cleaver

If the island moves forward in time 3 years, then it's not there for 3 years.

Nausicaa

I remember that whole argument. I was so happy when Aaron was one of the six. After dozens of posts by the Lost "experts" here, ridiculing everyone who thought he was part of the six, who constantly spoil the show for the rest of us, and were the sole reason for my lack of participation in these threads - it was great to see they were wrong.

Anyway, I thought this was a fan-freakin-tastic episode, and a perfect conclusion to the best season of Lost. Gotta say though, I'm surprised some of you thought season 3 sucked. Sure, there were some bad episodes, the second island stuff was kind of lame, and a lot of it was kind of campy. But I'd say a few of the really, really good episodes made up for it.

Either way though, everything about this season seemed more dark, mature, and compelling than most anything from the last three seasons. It seemed like they took what everyone liked about Desmond's character the last three seasons, and integrated it throughout the entire show.

I'm thinking that Aaron is going to be a central character to the show in the coming seasons. He's pretty much been a main character since season one, when he was still in Claire's womb and the psychic told her she needed to keep her child. The others seemed interested in the baby as well (don't know if that was explained or not), and he survived a particularly violent helicoptor crash. Maybe, like Micheal, it wasn't his time to go?

Aegean2007

I would rank the seasons like this:

Season 1
Season 4
Season 2
Season 3

And the finales like this:

Through the Looking Glass (Season 3)
There's No Place Like Home (Season 4)
Live Together, Die Alone (Season 2)
Exodus (Season 1)

heimerSWT

Dang... Season 2 ended with the hatch explosion/failsafe situation. That was one of the most intense parts of the show for me. All of the finales have been amazing...but I don't think I could rank Season 2 finale below Season 3.

Aegean2007

You're right. I forgot about the failsafe thing. That was great, along with the two guys in the polar monitoring station. I still like the Season 3 and 4 finales better, though.

Son of Odin

season 3
season 4
season 2
season 1

Echo made season 2 a delight. desmond has had the best episodes of all the characters.

maxfisher

I was just pointing out the weird personal disconnect that everyone I talk to about the show in person hated last season and it's weird to see people here praising it.

As for Season 3's crimes:
- Nikki and Paulo. Among shows I've enjoyed, I've never hated the presence of two characters as much as these.
- Completely removing the mystery and menace of the others for the first 3/4's of the season.
- Killing the Jack/Kate/Sawyer triangle by making it waaaay too silly and melodramatic and then continuing to beat it with a stick every episode for weeks on end.
- Doing a shitty job of handling having the main characters split up into 3 groups for a lot of the beginning of the season.
- Having smoky kill Mr. Eko, thus eliminating the entire crew of 'tailies', with none of them serving a purpose besides having Michael become a murderer.
- The awful, awful episode where Hurley finds the van and becomes obsessed with making it run.
- Once again having Sawyer bounce back and forth between being a decent guy at heart and a childish little bitch.
- The nonsensical 'hey Locke, we brought your dad to the island and you have to kill him to join us' shit.

Those are just off the top of my head. I'm sure my list would be much longer if I re-watched the whole season. It righted itself at the end and got good again, but for most of the year, I was forcing myself to watch, just because I'd already become too invested to give up on it entirely.

The Cow

So what's up with the 4 toed statues?

Gunde

Me me me
I looooove Emilie

JZ1276

i remember that scene ... it was Locke

firteen88

I just had a thought about this. When Ben turned the Donkey wheel, everything turned white just like when desmond turned the key at the end of season 2. Do you think that when Desmond turned the key the island moved as well? It would make sense.

zuffy

Anyone think Kate's boob is a bit bigger in this episode?

redrum

wonder if walt will become a regular again next season? hope so.

Cardiff Giant11

I dug it, well put together episode right up there with the S2 Premier/Finale which I loved. Glad to see Desmond reunited with Penny. Desmond is probably my favorite character so if he had been killed off I would have been super pissed.

thegame370

I'd rank em this a way!

S4- Too Many great episodes and just a non stop thrill ride! "The Constant" is probably one of the best single episodes ever!
S1- I think honestly the first season is on par with the fourth. The introduction to it all, cant deny it!
S2- Ecko was a great addition as was Ana Lucia i think, she's got the hott! And having Michael kill her and Libby is an unforgettable moment.
S3- Yes, the third season finale is the best so far, hands down! But the season started off so freaking slowly. Some episodes were just horrible.

maxfisher

Which one?

D'ohboy

Wouldn't the island have protected Michael if he tried to mess with the c4?

