A single question fascinated us for six years.

One question, posed over six seasons, in each of 121 episodes, in thousands of scenes, the query was always the same.   Thirty-five characters tried to answer the question; twenty-one of them died in the attempt.

The scope was measured not in years but in millennia, not in lives lost but in the hundreds of souls sacrificed.  Time itself had no meaning, for those asking the question and seeking the answer could move about unrestrained by the forward march of the clock.  Each character formed the question into unique words.  For Pierre Chang, the question centred around the origin of exotic matter.  Charles Widmore wondered how the place might be exploited.   The question in its most essential form was simple:

What is this Island?

Paradise

Life is what we make of it.  One couple witnessed the anger and fights and bloodshed and decided none of it made any sense.  Rose and Bernard found a quiet corner of the Island and built a hut.   Occasionally one of the zealots would happen upon their camp, trying to talk sense into these contented people.  The visitor would prattle on about this or that imminent catastrophe.  Rose and Bernard listened patiently, even if the visitor really had nothing to say.

JULIET: Rose, we just need to know which way the Dharma Barracks are from here so we can stop Jack, or you’re gonna be dead. We all will.

BERNARD: So we die. We just care about being together. That’s all that matters in the end.

The wise old couple knew more about the Island than Juliet and all of the Others combined.  Not one of the almost daily fights on the Island required their presence.  No one anywhere suffered injustice because these two gentle souls refused to raise a hand in violence.  And when their time came, they found out they had held the secret of life all along.  What would have happened if everyone else, or even a small handful of them, had adopted the Nadler attitude toward life and the Island?  Could Ben, living in such a blissful state as theirs, ever have plunged a knife into Jacob’s chest?  Would the Island ever have known discord or death?

Rose was never a candidate for any position of authority, and yet the Island cured her of cancer.  Jacob had the power to bestow eternal life.  Could it be that Richard Alpert was not the only resident of this Pacific paradise who had been granted immortality?

Hell

“This place is death.”

Rose and Bernard knew the secret of life, but this was not the only facet of their character that allowed them to enjoy paradise on earth.  Others, not as fortunate, paid with their emotions and their psychological well-being.  Some ended up paying for the Island’s unique powers with their very lives.

The Island had the ability to heal, but it could also induce suffering and death.  Charlotte Lewis was among the unfortunates who could not physically endure the Island.  Hers was not an unusual case.  Only a small percentage of those brought to the Island survived more than a few weeks.  Danielle Rousseau and Claire Littleton outlasted their contemporaries, but gave up their sanity to do so.   Of those who arrived on the freighter, onl y Miles Straum and Frank Lapidus survived.  Everyone from the tail section of Flight 815 ended up dying, with the notable exception of Bernard Nadler.

The Island was a living hell for almost everyone.  By the time Daniel Faraday returned from Ann Arbor with a plan for re-setting all of their lives to a time before the Island, most of them were immediately receptive to the idea.  After the leaders of the Dharma Initiative revealed their true allegiances to power and exploitation, every one of the survivors joined the plan to drop the nuclear bomb on top of the electromagnetic anomaly.

A Game

“Two players.  Two sides.  One is light … one is dark.”

Life is what we make of it.  Some players in the game of life have the power to make decisions about life and death not only for themselves, but for anyone in the vicinity.  Jacob didn’t wait for people to accidentally make their way to the Island.  Sometimes they just needed a little push, and no matter where they were on the globe, Jacob appeared and gave the little push that would send them to the Island.

The Game was more important than life.  Hundreds of people died in the game, but Jacob continued to look into the lives of thousands around the world, seeking individuals he deemed strong enough, with depth of character sufficient to endure the travails of the Game.  He valued human life, but he valued the well-lived life even more.

SAWYER: Tell me something, Jacob. Why do I gotta be punished for your mistake? What made you think you could mess with my life? I was doin’ just fine ’til you dragged my ass to this damn rock.

JACOB: No, you weren’t. None of you were. I didn’t pluck any of you out of a happy existence. You were all flawed. I chose you because you were like me. You were all alone. You were all looking for something that you couldn’t find out there. I chose you because you needed this place as much as it needed you.

Sawyer didn’t protest enough in his only conversation with the backgammon master.  It was his last chance to get answers, but for some reason he chose not to ask.  The important question was finally asked and answered, but this event had to wait until a conversation between the new Protector and his freshly-appointed “Number Two”.  The question is simple:

How is anyone on earth different from the Candidates?

Very few people on earth would ever claim they are not flawed, that they are not “looking for something”.  An unbiased scrutiny of any life would find the person lacking in the way she had decided to respond to the crises and unjust events and ordinary turns of life.  All of us at one time or another–and most of us on a daily basis–make judgments and take actions we consider favourable to ourselves, regardless of the way our personal biases and actions affect those around us.  We hurt others so as to come out ahead.  We are all selfish.  We are all flawed.  We are all “looking for something”.

The Rules of the Game

I believe it is essential to point out that the Man In Black had no name, and he was given no name by design.  At the very least, even if he had  a name, this knowledge was intentionally withheld from us.  A year and a half ago, in audition scripts for the character that eventually came to be called the Man In Black, the character was referred to as Samuel.  We might reasonably ask why such an important character was never given a name.

This is no small matter, and I believe this conscious decision on the part of the writers goes a long way toward understanding the way in which we are meant to look at the series as a whole.

The creators of the series elevated the importance of the character by plucking the show’s first Emmy winner from the role he had given award-winning depth and substance.  I intend no offence to any of the other actors, but polls over the years have shown Terry O’Quinn the favourite actor on the show.  The role of the nameless man was assigned to the series’ most capable actor, but even then the character was never given a name.

I cannot tell you why Benjamin Linus was dispatched to kill the suicidal John Locke in a Los Angeles hotel room.   I cannot tell you why Aaron and Walt were deemed critical to the story, but by the end of the story were almost-forgotten details.  I can make a few guesses here, but the fact is we were not told, and we do have to guess.  I can tell you that some of these unresolved details have contributed to a certain level of dissatisfaction, even disappointment, in the way the series ended.  But I realise now some of that dissatisfaction was intentional.  The writers intended a certain level of dissatisfaction.  They wanted us to seek answers.

Answers

What are the true Rules of the Game?  Many answers apply, most of them are similar or identical, but the only answers that have any enduring value are those provided by faith, or by grace through faith, or by trusting in the Tanakh, or by surrendering to the Creator and His Prophet, Mohammed, may peace and blessings be upon him.  The terminology and rubrics of dialogue and faith vary from one religious tradition to another, but they are all surprisingly similar.

Darlton are not telling us that we must launch into immediate studies of any of the world’s great religions, or that we must experience spiritual epiphany and conversion of the heart in order to understand LOST.  But they have imbedded into the very fabric of the series critical markers that guide us in our understanding.  A hierarchy of values has been created in these six years.  The systemic placement of values gives us a route to questions and responses otherwise obscure.  This hierarchy can be applied to ferret important answers out of critical scenes.  I intend to illuminate some of these markers on the road to understanding.  The questions remain, but our responses do not constitute guesses.  Rather, they constitute the hopes of our heart, the desires of our soul.  Our response is not the stuff of guesswork or theories.  Our answers are the response to John Locke, stretching out his arms and lifting his face to the rain come down from heaven.  Our answers are the response to Jack Shephard, standing ankle-deep in sacred waters, hands clasped in humility, lips chanting words of invocation.  Our answers are the response to faith.

A Place Beyond Science

Perhaps no one among us can speak with authority on a subject as broad as “science”.   The only exception might be “Dr. Science”:

“Ask Dr. Science.  He knows more than you do.”

Dan Coffey of Duck’s Breath Mystery Theatre took the ludicrous notion that any one person could speak on behalf of “science” and turned this impossible conceit into one of the most amusing series on radio.  No one can speak for the diverse set of logic-based disciplines to which we apply the broad term “science”.

I make no claim to be able to speak for other scientists.  However, I am a scientist, and I have been working professionally in laboratories across the North American continent, Canada and the United States, for the past thirty-four years.  My deepest expertise is in a sub-discipline of purification process design, but I have led teams in analytical development, pharmaceutical discovery, late-stage formulation development, early-stage research in various fields, interfacial and surfactant behaviour, and protein purification.  While I may not understand the nuances of much of science, I have been entrusted over the decades with ferreting out various types of natural behaviour that might be exploited for the development of life-saving drugs and low-cost natural supplements beneficial to happiness and health.  Thanks to my efforts and the good efforts of colleagues, the cost of taxol was reduced from over a hundred dollars per gram to less than ten dollars per gram.  You can walk into any supermarket in North America and purchase, at very low cost, a bilberry or blueberry extract that will greatly improve your body’s ability to ward off colds and other ailments.  I hold over a dozen patents on the technology related to berry extraction and purification.  I am no expert on “science”, but I have been a practitioner, and I speak from that perspective.

Science is confined by logic.   If I expand the limits of research to any inquiry that might be included within the scope of logic, science, and mathematics, I must necessarily accept that certain limits nevertheless exist.  Most importantly, I may not ever claim to investigate or to have discovered any facet of reality.  The best I might hope to accomplish, even after a lifetime in the laboratory, is to establish the adherence of certain observed phenomena to models of reality that I create through inference, induction, and deduction.  These models are most often referred to as theories, but they can never explain the real world.  We rely on assumptions that negate any possible connection with reality.

One of the most important assumptions underlying science is Ockham’s Razor (http://www.galilean-library.org/manuscript.php?postid=43832).  In plain language, Ockham’s Razor insists the scientist must accept the simplest solution to a problem as being the correct solution.  If I can imagine a chemical reaction as being the result of the collision of five molecule, but I can equally imagine that the reaction is the result of the collision of just two molecules, and if every observation I have made supports either of the fruits of my imagination, I must accept as valid and correct the imagined event that includes just two molecules.  The reality may be that only one molecule is required, or seven molecules are required, or the event occurs only when there are sunspots on our solar system’s star, but I can never know this.  Even if the model I develop happens to support a theory that is close to reality, I may not ever claim to have elucidated even the slightest aspect of reality.  I am allowed to conclude only that certain behaviours seem reproducible and that they also seem to adhere to a model consistent with Ockham’s Razor and the other underlying  assumptions of the scientific method.

For a more complete discussion of the limitations of science and their application to understanding LOST, please see my article on John Locke (http://www.sl-lost.com/2010/02/14/impartial-risk-cultural-musings-on-the-resurrection-of-john-locke/) under the headings “The Limits of Logic”, “Deception”, “Man of Science”, and “The Nature of Evil”.

Time-traveling Bunnies

PIERRE CHANG: In our first demonstration, we will attempt to shift the test subject 100 milliseconds ahead in four-dimensional space. For the briefest… of moments, the animal will seem to disappear…
LOCKE: Hey. Uh… was he talking about what I think he was talking about?
BEN: If you mean time-travelling bunnies, then yes.
LOCKE: You do know that he said specifically not to put anything metal in here.
[Ben stares at Locke for a second, then gives an exasperated nod and turns back to the task of filling the chamber with metal objects].

Benjamin Linus is no man of science, but he does understand quite well the limitations inherent to science.  He ignores the prohibitions regarding the placement of metallic objects inside the time chamber because he knows the injunction is based on nothing more than a feeble understanding of the nature of the phenomenon the Dharma scientists studied.  Pierre Chang dared approach no closer than his time chamber.  He had seen x-ray images of what lay beneath the Orchid Station.  He knew civilisations from ancient times had manipulated space and time to extents he would never be able to duplicate.

FOREMAN: There’s something in there. And the only way to get to it is to lay charges here and here and blast through it and take a look–
CHANG: Under no circumstances! This station is being built here because of its proximity to what we believe to be an almost limitless energy. And that energy, once we can harness it correctly, it’s going to allow us to manipulate time.

FOREMAN: [Chuckles] Right. Okay, so, what? We’re gonna go back and kill Hitler?
CHANG: Don’t be absurd. There are rules, rules that can’t be broken.
FOREMAN: So what do you want me to do?
CHANG: You’re gonna do nothing. If you drill even 1 centimeter further, you risk releasing that energy. If that were to happen… [Chang looks at the fallen workman and the blood all over his face.] …God help us all.

For twenty years the Dharma Initiative controlled most of the Island.  But never during that time did even the most adventurous among the scientists attempt to unravel the full mystery of the Island’s underworld.  Stuart Radzinsky, using the full force of the science at his disposal, came closest to unlocking the Island’s mysteries, but his experiment failed in a most spectacular manner, illustrating again the limitations of science.

Science is limited in the behaviour it is allowed to posit and explore.  Since logic is a small, man-made, artificial construct, it follows that science is unable to study and develop models for most of the reality we interact with on a daily basis.  Pierre Chang would not go within fifty metres of the Light, could not go within fifty metres of the Light, because not a single observation in the history of science could explain for him the true nature of the Light.  Benjamin Linus could approach the Light, not fearlessly, but with a proper attitude of humility.  He knew of the Light’s power, and he knew that power was not anything that would ever be catalogued or studied or rendered as model by any discipline within science.

Ben Linus knew the experiments at the Orchid Station could only scratch the surface of the Island’s capabilities.  The Dharma Initiative made bunnies travel hundreds of a second through time.  With the ancient wheel far underneath the Orchid, Ben could travel across the globe and across months, years, or even centuries, far exceeding the feeble capabilities of Alvar Hanso’s scientific corps.  But time travel, too, barely scratched the surface of the Island’s capabilities.  Ben knew Jacob’s Number Two, Richard, was ageless, made that way by Jacob, whose powers were in turn granted by the Island.

Most of reality is unknowable to science.  The person most fitted for life on the Island was the one who understood this intuitively.  John Locke was a man of faith, and because of his deep trust in the Island, he understood her better than anyone, better even than Jacob or the Man in Black.

A Cork

The Island knew no greater authority than Jacob, son of a Roman shipwreck survivor named Claudia.  Jacob was given Protector status by the Island’s former Protector, the woman who raised Jacob and his brother.  Jacob knew the Smoke Monster obtained its power from the mixture of water and light in the illuminated cave.  As long as the Light shone in the cave, the Smoke Monster would be unable to leave the Island.  Jacob understood the position of Protector as more than anything the Guardian of the Cork.  He explained this to Richard and to Jack and impressed upon them the absolute necessity of preventing the Monster from ever leaving the Island.  He was, in Temple Master Dogen’s words, “evil incarnate”.  Allowing him free reign in the outside world would lead to more than an exponential increase in suffering.  The consequences were nothing less than the complete destruction of all human life.  This was because the only way for the Monster to leave the Island was by snuffing out the Light.  But the Light was the very stuff of life and death and rebirth; its destruction would lead to the end of life, the end of death, the end of rebirth, the end of all events and conditions making up the cycles of existence.

A Sanctuary

Life is what we make of it.  Jack inherited the Island from Jacob, but he was no disciple of Smokey’s brother.  From his epiphany off-Island to the detonation of Jughead and the sharing of Communion with Jacob to his final breath in this life, Jack Shephard was the unapologetic disciple of John Locke.  For Jack, the Island was not a “cork”, not the Monster’s leash, not an abode of evil.  The Island was, in the words of his master, “a place where miracles happen”.  Jack understood something Jacob never did.  The Island had a multi-dimensional character that went far beyond acting along the narrow constraints of anything that might be understood through logic and science.   There was no logic to the Island, for nothing so joyous could be crammed into the narrow etiologies of human understanding.  There was no science capable of modeling her abilities and powers, for nothing so terrible could be forced into a syllogistic stream.

It was Jack’s more mature understanding of the Island that allowed him to plot and execute the Smoke Monster’s destruction.  Jacob knew the Smoke Monster originated in the terrible power of the Light, but he seemed not to understand, as Jack did, that the Monster was a child fed by the Light.  If the Light went out, the Smoke Monster’s powers would go out with it.  Jack, man of faith, trusted his understanding of the true nature of the Island, trusted in something Jacob never imagined.

The Source of Life and Death

The Light has the power to create and destroy, heal and wound.  It is the source of life and death and rebirth.  Jacob’s adoptive guardian expressed her limited understanding of the Light in these terms because they were the only words suitable, because the full reality of the Light is ineffable.   Here there can be no logic, no science, no words to compare, contrast, or describe.  The Light is at once terrible and glorious, life-giving and deadly.

It is the Source, which means it is not of this world.  That which is the Source of life and death and all things cannot possibly have physical residence in the created world.  We experience the Source as Light, but it is of course entirely beyond our understanding.  It is the only visible sign of the Alpha, the Omega, that which was and is and will be.

The Source is the umbilical, the connection between the natural world and whatever lies beyond the realm of the senses.  It is through the Source that we live and move and have our being.  Each of us carries a bit of the Light inside our hearts, as Jacob’s guardian told us.  When the Light goes out, we lose our identity, our connection to reality, we lose any possibility of life, death, or rebirth.

A Theory of Immortality, Cancer, and Childbirth

The Source is the guarantor of the cycles of life.  The severe cyclic regulation imposed by the close proximity of the Source means that any bodily process–and especially cellular processes–will be subject to more than the normal level of control.  Any cellular process that would normally proceed unchecked is kept in complete balance so close to the Source.  Thus, disease cells, which normally spread quickly, are forced to spread slowly.  Because they multiply slowly, the body’s defence mechanisms are able to kill the disease much more easily on the Island.   So it is that wounds heal quickly in Mittelos, and disease is uncommon.

In general, any type of cellular activity that occurs rapidly is slowed or even arrested on the Island, due to the regulation of life cycles through the Source.  In this special place, women and men may live forever.  In scientific terms, we can understand immortality as an inhibition of the normal processes of aging and apoptosis–cellular death.  Apoptosis, like the spread of disease, is a rapid process of cellular death.  The Source, with its ability to regulate life processes, slows apoptosis and leads to a kind of reinvigorating of the cell.  Thanks to this dampening of cellular processes, people can and do live forever in this place.

