What's Alan Watching?: Lost, "There's No Place Like Home, Pt. 2 & 3": Dude, where's my island?:
-re: Libby, Boone, Charlie
They all died on the island, but so did Shannon, Eko, Ana-Lucia, and countless red-shirts. Why not mention any of them or Jin? All 3 are dead, pop up in visions to others, but I don't recall any significant interaction between the 3 of them. Everything seems deliberate on this show.
--My theory is that all three were people that Jack personally tried to save, and so he had the emotional memory to carry out the 'lie' that's good without seeming false to their families. He lost both Boone and Libby after treating them, and although Charlie died away from him, there was the time when Charlie was discovered after the Ethan kidnapping and Jack pounded his chest to bring him back to life. The other deaths were not as personal to him; not sure if this was a calculated move, but at least a subconscious choice by Jack.

also in these comments, longish somewhat solid critique of finale by Vic DiGital, and (I guess bcs it brought me down a bit) I was glad to find that first a post by Alan S & then more extensively a post by Matthew L address point-by-point many of her criticisms to my satisfaction.
such that what remains unaddressed of her criticism (at least on my quick read through of the end of this long thread) has to do, seemingly, with the shortening of the season, eg:
-a massive course-change with the whole freighter story, mid-season. I'm sure the Writer's Strike had something to do with it, but everything we were told at the beginning of the season ("You don't want to mess with the captain of the freighter!!") turned out to be meaningless. I guess that's right. As has been pointed out elsewhere, the whole "blow up the ship" plan was silly when you really look at it, especially since there's no reason why Keamy would have felt the need to wire himself up. yeah maybe. I don't mind it. it doesn't clearly make sense but it doesn't clearly not make sense either. it's not outstandingly~egregiously nonsensical. As far as he knew, the only people on the boat were the skeleton crew left behind. Granted, he was threatening the Losties only hope for escape, but unless he read the script for the finale, there's no way he'd know how much of a threat the Dead Man's Switch would actually be. well he used the switch earlier *on* the freighter as a way of preventing others from stopping him. so, seems possibly a good strategy for controlling those on the freighter who would oppose him.

and about wanting a finale in the game-changing style:
-One final note about why this finale left me a bit underwhelmed:It was an okay episode, but as far as being a finale, and the last Lost we get for eight months, it didn't cut it. This felt exactly like the end of Season One, when we finally got to open the hatch, and all they showed us was a ladder that went down. Well, we already figured there'd be that. Same with this year. We figured we'd get to see who was in the coffin, the Island disappear, the Oceanic Six rescued. We didn't get any compelling or mind-blowing glimpse into the future. hmm. I guess got this not only last year, season 3's 'game-changing' flashforward, but also with season 2's finale, which had the weird foot statue that everyone still asks about, the suspense of the Others taking Jack & Sawyer & Kate and letting Michael leave the island, and the hatch blowing up & Desmond turning the failsafe. plus, final scene (I think? seen mentioned here) then had the fellows in the tracking station getting a blip from the electromagnetic event and calling up Penny.
What they should have done was left us with at least one short scene on the island, wherever/whenever it now is. Imagine how wild it would have been to have seen snow falling on the trees, or to see a pterodactyl fly overhead, or to have the camera pan across the water (from the perspective of the shore of the beach) and alight upon an old sailing ship bearing down on the island with the name "Black Rock" on the side, or for us to see a half-dozen people emerge from the forest, and it's Juliet with short hair (or grey hair) or Rose with a bandoleer strapped across her chest, standing next to an almost-familar Asian man with long hair and a wicked goatee (or maybe some burn scars), or Sawyer with a shaved head, or maybe a new young child running around. (speaking of, there's still a passel of children somewhere on the island, isn't there?)
so this is similar to the critique iterated in AlanS's pre-Lost post about the ending of Exodus, season 1 finale, and how should have zoomed down into the hatch & shown Desmond there, some hint of what was to come. well it strikes me as pretty obvious that narratively there is usually going to be a trade-off between surprises in the finale and in the following season opener. Didn't get to see into the hatch in Exodus. therefore, premiere of season 2 got to start with the mind-blower where watch Desmond eating breakfast, taking shower; and assume it's a flashback, but instead: surprise! camera moves out & up the hatch to Jack & Locke looking down. by most accounts that beginning was fantastic, right? people think that episode, Man of Science Man of Faith one of the best.
ok so then season 2 ends with lots of new openings, and did the season3 opener blow any minds? ooh wait, I think it did, by going back to the plane crash from perspective of Juliet right? and first we see suburbia, book club meeting, then surprise! it's on the Island. so okay, I guess there the writers pulled off both a season finale of surprises and a season opener of surprises. but then, season 3's big surprise meant that the opener of season 4, Beginning of the End, with Hurley's flash forwards, was a continuation of what had already been glimpsed. a good solid episode but no big surprise. just as this finale was good & solid, but no big surprise (Locke in the coffin was a possibility already, not out of nowhere). so doesn't this mean that the opener of next season is potentially awesome? that, even if it fails to be, we can sit down to watch it with the excitement of having no idea what to expect to see?
boy that sounds great. I've convinced myself. turning on the premiere of season 5 next January is going to be exciting moment! . .