What's Alan Watching?: Lost, "There's No Place Like Home, Pt. 2 & 3": Dude, where's my island?

I think the first thing to do is to chart the location and status of everyone, as best I can figure, at the end of this whole deal.
Out in the real world: Jack, Kate, Aaron, Hurley, Sayid, Sun, Walt, Ben, Widmore
Dead in 2007: Locke (as Jeremy Bentham, the mysterious man in the coffin from "Through the Looking Glass")
In hiding: Desmond, Penny, maybe Lapidus (though he could just be kicking it in the Caribbean again right, assuming he's too small a fish for Widmore's people to go after)
On the island: Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, Charlotte, Richard & the Others, probably Rose and Bernard (Rose was chiding Miles moments before we saw Faraday load up a raft filled with redshirt Lostaways, and I doubt Bernard would've left without her), potentially other redshirts (though their ranks are running pretty low at this point; the freighter explosion was like the "Lost" equivalent of the Moldavian Massacre) and Faraday? ah, next:
Maybe dead, maybe lost at sea, maybe back on the island: Jin (who was on deck and could have miraculously jumped clear of the explosion), plus Faraday and the redshirts on his raft (and if any or all of these people weren't absorbed in the island-disappearing effect, then they're kinda screwed, as Penny's boat obviously didn't find them) my guess is that Faraday & his boat of redshirts were absorbed in the island disappearing effect. at lst I hope so. we saw them in their boat in the flash of white when the island moved. saw the flash around the helicopter too, but it seemed to contain the boat, more. anyway we at least know they did not die in the explosion of the freighter since this was after that, when helicopter already in air
Dead in 2004: Michael bcs not on deck like Jin? cld not have jumped clear, Keamy and his mercenaries
Location known, status unknown: Claire and Christian (who are on the island but may be the walking dead) good. well-done.

I'm glad that Miles and Charlotte stayed on the island, and not only because Ken Leung's one of the best additions to the cast over the run of the show. I still want to find out what Abaddon's Plan A was yes that required him to assemble a team including a mercenary (Naomi), a mentally-ill physicist (Faraday), a medium (Miles), and an anthropologist who may or may not have been born on the island (Charlotte). yes, and what is the relation between Abaddon & Widmore? ie why were Naomi, Miles, Faraday, Charlotte, & Frank as chopper pilot permitted to come along on the freighter?


my qstns, pts of int:
-when Sun meaningfully tells Widmore that he knows the O6 are not the only ones who left the island, is she referring to Desmond (& Frank Lapidus)? what is the meaning, the weight of this, to Widmore?
-Ben to Locke: Whoever moves the island can not ever go back. (why?)
three years later, Ben to Jack at Locke's coffin: I said all of you. *We* have to take him too. (we? so Ben can now return to the island, with them?)
-qstn begged with the reveal of Locke in the coffin in final scene of this finale: why was Locke now being called Jeremy Bentham? what had happened in the three intervening years on the island, how did he leave, why did he kill himself? and, who is he? what was his calling to the island? is he Jacob? Lindelof said fans who want to prepare for season5 should look into the Tibetan tradition of wh the reincarnation-"which of these objects already belong to you?"-test that Richard gave young Locke was part. bcs that backstory will figure in show's mythology. -oh, and, what is the deal with Richard Alpert not aging? still no hints at explanation for that...


