Like last year, I had to get these down somewhere -
NFC
1. Packers 12-4
2. Saints 11-5
3. 49ers 11-5
4. Redskins 10-6
5. Cowboys 10-6
6. Vikings 9-7
Just missed: Falcons (9-7), Panthers (8-8), Eagles (8-8).
I know, the Packers are a trendy pick, but that's for good reason. That offense is going to be insane. They're just going to score and score and score. It's also their second year in the 3-4, and that extra year of familiarity with the system should be enough to prevent any more 50-point performances like last season in the playoffs. The Saints will take a small step back but will still win enough to get that first round bye. Brees is good enough to get them to that level regardless of any Super Bowl hangover stuff. The Niners will play great D and acceptable O in a stinky division to get themselves to 11-5. McNabb and Shanahan's (and Grossman's!) arrivals in DC should be enough to take that team to another level. But the Cowboys should be right there with them. And the Vikings have good enough line play on both sides of the ball to take them to the playoffs no matter how banged up Favre and crew are. The East will be the deepest division, but the Giants will stink. No more than 6 wins for that group. I think they're just tired of Coughlin.
AFC
1. Colts 13-3
2. Ravens 12-4
3. Patriots 10-5
4. Chargers 9-7
5. Steelers 11-5
6. Titans 10-6
Just missed: Texans (9-7), Dolphins (9-7)
No huge regular season surprises in the AFC. I think the good teams are really good and will take care of business during the regular season. Manning's still a machine, Brady's still Brady, and the Ravens will play good defense with Harbaugh at the helm despite a questionable secondary. I would have picked the Steelers to win that division, but missing Roethlisberger for 4 games will cost them at least one win, but the 2008 champs - with full seasons from critical defensive players like Polamalu and Aaron Smith - will make their way into the playoffs anyway. And I'm officially jumping on the Jellicoe-Klosterman Titan's bandwagon. They've got playmakers on offense with Young and Johnson and a tough defense. They'll edge out Gary Kubiak's perpetual losers in Houston for that last playoff spot. Sure, the Texans have a ton of talent, but they always find a way to lose the close ones. And I hate to break it to them, but it wasn't all Kris Brown's fault. As for the West, somebody has to win it, and the Chargers stink the least.
NFC Championship: Packers over Saints 38-27
AFC Championship: Steelers over Patriots 24-21
Super Bowl: Steelers over Packers 27-24
I don't know if people remember how good that Steeler defense was just two years ago. They have almost all those guys back. Their running game is better. They still have great coaching. And Roethlisberger can make plays outside the pocket as well as anyone. Great defense and enough offense should be good enough for them to earn their third Super Bowl in the past six years.
But judging by my predictions last year, they probably won't even make the playoffs. I don't know why I even bother.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Episode Cup, Elite Eight
I was eight for eight with my picks last round, and so far I'm two for two with my final four picks, putting my in 32nd place in the entire DarkUFO Cup pool. If "The End" wins it all, I'm going to go out in the same blaze of glory that Lost itself did.
Pilot vs. Live Together, Die Alone
Picked: Pilot Voted: Pilot
I don't know if I was just in a nostalgic mood that day, but I surprised myself and voted for the Pilot. Part of it is, the more TV I watch, the more I appreciate just how hard it is to make a pilot that kicks your ass and sucks you into the world of the show like Lost's did. The perfect amount of action, drama and weirdness sets the stage perfectly for what's to come. And unlike a lot of shows of this ilk, it doesn't try to hard to blow your mind and set up the big mysteries by throwing too much stuff at you. It's really a remarkable piece of television. Add in some nostalgia and yeah, it got my vote. "Live Together, Die Alone" is great (or else it wouldn't have made it this far), but the Elite Eight is the end of the line.
Through the Looking Glass vs. The Constant
Picked: Through the Looking Glass Voted: Through the Looking Glass
It's a shame that both of these two couldn't be in the Final Four, but I guess that's just the luck of the draw. This is like the Illinois-Arizona of Episode Cup regional championships. I've expressed my thoughts on both of these episodes plenty of times before, so it's no surprise that the vote and the pick were fairly easy for me. But the results of this one - a fairly easy win for "Through the Looking Glass" - tell me that the post-Season 4 Episode Cup was a bit of a fluke. By that I mean "The Constant's" victory was mostly the result of the recent-season effect. In a perfect world, I think "The Constant" would finish fourth behind only "Through the Looking Glass", "The Incident" and "The End", making it the strongest non-finale in the field, but it can't compete with the biggest of the juggernauts. If it could have won this year, and as the only other winner in the four-year cup history, it might have a case for best episode of the series. With its victory here, though, "Through the Looking Glass" plants it's flag as the greatest Episode Cup contestant ever.
Pilot vs. Live Together, Die Alone
Picked: Pilot Voted: Pilot
I don't know if I was just in a nostalgic mood that day, but I surprised myself and voted for the Pilot. Part of it is, the more TV I watch, the more I appreciate just how hard it is to make a pilot that kicks your ass and sucks you into the world of the show like Lost's did. The perfect amount of action, drama and weirdness sets the stage perfectly for what's to come. And unlike a lot of shows of this ilk, it doesn't try to hard to blow your mind and set up the big mysteries by throwing too much stuff at you. It's really a remarkable piece of television. Add in some nostalgia and yeah, it got my vote. "Live Together, Die Alone" is great (or else it wouldn't have made it this far), but the Elite Eight is the end of the line.
Through the Looking Glass vs. The Constant
Picked: Through the Looking Glass Voted: Through the Looking Glass
It's a shame that both of these two couldn't be in the Final Four, but I guess that's just the luck of the draw. This is like the Illinois-Arizona of Episode Cup regional championships. I've expressed my thoughts on both of these episodes plenty of times before, so it's no surprise that the vote and the pick were fairly easy for me. But the results of this one - a fairly easy win for "Through the Looking Glass" - tell me that the post-Season 4 Episode Cup was a bit of a fluke. By that I mean "The Constant's" victory was mostly the result of the recent-season effect. In a perfect world, I think "The Constant" would finish fourth behind only "Through the Looking Glass", "The Incident" and "The End", making it the strongest non-finale in the field, but it can't compete with the biggest of the juggernauts. If it could have won this year, and as the only other winner in the four-year cup history, it might have a case for best episode of the series. With its victory here, though, "Through the Looking Glass" plants it's flag as the greatest Episode Cup contestant ever.
Episode Cup, Round 3, Part 2
It's been a while since I've wrote an Episode Cup update. We're actually two match ups into the Elite Eight at this point. Let's get to it.
The Incident vs. Ab Aeterno
Picked: The Incident Voted: The Incident
Maybe the toughest pick of the round and an equally tough vote, this match up pitted the highest rated episode of Season 6 (and the second-highest rated episode ever) against a finale that went to the last year's Cup finals. It's a tough vote because my opinion on either episode has hardly solidified. "Ab Aeterno" was excellent, and I think I'll like it even more after a second viewing. But I haven't watched it a second time yet. There's no way I would have voted for "The Incident" after one viewing, but after three run-throughs and Jacob's rise up my favorite character rankings, it gets the nod. As for the pick, when in doubt, pick the finale. That proved correct.
The Man From Tallahassee vs. Exodus
Picked: Exodus Voted: Exodus
"The Man For Tallahassee" isn't strong enough to knock off a finale, so the pick was easy. The vote was a little tougher. I love "The Man From Tallahassee". It's loaded with great Ben and Locke ("I hope that box is big enough to imagine yourself up a new submarine"), has strong flashbacks that solved a mystery we'd been waiting to have answered for the entire run of the show (Locke's paralysis), and had a cliffhanger I didn't see coming (even if everyone else seemingly did). But it's not easy to take down a finale, and "Exodus" has some awesome stuff. The whole "All roads lead here" conversation between Jack and Locke is one of the best and resonates even more today than it did then. Tormented Sawyer and the courage he shows on the raft is great, especially the line "I ain't no hero, Mike". And there's a ton more great stuff. "Exodus" puts up a strong showing every year and this year is obviously no different. But it never has quite enough to get past the Elite Eight. Looking at what's ahead, this year will probably be no different.
Man of Science, Man of Faith vs. The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham
Picked: Man of Science, Man of Faith Voted: Man of Science, Man of Faith
If this was a battle between opening cliffhangers, these two might be in the top five (The rest of the contestants: "The Incident", "Because You Left", "The Constant", "316", "Follow the Leader", and "LA X"). I still listen to "Make Your Own Kind of Music" sometimes when I get ready in the morning. And John Locke alive?!?! What?! But both episodes are much more than just their opening. "Man of Science, Man of Faith" dives into Jack's backstory as a fixer and somebody who gets to close to his work better than maybe any other episode. It shows how Jack deals with being confronted with a miracle and how he has the need to rationalize it all. It sets up the showdown between him and Locke in "Orientation" brilliantly. "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" was terribly emotional, especially watching John standing on that table preparing to kill himself. Really, that whole scene with him and Ben is just epically awesome. And it's not easy to watch John get shut down over and over as he tries to recruit his "friends" to come back to the Island. I don't hate Kate like lots of fans do, but the way she rips Locke apart from the inside out, cutting to his very core makes me upset every time. There's also some good Widmore, Abaddon, and, of course, Waaaaaaalt! Tough call, but I voted for "Man of Science, Man of Faith". The pick was easier. "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" never gets the respect it deserves, starting with its rating the episode poll, while "Man of Science, Man of Faith" usually has a pretty strong showing. I knew "The Incident" would beat either one, so it wasn't a very stressful pick.
The End vs. The Man Behind the Curtain
Picked: The End Voted: The End
I picked "The End" to win it all this year so it was going to take some pretty heavy artillery to take it down. "The Man Behind the Curtain" is a nice episode. A really nice episode. But I can't compete with the smorgasbord of greatness of the series finale. Since I'll have a few other chances to talk about "The End", I'd like to say a few words about Ben's first flashback. Like a lot of the other episodes that make it this far, it has a ton of great stuff. Along with a great backstory for Ben, we got our first glimpse into life in the Dharma Initiative, our first look (since debunked (or has it?)) at Jacob, and a excellent cliffhanger. I remember after watching this episode in my apartment sophomore year, I dropped Stefan and Al back off at the Six Pack, then spent the next fifteen minutes with Adam, Paul, Ceddy and Berger rewinding that cabin scene for the slightest hint about what Jacob looked like. Our best guess at that point was a pirate. Isn't that stuff what Lost is all about? Just looking for those little hints, even when they may or may not even mean anything? For that, "The Man Behind the Curtain" will always hold a special place in my heart.
The Incident vs. Ab Aeterno
Picked: The Incident Voted: The Incident
Maybe the toughest pick of the round and an equally tough vote, this match up pitted the highest rated episode of Season 6 (and the second-highest rated episode ever) against a finale that went to the last year's Cup finals. It's a tough vote because my opinion on either episode has hardly solidified. "Ab Aeterno" was excellent, and I think I'll like it even more after a second viewing. But I haven't watched it a second time yet. There's no way I would have voted for "The Incident" after one viewing, but after three run-throughs and Jacob's rise up my favorite character rankings, it gets the nod. As for the pick, when in doubt, pick the finale. That proved correct.
The Man From Tallahassee vs. Exodus
Picked: Exodus Voted: Exodus
"The Man For Tallahassee" isn't strong enough to knock off a finale, so the pick was easy. The vote was a little tougher. I love "The Man From Tallahassee". It's loaded with great Ben and Locke ("I hope that box is big enough to imagine yourself up a new submarine"), has strong flashbacks that solved a mystery we'd been waiting to have answered for the entire run of the show (Locke's paralysis), and had a cliffhanger I didn't see coming (even if everyone else seemingly did). But it's not easy to take down a finale, and "Exodus" has some awesome stuff. The whole "All roads lead here" conversation between Jack and Locke is one of the best and resonates even more today than it did then. Tormented Sawyer and the courage he shows on the raft is great, especially the line "I ain't no hero, Mike". And there's a ton more great stuff. "Exodus" puts up a strong showing every year and this year is obviously no different. But it never has quite enough to get past the Elite Eight. Looking at what's ahead, this year will probably be no different.
Man of Science, Man of Faith vs. The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham
Picked: Man of Science, Man of Faith Voted: Man of Science, Man of Faith
If this was a battle between opening cliffhangers, these two might be in the top five (The rest of the contestants: "The Incident", "Because You Left", "The Constant", "316", "Follow the Leader", and "LA X"). I still listen to "Make Your Own Kind of Music" sometimes when I get ready in the morning. And John Locke alive?!?! What?! But both episodes are much more than just their opening. "Man of Science, Man of Faith" dives into Jack's backstory as a fixer and somebody who gets to close to his work better than maybe any other episode. It shows how Jack deals with being confronted with a miracle and how he has the need to rationalize it all. It sets up the showdown between him and Locke in "Orientation" brilliantly. "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" was terribly emotional, especially watching John standing on that table preparing to kill himself. Really, that whole scene with him and Ben is just epically awesome. And it's not easy to watch John get shut down over and over as he tries to recruit his "friends" to come back to the Island. I don't hate Kate like lots of fans do, but the way she rips Locke apart from the inside out, cutting to his very core makes me upset every time. There's also some good Widmore, Abaddon, and, of course, Waaaaaaalt! Tough call, but I voted for "Man of Science, Man of Faith". The pick was easier. "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" never gets the respect it deserves, starting with its rating the episode poll, while "Man of Science, Man of Faith" usually has a pretty strong showing. I knew "The Incident" would beat either one, so it wasn't a very stressful pick.
The End vs. The Man Behind the Curtain
Picked: The End Voted: The End
I picked "The End" to win it all this year so it was going to take some pretty heavy artillery to take it down. "The Man Behind the Curtain" is a nice episode. A really nice episode. But I can't compete with the smorgasbord of greatness of the series finale. Since I'll have a few other chances to talk about "The End", I'd like to say a few words about Ben's first flashback. Like a lot of the other episodes that make it this far, it has a ton of great stuff. Along with a great backstory for Ben, we got our first glimpse into life in the Dharma Initiative, our first look (since debunked (or has it?)) at Jacob, and a excellent cliffhanger. I remember after watching this episode in my apartment sophomore year, I dropped Stefan and Al back off at the Six Pack, then spent the next fifteen minutes with Adam, Paul, Ceddy and Berger rewinding that cabin scene for the slightest hint about what Jacob looked like. Our best guess at that point was a pirate. Isn't that stuff what Lost is all about? Just looking for those little hints, even when they may or may not even mean anything? For that, "The Man Behind the Curtain" will always hold a special place in my heart.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Episode Cup, Round 3
Now that I've finished my final recap, I'm free to move on to other Lost-related business. First on my list is the DarkUFO Episode Cup. Every day (it'll probably end up being every few days but whatever), I'll break down the day's match up, explain what I picked in the bracket, why I voted the way I did and comment on the general Lost public's attitudes toward the two episodes in question. I'm running a few days behind where the Cup currently is right now, so I'll have a few notes on past match ups. Here we go.
Pilot vs. There's No Place Like Home
Picked: Pilot Voted: There's No Place Like Home
Easy pick, tough vote. The Pilot always does well in these cups, part out of nostalgia for where it all started, part because it really is a kick-ass episode. For a number of reasons, it's the best pilot I've ever seen, not least of which is the chaotic, heart-pumping opening scene. It deserves every bit of the praise it gets. On the other hand, "There's No Place Like Home" doesn't get the praise it deserves. Discounting "The End" (which I don't feel comfortable ranking just yet), it's the second best finale, which means it's definitely a top 10 episode. Probably a top 5 one. It loaded with great moments - the Sayid/Keamy fight, Sawyer jumping from the helicopter, Ben stabbing Keamy, the freighter explosion, Ben turning the wheel, the reveal of Locke in the coffin. I could go on and on about this one. I remember I actually needed to take a break after the freighter exploded. I was that emotionally drained. I can see why the majority picked the Pilot, but there aren't many episodes that top "There's No Place Like Home" and the Pilot just isn't one of them. I'll be sad to see it go.
Live Together, Die Alone vs. Greatest Hits
Picked: Live Together, Die Alone Voted: Live Together, Die Alone
Another easy match up to pick, but this one was even tougher to vote on than the last. Finales generally whomp anything in their path unless they come up against something like the Pilot or "The Constant", or maybe "Ab Aeterno" this year and knowing from past years experience that "Greatest Hits" didn't quite fall into that category, the pick was easy. The voting was harder for many of the same reasons that make finales so tough to topple in general. A two-hour episode has more time to pack awesome stuff in it. In "Live Together, Die Alone", we got a huge chunk of Desmond's backstory, Jack's trek into with Michael, Sawyer, Kate and Hurley, the coming-out party for the four-toed statue, and the long-awaited answer to the question, "What happens when the button isn't pushed?" That pushed it over the top for me. Even though "Greatest Hits" had some good heartstring-pulling moments (Nadia calling Charlie a hero, Charlie and Claire meeting for the first time, Charlie's speech to Desmond as he hands over his list), it wasn't quite enough to pass up the overall awesomeness that comes with a Lost finale like "Live Together, Die Alone".
Through the Looking Glass vs. The Candidate
Picked: Through the Looking Glass Voted: Through the Looking Glass
The Season 3 finale, "Through the Looking Glass" was the favorite coming into the Cup, and for good reason. Not only has it won this cup twice (the other winner being "The Constant"), but it really is the best episode of the series. It has everything you'd look for in a Lost episode: action, tragedy, an awesome twist, Taller Ghost Walt, and Ben getting the crap kicked out of him. Perfect. So it really says something that I thought for more than a split second about voting for "The Candidate". I loved that episode. Between the great Jack and Locke-centric Sideways story and the deaths of Sayid, Jin and Sun that had me as close to bawling as I've ever been watching TV, I'd put it near the top of Season 6. I think it could have knocked off some of the less popular finales like "There's No Place Like Home" or "Exodus", but unfortunately it went up against the biggest juggernaut of them all here in round three. I guess the Sweet Sixteen will be as far as it goes, but I'm sad to see it exit so early.
The Constant vs. The Substitute
Picked: The Constant Voted: The Constant
I'm not one of those Lost fans that puts "The Constant" on some untouchable pedestal. Don't get me wrong. It's great. Really, really great. The perfect blend of sci-fi craziness and what-the-eff moments all surrounding a touching, emotional core. But it's probably not in my top 5 and it might not even be my favorite Des episode (Flashes Before Your Eyes would be the competitor). Having said that, "The Substitute" isn't even close to knocking it off. Sure, it had some cool stuff, like all the Smokey and Sawyer stuff and the revelation of the Numbers, but that's not enough to take down "The Constant".
Tomorrow's match up should be very interesting and has the potential to make or break some brackets, since I'm guessing the winner will earn a spot in the Final Four. Maybe even the Final.
Until next time...
Pilot vs. There's No Place Like Home
Picked: Pilot Voted: There's No Place Like Home
Easy pick, tough vote. The Pilot always does well in these cups, part out of nostalgia for where it all started, part because it really is a kick-ass episode. For a number of reasons, it's the best pilot I've ever seen, not least of which is the chaotic, heart-pumping opening scene. It deserves every bit of the praise it gets. On the other hand, "There's No Place Like Home" doesn't get the praise it deserves. Discounting "The End" (which I don't feel comfortable ranking just yet), it's the second best finale, which means it's definitely a top 10 episode. Probably a top 5 one. It loaded with great moments - the Sayid/Keamy fight, Sawyer jumping from the helicopter, Ben stabbing Keamy, the freighter explosion, Ben turning the wheel, the reveal of Locke in the coffin. I could go on and on about this one. I remember I actually needed to take a break after the freighter exploded. I was that emotionally drained. I can see why the majority picked the Pilot, but there aren't many episodes that top "There's No Place Like Home" and the Pilot just isn't one of them. I'll be sad to see it go.
