Lost: "The End"

It's hard to even fathom that I have seen the last of characters like Jack, Locke, Hurley, and Sawyer. "The End" to Lost was epic, touching, and in some cases bittersweet. Most of the initial sourness I had was the fact that everything about the island was still ambiguous at the series' end. Ultimately, upon several more viewings (hence the delay), my distaste was eased with the understanding that this was Jack's story, not the island's.

First lets deal with the elephant in the room - the Sideways "Purgatory." With the group I watched it with, the reveal was the most polarizing aspect of the episode; either people loved it for giving us a fond farewell to all the characters and a warm and fuzzy feeling that they all got to move on together, or people hated it for taking up so much of the season that they could have used in exploring the island. In terms of where I fell on the issue, it took me another viewing to get behind the afterlife. Of course, at the time tears were streaming down my face, but that was mostly due to the brilliant intercutting with Jack's tragically heroic death. 

Sideways: After Time

• We got from dead Christian's explanation to Jack that the sideways world is actually sort of like the Matrix: it is a collective dream created through the actions and interactions of the survivors of 815 and the ones they came to love. 
• It is akin to an eternal waiting room outside of time where their souls could find each other again, to remember the most important time of their lives, and move on together. The opening scene to season 6, the fade in from white, can probably be taken as the instant after Jack's eye closes in death; however, it cannot be treated as chronologically linear. As Christian explains, there were those that died before him, and those that died "long after." I am sure like many of you, my initial thought was that Hurley could have lived for several millenia, with the dream finally be activated by his death (so his soul could join). At the instant of Jack's death, time ceases to be relevant.
• This dream, as I imagine it, is the idealized world for the souls of the Losties after all the experiences they had on the island. For example, Sawyer was head of security for Dharma in the 70's, so his character progression actually had him as more of a cop than con-man after leaving the island - hence, after his death in the real world, he is realized as a cop in this timeless dream (though still dealing with the baggage of his past). This also could explain how Ben becomes a teacher, a role he might have slipped into as the islands number 2, and Hurley thinking he is the luckiest man alive after becoming the new Jacob.
• Problems with the dream:

1. Why were other souls trapped in the Lostie's collective dream (Ana Lucia). 
2. Was the dream an actual physical reality? Jack and Juliette are ex-spouses WITH a son. How are we to reconcile the creation of this new soul and the apparent history established between characters in this dream? 
3. Were the souls living out their lives in a state of eternal recurrence until they were activated? 
4. Sayid and Shannon? Seriously - not Nadia? In any state of existence, I guess I guy is still a guy. In one hand, we have a victim of war crimes in her mid 30's. In the other hand, a young,  hot, rich, asthmatic white girl. Other hand wins.

• Ultimately, if this reality exists outside of time, then technically anything is possible. It was a touching way for all our characters to reunite, but there always be this nagging feeling that everything that happened in that existence was meaningless. As Christian even states, their time "ON THE ISLAND" was the most important. Sigh. 

