Ah, a quiet Friday afternoon in which to recline and review LOST episodes. Simple pleasures, usually the best sort. This note will be rather long. Be sure to have a cup of coffee (or otherwise caffeinated beverage) handy.
---
SPOILER WARNING
If you haven't seen these eps and wish to remain unaware of their content until after you view them, by all means avoid this note. I am not planning to avoid revealing details, nor am I likely to avoid making predictions about future episodes.
---
A couple of important points to become aware of as we begin:
1. Season One: Locke speaks to Walt about the game of Backgammon. He describes it as a struggle between two sides, one light, and one dark. He holds up in each hand a game piece.
2. Season One: The Losties find a pair of corpses laid carefully to rest in a cave complex in the jungle. These corpses, who Locke called 'Our very own Adam and Eve', had among them a small sack containing two stones, one white and one black.
3. The series began telling the story in segments of island-based encounters and interactions, and flashbacks which showed important happenings in the lives of the main characters. The first three seasons went thusly:
S1: Crash event, who are the survivors, what's the deal with this island?
S2: Holy snappin crap, there are other people here, what are they all about?
S3: Confrontation with the other people, Ooh! Rescue! a strange glimpse of the future.
Note: In S2, we learn a few things... One, there were survivors from the tail section of the plane, and many if not most of those people have been abducted by the Others, notably Cindy a flight attendant and Zack and Emma, a pair of kids. Every featured member of the tail section was killed other than Bernard - possibly for no reason, but also possibly because he was not originally SEATED in the tail section.
After S3, we started seeing things that were happening three years later. We found that the events of the island were the past and the off-island narrative was taking place in the future. Season 5, we find, explained why we were seeing "flash forwards" - Because there was a three-year span of time between when the "Oceanic Six" left and returned.
We do not presently know WHY there was a three-year gap, but we have seen fragments of the events of the lives of those people who left the island. Addtionally, we saw fragments of the lives of those who stayed behind on the island.
The X factor is a temporal anomaly that firstly flung the island Losties around in time, and ended up stranding them in the 1970s after Locke caused the time skips to come to an end by realignimg the strange underground wheel.
So, to continue to the "present" state of the storyline:
S4: Here come the people to rescue us, but wait, they suck. Island disappears in time.
S5: Whoa this time stuff is crazy. "Three years later" - Return to island, nuke it, reset button.
Season 6 opens with the aftermath of the nuke going off, and we find strange things, as usual, are happening.
The primary strangeness is the fact that we are seeing "Flash Sideways" - That is, we are seeing a reality in which Oceanic 815 did not crash on the island, but landed in Los Angeles as planned.
So, we see events happening on the island (in "the present" as it happens), and we see events in Los Angeles (or rather, the real world) in 2004.
Note: Seemingly, the most important thing about the 2004 non-crash narrative are the many differences in the norm. It has been suggested by the LOST big-cheeses that these differences are the possible result of the so-called 'Butterfly Effect' stemming from the detonation of the hydrogen bomb on the island in 1977 - BUT, that is certainly not the only explanation. In the forthcoming notes, I will point out these differences.
4. In Season 2, much of the storyline involves a DHARMA station found buried underground in S1, uncovered and opened at the close of S1 and explored in detail in S2. In the hatch, Desmond reveals that he's been there three years entering a string of numbers every 108 minutes. These numbers are 4 8 15 16 23 42, and to this day we have not been told exactly what they are for. But we know that the effect of entering the numbers prevented a catastrophic release of electromagnetic energy, and that one day Desmond did not enter the code on time and the electromagnetism yanked Oceanic 815 out of the sky.
5. There is a strange cult on the island which seems loosely related to ancient Egyptian religion. The cult has rules about the handling of the dead, and seems to employ ritual magic for numerous purposes. Central to this cult is a mysterious temple somewhere deep in the jungle.
---
After the fade-to-white, we find Jack on Oceanic 815, seeming to come out of a daydream. We're at the moment when Cindy sneaks Jack some extra booze when he complains that his drink isn't very strong. (Difference: She gives Jack one bottle instead of two.)
The plane comes through some rough air, Bernard returns from the bathroom. Jack gets up to go, looks at himself in the bathroom mirror, notices a small cut on his neck. Perhaps a shaving nick? (I suspect it will be something more.)
Jack returns to his seat to find Desmond in his row. A key difference, given that previously, Des was in the hatch at this time, pressing the button. Jack seems to recognize Des, but isn't sure. We remember from Season Two that there was in fact a time that Desmond and Jack met - but, it was during the course of Desmond's preparation for Widmore's boat race around the world. We can assume that this encounter still took place, but we'll have to determine the significance of what we see next, which is:
The camera follows Jack's gaze out the plane's window, and down through the clouds, into the ocean and down to its floor, where we find the remnants of the DHARMA installation and the ominous giant foot, all sunken. If this is the state of the island, what caused this circumstance, and how did this impact the lives of such key players as Charles Widmore, without whose island-finding obsession there would likely not have been a boat race in which Desmond could compete, so what would he have been doing preparing?
(I have heard through the grapevine that we WILL be seeing 'The Elizabeth' this season, so apparently, some portion of that story will be told before the end. (The Elizabeth is the sloop Desmond sailed to the island, if you forgot.))
Oddly, Desmond vanishes from the plane (it seems) as randomly as he appeared in Jack's row.
The island events have leapt back into the "present" - roughly early 2008 or so. The Losties stranded in the 1970s seem to have leapt forward in time and synced up with the Ajira 316ers.
Juliet in the island timeline is critically injured, and dying. As she dies, she has what seems to be an experience of another reality, such as Desmond, Minkowski, Teresa and Charlotte have had. As she dies, she says (or wants to say) "It worked" - suggesting, in my opinion, that as she died, she perceived both timelines, and what I expect to be the beginnings of a romance with Sawyer in the real world. (Miles uses his powers to find out for Sawyer what she wanted to say.)
In the non-crash timeline, Hurley is not cursed, but is the 'Luckiest guy alive'. His purpose in Australia seems to have been business, promotion of Mr. Cluck's Chicken franchises down under.
Sawyer, the con-man in the original timeline, warns Hurley about people taking advantage of him as a lottery winner. Is this because he's actually concerned about the right thing, or because he's setting him up in the same way as the thief he tricked to get out of prison?
On the island, Sayid is near death. He ponders his eternal fate, and figures darkness awaits him. (We soon learn that this is true. He will be taken over by darkness as the result of being revived in the tainted pool at the temple.)
Hurley is visited by the ghostly vision of Jacob. Jacob reveals to Hurley that he died, and says that he was "Killed by an old friend who grew tired of my company." Jacob tasks Hurley with taking Sayid to the temple to save him. The guitar case enters the picture once again.
They take Sayid to the temple, and the group is captured by the Other Others.
(In the process we meet a few new characters: Lennon and Dogen being primary.) They are nearly shot on the spot, but Hurley announces that Jacob sent them, and proves it by revealing the guitar case, within which (we finally learn) is a large hollow wooden ankh, which contains a note that apparently has the names of the Losties upon it. We are also told that if Sayid dies, they're in a lot of trouble.
Lennon is surprised to see that the healing waters in the temple are not clear, but they proceed to save Sayid anyway, after testing it out on Dogan's hand. They hold Sayid under the water until an hourglass runs out. One source reports that the duration of this submersion is 1:08. Sayid appears to have been killed in this process, but after all have given up hope, he revives, wondering what happened.
Note: I believe, based upon the revelations in 6.4, that the note in the ankh actually showed all their names listed by number, and the implication is that anyone with said numbers needed to be alive, so if Sayid died, uh oh.
Note: The Whispers heard in the temple, when the group is captured.
When Hurley reveals that Jacob is dead, the Other Others go bananas, setting off alarms and establishing defenses. Important details: Launching a flare that can be seen at the statue on the beach, and lining the walls of the temple with ash.
On the plane, we find Sun and Jin. Notable difference: They aren't married. Demonstrated by Jin's lack of wedding ring, and the airport customs personnel referring to Sun as Miss Paik. So if they aren't married, does Sun know English or not? Her motivation for learning English was so that she could easily escape her abusive marriage to Jin and move to America.
Conversation between Boone and Locke. Notable difference: Shannon's not with Boone.
Locke lies and says he went on his walkabout, but we find out in 6.4 that he also gets fired for lying to his boss about going to a conference in Sydney in order to get his trip paid for.
Jacob's corpse left no particular remains in the fire pit. He seems to have burned completely to ash. Later, we will see Ilana gather handfuls of this ash into a bag. This has a ring of cyclical repetition to it. It also makes me wonder what the other ash, which keeps Smokey at bay, actually is.
On the plane, we see Jack and Sayid rescue Charlie Pace, who has nearly choked to death on a packet of heroin he apparently attempted to swallow. Charlie, annoyed, tells Jack that he should have let it happen, that he was supposed to die. Another refrain to the destiny of individuals established in previous seasons, in particular in the case of Charlie.
Bram and some of the other "Good Guys" from the group of Jacob-loyalists from Ajira 316 grab Ben and storm into the chamber under the foot statue. Inside sits "Locke" - and a confrontation begins. "Locke" announces that Jacob is dead. He tells them their job is done, that they are free. But they start shooting. We see that the bullets just bounced off Locke. Then we begin to hear the howling, clicking sounds of the smoke monster approaching. Smokey begins to trash the place, killing everyone but Ben. Bram's the holdout - he protected himself in a ring of ash, but Smokey outsmarts him by knocking him outside the circle with debris and kills him as well. Only Ben remains, then "Locke" reappears and we learn that the figure posing as Locke, the Dark Player, has actually been Smokey all the while.
The question that arises is: Who has been inadvertently serving the Dark Player all the while, rather than Jacob. Has Ben Linus ever actually served Jacob? They summoned the monster all those times - and if smokey is the Dark Player, why would he obey the Others if the Others were serving Jacob, his sworn enemy?
Or, is Smokester enslaved, compelled to serve against his will, with the whole objective being to escape these bonds? We find language to this effect in 6.4. But is it true, or was Smokey just playing the role of dutiful watchdog while he carried out his schemes?
The Dark Player reveals some facts about John Locke, but we find much in common between the two of them. The Dark Player says that he wants the one thing that Locke didn't: He wants to go home. He says this with one of the most evil looks ever to cross the face of Terry O'Quinn. We hear him telling Sawyer, in 6.4, that he really wants to just leave all the island nonsense behind, but I believe this is a con just to get Sawyer on board.
I noticed that Miles looked really uncomfortable around the 'dead' Sayid. I think he's got info he's not revealing.
An interesting exchange between Jack and Locke in the airport. This is, I believe, the first time Jack has ever known that Locke is paralyzed, which would have been an obvious association before. Jack suggests a consultation, and says that nothing is irreversible.
Richard sees the flare from the beach right about the time the Dark Player emerges from the foot chamber. He tells Richard that it's good to see him 'out of those chains', at which point Richard realizes who he is. The Dark Player proceeds to beat the hell out of Richard and take him off the beach into the jungle. Ben stands amazed.
I'm not sure what this suggests about Richard's identity. Does it suggest he was on the Black Rock, enslaved, when the two first met? Who can say?
---
Lennon and Dogen are fretful about the fact that Sayid is revived. They immediately act to put him to the test. The test involves Dogen blowing some of what looks like the ash they use to ward of Smokey across Sayid's chest. Then, they electrocte him, then burn him with a hot poker. They tell him he passed the test, but he failed. The say they want to kill Sayid because he has been 'claimed'. They offer the proof of their claims: The same thing happened to Jack's sister. (Claire)
Kate's hijacked a cab at the airport, trying to escape from the marshal. Claire was in the cab. Question: What was Claire doing in LA? As we may recall, Malken the psychic told Claire to fly to L.A. as a ruse so that she would crash on the island and be forced by circumstance to raise Aaron herself. There was no actual couple waiting in Los Angeles to adopt Claire's baby. Given that Oceanic 815 was not destined to crash, why was Claire on it and how did the previously nonexistent couple manage to materialize? (On the other hand, WAS Claire on it? We only see her in the cab, though Kate does mention later that she came 'all the way from Australia')
Note: Aldo appears. Aldo acts like a jerk, AKA he Pulls an Arzt. This is a LOST signal that random character is going to die.
