The finale was on tonight, which means that we still have one more season left before everything is resolved (hopefully!)

First I want to get this off my chest:

OH....MY.....GOSH, THAT EPISODE WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!

I think this season has been one of the best seasons the show has ever had and this is coming from a guy who has loved almost every single season the show has made. It was unique, thought-provoking, intense and, best of all, suspenseful. While it has been a little tricky following the various stories taking place over several different timelines, I have found this season a refreshing change of pace for the series. It has evolved so much over the years to the point that it almost barely resembles the show we saw in the pilot.

Ok, on to business....

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REVIEW:

Just to get it out of the way, I give this episode 10/10. This is easily one of my favorite episodes of the season and it's no surprise considering what it had going for it...

Pros:
- Jack Bender, the best director the series has, was once again at the helm and provided everything we expect from him. We got some great actions scenes, high moments of drama, huge surprises, superb pacing and solid acting from the whole ensemble.
- We got to see a few excellent deaths (Phil so had it coming!)
- Excellent writing throughout that kept the pace going without wasting many opportunities to make things interesting
- Just as always, a whole bunch of new questions to answer. Thankfully though, we also got quite a few answers to certain gray spots in previous plot points (like what the statue actually looks like above the foot!)
- We actually got to see Jacob!
- Cast is solid as always
- Some plot twists that totally caught me by surprise
- The ending. I thought it was just excellent because now we're on the edge of our seats

Cons
- We still have SO many questions that are not answered and even more that this episode asks. So how are they going to resolve it all?
- There were a few moments that had me laughing only because some plot points seemed completely ridiculous before they actually explained them
- Juliet's flashback was kind of unneeded, but then again Juliet was never really my favorite character
- Speaking of which, I think she was still the weakest in the ensemble and had several moments of bad line reading

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Now here are some big questions that still need to be resolved after the events of tonight's episodes (I'll just go over the bigger ones since there's some many smaller ones):

1. What is going to happen to all the characters after Juliet hits the bomb?
2. Will the future truly be changed like Jack believes and if so how?
3. Who will still be alive by the time everything comes to an end?
4. Who was Jacob referring to when he said "They are coming"?
5. What will happen now that Jacob has been "killed" (I'm still suspicious on that)?
6. Now that we know the Locke we're seeing isn't the real Locke (I'm still surprised by that), what will this mean for everyone in that timeline?
7. Has everything truly just been a big game between Jacob and this new mystery man who might be the one truly pulling all the strings?
8. Who is the one Richard means when he said in Latin "He who will save us all"?
9. What destroyed the statue?
10. What's with Illana and her team (that seems so weird to me still)?
11. What is the loophole the man mentioned?

And this is one that has been on my mind the most after the episode...

12. What's the meaning of the inverted series title card with the white background and the black lettering? To what is this foreshadowing for the future season? And what is the meaning of the end promos message "Destiny

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There's still SO much that needs to happen and hopefully the team working on it have a plan to wrap everything up. If they manage to pull it all off, this may just end up being among the great television finales like Six Feet Under or The Sopranos (the fact it's so controversial shows how effective a great finale can be). If they don't, we may just have another X-Files problem on our hands.

So what's your theories? What did you think of the season? Feel free to discuss here.