Lost - Wow

Last night's two hour season finale was so rich and full of answers, questions and new directions that it was hard go to sleep.

Spoilers Below:

To begin, the show starts with a bearded Jack on a plane. When the hell was this? This Jack is obviously in trouble. He drinks too much, gobbles Vicodin and dissolves in tears. Within minutes he is standing on the railing of a bridge preparing to jump off. Behind him an accident occurs and Dr. Jack abandons his despair an responds to the cries of a woman and child hurt, in part, by their distraction in seeing him about to leap off the bridge.

As we continue to flash on this story throughout the show we learn that it is a first for Lost, a flash forward. This is a story of a depressed and desperate Jack after he (and at least Kate) have left the Island. Is this the reward for escape from the Island? Misery and loneliness?

When I saw him climb onto the bridge railing in brought to mind "It's A Wonderful Life". No guardian angel appears, unless it was the woman whose car crashed. Could it be that the post-Island Jack we see is the product of certain events on the Island? Will he be given the opportunity to make different choices on the Island that will lead to a happier result? I certainly hope so. I would hate to think that the writers have now shown us the inevitable result of everyone's efforts on the Island and are now content to let us watch the seeds of misery be sown.

And who is Kate married to? Whose unattended funeral does Jack visit? Will that person's death be somehow tied to actions Jack took or failed to take? Answers to be provided over the next three years.

And then there is Charlie. Our former nebishy junkie has turned into a major hero. It was sad to see this newly born Charlie go. He stands up to an Abu Graib-like interrogation and sacrifices his life (one must always add apparently when describing deaths on Lost) to shut off the signal jamming the radio phone that they believe will lead to rescue. But will it?

Charlie does receive a television transmission from Penny, but she knows nothing about any rescue ship and helicopter. When Jack does reach someone on the phone, they say they'll be right there. Ben, perhaps for his own motives, tells Jack that the people who come will kill everyone on the Island. He may be right. They may be the remains of Dharma seeking revenge for Ben's purge, or agents of Hanso or Mr. Paik's enterprise. I get the feeling that the Losties will soon be running from and battling these new "rescuers".

Our other hero, Hurley! Rejected twice as too fat to help with any of the dangerous tasks, he gets his microvan from the jungle and barrels into the remaining three of the Others and frees Sayid, Bernard and Jin.

Ben acknowledges to Alex that Rosseau is her mother. Chalk up another answer.

In what may be the most emotionally satisfying scene, Jack beats the shit out of Ben. It was a release I think most viewers needed the manipulative little toad to suffer.

Now begins the winter of our discontent as we await the next sixteen episode season of the best dramatic television series in history.