Lost Season 6, Episode 17 -- The End (SERIES FINALE)

As Long As I Can See the Light

The Island was not purgatory for the castaways, Lindelof and Cuse kept assuring fans, since about Season 3, when that theory came up. The Island is a real place, and all events there are real in the context of the story.

But that did not mean that L & C couldn't put purgatory, or a place like it, somewhere else in the Losties' world. And it didn't have to look like a bleak or dark place, a void without any tangible rooms, structures, outdoors, what have you. Sideways Los Angeles, as a stepping stone to The Light, heaven, nirvana, etc., would do for them. It looks like a city, has cars and buildings and jets like a city, makes noise like a city. But it isn't really a city, not the physical Los Angeles, California, but a fantasy version of it, a Matrix-like world that the Losties somehow built for themselves. So says Christian Shephard, living up to his name, as he guides his son to his friends to The Light.

The castaways really did go through the six seasons of convoluted struggle on the Island. And due to Jack, Desmond, Hurley, and a redeemed Ben, it did not make a voyage to the bottom of the sea, as shown in the first scene of "LA X."

Presumably, it is still there, with Hurley as the new Jacob, and Ben as the new Richard. There also appears to be no new Smoke Monster. Rose and Bernard are still there, with Vincent, and maybe Cindy the flight attendant and those two kids.

But we still don't have answers to all the Lost Mysteries (though some might be addressed on the Season 6 DVD/Blu-ray sets to be released in August).

"The End" was a heavy-duty tearjerker, with its multiple reunions and awakenings of characters to their Island memories. I found it a frustrating but strong finale, with all actors expending maximum effort, even as the show drifted full tilt into the spiritualism that L & C pondered all season long.

You had a sacrifice in the style of Jesus -- Jack going down to the Cave of Wonders to plug up the Island "drain," knowing he was going to die. He was beaten and stabbed in the side of his belly, like Jesus was at the hands of soldiers, but in this case by the Man in Black.

Other rituals were baptism (Jack being washed "clean" by the water in the cave's mini-pool once he put the plug/cork back), communion (Jack passing the Island guardianship to Hurley through a drink of water) and confession and absolution (Ben tells Locke he's sorry for killing him, and the latter forgives him and releases him from guilt), and even a kind of rite of marriage, as the Constants all were joined, "two shall be as one," as their memories returned.

And why not throw all subtlety to the wind and set your final scenes in a religious structure and have things expounded by a guy named CHRISTIAN?

The conclusion of Lost will divide fans and be dissected for years to come, just as other gimmicky or frustrating endings have sparked debate. Six years of medical drama inside an autistic boy's head (St. Elsewhere), an eight-year dream of running a New England inn (Newhart), a Mafia don and his family, either enjoying dinner together or all being whacked (The Sopranos), a scientist/physician bouncing around in time never gets home (Quantum Leap). You're always going to have unrest and cries of "What were they thinking?" when show creators throw out artsy-fartsy or twist endings.

The closest thing I can compare Season 6 of Lost to is Jacob's Ladder (1990), starring Tim Robbins in the title role, and directed by Adrian Lyne (Flashdance, Fatal Attraction). Jacob Singer is serving in Vietnam at the Mekong Delta in the late 1960s, but he is also a veteran living in Brooklyn in 1975 and works for the U.S. Postal Service. Jacob starts to have more and more frightening hallucinations. The movie jumps between Vietnam and NYC, until the end, when it is revealed that the civilian Big Apple life was Jacob's hallucination as he died in Vietnam as a result of being bayoneted by fellow soldier (they had been given psychotropic drugs as an Army experiment).

Jacob's dead son (a very young and unknown Macaulay Culkin) comes to him to take up a staircase -- his "ladder" -- up into a bright light. This is much like the castaways, who are exposed to a blazing light as Christian Shephard (John Terry) opens the doors at the back of the church as the episode ends.

I did notice that survivors of the Island escape were at the church -- you saw Kate, Sawyer and Claire. Yet they also flew away on the Ajira jet. There is no "now" in Sideways L.A., as Christian put it. They are alive and dead simultaneously, because the events are not taking place at the same "time."

Put a candle in the window
But I feel I've got to move
Though I'm going, going
I'll be coming home soon
Long as I can see the light

Pack my bag and let's get movin'
'Cause I'm bound to drift a while
Well, I'm gone, gone
You don't have to worry, no
Long as I can see the light

--"Long As I can See the Light," Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1970

Recap Part 1: Artificial Purgatory Sideways L.A.
And Everything Emptying Into White

Christian's casket makes the journey from LAX and to a church, which is the same one where the DHARMA Lamp Post station was located. Images alternate between this artificial world and the Island -- Jack looks at a skull X-ray at St. Sebastian, Jack looks at his hands after washing his face in a jungle river. Ben is in his kitchen at home, Ben is getting ammunition handy while standing behind Smokey. Locke is being prepped for surgery. Sawyer looks at himself in the still cracked mirror in the police station locker room; Sawyer helps Kate tend to her shoulder wound, Kate is wearing the black cocktail dress and sitting in Hurley's Camaro.

Desmond signs for Christian's casket and tells the deliveryman to "take it around to the back."

Kate can't believe the deceased's name is "Christian Shephard." She wants to know why he brought her there.

"No on can tell you why you're here, Kate. Certainly not me."

"You're the one who brought me here."

"I'm not talking about the church. I'm talking about 'here.' "

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"My name is Desmond Hume, and even if you don't realize it, I'm your friend. And as for what I want, I want to leave."

"Leave and go where?"

"Let me show you."

At the Flightline Motel (where Locke met his dad, and Claire stayed in earlier episodes), Hurley is staking out Charlie's apartment. Sayid is with him. Hurley shows Sayid a tranquilizer gun and asks if it rings a bell. It doesn't. "Stick with me, and you'll be happy you did."

Hurley goes to Charlie's room, 102, and reminds him that he has a concert to perform. "What if I told you that playing this show is the most important thing you'll ever do?"

"Sod off," Charlie says. Hurley tranqs the recalcitrant rock star and loads him up in the back of the Hummer.

As Hurley comes to the concert site at the Golden State Museum of Natural History, Miles, who is there as son of the museum director, sees Sayid sitting in the Hummer. He calls James and tells him he just saw the guy who killed four men in cold blood and tells him to go make sure that Sun Paik is safe.

At St. Sebastian, Sun is still in a room recovering. She tells Jin in Korean that she anticipates them always having to be on the run from her father. Her physician enters the room and is Dr. Juliet -- Carlson (maiden name). She understands they don't know English, so she won't say much (at a real L.A. hospital they'd probably have a translator). As Juliet performs an ultrasound, and Sun sees the baby, she FLASHES, and Island memories start pouring back, including their deaths. She gasps. "I remember!" she says.

"Remember what?" Jin says. He looks at the the ultrasound image, and he FLASHES too, with images of the freighter blowing up, their reunion at the beach.

Juliet tells them the baby is perfectly fine, and she has gotten back the amniocentesis report. Do they want to know if it's a boy or a girl?

"It's a girl," Sun suddenly says in English.

"Her name is Ji-Yeon," Jin also says in English.

Jack stops by Locke just before he goes under anesthesia, and he says to call him "John." Jack assures him the surgery will work. He mentions his dad's casket was found, and "I'll see you on the other side ... If I can fix you, that's all the peace I need."

Jack is at the counter of a nurses' station, when Juliet shows up with David. She is his mom! Jack has to go into surgery with John, so he suggests that Juliet can go with Claire, the sister that Juliet never heard of.

As Juliet and David get on the elevator, James is getting off, and he nods at Juliet as he seems to recognize her. He goes to the nurses' station and asks for Sun's records.

At nightfall, Hurley and Sayid are outside a dive bar by a dingy alley. Sayid wants to know why they are there, but Hurley says he's not allowed to tell him.

"There are rules, dude."

"Whose rules?"

"Don't worry about it. Just trust me, okay? I trust you."

When Sayid wants to know why he trusts him, Hurley says he thinks he is a good guy. "You know, a lot of people have told you that you're not. Maybe you've heard it so many times you've started believing it. You can't let other people tell you what you are, dude! You have to decide that for yourself."

Still, Sayid will no believe him, and says he does not know anything about him, but Sayid counters, "I know a lot about you, dude."

A fight breaks out between two men, and one of them is Boone Carlyle. Shannon Rutherford runs out of the bar and yells at the man to leave her brother alone, and he starts to attack her. The man attacks her and Sayid runs over to the fight and punches the aggressor out. As he helps Shannon up, she says his name, and he says hers, and they FLASH to their Island days.

Boone complains about being "pounded," Hurley took forever to get there, and it was a "pain in the ass" to get Shannon back from Australia. "Yeah, but dude, it was worth it." (Boone already had full Island memories, just like Hurley.)

