Lost capped off an amazing season last night with a two hour episode. Lost season finales have earned a reputation for game-changing events and providing answers to the show’s infinite questions (even if those answers always beget more questions). Although last night’s episode was certainly exciting and overall incredibly rewarding; at the same time, something felt anticlimactic. Here’s some thoughts.
Yes, thar be spoilers. Proceed at your own spoilerage.
First the good. Keamy and Sayid’s brawl was visceral and brutal– really, who else could have gone up against that psychopath and lasted so long? Desmond and Penny’s reunion was not only genuinely heartwarming, but also a true surprise (really thought the show would hold that one back for a little longer). Ben continued to be the most fascinating character on television, and as someone on the TWOP boards said, he should get an emmy for his single word response to having killed all the people on the freighter . . . "so?" Poor Sawyer got a little short changed this season, but his sacrificial leap from the helicopter was another great reminder of how far this character has come.
So why the anticlimactic feeling? One of Lost’s greatest strengths is its willingness to explore narrative in complexly fascinating ways. It’s complete understatement to simply say the first three seasons utilized flashbacks. Such a statement doesn’t account for the way these flashbacks (when at their best) would weave with the current narrative and simultaneously weave connections between the Oceanic passengers pre-crash. Sometimes flashbacks would not be– tricking the audience with brilliant misdirection (the opening of season two with Desmond in the hatch being a prime example of this). The episode showing the first few island days from the Tailies’ perspective was entirely flashback.. Even the much fan-hated characters of Paulo and Nikki provided an opportunity to flash back to island events from the perspectives of characters never seen on screen before. By the end of season three when the show first leapt into the future, it was clear that Lost was going to take television narrative practices to new levels of depth.
As enjoyable as the flash forwards have been to the master narrative, last night’s finale was the first sign of a small crack in the plan. So we knew the island was going to be moved (flash forwards proved that neither Ben or Widmore currently know where it is). So obviously the Oceanic Six (all revealed in FF by mid-season) had to be off the island. With all of them on the helicopter this seemed secure, except the presence of Sawyer who didn’t jibe with what we know in the future. Sawyer’s jump? Hardly surprising. Now, the first rule of good stagewriting is– if you show a gun on the wall in act one, that gun better go off in the final act. So obviously the freighter was going to blow up. Jin is dead in the future, so obviously he was going down with the ship. Michael too– for either redemption or punishment purposes: you decide. One could argue the only unknown was Desmond’s fate. But considering how important a Penny/Desmond reunion is to the show, this simply wasn’t going to happen.
The show’s timelines had to close in on themselves and I’m excited to see where the show will go next season. But due to this season’s flash forwarding device, much of this finale seemed to lack the crucial element of mind blowing surprise that has become so crucial to the Lost formula. I’ll admit that seeing the "how" of what we know will happen is still engaging; and for the most part, it’s been a narrative risk that widely paid off. But even a more surprising ending might have spared this feeling in me. But really, who else could have been in the coffin? By the end of the first hour it was clear that the coffin reveal would be the big-cliffhanger so it had to be someone incredibly significant. Considering the placements of the other characters it could only have been Ben or Locke. Although death is hardly dead on this show, Ben just wouldn’t make sense. And considering Jack was the main person effected by this death, who else but his thematic opposite? The man of lost reason visiting the man of (apparently) dead faith.
So, still an excellent episode. And still a show willing to take narrative risks. By the time Lost ends and has left a brilliant, cohesive six-season journey, this finale will likely look much better. But on the basis of a moment in a season’s time right before an eight month break, I wanted a bit more to savor.
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