As the final season of Lost builds rapidly to a climax, the show nevertheless takes the time to give us a secondary pre-climax climax—in the form of a nice, swift kick between the legs.
Now, let’s break form and get right to talking about the end of this episode, because that’s what’s on everyone’s mind. Given the structure and pacing of the season so far, I was expecting an important character to die this week. I was not expecting three (possibly four) to die. It was rough and brutal, it was sad and heartbreaking, and it did two very important things: it raised the stakes for the viewer, and it finally drew the line in the sand that the Man in Black is evil, evil, evil. Heck, he’s Evil with a capital E.
“It makes Hurley cry” can probably be used as a new litmus test.
After taking years to finally reunite, Desmond and Penny got their happy ending (albeit temporarily). Jin and Sun, also apart for years, finally reunite as well, but their happiness is cut tragically short. This was like Juliet all over again, times two, with a dash of worse thrown in as well. It was a legitimately sad ending for two very likable characters who had gone through such hardships to be with each other again, and it was handled beautifully.
As quick and sudden as it was, I think Sayid’s death was handled well, too. Martyrdom was pretty much the only logical way for his character arc to end, and given the tension going on with the episode, it felt very fitting that, in the midst of Jack and Sawyer’s rivalry and bickering, someone else would need to make the snap decision to save the day. Or, well, to salvage what could possibly be salvaged of the worst day ever. Also: “It’s going to be you, Jack.” Excellent and ominous last words.
Lapidus is still unaccounted for. But hey, Jin survived an exploding freighter, so I think Lapidus can survive a bulkhead to the face. But I’ll get more into my theory on that later.
There was a lot of action in this episode, especially in the final scenes. If I have one complaint, it’s that Kate seemed like she got shot pretty bad, and then didn’t even get any first aid, but in the aftermath of everyone else dying, her gunshot wound got turned almost instantly into an afterthought. Don’t get me wrong; I’m all about not overloading the audience with tension, but her actually getting shot and the moments after were done so well that I thought that was going to be the episode’s main “Oh Shit!” moment. You’d think that escaping from a sinking submarine and having to share oxygen with someone while getting inundated with seawater would make things worse after getting shot in the torso.
Honestly, though, that’s little more than a nitpick. Just about everything else about this episode put it on par with Season Finale quality drama and suspense. There were some awesome character moments, especially from Jack, Sawyer, and the Man in Black (I’m glad to see, in this episode especially, Terry O’Quinn’s diverging take on both the Man and Black and John Locke).
Over in flash-sideways land, Jack is still in his literal “I want to fix people” state that he was stuck in before, pretty much up to the point when he got Juliet killed. This is Classic Jack at his refreshed peak, and the juxtaposition between him and Locke in the old days of the original timeline (as well as him and Not!Locke in the original timeline) is actually kind of poetic.
Of course, now the characters in the flash-sideways timeline are starting to see and recognize all the weird life-altering coincidences surrounding Oceanic 815. What does all that portend in a universe without the Island? Hard to say, but clearly it’s going to mean something.
And speaking of things with greater meaning, this is why I don’t think Frank Lapidus is dead: with Widmore’s submarine well and sunk, the only real way for the characters to escape the Island is the Ajira plane. I expect we’ll see Mr. Lapidus rising from the briny deep to save our castaways sooner than you can say, “Screw you, Man in Black, for killing off half the main cast, you dick.”
I’ve gotta be honest, for me this was the low point of a fantastic series. With the Ben and Richard episodes, as well as Desmond, Hurley and Jin/Sun episodes, I’ve been amazed with how well the season’s been going, and it’s probably been my favourite of them all.
But this episode seemed poorly written, quite often poorly acted and occasionally character-breaking.
First gripe: The writing. No one seems to care about death or killing any more. It’s not even as if they’re just desensitised. They care about Jin and Sun, they care when Kate gets shot. But not one of them bats an eyelash when the Man in Black slaughters a bunch of people. Sure, they captured you, but we’re talking about Jack here. Someone so opposed to letting people die that he spent the first half of the first season brutally prolonging the life of a shady character who wanted to die, using up countless medical supplies and opposing everyone who wanted to let the poor sod die. Now he doesn’t even question mass death. Just because they don’t have names, show a little respect. Sheesh.
Also, when Sawyer tells Jack his plan, why isn’t Jack a little angry? Didn’t he just nearly die after Sawyer kicked him off a boat in the middle of the ocean? No mention of that again?
And why God why does no one ask where Lapidus is? Even as an afterthought. I mean sure, he’s not one of the gang, but seriously? Not one person cares if he got off the sub?
Second gripe: The acting. Probably wouldn’t have noticed this in a new show, but the Lost standard, particularly this far in, is too high for this to go ignored. Jack and Hurley were two surprising characters I noticed giving some pretty shoddy delivery this episode, and Sawyer a couple of times (Although most episode he was usual awesome). Jin’s was a little more forgivable, but still ruined a moment for me: When he’s trying to free Sun, and he’s yelling, he completely loses his accent on every word except “Go!”. I realise it’s probably hard to yell in an accent, but it completely changed, and ruined an otherwise comepletely brilliant scene. Lapidus was constantly acting well, and then he got whacked by a door and left on a sinking sub, so I don’t think there’s much motivation to act well anymore…
Third Gripe: Sort of covered in my first complaint, as this is pretty much a problem I had with the writing, but a fair few bits in this episode didn’t seem to match their respective characters, or things we have been told before. Sayid’s bit irritated me for two reasons: His selfless death was quite predictable in my opinion, because he returned to his normal self during the start of their sub escape, and his reaction to the C4 could have been taken directly from season 3 or 4. It seemed too much of a contrast with dark ‘evil’ Sayid. You could say he changed from talking to Desmond, but it was too sudden for my liking. Secondly, he knew how to stop the bomb, but his excuse was “They have to be pulled out simultaneously”. Well… why didn’t he do that? Sawyer could manage it pretty easily. And it’s not even as if Sayid was doing it carefully because of that. He literally said it and stood back, as if pulling them out at the same time was impossible or something. You’d think with his background, and what we’ve seen of him in past seasons, he’s have tried it himself.
On top of all that, I thought some of the action scenes were just plain stupid. What was the whole “Knock him [Man in Black] in the water, I’ll do the rest” bit about? Jack knocked him in the water, and then ‘Locke’ spent about 5 minutes trying to get out, during which time Sawyer does nothing, and then it’s never mentioned again. And why did no one question whether or not there were explosives on the sub too? I mean, they go from a confined space with only two guards to… a confined space with only two guards. In fact, the sub’s guys weren’t even guards, they were sailors. No one considered that might be tampered with. And Man in Black in Locke form getting shot was a wasted opportunity. Whisps of smoke coming out where the bullets hit him? Gaping holes ripped in his disguise Terminator style? No, let’s just have no special effects. The actor can walk kinda funny, that’ll be fine.
Long rant is long, but I was just very disappointed. I’ve come to expect much better of Lost, especially after such brilliant recent episodes.