"LOST"? You bet we are.

Wow. I have to admit, “Lost” really pulled out one game-changer of a finale. Just some good crazy fun there. I mean that was a headtrip of a final scene, and made up for the not so great moments this year. For all my cheering of “Heroes”, they didn’t provide the big bang in the finale they way “Lost” did last night. If the producers needed to convince ABC to let them commit to 48 more episodes to finish off "Lost", THAT was the episode they would have used to get that unprecidented 3 year commitment. I wrote about the details on the plan to finish up "Lost" here. We have 8 months to sort this all out before the show returns with new episodes.

SPOILERS COMING UP IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED YET





So coming out of that, here are some thoughts:

The big change is the change-up with the flash forward. The producers haven’t let anything slip yet, but I think that when the show returns, we should find the show has jumped forward (remember with Island time it is still 2003) to the present, and the flashbacks will fill either fill in what happened between the rescue and suicidal Jack, or it will cover Island life because...

…maybe one of the reasons that Jack wants to find his way back to the island is that the beach-party (Hurley, Sayid, Bernard, Sawyer, Juliet, Des, Jin) are still stuck there. Something happened with the rescue and now nobody can find their way back to the island. That, and he realized he was happier on the island.

At what point did you figure out it was a flash forward? I thought something was up from all my mental gymnastics trying to figure out where Jack McBeardface fit into Jack’s past. I was guessing he was flying back from Thailand. But little things didn’t fit, like the very modern cell phone he was using. The scene that did it was the 2nd last one, where he’s in the room with maps all over the place. He’s trying to find his way back to the Island. Eureka.

And who the hell is in the coffin? I’m guessing Ben or Locke. If Jack is that obsessed with getting back to the island and insists they should have never left, then he would find the death of either of the men most tied to the island to be a sign that all hope is lost.

It’s certainly not Christian Shepherd, Jack’s dad, in the coffin. He was referred to several times in the flash-forward as if he was still alive. That’s not the drugs talking, the references were repeated and specific.

“A hero two-times over!” – that would be because Jack went into the burning car to save the kid and then back for the mom. If Jack insists to Kate “I’m sick of lying”, then the real story about what happened on the island probably is public knowledge. I think it was Ben who told Michael last year that even if he makes it back to the mainland and tells his story, who would believe him. And it’s not in Michael, or most of the castaways’ best interest, to tell the full story, seeing is how most of the Losties are responsible for some deaths and less than moral actions.

And no, that is not Sun and Jin sitting behind Jack on the plane in the opening. And I don’t think this was a future yet unwritten, or parallel universe, or hell, or a hallucination. Jack McBeardface is what has happened and where we’ve found ourselves now. To keep telling the story of the island and changing to flash forwards rather than flashbacks is too difficult to pull of storywise. A return to the mainland would allow some less necessary characters like Claire to go have a happy life, and allow others like Sun, Jack, and Kate to want to get back to find their friends.

What a great sacrifice from Charlie, trapped in a level from “Tomb Raider 2”. It really was.

I got a little chill when Charlie, tied to the chair, matter of factly tells the ladies how things were going to play out: “I die.” And the last act was to tell Des “NOT PENNY”S BOAT”. And so long Charlie. And if Penny didn't send the boat, then my money is on her father Papa Widmore as the bad guy Ben is referring to.

Does Claire ever get the note he left? Last week’s episode “Greatest Hits” was such a great redemption of Charlie. It made it all right to like him again, especially after the whiny jackass behaviour from last season. Great job to the writers and fine acting from Dominic Monaghan.

Return of the mad Russian. This guy won’t die! At the end of the series, he’ll be a little head and a thumb in a jar. Anyone speculating that Bakunin’s last name is Rasputin?

A great save from Hurley, who uses the bus that we thought was just a novelty item from Ben’s past, having repercussion. Would have like to have seen Ben’s face if he found out that Dad’s van was used to save the Losties. I thought Hurley was going to get himself killed, owing to all the “you’re going to get us killed” comments. Sweet footwork from Sayid too.

Line of the night goes to Sawyer: “That’s for taking the kid off the raft.”

And can we call him a kid anymore. He looked about 6’4”! I thought he was going to answer Locke in a deep voice “Call me Walter.”

Locke lives! And just as knife tossing crazy as ever.

Bernard lives! I thought they brought him back only to get killed. I actually thought they would follow through and kill the three guys.

I also liked Rose: “If you say the words 'live together, die alone' to me Jack, I'm going to punch you in the face.” Because really, that’s what I’ve wanted to do to the character several times this year. Remind me again, isn’t in her best interest to NOT leave the island, on account of her cancer being in remission?

Mother and daughter reunion! The absurdity of “Let’s tie up your father” cracked me up. That’s some real family bonding going on there.

Kate sure cleans up in the real world. She looks like every Survivor contest does at the reunion show. And is it too much to hope that the “him” she says she needs to get back to isn’t Sawyer, but maybe her cop husband from a few flashback back, Nathan Fillion (“Firefly”, “Drive”)?

Well, that’s it until February. The show certainly earned my interest back, and I can’t wait to see where they go from here. And if the show shifts next season to trying to find a way back to the island, then it certainly puts a multiple meanings on the title:

Lost.