Recap / Lost S06E17 & 18 "The End"

Season 6, Episodes 17 and 18:

The End

"Everyone dies sometime, kiddo."

Written by Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse

Directed by Jack Bender

The plane clears frame, finally free of the Island. Jack Shephard has done what he came to this place to do. He has found his purpose. He has found love, and been loved. He has finally found a way to love himself. The bamboo sways across the blue sky, and Jack Shephard's eye closes one final time. He is gone. The end.

— The final line of the shooting script

The new guardian faces off against the Man in Black, who is determined to destroy the Island once and for all.

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Tropes in this episode include:

• Ace Pilot: Lapidus launches the Ajira plane even though it's being held together with duct tape and the runway is literally collapsing beneath the wheels.
• Alas, Poor Villain: The Man in Black's death is shown to be somewhat sympathetic, as he is left to rue falling just short of his goal of leaving the Island after thousands of years of trying right before Jack kicks him off a cliff.
• And the Adventure Continues: While Jack dies protecting the Island, Hurley's tenure as its protector is just beginning, with Ben suggesting he find a way to help Desmond get home. Hurley wonders how since people can't leave the Island, but Ben replies that that's how Jacob ran things and there might be a better way, to which Hurley asks him to help him so that he has someone "with experience." In the afterlife, we learn that they clearly served together for a long time.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: The characters in the Flash-sideways who are ready to "move on" gather in a church, where Christian opens the doors and they are engulfed by a bright light.
• Ascended Meme: Sawyer refers to the Man in Black as "Smokey", a popular Fan Nickname for the character.
• The Atoner: In the Flash-sideways, Ben sincerely apologizes to Locke for killing him, and decides to stick around to look after Alex and make up for his crimes in life rather than "moving on".
• Back for the Finale:
  • Rose and Bernard cameo on the Island, rescuing Desmond from the well the Man in Black threw him in.
  • In the Flash-sideways, many dead characters return for a final appearance, including Boone, Shannon, Libby, Charlie, Juliet, Daniel, Charlotte, Penny, Eloise and Pierre.
• Batman Gambit: Jack knows that the Man in Black wants to destroy the Island, and figures that turning off the Source will accomplish that. However, he also thinks that turning it off will make the Man in Black mortal and allow him to kill him, which is confirmed when he successfully draws blood from his mouth.
• Battle in the Rain: Jack and the Man in Black's final fight takes place on the edge of a cliff in the middle of a rainstorm as the Island starts collapsing into the sea.
• Becoming the Mask: Ironically, despite his contempt for the man, the Man in Black seems to momentarily forget that he's not really John Locke, as he jokes about arguing with Jack over whether or not to push a button and seems quite thrown when Jack reminds him that he couldn't be anything less like the man whose face he wears.
• Big Damn Heroes: Kate shoots the Man in Black just as he has a knife to Jack's throat and is about to finish him off.
  The Man in Black: I want you to know Jack, you died for nothing! [gets shot in the back]
  Kate: I saved you a bullet!
• Book Ends:
  • The final scene of the series mirrors the opening scene of Jack waking up in the jungle in the first episode, as he stumbles into the exact same bamboo forest, with Vincent keeping him company, and dies, with the final shot being a close up of his eye closing.
  • The scene of all of the survivors gathered in the church in the Flash-sideways resembles the way they were seated on the plane, with Christian opening the doors behind them and allowing a bright light to engulf them, similarly to how the tail section of the plane snapped off.
  • The series began with a plane crash, and concludes with a plane taking off.
• Brought Down to Badass: The Man in Black loses his invulnerability and his ability to turn himself into a cloud of black smoke after Desmond turns off the Heart of the Island. However, he is still a very formidable opponent in his fight with Jack, as he succeeds in inflicting a mortal wound on him and would have killed him outright if Kate hadn't shown up at the last moment.
• Call-Back:
  • Hurley references his and Sayid's showdown with Widmore's goons in "Because You Left" when he prepares to tranquilize Charlie.
    Hurley: None of this is ringing a bell, is it? You, me, tranquilizer gun?
  • The shot of the Man in Black and Jack lowering Desmond into the Heart of the Island is framed very similarly to the shot of Locke and Jack staring down into the Hatch at the end of "Exodus, Part 2", with the Man in Black even commenting on the similarities between the two situations.
    The Man in Black: This remind you of anything, Jack?
    Jack: What?
    The Man in Black: Desmond...going down into a hole in the ground. If there was a button down there to push, we could fight about whether or not to push it. It'd be just like old times.
  • Kate once again delivers Aaron in the Flash-sideways.
  • Locke waking up and regaining the use of his legs after his surgery mirrors both him regaining the ability to walk after landing on the Island and Jack's ex-wife Sarah's successful surgery in "Man of Science, Man of Faith".
  • When Kate sees Jack's stab wound from the Man in Black, he quips "Just find me some thread and I can count to five."
  • During Sawyer and Juliet's reunion in the Flash-sideways, Juliet's lines are the same as her Last Words from "LA X", indicating that she flashed back and forth between the Flash-sideways and the real world as she was dying.
    Juliet: We should get coffee some time.
