LOST - Season Finale Review:
Tonight though was essentially television's version of a summer blockbuster: the much-anticipated, sure-to-be-controversial season finale of LOST. If you think about it, tonight's episode HAD to be huge. Because next season is the series' last, tonight was, in turn, Lost's LAST chance to deliver one of its trademark season-ending game-changers. Not only that, but this has been an interesting season of Lost in that it's been consistently good from the get-go ... and yet, there's been that feeling of anticipation that SOMETHING ... something REALLY big had to happen to put a definitive exclamation point on the year. Lost has been jabbing at us throughout the season, now it was time for Lost to deliver a knockout punch.
So, did it?
I think that, in many ways, tonight's LOST was huge. Epic. In many ways, some literal, it was downright biblical. As always, the tension from moment to moment was simply off the charts. No other show keeps you on the edge of your seat, hanging on every word, every image, like Lost. And by the way, a huge shout-out to the music - gotta love the "adventure" theme - this show has a better score than most blockbuster films. In any case, the pacing of this episode was spot-on. While you can criticize Lost at times for its bigger-picture storytelling issues, on an episode-by-episode basis, no show is better at grabbing you and pulling you into its world.
To me, the highlight of tonight's season finale was clearly the introduction of Jacob, as well as his rival / counterpart. What I loved about the entire Jacob thread was that we got an amazingly textured plotline that brilliantly fills in a lot of the gaps we've been wondering about, while at the same time setting up a number of intriguing new mysteries. But what's great here is that, whereas in the past, Lost has frustrated with its tendency to pose questions just for the hell of it, tonight's ep, as has been par for the course this season, slowly but surely put the puzzle pieces into place. Even if we are left with a lot of questions about Jacob, this episode also gave us a lot to work with in terms of what was hinted at or implied. As this episode is discussed throughout the summer, I don't think us fans will have to resort to wild guesses or crazy theories as in previous seasons. This time, the ever-elusive answers seem to be staring us in the face, if only we know where to look.
Going back to the very beginning of the ep for a second though -- wow, what an intro. The introduction of Jacob, debating philosophy with his counterpart (let's call him Esau), was a fascinating and stage-setting way with which to kick off the finale. As the fabled Black Rock approaches the island, we get a sense from Jacob and Esau of the way the game works. We see that there seems to be a basic and long-standing conflict between the the two with regards to human nature. For all we know, it's a cyclical argument that is played out over and over. And more than likely, the Lostees (and all the others (and Others?)) who have found themselves on the island have been pawns of sorts in their struggle. And, we find out, perhaps most intriguingly, that Esau would love to kill Jacob, if only he could find the proper "loophole" by which to do so.
Man, so many parallels and allusions. The biblical story of Jacob and Esau, in which Jacob stole his elder brother's birthright, leading to an ongoing war between the brothers (would this make Locke - Joseph? Hmmm ...). How about THE STAND by Stephen King - the apocalyptic struggle between good and evil? One thing Lost always does well is to draw on so many sources - literary, biblical, mythological, that you can't help but analyze the hell out of the plotlines in the interest of finding the key to it all in some biblical passage or Stephen King novel or episode of The Twilight Zone.
You have to wonder though -- are Jacob and let's-call-him-Esau LITERALLY the biblical characters, or simply analogs?
Are Esau and The Smoke Monster one and the same? If so, it'd make perfect sense. If they are separate, then surely they are in collusion. Why else would Smokey tell Ben to follow every word that Not-Locke uttered? In fact, as many speculated over the last few weeks (myself included), it seems probable that all of the "dead" people who have shown up are merely "avatars" of sorts - forms taken by Smokey (aka Esau?) to manipulate the Lostees. In any case, it makes sense that this has NOT been the real Locke. And who knows, maybe Esau / Smokey have been manipulating Ben Linus for a lot longer than we think. Maybe some of the Others' orders from Jacob have in fact been from Esau?
One more theory while I'm throwing them out: At episode's end, when Ben "kills" Jacob, Jacob mentions that "they're coming." My guess? Jacob allowed himself to be killed - maybe even coerced Ben into doing it - so that the death would serve as the eventual motivation to get the Lostees back on the island. Someone (Desmond? Eloise?) will find out what happened to Jacob and make it their mission to make sure that Flight 815 crashes as intended, so that Jack and co. can prevent Jacob from being killed. For whatever reason, the "war" that's been talked about is in fact between Jacob and Esau, and the Lostees are most likely the chess pieces with which their cosmic war is being waged. How Whidmore fits into this is unclear, but perhaps he and Ben are essentially the proxys to Jacob and Esau.
