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Through the Looking Glass (Lost)
Encyclopedia
"Through the Looking Glass" is the third season finale of the ABC
television series
Lost
, consisting of the 22nd and 23rd episodes of the third season. It is also the 71st and 72nd episodes overall. It was written by co-creator/executive producer Damon Lindelof
and executive producer Carlton Cuse
, and directed by executive producer Jack Bender
. When first aired on May 23, 2007 in the United States
and Canada
, it was watched by an average of 14 million American viewers. Like the previous two season finale
s, it was two hours long with advertisements, twice the length of a normal episode. It was edited into two individual episodes when released on DVD. The season finale is widely regarded as one of the best episodes of Lost. The episode garnered a number of awards and nominations, including three Emmy
nominations and a DGA Award nomination.
The episode begins its narrative in late December 2004, over ninety days after the crash of Oceanic Airlines
Flight 815. The battle between the crash survivors and the dangerous and mysterious island inhabitants referred to as the "Others" comes to a head as ten of the Others attack and are then ambushed at the survivors' camp and are subsequently killed. Meanwhile, Jack Shephard
(played by Matthew Fox
) leads most of the survivors to the island's radio tower to communicate with a nearby ship. Intercut with this story are off-island scenes spotlighting Jack, who has become suicidally depressed and addicted to painkillers. In a twist ending, it is revealed that these scenes are flashforward
s to sometime in the future, after Jack has left the island, rather than flashbacks
as in previous episodes of Lost.
) and conceive a plan to kill the Others with dynamite-rigged tents. Sayid Jarrah
(Naveen Andrews
), Jin Kwon
(Daniel Dae Kim) and Bernard Nadler (Sam Anderson
) remain at the beach, tasked with shooting the dynamite-rigged tents while the rest of the survivors journey with Danielle Rousseau
(Mira Furlan
) to the radio tower to communicate with Naomi Dorrit's (Marsha Thomason
) nearby ship. The Others arrive, and while Sayid and Bernard detonate their tents, Jin misses his target, which results in their capture by the Others: Tom
(M.C. Gainey
), Ryan Pryce (Brian Goodman
) and Jason (Ariston Green), and the deaths of seven Others. After hearing only two explosions, James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway
) and Juliet Burke
(Elizabeth Mitchell
) turn back to see if they can help. Hugo "Hurley" Reyes (Jorge Garcia
), who was not allowed to accompany Sawyer and Juliet because of his weight, drives the van he found onto the beach, and the captives gain the upper hand, killing the remaining Others with the help of Sawyer and Juliet. Tom surrenders but Sawyer shoots him in the chest anyway.
After knocking Desmond Hume
(Henry Ian Cusick
) unconscious, Charlie Pace
(Dominic Monaghan
) dives down into The Looking Glass, a research station of the Dharma Initiative
, with the hope of disabling the system jamming outgoing transmissions. Charlie is captured by the resident Others Greta (Lana Parrilla
) and Bonnie (Tracy Middendorf
). Ben Linus (Michael Emerson
) learns of Charlie's infiltration and sends Mikhail Bakunin (Andrew Divoff
) to the station to kill the three to preserve the signal jamming. Mikhail arrives and kills Greta and Bonnie, only to be shot through the chest with a spear gun by Desmond who emerges from a closet inside the station where he had hidden after diving down a short time after Charlie did. Getting the code from Bonnie before she dies (the notes to the middle eight of "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys), Charlie disables the signal jammer, and is contacted by Penny Widmore (Sonya Walger
) via video transmission. Penny informs Charlie that she does not know Naomi, and did not send the boat that Naomi claims to be from. Despite his injury, Mikhail manages to swim out of the station and blasts the window of the jamming room with a grenade, killing himself and flooding the communications room. Charlie locks the door to save Desmond from drowning with him, but before he drowns, Charlie writes on his hand so Desmond can read: "NOT PENNY'S BOAT".
John Locke
(Terry O'Quinn
), one of the survivors, has been shot by Ben. Finding his legs paralyzed again, Locke is about to commit suicide, when he is stopped by what appears to be Walt Lloyd
(Malcolm David Kelley
). Meanwhile, Ben tells Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell
) to lead the rest of the Others to the "Temple" and then leaves the Others with his adopted daughter, Alex
(Tania Raymonde
) Rousseau's daughter and Karl's girlfriend, to meet up with the survivors to persuade Jack not to call Naomi's ship for rescue.
Kate is upset about Sawyer not wanting her to come back to the beach with him to rescue Sayid, Jin and Bernard. Jack tells her it is because Sawyer was trying to protect her. When she asks why Jack is defending Sawyer, Jack informs Kate Austen
(Evangeline Lilly
) that it is because he loves her. Kate also witnessed a kiss between him and Juliet. Ben and Alex intercept Jack's group; Ben informs Jack that Naomi is not who she says she is, and making contact with her boat will be disastrous for everyone on the island. Ben orders the shooting of Sayid, Jin, and Bernard, and when Jack hears three shots, he attacks Ben and punches him in the face repeatedly leaving Ben bloody. Unknown to Jack, the shots were fired into the sand, following earlier orders from Ben. Rousseau meets her sixteen year old daughter Alex, who was kidnapped by the Others shortly after her birth, and they tie Ben up. The trek party, now able to get a signal, arrives at the radio tower. Rousseau disables her distress signal, freeing the frequency for Naomi. However, Naomi is knifed in the back by Locke, who threatens to kill Jack if he calls Naomi’s boat. Locke cannot bring himself to kill Jack, who communicates with George Minkowski (Fisher Stevens
) on Naomi's boat. Minkowski tells the survivors they will be sending rescue.
