Let’s get something straight here: I really liked “The End”. I know I might not be in the majority on that one, but give me some time and I’ll try and convince you. And if I fail, I’ll still be glad we talked about the show.
This I wrote as it happened, because I’m lazy and selfish and wanted to document how I reacted and how hilarious I can be on the fly.
The beginning of the end: a shot of Christian Sheppard’s corpse arriving from an oceanic aircraft. Sideways Jack checking out an x ray. Island Jack still in disbelief over becoming Jacob. Sideways Ben making coffee, island Ben looking over at Flocke. Lot of juxtapositions of sideways universe and current universe. Oceanic delivers Christian’s coffin where it is signed for by Desmond. Desmond is asked by Kate why she brought here, and he answers by not answering the question. Desmond tells her he “wants to leave.” Leave and go where?
On the island Kate looks at Jack standing in the river. He isn’t floating on the river though. Jack tells Kate,Sawyer and Hurley about the river of light and what it means. Sawyer says he’s going to look for Desmond, flirts with Kate and leaves. Hurley says he has a bad feeling about this, seconds after saying Jacob is worse than Yoda in leaving out information.
Sideways Hurley drives Sayid to a motel. He knocks on a door. Who is behind it? A drunk Charlie! Hurley can’t stop smiling while saying he has to go to a concert tonight. Charlie isn’t responsive so Hurley tranquilizes him. Sayid asks what that was. “That was Charlie.” What a cluckedy cluck badass!
Jack tells Kate he chose to be the next Jacob because the island is the one thing he hasn’t ruined yet. Kate echoes Jack’s earlier line in the sideways world with saying nothing is irreversible. Hurley says this exchange would be cute if they all weren’t about to die. Cluckedy cluck pessimist. Sawyer finds the well and sees no Desmond but finds Ben and Lockeness. Sawyer informs Lockeness there are no more candidates, punches Ben, takes his gun and leaves. Ben is annoyed because he was promised the island but clearly it’s going to end up underwater. Lockeness notices dog tracks. Turns out Desmond was saved by Rose, Bernard and Vincent. Rose says she built their camp in 1975, and a few years later the sky lit up. Rose tells Desmond that after breakfast he has to go because they don’t get involved. They made an exception. Then Lockeness and Ben show up. Lockeness threatens Rose and Bernard’s lives if Desmond doesn’t leave with him. Desmond asks for Lockeness’ word that he wont touch them. Yeah okay like that matters. Anyway he claims he wont hurt them.
Lockeness asks Desmond if he knows where he’s being taken. Desmond hunches that he’s looking for a light. Mr. Know-it-all over here. Miles walkie-talkies Ben and tells him he found Alpert. Alpert shakes it off and says they still haveto go to the other island to blow up that plane.
Sideways Miles spots Sayid in a car at the museum concert. He calls James Ford and tells him of this. Guess he’s coming to the concert after all. Jin tells Sun she’ll be leaving the hospital soon. Just to run away? Then Dr. Juliet Carlsen walks in! Once again Juliet does an ultrasound on Sun, commenting earlier about how the two of them don’t speak English. Then Sun has a memory of the previous ultrasound. She remembered Locke before right? When Jin sees the ultrasound he too remembers, in fact he remembers a majority of the dramatic Jin/Sun moments scored to swelling orchestral music. “Did you see?” Sun asks. Juliet asks if they want to know if its a boy or a girl. Sun says it’s a girl and Jin adds her name is Ji Yeon. Juliet comments they speak English very well. Ha.
Island Sawyer runs to tell Jack, Kate and Hurley the latest. Jack mentions when they get to where everyone is going to end up going, it “ends.”
Sideways Jack talks to Locke before the surgery. Jack jokes there’s always a chance he can kill him haha. “See you on the other side.” Locke asks if they found his father’s body yet. Yes actually. Jack says if he can fix Locke that’s all the solace he’ll need.