Live Together, Die Alone vs. Greatest Hits
Picked: Live Together, Die Alone Voted: Live Together, Die Alone
Another easy match up to pick, but this one was even tougher to vote on than the last. Finales generally whomp anything in their path unless they come up against something like the Pilot or "The Constant", or maybe "Ab Aeterno" this year and knowing from past years experience that "Greatest Hits" didn't quite fall into that category, the pick was easy. The voting was harder for many of the same reasons that make finales so tough to topple in general. A two-hour episode has more time to pack awesome stuff in it. In "Live Together, Die Alone", we got a huge chunk of Desmond's backstory, Jack's trek into with Michael, Sawyer, Kate and Hurley, the coming-out party for the four-toed statue, and the long-awaited answer to the question, "What happens when the button isn't pushed?" That pushed it over the top for me. Even though "Greatest Hits" had some good heartstring-pulling moments (Nadia calling Charlie a hero, Charlie and Claire meeting for the first time, Charlie's speech to Desmond as he hands over his list), it wasn't quite enough to pass up the overall awesomeness that comes with a Lost finale like "Live Together, Die Alone".
Through the Looking Glass vs. The Candidate
Picked: Through the Looking Glass Voted: Through the Looking Glass
The Season 3 finale, "Through the Looking Glass" was the favorite coming into the Cup, and for good reason. Not only has it won this cup twice (the other winner being "The Constant"), but it really is the best episode of the series. It has everything you'd look for in a Lost episode: action, tragedy, an awesome twist, Taller Ghost Walt, and Ben getting the crap kicked out of him. Perfect. So it really says something that I thought for more than a split second about voting for "The Candidate". I loved that episode. Between the great Jack and Locke-centric Sideways story and the deaths of Sayid, Jin and Sun that had me as close to bawling as I've ever been watching TV, I'd put it near the top of Season 6. I think it could have knocked off some of the less popular finales like "There's No Place Like Home" or "Exodus", but unfortunately it went up against the biggest juggernaut of them all here in round three. I guess the Sweet Sixteen will be as far as it goes, but I'm sad to see it exit so early.
The Constant vs. The Substitute
Picked: The Constant Voted: The Constant
I'm not one of those Lost fans that puts "The Constant" on some untouchable pedestal. Don't get me wrong. It's great. Really, really great. The perfect blend of sci-fi craziness and what-the-eff moments all surrounding a touching, emotional core. But it's probably not in my top 5 and it might not even be my favorite Des episode (Flashes Before Your Eyes would be the competitor). Having said that, "The Substitute" isn't even close to knocking it off. Sure, it had some cool stuff, like all the Smokey and Sawyer stuff and the revelation of the Numbers, but that's not enough to take down "The Constant".
Tomorrow's match up should be very interesting and has the potential to make or break some brackets, since I'm guessing the winner will earn a spot in the Final Four. Maybe even the Final.
Until next time...
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
The End
There’s a reason I’ve waited three weeks to start writing about “The End”, the action-packed, emotionally uplifting, spiritually fulfilling, finale to the greatest show ever to grace my television. The short answer? I loved it too much. I didn’t want diminish my enjoyment of it in any way at all. In fact, after Jack’s eye closed and the reality set in that Lost was over for good, I holed up in my room for the next hour and a half just thinking about what I just experienced. I wanted to figure out what the hell that scene in the church meant. I wanted to mourn the death of Jack, a character I’ve devoted an almost-embarrassing amount of time and effort analyzing, worrying about and sympathizing with and admire his sacrifice. I wanted to put the entirety of the series in perspective, from the crash of 815 to the final takeoff of 316, from the Dharma Initiative to the Others, from the Smoke Monster and Jacob to Hurley and Ben, from the meaning of John Locke’s life to Jack’s final triumph. I wanted to own it all and to put it in a place that I could keep it forever. That might sound a little sappy, but I haven’t shied away from getting overly emotional here before, so why start now?
I haven’t rewatched “The End”, and honestly, I haven’t had the urge. Aside from a couple short stretches of maybe an hour or two, I haven’t had the desire to watch Lost at all. In fact, I’ve probably never wanted to watch it less. That’s how perfect the ending was. That’s how satisfied I feel about the place where that epic journey concluded. It was a truly happy ending for a group of people who struggled for years to earn it. All is right in the world of Lost. There’s no need to mess with it. Not yet, at least.
But my sprawling Season 6 journal wouldn’t be complete without a recap of the two-and-a-half hour bonanza that was “The End”. It took us to places we’d never seen before (the light cave), and places we haven’t been since season 1, literally (the bamboo forest) and figuratively (purgatory). We saw some old faces, long gone (Boone and Shannon, Charlie, Christian Shephard) and a few that just left us (Jin, Sun, Sayid, Juliet). Happiness, sadness, triumph, defeat, peace and hope, it really ran the full gambit of emotions. And I expected nothing different. Let’s get to it.
We join up with our group – Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley – the morning after Jacob christened Jack to take his place. It turns out the Magnificent Man didn’t tell Jack much more than we saw in “What They Died For”; all Jack knows is that he has to make his way toward the bamboo forest and protect the light from the Monster’s attempts to put it out. So that’s where he’s headed. Sawyer’s going to swing by Desmond’s well first, then meet up with the group later.
Sawyer head out toward the well but the MIB has beaten him to the spot. Before he can make a move though, Ben and his rifle apprehend him. The MIB asks him what he’s doing there. Sawyer responds that he came to get Desmond out of the well, then adds, “Looks like somebody beat us both to the punch. Oh well.” The perfect amount of cheese there from our original con artist, showing that he doesn’t even respect the Monster enough to think of a real joke. Nice. He asks if he’s going to use Desmond to destroy the Island. The answer, of course, is yes. That Island is going to sink to the bottom of the ocean with all of Jacob’s little candidates while he cruises “home” in the Ajira plane. (Quick side note: I’ve gotta say, I’m glad for many reasons that the MIB didn’t accomplish his goal, not least of which is the goofy thought of the Smoke Monster flying a plane.) Oh, but they’re not candidates anymore, Sawyer says. Then, with a quick elbow to Ben’s face and a swift disarming move, he leaves the MIB to explain to his bug-eyed follower how he’s probably not going to have the Island all to himself like he’d been promised.
If Desmond’s not in the well, where is he? My hypothesis was that he’d been rescued by Miles, but that proved incorrect. Instead, it was nobody’s favorite couple, Rose and Bernard, who’d lifted Des out of that well. They’d broken their golden rule, “don’t get involved”, by helping him, and were determined not to let him ruin their lovely little jungle paradise. But before Desmond can leave their camp, in walks Locke, knife in hand, ready to cut some throats if Desmond doesn’t do as he asks. Desmond agrees, so long as Locke gives his word never to lay a finger on his rescuers. Done.
Now we have Ben, Desmond and the Monster on a collision course with Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley. That leaves Miles and Richard on their own in the jungle. Yes, Richard’s still alive. It’s not easy to kill an immortal man, even if he is slammed into a tree by a large pillar of smoke. He’s rattled and groggy but still remember his mission, the purpose that’s driven him for the last 150 years: he needs to stop the Monster. Blowing up the Ajira plane remains Plan A, so he and Miles resume their trek toward Hydra Island.
The pair makes their way to the beach and prepare for yet another outrigger journey, this time complete with pounding rain. The intrigue surrounding the outriggers this season has come from the potential to tie up the hanging thread from last year where the time-travelling Losties found themselves in a shootout with another outrigger, which ends with Juliet landing a shot and the castaways jumping in time again. There was a rainstorm involved in those scenes in some capacity. When I was watching the finale, I thought the present-day rainstorm was the same one showering Sawyer, Juliet and crew during the shootout and I was convinced that we were finally going to see the final destination of Juliet’s bullet. But alas, upon further review, it turns out Sawyer and the gang time-jumped into a rainstorm after the shootout. So I got all worked up for nothing. And I just wasted about 150 words on said nothing.
Moving on. Instead of firing shots at their time-traveling buddies, Richard and Miles find the presumed-dead Frank Lapidus. How he survived that explosion we will never know, but his piloting skills change the objective of the mission. They’re not going to blow up the plane. They’re going to fly it off.
In an episode that showed many characters breaking free, once and for all, of the metaphorical chains tying them to the people they used to be pre-815, the first was occurred in the simplest way. It happened when the already (and oddly) grey Miles welcomes Richard to the club. His first grey hair. Unlike the Monster, the Island wasn’t the biggest burden in Richard’s life. It was the years and years of loneliness. Well, with Jacob gone, so goes his gift-turned-curse. We never do see Richard in the afterlife, so maybe that implies he was fated for eternal damnation, but I get the feeling that fat old priest was wrong. You’ve done good, Richard. Time to prepare for your reunion with Isabella.
As delightfully sarcastic as Miles and Frank are, the real action is happening on the other side of the Island. It’s showdown time, round one. In (I think) the same field as shepherding Jack met, and subsequently beat into a bloody pulp, his main rival Ben Linus in “Through the Looking Glass”, he comes face to face with the enemy once again: the Monster. Kate opens fire but obviously that’s of no use. “You might want to save your bullets”, he coolly responds. He approaches Jack. “So it’s you,” he says. “Yeah, it’s me,” Jack replies. The MIB is surprised by the lack of surprise to Jacob’s choice. But Jacob didn’t make the choice. “I volunteered,” Jack says. The real surprise, Jack says, is that he’s going not going to sink the Island. He, Jack, is going to kill him instead. And unlike with the Jughead plan, I completely believed Jack when he said this.
The group makes it to the light cave. Kate, Sawyer, Hurley and Ben stay behind as Jack, Desmond and Locke enter the cave. This brilliance of this scene lies in the complete confidence both Locke and Jack have in the idea that Desmond can be used to serve their purpose. Locke thinks Desmond can be used to dislodge the big stone plug at the bottom of the electro-charged pool of water, and he’s right. Jack doesn’t know exactly how Desmond will help him accomplish his goal – to save the Island and kill the MIB, but he has faith in Jacob and the Island that this is what needs to happen. And he’s right too. The scene where Jack and Locke are lowering Desmond down the tunnel was meant to remind us of Season 1 and the hatch, but that should also take us back to how certain and stubborn Jack and (real) Locke were about their respective beliefs about the Island. When Jack tells the MIB “Turns out he was right about most everything”, it’s just one more signal indicating how far Jack has come since those days when finding water and a place to live were the 815ers biggest concerns.
Once Jack and Locke lower Desmond to the bottom of the tunnel, he trudges past skeletons and through electro-charged water into a pool with a big stone cork. He’s miraculously special, after all, so he bears the tremendous power of the Island (the only person in the world who could do that), pulls the plug with one mighty heave and drains the pool. The Island begins to sink. Locke claims victory and walks away, but Jack doesn’t give up that easily. He chases down the Monster, takes him down with a perfect form tackle, and punches him in the mouth. Blood. Looks like the man of faith was right again.
With the Island starting to collapse around them, the remaining survivors switch into panic mode. Chaos everywhere, ground shaking, trees falling. Sawyer, still a bit too limited to see, yells out, “Locke was right! This Island’s going down!” Jack knows that’s not entirely true. He takes off after the Monster. Kate gets a hold of Ben’s walkie as Miles explains that they’re over on Hydra Island, ready to fly the Ajira plane off the Island within an hour. There’s still hope! But they’re going to need the boat to get to Hydra Island, and coincidentally, that’s exactly where the Monster’s headed. And Jack too. Looks like Sawyer and the gang are going to have a front row seat to the fight of the century.
Cliffside, rain pouring down, Locke’s about to climb down Jacob’s ladder to the Elizabeth floating just off shore. He’s going to leave the Island. Locke grabs the ladder, but before he can make a move, he’s stopped in his tracks by a shout from the rocks above. It’s Jack. “Locke!” he yells out. The two stare down – Jack with a look of unbreakable determination, Locke with an expression of pure hate. They charge toward each other. Jack lands a flying kick to the chest, and the two tumble toward the edge of the cliff. They get to their feet and charge again and exchange blows until they spot the knife resting at the precipice of the cliff. They both give chase. Jack tackles Locke again, sending them both dangerously close to the edge. He gets on top of the Monster, pins him down, wraps his hands around his neck and starts choking the life out of him with every ounce of his strength, face twisted with a mix of pain and exhaustion and anger. The Island shakes and the cliff begins crumbling around them. Mere inches separate them from plummeting into the rocky ocean below. Locke sees the knife lying just out of reach. With Jack about to finish him off for good, the Island shakes one last time, sliding the knife just into reach. Locke grabs the knife and plunges it into Jack’s abdomen.
Jack cries out in pain. He loses his grip. Locke kicks him off of him and pushes the knife down toward Jack’s neck. But Jack stops him, holding his arm and the knife just inches away from his throat. His strength won’t hold much longer. And just when the Locke’s about finish him off, when the Monster’s about to win, he looks Jack in the eye and says, “I want to you know Jack, you died for nothing. “ But he doesn’t die, not yet, because Kate shows up just in time. A gunshot rings out, and the Monster collapses next to Jack, fatally wounded. Jack staggers to his feet, and with a swift kick, he sends the Monster over the edge of the cliff, falling to his death onto the rocks below.
The Island might be rid of the Monster, but with the Island still sinking into the ocean, there’s still work to be done. Jack knows exactly what that is. While Sawyer rallies the troops to get to the boat and Ben coordinates departure times with Miles, Jack has his sights on the heart of the Island. Kate urges him to come with them, that he can just let the Island sink and live out his days with her, happily ever after. But Jack can’t do that. He won’t. He’s been entrusted with the responsibility to protect that Island at all costs, whether or not his insides are about to come spilling out of his gut. He shakes Sawyers hand. Sawyer thanks him for everything he’s done. His goodbye with Kate won’t be as quick. She won’t be coming back for him this time. She tells Jack that she loves him. He does the same. They kiss. And then they separate. Hurley and Ben leave with Jack, the first out of loyalty to the man, the second out of devotion to his home. Kate stands there crying. They will eventually see each other again. Maybe not in this life, but the next best thing to it.
The new A-Team makes it to the light cave, and it quickly dawns on Hurley what he’s just gotten himself into and what’s to become of his friend, Jack. All this heroic business never really sat right with Hurley. He just wants his friends to be safe. But that’s what will make him such a great Island protector. Jack knows it. “Hurley…I believe in you,” he says to his friend. He also knows he doesn’t have much time left. Ben hands Jack an old Oceanic water bottle. He fills it with water from the creek. Hurley drinks it. The torch has been passed. If you didn’t tear up watching this scene, I don’t know what to say to you.
Hurley and Ben lower Jack down into the cave. He finds Desmond lying there unconscious. He wakes him up. Discovering that he’s not off living happily ever after with Penny, Desmond starts to lose control of his emotions. “You were right, Jack,” he says, and insists on setting everything right. But Jack lets him off the hook, like others have tried to do with him so many times. He ties the rope around Desmond’s hips and Hurley and Ben lift him to safety.
He’s all alone now. That’s how the Hero’s Journey always ends. The hero needs his friends more than anything to get through all the hardships along the way, but when it comes down to the end – whether it’s Luke Skywalker defeating the Emperor, Harry Potter killing Voldemort or Jack Shephard saving the Island – that final act of greatness is a solitary venture. Jack now has with him everything he needs – faith in the Island given to him by John Locke, the support and purpose that comes from loving friends like Kate and Hurley, and confidence in himself after three long years of looking into the mirror and accepting what he sees. He wasn’t ready for this three years ago. He is now.
Bleeding and weakened, Jack struggles to his feet. He picks up the stone cork, pain shooting through his entire body, and drags it to the hole in the center of the pool, sets it down and collapses, exhausted. Then, a bright, golden light begins to glow from beneath the cork. Water rushes back into the pool. It worked. Jack lies there laughing as he’s showered in the water. It’s a moment of pure joy for our hero, maybe the first of his entire life. No burdens, no doubts, just happiness.
Jack wakes up outside the cave. Covered in blood and clutching his wound, he staggers away from the creek. He stumbles through the jungle, making his way to the bamboo forest where he first woke up on this Island three years earlier. He collapses in the clearing, lying flat on his back gazing up at the sky. He sees Ajira 316, knowing that onboard Kate, Sawyer, and the others are headed home. He has saved the Island. He has saved his friends. It was what he was put on this earth to do. It was his destiny. As Vincent lies down next to him, Jack’s eye closes for one final time and he dies.
~~~
“Hey, kiddo.”
Jack turns around to find his father, seemingly alive and well. Jack, standing in a small backroom of a church, had just opened what he though was his father’s coffin only to find it empty. After all, his father died in Sydney. How could he be standing right in front of him? “I don’t understand…you died.” “Yeah, yes I did,” he replies. “Then how are you here?” Jack answers. Christian repeats the same question back to him. And then Jack gets it. He remembers everything. He died too. They all did. The sideways world was a place Jack and his friends created together so they could be together and move on together. Their lives might have taken them all in separate directions, but they wanted a place where they could find each other again.
Just like each of his friends from the Island, Jack’s memories from “the most important part of his life” come flooding back to him. He’s not sad or happy, just overwhelmed. He hugs his father. It’s time for him to remember and to let go. He joins the rest of his friends – Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Charlie, Claire, Aaron, Libby, Boone, Shannon, Sayid, Sun, Jin, Desmond, Penny, and Locke – in the church. Christian throws open the doors, swallowing the church and everyone in it in white light. It’s time for them to move on. Together.
If there’s one thing I know about Lost, I know that the Island was always a place where our characters could confront, challenge, and overcome their pasts. Each of them would have been incapable of conquering their respective histories without it. Like Jacob said, they needed the Island as much as the Island needed them. Jack couldn’t have overcome his pathological need to fix things as a spinal surgeon in his father’s hospital. He needed guidance from Locke and the challenges of being a leader that he found on the Island. Kate’s life on the run wouldn’t have allowed her to overcome her impulsiveness or selfishness. She needed to Jack and her commitment to Aaron for that. Sawyer would never have given up life as a conman. He needed the sense of community and love he felt on the Island.
Along the same vein, Lost was also a story about breaking cycles. Sometimes it came in the form of the characters repeating the same mistakes over and over, like Locke wanting so desperately to be loved that he’d open himself up to manipulation time and again. Other times characters would fill the roles of others, like Claire turning into Rousseau 2.0 or how every new group of visitors to the Island (Dharma, 815ers, etc.) would end up exterminated. And still other times, we saw cycles on a more meta level, best shown by the “flashback” format of most of the episodes in the series and all the time travel stuff. Did Daniel Faraday know Desmond because he went back in time, or did Desmond have to go back in time because he needed to know Daniel Faraday? Where the hell did that compass that passed back and forth between Richard and Locke originate? Or try to follow this loop: Flight 815 crashed because Desmond didn’t push the button that was created because of events set in motion by the survivors of the crash of Flight 815. So the question became, could our characters break these cycles? Could they be redeemed?
But what does it mean to be redeemed? Is it only a matter of tipping the scales balancing good and evil back in favor of good? Can you just pile up enough good things on one side so they outweigh the bad, making your metaphorical light rock heavier than the dark? I don’t think it’s that simple. If Ben were to save the lives of a village one person larger than the Dharma Initiative, that good deed doesn’t cancel out the evilness of the purge. There’s more to it than that. It’s about jumping out of a helicopter so the rest of your friends can make it home. It’s about giving up your own happiness so your son can be with his real family. It’s about sacrificing your life even though you know you’ve killed and tortured too many people to count. It’s about embracing the inherent “goodness” that’s inside each of us. The message of Lost was that, no matter what happened in the past, we are all capable of changing what we do in the future. We don’t have to be slaves to the demons of our past. We can choose not to do heroin, choose not to run away, choose to be brave and choose to let go.
It’s an empowering message, really, for a show that often took you to dark and depressing places. It wasn’t easy sitting there as Sawyer strangled Anthony Cooper as tears streamed down his face or Sayid accepted his own damnation by shooting a child in the chest. It was downright painful watching Locke pound on the hatch door or Jack stumble around wracked with guilt, stoned off his pills, and ready to take his own life. But out of all that came a happy ending. They were all saved. All that suffering and tragedy made the ultimate redemption for Jack, Locke, and everyone else even sweeter. They’re together. Forever. And I know I won’t be forgetting their story anytime soon.
I haven’t rewatched “The End”, and honestly, I haven’t had the urge. Aside from a couple short stretches of maybe an hour or two, I haven’t had the desire to watch Lost at all. In fact, I’ve probably never wanted to watch it less. That’s how perfect the ending was. That’s how satisfied I feel about the place where that epic journey concluded. It was a truly happy ending for a group of people who struggled for years to earn it. All is right in the world of Lost. There’s no need to mess with it. Not yet, at least.
