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LOST S4 finale: Who's in that coffin?

8:01 AM Thu, May 29, 2008 |
Joyce Saenz Harris   E-mail   News tips

Tonight is it, Lost fans -- the Season 4 finale, the last two hours of 14 that marked a return to the excitement of Season 1.

Writer-producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof say tonight will give us the answer to at least one big mystery. We will finally see who was in the coffin at that unattended funeral in LA, the one FutureJack checked out during the Season 3 finale ("Through the Looking Glass").

The news of that person's apparent suicide sent Jack into his own self-destructive tizzy and had him trying to persuade FutureKate that they had to go back to the Island. From all the hints we were given -- especially from what could be gleaned in brief, incomplete glimpses of the Los Angeles Times story reporting that death -- it seemed most likely to me that the coffin's occupant was Michael... albeit Michael under yet another assumed name, disguising the fact that he was an Oceanic 815 survivor.

But was the news clipping just a red herring? The producers recently have admitted as much, saying the clipping was essentially just a mock-up prop, and the clues in it weren't real clues to the identity of the victim.

For speculation and possible spoilers on "There's No Place Like Home," go to the jump...


Everybody's got a theory, of course. On EW.com, for example, Doc Jensen has a list of possible coffin occupants. One of his several candidates is John Locke, and I was thinking, "naaaah, no way."

But then on E! Online's "Watch With Kristin," I saw one of several sneak-peek videos for tonight's finale. (Warning: Don't watch those videos unless you really want some major hints and reveals about events on tonight's show!)

One video snippet, set outside the Orchid Station, has Locke asking Jack to stay on the Island because he's "not supposed to leave." Jack refuses to consider staying, despite Locke's warning that leaving the Island now will make Jack go crazy in the future. As indeed FutureJack did, a couple of years later.

And that made me wonder: Could the anonymous deceased be Locke, after all? Maybe he left the Island for some reason (willingly or not), then found himself once again alone and forced to use a wheelchair because his paralysis returned. He came home to LA not as a famed Oceanic 815 survivor but under the radar, using another name. And then, eventually losing all hope of ever returning to the Island he should never have left, he ended his own life. Yeah, it's a theory that kinda makes sense.

The man in the coffin had to be someone who was neither friend nor family to Jack, and someone whom Kate disliked. Yet he also had to be someone who was deeply connected to the Island, and whose death could move FutureJack to the verge of suicide... perhaps because the dead man's misery paralleled his own.

I don't think it's Ben. We've seen Ben alive and well and operating in his usual Machiavellian fashion in the future, and so far he's always been seen outside the U.S. And I frankly can't see Jack getting all that broken up over Ben. I doubt Kate would care either, but Jack's reaction matters more here.

Could the corpse be Michael? I still think that's possible, that he was finally able to carry out his suicide after somehow redeeming himself by saving others. I don't think it's any of the other Oceanic Sixers, because they are all famous in the future, and none were living under an assumed name... not even Sayid, who's working as Ben's assassin. I'm not sure why Jack would react so emotionally to Michael's death, though -- unless Michael's presumed redemption is achieved by saving the lives of Jack, Kate and Aaron.

So I'm thinking it's either Michael or Locke in the coffin. Some major characters are bound to have deaths revealed tonight, too, and I'm afraid Jin is probably one of them. FutureSun, when last seen as an O6 survivor, just seemed too grief-stricken and vindictive not to be mourning Jin's actual death.

I'm also thinking Ben escapes the Island via the Orchid Station's Island-moving powers, and he then lands in the Sahara some 10 months in the future, as we saw in "The Shape of Things to Come."

So many, many mysteries yet to be resolved. But if we can just wait 12 hours, we'll know about some of them, for sure.

BTW, it's all Lost all the time tonight on ABC (Channel 8 in Dallas). If you want to review the previous episode, which aired two weeks ago, tune in at 7. ABC is promising "new footage," which could mean a few interesting snippets, though nothing too major should be expected. Then at 8 p.m., the two-hour finale begins.

Check in here ASAP afterward for a recap and discussion of the finale... we'll blog at ya then.

UPDATE: This morning, Doc Jensen posted a couple of goodies on EW.com: thoughts on what might happen in tonight's finale, and a photo gallery of his top 15 Lost moments from Season 4.

Plus: Here's a worthy rumination on how Season 4 has been greatness, from Slate.com. Enjoy!




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