Since the Lost group doesn't get a whole lot of activity, I thought I'd post these here.
I rewatched the episode last night to refresh my memory, but for the most part, these were the initial impressions I had during my first viewing.
Kate: Christian Shephard? Seriously?
It’s about time that someone finally acknowledged the highly symbolic names on this show.
Interesting notes from the credits: Rather than receiving their usual guest star status, Christian, Rose, Bernard, Chang, Hawking, and Penny are all credited as regulars for the first time. Charlie, Boone, Shannon, Libby, Juliet, Faraday and Charlotte are each returned to the credits for the first time since their respective deaths.
Last week I was convinced that Ben was running some kind of con on the MIB, but it seems like he’s genuinely thrown in with the guy. He seemed shocked when he heard that Un-Locke was literally intending to destroy the island.
HA! It’s nice to see Ben receive one final beating before the show goes off the air.
Vincent! Rose! Bernard! It's good to know that they’ve survived all the turmoil since their last appearance.
So Richard lived, huh. No surprise there – I’m actually surprised that so many people thought he was dead last week.
Lapidus lives! Okay, this one is a surprise.
Sayid loses Nadia and gets Shannon as a consolation prize. The poor bastard really has ended up in Hell hasn’t he? So much for the theory that the alterna-verse is Heaven.
Nice callback to the season 3 finale with Kate and the others hearing the gunshots over the walkie-talkie.
Locke was right about everything? Jack’s hero-worship of John has gone a bit overboard now. Locke was right about the island being special and needing protection, but it seems to me that he was spectacularly wrong about everything else. As a matter of fact, if Locke hadn’t convinced Jack and the others to return, the Man In Black wouldn't be able to cause all the problems he's causing now.
Hey, it’s Liam. How come he didn’t get promoted to opening credit status like the other recurring characters? I think he’s made just as may appearances as Eloise Hawking.
Driveshaft still sucks -- more evidence that Earth 2 isn’t some sort of eternal reward.
Damn, Claire popped out Aaron pretty fast in the alternate timeline – way too fast.
Kate doesn’t seem remotely shocked to hear that Frank’s still alive. I guess after all this time on the island, you just accept that sort of thing.
Kate shot the the Locke-ness monster to exactly zero effect a little while ago. How did she know that it would work this time?
Locke regains his memories after an encounter with Jack. Does this mean that Jack was his one true love all along?
Ben seems remarkably injury-free for a guy who just had a tree fall on him. Guess the island isn’t quite done with him yet.
Aww. Is that the first time that Jack called Hurley by his real name?
I believe in duct tape too, Miles.
I’ve said it before, but it’s nice to see the return of badass Kate this season. It’s too bad they made her spend seasons 2-4 as an idiotic damsel-in-distress.
Does Juliet’s vending machine trick really work? If so, there’s a machine at work that has screwed me out of a Snickers bar for the last time.
Did anyone else think that Ben was going to give us one final betrayal and drink the water himself?
You could see Jack’s final words to Desmond coming from 10,000 miles away, but it was still nice to hear them.
Sawyer calls Miles “Enos”. Possibly the last nickname we’ll ever hear him use. *Sniff*
The Ajira Six – Sawyer, Kate, Claire, Lapidus, Richard and Miles.
You knew Desmond was going to survive. If they had deprived him of his reunion with Penny, fans would have rioted.
So, Hurley’s the new Jacob, and Ben’s the new Richard. I would definitely watch an Odd Couple-like spinoff featuring the two of them and the continuation of their island adventures. Cindy and the Tailie-kids could be the wacky neighbors who stop by and annoy them while they’re trying to deal with serious island-stuff. Rose and Bernard could be the spiteful neighbors from up the road who just want to be left alone, but keep getting caught up in Hugo and Ben’s shenanigans anyway.
I’m still not quite sure how I feel about the divergent timeline actually being some sort of Limbo and/ or Purgatory for the Lostaways.
Hey, how does Penny get to go to Lostie Heaven? She never stepped foot on the island.
