Now that I've finished my final recap, I'm free to move on to other Lost-related business. First on my list is the DarkUFO Episode Cup. Every day (it'll probably end up being every few days but whatever), I'll break down the day's match up, explain what I picked in the bracket, why I voted the way I did and comment on the general Lost public's attitudes toward the two episodes in question. I'm running a few days behind where the Cup currently is right now, so I'll have a few notes on past match ups. Here we go.
Pilot vs. There's No Place Like Home
Picked: Pilot Voted: There's No Place Like Home
Easy pick, tough vote. The Pilot always does well in these cups, part out of nostalgia for where it all started, part because it really is a kick-ass episode. For a number of reasons, it's the best pilot I've ever seen, not least of which is the chaotic, heart-pumping opening scene. It deserves every bit of the praise it gets. On the other hand, "There's No Place Like Home" doesn't get the praise it deserves. Discounting "The End" (which I don't feel comfortable ranking just yet), it's the second best finale, which means it's definitely a top 10 episode. Probably a top 5 one. It loaded with great moments - the Sayid/Keamy fight, Sawyer jumping from the helicopter, Ben stabbing Keamy, the freighter explosion, Ben turning the wheel, the reveal of Locke in the coffin. I could go on and on about this one. I remember I actually needed to take a break after the freighter exploded. I was that emotionally drained. I can see why the majority picked the Pilot, but there aren't many episodes that top "There's No Place Like Home" and the Pilot just isn't one of them. I'll be sad to see it go.
Live Together, Die Alone vs. Greatest Hits
Picked: Live Together, Die Alone Voted: Live Together, Die Alone
Another easy match up to pick, but this one was even tougher to vote on than the last. Finales generally whomp anything in their path unless they come up against something like the Pilot or "The Constant", or maybe "Ab Aeterno" this year and knowing from past years experience that "Greatest Hits" didn't quite fall into that category, the pick was easy. The voting was harder for many of the same reasons that make finales so tough to topple in general. A two-hour episode has more time to pack awesome stuff in it. In "Live Together, Die Alone", we got a huge chunk of Desmond's backstory, Jack's trek into with Michael, Sawyer, Kate and Hurley, the coming-out party for the four-toed statue, and the long-awaited answer to the question, "What happens when the button isn't pushed?" That pushed it over the top for me. Even though "Greatest Hits" had some good heartstring-pulling moments (Nadia calling Charlie a hero, Charlie and Claire meeting for the first time, Charlie's speech to Desmond as he hands over his list), it wasn't quite enough to pass up the overall awesomeness that comes with a Lost finale like "Live Together, Die Alone".
Through the Looking Glass vs. The Candidate
Picked: Through the Looking Glass Voted: Through the Looking Glass
The Season 3 finale, "Through the Looking Glass" was the favorite coming into the Cup, and for good reason. Not only has it won this cup twice (the other winner being "The Constant"), but it really is the best episode of the series. It has everything you'd look for in a Lost episode: action, tragedy, an awesome twist, Taller Ghost Walt, and Ben getting the crap kicked out of him. Perfect. So it really says something that I thought for more than a split second about voting for "The Candidate". I loved that episode. Between the great Jack and Locke-centric Sideways story and the deaths of Sayid, Jin and Sun that had me as close to bawling as I've ever been watching TV, I'd put it near the top of Season 6. I think it could have knocked off some of the less popular finales like "There's No Place Like Home" or "Exodus", but unfortunately it went up against the biggest juggernaut of them all here in round three. I guess the Sweet Sixteen will be as far as it goes, but I'm sad to see it exit so early.
The Constant vs. The Substitute
Picked: The Constant Voted: The Constant
I'm not one of those Lost fans that puts "The Constant" on some untouchable pedestal. Don't get me wrong. It's great. Really, really great. The perfect blend of sci-fi craziness and what-the-eff moments all surrounding a touching, emotional core. But it's probably not in my top 5 and it might not even be my favorite Des episode (Flashes Before Your Eyes would be the competitor). Having said that, "The Substitute" isn't even close to knocking it off. Sure, it had some cool stuff, like all the Smokey and Sawyer stuff and the revelation of the Numbers, but that's not enough to take down "The Constant".
Tomorrow's match up should be very interesting and has the potential to make or break some brackets, since I'm guessing the winner will earn a spot in the Final Four. Maybe even the Final.
Until next time...
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
The End
There’s a reason I’ve waited three weeks to start writing about “The End”, the action-packed, emotionally uplifting, spiritually fulfilling, finale to the greatest show ever to grace my television. The short answer? I loved it too much. I didn’t want diminish my enjoyment of it in any way at all. In fact, after Jack’s eye closed and the reality set in that Lost was over for good, I holed up in my room for the next hour and a half just thinking about what I just experienced. I wanted to figure out what the hell that scene in the church meant. I wanted to mourn the death of Jack, a character I’ve devoted an almost-embarrassing amount of time and effort analyzing, worrying about and sympathizing with and admire his sacrifice. I wanted to put the entirety of the series in perspective, from the crash of 815 to the final takeoff of 316, from the Dharma Initiative to the Others, from the Smoke Monster and Jacob to Hurley and Ben, from the meaning of John Locke’s life to Jack’s final triumph. I wanted to own it all and to put it in a place that I could keep it forever. That might sound a little sappy, but I haven’t shied away from getting overly emotional here before, so why start now?