Suffice it to say, the mythological aspects of this episode were fascinating. The show has always emphasized a science vs. religion, will vs. destiny dichotomy, and whereas this season showed the extreme limits of human logic and science (time travel being the sort of endgame), next season looks to throw a giant dagger into what we've seen so far, taking us from the world of science into that of the spiritual. Faraday's realization that humans are the variables in the "what happened, happened" argument was the start of the unravelling.
Now ... all that is well and good, but there was also the human component of this episode. And that, to me, is where things faltered a bit. The bigger-picture stuff is great, but at the same time, we have to look at WHY these characters are making their decisions. WHY, for example, would Jack risk so much to essentially restart his life pre-Island. WHY would everyone else - Kate, Sawyer, Juliette, Hurley, Sayid, and Miles ultimately decide to go along with his plan?
Unfortunately, the episode either ran out of time or simply chose not to adequately address this. I never bought that Jack would be so sure that he had to detonate the bomb. When he ultimately gave his failed relationship with Kate as personal justification, I couldn't help but groan a bit. In fact, Sawyer was 100% JUSTIFIED in kicking Jack's self-righteous ass. I mean, Jack is seriously going to alter the course of human history just so he doesn't have to endure a little heartache? I'm sorry, but that is just plain LAME. And again, why did Juliette "change her mind" and ultimately side with Jack? Because she couldn't bear the thought of loving and losing Sawyer? Um ... what? And finally - Kate? HURLEY? Why would Kate go from doing everything in her power to avert Jack's plan and then five minutes later give him her blessing? Why would a Hurley or Miles stand around and do nothing as Jack threatened to erase them out of existence? To me, this was easily the weakest part of the episode. The character motivations just were not there, and when they were, the writers quickly had the likes of Sawyer, Juliette, and Kate flip-flop for very unconvincing reasons. The plus side was that we at least got some great moments of drama out of all this: a kickass smackdown between Jack and Sawyer, some great gun-battles with lots of Dharma Initiative destruction, and a chaotic and action-packed ending that led to the big moment of the night ...
... that being Juliette's dramatic and tragic death. Now, for the record, I predicted Juliette would bite the big one. To me, the character had run her course, and her death was needed in order to darken Sawyer and once again make him the lone wolf of old. And hey, at least it was true to Juliette's character that she had ambiguous motives (and that damn half-smile / smirk) right up until the end. She essentially got the last laugh too. Originally, she got Sawyer off the sub so that they could STOP Jack from detonating the bomb. But perhaps the thought of her being dead, leaving Sawyer to run off with Freckles was too much for her to bear. Only fitting that her final act was one giant "F-You" - so long, reality. Enter: the bright white light of oblivion, baby.
I guess what it boils down to though is that this ep had SO MUCH going on - so many big moments, so much new information to process, that it's very, very tempting to overlook the rushed characterization and glossed-over logic. I mean, Miles even sort of poked fun at this when he sarcastically remarked that Jack's plan was *very* well thought-out (for all they knew, the bomb could itself be the source of the very "incident" that Jack was trying to prevent - good call, Miles!). But there was a Rose and Bernard (and Vincent!) appearance. There was the STATUE in all its Egyptian-god glory (as fans rushed to Wikipedia to look up Sobek and any other lizard god from Egyptian lore ...). There was the awesome acting of Michael Emerson as Ben - his final speech to Jacob was a kickass Lost moment for the ages, as was his Psycho-style stab-stab-stabbing of The Big J. There was our ol' pal Lapidus, tagging along with Ilana and the Shadow Conspiracy, who happen to be carrying the body of one John Locke! (So ... WHO are they, exactly?) There was that awesome music! And yeah, like everyone else, I'll probably be theorizing from now until January on Jacob, Esau, The Smoke Monster, Not-Locke, etc. I mean, wow, I guess my eight years of Jewish day school as a kid have finally paid off - I now get all the biblical allusions on LOST. Dammit all ... But ... I guess in a weird way this has been the LOST experience all along. You get caught up in the bigger picture. You get annoyed with the logic leaps and the ambiguity and all that, but man, when that title logo thumps onto the screen you're in like Flynn. I still don't see why anyone would be pro-Jack in this ep. But even so, hot damn, I can't wait to see what happens next.
My Grade: A-
Stay tuned for: FRINGE, PRISON BREAK, and STAR TREK - Reviewed!
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