Cancer cells multiply much faster than the surrounding tissue.  The Source again forces the cancer to slow and eventually the body kills the foreign cells.  Cancer is virtually unknown on the Island.

When a human egg is fertilised it undergoes rapid mitosis into a zygote and then into the differentiated tissues of a fetus.  Like cancer cells, the cells of the fetus multiply quickly.   The Source seeks to slow this process, but the mother’s body, primed for new life, fights the unnatural dampening effect of the Source.  After several months of fighting the Source–an essentially unopposable force–mother and baby are overwhelmed.  The mother, her hormonal system entirely out of whack, goes into shock, and within minutes, both mother and baby are dead.

Taweret

The earliest inhabitants of Mittelos were grateful to the gods that none of their loved ones ever had to suffer disease or cancer.   Human nature being what it is, though, there were no statues of thanksgiving on the Island.  No days set aside to celebrate another cancer-free year.  One quite prominent statue greeted every visitor to the Island.  This statue was the islanders’ grand attempt at appeasing the very angry goddess of fertility, Taweret.  This ancient Egyptian goddess was so angry, in fact, that every woman who ever became pregnant died several weeks before the baby was due.  The unusual state of the Island that prevented disease and cured cancer was the same state that interfered with pregnancy and eventually caused the death of mother and child.

I must point out that the preceding explanations are all based in science.  The observations of lack of disease, lack of cancer, and death of women during pregnancy are consistent with the hyper-regulation of cellular function by some entity on the Island.  Since we know the Source to be a regulator of life, death, and rebirth, a hypothesis stating that the Source is the entity responsible for all these observed phenomena is entirely valid, and draws support from a wide variety of repeating events on the Island.

I don’t know that this is the type of explanation of Darlton had in mind.  This is a nitty-gritty science-based theory, and in the end, science is going to prove inadequate to the elucidation of most phenomena on the Island.  The fact that the Man in Black was not given a name, the fact that faith was demonstrated to be far superior to logic, and the fact that the Source and the Light and the Island itself were shown to be multi-dimensional entities I believe points us toward an inevitable conclusion:  Some of the remaining mysteries will forever remain veiled to human logic.

I believe this was Darlton’s intention.  If they had wanted us to believe all the mysteries were subject to rational understanding, that A causes B causes C therefore A causes C, they would have shown us the superiority of Dharma science, rather than belittling the hippie-scientists.  If they wanted us to treat this story as a linear unfolding of black and white, good versus evil, they would not have made Jacob a flawed man, and they would have made sure every character addressed the Man in Black as “Samuel”, rather than flagrantly leaving him without appellation of any kind.

I believe many of the remaining mysteries might be unraveled with application of the type of analysis I provided for the death of women in pregnancy.

Four Theories of Life

Life is what we make of it.

During the last 150 minutes of LOST we witnessed four distinct theories of life.  The proponents were the Man in Black, Rose and Bernard Nadler, Desmond Hume, and Jack Shephard.  I’m going to begin the discussion with the Man in Black.

Carpe Diem

Life is tough, and no one has suffered more in this life than the Man in Black.  Even before he lost his body and his soul, he was trying to find ways to rectify the injustices of life.  He knew the Light to be sacred, but he knew his objective–leaving the Island–to be more important than something as simple as a light shining from underground.  When did the Light ever suffer anything?  The Man in Black had to live every day with the knowledge that his people were far away, somewhere across the sea.  [Oh!  Accident pop culture reference!  And I don't even like Bobby Darin!  Taking "La Mer" and turning it into "Somewhere Across the Sea" must be one of the worst musical perversions of the twentieth century]

After he came thundering out of the Cave of Light he knew he was even more tightly tethered to the Island than ever before.  Extreme measures were called for.  Jacob was preventing his escape and guarding the Source.  Anyone aiding and abetting Jacob would be dealt with in a most severe manner.  Those he killed were just ordinary, mortal human beings.  And hadn’t Mother told him people were selfish and untrustworthy?  They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt.  It always ends the same.  People are vermin.  The only suitable way to lead one’s life is to take what one can get.  If a few people–or even hundreds of people die so one’s life goals might be attained, well, so be it.  Take what you can get.  Fulfill your dreams, and to hell with everyone else.

Crawl Under a Rock

“We don’t get involved,” Rose said.  It’s a common enough sentiment.  Who among us would not want to settle down in a little cabin by the sea, catch enough fish to live, steal enough Dharma tea to enjoy breakfast.  They have their dog… and their walking stick to protect them.   Entire songs have been written about this way of life.

I’ve built walls,
A fortress deep and mighty,
That none may penetrate.
I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.
It’s laughter and it’s loving I disdain.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

….

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

And a rock feels no pain;
And an island never cries.

Rose and Bernard are not exactly the hermit of Simon and Garfunkel’s classic song.  They certainly had much greater things to worry about than the pain of broken friendships.  Of course I’m assuming here that neither Paul Simon nor Art Garfunkel was ever ruthlessly hunted through a Pacific island jungle by an unstoppable, unkillable cloud of smoke that travelled faster than an F16 fighter jet, or stalked by a band of evil mercenaries carrying grenades, bazookas, and 300-round-per-minute machine guns.  And as for the final verse of the song, I’m not so sure.  Every time something bad happened on the Island, it rained.  Sure seems to me like the raindrops might constitute tears.

Rose and Bernard made a good choice.  It is not merely a matter of having adopted the philosophy of “live and let live”.  The plane crash threw them into an unhealthy environment.  The people of Mittelos were much more likely to draw guns on each other than engage one another in pleasant conversation.  The Island was reeling and swaying and moving about the ocean and zooming first back in time then forward in time, all of this incomprehensible movement hither and yon accompanied by calamities and catastrophes that literally took six years to catalogue.  Rose and Bernard made a sane choice in the face of their fellow survivors’ uncontrolled, irrational, and patently insane lifestyles.  Given a choice between peaceful days and nights in a hut, and being hunted by Stuart Radzinsky and his henchmen, who among us would choose to be on the receiving end of rifle fire?

Get Ye to a Nunnery

Desmond Hume had a well-defined mission.  Both in Mittelos and off the Island he took upon himself the difficult task of enlightening everyone.  It was a holy task, a mission aimed at bringing people together at a spiritual level.  The ultimate goal was to get everyone into a church–Eloise Hawking’s Church of the Holy Lamp Post (or was it more properly called Our Lady of the Perpetual Pendulum?), but getting them there would be a complicated endeavour.  Desmond would have to choose an appropriate way for all of them to recognise their spiritual connections, their Constants.  He would have to provide enough enlightenment that each one could discern her connection to her Constant in both life and death.

In “The Seven Storey Mountain”, Trappist monk Thomas Merton’s autobiography, he referred to the Abbey of Gethsemane in Kentucky as the centre of the world.  It was monasteries like his that held the world together, he thought.  Desmond was not only helping to hold the world together, he was bringing people together spiritually, helping them see the Light.

Just outside the Cave of Light, Desmond gave Jack the good news.

DESMOND: This doesn’t matter, you know.
JACK: Excuse me?
DESMOND: Him destroying the island, you destroying him. It doesn’t matter. You know, you’re gonna lower me into that light, and I’m gonna go somewhere else. A place where we can be with the ones we love, and not have to ever think about this damn island again. And you know the best part, Jack?
JACK: What?
DESMOND: You’re in this place. You know, we sat next to each other on Oceanic 815. It never crashed. We spoke to each other. You seemed happy. You know, maybe I can find a way to bring you there, too.

For the Common Good

Desmond believed Jack could just leave the Island, forget about what may or may not happen, and settle down to a happy life with Kate.  It was not to be.  Jack had a calling, a responsibility he could not forsake.

“Desmond, I tried that once. There are no shortcuts, no do-overs. What happened, happened. Trust me, I know. All of this matters.”

Jack had to kill the Smoke Monster.  He had to protect the Light.  He knew these things from the certainty of faith and no talk of happiness and being with the ones he loved was going to sway him.  If he left the Island only bad things could result.  If he faced his responsibilities he at least had a chance of making things right again, and preserving the Source for the sake of the entire world.

Living life the Jack Shephard way is difficult, challenging, and at times dangerous.  LOST would have us believe that this is the best life one might choose.  Life is not just about enjoying good times in a hut by the sea, or spending time with those we love in a church pew.  Life is about our responsibility to each other, the human need to work with others toward the Common Good.

Living and Working Together

I loved this scene.  Kate was back where she belonged, a full and equal participant in the struggle to free the Island from the Man in Black.  Jack would never have been able to kill him on his own.  As Christian said, “Nobody does it alone, Jack.  You needed all of them, and they needed you.”

I enjoyed this series more than any other I’ve seen on television.  The story gave us much to consider over the past six years, and I have come nowhere near exhausting the stores of ideas the characters and situations generated.  The series gave us more to ponder than any other television programme I can think of, and created some of the most detailed and complicated and human characters ever to appear on the small or large screen.  Jack Shephard, in particular, was a masterful artistic creation, a kind of hero we can all believe in–have faith in.

My favourites remain Locke and Kate.  Who would have thought Kate Austen would redeem herself by taking a rifle in her arms and putting a bullet in a man’s back?  Both the character and the actress were under-utilised in the series, but when Kate did what she had to do, the series was better for it.  John Locke ended in a way I never would have guessed.  But the other characters, and especially Jack, honoured his memory and revered his wisdom.  In this way John Locke’s story ended in the proper place, not hanging by a cord in a third-rate hotel, but living as mentor and example in the minds of those who protected the Island, and those who saw in Jack the fulfillment of Locke’s faith.

A Place Where Miracles Happen

I imagine a considerable length of time will pass before we see anything on television as compelling as LOST.  Come September 22, the sixth anniversary of the crash, Wednesday evenings are going to be LOST evenings at the Moore household.  Everyone is welcome–except Stuart Radzinsky and Charles Widmore.  Remember, though, it’s BYODB (bring your own Dharma beer).  We’ll supply the wild boar, coconut, and sea urchins.

PM

Related posts:

1. Dying Light: Counter-Culture in LOST 6.15 “Across the Sea” by Pearson Moore
2. Articles of Faith: The Culture of Trust in LOST 6.14 “The Candidate” by Pearson Moore
3. Principal Purpose: Culture and Meaning in LOST 6.07 “Dr. Linus” by Pearson Moore

Related posts:

1. The Official LOST Video Podcast: April 15th, 2010
2. The Official LOST Audio Podcast: April 15th, 2010
3. The Official LOST Video Podcast: February 11, 2010

Lots of more cast interviews are available here, but beware of spoilers!

Related posts:

1. Titus Welliver Talks about Jacob’s Nemesis
2. Titus Welliver (aka Flocke/Man#2/Essau) Talks LOST
3. “Getting LOST” – Call from Cassidy, Emilie de Ravin, and Smokey Theories

Jacob represents all that is good.

We know this because the woman who stole him told us so.  The woman who told us human beings–people–would hurt Jacob and his brother, “because they’re people, Jacob, and that’s what people do.”  The woman who said all people are the same:  “They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt.”  The woman who wished to prevent corruption by smashing the skull of the boys’ birth mother and wiping out an entire village of peaceful Roman peasants.

Jacob represents all that is good.

If you believe this, you are obliged to believe as Jacob’s mentor taught him:  That you, dear reader, are a blight on this earth, not worthy of drawing your next breath.

Tonight’s episode was breathtaking.  It brought light to the most perplexing mysteries in Mittelos.  It revealed where the survivors stand, and where they must stand to bring order, to maintain the light, to restore Eden.  Tonight we witnessed the essence of LOST.

An Island Without Love

Sixty years ago H.F. Harlow conducted studies in motherhood and childhood development.  He was interested in determining the aspects of childhood conducive to normal development.  The prevailing theory in the 1950s was that parents’ most important contribution was material support:  food, clothing, shelter.  Dr. Harlow was sceptical.  He separated rhesus monkeys from their mothers and gave them either terry cloth or wire “mothers”.  The terry cloth mothers had no food to offer, while the wire mothers were fitted with milk bottles.  When the monkeys were dropped into strange environments with terry cloth mothers, they clung close to the soft figurines.  When they were put into new environments with the wire mothers, they sat in the middle of the room, crying, or ran frantically around the room, looking for “mother”.  Dr. Harlow established in several sets of experiments that psychological comfort was more important to the infant monkeys than even the best milk.  The monkeys forced to grow up without real mothers were easily frightened, incapable of interacting with other monkeys, and generally disturbed and unhappy for the rest of their lives.  When asked which condition of childhood provided for the best development of well-rounded children, Dr. Harlow gave a simple, one-word response:  Love.

Jacob and his brother grew up without their mother.  The woman who adopted them–or, more accurately, took on the job of raising them in the proper hatred of human beings–was not a soft and cuddly terry cloth adoptive guardian.  She was more like the wire monkey, giving food, clothing, and shelter.  Is it any wonder that, when left alone, Jacob and his brother more often than not ended up beating each other to a pulp?  They had no concept of love, no remembrance of love, no certainty of worth and belonging that comes of a mother’s embrace.  No one showed them love, and they were not loved.  They belonged to neither mother nor father, and not once did they feel even a parent’s touch.  They belonged to no one, not even to the woman who stole them.  They did belong, but to an entity they both wished to reject:  the Island.

The Island was more important than the boys.  They had to be blindfolded as the woman led them to the heart of Mittelos because the Island had greater value than their sense of wonder, their autonomy, even their very lives.  Most of all, the woman could not allow them to figure out where the Light originated, because she could not trust them.

She taught Jacob her version of “love”.  When the boy returned to the cave without his brother, the woman asked where the boy in black was.  Jacob didn’t know.  “Do you love me, Jacob?” she asked.  When he responded “yes,” she said, “Then tell me what happened.”  Love, to the Island-Protector, didn’t mean giving Jacob a hug.  It meant quizzing him, shaming him into ratting out his brother.

What most disturbed her was the tendency of her chosen, the one who would someday replace her as Protector of the Island, to stare out at the ocean, to think on it, to wonder what might be found across the sea.  This was most dangerous, because the boy was otherwise precisely what she had longed for.  He used deception and cunning and loved to stalk prey–the very qualities the woman held most dear.  The boy who preferred dark tunics was “special” in every way that she was special.

They had no personal freedom.  Volition was not among the aspects of human life cultivated by the woman, and she rigourously sought out any sign of dangerous independent thought in either of them.

Jacob and his brother grew up without love.

The Woman

She believed herself an authority on human nature.  “They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt.”  It must have been the mantra of the Island, for it came to be the signature phrase of Cerberus.  With these eight words she summed up her complete understanding of humanity.

WOMAN: If they found you, they would hurt you.
JACOB: Why would they hurt us?
WOMAN: Because they’re people, Jacob, and that’s what people do.

This was the only characteristic of human beings the woman understood, and it was the only thing she could communicate to the twins.  Humans were depraved creatures.

But then her favoured one posed a question that must have been most difficult for the woman.  It went to the heart of her future plans for the Island and for the boys.

BOY IN BLACK: But we’re people. Does that mean that we can hurt each other?
WOMAN: I’ve made it so you can never hurt each other.

The woman’s response was unsettling, not because of what it said about the twins, but because of what it said about her, about who she was.

The Light

The image of the Light in the cave at first didn’t seem to work with the images and scenes that went before.  It was odd somehow, and in a way that I couldn’t get myself to believe was well connected to other parts of this very complex show.

As the episode progressed, though, I began to have a better feeling for the way the strange Light in the cave might have been intended to mesh with the series.

The strange Light was supposed to be odd, I believe.  It was intended to make us uncomfortable.  The Light is unnatural because That Which is Holy can never appear to be natural.  It is “Life, death, rebirth.  It’s the Source, the heart of the Island.”  It cannot seem natural because the Holy is outside nature, above nature, or as we say, “super-natural”.  The sight of the Holy can only instill discomfort, trembling, spiritual turmoil.  Moses before the burning bush was not comforted.  He was scared out of his wits.

It is Holy, but it was being approached in quasi-reverent manner, protected, claimed as her own, by a most unholy woman.  The woman profaned the Holy.  It was as if Lucifer bowed down at the burning bush, or the Devil embraced Mohammed.  Such an occurrence would have been the severest profanation, an abomination of the highest order.

Later scenes softened the strangeness of the Light, brought it back to the familiar ground of Mittelos.

The image of the Light worked perfectly in the Man in Black’s underground workshop.  It was the same light we saw at the end of Season Four when Ben moved the Island, and it became obvious that this was the “brilliant light” that Locke described in Season One.  Locke somehow saw beyond the Smoke Monster to the Creator who fashioned Smokey out of water and light.

But the Man in Black approached the Light with no more reverence than his mentor did.  He approached with science and logic and intelligence, elements entirely foreign to the supernatural essence of the Light.  As Eloise Hawking might have said, “This is, in fact, a violation.”

The woman knew the inevitable result of approaching the Light.

WOMAN: Just promise me…No matter what you do, you won’t ever go down there.
JACOB: Would I die?
WOMAN: It’d be worse than dying, Jacob….much worse.

Very unsettling, these words.  They again tell us who the woman is, and what she planned for the two boys.

The Purge of 50 A.D.

She burned the Roman village to the ground, filled in the deep well, and killed every one of the inhabitants.  Descendants of the survivors of the shipwreck, they had survived peacefully on the Island for forty years until the woman–the Smoke Monster–recognised the opportune moment to kill them and use their deaths to further her nefarious plans.

