5x05: This Place is Death (on-island)

I’ll just say it upfront: I am thrilled that we finally got to see the story of Montand and his arm. Montand himself is a hothead, leading his team on a death march to the radio tower. While Jin agrees to come, you can clearly see the “oh crap, this doesn’t end well” recognition on his face.

And then it happens…the monster comes and grabs Montand in a similar fashion to the way it grabbed Locke in “Exodus”. And as they try to keep him from being pulled into the hole, his arm rips off, which was awesome. Jin saves Rousseau from going down the hole, and…I guess a lot of us, myself included, assumed that the sickness was similar to time displacement syndrome. But Rousseau asserts that the sickness was a result of the monster, and that the people weren’t themselves. Did the monster co-opt Robert and company as we have seen it with Yemi and Christian (or at least we think that’s what’s happened). And of course, we get our first glimpse of the Temple, and Robert asserts that the monster is a security system for the Temple. This is why Rousseau insists “There are no such things as monsters” and that it is a security system to protect the island in “Exodus”. I doubt we’ll see much more of the Temple, as the relationship between the Temple, the Monster, and Jacob is key to the nature of the island itself, and therefore will be a season six issue, I would think.

One question about that scene; Jin saw the black smoke, but Rousseau was killing Robert, so Alex had not even been born yet. So the purpose of the black smoke remains a question to be answered.

I was sad to see Charlotte go; I liked her character, and I think I wasn’t alone in hoping that her expertise in anthropology would help explain some of the island’s history. But if any character had to die, I’m glad it was her and not one of the others. And she did give one final bit of knowledge with her reference to the well. But it was sad to see her declare “This place is death” after her absolute joy at arriving there just a short time ago.

Of course the bombshell is that Charlotte admits she had been on the island and fled with her mother, who insisted the place never existed. She also remembers the strange man who warned her not to come back, which of course was Faraday. I wonder if Faraday warned her mother too, and inadvertently caused Charlotte’s curiosity to be piqued. That was a big theme of the episode tonight, as seen through Jin and Sun’s story--the unintended effects of trying to protect those you love.

So Locke arrives at the well, and proceeds to repel down it just like he did the Hatch in “Adrift”. He ends up in the frozen chamber, and there is Christian. A lot of people have been operating on the assumption that Christian and Jacob are two separate entities, that Christian doesn’t really speak for Jacob, etc. I’m not saying the theory is wrong, but I think its advocates should have been given pause by this scene. Terrible things happened to the island as a result of moving the island--but it was apparently because Locke was supposed to do it. Of course, advocates of that theory will say that we can’t believe anything Christian says. But the question of who was supposed to move the island has always been a good one to ask.

“Say hello to my son”--does Locke ever figure out who Christian is, and is that what really sets Jack over the edge? And since Jack and Locke discussed Jack’s visions of Christian in “White Rabbit” (although Jack never says it was his father, specifically), does that help the process along? I have always considered “White Rabbit” an underrated episode, as it really sets up the man of science/man of face dichotomy and is the first time that Locke professes his faith in the island itself to anyone explicitly. Anyway, I said it earlier, but I can’t wait to see the Bentham flash episode that there surely must be.

Did Locke banish himself by turning the wheel, or has that always been a line of bull from Ben to suit his own devices? The wheel is wobbling, which seems to be causing the flashes; now that Locke has turned it, what will befall the people on the island? How could it get any worse, and yet it must not get any better because action is still needed to save them all. These are the questions that are making Season Five an amazing experience.