The Passion of Jack

• I have to say, that everything on the island was pretty badass, though I have to admit I was pretty much content when I got my Neo-Jack vs. Locke fight (with flying fist and all).
• Neo-Jack facing Smokey on the ridge was amazing. Telling Smokey straight up that he was going with him to the golden power and killing him, and Smokey's reaction, goes down as one of my favorite scenes in the history of Lost.
• Desmond is lowered down the waterfall in a mirror of the end of season 1 when Jack and Locke look down into the hatch. Desmond walks by skeletons of those who have tried to go near and failed. As soon as Desmond enters the waters, what could be described as the final safety measure, the burst of electromagnetism, arcs through Desmond as he pulls out giant stone key/plug. As the water drains, so too does the golden power until it is snuffed out.
• From the same hole that the power was flushed, a deep flare of red anrgry-sauce starts to erupt. 
• Darth Locke turns to escape now that the island seems to be sinking, but Jack catches him and rains down a few punches. As blood began to flow from Smokey, we are hit with the stark realization that the extinguishing the golden light had cost Smokey his immortality and power. It can probably be assumed that Jack lost whatever immortality he had briefly gained, and that whatever rules were in place to keep the two island powers from killing each other went down the drain with the power too.
• Jack and Locke have their final confrontation, where Jack is mortally wounded (that was no appendix scar) and Smokey takes a bullet in the back from Kate. Jack and Kate finally realize their true love, but with Jack's wound, it is fleeting. 
• Jack returns to cave of wonders with Hurley and Ben. Before descending and saving Desmond, Jack entrusts the island protectorship to Hurley in a gut wrenching scene. Hurley was my odds on favorite to obtain the title, as he truly was the most equipped in personality and demeanor to do what he does best for eternity: helping people. Who knows how long Hurley and the new-Alpert, Ben, rule - but I am sure many would have loved to see.
• Jack uses his last bit of strength to reboot the the island's engine, as he slides key/plug back into place and the golden power crackles to life around him. When I first saw Jack's body transported outside the cave, akin to the MIB's, my first thought was, "Oh no, he's the new smoke monster." Thankfully, or sadly, Jack is still barely alive, and stumbles to the spot in the bamboo grove that he first fell to on the island. I completely lost it here, and that was BEFORE they had to play the damn dog card. As Vincent barks and lays beside Jack in his final moments, I was overcome by the "live together, die alone" sentiment. Jack watches his friends escape and smiles as his eye closes for the final time. It was a truly perfect scene, one that will stick with me forever (and hard to write about even now). It's been a few days, and I still feel like someone close to me died. 

The Island: Final Theory

•  Based on what we were presented, there are many ways to interpret what the island was and it may take going back and viewing a few lore-laden episodes with the the new information from season 6 to fully synthesize.

The Island does matter, and Jack probably saved the world. From what? I am going to go out on a limb and say that the golden power is the spring of faith, the collective goodness and energy summoned from the creation of belief and hope. It is a "god particle" that  maintains its existence by feeding off the energy of the malevolent souls - souls that can neither be created nor destroyed - it summons and contains on the island."Mother" states to her two boys that the power of the island exists in everyone, but that man was greedy and would seek to control it for their own purposes, hence the existence of the sole guardian. The guardian is bonded to the faith-energy, enabling him/her to use their belief and "need" to create their own rules necessary to protect and feed the source, bringing new souls to the island so that they may either feed the energy or willingly "stay in the light" and become one with it. There are those that may be more uniquely attuned to this type of energy, like Walt, who was able to seemingly WILL things to happen through his need and faith. Think of the guardian of the island as an all-powerful Walt-like figure.

The problem, and Jacob's biggest mistake, is that the rules can create paradoxes. The MIB's rule of immortality conflicted with the malevolence that was borne in his soul from Mother's and Jacob's betrayal. Thus, instead of being able to contain the MIB's soul, his soul was transformed by the energy of the power into something physical that still existed within the rule of immortality conferred to him by Mother. Since Jack had transferred his guardianship to Hurley, and the rights to immortality, when the well of faith was reignited there was no paradox. It simply transported Jack outside, as his soul contained only goodness and faith. Who knows what would have happened if Jack had not given up the guardianship before reigniting the power? White smoke? Jack would have regained his immortality and probably not have died.

Whoever (or whatever) the first inhabitants of the island were, we might be able to assume that the golden power is the origin of all religion.. One can venture down the rabbit hole that since there was a gateway to Tunisia off the island, that cultures such as the Egyptians (who worshiped the Sun and the light) could have been adapted from stories about the island told by those who had managed to leave of an all powerful figure and his/her control over life, creation, and light.

Now for the obvious: what happens when the light of the island goes out? From what we were able to see in the final episode, there may be a couple of explanations. Jacob maintains that if the light goes out, malevolence would be released on the world - or to put it another way: if faith is extinguished, hate and suffering will ensue (a very Jedi belief). All of those evil souls trapped on the island, all of that trapped hatred would once again be loose on the world and able to corrupt. As Desmond first pulled the hyroglyphed stone cork I was reminded of that the redness that rose up  in that Dun Morogh scene of "Fellowship of the Ring" where the Balrog is awakened.

However, it could also be that the first ancient civilization had created the technology present in the cave that either created or used the energy to subdue a natural catastrophe (i.e. a massive volcano or world wide earthquakes).

I will update this theory as I go back and look at some episodes. Was the smoke monster a unique creation in island history? Until then, it's been a pleasure. Thank you Lost.

