The Chris Moeller Archives

"Lost" predictions

"Lost" is running too intense now not to return to the subject on the blog-- this time with plot specifics. Before offering my predictions, I want to share with you the perfect summary I read online this morning in regards to why this particular television program infuriates so many of its fans, and by the way, you're safe to read any of this post after you've watched last night's penultimate episode "What They Died For." The summary comes from the AV Club's Noel Murray, and it is this: "The intensity of the tease (is often) out of proportion with the ultimate reveal."

Murray cites the example of the third season finale, "Through the Looking Glass," at the end of which a bearded Jack finds Kate in Los Angeles and pleads to her, now-famously, "We have to go back!" revealing that "Lost" has just delivered its first "flash-forward" episode, as opposed to the episodic flashbacks that comprised the series' first 70 hours. Yes, the "We have to go back!" reveal winds up providing very little backstory for Jack and for Kate. It turns out to be just a little sideways arc about "the Oceanic 6" concocting an agreed-upon lie following their rescue. But the larger point is that there's a style of "Lost" storytelling which has to be accepted if you're going to watch and enjoy the series.

To paraphrase Murray-- "Lost" is not a full-length movie. It's episodic television. It's not even HBO television. There are commercial breaks. So the decision early on was to make the style of storytelling an especially visceral one. It's about ratcheting up the suspense not only week-to-week, but even commercial break to commercial break. This is a very hard thing to pull off while keeping story and character development from slipping, but Jesus, if you're still watching at this point, something must be working for you. I believe it's an almost miraculous achievement in television storytelling, and so I've been pretty casually dismissing now any fan comment I read online along the lines of "I'll decide what I think when it's all over." Brutha, that's really beside the point.

Anyway, I didn't intend to rehash my previous post. On to my predictions for the final 2 1/2 hour episode "The End," which airs on ABC Sunday night:


*PREDICTION ONE* There will be no ultimate replacement for Jacob as island protector. The popular theory that the series would culminate with someone taking over and residing on the island in Jacob's place is the classic bit of misdirection-- what with the lists, the names on the wall of the cave, the Jacob touching... but forget it. A replacement was necessary to protect the island, I accept that, but it won't end that way. Jack jumped too quickly at his opportunity last night, so I believe his tenure in the position will be all-too-brief. Others have suggested Ben, or any one of the non-Jack, crossed off names on Jacob's list. Incidentally, I loved the part last night when Jacob revealed to Kate that she was still a candidate even though her name had been crossed off. Her name had only been cleared because Jacob needed a successor and Kate had found another temporary role as "guardian" to something else, as well as a purpose to her life-- raising Claire's son. It turns out that the replacement was always going to be whomever wanted to be the replacement. Jacob was only recruiting candidates he thought maybe didn't have much else going on for themselves in their lives. I don't see this reveal as a cop-out on "the names" mystery in any way, either, as some have suggested. Free will has always been a major element and theme of the show, even when it seemed for a while as if the Oceanic passengers were all just game pieces to be manipulated by Jacob and his enemy.

Anyway, back to it. In the alt-universe, every character now has something pretty good going for themselves in Los Angeles (or at least the potential for such), and they shouldn't have to be stuck on that perhaps-literally god-forsaken island. "Lost" has been destined for a happy ending from the get-go-- of this, I am convinced. It's generally a populist show, that's how populist shows end, and actor Matthew Shepard (Jack) confirmed to Jimmy Fallon last night that he believes the ending of the show to be "beautiful." That means happy. And the biggest reason of all that there will be no protector remaining on the island at the end of the series is that there will be no island left to protect. The alt-universe in Los Angeles will be the reality, and the island will rest in its ruined state at the bottom of the ocean, as we already saw that it is back in the first episode of this final season. The End.


*PREDICTION TWO* The toughest one for me to gauge is how the main characters will be coupled off-- but indeed, they will be. Everybody's getting coupled off in that alt-timeline (even Danielle Rousseau and Ben). Jack's ex-wife in the alt-universe is one of the biggest reveals still to come, and will determine which way things fall. Sawyer has to be paired with either Kate or the otherwise deceased Juliet, and I could see pairing off Jack with either Kate or possibly his ex-wife, whom he seemed to really love, but the new "ex-wife" being held out as a secret for this long is the real tip-off for me. I BOLDLY predict: the ex-wife will be Juliet. Who else could it be? Kate's been in handcuffs, Ana-Lucia is unpopular with viewers (although I like her, she's hot) and they just used her up in another capacity of the story (helping the gang escape from jail last night), and it has to be a major female character. Maybe Penny. I've read some speculation of this online, but I doubt it. It would make perfect sense that a pair of doctors, Jack and Juliet, roughly the same age, had gotten together back in the day and had themselves a talented, pleasant-enough kid. Since the characters' memories of their existence on the island are returning to them though, I suspect Sawyer and Juliet will ultimately find themselves again in Los Angeles, reunited in love at her son's piano concert, and then you've got Jack left to pair off with Kate, who stitched him back to health way back in episode one.


*PREDICTION THREE* The Man in Black will not "leave the island," or "go home" in any literal sense. I think it was definitively established last week in the seemingly-underappreciated episode, "Across the Sea," that Jacob's brother, the man whom we could-- and should-- feel some sympathy for was buried with his "mother" long ago on the island. The Man in Black is not John Locke either, who's about to be physically and emotionally healed in the alt-timeline. What we see on the island now is simply the Smoke Monster, a sort of stand-in for evil itself, that despite glimpses of possible humanity, has been snapping too many necks and slashing too many throats in recent episodes to ultimately warrant any sympathy or salvation from the show's writers. He's/It's going down.


*PREDICTION FOUR* Desmond is (obviously) the centerpiece between the two separate Season 6 universes. He's going to somehow (big "somehow," perhaps) wind up absorbing that magical light ("the source") that we're seeing as a literal light on the island, and that's the metaphorical light that we're seeing being passed around (or "exposed") by Desmond person-to-person in the new, final reality for our beloved characters in Los Angeles. The End. Really, this time.

posted by CM @ 10:27 AM