Throughout the episode, flashforwards from years after "Through the Looking Glass"'s island events show that Jack has escaped the island and returned to work as a spinal surgeon, although it's not until the last of these, when Kate appears and Jack discusses the island, that it becomes clear that the sequences are flashforwards rather than flashbacks. In these sequences, Jack is shown to be depressed, bearded, heavily drinking and addicted to Oxycodone
. After reading about the death of someone he knew, Jack appears to be ready to commit suicide by jumping off the Sixth Street Viaduct
bridge. However, he is distracted by a car crash and goes to save the victims. Later, Jack visits the memorial service for the person he read about and finds himself to be the only attendee. He contacts Kate and tells her about the memorial service. Kate says that she did not know about it, but she would not have attended even if she did. Jack also talks about using the "golden pass" they have received, to fly across the Pacific Ocean
and back every Friday, hoping that he will crash. Jack explains that they should never have left the island and must return; however, Kate disagrees and leaves, not wanting to continue this conversation that they have apparently had before.
The title is an allusion to Lewis Carroll
's novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There
and a reference to the fictitious Dharma Initiative
station found in the previous episode
. Shooting began on April 13, 2007 and ended on May 7, 2007. The writers were so far behind schedule that parts of the episode were shot while later parts were still being written. Filming mostly took place on Oahu
, Hawaii
, with additional scenes shot in Los Angeles
. The hospital scenes were filmed on the same sets used for the ABC show Grey's Anatomy
.
Despite not being mentioned in the official press release, then 15 year old Malcolm David Kelley
returned to reprise his role as 10 year old Walt Lloyd
, and received credit as a "special guest star". Kelley’s character had left the island in the second season finale, only 26 days prior to the events of "Through the Looking Glass", however, Kelley had not filmed an episode in over a year. In his single scene, Walt has visibly aged, appears taller and has a deeper voice. The producers had hoped that Harold Perrineau, who plays Walt's father Michael Dawson
, would return in this episode, but he was busy filming the pilot for CBS
' Demons
. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse lent their voices for the unseen roles of the flight captain and newscaster, respectively.
This episode concluded the story arc about Charlie's death, which began earlier in the season when Desmond prophesied Charlie's death. Throughout the season, Charlie escaped death; however, Desmond told Charlie that he had to die in order for his girlfriend, Claire Littleton
, to get rescued from the island. The storyline of Charlie's death was conceived while producing the latter part of the second season, after the storyline of Charlie's drug addiction finished. The news of his character's death was broken to Monaghan two episodes
in advance, to which Monaghan felt "relief" for knowing the future of his job on the show. On the night of Monaghan's second to last day on set, he was presented with a canoe paddle that had been made by the cast and crew. Monaghan hoped to return to Lost as a guest star in flashbacks or dreams.
Jack Bender stated that Matthew Fox "really commits body and soul into the story he's telling" and Fox questioned whether he had ever been more tired than while shooting the double episode. Like the other Lost season finales, the final cliffhanger scene was given a codename—"The Rattlesnake in the Mailbox"—and kept top secret. After Lindelof and Cuse wrote the scene, only Fox, Lilly, Bender and co-executive producer Jean Higgins were given copies of the script. The scene was shot with a green screen
in an abandoned Honolulu parking lot with the airport edited in. Despite the security measures, a complete and detailed episode synopsis was uploaded online over a week before the episode aired. Disney investigated the leak. The leak prompted Lindelof and Cuse to enter "radio silence
", which was temporarily broken at Comic-Con International
2007. The funeral parlor that Jack visits is called "Hoffs/Drawlar", which is an anagram of "flashforward". The idea of flashforwards was conceived by creators Lindelof and Abrams during the show's conception. However, Cuse and Lindelof only started fleshing out the idea at the end of the first season, after they realized that flashbacks would eventually stop being revelatory and knew that they would eventually have to switch to flashforwards. With the announcement that the series would conclude 48 episodes after "Through the Looking Glass", they felt comfortable playing flashforwards as early as the third season finale.
Post-production wrapped on May 21, 2007, only two days before it aired on television. The score was composed by series musician Michael Giacchino
, while popular music was also featured throughout the episode. Charlie also sings a song in the episode that was written by Dominic Monaghan, who plays him. A Lost season finale is approximately twice as long the average Lost episode. Due to the episode's length, it was split into two parts in some
countries
and when released on DVD. Unlike most episodes, this episode did not feature a "previously on Lost…" recap at the start of the episode when it first aired; however, it was originally preceded by a clip-show titled "Lost: The Answers", which recapped the third season. Cuse said that he and Lindelof think the finale is "very cool [and] we're very proud of it." Stephen McPherson, the president of ABC Entertainment, called "Through the Looking Glass" "one of the best episodes" of the series. Buena Vista Home Entertainment released "Through the Looking Glass" on the season's DVD and Blu-ray Disc
sets on December 11, 2007 in Region 1
. A featurette
called "Lost: On Location" features cast and crew discussing production of select episodes, including "Through the Looking Glass". The episode was rerun for the first time on January 30, 2008 with on-screen text in the lower third of the screen, similar to VH1
's Pop-up Video
. These pop-ups were not written by Lost' s writers due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike
; they were written by the marketing company Met/Hodder. This enhanced edition was viewed by almost 9 million Americans.
, the episode attracted 1.21 million viewers, and was the second most watched program of the week on the non-terrestrial channels
, beaten only by Katie & Peter: The Next Chapter. In Australia
, Lost was the thirty-seventh most viewed show of the week, bringing in 1.17 million viewers. In Canada
, the episode placed sixteenth for the first half, with 911,000 viewers and fifteenth for the second half, with 938,000 viewers. The episodes were broadcast before and after American Idol
.
