When I was in college (way back in the flannel-decked intro to the Nineties) I found that one semester, I glommed onto The Doors’ The End something fierce. As a raging Pearl Jam fan, I think I spied a kissing cousin in Morrison’s moody evocative lyricism and that song bridged worlds to PJ’s heralded disc Ten, which felt more like an anthem of my soul than Nevermind ever did. Maybe it’s because I was a year or two off from really giving off that Teen Spirit scent. Who knows?

Anyway, back then, as I chased down my Journalism degree at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, I found myself ‘hired on’ as a scribe for the University’s daily newspaper, The Collegian, where I quickly made the jump from hard news stories to the Arts & Living desk. There I could point my pen towards the world of entertainment, which really lit my fire. As a raging film buff, it was one step removed from my dream job destination – screenwriting.

Of course, being a dumb college student, I decided way too late (like the night before graduation) that I never really wanted to be a journalist but had my heart rooted in more creative endeavors. In another life, I should have followed my own road less traveled and beat my feet West for those Hollywood Hills the second I grabbed that diploma. There I might have found my true calling or at the very least, penned Saw VII. Ahh, perchance to dream.

The point is that The End stuck in my craw just as I was nearing my own finale. Every time I took a crack at a screenplay, I always found my scripted scenarios leading down some dark paths and the song played over and over in my head as soundtrack to those thoughts. It’s that concept (the unavoidable finality of everything) that has always intrigued me. The notion that when we know the end is coming, and how do we all individually prepare, really stokes my creative spark. The End justifies the means.

So, last night, as Lost teased next week’s second-to-last episode by drawing upon The Doors, I felt that same charge. Over the past few weeks, theories that I’ve discussed on these pages have suddenly come to bear. The surprises seem fewer as for the most part, we’ve correctly puzzled this out. And yet, I can’t help but wonder what The End holds and choke back a little bit of melancholia knowing that in less than two weeks, this is The End.

All right. Let’s get Lost.

For the second time this season, Lost dispensed with the regulars to give us an eye-opening peek into the island’s warped history. The first came when we got Richard Alpert’s episode-long flashback in Ab Aeterno, which despite featuring a pivotal turn for Hurley, largely focused on Richard and his strange connection to Fantasy Island. With only 3 episodes left, they wisely gave us some back-story on our two mysterious benefactors: Jacob and the still-unnamed Man in Black. It was a good tale that teased a few more questions while conclusively answering a bunch more. And while we got some concrete answers, as Jacob’s mysterious “mother” said early on, “any questions you have will just lead to more questions.” Take this to mean that some of what was “revealed” in this episode will largely be left to interpretation.