Lost Recap: "The End"

It's pretty hard for me to even start this blog. I wanted to wait until I'd watched the episode again, but there's so much discussion everywhere that I couldn't resist writing it now. So, here it is...my final LOST recap.

Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse called it. They said there would be those who love the finale and people who would hate the finale. Fortunately, I seem to be in the majority of those that loved the finale. In short, I thought it was absolutely brilliant. For all the discussion about electromagnetic energy, smoke monsters, and the island, LOST was a show that always was, and will forever be remembered as, a show about the characters. Everything we saw through six season of amazing television was their growth and journey as humans.

Let's get this out of the way first. I am of the camp that believes they did NOT die in the original Oceanic 815 crash. This seems to be a growing belief among fans, based mostly on the shots of the plane wreckage that were displayed during the final credits. I think that might just be an image they chose for the final credits, just to remind us of where it all started. The LOST logo appears right after Jack's eye closes so I think that's meant to be the final image of the show. Knowing how much we all like to over analyze things, I do question why they chose that particular series of images for the credits. Seems like they could have went with something else that would have caused less confusion.

I believe everything we saw on the island happened and was real. The flashsideways however was a place they created together that acted as a kind of purgatory for each of them to accept their deaths and move on to the after life. They struggled to accept that they were indeed dead. Some (i.e. Hurley) were persuaded easier than others (i.e. Jack). We know that "everyone dies some time kiddo. Some before you, some long after you," as Christian says in the end. Christian also tells Jack that "everything that has ever happened to you is real." He also says that all the people he met were real. If they had all died in the crash, then they would have never met each other anyway (aside from the brief time on the flight). For anyone thinking they died in the crash, just watch that last scene with Christian again. I thought he did a pretty good job explaining it all.

I also love the conversation between Hugo and Ben, which clearly indicates they shared quite a few years on the island together. Too bad it's all ending because I would love to see a whole season dedicated to Hurley and Ben running the island together. That would make for some great tv. 

As for the rest of the episode, I loved nearly every minute of it. We saw a series of emotional, powerful scenes that triggered each of the characters on-island memories. It's hard to decide which one stood out the most. They were all incredibly well done and heart felt.


Locke was pretty much my favorite character so I was thrilled to see that he definitely died for a reason. Without his death, Jack would have never been driven to go back to the island. Jack would have never went back to destroy MIB. The scene were Jack berates MIB for mocking John Locke and his memory was awesome. I LOVED when Jack told him that he disgraced Locke by wearing his face. 

Desmond was also great in this episode. He too has been one of my favorite characters so I was happy to see him get such a great ending. This is certainly up for some debate here, but I think that Desmond took away the smoke monster's powers when he pulled the column out of the light. It stripped MIB of his powers and was getting ready to make Desmond the next smoke monster. Fortunately for us and Desmond, he's resistant to the energy. Not only did he survive the electromagnetic energy once again, it's almost a given that Hurley and Ben found a way to get him back home to Penny and Charlie. Hurley has always had the charming ability to care for others. I can assure you he found a way to get Desmond back home.  

And for Jack. Good ole' Jack Shephard. We have watched this dynamic character grow and develop through each season. He goes from being a concrete man of science to the man who dies to save the island...the island he once fought so hard to escape. 


For all of those who wanted answers about the island and the overall mythology of the show, I certainly see where you may be upset. Try and take a step back though and realize how much this show has been about the characters. Would we have cared so much about the mysterious apparitions if it hadn't been for the characters seeing them? Would Richard's agelessness have been nearly as interesting if it wasn't for his motives and story behind desiring immortality?

You know, I used to be one of those people who always longed for the answers, but something about The End transformed me. Maybe it's because the episode was so well done, but somewhere along the way I learned to let go. I came to realize that this was a show about the journey of characters who crashed on a mysterious island with some pretty cool properties...and some pretty dangerous ones. It's about a group of characters who learned to love, live, forgive, and ultimately, how to die.

