It all comes down to a vending machine and Zod

So - many people have been asking me about the finale. I have waited quite some time to blog about it...I needed to digest. There is a lot of vitriol and anger out there about unanswered questions. I think that kind of misses the point, because a) the power of this show is that questions were always posed, and answered in a manner that raised new questions...the debate, inquiry, speculation, and discussion that this show was the catalyst for during the course of six years was simply astonishing. This is not a show that can be summed up at the water cooler. If the finale would have made it such, I would have been deeply disappointed; and b) many questions were answered, but you have to go through debate, introspection, and speculation in order to fathom it (the average person doesn't understand Buber on the first read-through...try reading the Talmud without debate).

So - I am going to start analyzing things one at a time.

First - the on the island plot of Desmond uncorking the light/energy on the island, and Jack putting it back. This had me thinking that the Losties...they were stuck...lost - if you will - in their lives. They were lost and unable to 'move on'. They were alone. Their lives were 'frozen'. Kind of like - do you remember when a Nintendo video game - one of the originals that came out in the late 80s/early 90s would get frozen/stuck? What would you do? You would pull it out, blow on it, maybe toggle the power button on and off, and then put it back in and turn it on. This was similar to what happened on the island. By the way - similar to what happened when Sawyer went to go get an Apollo bar...he had to unplug it and plug it back in.

The light/energy was as it always was, but needed to be uncorked by Desmond. This gave rise to an element we last saw in Superman II. KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!

At the end of Superman II, Sup is in the Fortress of Solitude. Zod, Ursa, and Non were there, determined to kill the son of Jor'el. They had Lois Lane as a hostage, and Lex Luthor was in tow.

What Luthor set in motion was the following: Superman had previously lost his power - purposefully - when he went into a case in the Fortress that emitted a radiation that made him like any human. He later regained his powers. Now, though, Luthor betrays Superman and reveals to the threesome that if they put him back in the case, he'll be just another human again. Little does he know that Sup has been jury rigged the case, and now the radiation is emitted on the outside - not the inside - so anyone standing on the outside will lose their powers. Sup makes short order of Zod and his companions.

This is what happened when Desmond uncorked the island. It took away the powers from anyone on the island...Richard Alpert lost his immortality, as indicated with his growing of a gray hair. Man-in-Black was trapped inside the corporeality that he was in the form of at the time, John Locke. And he became mortal.

Once Jack put the cork back in, Jack could die. Once in the limbo-world/sideways world, he became the catalyst for certain other Losties to move on.

What are your thoughts? Leave some comments...
Next element will be posted soon.