Lost 5/23/07 Season Finale

[ShannonA]

A place for your future speculations and discussions.

[mcrow]

Well since they said there would be more seasons, I doubt the folks they contacted will be there to rescue them. :D


Also, what the heck was with charlie? Geez, he could have gone out the port hole or left the room and sealed it from the outside.

[Fritzef]

WARNING Will Robinson. SPOILERS.

First, kudos to the writers for changing the flashback into a flash-forward. I really didn't see that coming. They were good at obfuscation on that front, too--with several mentions of Jack's father making it seem like this must be the past. What was up with that, anyway? The prescription I could explain away as Jack's forgery, but he explicitly told the new head of surgery to go upstairs and get his father. Are we to assume that he was just so drunk/high that he didn't know what he was saying? Or was his father resurrected on the Island--there have been hints that he was before.

The use of the flash-forward really opens the show up again, IMO. The flashbacks were becoming less and less useful and entertaining, because we'd pretty much got the full backstory of many of the characters. It seems to me that next season the writers could either:


Make the post-rescue time 'now', maybe focusing on Jack's attempts to return to the Island, and set the flashbacks on the Island, using them to reveal to us how the rescue occurred (and why it was a mistake). In a way, this would remodel Lost along the lines of The Nine.
Start next season on the Island just where we left off, but substitute flash-forwards for flashbacks from now on. This would be a very interesting approach, but I'd think it would be harder to write than the current model. In a way, flashbacks and flash-forwards do the same thing--they explain the meaning of current events for us, the audience. But characters are of course aware of their own pasts, so flashbacks just get us caught up with what they already know. Flashforwards give us knowledge they can't have (well, except for Desmond). I'd think that would be a greater writing challenge.


As to the Charlie thing, I initially had the same reaction. I think the answer is fatalism. Charlie accepted that Desmond could see the future, and that his drowning was a necessary part of the sequence of events that would lead to Claire's rescue. He certainly says as much to the two women in the Looking Glass. So when the Russian is about to blow his porthole he doesn't want to escape--that would ruin things, from his point of view.

Both the Russian's survival and Locke's make me think that the Island is a perfect explanation for head-hunting. If I wanted to kill someone there, I'd not be sure they were out until they were dismembered.

[mcrow]

As to the Charlie thing, I initially had the same reaction. I think the answer is fatalism. Charlie accepted that Desmond could see the future, and that his drowning was a necessary part of the sequence of events that would lead to Claire's rescue. He certainly says as much to the two women in the Looking Glass. So when the Russian is about to blow his porthole he doesn't want to escape--that would ruin things, from his point of view.

That's what I went with, when trying to rationalize it but it still seems wonky. :cool:

[ShannonA]

Ah, poor Charlie. I was pretty sure it was inevitable from the last episode, and was very sorry to see I was right. As I wrote after I watched the last episode, I believe that the crash survivors die on the island once they've been "found", and Charlie was definitely found. He'd found love, defeated his addiction, and discovered something he was willing to die for. He was doomed.

From the first scene I was suspicious of the flashback. It didn't fit into Jack's continuity, and so I was convinced we must be seeing the future. I was glad to see my initial suspicions played out. I'm not convinced we'll see this mechanism again, but on the other hand we have a big 'ole question still: who died? My first assumption was Kate, but that was proven wrong at episode's end. Sawyer would be my next guess. I mean, who else's dying would cause Jack to call Kate? Ben would be my third guess based upon the disgust in Kate's voice when Jack suggested she'd be at the funeral.

Maybe we won't actually see flashforwards again, but they'll be rescued and the main storyline will catch up with this flashforward; I dunno.

Seeing Kate and Jack together off the island was very cool.

[bubbles]

I'm gonna share my pet theory here, which I formulated just this very moment (almost).

1. It was Michael's funeral. The funeral home was in a poor, black neighbourhood. Michael was black, and, given that leaving the island seems to spell doom, he could well also be poor. He's also not terribly popular, what with shooting a bunch of people and letting Ben out of the cupboard.

2. Next season will see the lostaways back on the island. The endnote of this season was 'we have to back' so next season will be set on the island again, and the flashbacks will show why, and how, they returned.

[The Fiendish Dr. Samsara]

They were good at obfuscation on that front, too--with several mentions of Jack's father making it seem like this must be the past. What was up with that, anyway? The prescription I could explain away as Jack's forgery, but he explicitly told the new head of surgery to go upstairs and get his father. Are we to assume that he was just so drunk/high that he didn't know what he was saying? Or was his father resurrected on the Island--there have been hints that he was before.

I have low trust issues with Lost (and yet can't stop watching). This bothers me. If Jack was out of it, then I have trouble beliving the Chief Surgeon wouldn't have said, "Your father? Huh?". That doesn't mean that this isn't exactly the answer, but I can't swallow it. That leaves two options:

1. The "flash" isn't forward or back, so much as side-ways into Alterni-World (Bizaro-Lost?). I don't think that's too likely.

2. Dad is back. Out of the magic box. More likely. But still hard for me to swallow.

The use of the flash-forward really opens the show up again, IMO. The flashbacks were becoming less and less useful and entertaining, because we'd pretty much got the full backstory of many of the characters.

I agree. the single best thing in that episode. The possibiltiy of the change is nifty.

As to the Charlie thing, I initially had the same reaction. I think the answer is fatalism.
That's what I went with, when trying to rationalize it but it still seems wonky. :cool:

Me too.

I'm gonna share my pet theory here, which I formulated just this very moment (almost).

1. It was Michael's funeral. The funeral home was in a poor, black neighbourhood. Michael was black, and, given that leaving the island seems to spell doom, he could well also be poor. He's also not terribly popular, what with shooting a bunch of people and letting Ben out of the cupboard.

Was it just me, or was the coffin oddly short? Like a child's? I kind of thought it might be Walt. Kate's dismissal might have nothing to do with her opionion of the deceased. I took it more a a sign that she was actively putting the entire experience of the Island out her life (since she seems to have changed life styles rather dramatically).

[ShannonA]

I have low trust issues with Lost (and yet can't stop watching). This bothers me. If Jack was out of it, then I have trouble beliving the Chief Surgeon wouldn't have said, "Your father? Huh?".

I think the surgeon gave Jack a really weird look when he said that, which would probably be the average response to talking with someone who you've already determined is drunk, popped up on pills, and/or insane.

[Fritzef]

As to who is in the box--I hadn't noticed the length of the coffin. If it was an adult-size coffin, then I guess I'd nominate Locke. Admittedly, he might want to stay on the Island. But I can easily imagine a scenario where he loses mobility again, because the Island rejects him (or he thinks it does). Once he's not cured, he might be quite willing to return. He does seem to be pretty much alone and I can imagine him becoming suicidal.

I've seen internet claims, based I suppose on freeze-framing using TiVo or something similar, that the obituary/news story that Jack reads identifies the deceased as something starting with "J" (that's all the viewer could make out). But claims like that are worth what they cost you.