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LOST |
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Jack - Matthew Fox Kate - Evangeline Lilly Locke - Terry O'Quinn Sayid - Naveen Andrews Sawyer - Josh Holloway Hurley - Jorge Garcia Charlie - Dominic Monaghan Sun - Yunjin Kim Jin - Daniel Dae Kim Claire - Emilie de Ravin Benjamin Linus - Michael Emerson Juliet - Elizabeth Mitchell Desmond- Henry Ian Cusick 
OTHER LOST SEASONS Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 Season 5 OTHER LOST TRAVELLERS The Fantastic Journey Logan's Run 
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L.A.X - Parts 1 & 2In the aftermath of the nulear bomb being set off the surviving characters find themselves still on the island with Sayid bleeding to death and Juliet trapped under the wreckage of the hatch in the Swan station. At the same time, they are on the plane from Sydney as it touches down in Los Angeles with Kate as a wanted criminal, Hurley a lottery winner and Sayid looking forward to his new life. Locke is still wheelchair bound on the plane whilst on the island he is dead and somethinge else at the same time. Yes, LOST is back. This is LOST's last season, but it long passed the point where any new viewers could possibly make any sense of it at all. Regular fans also can't make any sense of it either, but they at least know what has gone before and therefore what might be of significance. The hope of an answer to all the questions raised by the show is as distant a memory as that first episode that first blew our minds so long ago. Take these opening episodes for example. We are now faced with two parallel stories, one in which the plane never crashed and another in which everyone is still on the island. This means a return for the likes of Dominic Monaghan and Ian Somerhalder, but also raises continuity questions such as passengers who ought to be in the tail section, but aren't and people on the plane who never were and others who are missing altogether. Planned differences, continuity errors or unavailable cast members? It's impossible to tell. On the island, the being who isn't Locke is on the rampage, the Others are now protecting the survivors of the plane instead of trying to kill them and some of the group are looking to kill others in the group. It's complex, virtually meaningless and yet completely compelling. It's been a long and sometimes bumpy road to get to this point, but those of us addicts that have stayed the course to this final stage can't possibly break the habit. TopWhat Kate DoesHaving narrowly escaped the police at the airport by commandeering a taxi, Kate finds herself in the company of a woman called Claire who is heavily pregnant and has come to the States to have her baby adopted. When that falls through, Kate helps Claire to the hospital, even though this risks her own freedom. On the island, Kate escapes from the Temple and goes in search of Sawyer who has already left. Jack has to deal with the newly resurrected Sayid whom the Others have tortured and declared to be 'infected'. There was a time when the developments in this episode would have been considered fascinating, raising many questions, but since we are now in the final season and supposedly hurtling towards answers and explanations this latest LOST detour seems somewhat…irrelevant. And that irrelevance leads to annoyance with the whole thing. Yes, it is nice to see Claire back and yes there is some slight interest in what might have happened had the plane landed instead of crashing on the island, but the truth is that it's what's happening on the island that matters to us by this point and the further truth is that nothing is happening. Well, nothing that matters anyway. Despite this episode being all about Kate, it is Josh Holloway who gets the meaty acting scenes and shows that he is up to the challenge of being more than pretty six-pack-baring eye-candy. His confessional with Kate is the best work that he has done on the show so far. By contrast, the Jack and Sayid story is just smoke and mirrors and smoke and mirrors that smells suspiciously like it's meant to just fill in time until we get around to the real point of the season. TopThe SubstituteThe creature that was Locke goes to Sawyer and offers to tell him why he is on the island. On the mainland where the plane never crashed, Locke is fired from his job, but finds other reasons why life isn't so bad. Did we just learn something about the underlying plot of LOST? It certainly seems that way, although who can tell with this show? If what the creature who wears Locke's face can be believed then Jacob was a self-appointed protector of the island and the plane crash survivors were brought there by Jacob as potential successors. This is big news, but again, can it be trusted? It doesn't really matter because there are questions to replace those that might have been answered (who is the kid that some can see and others can't? What are the rules? Who's really in charge here?) and the show itself is back to its mesmerising, frustrating best, giving with one hand and taking away with the other and using some great acting from Terry O'Quinn and Josh Holloway to make it all so damned convincing. Shame about the flashbacks (or alternate universe views or whatever they are) which continue to be really dull. TopThe LighthouseWhilst on the mainland Jack tries to connect with his disaffected son, on the island he is persuaded by Hurley to go to a lighthouse where he discovers how Jacob was able to keep tabs on the candidates. Jin, meanwhile, is