LOST: The End of the Beginning

Before I get to Scrubs, I have to discuss the Season 4 finale of LOST. I would have done this sooner, but I was in Annapolis all weekend attending a wedding (not that I'm complaining). After seeing last year's finale, I started telling people how I found the first two years' season finales to be a lot of set-up for nothing more than one huge twist at the end. The final shockers were great, but everything leading up to them was fair. Then we saw "Through the Looking Glass". The flash-forward reveal was incredible, but so was everything leading up to it. I was afraid that the writers wouldn't be able to recreate such a compelling story. I was wrong.

The episode expertly followed numerous stories focused on different characters, and by the end, we learn how the Oceanic 6 got off the island, as well the fates of the other characters. Locke and Ben went into the bowels of The Orchid, where Ben revealed that the DHARMA Initiative was working on time travel experiments. Ben also sacrificed his position on the island so that Locke may stay (more on that later). Meanwhile, on the freighter, Lapidus was able to get Jack, Kate, Hurley, Desmond, Sun, Sayid, and Aaron into the chopper. Unfortunately, Michael and Jin were tied up trying to prevent Keamy's bomb from going off. We have known for weeks that Jin would have to die at some point, most likely this season, but that knowledge didn't make it any easier to watch. Watching him alone on the deck of the Kahana as the helicopter was taking off was heartbreaking. As for Michael, I find it perplexing and disappointing that the producers would bring back his character for only about five episodes only to kill him. Not only that, but he barely got to interact with any of his old friends. We know that he sought redemption, but we didn't get to see the outside hurdles he would have had to face from the people he betrayed.

Meanwhile, Daniel Faraday was shuttling people from the island to the ship as Ben moved the island, which turned out to be a literal interpretation of the phrase. While on a run halfway between the two the island disappeared and the ship blew up. Sadly, we didn't see what happened to him. I hope he will still be around next year, since he was my favorite new cast member (though Charlotte and Miles began to grow on me, especially Miles, who began to show a softer side as Daniel and Charlotte became more sinister), but it will be hard to explain how he could survive. And, unfortunately for most of the rest of the people on the island, notably Juliet, they are right back where they started. Now, their friends who escaped don't even know where they are. But there is hope for them yet.

In one of the more uplifting moments in the otherwise dark story, Desmond and Penny were finally reunited. The chopper crashed into the ocean when it ran out of fuel and had no place to land, but by a stroke of luck (there was a little more to it than that, but luck was certainly a major force), they were saved by a boat that does in fact belong to Penny. In addition to saving Desmond, Lapidus, and the Oceanic 6, one of the islanders finally was reunited with their loved ones (we have already seen Sayid and Nadia reunited, but we weren't as invested in that story, and we already know that Nadia dies). The only sad thing is that we know that Ben vows to kill Penny...

Speaking of Ben, we learned why and how he ended up in the Sahara wearing a parka and needing a confirmation of the date. As the scene where he moved the island unfolded, I noticed an interesting visual similarity to Spike's final scene in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but the more I thought about it, the more I saw some other similarities between the characters. In both scenes, the characters are in underground chambers doing things to save the other characters on the show. On Buffy, Spike channeled the sunlight to destroy an army of primal vampires, while Ben used a strange device to move the island. In both instances a glowing light illuminated Spike and Ben in the otherwise dark landscape. And both sacrificed something; Spike gave up his life (temporarily, as it turned out) because he loved Buffy, while Ben gave up his spot on the island, claiming that whoever moved the island could never return (time will tell if that is true). The main thematic difference is that Spike did it out of love and had noble intentions, while Ben most likely has some ulterior motive (when does he not?) for his actions.

I began thinking about the paths of the two characters. Both were introduced as villains in the second season of each show (the timing of their introduction is more of a coincidence than anything else, though); both were originally slated to show up, cause trouble for the heroes, and disappear. However, the writers of Buffy and LOST liked their respective actors so much that they kept them around and expanded on their characters, taking them from villains to reluctant anti-heroes. Spike stayed around because he was neutered by the government and was able to provide Buffy and her friends with information about the demonic underworld. Ben was held prisoner and could provide answers about the island, the Kahana, and life off the island. By the end, Spike became an ally, while Ben and Locke became almost friends; he turned over power to Locke because he saw that Locke was the better leader after all, and the island needed Locke more than himself (though we cannot rule out ulterior motives). And then, when Spike went to Angel, he was still Spike, but had a new mission statement, since he was no longer defined by his relationship with Buffy. And Ben goes on the offensive once he leaves the island, recruiting Sayid and taking the fight to Charles Widmore.

Finally, I want to go over a few downsides/letdowns of both the finale and the season overall. First, I cannot believe that they did not give a concrete explanation for what happened to Claire. Most people I know say that she's dead, which seems to be the obvious explanation, but you never know with LOST. And I have to say that Emilie de Ravin gets shafted for being a regular; she had one fucking line this week in a dream sequence! And why did they bring in John Terry to deliver one line. Christian Sheppard is an important character, and I'm sure that they could have used him for something (like telling us whether or not he's actually dead!), but instead, he appears out of nowhere to say one thing. And, as usual, not all of the producers' promises were fulfilled. Before the season began, they said that we'd finally learn Libby's backstory. She did show up, but she had maybe two or three lines in Michael's coma fantasy. They said that the four-toed statue (remember that?!) would be addressed, as would the real Henry Gale. Hopefully, if these really are important as they say, we'll finally learn something about them.

Still, with the three-year time jump into the future, there are plenty of new directions the story could go, and I'm really excited for it to start again... in seven months.

Up next: Starting Scrubs...