Lost's fourth season finale finally aired last night and it was arguably the biggest leap forward for the series yet. We got the answers to several questions such as why the Oceanic 6 have to lie to the world, what the Frozen Donkey Wheel is and who is in the coffin. There are many more points of interest in this two hour long episode. For starters, we learn the fate of a number of important character as their story lines were concluded. There were a number of deaths and a few revelations, all of which effectively moved the story forward and set us up for the fifth season of Lost.
There's no place like the Orchid...
In this episode we see the culmination of Ben and Locke's island moving journey to the Orchid. Jack and Locke have an encounter above the Orchid that sums up the dichotomy of the show. Locke knows there is much more to the island than Jack will admit and he's (partly) responsible for protecting it going forward. Locke pleads with Jack first to stay on the island and then to lie about the events of Flight 815 if he makes it back to the real world. Jack, just as driven and stubborn as Locke, leaves Locke at the Orchid taking with him Locke's words, which Jack later abides by. This is the beginning of the grand lie told by the Oceanic 6.Locke does make a good point. If Widmore is willing to send a team of killers to the island to extract Ben and he's unsuccessful this time around, what is he likely to do when he learns that the mission failed? Moving the island will solve a couple problems, at least temporarily. Widmore's search will effectively have to start over from scratch but it's unlikely to quell his determination. The aftermath of Keamy's attacks have left the barracks compromised and several people dead, if another attack were to come the chances of surviving on the island have been significantly lessened.
Ben told Locke that millions of people would want to come to the island if they knew about it's true power, if they knew the story of Locke's miraculous recovery and ability to walk again. Locke has taken these words to heart and he wants Jack to help protect the island by lying about what happened. A good enough lie would surely deter many people from trying to find the island but it won't stop Widmore. Which, oddly enough, is the purpose of the fake wreckage in the Sunda Trench...
Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane (helicopter) and I don't know when I'll be back again
Kate, Sayid and the Others make short work of Keamy's men at the helicopter. Sayid has a particularly awesome fight scene with Keamy which ends with Alpert putting a couple bullets in Keamy's back. Ben honors the deal made between Alpert, Sayid and Kate, saying that they are free to leave on the helicopter. Once Jack and Sawyer arrive at the chopper, the whole group heads to the freighter. In mid flight it is discovered that the helicopter is losing fuel thanks to a stray bullet that pierced the tank. Jack is adamant that Frank goes directly to the freighter, there is no time to return to the island now. In order to make it to the freighter, all extra weight is jettisoned from the chopper. It is at this point that Sawyer asks a favor of Kate before jumping into the ocean.This must have been the moment Kate was talking about in 'Something Nice Back Home' when she says that she promised something to Sawyer. More than likely Sawyer had asked Kate to check up on Clementine, the daughter Sawyer learns about while in prison. This would be the only thing Sawyer has back in the real world that would be worth going back to. Sawyer realizes that his life is worth more on the island that back in the states and decides to jump from the helicopter rather than weigh it down and jeopardize the others' chances of making it back.
Sawyer swims back to the island where he finds Juliet, alone with a bottle of rum. She's just realized that there is no rescue coming back for her. Does she know Ben is the reason she'll be staying on the island? I'm sure she has an inkling.
You do know that he said specifically not to put any metal in here...
Ben and Locke make their way under the Orchid to start the process of moving the island. Keamy reappears and explains that his heart rate monitoring gizmo is tied to the bomb on the boat. Locke reveals himself and makes a plea to Keamy, saying that he and the people on the boat have to quarrel with him. Ben jumps Keamy and stabs him repeatedly in the throat. As Keamy dies his remote bomb sensor goes off, triggering the bomb on the boat. Locke tries to keep Keamy alive and doesn't want to trigger the explosion of the boat. Ben is doesn't care if the boat explodes and kills those on board, he's consumed with the need to avenge Alex. Ben and Locke part ways as Ben explains he must banish himself from the island in order to move it. Locke is told where to meet the Others, who are awaiting his leadership. We then see Ben don a parka and turn the Frozen Donkey Wheel which causes the sky to turn purple.
The sub, sub, sub-basement of the Orchid looks much like what the sub, sub, sub-basement of Ben's house in the barracks must look like. Ben crawls through a dark passageway in which we see stones and runes like the door Ben passed through when he summoned the smoke monster in 'The Shape of Things to Come.' Are these dark sooty passageways all over the island? Do they all lead to the same place? We know where the passage in the Orchid leads, there is a frozen room deep below the station that contains an eight spoked mill wheel. In turning this wheel, Ben causes the sky to turn purple, just like after the Swan station imploded.
Before he finishes, Ben looks upward and says to Jacob, "I hope you're happy." Ben had told Locke that the act of moving the island means that the mover of the island will never be able to return. Of course there were no specifics given, but we know that Ben ends up in Tunisia, seemingly teleported ten months into the future and a half a world away. We are lead to believe that Jacob meant for Ben to move the island and since we know that the act of moving it will bar you from the island it would seem that Jacob wanted to remove Ben from the island. Is this because Ben has failed Jacob in some way? Because Ben sold out his daughter or failed to stop the arrival of the freighter people?
Continued on Page 2.