On the island Miles and Alpert are about to get on the outrigger finally! Miles notices Alpert just got his first gray hair. Aww. They find Lapidus alive. Funny, since the actor claimed he was dead this week. Lapidus suggests they just fly the plane out of there, since you know, he’s a pilot. The Jack Four have a showdown with Lockeness, Ben and Desmond. Kate shoots him a bunch of times because she’s stupid. Lockeness mentions that Jack seemed “too obvious” to be a choice. Ha. Jack makes a death threat. How are you going to do that? “It’s a surprise.” Lockeness agrees to the challenge. Deity badassery!
Sideways Jack and Juliet have a chat at the hospital. Juliet is the mom. Duh. Juliet wishes Jack luck on his surgery. Just then James shows up to see Sun.
On the island Sawyer asks Jack how he’s going to kill Lockeness. With Desmond. “That’s a hell of a long con Doc.” Lockeness announces it should just be him Jack and Desmond for the rest of the way. Hurley tells Jack he believes in him. Really after all the negative shit you were saying before? Lockeness comments its going to be an upcoming bad storm. Desmond says all of this doesn’t matter because in the sideways world he seems happy. Jack disagrees. Jack and Lockeness tie a rope around Desmond and escort him into the glowing river. Commercial!
Sideways Hurley tells Sayid to trust him and says my least favorite line, “don’t worry about it.” Hurley says Sayid is deep down a good guy. Sayid doesn’t think so. Two men are fighting outside of a bar. One of them is Boone. Shannon comes out to help, followed by Sayid. Then they both rememberrrrrrrr. Easiest way to pick up a hot girl in the history of pickups. Boone was apparently in on thewhole thing. Sayid and Shannon start making out. Boone and Hurley creepily look on.
Island Ben tells Miles not to blow up the plane. Claire shows up to greet Miles, Lapidus and Alpert with some gunshots. Alpert tries to promise Claire they can go home. Claire wants no part and walks away. In the cave Jack and Lockeness lower Desmond down. Lockeness asks Jack if this reminds him of anything, like the hatch? Jack tells him to shut up because he isn’t Locke, you disrespect his memory by wearing his face and the real John Locke was mostly right about everything. Lockeness says he wasn’t. Jack and Lockeness look down, like at the end of “Exodus.”
On sideways David and “Aunt Claire” are about to enter the concert when Juliet gets a call from the hospital. Charlotte wakes Charlie up, then talks to Faraday about whether or not Charlie is in the band. They shake hands but don’t have a flash. Faraday can barely contain his excitement. Desmond and Kate meet up with David and Aunt Claire on table 23. Oh Kate and Claire know each other hmm. Pierre Chang introduces the Daniel Widmore band, accompanied by Drive Shaft. As Faraday starts playing piano, Charlie spots his angel Claire. Claire smiles back and then she gets a pain in her huge preggers stomach. She leaves to use the bathroom and Kate follows.
In the cave Desmond sees two skeletons and goes into the water. He yells in pain and manages to um, drain the light. Then smoke appears, followed by an explosion. Lockeness tries to escape, then Jack tackles and punches him. Lockeness’ mouth is bleeding! THE MONSTER IS CUT! Lockeness hits Jack in the head with a rock and runs off.
Claire is going into labor. While Desmond is checking out Faraday Eloise Hawking tells Desmond she told him to “stop this”. She asks what happens when they all know. “Then we’re leaving.” Eloise asks if he’s going to take her son. “Not with me, no.” Not completely reassuring. Charlie stops by while Kate tries to help Claire deliver the baby, just like old times! In the worst time possible, while a woman is giving birth, Kate remembers the previous birth. When Aaron is born, Claire has a flash too. Charlie brings a blanket. Claire smiles and takes his hand. He flashes. I’m not crying. The two kiss. Kate watches. Creepily. Aaron cries. Desmond walks by to confirm that they “felt it”. Hey is this a repeat?