But my sprawling Season 6 journal wouldn’t be complete without a recap of the two-and-a-half hour bonanza that was “The End”. It took us to places we’d never seen before (the light cave), and places we haven’t been since season 1, literally (the bamboo forest) and figuratively (purgatory). We saw some old faces, long gone (Boone and Shannon, Charlie, Christian Shephard) and a few that just left us (Jin, Sun, Sayid, Juliet). Happiness, sadness, triumph, defeat, peace and hope, it really ran the full gambit of emotions. And I expected nothing different. Let’s get to it.
We join up with our group – Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley – the morning after Jacob christened Jack to take his place. It turns out the Magnificent Man didn’t tell Jack much more than we saw in “What They Died For”; all Jack knows is that he has to make his way toward the bamboo forest and protect the light from the Monster’s attempts to put it out. So that’s where he’s headed. Sawyer’s going to swing by Desmond’s well first, then meet up with the group later.
Sawyer head out toward the well but the MIB has beaten him to the spot. Before he can make a move though, Ben and his rifle apprehend him. The MIB asks him what he’s doing there. Sawyer responds that he came to get Desmond out of the well, then adds, “Looks like somebody beat us both to the punch. Oh well.” The perfect amount of cheese there from our original con artist, showing that he doesn’t even respect the Monster enough to think of a real joke. Nice. He asks if he’s going to use Desmond to destroy the Island. The answer, of course, is yes. That Island is going to sink to the bottom of the ocean with all of Jacob’s little candidates while he cruises “home” in the Ajira plane. (Quick side note: I’ve gotta say, I’m glad for many reasons that the MIB didn’t accomplish his goal, not least of which is the goofy thought of the Smoke Monster flying a plane.) Oh, but they’re not candidates anymore, Sawyer says. Then, with a quick elbow to Ben’s face and a swift disarming move, he leaves the MIB to explain to his bug-eyed follower how he’s probably not going to have the Island all to himself like he’d been promised.
If Desmond’s not in the well, where is he? My hypothesis was that he’d been rescued by Miles, but that proved incorrect. Instead, it was nobody’s favorite couple, Rose and Bernard, who’d lifted Des out of that well. They’d broken their golden rule, “don’t get involved”, by helping him, and were determined not to let him ruin their lovely little jungle paradise. But before Desmond can leave their camp, in walks Locke, knife in hand, ready to cut some throats if Desmond doesn’t do as he asks. Desmond agrees, so long as Locke gives his word never to lay a finger on his rescuers. Done.
Now we have Ben, Desmond and the Monster on a collision course with Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley. That leaves Miles and Richard on their own in the jungle. Yes, Richard’s still alive. It’s not easy to kill an immortal man, even if he is slammed into a tree by a large pillar of smoke. He’s rattled and groggy but still remember his mission, the purpose that’s driven him for the last 150 years: he needs to stop the Monster. Blowing up the Ajira plane remains Plan A, so he and Miles resume their trek toward Hydra Island.
The pair makes their way to the beach and prepare for yet another outrigger journey, this time complete with pounding rain. The intrigue surrounding the outriggers this season has come from the potential to tie up the hanging thread from last year where the time-travelling Losties found themselves in a shootout with another outrigger, which ends with Juliet landing a shot and the castaways jumping in time again. There was a rainstorm involved in those scenes in some capacity. When I was watching the finale, I thought the present-day rainstorm was the same one showering Sawyer, Juliet and crew during the shootout and I was convinced that we were finally going to see the final destination of Juliet’s bullet. But alas, upon further review, it turns out Sawyer and the gang time-jumped into a rainstorm after the shootout. So I got all worked up for nothing. And I just wasted about 150 words on said nothing.
Moving on. Instead of firing shots at their time-traveling buddies, Richard and Miles find the presumed-dead Frank Lapidus. How he survived that explosion we will never know, but his piloting skills change the objective of the mission. They’re not going to blow up the plane. They’re going to fly it off.
In an episode that showed many characters breaking free, once and for all, of the metaphorical chains tying them to the people they used to be pre-815, the first was occurred in the simplest way. It happened when the already (and oddly) grey Miles welcomes Richard to the club. His first grey hair. Unlike the Monster, the Island wasn’t the biggest burden in Richard’s life. It was the years and years of loneliness. Well, with Jacob gone, so goes his gift-turned-curse. We never do see Richard in the afterlife, so maybe that implies he was fated for eternal damnation, but I get the feeling that fat old priest was wrong. You’ve done good, Richard. Time to prepare for your reunion with Isabella.
As delightfully sarcastic as Miles and Frank are, the real action is happening on the other side of the Island. It’s showdown time, round one. In (I think) the same field as shepherding Jack met, and subsequently beat into a bloody pulp, his main rival Ben Linus in “Through the Looking Glass”, he comes face to face with the enemy once again: the Monster. Kate opens fire but obviously that’s of no use. “You might want to save your bullets”, he coolly responds. He approaches Jack. “So it’s you,” he says. “Yeah, it’s me,” Jack replies. The MIB is surprised by the lack of surprise to Jacob’s choice. But Jacob didn’t make the choice. “I volunteered,” Jack says. The real surprise, Jack says, is that he’s going not going to sink the Island. He, Jack, is going to kill him instead. And unlike with the Jughead plan, I completely believed Jack when he said this.
The group makes it to the light cave. Kate, Sawyer, Hurley and Ben stay behind as Jack, Desmond and Locke enter the cave. This brilliance of this scene lies in the complete confidence both Locke and Jack have in the idea that Desmond can be used to serve their purpose. Locke thinks Desmond can be used to dislodge the big stone plug at the bottom of the electro-charged pool of water, and he’s right. Jack doesn’t know exactly how Desmond will help him accomplish his goal – to save the Island and kill the MIB, but he has faith in Jacob and the Island that this is what needs to happen. And he’s right too. The scene where Jack and Locke are lowering Desmond down the tunnel was meant to remind us of Season 1 and the hatch, but that should also take us back to how certain and stubborn Jack and (real) Locke were about their respective beliefs about the Island. When Jack tells the MIB “Turns out he was right about most everything”, it’s just one more signal indicating how far Jack has come since those days when finding water and a place to live were the 815ers biggest concerns.
Once Jack and Locke lower Desmond to the bottom of the tunnel, he trudges past skeletons and through electro-charged water into a pool with a big stone cork. He’s miraculously special, after all, so he bears the tremendous power of the Island (the only person in the world who could do that), pulls the plug with one mighty heave and drains the pool. The Island begins to sink. Locke claims victory and walks away, but Jack doesn’t give up that easily. He chases down the Monster, takes him down with a perfect form tackle, and punches him in the mouth. Blood. Looks like the man of faith was right again.
With the Island starting to collapse around them, the remaining survivors switch into panic mode. Chaos everywhere, ground shaking, trees falling. Sawyer, still a bit too limited to see, yells out, “Locke was right! This Island’s going down!” Jack knows that’s not entirely true. He takes off after the Monster. Kate gets a hold of Ben’s walkie as Miles explains that they’re over on Hydra Island, ready to fly the Ajira plane off the Island within an hour. There’s still hope! But they’re going to need the boat to get to Hydra Island, and coincidentally, that’s exactly where the Monster’s headed. And Jack too. Looks like Sawyer and the gang are going to have a front row seat to the fight of the century.
Cliffside, rain pouring down, Locke’s about to climb down Jacob’s ladder to the Elizabeth floating just off shore. He’s going to leave the Island. Locke grabs the ladder, but before he can make a move, he’s stopped in his tracks by a shout from the rocks above. It’s Jack. “Locke!” he yells out. The two stare down – Jack with a look of unbreakable determination, Locke with an expression of pure hate. They charge toward each other. Jack lands a flying kick to the chest, and the two tumble toward the edge of the cliff. They get to their feet and charge again and exchange blows until they spot the knife resting at the precipice of the cliff. They both give chase. Jack tackles Locke again, sending them both dangerously close to the edge. He gets on top of the Monster, pins him down, wraps his hands around his neck and starts choking the life out of him with every ounce of his strength, face twisted with a mix of pain and exhaustion and anger. The Island shakes and the cliff begins crumbling around them. Mere inches separate them from plummeting into the rocky ocean below. Locke sees the knife lying just out of reach. With Jack about to finish him off for good, the Island shakes one last time, sliding the knife just into reach. Locke grabs the knife and plunges it into Jack’s abdomen.
Jack cries out in pain. He loses his grip. Locke kicks him off of him and pushes the knife down toward Jack’s neck. But Jack stops him, holding his arm and the knife just inches away from his throat. His strength won’t hold much longer. And just when the Locke’s about finish him off, when the Monster’s about to win, he looks Jack in the eye and says, “I want to you know Jack, you died for nothing. “ But he doesn’t die, not yet, because Kate shows up just in time. A gunshot rings out, and the Monster collapses next to Jack, fatally wounded. Jack staggers to his feet, and with a swift kick, he sends the Monster over the edge of the cliff, falling to his death onto the rocks below.
The Island might be rid of the Monster, but with the Island still sinking into the ocean, there’s still work to be done. Jack knows exactly what that is. While Sawyer rallies the troops to get to the boat and Ben coordinates departure times with Miles, Jack has his sights on the heart of the Island. Kate urges him to come with them, that he can just let the Island sink and live out his days with her, happily ever after. But Jack can’t do that. He won’t. He’s been entrusted with the responsibility to protect that Island at all costs, whether or not his insides are about to come spilling out of his gut. He shakes Sawyers hand. Sawyer thanks him for everything he’s done. His goodbye with Kate won’t be as quick. She won’t be coming back for him this time. She tells Jack that she loves him. He does the same. They kiss. And then they separate. Hurley and Ben leave with Jack, the first out of loyalty to the man, the second out of devotion to his home. Kate stands there crying. They will eventually see each other again. Maybe not in this life, but the next best thing to it.
The new A-Team makes it to the light cave, and it quickly dawns on Hurley what he’s just gotten himself into and what’s to become of his friend, Jack. All this heroic business never really sat right with Hurley. He just wants his friends to be safe. But that’s what will make him such a great Island protector. Jack knows it. “Hurley…I believe in you,” he says to his friend. He also knows he doesn’t have much time left. Ben hands Jack an old Oceanic water bottle. He fills it with water from the creek. Hurley drinks it. The torch has been passed. If you didn’t tear up watching this scene, I don’t know what to say to you.
Hurley and Ben lower Jack down into the cave. He finds Desmond lying there unconscious. He wakes him up. Discovering that he’s not off living happily ever after with Penny, Desmond starts to lose control of his emotions. “You were right, Jack,” he says, and insists on setting everything right. But Jack lets him off the hook, like others have tried to do with him so many times. He ties the rope around Desmond’s hips and Hurley and Ben lift him to safety.
He’s all alone now. That’s how the Hero’s Journey always ends. The hero needs his friends more than anything to get through all the hardships along the way, but when it comes down to the end – whether it’s Luke Skywalker defeating the Emperor, Harry Potter killing Voldemort or Jack Shephard saving the Island – that final act of greatness is a solitary venture. Jack now has with him everything he needs – faith in the Island given to him by John Locke, the support and purpose that comes from loving friends like Kate and Hurley, and confidence in himself after three long years of looking into the mirror and accepting what he sees. He wasn’t ready for this three years ago. He is now.
Bleeding and weakened, Jack struggles to his feet. He picks up the stone cork, pain shooting through his entire body, and drags it to the hole in the center of the pool, sets it down and collapses, exhausted. Then, a bright, golden light begins to glow from beneath the cork. Water rushes back into the pool. It worked. Jack lies there laughing as he’s showered in the water. It’s a moment of pure joy for our hero, maybe the first of his entire life. No burdens, no doubts, just happiness.
Jack wakes up outside the cave. Covered in blood and clutching his wound, he staggers away from the creek. He stumbles through the jungle, making his way to the bamboo forest where he first woke up on this Island three years earlier. He collapses in the clearing, lying flat on his back gazing up at the sky. He sees Ajira 316, knowing that onboard Kate, Sawyer, and the others are headed home. He has saved the Island. He has saved his friends. It was what he was put on this earth to do. It was his destiny. As Vincent lies down next to him, Jack’s eye closes for one final time and he dies.
~~~
“Hey, kiddo.”
Jack turns around to find his father, seemingly alive and well. Jack, standing in a small backroom of a church, had just opened what he though was his father’s coffin only to find it empty. After all, his father died in Sydney. How could he be standing right in front of him? “I don’t understand…you died.” “Yeah, yes I did,” he replies. “Then how are you here?” Jack answers. Christian repeats the same question back to him. And then Jack gets it. He remembers everything. He died too. They all did. The sideways world was a place Jack and his friends created together so they could be together and move on together. Their lives might have taken them all in separate directions, but they wanted a place where they could find each other again.
Just like each of his friends from the Island, Jack’s memories from “the most important part of his life” come flooding back to him. He’s not sad or happy, just overwhelmed. He hugs his father. It’s time for him to remember and to let go. He joins the rest of his friends – Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Charlie, Claire, Aaron, Libby, Boone, Shannon, Sayid, Sun, Jin, Desmond, Penny, and Locke – in the church. Christian throws open the doors, swallowing the church and everyone in it in white light. It’s time for them to move on. Together.
If there’s one thing I know about Lost, I know that the Island was always a place where our characters could confront, challenge, and overcome their pasts. Each of them would have been incapable of conquering their respective histories without it. Like Jacob said, they needed the Island as much as the Island needed them. Jack couldn’t have overcome his pathological need to fix things as a spinal surgeon in his father’s hospital. He needed guidance from Locke and the challenges of being a leader that he found on the Island. Kate’s life on the run wouldn’t have allowed her to overcome her impulsiveness or selfishness. She needed to Jack and her commitment to Aaron for that. Sawyer would never have given up life as a conman. He needed the sense of community and love he felt on the Island.
Along the same vein, Lost was also a story about breaking cycles. Sometimes it came in the form of the characters repeating the same mistakes over and over, like Locke wanting so desperately to be loved that he’d open himself up to manipulation time and again. Other times characters would fill the roles of others, like Claire turning into Rousseau 2.0 or how every new group of visitors to the Island (Dharma, 815ers, etc.) would end up exterminated. And still other times, we saw cycles on a more meta level, best shown by the “flashback” format of most of the episodes in the series and all the time travel stuff. Did Daniel Faraday know Desmond because he went back in time, or did Desmond have to go back in time because he needed to know Daniel Faraday? Where the hell did that compass that passed back and forth between Richard and Locke originate? Or try to follow this loop: Flight 815 crashed because Desmond didn’t push the button that was created because of events set in motion by the survivors of the crash of Flight 815. So the question became, could our characters break these cycles? Could they be redeemed?
But what does it mean to be redeemed? Is it only a matter of tipping the scales balancing good and evil back in favor of good? Can you just pile up enough good things on one side so they outweigh the bad, making your metaphorical light rock heavier than the dark? I don’t think it’s that simple. If Ben were to save the lives of a village one person larger than the Dharma Initiative, that good deed doesn’t cancel out the evilness of the purge. There’s more to it than that. It’s about jumping out of a helicopter so the rest of your friends can make it home. It’s about giving up your own happiness so your son can be with his real family. It’s about sacrificing your life even though you know you’ve killed and tortured too many people to count. It’s about embracing the inherent “goodness” that’s inside each of us. The message of Lost was that, no matter what happened in the past, we are all capable of changing what we do in the future. We don’t have to be slaves to the demons of our past. We can choose not to do heroin, choose not to run away, choose to be brave and choose to let go.
It’s an empowering message, really, for a show that often took you to dark and depressing places. It wasn’t easy sitting there as Sawyer strangled Anthony Cooper as tears streamed down his face or Sayid accepted his own damnation by shooting a child in the chest. It was downright painful watching Locke pound on the hatch door or Jack stumble around wracked with guilt, stoned off his pills, and ready to take his own life. But out of all that came a happy ending. They were all saved. All that suffering and tragedy made the ultimate redemption for Jack, Locke, and everyone else even sweeter. They’re together. Forever. And I know I won’t be forgetting their story anytime soon.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
An Hour Afterward
What a wonderful way to end the series. Beautiful, heartwarming, and just confusing enough for it to be Lost. I feel full. And I want to feel like this for as long as possible.
What They Died For
Locke: Do you really think all this is an accident -- that we, a group of strangers survived, many of us with just superficial injuries? Do you think we crashed on this place by coincidence -- especially, this place? We were brought here for a purpose, for a reason, all of us. Each one of us was brought here for a reason.
Jack: Brought here? And who brought us here, John?
Locke: The Island. The Island brought us here. This is no ordinary place, you've seen that, I know you have. But the Island chose you, too, Jack. It's destiny.
-Exodus, Part 2
For six years we’ve tried to figure out what that purpose was that Locke was talking about. Now we know. They are there to protect the Island. Our four remaining 815ers – led by a man with a savior complex who just happens to be a real-life savior himself, Jack Shephard – are on the precipice of realizing their destinies. With the power of the Island at hand, a clear head on his shoulders and a point in the right direction from Jacob, Jack has everything he needs to protect the place that’s called to him like a Siren’s song for three long years. He, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley now face a smokey, diabolical menace that would drag you into a hole or slit your throat as soon as look at you. All roads lead here. They’re ready.
So what happened on this last little stretch of road before “The End”? A whole lot. “What They Died For” was so jam-packed with both Sideways and Island goodness, the only thing keeping this recap under 5000 words is the fact that I have only 4 days(!) to write it. It’s crunch-time. “The Desmond’s out of the well”, as they say. So let’s get to it.
The Island events of “What They Died For” pick up right where “The Candidate” left off: Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley on the beach (on the main Island as we come to find out), shaken and shattered. But not defeated! As Jack stitches up Kate’s bullet wound (finally returning the favor three years later) tears of pain and tears of sadness and tears of anger trickling down her face, she recalls little Kwon, Ji Yeon, and how the Monster made it so that Jin would never meet her. She wants to kill him. And with literally no persuasion required, Jack agrees. They set off to find Desmond in the well.
Across the Island, we finally get to catch up with Ben, Richard and Miles, whom we last saw in “Everybody Loves Hugo” setting off for the Barracks to find some explosives to blow up the Ajira plane. Kind of seems like old news now, right? They’ve finally made it to Ben’s old stomping grounds, and Miles’ dead-person radar starts going off like mad. It’s Alex, Ben’s daughter. Richard buried her after Keamy shot her in the head. (Man, that was a great scene. FYI, there might be a lot of nostalgic reminiscing from here on out. I’m sure my recap for “The End” will be even worse. Sue me.) “Thank you, Richard”, Ben responds. It’s a nice little reminder of that event and Ben’s undying vengeance against Widmore for taking his daughter from him.
And guess who shows up not a minute later but Charles Widmore himself, giving orders and strutting around like he owns the place. Ben asks him how he got back to the Island. After all, he’d been looking for it for 30 years and never could find a way to get back before. He tells Ben that Jacob invited him. Perhaps out of jealousy that Jacob never came to see him, Ben fires back “That’s a lie”. But Charles presses on, telling the group that Jacob paid him a visit not long after his freighter was destroyed, convinced him of the error of his ways, and told him everything he needed to know to take down the MIB.
Now, there are a few ways to look at this scene. First, it’s confirmation that, at least at one time, Charles was in the wrong. So we’re not going to have some sort of moment were it’s explained how Widmore was a good guy all along. I’m glad about that. I just can’t see how that could have possibly made sense. Second, are we to trust Widmore that Jacob actually came to see him? I’m really not sure. With Ben’s gun to my head, I’d have to say that he’s telling the truth, that Jacob did pay him a visit and that he told him to bring Desmond to the Island as a “failsafe” to take down the Monster. And thirdly, what was the “error in his ways” that Jacob had to convince Widmore to give up? We know that one of the main pillars of Jacob’s philosophy is the idea of free will, that everyone should have a choice. But I’ve long theorized that Widmore, with the help of Eloise Hawking (and Brother Campbell) had been pushing Desmond to the Island for a long time. They manipulated many of the major decisions in his life, from his banishment from the monastery to his desire to marry Penny to his goal of winning a race around the world, all with the purpose of guiding Desmond to the Island. But then again, telling him to kidnap Des onto a submarine doesn’t seem very Jacob-like at all. So maybe Widmore is just a big fat liar. Now that he has a bullet in his head, I’m not counting on learning the truth to this one.
