Lost Series Finale Recap – The End & The Final Journey – Live Blogging Event

This is it!  The end of LOST.  Years of faithful TV watching, speculating, and two and a half years of episode recap blogging.  Mixed feelings are running through my body.  But so is hunger, as I haven’t eaten at all today.  I’ve got to eat dinner, so hang on.

I’ve decided to do a live blogging event tonight.  I’m watching all the way to the end of Jimmy Kimmel, so stay with me! 

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE LOST QUOTES OF ALL TIME?

Here are some of mine:

• See you in another life, brother. – Desmond Hume
• Guys, where are we? – Charlie Pace
• NOT PENNY’S BOAT – Charlie Pace
• Son of a bitch! – Sawyer
• I’m not a leader. – Jack Shephard
• Shut up, redneck man! – Hurley
• I thought that guy had a God complex before. – Sawyer
• I never had a one-night stand! – Kate
• I’ll find you, Des, no matter what – Penny
• Good literature is kinda scarce around here. – Sawyer
• You’re a man of science.  I’m a man of faith. – John Locke
• He doesn’t get to save his daughter! – Benjamin Linus
• This is what I’m supposed to do. – Jack Shephard
• Are you sure you don’t speak English? There’s a rumor that you do… Your wife’s hot! – Hurley
• Something familiar in both times. All this, see all this is all variables. It’s random; it’s chaotic. Every equation needs stability, something known. It’s called a “constant.” Desmond, you have no constant. When you go to the future nothing there is familiar. So if you want to stop this, then you need to find something there, something that you really, really care about, something that also exists back here in 1996. – Daniel Faraday
• Why is it so hard to believe? – John Locke
• Who are you people? – Michael
• If we can’t live together, we’re going to die alone. – Jack Shephard
• Are you sure? That was exactly what I was doing. I’m a lifeguard, I’m licensed. – Boone
• Come on you son of a bitch! – Juliet
• If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant. – Daniel Faraday

WHO IS THE BEST ACTOR ON LOST?

Hands down, my pick is …

• Benjamin Linus

WHO IS THE HOTTEST ACTOR ON LOST?

As if you don’t already know:

• Sawyer

WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTER ON LOST?

Here are mine:

• A tie between Benjamin Linus, Charlie Pace and Desmond Hume.  Sawyer is a distant second.

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE EPISODES?

Here are mine:

• The Constant
• Jughead
• Through The Looking Glass

 My “The Final Journey” thoughts:

• Sayid and Jin sound so strange when they talk in their normal voices, don’t they?
• I loved that the producers wanted to smart-up this show for intelligent viewers, rather than dumb it down.
• Ben and John watch LOST each week, and Jin even watches with his son.  So cool that they are fans of the show they are on.
• Jin’s favorite scene on LOST is one of mine – when the had the Dharma van and were sucking back some beers.  Ah, the fun old days of LOST.
• Sun cried her eyes like when Charlie died, just like we all did.
• Oh, I love seeing those wheels turn.
• Digging the groovy 70s music and the Dharma time.  Namaste.
• I miss Juliet, don’t you?  Poor Sawyer.
• I love that Kate was rooting for Sawyer to kiss Juliet, even though that’s her man, lol.
• It is so hard reliving through everyone deaths tonight, isn’t it?
• Bomb, there goes the dynamite.
• Goodbye Sun and Jin.
• Ok, chills – here it is – THE END!  See you at commercial breaks!

My “The End” thoughts:

