Wisely, the finale returned to the beginning of the season, to tell the story of Desmond, who fed the numbers into the hatch computer for years before he fled. By picking up the Desmond thread, the writers gave us faith that they are in control of the many loose ends. The episode also wisely began to refer to off-island life, as it pulled back the curtain ever so slightly. When Michael and Walt were reunited, the Others sent them back to the world, supposedly, in the boat we first saw in last season's finale. And in the last moments, the bunkered men appeared to be in our cosmos, as they sat playing chess over a frozen landscape.
At first, Desmond, drunk in his sailboat, was so changed it seemed as though a different actor had picked up the role originally played by Henry Ian Cusick. But it was Cusick, punctuating so many of his lines with his trademark ``brother." Naturally, the Desmond backstory included intersections with other characters -- not just Jack at the stadium, but also Libby, who gives Desmond her late husband's boat. Desmond wants to race the boat to win money and honor from the nasty father of his estranged girlfriend Penelope.
It was Desmond who realized that he may have caused the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. By failing to put the numbers into the computer one time, the Dickens fanatic let the electromagnetic force run amok. The force is so strong it may actually have pulled down the plane. When Locke broke the computer and set the force loose last night, it made the sky start blinking and caused everyone to block their ears, before Desmond shut down the works with his magic key.
What else did we learn? The guy with the fake beard is named Tom. The Others' little town is fake, too. Claire has forgiven Charlie, and the pair had a kiss. The fates of Locke, Eko, and Desmond are unknown, and Jack, Kate, and Sawyer are in jeopardy in the hands of the Others, even if Henry Gale claims ``We're the good guys.`` Oh yes, and there's a giant statue of a foot with four toes on the island. Huh-what?
We also learned Sawyer's theory about the Others -- that they're aliens. Hey, it could be.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com.
