(Spoilers included)

The last episode of LOST’s 3rd season is one that can change your life. It sounds exaggerated, but “Through the Looking Glass” can stand by the highly influential works of modern culture. That may sound sacrilegious, but LOST reminds me of the “The Catcher in the Rye”, which changed my way of thinking forever. Supposing that by reading the noted novel of J.D. Salinger you exercise yourself, like its main character Holden Caulfield, to question every status quo, even reaching levels of sabotaging your own existence, then what is the lesson learned by this special LOST ep.?

But, of course, to perpetually doubt not about the mere material or social substance of things, but about their ideological approach, undermining and tumbling the way you have learned to esteem facts. However, never without a price to pay.

The moment in which Kate shows up in front of Jack in the airport overbears everything we knew about LOST’s “normal” flow of facts, furthermore in a meta-level, everything we knew about the filming methods of breaking and reordering the time frame. It is common place, indeed, that in the past many directors have tried to narrate stories outside the linear direction of time, either successfully (e.g. Memento) or not, either in a comprehensible way or not (e.g. Mulholland Dr.).

LOST producers followed an outright honest approach into their chronological deception. They never underlined scenes with determinative time-spatial subtitles. They shot their first salvos in their inaugural –mutually inverse- scenes of 03χ01 and 03χ20. They paved the way with Desmond’s constant flash forwards. Finally, into 03χ22, they scattered hints to make us cerebrate what’s going on. Whoever has wide open eyes might see, whoever does not will be taken aback – nevertheless, their ignorance will be paid back with an unspoken, lasting, intense feeling.

Let us review some of these –already known- hints:
• The air turbulences and Jack’s calmness.
• The 1st phone call to Kate with the haunted, insular salutation: hey.
• The anagram of the funeral home’s title (not, of course, to be used during episode’s real time viewing)
• Jack’s avoidance of calling his father in the pharmacy, the chief doctor’s look in the hospital and Jack’s agony relating to what he has been through.
• The wink regarding Hurley’s participation. After his 2nd offer’s rejection (by Sawyer), you know that those scenes have not been shot without a cause and that he is the man that will eventually rescue Sayid’s group. You can see it in front of you, “look forward” is the “sesame” word, spell “forward” and it will inoculate the way you are experiencing the whole episode – the form (word) can lead you to the essence (meaning).
• Finally, Jack’s outrageous attitude during the whole “flashback”. Astonishment at its self-destructing character and pointless speculation about how Jack succeeded in controlling and rehabilitating himself, while the real question should concern the reason that led him to this painful position. Was it due to his ex-wife’s rejection? Too simple to be true, too out-of-LOST.

The structure and the facts of 03χ22, beyond the usual semiotic references, like the 3 suicide attempts – all related with the saving or taking of other people’s lives, permit me to parallel the whole series, regarding not the viewers’ feelings but the plot evolution, to the famous Gaussian (i.e. a hill-shaped graph).

“Through the Looking Glass” lies, of course, on the top of the curve. It is in many ways the outmost extremity of lost’s path:

• It stands in the exact middle of the series’ TV lifespan – wonder if it is also the middle of the real time space (from crash to the ending)
• It is the 1st time that communication with outer world is established; hence we have darkness on the one hand, light on the other.
• The strenuous acclivitous road of survival has ended, now the foretold road of rescue is about to start (?).
• Charlie’s death, the 1st of a leading character, prepares us for more of this kind in the future.
• Jack and Kate’s idyll culminates in the epic “Cause I love you”. An idyll that started with a needle and thread, forged into a cave’s debris, hymned through muted glances and everyday talking and tested by palinodes and diversions. Even if that idyll was not doomed due to its surrounding special circumstances, the romantic theory about Love states that love flares up whilst it is tacit – the moment it is expressed the process of decay and withering starts inevitably.
• And, of course, the momentous airport meeting scene signals the end (?) of the illuminating “flashbacks”, and the beginning of the mysterious “flashforwards” (e.g. dead man in the coffin). Till now, we would resort to the past to comprehend the characters’ present behavior. From now on we shall focus on “now” to try to explain the future “whys”.

According to an old logic problem, you are asked to cover all 9 dots that form a square (4 on the corners, 4 on the middle of the sides and 1 in the center) by drawing 4 consecutive lines. The solution is simple, provided you permit yourself to think outside the frame defined by the square.

