Lost Finale: A Exciting End to a Intriguing Season (Part 2)

And now for part 2 of my review of the season finale of season four of LOST.

After the rescue of Ben we have the second flashforward of the episode. This one features Hurley at the mental hospital, where he gets a surprise visitor: Walt (Malcolm David Kelley). Walt, after voicing his disappointment that no one visited him after they got back, explains that he has been contacted by Jeremy Bentham and asks Hurley why everyone is lying about the crash. In response Hurley tells Walt that they are lying to protect everyone that was left behind.

Before I continue I feel I have to mention Malcolm David Kelley’s growth spurt. If not for seeing his name on the guest credits I never would have thought it was the same actor. While he merely looked like a taller version of himself in his season three appearance, now he looks like a completely different person. It’s even easier to see why the writers were forced to write the character out of the show. But now that it’s been established that the flashforwards cover a timeframe of three years and counting, it’s feasible to bring the character back.

We are then returned to the present, where Faraday (Jeremy Davies) returns from ferrying the first group to the freighter and prepares to take another group. Before he goes his teammates Miles (Ken Leung) and Charlotte (Rebecca Mader) inform him that they are staying on the island. During these brief moments we learn a bit more about Charlotte. Apparently she has been to the island before and might even have been born on it, giving viewers yet another series of questions to be answered. If she was born on the island then is she An Other or part of the Dharma Initiative? Would her birth have occurred before or after pregnant women started dying on the island? If she wasn’t born on the island then how did she end up there the first time? Why and how would she have left? These are just a few questions about the character I’m hoping will be answered next season.

Meanwhile, Locke and Ben make it down to the hidden chamber of the Orchid station. Locke watches an orientation video on the purpose of the station, which Ben humorously simplifies with the phrase “time traveling bunnies”. Just then Keamy, who survived being shot by having on a bullet proof vest, arrives at the station. He explains that he’s wearing a remote trigger that will set off the bomb on the freighter if his heart stops and reminds Ben that the last time he underestimated him Ben’s daughter was killed. This causes the normally emotionally collected Ben to finally lose control and attack Keamy, where he stabs him repeatedly in the neck until he dies. When Locke explains that Ben just killed everyone who was on the freighter Ben’s only answer is “So?” It’s another example on how truly ruthless and uncaring Ben can be. Only this time it is raw emotion rather then purpose that drives his actions

While this is going on Jack, Sayid, Sawyer, Kate and Hurley all meet up at the helicopter and begin the journey to the freighter. Halfway there they realize they are losing fuel as a result of the earlier fight with the mercenaries and will only make it to the ship if they lose weight. So Sawyer, after first whispering something to Kate (which upon magnification of the audio reveals that he tells her about his daughter Clementine and asks Kate to find her), leaps into the ocean and swims back to shore. This act further shows that Sawyer is truly a good man at heart who was hardened by horrible life circumstances, instead of the selfish bastard persona he tried so hard to have people believe when the series began.

After another belief flashforward, in which Sayid breaks into the mental hospital holding Hurley and convinces him to leave, the helicopter lands on the freighter and Jack and Sayid scramble to repair and refuel it. At the same time Michael, who has been keeping the bomb from going off by freezing it with a rapidly shrinking supply of liquid nitrogen, tells Desmond and Jin to leave him and warn the others on the ship that the bomb is about to go off. Desmond leaves but Jin stays to help. Eventually Michael convinces him to go by reminding him that he’s a father now and his kid has to come first.

It is during the panic and commotion of the frantic situation that Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun, Aaron, and Desmond make it onto the helicopter as it takes off. As it rises into the sky Jin makes it to the deck. But the copter is unable to set back down and rescue Jin. The survivors can only watch in horror as the bomb goes off and destroys the freighter, killing Michael, Jin, and everyone else who was on board.

I was saddened by Jin’s death. Over the series he really redeemed himself for his past actions and became the good man he was when he first met Sun. And his reward is to die for tying to save the lives of those he cared about. I personally have my own theory for why the character was killed off, which I will reveal in a different entry.

We then have another brief flashfoward, in which Sun confronts the mysterious Charles Widmore (Alan Dale) and offers her services in his mission. Afterwards we are brought back to Ben and Locke. Ben tells Locke that he will now be leading The Others as anyone who moves the island will be unable to return to it. Ben makes his way down a tunnel to a chamber with a giant ice covered wheel inside. He bitterly exclaims to Jacob that he is doing his wish and then turns the wheel. A metallic hum is heard as a white light engulfs the island and just like that the island disappears.

With nowhere now to land the helicopter crashes into the ocean and everyone inside manages to get into an inflatable raft. They float into the night until they are spotted by a boat. But it’s not just any boat. It belongs to Penny (Sonya Walger), Desmond’s love and Charles Widmore’s daughter. Everyone comes aboard and Desmond is finally reunited with his long lost love in the second most romantic moment in the series (my vote for most romantic moment is when Jin and Sun are reunited in the second season). The boat is at sea for a week before it reaches its destination and The Oceanic Six leave to be rescued. Before they leave they agree to say they are the only ones who survived the original crash in order to spare everyone who was left behind.

The episode then goes to its final flashforward and final scene, in which our broken hero Jack breaks into the funeral home we saw last season and opens Jeremy Bentham’s coffin. He is then confronted by Ben, who asks Jack what Jeremy Bentham talked to Jack about before his death. Jack explains that he was told that terrible things happened on the island after they left and that it was Jack’s fault for leaving. Ben knows that Jack has been trying to unsuccessfully return to the island and tells him that the island won’t let him return unless everyone comes back. Ben says that he can help get the other five to go back. But when he says everyone has to go back me also means Jeremy Bentham. That’s when the identity of the deceased Jeremy Bentham is revealed. The final shot of the season is John Locke lying dead in the coffin.

During last season’s finale I guessed that the person in the coffin was either Locke or Ben. My reason was neither was a friend to Jack, since Jack’s response when the funeral director asked if Jack was a friend or family member of the deceased was “neither”, and that I felt the person was deeply connected to the island. So it turns out my theory was right on the nose.

I’ll also mention that two different endings were shot to try and keep the true ending a secret. The first showed Sawyer in the coffin. The second one had Desmond in the coffin.

Of course now there are a million more questions that have to be answered as a result of the finale. While I know the show is a mystery show I sometimes think there are too many mysteries going on at once. Because even when one is revealed the answer usually leads to twelve additional mysteries that have to be answered. It can cause some viewers to possibly forget important things that have been yet to be answered because they are concentrating on other aspects. I also fear that because there are so many unanswered questions not all of them will be answered by the series end. Hopefully the ones I most want to be revealed will be answered before the ultimate end.
And that concludes by review and summery of the fourth season finale of Lost. Now I just have to count the days until the fifth season begins.