152 Comments:

-So didn't Ben tell Locke that the person who moves the island can't stay there? But he wants to go back with Jack? I thought once Ben moved it, he couldn't go back...
-How does Ben know that the island won't let him go back now that he's moved it? I'm inclined to think that there's a previous island "caretaker" out there. Widmore? Abbadon? Dave?* cool. *who's Dave!? oh: Hurley's imaginary friend. well no I do not think he is a candidate, but makes the list sort of funny, like: could be anyone, Tom Dick or Harry... or Dave.
-I love the theory that the last person who moved the island and isn't allowed to return is someone we've met. Widmore is a great thought: would explain his obsession with finding it, and also his twisted relationship with Ben (who is his replacement as the caretaker.) Of course it could be Abadon, too (his role in trying to get people to the island could be to line up the necessary people to help it, since he's unable to), although he's probably still just the hired by Widmore? don't we have the impression they are separate forces? gun and Widmore is the guy who moved the island.
also, elsewhere, Aaron as next caretaker: Completely 'Lost': Bend it like Bentham: "the idea that Aaron will be Locke’s successor, and that the Others need the child to lead them, picking up where Locke (Jacob’s presumed heir) left off."
oh and Walt might be or have been a candidate also. after all he was "special" and taken by the Others bcs of it: "We're gonna have to take the boy." and then subjected to tests (wld be cool if there was some hint he was given the same 'which of these objects belong to you?' test; but if there had been any hint of that, I suppose I'd have seen mention of it by now)
-Tall Walt to Locke on the island is still a mystery. Was he whisked back from the future? Is he actually one of the dead visions? He'd be the logical next island caretaker, but likely lacks the acting props.
-So with the prospect now of a parallel to Christian with Locke returning to the island in a coffin, and the idea of a chain of succession with regard to "caretakers" of the island, I wonder if we'll find out that Christian Shepard was also at one time a caretaker of the island. He wasn't allowed to return to the island while he was alive. Anything in the timeline that would preclude that?
--Christian's demeanor in all the Jack flashbacks certainly didn't really suggest that the guy had once lived a secret life as ruler of a time-traveling, sentient island.
---I don't know. Maybe all that Dharma Rum was where he picked up his drinking problem. And, just like his son, it's why he kept flying back and forth to Australia.
---The parallel to Locke returning to the island in a coffin is still cool, though.
-cpennylane said... [re Charlotte] 'Can't be Annie. She died why Ben gassed the barracks. He closed her eyes.' Ben closed Horace Goodspeed's eyes, and Annie was no where to be found. good glad this got answered. I've liked cpennylane's cmmts here before, I think, have clicked thru to her blog posts re BabysittersClub books. I thought the episode was excellent. I liked it a lot more than last year's, because I thought the flashforwards in "Through the Looking Glass" really dragged everything down. They weren't interesting until the very end. huh that's an int pofview. I watched already knowing it was a flashforward (reading about that scene on a list of top tv scenes of the year is *why* I turned attn to Lost at all) and anyway the hook for me was Jack's despair. the maps spread around the room. esp knowing this is an after-the-end, in the ever after, a wanting to: go back.
-Loved this episode, and loved that they truly surprised me with a Des/Pen reunion 2 years earlier than I thought it would be coming. I think Charlotte is Ben & Annie's daughter, but that he doesn't know it. ah that's good. I've thought for a long time that part of what drives Ben must be that Annie died in childbirth. right I think that's a good guess. had forgotten. Maybe he doesn't know that their daughter survived.
-maybe Annie left with the baby after seeing how Ben was starting to act strangely (sneaking into the woods to meet Richard, talking crazily about the island powers) and that's what precipitated the purge. Makes sense for Ben's kidnapping of Alex, too: he wanted to replace the daughter that was taken from him. that's a good thought.
-If Locke was Bentham and he visited all Oceanic Six folks, then that means he told Sun that Ben knowingly killed Keamy and thus blew up the boat. ah. good. *that* is how Sun would know & blame Ben for Jin's death. (so that when she tells her father she blames he is one of two people at fault, she means him Paik and Ben.) been reading speculation that she is uniting with Widmore bcs blames Ben, but cldn't see how she'd know that Ben was responsible for the explosion. this makes very good sense, she learned from J Bentham, then went to see Widmore. the common interests she spoke of may be mainly this: they share an enmity against Ben.
-Sun is waging economic war on Paik and Widmore, and luring Widmore into a deeper involvement is the first step (or second step after the Paik takeover).
--So perhaps Sun is "The Economist"? ooh that's good. probably not the case though. Sayid's spy-lovergirl referred to her boss as 'he', I'm pretty sure. ~probably it's Widmore. and, it is now seeming to me that Sun might be sincere in partnering with Widmore in common interest of going after Ben.
-And one last question, when “Jeremy Bentham” visited the O6, was he in a wheelchair?
-I've always considered John Locke the hero of this story and the character closest to its heart. Locke's journey is the reason I care about the show. The mythology is cool, and Ben is clearly the best character cool that this is clear, whatever 'best' might clearly mean, but Locke's the reason i got sucked in and while i don't need him to have a happy ending, I need him to get a satisfying ending. Not be dead on arrival. If he can die, why was the island done with him? All those years to get him there and then he only got three years in charge (although I still believe that could be 40 years in island time). Then again, he was rounding people up to go back to the island... I'm so emotionally invested in his journey that I need him to have a period of time where he's unambiguously and unapologetically the man. bodes well that Lindelof said could prepare for coming season by researching tibetan reincarnation. this is my second noting of that so, should link & quote what actually said:
'Lost': Behind-the-scenes secrets from reading the uncensored scripts - ShowTracker -LosAngelesTimes: The producers have some advice for summer beach extracurricular “Lost” fare. Now that we know that John Locke has been drafted to the island over his lifetime, Lindelof has a suggestion: “We would basically advise those who have time on their hands to look into Buddhist traditions and the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. We used a lot of that back story in the creation of this myth.”



