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The implications of Jughead were unsettling. I didn’t want the Island to not matter and be wiped clean. Season Six opened with the Sideways while act one opened with everybody awaking on the Island. Throughout the season, I let the Sideways unfold without thinking too much into it. Once the Island memories began, I knew it was safe. Jughead’s purpose was to prevent The Incident that would lead the hatch being built and Oceanic 815 landing on the Island. It never did work. The Losties caused the incident that would eventually bring them to the Island. It always mattered. I open with this because…

It is time for me to guide you about what exactly happened in the final two scenes of the show. Christian explained to Jack that they were all dead and that everyone dies sometime in their lives. He told Jack that the experience on the Island actually happened. Folks, it’s not hard to understand. Stop treating LOST like it’s an impossible puzzle to figure out. It’s a story about these people and their meaning in one another’s lives. Christian explained that they all created this place, these sideways, together so that they could be together, remember, let go and move on. It does not mean that they were dead all along. Listen to what Christian said. It was all real. The experience on the Island was the most important time in their lives for themselves and each other. As for the final seconds of the flash sideways, when the bright light embraced them all and the scene went white…well, that is open to interpretation. And I’ll offer my interpretation as I journey through “The End.”

The journey of LOST has been very special for me. It’s hard to convey in words just how important the show became to me throughout the six seasons I watched it. I’ve defended it. I stand by it. It premiered while I was a senior in high school (a very special year in and of itself) and I am a college graduate now that it has ended. I’ve long said that it doesn’t matter what other people say against the show because it really doesn’t. It became an extremely personal experience for me during the first season and continued to become even more personal as the series progressed. As I’ve said, it’s hard for me to convey just how much this show meant to me. Throughout the days leading up to the series finale, I thought a lot about this show and reflected on what it’s meant to me. The simple answer: the characters and the journey they took together. And as I continue with this, I think my tremendous love and respect for the show will be well represented. Let me dive in…

Six years ago, Jack awoke in a bamboo forest and sprung into action. In “The End,” he died where it had all begun. Damon spoke about the circularity of the story in a Rolling Stone interview earlier this year before “LA X” had aired. His work was done. The Island was his destiny. The story of LOST has largely been about Jack Shephard. He was a broken man and alone when he came to the Island. He never resolved the issues he had with his father. The memory of his father haunted him until he died. In addition to the unresolved issues he had with his father, he had dark qualities. He was a man who stalked his ex-wife, Sarah. He destroyed his engagement with Kate because he was jealous of Sawyer but it mostly came from within himself. He was just broken. He was tortured because he left the Island. He had Hurley telling him that he had to go back. Mostly, he was haunted by a man named John Locke. Not in actuality of course but rather the ideology that John Locke represented; the unwavering belief in Locke that they had all been brought to the Island for the reason and that the Island was Jack’s destiny. The death of Locke sent Jack over the edge. He wanted to die but then he was resolved to return to the Island. In “Because You Left,” Ben tells Jack to pack up all of his things because Jack will never return to Los Angeles. Jack says “good.” Slowly, Jack’s purpose actualized. It became clear to him that he had to do what he did in “The End.” He had to put an end to the cycle of misery that began when Mother killed Jacob and his brother’s biological mother. In season five, Jack did not have the epiphany he needed. I’ll argue his epiphany occured after his outburst in the lightouse when he sat on a cliff and stared out at the ocean, thinking about what he has to do. In season five, Jack wanted to erase his past. He wanted to wipe it all clean: the misery and the pain and the suffering. He didn’t want to deal with his past and all of the mistakes. But it wouldn’t be that easy because Jughead never worked. He couldn’t wipe it all clean and it took Jughead and the aftermath, Juliet’s death and all to truly change Jack. He was quiet and reflective throughout the begining of season six. He apologized to Sawyer for Juliet. He chose his actions carefully. He didn’t give Sayid the poison pill just because some man he had just met told him to do it. He restored purpose to Richard Alpert’s life in the Black Rock as Richard awaited the end of his life. He was a man who acknowledged that he ruined everything else in his life. He could admit his mistakes. Once he had thought carefully, he figured out what needed to be done. He embraced his candidacy. He volunteered to assume the role of protector of the Island. He confronted the Man in Black with no fear. He stood up to the Man in Black and hated him for disrespecting the likeness of John Locke, a man who was right all along and a man Jack only wanted to thank. The story of Jack was like the thread Jacob was working on in “The Incident.” It takes a very long time. It took a very long time for Jack to be where he was in “The End.”

But it took a long time for him to figure out who he was. Remember the scene in “Something Nice Back Home” when Jack read that passage from Alice in Wonderland to Aaron? I mentioned it earlier this season. It’s about the puzzle of identity. Who are we? Ah, that’s the great puzzle. That scene affected me so much that I built an entire episode of my podcast on that idea. Alice felt different in the morning and wondered had she been changed in the night and if she had then who indeed was she. The Sideways reflected this passage. Who are these characters? The Sideways cemented these character’s identities rather than re-define them. The Sideways cemented everyones relationships and their connection with one another. It was about Jack letting go finally and moving on after he realized he had died. It was about all of the characters never dying alone. Live together or die alone. None of them could die alone. They had to be together. That philosophy has been the heart of the series. Christian said everyone created this place together so it’s only natural that they leave this place together.

Jack’s purpose was to free the Island from itself, if that makes any sense. It does to me. As I’ve written, Jack needed to end the cycle created by that dysfunctional family. He succeeded Jacob to defeat the Man in Black. After he had kill Smokey, he told Kate, Ben, Hurley and Sawyer that he needed to restore the light of the Island. To kill Smokey, he needed the light to be put out by Desmond. Desmond did his job and survived because electromagnetism has no effect on him except for a nosebleed. The Smokeness died and NotLocke became corporeal again. Jack and MIB had an epic fight on the cliffs near the cave as the Island slowly destroyed itself. MIB wanted to sail away while the Island went under the sea but eventually Jack killed him with the help of Kate. But MIB stabbed Jack and it was a deep wound. Meanwhile, Ben had been communicating with Miles, Richard and Frank. Instead of blowing up the plane, Frank wanted to fly it off the Island. Sawyer and Kate needed to get to Hydra Island to be on the plane. Hurley wanted to stay with Jack and Ben said that he was going to go down with the Island. And Jack needed to restore the light. This led to what is already one of my favorite scenes in the series. Kate wanted Jack to promise her that she would see him again. Jack was silent. He couldn’t. He knew that restoring the light would kill him and so they kissed. Kate cried. Jack cried. Kate told him that she loved him and Jack said, “I love you.” Matthew Fox’s delivery was perfect. It brings tears to my eyes as I write. Sawyer and Kate went on their way to Hydra Island. Jack’s final words to Kate were about his sister. He wanted Kate to convince Claire to go with her because of Aaaron. She said she would.

Jack continued his journey with Hurley and Ben. They reached the cave. Hurley began to panic because Jack was going to die and then Jack told him, “it needs to be you, Hugo.” Hurley teared up. After “Everybody Loves Hugo,” myself and many LOST fans speculated that Hurley was going to replace Jacob. In fact, that speculation has existed since season five. Possibly season four. Ben summed up why Hurley was right for the job. After they had pulled Desmond out of the cave and to safety, Ben comforted Hurley after Hurley had a good cry following the restoration of light and what Hurley believed to be Jack’s death down there. Hurley had no idea where to begin. Ben told him to start with Desmond by helping him return to his wife and his son. Hurley didn’t know if people could leave the Island. Ben said that THAT was how Jacob ran things. What Hurley does, Ben told Hurley, is take care of people. And it’s so true. Hurley has always taken care of everyone. Hurley asked Ben if he would be his number two because of all his experience. Ben was taken aback, speechless and accepted.

Jack did restore the light, the source and he sat there, with a knife wound, engulfed by the light smiling and crying. Soon we saw Jack awake in on some rocks. It seemed that he would not die but no, he was about to die. This is where the sideways and the Island finally became one.

The episode opened with Christian’s coffin arriving at LAX. We got a sweeping montage with an intense Giacchino score. All along, we tracked the coffin until it arrived in the church parking lot. Desmond, who understood everything, signed for it. The delivery man asked him if he was a priest or something. Desmond responded “or something.” He returned to the car where Kate sat, confused about what was going on. She asked Desmond why she was there in the parking lot. Desmond told her “I can’t tell you why you’re here.” Kate was confused because Desmond had brought her here. He told her his name and explained that he was a friend but he still couldn’t tell her why she was here. He also wanted to leave but where did he want to go. Well, Christian explained that pretty well. The journey for the Losties we’ve grown to love over these six season in the sideways was all about remembering. Sun and Jin remembered and became aware after the ultra-sound performed by Juliet. Juliet and Sawyer became aware and remembered after meeting in the hospital vending machine room. Claire and Charlie became aware after the birth of Aaron. Kate remembered and became aware after delivering Aaron just as she delivered him in “Do No Harm.” Sayid remembered and became aware when he rescused Shannon from a dude beating up Boone. She, too, remembered and became aware. Locke remembered and became aware after Jack had fixed him. He flashed Jack the best damn John Locke smile I’ve ever seen and he told Jack that he doesn’t have a son and that he wished Jack would go with him. But Jack wasn’t ready yet. After this awareness, this awakening, they all knew where they had to go. They had to go to a church. Eloise Hawking touched me when she asked Desmond whether or not her son would be going with them. Desmond said “no. not with me.” And he grabbed her hand in a gesture of comfort. These two souls who have such impact on one another’s lives. Daniel and Charlotte even shared their own moment though they were not going with those in the Church.

Before the Church, the concert was a brief meeting point for the Losties. After the concert, Jack had finally arrived to be with his son but his son was nowhere to be found. Kate was there, looking beautiful in her black dress. She finally remembered everything at this point. She approached Jack to let him know that the concert was over. Jack recognized her. Kate said it’s because she stole his pen on the airplane but Kate made it clear that they both know each other. Just as he did in the hospital with Locke, he had flashes of his Island memories. And she would tell Jack that she missed him so much as if it had been years since they saw each other. In fact, it had been years. She hadn’t seen him since that day on the cliff. But Jack wasn’t quite there yet. Kate asked Jack to go with her to the church. Jack did. They arrived in his jeep. She told him to go around back and that she would meet him in there.

Before we saw Jack enter the room where his father’s coffin was, we saw Ben sit outside on a bench. He, too, remembered and was aware. Locke arrived and wheeled himself to the church. He and Locke were finally going to have a scene I’ve been waiting for since 507 (that’s episode lingo). Ben apologized to John for murdering him and he explained that he was selfish and jealous of John. Locke wondered why. Ben explained that Locke was special and Ben wasn’t. Locke forgave him as I imagined he would. It was a beautifully acted moment. Ben told Locke to stand up because he didn’t that wheel chair. Locke did. He asked would he see Ben in the church. Ben told him that he needed a little more time outside. Hurley soon came out and wondered would Ben be joining them and Ben said no. Hurley thanked him for being an awesome number two. Ben told Hurley that he was an excellent number one.

And then Jack entered the room where his father’s coffin was. Once he touched the coffin, he remembered but he was not yet aware. He opened his father’s coffin. It was empty. When Jack turned around, there his father stood. And this is when Jack remembered and became aware that he died some time ago on the Island. His father told him that he, too, was dead and then Jack broke down in his father’s arms. It was a scene six seasons in the making, ever since Jack found his father’s coffin empty in “White Rabbit.” Jack told his father that he loved him. He wondered why he was here. Christian said that there is no here and now, that this place was created he and his friends to find and remember one another. But why Jack asked. To let go explained Christian and to move on. The years Jack spent on the Island were the most important part of not only his life but everyone else he knew and their lives. They could only leave together. Jack soon emerged from the room with his father and he saw all of his old friends. He shook Sawyer’s hand. He had a huge hug with Hurley. He said hello to everybody: Desmond, Penny, Claire, Charlie, Aaron, Libby, Sayid, Shannon, Boone and Locke. Oh, and of course his Kate. After they had all reunited, they sat in their pews as Christian opened the main doors of the church and wonderful light poured in and then all went white.

We soon saw Jack lie down, near death from his wound and from restoring the light, at the same spot he awoke three years earlier. His eyes were wide with anticipation, or at least it seemed like it. Out of the jungle came Vincent, just like in the “Pilot.” Instead of running past him, he laid down next to Jack. Jack reached out his hand to touch Vincent and then looked up and saw his friends leave on the Ajira plane. His right eye closed.

The End.

Kate, Claire, Sawyer, Miles, Richard and Frank did leave the Island on the Ajira plane. Frank fixed what he needed to fix with the help of Miles and Richard. Kate and Sawyer arrived on Hydra Island. Kate convinced Claire that she could leave the Island and raise her son. Claire was afraid because of what she became on the Island. But Kate asked Claire to let her help with Aaron and that eventually Claire will remember how to be a mother. The sentiment “let me help you” was said by various characters throughout this episode and it’s a very significant. DL & CC talked about these characters helping one another at the Times Talk. It’s just part of the idea of togetherness. All of these characters were lost in their own way and needed each other during their redemption journey. It’s about never doing it alone. There were no scenes from Ajira landing on the runway. No reunion between Claire, her son and her mother. Each one of them would eventually die. Some sooner than the others but everyone dies. One can imagine that they all stay connected until they died and then found each other again. I imagine Kate and Claire remained an integral part of each other’s lives. As the plane took off, Kate and Claire clutched hands and held each other’s tightly. Sawyer looked at the Island one last time and a tear rolled down his cheek. He was finally free. So was Claire. And I imagine all of them had nice lives before they died. Just because we didn’t see it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. We didn’t need to see their stories unfold off of the Island either.

I have so much more to write about the finale so now this entry transitions into the the “sort of bullet points” section. Feel free to get up, stretch, grab a beverage, maybe a little snack because I’m just getting started. Are you all ready now? Good. Let’s go:

–The second to last image of the show was overwhelmingly emotional because of Vincent. He laid with Jack until Jack passed away. My own dog passed away about a month ago and I was with him until the end of his life so that scene really just hit home. I noticed that Vincent looked so much older which makes sense if Madison still portrayed Vincent.

–I’ve never felt as emotional as I during the finale during a television show. “The End” is a intense emotional experience. Damon and Carlton said that, when crafting the finale, they asked themselves what they as fans would want to see in the finale. More so, DL & CC knew that fans would be sitting in their homes aware that this episode was end of the series and would already be emotional. They wanted the emotion on the screen to be as intense as the emotions the viewers felt about losing this show. I felt that they achieved their goal. We witnessed many reunions because the sideways was all about these characters remembering one another and being together in the end.

–The Sun and Jin scene was intense in the hospital. My mother predicted the ultra-sound would awaken the memories of Sun and Jin. It did. Juliet, my favorite fictional fertility docter ever, came into the room and was the same sweet Juliet we said goodbye to in “LA X.” She had not yet remembered of course but sweetness is just part of her makeup. The scene mirrored the one in “D.O.C” when Juliet does the ultra-sound and she sees her child for the first time and finds out that the baby is Jin’s. Suddenly, Sun remembered everything that she and Jin had experienced on the Island, remembered their entire lives together. She began crying and soon Jin remembered as well. Juliet told them that the baby was healthy. Sun told Juliet that the baby is a girl. Jin told Juliet that her name is Ji Yeon. Juliet told them that it’s a lovely name. Sun and Jin no longer were burdened by her father, no longer burdened by running because it had all ended long ago on that Island and it took them some time after dying in the submarine to realize that they had been dead. Sawyer arrived in their hospital room because Sayid had escaped. He didn’t want him to come looking for Sun and Jin. But it didn’t matter. Jin smiled at Sawyer, so happy to see his old friend. He and his wife made it clear that they didn’t need to be watched or looked out for. They told Sawyer that they would see him there, at the church. Sawyer was befuddled but that is for a different paragraph. I would like to thank Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim for their six years of work on LOST. The development of Jin and the evolution of their marriage is a highlight of the series for me. The two actors played their characters stories with a beautiful pathos and ethos and I think the Sun/Jin story is one of the best love stories ever written in a television show. I was completely happy with this final page in their story.

–Sawyer went to find himself some grub. He was unlucky with the vending machine. The apollo bar did not come out after his dollar. Juliet walked into the room and joked with him. Sawyer made it clear that he’s a cop but Juliet didn’t really accuse of him of trying to steal an apollo bar. Juliet told him how to get the candy bar: turn off the machine and then turn it back on. He turned it off. The candy bar fell. She reached in, grabbed it, handed it to Sawyer and then they remembered and became aware. The memories poured in from their time in Dharma times. Her death and his resolve to not let her die. Sawyer, full of memories and emotion, quickly asked her for coffee and she said yes but he only had a dollar because the machine took his other. She said that they could go dutch, and the “LA X” death scene finally revealed itself. The sideways represented Sawyer as he truly was. DL & CC explained that he’s the same archetype. It makes sense he’d be James “LaFleur” Ford in the end because he had long ago ceased being Sawyer. I won’t even argue that he ceased being Sawyer after killing Cooper because I don’t really believe that. I believed he ceased being Sawyer because of everyone he knew. I think Josh Holloway was terrific the entire series. He brought a lot of depth to a character who initially appeared as if he’d be a true bastard for awhile but Sawyer became so much more. Season five changed his identity, his own self worth and the sideways finally cemented James Ford’s identity. I would not have it any other way.

–I was so happy to see Juliet again. Elizabeth Mitchell portrayed her with the same sweetness I’ve grown to love about Juliet. I teared up a lot during this episode and even experienced a trembling lip or two but any scene with Juliet brought tears to my eyes. We found that she was the mother of Jack’s child and that they were married once upon a time. But what does that mean in the sideways? Well, here’s my own interpretation of that. She and Jack were inseparable for a lot of her time. Jack protected her when no one else would because she was an Other. Nobody trusted her. She took care of him while he was locked up in the Hydra station and he took care of her. They were going to leave the Island together after Ben’s surgery. They worked together as doctors. She even loved him at one point and kissed him in “The Other Woman.” I think that sideways story was a nod to that time in both characters lives. They needed one another for awhile. Jack was hurt by Kate. Juliet was just sad because Ben wouldn’t let her leave the Island. As for their son, David, there’s a number of things to think about. Juliet experienced so many mothers dying young on the Island along with their children and Jack had immense father issues to overcome. In “Lighthouse,” we saw that his son was a way for Jack to work through the issues he had with his father. David existed to help both she and Jack to let go and move on. It was part of the process.

