Lost: "Follow the Leader"

The penultimate setup to the season 5 finale was a veritable Rubik's cube of information: how do all these events line up in time? Or do they?

Perhaps the best way to break this episode down is by the "leader" characters and their motivations.

Jack
Jack has taken up Faraday's mantle as a man on the mission to change time forever. Unfortunately, Jack also has taken up the mantle as the resident crazy-person. Where Jack 4 season's ago was running around doing all he could to save dying castaways, Faith Jack of season 5 is hell bent on detonating a H-bomb. My how things have changed. Looks like my idea of the journal being more important (a variable) seemed to somewhat payoff as it is now Jack's new bible. Just follow the word of God (Farademeology), and you save the world.

The Doc's position is pretty much utilitarianism (established by John Stuart Mill, a follower of the school of John Locke) which states that morally, the best action to take is one that benefits the most people. Jack believes it is his "destiny" to detonate the bomb, because by doing so, he erases all the pain and suffering the castaways and those that have died because of the plane crashed have endured. Faith Jack doesn't seem to care about the bonds he has made with Kate and the rest of the Losties, as what is the right thing to do is to try and save all those people that have senselessly died. Sayid seemed to agreed, because lets face it, his life has been pretty crappy since the plane crash. Kate takes offense, as Jack pretty much pulls the ultimate boyfriend douchebaggery: come off as a crazy lunatic while admitting that his life would be better without the crash. Who knows if Jack will actually be able to go through with it. If you believe that what happened, happened - it is obvious he can't. It also seems incompatible to the show's designs to have a veritable "erase button" that negates all the progress these characters have made on the road to redemption. I feel a swerve coming on, as I still hold out some hope that Jack has something up his sleeve.

I mean blowing up an H-bomb? At the exact time the electromagnetic energy is released? If things go badly, then Jack potentially kills more people than he intends to save by changing time.

Crazy maybe paradox alert:
Also, if Jack stops the plane from crashing, then he stops himself from coming back in time and stopping the plane crashing. My head just asploded.

Locke
Jedi Locke made his return with a vengeance. Not only does this new version come with updated confidence, but he also has a built in island-receiver that allows him to pinpoint the exact time and location for when he'll see his limping time-twin pop out of nowhere. This event also answered the question whether or not the characters could exist multiply at two different places at the same time. Locke worked his leader mojo all episode, establishing himself as the all-knowing, all-seeing man with a plan. It was funny to watch Ben still try to play Locke, trying to butter him up. Locke's presence and unpredictability seemed to truly phase Ben and even Alpert. I think Locke's gambit to kill Jacob might be purely for show, or a way to make Ben and Alpert play whatever cards they holding close the vest.

Locke once said that he wouldn't change the past, because the summation of those experiences is what made him the man he is today; that being said, I found it a little hard to believe that he would then admit to Ben that he cared little if at all for Jin and the castaways stranded in the past. Again, I think Locke is playing Ben by doing the complete opposite of what Ben is expecting him to do. It's also curious that Locke is openly demanding empirical evidence of Jacob's existence when he was so ready to believe in him before.

My guess? Locke already knows that he is Jacob. Or rather, Locke already knows that he will become Jacob. Similar to the way he knew exactly where he would pop out of time before, I think Locke will literally become the false God that Ben and Alpert have been parading around and brainwashing people about. Give them a miracle they won't forget.

Alpert
Even though this episode was Alpert-centric, it was more a time jumping history of Alpert giving the, I think fake, "wtf" face. I still can't trust this guy has no idea what's going on/happening. It seems whatever game Alpert is playing was immediately threatened by Locke's behavior, so perhaps we'll shortly see just who or what exactly he is. His allegiances seem to change with the wind, and maybe the trick to figuring out what Alpert it wants it to try and piece together the reasons for him initiating the leader changes between Widmore (or Eloise?), Ben, and now Locke.

Also, how did Alpert and the others get Jughead down under the ground in those tunnel/ruins? Those tunnels seemed pretty darn ancient, which made me wonder weather or not those had been built with the foreknowledge of future events; that is, the ancients built the tunnels knowing that one day they would be used for Jughead.

Eloise
She didn't seemed to phased by her son's death. In fact, she seemed to be pretty gung-ho to lead Jack and crew down the tunnels. We also didn't get the last conversation between her and Widmore, but it seemed to me like she has him pretty whipped. I wonder weather or not she gave him some special Intel or instructions to do something while they were down in the tunnels. Also, great cleavage.

LaFleur
Got the snot kicked out of him. Seems obvious that he drew the wrong coordinates to where the others are in hopes of getting off before they figured it out. I think Kate's return to the sub will prompt him to try stop Jack to preserve his state of redemption and love for Juliette. My bet is Juliette does something crazy and jealous-like to ruin things. Kate, always blowing up homes, literally and figuratively. Also, way to leave Hurly, Miles, and Jin high and dry. Jerkface.

Nah, I am pretty sure he's got something cooking up his sleeve.

Other Things
Radinzki getting all hopped up on rage. He REALLY wants to tap into that electromagnetism. I wonder why?

Hurly's epic history fail.

Sun's eye-rolling, "Can Jacob tell us how to get to Jin?" moment. Jeebus.

Can't wait to find out what "The Incident" really means.

- Claymhor