in the hands of Claire, but a Claire who has survived on the island alone for three years and who is determined to kill the person who took her baby. Forget the flashbacks (we're going to keep calling them flashbacks because flashsideways sounds stupid) because they are tedious in the extreme. Jack has a kid that he doesn't understand and who doesn't understand him? Wow, it's not like we haven't seen that in millions of soap operas before and they don't usually have to resort to heavy-handed 'oh he's a piano playing genius' symbolism to do it better. It's what's happening on the island that we care about and there are two strands here that are equally beguiling. There's Hurley's mission to bring Jack to the Lighthouse. Ultimately, this doesn't actually lead to something, but Jacob is setting Jack up for some kind of understanding for whatever the task at hand is. And then there's the return of Claire, sweet little Claire who has morphed into something very dangerous and very, very scary. Welcome back Emilie de Ravin, who does a fine job of making her character intense and genuinely unnerving, not to mention handy with an axe. Perhaps she could use it on whoever wrote the flashbacks. TopSundownSayid demands answers about his torture, but finds himself instead taking a message to the man who would be Locke. Locke sends him back with a message that everyone in the temple has until sundown to go over to the other side or he will kill them all. Sayid has always been one of the more conflicted characters in LOST thanks to his background and his actions in Iraq. None of that can preapare us for the changes that are wrought in him and that he brings about himself in this dramatic episode. It's nice to see Naveen Andrews having something dramatic to do and he shoulders the burden with ease whether it's the action, the drama or the less-turgid-than-usual flashback sequences. And what action there is to be had. Sayid takes on the head of the temple in a bruising fight right at the start, but that is nothing to the shock of their second meeting or the devastation as the smoke monster descends on the temple. What any of this actually means is still unclear and the change in Sayid is a little abrupt and hard to take once the shock has worn off, but this is the liveliest episode of this last season to date. TopDr LinusOn the island, Ben Linus is uncovered as being Jacob's killer and is forced to start digging his own grave. On the mainland, Ben Linus is a teacher who has a chance at taking over his school and making it better, but destroying a pupil's future chances in the process. Ben Linus has been an evil, nasty, manipulative … well suffice to say that he has not been a nice man, which has made him the man we love to hate. How remarkable it is, then, that in the space of one short episode the character can find a small measure of redemption. It's a measure of the writing that this is managed without destroying all of what has gone before it. Ben earns his redemption in part through the goodness of others, not his own. It's also a credit to Michael Emerson that he has managed to find something within the character that has prevented him from becoming cartoon villain or outright monster, though monster he surely is, thus allowing us to accept the redemption. This is the best storyline that this final season has come up with yet. The sidebar of Jack and Hurley meeting Richard and trying to find trust through sweaty dynamite, hardly gets a look in as a result. TopReconThe man who would be Locke moves his new group of followers through the jungle and sends Sawyer off to do a reconnaisance to the neighbouring island. There he finds the plane that brought Jack and others back, but all the other passengers are dead. A submarine arrives with a team whose leader offers Sawyer a deal to kill the man pretending to be Locke and Sawyer chooses his side, though always with his options open. The second story of Sawyer on the mainland is a waste of time and has little relevance to the main story, but then that's a LOST trademark. The main story, though, is also a bit of a letdown after the last remarkable episode. There is a lot of sneaking through jungles and double crosses, but it still feels a lot more like the setting up of stories that will become much more interesting later. And the character list on the island is still growing, even if templeloads of people are killed off at a time. TopAb AeternoRichard, a figure on the island for some time, especially amongst the others, turns out to be the man who knows what has to be done next. Except, he's having a crisis of faith about Jacob's influence and flashes back to his history and how he first came to the island, first met Jacob and became immortal. Richard has been a background figure for some time now and, quite frankly, his backstory is something that has not been high on the list of things that fans want to know. How his wife died, how he was sold into slavery and how he was brought to the island on the ship The Black Rock has the same interest and relevance as most of the flashbacks that the show has come up with, getting in the way of the current storyline on the island. Except, that is, that Jacob gives him an explanation as to what the island actually is. One one side is Hell, darkness, evil and on the other side is our world. The island lies between and keeps the two apart. Should the man who is now Locke ever escape then the evil will spread. Jacob prevents that from happening. Except, of course, that Jacob is now dead. This is vital