Her intention, very well thought-out, was to so enrage Jacob’s brother that he would release her from the millennia of captivity she had endured on the Island.  Perhaps in her youth–maybe before she lost her own humanity–she had dreamed of returning to her people.  Maybe she had nurtured this dream even after she became something less than human.  But after so many millennia, she too must have been praying at the statue of Tawaret, begging her or any deity who would listen, to send a child she could teach in the ways of the Island and then leave–by boat or by death–so she could end her unhappy existence and hateful responsibility to protect the Light.

She planted the seeds of her plan in both men.

Unholy Communion

WOMAN: Here. Drink this.
JACOB: What happens if I do?
WOMAN: You’ll accept the responsibility that you will protect this place for as long as you can; and then you’ll have to find your replacement.
JACOB: I don’t want to protect this place.
WOMAN: Someone has to.
JACOB: I don’t care.
….
WOMAN: It has to be you, Jacob.
JACOB: No, it doesn’t. You wanted it to be him…But now I’m all you have.
WOMAN: It was always supposed to be you, Jacob. I see that now. And one day, you’ll see it, too; but, until then…you don’t really have a choice…Please, take the cup and drink.

She even said a prayer–in Latin, no less–over the cup, pulling the chalice toward herself in a way that is more than familiar to the 1.5 billion of us who attend mass every Sunday.  But this was not the kind of communion we’re familiar with.  Drinking the cup here was more akin to accepting death, not life.  Not Mark 14:24, but Matthew 20:22-23.

“Now you and I are the same,” she said.  Her words were true.  She knew the full extent of their truth.  Jacob would learn the complete truth only after he responded to her death at his brother’s hands.

Jacob’s Corruption, Man in Black’s Destruction

Jacob completed the deed that his adoptive mentor wished him to perform:  Subject his brother to something “worse than dying”.  For the sake of the Island, Jacob was willing–eager, even–to extract vengeance and remove every trace of humanity from his own flesh-and-blood twin brother.  His mother warned him not to approach the light, and she almost certainly knew this from her own experience–from the very day she lost her soul and became the inhuman Smoke Monster.  Her favourite, the Man in Black, ended her tortured existence and her eternal captivity on the Island with a dagger through the back.  Centuries, millennia of suffering, ended.  She thanked him.  Jacob ensured the appearance of her successor by unleashing on his brother the full measure of his anger, by wishing for his brother to experience something far worse than death.

The woman counted on Jacob’s depravity to visit eternal damnation on his brother.  Jacob was human, after all, and human beings are depraved.  She knew he would not deviate from the template she understood so well.

The Divine Light

The Light is not something that can be approached in any but the most reverent manner.  The supernatural is not anything we can control or understand.  If we “protect” it, we do so always with a sense of awe, with a fear that is not anticipation of punishment, but recognition of inadequacy.  If ever we find ourselves in the Light, we must do as Moses did:  remove our sandals, bow down low, and hide our eyes from this most terrible and wonderful and incomprehensible Truth.

The woman who trained Jacob and Cerberus knew only half the truth.  We are “greedy, manipulative, untrustworthy, and selfish.”  All of this is true, and it leads to much suffering every day.  But we are kind, giving, and selfless, too.  Some of us, even though we are full of greed and selfishness, can become examples of kindness, compassion, and love.

And unlike the woman who raised Jacob and his brother, many human beings are trustworthy and endeavour always to trust, even when others think them gullible and take advantage of their inner goodness and strength.

Like humanity’s Great Father, Mohandas Gandhi, we are the salt of the earth.  We are creatures of the Light.  We are, in fact, the very image of the Creator.

The woman, The Man in Black, and Stuart Radzinsky all represent the dark, pessimistic, counter-cultural choices we can all make.  LOST is about a cultural response, a refusal to believe that depravity is the most complete and apt description of our contribution to this world.

The story of LOST is the story of imperfect, deeply flawed, deeply hurting people.  Criminals, murderers, con men, drunks, adulterers, thieves, gluttons, drug addicts, liars–the worst refuse of humanity, in fact–who nevertheless rise above their frailties and inhumanity to assert they are not people of The Lie.  They are not destined to die alone, like the woman and Jacob’s brother.  Their destiny is to come together, live together, seek the Light and know enough to remove their sandals, bow down low, and tremble in the incomprehensible and piercing Truth.

Jack Shephard and John Locke are far from perfect, but we could wish for no better guides than men such as these.  On May 23, they will teach us a new way of approaching the Light.  I am eager to complete the journey.

PM

Related posts:

1. Articles of Faith: The Culture of Trust in LOST 6.14 “The Candidate” by Pearson Moore
2. Principal Purpose: Culture and Meaning in LOST 6.07 “Dr. Linus” by Pearson Moore
3. Terms of Indenture: Culture and Corruption in LOST 6.06 by Pearson Moore

I’ll just leave this here:

Retcon - “Retroactive Continuity” v. to retroactively revise (a plot, storyline, character, event, history, etc.), usually by reinterpreting past events, or by theorizing how the present would be different if past events had not happened or had happened differently. See: Crisis on Infinite Earths; Wolverine’s bone claws; Greedo shoots first.

Once upon a time, there was an Island. It was a very special place. To this Island came a lady in red – shipwrecked and washed ashore, this lady was very, very pregnant. Although the lady in red survived her ordeal, she did not believe that her ship companions had, and so thought that she was alone. She wasn’t. Soon, thankful for finding a stream for fresh water, she bent to take a drink and was startled when she looked up and found that Allison Janney was on the Island, as well. She seemed shocked to also find that Allison Janney spoke Latin.

Allison took the lady back to her caves and fed her and tended to her wounds. She found that the lady in red’s name was Claudia. Allison’s meal seemingly did not agree with Claudia’s constitution and so the lady in red went into labor, popping out a little baby whom she named Jacob. The lady in red wasn’t quite done yet, though, and soon pushed out another little boy, whom Allison wrapped in dark, swaddling clothes. This little bundle would remain nameless, however, as Claudia had very little imagination and had only picked out Jacob’s name.

Baby Jacob and the appropriately-acronymed BiB – Baby in Black.

Claudia wants to see her babies, but Allison has another idea, and decides to show her a big rock up real close to her face, over and over. With the lady in red now completely in red, Allison could become mommy dearest to the yin yang twins.

A few years later, BiB – the Boy in Black – walks along one of the Island beaches and finds a wooden box. There are squares carved in the top, and ornate swirls along its side. Inside are six stones – three in white and three in black. Little Jacob wanders over and asks his brother what he’s got. BiB explains that it’s a game, and he’ll teach Jacob how to play if he promises not to tell mother.

This is an ancient Egyptian game called Senet – one of the oldest boardgames in the world. This is probably the coolest bit of research that the Lost team has turned up, and we’ll go over the finer points later, in analysis.

Back in the caves, mother is weaving. Mother questions Jacob about his brother, and Jacob pulls a George Washington, unable to lie about his brother and the game.

Mother heads down to the beach and finds BiB thinking deep thoughts. BiB knows that Jacob blabbed, and mother says that Jacob is incapable of lying, unlike BiB. The boy wants to know what he’s like, and mother explains that he’s – special. The boy wants to keep the game and mother allows it, saying she left it for him. He assumed it was from somewhere else, like across the sea. Mother explains that there’s nothing across the sea – there’s only the Island.

Later, in the Jungle of Mystery, the brothers are chasing boar when the boar is suddenly speared. The boys hide in the bushes and witness some Others field dressing the boar. These Others aren’t capri-loving, nor are they jungle hippies – these Others are dressed in field leather and brandish swords.

The brothers run back to mommy and tell her about the bad men. She tells them that they are not like them, and don’t belong on the Island. And then she decides that it’s a good time to blindfold the boys and take them on a nature hike through the same jungle wherein they said they had just seen sword-brandishing goons. Doesn’t seem like the brightest idea, but whatever mother wants, mother gets.

As the boys walk blindly through the jungle with their mother, they all chit chat. Mother tells them that the men they saw are dangerous because “they come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt and it always ends the same.” BiB, wise beyond his years, deducts that if they are people and the Others are people, and the Others can hurt each other, then that means Jacob and BiB can hurt each other. Mother stops them, removes their blindfold and tells them both that she’s made it so that neither boy can ever hurt the other. Then she spins them ’round and let’s them take a gander at the heart of the Island – a cave at the end of the creek with insides that sparkle and glimmer like gold.

That’s right folks, now you know what’s at the heart of the Island – Marcellus Wallace’s soul.

Mother explains that this place is the reason they’re on the Island, and the boys can never go in there. Mother tells the boys that inside is light – the warmest, brightest light that they have ever seen or felt. A little bit of that same light is inside every man, and they always want more. She warns that if they take a lot of it, that light could go out – and if that light goes out here, it goes out everywhere. So basically it’s the fuse box for Earth.

Mother tells the boys that she has protected this place for a long time, but that she can’t protect it forever and that one of them will have to take over for her someday.

Sometime later, the boys are playing Senet. Jacob tries to make a move, but BiB informs Jacob that it’s against the rules. Jacob says that BiB made up the rules, to which BiB says that some day Jacob can make his own game of Calvinball and can make up whatever rules he wants. BiB then sees the ghost of his dead mother. We know he knows, because that’s what she tells him. He tells Jacob he’s going off on walkabout, and chases after her.

Ghost Claudia takes BiB on a little tour of the human settlement, and informs him that he and his brother are from those people and that those people came from across the sea. She also fills in BiB on the little bit of homicide that his current “mother” engaged in when she bashed Claudia’s pretty face right after they were born. Naturally, this does not sit well with little Blackie.

For the sake of my over-attentive mind, I’m going to pretend that I didn’t just see a ghost brush a piece of grass aside because it was ruining her take.

BiB returns to the caves and gathers Jacob, ushering him into the jungle and telling him the truth about their “mother” and the Others on the Island. Jacob gets a little upset and beats the stuffing out of little brother. Mother shows up and drags them apart. BiB informs his adoptive mother that he knows the truth about everything, and that he’s going to go live with the Others. Mother tells him it’s useless, because he can never leave the Island. The boy vows to someday prove her wrong.

At dawn, mother is sitting on the thinking log on the beach. Jacob joins her and asks for the truth. She tells him that she killed his mother, and did so because she would have taken Jacob back to the Others, and those people are bad. She wanted Jacob to remain good, to which Jacob asks if he truly is good. Of course, says his mother. Then why do you love him more than me? asks Jacob. Mother can’t really deny the truth in that, but tells Jacob that she loves him in different ways. Wow, that’s certainly something you wanna hear from dear old Mom. She asks Jacob to stay and he reluctantly agrees.

Thirty years later, BiB is now MiB and lives and works among “his people.” Jacob visits his brother and the two play a game of Senet while discussing the selfishness and evil that men do. Jacob thinks that men might not be all that bad, but MiB says that they are exactly what their “mother” said they were. He continues living with them, however, because they’re a means to an end – and he’s leaving, having found a way off the Island. Jacob balks at that idea, but MiB takes out his knife and hurls it forward until it sticks magnetically to the side of a stone well.

Look familiar? Yep, it’s the same knife that Dogen gave to Sayid many, many years later when he sent the Iraqi to assassinate MiB.

Jacob is amazed and MiB tells him that there are smart men amongst his people, curious men, and they like digging holes. Whenever they find a spot on the Island where metal behaves strangely, they dig down deep. Here at this site, they finally found something. MiB asks Jacob to come with him, but Jacob becomes petulant and refuses to leave his home.

Jacob returns to the caves where mother is preparing yarn for to weave. Jacob tells her that his brother has found a way off the Island. Mother is very displeased. She heads out into the jungle and over to the well, where the Others are grabbing their lunch pails and heading home for a brewski.

Deep down in the well, MiB is working a coal pit. He senses someone behind him and turns suddenly, pulling his knife. It’s mother. She asks to join him and he acquiesces. She’s worried, and MiB says that she should be – he’s searched the Island for 30 years for that golden cave she took them to when he was young, all in vain, until now when he realized he might be able to reach that place another way. And so he dug. And he found. And he says that he and some of the Others have some very interesting ideas about what to do with what they’ve found. Mother is agitated, saying he has no idea what he’s doing. MiB retorts that he doesn’t know, because she wouldn’t tell him.

He walks over to the stone wall and pries loose a stone. A shaft of bright, golden light pours through and illuminates what appears to be half of the great wheel that Ben and Locke turned to move and halt the Island. Mother is curious, so MiB enlightens her that he’s going to make a hole in the wall, stick that wheel in it, and attach it to a system that channels the water and the light so that he can finally leave the Island. Okay, then. Whatever, dude.

I would recommend rack and pinion steering, because the Island is going to be hard as hell to drive with that thing.

Mother asks what we’re all thinking and wonders how he knows all this. MiB reminds her that he’s “special.” She begs him to stay, but MiB says he doesn’t belong here. She says her goodbyes and hugs him tight – then screams and throws him up against the wall, bashing his head. Man, this Island sure can mess with some women’s heads.

Mother returns to the caves and gathers Jacob, taking him back to the cave of light. She says that it’s his turn to protect it, and tells him that it’s the source, the heart of the Island. Jacob has to to promise her that he’ll never, ever go down there, though, because down there lies a fate worse than death. I don’t know about Jacob, but that I believe that line would definitely keep me topside. She breaks out the old wine bottle that MiB would smash in agitation later, says some mumbo jumbo and pours Jacob a tall one. She explains that to drink of this would represent his commitment to protect the heart and he would guard it until he had to find his replacement. Jacob argues with her for a bit like a brooding child, telling her that she wanted his brother to guard the place. She tells Jacob that it was always supposed to be him as guardian, and that he really doesn’t have a choice, so he should shut his piehole and drink the damn wine. Relunctantly, he does. “Now,” his mother says, “you and I are the same.” Hoo boy.

Over at the well, it’s morning, and MiB is topside, lying on the ground. He awakens and finds that the the well has been filled in. Overnight.

Man, that woman was busy.

He glances toward the horizon, seeing smoke, and runs to his peoples’ encampment. It’s in cinders, and Aunt Beru and Uncle Lars are all crispy, too. The only thing left is his charred copy of Senet, which he grabs and then proceeds to get a bit angsty.

Out in the jungle, Jacob and his mother are walking back home. Storm’s a-coming, remarks Jacob. Mother sends him off to fetch firewood, telling him to be careful. He says he’ll see her back home and she turns, a grim look on her face, and heads back to the caves.

Once there, she finds the place in shambles. The loom has been smashed. She notices the Senet game box on the ground and kneels, examining it. The storage drawer slides open and she finds two stones inside – one white and one black. She lifts and examines the black stone. Her examination is cut a bit short, however, when she suddenly finds a knife shoved through abdomen.

That’ll ruin your day, every time.

Mother collapses to the floor. MiB, distraught by his actions, asks his mother why she wouldn’t let him leave. Because she loves him, she says. She also thanks her son, and then ceremoniously kicks the bucket. MiB mourns. It’s all cut a bit short, however, when Jacob shows up and beats the snot out of his brother like he did when they were kids.

Not satisfied with kicking his brother’s ass, Jacob drags his bro out into the Jungle of Mystery and over to the Heart of the Island. MiB struggles a bit, telling Jacob that she burned them all and that Jacob can’t kill him – mother made it that way. Jacob tells him to stop squirming, because he’s not gonna kill his brother. Oh, no, he has better plans than that.

Jacob throws his brother into the creek at the mouth of the cave of light. MiB is shocked that mother showed Jacob the entrance, but Jacob explains that it’s his turn to be guardian. He grabs his brother and tells him that if he’s so determined to see the light and escape the Island, that he should just go. He then flings MiB toward the entrance, where he bashes his head against a rock. His body is caught in the current and he’s washed inside and sucked down, down, down to the heart of the Island.

As Joel Murphy so eloquently put it: “This week’s episode taught me one very important lesson – avoid golden showers”

Everything gets very, very silent in the jungle, and Jacob starts to wonder exactly what he’s just done. He soon finds out, as the light in the cave dims, that familiar crickety sound starts up, and a huge column of black smoke comes rumbling out. Jacob is knocked off his feet, and he watches helplessly as the smoke tears ass off into the jungle.

I can safely say that no one who had just done what Jacob did would expect that kind of result from tossing a body down a golden waterfall.

Jacob wanders further upstream after the smoke incident and finds his brother’s bashed and bloodied body draped over a rock. He hugs his brother and boo hoos a bit.

Back at the caves, he lays his brother’s body down into an alcove, and walks over to his mother’s body. He bends down, picking up the Senet stones, and places them in a leather pouch. We’re treated to a brief montage of a noticeably younger Jack and Kate when they first found the caves and the pouch with the stones way back in “House of the Rising Sun.” Jacob lays his mother’s body next to his brother’s, and places the Senet stone pouch in his brother’s hand. We flash back to Locke who christens the bodies in the cave as their “very own Adam and Eve.” Another mystery solved. Yay.

It’s been a game, even since the very beginning. Only this time around, the brothers are using much bigger pieces.

Jacob sheds a few final tears and then tells his brother goodbye.

Cue the THONK!

Well, alright then. With only three episodes left, we’re treated to an episode devoted entirely to two characters we had never seen before last season’s finale. We learn that Ol’ Smokey was either created or awakened when Jacob’s brother was thrown down the gullet of the Island’s heart of gold. And we now know that Claire and Rousseau are simply two in a long line of crazy-ass Island women.

I’m going to spare the long-winded criticisms this week because it tends to agitate some people. I thought, overall, the episode was slow and deliberate, like watching a sea turtle give birth, much like BiB did early in the episode on the beach. There were some decent twisty moments here and there, and the acting was up to snuff, but the sudden introduction of someone as recognizable as Allison Janney was a big jolt. Don’t get me wrong, I love the woman, but that kind of casting just throws you for a complete loop. You have total unknowns playing Jacob and MiB and then out of nowhere pops … Loretta from Drop Dead Gorgeous? I half expected her to have a beer in her hand. (By the way, if you haven’t seen Drop Dead Gorgeous, I highly recommend it. One of the funniest movies of the last 15 years.)

