Things Are Not What They Used to Be, Missing One Inside of Me, Deathly LOST This Can't Be Real, Cannot Stand This Hell I Feel

(Metallica, Fade to Black)

Wow! I thought this was a great episode, and although it was mostly just an hour of set-up for the 2-hour finale in two weeks, we still got a lot of good stuff from it, and I mean a LOT of good stuff. I was thinking of not writing until after the finale, since this was just part one, but I'd probably be on overload if I did that, so I'm gonna go ahead and get a few things down now. I'm going to have to watch this one again, though, before the finale in two weeks. Anybody want to come over and watch?

1. Was anybody else covered in goose bumps as the "Oceanic 6" got off the plane?? What a great scene, when they were reunited with their families. That was a very well shot scene, very touching, and also very humanizing, to see these people who we've pretty much only known as fighters and survivors (pardon the expression), to let us see the other side of them, their relief and their vulnerability, especially Kate and Sayid, who were heartbreakingly standing there alone while everyone else's parents came running over to hug them. I like to think Cheech found a way to calm everybody down while they were waiting, if you know what I mean.

It reminded me of the end of The Goonies, after they get away from the Fratellis and their families are all waiting there on the beach for them. So, in my analogy, that probably makes Ben Linus the "One-Eyed Willie" of the bunch? I'd say it would be Widmore, but I think Widmore's more like the rich douchebag who wants to buy the Goon Docks and evict everyone. And, naturally, Hurley is Chunk, right? I was going to link to a video of Chunk doing the truffle shuffle and go for the easy joke, but the way Hurley brought Sayid over to meet his parents made me think this one was a bit more fitting.

2. I don't know about you, but I was so happy to see Sawyer cock his rifle and head out with Jack to find the helicopter. I can appreciate that they've added some depth to his character lately, showing him being nicer to Hurley and caring about Claire and the baby, but did anybody else notice how he gave the baby a little kiss before handing him off to Kate? That was a bit much. Come on, man. Sack up and go kill some bad guys!

3. 4-8-15-16-23-42. AWESOME!! In the camaro, man, that was creepy! I've always wanted to give that as my fake phone number, but I've never had the balls to do it, or been in a situation where I've needed to give a fake phone number. (481) 516-2342. Like that wouldn't be so fun to do. If 481 were an actual area code (it's not, believe me, I checked years ago), whoever had that number would probably be driven to the nuthouse with Hurley after all of the calls they'd be getting. I guess you could still give it out, though. Just tell people it's a Portland area code...

4. I like the way Ben walked right into the Orchid station where Keamy and his men were. For so long he's been putting people in harm's way "for The Island," but now we see that he is also ready to put his life on the line for The Island, which makes him a bit less of a bastard, I guess. And I loved his line to Locke: "How many times do I have to tell you? I always have a plan!" The way he was telling Locke to get into the Orchid station was pretty confusing, though, like trying to get unlimited men in Contra. Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Select, Start. Booya!

5. Ben's lockbox was also an interesting twist, though I would imagine that hiding a wooden box in the jungle for 15 years might have some negative effects on the contents of the box. Like the Dharma saltines that Locke immediately handed to Hurley. But really, why would you hide a box with a mirror and binoculars in it, on the off chance you might need it at some point in the future?? Either, where they hid the box is sort of the entryway toward the Orchid station, requiring some mirror communication before it's safe to go any further, or maybe Ben somehow went and hid it there a few weeks ago when he disappeared into the Batcave and summoned the smoke monster to come after Keamy and his men. Come to think of it, why didn't the smoke monster have more success against those guys? It scared them pretty bad, but only killed one of them? That doesn't seem very effective, especially considering the way we saw it grab Mr. Eko and slam him into the ground a few times.

6. I've said it before (#2), and I'll say it again. Jin's days are numbered. I really don't think it's a charade that Sun is keeping up for the sake of their story. I think it is going to be very sad, and I think it's going to happen in two weeks. Granted, the date of death on his tombstone was the date of the crash, that part is for the sake of their story. But yeah, he's a goner. And somebody is responsible for his death!! That was a great scene, where Sun told her father that she orchestrated the purchase of a controlling share of his company.

