Ehm, wow. Where to start? This was no ordinary episode of LOST – this was a mastodont, filled with tons and tons of info, action, emotions, revelations, excitement… I’ve never had a LOST episode like this before: it made me laugh, it made me angry, it made me jump up yelling profanity, it made me cry. All these things, LOST had already done to me on some point or another… but not all at once in one huge angry motherfucker of an episode.

So, where to begin? How about this: In what might be described as the wildest roller coaster ride ever on LOST, the fourth season has come full circle.

The episode…

I’m so, so, so damn glad I watched this episode in one go – as I’m quite sure it was meant to be watched. As predicted, the ending and the beginning were the same: the show started with a flashforward showing how the Oceanic Six set foot on the mainland again, and practically ended with that very flashforward becoming the new present time (before it switched over to something different – but more on that later). As I said: this was no ordinary episode of LOST, it was more like a full-feature, two hour film.

I agree with the fact that the first forty minutes were a big set-up for what was to come (the bomb on the freighter, the Orchid, Keamy, people moving around and making it even more complicated) – but since I didn’t have two weeks to actually think about that set-up, the episode didn’t seem as straightforward as they had told me it would be at all. And, with LOST, I like the surprises to blow me away.

One thing at a time, starting with the island. So, they did manage to move it after all. Whatever that means, however, we did not find out. Cuse and Lindelof are on to something here: the most insane part of the entire episode, namely the orientation film on time travel and all that followed, was introduced with humour (Ben sticking that room full with metal whilst Hallowax was clearly telling this was not the way to go). It’s really nice to see how humour can still be packed into a part of the story where the stakes are this high.

I’m not one for huge action sequences, but the fight between Keamy and Sayid was one of the most awesomely shot scenes in LOST ever. With Keamy being such a dickwad, you really wanted Sayid’s punches to hit hard and below the belt. On top of that, this fight comes really early in the second part of the episode, so you’re kind of uncertain whether Sayid will win this one (Keamy being the season vilain and not being able to go down that easily). I’m really glad Richard interrupted the brawl – someone other than Keamy just might have gotten hurt. On a related note: I jumped when the Orchid’s elevator started going up again. Everyone knew who was coming, and the slowness of it all made it look like the part in the Godzilla movie where the monster looks you straight in the eye and then kills everything in sight. …But, that didn’t happen – thank you Ben for going Sweeney Todd on Keamy and killing everyone on the damn freighter.

The freighter. Is it time to say bye bye to both Michael and Jin? I say “yes”, but only for 50 %: I think Michael’s dead (solidified by Christian), but Jin is still alive. Honestly, if he isn’t, they’re missing out on quite the reunion scene, if it is anywhere nearly as well acted as Sun’s reaction to the freighter going boom. Now that the cat’s out of the bag and we know what Sun thinks happened to Jin, we can finally understand the whole deal about the lying, the date on the tombstone (the date of the crash)… that puzzle is complete. I’m kind of annoyed by the fact that Michael is presumably dead. They have hyped his coming back for ages, and then kill him off after one season? I don’t know why, but I don’t like it. I don’t like Harold Perinneau, but I do like Michael as a (tragic) character, and I really had wished for him to reunite with Walt. Now we won’t get to see any of that, I think, and that just makes me feel like they got Michael back as an excuse to focus more on Walt and his… “specialty”.

I love how the fourth season managed to connect all the flashforwards together, and how all the loose
ends were tied. We now know when Ben’s flashforward took place (boy, it didn’t him long to return to the action after being banished from the island). We now know what happens to the Oceanic Six in the first few years after they got rescued (people are saying three years, because the Jack-with-the-beard flashforwards take place in 2007) and what happened between them. Apparently, not everyone is alright with Jack’s decision to lie about the rescue. Oh, and the fact that he turns into quite the pill-popping dictator. Also nice to see is that we got the wrong impression on Sayid, who did not turn into Hair Conditioner Hitman after all – does this make Ben the good guy?

Benjamin Linus is just about the most complicated character to ever appear on a television show, I think. Every time you think you know him, something happens which makes your ideas about him shift completely. He didn’t feel the slightest bit of remorse for killing Keamy and thus blowing up the freighter. But he was willing to give banish himself from the island in order to save it. Why is he so connected to the island, and why is this connection a one-way street? I honestly haven’t got a clue anymore; all I know is that I really, really think there oughta be more Benjamin Linuses on television. They make things interesting.

