"The Next LOST"

With the debut of the new fall shows, it's time for the annual proclamation of certain shows as "the next LOST". Last year it was FlashForward (a bad show that I enjoyed); this year it seems to be The Event (which, from what I saw of the pilot, is just a flat-out bad show).

The notion of "the next LOST' is familiar to sports fans; players are often anointed as the "next Willie Mays" or the "next Michael Jordan". The easiest way to illustrate the folly of this rhetoric is to ask "Who was the first Michael Jordan?" (or "Who was Michael Jordan before Michael Jordan?"). Almost always, the answer to this question is that there was none. True greatness is unique.

That doesn't mean that there were no players of equal value to Willie Mays before he arrived; certainly Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth (and arguably others) were equally valuable players. It doesn't mean that there were no players of equal value after Mays--certainly Barry Bonds has a great case to having been a better player than Mays. However, the key point is that Cobb and Ruth and Bonds weren't really like Willie Mays, except in the degree of their greatness. They all had unique styles, different strengths and weaknesses and personalities.

So there may have been other shows that came along before LOST that you consider equally good, and there may be shows that come after. But there will never be another LOST. Any show that is truly close enough to LOST to be considered the next LOST will not be a great show, because it will be easily recognizable as a ripoff.

Now, there certainly is something to be said for taking the lessons of what made LOST great and applying them to a new show in a unique or creative manner. The shows that have aspired to be the next LOST have not done that at all; they have instead attempted to copy as many LOST characteristics as possible with absolutely no shame.

Consider The Event. I did not watch much of the pilot; for goodness sake, there was a baseball game on. But what little I did see was packed with ripoffs of LOST:

* a tropical Island
* a cliff on the coast of the tropical Island ("Dave", "The Substitute", "The End")
* a plane crash or a potential plane crash
* what sounded and looked like electromagnetic humming

At the end, some creepy woman told the President "They saved us." When he asked who, I fully expected her to say "The Others".

It was said so often (especially in defending "The End") to be considered cliche, but LOST really was a show about characters first. The characters were at the center in Season One, and they were established as the mythology was being rolled out. In fact, it probably wasn't until around the terrific trio of episodes 1x9-1x11 that the true scope of LOST's intricate mythology was even hinted at. Prior to that, there was certainly intrigue (why no one had come to rescue them, the Monster, Adam and Eve), but the mythology explosion had not yet begun. One could even argue that the true blossoming of LOST's mythology didn't come until the first orientation film was screened in 2x3.

FlashForward and The Event have made the mistake of defining their mythology clearly in terms of a single moment. The plane crash which starts our LOST viewing experience is only the latest in a long line of similar events. The plane crash brings our characters into the world of the Island, but the other shows define their weirdness in terms of the initial event, and so there's no time to define characters before diving head first into mythology.

The LOST equivalent would be if the fundamental mystery of the show was not "What is the Island, and what does it want with these people?" but rather "Why did the plane crash?". If the focus of the show was why the plane crashed, then immediately upon arriving on the Island, the Lostaways would have had to begin investigating that. Instead, they simply tried to survive, and gradually became aware that they were on a very special place and caught in some extraordinary circumstances. In The Event or FlashForward, that realization is immediate.

The mythology of LOST certainly made the show for me. The characters were good, and ultimately made the journey worthwhile, but the mythology made it a must-watch every week. If you knew it was going to be an episode featuring a character you really couldn't stand (Charlie would be the best example for me), you still had to watch. It could be an episode in which Charlie has bizarre dreams; or it could be an episode in which Charlie shoots an Other, or in which Charlie swims down to a previously unseen DHARMA station.

The closest thing to LOST on TV today, as far as I'm concerned, is AMC's "Rubicon". Rubicon is nothing like LOST in so many ways, but it has compelling characters and an interesting serial story. It's not good enough to be worthy of the "next LOST" tag, but if a show ever comes along that is, it will look a lot more like "Rubicon" than like "The Event".

Epilogue: The New Man in Charge

As is surely the case with anyone who happens to stumble across this blog, I watched the LOST epilogue "The New Man in Charge" online the day it was released. I actually felt sort of bad about doing it, but has I not, I would have had to avoid any LOST sites or news for two weeks or so, for fear of being spoiled. Accordingly, I have been waiting until the DVD release was official to blog my thoughts on the epilogue, and I have not read much if any of other people's reactions to it.

Bottom line: it was an enjoyable and entertaining piece, one that didn't really provide a lot of new information (for those who were paying attention) but that did well to close the story (at least to the same extent of anyone else in the LOST-verse) of Walt. The epilogue also maintained the right tone; it was meta in spots, but it felt like LOST. Had the material been too overwrought or emotional, had the revelations been too big, it would have taken away from "The End". It also could have been much cheekier than it was, and thus failed as a part of the greater LOST whole. It avoided those pitfalls nicely.

We learn that drones, not planes, are used to make the food drops, and that the men in charge of packaging the food (even formally putting labels on it) don't know where it is going, as the coordinates always change. Ben is closing down the assembly facility, pays them a lot of money to go away, and allows each to ask one question about what the heck is going on (the "just one more question" and "that's all we have time for" elements are so blatantly meta that it almost goes too far). Of course, one wants to know about the polar bears.

The polar bear issue has always mystified me. How could someone watch LOST and still have not understood where the polar bears came from? Did you miss Jack, Sawyer, and Kate locked in polar bear cages? This was a mystery that was solved in Season Three for anyone with a modicum of intelligence, but some people need it spoon-fed to them--they need the scene with Joop smoking his pipe and spilling the secrets of the universe.

So Ben shows them the Hydra station video, and Dr. Chang asks that his identity not be divulged as he doesn't want to resort to aliases. Sorry, Dr. Candle, no can do. There is a caged Hurley bird, which Chang explains is a "hy-bird", and they'd liek to see how they adapt to the properties of the Island. There is a lecture on proper care of the polar bears, with a hilarious shot of a man with a fake arm taking food to them. We also learn that the electromagnetic levels at the Orchid are harmful to any polar bear pregnancies, and that offers some idea of what causes the human pregnancy problems. Perhaps the electromagnetism was not strong enough to complicate human pregnancies until after the Orchid drill team almost tapped the pocket of negatively-charged exotic matter near the frozen donkey wheel (as seen in "Because You Left"). That sits on the timeline after Amy gave birth to Ethan and thus between the last known full-Island pregnancy and birth.

Next we learn that DHARMA is capturing Hostiles and transporting them to Hydra Island for research. They are interrogated, particularly about their origins and the "Island deity they refer to as 'Jacob'". After the interrogation, they are brainwashed with the video in order to wipe their memories of the event.

This does answer a minor question I've always had about the Room 23 video, which is why what appeared to be a DHARMA video included the line "God loves you as he loved Jacob". Now that we know DHARMA was aware of the concept of Jacob, it seems to be an attempt to replace Jacob with the more familiar (from their perspective) notion of God. This also illustrates that they didn't have a great understanding of the Hostiles' belief about Jacob, since he is always referred to as a man and not as a deity.

His work at the processing center complete, Ben heads to Santa Rosa to see Keith Johnson, who of course is Walt. (How cute, Kevin and Keith). Ben tells Walt that he's special and that he has work to do--starting with helping his father. When Walt objects that his father is dead, Ben explains that he can still help him.

They go out to a DHARMA van in which Hurley is waiting. Walt says that he's been hoping someone would come back for him and tell him he's not crazy. Hurley affirms that he's not crazy and that he just needed to be back on the Island where he belongs...and Hurley wants to talk to him about a job. Island Protector in training, perhaps?

You and Me

This morning I happened to get "You and Me" by the Moody Blues stuck in my head. As I turned the lyrics over, a few of them just struck me as being apropos for LOST. I've bolded those and added some comments in brackets:

There's a leafless tree in Asia
Under the sun there's a homeless man
There's a forest fire in the valley
Where the story all began

[I don't think the Heart of the Island is in a valley, but it would very appropriate if it was.]

What will be our last thought?
Do you think it's coming soon?
Will it be a comfort
Or the pain of a burning wound?

[I think of Jack, of course, who had a burning wound but thoughts of comfort as he watched his friends leave the Island]

CHORUS
All we are trying to say
Is we are all we've got
You and me just cannot fail
If we never, never stop

[This brings to mind the live together, die alone ethos and the idea that the Lostaways are uniquely connected to one another through their experience on the Island].

You're an ocean full of faces
And you know that we believe
We're just a wave that drifts around you
Singing all our hopes and dreams
We look around in wonder
At the work that has been done
By the visions of our father
Touched by his loving son

[Hard not to think of Christian, Jack, and the sideways.]

Not Quite Ready to Let Go

This may or may not be my last post on "The End". There are a few things that I want to say, mostly in response to other comments on the finale I've seen:

* The debate continues over whether and to what extent the plot/ending of LOST was known ahead of time, or whether they made it up on the fly as they went. I am completely dumbfounded by the question itself. Now that the show is over, who cares?

When the show was ongoing, it was a question with at least some relevance, because people wanted to know if the show was going somewhere or was doomed to collapse on its own weight. Of course, it was always silly to believe that the entire story could be written ahead of time--that's just not realistic for any work of fiction. But now that the show is over, you don't have to worry about whether to invest your time in it or not. You can view the work as a complete story, and make your own decision about whether its worth revisiting or whether you should try to forget about all the time you wasted on it.

If everything was planned out all along, but you thought it stunk, does that somehow make it better? If they made it up every week, but you found it to be a compelling and moving story, then what difference does it make?

* The final points all deal with technical story points of "The End". One that comes to my mind is the mobisode "So It Begins", in which Christian Shephard tells Vincent to go wake up his son as "he has work to do". We can believe that this manifestation of Christian was the Monster (as it was in "White Rabbit", at least according to it), in which case it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, or we can believe that this manifestation of Christian was somehow tied into 2004X Christian and the work that Jack needs to do to get to that phase. (Or we could chalk it up to any number of things, in which case it doesn't really play into a discussion of "The End").

I don't really have an answer to this--I just think that the mobisode in question is one that people should go back, watch, and weigh in on.

* There were a number of people asking technical questions about how the cork worked, why Jack didn't get turned into a monster, and the like. First of all, going to deep into it takes away the magic of the show, as the producers have said many times. Setting that aside, I thought it was fairly clear. No one was quite certain what would happen if the light was turned off, and what happened was that it removed the source of the Monster's power and caused the Island to go into fall-into-the-sea mode.

Intellectually, I think the connection between the cork and the Monster makes a lot of sense. After all, the Monster was created by being exposed to the energy in the source. It makes sense that with that energy unplugged, he'd become a mortal again.