On the island during the explosion and now rainstorm, Hurley is aboutto be hit by a tree when Ben pushes him out of the way. Ben gets trapped. The group try to pick up the tree. Miles walkie-talkies that they’re going to try and fly away in an hour. Jack picks himself up from the beating and yells for Desmond, who is nowhere to be found. Then as Locke is about to descend down Jacob’s ladder, Jack yells “LOCKE!” Jack fucking jumps up cocking a fist! This has a ridiculous movie feel to the point where Jack should have yelled “SPARTA!” During the scuffle I am certain Jack kicked Lockeness in the balls. The cliff starts to break apart. Lockeness stabs Jack in the stomach. As he’s trying to finish him off he says, “You died for nothing!” Then Lockeness gets shot in the back by Kate! “I saved you a bullet.” “You’re too late,” the monster says. Jack then kicks him for a nice forty foot drop to fucking hell. Wow. In sideways world Locke just gets out surgery and Jack’s neck starts to bleed. Locke wakes up even though he should be knocked out. Locke says “it worked.” He says he can feel his legs. He wiggles his toes. He then remembers the island. “Did you see that?” “You don’t remember?” Then Jack has a flash. Locke says they have to go, then Jack says he has to go see his son. “But you don’t have a son.” A freaked out Jack tries to leave and Locke says he hopes someone does for him what he just did for him. You want someone to murder him, bring him back to life and drug him so you shut up because you’re talking crazy?
Suddenly there’s no more rain. Jack is cut up pretty badly. He tells Kate to get him some thread and count to five. Sawyer sees that Lockeness is still dead. The island shakes again. “Doesn’t feel like it’s over.” Ben apparently got out of the tree.
At the hospital Jin and Sun grin like idiots when James shows up. He wants to keep them safe from Sayid and they brush him off. Jin says they’ll see him there. “See me where?”
Lapidus tries to start up the plane. Miles’ summers working for a contractor gets him hired to help fix the plane. Kate is wondering why the island is still coming apart if Lockeness is dead. Jack says he has to turn back on what Desmond turned off. Martyr time! They have another about to kiss moment when Kate turns away. Jack wishes James good luck. He’s never called him James before. Hurley and Ben say they’re going with Jack for different reasons. Jack tells Kate again to go. Kate tells him to say she’ll see him again. THEN they kiss. She says she loves him and Jack says ditto. Sawyer saw the whole thing. Jack, Hurley and Ben walk away. I start to think they wrote this whole thing just to prove they can make Kate likable.
Miles claims he doesn’t believe in a lot of things, but he does believe in duct tape. Sawyer calls Lapidus “chesty” when he walkies not to leave without them. Sawyer implores Kate to jump into the water to get to the boat to get to the plane.
James passes by Jack in the hospital hallway asking where he can get food. He says “thanks Doc”, has a look of recognition and tries to get an Apollo bar from the vending machine. Juliet shows up and asks if he should read the machine its rights. “That’s funny.” It was. They touch when she hands him the bar and they flash about their lives together. Awkwardly they remember her death. “I gotcha,” he says as he holds her. Then they kiss. Commercial. I guess they cut out the rest of that scene when Boone, Hurley and Desmond walk in and watch them.
At the concert sideways Jack shows up. Actually it’s post concert. Kate asks him if he’s looking for someone. Jack asks if he remembers her from somewhere. Oh because I stole your pen on 815. No that’s not how you know her. She touches his face and he gets flashes. He’s hard to convince though. Kate says if he comes with her he’ll understand.