Lost: "The Last Recruit"

Oddly enough, after the second viewing, this episode resonated more with me on the technique in which the sideways  and island worlds would mirror each other between flashes. In general, this was more or less probably the last "orientation" episode of Lost; that is, this episode served to put the characters in their proper places for the end-game in both realities. This is not to imply that I was bummed out by the episode this week, as it was probably one of the most poignant episodes is recent memory, as all the characters were (briefly) reunited, though some were oddly lacking in emotional resonance (see: Jack/Claire).

I usually do an Off-island/On-island rundown, but this week's altered narrative structure demands an equal change. "The Last Recruit" abandoned the character-centric take on the sideways realm, and instead served to closely mirror upon juxtaposition the conflict of the Losties in both worlds. Here are some mirrored scenes/storylines:

Sun/Jin

•  Off Island: Sun is wheeled in to the ER losing blood fast, when she curiously not only recognizes Locke, but seems angry/terrified (my Korean facial recognition may be off) by his very presence in the gurney next to her. Eventually, Sun and Jin are reunited upon her waking, to the news that her baby is OK as well.
• On Island: Sun is carried along in Smokey's group losing patience fast. When Darth Locke approaches her in line, she is noticeably angry and writes down on her cry-pad that she blames him for her loss of speech. Ultimately, Sun and Jin or reunited on Hydra island, and Sun recovers her lost English.

Sayid

• Off Island: Sayid flees the scene after killing an unarmed Keamy, back to Nadia's house. Upon reaching the home, Sayid admits to Nadia that because of his actions, he can never return as it would only put her in harms way. While trying to flee, he is apprehended by cop-Sawyer via the ol' "garden snake got yo' shoes" maneuver. 

• On Island: Sayid is tasked by Locke to shoot an unarmed Desmond. When confronting Desmond, Sayid hesitates and flexes a lot as Desmond asks him what Locke could have offered him to make him turn to the dark side. Sayid's reasoning: since Locke brought him back from the dead, he could bring back Nadia. Desmond counters with: even if you brought her back, how would you explain what you have done to bring her back? Desmond's fate unknown, Sayid is caught fleeing by Locke via the ol' "omniscient Smoke-monster" maneuver. 

Kate/Sawyer

• Off Island: Kate is brought into by doucher-cop Sawyer, who ponders how strange it is that fate would smack her car into his (not a sexual metaphor). Kate maintains her innocence, while asking why Sawyer helped her escape in the airport. She figures that he couldn't bring her in, because he was hiding the fact that he knows it was wrong  that he had gone to Australia in the first place. 

• On Island: Kate is brought onto the boat by Sawyer, who wants to rendezvous with Jack and bring their group together again. When approached by crazy-Claire, Kate maintains her guilt for having raised Aaron. When Sawyer confronts Jack, the Doc figures that Sawyer is hiding the fact from himself that he he knows it is wrong to leave the island in the first place.

Jack

• Off Island: Jack with help of his precocious and similarly-haired son, comes to the conclusion that like his father, Jack has inherited the baggage that comes with keeping things to himself.  At the reading of his will, Ilana blows (up) Jack's mind with the reunion and revelation that Claire is his half-sister (thanks to the insistent charms of Desmond). Jack has to put his powerful waterworks on hold as Locke's emergency beckons his healing hands. Upon arrival, Jack is greeted with the dire news that the ER team has never seen injuries this bad, to which Jack responds by confidently taking the plunge into the surgery. Upon preparing to cut, Jack recognizes the familiar face of Locke in the mirror. 
• On Island: Jack refuses to keep things to himself as he questions the reasoning behind Smokey taking on the guise and familiar face of John Locke. Smokey dubiously admits to being the apparition of Christian Shepherd that led Jack to finding fresh water. Jack is later reunited with Claire, but the meeting doesn't last long as Claire tells Jack that whether he likes it or not, he is with Smokey. On the boat, Sawyer gives Jack the dire warning that unless Jack cooperates with the escape, he is off the boat - to which Jack responds by confidently taking the plunge into the ocean. Upon returning to the beach, he is greeted by the familiar face of John Locke.

