TV Verdict

Tonight on Lost: the final four, the fail safe, and an illuminating campfire chat. Spoilers follow!

First things first: Whether you loved last week’s episode or thought it was the worst ever, it’s time to move on. “Across the Sea” was, at least, an interesting footnote to the events of the finale, and, at best, an insightful dollop of Island mythology that puts in context everything that happened since the World’s Worst Mother messed up her adopted twins. Either way, the show is coming to an end and the time for reflection is past. All the cards are on the table, characters are colliding in both timelines, and everything is rocketing towards what looks to be the thrilling conclusion of Lost. First, though, we get to find out “What They Died For.” The “they” in this case refers to Sun, Jin, and Sayid, who perished at the end of “The Candidate,” but it could just as easily refer to everyone who was brought to the Island and subsequently died, including Charlie, Boone, Shannon, Libby, Juliet, Rousseau, Alex, Charlotte, and countless others. People who had their names written on the walls of Jacob’s cave, as well as those who just got caught in the crossfire. Tonight, the ones who survived were told by Jacob himself why he brought them all to the Island, why so many of them died, and what is still at stake.

But first we should check in on the Sideways world we last saw through the eyes of hit-and-run victim Locke. His doctor, Jack, wakes up in the apartment he is currently sharing with his son, David, and his newly discovered half-sister Claire. The talk of the breakfast table is that David has a big concert tonight, and though no one comes right out and says it, we can assume it’s the big shindig down at the museum headed up by Marvin Candle, father to detective Miles Straume. Miles, of course, is the partner of James Ford, who recently arrested fugitive Kate Austen and murderer Sayid Jarrah. Kate and Sayid, who are cooling their heels in adjacent holding cells, are joined by Desmond Hume, who has just turned himself in for running over substitute teacher John Locke. Oh, and also for beating up Locke’s colleague, Dr. Benjamin Linus, right after telling Ben that he doesn’t want to hurt Locke—he wants to help him “let go.” Turns out Des is interested in letting some other people go as well. While he, Kate, and Sayid are being transported to County lock-up, he offers them escape in return for an unnamed favor. The trio are released from the van by none other than cop-on-the-take Ana Lucia, who has been paid to “lose” her prisoners by Hugo Reyes, the first recipient of Desmond’s crash course in trans-dimensional consciousness. As Hugo and Sayid take off in his Hummer, Des tells Kate that they need to get ready to go to a concert. Care to guess which one?

Whew! That’s a whole lot of chance meetings and path-crossings. It’s almost as though—as Locke tells Jack after he decides to let the good doc try to fix his wonky spine—there’s a reason all this is happening. Sideways Jack might not be able to tell the difference between coincidence and fate yet, but I bet he will during the concert. That pesky cut on his neck isn’t the only thing bleeding through into his reality.

Back on the Island, Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sawyer try to regroup after the fatal sub explosion. Jack resumes the leadership position he foolishly relinquished first to Hurley and then to Locke, and tells his friends that, before he died, Sayid told him they need to find Desmond. That’s first. After that, they kill the Man in Black. In the middle of searching for Des’s well prison, however, Hurley sees the ghost of Young Jacob. The boy demands that Hurley give him the ashes he took from Ilana’s bag. He does so, and the boy runs off. Hurley chases after him, but instead happens upon the grown up Jacob, sitting by a fire. Jacob tells Hurley that his ashes are in that fire, and that once they burn up, he will be gone. In the time he has left, he says, he wants to tell Hurley and the remaining candidates what they need to know, and what they need to do. So Hurley gathers his friends together, and Jacob gives them something fans have been waiting for since episode 101: Answers.

Kate demands to know why Jacob brought them to the Island. Why did he write their names on the cave wall? And why did Sun and Jin have to die? Jacob tells them that he brought them to the Island because, a long time ago, he made a mistake. A mistake that resulted in the creation of the Smoke Monster (for more information, see “Across the Sea”). Knowing that the Smoke Monster would stop at nothing to kill him—and one day succeed—Jacob made a list of the people who could take his place as Island protector. How did he choose those candidates? By finding people who were as flawed as he was—people who were hurting, and who “needed the Island as much as it needed them.” This statue-dwelling Willy Wonka did it all to find the right person to take his place, and protect the Island by stopping the Smoke Monster from locating the heart of the Island—aka the “golden cave” (again, see “Across the Sea” …or don’t; I don’t care). Because if the Smoke Monster finds the Light, he will extinguish it, and everyone will die. That is why, Jacob tells them, it’s down to one of them to accept the job of Island protector before the campfire they are sitting around burns out. However, unlike Jacob, they all have a choice. He’s not going to force any of them to take the job (although if none of them do, bad stuff will certainly go down). As an aside, he tells Kate (and wondering fans) why her name was crossed off the List: because she became a mother. Call it a cosmic maternity leave. Still, proving that things on Lost are never black and white, Jacob also tells Kate that the List is only written on stone, not set in it. The job is hers if she wants it. She doesn’t. Jack, however, does.