I haven’t rewatched “The End”, and honestly, I haven’t had the urge. Aside from a couple short stretches of maybe an hour or two, I haven’t had the desire to watch Lost at all. In fact, I’ve probably never wanted to watch it less. That’s how perfect the ending was. That’s how satisfied I feel about the place where that epic journey concluded. It was a truly happy ending for a group of people who struggled for years to earn it. All is right in the world of Lost. There’s no need to mess with it. Not yet, at least.
But my sprawling Season 6 journal wouldn’t be complete without a recap of the two-and-a-half hour bonanza that was “The End”. It took us to places we’d never seen before (the light cave), and places we haven’t been since season 1, literally (the bamboo forest) and figuratively (purgatory). We saw some old faces, long gone (Boone and Shannon, Charlie, Christian Shephard) and a few that just left us (Jin, Sun, Sayid, Juliet). Happiness, sadness, triumph, defeat, peace and hope, it really ran the full gambit of emotions. And I expected nothing different. Let’s get to it.
We join up with our group – Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley – the morning after Jacob christened Jack to take his place. It turns out the Magnificent Man didn’t tell Jack much more than we saw in “What They Died For”; all Jack knows is that he has to make his way toward the bamboo forest and protect the light from the Monster’s attempts to put it out. So that’s where he’s headed. Sawyer’s going to swing by Desmond’s well first, then meet up with the group later.
Sawyer head out toward the well but the MIB has beaten him to the spot. Before he can make a move though, Ben and his rifle apprehend him. The MIB asks him what he’s doing there. Sawyer responds that he came to get Desmond out of the well, then adds, “Looks like somebody beat us both to the punch. Oh well.” The perfect amount of cheese there from our original con artist, showing that he doesn’t even respect the Monster enough to think of a real joke. Nice. He asks if he’s going to use Desmond to destroy the Island. The answer, of course, is yes. That Island is going to sink to the bottom of the ocean with all of Jacob’s little candidates while he cruises “home” in the Ajira plane. (Quick side note: I’ve gotta say, I’m glad for many reasons that the MIB didn’t accomplish his goal, not least of which is the goofy thought of the Smoke Monster flying a plane.) Oh, but they’re not candidates anymore, Sawyer says. Then, with a quick elbow to Ben’s face and a swift disarming move, he leaves the MIB to explain to his bug-eyed follower how he’s probably not going to have the Island all to himself like he’d been promised.
If Desmond’s not in the well, where is he? My hypothesis was that he’d been rescued by Miles, but that proved incorrect. Instead, it was nobody’s favorite couple, Rose and Bernard, who’d lifted Des out of that well. They’d broken their golden rule, “don’t get involved”, by helping him, and were determined not to let him ruin their lovely little jungle paradise. But before Desmond can leave their camp, in walks Locke, knife in hand, ready to cut some throats if Desmond doesn’t do as he asks. Desmond agrees, so long as Locke gives his word never to lay a finger on his rescuers. Done.
Now we have Ben, Desmond and the Monster on a collision course with Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley. That leaves Miles and Richard on their own in the jungle. Yes, Richard’s still alive. It’s not easy to kill an immortal man, even if he is slammed into a tree by a large pillar of smoke. He’s rattled and groggy but still remember his mission, the purpose that’s driven him for the last 150 years: he needs to stop the Monster. Blowing up the Ajira plane remains Plan A, so he and Miles resume their trek toward Hydra Island.
The pair makes their way to the beach and prepare for yet another outrigger journey, this time complete with pounding rain. The intrigue surrounding the outriggers this season has come from the potential to tie up the hanging thread from last year where the time-travelling Losties found themselves in a shootout with another outrigger, which ends with Juliet landing a shot and the castaways jumping in time again. There was a rainstorm involved in those scenes in some capacity. When I was watching the finale, I thought the present-day rainstorm was the same one showering Sawyer, Juliet and crew during the shootout and I was convinced that we were finally going to see the final destination of Juliet’s bullet. But alas, upon further review, it turns out Sawyer and the gang time-jumped into a rainstorm after the shootout. So I got all worked up for nothing. And I just wasted about 150 words on said nothing.
Moving on. Instead of firing shots at their time-traveling buddies, Richard and Miles find the presumed-dead Frank Lapidus. How he survived that explosion we will never know, but his piloting skills change the objective of the mission. They’re not going to blow up the plane. They’re going to fly it off.
