I have to say right off the bat, that I'm not going to be able to avoid spoilers about past seasons in talking about how the series wraps up, so if you have any kind of interest in Lost, but aren't caught up yet, don't read beyond this point. Just go get the previous seasons. If you any kind of science fiction fan, you will enjoy the experience, trust me.
When we last left the remaining survivors, many of them had been thrown into 1977 during the height of the Dharma Initiative. In an attempt to stop the events that lead up to the original Oceanic Flight 815 crash, they have unleashed an atomic bomb at the site of "the incident" at what would become the hatch. The rest of the cast left in the present have followed an apparently resurrected John Locke (Terry O'Quinn), only to find out he isn't their new leader and seems to have found a way to kill the island's guardian, Jacob (Mark Pellegrino).
So where does that leave us know? For one thing, it seems the explosion only partially worked. Where past seasons used flashforwards and flashbacks in order to progress the overall story, this time around, we get to experience flashsideways scenes. These segments appear to be the life the characters of the show would have led had "the incident" never occurred. There are many similarities and differences in the characters' lives and include everything from Sawyer (Josh Holloway) becoming a cop instead of a con-man, to Hurley (Jorge Garcia) claiming nothing bad ever happens to him. It seems like this alternate world is everything they could have hoped for. What's odd though is that these events are only half of the story since the non-flashsideways scenes have those stuck in the past being blasted back to the present with the belief that their plan didn't work.
Needless to say, there is a lot to digest in just the season's premier episode, "LAX." From that point forward, the final season is a rollercoaster of action and questions finally answered. While there are a few low points in the series, at least those delve into long questioned parts of the island's past. Everything from Richard Alpert's arrival on the island and apparently lack of aging, to the nature of the relationship between Jacob and the mysterious Man in Black is revealed. Heck, they even go so far as to finally tell us what the numbers mean, who the bodies in the cave are, and of course, it all leads up to the powerful series finale.
We also get treated to some return characters this season. Not only does Claire (Emilie de Ravin) return, but her three years of living alone on the island and without her baby have turned her a little feral. I couldn't help but notice the similarities between her character and Danielle (AKA "Crazy French Lady" played by Mira Furlan), who, I might add, also returns thanks to the flashsideways sequences. Many other characters reappear in the alternate timeline. Not only do we see long-dead characters like Boone (Ian Somerhalder), Michael (Harold Perrineau) and Artz (Daniel Roebuck), but also the much loved Charlie (Dominic Monaghan), who ends up playing a major role in the realization of what exactly is happening in the alternate timeline.
I obviously won't go into any detail, but to not mention the show's last episode would simply be unjust. As the season draws to an end, we get to see the final fates of characters lke Sun (Yunjin Kim), Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), Ben (Michael Emerson), Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Jack (Matthew Fox), Sayid (Naveen Andrews) Sawyer and Hurley and learn exactly what the island is asking of all of them. While I was slightly disappointed in the revelation of the nature of the flashsideways sequences, after re-watching the show with that revelation in mind, things aren't nearly as bad as I first felt. It's like those movies that you have to see a second time to appreciate the twist, but in this case, it's the entire season.
As always, the Blu-ray version of Lost is a beauty to watch. While the past few seasons have gotten away from the wonderful beach locations, there are quite a few times in The Sixth and Final Season where we revisit old haunts; heck, we even get to go back to the caves from the first season again. The lush jungles and blue water always come through in great detail on Blu-ray, and this season is no different.
Outside of the Blu-ray's higher visual and audio quality, this version of the season comes with Season Play. Introduced in the show's first Blu-ray release, The Complete Third Season, this feature allows your Blu-ray player to keep track of where you are in the show and let you know which disc you need to put in to continue your experience. It also allows you to go from episode to episode across discs without having to navigate menus and be slowed down by the rest of the disc's features.
Of course, there are other special features as well. In the feature "The New Man In Charge," we get to see a bit of the events that happen after the series finale which actually answers a few questions that the show's normal run didn't cover, and in true Lost style, it manages to sneak in yet another question that is sure to leave Lost fans wanting to know what, if anything, is next.
The featurette "Creating A Final Season" not only indepthly covers the making of this season, but interviews various other television show creators as they talk about what can and needs to happen in the final season of a show. This featurette covers a lot of the events in the season that happened behind the scenes, and you get to see everything from actors saying goodbye, to Garcia getting the script to the finale, "The End" and reading it for the first time. Another special feature, "A Hero's Journey," delves into general story development and the patterns used when creating a hero's story arc. In the context of Lost, the show attempts to do that across 16 or so characters, instead of one main hero.
Another interesting featurette is "See You In Another Life, Brotha" that delves deeply into the unusual nature of this season's flashsideways segments, and then there are the show's standard special features like bloopers, deleted scenes and Lost On Location, which covers six episodes this time around. There are also a few audio commentaries in this season, but I will warn you that they don't confine their discussions to the events leading up to that episode as they will talk about future episodes as well. So only listen to these tracks after you've gone through the whole season.
Overall, Lost: The Complete Sixth and Final Season is a solid way to end the series. While the finale might not appease everyone, a second viewing will help alleviate any issues. If you are going to pick up this last season of Lost, then make sure you've seen all the rest before hand. Like the previous seasons, this isn't really a show that will let you start in the middle (or in this case the end) and expect you to understand everything that is going on. Of course, if you haven't gotten any of the seasons yet, but know you like the show, there is always Lost: The Complete Collection as a massive boxed set containing everything in one bundle.
Clips
Recon on LocationSub on Location
Circularity
Sideways Mirrors (Multiple Mirrors)
Flash Sideways
Bringing in the Past
Red Paper
