Well, season three is over, with countless deaths (including the death of a beloved survivor), a mother-daughter reunion, an unlikely hero, an astral projection (or something) of a long-lost character, and a flashback that wasn't a flashback at all. I'm floored. Simply floored. Oh, and I cried. Twice.

I toyed with how to write this. Usually I recap the flashback and then the present-day activities, but I don't know how that'll flow. I wouldn't want to give anything away.

Meh, screw it. You've all seen the episode, so I'm not going to spoil anything. And if you haven't seen the eppy and don't want to know, then stop reading now.

FLASHBACK (or so it would seem):
How 'bout some Jack with your beard?
A bearded, haggard Jack is on an Oceanic flight, chugging booze. He asks the flight attendant for another drink but she tells him that they'll be landing in 20 minutes. He says that 20 minutes is a long time but the flight attendant hands him a newspaper instead. Jack sees something in the paper and rips it out, putting it in his pocket.

Later, he's driving over a bridge and he pulls over. He pulls the newspaper clip out of his pocket. He reads it again, starts to cry, and picks up his cell phone to make a call. The voicemail picks up and all Jack says is "Hi, it's me" before he just hangs up. Jack gets out of his truck. He climbs onto the railing of the bridge and is about to jump, when there is the sound of a crash and a flash behind him. A woman screams and a little kid yells, "Mom! Mom!" Jack realizes that there's been a car accident and he jumps down from the railing to help the accident victims.

Later, Jack is in the ER, getting a small wound on his head stitched up. He asks the doctor how the woman is who he saved and she says that she's in stable condition. His ex-wife, SARAH, enters the room and the doctor tells her to leave, but Jack says it's okay. Sarah is very, very preggers. She asks Jack if he's okay and tells him that she's there because she's still listed as his emergency contact. She accuses him of being drunk and he denies it. He asks her for a ride home and she says that it wouldn't be appropriate.

Jack goes to the hospital room of the woman he saved and reads her chart, then pops a pill (I feel like I'm watching "House". The new chief of surgery, Dr. Hamill, enters and introduces himself and Jack says that he wants to perform the spinal surgery the woman needs. Hamill refuses to allow it and tells Jack to go home. On his way out, Jack goes through the waiting room. A news story is on TV about Jack's heroic act. Below the TV sits a little boy with his arm in a sling, presumably the little boy he saved.

Later, Jack, wearing kick-ass aviator sunglasses, is driving in his truck, rocking out to the music, with the newspaper clipping in hand. He makes a phone call again but hangs up when he hears the voice mail. He pulls up to a decrepit funeral home (inappropriately dressed, I must add) and goes inside. There is a casket up at the front of the room but all the chairs are empty. The funeral director enters and Jack asked if he missed the funeral. The director says that there was no funeral, just a viewing, but Jack was the only person who showed up. He offers his condolences and asks Jack if he's a friend or family. Jack says "neither." The director asks him if he wants him to open the casket. Jack says no, and the director leaves him alone. Jack touches the casket briefly, then leaves.

Jack's at a pharmacy, trying to get a prescription of Oxycodone filled, but the pharmacist says he's used up all his refills. He argues with the pharmacist and the guy behind him in line recognizes Jack as a hero and tells the pharmacist to give Jack whatever he wants. Jack denies he's a hero, and pulls out another prescription to give to the pharmacist. She looks at it and says that he can't write himself a prescription. He says that he didn't write it, his father, Christian Shephard, wrote it. The pharmacist wants to call Jack's father, but Jack lamely says he's out of town and storms off.

Jack is in the hospital supply room, stealing handfuls of Oxy. He leaves the room and runs into Hamill in the hall. Jack is visibly drunk and stoned, and Hamill is suspicious. He tells Jack that he tried to call him three times about the woman's surgery and Jack says his phone is broken. Hamill said that the woman is doing well and told him how the accident happened: she saw a man standing on the railing of the bridge, which distracted her and caused the accident. Hamill asks Jack how he got to the accident so quickly. Obviously, he suspects Jack was the would-be jumper. Jack starts to yell that Hamill doesn't know how long Jack has worked at the hospital, what he's been through, blah blah blah. Hamill asks if Jack is drunk. Jack says that Hamill should go get Jack's father upstairs and if Jack is more drunk than Christian, Hamill can fire Jack.