In an episode that showed many characters breaking free, once and for all, of the metaphorical chains tying them to the people they used to be pre-815, the first was occurred in the simplest way. It happened when the already (and oddly) grey Miles welcomes Richard to the club. His first grey hair. Unlike the Monster, the Island wasn’t the biggest burden in Richard’s life. It was the years and years of loneliness. Well, with Jacob gone, so goes his gift-turned-curse. We never do see Richard in the afterlife, so maybe that implies he was fated for eternal damnation, but I get the feeling that fat old priest was wrong. You’ve done good, Richard. Time to prepare for your reunion with Isabella.
As delightfully sarcastic as Miles and Frank are, the real action is happening on the other side of the Island. It’s showdown time, round one. In (I think) the same field as shepherding Jack met, and subsequently beat into a bloody pulp, his main rival Ben Linus in “Through the Looking Glass”, he comes face to face with the enemy once again: the Monster. Kate opens fire but obviously that’s of no use. “You might want to save your bullets”, he coolly responds. He approaches Jack. “So it’s you,” he says. “Yeah, it’s me,” Jack replies. The MIB is surprised by the lack of surprise to Jacob’s choice. But Jacob didn’t make the choice. “I volunteered,” Jack says. The real surprise, Jack says, is that he’s going not going to sink the Island. He, Jack, is going to kill him instead. And unlike with the Jughead plan, I completely believed Jack when he said this.
The group makes it to the light cave. Kate, Sawyer, Hurley and Ben stay behind as Jack, Desmond and Locke enter the cave. This brilliance of this scene lies in the complete confidence both Locke and Jack have in the idea that Desmond can be used to serve their purpose. Locke thinks Desmond can be used to dislodge the big stone plug at the bottom of the electro-charged pool of water, and he’s right. Jack doesn’t know exactly how Desmond will help him accomplish his goal – to save the Island and kill the MIB, but he has faith in Jacob and the Island that this is what needs to happen. And he’s right too. The scene where Jack and Locke are lowering Desmond down the tunnel was meant to remind us of Season 1 and the hatch, but that should also take us back to how certain and stubborn Jack and (real) Locke were about their respective beliefs about the Island. When Jack tells the MIB “Turns out he was right about most everything”, it’s just one more signal indicating how far Jack has come since those days when finding water and a place to live were the 815ers biggest concerns.
Once Jack and Locke lower Desmond to the bottom of the tunnel, he trudges past skeletons and through electro-charged water into a pool with a big stone cork. He’s miraculously special, after all, so he bears the tremendous power of the Island (the only person in the world who could do that), pulls the plug with one mighty heave and drains the pool. The Island begins to sink. Locke claims victory and walks away, but Jack doesn’t give up that easily. He chases down the Monster, takes him down with a perfect form tackle, and punches him in the mouth. Blood. Looks like the man of faith was right again.
With the Island starting to collapse around them, the remaining survivors switch into panic mode. Chaos everywhere, ground shaking, trees falling. Sawyer, still a bit too limited to see, yells out, “Locke was right! This Island’s going down!” Jack knows that’s not entirely true. He takes off after the Monster. Kate gets a hold of Ben’s walkie as Miles explains that they’re over on Hydra Island, ready to fly the Ajira plane off the Island within an hour. There’s still hope! But they’re going to need the boat to get to Hydra Island, and coincidentally, that’s exactly where the Monster’s headed. And Jack too. Looks like Sawyer and the gang are going to have a front row seat to the fight of the century.
Cliffside, rain pouring down, Locke’s about to climb down Jacob’s ladder to the Elizabeth floating just off shore. He’s going to leave the Island. Locke grabs the ladder, but before he can make a move, he’s stopped in his tracks by a shout from the rocks above. It’s Jack. “Locke!” he yells out. The two stare down – Jack with a look of unbreakable determination, Locke with an expression of pure hate. They charge toward each other. Jack lands a flying kick to the chest, and the two tumble toward the edge of the cliff. They get to their feet and charge again and exchange blows until they spot the knife resting at the precipice of the cliff. They both give chase. Jack tackles Locke again, sending them both dangerously close to the edge. He gets on top of the Monster, pins him down, wraps his hands around his neck and starts choking the life out of him with every ounce of his strength, face twisted with a mix of pain and exhaustion and anger. The Island shakes and the cliff begins crumbling around them. Mere inches separate them from plummeting into the rocky ocean below. Locke sees the knife lying just out of reach. With Jack about to finish him off for good, the Island shakes one last time, sliding the knife just into reach. Locke grabs the knife and plunges it into Jack’s abdomen.
Jack cries out in pain. He loses his grip. Locke kicks him off of him and pushes the knife down toward Jack’s neck. But Jack stops him, holding his arm and the knife just inches away from his throat. His strength won’t hold much longer. And just when the Locke’s about finish him off, when the Monster’s about to win, he looks Jack in the eye and says, “I want to you know Jack, you died for nothing. “ But he doesn’t die, not yet, because Kate shows up just in time. A gunshot rings out, and the Monster collapses next to Jack, fatally wounded. Jack staggers to his feet, and with a swift kick, he sends the Monster over the edge of the cliff, falling to his death onto the rocks below.
