Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A | 5870 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT I Once Was Lost, But Now Am Found
By Cindy McLennan | Season 6 | Episode 17 | Aired on 2010.05.23
Island: Jack knows this is where he came in. He lies down right where he first landed on Craphole. There are more back and forths to the Sanctuary, but they're of no import. There's a bark in the distance. When dear old Vincent appears, Jack smiles. Vincent approaches Jack, licks his hand, and lies down beside him. Jack will not die alone.
Sanctuary: Christian opens the doors to reveal a blinding light.
Island: Vincent lies disturbingly still. Jack's still alive, though. Once he sees Ajira 316 fly overhead, he smiles. His death is not for nothing -- it's for everything.
Sanctuary: Jack smiles until he and all our beloved are obscured from our view by the light of world.
Island: We zoom in on Jack's open right eye. It closes for the last time.
Title Card. Silent Robot.
The Island Isn't Done With Us, Yet: All my crying and schmooping aside, there are character resolutions (or lack thereof) I don't like or get, but there are other things that don't bother me in the slightest. The first one that comes to mind is Michael; his "fate" seems to be raising a lot of hackles. Just because Michael isn't present in the sanctuary doesn't -- to me -- mean that he'll never be released from the Island's Ghost World. I understand and agree that his crimes are lesser than Sayid's or Sawyer's. The murders of Libby and particularly Ana-Lucia are probably more comparable to Kate's murder of Wayne. Michael and Kate committed terrible wrongs, but they did them in a misguided attempt to save their loved ones. The thing is Sayid, Sawyer, Kate -- they grabbed their shots at redemption. Michael could have come clean before leading Hurley, Jack, Kate and Sawyer to the Others, but he chose not to. He betrayed his own team and then abandoned them. His fellow Lostaways weren't that important to him. He proved that on the Island. Similarly, I could not care less that Walt wasn't here for the end. He was on the Island for a few months when he was a child. It seems it wasn't the most important time of his life and the other Lostaways weren't the most important people in his life. Thank goodness for that. Wouldn't it mean the rest of his life was a sad, sad thing, if they were?
Now, about Shannon... Chicken-choking jokes aside, when Sayid failed to mention his love's name while making his Fauckian bargain, I started suspecting we were going to get a Nadia/Shannon switcheroo. Given Christian's explanation of the Sideways reality -- it doesn't make a lot of sense at first, that Shannon, rather than Nadia, is Sayid's one. But I have to admit, it works for me, anyhow. It works for me once I recall everything I've learned about Sayid. I love him, but he did a lot of bad shit for the love of Nadia, and hired himself out as Ben's henchman, after she died.