    Sawyer: I'd love to but the machine ate my dollar, I only got one left.
    Juliet: We can go dutch.
• Chekhov's Gun: Ben and Miles use Widmore's walkies from the previous episode to communicate.
• Deadly Nosebleed: Despite his resistance to electromagnetism, Desmond gets one of these from direct exposure to the Heart of the Island, although he survives.
• De-power: Desmond turning off the Heart of the Island turns the Man in Black back into a mortal man, allowing Jack and Kate to kill him.
• Died Happily Ever After: The ultimate fate of all the main characters, as they meet up in the Flash-sideways afterlife and Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence together.
• Disney Villain Death: Jack finishes off the Man in Black by kicking him off a cliff, although we do see his body hit the ground.
• Duct Tape for Everything: Lapidus, Miles and Richard use a significant amount of duct tape to get the Ajira plane in working order.
  Miles: I don't believe in a lot of things but I do believe in duct tape.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Ben finally gets what he wanted, to be the trusted aide to the island's protector. He's almost speechless when Hurley asks him for help in running things.
• Fake Defector: Ben's apparent Face–Heel Turn from the previous episode is revealed to have been a ruse, as he acts as The Mole for the survivors, keeping in contact with Miles with a walkie-talkie and telling Kate where the Man in Black's boat is, allowing her to track him down and kill him when he is on the verge of killing Jack.
• Global Ignorance: Sawyer calls Desmond a leprechaun, indicating he may have confused Scotland and Ireland.
• Going Down with the Ship: Ben decides to stay behind and help Jack turn the Heart of the Island back on rather than escape on the Ajira plane with Sawyer and Kate.
  Ben: If the Island's going down, I'm going down with it.
  • Hurley also opts to stay with Jack rather than try to escape with Kate and Sawyer.
• Grand Finale: Jack has an epic Final Battle with the Man in Black before making a Heroic Sacrifice to save the Island and all of his friends, Hurley becomes the new Big Good with Ben completing his redemption by accepting the role of his loyal Number Two, Sawyer, Kate, Claire, Miles, Lapidus and Richard escape the Island for good, and the Flash-sideways allows loved ones to reunite in the afterlife and gives closure to almost every character in the series, living and dead.
• The Hero Dies: The final shot of the series is the death of Jack Shephard, the show's main protagonist.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Jack, already bleeding out from a stab wound inflicted by the Man in Black, enters the Heart of the Island to turn it back on, knowing this will kill him, to save the Island. Ben surprisingly has one as well, pushing Hurley out of the way of a fallen tree and gets trapped as a result, he ends up being a non-fatal example.
• I Lied: The Man in Black admits that when he told Ben he could be in charge of the Island, he left out the part of it being on the bottom of the ocean.
• Ironic Echo: When Kate tries to shoot the Man in Black near the start of the episode, he tells her to save her bullets as they bounce harmlessly off him. After he becomes mortal, Kate shoots him again, and quips "I saved you a bullet!"
• Just in Time: Sawyer, Kate, and Claire make it to the plane when Frank is getting ready to power up the engines for takeoff. Miles lampshades how Sawyer literally waited for the last second.
  Frank: Boys, we got some late arrivals!
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Boone's comment that it was "a pain in the ass" getting Shannon over from Australia to reunite with Sayid references the behind the scenes difficulties the producers had scheduling Maggie Grace's cameo.
• Meaningful Echo: When Jack heads to the Heart of the Island with Desmond and the Man in Black to enact his plan, Hurley tells him that he believes in him. Later Jack says the same thing to Hurley when he asks him to become the Island's new protector.
• Meta Twist: For six seasons, one of the most popular fan theories about the series was that everyone died in the crash and the Island is purgatory, despite repeated debunking. As it turns out, the Island is not purgatory, but the Flash-sideways actually is, which almost nobody saw coming.
• Mortality Ensues: Miles realises that Richard has his first gray hair, indicating that he has started aging normally again, which Richard seems quite happy about.
  Richard: I think I just realized that I wanna live.
• Mundane Solution: After being found by Richard and Miles, and told that they're going to destroy the plane, Frank points out the obvious: since he's a pilot, they can use the plane to fly off the Island.
• Near-Villain Victory: The Man in Black nearly accomplishes his goal of destroying the Island and sailing away. Then Jack arrives to kill him.
• Not Quite Dead: Both Richard, who was punched into the jungle by the Man in Black in his Smoke Monster form, and Lapidus, last seen being knocked down by a flying door in a sinking submarine, are revealed to be alive.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • It's subtle, but the Man in Black is clearly taken aback when Jack says, with complete confidence and certainty, that he's going to kill him. He has repeatedly shown that he is unstoppable, so Jack's statement is enough to unsettle him.
  • The Man in Black is visibly scared when he realizes that he is mortal after Jack draws blood from him.
  • Sawyer reacts to seeing a massive chunk of the Island break off by saying "That can't be good."
• One Bullet Left: Implied with Kate after shooting the Man in Black multiple times to no effect.
• Passing the Torch: Jack passes on the role of Island protector to Hurley before he makes his Heroic Sacrifice.