The Island might be rid of the Monster, but with the Island still sinking into the ocean, there’s still work to be done. Jack knows exactly what that is. While Sawyer rallies the troops to get to the boat and Ben coordinates departure times with Miles, Jack has his sights on the heart of the Island. Kate urges him to come with them, that he can just let the Island sink and live out his days with her, happily ever after. But Jack can’t do that. He won’t. He’s been entrusted with the responsibility to protect that Island at all costs, whether or not his insides are about to come spilling out of his gut. He shakes Sawyers hand. Sawyer thanks him for everything he’s done. His goodbye with Kate won’t be as quick. She won’t be coming back for him this time. She tells Jack that she loves him. He does the same. They kiss. And then they separate. Hurley and Ben leave with Jack, the first out of loyalty to the man, the second out of devotion to his home. Kate stands there crying. They will eventually see each other again. Maybe not in this life, but the next best thing to it.
The new A-Team makes it to the light cave, and it quickly dawns on Hurley what he’s just gotten himself into and what’s to become of his friend, Jack. All this heroic business never really sat right with Hurley. He just wants his friends to be safe. But that’s what will make him such a great Island protector. Jack knows it. “Hurley…I believe in you,” he says to his friend. He also knows he doesn’t have much time left. Ben hands Jack an old Oceanic water bottle. He fills it with water from the creek. Hurley drinks it. The torch has been passed. If you didn’t tear up watching this scene, I don’t know what to say to you.
Hurley and Ben lower Jack down into the cave. He finds Desmond lying there unconscious. He wakes him up. Discovering that he’s not off living happily ever after with Penny, Desmond starts to lose control of his emotions. “You were right, Jack,” he says, and insists on setting everything right. But Jack lets him off the hook, like others have tried to do with him so many times. He ties the rope around Desmond’s hips and Hurley and Ben lift him to safety.
He’s all alone now. That’s how the Hero’s Journey always ends. The hero needs his friends more than anything to get through all the hardships along the way, but when it comes down to the end – whether it’s Luke Skywalker defeating the Emperor, Harry Potter killing Voldemort or Jack Shephard saving the Island – that final act of greatness is a solitary venture. Jack now has with him everything he needs – faith in the Island given to him by John Locke, the support and purpose that comes from loving friends like Kate and Hurley, and confidence in himself after three long years of looking into the mirror and accepting what he sees. He wasn’t ready for this three years ago. He is now.
Bleeding and weakened, Jack struggles to his feet. He picks up the stone cork, pain shooting through his entire body, and drags it to the hole in the center of the pool, sets it down and collapses, exhausted. Then, a bright, golden light begins to glow from beneath the cork. Water rushes back into the pool. It worked. Jack lies there laughing as he’s showered in the water. It’s a moment of pure joy for our hero, maybe the first of his entire life. No burdens, no doubts, just happiness.
Jack wakes up outside the cave. Covered in blood and clutching his wound, he staggers away from the creek. He stumbles through the jungle, making his way to the bamboo forest where he first woke up on this Island three years earlier. He collapses in the clearing, lying flat on his back gazing up at the sky. He sees Ajira 316, knowing that onboard Kate, Sawyer, and the others are headed home. He has saved the Island. He has saved his friends. It was what he was put on this earth to do. It was his destiny. As Vincent lies down next to him, Jack’s eye closes for one final time and he dies.
~~~
“Hey, kiddo.”
Jack turns around to find his father, seemingly alive and well. Jack, standing in a small backroom of a church, had just opened what he though was his father’s coffin only to find it empty. After all, his father died in Sydney. How could he be standing right in front of him? “I don’t understand…you died.” “Yeah, yes I did,” he replies. “Then how are you here?” Jack answers. Christian repeats the same question back to him. And then Jack gets it. He remembers everything. He died too. They all did. The sideways world was a place Jack and his friends created together so they could be together and move on together. Their lives might have taken them all in separate directions, but they wanted a place where they could find each other again.
Just like each of his friends from the Island, Jack’s memories from “the most important part of his life” come flooding back to him. He’s not sad or happy, just overwhelmed. He hugs his father. It’s time for him to remember and to let go. He joins the rest of his friends – Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Charlie, Claire, Aaron, Libby, Boone, Shannon, Sayid, Sun, Jin, Desmond, Penny, and Locke – in the church. Christian throws open the doors, swallowing the church and everyone in it in white light. It’s time for them to move on. Together.
