Review: "What They Died For"

With the finale of Lost rapidly approaching, Butler and Aaron weigh in on the penultimate offering from the show creators. More after the jump! (SPOILER ALERT)


Butler's Thoughts
So, last night's Lost... It was comforting to see a return to the stories of the survivors themselves, as opposed to last week's episode, which while fun to watch, was almost entirely inconsequential to anything we have observed in the show so far.  Events on the island are building to what will most assuredly be a very explosive head (they didn't fish all that C4 out of the safe for nothing) and I have no doubt that the finale, in the portions taking place on the island, will be all kinds of kickass.  For the most part anyway.  I did take some serious issue with Jack's selection as Jacob's replacement, simply because it was so... obvious.  As someone who watched the living shit out of Alias, I was really hoping that we would have something come out of left field in true Abrams fashion.  Truth be told, I was hoping it would be Sawyer just because he has expressed such a vehement desire to get off of the island.  It would have been very interesting character-wise to see him realize that he is a part of something bigger and man up to those responsibilities.  Seeing good ol' captain heroic volunteer to basically sacrifice himself to servitude of the island was such a boring play that I'm really hoping some kind of event changes these facts.  However, given that Jacob clearly has rules that he plays by (evidenced best in last week's episode) I don't see that happening.

What I do wonder about, though, is the role Desmond has been playing of late.  Until this season, his role was not entirely unlike that of Billy Pilgrim in Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5.  He hops around in time with some sense of bewilderment, and was clearly being used as a tool to achieve ends which he could not comprehend at the time.  In the "flash sideways" sequences from this season, however, we see him assuming a role not entirely unlike Eloise's.  It has become particularly clear with his admission that he was trying to "help Locke let go", his reuniting of Claire and Jack, and his gathering of the jailed survivors with the help of Hurley and Anna Lucia (god damn did I hate seeing her face again) that he is rounding them up in this parallel timeline to some end, but the question is, of course, what end?  Will there be some kind of climactic showdown at this concert benefit that keeps getting brought up (by himself and by Miles, who mentions that Charlotte will also be in attendance)?  Or is it something so pedantic as to show that life on the island is no different than anywhere else, and he is simply a tool to show that they would have been united anyway?  I certainly hope that that isn't the case, but fear that it could be after conferring with my worthy associate (whose opinion lies below).  If all these sequences are meant to show is that things are the same with or without the island, then what point did the damn island serve? On the flipside, though, if they are gearing towards some kind of climactic showdown, will that even serve a point (since it would be assumed that since the survivors are in this timeline, the Man in Black was stopped)?  


Aaron's Thoughts

Well played, Lost. I found this week far more enjoyable than I liked last week's episode - which took an hour of my life I will never get back. I thought the first act dragged a bit, but it was great to finally see Ben, Richard, and Miles. Ben stole the show for much of this episode. He's been playing the redemption angle quite a bit this season, and this week provided an interesting (albeit predictable) twist. In the sideways timeline, a very cowardly Ben finally took a stand on behalf of someone else and confronted Locke's attacker - Desmond. What resulted was a mind-altering beating that put Ben face-to-face with his battered, toughened reflection in the mirror. The viewer recognized this version of Ben - most of the time we see Ben on the show, he's got a black eye and a bloody nose. With the shot of Ben looking at his reflection, we saw Dr. Linus 'meet' his other self in the real timeline. Desmond's just got that effect on people.


In the real timeline, Ben finally got his face-to-face with Widmore. We were immediately reminded of the vow he made to Widmore a while back, and in order to keep Widmore from doing something that would protect Penny, Ben shot him. He shot him a lot. Best line of the episode: "He doesn't get to save his daughter."


This puts Ben back on Locke's team. The question is - has Ben reverted, or is he playing a long con? I'd prefer the latter, as it would allow Ben to redeem himself while playing to his strength: being a lying son of a bitch.

One major thing I didn't like about this episode: what the writers did to Richard Alpert. Smoke Monster takes him on a ride and it's unclear whether Alpert lived - though based on Smoke Monster precedent, it would seem that he didn't, unless Alpert's immortality still holds true. Point is, he better not be dead. Richard had the single best episode of the year, and this would be such a poor end to his story. And if he isn't dead, why the hell did they have the smoke monster hurl him across town?


Jack becoming the island guardian...It was a little conventional, and it's for that reason that I'm not entirely persuaded that Jack is going to be the island guardian by the end of the series. At the same time, it does fulfill a certain narrative cohesion to the series - it allows the show's main character to complete his philosophical journey. Even though the main character is someone many viewers spent most of the series hating.


Bottom line, the episode accomplished its task of getting me psyched for the finale. I don't really care whether we get our answers, as long as we get some measure of closure. I think it would be a serious disservice to end this story on a cliffhanger or some other bizarre question-mark-inducing shot.


Make sure to check back on Monday for our entire team's coverage of the series finale!