Lost: Season 4 Finale
It was the same questions-getting-answered progress as most of the season, except for that last half-hour. Hooo weeee!
I’m just going to open with a theory, right off the goddamn bat. The island jumped ahead roughly 3 years. Ben came along for the “ride” but got dumped off at the Island’s antipode. He asks what YEAR it is (it’s an unpredictable last resort, of course) and then SEES Sayid on TV. If Ben can’t go back to the island, he can at least use what he knows to kill off Widmore’s flunkies. So he decided to get to action as soon as possible. In fact, he didn’t even stop to sew up that rip in his parka!
I suppose jumping the three years ahead, combined with the Oceanic 6 lying AND a few Wid-murders would do the trick of hiding the island again.
I haven’t come up with why it was so cold or what that glow was for, but I’m working on it. This is a very ancient power, that’s for sure. And it’s been originally harnessed by a goddamn donkey wheel (as opposed to the technologically-advanced turn-key).
That was a nice parallel, by the way. Desmond turns the key, everyone sees a violet light, Desmond gets some special mind-travel abilities. Ben turns the donKEY wheel, everyone sees some golden light, Ben gets a sudden physical jump (and doesn’t get to stay on the island). That was the deal of course, whoever moves the island, can’t come back.
And speaking of ancient, somebody did this once before DEFINITELY, a long time ago, say year 1516 (for fun). The island jumped a few years to 1519 (or whatever) and, what do you know, the Black Rock just so happened to be in that location. One moment the ship is sailing the seas, the next, it’s in the middle of an island.
Note: if the island jumped back in time (but to the same location), a whole hell of a lot of erosion would be needed for it to NOT be there when it flashed away in the first place. If you’re confused with that, then you get my argument. It went forward in time, which just means it doesn’t exist physically for a little while.
Here’s the Season 3 Finale post which is fun to read. I swear we all had predictions on who was in the coffin. But it turns out only Hutch said something: “Ben or Locke”. If Hutch were watching tonight, he could have last-minute nixed the Ben possibility and then been correct!
Shout out to Eddie, who called Locke, apparently since the very beginning. “He’s the anti-Jack.” If one person attends Locke’s funeral, it’s Jack.
Which reminds me, Locke lived and worked in L.A. (the site of the funeral). Remember in Season 1: some “family” from L.A. contacted the psychic to tell Claire to come to L.A. to give up Aaron for adoption. But she had to get on THAT plane.
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Those who disappeared with the island: Locke, Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, Charlotte, Alpert, and The Others.
Those who were in water when the island moved (and I guess were in the island’s “bubble”, so went with it?): Faraday, Jin (there’s hope!), some red shirts.
Did I miss any?
Then of course there’s the big picture theory. What does it all mean? Ben has used “Jacob” and “The Island” in conversation. Are they the same “being”?
Does the Island have a conscience? Or does it just have magical properties that can be harnessed?
Does Jacob represent that conscience? Or is Jacob existing because of those magical properties?
Right now, I’m thinking the Island is what it is: a magical place. It should be used to advance mankind in GOOD ways. But of course, some people aren’t going to use it the right way. Until it can be fully & properly understood/controlled/used, it’s best that it doesn’t get discovered by anyone new (or at least by anyone new who is BAD).
Alpert, Abaddon, and maybe some other Others have been on the Island for a LONG time. They were okay with the Dharma Initiative hanging around at first, but then realized it was time for a purge. They were okay with Rousseau, until she started showing signs of possibly choosing a side (as opposed to doing the hermit thing). They knew they didn’t like the Freighties from the start. They learned over time (suspicious at first), that most of the Losties ARE NOT ONLY nice people to not worry about BUT MIGHT ALSO be required for success.
I could go on and on. I had a great discussion with some North Jersey folk afterward. It’s nice not watching alone, especially for a finale. I will leave you with something else Eddie enlightened me on. Unfortunately, it has to do with my “8 toes” predictions.
The 4-toed foot statue was erected as a monument to the future, and the evolution of mankind. Alpert and the Natives choose this based on the theory that humans will literally devolve their pinky toe over time. The statue is but a symbol for their goal!
I had to redo some of that island-traveling-into-the-future math.
December 30th, 2004: the Island “moves”
September 2007: Kate yells at Jack for wanting to go back to the Island.
So the Island had to reappear prior to September 2007, to give Locke enough time to experience bad things on the Island, leave the Island, and DIE.
So it’s more like a jump of 2 or 2.5 years, I guess.
Also, Lostpedia’s Post-Island Timeline says Ben appears in Tunisia on October 24, 2005. So whatever, the guy who turns the donkey wheel gets thrown into some random time. That’s even better, though, because that gives Ben enough time to kill some people before the Island even reappears!