At the museum, Claire, David and Juliet arrive, but Juliet gets a phone call that she must go back to the hospital. Charlotte wakes an unconscious Charlie up in the dressing room, and he sort of recognizes her. Daniel (Faraday) Widmore shows up, and they introduce themselves to each other. There is a slight glimmer of recognition.

Kate, Claire, Desmond and David are all at the same table, number 23 (a Lost Number). Kate recognizes Claire immediately as Dr. Pierre Chang announces the show by Daniel and DriveShaft. It's a mix of classical piano and Charlie and Liam Pace on guitar. As Charlie plays, he looks out into the audience and sees Claire, and a glimmer of recognition begins. Claire gets a contraction and leaves the table to go to the restroom. Kate gets up and follows her.

Eloise comes to table 23 and sits next to Desmond. She knows what is going on, and thought he was going to stop what was going on. He plans to stop once everyone know what happened in the Island world. Eloise asks for assurance he won't take Daniel, and he says he doesn't plan to take him along.

Claire is in serious labor, and Kate is attending her, much like she did on the Island in Season 1. Kate orders Charlie, who has come backstage, to go get water and blankets. As Kate urges Claire to push -- she just seems to know how to do this -- she FLASHES and sees the birth of Aaron on the Island. Claire feels the edge of a FLASH but does not fully until Charlie returns. As these constants look at each other, the FLASH returns both of their sets of memories. He kisses her upon recognition.

Desmond arrives and asks Kate if she understands what is going on. "It's one hour." (Probably before the Island would sink, and one hour before going to the church.)

At St. Sebastian, a nurse compliments Jack on his work on Locke, who is waking up right away, despite being under full anesthesia. Jack tells him not to move yet, but Locke tells him he knows the surgery works and says he feels his legs. He moves his feet, and Locke FLASHES into his Island memories. He asks Jack if he remembers yet, and Jack does not. He tells him he needs to go with him. Jack says he needs to go to his son, to which Locke says, "You don't have a son, Jack. ... I hope someone does for you what you just did for me."

James goes into Sun's room but finds her getting ready to leave. He says he is there to protect her, and Sun says in perfect English that he doesn't have to do that. "I'll see you there," she adds.

"See me where?" a puzzled James says as Sun and Jin depart.

James passes Jack in the hall and asks about the cafeteria, but that is closed, so Jack directs him to a vending machine. He thanks Jack and calls him "doc," perhaps a bit of the Island World creeping in.

James picks an Apollo bar -- reflecting the scene when Jacob visited Jack at the hospital -- and the candy gets stuck. Juliet shows up and asks him what he's doing. James says he's a cop and he's trying to get his candy.

"Maybe you should read the machine its rights," she says.

She tells him that if he unplugs the machine and plugs it back in, the candy bar will just drop out. He does that, and Juliet takes the candy and gives it to him. They briefly FLASH as their hands make contact. James asks her to coffee some time. And she agrees to do it and "go Dutch."

Juliet and James go into full FLASH mode and see everything, up to the Incident. "I had you, I had you, baby," James says, as he recalls holding her at the top of the pit where Jughead sat. They kiss passionately.

Jack arrives at the museum, but Kate tells him that the concert is over. She reminds him that she stole his pen after they left Oceanic 815. She puts her hands on his face, and he starts to FLASH but winces and pulls away. He asks Kate what is happening and who she is, and she says that he will understand if he comes with her.

A cab pulls up beside the church where Christian's casket is, and the driver helps Locke get into his wheelchair. He wheels over to Ben, who sits pensively outside. He tells Locke that most of them are there.

"I'm very sorry for what I did to you, John" Ben says, about strangling him. "I was selfish, jealous. I wanted everything you had."

"What did I have?"

"You were special, Jack, and I wasn't."

"Well, if it helps, Ben, I forgive you."

"Thank you, John. That does help. It matters more than I can say."

Ben says he will stay outside, because he still "has some things I have to work out." As Locke starts to wheel away, Ben reminds him that he doesn't need the chair anymore. Locke gets up and starts walking to the church. They say goodbye.

Hurley comes out and tells Ben that everyone is inside, but Ben still will not come in. "You were a really good number two," Hurley says.

"You were a great number one."

"Thanks, dude. I'll see you."

Kate and Jack come to the church. He recognizes it as the place where they were to have Christian's funeral. She tells him to go around the back to get inside. The rest, she adds, are waiting for him.

Jack goes into the back room, which appears to be office and storage and has multiple religious objects there -- a cross, rosary, menorah, figure of the Hindu god Ganesh, etc. A stained glass window contains symbols of the world's major religions: cross (Christianity), crescent moon and star (Islam), Star of David (Judaism), Om character (Hinduism), yin yang (Taoism) and a wheel (Buddhism). [Other recappers wondered if this referred to the donkey wheel, but here I believe the wheel means Buddhism.]

Jack sees his dad's casket and places his hand on it. He FLASHES and finally, finally, gets his Island memories! The last ones show him with Kate, which means the "Skaters" win and rejoice! He opens the casket, only to find it empty. A voice says, "Hey, kiddo."

It's his dad, and upon realizing Christian is dead, Jack knows he has died, too. He starts to cry, and Christian offers comfort. Jack asks if anything is real.

"You're real, everything that's ever happened to you is real. All those people in the church, they're all real, too."

"They're all dead?"

"Everyone dies sometime, kiddo. Some of them before you, some long after you."

"Then why are they all here now?"

"Well ... there is no 'now' here."

Jack is overwhelmed, still trying to sort things out. "Where are we, Dad?"

"This is the place that you all made together, so that you could find one another. The most important part of your life was the time that you spend with these people. That's why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone, Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you."

"For what?"

"To remember -- and, to let go."

"Kate -- she said we were leaving."

"Not leaving, no -- moving on."

"Where are we going?"

"Let's go find out."

As they go into the sanctuary, Jack sees all kinds of embracing and reunions taking place. Jack shares embraces with all his friends and takes a seat at the front of the church. The constants are all with each other -- Penny and Desmond, Charlie and Claire with baby Aaron, Sun and Jin, Rose and Bernard, Juliet and Sawyer (Team Suliet members, say "hurrah!"). Locke is alone but quietly content.

[Missing: Eko, Michael, Walt, Cindy the flight attendant and the two kids she was watching, Richard, Ana Lucia, Vincent.]

Christian walks to the back of the church and opens the doors. A blindingly bright light enters and bathes all of the people in it..

Recap, Part 2: The Real Island
And When I Die

Sawyer and Kate see Jack looking over a pond and into the jungle. Jack says he doesn't feel any different. Sawyer says, "How about you come down off the mountaintop and tell us what the burning bush had to say for itself."

Jack explains that they have to go the place just beyond the bamboo field to the Cave of Wonders and protect it, so the Smoke Man can't put it out and destroy Everything. They also must find Desmond and keep Smokey from getting him. The lack of specific strategy or suggestions causes Hurley to muse that Jacob is "worse than Yoda."

They decide to split up. "Y'all head to heart of the Island," Sawyer tells Jack, Kate and Hurley, "and I'll go get the magic leprechaun out of that well."

Kate and Sawyer flirt a bit, and Hurley goes the Star Wars route again: "I've got a bad feeling about this."

While walking through the jungle for about the millionth time, Jack tells Kate he took the Guardian job because he had to do it, and it was the only thing he had not ruined. Kate disagrees and says, "Nothing is irreversible."

"This would be so sweet if we weren't about to die," Hurley says.

Sawyer approaches the well and finds it empty, only to be caught at gunpoint by Ben. Smokey appears and asks why Sawyer is there, and he says he heard Desmond was there. "I guess someone beat us both to the punch. Oh, well."

Smokey says that he plans to use Desmond to sink the Island and watch its demise from his boat. He invites Sawyer to come with him, but he turns him down. Sawyer strikes Ben, grabs his rifle and runs away. Smokey notices an animal track near the well and quickly deduces it belongs to a dog.

And his name is Vincent. The dog wakes Desmond up, and he's at Rose and Bernard Nadler's Cozy Jungle Haven. Rose sends Bernard out to get some food for breakfast.

Rose says they built the house in 1975, lived there a couple years, and the sky lit up agian. "Only God knows when it is now." She says she broke their rule of not getting involved by rescuing Desmond.

As Bernard comes back from checking their fish traps, he apologizes as Smokey strides into the front yard. He threatens to hurt Rose and Bernard, to make it hurt, if Desmond does not come along. Rose tells Desmond to defy the monster, but he promises to go with Smokey if he will never touch the couple again, so he agrees.

As they walk through the jungle, there is the sound of static. Ben assures Smokey that it's nothing. Desmond says he knows they are going to a place with very bright light.

The static was Miles, who is trying to contact Ben on the walkie talkie he took. [Ben is doing the Severus Snape thing -- pretending to help the bad guy while still secretly supporting the heroes.] He finds Richard, who is dazed and can't remember the assault by Smokey in the New Otherton ruins. He still wants to take the C4 to Hydra Island and blow up the jet so Smokey can't escape.