The episode garnered critical acclaim. The Los Angeles Times
wrote that the episode was "an unusually action-packed and sanguinary spring cleaning that… left a host of… characters… dead", Access Atlanta said "it was deeply satisfying. The first hour started a bit slow but the second hour had great twists, wonderfully emotional moments, both happy and sad", and the Associated Press
said that "the powerful season-ending episode redeemed the series with the shrewdness and intrigue that made it so addictive in the first place." The San Francisco Chronicle
wrote that "not only was the pace fast, the teases taut, and the answers plenty, the writers took a compelling gamble… [by telling] viewers that in the future… maybe all… of the people on the Lost island get off. They get their wish. But in Jack, our guide through this series, the writers definitively say, 'Be careful what you wish for.'" The San Jose Mercury News
called the finale a "jaw-dropping exercise in good storytelling." The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
commented that the flashforward "twist gave the saga renewed momentum as it begins its march toward a 2010 finish." The season finale was summed up as "a mind-blower, for sure, a radical two hours that gave us major fake-outs, an army of dead bodies, the possibility of rescue [and] diverse portraits of heroism" by The Boston Globe
, who added that the death of Charlie was "the most touching loss of the series so far." The Palm Beach Post
and Wizard
named it the "Best Cliffhanger" of 2007. The Chicago Tribune
called it "a qualified success" with excellent pacing and action, however, the flashforward scenes were thought to be uninteresting and "clumsy". Time
ranked the episode as the best of 2007 and the "Rattlesnake in the Mailbox" as one of the ten best scenes of 2007 television.
The Futon Critic placed the episode first in the site's annual "50 Best Episodes" list. E!
said that "Through the Looking Glass" was possibly "the best episode ever of the entire series." TV Guide
described "Through the Looking Glass" as "a dizzying exercise in adventure, sustained tension and time-shifting rug pulling [that was] spectacularly produced, amazingly directed and gloriously acted." IGN
gave the double episode a perfect 10/10 – the best review of the season – saying it was "nothing short of a masterpiece of storytelling with a brilliantly paced narrative." IGN
would conclude that the flashforward was the "Biggest Shock" in 2007 television. BuddyTV
praised the unpredictability, saying that "no other show can even attempt to do what Lost does." BuddyTV would later call "Through the Looking Glass" the best finale of 2007 and Charlie's death the saddest TV death of 2007. "Through the Looking Glass" was TV.com
' s "Editor's Choice" for "Best Episode" of 2007. AOL
' s TV Squad gave the episode a 7/7, noting that "the writers followed through on Desmond's premonitions and successfully delivered the highly anticipated game-changer." Television Without Pity gave the third season finale an "A". The Sydney Morning Herald
wrote that Lost "may have unjumped[ the shark
] with [the] flashforward." Entertainment Weekly
ranked it as one of the top ten episodes of 2007, saying that the cliffhanger "[revealed] new dimensions to [Lost' s] creative world." Zap2It questioned "whether to be deeply frustrated (again), really, really confused (a distinct possibility) or just in awe of the incredible mind-(ahem) show runners… have pulled off." The writing for Locke was criticized, and one IGN writer said that "it seems irrational that he would go and [stab Naomi] in the back without explaining himself." Lindelof stated "that we might be willing to give [Locke] the benefit of the doubt for any action he took in response to [lying, gutshot, in a pit of Dharma corpses for two days and on the verge of taking his own life], even if considered slightly 'out of character'." Film and television director and writer Kevin Smith
said that "to do [3] seasons and then suddenly throw a massive curveball is just so dramatically satisfying, you just take your hats off to the writers in a big, bad way."
", "Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series" and "Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series" for the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards
, but it failed to win in any category. The season finale was submitted for Emmy consideration in the category of "Outstanding Drama Series
"; however, it was not nominated. Bender was also nominated for the Directors Guild of America
Award for "Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series Night", but he did not win. "Through the Looking Glass" was the AOL
primetime poll winner and editors' pick for "Best Season-Ending Cliffhanger". "Through the Looking Glass" won "Drama Episode of the Year" at the Los Angeles Times
Gold Derby TV Awards. The episode was awarded three E!
Tater Top Awards. Charlie's death won "Biggest Tearjerker" and the "Rattlesnake" won "Biggest Shocker", while Rose Henderson won "Best Line" for "If you say 'live together, die alone' to me, Jack, I'm going to punch you in your face."
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
television series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
, consisting of the 22nd and 23rd episodes of the third season. It is also the 71st and 72nd episodes overall. It was written by co-creator/executive producer Damon Lindelof
Damon Lindelof
Damon Laurence Lindelof is an American television writer and executive, most recently noted as the co-creator and executive producer for the television series Lost. He has written for and produced Crossing Jordan, and wrote for Nash Bridges, Wasteland, and the MTV anthology series Undressed...
and executive producer Carlton Cuse
Carlton Cuse
Carlton Cuse is an AmericanEmmy Award winning screenwriter and producer, most famous as executive producer andscreenwriter for the American television series Lost for...
, and directed by executive producer Jack Bender
Jack Bender
Jack Bender is an American television and film director, actor, television producer and also a screenwriter. Bender was an executive producer and lead director on the ABC television series, Lost. He directed the series finale of Lost. Bender has also directed on other popular shows such as The...
. When first aired on May 23, 2007 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, it was watched by an average of 14 million American viewers. Like the previous two season finale
Season finale
A season finale is the final episode of a season of a television program...
s, it was two hours long with advertisements, twice the length of a normal episode. It was edited into two individual episodes when released on DVD. The season finale is widely regarded as one of the best episodes of Lost. The episode garnered a number of awards and nominations, including three Emmy
59th Primetime Emmy Awards
The 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California on September 16, 2007 and were televised live on Fox at 8:00 p.m. EDT for the first time in high definition...
nominations and a DGA Award nomination.
The episode begins its narrative in late December 2004, over ninety days after the crash of Oceanic Airlines
Oceanic Airlines
Oceanic Airlines and less frequently Oceanic Airways are fictional airlines used in several films and television programs.The most famous use of this brand is in the TV show Lost, where Oceanic Airlines is featured branded with a highly-stylized logo depicting an Aboriginal dot painting that...
