S1Eps23and24 - Exodus Parts 2 and 3 (Season One finale - part two)

My dearest, most patient friends -

You may be glancing at your calendar and thinking, "Hmmm... didn't Lost end months ago?"

Uh.... yes. What can I say? What have I been doing? Why has this finale wrap-up been so ridiculously late in coming?

Have I been:
a) in denial that the season ended and therefore couldn't bring myself to write the final recap?
b) working for The Man way too much?
c) busy reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and then subsequently being depressed that book 7 won't come out for another 2 years?
d) slathering on Jergens Natural Glow to make it seem like I've even seenthe light of day this summer?
e) trying to stalk Vince Vaughn and/or Jennifer Aniston who were in Chicago all summer, yet failing miserably and remaining quite possibly the only person in the city who didn't see either of them?
f) all of the above

Answer: f

Since it's been so long, I'm going to provide an extremely quick recap so you remember what I'm even talking about in the Issues section:

RECAP of entire finale (all three hours)

Flashbacks that had new information worth mentioning:

Walt/Michael - Walt was a brat, Michael was frustrated and vented to his mother over the phone in Sydney that him raising Walt was "never part of the plan," which Walt overheard.

Sun/Jin - Sun's father had found out about Jin's plan for them to escape once in America and sent one of his men on the same flight as them to forewarn Jin that he was not going to be able to get away and that he would "lose her" if he tried, and that he would "never be free."

Jack - Was definitely married at one point in the past, but no longer is, and also flirted with Ana Lucia in the bar before the flight.

Kate - The stupid toy plane was planted in the bank she robbed by the Marshal in order to catch her.

Sawyer - He was being deported back to the US after getting into a bar fight with an Australian diplomat.

Hurley - Fate seemed to really not want him to make his flight, but despite several setbacks, he obviously made it on. The comic book Walt read on the island with the polar bear in it was originally Hurley's.


Island Happenings

Danielle (Frenchie) enters camp. She says The Others are coming and everyone needs to either bust outta there, hide like there's no tomorrow, or die. She said that everything that happened before when they stole her baby, Alex, is happening again, and sure enough, the column of black smoke appeared shortly thereafter like she predicted . This spurred the Lostaways into action on two fronts: 1) getting the damn raft afloat and 2) opening the hatch in an attempt (albeit lame) to hide everyone in it.

The raft sets sail after a tearful good-bye scene between Sun/Jin and Vincent/Walt. A subset of the group goes with Frenchie to the Black Rock to find dynamite, where they discover that the Black Rock is actually an old slave-ship, and that the "monster"/Lostzilla is some sort of security system for the island. Frenchie leaves the group after they make it to the dynamite and goes back to steal Claire's baby. Claire has a short flashback of Danielle being involved in her abduction. Charlie totally flips out about the baby being kidnapped, and then flips out some more later when Sayid melds together his skin with lighted gunpowder as they go searching for the baby, and then freaks out even more when confronted with the Plane O' Heroin, and then totally loses it on Frenchie after retrieving the baby from her. Frenchie can't understand why The Others didn't want to trade Claire's baby (now named Aaron) for her daughter, because she heard them whisper that they were coming for "the child." Unfortunately, we viewers were treated to Hillbillies On Boats R Us (aka: The Others, apparently) who proved that "the child" they wanted was actually Walt. The Others took Walt and then shot Sawyer, Jin dove into the water after Sawyer, and Michael leapt off the raft
after it was fire-bombed by the woman driving the Hillbilly Boat. Walt was taken away screaming on the Hillbilly Boat.

On the island, poor Dr. Arzt blew up handling dynamite. Locke was caught by the monster and dragged along the jungle floor but saved by Jack and Kate who dropped dynamite down a hole
thus causing the monster to release Locke. Weird floaty black smoke stuff was seen all around. Locke and Jack locked horns several times. Hurley FINALLY saw the numbers on the hatch and went berzerker, but Locke quickly blew the lid off of it anyway. The hatch led down a deep deep hole with a broken-off ladder. The end.

WHEW. Am I good? Or AM I GOOD?

