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.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
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…
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
The Last Recruit
Well, the boards my not have liked this one so much, but it sure had me on the edge of my seat. “The Last Recruit” did not focus on one specific character, but rather tied together the loose ends of several of the Sideways stories and reunited the original 815ers for the first time since, well, I can’t even remember that far back. “The Beginning of the End” maybe? We’re way closer to the end of the end now, and the show isn’t wasting a moment. Let’s dive right in.
Confession: I wrote half of this in the couple days after the episode and the other half right before “The Candidate”. Instead of spending the two-week break rewatching the entire season up to this point like I should have, I worked, read a lot, and forgot most of my post-episode impressions that I wrongly assumed I would have no problem retaining. Simply put, I’ve fallen out of the Lost groove. I’m completely out of the rhythm that comes from watching and writing about the show every week. So, if some of this seems disjointed, that’s the reason why. Here’s to overestimating your memory of an hour of TV you’ve only watched once!
“It’s good to have everyone back together again.” That’s how the MIB (why am I getting a stronger and stronger urge to call him Locke by the day?) greeted his camp as a new day began on the Island. As I’ve been saying, the last few episodes have dripped with Jack’s old mantra “Live together, die alone”. But that saying is no longer just a catchy (if not a little cheesy) slogan; it has turned into the dominant theme of the show and the solution to the final conflict of the series.
But first things first: that conversation between Jack and (ah, screw it) Locke. Wow! Just, wow! It sure has been a long time coming. Jack snapped himself out of his state of mild shock, summoned whatever courage he had and sat down with the Monster for a tense freaking conversation that had me biting fingernails, forgoing blinking, and yelping expletives on multiple occasions. I believe “Holy fuck!” was the phrase I shouted when that one was all finished.
As always, the MIB poked and prodded his adversary in his most sensitive places (wait, that doesn’t sound right). “Does it bother you?” he asks Jack, referring to his appearance, attempting to put him back on his heals. Jack does a decent job of standing his ground. He throws it back at him, asking “Why John Locke?” He says it with a hint of admiration for his fallen former-rival. “Because he was stupid enough to believe that he'd been brought here for a reason. Because he pursued that belief until it got him killed,” answered. Maybe it was warning, maybe it was an insult to Jack and his newfound adherence to that same belief, but the words had their desired effect. Now much more rattled, Jack asks him the one question he really wants to ask – one the audience has been asking for years now – “The third day we were here I saw... I chased my father through the jungle... my, my dead father. Was that you?” The answer was yes.
So does the MIB’s admission that he was the Christian Jack saw in “White Rabbit” mean the Christian Shephard case is officially closed? I say no. I take the MIB at his word when he says that he was the one to lead Jack to the caves. But remember, Christian’s body was missing from the casket. Could the MIB have just moved the body in order to mess with Jack’s head? Sure. That’s probably the most likely explanation. But coupling the missing body with other facts that don’t quite jive with the MIB’s story – the differences in Christian’s clothes, his appearances off the Island and sightings of him at the same time the MIB was in Locke form – and I think there’s more to be told here.
Also, it was pretty freaking obvious that the MIB’s appearance did bother Jack. Of course it would! Talk about history; these two have it by the bucket load. First bitter enemies, Locke did everything he could to try to help Jack realize the very thing Jack refused to see, that he was special and the Island was special. Then Locke died and Jack has assumed his role to get everyone back on the Island. Now Jack has some creature that looks just like Locke saying the exact things to him that he used to say to Locke. Jack was reeling. But he didn’t break down. He stayed strong. And that gives me hope for him. I’m more confident in Jack than I have been at any point since “Through the Looking Glass”. This is a guy I’d follow. It’s nice to have him all the way back.
After Jack’s reunion chat with Locke, we get Jack’s reunion chat with Claire, their first since learning that they're actually half-siblings. I don’t think “awkward” is a strong enough word to describe this one. Jack began to apologize for leaving her behind, but Claire cut him off. She was much more happy to see him than he was her, and much more emotionally invested as well. The whole scene made me very uneasy. More on Claire later.
Jack and Claire make their way back to the group, and after an impressive display of precision airstrikes by Team Widmore, Locke tells the group that it’s time to get over to the Ajira plane so they can fly off the Island (to some still unknown location). He sends Sawyer on a separate mission to retrieve Des’ old sailboat and meet the rest of the group on the other side of the Island. Sawyer obliges and recruits Kate to tag along with him. But, always having a plan, he slips Jack a map of the Island, tells him to round up Hurley, Lapidus and Sun and meet him at a rendezvous point a safe distance away from Locke.
Before they can set off, Hurley gets wind that Sayid and Claire aren’t being invited on the 815 Reunion Tour and gets upset. Sawyer tells him Sayid’s not invited because he’s gone over to the dark side. “Yeah, but you can always bring people back from the dark side,” Hurley responds. Cut to Sayid, who’s on a mission from Locke to kill Desmond. Right before he’s about to pull the trigger, Des interrupts. He’s going to try to smooth talk his way out. And while we don’t know for sure if Sayid pulls the trigger, I (and almost everyone else) don’t think he does. Desmond asks Sayid what reward awaits him in exchange for the murder he’s about to commit. Sayid tells him it’s the woman he loved. Des replies, “This woman--when she asks you what you did to be with her again…what will you tell her?” This stops Sayid in his tracks and we don’t see Desmond for the rest of the episode. But I think Desmond’s words effected Sayid just enough to spare our brotha’s life.
Get ready, because as nerdy as this blog usually is, it’s about to get even nerdy-er. Hurley’s line about Anakin wasn’t just a typical Hurley joke. It hinted at a question we should be pondering as we move toward the end of the series – is it possible to be beyond the point of redemption? Let’s take a look at Star Wars for a second, since Hurley was kind enough to point us in that direction. Something that happened when George Lucas tacked the second trilogy onto the beginning of the Star Wars saga was that the series changed from the story of Luke to the story of Anakin. Instead of a classic hero’s journey, it became a tale of redemption. Luke told his dying father that he could feel there was still some good in him, and if even the smallest glimmer of good remains that means there’s hope. And if there’s hope, that means you can’t give up on the possibility of changing for the better.
Apply this to two of our characters who have gone to the dark side: Sayid and Claire. Both have embraced their anger – Sayid over losing Nadia, Claire over losing Aaron – and have answered the call of Lost’s version of Emperor Palpatine, the Man in Black. Does any good remain in either? With Claire, I’d say no. She’s been in too deep for too long. She’s been motivated entirely be revenge for three years now with nary a hint of any other emotion. I can’t trust her one bit after the way she attacked Kate. Darth Vader might have been evil, but he wasn’t insane. Claire has completely lost her mind. I think she’s gone for good.
On the other hand, I think Sayid has a chance. Even after a couple long years playing Boba Fett for Ben, he still had the desire to do good, to atone for his sins, so he joined Habitat for Humanity. He may have accepted that he’s a killer, but that doesn’t mean that he’s incapable of good. Over the past few weeks, it seemed like all hope was lost for Sayid, but I think Desmond’s words for him this week rang true somewhere deep in the recesses of his soul. I am absolutely convinced that he didn’t kill Desmond. He refused the orders of his evil master, just like a certain other darkly dressed murderer did on the Death Star. And you thought that black tank top was just for looks?
Back to the main group. They all meet at the boat according to plan. They set sail for Hydra Island with Capt’n James manning the wheel accompanied by First Mate Kate. Jack’s sitting alone at the bow of the boat, just gazing off into ocean. Sawyer hands the wheel to Kate and walks over to have a word with the Doc. Like Jack and Locke, it’s incredible to think about how much history these two characters have with each other. Both have done plenty at the expense of the other, but at the same time, there’s a bond there that can never be broken.
Two of my favorite scenes of the series involve these two. The first was in “Exodus Part 1”, where Sawyer tells Jack the story about his time at the bar with Christian in Australia, how Christian said how proud he was of his son, how much he loved him, and how badly he wanted to call and tell him that. “Something tells me he never got around to making that call,” Sawyer said. It was something Jack needed to hear, and even though they were nothing but enemies at that point, Sawyer – soon to be departing on the raft – mustered whatever good there was inside him to let Jack know before it was too late. It was the first time we saw this side of Sawyer and it was touching to see a bridge begin to build between these two rivals. The other scene was in “Three Minutes”. After Ana Lucia was killed, Sawyer tells Jack – part guilty, part genuinely sad – that the he and Ana Lucia had sex in the woods, that he didn’t even know her last name. Jack asks him why he would tell him that. Sawyer responds, “Because you’re about the closest thing I’ve got to a friend, Doc. Because she’s gone.” Gets me every time.
So yeah, these two go way back. And that’s what makes some of these conversations this late in the game so compelling – they have a certain gravitas that a conversation from earlier in the series couldn’t possibly have. So, back on the boat, Jack tells Sawyer it doesn’t feel right to be leaving the Island. He tells him he remembers how he felt last time he left, like part of him was missing. He tells Sawyer that the Island isn’t done with them yet (we’ve heard that before!). Sawyer doesn’t want to hear any of this. He’s come too close to leaving the Island too many times and has lost more each time he’s failed to leave. He tells Jack to get the hell off his boat. And Jack does. He tells Sawyer, “I’m sorry that I got Juliet killed,” and he jumps.
I love the choice Jack made to jump from the boat. The way he talked about how horrible he felt when he left the Island and how he was compelled to stay, it was everything Locke felt back in Season 1. The Island made Locke whole again then and it’s doing the same to Jack now. Jack might as well have said to Sawyer what John told him so many years ago – “I’m on my own journey now”.
Over the past few weeks I’ve come to realize how badly I want to believe in all the things that hooked me on this show in the first place. I want Jack to be the hero. I want Jacob to be good. I want the Island to be special. I want all the characters to feel like Locke did and Jack does. We spent so much time hearing about destiny and purpose and what people were “meant to do”, I want it all to be true. I want John to be right. I’m setting myself up for disappointment, I know. But this show hasn’t let me down yet, and I don’t’ think it will start now. I have faith.
I’m only going to touch on the Sideways world briefly, not because I didn’t thoroughly enjoy it, because I did. Rather, it’s because there wasn’t really one cohesive story to analyze. It was basically more of the “Live together, die alone” we saw on the Island. All the characters are beginning to converge – Kate, Sawyer, Miles and Sayid in one place, Claire, Desmond and Ilana in another, Jin, Sun, Ben, Locke and now Jack in another. What’s actually happening here, I have no idea. My best guess is that they’re about to have one big collective flash over to the Island world.