Sawyer goes back to Jack and tells him that he found Locke, and the creature is going to try to destroy the Island. Jack says they are all going to the same place, and "then it ends."

At the dock near New Otherton, Richard and Miles get an outrigger ready to go to Hydra. Miles leans over and says, "Welcome to the club." He plucks a hair out of Richard's head. "Looks like you got your first gray hair." Richard smiles and tells Miles that he just realized he wants to live.

As they paddle toward Hydra, you get the feeling that someone might shoot at them, as shown during the time jumping last season. But no, the only dramatic thing is the discovery of a dead body and submarine wreckage. The corpse is the sub commander.

A voice yells for help, and it's Frank Lapidus, clinging to some flotsam! They get him aboard and tell him they're going blow up the plane.

"Well, if we leave, then that thing won't have a plane anymore," Chesty tells them.

"And how do we going to that?" Richard says.

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm a pilot."

The Final Showdown of Opponents, as Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley meet Smokey and Ben in a great, rolling meadow. At first sight, Kate shoots at Ben and Desmond, who duck, and Smokey, who keeps walking toward them and says to her, "You might want to save your bullets."

Jack tells Smokey that he volunteered to replace Jacob, and he can't stop him from going to the Heart of the Island, so he wants to go with him.

"You think that you're going to destroy the Island. ... That's not what's going to happen."

"Then what's going to happen, Jack?"

"I'm going to kill you."

"How you plan to do that?"

"That's a surprise."

"Okay, let's get on with it."

As they head to the Cave of Wonders, Sawyer asks if Desmond was bait to draw them, and Jack says no, he is a weapon. "That's a hell of a long con, doc," Sawyer says.

Thunder rumbles overhead as they approach the bamboo field and the Cave of Wonders. "Going to be a bad one," he says of the storm, and perhaps of the Island's demise?

A rope is tied to Desmond, and another end to a stout tree. They all go into the Cave of Wonders, with no ill effect. Des is more than willing to go, telling them that he'll go on to a place where there is someone he loves, and he'll never have to deal with the Island again. He tells Jack that he could try and find a way to bring him over to that place, too.

Jack disagrees. "There are no short cuts, no do overs. What happened, happened. Trust me, I know. All of this matters."

As they lower Desmond into the pit, the Smoke Man asks Jack if it reminds him of another subterranean place: the Swan, where there was a fight over whether or not to push the button. It's just like old times, he says.

"You're not John Locke," Jack says. "You disrespect his memory by wearing his face. He was right about everything. I just wish I could have told him that when he was alive."

"He wasn't right about anything, and when this island drops into the ocean, and you drop with it, you're finally going to realize that."

"Well, we'll just have to which one of us is right, then."

Inside the Cave of Wonders is a seemingly bottomless pit with a waterfall on one side. Desmond reaches the bottom of this chasm. He sees skeletons of those who came before him. He finds a kind of room that mixes natural rock formations in fantastic shapes with carvings of an ancient civilization. There are four different conduits in a row, as if to carry water somewhere else (the Temple and its pool?), and a pool full of golden, glowing light in the center.

Ben tries to contact Miles on the walkie talkie and urges them not to blow up the jet. Miles says he already knows that, and that Frank is going to get the plane going. Their talk is suddenly interrupted by Bad Hair Claire, who emerges from the jungle and shoots at Miles, Richard and Frank. Richard calms her and tries to get her to come with them, but she resolutely refuses.

In the cave, Desmond steps into the pool, and the water churns as a rumbling and shaking commences. It gets worse as he goes toward a carved stone plug -- or cork? -- and pulls it out of a hole in the pool's center. The water all drains out, and a great light shoots out of the how and glows like the inside of a volcano. Or like that electromagnetic blast in Widmore's shack.

"No! No!" he screams, as the energy and the whole world seem to come apart.

Higher up, Smokey says, "Looks like you were wrong. Goodbye, Jack." As the ground rumbles like an earthquake, and boulders tumble. Smokey dashes out of the cave. Jack comes out and attacks him, punching him in the mouth. And ... the rules have changed. The Smoke Man is mortal now, and he's bleeding from his mouth!

"Looks like you were wrong, too," Jack says as he tries to choke him. Smokey grabs a rock, knocks Jack out and leaves.

The tremor rocks the earth, and Kate dodges a tree, but another one falls on top of Ben. Hurley, Sawyer and Kate pull it off him. At the cave, Jack wakes up and calls down to Desmond, who doesn't answer.

Sawyer complains that "Flocke" was right, and the Island is going down. Miles calls them and tells them to come to Hydra, because Lapidus is readying the plane. Frank tells Miles that he needs five or six hours to inspect electronic and hydraulic systems, and Miles delivers the bleak news -- he has maybe one hour.

Sawyer is frustrated and asks how they could get there. Ben says Locke has a boat -- Desmond's old vessel, the Elizabeth.

As they start toward the boat, Smokey is there at the cliffs near Jacob's cave, looking out at the boat. Jack approaches him, Smokey takes out his knife, and they both charge at each other great bounds, like superhero and supervillian about to collide.

Jack scores a punch on Smokey and starts to choke him again, but the monster turns the tables and makes Jack his punching bag. A part of the cliff collapses into the sea just in front of them. Smokey stabs Jack in the gut and is about to cut his throat.

"I want you to know, Jack, you died for nothing." The knife makes a shallow cut on Jack's neck ... right at where Sideways Jack keeps having a bleeding wound.

A shot rings out, and Smokey drops to the ground. Kate lowers her rifle and says, "I saved you a bullet!"

"You're too late," Smokey says.

Jack kicks the monster off the cliff, and he falls down and lands on another one close to the sea. Dr. Frankenstein, it's not alive!

Kate looks at Jack's abdominal wound and declares it pretty serious. "Find me some thread, and I can count to five," he says, saying the line in the pilot episode where he told her how he got over being afraid of giving stitches. As Sawyer arrives, Kate tells him Smokey is dead, and everything is over.

A tremor knocks them all down. "Sure don't feel like it's over!" Sawyer says.

On Hydra Island, Frank finds a problem with one of the landing gear, and he sends Miles -- whose mechanical experience was two summers with a contractor -- with some tools and duct tape to fix it.

Sawyer and Kate decide to take the Elizabeth to Hydra, and Hurley, who can't and won't climb high cliffs or the ladders clinging to them, will stay with Jack. Ben says he'll go down with the Island, if it does go down.

Jack orders Kate to convince Claire to get on the plane, and thus fulfill her reason for coming to the Island. "Tell me I'll see you again," she says, and Jack says nothing, but they kiss (Jaters, rejoice). She and Sawyer realize the only way get to the Elizabeth is to jump into the ocean, so down they go.

Miles labors over the landing gear at Hydra. "I don't believe in a lot of things," he says as he tapes up the wheel, "but I do believe in duct tape."

Frank gets the plane to start and says that they have power only enough for that. As the engines hum, he says, "That, my friends, is pure music."

Returning to the Cave of Wonders, Jack tells Hurley and Ben he will go alone. He will be a sacrifice. He tells Hurley the Island needs him, and urges him to take over the Guardian's job. Hurley agrees only if Jack will go down into the light, come back, and then return the position to Jack. They do the water ritual, with Hurley drinking out of an old, leftover Oceanic bottle.

"Now you're like me," he tells Hugo.

In the Luminous Pool Chamber, Jack finds an unconscious Desmond. The Scot wakes up and is upset that he didn't cross into Sideways World. Jack ties the rope around him and tells him to go home to his wife and son.

"What about you, Jack?"

"See you in another life, brother," Jack says, and smiles.

Kate goes to Claire, who is on the beach. She is still hung up and how the Island made her crazy, and she does not want Aaron to see her like this. (She confessed about the same thing to Smokey). Kate says that Claire will not be alone, and the first time being a mother isn't always easy. She will help her. Claire finally agrees to go.

Sawyer tries to contact Frank, but the walkie talkie is out of earshot. They decide to make a run for the jet. Frank has backed up the jet as if it were a Buick in a parking lot and is now taxiing down the Hydra runway, when he is stunned to see Claire, Sawyer and Kate running toward the plane. In a dramatic Run Along the Vehicle and Hop On at the Last Minute Rush, everyone is pulled aboard.

"Way to wait till the last second!" Miles says.

"Nice to see you too, Enos!" Sawyer retorts.

In the cave, the walls are cracking, rocks are falling, and fire and hellish, lava-like glow are coming from the Island drain. Jack, with all that is in him, heaves the stone drain plug over to the fiery hole and jams it home. The rumbling ends, and water starts to flow back into the pool. With relief, Jack falls down and cries bittersweet tears as the water rises around him. (The light dappled pool is like its larger counterpart in the Temple.)

"He did it. The light's back on," Ben says. Hurley and Ben pull the rope up, only to find the person on the other end is Desmond. Hurley calls out to Jack, but no one responds.