But all that didn’t matter right then because the MIB just pulled up at the Pala Ferry in an outrigger. At this point, it comes down to the three choices Rousseau laid out back in “Exodus Part 1”: run, hide or die. Miles takes off into the jungle. Widmore and his right-hand gal Zoe hide. Ben chooses “die”. “He’s going to find me sooner or later”, he says with a shrug, and walks out of his house with Richard to confront the Monster.
The two exit Ben’s house, and before you know it Richard’s flying 30 feet in the air courtesy of a large column of black smoke. Ben takes a seat on his porch. Out from where the Monster just retreated walks the image of John Locke. Twirling a knife, he sits down next to Ben. Just like he did in “Dr. Linus”, he offers Ben the chance to rule the Island all by himself. He just needs to do one thing. Kill a few people is all. This time Ben agrees.
Earlier in the episode, Ben said something extremely interesting. He said, “I was told I could summon the monster. That’s before I realized that it was the one summoning me.” Ben has come to the conclusion that his whole time as leader of the Others, the choices he made and the orders he followed, the peopled he killed, they weren’t in service of Jacob liked he’d always thought. They were in service of the Monster. He lived his whole life under the mistaken belief that Jacob deemed him special and that he was destined to be the leader of his people, the first people that had ever made him feel as if he belonged. But it was all a sham. The powerful Benjamin Linus, the man always in control, the man pulling all the strings, the man who could read and manipulate people into doing his bidding as easily as reading a book, had been played all along by the exact entity that he was tasked with containing. He was embarrassed. He’d been made into a fool. And it was the Monster that did it to him. Now he wants revenge. Like with Widmore, he has a score to settle. So I don’t think for a second that Ben’s going along with the Monster’s plan to kill all those people and destroy the Island. I think he’s planning on one final trick, one last trap to show that he’s the master con artist of the Island that he always thought he was. And that he’ll prove to Jacob that he really can protect the Island every bit as well as the leader of Jacob’s people is supposed to.
But first, Ben has other vengeful urges he needs satisfied. He escorts his new ally into his house and points the way to Charles and Zoe, who are both hiding in Ben’s old secret room with all the passports and foreign cash. (Aside from a couple hints about Tunisia, we never really figured out what sort of Others business all that stuff was for, did we?) The Monster gets right down to business putting the screws to Widmore about why he’s back on the Island, threatening to kill his daughter if he doesn’t tell. Sounds to me like a pretty hollow threat, considering the MIB can’t leave the Island, but it gets Widmore talking. He tells him that he brought Desmond and his miraculously special resistance to electromagnetism back to the Island as a “measure of last resort”. Before he says anything else, Ben shoots him in the head. “He doesn’t get to save his daughter.” Vengeance #1, check. Vengeance #2 will have to wait.
Let’s head back to our other Island group. They’re still searching for Desmond, and really, how the hell are they supposed to find one random well tucked in the middle of that hugely expansive jungle? But I guess if they’re meant to find it, they will, won’t they? Jack has faith. Sawyer, he doesn’t know what to believe. He’s clearly upset about what he feels was him basically killing Jin, Sun and Sayid. He even asks Jack, “I killed them, didn’t I?” But now Jack’s the one to let someone off the hook. “No. He killed them,” he responds. That a boy, Jack.
As usual, Hurley falls behind the rest of the group. Out pops Teenage Jacob, and immediately I became as angry as Hurley was startled. He demands Hurley hand over the bag of ashes (his ashes) Hurley had grabbed from Ilana’s pack after she exploded. Before he can hand them over, Teenage Jacob snatches them right out of his hands and takes off. Hurley gives chase, only to run straight into Adult Jacob’s campsite. “Hello, Hugo,” he says. “You should get your friends…We’re very close to the end.”
Darkness falls. Hurley, Sawyer, Kate and Jack walk into Jacob’s campsite and sit down. No more secrets. Jacob’s prepared to answer their questions. Kate starts. Is he the one who wrote their names on the wall? Is he the reason Jin, Sun and Sayid are dead? “I’m very sorry,” he says. He tells them that their dead because of a mistake he made a long time ago, a mistake they call “The Monster”. He made that mistake a long time ago, and ever since that monster has been trying to kill him. He knew he’d need to find a replacement to protect the Island for when he eventually succeeded. And it will have to be one of them.
I thought it was interesting the way Jacob framed all this. In the big moment where he finally reveals to his candidates his big plan and their purpose, he doesn’t portray himself as some all-powerful deity, but rather a flawed man. And Sawyer treats him as such. “Tell me something, Jacob. Why do I gotta be punished for your mistake?” he says, “I was doin’ just fine till you dragged my ass to this damn rock.”
“No, you weren’t,” Jacob replies matter-of-factly. “None of you were. I didn’t pluck any of you out of a happy existence. You were all flawed. I chose you because you were like me. You were all alone. You were all looking for something that you couldn’t find out there. I chose you because you needed this place as much as it needed you.” Exactly.
Sawyer seems to have forgotten all the personal growth he’s experienced over the past three years. Before 815 crashed, he was a lowly con man, a despicable scumbag who loved no one and had no one to love him. The rest of them were suffering similarly. Jack’s obsessiveness had driven away everyone he loved. Kate was on the run for murder and had alienated herself from her mother. Hurley was saddled with guilt and fear, unable to find someone to share his life with. Same for the rest of the Losties. Locke, Sun, Jin, Sayid - all pushed loved ones away with anger, resentment or bad habits they just couldn’t break. Like Jacob, they really were alone.
And then they crashed on the Island. They formed a community that allowed them to conquer their demons and realized their true purpose. Their destiny. Hurley overcame his insecurities and developed the self-confidence to trust himself. Sawyer stopped using people and became a dependable and trustworthy person. Kate learned to settle down. And Jack became the leader he always feared he couldn’t be.
But what about those that didn’t make it this far? What about Locke, Jin, Sun and Sayid? What about Boone and Michael and Charlie? Was it their destinies to die just to correct Jacob’s mistake? I don’t think that’s what they died for at all. Each one of them died not in service to Jacob or the Island, but for their friends. Starting with Boone and up through Sayid, each one of them died trying heroically to help the rest of the group. The hatch was important, so Boone climbed up to that beechcraft. Charlie sacrificed himself to secure rescue. Michael did the same. Locke died trying to get everyone back to the Island, where he knew they belonged. Jin died for Sun. Sun died because she came back to save Jin. And Sayid saved Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley from meeting the same fate for which he knew he was destined. They didn’t die for Jacob. They died for each other. This place might be death, but it’s also the place everyone found something life is pointless without: love.
It’s time for those that are left to give back to the Island that gave them so much. One of them needs to take Jacob’s gig. Living in a foot statue, grilling fish on a rock, protecting a light that gives life to the entire world. That’s about it. And because of Mother, he’s not going to pick which one of them gets the job. He’s going to give them the one thing he was never given – a choice. Someone else decided Jacob’s whole life for him; he would never want to do the same to any of them. Without hesitation, Jack steps up and channels his inner John Locke, “I’ll do it. . . This is why I’m here. This is . . . this is what I’m supposed to do.” “Is that a question, Jack?” says Jacob. “No.” “Good…Then it’s time.” While Kate looks on with admiration and concern, Sawyer’s (guiltily) making snarky remarks and Hurley’s relaxing gratefully that it’s not him, Jacob performs the same ritual we saw Mother do with him just last week. He blesses some water and gives it to Jack. “Now you’re like me.”
I don’t have a ton to say about this actually, other than these scenes were beyond cool. It’s an encounter we’ve been waiting for all season. Jacob finally has the ears of his people, the one’s he’s been watching their whole lives. And most of them accept what he has to say. They wouldn’t have been ready for this if Jacob would have popped out of the jungle the day of the crash and just spilled it all out for them. But now they are, and Jack is ready to take his place. It just seems right.
Jack hasn’t won anything yet, though. He still has to take down the Monster, who’s trekked with Ben to the well where he’d been keeping Desmond. I don’t know if he was expecting to find Desmond dead or what, but when the two arrive, there’s nothing waiting for them but an empty well with a rope leading out of it. But the Monster’s undeterred. “Looks like someone helped him out,” Ben says. “No, Ben. Someone helped me out,” he replies. Widmore told him that Jacob wanted Desmond brought to the Island as a failsafe in case he’d succeeded in killing all his candidates. But now, the Monster says, he’s going to used Desmond to, “do the one thing that I could never do myself.” And echoing the end of last year’s penultimate episode “Follow the Leader” where Fake-Locke vowed to kill Jacob, he finishes this episode declaring, “I’m gonna destroy the island.”
Terrifying. So the MIB wants to destroy the Island, which I took to mean sink it like we’ve seen in the Sideways world. But how does sinking the Island lead to the Sideways world? There has to be a connection between these two clues, but I don’t see it. No crazy theories here. I’m going sit back and let this one resolve itself.
Time for the Sideways happenings. Classic shot to kick it off, close up on the opening of Jack’s sleepy eye just like in the pilot, just like several other times. It’s usually symbolic of some sort of enlightenment for that character. For Island Jack this episode, definitely. Not as sure about Sideways Jack. But no matter. He heads down to breakfast with his new happy family. David’s chowing down on some tasty Super Bran. Claire comes down soon after. What a goofy little Shephard family we have here, right? But it’s nice. At least until they’re interrupted by a call from Oceanic informing Jack they’ve found is father’s coffin. Jack takes it surprisingly well. Old Island Jack would have done that little shutter with the look that he’s on the verge of tears. But in the Sideways world. Hopefully all this coffin business doesn’t interfere with David’s piano concert tonight, where it looks like we’re finally going to meet David’s mother. Two-to-one it’s Juliet.
I have a feeling there won’t be a conflict at all, because the man on the phone wasn’t an Oceanic representative. It was Desmond, who we see in the rest of the Sideways story executing a complicated plan involving a paddy wagon, Hurley, Hurley’s Camaro, Ana Lucia, and a little black dress to get Sayid and Kate to that very concert, which Miles and Sawyer also happen to be attending. Either that, or he wants Jack nowhere near that concert hall for some reason. As long as you’re not David, that’s okay. Jack has some important business with John Locke to tend to.
But first, someone has to show Locke the way. And who else to do so but the person he trusted to show him many of the secrets of the Island, Ben? Even Ben needs a little push from Desmond first, though. After wrapping up his crank call on Jack, Des sits idling in his car in the school parking lot as Substitute Teacher Locke wheels himself back to work. Oh god, Des, don’t run him over again! Even if that was his plan, he doesn’t have time to execute it, because Ben jumps in front of his car and starts yelling about calling the police and making a citizen’s arrest. Hardly intimidated, Des gets out of his car and proceeds to beat the living crap out of this squeaky little teacher, just like he did at the marina back in “Dead is Dead”. Which, not coincidently, is exactly the moment that flashes through Sideways Ben’s mind during this beating. Des says he’s not there to hurt Locke; he’s there to help him let go.
As he’s getting stitched up in the school nurse’s office, Ben relays to Locke what Des told him about helping him “let go”. Before Locke can call the police, Ben adds, “and I believe him. Does that mean something to you?” It sure does. It’s the same advice Jack gave him. Couple that with the visions of the Island that I’m pretty sure he’s already had, and Locke’s ready to make a bold move.
But first, we need to see a little more of Dr. Linus. On his way out to his car, he runs into Alex. She’s horrified when she sees Ben all battered and bruised with his arm in a sling. “Why would someone want to hurt you? You’re, like, the--the nicest guy ever,” she says to him. Ha, that makes me chuckle. Then again, Dr. Linus really might be, like, the nicest guy ever. Alex offers him a ride home with her and her mother, and he graciously accepts that and the dinner invitation from Danielle.
Obviously, if this took place on the Island, it would be the most awkward dinner since Ben cooked a ham for Juliet. But in the Sideways world, it’s downright lovely. It’s clear that Alex absolutely adores Ben, and after he helped her with extra studying and her recommendation to Yale, why wouldn’t she. He’s been great to her. Danielle knows this and as Alex puts away the dishes, she says, “All the interest you’ve taken in her. All the help you’ve given . . .you’re the closest thing to a father she’s ever had.” Ben chokes up. It’s a heartwarming moment.
Ben’s Island destiny led him to do some horrible things. Taking Alex from Danielle was certainly one of them. But if he had killed them both like Widmore ordered, it would have been far worse. I’m not going to say Ben did either of them a favor that night in Rousseau’s tent when he held them at gunpoint, but from that moment on he has always acted out of love and protection of Alex. When Keamy shot her in the head as Ben looked on and said things like “She’s just a pawn, nothing more…She means nothing to me,” he did it because, one, he thought The Rules would prevent him from pulling the trigger and, two, to convince himself (and thus Keamy) that having her at gunpoint didn’t give Keamy any leverage. Even if Island Ben is destined to live out his days without Alex, Sideways Ben has a shot to live happily ever after. He’s found someone to love. It’s going to be sad if Sideways Ben loses that happy ending.
If you’re looking for even more of a reason to invest in the Sideways world, look no further than the conversation between Jack and Locke at the hospital. John tells Jack what happened to Ben that day, how the same guy who plowed into him with his car came back and said wanted to help him in the same way Jack wanted to help him. He tells Jack that maybe all that is happening for a reason. “Maybe you’re supposed to fix me.” He’s ready to get out of that chair. And who better to help him than Jack?
After this week, I’ve reached the point where I’m equally as excited about seeing what happens in the Sideways world as the Island. How are Jack and crew going to defeat the Monster? Can they stop him from sinking the Island? Is Jack going to fix Locke? What’s going to happen when everyone converges at that concert? What connection do these two worlds share? And I’m excited about seeing some old favorites, too. Maybe a Charlie appearance? What about Boone, Walt or Juliet? Any chance we get a Christian Shephard sighting? And there’s always the chance they tie up some loose ends like the pallet drop or the cabin or some Dharma stuff in a cool and unexpected way.
I think “unexpected” might be the key to my mindset for this last episode. I have no expectations. I mean, I want it to be great, but I don’t have a checklist of things I need to see. I just want a satisfying conclusion for the characters. Most of the mysteries are solved. It’s time for closure, not just for us, but for Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Ben and everyone else. I’m not even really sad about it anymore. I’m just excited. Tomorrow is the time to greave. Today is about celebrating the conclusion of the best show ever.
Jack: Brought here? And who brought us here, John?
Locke: The Island. The Island brought us here. This is no ordinary place, you've seen that, I know you have. But the Island chose you, too, Jack. It's destiny.
-Exodus, Part 2
For six years we’ve tried to figure out what that purpose was that Locke was talking about. Now we know. They are there to protect the Island. Our four remaining 815ers – led by a man with a savior complex who just happens to be a real-life savior himself, Jack Shephard – are on the precipice of realizing their destinies. With the power of the Island at hand, a clear head on his shoulders and a point in the right direction from Jacob, Jack has everything he needs to protect the place that’s called to him like a Siren’s song for three long years. He, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley now face a smokey, diabolical menace that would drag you into a hole or slit your throat as soon as look at you. All roads lead here. They’re ready.
So what happened on this last little stretch of road before “The End”? A whole lot. “What They Died For” was so jam-packed with both Sideways and Island goodness, the only thing keeping this recap under 5000 words is the fact that I have only 4 days(!) to write it. It’s crunch-time. “The Desmond’s out of the well”, as they say. So let’s get to it.
The Island events of “What They Died For” pick up right where “The Candidate” left off: Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley on the beach (on the main Island as we come to find out), shaken and shattered. But not defeated! As Jack stitches up Kate’s bullet wound (finally returning the favor three years later) tears of pain and tears of sadness and tears of anger trickling down her face, she recalls little Kwon, Ji Yeon, and how the Monster made it so that Jin would never meet her. She wants to kill him. And with literally no persuasion required, Jack agrees. They set off to find Desmond in the well.
Across the Island, we finally get to catch up with Ben, Richard and Miles, whom we last saw in “Everybody Loves Hugo” setting off for the Barracks to find some explosives to blow up the Ajira plane. Kind of seems like old news now, right? They’ve finally made it to Ben’s old stomping grounds, and Miles’ dead-person radar starts going off like mad. It’s Alex, Ben’s daughter. Richard buried her after Keamy shot her in the head. (Man, that was a great scene. FYI, there might be a lot of nostalgic reminiscing from here on out. I’m sure my recap for “The End” will be even worse. Sue me.) “Thank you, Richard”, Ben responds. It’s a nice little reminder of that event and Ben’s undying vengeance against Widmore for taking his daughter from him.
And guess who shows up not a minute later but Charles Widmore himself, giving orders and strutting around like he owns the place. Ben asks him how he got back to the Island. After all, he’d been looking for it for 30 years and never could find a way to get back before. He tells Ben that Jacob invited him. Perhaps out of jealousy that Jacob never came to see him, Ben fires back “That’s a lie”. But Charles presses on, telling the group that Jacob paid him a visit not long after his freighter was destroyed, convinced him of the error of his ways, and told him everything he needed to know to take down the MIB.
Now, there are a few ways to look at this scene. First, it’s confirmation that, at least at one time, Charles was in the wrong. So we’re not going to have some sort of moment were it’s explained how Widmore was a good guy all along. I’m glad about that. I just can’t see how that could have possibly made sense. Second, are we to trust Widmore that Jacob actually came to see him? I’m really not sure. With Ben’s gun to my head, I’d have to say that he’s telling the truth, that Jacob did pay him a visit and that he told him to bring Desmond to the Island as a “failsafe” to take down the Monster. And thirdly, what was the “error in his ways” that Jacob had to convince Widmore to give up? We know that one of the main pillars of Jacob’s philosophy is the idea of free will, that everyone should have a choice. But I’ve long theorized that Widmore, with the help of Eloise Hawking (and Brother Campbell) had been pushing Desmond to the Island for a long time. They manipulated many of the major decisions in his life, from his banishment from the monastery to his desire to marry Penny to his goal of winning a race around the world, all with the purpose of guiding Desmond to the Island. But then again, telling him to kidnap Des onto a submarine doesn’t seem very Jacob-like at all. So maybe Widmore is just a big fat liar. Now that he has a bullet in his head, I’m not counting on learning the truth to this one.
But all that didn’t matter right then because the MIB just pulled up at the Pala Ferry in an outrigger. At this point, it comes down to the three choices Rousseau laid out back in “Exodus Part 1”: run, hide or die. Miles takes off into the jungle. Widmore and his right-hand gal Zoe hide. Ben chooses “die”. “He’s going to find me sooner or later”, he says with a shrug, and walks out of his house with Richard to confront the Monster.
The two exit Ben’s house, and before you know it Richard’s flying 30 feet in the air courtesy of a large column of black smoke. Ben takes a seat on his porch. Out from where the Monster just retreated walks the image of John Locke. Twirling a knife, he sits down next to Ben. Just like he did in “Dr. Linus”, he offers Ben the chance to rule the Island all by himself. He just needs to do one thing. Kill a few people is all. This time Ben agrees.
Earlier in the episode, Ben said something extremely interesting. He said, “I was told I could summon the monster. That’s before I realized that it was the one summoning me.” Ben has come to the conclusion that his whole time as leader of the Others, the choices he made and the orders he followed, the peopled he killed, they weren’t in service of Jacob liked he’d always thought. They were in service of the Monster. He lived his whole life under the mistaken belief that Jacob deemed him special and that he was destined to be the leader of his people, the first people that had ever made him feel as if he belonged. But it was all a sham. The powerful Benjamin Linus, the man always in control, the man pulling all the strings, the man who could read and manipulate people into doing his bidding as easily as reading a book, had been played all along by the exact entity that he was tasked with containing. He was embarrassed. He’d been made into a fool. And it was the Monster that did it to him. Now he wants revenge. Like with Widmore, he has a score to settle. So I don’t think for a second that Ben’s going along with the Monster’s plan to kill all those people and destroy the Island. I think he’s planning on one final trick, one last trap to show that he’s the master con artist of the Island that he always thought he was. And that he’ll prove to Jacob that he really can protect the Island every bit as well as the leader of Jacob’s people is supposed to.
