TVSquad

(S03E22) In honor of the Lost season finale, tonight we're doing something special. There's going to be a live chat during the show so you can post your comments in real-time! The full review is now posted will be posted in this space later this evening.

What will happen to Locke and Charlie? Will Jack's dynamite plan work, or will Ben and the Others outsmart the 815ers? Will Sawyer take his shirt off?

Click here to join the chat.

The Looking Glass

I'm getting the saddest part out of the way first. The militant lady Others captured Charlie and began to torture him. It turned out that the torture wasn't needed, since Charlie was more than happy to give up all the details. As many of you guessed, Greta and Bonnie were Others, and were manning the Looking Glass under Ben's orders. After watching Ben get away with lie after lie, it was gratifying to see him get caught in one. Mikhail and the rest of the Others learned that Ben had lied about the Looking Glass being flooded. They didn't even know that Greta and Bonnie were down there--assignment in Canada, indeed. Do the Others always use Canada in their lies?

When Mikhail finally made it down to the Looking Glass, he got another unpleasant surprise. Ben was also hiding the truth about the Looking Glass' ability to jam distress signals. For a minute I thought that Mikhail's loyalty to Ben was wavering, but no such luck. Despite Ben's lies, Mikhail was still willing to clean up "the mess" Ben had made. He quickly killed Greta and wounded Bonnie, who lived long enough to give Charlie the code. Desmond showed up just in time to kill Mikhail (or so he thought).

Charlie faced the first part his destiny and shut off the jamming mechanism. Almost immediately after that, a transmission came in from Penny Widmore. Penny learned that Desmond was alive, and had some interesting news for Charlie. Naomi wasn't sent to the island by Penny or her team; Penny had no idea who Naomi was. Just as Charlie was about to reveal the truth to Desmond, Mikhail turned up alive and well outside of the Looking Glass. He may have survived a harpooning and the sonic fence, but there's no way that he survived the grenade blast.

Charlie died saving Desmond and the other survivors. He sealed the communications chamber in the Looking Glass so Desmond wouldn't be killed, and tried to relay the message about Naomi's identity. Given Jack's actions, it looks like that information won't help anyone. Kudos to Dominic Monaghan for making Charlie's last scene a touching one. I was never a big Charlie fan, but his character was given an appropriate send-off (unlike previous characters).

The Showdown

For my money, this was the most satisfying part of the finale. For starters, Locke is alive! Still laying on the pile of corpses, John initially thought he couldn't move his legs. He was planning on shooting himself when an unexpected visitor appeared--Walt!! In a much deeper voice, Walt told John that he had work to do, and quickly disappeared (at the very least, he wasn't seen again in this episode).

Jack's plan was going forward as expected. The 815ers headed for the radio tower, leaving Jin, Bernard, and Sayid behind. Naturally, something had to go wrong. Of the three shooters, I would have expected Bernard to screw up, but Jin failed to hit his target. Seven random Others were killed, but not the entire group. Tom, Ryan, and another man were left to hold Sayid and the crew hostage.

Sawyer and Juliet went back to the beach to save the day, but it was Hurley who kicked some serious Other-butt. Hugo commandeered the VW bus and rolled it right into Ryan in a surprise attack. Sayid took advantage of the chaos and broke the third Other's neck with his feet. Sayid's always been awesome, but killing a man with his feet put him at an entirely new level in my estimation. Sawyer finally got his revenge on Zeke by shooting him after he surrendered. So long, Tom.

Once Ben got wind of Juliet's betrayal, he and Alex headed off for the radio tower. Did anyone else think Ben was going to hurt Alex? I was worried about her for a while, but Ben made it clear that he was only going to leave her with her "new family," which included her bio-mother. I was shocked when Jack decided to hear Ben out after they captured him. Why do people still let Ben speak?

Ben tried to persuade Jack to call off his plan to communicate with Naomi's ship. For once, it sounded like he was telling the truth (or a half-truth). He was sure that Naomi wasn't who she claimed to be, and feared what would happen if contact was made. He wasn't the only one. Just as Naomi was set to contact her ship on the satellite phone, Locke appeared out of nowhere and threw a knife into her back. The standoff of all standoffs ensued; Locke pointed a gun at Jack while Jack tried to communicate with Naomi's ship. Locke's lack of dedication surprised me a little. He let Boone die so he could explore the hatch, but he let Jack live to contact the outside world. For most of Season Three, Locke has been all about cutting off communication. For better or for worse, contact was made, and someone (not Penny) will be coming to the island. Also: Alex and Danielle were reunited, Jack professed his love for Kate, and I didn't care.

The Flash Forward

That's right--this week's flashback was actually the show's first flash forward. We got a glimpse of post-island Jack, complete with a beard, a drug addiction, and some new emotional issues. A visibly distraught Jack was close to jumping off a bridge, but his suicide attempt caused a serious car accident. Jack saved the woman and child in the car, and was declared a hero by the media.

Jack was also more than willing to fly Oceanic again. It's interesting that the 815 survivors were given Golden Passes as compensation. Convinced that he was never meant to leave the island, Jack desperately wished to get in another plane crash. Going on a long flight every week sounds like my idea of Hell, but whatever floats your boat.

Someone known to both Jack and Kate dies in the future, but we didn't see who it was. I wonder if we'll learn the identity of the deceased in Season Four, or if the writers will make us wait it out until the show's conclusion? Whoever it was, he or she was completely friendless. No one but Jack showed up to pay respects at the funeral parlor. Jack thought that Kate would be at the funeral, but when he finally spoke to her she didn't seem too interested. Kate was also less than interested in Jack, and was eager to get back to an unnamed man.

The flash forward was clearly the Snake in The Mailbox, the writers' nickname for the finale twist. Since the show has a limited number of seasons left, the twist really worked for me. Without a fixed end date, it would have seemed like a stunt. The final three seasons of Lost should be incredible.

Final comments/questions:

• The infamous spoilers were correct. Shame on whoever let those secrets get out.
• Why was Kate a free woman in the flash forward? Did she get some kind of pardon after they were rescued?
• Forget Charlie and Hurley; Rose was my hero this week. All of her lines were spot-on: the S.O.S. sign joke, the comment about Jack's bogus motivational speeches, etc. Make this woman a series regular!
• Who was Naomi working for? Have the mainland DHARMA folks been trying to reclaim the island since The Purge? Is that why Ben jammed all communications?
• Jack's colleague at the hospital was named Dr. Hamill. The Star Wars references continue.
• Was the Juliet-Jack kiss a major tease or what?
• I thought that Jack's flash-forward line about his father was unnecessary. It seems like it only existed to throw us off until the big reveal at the end.
• An image of the newspaper that Jack was reading can be found here.
• Ben instructed Alpert to take the remaining Others to The Temple. I hope we get to see The Temple in Season Four.
• Who is in the mysterious coffin? The body was kept at the Hoffs-Drawlor funeral parlor. Any significance--an anagram, perhaps?

I'm giving this episode a 7 out of 7. The writers followed through on Desmond's premonitions and successfully delivered the highly anticipated game-changer. Until 2008!