information and finally the first real big answer about what the show has been about all these years. This being LOST, of course, it might not be true, but if it is then we are closer to the answers than ever before and perhaps the producers' promise that all will be revealed is finally starting to come true. TopThe PackageBen Linus's sparring partner Charles Whitmore is now back on the island and standing between the man who is now Locke and the plane that is his escape from the island, something that we are now told will make all of humanity simply cease to exist. Locke needs all of the remaining 'candidates' to get off the island and that means either Jin or Sun, but with no way of knowing which, he has to get both. In another classic LOST reversal Charles Whitmore would now appear to be on the side of the angels, trying to keep the evil bottled up on the island and from spilling into our world. There is a lot of manoeuvering around from both sides of the impasse between Locke and Whitmore, but it's just pieces being moved around the chess board with no great progress being made. At this point, however, the regular audience couldn't possibly look away if they wanted to. That said, they could easily look away from the parallel story of Sun and Jin trying to deliver money to a man in America. It's irrelevant to the main plot on the island, distracting and comes up with a twist at the end that ought to have us frothing at the mouth, but just leaves us uncaring. LOST better have a good reason for wasting our time with these side stories because they are not helping the show at all. TopHappily Ever AfterDesmond Hume is the only man to have ever survived a 'catastrophic electromagnetic event' and so Charles Whitmore has brought him back to the island to do it again. In doing so, he gifts Desmond a look into the alternate universe that might have been caused by the detonation of a nuclear weapon. More than even other episodes, this one is taken up almost entirely by a sideways flash to the alternate universe. The fact that Desmond starts to see the truth about him having another life, as do some of the others around him, makes it feel much more relevant and important than others we have been put through. Desmond would appear to be pivotal to the forthcoming events and that minimises the annoyance at not having any real movement in the main plot. Events on the island are coming to a head, there is a real feeling that the end is nigh and this episode feeds into that, raising the excitment level. TopEveryone Loves HugoWhilst the thing who looks like John Locke is trying to decide what to do with the newly arrived Desmond, Hurley starts to make decisions about what he, Jack and the others ought to do based on advice from the shade of dead Michael. Now that we know the island is the plug between Hell and Earth, the arrival of Michael and the information that he gives to Hurley about him and other souls being trapped there as whispers in the jungle makes the place sound even more like Purgatory than before. Jorge Garcia's character of Hurley has been one of the few that has remained likeable throughout the show and he gets a well-deserved chance to take centre stage again. The alternate universe story shows him finding his beloved Libby once more and though it doesn't move the main story forward at all it is less annoying than others we have had, mainly because Hurley and Libby are so well-liked. The sweaty dynamite aboard the Black Rock continues to cause shocks and there is an ending which seems to fly in the face of everything that happened in last week's Happily Ever After. What is going on with Desmond and Locke? For every answer there still appears to be a question. TopThe Last RecruitOn the island, the battle lines are being drawn. Sawyer takes his group away from Locke, but the welcome from Charles Whitmore is less than warm. When Jack announces that he isn't planning on leaving just yet, Sawyer invites him to leave the group and he falls back into the hands of Locke just as the bombs start landing. The chess pieces have been shoved around the board enough and the shooting begins as we move towards the endgame. At least that's what you might think from this episode so much happens. Alliances are broken left right and centre until nobody knows who is loyal to anyone anymore. And that's before we get to the question of whether Sayid killed Desmond as he was ordered to. Off the island as well, in the alternate storyline, all of the characters are gravitating towards each other. Jack learns that Claire is his sister and has to operate on Locke in the same hospital where Jin is waiting by Sun's bedside. The precinct where Sawyer is a cop now has both Sayid and Kate as prisoners. There is a feeling here that the threads are coming together and that a final picture might be close to emerging. After too many episodes where the main island plotline has just been left hanging, we finally get an episode where stuff happens. We're not certain that all the twists take us any further along, but it feels like it does. Besides which, this is the episode where Sun and Jin finally find each other and there won't be anyone who's been following the show that isn't moved by that scene. TopThe CandidateLocke engineers a rescue for all the survivors that Whitmore has taken prisoner, but the plane is rigged to explode, so they head for the submarine instead. Sawyer and Jack plan for Locke to be left behind on the island, but it turns out that is what the creature that is Locke was hoping for. Forget the