Two things deserve specific mentions. First, Sun’s fearful cries when she saw Locke being wheeled into the hospital at the same time she was. A couple of the plausible possibilities here: either we’re getting some consciousness bleeding from the Island world to the Sideways world and she’s mistaken Locke for the Monster, or somehow she can see through his exterior appearance and sees that this badly battered sack of meat isn’t really John Locke, it’s actually the Monster. I’m betting heavily on the latter.
The other important Sideways scene leaves us with a mirror image of the Island’s closing scene. Locke face down on the operating table, Jack all scrubbed up, one holds the other’s life in his hands. It’s a scene we’ve been waiting for ever since Jack’s “Nothing is irreversible” line in “LA X”. Is this how Jack and Locke will have their “consciousness-altering” moment? What effect will this have on the Island timeline? Will the two worlds merge? Will the shred of good inside the MIB, the part of John Locke that’s been living inside him all this time, finally surface? Are we about to see his Darth Vader-turns-back-into-Anakin-Skywalker moment? Could these questions be any more transparently leading?
All that and I didn’t even get to Sun and Jin’s heartwarming, if short, reunion (it got a little dusty), what Richard, Ben and Miles might be up to (I have no clue, but would have liked to noodle on it a bit), or the MIB rescuing Jack (I don’t think Jack’s falling into that trap one bit). Too much action, but in a good way. Tonight’s episode, “The Candidate” (gah!) promises some heavy-duty awesomeness, so be ready for the usual monster recap next Tuesday. Consider yourself warned.
Confession: I wrote half of this in the couple days after the episode and the other half right before “The Candidate”. Instead of spending the two-week break rewatching the entire season up to this point like I should have, I worked, read a lot, and forgot most of my post-episode impressions that I wrongly assumed I would have no problem retaining. Simply put, I’ve fallen out of the Lost groove. I’m completely out of the rhythm that comes from watching and writing about the show every week. So, if some of this seems disjointed, that’s the reason why. Here’s to overestimating your memory of an hour of TV you’ve only watched once!
“It’s good to have everyone back together again.” That’s how the MIB (why am I getting a stronger and stronger urge to call him Locke by the day?) greeted his camp as a new day began on the Island. As I’ve been saying, the last few episodes have dripped with Jack’s old mantra “Live together, die alone”. But that saying is no longer just a catchy (if not a little cheesy) slogan; it has turned into the dominant theme of the show and the solution to the final conflict of the series.
But first things first: that conversation between Jack and (ah, screw it) Locke. Wow! Just, wow! It sure has been a long time coming. Jack snapped himself out of his state of mild shock, summoned whatever courage he had and sat down with the Monster for a tense freaking conversation that had me biting fingernails, forgoing blinking, and yelping expletives on multiple occasions. I believe “Holy fuck!” was the phrase I shouted when that one was all finished.
As always, the MIB poked and prodded his adversary in his most sensitive places (wait, that doesn’t sound right). “Does it bother you?” he asks Jack, referring to his appearance, attempting to put him back on his heals. Jack does a decent job of standing his ground. He throws it back at him, asking “Why John Locke?” He says it with a hint of admiration for his fallen former-rival. “Because he was stupid enough to believe that he'd been brought here for a reason. Because he pursued that belief until it got him killed,” answered. Maybe it was warning, maybe it was an insult to Jack and his newfound adherence to that same belief, but the words had their desired effect. Now much more rattled, Jack asks him the one question he really wants to ask – one the audience has been asking for years now – “The third day we were here I saw... I chased my father through the jungle... my, my dead father. Was that you?” The answer was yes.
So does the MIB’s admission that he was the Christian Jack saw in “White Rabbit” mean the Christian Shephard case is officially closed? I say no. I take the MIB at his word when he says that he was the one to lead Jack to the caves. But remember, Christian’s body was missing from the casket. Could the MIB have just moved the body in order to mess with Jack’s head? Sure. That’s probably the most likely explanation. But coupling the missing body with other facts that don’t quite jive with the MIB’s story – the differences in Christian’s clothes, his appearances off the Island and sightings of him at the same time the MIB was in Locke form – and I think there’s more to be told here.
Also, it was pretty freaking obvious that the MIB’s appearance did bother Jack. Of course it would! Talk about history; these two have it by the bucket load. First bitter enemies, Locke did everything he could to try to help Jack realize the very thing Jack refused to see, that he was special and the Island was special. Then Locke died and Jack has assumed his role to get everyone back on the Island. Now Jack has some creature that looks just like Locke saying the exact things to him that he used to say to Locke. Jack was reeling. But he didn’t break down. He stayed strong. And that gives me hope for him. I’m more confident in Jack than I have been at any point since “Through the Looking Glass”. This is a guy I’d follow. It’s nice to have him all the way back.
After Jack’s reunion chat with Locke, we get Jack’s reunion chat with Claire, their first since learning that they're actually half-siblings. I don’t think “awkward” is a strong enough word to describe this one. Jack began to apologize for leaving her behind, but Claire cut him off. She was much more happy to see him than he was her, and much more emotionally invested as well. The whole scene made me very uneasy. More on Claire later.
Jack and Claire make their way back to the group, and after an impressive display of precision airstrikes by Team Widmore, Locke tells the group that it’s time to get over to the Ajira plane so they can fly off the Island (to some still unknown location). He sends Sawyer on a separate mission to retrieve Des’ old sailboat and meet the rest of the group on the other side of the Island. Sawyer obliges and recruits Kate to tag along with him. But, always having a plan, he slips Jack a map of the Island, tells him to round up Hurley, Lapidus and Sun and meet him at a rendezvous point a safe distance away from Locke.
Before they can set off, Hurley gets wind that Sayid and Claire aren’t being invited on the 815 Reunion Tour and gets upset. Sawyer tells him Sayid’s not invited because he’s gone over to the dark side. “Yeah, but you can always bring people back from the dark side,” Hurley responds. Cut to Sayid, who’s on a mission from Locke to kill Desmond. Right before he’s about to pull the trigger, Des interrupts. He’s going to try to smooth talk his way out. And while we don’t know for sure if Sayid pulls the trigger, I (and almost everyone else) don’t think he does. Desmond asks Sayid what reward awaits him in exchange for the murder he’s about to commit. Sayid tells him it’s the woman he loved. Des replies, “This woman--when she asks you what you did to be with her again…what will you tell her?” This stops Sayid in his tracks and we don’t see Desmond for the rest of the episode. But I think Desmond’s words effected Sayid just enough to spare our brotha’s life.
Get ready, because as nerdy as this blog usually is, it’s about to get even nerdy-er. Hurley’s line about Anakin wasn’t just a typical Hurley joke. It hinted at a question we should be pondering as we move toward the end of the series – is it possible to be beyond the point of redemption? Let’s take a look at Star Wars for a second, since Hurley was kind enough to point us in that direction. Something that happened when George Lucas tacked the second trilogy onto the beginning of the Star Wars saga was that the series changed from the story of Luke to the story of Anakin. Instead of a classic hero’s journey, it became a tale of redemption. Luke told his dying father that he could feel there was still some good in him, and if even the smallest glimmer of good remains that means there’s hope. And if there’s hope, that means you can’t give up on the possibility of changing for the better.
Apply this to two of our characters who have gone to the dark side: Sayid and Claire. Both have embraced their anger – Sayid over losing Nadia, Claire over losing Aaron – and have answered the call of Lost’s version of Emperor Palpatine, the Man in Black. Does any good remain in either? With Claire, I’d say no. She’s been in too deep for too long. She’s been motivated entirely be revenge for three years now with nary a hint of any other emotion. I can’t trust her one bit after the way she attacked Kate. Darth Vader might have been evil, but he wasn’t insane. Claire has completely lost her mind. I think she’s gone for good.
On the other hand, I think Sayid has a chance. Even after a couple long years playing Boba Fett for Ben, he still had the desire to do good, to atone for his sins, so he joined Habitat for Humanity. He may have accepted that he’s a killer, but that doesn’t mean that he’s incapable of good. Over the past few weeks, it seemed like all hope was lost for Sayid, but I think Desmond’s words for him this week rang true somewhere deep in the recesses of his soul. I am absolutely convinced that he didn’t kill Desmond. He refused the orders of his evil master, just like a certain other darkly dressed murderer did on the Death Star. And you thought that black tank top was just for looks?
Back to the main group. They all meet at the boat according to plan. They set sail for Hydra Island with Capt’n James manning the wheel accompanied by First Mate Kate. Jack’s sitting alone at the bow of the boat, just gazing off into ocean. Sawyer hands the wheel to Kate and walks over to have a word with the Doc. Like Jack and Locke, it’s incredible to think about how much history these two characters have with each other. Both have done plenty at the expense of the other, but at the same time, there’s a bond there that can never be broken.
Two of my favorite scenes of the series involve these two. The first was in “Exodus Part 1”, where Sawyer tells Jack the story about his time at the bar with Christian in Australia, how Christian said how proud he was of his son, how much he loved him, and how badly he wanted to call and tell him that. “Something tells me he never got around to making that call,” Sawyer said. It was something Jack needed to hear, and even though they were nothing but enemies at that point, Sawyer – soon to be departing on the raft – mustered whatever good there was inside him to let Jack know before it was too late. It was the first time we saw this side of Sawyer and it was touching to see a bridge begin to build between these two rivals. The other scene was in “Three Minutes”. After Ana Lucia was killed, Sawyer tells Jack – part guilty, part genuinely sad – that the he and Ana Lucia had sex in the woods, that he didn’t even know her last name. Jack asks him why he would tell him that. Sawyer responds, “Because you’re about the closest thing I’ve got to a friend, Doc. Because she’s gone.” Gets me every time.
So yeah, these two go way back. And that’s what makes some of these conversations this late in the game so compelling – they have a certain gravitas that a conversation from earlier in the series couldn’t possibly have. So, back on the boat, Jack tells Sawyer it doesn’t feel right to be leaving the Island. He tells him he remembers how he felt last time he left, like part of him was missing. He tells Sawyer that the Island isn’t done with them yet (we’ve heard that before!). Sawyer doesn’t want to hear any of this. He’s come too close to leaving the Island too many times and has lost more each time he’s failed to leave. He tells Jack to get the hell off his boat. And Jack does. He tells Sawyer, “I’m sorry that I got Juliet killed,” and he jumps.
I love the choice Jack made to jump from the boat. The way he talked about how horrible he felt when he left the Island and how he was compelled to stay, it was everything Locke felt back in Season 1. The Island made Locke whole again then and it’s doing the same to Jack now. Jack might as well have said to Sawyer what John told him so many years ago – “I’m on my own journey now”.