Ben carries Desmond to a clearing, lays him down, and says he will be okay. As Ben confirms that Jack is dead, Hurley has his second great sob (the first being after Jin and Sun's departure from that veil of tears). Hurley is confused and doesn't know what to do as guardian. Ben suggests that maybe Hurley could find a way to send Desmond off the Island. Hurley says he thought people couldn't leave the Island, but Ben says that was what Jacob did.

In other words, Hurley can make up his own new rules: it's his game!

Hurley says he needs someone with experience and asks Ben to be his number two. Ben says he would be honored. Hugo Reyes, the new Jacob. Benjamin Linus, the new Richard.

Jack -- still alive! -- wakes up outside the cave. His face and clothing bloody, the exhausted former Guardian walks until he stumbles into the bamboo field, where his Path of Learning began. He falls to the ground, satisfied at the outcome of things, and he is ready to die. Mirroring the very first scene, Vincent emerges from the jungle. He runs toward Jack and lies down next to him.

As Jack gazes skyward, the Ajira jet roars overhead, taking Miles, Sawyer, Kate, Claire, Frank and Richard to a place called home. He smiles, knowing they've left, and he can see into the reunion in the Sideways world. The last shot is Jack's eye in closeup as it slowly closes.

A fade to black with LOST title card, with no booming sound, and silent end credits showing the abandoned remains of Oceanic 815 on the shore. J.J. Abrams' little scarlet Bad Robot shows up, but no kid voice says "Bad Robot." A requiem, quietly, for all who have given their lives. While Lost.

And when I die
Ad when I'm dead, dead and gone
There'll be one child born
And a world to carry on, to carry on
I'm not scared of dying
And I don't really care

If it's peace you find in dying
Well, then let the time be near
If it's peace you find in dying
When dying time is here

Just bundle up my coffin
'Cause it's cold way down there
I hear that's it's cold way down there,
Yeah, crazy cold way down there

And when I die
And when I'm gone
There'll be one child born
And a world to carry on, to carry on

My troubles are many
They're as deep as a well
I can swear there ain't no heaven
But I pray there ain't no hell
Swear there ain't no heaven
And pray there ain't no hell

But I'll never know by living
Oonly my dying will tell
Only my dying will tell
Yeah, only my dying will tell

--"And When I Die," Laura Nyro, 1967

[Photos: ABC; lost-media.com]

Lost Season 6, Episode 16 -- What They Died For

For a Gigantic Cave of Swirling Golden Stuff

Again there seemed to be something off or blah about this penultimate episode, just like last week's backstory. It seemed rushed, as Lindelof and Cuse had run out of time. (Lucky they have an additional half hour for the finale on Sunday.) There were some high points, however, despite the off-kilter pacing.

Jacob has a successor. Widmore and Jungle Liz Lemon are gone, and more than likely, Richard. Ben is back on the dark side.

Or is he? Ben Linus' decision to join up with Smokey was rather abrupt, after being on a path to redemption. Unless he is like Severus Snape, the wizard in the Harry Potter series who perfectly feigned allegiance to Lord Voldemort while actually always being loyal to Dumbledore. It is possible that Ben is still helping the castaways by using a lifetime of carefully honed slyness and manipulation. The Ben in Sideways L.A. ironically is labeled "the nicest guy I know" by Alex Rousseau, and he is now pondering deeper things after getting a beating from Desmond and seeing himself in the Island timeline.

Jack is the new Island Guardian, having participated in the communion-like ritual with Jacob that the latter shared with his Mommie Dearest last week in "Across the Sea." In the earliest season, Jack Shephard lived up to his name as he took on first major duty of a shepherd -- guide the "flock." He led the Losties to establish a camp and secure basic supplies. Along with that duty, he now takes on the shepherd's second major task -- protection of that flock, and additionally shield the Island itself.

In Sideways Los Angeles, Desmond is tirelessly forcing the Oceanic 815 alumni together. With a little help from his friends -- Hurley and Ana Lucia Cortez -- he engineers a nifty little escape from police custody. People will be congregating at David Shephard's concert, which appears to be at Pierre Chang's museum (and still maybe the hospital?).

A classic Lost image -- an eyeball closeup -- opens the episode, and it is Jack in Sideways L.A. He has that mysterious cut on his neck, and he looks at it in the mirror, yet another image for characters in this split-worlds Season 6. He enjoys cereal with David and assures him that he'll be at his concert. David's mom will be there too (more than likely it is Juliet, taking time off from fighting reptile aliens in NYC.) Claire joins them, but the morning meal is interrupted by a phone call from "Oceanic Airlines," which is really Desmond pretending to contact Jack about the company finally finding Christian's casket.

His next stop is the high school, where Locke is returning to work for the first time after the hit and run. Ben sees Desmond parked nearby and confronts him. Desmond says he doesn't plan to run John over again. Ben wants to know who he is and tries to make a citizen's arrest.

"You want to know who I am?" Desmond says, and starts to punch Ben in the face over and over, causing Dr. Linus to flash Desmond trashing him in the Season 4 episode "Dead Is Dead." He tells Ben he wasn't trying to hurt Locke, but for him to start to "let go."

Ben goes to the school infirmary for patching up by the school nurse. After his treatment, he is the second character of the night to look into a mirror. Locke wheels in and asks him what happened. Locke insists they call the police, which Ben says he probably should not do. "The man told me he wasn't trying to hurt you. He was trying to get you to let go, and for some reason I believed him. ... Does that mean something to you?"

Locke gives up his call, which is to the very precinct where James and Miles are detectives. Miles is putting on a tie and tells James that he is going to a benefit concert for his dad's museum, with Charlotte as his date (and I am sure David Shephard will be tickling the ivories there too, along with proud papa Jack in the audience). James gladly tells Miles he can have that redhead.

Desmond strolls in and turns himself for the Locke hit and run and the Ben assault. James puts him in the lockup, where his cellmate is Sayid, and their neighbor is Kate. "Thanks for saving the taxpayers the trouble of hunting you down," James tells him.

At the end of the school day, Ben struggles with his things, because his arm is in a sling. Alex comes to his aid and insists that her mother give him a ride home. It is a normal, mellow Danielle Rousseau who pulls up, who decides not only will she give Ben a ride, but she is going to cook him dinner.

Danielle is happy she can cook for someone else than just Alex, who is being studious in the living room. She adds that Ben is "the closest thing to a father Alex ever had," because her biological dad died when she was very young. Ben starts to mist up, obviously moved by this comment, and in fumbling manner tells Danielle that the onions must be causing his eyes to water.

Locke goes to Jack's office for the consultation he was promised back on "LA X." He recounts all the coincidental things that have piled up -- the hit and run, the resulting surgery, Jack's pleas to "fix" Locke, the attack on Ben and Desmond's claim that he wasn't trying to hurt anyone but to get Locke to "let go." The same thing that Jack told him. He assures Jack he doesn't think he sent Desmond to hurt him.

"Maybe this happened for a reason," Locke says. "May you're supposed to fix me."

"You're mistaking coincidence for fate," Jack says, repeating a Lost catch phrase.

"I think I'm ready to get out of this chair."

At the police station, James goes to the jail cells with the announcement that Sayid, Desmond and Kate are headed for the county. "Vaya con dios and the best of luck," he says, as a guard opens their cells.

Kate begs James once more to help her escape, reminding him that she said she was innocent. He says he can't do that because he is a cop and has to do his job.

While riding in the paddy wagon to the county jail, Desmond states that it is now time to leave. Sayid says Desmond is a crazy person, and Kate wants to know if he is just going to tell the driver to stop and let them out. He gets both of them to promise they will do what he says, and the van abruptly comes to a stop.

Ana-Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez in a cameo) is the driver, and she has pulled the van up to what looks like the same shoreline where Charlie and Desmond went Car Diving earlier in the season. A Hummer pulls up, and it's Hurley, who hands off a $125,000 payoff to Ana Lucia. "Do I know you, tubby?" she asks, as so many of these Oceanic people in Sideways World keep asking.

Hurley turns his vehicle over to Sayid. He offers the pride and joy of his youth, his early 1970s red Camaro, to Desmond.

He says that Kate is with him and hands her a hanger with the classic little black dress on it. "We are going to a concert." And 10 to 1 that this concert is at a museum. Headed by Dr. Pierre Chang. And attended by some people named Shephard. (Also recall in Season 3 Ben gave her a nice dress and insisted Kate wear it for a beachfront brunch.)

On the Island, war is definitely coming, and Smokey is gearing up to destroy the Island and leave. Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sawyer are on the beach, still feeling blue and regrouping after the sub explosion. Jack fixes Kate's shoulder wound, noting that the bullet went clean through, and he has to clean it out to avoid infection. (Reflects the pilot episode, where she has to clean and sew up Jack's wound.) She muses that Ji-Yeon is young and alone now, and Jin never even met her.

"Locke did this to them. We have to kill him, Jack," she says.

"I know."

As flotsam from the submarine drifts toward the shore, Sawyer looks out to sea. An empty life jacket is among the debris, suggesting no more survivors. Jack says it is time to head out in the jungle to the well where Desmond is located.