If there’s one thing I know about Lost, I know that the Island was always a place where our characters could confront, challenge, and overcome their pasts. Each of them would have been incapable of conquering their respective histories without it. Like Jacob said, they needed the Island as much as the Island needed them. Jack couldn’t have overcome his pathological need to fix things as a spinal surgeon in his father’s hospital. He needed guidance from Locke and the challenges of being a leader that he found on the Island. Kate’s life on the run wouldn’t have allowed her to overcome her impulsiveness or selfishness. She needed to Jack and her commitment to Aaron for that. Sawyer would never have given up life as a conman. He needed the sense of community and love he felt on the Island.
Along the same vein, Lost was also a story about breaking cycles. Sometimes it came in the form of the characters repeating the same mistakes over and over, like Locke wanting so desperately to be loved that he’d open himself up to manipulation time and again. Other times characters would fill the roles of others, like Claire turning into Rousseau 2.0 or how every new group of visitors to the Island (Dharma, 815ers, etc.) would end up exterminated. And still other times, we saw cycles on a more meta level, best shown by the “flashback” format of most of the episodes in the series and all the time travel stuff. Did Daniel Faraday know Desmond because he went back in time, or did Desmond have to go back in time because he needed to know Daniel Faraday? Where the hell did that compass that passed back and forth between Richard and Locke originate? Or try to follow this loop: Flight 815 crashed because Desmond didn’t push the button that was created because of events set in motion by the survivors of the crash of Flight 815. So the question became, could our characters break these cycles? Could they be redeemed?
But what does it mean to be redeemed? Is it only a matter of tipping the scales balancing good and evil back in favor of good? Can you just pile up enough good things on one side so they outweigh the bad, making your metaphorical light rock heavier than the dark? I don’t think it’s that simple. If Ben were to save the lives of a village one person larger than the Dharma Initiative, that good deed doesn’t cancel out the evilness of the purge. There’s more to it than that. It’s about jumping out of a helicopter so the rest of your friends can make it home. It’s about giving up your own happiness so your son can be with his real family. It’s about sacrificing your life even though you know you’ve killed and tortured too many people to count. It’s about embracing the inherent “goodness” that’s inside each of us. The message of Lost was that, no matter what happened in the past, we are all capable of changing what we do in the future. We don’t have to be slaves to the demons of our past. We can choose not to do heroin, choose not to run away, choose to be brave and choose to let go.
It’s an empowering message, really, for a show that often took you to dark and depressing places. It wasn’t easy sitting there as Sawyer strangled Anthony Cooper as tears streamed down his face or Sayid accepted his own damnation by shooting a child in the chest. It was downright painful watching Locke pound on the hatch door or Jack stumble around wracked with guilt, stoned off his pills, and ready to take his own life. But out of all that came a happy ending. They were all saved. All that suffering and tragedy made the ultimate redemption for Jack, Locke, and everyone else even sweeter. They’re together. Forever. And I know I won’t be forgetting their story anytime soon.
I haven’t rewatched “The End”, and honestly, I haven’t had the urge. Aside from a couple short stretches of maybe an hour or two, I haven’t had the desire to watch Lost at all. In fact, I’ve probably never wanted to watch it less. That’s how perfect the ending was. That’s how satisfied I feel about the place where that epic journey concluded. It was a truly happy ending for a group of people who struggled for years to earn it. All is right in the world of Lost. There’s no need to mess with it. Not yet, at least.
But my sprawling Season 6 journal wouldn’t be complete without a recap of the two-and-a-half hour bonanza that was “The End”. It took us to places we’d never seen before (the light cave), and places we haven’t been since season 1, literally (the bamboo forest) and figuratively (purgatory). We saw some old faces, long gone (Boone and Shannon, Charlie, Christian Shephard) and a few that just left us (Jin, Sun, Sayid, Juliet). Happiness, sadness, triumph, defeat, peace and hope, it really ran the full gambit of emotions. And I expected nothing different. Let’s get to it.
We join up with our group – Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley – the morning after Jacob christened Jack to take his place. It turns out the Magnificent Man didn’t tell Jack much more than we saw in “What They Died For”; all Jack knows is that he has to make his way toward the bamboo forest and protect the light from the Monster’s attempts to put it out. So that’s where he’s headed. Sawyer’s going to swing by Desmond’s well first, then meet up with the group later.
Sawyer head out toward the well but the MIB has beaten him to the spot. Before he can make a move though, Ben and his rifle apprehend him. The MIB asks him what he’s doing there. Sawyer responds that he came to get Desmond out of the well, then adds, “Looks like somebody beat us both to the punch. Oh well.” The perfect amount of cheese there from our original con artist, showing that he doesn’t even respect the Monster enough to think of a real joke. Nice. He asks if he’s going to use Desmond to destroy the Island. The answer, of course, is yes. That Island is going to sink to the bottom of the ocean with all of Jacob’s little candidates while he cruises “home” in the Ajira plane. (Quick side note: I’ve gotta say, I’m glad for many reasons that the MIB didn’t accomplish his goal, not least of which is the goofy thought of the Smoke Monster flying a plane.) Oh, but they’re not candidates anymore, Sawyer says. Then, with a quick elbow to Ben’s face and a swift disarming move, he leaves the MIB to explain to his bug-eyed follower how he’s probably not going to have the Island all to himself like he’d been promised.
