Lost: New Kids on the Block

After a complicated, time-jumping fifth season, Lost producers have said that next year's final batch of episodes will return to a character-focused simplicity that's reminiscent of the show's early (and more highly-rated) days. Certainly, last night's final episode had a lot in common with that first season's finale -- it, too, boasted one great ending alongside one frustrating cliffhanger. Guess which one was which?

For me, the more successful storyline last night was the Locke-Ben-Ilana strand, which most deftly weaved Lost's best elements: tense conversations, a little bit of mythology, an intriguing backstory (finally, Zuleihka Robinson as Ilana has something to do), and a killer reveal. If only they could have found a plotline for Sun; sadly, though, most of our original characters have been mere followers this season, waiting around for someone to point them in the right direction. Yunjin Kim was delicious as the vaguely sinister Sun earlier this year, but now that she's ditched her baby, her Widmore connection, and her backbone, she's just a glorified tagalong.

The frustrating plotline? Why, that would be the one that ended with a bomb going off and a cut to white. It wasn't the ending that bothered me (I've got no doubt that instead of a safe arrival at LAX, our Dharma-era castaways will be blown back into the Ben/"Locke" present), since I at least appreciated its callback to the famous season-one closer of Jack and Locke staring down into a deep, deep hatch. I'm glad that the focus is back on our O.G. Losties as we go into the final season, but there's a lot of work that needs to be done to make these guys sympathetic again.

Even though I'd been wondering where Jack's motivation was all season, when it finally came, I didn't get it. What exactly did he expect to happen after he set off the bomb? Even if it meant that Oceanic 815 would land safely at LAX, they'd only be saving alternate versions of themselves. The heroes we actually know (and they know) would be dead. Call me cuckoo-bird, but I'm not that invested in a parallel version of me -- at least, not enough to cut my own life short so that he could live.

Also, even assuming the plan was supposed to work took a little bit of the sting out of Juliet's death. Why was everyone so intent on saving her when they were intending to blow themselves up anyway? Was it because the bomb didn't work? Or was it because Juliet, Kate, and Sawyer needed another whiplash reversal?

Meanwhile, we met Lost's new kids: Mark Pellegrino as Jacob, and Titus Welliver as...Jacob's frenemy? I dug the weird Jacob flashbacks (was he trying to help, hurt, or hasten our Losties?) even if I wasn't completely sold on Pellegrino -- though I will say, I never expected Jacob to be so vaguely fratty and doable. Welliver, I've got more faith in, though that may be a moot point if his character's essentially going to be played by Terry O'Quinn next season.

So what do I want to see in that season? At this point, I'd trade all the mythological reveals in the world if they could give me some character motivations that a) made consistent sense and b) gave our original heroes some regular shared screen time.

Oh, and Claire. I'd like to see Claire. Maybe she's been chillin' out in the WTF WTC?