All in all, this week was feat for further connecting the two worlds via storytelling shifts rather than the direct "memory download." Some quick thoughts:

• Do you believe Smokey was telling the truth that he was Christian Shepherd? The circumstances would line up, in that both Locke and Christian were dead and on the plane before Smokey took their guises. Christian's likeness had been used many times prior Smokey assuming John Locke's appearance, though perhaps never in the directly physical form. If Smokey was Christian before - how would he make the shift, since Ilana was convinced that Smokey would be stuck in Locke's form. Also, how was Smokey able to appear off island to Jack in Christian's form, unless of course, it wasn't Smokey - which makes everything he said still questionable at best.

• Oddly, no mention of Alpert's crew. That makes those of note still left on the island at the episode's end: Smokey, Jack, Alpert, Ben, Miles, Sayid, and Desmond (probably).

•  Best line of the night was Sawyer's response to hearing that Jack didn't feel complete off-island, "There are pills for that." 

• Do you think that isolating Jack was Smokey's plan all along? He took it pretty well that the other candidates, those people he has continually expressed needing to escape, went over to the enemy. Did he subtly orchestrate the rest of the candidates moving to Hydra island so that they can be killed? 

• I guess Claire was just too crazy to be a real sister for Jack, as he oddly completely leaves her to her fate and makes off with the rest of the Losties without even a second thought. Also, why couldn't Sawyer have responded to her reasoning for being crazy and following Smokey because "at least Smokey didn't abandon me," with, "Hey Jane of the Jungle, I saw you 'asplode!"

                                                               You're with me now!

Lost: "Recon" Recap

Recon. Re-Con.

This episode was also known as "Saywer finally pulls a hat-trick." Of course I am referring to the fact that Mr. Ford finally completes the spectrum of lays and has relations with one lady of every hair color; the big (random) flavor of the week was the late Charlotte Lewis (also of the C.S. Lewis tree of references), who in turn, offered nothing of value except passionate lovemaking and a tiny bit of info that she still fell into the archaeology gig. Sawyers' alternate digs, however, place him in different professional circumstances: he is a con-man for the law rather than a fugitive. Why is this important? Because Sawyer, to Miles (his partner, and loyal flunky in both worlds), explains that he at one point had an important choice in life: become a criminal or cop. In the alternate realm, James Ford chose the nobler of the two professions, yet all that "good" he has done in the name of justice has not rid him of his lust to find the con-man that destroyed his family.

One can infer from the fact that James Ford still endured the traumatic death of his father and mother, that Sawyer's fork in the road happens after Jacob touches him - or doesn't - at his parents' funeral as a child; more simply, Sawyer's alternate reality resets to when he had a choice as a confused child, whether to con for good, or evil.

Thus, did the island, and Jacob, still have an affect on Sawyer's life? Or, did the absence of Jacob allow for Jim Ford to edge toward good, rather than evil?

There was nothing really revolutionary about this story, compared to others in Lost cannon. What it established was its place in line with the rest of season 6's alternate lore of divergent and semi-redemptive stories. I say "semi" because it was probably not an accident that this story ends with Sawyer running into to alternate-fugitive Kate, because so far both of their off-island stories have been the most open-ended and unresolved: Kate was still on the run, and Sawyer was still in search of his family's con-man murderer (conmurderer?). Sawyer re-con's in his alternate life, and he maybe be re-conning everyone on the island.

Big question: because of Locke's implied relationship with his "too-be-invited to the wedding" father, is there a new Sawyer in James' past, or will it still turn out to be Locke's father?

"Recon" Off-island

* Sawyer lays on the old "whoopsy-suitcase" con the same way in both realities, but to different effects and desired outcomes; the point is that he is both in control of the the con in one reality and the arrest in the other, but more specifically it is to set up and underscore Darth Locke's faith in Sawyer and his ability to lie and detect lies.

* Charlotte = hot. It's amazing what happens for the complection when blood isn't spewing out of every orifice because of a time-warp. She finds a file (was she aleady looking for it?) in Mr. Ford's baggage labeled, "Saywer." The two ways to read this scene is either Charlotte was looking for this information, or whether this was part of a typical Sawyer con. Going back to the instigator of the date, multiple interpretations can be inferred from Miles offering up a "date tonight," including the veiled reference to whether or not James wanted to "die alone," (instead of live together). Are we to believe that Miles' friend Charlotte, who "works with his father at the museum", is not a police target and a potential Sawyer-con, or was the whole eventual odd sexing and morning-after meltdown a sincere (and awkward) one-night stand?