–Hurley and Sayid had one last adventure with one another. Sayid had no idea what was going on. Hurley made the first stop at Charlie’s hotel room to pick him up for the concert. Charlie was still a mess and had no interest playing the show so Hurley shot Charlie with the tranquilizer gun. Hurley walked out to his car as Sayid looked befuddled by what Hurley was doing. It was very funny. Naveen played it perfectly. Before Hurley entered Charlie’s room, he tried awaken Sayid by showing him the tranquilizer gun. They had had this experience before as they battled with Widmore’s men in “Because You Left” and “The Lie.” But it didn’t work. Sayid was confused. Hurley took this moment to tell Sayid that he’s a good person that, maybe because people have been telling him all of his life that he is bad he started to believe that, but he’s good. And Hurley would know of all people. He was unconditional love personified and he loved all of his friends very much and he saw them as he truly was. After all, no one can become the next Jacob without that quality that made Hurley stand out. His ability to take care of people and make them feel safe and loved. He had a backup plan for Sayid. They sat outside of a bar and a fight ensued between Boone and a random dude. Shannon soon emerged and she got hit which is when Sayid sprung into action. And soon they both remembered and became aware of why they were here and they kissed. I’ve never written about the Shannon and Sayid relationship too much in Jacob’s Foot.Her death had a big impact on Sayid so it was nice for them to have their time together in the end. Boone walked over to the car and joked with Hurley about taking his time while Boone got beat. Boone had remembered and become aware at some point but he and Hurley were going to give Sayid and Shannon some time together. The death of Boone remains one of those seminal moments in the show. He was the first. I thought it was great seeing both he and Maggie Grace one last time. And I can’t say enough good things about Naveen Andrews. Sayid is the man. And I’ve got to deliver some words about Jorge Garcia. Jorge’s acting is underrated in my opinion. He was so good in this episode and perhaps the real life end played a part in the emotions he displayed in his scenes. Jorge might very well be the MVP of the series and that is no disrespect to Michael Emerson and Terry O’Quinn.

–At the concert, David and Claire arrived at table 23 where Desmond and Kate sat. Juliet had to return to the hospital. Claire and Kate experienced a ‘holy moly’ moment when they saw each other again. Meanwhile, Faraday and Driveshaft began playing. Liam stepped on stage with his brother Charlie. Charlie looked disinterested and then he saw Claire. He was enraptured all over again. Soon she felt a kick and had to leave. Kate left to be with her. Before we knew it, they were backstage where Charlie was and the baby was coming. Kate remembered and became aware as she helped Claire give birth to her adopted son. The adopted son she spent three years of her life raising and probably many more years of her life with Claire, watching Aaron grow and live. Aaron came out crying and she handed the baby to Claire. Kate stood up and looked Charlie right in the eye when he returned with the water and blankets. She said, “thank you.” Charlie said he only got blankets and water. But we all knew the significance of Kate’s thank you. She thanked him for giving his life so that they had a chance to leave the Island. And soon, Charlie remembered and became aware. Claire, too, remembered everything and became aware. Words cannot express the overwhelming feeling of emotion I experienced when she held Aaron in her arms, cried and said simply with the happiest tone in her voic “it’s Aaron.” Oh, Claire. My lip was trembling. My eyes were extremely wet. Finally, she and Charlie remembered their life together and they had the best damn kiss of their lives after that. After the kiss, Charlie looked at Aaron and Claire with absolute love in his eyes. They were together again. They finally got their happy ending together. Their relationship always represented unconditional love, at least Charlie did. They were as close to a nuclear family as we would get on LOST. He wasn’t Aaron’s father biologically but he was Aaron’s father. He died for them. It’s that simple. Desmond told Charlie that he had a flash of Claire and Aaron leaving the Island and Charlie wanted that to happen so he died for them. They remembered it all. Claire remembered that he died for her and Aaron and Charlie remembered that he died. It was an absolutely beautiful moment, a scene I’ll never forget and a scene DL & CC absolutely earned. Dom Monoghan was excellent and truly superb after his memory and his awareness returned. That was the Charlie Pace we all remember and love. And Emilie de Ravin was just out of this world awesome during that scene.

–Jack had to miss the concert because he was performing surgery on John Locke so that Locke could walk again. Before Locke entered the surgery room, Jack told him that he’d see him on the other side. He really would. Following the surgery, Locke awoke quickly and moved his toes. Jack looked like how he did when Sarah began wiggling her toes in “Man of Science, Man of Faith” We received a mirror shot of Locke waking up from the plane crash and wiggling his toes because he had regained the ability to walk and Locke suddenly remembered and became aware. He tried to tell Jack what he had just saw. Jack saw a flash but got freaked out. The two began to argue like old times and then Jack left. I’ve already talked about the final scene between Locke and Ben but I’d like to say more. Michael Emerson and Terry O’Quinn create magic together. John Locke was an amazing character and the levels and depths that Michael Emerson could go to as Ben are phenomenal. Locke’s poignant line “Goodbye, Ben” really moved me because of what they just shared: remorse and forgiveness and we saw, on the Island, Ben’s remorse for killing Locke when he buried him. He spoke with sincerity and from his heart when he commended John for being a man of faith and better man than he will ever be. I wrote in “the Substitute” that I wanted peace for John Locke. Well, peace came to John Locke. And I think Ben will eventually find peace in this sideways after he’s dealt with all that he had done in his life but I think he’s earned the forgiveness with everyone who was so important in his life or at least a place where he can be forever with his daughter, Alex. There’s no finer ending for those two characters than the closure they both received because of another. No one is ever alone. Holy moly I’m going to miss this show.

–Desmond had remembered and became aware after he met Penny. His mission, along with Hurley, was to lead everyone to this same moment so that they could leave together because no one dies alone. He couldn’t tell anyone why he was here but he knew that they all had to leave, to let go and move on. On the Island, he told Jack, as they walked to the cave of light, that what they were about to do did not matter. Desmond believed that once he shut off the light, he would disappear. In other words, that he would die. He understood exactly what the sideways were but he just didn’t know he would live the rest of his life with his wife and son before returning to that place to leave. He told Jack that Jack was in this place too but Jack assured him that what they were doing mattered. Desmond did not die when he shut off the light. He eventually was pulled up on the rope by Hurley and Ben. Hurley believed it was Jack because the light had been restored. Desmond was also rescused from the well by Rose and Bernard. He made a deal with Smokey to do whatever he wanted. He didn’t want Rose or Bernard killed. MIB didn’t truly understand Desmond’s specialness and he made a rare miscalculation. I think Desmond wasn’t afraid at the well in “The Last Candidate” because he knew. But anywho, in the sideways, Ms. Hawking asked Desmond at the concert whether or not he forgot what he had told her. He didn’t. He just chose to ignore her. It was a really moving moment when Eloise inqured about whether her son would be moving on and leaving with everyone else. Desmond grabbed her hand and said ‘no not with me’ (i know i’m repeating myself) which is just beautiful because Daniel will leave with his mother and hopefully Charlotte and his father when they are ready. Not everyone was ready. Finnoula Flanagan was just wonderful in her only scene and I always enjoyed the relationship between she and Desmond. It was simply a very nice moment. Henry Ian Cusick was fantastic as well.

Also, I’d be a true so and so if I forgot to mention this. The assumption by all was that Desmond had died after putting out the light. Smokey had died but Jack needed to restore the light. Yes, I know I’ve been over this. Anywho, Jack returned and found Desmond lying on the ground, alive. Desmond was groggy and out of sorts but he soon recognized what Jack was planning to do after Desmond said he had to put the stone back into the hole to restore the light. Jack was having none of it. He brought Desmond to the wall and tied the rope around Desmond’s waist. As he was about to leave, Jack said to Desmond: “I’ll see you in another life, brother.” It was awesome. Earlier, when Desmond told Jack all about this other place, he told Jack that they flew on Oceanic 815 together. I do wonder if Jack was becoming aware of where he was going as he neared the end of his life on the Island. Meaning existed when he repeated Desmond’s famous words to him. The two of them met in a stadium after Jack performed surgery on Sarah. Jack sprained his ankle and Desmond ran over to help him. They talked about miracles. Jack thought he had let down Sarah. He thought she would awake with no feeling in her legs and would still be unable to walk. Desmond asked him to consider the idea that he did fix her. Jack said no, that it’s impossible. But Desmond believed. And Jack needed this belief but he didn’t gain it until much latter. But I think Jack had an inkling, something inside of him telling him that he would see everyone very soon.

And one more note about Desmond. The end of season two involved the destruction of the Hatch. There was a failsafe he could turn after the computer had been destroyed and a moment of overwhelming enlightenment happened. He remembered the night that he wanted to kill himself. He had accidentally killed Kelvin but that was the night Locke had accidentally led Boone to his death all because he believed the Hatch was what they were supposed to. Locke pounded on the hatch and yelled that he had done everything the Island had ever asked him to do and wanted to know the Island just did what it did to him. Desmond heard this pounding on his roof, ran and turned on the light. The light restored John’s faith while Desmond realized that he was not alone and he cried and he laughed with joy. That same idea holds for the end of Jack’s life and his farewell to Desmond. I had wondered if that Alice passage related to a possible post-Jughead world because Jack seemed to be remember his appendix but those scars were from his death. His knife wound and his neck wound.

–I’m glad that Jack and Sawyer finally made amends and particularly enjoyed how they greeted one another in the Church. I think I devoted enough words to Jack too. But I can devote a few more. MIB took the wind out of my sails. As he and Jack lowered Desmond into the cave, I immediately thought of the hatch and Jack/Locke. Jack then reminded Smokey that he was not John Locke which set the stage for the epic fight on the cliffs.

–Jeff Jensen’s cover story on LOST opened with describing a scene that would take place in the last ten minutes of the show but I always interpreted that as the last night of shooting. Maybe it was. But Jorge Garcia, on his podcast Geronimo Jack’s Beard, talked about the last night of shooting being wet and hard and twenty hours. It must’ve been the cliff fight. I’ve listened to LOST commentaries and for some reason the name of the stunt coordinator escapes me but he staged an epic fight between Jack and NotLocke. I bet we’ll see a making of feature on the DVD. It was epic. Jack Bender and LOST crew, bravo. I kept awaiting the “twist” as one might call it in the back of my mind. I knew that when the sideways was reveleaed it would be something I didn’t see coming. I did not see this coming. In fact, during this entire season, I followed what Damon and Carlton said. Don’t think about it too much. Be patient and, eventually, it will reveal itself. They earned my trust and I’m quite happy with how the story concluded. I thought it was beautiful. But I must get back to the episode.

–Rose and Bernard AND VINCENT! They continued to live in their homemade retirement home. Bernard went to check the fish traps so they could feed Desmond. Rose told Desmond to leave as soon as he is better because she and Bernard don’t want to be involved in any of their drama. I’ve always loved Rose and Bernard. Bernard is even part of the biggest surprise on LOST for my friend STEVE: the reveal that Bernard was white. I can’t quite disagree. Who expected a white man to approach Michael, Sawyer and Jin and reveal himself to be Rose’s husband? And their episode “S.O.S” is a beautiful 43 minutes of story. L. Scott Caldwell and Sam Anderson were so tender together. My thanks to both of those terrific actors.

–How about Frank J. Lapidus being alive? I was sure he was dead. Glad he wasn’t because he got my jagirl off of the Island. Not only that but he basically fixed an entire airplane by himself with assistance from Richard and Miles. Best part: he slowed the plane down for the late arrivals Sawyer, Kate and Claire. Jeff Fahey was awesome in this role. He delivered the funniest lines. He just went with the flow and then finally was able to fly off the Island.

–I don’t think an infection really existed. I don’t think anything was wrong besides the fact she was alone on the Island for three years, had no idea what happened to her son and was manipulated by MIB to do his bidding. She was the old Claire on that Ajira plane. She emerged when she grabbed Kate’s hand. I wrote pretty much what I’ve wanted to about Kate and Claire’s story in the past but I have one more thing to add: it’s been one of my favorite storylines. I felt extremely attached to their story for some reason. The final image of them alive was an image I wanted to see since Kate explained to Ms. Littleton why she was going back to the Island. Huge fan of Kate being the one to convince Claire to leave the Island with them. Claire worried because Aaron wouldn’t know her and the Island had made her crazy. She said she forgot how to be a mother. Kate would help her remember. But I’ve covered that already. I’m a fan of Emilie de Ravin’s for life because of LOST. I thought this was a particularly good Claire season. I missed her a lot during season five. Season one will always be my favorite Claire season. Emilie, you are awesome and after seeing the Jimmy Kimmel special I must say this: she has amazing legs.

–Evangelline Lilly knows how to tug at my heart strings. She was amazing during this episode. The Kate/Jack goodbye. In fact, this is as good a place as any to write about the “choice” as it’s been called by various critics. The triangle had been over since Sawyer found Juliet. It became about Kate and Jack finding their way together. They had extremely tender moments together this season. I think of the scene when Kate was going to leave The Temple in “What Kate Does” and how she and Jack were together. After all, these two were going to be married. They met when Jack asked her to stitch him up. They had some extremely rough times but I think Jack loved her all along. Josh Holloway said he thinks Sawyer and Kate was something that wasn’t built for a lasting relationship. The seeds were there for Jack and Kate, you know once Jack healed himself and became whole. It took returning to the Island. I never rooted for a particular relationship to succeed in LOST. Well, Claire and Charlie. But I really did like Jack and Kate together. I didn’t like Sawyer with Kate as much as I liked him with Juliet. But their goodbye scene, Jack and Kate’s, combined with their reunion in the sideways was extremely powerful. If you just imagine Kate living a long life and then dying and after all that time finding the love of her life and finally in a place where she can be with him forever, it’s just a powerful thing. The same with all these characters. It had been a long time since they were all together and the fact that they had died and were moving on together is just beautiful. I think Matthew Fox and Evangelline Lilly were outstanding tonight but they’ve both been consistently wonderful for the entire series. When Kimmel introduced Matthew last night, his eyes were red and he admitted he had just watched the end and it means alot to him. I would’ve started a standing ovation for Matthew because he was simply outstanding last night.

–Finally, the church scene. The final setting of LOST. I wrote in the “What They Died For” entry that LOST is a deeply spiritual show. I’ll reiterate: season one of LOST is extremely spiritual. Spirituality doesn’t necessarily mean religious even though the show ended in a a particularly Christian way. LOST has taken different elements from religion and used them in their show. We had a particularly spiritual arc for Mr. Eko in which he literally assumed his brother’s role as a priest though he wasn’t an ordained priest but he became a man of God. Spirituality is about this sense and belief in something larger than this world, it’s about faith but not specificially religion. Damon and Carlton had no problems embracing the time travel and sci-fi roots of season five. Well, they also had no problems telling people that season six is a deeply spiritual season. It was about coming together because spirituality is a lot about community and the people around you. People light each other up. A fan asked a question during Times Talk about Desmond telling Jack that he needs to ‘lift it up’ meaning his ankle but all of these characters were lifting each other up. They needed each other to help them on their own individual redemption paths. Damon said that awareness began to creep in as well as memory whenever a character would offer their help to another character. It’s about helping. In fact, here’s a good place to highlight the only question I’ve ever had answered by DL & CC. The question isn’t as important as the answer they gave. The gist of my question: why only writing teams for nearly five seasons? It was random but I had the chance, through my queston, for them to read of my gratitude towards the show. I wasn’t sure it’d be answered. I just hoped that they saw my thank you for the six seasons and that they knew I had so much escaping into this world on a weekly basis. Well, they did answer. It’s the final question in the Q&A and can be read on lostpedia.com. Their answer for why only writing teams for nearly five seasons: it ties into the basic theme of the show…no one does it alone. I get it, readers. It’s like what Jorge responded with when DL & CC asked him why he didn’t go to them for additional info about the end: “I think I got it.” I get it, too. Jack, in “White Rabbit,” says “if we don’t live together, we’re going to die alone.I’ve watched it for the characters. They’ve been the most important part of the series. I loved the mysteries and the mythology, too, but if I didn’t get answers I wouldn’t have minded. I wanted character resolution and closure though. That was the absolute most important aspect of the show to me. The church was the culmination of those words that Jack spoke so long ago. I was overwhelmed by the second to last scene in the show with Jack hugging and saying hello to all of his friends while Giachinno score played. It was a score that combined all of the major musical themes of LOST. We saw Libby, Rose and Bernard, Hurley, Boone, Shannon, Sun and Jin, Charlie and Claire and Aaron, John Locke, Sayid and the words of Jack’s father who playing in my head because this sudden clarity had overcome me as I watched the show. I kept waiting for the moment through the finale when the audience would become the character who needed to become aware of what exactly these Sideways were. Meaning crept in slowly when Jack realized he had died on the Island and he hugged his father. His father said, “I love you son.” And then it came, my awakening and my awareness, in these words: “This is a place that you’ve all made together so that you could find one another. The most important part of your life was the time that you spent with these people. That’s why all of you are here. Nobody dies alone, Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you.” And there it was. In five sentences, the story of LOST had come full circle and to a complete and natural resolution for me. It was a character study about these people and people in general and about how they exist and act in this world and it wasn’t afraid to ask a lot important questions about the nature of humanity, life, death, love, redemption, etc.

I think it’s clear that I loved the finale. It was everything I wanted from this show. I don’t regret a single second that I spent watching this show or freaking out after a cliffhanger or arguments I’ve had about the show. I don’t regret a single second I spent writing these entries about LOST or the articles I wrote for The Quad or the extra time I spent while laying out a section to include a picture of LOST and plug for Jacob’s Foot. I don’t regret a moment I spent listening to the LOST official audio podcast or reading the interviews I read. I don’t regret the time I spent on thefuselage.com or TWoP’s message board, reading and reacting to what other people have thought. I don’t regret all the times I re-watched episodes nor every single week I spent writing about this show in between seasons five and six. I’m so glad that I didn’t stop watching because me and season two of the show had been on rocky terms. I still remember the day I saw “Flashes Before your Eyes” and realized that my show had returned. I don’t regret listening to the commentaries nor watching special features about the making of the show. It was the greatest television experience of my life. That may sound silly but fiction plays a huge role in everyone’s life. We crave good stories and we hold onto good storytelling for life. I’ll never forget these characters and these stories nor the writers who brought me and all of us fans this world into our homes. One of the last scenes in Woody Allen’s movie ‘Deconstructing Harry’ comes to my mind as I write this. In his movie, the character Woody portrays is a fiction writer and he has a terrible time functioning in life. He’s on his way to be honored but he continues to screw things up with those he once shared special moments with as well as his own family. Throughout the movie, the stories come alive. As the movie progresses, Woody himself becomes all of these character and the distortion is no longer there. A piece of him existed in all of these characters so by the end he enters the stories. Soon, he sees all of the characters he created and they have assembled to honor him and they love him because he created them. And then Woody delivers these lines that I feel conveys the same feelings I have for these fictional characters created by Damon Lindelof, JJ Abrams, Carlton Cuse and the rest of the writing staff: “I love all of you, really. You’ve given me some of the happiest moments in my life. And you’ve even saved my life at times.” It might seem ridiculous for someone to feel this way about a show. If so, then I am a ridiculous man because this show has rocked my world. I had so much fun.

Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse wrote “The End.” Damon’s been there since day 1 when he and JJ Abrams frantically prepared the treatment. Carlton arrived in early season one and together they truly created the world we watched for six seasons. I can only imagine how these two felt as they said goodbye to the show, the cast and the crew. They knocked it out of the park and it’s fitting that Damon Lindelof gets the first writing credit for “The End.” Jack Bender, the visual mastermind of the show, directed this episode. He’s directed some of the greatest episodes of LOST and is essentially responsible for the look of the show. I hope we get some behind the scenes stuff on the dvd for this episode. I imagine we will because I want to see how Bender approached some of most emotional scenes of the finale.

I’ve written this throughout. It got dusty last night in my house. I was quite emotional watching the episode. It began during that montage and one of the most unexpected ‘dust’ moments came when the credits ran for the final time because Sam Anderson’s name was first and I realized that every former cast member with a starring credit who had returned was going to receive one final starring credit. Amazingingly, I haven’t given credit where credit is due for the cast members who appeared in this finale. There’s Jeremy Davies who portrayed Daniel Faraday. He even found his Charlotte in a moment I briefly mentioned many words ago. Daniel didn’t recover from her death. He spent three years of his life trying to figure out how the Oceanic 815 crash could be avoided. But it couldn’t. He just never considered this extraordinary sideways. Rebecca Mader portrayed Charlotte. Cynthia Watros portrayed Libby one last time. And then, finally: Madison the dog as Vincent.

I think I’ve reached the end. I know there’s going to be so much more that I’ll want to write about this finale and this show and I will somewhere and at some point. But this is the end of “Jacob’s Foot.” I probably was writing for only myself through this period of LOST blogging and that’s okay. But I wasn’t alone. I’d be stimulated by arguments on message boards and would mostly write about my frustrations with the fans. But Doc Jensen even brought Jacob’s Foot into this world. Doc is a man whose work about LOST I really respect and admire. He responded to some of my tweets and even retweeted a poem I sent that had alot of parallels with the sideways and, in fact, this TS Eliot poem is worth looking at considering the ultimate resolution of the show. But you don’t need to really. The show speaks for itself. Thank you to all who have read this at some point. I hope my intense love for the show wasn’t annoying but I’m sure it was. Anywho, before Jacob’s Foot unties its shoe for the last time, there’s two important things left to do and I have one more paragraph for the show.

I just wanted to share something Doc wrote at the beginning of his part one recap of the finale and one of the points of the finale: the show wanted to rediscover and reinvent spirituality for a new generation that falls easily to dubious ideas and has a hard time believing in anything. I just think that’s a wonderful idea and wanted to share. My final paragraph regards us fans, the ones who have followed this show and life after LOST. I felt all sorts of things last night as I wrote, watched Kimmel and realized that I have no show to watch on Tuesday night. This morning, I read the final LOST related tweet of Damon Lindelof’s. It’s simple but it provided even more clarity. I think he wrote it for himself and for the fans. What he wrote invoked the three themes we saw at the very end of LOST:

Remember. Let Go. Move on.

TO THE RANKINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE OFFICIAL LOST RANKINGS FINALE

I’ve been writing for nearly 8 hours straight. I went to sleep at 3:30AM and woke up around 9 and immediately began writing again. I wrote for four hours after the finale end and then around eight by the time this baby is actually posted. During this, me and STEVE spoke on AIM to rank for the final two times. But I’ll get to the all-time rankings in a bit because after all we had to finish our season six rankings. Since Widmore died last episode and Jacob’s ashes burned away we removed them from the rankings so we ranked only fifteen and, in rankings finale tradition, we commented on each character. There’s some movement in the rankings. Claire did not make it back to the top 5. It would’ve been forced on my part. I love her so though. Hurley jumped to number 2. MIB fell on STEVE’s list and other some other characters moved but, you know, the rankings are fun to read with the commentary so do enjoy the final edition of the LOST season rankings.

AFTER EPISODES 17 & 18

RANKED: 5/24/2010

CHRIS

1. Jack-what a way to end his story.

2. Hurley-unconditional love personified

3. Desmond-i’ll see you in another life, brother.

4. Kate-she was so sweet this episode.

5. Ben-in the words of Locke, “goodbye, Ben.”

6. Claire-my girl.

7. Jin-he spent more time at no. 7 than any other character. it has to be this way.

8. Locke-that smile he flashed Jack was EFFIN AWESOME.

9. Sawyer-james ford.

10. Sayid-wish we could’ve avoided zombie Sayid.

11. Miles-awesome dude.

12. Richard-huge fan of richard but he’s a victim of the numbers game.

13. Frank-he is a fantastic pilot.

14. Sun-always ranked her low so why stop now?

15. Man in Black-smokey was so awesome.

STEVE

1. Jack-the overall MVP of the series

2. Desmond-please grow the hair and beard back

3. Kate-she looked great

4. Ben-the selfish bastard was finally not looking out for himself

5. Richard-finally seen his grey hair

6. Frank-Frank to the rescue!!!!!!!!!!

7. Jin-he spent more time at no. 7 than any other character. it has to be this way.

8. Claire-kinda weird how she looks better pregnant than normal.

9. Locke-the man of faith.

10. Sawyer-a real bust this season.

11. Miles-probably a millionaire off the island now.

12. Sayid-bust this season sadly.

13. Man in Black-a bust for me at the end, i expected him to be more but i’m okay with that.

14. Hurley-still should have jumped out of that helicopter.

15. Sun-sun is 15 for no reason

And FINALLY!

THE TOP 50 ALL TIME LOST CHARACTERS!

These rankings took in the totality of every season. It represents our favorite characters and our least favorite characters. I stunned STEVE with my 50th character but I really disliked her. STEVE also expected Claire to be number 2. But she isn’t. I don’t have much to add. The rankings speak for themselves. Enjoy.

CHRIS

50. Ana Lucia

49. Pickett

48. Keamy

47. Ethan

46. Naomi

45. Horace

44. Mikhail

43. Ilana

42. Aaron

41. Widmore

40. Dogen

39. Charlotte

38. Dr. Arzt

37. Christian

36. Tom aka Mr. Friendly

35. Libby

34. Dr. Chang

33. Karl

32. Shannon

31. Ms. Hawking

30. Nadia

29. The Man in Black

28. Jacob

27. Alex

26. Boone

25. Penny

24. Michael

23. Walt

22. Daniel Faraday-Widmore

21. Danielle Rousseau

20. Sun

19. Miles

18. Frank

17. Bernard

16. Rose

15. Vincent

14. Charlie

13. Mr. Eko

12. Richard

11. Juliet

10. Kate

9. Jin

8. Sawyer

7. Claire

6. Hurley

5. Ben

4. Sayid

3. Locke

2. Desmond

1. Jack

STEVE

50. Aaron

49. Pickett

48. Ethan

47. Nadia

46. Horace

45. Dr. Arzt

44. Shannon

43. Naomi

42. Christian

41. Ilana

40. Widmore

39. Libby

38. Walt

37. Tom

36. Dr. Chang

35. Daniel Faraday-Widmore

34. Keamy

33. Penny

32. Karl

31. Ms. Hawking

30. Dogen

29. Mikhail

28. Bernard

27. Charlotte

26. Boone

25. Michael

24. Juliet

23. Ana Lucia

22. Hurley

21. Rose

20. Jacob

19. Sun

18. Man in Black

17. Vincent

16. Charlie

15. Alex

14 Danielle Rousseau

13. Mr. Eko

12. Miles

11. Jin

10. Frank

9. Richard

8. Claire

7. Kate

6. Sayid

5. Locke

4. Sawyer

3. Ben

2. Desmond

1.Jack

Jack stitches Kate up

I’m already getting teary eyed, or dusty as I like to describe it. It’s really coming to an end. Only two and half hours remain. Tonight, in “What They Died For,” the final pieces were set for the final hours of LOST. It’s an episode that dealt with ideas of fate, purpose and destiny. Threads became tighter in the Sideways. The Island is a living memory, an actual place in the minds of our survivors. The seemingly final hours or day of the Island seems to be nigh. Jacob finally revealed himself to those he had brought to the Island. He told Hurley to bring his friends because The End is near. Let’s begin there.

In Jacob’s final hours, in the night as a fire crackled with the last of Jacob’s ashes, as Jacob awaited to cease from existence and disappear into the world of death, he told Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sawyer why he had brought them to the Island. Jacob was a lonely man. Sure he had all of those Others who followed his orders but he was a lonley man. He was flawed just like the survivors of Oceanic 815. He, too, human and fallible. He made a mistake when he sent his brother into the cave of light because his brother became a pillar of black smoke. This creation could not leave the Island and was trapped in its smokeness, for lack of a better description of the situation. One has thought (allright me since no one comments but still in messageboards this hasn’t been discussed) that the Man in Black was trapped on the Island, seemingly trapped by something Jacob did. He couldn’t left whenever he want when he had a body but the smoke changed everything. He told Sayid that he doesn’t want to die. One wonders: what exactly constitutes freedom for the Man in Black? He assumed the form of John Locke but he is still Smokey. Death is the constant of this show at least in the Island timeline. There is no difference between NotLocke destroying the Island and him leaving the Island. We’ve learned that it only ends one way: death, nothingness. Kate wanted to know why they were chosen and brought to the Island and especially wanted to know what her friends have died for. Contextually, she referred only to Sun, Jin and Sayid but mostly all of their friends have died on the Island; perhaps, for thinkers sake, for the Island. Kate really wanted to know that her friends did not die for nothing. Nothing, nothingness has been a subtle theme this season but it was introduced in “The Substitute,” an episode that presented a true nihilistic world perspective through NotLocke. All three options he presented to Sawyer all, in the end, required that nothing be done. Last week, the mother’s final word was “nothing” after MIB killed her. Damon and Carlton have spoken about water as a key word for the finale. Perhaps they were joking. One never knows with them. Jacob’s Foot submits another key word: nothing and then will gently JUMP cut to the Sideways. Water, Nothing and Sideways. Perhaps I’ll have more to write on this after the finale.

Back to the scene of discussion, Jacob explained the candidacy to those present. He told them he needed someone to replace him as protector of the Source and he needs them to kill his brother. Even Jacob is unsure that The Smoke Monster can be killed. Jacob has represented choice. He told each person he visited in “The Incident” that they had a choice. Jacob told Kate, Jack, Sawyer and Hurley that he wanted them to choose among themselves who wanted to assume the role of protector because he wanted them to choose. Jack stood up and stepped forward. His voice broke when he told Jacob that the job is what he’s supposed to do and that the job is why he thinks he needed, or was destined, to return. Jacob told him “it’s time.” And in the darkness of the Island, with his friends watching on, Jacob passed on his role to Jack. Jack asked him how long he’d be protecting it and Jacob said sincerely and with empathy and sympathy, “for as long as you can.”

The opening scene of “What They Died For” was quiet and mournful. Jack stiched Kate up to prevent her wound from being infected while Sawyer looked out as the wreckage of the submarine washed up on the shore as “Credit Where Credit is Due” played, the iconic song that played as Jack observed the carnage and wreckage of Oceanic 815 in the “Pilot.” The first shot was Jack’s right eye opening, just like in the “Pilot.” Afterwards, after she had been stitched up, Kate and Jack joined Sawyer and Hurley. Kate silently comforted Sawyer, silently telling him not to blame himself for the deaths in the submarine. She rested her head on his shoulder. Jack suggested they go get Desmond from the well. Along the way, Jack mentioned something about the rules to Sawyer. Sawyer openly blamed himself for Sun, Jin and Sayid’s death because he theorized the rules prevented NotLocke from actually killing them and that is true to an extent. Jack only told Sawyer not to blame himself because NotLocke killed them. It wasn’t quite the moment between the two in “Exodus Pt 1″ when Sawyer told Jack about his father in the Sydney bar but I think Sawyer is better for what Jack said.

I felt strong “Dead Is Dead” vibes in the early part of this episode. Recall the presence of Alex in “Dead Is Dead.” Ben went to the basement of The Temple to be judged by Smokey because he felt responsible for his daughter’s death because he chose the Island. It’s an episode that set up what Ben would eventually decided to do in The Foot. Smokey took the form of his daughter and threatened him with death if he did not follow everything John Locke told him. Of course, it was massive manipulation by Smokey. Ben, Miles and Richard reached New Otherton and as they passed through the yard Miles heard from Alex. Richard had buried her body after Ben had left the Island. What she said we do not know only that Alex triggered that devasting grief in Ben and the anger when he saw Widmore again. We also know that Miles chose to run in the jungle and be far far away from Smokey once Zoe radioed in that His Smokeness had returned from Hydra Island. As far as Ben has come in the latter part of season five and the entirety of season six, he has not been able to get past his daughter. It’s unfair to think he would because no parent ever recovers from losing their child. With the word of NotLocke coming, Zoe quickly returned and she and Widmore hid in Ben’s old house. Miles fled. Richard thought he could convince the Monster to leave with him and give the others a chance while Ben was going to wait for him. He expected death but Smokey needed him again. Smokey showed up and demolished Richard and then told Ben that he needed him to kill some people. First: Widmore. Widmore and Zoe had no chance especially Zoe. She made the mistake of speaking to him and her reward was her throat sliced. Widmore had to tell Smokey why he had returned. Apparently, what Widmore told Smokey, is that Desmond is a failsafe (yes yes Desmond and failsafe are forever linked). Ben quickly shot Widmore because Ben didn’t feel he deserved to save his daughter. Ben then asked NotLocke about the more killing thing. Ben seems game. But Ben is also a smart smart dude.

In The Sideways, Ben came to the aid of Locke again when he saw Desmond; however, all he got was his Island memories, his awakening. Desmond told him he wanted to help Locke let go and Ben believed in the purity of the idea and he convinced Locke that something bigger than all of them was in play. Sure Jack told Locke to not mistake coincidence for fate but in this case it is fate. It’s the total opposite of the scene between Eko and Locke in season two and why Eko told Locke to not mistake coincidence for fate. But destiny and fate are in play in the awesome Sideways. As he left school for the day, he ran into Alex. Alex was concerned about his arm and told him that he shouldn’t drive and offered him a ride with she and her mother–Danielle Rousseau (more on her later). Rousseau asked Ben over for dinner as a way to give thanks for everything hes done for Alex. He accepted. After dinner, Ben and Rousseau shared a moment. They were her parents pretty much in the Island. In the Sideways, she looks at Ben as a father figure and admires him because she never had such a figure in her life. Ben choked up after Rousseau told him that. With all of the “Dead Is Dead” references and vibes, I thought Ben’s death was imminent. But no. His story continues.

And the mission of Desmond continues. He turned himself in only to share a cell with Sayid and to be jail neighbors with Kate. His plan: to take them where they needed to be. Hurley met up with him after ANA-LUCIA (Ana Lu-Lu as I call her in my head) set them free for 125,000 dollars. Before they were free, Desmond made Kate and Sayid promise to do him a favor. They promised. Sayid was sent with Hurley (who has ALL of his memories now) and Kate was going with Desmond to the concert that was mentioned by David at the beginning of the episode. The concert where Dr. Chang, Charlotte, Faraday, David’s mother, Miles and probably Sawyer will be. It’s all coming together. I imagine Claire’s been invited too.

And, for good measure, Locke told Jack that he’s finally ready to get out of his chair.

MORE THOUGHTS:

–Oh my GOODNESS is Emilie de Ravin adorable. Holy Smoke Monster did she look as cute as ever in her only scene in the Sideways. Her happiness to be with Jack and his son was so awesome. CLAIRE! I do wonder where she is on the Island. I hope that she is with Desmond. Maybe she’s asking him about that vision of his that never came true. I think she’s cured her own infection and is back to being Claire bear. I hope she meets up with the gang soon and hopefully she doesn’t kill Sawyer.

–We’re going to see the boxes in the outrigger again. Just sayin’ don’t forget about them. Also, I’m merely assuming we’re going to see them again. The first sentence is in no way fact.

–DANIELLE ROUSSEAU! I got teary when I saw her. I know I’m a sap but I’m a sucker for any original season one character. Mira Furlan looked beautiful. It was just great to see Rousseau happy and active in her daughter’s life. So wonderful.

–Jack awoke with a new scar in the Sideways. It’s happened before. What does it mean? Who knows. I imagine we’ll find out in FIVE DAYS when the finale airs. David mentioned that his mother would be at the concert and wanted to make sure his father knew because he doesn’t his dad to act weird. I’m telling you this: if it’s Juliet, it’s going to get dusty. I remember the days of Jack and Juliet. I remember Elizabeth Mitchell and how she portrayed Juliet during those days. I always liked Jack and Juliet together. Of course, I have a feeling Juliet’s final words about going dutch is in relation to Sawyer and that we might see this and it’ll get dusty with that too. I want to see Juliet again! I’m also excited to see how the two timelines reconcile.

–I thought the end of Jacob was very poetic and poignant. He’s the guy who we’ve anticipated meeting since season two and last week we learned he really never had a choice about how his life unfolded. People have criticized Jacob because of the way the show built him up because of what he turned out to be but I was really satisfied with Jacob’s story. I thought Mark Pellegrino was outstanding tonight. He hit the right chord.

–It seems like Richard is dead. Jacob did give him the gift of eternal life so maybe he just got a massive bump on the head because Smokey effing WALLOPED him. Hopefully he’s not dead because Richard’s always been cool. We’ll see.

–Widmore is most definitely dead. Never was a fan. Never will be. Jacob vistited him and convinced him of the error of his hiring Keamy ways. But still, Widmore is a true BLEEP.

–I love the Sideways theme–as in music. Michael Giacchino is amazing and has a lot to do with the specialness of LOST. The music he composes for the show is absolutely amazing. The Sideways theme is just out of this world good.

–I really enjoyed the reappearance of characters who left us in past seasons especially in an episode entitled ‘What They Died For.’ I’ll be honest. I accidentally stumbled upon this title two months when researching Tucker Gates’ IMDB page. He didn’t direct this episode as the damn page said he did. I digress. I’ve never been a big Ana-Lucia fan but I was glad to see her. She had such lousy luck when Michael killed her. It was really a sad death because she realized murder wouldn’t solve anything and then Michael shot her. She was a very sad character and it was a sad death. Perhaps I’ve been too hard on the character. I loved her small appearance and Hurley’s line to her. She’s not coming with the other Islanders though because she’s not ready. Desmond is

–Ben got beat up one last time. It’s been awhile since we’ve seen that.

–Jacob explained the names on the wall as simply that: names on a wall, a form of a list. He had nothing against Kate but she became a mother. He told her she could have the job if she wanted it. After all, he said, it’s just chalk on a wall.

–Seems like we got a confirmation on who inhabited the cabin after Ben said that Smokey had been summoning him. I miss that cabin.

–DL & CC have said in the past that the penultimate episode is really the beginning of the finale and this was a fantastic penultimate episode and a great set up for the series finale.

–Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz and Elizabeth Sarnoff wrote the episode and longtime camera operator and director of LOST, Paul Edwards, directed. I wonder why Stephen Williams left the show but Paul Edwards definitely deserved directing the penultimate episode of the season and the series. Eddie and Adam have been with the show since season one and Elizabeth Sarnoff joined the show in season two. I’d like to thank them for all their years working on last. The same goes for Paul Edwards.

