Breaking Bad - "Blood Money" review

I don't want to speak out of turn, especially given that there are still seven episodes left in the series, but never have I witnessed a show that has been so consistently fantastic from the word go all the way through the last handful of episodes, and "Blood Money" has certainly done nothing to fight against that thought.

And there were certainly a lot of incredible scenes in tonight's season premiere but the standout performance has to be Dean Norris' Hank Schrader. The emotions that his character were clearly going through immediately following the revelation that Walt may in fact be the Heisenberg he has so painstakingly pursued were heartbreaking. There was heartbreak at the betrayal. Frustration that he didn't see it. And all told, a desire to make sure that this new evidence he stumbled across was in fact conclusive. Lesser men would have just dropped what they were doing and gone after him. But not Hank. From the handwriting comparison to the GPS tracking, he was covering all his bases. So when the confrontation finally went down, there was no question in his mind.

And credit must be given to the continuity of this series because while the phone call at the RV was certainly a huge plot point in an episode three seasons ago, it was three seasons ago. Plenty of shows would not have called back that moment, despite it being an important emotional benchmark in the character's history. It's small moments like that one which truly show the greatness in this series.

But to bring things back to our protagonist, as many expected, the cancer is back. And sometime in the next eight episodes, next door neighbor Carol is going to go from friendly gardener to terrified orange spilling shopper. Because in this not too distant future, Walt's home is boarded up, fenced up, pool emptied (giving local teenagers the opportunity to make their own miniature skate park), and his wall inside is spray painted with the word "HEISENBERG". This almost completely dialog free sequence takes place shortly after he picked up his machine gun in the season five premiere and obviously there are a lot of loose ends that need cleaning up given that his purpose here was to retrieve the ricin that he so conveniently put behind a wall outlet.

Oddly, I found myself rooting for Walt most of the episode. I wanted him to get his life back on track. I knew that wasn't going to happen, but I thought it was possible he turned a new leaf upon the reemergence of his cancer. After his meeting with Jesse, and then his final words to Hank, it's clear that the new leaf isn't quite what I hoped it would be. And he's pretty much the same old Walt, which is unfortunate, but consistent. And I cannot wait to find out how things get to that point. Flash fowards can be really tricky, but knowing that the answers are coming some time in the next two months make it easier to swallow and only seems to up my anticipation. I only hope that Vince Gilligan and company make it worth my while, but I have no reason to believe they won't.

The only real issue I have with the episode is Jesse. While I absolutely loved Badger and Skinny Pete going on about the transporter on Star Trek (a conversation I've had with people as well in regards to teleportation technology, so thank you for taking it mainstream Breaking Bad) as well as Badger's five minute description of his fan fiction awful episode of the original series Trek, Jesse's presence in this episode was frustrating. I get why he feels the way he does, and his desire to make things right, but I feel like we've seen catatonic Jesse before, and I want to see a little more energy out of him. That's not to take away from Aaron Paul's performance in the slightest. He was clearly giving it his all and it was nothing short of award-winning, but the situation he is in right now is just not that compelling to me. This is such a minor complaint though that I almost hesitate to make it because the rest of the episode was so fantastic.

There are only seven hours of the show left. Before October we'll have all the answers we've been waiting for. And while Walt seems destined for death as a result of his cancer returning, there's a whole hell of a lot that is obviously going to happen between now and then. Seeing that Lydia and Todd are now regular cast members, they still have major parts to play. And Lydia doesn't seem like the type of person to go down without a fight. Sure, she'll hire someone else to do the fighting for her, but she's not taking Walt's decision to quit the business lightly. And good on Skyler for helping push Lydia out the door.

Seven episodes left and I can't wait to see what goes down. A great start to this new season.

GRADE: A

Breaking Bad - "Fifty-One" Review

There is no Walt. Only Heisenberg. 

