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Measure of Last Resort: Letting Go on Lost

"We're very close to the end."

While those words are spoken aloud by Jacob on the latest installment of Lost, they might as well have been spoken by tireless showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, signaling to the audience that the curtain is about to drop on six seasons of storylines and the final battle between good and evil, with the fate of a mythical island and the entire world hanging in the balance.

Tonight's penultimate episode of Lost ("What They Died For"), written by Elizabeth Sarnoff and Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and directed by Paul Edwards, definitely moved the players and their pieces into their final positions. The episode, offering a mix of humor and heartbreak, delivered some serious forward momentum and brought the story back once again to the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 after last week's polarizing detour into outright parable ("Across the Sea").

The six seasons of Lost have given us a number of character studies of some deeply flawed individuals, granting the audience the ability to not just come to know them through their actions on the island but those that came before, via the trademark flashbacks that defined the early seasons. These strangers, thrust together by invisible threads of fate, seemed to be put through these trials in order to emerge on the other side complete individuals, unencumbered by trauma, strengthened by their experiences, finally able to let go and achieve catharsis. The island then isn't just a mystical place but a prism through which to see ourselves, to witness our flaws, and to strive to be better human beings.

While the mythology of Lost might involve a millennial battle between two sibling deities for control of an ancient power source that we all have within us, at its heart, it's about the mythic journey we each take over the course of our lives, the quest of the hero, whether we're a doctor, a fugitive, a con man, a rich kid, an absent father, or a failed rock star. It's the human journey, our collective story, that endures.

So what did I think of this week's episode of Lost, the series' second to last? Pour yourself some water, cook up some coq au vin, move the bookcase, and let's discuss "What They Died For."

This was my second time watching this week's episode, the first being at last week's amazing and moving Lost Live: The Final Celebration event here in Los Angeles (which you can read more about here) and, after the disappointment of "Across the Sea," marked a return to form for the season, providing us with some answers (why were these individuals selected by Jacob, who will succeed him, why was Kate's name crossed off), as well as some signs of increased relevance to the Lost-X storyline, which this week featured a major turning point as things began to coalesce on the other side.

While there was a fair amount of humor here (Miles, and even from some unexpected avenues like Benjamin Linus), there were also some really touching and evocative moments, such as Sawyer watching the life preservers from the sunken submarine wash on shore. Standing there silently, there's an immense sense of palpable loss and grief as Sawyer sees the items wash up as Kate puts her head on his shoulder before the entire group unites, silently, to stare out at the ocean and the final resting place of their friends.

Sawyer's guilt over their deaths is keenly felt. Walking through the jungle, he sadly asks Jack, "I killed them, didn't I?" But whereas Sawyer earlier this season blamed Jack for Juliet's death, Jack offers forgiveness instead, telling him that it was "Locke" who killed them.

Likewise, I loved the moment where Jack has to sew Kate up after tending to her gunshot wound, using a black piece of thread and a needle to keep her alive and infection-free. It's a nice callback to the pilot episode of Lost as Kate finds Jack in the bamboo grove and has to stitch him up. There's a nice sense of coming full circle here, retracing our steps all the way back to the beginning, all those years before.

That bamboo grove is, of course, highly significant. Not only is it the location where Jack landed after the crash and where he first opened his eye on the island but it's also right near the cave, the heart of the island. And that's what Jack's purpose has always been about: just as he knew he had to go back to the island, so too does he have to be the one to follow in Jacob's footsteps... and his own, retracing his own journey back to the beginning, his eyes fully open now.

Jacob's ashes are dying out and once the fire burns out, he'll be gone forever. So too is true that Lost's embers are fading. With only two and a half hours left, it too will cease to exist, except for in our memories. I'm not ready to say goodbye. Not yet and possibly not ever. But that's a fact of life and death. We don't get to make the rules. We rarely get to say our goodbyes on our own terms and too soon do good things come to an end...

Lost-X. This week's episode began to speed things up in the divergent reality, with Desmond acting once again as the catalyst for change, awakening the sleepwalkers from their slumber and working to bring them all together... at the museum charity event that many--if not all--the important players of the Lost storyline will be attending, from Charlotte and Miles to Sawyer, Kate, Hurley, Jack, and Jack's ex-wife (cough, Juliet, cough). They were always meant to come together, to be together, and Desmond is yanking those strings that bind them to one another, creating a web that ensnares everyone aboard Oceanic Flight 815.