Matthew Ackerly

Sure, but everyone else would be dead.. lol

moonraker

Addressing your points:

-- From what I read here, I must be the only one who really liked the Nikki & Paulo episode. That's right, I really liked it! A very entertaining episode all around -- the backwards time revealing worked surprisingly well (as it did in a Seinfeld Season 9 episode). The various connect-the-dots with the scenes from previous shows was very well done, too. Not to mention that Nikki had a smokin' hot body! Granted, I like to see the main plot advance in each episode as much as the next person, but as a one-time stand-alone experimental type of episode, I think this one worked great.

-- Ben has become, for me, perhaps the most interesting character on the show. I liked that Season 3 devoted more time to developing him as a major character. This meant giving us a better glimpse into 'the others' and, yes, taking away some of the mysteriousness about them -- but after two seasons it was time. And we still don't know too much about the rest of them, like Richard for instance. Who are these people? Seems like Season 5 will reveal more about them.

-- I didn't think the Jack/Kate/Sawyer triangle was silly. Made sense that Kate and Sawyer might develop feelings for each other during their close captivity. The actors are all so good that it worked for me. This was good drama, not melodrama, for me.

-- Again from what I read here, I must be in the minority because I liked the beginning of Season 3 a lot. Lots of suspense and excitement while we didn't know how Jack & Kate & Sawyer would escape their captivity. Didn't bother me at all that they were separated from the rest of the Survivors. The episodes in which they were held in captivity were intense & exciting, for me, and really made Ben and his group seem darker and scarier than ever before. And, at the same time, made you begin to wonder if Ben might ultimately really be a good guy. Made him even more interesting than if he was just a typcially one-dimensional "bad guy".

-- I agree the "tailies" served no real purpose, but I blame this on Season 2, not Season 3! In fact, this is why Season 2 was overall weak for me. It got off to a very strong start with the hatch storyline, but when it shifted over to the "tailies" it lost steam big team -- even got a bit boring, maybe because I didn't find the new characters intriguing or interesting or even all that likeable. And then like you said they nearly all pretty much got killed off anyway and ultimately didn't add anything to the show. Which makes the entire middle of Season 2 seem like a waste.

-- And I also really liked the Hurley episode with the van. Another "fun" episode. Seems like maybe you wish every episode was dark and intense and moody. For the most part they are, but I think its refreshing to occasionally have a more light-hearted episode placed in there as well. I like how Season 3 was able to effortless shift between really intense dramatic episodes and more lighthearted fun episodes.

-- Well, Sawyer seems to be just as much a split personality between "selfish" and "hero" in Season 4 as he was in Season 3 -- maybe even more so in Season 4.

-- One of the best episodes, in my opinion, of Season 3 was the one where Locke gets Sawyer to kill his father. Now that was some intense drama!

Guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

DthRdrX

I'm betting Jin is not dead. Of course that opens up the question of what the hell happened to him, and I think his advancement of the plot will follow Faraday, wherever he is. Either way, you can't say with certainty that he is dead when they blatently left it as open as possible.

1.) Eko, Ana Lucia, Libby, Boone, Shannon, Charlie .... all given specific death scenes to indicate their demise. Even Minor characters such as Nikki, Paulo, Mikhail, and Dr. Arnst had an obvious death scene. For Jin's scene they pulled the camera away so we wouldn't see him still standing on the boat. Perhaps the island, which was still there, wouldn't let him die? Yea, remember Michael TRYING to kill himself to no avail?

This is Lost. No one is dead until we see a body, and even then, strange things are going on that we don't know about. Mr. Locke? How many lives did Mikhail have?

FatTony

Season 2 definitely had the best finale to date. Along the lines of the point I was making a few posts back, this finale didn't have that tension of not knowing what's going to happen since Locke stated outright in Part 1 that they were going to move the island. Contrast that with season 2, where we had no idea what to expect when they stopped entering the numbers, let alone what would happen when the failsafe key was turned.

I just read that TV Guide interview with Harold Perrineau. I especially found this point interesting:

This show seems to have a penchant for killing off black characters: Michael, Eko, Naomi, Ms. Klugh. Only Walt and Rose remain, and it seems unlikely that they'll play key roles from this point forward. I'm not trying to make any sweeping statements about the show or its creators, I just find it a bit odd.

EDIT: Oops, forgot about Abaddon. Hopefully he gets more screen time in the remaining episodes (and for the actor's sake, I hope he doesn't get a DUI).

aktick

Pretty sure I saw a commercial for a pilot he's in on FOX next fall.

beatccr

well when artz died, he got splatted over whoever was standing near him, hurley even mentions something about someone having a chunk of artz on your face.

Liver&Onions

Did I miss Grunberg's scene?

According to the spoilers in the thread I can now read it said that

BlackCapTen

Yeah, I figured Jin may still be alive. Perhaps someone mentioned this, but prior to the explosion Desmond was clearly shown prepping the life vests. I took that as a clue they would eventually be used by someone (like Jin).

Great finale.