The Incident, Parts 1 & 2
Welcome to the season finale edition of The "Lost" Diary. In the locker room before the Super Bowl, they always show the coaches giving some kind of pre-game speech to rally the troops. Really? You need a speech to get you excited about playing in the Super Bowl. Well I wasn't too into this, but now that my coach said that, let's win this thing! Come on, it's the Super Bowl!!! If you need a pep talk before the Super Bowl, you shouldn't be playing football.
I think you know where I'm going here. It's the season finale of "Lost." 'Nuff said.
For all you "Lost" Diary newbies, here's how it goes: I gather with a group of friends watching "Lost," writing what happens on the show as it happens, and throwing in my two cents along the way. I am watching tonight's episode live, with (gasp!) commercials, from my mom's apartment in Queens, as I just happen to be back in NY this week visiting friends and family. Let's roll ...
9:00 -- For all that's been going on, that was a really short "Previously on 'Lost.'"
9:01 -- I love when an episode of "Lost" begins with someone we don't know doing something that seems so normal -- but really isn't.
9:02 -- "Nice talking to you, Jacob." -- Guy who wants to kill Jacob
9:03 -- So the statue is still standing, there's a ship that looks like the Black Rock, and we've got a 30-something Jacob -- loving it.
9:06 -- Young Kate was just busted trying to steal an NKOTB lunchbox. Sad, on several levels.
9:07 -- Jacob just bailed out Young Kate and told her she's not going to steal anymore -- like he was telling her, not suggesting it to her.
9:08 -- The sub is getting ready to head back to the mainland and Sawyer wants no part of helping Kate stop Jack. I think we all know how this will turn out.
9:09 -- Sayid and Jack are going to take apart Jughead and bring to the Swan so they can blow up the pocket of energy.
9:11 -- Locke is leading the merry band of Others on their way to meet Jacob.
9:12 -- Even Richard is baffled about Locke is back among the living.
9:13 -- Locke plans on killing all the Ajira people -- or, better yet, having Richard do it.
9:14 -- Now the Ajira people seem to like Lawnmower Man, even though a few minutes ago they were knocking him unconscious.
9:15 -- Great, another mystery box. I am getting sick of mystery boxes.
9:18 -- We're at a funeral, and I am guessing our friend Jacob will be intervening again. My guess is the kid is Sawyer and it's his parents funeral.
9:19 -- Jacob gave Sawyer the pen he used to write THE LETTER.
9:21 -- Sawyer is starting to wrap his head around Jack's plan. But Juliet has made his decision for him.
9:22 -- Sawyer and company are going all Under Siege and getting the sub commander to take them back to the island.
9:23 -- Taking apart a hydrogen bomb looks fun and easy.
9:24 -- Locke is throwing his power in Ben's face, again -- and he continues to annoy the shit out of me.
9:29 -- Not all of Jacob's little visits are good -- in this case he distracted Sayid and Nadia got run over. Bad Jacob.
9:31 -- Operation Jughead is moving along as scheduled.
9:32 -- Richard just knocked out Eloise and is going back with her, leaving Jack and Sayid on their own.
9:33 -- Sayid and Jack are simply blending in to make their way across Dharmaville. Sayid doesn't exactly blend in well in Dharamaville, if ya know what I'm saying.
9:34 -- Who would have thought Ben's dad would have been the smart one to find them? And, uh, did he just shoot Sayid in the gut?
9:35 -- Luckily for Jack, he's carrying a gun with 75 rounds -- or else he would have been in trouble.
9:39 -- Kate and Sawyer are arguing over which shore they are paddling towards. I hate them as a couple.
9:40 -- VINCENT!!!!!!
9:41 -- "They found us." -- Rose. She does not look too happy to see everyone.
9:42 -- Apparently Rose and Bernard have become island hippies.
9:43 -- "It's always something with you people." -- Rose. What does she mean, YOU PEOPLE???
9:44 -- Frank wishes he didn't know what was in the box. I, on the other hand, I AM DYING TO KNOW WHAT IS IN THE BOX.
