Lost Finale Recap

Well, there it was. It wasn't the mind-blower we were hoping for, but it gave us a few great dramatic moments and a heck of a lot to ponder.

What's most disappointing is that the story has barely inched forward from where it was at the end of last season. Season three ended with Jack saying "We have to go back." Season four ended with Ben telling Jack, "You have to go back." Lost has a Rashomon-like tendency to jump back in time and tell the same stories over and over again from different perspectives (think of the beginning of season two, which took around four episodes to depict under an hour of time in the hatch). When it works, it underlines the choices made by the characters and asks interesting questions about how things might have played out differently. When it doesn't, it feels like meaningless wheel-spinning. Why show us an extended version of the scene between Jack and Kate at the airport, when the extension consists only of Kate slapping him and general bitchy melodrama? The dots are now connected -- the flash-forward in season three is matched up with the present tense -- but not much has been added to the off-island storyline. The twist at the end -- Dead Locke -- felt both obligatory and false. They've spent too much time building this character up to kill him off so summarily. And what with time travel, resurrections, doubles and flashbacks, I think we all know that on Lost, death is not the end.

The on-island stuff worked a lot better, even if our knowledge of the future created an unfortunate sense of inevitability. Usually I find the heavy action/drama stuff on Lost to be ham-fisted and cheesy, but tonight featured a number of affecting moments -- Sun's heart-stopping grief over Jin's (possible) death, her shrieking and sobbing followed by a moment of empty, haunted silence (her transformation into a forlorn-yet-badass player on the corporate stage is pretty interesting, too); the reunion of Desmond and Penny (I'm a sucker for those two, and was legitimately surprised when her boat appeared); and most of all, the madcap insanity of What Went Down in the Orchid.

What did go down in the Orchid? Well, Ben did. Down into the icy bowels of the beast, wearing Hallowax's parka, where he -- and I have to give the writers credit for ballsy literalness here -- moved the island by turning a giant frozen donkey wheel, then zapped into future-Tunisia. I feel like this is a litmus test for whether you can follow Lost all the way down the rabbit hole -- can you watch someone moving a magical island by turning a giant frozen donkey wheel without laughing or sneering? If not, it's probably best to abandon ship now -- the craziness is not likely to subside anytime soon. Personally, I loved every minute of Locke and Ben, but I have a massively high threshold for whacked out, half-baked nonsense, so long as that nonsense is sufficiently awesome.

In any case, the on-island storyline ends with Locke taking over from Ben as the leader of the Others -- which sounds like a major step down for the Others. Locke can be by turns terrifying (his sudden murder of Naomi -- very Bentham-like utilitarianism, that), endearing (that big, sad, open face, pretty much always), and frustrating (his absolute faith in and reliance on concepts of destiny that he barely understands), but he's certainly not reliable. Ben always has a plan -- Locke spends most of his time feverishly hoping for divine intervention and prophetic guidance. As we saw in the spectacular episode "Cabin Fever", Locke has an uneasiness with his destiny, and every time he tries to fulfill it he seems to screw up somewhat spectacularly. My prediction: poor decisions by Locke lead to terrible disasters on-island in season 5.

There isn't much more to report in terms of story, because the finale didn't give us much we didn't already know. Michael is dead, his character arc having come to a hasty end. Jin is probably not, because they'll need some extra plot twists next season. All that's left are intriguing little clues, like Charlotte's decision to stay on the island and search for the place she was born. (What a wonderful payoff... when she landed on the island in the season premiere, I remember looking at the expression of joyful recognition and her face and thinking, "She looks like a woman who's coming home.") Could Charlotte be Annie, Ben's childhood love? The ages are off, but hey, crazy time-travelling island, right? Why was Locke, in death, going by the name of Jeremy Bentham? (One hopes the answer isn't "to set up the big end-of-episode reveal.")

Overall, I feel that the episode was something of a letdown. Still, it was chock full of enough thrilling moments (the guerilla Others taking down Keamy's team with a show of superior stealth), touching scenes (grown-and-sexy Walt asking why no one's come to see him), and zany surprises (the island went "pop" and disappeared! So deliciously literal!) to keep me eager for more and wishing I'd started blogging about this show earlier, so that someone might actually read this. In any case, imaginary internet-browsing humanoid who reads this blog (you must be lonely), enjoy your free Thursday nights this summer, and watch out for those time-travelling polar bears. Seacrest OUT.