But first, Ben has other vengeful urges he needs satisfied. He escorts his new ally into his house and points the way to Charles and Zoe, who are both hiding in Ben’s old secret room with all the passports and foreign cash. (Aside from a couple hints about Tunisia, we never really figured out what sort of Others business all that stuff was for, did we?) The Monster gets right down to business putting the screws to Widmore about why he’s back on the Island, threatening to kill his daughter if he doesn’t tell. Sounds to me like a pretty hollow threat, considering the MIB can’t leave the Island, but it gets Widmore talking. He tells him that he brought Desmond and his miraculously special resistance to electromagnetism back to the Island as a “measure of last resort”. Before he says anything else, Ben shoots him in the head. “He doesn’t get to save his daughter.” Vengeance #1, check. Vengeance #2 will have to wait.
Let’s head back to our other Island group. They’re still searching for Desmond, and really, how the hell are they supposed to find one random well tucked in the middle of that hugely expansive jungle? But I guess if they’re meant to find it, they will, won’t they? Jack has faith. Sawyer, he doesn’t know what to believe. He’s clearly upset about what he feels was him basically killing Jin, Sun and Sayid. He even asks Jack, “I killed them, didn’t I?” But now Jack’s the one to let someone off the hook. “No. He killed them,” he responds. That a boy, Jack.
As usual, Hurley falls behind the rest of the group. Out pops Teenage Jacob, and immediately I became as angry as Hurley was startled. He demands Hurley hand over the bag of ashes (his ashes) Hurley had grabbed from Ilana’s pack after she exploded. Before he can hand them over, Teenage Jacob snatches them right out of his hands and takes off. Hurley gives chase, only to run straight into Adult Jacob’s campsite. “Hello, Hugo,” he says. “You should get your friends…We’re very close to the end.”
Darkness falls. Hurley, Sawyer, Kate and Jack walk into Jacob’s campsite and sit down. No more secrets. Jacob’s prepared to answer their questions. Kate starts. Is he the one who wrote their names on the wall? Is he the reason Jin, Sun and Sayid are dead? “I’m very sorry,” he says. He tells them that their dead because of a mistake he made a long time ago, a mistake they call “The Monster”. He made that mistake a long time ago, and ever since that monster has been trying to kill him. He knew he’d need to find a replacement to protect the Island for when he eventually succeeded. And it will have to be one of them.
I thought it was interesting the way Jacob framed all this. In the big moment where he finally reveals to his candidates his big plan and their purpose, he doesn’t portray himself as some all-powerful deity, but rather a flawed man. And Sawyer treats him as such. “Tell me something, Jacob. Why do I gotta be punished for your mistake?” he says, “I was doin’ just fine till you dragged my ass to this damn rock.”
“No, you weren’t,” Jacob replies matter-of-factly. “None of you were. I didn’t pluck any of you out of a happy existence. You were all flawed. I chose you because you were like me. You were all alone. You were all looking for something that you couldn’t find out there. I chose you because you needed this place as much as it needed you.” Exactly.
Sawyer seems to have forgotten all the personal growth he’s experienced over the past three years. Before 815 crashed, he was a lowly con man, a despicable scumbag who loved no one and had no one to love him. The rest of them were suffering similarly. Jack’s obsessiveness had driven away everyone he loved. Kate was on the run for murder and had alienated herself from her mother. Hurley was saddled with guilt and fear, unable to find someone to share his life with. Same for the rest of the Losties. Locke, Sun, Jin, Sayid - all pushed loved ones away with anger, resentment or bad habits they just couldn’t break. Like Jacob, they really were alone.
And then they crashed on the Island. They formed a community that allowed them to conquer their demons and realized their true purpose. Their destiny. Hurley overcame his insecurities and developed the self-confidence to trust himself. Sawyer stopped using people and became a dependable and trustworthy person. Kate learned to settle down. And Jack became the leader he always feared he couldn’t be.
But what about those that didn’t make it this far? What about Locke, Jin, Sun and Sayid? What about Boone and Michael and Charlie? Was it their destinies to die just to correct Jacob’s mistake? I don’t think that’s what they died for at all. Each one of them died not in service to Jacob or the Island, but for their friends. Starting with Boone and up through Sayid, each one of them died trying heroically to help the rest of the group. The hatch was important, so Boone climbed up to that beechcraft. Charlie sacrificed himself to secure rescue. Michael did the same. Locke died trying to get everyone back to the Island, where he knew they belonged. Jin died for Sun. Sun died because she came back to save Jin. And Sayid saved Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley from meeting the same fate for which he knew he was destined. They didn’t die for Jacob. They died for each other. This place might be death, but it’s also the place everyone found something life is pointless without: love.
It’s time for those that are left to give back to the Island that gave them so much. One of them needs to take Jacob’s gig. Living in a foot statue, grilling fish on a rock, protecting a light that gives life to the entire world. That’s about it. And because of Mother, he’s not going to pick which one of them gets the job. He’s going to give them the one thing he was never given – a choice. Someone else decided Jacob’s whole life for him; he would never want to do the same to any of them. Without hesitation, Jack steps up and channels his inner John Locke, “I’ll do it. . . This is why I’m here. This is . . . this is what I’m supposed to do.” “Is that a question, Jack?” says Jacob. “No.” “Good…Then it’s time.” While Kate looks on with admiration and concern, Sawyer’s (guiltily) making snarky remarks and Hurley’s relaxing gratefully that it’s not him, Jacob performs the same ritual we saw Mother do with him just last week. He blesses some water and gives it to Jack. “Now you’re like me.”
I don’t have a ton to say about this actually, other than these scenes were beyond cool. It’s an encounter we’ve been waiting for all season. Jacob finally has the ears of his people, the one’s he’s been watching their whole lives. And most of them accept what he has to say. They wouldn’t have been ready for this if Jacob would have popped out of the jungle the day of the crash and just spilled it all out for them. But now they are, and Jack is ready to take his place. It just seems right.
Jack hasn’t won anything yet, though. He still has to take down the Monster, who’s trekked with Ben to the well where he’d been keeping Desmond. I don’t know if he was expecting to find Desmond dead or what, but when the two arrive, there’s nothing waiting for them but an empty well with a rope leading out of it. But the Monster’s undeterred. “Looks like someone helped him out,” Ben says. “No, Ben. Someone helped me out,” he replies. Widmore told him that Jacob wanted Desmond brought to the Island as a failsafe in case he’d succeeded in killing all his candidates. But now, the Monster says, he’s going to used Desmond to, “do the one thing that I could never do myself.” And echoing the end of last year’s penultimate episode “Follow the Leader” where Fake-Locke vowed to kill Jacob, he finishes this episode declaring, “I’m gonna destroy the island.”
Terrifying. So the MIB wants to destroy the Island, which I took to mean sink it like we’ve seen in the Sideways world. But how does sinking the Island lead to the Sideways world? There has to be a connection between these two clues, but I don’t see it. No crazy theories here. I’m going sit back and let this one resolve itself.
Time for the Sideways happenings. Classic shot to kick it off, close up on the opening of Jack’s sleepy eye just like in the pilot, just like several other times. It’s usually symbolic of some sort of enlightenment for that character. For Island Jack this episode, definitely. Not as sure about Sideways Jack. But no matter. He heads down to breakfast with his new happy family. David’s chowing down on some tasty Super Bran. Claire comes down soon after. What a goofy little Shephard family we have here, right? But it’s nice. At least until they’re interrupted by a call from Oceanic informing Jack they’ve found is father’s coffin. Jack takes it surprisingly well. Old Island Jack would have done that little shutter with the look that he’s on the verge of tears. But in the Sideways world. Hopefully all this coffin business doesn’t interfere with David’s piano concert tonight, where it looks like we’re finally going to meet David’s mother. Two-to-one it’s Juliet.
I have a feeling there won’t be a conflict at all, because the man on the phone wasn’t an Oceanic representative. It was Desmond, who we see in the rest of the Sideways story executing a complicated plan involving a paddy wagon, Hurley, Hurley’s Camaro, Ana Lucia, and a little black dress to get Sayid and Kate to that very concert, which Miles and Sawyer also happen to be attending. Either that, or he wants Jack nowhere near that concert hall for some reason. As long as you’re not David, that’s okay. Jack has some important business with John Locke to tend to.
But first, someone has to show Locke the way. And who else to do so but the person he trusted to show him many of the secrets of the Island, Ben? Even Ben needs a little push from Desmond first, though. After wrapping up his crank call on Jack, Des sits idling in his car in the school parking lot as Substitute Teacher Locke wheels himself back to work. Oh god, Des, don’t run him over again! Even if that was his plan, he doesn’t have time to execute it, because Ben jumps in front of his car and starts yelling about calling the police and making a citizen’s arrest. Hardly intimidated, Des gets out of his car and proceeds to beat the living crap out of this squeaky little teacher, just like he did at the marina back in “Dead is Dead”. Which, not coincidently, is exactly the moment that flashes through Sideways Ben’s mind during this beating. Des says he’s not there to hurt Locke; he’s there to help him let go.
As he’s getting stitched up in the school nurse’s office, Ben relays to Locke what Des told him about helping him “let go”. Before Locke can call the police, Ben adds, “and I believe him. Does that mean something to you?” It sure does. It’s the same advice Jack gave him. Couple that with the visions of the Island that I’m pretty sure he’s already had, and Locke’s ready to make a bold move.
But first, we need to see a little more of Dr. Linus. On his way out to his car, he runs into Alex. She’s horrified when she sees Ben all battered and bruised with his arm in a sling. “Why would someone want to hurt you? You’re, like, the--the nicest guy ever,” she says to him. Ha, that makes me chuckle. Then again, Dr. Linus really might be, like, the nicest guy ever. Alex offers him a ride home with her and her mother, and he graciously accepts that and the dinner invitation from Danielle.
Obviously, if this took place on the Island, it would be the most awkward dinner since Ben cooked a ham for Juliet. But in the Sideways world, it’s downright lovely. It’s clear that Alex absolutely adores Ben, and after he helped her with extra studying and her recommendation to Yale, why wouldn’t she. He’s been great to her. Danielle knows this and as Alex puts away the dishes, she says, “All the interest you’ve taken in her. All the help you’ve given . . .you’re the closest thing to a father she’s ever had.” Ben chokes up. It’s a heartwarming moment.
Ben’s Island destiny led him to do some horrible things. Taking Alex from Danielle was certainly one of them. But if he had killed them both like Widmore ordered, it would have been far worse. I’m not going to say Ben did either of them a favor that night in Rousseau’s tent when he held them at gunpoint, but from that moment on he has always acted out of love and protection of Alex. When Keamy shot her in the head as Ben looked on and said things like “She’s just a pawn, nothing more…She means nothing to me,” he did it because, one, he thought The Rules would prevent him from pulling the trigger and, two, to convince himself (and thus Keamy) that having her at gunpoint didn’t give Keamy any leverage. Even if Island Ben is destined to live out his days without Alex, Sideways Ben has a shot to live happily ever after. He’s found someone to love. It’s going to be sad if Sideways Ben loses that happy ending.
If you’re looking for even more of a reason to invest in the Sideways world, look no further than the conversation between Jack and Locke at the hospital. John tells Jack what happened to Ben that day, how the same guy who plowed into him with his car came back and said wanted to help him in the same way Jack wanted to help him. He tells Jack that maybe all that is happening for a reason. “Maybe you’re supposed to fix me.” He’s ready to get out of that chair. And who better to help him than Jack?
After this week, I’ve reached the point where I’m equally as excited about seeing what happens in the Sideways world as the Island. How are Jack and crew going to defeat the Monster? Can they stop him from sinking the Island? Is Jack going to fix Locke? What’s going to happen when everyone converges at that concert? What connection do these two worlds share? And I’m excited about seeing some old favorites, too. Maybe a Charlie appearance? What about Boone, Walt or Juliet? Any chance we get a Christian Shephard sighting? And there’s always the chance they tie up some loose ends like the pallet drop or the cabin or some Dharma stuff in a cool and unexpected way.
I think “unexpected” might be the key to my mindset for this last episode. I have no expectations. I mean, I want it to be great, but I don’t have a checklist of things I need to see. I just want a satisfying conclusion for the characters. Most of the mysteries are solved. It’s time for closure, not just for us, but for Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Ben and everyone else. I’m not even really sad about it anymore. I’m just excited. Tomorrow is the time to greave. Today is about celebrating the conclusion of the best show ever.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Across the Sea
If it only ends once, then how did it begin? That’s what “Across the Sea” attempts to answer. It definitely accomplishes that goal, I will give it that. Was it the most entertaining episode? No. Was it enjoyable to watch all the way through? No. Could they have found less annoying kids to take up 50% of the screen time? Probably. Did I miss Jack, Kate, and the rest of the gang? You betcha. When I saw “MIB/Jacob centric”, I was expecting a fun hour of mythology and Island history, but instead “Across the Sea” was slower and more character-driven. The result was still an important piece of Island history told in a complex way that’s more enjoyable in hindsight than it was from 8-9pm last Tuesday.
There are so many freaking layers to this episode, I’m not going to come close to sorting them out. Themes stacked on top of metaphors on top of allusions sandwiched between meta-references and the result is too big for me to get my mouth around. It’s like Double Down in television form. And I didn’t totally like the Double Down. Just like “Across the Sea”. I’m going to take my best stab at this one and as the rules to this blog state, I must try to focus on the positives. Where do these rules come from? Well, I make them up of course! When it’s your game you can make them up. Ok, enough cuteness. Let’s get to it.
We start off in familiar Lost territory, and by that I mean on an unfamiliar beach in an undisclosed time with people we’ve never seen. A lone pregnant woman washes up on the beach. Hurt, she wanders into the jungle in search of water, only to be discovered by a middle-aged woman with a rather cranky disposition. We find out the pregnant woman’s name is Claudia. Although we don’t learn the other woman’s name, she tells Claudia that she’s alone, that she only arrived on this Island by accident, just like Claudia did. And…actually that’s all we learn about this woman, whom I’ll just call “Mother” from here on out. She refuses to answer any more questions and before we know it, Claudia’s in labor.
From there, we witness the birth of twin boys, twin boys that grow up the be Jacob and the MIB, twin boys that will shape the lives of our beloved Losties, twin boys who will learn everything we’ve ever dreamed of knowing about the Island. Claudia was only ready for one child, and thus only had one name ready, so we’re left not learning the MIB’s name and left to ponder whether he even has one. (I say he does, but we’ll never learn it).
Oh yeah, and Mother bludgeons Claudia to death with a rock.
Hence the moniker the Lost universe has dubbed this woman with. Mother helped Claudia give birth to baby Jacob and baby MIB for what appears to be the sole purpose of stealing the children and raising them as her own. This is the first instance we see of the cyclical nature of the Island in an episode loaded with them. As we see more and more of Mother, it’s revealed that she embodies many of the crisis or reoccurring issues of the Island. She raises Jacob and the MIB to rule over the Island, and not only do her issues creep into her two sons, they also become manifested in all those people caught in the middle of their epic, millennia-long conflict. The Others steal children. Rousseau steals Aaron. The cycle continues.
Flash forward thirteen years. Boy in Black (BIB) stumbles across a wooden box that has washed up on shore. Jacob asks him what he’s found. “It’s a game. You play it,” BIB responds. (Lines like these were what frustrated me with this episode. It made me long for the days of a good “Where’s Vincent?” from Walt.) BIB wants to keep the game a secret from Mother, knowing she’ll take it away. The rebellious side of him is starting to show through. When the BIB asks him if he still wants to play, Jacob answers, “Yes. I want to play.”
Now here’s some symbolism I can sort out. It’s the metaphorical beginning of the war between Jacob and the MIB. Not the literal war, but the war of ideas. Jacob wants to remain obedient to Mother, MIB wants to keeps some of his life to himself. The decisions both make as a result of their respective beliefs will haunt them for a long, long time.
When Jacob gets back home to the caves, Mother asks him where his brother is and what the two of them were doing. Showing that he’s hardly Benjamin Linus (or Fake Locke for that matter), he fails to throw her off the scent with his “staring at the ocean” alibi and eventually spills the beans about the game his brother found. She used some heavy-handed guilt-tripping to get it out of him too. “Do you love me, Jacob?” she asked. Jacob wants more than anything for his mother to love him, so he does what she says and tells her what she wants to know. Obsessive need for the love and approval of a parent, just like Jack and Locke and Ben – check another one off the Island issues checklist.
Mother tracks down the BIB, apparently pleased that he’d found the game. She tells him that he’s special. She tells him that she left the game for him. Where else would it have come from? But where did I come from, he asks. She tells him that he and his brother came from her, and that she came from her mother. She tells him that there’s nothing else but the Island. She tells him that he’ll never have to worry about death.
I don’t know if it was the actors or the dialog, but this whole exchange didn’t work for me. The mood was off. It had no flow. It was like there was some big list of hints that each needed to be mentioned, but those hints were all alluding to something that we knew was a lie. Or a truth we already knew the answer to. We found out earlier that Jacob and the MIB didn’t come from the Island. We know that there’s more to the world but the Island. We know that the MIB didn’t really have to worry about death. This scene was trying to play like typical Lost, but it was dealing with a subject that didn’t need the usual obfuscation and subterfuge. What we got out of this scene was that Mother’s a big fat liar, and I don’t think the tone of the scene fit with what came out of it.
Mother’s claims to the BIB that about the Island were refuted quickly enough. While on a walk in the jungle, he and Jacob heard noises in the distance. Moving toward it to investigate, they discover a group of three men killing a boar. Surprised, they run back to Mother and tell them what they found. When Jacob suggests that these other men looked like them, Mother insists that they were not like them, that these others weren’t there for a reason. (Awkward transition) Now’s she’s let too much slip. The BIB demands to know what the hell she’s talking about when she says “reason”. After a little more complaining, Mother gives in, blindfolds her boys, and sets off on a trek into the jungle to show Jacob and the MIB exactly what makes this Island so damn special.
The boys’ curiosities aren’t placated by Mother’s willingness to show them the heart of the Island. On the way, Jacob asks why she didn’t tell them about these other people and what makes them so dangers. Mother lays out her cynical view of humanity for him – “The same thing that makes all men dangerous. They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt... and it always ends the same.” We’ve sure heard that one before! We’ve used it to define the MIB’s worldview ever since the opening scene of “The Incident”. More on that in a bit.
Do you want to know what makes the Island special? Well ready or not, here it comes. Mother removes the blindfolds from her two boys, and they see a beautiful glowing yellow light emanating from beneath a tunnel. A creek runs in and a waterfall cascades out. She tells them, “a little bit of this very same light is inside of every man” and that it’s their job to protect it. Because if any man were to find it, he would want to take it. And they would always want more. And eventually that light would go out, and if it goes out here, it goes out everywhere. She tells them that she’s been protecting it, but she can’t protect it forever. When they ask who would take up the duty when she’s gone, she responds, “It will have to be one of you.”
At first, I described this monumental reveal as “an answer to a question I wasn’t asking”. I still think that’s true to some extent. I had given up asking, “What is the Island.” But I should have been asking, “Why does the Island need protecting?” My usual, “It’s a special place”, while satisfactory enough for me, doesn’t really explain what would happen if it wasn’t protected and doesn’t set up the necessary urgency for finding a replacement for Jacob. This is the purpose Locke was talking about all those years ago. If that light goes out, that’s it. The lights go out everywhere. Some of this rings similar to what Widmore told Jin in “The Package” – “If that thing masquerading as John Locke ever got off this island, your wife, your daughter, my daughter, everyone we know and love - would simply cease to be.” Does that mean the light from the tunnel now resides in the Smoke Monster? What could the ramifications of that be? Well, the ultimate goal certainly wouldn’t be to kill the Monster, then. It would be more like containment. Or maybe I’ve just watched too much Supernatural lately.
Like Locke said back in “Expose”, things don’t stay buried on this island. Slowly, the BIB began to untangle the web of lies under which the Mother had sheltered her two sons. An Island vision of his real mother, Claudia, a few more encounters with the “other people” and before you know it, the BIB was the MIB and he was living with the turn-of-the-millennium Others.
So Jacob grew up with his Mother, lived a “good” obedient life, even weaving tapestries just like her. On the other side of the Island, the MIB grew up with a group of untrustworthy, selfish brutes. They kept in touch through the years, Jacob inquiring curiously about these other people all while remaining dutiful to Mother. The MIB was concocting his own scheme: he was going to use his people to get off the Island. There’s that cycle again. Everyone wants to leave this Island.
