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GET
A weekly commentary of the television showby Carlos R Savournin
3 - 22: Through the Looking Glass
*This commentary contains spoilers. Do not read if you have not seen the above mentioned episode.*
I’ll skip commenting on all the boring details this time around and talk about the subject that’s got everyone a buzz. It’s been a while since the writers, creators and
producers of Lost had their large community of fans overload internet chat rooms with theories and questions because, let’s face it, this season hasn’t been up to par with the last two. However, the third season finale ended with such a surprise that had us all surprised and speechless.
Seems we were allowed a glimpse of the future as Lost broke its routine of flashbacks and went for a flashforward of Jack’s life once he returns from the island. Bearded, drunk and drugged, Jack lives a lonely, depressing life under the shadow of what has yet to be seen on the island itself. After finding an obituary in an airplane newspaper, Jack plummets deeper into depression and offers himself to the ground by preparing to commit suicide. However, a car accident saves his meaningless life, and once again, Jack is on a mission to save the world – or at least the woman who fractured her back in the accident. However, we find out that he has been fueled only by the obit that, until this very moment, remains a mystery.
Who died? Who was in the casket in the funeral home?
The elusive obit was kept from our view – as was the dead body in the coffin, but leave it to the Lost fans to decipher what’s been hidden from our view. The following was found on the message board of the official Lost website:
LOS ANGELESMan found dead in
downtown loftThe body of Jeremy? ..ntham of
New York was found shortly after 4
a.m. in the ... of Grand
Avenue.Ted Honderich?, a doorman? at The
Tower .... Complex heard loud
noises ... from ..ntham's loft
Concerned for the? man's? safety, he
alerted? the police? who? uncovered the
body hanging from a beam in the
room?....
according ...
...a.e..
..med..Odds are we haven’t even met this dead person yet which made the episode even more intriguing.
When he meets with Kate late at night outside the airport, her reaction to the death was disgust. She seemed happy that whoever had died did so – and she had no
intention of sharing in Jack’s depression. She seemed almost disgusted by him. But there was a moment when Jack and Kate were face to face and the care they had for each other while on the island is discovered to be very much alive. But then she utters, “I have to go, he’ll wonder where I’m at,” we can only assume that she did end up living a happily-ever-after life with Sawyer. But even more questions arise from their encounter:
How is Kate living a normal life in LA after being rescued? The fact is, she’s a fugitive – and she’s wanted for murder. Now, she’s a Volvo-driving citizen? Maybe it’s me, but I hardly think she’ll be pardoned for murder just because she survived a plane crash. It makes me wonder if this glimpse of the future was really the future at all… The episode, entitled Through the Looking Glass, of course refers to the obvious – the underwater station. But those literary folk also knows it refers to Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland. Once Alice steps through the looking glass, her world is turned backward – literally. Maybe this glimpse was more a possibility of things to come if they were rescued in the fashion that unfolded in the episode. “We made a mistake,” Jack told Kate in the future. At this point, we can only speculate with that mistake is, but maybe their mistake was the fashion in which they were rescued. I hate to say it, but Ben warned Jack not to make contact through Naomi’s radio, and though you can’t really blame Jack for ignoring Ben’s warning, it may have very well set in motion the series of events that will eventually lead Jack to that bridge where he is ready to end his life.
Locke, it seems, knew that Naomi was nothing but bad news, and after seeing a vision of a grown-up Walt, who tells him he still has work to do, Locke kills the infiltrator and begs Jack to not make communication with her crew. "You're not supposed to do this," he tells Jack, and instead of flat out telling him what's going on, he just lets Jack assume that he's doing it because he doesn't want off the island. Locke disappears to continue searching for answers from the island and lets Jack do his thing. Thanks, Locke!
And then there’s Charlie. Stuck in the underwater hatch alongside Desmond, Mikhail and the Looking Glass inhabitants, he manages to get the code to switch of the communication jamming equipment. Everything goes well – he even makes contact with Penny, but the immortal Mikhail showed up on the other side of the glass with a hand grenade. Charlie seals the door to protect Desmond and the rest of the hatch from flooding – and as his last act of heroism, Charlie scribbles a message on his hand for Des - Penny told him she did not send Naomi. RIP, Charlie. We’ll miss you. And it’s been a subject of discussion that Charlie could have very well ran out of the room and sealed the water inside, or he could have swam out of the water-hole Mikhail destroyed with the grenade, but Desmond himself told Charlie he had to die for the others to get rescued.
It was, by all means, a very sad episode in which the lives of our castaways are not what we expect. Death, depression and even mild psychosis (did you see the look on Sawyer’s face after shooting Tom? Something tells me he’s not right after killing his arch-nemesis, the real Sawyer) plagues them all, but one thing is certain: we have to wait 8 months for season 4 to premier and the show’s creators had to do something to make us want to return, something that made the wait worth the while. And you know what? They succeeded.
Until next season, Get LOST.
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© Savournin, 2007
All pictures are property of ABC Television and the Walt Disney Company
