With the whole picture now in front of us, this entire season of Lost has been something of a rebuke to those of us who would complain about episodes of the show in which “nothing happened.” This season has been something of a time loop-- we began tonight's season finale precisely where we left off a year ago. The season in-between has served to fill in the blanks, shade situations that seemed black and white, and force actions to bring us to the point we all knew we'd wind up: Jack and Kate, fighting on the tarmac. It's the same effect that was gained by the flashbacks of previous seasons, or episodes like this season's “The Other Woman,” which didn't so much advance the plot as clarify it.
So here we are at the end of another season, and we end pretty much where we began. Jack's in a funeral home, torn up about the body in the coffin (whose identity we finally know). Kate's mad at him, and everyone else off the island is their own mystery. The final episode didn't end with the kind of whiz-bang brainteaser that the last one did, but it's given us plenty to chew over and be grateful for, after what may have been the best-ever season of Lost.
On top of the Orchid Station. Jack and Sawyer quickly find Hurley, but lurking in the shadows is Locke, who can't figure out the instructions Ben left him with. Locke, in his typical opaque way, tries to convince Jack that what he's really meant to do is stay on the island == “You know that you're here for a reason. If you leave this place, that knowledge is going to eat you alive from the inside out, until you decide to come back.” Is Locke psychic, or as perceptive as we always thought he was? When Jack refuses, in typical Jack fashion, Locke insists that he has to lie about what's happened since the crash, in order to persist the island. Jack, in typical Jack fashion, brushes Locke off. And that, as far as we can tell, is the last we'll see of Jack and Locke's fascinating dynamic for a long time. Sad to see it go.
At the helicopter. Kate bursts out of the jungle just as Keamy and his meathead crew arrive with Ben as their prisoner. Kate says she's being chased by Ben's people, but soon the Others bust out the same kind of medieval whoop-ass they used to use on our guys-- but now, it's totally awesome. Sayid eventually fights Keamy in the jungle, in the best fight scene of the season by far, but it takes Richard Alpert to finish the deal-- by shooting Keamy in the back. Kate, who helped Ben escape amid the gunfire and cut him free of his shackles, admits the deal was that the Others would help her fight the bad guys if she could leave the island. Ben sets Sayid and Kate free-- just like that, he promises. But we're pretty sure it's not that simple. Jack and Sawyer come back with Hurley, and soon all of them are taking off, on their way to the freighter. When the chopper starts losing fuel, though, it's a matter of quickly shedding weight or crashing. Hurley doesn't quite have the guts to bail, but Sawyer does, giving Kate a goodbye kiss after whispering something to her and jumping out into water, ready to swim back to shore.
Under the Orchid station. Ben and Locke travel down down dooooown, and arrive in yet another-- and possibly the last?-- creepy Dharma station. As Locke watches an orientation video telling him explicitly not to put any metal objects in what appears to be a time travel device, Ben stacks as many metal filing cabinets, metal chairs and other doodads into the thing. But he's interrupted in his quest... by Keamy, who is suffering but still very much alive, even though we saw Sawyer kick his corpse by the helicopter. What?!?! Keamy admits what many of us suspected-- that the heart rate monitor on his arm is hooked up to all that nasty C4 on the freighter, and as soon as he dies, the freighter will blow. Ben, in a homicidal, daughter-avenging rage, stabs Keamy repeatedly in the neck anyway. Locke tells him, “You just killed everyone on that freighter. Ben responds, in typical cold Ben fashion, “So?”
On the freighter-- a little bit in the past. Desmond apparently trained in explosives for six months during his time in the military, but he's no match for the setup here. The best idea comes from Michael, who freezes the battery powering the whole thing with liquid nitrogen. But they run out eventually, and when the light turns red-- indicating Keamy's death-- there's only a little time left. Desmond runs out and tries to signal the helicopter not to land, but they have no choice. They land and refuel with five minutes left before the bomb goes off. Desmond jumps on, Sun too, but Jin cant make it out quite in time. Michael, staying with the bomb, is visited by Christian Shepherd, who tells him “You can go now." Michael is released from his no-death contract from the island; the freighter explodes; Jin is presumably toast; Sun is a screaming mess; we all shed a tear.
On the beach. Daniel is ferrying random redshirts off the island in a raft, but when Ben pulls that whole island-moving schtick-- more on that soon-- they're left at sea. Miles decides to stay on the island, as does Charlotte, who explains to Daniel that she's still looking for the place she was born. Wait, what? Really looking forward to that Freightie flashback next season. Rose and Bernard are on the beach still too, as is Juliette, who gets the uniquely awesome sight of seeing Sawyer emerge from the water, shirtless and soaking wet but alive after his long swim from the helicopter. They're still sitting on the beach when the sky turns purple-- yeah, let's get to that now.
