Lost Finale Recap: Case Closed

Oh, and speaking of Juliet, she was Jack’s ex-wife (and mother to his son) in the sideways universe. (More on that in a bit.)

When Juliet and Sawyer touched one another’s hands, they instantly remembered.

There were actually several key moments about this scene:
1.) Did anyone else notice that the Apollo bar that Sawyer bought sat at #23? (Which was also the number of Desmond’s table at the concert.)

2.) When Juliet died in the first episode this season, she was drifting in and out of consciousness, talking about going dutch on coffee, and most importantly, saying—in death, via Miles’ communication with her—that “it worked.” The collective thought at the time was that she meant that the hydrogen bomb had worked, creating this alternate timeline. However, she was just verbalizing the flirty conversation that she was having with Sawyer in her bardo, discussing the vending machine.

3.) As Sawyer was trying to get his candy out of the vending machine, Juliet told him about a “trick” she knew, saying, “You have to unplug it and plug it back in.” That’s actually a really common fix to many of life’s problems, namely, my internet router. But also, it applies to the heart of the Island.

So now we know the importance of Desmond, and it all goes back to the Hatch. As Jack and Mocke lowered Desmond down the glory hole, Mocke mentioned the similarities of that incident to when they first peered down the Hatch hole. (Even though Mocke stole that memory from Locke.) The camera angles were even very similar.

It would seem that Desmond had to push that button in the Swan station for three years so that he could prepare for this moment. He was building up his resistance to electromagnetic energy, which was basically what was corked up in the glory hole. And just like he had used the fail safe key in the Hatch, he was the fail safe key for the heart of the Island. He needed to be the person to reboot it.

To me, the heart of the Island looked like a butthole after buffalo wings pass through.

Anyway, once Desmond uncorked it, the Island temporarily lost its “magic.” This meant that Mocke was now mortal, as evidenced by the blood he spilled after Jack clocked him.

There was no other way to kill Mocke unless that butt plug was removed. It would seem that Jacob hoped this would be a last resort, and that his brother wouldn’t have to die. I have to say that this was one of the best action scenes I’ve ever witnessed on network television.

Now the neck and abdomen wounds in the sideways universe make sense. They were his death scars. Once Mocke was killed, the Island needed its butt plug replaced to reignite the “magic.” Jack took on this task, knowing he would die anyway, as he believed it all to be his destiny. And then it became clear that Hurley was the true candidate all along.

After Hurley was inducted into the secret society of Island protectors, Jack replaced the butt plug and saved the world. But he also saved everyone else on the Island, something for which he always had a boner. And thus, he saved himself.

I have to say that I loved the exchange between Hurley and Ben, as Hurley became the new Jacob and Ben became the new Richard.

It was fitting because Ben had done many things for which he wanted to repent, and, like Richard before him, he now would have time to do that. Speaking of Richard, he’s alive! And aging! Now that his duties to the Island have come to an end, he discovered his first gray hair, freeing him from eternity and allowing him to move on.

Lapidus is also alive. After surviving a sub explosion and drifting in the ocean for a few days, he was ready to get the fuck off that Island.

Miles, Richard, and Lapidus all returned to the Ajira plane, and performed some magic of their own. I don’t know how safe I would feel flying in a plane literally held together with duct tape.

Kate, Sawyer, and Claire (who was having a meltdown on the beach before finally agreeing to rejoin society, and, hopefully, wash that hair) showed up just in time for take off.

I know that Richard has made off-Island trips here and there over the years, but it was always all business. Wait until he inevitably discovers internet porn.

Before moving on, here are some other notables about last night. We got to see Eloise.

And Dr. Chang.

And Daniel and Charlotte.

Why is she a vampire?

Speaking of monsters, Miss J would refer to Claire as a no-neck monster.

Also, as annoying as I found Kate to be for most of the series, I was really happy that a chick saved the day.

Also, we learned that Rose, Bernard and Vincent time traveled to 2007 with everyone else, and because their little camp was so tucked away on the Island, it had been preserved for the 30 years that they were not there. So they were fine. Everything was the same. Rose was still an asshole.

OK, so let’s bring it back around to where we started (which is exactly how Lost resolved) with the bardo cycle. Jack went to the church where everyone was gathering. (The same church that was the DHARMA Lamp Post station that housed Eloise’s sorcery science dungeon.) But things were sort of different there. For one thing, it was multi-denominational.

As soon as Jack touched his father’s coffin he began remembering his life (I sort of wished that Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” began playing. Because it’s a good song.) And then his father appeared.

And that’s when Jack became enlightened. His dad’s speech sort of explained everything. Is this real life? No. It’s real death.

I know that some fans were still confused. Like, why would Jack have a son in the sideways universe? My theory is that the baggage that Jack took with him to the sideways universe were his daddy issues (a common and major theme of Lost). He sorta took care of the needing to fix things thing back when he was still alive. His major issue, in his death cycle, was his relationship with his father. Many people say that when you have your own children, you begin to heal from your own childhood and your issues with how you were raised. (Or at least, that’s what Madonna told Oprah after she had Lourdes.) But it makes sense. Once you become a parent, you begin to have a better understanding of what your parents went through. You learn to forgive them of their mistakes and (hopefully) rectify them by putting an end to certain patterns and cycles. And it was at this point—when he found the baggage he’d brought on that second Oceanic flight—that Jack finally let go.

In the church, the important people from Jack’s life—who were finally at peace with their lives and what had occurred—had gathered, to move on, as a unit, to spend their death as they should’ve spent their lives: together.

Back on the Island, we saw Jack stumbling from his wounds, past his father’s bloody, white tennis shoe, to collapse in the place where it all began for him on the Island. As he looked up at the sky, he saw the Ajira plane fly above his head, and he looked fulfilled. And just as Jack was taking his final breaths, Vincent emerged from the trees, to sit with him, so he wouldn’t have to die alone.

Anything that involves dogs always makes me cry.

During the credits, we saw the wreckage from the original Oceanic 815 on the beach. And some footprints. I don’t think it had any meaning other than that: a footprint. It symbolized that they were there.

Because a part of the shared human experience—which is basically what the entire show boiled down to—is that we want to leave our mark, so that people know that we’d been here. (I mean, that was the point of all the different shit, like the statue, and hieroglyphs and the empty Dharma barracks. They were all just footprints of the people who had been on the Island before.) And a large part of that, of leaving a footprint, or a mark, is to establish a basic need: To know that we matter.

This show was fucking awesome.