For some insane reason, Claire, the recent victim of an armed hijacking by Kate, then decides to become BFFs with Kate. Most of the pregnancy drama is yawn-inducing. The main points to note are the fact that both Kate and Ethan end up involved in Aaron's delivery.
For some reason, part of Aldo's 'baggery includes him refusing to allow Justin to reveal information about the Ajira flight that landed on Hydra island. And then about the likely identity of the person who probably set the booby trap they'd just come across. (It's Claire.)
Lennon and Dogen reveal that Sayid is "infected" with a darkness that will eventually overtake him. They attempt to convince Jack to feed Sayid poison.
Miles questions Sayid about his experience dying. He says that he remembers being shot. This seems strange, given the length of time between his shooting and the immersion in the pool.
Haven't quite figured out how Kate, Iowa farmgirl, knows her way around Los Angeles and its suburbs. Any ideas?
Kate tracks Sawyer to the barracks, where she finds him ripping up the floorboards of one of the bungalows, and retrieving a shoebox. We only see him get out a black cloth, perhaps a bag. Apparently, it contained an engagement ring. But: What else was in the box?
I really wish they had just gone ahead and delivered the kid so that we won't have to witness yet another freakin over-the-top pregnancy drama scene in the series. Sooooo tired of Claire wailing about her bai-bee.
Dogen claims that he was 'brought' to the island 'like everyone else'. Jack asks what he means. Dogen says 'you know what I mean.'
Kate claims to be innocent of her crimes. Previously, she claimed justification.
Claire is now jungle woman like Rousseau, which begs a huuuuuge question: Was Rousseau infected, as opposed to her teammates?
Classic lines:
Hurley: You're not a zombie, right?
Sayid: No. I am not a zombie.
Miles: We'll be in the food court, if you need us.
Dogen, spinning a baseball.
Jack: What's that?
Dogen: It's a baseball.
Dogen, pours tea and offers it to Jack.
Jack: What's this?
Dogen: Tea.
---
Guaranteed to pwn, it's a Locke-centric episode.
2004: Hard luck Locke, right off the bat. But major differences: He's still with Helen, and he still apparently has a relationship with his father. Does that imply that his father didn't hurl him out a window? So how'd he get paralyzed?
Personal LOST trivia: Locke drinks out of the same dishware I had back in the day. Probably only my friend Leigh will spot it.
Island: One of the coolest sequences yet: Smokey-eye-view, including the reflection in the window. He's located Sawyer in New Otherton, then he goes to retrieve Richard, who he's been keeping up a tree in some sort of sack. Time to talk, Dark Player says.
2004: Hard luck, the sequel. Locke gets busted lying about the conference in Sydney, and gets fired by good ol' Randy Nations. What, aside from the walkabout, might Locke have been up to? He says it was personal. Hmm.
Island: Smokey says Locke was a 'candidate' - We assume for the position of Island Protector. He offers Richard the chance to come along with him. Richard refuses.
Smokey then sees a boy with bloodstained hands off near the treeline. The boy vanishes. This seems to rattle Smokey. Who's the kid?
Ben lies to Ilana and claims that Locke killed Jacob. Ilana gathers up ash from the firepit where Jacob burned.
Smokey then visits Sawyer at the barracks. Sawyer realizes Smokey's not Locke. Smokey claims he's the person who could answer the most important question in the world: "Why are you on this island?"
2004: Even Locke's feeble attempt at vengeance fails when his ramp craps out a couple of inches before it hits Hurley's Hummer. (Lucky Hurley). Locke's still got his attitude, refusing to park in a Van-access space nearby, parking in a standard space instead. Hurley promises to set Locke up with a job via one of his temp agencies, which leads him to working as a sub at a school, where he crosses paths with one Benjamin Linus, teacher of European History.
Ilana with her bag of ash gathers the remnants of the Ajira crowd for a trek to the temple. They pause to bury Locke's corpse.
---
Classic lines, once again, at Locke's burial:
Ben: John Locke was a... a believer, he was a man of faith, he was a much better man than I will ever be, and I'm very sorry I murdered him.
Lapidus (muttering as he shovels dirt): ...s'the weirdest damn funeral I've ever been to.
---
Sawyer and Smokey, on their way to the place Locke's leading, come across the bloody-handed kid once again (sans the blood). Sawyer can see the kid as well as Smokey - and Smokes chases the kid through the jungle. Smokey doesn't smoke out and haul after him for some reason. He finally trips and falls, and the kid doubles back to say "You know the rules. You can't kill him." To which, interestingly, verrrry interestingly, Smokey replies "Don't tell me what I can't do!" (The famous John Locke mantra.)
Richard appears, sneakily, to warn Sawyer. It's weird to see Richard all freaked out and scared. Richard says Smokey wants 'all of you' dead. Note: Widmore's team's objective in S4 was to kill everybody on the island. Who's Widmore working for?
Rose Nadler turns out to be the office supervisor at Hurley's job placement agency when Locke arrives for an interview. He tries to get her to place him in a construction job. She talks to him about her cancer, and how he needs to be realistic about the jobs he goes for.
Sawyer talks to Smokey about reading. Asks if he ever read Of Mice and Men and Smokey says 'nope... little after my time' Note: Sawyer finally finished the book, apparently, while he was stuck in the '70s. In S3, Ben Linus catches him pretending he'd read the same text.
Smokey drops a nice speech on Sawyer as he's under the gun (no threat, of course). He claims that he's trapped. I think he up to something, convincing Sawyer of a false objective.
A very interesting statement from Ilana about Smokey: He can no longer change his form. He's stuck in the form of John Locke. Why, how? Dunno.
Locke calls Jack's office about spinal surgery, but chickens out when Helen enters the room.
Beautiful scene between Locke and Helen. Just had to mention it. Mostly because of what's coming. But I won't spoil it for ya.
Island: Smokey and Sawyer reach a huge cliff, and begin to descend. Interestingly, there's a handmade ladder and a rope ladder, built there, going down to a cave.
This cave ranks up there with the blast door map from S2 in awesomeness.
First point of interest is a scale on a table. A white rock and a black rock, equally weighted, sit on the scales. Smokey takes the white rock off the scale and hurls it out of the cave mouth. Sawyer asks him what that was all about, and Smokey claims it's an inside joke.
There appears to be a stringed instrument, perhaps a lute? On the table with the scale.
Smokey takes Sawyer into a room, in which names have been written all over the ceiling, many crossed out. (Hardcore clue-seekers are bound to be at work right now figuring out which ones are there. I'm not going to bother right now. Even with a HD recording, it would give me a headache.)
The most important to mention are the ones not crossed out... and more to the point, with numbers assigned to them. Guess which numbers?
4 - Locke
8 - Reyes
15 - Ford
16 - Jarrah
23 - Shephard
42 - Kwon
Jacob wrote all the names and numbers. (Ridiculous and unnecessary edits ahoy!)
Note: Other names had numbers assigned... Hmm.
Note: Conspicuously absent name: Austen
Smokey claims that Jacob's purpose when interacting with all the above... (Note: He met Kate, yet she has no number... Why?) was to manipulate them, to cause a chain of events that would lead them to the island. Smokey says that Sawyer is a candidate. Says that Sawyer has 3 choices: Do nothing, see how it all plays out. (He crosses out Locke). He can accept the job and protect the island (from nothing, he says). Choice 3 is to abandon the island and never look back.
It seems clear to me that Smokey is attempting to convince Sawyer, and apparently ultimately all the candidates, to just abandon the island, so that he can have it all to himself.
Sawyer's down for getting off the island.
---
Lost Ponderings: The Lighthouse
Jack has an appendix-removal scar in 2004, asks his mother when it was removed, learns it was during his childhood. Seems not to remember it.
We find that Jack in 2004 has a son named David. Jack’s ‘daddy issues’ in the crash timeline make him fear fatherhood, and convince him that he would be a terrible father. This is one of the things that caused him so much difficulty regarding Kate and Aaron in the 2005-2008 off-island period. But in the non-crash reality, Jack embraces fatherhood and seeks to have a healthy relationship with his son.
Hurley and Miles play a game of tic-tac-toe on the ground with folded leaves and vines. It has been suggested that this is a symbolic reference to the supposed futility of binary conflict, a la the movie Wargames. I don’t know if I agree with that. Tic-tac-toe only becomes futile when both opponents master the strategy (admittedly basic), and a noughts-and-crosses type struggle has a limited number of options. Is the comment that the Light vs Dark battle is such an experiment in futility? It seems much more complex than that. There are many more variables, and it seems to have been suggested at least once that it doesn’t always end the same way. The dark player suggests that the outcome is always one way. Jacob suggests that there is only one outcome, and it hasn’t happened yet. “It only ends once. Everything else is progress.”
Jacob says that “someone” is coming to the island, and he wants Hurley to help them find it. In two episodes, at the close of ‘Dr. Linus’, we see Charles Widmore arrive on a submarine. Is this the “someone”?
Claire tells Jin that she’s been on the island for three years, “since you all left” – But why was she not skipping through time like the rest of the Losties?
Jacob reveals to Hurley that he’s a “candidate”. A candidate is someone who has the potential to take over for Jacob as protector of the island. There have been many potential candidates, apparently, the most relevant to this story are those we saw numbered according to “the numbers” – 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. We know that one of these is dead: Locke, #4. But, we are also told that six remain, so there is a lingering question of who the sixth candidate is.
Claire has become eerily similar to Danielle. She still refers to Aaron as her baby even though it’s been three years. Rousseau still thought of Alex as a baby even after sixteen. Even more crazy in some ways. Justin, the Other she captured, makes a revealing comment, that she’s misremembering things. I am almost 100% convinced that Rousseau was claimed by the Dark Player, and that her teammates were sane and rational. This is why Widmore wanted her killed – though it’s not clear to me why Ben let her live when he stole Alex from her.
Hurley says he came back to the island because Jacob told him to. Jack says he came back because he was broken, and he thought the island could fix him. (I think he’s actually right on that, it just hasn’t happened yet.)
When Jack ponders why they never saw the lighthouse before, Hurley suggests it was because they weren’t looking for it.
Jack encounters Dogen at David’s recital in 2004. We later learn that Dogen is on the island because of a deal he made with Jacob to save his son from untimely death as the result of a drunken car accident Dogen caused.
Hurley is instructed by Jacob to set the lighthouse dial to 108 degrees. There are mirrors on the apparatus in which Jack sees places reflected. At 108 degrees, we find the name Wallace.
Notable names in the vicinity:
Rousseau at 20
Rutherford 32 (Shannon)
Austen at 51
Lewis at 104 (Charlotte)
Friendly at 109 (Tom)
Linus at 117
Dawson at 124 (Michael)
Shephard at 23 is written in a different way than the other names. It’s in block print as opposed to lower case. It’s also darker, as though it may possibly have been written over another name.
When Jack sees the reflection of his childhood home, he freaks out. Demands that Hurley explain. When Hurley can’t, Jack destroys a powerful magical artifact in a fit of complete and total d’baggery. WHY would ANYONE **BREAK** such a device for ANY reason, especially for simply being unable to answer a question. Total hatred for Jack: Renewed. Sadly, they’re going to keep on making a mountain out of that molehill of a character. SO LAME!
The Universe: Here’s a stack of money, Jack. It’s between 10 and 45 billion dollars. You can have it.
Jack: How much is it, exactly? How much money is there? I must know!
The Universe: Sorry, I can’t count it. It’s between 10 and 45 billion dollars.
Jack: ARRRRGH! HOW MUCH IS THERE!? **Sets Pile of Money on Fire**
Jaaaaaack Suuuuuuuuucks.
Major point about Christian Shephard revealed by Claire: She recognized the figure of Shephard as her father, but “Locke” she specifically denies is Locke. She just says he’s her “friend”. Does this show that Christian really was Christian, or does it show that Smokey can no longer fake it?
Who and what was Christian Shephard? He seemed to be acting with or on behalf of Not Locke in S5, so was he actually brought back to life by the Dark Player in the same way as Sayid? Is he one of those ‘recruited’ in the fight against Jacob?
---
Sundown
Not a Sun episode, as many thought it might be because of the title, but a Sayid episode. Not a disappointment in the least, as far as I’m concerned. Sun’s the least-convincing character in the cast at the present time, and she’s one-track-minded (Were iss my huss-band?), which is another irritation.