Flight 815. The battle between the crash survivors and the dangerous and mysterious island inhabitants referred to as the "Others" comes to a head as ten of the Others attack and are then ambushed at the survivors' camp and are subsequently killed. Meanwhile, Jack Shephard
Jack Shephard
Dr. Jack Shephard is a fictional character and protagonist of the ABC television series Lost played by Matthew Fox. Lost follows the journey of the survivors of Oceanic Airlines flight 815 on a mysterious island and their attempts to survive and escape, slowly uncovering more of the much broader...
(played by Matthew Fox
Matthew Fox (actor)
Matthew Chandler Fox is an American actor. He is mostly known for his role as Charlie Salinger on Party of Five, and for portraying Jack Shephard on the supernatural drama television series Lost.- Early life :...
) leads most of the survivors to the island's radio tower to communicate with a nearby ship. Intercut with this story are off-island scenes spotlighting Jack, who has become suicidally depressed and addicted to painkillers. In a twist ending, it is revealed that these scenes are flashforward
Flashforward
A flashforward is an interjected scene that takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media. Flashforwards are often used to represent events expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future...
s to sometime in the future, after Jack has left the island, rather than flashbacks
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
as in previous episodes of Lost.
Plot
The Others plan to attack the camp and kidnap pregnant women for scientific research. The survivors are informed of the plan by the Other Karl (Blake BashoffBlake Bashoff
Blake Warren Bashoff is an American television and motion picture actor, known for his role as Moritz Stiefel in Spring Awakening. He has also appeared in a number of guest roles on television series, including the ABC series Lost as Karl Martin.- Life and career :Bashoff was born in Philadelphia,...
) and conceive a plan to kill the Others with dynamite-rigged tents. Sayid Jarrah
Sayid Jarrah
Sayid Hassan Jarrah is a character from the ABC show Lost portrayed by Naveen Andrews.-Season 1:Sayid fixes the transceiver recovered from the cockpit, and leads a group into the jungle in order to send out a distress signal. Instead, he picks up a looping message . He tries to locate the...
(Naveen Andrews
Naveen Andrews
Naveen William Sidney Andrews is a British American actor. He is best known for portraying Kip in the movie The English Patient and Sayid Jarrah on the American television series Lost.-Early life:...
), Jin Kwon
Jin-Soo Kwon
Jin-Soo Kwon, better known as "Jin," is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Daniel Dae Kim.- Prior to the crash :...
(Daniel Dae Kim) and Bernard Nadler (Sam Anderson
Sam Anderson
Sam Anderson is an American actor.-Early life:Anderson was born in Wahpeton, North Dakota. He is a graduate of the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. During the 1970s, Sam taught drama at Antelope Valley College in Lancaster, California.-Career:Anderson is perhaps best known for his roles...
) remain at the beach, tasked with shooting the dynamite-rigged tents while the rest of the survivors journey with Danielle Rousseau
Danielle Rousseau
Danielle Rousseau is a fictional character on the ABC drama television series Lost, which chronicles the lives of over forty people after their plane crashes on a remote island somewhere in the South Pacific. Croatian actress Mira Furlan plays the scientist who shipwrecks on the island sixteen...
(Mira Furlan
Mira Furlan
Mira Furlan is a Croatian actress and singer currently residing in the United States. She is well known for her roles as the Minbari Ambassador Delenn on all five seasons of the science fiction television series Babylon 5 , and Danielle Rousseau on Lost.-Early life:Furlan was born to an...
) to the radio tower to communicate with Naomi Dorrit's (Marsha Thomason
Marsha Thomason
Marsha Lisa Thomason is an English actress, who is known in the United States for playing Nessa Holt in the first two seasons of the NBC series Las Vegas, for her recurring role on ABC's Lost as Naomi Dorrit, and for playing FBI agent Diana Berrigan on USA Network's White Collar.-Early...
) nearby ship. The Others arrive, and while Sayid and Bernard detonate their tents, Jin misses his target, which results in their capture by the Others: Tom
Tom (Lost)
Tom Friendly, often referred to as Tom or Mr. Friendly, is a recurring fictional character portrayed by M. C. Gainey on the American Broadcasting Company television series Lost. The series follows the lives of around forty survivors from the crash of Oceanic Flight 815...
(M.C. Gainey
M. C. Gainey
Michael Connor "Mike" Gainey , better known as M. C. Gainey, is an American film and television actor whose distinctive mustache, 6'2½" height, and threatening look have given him supporting roles as Southern/Southwestern types, thugs, and criminals.Gainey attended the University of Southern...
), Ryan Pryce (Brian Goodman
Brian Goodman
Brian Goodman is an American film and television director, writer, and actor.-Brief background:At 12, Goodman quit school and started living on the streets. He sold drugs, married young, and served time in prison for his criminal activity. It was not until he saw Brian's Song that Goodman made a...
) and Jason (Ariston Green), and the deaths of seven Others. After hearing only two explosions, James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway
Josh Holloway
Joshua Lee "Josh" Holloway is an American actor and model from Free Home, Georgia. He is best known for his role as James "Sawyer" Ford on the American television show Lost.-Early life:...
) and Juliet Burke
Juliet Burke
Dr. Juliet Burke is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Elizabeth Mitchell. Her character was introduced in the third season premiere.- Prior to arrival on the island :...
(Elizabeth Mitchell
Elizabeth Mitchell
Elizabeth Mitchell , is an American actress/modelwho is known for her roles as Dr. Juliet Burke on ABC's TV series Lost and as FBI agent Erica Evans on V. She has starred in such films as The Santa Clause 2, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, and Gia.-Early life:Mitchell was born Elizabeth...
) turn back to see if they can help. Hugo "Hurley" Reyes (Jorge Garcia
Jorge Garcia
Jorge García is a U.S. actor and comedian. He first came to public attention with his performance as Hector Lopez on the television show Becker and later for his portrayal of Hugo "Hurley" Reyes in the television series Lost. Garcia also performs as a stand-up comedian.-Early life:García was born...
