So, for those of you who watch Lost or used to watch it and gave up because most of this season sucked but have now heard that last night’s season finale (written by the show’s producers) was one of the best episodes of any TV show this season, here’s your chance to discuss it. And if anyone says they guessed who Jack phoned and showed up in the final scene or when this show’s ‘flashbacks’ took place, they’re a liar.
One comment I read somewhere this morning explained why this episode was so great compared to the rest of the season: this one was constantly, forcefully moving. There was expectation, either rewarded or not. There was a goal, not just pieces being moved on a chessboard. People fought and won or lost, some died (alright, Patchy is probably still alive — maybe he’s a zombie which is why he can’t seem to stay dead) who either needed killing or whose time was up, and just plain interesting things happened. Or in the case of Jack’s ‘flashback,’ although some of the flashbacks this season seemed forced, at best, his was interesting despite highlighting his whiny, self-pitying side because something felt odd (beyond the beard as fake looking as Tom’s) about it as we watched. It wasn’t until that WTF ending that we find out why. Or did we?
Here’s a question for you: Was that really Jack’s future or was it a dream (ie, he didn’t get off the island)? Getting off and moving a few years down the road with the characters makes sense for next season since the crash happened in 2004 and this allows the storytelling to move up to today or a few years from now. But seeing as how little is what it seems…
If you haven’t found it before, the most in-depth deconstruction of the episodes, characters and more can be found at Lostpedia.
I’ve never watched Lost. The original concept sounded too much like Tom Hank’s “Castaway for TV”…
The Heroes finale was this week, and I bet it’s a much more interesting show, yet I don’t recall seeing any posts about Heroes ever on this ‘blog’… otoh, shouldn’t Dvorak blogs be about computer stuff?
On the Heroes note, the show preceding it, “Deal or No Deal”, had a ‘heroes’ theme. There were numerous previews for upcoming movies and one interesting fall TV show. The movies included Transformers, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (return of the T-1000 is what i call it), and a few others. The TV show, this fall, will be “The Bionic Woman” — interesting…
I think there is a waning interest in gritty crime dramas and hospital shows. How many times do you want to watch a rape story, or somebody dying on the streets or in a hospital? We should start a pool on how many new ‘hero’ shows will debut in the next 12 months.
Cheerio!
Rose was in the coffin I bet. She had cancer before she got on the island. As soon as she was rescued, her cancer came back and she eventually died of it. Which sent Jack on a downward spiral, because they were right… they shouldn’t have ever left the island.
It can’t be Rose, because Bernard would probably visit.
The preacher guy said nobody came.
Jack said he was neither a friend nor family.
This makes me thing that it was Sawyer, since Jack was telling Kate about it.
And I realized that it was the present when I saw Jack’s RAZR cell phone. I was thinking “They didn’t have those back in 2004”
I’ve been watching lost scince season two and by now I know that thier foreshadowing is always a ploy to get you to think you know the outcome.
The overall theme I got from this season is that everyone has a pre-destined decsicion, like Charlie, Desmond, and Jack. The OTHERS always say something like, your not “supposed” to do that.
And to hint something else; how are they going to leave the island and then go back???
Accept that the newspaper article about the death was about a man and not a woman. So it couldn’t have been Rose. Also, the name of the funeral parlor is an anagram of “Flash Forward” So we know that this is a possible future. Keep in mind who was the one that saw future events…Desmond. Since Charlie told Desmond that the boat wasn’t his girlfriends, he might have had a flash about what happens when they get rescued and he will call Jack on the walkie and tell him not to get rescued… who knows… The authors will just make up whatever they want on a whim anyway… That’s the downside of all this speculation… they can change it anytime they want to suit whatever mood they are in while writing it…
Everyone keeps calling it a Razr its not… it’s a KRAZR which just came out last year. The Krazr has the volume buttons on the body of the phone and not on the screen section. Also the “M” on the back is only on the KRAZR and not the RAZR.
It couldn’t have been Sawyer because Kate implied that she needed to get back to someone who would be wondering where she was, which would be Sawyer because he’s so jealous…
And if they found the island to rescue them, why can’t they go back to the same location? Did the world lose GPS abilities? Also, did anyone else notice that the satellite phone was showing that they were just a few miles off the coast of Washington state?!
You guys DO realize that it’s a TV show, right?