These reviews are starting to become a bit ridiculous, and a bit repetitive. Episode after episode just seem to highlight the fact that Walt is becoming more and more reprehensible. But the fact is that this continues to happen episode after episode and there's truly no respite from the evil that continues to brew inside him. And this episode is no different. Directed by Rian Johnson, who directed the season three episode "Fly" and also the excellent "Brick" with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and next month's "Looper", did another fantastic job creating tension in small situations and doing quite a bit with a relatively scaled back episode.

Despite the fact that this episode is titled after Walt's birthday, the focus is clearly on Skyler and the way her world seems to be crumbling around her and her futile attempts to protect her children from the self-professed "danger". Her suggestion to send Walter Jr. away to boarding school is met with nothing but a dismissive attitude.

We are now exactly one year from the start of the entire series from the characters point of view. And Skyler is as terrified as ever. Her role thus far this season has to have been a very difficult one for Anna Gunn to play. Her dialogue has been minimal and her primary function has been essentially to just look borderline insane for these last few episodes. But Gunn's success is clearly evident given that every moment she is on screen, I feel uncomfortable and fear for her. Even when Walt is having an otherwise unassuming conversation with Walt Jr., her expression just permeates discomfort.

Where Walt is expecting a huge party thrown in his honor, the reality is that Hank and Marie are invited over for a low-key dinner. Skyler won't even break the bacon in the shape of a 51 for him at breakfast! How dare she?! And as she listens to them rattle on about what's happened over the last year at dinner, she snaps. She jumps into the pool and looks like she may be attempting to drown herself.

Yet, that's not what she's doing at all. These are acts of desperation. This action has allowed Marie and Hank to take the kids for at least a few days. She tells Walt she has no plan. That she is going to do everything in her power to try and keep her children away from this drug dealing criminality. From her point of view, it's too late for her. Her hands are dirty. She can't go to the police without incriminating herself and every other idea is met with a scathing counterpoint by Heisenberg himself. Walt is winning, and nothing is going to knock him from the top.

Meanwhile, Hank is pulled off the Fring case and promoted to director of the ABQ office. What's finally clear to the rest of the DEA is how great of an officer he is and he's being rewarded for it. His only downfall is how he can't see that his greatest collar is right under his nose. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before that becomes evident, as quick as things have been moving along for Walt.

But our man Jesse doesn't have much to do this episode, unfortunately. After a quick cook with Walt in some suburban house somewhere, he's delegated by Mike to go pick up some precursor at Madrigal in Houston from Mike's old pal Lydia. When he pulls the barrel off the shelf, Lydia notices a GPS tracker and Jesse scrams back to New Mexico. After Mike's deduction that Lydia planted the GPS to get out of their arrangement, he makes the decision to kill her and ramp down production until they find some more methylamine. To Walt, this is unacceptable. They will continue as planned.

After their meeting, Jesse gives Walt a watch for his birthday. Walt sees this as another glorious victory and goes home to tell Skyler all about it. The man who had put a gun to his head, ready to pull the trigger, a few short weeks ago, gave him a birthday present. And now he believes that Skyler will come around just like Jesse did.

Something tells me that's not going to happen.


EPISODE GRADE: B

"Breaking Bad" - "Madrigal" Review

Salt or ricin?

There is very little question that Breaking Bad is the most fascinating show on television. They have the capability to quickly change tone from episode to episode while staying consistent with the larger themes at hand. Even the more coincidental, sometimes somewhat unbelievable, things that happen make sense in the overall scheme of the show while simultaneously being extraordinarily entertaining. So of course when they make the shift to this Mike-centric episode, getting a deeper look at the ever-awesome Jonathon Banks' character and why after Gus' death he will continue to be an integral part of Walt and Jesse's life, that it ends up being nothing short of spectacular.

The episode starts in Germany at Madrigal Electromotive, the conglomerate that was financing Gus Fring's meth empire. After a thrilling demonstration of different dipping flavors for one of their restaurants, an executive is summoned to speak with some police officers. Except, instead of meeting with them, he takes a detour into the bathroom with a defibrillator and kills himself. Kudos to the creative suicide.

