The book has closed on Lost, season two. (And, basically, on the television season -- so those of you readers who get a little bored when I talk about TV so much are probably in for a bit of a reprieve for the next few months.)I've been saying for most of season two that while I'm still basically "pro" about the show, I also felt like there were a few episodes (particularly near the middle of the season) that just felt like repetitive restatements of information we already knew from season one. The show has still been good, but not as consistently so as season one.
So let me be just as quick to praise how great I thought tonight's season finale was. I found it vastly superior to the finale of season one. Last year, the finale seemed to be too much about walking you right up to the door (literally) of one single mystery: what's in the hatch? And then of course, getting it open only to not tell you. This season, the finale didn't seem to point toward any one single question to be answered, and I felt it was much stronger for that. Last summer, all anyone could ask in anticipation of the new season was "so what is in the hatch?" But this summer, there are all sorts of issues to discuss. Here's a (probably incomplete) list of things, more or less in order of how they're weighing on my mind in the immediate aftermath of watching the episode:
Did Locke, Eko, and/or Desmond survive? The destruction of the hatch was not an explosion, but rather an implosion. Charlie could not possibly have been very far away, but he survived unscathed. And we've basically been told it was all a massive discharge of electromagnetic energy. So, it's possible -- but not a given -- that Locke and Eko are alive. I'd even call it likely, since we still don't know how Locke ended up in the wheelchair. But you never know. Desmond was at ground zero, so his chances seem less likely. But again, you never know.
What are the Others going to do with Jack, Kate, and Sawyer? And, tied up in that question, Who are the Others, really? They're "the Good Guys," they say. What are they going to do to convince the trio of that?
What's up with all that business at the end? Yes, I realize this is fairly low on my list, given that it was the big final moment. But it was all just so strange that I'm not sure how deeply I'm invested in the mystery yet. Two guys in a Siberia-like place are scanning for electromagnetic anomalies on Earth. Why do they have to be in this Siberia-like place to do this? Do they know they're looking for this island in particular? They report to Desmond's old love. Did she hire them to look for Desmond in this way? If so, how did she know to employ this technique? Is any of this part of the Dharma Initiative? Like I said, I can't even begin to grasp enough of this to spend much time contemplating the possibilities.
Will I have to suffer through more of Michael next season? Finally, at last, Michael seemed to be leaving the show by way of boat on heading 325. But will it work? Will he actually leave? Unfortunately, signs sort of point to "no," I think. The problems are: 1) Michael now has a big, black mark on his soul for all the things he did to save Walt. And it's simply not like this show to let him go without addressing that more deeply than they have. 2) Walt's story is really not done. The Others said they "got more than they bargained for" with Walt, in a way that implied he has moved beyond messing up birds in flight, manifesting polar bears in the jungle, and appearing as a dripping wet spectre and talking backwards to people miles away from him. That demands more explanation. But if indeed these two reasons demand we see more Michael and/or Walt next season, how is their escape going to fail?
There are a few issues with Clancy Brown's former hatch buddy (prior to Desmond). Did he really shoot himself, or was he killed by Kelvin much as Kelvin was killed by Desmond? Perhaps this detail isn't especially important in the grand scheme of things. But this previous button pusher, we were told tonight, is also the one who spliced the orientation film. Why did he do that? And why did he then take the pieces halfway across the island to leave them in the tailies' hatch? That issue troubles me more.
What is the deal with the giant four-toed foot statue? 'Nuff said.
See? Lots more to speculate on during the four month wait, compared to last summer.
Let the games begin...
4 comments:
I thought Locke was in the wheelchair because he donated his kidney to his "father"...
But I am easily distracted now that I am usually making faces at the B when TV is on in the background, so I may have missed something.
I originally made the same assumptionm about Locke, but there have been two Locke flashbacks post-kidney transplant that showed Locke walking around just fine.
A few comments of my own.
I agree it was better than S1 finale - though it didn't make me feel I can't wait until September like the S1 finale did. Maybe it's because the episode didn't turn out like I thought it would - which can be a good thing.
The father of Desmond's girlfriend runs a company that is named after him. The company name was seen on a London billboard in a S2 Charlie flashback and on the package for the pregnacy test Sun used a few episodes ago.
I have a feeling Desmond's girlfriend had been using all her money to try and find where he went, or more likely, to which Dharma facility he was sent to.
I guess Libby's story is going to be told in flashbacks, huh? I have a feeling she just might have been an Other plant in the Losties group after seeing her with Desmond.
The EM pulse detection in Siberia means that the island ACTUALLY exists in the real world - or at the very least it's can affect the real world.
I, unfortunately, think you're right about Michael... grrrr...
What was up with the four-toed statue... must of been important enough for Sayid to mention it.
Oh, and don't forget that Desmond's button-pressing buddy was also the CIA operative telling Sayid to interrogate Iraqis.
Most important of all, the ending of this finale proved the world as we know it still exists. This opens the possibilities of a story or two being told outside of the island as well. Perhaps we'll see a flashback of Penny or of a relative of the survivors after learning of the crash.
Penny used her Widmore contacts to learn of Desmond's last known location. From this, she must have learned about Dharma and the "hidden island." She then used her Widmore millions to send scientists to a polar region to detect any electromagnetic anomalies that could possibly uncover the island.
My sister told me that the "David Hume" in "Desmond David Hume" refers to a Scottish philosopher. Wikipedia says he was influenced by the real John Locke.
Locke's survival seems obvious. He's probably the strongest character in the series, and will likely become the leader while Jack is gone. As much as I like Desmond and Eko, I'm not terribly confident about their survival.
I liked the small link to the previous finale. Where the old dynamite helped Locke, it didn't help Eko at all.
Other questions:
Why did Locke's legs fail him the day Boone died?
Will Locke's legs fail and Rose's cancer return?
What the hell happened to the Monster?
Will we see that rumored Rousseau flashback episode in the first set of seven episodes next season?
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