Man, Just when you think you have all the answers..they change the questions.
Lost has come a long way. From a survivor style drama to a time travel based adventure. The season finales have always been cliffhangers, and more often than not, raised more questions than they answered. But nothing in the history of the show has left me as shocked and..well, a little pissed off, as the season 5 send off.
First off, its a great finale. And it begins with a pretty amazing revelation. We see two men sit beneath the fully formed statue, watching a ship(the Black Rock?) in the distance. The man in white is Jacob. The man in black(his brother Esau?) says that he would love to kill him, but cant, until he finds a loophole. This mirrors an earlier conversation between Ben and Widmore..clearly these characters need to abide by rules of a sort, which suggests that this whole thing is indeed a game. Possibly being played out by these two representations of light and dark/Good and Evil for centuries. Anyway, Jacob is present throughout the episode, appearing at key moments in the lives of the Losties, leading up to the fateful plane journey. He would appear to be manipulating events to ensure they all end up on that plane..but this is contradicted at times. For instance he seems to try to steer Kate away from crime, which would suggest that she does not go down the road of ending up being brought back to L.A in cuffs and would avoid the 8.16 flight. Either way, whatever his reasons he is certainly a catalyst in the destinies of these characters.
Simultaneously we see whats happening on the island, both in 1973 with Sawyer, Jack etc, and 30 years later with Locke leading Ben, Richard and the others to see(kill) Jacob. Jack is now dead set on blowing up the bomb, firmly believing it to be his destiny. The man of science has become the man of faith, and seems to have replaced Locke, who now appears to be going to much darker places indeed. Jack and Sayid take the bomb up through one of the Dharma houses en route to the Swan station but Sayid is recognized by Roger Linus who shoots him in the gut. (how many times has this dude been shot sine Lost began? He must spring leaks in the shower!) But they are rescued by Hurley, Jin and Miles in a Dharma van. Meanwhile, Sawyer, Kate and Julliete have a change of heart aboard the sub and decide to stop jack from detonating the bomb..which they do when they intercept the van. Sawyer tries to talk Jack out of it but they end up kicking the crap out of each other instead..a long time coming! After much changing of minds back and forth, they all end up on the same page and decide to go with Faradays theory that the bomb will reset the clock and the plane will never crash. This part annoyed me a little, as certain characters like Kate and Julliete change their minds far too drastically and for seemingly redundant reasons. Juliette is jealous of Kate so maybe blowing up the island is right after all?? Anyway Miles points out that maybe Jack detonating the bomb is actually "The Incident" and they wont actually be changing anything. This is obviously the case because as we all know "whatever happened happened"..and low and behold after a big gunfight, Jack drops the bomb down "Hatch Junior!" and nothing happens. So the electomagnetism is released causing all manner of chaos and Juliette is sucked into the hole. She hangs on just long enough to say goodbye to Sawyer in a very emotional scene, even though i was never a massive Julliete fan!
30 years later, it would seem Locke is now the master manipulator, as he plays on Bens jealousy and insecurity to convince HIM to kill Jacob. So he and Locke, against Richards wishes, enter whats left of the statue to confront Jacob. As this is happening the strange "shadow of the statue" group arrive with Lapidus, carrying a large metal crate containing..dun dun duuun, LOCKES FRACKING BODY! In the statue, Jacob says to Locke "So you finally found a loophole". It would seem that this dark entity and enemie of Jacobs has either assumed the dead Lockes form, or was Locke all along..at least in part. This is the part that really pissed me off, because either way it seems the good ol Johhny Locke we all know and love is no more. Hes either dead(dead is dead?) or a complete bastard and no longer himself. Anyway, Ben stabs Jacob and Locke kicks him into the fire..bye bye Jacob, we barely new you! But before he dies he whispers to Locke "They're coming"..Is he reffering to the other Losties from the past? Quite possibly, becaaaaaaause...
Julliete aint quite dead(unbelievably!) and lying down at the bottom of the hatch she hits the pesky bomb with a rock and it detonates. So my guess is they will all return to their proper time after the white flash from the bomb...but most likley with a dead Juliette and Sayid in tow..as he was not looking the best at the end of the episode!
So there you have it, that wasnt confusing at all was it? Heres some discussion points.
* We see the old sailing ship, the Black Rock, in the intro and it is revealed that Jacob brought them there. Will we see how the ship got to the center of the island or how Jacob brought them there?
* How does Jacob leave the island and keep coming back?
* Did Jacob let himself die, knowing that the bomb would change things in the altered 1977 timeline?
* Who was Jacob referring to when he said “they’re coming”?
* Will Jacob and Esau’s history be explored and to see how they get their immortality and powers and how old are they?
* Who built the statue and temples and how old is it?
* What are Jacob’s lists for and what were the others doing with Walt and the children back in season 1/2?
* If Ben didn’t really see Jacob in the cabin back in season 3, who called out “Help me” to John and what made the cabin go nuts in that scene?
* What’s with Christian Shephard and why was he the one to tell John to move the island?
* How did Juliet survive the fall?
* Why did some survivors of the second plane crash land in 1977, others in 2007?
* Who are the folks who brought Locke’s body to Richard?
* If all Esau needed was a someone else to kill Jacob, why are all these other survivors involved? Why can’t they kill each other?
* Will the Smoke Monster’s origin be explained?
* Is Esau the Smoke Monster or does the Smoke Monster protect Esau? Or is it neither?
As for me, as much as i love this show, it will be nice to give my brain a rest for a few months while we wait for the final season!