Island Jack tells Hurley he’s going into the cave alone. Hurley cries. Jack says he is supposed to do this. He touches Hurley. “It needs to be you Hugo.” He says it’s up to Hurley to protect the island after Jack commits suicide. He puts water into a bottle Ben supplies and tells Hurley to drink it. He swallows and asks if that’s it. “Now you’re like me.” Wow Jack way to be jacob for like, two hours. His predecessor lasted fucking centuries. He finds Desmond inside the cave. Desmond says Jack was right. “There’s a first time for everything,” Jack says. He ties Dez up to the rope and tells him to go back to his wife and son. What about Jack? “I’ll see you in another life brother.” Only took 120 episodes but Jack has a sense of humor. Sawyer and Kate find Claire as the plane is preparing to take off. Claire yaps about Aaron not wanting to see her like a Rousseau type person. Kate says she’ll help her and the three run off to the plane. Lapidus spots them and delays the launching. Back in the cave Jack “lifts it up”, undoing what Desmond did. Kate, Sawyer and Claire get on the plane and they attempt to lift off. Claire asks what the in-flight movie is. No she doesn’t. Ajira 316 takes off. In the cave, the light and water come back. Ben and Hurley pull Desmond up, thinking it’s Jack. They pull Dez up while Jack laughs like a weirdo, about to die.
In the sideways world Locke takes a cab to the church housing Christian. He is smiling while still in his wheelchair. Locke wheels up to Dr. Linus. He asks if everyone is already inside. Ben apologizes for killing him. He was selfish and jealous. Locke forgives him. Ben says he needs to work some things out in sideways so he’ll stay there for awhile. Ben calls Locke out and calls bullshit on the chair. He gets up on his feet and says goodbye.
On the island Ben says Desmond should be okay. Hurley asks Ben if Jack is gone. Yup. Hurley asks what he’s supposed to do now. Ben says Hurley should do what he does best and help people. He says it was Jacob’s way to not let people off the island. Hurley asks for Ben to help him out being the island protector. Then on sideways Hurley asks if Ben is going inside. “You were a great number two.” “And you were a great number one Hugo.”
Jack and Kate pull up. How fun everybody is going to a funeral!
On the island Jack is alive, outside of the cave somehow. Another mystery that wont be solved.
Back at the church Jack enters through the back to have a private moment with his daddy’s corpse. In the background are six symbols of the major religions. When Jack touches the casket he gets more island memories. Lot of it involving Kate. Oh look, nobody is in the casket. “Hey kiddo.” Christian is alive. He says he is dead. “How are you here right now?”
“How are you here?”
“I died too.” Jack cries in Christian’s arms. Jack asks if everyone is dead. “Everyone dies sometime.” Why are they here now? There’s no why or here. Christian says Jack needed everyone. To remember. To let go. Kate said they were leaving. No, moving on. Where are we going? Let’s go find out. He walks in the room to find everyone from the island hugging and having fun. Locke shakes his hand.
On the island Jack is taking his final steps.
In the church, bro hug from Boone, Hurley and Sawyer. He holds hands with Kate. Everyone sits down.
On the island Vincent runs to Jack, like in the pilot, except this time he lies down next to him.
Christian opens the doors. Light pours in.
Jack and Vincent continue to lie there. He sees the plane fly in the sky.
Light continues to pour in.
Jack’s eye closes.
LOST.
Okay…
Okay.
Hmm….
My immediate reaction is I liked it a lot – as they say, I “felt it”. My second reaction is wow, how racist is this show? No Walt, Michael or Eko going to heaven? Only Rose because she has a white husband? Ridiculous. Or maybe Michael is still on the island as a ghost? And I love how Ben in the end managed to delay his death in both timelines. He is just unbelievable. Also they didn’t have Charlotte flash on Faraday. In due time I guess.
And I guess Matthew Fox wasn’t full of shit when he said he knew what the very last scene was. Kind of obvious in retrospect.
I for some reason really loved that Vincent lied next to Jack at the very end. Jack couldn’t die alone after all of that living together.
In the end it seems that the lesson learned from this show, and as spoken by Christian Sheppard, (“Christian Sheppard? Are you serious?”) is the best times of your life are when you’re amongst friends, and you can’t do it all alone. You need to live together or you’ll die alone. It’s about the people dude. And…wait how would Ben and Hurley get Desmond off the island? Donkey wheel? Boat? Wouldn’t he just keep circling around again? And what about…okay, I’ll be back later this week to write some more about it.
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