Lost: Moving Day

Last year's season finale — with the heroic actions of Charlie and its blowing flash-forward twist — is my favorite episode of "Lost" and one of the best episodes of any television show I've ever seen in my life.

This year's season finale was probably better.

Season 3's "Through the Looking Glass" still has the number 1 spot in my heart, but the season 4 ender, "There's No Place Like Home (Parts 2 and 3) truly had it all. There was plenty of action (explosions! Keamy vs. Sayid!), suspense, (I'll admit to only two moments where I was totally creeped out) emotion (I'll only admit to crying twice alone on my sofa). There were also plenty of revelations (how the Oceanic 6 came to be the ones who got away), as well as the required deaths you expect from a season finale.

Since I love "Through the Looking Glass" so much, you probably guessed that I was thoroughly delighted to see this year's finale pick up RIGHT where that one left off. Seriously, the way it was edited was great — I let out a chuckle when Kate's car came to a screeching halt and she came back to chew Jack and his "Milk-was-a-bad-choice" beard out.

From this exchange we learned it's actually been three years since the Oceanic Six had left the Island (I hadn't realized it had been THAT long) and that they'd been approached about returning to the Island by one Jeremy Bentham, the man in the coffin Jack (and no one else went to see last season. Having Kate steadfastly refused to return to the Island by bringing up the "horrible" things that had happened on their last day there was a brilliant way of setting up the action we were about to see.

That action included the Others temporarily putting aside their "we don't kill people" credo and easily taking care of Keamy's mercenaries (the Island whispers right before the attack served as their entrance music). Highlights from the sequence included Keamy kicking a grenade over to a fellow mercenary, and a hard-hitting hand-to-hand fight between Keamy and Sayid that disappointingly ended with Alpert shooting Keamy in the back (I was really hoping Sayid would kill him). Of course, this wouldn't be the last time we saw Keamy. Anyway, since Kate and Sayid helped free Ben, he let them go, much to their surprise.

Free Ben eventually dropped in on one of my favorite scenes in the episode, a "leadership stuff" conference about science and faith between Jack and Locke. Matthew Fox (starting to lose faith in his stance) and Terry O'Quinn (growing more confident) really brought it in this scene, where they discussed miracles. I'm especially impressed in O'Quinn's ability to make Locke sound completely crazy AND like he's making all the sense in the world at the same time. The only part of this scene I didn't care for was Locke saying, out of the blue, that Jack had to lie. It seemed like a lazy way by the writers to put the idea in Jack's head to concoct their cover story.

Ben soon arrived for a bit of welcome levity ("couldn't find the anthuriums?") and Jack, Sawyer and Hurley made their way back to the chopper to meet up with Kate, Sayid and Lapidus. I also liked the fact that, even when Locke appears to growing in confidence and accepting his role as the leader of the Island, he can still be a lost little boy.

Either way, Locke and Ben descended "deep" into the Orchid station, with Locke sitting through an informative orientation film (it'd been a while since we saw one of those) about Dharma's experiments with time traveling bunnies. As is the case with most of orientation tapes, this one turned out to be a major tease with the tape inexplicably rewinding before the experiment could be carried out.

That was the least of their worries when bulletproof-vest-wearing Keamy showed up looking for Ben again. (Apparently, Keamy IS an avid botanist and knows exactly what anthuriums look like). He also revealed what many had suspected — he'd wired the explosives on the freighter to go off if his heart stopped. When Keamy "died" the first time, I thought the Island/freighter time difference had kept the bomb from going off — it just turned out he was alive. But that didn't stop Ben from killing him (for real this time) with little regard for the lives of the people on the freighter (I believe his exact word was, "So?") This is the space where I give Kevin Durand props for adeptly playing a cruel, meathead mercenary.

Locke was visibly upset over Ben dooming the freighter people and I must've been distracted too, because it didn't occur to me until today that Locke may have just been able to remove the monitor from Keamy and put it on himself. It could have worked. It was certainly worth a shot. It would've kept the freighter intact for three more years.

Speaking of the freighter, that's where Michael, Jin and Desmond spent a good part of the episode trying to choose between the blue and red wire and disarm the bomb. Michael had frozen the bomb to buy them time. The chopper with the survivors returned to the ticking time bomb of a freighter sans Sawyer — who'd jumped off to lighten the load of the gas depleted chopper and made me cry for the first time in the evening. It was more that it was such a touching gesture (he'd pretty much given up on getting with Kate after seeing her buddy up to Jack) than me actually thinking he was going to die. He's in good shape, so I figured he'd make it back ok.

