"Lost" in Translation: The Season Finale
Posted by Peter Ames Carlin May 30, 2008 06:29AM
Categories: Lost, Peter, Television Subject Stories, Television Top
Stories
The big shocker: Locke in the coffin.

More predicable: Keamy gets iced. Only not. Only then gets iced
again,
this time in no uncertain terms.


The boat explodes. Major characters die. Or possibly don't (did you
see a body? You've got to see the body or else...who
knows...particulalry when there's black smoke on the horizon. And
there was.) Sawyer jumps from the helicopter and makes shore just in
time to go...somewhere else.. Penny and Desmond, reunited and it
feels
so good. And then the rescue. And ensuing, uh, complications.


"Why don't you watch this very informative video. It'll answer some
of
your questions. And I'll take care of some business."


Lord, but I love Michael Emerson as Ben.


The 2-hour finale was mostly about plot: pushing the mythology
forward, connecting dots between the island and the post-island life
for the Oceanic Six. Lots of action and speed, some intriguing
juxtapositions. And not a lot of larger philosophical ideas -- it's
hard to think conceptually when you're in a shootout. But we've still
got a lot to think about for the next seven months.


The big take-away for me was how the Island principals (the Six plus
Ben and as we just figured out, Locke) have become a kind of family.
And that Jack's weeping over Locke's coffin reprised his relationship
with the late Christian...who, guess what, also looms large in the
island realm. And that this now-overarching notion that nothing can
be
resolved into they all reunite and get back to the island -- the seat
of their bond...the core of their energy...the place where it all
happened -- evokes the psychotherapeutic process. You've got to
confront your problems, you've got to go after your conflicts head-
on,
and only then can you put them to rest and stop reprising your
mistakes over and over again.


But then again, did you notice how the final move in Hurley's chess
game against an imaginary (?) but certainly invisible Mr. Eko - when
Sayid came to scoop him out of the loony bin -- was his checkmating
his opponent. WITH A BLACK PLAYER. In other words, and this is super-
significant in a show that has used black/white, good/evil
dichotomies
over and over and over again in the course of its run, the dark side
triumphed over the light. And this is the last thing Hurley does
before setting out to return to the island.


So are the Losties up to good or evil? It's always so sweet to hear
Locke talk about magic and wonder ("It's not an island. It's a place
where miracles happen!" he told Jack) but then came that moment,
after
Ben descended to the frozen bowels of....wherever it was...and turned
the frozen donkey wheel to move the island vanish personally intto
the
not-so-distant future, when Locke hiked off to find the Others, who
are now his gang. "Welcome home," Richard called. And though you
could
see doubt flicker across Locke's face, the look of urgent belief
beamed from the other Others...and the smile it evokes from
Locke...is
just creepy. He becomes something in that moment. Something we're
going to learn all about next season, I suspect. And we already know
it doesn't go well. "A lot of bad stuff" as Hurley (I think) put it.


Unanswered questions: What happened to Faraday, bobbing somewhere
between the no-longer-extatnt boat and the no-longer-extant island?


Was Charlotte born on the island? So it seems. But to whom and how,
and what happened to HER mom?


Wither Michael and Jin? And why did Christian appear and tell Michael
he could "leave now" just before the big boom? Was that merely a
puckish way for a vision to say he was about to get blowed up real
good? Or a welcome to some spiritual plain beyond the reach of C4
explosives?


Sun and Widmo For all their "common interests," is that true
corporate synergy, or merely the AOL-Time-Warner of the future?


Here's a riddle: What is Hoffs-Drawlar, or perhaps Hoffs-Drawlar
Funeral Parlor, an anagram for? That's where Locke's body was being
displayed. And the camera lingered on the (digitally inserted) sign
long enough for it to mean SOMETHING.


And now it's your turn. What did you see? What do you think we'll see
next? We've got seven months to think about it. And the countdown
starts now.