* After Sawyer's failed attempt at reconciliation (or follow-up BJ) with Charlotte, thanks to his tipsy revelation watching "Little House on the Prairie," he reveals the "truth" to Miles about his spelunking down in Australia; we didn't learn if he had murdered this time around, but Sawyer's soul-bearing lead to a run in with an awful stereotype: chick-driving. Yes, Kate did nothing but perpetuate the stigma that females have one weakness. I wonder if Sawyer's holding cells are called the "polar bear cages."

"Recon" On-island

* Hey - that's where Sawyer was last week when mass slaughter was going on at the temple - he was tending to Jin! Poor Jin, he is always either half blown up, or a prisoner. Smokey reveals to Sawyer, probably not to his great shock, that he is the smoke monster. For some reason, I didn't quite believe the MIB this time around; I mean I know everything points to him at least having control of the pillar of black death, but its starting to seem, especially out of Darth Locke's mouth, too obvious that new-Locke and the smoke are one and the same.

* A week ago, I was convinced, but the full-on disclosure by the MIB to Sawyer has me questioning whether or not the circumstantial nature of Smokey's recent assaults are due to the fact that the MIB is controlling the monster, rather than actually being the monster. This could also explain how Ben was able to call upon it at one point, but the jury is out rather than unanimous in my mind. OK, I know we had the first-person POV in Locke's episode "The Substitute," but there still could be a cool swerve waiting in the wings.

* Why does Darth Locke send Sawyer away? He claims its because Sawyer is the "best liar he knows," but obviously he anticipates an encounter with Widmore. The question that the audience needs to be asking is for what, or whom, is Widmore working for? Widmore, I believe, was too accepting of Sawyer's offer (and maybe-con) of bringing fake-Locke to be judgement at the hands of Widmore. Widmore easy-acceptance begs the question why he and he small horde didn't join Jack's posse, which leads me to believe that his presence on the island is either for Locke (and anti-Jacob) or for his own unknown purposes. Widmore had left the island several times at will to have and establish a family before his exile at the hands of Ben, so why would he come back? Either he had indeed fallen from Jacob's grace, or had been a victim of Smokey's influence over Ben and and Ben's consolidation of power over the Others; thus, if the latter is true, Widmore should be seeking revenge and a re-establishment of his power on the island.

* "Sayid, are you alright?" Kate was then interrupted by a crazed knife-wielding Claire going for the jugular. Sayid watched quite passively (and maybe hopelessly, or pilled out), as Claire's knife edged nearer to Kate's throat. Ultimately, Smokey comes to the "rescue," hurling Claire off with ease and then, quite literally, slapping some sense into her as only Chuck Norris could appreciate. Once again, this episode will play well for those of you Smoke-fans who enjoy his brand of full-discloser; Darth Locke tells Claire that she had disappeared, so Kate HAD to take Aaron. Ultimately, this scene leads to both an apology by Smokey to Kate for lying to Claire. His awkward and ironic reasoning: Claire had to be fed hate to survive in the absence of her baby. Star Wars link: hate and suffering = the dark side. Come on people, how cut and dry could the force be?

* This also leads to Creeper-Claire apologizing to Kate, but in an episode devoted to a con-man, this played more like an elaborate mind-game with Kate to win her over after Smokey was noticeably surprised by her presence in his camp. Call this a "Plan B" for the monster if you will, but this was the first time that Smokey has admitted to lying outright, which should set off alarm bells for all you Darth Locke lovers out there. In the end, these were brief, but great scenes that highlighted where our Smokey recruits are. Someone get Sayid a 5 hour energy shot - maybe he won't be so stabby.

