"Oh boy." I took that quote from Quantum Leap because I felt that it's the most suitable phrase for the best show on television today. That show is Lost and if you think you knew what was going to happen on the final episode of this season, then, boy, were you proven wrong!
I will not spoil anything besides one detail that will be the only amount of comfort you will receive while watching Lost. The one driving the boat who appeared in last week's episode is not an Other, but it is Desmond, the former button-pusher who is first discovered inside the mysterious hatch.
Desmond is the key to a couple important questions that need to be answered. Last week, Locke and Mr. Eko found evidence that the first hatch may only be an experiment for observers in a second hatch. Desmond knows more about what meaning the hatch has and we learn how he came to be in the hatch to begin with through flashbacks. He might be irritating when he's calling everyone "brother" (and sister, the ladies aren't left out), but he has seen quite a lot in his castaway years.
Besides Desmond's return on the good side of the island, Michael takes Jack, Sawyer, Hurley and Kate to the Others' base. Sayeed, ever the observant soldier/torturer/all around good guy, knew from last week that Michael's not being 100% truthful about his intentions in taking a group to the Others' camp. This is where my love of Lost grew even more. Like a dope, I believed what most people believed while watching this: that this season finale was going to have the heroes finally getting the best of the evil that's plagued them for so many days.
All I have to say is that you need to keep the episode "The Long Con" in the back of your mind whenever you watch Lost. The writers are conning us whenever they feel like it, and they have crafted the show well enough to push your buttons and lull you into a false sense of comfort.
If you have not found the time to watch one episode of Lost, I feel sorry for you because the show just keeps getting better. Please, you have a few months before this shocking cliffhanger resumes in the fall: watch previous seasons and catch up, because the next season promises to be the most incredible one yet.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Justene
This is the most popular article and there are no comments yet. I want rampant speculation. Who lives, dies or gets rescued in the season opener?
2 - Glen Boyd
Heres one for ya.
If Desmond already KNEW what happens when you don't press the key...then how was Locke able to convince him that it was all just a experiment and it wasn't real?
That seems to me to be a major storyline hole.
Justene, if ya missed it...Desmond is most likely dead. Eko and Locke may be dead. They blew up the hatch. Kate, Sawyer, and Jack got captured by "The Others" when Micheal led them into a trap in exchange for getting his son back. Sayid is somewhere on a boat with Jin and Sun and about to come to their rescue. An "accident" in the hatch (one that Desmond KNEW about which is why I still can't figure out how Locke convinced him it's not real) is what caused the plane to crash.
Thats pretty much it in a nutshell.
Did you see the spokeman for the "Hanso Corporation" on Kimmel last night? Funny stuff.
-Glen
3 - Glen Boyd
Oh, one more thing..."The Others" are "the good guys" according to the one who calls himself Henry Gale. And the fake beards are off.
Tell ya what...hole in the storyline or not, Lost really is the best damn show on TV these days.
-Glen
4 - Crocys Kunelius
When will the third season begin?
5 - Kobayashii
My interpretation is that Desmond didn't realise how serious the magnetic effect was until he pieced together that the place crashed on the same day as the previous close call... 22 September 04.
I wonder what the Elizabeth-Libby story is.
6 - Vichus Smith
Desmond was willing to believe Locke because as you saw in the flashback, the room only started to shake before Desmond pressed the sequence to stop it. Also, he never saw what happened if you turn the key. Plus, the guy's a little off after being cooped up in the hatch for 3 years. So I don't think it's a plot hole.
I also strongly believe that the writers are loving the mind games they play on viewers, so Locke and Eko are not gone.
Just an update in related news, lost is looking for 2 more female cast members. Since we've learned that Desmond's old flame knows he's out there, there is a big opening for a bunch of new characters to emerge.
I want to know if we actually get to see the world outside of the island.
7 - Phillip Winn
Vichus, I think we did -- in the last 30 seconds of the show!