But before then, there's still much to be done. Desmond nearly runs Locke over again but instead savagely attacks Dr. Linus at the school, awakening his impossible memories and sending a message to Locke: that he wasn't trying to hurt him but rather trying to help him "let go," the very message that Jack had told him several episodes back. The encounter shakes Locke enough that he seeks out Jack and tells him that he wants to get out of that wheelchair. He wants to walk again. He wants to believe that there is a purpose to everything, that life isn't just a series of meaningless coincidences, but rather something complex and guided by destiny. He is making that leap of faith, finally.

Jack, meanwhile, has another encounter at the looking-glass, waking up to discover that his neck is bleeding. It's the second time this has happened, the first time being in "LA X," when he found blood under his shirt collar. Just what does it signify? That the two worlds are bleeding together? That he's said farewell to his mortality on the island? That in bleeding, there is the truth of another world? A pathway to enlightenment? In the meantime, he shares a breakfast with what's left of the Shepard clan before getting a call from Oceanic Airlines saying that Christian's coffin has been recovered. Little does he know that it's Desmond...

Lost-X Ben. As for Benjamin Linus, he gets a quiet evening with Alex and Danielle Rousseau as she cooks him coq au vin. There's a beautiful familiarity between the three of them, a damaged family comprised of people who need each other, even though they're not related by blood. The profound sadness that Ben experiences when Danielle tells him that he's the closest thing Alex has ever had to a father is heartbreaking; even he is taken aback by how much her comment cuts him to the quick.

In the other world, of course, he's forced to contend with Alex's grave outside the house they shared... as he comes face to face with the man he blames for her death. Here, she refers to him semi-humorously as the exiled Napoleon. Fitting, really. And Ben gets his own moment to gaze into the looking glass, realization slowly dawning that something is not right with the man reflected back at him.

Desmond.Desmond turns himself in to James at the police station, getting locked up with Sayid and Kate, who continues to plead her innocence to James Ford. But while the cops scratch their heads about why Des would turn himself in, he enacts a brilliant stratagem, breaking them out of police custody with the help of Ana-Lucia and Hurley. (Hurley recognizes Ana-Lucia from the mainstream reality--his memories would appear to be fully actualized--while she has no idea who he is.) And Desmond sends Hurley and Sayid on a mission while he and Kate head to the museum.

Just what will happen next week when all the players are assembled? Just what is Desmond's plan? I'm not entirely sure but it's important that they all come together in the same place and are all awakened in time to... What exactly? Raise the island from the ocean floor with the power of positive thinking? Make a leap of faith to save not only their world but another? Sacrifice their happiness to save humanity?

Meanwhile, we learn just what Desmond's role is within the battle between Jacob and the Nameless One: he's a measure of last resort, a literal failsafe that can be employed by Jacob if the Nemesis is able to kill off his candidates. His resistance to high levels of electromagnetism seem to signify just what he's meant to do: fuse with the energy at the Source and sacrifice himself in order to prevent the Man in Black from ever leaving the island. After all, he did just that at the Swan Station, propelling himself into a divergent reality before the universe had to course-correct. He was exposed to massive quantities of the same energy that flows at the Source. If we all have a spark of that energy, is it possible that Desmond has more of it than normal people? A larger dose that enables his consciousness to travel through time and space. Could it be that he is meant to return it? To return to the Source and give it back?

However, the Nameless One has his own plan for Desmond, as he confides in Ben: he wants to use Desmond to destroy the island, just as Desmond destroyed the Swan Station. No island means no cork in the bottle, which means--as I surmised earlier this season--that the Man in Black intends to smash the metaphorical bottle once and for all.

Ashes. We finally got confirmation (not that there was any doubt in my mind, ever) that Hurley swiped the bag of ashes from Ilana's stuff after she exploded a few episodes back. Here, he's visited by Young Jacob, who demands he turns the ashes over to him and then leads him to the Ghost of Jacob, who sits waiting patiently at a campfire to tell the candidates just why Sun and Jin and the others died and what their purpose is.

"When the fire burns out, you'll never see me again," says Jacob. "We're very close to the end."

Richard. What a sad end for poor Richard Alpert as the smoke monster comes soaring out of the jungle and smashes him against a tree. It seems as though Jacob's gifts are fading, just like the final embers of the fire. Richard's immortality was more longevity than imperviousness. Was his purpose fulfilled? Was the island done with him? Or are the rules no longer applying as there is no candidate to replace Jacob and therefore no jailer to enforce the rules? Curious.

It does seem as though Richardo is dead, though. Could he have survived? It's certainly possible, but not probable. I dare say that we've seen the last of him, at least in this timeline...

