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The level of violent killings is beginning to turn me off. I mean if I want a war film I will watch such a show. Lost is supposed to be about mystery, intrigue and unexpected happenings and character development and wists etc. Not a program to kill off 1/2 the island each ep.

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I agree with many of your points, Bob, especially that this was a fantastic season finale. I also agree that by showing the ultimate outcome, that the producers may have taken the steam out of this show.

But then again, the show would have been a good 4 season show; instead we are going to get the remaining 3 seasons dribbled over the next 3 years.

I really take objection to that strategy. While I applaud ABC by guaranteeing a successful completion, it means that we won't know exactly what happens until the next decade--2010. That is a little weird.

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Maybe Locke had the right idea from the get go not wishing to leave the island.

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The next 3 seasons are going to be 16 episodes each, so numbers-wise they're equivalent to 2 of the previous seasons which had about 24 episodes each. Considering that, I don't think they'll have to stretch it out too much.

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I agree that this might have worked better as pen-ultimate season finale, but right now I have two theories. 1) Excrement will really hit the fan and will take the three full seasons to tell or 2) they end with Jack just going crazy in a Stockholm like delusion (which I'm calling the St. Elsewhere hail mary in case the writers write themselves into a corner). I know that Lost has in the past gotten a bad rap (true or not) the the producers just pull storylines out of a hat and hope that it fits, but now that they have a timetable, I have faith that Lindelof, Cuse, et al. will be able to craft a great story.

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Well, even though it's only 16 eps a season, they're still "seasons" that will end with a cliffhanger, and my point was that it seems to have those now seems a bit odd after this finale. I'd still like to see just one more season to wrap up the story and then end it (though I know that's not going to happen, obviously).

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I think the dead man is probably Michael. Wasn't he living in NY before he had to go to Australia to pick up Walt?

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Here's my take on the whole "Jack wants back on the island" issue:

You gotta figure that after going through so much on the island, that he's become a bit institutionalized by the island. On the island, he doesn't have to deal with his demons as much. Or, at least, they're removed geographically. He doesn't have the temptation of booze and painkillers, and he's got his "place" as a leader and has "worth" with the fellow crash survivors.

It's not so dissimilar to what Brooks Hatlen went through when he got out of Shawshank prison. He tried to fit in, but then realized that he just wasn't the same person on the outside that he was on the inside.

There are similar arguments about captives becoming dependent on their captors.

Add into all of this the loss of Kate, his family is dead, his ex-wife is now pregnant, he doesn't want the spotlight and yet is thrust into it, a family history of alcoholism, and you've got a recipe for the bearded, depressed, chemically dependent Jack that we saw as the flash-forward.

What's interesting is how the seasons have felt so different.:

Season 1 : Crash victims trying to survive, with little "others" contact.

Season 2: Dharma, tail-section survivors, hatches, and others

Season 3: Primarily about the others and survivors

It'll be quite interesting how they set up season 4. I for one haven't been this excited about the next episodes of Lost since Eko died.

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Ben: as I mentioned above, the newspaper clippings or other pieces of paper they have on TV shows aren't meant to be seen by the public, they're just props. The only reason why I think it *could* be a clue is that times have changed and also the Lost people are very hip to how into the show the fans are, the web interest the show creates, DVRs, etc. But it could be a dead end, just a clipping filled with gibberish that could lead fans down a black hole of speculation, but at least it has us speculating, heh.

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So in other words this was the greatest season finale of all time from any show, and that makes you sad because television will never be better, and it would hurt you too much if it were? Bob, I'm sorry to hear you need to get a new career. Sounds like it's all downhill from here.

Come on. This was an excellent episode; enjoy it for more than 12 hours. The writers were not touched by the hand of god. They can write great episodes again.

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you are worried that they won't be able to top this? YOU? A blogger on a website is worried that seasoned veteran writers and producers who make more per HOUR than you do in a week are worried? Well, hats off to you, then. You have just taken self importance to a brand new level.

And Ian, you don't like the violence? It's too much for you? Um, I suggest you go back and read Watership Down (which much of this show references). That's a young adult novel and it's pretty hairy. As is Lord of the Flies. Maybe you better stick with the Harry Potter series.

You all keep talking about it like its THREE MORE SEASONS. It isn't. It a protracted 2.
Howzabout you look at it like this:
So, there's gonna bee around 100+ episodes total, right? kay, the first 30 or so, that's the first act. So Act One (Get your heroes up a tree) ends somewhere middle of the second season.
Act Two (Throw Rocks at you heroes) will really end somewhere at the end or even the middle of season five.
Act Three (Get the heroes down from the tree) or the Climax will take place from the middle of season 5 to the end of Season Six. Or what would have just been the last season.
In the past the producers had spoken about wanting to go about 5 seasons. ABC wants another year to use the show to trumpet new programming. The comprise is the shortened season.

You gotta have faith. With the exception of a few filler epsiodes (what show hasn't had those?) they have done a remarkable job of maintaining interest and, in many ways, redifining the form.