* Sawyer reveals his gambit to Kate: he is trying to play Smokey and Widmore against each other to give them enough time to commandeer the submarine. Who the hell would pilot that submarine anyway? It made me wonder whether or not the all powerful one - the one most in need of a physical and cosmic man-chest support (he has chick-tits), Darth Locke, was also yanking Sawyer's chain about wanting to fly the plane off the island. If Smokey loved pilots so much, why kill the only one left alive in the first episode? Why let the new pilot, Lupidus, meander over to Jedi-Jack's camp? Hell, why couldn't he just Smoke his way off? It could have been the Sawyer episode, but I don't trust a damn thing or motivation the came from either Darth Locke or Widmore; ironically, the only one I did trust in the end was Sawyer - which I guess was the point. We all hoped and guessed that Sawyer was just on "recon," but maybe this long-con still isn't as cut and dry as we think it is. Perhaps we are still at the mercy of Sawyer and his devilish southern drawl.

Lost: "The Incident"

What lies in the shadow of the statue?

Thanks to babelfish translations, Ricardo Alpert tells Illana, "He that will save us."

...

Long ago when I first saw the line of ash and then the cabin for the first time, I postulated that perhaps the island was an eternal prison for an evil being, or Jacob. The extreme version of this story would be the Lucifer one; the island was the place on Earth that the fallen angel Lucifer fell when he was cast out of Heaven.

In "The Incident," we got a new twist in the war between good and evil to control fate. It has long been established in Lost that there seemed to be two dueling sides vying for the island, and thus perhaps the world. Was it the Others vs. Dharma? Widmore vs. Ben?

Apparently this duel, this time loop has been in motion for much longer than any of us anticipated. Enjoying a fresh-fish taco, Jacob stares out into the Ocean and upon the incoming Black Rock and probably it's long expected cargo, Ricardo Alpert. And then he is joined by his opposite, the Man in Black.

You see, Jacob isn't the only powerful force on the island. As Locke once explained to Walt via backgammon, for every white piece - there is black. There is evil. The Man in Black (MIB lols) hates Jacob so much for his belief that humanity can be saved. All he sees out of men is their desire to control, destroy, and make war. Still, Jacob beckons more of his chosen few to the island.

For what? Well it seems that Jacob has been weaving a tapestry in the shadow of the statue; literally though, it seems the man in white has been carefully weaving certain events and people together. Jacob travels the world touching lost souls at their exact time of need, thus binding them to the island so that they may enact free will within the waves of time and change themselves, and maybe change the final outcome: humanity's destruction by their own hands.

The MIB despises humanity, for he knows how this every loop ends in men destroying themselves. More importantly, he despises Jacob for his faith that men can break the cycle of destruction through their choices, through the illusion of free will. How many times has Jacob done his little experiments with incorrigible men? The MIB is sick of it. Endless loops - endless times having to go down to the wheel and reset it all before everything is destroyed.

"It can end only once. Everything up to that point is progress."

Progress? An eternity of living multiple lifetimes, watching the same events unfold. All the while Jacob weaves his timeline tapestry, ferrying his chosen saved to the island, while the MIB is forced to feed on the damned. A thousand lifetimes, and all MIB wants to do now is end it:

"You know how much I want to kill you right now?"

Ah, but there is a catch. It seems these two opposing demi-gods cannot directly slay each other. Disgusted, MIB returns into the jungle - returns to his cabin. His hatred festers. He begins to actively plot, so much so that Jacob is forced to bind him behind a wall of white ash so that he cannot spread his influence and discord.

"I will find a loophole."

...

The big revelation in Season 5's finale was that Darth Locke (as I have come to call him) actually is way more Darthy then we thought. In fact, he isn't even John Locke at all. It seems the Man in Black finally found his loophole. I am sure we will eventually find out how the MIB broke free of his cabin bondage - how the ash turned black. The important part is that he is free. Ben is just some sort of apprentice-level manipulator compared to his new master, easily falling under Darth Locke's spell and becoming the loophole by finally killing Jacob.

Yet the MIB should have known. Things seemed a little off when Ben told him that his dead daughter appeared to him and made him promise to do exactly what Darth Locke said. He was surprised - could it really be that easy? The MIB didn't even have to convince Ben to kill Jacob.

"They are coming."

From his dying lips, he sputtered the last words to his nemesis. Checkmate. Everything finally ended for Jacob; yet the chosen - the destined - were about to be summoned via an atomic bomb.

Jack the Shepherd and his tribe are coming.