• I loved seeing Sawyer look at his broken image as Detective James Ford. 
• How cool was this line – “Christian Shephard, seriously?” Kate, we have all been saying that for years.
• Desmond wants to leave … do you think Penny will find him, no matter what, as she has always promised?  How much you wanna bet Eloise Hawking will help her do so tonight.
• So, the heart of The Island is a light.  Eloise Hawking once spoke of the Dharma station called The Lamp Post, that was built in the center of The Island.  I’m thinking it is on top of that light.  I bet you The Dharma Initiative will be back tonight, and we see how all the stations form that famous Dharma wheel. (*Update – WRONG, LOL.  See my McGuffin note near the end.)
• Hurley tells Sayid if he stays with him, he is going to be happy he did. 
• Then Hurley shoots Charlie after Charlie tells Hurley to sod off.  Of course we know Charlie has to perform at the concert to “stay” alive.
• The Sideways Flash is the real deal!  I’m cool with that ending.
• After hearing Kate say “nothing is irreversible,” I know it must be true.
• Sawyer faces off with John Locke.  He knows what John’s plans are, and asks him “then what Smokey, are you going down with the ship?  Suicide doesn’t seem your style.”
• Vincent is back, living with Rose and Bernard.  They were the ones that saved Desmond.  Rose tells him “We broke our rule with you.  We don’t get involved.”
• John shows up, threatens to kill them, so Desmond heads off with him and Ben and tells John “I’ll do what you want.”
• Miles has found Richard Alpert, ALIVE!
• Richard wants to still blow up the plane, and Miles find Richard’s first grey hair.
• Richard finally wants to live.  Miles tells him “good timing.”
• Miles sees Sayid at the concert with Hurley.  He calls Det. Ford and warns him to guard Sun, the witness to the murders.
• Jin and Sun are with Juliet, their baby doctor.  Once she does the ultrasound, Sun remembers the past.
• Jin remembers, too, and suddenly, they can speak english.  All is well, and of course they know they are having a daughter.  I’m liking all this happy ending stuff.
• It seems like old times when Jack, Hurley, Sawyer and Kate walk across The Island, as they are looking for Smokey John Locke. 
• Dr. Jack Shephard checks in with patient John Locke before his surgery, and tells him “I’ll see you on the other side,” and “If I can fix you Mr. Locke, that’s all the peace I need.”
• On the way to the station, Miles and Richard find Lapidis in the ocean, alive.  Frank hears of their plan and tells them “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a pilot.” 
• Hey, that plan is still loaded with explosives, maybe Locke is going to get on it and blow up?
• The showdown begins, and Kate races towards Locke, shooting him.  Of course it does nothing.
• Jack tell him “I’m going to kill you” and when Locke asks him “how he plans to do it?” Jack answers with “That’s a surprise.”  And then we hear Locke go “Let’s get on with it.”
• We flash sideways and guess who the mother of Jack’s son is?  Juliet.  Of course.
• Jack tells Sawyer that “Desmond is his secret weapon” and Sawyer retorts “That’s a hell of a long con, Jack.”
• When Locke tells everyone “It should be the three of us from now on” Hurley tells Jack a last message “I believe in you dude.”  I don’t, but from Desmond, I realize it doesn’t matter if they die on The Island, because they are going to leave in real life.
• Jack, Desmond and Locke arrive at the light.  Desmond tells Jack “This doesn’t matter, you know” and tells Jack about he’s going to a place where he can be loved.  He tells Jack that he can go to this place, and that Oceanic 815 never crashed. 
• See?  I told you, they are all going to end up ALIVE!
• Desmond’s last words to Jack are “Maybe I can find a way to bring you there, too.”
• Hurley and Sayid are outside a bar, and Hurley is telling Sayid that he thinks he is a good guy.
• They see two men fighting, and Hurley tells him “You can’t let other people tell you who you are.”
• When Sayid sees a woman get mixed up into the fight, and then gets knocked down, he races over to save her.
• Guess who?  Shannon.  They remember each other.
• Boone is with Hurley at the car.  Boone is miffed because it took awhile to be saved.  Hurley reminds him “It takes as long as it takes.”
• Richard, Miles and Frank find Claire.
• Richard tells her “we can go home, and “You can come with us, Claire.”  She tells him no. 
• I’m wondering why she doesn’t go, will she meet up with someone else still on The Island?
• Just as Jack lowers Desmond into the hole, he tells him “Don’t get yourself killed.”