Soon after, Walt is shown creating a fake ricin cigarette to replace the one he stole from Jesse. The smart thing to do would be to destroy the ricin altogether, but instead Walt hides the ricin behind an electrical outlet behind a nightstand. Solid hiding spot, but I'll be damned if that doesn't end up coming back into play sometime in these final fourteen episodes. Could Walt's final, irredeemable act be using this ricin against someone we care about? I wouldn't be surprised.

After this, Walt heads over to Jesse's house to help Jesse search for the lost ricin cigarette. It doesn't make sense that it's lost. But after pouring over every inch of the house, they look in one last spot: the amazing DJ Rooma. (Actually, I think Tom Haverford owns the rights to that one, so we'll just call it a regular Roomba.) Jesse pulls the fake ricin out of the pile of dust and garbage the Roomba had swept up and almost immediately breaks down. The fact that he was so close to killing his "mentor" for lack of a better term over something that he now believes was a misunderstanding just crushes him. Jesse hates that he came so close to that, and Aaron Paul sells it so convincingly that just give this man all the awards. All of them. And as a viewer, it's crushing to watch Walt console him, telling him it wasn't Jesse's fault that he got blamed. ESPECIALLY because Walt is in fact to blame.

I even found myself questioning my own morality when I justify that, well, Walt didn't KILL the kid. He just poisoned him a bit. I can't believe I would even attempt to argue that fact. I think I want to see Jesse and Walt continue to get along, but there's no way in the endgame where that will be an option.

Walt then proposes to Jesse they continue to cook, and approach Mike to help with distribution. Mike, seeing Walt as a wildcard who cannot be controlled and whose methods do nothing but put people in danger, declines immediately. There's no way he is going to hook up with these guys and warns Jesse in a fatherly way against continuing to associate with Mr. White. Yet, it just wouldn't be Breaking Bad if things ended up that way.

After a short interrogation by the DEA to members of Madrigal, one of those employees, Lydia, tracks down Mike in a diner. Her European style clearly doesn't mesh well with our salt of the earth diners. She attempts to communicate with Mike clandestinely, but Mike has none of it and sits next to her where she proposes that he kill the 11 people on Los Pollos Hermanos payroll that could be traced back to Madrigal and Gus' operations. She's scared. She does not want to go down. Once again, Mike shuts this down. There is no way he is going to take these people out who he has no reason to believe will talk.

Mike is then brought in to be interrogated by the DEA, specifically Hank and Gomez. The back and forth between Hank and Mike is fantastic, each showing how gifted they are both as actors and characters. At least until Hank reveals that he has taken away the $2 million in one of Gus' offshore accounts under the name of Mike's Hungry Hungry Hippo loving granddaughter. (Mike playing Hungry Hungry Hippos against an 8 year old is one of the highlights of this entire series. Thank you for that, Vince Gilligan.) Mike plays dumb but is clearly incensed at this news. News that shows that he couldn't care less about his own life and the only important person in his life is this granddaughter of his.

Walt and Jesse then visit a neutered Saul Goodman who clearly has fear in his heart after the altercation from last week. Hopefully he'll get his moxie back a bit in the future. They still haven't come up with the logistics as to how they're going to start cooking again, but Walt's opinion is that if Gus could do it, then he can do it. Because in Walt's mind, he's definitely superior to Gus at this point. The one rub is that they're now out of methylamine and there doesn't seem to be any to be found.

Meanwhile, Mike's reluctance to murder his colleagues isn't going to stop our new friend Lydia. She co-opts one of the 11 to start killing all those people, including Mike. Even blowing a hole into our old friend Mr. Chow's head. After already getting a hole in his hand. Guy just can't catch a break. Mike doesn't fall for the ruse and disarms the murderer and reluctantly pulls the trigger a few times. His next step is to visit Lydia in her home and take her out once and for all. But moments before he is to pull the trigger, he stops and asks if she can still get her hands on methylamine. She says possibly. And so, Mike reenters into his partnership with Jesse and Walt.

