the body of john latham was found shortly after 4 am…

So this is what Jack’s newspaper clipping said:

The body of John Latham of New York was found shortly after 4 a.m. in the 4300 block of Grand Avenue.

Ted Worden, a doorman at the Tower Lofts complex, heard loud noises coming from the victim’s loft. Concerned for tenants’ safety, he entered the loft and found the body hanging from a beam in the living room.

According to Jaime Ortiz, a police spokesman, the incident was deemed a suicide after medical tests.

Memorial will be held at the Hoffs-Drawler Funeral Home tomorrow evening.

That’s right.

I finally finished “Through the Looking Glass” at 3 o’clock this morning.

Words cannot describe the absolute brilliance of the Season 3 finale. Even though I knew that Charlie was going to die and even though last week I found out that the castaways leave the island (at least Jack and Kate, anyway), the way things were executed were still simply astounding.

Because I’d accidentally learned of the exodus from the island, I figured out right away that the island scenes were actually the flashbacks. I think I would’ve suspected it anyway since Sara turned up, like, eight months pregnant.

Anyway, let me start from the beginning. Ish.

Themes and questions:

Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There is the sequel to Alice in Wonderland. Its theme centers around a chess game, which is a metaphor used throughout the past three seasons of LOST. There was an actual chess game on the computer in the hatch for starters, but then the strategies employed by Jack and Ben, etc., can be compared to chess moves. See who blinks first. Anticipate. Deceive. Win at all costs.

Alice herself is a pawn. Are Damon and Carlton trying to say that Jack, the castaways, and yes, even Ben and The Others are pawns of some greater power? The island, perhaps? Whichever group to which Naomi is attached?

Of course, the very end has Alice waking from a dream and trying to decide if the Red King had been part of her dream — or if she had been part of his.

Who dreamed what?

When we see Jack and Kate in Los Angeles (and hey, I’d forgotten what Evangeline Lilly looked like with makeup and straight hair), could the island and everything on it have been some elaborate, nightmarish dream on Jack’s part and he just somehow incorporated Kate into it because he already knew her?

Who’s the “he” Kate has to get back to? Is it Sawyer?

Who’s John Latham? Is it an alias (or the actual name) of a character we’ve already met? If it’s not, then it is someone both Jack and Kate know.

Did everyone get off the island?

Was Ben correct about Naomi’s true intentions?

Was Walt a necessary part of John’s subconscious, or was he, like Kate’s horse, John’s dad, Jack’s dad, and Ben’s mom, a product of the island’s “magic box?”

Was there any particular significance to the woman and the child that Jack rescued (after ultimately causing the crash in the first place)? Any particular significance to the Asian woman shown on the plane at the beginning?

Observations and thoughts:

Charlie: I’ll admit it — I cried like a baby when Charlie died. Too many times, when characters are to be killed off, they always seem to go out in a blaze of glory. Like on 24, or Alias, or whatever. To that end, I’m glad the writers allowed the deaths of Boone, Shannon, Libby, Ana-Lucia, Niki and Paolo to be accidental, pointless, and otherwise anti-climactic.

But I’m glad that Charlie was allowed to go out in such a heroic manner. He died saving Desmond’s life, because the jammer was already turned off. He could’ve left Desmond to his own devices, made a run for it; he could’ve seen if he could’ve made it out of the station and back up to the boat before the entire area flooded. But he didn’t. He selflessly sacrificed himself for his friend.

In doing so, he proved that he had undergone a complete transformation since the day he first stepped foot (or crashed) onto the island. No longer was he the drug addict who’d gotten in the way and been hung from a tree by the Others; he was no longer the man who’d kidnapped Sun or put Aaron’s life in danger and violated Claire’s trust.

(Of course it wouldn’t be LOST if the possibility wasn’t raised, however subtly, that in trying to save the lives of his friends, he actually put them in even greater danger by letting them fall into the hands of Naomi’s partners.)

Ben: I really do think that Ben’s crazy. I think he’s ruthless and crazy and will do anything necessary, even commit acts of violence, to accomplish his goals. But I don’t think he’s evil. In his own mind, he really does think he’s doing what’s best for the island he loves. I think he was actually telling the truth to Jack about Naomi — or at least, he believed whole-heartedly that she was the real Big Bad.