If Desmond’s not in the well, where is he? My hypothesis was that he’d been rescued by Miles, but that proved incorrect. Instead, it was nobody’s favorite couple, Rose and Bernard, who’d lifted Des out of that well. They’d broken their golden rule, “don’t get involved”, by helping him, and were determined not to let him ruin their lovely little jungle paradise. But before Desmond can leave their camp, in walks Locke, knife in hand, ready to cut some throats if Desmond doesn’t do as he asks. Desmond agrees, so long as Locke gives his word never to lay a finger on his rescuers. Done.
Now we have Ben, Desmond and the Monster on a collision course with Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley. That leaves Miles and Richard on their own in the jungle. Yes, Richard’s still alive. It’s not easy to kill an immortal man, even if he is slammed into a tree by a large pillar of smoke. He’s rattled and groggy but still remember his mission, the purpose that’s driven him for the last 150 years: he needs to stop the Monster. Blowing up the Ajira plane remains Plan A, so he and Miles resume their trek toward Hydra Island.
The pair makes their way to the beach and prepare for yet another outrigger journey, this time complete with pounding rain. The intrigue surrounding the outriggers this season has come from the potential to tie up the hanging thread from last year where the time-travelling Losties found themselves in a shootout with another outrigger, which ends with Juliet landing a shot and the castaways jumping in time again. There was a rainstorm involved in those scenes in some capacity. When I was watching the finale, I thought the present-day rainstorm was the same one showering Sawyer, Juliet and crew during the shootout and I was convinced that we were finally going to see the final destination of Juliet’s bullet. But alas, upon further review, it turns out Sawyer and the gang time-jumped into a rainstorm after the shootout. So I got all worked up for nothing. And I just wasted about 150 words on said nothing.
Moving on. Instead of firing shots at their time-traveling buddies, Richard and Miles find the presumed-dead Frank Lapidus. How he survived that explosion we will never know, but his piloting skills change the objective of the mission. They’re not going to blow up the plane. They’re going to fly it off.
In an episode that showed many characters breaking free, once and for all, of the metaphorical chains tying them to the people they used to be pre-815, the first was occurred in the simplest way. It happened when the already (and oddly) grey Miles welcomes Richard to the club. His first grey hair. Unlike the Monster, the Island wasn’t the biggest burden in Richard’s life. It was the years and years of loneliness. Well, with Jacob gone, so goes his gift-turned-curse. We never do see Richard in the afterlife, so maybe that implies he was fated for eternal damnation, but I get the feeling that fat old priest was wrong. You’ve done good, Richard. Time to prepare for your reunion with Isabella.
As delightfully sarcastic as Miles and Frank are, the real action is happening on the other side of the Island. It’s showdown time, round one. In (I think) the same field as shepherding Jack met, and subsequently beat into a bloody pulp, his main rival Ben Linus in “Through the Looking Glass”, he comes face to face with the enemy once again: the Monster. Kate opens fire but obviously that’s of no use. “You might want to save your bullets”, he coolly responds. He approaches Jack. “So it’s you,” he says. “Yeah, it’s me,” Jack replies. The MIB is surprised by the lack of surprise to Jacob’s choice. But Jacob didn’t make the choice. “I volunteered,” Jack says. The real surprise, Jack says, is that he’s going not going to sink the Island. He, Jack, is going to kill him instead. And unlike with the Jughead plan, I completely believed Jack when he said this.
The group makes it to the light cave. Kate, Sawyer, Hurley and Ben stay behind as Jack, Desmond and Locke enter the cave. This brilliance of this scene lies in the complete confidence both Locke and Jack have in the idea that Desmond can be used to serve their purpose. Locke thinks Desmond can be used to dislodge the big stone plug at the bottom of the electro-charged pool of water, and he’s right. Jack doesn’t know exactly how Desmond will help him accomplish his goal – to save the Island and kill the MIB, but he has faith in Jacob and the Island that this is what needs to happen. And he’s right too. The scene where Jack and Locke are lowering Desmond down the tunnel was meant to remind us of Season 1 and the hatch, but that should also take us back to how certain and stubborn Jack and (real) Locke were about their respective beliefs about the Island. When Jack tells the MIB “Turns out he was right about most everything”, it’s just one more signal indicating how far Jack has come since those days when finding water and a place to live were the 815ers biggest concerns.
Once Jack and Locke lower Desmond to the bottom of the tunnel, he trudges past skeletons and through electro-charged water into a pool with a big stone cork. He’s miraculously special, after all, so he bears the tremendous power of the Island (the only person in the world who could do that), pulls the plug with one mighty heave and drains the pool. The Island begins to sink. Locke claims victory and walks away, but Jack doesn’t give up that easily. He chases down the Monster, takes him down with a perfect form tackle, and punches him in the mouth. Blood. Looks like the man of faith was right again.
