WHERE WE LEFT THINGS:

When a show's titled "What They Died For" you know there will be some dyin'. Or some explanation for previous dyin'. Since this is Lost, you probably won't really know what they died for, because that would blow the point of the series finale. They died to save Jacob's secret sauce recipe! It would be disappointing to learn that Mr. Eko died for a complimentary breakfast at Country Inn Suites, but I suspect this won't be a roundup of afterlife rewards. You have to admit, though: that's a portentous title. Did you pay any attention to "Lost" titles before this season? I didn't.

AFTERWARDS. SPOILERS.

1. Well, now we know why they died: because Ben is a blabbermouth and a smoke-monster suck-up. Or is he? We're into the last steps of the final game here, and it's possible Ben is playing some secret double-reverse game, and -

Hold on. This sounds like cheap pulp fiction, doesn't it. Crosses, double-crosses, plots within plots, the sort of thing you can find in any long-running TV drama. They always have a bad guy. They always have shifting alliances, medium-rare bad-guys who turn good for a while, and so on. Soap opera stuff, really. But "Lost" has always been more than that; it's always been saturated with metaphysical mysteries, or a reasonable imitation of them.

Not right now. Since the show began the pell-mell dash to the finish line, it's stripped down to good vs evil, and the only question is whether Ben will pull a Darth Vader and thrown Emperor Flocke down the well.

Bad to the smoky bones.

2. As for explaining why the others died, that was Jacob's last chance to explain. Nice planning, Mr. Caretaker of the Soul of the World: wait until your ashes are burning to tell everyone the plot. I did appreciate the moment when he told Kate that crossing someone off was just that, it wasn't some symbolic thing that meant they were DOOMED, it just meant they were off the list. But one can understand why you'd think it meant something bad, since it was written on the wall by an undying ageless being with a magic lighthouse.

3. Good to see Jack take the job we knew he'd always take. Better now than the last ten minutes of the finale. Got that out of the way, although fans may be split on whether it was underwhelming or just right. If you thought it was underwhelming, well, what did you want? Choirs? A shaft of light bursting from the grotto?

4. Widmore: ta, brotha. We're not quite sure what he wanted; we're not quite sure what he was doing; we're not quite sure of anything, except he might comprise the most unfulfilled plot arc in the entire series. All that money, all those plans, and he drops dead in a Secret Closet because Ben's jealous he gets to have his daughter. As James Coburn said in that Mel Gibson movie when a perfectly good alligator-skin briefcase was shot: that's just mean. Meanwhile, back in Sideflash World, Desmond is getting the band back together, but for what purpose I have no idea. The entire sideflash story line seems irrelevant, and surely it will be once Jack succeeds in defeating Flocke, right?

He is going to defeat him, right?