(S06E16) "I chose you because you needed the island as much as it needed you." -- Jacob

The penultimate episode of the entire series, the surviving castaways finally got some answers. And this time, they came directly from the horse's mouth -- no, I'm not talking about Kate's horse though that would have been surreal-ly awesome!

After last week's interlude where we got the full story (yeah, right!) of Jacob and the Man in Black, it was back to the survivors of Oceanic 815 on both sides of the reality divide. I guess it would be kind of obvious to say that both timelines are careening toward their inevitable climaxes. It's not like they have time to do much else.

ALPHA-VERSE (2007)

I never really liked Zoe anyway. After last week's bloodbath, I was expecting more bodies to fall in tonight's episode, but that was about it, unless we think Richard is dead. Personally, I'd find it hard to believe he's quite that easy to kill. I guess if the island no longer has a use for him, he could be dead, but I think the audience would rather witness Richard finally succumbing to death's embrace, where he can find the embrace of his long-lost wife.

Maybe that's one of the things in store for us in Sunday's massive two-and-a-half hour finale. Also ripe for death now, if I'm extrapolating correctly, are Kate, Sawyer and Hurley. After all, they were only being kept alive because they were still "Candidates." Now that Jack has accepted the job, they're all expendable.

It was a little quick and convenient the way Jack accepted the job. I was expecting a little bit more than Jacob offering it to all four of them, a moment of silence and then Jack saying, "I'll do it." Anti-climactic, isn't it? If it were that easy, Jacob should have asked him a few episodes ago before everyone had to die.

Also a little too convenient for my tastes was Jacob's explanation that he crossed Kate off the list because she had a child, but that it was just chalk on a wall and she could still take the job if she wanted it. At the same time, it could be a statement directly to the über-fans of the show. Sometimes things are just what they are and looking for some deeper meaning in them will bring only frustration.

In other words, we didn't make up what it all means, so some of it doesn't really mean anything. Is that good enough? Instead, we got little poetic moments like Jack sewing up Kate; a reversal of their roles in the pilot when she stitched him up. Another was when Richard revealed that he'd buried Alex after she was killed. Not pertinent to the over-all plot, but a little moment of human emotion from Ben.

It didn't really come as much of a surprise that Ben turned so quickly on Widmore and Zoe. For one, he doesn't stand a chance against the full might of MiB-Locke. For another thing, he was just promised the one thing he's been wanting all this time: the island all to himself. Too bad, MiB-Locke is a big liar. Or maybe he's more than willing to give Ben control of the smoldering remains of the island.

Wonder what would happen if the island were destroyed, considering it has that weird light at the center of it, and all those other electromagnetic properties. Would that energy disperse into the world at large?

BETA-VERSE (2004)

In the beta-verse, the island has apparently already been destroyed, considering it's at the bottom of the sea. There don't appear to be any long-term affects of its absence -- perhaps because there is no Smoke Monster in the beta-verse. If Jacob did truly create the Smoke Monster by pushing the Man in Black's body into the light, then what was their "other mother" doing? What was her job on the island?

Jacob described his job as being the guardian of the island, and keeping the Man in Black from the light. But that can't have been her job, so was it to protect the island from outsiders? She was certainly keen to kill anyone who came onto the island, whereas Jacob allowed the island to be literally crawling with outsiders. Outsiders who couldn't perceive the cave and the light anyway, so what danger did they pose. I have a feeling the "other mother" is a pile of questions we won't be getting answers for.

At least we should get some clarification as to what Desmond's plan is. I was a little disappointed we didn't get to see alpha-Desmond this week as I would have liked to see if they were both perhaps working toward the same angle. Can I just say that it was hilariously appropriate that Desmond was able to trigger beta-Ben's memories of the island by punching the crap out of him. Considering alpha-Ben has spent 90 percent of his time on the show with his face getting smashed in, it's incredibly fitting.

Beta-Desmond shifted his tactics to Sayid and Kate, springing them from jail by greasing the hands of Ana Lucia, who's "not ready" for whatever he has planned. Now we're as close as we can be to what that plan is, and I still can't figure it out. Why is he now directly interacting with these three; he's recruited Hurley as well?

Was getting Locke to go to Jack for that spinal surgery all Desmond needed to accomplish there? If Desmond and Kate are going to the concert, where are Hurley and Sayid going? The way they've been setting things up, it looks like a lot of people connected to the island will be there. Does Desmond need to kill them all? Punch them in the face?

How can we get from here to whatever the end game is ... and it had better not be a close-up of Jack's eye as he wakes up and realizes it was all a dream. Or Bob Newhart's eye for that matter.

No, on second thought, if it's Bob Newhart, that would be hilarious.

[Catch up on all you missed, except for sleep, with clips and full episodes of 'Lost' over at SlashControl.]

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