Lost Season 5 Finale "The Incident" Review

Wow. What a ride! Or should I say, what? LOST finales are always jam packed with answers and questions, deaths and introductions, and a whole lot of killing, and "The Incident" did not disappoint. Some consider Season 3's finale "Through the Looking Glass" as one of the greatest episodes Lost has ever produced (of course including "Walkabout" and "The Constant"). But I must say that I thought this episode was one of the best episodes yet and the best finale thus far. I have said before that Season 5 has not had much direction with the story more about the characters than plot. I have loved how the status quo has changed. I hate Jack but I love Juliet. Last year it was the complete opposite. This season has been more of a character exploration giving us flash backs of characters we have been waiting for and digging deeper into the ones we already know about which is what we needed.

The last three episodes gave us that and more with the idea that they could reset time so that Oceanic 815 never crashed. I hate the idea that characters are going with this but it would save the lives of countless people and reverse all the heart ache and pain others have gone through. But I feel as Miles does, that they can't change anything and that they are in fact causing what they are trying to prevent.

Okay, now to the episode. It was by far the most thrilling episode to date. It had all the forward motion and drive you want from a finale and finally showed us who Jacob really was and then some. Now, the Lost execs have always said there is a reasonable explanation for everything but I am starting to have some doubts. Time travel, okay I buy it because I love it, but Jacob and this other guy, could they be God and the Devil? If this is where Lost is headed, the show is slowly slipping from science fiction to supernatural which I am not sure I am okay with. I did love how Jacob has been around watching the Losties, slowly guiding them to the island proving Locke's theory once and for all that they were brought to the island for a reason. We just don't know what that is. I love the metaphor that Jacob refered to when speaking of his tapestry and how the threads have taken forever to form the picture.

If anything, this episode has finally set the framework of the show, giving us the big players, Jacob and the other guy. Where once Widmore and Ben were the head honchos, these two immortal and powerful beings now run the show. Plus we were given tons of answers though all not clear: Locke is really dead and his body was in the mysterious box, the other survivors of Ajira are Richard's people who work for Jacob, what lies in the shadow of the statue, and who the hell Jacob is! And the last action sequence with the Swan site was jaw dropping, the fate of Juliet chilling, and the cliff hanger more ambitious than anything Lost has done. Now we have eight months until we learn some answers: did they reset everything, is Sayid alive, who is Jacob's nemesis, who and what are Richard's people, and what war is coming?

I could not ask for more in an episode. I particularly loved the scene with Jack and Sawyer which ended in a much needed brawl. Everything felt right in this episode and I was completely immersed. Yet, I am sad. Locke is defintely dead, as Faraday probably is. And if they do reset things, what the hell is season 6 about? If they don't reset things, what happens to our Losties with the highly pissed off Dharma people? Where is Desmond? How are the two groups of Losties going to unite? Arggghh!! Curse you Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindenlof!! Please sound off on your theories and thoughts. I need it. Sorry this is so lengthy.

I love this god damn show.