Everyone’s going to have an opinion on the secrets revealed here, and it’s impossible that the Lost team is going to please every single viewer, especially as the finale grows near and we all get a bit grumpy that the fun is coming to an end. I will say, in closing, that although it was nice to get some background on Jacob and his twin brother, the whole “demi-god” arc continues to bug me. As I mentioned in last season’s finale, for the longest time Lost stayed true to its roots, focusing on its central characters, almost to a fault. By throwing two very important characters into the mix so late in the game, we’re forced to care and want to know more about them simply because of the time constraint placed on us; it’s not dictated by story that can play out over a series. We’ve seen Jack go from being on top to the very lowest, bearded bottom and climb back up again, but the same is not true of Jacob or his brother. Yes, we’ve heard Jacob’s name mentioned for four seasons now, but it’s not until just this moment that we learned why we should even truly care.

As disappointed as I was by much of what went on this week, this episode was important in that it finally brought everything back to the Lost roots – bringing the human drama to the fore, ever above even the most fantastical elements. This is why I can still say I’m fully on board for the finale – when I can watch the Island swallow up a guy and burp out a column of black smoke and still care about what happens next because of the characters.

With that bit of business out of the way, let’s talk about a few things. Honestly, there’s not a whole lot to get into, but I do have some clarifications, some confusion and a whole lot of questions.

BEWARE OF DOG
As I saw the “origin” of Ol’ Smokey unfold this week, I couldn’t help but go back and think of everything we’ve seen and heard of the smoke monster since the very beginning. In many of the Dharma files, the smoke monster is referred to as Cerberus, the mythical three-headed dog that guards the gates of hell. Rousseau refers to smokey as a “security system.” Jacob thought that he was protector of the Island, but could Cerberus exist to be the ultimate protector of the Island? The entity that exited the cave of light could be just as Rousseau described – a security system. It’s normal function is to embody the protector and guard the heart of the Island. However, because it absorbed the persona of “Esau,” it also, over time, took on his dark personality traits, wanting to get off the Island.

We’ve seen now that Smokey has absorbed and exhibited many of the stronger personality traits of those people whom he has embodied. Since he has embodied the dark twin (Bad Twin?) for the longest time, those personality traits – his “special” abilities, his sense of entrapment and subsequent obsession with getting off the Island – are deeply rooted. Over time, instead of protecting the Island, it only sought to escape the Island, and realized that the only way it could get off the Island is if it managed to break the rules and kill off Jacob and all the candidates. It would free the cycle and enable it to get loose.

Maybe. Or maybe it really is simply evil and wants to escape and wreak havoc on the planet. Yeah, I said planet. You don’t think that thing is actually from around these parts, do you?

SPEAKING OF SERVICE ANIMALS
How did mother fill in the well over night? And destroy all those people? Was she a smoke monster, or did she summon Cerberus to come and do her dirty work, like Ben did to take care of Keamy and his goons in season four?

Also, who finished installing the Wheel? It’s long been built by the time Ben uses it to move the Island at the end of season four. We see the Dharma Initiative building the basement of The Orchid around the great wheel in the opening of season five, but did they complete the work? How would they know the plans that MiB had in his head in order to tap into the Island’s power source? Perhaps Ol’ Smokey, infused with the soul and essence of MiB, became so obsessed with getting off the Island that he continued his work and dug the well again. It’s the only thing that seems to make sense since we see the finished well in “This Place is Death” when Locke lowers himself into the well just before another time flash sends them all forward in time to when the well was filled in, yet the chamber and wheel were intact.

Perhaps MiB manipulated more of the people that inhabited the Island over time, “guiding” these Others as he did the modern Others in building and taking care of things for him. He could have appeared to the leader of some Others trapped on the Island and gotten the people to excavate the well and install the wheel. Still, if it was installed way back when, why wouldn’t MiB have had it turned before he convinced Ben to do so? Was it all in the timing, somehow?

Also, in this episode when mother discovers the wheel, it’s only half-finished. I’m pretty sure that the original prop used in the chamber is only half a wheel, as well, meaning the production team didn’t feel like building a complete wheel.

And while I’m asking questions here, why was it so cold down in the wheel chamber when Ben used the wheel, but there doesn’t seem to be the same level of cold when Locke uses the wheel, or while MiB is building it? Granted, MiB had a roaring coal fire going to keep him warm, but there was no sign of a frigid climate.

DON’T HATE THE PLAYER, HATE THE GAME
If there was one detail about this episode that I really did like, it was the backstory of the game between light and dark that the boys have been playing against each other since the day that BiB found the Senet box on the beach. The theme and symbology harkens back to early season one when Locke teaches Walt the rules and history of Backgammon, a game which is a direct descendant of Senet.

In this screen shot, they’ve finally gotten the rules down pat. Earlier, when the boys started playing, they were all over the grid. I get the feeling that the cast might have actually played a few rounds of Senet between takes.

For those not familiar with Senet, it is widely considered the oldest known board game in history. Typically, the pieces are represented by two sets of shapes, usually three pyramids or cones, and three circles or cylinders. In the Lost version of Senet, the shapes are replaced by light and dark stones, but that’s cool. The “official” rules of Senet are lost to the sands of time, but scholars have recreated the rules as best they could from clues and artifacts discovered throughout the years. The object of the game is to move your pieces from the home row, snaking them around the grid on the board, until they exit the board at the end of the grid. The movement of the pieces is determined by throwing sticks or rocks – one side is light, the other dark, with the light side representing a single number. Players can jump over other pieces, and if your piece lands on a square occupied by an opponent’s piece, you may remove that piece from the board, sending it back “home,” much like the now-familiar board game Sorry. The first person to successfully move all of his pieces off the board by exiting the grid wins the game. There are variants, of course. Although rudimentary, the game is actually quite fun, and custom Senet sets are still made and sold today.

You can even play a simple version online. Check it out.

On a deeper, and very Lost-related note, the game became a symbol of protection from beyond in Egyptian culture. Since it involved a bit of luck, it was believed that a good player was favored by the gods, and some people were buried with Senet sets to protect them in their journey through the afterlife. I suppose it could also be used to help them pass the time. Interestingly enough, Jacob thought to lay his brother to rest with pieces from his beloved Senet set, just as the ancient Egyptians once did.

THE RANDOM BITS
The Others have always been MiB’s “people” and he’s been seemingly guiding them from the beginning, whether in Jacob’s name or his own. It’s still a bit confusing as to who has been telling which group of people what they should do, and who they should follow. A lot of the modern Others’ actions make sense in the context of what Jacob would want in protecting the Island, but many of the actions by the Others as led by Ben seem far more nefarious.

Some of the flowers around the cave of light – they’re anthuriums. You know, just in case anyone out there is keeping score.

Allison Janney, when questioned by Claudia: “Every question I answer will simply lead to another question.” Sister, ain’t that the truth. If anyone wants to know the secret of the Island, there’s your simple answer.

How can MIB just “know” how things work? Does he have extrasensory perception? Perhaps he has interdimensional perception, like Desmond. This would explain not only his knowledge of Senet and the building of the great wheel, but also his knowledge of how things might change if variables are shifted, such as the deaths of the candidates.

So … Ben. Ben was supposedly following orders from Jacob, but it’s unclear if he actually was now. Way back in season three when Locke is first taken to the cabin, Locke hears “Jacob” but Ben is stunned because he can’t see or hear him. What’s up with that? That’s indicative of the “undead” not MIB or Jacob. Any time that MiB has wanted to speak to someone, he takes on someone else’s form. Yet when Ben and Locke first visit Jacob’s cabin, there seems to be no corporeal form. Of course, later Christian Shephard shows up and it’s probably MiB in full effect.

So what’s the deal with the heart of the Island in LA X? it would be underwater at this point, as would Ol’ Smokey. Does that mean he’s dead in LA X? Mother told them that if the light goes out there, then the light goes out everywhere. If that’s the case, is the light still burning bright underwater in LA X? Could that come into play, somehow in the finale?

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m always a little annoyed when someone gives birth on a TV show and they don’t take the basketball out from underneath the lady’s dress. Claudia just gave birth to twins, and in the background her stomach is still just as big as when she went into labor. I don’t know, that lack of detail just bugs me.

So what IS Ol’ Smokey, anyway? Since Jacob found his brother’s body after Cerberus exited the golden vent, Smokey is not totally MiB. Perhaps smokey is the embodiment of MiB’s soul, given form – strange as it may seem – by the heart and source of the Island. Perhaps smokey is part of an alien race of some sort, long laying dormant until it’s able to graft itself to a life essence that’s sent down into its hibernation chamber. Or perhaps the smoke monster is an interdimensional being, trapped in the vortex that summons others and holds the inhabitants in its grasp. Whatever the case, the options for the true purpose or origins of the Island are mind-boggling: an interdimensional gateway, a crashed alien ship, an ancient interdimensional device that was piloted by a race of smokey monsters, a gateway to heaven or hell or a prison.

And that about wraps it up for this week. Only one more episode before the huge, mega-spectacular Lost finale event we’ve all been waiting for and dreading. There’s still some time left to sort things through and ponder before then, so put on your thinking caps and as always, if you have an epiphany, tell me something good.

Namaste.

[HoboTrashcan.com]

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2. Smoke and Mirrors: LOST 6.05 “Lighthouse” Analysis by Chris Kirkman
3. Make Your Own Kind Of Music: “Happily Ever After” Recap & Analysis by Chris Kirkman

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TVGuide.com: Last night’s Lost was quite the head scratcher.
Pellegrino: I’ve been hearing that. I’ve been hearing quite a bit about that. [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: A lot of fans griped after the episode because they still felt confused about the mythology. Will there be more explanation in the last few episodes?
Pellegrino: There will be. There will be some ends tied, but I can’t guarantee that for everyone. People have been debating the meaning of the show and the various subplots for years, and I wonder if all of the questions are going to be answered. That’s a tall order, but I think many people will be satisfied.

TVGuide.com: All along we thought Jacob was a good guy, but he’s not as good as we thought.
Pellegrino: On a certain level, the line between good and evil has an indistinctive blurring. I think there’s a lot of crossover in the show. That doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m not good, though. Things will become clearer in the next episode, definitely. I think you’ll make up your mind one way or the other for sure, but it’s not going to be clean and pristine. You’ll definitely come down on one side or the other.

Head over to TVGuide.com to read the full interview.

[Photo credit: Spuffina]

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This is the video recap for LOST season 6 episode 15, “Across the Sea,” which aired May 11, 2010 on ABC.
My friend Allison joined me to summarize the night’s events and share our personal reactions to the show as it aired.

WARNING: Video contains Spoilers if you have not yet seen this episode!

Tonight’s episode focused on the back story of Jacob and the Man in Black/smoke monster.
It guest starred Allison Janney as their mother, and there was a LOT of information to take in.
Watch the video for the whole rundown and our reactions…

SHARE your theories in the comments section and tell me your thoughts at Twitter.com/AdamRucker

Thanks for watching, and subscribe for more videos and a new LOST recap every week!

Find me @ facebook.com/ruckitup

All of my videos can be found at www.RuckitUp.com

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2. LOST 6.14 “The Candidate” – Live Reaction/Recap Video
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Official synopsis: (F)Locke’s motives are finally explained.
Written by: Team Darlton.
Directed by: Tucker Gates.

What did you think of tonight’s mythology-heavy episode? Take the poll and comment below!

Please, do NOT post any info about upcoming episodes in comments. If you post a spoiler, you’ll be permanently banned. If you see a spoiler, please flag it. Thanks!

Related posts:

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Previously, on Lost: I have no idea, because Christian Shephard didn’t say those magical words and fill me in. It’s okay, though, I’ve been paying attention. Mostly.

This week, on Lost: Everybody dies. Well, not everybody. I’m sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. Oh, and did I give something away? Well, if you haven’t seen the episode yet, why are you reading? You can’t blame me for that.

Anyway, before we can get on with the death and dismemberment, we have to start with an eye – Locke’s to be exact. AlternaLocke, to be even more exact. We’re in LA X, and AlternaJack is there, waking Locke up and making sure he’s okay. Jack tells Locke that he got mangled by a rented sedan and that his dural sac was all shot to shit, but Jack rooted around in there and now Locke is all better. Jack says that while he was taking a peek under the hood, he saw the damage that had been done to Locke before and wants to know how it all happened. Locke asks why, and Jack explains that Locke is a candidate – a candidate for a new experimental surgery that could restore feeling to Locke’s lower extremities. Hell, Locke might even be able to walk again, all without the aid of the Island.

Locke says thanks, but no thanks, and ends the subject as Helen comes in and gives Jack a kiss of thanks. Despite the kiss from Peg Bundy, when someone tells Jack no, he’s not liable to take that as an answer, and so he begins his episode-long descent into Mr. Fixit mode – all while Jack on Island Prime decides to take the alternate route and actually become patient, confident and likable. We’ll get to all that. First, let’s finish what we started talking about in LA X.

Meanwhile, in LA X … I’ll bet you didn’t see this shot in the episode. That’s because it’s from this week’s Modern Family, which even has a Lost reference. Not watching this show? Shame on you, because it is to comedy what Lost is to time-traveling, mythic melodrama.

AlternaJack is seeking answers and, like any classic detective, his first stop is … the dentist? Well, Jackie boy has found some medical records that state that Locke had some emergency dental work done after his crippling accident. So, he tracks down the dentist. Turns out, it’s Bernard. After some brief chit-chat, Jack finds out that Bernard was on Oceanic 815, and Jack was seated right next to him. Bernard even says that Jack was flirting with his wife, Rose. Jack is flabbergasted. Bernard, however, does not seem surprised at the connection.

This is Bernard not being surprised at the connection.

Jack presses Bernard for the 411 on Locke’s malady, but Bernard can only reveal so much. Dentist-client confidentiality, don’t you know. Bernard does tell Jack that another man was treated with Locke after the accident, and he gives Jack a name – Anthony Cooper. “You remember all that?” asks Jack. “Of course I do,” says Bernard, impishly.

Jack follows the name Anthony Cooper to a nursing home, where he’s stymied by an admitting orderly who asks if Jack is family. No, he’s not, but luckily Helen – who just happens to walk in with a lovely potted plant (anthuriums, maybe?) – is, by proxy. It doesn’t take long for sharp-witted Helen to realize what Jack is up to, and she is reticent to allow him to see Anthony Cooper. Helen tells Jack that he saved John’s life, and wonders why that can’t be enough. Our ever-stubborn Jack tells Helen that it simply isn’t enough. Save your breath, Helen, the guy is like a dog with a bone.

Helen reluctantly agrees to let Jack see Anthony, who is now wizened, gray-haired, catatonic and confined to a wheelchair. Helen wipes Anthony’s mouth and introduces Jack to him, explaining that old man Cooper is Locke’s daddy.

Turns out some old bastards get a fickle fate no matter what timeline they inhabit.

Back at the hospital, Jack is visiting Locke, still confined to bed. Jack asks if John is awake, but Locke simply mutters in his sleep, apparently dreaming. “Push the button. I wish you had believed me.” I believe we all know what he’s dreaming about. Jack gets a very puzzled look on his face, just as he notices Claire out in the hallway, looking for the good doctor. Claire has a box tucked under her arm and asks if they can talk.

Jack buys an Apollo bar from the vending machine – the same one from which Jack gets the Apollo bar when Jacob first enters his life over in the Island Prime timeline – and the two settle in to talk. Claire opens her special package and pulls out an ornate box, asking Jack if he knows why their father wanted her to have it. Jack is clueless, admitting that he didn’t even know about Claire.

You can get those at the mall. They’re from Italy. I wonder if Claire has looked on the bottom for an inscription.

Claire asks Jack to share how their father died, and Jack tells her that he drank himself to death and was found in a gutter outside a bar in Sydney. Jack brought Christian’s body back, but the airline lost it. Lo and behold, Claire had just flown in from Sydney recently, too. Oceanic 815? asks Jack. Claire affirms and they both have a little Matrix-y, deja vu moment.

Jack sidles in next to Claire and the two take a look at the box together, flipping open the lid and staring at each others’ reversed images, through the looking glass.

It’s a music box. The tune inside? “Catch a Falling Star,” of course. Definitely creepy cool.

Jack makes an offer for Claire to stay with him at his house. Claire declines, saying that they’re strangers. No, says Jack, they’re not strangers. They’re family. They have a little brother-sis moment. Awww.

Later, Locke is being released from the hospital. The orderly wheels him down the hall, past Jin, who has a hand full of yellow flowers, apparently on his way to see his beloved Sun, recuperating from her gunshot wound. Locke takes over the wheeling duties and runs into Jack on his way out. Jack wanted to say goodbye, and Locke thanks the doc for fixing him up. Jack quickly admits that he went to see Locke’s poppa, and Locke isn’t too pleased with that. Jack just wanted to understand … and Locke sets the record straight real quick.

You see, Locke was in a plane crash. Not a big ol’ jetliner, but a small plane, that John was piloting. He begged his dad to be his wingman for the day – that, despite his father’s fears, he could trust John – but the two barely got off the ground before ditching into the tarmac. John doesn’t remember what went wrong, and the consequences where his crushed spine and his father’s catatonic state. It was all Locke’s fault.

Jack recounts his moments at the airport baggage claim when he had lost his father, and John had told him that Jack’s father was gone. That hurt Jack, but he needed to hear it. “Your father’s gone, too, Mr. Locke,” says Jack. Locke refuses to admit the truth, but Jack explains that Anthony Cooper is gone and that Locke can continue to punish himself for as long as he wants, but it won’t bring his father back. “What happened, happened,” says Jack. “And you can let it go.”