), who was not allowed to accompany Sawyer and Juliet because of his weight, drives the van he found onto the beach, and the captives gain the upper hand, killing the remaining Others with the help of Sawyer and Juliet. Tom surrenders but Sawyer shoots him in the chest anyway.
After knocking Desmond Hume
Desmond Hume
Desmond David Hume is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost portrayed by Henry Ian Cusick. Desmond's name is a tribute to David Hume, the famous empiricist author and philosopher. Desmond was not a passenger of Flight 815. He had been stranded on the island three years prior to...
(Henry Ian Cusick
Henry Ian Cusick
Henry Ian Cusick is a Scottish-Peruvian actor of stage, television, and film. He is well-known for his role as Desmond Hume on the United States television series Lost, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination....
) unconscious, Charlie Pace
Charlie Pace
Charlie Hieronymus Pace is a fictional character on ABC's Lost, a television series chronicling the lives of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island...
(Dominic Monaghan
Dominic Monaghan
Dominic Bernard Patrick Luke Monaghan is an English actor. He has received international attention from playing Merry in Peter Jackson's adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and for his role as Charlie Pace on the television show Lost....
) dives down into The Looking Glass, a research station of the Dharma Initiative
DHARMA Initiative
The Dharma Initiative, also written DHARMA , was a fictional research project featured in the television series Lost. It was introduced in the second season episode "Orientation". In 2008, the Dharma Initiative website was launched. Dharma's interests were directly connected with fringe science...
, with the hope of disabling the system jamming outgoing transmissions. Charlie is captured by the resident Others Greta (Lana Parrilla
Lana Parrilla
Lana Parrilla is a Puerto Rican-American actress, best known for her roles on Spin City, 24, Boomtown and Miami Medical...
) and Bonnie (Tracy Middendorf
Tracy Middendorf
Tracy Lynn Middendorf is an American television, movie, and stage actress.-Personal life:Middendorf was born in Miami Beach, Florida. She attended Pickens High School in Jasper, Georgia. In 1987, during her senior year, she left Jasper to take drama classes in Miami, and later attended SUNY Purchase...
). Ben Linus (Michael Emerson
Michael Emerson
Michael Emerson is an American actor who is perhaps best known for his roles as Benjamin Linus on Lost and fictional serial killer William Hinks in The Practice.-Early life:...
) learns of Charlie's infiltration and sends Mikhail Bakunin (Andrew Divoff
Andrew Divoff
Andrew Daniel Divoff is a Venezuelan film and television actor, best known for playing the evil Djinn in the two first Wishmaster films and the villains Cherry Ganz in Another 48 Hrs., Boris Bazylev in Air Force One, Ivan Sarnoff in CSI: Miami and Mikhail Bakunin in Lost.- Early life :Divoff was...
) to the station to kill the three to preserve the signal jamming. Mikhail arrives and kills Greta and Bonnie, only to be shot through the chest with a spear gun by Desmond who emerges from a closet inside the station where he had hidden after diving down a short time after Charlie did. Getting the code from Bonnie before she dies (the notes to the middle eight of "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys), Charlie disables the signal jammer, and is contacted by Penny Widmore (Sonya Walger
Sonya Walger
Sonya Walger is an English actress known for her roles in the ABC series Lost as Penelope "Penny" Widmore, and as Olivia Benford on ABC's FlashForward.-Education:...
) via video transmission. Penny informs Charlie that she does not know Naomi, and did not send the boat that Naomi claims to be from. Despite his injury, Mikhail manages to swim out of the station and blasts the window of the jamming room with a grenade, killing himself and flooding the communications room. Charlie locks the door to save Desmond from drowning with him, but before he drowns, Charlie writes on his hand so Desmond can read: "NOT PENNY'S BOAT".
John Locke
John Locke (Lost)
John Locke is a fictional character played by Terry O'Quinn on the ABC television series Lost. He is named after English philosopher John Locke...
(Terry O'Quinn
Terry O'Quinn
Terry O'Quinn is an American actor, most famous for playing John Locke on the TV series Lost. He made his debut in a 1980 television movie called F.D.R.: The Last Year. Since then, O'Quinn has had minor supporting roles in films and TV movies such as Young Guns, All the Right Moves, Silver Bullet,...
), one of the survivors, has been shot by Ben. Finding his legs paralyzed again, Locke is about to commit suicide, when he is stopped by what appears to be Walt Lloyd
Walt Lloyd
Walter "Walt" Lloyd is a fictional character portrayed by Malcolm David Kelley in the American ABC television series Lost. The series follows the lives of over forty survivors of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. Walt is introduced in the pilot episode as one of the survivors aboard the plane, which...
(Malcolm David Kelley
Malcolm David Kelley
Malcolm David Kelley is an American teen actor. He starred in the 2004 film You Got Served as "Li'l Saint". He also appears in the television series Lost as the character Walt Lloyd. A regular cast member in the show's first season , he has appeared only occasionally since due to a dramatic...
). Meanwhile, Ben tells Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell
Nestor Carbonell
Nestor Gastón Carbonell is an American actor, known for portraying Richard Alpert in ABC's drama Lost and Mayor Anthony Garcia in the film The Dark Knight...
) to lead the rest of the Others to the "Temple" and then leaves the Others with his adopted daughter, Alex
Alex (Lost)
Alexandra "Alex" Linus is a recurring fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Tania Raymonde. She was born 16 years prior to the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, but was taken from her mother, Danielle Rousseau by the Others. She was raised among them, believing her mother to...
(Tania Raymonde
Tania Raymonde
Tania Raymonde is an American actress. Raymonde's first prominent casting role was the recurring character of Cynthia Sanders in TV series Malcolm in the Middle between 2000–2003, followed by a popular role as Alex Rousseau in ABC's Lost from 2006 to 2010.She can currently be seen as UTF officer...
) Rousseau's daughter and Karl's girlfriend, to meet up with the survivors to persuade Jack not to call Naomi's ship for rescue.