Others wanted to know why Jack was not transformed into a Monster by being present when the cork was put back in place and the energy returned. I think it's easy enough to chalk it up to the person needs to be exposed to the energy at its full potency to suffer the ill effects we saw in "Across the Sea".

Inherent in the question seems to be the premise that turning into a Monster makes one evil. I think that what "Across the Sea" was striving to show us was that this isn't the case. Jacob and MiB weren't inherently good or evil (although they have made intrinsic character traits that pointed in that direction--MiB's mischievousness, Jacob's honesty), and MiB did not become evil when he became the Monster. MiB's choices that followed--the manner in which he pursued trying to escape his de facto prison--were what made him evil. So even if Jack had been transformed into a monster-like state, there's no reason to believe he would automatically have been Hurley's antagonist.

* Christian told Jack that time doesn't matter here [2004X]. I'll leave it up to the reader to determine how people crossing over from 2004X to the Island timeline could explain many of the weird phenomenon of LOST (think Eloise, appearances of Charlie, Walt, ...)

* Some people believe that the white light of the church was the same as the light at the heart of the Island. I have to admit this never really crossed my mind. There are two (not necessarily mutually exclusive) ways to think about that. The first is that the journey the Lostaways were embarking on together was back to the source, a sort of Eastern concept of a spirit comprised of all souls. The other way is to consider that Jack, by saving the Island, saved the light. So when people warned of everyone dying should MiB achieve his objective, they didn't mean it in a literal sense, but in a spiritual sense.

Questions like this are the kind of thing that might be debated for many years to come, and also have the potential to give the 2004X the powerful meaning that the producers claimed they were going for.

The Day After The End

If the test of an episode is the degree to which it lingers in one's brain, than "The End" has succeeded. It's been less than 24 hours since I saw the finale as I write this, so it hasn't been a long time yet. However, usually by the time the alarm clock sounds the next morning I am ready to move on from LOST, ready to think about other things--always ready to reconsider LOST, mind you, but not trapped into thinking of nothing else. Today is a little different, and it's not just the finality of it all--the episode hit the heart first, and now the impact has matriculated to the brain.

I am going to assume, for the sake of discussion, that the truth of what really happened last night is as I wrote it above: the Island was real, their experiences there were real, Jack sacrificed himself to save his friends, 2004X was a sort of purgatory for them after they died in the real timeline. That seems to be the consensus view, but there is ample room for debate and interpretation. I will need to be convinced to change the outlook just described. I don't suspect that will happen, but never say never dude.

I am still trying to come to grips with the last fifteen minutes of the episode, and whether I like it or not. I don't hate it--I'm just not sure it was necessary. To know if it was really necessary, one must know what it was supposed to mean. And that is open to interpretation.

One common school of thought developing is that, despite the universalist, unitarian symbolism and the sketchy theology, Jack's journey stands as something of a Christian allegory--at the very least, a generic literary Christ figure, whether it carries any specific religious weight or not. I seriously doubt that was the intention of the producers, but there's enough supporting evidence to make a case. Start with the name Shephard itself, and of course the even more obvious name of Christian Shephard (Kate even scoffed at it last night). Jack's wound--in the side, like where the Roman spear was said to penetrate Christ. They even made a point of having him feel it as he laid down to die. In "316", Jack and Ben talked about the painting of doubting Thomas touching the resurrected Jesus' wounds, and it comes full circle in the same church.

Of course the parallels aren't perfect. Jack was unsure of his mission, at least until he was anointed by Jacob. Jack was for the longest time the skeptic; in the end, that makes him both the man of science and the man of faith. Of course, what is the difference between a man of science and a man of faith when the truth, whatever it may be, is revealed? If God exists, and came to you and demonstrated his power and his omniscience, and you believed in him, would that make you a man of science or a man of faith? Both, I'd say, but does it really matter anymore?

I want to get back to that strain of thought in a second, but I need to finish the disjointed thought about Christian allegory. If the true goal of the final scene was to give us a message along those lines (or something similar--it doesn't have to be Christian, it can be derived from any other religion, from humanism, from whatever), then it served its purpose. We'll probably never know the true goal, and it's better that way, but it also leaves the weight of the final scene forever indeterminable.

Because if there is no greater message, if the church reunion is just to leave us with something other than Jack's soul-crushing death, then it falls flat. I don't need it. I don't need a happy ending--I'm okay with Jack (and so many others through the seasons) sacrificed themselves to help save their friends, which ended up being a very small group at the end. I can find meaning and resonance in that myself, without needing to be served a reunion scene in the afterlife (as emotional and beautiful as it admittedly was).

After all, LOST has always stressed the importance of community ("Live Together, Die Alone"), and eventually all of the Lostaways (even Sawyer, who at one time embodied the opposing philosophy of "Every Man for Himself") came around to that point of view, embracing it, living for it, dying for it. It was reinforced in little ways too--"Ride Captain, Ride" being a trivial example that immediately popped into my head. I don't think I needed to see Jack and Kate together again happy to know that it was all worthwhile, that they all lived/died for something (although while I'm not a shipper, I am glad that it was Jack + Kate in the end).

Jacob saw these lonely souls out there in the world, and he was right when he told his final candidates that they needed the Island as much as it needed them. The time they spent on the Island, the connections they made, the relationships those connections led to, and the community they forged was the greatest thing that any of these people have ever been part of. It was special, and it was made so by being trapped in a set of circumstances (read: the mythology of the Island) that are rationally absurd, but make for an amazing yarn.

Getting back to the dichotomy between a man of science and a man of faith, recall that the season two premiere was called "Man of Science, Man of Faith". A lot of people took that to be a reference to the debate between Locke and Jack--but in fact, the producers said it was about Jack. Jack was both a man of science and a man of faith, at different points in his life and to varying degrees of exclusivity. Locke, unfortunately, was too gullible a man of faith, and it led to his downfall.

Locke was also the victim of an elaborate con, the greatest con in LOST history, by the Man in Black (I still can't get over how flipping brilliant I think this was. Some time I'll write a post trying to trace every maneuver in this masterstroke, but for now suffice it to say that Locke was told he was special and desperately searched for meaning). Locke was too faithful to fulfill the mission. It had to be someone like Jack, who only through repetitive exposure and emotional distress could fully embrace the role of Island Protector. Eventually, it made no difference--there was no longer any distinction between being a man of science and a man of faith.

If Seinfeld was a show about nothing, than LOST is a show about everything--and nothing. From what little I have been exposed too so far, a lot of people's takeaway is the opposite of their own worldview. Atheists see a Christian allegory or religious hoakum. Believers see a humanistic but incomprehensible philosophy under-girding the end. Those who care about relationships above all see an end in which no one is happy--nobody, save perhaps Desmond and Penny, end up together in this life. People who think happily ever afters are silly see the ultimate happily ever after--forever together, not in this life but in heaven (after all, fairy tales never tell you that Prince Charming died at age 76, and his widow lived for six years before suffering a massive stroke and wasting away). People who were wrapped up in the minutia of mythology see a cornucopia of unanswered plot threads, but people who were interested in the broad strokes see an answer to what the Island is that might be a little too tidy.

I'm sure that I'm overstating my case here, but I think that the takeaway is pretty sound--there was something for everybody, but everyone thinks the other guy's pet cause was better serviced. In the end, that probably means the writers did their job. The people who aren't tied to one particular view of the show are a much better judge of how well the show did on that score than those whose interest clouds their vision.

6x17: The End (Series Finale)

This is just a very quick reaction post; I'll need to watch it again before I can really give my full opinion, and I'll edit this post as a I go.

I would have liked some more mythology in there, but it was all about character at the end, as promised. 2004X was purgatory of a sort; everyone needed to work through their issues and find each other to move on to the next life, together: Jack and Kate, Juliet and Sawyer, Claire and Charlie, Penny and Desmond, even Sayid and Shannon. Ben is not quite ready to go yet; he's aware, but he still has some issues to work out.

Jack sacrificed himself to save the light, allowing Frank, the now-mortal Richard, Miles, Kate, Sawyer, and Claire to leave the Island. Jack saved Desmond, installed Hurley as the new Island Protector, and Ben became his adviser. Ben urged him to run things differently, and allow people to leave the Island. Presumably Desmond was the big beneficiary of this policy.

Jack made his way back to the bamboo field and closed his eye and died a hero, just as he opened it in "Pilot". He had finally achieved his goal as a shepherd, getting flock off the Island. The tennis shoe was rotted, showing us how long it's been. We don't know how the lives of those that left played out, nor how Hurley and Ben's time as Island guardians went.

But everything was real, and Jack really died. But everyone gets a happy ending, as they all have come together to move on to the next stage--heaven, presumably, together.

Again, it's not my story, so talking about my expectations and hopes is self-centered. I'd hoped for a little more ambiguity. But confirmation that everything that happened, really happened. Awesome. The knowledge that the Island continues on? Comforting. Bittersweet? Check, although I am bummed that Jack didn't get to serve a longer run as Island Protector.

People are sure to say that they were lying about it not being purgatory. I disagree. The Island was real. The work they did there, the character growth they achieved--that was real. And in the end, as Rose told Juliet, Sawyer, and Kate in "The Incident", being together is all that really matters. Now they're together.

Of course there are still questions. Is 2004X a type of purgatory that everyone goes to? Or did someone like Hurley create it so that everyone could be reunited?

If I'm rambling here, it's because my thoughts are all over the map. Perhaps the Island story was underwhelming, but the emotion of the 2004X reunions and the final scene is undeniable. I'll see you in another life, brother.

Or, to sum it up in Twitter length: Short on mythology, but long on emotion. Bittersweet and open to interpretation, clarified by repeat viewing. Yeah, sounds about right.

People will complain about the mythological threads left dangling, but as I pointed out in the pre-post, most of the key mythological questions were already addressed (note I said addressed rather than answered, because no matter what there will always be another question to ask). What was left was a wrapup for these characters. They got it, in the next life--which is a theme that Nadia and Desmond have been hammering into our heads for as long as the show has aired. It also told us this with the clip from "Little House on the Prairie" in "Recon": "Hey, you heard that? Now that's what life's all about. Laughin' and lovin' each other. And knowin' that people aren't really gone when they die. We have all the good memories to sustain us until we see 'em again."

My regret is that I didn't figure out what was up until Christian and Jack talked; I should have seen it when Kate said "I have missed you so much". WEWS in Cleveland is going to be on my crap list for a long time to come.

As I sit here pondering it some more, what Kate said to Jack is haunting me. It's just so damn sad, yet poignant at the same time.

Comments added intermittently the day after, drawing upon the commentary of others (obviously there is plenty of ambiguity to be found; the declarative statements that follow are obviously my take, not a claim of absolute truth):

* Hurley has always been the voice of the audience, and so him becoming Protector was the show's way of passing the torch to the fans. The story of the Island is one that stretches across time, with no clear beginning or end. Handing the reins to Hurley was a way of saying "This is your story, this is your Island now."

