s2e23: Live Together, Die Alone

Ohhh, I've wasted my life.

I suppose we shouldn't really be surprised that after all the posturing, all the promises, ultimately what we got in the season finale was a whole bunch more questions - and, by my count, one answer. There were more sightings of the ABC7 severe weather bulletin than loose ends tied up. (Incidentally, that bulletin makes me want to put my foot through the TV screen. Hey, WLS - if I were curious as to what the weather were doing, I would flip over to the Weather Channel. I'm trying to watch the fucking finale of Lost, and now I can't see Charlie's head because you need to show me a thunderstorm watch six counties away.)

I guess that we learned more than we did last season. Last season the Others shot Sawyer and took Walt and blew up the boat, leaving Michael and Sawyer stranded and Jin missing. And Jack and Locke blew up the hatch door, revealing... a tunnel descending into the ground. And that was all we really got.

By those standards, finding out that the electromagnetism brought the plane down at least qualifies as an answer - though again, it was pretty much the only one. (Yes, there's "also, it's not just an experiment," but those are kind of the same answer if you think about it.)

Otherwise, we get plot points that leave questions: Jack, Kate, and Sawyer being taken away (why on earth those three?), Michael sailing away (would it be wrong of me to hope that's the last time we see him on this show?), Locke and Eko MIA (if we're assuming Desmond died, could they possibly have escaped unaffected?), Charlie and Claire all lovey-dovey ("I love you, guy who kidnapped my baby, like, a week ago!" - seriously, who gives a crap at this point), and Desmond's girlfriend apparently using her immense wealth to pay two guys in the Antarctic to monitor electromagnetic anomalies, because for some reason she knows that those are connected with Desmond. (Or maybe she doesn't and she's watching them for some other reason, so there can be some emotional reunion late in Season Three. But I bet it's the first one.)

More things left hanging:

* Sayid, Jin and Sun?
* That statue? Four toes??
* Are we ever going to see the "security system" again, and are we ever going to find out what the hell it is?
* Are the Others Dharma or aren't they?
* Why are everyone's lives so interconnected?
* Is the rest of the blast door map ever going to be used?
* If Inman is a big tough army guy, how come he went down like such a sack of dirt?

A whole season and we learned so little. Lost can probably parcel itself out for seven or eight years at the current rate. Also, J.J. Abrams? Never tell me what is the coolest ending ever again. You've lost your L.A. privileges. And yet I'm totally going to wait four months (also, buy the DVDs the day they release) and then let myself get pulled along again. And if you're still reading this... I'm guessing so will you.