Lost: What They Died For Review

Summary: Three main parts to the episode. First off, we have Sideways world. Jack has breakfast with his son, and plans to go to his concert. Desmond calls him and pretends to be Oceanic, with his Dad's casket. Desmond then beats the crap out of Ben, who starts to remember, and when he says a few words to Locke, Locke decides to get fixed. Then Ben hooks up with non-crazy Rousseau. Finally, Desmond turns himself in and gets Sayid and Kate on his side when he breaks them free, with the help of millionaire (and in on the Sideways) Hurley and corrupt (not in on the Sideways) Ana Lucia. And they're all off to the concert...

Next, we have Otherton. Ben, Miles, and Richard arrive, and shortly after that Widmore and Zoe arrive. A standoff ensues until they realize that Smokey is on the way. Charles and Zoe hide, Miles runs off into the jungle with a walkie-talkie, and Richard and Ben head out to face Smokey. Smokey tosses Richard into the jungle, and then calmly asks Ben to kill some people. Ben agrees, and then Fauxcke kills Zoe. Widmore reveals that he's working for Jacob, and brought Desmond back as a failsafe. Ben then shoots Widmore. Ben/Faucke go to the well, but Desmond isn't there, which is probably good, since Fauxke wants to use Des to destroy the island.

And after mourning, Jack and crew head to find Desmond. They are stopped by the ghost of Jacob, who reveals that he brought them to the island because they were miserable. Now, he wants to give them a choice to succeed him. And Jack steps up.

Reaction:

Funniest line of the night from Sawyer: "And I thought he had a God complex before..."

Next funniest from Miles: "Good luck with that!"

Is it just me, or was the music just amazing last night? I recognized some Season 1 cues but also some new stuff. Great job. (On that note, I don't think I like Jacob's general musical cue. It's kind of egyptian... And I just don't like it.)

I won't believe Richard (or Frank, actually) is dead until I see a body. It being the finale, you never know though... The list of characters that could show up at any random time in the finale includes Claire, Frank, Richard, Miles, Rose/Bernard, Vincent, Walt, Nikki and Paulo, and Achara (the tattoo lady).

I'm not sure about Ben right now. Is he playing Smokey for a fool? Because that really worked out well for Sawyer.

And speaking of that, I don't like the fact that now there is another backpack full of C4.

Thoughts:

I'm skipping themes/speculation this week, because I want to focus on the character of Jack. Here's his arc through the seasons:

Season 1: Leadership is forced on him, and he struggles with it, leading to a power struggle with Locke.

Season 2: The tension between Jack and Locke builds, until Jack just becomes dismissive of Locke. Then he gets kidnapped by the others.

Season 3: Jack is held captive by the others, and then promised freedom. Locke destroys it, and Jack swears revenge on Locke and the Others.

Season 4: Jack nearly kills Locke, and then sacrifices everything he can to get people off the Island. Jack listens to his inner Locke, lies about the Island, and then falls apart.

Season 5: When he gets back to the Island, Jack doesn't do anything - until he starts sensing a chance to fix his mistakes. And he blows up a nuke.

Season 6: Jack is broken, having realized that his decisions are almost always wrong. He lets Hurley lead, and starts being a leader, rather than acting like one.

It's a good arc. Season 1 (especially early in the season) he can do no wrong. He hits his absolute lowpoint in the flash forwards (Through the Looking Glass for example). And since then, his character has been building up. In fact, once Jack hits that low point, I can't think of a single thing he did that was stupid. Blowing up a nuke, okay, that's kinda dumb. But he's been such a good character since they broke him.

And now, he's back on top. In this episode, Jack says "I'll do it. This is my destiny." And Jacob asks him "Is that a question?" And in one of the best acted moments on Lost, Jack says "No."

In the look on Jack's face there, you can see all of his history. Every interaction with his father. Every mistake he's made on the Island. Every mistake he made off the Island. Every person he's gotten killed. Every person he couldn't save.

Every moment we've seen, since his eyes opened in the Pilot, is shining in his eyes there.

And that's been Jack's story so far. With 150 minutes left, there's so much more to go. And for the first time since season 2, I think I'm excited about what part Jack will play next week.