Lost: "The Candidate"

Damn Lost, you cold blooded...

A reunion? Drowned.

A redemption? Exploded.

A Burt Reynolds look-a-like? Face full of steel door.

If we once thought that in some way all major important players would escape unscathed, that thought evaporated after this gut punch of an episode. What does it mean to be or have been a candidate? Once again, the MIB sees a way through that loophole, and engineers the deaths of 2 of the 5 "candidates."  We now know some of the spectral limitations placed on Smokey, but more importantly we now understand him to be the villain - hell bent on murdering Jacob's candidates in order to free himself from the confines of the island.

Misty eyed from watching the remaining candidates come to terms with the deaths of their now long-time friends, I thought to myself that their deaths still didn't have the emotional impact I was expecting; instead, I took some solace from this existence of the parallel world. At least in another life, things won't be so bad for Jin, Sun, and Sayid.Even though we still don't technically know what that reality is, the relatively benign drama (compared to the clusterfuck on the island) has served as an emotional counterweight in many ways.

The biggest tragedy, of course, is that Jin never got to be the father to his child after all he has gone through to survive. Like Charlie and Michael before them, the Kwon and Sayid deaths are strikingly in line in terms of how they died. The Kwon's were noble and ultimately good in their intentions and their fate is a tender drowning moment - like Charlie. Sayid was corrupted and a weapon for evil in his last days, and like Micheal the murderer, was rewarded with a violent explosive death. Perhaps this is all purely coincidental, but there seem to be two absolute truths on Lost:

1. Stay away from underwater heroics.
2. Stay away from anything that may or may not explode.

 The Candidate: Off Island

• Alternate Jack seems to be mirroring the development of his on-island self, in that he seems more readily willing to accept on faith the fate-like reality  that almost everyone he meets was on his Oceanic 815 flight and connected. In his original form, Jack would probably chalk it up to coincidence, but in this reality, Jack travels down a rabbit hole in the search for the reason why Locke wouldn't want his spine fixed. Though it may seem like Jack has fallen into his relentless quest to fix, in truth what Jack seeks is to come to an understanding of Locke. In finding the truth of Locke's plane crash, Jack assumes a complete role reversal with Locke, in that he asks John to let go of the pain of losing his father, and have faith that his legs can be healed. 
• Locke silently refuses Jack's offer that he is candidate, still intent on bearing his condition as punishment for an accident he still can't figure out. There is a number of ironies in Locke's alternate crash. In one world, John's father cripples him - in the other, it is John who cripples his father (and himself). In one world, a plane crash gives back Locke's ability to walk - in the other, it takes it away.
• Jack seems to have landed on a heater in terms of building a family; he's got a great relationship with his son now, and he has invited his sister to come live with him and be apart of the family. 

The Candidate: On Island

•  Smokey is one devious mo-faka. Finally revealing his true colors, the MIB orchestrates one hell of a con on the castaways, using his defusing of the rigged plane as a way to build trust so that he could hide the same C4 in Jack's pack to blow away all the castaways in the submarine. Also, can I just point out how awesome it is that the ageless entity trapped on an island can jerry-rig a C4 explosive?  Because of the rule constraining Smokey to not actively killing the castaways, he puts a watch on the bomb to force the castaways to make the choice to  (accidentally) detonate the bomb themselves. 
• Smokey's plan had to include some way about getting a reluctant Jack (and pack) on the submarine, but coincidentally a sniper hits Kate and forces Jack into doc-mode on the Submarine. I say coincidentally, because the whole Widmore/Smokey feud is now looking increasingly suspect. Jack pointed it out: Widmore had to have known nothing was going to stop Smokey from getting to them (and then was conspicuously absent), and was willing to throw his crew to the proverbial wolf. The X-factor in Widmore's favor was bringing Desmond, but C4ing a plane wasn't going to kill the candidates (whether he knows that or not). 
• Jack, assuming the role of the former John Locke, tries to implore Sawyer to have faith that the bomb will not kill them, and to trust him. Sawyer, probably still emotionally seething from the last time he trusted Jack and lost Juliette, pulls the plug on the bomb and dooms the Kwons, Sayid and potentially Lupidus.
• Sayid refers to Jack as going to be Neo...er "the one," before trotting off with the C4 down the back of the submarine and sacrificing himself so that the castaways can attempt to save themselves. Kind of a bummer about Sayid dying, as I was hoping to learn more about his "condition." I guess we still have Claire for that.
• Kwon's scene was beautiful and probably the most tragic in all of Lost. Though they live on alternate-world, their is just a profound sense of loss having just been reunited only to have them die. Ji Yeon can now be placed on a list of orphans that can be growing in the near future: Walt is one, and Aaron and lil' Charlie are still at risk of losing their families. Could Lost be intentionally building toward a future reunion on the island of all these children?
• Not sure if we are supposed to think Lupidus was drowned as well. He takes a steel door to the head and that's the last we see. We usually get obvious death scenes, so with the plane still in play, I would have to guess that he makes it out somehow.
• Smokey looks on over the water before omniscience hits him that the Sub has sunk, but not every candidate is dead. He declares to Claire that he is going to finish what he has started, but with the rules at play, he's going to have to orchestrate something out the blue for the castaways to kill themselves. The only three living that still bear some protection are Jack, Hurley, and Sawyer - unless of course Kate's crossed out name was part of the con to try and use her life as collateral. If she is indeed not needed by the island, Smokey can still use her to trick Sawyer and Jack into killing each other (while Hurley eats in the corner).

