Five seasons of Lost down, one more to go. If you watched tonight’s episode, it was quite a complex ride.
I just got home from a friend’s house where we had about seven or eight people watching the two-hour season 5 finale of Lost. Some have watched all along, some only a few episodes and some had no idea what was going on. It was an interesting dynamic to say the least seeing the reactions and questions coming from the non-fans. It really makes you think how this show, more than any other I can think of, is truly impossible to follow unless you’ve been there all along.
Now, on to the finale… Where do I even start?
First off, if you’ve not seen the finale, you best watch it or catch up in the show and watch it before reading on. Do that and come back to post your thoughts, we’d love to read them. This article and the comments will be discussing spoilers.
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If you’re still here, it’s time to talk Spoilers.
Introduction
As briefly as I possibly can summarize the episode: we finally meet Jacob, we see the four-toed statue in full form, we discovered why the unwilling members of the oceanic six came back, why many of the characters seemed to be destined (chosen) to come to the island in the first place, how Locke “survived” his death (twice?), how Jacob is the key to connecting many (all?) of the characters with the island, we find out why Locke knows everything he knows and who he really is, the losties all come together again annndddd the island gets hydrogen bombed the same year Star Wars came out.
Oh, and how could I forget! Fan-favorites Rose, Bernard and the most important character of all, Vincent the Dog, all make triumphant returns in the finale to explain where they’ve been all this time.
I read in the papers this morning that after tonight’s episode, fans would not know how the show could continue – that it acts as a sort of conclusion. Of course, for us Lost fans, this is no conclusion at all, but the start of a bridge leading to the real conclusion that will come in the form of 17 new episodes starting a full eight months from now.
From the final official Lost podcast of the season, producers and writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse revealed that this finale would give fans all the tools they need to form together a proper theory of what the show is all about and possibly how it may end. Well, they certainly did do that with the season closer and many theories of old can be officially trashed now.
The Finale
In traditional Lost fashion, the first episode opens mysteriously in the distant past where we get to see the four-toed statue in full form. While that was a cool reveal, the big reveal came moments later when we see two unknown men talking with each other on the beach beside the statue with the Black Rock ship in the ocean background. The conversation of the two strangers hints at them being long-term enemies and it ends with one referring to the other as Jacob and promising that one day he would find a loop-hole to kill him.
Wow. No messing around.The first scene of the show give us Jacob after all this time and speculation – Awesome!
Well, kind of. While Jacob was a cool character throughout the finale, appearing at key points in each character’s lives and seemingly recruiting them with his golden touch, it did feel very haphazard to see it happen all at once in this finale.
In two back-to-back episodes, we met Jacob and his nemesis (his brother Esau?), saw how he was involved with our main Losties, and how he seemingly dies – All in a two-parter out of 103 episodes of the series so far. Why not develop that some more over the last two seasons? It seems a bit much to have all of it in one episode and have it all so convenient, like it was made up in this certain way afterwards to find some way to explain what we’ve seen in past seasons.
That being said, the religious themes and characters were incredibly interesting and we can certainly tell there is a ton of work behind-the-scenes being done to tie everything together. It is creativity at its finest. Looking back on the episode, even the intro where we see Jacob wearing white and Esau wearing dark representing good and evil, mostly everything that occurs over the two hours is very precise and intentional.
Continue to Page 2 of Lost Season 5 Finale Review for Issues, Religious Themes and more!
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Nevermind, I found the answer to my post above:
“Across the top of the tapestry is emblazoned a quote from Homer’s Odyssey in upper case ancient Greek: ΘΞΟΙ ΤΟΣΑ ΔΟΙΞΝ ΟΣΑ ΦΡΞΣΙ ΣΗΣΙ ΜΞΝΟΙΝΑΖ. The original sentence, modified to lower case, is σοὶ δὲ θεοὶ τόσα δοῖεν ὅσα φρεσὶ σῇσι μενοινᾷς (transcribed as theoi tosa doien hosa phresi sêisi menoinais), belongs to Book 6, line 180 and means, “may the gods grant thee all that thy heart desires”.
Another passage is woven into the middle of the tapestry. It can be only partly seen, but the passage in full reads, ΘΞΟΙ ΔΞ ΤΟΙ ΟΛΒΙΑ ΔΟΙΞΝ. The original sentence, modified to lowercase, is θεοὶ δέ τοι ὄλβια δοῖεν (transcribed as theoi de toi olbia doien), which means, “may the gods grant thee happiness”. It occurs twice in the Odyssey: Book 8, line 413 and Book 24, line 402.”
* The first line is similar to the start of Psalm 20:4, “May He grant you your heart’s desire…”, and Psalm 20:1 starts out “May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!”