Not making it back ok were Michael and Jin. Jin didn't make it back to the chopper after it had refueled. Meanwhile, Michael appeared to fulfill his commitment to the Island (and earned redemption?) after a visit from the whispers and Christian Shephard, who said "You can go now." *boom*. While I thought the scene was unbelievably cool (Christian's appearance spooked the hell out of me), I was generally let down by the reappearance of Michael this season.

Don't get me wrong, Harold Perrineau did a very good job (though I'd say he was underused), but I feel Michael's freighter/redemption storyline was a bit of a let down. I mean, let me get this straight: the Island's purpose for Michael was to have him infiltrate the freighter so he could — not be able to stop the mercenaries from wreaking havoc and force Jacob to have the Island move (supposedly a last resort). I mean, I guess you can say Michael sort of helped his friends get rescued — though it would've been nice if one of those had been his BEST friend, Jin. Also, don't ask me why, but I'm clinging to the idea Jin's still alive. (He DID swim ashore at the end of Season 1 after Michael's raft got blasted).

The only other minor complaint I have about the episode (and the season in general) was the lack of Juliet. She was one of my two favorite characters last year, and this year she didn't get to do much and the episode in which she WAS showcased was the worst of the season. I DID think it was perfect she and Sawyer would end up together in the end before the Island was moved, since they'd been spurned by Jack and Kate, respectively. Please have these two interact next year, but don't make them an item — to me, that's a bit obvious.

Speaking of the Island move, it finally came when Ben blasted a wall behind the time machine, put on a parka and descended to the frigid depths of somewhere to turn the big wheel and move the Island (it was a lot more low-tech than I thought). Ben was moving the Island himself because the person who does the deed has to leave the Island. That left Locke (and his creepy little smile) as the leader of the Others. It also explained how Ben ended up in the Tunisian desert with that gash in his arm in "The Shape of Things to Come." If you remember, there were also polar bears discovered in that Tunisian desert. I know I'm reaching, but maybe they (who would have no problem with the chilly temperature) were somehow trained to work that massive wheel once upon a time so the Island could be moved without having a person be expelled.

The Island apparently descending into the ocean was a pretty cool special effect, despite Jack's denial about the event. Their helicopter (still low on gas) crashed in the ocean and the show messed with us by making us think Desmond (not one of the Oceanic Six) was going to die. Later that night, they saw a boat in the distance (very reminiscent of the season 1 finale with Michael's raft). This time they were friendly and it turned out that, unlike Charlie's watery message from last year, it WAS Penny's boat. (Penny and Desmond's reunion was the second scene of the evening that made me tear up, in case you're scoring at home.)

It was during the scene on Penny's boat that Jack came up with the cover story — something about the people on the Island being presumed dead and the importance of keeping it that way, so eeevil Widmore doesn't send more mercenaries. To be honest, I still didn't follow it 100 %.

What I DID like was the setup for next season, with Jack and (surprise) Ben somehow having to convince everyone (including Desmond?) to come back to the Island (though I suspect Ben has his own selfish reasons for getting back and is just using everyone else).

That trip back to the Island will include the dead body of Locke, who was referring to himself as Jeremy Bentham (someone smarter than me needs to figure THAT one out) and trying to convince everyone (including a startlingly adolescent Walt) to come back.

That's going to be tricky since Sayid (his hair looking silkier since he has access to hair products outside the Island) has taken crazy Hurley (sorry, but I thought "Checkmate, Mr. Eko" was a bit over-the-top) to a "safe" place that's not the Island.

It's also going to be a chore to convince Kate to come along, especially after a terrifying dream visit from Claire who was pretty emphatic in that she not bring Aaron back. Is it just me or is Claire A LOT more interesting now that she's a pseudo-ghost.

Meanwhile, we're not exactly sure what Sun is up to, as she reached out to Widmore. Is she really trying to form an alliance with him and, if so, why?

This was an excellent finale in that it wrapped up the main storyline it presented in its premiere — who are the Oceanic 6, and why did those particular six people get away — left some provocative questions to be answered at a later date and set the stage for next season. What's terrific about this show is that, WAY back in the beginning, you figured it would be over once they were rescued. Well, the survivors have been rescued — and there are still two seasons left to go.

Can't wait to see what happens.

So what'd you think of this finale? Did it live up to past "Lost" season finales? Where's the raft Faraday was piloting? Was I the only one who thought something bad was going to happen when Sawyer was cutting Lapidus free? Why did Miles and Charlotte (who was apparently born on the Island) refuse to leave? Why did everyone refuse to say Locke's name in the future (other than keeping the viewers guessing, of course)? Finally, where (or when) did the Island go?