Ben and Widmore. Ben, meanwhile, sits in a rocking chair of his old house, waiting for the inevitable. But the Nameless One doesn't want to kill Ben; instead he offers him the one thing that Ben has wanted his entire life: power. Ben makes a Faustian bargain once again, trading his redemption for the possibility of controlling the island after the Nemesis has left.

With no use for Zoe (particularly after she is told not to speak to him, which makes her "pointless"), the Nameless One slits her throat and then turns to Widmore, offering him yet another bargain. If he tells him just why he came back to the island and his plan, he will spare Penny's life. For his part, Widmore claims that he had been visited by Jacob after the freighter incident and that Jacob showed him the error of his ways... and he brought Desmond back to the island to act as Jacob's final failsafe.

Would Widmore betray all of humanity to protect the life of his estranged daughter? Love, after all, trumps everything... But, though he whispers his secret in the Nameless One's ear, Ben shoots Widmore three times, enacting a bitter vengeance for the murder of his daughter, Alex. "He doesn't get to save his daughter," he says viciously... and then asks about the other people the Nameless One wanted him to kill.

Has Ben really sided with the Nemesis? For one, Ben isn't really ever on anyone's side except for Ben... and then there's the fact that he specifically gave one of Widmore's walkie talkies to Miles (before he went careening off into the jungle to save himself) and then shut Widmore and Zoe in the secret room behind the bookcase. Why would he want to stay in contact with Miles if he was looking to kill all of them? I'm hoping that Ben has something up his sleeve, a payback for his manipulation at the hands of the Nameless One.

Jacob. The remaining candidates gather in the darkness around Jacob's campfire as he tells them about the Source and his culpability in the creation of the smoke monster. His replacement will have to make sure that the light never goes out and prevent the Nameless One from ever attaining the Source. "I made a mistake," he says. "I am responsible for what happened to him."

So why did Jacob bring them to this island, a fate that Sawyer views as a punishment rather than a reward. "I didn't pluck any of you out of a happy existence," he says. "You were all flawed... and, like me, all alone. You needed this place as much as it needed you." And that is the mission statement of Lost right there: that a place can save you as much as you can save it. That the stewards of this magical kingdom on Earth might be just as changed by the experience as much as they change the island itself. Oz and Narnia, after all, needed warriors to save them from those who would corrupt the land and cast it into darkness and ice.

So why was Kate invalidated? It's a simple answer: she became a mother. (It's likely why the Kwon of 42 was perhaps Jin rather than Sun.) In stepping into motherhood, her responsibility was to care for her child rather than sacrifice her life and her entire existence to guarding the island. He couldn't ask that of her, nor could he expect her to be willing to do so. But in the end it's "just a chalk line in a cave," according to Jacob. If she wants the job, it's hers. It really is about choice.

Jacob claims that they have to find a way to kill the Nameless One and prevent him from ever reaching the Source and ending everything. But Jacob has always been about free will; he wants them to have the choice that he never did. As Ilana predicted, it isn't a coronation but an election, a means of someone volunteering themselves, sacrificing their very future--possibly for all eternity--to protect this place.

Jack. The ultimate candidate is, of course, Jack Shephard. This has always been his purpose, from his "God complex" (Sawyer's words) to his intrinsic need to fix everything. He was born to fulfill this role and follow Jacob, a true shepherd in every sense of the word. He sacrifices everything now that he can truly see the world for what it is. Over the course of six seasons, the scales fell from his eyes and he became the man of faith that John Locke always wanted him to be, a believer in the profound and powerful, the unseen and the inexplicable.

He's initiated into the circle of magic by the ritual of transference, one that uses a cup or chalice (here Jack's tin cup), a liquid (water or wine), and some words. But it's not the single ingredients that matter but the confluence of them as well as the intention and meaning of those words, the belief that wishing and hoping and praying can make you god-like and the drink that follows the benediction is a symbolic conclusion to the ritual at hand.

We see at the very end a Jack Shephard much changed, one who opens his eyes truly for the first time to see the truth of the island and his role in this grand tapestry. This is now his burden to shoulder "for as long you can," Jacob tells him. With those final words, Jack has become like Jacob, an immortal guardian of the island and keeper of the Source. A Christ-like figure who sacrifices his humanity to step into the divine.

We stand now on the precipice, one last chapter to a story that began back in 2004 when a group of strangers crashed on a seemingly deserted island and were forced to live together or die alone. The remaining survivors are about to enter a final showdown between the forces of light and those of darkness. Only one side can win as the scale tilts inexorably in one direction. Will good triumph over evil?