Jess: I think the fact that the Nuke has not gone off might have something to do with it as well… The thing that gets me is while answering a ton of questions we lost fans have had, they have made double in return!
I am not against religion or anything but I hope that they do not bring this down to God vs the Devil or fallen angels… In my eyes that would just be a cop out.
Who is Juliet?
Nooone has mentioned how Juliet was supposed to have looked like someone very important to Ben. This was mentioned in a previous episode when Juliet goes to to see the therapist:(# In “The Other Woman”, who is it that Harper says Juliet looks just like? quoted from Lostpedia at the end of the character section where unanswered questions are posed about each character).
My theory about this is that Juliet may be a grown up Rose. Remember Rose was Ben’s best friend on the island when he was a kid. This would mean that Juliet grew up and changed her name but would be consistent with the fact that she had been on the island before (see nose bleeds when they were time skipping. I haven’t gone back to see exactly what order they started bleeding in. At the time that seemed to have significance to Daniel Faraday.)
I agree that the nuke going off could have caused the women to die if they stayed on the island pregnant but that seems too obvious. I think there is some significance with the fact it is a 100 days before there is a problem and that the issue most likely begins at conception (at least that was Juliet’s theory). I would think small doses of radiation would cause additional side effects to the people on the island not just pregnant women. But who knows, this is LOST!
Love the show, Weak Finale Motivations
I love Lost. I love Lost. BUT
The finale left me literally going Oh Man what about the writing? the motivations of especially Juliet and Jack were childish? no just weak writing. To want to change the course of the Island just becuase in Juliet’s case, “I saw you look her HER!” come on. Silly. She’s going to let jealousy motivate her to change ALL of island history? I understand that it must have been painful for her to have Kate around but after 3 years with Sawyer with what seemed to be by all accounts a mature and solid relationship, she all of a sudden forgets that she accepted Sawyer and his “passionate past” with Kate. In fact that was the point of the entire conversation that they had before they even got together. Sawyer told Juliet that Kate was not a good match for him. It would never have worked.
To review, Sawyer GLANCES in Kate’s direction during the talk with Bernard and Rose where Bernard is saying that it is “important to stay together” and Juliet is going to make this decision about their relationship without even having a real conversation about it? I think it’s a cop out by the writers. It is not consistent with what they have set up with the maturity of the relationship.
It wouldn’t bother me if she got upset about it. Yes okay. Juliet is human but to change the WHOLE COURSE of island history and Juliet knows that because of an emotional moment. Weeeeeeaaaaak. writing.
Now let’s deal with Jack. His was even sillier. Sawyer says, What do you want Jack? “I had her” Well Go Get Her she’s right over there!” “Naaah too late for that.”
So now Jack is going to just try to erase that her never met her because he is upset at himself for losing her? SILLY! He is going to change all of Island history and KNOWINGLY send Kate to jail. If it “works” and they land in Los Angeles, Kate will go to jail.
What’s even sillier is why would Kate so easily agree to it? Why is she willingly going to erase the one thing that got her out of prison for VERY SERIOUS crimes. We don’t even hear from her on that one. They will probably address it next season.
Believe it or not i still love the show and will not miss one second of it next year.
Zendamon – I think you mean Annie who was Ben’s friend. That theory makes alot of sense. There is definitely something strange going on with Juliet.
Also do the members of Dharma that left, on the sub, before the incident ever return? We know Miles and his mother don’t but what about the other women and children?
I don’t think the bomb went off… the white screen could as well mean another jump in time… Faraday said that jumps could be 5 minutes apart or 500 hundred years. It’s been 3 yearsa since the last. And Jacob’s saying “they’re coming” could be in reference to the Losties jumping to 2007… I dont know, the whole “Locke did it, we’re not jumping any more, the disk is running again..” naaah…
Zendamon – the order was charlotte, miles, juliet, sawyer… but then again, juliet did live about 5 years more than james on the island…
Jess;
THANK YOU
Thank You so much for correcting me. Yes. I mean that Juliet could possibly be Annie ( for those of you who are curious see my post above). By the way, this is my first interaction on a Lost board and i have been reading them for years.
Jess:
I also want to commend you for your distinction of the ultimate reason behind the Jacob (Free Will)/ “Esau” (Destiny) battle . . . .To say that it is ultimately a battle between DESTINY and FREE WILL is consistent with the Locke versus Jack battle.
This is much more interesting than a simple Good vs Evil battle. This would not be consistent with the show’s writing. They have shown us that each character has BOTH good and evil in them and that doesn’t seem to be black and white but the DESTINY vs. FREE WILL seems to be clearly drawn.
Jack was possibly representing Free Will and Locke was representing Destiny. Now it seems Jack is on the side of Destiny.
