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Season 3 Lost finale
Island! I knew you wouldn't let me down.
I'll confess: at first, when it became clear the scenes off the island were Jack scenes, I groaned. Jack being the character I'm least interested in, I wasn't looking forward to yet more Jack flashbacks, and I couldn't see how they were supposed to tie to the present-day action anyway. However, the funeral - the coffin with no one attending - had me intrigued, as I couldn't imagine who that was supposed to be, based on my admittedly vague collections of Jack's previous flashbacks, and I did notice they never show us the woman Jack saved from the car. At the time, I wondered whether she would turn out to be Juliet or someone else from the Others, and whether that was going to be the big reveal. I genuinenly did not expect the great twist the show did come up with, which not only made all the Los Angeles-Jack scenes completely tie with the island action but was one both such a wonderful "wtf?!?" moment and the narrative refreshment a show still due for two more seasons needs. (All the flashbacks of our regular gang have been told, more or less; flash forwards to what will happen to them post island, otoh....) Not only that, but they'll make me rewatch said Jack scenes, because that's so damm intriguing; the island scenes are now in the past; the Jack scenes were a flash forward or now the present, depending on one's pov.
I will say I did expect Ben wasn't lying about Naomi and the people behind her being up to no good, despite being, you know, Ben; as a lie, the claim would have been pointless, narratively. (When Ben lies, as about having been born on the island, there is usually a pay-off other than someone saying "I don't believe you" and doing the opposite.)
So: in the future/present, Jack has essentially become his father, is a complete wreck, and utterly convinced that leaving the island was the worst thing ever. Sadly, this makes me suspect the coffin he came to see - "neither family or friend" - was Locke's, but on the one hand, it could also be Ben's (but has to be either one of them, given that they're the two island believers trying to convince Jack not to make the decision he makes in the episode which presumably leads to badness and island rescue turning out to be more badness; and they are the two characters who don't have other people going to their funerals); besides, Jack didn't let the funeral director open the coffin, so by the rules of tv we did not see the body and it could be a faked death.
Locke, alas, had only two scenes, but both were powerful ones. The island did come through for him, and good choice to use Walt to appear to him. Mind you, for all we know this could have been actual Walt, but the point is, Walt has been in love with the island just as Locke has, and both the island (or Jacob?) as Walt and actual Walt would make sense. Presumably the vision did not end there and Locke got told both about Naomi and where to find her and our heroes; I guess we'll find out next season. The second scene illustrates both a crucial difference of Locke before and after his father's death and his latest near death experience, and a continuation: he can now kill a stranger without hesitation (Naomi; we don't know yet whether he knew more about her than the obvious - she was about to contact the world outside - though I do think the vision told him at the very least what Ben said to Jack about her), which is chilling, but otoh, as obsessed as he is, he can't bring himself to kill Jack (not, imo, because it's Jack but because Jack is clearly an innocent in whatever is going oin).
Ben bringing Alex with him was nicely layered, because you know, I do believe him when he says he does so to give her to her "new family" - i.e. her real mother, Danielle. He's a sociopath of the first order (see also: his flashback episode), but he does care about Alex, and after evidence that she betrayed him, he couldn't keep her with the Others.
Charlie's death was very moving, and also narratively necessary in order not to reduce the poignancy of the previous episode. The fact that he used even his last few moments of life to help - to warn Desmond that Naomi hadn't been sent from Penny and wasn't who she claimed to be - somehow tipped it over for me to going from a constricted throat to undignified sniffling.
Hurley to the rescue was priceless, and well earned. I'm in two minds about the Sayid/Jin/Bernard fake-out, as logically there was no reason for Tom & Co. to spare them, but otoh the important thing for the overall story was that Jack was comitted enough to let them die rather than allow Ben to blackmail him (important for the state he's in in the flashforward, imo), which isn't changed by the fact they're alive, and besides, I want Sayid, Jin and Bernard around. Sawyer killing Tom showed how he, as Locke, was changed by the death of Original!Sawyer, and simultanously pay off going back all the way to the first season finale. Great continuity.
Lastly, I really don't care much about the Sawyer-Kate-Jack triangle, but Juliet's "no, do you?" reply to Sawyer's "so, screwing Jack yet?" was priceless, and the final scene between Jack and Kate, which showed us whe hadn't watched Jack in the past but Jack in the future, post-island, was excellent.