How was he going to pull this off anyway? The same many people (and polar bears) left the Island, the Donkey Wheel! But this was going to be the maiden voyage. But before he could leave, Mother arrived. She told him how much she loved him and she knocked him unconscious and filled in the well that lead to the glowing yellow light.
Now, how an elderly woman could drag a full grown man out of a deep well and then fill in an enormous hole with tons of dirt, I haven’t a clue. And others are better at speculating about such things than I am. I’m of the belief that Mother’s got a bit of smoke monster in her somewhere. It would explain how she slaughtered all of the others in the MIB’s tribe. And it would be a nice fit for the point I’m going to make in a bit about Jacob and the MIB’s relationship to her and the traits of hers that they carry.
Back at the caves, Mother approaches Jacob with a bottle of wine. It’s the same bottle of wine Jacob used in “Ab Aeterno” to explain how the Island acts as a cork to keep evil from spreading. She tells Jacob that he’s the one to protect the Island. She tells him that he doesn’t really have a choice, that it has to be him. Jacob drinks the wine. “Now you and I are the same”, she tells him.
This is the moment that will come to define Jacob’s whole philosophy about Island leadership. He grew up never feeling as if he had choices in his life. His mother always told him what to do. And he did it. And now, at this moment that will permanently tie him to the Island, he was again left without a say in the matter. But the Jacob we know is a believer in free will. “You have a choice,” he tells Ben as he’s threatened with a knife. And he passed that belief onto his followers, the Others. “We are the causes of our own suffering” was one of the images that flashed inside Room 23. Jacob knows this better than anyone. He knows now that he had a choice back then, that he’s caused all the suffering he’s felt since that moment he drank the wine. And he wants to make sure everyone else knows they have a choice as well, especially his candidates. He doesn’t want Jack or Hurley or whoever ends up getting the final nod as protector of the Island to assume the role in the same confining manner he did.
Bitter about how Mother treated him, he rejected her contemptuous philosophy about mankind and instead chose to believe in the good in people. He wanted to prove to Mother – and her philosophical heir, the MIB – that people were good. So he brought people to the Island that he knew would choose to be good. Think back at our 815ers, especially the ones who have died. Charlie, Sayid, Ana Lucia, Daniel – they all died after making a choice to do something good. Charlie choosing to sacrifice himself to secure rescue, Sayid doing the same to give the remaining Losties a little hope of making it out of the sub alive, Ana Lucia refusing to kill Ben, Daniel trying to prevent all the suffering that came from 815 landing on the Island, each had their scale tip to the side of good. Jacob sure knows how to pick ‘em.
I went into “Across the Sea” believing Jacob to be some magnificent, mystical, indubitable good guy. He still is all those things, but this episode did do one thing: it humanized him. Now we know what made Jacob like that and what makes him the embodiment of good on the Island. It’s another question that I wasn’t asking, but it’s nice to know the answer. He doesn’t need all that mystique to be freaking awesome.
So sometime after Jacob drunk the wine, he heads off into the jungle to look for firewood. He returns to find the MIB clutching a bloody knifing, standing over Mother’s dead body. Jacob flips out. He beats the snot out of his brother, drags him to the creek that leads to the glowing light and throws him in. With the classic wail, from out of the tunnel shoots a pillar of black smoke, straight into the air. As the Smoke Monster fades into the jungle, the body of the MIB trickles out of the tunnel. Jacob hauls it back to the caves and, in tears, lays it next to Mother’s body. And there’s your Adam and Eve. “Goodbye, brother,” Jacob says. -boom, LOST-
Mother may have told Jacob he was the one protector of the Island, but that’s not entirely true. The first description we had of the Monster came courtesy of Danielle Rousseau. “It’s a security system,” she called it. What does it protect? “The Island." And that it does. It wipes out everyone who could become a threat to that glowing yellow light. Which, to it (or him), is everyone. These were the two roles Mother had, and she passed one on to each of the boys.
The MIB also was left with Mother’s disdainful view of humanity. Jacob found a way to believe in the good in people, while the MIB saw only the bad. He saw up close how horrible people could be, but was unable to look past it. And you know what they say, once you turn into a smoke monster, you kind of get stuck in your ways. But he never let go of the one thing he wanted most, to leave the Island. And that’s where we’ll pick up this week.
The aftermath of this little tale, a story that felt like a classic myth of some sort, is the story that we’ve seen unfold over the past six seasons. It’s a story of jealousy and deception, but also one of family, one of faith and obedience but also one of courage and hope. Layers upon layers upon layers. I tried to peak under as many as I could here. I have a feeling I’m not done with this one, though. Count on another 3000 words after the rewatch this winter.
There are so many freaking layers to this episode, I’m not going to come close to sorting them out. Themes stacked on top of metaphors on top of allusions sandwiched between meta-references and the result is too big for me to get my mouth around. It’s like Double Down in television form. And I didn’t totally like the Double Down. Just like “Across the Sea”. I’m going to take my best stab at this one and as the rules to this blog state, I must try to focus on the positives. Where do these rules come from? Well, I make them up of course! When it’s your game you can make them up. Ok, enough cuteness. Let’s get to it.
We start off in familiar Lost territory, and by that I mean on an unfamiliar beach in an undisclosed time with people we’ve never seen. A lone pregnant woman washes up on the beach. Hurt, she wanders into the jungle in search of water, only to be discovered by a middle-aged woman with a rather cranky disposition. We find out the pregnant woman’s name is Claudia. Although we don’t learn the other woman’s name, she tells Claudia that she’s alone, that she only arrived on this Island by accident, just like Claudia did. And…actually that’s all we learn about this woman, whom I’ll just call “Mother” from here on out. She refuses to answer any more questions and before we know it, Claudia’s in labor.
From there, we witness the birth of twin boys, twin boys that grow up the be Jacob and the MIB, twin boys that will shape the lives of our beloved Losties, twin boys who will learn everything we’ve ever dreamed of knowing about the Island. Claudia was only ready for one child, and thus only had one name ready, so we’re left not learning the MIB’s name and left to ponder whether he even has one. (I say he does, but we’ll never learn it).
Oh yeah, and Mother bludgeons Claudia to death with a rock.
Hence the moniker the Lost universe has dubbed this woman with. Mother helped Claudia give birth to baby Jacob and baby MIB for what appears to be the sole purpose of stealing the children and raising them as her own. This is the first instance we see of the cyclical nature of the Island in an episode loaded with them. As we see more and more of Mother, it’s revealed that she embodies many of the crisis or reoccurring issues of the Island. She raises Jacob and the MIB to rule over the Island, and not only do her issues creep into her two sons, they also become manifested in all those people caught in the middle of their epic, millennia-long conflict. The Others steal children. Rousseau steals Aaron. The cycle continues.
Flash forward thirteen years. Boy in Black (BIB) stumbles across a wooden box that has washed up on shore. Jacob asks him what he’s found. “It’s a game. You play it,” BIB responds. (Lines like these were what frustrated me with this episode. It made me long for the days of a good “Where’s Vincent?” from Walt.) BIB wants to keep the game a secret from Mother, knowing she’ll take it away. The rebellious side of him is starting to show through. When the BIB asks him if he still wants to play, Jacob answers, “Yes. I want to play.”
Now here’s some symbolism I can sort out. It’s the metaphorical beginning of the war between Jacob and the MIB. Not the literal war, but the war of ideas. Jacob wants to remain obedient to Mother, MIB wants to keeps some of his life to himself. The decisions both make as a result of their respective beliefs will haunt them for a long, long time.
When Jacob gets back home to the caves, Mother asks him where his brother is and what the two of them were doing. Showing that he’s hardly Benjamin Linus (or Fake Locke for that matter), he fails to throw her off the scent with his “staring at the ocean” alibi and eventually spills the beans about the game his brother found. She used some heavy-handed guilt-tripping to get it out of him too. “Do you love me, Jacob?” she asked. Jacob wants more than anything for his mother to love him, so he does what she says and tells her what she wants to know. Obsessive need for the love and approval of a parent, just like Jack and Locke and Ben – check another one off the Island issues checklist.
Mother tracks down the BIB, apparently pleased that he’d found the game. She tells him that he’s special. She tells him that she left the game for him. Where else would it have come from? But where did I come from, he asks. She tells him that he and his brother came from her, and that she came from her mother. She tells him that there’s nothing else but the Island. She tells him that he’ll never have to worry about death.
I don’t know if it was the actors or the dialog, but this whole exchange didn’t work for me. The mood was off. It had no flow. It was like there was some big list of hints that each needed to be mentioned, but those hints were all alluding to something that we knew was a lie. Or a truth we already knew the answer to. We found out earlier that Jacob and the MIB didn’t come from the Island. We know that there’s more to the world but the Island. We know that the MIB didn’t really have to worry about death. This scene was trying to play like typical Lost, but it was dealing with a subject that didn’t need the usual obfuscation and subterfuge. What we got out of this scene was that Mother’s a big fat liar, and I don’t think the tone of the scene fit with what came out of it.
Mother’s claims to the BIB that about the Island were refuted quickly enough. While on a walk in the jungle, he and Jacob heard noises in the distance. Moving toward it to investigate, they discover a group of three men killing a boar. Surprised, they run back to Mother and tell them what they found. When Jacob suggests that these other men looked like them, Mother insists that they were not like them, that these others weren’t there for a reason. (Awkward transition) Now’s she’s let too much slip. The BIB demands to know what the hell she’s talking about when she says “reason”. After a little more complaining, Mother gives in, blindfolds her boys, and sets off on a trek into the jungle to show Jacob and the MIB exactly what makes this Island so damn special.
The boys’ curiosities aren’t placated by Mother’s willingness to show them the heart of the Island. On the way, Jacob asks why she didn’t tell them about these other people and what makes them so dangers. Mother lays out her cynical view of humanity for him – “The same thing that makes all men dangerous. They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt... and it always ends the same.” We’ve sure heard that one before! We’ve used it to define the MIB’s worldview ever since the opening scene of “The Incident”. More on that in a bit.
Do you want to know what makes the Island special? Well ready or not, here it comes. Mother removes the blindfolds from her two boys, and they see a beautiful glowing yellow light emanating from beneath a tunnel. A creek runs in and a waterfall cascades out. She tells them, “a little bit of this very same light is inside of every man” and that it’s their job to protect it. Because if any man were to find it, he would want to take it. And they would always want more. And eventually that light would go out, and if it goes out here, it goes out everywhere. She tells them that she’s been protecting it, but she can’t protect it forever. When they ask who would take up the duty when she’s gone, she responds, “It will have to be one of you.”
At first, I described this monumental reveal as “an answer to a question I wasn’t asking”. I still think that’s true to some extent. I had given up asking, “What is the Island.” But I should have been asking, “Why does the Island need protecting?” My usual, “It’s a special place”, while satisfactory enough for me, doesn’t really explain what would happen if it wasn’t protected and doesn’t set up the necessary urgency for finding a replacement for Jacob. This is the purpose Locke was talking about all those years ago. If that light goes out, that’s it. The lights go out everywhere. Some of this rings similar to what Widmore told Jin in “The Package” – “If that thing masquerading as John Locke ever got off this island, your wife, your daughter, my daughter, everyone we know and love - would simply cease to be.” Does that mean the light from the tunnel now resides in the Smoke Monster? What could the ramifications of that be? Well, the ultimate goal certainly wouldn’t be to kill the Monster, then. It would be more like containment. Or maybe I’ve just watched too much Supernatural lately.
Like Locke said back in “Expose”, things don’t stay buried on this island. Slowly, the BIB began to untangle the web of lies under which the Mother had sheltered her two sons. An Island vision of his real mother, Claudia, a few more encounters with the “other people” and before you know it, the BIB was the MIB and he was living with the turn-of-the-millennium Others.
So Jacob grew up with his Mother, lived a “good” obedient life, even weaving tapestries just like her. On the other side of the Island, the MIB grew up with a group of untrustworthy, selfish brutes. They kept in touch through the years, Jacob inquiring curiously about these other people all while remaining dutiful to Mother. The MIB was concocting his own scheme: he was going to use his people to get off the Island. There’s that cycle again. Everyone wants to leave this Island.
How was he going to pull this off anyway? The same many people (and polar bears) left the Island, the Donkey Wheel! But this was going to be the maiden voyage. But before he could leave, Mother arrived. She told him how much she loved him and she knocked him unconscious and filled in the well that lead to the glowing yellow light.
Now, how an elderly woman could drag a full grown man out of a deep well and then fill in an enormous hole with tons of dirt, I haven’t a clue. And others are better at speculating about such things than I am. I’m of the belief that Mother’s got a bit of smoke monster in her somewhere. It would explain how she slaughtered all of the others in the MIB’s tribe. And it would be a nice fit for the point I’m going to make in a bit about Jacob and the MIB’s relationship to her and the traits of hers that they carry.
Back at the caves, Mother approaches Jacob with a bottle of wine. It’s the same bottle of wine Jacob used in “Ab Aeterno” to explain how the Island acts as a cork to keep evil from spreading. She tells Jacob that he’s the one to protect the Island. She tells him that he doesn’t really have a choice, that it has to be him. Jacob drinks the wine. “Now you and I are the same”, she tells him.
This is the moment that will come to define Jacob’s whole philosophy about Island leadership. He grew up never feeling as if he had choices in his life. His mother always told him what to do. And he did it. And now, at this moment that will permanently tie him to the Island, he was again left without a say in the matter. But the Jacob we know is a believer in free will. “You have a choice,” he tells Ben as he’s threatened with a knife. And he passed that belief onto his followers, the Others. “We are the causes of our own suffering” was one of the images that flashed inside Room 23. Jacob knows this better than anyone. He knows now that he had a choice back then, that he’s caused all the suffering he’s felt since that moment he drank the wine. And he wants to make sure everyone else knows they have a choice as well, especially his candidates. He doesn’t want Jack or Hurley or whoever ends up getting the final nod as protector of the Island to assume the role in the same confining manner he did.
Bitter about how Mother treated him, he rejected her contemptuous philosophy about mankind and instead chose to believe in the good in people. He wanted to prove to Mother – and her philosophical heir, the MIB – that people were good. So he brought people to the Island that he knew would choose to be good. Think back at our 815ers, especially the ones who have died. Charlie, Sayid, Ana Lucia, Daniel – they all died after making a choice to do something good. Charlie choosing to sacrifice himself to secure rescue, Sayid doing the same to give the remaining Losties a little hope of making it out of the sub alive, Ana Lucia refusing to kill Ben, Daniel trying to prevent all the suffering that came from 815 landing on the Island, each had their scale tip to the side of good. Jacob sure knows how to pick ‘em.
I went into “Across the Sea” believing Jacob to be some magnificent, mystical, indubitable good guy. He still is all those things, but this episode did do one thing: it humanized him. Now we know what made Jacob like that and what makes him the embodiment of good on the Island. It’s another question that I wasn’t asking, but it’s nice to know the answer. He doesn’t need all that mystique to be freaking awesome.
So sometime after Jacob drunk the wine, he heads off into the jungle to look for firewood. He returns to find the MIB clutching a bloody knifing, standing over Mother’s dead body. Jacob flips out. He beats the snot out of his brother, drags him to the creek that leads to the glowing light and throws him in. With the classic wail, from out of the tunnel shoots a pillar of black smoke, straight into the air. As the Smoke Monster fades into the jungle, the body of the MIB trickles out of the tunnel. Jacob hauls it back to the caves and, in tears, lays it next to Mother’s body. And there’s your Adam and Eve. “Goodbye, brother,” Jacob says. -boom, LOST-
Mother may have told Jacob he was the one protector of the Island, but that’s not entirely true. The first description we had of the Monster came courtesy of Danielle Rousseau. “It’s a security system,” she called it. What does it protect? “The Island." And that it does. It wipes out everyone who could become a threat to that glowing yellow light. Which, to it (or him), is everyone. These were the two roles Mother had, and she passed one on to each of the boys.
The MIB also was left with Mother’s disdainful view of humanity. Jacob found a way to believe in the good in people, while the MIB saw only the bad. He saw up close how horrible people could be, but was unable to look past it. And you know what they say, once you turn into a smoke monster, you kind of get stuck in your ways. But he never let go of the one thing he wanted most, to leave the Island. And that’s where we’ll pick up this week.
The aftermath of this little tale, a story that felt like a classic myth of some sort, is the story that we’ve seen unfold over the past six seasons. It’s a story of jealousy and deception, but also one of family, one of faith and obedience but also one of courage and hope. Layers upon layers upon layers. I tried to peak under as many as I could here. I have a feeling I’m not done with this one, though. Count on another 3000 words after the rewatch this winter.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Apology
Gotta say, it's been a long day of thinking about Lost. And not in a good way. I've been very troubled, way more troubled than I should be, not about the last night's episode itself, but about how I felt about it. Why do I take this show so personally? I don't know. But I regret saying things like "the fundamental nature of the show has changed". It hasn't. It's like the football analogy, I swung way to far in one direction. All I could see was "Jacob-MIB" because that's all we saw this week. Come on. See the big picture. I've got to be better than that.
Having said that, I still didn't love "Across the Sea". But that's okay. I don't have to love them all. I'm back to looking at the bright side. Whatever this episode was or was not, we're now armed with a greater understanding of the Island and two of the major players in the Island saga, which can only mean good things going forward. So, Me-from-13-hours-ago, suck it up man.
Having said that, I still didn't love "Across the Sea". But that's okay. I don't have to love them all. I'm back to looking at the bright side. Whatever this episode was or was not, we're now armed with a greater understanding of the Island and two of the major players in the Island saga, which can only mean good things going forward. So, Me-from-13-hours-ago, suck it up man.
Existential Crisis
When you love something, you can always explain away its faults. I’ve done this before with Lost; Moving the Island, some of the scenes in “The Incident”, scattered other bits, none of it sat right with me in the hours immediately afterward, and I’m sure in time I will do the same with “Across the Sea”. But right now I’m upset. For the first time in a while, I can say I didn't enjoy an episode of Lost. It was an episode the promised answers, but it delivered them to questions I wasn’t asking. Maybe I should have been, but I wasn’t. The show has fundamentally changed and only time will tell if it’s for the better.
Lost has always been an exercise in faith. I think part of the appeal, and part of my connection to the show and it’s characters, was that we needed to have the same faith in the Island as the characters did. We were all in the same boat. On September 22, 2004, we crashed on that Island just like they did. But now, we don’t need to have faith in the Island anymore. We know that there’s a magical center that holds the life force of all living things or something like that. But the characters that matter to me – Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, even Ben – don’t know that. So not only was this an episode this late in the game where we didn’t get to see a single character we’d known prior to the Season 5 finale, but it also drove a wedge between us and our beloved Losties, separating us from them even more than the one week of their absence. And after last week’s bloodbath, that’s the last thing I was looking for.
I read somewhere this week (probably Doc Jensen) that sometimes the audience’s greatest frustrations with Lost are entirely intentional on the part of the writers. In Season 2, people complained about the show treading water, that it was just stuck in the same rut of boring flashbacks with little hope that a payoff was coming down the road. But this made us feel exactly like Locke did stuck in the hatch pushing the button. We hated feeling trapped when there was a whole beautiful Island that needed exploring. It made us ask the same questions that Locke and everyone else were asking: Why are we doing this? Should we be doing this? Is any of this actually important? In Season 3, people complained about the imprisonment of Jack, Kate and Sawyer and that the show was going nowhere. Metaphorically, we felt the same thing our characters were feeling. We had the sense of urgency that they did, to escape, to get back to the rest of the group. To borrow a term that TV writers like to use to sound smart, there’s a whole “meta” thing going on with the story of Lost. Maybe the same thing is happen now. I just can’t see it yet.
In some ways it comes down to expectations. I reached a point in my Lost-watching career where there were certain questions I didn’t expect to get an answer to. What is the Island? What’s Jacob’s back story? These questions were so big that I started to get comfortable with the fact that I might never know the answers to them. And slowly, I think I began to like not knowing the answers. Dreaming about what was inside of those magic boxes was better than any answer they delivered. It was one of my favorite parts of the Lost experience. So going into “Across the Sea”, even though I knew it was going to be centered on the MIB and Jacob, I never thought we were going to go that deep into their pasts. Maybe I wasn’t ready for it.