eminently forgettable side flash that deals with the aftermath of Locke's operation on the mainland, this is all about what happens on the island and it's the most explosive episode in this final season, full of twists and turns and sudden death and major characters not making it to the end. It's difficult to say anything more than that without giving away big plot spoilers, but there are major shocks and there will be tears. It's dramatic, it's exciting and it takes no prisoners. If we're getting this now then what are the final episodes going to be like? TopAcross The SeaA heavily pregnant woman staggers from the sea to be helped by another woman. She gives birth to two brothers and is promptly murdered, by her saviour who raises the two sons as her own. Jacob is a faithful son, but his brother wants only to leave the island. Tragedy ensues. The entire backstory to Jacob and his brother, who now wears Locke's face, is given up in one solid episode of exposition. How Jacob became the keeper of the island, how the smoke monster came into being, who the skeletons were that the survivors of the plane crash found in the cave all those years ago. So much information and a few answers as well, all wrapped up in a thoroughly absorbing and entertaining episode. The wonderful Allison Janney leads the episode as Jacob and his still-nameless brother's surrogate mother, but this is an episode for the fans, for the faithful audience. With only three episodes to go, there is no hope of any of this making even the slightest sense to the casual viewer. For those who have watched since the start, though, the rewards are all there and this is one flashback that no-one will regret seeing. TopWhy They Had To DieMourning the loss of their friends, the remaining candidates head off to find Desmond. Since Locke wanted him dead, Jack believes he must be important. Jacob is able to make one last appearance to all of them. A candidate is chosen and a plan of action is made. This is the penultimate episode (the final two parts being shown as a single episode at the same time as it is transmitted in the US) and so there is a certain amount of setting up for the big finale, but that doesn't matter. There are still shocks, twists and great ensemble acting to enjoy. It feels like a seamless moving on of the story and Jacob reveals the final pieces of his part of the puzzle. Now we know why these people were brought to the island, now we know who is to be Jacob's successor and now we know what is expected of them. In the alternate universe, the stories continue to converge and it is Desmond who is key to everything. Even this part of the show (and we have always found the flashbacks/forwards/sideways the weakest element) is now as compelling as the rest, though it needs as much explaining as well. TopThe End Parts 1 & 2Jack is now the protector of the island and the target of the creature that looks like John Locke. Their chosen battleground is the mysterious power source that sits at the Heart of the Island and their chosen weapon is Desmond Hume. As Desmond is lowered into the Heart, he sets into motion a chain of events that will either kill the monster that now looks like John Locke or will destroy the entire island. Or both. After six seasons we have finally reached the end. The answers have been given, almost all anyway, and all that is left is to see who will live, who will die, who will escape and who will decide to stay. LOST has been a sometimes bumpy journey, but whilst it has often been infuriating, annoying and frustrating it has always been compelling, quality entertainment. For all of those who took the journey from the start to the last it needed a finale that would cap what has been the most remarkable television series of the last decade. Fortunately, we got one. For once the events on the island are the more straightforward. True, there is no explanation as to exactly what the power in the Heart of the Island is and how switching it off brings about the effects that it does, but if that's the Macguffin it allows the rest of the story to happen and the accent here is on action adventure as hero and villain face off on a cliff that is crumbling into the sea and everyone else races to repair a plane that might get them back home before it too is lost into the ground. It's exciting, gripping stuff and whilst the surprises are fewer it all comes to a satisfying conclusion. Which brings us to the alternate universe storylines. They are crashing headlong into each other with all of the characters realising who they are and how they met and coming out of the experience with a certain calm happiness. The lines are set for everyone to come together in one place at one time and there LOST will finally give up its last secret. The reunions are certainly sweet, but the purpose of them all will bring tears to the eyes of those that have shared the journey. A happy ending was too much to ask? Well perhaps a bittersweet one is the most fitting kind that we could hope for. More importantly, it is an ending that cheats neither audience nor characters. LOST has been one of the most important and influential science fiction shows ever to be transmitted and this finale cements that reputation and gives the show the crowning moment it deserves. It seems forever since that Oceanic plane crashed six years ago, but there will be no regular viewer who will be switching off feeling that it wasn't time well spent. LOST is over and we may not see its like again. Top |
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