The Watcher - That crazy 'Lost' finale - 52 comments :
-Overall, there were at least twice the amount of game changers as last season's flash forward. I mean, the island is freakin' gone!!! They could start the next season on a UFO ship for all we know. The possibilities for next season are endless:
Is Locke the leader of the savages in the past as the Dharma folks first arrive at the Island? ooh I like that. and makes haunting Ben's answer to Hurley, that he Ben did not order the purge of the Dharma people and has not always been in charge. haunting, bcs maybe *Locke* was in charge then, and he ordered the purge. and Ben is telling Hurley this, as they watch Locke go into the pit of the Dharma skeletons and find the map in Horace's worksuit pocket.
Is Charlotte a Dharma love child born on the Island?
Does Ben know of another Dharma time machine that will allow them to return to the Island?
How does Sun know that Widmore used to be on the Island? ooh is that who she meant? "you know we are not the only ones to get off the island" ~ I tht re Desmond? but why said so dripping with meaning? so, int: bcs Widmore has been on the island? & she knows it.
-Sun teaming with Widmore now? I take it she considers Ben to be the other man responsible for Jin's (supposed) death? Makes sense, since he caused the bomb to go off.
-Just watched Dharma video above.Thought: Locke has been cloned before?
-I think this finale had as many "OMG" moments as past ones had; the difference is these "OMG"s were emotionally driven, not plot-twist driven. Sun watching the freighter blow up with Jin on it (although I am not convinced he is actually dead). Sawyer's goodbye to Kate and sacrificing his rescue for the others. Desmond and Penny's reunion. Claire ordering Kate to not take Aaron back to the island.
-This wasn't the classic "oh my God" Lost season finale but Locke in the coffin was pretty shocking. Plus -- the story is moving forward with this pervasive feeling of 'destiny' -- my hope is that somehow this all wraps up/back/into the closing scene being all of the events leading back to all the passengers taking Flight 815 again. y that'd be cool.

David Bianculli of TV Worth Watching thought it reinforced Lost's status as a classic and "answered more old questions than it posed new ones, definitely a first for a seasonal cliffhanger. And in the middle of all the angst & explosions and shifts of time & space, there was one fabulously satisfying moment, the reunion of Penny and Desmond, that paid off a story line that has been years in the making.
The episode also explained everything we needed to know about the Oceanic 6's origin and discovery, and set up not only why Ben had been wearing a parka in the desert, but how he steered the island somewhere else. Or somewhen else. I'm not sure, just as I'm not sure whether Jin really died, as it appears.
Locke died, that's for sure: that was the stunner to keep us buzzing until season five. And it seems just as certain that Jack will return to the island, with the body of Locke and the rest of the Oceanic 6 in tow... but then what?" yes indeed, then what?