As we draw this story to a close, I'm of extremely mixed feelings. I'm sad that a great show is ending. I'm happy that a source of carpal tunnel syndrome is ending ( I mean, have you ever tried to have a recap and review up on a website twenty minutes after watching it? Ouch!) I have realized that like in life, LOST has illustrated that although I've wanted answers throughout this show, finding the answers means that The End is near. And so it is.
Recap
As Christian Shephard's casket pulls into LAX, we see all the Losties and their parallel lives. Desmond takes delivery of the coffin and then gets in a car with Kate. She asks him who he is and what he wants. Desmond explains that he's her friend and he wants to leave….
Hurley and Sayid go to pick up Charlie, who has a bad attitude.
Miles, at the Widmore benefit concert, spots Sayid and Hurley and calls Sawyer
While Juliet gives Sun an ultrasound, the Kwons both experience a flashback to the island, including their deaths. They regain their ability to speak English (transferred across timelines), much to Juliet's surprise.
Jack and John share a bit before he puts Locke under the knife to fix his back. Jack gives the concert tickets to Juliet, who he was married to-- the mother of his son.
Sayid asks Hurley what they are doing. Hurley won't tell him. A fight ensues in the alley, Sayid jumps in to rescue a damsel in distress… who turns out to be Shannon. Boone and Hurley had set it up.
At the concert, Juliette gets a page from the hospital, while Charlotte Lewis wakes Charlie and meets Daniel. Charlie sees Claire from across a crowded room. Claire staggers off to find a bathroom, she has apparently gone into labor. Kate follows her to help. While helping Claire to deliver, they flash sideways as well. Charlie brings her a blanket, and flashes sideways, too.
In the hospital, Jack has finished with John, who is nearly immediately able to move his toes… and as he does so he flashes sideways and remembers everything. Jack has manifested a cut on his neck that he sustained in the dramatic cliff fight in the other timeline, but he has yet to 'flash'.
Sawyer (Detective Ford) tries to put the Kwans into protective custody, which amuses them to no end, as he hasn't flashed yet.
Sawyer and Juliette encounter each other at the recalcitrant candy machine, and flash on each other and immediately commence to snogging.
Jack finally shows up at the concert, and Kate greets him. She puts her hands on his face and he flashes, partially. She beckons him to come along…
… to the Lampost station, inside the Church. John and Ben meet outside the Church. Ben apologizes for killing him, and John forgives him. Hurley comes out of the Church and tells Ben that he was a great 'Number two', Ben tells Hugo that he was a great 'Number one'.
Jack goes into the Church and finds his father's coffin empty. Christian appears behind him. After a moment, Jack realizes that he's dead. He and Christian go out into the Church, where the main characters have gathered to 'move on'. Even though they all died at separate times, since there is no 'now' in the afterlife, they can all gather before they walk into the light.
2007 Timeline
Sawyer asks Jack what happened… Jack explains to the rest what Jacob told him. It seems that everything hinges on grabbing Desmond. Sawyer goes off to the well to find Desmond, the rest head to the heart of the island.
Hurley has a bad feeling about this.
Smokey McLocke and Ben capture Sawyer rather easily. Sawyer escapes just as easily, giving Ben his 64th bloody nose since the series began. Sawyer knows that Smokey needs Desmond to destroy the island… but splits before Locke spots dog tracks.
Desmond has been rescued by Rose and Bernard. They broke their non interference vow to pull him out of the well. Vincent the Dog, however, unwittingly leads McLocke and Ben to their lovely little hut. Some arm twisting occurs,
>>>>Speaking of Jack, why did he have a son with Juliet in the "purgatory" universe? What sense did that make? What point was it trying to make? Does that character simply evaporate now?<<<<
>>"Purgatory" was the life they wanted, the life without the island mucking it up. Jack wanted a kid, he wanted someone to love, he wanted something to tie him to his life, but it was just a fantasy, a reflection of what he wanted, not something that ever really was.<<
I'm not sure I buy that. Kate was still in custody, Sayid was in Jail, Charlie was "awakened" but still shooting up and hiding out, Ben was getting beaten up, Locke got fired: it hardly seemed like an "ideal" situation for anyone. That world may have been a reflection of life had the island been nuked and was sitting on the bottom of the ocean, but it only seemed "better" for a handful of them.
>>>>If "now" doesn't exist in the afterlife, then Ben and Hurley must have spent a lot of time on the island after Jack died. Why didn't Jack ask him about the island at all? Were there any repercussions from the stopper being out of the drain for an hour? Who was the island passed off to?<<<<
>>Did Jack have time to ask? Basically his dad told him he was dead, he went out and sat in a pew with his friends, and then they went into the light. Not a lot of time for brunch and conversation.<<
That's not really an argument at all. The amount of apparent time lapsed was just an editor's choice. There were plenty of slow-mo pans over the group that could have been cut. 75% of the conversation between Locke and Ben could have been cut, as it was no surprise to anyone that Locke could walk at that point.
Dead or not, Jack fought his way back to that island to protect it and passed it off to Hurley. His "sacrifice" seemed somewhat fatalist, as Desmond probably could have replaced the stopper without any physical repercussions. In any case, I'm sure he would have had some questions for Hurley, as the rest of us surely did.
That was their choice. The episode seemed to focus far more on emotional closure, rather than logical.
>>>>>Instead: woooo, it was all magic, and now everyone is in heaven and it doesn't matter any more.<<<<<
>>Not everyone. Michael wasn't there. Smokie wasn't there. Jacob didn't seem to be there. And it does matter, because Jack saved the world, and Hurley protected the world for a thousand years, and Ben was redeemed, and Jack gave his life to save his friends, and finally overcame his reluctance to lead, his reluctance to believe, all of which are huge personal obstacles.<<
No, I'm sure Michael, Smokey and Jacob had others they were closer to in Life. Richard had his wife and a hundred years of other aquaintances. Whitmore, Ana Lucia, Ethan, Ben's father, countless henchmen and bystandards. (I can't remember if Faraday or Charlotte was in that final group).
The finale really made it clear that the ONLY things of importance were the people they bonded with.
Jack, Juliet, Sayid and others sacrificed themselves because of things they deemed more important than their own lives. They clearly had a vested interest in the fate of the island, as do we. The writers seemed to be the only people that didn't have any regard for closure =/