LOST “The Incident” Review

Being such a geek about the show Lost and after the great season finale I decided I had to write a review just to get all these thoughts out of my head. Viewers started to tune out during season 2 and then even more jumped ship season 3, but after seeing this season’s finale “The Incident” I can say they are going to be left out for LOST special last season. With only one season to go and still tons of mysteries and questions left unanswered they had to start cracking them out. The “Incident” didn’t disappoint.

The opening scene reveal of Jacob opened new take on the mythos of the island. Not only does Jacob not look like the long hair bearded ghost, but he is not alone and both appear to have lived on the island for a very long time. Through out the show during flashbacks and flash forwards we learned that the castaways were oddly connected, but it turns out it was all planned by Jacob and against his new “friend” wishes. Jacob has been appearing at key moments of the cast aways lives  feeling them out, and indirectly pushing them to come to the island. In a very LOST fashion, we still don’t know for what purpose, but it appears to me that its for some sick game of destiny vs. free will. My guess is Jacob stands for good since he was wearing the white clothes, and free will, saying to Ben right before he was seemingly killed “you always have a choice.”

Whats confusing to all this is how can a person or being stand for good, yet put all these people through these trails without their approval and be for free will . It’s also troubling how Jacob dealt with Locke. What was the purpose for bringing Locke to the island? He was told and groomed from the island that he was something special and a higher power and serving for good only to fail almost everything he tried to accomplish in life. His father betrayed him, he had no friends, no love life, crippled, was left alone with no one believing in him and only to get killed by his enemy Ben. All Locke became was a loop hole for this mysterious other to find a way to kill Jacob. Jacob had to have known that Locke was going to somehow fit in this loop hole. Was this Jacob’s plan all along? Is there still something great for Locke to do or is the real Locke really just a dead body

Which brings me to what really keeps me and millions of others to tune in every week. We all love Kate, Juliet, Sawyer, Jack, Ben, and the whole crew are great, but these philosophical questions and spiritual under tones engages the real fans. The frustrated rant that Ben gives Jacob asking why after all the things he did for him and he never got to see him until now I think any religious person has struggle with in their own understanding of GOD’s plan. Hearing Jacob’s reply of “what about you” would anger anybody and Ben’s rage becomes understandable. This last phrase really makes me question if Jacob is on the good side at all. Or again this could be Jacob simply acknowledging Ben and has plans to make everything up and more to Ben and Locke. This is whats great about LOST, the questions and how there could be several answers to each one. I hope this shows the empty suits at network TV that you don’t have to nothing but reality shows, Law and Order or CSI spin offs, contests to have a successful show. Viewers will accept a challenging serial Drama as long as its unique enough to keep people coming back.

The episode could have answered more mysteries with only 16 episodes left in the show, the season finale still really did a great job of setting up the last season. The episode ended with probably the best cliffhanger since Jack’s famous “We have to go back!” and really could go anywhere the writers want it to. After seeing the LOST logo change after five seasons from white on black to black on white, the last season can’t come fast enough.

4.5 stars