Lost is On: I Wish You Believed Me

I hear there's rumors on the internets. I have been avoiding my usual Lost blogs like the plague. The reason? About a week ago, some script pages from the Season Finale leaked. While tempting, to be sure, I've put in years on this show. To give in to temptation would be as idiotic as a virgin having sex just weeks before their wedding. The end is nigh, so I will remain strong. Still more leaks have crept out, and I have read a few people who were disappointed because last night's episode was ruined for them as well. After watching last night, I can definitely understand their disappointment. So yeah, if you haven't watched the episode yet, don't continue reading this. Either way, these last few weeks are going to suck because I just want to talk about and read about what's going on with the show, and now I have to avoid the internet.

Well, ho-hum, what a fantastic episode you guys! I thought this was easily one of the best of the season. There is so much to digest here, but let's start with the flash-sideways to set the mood. We open with John Locke's face, and no "PREVIOUSLY, ON LOST..." to lead us in. Usually, this means that there's too much stuff to cover in this episode to recap anything, so get excited. Jack arrives to talk to John about his "accident" and how his "sac ruptured" (don't you just hate when that happens?). Jack also brings up the possibility of a surgical procedure that could, in theory, restore John's ability to walk. John's like, "No way, Jack-se", so Jack wants to know why he won't be helped.

This leads Jack on a mini-venture to talk to oral surgeon Dr. Nadler (aka BERNARD) about the accident that put John in a wheelchair. Of course, Bernard's all "Well, of course I remember what happened," or whatever. So Bernard sends Jack to talk with John's father, who is a crippled, dumb, and old guy (who sure plays a mean pinball) in an old folks home. So Jack confronts John again about his father as he's being checked out (don't you just hate it when the doctor brings up painful memories JUST as you're walking out the door? Geeze!). John relives for Jack what happened on that fateful day...which was a plane crash. He crashed his plane on its maiden voyage and put he and his father in a wheelchair forever (cue tiniest violin, Terry O'Quinn would like to thank the Academy). Basically, Jack says that John has to let go of what happened, because what "happened, happened", and hey, I can make you WALK AGAIN IDIOT. But, John refuses, and wheels away determined to get hit by another car.

MEANWHILE

Jack wakes up in a boat on Hydra Island while Sayid is cleaning a gun (I've seen this before, he thinks, perhaps). And for the tiniest moment, I'm afraid that Jack can't walk from the explosion laid on him last week. This turns out to not be true, because if Jack can't walk, neither can this plotline. So Smoke/Locke comes out of the woods and says that they have to spring the rest of the others free so they can escape on the plane. Jack says "I'll save my friends, and bid them farewell, but I will not leave this island." Smoke/Locke hopes Jack will change his mind, though he knows Jack won't. But for the time being, Jack does help the Smoke Monster free the others being held by Widmore. Later, Jack wonders out loud why they should trust Smoke/Locke, to which he replies, "Because I could kill you all, and there's nothing you could do to stop me." Wooooooo...I'm scaaaaarreed...

So they make their way to the plane, where Smoke/Locke discovers explosives in the plane (that he knew were there all along) and steals a dead guy's watch. Of course, all these things will come back into play very soon. After a brief word with his "followers", Smoke/Locke explains that they can't take the plane, because it's rigged to explode as soon as they turn the keys. So, now they have to take the sub. On the way, Sawyer tells Jack that staying's cool and all, but just help them escape by dunking Smokey in the water. So, when everybody's boarding the sub, Jack again explains that he aint leaving, and shoves Locke into the water in the name of John Locke. Widmore's people show up just in time to shoot Kate in the shoulder (a non-fatal wound, good Lord people learn how to shoot), so Jack has to follow Kate onto the sub to treat her. Sawyer is rushed into making the decision to dive hastily to keep Smokey out, and Jack unbeknowingly brings a now Smoke/Locke rigged C4 into the sub via his trusty backpack. Jack discovers this while hallucinating that his backpack is also a field medic kit.

Now comes probably one of the most brilliantly charged "bomb defusion" scenes I've seen in awhile. Jack realizes as the C4 clock ticks away that there's no way that Smoke/Locke can kill them, and that nothing is going to happen. The only way he can kill them is if they kill each other (i.e. attempt to diffuse the bomb and fail). Sawyer's like, "Grrr, grrr, I don't believe it," pulls some cords that Sayid said to pull, and the clock stops. But then, of course, the clock starts going again, only faster. Timex takes a licking but keeps on ticking. So, Sayid spews off instructions like he's reading script from the end of a car commercial, grabs the bomb, and halls-ass to the other side of the sub right as the bomb explodes. We all knew there was still good in Sayid, but good enough to die for the rest of them? CRAZY.

Hurley takes Kate out of the now sinking sub, and Jack grabs an unconcious Sawyer. Sun is pinned and she can't get out, so Jin decides that it'd be better to die with her than ever leave her again. So they stay together, hand in hand, and drown. Lapidus is, well we don't know what happens to Lapidus, but we do know he got beaned in the head by a large metal door, so he's probably dead too. And just like that, only Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley come to the shore alive. They all have a good cry when it all starts to hit them that three of their friends are dead. But they are alive. Smoke/Locke senses this (a presence he's not felt since...), and heads off into the jungle to "finish what he's started".

Finally, the show seems to be coming to head. We're getting a lot clearer idea of what is to come, I feel. Now all that remains unclear is what Ben, Richard, and Miles are up to, and when they'll come back to save the day somehow. We know that Smoke/Locke can't really kill the candidates, although it was his plan to try all along. I also get a sense that Jack and Smoke/Locke will have an epic dual, a clash of fates, towards the end of the series. This was inevitable, of course, because Jack and Locke have always been at odds with each other, only now that Locke isn't Locke at all, and Jack is starting to go Faith over Science, the tables have turned completely. 

I suppose also we need to find out what's going to happen in the alternate world. Will the other characters be back, perhaps? All the dead ones back to life? Perhaps. Although I must say, it would be kind of lame of them to toy with our emotions so much for no reason. Only time will tell...

See you all next week...