Over the past few weeks I’ve come to realize how badly I want to believe in all the things that hooked me on this show in the first place. I want Jack to be the hero. I want Jacob to be good. I want the Island to be special. I want all the characters to feel like Locke did and Jack does. We spent so much time hearing about destiny and purpose and what people were “meant to do”, I want it all to be true. I want John to be right. I’m setting myself up for disappointment, I know. But this show hasn’t let me down yet, and I don’t’ think it will start now. I have faith.
I’m only going to touch on the Sideways world briefly, not because I didn’t thoroughly enjoy it, because I did. Rather, it’s because there wasn’t really one cohesive story to analyze. It was basically more of the “Live together, die alone” we saw on the Island. All the characters are beginning to converge – Kate, Sawyer, Miles and Sayid in one place, Claire, Desmond and Ilana in another, Jin, Sun, Ben, Locke and now Jack in another. What’s actually happening here, I have no idea. My best guess is that they’re about to have one big collective flash over to the Island world.
Two things deserve specific mentions. First, Sun’s fearful cries when she saw Locke being wheeled into the hospital at the same time she was. A couple of the plausible possibilities here: either we’re getting some consciousness bleeding from the Island world to the Sideways world and she’s mistaken Locke for the Monster, or somehow she can see through his exterior appearance and sees that this badly battered sack of meat isn’t really John Locke, it’s actually the Monster. I’m betting heavily on the latter.
The other important Sideways scene leaves us with a mirror image of the Island’s closing scene. Locke face down on the operating table, Jack all scrubbed up, one holds the other’s life in his hands. It’s a scene we’ve been waiting for ever since Jack’s “Nothing is irreversible” line in “LA X”. Is this how Jack and Locke will have their “consciousness-altering” moment? What effect will this have on the Island timeline? Will the two worlds merge? Will the shred of good inside the MIB, the part of John Locke that’s been living inside him all this time, finally surface? Are we about to see his Darth Vader-turns-back-into-Anakin-Skywalker moment? Could these questions be any more transparently leading?
All that and I didn’t even get to Sun and Jin’s heartwarming, if short, reunion (it got a little dusty), what Richard, Ben and Miles might be up to (I have no clue, but would have liked to noodle on it a bit), or the MIB rescuing Jack (I don’t think Jack’s falling into that trap one bit). Too much action, but in a good way. Tonight’s episode, “The Candidate” (gah!) promises some heavy-duty awesomeness, so be ready for the usual monster recap next Tuesday. Consider yourself warned.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Everybody Loves Hugo
“Don’t you want somebody to love? Oh, don’t you need somebody to love?”
– Jefferson Airplane
The end is near. You can always tell with Lost. It happens when you reach a point in the season where the drama starts kicking into high gear, every episode kicks your ass, and the scope of the entire season starts to come into focus. Except this year it’s not just the scope of the season but of the whole series. I expect nothing but awesomeness from here on out.
“Awesome” is probably the best way to describe “Everybody Loves Hugo”, not just because of the stomach-turning confrontations, heartwarming interactions, face-cringing expressions, the jaw-dropping cliffhanger, or the soul-satisfying answers to mysteries long-pondered. It’s also the word the title character would use. As usual, there’s a lot to get to. Let’s get started.
On the Island, we join Hurley as he’s kneeling next to Libby’s grave, similar to the start of another episode that I can’t remember off the top of my head. No matter. Hurley tells Libby that things are really getting crazy and that he wishes she were there to help him through it. He wonders why she hasn’t come to see him like so many other dead people have. No sooner had he said it and out pops Ghost Michael. He comes with a warning – unless you want to get everyone killed, you won’t let Ilana carry out her plan to blow up the plane.
Hurley returns to the beach camp and finds Ilana and Richard gearing up for their mission to Hydra Island. Ilana shows Hurley her sack full of extra-frothy dynamite sticks. Remember the dynamite they used to booby-trap the camp for the Others? Clean as a whistle. The stuff that exploded poor Dr. Arzt? Just oozing with nitroglycerin. Well, that nicely foreshadowed what happened next. After a little speech about how she’s been training her whole life to protect them, Hurley, Jack and the rest watch as Ilana casually drops her bag of dynamite and blows to smithereens. Nice knowing ya, hon.
Undeterred, Richard rallies the group to press on with Operation: Blow Up Ajira 316. Hurley reluctantly agrees to go along, convinces Jack, and the group heads out to the Black Rock. On the way, Ben, always the chatty-Cathy, says to Jack, “Kinda makes you think doesn’t it?” Maybe a little off-guard, Jack responds, “What’s that?” “Ilana. There she was - handpicked by Jacob, trained to come and protect you candidates, no sooner does she tell you who you are, then she blows up. The Island was done with her. Makes me wonder what's gonna happen when it's done with us,” Ben answers.
Two things here. One, stuff like this always cracks me up. Here’s Ben, who had Jack locked up, who launched assault after assault against Jack and his people, who has messed with Jack’s head every chance he could get, and he has no problem trying to have a nice little chat as if none of that ever happened. No hard feelings, right Ben? Second thing, I wonder why they chose to have Ben ask that question. He was clearly jealous of Jack and the rest the way he said “you candidates”. Also, hasn’t Ben felt like the Island cast him aside long ago? Or is this further evidence that darkens the line between Jacob and the Island a little bit more? Sure, Ben has given up on Jacob’s purpose for him, but maybe the Island still has use for him. Something to ponder.
The group arrives at the Black Rock only to see it explode right in front of them in a spectacular ball of fire. Somehow Hurley snuck ahead and triggered the dynamite, eviscerating a major Island landmark and sending Richard with one flick of a match. The rest of the group takes it a little better, but Miles presses Hurley on why he would do such a thing. He confesses that Michael told him to, and he’s just one of the dead people who comes back and yells at him. Miles, knowing a little something about dead people, asks “And you just listen to whatever they say?” “Dead people are more reliable than alive people,” he responds.
Does Hurley really believe that? He’s always been a super-trusting person, almost to a fault. But I actually don’t think that’s the important question. We should be asking why Hurley made this decision at all. Hurley has always been the guy who “you can just hop in [his] cab and tell him what he’s supposed to do”. He knows this. He hates being the one making the decisions, being the one with all the responsibility. Remember how he poorly he handled the duty of rationing out the hatch food? The stakes are a million times higher now. That’s why he’s scared. But he accepts the responsibility because he trusts his gut that it’s the right thing to do. Hurley’s learning to have faith in himself.
Richard ain’t too happy about all this all this. His patience has run out. He’s going to the barracks to get whatever grenades and explosives he can find. Hurley has a different idea: he wants to go talk to Locke. He says Jacob’s standing right behind Richard and that’s what he told him to do. Richard calls his bluff, announces that he’s leaving right now and anyone who wants to help him destroy the plane should go with him. Ben and Miles decide to join. They take off into the jungle, leaving Frank, Sun Jack and Hurley behind. All original (or supposed to be original) 815ers. Interesting.
As the gang treks across the Island to meet up with Locke (why do they have to call it that?), Sun and Frank express their doubts about the decision they just made. But Jack does not. When Hurley confesses to him that he didn’t really see Jacob back there, that it was his decision to go meet up with the Monster, Jack admits that he knew that all along. Then he tells Hurley this – “Ever since Juliet died - ever since I got her killed - all I've wanted was to fix it. But I can't. I can't ever fix it. You've no idea how hard it is for me to sit back and listen to other people tell me what I should do...but I think maybe that's the point...maybe I'm supposed to let go.”
I’ve gotta admit, the room got a little dusty for me during this scene. The Island’s been waiting to hear Jack say those words for years now. As he did earlier this season, he admits that it was his fault that Juliet died and he knows that there’s nothing he can do about it, but unlike before, those aren’t just words. Deep down, Jack has accepted that there’s nothing he can do about Juliet’s death, and probably the same about losing Kate, pushing his father away, and not listening to Locke too. I would venture a guess that before the season’s out, we will see Jack confront each of these people directly. More on that last one in a bit.
Seconds later, the group finds themselves in the middle of a storm of Whispers. “Wait. It's cool, I think I know what these things are,” Hurley tells them. He walks a little deeper into the jungle to once again find himself once again face-to-face with Michael. Hurley tells him that he knows that’s he’s stuck on the Island, and it’s because of what he did to Libby and Ana Lucia. The Whispers are those lost souls like Michael who are reaching out to the living from the other side. (Guess I was wrong when I called that one “answered” in the mid-season wish list. Whoops.) When Hurley asks if there’s anything he can do to help him, Michael responds, “Don’t get yourself killed”. You know who else wants to see Hurley alive? The MIB. If Hurley gets himself killed, then the MIB can’t use him to get off the Island, and from Michael’s little comment their, I’d say the MIB’s planning on taking all those whispering dead people with him.
Across the Island, we pick up where we left off last week with Desmond, Sayid and the rest of team MIB. Sayid alerts the Incarnation of Evil that he has Desmond tied to a tree a short distance from camp. The MIB heads over to ask Des a few questions, but Des is having none of it. He’s as calmly defiant as he was when Sayid had a gun pointed at his face last week. The MIB, unsettled by Desmond’s demeanor, dismisses Sayid so he can get some one-on-one time with Des. The two go for a walk.
The rest of the scenes between the MIB and Des had a ring of Ben leading Locke through the jungle in “The Man Behind the Curtain”. We have one character (the main bad guy on the show) leading another (the good guy) through the jungle to an unknown destination with the good guy about to meet an unfortunate end. On the way, they encounter something the audience believes to be Jacob (invisible guy/blonde-haired boy) and by then end, the bad guy’s telling a story about Island history that ends with the good guy facing certain death. But like when Locke was left in the Dharma grave with a bullet in his gut, I don’t think Desmond’s dead. You don’t just throw a beloved character down a well, cut away quickly to another scene and have that be our last image of the guy. Oh no, there’s more story for Des yet.
The MIB makes it back to camp just in time for Hurley to emerge from the jungle. Sheepishly, he asks for the Monster’s word that he won’t hurt any of his friends. The MIB obliges and hands over his knife to Hurley. Yeah, like a knife is the biggest of their concerns when dealing with something that can turn into a huge pillar of smoke at any moment. Hurley calls to his friends that the coast is clear, leading to one of my favorite moments of the episode: Jack walks out of the jungle. He locks eyes with the MIB – John Locke – and gives an absolutely classic look, the perfect mix of anger, fear, and “shit, I’m about to throw up”.
Let’s get to the Sideways world real quick. Loved the Pierre Chang intro. That had me cracking up, especially the part about Hurley’s “lifelong love affair with chicken”. I hope I never have my relationship with food described in such a way. I also thought Carmen Reyes’ little speech to her son was funny, but also critical to the larger theme of the episode. She tells Hurley that he needs a woman in his life and the only reason he doesn’t have one already is because he’s too scared. Fear.