–Only one more left. “The End” airs May 23 at 9PM. Before that, you should watch Damon and Carlton present the Top Ten on Letterman TONIGHT. They will be on Kimmel friday night. It will be their last appearance before they go into radio silence. ABC will be re-airing the full Pilot on Saturday night. I’d encourage going back to the very beginning as The End nears. Tomorrow night, Damon and Carlton will be doing a live interview that’ll be aired live in hundreds of theaters across the country. Finally, television wise, the LOST series finale event begins at 7PM EST with a two hour recap. Everyone who gave up on LOST and is returning for the finale should watch the 2 hour finale. Just know you won’t appreciate the end of the show as much as me or any of the fans who have been loyal for six years. As mentioned above, the season and series finale itself starts at 9PM EST. It’s a two and a half hour epic. After the local news, Jimmy Kimmel’s post-LOST finale will air and he’ll be joined by the bulk of the cast. You know I’ll be watching. Holy moly it is really coming to an end.

–As for the remaining days of Jacob’s Foot, I’ve carefully thought about how to handle finale week. After careful thought, I’ve decided to simply write only recaps/reviews/whatever-you-wanna-call it for the final two episodes. Most the reason lies in the fact that my series finale entry/post/whatever-you-wanna-call it will probably cover anything I would have written about in the five days between now and Sunday. It’s going to be an immense entry. The plan is to have it up Monday afternoon along with the final season six LOST rankings as well as the All-Time LOST rankings.

–And it’s finally hitting me that it is ending. There will be no more episodes after Sunday. I’ll really miss the excitement, joy and fun I experience watching an episode and writing one of these. I’ll be re-watching the series for the rest of my life because that’s what I do with television I love but this is how it needs to happen. Damon and Carlton made a very concious decision to end the show three years ago. It’ll be rare if a network show chooses to end their story on their own terms. I doubt it ever happens again. Savor every scene on Sunday. Savor every character interaction. Just savor EVERYTHING in the finale because it only ends once. Also, I’m so excited for the final chapter of LOST. I think it’s going to be absolutely amazing. Remember, the show has never been about answers and never will be. It’s always been about the characters.

I shall return Monday with the final Jacob’s Foot along with final rankings for the season and the series.

TO THE RANKINGS!

THE OFFICIAL LOST RANKINGS

THE TOP 50 ALL-TIME GREAT CHARACTERS RANKINGS LIST

Yes. The official list of characters for the all-time rankings is being released in this very entry. STEVE suggested it be the 50 greatest characters on LOST. I came up with more than fifty and went through an exhaustive process in which I whittled it down to just 50. You’ll see that Lennon did not make the final cut. He’s the only one who was once ranked (I’m pretendingt that we never ranked Zoe) but we had no idea he’d be killed off so quickly. I didn’t really like Lennon and he’s in no way deserving of being ranked with the great characters of LOST. This list consists of every character we’ve ranked (minus Lennon and Zoe of course) and some characters we were never able to rank but have played a huge role in the show’s story. Come Monday, each character will be ranked from 1 to 50. Here is the list:

Jack

Kate

Hurley

Claire

Michael

Walt

Boone

Shannon

Sawyer

Sayid

Rousseau

Sun

Jin

Mr. Eko

Ana-Lucia

Libby

Rose

Bernard

Ben

Desmond

Widmore

Charlie

Tom

Alex

Karl

Juliet

Ethan

Aaron

Nikki

Paulo

Faraday

Charlotte

Miles

Frank

Keamy

Dr. Chang

MIB

Jacob

Mikhail

Ms. Hawking

Dogen

Ilana

Richard

Dr. Arzt

Mr. Reyes

Mrs. Reyes

Christian

Naomi

Penny

Vincent

Adam Adam and Eve revealed, and not so much Adam and Eve as mother and son who had a very dysfunctional relationship. But it got dusty in The Foot. The story of Jacob, his twin brother and their “mother.” An effective hour of storytelling.

“Across The Sea” is a story about brothers trapped by fate essentially. They had no choice in what they eventually became. They grew up together and loved one another. They looked out for each other. MIB was very hurt when Jacob refused to accompany him to the place where their mother’s people were. Did not Jacob understand he and MIB did not belong his brother seemed to wonder. Their mother spoke with hatred about mankind and how they behaved. MIB echoed those sentiments in this episode when he described them as manipulative and selfish; however, she was just as manipulative. She took away their freedom. As she and Jacob walked to the cave that light emanated from (the source of the Island: life, death, rebirth), she told Jacob that she couldn’t stop his brother. But MIB wasn’t free. He was knocked out. The well he spent years digging because he knew he would be able to find the light underneath the ground was covered up when he awoke with a nasty gash on the back of his head. The camp where he had been living for thirty years was destroyed and the people killed. His mother took away his freedom yet again.

Jacob and his brother were once human. They were born to a woman who crashed on a boat with other people who created a village. They wanted to know what was across the sea. In fact, going across the sea was a major theme throughout the episode. Jacob and his brother didn’t know a world existed outside of their Island. I really should’ve written that Finnegan’s Wake/LOST essay. I digress. We met the crazy mother and boy did she have a screw loose. What she did was take away the free-will of her two children. She did not want her two boys (they of course only became hers after she murdered their mother) to be like men. She told them that it always ends the same. They come. They corrupt. Her son echoed those words in “The Incident” as Jacob enjoyed some fish before MIB rhetorically asked his bro, “do you know how much I wanna kill you?” “I do,” Jacob responded. Well, now we ALL know. It’s because he turned his brother into a pillar of black smoke. I’d be mad too. The war sort of began because of Jacob. He felt unwanted and unloved by his mother. He believed his mother loved his brother more than she loved him. She didn’t deny it. She told him: “I love you both in different ways.” In fact, Jacob believed his mother wanted his brother to become the protector of the Island. Maybe she did. She told him that it was always going to be Jacob; however, before those words, she said “it has to be you.” I interpreted those words to mean “I wanted your brother but now it has to be you. I’ve lost him.” I think Jacob felt it too. The ever-present sadness in his eyes and his demeanor were finally made clear. I felt a level of sympathy for both of the brothers. I felt tremendous amounts of sympathy for Jacob as he became emotional when reminded his brother that the Island is their home. He can’t leave. I felt sympathy for Jacob when thinking about all of the years he spent alone on the Island, protecting it. Like his mother, he seemed to invite the knife into his chest that night in The Foot. His mother thanked MIB for killing her, freeing her from this responsibility. Does Jack really want this job? I digress.

I mostly came away from this episode with a newfound sympathy for Jacob and his brother. Answers have never been very important to me with LOST. I appreciated the character development in this episode and the focus on telling this story about a loony woman and the two boys she raised. We were finally allowed the opportunity to understand why MIB is doing what he is doing. It’s almost a microcosm of the show: people brought to the Island by circumstances beyond their control. Jacob believed in staying. His brother wanted to leave. They were other people that they feared at first. We learned that not even Jacob totally understands what this Island is. His mother either didn’t understand or didn’t want to truly explain the significance of the light. Should it go out, the universe (she claims) will cease to exist, as she implied by saying all lights go out if this light goes out. But I like the mystery that is the Island and that will remain a mystery. I like that it is a place of healing and renewal and rebirth. LOST has always been a show rooted in spirituality. The first season is the most spiritual of the six. It’s a season about rebirth and renewal. Damon and Carlton spoke about how season six is mirroring elements of season six but, perhaps, the most fundamental mirror is the revival of rebirth and renewal. The Sideways seems to be a manifestation of that idea. After all, those who have died live in the Sideways. I digress.

The most emotional scene of the episode took place at the end when realization swept over me. The skeletons were the mother and Jacob’s brother. Jacob lost control of his temper and emotions when he saw that his brother killed the woman who raised them. He dragged him to the Cave of Light. He set him free by sending him down the tree. Their mother warned to never go in. MIB’s body floated in and soon The Smoke Monster emerged. Awhile later, Jacob found his brother’s dead body. He brought him to the Caves where his mother’s dead body lay and he put them together with the bag containing one white stone and one black stone. There was circularity in that moment. To quote Giles from “Buffy,” ‘There’s a certain dramatic irony attached to all this. A synchronicity that borders on predestination, one might say.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

More Thoughts:

–MIB created the donkey wheel which would eventually become the frozen Donkey wheel. That scene was fantastic. Titus Welliver was outstanding especially when he hugged his mother and cried.

–Contrary to negative nancys on LOST message boards, there were a plethora of answers yet again tonight. Don’t like them? Oh well. Stop watching for the answers. It’s always going to be about the characters in the end. Damon said it himself: it’s about lost people on a lost island. I’d like to think Monday’s entry was the last of my “stop hating EVERYTHING, fans” rant but maybe this is the last rant. There are now just 2 episodes left. 3.5 hours. If you’re not happy, write a LOST fanfic that answers every question you want. LOST has never been about answers. I think this is the final rant about fans.

–This episode was a nice break from the intensity and darkness of last week’s episode. But you know? I think next week’s episode is going to be very, very dark and intense. Damon said that it’s a dark time on LOST. I’ll believe him.

–Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof wrote this episode! I’ve always wanted to ask them about the order of their names in the credits. Sometimes, it’s Damon’s name first. Other times it is Carlton. Do they just switch it up evenly? I’d also like to ask them why writing teams have dominated the writing staff since season three. The last episode written by a single person was season two. Interesting. Also, with just two episodes left, I’ve now just realized Stephen Williams left the show. He was an awesome director. Oh well.

–Tucker Gates, the man who helmed “Ab Aeterno,” directed this one. Mark Pellegrino, Titus Welliver and Allison Janney did a some nice work. And I loved seeing the skeleton scene from “House of the Rising Sun” again.

–Overall, a solid episode of LOST. I became more and more invested as the hour went by. Next week: the penultimate episode of the series. We’re almost there.

TO THE RANKINGS!

THE OFFICIAL LOST RANKINGS

No real decision has been made about the four deaths last week since this episode featured no one from the main cast and it would be unfair to rank archived footage from “House of the Rising Sun.” STEVE suggested doing no rankings for the episode but I had some changes to make so we ranked. MIB moved up to 13 for me and Jacob to 14. Richard’s all the way down at 15 which I’m not a fan of but it’s a numbers game. STEVE switched around Jacob, Locke and Sun. But again, no concrete decisions have been made about the four characters who died last week because of the Sideways. Assume they all stay since we’ve been ranking Locke all season and he’s been dead since the end of season three technically. Anywho, ENJOY!

AFTER EPISODE 15

RANKED: 5/11/2010

CHRIS

1. Jack

2. Desmond

3. Hurley

4. Jin

5. Claire

6. Kate

7. Ben

8. Sayid

9. Locke

10. Sawyer

11. Miles

12. Frank

13. Man in Black

14. Jacob

15. Richard

16. Sun

17. Widmore

STEVE

1. Desmond

2. Jack

3. Man in Black

4. Jin

5. Richard

6. Ben

7. Kate

8. Sayid

9. Frank

10. Sawyer

11. Miles

12. Locke

13. Jacob

14. Sun

15. Claire

16. Widmore

17. Hurley

I have even more to write about “The Candidate” and other LOST things including the awesome LOST podcast. Let’s go:

Sayid’s death had the right amount of closure. In the flurry of the emotion of the episode and admist attempting to strike a decent balance between the shocking deaths and the important John Locke/Jack story taking place, one can forget to ruminate on the totality of Sayid’s personal narrative, his own arc. In “LA X,” he was broken, scared and full of fear. He asked Hurley what he thinks happens after death. Sayid was convinced he’d go to a place quite unpleasant. What he didn’t know was, upon his resurrection or whatever you want to call it, that unpleasant place was inside himself. Sartre, in his play No Exit, had one character exclaim that Hell is other people. Hell is sometimes your own self. Sayid made a deal with His Smokeness that infected him. He felt nothing. He did what he was told. “You’re evil,” Dogen told him. Sayid accepted that. “What will you tell her you did to bring her back?” Desmond asked. Sayid didn’t respond. We saw him on the beach of Hydra Island, telling Jack where they were. It seemed like he had more to say before MIB interrupted. Before Desmond was thrown into the well by NotLocke, NotLocke tried to rattle him, to scare him. Desmond wasn’t scared. What’s the use of being afraid he asked NotLocke. Perhaps, the profoundness of Sayid’s talk with Desmond lies in the not being afraid. We didn’t see how the conversation ended. We only saw a renewed Sayid. Perhaps Desmond told Sayid why it’s useless to be afraid. We won’t see the end of their conversation but I’ll bet we see the full scope of Desmond’s influence in the final three episodes so we’ll be able to understand how he saved Sayid’s soul.

Fans on various LOST messageboards have theorized about Jack offering Claire an Apollo candy bar as well as her rejection of the candy bar because that’s exactly what Jacob did with Jack after the dural sac incident that Jack eventually fixed (as told to Kate in the Pilot episode). My own humble opinion is: sometimes a guy offering a girl a candy bar and her not wanting it is just a guy offering a girl a candy bar and her not wanting it.

Fans have been clamoring for the Outrigger mystery to be revealed. I’d like to see that resolved as well. There wasn’t a huge chance of seeing that mystery solved because everyone is on Hydra Island. Why bring this up? I don’t know. It’s not a good segue but it’s a seque. Fan outrage has been more evident after this week’s episode. I can’t recall a more vocally angry internet outrage than the outrage about this episode because of the characters who died. I don’t agree with the naysayers. In fact, I probably wrote about how I wish they’d stop watching the show if they find so much wrong with it. It’s television and free. Chuck Klosterman wrote something, I imagine as a retort to all of the LOST naysayers he’s been dealing with, on Twitter. In fact, Klosterman did an awesome job on a BS Report podcast with ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons of defending the show. Simmons was in the majority of fans who felt that the show going to be a train wreck until it ended after seeing the first six episodes of the season (I wasn’t and remain a part from that community of fans). Klosterman essentially told Simmons that LOST is what it is and he suggested to just roll with it. He considers it, as do I, to be one of network television greatest shows of all-time. Klosterman describes LOST as ‘the most exclusionary show ever.’ I totally agree. He also compared it to reading a Russian novel. I’ve read a few in my life and I’d agree.

The point he essentially made then and made outright on Twitter is: “If you continue to watch a serialized TV show you actively dislike, you completely deserve your unhappiness.”

Listen, in less than two weeks, there’s going to be a 250,000 word recap of the series finale that at least one person will be reading besides myself (and I’m the author!). There’s less than 2 weeks to go now. Maybe after tomorrow’s episode, “Across The Sea,” the negativity and bitterness will cease. I hope it does so that the fan community, the loyal community who have been watching for six seasons without ever leaving, can enjoy the ultimate unwrapping of the Christmas gift (as DL and CC have said). LOST is a great Russian-esque novel. NotLocke, in “The Substitute,” told Sawyer that he’s so close (to the Number Caves in the context of the episode). We’re so close, fans. Embrace and savor the final three episodes because there’s never going to be a show like LOST again.

Other Things to Address:

–I forgot to add this in “The Candidate” entry. Lostpedia noted that only six season one character remain in the Island timeline: Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Claire and Walt. It’s wild and sad.

–I listened to the penultimate podcast episode of The Offical LOST Podcast on Saturday afternoon. The penultimate podcast. Amazing how time flies. It seems like yesterday they announced their three-year deal that would end LOST in its sixth season on a podcast. But I shall save the podcast memories for the entry I write after the final podcast has been listened to. It’s coming this week as there won’t be any prehasing for the series finale. Expect the “Goodbye, LOST Podcast” entry sometime this week.

I’ll be back Wednesday with thoughts on “Across The Sea” as well as the LOST rankings.

HE’S BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DESMOND HAS RETURNED TO THE ISLAND! WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! Patience is indeed a virtue, folks. Do I like the fact that Widmore kidnapped him and brought him back to the Island against his will? Hell No I don’t. Do I like that the previews hinted that someone would be sacrificed and that it seems like, according to Widmore and the secrecy of Desmond, Desmond will be the one sacrificed to somehow prevent Smokey from leaving the Island and destroying the world? No. But with that second question I posed for myself to answer, I now am thinking about the button, the hatch, saving the world and how Desmond’s purpose for three years was saving the world. I promise I’ll detail a bit later. Also, do I like Damon Lindelof’s cryptic tweet minutes after the episode ended after being, I assume, flooded with DESMOND!!! tweets? No. Anywho, this was Sun and Jin’s episode and that is where I shall begin.

“The Package” is an episode that really advanced the plot as we head towards the series finale. We found out why Widmore came to the Island. Richard is now a man with the plan and is ready to launch an assault on the Man in Black. For Jin and Sun though, the fate of the world/saving the world is secondary to them. In the scene between Jin and Widmore, Widmore pretty much sums it up: for Jin AND Sun, it’s about Ji-Yeon and being. It’s about getting off the Island to be with Ji-Yeon, to finally be a family. In the Sideways, we saw that same theme play out just a little differently.

I gave a chuckle when the first flash sideways ended with the revelation that Sun and Jin are not married in the sideways world. I know that the sideways world have their differences yet I am always surprised when I find out about the differences. I loved it though. Sideways Jin doesn’t have the anger of pre-Island non-Sideways narrative Jin. Sideways Jin is the man he was before Mr. Paik caused havoc in his life. He’s the man we saw in “…And Found” and “D.O.C.” He’s not the overbearing, controlling husband we knew from “House of the Rising Sun” etc. He was working for Mr. Paik and Sun had nothing to do with it. Is Jin’s father still a fisherman? Perhaps not. I doubt Jin is the son of a whore in the Sideways but I doubt his origins are important with just 8 episodes left to go. Or maybe it’s essentially the same. Who knows. The Sideways story filled in the blanks from what we saw at the end of “The Substitute.” What happened was a whole lot of fun (for the viewer). Customs confiscated the $25,000 and sent he and Sun on his way. The only problem? Jin had to deliver the 25 grand along with the the watch to good ol Martin Keamy. At the hotel, following the airport, we found out Jin and Sun are not married. Jin asked for separate rooms. What we didn’t know is that they were involved in a secret relationship. At around 11:30PM, Jin stopped by Sun’s room, preparing to go to the restauraunt. Sun told him to stay because no one would be there. Jin teased her by saying she’s only here for shopping and that the watch delivery is of little interest to her. He also told her that he does what her father tells him and does not ask questions. Anywho, in the hotel room, she unbuttoned her top button and asked Jin whether or not he’d tell her to button it. He said no. He explained he only told her to button the shirt on the plane in case someone was watching. Sun continued to unbutton her shirt, asking Jin whether or not she should button each button that become unbuttoned. Jin said no. She eventually removed her shirt, they kissed, and you know…

The following morning, they awoke. Sun told Jin that she wanted to run away with him (which is of course another difference) and Jin wondered whether or not this was her plan all along. She told him she had her own account and that they could run away. Jin reminded her that it was forbidden. Soon, Keamy showed up. Jin hid when they first heard the knock on the door. Keamy came in, got the watch. He asked about the money and Sun said ‘no English.’ Omar soon arrived after checking Jin’s room and finding no one. They looked in the bathroom and found a shirtless Jin. Soon, Sun and Jin were on the bed. They discussed what to do about the money. Sun suggested paying Keamy the 25 grand herself; however, Keamy and Omar couldn’t understand a word because they don’t speak Korean. Keamy made a Gozilla joke because he’s a so and so. The two of them put their brains together (Omar and Keamy) and decided to bring in the Russian dude who speaks a bunch of languages. The russian guy? NONE OTHER THAN MIKHAIL! Mr. I-Killed-Charlie Mikhail returned. He translated for Jin and Sun. Keamy decided to take Jin with him to the restaurant while Sun would go with Keamy to get the $25,000.