You can almost see the someone off screen pumping up Walt's head larger and larger with each new win he achieves. It's irrelevant how Mike came to the decision, only that he did. And to Walt, that means what he is doing is working. So he then goes to bed with a Skyler who has been shown almost exclusively in bed the entire episode, her fear prescient as Walt touches her and tenderly kisses her arm. His justifications that he gives to her, that this is all for the family, have now fallen on deaf ears. If this were even remotely true, he would have stopped quite a while ago. But instead he lies in bed with a terrified wife feeling untouchable. And we all know how long those sorts of things last.

Frankly, despite the complete shift in pacing, this was still a fantastically brilliant episode of television. More of Walt's machinations would have been nice, but what was there was great.  I cannot fathom how they are able to so seemingly effortlessly combine tension, drama, and humor in one hour of television, but Gilligan and his team have done it.

EPISODE GRADE: A- 

Breaking Bad - "Live Free or Die" Review and Recap

Welcome back Mr. Pinkman. 

It's been nearly a year in our lives since Walter White poisoned a child and convinced an old man to blow himself up along with Walt's mortal enemy Gustavo Fring. In the meantime, I've been digesting every little bit of information about this show since it's inception. And frankly, I become more and more convinced about the sheer brilliance of this show. Simply put, this is easily one of the greatest shows of all time, if not the greatest. And I suppose we'll find out at the end of this final run.

We start this episode at some point in the future. We're exactly two years from the start of the series, kicking off season 5 with Walter celebrating his 52nd birthday in a Denny's, snapping his bacon to form a large 52 over his plate in a callback to the veggie bacon 50 that Skyler had put on his plate two years prior. And this time, it's the real stuff.

But things are VERY different. Walt is claiming to be from New Hampshire. He's sporting a full beard and head of hair. His glasses are borderline hipster. He looks tired. Worn out. Something serious has happened. And we have no idea what that is. Then, the same man from whom he purchased an illegal handgun in season three shows up and hands Walt some keys. He warns Walt not to take this over the border. Walt assures him this will not happen. He walks over to his car as the waitress says goodbye to him, calling him Mr. Lambert. After approaching a car with New Hampshire plates, he removes a bag from the trunk and goes over to the new vehicle and pops that truck to reveal a massive machine gun. With instruction manual, of course.

Except all this is just a glimpse of what is to come. Following the opening credits, we're back to the present day, moments after Gus' death and Walt feels on top of the world. He's cleaned up all his bomb-making material, and disposed of the lily of the valley he used to poison Brock. Things are looking up. Until he remembers the video camera that Gus had in the lab. Which leads Jesse and Walt to recruit a reluctant Mike to help them destroy the evidence that exists on the laptop.

While they are discussing the necessary methods to make this happen, Hank is given a tour of what he had pinned weeks earlier: that the laundry was a front for a mass meth superlab. And he looked up and noticed the remnants of what was once the video camera. Unfortunately, the laptop has already been seized by the Albuquerque police department.  And given Walt's refreshed hubris, there's no reason why they shouldn't be able to come up with a plan to stop it. So as Walt and Mike argue over the most efficient way to get this done (Mike essentially explaining how this is ridiculous and impossible, completely fed up with Walt and his antics), Jesse comes up with the brilliant idea of "Magnets." And so magnets they choose.

The group heads to the junkyard and borrows a giant industrial magnet in order to erase the hard drive of the secured computer. And despite the magnet being so powerful that it tips over the truck they use to hide the magnet, they appear to succeed. Of course, Mike is not convinced and asks Walt how he can be so sure that the plan worked. Walt's response? "Because I said so?" A line delivered with the conviction of the man who believes that he is literally unstoppable.