Two moments in this episode sent shivers down my spine – moments which were no plot twists at all, just things I had not expected to see. The first one: from such a reserved woman as Sun, I had not expected to see such a brilliant form of histeria. When that freighter blew up, Sun literally went insane. She really was capable of pulling a Sawyer (jumping down), and that particular performance really impressed me. The second moment was when Desmond saw Penny again: I know there are no happy ends on LOST, but still… I’m really happy to live in ignorant bliss until the fifth season starts.

It’s nice to come full circle: the third season finale left us with the question what was in the coffin, and the fourth season finale answered that. People were furstrated because in a way, they feel the series has not moved since the last finale, but I beg to differ. We found out a lot of new things, and even though we knew how it was going to end, it was damn exciting to see how they got there. Anyway: the coffin. John Locke. That’s certainly interesting… so now we are presented with a new gap – it’s not about the Oceanic Six and their rescue anymore, it’s about the island, the Others and John Locke’s… demise. I can’t wait to find out – apart from Hurley and Sun, I don’t really care about the Oceanic Six. Not counting all time favourite Desmond, of course.

The questions…

We finally know who got off the island and how they did it. I’m impressed with the constant moving around of characters – it’s almost as if they were pawns on a huge chess board. Maybe they were playing against Ghost Eko? Concerning Taller Ghost Walt (question 2): I think there’s a difference between the Walt on the island and the Walt off the island. Walt on the island – the notorious T.G.W. – was a manifestation of the monster. The Walt off the island? Not so much: he’s the real deal. I hope he re-joins the cast in the next season – he’s such a good actor. Now we also know where the lies came from (question 4): they did it to protect everyone who got left behind. I figured conspiracy, but I guess I was wrong. It’s all Jack and Locke.

We still don’t know anything about Jacob (question 5), the fact that he uses dead people to talk on his behalf. We did get another confirmation about an ancient civilization this season (the frozen donkey wheel is the next four-toed statue) – I reckon Jacob will have something to do with this. Moving on, question 9 (what’s up with Annie) gets a little nudge: maybe Rousseau’s not Annie after all? Maybe Annie… is Charlotte? Charlotte finally “returned” to the island – maybe she was one of the Dharma Initiative? Maybe she’s Annie?

Read with me. This is what I said about “the man in the coffin” (question 10): “At first, I thought it was Locke. Seemed like the most obvious person to be in there. After rewatching the episode, however, and seeing the news paper’s transcript, my money’s on Michael. The article mentioned something about leaving behind a teenage boy – I’m quite sure we’ll find this out in the next batch of episodes. It won’t be important, though.” Man. Have I ever been more wrong than this?

So what’s next?

I absolutely loved this episode – it felt less like a television series and more like a full-feature film (which can honestly happen more often). I can’t help but wonder what’s up for next season though. So here’s a little prediction – unmarked by any possible spoilers out there, because frankly, there are none. I think next season will see another shift in storytelling: the main story will be off-island and will focus on everyone getting back, while the on-island flashbacks catch up with this off-island story (thus showing us what happened to Locke). I don’t think there’ll be a lot of catching up though… as I predict the island will have moved in time… to 2007. The bearded Jack point. The point where Bentham starts showing up. Along with this, I expect to see quite the shift in cast. We might be seeing more of Charles Widmore. We will denitely be seeing more of Penny Widmore (I still dread the day she comes accross Benjamin Linus). I hope to see more of Walt. I hope Lapidus will make return, but I don’t count on it. Even though… we still haven’t found out why he was unable to fly Oceanic 815… right?

Oh man, I can’t wait until season five starts.

Favourite Quote: Hurley: I can’t believe he did it.
Jack: Who did what?
Hurley: Locke. He moved the island.
Jack: No, he didn’t.
Hurley: Oh, really? ‘Cause… one minute it was there, and the next it was gone, so… unless we, like,
overlooked it, Dude, that’s exactly what he did. But… if you’ve got another explanation, man, I’d love
to hear it.