• I had a flash about the anchor.  You need a Constant, and you need an anchor.  I’m wondering which Desmond is to Jack.
• Jack tells Smokey John Locke that he isn’t the real John Locke, and says “turns out he was right about most things.  Wish I could have told him when he was alive.”
• Juliet gets a page, and “suddenly” has to go back to the hospital.  Hmm, isn’t Det. Ford at the hospital with Sun?
• Charlie and Charlotte are backstage.  She wakes him, and tells him “I’m just following the instructions.”
• Charlie retorts fabulously with “I was shot by a fat man.”  Yes you were, my old friend, yes you were.
• Daniel and Charlotte meet, and some sparks fly.  Obviously, it isn’t time for them to connect yet.  But he remembers her, he does.
• Claire and Kate meet at the concert. 
• Dr. Marvin Candle aka Pierre Chang aka Miles father introduces Charlie’s band Drive Shaft, and they begin to play with Daniel on piano. 
• Charlie can’t focus on the music, as he spots Claire, and sees her get up and walk away after they smile at one another.
• Claire is going into labor, and Kate knows it, even though she isn’t saying anything.
• Once Desmond gets lowered into the light, he finds a pool of water, surrounded by skeletons.  As he steps into it, he seems to be electrocuted. But, his nose is bleeding, which to me, this means it is his last time to face that electro-magnetic field.
• Once Desmond plugs up the light, darkness falls, and it looks like a glowing satan form.
• Red lava burst out.  Desmond is yelling “No!”
• John tells Jack “It looks like you were wrong Jack.”
• They begin to fight, and once Jack makes John bleed, he tells Locke “It looks like you were wrong, too.”
• Flash back to Kate backstage with Claire, as she is trying Claire help deliver Aaron.
• Outside, Eloise tells Desmond that he should stop all of this.  She asks if he is going to take her son and he tells her “Not with me, no.”  Hmmm …
• Charlie finds Kate and Claire, and helps by going off to grab a blanket.
• As Kate delivers the baby, she flashes, and sees herself helping Claire deliver Aaron back on The Island. 
• Kate and Claire have remembered one another.
• As Charlie comes back to Claire and Kate, she tells him to give Claire the blanket.  When he does, he remembers her at Aaron’s birth, and they remember each other.
• Desmond walks by, and asks Kate “Do you understand?”
• Kate asks “Now what?”
• the Island is beginning to crumble.  Ben pushes Hurley out of the way, and gets trapped under a tree.
• Jack tries to go in the cave, and calls for Desmond, but Desmond doesn’t repsond.
• Hurley, Kate and Sawyer try to free Ben when they hear Miles on the walkie-talkie say that the plane is leaving in an hour.  They all know they are screwed, and Sawyer lets out his last son of a bitch.
• Ben reminds them Locke had a boat, and there is some hope they can make it to the plane, to finally get off of The Island.
• Jack and John have a huge battle on the cliffs.  They are collapsing around them, and John manages to stab Jack, but Jack stops him before he slits his throat.
• Kate tells Locke “I saved you a bullet” and John tells her “You’re too late.”  She shoots him, and Jack kicks him off the cliffs.
• Back in the sideways flash, Jack doesn’t kill Locke in surgery, and Locke is waking up very early afterwards.  Before you know it Locke can feel his legs and tells Jack “It worked.”
• John suddenly remembers The Island, and asks Jack if he saw it as well.  Jack gets a small flash, but still can’t remember.
• Jack remembers he has a son, and Locke tells him that he doesn’t.  Locke realizes Jack isn’t ready for the truth, but only says “I hope somebody does for you what you just did for me.”
• Kate is with Jack and Sawyer on the cliffs.  She says Sawyer Locke is dead, and it’s over.  Sawyer pipes up “it doesn’t feel like it’s over.
• Sawyer finds Sun and Jin leaving the hospital.  He tries to protect Sun, but she tells him “I am safe” and Jin tells Sawyer “We’ll see you there.”
• Frank is trying to start up the plane, and Miles and Richard help him.
• Jack decides that he has to put the cork back in.
• Kate tells him “you don’t have to do this.”
• Sawyer and Jack say their goodbyes, and Sawyer thanks the doc for everything.
• Ben and Hurley decide to stay on The Island with Jack, and before they leave, Kate and Jack have to say their goodbye.
• Kate asks Jack to “tell me I’m going to see you again?” They kiss, because Jack can’t tell her what she needs to hear.  They both tell each other they love one another and Jack leaves her.
