacob, stepping in at (in some cases seemingly insignificant) moments that will shape these characters’ lives? In the cases of Kate, Sawyer, Jin/Sun and Jack, it just seems like simple guidance or checking in to see where these characters are. With Sayid, it seems that he is deliberately stopping Sayid from being run down, and/or preventing him from saving Nadia, which in turn leads him to Ben, which in turn leads him back to the Island with nothing left to lose. So Jacob wanted Sayid back on the Island. With Ilana, he asks for her help and she agrees. I think we can assume she organizes Bram and the others (the Others?) which brings them all back to the Island. I’ll get back to her in a sec. With Locke, it looked like he healed him when he touched him. This, of course, eventually brought him to the Island. And with Hurley, it sounded a lot like when Ben wanted Jack to want to save him from his tumor. So here, it seemed like Jacob wanted Hurley to want to come back on the Island (with the guitar case). But he wanted it to be Hurley’s choice.

What does this all mean? We’ve seen the black/white motif forever on the show from Locke and Walt playing backgammon to the stones in the pockets of Adam and Eve. It now seems clear that Jacob is the good while Esau is the bad. It also seems like Ilana, Bram, et al. are descendents of the Others/Hostiles/Black Rockians (or at last cultish followers) and they are on the side of the white (Jacob). When Jacob and Esau are on the beach in the 1800s, Esau says that when the boat comes ashore, they will settle, fight and destroy (or something like that). Is this simply a long standing debate between Jacob and Esau on human nature? Jacob sees the good, Esau sees the bad. Is Jacob Jesus/God and Esau Satan? Is it a game that they are playing? If Esau controls the Island are there consequences for the rest of the world? If people have come to the Island throughout history with the same result (as Esau seems to indicate) did something different happen during the time that the Dharma Initiative was there (the Incident?) that changed everything? Could the Incident have so weakened Jacob that it finally gave Esau the chance that he needed to ascend? If so, why did Jacob encourage Sayid’s return to the Island?

Could all the major events on the Island since Dharma time have been all a long con to trick Ben into killing Jacob? It seems like IslandChristian/AjiraLocke are both the embodiment of Esau and everything that has happened has been part of this plot to kill Jacob. Could Esau have polluted the minds of vulnerable Island inhabitants like Widmore and Hawking to reach his destiny? If Ilana’s people are on the side of the white and Bram urged Miles not to work with Widmore, then Widmore is clearly is on the side of the dark. This certainly points to Ben serving as a pawn in the control for the Island. Could it be that Esau healed Ben as a child and Jacob gave him the tumor (or just did not prevent the development of said tumor)? If so, then perhaps the reason that Jacob sent Sayid to the Island was to actually shoot Ben, but Esau intervened and saved him. If the only way to kill Jacob was for a living human to do it, then was the development of Ben for this purpose alone? Esau found his loophole in this kid and used him to achieve his end.

But anyway, what happens next year? Is this how it always happened? Will there be a reset? If there’s a reset, not only does that make most of what we have seen over the past five years null and void, but doesn’t that also nullify Jacob’s death? As much as I don’t want a reset, I really don’t want divergent timelines. I’ve heard the complaint that this season with the time-jumping has been too confusing (an opinion I don’t really share, but I think I’m in the minority), but alternate timelines would be way too confusing, I think.

I know there’s even more that I want to say, but I can’t keep it all straight in my head. My brain is just spinning, but the more I think about it, the more I like it. And the good greatly outweighs the not so good. It’s no season 3 finale, but really, I don’t think they’ll ever be able to do anything like that again.

Other highlights from my notes:

- They did some really good casting for young Kate.
- Juliet’s skills at getting them off the sub = awesome
- I love Frank Lapidus.
- I kinda predicted that Locke’s body was in the box after Lapidus said “Terrific.” Well, I wrote down “Body?” and then when they showed up at the beach later, I wrote “Oh no!”
- Vincent!! Rose! Bernard! Best scene in the finale: it made me smile and it made sense. Loved it. Gotta wonder though: will this be the last time we see them? In the flesh at least? I now think that they are Adam and Eve, by the way. (I actually thought they were going to be dead by last night’s episode.)
- Drive Shaft ring. Oh Charlie, as much as I never really liked your character until the last two episodes of season three, I miss you.
- “I’m a Pisces.” - Ben
- “I don’t know, but his Korean is excellent.” - Jin
- In Jack’s flashback, did Christian look at Jacob and recognize him?
- Speaking of Jack’s flashback, that’s the story he told Kate in the pilot and that was re-referenced in the beginning of season 3 (when Kate escaped with Sawyer from the Others).
- “Or 30 years from now.” - Kate
- Miles questioning Jack’s actions – does he cause the Incident? (At this point I thought that the bomb would not be going off. Oh well.)
- Are we to assume now that Jin and Sun can never be together again? That makes me a bit uncomfortable.
- Did Esau take over the cabin after the circle around it was broken? Previous to the broken circle of ash, had he trapped Jacob there or had Jacob put himself there to protect himself?
- “Live together, die alone.” Juliet. This actually helped me better digest the “out of character” actions. Because who can they trust but each other? And better to go down together than sending Jack off on his own.
- Evidence to whatever happened, happened: Pierre’s arm trapped, saved by Miles. We know that Pierre loses an arm at some point, and now we (probably) know how. (I did think Miles was a goner at this point though.)
- “This don't look like LAX.” - Sawyer
- No Desmond and Penny = BOOOOO! I hope that Hawking was right and the Island really isn’t done with him. But then again, if Hawking is on the side of the dark, I don’t know how to feel about anything she says.
- Juliet’s death was reminiscent of Charlie’s. The final scene, that is: accepting her death to save everyone else.
- Juliet dying is like an open wound for me. I was yelling at the TV, “No, no, no, no…” as she was being dragged into the pit. It’s one of those deaths that’s gonna sit with me for a while. I am really, really going to miss her.
- What does this knowledge of Esau mean for Claire? If she’s dead was Esau possessing her? If not, why does he want her? Was it just to give Kate the impetus to return to the Island?
- What lies in the shadow of the statue? I need to find out what Richard said in response to this question. [UPDATE: He spoke Latin and said: “That which will save us all.”]
- Sad though Juliet’s death is, it just hit me that Locke is really dead. A sad and lonely character actually did die a sad and lonely death. I’m glad that the show should be able to keep Terry O’Quinn around, but, man, I’m even more depressed now.

I gotta stop. I gotta reread this, see if it makes sense and get back to work. I’ve been typing for three hours straight and I probably didn’t get to half of what I wanted to write about. Oh well, I’ve got eight months till the next new episode…