What I Liked:

• Character-wise and action-wise, I loved the finale.  While there were things about the finale (and season six as a whole) I had issues with, when Jack’s eye closed at the end, I wasn’t disappointed and I didn’t say, “What the fuck? What about (insert unanswered question)?” I was just happy.  Although I may have been happy that I don’t have to do this (as if I ever did).
• The season went a long way in redeeming Jack as a character and giving Matthew Fox a lot of great moments.  You could almost say the same for Kate and Evangeline Lilly except…well…I still wouldn’t have been mad if she died.  I can’t deny that her scenes were among the best this episode (Delivering Aaron while remembering the island, saving Jack for once, her LA X reunion with Jack).  But the MVP for this episode…
• …was Jorge Garcia.  From the look on his face when he saw Charlie in LA X to his reaction to Jack making him the protector of the island, no one on this show has grown more as an actor than Garcia.  He’s a long way from just saying “Dude“
• The reunion/realizations in LA X were handled well especially Jin/Sun/ and Sawyer/Juliet.  Considering Sawyer/Juliet reunion, once we got a general idea what was going on in LA X, was the one everyone was waiting for, I was surprised it didn’t let me down.
• I enjoyed all of the island action (except for some of the Glowing Well stuff) especially the final confrontation between Jack and notLocke
• Lapidus and Alpert live! No matter how improbable Lapidus’ survival was (he took a bigger blow -TWSS – than Sawyer), it was great to see “Chesty” floating in the water and ultimately getting people off the island
• The return of Rose, Bernard and Vincent. I figured it was them who freed Desmond from the well and I’m glad they lived out their lives the way they wanted, not getting involved.
• The last image of the series was fitting and I’m glad Vincent showed up so Jack didn’t die alone.

What I Didn’t Like:

• I’m not in love with the LA X = purgatory concept.  While it was great to have  goodbyes to some of the characters and, more importantly, some of the relationships we grew to love over the years, I was still a little disappointed.  I tried to avoid *wanting* something to be the way I had imagined but I wanted the sideways world to tie in directly into the Island world.  Now knowing “what happened, happened,” I wish we had spent more of season six on the island.
• While I was still more entertained than not, now that it’s over, it’s safe to say that season six was kind of a mess.  So many abandoned threads/plot holes, I could strain pasta with them.  Cuse and Lindelof may have known what the ending was going to be but they definitely didn’t know how to get there.
• When Jacob described the island as a cork to Richard in “Ab Aeterno,” I thought that was a metaphor.  I didn’t know there was an actual cork.  Seriously?
• Really? No Michael and Walt in LA X?  Christian’s “there is no ‘when’” explanation gave the producers a total out to deal with older, taller Walt.  I better find an interview saying that Harold Perrineau and Malcolm David Kelley didn’t want to or were unavailable to appear in the finale.
• Jack’s plan to help notLocke use Desmond to destroy the island: The dumbest Jack idea EVER
• Ben’s lack of a plan.  So was he really siding with notLocke for control of the island or was he just playing along.  Considering his penultimate turn, it was kind of annoying he was just following whomever wherever.
• Really? Hurley chose sinking with the island over climbing down a ladder?  They could have found a better motivation to keep Hurley around.
• Shannon was Sayid’s true love?  Really?

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What I Liked:

• The symmetry of Jack giving Kate stitches (Kate gave Jack stiches in the pilot episode)
• The defeated look on Sawyer’s face for most of the episode
• The return of Evil Ben.  I don’t know if he’s really on notLocke’s side but he’s definitely not on Widmore’s side
• The look on notLocke’s face when Ben shot Widmore
• The return of Every-Man-For-Himself Miles.
• I feel a little better about “Across the Sea.” There was information in that episode that was necessary for Jacob to give the surviving 815ers the download without leaving us with more questions.  I still question the timing of the episode…and Janney’s Latin.
• We all knew it was going to be Jack who accepted the role as the new Jacob so I’m glad we didn’t spend too much time on this
• The flash sideways was just getting certain people into the right place but I did enjoy the scene with Ben having dinner over at Danielle and Alex’s and Ben’s reaction to being told that he’s the closest thing Alex has to a father

What I Didn’t Like:

• This remains to be seen but if Richard died like that, I’m going to be pretty pissed.