• Miles has his little witty line “I don’t believe in a lot of things, but I believe in duct tape.  I feel so bad he has made it to the end without playing any sort of additional role other than ghost whisperer.  Sigh.
• Sawyer actually says another “son of a bitch” when Lapidas yells at him.  There is no way to get to the plane quickly, so Kate tells Sawyer “We jump.” 
• As Kate jumps off the cliff (just like she did back when her and Sawyer found that suitcase and the body in that pool of water during season one) she yells to Sawyer”See you on the boat.”
• Det. Ford and Dr. Shephard meet at the hospital.  Sawyer asks Jack where he can find some grub, and he points him towards the vending machines.  We hear Sawyer toss out a “thanks doc” even though Jack isn’t in scrubs or a coat.  Mmmm.
• Guess who has trouble at the vending machine?  Sawyer.  Remember when Jacob helped him at another vending machine?  Juliet suddenly finds him trying to grab his stuck candy, and tells him you have to unplug it, then plug it back in.  Remember these words.
• They flirt, and when he unplugs the machine, it goes dark.  But then it is light, and when she passes him his candy, they touch, and they see something. 
• Juliet then tells Sawyer “We should get coffee sometime.”  Those were her exact last words to Sawyer when she was dying, remember?  Sawyer is passing her in death and life at the same moment.  Good job Desmond!  Your mission is working. (*UPDATE – Yep, I was so right on this one.)
• They are remembering their love, and James (because that is who he was with Juliet) tells her “I’ve got you baby.”
• Juliet tells him to kiss her, and he tells her “You got it blonde,” and they make out hard, as any woman would if James Ford was holding her. 
• Kate tells Jack “it’s over” when he shows up to the concert.  He recognizes her, and she tells him she stole his pen.  But he knows that he knows her. 
• He flashes a bit, but fights it.  Kate tells him “you don’t understand Jack.  If you come with me, you will.”  He goes with her.
• Jack, Ben and Hurley are at the well.  Hurley tells Jack he can’t go down there alone. 
• Jack tells Hurley “I’m already dead” and “this is what I’m supposed to do.”
• Hurley reminds him that The Island needs him. 
• Jack tells Hurley “it needs you Hugo” and “Hurley, I believe in you.”
• Before you know it, Jack talks Hugo into taking on the “Jacob” role and he’s drinking water.  Now, that puddle was full of mud, but Hurley’s bottle was clear.  Whoops, LOST, can’t you make him take a single sip of mud water? 
• Jack, like Jacob before him, tells Hurley “Now you’re like me.”  Are you all beginning to see a pattern?  All of Jacobs words are becoming their own. (*Update – So right on this one, too.)
• Jack is lowered into the light cave and finds Desmond, still alive.  Poor Desmond.
• Desmond is miserable, and tells Jack “The light,I put it out, it didn’t work.  I thought I’d leave this place.  I’m still here.  You were right Jack.”
• Jack tells him that they have to replace the cork, and that Desmond has done enough.
• Jack repeats Desmond’s ever-famous last words “I’ll see you in another life, brother” and right then, I know that my original idea of purgatory in a sense, is correct.  I told you guys I knew what I was saying.  Ha! (*UPDATE – For the record, I’ve always thought this, and it was true.  So many people fought me on it, and I say to them now – mmmmm, hmmmm.  Told you my friend knows J.J. Abrams, and that was what J.J. said it was.)
• Kate and Sawyer get to shore and find Claire.  They plane is leaving, Claire doesn’t want to leave with them, since she is crazy and afraid.  Again, Kate is repeating Jacob’s words here when she tells Claire “let me help you.”  Remember when Jacob told Kate that, when she stole the lunchbox as a child? Mmmm, hmmmm.
• Sawyer and the girls make it to the plane on time.
• Frank mutters an amen and Sawyer has a tear rolling down his cheek.  So did I, because he loves doc, even though they are always at odds.
• Back to the light cave.  Jack finally fixes something, as water is coming back into the pool. 
• Hurley pulls out Desmond instead of Jack as he hoped, and screams for Jack.  He knows that Jack shouldn’t die alone.
• Locke rolls up in a cab to a church.  Ben is there, and Locke looks thrilled, and Ben sad.  Locke asks if everyone is inside and Ben tells him “most everyone.”  Mmmm, wonder who didn’t make it “into Heaven or Purgatory” yet.  I say both, because at this point I don’t know which.
• Ben tells John that “he is sorry, that he was selfish, and jealous of him, because he wanted what he had.”  Ben tells the truth, finally, and says “You were special John, and I wasn’t.”