8 - Blake Caldwell
At the end of the episode, they showed footage of the tail section crashing, then the show was over.... was that a mistake by ABC or did another plane crash?
9 - Blake Caldwell
By the way - please check out my site - it's a Lost rumor site that lets you vote on rumors, and gain credibility points if your votes are correct
10 - Vichus Smith
Sorry for the double-post.
Yes, I meant will we see the world outside the island in the upcoming season. Will we actually get to see how life is going in normal civilization, or do the writers believe that this should be a mystery as well?
I think one of the theories going around was that the world has become drastically different from when the survivors left on their flight.
As for the end of the show, I believe that the scene they show of the plane crashing is always the same as it has been. I'll have to watch my recording of the finale again.
11 - Justene
I don't think Locke Eko or Desmond are dead. The electromagnetism seems to have curative effects (Locke's paralysis, Rose's cancer). It only interfered with the airplane mechanism.
I couldn't believe Charley andd Eko survived the dynamite.
You can't send Michael out to "rescue" and not find out what's there -- although it may be Season 5 before they tie up that plot point.
12 - Phillip Winn
Justene, normally I'd say you're crazy, and reading too much into the curative powers of the island. After all, people still die, and people are still severely injured. But, like you, I was astounded at how Eko survived the explosion.
Still, while I believe Desmond is dead and the hatch is destroyed, I'm unsure about Locke and Eko. On the one hand, they should be dead, and they probably are. On the other hand, Charlie responded oddly when asked about them. He said something like, "They're not back yet?" Given that he'd last seen Eko running the wrong way before the explosion, does this mean he had run into them again off-screen? It didn't seem like he was being sarcastic.
13 - Justene
I think they would die if something fell on their head in the explosion. The magnetism doesn't kill them, IMO.
14 - Phillip Winn
The magnetism wouldn't kill them, true. But what on earth happened when Desmond turned that key? Whatever it was, the effects were apparently seen and heard on every part of the island, and the hatch door blew off and landed on the beach, which is, what, a 20-minute walk away? So I'm thinking major explosion, which would certainly result in the death of Desmond, and probably Locke and Eko.
15 - Kuangkai Tai
I thought EMPs are not explosions perse, but a burst of high voltage electromagnetic energy. I suppose it would matter where the EMP originated from--if Desmond, Eko and Locke were adequately shielded, the EMP should have no physical effects on them. But would that still explain the hatch door flying off like that? I don't think so, unless there was some sort of accompanying explosion.
16 - Phillip Winn
True that on the EMP, but that hatch hitting the beach convinced me that more than just EMP went down.
17 - Eric Berlin
I agree with Justene -- I'd be suprised if Locke, Eko, and Desmond wind up dead -- just too many incredible characters in one go!
Another question -- what the hell is up with the (now dead) Libby character? She's a "psychologist," she shows up in Hurley's back story at the mental hospital, and then she shows up as a red head in Desmond's backstory, fronting the money to him to get the boat that lands him on the island? (I won't even get into the fact that -- as far as we can tell -- she hands over a boat to a dude she met at a coffee shop twenty minutes earlier!)
18 - Phillip Winn
There is speculation that Libby's last name is 'Widmore,' but that seems unlikely given that Desmond was involved with the Widmores pretty heavily and had never seen Libby.
But Libby didn't give him the money for the boat, she gave him the boat itself. Painful memories and all that: they're trying to make it somewhat plausible.
19 - Sete
I think that Libby gives him the boat on purpose. I think she's involved in Desmond and Hurley presence on the island.