With two hours remaining, there are likely innumerable mysteries that will not be solved. But Lindelof, Cuse, and Co. will have to answer some plot-rooted ones: Will Jack be able to stop the Nameless One? Is he the final guardian of the island? Will he have to utilize Desmond as a final ditch effort to prevent the Nameless One from leaving the island and destroying reality? Will someone else have to replace him? And how will this all end? Will the island be destroyed? Will it rise up once more? Will the story end or will it continue on forever, at least in the minds of the viewers?

In the end, Lost can only end once. It will likely be filled with heartbreak, sacrifice, and loss but also with the promise of hope and healing as well. Regardless of how it all comes together on Sunday, there will never be another series quite like this one and I feel incredibly blessed and honored to have traveled with these characters on this incredible journey. As we bid a final farewell to them in just a few days' time, I'm ready to take one last jaunt through the looking-glass. I'll see you all on the other side.

Do you agree with the theories above? Can the ending satisfy everyone? Are you as heartbroken as I am that there's only one episode of Lost left? Head to the comments section to discuss.

On Sunday's series finale of Lost ("The End"), details tk.

Comments

Ally said…
I don't think that's the last we've seen of Richard. We'd at least see him dead on the ground, I think. His last contribution may be little more than some dying words to someone (Ben? Miles?) but I don't doubt that they will be important.
Perry K said…
I don't think we've seen the end of Sawyer, Hurley, and Kate, being important. I especially think that Sawyer has a huge part in what is to come, maybe he will provide the ulitimate sacrifice. I don't remember him talking to Kate, about his own daughter.

I hope we get to see Penny, before the end. I think she could have a part yet, in both time lines.
ticknart said…
The ending can't satisfy everyone, that's never possible. Those who experience LOST more as journey rather than a destination will be more satisfied than those who want answers.

And did you see the look in Ben's eyes when Locke told him that Sayid had lied about killing Desmond? Ben has his own end in mind, I think. He's probably playing it by ear at this point, but knowing that Locke doesn't know everything was a surprise, and a pleasant one at that.
Harley said…
I've pretty much given up on the island narrative -- Jacob's campfire meeting with the candidates reminding me of nothing so much as Jeff Probst gathering the tribes together on Survivor -- but I have great and greedy hopes for Desmond The Trickster and his rapidly reuniting band of Sideways Universe castaways.

Let the recital begin! Heck. We might even meet Jack's wife.
Bella Spruce said…
I LOVED this episode as it had drama, action, humor, and everything that makes Lost so brilliant. Desmond's Great Escape was fantastic, as was Ben's Final Stand with Widmore (and I loved his sideways storyline too with Alex and Danielle). This definitely bodes well for the finale.
Patrick said…
As for the ending satisfying everyone, the quote from Supernatural's finale says it best:

"Endings are hard. Any chapped-ass monkey with a keyboard can poop out a beginning, but endings are impossible. You try to tie up every loose end , but you never can. The fans are always gonna bitch, there’s always gonna be holes, and since it’s the ending, it’s all supposed to add up to something. I’m telling you, they’re a raging pain in the ass." Chuck (The prophet writting Sam and Dean's life story).

As big of a story that show was closing, I couldn't help think of Lost when I heard that.
Kim Harrington said…
I was a little taken aback by Ben killing Widmore, namely because they'd already made it clear in a previous season that--like Jacob and MIB--Ben and Widmore cannot kill each other. It's against the rules. It's not clear to me why that changed. And why Ben was obviously aware of this change. Otherwise, he wouldn't have bothered pulling the trigger.

For the finale...I'm really hoping for Ben to have a plan of his own. One final redemption. His character is too epic to go out as MIB's lackey.

And I'm also hoping Sawyer sacrifices himself in a blaze of glory because I have $10 riding on it from a bet I made two years ago.

But I also think, this bloodbath we've seen in the final episodes, won't stick. I'm hoping that the theory of the happy sideways world being the epilogue--the end game--is true.
Unknown said…
I was very pleased with this episode as though it answered some things I had been wondering about, it also led me to question some other things, as many other episodes have done in the past.. LOST wouldn't be LOST if we had all the answers.

Personally, I don't think Richard is dead.. How could they just kill him off like that so quickly in one swoop? I still have faith that Richard will play a big part in the end as I have thought for a long time. As for Ben, I thought for a second that he reverted back to his old self, but then I thought that it is possible he is trying to serve a better purpose as it has seemed this whole season.

