Despite a commercial roughly every six minutes, the two-hour season finale of "Lost" was heart-thumping every step of the way, throwing an enormous curveball at the end with a tension-filled rendezvous between Jack and Kate in a possible future. The title of the finale, "Through the Looking Glass," points to the question of whether Jack’s alternate reality (post-island) is really a dream, tying into the "Alice in Wonderland" theme. Is the ultimate query whether meddling in the courses of destiny and time brings dire consequences along with it? With the series starting back in February ’08 and running through 2009-10, the writers have 48 episodes remaining to resolve a variety of plot lines.
The finale dealt primarily with the potential rescue of the survivors, Chah-lie’s death, Kate’s love triangle, and Jack’s past, present and future. Since these issues are the likely keys to Season 4, we’ll examine these plot lines in Part I. In Part II, I’ll take a look at Locke, Ben, Sawyer and the remaining survivors, and how their roles might impact the course of the series next year.
JACK
The finale began with a glimpse of a disheveled Jack, bearded and rundown, preparing to attempt suicide after reading a newspaper clipping that appeared to be an obituary of someone close to him. Immediately, questions of whether this was a flashback or flashforward emerged, with Jack once referencing his dead father, Christian. Is it possible that Christian Shephard – Jack’s father, as well as Claire’s – is still alive in an alternate future? After all, Christian’s coffin was empty when Jack found it on the island in Season 1. Of course, another explanation could be that Jack is so banged-up on alcohol and Oxycontin that he has forgotten about his father’s death and even hallucinating.
At the last moment, Jack’s suicide attempt is thwarted by a car accident, and the doctor in him won’t allow him to jump off the bridge without trying to help the victims. He saved an 8-year-old boy and his mother, but it is later revealed that he isn’t a hero, since he, in effect, caused of the wreck because the driver was distracted by seeing him getting ready to leap to his death. Jack’s ex-wife, Sarah, visits him after the accident, but she refuses to even give him a ride home from the hospital.
Jack’s apartment is littered with maps of the Pacific, and when he meets Kate at a deserted location near the airport in the last scene of the finale, he mentions how he uses a "Golden Pass" to fly places as often as he can, hoping for a crash and a return to the island. Does he feel he made a deal with the devil and can’t stand what he sacrificed to get himself – and, presumably Kate and possibly others – off the island? Were the survivors given rescue off the island in exchange for keeping quiet about the island’s existence and never trying to return – is this the root of Jack’s guilt complex? Maybe some of them had to change their names and identities because of the report that Flight 815 was discovered and there were no survivors, and the fact that there was such a dismal funeral in a forgotten part of town with no attendees made Jack reconsider whether it was all worth it. Jack says, "We were not supposed to leave," echoing Locke’s warning just before Jack makes contact with the rescuers by using the satellite phone. "We have to go back," he continues. Also, many have pointed out that Jack is using a KRAZR cell phone in the flash-forward – does time move at a different pace on the island vs. off?
As humorous, pitiful and sad as bearded, alcoholic Jack on Oxy is in the future, island Jack is beset by doubts and events beyond his control. After he is led to believe that Ben had Sayid, Jin and Bernard killed, Jack beats the tar out of Ben and then tells Tom he’s going to find him and kill him. But he doesn’t let Locke’s intervention and killing of Naomi stop him from ultimately contacting the rescue boat and igniting a series of events that apparently led to a departure from the island.
On the island, he finally admits to Kate that he loves her, but their final-scene meeting appears to be illicit and uncomfortable. So how did Jack arrive at a place where he is a suicidal addict? Who is he seeking forgiveness from as he is about to leap to his death? Will Season 4 address Jack’s quest to return to the island to set things right and bring destiny back in line?
KATE
As disheveled and chaotic as Jack looked, Kate defined the other end of the spectrum, looking like a trophy wife in a brand-new Volvo. It is almost as if they have switched places in the future; prior to the plane crash, Jack was a successful, respected doctor, even if he had issues with his father. Meanwhile, Kate was a career criminal and fugitive, dogged by a series of bad decisions and cold-hearted moves. After their rescue, Jack is out of control, while Kate appears to be well off and no longer a fugitive. Are they Bizarro Jack and Bizarro Kate now?
There is a theory that posits that Kate is simply humoring Jack off the island, and that she never actually was on the island or doesn’t remember it, thinking Jack the addict is imagining or hallucinating it all. When Jack asks her if she went to the funeral with the mysterious coffin, she gives a perplexed look and says, "Why would I?", leading some to believe that she doesn’t know the deceased. However, when Jack wearily says that he is "tired of lying," Kate admonishes him and says they need to keep lying, seeming to ruin that theory. At the very least, Jack appears to have broken some kind of trust with Kate; was that a result of how they left the island and the circumstances surrounding it, or because of how he has slid into addiction?
The other burning question is who is the "he" that Kate mentions as having to go back to before "he" starts to wonder where she is. Is she was Sawyer off the island? Is it a son that she had after being impregnated by Sawyer on the island? Did she agree to be rescued because she knew that babies on the island don’t survive? Was removal of her fugitive status another condition of her rescue? She’s not wearing a ring, so she doesn’t seem to be married. Sawyer once told her she "always has to go back for somebody," but does having her own child allow her to turn her back on that inner trait?
Is the identity of "he" another question that will help drive Season 4? Was the disparity in appearance between Jack and Kate a reflection of the true toll that the island took on them, both physically and mentally? Will Kate ultimately aid Jack in his obsession with returning to the island, or accept her new life and go her separate way?