And why shouldn't he believe that? He has arisen from every single conflict stronger and more powerful, regardless of whether or not he is directly responsible for that ascent. Which is where the brilliance in this episode, and by extension the show, lies. Walt has finally achieved a moment where he believes he's free. He cannot be caught. There is no one to threaten him. And to him, he deserves it. To everyone else, it's frightening.

Nowhere is that more apparent than in the reaction of Skyler throughout the episode. From the moment she hears Walt say, "I won." there's an element of fear. The concern and confusion that washes over her face as she listens to his proclamations is readily apparent. Couple this with Skyler's look of shock, horror, followed by taking the stance of a powerful criminal when dealing with Ted Beneke in the hospital, and Anna Gunn's work is truly a sight to behold as someone who normally gets stepped around when the talk of fantastic acting starts firing up. And her expression after Walt says, "I forgive you." just had me floored.

But we certainly shouldn't forget the solid work of Aaron Paul, whose Jesse Pinkman brings it again with his "Yeah, bitch! Magnets!" ideas. And that idea goes to show the beautiful character progression that has gone on in this series. What once was nothing more than a slacker loser cooking meth with chili powder, now lies a character who is able to develop ideas on his own, who has shown himself to be incredibly compassionate and layered. Before, he wouldn't have even been able to suggest a realistic idea (he was excited over the idea of Walt building a robot back in "Four Days Out" and called a barn a "cow house" in the pilot). Now, he's capable of thinking through a relevant idea and then seeing it to its conclusion, while still maintaining that which makes Jesse, Jesse.

The endgame has certainly begun and I honestly cannot wait to see where it ends up. There was simply no better way to start this fifth and (pseudo-)final season. Having binged on all the episodes, the extra features, and probably 30 episode commentaries over the last few weeks, it simply amazes me how delicately this story has been crafted. I could honestly write several more pages just on this episode alone, but this review is already far too long and it's about time to wrap it up. At any rate, if you're not watching this show: start. I cannot stress this enough. This show and the BBC Sherlock are easily the best shows on the air right now and I urge all of you to watch it.

EPISODE GRADE: A

My Final Lost Thoughts - 5/23 - The End

The End.

So it’s all over. And that means what will probably be the final edition of my Lost Thoughts, although it’s entirely possible that will change. I may have more to say later.

But let’s get down to business. I absolutely loved the finale and found it to be a satisfactory ending to one of the best shows I’ve ever watched on television. To me, there was an emotional connection that I had with the show that was incredibly unique that I haven’t experienced in any other show thus far in my life. In fact, very few movies have provided me with the immense emotional experience that this finale of Lost, and by extension the entire series, has.

Given that I’ve received several text messages, instant messages, and e-mails attempting to get my perspective on what EXACTLY went down in that finale, I’m going to try and do a quick summarization of it.

The flash-sideways were essentially existential flash forwards.


A crude but effective MS Paint job that hopefully helps to illustrate the sideways world.


Everything that happened to the characters in the show, with the exception of the flash sideways, happened to them in the same way situations would happen to you or me in the real world. They all lived their lives. Jack died saving the island and by extension the whole world. Kate, Sawyer, Lapidus, Claire, Miles, Richard, and later on Desmond, all escaped the island for the last time to probably never return. They lived their lives with the experience of the island in their past, forever changed by it. Hurley became the protector of the island and Ben was his new Richard. Richard was no longer immortal, probably as a result of Jacob’s death and that immortal connection was severed.

When all of the characters died in their own respective lives, years and years later, this alternate world was created. Essentially a purgatory of their own design. Their shared experience, which provided each one of these individual characters a redemption that they would have otherwise been unable to achieve without the aid of the island, allowed their souls to pool together to create this world that was similar enough to their old lives that it was relatively simple, once they were all ready, to enter into the afterlife together. Whether you want to call that heaven or nirvana or whatever I think is up to you and your own spiritual background. I don’t think the name for it is that important. As to why this “purgatory” was necessary in the first place, I think it was so they could re-experience their lives in similar, yet better, ways that would allow them to better appreciate their island experience, but that’s just speculation on my part.