With the Island starting to collapse around them, the remaining survivors switch into panic mode. Chaos everywhere, ground shaking, trees falling. Sawyer, still a bit too limited to see, yells out, “Locke was right! This Island’s going down!” Jack knows that’s not entirely true. He takes off after the Monster. Kate gets a hold of Ben’s walkie as Miles explains that they’re over on Hydra Island, ready to fly the Ajira plane off the Island within an hour. There’s still hope! But they’re going to need the boat to get to Hydra Island, and coincidentally, that’s exactly where the Monster’s headed. And Jack too. Looks like Sawyer and the gang are going to have a front row seat to the fight of the century.
Cliffside, rain pouring down, Locke’s about to climb down Jacob’s ladder to the Elizabeth floating just off shore. He’s going to leave the Island. Locke grabs the ladder, but before he can make a move, he’s stopped in his tracks by a shout from the rocks above. It’s Jack. “Locke!” he yells out. The two stare down – Jack with a look of unbreakable determination, Locke with an expression of pure hate. They charge toward each other. Jack lands a flying kick to the chest, and the two tumble toward the edge of the cliff. They get to their feet and charge again and exchange blows until they spot the knife resting at the precipice of the cliff. They both give chase. Jack tackles Locke again, sending them both dangerously close to the edge. He gets on top of the Monster, pins him down, wraps his hands around his neck and starts choking the life out of him with every ounce of his strength, face twisted with a mix of pain and exhaustion and anger. The Island shakes and the cliff begins crumbling around them. Mere inches separate them from plummeting into the rocky ocean below. Locke sees the knife lying just out of reach. With Jack about to finish him off for good, the Island shakes one last time, sliding the knife just into reach. Locke grabs the knife and plunges it into Jack’s abdomen.
Jack cries out in pain. He loses his grip. Locke kicks him off of him and pushes the knife down toward Jack’s neck. But Jack stops him, holding his arm and the knife just inches away from his throat. His strength won’t hold much longer. And just when the Locke’s about finish him off, when the Monster’s about to win, he looks Jack in the eye and says, “I want to you know Jack, you died for nothing. “ But he doesn’t die, not yet, because Kate shows up just in time. A gunshot rings out, and the Monster collapses next to Jack, fatally wounded. Jack staggers to his feet, and with a swift kick, he sends the Monster over the edge of the cliff, falling to his death onto the rocks below.
The Island might be rid of the Monster, but with the Island still sinking into the ocean, there’s still work to be done. Jack knows exactly what that is. While Sawyer rallies the troops to get to the boat and Ben coordinates departure times with Miles, Jack has his sights on the heart of the Island. Kate urges him to come with them, that he can just let the Island sink and live out his days with her, happily ever after. But Jack can’t do that. He won’t. He’s been entrusted with the responsibility to protect that Island at all costs, whether or not his insides are about to come spilling out of his gut. He shakes Sawyers hand. Sawyer thanks him for everything he’s done. His goodbye with Kate won’t be as quick. She won’t be coming back for him this time. She tells Jack that she loves him. He does the same. They kiss. And then they separate. Hurley and Ben leave with Jack, the first out of loyalty to the man, the second out of devotion to his home. Kate stands there crying. They will eventually see each other again. Maybe not in this life, but the next best thing to it.
The new A-Team makes it to the light cave, and it quickly dawns on Hurley what he’s just gotten himself into and what’s to become of his friend, Jack. All this heroic business never really sat right with Hurley. He just wants his friends to be safe. But that’s what will make him such a great Island protector. Jack knows it. “Hurley…I believe in you,” he says to his friend. He also knows he doesn’t have much time left. Ben hands Jack an old Oceanic water bottle. He fills it with water from the creek. Hurley drinks it. The torch has been passed. If you didn’t tear up watching this scene, I don’t know what to say to you.
Hurley and Ben lower Jack down into the cave. He finds Desmond lying there unconscious. He wakes him up. Discovering that he’s not off living happily ever after with Penny, Desmond starts to lose control of his emotions. “You were right, Jack,” he says, and insists on setting everything right. But Jack lets him off the hook, like others have tried to do with him so many times. He ties the rope around Desmond’s hips and Hurley and Ben lift him to safety.
He’s all alone now. That’s how the Hero’s Journey always ends. The hero needs his friends more than anything to get through all the hardships along the way, but when it comes down to the end – whether it’s Luke Skywalker defeating the Emperor, Harry Potter killing Voldemort or Jack Shephard saving the Island – that final act of greatness is a solitary venture. Jack now has with him everything he needs – faith in the Island given to him by John Locke, the support and purpose that comes from loving friends like Kate and Hurley, and confidence in himself after three long years of looking into the mirror and accepting what he sees. He wasn’t ready for this three years ago. He is now.