Jack.. Im not totally convinced that things are going to end with him being the protector of the island. I know that he stepped up, but I just don't think things will end like that. I fully believe Desmond will full-fill his job as a failsafe. And uhh.. Where is Claire?

In the final episode I think we will see some people we haven't seen in a while.. I am not discounting this, because after-all, they have been seen in the alt timeline. Honestly, I don't think anyone really knows how it will end, and speculations will continue to brew.. I am ultimately leaving myself open to anything at this point, as we all may be very surprised. 2 hours is a lot of time, so I have faith that I will be satisfied.. I actually liked "Across the Sea" even though it was very different from the other episodes. I still don't understand why everyone was so disappointed in it, but then again, I look at the whole picture and believe that episode played a vital role in helping us to understand what the purpose of this whole island was and will be.
stimpqb1 said…
I LOVED the episode. I too do not believe that Jack will be the final protector. What is Miles's purpose on the Island? I believe he will hear Jack's final thoughts after he is killed and will pass down the job to Sawyer or Hurley. I think it will be Hurley just because he said that he did not want the job. Ben is a bastard, but a lovable one. There has to be a right hand man to MIB with is inability to kill candidates. How can he stop them without such help? I also really want to know why they kept Claire from us, it leads me to believe that her role in the finally will be of the up most importance. As always your recap is spot on. Time to party with friends on Sunday and enjoy, I can't wait!
rockauteur said…
Where was Claire? She vanished into thin air about she was left with Locke aboard the docks... and he didn't seem like he wanted her dead. Wonder if she is just chilling with the other red-shirts at Hydra Station (and in my theory, Eloise is among them as well) that weren't killed by Locke.

I was pretty surprised that Widmore and Zoe were killed off; I really did think that Widmore would be in the last episode as we get a true sense of his final endgame. I'm not really buying his excuse on why he came back to the island - but maybe he was telling the truth. I'm not entirely sure he's dead since we never really got to see his dead body. I'm never a fan of off-screen deaths, and I still believe that he could be alive, along with Frank, and Richard. Just because Richard got smashed into a tree, doesn't mean he has been killed either. It IS Lost (though not as bad as Heroes where everyone dies and is resurrected multiple times to fit the story).

Who rescued Desmond? I'm guessing that happened off screen (and we'll see it next week) as Jack finds him and brings him up from the well. I'm still not exactly understanding his role in the end game though I like your theories about how he may have to sacrifice himself to return his energy to the source. I only wish he is able to reunite with Penny and his son Charlie before then! Their romance is the true heart of the show!

It would be pretty awesome if Sawyer is able to sacrifice himself for the ultimate redemption... but I still want him to be able to finally get off the island and meet his daughter. That alone would redeem him. Is it me or does anyone else not care anymore about who Kate chooses?

Loved the campfire meeting and Jacob calling everyone out for being alone. Love your theories on Ben maybe playing Locke. I do think that Ben will end up being the ultimate candidate. But will Jack be able to perform the ceremony to initiate him now that Jacob is just about gone? Or will Jacob be able to initiate Ben?

My biggest question is: where is dharma and hanso? I know its not the most pressing question but I still want a bit of dharma and to finally meet hanso. and find out what happened to all the dharma people in 1977 in the mainstream storyline... i know we aren't supposed to care about that but its still important to me (much like the question we'll never get answered about what Amy was doing in the jungle). Oh well.

A fairly straight forward episode but a good one.

Interesting to see our final castaways reunite towards the end: Jack, Sawyer, Kate, Hurley, Miles, Claire, and Desmond, with a smattering of Eloise (and possibly Frank - the only person qualified to fly the plane off the island).
Calfoodie.com said…
Do we know how Charles Widmore came into the story.? I've never understood his allegiances.

This is like the end of a great book. I want to see the finish, but I want to slow the process down and make it last.

I agree, Jace. I am glad I live in the time of the beginning of the huge television masterpieces. Just as I am glad I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and listened to Hound Dog in the back seat with my parents.
Calfoodie.com said…
Watching last night's episode, it looks like Ben will become the new nemesis of the new protector.
ralome said…
Am I the only one Jace? I think I am completely lost with this last season. All the elements shake apart for me. I do not like the conclusions I do not like the XTimeline - I dont like the mythology. I see myself now thinking that it might be the best for Lost to end asap. What happened to this show with so much potential? I mean just watching the flashback to the moment when Jack/Kate and Locke found the Adam and Eve I remembered how I felt back then. Everything was magical and unknown. Everything was a challenge to figure out and understand and everything was related. I think I might print me a T-shirt saying. I was a Lost fan and all I got in the end were crappy explanatins and myths so genral that I do not care about them. Sad. So goodbye Island. You will vanish thats for sure.
Crystal said…
Jorge Garcia gave Whoopie Glodberg a picture of the original cast from first season, yesterday on the View. It was everyone lined up on the beach in front of the plane. After seeing that, the image in last nights episode, of the four remaining original cast members (still alive and sane) Jack, Hurley, Sawyer and Kate all lined up on the beach was so beautifully sad! And then there were 4.

