Lost: Jacob

Let's face it, Jacob's a dick. He sets people up to be stranded on a weird, magic island they can't leave, gives them no assistance or guidance on how to survive, never says or does anything when his whole "plan" goes horribly wrong, and it's apparently all just to prove a point to a guy he's been stuck with for centuries.

Now I know you're all thinking this is a biblical allusion, with Jacob as God and the island inhabitants as Job. But there's some problems with that. For one thing, Job had unswerving faith before God tested him, none of the people Jacob brings to the island have any idea he's there or what he wants to prove, nor does he ever enlighten them.

Also, Job got everything back when his tests were over. All you seem to get for staying true to Jacob is either live forever (Richard) or spend your life on the island serving someone you'll never meet nor will you ever know if you're doing anything right (Ben and his predecessors).

Finally, Jacob's complete lack of interaction with his supposed "disciples" leads directly to the very violence, suffering, and death that he's attempting to prove won't always happen. If Jacob had just sent word to Richard to pass along to Ben that he should be nice to these newbies or maybe just leave them alone, Jack, Kate, and all the rest wouldn't have had a fraction of the problems they've had. Actually, those kinds of issues predate Oceanic 815, since the Dharma people had problems with the Others, and the Others were always armed and jumpy whenever Sawyer's group encountered them while time-travelling.

So, this god-like being Jacob spent who knows how many years causing more problems with his amazing powers than he ever solved (especially for his special, chosen few), and while he might have been "like a father" to Ilana, he's been a horrible curse to almost everyone else.

Lost: Wow, Just Wow

There's an anime series I really liked that, with only four episodes left until their finale, killed off at least one major character per episode until there was simply no one left. I remember thinking, "Now THAT'S how you end a series."

Lost has apparently decided to do something similar, as in last night's episode, Sayid blew up, Sun and Jin drowned, Kate got shot, and Sawyer's head is bleeding (hey, I just realized, what happened to Lapedius?). So, now we're apparently left with unquestionably faithful Jack and "I see dead people" Hurley vs Smoke Monster Locke and Crazy Claire.

Now I'll admit that I'm pretty sad about Sun and Jin, but I did feel something like that coming. The two have had a whole "tragic love story" vibe for a while now: Jin almost dying to save Sun, then Sun coming back to the island to find him, then they were both looking desperately for one another, and even when they found one another I was scared that it wouldn't last long. And it didn't.

I really liked last night's episode, and the series is building up to a really good finale, but I will say I've had issues with this last season. For starters, instead of "answering questions" at the beginning, they just started adding characters who they then just killed off, which has always been an issue with the series, bringing people to light just so they can have someone die: "Hey, here's some people we've never noticed before, oh, they're all dead." Also, the flash sideways thing seemed like a waste of time, until they started linking them directly to the island action.

I realize that all (and probably even most) of our questions will not be answered or possibly even addressed (Why is the island so special? Why are these specific people candidates? Who built the statue? Why did Jacob never get a new weaving machine?), but I don't think I'll have a problem with that, provided they give us a good ending that doesn't require too much explanation. I am hopeful of this, despite a lifetime of disappointment.