Desmond kick started this process when he was blasted with the electromagnetic radiation by Widmore and his consciousness essentially “died” for a moment and traveled to this future plane of existence. When his future, purgatorified self became aware of his past life, he then became aware of his ultimate death and why he was there, bringing the most important people to the church to usher them into their eternal life. Had it not been for Desmond’s mission, they would have ultimately met the same result, it just would have taken a little longer.
Who knows how long this whole process took? That’s kind of a question that we as humans are unable to answer in any real detail. We have a very specific worldview when it comes to the concept of time, and find it very difficult to conceptualize the relativity of time and the experience of time. We measure time on Earth as one second per second. But that’s not necessarily how time travels in the rest of the universe, let alone alternate planes of existence.

I personally speculate that this plane came into existence possibly thousands of years after the final shot of Jack’s eye closing and his death. I say this because Hurley was now the island’s protector, and it’s entirely possible and plausible that his reign over the island lasted longer than even Jacob’s now there was no evil force trying to get off the island. So once they all died, and not before that moment, this place sprung up and they lived their lives through it until it was ready for them to leave.

Some still aren’t ready. Ben became cognizant of all of the terrible things he did in his life and wanted to work them out before joining everyone for eternity. Ms. Hawking/Mrs. Widmore didn’t want to leave and really wanted to stay with her son Daniel Faraday/Widmore in this plane, which is why she was concerned about Desmond becoming aware of the plane’s true nature. Charlotte’s still hanging around for some reason, even though she never really had issues to begin with.

Ultimately the point is that all the experiences they had, everything they did, happened to them. They all became reborn within this purgatory plane of existence and lived their lives there, too. Only when becoming aware of their living pasts did they feel completely at peace and became ready to move forward with their eternal lives.

My Personal Opinion



Personally, I didn’t really like this idea. I feel as if the show got a little too existential at the end and now season six needs to be completely reevaluated on the basis of the fact that the sideways world WAS in fact purgatory. Almost ironic given the fact that everyone thought the island itself was purgatory when the show started, a claim that was subsequently vehemently denied. Yet, what makes this situation different is that theirs was a purgatory of their own design. It sprung from their desire to want to enter into eternity together, changed by their vehicle of redemption: the island.

There were hints of this with the idea of ghosts and spirits that were communicable. But to bring the entire show into a completely separate plane of existence may have been a little much for me. Personally, I think it’s a little stupid to be honest.

Yet, ultimately that didn’t stop me from loving the episode which really hit me emotionally in ways that I hadn’t expected it to. Although the way in which it did was slightly cheap in that watching these characters reunite was essentially just a reminder of all the phenomenal experiences I had watching the show. Nothing new was really gained by it, but it worked by tapping into six years of memories with these characters and knowing all they went through, I was happy to see them all back together again.
Seeing all those loved ones become aware of their pasts and embrace what they now know was touching on so many different levels. And it was fantastic to watch.

I did feel the first half dragged in places, especially on the island. I kept wanting to see the sideways world move forward more than what was happening on the island. The plot itself wasn’t incredible. It boiled down to “have Desmond remove cork, kill Locke, take off on plane, replace cork.” Yet watching it all culminate was definitely a sight to behold.

The episode wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. This being Lost, I didn’t really expect it to be. I expected to feel differently when I finished the episode though. I expected it to be more “awesome”. It wasn’t the feeling of “awesome” I was expecting, but I loved it all the same, albeit in a completely different way than I had anticipated.

There are still plenty of unanswered questions, which to be honest, doesn’t really bother me. I feel that I can fill in the gaps with my imagination at this point and give perfectly satisfactory answers. Would I like to know more? Sure. Absolutely. If they want to open up and tell me the things I want to know, I’ll listen. But right now, I can’t even think of anything that I really want answered. I’ve even come up with my own personal theory about the island itself. In fact, here it is!

