Wednesday, May 19, 2010

LOST: What They Died For - Was it too easy?

After watching last night's last regular episode of LOST, I had this thought: "That was too easy." Which is the beauty of LOST. Nothing is ever quite as it seems. Such as...

Jack Steps Up - After snatching his ashes from Hurley, Jacob makes a mystical fire and can now be seen by all four of the remaining candidates. He tells them, in the vaguest terms possible, about the island, what his job is, and why he brought them there. When Jacob tells them that if one of them doesn't take over his job, Jack immediately steps up. "I'll do it. It's why I'm here. It's my purpose." Jacob beams angelically and they go to the river to share island-communion, after which Jack's eyes darn near glow with enlightenment. Standing far off, watching, are Kate, Sawyer and Hurley. Sawyer says "And we thought he had a God complex before." Hurley's responds with, "I'm just glad it's not me." Uh oh. Not so fast, Hurley. When Jack asked Jacob how long he had to do the job, the answer was, "As long as you can." Pretty cryptic, if you ask me. Is it possible that Jack is a stop gap? A filler until Hurley is ready to step in? Hmmm...

Richard Bites the Dust - Or does he? Ben, Miles and Richard hike back to New Otherton in order to get Ben's stash of C-4 out of the secret room in his old house. (The plan is to destroy the plane on Hydra Island) But Widmore, his lady friend and UnLocke find them there. In order to give the others time to carry out the plan, Richard says he'll make UnLocke think he's going to join them, since he's wanted that all along. Apparently, Richard's not nearly as important as he used to be, because he no sooner steps outside than the smoke monster swoops through and sends him flying. It would be easy to assume he's dead, but this isn't the first time he's been walloped by smoky and lived. I fully expect to see Richard in the finale.

Ben Returns to the Dark Side - After Richard's knock out, Ben waits outside the house to confront the monster. This time, it comes in the form of UnLocke and tells Ben he needs his help. There are some people he has to kill. Ben immediately jumps on board, giving up Widmore's hiding place and even shooting the man himself. It seems that Ben has aligned himself with evil again. Or has he? Remember, Widmore had Ben's daughter killed, which explains why he had no qualms about killing him. But for the most part, I think Ben is hanging out with UnLocke because he's fighting for his life. He's got to find a weakness for this smoke-monster-man in order to defeat him. I still think that in the end, Ben is going to do the right thing and will be instrumental in kicking Smokey to the curb.


There were lots of other delicious nuggets in this episode. Like...

Why was Kate's name crossed off the wall? Because she became a mother (to Aaron). But Jacob tells her that "It's just a line on wall. The job is still yours if you want it." In other words, sometimes a red door is just a red door. Not everything is symbolic. Just most things.

Everybody's going to a concert. In sideways land, Desmond, Kate, Jack, Charlotte, and Miles are all going to a charity concert. It sounds like it's the same one Eloise Hawkings was organizing, which means she, Charles Widmore, Penny, and Charlie (Drive Shaft was to play) will also be there. Jack's son mentioned that his mom would be there, and I'd bet money she turns out to be Juliet. Hurley and Sayid drove off in his hummer to take care of something else... perhaps rounding up everyone else? At any rate, it looks like this is where our castaways will come together.

What's with all the bran? Did you notice that honkin' big box of "Super Bran" cereal on the table at Jack's house? Not sure if there's something significant about it, but is sure was funny.


At this point, we know a lot of things, and we still have a lot of questions. One thing I know for sure... I haven't been this excited about a finale since the last show of Alias (another J.J. Abrams mind-bender that went out on a bitter-sweet note). I find it interesting that the last show of LOST airs on what in the church calendar is Pentecost Sunday. Coincidence? Hmmm....

2 comments:

Leanna Ellis said...

Jen, There are no coincidences in Lost. Or so it seems. But in some ways things were a bit easy. Or maybe they had just set things up well. Not sure. Need more time to mull things over. I hope Richard isn't dead b/c he deserves more of an end. But has anyone gone off with the smoke monster and lived to tell about it? And I actually think Ben will end up with the island as its protector. What was up with the British voice over at the end? Eloise? Looking forward (and not) to Sunday's finale!

Jennifer AlLee said...

If I remember correctly, the smoke monster smacked Richard around earlier this season, but didn't kill him. Last night, it looked like Richard just went sailing through the forest. Ben very well could end up being the island protector. He's certainly put in the time. But he was never one of Jacob's choices. I think all those years, Smokey was giving him instructions, saying they were from Jacob, when in fact they were from Smokey himself. It was a way of getting what he wanted and turning Ben's heart against Jacob so he could be manipulated into killing him. Anyway, it should be an exciting finale!