So with all that said, I will now say this: I actually was disappointed in the last two hours. As you may or may not remember, I LOVED the first part of the finale and thought it was incredible, as did nearly everyone on the boards. However, I felt like the next two hours did not take me on the emotional rollercoaster that the first hour did. I also felt like not a heck of a lot even happened. Therefore, there aren't as many new issues listed below as there usually would be. But I have heard that there will be some major answers early on in Season 2, so I guess we shall soon see...


Issues

1) The Others

Everyone seems convinced that the crazy Gorton's Fisherman and Posse who took Walt actually WERE The Others, but I'm still not so sure. If you remember when Charlie and Sayid confronted Danielle to get back the baby, they were on the tip of the island at the origin of the column of Black Smoke, and one of them made a point of saying that there were no footprints
surrounding the fire. Now, that may have been the case because The Others were on a boat and didn't track inland after setting the fire, but I took it more literally to mean there were NO footprints at all anywhere and it was therefore a mystery as to how the fire was started in the first place, which led me to think perhaps The Others were spirit-like things. Other evidence
to support that those people were NOT The Others is that Danielle, who's been on the island for 16 years, has NEVER seen them, and has only heard them 'whisper.' We also know that both Sayid and Sawyer have heard those whispers. So if the Deliverance extras on the boat were actually The Others, we still need an explanation for the whispers.

However, the one reason that those freaky people could've actually been The Others is that of the 4 people on the boat, two of the them were supposedly twins. Now, after I read about this possibility, I went back and paused and slo-mo'd tons of times and still can't say that it was obvious to me, but apparently on the boat there was 1) Old fisherman guy who spoke, 2) Straggly blond hair woman driving the boat and throwing the grenade thingy and then 3) and 4) two strong-looking twin men who shot Sawyer and physically took Walt. If those guys really were twins, that would lead me to wonder if "The Others" are some sort of "super-soldier cloning experiment" type of thing going on as we saw that Ethan was also extraordinarily strong. My other theory was that The Others could shape-shift into human form but were actually not human themselves. One last thought is that perhaps the Boat Peeps are just working for The Others?

Unfortunately I am at a loss to explain why the main guy had on a knit cap and overalls in the tropical climate, nor why he was so cheery when they initially drove up to the raft, no why he seemed to speak with a slight twang...

My final comment about The Others is that if The Others had ALWAYS been after Walt, then why did Ethan try to kidnap Claire and get her baby? Perhaps Ethan was NOT one of The Others, but rather he was working with Danielle for some reason, as we now know that Danielle was definitely part of Claire's original kidnapping. So if that is the case, who in the heck was Ethan and where did HE come from?!?!

2) Strange Bird and Weird Black Smoke Stuff

Here's another thing I COMPLETELY missed, but upon re-watching do agree is definitely there...

There was a scene when the group who had gone to get the dynamite was walking back to the hatch with it. There was an eagle or hawk-type of bird that cawed and then flew off, kind of in slow motion. I remember the first time I watched thinking, "Hmmm, that was random, so therefore there MUST be a reason why they had that scene ...". Then I read that when the bird
cawed, he actually said "Hurley." So I was all, "No WAY" and went to watch it again, and sure enough, the bird definitely said "Hurley."

?!?!!??!?!?!?!!? NO IDEA WHY. However, I will say that the transcripts of the show just say that the bird made a "loud screeching noise." If you still have it on Tivo or get the Season 1 DVD, you should check that out for yourself, as it is weird.

I lumped the bird in with the Weird Black Smoke Stuff because I also have no idea what is up with that. As you may remember, a few different times during the finale, the group in the jungle saw strange black smoke that looked digitized or like a bunch of small black clouds making up a larger mass that all moved together. The transcripts described it as a "wisp" of
black smoke. Jack and Kate both actually saw it - not only just out of nowhere in the middle of the jungle, but also when they threw the dynamite into the hole that the monster was trying to pull Locke into. Some people on the boards had the theory that they were "nanorobots" like in the book Prey by Michael Crichton, which I never read. But the cover of that book has a picture of something looking awfully similar to the Weird Black Smoke Stuff.


3) Science vs. Faith

The tension between Locke and Jack grew significantly in the finale. Not enough for Jack to not try to save Locke when he was caught by Lostzilla, but still. From the beginning scenes with both of them stressfully trying to lift the dynamite out of the boxes, to the final scenes... they were definitely setting it up for a showdown next season. A few particular scenes stand out:

- When lifting the dynamite out, Locke suddenly said 'BZZZZZT!' to freak out not only Jack but also the viewing audience. Jack's response: "Do you like to play games, John?" Locke: "Absolutely." This could be a hint that this is all some sort of a) virtual reality game or b) experiment with human subjects that Locke is in on, or it could just be more subtle in referring
to mind games...

