Lost

The final season is upon us, and Lost has firmly put its stamp on TV sci-fi history. Babylon 5 was really the first to lay out a story plan that would take years to complete. This allowed for unparalleled development of the universe, and many quirky experiments. One of the delights of the series was a wonderful pair of interlinked time travel episodes (one from season 1 and one from season 3) that showed a story from the perspective of two seasons.

My how the world has changed!

Only ten years later, and we are led to Lost, whose complexities, subtle challenges, and willingness to draw from past seasons is simply without peer, and worlds beyond the ambition of Babylon 5. Building on the shoulders of giants, Lost has created an intricate clockwork of past future, and sideways events that hold a fascinating mystery. And this season just keeps getting better. The last episode linked Jack's search for his father from Season 1 to his alternate universe self's search to become a good father, and beautifully advanced both story lines.

But let's face it, if you gave up on Lost in Season 1 for moving too slowly (and there were times I considered it) then now is too late to catch up. The plot lines are all firmly tied in place, slowly unraveling and dragging characters to their eventual dooms. So what there to say about Lost?

The final question is how will it end, and like most fans I have a theory. (Non-Lost viewers can probably stop reading now--what follows isn't going to make much sense.) Smokey Locke is wrong about the candidates, they aren't here to replace Jacob. The fact that Jacob is still around after being ashed by Smokey and manipulating events through Hurley means that the previous act of white stone throwing defiance was so much empty show. Jacob is still here, still running the show for the white side, and replacement is not on the table. Otherwise faithful Hurley could just don the mantle and be done with it.

Instead, I tend to a more "Mallorean" view of things. The world has been split (literally!) and the candidate's job is not to replace Jacob, but to bring a final end to the white/dark dichotomy. To contain within oneself two conflicting principles, and thereby replace the world on its track. This isn't good vs. evil, but truth versus lies, stasis versus fluidity. Smokey represents truth, reality, the status quo. Jacob is lies, the fantasy of a better world, or as he puts it "progress". Progress and change only exist if the current reality is made into a lie, which is why Jacob seems to have no moral qualms about telling everyone what they need to hear, rather than the truth. (Does Jack have what it takes? Or only if Jack believes that he has what it takes will he actually have what it takes?

In the end, Jacob and Smokey are actually working toward the same goal: they both want off the Island, but Jacob wants to accomplish that by finishing the job, moving to the endgame, bridging the chasm, while Smokey, unable to conceive of that union, that singularity, cannot make that leap towards a brighter reality.