Later on, Jack's sitting in his filthy apartment. There are a lot of maps and atlases on his table. He finally gets in touch with the woman he's been trying to call and gets her to agree to meet him, "by the airport, you know where."
Jack, meet Rock Bottom. Rock Bottom, Dr. Jack Shephard.
Jack is by the airport, waiting. A car pulls up and a dark-haired woman gets out of the car. Holy crap, it's Kate! This isn't a flashback, it's a flashFORWARD! Kate looks very pretty with her smooth, shiny hair and make-uppy face and doesn't look very happy to see Jack. He pulls out the newspaper clipping and says he thought she may have wanted to go to the funeral. Kate asks Jack why she would have wanted to go? Jack confesses that he's been flying a lot, using the Golden Pass Oceanic gave him to fly to Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, every Friday. He goes to a bar, gets drunk, and flies home. He confesses that he does it because he's hoping he'll crash again and return to the island. He says he's sick of lying and that they made a mistake. Kate says she has to go because "he'll be wondering where I went." Jack screams that they weren't supposed to leave the island. As Kate gets in her car and drives away, Jack screams "We have to go back!"
Kate's a member of Beauty Product Junkies now!

REAL TIME:

The survivors are at the beach camp, packing up and saying goodbye to Sayid, Jin, and Bernard, who are going to stay behind on sniper duty, to shoot the dynamite in the tents to blow them up and kill the Others. Sun asks Jin why he's doing this and in English he says it's because they have to go home. Rose makes Bernard say "I'm a dentist, not Rambo" (hee!) and everyone leaves.

That night, ten of the Others raid the camp, targeting three tents that Juliet marked with white coral. Bernard shoots - a direct hit! Sayid shoots - another hit! Jin shoots - and misses. And shoots again - and misses. Seven of the Others have been blown to bits but the other three (Tom included) capture Sayid, Jin, and Bernard. By threatening to kill Jin (who seems willing to die), Tom gets Bernard to tell him that Jack and the rest of the folks are going to the radio tower, and that Karl is with them.

Meanwhile, Charlie has been tied to a chair and is being beaten senseless by the foxy gun-toting mamas (Bonnie and Greta) in the Looking Glass. Charlie tells them that Juliet told him about the station and that he knows he has to turn off the switch by the yellow blinking light, which he sees in a separate room under the hatch. Bonnie radioes Ben, who is annoyed that she broke radio silence. She tells him that Juliet has betrayed them and Ben sends Mikhail to the beach to take care of things while he goes to intercept Jack and the rest to "talk them out of" radioing Naomi's boat. He tells Richard to continue on to "the temple."

Alex says she wants to come along and, to her suprise, Ben allows her to. He tells her that he's letting her come along to give her to them. He also tells her that the reason he kept Karl in a cage and tried to brainwash him is because he didn't want Karl to get Alex pregnant. He supposes he may have overreacted.

Desmond, in the canoe above the Looking Glass, wakes up and is immediately shot at by Mikhail on the beach. He dives under water to escape the bullets and swims underneath the hatch. Greta and Bonnie are arguing with the door closed in the room where the signal switch is when Desmond emerges from the water. Charlie tells Des to hide, which he does, in a closet. The women hear Charlie talking but when they ask who he's talking to, he says he was singing and starts singing - you guessed it - "You All Everybody."

The rest of the survivors are far across the island when they hear not three, but only two explosions. They worry, but continue on. Kate tells Sawyer that she wants to go back to save them. Sawyer acts cold and distant, and Kate wonders aloud why he's been so different ever since he got back from his mysterious journey with Locke and brought back the tape recorder. She's also upset that he called her "Kate" instead of "Freckles." But a few minutes later, Sawyer catches up to Jack and tells him that HE wants to go back to the beach to check on Sayid, Jin, and Bernard. Kate asks him why he changed his mind and Sawyer said, "I just didn't want to go with you." Jack won't let Sawyer go without guns and Juliet says that there's a hidden cache of guns hidden nearby - she'll take Sawyer to the guns and then go with him to the beach. Sawyer and Juliet leave, but not before Juliet gives Jack a big ol' kiss, right in front of Kate. Jack tells Kate that Sawyer didn't mean it and was only trying to protect her. That's why he told Kate not to come back for him when the Others had them captured - to protect her. Kate asks Jack why she's sticking up for Sawyer, because Sawyer would never do it for him. Jack says, simply, "Because I love you."