9:45 -- How do these Ajira people know so much about the island? They found Jacob's cabin in like two seconds.
9:46 -- Seems like Ilana, who is in quite bad shape in her flashback, knows Jacob. That's weird, right?
9:47 -- Ilana is having them burn Jacob's cabin. Just because the man ain't home doesn't mean you can just torch his house.
9:51 -- Jacob is chilling on a bench and reading when Locke just happens to get tossed out a window.
9:52 -- "Don't worry, everything is going to be alright. I am sorry this happened to you." -- Jacob
9:53 -- Locke continues to boss everyone around.
9:54 -- Locke is trying to have a romantic moment with Ben, reminiscing over the hatch door, but Ben is having none of it.
9:55 -- "I lied. That's what I do." -- Ben
9:56 -- "Why the hell wouldn't you want to kill Jacob?" -- Locke. Decent point he's got there.
9:57 -- Come on, now Jacob is at Jin and Sun's wedding? Did he give away the bride? Catch the bouquet? Serve the cake?
9:58 -- "Who was that random white guy?" -- Sun to Jin. I may have added a few words there.
9:59 -- Sawyer, Kate and Juliet vs. Jack, Hurley, Miles and Sayid. I'll take the team with the hydrogen bomb.
(At the halfway point -- not much has happened, I am digging the Jacob scenes, and the Ajira crew is providing all the cool mysterious scenes)
10:03 -- Jacob lives in the foot of the statue. He has domain over the whole island and that is where he chooses to live?
10:04 -- Sayid is bleeding to death, but Jack can take time out to have a heart to heart with Sawyer.
10:05 -- Jack is doing a surgery and he messes it up -- and Christian tells Jack the "count to five" thing.
10:06 -- Post-surgery, Jack is having a little vending machine trouble and he's a tad pissed at daddy over what went down in the O.R.
10:07 -- "Is one of these yours?" -- Jacob
10:08 -- Sawyer tells Jack about how his parents died, and about how he could have fixed it, as a way to try and talk Jack out of blowing up the H-bomb.
10:09 -- So Jack is doing all this for Kate? Puh-lease.
10:11 -- A Sawyer/Jack brawl -- good times. I would think Sawyer would win, but for the show's sake, Jack will.
10:12 -- Juliet is now on Team Jughead.
10:16 -- Juliet's flashback didn't have a Jacob appearance. Odd.
10:17 -- In the middle of all this, Juliet is dumping Sawyer. Um, Sayid is still bleeding to death. Can someone get on that?
10:18 -- "If I never meet you, then I never have to lose you." -- Juliet
10:19 -- Looks like it's time for ... The Incident.
10:20 -- You know what my biggest qualm with TV shows is lately? Whenever people get into fights, they are always bloody and bruised -- but their faces never swell up. Why is that?
10:25 -- Hurley is getting out of prison. Now, remember -- we don't know how Hurley ended up on the plane. Jacob, perhaps?
10:26 --There's Jacob -- and he's got the guitar!
10:27 -- Jacob can probably just talk straight to Hurley, since Hurley will just assume he's a figment of his imagination.
10:28 -- "Who are you dude?" -- Hurley
10:30 -- Jack is on his way to deliver Jughead.
10:31 -- "See you in Los Angeles." -- Jack
10:32 -- Locke and company are still outside the statue, waiting to head in.
10:33 -- Richard seems a little hissy about Ben coming in to see Jacob too, but Locke calmed him down.
10:34 -- Why does Locke think Jacob is someone who can be killed?
10:39 -- Miles just told everyone exactly what I have been saying for awhile now -- the Losties are actually completing history, not changing it.
10:40 -- Razinsky is starting to batten down the hatches, no pun intended.
10:41 -- Another "Lost" gunfight.
10:42 -- Even with Miles trying to inject common sense into everyone, seems like Jack is going through with it anyways.
10:43 -- I don't know what a hydrogen bomb is supposed to sound like, but I think it's supposed to me make some kind of noise.