* Why was the Island underwater in 2004X? Because the Island only matters in our real world, it doesn't affect the afterlife.

* Neither MiB, Desmond, or Jack was correct about what would happen if the light was turned off. The light turning off started the process of sinking the Island, but it also took away the Monster's great powers. Could MiB have even achieved his off-Island objectives anymore?

* A lot of people think that having a sort of purgatory is a cop-out, a way of circumventing the fact that people figured out that the Island was purgatory during the first season. Possible, but I disagree--there's a big difference between "the Island is purgatory" and "everything that happened on the Island was real, and then they moved on to purgatory". The former makes the whole series more spiritual, but removes any real-world stakes. The latter is a way to provide closure to characters we loved for six years, and for the producers to make a statement about the most important aspects of life.

* It is predictable but still annoying to see people who didn't like the show and didn't watch it weighing in. Many of them seem to have gotten "they died in the plane crash" as the takeaway. Others who didn't watch the show don't understand how emotionally moving it was. In order to get that, you couldn't just watch a few episodes--you had to be invested in the Lostaways and their fates.

Of course there are many loyal fans who have complaints, and that's to be expected. I'm interested in hearing their perspective. I'm not interested in hearing what people who never like the show to begin with have to say.

Series Finale Pre-Thoughts

* I rewatched all five season finales in preparation for the grand finale, then made sure "Pilot" was the last episode I watched. One moment in particular struck me in light of "What They Died For"--the flashback scene from "Exodus" in which Sawyer is hauled into an Aussie police station.

The cop runs down a list of all of Sawyer's crimes and concludes by asking "How do you live with yourself?" Sawyer defiantly replies, "I do just fine", to which the cop replies "Do you?" It is very much like the exchange he had with Jacob last week, and in both cases the authority figure calling him on his bluster seems to land a blow.

Another great moment I hadn't really noticed before, albeit one that is completely frivolous, is in "Pilot". Shannon announces she's going with Kate and Sayid on their hike to send a signal with the transceiver, sparking a heated argument with Boone. The look on Sayid's face as he takes it in is priceless.

* I don't believe that Richard is dead. I think the best evidence of this is MiB's chat with Ben on the porch, in which he says something like "Just the man I wanted to talk to." MiB is done with Richard; he doesn't really care about him one way or the other. He knows that Ben is the malleable one who can be made to do his bidding for the right price, and he simply tossed Richard aside like the now irrelevant pawn that he is (to MiB, at least). I do believe that Richard will die in the finale, as this is what he really wants and would reunite him with Isabella. But not yet.

* Some people are angry that Widmore went down with such a whimper, considering he was once the Big Bad on the show. There is certainly room to criticize the ease with which Chuck folded and told MiB everything he wanted to know, but I disagree with the notion that he was ever the Big Bad. Ben painted him that way, but I don't think he ever was. Ben and Charles are both evil--they both act only for their own side. That means that sometimes they are in opposition to the forces of the light and sometimes their interests align.

* One thing I glossed over at the end of the episode was that MiB's stated intention of destroying the Island called into question the veracity of his promise that Ben can have the Island to himself after MiB is gone.

* Doc Jensen offers an excellent theory on why Jack, Kate, Sayid, and Hurley were flashed off of Ajira 316 while Sun and others were not--they were candidates. Sun probably was a candidate but was crossed off when she became a mother.

* It appears as if the concert is going to be the singular event in 2004X that brings everyone together. I fully expect all the major players to be there, but I'll still list the ones that have an obvious reason to be there and the ones for whom we don't know how or why they will be:

Desmond & Kate--he's taking her there
Faraday, Widmore, Eloise--all main players in the staging of the concert
Penny--Faraday's sis and likely performing as well
Charlie--slated to perform with DriveShaft
Jack, David, Claire, unnamed ex-wife of Jack (Juliet is my guess)--family of player
Hurley, Sayid--obviously Hurley is in on Desmond's plan and will act accordingly, not to mention Hurley is a benefactor of the museum
Dogen--son is likely performing as well
Miles, Charlotte, Dr. Chang--museum employees and family
Sawyer--will probably be corralled into going by Miles, or there chasing the escapees (Ana-Lucia could be there for the latter as well)
Libby--likely Hurley's date

Unclear: Ilana, Boone, Shannon, Locke, Ben, Alex, Rousseau, Eko (don't expect to see him), Jin, Sun, Michael, Rose, Bernard, Frank

Some of the people in the unclear group have never even been seen in 2004X and might not be of any importance.

* The first thing about Season Six that I have a big problem with is the finale title. I have hoped ever since "Live Together, Die Alone" that the series finale would be called "Our Mutual Friend", although using that as the name of Desmond's boat was a blow to that dream. The title is authoritative, but unimaginative. On the plus side, the episode title won't have anything to do with how much I enjoy the episode, and it doesn't tip anything about the content.

* Carlton Cuse did a very good podcast with Bill Simmons. One of the things they talked about was what drew people to certain characters, and during their discussion I realized one of the big reasons why Jack has always been my favorite character that I'd never considered: Jack's journey with regard to science and faith with respect to the show mirrors my own. At the beginning of the show, Jack is always searching for rational explanations for everything that happens on the Island. And I too thought the show would be better if it was explained by pseudo-science rather than deus ex machina and light caves and the like. But as the show progressed, Jack began to accept that there were forces at work that could not be explained rationally, and I began to embrace these elements of the show even more. Now Jack is all in, drinking the stream water and accepting the role of Island Protector. Sign me up.

* Last year I used the pre-finale post to predict how the finale would go down. It was a ridiculous exercise, and the prediction was as off as possible (Desmond or Ray Shephard = Jacob is the highlight, but the whole thing is a train wreck). So just for kicks I'm going to do it again.

MiB will execute a two-pronged assault on the Jacobians. First, he'll dispatch Ben to try to assassinate Jack. Ben will succeed in stabbing Jack in the throat, Keamy-style, but Jack will not die and Ben will see the error of his ways, somehow sacrificing his life to allow the remaining candidates to escape. Meanwhile, MiB will capture Desmond and take him with him to the light cave.

In the course of running through the jungle, Miles will stumble across the caves, and read the thoughts of MiB and Mother. This will give him an insight into how to kill MiB which he will eventually relay to the candidates.

In 2004X, everyone will arrive at the concert, leading to Eloise Hawking having some sort of fit. Something she says will trigger a mass Island awakening among all of the appropriate parties. At that moment, their consciousness will travel to the Island timeline and imbue their doppelgangers with key information. Some of the deceased folks will appear as a whisper chorus, and they will help guide the candidates on their way. 2004X will be revealed to be a scheme hatched by Eloise to bring her son back to life, but will ultimately collapse as the key players in the universe realize their true destiny lies in the Island timeline.

With all of this information at their disposal, the candidates will be able to defeat MiB once and for all in a climactic showdown at the light cave. Sawyer and Desmond will both sacrifice themselves in the course of this struggle.

That will leave Kate, Jack, and Hurley among the major Lostaways. Jack will be healed after the 2004X awakening, and will use his newfound powers to allow Miles and Claire to return to the real world and Richard to be released from his duties and his immortality. He will leave out the rest of his years in a peaceful Island existence. Jack will then allow Hurley to make a choice--leave the Island, accept a job as his Richard-like advisor, or remain mortal but choose to stay on the Island. Hurley will choose the latter and start a new Island society, but one devoted to living peacefully in this newfound tropical paradise rather than servicing a shadowy agenda. Since Jack can now make his own rules, he'll tab Kate to serve as his co-guardian of the Island.

The preceding faux-episode summary is the perfect encapsulation of why I am a sabermetrician for kicks, not an aspiring fiction writer. It also is offered in the spirit of enjoying what Damon and Carlton have planned for us--it may not be what you expect or what you want, but it will be a helluva lot better than whatever the average internet hack dreams up.

* To address the broader issue of what the show should resolve in the finale, I have to say that I am already satisfied with the mysteries that have been resolved this season. Before the season I made a list of the essential questions that LOST needed to address, and said "If most of those questions are addressed adequately, then I will be very satisfied with LOST." Those questions were:

1. What is the true nature of the Jacob/Black Robe conflict? Good v. Evil? Shades of gray? Are they gods, demigods, ageless mortals in the mold of Alpert?

Obviously there is more that could be mined out of this, but I'd chalk this up as answered. It's good v. evil with shades of gray, but they are not inherently good and evil--they chose those paths themselves. Jacob is an ageless mortal, MiB is actually the Monster.

2. What destroyed the statue? Was it related to the pregnancy problems? And if not, what caused those?

Half-answered; the tsunami that brought in the Black Rock destroyed the statue, and it was apparently not related to the pregnancy problems, which are presumably not going to be addressed.

3. What is the history of the Hostiles/Others? Are they simply the people Jacob has drawn to the Island? What is their mission, and what is the Temple?

Largely answered--the Others are the people Jacob has drawn to the Island, apparently dating back to the arrival of the Black Rock. We don't exactly know what their mission is, but that's appropriate because they don't either. The Temple got plenty of screentime.

4. What are the Whispers?

Answered--the whispers are the voices of Island dead who can't move on, personified for us in "Everyboyd Loves Hugo" by Michael.

5. Who are Adam and Eve?

Answered--Adam is the mortal body of MiB, and Eve is the body of his "adoptive" mother, who he killed. They were laid to rest by Jacob.

6. What is the Monster? More specifically, I don't need to know how a cloud of black smoke is sentient; I just need to understand its relationship to other forces on the Island and what it is judging? What is its moral code, so to speak?

Answered--it and the MiB are one, its mission is to escape the Island, and it was created by the MiB being thrown into the light cave.

Six questions I wanted answered, and for the most part they have been. While we don't have complete answers for all of them, elements of each have at least been touched on. None of them have been completely ignored.

Season Six has raised other questions of course, but only one that would be able to stand aside the big six. That is the nature of 2004X and it's relationship to the Island timeline. That is, by default, the major question which the finale must resolve, and I have full confidence that it will be crucial to the outcome of the story.

* Leaving aside ridiculous predictions about what the end of LOST will be, what should it be? I believe that it should be true to the nature of the show. I'd like to believe that all LOST fans could agree that the end of the show should be true to the nature of the show in its entirety.

That still leaves it up for the individual fan to define what makes LOST tick. For me, the greatest characteristic of LOST is intrigue and mystery. I know the producers like to say that it's a character-driven show, and I understand what they mean by it and why they view it that way. I don't think there's any conflict, though, between having a satisfying end to the character's journey and continuing to foster mystery.