Hurley tries to follow Sawyer and Juliet to help out, but Sawyer tells Hurley he's too fat to be any help and tells him to get lost. Poor Hurley.

Mikhail dons diving equipment and goes to the Looking Glass, where he's surprised to see that it's not flooded, but operational, because Ben told everyone that Bonnie and Greta were on assignment in Canada. He goes into the room with the switch and privately radioes Ben. He's pissed that the all signals are being jammed, including the Others'. Ben said that he lied about the station and did so because Jacob told him to do it. Ben tells Mikhail to kill Greta, Bonnie, and Charlie, to leave the station, and to tell nobody about it. Oh, also? Mikhail isn't wearing his eyepatch and his narsty, scarred lack-of-eye totally skeeved me out.

Hey, remember Locke? Locke is lying in the mass grave with a bullet in his belly. He wakes up and realizes that he can't move his legs at all. He's devastated and reaches for his gun. He's about to shoot himself in the head when he hears a voice telling him not to do it. He looks up and it's WALT standing up at the top of the grave. He tells Locke he CAN and HAS to move his legs to get up because he "has work to do." I try to ignore the fact that the actor playing Walt is now 15, but Walt is still supposed to be 11.
Just pretend he's still 11.
As Jack and the rest approach the radio tower, they're intercepted by Ben and Alex. Ben asks Jack if they can speak privately for a few minutes. Jack agrees but takes Ben's walkie before they go off into a clearing. Ben says that Naomi isn't who she says she is and if they make contact with her boat, it'll be disasterous and fatal for all living people on the island. Jack doesn't buy it. Ben radioes Tom, who tells him that seven of their people at the beach are dead, and that they have Sayid, Jin, and Bernard captive. Ben tells Tom that if he doesn't hear his voice in 60 seconds, to kill all three. He then tells Jack that he has one minute to get the phone from Naomi. Jack does't comply, and Ben gives the order to shoot. We hear three gunshots over the radio and Jack goes ballistic, beating the SNOT out of Ben. He picks up the walkie and tells Tom that he's going to get everyone rescued, and then come kill him.

He drags Ben back to the rest of the survivors and leaves him on the ground, telling Rousseau to tie him up. Alex crouches down to check on Ben but sees Rousseau staring at her. She rudely says, "What?" Ben introduces Alex to her mother, and Alex stands up, shocked. Rousseau touches Alex's hair and then asks her to help her tie Ben up. Alex agrees. Whiplash gets misty-eyed.

Jack privately tells Kate that Sayid, Jin, and Bernard are dead, but that they can't tell Rose and Sun yet. He says that he let it happen.

As Sawyer and Juliet hike, he asks her where the guns are. She says that she lied, there are no guns, but Jack wouldn't have let them go if he knew that. Sawyer asks Juliet why she's coming along and she says "Karma." She asks him why he's going but he doesn't answer.

In the Looking Glass, Mikhail (now wearing his patch, thank God) shoots and kills Greta. He shoots Bonnie in the back and is about to shoot Charlie when Desmond emerges from the closet with a spear gun and shoots Mikhail through the chest. Before she dies, Bonnie tells Charlie that the code to turn off the jammer was programmed by a musician, and it's the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations that Charlie must play on the key pad to disable the jammer.

And because it is an awesome song, I figured I'd break for a musical interlude:

Ahem... excuse me. Back to the show.