In Los Angeles, we find Sayid arriving at Nadia’s home, but instead of a lovers’ long-awaited reunion, we find that it’s Uncle Sayid paying a visit to his brother’s household. Nadia is married to Sayid’s brother Omer. It’s clear he’s still carrying a torch for her. We later find out that he encouraged her to marry his brother because he felt that there was no way he could ever be worthy of her.
Omer seems to be having some shady business problems. It turns out that he's borrowed money from a loan shark, and the guy is putting the squeeze on him in spite of the fact that Omer claims he's paid the guy all he owes.
Cut scene to Sayid barging into Dogen’s chamber to demand answers. Dogen reveals that within every person (‘man’) there is a scale with good and evil on either side. The apparatus they tested Sayid with reveals which way the scale is balanced. Sayid’s scale is tilted toward evil. Dogen initially attempts to kill Sayid, and he even has a chance to do so, but he stops short – reminded of his son, and knowing that his own scale would tilt toward evil if he killed Sayid.
The Dark Player, stopped by a line of ash, sends Claire into the temple with a summons to Dogen.
Miles reveals to Sayid that he was dead for two hours, and that it wasn’t the Others who brought him back to life.
Dogen sends Sayid to see the Dark Player, assuming that he’ll be killed (or at least, that’s what Dark Player says to Sayid in regard to Dogen’s schemes). It seems to be the case that Jacob arranged for this to be Dogen’s only option, given that he’d convinced Hurley to take Jack out of the temple earlier.
Dogen describes Claire as a ‘confused girl under the influence of an angry man’. He goes on to say: ‘For years, this man has been trapped. But now that Jacob is gone, the man is free. He will not stop until he has destroyed every living thing on the island. He is evil incarnate.’ I wonder how the 'man' is trapped, and by what means he got that way.
Dogen wants Sayid to kill the being – and the only chance he has is to plunge a special dagger into him before he speaks. Later, we’re left to wonder if it was important that the Dark Player says ‘Hello, Sayid’ before Sayid is able to stab him.
After Sayid does stab ‘Locke’, Locke yanks the dagger out and gives it back to him. Locke asks Sayid to deliver a message to the people in the temple. In exchange, he will give Sayid anything he wants. It seems to be the case that Locke is in the habit of making big promises, whether or not he can deliver on them, in order to get people to do what he wants them to do.
Sayid mentions that he has to go to Toronto on business. Possibly an unimportant detail, but who knows?
Kate returns to the temple, learns that Claire is there, finds where the Others put her, and reveals to her that she has had Aaron for the last three years. Claire is not pleased about this. Later, she will try to kill Kate with a knife, and will nearly succeed.
Sayid delivers a message, promising that anyone who doesn’t abandon the temple and join the Dark Player by sundown will die.
In 2004, Sayid is forced to pay a visit to Martin Keamy, who in this reality is a loan shark as opposed to a mercenary. He and his crew try to shake Sayid down, but they have underestimated him. Sayid kills them all, and then finds Jin locked in a cooler.
Sayid kills Dogen by drowning him in the healing pool. The question: Will he be back? Secondly: This killing is what enables Smokey to cross the ash. Sayid then kills Lennon for good measure, apparently.
Smokey enters the temple, and wrecks the place up. Kills pretty much everybody.
Ben tries to get Sayid to come along with Ilana’s group, but realizes he’s no longer the Sayid he knew. Slowly backs away. Ilana’s group, along with Miles, escape the temple via Jacob’s secret passage.
Kate manages to evade Smokey’s wrath, but has no idea what she’s gotten herself into as she walks out with Claire to join the group. A very evil vibe is present. One of the creepiest endings in the series.
---
Dr. Linus
This is one of the better metaphorical presentions in recent memory, if not the whole history of the series. We find the alternate Ben Linus, a PhD apparently, and a teacher of European History. Here, he is the generally underappreciated idealist presented with a chance to seize power from a more or less corrupt leader.
The parallel is excellent. Sub in Widmore for the principal, and naturally the Island for the school. And we even have “Locke” in both places, pitching Ben an offer: You can be the principal/ruler. Even more grippingly, we encounter Alex Rousseau in 2004, a bright and eager student of Ben’s. Ben faces the choice he once faced anew: Cling to power, cling to the island and his desire to control it, and sacrifice Alex, or choose to preserve Alex and forego the rewards of power.
Leslie Arzt is also a teacher at the school.
Hilarious in-joke: Ben, somewhat scoffing at Locke’s suggestion that he become principal of the school, says “I appreciate the sentiment, but who’s gonna listen to me?” Locke dutifully raises his hand. We recall the events of the previous seasons, in which spectacular Lockian failures arose as the direct result of Locke listening to Ben (who was, just about constantly, lying through his teeth and deliberately sabotaging Locke). Christian Shephard even chided Locke with “Since when did listening to Ben do you any good.” I don’t think this amusing bit of dramatic irony has anything to do with the story, but it earns the writers a high five.
Illana doubts Ben’s word about the Smoke Monster killing Jacob, and so gets miles to discern the truth by using his ability on a bag of Jacob’s ashes. Miles reveals that Ben killed Jacob, and Illana reveals that Jacob was the closest thing she ever had to a father. She plots revenge.
Ben’s got a good relationship with his father in 2004. They have a conversation (in which Ben is providing his father with oxygen) that reveals that Roger had big dreams for Ben, and that’s why he signed up for the DHARMA Initiative – significant of course because this is a non-crash-reality reference to DHARMA, and the existence of the island. Roger regrets leaving the island.
Alex is named Rousseau, as mentioned above. This is important because it confirms the 2004 existence in the USA of Danielle Rousseau. What does this suggest about the 1988 French expedition from Haiti?
An interesting thought: Kwon is the name on the list of candidates. In the 2008 reality, Jin and Sun are married, so there is some confusion as to which of them is the actual candidate. But in the 2004 reality, they are NOT married, so naturally Sun’s name, as mentioned at US Customs, is Paik. Based on this, I suggest that the true choice is Jin.
Ilana claims there are six candidates left. (I am sure I mentioned this at some point somewhere… but eh…) The six would have included Locke, who we know is dead. 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 42 – Six numbers, Locke was 4. I think there is a sixth who is not yet revealed.
Hurley and Jack encounter Richard Alpert in the jungle. When asked where he came from, Richard says they wouldn’t believe him if he told them. I suppose that’s somewhat of an understatement, considering his backstory, finally revealed. (Can’t wait to dig into THAT episode.)
An amusing aside: Ben digs around in what was formerly someone’s magazine stash at the beach camp and he comes across a dirty magazine called ‘Booty Babes’. Among the other reading materials: A book about Benjamin Disraeli, apparently a fictitious book entitled “Benjamin Disraeli: Justice and Truth in Action”. Also in the tent is Chaim Potok’s novel The Chosen, another 1960s best seller (like Catch 22) that is about two friends, Jewish. The Jewish angle may or may not be important, though it is interesting to note that Benjamin Disraeli is the only Jewish PM in Britian’s long history. More relevant to LOST is the fact that The Chosen is rather like the Jack/Locke controversy, man of science vs man of faith, in a loose way. (I haven’t read it, so I can’t vouch for its essence, only guessing from general descriptions of its plot and so forth.)
Ilana forces Ben to dig his own grave, but before she can kill him, he’s set free by the Dark Player, who encourages him to escape and run into the jungle to grab a gun and kill Ilana. We can see, knowing now what we know about Ilana’s purpose and the purpose of the island in general, that Dark Player is scheming to kill all the remaining candidates, and what better way to start than by killing off their appointed protector. He figured he could dupe Ben into killing off yet another enemy, but a twist presents itself: rather than Ben killing Ilana, he just wants her to listen as he confesses his wrongs, and his confession doesn’t provoke condemnation, but redemption. Ilana, instead of consigning Ben to the dark side, allows him to return to her group.
Miles reveals to Ben the things going through Jacob’s mind as he was murdered by Ben. Right up to the point at which Ben stabbed Jacob, Jacob had been hoping he was wrong about Ben. Miles suggests that Jacob wasn’t wrong… But is this accurate? Perhaps his hope was that Ben would go through with the stabbing, that he was wrong to think that Ben wouldn’t have it in him.
Richard schemes to kill himself. Here, we’re revisiting the notion that the island doesn’t let people die until it’s through with them. We learned that Richard doesn’t die ‘because Jacob touched him’ and gave him a gift which he now considers to be a curse. (We ultimately learn that Richard specifically asked for immortality and got it.) We see that Jack, alongside Richard, also fails to die in the would-be explosion that would have been caused by the lit dynamite, but mysteriously, the fuze fizzles at the last.
Jack is now confident that there is a reason why he is on the island. He has a purpose, something he is supposed to do. In other words, Jack is now firmly a man of faith. Nice of him to realize this AFTER he broke the coolest island artifact yet seen. He even talks about it in an awestruck way. Niiiiiice hindsight.
The close of this episode show the arrival of Charles Widmore via submarine. It’s not clear to me how he’s managed to find the island so easily after it moved given the fact that it took him nearly 20 years to find it the last time. Perhaps he had some help from Eloise Hawking and her apparatus in Los Angeles.
---
Recon
“Dimples” is a cop in 2004, along with his partner Miles. An interesting difference from his former life, but also an interesting parallel to Sawyer’s role in the 1970s as head of DHARMA security. They even use “Lefleur” as their trouble word.
Claire very strangely touches Kate, and has a suspicious look about her. Leading theories suggest that she’s trying to infect Kate.
In the 2004 reality, James Ford is still hunting down Anthony Cooper, and is still driven by revenge. I am wondering if his reality has only been shaped by the absence of Jacob’s influence. Back in his childhood, an influential man – either a pastor or an uncle – advised young James not to write his revenge letter to Mr. Sawyer. Made him promise not to finish it. But Jacob comes along and gives him a pen. Maybe the only difference is that he didn’t write the letter, wasn’t wholly consumed by the desire to get back, instead sought justice, became a police officer and so forth.
Miles refers to his father, who apparently works at a museum. It’s probable that Miles was still born on the island, but in this reality, his whole family moved off the island instead of Dr. Chang just ordering his wife to take the baby and leave.
Dark Player doesn’t seem to have a very sophisticated appreciation of sarcasm. He scolds Sawyer for interrupting him, and Sawyer sarcastically replies “I’m sorry I forgot my manners” and Darkster takes it serious, seemingly, and says ‘I forgive you.’ He also flatly admits to Sawyer that he’s ‘The smoke thing’
We now know that “Locke” is lying about the motivation of his opponents. He claims they are trying to protect the island from him, but he knows that they’re really trying to keep him from leaving.
The whole thing between Charlotte and Sawyer: I dunno. It might have repercussions, it might be just an interesting way to get Rebecca Mader back on the screen. And of course, it’s a way to move the revenge story along. At this point, I will only say that I have had the same experience: A girlfriend type read a private journal that she “accidentally” found, and then had the audacity to be mad at me for being mad at her about it. As if a guy snooping in a girl’s private business wouldn’t be kicked to the curb. Charlotte loses mucho points in this ep, especially after blaming it all on Sawyer instead of feeling the least bit bad about invading his privacy. It was amusing to see Sawyer watching Little House on the Prairie. Aside from that, Charlotte needs an attitude adjustment – or perhaps at least that’s what she’s recovering from when Sawyer arrives to try to make it up to her.
Of note, perhaps: Reading materials on Sawyer’s nightstand – Watership Down*, A Wrinkle in Time, Lancelot
* Kate remarks later that Rabbit is for dinner.
A funny little tidbit about LOST writing: As brilliant as it tends to be, it’s still TV drama, and so there are many bits of dialog that repeat, sometimes to the point of driving one insane. One such repeated element is the question “Are you OK?” – In this episode, we find that question asked, and finally answered in a way that isn’t affirmative. In the first, Sayid says, rather madly (insanely), that no, he is not all right. Later, after nearly having her throat cut open by a lunatic Claire, Kate exclaims that she is not OK. I think that’s funny.
Sawyer finds the sundress Kate wore the day they finally got busy in the Hydra cages.
Claire tries to kill Kate. This much is amusing and entirely excellent. Sadly, Claire is prevented from killing Kate by “Locke”. But weirdly, very weirdly, Sayid just sits there and watches aloofly, even after Kate screams to Sayid for help. He is very clearly changed in some profound way by whatever it is that happened to him. Locke will convince Kate to show sympathy to Claire for her madness, and they will apparently resolve things, but don’t believe it yet.
