5x16 and 5x17: "The Incident, pts. 1 & 2"

Amazing, although I have to say the first hour was better than the second hour. First some quick comments on ancillary aspects of the episode, and then on the amazing Jacob stuff...a Jacob-centric episode. Unreal.

We learn that Eloise is in fact the leader of the Hostiles circa 1977.

How about Rose, Bernard, and Vincent as a happy family, not wanting to be found, happy to have each other even in the face of death, and completely divorced from the internal politics of the rest of the group?

The Jack/Sawyer smackdown was years in the making, but I don't really care. I think both men are acting out of selfishness (Jack admits it openly at Sawyer's prodding, but Sawyer's real motivation is Juliet).

The most important scene in the history of LOST was the opening scene of this episode. It calls back a scene from "Pilot", a scene that perceptive people have been reminding us about since it aired:
LOCKE: Backgammon is the oldest game in the world. Archeologists found sets when they excavated the ruins of ancient Mesopotamia. Five thousand years old. That's older than Jesus Christ.
WALT: Did they have dice and stuff?
LOCKE: [nods] Mhhm. But theirs weren't made of plastic. Their dice were made of bones.
WALT: Cool.
LOCKE: Two players. Two sides. One is light … one is dark. Walt, do you want to know a secret?
In this scene, we see a man in white robe that we learn to be Jacob going about his day, preparing fish, and watching as the Black Rock sails towards the Island. A man in a black robe talks to him, wondering how they found the Island. Jacob says "We brought them here". The two engage in a conversation that will be analyzed a thousand ways to Sunday over the next nine months. Black Robe says, "Do you know how much I want to kill you?", but there is a loop of events that plays out over and over again, and he can only truly defeat Jacob by finding a loophole ("It only ends once...one time, I'll find a loophole"). It also always ends with mortal sin and corruption.

We then see Jacob appear to various Lostaways throughout their lives, sometimes nudging them towards their destiny on the Island, sometimes with seemingly innocuous messages.

1. He bails Kate out of trouble as she and Tom steal the lunch box for their time capsule, telling her not to steal anymore.

2. He gives Sawyer a pen so that he can continue writing his letter to the real Sawyer. But Sawyer's uncle comes and makes Sawyer stop. So is Jacob pure good? No, I don't think so. Jacob is prodding little Sawyer along on his journey that will lead him to the Island.

3. Jacob is the cause of Nadia's death, asking Sayid for directions as Nadia crosses the street alone. Again, not exactly good (nor evil).

4. We see early on that Ilana works for Jacob too. Her team really might be the good guys, despite Frank's comment that "People who are quick to tell you they're the good guys usually aren't". And what exactly is Frank a "candidate" for? Anyway, Ilana is heavily bandaged as if she had radiation burns or something when Jacob visits her in the hospital.

5. He is sitting on a bench as Cooper throws Locke from the window, and may in fact have resurrected him the first time. Interestingly, he is reading a book called Whatever Rises Must Converge.

6. He drops in on Jin and Sun's wedding, telling them not to take their love for granted.

7. He comes to Jack just after the fateful count to five operation, and we learn that it was Christian who taught him that technique. Jacob retrieves Jack's candy bar (Apollo, FWIW), telling him that it just needed a little push...just as Jacob has been doing to all of their lives.

8. He shares a cab with Hurley as he is released from jail, telling him about Ajira 316 and asking him to go back to the Island, while emphasizing that it's his choice. He also tells Hurley that he's not crazy and he's not cursed--in fact, he's blessed. And he gives him the mysterious guitar case, the contents of which we will need to wait until Season 6 to see I guess.

I thought that perhaps the first hour would show Jacob appearing to people and the second might show Black Robe (or "Esau" as some people are naturally calling him) visiting others, and we would see sides drawn up as such. But that didn't happen. It is interesting to consider which Lostaways Jacob never appeared to: Juliet, Miles, Claire, Faraday, Charlotte, Michael, Libby, Desmond, Nikki, Paolo, Boone, Shannon...now obviously many of those folks are no longer on the show and I wouldn't expect to see them back, but for those that still are, it may be noteworthy.