6a. Boy, Sun, Jack and Hurley are facing their fathers head on, right? Jack finally gets to put his father to rest, but we know that won't last long, because we've seen the visions Jack has in the future (and we also know Jack's dad is alive on The Island, or something like that). I wonder if Sun faces her dad early on, like we saw last night, and then has some other confrontation with him in the future, over the company, or maybe over something Island-related??

6b. I was also stricken with the aforementioned bumps of goose when Claire's mom showed up at the funeral and told Jack that Claire was his father's daughter. Wow. In fact, I just got goose bumps again thinking about it. Then the way he looked at Kate holding Aaron, his newly discovered nephew, conveyed such shock and a hint of disgust, probably directed at himself. Given Aaron's age at the funeral (3-4 months old, at the most) and at the end of Kate's trial (2-3 years?), I guess a pretty significant amount of time passes before Jack decides he's ready to be around Aaron again. This leads me to two questions: First, whatever happened to the right to a speedy trial? Second, exactly how far into the future was last season's finale, with Crazy Bearded Jack screaming to Kate, "We have to go back!" ?? 4 years? 5 years? (I stand by my theory that, to most people's incredible dismay, that scene is as far into the future as we are ever going to get on this show. I don't think we're ever going to know if they (or just Jack) get back or not. You heard it here first.)

7. Anybody notice how they sort of worked the tsunami into the storyline? 105 (she did say 105, right? not 108??) days after the plane crash, the typhoon washed up, blah, blah, blah; I don't remember exactly what she said at that press conference. But everybody seems to have been waiting for that tsunami to show up and affect the story, which I have always thought is a ridiculous theory. Why writers of a purely unrelated fictional show would use something so tragic as an ancillary story line would make absolutely no sense. Could you imagine doing that with the September 11 attacks, or Hurricane Katrina? Would never happen. Not this soon, at least. Anyway, I hope that's the last we hear of this typhoon, and I hope the tsunami-theorists will give it a rest already.

8. Um, so, that was a whole lot of explosives on the freighter, huh? I guess that could be why Keamy had that weird device strapped to his arm last week. So, if he planted those explosives there before he left, that's why he held up his arm and said, "You don't want to do that," when the Captain pointed his gun at him. What a dick.

9. Death is lurking around every corner. It seems to me that a whole lot of people are going to die. There are still two seasons to go, so I'm sure they won't all die in the finale in two weeks, but think about this:

The Oceanic 6 get back to the real world. Ben is still ok in the future, and according to Future Jack, Sawyer made a decision to stay on The Island, so presumably, The Island is saved from Keamy and his men. Which most likely means that Keamy and his men are going to die. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

The Oceanic 6 get rescued, some people (Sawyer, and probably Locke, at the very least, and possibly Rose and Bernard, to stay on The Island to avoid her cancer back in the real world) decide to stay on The Island.

But what about the people on the boat, and the 4 helicopter people? What reason would they have, after getting back to civilization, to keep up the charade that the Oceanic 6 are portraying? I'm guessing the boat people and the helicopter people all end up biting the dust at some point, otherwise, they'd be around to counter the story that has been cooked up, regarding the plane crash and survivors.

I also think Michael is going to die. He couldn't die after getting off The Island, but that's because The Island wouldn't let him die, because he still had to redeem himself for what he had done. Helping Ben sabotage the boat, and helping the Oceanic 6 get rescued will take care of that redemption, and he's toast.

What about Desmond? The jury's still out on Desmond, but the fact that he so solemnly vowed never to set foot on The Island again makes his outlook a bit more bleak, considering the amount of explosives on that boat. However, I'd say that the ensuing battle between Ben and Widmore probably means Des will be around awhile, otherwise, why should we care whether Ben is able to find and kill Penny, since we only know her through Desmond anyway? My question is, why hasn't Desmond had any more flashes of the future, like the way he did with Charlie? Can't he see any of this stuff coming? Might have been helpful, before Keamy planted all that C4.

See you in two weeks.