Lost: Season 5 Finale "The Incident" Review

 "I'm glad you all thought this through."

-Miles Straume 

The season 5 finale actually follows Jacob (Mark Pellegrino) in flashbacks.  The first takes place centuries earlier as Jacob has a conversation with the Man in Black (Titus Welliver), who wants to kill Jacob, but cannot and promises to find a loophole.

The flashbacks continue with Jacob meeting most of the main characters at various points in their lives.  Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) when they are young children, Sayid (Naveen Andrews) on the day of Nadia's (Andrea Gabriel) death, Ilana (Zuleikha Robinson) while she is the hospital, Locke (Terry O'Quinn) on the day he broke his back, Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) and Sun (Yunjin Kim) on their wedding day, Jack (Matthew Fox) just after his first solo surgery, and Hurley (Jorge Garcia) after being released from prison.  Jacob was actually the one to convince Hurley to return to the Island.

In 1977, Kate, Sawyer, and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) escape from the submarine and return to the Island, where they find Vincent, Rose (L. Scott Caldwell), and Bernard (Sam Anderson).  They fill Rose and Bernard in, but they want no part in any of it.  They have retired and have decided to enjoy what time they have left on their Island paradise.  They do give the group directions to the Swan, but that's it.

Sayid gets the bomb prepped, but he and Jack realize that their exit comes out in the middle of the Barracks.  Eloise (Alice Evans) plans to lead them through, but Richard (Nestor Carbonell) knocks her out and takes her out of the mission.  Sayid and Jack dress as members of the Dharma Initiative to get through, but are spotted by Roger (Jon Gries), who shoots Sayid.  Jack and Sayid are rescued from the shootout by Miles (Ken Leung), Jin, and Hurley, who arrive in a Dharma van.  They drive towards the Swan site, but are stopped by Sawyer, Kate, and Juliet.

Sawyer asks Jack to talk in private.  Jack reveals that he wants to go back to before the crash because it gives him another shot to get Kate back.  Sawyer, enraged at Jack's selfishness, attacks Jack until Juliet breaks it up.  She has changed her mind and believes Jack is right and that if she and Sawyer never meet, she will never have to lose him.  Jack also convinces Kate to go along with his plan when he tells her it will reunite Aaron (William Blanchette) with Claire (Emilie de Ravin).  

Jack heads to the Swan site alone, but the rest of the group spot some Dharma reinforcements heading in the same direction.  While Hurley and Jin stay behind to look after the injured Sayid, Kate, Sawyer, Juliet, and Miles join Jack in the attack on the Swan.  With help from Dr. Chang (Francois Chau), they overpower the Dharma folk.  As the drill reaches the pocket of electromagnetic energy, Jack drops the bomb, but nothing happens.  The Incident starts and everything metal starts being pulled towards the shaft.  Phil (Patrick Fischler) is impaled on some rebar.  Dr. Chang is injured, but Miles saves him.  Juliet gets wrapped in chains and dragged down into the shaft.  Seriously injured, Juliet spots the bomb and smashes it with a rock until it goes off.

In 2007, Ilana and her team make it to the main Island with Lapidus (Jeff Fahey) in tow.  They are carrying a massive box from the Ajira flight with them.  They trek to the mysterious cabin in the jungle, but discover someone else has been living in it and burn it down. 

On the hike to visit Jacob, Locke tells Ben (Michael Emerson) that he actually wants Ben to kill Jacob, but Ben is hesitant to do so.  They reach the statue of a foot with four toes and Richard reveals it is Jacob's home.  Locke and Ben go inside and Locke tells him to kill Jacob.  Ben questions why he has been ignored for so many years, but Jacob treats Ben's questions with disdain and Ben stabs Jacob to death.

Outside, Ilana's group arrives to see Richard and they show everyone what is inside the Ajira box.  It's the body of John Locke.  The person inside the statue pretending to be Locke is actually the Man in Black.

What Works:

The opening flashback and reveal that this was a Jacob-centric episode is absolutely brilliant.  Most TV shows would reveal this character in a cliffhanger at the end of an episode.  Not Lost.  The very first scene of the episode introduces us to this mythical character who we've been hearing about since the middle of season 3.  None of us knew if he was actually real.  And now, here he is.  It's a brilliant reveal and Pellegrino does an excellent job in the role.

My favorite moment of the episode is when Ben confronts Jacob.  Michel Emerson gives an extremely powerful performance and we really finally learn who Ben is.  All of the anger and frustration pours out and Ben makes some really fair points to Jacob.  "What about you?" is delivered with devastating brilliance.  It's one of my favorite lines on the entire show.  No wonder Ben kills Jacob.

It's fun to see our main characters run into conflict with one another, especially if it's over ideological differences.  Usually Locke has been the character to cause these conflicts, but this time it's Jack taking Locke's spot and going up against Sawyer.  The dialogue between these two is great and the fistfight is even better.  Sawyer usually gets his ass kicked in fights because I don't think he tries very often.  But he's trying here and it's a brutal and awesome sequence.

The action sequence at the Swan site is another fun one.  I've always found it amusing to watch our heroes take down these Dharma redshirts who are just doing their job.  It's pretty dark if you think about it too long, but it's still fun and pretty epic.  Anytime the Dharma vans get used in an action sequence, I'm happy.  Plus we get to see Phil finally die.

Finally, the final scene of the episode is Juliet blowing up the bomb.  It's a powerful scene as Juliet sobs and hits the bomb over and over.  You want her to succeed, but you just know she's going to die to do so and it leaves us with another all-time great cliffhanger.  Incredible stuff.

What Sucks:

I got nothing for you.

Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear goes to the most competent character of the episode.  Since this was a two-part episode, I'll give out two awards.  The first one goes to the Man in Black for convincing Ben to kill Jacob.

The second goes to Juliet for getting the bomb to go off.

Here are the scores at the end of season 5.

Jack: 12

Sayid: 12

Locke: 10

Sawyer: 8

Hurley: 7

The Man in Black: 6

Mr. Eko: 5

Desmond: 5

Kate: 5

Juliet: 4

Sun: 3

Charlie: 3

Jin: 3

Michael: 3

Rose: 2

Ana Lucia: 2

Ben: 2

Lapidus: 2

Daniel: 2

Boone: 1

Libby: 1

Bernard: 1

Alex: 1

Richard: 1

Tom: 1

Eloise: 1

Verdict:

"The Incident" is another awesome Lost finale with well done action, tons of emotional moments, interesting conflict, and one hell of a cliffhanger.  It has absolutely got it going on.

 10/10: Amazing