Ilana is clearly freaked out that the circle of ash around the cabin has been disturbed. "Someone else has been using it", and that someone else is up to no good. Specifically, it would seem, that somebody is pseudo Christian speaking on behalf of Black Robe, who it appears is also related to the Monster. And this entity set into action the course of events that would lead to Locke's ascension to the leadership, his death, and the accompanying loophole that eventually enabled him to kill Jacob.

I suppose we are to assume that the statue (Anubis?) is related to Jacob, as the knife sticks the parchment with his image to the wall of the cabin in the manner that someone might throw darts at a picture of their mortal enemy. And the cabin is torched.

Ben and Locke have a revealing chat at the former Lostaway camp (where someone (Sun) finally finds Charlie's ring in Aaron's crib), with Ben admitting that he faked talking to Jacob because he was ashamed, yet was as surprised as Locke when all hell broke loose. Locke goads Ben into killing Jacob by rehashing all of the trauma that he has gone through, and the seeming lack of gratitude he has received from Jacob for it.

It was great to see the Lostaways (and Dr. Chang, somewhat unwittingly although opposed to Radzinsky) all put their differences aside and band together to help Jack. Apparently the "rig to explode on impact" effort didn't work though, and it took Juliet to detonate Jughead. It was a heartwrenching scene as she was entangled and pulled down to her death(?) Also touching was Miles cry of "Dad!" as he saved Dr. Chang (although his hand isn't going to make it as we know). The Incident in general was awesome, and it did truly seem to be caused by the electromagnetism. In other words, Jack's efforts with Jughead may indeed have changed things.

The ending was epic. Ben claims not to know how the statue was destroyed, but neither us nor Sun know whether to believe that or not. We see that Ilana and Co. are not enemies to the Hostiles--while they may not know of each other, both she and Richard Alpert seem to be truly devoted to Jacob. He successfully answers the riddle of what lies in the shadow of the statue, and apparently his Latin translates to "The one who will guard us". But the contents of the crate are John Locke, the real, dead John Locke. And as I suspected, the current Locke is apparently posessed by the Monster/Black Robe.

He continues to goad Ben, telling him that "Things will change once [Jacob's] gone. I promise." Ben doesn't really know what's up as he admires Jacob's hand-woven artwork and listens to Jacob acknowledge that Black Robe has found his loophole. Jacob listens to Ben's sob story, but simply asks "What about you?" and reminds Ben that he has a choice. (People have always pointed out the importance of WANTING to do something on LOST, and Jacob tacitly confirms this. You always have a choice.)

The question about whether Ben is good or evil is finally answered for good. Faced with the choice of sacrificing himself on Jacob's behalf (knowing that if he does not do as Locke says, the Monster will "destroy" him) or casting his lot squarely on the side of evil, he chooses the latter. Ben's actions were always evil, but he had never fully committed to one side or the other until this moment.

As Jacob dies, he tells Black Robe "they're coming". But who are they? Ilana and her people, or the Lostaways who have just changed the story with the detonation of Jughead, erasing Black Robe's loophole? Black Robe kicks Jacob into the fire, Juliet detonates the bomb, and then the title card is inverted. The side of dark has taken control, at least for the moment.

I won't try to analyze everything right now--there's nine months for that. But I will say that "The Incident" has topped "Through the Looking Glass" as the top episode of all-time, and Season 5 has topped Season 4 as the best season of LOST. Let's see if they can do it one more time.

Finally, what was the fork in the outlet? My guess is that it may have been the first scene of the episode.

And in honor of Juliet:

When you're alone and life is making you lonely you can always go...downtown.
When you've got worries all the noise and the hurries seem to help I know....downtown.
Just listen to the rhythm of the traffic in the city, linger on the sidewalk...