I guess those were answers I need to hear. The answer to “What is the Island?” gets at the heart of what makes the Island worth protecting. It explains why Jacob needed his candidates to replace him when he died. Maybe I just thought “it’s a special place” was enough. Maybe I’m just not ready for Lost to be over. But I’m trying to be optimistic. I’m sure I will come to appreciate how important that golden light is to everything else we’ve seen. Still, it’s one less thing to have fun wondering about.
The problem with watching this show week to week is that we have the tendency to treat it like football season. After each week in the NFL, my opinions on teams – their strengths, their weaknesses, their ultimate destinies for the season – tend to shift wildly from one extreme to another. With Lost, each episode is like a game. I’m probably going to overact and say things like “the fundamental nature of the show has changed” when it most likely hasn’t. Like I said, it takes some time to put everything into context. And I’m sure I will with “Across the Sea”. But right now, I’m hurting. And that’s not a feeling I’m used to having with this show. At least there’s next week. Wow, I won’t be able to say that in a couple weeks. That’s sure not going to cheer me up.
Lost has always been an exercise in faith. I think part of the appeal, and part of my connection to the show and it’s characters, was that we needed to have the same faith in the Island as the characters did. We were all in the same boat. On September 22, 2004, we crashed on that Island just like they did. But now, we don’t need to have faith in the Island anymore. We know that there’s a magical center that holds the life force of all living things or something like that. But the characters that matter to me – Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, even Ben – don’t know that. So not only was this an episode this late in the game where we didn’t get to see a single character we’d known prior to the Season 5 finale, but it also drove a wedge between us and our beloved Losties, separating us from them even more than the one week of their absence. And after last week’s bloodbath, that’s the last thing I was looking for.
I read somewhere this week (probably Doc Jensen) that sometimes the audience’s greatest frustrations with Lost are entirely intentional on the part of the writers. In Season 2, people complained about the show treading water, that it was just stuck in the same rut of boring flashbacks with little hope that a payoff was coming down the road. But this made us feel exactly like Locke did stuck in the hatch pushing the button. We hated feeling trapped when there was a whole beautiful Island that needed exploring. It made us ask the same questions that Locke and everyone else were asking: Why are we doing this? Should we be doing this? Is any of this actually important? In Season 3, people complained about the imprisonment of Jack, Kate and Sawyer and that the show was going nowhere. Metaphorically, we felt the same thing our characters were feeling. We had the sense of urgency that they did, to escape, to get back to the rest of the group. To borrow a term that TV writers like to use to sound smart, there’s a whole “meta” thing going on with the story of Lost. Maybe the same thing is happen now. I just can’t see it yet.
In some ways it comes down to expectations. I reached a point in my Lost-watching career where there were certain questions I didn’t expect to get an answer to. What is the Island? What’s Jacob’s back story? These questions were so big that I started to get comfortable with the fact that I might never know the answers to them. And slowly, I think I began to like not knowing the answers. Dreaming about what was inside of those magic boxes was better than any answer they delivered. It was one of my favorite parts of the Lost experience. So going into “Across the Sea”, even though I knew it was going to be centered on the MIB and Jacob, I never thought we were going to go that deep into their pasts. Maybe I wasn’t ready for it.
I guess those were answers I need to hear. The answer to “What is the Island?” gets at the heart of what makes the Island worth protecting. It explains why Jacob needed his candidates to replace him when he died. Maybe I just thought “it’s a special place” was enough. Maybe I’m just not ready for Lost to be over. But I’m trying to be optimistic. I’m sure I will come to appreciate how important that golden light is to everything else we’ve seen. Still, it’s one less thing to have fun wondering about.
The problem with watching this show week to week is that we have the tendency to treat it like football season. After each week in the NFL, my opinions on teams – their strengths, their weaknesses, their ultimate destinies for the season – tend to shift wildly from one extreme to another. With Lost, each episode is like a game. I’m probably going to overact and say things like “the fundamental nature of the show has changed” when it most likely hasn’t. Like I said, it takes some time to put everything into context. And I’m sure I will with “Across the Sea”. But right now, I’m hurting. And that’s not a feeling I’m used to having with this show. At least there’s next week. Wow, I won’t be able to say that in a couple weeks. That’s sure not going to cheer me up.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
The Candidate
If “The Candidate” is any indication of how the finale’s going to go, I better stock up on Kleenex. Wow. Not only was it the bloodiest episode of Lost ever in terms of deaths of regular cast members, it was not coincidently one of the saddest. It left our four remaining 815ers – Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley – on the beach alone, battered, broken, vulnerable and exhausted with the Monster (I can’t call this horrible beast Locke) lurking just across the sea.
We lost Jin. We lost Sun. We lost Sayid. And that’s how I felt Wednesday night, like part of my group, like three of my friends, were gone. It was a horrible feeling. But then again, we’re going to be losing all these characters in just a few short weeks time. That’s the effect “The Candidate” had on me more than anything: for the first time it really felt like Lost is almost over. With just two episodes and the finale remaining, our time on the Island is quickly drawing to a close. And even though I still only have the faintest idea what that ending will be, I can certainly feel all the loose ends and divergent threads coming together. It’s a good feeling, but it’s a scary feeling.
I’ve watched “The Candidate” twice now. And I’ve got to say, the second time was just as rough as the first. More tears. But more insights! Enough to make this the longest yet of my many monstrous recaps. Let’s get to the episode, starting in the Sideways world.
I love the description Lostpedia uses to describe this one. Instead of the usual one character classification or the occasional “various”, it reads “Jack and Locke”. Coupled with next weeks that I expect to read “Jacob and MIB” and that’s quite the interesting parallel we have there. Like I talked about last week, the epic and complicated history between these two characters makes any interaction ooze with tension and history. This was especially the case this week in the Sideways world, where most scenes this year have alluded directly to conversations and situations we’ve seen in past seasons. As always, I plan to break those down in excruciating detail.
The title, “The Candidate”, like many Lost episodes, has a couple of meanings. One, most obviously, refers to Jack as the candidate to replace Jacob. I think at this point, the debate on that is all but closed. Jack is the chosen one. He has total faith in the Island. He recognizes his purpose. He sees the big picture. And now he can lead with a clear mind and monkey-less back. Once he embraced the fact that the Island had chosen him, all his preoccupations with being the leader and acting how he thought a leader was supposed to act crumbled away. What emerged was a man who could lead. Remember when Locke told him “A leader can’t lead until he knows where he’s going?” Yeah, well, Jack knows where he’s going now.
The second meaning refers to John Locke as a candidate for the new procedure to cure his paralysis. It’s one of the first things Sideways Jack tells Locke after he wakes up from surgery. You know who else decides who’s a candidate and who isn’t? Jacob. Like the moment later on where Jack offers the Apollo Bar to Claire, it’s the first of several Jack-Jacob parallels throughout the episode. In the same scene, in attempting to find out more about Locke’s condition so he could help him, Jack asks Locke about how he became paralyzed in the first place. Locke refuses to tell him. But Jack’s determined to find out what’s wrong with Locke. He’s going to unearth that baggage and help him deal with it. Just like Jacob would do.
His first stop is at Locke’s dentist’s office, and wouldn’t you know it, but Bernard (of Rose and Bernard fame) has been in the care of Locke’s chompers for at least the last three years. Bernard tells Jack that Mr. Locke came into his office a few years earlier following an accident with another man named Anthony Cooper. After an almost-knowing, “I hope you find what you’re looking for” (where have we heard that before besides from Kate earlier this season?), Jack bids Bernard adieu, now committed to tracking down this Anthony Cooper.
Jack’s quest leads him to a nursing home where he runs into Locke’s fiancé, Helen. She tries to get Jack to just leave it all alone. Of course, he refuses (something he won’t do later on with Jin), so Helen wheels over Anthony Cooper, vegetable edition. That’s why John doesn’t hate his guts in the Sideways world! It’s hard to pull off a long con when you’re brain-dead. Part of me thought the guy playing Cooper might not have had to do much acting to pull off the role this time around. Let’s face it, there have been some moments where the makeup department hasn’t lived up to the standards set by the rest of the show (yeah, 20-year old Ben in “Dead is Dead”, I’m talking about you), so for a guy who seemed so spry just three years ago, to see him so wrinkled and cold-faced was shocking. And kind of satisfying.
After seeing Cooper like that, Jack was stumped, so he heads back to the hospital. He stands by Locke’s bed, deep in thought, confused. Why would this guy refuse his help? Still asleep, Locke mumbles, “push the button”. Then “I wish you had believed me.” Sleeping Sideways Locke’s getting a little dose of Island Locke! Be prepared to have that last one thrown back in your face in a little bit, dude. I think Jack recognized that second mumble too. Just like he looked at the cut on his neck extra hard in “LA X”, and how he couldn’t remember how he got his appendix scar, Jack’s very, very close to having the “Charlie moment” as I like to call it. He’s going to have the crossover. I’d like to make a prediction right here though – Locke has already had it. He just refuses to believe it. Like Jack when he came face-to-face with Desmond in the hatch, Sideways Locke does not want to believe. He’s in the type of place mentally where he would encounter a real life miracle but insist on the looking the other way. He needs to take a leap of faith. He just needs a little push.
In the last of the Sideways scenes, Locke’s rolling himself out of the hospital, eager to leave the notion that he can be fixed far behind. But Jack catches up to him. He’s not going to let this go (no kidding!). He asks Locke one last time why he’s in that wheelchair and this time John caves. He spills it all, every heartbreaking detail. How he was in a plane crash, how he was the pilot, how he asked his father to be his “first official passenger”, how they never got off the ground, how it was his fault, and how could never forgive himself for what he did to his father.
Now, Jack Shephard knows a little something about guilt. And about causing irrevocable harm to his father. He gives it to Locke straight up: his father’s gone. He has to let it go. What follows is a perfect mirroring of their conversation from “Orientation”, one of the best bits of dialogue from a show loaded with memorable exchanges, which went like this –
LOCKE: If it's not real, then what are you doing here, Jack? Why did you come back?
Why do you find it so hard to believe?
JACK: Why do you find it so easy?
LOCKE: It's never been easy! I can't do this alone, Jack. I don't want to. It's a leap of
faith, Jack.
But this time, Jack’s the one urging Locke on, attempting to show a stubborn, struggling man a different way of thinking. He tells him it’s okay to let go. “What makes you think letting go is so easy?” Locke asks. Jack responds with complete honesty – “It's not. In fact, I don't really know how to do it myself. And, that's why I was hoping that…maybe you could go first.” But Locke’s had enough. He says goodbye and wheels away. Jack shouts after him, “I wish you believed me”. Locke pauses, then wheels out the door.
I’ve got goose bumps even now. Whether they’re on the Island or off, original timeline our Sideways, these two men need each other. In the hatch, Locke told Jack that he couldn’t do it alone. In the hospital, Jack asks Locke to show him how to let go. That discussion in the hatch laid some of the first bricks for Jack’s road to inner peace, toward his acceptance of the things out of his control, acceptance of his destiny. Even though it went against every instinct he’d ever had, Jack pushed the button. He took the leap of faith. Now it’s time for Locke to do the same. Once again, Locke needs to show Jack the way. And I think he will.
So a few episodes after the game-changing “Happily Ever After”, we’re not any closer to knowing “the answer” to the Sideways world. I’ve thrown my whole theory about the MIB causing the Sideways timeline and how taking him down on the Island will lead to the collapse of the “fake” Sideways world right out the window. This world doesn’t seem all that bad. And it doesn’t seem like the MIB’s going to be in the mood to give any rewards to Jack in the form of a loving relationship with his son anytime soon. So what is it? Are we going to end the show with two different endings, two different versions of all our characters? That would be odd. I could dig it, but I don’t think it’s likely. Somehow the enlightenment of Sideways Locke will be crucial. I can bank on that. But otherwise, I really don’t have the slightest idea. That’s just the way I like it too. That’s the show Lost has been for six years. I wouldn’t want it to change now.
Time to switch over to the Island action and, boy, was there a lot of it. We pick up with Sawyer and the rest of the Elizabeth crew in the captivity of Team Widmore in the Hydra cages. After Smokey rips through the camp, decimating the guards just like he did Keamy’s mercenary team, Jack hustles over, grabs a key and frees them from the cages. Woo-wee, saved by the MIB! Not so fast my friend. The last piece has fallen into place, the final trap set to fall over that block of cheese. He’s earned the trust of most of the group but, unfortunately for his plan, not the trust of its two leaders – Jack and Sawyer.
After a quick stop at the Ajira plane where the MIB effortlessly disposes of two clueless guards (Shooting the Smoke Monster with bullets? Honestly?) and collects a watch and a brick of C4, he gathers the group and tells them that flying off the Island isn’t going to work. They’re going to have to take the submarine. As he leads the group back to the submarine dock, Sawyer asks Jack to hang back with him for a little chat. Sawyer has no intentions of letting the MIB leave the Island with the rest of them, so he asks Jack to help buy him some time to get everyone sans MIB on the sub. Jack agrees.
The group reaches the sub. The coast appears to be clear. Jack and the MIB wait a beat while the rest charge the dock. Sawyer, Lapidus, Hurley and Sun make it into the sub, while the MIB makes one last attempt to get Jack to leave with him. “Whoever told you, you needed to stay had no idea what he was talking about,” he says. Without hesitation, Jack boldly answers, “John Locke told me I needed to stay,” and shoves the MIB into the water. Just one more of many badass Jack moments this season. And boy did it feel good to see him do that. Enough with the smack talk about Locke already! Jack’s going to prove to the MIB who was right all along.
But before the rest of the group can climb in, shots ring out over the dock. Widmore’s men have arrived (albeit pretty late) to protect their only means of transportation off the Island. Kate takes a bullet in the shoulder. If anything’s going to get Jack on the sub, it’s Kate. He hustles over to her, picks her up, and with the help of Sayid, gets her into the submarine. Before Jack can get out, the sub’s hatch has closed and they’re diving.
Frantically searching for a first aid kit, Jack eventually turns to his backpack. Little did he know the MIB had pulled the old switcheroo while they waited together in the bushes, so instead of first aid, Jack finds the C4 rigged to a stopwatch. Piece-by-piece, Jack began to put everything together. “This is what he wanted,” he starts. “[The MIB] said that he can’t leave the Island without us. I think that he can’t leave the Island unless we’re all dead. He told me that he could kill anyone of us whenever he wanted. So, what if he hasn’t because he’s…he’s not allowed to. What if he’s trying to get us to kill each other?” Sawyer’s not buying any of it. He wants to pull the wires like Sayid said they could (good to see Sayid flashing the tech skills again, by the way). Then Jack drops this doozie (one of many this episode) – “Nothing is gonna happen...James. We are going to be okay. Just have to trust me.”
But Sawyer doesn’t trust him. He can’t. Not after what happened with Jughead. Not after what happened to Juliet. He doesn’t speak destiny. So he pulls the wires and just when you think that maybe Jack was wrong, the timer begins ticking down, double-time.
Loved this scene. Jack giving Sawyer the Locke treatment, Sawyer giving Jack the Jack treatment. It was like looking in the mirror, but this time we’re not in the Sideways world. How many times has Jack been the one yelling “I’m not gonna stand here and do nothing!” while Locke was talking about purpose and the will of the Island? Well, this time it was Sawyer yelling. John wasn’t always right, but this time Jack is.
While everyone else begins to panic, Sayid springs into action. He knows what needs to be done, just like he has at almost every turn. Back in the day, when everyone was looking to Jack as the leader making the decisions, he had Sayid’s clear-headed approach to lean on. Whether on the Island with Rousseau, with Henry Gale, with their trap for the Others or off the Island when he shot himself to save Nadia, Sayid has always been willing to make the tough call. As he told Jack in “Through the Looking Glass”, “I’m willing to give my life if it means securing rescue.” That’s what he does here. He quickly informs Jack about Desmond in the well (See? He didn’t kill him!), tells him “It’s going to be you” then does what needs to be done. He grabs the bomb and takes off down the hall, trying to get as far away from the group as possible. The bomb explodes. Sayid’s dead.
As I (and everyone else) predicted last week, Sayid didn’t kill Desmond. Desmond’s question to him about how he’s going to explain to Nadia what he did to get her back, how he was going to justify his horrible means of achieving a selfish end, touched whatever good there was lying dormant in his soul. Sayid died a hero, plain and simple. Maybe this one final act doesn’t make up for all the people he killed, but it let us know that there’s never a point when it’s time to give up on a person, even when all hope appears to be lost. Just like Hurley said, even Anakin came back from the dark side. Maybe Sayid’s scale was more balanced than Dogen thought.
Speaking of Des, now that we know he’s still in that well, what’s the plan for him the rest of the way? The MIB fears his specialness, that much is clear. But how can Des use his electromagnetic immunities to take down the Monster? He’s immune to knives, bullets, explosions and water; it’s not like Des can shoot electromagnetism out of his hands, and even if he could, who’s to say that would have any effect on him? But once again, we find Desmond below ground, just like his days in the hatch, struggling for survival. It’s time for Jack to play the Locke role again and save Desmond’s life, brotha, so he can save them.
Despite his heroics, Sayid’s sacrifice couldn’t stop the bomb from damaging the sub. One of the other hatches blows off the side, killing Lapidus and sending water flooding in. It’s time to evacuate. Jack hands an unconscious Kate off to Hurley and tells him to swim to safety. He has to stay and help Jin pry away a large cabinet-looking object that’s trapped Sun against the wall. On three they lift it away, only to find that something else has also pinned her. And there’s no moving this one. After Sawyer gets knocked in the head, the stakes are clear. But Jin won’t let Jack stay and let Sawyer die. He urges Jack to save Sawyer. I’ve mentioned the history between these characters, Sawyer’s one of Jin’s best friends on the Island, going all the way back the raft through their Dharma days. They’ve been through a lot. There’s no use in everyone dying in this sub. He will stay and help Sun. Jack knows what comes next, but he listens to Jin anyway. It’s just Jin and Sun left on the sinking sub.
I really thought I was going to lose it watching this next scene. When Jin made the call to let Jack leave, my eyes welled up a bit. Sun kept pleading for Jin to leave, to save himself, but he wouldn’t. He refused to let them be apart again. He tells his wife in Korean “I won't leave you. I will never leave you again”. The Korean hit me the hardest. It was really, really beautiful. She kept pleading, but Jin wasn’t going anywhere. Finally, she embraced him. After one last kiss, we cut away to some shots of the sub sinking with sad music in the background. It was a heartwarming and gut-wrenching scene all in one. We didn’t have to see inside that sub; we knew what was happening. After they both passed away, we were left with a shot of their hands slowly drifting apart. That part was only gut-wrenching.
Sun and Jin were always the couple that weren’t meant to be together. Not “together” in the sense of being in a relationship with each other, but ‘together” as in the same physically proximity. The show continually ripped them apart and brought them together, only to rip them apart again. The raft, the Kahana explosion, the Island moving, again and again we saw these two separated, each time with greater and greater obstacles dividing them. But as Jack’s heavy-handed tomato metaphor in “The Package” taught us, sometimes sheer stubbornness can overpower even fate. Jin and Sun died together, and even though the last image we had was of them drifting apart, of separating once again, it was only symbolic of that stubbornness. Only death could keep those two apart. I’d almost consider it a happy ending for them.
(Quick note, because this isn’t the important part of the scene but in needs to be said: Jack never would have left Jin in Season 1. No way. Again, he’s now recognized the things he cannot change. He’s learning to let go. In “White Rabbit”, Christian told him a story about a little boy who died on his operating table. He says Jack doesn’t have what it takes to deal with that. Well, Jack sure did here.)
I’ve gotta say, I’ve been more worried about Kate getting shot than I would have expected. No, she’s not my favorite character. Or second, or third, or probably even fifth. But at this point, I’ve spent six years with these people. I’ve grown attached. I’ve learned to see the good in all of them. Losing any of them would (and following the rest of the carnage in this episode, is soon going to) feel like a big piece of Lost is missing. Plus, I’ve never for a second felt like there was a chance Kate wouldn’t survive to the end, so maybe it was more shock than anything. But guess what? We’re pretty much at the end. Everyone’s at risk.