Even still, you may be in luck if you are wanting more answers. There have been rumors floating around about all the extra content for the DVD release and it sounds like there may be a lot of answers there. I'll be sure and do a post when we get some type of official confirmation on that. 

I can't guarantee this will definitely be my last post on the show. In fact, I can almost guarantee that I will be making some LOST related posts in the future. I also plan to blog about other topics, I'm just not sure what all I want that to include yet. LOST is definitely still fresh on my mind so I may need to come back and further clarify a point or mention something I forgot. Unlike Jack, I'm still not ready to to let go. 


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Lost Recap: "What They Died For"

There are several reasons why this week's blog is a little late. First, I've just been very busy this week. I worked Sunday-Thursday and have a class on Saturday so this week has been packed for me. Secondly, I just don't want this show to end. By writing this blog post for the penultimate episode of the season, I am confirming that the show is indeed coming to an end. And after watching What They Died For, I just don't want this show to end.

Don't get me wrong, I'm dying to know how this magnificent story ends, but it is incredibly rare to have a show like LOST. Who knows how many years will pass before we see another like it. Now that we got all the reminiscing out of the way, let's recap What They Died For.

"Now THAT was an episode of LOST!" Those were the words I immediately tweeted upon seeing this week's episode. As you all know from my last recap, I wasn't all that thrilled with Across the Sea. I understood it, but that just doesn't change the fact that I didn't enjoy that 60 minutes in front of the television. Not only did What They Died For blow my expectations out of the water, it made Across the Sea even better.

We see that Jacob fully admits he made a mistake and that the smoke monster's existence is entirely his fault. Sawyer even questions why they should try and fix his mistake. Sawyer also asks something similar to "Why did you pull us out of our lives? Things were going pretty well." Poor Sawyer. He's already forgotten how miserable he was before finding the island. Before the island, Sawyer was a broken man on a path of revenge. He had never known true love and he lived his life as a con man. Jacob quickly respond by telling them that none of their lives were perfect and that was the reason he brought them there. We knew they all had issues, but what we didn't know that is specifically why they were brought to the island. Had there lives been going great, there is no way Jacob would have brought them to the island. Rather, like Jacob, they were flawed. Not only did the island need them...they needed the island.

The quote from Jacob about them needing the island really got me thinking and believing that this flashsideways universe is indeed the end. Time for one last effort at a prediction: someway, somehow, the on-island events have allowed these characters to have a re-do on life. They have been given a chance to make their lives better and Desmond is working to make sure they all remember what they went through to get there. I'm reminded of the ending to D.J. Machale's Pendragon series. If you don't want to be spoiled on the very ending of that series, please skip the next paragraph.
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[Pendragon spoilers] Throughout Pendragon, the main character travels through time and space saving multiple worlds from their destruction. He keeps a journal throughout that details the events of each adventure. At the very end of book 10, after the evil is vanquished, Bobby Pendragon gets a chance to go back and live his life completely and totally normal. As he rests on his death bed, a mysterious man (his Uncle Press) comes to visit him. Press gives Bobby a journal that was written by Bobby himself as he went on his adventures to the different worlds. Bobby then has a chance to remember and realize everything he did in those other worlds. Not only did the events definitely happen, the events made Bobby's normal life possible. I believe this will turn out to be true for the end of LOST. Everything that our characters have done on-island has given them a second chance at life [end of Pendragon spoilers].
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We then get to see a phenomenal scene as Jack makes the choice to take over as Jacob's replacement. Jack has been such an interesting character to watch for me. I don't think I'm alone in my love/hate relationship for his character. In season 1, everyone pretty much loved the guy. He became the leader of the losties and did his best to guide them. Somewhere in the middle of the series, Jack grew increasingly stubborn in his struggle with science v.s. faith and got to the point where many people hated him as a character. By the time he made it off island, he was completely broken as a man. Now, he's returned to the island and Jack has re-emerged as a character we can all love. He's given the perfect chance to ridicule Sawyer for practically blowing up the sub; however, he reacts as a good leader should. He points the blame at MIB, the one really responsible, and he even admits to Sawyer that he's been wrong before (and he has definitely been wrong in the past).