In an unsurprising (but satisfying) move, Jack accepts the job, and he and Jacob head off to the stream, where Jacob performs the same ceremony his “mother” did when he was younger, blessing a cup of Island water and giving it to Jack to drink. Afterwards, Jacob tells him how to find the heart of the Island, something apparently only the protector can do. That bit of information suggests that the reason the Smoke Monster wants all the candidates dead is because if there is no Island protector, the cave of light becomes visible to everyone, human and homicidal columns of smoke alike.

Meanwhile, across the Island and several episodes since last we saw them, Ben, Richard, and Miles are en route to the Dharma barracks and the explosives Ben has hidden in his secret closet room. They gather the C4, but as they are about to leave Ben’s old house, they run into Charles Widmore and Zoe. Widmore tells them (and us) why he returned to the Island. Turns out Jacob visited him off-island and asked him to come back. Furthermore, he gave Widmore specific instructions about what he needed to do—including bringing Desmond as an electromagnet-resistant fail safe. The conversation is interrupted by Locke, who has just returned to the main Island from Hydra. Widmore and Zoe hide in the secret room while Richard and Ben go out to meet Locke. Miles, meanwhile…um, does anyone know what happened to Miles? Anyway, Richard believes Locke wants him. He’s wrong—to the tune of getting smacked in the abdomen by a rib-crushing freight train of black smoke. Locke has actually come looking for Ben, whom he assumes (correctly, it would seem) is willing to kill a few more people in return for Locke giving him the Island when he leaves. Turncoat Ben leads Locke to the room where Zoe and Widmore are hiding. Zoe makes the mistake of speaking to him, so Locke slits her throat. He demands to know why Widmore came to the Island, and threatens to kill Penny if he doesn’t tell. The threat works and Widmore spills his guts, just before having his guts actually spilled by a vengeful Ben’s handgun. “He doesn’t get to save his daughter,” Ben says. I guess he still holds a grudge.

Having dispatched their shared foe, Locke and Ben return to where he left Desmond, only to find an escape rope and an empty well. Ben wonders why Locke isn’t more worried about losing Widmore’s fail safe. Locke assures him that they will find Desmond, and when they do, he’s going to use Des to destroy the Island. Boom!

As a set-up for the finale, “What They Died For” hit all the right notes. It balanced both the Island and Sideways storylines, brought old characters back in interesting ways, and got the whole “candidate” thing out of the way. We now know that Jack is the new Jacob, and that the first thing on his to-do list is to do the one thing Jacob never could: kill the Smoke Monster. I assume he will enlist the help of his friends to do so, along with Desmond—provided swing vote Des doesn’t side with Locke instead. Locke’s ultimate plan is now clear, too. Kill the candidates, find the golden cave of Light, and destroy the Island. But why? Is it simple revenge for the years of imprisonment, is extinguishing the Light just the byproduct of using it to escape, or is he just that evil? Now that Jack has filled the vacancy left by Jacob’s murder, will the Man in Black have a whole other set of rules to contend with, or does Jack not get to make the rules until he’s finished what Jacob started? I imagine we’ll find out the answers to all this in a few days. Personally, I’m more interested in what happens with Desmond, and finding out more about his role on, and off, the Island. Jack may be the candidate, but Des is the key. He once saved the world from Locke’s faithlessness by turning a fail safe key. Let’s see if he can do it again.

With everyone coming together at the Sideways museum concert (I’m guessing Sawyer will show up to re-arrest his escaped prisoners), it’s only a matter of time before the LA X-ers reconnect with their Island selves. But what will happen when they do? And now that we know that the Man in Black wants to destroy the Island, what does it mean that, in this life, the Island has been sunk? I speculated in earlier posts that the Sideways world was created by the events that are transpiring on the Island right now. Only a few more days to see if I’m right. Perhaps the Man in Black will succeed in destroying the Island, and the Sideways world is the result of his escape. If so, I expect the newly aware 815-ers to come together in the end to put him back where he belongs—or to kill him for good. Whatever happens, I’m not sure how they’re going to wrap it all up in two-and-a-half hours (though I have faith in the writers to do it).

All right, “Across the Sea” haters. Did “What They Died For” wash the taste of magical caves and mommy dearest out of your mouths, or did it just galvanize your fear that the Lost finale will be a disappointment? We definitely got answers in tonight’s episode, but were they satisfying? Is it enough to know that Jacob chose his candidates because they, like him, were flawed? Or were you looking for more than that? And what do you make of Ben’s flip to the dark side (and his cold-blooded killing of Charles Widmore; talk about breaking the rules)? Is Ben really on Team Locke, or is this his last ditch attempt to redeem his lying past? Seems to me that promising someone an Island then telling them you’re going to destroy it kinda ruins your leverage. Then again, Island Ben isn’t nearly as nice as Sideways Ben. Just ask both versions of Danielle Rousseau. Eat your Coq Au Vin, Lost fans, but be sure to leave room for dessert. Cause the end is gonna be sweet.

With that, there’s no more room for guessing what’s going to happen because as of Sunday night, everything that’s going to happen on Lost will have happened, although if the show did its job, the speculation will continue long after the closing credits. Since we still have a few days, let’s not end the guessing game yet. What did you think of “What They Died For,” and how do you think this whole thing will end? The comments await…