Jacob had planned for this all along. He had been there in all their lives, touching them, binding them to the island and weaving their fates together. They were his ultimate end game in case the MIB had ever found his loophole. Disgusted by this realization, Darth Locke scowls and kicks Jacob's body into the fire.

...

Some people I have talked to said they were pretty upset that we didn't get our answer on whether or not Jack changed the future.

I think that we did though. I believe Faraday was ultimately right before that whatever happened, happened. Like Miles said, the castaways probably are the ones that caused the incident in the first place, because they had to. Akin to what happened to Desmond after the hatch imploded, I think through Jacob's grace (and Juliette exerting her free will), the castaways will be transported back to the present so that Jack and Locke (well the MIB) can have their ultimate showdown.

You see, I think the swerve is that the real game-changing "incident" wasn't in 1977. I believe the real incident was when the MIB finally broke the cycle and killed Jacob. Everything after that point is going to be different. It's funny, because it seemed destined from season 1 that Jack and Locke would ultimately be the driving opposing forces in Lost's conclusion. Locke the man of destiny against Jack the man of science.

Yet the real Locke is gone. Dead is dead. It sort of sucks, because you felt like the new Locke was a BAMF, that he had finally realized his potential. The only caveat to him maybe being REALLY dead is that Jacob not only touched him, but brought him back to life; we'll see.

No the real people of destiny appears to have been Kate, Sawyer, Sun, Jin, Sayid, and Hurly with Jack probably assuming the leadership role of a lifetime.

Jacob's death has signaled the end of the eternal backgammon game with the MIB, as well as the end of the time loops. Lost can and will end only once. The tapestry is complete (can't wait to see the finished product) and Jacob's hand picked team will either exert free will and make the right choices that will save themselves and the world, or they fail before the MIB's hatred of humanity.

So how do you think it will end? Was Jack the destined one all along? Will Ben become Sith-apprentice to his new (or maybe destined) master? Is the real Locke truly gone forever? Is the monster and the MIB one and the same?

There is a war coming.

Lost 4/8: "Dead is Dead"

After a lull of an episode last week, Lost returned with another Ben-centric offering that was ripe with implications and (for me at least) created a ton of new questions.

Darth Locke

What makes Ben a good villain is that it is very difficult if not impossible to pierce the veil of his half-truths. Yet in this episode, the audience was aided by "Jedi Master Locke," who seemed to be brimming with a new confidence and seemingly able to call out Ben on ever lie he threw at Locke. Ben wakes up, and though his face reads instant surprise, he declares that he knew Locke would be alive; this of course, would seem to be debunked by Alex later (as we'll get to). Yet, Locke seemed to knowingly be the one that was one step ahead in this episode, openly admitting to Sun and Ben that he just knew things after his resurrection: like how he would reunite Sun and Jin and even how to find the supposedly hidden "Temple;" on that note though, Locke made it a point to Sun that he was still the same ol' Locke. It will be interesting to see how new Locke pans out, whether or not he is running on instinct in the moment and letting it all come to him, or whether he is fully aware of his condition and of what's to come thanks to Jacob-intel, but staying silent to pull strings.

Ben told Sun after he pulled the switch under the house and called out for Smokey that whatever appeared out of the jungle he would be unable to control. Who would appear but Locke himself - and Ben was right, he couldn't control him all episode. Who was conspicuously absent while Ben was on trial? Locke. Christian Shepheard seems to accompany the sounds of the monster, and he was in a casket when the Losties plane crashed the first time. Who else has that happen to?

Quite the pattern.

Daddy Ben

Enough about the new uber Other. In the latest episode, we got quite alot of info about the history of the Others, as well as glimpses into what Ben might actually be like. At the center of the episode's many surprises is that Ben actually wanted to be a father, and his intentions toward Alex (even sparing her mother) imply that he has a genuine weakeness towards kids. He wanted to give Alex a better life than he had with his father, yet as was the case in his own life, the problem with absentee or dead mothers seems to run rampant in Lost. Things between him and his daughter soured to the point that he, maybe unwittingly, caused her death. For that, he told Locke, is what he returned to the island for, to be judged by Smokey on the count that he killed his own "daughter."

Whether he really was there to be judged, or whether Jedi Locke saw through his bullshit and then really made it happen by leading Ben to the temple, is it not strange that for all the pain and suffering Ben has caused - including the apparent murder of Ceaser at the beginning of the damn episode - he gets judged for only that?