Fear. Often times it’s the strongest motivator in the lives of our characters. Desmond was afraid he could never live up to what he felt Penny deserved. In “Everybody Hates Hugo”, Hurley feared change and that money would isolate him from the people he cared about. We see it again here. Hurley has insecurities about being fat and it prevents him from even trying to talk to women for fear of rejection.
Because he won’t do it himself, Carmen sets up a little date for Hurley. He’s supposed to meet Rosalita at Spanish Johnny’s, a situation that doubles up on references to the Springsteen album, The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle but I’ll leave the dissection of all that to Doc Jensen. I’ll just say I was upset I didn’t pick up on all that myself. But instead of Rosalita, Hurley meets an uber-cute blonde girl named Libby. She says something about believing in soul mates and that she remembers him, but before Hurley can say much, she’s whisked away by Dr. Brooks (who looks like he’s aged about ten years since Season 1, but at least he lost all that Season 4 weight).
Confused and sad, Hurley does what he always does to cheer himself up: he dives headfirst into a family-sized bucket of chicken. He’s lost in that bucket when who comes up to him but the man with order number 42 – Desmond David Hume. Hurley tells him about the crazy girl who told him she remembered him and how she said he should remember her. Well, isn’t that convenient for Des? He tells Hurley that he should try to figure out what she knows him from before giving up on her. That’s just the push Hurley needs. Off to Santa Rosa!
After bribing Dr. Brooks, Hurley gets a little time with Libby at the table next to the Connect Four board. I was hoping for some Leonard action there, but alas, he must have found his sanity in the Sideways world. (Quick tangent: if the Island doesn’t exist in the Sideways world, how did the Numbers drive Leonard crazy? And if they didn’t drive him crazy, how did Hurley play them in the lottery and get rich? I’m not holding my breath on an answer to this one). Hurley confesses to Libby that he doesn’t remember her, but he’s impressed that she had the guts to even come up to him like that. He gets scared just saying hi to a girl. He takes those pity points straight to the bank and asks Libby out. She says yes.
Everyone’s favorite mismatched coupled finally get to have their picnic date! Awwww. And this time he didn’t forget the blankets. Some pleasant conversation, a little cheese, and the two kiss, just like they did at cliff’s edge on the other side. With that, Hurley’s Island memories come rushing back to him. Des watches from his car, smirks, and drives away. Job well done. Onto the next 815er.
With this scene, we see the convergence of fear and love, the two big themes of the episode. Hurley was terrified to go out and meet girls and it was keeping him from being truly happy. Once he overcame that fear, he re-experienced the love that he felt for Libby on the Island and with it came enlightenment. Much like Des and Charlie and Faraday, Hurley’s experience with his loved one, his “constant” if you will, helps him understand himself and his world in a more complete way. That togetherness will allow him to change it and save himself. “Live together, die alone” right? Desmond (Island and Sideways versions) felt this same thing. He was together with Penny, at least in spirit, in both worlds. Armed with the power of love (Huey Lewis and the News, thank you Doc Jensen), he had the confidence and peace of mind to stare down the most terrifying thing of all – John Locke. And he was not afraid. We will see how Jack reacts when confronted with the same man soon enough.
We know how Sideways Des reacts too – he plows into the poor wheelchair-bound bastard at full-speed and leaves him looking as if Anthony Cooper just threw him out of an eighth-floor window. Ben thought he was creeping on the kids, but instead Des was out for blood. Why would he want to take out John Locke in such a crude and painful way? Payback for throwing him down the well on the Island? Was it not really Locke in the first place, but rather the MIB? Or is he carrying on with his mission of “showing something” to all the 815ers, and smearing him all over his windshield was just a means to that end? I like option two the most in terms of shock value, but I’d say option three is the most likely. Either way, it was probably the best cliffhanger since “I’m going to kill Jacob”. I just loved it.
Here’s to an awesome stretch run of episodes. Until next week…
– Jefferson Airplane
The end is near. You can always tell with Lost. It happens when you reach a point in the season where the drama starts kicking into high gear, every episode kicks your ass, and the scope of the entire season starts to come into focus. Except this year it’s not just the scope of the season but of the whole series. I expect nothing but awesomeness from here on out.
“Awesome” is probably the best way to describe “Everybody Loves Hugo”, not just because of the stomach-turning confrontations, heartwarming interactions, face-cringing expressions, the jaw-dropping cliffhanger, or the soul-satisfying answers to mysteries long-pondered. It’s also the word the title character would use. As usual, there’s a lot to get to. Let’s get started.
On the Island, we join Hurley as he’s kneeling next to Libby’s grave, similar to the start of another episode that I can’t remember off the top of my head. No matter. Hurley tells Libby that things are really getting crazy and that he wishes she were there to help him through it. He wonders why she hasn’t come to see him like so many other dead people have. No sooner had he said it and out pops Ghost Michael. He comes with a warning – unless you want to get everyone killed, you won’t let Ilana carry out her plan to blow up the plane.
Hurley returns to the beach camp and finds Ilana and Richard gearing up for their mission to Hydra Island. Ilana shows Hurley her sack full of extra-frothy dynamite sticks. Remember the dynamite they used to booby-trap the camp for the Others? Clean as a whistle. The stuff that exploded poor Dr. Arzt? Just oozing with nitroglycerin. Well, that nicely foreshadowed what happened next. After a little speech about how she’s been training her whole life to protect them, Hurley, Jack and the rest watch as Ilana casually drops her bag of dynamite and blows to smithereens. Nice knowing ya, hon.
Undeterred, Richard rallies the group to press on with Operation: Blow Up Ajira 316. Hurley reluctantly agrees to go along, convinces Jack, and the group heads out to the Black Rock. On the way, Ben, always the chatty-Cathy, says to Jack, “Kinda makes you think doesn’t it?” Maybe a little off-guard, Jack responds, “What’s that?” “Ilana. There she was - handpicked by Jacob, trained to come and protect you candidates, no sooner does she tell you who you are, then she blows up. The Island was done with her. Makes me wonder what's gonna happen when it's done with us,” Ben answers.
Two things here. One, stuff like this always cracks me up. Here’s Ben, who had Jack locked up, who launched assault after assault against Jack and his people, who has messed with Jack’s head every chance he could get, and he has no problem trying to have a nice little chat as if none of that ever happened. No hard feelings, right Ben? Second thing, I wonder why they chose to have Ben ask that question. He was clearly jealous of Jack and the rest the way he said “you candidates”. Also, hasn’t Ben felt like the Island cast him aside long ago? Or is this further evidence that darkens the line between Jacob and the Island a little bit more? Sure, Ben has given up on Jacob’s purpose for him, but maybe the Island still has use for him. Something to ponder.
The group arrives at the Black Rock only to see it explode right in front of them in a spectacular ball of fire. Somehow Hurley snuck ahead and triggered the dynamite, eviscerating a major Island landmark and sending Richard with one flick of a match. The rest of the group takes it a little better, but Miles presses Hurley on why he would do such a thing. He confesses that Michael told him to, and he’s just one of the dead people who comes back and yells at him. Miles, knowing a little something about dead people, asks “And you just listen to whatever they say?” “Dead people are more reliable than alive people,” he responds.
Does Hurley really believe that? He’s always been a super-trusting person, almost to a fault. But I actually don’t think that’s the important question. We should be asking why Hurley made this decision at all. Hurley has always been the guy who “you can just hop in [his] cab and tell him what he’s supposed to do”. He knows this. He hates being the one making the decisions, being the one with all the responsibility. Remember how he poorly he handled the duty of rationing out the hatch food? The stakes are a million times higher now. That’s why he’s scared. But he accepts the responsibility because he trusts his gut that it’s the right thing to do. Hurley’s learning to have faith in himself.
Richard ain’t too happy about all this all this. His patience has run out. He’s going to the barracks to get whatever grenades and explosives he can find. Hurley has a different idea: he wants to go talk to Locke. He says Jacob’s standing right behind Richard and that’s what he told him to do. Richard calls his bluff, announces that he’s leaving right now and anyone who wants to help him destroy the plane should go with him. Ben and Miles decide to join. They take off into the jungle, leaving Frank, Sun Jack and Hurley behind. All original (or supposed to be original) 815ers. Interesting.
As the gang treks across the Island to meet up with Locke (why do they have to call it that?), Sun and Frank express their doubts about the decision they just made. But Jack does not. When Hurley confesses to him that he didn’t really see Jacob back there, that it was his decision to go meet up with the Monster, Jack admits that he knew that all along. Then he tells Hurley this – “Ever since Juliet died - ever since I got her killed - all I've wanted was to fix it. But I can't. I can't ever fix it. You've no idea how hard it is for me to sit back and listen to other people tell me what I should do...but I think maybe that's the point...maybe I'm supposed to let go.”
I’ve gotta admit, the room got a little dusty for me during this scene. The Island’s been waiting to hear Jack say those words for years now. As he did earlier this season, he admits that it was his fault that Juliet died and he knows that there’s nothing he can do about it, but unlike before, those aren’t just words. Deep down, Jack has accepted that there’s nothing he can do about Juliet’s death, and probably the same about losing Kate, pushing his father away, and not listening to Locke too. I would venture a guess that before the season’s out, we will see Jack confront each of these people directly. More on that last one in a bit.
Seconds later, the group finds themselves in the middle of a storm of Whispers. “Wait. It's cool, I think I know what these things are,” Hurley tells them. He walks a little deeper into the jungle to once again find himself once again face-to-face with Michael. Hurley tells him that he knows that’s he’s stuck on the Island, and it’s because of what he did to Libby and Ana Lucia. The Whispers are those lost souls like Michael who are reaching out to the living from the other side. (Guess I was wrong when I called that one “answered” in the mid-season wish list. Whoops.) When Hurley asks if there’s anything he can do to help him, Michael responds, “Don’t get yourself killed”. You know who else wants to see Hurley alive? The MIB. If Hurley gets himself killed, then the MIB can’t use him to get off the Island, and from Michael’s little comment their, I’d say the MIB’s planning on taking all those whispering dead people with him.
Across the Island, we pick up where we left off last week with Desmond, Sayid and the rest of team MIB. Sayid alerts the Incarnation of Evil that he has Desmond tied to a tree a short distance from camp. The MIB heads over to ask Des a few questions, but Des is having none of it. He’s as calmly defiant as he was when Sayid had a gun pointed at his face last week. The MIB, unsettled by Desmond’s demeanor, dismisses Sayid so he can get some one-on-one time with Des. The two go for a walk.
