Yes, the old cowboy has decided to live blog the series finale of “Lost.” So if you’re on the West Coast and just can’t wait for some guy to wreck it for you, then read along below the cut line tonight, starting at 9 PM EST.
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Okay, kids. After a pretty good 2 hour wrap-up, we’re off and running.
9:02: Nice series of contrasting images. The mundane and the surreal. Life and death in both worlds.
9:05: On the one hand, it makes sense that Jack would declare himself to be the one who is going to stay and be the island’s protector. On the other hand, it seemed SO obvious that it would be him that one almost wishes there was a twist. Still, we have 2 and a half hours; maybe there will be.
9:07: Hurley does like his Star Wars references.
9:08: “Yoda” and “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” TWO Star Wars references.
9:08: If there’s going to be commercials every eight minutes, this is gonna be a loooooong night. If I weren’t liveblogging, I’d be inclined to record it, go watch the Mets/Yankees game, and then come back at 10 PM and speed through the commercials.
9:09: 4-0 Mets, bottom of the third. Excellent.
9:10: Charlie! Yea!
9:13: “Nothing is irreversible.” Kate unknowingly throws Jack’s own words to Locke right back at him. Nice.
9:13: I’m surprised that Sawyer has made no Lassie “Timmy in the well” comments.
9:14: And it wouldn’t be an episode of “Lost” if someone weren’t punching out Ben Linus.
9:15: Well, look who came out of retirement. I was just wondering about them.
9:17: Aw, come ON! Not Rose and Bernard!
9:17: Wheewwww…and commercials are now seven minutes apart. Holy crap.
9:19: Seven pitch top of the 4th for Santana, game remains Mets 4, Yankees 0.
9:22: Every time he calls him “Linus” I picture Ben dragging around a blue blanket.
9:23: I sure hope they don’t die again.
9:24: Oh good, Juliet managed to break loose from “V” to make a visit. Get it? Make a…never mind.
9:26: And now they can both speak flawless English. Well, that certainly made things easier.
9:28: End of four, still 4-0 Mets.
9:30: I saw a pie chart someone did that was a breakdown of “Lost,” and 75% of the pie chart was “Walking or Running through jungle.” That’s made up 75% of just this minute alone.
9:31: “There’s always the chance I could kill you.” No, that’s Ben’s job. Although on the other hand, Jack’s job may be to kill Master Locke back on the island.
9:32: Holy crap, Richard’s aging. Let’s hope the years don’t start to catch up with him at exponential speed.
9:33: Hey! Unless it’s Smokey pulling another fake out, Frank made it!
9:34: Nope, there’s Locke. That’s really Frank.
9:35: Hey! *I* said he was the obvious choice.
9:36: Six minutes of program and then commercial. Jesus Christ. This is why I’ve mostly stopped watching network TV unless I can blow through commercials with my DVR.
9:37: Jason Bay homers in the bottom of the 5th. His second in two at bats. 5-0 Mets.
9:38: So it’s interesting that in the same (brief) section of program, in the sideways verse, Jack says he’s not going to kill Locke, and the island version says exactly the opposite.
9:39: Jack’s ex is JULIET?! How did I not see that coming?
9:41: Concern about the oncoming storm. Maybe that heralds the arrival of the Doctor in his TARDIS? Maybe that’s what the whole island is, with its timetravelling: One big TARDIS. The light is the heart of the TARDIS. Let’s see if the Cloister Bell sounds.
9:44: Slightly over five minutes of programming before commercial. At this rate they’re going to start a commercial before the show comes back.
9:44: Best Target commercial ever.
9:53: That was bizarre. My site crashed for ten minutes.
9:56: Top of the sixth, two outs, 6-0 Mets.
9:56: Ariel speculates that Desmond will come floating up on a flying carpet. It did have that whole “Aladdin” feel to it just then. Plus they did a nice job of framing it in a way that it harkened back to the hatch.
9:57: “The Gates.” I can see the pitch: It’s “Desperate Housevamps.”
9:58: How many old loves can we connect in one episode?
10:00: You have to give them credit for the number of people–CHANG? Right, of course. I was going to say, you have to credit them for the way they’ve managed to start pulling all the threads together to bring all these people together in one place. Maybe a plane will then fall on them and wipe everyone out. That would be funny.
10:01: Guess whose water is probably about to break.
10:02: My precious…
10:03: He drained it? That can’t be good.
10:04: Yeah, nice job of protecting the light there, Jack.
10:05: So the Man in Black is mortal now? Well, this just got really interesting. Of course, it’ll all be moot if the island goes volcanic.
10:06: Don’t let this all turn out to be a collective dream, don’t let this all turn out to be a collective dream, don’t let this all turn out to be a collective dream…
10:10: At first I thought it was Betty White, but no, it’s Daniel’s mom again.
10:11: So maybe when anyone in the world ever has a sense of deja vu, they’re having a flashback to a previous connection on an island somewhere. That’s why you sometimes run into people for the first time and take an instant like/dislike to them.
10:12: Claire just gave birth to a different baby. There’s a twist.
10:15: If a tree falls on Ben Linus, does it make a sound?
