What can be said about the end of season three that hasn’t already been said already? That one episode, “Through the Looking Glass” probably was the single-most “game changing” episode in LOST’s history of extremely important episodes.
But was one great episode enough to redeem an entire season?
LOST – Views from a Veteran – Season Three: Episodes 14-24
“On this island, the rules are a bit different” – Mikhail in “D.O.C”
Charlie passing a message on to Desmond in “Through the Looking Glass.” Source.
Season three of Lost finally is over, and while the vast majority of episodes were not very good, there were a few that were pure gold. Before we get to the good, we must first discuss the bad and the ugly – namely the issue of Nikki & Paulo, and the episode “Expose” must be addressed.
As mentioned in my previous post, most fans simply hated the fact that two characters were suddenly introduced into the main cast and had fostered relationships with so many characters. The fact was, we needed to see the characters interact with each other. Now, you may be saying that the season 2 “tailies” were introduced in a similar way, and you would be technically correct.
However, all the tailies were treated with suspicion and fear by the characters we already knew and by us, the viewers. That is the key to introducing new characters on a show like this, by introducing us to them along with the characters on the show, and not simply expecting a relationship.
But, with all I disliked about “Expose,” the creators really did solve the problem in an interesting way. Nobody that I knew expected that Nikki and Paulo would “die” and be buried alive!
As for the rest of the season, the episodes did slowly get better, starting with the episode “Catch-22” about Desmond, and continuing onto Ben’s “The Man behind the Curtain,” Charlie’s “Greatest Hits,” and the amazing Jack-centred finale “Through the Looking Glass.”
The ending of season three was one of the best season finales on the show because they completely changed up the formula. Not only did Charlie die after showing Desmond that the freighter was “not Penny’s boat,” but it was revealed that what we thought was a flashback, was actually flash-forward! When I saw that episode originally, I could not believe it. With one fell swoop, the showrunners breathed new life into a slowly stagnating show.
What also greatly helped them was that Lost received its official end-date just as the season was wrapping up, so the producers and writers could slowly plan arcs for all the characters and get to some sort of resolution. Did they succeed? Well, you will have to wait until my season 6 reviews for that!
One of the things I have noticed is that with all the secrets that were revealed during the final 3 seasons, there are still many, many left unanswered. There are some that do not matter, such as how Jacob cured the cancer of Juliet’s sister, or what happened to young Ben’s girlfriend (the one who gave him the doll). But, there are other questions like why don’t the rules of time-travel apply to Desmond, or who/what is Walt? Should they have been answered? Probably, but like life, not everything gets wrapped up in a neat little bow/
Since these questions and many more continue to remain mysterious and unanswerable, might as well get on to the various “Lost-isms” for the last half of season three.
There have now been a total of 22 fights, with Jack & Ethan, Sawyer & Sayid and Sawyer & Pickett tied with the top spot of two fights each.
Ben has been beaten up on three separate occasions, Sawyer has said “Sonofabitch” 18 times, and Desmond has said “brother” an impressive 34 times!
And as always, I will now end with the top “Sawyer-isms: “Freckles” has now taken the lead with being said 29 times, while “Doc” is still in contention with 27. Tied for third are “Boss” and “Hoss” with five references, and “Chief,” “Sweetheart” and “Chewie” are tied for fourth with four mentions each.
“I like you better since you got back, Jack. You’re almost an optimist” – Rose in “Greatest Hits.”
