i think a lot of people are assuming that the future glimpsed in the finale of the third season of lost represents "the end." i think it represents a "middle ground." this is what i predict will happen in the third season....

the "flash forward world" will be the present. scenes on the island will be told in flash backs. in the flash backs we will learn that desmond told the lostaways that naomi has no connection to penny; that naomi and the freighters are "bad." some lostaways will accept this, locke in particulat, others will not, jack, kate etc. over the course of the season we will see struggled between the two groups and we will eventually see some of the lostaways leave the island. the "present day" will show the awful lives of those who returned to civilization. eventually those folks will agree with jack: they have to get back to the island. and they will. both groups of lostaways will be reunited and then we will learn wtf is going on on the island. no more flash backs. no more flash forwards. just one story.

i think this structure will be loads of fun... it'll be cool to watch the two time lines converge.

sorry.

Heather, you state that the show treated the departure of Chase, Cameron and Foreman as "mundane." Your basis for this seems to be that House got a new guitar, which he played just before closing credits.

I firmly believe that you missed the entire point of the ending. First, to remind the casual viewer that House hates change, we have the conversation between House and Watson, er, Wilson, about House's old acoustic guitar, which he has had since junior high. Then we are treated to House's feeble attempts to please Foreman and his lashing out and firing Chase. Finally, House is left with no one, his team gone. Is he upset? He knows he should be (the conversation with the patient's husband), but he isn't. Then he goes home and finds a guitar-sized package at his door. It's a new guitar! He takes it out of the case and starts to play.

For those unfamiliar with such things, I can tell you that playing a new guitar after playing your old one for a long time feels strange: the neck feels different, as do the frets and the body. The new guitar sounds different, too. But instead of what we as supposed to expect (House barely trying to hide his displease at the new guitar and not giving it an honest try), he plays it and seems to be okay with it.

While it should have been upsetting, it wasn't. So the event was mundane, I suppose, but that is what was surprising.

Now, about the helicopter rescue: yes, it didn't really seem necessary. Made me wonder if the ep ran too long and they decided to cut some of the husband out to have room for the departures of House's team.

Also, I think House, MD was set in New Jersey, not Seattle, at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital.

one correction: 'House' is located in Princeton, New Jersey, not Seattle (that's 'Grey's Anatomy'!)

I'm a fan of House, have really enjoyed this season, and was a bit disappointed in the finale too, but I have to point out a couple of inaccuracies.

First of all, the show takes place in New Jersey, not Seattle--that was even mentioned in this episode, so no excuse for that. Also, that guitar at the end was surely a gift from himself--he knew exactly what was in that box, and no one who's watched the show would guess that the other characters got together and bought him a guitar. Only something private would produce such an un-self-conscious reaction in the character, and only he could have picked out something as personal as an instrument. It's a familiar process on the show, as anyone who's watched it knows--he's publicly chastised for a flaw and then goes off on his own, in secret, and challenges it; a sort of private growth process.

That said, this was an interesting finale, even if it didn't really satisfy. Unlike many season-ending cliffhangers where you're left thinking, "what happens next?", with this one I was thinking, "what the heck happened?" Even by House standards, a lot of the action here seemed arbitrary. It did play out like a cast turnover, but as far as I know all of the cast is signed on for next year, so a false wrapup for them would explain the lack of "pomp and circumstance". It almost felt as though the audience was being brought into House's world, put through the ringer, and left hanging without an explanation, the character's classic M.O.

But we've already seen other seemingly impossible situations--House cut by Vogler, shot, having his leg pain go away, looking at inescapable jail time, going into rehab--turn disorientingly quickly back into the normal routine, so perhaps this is just another one of those mini-dramas that will evaporate. I kind of hope not--how quickly the show buries its major crises sometimes seems more like a cop-out than a natural flow.

But with performances like those on display here, I'll keep watching. Hopefully, next season we'll be shown something past the harrowed, lowered glare from House that ends so many scenes and dialogues. Hard to see where else the show can go at this point but further into his psyche.

I am pretty sure you were not talking to me about the guitar, but you are clearly right: House bought the guitar for himself. If one the off-chance you were talking to me, well, I re-read what I wrote and saw that I was not very clear at all, suggesting that he was surprised to get a guitar, rather than the viewer.

Also: two posts on a Saturday evening? A post, then coming back to see what others have written in the past, oh, half-hour, just to post a "timely" response to something not even written about what I wrote? Jesus my life sucks when my girlfriend is out of town.