The very best endings to LOST episodes are the ones that make you say "What the heck did I just watch", the ones that make you reconsider a dozen other things that have happened in a new light. Scenes like Jack's flashforward, Sayid working for Ben off-Island, the numbers being embossed on the side of the hatch.

LOST is also a show steeped in ambiguity. This season we've been getting a lot of exposition scenes in which a mystery is explained (ex. Michael confirming Hurley's theory about the Whispers, Jacob's fireside chat with his candidates). That's fine, and necessary in some cases, but it's not the trademark way in which LOST resolves mysteries. LOST is a puzzle that the viewer needs to piece together himself for it to reach maximum efficacy. As long as the TPTB give us the picture on the front of the box and don't hide too many of the pieces, we'll be okay. It's more fun that way.

Finally, LOST is a bittersweet show. There haven't been a lot of happy endings so far, but there have been satisfying endings--endings achieved after a character has made real strides, endings that allow us to feel good about that person's life again (Sayid is a classic example). LOST shouldn't end as a barren wasteland of despair, but it also shouldn't have a syrupy-sweet ending. Some shows demand such an end and don't get it; LOST is not one of them.

So at 11:30 tonight, I'd like to feel conflicted--satisfied but not happy, and wondering whether I wasted 119 hours of my life (just on first viewings). Because if I never spend another hour thinking about the implications of the show, I know I will have wasted 119 hours.

In that vein, there are a lot of things to be said about the show as a whole and its legacy, but I'll save that for after the finale when there's nothing else left to write about.

Remember, it only ends once--anything that's happened before that is just progress.

6x16: What They Died For

In the tradition of "Greatest Hits" and "Follow the Leader", this was a set-up episode for the finale. It did a great job in that role, and it contained some mythological exposition that may be one of the last major doses of mythology we get. I expect an action-packed finale, more in the vein of "Through the Looking Glass" or "There's No Place Like Home" as opposed to the more mythologically-heavy "Live Together, Die Alone" and "The Incident".

2004X

The episode opens with Jack's eye ("Pilot" also opened with his eye), but it's X-Jack waking up. He gazes in the mirror, where his cut is once again festering. He's interrupted by David, who has made breakfast (poured cereal, actually). He wants to know if Jack will be coming to his concert, and Jack wants to know if his mother will be there. This causes David to get concerned about Jack being weird, and Jack assures him he won't be. Claire shows up, and they all eat their cereal in a cute family scene until the phone rings. It's ostensibly Oceanic, telling Jack they've found his father's coffin, but we see that it is actually Desmond.

Locke arrives at school, back to work after his recovery. Desmond is there too, staring from behind the wheel. Ben spots him and makes a lame attempt at a citizen's arrest before Desmond gets out of the car and pummels him. Ben says he's not going to let him hurt Mr. Locke, but Desmond says he's not there to hurt him, he's there to help him let go. During the beatdown, Ben gets flashes of Island reality, as this mirrors their confrontation in "Dead is Dead". Desmond drives off.

Ben still is a little prickly, as he corrects the nurse that it's "Doctor", not "Mister" Linus. He looks at himself in the mirror, and Locke comes in to see him. He relates what happened, and just as Locke dials the cops, Ben tells him about what Desmond said about letting go, and that he believed him. It seems to hit Locke hard and he doesn't go through with his call.

It would have been wasted effort in any event, as Desmond shows up at the police station to turn himself in (as Sawyer and Miles discuss the benefit concert for his father's museum, and whether Sawyer will attend). He's extremely calm and confident as he's put in a cell with Sayid, next to Kate.

Ben is leaving school for the day when Alex spots him; she's concerned about his condition and insists that he allow her and her mother to give him a ride. And hello Danielle, as Ben is also invited for dinner. After dinner, Alex works on her homework (using a plain Bic mechanical pencil, the kind I swear by), and Ben inquires about her father. Danielle says he died when she was two, and that Ben is the closest thing to a father she ever had. Ben is touched by this, and chalks up his tears to the onions. Danielle promises to use less--next time. If you thought Sawyer/Juliet or Sawyer/Charlotte was the oddest coupling in LOST history, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Locke arrives at Jack's office, recounting the series of events, beginning with Oceanic 815, that have pushed them together. When he talks about Desmond's alleged mission, Jack thinks that he's accusing him of orchestrating the hit-and-run. That's not what Locke was going for, but he does think that these things might be happening for a reason. Jack says he's mistaking coincidence for fate, but Locke says that whatever the case may be (that's the only LOST catchphrase recounted in this paragraph that wasn't actually used in their conversation), he's ready to get out of his chair.

At the police station, the inmates are all about to be moved to county. Kate appeals to Sawyer to let her go, as she knows he believes she's innocent, but he says he's a cop and he can't do that. Kate says that he doesn't look like a cop to her.

As the three jailbirds ride in the van, Desmond says it seems like it's time to go. He asks if they will come with him when the van stops; they have to agree to do something, though. Both Sayid and a highly skeptical Kate take him up on his offer, and sure enough, the van stops. Ana-Lucia lets them out, and wants to know where her money is. They're at a large commercial dock (not the picturesque marina we came to know and love in Season Five), and Hurley rolls up in his Hummer to pay Ana Lucia $125,000. He says hi to her, but she doesn't know him. Desmond explains to Hurley that she's not coming with them as she's not ready yet (obviously at this point Hurley is fully with Desmond in the Island awareness camp). Sayid goes with Hurley, while Desmond has a slinky dress for Kate to wear--they're going to a concert.

Ben & Co.

Ben, Richard, and Miles are on their way to the Barracks to retrieve the C4. Ben and Miles trade barbs about their route, the length of time they lived in the Barracks, and how long it's been. Miles goes into his dead zone trance, and Richard explains that this is the spot where he buried Alex. The C4 is in Ben's secret room, where Miles sees the hieroglyphic door and asks, "What's this, a secreter room?" Ben explains that it's where he was told he could summon the Monster--before he realized the Monster was actually summoning him. Ben gets the C4, and asks Richard, the creator of the plan, how much they need. The consensus answer is "enough to blow the plane to hell".

They hear rustling, and go out to find Zoe going through the kitchen cabinets. Widmore emerges shortly as well. He orders Zoe back to the dock to scuttle their gear as Ben demands an explanation for why his nemesis is there. Widmore claims that he was visited by Jacob sometime after the Kahana blew up, and that Jacob convinced him of the error of his ways and tasked him with the mission he's in the process of executing, and that he wired the Ajira plane to blow a long time ago. Zoe walkies back that MiB has arrived on an outrigger, and Widmore orders her to hurry back--they all need to hide.

MiB notes Widmore's gear as he steps onto the dock. Meanwhile, Ben refuses to go in the secret room with Widmore, instead staying outside. Miles goes in, and Alpert stays out, hoping to talk to MiB (given their past relationship), thinking that if he goes with him, he can buy everyone else some time. He ambles out to the center of New Otherton and promptly gets tossed aside by the Monster (presumably killed, but this is not made explicit). MiB (as Locke) sits down with Ben and recruits him to kill some people for him (obviously the candidates, although not spoken). Ben gives up the location of Widmore.

MiB approaches the room, and tells Ben to wait outside--"You don't need to see this". Ben says "I want to see this". MiB confronts Zoe and Widmore (Miles is nowhere to be found), and when MiB asks who Zoe is, Widmore orders her not to talk. MiB promptly slashes her throat, saying that she wasn't of any use if she wasn't going to talk. He says that it's nice to be able to talk without a fence barrier, and demands to know why Widmore came back to the Island. The carrot he offers is that he will not kill Penny when he gets off the Island--otherwise, it's the first thing he'll do. Widmore explains that he brought Desmond back to the Island as a measure of last resort because of his unique resistance to electromagnetism. He won't say any more in the presence of Ben, so MiB asks him to whisper. As he does, he is shot multiple times by Ben, who says "He doesn't get to save his daughter", but no matter--MiB already got the information he needed.

Ben and MiB walk through the jungle. Ben asks why, if he can transform into black smoke when he pleases, does he walk. MiB says he likes to feel his feet on the ground as it reminds him that he was once human. They arrive at the well, and Desmond is gone--there's a rope thrown over the side. Ben says "someone helped him get out", but MiB replies that "someone helped me out". He explains that Widmore told him that Desmond was a failsafe in case all of the candidates were killed, but now he's going to serve as a failsafe for MiB. If MiB cannot kill all of the candidates, Desmond will help him do something he could never do himself--destroy the Island.

The Jacobians

Jack, Sawyer, Kate, and Hurley sit on the beach the morning after the sub catastrophe. Jack is stitching up Kate in a reverse scene right out of "Pilot". Kate is thinking about Jin and Sun, particularly about Ji Yeon, and she's taking it hard. She insists that they have to kill Locke, and Jack agrees. Later, the three other than Jack are staring out at the water as debris comes ashore (and the music from the haunting post-crash scene from "Pilot" is reprised). Jack says they need to get going to find Desmond.

As they trek, Sawyer and Jack talk about the rules, with Jack saying that he doesn't think MiB could kill Desmond himself, with the caveat that "I've been wrong before". Sawyer says, "I killed them, didn't I?". Jack insists that "he killed them", but it doesn't seem to ease Sawyer's mind.

Hurley freezes, seeing young Jacob in the jungle. Kate apparently can't see him, as she asks what he's doing. As she continues on, young Jacob appears right behind Hurley and demands the ashes he took from Ilana's bag--they're his. Hurley forks them over, and the rascal runs away. Hurley gives chase, finding adult Jacob sitting by a fire. Hurley wonders where he was before, but Jacob says he's hear now. The ashes are in the fire, and when they burn up he won't see him again. He suggests that Hurley get his friends, because the end is near.

So all four of them come to see Jacob. Hurley is surprised that the others can see him, but they all confirm that they can. Kate demands answers about why Sayid, Jin, and Sun died--she wants assurance that they didn't die for nothing. Jacob invites them to sit down, and says that one of them needs to take the job by the time the fire burns out.

Jacob explains that he brought them all to the Island to atone for a mistake he made a longtime ago--he's responsible for the Monster. Sawyer is indignant, asking what made him think that he could mess with his life--he was doing just fine. Jacob lays the righteous smackdown, saying "No, you weren't"...in fact, none of you were. They were all flawed like him, searching for something they couldn't find, and they needed this place as much as it needed them. Kate asks why her name was crossed off the cave, and Jacob explains that it was because she became a mother, but she still can choose to take the job if she wishes.

The job is to protect the light at the heart of the Island from the Monster, and do what Jacob couldn't. It was a matter of time before MiB figured out how to kill Jacob, and he's also going to try to kill the remaining candidates. Jacob hopes it's possible to kill him (apparently he doesn't know), and says that this will all end very badly if someone doesn't take the job--everyone will die.