10:17: You might want to take the bombs off the plane, guys…
10:17: Jack’s got the high ground, so that’s something.
10:18: CHRIST! It’s pouring, Jack leaps toward Locke, and we go immediately into Gene Wilder singing from Willy Wonka? And networks wonder why their numbers are diminishing.
10:19: Top of the 7th, it’s now 6-1.
10:22: Well, it just doesn’t get more epic than this.
10:24: That was certainly edge of your seat stuff.
10:25: For a moment I was worried Master Locke had leaped into Sideways Locke.
10:27: In saying “You don’t have a son,” the implication is that the island is the “real” world and all of the sideways is pure fantasy.
10:28: Dammit. Commercial in the Mets game.
10:30: Top of the 8th, 6-1 Mets.
10:31: That storm sure cleared up pretty fast.
10:32: Quickly, physician. Heal thyself.
10:32: Of course it’s not over. It’s got an hour to go.
10:33: Let’s see what else an fall on Linus.
10:35: Hugo is going with Jack. That’s a relief, because if all he had to watch his back was Ben, then he was pretty much screwed.
10:37: That is the worst timing for saying “I love you” since Leia watched Han about to be dipped in carbonite.
10:42: “I don’t believe in a lot of things, but I do believe in duct tape.” That’s an instant button/t-shirt.
10:42: Am I the only one having a Butch and Sundance flashback?
10:43: How’d he know to call him “Doc” if they’d never met?
10:44: Yea! Finally! Sawyer and Juliet, together again.
10:45: I wonder if that trick with the vending machine works in real life.
10:45: If I was doing a shot every time two lovers were reunited in this episode, I’d be totally hammered by now.
10:46: Pedro Feliciano was brought in to get Santana out of a bases loaded jam. Bottom of the 8th, still 6-1.
10:51: So how long before Jack and Kate reconnect?
10:53: Interesting that Jack, who had the clearest vision until now, is the last person in the sideways verse to get into the loop.
10:53: Look out for the styrofoam rocks!
10:54: Maybe Jack will wind up as a white cloud.
10:54: “It has to be you, Hugo.” And Ben’s thinking, “Yo. I’m standing right here. You know I can hear you, right?”
10:56: “Now you’re like me. Except heavier, and with weird facial hair, and, oh yeah, you don’t have a stab wound you’re dying from.”
10:57: So at what point does Ben betray Hugo? I mean, he’s not just gonna stand by and let someone else have the island.
10:59: Never has “I’ll see you in another life” been more accurate.
10:59: But…isn’t the plane still wired to blow?
11:00: Claire has the longest bout of post partum depression in history.
11:02: Don’t you hate when you have to cut making your plane connection so thin?
11:03: A bunch of people whose plane keeps crashing. What could possibly go wrong?
11:04: Jack, you may want to climb out of that…too late.
11:05: “It’s Desmond. We didn’t want Desmond.” And they throw him back.
11:06: Ariel says it’s like pulling up the dinosaur in a toy crane machine when you wanted the teddy bear.
11:07: Top of the 9th, 6-2, Yankees have one out but men on first and second.
11:11: So they remember that Ben killed him?
11:11: Yup, guess so.
11:13: “Here, Desmond. Instead of having your head on the hard ground, let me prop your head with this hard rock.”
11:14: Ben’s got an angle. He’s always got an angle.
11:16: But then who’s Number 6?
11:17: I think every single character in this show has father issues.
11:18: Was that the same statue we saw on the island?
11:19: Let’s hope Jack isn’t in the coffin.
11:19: So the girls, Locke, none of that trip it for him; it’s a stiff. Somehow that’s appropriate.
11:20: Okay, an empty box. Even better. Aaaand now we’ve gone into creep zone.
11:21: Now I’m really lost. Which is even more appropriate.
11:23: Soooo the sidewaysverse is heaven?
11:25: So for years people were speculating that everyone on the island was dead–that the island was sort of a holding cell for heaven–and the show’s producers went with that idea, except they turned it into the sideways verse.
11:26: Wait, the BABY is dead? That’s just not right.
11:29: But wait…there’s more…
11:29: Okay, but…what was the deal with the polar bear?
11:30: I’m gonna be processing that one for a while. We’ll adjourn and take this up in the morning.
I will say this as an afterthought: First, it was a nice touch to bring it full circle with the first shot being Jack’s eye opening and the last one being his eye closing. And second, I thought it was significant that the indestructible dog lay down with him. After all, remember what “dog” spelled backwards is…
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If you didn’t DVR it, or just want a second chance, the finale will air again on Saturday (with less commercials) on Saturday from 8-10pm EDT. The Jimmy Kimmel Aloha to Lost special follows at 10pm.
Actually 8-10:05 according to both TitanTV and zap2it TV listings. I wouldn’t want folks who somehow missed it the first time to then miss the last 5 minutes on their second chance re-recording.
See I always thought that if Dog is a backward spelling of God then that would make Dogs demonic.
One thing that I realized throughout the episode was that there was tons of brand new music, apparently done just for the finale. It broke me out of the show a couple times, thinking “That’s a musical theme I haven’t heard before.”