“Lost”: Making me proud once again

A lot of people have jumped the “Lost” ship this last season. And they had some pretty good reason. For one thing, the first half of the season pretty much sucked. All we saw were Jack, Kate and Sawyer and those stupid “Others”. The storylines started to get a little strange and a lot of people had a hard time keeping track. And then, they moved the show back to 10pm. Which, if you’re a mom, can be a struggle to stay up for. Let’s not forget that ridiculous hiatus we had to endure midseason as well. A method of torture is what that was. So I cannot blame these people for ditching “Lost”. But at the same time, I weep for them because last night’s season finale was SO FREAKING GOOD.

It would not be an exaggeration at all to call it the best two hours of “Lost” that I’ve ever watched. I may even go so far as to say it was the best two hours of television I’ve seen this year (and yes, that includes “Heroes” and that totally awesome episode where Bennett had the Haitian wipe his memory of Claire to protect her) , if not EVER. It was THAT GOOD. I had chills during a large portion of the finale and I laughed, I cheered, I hollered in anger at the television… I was even damn choked up at one particular part. And when it ended, I was left with a satisfied glow, knowing I had just watched some damn fine television. And that glow lasted for quite a while, at least until I remembered we wouldn’t be seeing “Lost” come back until JANUARY. Let’s not speak of that just now. For now, let’s talk about last night. I’m going to put “spoilers” behind the “more” tag. But just in case, I’m going to warn you now that you should not keep reading if you didn’t watch last night yet and want to remain unspoiled. And I heartily recommend being unspoiled because I was and I know it made everything even better for me.

I was so proud of Charlie last night. Even tied up and being soundly beaten by one of the women inside the Looking Glass station, he never lost his cool. He was completely at peace with his fate, with the situation, with EVERYTHING. He handled himself the way he should have been handling himself all along. It was if he finally found his own. His final moments were wrenching. I love him talking to Penny and actually having a productive conversation for once. Is Desmond there? Yes, he is and he’s okay. Are you with Naomi’s boat? What boat and who is Naomi? We’re the survivors of flight 815. We’re on an island. It was AWESOME. Then, Mr. Immortal (Mikhail to the rest of you) showing up with his grenade.. and Charlie sacrificing himself to save Desmond… that was awesome. He even used his last breath to scratch out a warning about Naomi’s boat to Desmond on his hand. He went out with dignity and grace. And, dare I say it, I think I’m going to miss him.

The effort to blow up some Others went pretty well, at least until Jin was unable to hit his mark and blow up his tent. And Sayid, Bernard and Jin were taken captive by the surviving Others. But they took out SEVEN of them and it was completely awesome to watch the bodies blow sky high. It was a fist pumping moment. Of course, then we thought they had executed our friends on Ben’s orders. And Jack’s subsequent beat-down of Ben was simply beautiful. That was an awful moment. But then how awesome was Hurley driving the bus full boar into the beach camp and taking out one of the Others? And then finding out that they hadn’t killed Sayid, Bernard and Jin? And Sawyer totally not taking pity on Tom when he surrendered and instead, shooting him point blank in the chest. Why? Because he took Walt off the raft. Oh yes, Sawyer remembered that, Zeke. Sucks to be you. You know who else it sucks to be? The dude that Sayid took out with his FEET. Seriously, with his hands tied behind his back he snapped a guy’s neck using only his feet. It was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Sayid rocks my socks.

Speaking of Walt, he shows up to speak to Locke. Yes, LOCKE. He’s alive (as we knew and hoped he would be), though barely and is having a hard time getting his legs to move. He spies a gun on the pile of Dharma corpses and is poised to take himself out when Walt shows up, tells him to get up (his legs work just fine) and that he has work to do. The island isn’t done with Locke yet, it seems!

Jack, meanwhile, is leading everyone up to the radio tower. Ben finds out about this, thanks to Loose Lips Bernard. So he packs up Alex and heads off to meet them. He says he wants to talk to them, and if he thinks for a minute that any of those people will ever listen to a single thing he says ever again, then I’ll eat my hat. But whatever. Jack kisses Juliet, which didn’t escape my notice but was also hidden so deftly in the awesomeness of the episode that it was sorta a non-issue. You gotta love that. We’re also treated to some flash-whatevers courtesy of a very doped up, drunk and suicidal Jack. Seriously, I’d be suicidal with that beard too. He’s unspeakably distraught over someone’s death. Who it is, we never know. And it drives me slowly insane. He’s SO upset, he almost jumps of a bridge to his death over it. Seriously. And it’s not Kate, because he meets with her at the end of the show to talk about the deceased. YES. It was the FUTURE. What happens after they get off the island. And Jack is upset to be off the island and keeps flying across the ocean in an effort to be on another plane that crashes because he wants to go back SO BAD. What the freakin’ HECK? And Kate looks like she could hardly give a crap. And Marilyn’s mind is blown once more.

Oh yeah, some other happenings that I left out: Naomi got knifed in the back by Locke who showed up threatening to shoot Jack if he contacted Naomi’s boat. But he did anyhow and Locke didn’t shoot him, but whatever. And it looks as if the Losties are going to get rescued at long, long last. And Alex is introduced to her mother at last (as if we didn’t know who her mother is, but whatever). And that’s pretty much all there was until NEXT YEAR and that pains me so, you don’t even know. Seriously, who thought that was a good idea? And so much unlike last years’ finale, the Losties are on top of the world. They are the ones delivering the beat-downs and the flush of happy, happy success is a welcome change. That was the best season finale EVER. I love this show. LOVE. “Lost”, you are officially OFF the “On Notice” list.

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