Jack to the Future

I never posted on the end of Lost this season, but this is what I wrote at the time but just never got around to putting up:

I gave in and read the spoilers in advance. The episode had been billed as a SERIOUS SHOCKER that CHANGES EVERYTHING, and the stuff I was reading from people who’d looked at the spoilers sort of did me in. They were saying it was some sort of major, major reveal. But no, nothing of the sort. Was there ever any real chance Jack and Kate wouldn't make it off the island? Honestly? So, I was fairly disappointed by the spoilers when I read them, but I do think they generally played much better in the show. Charlie’s death was nicely handled, which is more than I can say for most of his irritating subplots over the last two seasons. It was also nice to see Locke back in commanding, enigmatic form, and the stuff with the phone and the message from Penny almost felt like real development.

Almost.

Unfortunately, like most everything in Lost, it’s all a shell game. After three years, the show still hasn’t actually given any real information about its central mysteries, namely the island’s powers and their origins. We’re no closer to understanding the smoke monster, or Jacob, or the healing powers, or the dead relatives who keep showing up than we were during the third episode. Sure, we now know that Jack and Kate eventually get off the island--and we're foaming at the mouth to find out how. Seems exciting, right? But that’s a typical move for this show: Introduce a new, cool-seeming mystery to distract us from the fact that it’s refusing to answer old ones.

That said, I think the show has made major improvements the last half of this season, and I enjoy it now a lot more than I used to—mostly because I’ve completely given up hope of anything resembling solid answers. This is the best of its season finales, but it’s still a con, albeit a rather diverting one.