The rest of the scenes between the MIB and Des had a ring of Ben leading Locke through the jungle in “The Man Behind the Curtain”. We have one character (the main bad guy on the show) leading another (the good guy) through the jungle to an unknown destination with the good guy about to meet an unfortunate end. On the way, they encounter something the audience believes to be Jacob (invisible guy/blonde-haired boy) and by then end, the bad guy’s telling a story about Island history that ends with the good guy facing certain death. But like when Locke was left in the Dharma grave with a bullet in his gut, I don’t think Desmond’s dead. You don’t just throw a beloved character down a well, cut away quickly to another scene and have that be our last image of the guy. Oh no, there’s more story for Des yet.
The MIB makes it back to camp just in time for Hurley to emerge from the jungle. Sheepishly, he asks for the Monster’s word that he won’t hurt any of his friends. The MIB obliges and hands over his knife to Hurley. Yeah, like a knife is the biggest of their concerns when dealing with something that can turn into a huge pillar of smoke at any moment. Hurley calls to his friends that the coast is clear, leading to one of my favorite moments of the episode: Jack walks out of the jungle. He locks eyes with the MIB – John Locke – and gives an absolutely classic look, the perfect mix of anger, fear, and “shit, I’m about to throw up”.
Let’s get to the Sideways world real quick. Loved the Pierre Chang intro. That had me cracking up, especially the part about Hurley’s “lifelong love affair with chicken”. I hope I never have my relationship with food described in such a way. I also thought Carmen Reyes’ little speech to her son was funny, but also critical to the larger theme of the episode. She tells Hurley that he needs a woman in his life and the only reason he doesn’t have one already is because he’s too scared. Fear.
Fear. Often times it’s the strongest motivator in the lives of our characters. Desmond was afraid he could never live up to what he felt Penny deserved. In “Everybody Hates Hugo”, Hurley feared change and that money would isolate him from the people he cared about. We see it again here. Hurley has insecurities about being fat and it prevents him from even trying to talk to women for fear of rejection.
Because he won’t do it himself, Carmen sets up a little date for Hurley. He’s supposed to meet Rosalita at Spanish Johnny’s, a situation that doubles up on references to the Springsteen album, The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle but I’ll leave the dissection of all that to Doc Jensen. I’ll just say I was upset I didn’t pick up on all that myself. But instead of Rosalita, Hurley meets an uber-cute blonde girl named Libby. She says something about believing in soul mates and that she remembers him, but before Hurley can say much, she’s whisked away by Dr. Brooks (who looks like he’s aged about ten years since Season 1, but at least he lost all that Season 4 weight).
Confused and sad, Hurley does what he always does to cheer himself up: he dives headfirst into a family-sized bucket of chicken. He’s lost in that bucket when who comes up to him but the man with order number 42 – Desmond David Hume. Hurley tells him about the crazy girl who told him she remembered him and how she said he should remember her. Well, isn’t that convenient for Des? He tells Hurley that he should try to figure out what she knows him from before giving up on her. That’s just the push Hurley needs. Off to Santa Rosa!
After bribing Dr. Brooks, Hurley gets a little time with Libby at the table next to the Connect Four board. I was hoping for some Leonard action there, but alas, he must have found his sanity in the Sideways world. (Quick tangent: if the Island doesn’t exist in the Sideways world, how did the Numbers drive Leonard crazy? And if they didn’t drive him crazy, how did Hurley play them in the lottery and get rich? I’m not holding my breath on an answer to this one). Hurley confesses to Libby that he doesn’t remember her, but he’s impressed that she had the guts to even come up to him like that. He gets scared just saying hi to a girl. He takes those pity points straight to the bank and asks Libby out. She says yes.
Everyone’s favorite mismatched coupled finally get to have their picnic date! Awwww. And this time he didn’t forget the blankets. Some pleasant conversation, a little cheese, and the two kiss, just like they did at cliff’s edge on the other side. With that, Hurley’s Island memories come rushing back to him. Des watches from his car, smirks, and drives away. Job well done. Onto the next 815er.
With this scene, we see the convergence of fear and love, the two big themes of the episode. Hurley was terrified to go out and meet girls and it was keeping him from being truly happy. Once he overcame that fear, he re-experienced the love that he felt for Libby on the Island and with it came enlightenment. Much like Des and Charlie and Faraday, Hurley’s experience with his loved one, his “constant” if you will, helps him understand himself and his world in a more complete way. That togetherness will allow him to change it and save himself. “Live together, die alone” right? Desmond (Island and Sideways versions) felt this same thing. He was together with Penny, at least in spirit, in both worlds. Armed with the power of love (Huey Lewis and the News, thank you Doc Jensen), he had the confidence and peace of mind to stare down the most terrifying thing of all – John Locke. And he was not afraid. We will see how Jack reacts when confronted with the same man soon enough.
We know how Sideways Des reacts too – he plows into the poor wheelchair-bound bastard at full-speed and leaves him looking as if Anthony Cooper just threw him out of an eighth-floor window. Ben thought he was creeping on the kids, but instead Des was out for blood. Why would he want to take out John Locke in such a crude and painful way? Payback for throwing him down the well on the Island? Was it not really Locke in the first place, but rather the MIB? Or is he carrying on with his mission of “showing something” to all the 815ers, and smearing him all over his windshield was just a means to that end? I like option two the most in terms of shock value, but I’d say option three is the most likely. Either way, it was probably the best cliffhanger since “I’m going to kill Jacob”. I just loved it.
Here’s to an awesome stretch run of episodes. Until next week…
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Happily Ever After
“Please don't give up, Des. Because all we really need to survive is one person who truly loves us. And you have her.” – Penny, “Live Together, Die Alone”
After a few weeks of shoddy recaps, I am determined to make this one good. And long. Bullet points are a thing of the past from here on out. Nothing but hard-hitting analysis and cockamamie theories the rest of the way. To kick off the stretch run of recaps for the final season, here comes more than 3000 words on “Happily Ever After”, a truly great episode and a real game-changer to boot. For the first time I can see the endgame coming into focus and can sense the finish line just out of view. Oh, did I mention Des? And Des? And, oh yeah, Des? Buckle your seatbelts. Here we go.
Desmond David Hume has come a long way since Locke, Jack and Kate stumbled upon him in the hatch three Island years ago. His story was defined by the separation between him and his true love, the beautiful Penelope Widmore. Desmond’s cowardice drove him away from Penny. Charles Widmore kept them apart. The story that followed showed how Desmond focused his insecurities about his botched relationship with Penny toward winning Charles’s approval and how he came to realize being with Penny was the only thing that could make him truly happy.
In “Flashes Before Your Eyes” we learn that Desmond once planned on proposing to Penny only to have Charles Widmore reject his request while rubbing a little salt in the wound in the process. He refused to share his expensive MacCutcheon Scotch, instead saying “To share it with you would be a waste, and a disgrace to the great man who made it – because you, Hume, will never be a great man.” Des may or may not have taken Charles’ criticisms to heart, but either way he used them as an excuse to dump Penny and run away.
Des spent the next five years trying to get his honor back. He’d lost the woman he’d loved and he needed to make up for what he’d done. But because he couldn’t have her back, he set out to prove each of her father’s criticisms wrong. He joined the military, where he was slapped with a dishonorable discharge. Next he set out to win Charles’ favorite race, a solo sailing race around the world, but all that did was take him to the Island. There he spent three long, lonely years thinking about how badly he’d messed up, how much he loved Penny, and how she was the only thing that could make him happy. He would do anything to see her again, and if he couldn’t, he would do anything to keep her safe. She inspired him to perform a truly heroic act: he turned the failsafe key and saved the world. Eventually, after many more trials and tribulations, he and Penny found their way back to each other, settled down and started a family. Desmond found the happiness he’d always wanted.
In the Sideways world, we watch Desmond grappling with what it means to be happy once again. In that world, he has already lived up to Charles Widmore’s loftily expectations. McCutchons is no longer too good for him, but rather the type of luxury the he deserves. Slowly, we start to get the sense that even with the job, the world-travels, and all the money, Desmond still feels something’s missing in his life. With a little help from some dead friends and his Island self, Des figures out what that something is.
Let’s get to the story. Last week, Charles Widmore suggested that Desmond was the key to preventing the MIB from accomplishing his goal of leaving the Island. This week starts off with Des waking up in a bed on Hydra Island. He demands to see Penny. Charles tells him that she’s not here, that he’s actually back on the Island. He tells Desmond that the Island isn’t done with him yet, then instructs Zoe and the rest of his dopey crew to get ready to run “the test”. The sight of white bunnies cued me in right away to what was happening – they were going to try to send Des to the Sideways world. Gaah!
Even after the first dope gets fried in the generator room, they throw Des right in and strap him to a chair. Charles tells Desmond that after all this is over, he’s going to have to make a sacrifice. Incensed, Des asks Charles, “Sacrifice? What the bloody hell do you know about sacrifice?” Charles responds with this –
“My son died here for the sake of this island. Your wife - my own daughter - hates me. And I've never even met my grandson. But if you won't help me, Desmond, all of it will be for nothing. Penny, your son, and everyone else, will be gone forever.”
Now, I’m not sure how much of this Charles can chalk up to a voluntary sacrifice. Yes, he sent Daniel to the Island on the freighter, so the first part of his claim certainly has merit. But the part about Penny hating him? Was that really a choice Charles made for the sake of the Island, or is that just a product his general jackass-ery? I’m not sure I know the answer to that question. I will give him this - I did always get the sense that Charles and Eloise were manipulating more of Desmond and Penny’s lives then we were really let onto. Charles might have thought Des was a perfectly suitable husband for Penny but he knew that he had to push just the right buttons to get him to go to the Island and “do the only truly great thing he will ever do”. So Charles had to keep them apart for the sake of everyone, knowing that if Desmond and Penny ever found their way back to each other, he would lose his daughter forever.
So have I had Charles Widmore all wrong? Is he one of the good guys? Before this season, I firmly believed that Charles had been working with the MIB all along, allying with him against Jacob in order to resume his position of power on the Island. Exhibit A: “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” when he told Locke that if the Box Man didn’t get back to the Island “the wrong side is going to win”. Today that all sounds like a bunch of poppycock. Locke getting back to the Island allowed the MIB to assume his identity and kill Jacob. Now Charles is fully committed to taking down the MIB and preventing the end of the world. Something’s missing. Either Charles is just a two-timer, or his usually keen prognosticating abilities failed him big-time. I’m going to side with the latter for right now, but I’m very open to arguments for the former. After all, I’ve always thought Charles was just a selfish ass, so if he’s just playing opportunist now to take back the Island, I really wouldn’t be surprised.
