Friday, May 30, 2008

LOST S4 Finale: There's No Place Like Home, Pt. 2 & 3

All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander are lost.
-J. R. R. Tolkien

So its been three years and Kate keeps going through that last day on the island and trying to make sense of it. What I'm trying to make sense of is how are they protecting the people on the island by lying? I mean, it makes sense to lie because who would believe them and because who wants to make Widmore (or whoever planted the shipwreck - is there another option?) a bigger enemy, but how is that protecting them? So I guess they decided to go along with the shipwreck story that everyone saw on TV and that's why then chose where to be found. Nobody can even find the island though, so how does that protect them? Sounds more like protecting yourselves. I guess if they tell the truth and someone does start an investigation into it all and goes after Widmore they are thinking he found it once so he could find it again and when he does ... but those chances don't seem high.

Who's still alive and on the island (besides the Others): Sawyer, Juliette, Charlotte, Miles, Rose, Bernard, Locke (at least until he gets killed) - will we see Michael as a specter? Jacob's representative Christian finally released him and let him die.

Who's futures are not perfectly clear: Claire - I suppose that the fact that she came to visit Aaron and Kate like the other specters confirms that she is dead and probably died in the house explosion that Sawyer 'rescued' her from, but still. She did seem different than the other specter visitors who always seem indifferent and condescending. I suppose it could have just been a dream after all ... Daniel - I am going to assume that he and those extras in the raft with him were still close enough to the island to vanish with it, but that's not for sure. Jin. Okay, so it seems a far stretch that he could possibly still be alive since the ship blew up and even if he did make it he had no island to swim back to. That was one of the most frustrating scenes - they totally had two seconds to wait for him. Kate tried to run in after him, Desmond and Sun were yelling to wait, bot noooo, Jack had to go. Sun's screams were heart-wrenching. I suppose they needed Jin to go to fuel Sun into the bold and calculating woman we saw in the future - I love it, but it will be very interesting to see how deeply she has let herself hate and what she is now capable of. Does she want to work with Widmore to destroy her father or for his help to find the island? Both?

Who has to come back to the island: Jack, Kate, Aaron, Sayid, Hurley, Sun, Walt (Poor, tall, ugly haircut Walt, who none of the 6 came to see). I presume 'all' refers to the flight members, not to Desmond or Frank. What is Ben's investment in getting them back - is it all about revenge and the game he is playing with Widmore? Does he want to get back into the Island's good graces? He claimed that whoever moves the island can't come back. Is this true? Perhaps by telling Locke that and by moving the island himself he keeps a certain degree of power/allegiance with the island. Now we know why he had the parka on and a cut on his arm, when he was cranking the gears in the Journey-to-the-Center-of-the-Earthesque ice chamber, but how did he get to Tunisia? When the island moved did it just teleported him to Tunisia by default? It doesn't seem to be a random location since he had been there before, his fake name was in the hotel records. Hmmmm, Ben, Ben, Ben... what is up your sleeve? PS, you were freaking me out when you went all Psycho on Keamy! (I wonder if we'll see Keamy in flashes next season.)

The Others do stick to their promises. Wasn't that a weird look between Sayid and Kate though when they saved Ben and fought Keamy? Was there more to the bargain than we heard?

The Coffin: the two biggest theories for who was in the coffin have always been Locke and Ben. I had always leaned towards Ben based on Kate's disdainful reaction to Jack when he asked her is she was going to go. The minute Ben walked into the room though, it had to be Locke. Who killed you Locke, and made it look like a suicide? Was it Sayid? I have to admit, I was extremely proud of myself for remembering the name Jeremy Bentham as the coffin guy from the finale last year. So, Locke, why the alias? Is it simply to be incognito because John Locke is supposed to be dead and because Widmore's guys are probably after you? -

"Jeremy Bentham was one of the founders of the Utilitarian philosophy in the 19th century - the path to goodness consists of finding or doing the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Bentham developed this philosophy with James Mill, whose son, John Stuart Mill, refined it (JS Mill argued, correctly I think, that there are qualitative differences between goods - saving someones life is worth much more than giving someone $100 as charity). Bentham is also known for devising the Panopticon prison - a design which allows the prison guard to observe all prisoners, who are unaware that they're being observed."

This name goes along with some of the other philosophical names chosen for characters on the show. So Locke/Bentham has been coming to see all of them. He came to see Walt, and by the fact that Hurley recognised the name he must have come to see him too (everyone else is coming to see Hurley, so why not?) and Jack confirmed that he had come to both himself and to Kate.

The islands wrath: Is it on Jack specifically or on all of them for leaving? Jack was certainly taking it personally, but if they all need to come back, then its really all of there faults that bad things have been happening since they left. Next season they will hopefully provide flashes of Locke's visits. Ooh, zinger on Jack when Locke said, 'If you lie to them half as well as you do to yourself...' Was it always meant to happen like this - for Locke to die because Jack was meant to be the leader? His tattoo says something like, "He is among them, but he is not one of them." Will that come into play again? Could Jack have been like Locke on the island if he had gotten over his cynicism and insecurity and let himself believe? It seems that Aaron is the chosen one who will end up the new Locke, though. That kid is a miraculous survivor like John.

Here's the thing though, we're getting some mixed signals from the island. All the visitors from the island are telling them we need you, come back, but then Claire comes and says don't you dare take him back. Are there two conflicting powers on the island? Is what Jacob/Christian/Claire wants different from what Richard/Locke/The Others want? It shouldn't be too hard to find everyone, its just a matter of convincing them. Ben knows how to reach Sayid who knows how to reach Hurley, in his new Sayid instigated witness protection program. Will Sayid be coming to collect the others - I presume they are all being watched.