Kate is upset about Sawyer not wanting her to come back to the beach with him to rescue Sayid, Jin and Bernard. Jack tells her it is because Sawyer was trying to protect her. When she asks why Jack is defending Sawyer, Jack informs Kate Austen
Kate Austen
Katherine Anne "Kate" Austen is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost, played by Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly. She is the de facto female lead...
(Evangeline Lilly
Evangeline Lilly
Evangeline Lilly is a Canadian actress, best known for her role as Kate Austen in the ABC drama, Lost.-Early life:...
) that it is because he loves her. Kate also witnessed a kiss between him and Juliet. Ben and Alex intercept Jack's group; Ben informs Jack that Naomi is not who she says she is, and making contact with her boat will be disastrous for everyone on the island. Ben orders the shooting of Sayid, Jin, and Bernard, and when Jack hears three shots, he attacks Ben and punches him in the face repeatedly leaving Ben bloody. Unknown to Jack, the shots were fired into the sand, following earlier orders from Ben. Rousseau meets her sixteen year old daughter Alex, who was kidnapped by the Others shortly after her birth, and they tie Ben up. The trek party, now able to get a signal, arrives at the radio tower. Rousseau disables her distress signal, freeing the frequency for Naomi. However, Naomi is knifed in the back by Locke, who threatens to kill Jack if he calls Naomi’s boat. Locke cannot bring himself to kill Jack, who communicates with George Minkowski (Fisher Stevens
Fisher Stevens
Fisher Stevens is an American actor, director and producer. His most recent successes include the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for his film The Cove and 2008 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature for his film Crazy Love...
) on Naomi's boat. Minkowski tells the survivors they will be sending rescue.
Throughout the episode, flashforwards from years after "Through the Looking Glass"'s island events show that Jack has escaped the island and returned to work as a spinal surgeon, although it's not until the last of these, when Kate appears and Jack discusses the island, that it becomes clear that the sequences are flashforwards rather than flashbacks. In these sequences, Jack is shown to be depressed, bearded, heavily drinking and addicted to Oxycodone
Oxycodone
Oxycodone is an opioid analgesic medication synthesized from opium-derived thebaine. It was developed in 1916 in Germany, as one of several new semi-synthetic opioids in an attempt to improve on the existing opioids: morphine, diacetylmorphine , and codeine.Oxycodone oral medications are generally...
. After reading about the death of someone he knew, Jack appears to be ready to commit suicide by jumping off the Sixth Street Viaduct
Sixth Street Viaduct
The Sixth Street Viaduct is a viaduct bridge that connects the downtown and Boyle Heights areas of Los Angeles, California. It spans the Los Angeles River, the Santa Ana Freeway , and the Golden State Freeway , as well as Metrolink and Union Pacific railroad tracks and several local streets...
bridge. However, he is distracted by a car crash and goes to save the victims. Later, Jack visits the memorial service for the person he read about and finds himself to be the only attendee. He contacts Kate and tells her about the memorial service. Kate says that she did not know about it, but she would not have attended even if she did. Jack also talks about using the "golden pass" they have received, to fly across the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
and back every Friday, hoping that he will crash. Jack explains that they should never have left the island and must return; however, Kate disagrees and leaves, not wanting to continue this conversation that they have apparently had before.
Production
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
's novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There
Through the Looking-Glass
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a work of literature by Lewis Carroll . It is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...
and a reference to the fictitious Dharma Initiative
DHARMA Initiative
The Dharma Initiative, also written DHARMA , was a fictional research project featured in the television series Lost. It was introduced in the second season episode "Orientation". In 2008, the Dharma Initiative website was launched. Dharma's interests were directly connected with fringe science...
station found in the previous episode
Greatest Hits (Lost)
"Greatest Hits" is the 21st episode of the third season of Lost and 70th episode of the series. It was written by co-executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and directed by supervising producer Stephen Williams. The episode first aired on May 16, 2007 on ABC in the United States and...
. Shooting began on April 13, 2007 and ended on May 7, 2007. The writers were so far behind schedule that parts of the episode were shot while later parts were still being written. Filming mostly took place on Oahu
Oahu
Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, with additional scenes shot in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. The hospital scenes were filmed on the same sets used for the ABC show Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series created by Shonda Rhimes. The series premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC; since then, seven seasons have aired. The series follows the lives of interns, residents and their mentors in the fictional Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in...
.
Despite not being mentioned in the official press release, then 15 year old Malcolm David Kelley
Malcolm David Kelley
Malcolm David Kelley is an American teen actor. He starred in the 2004 film You Got Served as "Li'l Saint". He also appears in the television series Lost as the character Walt Lloyd. A regular cast member in the show's first season , he has appeared only occasionally since due to a dramatic...
returned to reprise his role as 10 year old Walt Lloyd
Walt Lloyd
Walter "Walt" Lloyd is a fictional character portrayed by Malcolm David Kelley in the American ABC television series Lost. The series follows the lives of over forty survivors of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. Walt is introduced in the pilot episode as one of the survivors aboard the plane, which...
, and received credit as a "special guest star". Kelley’s character had left the island in the second season finale, only 26 days prior to the events of "Through the Looking Glass", however, Kelley had not filmed an episode in over a year. In his single scene, Walt has visibly aged, appears taller and has a deeper voice. The producers had hoped that Harold Perrineau, who plays Walt's father Michael Dawson
Michael Dawson (Lost)
Michael Dawson is a fictional character played by Harold Perrineau on the ABC television series Lost. After losing a custody battle with Susan Lloyd , Michael does not see his son Walt for almost ten years. They reunite when she dies, but on their journey home, their plane crashes on a mysterious...
, would return in this episode, but he was busy filming the pilot for CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
' Demons
Demons (TV series)
Demons is a pilot episode of a proposed drama series, initially competing to run as part of the CBS primetime schedule during Fall 2007. Demons was created by Barbara Hall, who also created Joan of Arcadia. The pilot starred Ron Eldard and Harold Perrineau. The pilot was not picked up by the network....
. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse lent their voices for the unseen roles of the flight captain and newscaster, respectively.
Claire Littleton
Claire Littleton is a fictional character played by Emilie de Ravin on the ABC drama television series Lost, which chronicles the lives of the survivors of a plane crash in the South Pacific. Claire is introduced in the pilot episode as a pregnant crash survivor. She is a series regular until her...
, to get rescued from the island. The storyline of Charlie's death was conceived while producing the latter part of the second season, after the storyline of Charlie's drug addiction finished. The news of his character's death was broken to Monaghan two episodes
The Man Behind the Curtain
"The Man Behind the Curtain" is the 20th episode of the 3rd season of Lost, and the 69th episode overall. It was first aired on May 9, 2007 on ABC. The episode was directed by Bobby Roth and written by Elizabeth Sarnoff and Drew Goddard....
in advance, to which Monaghan felt "relief" for knowing the future of his job on the show. On the night of Monaghan's second to last day on set, he was presented with a canoe paddle that had been made by the cast and crew. Monaghan hoped to return to Lost as a guest star in flashbacks or dreams.
Jack Bender stated that Matthew Fox "really commits body and soul into the story he's telling" and Fox questioned whether he had ever been more tired than while shooting the double episode. Like the other Lost season finales, the final cliffhanger scene was given a codename—"The Rattlesnake in the Mailbox"—and kept top secret. After Lindelof and Cuse wrote the scene, only Fox, Lilly, Bender and co-executive producer Jean Higgins were given copies of the script. The scene was shot with a green screen
Green Screen
The Green Screen international wildlife film festival is held annually in Eckernförde, Germany. The festival shows full-length and short nature documentaries about animals in their natural habitat. It is the only festival of its kind in Germany...
in an abandoned Honolulu parking lot with the airport edited in. Despite the security measures, a complete and detailed episode synopsis was uploaded online over a week before the episode aired. Disney investigated the leak. The leak prompted Lindelof and Cuse to enter "radio silence
Radio silence
In telecommunications, radio silence is a status in which all fixed or mobile radio stations in an area are asked to stop transmitting for safety or security reasons.The term "radio station" may include anything capable of transmitting a radio signal....
", which was temporarily broken at Comic-Con International
Comic-Con International
San Diego Comic-Con International, also known as Comic-Con International: San Diego , and commonly known as Comic-Con or the San Diego Comic-Con, was founded as the Golden State Comic Book Convention and later the San Diego Comic Book Convention in 1970 by Shel Dorf and a group of San Diegans...
2007. The funeral parlor that Jack visits is called "Hoffs/Drawlar", which is an anagram of "flashforward". The idea of flashforwards was conceived by creators Lindelof and Abrams during the show's conception. However, Cuse and Lindelof only started fleshing out the idea at the end of the first season, after they realized that flashbacks would eventually stop being revelatory and knew that they would eventually have to switch to flashforwards. With the announcement that the series would conclude 48 episodes after "Through the Looking Glass", they felt comfortable playing flashforwards as early as the third season finale.
Post-production wrapped on May 21, 2007, only two days before it aired on television. The score was composed by series musician Michael Giacchino
Michael Giacchino
Michael Giacchino is an American composer who has composed scores for movies, television series and video games. Some of his most notable works include the scores to television series such as Lost, Alias and Fringe, games such as the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty series, and films such as...
, while popular music was also featured throughout the episode. Charlie also sings a song in the episode that was written by Dominic Monaghan, who plays him. A Lost season finale is approximately twice as long the average Lost episode. Due to the episode's length, it was split into two parts in some
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
countries
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and when released on DVD. Unlike most episodes, this episode did not feature a "previously on Lost…" recap at the start of the episode when it first aired; however, it was originally preceded by a clip-show titled "Lost: The Answers", which recapped the third season. Cuse said that he and Lindelof think the finale is "very cool [and] we're very proud of it." Stephen McPherson, the president of ABC Entertainment, called "Through the Looking Glass" "one of the best episodes" of the series. Buena Vista Home Entertainment released "Through the Looking Glass" on the season's DVD and Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
sets on December 11, 2007 in Region 1
DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
. A featurette
Featurette
Featurette is a term used in the American film industry to designate a film whose length is approximately three quarters of a reel, or about 20–44 minutes in running time - thus midway between a short subject and a feature film; thus it is a "small feature"...
called "Lost: On Location" features cast and crew discussing production of select episodes, including "Through the Looking Glass". The episode was rerun for the first time on January 30, 2008 with on-screen text in the lower third of the screen, similar to VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
's Pop-up Video
Pop-up Video
Pop Up Video is a VH1 television show that "pops up" bubbles — officially called "info nuggets" — containing trivia, witticisms and borderline sexual innuendos throughout music videos. The show was created by Woody Thompson and Tad Low and premiered October 27, 1996. For a time, it was the...
. These pop-ups were not written by Lost
2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike
The 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, more commonly referred to as simply the Writers' Strike, was a strike by the Writers Guild of America, East and the Writers Guild of America, West ....
; they were written by the marketing company Met/Hodder. This enhanced edition was viewed by almost 9 million Americans.
Ratings
In the U.S., the episode brought in the best ratings for Lost in fifteen episodes. The two-hour Wednesday broadcast on ABC made Lost the fourth most watched series of the week with an average of 13.86 million American viewers, below the third season average of 14.6 million. The first hour was viewed by 12.67 million, and the audience increased to 15.04 million in the second hour. The episode received a 5.9/15 in the key adults 18–49 demographic. In the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the episode attracted 1.21 million viewers, and was the second most watched program of the week on the non-terrestrial channels
Digital television in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom now has three major forms of broadcast digital television , a direct-to-home satellite service from the Astra 28.2°E satellites provided by British Sky Broadcasting and Freesat, digital cable television services provided by Virgin Media and WightCable, and a free-to-air digital...