Locke wants to know what makes Jack think that letting go is so easy. Jack responds that it’s not, and that he was hoping that maybe Locke could go first. The thought makes Locke laugh a bit, and then he bids Jack farewell, rolling himself down the hospital hallway.

As John wheels away, Jack calls out after him. “I can help you, John. I wish you believed me.” Locke pauses, a strange look crossing his face, as if he suddenly remembered this phrase from before. After a long moment of contemplation, Locke grabs the wheels of his chair once more and rolls off in silence.

Back on Island Prime, Jack wakes up in an outrigger. Sayid is there, and welcomes him to Hydra Island.

A little ways away, at the Hydra station, Sawyer, Hurley, Sun, Jin, Kate, Claire and Lapidus are led to the old polar bear cages by gun-wielding members of Widmore’s Geek Squad. The sonic fence pylons have been moved and are now scattered about the compound. Sawyer balks at the thought of spending another moment inside the bear cages and strips Seamus of his rifle, threatening the Geek he christens “doughboy.” A shot soon rings out, and Widmore is there, telling Sawyer to drop the gun. His leverage? You’ll never guess.

This would be hostage/kidnapping situation #28 for Freckles. Seriously, just rename her the freaking Human Shield.

Sawyer thinks that Chuck is bluffing, but Widmore tells James that he has a list of names, and Kate is not on that list, making her expendable. Sawyer can’t argue with that logic, and gives up his gun. The group is soon ushered into the bear cages. Chuck tells Sawyer that he may not believe it, but he’s doing this for their own good. Sawyer tells Chuck that he’s right – he doesn’t believe it.

Widmore asks if the fence is live, but he doesn’t get good news – it won’t be live for another hour. Chuck makes it clear that is unacceptable because “he’s coming.” This could get ugly.

Back on the beach, Jack is rubbing his aching head and Sayid informs him that Locke saved his ass. He also explains that everyone else following Locke has hightailed it into the Jungle of Mystery and it’s just them three. Jack is confused and wants to know why he was brought to Hydra Island, and, as if on cue, Locke/MIB comes out of the brush to inform Jack of his comrades’ recent capture. Ol’ Smokey is going to help Jack get them out. Jack says okie doke, but he wants to get one thing straight: those people are not his people, and he’s not leaving the Island. MIB is kinda hoping Jack might have a change of heart about that.

At the bear cages, Sawyer is pacing, commenting to Kate that it seems like they’re going in circles. Nice reference, grifter. Kate thinks that Widmore was bluffing about the whole killing thing, but Sawyer sets the record straight. He says that back at the cave that Ol’ Smokey took him to, there was a slew of names up on the walls. Her name was there, but it was scratched out, signifying that Freckles could be toast whenever it’s convenient and the Island won’t have her back. This also confirms two things: one, that Kate’s name really was on the cave wall even though we didn’t see it, and two, the producers probably got tired of everyone speculating why her name was only in the Lighthouse. The answer, of course, was bad editing. Mystery solved.

Over in a secluded corner of the caves, Sun and Jin are catching up on three years of being apart. Jin says he’s seen the pictures of their beautiful little girl, and Sun reveals that she still has Jin’s ring after all this time. She places it on his hand, and they smile, full of love.

It’s a beautiful moment, really. Maybe too beautiful, since the Island has a cruel fate in store.

Speaking of cruel, all the power suddenly goes out. “Uh oh,” says Lapidus. And how, says I. The Geek Squad start freaking out, and the battle horn of Ol’ Smokey echoes through the jungle. “And, we’re dead,” mutters Hurley. Oh, it’s about to get interesting.

The crackling crickets of doom and that delightfully horrific rattling sound starts up, and soon Ol’ Smokey is headed out in full force. Seamus pops a few rounds into it, as if that’ll do any good, but he’s soon scooped up in a smokey tentacle and bashed against the side of the bear cages. Cerberus goes off to wreak havoc elsewhere in the compound, and Kate looks down to see Seamus’s keys. She reaches for them. Lapidus isn’t waiting around, and starts trying to kick the iron gate down. It won’t budge, but that’s okay because Jack is soon there, grabs the keys and sets them free. Kate wonders what he’s doing there, and Jack motions over into the chaotic bush, telling her that he’s with him. They get the heck out of Dodge.

Dawn has broken on the Island and the remaining survivors are marching their way toward the Ajira plane. Kate thinks that Jack has had a change of heart about coming with them, but he sets her straight, saying that he’s not meant to leave the Island. Someone rustles in the brush, and they all draw guns on Sayid. Jack tells them that it’s okay, the Iraqi is cool. They head out, once again.

Meanwhile, over at the Ajira plane, MIB has gotten a headstart on the group. There are a couple of men with rifles guarding the tiny landing strip, but MIB quickly dispatches both of them, snapping a neck and blowing the other away with a rifle. MIB pauses over one of the newly-dead bodies and spies a particularly fetching digital watch on a wrist. He likes what he sees, and pries it loose, then heads up the amazingly well-built bamboo boarding ramp and into the plane.

Does this strike anyone as being an overly-elaborate bamboo construct, or is it just me?

Once inside, MIB spies a particularly suspicious patch of cable coming out from one of the overhead compartments. He pops the top and pulls out something no doubt nefarious, wrapped in a black cloth.

Lapidus leads the gang out into the clearing where the Ajira plane rests, and heads toward it, wondering what it’ll take to get that baby to fly. Upon closer inspection, Sawyer spies an ex-Geek laying dead on the ground. He declares this an official “son of a bitch”-level situation. Sayid inspects another body, confirming that his neck’s been broken. MIB emerges from the fuselage and confirms that he was the neck-snapper, but if it makes everybody feel better, it was only a foregone conclusion that those dudes would die. MIB explains that Widmore only posted two guys by the plane for show, because he wanted them all to get on the plane, so they’d all be together so that Chuck could kill them.

“With what?” demands Sawyer. MIB takes off his pack and produces a big ol’ block of C4. He proceeds to explain how he found it, wired to the electrical system of the plane. Had they turned on the big bird, then, well, boom. The suckers, I mean survivors, just eat it up without a shred of evidence, which leaves me scratching my head.

Jin wants to know the new plan, and MIB says that they can’t be sure the plane’s not still loaded for bear. So … if they want to leave the Island, they’re gonna have to do it on the sub. Sawyer’s down with this plan, stating that’s been his main plan all along. Hurley objects, saying that MIB isn’t supposed to leave the Island because Richard said so. Sawyer says to forget Alpert, and tells MIB that he was wrong about the old smoke monster because he had saved their asses twice. Somewhere underneath that little fib lies a plan, methinks.

They saddle up and move out. Claire sheepishly trots up to MIB and says that she’s sorry. He smiles and pats her crazy, matted blonde head, telling her it’s okay, he understands.

“So you went a little crazy, so what? It happens to the best of us.”

Back at the end of the line, Sawyer once again calls on Jack to help him carry out a sneaky plan. When they get to the sub dock, he needs Jack to keep MIB from getting on the sub, and since Jack is staying behind, he might as well pitch in. Jack wants to know how in the hell he’s supposed to keep a murderous smoke monster at bay, and Sawyer tells him that he just needs to get it in the water, and that James will take care of the rest. Oh, cool, knock it in the water. Solid. Wait, what???

At the sub dock, the group crouch behind some low-lying shrubbery. Sawyer starts barking marching orders, like he’s ordering up a tactical strike in Halo. It’s kind of a new thing for James, and it seems as if he’s suddenly had some sort of combat or urban assault training; as if, somehow, he may have had police training. I mean, other than that three-year stint as LaFleur, guarding hippies. Anyway, he organizes his makeshift squad into teams, leaving Jack and MIB to take up the rear, and then heads out of the brush to storm the docks hard with the A-Team.

Do you see what I see? Yep, Jack’s got plumber butt.

Sawyer leads the first charge to the sub, with Sun, Jin, Lapidus and Hurley. That’s one hell of an A-Team. They make it past the empty docks no problem, and pop the hatch, disappearing inside, one by one. Sawyer and Lapidus storm the bridge and make short work of the navigator and captain. Lapidus takes over guarding the captain, and Sawyer heads back to see how the B-Team are doing.

In the brush, Kate gives the others the signal to head toward the sub. Oh, lord, I would not want to be on that team, let me tell you. MIB grabs his and Jack’s pack, and hands it to the good doctor. Jack, watching Kate and the surroundings, slings his pack and then sets out, taking up the rear. Kate, Sayid and Claire have a clear line to the sub and take it, while Jack and MIB hang back and have a little talk as they stroll leisurely along the docks. MIB tells Jack that he really, really needs to reconsider going with them and that whomever told Jack that he needed to stay was sorely mistaken.

Jack pauses and tells MIB that John Locke told him he needed to stay. And then, he proceeds to enact Sawyer’s master plan and pushes MIB into the water. Claire is flabbergasted. So am I.

I half expected him to come up, screaming “I’m melting! I’m melting!”

So is Kate, who soon asks Jack what happened. She’s rudely interrupted by a pesky bullet to the chest. Down goes Freckles.

I hate it for you, darlin’, but if you find yourself at the business end of a gun 28 times, sooner or later your luck is going to run out.

This is about the time when all hell breaks loose. There are guys all over the treeline, and Jack, Sayid and Claire open fire. Jack empties a gun and a pistol, never once taking cover like he’s in some damn western – or as if he somehow knew he wouldn’t be shot – and then scoops up Kate, heading toward the sub. Sayid heads that way himself, urging Claire to follow suit. They lower Kate down the hatch.

Meanwhile, MIB has slowly extricated himself from the devilish water trap and is royally pissed. He takes out his pistol and marches up the dock, taking out Widmore’s men methodically, and with gusto. Down below, Jack carries Kate further into the sub and orders Hurley to find a first aid kit. Sayid tells Sawyer that Claire is still above, so he heads up and out the hatch to see what’s going on. Claire is busy returning fire, and Sawyer calls to her. MIB hears the commotion and turns around, shouting for James and turning around to run back down the dock for the sub. Sawyer takes advantage of the opportunity and slams the hatch shut, climbing down below and ordering Lapidus to get the captain to dive, dive dive!

Out on the dock, Claire sees the sub leaving and runs after it. MIB catches her and holds her back, comforting her. Claire is very, very upset that they’re leaving them behind, but MIB tells her to trust him – she does not want to be on that sub. And, with a very mischievous grin, we all get just a wee bit scared for our new submariners.

On the sub, Kate’s in bad shape, and Hurley can’t find a first aid kit. Kate yells for Claire, but sorry Freckles – Aaron’s momma has been left behind. Jack asks for his pack to get a shirt to apply pressure, and Jin hands it over. The doc reaches in and pulls out an ominous, beeping package. It’s not a first aid kit.

Can someone please explain to me how an ancient smoke monster suddenly knows how to wire up a block of C4 to a ten dollar Casio from Walgreen’s?

Jack suggests that they, you know, get to the surface real quick-like and Jin sends the order to the comm. Everybody is a bit confused as to how a bomb got on board – everyone except Jack, who informs them all that Locke had no intention of ever getting on board the sub and that he pretty much just wanted to get everyone into some sort of tin can so he could blow them all to smithereens. Jack wants to know if anyone can tell how that thing works. Three guesses who chimes in. If you said the Iraqi Professor, you win. Sayid deducts that there are two wires that, if pulled out simultaneously, would theoretically render the bomb inert. Sawyer tells him to step aside and gets ready to channel MacGruber.

Jack stops him, though, and tells them all that it’s going to be okay, that Locke can’t kill them. Hurley is understandably confused. Just hold on, big fella, maybe Jack is onto something. Jack speculates that this is what Locke has been trying to do all along – get them all together to die, because Locke can’t leave the Island unless they’re all dead. However, he told Jack that he could kill any of them whenever he wanted but – dig this – maybe he hasn’t because he isn’t allowed to. Whoa, Jack, slow down there. You might actually be thinking for a change. What if, Jack posits, Locke is trying to get them all to kill each other.

Sawyer’s not hearing any of this, and gets ready to pull the wires. He and Jack go back and forth, a near repeat of the classic battle of wills down in the Hatch when Locke wanted to push the button, but Jack thought it was a worthless endeavor. Jack grabs Sawyer’s collar and tells him that they are all going to be okay, but that he’s just going to have to trust Jack. Sawyer thinks for a split second, apologizes, and pulls the wires.

The clock stops. Everyone holds their breath. The sub creaks.

And then, the timer starts again – only this time, it’s very, very fast.

Sayid breaks the silence, telling Jack to listen carefully, and explaining that Desmond is in a well back on the main Island and that MIB wants the Scot dead, which means that he must be extremely important. Jack wonders why Sayid is telling him all this. “Because it’s going to be you, Jack,” says Sayid hurriedly, as he grabs the bomb and runs to the front of the sub, diving through a bulkhead just before going kaboom.

The sub is rocked by the shockwave of the blast, and there’s stuff flying everywhere. Up on the bridge, Lapidus has been knocked to floor, and he slowly gets up, making his way down to the main decks. As he climbs off the ladder, he pauses at a sound to his right, just behind a partially opened hatch. “Oh, hell,” cracks Chesty, just before a pressure explosion sends a bulkhead door upside his head.

Sayonara, Frank. It was swell knowing you.

Back in the aft compartments, water is flooding in by the bucketfuls. Jack gets to his feet and finds Freckles floating face down. He pulls her into his arms and checks on the others. Hurley and Sawyer are okay, and Hurley asks about Sayid. He’s cut off by a scream from the corner. It’s Sun. She’s trapped behind what looks like a very heavy metal chest. Oh crap. I’ve seen enough underwater thrillers to know that this is not good.

This does not make me happy. This is almost as painful as watching Juliet wake up, bloodied, next to Jughead.

Jack puts Kate into Hurley’s arms, hands him an emergency oxygen tank, and tells him he has to get Kate out of there. Hurley says he has to go after Sayid. “There is no Sayid!” screams Jack, in what may be one of the best lines of the season. Jack tells Hurley that he can do this, and Hugo takes Kate and heads toward the blast hole.

Sawyer calls for Jack’s help and he, Jack and Jin manage to pry the heavy chest away from Sun. Oh, thank God. Short-lived elation, however, as we now see that Sun is pinned by even more metal debris. CRAP. A mini-pressure explosion rocks the sub, knocking an overhead fixture loose, which subsequently falls on Sawyer’s hard head. CRAP. Can it get worse?

The answer, of course, is yes. The sub is quickly filling with water, and Sawyer is unconscious. Jin can’t budge the metal pinning Sun, so she urges him to leave her behind and save himself. He refuses. Jack wants to help, but Jin says that he will stay behind to help Sun, and to save Sawyer. Jack reluctantly agrees, but heads over to a wall mount, grabbing the last emergency oxygen tank, offering it to Jin, telling him that he can rescue Sawyer without it. Jin knows that’s not true, and refuses the tank. Jack is torn, knowing that he is leaving them both to certain death if he leaves. Jin finally tells Jack to go, and the good doctor has no other choice. He turns and swims out, through the blast hole, leaving the lovers behind.

The water is up to Sun’s chin now, but still Jin is convinced he can save his wife. Sun begs Jin to save himself, but he refuses, telling her that he won’t leave her. He dives down again, desperately tugging at the metal beams trapping Sun. It’s no use. They won’t budge. Once again Sun begs him to leave, and he pauses, looking around, desperately. He speaks to her in Korean, telling her that he won’t leave … that he will never leave her again.

“I love you, Sun.”

“I love you,” answers Sun, crying and kissing her beloved husband over and over as the water quickly rises to overtake them both.

The sub slowly descends into the darkening depths, the last of the air bubbles trickling from its shattered hull. Inside, the heavy water has filled every recess, and all is still. In the aft compartment we see the two hands of the submerged lovers clasped tightly, holding onto forever as the end nears.

And then … release, hands drifting apart; the Kwons are gone, claimed by the inky blackness of the sea.

We cry.

The beach. Jack climbs from the surf, carrying Sawyer’s limp body. He collapses to the sand, and Sawyer sputters and takes in labored breaths. Hurley trudges over, helping Kate; she keeps telling Jack that she couldn’t find him, and they embrace. Hugo asks about Sawyer and Jack says that he got hit in the head pretty hard, but at least he’s breathing.

“What about Jin and Sun?” asks a concerned Kate. Jack shakes his head. Kate breaks down. Hurley reels from shock, a tear streaming down his face. He’s soon overtaken with sobs.

Jack gets to his feet and walks into the surf, looking up, as if pleading with an unseen force. Soon, Jack lets go and anguish fills his features. He’s soon in tears, as well, and suddenly we’re hit full force with the sadness he must feel, watching all these people he’s known and cared about for so long – these people who have always been considered “his” people – die, one by one, following a path that they have never fully understood.

It’s right about now that I get the sense of something else beneath that surface of anguish – a quiet rage building in Jack. Not the petulant anger that we saw in the Hatch, or in the smashing of the Lighthouse mirrors, but a righteous smoldering, determined and building in intensity. It’s in this moment that I almost feel sorry for the Man in Black, because now that Jack has finally found his way – his destiny with this Island – there will be no more selfish fits where Jack Smash. No, it’s quite clear that right now, when it comes to Jack taking on Locke – it’s clobbering time.

Speaking of the Man in Black, he still stands at the edge of the sub dock, staring into the dark ocean. Claire is still there with him. It sunk, he remarks. Claire is upset; everyone was on that submarine. She wants to know if they’re all dead. Not all of them, says Locke, turning and grabbing his pack and gun. Claire turns to follow, wanting to know where he’s heading.

“To finish what I started,” says the Man in Black, trudging off determinedly into the night, with frustration and a bit of trepidation showing in his furrowed brow.

Bring it on, big man. Bring it on.

Cue the THONK!

