In the final part of the season finale, we catch our first proper glimpse of the smoke monster, followed soon after by an even better look, although we still have no idea what we are looking at. Jack, Kate, and Hurley run at the sound it makes, but Locke goes closer, and soon finds himself being dragged towards and then into a hole in the ground. Jack and Kate throw in a stick of dynamite to free him. The sound of the smoke monster is distinctly mechanical in character, reminiscent of the chain lift on a roller coaster. When Jack asks Locke to explain why he told him to let him go when he was being pulled down the hole. Locke says that he doesn’t think that he would have been killed – but rather, he was being tested. Locke says, “We were brought here for a purpose…Each one of us was brought here for a reason.” When Jack asks who brought them here, Locke says the island. When Jack asks Locke if he talked with Boone about these things, Locke says Boone was the sacrifice the island demanded. Jack says he doesn’t believe in destiny. Locke responds, “Yes you do, you just don’t know it yet.” Later, Jack tells Kate that they are going to have a “Locke problem.”
In a comical flashback, Hurley runs to catch his flight. On the island, Hurley is muttering the numbers as they walk through the jungle in the dark. Later, when they are going to blow open the hatch, Hurley spots the numbers on the hatch, and tries to stop them blowing it open, shouting “The numbers are bad!” But they blow the lid off the hatch nonetheless.
Sayid and Charlie find Danielle. She had wanted to trade Aaron for her Alex. She says she heard the others whispering, saying they were coming for the boy. With hindsight, we realize this was a reference to Walt. Back at camp, we see that Charlie took a virgin Mary statue with heroin in it from the crashed smugglers’ plane.
On the boat, Sawyer talks at one point about Michael having the patience of a saint. Towards the end of the episode, we think they have been rescued, and the music is misleadingly hopeful – it turns out it is the “Others” who have come to take Walt, and before leaving with him they blow up the raft.
I think it is safe to say that the first season of LOST was fantastic television, raising fascinating questions about the nature of fate and destiny, weaving interesting mysteries, and leaving us wanting more.
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