This lead to all sorts of confusing on internet forums and blogs. A lot of people thought that it meant that the whole thing was a purgatory, and everybody died when the plane crashed. But no, it was very clearly said by Christian Sheppard that everything really happened. And Hurley thanking Ben for being no. 2 was also an obvious hint.

And with that we also got just about the only / biggest explanation of the finale. Not a lot of questions (actually barely any) were addressed in the final two episodes. Why did infants die on the island ? What happened to Walt, and was he really special ? The numbers, were they just random numbers etc etc. And that was the downside of the finale I guess. The drama and action was excellent, the mythology, not so much.

Seeing Rose and Bernard certainly made me cheer at the TV screen. Although it was a bit short, it was a nice appearance nevertheless. Man in Locke showed his very bad side by threatening to kill them painfully. I am still not buying the whole ‘he is pure evil’ argument though. We all know why he eventually became the way he was in the end. Once the light went out the rules changed or the ‘spell’ or whatever it was, was broken and it was possible to kill him. A somewhat lackluster ending on the cliffs. It would have been nice if he could have gone off the island at least once in his lifetime, but I guess that wasn’t in the cards.

It seems I was wrong about Ben. He didn’t have any sort of plan. He just followed whoever happened to come along. The conversation with Hurley at the end, who asked him to become no. 2 was very touching. Finally Ben gets the position he wanted and will be appreciated for his experience and knowledge. Hurley becoming the new no. 1 was a great touch. Being the nicest and friendliest guy of the whole bunch. Ben still had some unfinished business and didn’t ‘step into the light’ like the rest. I guess he just wanted to hang out some more with his daughter and Rousseau ! I guess we’ll never know how he miraculously was rescued from under that log he was trapped under.

Whatever happened to the people (including Lapidus who of course wasn’t dead after all) that flew off is up to our imagination. I really liked that part of the story. Alpert was finally starting to age so he can rest eventually as well and live a normal life, was nice. You could see the relief on his face when he was looking at his first grey hair.

The final scene with Jack dieing on the very spot where he came to the island was very dramatic. Especially with Vincent by his side. And he also showed relief when he saw the plane fly by and knowing that his friends would finally make it off the island, and accepted his fate.

Possible spinoffs: Hurley and Ben protecting the island, or a Myles and Sawyer cop show ! Think they would both be very enjoyable.

I was very glad to see Ben return to form. It seems he still got a very tricks up his sleeve, but I think Man in black is on to him. He’ll play some sort of important role in the finale I am sure. I am very glad the writers didn’t forget about him. Killing off Widmore even before the finale was a bit unexpected. I am not sure his ‘Jakob visited me’ redemption story was true, or if that was just to get on Ben’s nerve. Was Desmond as failsafe the only thing he told Man in black or did he whisper something else of importance ? Seeing Ben with Danielle was a great touch. And seeing her sane was a nice bonus .

On the island, Jack is now finally officially Jakob’s successor. The scene at the campfire where Jakob explains things (sort of), was a bit over the top. We already knew most of it. “You were all flawed” was kind of new though. The protector job isn’t for happy people. The ‘I made him this way’ was weird. Did he refer to throwing his brother into the light ?

As for Kate and Sawyer ? I have no clue what kind of role there is still for them during the finale. And what their fate will be. I hope Hurley won’t get killed or something terrible. “Thank God it’s not me” was a great line ! Desmond will probably have to go ‘into the light’, as he seems to be the only one who can handle it.

It’s very odd that the series will come to an end tonight. I am sure the finale will still leave a lot open for debate. It sure has been one helluva ride .

This episode tried to answer questions, I guess, but it’s still all very vague. We’re supposed to believe that for some reason this island is very special. The light is somehow crucial to the world, at least that’s what I get from the quote below.

And if the light goes out here, it goes out everywhere.

- Mother

But what is this light and where did it come from ? And why is it being protected by a weird violent lady who obviously doesn’t like people much ? And the smoke monster, is it the man in black (who supposedly couldn’t die by Jacob’s hand) or did he help Mother kill the ‘others’ village ?

Another odd thing is that Lindelof said last week the reason they killed Sun and Jin was to make obviously clear that Man in black was pure evil. That he was the "Big Bad". But what I feel after this episode is that Jacob is a bit of a looser, MIB is much more sympathetic. More a ‘real person’. Of course it wasn’t very nice (ahem) to try and kill our losties, but it’s all very understandable. Besides, Jacob has been bringing people to the island who eventually all get killed anyway. Not much more sympathetic either.

One other point is that in the light of this episode, the stuff we were concerned with, like Ben in season 3 and 4, Locke in season 5 etc, seem to be in vain in hindsight. Ben was being tricked by the man in black, Locke is now supposed to be some sort of looser etc. Not a nice thing to do.

So how will we go from here ? It’s going to be weird that we’re supposed to be rooting for Jack and the losties while I am actually rooting for the man in black now. Will Jack be the new protector ? Hurley does have the same ability as man in black, they can see dead people.

I think the overall ending will be somewhat unsatisfying. And I rather not get any answers to the mysteries anymore if they’re either so obvious or not real answers anyway. And where does Widmore and Desmond fit in in all of this ? We also still have to see how the sideways stories will merge with the main storyline. I guess we’ll know in a few weeks time !

Interview with Lindeloff and Cuse on this episode.

The flash sideways still don’t really do it for me, besides a few episodes. But this time I really liked the last scene where Jack finds out why Locke doesn’t want his legs to be ‘fixed’. He is still punishing himself over what happened to his dad in a plane crash.