I’m going to be honest: I liked it……not as much as I wanted to though. Maybe because of heightened expectations. Maybe because every “Oh shit!” moment was something we always knew was a theory or possible. Jin dying. We kinda of knew, but weren’t sure if it was true. The island having time travel capabilities. Kinda knew but now confirmed. Locke in the coffin was always a theory, now we know. It was still pretty great though.
Am I correct in assuming Sun’s overtures to Widmore may be related to the fact that he wants to get to Desmond and maybe she blames Desmond for Jin’s death? Or that’s she’s going to fuck up Widmore’s life real good and blames him along with her father?
The other thing I still keep coming back to now is the Others (ie Richard, etc.) vs. The Dharma Initiative. My first instinct is that The Others are the natural inhabitants of the island and the Dharma initiative was some corporate attempt to use the island for nefarious purposes. But why are the others always rattily dressed and in the jungle? We know they CAN go off the island and live like “normal” people (Richard when he went to see Jack and Juliet…Friendly when he went to New York to enjoy fresh fruit and young male flesh) so why most of the time are they living primitively. Even when they showed Jack and his “people” living civilly in the compound, were those people different than the ones who travel with Richard?
Other things I forgot:
- Best line/delivery of the evening was Miles talking to Charlotte: “Yes…what DID I mean by that?”
- Keamy/Sayid fight scene and then Ben bringing the hurt to Keamy.
- Jin dying (presumably) the way he did. I’m glad they didn’t go the typical route of making it some big dramatic, heroic, sacrificing himself for others style death and actually had him die while trying to be rescued.
couldn’t the folks on the helicopter tell the boat blowing up was fake? If i were on the chopper and saw that I would just laugh as i did while watching it on TV
Hahaha…..that was admittedly some less than stellar CGI right there.
Kevin said:Maybe because every “Oh shit!� moment was something we always knew was a theory or possible.
I agree with you here. Maybe this worked in the past, but we not only know things already, but we discuss them a lot afterward.
For example, Sawyer jumping out of the the helicopter. It was so so obvious that it’s even hard to pretend to be surprised from Kate’s perspective or even imagine how she felt.
Among a zillion other thoughts I have, here’s a fun one:
If Claire is on the island and now BFFs with Jacob, perhaps she knows that Jacob wants to find Locke’s successor, and perhaps he wants Aaron, which is why everything else was saying to go BACK to the island, but Claire said to NOT go.
Also: the phone call Kate got in her dream said “The Island needs you. You have to go back before it’s too late.” when you play it backwards.
And what about Charlotte saying she’s looking for where she was born!?
Desmond and Penny’s reunion got me all farklempt. For realsies. And Sawyer jumping out the helicopter was A+.
Ben owned this entire episode, as well as the season.
And what about the Walt scene!?
And Mister Eko playing chess??
And Sun going to Widmore!?
Oh man. This show just slays me.
Time traveling bunnies!!!
Paris said:Kevin said:Maybe because every “Oh shit!� moment was something we always knew was a theory or possible.
I agree with you here. Maybe this worked in the past, but we not only know things already, but we discuss them a lot afterward.
For example, Sawyer jumping out of the the helicopter. It was so so obvious that it’s even hard to pretend to be surprised from Kate’s perspective or even imagine how she felt.
I actually think this is less the fault of the writers than it is just a natural result of people discussing it so much after the fact and that there are so many theories out there that everything is a possibility and someone is bound to hit the mark.
Well, I guess the last time they made the Island move (whenever that was) they used polar bears to do the dirty work in that cold underground chamber. Would explain why they were found wearing harnesses in Tunisia and why they were trained to push buttons and pull levers in their cages on the Island. Does this mean that the Island’s location for the duration of the show (up until tonight) was actually an atypical one? Perhaps it’s simply warped back to its original time and place.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it warps back to the prehistoric era and picks up some dinosaurs. Just to make things interesting.
Wow Justin, nice call with the Polar Bears! I love it! It’s not a frozen donkey wheel, it’s just a polar bear wheel.
Some other things my viewing buddies (Erin and Eddie) conjectured:
*Alpert has been 2nd in the chain of command all this time. He had Ben as the leader, but found it very difficult (impossible) to have any control while Ben was around. Ben was just too good at doing what he does. Alpert is embracing the Locke-as-leader idea because, though Locke may have been “chosen”, it’s still going to be easy for Alpert to run the Island from the backseat of Locke’s car.
*An added twist to that, Alpert might secretly represent Widmore (and that’s how Widmore knows so much about Ben).
*An added twist to THAT, Alpert is playing the double agent role and letting Widmore THINK he’s on his side, but Alpert is actually pitting Widmore against the other people he doesn’t like, for the overall protection of the Island.
Wow you are so right about the polar bears, Justin!!
I suppose they trained bears to do it because whoever turns the wheel is never allowed back. So why not drop a few polar bears off in Tunisia, you’re still cozy on the island.
