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‘Lost’: Alpert says what?

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Once again, ‘Lost’ managed to pull out an incredible season finale that simultaneously raised as many questions as it answered. Though, I think in a first for the series, we actually got more answers than questions.

But before we get to the whole Jacob/Esau rivalry, let’s clear up one of the real head-scratchers of the episode, the answer to ‘What lies in the shadow of the statue is?’ Richard (or Ricardo, as we can now call him) answers in Latin, of course! The answer is ‘Ille qui nos omnes servabit,’ or roughly translated, ‘He who will protect/save us all.’

So, it appears the Others and the Ajira Airlines folk weren’t kidding when they said they were the good guys. A quick trip to the Bible, (OK, OK, Wikipedia’s version of the Bible), tells us that Jacob and Esau were fraternal twins who spent the majority of their lives in a fierce rivalry. When Esau finally got the upper hand and killed Jacob, Jacob’s children rose up and overpowered Esau and his followers.

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Judging by what we saw in the season finale, with Ben stabbing Jacob at Locke/Esau’s request, the first part of the Bible story has come to pass. Now it just leaves us with the rising up of Jacob’s children (the Others) and the overthrow of Esau. So there you go, ‘Lost,’ fans. That’s how the series is gonna end! Sorry for the spoilers!

But I somehow doubt Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof will make it that easy for us. Despite all the talk of destiny and inevitability, nothing, and I mean nothing, has been straightforward on this series. Just look at how they handled the climactic nuclear explosion. When it failed to go off for Jack, I was truly fooled into thinking that it wouldn’t detonate at all. Joke’s on me.

But what I think this season finale did more than anything was to finally give us a stable frame with which to watch the entire series. So much we’ve seen before makes perfect sense. Remember the dream where we saw Locke with the black eye and the white eye? His talk with Walt about there always being two sides. The mysterious behavior of Christian Shepherd, the resurrected Locke and the smoke monster. Poor Ben, he was fooled the whole time into thinking he was working on the side of the angels. Poor, pitiful Ben. No matter what else happens next season, I think we’ll finally see Ben redeem himself in sacrifice. His tortured confrontation with Jacob revealed that his manipulations have only been a ruse to cover up his sense of lonliness and wanting to belong. I predict Season 6 will give us Good Ben (though don’t expect it right away).

Meanwhile, they continued to explain minor bits of the story. Pierre Chang’s missing hand in the Dharma Initiation film? Explained (he lost it after having it crushed by the electromagnetic forces on the island).

The white/black, good/evil motif? Finally crystallized in the bodies of Jacob and Esau. The reason Hurley managed to find his way onto Ajira air? Jacob’s urging, of course.

Though as Jacob pointed out several times in the finale, it was left up to individual choice. No trickery on the side of the angels. That, apparently, has been the provinence of Esau, who it appears has been the main manipulator of the island’s events all along.

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We’re now down to 17 hours of ‘Lost’ left. What once seemed an impossibly sprawling mess of unexplained happenings is rapidly coming down to a final and primal clash between good or evil.

How long until 2010 again?

-- Patrick Kevin Day

Photo: ABC

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