NAOMI AND THE RESCUE BOAT
Ben is certain that Naomi is not who Jack and the rest of the survivors think she is, and that certainly appears to validated when Locke kills (maybe?) Naomi and then Penny admits that the rescue boat is not hers. If we accept that that’s the case, however, who owns the boat and rescues the Losties?
Is it the return of the Dharma Initiative, which was apparently killed off the island by Ben and a rogue band of island dwellers? Are they bent on revenge and taking control of the island once again? Is it someone else interested in exploiting the mysterious gifts that the island appears to possess? Who is or was Naomi after all? Why is Locke sure enough of her betrayal that he nails her with a knife from 75 feet away?
And why is this rescue portrayed as such a dark and evil thing? Do Locke and Ben feel or know that having everyone leave the island will bring back all the afflictions that affected them before – such as Ben’s cancer, Locke’s paralysis, Rose’s cancer, Jin’s impotence, etc.?
In addition, who actually leaves the island on the rescue boat? We have to assume that Locke remains, since we see him fleeing the scene after Jack makes contact on the satellite phone – which rang and rang and rang before someone finally picked it up. Rousseau stated her refusal to leave earlier, but could she convince her new-found daughter, Alex, to stay? Will Ben be allowed to stay; if it is Dharma that is returning, will he be punished for leading an uprising against the initiative years before? What is to become of the rest of the Others, plus the children?
THE COFFIN
Perhaps no aspect of the season finale has been more hotly debated than who resides in the coffin. The identity of the deceased and the circumstances surrounding his or her death appear to be crucial issues that could determine the course of Season 4 and beyond.
The obituary is apparently from the April 5, 2007, edition of the Los Angeles Times. It has been pointed out that that date is the 13th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s suicide, which may have been why "Sentimental Apprentice" from Cobain’s band, Nirvana, was playing as Jack drove to the funeral home. Others have picked up on the fact that the funeral home is in a predominantly black neighborhood as being a significant detail, combining it with the apparent tidbit in the article that says the deceased had a teenage son to make the assumption that it is Michael in the coffin. Also, Michael apparently was approached by the producers of "Lost" to return for the finale and declined, which could make his death a convenient turn of events for a variety of reasons. Kate’s ambivalence toward the death would appear to back up this theory, but would Jack react so emotionally to the news that Michael – a traitor – had died?
Bloggers and diehards have frantically attacked the screen image of the newsprint, trying to make out words and information. The obituary appears to describe a suicide, with someone hanging from a beam in a loft in New York. Some fervently believe that it is Locke who has passed away, and Jack is despondent because he saw Locke as a way back to the island. Others feel that it is Ben in the coffin, and that Jack feels responsible as a doctor because Ben’s cancer returned after he was removed from the island. Still others have posited that it may be a new, future character named Jeremy Bentham.
The coffin is held in the Hoffs-Drawlar funeral parlor, and Jack is the only attendee who came at all. Hoffs-Drawlar is an anagram of "flashforward," but beyond that, the question of who is in the coffin – and the repercussions and ripples of that death – is the biggest mystery of the finale.
CHARLIE
A discussion of the Season 3 finale wouldn’t be complete without touching on the final demise of Chah-lie. For a few moments, it appeared as if Desmond’s vision of Charlie’s death was going to be rendered unnecessary after all, with Charlie even muttering happily, "So much for fate." However, "Lost’s" own Jason Vorhees, Mikhail, appears with a hand grenade to blow up the Looking Glass. Charlie sacrifices his own life to apparently save that of Claire and Aaron, even though it seemed as if he could have escaped along with Desmond.
Just before he dies, and after duplicating a Beach Boys tune to turn off the frequency and allow transmissions, he makes contact with Penelope Widmore, who tells him that the rescue boat reportedly residing 80 miles off the coast of the island isn’t hers. Charlie’s final act is to write "Not Penny’s Boat" on his hand and show it to Desmond through the door glass to let him know that it may be a trap.
This dying message has led to the question of whether Charlie is ultimately redeemed at the end of the show. After all, he gives up his own life to save his true love and her child, then shields Desmond from the blast and passes along the crucial information about the boat. He makes the sign of the cross at the end, but even that is done left-handed, showing that, even in death, Charlie can’t quite seem to get it right.
It did seem odd that Charlie was willing to take a beating from the underwater hotties, Greta and Bonnie, only to tell them about Juliet’s betrayal, opening up the possibility that the entire plan could be ruined before it started.
Despite some questions about what actually was learned and transpired in the Looking Glass and in the course of Charlie’s death, the end of his story arc was well-written and emotional. The question of whether he will begin to appear as a kind ghost from time to time – like Walt – remains to be seen, but it does seem that Charlie’s death will forever be linked to what happens to and between Desmond, Penelope, Claire and Aaron from here going forward.
Click here for Part II …
Lost Links
May 10, 2007: "Lost": Harry Potter and the Zany, Mysterious Adventures of Moonlight Graham
April 24, 2007: "Lost": An Island Of Paradoxes
March 29, 2007: The Resurgence of "Lost"?
February 8, 2007: "Lost" V 3.5: Let The Games Begin
November 9, 2006: Mini-Season Makes For Long, Lost Winter Months
November 2, 2006: Vaya Con Dios, Mr. Eko
October 4, 2006: "Lost" In A Sea Of Questions
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