Aaaaaaah Sawyer - could I love you any more? That was beautiful. Had to love Sawyer's grin when he came swimming out of the ocean and saw Juliette boozing it up and he was just as casual as ever. I guess they'll be assuming their friends are dead. It makes me even more frustrated with jerkface Jack for being such a bum about Kate following through with Sawyer's last whispered wish. (Which was most likely about his daughter Clementine.) I get that he is feeling guilty and confused... I think next season will be kind of a redemption season for Jack.

Best acting moment: No surprise, it goes to Michael Emerson as Ben. In the Orchid when Locke asks him if that's the magic box and Ben shook his head in frustration and said, 'no John, its not,' and then spoke to him like he was five ... classic. When brief conversation between Ben and Pretty Eyes Richard was also amusing.

Most satisfying episode moment: The Des and Penny reunion. Oh sweetness. I hope you are happy and I hope that you can avoid Ben and I hope to see much more of you both.

Most intriguing new character development: Charlotte - So she 'finally' got 'back' to the island and she is still trying to figure out where she was born. What? whas she born there? Is she somehow a key in the island pregnancy dilemma?

Biggest question in my mind right now: When they do finally find and get back to the island, wherever it may be, how much time will have passed on the island? The Orchid video said it was a study of space and time both, so when the island moved did it move both space and time? It would be nice to get some more history of the island itself.

See you in another season, Brotha.

Some other thoughts:

Was the lamp Ben lit before he moved the island a nod to the lamppost in "The Chronicles of Narnia" – the same lamppost that served as an axis mundi? In Narnia (at least in the beginning) you needed a parka, too – because it was always winter and never Christmas.

Practically speaking - how are they going to um... preserve "Jeremy Bantham" while they gather the gang for another trip to Mystery Island?
So the Oceanic 6's web of lies was Locke's idea to protect the island and those left behind; how heartbreaking that the lies failed to protect him!

What are all those flowers at the The Orchid station?? It makes me think of Anaconda, where the scientists were seeking this rare flower that contained the "fountain of youth" (Alpert, anyone????) or miracle cure (but Jack doesn't believe in miracles…….or does the fact that in the flash forwards he ends up lying about the island prove that John convinced him otherwise? As well as the survival of all when the helicopter crashed (Kate, re: Aaron: "He survived. It's a miracle…)………
- "You can go now Michael…."Is Christian the angel of death? Father time? The Grim Reaper? Some other concept of life being taken away?
Needing a dead Locke to get back to the island.....I wonder if Christian being dead and on the plane was an important part to crashing on the island in the first place?

So, why did Ben knock out the time travel portal? I noticed he did use the tunnel behind it, but did it need to be deactivated before moving? Was the tunnel placed there because it had to be knocked out? Or was that coincidence? Will there be a time travel portal at the new locale?

If Lapidus and Desmond stayed on Penny's yacht (different ship than the "Searcher" ship she chartered?), then who was the person we saw off camera last episode in the Oceanic plane that commenters here said she said HI to? (referring to the Oceanic representative who went back to prep the six for their mainland landing - on her way back to them on the plane she nodded to some unknown person off camera)

Where is "someplace safe" that Sayid took Hurley?Why does Echo suck so much at chess?The Others' whispers (through the phone!) in Kate's nightmare were freaky. So was all the electromagnetism/light/sound when the island got moved.
Didn't anyone else get the feeling when Ben said to Locke, "I'm sorry I made your life so miserable," he wasn't talking about his island life only – but Locke's ENTIRE life? That he was somehow connected to all of Locke's heartbreak before the Island? And to those who took offense when I said Ben was the devil last episode – I have one word for you: "So." That's just what the devil would say if he were told that everyone on the freighter had just been killed!
If John Locke has always been seen as a sort of "savior" or "prophet" to the Island... does this mean that he dies but is "reborn" three days later when the Oceanic Six return to the Island? Talk about fulfilling prophecies and proving you are truly a miracle!

I have an interesting observance on the 4-toed statue…I know it's been posited before that the island was connected to something else at some point. Like, a body of land. Curiously, there are no rocks or land under where the other foot of a completed statue would belong, just some sandy beach…. So something. at one point, was there to sustain the rest of the statue. But now that we know that the island is MOBILE … I can imagine in my mind's eye a point in time in which the island was very close to another body of land. Which leaves my mind wondering, imagining: If indeed our lost island was at once attached to another body of land, or was one large island rendered in two by some cosmic force, (creation narratives, anyone?) where is the other body of land? We don't have in our real world any parallel missing foot, though it could have been dismantled, I suppose, on our end. However, the whole time/space travel issues seem to negate that possibility. I don't think the island was ever "attached" in a literal sense, to anything in "our world." So, could there be another "Island" - a white to its black, a yin to its yang, a good to its evil, – a similarly hidden place that is in contention with it, or that completes it in harmony? This seems to fit seamlessly into the mythology of the show. It would seem that were this the case, there would be a very fitting world mythology that it would easily embody: the spring of eternal life, a place which if, could be physically found, would offer a cup of living water to those who partake? Regardless, if there is a second invisible land, who inhabits, controls, knows of its location? Does anyone? Does Charles Widmore know more than he's letting on or are he and Ben and even Jacob utterly clueless? Were the original Dharma Initiative's interesting experiments in effort to locate that other land, to rejoin them and thus "save the world"? Or is the world-saving power in a life-giving element of said land? The creators have mandated that the island is not purgatory, but they have never exposed whether AN "island" could be HEAVEN.

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