I assume that Ben, Ana-Lucia, Daniel, Charlotte etc… will eventually get to go once they're ready? It’s too bad they couldn’t work in a cameo from Mr. Eko or Walt this season. Walt’s age shouldn’t be a factor if this is supposed to be taking place long after everyone has died.
Does this mean that Aaron is heading into the afterlife as an infant? What’s up with that? I mean, I understand that spending an eternity clinging to Claire’s breast has a certain appeal to it, but, dude… SHE’S YOUR MOTHER! He didn’t meet anyone in his entire life that he would rather spend eternity with? And I thought Jacob and the Man in Black had some serious mommy issues. Definitely the most inappropriate relationship on the show since Boone and Shannon.
Nice callback to the first episode, with Jack dying in the same spot where he first regained consciousness after the crash, and Vincent lying down next to him to keep him company. It was also nice that he got to see the plane flying overhead as he died - letting him know that his friends did indeed escape the island (well, an extremely tiny handful of them anyway).
Speaking of the Ajira 6, when Frank finally lands the plane in Guam, how's he going to explain the dozens of missing passengers and the four new passengers.
So, who called it back in season 1? Sawyer, Kate and Claire are the only 815 survivors to successfully escape from the island. (except for Walt who got away at the end of season 2).
Replies
I think Locke believed that he was doing the right thing but he listened to the wrong people (Linus, Widmore). If Jack and the others stayed on the island, Locke wouldn't to have to go back for them and he wouldn't have been killed by Linus which set up the MIB copying his body. Of course, then it's a different show!
Remember Claire gave birth to Aaron TWICE, making her a great TV mom! I don't think that's really Aaron at the end, it's just what Claire needs for her heaven!
Did Jack ever truly see his father's spirit? If Christian on the island was the MIB, who did Jack see OFF the island?
And there are still some of the Others plus Rose, Bernard and Vincent on the Island with Hurley and Ben, so spin-offs are possible! I still want to see a "James Ford, Detective" movie!
By the way, if anyone hasn't heard the news, the complete series box set is supposed to contain a ton of extras that will give us some more concrete explanations of some of the shows mysteries. Supposedly its going to contain a whole series of new DHARMA videos which will give us more details about that organization's history and inner workings. And according to rumors on several forums, there will also be some additional flashback scenes featuring Jacob and the Man in Black which will give more details on the island's history and purpose.
I haven't sought it out yet, but it purportedly chronicles Hurley and Ben's first few days running the island; features some new DHARMA videos that more fully reveal that organization's history; and provides further revelations about island's true nature and origins. It seems to be getting mixed reviews from critics, but it should make the people who were whining about the lack of answers happy.
First episode, a few minutes in - the survivors of the crash are still getting their bearings when one person says... something (I forget what) and then walks too close to the still spinning jet engine, gets sucked in, and dies. At that very moment I though "Ah, heck, this is yet another story where they're all in Purgatory and their actions and reactions will determine whether they go to Heaven, Hell, or maybe even get to continue their lives on Earth."
I never watched it after that, and after the finale a couple of friends informed me I was "sort of" right. So, was I right? Or way off the mark?
Everything that happened on the island, happened. The castaways were basically tested with Job's game -- a good and an evil being "testing" them with plagues and temptations to see which way they'll break when the chips are down (to mix metaphors), but they weren't in Purgatory/Limbo when they were on the island. Fantastical as some elements were, they were all real, with real consequences. (And also, they'd been doing this for centuries, so there were other people and elements who were no longer part of the test, per se, but were still actors on the island, for good or ill.)
But a precisely positioned atomic explosion set off a divergent reality in the last season. And in that other reality (where the crash never happened), the characters were in purgatory/limbo/an afterlife staging area, where they had to do whatever it took for them to "move on." So that, there, could be seen as similar to what you described. But that was the case in none of what you actually saw.
Or at least, that's my interpretation of what was going on.
So this limbo was both a reward and lesson to them. They got what they wanted and found what they needed!
Maybe I'll have to watch the series sometime.