Bleeding and weakened, Jack struggles to his feet. He picks up the stone cork, pain shooting through his entire body, and drags it to the hole in the center of the pool, sets it down and collapses, exhausted. Then, a bright, golden light begins to glow from beneath the cork. Water rushes back into the pool. It worked. Jack lies there laughing as he’s showered in the water. It’s a moment of pure joy for our hero, maybe the first of his entire life. No burdens, no doubts, just happiness.
Jack wakes up outside the cave. Covered in blood and clutching his wound, he staggers away from the creek. He stumbles through the jungle, making his way to the bamboo forest where he first woke up on this Island three years earlier. He collapses in the clearing, lying flat on his back gazing up at the sky. He sees Ajira 316, knowing that onboard Kate, Sawyer, and the others are headed home. He has saved the Island. He has saved his friends. It was what he was put on this earth to do. It was his destiny. As Vincent lies down next to him, Jack’s eye closes for one final time and he dies.
~~~
“Hey, kiddo.”
Jack turns around to find his father, seemingly alive and well. Jack, standing in a small backroom of a church, had just opened what he though was his father’s coffin only to find it empty. After all, his father died in Sydney. How could he be standing right in front of him? “I don’t understand…you died.” “Yeah, yes I did,” he replies. “Then how are you here?” Jack answers. Christian repeats the same question back to him. And then Jack gets it. He remembers everything. He died too. They all did. The sideways world was a place Jack and his friends created together so they could be together and move on together. Their lives might have taken them all in separate directions, but they wanted a place where they could find each other again.
Just like each of his friends from the Island, Jack’s memories from “the most important part of his life” come flooding back to him. He’s not sad or happy, just overwhelmed. He hugs his father. It’s time for him to remember and to let go. He joins the rest of his friends – Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Charlie, Claire, Aaron, Libby, Boone, Shannon, Sayid, Sun, Jin, Desmond, Penny, and Locke – in the church. Christian throws open the doors, swallowing the church and everyone in it in white light. It’s time for them to move on. Together.
If there’s one thing I know about Lost, I know that the Island was always a place where our characters could confront, challenge, and overcome their pasts. Each of them would have been incapable of conquering their respective histories without it. Like Jacob said, they needed the Island as much as the Island needed them. Jack couldn’t have overcome his pathological need to fix things as a spinal surgeon in his father’s hospital. He needed guidance from Locke and the challenges of being a leader that he found on the Island. Kate’s life on the run wouldn’t have allowed her to overcome her impulsiveness or selfishness. She needed to Jack and her commitment to Aaron for that. Sawyer would never have given up life as a conman. He needed the sense of community and love he felt on the Island.
Along the same vein, Lost was also a story about breaking cycles. Sometimes it came in the form of the characters repeating the same mistakes over and over, like Locke wanting so desperately to be loved that he’d open himself up to manipulation time and again. Other times characters would fill the roles of others, like Claire turning into Rousseau 2.0 or how every new group of visitors to the Island (Dharma, 815ers, etc.) would end up exterminated. And still other times, we saw cycles on a more meta level, best shown by the “flashback” format of most of the episodes in the series and all the time travel stuff. Did Daniel Faraday know Desmond because he went back in time, or did Desmond have to go back in time because he needed to know Daniel Faraday? Where the hell did that compass that passed back and forth between Richard and Locke originate? Or try to follow this loop: Flight 815 crashed because Desmond didn’t push the button that was created because of events set in motion by the survivors of the crash of Flight 815. So the question became, could our characters break these cycles? Could they be redeemed?
But what does it mean to be redeemed? Is it only a matter of tipping the scales balancing good and evil back in favor of good? Can you just pile up enough good things on one side so they outweigh the bad, making your metaphorical light rock heavier than the dark? I don’t think it’s that simple. If Ben were to save the lives of a village one person larger than the Dharma Initiative, that good deed doesn’t cancel out the evilness of the purge. There’s more to it than that. It’s about jumping out of a helicopter so the rest of your friends can make it home. It’s about giving up your own happiness so your son can be with his real family. It’s about sacrificing your life even though you know you’ve killed and tortured too many people to count. It’s about embracing the inherent “goodness” that’s inside each of us. The message of Lost was that, no matter what happened in the past, we are all capable of changing what we do in the future. We don’t have to be slaves to the demons of our past. We can choose not to do heroin, choose not to run away, choose to be brave and choose to let go.
It’s an empowering message, really, for a show that often took you to dark and depressing places. It wasn’t easy sitting there as Sawyer strangled Anthony Cooper as tears streamed down his face or Sayid accepted his own damnation by shooting a child in the chest. It was downright painful watching Locke pound on the hatch door or Jack stumble around wracked with guilt, stoned off his pills, and ready to take his own life. But out of all that came a happy ending. They were all saved. All that suffering and tragedy made the ultimate redemption for Jack, Locke, and everyone else even sweeter. They’re together. Forever. And I know I won’t be forgetting their story anytime soon.
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