, beaten only by Katie & Peter: The Next Chapter. In Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Lost was the thirty-seventh most viewed show of the week, bringing in 1.17 million viewers. In Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the episode placed sixteenth for the first half, with 911,000 viewers and fifteenth for the second half, with 938,000 viewers. The episodes were broadcast before and after American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
.
Critical response
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
wrote that the episode was "an unusually action-packed and sanguinary spring cleaning that… left a host of… characters… dead", Access Atlanta said "it was deeply satisfying. The first hour started a bit slow but the second hour had great twists, wonderfully emotional moments, both happy and sad", and the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
said that "the powerful season-ending episode redeemed the series with the shrewdness and intrigue that made it so addictive in the first place." The San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
wrote that "not only was the pace fast, the teases taut, and the answers plenty, the writers took a compelling gamble… [by telling] viewers that in the future… maybe all… of the people on the Lost island get off. They get their wish. But in Jack, our guide through this series, the writers definitively say, 'Be careful what you wish for.'" The San Jose Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
The San Jose Mercury News is a daily newspaper in San Jose, California. On its web site, however, it calls itself Silicon Valley Mercury News. The paper is owned by MediaNews Group...
called the finale a "jaw-dropping exercise in good storytelling." The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the "PG," is the largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-Early history:...
commented that the flashforward "twist gave the saga renewed momentum as it begins its march toward a 2010 finish." The season finale was summed up as "a mind-blower, for sure, a radical two hours that gave us major fake-outs, an army of dead bodies, the possibility of rescue [and] diverse portraits of heroism" by The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
, who added that the death of Charlie was "the most touching loss of the series so far." The Palm Beach Post
The Palm Beach Post
The Palm Beach Post is a major daily newspaper in Florida, serving Palm Beach County in South Florida, and the Treasure Coast area. It is the 72nd largest daily newspaper in the United States and the sixth largest in Florida.-History:...
and Wizard
Wizard (magazine)
Wizard or Wizard: The Magazine of Comics, Entertainment and Pop Culture was a magazine about comic books, published monthly in the United States by Wizard Entertainment from July 1991 to January 2011...
named it the "Best Cliffhanger" of 2007. The Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
called it "a qualified success" with excellent pacing and action, however, the flashforward scenes were thought to be uninteresting and "clumsy". Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
ranked the episode as the best of 2007 and the "Rattlesnake in the Mailbox" as one of the ten best scenes of 2007 television.
The Futon Critic placed the episode first in the site's annual "50 Best Episodes" list. E!
E!
E! Entertainment Television is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by NBCUniversal. It features entertainment-related programming, reality television, feature films and occasionally series and specials unrelated to the entertainment industry.E! has an audience reach of...
said that "Through the Looking Glass" was possibly "the best episode ever of the entire series." TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
described "Through the Looking Glass" as "a dizzying exercise in adventure, sustained tension and time-shifting rug pulling [that was] spectacularly produced, amazingly directed and gloriously acted." IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
gave the double episode a perfect 10/10 – the best review of the season – saying it was "nothing short of a masterpiece of storytelling with a brilliantly paced narrative." IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
would conclude that the flashforward was the "Biggest Shock" in 2007 television. BuddyTV
BuddyTV
BuddyTV is an entertainment-based website based in Seattle, Washington, which generates content about television programs and sporting events. The website publishes information about celebrity and related entertainment news through a series of articles, entertainment profiles, actor biographies and...
praised the unpredictability, saying that "no other show can even attempt to do what Lost does." BuddyTV would later call "Through the Looking Glass" the best finale of 2007 and Charlie's death the saddest TV death of 2007. "Through the Looking Glass" was TV.com
TV.com
TV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
wrote that Lost "may have unjumped
Jumping the shark
Jumping the shark is an idiom used to describe the moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality that is beyond recovery....
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
ranked it as one of the top ten episodes of 2007, saying that the cliffhanger "[revealed] new dimensions to [Lost
Kevin Smith
Kevin Patrick Smith is an American screenwriter, actor, film producer, and director, as well as a popular comic book writer, author, comedian/raconteur, and internet radio personality best recognized by viewers as Silent Bob...
said that "to do [3] seasons and then suddenly throw a massive curveball is just so dramatically satisfying, you just take your hats off to the writers in a big, bad way."
Awards
The episode was nominated in the categories of "Outstanding Directing for a Drama SeriesPrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series
The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series is an Emmy presented to the best directing of a television drama series.-Best Direction of a Single Program of a Drama Series:*1959: Jack Smight – Alcoa-Goodyear Theatre ...
", "Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series" and "Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series" for the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards
59th Primetime Emmy Awards
The 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California on September 16, 2007 and were televised live on Fox at 8:00 p.m. EDT for the first time in high definition...
, but it failed to win in any category. The season finale was submitted for Emmy consideration in the category of "Outstanding Drama Series
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series
This page lists the winners and nominees for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, since its institution in 1951. The award is often cited as one of the "main awards" at the Emmys ceremonies, and has changed names many times in its history. It was first called Best Dramatic Show...
"; however, it was not nominated. Bender was also nominated for the Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...
Award for "Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series Night", but he did not win. "Through the Looking Glass" was the AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
primetime poll winner and editors' pick for "Best Season-Ending Cliffhanger". "Through the Looking Glass" won "Drama Episode of the Year" at the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
Gold Derby TV Awards. The episode was awarded three E!
E!
E! Entertainment Television is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by NBCUniversal. It features entertainment-related programming, reality television, feature films and occasionally series and specials unrelated to the entertainment industry.E! has an audience reach of...
Tater Top Awards. Charlie's death won "Biggest Tearjerker" and the "Rattlesnake" won "Biggest Shocker", while Rose Henderson won "Best Line" for "If you say 'live together, die alone' to me, Jack, I'm going to punch you in your face."
External links
- Episode guide and photos at ABC.com
- Overview at TV.comTV.comTV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...