- When tracking back to the hatch with the dynamite, Locke and Hurley had this conversation... which makes me wonder if Locke even saw anything at all when the light came on in the hatch before:
HURLEY: Come on, really, what do you think's inside?
LOCKE: Hope. I think hope is inside.

- When Lostzilla had Locke, Locke begged Jack to let him drop down the hole, pleading that he knew it would be OK. Jack thought he'd gone off the deep end and ordered Kate to throw in the dynamite. Later, Jack confronted Locke about it and they got into the "you're a man of science, and I'm a man of faith" heated discussion, during which Locke said that each one of had a purpose for being there, and admitted that he thought Boone was a "sacrifice to the island." He also stated that he thought that it was the island itself that brought them all together. Here is the exact conversation:

JACK: What the hell was all that about back there, John?
LOCKE: What was what about?
JACK: You asked me to let you go.
LOCKE: That's right.
JACK: No, that thing was taking you down the hole, and you asked me to let you go.
LOCKE: (interrupts) It wasn't gonna hurt me.
JACK: No, John, it was gonna kill you.
LOCKE: I seriously doubt that.
(Locke turns and continues down the path. Jack follows him.)
JACK: Look, I need for you to -- I need for you to explain to me what the hell's going on inside your head, John. I need to know why you believe that that thing wasn't gonna --
LOCKE: (interrupts) I believe that I was tested.
JACK: Tested.
LOCKE: Yeah. Tested. I think that's why you and I don't see eye to eye sometimes, Jack. Because you're a man of science.
JACK: Yeah. And what does that make you?
LOCKE: Me? Well, I'm a man of faith. Do you really think all this is an accident? That we, a group of strangers, survived, many of us with just superficial injuries? You think we crashed on this place by coincidence? Especially this place? We were brought here for a purpose, for a reason -- all of us. Each one of us was brought here for a reason.
JACK: Brought here. And who brought us here, John?
LOCKE: The island. The island brought us here. (Jack is having a difficult time listening to this.) This is no ordinary place. You've seen that. I know you have. The island chose you, too, Jack. It's destiny.
JACK: Did you talk with Boone about destiny, John?
LOCKE: Boone was a sacrifice that the island demanded. What happened to him at that plane was a part of a chain of events that led us here. That led us down a path. That led you and me to this day, to right now.
JACK: (nods) Where's that path end, John?
LOCKE: The path ends at the hatch.
(Jack shakes his head.)
LOCKE: The hatch, Jack. All of it happened so that we could open the hatch.
JACK: No, no, we're opening the hatch so that we can survive.
LOCKE: Survival is all relative, Jack.
(Jack shakes his head and sighs.)
JACK: I don't believe in destiny.
(Jack walks around Locke.)
LOCKE: Yes, you do. You just don't know it yet.

At this point even I am not sure if my beloved Locke has gone bonkers, but I will say that I will remain his number one fan until he does something that is just really, really bad. : ) For now, I still think one of two things is going on: a) he truly does have more information than the others and therefore knows what is going on and is helping the others realize it on their own, or b) he THINKS he knows what is going on, and is so convinced of it (because of things like suddenly not being paralyzed anymore), that everything he does has good intentions.

By the way, I am flying back from NYC again right now and last night my friend and I (shout out to MK) were walking to dinner and she thought she saw Locke in this restaurant, and
I was like "WAS IT HIM?!?!?! WAS IT HIM OR WAS IT NOT HIM BECAUSE IF IT WAS
HIM - WE NEED TO GO BACK?!!?!?" She then told me it just looked like him and didn't really think it was him... but I think perhaps she just didn't want me to create a scene...

- Right before the hatch top was blown off, Jack pulled Kate aside and said,
JACK: Everybody wants me to be a leader until I make a decision that they don't like. You want to keep second-guessing me, Kate? That's your call. There's something that you need to know. If we survive this, we survive tonight ... we're gonna have a Locke problem.
(They both turn and look at Locke.)
JACK: Now, I have to know that you got my back.
KATE: I got your back.