At the restaurant, Omar and Keamy put him into the fridge. Omar bumped Jin’s head and Keamy told Omar to be more gentle. I took this to be part of Keamy’s twisted sense of humor considering his job was to kill Jin. In the fridge, Keamy told him exactly that. Keamy got a kick out of it too. Little did he know that, when Omar returned with Sayid, he’d be laughing no more. He told Jin that Mr. Paik found out about Jin/Sun because Keamy told Paik (Keamy is a bastard). After all of that, Jin simply said thank you for Keamy cleaning up the cut on his forehead. Keamy then put a piece of tape over his mouth. Sayid soon arrived, did his thing we saw in “Sundown,” and he gave Jin the tool to set himself free. Once free, Jin met Mikhail where the dead bodies were. They had a brief fight and then Jin shot Mikhail in the eye. Mikhail shall always remain Patchy! But uh-oh. A bullet hit Sun. As Jin carried her off, she told him she was pregnant (yet another difference as Jin was sterile pre-Island). I wonder will Claire and Sun be giving birth at the same time. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, in the Island narrative, Jin was taken by Zoe and Seamus. But before that happened, NotLocke of The Smoke sat down to talk with Jin. He asked Jin about his leg. Jin told him that it still hurts. NotLocke suggested removing the bandage to the wound some air. Jin continued wrapping. He told Jin that about the candidates and admitted that he didn’t know whether he or Jin was the candidate but he told Jin that he was working on getting Sun back because he can’t leave the Island unless he has all six candidates with him (he did tell Jacob that he’d kill ALL of the candidates so he can leave…don’t forge that). After his talk with Jin, Claire sat down with NotLocke. She overheard NotLocke telling Jin about the caves and the names written in the caves. She asked if she was on there. He told her no. I wanted to hug her. I digress. Claire seemed closer to the Claire we knew from seasons one through four. They discussed Kate. NotLocke told Claire that he needs Kate to get three more people but after that “whatever happens, happens.” That bastard. Claire also talked about how Aaron wouldn’t even recognize her if she got off the Island and how he thinks Kate is her mother. Anywho, when they finished talking, NotLocke went to Sayid. NotLocke told Sayid that he was in charge of the camp while he was gone and that he’d be a gone for a day. Sayid told NotLocke that he doesn’t feel anything–not pain, not anger, not happiness. Nothing. Very powerful scene.

NotLocke soon left. Jin mobilized. He wanted to leave while NotLocke was gone. Sawyer tried to stop him. Of course Widmore’s people stopped Jin from going. Everyone is hit by darts. When they are all down, Zoe arrives with the team and they take Jin with them.

Meanwhile, at the beach, everyone is pretty much relaxing. Ilana has no plans to move forward until Richard returns with a plan because Jacob said Richard would know what to do next. Sun grows frustrated and walks off. She goes to her garden. Jack follows her there. He tries to assure her that they are on the Island for a reason by telling her about the lighthouse and the names. Sun tells Jack that she doesn’t care about destiny or the lighthouse. She just wants to be left alone. When alone, NotLocke shows up and tells her that he can bring her to Jin but she doesn’t trust him and she runs away. She eventually runs into a tree and knocks herself out. She awakes with a concerned Ben over her. She tells him that she is allright but in Korean. She is able to tell Ben that she was running from Locke.

Back at the beach, Jack examines her and tells her she might be suffering from aphasia. She still understands English but cannot speak the language. Only Korean. There’s a funny exchange between Miles and Frank when Miles wonders if they’re supposed to buy this. Frank says “this coming from the guy who communes with the dead.” That was great. I wonder when Sun will regain the ability to speak the English language or will Jin be her translator now. That would have a rather circular feel. Anywho, a bit later, Richard and Hurley returned from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Ilana was relieved as was everyone else except for Sun when Richard finally spoke. Ben tells Richard that NotLocke planned to go to Hydra Island and Frank confirms to Richard that the plane is on Hydra Island. Richard plans to destroy it and that’s when Sun takes issue because Richard will be destroying their only way off of the Island. After all, Sun only returned to the Island to bring her husband home. Once Ben convinced her of Jin’s survival, her only goal has been to find Jin. Not to save the world. She figures that, since she is candidate, she is important and needed and will refuse to go with them.

Later, at night, Sun sits on the beach and stares out at the ocean. Jack approaches her once again and sits down. He tells her about a patient he had who, after surgery, wasn’t able to talk and grew frustrated. What Jack did for the patient was provide a notebook and a pen. He does the same for Sun so that she can still have her English voice. He tells her that he went back to the garden to look for Locke but he didn’t find him. Jack did find a fresh, healthy tomato even though all of the vines were dead. Jack says to Sun, “No one told the stubborn tomato that it was supposed to die.” Sun tells Jack that she didn’t go with Locke because she doesn’t trust him. Jack asks if Sun trusts him. Sun smiles, tears up a little and writes yes. Jack tells Sun to go with him and the others because he’ll do whatever it takes to reunite Sun with her husband and get them on the plane. Jack offers her his hand and she takes it. Recall the scene when Sun did NOT take NotLocke’s hand. I thought this scene was lovely. I loved the score. I love the season oneness of it all. I’ve been thinking about the transformation we’ve seen of Jack from the pill-popping man we saw at the end of Through The Looking Glass to right now. I’ve thought about that intense scene when Locke shows his face after throwing a knife into the back of Naomi and Jack pulling the trigger on an empty gun and the look on his face. That man is gone. This might be Jack’s best season. More on Jack/NotLocke later.

We must return to Jin now. Jin awoke in Room 23. He made the mistake of accidentally turning on the video we saw poor Karl watching in season three. Zoe told Jin that Dharma used Room 23 to experiment with subliminal messaging. Zoe, the geophysist, had a map with her of the electromagnetic hotspots on the Island. The signature looked like Jin’s and Zoe told him that whoever signed it could really help her out. Jin had no interest giving answers to her. He wanted to talk to the Big Cheese: Charles Widmore. Zoe had no problems with that.

Meanwhile, Widmore was a tad busy. On the main Island, NotLocke got Sayid to travel with him to Hydra Island because Widmore took one of NotLocke’s people. Sawyer has a great line about The Smokeness and the ability to travel over water. NotLocke says it’s not that simple. He and Sayid take the outrigger over to Hydra Island. When they arrive, well when NotLocke arrives, since Sayid’s doing his stealth thing that he likes to do, Widmore meets him by the pylons after Seamus and crew go ballistic once they see the Walking Smoke. Widmore tells NotLocke that he knows that he’s not John Locke. NotLocke inquires about Widmore having one of his people. Widmore claims he has no idea what NotLocke is talking about. NotLocke responds with: “A wise man once said that war is coming to this Island. I think it just got here.” That wise man? Charles Widmore, of course, who told John Locke that war was coming to the Island in “The Life and Death of Jeramy Bentham.” He also told Locke that he needed to return to the Island or else the wrong side would win. NotLocke left soon after that conversation. He returned to camp without Sayid. Prior to his arrival at camp, Sawyer and Kate had a nice conversation. Kate asked Sawyer why he’s not worried. Sawyer says that he is worried but he’s just good at hiding worry. Sawyer hopes that Widmore had gotten NotLocke but one second later NotLocke wanders back into camp. Sawyer asks about Jin. NotLocke tells him that they said they don’t have Jin but it’s not to be believed. Sawyer asks about Sayid and NotLocke tells him about the locked door in the sub and how Sayid’s spying on that because NotLocke is not a fan of secrets.

Back to Jin, he’s finally able to talk to Widmore himself. Before their conversation though, Widmore has a very interesting exchange with Zoe about a timetable.Zoe tells Widmore that she should’ve hired a mercenary. Widmore doesn’t respond really. It looks like he’s thinking “I DID HIRE ONE AND HE’S DEAD!” But anywho, the great part of Jin/Widmore was the camera Widmore brought for Jin. Jin was finally able to see his daughter Ji-Yeon. He saw pictures of Ji-Yeon on a playground and pictures with her mother at her birthday party. Daniel Dae Kim was great during this scene. Widmore then told Jin about the Man in Black and about the need to stop him. Widmore tried to relate to Jin, explaining that he is not allowed near his daughter or grandson. Widmore told Jin that if the Man in Black leaves the Island then everyone will cease to be. It makes the Man in Black seem like the physical embodiment of the electromagnetic energy bottled up and if the button’s not pushed every 108 minutes then the world as we know it will be destroyed. If he leaves the Island, bye bye world. He’s a clever bastard though that Man in Black. It seems like anyone going with him will die so all of Jacob’s candidates will die. Claire talked about her fear of Aaron not knowing her. Well, he will know her in the Sideways. I believe the Sideways are going to bleed into the original Island timeline. How that happens? I don’t know. But I’m thinking this season gets even more intense and I think the Island will become a place of death again. We shall see.

And then, at episode’s end, we got the return of Desmond David Hume. One of the greatest characters ever created in all of fiction. Widmore wanted the package put into the infirmary. He told Jin that the package was a who. We soon saw, after the final sideways part and NotLocke returning to camp, Desmond emerge from the sub all drugged up. He fell down on the deck and saw Sayid in the water, looking up at him. And then he was taken away. End of episode.

Time for even MORE thoughts:

–I don’t trust Charles Widmore. I never have. I don’t even like the dude. He was a bastard to Des in every Desmond flashback. He was a bastard in Desmond’s time-traveling fun (Flashes Before Your Eyes and The Constant). He sent a freighter to kill everyone. The last time we saw Desmond and Charles was in “Jughead” when Desmond finally had the upper-hand. He told Charles to stay the hell away from he and his family. Desmond also didn’t want to go back to the Island. Ms. Hawking told Desmond that the Island’s not done with him though. The last time we saw Desmond was as he recovered from the gunshot wound. He also beat the daylights out of Ben for trying to kill Penny. Between then and now, Widmore kidnapped him and brought him back to the Island. Why? We shall soon find out. Desmond is special though as Faraday told us. Please use him for good, Widmore. It’s still great to have Desmond back.

–I really enjoyed the tiny scene between Sayid and NotLocke because it seemed like another tomato moment. Hope for Sayid. Hope for his redemption. Just hope. I really want to see a Jack-like Sayid transformation. HE’S SAYID! He’s the same guy who needed to leave camp after he tortured Sawyer, telling Kate “What I did today I swore I’d never do again.” Sure he’s done those acts quite a few times since that day but it’s not too late to shake himself out this…whatever is going on with him…and start on the path to redemption once again. Angel the vampire has been trying to atone for his past for over a century. There is hope for Sayid Jarrah. He’s just very, very lost right now. He’s been very, very lost since Nadia was killed.

–The Aphasia storyline is something I certainly did not expect. I’m interested in where it goes. I don’t have much else to add about it. We also got a mirror scene with Sun as she took a long look at herself.

–There were some terrific lines tonight. I loved the exchange between Ben and Ilana when Ben was pleading his case about NOT being behind Sun’s bump on the head. Recall when The Others were blamed for Sun’s kidnapping in “The Long Con” when, in fact, it was Charlie doing the kidnapping. Sawyer hatched the idea. Anytime Miles and Frank are together is always a good time. Miles had a good line about Hurley’s ability as a tracker, saying that unless Richard was covered in bacon Hurley wouldn’t be able to track anyone. Ilana believed in Hurley though.

–There was quite a lot of exposition early in this episode. I wonder why. This is LOST after all. No one’s going to suddenly decide, in the middle of season six, to begin watching the show without watching all of the show before. Of course, everyone will watch the finale without seeing the entire series. I digress though. Perhaps Lindelof and Cuse and Room 23 just wanted to point out the most important plot points as we begin the final part of the season and the series.

–I expected to see a Michael cameo just because he was an integral part of the Sun/Jin dynamic in season one and for most of the series except for when he yelled about Walt. Oh well.

–Speaking of Walt, there are some LOST fans on thefuselage.com that refuse to believe Desmond is the package and that Walt is, in fact, the package. WIDMORE AND WALT HAVE NEVER MET IN THEIR LIVES! COME ON!

–Keamy said that Mikhail’s friends name is Danny. Is that Danny Pickett? Also one of the top 9 so and sos of LOST (I did a whole top 9 early on in the hiatus. It was fun).

–I do wonder what’s up with locating the electromagnetic hotspots on the Island. What is Widmore’s gameplan?

–I think Terry O’Quinn knocked it out of the park yet again this week. Yunjin Kim and Daniel Dae Kim did a great job as well. This was a different kind of Sun/Jin episode though. We got a heck of alot of Island story

–Paul Zbyszewski and Graham Roland wrote this one. They also wrote “Sundown.” Veteran LOST crew member Paul Edwards directed it. Applause all around.

–Only six episodes left until the series finale. 8 hours in total. I enjoyed “The Package” a lot. I got a kick out of the Sideways story, seeing Mikhail again. It was a fun episode. It had a lot of heart and make it moved things along. Well done, LOST.

TO THE RANKINGS!

THE OFFICIAL LOST RANKINGS

Exciting week for the rankings I dare say. Desmond has returned to the top spot for me. Sayid has also returned to my top 5. Sawyer’s no. 10 now. Kate got bumped to 11. Those are the big exciting changes. As for STEVE, his top ten stayed same pretty much. He switched Ben and Miles. But check them out for yourselves:

AFTER EPISODE 10

RANKED: 3/31/2010

CHRIS

1. Desmond

2. Jack

3. Ben

4. Hurley

5. Sayid

6. Jin

7. Claire

8. Locke

9. Miles

10. Sawyer

11. Kate

12. Richard

13. Frank

14. Sun

15. Ilana

16. Jacob

17. Man in Black

18. Widmore

STEVE

1. Desmond

2. Man in Black

3. Jack

4. Richard

5. Kate

6. Ben

7. Miles

8. Sawyer

9. Sayid

10. Jin

11. Frank

12. Ilana

13. Locke

14. Sun

15. Jacob

16. Claire

17. Widmore

18. Hurley

Richard and Isabella

I’m going to use the word sweeping to describe the first twenty minutes of “Ab Aeterno.” That was epic. Tucker Gates, the director of this episode, deserves an emmy. How they did shot that in 8 days, and produced the episode as we saw it in 3-4 weeks is astounding. I’m telling you: if I could create 44 minutes of fiction on screen that’s a little bit as quality as every episode produced by this show (particularly this one) I will be very, very happy.

ANYWHO, Heaven vs. Hell. Hm. Of course those two concepts can take on many meanings. This episode finally gave us the story of how Richard Alpert arrived to the Island and it provided a whole lot of light on Jacob vs. The Man in Black. The episode was jam-packed with religious themes. We even had a long shot of a specific bible passage. That passage? It’s from the Gospel of Luke and I saw something about a prophet. Significant? I rather think so. I rather think a lot of this episode is significant. You too? Good! We’re on the same page. Let’s dive into this heaven and hell thing while we’re at it.

Flashback to the teaser of “The Incident” when Jacob and Man in Black are talking about, essentially, nature vs. nurture. Jacob refreshed our minds when he told Richard that The Smokeness believes all men are corruptable and cannot avoid sin while Jacob believes men are not corruptable. He believes in free-will and choice. He brings people to the Island to prove Man in Black wrong. Something’s off about the both of them and the way they approach proving their personal philosophies and beliefs to be true. While Jacob told everyone he touched in “The Incident,” that they had a choice, he also brought them to the Island which is, in no way, a choice of anyone BUT he does allow them to be free of their past, as he told Richard on the beach; however, he does bring them to the Island without asking for their permission and makes it fairly hard to leave the place.

Man in Black seems to strive to corrupt individuals but he does so by promising them what they desire most in the world. He promised Richard that he would see his wife again if he killed Jacob, if he could assist him in leaving the Island. In fact, the scene between Smokey and Richard mirrored the scene between Sayid and Dogen. Intentional? I think so. Mirroring the two scenes made everything more ambiguous (and hell yes THAT’S intentional). Smokey’s desire to corrupt makes sense because he’s obsessed with proving Jacob wrong and it seems that all of Smokey’s declarations of Jacob being false and fraud are merely deceptions disguised as truth. He is OBSESSED with leaving the bottle and spreading darkness and evil to the world (if that is indeed the case).

I now think back to words Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse shared regarding the battle between good and evil we’d be witnessing during the final season. They spoke of the battle that exists within each individual character and that will probably continue to play out in the weeks to come as sides are drawn and whatnot. What about Jacob and MIB? I’m still leaning towards the idea that the two exist in a shades of grey though Jacob and MIB perceive eachother in absolutes. Smokey told Richard that Jacob was the devil and that they were in hell while Jacob obviously believes Smokey to be evil incarnate. We don’t know why this is. We know MIB couldn’t leave the Island on his own, that Jacob kept him entrapped but we don’t know why. MIB also mentioned something sort of MAJOR when he said his body was hijacked by Jacob. Hm.

What is to be made of all this heaven and hell talk? Let’s see. Smokey did his thing when he came into The Black Rock which means he scanned Richard’s soul, the essence of Richard. Richard was petrified of hell. His wife laid dying in their home in Spain and Richard sought a doctor’s help. At the doctor’s home, he did not have the money to afford the medicine, became upset, and accidentally murdered the doctor (shades of Desmond killing Kelvin? Maybe I’m the only who was reminded by that). He returned to find his wife, dead and then he was quickly arrested and put into jail. In jail, a priest visited him and asked for his confession after Richard told him that he and Isabella wanted to move to the New World. Richard tearfully confessed, explained that it was an accident, and begged absolution and the forgiveness of God but the priest told Richard that he could not absolve him from sin, that he would hang in the morning and would spend eternity in hell. On the day of his hanging, he was bought by Magnus Hanso and became a slave of his. He was chained in The Black Rock, that slave ship out of Portsmouth destined for the New World. But the ship shipwrecked on The Island (Jacob brought them there AND the ship also destroyed the statue thus creating Jacob’s Foot. I’ll take that as a shoutout!). Once shipwrecked, the ship captain went crazy and murdered every slave except for Richard. Smokey saved Richard from death. He killed every Black Rock officer. He did not kill Richard as mentioned above because he did his thing, looked at Richard’s life and decided Richard was not worth death. As mentioned above, Smokey saw the essence of Richard and felt he could use him to kill Jacob.