Jack stands up and says that this is what he came to the Island to do. Jacob asks if that was a question, and Jack says no. Jacob's response--"Good...it's time".

Sawyer, Kate, and Hurley watch as Jacob leads Jack to a stream. Sawyer snarks "I thought he had a god complex before", and Hurley says that he's glad it's not him. Jacob tells Jack that the heart of the Island lies beyond the bamboo field where he woke up after the crash. Jack insists there's nothing out there, but Jacob says he'll be able to get there now. Jacob asks Jack for a cup (and for some reason he has one in his bag), says something in Latin, and fills the cup up from the stream. Jack takes the cup and asks how long he has to do this job. Jacob replies--"as long as you can". Jack drinks up, and Jacob says "Now you are like me."

There is a lot to be said about this episode, but I'll save it for my pre-Finale post as I want to get this up and I need some time to ponder. Important chess piece questions are whether Richard is actually dead or not and the whereabouts of Claire, Miles, and Desmond.

It's also worth noting that the final scene of the episode, in which MiB reveals his plan to destroy the Island, very much mirrors the final revelations of the last two penultimate episodes. In "Cabin Fever", Locke announces that Jacob (actually MiB as we now know) told him he has to move the Island. In "Follow the Leader", Locke informs Ben that Ben is going to have to kill Jacob. In all three of these scenes, Locke or the entity using his body makes a dramatic announcement to Ben.

6x16 Pre-Thoughts

* The game that Jacob and MiB found and played was the Egyptian game of senet, not backgammon. Being ignorant about board games, I simply assumed it was backgammon because of the long association of that game with LOST.

* One of the most important things about "Across the Sea" is that it demonstrated that the Island is a magical place on its own, independent of the presence of Jacob and MiB. At the beginning of the show, characters (particularly Locke) and fans often chalked things up to "the Island", as if it were a sentient entity. As more about Jacob has been revealed, there has been a tendency to re-contextualize events in terms of the two Island antagonists. Now we learn that Jacob and MiB are just the latest (and perhaps longest-standing) principals in an Island drama that is presumably as old as humanity itself. The question, as Jeff Jensen put it, is whether the current iteration will simply end this particular battle (Jacob/MiB), or the entire cycle itself.

It may well be that having two opponents battling over the Island is not the norm, that the unique circumstance of the twins raised to compete for the role of Island protector is the exception. Each Island protector works under different circumstances, with a different antagonist. In the case of Mother, it appears that her antagonist was her own tortured psyche or her own status as a monster.

* As I just alluded to, a lot of people believe that Mother was a monster in her own right. How else to explain her laying waste to MiB's village and her dire warning to Jacob to never go into the golden cave as it would be "worse than death"?

I think this theory is probably accurate. But I also believe that there is no set monster quota on the Island. MiB didn't replace Mother as monster; he became a monster as well because that is the consequence of entering the cave.

This raises the possibility that the Lostaways will stumble across the golden cave (assuming that it isn't covered up by the Temple), and one of them will venture down. Perhaps Desmond can use his electromagnetic uniqueness to neutralize the energy, or perhaps you can only fight a smoke monster with another smoke monster. And can't you see a power-hungry character like Ben as a monster?

* On a related note, there is debate about the nature of MiB after entering the cave. Did he actually become a monster, with his soul or innate being or whatever you'd like to call it disembodied, or did his body somehow become a conduit for some other entity?

As you can tell by reading my other comments, I am 100% in the former camp. I believe that the Smoke Monster we know and love (?) is the MiB in all of his true essence, just without his humanity. I don't think that his subsequent actions or his assumption of Locke's body or any number of other things make a great deal of sense if you start with another assumption.

* Jacob seemed to be the aggressor in their childhood days, beating MiB when he tried to leave. Later, he administers another beatdown after MiB murders Mother and chucks him into the stream. This has caused the cottage industry of sympathy for the devil to rise up again in full force.

Jacob is not pure good (although I do think he's probably gotten a lot wiser and a lot more holy over these centuries), but that doesn't mean that his mission is not good. MiB may have gotten a raw deal from his mother and his brother, but that doesn't mean that he has free license to murder anyone he chooses centuries later.

* This episode gave us a big potential insight into why the Monster dealt so severely with Mr. Eko--serious unresolved brother issues. When Eko refuses to confess, "Yemi" turns away and sneers "You speak to me as if I was your brother".

Eko was responsible for his brother's death, just as Jacob was responsible for his brother's transformation. It explains the extent of psychological torment that the Monster put Eko through before killing him--it was play-acting what he had wanted to do for years to his own brother.

* I like the idea floated that Kate and Claire are not candidates, or were removed that Kate and Claire are not candidates (Sun, too, perhaps) because they are mothers or became mothers (this theory would also require that Jin be (42) Kwon). Given Jacob's own experience, he might feel that maternity and Island guardianship are a very dangerous mix. But perhaps what the Island really needs is a new mother-in-chief that would atone for the sins of the last.

* I admitted that I was disappointed with "Across the Sea", but I still rank it as the sixth-best episode of Season Six. I don't understand the massive backlash, and I think that it is probably a result of expectations. I think this episode will be much better received by folks watching the series on DVD five years from now.

A couple of gripes about the Adam and Eve reveal have really been bugging me. The first is the complaints that Jack, Kate, and Locke discovering the skeletons in "House of the Rising Sun" was re-shown. I agree that this was completely unnecessary, but some reviewers have treated it as unprecedented for the show. But we've seen Charlie's death replayed in a similar fashion a number of times, as well as Jin's presumed death in the Kahana explosion. There may be other examples that I can't recall, but that would only further buttress the point.

The second complaint is that Jack, in "HoTR", said: "It takes 40 or 50 years for clothing to degrade like this." People have jumped on this to complain that TBTB didn't know who Adam and Eve were back then.

To which I say, no, they probably didn't. Still, there's no contradiction--Jack did not give a formal, scientific, answer, just a quick answer to verify that it had been a long time. And what exactly makes a spinal surgeon qualified to date clothing decomposition anyway?

* To me, tonight feels like the last episode. We all know the finale is on Sunday, but this will be the final weeknight where we stay up late and theorize and wonder what's next. That process is such a part of the experience of watching LOST that the finale just won't feel the same.

Obviously, there will be a lot to process after the finale, and I'm sure people will be discussing it for some time to come. But I expect to be a little numb to it for a while and to not really break the episode down for some time.

6x15: Across the Sea

The episode promised so much, but for once LOST didn't deliver. That doesn't mean it was bad, it just disappointed a little bit. And I kept screaming (mentally), "WHAT IS HIS NAME?" (or her's for that matter) I guess it doesn't matter.

We begin with a pregnant woman, who we come to find out is Claudia, floating just off the shore of the Island; we'll also learn later that she was shipwrecked. She makes it to shore, then to a creek where she's found by a nameless woman, who takes her to a cave. Claudia asks (speaking Spanish?) where her other people are, but she has none. She refuses to answer any more questions (each question will just lead to another). When the baby is born, she takes it away and doesn't let Claudia see it. Claudia declares that it's name is Jacob. Then she goes into labor pains again and another baby pops out. She only picked one name, and perhaps he never got one at all? Claudia asks to see the babies, but instead she gets beaten to death with a stone.

MiB kid finds a box on the shore which is a backgammon game. He "just knows" how to play and Jacob joins him, taking the white side. MiB says they can't tell mother, because she'll take it away. Jacob returns to the cave, where his mother is working on a tapestry. She asks what they were doing and he gives a non-answer. She asks if she loves him, and when he answers affirmatively, she tells him to tell the truth, so he fesses up to the game.

Mother goes down to the beach and sits with MiB. She explains that Jacob doesn't know how to lie, but that MiB is different and special. Of course he can keep the game, which she claims to have left for him. She also says that there is nowhere else other than the Island (in response to his ideas about alternate origins for the game), and explains that she came from her mother, who is now dead. But dead is something that MiB is not going to have to worry about.

Later, Jacob and MiB hunt boar, but the boar is abruptly killed by someone else. Crouching behind a bush, they see three Viking-like hunters who've gotten it first. They run back to Mother, who says that those men don't belong on the Island. They are here for a reason, and it's not time to fill the boys in on just what that reason is yet. But they both insist, so she blindfolds them and takes them on a hike. Along the way, she explains that men come--they fight, destroy, corrupt, and it always ends the same--pretty much verboten what MiB tells Jacob in "The Incident" (although she insists these visitors come from elsewhere on the Island). They arrive at a stream that runs through a cave. Inside that cave is a glowing, golden light, which she describes as the warmest, brightest light possible. No one can be allowed to find it, because while there's a little of the light inside everyone, they'll never be satisfied with what they have and try to get more. They can't take the light, but they could destroy it, and if it goes out on the Island, it goes out everywhere. Mother says that she is its protector, but she can't do the job forever and one of them will have to take over. MiB in particular seems dazzled staring into the light.

MiB and Jacob play backgammon again. Jacob makes an illegal move, and gripes about how MiB made the rules. MiB says that someday Jacob can make his own game and set his own rules which everyone else will have to play by (eating those words now, huh Smokey?) Then MiB sees Claudia, and Jacob cannot. He follows Claudia into the jungle, and she explains that Jacob cannot see her because she is dead. She leads him to the shore where she shows him her people's camp. Thirteen years ago they were shipwrecked, and Claudia came with them from across the sea--where MiB is from.

MiB wakes Jacob in the middle of the night and wants him to accompany him. Jacob is hesitant, and eventually ends up jumping him in the jungle to stop him. Their mother breaks it up (saying that she's made it so that they can never hurt each other), but MiB insists that he wants to go home and Mother insists that he can't. He begs Jacob to come, but he refuses, and MiB insists that someday, he will prove that he can leave.

Later, Mother sits with Jacob on the beach, and says that she knows MiB will not come back. She cops to killing Claudia, but still insists that those people are bad and that Jacob needs to stay good. Jacob asks why Mother loved MiB more than him? She claims to love them in different ways, and Jacob agrees to stay.

Jacob is now working on the tapestry as well, but leaves to go play backgammon with his brother. MiB asks why he watches the people, and Jacob says that he wants to know if Mother is right about them--they don't seem that bad to him. MiB scoffs that it's easy for him to say that, but he lives amongst them, and they're greedy, manipulative, untrustworthy, and selfish. Jacob asks why he stays with them, and MiB matter-of-factly says that they are a means to an end--leaving the Island.

MiB takes his dagger and throws it; it sticks to a well. They've found the electromagnetism, and have built wells at all the locations they can, and will use them to find a way off of the Island. MiB asks Jacob to come with him, but Jacob wants to stay with Mother. MiB asks about what will happen when she dies, but Jacob seems to think that she won't, and I got the sense that he has no conception of death, but I could be reading too much naiveté into his delivery. Jacob adds that the Island is home.