Powerful stuff - don't forget to pour some out for our lost friends: Sayid and the Kwons. 

Lost: "Sundown": Recap

Can he be redeemed?

Of all characters, Sayid is probably the most likeable quasi-villains any T.V. show has ever had; and yes, after tonight's viewing, I have to conclude that in his current "state(s)," Sayid's scale has tipped a little to far toward dark side. Ok lets get real, if his scale was a little off-balance at the beginning of the episode, by it's end there must have a big fat black rock weighing down on one side. From Republican Guard torturer-extraordinaire, to suave island-technology guru and lover to hot blond trust-fund asthmatics, to down and dirty assassin and kid-shooter - Sayid's whole journey has been tipping those scales all over the place. One moment his getting down and dirty with Shannon, the next his busting caps for hire on the back nine.

I still have my doubts though; Sayid's sudden shift seemed a little too arch-villainy for my liking. Then again, perhaps that is the point. As Dogen tells our doomed Lostie, once you hear "him" speak, it's already too late. Whatever Dogen and the other temple-dwellers feared was that thing that was lying dormant within Sayid - that thing that remained hidden next to his heart - has been activated by hearing the smooth-talking Smokey. It's sort of like having an Alien face-hugger implanting a chest-burster, but instead of flying chest particles you just turn evil  from the mere words of the entity that brought you back - the entity that implanted it there in the first place. Of course, that is also a common thread we have here with our suddenly evil cast of castaways: they were seemingly "dead."

1.  Sayid was drowned and clammy for 2 hours before shooting awake. 
2. Claire was a-sploded in New Otherton, only to turn up next to her spectral Daddy.
3.  Locke was killed by Ben, but Smokey has been taking his form out for a test drive. 

It begs the question: is Sayid really alive? Zombies!

The Sundown: Off Island

• Following the mold of the other alternate reality Losties' stories so far, this Sayid is a little smoother around the edges. He doesn't seem to have tortured past with Nadia (get it), he brings his niece and nephew sweet (dangerous) toys, and most importantly: he has his violence switch in check. 
• His brother wants him to rough up his loan-shark? No thanks, says this Sayid (even though it probably would work out better for him if his douche brother were out of his way). At several critical points in this new-reality story, Sayid is given the opportunity to do violence as a means to an end, and he refuses. It is not until he himself, as well as Nadia and the kids, are threatened that he takes action in there defense rather than cold blood. 
• Why did he push his bro to marry Nadia? Sayid self-righteously asserts that because of his sins, he does not deserve a life with her. Unlike in his former life where he tortured Nadia and tried to seek her for himself without fully taking a penance, this Sayid instead has spent his his years after the Republican Guard atoning for what he had done. Or has he? There was still a bit of ambiguity with his job, but perhaps for now we should take him at his word until proven otherwise that he is "translator."
• What if, by choosing to not be with Nadia, Sayid has ultimately saved her life in this new reality? He had a bad string of luck with the ladies he has loved (Shannon/Nadia), and it's almost as if karma has been blue-balling Sayid; maybe the horrors he committed were just too awful. Hell, those tortures and his lovers' deaths were even BEFORE he became an assassin and shot a kid. In this new reality, Sayid seems to have hit that fork in the road and chosen "pacifism unless really F'd with," over wanton violence and kid shooting. Hey, maybe the only way for him to be with Nadia was to not be with her. The sill love each other though, which might be all the counts. 
• The Keamy/Sayid death part deaux echoed an idea that I threw out there in the Locke episode a few weeks back when I wondered whether or not Rose and other peripheral characters would still have the same fate. Rose has terminal cancer in both realities, and Keamy dies by Sayid's hand in both realities; I wonder if Dr. Linus is going to push a cripple down the school steps?
• Hey, actual cross-castaway story progression! Jin ended up in Keamy's freezer. Guess he fell for "Keamy's Kash 4 Gold" scam. 