Ugh, what a heart-wrenching episode. I knew that there was going to be a lot more death coming as the finale approached, but I didn’t expect it to hit me as hard as in this episode. We lose four this week, and none more heart-breaking than Sun and Jin. I think one of the toughest pills to swallow was the fact that Sun had fought so hard to get back to the Island, and had gone through so much crap once she got there just to get back to the man she loves – including losing her ability to speak properly – and then as soon as she’s reunited, they barely have time to hug and catch up before they end up drowning on a sinking submarine. And, as my girlfriend – who happens to be Asian – so hilariously put it: “Why they gotta be hating on the Asians?”

I really hate to make this comparison, but how many of you out there have seen Serenity? Anyone who knows me knows my utter disdain for what I consider one of the biggest disrespecting of fans that Joss Whedon has ever perpetrated. Of course, I mean when Wash dies. It’s quick, it’s senseless. It hurts. Granted, I did not think that the Kwon’s deaths were that unexpected or nearly that heart-numbingly visceral as Wash’s impaling and the treachery of the Whedon, but I was suddenly taken back and thought I’d mention the comparison.

I will also say this – I loathed watching Juliet die, but I knew it was coming for weeks. I just knew. And, thus, I had the chance to steel myself against the loss. As a fan, it hurt, but I had already resolved the loss. This week, however, even though I had a good idea that the Kwons – at least one of them – might die before the finale, I hadn’t made the same resolution against it as I had for Juliet, and so it struck home much stronger. The emotion of the episode truly affected me. Yes, I’m man enough to admit that I shed a tear – once when Sun and Jin finally let go in that watery tomb, and again when Jack lost it on the beach. It was a testament to the quality of the acting and production of the episode that, despite the sheer insanity and all the chaos going on, it took the time to give pause and provide poignancy and respect to the characters we lost along the crooked path.

Well, almost all the characters.

We also lost Frank Lapidus. Of course, you wouldn’t know that by the actions and reactions of the remaining four who washed up on shore. Not once did any of them think to ask where Lapidus was while they were counting heads on the sub, nor did they think to ask when they had washed up on shore. Hell, Hurley asked if Sayid was okay before he left the sub, and Sayid was in about a billion pieces. Granted, in defense of the production team, the structure of the episode didn’t warrant a whole lot of hand-wringing over Lapidus. We were all supposed to feel the sudden, abrupt loss of Sayid, and mourn the loss of the loving Kwons. Lapidus was, at best, a third-stringer. But the guy has been a fifth wheel for three seasons, now, and has saved the asses of more than a few of the castaways. You’d think they would care what happened to the guy.

Ah, Chesty. As my twitter pal @powlsy commented – it’s like he just wasn’t the same since he lost his beard and mustache from season 4. I agree – it’s almost as if that soup catcher were his source of power. Like Sampson.

But you know what? None of it really matters, in the end. They’re all still alive over in LA X. No matter what happens in the finale, they will all live on in some way or another. Whether the timelines merge and the memories and consciousness of the disparate lives come together, or whether the timeline of Island Prime ceases to exist all-together, the fact that their hearts and souls still exist out there means that all the loss, as painful as it has been, has not been in vain.

So this week’s episode was pretty straightforward – the production team got to blow some crap up again (I swear they must have just had a ton of explosives sitting around and had to write it all into the remaining episodes), and there was lots of shootings and Kate hostage situations and Ol’ Smokey action. As a result, there’s not really a whole of analysis to throw at all of you. I’m no closer to resolving, in my mind, how the two realities will eventually collide or skew further off in the finale. Still, there are a few talking points to bring up. It wouldn’t be an episode of Lost if there wasn’t!

FREAKY FRIDAY
Has anybody noticed how our favorite characters over in LA X are seeming to slowly turn into their counterparts on Island Prime? Jack seems to be the prime example of this. For instance, AlternaJack, who used to be patient and humble, has now started taking on the stubborn Mr. Fixit attitude of Jack from Island Prime. He has become obsessed with helping to heal John Locke, both emotionally and physically. AlternaLocke has become the proxy in LA X for Jack’s wife Sarah back on Island Prime – a person that Jack cares about and is drawn to that he feels the compulsive need to tinker with. Sarah, by the way, was played by Julie Bowen, who is now the hilariously neurotic Claire Dunphy on Modern Family. Did I mention how great that show is?

Anyway, over on Island Prime, Jack has now taken his self-reflective time out and has come out the other side with patience and humility, and has started to see past his own rage and self-destructive tendencies. These are all traits which we saw, albeit in limited form, in AlternaJack when we were first introduced to him. Yes, he is estranged from his wife and child in the beginning, but he takes the time to turn things around with young David, and he’s even come to terms, somewhat, with his daddy issues. All of these traits have now been seemingly passed along to Jack on the Island.

Speaking of AlternaJack’s obsession with Locke – and jumping a little off-topic for a bit – it almost seems to me like Jack can sense that Locke is missing something. Yes, there is hurt there deep within for what he was done to his father in this timeline, but despite Locke’s other great fortunes here – his deep love from Helen and the chance to reconnect and actually have a father – there is, and always will be a part of Locke that just isn’t there. His destiny remains unfulfilled. This Locke still went to Australia for walkabout, still searching for that final piece of the puzzle. Jack can sense that, and wants to help. He thinks that healing John’s spine and returning feeling to his lower extremities will help. But it’s almost as if it will take more than that – much more. It’s almost as if the only thing that will truly heal Locke, both inside and out … is getting him back to the Island.

THE RANDOM BITS
Yeah, yeah, I know it’s early, but at least there’s a lot of them.

You may have noticed by my tone that I’m actually pulling for Jack. No, I’m not feverish. He has completely redeemed himself in my eyes in the past few episodes, which means that the Island has really taken hold of him and slapped him upside the head. I’m not going to delve into all the character development that has taken place over this season, but if you want to know pretty much how I feel, you can’t get much closer than Joel Murphy’s column from yesterday. And, yes, Kate still sucks rocks.

So … what’s with the music box? Do any of you believe we’ll actually find out? It’s such a small little detail to introduce at such a late date. Perhaps its significance is simply a reminder of the entanglement between the two timelines. The music box plays “Catch a Falling Star,” which is pretty much Claire’s theme song. Claire has taken over the Rousseau role on Island prime, and Rousseau’s broken music box was a pretty significant Island artifact back in the day. It could also be simply a MacGuffin for getting Jack and Claire together once more, to reconnect the survivors and family. Regardless, it’s likely just a literary device to tie some things together in a very subtle, but intimate way.

The philosophical question of the week: Would the C4 have exploded if they hadn’t pulled the wires? Possibly not, because, as Sayid said, Jack is the one, which means the Island isn’t done with him yet and thus, he can’t die. However, Sawyer and the Kwons were still possibilities for candidates, so the loophole may exist that if a candidate hasn’t been officially selected, then they all could die, and the process would have to begin anew – or it would end with the balance being shifted toward the side of evil. There is also the possibility that, even if Jack were the official candidate, that they were outside the radius of the Island and possibly outside its sphere of protection. The only evidence against that is Michael – he was off the Island and tried to kill himself several times, but it didn’t work. The Island wasn’t done with him yet. The Island probably wasn’t done with Jack and Co. yet, either, and thus the bomb would have failed. Just my opinion, though. Too bad they didn’t have Richard on board.

Speaking of Richard, where the hell is he? And Ben? And Miles? Weren’t they going to get explosives over at the Dharma barracks a few episodes back? How long does that take, really?

Hurley is so freaking priceless. He’s even awesome when he’s out of focus.

Perhaps someone more astute in diving knowledge can fill me in on something that’s bothering me. The sub was deep enough that it would take five minutes to reach the surface at the time they discovered the bomb, and three minutes counted down on the timer until the hull was breached by the explosion. Now, let’s say the time between that of the explosion and the time that Jack and Sawyer finally escaped out of the hull was about a minute and a half, two minutes, tops. That would put the sub back down almost to where it was when they were diving before. You all with me so far? So, my question is thus: If Jack carried an unconscious Sawyer out of the sub and swam up to the surface using an emergency air tank, why don’t they have the bends? I’m just curious. And, yes, for all you crazy Island nuts out there, it could be the healing properties of the Island.

Just a random thought about MIB/Locke that may have occurred to others: It struck me odd how MIB always seems to want Claire around and is so forgiving of her, but then I got to thinking about his behavior. It seems as though he begins to take on some of the personality traits of the people whose bodies he inhabits for a long period of time. The more he’s been in Locke’s body, the more he becomes like Locke. He seems to have all of Locke’s memories, and I believe that affects his personality and, possibly, his motives and thinking. To this end, I believe that he continues to have such an affinity for Claire – and, by turn, both a paternal and conflicted relationship with Jack – because MIB still exhibits traits from his time spent as Christian Shephard. Now, as Locke, he is possibly even more conflicted about his relationship with Jack. This could also have something to do with why Jack is ultimately the candidate – he is the perfect foil for MIB, especially now that he has taken on Locke’s persona.

Variations of the phrase “I wish you had believed me” in this episode was in reference to the suicide note left by Locke, as Jeremy Bentham. The full extent of the note was revealed in “316.” It’s in relation to Locke’s urgings that they all remain on the Island – an idea that Jack, of course, opposed. Until now, that is.

The fact that Kate is still standing astounds me. I wish I had that many lives. Do you think the writers have a sort of in-joke about her kidnappings/hostage situations? Seriously, Widmore just walked up and immediately pointed a gun at her. They even wrote her expendability into the mythos of the Island. I also loved how she was in such bad shape on the sub, but after a jaunty swim in the ocean, she was feeling much better. Yeah, yeah, healing powers of the Island, whatever. At any rate, will Kate be one of the last one’s standing? Perhaps she and Jack will be the last ones. They ultimately end up together on the Island – Maybe they’re Adam and Eve, as some have speculated for so long? Maybe the remaining four will all return to the cave and see that one of the skeletons has a mark on their collarbone – from a gunshot! And then they all ride out to the beach and find the remains of the Statue of Liberty, buried in the sand. SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!! Ahem. Sorry.

Another question: Why, if the sonic fences were down, did Ol’ Smokey just show up and take out some of the Geek Squad? Why not take the opportunity to do away with Widmore and just tear the holy hell out of the Hydra station while he’s unimpeded? Is he not allowed to kill Widmore, either? It seems to me like Smokey has a time or energy limit. Otherwise, he could just fly through the Island and kill whomever the hell he wants, whenever he wants. Of course, that doesn’t make for a very good story. This is the writer’s dilemma – what do you do with the downtime between visits of a very powerful, ancient creature? Ultimately, it’s the Superman problem. I have nightmares sometimes thinking about how I would go about writing a run on a Superman comic. The guy is all-powerful. Okay, so he’s not as powerful as he used to be, but he’s still moving mountains and beating freight trains. Other than some krypto-freak, or Lex Luthor or Batman coming around with a scrap of meteorite every other issue, how do you make somebody with powers like that interesting? Where’s the conflict? Whoo, look at me – nerd ramble.

Speaking of something nerdy, the lastest episode of Doctor Who had an excellent and intriguing storyline about the mutability of time, and a quote at the end of the show reminded me of something that seems to be happening in our two alternate timelines on Lost:

The Doctor: I kept saying, the angels all fell into the time field – the angel in your memory, never existed. It can’t harm you now.

Amy (his current companion): Then why do I remember at all? Those guys on the ship didn’t remember each other.

The Doctor: You’re a time traveler now, Amy. It changes the way you see the Universe … forever. Good, isn’t it?

Oh, and if you’re not currently watching Doctor Who, you’ll probably want to check it out. It’s only the best television show out there right now. I’m serious. I wouldn’t joke about such things. Oh, and check out Modern Family while you’re at it. It’s the second best television show out there right now.

That’s Amy. That’s the Doctor’s new companion. Ah, you wanna watch the show now, don’t you? I thought so.

Okay, that’s it for this week. We’re in the home stretch – there are only three more episodes left until it’s all over. My heart just sank when I wrote that. These characters and this show have been such a huge part of our lives for so long, it’s hard to imagine what life will be like after it’s all over. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m going to DisneyWorld. All of you keep thinking those good thoughts, and if you have an epiphany, tell me something good. Until next time, I remain faithful that the finale will kick ass. And that Jack will wake up in the middle of the jungle, in silence, until that ugly flashback crashy sounds starts up and he wanders onto the beach and the plane is there, all mangled and people are running back and forth …

Namaste.

[HoboTrashcan.com]

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3. “Namaste” Recap & Analysis by Chris Kirkman

WARNING: Do NOT read this article if you haven’t watched last night’s episode.

To be clear, the producers are not heartless bastards. They’re only semi-heartless bastards. They knew fans would be devastated (and angry) about the deaths and were pretty broken up themselves about offing three beloved creations. “When we watched the death scenes ourselves, it was brutal,” says Cuse. “[But] the story always comes first.” Lindelof elaborates: “In many ways, the season was structured as a long con on behalf of the Man In Black. Once we revealed that Locke was the Monster, we knew the audience would immediately mistrust him, and we would have to spend at least a dozen episodes of Locke trying to convince the audience that he did not have malevolent intention, that all he wanted to do was get off The Island. But everything he was doing was leading up to one moment, which was [trying to] get the candidates in one fell swoop. He knew if he killed just one of them, everyone would know what he was up to.’”

Says Cuse: “There will be very little debate at the end of this episode that [Fake Locke] is evil and bad and has to be stopped. The main narrative reason for him killing our main characters is to establish how much of a bad guy he is and to clearly identify him as the antagonist rolling into the end of the series.”

Lindelof recognizes that there’s something “brutal” about killing Jin and Sun just one episode after their long-awaited reunion — which, he says, is exactly what made the lovers such an apt choice for making a statement about Fake Locke’s malevolence. “At least they got to die in each other’s arms, so they’d have some sense of victory,” he says. And Sayid? Lindelof explains: “Sayid’s entire season-long arc has basically been, if you tell him that he is evil, you can convince him he is evil. But if you tell him he is good, maybe you can convince him he is good. We basically decided that in a moment of pure instinct, if he did something, if he sacrificed his own life in favor of saving the other people’s lives, that would convey to the audience, ‘This guy was actually a good guy.’”

The good news for fans of Lost and fans of Jin, Sun, and Sayid in particular is that they are technically still alive — in the Sideways world. “Still, it’s bittersweet,” Yunjin Kim told me in a recent interview. “They were kept separate for so long, and then they came together to die together.” She found it “beautiful” that Sun and Jin were given an end that served as an affirmation of their love and the heroic sacrifices they made for each other. “We’ve come full circle,” she says. “Sun came back to The Island [and] risked her life to save her friends and Jin, and then Jin does the same thing back.” When I asked her how she prepared for Sun’s final Island moments, Kim told this story: “Right before we started shooting, [director] Jack Bender took me aside and told me about story that he read a long time ago, about this woman who was missing her dead husband, and how she had this beach ball that he blew up before he died. Every day she took a little breath from the beach ball. And that really got me right into the emotional core of where I needed to be to play that scene. Can you imagine that woman, taking that breath little by little every day, just to feel her husband’s presence?”

Daniel Dae Kim’s thoughts on the end of Jin and Sun? “They were the Romeo and Juliet of the show, and the fact they didn’t have a happy ending does make me sad,” says the actor, who then expanded on the greater significance of the deaths to the show — but I’m afraid sharing his insights (including his take on the fate of Ji Yeon) at this point would be a bit too spoilerish. What was it like shooting his watery demise? “It was pretty difficult that day,” says Kim. “Shooting in water is never easy. But the crew was considerate and made the water warm for us, in more ways than one. Let’s just say certain members of the crew who were in that water for a very, very, very long time without ever leaving. I’ll just leave it at that.”

[Via EW.com]

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The Island is a cork.

Oceanic Flight 815 crashed because of Desmond, Desmond came to the Island because of Widmore, Widmore came to the Island because of Jacob, Jacob is an angel who works selflessly and tirelessly for the Island, and the Island is a prison keeping the rest of the world safe from the Smoke Monster.

All the mysteries have been solved.

Or have they?

If the Island’s only function is to contain evil, how could it have healed Locke’s paralysis?  Why did it cure Rose of her cancer and give her and Bernard happiness for the rest of their lives?  If Jacob is a source of good, why did he intentionally cause the deaths of over three hundred people?

We know much about the Island.  But with only five more hours of the Island’s story left to tell, there is much we do not yet understand.  Let’s take a look at what we really know.

The Island

The Island is not a cork.

This place establishes relationships with people, the most spectacular example being John Locke.  Locke knew instinctively where to find wild boar, the Nigerian plane, and countless other people, places, and events.  Far exceeding young Widmore’s expectations or understanding, he tracked the boy through the jungle to Richard’s camp in the early 1950s.  He found the Swan Hatch, the Pearl, and the Flame.  Locke could predict the weather and events past and future.  We have seen numerous examples of individuals and groups with a sixth sense about the Island:  Rose, Hurley, and Walter, and to lesser extents Ben, Richard, Boone, and Sayid.  The Others, through the leadership of Jacob and his liaison, Richard, were somewhat tuned into the Island.  Even certain members of the Dharma Initiative seem to have enjoyed some extra-dimensional understanding.  Paul and his wife, Amy (later to become Amy Goodspeed), owned an ankh necklace, for example, which may have connected them with some of the earliest cultures on the Island or the Island itself.

The Island has rare powers.  Sites of intense electromagnetism are scattered about underground.   One of the most active locations became the site of “The Incident,” which was the sudden release of enormous quantities of electromagnetic radiation, eventually contained within a concrete tomb and controlled with a programmed release of energy every 108 minutes from the geodesic dome of the Swan Station.  Desmond Hume has an unusual physical immunity to the effects of electromagnetism, but he suffers an intensified super-physical effect of intense magnetic energy:  his mind is able to inhabit several locations in spacetime, almost simultaneously.