Locke sends Sawyer on a ‘recon’ mission to Hydra island, where he discovers a pile of bodies – the remaining survivors of the Ajira crash-landing. He will accuse Widmore of these murders, and Widmore will deny it. He may be telling the truth, given the high probability that Smokey did it, and the unconvincing way Locke says “that’s terrible” when Sawyer reports back. When he arrives, he encounters only Widmore’s people. He observes them establishing a base camp, where they are deploying what look like portable sonic barrier fenceposts. On the sub, Sawyer notices a double-padlocked room. The crew isn’t forthcoming about its contents. Is it a what or a who?
Liam Pace, looking a lot like a rocker, makes an appearance at Sawyer and Miles’ precinct, looking for his brother, arrested on drug charges. In the alternate timeline, Liam lived in Sydney, and was no longer a rock musician.
Locke also attempts to touch Kate, but she refuses his hand. Locke tells Kate a story about his mother being crazy. He says she was a ‘very disturbed woman’ and as a result of her issues, he had some ‘growing pains’. He says he’s still trying to work through the problems she caused, which is rather a strange thing for an apparently undying being to say.
When Widmore and Sawyer meet, Widmore already knows who Sawyer is.
Sawyer’s created himself a win/win/win situation, or so it seems. He’s going to set Dark Player against Widmore, and he’s made a ‘get me off the island’ deal with each of them. Furthermore, he’s got a Plan C, to steal the sub while the two sides are struggling over the plane.
---
Jacob assigns Ilana the task of protecting the “remaining candidates”. He says that she has been ‘preparing for’ the assignment.
Ricardus will know what to do, but Ricardus denies that he knows anything. Richard says everyone’s in Hell, skipping the fact that pretty much everybody he’s talking to has left the island and remained gone from it for three years.
Richard intends to go and meet “Locke”, who we find out has made him a promise, long ago – that if ever he wants to end his allegiance to Jacob he just has to say the word.
Richard Alpert’s story begins near El Socorro, on Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, in 1867. Tenerife has an interesting legendary association: It has been said to be a remnant of Atlantis. El Socorro is one of the named beaches of the island, on the northeastern side, not far from Santa Cruz, which at the time would have been the sole capitol city of the Island chain.
Richard was apparently a lower class tenant farmer with a small homestead and a wife, Isabella, who is sick with what looks like tuberculosis. He resolves to go and find a doctor, taking all he has of worth to offer him as payment. He swears to save Isabella. (Remnant dialog of Jack: I will fix you). He rides hard to the doctor’s house, which the doctor indicates is a half-day’s journey from Richard’s place. I suppose it’s safe to assume that he’s ridden all the way to the capitol.
The doctor is fairly heartless, and refuses to help directly. He offers to sell Richard medicine, but then scoffs at the small amount of money he offers. He carelessly flings aside the cross pendant Isabella had given him to pay the doctor, saying it is worthless. This necklace seems significant. (It is also the second such necklace we have seen on the show: Eko and Yemi shared a cross necklace that ended up on the island with Eko. Locke found it in the jungle and handed it to Eko, not long before Eko was brutally killed by Smokey. In this episode, “Smokey” will find Richard’s cross necklace and hand it to him.)
Richard’s begging becomes grappling, and his struggle with the doctor ends with the doc falling and cracking his head on a table. Richard takes the medicine and runs away, but finds when he gets home that Isabella has died. He is arrested for murder.
In prison, a visit from a priest shows us that Richard and Isabella had been learning English for a move to the New World. This seems slightly off, historically speaking. I won’t say that it was impossible for a citizen of Spain to wish to travel to English-speaking North America, but odds are better that their destination of choice would have been somewhere like Venezuela, or at least a Spanish territory in which Spanish was spoken. At any rate, they were learning English. He has an English language Bible. This becomes his saving grace later on in another somewhat historically strange aspect of the story.
The priest takes Richard’s confession. Here’s another familiar element, notably between Eko and Richard once again. As we recall, Eko refused to confess. He ultimately claimed that all his ill deeds were justified. In Richard’s case, he wants to confess, and does so, and he wants absolution, but is denied. The priest can’t absolve him of a mortal sin, and says that his only hope is penance, which he hasn’t time to do, since he’ll be hanged in the morning.
The priest takes Richard’s Bible and tells him that the devil awaits him in Hell. But then he says “May God have mercy on your soul.”
That mercy arrives, probably quicker than the merciless priest thought it would, when an Anglo naval type in the employ of Magnus Hanso arrives to purchase Richard, and take him to the New World, apparently as a slave, even though slavery had been generally abolished by this time.
Perhaps it was his criminal status that allowed this transaction, but the ‘checking of the teeth’ performed upon Richard suggests at least that the buyer considered him less than fully human by some means. I will maintain a position of “this is historically inaccurate” until someone enlightens me in regard to criminal justice norms in 19th century Spain.
We see the events that brought the Black Rock to the island at long last. The other slaves see the giant statue of Sobek on the shore of the island and think it’s the devil. A huge tidal wave sweeps the ship across the island – it comes in at shoulder height to the statue and knocks it over as it passes. So, we get two answers in one: How the Black Rock ended up inland, and how the statue got destroyed.
We also find out what happened to all the slaves. We’d thought they’d simply starved to death after being trapped in their chains on a crashed ship, perhaps even that they died in the wreck, or by drowning. But here we find that the captain murdered them all because of their limited provisions and a fear of a slave revolt if they set the slaves free.
Smokey arrives at the last second, kills all the officers including the one about to stab Richard. Smokey scans Richard, and apparently considers him to be a worthwhile subject. I am of the impression that he senses the loss, the desperation in Richard, sees that he’d do anything to save his wife, to atone for the murder, to see his wife again – so he doesn’t dispatch Richard, but decides he will manipulate him into killing Jacob.
A blue butterfly flutters into the ship as Richard is trying to free himself from his chains. This is reminiscent of The Moth that led Charlie Pace out of the cave-in to a shallow place in the ground that enabled him to escape and get Jack to safety.
Richard catches a boar rooting around the corpses in the ship. He yells at it and it charges him. This is reminiscent of Sawyer’s encounter with the boar who trashed all his stuff and seemed to be persecuting him all through the jungle.
Richard then encounters his wife, or so he thinks. Isabella tells Richard they’re both dead and in Hell, and that they have to escape before the devil gets back. She is seized by something Richard assumes to be ‘the devil’ but which we know is Smokey.
Finally, ‘The Man In Black” appears to “help” Richard. MIB says that he was on the island “long before the ship” arrived. He tells Richard that the devil has Isabella. He will free Richard if he will agree to do anything he asks. Here we observe echoes of the manipulation of Ben Linus.
Recall: Ben will have a stronger motivation than Richard. Ben will feel directly, personally responsible for the death of Alex. When “Alex” appears during Ben’s time of “judgment” and orders him to obey everything John Locke tells him, he’s been conditioned over his whole life to agree, even in spite of his own crazy schemes for power. In Richard’s case, he was only remorseful about killing the doctor, but not overly so, because the murder was related to saving his wife. He will be easily ‘deprogrammed’ when Jacob tells him the truth later on.
Ben’s programming was much more effective, and so when Jacob lays down the truth, it doesn’t matter to Ben.
The truly fiendish thing about this whole struggle is that neither Jacob nor the MIB have any real regard for human life, human misery. There really is no good versus evil here. It’s all evil. It’s a ghoulish experiment, it seems, centered upon a philosophical point.
MIB says “It’s good to see you out of those chains.”
MIB hands Richard the ceremonial dagger, sends him toward the statue, and explains to him the same thing that Dogen said to Sayid. Do not allow him to speak, just stab him. What is the significance of this? Later, Jacob will recognize the dagger and demand to know where Richard got it. What is the significance of the dagger?
MIB claims that “the devil” stole his humanity.
MIB says “My friend, you and I can talk all day about what’s right and what’s wrong…” in reply to Richard’s protest that murder is wrong, and what got him sent to ‘Hell’ in the first place. This is evidence (more of it) that this is not a good versus evil struggle. In effect, the philosophy here is ‘wrong’ is relative, especially considering the fact that the identical instructions were given to Sayid by an agent of Jacob.
Jacob shows Richard that he isn’t dead. Convinces him that MIB was lying, manipulating him. Richard declares that he wants to live.
Jacob says, when Richard asks what’s within the statue’s foot “No one comes in unless I invite them in.” This is probably one of the most revealing statements in the season so far. Ben Linus and the Man In Black both entered the foot to kill Jacob. This can only mean that both were invited into the chamber. The implication is that Jacob’s plan INCLUDED being murdered by Ben Linus. This brings me back to my understanding of the revelation by Miles that Jacob was thinking that he hoped he was wrong about Ben. Miles implied that he wasn’t. I think that he was. I think Jacob had thought Ben would crumble at the last minute and NOT kill him.
Jacob explains that the island is a “cork” in a bottle that contains “wine” which he says is symbolic of evil.
The MIB believes that every man is corruptible because it’s in their very nature to sin. Jacob brings people to the island, he says, to prove the MIB wrong. He says that MANY others were brought to the island before the Black Rock. All the people are dead.
Richard asks “If you brought them here, why didn’t you help them?” Jacob wanted them to help themselves. “It’s all meaningless if I have to force them to do anything.”
This seems to flatly IGNORE the fact that Jacob’s losing the argument. He asserts that people aren’t corruptible, that their nature isn’t to sin, but apparently, hordes of people have done just that. The MIB is consistently RIGHT, but Jacob consistently refuses to accept it.
Why should he have to step in? Because if you don’t, the MIB will, says Richard. Jacob offers Richard a job as his intermediary. He agrees to do the job in exchange for immortality. He places a hand on Richard, and grants him this power.
Back in the jungle, MIB confronts Richard, who hands a white stone to MIB as a gift from Jacob. Recall that “Locke” later will take a white stone from a scale in what we are told is Jacob’s cave and hurl it out into the ocean, claiming that it’s an ‘inside joke’.
MIB gives Richard the cross that belonged to Isabella. He buries it beside a bench, and bids her goodbye.
Back in the present, we find Richard trekking to the spot where he buried the cross. He digs it up and declares that he changed his mind. He wants to return to the side of MIB, and see his wife again. He wants to know if the offer still stands. Instead of MIB, Hurley appears. Hurley reveals that his wife sent him. Isabella wants to know why Richard buried her cross.
Isabella is standing right next to him, says Hurley. There is a refrain of their parting conversation from back on Tenerife. She says that it wasn’t Richard’s fault that she died, but that it was her time. She wants his suffering to end. He says he would do anything for them to be together again. She says that they are already together.
Hurley says she had one last thing to say: That Richard must stop the MIB from leaving the island. We find, at the last, the MIB is nearby, watching.
Back in the past, Jacob visits MIB. The MIB just wants to leave. Jacob says “As long as I’m alive, you’re not going anywhere.” Which is why MIB wants him dead. “Even if you do, someone else will take my place.” MIB will kill them, too.
Jacob says “See you around” MIB says “Sooner than you think” – But we note that the passage of time was over 100 years. Time doesn’t mean much to these cats.
It’s also interesting to recall the conversation these two had as the Black Rock was on the horizon during the S5 finale.
---
6.10 – The Package
Jin’s in room 842. The number for Kwon is 42.
Sayid reveals that he doesn’t feel anything. No emotion, no pain. (One interesting theory I have heard from my friend Darby is that the new is replacing the old in more ways than one. Not only will there be a new Jacob, but a new Richard, and a new Man In Black. Could Sayid be on his way to becoming the next Smokey?)
Sun has a hissy fit. Only a couple more episodes to go til she shuts up about Jin.
Smokey offers Sun the chance to reunite with Jin, but she takes off running instead. An unexpected reaction to be sure, but also extremely annoying, given her constant whining about wanting to find him. We can assume her instincts are well-honed. She senses that she can milk the Where’s My Husband Drama for a couple more episodes, and opts for a random head injury instead of going with Locke. (She runs into a tree and forgets English. No idea if that’s intended to be significant, or if it’s significant that she suddenly remembers it when reunited with Jin at last.)
I don’t yet make much of it, but Sun pauses curiously at a hallway mirror on her way to answer the door in her hotel room. What’s she seeing, or sensing, exactly?