Sean’s Personal Island Theory

The island is a byproduct of the creation of life on earth. It has always been there and will always be there. I feel like it’s as old as time itself. It probably even killed the dinosaurs. The electromagnetic energy that radiates from the light keeps the destructive forces from beneath it from consuming the earth. Had Jack not replaced the cork, the island would have been destroyed and eventually all life as we know it would have been consumed by this energy underneath the island which manifests itself as volcanic activity. I don’t think that it’s deliberately malicious. I don’t think it’s an entity. Just something that will happen if not kept in check, hence the need for a protector of the light. One of the ways it’s protected is by binding whoever touches the light in the form of a Smoke Monster through the light’s electromagnetic energy.

Desmond’s ability to withstand electromagnetic forces made him literally the only person on earth (probably) who could have removed the cork. Without him, the cork stays in place since no one can get to it. The alternative, possibly cooler, way to do things would have been for Jack to become his own smoke monster and have a smoke monster throwdown. Of course, they would have just been ending up battling for all eternity, making things pretty difficult to end the show on.

After Death

If one completely neglects the flash sideways as a whole, and focuses only on things that happened to the characters during their regularly scheduled lives, I think the show ended fantastically. To end the show on the image of a dying Jack’s closing eye, as Vincent lie near him to comfort Jack in his final moments, as a complete contrast to the first image of the show being his opening eye after his brush with Vincent, truly brings the show full circle in a way that I never would have expected. The people on the plane go on to live full and happy lives. Kate helps Claire raise Aaron. Richard discovers the comforts of modern life. Miles does something. Lapidus probably keeps being a pilot. And Desmond travels back to Penny and his son, and they live their lives. While Hurley and Ben continue to do their thing on the island for however long it takes for Hurley and Ben to die.

The Legacy of Lost



I feel satisfied by the show. I’m happy with it. Do I agree with everything they did? No, not necessarily. There are clearly some continuity issues here and there, some questions that needed answering, but I feel as if those are forgivable. What’s not forgivable is where the hell was Walt? I was expecting some Walt in my finale, and I didn’t get it. That was kind of lame. And one final question, what the hell did detonating the hydrogen bomb even DO? It didn't create this alternate reality, and the incident was clearly something COMPLETELY different since it would be difficult to build the swan over a nuclear waste zone. I really wish I could have that answer.

I’m not accepting Lost as a perfect show. But I feel a sense of satisfaction now that it’s over. I think the ride was worth it. It wasn’t what I expected, but nothing ever is. The ability of Lost to inspire thought hasn’t ended, but I feel they’ve given us enough information that we can come to relatively solid conclusions at this point. I feel comfortable in believing the things in which I believe about the show until new evidence is presented to make me believe something otherwise.

This isn’t like after the season three finale when I couldn’t figure out what it all meant, because it could mean so many different things. Instead, I feel I have everything I need. While there is certainly still some ambiguity there, at the end of the day, I loved it. And really that’s all that matters.

The point of the show from day one was to watch characters who were all Lost in their own respective lives somehow find their redemption and become better people for the experience. Even the most despicable of characters eventually became bastions of righteousness at some point. And frankly, I can honestly think of no better protector of the island than Hurley. He has been the one character whose positivity and optimism in the lives of others is unquestioned. The island helped him conquer his curse of the numbers and in turn he will help others conquer their demons.

And Jack, father issues and all, learned how to believe in something bigger than himself and saved the world in the process. His empiricism and the way he constantly butted heads with Locke led to a new change in his personality. While this led to his ultimate demise, he was eventually rewarded by a shared afterlife with those who experienced island life with him. And because of that, maybe the flash sideways weren’t so pointless after all.

And with all that, we learn that it’s up to us all individually to face our burdens and have the courage to “Let go.” Because I believe that’s what Lost was all about.