Back to the story. The Dope Brigade turns on the generator, sending Desmond to the Sideways world. Much like with his previous travels through space-time, Sideways Desmond recalls nothing of his other life. He “wakes up” at LAX, exchanges pleasantries with Hurley and Claire, and then gets into his limo. The driver of that limo? None other than 2010 Oscar-winner George Minkowski! Des declines an offer of female “companionship” for the evening, but not before Minkowski points out Desmond isn’t wearing a wedding band. Which was strange, because as the fanatics on the boards can tell you after hours of dissecting “LA X” footage, Des certainly was wearing a ring when we saw him on Flight 815. Seems strange that they would draw attention to this if something bigger isn't going on there. However, I don’t have the slightest idea what that could be. Let’s just make a note of it and move on.
Desmond arrives at his boss’s office and we find out his boss is none other than Charles Widmore. Not a huge surprise there. Charles tells Des that his son the musician has put together a concert combining jazz and rock music for one of his wife’s charity events. It’s Desmond’s job to escort one of the rock stars from jail to the concert. Charles acknowledges that such babysitting is probably beneath the esteemed position that Desmond holds, but he needs a man he can trust to get the job done right. They toast over some MacCutcheon, with Charles telling Desmond that even 60-year Scotch isn’t too good for him.
Cool parallels and stark contrasts abound in that scene! Let’s start with the Scotch. Go back to “Flashes Before Your Eyes”, when Desmond visits Widmore’s office to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage. After Des asked the big question, Widmore sauntered over to his liquor bar, grabs two glasses and the bottle of MacCutcheon, asks Des if he knows anything about whiskey. “No, I’m afraid not, sir”, he replies. Widmore proceeds to tell the story of Andrew MacCutcheon, an esteemed Admiral in the Royal Navy, a great man in every respect. His Scotch was his crowing achievement. To share it with Desmond would be a waste because Desmond, you see, will never be a great man. Stefan’s favorite line in the series “It’s worth more than your life, Hume” fits nicely right here (even though Widmore never actually says that).
Flash back to the “today”. Charles shares his whiskey with Des. He’s entrusted with important work for Charles’ wife and his son. The Jack question would be, “How are these things so different?” But I answer that as Locke: it’s not how, but why? I’m sticking with the theory that Island Charles knew what he was doing when he rejected Desmond’s request for Penny’s hand in marriage in order to get him to the Island. Couldn’t Sideways Charles be acting in a similar fashion? Maybe Charles knows that he needs to keep Des close so one day he would meet is son Daniel, and so Daniel will tell him about his adventures with nuclear bombs, and so Sideways Desmond will know how to save everyone in the Island world. I think I’m on to something here. More on that later.
Des heads over to the jailhouse to pick up the rock star. Nope, it’s not the lead singer of Geronimo Jackson. Ever heard of a band called Driveshaft? It’s Charlie Pace, and once again Des is tasked with taking care of him as he walks straight toward death’s door. This time Des has to save Charlie not from a universe bent on snuffing him out anyway possible, but from Charlie himself. The first thing he did after getting out of jail was wander straight into traffic. Des reels him back in and the two head to a local pub like two good British dudes would.
Charlie starts grilling Des on his job, his life and his happiness. Des tells Charlie, “I've got a great job, lots of money, get to travel the world. Why wouldn't I be happy?” But he said it in a way that sounded rehearsed, like he’d said the same thing to dozens of other people who’d asked him the same question. And really, nobody wants to hear about the misery of a good-looking rich dude, so that’s how Des probably thinks he’s supposed to answer. Charlie pressed him further. “Have you ever been in love?” “Thousands of times,” Des jokes. “That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about spectacular, consciousness-altering love. Do you know what that looks like?” After a few more jokes, it’s clear Sideways Desmond does not know what that looks like. So Charlie tells him.
Charlie tells him about how he died onboard Flight 815. Choked to death. But when he slipped into the darkness, he saw a woman. She was blonde and beautiful. They were together and always would be. Just when he’s about to…something…some idiot pulled him back from it. He’s alive again, but what he saw in that dark place stayed with him. It was real. It was the truth. And he desperately wants to get it back.
Des more or less brushes him off. He just wants to do his job and get Charlie to the benefit. They get in the car. The radio’s on. “You All, Everybody” blares. Charlie tells Des that it was his band’s first single, describes it as the start of everything great. He badgers him some more about his happiness. And then he jerks the wheel, taking the car and Des with him into the marina. Des manages to wiggle himself free, comes up for air, then dives back down to save Charlie. As he approaches the car, Charlie puts his hand against the window just like he did in the Looking Glass hatch. Des flashes to the Island – “Not Penny’s Boat” – then back to the Sideways world. It’s happening. He’s feeling it too.
The next we see Des he’s in a doctor’s office, ready for an MRI. The doctor tells him that if he needs to stop, just push the button. This stirs something in Des. “The panic button,” the doctor replies. The MRI machine fires up and Des flashes to Island – Charlie drowning, Penny, his son. Freaked out, Des pushes the button, yells how he has to find Charlie, and runs out of the room.
He finds Charlie running through the halls in his robe (which looked every bit as ridiculous as it sounds on paper), crying out “None of this matters!” like a crazy man. But this crazy man is right! And part of Desmond knows it. “Who’s Penny?” he asks Charlie, but Charlie doesn’t know. He does know that Des felt something, the same thing he felt. That something will be key as we head toward the finale. More on that after I talk about the geek in the skinny tie.
Desmond heads to the benefit to break the news to Mrs. Widmore (or Ms. Hawking or whatever) that Driveshaft will not be attending the event. She’s fine with it. Pleasure meeting you, she says, and ushers him away. As Desmond turns to go, he hears the man with the guest list say, “Milton, Penny”. This sure gets his attention. Before he can press the man any further, Eloise pulls Desmond aside and tells him that he has to let that go. She instructs him that he has the one thing he has always wanted – the approval of Charles Widmore. He’s not ready for where this road leads him.
Confused and angry, Desmond leaves. Just as he’s about to hop into the limo, Daniel Faraday (now Widmore) calls out to him, says the two need to have a talk. Daniel tells him a story about this woman he saw with the most incredible blue eyes, beautiful red hair. When he saw her, he said, he felt like he already loved her. That night he woke up in the middle of the night and wrote down some super-complicated physics formula. He had no idea what it meant. But Daniel’s a bright guy. He put all this together and figured out that – somewhere – he’d done something wrong, that he’d created something that wasn’t supposed to exist. That red-haired woman made him feel something that gave him hope. Now Desmond was feeling it too. He’d tell Desmond where Penny was. And he better go find her.
Wow. That’s a lot to process. What I take from it is this – this Sideways world is bad. The Island world is good. It’s something real. It’s the truth. And now the Sideways characters are starting to experience that truth. Jack looking at his appendix scar, Claire knowing Aaron’s name, Kate and that stuffed whale – those were just the beginning. Those things are all there to jog their memories of their Island lives. It felt like a fantasy world because it was. The Sideways world shouldn’t exist, and the universe is bringing everyone back together to help take it down. It’s not coincidence – it’s fate. Now Des is taking the next step. With the help of Faraday (like always), he’s going to crack the code and eliminate the Sideways world once and for all.
Back on the Island, Des wakes up from his flash. He asks Zoe when they’re going to get started on that important thing they need him for. She and a couple of the other dopes walk Desmond out into the jungle where Sayid quickly confronts them. He tells Zoe to run, but not before killing the other two escorts. (They didn’t even have nametags. They had no chance!) He tells Desmond that Widmore and his people are dangerous and that he needs to come with him. “Aye” Des responds, a little too calm considering he just had a gun pointed at his face. Something is definitely up with Island Des.
Here’s my theory – I think Island Desmond experienced the entirety of his Sideways timeline and is now armed with the knowledge of exactly how it all turns out. He knows that Sideways Des is going to rally all the 815ers so that they feel the same thing that he felt, that Charlie felt, that Daniel felt. But that’s only half the equation.
I’m still of the belief that the MIB has a hand in the Sideways world or somehow caused it’s very existence. There have been too many instances where the MIB has promised our characters one of their deepest desires only to have that very thing show up the in Sideways world (see, Sayid and Nadia, Sun and Jin, possibly Claire with Aaron). His malevolent influences and the absence of the Island have convinced me that Charlie and Faraday are right – the Sideways world isn’t real, it’s bad, and it was never supposed to be. I refuse to accept that a world without the Island is somehow a better one. It’s a special place dammit!
So Sideways Des is going to rally all the Sideways characters so they can see their (yet to be determined) Island destinies. Island Des, enlightened with knowledge of the Sideways timeline, infiltrates the MIB’s camp. He bides his time until he has to make one specific move in order to bring the whole MIB operation down (maybe the sacrifice Widmore spoke of?). The combination of this move (I don’t know what that is yet, but stay with me) and all the Sideways character seeing their Island destinies will somehow disrupt the balance between the two worlds, thereby destroying the Sideways world and, with it, the MIB. Jack becomes the new Jacob and peace is restored on the Island. Happily ever after. The end.
“But wait! You forgot the only happy scene of the episode!” Ah yes, how could I forget? Desmond drives to Aloha Stadium (or whatever the LA equivalent is), and we get a nice mirror image of the scene in “Live Together, Die Alone”, this time with Penny running the stairs and Des is asking her out. It was sweet, and it gives me hope that even if the Sideways world ends up sticking around, Des and Penny still end up together.
The sacrifice hangs over all this like a dark cloud. I see it playing out much like it did in down in the hatch when Desmond turned the key and saved the world. He didn’t know what would happen, but he took a leap of faith with the chance that he could save the one person that he truly loved. It was heroic in every sense of the word. I’m afraid he will have to do the same thing again, taking the chance that he dies in hopes that he saves the world. But what if this one doesn’t just strip him naked and send him on a short little daytrip back in time? What if he dies?
Aside from maybe Hurley, I can’t think of another character that deserves a happy ending more than Des. He kind, genuine, and has a good heart. He’s one of the few characters whose ending I’ve made up my mind about and would be very upset if it ended up differently. Des needs to end up with Penny. Happily ever after, indeed.
Until next week…
After a few weeks of shoddy recaps, I am determined to make this one good. And long. Bullet points are a thing of the past from here on out. Nothing but hard-hitting analysis and cockamamie theories the rest of the way. To kick off the stretch run of recaps for the final season, here comes more than 3000 words on “Happily Ever After”, a truly great episode and a real game-changer to boot. For the first time I can see the endgame coming into focus and can sense the finish line just out of view. Oh, did I mention Des? And Des? And, oh yeah, Des? Buckle your seatbelts. Here we go.