Sun takes a blow to the head and comes around having forgotten English. This in itself isn’t all that weird I don’t suppose. But in the vicinity of this episode, real life news stories of people waking up knowing new languages popped up in the news.
For some reason, Widmore’s people captured Jin. They stashed him in Room 23, the brainwashing chamber last used on Alex’s boyfriend Carl. They seem to think he knows something about what the DHARMA Initiative discovered about the island since his signature is on some reports. Zoe who needs to die asks him about pockets of electromagnetism.
Smokey suggests to Claire that the only reason Kate’s around is to help him get the other Losties on the plane. Once he does, he says, “Whatever happens, happens.” He seems to be giving Claire permission to kill Kate.
Sawyer asks Smokey: “What do you need a boat for? Can’t you just turn into smoke and fly your ass over the water?” Smokey replies: “Do you think if I could do that I would still be on this island?” – “No, that’d be ridiculous,” says Sawyer. This seems to be a jab at the audience as much as anything. But, we do learn yet another thing that traps Smokey in… Now we have ash, sonic waves and water.
Mikhail makes an appearance, with both his eyes. Soon to be rectified, it seems. He’s hooked up with the mercs in the employ of Paik at this point. Interesting to ponder the possibilities: How did Mikhail end up with the Others in the 2008 timeline? At this point in the original storyline, Mikhail would have been on the island stationed at the Flame, but now he’s in Los Angeles doing the henchman thing in Keamy’s apparently well-connected organization. Given the fact that at one point Keamy is connected to Widmore as well, what does that suggest about Mikhail, or Paik for that matter?
Sun has another hissy fit at Richard. She came to the island to save her husband, not the world. That whole thing about her husband being a part of the world when it ends: Nope, doesn’t bother Sun. I would pay 20 bucks to see an alternate scene in which Alpert just punches her in the face.
Sun is raising Ji Yeon in Korea. But her birthday party decorations in one of the photos is in English.
Widmore claims that everyone would ‘cease to be’ if Smokey got off the island. This, to me, suggests that by some means reality would collapse… but which reality exactly? I am suspicious that Widmore is trying to maintain the pocket universe, the more or less “better” version created by the nuke (detailed in the next episode), because in that reality, many things are “as they should be” in a manner of speaking. But, it may be much less simple than that. I’m basing that on the dissonant nature of Widmore’s concern for “everyone” ceasing to be and his complete and total disregard for anyone alive on the island. He slaughters without mercy on the island, yet claims to be acting to save “everyone” – obviously not everyone on the island, so that reality seems somewhat meaningless to him.
Jin shoots Mikhail in the eye. Time for a patch. Sun reveals she’s pregnant. Exactly what we need, right? More baby drama. But, an interesting parallel. One way or another, it seems, Sun gets pregnant in 2004. Some have suggested that Ji Yeon is important. Perhaps it is so.
Sun realizes that she can write in English even if she can’t speak it. Similar in a way to Locke, who lost his voice when the hatch blew up at the close of S2, couldn’t speak for a while and wrote on a pad to communicate.
Sayid, on a covert spy op for Locke, discovers that “The Package” is Desmond Hume.
---
Happily Ever After
Widmore puts Desmond to the test: Exposure to massive amounts of electromagnetic energy in order to surmise whether or not he can survive it. In the process of this experiment, Desmond seems to have some sort of experience.
We see that his survival is actual, given that a hapless Widmore redshirt takes one for the team as the result of an accident.
Widmore’s team uses test bunnies. We find one in a cage, named Angstrom.
Widmore reiterates the assertion that all of reality is at stake. But it seems strange that the only solution to the problem, whatever it is, is based upon a unique individual’s ability to withstand huge EM blasts. What if Des dies? What’s his plan B? It’s academic, we assume, since Des doesn’t die – but we have to wonder what Widmore has up his sleeve as a backup plan. (Later, Widmore claims that Desmond IS the plan B, so then we have to wonder what his primary plan was, since he gets killed before he can do anything.)
At any rate: Widmore puts Desmond in an EM chamber and sets it off. We then see a flash sideways of Desmond’s 2004 existence. I wonder if Desmond (in the process of his EM exposure) actually “sees” his own flash sideways, or if he just experiences the crossover that his 2004 self experiences.
We find George Minkowski, former communications officer of the Widmore freighter, with whom Desmond shares a critical experience (the Unstuck In Time disorder), employed as a driver for Widmore. (One thing we may have learned about Widmore’s “drivers” – they rarely merely drive people around. Ref: Matthew Abbadon.) George chauffeurs Desmond around, and ultimately agrees to locate a copy of the Oceanic 815 passenger manifest for Desmond, who claims he wants to “show them something”. From that point on, Desmond’s entire motive seems to be oriented around awakening the minds of key players from the flight. That makes “Happily Ever After” a critical episode in the major plot, though the significance of the awakening and the relationship between the 2004 and 2008 realities are still mysterious.
In 2004, we find that Desmond is the favorite employee of Charles Widmore. This is a significant difference, as we may recall. In the ‘normal’ timeline, Desmond was generally despised by Widmore, deemed unworthy of his Scotch, and certainly of his daughter. Here we find that Desmond is all but envied by Widmore, and the Scotch is offered freely. “Nothing’s too good for” Desmond.
Always interesting to pay attention to the art in Widmore’s office: Prominently featured is a large square image depicting a scale balanced equally with light and dark objects on the platforms. It seems to have been painted by the same artist who created the polar bear image.
Desmond is dispatched to manage Charlie Pace, bassist for Drive Shaft, who was supposed to play at a Widmore function, but who was arrested for heroin possession off the flight in from Sydney.
Charlie’s near-death experience apparently connected him with his alternate reality self, in which he was madly in love with Claire. Seemingly, this is the same phenomenon that Juliet experienced on her way out. I believe that she saw a vision of herself and Sawyer together in an alternate reality.
But the nature of this reality seems less “alternate” in terms of functionality, more like a splinter of possibility, that may in fact be on its way to folding into the otherwise reality.
Charlie and Desmond have a conversation in a bar about making choices. Desmond suggests there’s “Always a choice” – but this proves ironic in a number of ways – firstly, in light of his known past in the 2008 timeline, but also in terms of the events that soon transpire – and also in light of the penultimate episode (What They Died For) in which Jacob tells Jack there’s always a choice in spite of the fact that Jack was brought to the island, originally, entirely against his will. As were the rest, who appeared and died. As were in fact Jacob and his brother. In fact, there’s NEVER a choice.
Charlie is convinced that he can show others this reality, and that the key to the awakening is to give someone a near-death experience. He helps Desmond out by crashing his car into the bay. In the stress of Desmond’s attempt to save Charlie from drowning (hey!), Desmond has a flash of the island reality, from the moment of Charlie’s death.
At the hospital (Jack’s), Desmond undergoes an MRI (electromagnetic scan) and experiences a full-blown glimpse of his alterna-self and his love affair with Penny including the birth of baby Charlie flashes before his eyes.
I’m not exactly certain why Charlie was running away from the hospital staff. There’s no reason for this. He simply says that he’s running because no one there can help him. Charlie’s whole perspective has changed. He no longer cares about playing the concert, or the money or anything. He’s consumed with the experience of the alternate reality and the love he felt for Claire.
Interesting point of variance: Charlie doesn’t know the name of the ‘beautiful blonde’ he saw in his vision. Desmond knows Penny’s name.
Charlie takes off, and Widmore tasks Desmond with the unpleasant mission of reporting the bad news to his wife, Eloise (Hawking) Widmore. Eloise here in this reality seems to be equally gifted as she was in the original timeline. She is aware of much about Desmond and his destiny. She reacts strongly to his interest in the name Penny Milton on the guest list of her function. Eloise insists that Desmond stop looking for whatever it is he’s looking for. She says that what he’s doing is a violation: “Someone had clearly affected the way you see things. This is a serious problem. It is, in fact, a violation.”
A violation of what? How does Eloise happen to possess this information? She even goes on to remark that he’s got everything he ever wanted in life (C. Widmore’s approval). How does she know that? Desmond asks, and she just says that she knows “because she bloody does.”
Eloise tells Des that he can’t see the list because he’s not ready yet. Ready for what? Who knows. But later, Desmond obviously figures it out. He will explain to Hurley in What They Died For that Ana Lucia Cortez is not ready yet.
Daniel (Faraday) Widmore observes their conversation. In 2004, he’s not a physicist, but a musician. He catches up to Desmond before he leaves the Widmore estate. He reveals to Desmond that he’s had a strange experience in which he saw a woman, for whom he felt love at first sight. He then envisioned a highly advanced diagram of quantum reality without having a clue what it meant. It seems to be the same image from his journal, seen in S4 (if I recall correctly).
Based on analysis of the diagram, Daniel concludes that they’re living in a pocket reality generated by the effect of a massive release of energy. We don’t exactly get a lot of detail here. He talks about a catastrophic event that was prevented by the detonation of a nuclear bomb, but doesn’t talk about HOW the detonation might have worked, or what kind of catastrophe it would have prevented. I think we’re supposed to be nodding our heads at this point, and not asking many big complicated questions, since Faraday here is not a physics nerd, but an artsy musician.
This wouldn’t matter much if they’d explained it in previous seasons when Faraday WAS a physics nerd, but sadly, he pretty much said the same thing then! In effect, the plan was to prevent the electromagnetic release by blowing the hell out of whatever it was at the bottom of the Swan shaft, the ultimate result of which would be that the Swan station was never built, and was therefore never there to malfunction and yank Oceanic 815 out of the sky. But of course, the strange properties of the island were also a factor, and unpredictable things occurred, the result of which we’ve been observing for the last 16 weeks.
Effect one: The Losties stuck in the 1970s time-skipped to 2008, which was in effect where they would have been had they not gotten stuck in the past. Still no idea why they would have ended up there instead of the point at which they started, which would have been around January 2005. I assume it’s related to the turning of the wheel. Locke turned the wheel and ended up in 2008. So, the island is also more or less at 2008.
Effect two: A reality exists in which the island is SUNK and in which Oceanic 815 did not crash. Many details of the lives of the characters are slightly or even significantly different, in some cases OPPOSITE, than their original selves. Note: Jacob’s Brother says he’s going to destroy the island. Assuming he succeeds, that still would not necessarily align the sunken 2004 island with current events, so at this point it can’t be said that the island is sunk because Brotherman did it.
Daniel reveals to Desmond that the woman he envisioned was not just a dream, but his half sister, and he tells Des where he can find her. He finds her running a tour de stade.
On island, Desmond revives with an apparent understanding of Widmore’s objective, and without prodding, he agrees to help. This scene, more than any other, convinces me that the ultimate end of the show will be a collapsed reality of sorts. All of the characters on the island will be “dead” (save for, I predict, Locke and Jack). But, they will exist in the alternate reality, which will merge with the current reality in a sort of zipper effect, in more or less ideal circumstances. Better, fixed, or whatever. Whatever was screwed up in their lives will be repaired in some way, or at least resolved. Desmond will have impressed Widmore FIRST – “Nothing is too good for you” – That must include Widmore’s daughter, Penny. It’s reversed from the previous.
The uberannoying Zoe wonders why Des is so different. She suggests his brain is fried. She doesn’t seem overly loyal to Widmore. But who cares one way or another. Counting down the moments until Locke takes her out. Unlike Sayid, who has a clear chance to do so, yet doesn’t. Why? No idea.
Sayid captures Desmond. Desmond appears to go willingly. But he’s up to something.
Desmond apparently fainted when he shook Penny’s hand. A refrain, reminding us of the fantastic S4 episode “The Constant”. He arranges a date with Penny, but it’s not yet clear if they ever actually went. Desmond’s mostly involved in shenanigans from this point on.
---
Everybody Loves Hugo
We knew from early in the season what the difference would be between 2004 and 2008 Hugo: He told Sawyer on the plane that he was the luckiest man in the world. So, his great fortune has been nothing but a blessing, and it's been magnified to bless others. The episode begins with Hugo receiving a Man of the Year award from Dr. Pierre Chang.
Hugo mentions a benefit for The Human Fund. If you don't remember why that sounds familiar: It was the name of the fake charity George Costanza claimed he was giving money to in the name of his fellow employees as a way to dodge giving Christmas gifts. He'd give cards that read “A donation has been made in your name to the Human Fund.”
Grandpa Tito is still alive.
