Lost: Season 3 Finale "Through the Looking Glass" Review

 "We have to go back!"

-Jack Shephard

This finale picks up with Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) on a plane about to land in Los Angeles.  He sees an obituary of an unknown person, which devastates him.  After landing, he nearly commits suicide by jumping off a bridge, but a nearby car crashes and Jack rushes over to help.

It becomes clear that Jack is a mess.  He's drunk and addicted to pills.  He attends thr funeral of the unknown person, but no one else shows up.  He also calls an unknown woman multiple times, who finally agrees to meet him near the airport.  It turns out to be Kate (Evangeline Lilly), revealing that this is actually a flashforward.  Jack tells Kate he flies across the Pacific Ocean every weekend hoping the plane will crash and that they made a mistake leaving the island.  Kate drives off as he shouts, "We have to go back!"

On the island, the Others invade the beach camp.  Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Bernard (Sam Anderson), and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) kill most of the Others, but Jin misses his shots at the dynamite and the three are captured by the surviving Others.

When Jack's group only sees two explosions go off, Sun (Yunjin Kim) and Rose (L. Scott Caldwell) want to go back to help, but Jack makes everyone continue on towards the radio tower.  Eventually, Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) head back to help.

Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) wakes up in the boat to find Mikhail (Andrew Divoff) shooting at him.  He dives underwater and swims into the Looking Glass to find Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) tied up and hides in a locker.  Mikhail swims in and under Ben's (Michael Emerson) orders, shoots the Others that were station there.  Desmond shoots Mikhail with a spear gun.  Charlie is able to get the code from the dying Bonnie (Tracy Middendorf), which is actually a musical code.  Charlie is the only 815 survivor that could have put it the code.

Charlie turns off the jammer and gets a receives a transmission from Penny (Sonya Walger) who tells him she doesn't know Naomi (Masha Thomason) and doesn't know anything about a boat.  Mikhail blows himself up with a grenade which starts to flood the transmission room.  Charlie seals himself in to save Desmond and writes "Not Penny's Boat" on his hand to warn Desmond before drowning.

Ben learns about the developments on the beach and discovers that Alex (Tania Raymonde) betrayed him.  He takes Alex with on a trek to stop Jack in order to give Alex to Jack's group and reunite her with Karl (Blake Bashoff).  They stop Jack's group on the way to the radio tower and Ben tells Jack that Naomi is not who she says she is and her people plan to kill everyone on the island.  Jack doesn't believe him and refuses to hand over the satellite phone.  Ben then has his men apparently kill Sayid, Jin, and Bernard so Jack can hear it over the radio.  Jack takes Ben hostage after beating the crap out of him.

Hurley (Jorge Garcia) uses the Dharma van to run over one of the Others, so Sayid and Sawyer can kill the rest, including Tom (M.C. Gainey)  They let Jack know that Sayid, Jin, and Bernard are alive and Ben was bluffing.  They arrive at the radio tower and shut off Rousseau's (Mira Furlan) message.

Locke (Terry O'Quinn) is about to shoot himself in the pit of Dharma bodies, but Walt (Malcolm David Kelley) appears and stops him.  Locke gets to the radio tower and throws a knife into Naomi's back and threatens to shoot Jack.  Jack calls his bluff and uses the phone to call the boat for rescue.

What Works:

"Through the Looking Glass" is my favorite episode of Lost.  It's also my favorite episode of television ever.  Period.  It doesn't get better than this.  Everything comes together perfectly.

The action beats are awesome and gives us some of the best moments of the entire show.  The explosive shootout at the beach camp, Desmond shooting Mikhail with the spear gun, Hurley running over a guy with a hippie van, Sayid breaking a guy's neck with his feet, and Sawyer shooting Tom.  It's all just fantastic.  No matter how many times I watch this episode, I always shout "F**k yeah!" whenever any of that stuff happens.

Speaking of shouting "F**k yeah!", we also get the fantastic scene between Ben and Jack as Ben apparently has Sayid, Bernard, and Jin killed.  We get to watch Jack beat the living crap out of Ben and it's oh so satisfying.

Matthew Fox gives a tour de force of a performance and it's probably his best work on the show.  His devastation after the gunshots is heartbreaking and his performance in the flashforward is wildly different from everything else we've ever seen from his character.  It's strange seeing him as the leader and also a wreck, but Fox sells it like nobody's business.

The flashforward twist utterly blew my mind the first time I watched this episode.  I almost couldn't comprehend it.  Jack and Kate got off the island!  How!?  Why does Jack want to go back!?  It's insane and one of the most iconic moments on the show.  Going back on the rewatch, there are a few hints before the reveal which just makes it even better.

The moment where Jack calls the freighter is probably the most uplifting moment up to this point in the show.  Jack has no reason to believe anything that Ben or Locke say, so of course we're rooting for him to overcome and make the call.  And when he does, it's such a relief.  The music and the look on the survivors' faces always give me chills.

Finally, Charlie's death is my favorite in the whole show.  For a moment, we think he might actually survive this, but no.  It's sad, but heroic.  "Not Penny's Boat" is another iconic moment and an excellent end to the character.

What Sucks:

I've got nothing for you.

Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear goes to the most competent character in the episode.  Since this is a double episode, I'm going to give out two awards.  The first goes to Jack for leading everyone to the radio tower, making the hard call in not giving Ben the satellite phone, beating the crap out of Ben, and calling Locke's bluff and contacting the boat.  This is Jack's 10th time winning this award.

The other I'll give to Charlie for convincing Bonnie to tell him the code, turning off the jammer, saving Desmond, and warning him that Naomi is lying.  This is his 3rd time winning this award.

At the end of season 3, here are the current rankings:

Jack: 10

Sayid: 9

Locke: 9

Hurley: 7

Mr. Eko: 5

Sawyer: 4

Desmond: 4

Sun: 3

Charlie: 3

Rose: 2

Ana Lucia: 2

Kate: 2

Juliet: 2

Jin: 2

Boone: 1

Michael: 1

Libby: 1

Bernard: 1

Alex: 1

Ben: 1

The Man in Black: 1

Richard: 1  

Verdict:

"The Looking Glass" is the best episode of Lost.  It's got action, humor, drama, amazing acting, iconic moments, everything you could possibly ask for.  What else needs to be said?  This episode has got it going on more than any other.

 10/10: Amazing