This gives me a chance to talk about something that hasn’t been given enough attention – the fact that Kate isn’t one of the candidates. I find this hard to believe, and really a bit troubling too. I guess we don’t know why Jacob crossed out many of the others he had marked as candidates at one time or another, but I think we can assume it has something to do with their “goodness”. I just have a difficult time believing that Kate’s done something so egregious that she has to be stricken from the list. I mean, she’s worse than Sawyer? Really? If we’re considering what everyone’s done since coming to the Island, I think Kate’s as much of a model citizen as anyone. She’s always been there to comfort people like Claire or Sun or Hurley in the hard times. She’s always down for a good rescue mission. And she did the noble thing of leaving behind her life as Aaron’s mother – a life she’d grown to love more than anything, ever – so she could do what was best for him and what was best for Claire. Looking just at her post-815 life, I challenge you to name me one of the survivors who seemed more helpful and kind – who seemed more good – than Kate. You can’t do it.
So why would Jacob take her off his list? I’m guessing this isn’t a recent development, either; Locke told her back in “Left Behind” that the Others weren’t too keen on her joining the group. They said it was because of her past. But you’re going to tell me her past is worse than Sawyer’s? Or Sayid’s? Give me a break. There has to be some other reason. I don’t think they can just sweep this one under the rug. Kate’s to big of a character for us to just accept that she’s not one of the candidates without an explanation. End of rant.
At the end of “The Candidate”, we’re left with Jack, Sawyer, Kate and Hurley alone on a dark, empty beach. A moment of utter despair. Out of all the low points these four have been through both together and individually in the past three years, this is the lowest. All hope is lost for them. It would be for me too if it weren’t for Jack. He feels just like the rest of the group. He’s been beaten down just like they have. But I know that Jack’s now armed with something the MIB can’t take away from him – faith in the Island. The MIB might have been able to prey on John Locke’s willingness to trust the Island, to make him into what he calls “a sucker”, but he can’t do that with Jack. He’s shown him his true colors and they’re as dark and rotten as they come. It’s the man who believes in the Island’s specialness versus the man who says, “It’s just a damn island”. The latter might be impervious to earthly weapons, but the former has all that comes from being chosen as the protector of a place where miracles happen. This week we will learn exactly comes with that territory, what kind of tricks Jack will have up his sleeve when that final encounter between Jack and the MIB finally come to pass. It should be a one hell of a ride.
Until next week…
We lost Jin. We lost Sun. We lost Sayid. And that’s how I felt Wednesday night, like part of my group, like three of my friends, were gone. It was a horrible feeling. But then again, we’re going to be losing all these characters in just a few short weeks time. That’s the effect “The Candidate” had on me more than anything: for the first time it really felt like Lost is almost over. With just two episodes and the finale remaining, our time on the Island is quickly drawing to a close. And even though I still only have the faintest idea what that ending will be, I can certainly feel all the loose ends and divergent threads coming together. It’s a good feeling, but it’s a scary feeling.
I’ve watched “The Candidate” twice now. And I’ve got to say, the second time was just as rough as the first. More tears. But more insights! Enough to make this the longest yet of my many monstrous recaps. Let’s get to the episode, starting in the Sideways world.
I love the description Lostpedia uses to describe this one. Instead of the usual one character classification or the occasional “various”, it reads “Jack and Locke”. Coupled with next weeks that I expect to read “Jacob and MIB” and that’s quite the interesting parallel we have there. Like I talked about last week, the epic and complicated history between these two characters makes any interaction ooze with tension and history. This was especially the case this week in the Sideways world, where most scenes this year have alluded directly to conversations and situations we’ve seen in past seasons. As always, I plan to break those down in excruciating detail.
The title, “The Candidate”, like many Lost episodes, has a couple of meanings. One, most obviously, refers to Jack as the candidate to replace Jacob. I think at this point, the debate on that is all but closed. Jack is the chosen one. He has total faith in the Island. He recognizes his purpose. He sees the big picture. And now he can lead with a clear mind and monkey-less back. Once he embraced the fact that the Island had chosen him, all his preoccupations with being the leader and acting how he thought a leader was supposed to act crumbled away. What emerged was a man who could lead. Remember when Locke told him “A leader can’t lead until he knows where he’s going?” Yeah, well, Jack knows where he’s going now.
The second meaning refers to John Locke as a candidate for the new procedure to cure his paralysis. It’s one of the first things Sideways Jack tells Locke after he wakes up from surgery. You know who else decides who’s a candidate and who isn’t? Jacob. Like the moment later on where Jack offers the Apollo Bar to Claire, it’s the first of several Jack-Jacob parallels throughout the episode. In the same scene, in attempting to find out more about Locke’s condition so he could help him, Jack asks Locke about how he became paralyzed in the first place. Locke refuses to tell him. But Jack’s determined to find out what’s wrong with Locke. He’s going to unearth that baggage and help him deal with it. Just like Jacob would do.
His first stop is at Locke’s dentist’s office, and wouldn’t you know it, but Bernard (of Rose and Bernard fame) has been in the care of Locke’s chompers for at least the last three years. Bernard tells Jack that Mr. Locke came into his office a few years earlier following an accident with another man named Anthony Cooper. After an almost-knowing, “I hope you find what you’re looking for” (where have we heard that before besides from Kate earlier this season?), Jack bids Bernard adieu, now committed to tracking down this Anthony Cooper.
Jack’s quest leads him to a nursing home where he runs into Locke’s fiancé, Helen. She tries to get Jack to just leave it all alone. Of course, he refuses (something he won’t do later on with Jin), so Helen wheels over Anthony Cooper, vegetable edition. That’s why John doesn’t hate his guts in the Sideways world! It’s hard to pull off a long con when you’re brain-dead. Part of me thought the guy playing Cooper might not have had to do much acting to pull off the role this time around. Let’s face it, there have been some moments where the makeup department hasn’t lived up to the standards set by the rest of the show (yeah, 20-year old Ben in “Dead is Dead”, I’m talking about you), so for a guy who seemed so spry just three years ago, to see him so wrinkled and cold-faced was shocking. And kind of satisfying.
After seeing Cooper like that, Jack was stumped, so he heads back to the hospital. He stands by Locke’s bed, deep in thought, confused. Why would this guy refuse his help? Still asleep, Locke mumbles, “push the button”. Then “I wish you had believed me.” Sleeping Sideways Locke’s getting a little dose of Island Locke! Be prepared to have that last one thrown back in your face in a little bit, dude. I think Jack recognized that second mumble too. Just like he looked at the cut on his neck extra hard in “LA X”, and how he couldn’t remember how he got his appendix scar, Jack’s very, very close to having the “Charlie moment” as I like to call it. He’s going to have the crossover. I’d like to make a prediction right here though – Locke has already had it. He just refuses to believe it. Like Jack when he came face-to-face with Desmond in the hatch, Sideways Locke does not want to believe. He’s in the type of place mentally where he would encounter a real life miracle but insist on the looking the other way. He needs to take a leap of faith. He just needs a little push.
In the last of the Sideways scenes, Locke’s rolling himself out of the hospital, eager to leave the notion that he can be fixed far behind. But Jack catches up to him. He’s not going to let this go (no kidding!). He asks Locke one last time why he’s in that wheelchair and this time John caves. He spills it all, every heartbreaking detail. How he was in a plane crash, how he was the pilot, how he asked his father to be his “first official passenger”, how they never got off the ground, how it was his fault, and how could never forgive himself for what he did to his father.
Now, Jack Shephard knows a little something about guilt. And about causing irrevocable harm to his father. He gives it to Locke straight up: his father’s gone. He has to let it go. What follows is a perfect mirroring of their conversation from “Orientation”, one of the best bits of dialogue from a show loaded with memorable exchanges, which went like this –
LOCKE: If it's not real, then what are you doing here, Jack? Why did you come back?
Why do you find it so hard to believe?
JACK: Why do you find it so easy?
LOCKE: It's never been easy! I can't do this alone, Jack. I don't want to. It's a leap of
faith, Jack.
But this time, Jack’s the one urging Locke on, attempting to show a stubborn, struggling man a different way of thinking. He tells him it’s okay to let go. “What makes you think letting go is so easy?” Locke asks. Jack responds with complete honesty – “It's not. In fact, I don't really know how to do it myself. And, that's why I was hoping that…maybe you could go first.” But Locke’s had enough. He says goodbye and wheels away. Jack shouts after him, “I wish you believed me”. Locke pauses, then wheels out the door.
I’ve got goose bumps even now. Whether they’re on the Island or off, original timeline our Sideways, these two men need each other. In the hatch, Locke told Jack that he couldn’t do it alone. In the hospital, Jack asks Locke to show him how to let go. That discussion in the hatch laid some of the first bricks for Jack’s road to inner peace, toward his acceptance of the things out of his control, acceptance of his destiny. Even though it went against every instinct he’d ever had, Jack pushed the button. He took the leap of faith. Now it’s time for Locke to do the same. Once again, Locke needs to show Jack the way. And I think he will.
So a few episodes after the game-changing “Happily Ever After”, we’re not any closer to knowing “the answer” to the Sideways world. I’ve thrown my whole theory about the MIB causing the Sideways timeline and how taking him down on the Island will lead to the collapse of the “fake” Sideways world right out the window. This world doesn’t seem all that bad. And it doesn’t seem like the MIB’s going to be in the mood to give any rewards to Jack in the form of a loving relationship with his son anytime soon. So what is it? Are we going to end the show with two different endings, two different versions of all our characters? That would be odd. I could dig it, but I don’t think it’s likely. Somehow the enlightenment of Sideways Locke will be crucial. I can bank on that. But otherwise, I really don’t have the slightest idea. That’s just the way I like it too. That’s the show Lost has been for six years. I wouldn’t want it to change now.
Time to switch over to the Island action and, boy, was there a lot of it. We pick up with Sawyer and the rest of the Elizabeth crew in the captivity of Team Widmore in the Hydra cages. After Smokey rips through the camp, decimating the guards just like he did Keamy’s mercenary team, Jack hustles over, grabs a key and frees them from the cages. Woo-wee, saved by the MIB! Not so fast my friend. The last piece has fallen into place, the final trap set to fall over that block of cheese. He’s earned the trust of most of the group but, unfortunately for his plan, not the trust of its two leaders – Jack and Sawyer.
After a quick stop at the Ajira plane where the MIB effortlessly disposes of two clueless guards (Shooting the Smoke Monster with bullets? Honestly?) and collects a watch and a brick of C4, he gathers the group and tells them that flying off the Island isn’t going to work. They’re going to have to take the submarine. As he leads the group back to the submarine dock, Sawyer asks Jack to hang back with him for a little chat. Sawyer has no intentions of letting the MIB leave the Island with the rest of them, so he asks Jack to help buy him some time to get everyone sans MIB on the sub. Jack agrees.
The group reaches the sub. The coast appears to be clear. Jack and the MIB wait a beat while the rest charge the dock. Sawyer, Lapidus, Hurley and Sun make it into the sub, while the MIB makes one last attempt to get Jack to leave with him. “Whoever told you, you needed to stay had no idea what he was talking about,” he says. Without hesitation, Jack boldly answers, “John Locke told me I needed to stay,” and shoves the MIB into the water. Just one more of many badass Jack moments this season. And boy did it feel good to see him do that. Enough with the smack talk about Locke already! Jack’s going to prove to the MIB who was right all along.
But before the rest of the group can climb in, shots ring out over the dock. Widmore’s men have arrived (albeit pretty late) to protect their only means of transportation off the Island. Kate takes a bullet in the shoulder. If anything’s going to get Jack on the sub, it’s Kate. He hustles over to her, picks her up, and with the help of Sayid, gets her into the submarine. Before Jack can get out, the sub’s hatch has closed and they’re diving.
Frantically searching for a first aid kit, Jack eventually turns to his backpack. Little did he know the MIB had pulled the old switcheroo while they waited together in the bushes, so instead of first aid, Jack finds the C4 rigged to a stopwatch. Piece-by-piece, Jack began to put everything together. “This is what he wanted,” he starts. “[The MIB] said that he can’t leave the Island without us. I think that he can’t leave the Island unless we’re all dead. He told me that he could kill anyone of us whenever he wanted. So, what if he hasn’t because he’s…he’s not allowed to. What if he’s trying to get us to kill each other?” Sawyer’s not buying any of it. He wants to pull the wires like Sayid said they could (good to see Sayid flashing the tech skills again, by the way). Then Jack drops this doozie (one of many this episode) – “Nothing is gonna happen...James. We are going to be okay. Just have to trust me.”
But Sawyer doesn’t trust him. He can’t. Not after what happened with Jughead. Not after what happened to Juliet. He doesn’t speak destiny. So he pulls the wires and just when you think that maybe Jack was wrong, the timer begins ticking down, double-time.
Loved this scene. Jack giving Sawyer the Locke treatment, Sawyer giving Jack the Jack treatment. It was like looking in the mirror, but this time we’re not in the Sideways world. How many times has Jack been the one yelling “I’m not gonna stand here and do nothing!” while Locke was talking about purpose and the will of the Island? Well, this time it was Sawyer yelling. John wasn’t always right, but this time Jack is.
While everyone else begins to panic, Sayid springs into action. He knows what needs to be done, just like he has at almost every turn. Back in the day, when everyone was looking to Jack as the leader making the decisions, he had Sayid’s clear-headed approach to lean on. Whether on the Island with Rousseau, with Henry Gale, with their trap for the Others or off the Island when he shot himself to save Nadia, Sayid has always been willing to make the tough call. As he told Jack in “Through the Looking Glass”, “I’m willing to give my life if it means securing rescue.” That’s what he does here. He quickly informs Jack about Desmond in the well (See? He didn’t kill him!), tells him “It’s going to be you” then does what needs to be done. He grabs the bomb and takes off down the hall, trying to get as far away from the group as possible. The bomb explodes. Sayid’s dead.
As I (and everyone else) predicted last week, Sayid didn’t kill Desmond. Desmond’s question to him about how he’s going to explain to Nadia what he did to get her back, how he was going to justify his horrible means of achieving a selfish end, touched whatever good there was lying dormant in his soul. Sayid died a hero, plain and simple. Maybe this one final act doesn’t make up for all the people he killed, but it let us know that there’s never a point when it’s time to give up on a person, even when all hope appears to be lost. Just like Hurley said, even Anakin came back from the dark side. Maybe Sayid’s scale was more balanced than Dogen thought.
Speaking of Des, now that we know he’s still in that well, what’s the plan for him the rest of the way? The MIB fears his specialness, that much is clear. But how can Des use his electromagnetic immunities to take down the Monster? He’s immune to knives, bullets, explosions and water; it’s not like Des can shoot electromagnetism out of his hands, and even if he could, who’s to say that would have any effect on him? But once again, we find Desmond below ground, just like his days in the hatch, struggling for survival. It’s time for Jack to play the Locke role again and save Desmond’s life, brotha, so he can save them.
Despite his heroics, Sayid’s sacrifice couldn’t stop the bomb from damaging the sub. One of the other hatches blows off the side, killing Lapidus and sending water flooding in. It’s time to evacuate. Jack hands an unconscious Kate off to Hurley and tells him to swim to safety. He has to stay and help Jin pry away a large cabinet-looking object that’s trapped Sun against the wall. On three they lift it away, only to find that something else has also pinned her. And there’s no moving this one. After Sawyer gets knocked in the head, the stakes are clear. But Jin won’t let Jack stay and let Sawyer die. He urges Jack to save Sawyer. I’ve mentioned the history between these characters, Sawyer’s one of Jin’s best friends on the Island, going all the way back the raft through their Dharma days. They’ve been through a lot. There’s no use in everyone dying in this sub. He will stay and help Sun. Jack knows what comes next, but he listens to Jin anyway. It’s just Jin and Sun left on the sinking sub.
I really thought I was going to lose it watching this next scene. When Jin made the call to let Jack leave, my eyes welled up a bit. Sun kept pleading for Jin to leave, to save himself, but he wouldn’t. He refused to let them be apart again. He tells his wife in Korean “I won't leave you. I will never leave you again”. The Korean hit me the hardest. It was really, really beautiful. She kept pleading, but Jin wasn’t going anywhere. Finally, she embraced him. After one last kiss, we cut away to some shots of the sub sinking with sad music in the background. It was a heartwarming and gut-wrenching scene all in one. We didn’t have to see inside that sub; we knew what was happening. After they both passed away, we were left with a shot of their hands slowly drifting apart. That part was only gut-wrenching.
Sun and Jin were always the couple that weren’t meant to be together. Not “together” in the sense of being in a relationship with each other, but ‘together” as in the same physically proximity. The show continually ripped them apart and brought them together, only to rip them apart again. The raft, the Kahana explosion, the Island moving, again and again we saw these two separated, each time with greater and greater obstacles dividing them. But as Jack’s heavy-handed tomato metaphor in “The Package” taught us, sometimes sheer stubbornness can overpower even fate. Jin and Sun died together, and even though the last image we had was of them drifting apart, of separating once again, it was only symbolic of that stubbornness. Only death could keep those two apart. I’d almost consider it a happy ending for them.
(Quick note, because this isn’t the important part of the scene but in needs to be said: Jack never would have left Jin in Season 1. No way. Again, he’s now recognized the things he cannot change. He’s learning to let go. In “White Rabbit”, Christian told him a story about a little boy who died on his operating table. He says Jack doesn’t have what it takes to deal with that. Well, Jack sure did here.)
I’ve gotta say, I’ve been more worried about Kate getting shot than I would have expected. No, she’s not my favorite character. Or second, or third, or probably even fifth. But at this point, I’ve spent six years with these people. I’ve grown attached. I’ve learned to see the good in all of them. Losing any of them would (and following the rest of the carnage in this episode, is soon going to) feel like a big piece of Lost is missing. Plus, I’ve never for a second felt like there was a chance Kate wouldn’t survive to the end, so maybe it was more shock than anything. But guess what? We’re pretty much at the end. Everyone’s at risk.
This gives me a chance to talk about something that hasn’t been given enough attention – the fact that Kate isn’t one of the candidates. I find this hard to believe, and really a bit troubling too. I guess we don’t know why Jacob crossed out many of the others he had marked as candidates at one time or another, but I think we can assume it has something to do with their “goodness”. I just have a difficult time believing that Kate’s done something so egregious that she has to be stricken from the list. I mean, she’s worse than Sawyer? Really? If we’re considering what everyone’s done since coming to the Island, I think Kate’s as much of a model citizen as anyone. She’s always been there to comfort people like Claire or Sun or Hurley in the hard times. She’s always down for a good rescue mission. And she did the noble thing of leaving behind her life as Aaron’s mother – a life she’d grown to love more than anything, ever – so she could do what was best for him and what was best for Claire. Looking just at her post-815 life, I challenge you to name me one of the survivors who seemed more helpful and kind – who seemed more good – than Kate. You can’t do it.
So why would Jacob take her off his list? I’m guessing this isn’t a recent development, either; Locke told her back in “Left Behind” that the Others weren’t too keen on her joining the group. They said it was because of her past. But you’re going to tell me her past is worse than Sawyer’s? Or Sayid’s? Give me a break. There has to be some other reason. I don’t think they can just sweep this one under the rug. Kate’s to big of a character for us to just accept that she’s not one of the candidates without an explanation. End of rant.
At the end of “The Candidate”, we’re left with Jack, Sawyer, Kate and Hurley alone on a dark, empty beach. A moment of utter despair. Out of all the low points these four have been through both together and individually in the past three years, this is the lowest. All hope is lost for them. It would be for me too if it weren’t for Jack. He feels just like the rest of the group. He’s been beaten down just like they have. But I know that Jack’s now armed with something the MIB can’t take away from him – faith in the Island. The MIB might have been able to prey on John Locke’s willingness to trust the Island, to make him into what he calls “a sucker”, but he can’t do that with Jack. He’s shown him his true colors and they’re as dark and rotten as they come. It’s the man who believes in the Island’s specialness versus the man who says, “It’s just a damn island”. The latter might be impervious to earthly weapons, but the former has all that comes from being chosen as the protector of a place where miracles happen. This week we will learn exactly comes with that territory, what kind of tricks Jack will have up his sleeve when that final encounter between Jack and the MIB finally come to pass. It should be a one hell of a ride.
Until next week…
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