The look that crossed his face when he realized that Charlie had found the Looking Glass and, worse, that Juliet had ultimately betrayed them all was one of sheer panic and desperation.

Naomi: Is she really who she says she is? Remember back to her cryptic message in Portuguese to Mikhail? I’ve always been suspicious of her motives, and I believe Ben could be telling the truth. That The Others aren’t the Big Bads we all thought they were, that all along they’ve been trying to preserve their own way of life on the island. (As evidenced by Juliet’s research and by the fact that they weren’t actually harming the women and children they kidnapped.)

Juliet: I still think there’s a side of Juliet that’s out for herself and herself alone. I think she aligned herself with Jack because she recognized part of herself in him — namely, that he wanted off the island as badly as she did and that Ben wanted just as badly to keep everyone from escaping, including his own people.

But I think her feelings for Jack, and her regret for her actions towards the castaways, are genuine.

Elizabeth Mitchell is such a genius. She plays Juliet with so many nuances and affectations — I especially liked how she kissed Jack, but then followed it up with a casual, throw-away comment, as if she needed to deflect the seriousness of the moment and what it might mean for both of them in the future. I loved how she told Sawyer that they were building a runway for aliens, and that “are you frakking kidding me” look she threw over her shoulder at him as she walked away.

Hurley: Loved the return of the VW bus. How deliciously ironic that it was the vehicle of Roger Workman — or Ben’s dad — that killed Ben’s own men and threw yet another wrench in his plan.

Sawyer: The man actually has a heart. Who knew. I like that he’s been so messed up over facing and killing John’s dad. Josh Holloway has always portrayed Sawyer masterfully, but I have to say, I really liked the way he conveyed pain over hurting Hurley’s feelings because he ultimately wanted to protect him. I liked the way he was willing to piss Kate off so that he could try and protect her as well. I especially loved how he grudgingly accepted Juliet’s help and their whole “karma” conversation.

Rousseau and Alex: I laughed when Ben told Alex that Danielle was her mother, and she looked at her so lovingly and touched her face — and then asked Alex to help her tie Ben up. That is so Rousseau. I’m glad they were reunited.

Jack and Kate: Because I can’t not mention them. I loved that he told her he loved her, but by defending Sawyer to her, even though he 1) doesn’t like the man and 2) is jealous of his relationship with Kate, he actually proved to her that he loved her.

And obviously she feels the same way about him.

Theories:

I really hate speculating about this show, but here we go.

Forget what I said about there not being a show left once the castaways left the island. Damon and Carlton have truly changed this game. For one thing, we don’t know how far into the future Jack and Kate are. We don’t know how long it’s been since they were rescued.

For another, we didn’t actually see them get rescued. Naomi’s people could totally have been the monsters Ben implied. It could’ve been another three months — or longer — before they were rescued and we picked up with Jack the Horribly Bearded Addict and Surprisingly Prett(ier), No Longer a Fugitive Kate.

We don’t know if everyone made it off the island safely — or at all. There’s got to be a reason that is motivating Jack to want to return so desperately.

I think there’s so much more that happened between that shot of Jack talking to what’s-his-name on the sat phone and Jack yelling after Kate that they needed to go back – mainly because SOMETHING drastic had to have taken place to wreck Jack so badly.

I haven’t read anything. I haven’t read commentary, or analysis, or listened to podcasts. I’m not going to, either. I’m going to stay 100% spoiler-free leading up to this next season (that doesn’t start till February). Before I avoided specific plot details, but I’d still read casting info, or general hints like a certain number of people are going to die, etc. Not anymore. This show is so devastingly awesome that I want to be completely surprised.

So what do you think? Am I completely off-base? Am I reading way too much into things?

All I know is that “Through the Looking Glass” was the best season finale of 2007. Hands down. It was the perfect way to cap off yet another brilliant season.

I wonder if it’s still too late to dash off that love letter to Damon Lindelof. Surely his wife won’t mind, right?