Mother knows that Jacob visits his brother, and asks what they talked about. She goes down to the well herself, where MiB is at work. He explains that he has been searching for the golden light, but couldn't find it so he found a way around. He's currently building what we'll come to know as the frozen donkey wheel to channel the water and the light, and sure enough, the light shines through when he removes rock walling it off. He and the smart people he knows have figured out how a scheme to leave. Mother asks how he knows all this, and he scoffs that he's special. They have a hug-it-out goodbye scene, but Mother says "I'm sorry" and thrusts him into the wall.

She returns to the cave, telling Jacob that "It's time" and leading him back to the golden light cave. She says it's his to protect, and that it is life, death, and rebirth, the very heart of the Island. She says he can never go down there, as it would result in a fate worse than death. She pulls out the wine flask he know, and invites Jacob to drink and accept the job for as long as he can, then find his own replacement. He's very hesitant, though, as he knows that she wanted MiB to take the role all along. Mother claims that she was wrong, she sees that now, but Jacob doesn't really have a choice. He drinks, and Mother declares "You and I are the same now".

MiB wakes up above ground to find out that the well is covered and that everything else is destroyed. He sees a pillar of black smoke and finds that the entire village has been torched and that all of its inhabitants are dead. He finds the backgammon game and holds it to his forehead in agony.

Jacob and Mother part, with Mother warning him to be careful. She returns to the cave, where the tapestry is destroyed/stolen and everything is in disarray. She finds the backgammon game and its corresponding stones, then is stabbed from behind by MiB. As she dies, he asks why she wouldn't let him leave. The answer: "I love you", followed by "Thank you".

Jacob appears at the mouth of the cave and administers a beatdown upon MiB. He proceeds to drag him to the lightcave, which MiB is shocked that Jacob was shown. It's angry Jacob, and he says "You want to leave? Then leave", and pushes him into the stream. MiB finally reaches his the light that he's coveted, but he dissipates as he does, emerging shortly thereafter as the smoke Monster.

Jacob finds his body downstream and is sad. He carries it back to the cave--our cave, the cave Jack was led to by MiB way back in "White Rabbit". He buries both MiB and Mother there, putting the white and black stones in a pouch in MiB's hand in remembrance of the game he loved so much. So there's a mystery answered.

Random disjointed thoughts:

* As I said, I was a little disappointed in the episode. It pains me to say that, because it doesn't do justice to the wonderful story that Damon and Carlton have laid out for us over the years, and because it's their story to tell. But even in the hour and a half between the end of the episode and writing this, I've warmed to it significantly.

The major complaint is that I would have loved to see more of the Island's history--who came along to build a statue to Taweret and why Jacob took up residence there, how the natives came to seemingly worship the Monster, and how MiB began to function as the Monster and the choices he made about his path. And what his name was.

In the end, this episode reminds me of "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"--one for which extraordinary expectations were built up, and one that potentially could have been cooler, but also one that will stand the test of time as a good episode that delivered needed information to the audience, if in a little more of a workman-like fashion than some would have liked.

* It's nice to see where Jacob got his love for weaving.

* We now know that the kid who haunts MiB is in fact the young Jacob, and his flaunting about the rules makes all the more sense when we see that it was MiB who was a stickler for the rules.

* Is the light cave where Jacob had his people build the Temple? If not, will someone stumble upon it in the remaining two episodes?

* It is an interesting commentary on human nature that Jacob, looking at humans from afar, found them to be good, but MiB, living amongst them, found them to be evil. Your own view on human nature will color which part you agree with and why. When you step back and look at the balance of what humanity has done, do you see good despite all of the horrible things people do to each other? Or do you see our achievements as a species as being forever tainted by the manner in which they came into being?

And that is another important point to defuse a criticism that may be leveled against the episode. Some will certainly find the description of the light as light, death, and rebirth as shallow and not worth protecting an Island over. But that kind of milquetoast generality is really necessary in order to avoid offending anyone. The show could choose to take a certain religious, philosophical, or political viewpoint to define good and evil, and we all might like it to take ours. But it would be a path to offending many. In the end, the safe thing to do is to side with humanity (with reservations) and speak in the language of the most basic of shared human experience.

* In the end, MiB really is his mother's son, despite them coming into conflict. He is the one who will kill and lie to serve his larger agenda. The one trait that Jacob and Mother share is a desire to protect the Island rather than leave it. Everything else about her is mirrored by MiB, and it is no wonder that she favored him. One of the few times MiB wasn't lying was when he told Kate that he had a messed-up mother.

* Jacob, because of his obedient nature, never really had a choice about whether to go with MiB, whether to accept the role of Island protector, and the like (or, depending on your perspective, he was too cowardly/shallow/scared/etc. to make that choice for himself). In any event, the shotgun nature of his status as Island demigod helps to explain why he values free will.

* Finally, some people will doubtlessly complain that the episode did nothing to present MiB as fundamentally evil, and Jacob as good. I agree to the extent that we did not see the actions of the two after the creation of the Monster in order to get a sense for how their rivalry unfolded. However, to the extent that there is no fundamental evil infused into MiB from birth, I think this is a good thing.

Even if one feels that MiB was wronged by Jacob, that only justifies retaliation against Jacob--even if Jacob or Mother has put rules in place that prevent him from doing that. It is not morally acceptable to draw innocents into the conflict and dispose of them as you please (be it the Pilot, Eko, Claire, Sun, Jin, Sayid, or anyone else whose blood is on the Monster's hands).

By not making him evil by nature (sure, he lies to his mother, but Jacob's refusal to do so makes him the exception to most of humanity), we are left with no option but to conclude that MiB chose to become evil. He made the decision to pursue his quest to leave the Island or escape his ethereal nature at all costs. And so the show sides with Jacob again--you always have a choice. This is a more powerful story than the alternative, and my biggest regret about "Across the Sea" is that we didn't get a chance to see MiB's decision tree from the time he became the Monster.

6x15 Pre-Thoughts

* I cannot believe that there are people out there blaming the sub disaster on Jack. Yes, he let MiB pull the backpack switcheroo (which Jack himself pulled on Kate in "Exodus") on him which I missed the first time, but Jack was never fooled by him. Jack was never a fan of the leave the Island plan, he was furious about leaving his sister in either was Sawyer, but Sawyer couldn't get over his anger with Jack over Jughead.

In Sawyer's defense, he wasn't really fooled by the essence of MiB either, just conned into doing what he wanted. He was the one who made the major strategic mistake on the sub, because he couldn't put aside his anger at Jack over Jughead. Sure, what Jack was saying is crazy talk, but it in the messed up world of LOST it also happens to be the honest-to-goodness truth.

There's plenty of blame to go around. But there's no question the most responsible Lostaway is Sawyer. If you blame Jack first, that's a you problem.

Hopefully something good will come out of this whole mess and Sawyer and Jack will finally become friends. Their romantic rivalry over Kate has been pushed aside, and it's time for these two to reconcile once and for all. There's always been a mutual respect present despite all the blustering, and I've always loved the scene in "Three Minutes" in which Sawyer cops to his jungle romp with Ana Lucia. Jack asks why he's confiding this in him, and Sawyer says "Because you're the closes thing I have to a friend, Doc".

Sawyer's thanks after Jack came back for them was a start. The only obstacle may be Jack, and whether he can be a bigger man than Sawyer and not hold the deaths of Sayid, Jin, and Sun over him as Sawyer did with Juliet. I think the answer is yes, but then I've always believed in Jack.

* Another thing I overlooked in all of the chaos was Sayid telling Jack, "It's going to be you". Assuming this was with respect to Jack's candidacy, why should we believe that Sayid has any insight. Did being on death's door trigger some hidden knowledge within him? Farfetched. Did being claimed by MiB somehow give him some insight on the matter? Doesn't really make sense either.

So that leaves it being either Sayid's hunch or special insight gleaned from Desmond. It's not entirely clear how Des would know that, but with him you can never count anything out.

* I don't think that MiB has been manipulating Hurley through his visions of Jacob, Isabella, and Michael. I think those are either products of Jacob, or, in the case of Michael, not a vision at all, as Michael is really trapped on the Island with the other whisperers.

* Everyone is still speculating about the outrigger shootout. I've seen some people speculate that it will be Claire and MiB in the outrigger, but I don't see it. It's more likely to be Ben, Richard, and Miles, IMO.

In either case, it's a little murky as to why they would be shooting. Unless I'm completely forgetting the events of "The Little Prince", the shooting was initiated by the pursuers, not Charlotte, Faraday, Miles, Juliet, Locke, and Sawyer. So the people must be shooting at them for a reason. It's possible that Ben, Richard, and Miles will see Locke, mistake him for MiB, and open fire. But Miles should recognize the situation and not want to shoot at himself.

It would make even less sense for the MiB to shoot, unless he thinks he has a chance to take out a candidate in Sawyer.

In any event, I really hope we get to it before the finale, and hopefully if the more puzzling MiB situation comes to light, Claire won't be the one getting hit.

* Another popular theory is that the series will end Jack (as the new Jacob) facing off with his new rival (MiB trapped in Locke's body, or someone else like Sawyer). I disagree, as I tend to believe Jacob that it only ends once. That statement could be in reference to the current iteration of the Jacob/MiB, but that's stretching, I think.

Of course, Jacob could be full of it.

* I still like the idea of Island guardianship becoming a husband and wife job, with Jack and Kate, but that's just fanboyism.

* As we approach the end, most of the fans seem to be taking it in stride on the internet. The ones that aren't are generally the ones who have spun elaborate theories, displayed little humility about them, and now are seeing it all come crashing down around them.

6x14: The Candidate

Well, that was a downer. It's hard to say anything positive about an episode in which three of our friends are murdered. That's not to say it was a bad episode, just that it's hard to have positive feelings about it. I don't think this is one I'll be revisiting on the DVDs for years to come; yet it was inevitable that we would lose people as the finish drew closer. Hopefully the bloodletting will be at a minimum from here on out. And I hope all of you folks that held to the notion that the Man in Black was good have been disabused of that notion. After all, it was one thing when he ripped an innocent pilot out of the plane, or when he killed Mr. Eko, or when he killed Dogen and Lennon. People made every excuse in the world for that thing. But I don't think they'll be doing so any longer.

2004X

The episode opens with Locke's eye, waking up from his successful surgery. But Jack got a look at his initial injury and now has made it his mission to fix him. He tells John of a new experimental surgery for which he might be a candidate and wants to know how the injury occurred, but John does not disclose, declines the offer, and has a tearful reunion with Helen, who profusely thanks Jack for saving her fiancé.