10:44 -- "This don't look like LAX." -- Sawyer
10:45 -- The electromagnetic energy is doing its thing.
10:46 -- This is starting to remind me of the scene in "Return of the Jedi." Instead of Sarlacc eating people, we get a giant electromagnetic pocket that is sucking stuff in.
10:47 -- RIP Juliet. Think Sawyer is gonna blame Jack for all this?
10:51 -- The Ajira people are coming face to face with Richard and company. This should be good.
10:52 -- Ilana gives Richard the riddle, and he knows the answer. Of course. "He who will protect/save us all."
10:53 -- "If this is Locke, who's in there?" -- Sun. RIP Locke ... again?
10:54 -- And there is Jacob, just kinda chilling. What does he do all day?
10:55 -- "Found your loophole." -- Jacob. What does that mean?
10:56 -- Ben's got daddy issues again -- this time with Jacob.
10:57 -- Ben went through with it and stabbed and Jacob. It can't be that easy, right?
10:58 -- "They're coming." -- Jacob. RIP?
10:59 -- The bomb still hasn't gone off, and now Juliet is trying to set it off with a rock. Which worked. And that's it. Season over.
There was a lot to like about tonight's episode, and a lot not to. Let me try and break it down, in random bursts as they come to me.
-- As I have been preaching for awhile now, I don't really think the Losties are there to re-write history -- I think they are there to play their role in it. Like Miles said, Jack wasn't preventing anything from happening, he was causing it. Nothing that happened tonight really changed that for me.
-- Jacob's flashbacks went along that line as well. Giving Sawyer the pen to write his letter was merely filling in a gap in history -- didn't change anything.
-- I really liked Jacob's Enemy and how he seems to have taken over Locke's body. It explains why Locke was such a douchebag since he died.
-- I am also really intrigued with Ilana and her crew. What is going on there? Who do they work for? Jacob's enemy? Widmore?
-- The ending felt like a cop out. We waited for two weeks for the bomb to go off, it goes off, then nothing. We have to wait until next year to find out what happens. It feels like the writers don't have an answer for what happens next and they need the time off to figure it out.
-- A little too much walking and talking for my tastes.
-- Nice that they brought back Vincent, Rose and Bernard.
-- I miss Desmond.
I talked last week about how I thought the episode before a season finale should be judged differently than other episodes. It's meant to tease the finale, so plenty of unanswered questions is a good thing. But when the finale does the exact same thing, it can be troubling.
Tonight's episode was quite good, and I highly enjoyed it, but it didn't feel like a season finale. It's best moments really were ones that asked new questions and a season finale should be tying up loose ends, not making new ones.
I am going to do something I have never done before and give tonight's episode two grades. As an episode of "Lost," I give it a B+ -- I was into it the whole time and it definitely kept me interested throughout. It raised some GREAT questions for next season that I am really into and looking forward to seeing play out.
As a season finale, I have to give it a D. It really didn't deliver in a way I was hoping and, in fact, it was actually more counterintuitive than anything. "Lost" season finales rarely do what I like them to do, and I'm cool with that. I have gotten used to episodes that ask more questions than they answer, but let's face it -- we're getting down to the wire here folks. Time to start bringing this plane in for a landing, pun intended.
And so ends the fifth season of "Lost." I think overall we got a very solid season, certainly one that is worthy of "Lost." But I don't think this season raised the bar, it kept things at an even level.
I have a feeling, that when you go back to watch "Lost" on DVD years from now, this season will be the least interesting to re-watch. We'll have the answers to the questions this season raised (at least I hope so) and when you remove the element of mystery from this season, I don't think you have a strong season. Certain movies are only meant to be watched once; they don't have "rewatchability." This season of "Lost" feels that way to me.
Doesn't mean it wasn't good, but I don't feel like it reached that "other level" of earlier seasons.
Let's try and have a final LDQA for the season. Send your questions to questions@thelostdiary.com and I'll post a column next week. Remember, they can be about anything and everything, have fun with it.
Til then ...