Miles, Ben and Richard go to the abandoned New Otherton, and Miles asks Ben if he is sure that his short cut will work. Ben says he lived in the barracks for a long time, and Miles reminds him he lived there 30 years before that, "otherwise known as last week."

Ben tells Richard he has enough C4 to "more than destroy it 10 times over and keep it from ever leaving this Island."

Miles asks about where he put the explosives. "Let me guess -- a cookie jar."

"Don't be ridiculous. It's in a secret room behind my bookcase."

As they enter New Otherton, Miles hears hissing and rushing sounds and tells them he gets "wonky around dead stuff." Richard says that after Alex was shot, he buried her in what could be called the town square. Ben thanks Richard for that kindness.

In Ben's house, they go into the secret room, and Miles spots the opening in the wall for calling to Smokey.

"What's that, a 'secreter' room?"

"It's where I was told I could summon the monster," Ben says. "That's before I learned that it was the one summoning me."

After deciding they were going to blow the plane to hell, they take all the explosives, and discover Jungle Liz Lemon in the kitchen. Widmore quickly joins her. Ben is furious to see his old adversary, but Widmore says if Ben shoots him, his last chance for survival is gone. He says Jacob came to him and told him he needed to come to the Island to save it from Smokey.

After Ben says they were going to blow up the plane, Widmore says he already rigged the jet with explosives. "I'm always three steps ahead of you, Ben."

Jungle Liz Lemon tells them that Smokey has pulled up to the dock, where he sees Widmore's outrigger. Miles decides to run away, and he's out of there quickly. Richard will try talking to the Smoke Man, claiming that he knows him well enough and might be able to divert his attention. Ben tells Jungle Liz and Widmore their best bet is to hide in his special secret room.

Ben and Richard go outside and look about very cautiously. Richard is suddenly knocked across the entire length of New Otherton and into the jungle by a cantankerous Smokey. Chances are that that Guyliner is permanently out of the picture.

Ben sits on his front porch and is approached by the creature, now back in John Locke's form. "Welcome to the colony," Ben says. "Can I get you a glass of lemonade?"

Smokey tells Ben that if he helps him defeat Widmore and kill some people, he can be in charge of the Island after he leaves.

Ben takes the monster to Widmore and Zoe, and Smokey says, "What a pleasant surprise! How nice to talk without these fences between us."

He asks Jungle Liz who she is, and Widmore tells her not to say a thing. She starts to talk, and Smokey slits her throat from ear to ear, and this unlikeable character is GONE. (Proving that indeed she was merely a geophysicist, and not a mercenary/soldier, and wasn't of much use to Charles.)

When Ben asks why he did that, the Smoke Man says Widmore told her not to talk, and she was pointless after that. He promises Charles that the first thing he'll do when he leaves the Island is kill Penny, unless he tells him why he brought Desmond back.

Assuring Charles that he won't hurt Penny, Widmore tells Smokey that Desmond has electromagnetic resistance, and, not trusting Ben, whispers into the creature's ear that Des is the "failsafe" in protecting the Island.

Ben pumps three bullets into Widmore, who crumples to the ground. "He doesn't get to save his daughter," he says sneeringly.

As they leave Ben's old place, he asks Smokey, "Did you say there were some other people to kill?"

As Jack and Sawyer walk through the jungle, the latter asks about the location of Desmond's well. Jack thinks it is about an hour from the original Smokey camp. Sawyer, calling him "Flocke" -- a tip to the fans? -- asks if he wanted Des dead, why didn't he just kill him. Might be one of his rules, Jack says.

Sawyer is still feeling guilty over the sub disaster. "I killed them, didn't I?"

"No, he killed them," Jack says.

Hurley sees Junior Jacob in the jungle. The teen approaches Hurley and demands the ashes he took from Ilana's stuff. He grabs the bag from Hurley's hand and takes off.

Hurley pursues the kid, until he comes to a clearing, where Jacob has not taken his adult form and has a fire going.

"You getter get your friends," Jacob says. "We're very close to the end, you know."

Hurley gets everyone to Jacob, who greets Jack, Kate and Sawyer as they enter the site. Hurley is about to interpret, until he finds out that everyone can now see Jacob.

Kate confirms that Jacob is the one who wrote everyone's names on the cave walls, and she wants his assurance that their deaths were not in vain.

"I'll tell you what they died for," Jacob says. "I'll tell you why I chose them, and why I chose you., and I'll tell you everything you need to know to protect this Island. Because by the time the fire burns out, one of you is going to have to start doing it."

He tells the quartet that they were made candidates because of his mistake depicted in "Across the Sea," the accidental creation of Smokey. He also says that the time was coming for someone to replace him.

Sawyer is angry and demands to know why he would be punished for Jacob's screwup.

Jacob counters, "I didn't pluck any of you out of a happy existence. You were all flawed. I chose you because you were like me. You were all alone. You were looking for something you couldn't find out there. I chose you because you needed this place as much as it needed you."

He adds that Kate's name was crossed off after she took the responsibilities of motherhood, but it was "just a line of chalk in a cave," and the job was still open if she wanted it.

He tells them that the job is protecting the Island from Smokey, and Jack quickly figures out that part of that "protection" is to kill the monster. Jacob said he did not select any particular person, because he wanted them to have what he never did -- a choice. Free will, one of the things he has debated for centuries with his brother.

Jack steps forward and says he will be the replacement. "That is why I'm here. This is what I was supposed to do."

"Is that a question, Jack?" Jacob says.

"No."

"Good. Then it's time."

Jacob takes the candidates inland and tells them that the heart of the Island (the Cave of Wonders Full of Life, the Universe 'n' Everything) is just beyond the bamboo field where Jack regained consciousness in the show's very first scene. Jack says there is nothing there, but becoming Guardian will make it visible to him.

This is what they must protect from the monster. Sawyer mutters about if Jack "had a god complex before..." and Hurley is just relieved that he's not the successor.

Jack offers Jacob a cup, he scoops up water, over which he says his prayer or incantation, just as his mom did in "Across the Sea," and puts it into the cup for Jack.

"How long am I going to have to do this job?"

"As long as you can."

Jack drinks the water, and an awed look comes over his face, as if all that is known is now revealed.

"Now you're like me," Jacob says.

Smokey and Ben walk in the jungle toward Desmond's well. "If you can turn yourself into smoke whenever you want, why do you bother walking?"

"I like the feel of my feet on the ground. It reminds me that I was human."

As they approach the well, Ben says, "Are you thirsty?"

Smokey says this is the well where Desmond was, and Sayid obviously did not kill our favorite Scot. "It looks like someone helped him out," Ben says.

"No, Ben," the Smoke man says, "Someone helped me out."

He explains that Widmore was going to use Desmond as the "failsafe," Jacob's last resort if he succeeded in killing all the "beloved" candidates, one final way to make sure he never leaves.

"Then why are you happy that he's still alive?"

"Because I'm gonna find Desmond, and when I do, he's going to do the one thing that I could never do myself. ... I'm gonna destroy the Island."

Fade out, and then Linda Hunt's voice reminds us to tune in "The End" this Sunday night, 23 May 2010. That's this Sunday night, starting at 7 p.m./6 Central.

Lost Season 6, Episode 15 -- Across the Sea

A Long Time Ago on an Island Far, Far Away

For an episode that was supposed to answer so many questions, "Across the Sea" was a letdown in not covering total early Island mythology. The teens who played young Jacob (Kenton Duty, who also has been Ghostly Jungle Boy in previous shows) and Boy in Black (Ryan Bradford) were somewhat wooden.

Except for some startling kills/attacks, and the chemistry between Mark Pellegrino and Titus Welliver (the adult rivals), and a stellar Overbearing Mom role by Allison Janney, I just didn't think this was one of Season 6's best. With its premise of Island origin stories, and even with a script by Lindelof and Cuse, something was just off. I found it to be a real blah show, with some metaphysical wackadoo about an illuminated Fount of Life, the Universe and Everything Else in some Incredible, Magical, Mystical Cave of Wonders. (Imagine the song Alan Menken and Howard Ashman could have written about that.)

Near the end we received answers to a big mystery -- the identities of Adam and Eve -- who aren't any of our castaways who experienced time travel or anything. Also, we learned that ironically the Island's own protector, Jacob, created Smokey. We learned that Jacob and MIB are siblings. But L & C followed a continued pattern of solving several mysteries while opening even more new ones!

To wit:

--What is the Man in Black's real name?
--What is the name of their adoptive mother?
--What is that glowing electromagnetic Cave of Wonders the Island guardian must protect, and what is that weird golden light bathing it?
--Where are the temple, the statue of Tawaret (Jacob's house) and the lighthouse, and who built them? (I don't think it was MIB's people, as they were still living in their primitive village, despite being "very smart," as MIB called them.)
--What was the deal with Smokey dropping his old human body on the river?
--How is it that the bodies of Mommie Dearest and MIB completely rotted away, but the little bag of game stones that Jacob placed with them, and was found nearly 2,000 years later by Jack, didn't decay at all? Is this the very same magic that caused a wooden sailing ship to smash into a solid stone statue, shear it off, and then land nearly intact on a desert isle?