Intense electromagnetism is not the only unique attribute of the Island.  Dozens or even hundreds of metres underground a large pocket of exotic matter bypasses the normal forward movement of time, allowing matter to move chronologically back and forth.  During the three-year period from 2004 to 2007 at least two individuals, Ben Linus and John Locke, took advantage of this property of the exotic matter under the Orchid Station to transport themselves forward in time by ten months and three years respectively.  We know the pocket of matter was used by ancient cultures, going back at least to the ancient Egyptians.

The time-control wheel (“frozen donkey wheel”) under the Orchid must be properly placed on its axis or severe spacetime disturbances can results.  When Ben Linus moved the wheel on December 30, 2004, he accidentally knocked the structure off its axis, sending the Island or some of the crash survivors–or both the Island and survivors–on a random, oscillating course through time, first into the past, then into the future.

The Island itself moves through space and time, in ways different from any other place on earth.  The Island is found on no navigation chart, is invisible from space, and cannot be approached in the usual manner by sea or air.  A spacetime discontinuity envelopes the Island and the sphere of ocean and air in the immediate spacetime vicinity.  Objects traveling anything other than a rigourously precise trajectory may require hours or even days to traverse the discontinuity, despite speeds of several hundred kilometres per hour, and may encounter severe electromagnetic storms along the way.  To avoid the dangerous or even life-threatening squalls that form as a result of an air or surface approach to the Island, the preferred means of travel is submarine.

The Island can choose to heal wounds, inflict bodily harm, or even demand human sacrifice.  Immediately on his arrival, Locke’s paralysis was cured, and he walked for the first time in four years.  Rose had terminal cancer, but the Island removed every trace of the disease from her body.  Overall good health was the typical and expected result of living in communion with the Island.  Cancer was apparently unknown among the Others, until their leader, Benjamin Linus, was found to have a tumor growing on his spine.  He and others interpreted this occurrence of cancer as a sign of the Island’s displeasure with Ben’s leadership.  Locke’s friend, Boone, was singled out as “a sacrifice that the island demanded,” according to Locke.  Charlie Pace and John Locke himself may also have been sacrifices the Island demanded.

Contacts in Antiquity

The earliest civilisation to inhabit the Island is unknown, but Egyptian hieroglyphs are distributed widely:  throughout the Temple, around the time control wheel, on the secret door in Ben’s house in Dharmaville, and other places.  Even the countdown timer in the Swan Station resorted to hieroglyphs in the “System Failure” condition in which the Execute button was not pushed before the expiration of the 108-minute interval between energy discharges.

The presence of ancient Egyptian symbols presumes an intentional communication of ideas among literate people.  This places individuals able to read and write the symbols earlier than at least 395 A.D., when the last remaining readers of the language died.  More likely, the hieroglyphs indicate the presence on the Island of Egyptians or those fluent in ancient Egyptian communication sometime before 31 A.D. or earlier, since this date marks the end of the Ptolemaic Dynasty and the beginning of Roman rule.  Thus, the earliest known civilisation inhabited the Island not later than about two thousand years ago.

The enhanced version of Ab Aeterno told us Richard Alpert was the first of the Others, but it seems unlikely he was the first visitor to the Island after Jacob and the Man in Black.  We know Latin was adopted by the Others as the “language of the enlightened” (Juliet Burke, Lost 5.03 “Jughead”); it seems likely the decision to institute Latin as the Island’s universal language occurred well before 1867, when Richard arrived on the Black Rock.  The expansion of the Roman Empire began in earnest around 56 B.C. with the military exploits of Gaius Julius Caesar, reached its zenith around 117 A.D., and was well into decline by 251 A.D.  This indicates the influence of Egyptian culture likely pre-dated or was contemporaneous with the first use of Latin on the Island, and also indicates at least contact with, but more likely co-habitation on the Island, of representatives of both the Egyptian and Roman cultures.

The Island has been home to native or fluent speakers of at least thirteen languages.  Among these were Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Ancient Greek, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Yoruba (Mr. Eko’s native Nigerian language).  One of the Island’s most noteworthy inhabitants, Jacob, was known to be fluent in at least five languages, but was likely fluent in several others as well, due to his “Candidacy” project.  The lighthouse wheel lists 360 names, most of apparently European descent, all of them “Candidates” or former Candidates.  It is likely that most or all of these individuals resided on the Island at one time or another.

The Rulers

We don’t know when Jacob and the Man in Black appeared on the Island.  We don’t know with certainty what their relationship is to each other, though it seems likely from their few conversations and from the MIB’s disclosures to Kate and Richard that the two men are related by blood, and are possibly brothers.

Some indication of a timeline for the two immortals is provided by ancient Egyptian illustrations inside the Temple.

The hieroglyphs and the representation of the Jackal-god, Anubis, are obviously Egyptian.  However, the representation of the Smoke Monster appears to have later influences.  The horned head atop the coiled “smoke” appears to have more than passing similarity to popular modern representations of the Devil, or Satan.  This may indicate quite simply that the Smoke Monster arrived on the Island at a time when influences other than the ancient Egyptian culture were current.  Or it could be an indication that the Smoke Monster is a relatively “late” resident or perhaps immigrant to the Island, possibly toward the end of Egyptian control.

The Man in Black is a pessimist.  He believes human beings are fundamentally flawed, that “They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt.”  This is the sum total of human existence in the MIB’s mind; humanity amounts to nothing more than depravity and pure evil.

The Man in Black acts in a manner consistent with a reasonable observer’s understanding of evil.  He mercilessly killed everyone in the Temple who chose not to follow him and obey his rules.  He killed the Flight 815 pilot, Seth Norris, Mr. Eko, Nadine, Montand, Bram, all the officers aboard the Black Rock, and Jacob, the self-professed Protector of the Island.  He essentially gave Claire permission to kill Kate once he was done with her.  His only objective, as he himself has said repeatedly, is to leave the Island.  He seems to care little about those who suffer or die in order that he might leave.

Jacob, Richard Alpert, and Charles Widmore, among others, have made it their task to prevent the MIB from leaving the Island.  Isabella Alpert, through Hurley, warned her husband that he must do everything he can to keep the Smoke Monster on the Island, or “todos nos vamos al infierno.”  It was Jacob’s contention that the Island was a cork in a bottle, keeping evil or the Devil from roaming free in the world.  While it is likely he was making reference to the Smoke Monster, there are other possibilities.

Jacob

Jacob called himself “Protector of the Island”.  Through his consigliere, Richard Alpert, he directed the activities of the Others over a period of at least one hundred and forty years.  Usually projecting an image of compassion or sadness, Jacob professes a philosophy of freedom and personal autonomy.  “You have a choice” seems to be the phrase most likely to cross his lips.  He believes human beings are on a trajectory toward improvement and progress.

We have met many characters that project a wholesome image but adhere to nefarious ways.  Benjamin Linus is an excellent example.  When captured in Rousseau’s net and imprisoned in the Swan Station armory, he claimed for days or weeks to be Henry Gale, a balloonist who accidentally meandered over the Island.  Ben lied, manipulated, embellished, and in any way he could devise, reordered situations to his advantage.  Many other characters have behaved in similar manner.

Jacob “invited” over 360 Candidates to the Island; all but seven of them are dead.  Most of them would have lived long, happy lives off the Island, but one way or another Jacob led them to the Island, tested each one, found them in some way deficient, and allowed them to die.

He brought Flight 815 to the Island.  Of the 324 passengers and crew, only seventy survived the crash.  Less than three dozen remained after the first three months.  It is likely that Flight 815 carried not more than a handful of Candidates; if so, nearly seven hundred deaths can be directly attributed to Jacob.  It seems likely that far more than this have died over the centuries to feed his desire to test Candidates in a most unforgiving laboratory.

Jacob appeared to James Ford at his parents’ funeral.  The eight-year-old boy was composing a letter spelling out his vow of revenge against Tom Sawyer, the man who had cheated his mother, committed adultery with her, and led his father to kill her and take his own life.

James’ Uncle Doug read what he had written.  The wise uncle had it right when he said the boy had to get on with his life.  Vowing revenge would keep him from growing into a man.  If only this had been the single piece of advice he’d received from an adult.  Unfortunately, another man had come along only minutes before, just as James’ pen ran out of ink.

Jacob reinforced the connection between his parents’ deaths and James’ perceived need for vengeance.  By giving James the pen to complete the letter, Jacob was feeding the boy’s warped sense of purpose, bending James to Jacob’s selfish ends, coercing him into an entire lifetime of pain and hatred, simply so that he might one day find himself in Australia, murder the wrong man, and board a one-way flight back to Los Angeles that would instead crash on an uncharted tropical island.

Jacob’s behaviour toward Dogen was even more coercive and despicable.  “I can heal your son,” Jacob told Dogen, as the unfortunate man’s dying son lay unconscious in a hospital bed.

Did Jacob choose him because he had unique abilities, or because Dogen felt enormous guilt at having caused the accident that brought his son to the last minutes before death?  Was Dogen essential to Jacob’s cause, or was he exceptionally malleable because of a father’s pain and anguish?  “I can heal your son,” Jacob said, but the conditions were cruel:  Dogen could never see his son again.  Jacob would take him to a place inaccessible to anyone and entirely unknown to the world.  And Dogen would serve Jacob until the day he died.  Years later, relaying the story to Jack, Dogen was pained by the pain he had caused his son, but he seemed in even greater anguish over the bargain that had forever prevented him from even knowing anything of his son’s life.

We cannot know with certainty that Jacob is evil.  He may prove the perfect Angel of Light many believe him to be.  His coercion of James, Dogen, and hundreds of others may have been the unfortunate but necessary means of ensuring his replacement and preventing true evil from unleashing itself on the world.

The Candidates

On first glance the reason for these seven individuals’ placement on the list of Candidates seems obvious:  They’re all exactly the same height.  But if we look beyond the crude (and effective!) Photoshopping, we see other commonalities.  All of the Seven have “daddy issues”.  Sun’s father was distant and cruel, Sayid’s father was demanding and unemotional, Jack’s father treated him like dirt, Locke’s father was a con man, Kate’s father was a drunkard who abused his wife, and so on.  Each of the Seven seeks redemption or spiritual completion that includes a major component directly related to her or his father.

Some will question the presence of Locke among the Candidates in this portrait.  The basis for including Locke requires significantly more space than I wish to devote to this section.  For those seeking to understand the rationale for considering Locke a Candidate, I recommend these articles:

http://www.sl-lost.com/2010/02/07/magnificence-the-cultural-mythology-of-lost-101-to-618/

http://www.sl-lost.com/2010/02/14/impartial-risk-cultural-musings-on-the-resurrection-of-john-locke/

http://www.sl-lost.com/2010/02/10/risk-a-cultural-thesis-for-lost-603-what-kate-does-by-pearson-moore/

Of the Seven, two individuals stand out.  Jack has transformed himself from sceptical Man of Science to the fully integrated Man of Faith and firm disciple of John Locke.  He is sufficiently in tune with the Island to realise that, like Richard Alpert, he can die, but not at his own hand.  But every other belief he now professes is borrowed from the catalogue of John Locke’s articulated views.  “We’re here for a reason” and “The Island is not done with us yet” and so on, were all expressed at one time or another by Jack’s former nemesis.

While Jack does not appear to have the strong connection to the Island possessed immediately by John Locke, he has overcome greater obstacles than anyone else, and his Island epiphany may be only hours or days away.  It is possible–even likely, at this point–that Jack Shephard will assume the top leadership role in the post-Jacob world.

The other leading Candidate is John Locke.  That he remains in contention is due to the successful efforts of one man:  Daniel Faraday.

Faraday’s Boulder

The Incident, at least in its final permutation, consisted of the simultaneous detonation of an atomic bomb and the sudden release of almost unlimited electromagnetic energy.  The result of the two simultaneous events was not a conversion of matter into energy or the irradiation of everyone in the vicinity, but a rerouting of matter and energy into the uni-directional stream of spacetime and the creation of two equal spacetime streams.

It was Daniel Faraday’s idea that the two events, occurring simultaneously, would have sufficient effect to negate the course of future events after the Incident.  Since the future at that time (1977) was the Flight 815 survivors’ past, the detonation of the nuclear device would prevent all of the pain they had endured after the crash.

The plan was implemented by Jack and the plutonium core of the thermonuclear device was finally detonated by Juliet at precisely the moment that catastrophic amounts of electromagnetic energy escaped the confines of the subterranean space beneath the well shaft.  The result was… unexpected.  Rather than simply wiping out the future/past, two equal spacetime streams were created.

In the (very crude) illustration below, the flow of time is represented by the river.  On the right bank of the river is a large boulder, representing the combined space-time-matter-energy warping potential of simultaneous nuclear and electromagnetic release.

The detonation of the bomb and the release of energy, coming together, opposing each other, and interfering in the normal flow of time, is depicted by throwing the boulder into the river.

The water backs up behind the boulder until it reaches the depth required to move around the rock.  But now, rather than a single, calm, straight and forward movement, the stream has split into two turbulent, chaotic streams.

The streams are dramatically unstable and they will very quickly crash into each other on the upstream side of the boulder.  Given enough time, the stream will again settle down into its normal uni-directional flow.  But for a brief period in the history of the universe (or universes?), the streams will exist as distinct, equal, and yet different flows of spacetime.  It is during this brief time window that some quite interesting phenomena can be observed and manipulated.

Indivisibility

The stream of time is torn into two equal streams.  Each stream contains the same physical elements.  In each stream a planet Earth is populated with seven billion human beings, physically identical but with unique histories.  Each of the two realities contains a physical manifestation of James Ford, Claire Littleton, Sayid Jarrah, Hugo Reyes, and so on.

While their bodies have been duplicated in the two equal but different spacetimes, their spiritual selves remain intact, undivided, and equally present in both realities.  There are two physical presences of James Ford, but there is only one true (spiritual aspect of) James Ford, equally present in both of the physical manifestations.

The point of Charlie’s intense discussions of The Truth was that he was attracted to the very same woman in both realities because the connection was spiritual, and therefore only one abiding connection was possible.  Love at first sight was an indication to him of a reality that transcended any of the limitations of the world he inhabited.  His connection with Claire was entirely spiritual, in both realities.  He forcefully relayed this truth to Desmond, because he knew Desmond also had a Constant.  So too in the case of Daniel Faraday.  Regardless of the number of worlds his physical presences occupied, he has only one spirit, and therefore he can have only one spiritual love:  Charlotte Lewis.  Two bodies, two minds, but one spirit, and one love.

The indivisibility of the spirit explains the growing psychic instability between the two worlds.  By now almost all the major players in this drama have experienced a “leaking” of knowledge or feelings or sense of presence or memories from one reality to the other.  Desmond Hume is the only major player we know to have had complete and unambiguous visions of the other world from both of the spacetime realities.  Sun probably has had glimpses into the other world from both spacetimes, but this depends on whether her loss of spoken English indicated a seeping of the sideways reality into her Island psyche.  She certainly understood poor, crushed John Locke in the sideways reality as the Smoke Monster, when they were wheeled together into the hospital.  Daniel Faraday, dead in the Island reality, nevertheless had glimpses into the Island from his sideways world.

The one crossover from the sideways reality to the Island that must occur is the one Desmond started in motion two episodes ago, at the end of “Everybody Loves Hugo”.

When Desmond rammed the wheelchair-bound Locke with his silver-coloured economy car, he was taking a terrible but necessary risk.  Desmond knew that Locke belonged on the Island, that he had to be on the Island if there could be any chance of making things right again.  Just as love allowed Daniel to see the Island from his sideways world, just as Desmond’s MRI in the hospital allowed him to recall Penny from his Island reality, so too the awful shock of physical pain and paralysis would shock John Locke into recalling his Island self, and create in him the realisation that he had to go back.

The End Game

Only a few moves remain in this two- or three-thousand-year-old game of backgammon.  I have no idea in the world how Locke is going to make it back to the Island.  I have not the slightest clue how Jack will win the Island over the considerable efforts and proven talents of both Charles Widmore and the Smoke Monster.  Some will certainly die.  I most fear for Jack and Kate in this regard, but many of the others look to be increasingly expendable or willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.   The last few minutes of our beloved television programme look to be exhilarating but sad, too.  This month will be altogether entirely too short, but the long seven days between each episode will be almost unbearably long.  It is certainly a month we will never forget.

PM

Related posts:

1. Isla Cognita: Cultural Knowledge in LOST 6.13 “The Last Recruit” by Pearson Moore
2. Reconvergence: A Cultural Interpretation of LOST 6.08 “Recon” by Pearson Moore
3. Siempre Juntos (Part II): Cultural Inversions in LOST 6.09 by Pearson Moore

[Thanks to @Alan for the screencap]

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[Via @J0hn_Locke]

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This is the video recap of LOST season 6 episode 9, “Ab Aeterno,” which aired March 23, 2010 on ABC. My friend Allison joined me to summarize the night’s events and share our personal reactions to the show as it aired.

This episode centered around the life of Richard Alpert, who we know as the man who never ages. A flashback takes us to 1867 on the Canary Islands where Richard is with his wife Isabella. After Isabella dies and Richard accidentally kills a man, he is sold into slavery and brought to the island by way of the Black Rock. When on the island, Richard meets the Man in Black and Jacob, and fun and drama ensue.

SHARE your theories in the comments section and tell me your thoughts at http://twitter.com/adamrucker

Thanks for watching, and subscribe for more videos and a new LOST recap every week!

All of my videos can be found at RuckitUp.com

-Adam

Related posts:

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“Do you want to die alone?”

Miles’ question went to the heart of tonight’s episode.  The more James Ford remains unchanged, unmoving, the more the world around him whirls about, laughing at him, demonstrating time and again the inadequacy of his actions and plans.  Whether wooing an archeologist with a flower, conning a woman with a too-obvious scheme, or losing a battle of wits with the Man in Black, Sawyer found himself in over his head, rendered impotent by event and circumstance.

