Checkmate, Mr. Eko

Last night, I sat myself down for a heaping helping of Lost. It was the two-hour season 4 finale, and it was indeed gratifying! I've found myself letting this show sneak into my all-time top five, and it might even be competing with Twin Peaks for coolest TV show in the history of the world.
I know that there are a lot of haters out there. Lots of people who think the show is "overrated" or who have been known to say, "I just couldn't get into it." I have but one thing to say to such haters: "Pull your heads out of your collective asses!" I know that these haters only rag on the show because it's mainstream and popular, and to certain forms of life, anything that is mainstream and popular must be sucky. Though that can be said about many things (cough cough...Indy 4...cough cough), there are TV shows, movies, books, and music that completely deserve all the popularity they get. Lost is a good example of this anomaly.
Now, in honor of the season finale, I give you my ten most extreme Lost moments:

10. Nathan Fillion: Lost has had its share of contributors. Many actors/actresses have come and gone throughout the twisted tale of Oceanic 815. But none so cool as Mr. Fillion. He appeared during one of Kate's flashbacks as Kevin Callis, a man that Kate was dating and eventually married! This was an awesome moment because Nathan Fillion is, himself, awesome. I was excited to see him pop up and do his thing for Lost, and it gave me another reason to be bugged by Kate, who leaves him behind in pursuit of her personal demons. Anyone who dumps Mr. Fillion is kind of a moron, in my opinion.

9. Penny and Desmond: I think a lot of people get caught up in the love triangle among Jack, Kate, and Sawyer, but I kinda got tired of thinking about who Kate should end up with. Instead, I liked to focus on the other relationships on the Island. Sun and Jin are cool, Sayid and Nadia are cool but tragic, Hurley and Libby were cute but kind of weird, etc. But the coolest relationship of all is that of Penny and Desmond. I thought they had a good thing going in previous seasons, but there were two episodes of season 4 that made me want them to live happily ever after. First was in the episode called "The Constant" when Desmond fell victim to an involuntary bout with time travel. The past form of Daniel Faraday told him that he had to find some kind of anchor that would keep his mind from spinning out of control, and that anchor was Penny. He managed to make arrangements in the past so that he could call Penny in the future, thus preserving his sanity. The second moment took place in last night's finale, when they finally came upon Penny's boat and the two were totally reunited. This was extra cool because I was pretty sure that Desmond was going to die somehow.

8. 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42: These numbers are present throughout the show, and stuff like this intrigues me. Hurley is the one who seems to be most involved with these numbers, mainly because he thinks they are cursed. The reason for this is because he played these numbers in a lottery and won. As a result, he was on the plane that crashed and from then on he noticed them in strange places all over the Island. Wanna know what's even more crazy? Before he won the lottery, he heard someone mumbling about these numbers while he was in a mental institution. The person he heard mumbling ended up being a soldier who intercepted them in a longwave transmission while stationed at a military listening post. Most recently, Hurley encountered the numbers on the odometer of a car that his dad restored for his birthday. What???

7. "Not Penny's Boat": The season 3 finale was pretty awesome. Many things made it awesome. One of the more exceedingly awesome events took place when Charlie drowned. Charlie made contact with the freighter that was offshore, and made the startling discovery that it wasn't one of Penny's. As soon as he made this discovery, the crazy Russian Other swam by and shot out the window, causing water to rush in. Since Charlie couldn't get out, his last moments were spent writing the words "not Penny's boat" on his hand so he could show Desmond through the door's window. Though I'm not sure Charlie had to let himself die, it made the concept of finding out who the freak was sending freighters after them pretty intriguing.

6. Move the Island? What?: One of the more significant instances of mindfudgery that took place last night was the event in which Ben teleported the entire Island somewhere that has yet to be specified. That's really all I can say about it.

5. What's a Flash Forward?: Yet another instance of WTF from the season 3 finale. So, all through the show, there's been these flashbacks involving all of the characters and building up their stories. In the season 3 finale, we see one of these depicting Jack as a drug-addled misanthrope sporting an awesomely ugly beard. At first, you figure this is just a dark point in Jack's past and that it'll reveal something significant. But as the episode ends, freaking Kate drives up to meet him outside an airport. They start talking, and Jack's all "Kate! We have to go back! We weren't supposed to leave! Beard! Drugs!" The shock was so vicious that I was comatose for at least two days.

4. The Swan: During season 2, Locke was out hunting boars or something when he discovered something metallic buried in the ground. He dug around it and discovered that it was a door that led to an underground hatch. He showed his discovery to pretty much everyone, but Hurley freaked out when he noticed the cursed lotto numbers engraved on the door, so he ran off. Eventually everyone but Locke lost interest in the hatch, but there was this moment when he was lying on top of the door looking downwards through the window. Suddenly, Locke's face becomes illuminated as an unknown party flips on a light somewhere downstairs. It's moments like these that present the sense of wonder and fascination with the unknown that has become the core of the Lost universe.

3. Claire and the Psychic: I wanna start this off by saying that I hate Claire. But there was an instance in her back story that still freaks me out. Since she was gonna have a kid out of wedlock and all, she was thinking about adoption. But one day her friend persuaded her to visit a psychic. When he took Claire's hands to look into the future, he gets all disturbed and repeats, "No one but you can raise this baby." Claire is weirded out, but kind of trusts this guy's visions. So a few days later, the psychic dude contacts her, apologizes, and says that he knows a family in California who will take care of her baby. He gives her a plane ticket, and guess what? It's for Oceanic Flight 815, fated to crash on the mysterious Island. Now, the reason why this moment is number 3 on the list is because freaking Kate has Claire's baby! This psychic revelation still has some significance as to what's in store for future seasons.

2. Episode 1: I believe I've already mentioned the haters. The haters who have seen the first episode and weren't totally swept up in some of the craziest stuff to have ever been broadcast on national TV. Personally, if you watch the first episode of Lost and are not totally awed by it's two-fisted awesome, then you must have had a frontal lobotomy. Or maybe some form of traumatic head injury. It starts off with an intense plane crash, complete with explosions, shards of debris, and screaming passengers. Then, five minutes after Jack gets everyone calmed down, they start hearing really loud and eerie noises emanating from the jungle. A bit longer into the episode, the pilot gets yanked off screen by some unseen beast, and showers the wreckage with blood. And then? Polar bears! How can you not see all this stuff and say, "my life will not be complete until I figure out what's happening on this island." How?

1. Jacob: The revelation of this character was among the most creepifying moments ever caught on film. I think it takes place in season 3 when Locke decides to stay with the Others and learn more about the Island. Ben takes Locke to this dilapidated cabin surrounded by a ring of sand or ash. When Locke asks what they're doing, Ben explains that they're going to meet a man named Jacob. So they enter the cabin. It appears to be uninhabited, but after a few minutes, the furniture starts to shake and a voice that sounds like it was pulled directly from the Black Lodge moans, "Help me." Yeesh. I still get chills thinking about that shiz.

And there it is. Way to go, Lost. Way to not suck.