So, now we've seen the two-hour season finale, what do you think?
I'm still thinking that the humans' desires and minds affect the island and what it is/does, and at some point in the past, humans worshipped there because of that (which explains the huge statue we saw in a previous episode, and the reference to a temple in the finale). And I was struck anew by the fact that mothers die trying to give birth on the island, just as Ben's mom died giving birth to him . . . almost as if he passed his trauma on to the island. (Although I still think that it's primarily the temporal conditions on the island that make birth impossible.) The island prefers Locke to Ben because Locke is a better person; Locke affects the island in ways that the island prefers, so Jacob (the island's voice) wants Locke rather than Ben to help him. Locke has a faith in the island that Ben seems to lack, Locke doesn't slaughter his own community as Ben did, and Locke doesn't kill his father (at least, not directly) as Ben did. The island is quicker to heal Locke than to heal Ben.
The bad-father theme seemed even more evident. Ben, Locke, Jack and Claire--all had bad fathers. (Locke's seems the worst, to me.) Kate had a bad stepdad. Over the course of the series so far, we've been invited to compare Ben, Locke, Jack, and Kate's various responses to their bad fathers. This seems like an intended parallel rather than a coincidence.
I'm still thinking that the island gives the humans a chance to work out their issues and become better people. Not as purgatory does, but as we all have a chance to do right now, in our current lives--only the island distills the opportunity.
***SPOILER***
Locke seems to have been correct in telling Jack that he wasn't supposed to leave the island and take the lostaways with him. Bearded-Jack's trauma, drug-addiction, and suicidal tendencies are consequences of having left the island. It's as if he didn't work out his issues--almost as if he never went to the island.
At one point, when Jack is arguing with the doctor who wants to help him, Jack speaks of his father as if he's still alive, still drinking--as if the doctor could go to Jack's dad's office and compare Jack's drinking to his dad's drinking. Is this a sign of Jack being drug-addled or still psychologically messed up about his dad . . . or does it mean that his dad is still alive? And if his dad is still alive, what does that mean about time? Have past events been altered somehow?
And who is in the coffin? My guess is that it's Ben. Jack says he was "neither friend nor family" to the deceased, which describes his relationship with Ben. No one except Jack was at the funeral parlor, which would be the case if Ben were the deceased, because the Others are (I suppose) still on the island. And the person's death seems to have sent Jack into a tailspin, as Ben's death would do, because Jack now seems to believe that Ben was right in not wanting Jack to take the lostaways off the island.
I'm worried about Charlie, who definitely seems to have died, but I'm hoping that the island resurrects him in much the same way as Desmond was resurrected after blowing up the hatch, given that both of them sacrificed themselves trying to help the community. There must be some plot significance to Charlie managing to tell Desmond that the boat was not Penelope's . . . what does Desmond do with that information?
OK, enough rambling from me.