- A conversation similar to Jack and Locke's was had amongst the women... though not clearly science vs. faith, it was revolving around whether things happen for a reason:

SUN: Do you think all this ... all we've been through ... do you think we're being punished?
SHANNON: Punished for what?
SUN: Things we did before. The secrets we kept. The lies we told.
SHANNON: Who do you think is punishing us?
SUN: Fate.
CLAIRE:No one's punishing us.
(They both turn to look at Claire, who stares off in front of her.)
CLAIRE: There's no such thing as fate.


4) The Monster

We are still not sure exactly what Lostzilla is. We know Danielle said it was a type of security system for the island, and we know that it has the ability to kill people (the pilot) and take people (as it tried with Locke). What remains to be understood is exactly WHAT Locke saw the first time he encountered it, why he was no longer afraid of it... UNTIL it came after him in the finale. If you remember that scene, his eyes went from calm to totally frightened (Emmy-winning scene, IMHO) and then it dragged him off, and later on he was really confused about it, but still seemed convinced that it would not have hurt him. There appeared to be a rope-type-of-thing around his leg dragging him across the jungle floor, and there were
mechanical gear-cranking type sounds. And it was going to drag him into a hole in the ground... and when they threw explosives into it, the crazy floaty black stuff puffed out the other end. So is the black stuff connected to the monster? Is someone/something controlling the monster? etc., etc. No answers there.

5) Raft peeps

The raft scenes were my favorites... I have hope that Sawyer will survive his gunshot wound because on the raft they made a point of proving that he was still not "redeemed" as he talked about the need to still kill the real Sawyer. Now that the raft is destroyed and Sawyer is hurt, my prediction is that they will somehow float to another part of the island and have to get
back to the main group. I have a feeling we may not be seeing Walt for a while... but I'm not sure.


Recap of outstanding questions, in stream of consciousness order

Why did Jack get a divorce?
Why was Hurley in the mental institution where he learned the numbers?
How did Locke become paralyzed?
What exactly did Kate do that is so bad that she was always on the run and that her own mom was scared to see her?
What exactly IS the connection between the numbers, the hatch, and the island overall?
Why did Locke hurry to blow the lid off the hatch even after Hurley started screaming not to?
Is Sayid's Nadia still alive somewhere?
Who was Ethan and where did he come from?
Where is Alex, Danielle's daughter?
What is "the sickness" that killed Danielle's crew?
What exactly is Lostzilla?
What is the crazy black smoke floaty stuff?
Who were the hillbillies on the boat, and what did they want with Walt?
Will Sawyer survive his gunshot wound?
What will any of the raft peeps do now that the raft, the raft, the raft is on fire?!?!?!?
If something happens to Claire in Season Two, what is going to happen to her kid if he's "raised by another?" Is he a Devil Baby?
What is up with the Nigerian drug smugglers and the Plane o' Heroin?
Did Charlie actually take any of the heroin with him?
Does Walt really have some sort of 'powers'?
What are the whispers?
Where exactly are they and what IS the island and why hasn't anyone found them since it does appear to be a fairly large island...
Whose was the voice Boone heard over the transmission before his fateful fall?
Are the Lostaways there for a specific reason, or was it just a random plane crash and they survived it?
Are "bad people" or "people in need of "redemption" the only ones on the island... as we now have a group of people who all have issues, a Nigerian drug smuggling fake priest team, a slave ship, and a team of scientists that were doing who knows what...
Did anyone else survive the flight 815 plane crash? Rose's husband? Ana Lucia?
WHAT IS IN THE HATCH? What was the light Locke saw in it before?
Is Kate going to continue to suck next season? Or will I perhaps be even more annoyed by some new character?


Emmy Nominations

The Emmys air on Sunday, September 18th on CBS... Lost was nominated for 12 Emmys, including Best Drama, and the actors playing Sayid and Locke (YAY!) have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. LOCKE BETTER WIN.


Best Line:

Hurley to Jack, "You got some... Arzt on you."
Sawyer to Walt, after reading the messages in the bottle: "Who the hell is Hugo, and how's he got $160 million to leave his mom?"

And finally, here are some messages from the boards.