Desmond David Hume has come a long way since Locke, Jack and Kate stumbled upon him in the hatch three Island years ago. His story was defined by the separation between him and his true love, the beautiful Penelope Widmore. Desmond’s cowardice drove him away from Penny. Charles Widmore kept them apart. The story that followed showed how Desmond focused his insecurities about his botched relationship with Penny toward winning Charles’s approval and how he came to realize being with Penny was the only thing that could make him truly happy.
In “Flashes Before Your Eyes” we learn that Desmond once planned on proposing to Penny only to have Charles Widmore reject his request while rubbing a little salt in the wound in the process. He refused to share his expensive MacCutcheon Scotch, instead saying “To share it with you would be a waste, and a disgrace to the great man who made it – because you, Hume, will never be a great man.” Des may or may not have taken Charles’ criticisms to heart, but either way he used them as an excuse to dump Penny and run away.
Des spent the next five years trying to get his honor back. He’d lost the woman he’d loved and he needed to make up for what he’d done. But because he couldn’t have her back, he set out to prove each of her father’s criticisms wrong. He joined the military, where he was slapped with a dishonorable discharge. Next he set out to win Charles’ favorite race, a solo sailing race around the world, but all that did was take him to the Island. There he spent three long, lonely years thinking about how badly he’d messed up, how much he loved Penny, and how she was the only thing that could make him happy. He would do anything to see her again, and if he couldn’t, he would do anything to keep her safe. She inspired him to perform a truly heroic act: he turned the failsafe key and saved the world. Eventually, after many more trials and tribulations, he and Penny found their way back to each other, settled down and started a family. Desmond found the happiness he’d always wanted.
In the Sideways world, we watch Desmond grappling with what it means to be happy once again. In that world, he has already lived up to Charles Widmore’s loftily expectations. McCutchons is no longer too good for him, but rather the type of luxury the he deserves. Slowly, we start to get the sense that even with the job, the world-travels, and all the money, Desmond still feels something’s missing in his life. With a little help from some dead friends and his Island self, Des figures out what that something is.
Let’s get to the story. Last week, Charles Widmore suggested that Desmond was the key to preventing the MIB from accomplishing his goal of leaving the Island. This week starts off with Des waking up in a bed on Hydra Island. He demands to see Penny. Charles tells him that she’s not here, that he’s actually back on the Island. He tells Desmond that the Island isn’t done with him yet, then instructs Zoe and the rest of his dopey crew to get ready to run “the test”. The sight of white bunnies cued me in right away to what was happening – they were going to try to send Des to the Sideways world. Gaah!
Even after the first dope gets fried in the generator room, they throw Des right in and strap him to a chair. Charles tells Desmond that after all this is over, he’s going to have to make a sacrifice. Incensed, Des asks Charles, “Sacrifice? What the bloody hell do you know about sacrifice?” Charles responds with this –
“My son died here for the sake of this island. Your wife - my own daughter - hates me. And I've never even met my grandson. But if you won't help me, Desmond, all of it will be for nothing. Penny, your son, and everyone else, will be gone forever.”
Now, I’m not sure how much of this Charles can chalk up to a voluntary sacrifice. Yes, he sent Daniel to the Island on the freighter, so the first part of his claim certainly has merit. But the part about Penny hating him? Was that really a choice Charles made for the sake of the Island, or is that just a product his general jackass-ery? I’m not sure I know the answer to that question. I will give him this - I did always get the sense that Charles and Eloise were manipulating more of Desmond and Penny’s lives then we were really let onto. Charles might have thought Des was a perfectly suitable husband for Penny but he knew that he had to push just the right buttons to get him to go to the Island and “do the only truly great thing he will ever do”. So Charles had to keep them apart for the sake of everyone, knowing that if Desmond and Penny ever found their way back to each other, he would lose his daughter forever.
So have I had Charles Widmore all wrong? Is he one of the good guys? Before this season, I firmly believed that Charles had been working with the MIB all along, allying with him against Jacob in order to resume his position of power on the Island. Exhibit A: “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” when he told Locke that if the Box Man didn’t get back to the Island “the wrong side is going to win”. Today that all sounds like a bunch of poppycock. Locke getting back to the Island allowed the MIB to assume his identity and kill Jacob. Now Charles is fully committed to taking down the MIB and preventing the end of the world. Something’s missing. Either Charles is just a two-timer, or his usually keen prognosticating abilities failed him big-time. I’m going to side with the latter for right now, but I’m very open to arguments for the former. After all, I’ve always thought Charles was just a selfish ass, so if he’s just playing opportunist now to take back the Island, I really wouldn’t be surprised.
Back to the story. The Dope Brigade turns on the generator, sending Desmond to the Sideways world. Much like with his previous travels through space-time, Sideways Desmond recalls nothing of his other life. He “wakes up” at LAX, exchanges pleasantries with Hurley and Claire, and then gets into his limo. The driver of that limo? None other than 2010 Oscar-winner George Minkowski! Des declines an offer of female “companionship” for the evening, but not before Minkowski points out Desmond isn’t wearing a wedding band. Which was strange, because as the fanatics on the boards can tell you after hours of dissecting “LA X” footage, Des certainly was wearing a ring when we saw him on Flight 815. Seems strange that they would draw attention to this if something bigger isn't going on there. However, I don’t have the slightest idea what that could be. Let’s just make a note of it and move on.
Desmond arrives at his boss’s office and we find out his boss is none other than Charles Widmore. Not a huge surprise there. Charles tells Des that his son the musician has put together a concert combining jazz and rock music for one of his wife’s charity events. It’s Desmond’s job to escort one of the rock stars from jail to the concert. Charles acknowledges that such babysitting is probably beneath the esteemed position that Desmond holds, but he needs a man he can trust to get the job done right. They toast over some MacCutcheon, with Charles telling Desmond that even 60-year Scotch isn’t too good for him.
Cool parallels and stark contrasts abound in that scene! Let’s start with the Scotch. Go back to “Flashes Before Your Eyes”, when Desmond visits Widmore’s office to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage. After Des asked the big question, Widmore sauntered over to his liquor bar, grabs two glasses and the bottle of MacCutcheon, asks Des if he knows anything about whiskey. “No, I’m afraid not, sir”, he replies. Widmore proceeds to tell the story of Andrew MacCutcheon, an esteemed Admiral in the Royal Navy, a great man in every respect. His Scotch was his crowing achievement. To share it with Desmond would be a waste because Desmond, you see, will never be a great man. Stefan’s favorite line in the series “It’s worth more than your life, Hume” fits nicely right here (even though Widmore never actually says that).
Flash back to the “today”. Charles shares his whiskey with Des. He’s entrusted with important work for Charles’ wife and his son. The Jack question would be, “How are these things so different?” But I answer that as Locke: it’s not how, but why? I’m sticking with the theory that Island Charles knew what he was doing when he rejected Desmond’s request for Penny’s hand in marriage in order to get him to the Island. Couldn’t Sideways Charles be acting in a similar fashion? Maybe Charles knows that he needs to keep Des close so one day he would meet is son Daniel, and so Daniel will tell him about his adventures with nuclear bombs, and so Sideways Desmond will know how to save everyone in the Island world. I think I’m on to something here. More on that later.
Des heads over to the jailhouse to pick up the rock star. Nope, it’s not the lead singer of Geronimo Jackson. Ever heard of a band called Driveshaft? It’s Charlie Pace, and once again Des is tasked with taking care of him as he walks straight toward death’s door. This time Des has to save Charlie not from a universe bent on snuffing him out anyway possible, but from Charlie himself. The first thing he did after getting out of jail was wander straight into traffic. Des reels him back in and the two head to a local pub like two good British dudes would.
Charlie starts grilling Des on his job, his life and his happiness. Des tells Charlie, “I've got a great job, lots of money, get to travel the world. Why wouldn't I be happy?” But he said it in a way that sounded rehearsed, like he’d said the same thing to dozens of other people who’d asked him the same question. And really, nobody wants to hear about the misery of a good-looking rich dude, so that’s how Des probably thinks he’s supposed to answer. Charlie pressed him further. “Have you ever been in love?” “Thousands of times,” Des jokes. “That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about spectacular, consciousness-altering love. Do you know what that looks like?” After a few more jokes, it’s clear Sideways Desmond does not know what that looks like. So Charlie tells him.
Charlie tells him about how he died onboard Flight 815. Choked to death. But when he slipped into the darkness, he saw a woman. She was blonde and beautiful. They were together and always would be. Just when he’s about to…something…some idiot pulled him back from it. He’s alive again, but what he saw in that dark place stayed with him. It was real. It was the truth. And he desperately wants to get it back.
Des more or less brushes him off. He just wants to do his job and get Charlie to the benefit. They get in the car. The radio’s on. “You All, Everybody” blares. Charlie tells Des that it was his band’s first single, describes it as the start of everything great. He badgers him some more about his happiness. And then he jerks the wheel, taking the car and Des with him into the marina. Des manages to wiggle himself free, comes up for air, then dives back down to save Charlie. As he approaches the car, Charlie puts his hand against the window just like he did in the Looking Glass hatch. Des flashes to the Island – “Not Penny’s Boat” – then back to the Sideways world. It’s happening. He’s feeling it too.
The next we see Des he’s in a doctor’s office, ready for an MRI. The doctor tells him that if he needs to stop, just push the button. This stirs something in Des. “The panic button,” the doctor replies. The MRI machine fires up and Des flashes to Island – Charlie drowning, Penny, his son. Freaked out, Des pushes the button, yells how he has to find Charlie, and runs out of the room.
He finds Charlie running through the halls in his robe (which looked every bit as ridiculous as it sounds on paper), crying out “None of this matters!” like a crazy man. But this crazy man is right! And part of Desmond knows it. “Who’s Penny?” he asks Charlie, but Charlie doesn’t know. He does know that Des felt something, the same thing he felt. That something will be key as we head toward the finale. More on that after I talk about the geek in the skinny tie.
Desmond heads to the benefit to break the news to Mrs. Widmore (or Ms. Hawking or whatever) that Driveshaft will not be attending the event. She’s fine with it. Pleasure meeting you, she says, and ushers him away. As Desmond turns to go, he hears the man with the guest list say, “Milton, Penny”. This sure gets his attention. Before he can press the man any further, Eloise pulls Desmond aside and tells him that he has to let that go. She instructs him that he has the one thing he has always wanted – the approval of Charles Widmore. He’s not ready for where this road leads him.
Confused and angry, Desmond leaves. Just as he’s about to hop into the limo, Daniel Faraday (now Widmore) calls out to him, says the two need to have a talk. Daniel tells him a story about this woman he saw with the most incredible blue eyes, beautiful red hair. When he saw her, he said, he felt like he already loved her. That night he woke up in the middle of the night and wrote down some super-complicated physics formula. He had no idea what it meant. But Daniel’s a bright guy. He put all this together and figured out that – somewhere – he’d done something wrong, that he’d created something that wasn’t supposed to exist. That red-haired woman made him feel something that gave him hope. Now Desmond was feeling it too. He’d tell Desmond where Penny was. And he better go find her.