Hugo hears The Whispers as he visits Libby's grave, turns to find the ghost of Michael Dawson waiting for him. (Note: No Michael Dawson appearances, nor Walt Lloyd appearances, in the 2004 reality.)
Hugo mistakes Libby for his blind date. She approaches his table and addresses him by name. She reveals that she's seen him in a vision, and that they're soul mates. Dr. Brooks appears and removes Libby. Hugo follows them out and sees that Libby is a patient at Santa Rosa. Note: Libby also knows the name of her alternate-reality love.
Ilana pulls an Arzt.
Locke keeps selling the “we all have to be together in order to leave” story. It will be revealed that he's really just scheming to get all the candidates in one place so he can kill them.
Sayid arrives with the news that he's captured Desmond.
Hurley roots around and finds Ilana's bag of Jacob's ashes, keeps them. He seems somewhat resolved about something. He returns to the group and is in favor of Richard's plan to get more dynamite. We learn that he's planning to blow up the entire stock of dynamite before anyone can get to it.
Depressed about the Libby situation, Hurley retreats to the comfort of a Mr. Cluck's, has a bucket of chicken. There, he encounters Desmond, who convinces Hurley that Libby might not have been crazy after all.
Locke interrogates Desmond, takes him on a walk to the infamous Well. We don't really know what's important about the well at this point, but in the episode Across the Sea, we learn all too well.
Ben reiterates his awareness of how the island allows people to die when it's done with them. This will prove important in a couple of episodes, when Ben begins to assist Locke in taking people out.
Hugo tells Miles that Michael told him to blow up the Black Rock. “Dead people are more reliable than alive people.”
Hugo 2004 bribes his way into a visit with Libby at Santa Rosa. Libby tells Hugo about what she experienced in her vision, like memories washing back. Memories of another life. Plane crash. Island. Her love for Hugo. She remembers Hurley being in Santa Rosa also. Though Hugo can't remember anything she's saying, they decide to spend some time together anyway. They plan a date.
Locke and Desmond both see the mysterious boy in the jungle. We now know it's the young version of Jacob.
The small group splits once again. Miles, Ben and Richard head off to get explosives from New Otherton. Lapidus, Sun and Jack stay with Hurley, head off to Locke's camp.
On the walk toward Locke's camp, Sun writes on her pad (she still can't speak English at this point) “Did we make a mistake?” and shows it to Lapidus. He says “probably”. Just have to laugh (darkly, if you insist) at the foreshadowing, since both of them end up dead as the result of this decision.
Hurley makes a very telling confession: He didn't see Jacob, got no instructions from Jacob. He just said that he had so that everyone would listen to him. We know another character who did this, but in a desperate attempt to maintain control, to keep his power over others. Hurley recognizes that it isn't righteous, though he doesn't yet know that his deception is leading loved ones into harm's way. This may explain his breakdown in the aftermath of the submarine disaster. Sad as it is already, Hurley's also got to be thinking that if he'd listened to Richard, things might have gone differently. Michael, on the other hand, warned him of this, too. Hurley has in fact FAILED to stop Richard, AND marched his friends to their deaths.
Jack admits for the first time that he can't fix what's broken. He talks about letting go. This becomes important later as well.
The voices return. Hurley declares that he's figured out what the voices are. Michael says he's stuck on the island because of what he did. How, why? No idea yet. We do know that some of the island dead have appeared to Hurley off the island. Ana Lucia Cortez. Charlie Pace. Mr. Eko. We know that Libby's been floating around, but never has spoken to Hurley for some reason. (Ghostly Ana Lucia tells Hurley that Libby says “hey”.) Michael says that he's one of the one who can't move on. Michael says that he wants Hurley to tell Libby, if he ever sees her again, that he's very sorry. Some have happily exclaimed that this is proof that the island is in fact some form of Purgatory. I prefer to support the age old statement from the writers on this point.
Soon we will see that Jacob's brother shares Hurley's ability to see the dead. Point to ponder: If the island only traps bad people, and the Twins' mother is wandering around dead on the island, what's that say about her? Would that make Mother correct in suggesting that those people were bad, etc?
Another point about the whispers: Ben's statement to Danielle Rousseau: “Whenever you hear whispers, you run the other way...” Why would he say this if the whispers were just the disembodied voices of people trapped on the island for doing bad deeds?
When Juliet encounters Harper Stanhope in the jungle in The Other Woman, it was after the whispers were heard. Harper mysteriously appears and disappears in that scene. The whispers also accompanied the arrival of the Others on a number of other occasions.
Finally, in What They Died For, we find young Jacob able to snatch material objects.
So, is this explanation adequate, or even true? What is the real significance of being alive or dead on the island?
One of the best LOST moments ever occurs in this episode: Hurley and Libby get to have the beach date, denied by Michael's evil deeds. Libby plants a kiss on Hugo and he's flooded with memories from the other timeline, in which he loved Libby. We find Desmond in his car, watching this all happen.
Locke explains the Well to Desmond. He claims that Widmore is only interested in power. He wants to know why Desmond isn't afraid. Des replies: What's the point? Locke hurls Desmond into the well. Locke returns to camp and tells Sayid that they don't have to worry about Desmond anymore. Though later, Locke sends Sayid to kill him.
Hurley and the others arrive at Locke's camp, and after a negotiation of terms, the two groups meet. Jack freaks out, since this is the first time he's seen John Locke alive and kicking since he saw him dead in a coffin prior to the Ajira flight.
Desmond in 2004 sits in his car in the school parking lot where Locke 2004 is working as a substitute. He's apparently keeping a close eye on Locke. Dr. Ben Linus breaks his concentration, and questions him about his reason for being there. He claims he's new in town, has a kid who might attend the school. Ben asks him what his kid's name is. Des says Charlie. Few of us would find this odd... but: Desmond in 2004 has no children. Desmond is referring to his child from the alternate reality. WHOA COOL!
As Locke wheels himself across the street, Desmond runs him down with his car and speeds away.
---
The Last Recruit
Jack and Locke have a chat. Locke does his best to propagandize Jack, insulting Locke as being stupid, and a sucker, for believing that he was brought to the island for a reason. But, we know that this is true, and more to the point, Jack now believes this to be the case where his own purpose is concerned.
Locke (Smokey, of course) confirms that he can only take the form of dead people. (Is that true? Not, say, black horses, or giant birds that say HURLEY or figments of people's imagination named Dave, or little kids who aren't dead, but kidnapped on another part of the island?)
Locke takes credit for taking on the shape of Chistian Shephard and leading Jack on a chase. I say he's lying, or telling partial truths. Recall that Jack's chase ended up with him nearly falling to his death, not finding water.
EMT says Locke's wheelchair was smashed to pieces, but it wasn't. We saw it rolling in the parking lot after Locke was knocked out of it. Nothing more than an error, but worth mentioning just because.
Locke says, in the ambulance, “Helen Norwood... I was... gonna marry her.” I wonder: Is this something he's telling Dr. Linus about his present-day life, or is it something he's telling him about his 2008 timeline? He uses the past tense. In 2004, he *IS* going to marry her. They're in the planning stages. Ben interprets Locke's utterance to mean that Locke is fretting that he's about to die. I think he's seeing his 2008 self, in which he screws everything up with Helen before he could propose to her.
Locke also utters: “John.... my name is John.” This is somewhat reminiscent of his mother's outcry at the moment of his birth: “Name him John... His name is John!”
Being wheeled into the ER, Locke rolls alongside Sun, entering the hospital with a gunshot wound. Sun turns and sees Locke on the gurney and she starts freaking out, saying in Korean “It's him! It's him!” It seems to be the case that she's had an experience of alternate reality as well, as the result of the life-threatening injury.
Claire seems to be under the impression that letting Locke speak to you makes you inescapably part of his group. But this doesn't seem to have that kind of effect on Jack, or really, anyone else in his group when push comes to shove. Only Claire seems to be under that degree of influence.
Sawyer schemes with Hurley to load up on Widmore's sub and flee the scene. He's excluding Sayid, since Sayid's gone evil. He will try to keep Claire out as well, but Kate goes to bat for her.
2004 Sawyer talks to 2004 Kate, who's in police custody. They talk about the odd coincidence of their running into each other again. (Evangeline Lilly's chin looks weird.) Kate figures out that the reason Sawyer didn't arrest her was because he didn't want anybody to know he was in Australia. Miles alerts him to a multiple homicide: Sayid's frag-fest at Keamy's House of Eggs.
Zoe appears in the Locke camp. She wants Desmond back. Locke repeats Widmore's claim of having no idea what she's talking about. Zoe threatens Locke with death by mortar, but Locke cares not a blip. Initially, we think, it's because he's so hardcore. But we soon learn it's because he really doesn't care if everybody with him gets killed. He's banking on it, in fact. Note: Locke destroys the walkie talkie Zoe gave him. Could be just a measure of caution, since Widmore's folks were able to track Zoe somehow. But it's also reminiscent of Ben's warning to Locke about “Jacob's” hatred of technology. Knowing what we know about the actual nature of Jacob (that he's an actual guy, not a ghost), this could be more evidence that it was Smokey in that cabin.
Desmond “encounters” Claire. He offers to assist her with legal services for her adoption process. The lawyer turns out to be Ilana, who's been looking for Claire because she's in Christian Shephard's will. Odd tie-in: Ilana's close connection to both Jacob and Christian Shephard seems almost impossible to describe as merely coincidental.
Claire: What's going on? Hurley: People trying to kill us again.
Locke, master manipulator, is setting things up (almost) perfectly. He knows Sawyer won't be loyal just as he knows that Widmore won't stick to any deals he may have made. He plans, somewhat perfectly, to arrange things in such a way that everyone is “escaping” from him together on the submarine. Sawyer describes Sayid as a zombie – but I still have no idea what force is animating him. If it were Smokey, he wouldn't be exhibiting free will. Smokey sends Sayid off to kill Desmond, but Sayid decides to let him go instead (apparently).
Sayid gets captured by Sawyer, and hauled off to jail. Interestingly, Desmond 2004 gets him out of jail. Existential tit-for-tat.
Sayid lies plain as day. He already told Locke that he no longer felt emotions or pain, but he claims that he “needed a moment” after shooting an unarmed man. Locke seems not to care about this.
Jack says that the last time he left the island, he felt like a part of himself was missing. He says that if Smokey *wants* them to leave, perhaps he's afraid of what happens if they stay. Sawyer's reaction to this: Throws Jack off the boat. Jack says “The island's not done with us yet.” Sawyer says that he's done with the island. It's certainly a strange series of statements for Jack to be making, but he's finally seen the light, almost literally. Jack is fully and officially a believer. He's picked up where real Locke left off. Much as I hate to say it, Jack has fully and completely redeemed himself and is now among the coolest characters on the show. Drat it all!
Jack apologizes to Sawyer for “getting Juliet killed” - but really, we know it wasn't Jack who did that, it was Radzinski. But it was nice of him to say that for Sawyer's sake. Sadly, the price to remove the chip on Sawyer's shoulder is 4 lives. Ack ack ack.
The boat, by the way, is Desmond's sloop the “Elizabeth”, named of course for Libby. The boat belonged to her deceased husband. It was last seen in Season Two when Sayid and the Kwons used it to try to sneak up to the Others camp where Walt was supposedly being kept. The boat was captured by the Others.
2004 Jin seems to be convinced that everything is going to be OK. But, he's as yet unaware of the fact that Woo-Jung Paik put a hit on him. I wonder what Paik will say when he learns that his goons shot Sun.
2004 Jack returns to the hospital on an emergency call, a spinal injury, critical. He realizes it's Locke, who he met at LAX. Much is being made of the potential for Jack to simultaneously fix Locke in 2004 and destroy Locke in 2008. I am not yet convinced that either of these things will happen. In fact, my prediction is rather opposite. It seems most likely that 2004 Jack may die, and that 2008 Jack, now taking on the role of Jacob, will find himself back at square one, with only himself and Locke on the island, bound by the rules, unable to destroy one another.
First of all is the beauty of the irony of the full circle, but also I am suspicious of these weird cuts that keep appearing on Jack's neck. Harbingers of doooooom!