• John tells Ben in return “If it helps Ben, I forgive you.”
• Ben then tells him “Thank you.  It matters more than I can say.”  John walks into the church and says “Bye Ben.”  Remember, Ben always told Locke “Bye John?”
• Ben is helping Desmond, and Hurley is sad.  Hurley is crying and asking “Jack’s gone, isn’t he?”
• Hurley realizes he is stuck on the Island, for god knows how long, and basically faces his worst fear and says out loud “It’s my job now.”
• Ben comforts him, and really redeems himself at the moment when he tells Hurley “I think you need to do what you do best.  Take care of people.”  Hurley has always brought people smiles, levity, even food.  Remember when he saved the spirits of Sawyer, Charlie and Jin that day he got the Dharma van to work?  Hurley does take care of people, and that must be why he can “see dead people.”
• Ben then tells him that there is a better way to run The Island, and that he doesn’t have to play it by Jacobs rules. 
• Hurley asks Ben to help him, and finally, Ben is happy not wanting to be in control of The Island.  He is happy to be second in command.
• We see Hugo at the church and he tells Ben “he was a real good #2.”  Ben tells him he was a great #1.  So we know that they have finally died, too.  But, Ben won’t go in, and to me, that tells me he can’t go in.  Ben was just so darn bad that he can never redeem himself.
• Jack and Kate roll up.  Kate asks Jack “Do you know where we are?”  They are at the church where Jack is going to have his father’s funeral.
• Kate gets ready to go in and tells Jack “you can go in back, once you are ready to leave.”
• Jack, back on The Island, isn’t dead yet, but is in another pool of water, and wakes up.  Probably near the place The Man in Black was found by Jacob.  But, since Hurley is now in charge, at this point, I think Hurley wants to comfort his old friend in death, and he somehow guides him to that bamboo field.  
• Back to the church, Jack steps into the back room, and sees a menorah, a Buddha, crosses, and all sorts of religious icons.  Ah ha!  Told you people.  One the sign behind him, there are six different symbols.  The Ying Yang, The Cross, The Dharma Wheel, The Jewish Star, and a star and moon symbol and a symbol that looks like the number three.  I recognise both, and will update this later. 
• Jack is at the threshhold of heaven, yet it is “the place they created” because everyone’s different religions cant send them all to the exact same place.  For Jack Shephard, he is about to enter heaven.  He is in the place between purgatory and heaven, the gateway, portal, doorway, whatever.  But since Sun, Jin, Sayid, Bernard, etc. have different religions, they are about to go to their heavens, their nirvana, etc.  But I’m jumping ahead. (*UPDATE: I love it when I’m right!)
• Once Jack reaches the coffin and touches it, he flashes, and finally begins to see all of his time and memories of The Island.  We all knew that coffin would be empty, because Christian Shephard never lived on The Island, and his body can never be brought back from there.  Plus, it is another repeat of Jack opening John Locke’s empty coffin. 
• Jack’s father appears in the flesh, and Jack tells him “I don’t understand.  You died.”
• He asks him ”how are you here right now” and his dad tells him “how are you here right now?”  Who else got the chills here?
• Jack finally gets it, ala The Sixth Sense when Bruce Willis finally realizes he is dead (Which coincidentally we watched last night) and Jack then says “I died, too.”  Poor Jack.  “He asks his father “Are you real?”
• When Jack’s father tells him “everyone dies sometime, kiddo” I wonder how far ahead in time it is.  Sometime could be a long time for Hurley and Ben, even another 2,000 years.  Has Jack been a darn ghost this long?  (*UPDATE -Yep, right again, Christian Shephard tells his son some have died before you, and some after.)
• His father tells him “There is no now here.”  This is a place that only exists for them.
• When Jack asks his father “Where are we dad?” we finally get our answer.  Christian Shephard tells Jack he is at “a place you all made so you could find one another.” 
• They had to make this place, with so many different beliefs, right?  How can a christian meet up with a muslim in the afterlife if they don’t belong to the same faith?  ***This is why Desmond is the failsafe.  The key.  The Constant.  The Island was a damn McGuffin.  (Google it if you don’t know what I mean.)  It wasn’t about keeping The Island safe, it is all about keeping their souls united and joined, because as Jack’s father tells all of us “Nobody dies alone, Jack.”  This is why ghosts haunt the living that are left behind.  You need your loved ones to remember your own death, and then you can let go. 