It has to be a dream. How is Kate able to roam free, isn’t she a fugitive? My guess for who is in the coffin is either Lock because he has no next of kin and he most likely angered the group by trying to keep them from getting rescued, or Ben who was most likely forced off the island and later died from his spinal dythewhatevera. I don’t see Kate not going to Sawyer’s funeral.
Lot of people compare Heroes and Lost. Heroes had the better season overall, but a weak ending, Lost had a weak season but a teriffic ending.
Multiyear storylines still have to follow the 3 act structure. Lost spent a year an a half in Act 1 (Introduce the characters and settings). Finally this year, we are getting act 2 (Introduce the conflicts and issues).
Unfortunately, we have to wait till February 2008 for the next chapter.
John Locke is in the coffin.
The Heroes finale wasn’t very good. Heroes started strong with lots of promise, but really petered out at the end.
i said last week when they (fox) said that the season finale would be 2hrs, that in those 2 hours they would not tell us anything new…
its pretty much pointless when it over and entire season NOTHING REALLY HAPPENS….
i say boycott the show – till they lose even more ratings…
ill just watch it on the dvd (rent) when a season is over
b/c watching 1hr a week is pointless
vs watching the entire season in 16hrs straight
I’ve watched Lost from day 1. There have been time when it’s developed too slowly, but it’s been good all along. The beauty is all the WTF’s it throws at you.
In Lost:The Answers the producers likened it to a mosaic that they’re building tile by tile. Unfortunately the story’s getting so complicated that I’m afraid we still may not understand it when “all the tiles have been laid” without watching the whole damn thing again. (That may be their intention too.)
When tripe like this passes for good TV, It’s no wonder Deadwood never made it to season 4
Lots of people guessed the ‘flashback’ and Kate before it was revealed. The constant references to his father sealed the deal for me. And who else would he be calling if it’s the future? Of course it’s Kate.
And who else would Kate seemingly have not gone to the funeral for? I would think Sawyer, but why would Jack be so upset about it?
The obituary said a man died…and that his name was “Jo(illegible)”…I have a strong desire to say it is “Joshua”…A lot more would have to happen for Jack to give a rip about Joshua…
Nothing says that this flash forward (post rescue) is immediately the result of the contact Jack made at the episode’s end. I wouldn’t be surprised if they leave that rescue turns out as they just showed us..but that the rescue isn’t going to happen at this stage in the narrative.
This is from Lostpedia. Its the newspaper article Jack was reading.
The name of the guy in the casket seems to be Jo.. [unreadable] ..antham.
BTW, its a casket, not a coffin. Coffins have 6 sides, caskets have 4 sides.
The first sentence of the article Jack carries around in the flash-forward seems to read, “Los Angeles, Man found.. [unreadable] downtown.. [unreadable], The body of Jo.. [unreadable] ..antham of New York was.. [unreadable] ..[shor]tly after 4 a.m. in the.. [unreadable] of Grand Avenue. Ted.. [unreadable] ..man at The Tower.. [unreadable] .. heard loud noises.. [unreadable]..m’s loft. Co.. [unreadable] ..entered the.. [unreadable] ..a beam in the.. [unreadable] ..[ac]cordin[g].. [unreadable]..”
#13 – Yes, Deadwood was one of the best realistic dramas ever on TV.
This show is falling apart faster than the X-Files. There just comes a point where you can’t top what you’ve already done, and you just need to hang it up.
Glad I never got into the show after the two episodes I saw during the supposed “Good” years.
To put up with an entire season of crap just for a good finale doesn’t seem worth it to me.
I thought the finale was very good. I’m excited about the possibilities of this show. Having the island scenes become the de facto flashback would be a bold move.
We see that Jack is compelled to return to the island and that he has put some effort into finding the island but is also a broken man. We also hear some reference to Jack’s father being alive and presumably Kate is able to move freely instead of being in prison. That means some kind of reality manipulation could have happened.
I think Gilligan was the culprit, but made it look like the Professor was the brains behind it!
lol
I love how people think it was Sawyer or Locke having a funeral in the hood. The newspaper does NOT say it was a man who died, it say Man Found… Could be Man Found dead woman. It could be Rose if Bernard was still on the island. Kate is STILL a fugitive because she would only meet at the airport at night…no mention of Sawyer, just get back to a him.
My theory for next season is we start where the flashforward left off. They’re back from the island and trying to get back. Some of them are still there, either voluntarily or involuntarily (the new bad guys holding them hostage for the silence of the ones rescued). Looking forward to next season.
