We finally get some firm information regarding Jacob and the Man in Black, but it was not what everyone expected – nor did it end that way people thought. Source.

While not quite as influential and well-done as other seasons, season five laid the most work for the series finale and the culmination of the series as a whole – for good or bad. But it had some good moments and answered quite a few questions along the way, which was not the norm for this show.

LOST – Views from a Veteran – Season Five: Episodes 8-17

“Dead is dead. You don’t get to come back from that, not even here. So the fact that John Locke is walking around this island, scares the living crap out of me” – Ben in “Dead is Dead”

The second half of season five united the three scattered storylines from earlier in the season into a more manageable two. We now had Ben, Lapidus and Sun in the present, and Jack, Kate and Hurley joined up with Sawyer, Miles and Juliet with the Dharma Initiative.

I remember that when these episodes aired, people were rather taken aback with the relationship that began between Sawyer and Juliet. But, I actually really enjoyed them together, and even though they were together for a short amount of time … it really humanized Sawyer, and made Juliet infinitely more likeable. And besides, as we know from watching the finale, they are soul mates!

The rest of the season had some great moments, such as Sawyer being the head of security in “Dharmaville,” Ben being ‘judged’ by the monster, and, of course, Sayid shooting a young Ben Linus to change the future. But, in reality, the shooting helped turn him into the manipulative man that we all know and love to hate.

But, all those little revelations and surprising moments pale in comparison to the explosive finale where we finally get to meet Jacob and the Man in Black, as well as learn that the John Locke wandering the island is not the real Locke. When Locke was revealed to be in the crate and that it was the MiB/Smoke monster walking around pretending to be Locke for the entire season was quite a surprise.

It is interesting that the MiB’s one desire – to find a loophole and finally kill Jacob – was one massive con involving the need to deceive Richard, Ben, Locke, Jack and practically everyone on the island at this point.

That is not to say that there were no problems this season, as there were a few. Namely, the introduction of Ilana and her group served no real purpose other than transporting Locke’s body from the crashed Ajira flight to the foot of the statue. It is very difficult to connect to a character that just barks orders and has little to no real personality on the show. Luckily, in season six, she interacts a lot with Ben, and actually humanizes herself. That is, until she handles dynamite from the Black Rock and explodes like Dr. Arzt.

The last few episodes of the season actually departed from the previous notion about time-travel in the series, from “whatever happened, happened,” to that “you can change the future because of free will.” This was a very interesting debate about if everything is pre-ordained or not, and it leads to Jack becoming a true believer in destiny. This allows him to transform into the man that will sacrifice himself for the island at the end of the series.

As we all know, the explosion did not destroy the energy, but was in fact the “incident” which caused the Swan station to be built. And the last few moments of the finale, with Juliet dying and exploding the nuke, was probably one of the most heart-wrenching moments on the show, and Elizabeth Mitchell did a great job portraying that.

One last thing, as it always bugged me, was Ilana’s question to determine who was working with Jacob was the question, “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” The answer, according to what Richard said, is “He who will save us all.” Meaning, most likely, that Jacob is the true savior of the island.

Finally, because I know you all are looking forward to it, it is time for the “Lost-isms” total at the end of season five!

We now have a grand total of 30 fights, with Ben & Sawyer and Sawyer & Sayid in the lead with three fights each, and Jack & Ethan, Sawyer & Jack and Sawyer & Pickett tied for second place with two.

Ben has been beaten up on seven different occasions, and Sawyer has said “Sonofabitch” a very impressive 28 times. But, none hold a candle to Desmond having said “brother” a total of 40 times!

And, as always, I end with the top “Sawyer-isms, with some significant changes in the line-up:

“Freckles” and “Doc” are tied with Sawyer saying them both a total of 34 times. Coming in second are “Hoss,” “Boss,” “Sweetheart,” and Chief” with six mentions each, and the third spot belongs to “Chewie.” Finally, bringing up the rear and tie for fourth with a total of three mentions each are “Dharmaville,” “Frogurt,” “Sister,” and “Blondie.”

“What’s done is done” – Sawyer in “The Incident Part 2”