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What I Liked:

• Well, now we know who Adam and Eve are.
• I enjoyed the performances by Ryan Bradford (Boy in Black), Mark Pellegrino (Jacob) and Titus Welliver (MIB)

What I Didn’t Like:

• Let’s just pretend this episode never happened. There have been bad episodes of Lost before (The Jack tattoo one for example) and “Across the Sea” wasn’t a bad episode – well-filmed, acted, nice little Aesop fable (sans a moral) – but I don’t think I’ve ever been more disappointed in an episode of Lost.  Listen, I’m a huge Lost apologist.  Even episodes that my friends have hated, I’ve been able to find a redeeming quality in but “Across the Sea” just left me baffled.  If this was episode three of the final season, I might not have been that perturbed by this episode but at this late stage of the game (two episodes left), this episode left me with so many questions that a) I think are important and b) I’m 85% sure we won’t get the answer to.  At no point during “Across The Sea” are  the motivations of Mother (Allison Janney) EVER made clear and since her actions appear to be the driving force for the entire battle  between Jacob and MIB, I find that to be extremely problematic.  At the end of the episode, I commiserated with MIB because we both have no idea why he’s not allowed to leave the island.  Jacob and MIB represent the two types of Lost fans: those who are willing to accept the show despite its flaws for love (Jacob) and those who want answers and, in not getting them, get frustrated and get angry (MIB).  After tonight, I think I’m rooting for MIB.
• There was too much information we were just supposed to take at face value (“You’re Special.”; “I’ve made it so you can never hurt each other.”)
• Allison Janney’s Latin-by-way-of-South-Dakota made me laugh
• The fact that Jacob was always wearing white and BIB/MIB was always in…well…black was a little heavy-handed even for Lost

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What I Liked:

• Well….damn!  I knew Sayid was bound to die (again) and, after his conversation with Desmond, he would have one last heroic act before he did so good for him but…
• JIN AND SUN!?!? C’mon! So soon after they got back together?  That was just cruel.  I know the stakes needed to be raised but…why couldn’t it have been Kate?
• No more questions or doubts what notLocke’s intentions are.  You could almost see the excitement on his face as they got on the sub.
• In LA X, Terry O’ Quinn and Matthew Fox had some great Emmy clip worthy performances
• R.I.P. Lapidus who died as he lived, frustrated.
• The entire episode was pretty action-packed and tense which is great considering how many chatfest episodes we had this season

What I Didn’t Like:

• It bugged me to no end that in Sun’s pleas to get Jin to leave her behind in the sinking submarine she never once invoked Ji Yeon as a reason for him to live.  It would have been nice to at least see him struggle with that decision
• It’s highly improbable that a) Hurley made it through a hole in the submarine with water entering carrying an injured Kate, b) Jack would be able to swim an unconscious Sawyer to safety AND operate the breathing apparatus for him and c) they ended up at the same beach.
• I guess we’ll never find out which Kwon was a candidate
• In the minority column, we’re down to Miles, Hurley and Richard (depending on your opinion on Spaniards)

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What I Liked:

• The flash sideways are finally coming together
• Finally! Jin and Sun are reunited!
• Desmond appealing to Sayid and possibly converting him back from the Dark Side…at least momentarily
• Jack’s jumping off Sawyer’s boat after he’s given a “You’re on Team Sawyer or you’re off”
• LA X Sun freaking out when she saw Locke
• Sawyer calling Lapidus “that pilot who looks like he stepped off the set of a Burt Reynolds movie” and “Chesty”
• notLocke revealing he was the one on the island walking around as Christian Shepard
• Kate’s speech to convince Crazy Claire not to shoot her and to leave the island with them.

What I Didn’t Like:

• LA X Sawyer’s conversation with Kate about continuing to run into one another was a little too on the nose
• Lapidus ruining Sun and Jin’s emotional reunion with the worst line ever: “Looks like someone got their voice back.”
• While I thought Evangeline Lilly did an amazing job in her plea to Claire, I still wanted her to shoot
• While Sawyer and Kate have witnessed Claire’s crazy, I find it hard to believe that Hurley and, especially, Jack would abandon Claire because Sawyer said so

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What I Liked:

• I like the new in-charge, slightly badass island Hurley even though he’s winging it as much as jack had been in the past
• Libby! This is the first flash-sideway that made me hope that at the end of everything LA X doesn’t get wiped out so that hurley will finally get his chance with Libby.  It sucked when she was killed off so early so I’m glad we got to see the date that never was
• Ilana got Arnzted! Maybe the reason Jacob was never proactive is because he’s not very good at it.  Who casually drops a bag of dynamite? Worst guardian EVER!
• Team notLocke and Team Jacob are together finally so we can finally get moving to the end game
• There was something hilarious about Desmond running down Locke in LA X

What I Didn’t Like:

• The explanation for the Whispers?  Eh.  I think it should have remained an unexplained mystery if that was the explanation.  It seems tacked on like, “Let’s give them something…anything”
• Jack’s “I’m just along for the ride” attitude.
• Again, I wish we could have gotten to the Desmond-aware-in-LA X sooner because it feels like we’re going to be rushing in the next few episodes

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What I Liked:

