Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A | 5820 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
The Jin/Sun, Rose/Bernard, and Penny/Des pairings were better constructed. Rose and Bernard's story is the one I find most quietly satisfying. They find each other only after she learns she has terminal cancer. There's not enough time, but they don't let that stop them from getting together for the time they have left. Their faith, particularly Bernard's, brings them (albeit accidentally) to the Island -- a place that gives them time. The Island gives them time, not because they sacrifice anyone at their own expense, but because they let go, early on, and appreciate their unexpected blessing. Desmond/Penny and Jin/Sun grew worthy of their love over the course of the series. I have no complaints at all. In fact, where Jin/Sun are concerned, I only have kudos. If you had told me during the first season that I was going to care about Jin and Sun as a couple (or Jin at all) I would have thought you crazy.
The Mystery and Mythology: For me, so-called "questions" about the Smoke Monster, the hieroglyphics, the numbers, the gestation problems, etc. were answered well enough during the course of the show. After I sleep for a week, maybe I'll pitch a Mondo Extra to editorial to rebut all the lists (including TWoP's own) of places where the series fell down. But let's talk about the biggest "question" of them all...
The Island: Remember 17,000 words ago, when I was blathering about Trust the tale, not the teller? Here's how I always trusted Lost's tale: I always read the Island as a metaphor for Purgatory, no matter what Cuse and Lindelof said about its reality. Now, granted, I didn't think of it as the literal, after-death Purgatory of Roman Catholic doctrine. I thought the Lostaways experiences on the Island served as a soul-purgative for the living. Now maybe God did it. Maybe magnets. This story wasn't about that. It wasn't about why the Island is weird. I mean even "Across the Sea" doesn't answer that -- it just reinforces that it is. Unless they're unrepentant, people on the Island eventually end up in situations which give them the opportunity to burn away their sins and, to choose better than they did, before. Even Jacob.