Spoilers for "Lost" coming up just as soon as I finish my list of the top five musical crimes perpetrated by Stevie Wonder in the '80s and '90s...They're on a nice little roll right now, this show. Even when I get frustrated by it -- say, any time Jack is on screen and not getting repeatedly punched in the face -- I'm engaged on a level the show hasn't reached for me since late last season. (Just as most "Lost" episodes are structured so that all the interesting stuff happens in the final minutes, so is a "Lost" season constructed to put all the interesting stuff in the May sweeps episodes. Hopefully, only doing 16 a year from now on will fix that.)
I hate Charlie. You hate Charlie. We all hate Charlie and would like to see him dead. And yet the show did a good job of making me care about his planned sacrifice. The Top 5 flashbacks didn't erase all the bad and/or annoying crap he's done over the last three seasons (especially but not limited to the Darth Hoodie phase from last year). But the idea of one of the show's more selfish, obnoxious characters willingly going to his death to save people he cares about (even if he really only cares about Claire, Turnip-Head and maybe Hurley) was a good one, and I found myself caring more and more as the episode went on...
...even as I suspected that Charlie would survive. I'm hopeful he still gets killed in the finale, both because he's my second-least favorite character after Jack, and because it would cheapen a lot of what happened last night for him to live. (Maybe they go for some Gift of the Magi irony and Claire dies instead.) Last night, though, they got me. I was expecting one of three outcomes: 1)Desmond's vision comes true to the letter, with Charlie saving the day and dying; 2)Charlie dies in failure, because the show is just that bleak sometimes; 3)Charlie succeeds and yet somehow manages to make it back up in time. I sure as hell wasn't predicting that he'd be besieged by some underwater commandos. Are they Others/Hostiles? Dharma? Something else entirely?
The rest of the episode had its moments as well -- the triumphant "Oh, they've been here all along" return of the wonderful Rose and Bernard being a particular highlight (though I fear they brought Bernard back just to kill him, because, again, the show is just that bleak) -- but I continue to hate Jack the idiot douche. There's still no good reason for why he was acting so mysterious with everybody for the last few episodes. (As Charlie put it -- and when Charlie's making more sense than you, you know you're a complete imbecile -- "Why does everything have to be a secret? Why not some openness for a change?") Also, Jack's obsession with killing The Others -- especially at the expense of a rescue plan -- doesn't really track with his willingness to make nice with Ben and Tom and everybody in exchange for a submarine ride back the mainland. Sometimes, Jack is an obstinate jackass because it fits his character, but lately, it's been just to serve the plot, and that makes me dislike him even more.
I'm hopeful the finale's good, as Lindelof and Cuse often do their best work in finales. (Even the first season finale was pretty great until the bone-headed decision to not go inside the hatch, and they learned their lesson on that score.) What did everybody else think?
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