FINALE BLOWOUT: 'Lost' Sheds Some Light on Things and Keeps us Captivated

With all due respect to my other favorite shows, last night's Lost finale was hands down, the best finale of the season (I realize that Everwood hasn't signed off yet, so this could change). It reminded me why this show is on my "Must See" and "Best Shows on Television" lists, and it also made me realize how much this show has been underachieving for a good part of the season. See, Lost can cement its place in history as one of the best shows ever when it wants to, so I can't figure out why it insists on falling short as much as it does. All of that is a moot point for this season because the show went out on a tremendous high note last night. I should say that I'm not one of those who thought that last season's finale didn't reveal enough information, so I definitely didn't feel that way about this year's either. With Lost, I just go along for the ride and allow the writers and producers to reveal things as it fits the show. And last night's finale was one hell of a ride!

What We Learned:
More on the island - The island has some sort of electric magnetism problem that, when not under control, causes "incidents" that nobody really wants to discuss.

The button is real - In order to quell the magnetism build-ups, the button in the hatch MUST be pushed every 108 minutes. If it isn't, the world will end or some other terrible thing will take place. Different people are employed to live in the hatch and push the button. They switch out, and when they do, apparently the code question is "What did one snowman say to the other snowman?" The replacement knows the answer, but Desmond didn't when he washed up on shore. That didn't seem to matter to the hatch's occupant (Kelvin, the man who captured and recruited Sayid to interrogate suspects for the U.S.), who hatched a plan to use Desmond's sailboat to escape and leave him with the button. It was the same trick that Desmond then tried to use on the survivors.

Kelvin's partner Radzinksy drew the map - The weird map of the island with all the hatches and the question mark that Locke saw when the lockdown occurred was the product of Kelvin's partner, who killed himself before he finished it. Kelvin ended up finishing it. Both men forced the hatch to do a fake lockdown so the door would come down and they could paint the map on it. They used laundry detergent to paint it. And as anyone who has ever been in a black light situation knows, laundry detergent glows under black light. Very clever! The question is, if Desmond and Radzinksy knew how to force a lockdown, did someone force one the day Locke got trapped under the door with Not-Henry?

What happens of you don't push the button - Everything metal starts flying toward the center of the hatch and the computer continuously prints out "System Failure." The island's magnetic pull sucks everything in, but Desmond was able to stop it by frantically typing in the numbers and hitting execute. Perhaps this wasn't a full scale "System Failure."

Why the plane crashed - After two seasons of speculation, we finally know why Oceanic flight 815 crashed into the mysterious island that the survivors have called home for the last 60 days. After Desmond followed Kelvin and learned that he was plotting to use the sailboat to leave him to push the button, he confronted him on the rocks. The two fought, and Kelvin wound up dead. Desmond raced back to the hatch, but it was too late. The 108 minutes had run out and the island's magnetic pull had begun. This is when he frantically began entering the numbers to stop it. He seemed successful, but while hanging out with Locke in the hatch, he realized something. Looking over the print out of numbers that Locke found in the Pearl Station, Desmond realized that it was data collected every time the numbers were entered. He flipped to the date when he didn't enter the numbers in time (September 22, 2004) and asked Locke what day the plane crashed. Locke and Desmond figured out that it was September 22, 2004 (we now know the date and thus, the time period for the show as well). The revelation caused Desmond to conclude that the magnetic force on the island pulled the plane in and crashed it there. Holy numbers Batman!

The bank tubes go nowhere - Remember those bank-like tubes that Locke and Eko found in the Pearl Station? Remember how the video said that the tube went to an office? Well, it turns out that they go nowhere other than a stock pile in the middle of the island. Jack and co. stumbled upon the tubes on their way to meet the Others with Michael, and they even found Locke's map!

Desmond knew Libby - In fact, she's the one who lent him her deceased husband's boat so he could sail around the world and win the money from the father of the woman he loved (Penelope). I find the entire thing a bit suspicious, though. Can we believe Libby? She lied about knowing Hurley. She was a patient at the same mental hospital as he was - the same hospital where Hurley encountered the numbers that he won the lottery with and then had a serious run of bad luck. These are also the same numbers that are required for the hatch button system. Plus, Desmond was in Libby's boat when he landed on the island. Is there more to Libby and her role with the island than we know yet?

Not-Henry is the leader - I had suspected for some time now that Not-Henry was the leader of the Others, and that seemed to be confirmed last night. Interesting that he seemed to keep his word to Michael and even let him and Walt ride off to be rescued. Whether or not the rescue actually happens, remains to be seen.

The hatch light from last season - Remember when Locke saw the light, literally, at the hatch after Boone died? Remember how it restored his faith? Well, it turns out that it was just Desmond shining a bright flashlight up the hatch tunnel after hearing someone bang on it. Interestingly enough, both men wound up restoring each other's faith that night.