Wow. That’s a lot to process. What I take from it is this – this Sideways world is bad. The Island world is good. It’s something real. It’s the truth. And now the Sideways characters are starting to experience that truth. Jack looking at his appendix scar, Claire knowing Aaron’s name, Kate and that stuffed whale – those were just the beginning. Those things are all there to jog their memories of their Island lives. It felt like a fantasy world because it was. The Sideways world shouldn’t exist, and the universe is bringing everyone back together to help take it down. It’s not coincidence – it’s fate. Now Des is taking the next step. With the help of Faraday (like always), he’s going to crack the code and eliminate the Sideways world once and for all.
Back on the Island, Des wakes up from his flash. He asks Zoe when they’re going to get started on that important thing they need him for. She and a couple of the other dopes walk Desmond out into the jungle where Sayid quickly confronts them. He tells Zoe to run, but not before killing the other two escorts. (They didn’t even have nametags. They had no chance!) He tells Desmond that Widmore and his people are dangerous and that he needs to come with him. “Aye” Des responds, a little too calm considering he just had a gun pointed at his face. Something is definitely up with Island Des.
Here’s my theory – I think Island Desmond experienced the entirety of his Sideways timeline and is now armed with the knowledge of exactly how it all turns out. He knows that Sideways Des is going to rally all the 815ers so that they feel the same thing that he felt, that Charlie felt, that Daniel felt. But that’s only half the equation.
I’m still of the belief that the MIB has a hand in the Sideways world or somehow caused it’s very existence. There have been too many instances where the MIB has promised our characters one of their deepest desires only to have that very thing show up the in Sideways world (see, Sayid and Nadia, Sun and Jin, possibly Claire with Aaron). His malevolent influences and the absence of the Island have convinced me that Charlie and Faraday are right – the Sideways world isn’t real, it’s bad, and it was never supposed to be. I refuse to accept that a world without the Island is somehow a better one. It’s a special place dammit!
So Sideways Des is going to rally all the Sideways characters so they can see their (yet to be determined) Island destinies. Island Des, enlightened with knowledge of the Sideways timeline, infiltrates the MIB’s camp. He bides his time until he has to make one specific move in order to bring the whole MIB operation down (maybe the sacrifice Widmore spoke of?). The combination of this move (I don’t know what that is yet, but stay with me) and all the Sideways character seeing their Island destinies will somehow disrupt the balance between the two worlds, thereby destroying the Sideways world and, with it, the MIB. Jack becomes the new Jacob and peace is restored on the Island. Happily ever after. The end.
“But wait! You forgot the only happy scene of the episode!” Ah yes, how could I forget? Desmond drives to Aloha Stadium (or whatever the LA equivalent is), and we get a nice mirror image of the scene in “Live Together, Die Alone”, this time with Penny running the stairs and Des is asking her out. It was sweet, and it gives me hope that even if the Sideways world ends up sticking around, Des and Penny still end up together.
The sacrifice hangs over all this like a dark cloud. I see it playing out much like it did in down in the hatch when Desmond turned the key and saved the world. He didn’t know what would happen, but he took a leap of faith with the chance that he could save the one person that he truly loved. It was heroic in every sense of the word. I’m afraid he will have to do the same thing again, taking the chance that he dies in hopes that he saves the world. But what if this one doesn’t just strip him naked and send him on a short little daytrip back in time? What if he dies?
Aside from maybe Hurley, I can’t think of another character that deserves a happy ending more than Des. He kind, genuine, and has a good heart. He’s one of the few characters whose ending I’ve made up my mind about and would be very upset if it ended up differently. Des needs to end up with Penny. Happily ever after, indeed.
Until next week…
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
The Package
I liked "The Package" but there wasn't a ton that left me thinking this week (except for the Des-centric preview). It was a really good episode though. Definitely entertaining throughout. It going to be a short recap this week due to my travels to DC to check out GW, so lets get straight to the bullet points.
- The first of four highlights for me this week - Sun trusting Jack. It's been a long time since Jack's had the respect and trust of the group, so it was good to see Sun back on board the Jack train. The contrast between her reaction to the MIB and Jack could not have been more clear; they both reached their hand out to her, but she run from the MIB but grabbed hold of Jack. Loved it. Jack has his mojo back in full-force. I just want to see him driving some of the action once a gain.
- The second highlight was the less-than-triumphant return of Mikhial! I couldn't believe we saw that cycloptic bastard again and I was way more excited than I probably should have been. The bullet to his eye was just the icing on the cake. I let out a chuckle after that one. The universe course-correcting perhaps?
- The third highlight was the return of Room 23. When we first saw this place in "Not in Portland", it was like Easter egg porn for the boards. There was a ton to read into, but not really much in the way of substance or hints to any greater mystery. Still, it was awesome then and it remains awesome now. A nice trip down memory lane.
- The final highlight should be obvious - Des! Des! Des! It's been far too long since our favorite Scotsman treated us to an "aye" or a "brotha", but this week's episode "Happily Ever After" promises to fix that. I couldn't be more terrified of Sayid lurking in the water, ready to do the bidding of the MIB. He didn't try to put a stop to Claire as she attempted to plunge a knife into Kate's throat; I doubt he has any sympathy left in there for Desmond either. He said it himself: he feels nothing. But one big question remains - How is Des supposed to stop the MIB? We know he's "miraculously special" in some way that has to do with time, that the rules don't apply to him. So how does that apply here? I can't wait to find out.
- The Sideways world was interesting enough this week, but unlike the other flashes this year, I felt like it didn't tell a complete story. We're left totally hanging with what happens with pregnant and shot Sun. I can't imagine there's going to be another Jin/Sun episode this year, so we're going to have to find out the conclusion of that story from some other character's flash. I've been predicting for a while that all those sideways stories are going to converge and I believe that now more than ever.
- Poor Sun and Jin. Like Keamy said, they're just not meant to be together. But if we can listen to the newly sage-like Jack Shephard for a minute, his little tomato metaphor suggests there might be hope for them yet. They have been stubborn in their commitment to one another even though all the circumstances in the world have tried to tear them apart. And now they're closer than ever to reaching each other. If they can just hold out a little longer, if they can avoid the seductive persuasions of the MIB (whom both seem rather repulsed by), I think they're going to be okay.
- One last note, and it's just something that popped into my head when thinking about old episodes: We used to explain everything that happened on the Island in terms of the Island's own agency. Now, we almost assume that either Jacob or the MIB are the ones pulling the strings on all the mysterious stuff that happens (visions, etc.). Think back to "Further Instructions" - Locke lost his voice after the hatch explosion. It seems unlikely that either Jacob or the MIB was anywhere near him to make that happen. Same deal with when he landed on the Island in the first place and regained control of his legs. We used to explain these things as the Island's will. We haven't done that in a while. It's just interesting. Maybe we're right to drift away from these types of explanations. But maybe we're wrong. Jacob said the Island acts as a cork to keep evil from spreading around the world. Not him. The Island. I'll predict that by the end of the this story, we will have more clearly defined differences between Jacob, the Island, and the Monster. I just don't know what those differences are right now.
Here's to hoping I'm more inspired to write next week. My guess is Des will have that effect on me. Until then...
- The first of four highlights for me this week - Sun trusting Jack. It's been a long time since Jack's had the respect and trust of the group, so it was good to see Sun back on board the Jack train. The contrast between her reaction to the MIB and Jack could not have been more clear; they both reached their hand out to her, but she run from the MIB but grabbed hold of Jack. Loved it. Jack has his mojo back in full-force. I just want to see him driving some of the action once a gain.
- The second highlight was the less-than-triumphant return of Mikhial! I couldn't believe we saw that cycloptic bastard again and I was way more excited than I probably should have been. The bullet to his eye was just the icing on the cake. I let out a chuckle after that one. The universe course-correcting perhaps?
- The third highlight was the return of Room 23. When we first saw this place in "Not in Portland", it was like Easter egg porn for the boards. There was a ton to read into, but not really much in the way of substance or hints to any greater mystery. Still, it was awesome then and it remains awesome now. A nice trip down memory lane.
- The final highlight should be obvious - Des! Des! Des! It's been far too long since our favorite Scotsman treated us to an "aye" or a "brotha", but this week's episode "Happily Ever After" promises to fix that. I couldn't be more terrified of Sayid lurking in the water, ready to do the bidding of the MIB. He didn't try to put a stop to Claire as she attempted to plunge a knife into Kate's throat; I doubt he has any sympathy left in there for Desmond either. He said it himself: he feels nothing. But one big question remains - How is Des supposed to stop the MIB? We know he's "miraculously special" in some way that has to do with time, that the rules don't apply to him. So how does that apply here? I can't wait to find out.
- The Sideways world was interesting enough this week, but unlike the other flashes this year, I felt like it didn't tell a complete story. We're left totally hanging with what happens with pregnant and shot Sun. I can't imagine there's going to be another Jin/Sun episode this year, so we're going to have to find out the conclusion of that story from some other character's flash. I've been predicting for a while that all those sideways stories are going to converge and I believe that now more than ever.
- Poor Sun and Jin. Like Keamy said, they're just not meant to be together. But if we can listen to the newly sage-like Jack Shephard for a minute, his little tomato metaphor suggests there might be hope for them yet. They have been stubborn in their commitment to one another even though all the circumstances in the world have tried to tear them apart. And now they're closer than ever to reaching each other. If they can just hold out a little longer, if they can avoid the seductive persuasions of the MIB (whom both seem rather repulsed by), I think they're going to be okay.
- One last note, and it's just something that popped into my head when thinking about old episodes: We used to explain everything that happened on the Island in terms of the Island's own agency. Now, we almost assume that either Jacob or the MIB are the ones pulling the strings on all the mysterious stuff that happens (visions, etc.). Think back to "Further Instructions" - Locke lost his voice after the hatch explosion. It seems unlikely that either Jacob or the MIB was anywhere near him to make that happen. Same deal with when he landed on the Island in the first place and regained control of his legs. We used to explain these things as the Island's will. We haven't done that in a while. It's just interesting. Maybe we're right to drift away from these types of explanations. But maybe we're wrong. Jacob said the Island acts as a cork to keep evil from spreading around the world. Not him. The Island. I'll predict that by the end of the this story, we will have more clearly defined differences between Jacob, the Island, and the Monster. I just don't know what those differences are right now.
Here's to hoping I'm more inspired to write next week. My guess is Des will have that effect on me. Until then...
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