In several cases, Smokey was telling the truth in his various conversations with the castaways. Yes, he once had been human. Yes, his mother (adoptive) was a manipulative nutjob, who recalled two recent off-their-rocker mothers -- Danielle and Bad Hair Claire. And yes, for centuries all this guy wanted to do was go across the sea (the meaning of the title, a reference to the world beyond the Island) and go back home.

Jacob and MIB as brothers mines a whole long tradition of sibling rivalry going back to Cain/Abel and Jacob/Esau in the Book of Genesis. The parallel to the latter boys is even more applicable, considering they were fraternal twins. Jacob was slight and intellectual, remaining in the camp with his mother, while Esau had a ruddy complexion, was hairy and burly, and was the hunter of the family. And eventually he left home, some time after Jacob persuaded him to give up his birthright in exchange for a bowl of stew, and later deceived their father, Isaac, into giving Jacob the blessing that Esau should have received. This was a scheme engineered by -- his mother Rebecca. (Further, Isaac also expanded his wealth by running a well digging business.)

Claudia (Lela Loren) is among a whole mass of people who are shipwrecked on the Island in the first century A.D. (implied by online leaks and spoilers, and the fact that they speak Latin). Hugely pregnant, she comes ashore to a beach covered in ship timbers and pottery.

She is immediately taken in by a mystery woman (Janney, who has quit as President Bartlett's press secretary and has gone back in time to serve as the official, current Island Guardian). While Claudia introduces herself, for some reason she doesn't ask her hostess' name. Well, I'll call her Mommie Dearest. Meanwhile, the other survivors, who are cultivated in this show as yet another type of "Others," construct a village.

Future Mommie Dearest offers Claudia a drink of water, and they suddenly switch from Latin to English for our convenience. Indirectly, this answers another Lost Question -- why learning Latin was mandatory for joining the Others. It was Jacob's original language.

Claudia wants to know how Mommie Dearest got to the Island, and she says, like anyone else, it was by accident. When she asks where the other people are, she is told, "Every question I answer will lead to another question," which is how fans feel when they watch these episodes.

Claudia goes into labor, closely attended by Mommie Dearest. She punches out the calmest, smoothest looking newborn you ever saw. She immediately says his name will be Jacob. Just as she is about to ask MD to hold him, she is slammed with another contraction.

Mommie Dearest, in her Captain Obvious exclamation, tells Claudia, "There's another baby in there!" Well, possible, as they didn't have ultrasound in 23 A.D., and Claudia hadn't been to a doctor lately because she was busy sailing on a ship.

Baby MIB comes out howling loudly. When asked what he will be called, an exhausted Claudia says, "I only picked one name." He is placed next to his brother, wrapped in a black blanket. And Jacob, who is tranquil and doesn't cry at all, has a white one. (And these become their Clothing Colors for Life, which could be like those old black hat/white hat westerns, but probably isn't. After all, "Man in White" Jacob turns his bro into Smokey, gets potential candidates repeatedly killed for centuries, and later orders the gassing of Dharmaville.

Boy in Black doesn't get a name? What the hell? I think for this recap I'll call him Black Bart. Short for Bartholomew, which was a name you might have found back then.

Mommie Dearest looks at Claudia and says, "I"m sorry," and then fatally brains her with a huge rock.

After the word from our sponsors, a now 13-year-old Black Bart, who, of course is wearing clothes of that color, is walking down the beach, when he finds a backgammon set among the old wreckage of his people's ship. It contains one each large black and white stones. (The recapper for TIME magazine says that it is the ancient Egyptian game called Senet, which ties into all that other Land of the Pyramids stuff on the Island.) Jacob wants to know what it is and how it's played. Bart says knows how to play it, and when Jacob asks him how he does, he replies that he just does. If Jacob won't tell on him to Mommie Dearest, who would take it away, he'll teach him how to play. They set up the game and try it out.

Back at their camp, Mommie Dearest is weaving. He asks her if he can help, and she has him sort threads. She grills Jacob, who says he was down at the beach and staring at the ocean, and oh, Bart was just taking a walk. She quickly discerns what happened.

Unlike Bart's guess, she doesn't take the game away, because she was the one who left it for him on the beach. Jacob told her, because he can't lie. And she tells Bart that he is special.

"It came from you?"

"Of course it did. Where else would it come from?" Mommie Dearest says.

"From somewhere else. Across the sea."

"There is nowhere else. The Island is all there is."

"Then where did we come from?"

"You and your brother came from me, and I came from my mother."

"Where's she?

"She's dead."

"What's dead?" Bart says.

"Something you will never have to worry about," Mommie Dearest says, and plants a kiss on his cheek.

While hunting a boar in the jungle, Jacob and Black Bart hear voices, hide in some vegetation, and watch as other people take down the pig.

Back home the boys want know how the people are, and where they came from. Mommie Dearest says while these "Others" may look like them, they are not like them, and the brothers are with her for a reason.

As she leads the boys through the jungle, blindfolded, they ask about the people. Mommie Dearest tells them, "They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt, and it always ends the same." They are in another part of the Island for that reason.

Black Bart says, "We're people. Does that mean we could hurt each other?"

"They're people, and that's what they do. I've made it so you never hurt each other."

She takes them to the very CGI-looking Cave of Wonders, which glows just like the Emerald City, only gold and not bright green.

"What is down there?" Black Bart says.

"The warmest, brightest light you've ever seen or felt," says Mommie Dearest, adding that no one should ever find it.

Every person carries a small amount of the light within themselves, and if they got more of it, they would want more. (It's the Force, Luke! As Obi-Wan Kenobi said, "It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.") If the light goes out in the Cave of Wonders, it would go out everywhere. She can't protect it forever, and therefore one of the boys will have to succeed her.

(The idea that the light will go out also means that Charles Widmore was sort of telling the truth about the world going dark, since MIB later absorbs some of this light and is transformed into Smokey, and apparently his leaving the Island does something to the energy.)

After their visit at the Cave of Wonders, Jacob and Black Bart are playing backgammon. Bart tells Jacob that he's breaking the rules, which he created, because it's his game. Someday, Bart adds, Jacob can come up a game of his own and make up his own rules. (Sort of like the Game of Island Protectionism?)

Suddenly the ghost of Claudia appears, but visible only to Bart. Jacob asks what he saw, but Bart only says he is going to go "for a walk."

Phantom Claudia takes Black Bart to the village and explains the people were shipwrecked on the Island 13 years earlier. The people are from "across the sea," and he and Jacob also came with them.

"That's not what my mother told me," Bart says.

"She's not your mother," Phantom Claudia rebuts. "I am."

("No, I am your father!" -- Darth Vader)

That night, Black Bart has gathered up his things and is preparing to leave their camp. He wakes Jacob up and tells him their mother lied about everything and doesn't love them, and he plans to go the village. He invites him to leave. Furious, Jacob does not believe him and starts to punch Bart in the face repeatedly.

Mommie Dearest hauls Jacob off him. Bart tells her he knows they aren't really her sons, and he's going to his real people. He tells her that his real mother told him, and knows MD killed her. Jacob stands by Mommie Dearest and refuses to go with Bart.

"I'm going to go home," he says.

Mommie Dearest says that whatever he was told, he will never be able to leave the Island.

"That's not true!" Black Bart says. "One day I will prove it."

He stalks away, heading for the castaway village of "bad" people.

On the beach the next day, Jacob and Mommie Dearest have a heart to heart. Jacob thinks Black Bart will come back, which she refutes. She confirms that she did kill their birth mother, because she believes she would have taken them back to the village, where they would have become "very bad." She wanted them to stay "good."

Jacob, though, feels second rate and jealous. "Why do you love him more than me?"

"I love you in different ways. ... Will you stay with me, Jacob? Please?"

"Yes." She hugs him and cries, while he looks bitter. "For a while."

Thirty years pass, and now a 43-year-old Jacob (Pellegrino) is weaving. His mom, who's feeling her age and is tired, tells him it's very nice.

Jacob goes down to the village to watch his brother and later joins him for a game of backgammon on the game that is now one of his most highly valued posessions. Black Bart (Welliver) says he knows that Mommie Dearest knows he visits him regularly.

Bart acknowledges that the people are bad, a couple of them are even insane. They are greedy, manipulative, untrustworthy and selfish.

"Then why are you with them?" Jacob says.

"They're a means to an end."

"What end?"

"I'm leaving, Jacob. I found a way off the Island."

"No, that's impossible. There is no way off the Island."

He throws a dagger -- that same one that killed Jacob and should have killed Smokey -- which shoots toward a well in the village and sticks. That electromagnetism!

Black Bart says that though the people have their faults, there are "very smart men" among them who have discovered places on the Island where metal behaves oddly.

"What will you do when she dies?" he asks Jacob.