We now found out that MIL planned to kill the candidates (and Kate) all along. That’s why he wanted to get them together. Apparently he can’t leave until they are all dead. And he can’t kill them directly, as Jack finally figured out as the bomb ticked away on board the sub. Sawyer didn’t believe him, or failed to trust Jack’s judgment, after what happened to Juliet. And he set off the bomb. This is an exception to the rule I guess, because MIL has no problems killing off the ‘red shirts’ like the ones guarding the plane.

I guess Sayid got his moment of redemption. The Sun and Yin moment was touching, dieing together after just having found each other again. It didn’t move me as much as a lot of people did apparently, judging by the comments on the Transmission blog and on the lost forum. The whole ‘sub slowly filling up with water’ felt a bit cliché, although it was very well done.

I am glad Yin didn’t pull some sort of stunt and rescued himself and Sun at the least moment, that would have been very cliché. It is interesting though that some of the main characters (and Lapidus ?) got killed already before the finale. This also sends the message that Lost is probably not really going to end on a happy note. There is a nice interview with the producers over at Popwatch where they explained some of the events of this episode.

How did Hurley manage to swim all the way to the beach with Kate ? I guess that’s some of the island’s mysteries . MIL is now on his way to ‘finish what he started’. I am sure Desmond and Jack are somehow key in the ending, and maybe a secret role for Kate ? We’ll see soon enough !

We did get the answer to the ‘was MIL also the appearance of Christian Sheppard’ question. In a rather straightforward manner. Of course we already knew that and the answer to ‘why’ was rather blunt ‘well you needed water !’. At this point in time the answers to the question will either be ‘well duh’ or they’ll be totally out of leftfield and be unsatisfying.

Sun and Jin finally got together ! But they didn’t get much chance to enjoy the moment as Widmore’s gang jumped on them on the beach. Jack returning to Man in Locke was interesting. The bombshells trying to kill (?) MIL were a bit silly. I seriously doubt you can kill him that way.

S: Sayid ain’t invited, he’s gone over to the dark side.

H: Yeah, but you can always bring people back from the dark side. I mean Anakin..

S: Who the hell is Anakin ?

What is the deal with Sayid ? He seems indeed gone over very far to the dark side and is quite zombielike, but I am sure he didn’t kill Desmond, so somehow there is still something human inside him.

Nice topic over on the What’s Alan Watching blog: What answers would you like from the last few episodes of LOST ?

The whispers on the island was explained by Dead Michael in a very casual way. So they’re just voices of people who died on the island and can’t get out. But why did Hurley believe Michael right away ? He didn’t seem very friendly. Though dead people are more reliable than the living ones, I guess they don’t have anything to loose ! And why do can they only be heard at certain key-moments ?

Blowing up the black rock and manipulating Richard and the others was a nice touch. We now have yet another split. Hurley’s move to go to Man in Locke was quite a bold one. It’s too early now for the big confrontation, so I wonder how that will end. Desmond will no doubt find a way out of the well. And who knows what he’ll see down there.

It was very touching to see Hugo with Libby again. It’s a shame she died so early in the series (season 2 I believe ?). Especially the pick nick scene on the beach was very moving. Hugo is now also starting to remember the other timeline. I still don’t understand how they’ll eventually get back to the original timeline though, Desmond will no doubt be key in that. He already seems to be quite like Jacob how he steers people in a certain direction, with little ‘occasional meetings’ and such.

The end of the episode was shocking. Desmond running over Locke. I wonder if he tried to kill him and thereby killing Man in Locke on the island (?) or did he try to force a near-death experience ? We’ll find out soon enough .

Desmond Hume is the key. He is the only one who is aware of the other timeline during the flash sideways and acknowledges how it is somehow fake. Like Faraday said (very nice appearance by him by the way, for some reason I really like his character), this is not what is supposed to happen. It’s like everybody picked a better ending for her/himself in the sideways timeline. The bomb set this timeline off, and now it’s up to Desmond to somehow correct it. And he is now a man with a plan, as he asked for the passenger list of flight 815.

Charlie was fun too in this one. As self destructive as ever. But he set Desmond on the right path, by letting him enjoy a near death experience. Eloise was a bit scary. Apparently she knows what’s happening, but doesn’t want Desmond to snoop around yet. Or is she enjoying this time line more, when her son is still alive  ?

There were a lot of nice touches in this episode too. The drawings on the Widmore office wall. The sixty year old scotch, Penny running up and down the stairs this time etc. I am sure I’ll notice some more when I rewatch the episode soon.

The ending was very odd. Sayid coming out of nowhere, killing some people here and there. Desmond smiling like an idiot and he just went along as if he was expecting it ? Very weird…

Links to read:

What’s Alan Watching ?

The Transmission – lost of nice comments on the excellent blog post as well.

Mean while on the island Man In Locke is moving over to the other island, to meet Widmore. Not quite sure what his plan is though. There is a war coming, but how exactly that will pan out is to be seen.

It’s sad to see Sayid in a zombie state, yet the tranquiliser dart still worked on him. Jin is needed to find electro pockets on the island, which gives us another clue that the island is special, not just because of Jacob and MIL’s game.

Also MIL revealed his reason to keep Kate around, but that wasn’t much of a surprise.

As a nice surprise closer, we finally got Desmond emerging from the sub, in a sorry state after a long trip obviously drugged. It seems he’ll be a key component in bringing down MIL.

It’s a shame that Ben doesn’t play a bigger part in it all. He seems to be a fringe character now, while he was the main focus for so long, I kinda miss him. And with just a handful of episodes to go, I really am starting to wonder how they’ll end this all.