But judged did he ever get. In one of the coolest scenes in the series, Ben entered a crack under the temple and is surrounded by what looks like hieroglyphics. It is not until Ben walked up to the center of the room that the Egyptian connection became even more solidified. Ben stood before this glyph:


Smoke monster with a face coming out of the perforated hole-slab in front of Anubis. Fucking weird - I guess the Egyptians did not have a omgwtf glyph. Whoever etched the glyph could have thought that Anubis and Smokey were one and the same in function, or that even Anubis could not match Smokey and thus is subservient to it and judged by it. Anubis is Alpert!

Nah probably not...

Ben's torch went dark along with the rest of the room, and the monster emerged from the holes under the glyph. Slowly it surrounded Ben, electrically flashing how his life as a father to Alex had deteriorated. Ultimately, the monster recedes into the holes only to come back in the form of Monster-Alex. It's probably a good bet now that this is the way that the monster is able to communicate with people, as we have seen with Eko's brother Yemi, and Alex lays into Ben telling him that he has to follow Locke or that she (monster) will hunt Ben down and kill him. Alex also revealed that she knew that Ben was planning to kill Locke again, which would sort of counter Ben's claim that he knew Lock would be brought back to life. Yeah, something tells me that Ben just lost his clout with the island in this trial, but it'll be interesting to see why he was allowed to keep his life.

Widmore Conflict

Ever since Ben was "saved" and unable to remember the circumstances of his shooting, he has been an other. Leader Widmore was none too pleased with Alpert, who retorts that Ben's saving is what Jacob wants. This dynamic is interesting, because we have seen Ben as the leader interact with Jacob before, which begs the question: why did Alpert's retort silence Widmore? Is it because Widmore was on the ropes with Jacob and was losing favor? Also, if Alpert knows what Jacob wants, why can't he be the leader? We get hints of the notion of Jacob's (and Alpert's) shifting favor after Locke is able to see and hear Jacob for the first time in the cabin with Ben, and Ben, feeling threatened, shoots Locke into the Dharma death-pit. This seems to indicate that being the leader of the native island population isn't exactly what it is cracked up to be, especially when you seem to follow a fickle ghost-leader and there is little job security. Watch out Locke.

At the very beginning of Ben being an other, there seems to be contrary stances on the treatment of children.

1. Widmore seems to feel that any outsiders, including children, must be killed. How then, do new Others "come on board?"
   
2. Ben seems to think that children are the key to something - most likely to replenish the ranks of the others.

Widmore seems to be of the thought that the island knows, and will take care of those it deems worthy to live. If the islands wants someone dead, they'll be dead. Taking on Alex as a daughter was foolish to Widmore, for ultimately Alex was not supposed to be an Other in the first place. We also saw glimpses of a young Ethan, probably already recruited by Ben from Dharma; Ethan is another interesting case because he was born only because of Sawyer and Co.'s interference. Ultimately, Ethan's death at the hands of Charlie seems sort of a wash because he accomplishes and affects nothing, which in turn fits nicely into Widmore's belief that it is the island, not people, who determines who lives and dies. Ethan was not supposed to exist in the first place, and thus has no real affect in the grand timeline (like Alex? like all innocent children?).

Who knows if the other part of the schism is the fact that Widmore realizes that children simply cannot be brought into the fold, and his yearning for a family drives him to ultimately break the rules by going off-island. Perhaps his off-island trips were driven by the ever-present baby-making curse on the Others. We probably will find out soon enough, though we know which way Alpert swayed.

Lapidus Can't Catch a Break
What the hell was all that stuff at the end? As soon as Frank returns, the new castaways go militant and instantly start demanding to know what is buried or under the shadow of the statue. Where the hell did they get that info? Unless, Illana(?) is what I thought she was, a plant by Ben as a fail-safe in case something happened to him. Lapidus might be getting pistol-whipped into following these people to Ben's "final solution."

Now we have:

1. Losties in the 70's
2. Locke/Ben/Sun on the main island in the present
   
3. Lapidus and rogue castaways on the Other's island.
   

Remember, hyroglyphics are bad news. Oh and when you hear whispers, run.