The Penultimate: Part 2

I hope I've wrapped things up sufficiently regarding the penultimate episode of 24. Today I will be looking at the penultimate episode of Lost (as you can tell by now, penultimate may be my favourite word).  The point of this post is really to assess how What They Died For ties into the past, present and future of Lost.

It's a little tough to gauge the history of the show based on the most recent episode. I've commented previously that seasons 1 and 2 of Lost feel very different from the rest of the series. Perhaps it was due to the fact that in season 3, the end date for the show was announced so it started to feel like the show finally had a direction it could pull in, rather than just deal with things season by season. I'll be honest, I haven't been a huge fan of the flash sideways world and it's still a little tough to compare it to the previous versions we've seen of our favourite characters. My understanding was that part of the reason the sideways world was introduced was to remind us of who these characters were but that's not an entirely accurate assessment. It works for characters like Jack and Locke, but take a character like Sawyer who's life revolved around lying. Without his lying he is now a very different person. Or take Desmond, I don't know if over the course of the show I would say that Desmond's character changed much. He was a different character in his flashbacks for sure, but since we've seen him on the island, his motivation has always been to return to Penny. His character's change was crashing on this island to learn what he'd been missing all along. We didn't see this change, it had already happened when we first met Desmond. It's also exceedingly hard to look at his current role as opening the door for the others in the sideways universe against who who was.
 
The original timeline however presents a much better window into the past. One of the fundamental questions this show posed was what's so special about these people? It was something that developed over the course of the show and especially when we saw the importance of Jacob's touch in season 5. I was never pleased with the fact that we started the show with 48 survivors and then thinned the ranks with the attack at the barracks and the flaming arrow attack. To me it represented a fundamental shift away from this show being about survival, to being about these main characters. However for our main characters we learned that they were all brought to this island because they were flawed. The point of this island then was to heal them of those flaws. To allow them to seek redemption. And that idea of redemption has permeated the arc of every character since Day 1. Sawyer got to kill the man who killed his parents, Jack learned not to try and fix everything, Jin became a loving husband. This is what the show was about. Despite the insanity of the island, the goal of this show was always to take these characters and make them into better people. Now I understand what Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse mean when they say that for them the show is about the characters, not the mysteries. We can also compare the role of the Man In Black since the pilot. Since the pilot episode the smoke monster has terrorized our heroes, and even now at the end, it still does. The first mystery on Lost will also be what ends it. Kate mentioned they need to kill the Man in Black now; they need to kill the smoke monster. It all comes full circle.

Furthermore, this is what the entire sixth season of Lost has been ramping up towards. Finding a replacement for Jacob. Last season we learned that the Man in Black has been trying to kill Jacob for centuries and at the start of this season we learned via the cave of numerology that Jacob was preparing for it, and readying replacements for himself. Perhaps most importantly, it was necessary for Jack to see why he was important. The scene in Lighthouse where Jacob tells Hurley that sometimes you have to stare out into the ocean for a while to figure out what you have to do may have been one of the most pivotal scenes in the history of the show. Jack learned who he was, he learned why he was important, and he reflected on everything that had happened in his life, and his life on the island. Is Jack taking on Jacob's role to be the fixer once again? Perhaps, but has his arc been that he needs to stop fixing things or that who he really is, is a fixer? Was it about changing who he is, or discovering what he always was?  Or was it about striking a balance in between?

So looking forward now what can we expect from the finale? Well we know the Man in Black must die. I refuse to believe that Lost would lead us to this point, remind us that it only ends once, and then leave us in a loop. For a long time I've suspected that the ending might be a renewal of the scene with Jacob and the Man in Black on the beach from season 5, but now I no longer think so. It feels too expected almost, and not a real ending, only a continuation - Lost must end. I think the greatest question is how do you kill the Man in Black? Bullets and knives don't work, the only thing shown to have some effectiveness is a sonic fence. Perhaps all you can do is trap him in an ash circle like in the cabin. I think there's also a very decent chance that in the finale the entire island will be destroyed; it's incredibly poetic you must admit. Desmond was Widmore's failsafe, and I readily believe that by simply mentioning Desmond's potential, it won't be shunted away, something will happen involving him. This ties in to my new feeling about the flash sideways. Obviously the purpose of the flash sideways needs to be resolved. The epilogue theory is starting to look good to me again. That this is the future created from whatever happens to the island. These memories that the flash sideways characters are having are memories of their past life, their real one. But perhaps I'm reading far too much into this penultimate episode. A good penultimate episode should remind us of the past, and set things up for the finale. I won't say Lost has done exceptionally well setting up the past, but they are doing a superb job preparing us for the finale.

The Lost finale airs in less than 24 hours. Soon enough we will all know just what this show has been leading up to. And the only question left to ask is, are we satisfied? Because like it or not, it's the only finale we get.