Before the Man in Black saved him from death in The Black Rock, Richard became a Job figure. In the biblical story of Job, The Devil tells God that Job would no longer pray to him or worship him if he suffers and suffers, that the suffering would cause Job to believe God did not exist. So God tested him and tested him. He took everything from Job and even gave him diseases but Job did not stop believing. Richard suffered for many days inside of The Black Rock as he was chained to the wall. It took him weeks to loosen up a screw in hopes that he could free himself. When it rained, he was far enough from the rain that he could not get on water on his tongue. He tried killing a boar with the screw/nail but could not get the nail back when the boar ran right past him so his hopes of freeing himself were lost. He was surrounded by the dead. His wife appeared to him and told him that they were in hell and must be freed from the devil; however, the sounds of Smokey were heard and Richard told his wife to run because he promised that he would save her but it seems as if she was eaten by The Smokeness (of course I think that was Smokey doing his manifestation thing). After this, the Man in Black finally showed up all Titus Welliver (the actor who portrays him) and freed him. He gave Richard water. He confirmed that they were in hell. He told Richard that the devil took Isabella, not the Smoke. He told Richard that the devil must be killed in order to be free. MIB picked Richard up and moved him out of the hell of The Black Rock and into the sunshine of the Island. The Man in Black took Richard to a place underneath a large tree that would remind some people of the Garden of Eden and the tree of knowledge and good and evil. The Man in Black and Richard sat on a stone pew and MIB proceeds to go Dogen on Richard. He instructs Richard to kill him with the knife given but that he must not let Jacob speak, must not hesitate because Jacob can be persuasive. He tells Richard that, along with his body, Jacob or the devil also stole his humanity.

Richard, after a walk, arrives at the Foot of the Statue but is quickly twarthed by Jacob himself. Jacob opens a can of whoop ass on Richard. When Jacob learns that Richard believes he’s in hell, Jacob rushes him to the ocean and waterboards him until Richards believe he is alive and declares that he wants to live. With that taken care of, Jacob wants to talk to Richard. They talk. Jacob gives Richard a plethora of information (and to the audience quite naturally) about the Man in Black when Jacob learns that Richard met the Man in Black in the jungle. The most significant exchange in their conversation revolves around why Jacob brings people to the Island (which I’ve addressed). Jacob tells Richard that he wants people to know the difference between right and wrong but does not want people to be told what is right and what is wrong because that defeats the purpose. It goes back to the essence of being, the battle that exists within each individual and figuring out the difference between good and evil. Damon Lindelof offered some really interesting words in the most recent podcast. Here’s a transcript of that:

CARLTON CUSE: What are we to make of Sayid’s condition coming out of Sundown, Damon?

DAMON LINDELOF: What I love about “Sundown”—and that script was written by Paul Zbyszewski and Graham Roland and directed by Bobby Roth—is, there’s this kind of cool thing in play which is if you tell somebody that they’re evil, is that an excuse for them to act evil? Ben Linus says last year, “Hey, you’re a killer no matter what you do,” and now Dogen, who basically tried to kill this guy based on whatever they hooked him up to, he says “You’re a bad dude, too, and if you’re not a bad dude then prove it,” but it seems like when he gives Sayid that knife to kill Locke, he’s actually setting Sayid up to have Locke do his dirty work for him, so there’s an argument to be made for the fact that Dogen sort of got what was coming to him.

It’s a slippery slope these characters walk. Returning to Richard now, Jacob offered Richard a job: to be the go between between the people Jacob brought the Island and Jacob. Richard accepted it. Jacob asked Richard what he wanted most and Richard told him that he wanted to be with his wife again but Jacob couldn’t bring her back. Richard asked to be absolved of his sins but Jacob could not do that either. Richard then said he didn’t want to die, that he wanted to live forever. So Jacob did that for him. Richard returned to MIB after receiving the gift of eternal life from Jacob. Man in Black accepted it and told him that his offer stands forever: to reunite Richard with Isabella. Richard gave the Man in Black the white rock. MIB wasn’t too happy with that, folks. The Man in Black handed him Richard’s cross. The same cross the doctor said was worthless to Richard, which incited Richard’s rage and ended in accidental murder. The Man in Black disappeared. Richard decided to bury the cross.

CUT TO a sunny day in 2007 and the place where the Man in Black and Richard first talked. Richard has returned. He immediately digs into the dirt where he buried the cross, takes it out and puts it around his neck. No doubt a lot of symbolism about re-birth and resurrection. But before I dive into the conclusion of “Ab Aeterno,” I have to go back to the beginning (that was a sort of play on the episode title).

The episode opened with Jacob visiting Ilana in the hospital, as we saw in “The Incident.” The new footage we saw was Jacob telling Ilana that she had to protect six candidates on The Island. The next scene we saw was Ilana asking Jacob what she’ll do after she has the six candidates under her protection. Jacob tells her that Ricardus will know what to do.

On the beach, at night, the beach group sit around and fire and talk about what they need to do next. My favorite part of this whole scene? Jack’s reaction to being told that a John Locke is walking around this Island. I digress. Ilana made it clear that Richard was the one who would know what to do next. Richard seemed baffled and bamboozled by her words. He told her that he just tried to kill himself because everything he believed was a lie. Jack asks for Richard to explain and Richard tells Jack that the whole Island is not what they think it is. Richard claims that the Island is hell and that everyone on the Island are actually dead. Richard says he’s done listening to Jacob, grabs a torch and is off to listen to someone who can morph into a pillar of Black Smoke (not in those words). As Richard wanders in the jungle, the rest talk about him. Ilana’s ready to go after him but Jack tells her that Richard’s lost his mind. Jack goes over to Hurley who is speaking in Spanish to the air (but it’s not the air). Hurley tells Jack that whoever he’s talking to has nothing to do with Jack. At the fire, Frank wonders how the hell someone can not age after Ben tells Frank that he’s known Richard since the age of 12 and that Richard has always looked the same.

Back to daylight now and the tree and the digging and the cross around Richard’s neck. Richard starts yelling ‘does the offer still stand?’ and then Hurley shows up. Hurley has been talking with Isabella. Richard does not believe Hurley but eventually does. Hurley speaks for Richard’s wife, asking Richard why he buried her cross. He tells Richard to close his eyes and then Isabella does the talking. Isabella tells her husband that it wasn’t his fault that she died and that he’s suffered enough. Richard tells her how much he misses her and that he just wants to be with her again and that he would do anything for that to happen. Isabella tells him that they are together and after a kiss, she disappears. Richard looks content and at peace but Hurley has one last thing to tell Richard. He says his wife told Richard that he must stop Smokey from leaving the Island because if he does…everyone goes to hell. The last thing we saw was NotLocke watching from the distance. Uh-oh?

I don’t think the assertion that they all to hell is about the literal place. Think of the magic box that had people, for some reason, baffled in season three. I think it’s a metaphor. What it seems to mean is that people will lose the ability to decide for themselves the difference between right and wrong. The Man in Black will tip the scales the wrong way for many, many people. But who indeed knows. That is something for the show to resolve in the final 2 months.

The final scene of the episode was between Jacob and the Man in Black. Jacob asks why MIB tried to kill him. MIB explained that it’s because he wants to leave the Island. Jacob says that he’ll never let happen while alive and explains that someone will take his place if he’s killed so MIB explains he’ll kill every single candidate. Jacob gives MIB the bottle, tells him he’ll see the Smokeness around and leaves. Man in Black then SMASHES the bottle and the wine spills everywhere. “Sooner than you think,” the Man in Black says to himself.

Here’s some MORE thoughts:

–I really enjoyed Richard’s entire flashback. I particularly want to focus on the metaphorical cross Richard’s been bearing for over 100 years: feeling responsible for his wife’s death. The final scene between he and his wife freed him of his cross. He sought forgiveness for his wife’s death. I think the doctor he killed was never the source of his anguish. I think it was feeling guilt for not saving his wife when he promised that he would. He wanted absolution for his sins. He wanted tabula rasa but no one granted that to him really. Jacob sort of but he told him he could not absolve him of his sins. He just wanted to forgiveness and he finally got it which I thought was one of the great LOST scenes in a series packed with so many.

–I mentioned how the bible passage we saw was from the Gospel of Luke. Well, in that gospel, Jesus spends 40 days and 40 nights in the desert. While out there, he is tempted by the devil. The devil offers him all of the kingdoms in the world. MIB comes off a lot like the devil as he tempts Claire, Sayid and Richard with whatever they want. Even Sawyer. And they believe him and follow him. It’s never good when you resemble Satan himself.

–It’s worth noting that Ab Aeterno translates to: from the beginning.

–I really want to know why Man in Black is imprisoned by Jacob on the Island. I’d like to know the whole history. I imagine we’ll get that answer at some point before the series takes its final bow.

–This whole episode had me thinking about the sideways as well. Mostly about the nature of the sideways and why they exist. I have no theories to offer. I’m remaining patient, not thinking too much into them as Team Darlton recommended.

–This episode makes one wonder about The Purge and Richard’s role in it. Of course we still need more information about The Purge and why it happened. Obviously, Dharma loosely followed the truce and were using Hostile land when building the Hatches. Also, Richard told Locke that his father needed to go in “The Brig.” But the death of Anthony Cooper was about freeing Locke from that. Hm. Intentionally ambigiuous as always. Richard’s one heck of a fascinating character though.

–I wonder about the nature of the apparitions on the Island. Smokey can assume the form of some people but the people who talk to Hurley are not dead. I wonder about Christian Shephard and the nature of his appearances. The same goes for Ben’s mother, the boy we saw in “The Subtititute,” Dave, etc. Wet Walt is also still a mystery.

–I also wonder if Jacob vs. Man in Black will be resolved in 3-4 episodes. Am I insane for thinking such a thing? Perhaps. But I know this season is a three act season. We’re in the middle of act two and act three is to come. Hm indeed. I doubt it’ll be resolved in 3-4 episodes. This battle will be with us during the final act of the final season. I feel sad typing those words.

–This was one of the few episodes with no B plot, folks. I usually reserve this spot in the recap for the B plot but this episode was all Richard. It was quite a linear story as well. This quite the different recap to write.

–Nestor Carbonell deserves an emmy for this episode. He was outstanding. Tucker Gates’s directing was astounding. The First and Second Unit crews deserve emmys. If this episode doesn’t win some emmys, I will be speechless.

–Melinda Hsu-Taylor and Greggory Nations wrote this one. Gregg Nations is Lostpedia of the writer’s room. The dude keeps track of everything. Tucker Gates, the director, did a marvelous job. Jean Higgins deserves some props from The Foot too. She does so much for the show but I never mention her by name. The whole crew deserves many free milkshakes for this one.

TO THE RANKINGS!

THE OFFICIAL LOST RANKINGS

An exciting week for the rankings. STEVE has a different looking top 5 with the Man in Black getting the number two spot and Richard getting the number 4 spot. My rankings aren’t too exciting. Hurley moved up one spot in the top 5. Richard nearly cracked the top ten but I didn’t want to demote Kate or Sayid. I didn’t even move Jacob or MIB from 16 and 17. Perhaps I’ll explain. Unless your Charles Widmore, I’ll leave characters in the cellar of the rankings if I’m not sure what to make of them. Remember the NotLocke bombshell in “The Incident”? Locke had been in the top spot for weeks and then I found out that Locke never resurrected and it was the Man in Black. I was floored. I didn’t know what to make of it. It’s like that. Plus, MIB hit Claire. Not cool. Jacob seems cool and all. But yes, Locke dropped to no. 5. Me and STEVE discussed whether or not sideways Locke should be ranked. We’re still not sure. Anywho, check the rankings out for yourselves:

AFTER EPISODE 9

RANKED: 3/24/2010

CHRIS

1. Jack

2. Desmond

3. Ben

4. Hurley

5. Locke

6. Jin

7. Claire

8. Miles

9. Sayid

10. Kate

11. Richard

12. Sawyer

13. Frank

14. Sun

15. Ilana

16. Jacob

17. Man in Black

18. Widmore

STEVE

1. Desmond

2. Man in Black

3. Jack

4. Richard

5. Kate

6. Miles

7. Ben

8. Sawyer

9. Sayid

10. Jin

11. Frank

12. Locke

13. Sun

14. Jacob

15. Claire

16. Ilana

17. Hurley

18. Widmore

“Dr. Linus” is a great example of what I love most about LOST. An excellent character driven story dominated this one: the redemption of Ben Linus. I felt all kinds of seasons one and three during this one, folks. I really, really loved it. I think it’s my favorite of the season thus far. Let’s dive into it, shall we?

We all know the history of Ben Linus. His father wished to Ben that they had stayed on The Island because Roger would’ve liked to see how Ben would’ve turned out there. Of course we know what Ben has done on The Island and for The Island. He sacrificed his daughter. He kidnapped pregnant women. He killed Locke because Locke threatened his power on the Island. He even killed Jacob, out of frustration, anger and sadness. He kidnapped Jack, Kate and Sawyer. He kidnapped Walt and eventually used Michael to kill for him so that he could be free. He did whatever it took to return to the Island. He manipulated (somewhat) Sayid into killing for him. More succinctly, Ben has a checkered past to say the least. When he returned to the Island, there was a noticable shift taking place in Ben Linus. When he awoke to an alive John Locke, he was terrified. He didn’t say it at the time. He told Sun, as they sat on a porch in New Otherton, that he was terrified that Locke was alive because dead is dead on the Island. When he did awake, after being knocked out by Sun, the thing wanted was punishment for killing his daughter. He traveled to the some area of the Temple and sought punishment from Smokey. Of course all that led to was Ben being manipulated into killing Jacob. This episode he had to deal with the consequences.

The episode opened with a frantic Ben running through the Jungle after Smokey went all The Book of Exodus on The Temple. What an opening! I think LOST has the greatest teasers ever and I’m a huge “Buffy” and “Angel” fan (their teasers were usually spectacular) but LOST just owns the teaser. Even the teaser of “What Kate Does” when Lennon’s walking quickly through the Temple is epic. Anyhow, Ben saw Ilana, Frank, Sun and Miles walking through the jungle. He immediately caught up with them. Ilana was amped up to get answers. She didn’t believe Smokey had killed Jacob. She knew Miles could communicate with the dead and find out how and who killed Jacob. Miles did his thing and ratted Ben out. As Miles said, “Uh-oh.” We also found out Jacob’s dying thought was that he was wrong about Ben and Ben wouldn’t kill him. Shouldn’t have responded with “What about you?”, Jacob.

Anywho, the fivesome went to the beach (oh how I’ve missed the beach) and Ben was gently trying to save his own ass. He offered to help Ilana with anything but no dice. The others were gathering supplies. Later on, Ilana marched over to Ben, forced him to Boone Hill and locked him to a makeshift rope tied to a tree. Ben had to dig a grave because Ilana was going to kill him for killing Jacob. So Ben began digging. As he dug, he tried to bargain with Miles to cut him loose but Miles had no interest in Ben possibly getting 3.2 million for him since Nikki and Paulo are buried with over 8 million in times (of course Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz would throw that in). Ben did get his chance to escape though. Crazy ol’ evil NotLocke showed up and told Ben he went back to the statue to retrieve Ben but Ben wasn’t to be found there. NotLocke freed Ben and told him to flee, that a rifle was sitting at a tree 200 feet away and that he could meet up with him and his group on Alcatraz Island. Ben ran, reached the tree, grabbed the rifle, and pointed it at Ilana. Ilana dropped her gun and Ben told her that just wanted to explain himself. He wanted to explain why he had killed Jacob. He told her that he sacrificed everything including his Alex and that he killed Jacob out of anger and frustration. After he finished, he told Ilana he was going to find Locke. She asked why. He said because “he is the only one who will have me.” Ilana softly told Ben that she would have him and walked back towards the beach. Ben followed. It was a small act of kindness that reminds me of what Angel tells Kate in the ANGEL episode “Epiphany.” “The smallest act of kindness can be the greatestest thing in the world.” I really liked the image of Ben putting down the rifle and then asking Sun if she needed help with her tent. The redemption of Ben Linus is on.

In the Sideways narrative, Ben felt like a loser. We found out he earned a doctorate in Modern European History but was stuck monitoring detention. He wasn’t the only one. Good ol’ Dr. Arzt was unhappy with the work conditions he had to deal with. Ben was frustrated because the principal was unconcerned with the kids, telling Ben that it was no big deal to cancel the History Club because only 5 people were in the club. Ben didn’t agree with that assessment. He cares about the kids. Recall the scene when he took Alex for Rousseau and the unhappiness of Widmore that the baby wasn’t killed. Ben was so earnest when defending why he didn’t kill baby Alex. The Sideways story dealt with Alex. Ben was able to make up for what he did to her in “The Shape of Things to Come.” But before I focus on that, I have to mention what leads to his Alex moment. In the teacher’s lounge, Locke has the idea that Ben be the principal. Ben asks Locke, “who will listen to me?” Locke raises his hand and says that he’s listening. Ilana later echoes such a sentiment. Now, what one would expect is a massive power-play for principal that involves the manipulation we’ve grown to love from Ben Linus. He finds out the principal and the nurse have been fornicating in the nurse’s office during school hours (shades of what got Widmore banished and put into the Island). He enlists Arzt to hack into e-mail for some dirt. He gets said dirt and approaches his boss with the information; however, the principal knows that Alex is a favorite student of Ben’s and she’s just e-mailed him for a recommendation. If Ben forces the resignation, the principal promises to ruin Alex’s academic future. Ben does not go through with it. He chooses to preserve Alex’s academic potential. It’s a lovely scene when Ben tells Alex that he had nothing to do with the recommendation letter when, in fact, he had everything to do with it. As she walked away and Ben walked the other way, it was such a great moment. She has the chance for a marvelous life. I thought the scenes between Ben and Alex were so moving. He treated her with such fondness. It was very fathlerly.

Speaking of fatherly, the relationship between Ben and Roger isn’t toxic. Ben is taking care of his sickly father. He prepared an organic meal for him to help keep him alive. Of course one must recall the scene in “The Man Behind The Curtain” when he kills his father. Such juxtaposition. The scene between them was rather nice. Roger had comforting words for his son because he saw his son was frustrated with the school and the limitations he felt. I do like this Sideways world quite a bit for all of these great stories we’re getting.

There’s one piece of information that I’ve yet to mention: Roger had joined the Dharma Initiative and brought Ben with him to the Island. I find it significant that they had been to the Island and left. We all know the Island exists underneath the sea (New Otherton, Ezra James Sharkington and all!) because we saw it in that epic ‘LA X’ teaser. The obvious questions regard why Ben and his father left the Island. I could speculate and speculate but I’m not going to. It’s funner to wait for the show to reveal that stuff.

