LOST: Pre-Game for “The End”
For the last month or so, there have been countless lists of questions that need to be answered by the finale. I hate these lists. Some people aren’t going to be happy unless the final episode is 2 ½ hours of exposition, dotting every last ‘i’. I love the twisty logic and the theoretical physics and the moving Island more than most, but it’s the characters who matter in the final stretch. The reason that taking over Jacob’s job matters is that it’s Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley sitting there. You can bounce mindbending concepts and exciting mythology around all day, but if you don’t have the characters as your foundation, none of it sticks.
That’s why all of the Lost imitators flamed out so quickly. They began with the (usually incomplete) mythology in full swing, without letting us know why we should care. Lost didn’t start when they opened the Hatch. Aside from the monster and the polar bear, the weirdness in the Lost pilot is largely non-existent. A plane crashed. These people survived. This is who they are.
So I’m not going into the finale with a laundry list. Other than explaining Timeline X, I think all of the big questions have been answered in some form or another. Sure, there’s still going to be plenty to talk about, but it’s not like I’m going to feel betrayed if they don’t explain how Jacob leaves the Island. It would be nice to see some resolution to Walt’s storyline, but he hasn’t been a major onscreen presence since Season One. At this point, with Desmond’s time-jumping electromagnetic powers, a moving Island, and the immortal Richard Alpert, I don’t have a real problem accepting that Walt is “special” and the Others were interested in him.
Heck, the fewer answers they give us about the early days of the Dharma Initiative, the better my novel is going to be. (Seriously, Touchstone – I work fast and I work cheap. Know how much I’ve made by writing about Lost for these last six years? Zero dollars. Frankly, I’d probably pay you to let me write it.)
Man, it’s been an awesome six seasons, right?
There are just a couple of things I want to look at before the finale, so let’s get right to it!
Anti-Matter Meteor – Thanks to spunkybuddy Sean, I am in possession of a recording of an Art Bell show in which an actual physicist, Dr. Michio Kaku, analyzes the show. The actual interview was conducted before this season began, but a lot of what we’ve seen would back up his central thesis.
Specifically, he says that the Island was struck by an anti-matter meteor, which would account for the weird energy, and could even cause localized time distortions. Remember, this was before “Across the Sea”, when we saw the glowing cave. You know, the actual impact site of the meteor.
Now, I don’t think this is where they’re actually going but it’s fascinating that somebody found a scientific explanation for some of the more fantastic aspects of the story. Though I’m not sure how much actual scientific basis there is for an anti-matter meteor. Still, I have no good reason to doubt Dr. Kaku.
Head Toward the Light – I’ve been looking at Timeline X as something Smokey created. Timeline X scares me. But you can’t deny, almost everybody is better off there than in our Timeline. Sure, the differences may be marginal in some cases – it’s not like Timeline X is perfect. But as I’ve said before, that whole thing with free will can really mess stuff up.
Spunkybuddy Jennifer has suggested that Timeline X is, instead, a reward for the Lostaways. In a show about second chances, wouldn’t it make sense that Heaven is a do-over? Everybody gets another shot at the choices that defined them. There are some weird issues with time involved – remember that even though Timeline X is in 2004, once Desmond and Hurley were awakened, they had knowledge beyond that point of their other lives. Oh man, what if Timeline X actually exists after the end of the series and Desmond is aware that he’s already dead?
No, that’s too dark. I’m keeping a good thought for all of my Lostaways.
Doesn’t it seem weird that we’re getting to the finale and there could actually be a climactic scene at a benefit concert? That’s not where I saw this going at all. But we’ve already got Jack, David’s mother (who is totally Juliet and we all know it), Kate, Desmond, Miles, and Charlotte definitely attending. They can get Faraday, Charlie, Hurely, Sayid, Sawyer, and Dr. Marvin Candle there with very little extra effort. There’s something very Muppet Show about reuniting the entire cast at a concert, and I love it.
It’s Just a Chalk Line on a Wall – That line makes me so happy. I talked to a few people, though, who thought that it invalidated the big reveal with the names in the cave. And I really don’t think it does. There are more than 300 names in Jacob’s cave. Who knows why any of the others were crossed out?
When we first saw the names in the cave, we didn’t know much about Jacob’s nature. For all we knew, he was some kind of Messiah. And now we know Jacob’s just a guy. He might have just been picking people who seemed like they’d be good at it, and then crossing them off when he changed his mind. I don’t see anything wrong with that. Though it is a little chilling that once Jacob decides somebody’s out of the running, they’re fair game for Smokey. You’d think he’d be a little cautious about making those chalk lines.
I like the “chalk lines on the wall” because it makes the whole thing more human. It’s not some mystical force making the decisions – it’s just Jacob making a judgment call. There’s something appealing about some questions just having simple answers. Why wasn’t Frank the pilot on that fateful day? He overslept. No big conspiracy or convoluted explanation. Sometimes, even on Lost Island, Occam’s Razor rules the day. That’s more appealing to me than having every tiny little can of Dharma beans tie into some Grand Unified Theory – sometimes things are exactly what they seem.