What We're Still Wondering About:
The giant foot - What was up with that giant foot statue with only four toes? Sayid, Jin and Sun saw it on the other side of the island when they went to find the beach where the Others lived so they could help Jack and co. And does the foot have a body and head to go along with it? If so, where is it?

The Others: good or bad - It still isn't clear whether the Others are good or bad or even who they are exactly. I thought they were part of the Dharma Initiative, but that's looking less and less likely. Are they on the island to fight the Dharma Initiative? And if so, why? Not-Henry told the survivors that he and the rest of the Others are the "good guys." When Ana Lucia killed one of them, she found a U.S. Special Forces knife on the body. Are the Others former/current Special Forces, or did that particular Other happen upon Kelvin's body on the rocks and take the knife off of him since Kelvin worked Special Forces?

Were the people on the plane meant to crash on the island and why - All signs point to yes, but we still don't know why. The Others know all of the survivors' real names as if they were expecting them. And why did the Others want Jack, Kate and Sawyer specifically? I thought they were looking for the strongest members, but they didn't take Sayid, so I'm not sure.

What will happen to each of the characters whose lives were left hanging in the balance - Locke, Eko, Desmond, Jack, Kate and Sawyer were all in trouble when the finale ended. Locke was in the hatch along with Desmond and Eko and the other three were kidnapped by the Others. Who will survive and who won't? And how did Charlie walk away from the hatch when he had to be in close proximity when the bomb-like thing went off? When Claire asked him what happened, he said he didn't know. Was he lying or telling the truth?

What was the light and noise thing from the hatch - And what exactly happened in the hatch? Locke let the minutes tick down without pressing the button and the island's magnetic pull began forcing everything to fly into the center. Desmond found the key to the "System Termination" box located under the hatch that he had hidden in his copy of Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend, whose title could be a reference to Libby or even his lost love Penelope since she seems to play a greater part in all of this as well, and went under the hatch to employ the worst case scenario. We saw Desmond turn the key and tell Penelope that he'll see her in another life, and then the rest of the island saw a very bright light covering the sky and heard a deafening sound. Did the hatch implode, killing all those inside? If so, how would the "implosion" throw off the island's magnetism?

Is the island hazardous or not - Kelvin seemed to believe it was when he found Desmond, but as we saw later, he learned somehow that it wasn't. Did he notice the rip in his suit and put two and two together? Or did he find out a different way?

Who were the two men in the blizzard conditions at the end - They were monitoring the magnetic activity in a certain area and saw the Locke-caused spike. They also apparently caught the one from when the plane crashed, but not in time to pin down a location. They picked up the phone and called Penelope and told her that they "might have found him." Was "him" Desmond? If so, how did Penelope know where to look? Did Desmond's boat drop its signal and she hired people to search the area to find him? And how did they know to look for the magnetic activity? We know that Penelope has the money and the resources to find Desmond since she did it once when she found him at the stadium in Los Angeles. Finally and most obviously, why are the two men in blizzard conditions if they are in close proximity to this tropical island?


Last Night's Best Quotes:
"I think I crashed your plane." Desmond to Locke

"I was wrong." Locke to Eko after he didn't press the button and everything began going wrong



Michael finally got Walt back, but was the cost worth the reward? For Michael the answer was easy, but for the viewers, we're not so sure. Walt seemed to be fine when Michael found him on the boat. Were the Others a real threat to him? Or just a perceived one? Obviously, he was less valuable to the Others than Jack, Kate and Sawyer since they lived up to their half of the deal. Personally, I'm hoping this is the end of Michael and he is rescued because I can't stand him after what he did to Libby and Ana Lucia and then Jack and co. He sacrificed too many lives to save his son, and yes I know that I will understand someday when I'm a parent, but that doesn't make me dislike Michael any less right now. I thought this year's finale gave us a perfect balance between revealing information and leaving a lot of questions while also adding more for us to ponder as we go into the third season. Overall, it was a riveting hour that kept me glued to my television set and on the edge of my seat. I think that was the most intense 2 hours of television that I have ever seen! If you missed last night's finale, you can watch it in its entirety for free at abc.com.


That's all for this special Finale Blowout edition of Pass the Remote. To read more finale blowout editions, click on over to The Best of Pass the Remote at PassTheRemote.net. Next up, Alias. Also, this isn't the last of my Lost discussions for the season. I have some surprises in store for this summer, so stay tuned to Pass the Remote for plenty of summer coverage! And be sure to tune in later today for the regular edition with thoughts on the Idol results!

To get more television coverage, including a complete archive of the best of Pass the Remote and a photo gallery featuring pictures from the set of Veronica Mars, click on over to PassTheRemote.net.