I had
However even as I write this I am wondering, it COULD BE that Jacob’s only chance at this point is if Jack “succeeds” in erasing the future because he is fulfilling his “DESTINY” then that could possibly help “Esau”. and i am inclined to think that when Jacob said, “They are coming” he was talking about Jack and company. So Jacob is hoping for help from them . . .
hmmmmmmmmm. i just theorized myself into a corner. . . .
Thank You for the order Dani.
That is very helpful. But i have a question for you (and anyone else who wants to answer) at the end of this post . . .
To catch everyone up I am wondering about the nosebleeds as evidence for when they have been on the island. Daniel Faraday seemed to think that was relevant . . .
so Dani you say that the order was thus . . .:
Zendamon – the order was charlotte, miles, juliet, sawyer… but then again, juliet did live about 5 years more than james on the island…
Excellent on remembering about Juliet being on the Island Five more years than James.
My question is:
What about Daniel? did his nose bleed? I think it did but i think Daniel may have been on the Island before. Maybe even before his Mom! Maybe he really did bring the bomb, Jughead to the island, So that when we first see Daniel meet Richard Richard said to Daniel, “So you are here for your bomb?”
As viewers we all assumed that Daniel was going along with Richard because that seemed to be keeping them safe.
But what if Richard actually meant that he had met Daniel before in connection with the bomb?
What if Daniel didn’t want Charlotte and company to know the depth of his involvement with Time Travel?
He may have known a lot more than he was letting on to everyone. He was the Time Travel guy . . .
How did that bomb get there? Daniel may have been aware that he had to get a bomb there to alter the Incident and so somehow arranged for it to happen in previous time travel visits . . .
Maybe he knew that he was going to die when he walked into camp brandishing the weapon. He may have known a LOT more than we as viewers have been led to believe.
I love Daniel and hope that somehow there is a way to change what happened to make him live and i KNOW that sentiment is shared by Eloise Hawking.
by the way, any theories on how his name came to be Daniel Faraday since supposedly Eloise HAWKING and Charles WIDMORE are his parents?
Could this have anything to do with my theory of his time travelling?
Dani:
You ask if the other women and children who left before the incident ever return . . .
If i understand your question, my answer is that baby Miles, young Charlotte and all of other women and children do not return until Miles and Charlotte come back with Widmore’s crew.
Dani:
I am not sure by the ambiguity of your post if you are conflicted about whether or not the flash meant another time skip and eventually you decide naaaah.
but i think there is a very good chance that the end of the finale was not the bomb going off but another time skip and that Juliet will be alive and that The Island will land them in 2007 to “save” Jacob.
I don’t know what will happen to Locke. Will he be dead?
Zendamon – I think Daniel’s nose did not bleed because he talked to Desmond – his constant – when he bagged on the hatch door and told Desmond to find his mother at Oxford.
Jess:
Great reminder that Desmond is Daniel’s constant.
hmmmm. so Daniel’s nose didn’t bleed while the gang was time skipping at all? amazing because he was so messed up before he went back to the island. if he hadn’t gotten shot, he would have been the picture of health.
Sorry – meant when he *was banging* not bagged
Jess:
I knew what you meant.
zendamon
I’m pretty sure his nose did not bleed. When Desmond made Penny his constant that saved him from dying.
well, I could be way off base here
but I think that Rose and Bernard are the key. People have been coming to the island for who knows how long and always ending up in some kind of war where they kill each other. That was mentioned in the beginning of the finale with the whole here we go again and its going to end up the same comment. As the losties have time traveled, everywhere they ended up there was some kind of conflict going on and people where dying. People are taking their free will and choosing to have violence and death until one group is wiped out. Then a new group shows up and it starts again.
. Plus, it would make really boring television if every one sat down and had a tea party and called things even 
Rose and Bernard took their free will and said no more. They decided to retire and opted out of the killing. Even when faced with a bomb that might kill them they chose not to pick up a gun and be part of the killing. Even the symbolism of being an interracial couple, one black and one white, represents the ying and the yang. Two very different people who love each other and coexist in complete harmony with no desire to kill because they are different but instead to only love and grow in their differences.
Maybe thats what it is all about. This never ending cycle is designed to end when the people who come to the island one day take their free will and choose to not kill but instead to bring harmony. Maybe that is what the alluded to progress is reaching for so that one day their is only one outcome.