And if it’s just a chalk line on a wall, I have to point out that the one time we’ve seen anybody make one of those lines was when Look-a-Locke crossed out Locke’s name. That’s right, I’m going to cling to my belief that John Locke is coming back right until the final credits roll. I get one last night to be delusional – just let me have this one.
At the last minute, spunkybuddy Dr. Brian came up with something that kind of blew my mind. He’s been suggesting that Kate is pregnant ever since she hooked up with Jack one last time before returning to the Island. And I certainly believe that was her reason – thank to Aaron, she knows that she wants to be a mother and if she’s headed back to the Island, she can’t survive pregnancy if a child is conceived there. When Jacob tells Kate “You became a mother”, Dr. Brian suggests that Jacob is referring to Kate being pregnant. Isn’t that awesome?
It actually fits with the timeline, too. Remember, Kate’s name is crossed off in the cave, but not in the Lighthouse, suggesting that the change was recent. And I believe that she went back to 1977 with Jack, Hurley, and Sayid because she was a Candidate. (Frank, Benry, and Sun stayed because they weren’t Candidates, which means that “23 – Kwon” is Jin.) if Jacob only became aware of her pregnancy recently (remember, at this point less than two weeks have passed since they boarded Flight 316), that all kind of fits together. Thanks, Dr. Brian!
Something Tells Me That’s Not Going to Take – People do not seem convinced that Jack is the new Jacob. Spunkybuddy Sam is one of those people. Understandably, Sam doesn’t think the ceremony was complete. And yeah, there really wasn’t a lot to it. But I have to point out that Sam was raised in Catholic tradition, while I’m Protestant, which means two different approaches to communion (which really is what we saw there).
For dramatic purposes, this is a weird reveal for the second-to-last episode. That’s a final episode kind of thing. Granted, they’ve always done interesting things with story structure, but it just didn’t seem like the Big Moment that it should have. It felt like the first step toward a Big Moment.
Over at Spectacularry, spunkybuddy Larry Young spins a plausible scenario where Hurley is the one who ends up as the new Jacob. And spunkybuddy Sara points out that Jack can’t possibly live inside a giant foot and not get involved with people. Jack would be terrible at that. But for Sawyer, however, that’s right inside his wheelhouse. Like Jacob, he is unable to deal with his guilt. I don’t think it would be difficult at all for Sawyer to separate himself from society. Loot what’s left of the Dharma Library, and he could be good for a while. I just don’t think that the transfer of power is over yet.
There’s going to be a lot to cover tomorrow, so I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who’s been reading and commenting. The fact is, the Lost recaps have constituted the biggest creative project of my life, and I will probably never write more about a single topic than I have here.
I obviously don’t know everybody who’s been reading this, but some of you have been kind enough to offer comments and correspondence and make this all so much more rewarding. First off, thanks to my various real-life friends who’ve been in the Lost viewing group at one time or another. They know who they are, and they know that they are awesome.
Thanks to spunkybean founder Ben for starting up this site in the first place, and to Mysterious Don for bringing me in and encouraging me the whole time (as well as promoting the articles over the various new-fangled social media and occasionally sending out e-mail from “Future John Locke”). Thanks to Myndi for co-writing a whole lot of recaps for me and covering for me when my Lost commitments left her with all sorts of extra work.
And thanks to the people who’ve been commenting and sharing their theories and making this all a lot more fun. Some of you I know personally, but most I’ve never met, but I appreciate all of you. Special thanks to spunkbuddies Jennifer (to whom I will be forever grateful for “Look-a-Locke”), Julie (who has been an absolute power commenter and has come up with a couple of my favorite theories), Sister Jane (who would be a spunkybuddy even if she wasn’t my actual sister), Sara (who understands why I cry), Dillon Font, Amy, Evonne – without you guys, the last two seasons worth of Pre-Games just wouldn’t have happened. I’m sure there are a few names I can’t think of right now, but trust me, every comment I get is sort of like a little hug for my brain.
Big thanks also to Larry Young, my recapping soulmate. When I found out that somebody of whom I was already a fan read my work, that was the coolest thing ever. I can’t thank him enough for what he’s done for me over this last season. He is on Jacob’s list of Good People, make no mistake.
Just because the series is over, it doesn’t mean I’ve said my last words on Lost. Once all is said and done, we’ll be able to see the series in a new light, so there will be some follow-up in the near future. If you’d like to get notification of any new Lost essays that fall out of my head, send an e-mail to ejfeddes@spunkybean.com or track me down on Facebook. You’ll want to know when my tie-in book about Horace Goodspeed is coming out, right? (Or when Larry writes LAPIDUS! And yes, it should always be all-caps with an exclamation point.)
I’ll see you guys on the other side of the Finale!
