All I can say is, "Wow." The fourth-season finale of ABC's Lost not only was every bit as dramatic, revealing and surprising as I'd hoped -- it was the year's Exhibit A for Reasons Not to Give Up on Network Television.
I only hope network executives across the board were watching, and learning their lesson...
This is the lesson: In 10, 20 years, people may remember American Idol, but no one's going to revere it, or even watch it. There was a time when The $64,000 Question was the hottest live competition show on television, but how treasured is that show today? A generation from now, the best of today's reality and competition shows will be either forgotten or remade, just as, say, yesterday's Queen for a Day is today.
But a show such as Lost -- it'll be a classic. Maybe not a classic in the Honeymooners or I Love Lucy or Twilight Zone sense, but certainly in the tradition of Twin Peaks or The X-Files. Attention must be paid. Those who love the show will not forget it, and such imaginatively scripted, superbly acted and directed series as Lost will save network television, if anything can.
Last night's season finale actually answered more old questions than it posed new ones -- definitely a first for a seasonal cliffhanger. And in the middle of all the angst and explosions and shifts of time and space, there was one fabulously satisfying moment, the reunion of Penny and Desmond, that paid off a story line that has been years in the making.
The episode also explained everything we needed to know about the Oceanic 6's origin and discovery, and set up not only why Ben had been wearing a parka in the desert, but how he steered the island somewhere else. Or somewhen else. I'm not sure -- just as I'm not sure whether Jin really died, as it appears.
Locke died, that's for sure -- that was the stunner to keep us buzzing until season five. And it seems just as certain that Jack will return to the island, with the body of Locke and the rest of the Oceanic 6 in tow... but then what?
We'll have to wait until 2009, when Lost returns, to find out. But having a show that's worth waiting to see, and worth talking about in the meantime, is way too much of a rarity not to treasure. Even if the next episode is eight months away.