POSTS FROM THE MESSAGE BOARDS

- Amazing how so many people heading to or from Africa ended up on the island.
- Wow, Maggie Grace, bringing her A Game with the “It’s too much” speech! I was no Shannon fan, but I’m completely impressed.
- Sun: “The secret’s we kept, the lies we told.” That was a great commentary on the human psyche. Maybe there is no reason why they’re on the island, but it’s so human to turn inward and try to find a reason. 1. Blame others. 2. Blame myself. 3. Resign self to Fate? Great writing.
- I was howling when Sayid took a stop at the plane and then showed Charlie the heroin. Even if he didn’t know about Charlie’s addiction, is it really smart for the sheriff to show the townfolk where the stash is? I don’t know what the stats are for drug addiction in the general populace, but given the situation on the island and readily available heroin, the odds are against Sayid’s policy of honesty. Although wound cauterization by bullet, also not so pleasant. Charlie’s going to have a wicked scar now. Maybe the turn of his personality?
- Terry O’Quinn deserves an Emmy for his scene with Lostzilla. The intensity of his changing emotions… his eyes. Just wow. And huge, MAJOR kudos to the writers for not making Lostzilla some stupid Jurassic Park denizen. So is it dead?
- OK, the fact that Kate didn't blow up? Totally proof that there's no God. But the fact that Jack switched packs? Hilarious. I suddenly like him again.
- Re: the Arztsplosion: If he comes back to life next season, be he mystical guide or zombie or servant of the Others, and Boone stays in his blue plastic shroud, I will be p!ssed. That is all.
- So, the Others are....a redneck motorcycle gang?
- Did anybody else start thinking of Ashlee Simpson's "Pieces of Me" when he got blown up?
- So the security system is mechanical and possibly hydraulic, is it? I wonder if it requires any maintenance after sixteen years?
- And after hearing Arse spout off about how Hurley and Co. don't realize that there are 40 other castaways, and that the extras--I mean, the other castaways--count as well, and then seeing him blow up. . . well, that's got to be a message to other extras who demand speaking roles.
- Does anyone else think that maybe the Others are evil smurfs? I stand corrected--they are evil Ashley MacIsaacs. The hell--so it's a bunch of guys in fishing outfits? Where do they get the gas? Where did they get the funky knit hats? I was actually expecting they would be Spaniards, or something, left over from the Black Rock ship wreck.
- Wait, what did they hit that they lost the rudder? A log? And where did all this rope come from? I've seen Cast Away, making rope, much like pimpin', ain't easy.
- Good God I hope Kate gets blown up good.
- Oh man, the heroin plane finally meets Charlie! AWESOME. Bring the junky to the junk that's what I always say. HA!
- Alright, Lostzilla, bring it the fuck on!! And of course we see nothing! Maybe it's actually invisible? Was it just me or did it sound kind of like a dot matrix printer at first?
- I am so impressed. They actually cleaned up storylines. The hatch is opened. Hurley saw the numbers. We saw the others. We most precisely didn't see Invisible!Lostzilla. Charlie finds the heroin (and most likely gets a l'il action as soon as Claire is feeling more healed). Sayid and Shannon reunite. Jack & Locke head for a show-down. Turniphead gets a name. Roussaeu completely loses her shit. Walt is taken. Sawyer gets shot. The raft is exploded (along with Arzt, serving as the voice of the audience in this episode). The raftaways are stranded in the deep, deep sea. AND we get more nods from the continuity fairy during the plane boarding that we've gotten in the rest of the season. Kate is still alive, but there's only so much you can ask for in one season finale.
- At least Vincent still lives!
- Terry Quinn kicks acting ass. The scenes of him being carried into the plane; a reminder of how devastated he was at being turned away from the walkabout...his face was amazing.
- Dude, does this mean Walt will be tortured to death by rockabilly celtic fiddlers? No wonder Rousseau was so “run, hide or die,” because my personal experience has been that the length of time the human body can withstand gaelic punk is directly proportional to the amount of Guinness one has digested…and Walt is too young to drink.
- Great finale, perfect set up for next season. They want the show to go at least five years, I doubt we'll get any real answers until the series finale way in the future, just sit back and enjoy the mystery and excellent writing and mostly really good acting. If you want the questions answered immediately, then yeah, you should probably just switch over to a Matlock rerun, I guarantee, everything will be answered within 60 minutes.


Until next season,
- e