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I keep hearing grumbling about the upcoming short seasons. I think it's a great idea. I think it will tighten up the story telling, get rid of some of the filler, and keep momentum going without any repeats or hiatus. I mean honestly, the whole story before the hiatus this season could have been told in 2 episodes anyway and then we endured the hiatus. It's better just to start late and keep the train moving. That's what makes F/X so great. Tell the story then move on...

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Agog: I have no idea what the money that the Lost producers make has to do with a writer having an opinion. By your logic, if a BLOGGER on a web site doesn't deserve an opinion, then what possible reason could a READER like you have to leave a comment?

As I said, I loved the season finale. I just wonder where they go from here.

As for your view of the seasons, see my other comment above.

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Just because they eventually get off the island doesn't mean that's what is going to happen in the very next season. Many things can go wrong between Jack's phone call and an actual rescue.

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Gwin, exactly. If anything this episode has given me MORE confidence, for the first time in a long time, that the writer's have a plan.

Oh, and I just read that Newsweek review - that has to be a parody, right? He's upset because there are some unanswered questions? Has he seen this show before? The amount of answers and forward motion we got this episode far outweighs why we don't know how Patchy keeps on keepin' on. Oh, and "Jack Sawyer's" story "may or may not have been in the past," where he "might have been married to Kate." Looks like someone was nodding off during the show.

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Gwin, exactly. If anything this episode has given me MORE confidence, for the first time in a long time, that the writer's have a plan.

Oh, and I just read that Newsweek review - that has to be a parody, right? He's upset because there are some unanswered questions? Has he seen this show before? The amount of answers and forward motion we got this episode far outweighs why we don't know how Patchy keeps on keepin' on. Oh, and "Jack Sawyer's" story "may or may not have been in the past," where he "might have been married to Kate." Looks like someone was nodding off during the show.

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Although I usually love to disagree with you Bob I am with you here.

The only way that this thing won't have an impact IF this is just another flash Desmond (or any other person) has.

And you know why this could be great?

Because that frickin coward Desmond chose to fulfill his "destiny" by doing exactly what he did before - he saw what will happen in "Flashes", yet he still did what he knew was his path to virtual hell, leaving his beloved Penny, and going on that boat trip.

Now, IF this whole flash forward, that all people convey as something "new", which I don't because Desmond had flashes for a whole season now, we just DID NOT SEE THEM FIRST HAND, is just that - A FLASH - then it can be altered, like Desmond did this whole season until Charlie chose to sacrifice himself - which is what happened on "Donny Darko" and what I EXPECTED from Desmond, what made it so impossible to like "Flashes" because it lacked the altruism. So this episode (or both of them) kind of gave me what I was asking for.

And honestly - after they now showed us, that they did not run away from a storyline and went through with it what does prevent them from doing the exact opposite when it comes to the story jack and kate are now predicted? Couldn't it be that this flash now, this very second Jack gets of the phone with the guy on the ship 80 miles off the coast, happens to either jack, sawyer, kate or maybe it happened during the whole two episodes to Locke? He might know what happens to them because HE saw the flash and KNOWS that things are going wrong now. He now has 48 episodes to show them, through predictions, that he is right, they were wrong, and horrible things will happen to them if they do not listen to him, band together with The Others and form an alliance against the almighty new enemy which is about to come to the island?

Honestly - that's what I would write. Because we need a new baddy. Ben told us what will happen. He and the others were the bad people before and ben predicted that Jack is now doing to the 815ers what Ben did to Dharma.

And I guess that the people who will come will be comprised of survinging Dharma and others - maybe Suns father and his conglomerate of companies? Who knows. I just say - Penny to the rescue.

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When Jack told Kate that he wanted to go back, I think he meant that he wanted to go back to the island for good. Think about it, before Flight 815 crashed, every one of these survivors' lives were at the lowest of lows and had nothing to go back to. Thats why Ben was trying to stop Jack and the others; not because hes a , "bad guy", but because he knew that their lives would become a living shithole.

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I agree with Bob. The finale was fantastic, leaving me aching for next season, which is almost a year away and that's going to hurt.

But as far as getting rescued, the boat they contacted wasn't Penny's boat. So who are these people? I think that this is opening a whole new can of worms and this new dark path, in Jack's mind anyway, would have been brought on by him because he brought them there by not listening to Ben or Locke. Jack will blame himself for whatever bad things come of this new turn of events, and that will lead him on the path to being dependent on drugs and suicidal.

After vesting so much time into the series, I found myself cheering and loving every minute of when I saw the others being blown up, or when Jack beat the holy hell out of Ben. I was like a kid in a candy store. You can't watch somebody (Ben) cause so much pain and death and suffering and not enjoy it when he gets what's coming to him. It's like the school bully getting his payback. As Juliet said in the episode, "Karma".

A year in waiting...

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I feel like an automaton right now but Lindeloff said today in an interview with E!Online that getting off the island has been part of the plan since the pilot. I think I would have the same fears as you if there wasn't a designated end date for the show. But with only 48 episodes to go I have enough faith in the creative team to pull this off. Now in a year I may be eating crow but after that finale I can't help but have faith.

http://www.mediaobsessed.com

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