Jack swims back to the beach and is rounded up by Locke's people. Almost immediately, they're assaulted by mortar fire, which of course kills everybody but Jack. No worries though, they were just a bunch of redshirts. On hydra island, Sawyer's rogue crew is captured by Widmore's people. Sun and Jin are finally freakin reunited, halleluia, no more whining. Sun can suddenly speak English again. Jin promises Sun that they will never be apart again, and of course, he's right. They stay together forever. Sadly, it's in a flooded sub at the bottom of the ocean.
---
The Candidate
Opens with Jack and Locke, as Locke is coming out of anesthesia. Jack offers Locke a new procedure that could restore his legs, but Locke refuses for some reason.
On island: Jack and Sayid on the beach at Hydra Island, after the mortar attack. Sayid relates that a few redshirts survived and scattered into the jungle. Now, it's just Jack, Sayid and Locke.
Locke arrives, and says they're going to “rescue” the others from Widmore's cages. (Sayid will turn off the generators powering the sonic fence (nice work, Widmore) and let Smokey go to town on Widmore's redshirts.)
Jack makes an interesting statement: “They're not my people.” This is almost identical to real Locke's assertion when he split from the group to pursue greater knowledge of the island, excepting that Locke claimed the Others as his people. Jack's identity is now linked to the island, it seems.
Locke claims that he could kill Jack and all his friends, and there's not a thing any of them could do to stop him. But this is obviously a lie. We know this already because Boy Jacob already reminded us and Locke of this fact. But apparently Jack doesn't know this yet.
Sawyer and company were herded into the Hydra station cages that they were kept in in Season 3. Sawyer put up a fight, snatched the gun from “Doughboy” (best nickname by Jen Ozawa: “Pugsley”) and Widmore threatens Kate to get Sawyer in line. Sawyer scoffs, but Widmore claims he has a list of names, upon which Kate Austen doesn't appear.
How does Widmore have this information? Later, he will claim that Jacob personally visited him and gave him the scoop. Unfortunately for him, he reveals this fact to Ben Linus, and it becomes more or less the next-to-the-last nail in his coffin.
Some have laughingly suggested that Kate forgot that she could climb out of the cages, but it seems to me that they didn't put them in Kate's old cage, but Sawyer's, the one with the bear feeding gadget. The cages are not identically designed. Sawyer's cage, if I recall correctly, was much shorter, more confined, and didn't have cross bars, so there's no place for a foothold. I'd have to check the S3 eps to be certain, though.
Naturally, there's the over-the-top act of violence bestowed by Pugsley upon Sawyer as a punishment for his turnabout, but it's nearly absurd, given the ease with which Sawyer disarmed him. It would have been much more convincing had Pugs just overhand girl-slapped him.
Widmore assures Sawyer that he's doing this for their own good. It's hard not to be on Widmore's side, really, but it still makes the most sense to reject everybody's side and just stick with the Losties. Interesting writing, really.
I love how Widmore's team, supposedly well-schooled about the threat they're facing, nevertheless fire rifles at Smokey.
2004 Bernard Nadler works on a dental mold as Jack arrives. Bernard happens to be Locke's dentist, or at least had done some emergency dental surgery on him. This seems random. Rose and Bernard have both had some direct or indirect influence in Locke's life... in Los Angeles... even though Rose and Bernard were New Yorkers. How exactly would both of them have ended up in L.A. in this time line?
Jack goes with the others to the plane, but tells Kate he's not going with them. He says he's not meant to go.
2004 Jack is on a crusade to fix Locke. Helen Norwood wants to know why it's not enough that Jack saved Locke's life. Jack says “because it's not”. He's determined to find out what's going on. Helen takes Jack in to meet Anthony Cooper, who he's tracked down to a nursing home. It turns out that Cooper is in some sort of vegetative state, caused by an accident. Locke later reveals that it was a plane crash. A small plane, that Locke had learned to fly. He was taking his father up on a celebratory run after getting his license. Something went wrong, the plane crashed, and Locke all but killed his father. This is why Locke refuses to have the surgery. Because he feels that he deserves to be in the wheelchair.
In that account, Locke relates that Cooper is a man he loved more than anything. It's a significantly different relationship than the one with which we're familiar.
Dark Locke reaches the plane first and totally owns the guards that were posted there. He takes a digital watch from one of the guards. Later we see him use this digital watch as a bomb timer. This seems to indicate that he boarded the plane expecting to find explosives.
I think Naveen Andrews might have flubbed a line here. He says “His neck's been broken!” to which Locke replies “That's because I broke it.” Seems like Sayid's line should have been “His neck's broken!”
Locke's scheme is hilarious, really. He lays off on Widmore the exact thing he's trying to do: Get everybody in the same place and kill 'em all. Locke shows them explosives, says the whole plane may be rigged, and effectively talks them all out of flying and into a much more dangerous option. Perhaps he's seen one too many plane disaster survivals to be convinced he can kill everybody that way? So, he directs them toward the sub.
Sawyer thinks he cons Locke into thinking he's on board. But pay close attention... If Locke doesn't want to be deterred, he won't be. The plane guards shot at him and he didn't even blink. Sawyer's scheme only accomplishes one thing: Gets everybody Locke wants dead onto the submarine, with a nice little package tucked away in Jack's bag.
Asleep in the hospital, a sleeping 2004 Locke mutters “Boone” “Push the button” “I wish you had believed me.” We know the significance of these statements, certainly. The last of these is the entire content of Locke's suicide note, addressed to Jack.
Jack loves those Apollo bars, it seems. He buys one for Claire from the hospital vending machine.
Claire mentions that she never even met Christian Shephard. This is somewhat different from the previous timeline, in which she met him around the time of the car crash that put her mother in a coma.
Claire has a locked wooden box that the lawyer said was of particular importance. Claire confirms that she was definitely on Oceanic 815. The box is a music box that plays Catch a Falling Star. Jack invites Claire to stay with him in L.A.
Island: It looks like Locke pulls ye olde switcheroo on Jack. But Jack doesn't seem to notice that he's got a different backpack, so he could have planted it off camera. (Jack later identifies the pack as his, so that must be the case.) Jack “pushes” Locke off the dock, but really, the only way that could work is if Locke allowed it, that is, planned on it. Kate gets shot, and Jack ends up on the sub with everyone else because he carries her in.
Locke gets himself up out of the water and proceeds happily to shoot all the Widmore henchmen, mostly it would seem to prevent them from stopping the Losties from taking the sub.
Locke appears to be running toward the sub, but he's just running to get Claire. The sub launches. Claire protests. Best line of the ep: Locke: “Trust me... you don't want to be on that sub.” Such a brilliant setup. Smokey is a master manipulator. The moment Jack finds the bomb is classic. Another 'perfect storm' element is the lack of trust between Sawyer and Jack, or at least from Sawyer's point of view. The death of Juliet is too close. There's absolutely no way that Sawyer could reasonably trust Jack, and so he yanks the wires.
Critical statement from Sayid: He alerts Jack to the fact that Desmond's in the well, says that Locke wants him dead, so Jack's going to need him. He says “It's going to be you, Jack.” Off the top of my head, I can't recall whether or not Sayid was privy to the Candidate conversations, but I think he must have been. This is what he's telling Jack, and after all, the episode is entitled “The Candidate”
Sayid takes one for the team. Some have remarked that he ended up being a suicide bomber. In this case, not funny. OK, sort of funny, but not really.
Frank bites it: Huge steel door in the face.
Sun and Jin: Together forever. I just saw this scene in full for the first time as I write these notes. I gotta say, they did it well. It's a painful moment. The hands releasing, floating apart, with the official “Somebody Died” theme song in the background...
But then, we see 2004 Jin walking down the hospital hallway past Locke, a bunch of flowers for Sun in his hand. We have a sliver of hope that perhaps things will work out for them? Perhaps everyone who has died on the island won't really be dead. Perhaps that whole reality will simply cease to exist, and all our beloved characters will exist, miserable-island-free lives from 2004 onward, as it was meant to be.
Jack and Locke discuss letting go. Neither can with any ease. Jack says to Locke “I wish you believed me.” This seems to hit home with Locke, but he says nothing.
Then the awful moment, when Jack reports that Jin and Sun are gone... and Hurley breaking down... then Jack, too – our remaining few friends in mourning on the beach.
Locke knows that all of the people on the sub aren't dead, and he declares that he's going to finish what he started.
---
“Across the Sea”
This is one of the most important episodes in the series, but it was met with quite a lot of hatred. I think this is because many fans have short memories combined with severely unrealistic, if not unreasonable, expectations. They think that minor mysteries should have humongously significant solutions. They think the question of “Who Are the Skeletons In The Caves?” should be something absurd, such as Hurley's remark from a few episodes back: “Maybe we all time travel again, and these guys are us...”
No. No. No. The answer presented is much BETTER, since it's not narrowly focused on our main characters, but in fact demonstrates that our characters are but bit players in a much grander and larger and longer story.
There are things to criticize, but not the ones most people are griping about.
First of all: The absolutely awful delivery of Latin by both women at the first of the episode. Clunky, clumsy, without any attempt at comfortable delivery, as though our actresses didn't even bother to practice.
Another major faux pas, in my opinion, was the awkward placement of the clip from Season One at the end, to “remind” us all of the bodies in the caves and the placement of the black and white stones. Yeah, we didn't forget. Or, if we did, there's a freakin clip show coming up in a couple of weeks during which you can do all the reminding you want! I am really hoping they remove that edit for the DVD. It really heinously horribly wrecked the emotional impact of the conclusion.
Content-wise: Not a single problem. And, it delivered quite a lot more than the nay-sayers think it did.
A young pregnant woman named Claudia swims ashore after an apparent shipwreck. According to the enchanced version of the Pilot episode, this is taking place “over 2000 years ago”. She encounters a woman who claims that she is the only one, that she has no people. She got the island “by accident”.
“Every question I answer will simply lead to another question.” If there's nothing else to take from this episode, take this statement. We like the mysterious things we've encountered, but don't let them get in the way of the story. The fact that one of the bodies in the cave spoke this line is more than a little symbolic.
Hooray. More pregnancy drama. Nothing sucks like seeing a baby delivered on TV, because nothing sucks quite as much as seeing a woman try to act like she's in labor. What ho! Twins! It's a pregnancy-acting twofer!
Pause for a mo' to consider the title of the mystery novel “Bad Twin” by Gary Troup, a writer who was aboard Oceanic 815. He was killed in the Pilot episode – the guy who got sucked into the jet engine. He was a candidate, it seems. The name Troup was on Jacob's wall.
The first kid is named Jacob. The second kid is named... er... Claudia “only picked one name” and apparently can't think of any other names at the moment. She's denied the chance to do so by a rock to the face. We never learn the name of the “mother” or the “brother”. Which is really cool, IMO. I hope we never learn these things. That would be mucho savage, in a literary sense.
The babies are fair-haired (Jacob) and dark-haired.
The dark-haired kid finds a box on the beach. It's some sort of game that I desperately want to own in real life because that would be kewl. He shows it to his light-haired brother Jacob, who we recognize immediately as the mysterious kid who's been plaguing Locke in the jungle.
The game board is 30 squares, 3 rows of 10. The box was at one time painted a shade close to lapis lazuli. Its squares were adorned with hieroglyphs including an ankh. Many of these have worn away. Spirals decorate the side of the box (carved) and the end is painted with blue in a checkerboard pattern. We see in view six game pieces, three white and three black. Later, we see them throwing lots in order to determine what moves they can make. It seems to be a territory-gaining strategy game, like checkers or chess. Or, of course, like backgammon, which we've actually seen on the island being played.
Continuity error: Jacob takes a game piece and rolls it around in his hand. When he places it back on the game board, the other pieces are gone, and the piece he puts down is in fact different from the one he picked up.
What is it? It's a game. You play it. How do you know how? I just know. (This is somewhat similar to John Locke's experience on the island. As we know, he had a somewhat puffed-up ego in actual life. He inflated his own capabilities as an overcompensation for his confinement to his wheelchair. This is not to say that he wasn't able to do many things, but his plans for a walkabout were unrealistic, his huge case of knives somewhat absurd. But when he hits the island, not only is he healed, but he's seemingly imbued with awareness and skill, beyond anything he'd known before. He has an almost innate knowledge of the island, on a certain level. Not the full depth of its mysteries, but a kinship. He doesn't need a compass, he knows when it's going to rain, he can hunt boar, make glue, make trance-inducing ointments, etc.