"She won't die. ... I never want to leave the Island. It's my home."

"Well, it's not mine!"

He goes back and tells him mom about Bart's plans.

On the next day, Mommie Dearest comes to the Island, where she goes down into a well that the "very smart men" have built with Black Bart. It leads into a cavern, where Bart is busy hardening the tip of a spear.

He says that though Mommie Dearest wouldn't show him the cave, he spent 30 years searching, walking the Island "from end to end." Then he thought, maybe the Light is beneath the ground. The very smart men found a way to dig down toward the Light. He removes a brick from the wall, revealing the Light. He also indicates a primitive donkey wheel, which he says will be attached to some equipment that the smart men constructed. The system will channel the water and the light. He turns the wheel, and voila, off the Island.

"How do you know it will work?" she asks.

"I'm special, Mother."

"Please don't do this. Don't go."

"I have to go."

"Why?"

"Because I don't belong here!"

"Then I suppose this is goodbye."

She cries and embraces Black Bart. "I am so sorry," she says. Then she screams, shoves him across the chamber and smashes his head into the wall, just as she did to Claudia over 40 years ago!

Mommie Dearest takes Jacob down to the Cave of Wonders, where she conducts the Awesome and Sacred Wine Drinking Ceremony of Immortality. As she uncorks the bottle, it recalls the scene in "Ab Aeterno" where Jacob told Richard the Island was like a bottle of wine that needed to be kept corked to trap Smokey. She says some mumbo jumbo in a foreign tongue and coerces Jacob to drink it.

"What is down there?"

"Life, death, rebirth. It's the heart and source of the Island."

By taking that cup of vino, Jacob is pledged to protetct the Island until he finds a replacement. He doesn't at first, still bitter and convinced Mommie Dearest loved Black Bart more than him, and now she's picked him only because his brother bolted for the village.

"It always was supposed to be you," she says. "I see it now."

Finally, he drinks.

"Now you and I are the same." Mommie Dearest says.

(Religious overtones? In the story of Jesus, he prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before the crucifixion, that if it be the Father's will, "let this cup be taken from me." Later, after praying, Jesus realizes he must sacrifice himself. Sort of like Jacob resigning himself to Island protection. Not to mention that Jacob drinking the wine is halfway like taking communion; just need some bread there. L & C have not shied from throwing Bible analogies in there. )

Black Bart wakes up the next day, still living, and his special well and cavern are destroyed and charred. He returns to his village to find all the houses burned, and the entire population dead. He fishes his backgammon set out of the remains of his house, bursts into a rage and sobs.

Back at his former home, Mommie Dearest sends Jacob out to get firewood before a thunderstorm arrives. She returns to her camp and finds it trashed. She finds Black Bart's old game on the ground and looks at the black stone. Bart pops up behind her and stabs her in the back with his dagger.

She tumbles to the ground, mortally wounded.

"Why would you not let me leave, Mother?"

"Because I love you. (Gasp.) Thank you." A smile, a long sigh ... and she dies, perhaps grateful that her long, long job of Island guardianship is over.

Jacob comes back with the firewood and sees Bart over his dead mom.

"What did you do?" he screams and starts to repeatedly punch Bart in the face. "What did you do?"

Bart tells Jacob that Mommie Dearest is crazy and burned everyone up. "You can't kill me, Jacob. She made so you can't!"

He takes him down to the Cave of Wonders and says, "Don't worry, brother, I'm not going to kill you."

Bart asks if Mommie Dearest brought him back to the Cave, and he says she did, because she told him he has to protect it now. Jacob garbs Bart by the neck and throws him into the river that runs into the Cave of Wonders.

"You wanted to find light, you want to meet this place, brother? Then go!"

...And his body drifts into it, disappearing through what looks like an invisible barrier or force field. The ground rumbles beneath Jacob's feet, a primal roar is heard...

...And Smokey issues forth for the first time from the Cave of Wonders! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!! Freight train-like noises as Smokey rushes past his old bro! The Smokey Express, comin' through!!

Jacob, still in shock over killing Bart, the debut of Smokey, death of Mommie Dearest, etc., stops to take a drink at yet another river. He looks, suprised to see Bart's body lying nearby.

He goes back to camp and gets his mother's body and the black and white stones, putting them into a small bag. He takes the bodies to a cave and neatly arranges them side by side. He puts a bag containing the black and white stones by them. Quick flashes to Season 1, showing Jack and Kate looking at skeletons in the cave.

John Locke comes the the cave opening and looks at the bodies. After Jack tells him one is female, he says, "Our very own Adam and Eve!"

Back to Jacob, who lovingly makes final adjustments to the corpses of the only family he ever knew. He gazes at them and says, "Goodbye, brother. Goodbye." Fade to black. (And I don't know why he didn't say farewell to Mom.)

And this is the end, beautiful friend, this is the end, my only friend, the end... Those lyrics from The Doors' "The End," effectively used at the beginning and end of Apocalypse Now, loudly and unsubtly announce the last regular episode next week, "What They Died For." Scenes quickly appear in what looks like submerged bubbles, so maybe water will be a huge factor in this upcoming show?

Lost Season 6, Episode 14 -- The Candidate, Or, Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

The home stretch of an action oriented ensemble show often means deaths, and often of main characters. Just look at the body count on The Sopranos during the final season - Tony killed his own nephew, and the rival don's men shot down his brother-in-law. Just this week, a major character was killed off on Breaking Bad. We hate to see anyone go on shows, but sometimes these creators think it's necessary.

So it goes now on our controlling, enchanted isle. Smokey tried to keep his promise to Jacob back in 1867 that he will kill any candidates the dweller of the Big Foot House sends toward the Island. Some of our favorites now are in eternal rest in the deep, and now the Losties must fight back.

In Sideways Los Angeles, meanwhile, there's a cruel twist to the idea of You Only Hurt the Ones You Love, and Jack still desperately trying to "fix" things.

John Locke wakes up from surgery at St. Sebastian, where Jack is waiting for him. Locke's first words: "I think I know you," a phrase the Losties keep uttering to each other as they meet in Sideways World.

Jack says they met in the baggage claim after John's knives were lost. He tells him that he repaired Locke's ruptured dural sac, and that he is a candidate -- one reflection of the episode title -- for a new surgical technique that could restore feeling to his legs and perhaps even allow him to walk again.

Locke emphatically refuses this opportunity, and Helen arrives. She thanks Jack for the surgery and tells him he has done enough.

Jack wakes up in Island World, where Sayid is his greeter: "Welcome to Hydra Island. At least you didn't have to paddle."

Over at the old animal facility, the rest of the gang is under the gun by Seamus and the other Widmore goons, who want them to get into the cages. (I guess Jungle Liz Lemon is off working on the security fence, as we don't see her at all in this episode.) Sawyer, remembering the boring episodes of the first half of Season 3 (except for his Kate hookup), won't have any part of this and grabs Seamus' rifle. Widmore shows up, puts his handgun to Kate, and tells him to drop the gun. She isn't on anyone's lists, remember? Seamus gets back in charge, hits Sawyer in the stomach, and all are forced into the cage.

Widmore says he is doing this for their own good, but Sawyer doesn't believe it. Widmore is upset when Seamus says the security fence will be ready in an hour, and they don't have that long. "He's coming," Widmore says ominously.

In Sideways L.A., Bernard Nadler, DDS, is taking a small rotary tool to some dentures, when Dr. Jack shows up, looking for information on Locke, who had emergency oral surgery three years earlier. Bernard wants to know why Jack needs to know about Locke, and he says he met him on Oceanic 815. Bernard smiles and says he was on the same flight and noticed Jack flirting with Rose when he went to the restroom. Jack is stunned at meeting yet another 815 alumnus. Bernard can only say, "Pretty weird, isn't it?"

Bernard tells Jack there was another passenger in the "accident" that injured Locke. His name was Anthony Cooper.

On Hydra, Sayid tells Jack that Smokey saved his life, and the others who survived Widmore's mortar attack scattered into the jungle. The Smoke Man arrives and tells Jack that Widmore has "your people" in the cages, and they need to move fast to break them out. Jack says they aren't his people, and he is not leaving the Island. Smokey says the rest do want to leave, and he needs Jack's help to convince them to trust him.

"Why should I trust you?" Jack asks the Smoke Man.

"Because I could kill you, Jack, right here, right now, and I could kill every single one of your friends too. But instead of killing you, I saved your life, and I want to save their lives too. Will you help me?"

Jack says nothing, but he gets ready to go with Sayid and Smokey.

In the cages, Sawyer said he saw Kate's name in Jacob's cave, but it was crossed out. and he does not need her. Jin -- practicing his English, I guess -- tells Sun in that language that he saw pictures of Ji-Yeon on Sun's camera and thinks she's beautiful.

"I have your ring," Sun says, and puts it back on his finger. They clasp hands --

--And the generator goes out. A loud whooping, roaring sound, and the chain clanking racket. Smokey's on his way.