Sawyer and Juliet reach the beach camp and don't know what to do. We find out that the three shots heard over the radio were fired into the sand. Sayid, Jin, and Bernard are alive, but tied up. As Sawyer and Juliet try to figure out what they should do, they hear a motor running. Suddenly, Hurley shows up in the Dharma bus, drives out onto the beach, and creams one of the dudes with the bus, which is awesome. Sayid, meanwhile, uses the distraction to break the other dude's neck WITH HIS FEET which is also awesome. Sawyer grabs the gun of the guy Hurley killed and holds Tom at gunpoint. Tom surrenders but Sawyer kills him anyway, for taking Walt off the raft. Hurley asks Sawyer why he killed him if he surrendered and Sawyer says it's because he didn't believe him.
Whiplash is a HUGE fan of people getting creamed by busses onscreen.
Hurley radioes Jack to tell him that he saved everyone at the beach and that everyone, including the three Jack and Kate thought were dead, were okay, and that all of the Others are dead. Jack and the rest are elated, but Claire grabs the walkie to ask about Charlie. Hurley says that he hasn't seen him yet but he's sure he'll be coming back any minute. As he says this, he looks out at the ocean for Charlie and Desmond, but sees nothing.

Meanwhile, as the survivors reach the radio tower, Naomi realizes that the light on her phone is now green and that the phone can be used, but it's still being blocked by Rousseau's signal.

Desmond sees some scuba gear and tells Charlie to enter the code while he gets the gear ready. Charlie goes into the room with the jammer and plays the song, and allow me to rant here: sure, Charlie is a musician and all, but how did he know:

1. Which part of the song to play?
2. How to play it on a numeric keypad. I know he plays guitar and piano, but this was a NUMERIC KEYPAD?

Whatever, the point is, he plays it and the yellow light stops flashing. Suddenly, a staticky picture comes on the screen below, and we see that it's Penny. She asks Charlie who he is and he tells her he's a survivor of 815. He asks who she is and when she says "Penelope Widmore" he recognizes the name and yells for Desmond. Penny hears Charlie say "Desmond" and asks about him. Charlie tells Penny that Desmond is alive and well. He asks Penny about the boat she sent with Naomi and Penny has no idea what he's talking about.
See a Penny, pick it up, all day long you'll have good luck. Or not.
Desmond is running towards Charlie when he realizes that Mikhail's body is missing. Seriously. Is he immortal? Anywho, Charlie hears a knock on the porthole and sees Mikhail holding a grenade out in the water. Charlie rushes to close the airlock door so that Desmond, who hasn't made it to the room yet, will survive. Mikhail pulls the pin and the porthole shatters and the room starts to flood. Desmond tries to break into the airlock with a fire extinguisher but it doesn't happen. Charlie takes his Sharpie (which he just happened to have handy while listing his "greatest hits" and writes "NOT PENNY'S BOAT" on his hand. He shoves his hand up to the other window, and shows Des. Desmond holds his hand up to Charlie's and then stands and watches the room totally fill up with water, as Charlie drowns and dies. Whiplash bawls her freakin' EYES out. And let's hope Mikhail is finally dead, because if he shows up again after letting a grenade blow in his hand UNDER WATER, then something is f*cked up!

At the radio tower, Rousseau turns off her signal, and immediately the phone starts to ring. Naomi is about to speak but instead she keels over, dead, the result of a knife thrown into her back by Locke, who is now walking. Locke says that he can't allow them to use the phone to leave. As Jack goes to grab the phone, Locke tries to shoot it but misses. Jack picks up the phone and Locke says that if Jack tries to answer it, he'll kill him. Fortunately for Jack, Locke can't kill him and walks away, dejectedly. Ben warns Jack not to make contact with the caller, but Jack does anyway. He speaks into the phone and a man named Spokowski answers. He says that they've found their location and will come for them right away. Everyone cheers.

Phew.

Okay, now I usually don't get too heavy into the island mythology because that's what Buzz posts about, but I have to tell you two things:

According to Lostpedia, the name of the deceased in the article that Jack read started with the letters "Jo." Also, the name of the funeral parlor was "Hoffs/Drawlar," which is an anagram for "flash forward."

Okay, some questions. Of course, there are MANY questions, so I'll just deal with the biggies:

1. Whose funeral was it?
2. How far in the future was the flash forward?
3. Did EVERYONE make it off the island, or just Jack and Kate?
4. Jack's dad is alive? Whuh the fuh?
5. Why isn't Kate in jail?
6. If Naomi wasn't sent by Penny, who sent her?
7. What is the temple Ben referred to?
8. Was Walt astral-projecting (or whatever) like he did with Shannon and Sayid?

All photos courtesey of Lostpedia.