Jack attempts to dig up some info on his own, going to see a dentist who did some oral surgery on Locke after his accident. Of course, it's Bernard. Bernard is not particularly surprised to learn that both Jack and Locke were on 815, and of course offers up that he was on board as well. Like his wife, he seems to know a lot more than he lets on. He points Jack in the direction of Anthony Cooper (who was injured in the same accident as Locke), offers that he might be on to something, and says that he hopes he finds what he's looking for.

Jack goes to see Anthony Cooper, at a nursing home. As he awkwardly tries to explain to the receptionist why he'd like to see him, Helen comes in bearing flowers and tells Jack that Cooper is Locke's father, and asks Jack to leave him alone. We soon see why, as Cooper is in bad shape, unaware of his surroundings although still able to sit upright.

Jack is at Locke's bedside as Locke is in some state between sleep and consciousness. He mumbles "Push the button" and "I wish you had believed", but nothing further comes of it. Out of the corner of his eye, Jack sees Claire and goes out to meet her. This is an episode of despair, but I love these two and this is the cute brother-sister moment that we didn't get on Island, so cherish it for what it's worth because it's all downhill from here.

Jack gets a couple Apollo bars from the vending machine but Claire declines. He apologizes for leaving Ilana's office so abruptly, but she understands. She asks about how their father died, and he tells her that he drank himself to death in Sydney, and that he was bringing the body back on 815. Of course they both note the weirdness. Claire has been given a trinket from her father, and she wants to know why he wanted her to have it so badly. Jack is unable to help, but we the audience know exactly why it is so important--it's a music box that plays "Catch a Falling Star." They are both reflected in the small mirror on the inside of the box. She gets up to leave, but before she can go Jack asks where she is staying and offers her to stay with him. Claire declines, saying they're just strangers, but Jack says "No, we're not strangers, we're family". Claire is visibly touched by this, and at least something good has come out of this soul-crusher.

Locke is leaving the hospital, and Jack is able to catch him before he leaves. Locke explains that he had his pilot's license for less than a week when he convinced his father, who was terrified of flying, to come on a ride with him, and before he knew it he'd crashed the plane. He's suffering from some serious survivor's guilt. Jack recalls their conversation at LAX, in which Locke told Jack that his father was gone, body or not--and Jack tells Locke that HIS father is gone too. He can choose to punish himself, but he should let it go--whatever happened, happened (this conversation drops so many classic LOST lines it's hard to get them all). Locke, in a little bit of a reversal of their confrontation over the button in "Orientation" (with the subject changed from believing to letting go), asks why he thinks letting go will be so easy. Jack says it's not--in fact, he's not too good at it himself, and so he was hoping Locke could go first. Locke scoffs and wheels himself away. Just before he goes, Jack says "I can help you--I wish you believed me", and while I was expecting this to trigger memories given his semi-sleeping mumbling earlier, no such luck.

On Island

Jack wakes up, disoriented and in an outrigger. Sayid, making a fire, welcomes him to Hydra Island and recounts the motor attack. Meanwhile, Frank, Jin, Sun, Hurley, Sawyer, and Kate are marched to the bear cages. Sawyer refuses to comply, managing to grab one of the science guy's guns, but Widmore puts a gun to Kate's head. He explains to Sawyer that he is only interested in Jin, Sun, Hurley, and Sawyer, so apparently he's working off of the same candidate list that we've seen. As they're locked up, Widmore tells Sawyer that he's doing it for their own good, which Sawyer does not believe. Widmore is also upset that the fence is not ready yet--it will be in an hour, but they don't have that much time--he's coming.

At a convenient point in Jack and Sayid's conversation, MiB emerges from the jungle. He asks for Jack help in breaking his people out. Jack retorts that they're not his people (i.e. he's not their leader), so MiB changes-up to "your friends". Jack asks why he should trust MiB, and he replies that he could kill all of them at any time, and no one could do anything to stop him, but he hasn't. Jack agrees to help, but does not agree to leave the Island with them.

Locked up, Sawyer muses about how it feels like they're going around in circles (good news James--it only ends once, everything else is just progress). Kate insists that Widmore wouldn't have killed her, but Sawyer explains that he saw her name carved out on the cave wall. Meanwhile, Jin and Sun talk about Ji Yeon and she gives him his ring back. Then the lights go dim, Widmores goons are thrown into confusion, and the Monster attacks, with the requisite noises, smoke, lightning in the smoke, crushing of opponents, etc. Kate tries to reach the keys of one of Widmore's goons; she can't but Jack shows up and frees them, explaining that "I came with him" [Monster].

As they walk through the jungle towards the plane, Sawyer thanks Jack for coming back for them, and Jack tells Kate that he's not meant to leave and won't be joining them. Sayid comes from the jungle, and everyone trains their guns at him, but Jack explains that it's cool and that it was Sayid who took out Widmore's generators.

MiB stakes out the plane himself, easily killing the sentries Widmore has posted (who hilariously fire on him to absolutely no effect), one with a brutal neck snap and the second with his partner's gun. He lifts a watch off one of them and ascends into the plane, finding C4 stuffed in the overhead luggage compartment and wired to the plane's electrical system.

MiB explains to the Lostaways that Widmore knew the guards would be killed; he wanted them all on the plane, in a confined space, so that he could blow them all up. Sawyer notes that this is the second time MiB has saved them and says "I was wrong about you". The new plan is to head for the sub, which of course has been Sawyer's plan all along. MiB leads the group off, and Claire goes up to apologize for joining the escape party; MiB waives it off as understandable. Sawyer pulls Jack aside, declares that he doesn't trust "that thing", and says that while it's Jack's choice to stay, he would appreciate one last favor--Jack keeping MiB off the sub. Jack asks how he might achieve that, and Sawyer says anyway will work--just get him in the water and I'll do the rest.

The group executes a tiered raid on the sub, with Sawyer, Frank, Jin, and Sun going in first while the rest cover them. They successfully commandeer the sub, and as MiB and Jack go to board, MiB again asks Jack to reconsider, saying that whoever told you that you needed to stay was wrong. Jack responds that it was John Locke that told him to stay, and pushes the Monster into the water.

But Widmore's men arrive and open fire, and there is mass chaos. Kate gets shot, and so Jack helps get her down on the sub. Everyone is on board, except Claire and MiB. Sawyer goes up to get Claire at Jack and Kate's behest, but when he sees Locke coming too he closes the door. He orders the sub pilot to dive immediately. Claire sees the sub leaving and is horrified at the prospect of being left behind again, but MiB restrains her and explains that the sub is the last place she'd want to be. Both Jack and Kate are upset at Claire being left behind, and of course Jack wants no part of leaving the Island.

Down below, Hurley can't find the first aid kit so Jack asks him to get his pack, looking for something to put pressure on Kate's wound. In Jack's pack? C4 wired to a timer that's already under four minutes (Swan, anyone?), which Jack correctly deduces was planted by MiB. Now we know what a seemingly immortal being wanted with a Widmore goon watch. He says "We did exactly what we wanted him to do", and glares at Sawyer. Jack may have messed up Operation Jughead, but this one's on Sawyer, and he's only going to compound his mistake.

Jack is on fire--he's got the rules all figured out. Because they're candidates, MiB can't kill them, he needs them to kill themselves. If they just let the timer run down, nothing is going to happen (again, the Swan, with Jack's position the same except now he's right). Everyone looks at him as if he's nuts, but especially Sawyer. Sayid thinks that if they remove two wires simultaneously, it will disarm (this harkens back to the bomb scene in "There's No Place Like Home"). Jack begs them not to, but Sawyer says it's not his call and pulls the wires. The clock stops for a few seconds--then starts counting down fast.

Sayid tells Jack where to find the well that Desmond is in. Jack asks why he's telling him this, and Sayid takes the bomb and runs off, redeeming himself but also blowing himself to bits (later, Jack will tell Hurley "There is no Sayid", which is the funniest (dark) line this episode has to offer). Unfortunately, the ship still gets breached, and water starts pouring in, overcoming Frank. In all the chaos, Sun is trapped behind some sort of cabinet. Everyone does what they can to try and free her, but one-by-one people leave. Jack sends Hurley off with Kate. Sawyer gets knocked out by some later calamity, and Jin insists that Jack take him away.

That leaves our two star-crossed lovers alone for the saddest moment the series will ever offer. Despite all of his efforts, Jin cannot free Sun. She begs him to go, but he insists that he will never leave her again We've heard that before, but this time it's going to stand up. We see the sub drift towards the ocean floor and their hands finally slip apart, both with wedding rings on.

Jack emerges with Sawyer on the beach--the latter is breathing. Kate and Hurley make their way over, asking what happened to Jin and Sun, and Jack breaks the bad news. Kate cries, Hurley sobs, and Jack gets up and stands on the water's edge, looking up at the heavens. At least this time he was right.

Still on the dock, MiB tells Claire that the sub sank. Claire is alarmed, asking if they're all dead. MiB replies that not all of them are, and starts walking away. Of course Claire asks where he's heading, and MiB replies "to finish what I started".

Random thoughts:

* Bernard's appearance in 2004X brings back the question of what he and rose are doing on Island. Were they killed in the Incident or are they still out there, potentially able to lend a surprising helping hand in the closing hours?

* What are Miles, Richard, and Ben going to do when they get to Hydra Island and discover all of the crazy stuff already went down? Confront Widmore, join forces, other?

* Jack's glare at Sawyer on the sub is great--now the latter, who rode Jack so hard for the Jughead fiasco, has blood on his hands too.

6x14 Pre-Thoughts

* Did the Man in Black know exactly what would happen when he dispatched Sawyer to get the boat? I have to think, as others do, that he at the very least had some sort inkling. Smoke monsters aren't fools, after all. I don't buy the notion that he and Widmore are in cahoots (it would be a very elaborate long con), but I do think that MiB would be thrilled if Widmore could take out some candidates for him, something he is probably not allowed to do.

* Ryan of Zap2It is criticizing the writers for Jack's change of heart on leaving the Island while aboard the Elizabeth, comparing it to the shifting character motivations of "The Incident". I was never really bothered by that to a great extent, but even if one was, I don't see the two as equivalent. In this case, Jack had a plan thrust upon him by Sawyer, with literally no time to discuss it, think about it on his own, or anything else. His friends (Kate, Hurley, Sun, Frank) were all dependent on Jack executing his part of the Sawyer's scheme. Even if Jack always felt it was a bad idea, he pretty much had to participate unless he could have quickly come up with his own plan. And even that would have left Kate up a creek with no paddle.

Why doesn't he then just not get on the boat after delivering the others? A criticism on that score is a little more palatable IMO, but it still falls flat. Ever since the failure of Operation Jughead, Jack has been questioning both his rational mind and his destiny. In "Lighthouse", he told Hurley that he was stupid enough to think the Island could fix him, but what he saw in the lighthouse and his interactions with Richard started to tilt him back towards the belief that he had a purpose to fulfill on the Island. Still, it was never portrayed as Jack being all in with leaving, and his recalling the feelings he had after the first time he left the Island as he left it again made perfect sense.

