Lost Finale Fallout

Now that we've all of There's No Place Like Home, the mini-movie to end season three (read: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), here's some questions, thoughts and observations from the finale.

- How did Locke get to the mainland? And how did he die?
- Who is "everybody" that needs to go back to the island? Does this include Frank, Desmond, and Walt?
THEORY THAT WILL PROBABLY NEVER BE CONFIRMED: Michael wasn't allowed to die, after he killed two people and betrayed everyone. He even drove a wedge between Sun and Jin. He was brought back to the island, where he not only helped everyone to survive, he finally resisted Sun. Because of his heroic selflessness, the island (in the form of Christian Shephard) told Michael that his debt was paid and that he could finally die. And, he did.
- Just how magical is the island? After turning the frozen wheel, the island banished Ben to the Sahara desert.
- Did Widmore move the island before Ben did?
- How does the magic wheel room operate?
- What goes wrong on the island?
- Will Season Five's default time on the mainland be with getting back to America, or will the default time be three years in the future, with Jack & Ben trying to gather the gang up for one more adventure in the Mystery Machine?
- Why does Miles stay on the island?
- Was Charlotte born on the island?
- Are Charlotte's parents dead on the island? Because Miles can talk to dead people. So that would be the "easy" way for him to know that Charlotte was born on the island. ("If" she was...)
ADDENDUM: Are Charlotte's parents Adam & Eve?
- What happened to Farraday?
- Sun before said that she blamed two people for Jin's death. One of them is her father. Is the other Jack? Kate? Michael? Frank?
- Why was Locke going by the name "Jeremy Bentham," and why did he visit Walt?
- What all did Locke say during these visits?
- Where is Sayid taking Hurley?
- When Locke died, did the island reach out to Ben to reclaim his title as island leader? Does he have to act as an "interim" to get the gang back?
- If Desmond has to return to the island, he'll probably be the most angry. He is (presumably) living happily with Penny for years. To get him to go back to the island will tear him apart. And unless they can bring Penny with, he will not be easy to convince.
- Do the DHARMA transmitters still work in the island's new location? Will they still get food drops?
- Will Sawyer and Juliet hook up?
- How will Hurley fare outside of Santa Rosa?
- Was that one of Widmore's men watching Hurley?
- So it seems pretty clear now that Sun bought a share of Paik Industries to get closer to Charles Widmore. But what is her motivation? Is she working with Ben? Sayid? On her own?
- What are Penny and Desmond doing? Are they helping to hide the island? To find it again?
- Was the missing week just planning the cover story? Or did more happen on that boat?
- QUESTION THAT WON'T BE ANSWERED: Um, CLAIRE? Is she alive? Dead?
- We never really got to explore the Orchid, above or below ground. How big is it? And what all can it do?
- This episode seemed to indicate, more than others, that Ben's team of Others cause the whispering. BUT, whispers have also been associated with the smoke monster before. Was that association just a coincidence? Or do more Others know more about the monster than they let on?
- What is Frank doing?
- How come we have to wait until 2009 for more answers? (Knowing full well those answers will just replace these questions...)

What worked:
- Desmond and Penny. That reunion scene was short but emotionally satisfying.
- Acting. Every single brought his or her "A" game for this three-part "movie."
- Moving the island. That scene was weird, in a "magical" sort of a way. It was confusing, it was inspiring, it reset so many aspects of the show where now having two seasons left almost seems too short to deal with all of the ramifications.
- While I figured out that it was Locke in the casket as soon as Ben and Jack talked about Bentham saying the island was going bad - and especially "he didn't blame us for leaving" - it was still a very confusing twist. And almost a mirror image of Walkabout. Instead of seeing Locke in a dark place, then finding out he's going to be fine, we see Locke's rise and ascension to power and finally becoming the person he's wanted to be all along, to seeing him dead in a casket. Which raises some of the very basic questions of the show: Is island life what these people were meant for? Does the "real world" not represent who they are? Or is the island just escaping from reality?

What didn't work:
- The most surprising scene - moving the island - was maybe surprising because it was predictable. Or, because it happened yet this season. Talked about in one episode and done within five episodes after? That is lightning speed for this show.
- We knew that the Losties would get rescued. We knew the island would be moved. While we maybe didn't know about Locke being Bentham, we normally get one more twist that wasn't foreseen. I'm not quite so certain we had that this season. BUT, I'm also not sure that such a twist would have been necessary to carry out the stories that we now have laid out ahead of us. Look at all the questions I have above... there are many more raised from the finale tonight. They certainly have enough to work with for the remaining 34 hours the show has left.