I think Alpert could definitely be a double agent, he seems very slippery.
I have a feeling Alpert is sinister and ominous, but the writers have given us very, very little to work with. Usually he just stands around, looking like Batmanuel, clenching his jaw. The theory I yank from that is that he’s putting a lot of faith in the people he thinks have been chosen by the Island and is standing back in the hope they fulfill some abstract destiny. Ben had become considerably less than golden to him over time and now he’s put his faith in Locke. Locke, as usual, will bungle anything that he’s supposed to be doing.
The real double-agent here might be Sun. I have a feeling she’s going to go to the dark side and ally herself with Widmore through the good intentions of trying to seek out Jin (whom she believes to be alive). Is Jin actually dead? Hard to say… this season’s flashback episode that had them both running through parallel stories in separate times might have been more telling than we first thought.
Sawyer diving off the helicopter was kinda predictable, but still rates as his best moment thus far on the series. Pure selflessness, without a hint of snark. He’s come a long way.
I wonder if Sun realizes just how bad of an idea that would be. Or, like Anakin from the new Star Wars, she gets so blinded by love for a single person, that she does indeed go to this “dark side” you mentioned (on purpose I’m sure).
Exactly. I think a lot of next season’s action will be based on the idea of these guys having a second chance to atone for their flaws in the pre-Island past. Some, at this point, seemed doomed to repeat their mistakes. Sayid, for instance, is already burning through his grief by following violent orders from another strongman. Sun grew up in a life of privilege and was content to turn a blind eye to many bad things so long as she got what she wanted. She’s grown since then… so maybe she’s just taking Widmore for a ride.
Batmanuel!!!! Great reference!
Is everyone in agreement with regard to the fact that time travel is the reason Ben knows every piece of information about every person from the plane? Or am I the only one making that assumption?
Kevin said:Is everyone in agreement with regard to the fact that time travel is the reason Ben knows every piece of information about every person from the plane? Or am I the only one making that assumption?
That brings up something discussed last night. When Ben and the Others first see the plane crashing over the Island, it seems like Ben did NOT see it coming, even though he responded well enough.
I think he just had Ethan and whoever else get names for him to do research on. Unless of course that researching he did was time-travel. But if that is so, he wouldn’t have used the polar bear wheel every time. It’s a last resort.
I just think the knowledge he had of each of their lives was so intricate and intimate that it had to be something more than just research, or at least non time travel releated research.
He did apologize for making Locke’s life so miserable.
Something feels weird about Michael’s and Jin’s “death”. I don’t think they showed Christian Sheppard right before the boat blew up for shits and giggles.
And Ben is the shit, Emerson should really be considered for a best supporting actor.
Hey all.. Below is a message from Aunt Wanda.. she’s not registered to post here, so asked me to… discuss
From Aunt Wanda: I don’t know how to post anything, or if I even have the capability, but Johnny’s friend’s are questioning whether Jin is really dead or not… and while he definitely dies, he can’t be dead yet. In some other episode, we see him rushing to try to get to the hospital when Sun has the baby, right? So that has to be like 7 months after when the freighter blows up, right? Cuz at the time of the freighter explosion, Sun is like a couple months pregnant. So he has to get back to civilization at some point, somehow. But, I believe at the end of that same episode, we also see Sun visiting his grave. So he has to die after he gets back. Sun holds her father and one other (unnamed) person responsible for Jin’s death. Now, she could hold herself somehow responsible, but Johnny’s peeps seem to think her motives are darker than that.
I think when we saw Jin running around with the stuffed animal, it was a pre-island flashback where he was doing some business for Sun’s dad. We were tricked into thinking it was happening at the same time, but it was actually years earlier.
I still think that’s pretty significant, the two characters nearly overlapping in two different time periods. I wouldn’t say Jin is completely dead. Heck, Sun could always figure out a way to use the mental time travel to go back in time and prevent Jin from ever going onto the freighter. Of course, this might create some sort of paradox that destroys the universe and she would NEED to be stopped from doing this… but you know how kids are when they’re in love.
Sure, even Locke looks really dead. But I smell a Christ Metaphor coming up.
Rachel, what’s your blog’s URL?
http://ack-attack.livejournal.com/ is my crazy ass Livejournal, where it’s always a party :D
www.theackattack.com is my new site.
I haven’t posted anything there in a few weeks, though. I’ve got to write my gargantuan finale recap.
That’s exactly what I was looking to read!
Ha ha yeah I’m going to write it over the next few nights, it should be up by Friday-ish.
WHOOOOOOOOAHHHHHHHHOLYFUCK WHOOOOOOOOOAHHH!
whoah.
Now I’m gonna read everything everyone said.
Yay you finally saw it! It’s about time.
Thoughts, John?
Yeah, I wish I had something to add, but you guys pretty much covered everything. I absolutely loved the episode, for what it’s worth.