• Jack asks “where are we going” and his father tells him “let’s find out.  His father opens the door, and sees the church filled with his old friends.  Jack walks in, and sees John, who is so happy in his afterlife.  They are happy to see one another.
• Kate and Jack are holding hands.
• We see Aaron as a baby – and I’m going to get back to that point in a mind.  Hold on to it, though.
• Jack is now in the bamboo field, the field he should no long be seeing since he is no longer the new Jacob.  Remember this is the same field he wakes up in when the show begins.  So, the big question here is when the show started, and we see Jack open his eye in that field, a field he shouldn’t be able to see, does that mean he was actually dead when the show began?
• We see everyone sit.  Penny and Desmond are there (Without baby Charlie) and I also see Hurley and Libby, and Rose and Bernard.
• All of a sudden, Vincent shows up, and I realize it is Hurley, as that damn dog.  He licks Jack, and Jack smiles, because he knows he won’t be alone.  Vincent aka Hurley lays down next to Jack, and you can see how sad Hurley is.  Poor Hurley.
• Christian Shephard leaves his flock and goes out the front door into the white light.
• Ah, we know why the light always has to be on, so they can find one another.  That is why people who die always see a bright light.
• We see our last shot, which is also the first shot of LOST.  It is a close up of Jack’s eye.  He sees Kate’s plane fly overhead, and he can finally rest, he has saved as many people as he can.  His eye closes.  And we see the beach, which is lined with debris, from a plane crash just like it was the first day on The Island.  
• Here is my main debate – was Jack a ghost all through LOST, or wasn’t he?  Was he Island dead, and didn’t even know it? Was he stuck in purgatory with the survivors of the crash, or were they all Island dead to begin with? 
• Other debates – Richard was dead, and so was Frank Lapidis.  But they were found alive, and I think they became Island dead only to be able to die in the crash that was going to happen to them.  Don’t forget Charles Widmore rigged the plane with explosives, and Frank didn’t know about it.  I think that is why Miles said to Richard you picked a good time, because Miles knew what was going to happen.  Claire had to get on that plane so she wouldn’t die alone.  They were all the misfits, and that is why their plane was going to go down with all of them aboard, because even misfits need one another.  Actually, I think Sawyer was crying a bit because he had just met Juliet and he could see the end.  Even if the explosives were removed, how could they get out of there without that certain “bearing” everyone needed.
• Children debate.  Baby Aaron was there in the church, but he was 3 years old when we last saw him.  How could he be a dead baby and a live child?  How could Jin and Sun look so happy, and she was pregnant, when we know they had a two and a half year old out there.  Penny and Desmond were there without their baby, too.  I think that Sun never had her baby, Penny never had her baby, and Kate never brought Aaron off that Island.  Just as Jack imagined he had a son, so did they.  Aaron off-Island in the flash-forward was Kate’s comfort and connection to Claire, Sun’s baby was her connection to Jin, and Desmond’s baby Charlie represented Charlie Pace, who he couldn’t save no matter how much he tried.  Jack’s child was his connection to Kate, and represented his small role he had in Aaron’s life, which is why he didn’t know his son that well, either.  Aren’t I brilliant?  LOL, kidding.  Baby Aaron was there because he died somehow on The Island.  Maybe the curse took him, maybe Claire was dead when the plane crashed and was a ghost like Jack, it doesn’t matter.  He could even be a fetus, since people believe they have souls as well.  It is all up for interpretation.  Wait, Jin and Sun never mentioned their daughter when they were drowning a few weeks ago, because she was never born.  Now we see they weren’t cold-hearted. They just saw the truth.

Random LOST Thoughts:

• Emmy eligibility rules state that the maximum length of Emmy-eligible TV episodes is 88 minutes (without commercials), but “The End” is 17 minutes too long. Thank goodness the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is allowing an exception.  If LOST doesn’t win an Emmy next year, I’d be shocked.  
• To immerse yourself with everything LOST, go to ABC and visit the official LOST series finale forum here.