The series finale of Lost is this Sunday, making this the penultimate episode. There’s a lot to get through, and with a title like “What They Died For,” Lost has no choice but to explain why they died.
By “they,” I mean Sun, Jin, Sayid, Frank Lapidus, Ilana, Juliet, Jacob, Daniel Faraday, Charlotte, Naomi, Matthew Abaddon, Alex, Danielle, Karl, Michael, Charlie, Mr. Eko, Ana Lucia, Libby, Boone, Shannon, Nikki, Paulo, Edward Mars, Dr. Arzt, Christian Shephard, Anthony Cooper, etc. There’s been a lot of death on this show.
To be honest, I’m a little tired of these vague half-answers, but there’s only one more episode, so maybe they’re saving everything for the finale. Though Jacob promises to explain what they died for in this episode, I’m not sure it’s really worth it. Luckily, everything that happens in the altverse is totally worth it.
On the Island, the submarine explosion is still hanging over the survivors’ heads. Jack cleans out Kate’s bullet wound while Kate waxes poetic about how Jin never got to meet his daughter, Ji Yeon. She thinks they should kill Flocke, and Jack couldn’t agree more. They join Sawyer and Hurley watching the debris float ashore before moving on to find Desmond in the well.
On the trek there, Sawyer starts to realize that Jack was right about not touching the bomb. Hurley sees Young Jacob who wants his ashes back. He takes them and runs away, letting Hurley follow him until he finds Adult Jacob. Jacob tossed his ashes into a fire, and when the fire goes out, he’s gone and someone else will take over his job, so Hurley is instructed to bring everyone to him.
Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley all return and this time, everyone can see and hear Jacob. Kate wants to know why Sun, Jin and Sayid died (apparently she doesn’t care about Lapidus as much as I do), and Jacob promises to explain exactly what they died for.
If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn for you to buy. In reality, Jacob’s explanation is just as vague as everything we’ve been told. He says that he brought everyone here because they were alone and they needed something like the Island to fill the void in their life. I guess the primary requirement for this job is having no life, which means I would make a great Island Protector. Jacob also explains that Kate’s name was crossed off because she became a mother, but she could still technically be a Candidate because the wall means nothing.
With no real answers, Jacob asks for someone to step up. Jack’s massive God complex means he wants to take over, so Jacob takes him to some water, does a chant, and makes him drink it so Jack can become like him. Jacob also lets him know that the magical Light at the center of the Island is just beyond the bamboo where Jack first landed in the “Pilot.”
Jack didn’t think there was anything there, but it seems becoming the Protector is like using a cheat code in a video game because it unlocks secret levels. So now Jack is the new Jacob and it’s his job to keep the Light on and kill the Smoke Monster.
Keep reading to find out what Ben, Miles and Richard are up to.
Elsewhere on the Island, Ben, Miles and Richard are still alive! They’re on their way to get C4 to blow up the plane, which is so two episodes ago. Miles reminds us all why we love him by claiming that he lived at the Barracks 30 years before Ben, “otherwise known as last week.”
They get to the Barracks and Miles senses something. It’s Alex, who Richard buried. Ben thanks him for this, and he’s the most sincere he’s ever been. Inside, they go to Ben’s secret room where Miles sees the even secreter room where Ben can summon the Monster, though he now realizes the Monster was summoning him.
After getting the C4, they hear a noise and find Zoe and Widmore in Ben’s house. Widmore just wants to talk, explaining that after the Kahana blew up, Jacob found him and told him exactly what to do. I suppose that’s a nice and easy way to gloss over any actual explanations. Zoe goes to get their things but sees Flocke coming for them. She and Widmore decide to hide in the secret room, Miles runs away and Ben and Richard want to talk things out.
Instead of talking, the Smoke Monster picks up Richard and flings him away, possibly killing him. Much like Lapidus, we’re left not knowing Richard’s fate. Flocke shows up to chat with Ben, explaining that he needs Ben’s help to kill some more people, and that once he leaves, Ben will have the Island all to himself. Ben wastes no time giving up Widmore.