In the flashsideways, we get to see Desmond and Hurley who appear to be fully conscious and aware of the other reality. Hurley makes this clear by saying, "I didn't know Ana Lucia was gonna be here." Hurley remembers. What makes all of this even more exciting is that Desmond says Ana Lucia isn't ready yet, which might imply that the finale is going to be A LOT about Desmond showing everyone the other reality.

I couldn't end this recap without mentioning the superb scene between Jack and Locke. These two men have been some of our very favorite characters since the beginning. The hairs on my neck prickled when Locke said that he was ready to get out of his chair. I'm getting chills now just thinking about it. What a phenomenal line and just a great scene from LOST. I think it's all but a given that the real John Locke is going to walk at some point in the series finale. And my, what a powerful moment it's going to be.

That's it for the recap. I can't believe I didn't even get a chance to mention MIB killing(?) Richard, Ben going evil (again), and the appearance by Danielle. This episode was just so packed with awesomeness. I want to take a quick moment to say how incredibly excited I am to see the finale. Whoever is out there reading this, I hope you have enjoyed my thoughts on the series. I hope you all have a chance to watch the finale with people you know and love, people who have shared this incredible journey with you. My wife and I are having 10 or so people over to our house for a little goodbye party. I will, of course, be fully decked out in my LOST shirt, which may end up serving as a tissue by the time the final credits roll. Definitely look forward to my post-finale blog, which may even come in two parts considering the length, not to mention magnitude, of this episode. So for the final time before we KNOW HOW LOST ENDS, I bid you farewell. As my fellow blogger Vozzek put it...see you on the other side.

Lost Recap: "Across the Sea"

I would like to preface this post by saying that I am an incredible fan of the show (as if you couldn't tell by the fact that I devote my time to writing a blog about it). I think Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse are two of the most brilliant minds in the world today. They have created a show that - regardless of its outcome - will go down as one of the greatest in television history.

With all that being said, I write this blog post with somewhat of a heavy heart as for the first time (in a long time), I have been incredibly let down by an episode of LOST. Don't get me wrong, episodes have disappointed me in the past, but none like this one. Maybe I'm personally guilty because of the fact that my expectations were at all-time high. It seemed like this would be the deep, explanatory, mythological episode we've all been dying to see. Alas, it wasn't meant to be (at least not for me). Before I go any further, I'll warn you now that this post is longer than my usual. Much more content to cover! So, without anything further, here's my recap of Across the Sea.

One is light, one is dark. Good v.s. evil. Black and white. Those are just a few of the themes that have been prevalent throughout the entire show known as LOST. After watching Across the Sea, I'm ready to go ahead and accept that all these concepts were just a big red herring (so to speak). LOST is not about good v.s. evil. It's not about things that are black and white; Across the Sea made things more gray than ever. It has made it absolutely clear to me that this show is about moral ambiguity and how "every man has a scale." Every man is capable of both good and evil.

It is truly something we should have seen from the first couple episodes of the show. We see characters with dark pasts (Sayid, Kate, Sawyer) come to the island to do both good and bad. We also have characters who come to the island as seemingly "good" people, only to commit unspeakable acts on the island (Michael, Jack, and even Locke to some degree). In addition, LOST has also been about truth and how there is seemingly no absolute truth. In other words, we are all, essentially, lost. 

I am definitely willing to hold off judgment until the series concludes; however, I'd be lying if I said this episode wasn't a disappointment for me. Maybe I'm just a sucker for heroic, epic battles of good v.s. evil because I am not at all pleased with the direction things seem to be headed. Why shouldn't the MIB be allowed to leave the island? All he ever did was search for the truth. His whole life he'd been sheltered and hidden away from all the truths in life. He only wanted to know what was "across the sea." Although he's taken many actions I don't agree with, it's hard not to feel a little sympathy for the guy at this point.