And boy did it get a little dusty when Hurley and Jack returned to the beach (of course I’m going to write about that! hold your horses! I’m not finished with Benny Linus’ story!). I was reminded of season one. It was overwhelming how happy I was to see that. I was also reminded of season three. Specifically, “One Of Us.” The Juliet centric episode that began her intergration into the Losties camp. In the end of that episode, Jack, Kate and Sayid enjoy a nice reunion with the camp. It’s so great and then Sawyer notices Juliet standing there. She’s not accepted. At the end of “Dr. Linus,” as Sun hugs Jack and Sun and joy is felt, Ben stands in the distance watching, sheepishly and lonely. But Jack did look his way. I think Jack, like Ilana, will have him too. After all, it is Ben who helped bring Jack to the Island. And Jack now knows he’s back for a reason.

Gazing out at the ocean and thinking has helped Jack. I knew it would. Tonight, Jack became a true Man of Faith. He told Richard about the lighthouse, the image of his childhood home, and how Jacob had watched him for his entire life and that if he was so important then there’s no way he OR Richard would die in The Black Rock. I think Jack gave purpose back to Richard. Richard was suicidal. He desired death. He felt as if his entire life had been a waste. Since The Black Rock he had given his life to the Island. I imagine since Jacob got him out of those chains. Jacob had told Richard that everything happens for a reason and that he would one day reveal his plan to Richard but then Jacob died. Richard felt utterly hopeless. He reminded me of Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy believed suicide was the only option if life was without meaning and purpose (another thing reminded me of Tolstoy but I’ll get to that). Richard knew he couldn’t kill himself because of Jacob’s touch but he wanted Jack to light the fuse for him. He really wanted to die. Hurley urged Jack to not do it but Jack said he couldn’t talk Richard out of it. Oh that sneaky man. Jack must have restored Richard’s life with purpose and meaning again in that slave ship. There was so much symbolism, allusion and meaning in this episode that I fear I won’t be able to address it at all. Jack then told Richard that it was time to go back to the beginning so he, Jack and Hurley returned to the beach. Their story was all about faith in an episode that dealt with forgiveness and renewal, rebirth.

Before the season began, I had wanted to write an epic essay on LOST and Finnegan’s Wake but I felt overwhelmed by the massiveness of Finnegan’s Wake. But I was tempted to write the essay because of the themes of circularity, resurrection and rebirth in Finnegan’s Wake. Jack’s line about going back to the beginning spoke to those ideas. Jacob and Man in Black can be seen as Shem and Shaun figures. Shem and Shaun are twins, often opposed against the other. Jack sort of personifies Tom Finnegan. He falls from Ajira to the Island when he returns. In Wake, Finnegan falls from a ladder and there’s the famous sentence “hohohoho you’re going to be Mister Finnagain!” I hope you get the gist. As dark as it got last week (and oh it got dark) there was mostly light in this episode after the darkness had lifted. Even Hurley was seen awaking from a night’s slumber.

The final image of the episode is of Widmore in a sub making his way to the Island and he’s indeed very close. I wonder if he’s going to Hydra Island or going to the Pala Ferry docks and heading to the beach.

Time for even more thoughts:

–Michael Emerson probably won himself another emmy for his performance in this episode. He was tremendous. The scene with Ilana alone should be enough to win the emmy.

–We saw Ben teaching his class about Napoleon’s exile. Napoleon nearly took over Russia if it wasn’t for that pesky deadly winter of Russia. Napoleon’s exile clearly paralleled the Ben Linus we’ve known for nearly 5 seasons on the Island. Once upon a time Ben was banished from the Island, put into exile. Also, whenever I hear about Napoleon I always think of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. What a book.

–No one seemed too concerned that Ben was about to be murdered by Ilana but Ben has done some shady deeds over the years. Sun once wanted to kill him because she thought he had something to do with Jin’s death. Frank and Miles were on a freighter whose sole mission was to extract Ben from the Island. So it’s understandable.

–I wonder if NotLocke really thought Ben would kill Ilana without hesitation. I think Ben’s learned his lesson though. He was genuinely repentant to Ilana when explaining why he killed Jacob. It was the same repentance he had when he said his last words about John Locke. Will Smokey be pissed? Most likely. Smokey doesn’t handle things not going his way too well. Ben is safe with Ilana but I imagine Smokey is not done with Ben. His offer to Ben appeared to be the same offer he has made to Sayid and Claire. There’s just no way he can deliver on those promises. I do think he can deliver on getting them off the Island but is that really his endgame? Conceivably he can reunite Claire with her son but that lying so and so promised her she was in the Temple. But she’s very confused so I don’t blame her for going back with Smokey after Smokey went all biblical on the Temple. The same thing goes for Sayid. Nadia died. I just think Smokey’s a manipulative so and so. I think Jacob’s fairly manipulative as well but Jacob seems to have better intentions. Of course he left most of The Temple, minus Hurley and Jack, to die. I digress. Back to The Smokeness: Do these promises and the Sideways world reconcile in some way? Who indeed knows. We shall find out, at some point, in the final 11 hours of the show.

–NotLocke is pretty clever hiding away on Hydra Island but at least he’s far away from the beach camp. But Jack’s definitely going to go to Hydra Island to get Kate, Sayid, Jin and Claire. I think he’ll be calm about it though and let Ilana do her thing. Ilana’s also great. So much better than Ana-Lucia.

–Dare I hope Desmond is somewhere on the submarine? Dare I? Henry Ian Cusick’s name has been in the credits ALL season. The last time this happened with Harold Perrineau in season four. He didn’t show up until the end of episode 7 and then he got episode 8 all to himself. We saw no signs Desmond’s with him. I don’t even know why he’s be with Widmore because he HATES Widmore. But, Darlton, we’ve got 11 episodes left. We’ve had one scene with Desmond. Desmond’s one of the greatest characters ever. He’s gotta show up.

–I was so excited to see The Black Rock again. I mentioned this earlier but this felt so much like season one and season three. I adore both seasons. I think season one is as close to perfection television will get. Season three had so many excellent episodes. The scenes in The Black Rock felt like “Exodus” all over again with the dynamite. During that episode, Locke and Jack argued about why they were here. Jack was then the staunch man of science but in this he became the man of faith. We also saw Dr. Arzt in the Sideways. Hurley even mentioned Arzt when cautioning Richard about the dynamite. Hurley told him he was cleaning Artz out of his shirt for two days. You know, I’ve always liked Arzt. I enjoyed his appearances in season one and I get a kick out of the webisodes he’s in. Miles referenced “Expose” and Nikki and Paulo. Fittingly enough, some fans expressed frustration about the lack of answers provided in the episode (though I’d argue answers were given. Plenty actually.). “Expose” suffered from criticism even though it provided some fun answers as well. We even got the great scene when Charle confessed to Sun that he had been behind the fake kidnapping of Sun in “The Long Con.” I digress. As I noted already, the end mirrored the end of “One Of Us.” I hope it was intentional. I believe it was. The beach camp goes without saying. It was so prominent in season three (the construction of the beach camp as we saw it was in progress during season two). How I wished adorable, not homocidal Claire was there too in her cute designer clothing. But Feral Claire is pretty cool and Emilie de Ravin gets something to do other than hold a baby. I’m digressing.

–We found out a number of things: Jacob’s touch prevents people from dying. Richard did in fact arrive on The Black Rock. Why he was brought here is another story. We found out Ilana’s role on the Island. She’s also done her homework on everybody.

–Imagine if instead of Widmore being revealed on the sub it was AARON AND WALT. I joke about that scenario with STEVE and STEVE’s comment: “I’d kill myself.” STEVE’s prediction for Widmore’s gameplan? Sinking the Island.

–I got a kick out of Sawyer’s stash. I noticed a few things but I’d have to go back and pause to catch everything. I imagine Lostpedia’s all over it anyway so head over that way for all that Ben found.

–Great exchanges between Hurley and Richard in the jungle as Hurley asked Richard about not aging. Hurley wondered if he was a cyborg or a terminator. What a great scene.

–There was a nice little scene between Ben and Frank. Ben said it felt like yesterday Oceanic 815 broke apart above New Otheron. Frank told him he was supposed to pilot the plane but he overslept. Ben commented on Frank winding up on the Island still.

–As Ben tutored Alex, he spoke of the 19th century East India Trading company. Not the first time it’s been mentioned (see Season Four’s The Constant when Widmore wins the bid for The Black Rock materials written by the first mate. The same ship Richard was on).

–I keep thinking of what Ben says to Michael in “Live Together, Die Alone” about being the good guys. Is that a long a set-up or what by Lindelof and Cuse? Goodness!

–Three weeks of no Sawyer. Very surprising indeed. I’m leaning towards getting a Sawyer episode next week. I feel fairly sure that we’ll be joining His Smokeness and his recruits next week on Hydra Island which means CLAIRE! will be there. Listen, I love her australian accent so much. Emilie’s delivery and inflections this season have been different from the previous four seasons she’s been in the show. I’m even more attached to the accent because of those inflections and her delivery. The way she speaks in “Lighthouse” is great. I’m digressing again. The point: things will get more intense next week.

–Once again, I have to mention how much I loved the montage at the end. The hugs, the happiness. Giacchinno’s score (The Oscar winner for the score he wrote for “Up”) was beautiful. I nearly fell off the couch with excitement when I realized we were getting a reunion/montage. I LOVE THIS SHOW!

–Overall, I think this is the episode of the season to date. I loved everything about it. Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz wrote it. Mario Van Peebles directed. Season Six has been a blast so far.

TO THE RANKINGS!

THE OFFICIAL LOST RANKINGS

Per the rule, Dogen and Lennon are no longer being ranked. Jack is now no. 2 on STEVE’s ranking. STEVE likes it when Jack is intense. Jack remains in the top spot for me. Miles dropped out of the top 5 for me. He’s number six. Hurley’s the one who bumped him because, you know, it’s time for Hurley to be in the top 5. He’s always hovering around the top 5. Man in Black keeps rising on STEVE’s list. Will he one day claim the top spot? Desmond remains number one for STEVE and number two for me. Desmond rocks. But enough talking. Here’s the rankings in all of their glory:

AFTER EPISODE 7

RANKED: 3/10/2010

CHRIS

1. Jack

2. Desmond

3. Ben

4. Locke

5. Hurley

6. Miles

7. Jin

8. Claire

9. Sayid

10. Kate

11. Sawyer

12. Richard

13. Frank

14. Sun

15. Ilana

16. Jacob

17. Man in Black

18. Widmore

STEVE

1. Desmond

2. Jack

3. Kate

4. Miles

5. Ben

6. Sawyer

7. Man in Black

8. Sayid

9. Jin

10. Frank

11. Sun

12. Jacob

13. Claire

14. Ilana

15. Locke

16. Richard

17. Hurley

18. Widmore

What an episode! I’m so excited and pumped after watching that. It’s been 21 minutes since the episode ended and I’m so damn pumped!

Where do I begin? With Jack, once again, being awesome? With Claire, seemingly, returning as Rousseau no.2 (traps, gun, and all)? With how awesome Dogen is? The fantastic flash sideway with Ethan Goodspeed and the relationship between Kate, Claire, and Aaron? I’m such a fanboy that this recap is going to go every which way and insane! I told myself I’d settle down with these recaps, watch word count, and try to write with some coherency. I think I can do that. Don’t count 2,000 words out.

“What Kate Does” is the title of episode three of season six of LOST. “What Kate Did” is the title of season two’s ninth episode. This episode brought back some season two-ness and some season one-ness and some season three-ness AND some season four-ness AND SEASON FIVE-NESS. I’ll get into all of that later. I’m going to stay focused on the central Kate story first.

There have many Kate episodes throughout this fantastic series. For the most part, in her flashbacks, she’s been running and she’s hurt a lot of people in the process. There’s Tom who was killed in “Born To Run” as she fled police. She caused a car crash when Ray, the farmer who took her in in Australia in “Tabula Rasa,” though she does drag him to safety. But she’s not a heartless, cold hearted person and never has been. She helped Cassidy while on the lam. She DID drag Ray to safety. She did a whole lot to preserve Tom’s memory (“Whatever The Case May Be”). She protected Kevin from any legal trouble once she realized she couldn’t have a life with him. Tonight, she WENT BACK to help Claire. After being terribly rude to Claire, she was moved to go back to her when she discovered she had things Aaron in her bag. She’s still very much on the run but she took time to drive Claire to the adopted parents (oh there’ll be more on that) and to the hospital when Claire experienced contractions. It was so awesome. My favorite scene in the sideways is the Ethan scene. Ethan Goodspeed. Confirmation that he’s the son of Horace and Amy. The interaction between he and Claire was such a reversal from the flashbacks seen in “Maternity Leave.” He tells her the last thing he wants to do is drug her, to stick a bunch of needles in her. That’s all he did to her while in The Arrow. She had a choice to make as well. Whether to have Aaron now or later. She decided later to wait to deliver Aaron and, after a brief scare, Aaron was a healthy as can be. I really enjoyed the scene that followed when they discussed Aaron’s name and how Claire said it just came to her. Kate told her that she should keep him. The most moving moment was when the camera revealed Claire holding Kate’s hand. I’m very glad that Claire is back.

I’ve written ad-nauseum about Kate, Claire, and Aaron (as recently as last week!) but I can’t help it. I love their story. I love how it’s evolved and how meaningful it’s become. Why would Claire trust Kate after that experience in the cab? I think it goes back to the idea of predeterminism and free will. Fate and destiny imply that individuals are pawns of fate but what if that isn’t necessarily it? I’m with Jacob. They have a choice. Kate had a choice. She could’ve kept running after going through her bag. She didn’t have to return to the Island but she did. What I’m writing is connected with Kierkegaard’s notion of the absurdity of faith. Of couse I think it’s all meaningful. These characters and their interactions and their experience on the Island. The episode is very aptly titled. It’s about what she does and about what they all do. The Temple represents this idea of predeterminism. The Others need Sawyer, Kate, and Jin in The Temple because, I presume, of what was written on that list of Jacob’s that was in the ankh. The sideways world is a representation of active free-will. I think the two ideas will reconcile as will the sideways and the present.

On The Island, in 2007, Kate followed Sawyer to New-Old Otherton where he really just wants to be alone. He’s just very sad. He blames himself for Juliet’s death because he asked her to stay with him that night in 1974. He didn’t want to be alone and now feels like he’s destined to be alone. I wrote last week that I thought Sawyer and Kate would end up together but I don’t think that’ll happen anymore. His love for Juliet might be diminished. While trekking with Jin, she told Jin that she was escaping and showed no interest in helping him find Sun which wasn’t too cool. She implied that she wanted to be with Sawyer and to stay with Sawyer somewhere that wasn’t anywhere near The Temple. She also asked for his help finding Claire but he just wanted to be alone. I can’t fault the dude. He needs to properly grieve. Kate cried and then it seemed like she’ll be returning to The Temple.

Elsewhere, in The Temple, some really, really, really cool stuff was taking place. Dogen and Lennon sought to diagnose Sayid after he returned to life after dying. Jack was there throughout, looking after Sayid and making sure he was protected. Dogen wanted to poison Sayid because he detected a darkness in Sayid that would consume him. Sayid had been claimed. Dogen stated that what would happen with Sayid happened to Claire. The entire story was/is fascinating. They tortured the torturer. I don’t quite buy what Dogen and Lennon were selling. Dogen attempted to use Jack’s past to get him to give Sayid the pill but Jack has learned from Jughead. He didn’t want to give anything to Sayid that he didn’t know everything about it. To learn, he put the pill in his mouth. Dogen finally told him the pill was poison. This story contained a whole lot about The Others, for a lack of a better word, methodology and lended discussion to the idea of predeterminism. In “LA X,” Dogen didn’t signal for the removal of Sayid from the water until the hour glass ran out. Did they run into Claire and cast her out? I get the impression she’s been Rousseau for the last three years, totally on her own, building traps and doing all she can to survive. Man of faith Jack took a backseat to man of science Jack tonight and I LOVED IT!

As for Island Claire, I loved the return. I’ve been waiting. I don’t believe she’s been consumed by darkness. She’s Claire! She’s goodness and light. I hope we get a flashback for whatever happened to her the last three years. I’m glad Claire ran into Jin. She looked absolutely insane (and still so pretty) but she and Jin were close. He’s in good hands. I didn’t really pick up on what Aldo was doing when stopping Justin from saying anything. Now I understand. Justin was close to telling Kate and Jin about Claire on several occasions but Aldo stopped him every time. I’m thinking Claire did die after the explosion but was saved by the Spring. So, where does Christian fall into all of this?

I’m loving season six so far. Here’s some more thoughts:

–Emilie de Ravin was wonderful. I loved everything about the sideways story. Back to sideways Claire for a moment, a couple actually existed in Los Angeles. I wish Malkin would return for one episode. “?” is still messing with my mind!

–Speaking of the sidways world, listen to the latest Official Lost Podcast if you’re confused. Darlton are preaching patience and not thinking too deeply or too much about it. Just let it progress, folks. Let the story unfold.

–Dogen is amazing. The scene between he and Jack, in his office, when Jack asked questions that Dogen actually answered rocked. Dogen said he was brought here just like Jack. And Jack seemed like he scoffed a tiny bit at that.

–Kate was absolutely badass tonight.

–I mentioned the season one-ness so I’ll explain it here. Kate’s first flashback is the third episode of season one and she got the third episode of season six. Man in Black/NotLocke next week? The season three-ness was explained by Aldo himself. He was a guard on Alcatrez Island. The actor who created ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.’

–Miles and Hurley were just hanging out somewhere around The Temple. I re-watched “LA X” and read the scene when Miles is attempting to communicate with Sayid differently. He says ‘nothing’ to Hurley when Hurley asks ‘what?’ Given the revelation about Claire, perhaps Miles sensed the same thing but didn’t want to cause alarm. I don’t know. I might be looking too much into it. We shall see.

–Josh Holloway’s been knocking it out of the park this season. The scene on the dock was terrific. I’m a fan of what they’ve been doing with Sawyer so far this season.

–Hurley asked Sayid if he’s a zombie. The Zombie season awaits, folks.

–Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz wrote one heck of an episode. I loved every moment of it. Paul Edwards helmed the episode.

Such a great episode. I’ll be buzzed all week. I’m going to really miss this show. The rankings will be up ASAP. Me and STEVE didn’t have the chance to rank last night and I like to get a recap up as soon as I possibly can. Expect the rankings later in the week as well as additional thoughts.

Fantastic! Here we were wondering whether they would be a reboot of time or not and it turns out that it’s both. I love it! I feel relaxed and calm now that season six has begun. I was consumed by the final scene of “The Incident.” Absolutely consumed. I just wanted to find out what happened. I just wanted season six to begin It has and I feel much, much better. As for the episode itself…well, I really, really enjoyed it. It’s the show I know and love. But where do I begin?

I’m going to begin with the teaser of “LA X.” The bomb goes off, white, and then it dissolves into clouds as the camera pulls back to reveal Jack looking through his window at the sky. The year 2004. The date: September 22. Oceanic 815 in flight to Los Angeles, California. Everything seems to be leading to the crash again but the turbulence the plane and its passengers experience is just a passing thing. Bernard returns from the bathroom to his seat. Jack rises, visits the bathroom, and notices blood on the low part of his neck. He returns to his seat where Desmond David Hume is sitting, reading Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Jack experiences deja vu but shakes it off and he and Desmond exchange handshakes and names. And then we see the Island at the bottom of the ocean and it looks like it’s been there since 1977.