I'll confess: at first, when it became clear the scenes off the island were Jack scenes, I groaned. Jack being the character I'm least interested in, I wasn't looking forward to yet more Jack flashbacks, and I couldn't see how they were supposed to tie to the present-day action anyway. However, the funeral - the coffin with no one attending - had me intrigued, as I couldn't imagine who that was supposed to be, based on my admittedly vague collections of Jack's previous flashbacks, and I did notice they never show us the woman Jack saved from the car. At the time, I wondered whether she would turn out to be Juliet or someone else from the Others, and whether that was going to be the big reveal. I genuinenly did not expect the great twist the show did come up with, which not only made all the Los Angeles-Jack scenes completely tie with the island action but was one both such a wonderful "wtf?!?" moment and the narrative refreshment a show still due for two more seasons needs. (All the flashbacks of our regular gang have been told, more or less; flash forwards to what will happen to them post island, otoh....) Not only that, but they'll make me rewatch said Jack scenes, because that's so damm intriguing; the island scenes are now in the past; the Jack scenes were a flash forward or now the present, depending on one's pov.
I will say I did expect Ben wasn't lying about Naomi and the people behind her being up to no good, despite being, you know, Ben; as a lie, the claim would have been pointless, narratively. (When Ben lies, as about having been born on the island, there is usually a pay-off other than someone saying "I don't believe you" and doing the opposite.)
So: in the future/present, Jack has essentially become his father, is a complete wreck, and utterly convinced that leaving the island was the worst thing ever. Sadly, this makes me suspect the coffin he came to see - "neither family or friend" - was Locke's, but on the one hand, it could also be Ben's (but has to be either one of them, given that they're the two island believers trying to convince Jack not to make the decision he makes in the episode which presumably leads to badness and island rescue turning out to be more badness; and they are the two characters who don't have other people going to their funerals); besides, Jack didn't let the funeral director open the coffin, so by the rules of tv we did not see the body and it could be a faked death.
Locke, alas, had only two scenes, but both were powerful ones. The island did come through for him, and good choice to use Walt to appear to him. Mind you, for all we know this could have been actual Walt, but the point is, Walt has been in love with the island just as Locke has, and both the island (or Jacob?) as Walt and actual Walt would make sense. Presumably the vision did not end there and Locke got told both about Naomi and where to find her and our heroes; I guess we'll find out next season. The second scene illustrates both a crucial difference of Locke before and after his father's death and his latest near death experience, and a continuation: he can now kill a stranger without hesitation (Naomi; we don't know yet whether he knew more about her than the obvious - she was about to contact the world outside - though I do think the vision told him at the very least what Ben said to Jack about her), which is chilling, but otoh, as obsessed as he is, he can't bring himself to kill Jack (not, imo, because it's Jack but because Jack is clearly an innocent in whatever is going oin).
Ben bringing Alex with him was nicely layered, because you know, I do believe him when he says he does so to give her to her "new family" - i.e. her real mother, Danielle. He's a sociopath of the first order (see also: his flashback episode), but he does care about Alex, and after evidence that she betrayed him, he couldn't keep her with the Others.
Charlie's death was very moving, and also narratively necessary in order not to reduce the poignancy of the previous episode. The fact that he used even his last few moments of life to help - to warn Desmond that Naomi hadn't been sent from Penny and wasn't who she claimed to be - somehow tipped it over for me to going from a constricted throat to undignified sniffling.
Hurley to the rescue was priceless, and well earned. I'm in two minds about the Sayid/Jin/Bernard fake-out, as logically there was no reason for Tom & Co. to spare them, but otoh the important thing for the overall story was that Jack was comitted enough to let them die rather than allow Ben to blackmail him (important for the state he's in in the flashforward, imo), which isn't changed by the fact they're alive, and besides, I want Sayid, Jin and Bernard around. Sawyer killing Tom showed how he, as Locke, was changed by the death of Original!Sawyer, and simultanously pay off going back all the way to the first season finale. Great continuity.
Lastly, I really don't care much about the Sawyer-Kate-Jack triangle, but Juliet's "no, do you?" reply to Sawyer's "so, screwing Jack yet?" was priceless, and the final scene between Jack and Kate, which showed us whe hadn't watched Jack in the past but Jack in the future, post-island, was excellent.
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True. Jack, pretty much your standard hero character and the most "must leave this island!" of them all, getting a future in which instead of getting the obligatory happy ending he's so messed up and obsessed with getting back to the island is a twist that I'd never have thought of, and now we have a new mystery to look forward to. Of course we always expected them to be rescued, at the end of the show, but a narrative twist that goes further than a short tag after that and shows that the rescue might have been a catastrophe... wow.
Now I'm wondering if they are going to have the rest of the series set in the 'real world' with island flashbacks, or if they will return to the island and continue with their regular narrative.
My guess is that the island scenes will be flashbacks, but will still take up the majority of the episodes, with the future being revealed to us character by character, and possibly a plot in which some of the survivors try to go back to the island.
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