The Sundown: On Island

• Samurai vs. Assassin? Yes please! By far the best choreographed fight scene since Ben getting punched in the face (the twentieth time, of course), Sayid and Dogen busted out some sweet Matrix leg sweeps and gurney dives. Of course, just when I yell, "FINISH HIM," Dogen doesn't have the ball(s) to do it. Did remembering his son's death really make him beg off? Or was it the memory of Jacob's offer and the fact that Sayid still was a candidate?
•  Sayid is once again led to do dirty work again. First, he is seemingly tricked by Dogen to maybe getting slain on purpose by Darth Locke. I for one do not think this was the case (more Smokey misdirection), as Dogen should have known if Sayid had "darkness" about to take over, Smokey was probably not going to keep him as a prized recruit rather than kill. To me, it's more probably that it was a last ditch effort to try something that was ultimately futile, as Jacob's magical swords have no effect once he is dead and the water has turned a nice poo-shade.
• In terms of info on our favorite deities, the big news is that one side views smokey as the "evil incarnate" that will slay everyone on the island, while Smokey goes about offering seemingly impossible things for the sake of fealty, just like his nemesis Jacob did with Dogen. I was still sort of playing with the idea that like Republicans and Democracts, both sides were portraying the other as more extreme than they actually were: Jacob uses misdirection and is willing to kill a lot of people for a sake of a few to get what he wants, while Smokey just wants to kill EVERYTHING; after the wanton slaughter though, I am going to have to side with team Jacob. Does it make me a bad person that I loved the smokey storming the citadel scene so much though? I hope that one day the audience is treated with an actual transformation between the MIB's Smoke and Locke forms.
• RIP Dogen and Lennon. In what seemed almost as nefariously comical as Anakin's nonsensical turn to Darth Vader in Episode III, Sayid went suddenly off the deep end with his own force-choke and neck-filet. I wonder if there was more to the conversation after Smokey promised him that he could have anything (clearly there was, as Sayid returns to the temple with a message for the masses and a raging vendetta). For such a well-liked character, it seems a pretty sad and sudden turn. Sayid, like Sawyer, was awesome for his ability to see through people's B.S.; unlike Saywer (who hasn't died and suddenly risen) one wonders whether Sayid really had a chance when coming face to face with Smokey. With Jacob dead, there was only one other entity that we know of that could have the power to raise the dead; perhaps with his promise and his magically forked tongue (think about that, ladies), Smokey has awoken that which he had implanted within Sayid, and thus consolidated his power over him until the moment of Smokey (or his) demise (re-demise?). Quick, someone get Shanon's inhaler and spray him in the face!
• Claire = creepier? She was singing that song that Kate would sing to get Aaron to sleep. Other than that, girl needs some Selsun Blue. 
• Out of seemingly nowhere, Team Sun appeared and escaped (via secret passageway - thanks Jacob!) with our remaining temple crew in tow sans-Kate. Were they with Locke outside? Won't he know they are nearby and fleeing? Speaking of which, apparently Kate lucked out: Smokey can only go is straight lines and not down when he is raging (sort of like that game snake on old cell-phones).

I know Lost loves Star Wars, so this episode wreaked of "Empire Strikes Back." You would think that after Sayid made one deal with the devil (Ben), that he would know better. Right now, my money is on that ultimately, Sayid would have no real say in the matter: his soul had already been claimed. Hopefully, it can still be saved by Jack.

Until next week...

 

Have you seen my sleeves?