LOST, Season 3: "Through The Looking Glass" [recap]

I had two questions upon seeing that "snake in the mailbox" ending to the Season 3 finale: "How?" and, more importantly, "Why?"

How is pretty self explanatory: how did Jack and Kate (and presumably other people) get OFF THE ISLAND?

The WHY is a bit more complex, and I'll try and ask some of my questions during this recap...

First off, let's hit you guys with some observations; I've seen some on the web, but others haven't really been brought up - to my knowledge:

//OK so the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" and Nirvana's "Scentless Apprentice" were featured in this episode. Any coincidence that this was an episode where the assumed leader was struggling with depression/drug use/questions of his worth/etc.?
//I know that the shots of Jack were flash-forwards, and that the name of the funeral parlor he visited is an anagram for "flash forward", but is there any significance in the fact that its a funeral parlor, and not like a toy store or something?
//Penny, in speaking to Charlie, asked him how he got that frequency: does this mean that the Looking Glass called Penny, and not the other way around?
//How is it that Mikhail can not only survive the sonic waves from the fence, but survive the spearing? Did he survive that grenade blast underwater?
//Remember in "Catch-22", where Desmond was speaking to Charlie about how his trying to save Charlie has been seemingly messing up his getting reacquainted with Penny? Is he doomed now, seeing as though he went down there to save Charlie? I ask this because the scene still played out the way he said it would - even though the flashes always change.
//You like how the majority of the "main Others" got iced this season, and how we lost so many of them in one episode!
//What's the deal with this "Golden Pass" Jack spoke of?
//Anyone else notice Rousseau's lies? She's previously said that the radio tower was both by the Black Rock, and that the Others controlled it. Neither seem to be the case. And how come her first words to the daughter she never bonded with was asking her to tie up Ben? Something is fishy there...

OK so now to try and ask a few more questions.

In reading the 2nd of Doc Jensen's finale posts, he brings up an interesting theory about who could possibly be in the casket. Many people think it was Sawyer, others think it was Ben, but I don't think any of them are in it, and I like how Doc assumed it was Michael, Walt's dad. Here's his reasoning: Jack's spending all this time wallowing in self-pity, trying to "get back", the episode even ends on Jack screaming WE HAVE TO GET BACK, to the island (seemingly); who do we know who has, (again) seemingly, gotten off the island? Michael & Walt. We don't know of anyone else who had a boat and free reign to just bounce. So if Michael DID make it off the island, and ended up dying suddenly, one of Jack's only hopes for getting off the island is gone. Now it doesn't have to be Michael, but anyone who might know how to get off the island (this is why I think Sawyer and others are out); it could be Ben, but who knows.

The other part about the ending was the fact that Kate just appeared (I don't know what it was, but she looked beautiful in that light - very cinematic). She spoke of having to go back to someone, a "he" that was never explained. She seemed to also be indifferent to what Jack was saying - his pleas of them having done something wrong, his trying to get back to the island - she wasn't feeling that at all. My intial thought is "oh, she must have gotten off the island, and was pardoned in exchange for shutting the fuck up about their time on the island", but I have no real concrete evidence to support this at all. And if Kate & Jack got off the island - who else did, too? I'd imagine some got the chance to stay... or not.

See, this is my main theory: Ben was right, and Penny seems to have backed up his claim: Naomi is not who she says she is. Penny had no idea who she was when Charlie asked her about Naomi and the boat, and that leads us to believe that Naomi is not with them. The guy on the phone probably knows what Naomi is doing, but it could mean that she is from a larger organization, ones who are going to "wipe out" everyone on the island, as Ben suggested. Hanso perhaps, coming in to clean up the mess they left when they pulled funding on the DHARMA Initiative? Oceanic Flight 815 could then have been seen as a trigger - or rather the sequence of events. The plane crashing could easily have been covered up - it seems like people already think that there were no survivors (unless Naomi was lying about the Driveshaft greatest hits CD); but the releasing of the anamoly, that could have triggered something. Penny was onto it, what's not to say that Hanso wasn't monitoring the situation as well, and decided now was the time to strike...

A few more questions, because I am left with only questions:

*How did Walt telling Locke he had a job to do translate to Locke knifing Naomi? And how come he was quick to knife her, but not shoot Jack when he was making the exact same call?
*What's Richard doing while all of this is going on?
*If the scenes with bearded Jack were flash forwards, why was he asking the black Doctor to go upstairs and see if Jack was drunker than his father, who died BEFORE Oceanic 815 crashed? Is his pops alive? If so, how?

I feel dumb, b/c I hadn't seen the flash forward coming. I really got tricked, and had to leave the room and process what I just saw. I should have known, though: this season has been the season where everything we knew got turned on its ear, and the biggest clue was the whole question of Desmond possibly living in an alternate reality, trying to explain his flashes. As if he is living life again. Once that went down, it seems like the concept of time is going to truly be played with. I should have known, though.

My predictions for the last 3 seasons:

1)Hanso is going to come back to the island and try to "fix" the situation, which will end up with some of the Oceanic 815 survivors choosing to leave, while being mum about their whereabouts and whatnot. Kind of just blending back into society, with the knowledge that they must remain mum or else.

2) The flashbacks are going to alternate between two times: I think some episodes are going to do the 'normal' format, of learning more about the survivors through events in their past, and then going forward to Jack's plight to get back. I like the idea of season 6 culminating with "realtime" events of the survivors getting off the island, and Jack finding his way to get back ON the island.

3) Desmond will reunite with Penny, but I'm kind of perplexed. I wouldn't be surprised if he was destined to not get with her.

4) Kate will never tell Jack she loves him. She wants to but it won't happen.

I don't know. There's so much to question, and I think I'm going to revisit some of this stuff, all the while bringing you whatever LOST bits I can during the year. Keep it locked.

Hope you all enjoyed the finale as much as I have. Please hit up the comments with any points of interest/questions/whatever.

peep these related links, too:

Both of Doc Jensen's LOST finale posts over on EW (Pt. 1, Pt. 2)
LostPedia's Synopsis of "Through the Looking Glass"
Sledgeweb's recap of "Through the Looking Glass"

Until next time... namaste!

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