Time-travelling bunnies [Lost – There’s No Place Like Home, Parts 2 and 3]

In last year’s Lost finale I didn’t twig till the very last minute that Jack was actually having his grizzly-bearded breakdown in the future, not the past, but everyone else in the world seemingly picked that from the get-go and I felt slow, eh.

This year it happened again: I did not see that final scene coming… but I don’t think anyone else did, either. Surely no one who wasn’t making wild silly guesses about the outcome could have picked the ultimate twist. Seriously: W. T. F?!

Locke is in the coffin? Locke?! Dead? Off the island? Calling himself “Jeremy Bentham“? In the coffin?! Dead?! Maybe it’s not as mind-blowing as 2007’s big reveal, but it’s definitely zapped at least a few thousand brain cells and raised some serious questions: what happened on the island which was so devastating that it compelled Locke to leave? How did he escape, or plan to return? And how did he really die?

(Check out the alternate endings depicting Sawyer and Desmond in the coffin if you’re after some cheap laffs.)

There was a lot about this episode that bugged me (I’ll get to that in a sec), but overall it was intense, heart-stopping stuff – can you believe they ever even considered cramming it all into one episode?

Two plot threads were particularly awesome and unexpected: first, Sun witnessing Jin’s apparent death (I say “apparent” because he is totally alive – it’s not like he hasn’t survived peril at sea before) and her subsequent evil alliance with Charles Widmore in the present day, which hints she’ll tread a dark path come season five. Second was Desmond’s reunion with Penny, one of the most heartfelt and well-earned moments of the finale. Seriously, if they have a cute moppet child by next season I will die of awws.

What bugs me, though, is that ultimately we’re still at the same place we were a year ago: a broken-down Jack desperately wants to return to the island. A lot of puzzle pieces have slotted into place since then, sure, but… I guess I’m a little disappointed there weren’t as many revelations as anticipated.

Other things to ponder: What did Sawyer whisper to Kate? Charlotte was born on the island? How exactly does Ben’s magical wheel work, and where has the island disappeared to (I’m predicting it’s gone somewhere cold, and that the absent Losties will eventually return to a very different place)? Did Daniel and the Losties on the Zodiac get teleported with the island too? Where did Lapidus end up? Why is ghost-Claire visiting Kate in the future to warn her against going back to the island? How did Walt get so goddamned big? And when will someone just give Michael Emerson and Yunjin Kim a bag of Emmys? 

Start your speculating, because new Lost is months off.