20 - charlie
They explained that the Swan station was a mechanism that left off a small discharge of built up electromagnetism. When Desmond turned the key, my understanding was that he activated a destruction in the mechanism itself but this destruction doesn't have to be explosives. We saw the electromagnetic pulse being emitted and it created that strange light and high frequency sound. The door was metal, so when you have a huge magnetic release, of course it will send a METAL door flying hundreds of feet. I think that explained quite clearly. The question I am asking, that no one seems to be asking is why Henry is so certain Michael or his son won't tell anyone and what do people think of the implication that "Henry Gale" works for a large organization (when he gives Michael coordinates of a rescue location, probably a fail safe for whoever is settting up the whole situation). I think we will see more insight into the Hanso Foundation's involvement in the coming season and the focus will change from this "lord of the flies" theme to a story of a large God-hand controlling the pawns it has set.
21 - Tim
A lot of people are theorizing that Desmond is definitely dead...
HELLO!!??? We saw HIS girlfriend "find" (or something like it) the Island. Why in the world would the creators bring in a character linked to someone on the Island, and kill them before we see any sort of payoff/plot development/anything?
In summary:
You really believe they're going to give Desmond a 2-hour season finale flashback/cliffhanger like that - and not bring him back? Nope.
Desmond is alive.
22 - Glen Boyd
Charlie...
The Hanso Corporation as puppet masters is as good a theory as I've heard. Would also go a long way toward explaining the flashbacks to some sort of (mental?) hospital environment.
Have you checked out the Hanso website by the way? Lots of juicy stuff there if you are a hardcore fan.
I'm still not quite satisfied with Desmond's wilingness to buy into Locke's "nothing is real" line of reasoning when he KNEW there was at least some consequence to not punching the key.
It's a minor quibble though.
Lost is still hands down the most fascinating thing on TV these days...this from a guy who really misses oddball shows like Twin Peaks, Millennium, and HBO's Carnavale.
I really hope they do get more into the whole Hanso Corporation business next season. I loves me a good conspiracy with a monolithic villian.
-Glen
23 - Maulros
One thing about curative powers... I am wondering if those curative powers come from electromagnet... If so then those curative powers plew up with that combustion. So it may be that Desmond is dead... But I am not thinking that Locke or Echo are deceaced...
24 - Mark M.
I truly enjoy the creativity and performances in this show, but I'm getting a sinking feeling that the writers are simply piling on mysteries to the show for the sake of piling on mysteries without any plan on how to resolve them.
They haven't done anything more with "the numbers" which was one of the most bizarre and important elements of the show. Charlie's religious visions earlier this season seem to have served their purpose (which was apparently little more than to join Eko in building a Church which was abandoned...so I guess it didn't really have a purpose). The polar bear incident, the whispering forest voices, and the smokey-yet-invisible-clanking-noise monster have not been followed up on. The mystery of the balloon and whoever the real Henry was seems to be gone. Nor have they explained at all why "the others" are interested in kids or infants or why they killed some of the airplane's adult passengers. Oh yeah, and the mysterious "virginal" pregnancy--which may not be such a mystery if a father is found--hasn't been followed up on either. But if all that wasn't enough, they've added the "termination" key, a huge damaged four toed foot statute, and a research team in the Arctic (Antarctic?) apparently monitoring something like electro-magnetic activity (how they would know to be looking for this in connection with Desmond is another mystery).
Having said all the above, I still love this show, but I find it hard to believe they have all these elements even remotely thought out as to what they mean. Either the writers have some great surprises in store for viewers, or many of these mysteries are going to become "lost" as the episodes pass. I really hope it's the former.
25 - Glen Boyd
I really hope they bring Mr. Eko Back. He was just one of the most wonderfully complex characters to come along this season. I'd also hate to see Locke go. After surviving his "crisis of faith", the "conscience of Lost" should be more fascinating than ever.
But while I agree that introducing his long lost love into the mix as what is apparently going to be a more full time characcter doesn't make sense unless Desmond survived...that sure looked like a suicide mission to me.
We'll know soon enough once summer is over. Definitely something to look forward to this fall.
Again, I hope ABC doesn't screw relentlessly with the scheduling trying to launch a string of shitty new shows though. They completely killed Invasion by doing that...and that show was starting to show promise towards the end.
-Glen