I don't believe Richard is dead. He can't be! They made him an important character by giving him an episode entirely about his back story, for goodness sakes! You don't kill off vital characters so quickly and easily, especially when one of the biggest mysteries was why this guy didn't age or die! The actor, at least, deserves a death scene and so do we loyal viewers who have invested in the character.
I am super excited about seeing Ben go bad (whether it's real or a trick) because I just love Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson and really enjoy the dynamic they have together. I would love to see them have a show together after this ends!
Unknown said…
Jace writes: "Hurley recognizes Ana-Lucia from the mainstream reality--his memories would appear to be fully actualized."

So why is Hurley working toward eliminating the X time-line in favor of the main one, in which Ana-Lucia and Libby, his love, are dead? Can't wait to see his and the others' motivation for what they're doing - including Sayid, Jin, Sun, and Locke, who are all dead in the main time line!

Locke knew that some of the candidates were killed on the sub, but not all. But he didn't know that Desmond wasn't killed - or that Sayid lied to him about killing Desmond. But he knew what the real John Locke was thinking when Ben killed him. The rules regarding what MIB/Locke can and can't do appear to be quite particular.

I'm hoping Ben is waiting for his chance to double-cross Locke. I'd hate to see Ben throw away his redemption. I don't think his revenge on Widmore, whom Locke was likely to kill, would preclude this.

Jack is the new Jacob. That's not going to change. Wonder when and how Jack gets to start making his own rules, now that he is the protector?

Love that Locke in the X time-line has finally come around to being a man of faith, as he was the original believer in the main time line. (He couldn't remember what caused his plane crash, which seemed to be his reason for lack of faith - could the MIB have had something to do with it?)

So many questions, so little time.

Gosh I'm going to miss this show.
ikidyounot said…
The show seems to be about replacements. Jack replaces Jacob and someone may replace
the Smokey monster. Now, follow me if you will, Desmond in the "lost-X"
timeline is gathering people to go to someplace and somehow get back to the
"real" timeline. In the "real" timeline, certain people are dead
(Sayid, Sun, and Jin to name a few.) but they are very much alive in the
"Lost-X" timeline. Therefore, what if they end up replacing the people
killed in the "Real" timeline. Sun and Jin get to look after the
daughter that hey had lost in the gun shot incident. Maybe the "real" Jack
gets killed and then replaced with the "Lost-X" Jack. Etc. That is what
Jacob has Desmond do as his Back-up incase the other candidates fail. Maybe the
"Lost-X" Desmond cannot cross over to the "real" timeline unless he
is dead. This is why Locke was so happy to find he is still alive. Widmore has told
him what Jacob intends to do with Desmond and he has figured out why Desmond is so
important.
It all figures with the way JJ Abrams plots his other show "Fringe" where
there is an alternate universe and Peter has been replaced with his alternate.
Heck, even the plot of "Star Trek" dealt somewhat with alternative universes
and crossing over to affect the other.
Just something to think about between now and (sniff) Sunday. (Sob!)
brian said…
ikidyounot this is exactly what I'm hoping for. I want Sun and Jin back and while their at it I'd like the old Locke back as well.

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While the uproar over the U.S. version of The Killing has quieted, the show is still a pale imitation of the Danish series on which it is based. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "How The Killing Went Wrong," in which I look at how The Killing has handled itself during its second season, and compare it to the stunning and electrifying original Danish series, Forbrydelsen , on which it is based. (I recently watched all 20 episodes of Forbrydelsen over a few evenings.) The original is a mind-blowing and gut-wrenching work of genius. It’s not necessary to rehash the anger that followed in the wake of the conclusion last June of the first season of AMC’s mystery drama The Killing, based on Søren Sveistrup’s landmark Danish show Forbrydelsen, which follows the murder of a schoolgirl and its impact on the people whose lives the investigation touches upon. What followed were irate reviews, burnished with the “burning intensity of 10,000 white-hot suns