Way way underneath the Orchid Station. Turns out Locke won't be the one to move the island after all-- Ben explains that the person who moves it is punished by never being able to come back. Ben effectively fries the Dharma Flux Capacitor with all the metal objects-- is it secretly just a microwave?-- and sends Locke away, telling him that “my people” are waiting, and they will do whatever Locke tells them. Locke arrives and stands before them on a high ridge, and Richard Alpert smiles at him; who would have guessed that Locke would become an Other? Meanwhile Ben climbs past the DhamaPacitor into a frozen area below it-- yes, he's wearing that Dharma parka we saw a few episodes back. Down here he finds what looks like gigantic old wheel. Remember when the show's producers teased that the top-secret finale was a Frozen Donkey Wheel? They were dead serious. Ben turns the wheel, the sky turns puple, and suddenly, splash! The island has disappeared. Holy shit.
On a raft near where the island used to be. The helicopter inevitably crashes, and because Sayid has the foresight and awesomeness to inflate the emergency raft beforehand, they all climb aboard. Soon enough there's a boat in the distance, and Jack finally heeds Locke's warning-- he insists to everyone that they have to lie, and to let him do the talking. What he wasn't counting on, though, was the identity of their rescuer-- Penny! She and Desmond share the emotional, heartwrenching kiss we've been waiting for for so long-- but they've been waiting even longer, of course. Penny pulls them all aboard, and apparently Jack gets her into his ruse, because soon the Oceanic Six are headed off in the raft again, on their way to an inhabited island where they will begin living the life of lies we've already seen the makings of. Desmond is left with Penny, and Lapidus will presumably take care of himself. They probably never guessed they'd be the lucky ones in this situation.
In the future... the present? Who knows anymore. We're in the future that was hinted at at the end of last season, and things are dark. Kate is living alone with Aaron, and is haunted by visions of Claire, who insists she can't bring Aaron back to the island. Hurley is in Santa Rosa, playing chess games with Eko and getting a visit from an all-grown-up Walt, who doesn't understand why they're lying. Sayid is living the life of an assassin, and busts Hurley out of Santa Rosa to take him somewhere “safe.” Sun is working as an operative for her father's industry, which involves tracking down Charles Widmore and getting him to cooperate with whatever it is she's doing with those billions of dollarrs she has now. And Jack, of course, is bearded and insisting that they have to go back, apparently mostly because of visits from a guy named Jeremy Bentham, who has also visited the other survivors. Jeremy Bentham, we learn early on, is the guy in the coffin. Oh yeah, remember the coffin?
At the Hoffs Drawlar Funeral Home. Jack busts in late at night, and approaches the coffin that's been tormenting us all for a year now. Just as Jack is about to reveal who's there, standing behind him is none other than the bug-eyed mastermind himself, Ben. He knows about Jeremy Bentham's visits to the Oceanic Six, of course. And he knows that Jack has been trying to find a way to go back. And he knows it's because Bantham says “very bad things” happened on the island after Jack left, and it's all Jack's fault. And he knows how he can get there. “The island won't let you come alone. All of you have to go back.” And when he says “all,” he means it. That corpse in the box? Coming too. And Bentham? Who else could it be but Locke? I don't know how he got off the island or got to be dead, but one thing's for sure-- an island that could heal his paralysis will surely be able to bring him back to life.
With all the amazing things about this episode-- Desmond and Penny's reunion, a legitimate return for Walt, badass Richard Alpert, shirtless Sawyer-- the best of all was that every single character got a chance to be great. Characters that have felt underused throughout this season or in the last-- Claire, Rose, Sun, even Charlotte-- each got a moment, and going into season five, everyone seems to have the potential to blow us away. Even if Jin is really dead, even if we never see Desmond and Penny again now that they have their happy ending (though I sincerely doubt it), even if Sawyer and Juliet somehow complicate the love triangle even further, we're in great shape.
Thanks, guys, for reading these insanely long recaps. And thanks, Lost, for an amazing season. It'll be a few days before I'm truly grateful for the long break, but soon we'll all be glad to get back to our real lives that are unrelated to smoke monsters and time traveling islands. Well, at least my normal life isn't-- can't speak for the rest of you. See y'all in February!
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