Even though we sympathize with him in some regards, it's hard to accept his ruthless killing of Eko, manipulation of John Locke, and slaying of Sun, Jin, and Sayid. Who are we supposed to cheer for here? Is there a right or wrong? Alas, there's no one to support, nor a right side to take. We are simply bystanders watching these characters struggle to find the truth...only to see them become further entangled within the infinite loop time after time, completely and totally lost. 

Speaking of sympathizing, what about Jacob? He seems like a jerk, but really, he is just a victim of Mother's lies. Forgive me if sound all doom and gloom today, but I just can't lie and say that I liked this episode. For starters, "Mother" said it best with the line, "Every answer I give you will only lead to more questions." Well mother, that's exactly how I feel. Although some may be satisfied with the answers given in this episode, I am not entirely pleased. I have a million more questions to follow them up with, which I suppose is part of the infinite web of searching for truth.

Despite all that, this is their story and they don't owe me anything. If a scene or event is done well, I'm not going to fault it just because it didn't go the way I'd hoped. However, there were many things in this episode that just felt contrived and frankly, not well done at all.

Let's start with "mother." First of all, who is she? Is she a goddess? Did she go through a candidate selection process like Jacob and the MIB? Maybe we're just meant to think of her as a protector of the island with divine, god-like powers. Ok fine, I'll go with that.

So Mother has taken MIB and Jacob as her potential candidates for taking over and protecting the island. As we observe MIB and Jacob during the early years, we see that Jacob takes believes everything that's told him. MIB, on the other hand, is curious and inquisitive about the world. I do have to wonder though, what if the island had decided to show Jacob his dead mother instead? Would he have have been just as curious?

MIB decides to go searching for the truth while Jacob continues to swallow every lie that Mother shoves down his throat, even though he realizes that she loves MIB more.

Next, what is she protecting the island from? You guessed it - a giant ball of light!!! This light is something that every man has, but it's also so great and powerful that every man wants more of it. Well doesn't that just make things crystal clear. You don't think so? Yeah, me neither.

So if that's the case, and the light is something that every man desires, then what's all this bull coming from Jacob about the island being a cork for evil? I thought the light was something every man desires and why would every man desire evil? After all, MIB is the one who believes that men are corrupt, not Jacob. You see? The rabbit hole just keeps going deeper.

We also learned how the smoke monster was created (or released?) and that was by - yep, you guessed it again - being shoved into the ball of light! Look, I'm totally fine with a vague explanation. After all, we've stuck around through polar bears, time travel, and moving an island so naturally, we shouldn't get upset when we learn that an equally unrealistic entity - a pillar of black smoke - was created by shoving a seemingly immortal man into a ball of light. HOWEVER, I do have a problem with there being absolutely no explanation in terms of the MIB's body washing up in a stream. Did his soul actually become the smoke monster or was it just released when Jacob cast his brother into the light?

Again, I'm withholding my final judgment until the series concludes, but the scenes throughout Across the Sea are events that often take a full season to come to an ultimate fruition.

Welp, it looks like this turned into more of a rant than an episode recap, but I guess I'll just leave it at that. What do you guys think? Am I being too hard on the episode? Were you satisfied with the answers? Maybe I will watch it again and give it another chance.

LOST shirt arrives

As you can see, the shirt I blogged about in a recent post arrived in the mail today. Overall, I'm very pleased. The t-shirt itself is actually 'fruit of the loom' so it is good quality. The graphic is screen printed so I hope it won't start to tear off after a few washes.

If I had to change one thing it would be to actually have the graphic a little bigger. Only a minor gripe. Definitely worth the $19 and I'll certainly be wearing this on 5-23-10.

Lost Recap: "The Candidate"

Speechless is probably the best word to describe how I felt after watching The Candidate. Although short on mythological answers, this episode more than made up for that with the intense action and incredible emotion. There’s really no way I can hope to illuminate on everything that happened in this episode. I’m just going to make an attempt to highlight a few of the things that stood out to me.