• For those keeping score, there has only been one bad Desmond episode (“Catch 22″).  When there’s an episode that focuses on Desmond, you’re guaranteed two things: 1) One of the sci-fi aspects of the season come into focus and 2) Henry Ian Cusick will give a great performance.  Check and check.  Did you see the way his upper lip quivered when Widmore told him he was back on the island.
• After Desmond, my second favorite non-815er is Daniel Faraday (now Daniel Widmore) so I was glad to see him being his twitchy self
• I’m not even going to try to figure out what the flash sideways are (and I don’t think we’re supposed to really know) but we know what they aren’t: an epilogue and, more importantly, reality
• When Desmond got the flash of Charlie’s “Not Penny’s Boat,” I practically cheered out “Finally!”
• I loved all the little callbacks: the MacCutcheon scotch, Penny running the tour de stade this time, the pier where Desmond got shot, Eloise saying “What happened, happened”, the return of George Minkowski

What I Didn’t Like:

• I wish we could have gotten to the reveal that the flash sideways weren’t reality a little sooner but it’s a nitpick

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What I Liked:

• A great showcase for Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim (who have pretty much been dragged from one place to the other for the last season and a half), particularly, in showing Sun’s frustration with all these plans regarding destiny when all she wants is to leave the island and the emotions washing over Jin as he sees pictures of his daughter, Ji Yeon, for the first time.
• Kevin Durand’s extra-hammy Keamy.  It was both bad and entertaining.
• The return of Andrew Divoff as Mikhail.  I had to laugh when Jin shot him in the eye at the end
• The scene between notLocke and Claire about Kate’s usefulness
• Sayid swimming up to the dock looking like an extra in Apocalypse Now
• The return of Desmond!

What I Didn’t Like:

• It’s kinda ridiculous that Sun and Jin are STILL not together
• Aphasia?  Really?  Where are Seth and Amy when you need them?
• The flashsideway was okay.   Nothing special.

What I Absolutely F*cking Hated:

• That stupid V countdown clock in the corner for the ENTIRE episode.  What the f*ck is wrong with you, ABC?

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What I Liked:

• I don’t know if I’d call this the best episode ever but when the list is eventually made of greatest episodes of Lost ever, “Ab Aeterno” will be near the top.
• For all intents and purposes, we now know what the island is: a prison for whatever the Man in Black is.  The only reason people keep ending up there is Jacob’s attempts to prove to the Man in Black that when given a choice, man will choose good over evil (and, of course, the Man in Black cheats)
• I loved that the episode played with the most popular theory about the island: that’s its inhabitants were already dead and they were in some sort of purgatory or hell.
• Nestor Carbonell gave an amazing Emmy-worthy performance as Ricardus.  You have to take into account that, up to this point, Richard had only a few lines here and there.  He would show up, say something cryptic and then go away for three or four episodes.  He basically created his character with nothing to build from and he knocked out park. I’m not saying that I didn’t think Carbonell had it in him but before Lost, I only knew him as Batmanuel in the live version of The Tick.
• I will give the writers/producers this: they know how to get you emotionally invested in characters in a short period of time.
• Titus Welliver return as the Man in Black.  While I love Terry O’ Quinn playing notLocke, I hope we get to see him again.
• The parallel between MIB telling Richard how to kill Jacob and Dogen telling Sayid how to kill notLocke
• I love the emergence of Hurley as a major player in the going ons of the island.  In a way, he’s the new Richard

What I Didn’t Like:

• To quote Erwin, Jacob’s “a bit of a dick”
• I would have liked to see some of Richard’s time with the Others

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What I Liked:

• After a slow start (I still liked those episodes), the last three episodes have been pretty solid. It helps that they featured three of my favorite Losties.
• Sawyer the con man is back! I’m glad that the only side Sawyer is on is his own.
• LA X Sawyer…I mean…James Ford was different enough (Cop instead of con man) but complex enough (Still trying to kill the original Sawyer) to make his flashsideway compelling
• The return of Rebecca Mader and her lovely accent.  She cleans up nicely.
• Another strong episode for Evangeline Lilly who has seen Kate’s sole reason for coming back to the island – saving Claire – going horribly awry
• I loved Miles as James’ partner in LA X
• Despite the fact that he just killed a bunch of people, Smokey is still being painted as not THAT much of a villain.  It would be silly if he was an outright villain like Keamy in Season Four.  So far, he’s left us questioning if Jacob is really the good guy here.
• Liam showing up to try and bail out Charlie after he got arrested in the pilot
• The empty look on Sayid’s face as Claire tried to kill Kate
• If there is a Lost spinoff, it should be Sawyer and Miles as cops in LA.

What I Didn’t Like:

• I was really hoping James’ date was with Juliet

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