Understatement of the Night by Seamus: "We're dead."

And they are. The creature makes short work of the Widmore goons, tossing Seamus like a rag doll near the cage. Kate struggles to get Seamus' key while Frank takes the more direct route and starts to bash on the lock with a rock.

Jack shows up and unlocks the cage door. "What are you doing here?" Kate says.

"I'm with him," Jack says, indicating some very angry gray smoke.

After many commercials, the gang is now trooping through the jungle toward the Ajira jet. Jack keeps insisting that he'll go to the plane, but he's not leaving his precious Island. Sayid pops out of the jungle, which leads to more guns pointing, until Jack says the Wandering Zombie is with them too, and he was the one who took out Widmore's power supply.

In Sideways L.A., Jack is still snooping in the Life of John Locke. He is asking a woman at what appears to be a busy office about Anthony Cooper, when Helen shows up and again says Locke doesn't want the special surgery. Jack can't be satisfied and wants to know why.

"You saved his life, and that's enough," Helen says.

She takes him into an activity room full of senior citizens, and this doesn't bode well. We're at a nursing home. Helen introduces Jack to Anthony Cooper, who is in a wheelchair, virtually catatonic and barely able to smile. (He looks just like my dad did in the final months of his life before he died of Alzheimer's!)

Back on Hydra Island, Smokey approaches the Ajira jet while more Widmore goons shoot at him in vain. One gets his neck snapped by Smoke Man, and the other gets shot with his colleague's gun. Smokey goes inside the jet, where he finds a wire running along the ceiling in the passenger cabin, which is attached to some plastic explosives.

When the gang arrives, Smokey tells them that Widmore wanted to get them all in a confined place in order to kill them -- on the jet, in the air. His weapon? Four bricks of C4 explosives that would have gone off while flying. The alternative must be the submarine.

Hurley reminds everyone that Richard said Smokey must not leave the Island.

"Screw Alpert!" Smokey shouts, and starts to move out for the sub. Jack promises to help but again vows not to leave Craphole Island.

Claire apologizes to the Smoke Man, but he says he understands why she went with the others. Sawyer takes Jack aside and asks him to help prevent Smokey from getting on the sub.

"Just get it in the water, and I'll take care of the rest," Sawyer says.

In Sideways L.A., Locke wakes up, and Jack is there again as he murmurs, "Push the button ... I wish you had believed me..." Island memories seeping in, but not completely.

Claire shows up and wants to talk to Jack. She never even met Christian or knew him. Jack says their dad basically drank himself to death and was found in alley behind a bar in Sydney, and then the body was lost on the flight home!

Claire shows Jack a finely carved music box with contrasting wood inlays. She doesn't know why their dad left it for her She lifts the lid, and it plays "Catch a Falling Star," while a Mirror Moment occurs. Both siblings are smiling in their reflection as the music plays.

Jack invites Claire to come and stay with him.

"But I can't do that. We're strangers," she says.

"We're not strangers. We're family."

On Hydra Island, Sawyer leads a forward team to the sub, which is strangely unguarded. Smokey warns them that the goons may not be outside the sub, but they are probably inside. Sawyer easily takes the captain at gunpoint, and Frank knocks out the first mate. The rest begin to board the sub.

Smokey asks Jack if he's sure he wants to stay, and he says he's sure -- and knocks the monster into the water. A shot rings out and hits Kate in the chest, and more Widmore goons start to fire. More gunfighting and running to the sub, Jack supporting Kate. The unstoppable Smokey clambers up out of the water, unhurt, shoots a whole bunch of red shirts, who just can't kill the beast (or stab it with their steely knives ... sorry, song lyric digression again).

Sawyer shuts the sub's door topside and tells Frank to dive, dive, dive! Smokey and Claire are on the dock as the submarine moves out. Claire is distressed, to which the Smoke man says, "Trust me, you don't want to be on that sub."

On board that sub, Jack is in ER mode and asks for a shirt from his pack to put pressure on Kate's chest wound. But instead of clothes...

...There's a bomb with a timer.

"We did exactly what he wanted," Jack says wearily.

As the timer goes to just over 3 minutes, Jack orders Frank to have the sub go to the surface. Sayid looks at the bomb and says it is a watch jury rigged to a battery, which is wired to the C4 explosives.

Jack warns them not to pull the wires out. His reasoning is Smokey couldn't kill them because they are candidates. The monster needed them in a confined space -- same words Smokey gave about Widmore's so-called jet trap -- and the he can't leave unless they are all dead.

Jack says the bomb is actually a test, a trick to get the Losties to all kill each other, instead of actually blowing them up. He tells them to leave the bomb alone, and nothing will happen, but Sawyer panics and yanks the wires out.

The bomb stops, they breathe sighs of relief, and then the device restarts, with the clock going double time!

Sayid tells them there is a well on the main Island, and Desmond is inside there -- alive. Good for Sayid, not killing our beloved Scot! Sayid says to get Desmond right away, because the monster wants him dead.

"Why are you telling me this?" Jack says.

"Because it's going to be you, Jack," Sayid replies. Like a running back, he scoops up the bomb and dashes down a corridor and as far to the other end of the sub as possible. Acting as a human shield, he takes the blast, and the water starts to gush in.

Jack immediately grabs Kate, but they discover Sun is trapped under a large machinery cabinet. Jack orders Hurley to take Kate to the surface. He wants to know where Sayid is, and Jack says, "There is no Sayid."

He turns to help Jin and Frank move the obstacle. But once they move it, they discover she is further pinned down by steel from the bulkhead that can't be removed.

Sun pleads with Jin to leave while Jack leaves the sinking vessel with an unconscious Sawyer. She keeps asking him to go, and he won't budge.

In Korean he repeats his line from the last episode: "I won't leave you. I won't ever leave you again."

"I love you Sun," he says in English.

"I love you, too." They kiss as the water levels rise, and Celine Dion begins to sing about how they are here in their hearts, love can touch them one time and last for a lifetime, and the heart will go on--

Oops, wrong show.

Gentle Michael Giacchino music, heavy with strings, plays as the sub drifts silently to the ocean bottom. Sun and Jin's hands are seen joined together in closeup, until death completely causes them to drift apart. And their hearts will go on... (Because love is always a bitch on the Island. Once two people hook up there, one or both of them always seem to get killed or badly injured. See: Libby and Hurley, Charlie and Claire, Shannon and Sayid.)

The death of Sayid seemed to parallel Michael's final redemption and explosive death in the Season 4 finale, while the quiet, almost lyrical drowning of Jin and Sun evoked Charlie's passing at the end of Season 3.

In Sideways L.A., John Locke is getting discharged. Helen was supposed to meet him but isn't there. Why?

Jack shows up to say goodbye. He confesses that he went and saw Anthony Cooper, because he had to understand why John didn't want the surgery, and why he was in the wheelchair.

Locke gets misty eyed and looks fragile as he tells Jack that he and Cooper were in a plane crash. (Holy Aircraft Failure, Batman! A plane crash wreaking havoc in Sideways world. I had assumed till this point the "accident" was in an automobile.) Locke had had his private pilot's license for just one week, when he convinced his plane fearing dad to go on a flight with him. He looked his dad right in the eye and told him to trust him.

"I don't know exactly what happened ... The man I loved can't walk or talk anymore, and it's my fault."

In one world, the father maliciously tosses his son out the window, assuming he will die. In another, the son makes the father a total invalid. I almost had a good feeling to see Kevin Tighe all discombobulated like that after his exploitations of so many others, but it was just not the right feeling for this Sideways Universe.

Jack says that when he heard Locke say that his father was gone, it hurt to hear that, but "what happened, happened," and he learned that you have to let go of things. Locke's father is also "gone," though in a different sense: alive but a vegetable.

"How do you know that letting go is easy?" Locke says.

"I don't know if it is, but maybe it'll be easier if you go first."

Locke shakes his head and laughs. "Goodbye, Dr. Shephard," he says, and wheels away.

Jack calls out, "I can help you, John! I wish you believed me."

Back on the Island, Jack brings Sawyer ashore, followed by Hurley with Kate. Jack tells Hurley was struck pretty hard in the head but is still breathing.

When Hurley asks where Sun and Jin are, Jack gets misty eyed and shakes his head. Kate, Jack and Hurley all begin to mourn. Jack leaves them, walks to the beach where it meets the ocean, looks up to the dark sky and cries aloud. (No certain status on Frank Lapidus, though. Our fine pilot just still may turn up, crawling out of the ocean.)

Back at the submarine dock, Smokey says matter of factly to Claire that the submarine sank. She asks if everyone is dead.

"Not all of them," the creature says.

"Where are you going?"

"To finish what I started!"

The monster stalks away. And fade to black.

Next week's show will involve little or no of the main cast, as they set the Wayback Machine to the year who knows what, and Jacob and the Man in Black's origin stories are told. Expect to see pint sized MIB and Jacob (already seen in previous shows, played by Kenton Duty). And some backgammon! And black and white!