I’m sure many of you have already noticed the countless references to mirrors and reflections, both of which have been persistent throughout this entire season. In fact, if I had to sum up season 6 in one word, it would probably be one of those words. Everything from the on-island dialogue, to the alternate reality, is packed with interesting little throwbacks and connections to past seasons, past episodes, and even scenes within the same episode. Let me point out just a few of the connections I made in this most recent episode.

• Jack saves Locke/Locke saves Jack- On island, Flocke saves Jack after the explosion. In the alt, Jack saves Locke after Desmond runs him over.
• Jack and Locke/the candidates- In the alt, Jack tells Locke that he might be a “candidate.” On island, Sayid seems to confirm that Jack is indeed the candidate to replace Jacob when he says, “It’s going to be you Jack.”
• I wish you’d believe me- In the alt, Jack tells Locke, “I wish you’d believe me,” the very same words Locke wrote in his suicide note to Jack.
• Jack has come full circle- I know I’ve said it before, but it is crystal clear that Jack is now the John Locke/Man of Faith of the island.

Now...time to address the deaths. I’m not going to lie, I definitely teared up during Sun and Jin’s emotional scene. After all their marital struggles, they found what was most important in the end: love.  Yet again, we have a character coming full circle. For much of the first season, everyone hated Jin because of the way he treated Sun. Now, after the events of this week, every woman in the world would love to have a husband who would do the same as Jin, staying and dying together with the love of his life.

Sayid’s death was also well-done and a great ending to one of our favorite characters. It was refreshing to see him get one last moment of redemption. Sayid was a tortured soul (pun definitely intended), but in the end, I think we can all agree that his scale tipped ever so slightly towards “good.”

Some seem to believe that Lapidus is actually still alive, but let’s go ahead and assume he’s dead. He was never as important as Sun, Jin, or Sayid, but it was still sad to see him go. In the previous weeks, Lapidus has often been the source of comic relief with his never ending stream of one-liners. Thus, his death signifies that play time is over. This is the end and MIB is playing for keeps.

With only two episodes left until the finale, one would expect that we should be able to make a pretty educated guess on how the alt is going to merge with the on island timeline.  That being said, I feel like I have no idea a.) what caused the alt reality and b.) how it’s going to factor into the MIB/Jacob feud. I will say this though, I read a theory today posted by 'WarningTrack' on DarkUFO's website (darkufo.blogspot.com). This is one theory that I’m fully backing and feel it has a great chance of happening. Here it goes...within 5 minutes of the audience seeing Frank die, the ONLY pilot on the island, we are introduced to another interesting little nugget of information. In the alt, John Locke is a pilot. On island, there’s currently an Ajira plane with no one to fly it. At some point, these two timelines are going to merge and when they do...John Locke is going to fly the survivors off the island (everyone except probably Jack and maybe Kate).  Again, it’s not my theory and believe me I wish it was...but it’s definitely a theory that I’m backing. Check the link here for DarkUFO’s post.

Until next week...enjoy it while it lasts guys. We don’t have much time left. Oh, did you all see the promo for next week? Looks like all of us begging for answers are about to get our wish.

LOST Series Finale Extended by 30 minutes

This is just incredible. The finale will be 2 1/2 hours. I didn't think it was possible, but I'm now even more pumped for the finale.

DarkUFO broke the news here.

An affordable, yet awesome Lost t-shirt

There it is people. I finally found a LOST shirt that I absolutely love...and a pretty cheap one at that. Here is a link if you're interested in purchasing a similar one. I paid $19.40...shipping and all (there's a coupon code at the top of the screen to get $5 off).

What's cool about this shirt is that you can customize the color of the shirt, as well as the color of the design. Take a look at the link and you can see for yourself. Locke has always been one of my favorite characters so it isn't really a surprise that the shirt I ended up buying featured everyone's favorite man of faith.

I still have faith that the real John Locke's story isn't done quite yet. I'm holding out hope until the end... Sadly, we don't have much longer to go.