Excuses

The final hour of Lost, season 4, was on TV, so I watched it. Though I have the DVDs and can watch any episode any time I wish, what else could I do? This is the one where the freighter blows up, the island disappears and the corpse is revealed to be John Locke.

A few observations:

First, one of the biggest plot problems people have had with Lost is why the Oceanic 6 think lying is a good idea. Jack keeps saying how evil Widmore is, and how he'd kill everyone on the island. Jack says in this episode would someone who faked a whole plane of dead people stop at anything? This is true, but Widmore knows they're lying, so why bother? Indeed, the Oceanic Six know he knows they're lying--in this episode Sun tells Widmore as much. (Though I'm not sure how Sun knows Ben is responsible for Jin's death. Unless some very clever person figured it out, it'd have to come from John Locke, who had to tell it to Jack or Kate or Hurley or whomever, who then spread it to Jin, and even then I'm not sure the timeline works. Perhaps she just figures Ben is involved, because that's the kind of thing he does. It can't be she's mad in general that the whole expedition came to get Ben, because then she'd be mad at Widmore too, and she's willing to work with him.)

I've come up with weak excuses for this lying thing before, but I think I get it now. Locke told Jack he has to lie, and when Jack sees the island disappear, he finally agrees, and tells everyone in the raft about it just before they're picked up by Penny. Perhaps they're not thinking straight, but everyone goes along with it. So here's the deal. The Six come up with an elaborate cover story that comports with Widmore's lies. This will calm down Widmore a bit, since he knows they're not going to blow wide open his even more elaborate scheme--but that really protects the Oceanic Six, not those back on the island. However, if they told the truth, it would start a massive, worldwide search for the island. Right now, as far as they understand, Widmore is stymied, but if everyone is looking, it's much more likely someone will find it and Widmore will then do his worst. Furthermore, with the cover story, though Widmore may know it's a lie, he'd be more likely to believe there's no one left alive on the island--perhaps the island is destroyed--or otherwise the Six would try to help them. This could lead to Widmore letting the whole thing drop (as far as the Six are concerned). Okay, I know it's weak, but it'll have to do.

Second, as Ben tries to get to the Donkey Wheel, the ladder breaks, he falls and bloodies himself. When Locke tried to get there he fells a great distance and broke his leg. Is this a requirement of using the Donkey Wheel?

Third, when the island moves, some are inside the move, some are outside. Faraday, on the raft, is on the inside. Jin (we find out later), after the explosion, floating with the driftwood, is inside. The helicopter gang are outside. Now there's no way Jin is closer than the helicopter to the island, so I have to assume the helicopter was too high to be inside.

Finally, poor Locke. He's waited the whole show to find his place. He leaves the Orchid and is welcomed as the leader of the Others by Richard. And a minute later the sky lights up and he flashes into a new time period, leaving his people behind.