Welcome to another edition of TV or Not TV where I am, in fact, thoroughly LOST.

I sit here writing this column just 38 minutes after having watched the season finale of LOST. I’m still in my pre-column Internet blackout to ensure that I give you my clean perspective on what I thought happened or what I think is going on without reading what others are having to say. Usually I don’t write the column this soon, giving myself the night to ruminate on what I had seen. Tonight there is no need. Please remember, as always, I will be discussing things that did transpire in the show so if you haven’t seen it yet you might want to drop back in later.

Being such a rabid fan I have been taking in all of the interviews prior to the airing of the season finale. I also subscribe to the Official LOST Podcast from ABC.com. Given everything that was said I had a pretty clear idea of what would be the very end of tonight’s episode. Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindeloff kept referring in interviews and the podcast as this season having quite a few parallels to the first season where it all ended with the hatch being opened, but we saw nothing inside. This set me up, I knew we were going to see The Incident (especially since this was the two-hour finale’s name) and I also knew that when it happened it would be the final frame of the episode tonight, giving us no clear answer on what has happened to those wonderful cast members who were stuck in 1977. This came as no shock to me at all. I even had a pretty good idea that if someone was going to die during tonight’s finale it would be in getting the bomb to go off, and again I was right.

So now that we have dispensed with the things that I did have a pretty good hunch on what was coming to pass, let’s move on to the things that just plain baffle me. First and foremost I have to address the issue of Jacob. Tonight we finally were able to see Jacob, even though we have very little insight into anything about him. In the opening sequence of this season finale we see Jacob making string and putting together a tapestry (a nice little touch since it comes to pass that Jacob seems to also be weaving a tapestry of destiny for the show’s characters), we see him catch and prepare a fish, and we see him eating this fish leisurely on the beach. While he is on the beach another man joins him, they have a discussion about the boat that is out on the horizon (more than likely the Black Rock perhaps having one Richard Alpert aboard?), and the man joining Jacob mentions how much he would like to kill Jacob. One day he will find a loop hole and Jacob tells him he will be waiting. This entire conversation happens next to the complete statue, seemingly an Anubis (or Sobek) holding an ankh in each hand.

From that sequence I took a few things, whether they prove true or not only 2010 will tell. I found it very interesting that Jacob was wearing a white/light shirt, where as this other fellow was wearing dark/black colors. A classic representation of the struggle between good and evil, right and wrong, light and dark (and it was John Locke himself who told us in the first season how backgammon was a similar representation). Further evidence comes from the dark fellow when he says, “Still trying to prove me wrong” after it is revealed that these two draw people to the Island, seemingly to play out a game to prove that the nature of man is either good or bad. Once this exchange happened, once we could see that these men were in a time long ago in what we would call the past, I began to guess that perhaps this dark stranger is the Smoke Monster (especially after you know what is in the box and you ponder the rammifications and signsoif manipulation it has for Ben and the events in the episode Dead is Dead), and maybe ol’ Smokey Joe has been in a power struggle this whole time with Jacob. If this is the case and Jacob really is the “good” side then I know a few people that will be vindicated when this line of thinking will justify their position that in the long run Benjamin Linus will be shown to actually have been the good guy who had to do bad things.

After this initial scene unfolded I started to realize what was in the box that the people who have asked “What lies in the shadow of the statue” had and I began to realize the loophole was being played out. Having this realization in the first 15 minutes of the show was no great thrill, especially since it had the gears in my mind turning as it made no sense. Finding out in the last 15 minutes of the show that these same people were actually on the side of Jacob made a big ol’ red flag go off in my head as things continued to not make sense to me. When we finally see what actually is in the box and my suspicions were confirmed I remembered that in Dead is Dead these people know that John Locke is walking around and they seem to try to do nothing to stop him from going anywhere and doing anything regardless of what they have in the box. What kind of sense does that make? Clearly there is something very suspect about John Locke, so much so that these people carry the box with the intent to show Jacob what is in it so he knows who he is up against. Somewhere down the line we better be shown that Jacob has a strict “non-interference” policy that he handed down saying not to engage John Locke because that’s about the only way their actions will make sense to me. He certainly seemed to have a “everyone has free will” approach with everyone, so maybe that is the case.

Seeing what was inside the box also made me feel even more sorry for John Locke since it pretty much made him a tragic character who never was actually able to attain or gain anything. He came to this Island, we granted the use of his legs again, seemed to worship the Island and his only real reward was being choked to death by Ben. Will the character of John Locke continue next season after what we saw in the finale?

One wonderful payoff that we did get was the return of Rose, Bernard, and Vincent. They’ve all settled in a hut near the ocean and in Rose’s own words, “We’ve retired.” They will be having no part of any of this gallivanting around to try to battle strange people, change fates, or avert nuclear disaster. After their last encounter following Sawyer ended in fleeing the beach under a hail of flaming arrows can you really blame them?

With this season finale I have to give credit where credit is due. The writers, director, and producers of the show put out two hours of television that I was glued to my seat watching. I was captivated from beginning to end, hanging on every word, completely immersed in the viewing experience. Reflecting upon it, however, what I really find is that not a whole lot happened during that time (especially since we were being told three stories at once) and sadly we were once again handed more questions to balance out all of answers we were given.

Here are some of the dangling questions that still need answering (that I can actually think of):

• Who are Jacob and the dark fellow (having just re-read The Stand I want to also call him the dark man, the Walkin’ Dude, a real hard case)?
• Where did Richard Alpert come from?
• Why did Jacob have to touch each of the Losties and does the fact that he touched Hurly AFTER Flight 815 hold any importance?
• Is Jacob‘s fate as we saw final?
• When and who will be shooting at Sawyer and crew when they are paddling around as seen in the episode The Little Prince?
• What happens after The Incident?
• Why was Sun left in the present?
• Where is Claire and if the Christian Shepard we’ve seen on the Island is part of the same “thing” as the revived John Locke on the Island is she safe?

I’m sure there are a ton more but these are the ones that just hang out in my brain. ‘Till 2010 when we’ll do it all again!

-Will

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