HOLY MOLY! WHAT AN OPENING! I’ll discuss my thoughts on the whole 2004 stuff later on in this recap but I got goosebumps very early on and they kept coming. I think my jaw was dropped wide open as well. I mean, I knew anything was possible and it’s just something to witness it. I had been re-watching a ton of season one stuff lately. I don’t know why. I particularly watched the final montage in “Exodus” a few times because of the musical score but I felt compelled. I have a very specific dream I’d like to relay later on as well (and who knows who will actually believe I actually dreamed this).

Following that doozy of a teaser, the final sequence of “The Incident” is seen and then Kate’s left eye opens and she’s in a tree and…they are in 2007, shifted through time. 2004 and 2007. This is going to be one interesting season.

The most confounding thing is the 2004 timeline in which they never crashed, the characters don’t know one another, and everyone who died lives. Jeff Jensen describes it as a “parallel” universe. I love the narrative device. I’m not sure where it will lead but I’m, of course, excited to experience this final chapter and this totally weird yet cool and utterly fascinating narrative device. The EPs have asked for patience and trust. They’ve hardly had that from me. I can’t wait for the story of this Sideways world to unravel and unwrap…like a Christmas present (you know how Damon and Carlton have described this season as a Christmas present!).

I have this gut feeling that cannot quite be conveyed in words because I’m not sure how to write it in words but I feel like these timelines will drift into eachother and dance with eachother and that’s going to be important and great as the hours of the show dwindle. Yes, indeedy.

Jack wanted things to be different, for things to change. That’s why he took Faraday’s plan and ran with it. Things are different in 2004. Boone is free of the Shannon obsession. Hurley declared himself the luckiest man in the world. But the plight of the characters seem to be in tact. Sun feels trapped in her marriage. Jack just wants to bury his father and can’t. Kate’s a fugitive. Sawyer still, most likely, has a bunch of unresolved issues. But, again, what it all means…that’s for the show to explain. I’m not into speculation. I’m into the story. Hopefully, by now, the show has taught you patience. More on 2004 later.

The 2007 stuff thrilled me and broke my heart. The immediate aftermath of detonating Jughead was amazing. Lindelof and Cuse didn’t skip a beat in terms of finale to premiere. There’s a whole heck of a lot going on, now. The war has begun. It seems like NotLocke aka The Man in Black wants to go to The Temple. He wants to go home. For a second, I thought he’d say that he wanted to destroy the Island. We met The Others who resided in The Temple and finally found out where the kids were. I think there’s going to be so much mythology too.

Now, for me to really dig into this premiere, it’s time for the bits:

–Juliet, Juliet, Juliet. I love that character so much. Elizabeth Mitchell plays her so beautifully. The new narrative device gives the viewers hope for a happy ending for Juliet and what she said to Sawyer as she died gives me hope that we’ll see her again. Plus, Miles telling Sawyer that she said “It worked” is HUGE. The scene between her and Sawyer, beneath the wreckage of The Hatch, was beautiful. Josh Holloway played the grief and agony and anger so well. What a performance.

–I think this season is going to be an incredible season for Jack. He didn’t make any excuses for still being on The Island. He simply apologized to Sawyer and he helped in any way he could. Jack really does need redemption. For a moment, I thought Jack would pound and pound on Sayid’s chest like he did with Charlie in “All The Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues.” But he didn’t want to give up on Sayid. The one image that stuck with me, throughout the episode, was Jack’s aloneness. In every scene, he is, at one point, alone.

–Speaking of Jack, the 2004 Jack story fascinated me. He seemed vaguely aware of The Island. The most intriguing part is the missing coffin. I loved the scene between he and Locke especially what Locke told him about Jack’s father, that only his body is missing. Locke delved into the spiritual side of death as well which echoed Sayid as he spoke to Hurley in the jungle about what would happen to him when he dies. I particularly liked Jack offering Locke the possibility for him to fix Locke’s irreversible condition. “Nothing’s irreversible,” Jack told Locke. Hm indeed. I think this coffin story is going to be terrific as well as the final journey of Jack Shephard.

–The rest of the trip to LAX for Oceanic 815 was something. I’ll focus on Oceanic 815 and 2004 for a bit before diving into 2007. I mentioned above some of the differences and I’ll continue: Jack took one less mini-bottle of vodka. We didn’t see Michael or Walt and, apparently, they were not on the plane (as confirmed on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night). In fact, I think those difference like the absence of Michael and Walt will be a major plot point in this timeline. I in now way fully understand what the writers are doing but, as I wrote earlier, I do think there will be a drifting and dancing into the other. The explanation for these differences is one word: “fate.” Damon and Carlton used it last night on JKL. But then they use coincidence. Very interesting.

–The idea of fate dominated the exchanges character had with one another. It’s goosebump inducing. Boone and Locke had a nice talk as Frogurt slept in between them. Boone told Locke that he had been in Australia to save his sister from a bad relationship. Locke told Boone about his walkabout. Boone told Locke that if the plane does go down, he’s sticking with him. When Jack saved Charlie’s life by removing the bag of heroin, Charlie told Jack that he was supposed to die as he was led off by cops. When Oceanic 815 began going insane in the Pilot episode, Charlie was forced to throw all of his bags into the toilet and it saved him from what we saw happen with no electromagnetic energy bringing the plane down. In LAX, as Kate began her escape attempt, she and Sawyer shared an elevator together. Sun and Jin were together but with all of the problems they had pre-cash. Remember: in “Exodus,” we see Jin threatened by one of Paik’s men about losing his wife if he doesn’t deliver the gold watch. Jin’s as good a man as we know him to be but he’s trapped. Sayid is simply searching for Nadia and is still being badass (example: when he kicked in the door on the plane). Finally, there’s Kate and Claire (oh I know the Desmond thing is biggest of all but let me have my moment with Claire!). I anxiously awaited to see Claire. I really wanted her to show up on the Island but that came up empty yet again. But I’ll gladly take Claire in 2004. She and Kate ended up in the same cab. I wrote about their connection in the “Whatever Happened, Happened” recap so it makes sense they are together. I’m really looking forward to this story.

–Desmond being on the airplane is biggest of all. He disappears when Charlie appears. Darlton called that a coincidence. I’ll take their word for it. Desmond’s reading Haroun and The Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. This is what I’ve got gleaned about Haroun and The Sea of Stories: the main character is Haroun. His father is a famous storyteller who drinks stories from the ocean of stories. Haroun doesn’t believe that this is true; however, the world Haroun knows find itselfs in danger when his mother elopes with with a mean clerk who has questioned the significance of Haroun’s father’s stories. The famous line seems to be: “What’s the use of stories that are not even true?” Haroun embarks a journey to the world of Kahani. Kahani contains two worlds that are opposite of the other. The first is the land of Gup, a land of perpetual light. The second is the land of Chup, a world of darkness and coldness. Two sides. One light. One dark. Sounds like this show I’m writing about. Furthermore, the two worlds are ruled by two men who are enemies. I dare write Rushdie’s inclusion in this episode is important. I wonder how much it informs the viewers for the 2004 timeline. I’m never going to call it an alternate reality and Damon himself seems to not want it refered to as an alternate reality. Anywho, Desmond’s special. We’ve known this since season three. What part he plays in the possible reconciliation of these two worlds remains to be seen but we’ll see more Desmond.

–I loved the end of part 1, when the airplane lands safely at LAX. The music reminds me of the montage of everyone getting on the plane at the end of “Exodus.” The final shot, on a sad John Locke, who lied to Boone rather than tell him the truth. I don’t think John Locke’s beyond saving even in death.

–Time for 2007! We’ve finally seen The Temple. Now here is where I relay my dream to the world. I dream about the show often before a premiere or a finale. About a week or so ago, I had this dream in which the story was focused on this stone structure (that now looked very much like The Temple). Was I subconciously thinking about The Temple? The big difference was that it was located on the beach so it might’ve been my subconcious not drawing a great portrait of the Foot. I don’t know. Moving on: I’m glad we’ve got more Others. They seem like the real Other deal. There’s two new characters. One is Dogen. The other Lennon. I’m just not sure which. The leader seems to be the Japanese man. We were introduced to what saved Ben after Sayid shot him as well as a whole lot of other things which I’ll get into. Before that, I have to admit: I have more questions about the smoke monster now that he seems to be confirmed as The Man in Black. The Others are absolutely terrified of The Man in Black. Why would Smokey take people underneath The Temple? The Man in Black apologized to Ben because Ben had to see him like Smokey. It’s all very intriguing.

–Back to The Temple and The Others, the biblical significance of the spring wasn’t lost on me. The Spring was once clear but is now brown. The healing process seems to include near drowning. An hourglass is used in the healing process.

–As they entered The Temple, they came across the skelton of Montand and a book. Soren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling. It’s a meditation of faith through the story of Abraham and Isaac. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son. When Abraham was about to, an angel intervened. It was a test of faith. Isaac didn’t need to be killed. The narrator admires Abraham’s faith but doesn’t understand it. The book is meditation on the absurdity of faith.

–Hurley took the lead as the leader. After Jacob visited him and told Hurley he needed to take Sayid to The Temple, Hurley went into action. After helping Sawyer free Juliet (though sadly it was too late), Hurley asked, after Jack examined Sayid, whether or not he could fix Sayid. Jack said no and Hurley took the lead.

–Sayid died though. The piece of paper said that if Sayid’s not saved, they are all in trouble. But then Sayid wakes up at the end of the episode and asks, “what happened?” Fans have jumped on “Is that Jacob reincarnated?” People are wondering, and I’M wondering, whether Jacob told Hurley to take Sayid to The Temple for that very reason. Or maybe, as Doc Jensen suggested, Sayid is simply Sayid. I hope so. Sayid’s one of my favorites. By the way, I loved how Jorge Garcia played the scene when Jacob tells him his name. It was fantastic. Back to Sayid, though, that entire scene he tried to save him and then he died was so powerful. Speaking of significant, Miles hearing nothing from Sayid IS significant.

–I wonder if Jack and Sawyer’s whatever-you-wanna-call-it-ship can be fixed. I wonder if they can get past the death of Juliet. I was touched by Jack’s reaction when Sawyer emerged from the hole with Juliet’s body. He and Juliet shared so much. He protected Juliet when she came back to camp with him. She saved his life by removing his appendix. She made him all of those sandwiches when he was trapped in the Hydra. She once loved Jack. The two even kissed in “The Other Woman.” But she knew he only had eyes for Kate. Jack’s face expressed sadness and regret when he saw the lifeless Juliet. I wonder if Jack can come back from this. Not just Juliet but the failure of detonating Jughead but, again, Juliet told Miles that “it worked.”

–Speaking of that scene, the sound of an airplane seems to be present as Miles communicates with Juliet.

–Back to Sawyer and Jack. The first thing Sawyer did was kick Jack square in the head that sent Jack into the hole. They beat the living daylights out of each other in “The Incident.” Sawyer swore to kill him if Juliet died. Thankfully, he decided not to. I’m glad Kate defended Jack, telling him Jack only tried to help.

–Sawyer had no interest in following everyone else once he had buried Juliet. He just wanted to disappear, alone, into the jungle but The Others had other plans. I wonder if Sawyer can come back from Juliet’s death, from his entire world crumbling. These characters are still as broken as ever. I want some level of happiness for all of them.

–Loved how Jin did whatever he could to help. He owns that Dharma van. He’s so close and yet so far from his wife.

–The 2007 story opened on Kate’s left eye. Throughout the two-parter, I think she was great helping both Jack and Sawyer. Also, the sound team deserves some props for the effect of Kate’s hearing. She was the first to walk around the hole in The Temple floor. She quickly investigated when the whispers began (oh how I love those whispers!). I ALWAYS get goosebumps and then when The Others were running around. So freakin’ awesome! Back to Kate: she offered to help Sawyer bury Juliet but he said no. I imagine she was hurt by that. I do think she and Sawyer will end up together but who knows.

–I want to return to Hurley for a moment. There’s been a lot of speculation and theories about the fate of Hurley. Speculation about whether or not he will replace Jacob. I don’t know about any of that. That’s not my thing. I think his first meeting with Jacob had a huge effect on him. Remember the conversation: Hurley told Jacob about how he’s cursed and Jacob says no no no you aren’t. Perhaps that singular moment effected both past and present. Hurley was much different in season five. More together, far from the man he was off-Island and in Santa Rosa. But again, in 2004, there was no Island to transmit the numbers. But then why would he be in Australia? His only reason for being there was to get answers about the numbers. The answer: Mr. Cluck’s. Back to my point: I think Hurley’s arc is in no way about becoming a supernatural diety like Jacob and The Man in Black. I think it’s about his self-actualization, to feel blessed rather cursed. I think his role is huge in the endgame of the show. I just hope he’s not being used by Jacob.

–Bernard and Rose were seen on the airplane but were not accounted for in 2007. Adam and Eve…

–I’m stunned it’s taken me this long to write about Benjamin Linus. Michael Emerson absolutely owned every scene he was in. Goodness he was good! I don’t know if Ben will have a happy ending. I hope there’s some redemption. I’ve been writing a lot about how one gets past a certain event in this recap. I think it’s a question the writers want us to ask. I hope so at least. Ben was horrified AND bewildered. He wanted to know why Jacob didn’t even fight back. His reaction when he saw John Locke’s corpse or heard what his final thought: “I don’t understand” was truly memorable and amazing. Where does Ben go from here? He killed his leader, Jacob. The Man in Black doesn’t seem to have any interest in letting Ben get away from him. The scene in which they discussed John Locke had fantastic lighting. The Man in Black kept shifting from darkness into the light that came through the Foot. Ben is in a place I thought he’d never be in and I’m loving it. I love this show.

–The Man in Black is not a Richard Alpert fan. He made a comment to him about chains (I’d try to quote it but I don’t want to botch it). Two thoughts for that: The Man in Black is referencing the cabin he had been trapped in by, presumably, Richard by Jacob’s decree or he’s referencing The Black Rock whose skeletons were still chained. Perhaps both. All I know is Richard got his ass kicked and will be going with the Man in Black.

–Poor Bram. We hardly knew thee. He tried to save himself from Smoky but Smoky was acting like a pissed off giraffe.

We now know he and Ilana and the others were Jacob’s bodyguard. None of them succeeded in their job.

–I’m still excited for Ilana’s story and her role in all of this. She’s different from Bram. I just know it.

–Not much for Frank and Sun to do. Frank spoke about his confusion. Sun’s still confused. I wish Frank had mentioned his candidacy.

–The Others at The Temple sent out fireworks to alert the other Others that the man in black lurks about the Island and that Jacob is dead. The look on Richard’s face when he saw that looked like pure ‘oh crap!’ and utter agony/fear. The bad man’s out of the cabin indeed. The mobilization to protect The Temple and, perhaps, The Island is under way. Why? Who knows. That’s why I’m watching.

The theme of death has always been a big part of this show. Doc discusses the ruminations of the after-life of this episode, dives into the world of Dante’s Paradiso, and does an incredible job applying it to the show. In the past, where I had seen death, I kept thinking of life. Last year, in particular, when death dominated the show and Charlotte yelled that this place was death, I thought we were being set up for ‘this place is really life because Locke’s resurrection is inevitable’ but then dead is really dead as we learned in season five’s “Dead Is Dead.” The Sideways world (doesn’t that sound better than me referring to it as 2004/2004 timeline? Thanks Doc!)

I even had a moment last night that I can’t keep to myself. In The Temple, when Kate disappeared and Jack asked where she went, I, for a second, considered this: “what if she’s dead?” For a second, perhaps I bought into the Purgatory theory. She was there one moment and gone the next. Hurley saw her leave and no one else. I don’t think any of them are dead though but anything’s possible with this show. ANYTHING.

I started writing about LOST and Finnegan’s Wake but experienced much trouble composing the piece. I wrote a bit and would like to share one piece with you which seems cool considering what we’re considering: thematically speaking, Finnegan’s Wake concerns itself with the Fall and resurrection of man. Ian Pindar writes, author of Joyce, about Wake as a “potent meditation on the Fall of man and the Resurrection and to celebrate the ability of frail, culpable mortal humanity to be re-born again and again.” Just think about that.

I feel really good about the direction of the final season. I feel extremely confident that we’ll get an emotional journey that, possibly, won’t ever be matched by a television show. I want people to be patient with this show. Don’t get frustrated with the two worlds we are seeing. Trust in the vision of Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. Trust in the last five years of stories we’ve been given. There’s only 16 hours left. The series airs its final episode on a Sunday night in May. May 23, 2010 to be exact. Savor each and every scene. Each episode. Each revelation. Each question.

One final note: I implore everyone to read Doc Jensen’s recap of “LA X” because the man is great. Here’s the link: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20313460_20341211,00.html. He covers things that I do not and wish that I had but I’m still getting my bearings with this season. He offers some pretty cool opinions on The Sideways world, the Man in Black and his own individual endgame (Doc suggests the man seems hell-bent on answers and honesty. Very interesting: his take on the man in black’s opinion of John Locke).

Lastly. Fantastic  writing by Damon and Carlton, fantastic directing by Jack  Bender, the entire cast&crew totally delivered. I can’t wait for next week.

More lastly: the episode is here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/125502/lost-la-x-part-1. And watch Damon and Carlton on JKL: http://www.hulu.com/watch/125542/jimmy-kimmel-live-damon-lindelof-and-carlton-cusepart-1

LET’S GO TO THE RANKINGS!

THE OFFICIAL LOST RANKINGS!

Me and STEVE brainstormed how to go about these rankings for close to an hour. We are ranking The Sideways world and the 2007 world. No Boone and Charlie in these rankings YET (it’s a waiting game). Lennon and Dogen will not be ranked either. I’ll bet they are included for episode 3′s rankings. There’s a whopping 18 characters which will most likely go up to 20. John Locke has returned to the rankings but it’s proven to be an interesting thing ranking the Sideways world. Desmond remains in the fold AND remains number one for both me and STEVE. But enough! HERE THEY ARE:

AFTER EPISODES 1&2

RANKED: 2/02/2010

CHRIS

1. Desmond

2. Sayid

3. Jack

4. Hurley

5. Ben

6. Sawyer

7. Jin

8. Miles

9. Juliet

10. Kate

11. Richard

12. Frank

13. John Locke

14. Claire

15. Sun

16. Ilana

17. The Man in Black

18. Widmore

STEVE

1. Desmond

2. Sawyer

3. Sayid

4. Kate

5. Ben

6. Jin

7. Miles

8. Frank

9. Richard

10. Jack

11. John Locke

12. Sun

13. Ilana

14. The Man in Black

15. Claire

16. Widmore

17. Hurley

18. Juliet