But then again maybe I smoked to many bong hits when I was a teenager and am way off base
Rafe:
I don’t think you are way off at all. i think you are right on But of course my screen name is consistent with this philosphy. I would also suggest that if everyone were to sit down and have a tea party and called things even that it would not be boring at all. In fact, this is what the world would have you believe. that peacefulness and harmony is boring. I suggest that if we did all sit down and have tea that THEN it would get really interesting because we could talk about something other than conflict. What’s left? I assert that the TRUE expression of what we are about Someone earlier translated the Greek on the loom,
“Across the top of the tapestry is emblazoned a quote from Homer’s Odyssey in upper case ancient Greek: ΘΞΟΙ ΤΟΣΑ ΔΟΙΞΝ ΟΣΑ ΦΡΞΣΙ ΣΗΣΙ ΜΞΝΟΙΝΑΖ., “may the gods grant thee all that thy heart desires”.
I think that we could talk about the REAL things that our heart desires during this teaparty. I’ll bring the tea and you bring the water. Let’s do it, Rafe. Who else is in?
You know what is interesting? Wasn’t Locke’s desire for revenge against his father materialized when Ben brought him his dad – Anthony Cooper aka Tom Sawyer aka The Man from Tallahassee?
I agree that Rose and Bernard seem to have the right idea – didn’t she say “it’s always something with you people.” That was awesome. They have found peace, Rose no longer has cancer and they are enjoying their lives on a secluded beach. Sounds like they are the ones that got it right.
Although im quite certain that the statue is that of Sobek there is one thing altered in his depiction. In all pictures i’ve found of Sobek he is holding a sceptre and an ankh. The statue on the island is holding two ankhs. I found no egyptian god holding two of them.
Ankh: Symbol of eternal life. The gods are often seen holding an ankh to someone’s lips this is considered to be an offering of “The Breath of Life”. The breath you will need in the afterlife.
Seems strange to hold “eternal life” twice. A double eternity?
It definitely can’t be just a good v. evil thing with Jacob and Esau. Esau is the one arguing against fighting, violence, etc. in the beginning of the episode. I think it is more about progress vs. contentedness(not exactly the word i’m looking for). You also see this dynamic a lot with Jack and Locke (Jack constantly wanting to fix and change things and Locke mostly embracing the events that unfold).
I also don’t buy that Locke and Christian and others are simply dead and gone. Esau is definitely taking their form and needs their dead bodies on the island to do so, but how can he be able to reference so much from their respective histories in conversations with the other people on the island? I think he is taking on their forms but there is still a part of the original soul/astral body involved too.
As far as the “shadow of the statue” group, could they possibly be ageless just like Richard? And maybe they all were on the Black Rock. And does no one else think it is them Jacob is referring to in saying “they’re coming”? This would make sense if they are the same people that Esau didn’t want to come to the island on the Black Rock ship.
Zigster: Double Ankhs possibly Jacob and Anti Jacob?
Great thought Thom! wasn’t the black rock crew on the ship when they went to get the dynamite that time though?
I have 4 seasons on disc.I think LOST is the longest running major motion pic.ever made,best show ever! Not sure whats going next season but it will be great.Sobek for sure,BOOM wake up its 2004,Juliet back in 2004 with everyone else.Jacob’s not dead but reborn .Jacob had to be killed by hate.Remember this show is fiction,not from A book.seems like a type of purgatory, Locke’s dad died to get to the island.And all the planes did crash.all but the plane on the outher Island
Black Rock was brought by Jacob ,not with Jacob,Crew could be Some of Outhers
Its not anubis. You just keep saying that cause you think you have it figured out and anubis makes the most sense. Anubis has a dogs head with long pointy ears. This statue might not be any of the egyptian gods. it might be a totally generic deity. It has four toes which is supposed to be important, but egyptian gods are half man. If its any egyptian god, its sobek, just look at the shape of its head!!!!!!!!!!
And he carries the same cross as Sobek.
what about Alana?
she must know things, that took me by surprise as well
Getting back to what Rafe and Zendamon where talking about… the harmony Rose and Bernard have found… Yeah, that’s the best insight i’ve read here so far.
ΘΞΟΙ ΤΟΣΑ ΔΟΙΞΝ ΟΣΑ ΦΡΞΣΙ ΣΗΣΙ ΜΞΝΟΙΝΑΖ., “may the gods grant thee all that thy heart desires”.
But if every individual thinks he is entitled to everything his heart desires, true harmony will never be achieved. When two people want the same thing, desires overlap, which causes conflict. I guess it’s the way we resolve these conflicts that is laking. A nice teeparty sounds good. Let’s make it worldwide.
I noticed an interesting comment in another forum that Richard Alpert’s initials, RA, are also the name of the Egyptian sun god. It is also interesting that Richard Alpert was the birth name for Baba Ram Dass, the Harvard professor who became a spiritual teacher (kind of an Indian Hindu/Buddhist blend). Ram Dass means “servant of God” in Hindi. Seems to fit the themes of the show either way, but the tie in to Baba Ram Dass seems to be more relevant, since Richard appears to be a kind of spiritual teacher to the others.