Oh and next season the flashbacks will be of what has happened since they were rescued.
Desmond is still on the island, Penny recruits the people who were brought back, and they hunt down Dharma for a return trip…lots of possibilities.
I’m really worried that they’re getting into a star trekky area now with split time lines, etc. I hope that this was all John Locke’s vision, not the actual future.
#24: If you read up on Jack’s father in Lostpedia, you’ll see that there is a question if he was in the coffin. He may not be dead.
I have avoided reading the article and comments because I am just finishing Season 2 and don’t want to read any spoilers. There’s more here that there should be without a SPOILERS tag.
i’ll bet that most people watching this show are lost themselves, they just don’t know it yet.
The Butler
In the hallway
with the candlestick
try Enterprise or Weeds or Deadwoo…
Unless you wanna be dumb for the rest of your life
/Jack Handy
The key phrase to me in Lost was when Benjamin stated “every living human”. Are there dead humans living? That would be a contradiction, so there are human/spiritual elements alive on the island.
I think the secret to Lost resides in the names. In the Bible, Benjamin was the second favorite son of Jacob. Joseph was the favorite son, and he was left in a ditch to die but did not. Sound familiar?
The sequence of numbers are figures of the Valenzetti equation, which was a mathematical calculation to determine how long until we humans become extinct. This equation was derived after it was learned that humans had the ability to wipe out the entire planet. The island likely represents an alternate world, here on earth. The plot of Lost concerns whose vision is going to dominate that new world.
So Benjamin represents the old testament. He definitely is an eye-for-an-eye kind of guy, and is bothered that Jacob/the father/God has now ditched him for a new favorite, John Locke. So is Locke the new Christ? I don’t think so. Actually, John Locke was an English philosopher whose works were vital to U.S. forefathers and the U.S. Constitution. However, Locke is definitely a new Testament guy, and he will kill in the name of saving others but not for revenge.
The new Christ? Well, that is pretty obvious. Jack SHEPHERD. Jack is a healer, a leader, and a SHEPHERD. It is interesting that Jack is the son of CHRISTopher Shepherd. So Jack is likely the new Christ, the Jesus of the island if you will.
Rousseau is the name of the French philosopher whose works were again critical to the finding of the U.S. Rousseau believed that man was basically good but was corrupted by society. So for a person to be noble he or she had to stay outside of society. Again, sound familiar?
Rousseau, and Locke were two of the three key philosophers who advocated contractarianism, which states that government and its citizens have a social contract. The contract is that we the people give up some of our freedom to the government in order that it protect us. Their works are vital parts of any Democracy.
Everyone is assuming that the new flash forward is THE future, but what if it just a possible future? The one person we know who can look to the future and change future events is Desmond. So if Desmond, who has flashes (remember the anagram is flash forward) sees the future, could he not go and warn Jack of his future plight? Rose has already said she does not want off the island, and Bernard has vowed to stay with her. Locke won‘t leave, and Kate could be looking at jail. Jack did not believe Benjamin, but he might believe Desmond.
And the person in the casket? Well, this may be cheating, but a famous casket of a person who begins with J is Jeremy Bentham. See the link: http://utilitarianism.com/auto-icon.html
He likely is the great man the Others were referring to. He was not just the liberal of his day but was the liberal of all time. He advocated rights for women, gays, and animals in the late 1700s and early 1800s. He was also for separation of church and state, interest on loans, free trade, the abolition of slavery and physical punishment, and the right to divorce. He spent much of his time and money developing a new more civilized prison system that looks quite similar to the Dharma stations. It is my guess that the island is really Bentham’s baby.
Keep in mind that Jack did not want to kill himself until reading the article of someone, who was not a friend or family, dying. Was the island the creation of Jeremy Bentham? By Jack getting himself and his clan off the island, was Bentham whose spirit on the island was somehow living, captured, brought back to our world, and killed in a fire?
Bentham was the founder of utilitarianism,. Utilitarianism states that, when faced with a choice, we must first consider the likely consequences of potential actions, and from that, choose to do what we believe will generate the most happiness.
So the tragedy of Jack was calling the “bad guys” for help. And the “bad guys” take over the island for their own selfish interests. That is the cause of Jack’s desire to kill himself. He has single-handedly destroyed the new world, the sanctuary for the follies of man. If/when man does destroy this world, the alternate world, the island/Bentham’s baby, will be gone too.
Ben was in the box.