• Platonic Co-Parenting: Kate convinces Claire to come home with her by saying that the two of them will raise Aaron together.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Except for Liam Pace and David Shephard, all of the recurring characters in the finale are listed under ‘Starring’ along with the regulars. Speaking of, all of the past regulars who return get this treatment too.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Jack gives the Man in Black a scathing one when he starts trying to act like the real Locke, joking that he and Jack could push a button together "like old times."
  "You're not John Locke, you disrespect his memory by wearing his face, but you are nothing like him. It turns out he was right about just about everything. I just wish I could have told him that when he was still alive."
• Say My Name:
  • Jack yells "LOCKE!" as he confronts the Man in Black for their final showdown.
  • When Jack wakes up from the Man in Black's knock-out, he immediately runs back into the Heart of the Island and shouts Desmond's name to check his status after removing the cork. Hearing nothing, Jack shifts his focus back to chasing after the Man in Black, and only rediscovers Desmond later on during the episode's climax when he ventures into the Heart to fix the Island.
  • Hurley screams for Jack after finding that he and Ben actually rescued Desmond.
• Scotty Time: Lapidus claims he needs five or six hours to repair the Ajira plane while the Island is collapsing around him, to which Richard responds that he has maybe one. He gets the job done on time.
• Shipper on Deck: Far from his My Sister Is Off-Limits attitude on the Island, Boone helps Hurley arrange Sayid and Shannon's reunion in the Flash-sideways.
• Shooting Superman: Blinded by Rage after Sun, Jin and Sayid's deaths, Kate tries to shoot the Man in Black even though he is Immune to Bullets. He tells her to save her bullets, and she does, using one to kill him after the Heart of the Island has been turned off, rendering him mortal.
• Shout-Out: Hurley claims Jacob is "worse than Yoda" for not telling the survivors what he wants them to do, and says "I've got a bad feeling about this" when Sawyer leaves to find Desmond.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: The Man in Black shuts down Jack's "The Reason You Suck" Speech by telling him Locke wasn't right about anything, and that Jack will see how wrong he was when the Island sinks.
• Silent Credits: The usual percussive sound is not played over the final title card. In addition, the credits are played over footage of the Flight 815 wreckage with the ambient crashing of waves onto the beach, without the usual ending theme.
• Stay with Me Until I Die: Vincent runs up to Jack in the bamboo grove and lies down next to him so Jack won't be alone when he dies.
• A Storm Is Coming: Miles and the Man in Black note that a really bad storm is coming in, which is unleashed once the Source is turned off.
• Third Time's The Charm: Subverted. Frank says that the second time is the charm, because the plane doesn't have the battery power for a third try.
• Villainous Plan Inertia: The Man in Black's plan to destroy the Island is not ended by his death, requiring Jack to make a Heroic Sacrifice by turning the Heart of the Island back on.
  Kate: I don't understand. Locke's dead, why is this still happening?
  Jack: Because whatever Desmond turned off...I need to turn it back on again
• The Voiceless: Penny appears in the final scene, but she doesn't have any lines.
• Wham Line:
  • The identity of David's mother is revealed.
    David: Hey dad, did you remember the tickets?
    Jack: [pointing to Juliet] I just gave 'em to your mom.
  • After Locke regains his memories in the Flash-sideways, he drops one on Jack, who is still resisting his own.
    Jack: We're not going anywhere. You just had extensive spinal surgery and I...I need to see my son.
    Locke: You don't have a son.
  • Christian reveals the true nature of the Flash-sideways.
    Jack: I don't understand...you died.
    Christian: Yeah. Yes I did...
    Jack: Then how are you here right now?
    Christian: How are you here?
    Jack: I died too...
• Wham Shot: Two occur in quick succession when Desmond removes the cork from the Heart of the Island.
  • First, the light is replaced by a red fire, and the Island begins to shake and drop into the sea.
    The Man in Black: It looks like you were wrong.
  • Then, an enraged Jack tackles the Man in Black and punches him in the face... and draws blood from his mouth.
    Jack: Looks like you were wrong too.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: David disappears from the story after Locke reminds Jack that he doesn't exist, and it's never revealed exactly who or what he was.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
  • In the Flash-sideways, Hurley tells Sayid that he is a good person, even if he doesn't believe he is, and gives him the chance to prove it by saving Shannon from a mugger.
    "I think you're a good guy, Sayid. You know, a lot of people have told you that you're not. Maybe you've heard it so many times you started believing it. You can't let other people tell you what you are, dude. You have to decide that for yourself."
  • Hurley expresses doubt about his worthiness in taking on the role of the Island's protector, both because accepting the transfer of power will force him to confront Jack's death and because he's unclear on what he should do going forward. Both Jack and Ben assure him that he's in fact the perfect person for the role, with Jack claiming that he was only supposed to take on the position long enough to stop the Man in Black's plan before passing it on and Ben saying that Hurley is the best when it comes to taking care of people.
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Throughout the series, Jack has never referred to Hurley by his real name. He calls him "Hugo" in order to emphasize that he needs to protect the Island now.

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