And after all of that, he still wasn't necessarily going to jump off the boat. He was still sitting, staring out at the ocean (another call back to "Lighthouse"). Perhaps he would have hatched a scheme to put in motion once they arrived at Hydra Island. But Sawyer forced the issue, by responding to Jack in much the same way as Jack used to respond to Locke when issues of destiny and purpose were brought up. And so the issue was forced upon Jack and he took a leap of faith. I think it's a helluva lot closer to brilliant writing than shoddy writing.

* I hate to admit that I missed the possible Biblical implications of Kate, Sawyer, and the apple. Obviously this triggered thoughts of Adam and Eve to many people. I tend to think that if it is meant to touch on that at all, it is more likely as a different red item--a red herring. I'm reminded of Sawyer's toe injury in 5x2 which some people thought was sure to lead to a statue being erected in his honor in the distant past. Sometimes it's just too easy.

Of course, that's not to say that Sawyer and Kate aren't Adam and Eve. Somebody has to be, and they're as good of candidates as anyone else.

* Is the kid growing up to become the new Jacob, with MiB having to work against the clock before he reaches adulthood (it appears as if he is getting older)? But then what does Jacob need candidates for? I don't buy that one, so how about Doc Jensen's suggestion that Jacob could now be in a monster-like state, disembodied, explaining the kids and his appearances to Hurley?

* And on a final note that's sure to enrage 3/4 of the imaginary people who read this blog, how awesome is it that Rush Limbaugh has outed himself as a LOST fan?

Finale Plans

I've found it harder to theorize this year because of the large number of answers that the show is giving. This is no loss for the world at large, as I've never been right about much of anything, but it does take the luster off of having a blog devoted to the show. I'm having more fun this season just taking things as they come and enjoying the story on its on merits, rather than what I project it might be.

The off week gives an opportunity to stew about "The Last Recruit" for a while longer before posting any additional thoughts on it. Instead, I'll use this week to plan out the end of the show. Which episodes to watch to prepare for the finale?

Starting Wednesday after 6x16 airs, I plan to watch all five season finales. LOST finales as a group have been spectacular, and I believe that in every case except Season One they represent the finest episode of their respective seasons. The finales will serve as a good ramp-up for whatever kind of craziness will be going down in 6x17 (AKA in my household as the LOST Super Bowl).

The last thing I watch prior to the series finale, however, will be the series premiere. "Pilot" is still one of the show's greatest episodes, and for a show that plays as fast and loose with time as LOST does, I think it is very appropriate to watch the first episode just before the last episode. We've come along way, but the show has remained true to the seeds it planted in "Pilot", and after six seasons that's quite an achievement.

6x13: The Last Recruit

It's a solid B-level episode as our Lostaways come together in both timelines. Unfortunately, what was a semi-happy reunion in 2007 comes apart at the end, with a disturbing implication (although one that I don't believe will come to fruition).

2004X:

Ben plays the role of concerned friend (despite not knowing anything about him) of Locke as he's ferried away in the ambulance. He's wheeled into the hospital right next to Sun, who in her moment of distress apparently recognizes him and is terrified.

Sawyer flirts with criminal Kate, marveling at the coincidence that they were each on Oceanic 815, as if someone is trying to bring them together. Kate maintains her innocence, and posits that he let her go at LAX because he didn't want anyone to know they were in Australia. Their mating dance is interrupted by Miles, who alerts Sawyer to a restaurant shooting and the suspect that was caught on tape.

Desmond stalks Claire to an office building; she's headed to the adoption agency on the fifteenth floor and he nosily tags along, urging her to have legal representation with her. Luckily, he knows a lawyer who owes him a favor, and she's on the fifteenth floor too. It turns out to be Ilana, and as it would happen she's been looking for Claire.

Sayid and Nadia have a brief conversation in which nothing but everything is said. Miles knocks on the door, and Sayid attempts to go out the back, but Sawyer trips him with the garden hose and arrests him.

Jack and David arrive at the same office complex, on their way up to Ilana's office for the reading of Christian's will. Their relationship is a lot chummier, and so it looks as if the brief time between "Lighthouse" and this episode has not seen their newfound bond broken. Ilana asks Jack if he believes in fate, then introduces him to the sister he never knew he had. The awkward family reunion is broken up by an emergency call from the hospital.

In the hospital, all is well for Sun, as both she and the baby are fine. Meanwhile, Jack goes into surgery, and looks into one of the mirrors, seeing both himself and Locke, who he recognizes, which throws him just a bit.

On Island

The tense meeting of the Jacobians and Locke's Flocke is still in progress. MiB asks to speak to Jack alone; Jack obliges after getting permission from Hurley. He says that he doesn't know what Locke is, to which Locke asserts that he does. Jack asks about why he took Locke's form (since he was dead and you brought him back in a wooden box is the snarky response), dancing around the real issue which MiB knows he's asking about. So he gets Jack to ask about Christian, and MiB admits that he was the apparition of the elder Shephard. Why? Because they needed water, and all he's ever done is try to help them get off the Island (sure, that's why he killed the pilot way back in "Pilot"). Now that Jacob is dead, they are free to go, but it has to be together. We also get some more Locke putdowns coupled with a subtle jab at Jack ("he wasn't a believer, he was a sucker...he believed this place could help him [definitely paraphrasing there]").

Someone has been following them--it's Claire, happy to see her brother. It's a cute scene with an undertone of Claire craziness; she talks about how MiB was impersonating their father, and since she didn't have much in the way of family she's glad that he's coming with them. Jack replies that he hasn't made up his mind on that front yet, but Claire says he did decide--he decided the moment he let MiB talk to him, and now he's one of them just like the rest.

Sawyer lets Hurley in on the sub hijacking plan, as Kate does the same for Claire, but lets him know that Sayid is not invited because he's on the dark side. He tells Hurley not to tell, and I am surprised that he didn't let it slip at some point--you remember Arzt and the Black Rock dynamite plan in "Exodus", right?

Jack returns from his meeting with MiB and talks to Kate; Kate says "[Sayid's] different now" and Jack replies "I guess we all are". Just then, Zoe strolls into camp, accusing MiB of taking something that belongs to them (but never stating what it is; of course, as the audience we know, but the Lostaways sans Sayid do not). They have until nightfall to return it, or it's war, and some sort of explosion (I didn't see a missile, although I heard something) shows this isn't just an idle threat. She leaves a walkie for MiB to call on, but he uses the stick he crafted last episode to smash it, saying "Here we go".

MiB addresses his troops, playing dumb on the supposed theft he committed and admitting that his plan is being up. They are going to head for Hydra Island and the Ajira plan, with Sawyer dispatched to get the sailboat, to meet them at a rendezvous point. He takes Kate with her, quickly giving Jack instructions to double back and meet them when he gets the chance, bringing only Frank, Hurley, and Sun (Sayid is evil and Claire lost her ticket when she tried to kill Kate).

MiB simultaneously dispatches Sayid to kill Desmond, threatening to take away the carrot of Nadia if he doesn't follow through. Sayid goes to the well, which is not nearly as deep as I expected it to be. Desmond asks him what he was offered, and when he finds out what it was, he has two follow-up questions. Sayid bats the first one (Why do you believe he can bring back the dead?) with ease; it happened to him. But the second cuts deep into his soul--what will you tell her you did to bring her back? It's essentially the same logic that Ben used on Michael in "Live Together, Die Alone" when Michael asked how Ben could be sure that he wouldn't tell anyone about the Island.

As Sawyer and Kate arrive at the beach (and the Elizabeth, last seen in "The Glass Ballerina" I believe), he fills her in on the plan. Kate doesn't want to leave Claire, though.

Jack asks Claire why she trusts MiB, and her answer is that because he was the only one that didn't abandon her. MiB frets about Sayid's tardiness, asking Sun if he's seen him; when she doesn't answer, he scoffs about the silent treatment, to which Sun writes "you did this to me". He denies this and tromps off himself, giving Jack his opening. He takes the chosen group, leaving Claire (did her profession of trust in MiB scare him off?), but she glares at them as they leave.

MiB catches up with Sayid, interrogating him about what happened, but Sayid maintains that he killed Desmond and just needed a moment to process shooting an unarmed man. He invites MiB to check himself, but he seems to be placated.

Everyone is getting on the Elizabeth, but Claire crashes the party with rifle in tow. Kate tries to reason with her, over Sawyer's objections, apologizing for Aaron, explaining that she was the reason she came back to the Island, etc. It finally works, and Claire hands over her rifle, but she warns that "If he finds out we're gone, he's going to be angry".

As they sail towards Hydra Island, Sawyer explains the plan to Frank, who gives it his hearty approval. Jack sits alone by himself, staring out at the water. Sawyer goes to talk to him, and Jack says that leaving the Island doesn't feel right--it's not done with them yet. He remembers what it felt like the last time he left (Sawyer says, perhaps not even knowing how ironic it is, "they have pills for that"). If MiB wants them to leave so badly, perhaps it's because he's afraid of what will happen if they stay. Sawyer says that Jack can either button up the crazy talk or get off the boat. Jack apologizes again for Juliet's death and jumps off.

Kate is furious with this turn of events, saying that they have to go back for Jack. But Sawyer says "we're done going back".

MiB is waiting for jack on the beach, and he knows Saywer took the boat. The rest of the Elizabetheans arrive at Hydra Island, greeted to Zoe and some other Widmore guntoters. We get the Jin and Sun reunion, which corresponds with Sun regaining her ability to speak. But the happiness is soon broken up by Zoe getting new instructions from her boss over the walkie, declaring that the deal is off. They are forced at gunpoint to their knees and the weapon is fired at MiB on the beach. The explosion knocks everyone back, including Jack who MiB carries away. He sits him down at a tree and says "It's okay, you're with me now."

I suppose it's possible that Jack was quickly resurrected Sayid-style, but I have a hard time believing that Jack will now be a soldier of the dark. We saw both Sayid and Claire soften their attitudes tonight (if not flat out return to the side of the good), and Jack was certainly not trusting of MiB (his comments to Sawyer on the Elizabeth were the most pointed and important). I still think Jack winds up as the hero, although all of us Jack fans will have a couple weeks and then maybe a couple of episodes to fret about his fate.

Of course, the more likely explanation is that MiB interprets Jack's return as a sign that he's chosen his side, not knowing as we know that Jack believes he has a destiny to stop MiB. Thus, "The Last Recruit" is from MiB's perspective--everyone else (probably even Sayid) has abandoned him, and Jack's all he has--which really leaves him with nothing.