Brother agrees to tell Jacob how to play the game if Jacob will promise not to tell Mother. Mother has this thing, apparently, about stuff that washes up on the beach.
Mother is weaving. This is how Jacob learned it, we can assume. Jacob seems to be somewhat of a helpful type. Some might say a 'mama's boy'. There's a huge tortoise on the beach in a couple of shots. Much speculation has erupted, naturally. But, the story behind it is simple: It's a highly protected species in Hawaii. Can't do a thing to it, about it. It's illegal to interfere with it in any way. And it happened to be sunning itself in the spot where the scene was planned. The director chose to include it because it was there.
There's a messed up difference between Jacob and Brother, especially as it relates to how they are treated and regarded by Mother. She seems to favor Brother. She even mocks Jacob in front of Brother. She tells Brother that he's special. Not special enough to have a name, but special nonetheless. On the flip side: Maybe that's his degree of specialness... namelessness. In some belief systems, this would be quite special indeed.
She claims that Jacob doesn't know how to lie, but Brother does. Mother knows how to lie as well, of course. She also knows how to manipulate. She claims that she left the game for Brother to find, and that there's nothing beyond the ocean. There is nowhere else. The island is all there is. What's true and what's false?
Mother tells Brother that “dead” is something he will never have to worry about. She plans, we assume to pass the immortal gift on to him, rather than Jacob.
“They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt. And it always ends the same.”
Mother says she has made it so that the two brothers can never hurt each other.
Mother reveals that the reason they are on the island is to protect it's heart, a source of light-emitting energy that must never be put out. A small portion of the light exists within each human being. But they always want more. And they will try to take it, even though they can't. But, it can be put out. If it were ever put out on the island, it would be put out everywhere. It isn't clear why it can be affected in one way (extinguished) but not effected in another (trapped). It must be akin to the nature of “life” itself. A living thing can be contained, but Life, the force, can't, though it can be 'put out' by an attempt to contain or control it.
We learn from the following episode that the only person who can find the place with the light source is the island's protector. Some sort of magical field prevents it being discovered by accident.
But, we learn that it's possible to tap into it by digging. Some might suggest this is inconsistent, but it's actually just descriptive of the kind of magic that must be in effect. If you're a proper nerd, which I am, you will know that Illusion is a major school of magic in most fantasy realms. Illusion can be dispelled a number of ways, including simply by “disbelieving” the magic, or by circumventing it. Brother apparently figures this one out, and simply tunnels past the illusion.
Mother says she can't protect the source forever. This seems odd. Jacob does the job for almost 2000 years. Who knows how long Mother did it. But for some reason, she can't go on doing as she's done? It seems more likely that she's just weary of the task. There must come a time when the protector WANTS to be replaced. The charge is “protect the island for as long as you CAN”.
And that throws an interesting spin on Jacob's own game, the one he's playing with the Losties, and with everyone else ever brought to the island since his reign began. Jacob changed his mother's mantra: When Brother reminds him of the statement “They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same.” Jacob replies: It only ends once. Everything else is progress.
What kind of progress is he looking for?
“One day, you can make up your own game, and everyone else will have to follow your rules.”
Brother encounters the spirit of Claudia. Or, so we think. She drops the dime on Mother, tells Brother that he came from across the sea, where there are many things, and that she is in fact his real mother.
His people live in mud-walled thatch huts similar in style to Nordic peoples.
When Brother rouses Jacob and tries to get him to go to join the other people's village, Jacob can't handle the truths he's hearing and he lashes out at Brother. In an instant, Mother is there to separate them.
These seem to me to be a pattern of behavior: Ghostly apparition of dead mother, telling the son he doesn't belong... That happened to Ben Linus, too. Mother suddenly appearing out of nowhere. Did she really hear them from the caves and speed out into the darkened jungle to their exact spot?
Or, is Mother the original Smoke Monster? I think she might be. How else would a slight female take out an entire village of viking types, much less haul dead weight up out of that well then fill it all in and burn everything to the ground, all before Brother wakes up?
She is engineering her own demise here. She is setting her own death into motion, by sending Brother to those other people. She raised him up, showed him just enough to make him obsessively curious, then turned him loose.
Another instance of Smokeyness on the part of Mother: She appears in the well, but does not seem to have descended the ladder.
The chamber below the well seems odd. It appears to be an excavated wall, behind which is the light.
Brother claims that he has devised a system to channel water and light that will be activated by a large wheel that will be installed. We see these plans foiled to a certain degree, but we also see that, at some point, Smokey gets around to finishing them.
Jacob is given the power of the protector via a ritualized consumption of the contents of a cup. Mother utters an incantation over the cup and ultimately talks Jacob into drinking it.
Mother says that entering the light would result in something worse than death. Much worse. And how, pray tell, would she know this? I think it's because she went in there long ago. She knows first-hand how bad it is to be Smokey, and she's been scheming all this while for a way out.
Notice, por favor, the way she dies. Brother stabs her in the back [before she ever says a word to him]. And, she thanks him as she fades.
The only quirks in this theory are: The way the light seemed to dim when Brother went into it, or rather, as Smokey came out of it. And, the fact that Brother's corpse was later found, and in fact ended up with the corpse of Mother. How, if Mother were smokey, would she end up with another corpse? Obviously, if she'd gone into the chamber, her original body would have ended up somewhere, and when she “died” she'd probably just disintegrate.
The difference could simply be dark versus light. The effect may be different depending upon the way your scale is balanced.
Another possibility: Perhaps Smokey isn't a singularity. Smokey is instead a mass of disembodied souls – all those who have ever foolishly entered the light.
In any case: Not likely to have that question answered any time soon. But I assert as primary evidence the above.
To close, Jacob finds Brother's empty vessel lying on the rocks of a stream, and carries him back and lays him to rest alongside Mother, clasping their hands together, placing among them a small bag containing one white and one black game piece from their favorite shared activity. It's terrible, sad. I feel so much for Brother, who's been robbed and robbed again. Even though he was more or less up to no good, in terms of the rules of the island, it's hard to fault him for being heartbroken, angry, vengeful. It's hard to side with Jacob, or to wish for Smokey's defeat, even considering all the wicked deeds he's done.
Jacob has taken over where Mother left off. Mother destroyed his many labors and killed all the people he'd known for 30 years. Jacob robbed him of his very humanity. Really, what's the guy supposed to do other than raise hell and destroy?
---
“What They Died For”
2204 Jack's eye. What is up with the cuts on his neck? I still think it's a sign he's gonna die.
Delicious SUPER BRAN.
The aftermath of the sub disaster: Jack stitches Kate's gunshot wound with thread from an unraveled garment. Kate mourns through the process. She declares that they have to kill Locke. We know at least that he's capable of pulling the trigger on Locke, but will that end up being possible? I think not.
Dr. Linus catches Desmond at the school once again, and attempts to intervene, thinking that he's going to try to kill Locke once again. Desmond puts a smackdown on him, and in the process, Ben has flashes of his alternate life.
Great line:
Ben: “It's C4, Richard. I put some thought into hiding it.”
Miles: “Let me guess: Cookie jar.”
Ben: “Don't be ridiculous. It's in my secret room behind the bookcase.”
Miles picks up on Alex's body, buried nearby the barracks. Richard claims to have buried Alex. Ben's clearly impacted by this memory.
Another good one from Miles, as he looks at the chamber where Ben summoned Smokey. “What's that? A *secreter* room?” Ben claims that he was told he could summon the monster there, before he realized it was summoning him. Who told Ben he could summon the monster. He doesn't give any sort of sardonic glance over toward Richard, so it likely isn't him to blame.
Widmore probably isn't to blame. He seems to be legitimately in the good graces of Jacob. He claims that he was personally invited to return to the island by Jacob himself. This doesn't sit well with Ben, either. So now he's got the renewed memory of Alex's death, and the tweaked wound of his constant denial of Jacob's attention, combined with the person he blames for Alex's death standing there telling him that he, too, has met Jacob. If by now a viewer doesn't see Widmore's death coming a mile away, that viewer must have just accidentally tuned in to LOST from... whatever else is on in the same time slot.
Jacob visited Widmore right after the freighter detonated, which would have been late December 2004, or January 2005, but more importantly, after Locke moved the island. Have we paused at any point to ponder how Jacob has been getting on and off the island all these years?
New game. New rules. Maybe it was Jacob who finished the wheel chamber? Also: If the wheel chamber was finished, why'd Smokey never use it? Hmm. Hmmmmm.
Widmore claims that Jacob “convinced him of the error of his ways”. What ways were these? Widmore claims he has everything he needs to know for 'this exact purpose' but he dies before we ever find out what his purpose is.
2004 Ben is stunned by his revelation. He seems rather less enchanted with his alternate self than have been Charlie, Desmond, et al.
Desmond turns himself in for hit and run and assault and gets himself thrown in jail... along with Sayid and Kate. Desmond 2004 is even more awesome than regular Desmond.
Sawyer has a moment of introspection. He feels responsible for the deaths of Jin, Sun, Sayid and Lapidus. And of course the random redshirts crewing the sub. But Jack takes the blame off his shoulders.
Hurley sees jungleboy Jacob. The kid wants his ashes back, and he snatches them. He finds the grown version of Jacob sitting by a fire. The ashes are in the fire, and when it burns out, he'll be gone, says Jacob. “We're very close to the end.” The end? It only ends once, Jacob said before. So, will this be the Once?
Smokey's on his way into the barracks. Widmore and Zoe hide in the secret room. Miles flees. Richard plans to talk. He gets smacked into next week. Then, Ben has a chat with him. Smokey wants him to kill some folks. He begins by ratting out Widmore.
We see 2004 Danielle Rousseau. She reveals to Dr. Linus that Alex thinks of him like a father. He's moved to tears.
I don't think Locke had permission to kill Widmore. But I still don't have any idea how Ben could do it, given the previous assertion that he was not allowed.
“Soon this will all be over. I'll get what I want and I'll finally leave this island.” Locke threatens Widmore with the death of Penny. Widmore seems to think that Smokey will go on a killing rampage when he's off the island, but Locke says he won't. Not sure why Smokey would get off the island and start killing folks.
Sawyer, Kate, Hurley and Jack talk to Jacob. Amusingly, Kate doesn't mention Lapidus (or any of the long list of other folks who've died) when she's demanding to know why people died.
Locke agrees to let Jack perform the experimental surgery.
Jack refrains “Don't mistake coincidence for fate” - a great Eko line.
Kate is told that her name was crossed off the list because she became a mother. Much discussion has arisen from this. They ask first of all, why Sun wasn't crossed out. Easy: Because Sun wasn't on the list in the first place. Kwon was on the list. Sun's name is only Kwon by marriage, it seems to me. But Jin was still a father, and so was Sawyer. There's a difference between fathering a child and becoming a parent. Kate was invested in Aaron. Her life was no longer pointless, without meaning. She was no longer looking for something she couldn't find. She'd given that up for Aaron's sake.
Jacob doesn't really give much of an answer to the Why. Surely millions of people around the world have lives like our heroes, yet only a few were chosen. He never says anything about what made him choose them over all others.
It's also funny that he suggests that he wants them to all have a choice... but if that's what he wanted for them, why would he have yanked them to the island against their will? Obviously, people can be brought to the island voluntarily, so why didn't he just recruit a successor?
Jack chooses to become the protector, and they go through the ritual. He tells Jack the location of the heart of the island, which happens to be near the spot where we first met Jack's eyeball in episode 1.1.
2004: Hume, Jarrah and Austen are shipped off to L.A. County Jail, but en route they are freed by Ana Lucia Cortez, corrupt cop. Hurley pays her 125K to let them loose. Hurley recognizes Ana Lucia from his alternate reality memories, but of course, Ana Lucia has no idea who he is.
Hurley: Is Ana Lucia not coming with us? (Where they goin?)
Desmond: She's not ready yet. (Ready for what?)
Hurley takes off with Sayid in the Hummer. Desmond takes Kate in the Camaro to a “concert”. We assume it's the Daniel (Faraday) Widmore with Drive Shaft event.
Locke brings Ben to the well, but Desmond's not in it. Desmond is a failsafe, apparently. By some means, Desmond can destroy the island. Locke, for some reason, tells this to Ben, to whom he just promised full control of the island once he was gone.
My guess is that Desmond might be able to enter the light chamber without negative consequences.
But, I don't think ol Ben's gonna sit there and take this lie.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)