In the secret room, Flocke finds the Zoe and Widmore, and after killing Zoe, he demands that Widmore explain his plan, otherwise he’ll kill Penny when he gets off the Island. Widmore starts whispering it to him, because with only one episode left, the writers still have no idea what’s going on. Before he can finish, Ben shoots and kills Widmore, because he’s still holding a grudge over the death of Alex. It doesn’t matter, because Flocke already found out what he needed to know.
Ben and Flocke head to the well where Desmond is mysteriously gone. I’ll assume Jack and his group found and rescued him, but we didn’t see it. Flocke doesn’t care, because it turns out Desmond was Jacob’s failsafe in case all his Candidates were killed. I have no idea what that means, but Flocke thinks it means he can use Desmond to destroy the Island. The problem with this plan is that Ben won’t have any desire to help Flocke since his only leverage was the promise of getting the Island.
That was it for the Island, but keep reading to see what happened in the alternate universe.
In the altverse, Jack woke up and was still weirded out by the mark on his neck. Jack and his son ate breakfast while discussing a concert David will perform at. Jack is curious if David’s mom will be there, once again thwarting my desire for the show to just tell us who the mother is already. Claire walks in to join them.
Jack gets a call from Oceanic Airlines telling him that they found the coffin. Or at least that’s what he thinks, because it’s actually Desmond, still playing games with the Oceanic 815 passengers.
Desmond is also parked outside of Locke’s school again. Ben sees him and tries to make a citizen’s arrest, but Desmond beats the crap out of him, making Ben flash on the time Desmond beat him up on the dock in the original timeline. That event happened in 2007, so there must be some very confusing space-time bending if Ben flashes on it in 2004 in the altverse.
Ben is also told that Desmond wasn’t trying to kill Locke, he was trying to help him let go. In the nurse’s office, Ben tells this to Locke, who seems to have everything click into place. Ben stumbles outside and bumps into Alex, who invites him over for dinner with her mom, Danielle. It’s good to have the Rousseau ladies back, even if their only function seems to be telling Ben that he’s Alex’s surrogate father while Danielle flirts pretty heavily with him.
Meanwhile, Locke goes to see Dr. Jack Shephard. He’s amazed by the recent chain of unlikely events that keep bringing him back here, so he’s ready to have the surgery. Jack warns him about mistaking coincidence for fate, but Locke doesn’t care.
Continue reading to find out what else Desmond was up to in the altverse.
After beating up Ben, Desmond drove over to the jail to turn himself in. He finds Detective James Ford, who is uninterested in going with Miles to some big concert at his dad’s museum. Something tells me that’s going to be a very important concert.
Detective Ford locks Desmond up between Sayid and Kate. Later he comes back to release them to the county. In the van ride, Desmond starts talking crazy about what he’s done and how he’s helping people. He promises to show Sayid and Kate the truth and get them out of jail, but only if they agree to do something for him later on.
They half-heartedly agree just as the van pulls over. The cop transporting them, Ana Lucia, is dirty and accepts a bribe to release the prisoners. The bribe comes from Hurley, who drives up and cheerfully says “Hi” to Ana Lucia before realizing that she doesn’t know who he is.
In other words, Hurley knows exactly who she is and he seems to have all of his memories from the original timeline. It’s weird because at the start of this season, I absolutely HATED the flash-sideways. Now they’re my favorite part of the show.
Hurley takes Sayid while Desmond takes Kate. Where are they going? A fancy concert, of course. A concert at Miles’ dad’s museum the one where Charlotte works, the one Faraday attends, the one Jack’s son is performing at and the one Jack’s son’s mom will be attending. I smell fireworks.
That’s it for the penultimate episode of Lost. The pieces are now in place. Jack is the new Jacob, heading off to protect the Light. Flocke plans on using Desmond to blow up the Island. And in the altverse, everyone is headed to a concert while Hurley and Desmond orchestrate a master plan to make everyone remember who they really are.
It all comes down to this: the two-and-a-half series finale, this Sunday at 9pm. We’re less than five days away from all the answers we’re ever going to get.
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
