Thursday, May 24, 2007

Lost - "Through the Looking Glass"

Sometimes it's all about the execution.

I was completely spoiled for the finale, knew all the major plot points including the big head twister at the end, and still I was enthralled with the entire thing. From start to finish I was completely engaged and guessing and second-guessing what I thought I knew.

A lot of that has to do with how focused the story was this week. They had a lot of story-telling to do and they were very smart and efficient with the way they went about it. Even scenes that sounded stupid on paper played on the screen (Locke in despair, Hurley to rescue in the Dharma bus, Jack the pill popping loser). And scenes that sounded good were even better (Charlie in the Looking Glass, Rousseau and Alex united, Kate and Jack at the end). Best yet, I was totally fooled into thinking Sayid, Bernard, and Jin were all dead. Fell for it lock, stock and barrell. Now that's good.

In the end, it also helped me to refine some of my thoughts from yesterday. Because more than any other episode, we were reminded of what it was that the lostaways have been wanting from the beginning. Their goal was never to solve the island's mysteries. It was to go home. Pure and simple. They didn't care about hatches, or Dharma, or smoke monsters. They wanted to survive long enough to go home. And all along that goal has been at odds with the audience's desires.

Now at last we see a classic end-of-the-second-act moment. Jack has realized that he was pursuing the wrong goal all along. He has hit rock bottom because he was focused on escape when he should have been looking for the deeper meanings of the island. Now he wants to go back. Now he is one of us.

When he tells Kate about his random flights and the golden ticket, Jack really makes you believe that he is willing the plane to crash. He really wants that next disaster to sweep him back to Oz, like Dorothy stormchasing tornadoes.

Over the summer and into the fall we'll have plenty of time to wonder about whose funeral it was that moved Jack, and who it was Kate needed to get back to so urgently. We'll also wonder about the fates of the other survivors, the others, and the temple that they going to. But the most important thing that came out of the episode was Jack's realization that he, like us, wants to find the answers that only the island can provide.