In a similar way, that is the great lesson of LOST, “Through the Looking Glass”. The producers define an operation frame and they challenge us to move outside that frame. And what about the eternal quandary “Logic or Emotion” which even divides the protagonists (Jack vs. Locke)?

The “flash forward” mystery’s explanation leaves the pendulum swinging: whoever gathered all the puzzle pieces and solved the riddle can be proud of his discernment. Alas, the price is that the drama’s culmination found him prepared and tamed. What a contradiction with the gaping mouth of the startled viewer, who -after Charlie’s fatal flood- finds himself struggling in a sea of unanswered questions and heart-breaking emotions of cursing and sympathy.

What would Dr. Phil say? hmmm… dropping “Freckles” not because Sawyer killed the con-man that ruined his family and changed his life forever (and to the worst), but that Kate calls James “James” and James calls Kate “Kate” because they have been physically intimate (several times now) and they are honoring their new found physical, emotional & social intimacy by bonding and being honest and direct with one another.
Think about that the next time you call your “significant other” a cutesy, glib name. Sometimes honest and direct works best, particularly when there is a whole lot of “I Love You” in your eyes, the eyes right above your genuine, “I’m So Satisfied” smile.

ToeKnee – though I tend to agree that freckles angle is a weak one(and also tend to agree that Ford stopped calling her freckles because he is a jilted lover), it is not impossible that this was a hint, much like how Jack has gray in his beard now, but not in the ff. Sure these could be makeup issues, but I choose to keep an open mind on possible easter eggs until the show proves otherwise. I’m using these two examples to support that Charlie has changed into a swimmer and the big hints that Des was told not to mess with fate.

BTW(not that TV follows the rules of life anyway) many people are not born with freckles. I personally did not have freckles but developed them on my shoulders as an adult after a severe sun burn…just sayin’…

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I woke up this morning and I had a new freckle on my middle toe. Weird.

BTW(not that TV follows the rules of life anyway) many people are not born with freckles. I personally did not have freckles but developed them on my shoulders as an adult after a severe sun burn…just sayin’…

Sawyer not calling Kate freckles – I think it has something to do with the fact that he killed Cooper a few episodes ago. That must have changed him dramatically. Also, notice how he didn’t hesitate to kill Tom later on. Sawyer’s a much darker person now.

I wrote the above back in comment 419, and I still believe this is the case. Sawyer had always been portrayed as a badass, but he always had a mischievous, humorous side to him. But once he killed the original Sawyer, that represented two significant changes in his life: 1) for the second time in his life he has killed someone, and 2) his life-long quest to find and kill the orignial Sawyer has come to an end.

There’s no telling how these two events would affect the inner-workings of a person, but it is apparent that, for the time being, James Ford’s mischievous, humorous side has been replaced by a more angry, vengeful, darker personality. Also, to further add to his unhappiness, it has become apparent to him that Kate loves Jack.

As a result of this shift to a darker personality, he doesn’t have it in him to joke around with cutesy nicknames, especially with someone he perhaps feels betrayed by. And note that not only does James not use nicknames for Kate, he also didn’t use a nickname for Hugo.

While I don’t completely rule out the possiblity that somehow Kate’s freckles have disappeared in an alternate timeline scenario, I think that is highly unlikely. If there’s something going on with alternate timelines or whatever, that would affect EVENTS that happen to each person. I don’t think it would affect the genetic makeup of a person. I’m certainly not an expert, but even if it did affect the genetic makeup of a person, I don’t think one specific trait (e.g. freckles) would be altered, it would be the entire package. To be more blunt, Kate’s genetics were determined by one specific sperm joining with one specific egg; if there were a different sperm and/or a different egg, her entire physicality would be altered.

lost chicka wrote:

what is so hard to understand about kate not having freckles because she’s not on a tropical island anymore & is wearing make up for the first time in her life?????????

What’s so hard to understand that they dropped a clue by having Kate ask Ford why he doesn’t call her freckles anymore???????????

Maybe its just because she keeps calling him james.

lost chicka wrote:

what is so hard to understand about kate not having freckles because she’s not on a tropical island anymore & is wearing make up for the first time in her life?????????

What’s so hard to understand that they dropped a clue by having Kate ask Ford why he doesn’t call her freckles anymore???????????

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the anger just boils up for the sheer volume of inane comments sometimes. breathe hammer.