Season 4 is now in the books with only two seasons to go. I don’t know about you, but I was on edge for the entire finale. Once we got to the halfway point I couldn’t believe that we still had another hour remaining. I must say though that the second hour seemed to be filled with lots of long commercials.

The episode began where last season left off, with post-island Jack and Katie meeting outside of an airport. Season 4 comes full circle with this scene as the flash forwards had been working up to this moment all season fleshing out the details of how Jack and Kate got to this point. The episode concludes with the revelation of who was in the coffin from last season. Did you even think Locke was a possiblity? I certainly didn’t. Locke is now known as Jeremy Bentham, the same name of the 19th-century utilitarian philosopher. I’ll let you do the online research to find out more about the Jeremy Bentham from history, but there’s surely something significant about going from one philospher name (John Locke) to another. Does this mean Locke’s character will undergo some kind of change? Why was he going by a new name in the first place? Was it to protect himself from Widmore or someone else seeking information about the island? Whoever killed Locke/Bentham and made it look like a suicide could be associated with the same man whom Sayid killed for spying outside of Hurley’s mental institute. Any theories? How will they get Bentham’s body back to the island? I’m sure this will be a compelling storyline moving forward.

I don’t know that this was my favorite season finale (I’d have to think about it more) but it was the most intense I think. I can’t believe Ben killed Keamy, causing the C4 to explode on the frieghter. Wasn’t it creepy when Christian Shephard appared to Michael, told him he could now go, and then Michael along with the freighter exploded? How awful was it for Sun to watch her husband blown to pieces? Or was he? Do you think Jin is dead? I don’t. I I don’t think Sun does either. At the very least she’s holding on to hope that he’s still alive. Maybe this is why she’s using her new power and position off the island to play Widmore and try to discover the location of the island. How about Sawyer jumping from the helicopter so the others on board could find rescue? Sawyer’s become a fairly nice guy, hasn’t he? You gotta love his one-liners and nicknames. My favorite from this episode was when he called Lapedius (the pilot) Kenny Rodgers. Now we know why Ben was wearing a winter coat when he time traveled to the Saharan desert; apparently Antarctica is below the island! I thought this scene was very cool as it was obviously an allusion to C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Ben climbs down the ladder where it is ‘winter’ and what do we see? A lampost. Ben proceeds to break the ice off a big wheel which he then turns. What happens? I have absolutely no idea. What do you think happened? Lapedius certainly didn’t have a clue as he got the best view from the pilot’s seat in the helicopter. We know the goal was to move the island, but who knows what that means for sure? I don’t think it moved to a different physical location as much as it disappeared and returned (will return) in a different time period. Click here for some good articles about how science is rightly used in LOST.

One thing I really enjoyed about this episode was the way it incorporated aspects from previous season finale’s. When the Oceanic 6 see the light coming towards them from Penny’s boat it reminded me of the season 1 finale when Sawyer, Jin, Michael and Walt see light from the Others boat coming towards them. As the Oceanic 6 are rescued, we meet the Portugese men working for Penny who were introduced to us in the final scene of the season 2 finale. And as already mentioned, this episode began where season 3 left off. Speaking of the Oceanic 6 rescue, I didn’t even think about the possibility of Penny being the one to rescue them. I wasn’t expecting the Desmond and Penny reunion to happen this season. Next season should be interesting keeping in mind that Ben is on a mission to get even with Widmore by killing his daughter Penny. As for Walt, it was good to see him again. Wow, the kid’s really growing up, isn’t he? I appreciated the Jack vs. Locke, science vs. faith dimension making an appearance in the conversation about Jack leaving the island. There’s much more we could talk about from this episode, but believe it or not I do have a life apart from LOST.

I give the season finale a very favorable grade. It was captivating, provided some resolution, and in good LOST fashion left us with many questions. What did Miles mean when he insinuated that Charlotte had been to the island before? I thought this was a possibility (read my previous post here). How will the Oceanic 6 make it back (along with the dead body of Locke/Bentham)? What are the bad things that happened once Jack left the island? Where is the island now and what’s going on there? What’s so awesome about LOST is that it’s like a novel because the producers take the time to tell a quality story. The only downside for us is that we can’t go on and read the next chapter when we want. In fact, we have to wait eight months in this case.

The conversation continues…