The worlds around Sawyer are not only changing.  They are converging.  The challenges James has faced to this point are as molehills to the coming mountains.  If he is to survive, Sawyer will have to do something he has successfully resisted his entire life:  Sawyer must grow up.

Reconnecting with the Island

Miles–Detective Miles Straum–found a date for Sawyer.  An interesting woman, worked with his father (Dr. Chang!) at the museum.  In my mind there were only two possibilities.  One of them was a woman on the run from the law, and not likely to have suddenly discovered enduring affinity for the staid and careful studies and tedious classification chores inherent in museum work.  The other choice was much more likely, and more appealing:  a scientist, familiar with the laboratory, well versed in the rigours of research and careful speciation and analysis.  Of course!  She didn’t seem suited for assignment to a museum, but perhaps this was a museum devoted to obstetrics and fertility.  When I saw her long, red mane from the back I wondered why she dyed her hair–she had been gorgeous as a blonde, and Sawyer loved her as she–

And then she turned around.

Charlotte?  It made no sense to me.  It was supposed to be Juliet.  It had to be Juliet, so that she could suggest they “go Dutch”, fulfilling the promise of her words to Sawyer on the Island in “LA X”, proving the connection between the two realities, demonstrating the instability of the separation of the two spacetimes.

Why Charlotte?  She was the spice of Faraday’s life, not Sawyer’s.  She was connected to Widmore, not the man Sawyer so desperately sought, Anthony Cooper.  She was a dead end for Sawyer.

As the story unfolded, I began to understand the necessity of their meeting in the bar, their bedtime banter about the world’s most famous bullwhip.  She said she wasn’t a museum kind of gal at all–she traveled the most exciting places in the world–dangerous, exotic places.  She was Indiana Jones, no less, and she would show James Ford things he had never even dreamed of.  While Sawyer stood next to her in the bar, imagining her in a fedora and nothing else, I thought about the Charlotte Staples Lewis I knew from Season Five.

Though not much older than a toddler when she left, she remembered the Island.  Something in her imagination, something at the very centre of her being, was captured by the lure of the Island.  She spent her adult life fantasising about returning to the enchanted jungle of her youth.  She must have oriented her entire life toward the singular goal of going back to the magical place that had been her greatest happiness.

This was the portrait we were offered in Season Five.  It made sense that the experiences of a girl at a moment somewhere between toddlerhood and pre-school would provide the warmest childhood memories to the motivated, restless mind of the adult Charlotte Lewis.  Her obsession led her to what seemed a most unlikely profession:  archeology.  But she was more historian than archeologist, and her choice of vocation was not motivated by childhood dreams alone.  The motivation derived of sure, indisputable knowledge she had carried with her from her youth.  Someone–Widmore or someone on the Island–gave her that knowledge early in her life.  “Study ancient Carthage,” that person told her.  “Carthage is the key to understanding the Island you love.”

She obeyed the instructions with every graduate course she took.  She didn’t so much study the assigned texts as absorb them into her psyche.  Field work was what she yearned for, and she grabbed every opportunity to spend time in the desert places that would unlock the secret to her jungle paradise.  Whenever there was a dig in Tunisia, she was there.  It wasn’t Tunisia, of course, that interested her.  It was what Tunisia had been once, two millennia ago.  It was Carthage, the civilisation of Elissa, home of history’s greatest military leaders.

“I know more about ancient Carthage than Hannibal himself.”  It was one of the oddest statements ever made in the six years of LOST.  It seemed disconnected, unrelated to anything else transpiring on the Island.  Charlotte Lewis was an expert–quite possibly the world’s leading authority–on ancient Carthage.  Why?  Why would a woman whose entire being had been oriented toward rediscovering the island home of her youth spend every waking moment studying, thinking, brushing the sand away from, imbibing, eating and breathing nothing but ancient Carthage?

It was the drop point.  And she knew it.  “You will find something interesting in Medenine, Charlotte.  There’s a dig there.  You’ll find the proof.”  Whoever it was who told her was correct.  The polar bear expired in the desert heat short kilometres from the drop point.  When Charlotte found the skeleton she dropped to her knees and dug at the neck.  This, too, was something she knew–that she would find the leather tag still chained around the dead animal’s neck.  It was a Dharma tag.  The undamaged leather tag, the fresh bones–not even twenty years old–constituted the strongest possible proof that the Island remained.  The polar bear was a love letter, a “wish you were here” postcard from people still on the Island, years after Charlotte left, proclaiming to the world that the Island lived.

Charlotte is key to the whole business of the Island, not only because she made her home on the Island, not only because she loved the Island, but because she is the bridge to the Island’s distant past.

Tunisia is the drop point because Tunisia is where the Island started.  Carthage was the closest neighbour of another ancient civilisation, and many Carthaginians worshipped Egyptian gods.  The statue of Tawaret would not have been at all out of place in Carthage.

Charlotte’s passion is the Island.  Sawyer’s passion is finding his parents’ killer.  Sawyer’s challenge–one I think he will succeed in overcoming–is finding intimacy with Charlotte in spite of his selfish dismissal of her after their one-night stand.  And when he does this–probably just before the wedding party (Locke and Helen’s party) where he discovers the man who killed his parents–Charlotte will confide to Sawyer her greatest passion, the lifelong obsession that has turned her into Indiana Jones.

Does she know of the Island’s submergence beneath the ocean?  Does she require a con artist’s special skill in obtaining knowledge vital to the discovery of the Island?  Is she the person who will create the bridge between the two spacetime realities?  Charlotte Lewis will be a person of interest in coming episodes.

Reconstituting Reality

“What was that all about, then?”

“Just savin’ the world.”

Kelvin Inman didn’t believe the words he uttered in response to Desmond’s inquiry.  Desmond came to share in the CIA agent’s scepticism, too, for a time.  Until Locke destroyed the countdown computer, and the countdown clock turned over from 000.00 to the Egyptian hieroglyphics that mean “Underworld”.

The energy build-up accompanying the failure to enter the numbers and press the Execute key was a demonstration of the power of the Island.  We have seen several such demonstrations of unusual power since the Season Two destruction of the Swan Station on Day 67.  The Island heals and it destroys.  It transports people and things through space and time, and it can move itself, to places far, to times long ago.  It unleashes electromagnetic energy of such force as to pull airplanes from the sky.  It contains within its bowels forces of such magnitude that not even the detonation of a nuclear bomb can surpass its strength.

Such abilities are not localised wonders to be exploited and directed.  Such powers are not controlled.  They control.  They exercise their own need to integrate into things even greater than themselves.

The Island is not an entity subject to containment or detached study or exploitation for personal gain.  It is the world’s umbilical cord, attaching the entire planet to the richness of forces beyond description.  It is the time merchant’s scale in which good and evil, freedom and responsibility, past and future, will and humility are balanced, guarded, nurtured, and rendered into forms suitable to the human spirit and to the greater good.

The strange combination of Sawyer and Charlotte will lead us to this conclusion.  I’m very much looking forward to the wedding party in Locke’s back yard in a few weeks.  It should be wild beyond anyone’s imagining.  People and forces converged on the Island in 2004.  They are reconverging now, on-Island and off.  The entire world is headed for dangerous, completely unpredictable chaos.

Reconflicted, Not Reconciled

“This is completely inappropriate.”

Claire’s attempt to kill Kate made sense.  She believed Kate intentionally took Aaron away from her, and Aaron was all she had.  A psychic had warned her she had to raise the baby herself.  Kate was not only a kidnapper, but she had interfered with destiny itself.

Nothing else about the interaction between Claire, Kate, and Cerberus made any sense.  The Man in Black’s calls for civility were issued short hours after he mercilessly slaughtered everyone remaining in the Temple.  He threw Claire like a sack of potatoes and then in soft, restrained tone said, “This is completely inappropriate.”

The Smoke Monster’s camp is a warped, fractured mirror of civilisation.  Cerberus has soaked in bits and pieces of humanity, insists on a deliberate adherence to gentlemanly behaviour one minute but extols the virtues of hatred the next.  The MIB doesn’t have a concept of the natural boundaries of human culture.  He understands an idea here, a lesson there, but he has no sense of the whole of humanity.

He separates Claire and Kate, and frizzy-haired Claire comes around later, the punished child, offering a lame apology to the woman who cared for her son.  The pain in Claire’s cries is real.  But the two women remain unreconciled.

The complexity of Claire’s pain defies understanding.  Even before Claire attacked Kate she reached for her friend’s hand.  And after the Smoke Monster lectured her, she hugged Kate and cried wretched tears on her shoulder.

What is the source of her anguish?  How did Aaron become separated from her in Season Four?  Why did Cerberus have to concoct the fable of Aaron’s abduction by the Others?  Was he responsible for the initial kidnapping?  Did Jacob play a role in Claire’s disappearance or Aaron’s separation?

Rumpelstiltskin

If we are to understand the events surrounding Claire’s separation from Aaron, we will probably need to know more about the Smoke Monster.  But Cerberus has erected overt and intentional obstacles to our understanding.  When Jin repeatedly asked who Claire’s “friend” was, she said quite pointedly, “My friend.”  She knows the man’s name, but nothing will induce her to reveal it to anyone.

In the tradition of many cultures, knowledge of a name confers power over the object named.  The person naming the object may have the power to control its essence or actions, or make it do things against its will.  The person or object named is at the very least diminished in importance compared to the person invoking the name, or may come to be under the complete control of that person.  For this reason, many cultural traditions prohibit the invocation of a person’s name in that person’s presence.

For instance, in the Biblical account of creation, human beings were said to be created in the divine image (Gen 1:27).  That is to say, humans shared important spiritual characteristics with the Deity.  The instruction manual was very short:  “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth.” (Gen 1:28)  In the divine hierarchy of Genesis, humans stood above all other parts of creation.  The fact of human beings’ power over the animals was given in Gen 2:20-21:  “So the Creator formed out of the ground various wild animals and various birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each of them would be its name.”  In the ancient Hebrew understanding, the fact that human beings named the animals was proof that we were given control over them; by invoking the animals’ names, humans established and maintained their superiority.

“Rumpelstiltskin” provides a relatively recent example of the power of invoking a person’s true name.  First published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812, “Rumpelstiltskin” tells the story of a goblin who helped a beautiful young woman attract the attention of the king, extracting from her the promise to give him her first-born son.  The woman became queen and when her son was born, Rumpelstiltskin came to collect his due.  The queen could not refuse, but seeing the woman’s anguish, the goblin agreed to these terms:  If the queen could guess Rumpelstiltskin’s true name in three days, she could keep her son.  With the help of spies, the queen learned the goblin’s name, and told him.  Humbled, Rumpelstiltskin had to honour the terms of the agreement, and the queen kept her son.

The Name of the Beast

The intentional withholding of the Smoke Monster’s true name must have an importance greater than the name itself.  I don’t think this is a case of withholding the name only for the sake of withholding, strictly in order to build suspense.  The circumstances of withholding the name seem qualitatively different from those associated with the re-naming of Locke to “Jeremy Bentham”.  When we learned that “Jeremy Bentham” was John Locke, we learned that John Locke was dead.  We learned nothing additional about the character, since the name “Jeremy Bentham” told us nothing new about John Locke.  We can theorise endlessly about possible connections between the historical philosopher Bentham and his on-Island namesake, but these are all speculative imaginings.  On the other hand, the Smoke Monster is not a name, but more or less a title.  If we were to gain knowledge of the Smoke Monster’s true name, we might be able to guess some means of controlling him.  For instance, if we found out the Smoke Monster was the historical Julius Caesar, we would know much of his personality, personal and professional choices, yearnings, and vanities from the historical record.  Such information would be valuable in defeating him.

Addressing the Smoke Monster, or allowing the Smoke Monster to speak, may have some effect on the entity’s power.  Dogen expressed the belief that Sayid could kill Smokey if he plunged a special dagger into the Monster’s chest before the Monster said anything.

My best guess is that the intentional withholding of the Smoke Monster’s true name is a security measure designed to prevent greater control over the beast.

The Nature of the Beast

Bram and his team could not harm Smokey with ordinary bullets (Lost 6.01, “LA X, Part 1″).  Sayid was not able to harm the Monster, even with a special dagger (though see possible qualifications above).  At times the Monster appears to be virtually invincible.

We know the Smoke Monster can be summoned, and perhaps in some ways controlled.  Ben Linus summoned the Smoke Monster by loosening a plug to drain a small pool of water (Lost 4.09, “The Shape of Things to Come”).  Somehow, the water, the flowing of the water, the movement of the water to another place, or some hydraulic effect of the movement (perhaps even a hydraulically controlled device to open or close portals or valves), caused the Smoke Monster to appear only minutes later.

We know of some limitations on the Smoke Monster’s power.  He could not kill Jacob directly.  He probably cannot kill a Candidate directly.  He cannot cross a line composed of ash or a certain type of ash.  He cannot traverse a plane along which a sonic field is activated, even at a vertical distance well above the effective reach of the field.  We know the sonic fence around the Dharma barracks had no visible effect on humans who crossed the field above the pylons (Lost 3.12, “Par Avion”), but the Smoke Monster could not traverse the field and was unable to go over it (Lost 3.15, “Left Behind”).  We have never seen the Smoke Monster more than a few metres above ground level; it is possible that the Monster must hover close to the ground.  If so, this would explain the Monster’s inability to go over a sonic fence approximately four metres above ground level.

He has unusual powers.  Apparently he can appropriate the likeness of those who have died.  He has appeared as Alexandra Rousseau and John Locke, and may have taken on the form of Dr. Christian Shephard.  He can shift into a formless cloud of black smoke, though the circumstances of the transformation are not clear, and may be subject to forces beyond whim or volition.  The smoke form may become available only when the Monster is provoked, when the Island is threatened, or when Island rules determine the transformation is required or advised.

He is Cerberus, the Island’s security system.  Although Jacob was called “Protector of the Island”, it is Cerberus who rushed to the scene whenever the Island was under attack.  He protected the Island from Keamy’s band of mercenaries, Rousseau’s science team, and probably many other groups over the centuries.

He was granted or attained some kind of equal footing next to Jacob, perhaps being appointed co-protector of the Island.  An appointment to a position of responsibility seems more likely than forcible seizure of power.  The Man in Black has expressed his disdain for the Island, and has said he wishes to leave, to “go back home.”  His aspirations, and possibly some of his powers, seem to have been kept in check while Jacob was alive.  The white and black stones, evenly weighed on the balance pans in the cave on the cliffs, seem to have symbolised the balance of power between Jacob and the MIB.

Now that Jacob is dead, the MIB is free to pursue his dream of leaving the Island–or whatever his agenda really is.

The Monster is at least 162 years old, and probably considerably older.  We saw him in adult form (Lost 5.17, “The Incident”) sometime after March 22, 1845, the day the Black Rock left Portsmouth, England (Lost 4.05, “The Constant”).

He suffers the psychological scars of his upbringing, or so he would like Kate to believe.  ”My mother was crazy. Long time ago… before I… looked… like this, I had a mother, just like everyone. She was a very disturbed woman. And as a result of that, I had some growing pains. Problems that I’m still trying to work my way through. Problems that could have been avoided had things been different.”  Perhaps this is the beginning of real insight into the nature of the beast.  Or maybe the master manipulator is simply trying to gain Kate’s sympathy.

The Identity of the Beast

I don’t feel we have enough information to divine the true identity of the Smoke Monster.  Assuming his self-revelation as son of a disturbed mother, some possibilities become obvious, and other possibilities become more distant.

Legion

“I am called Legion, for we are many.”  The Gerasene Demon presented himself in the Gospel of Luke as many demons captured in a single human body.  When the demons were released, they fled to a herd of pigs and charged over a cliff to their death.  The Smoke Monster seems to take delight not only in killing, but in capturing.  As Kate held onto the rope ladder above Claire’s prison cell in the Temple, she saw live bodies inside the black smoke rushing above her.  The Smoke Monster captures entire bodies.  Does he incorporate the bodies into his own being?  Does he absorb the thoughts, the souls, the spirits of others?  Is it even possible to say that Smokey is one person?

Locke

Only two women have been portrayed as certifiably crazy.  One of these was Libby, who spent time with Hurley in the mental institution.  The other candidate for crazed motherhood is Emily Locke, who at the age of fifteen gave birth to a several months premature John Locke.  Almost fifty years later she hunted down her son and claimed he had no father.  “You were immaculately conceived,” she said.  [I groaned and then laughed when I heard this all-too-frequent confusion of Roman Catholic beliefs.  What Emily meant to say was that John was the result of a virgin birth.  The word "immaculate" means clean, and has nothing to do with the absence of a man.  "Clean", in the context of the Immaculate Conception, refers to the spiritual state of Mary, the Mother of Jesus.  Immaculate Conception is the Roman Catholic doctrine that Mary, Mother of Jesus, was born "without the stain of original sin."  All human beings, according to common Christian belief, are born with a kind of spiritually-passed-down sin called original sin.  Mary, who was to carry the Christ Child, had to be free of sin, and was granted the extreme grace of being born without even hereditary sin.  I've absolved the writers in my mind for their ignorance, but I do wish they would make more of an effort to study religion when they wish to delve into these topics!]

Locke certainly “had some growing pains. Problems that I’m still trying to work my way through. Problems that could have been avoided had things been different.”  Time has no particular significance on an Island that is freely transportable from one age to another.  Could it be that Locke has always been the Smoke Monster?

Jensen’s Choice

Doc Jensen this week wrote a most entertaining analysis of “Recon”.  His theory?  Smokey is none other than Daniel Faraday.  I won’t repeat his very detailed and eminently defensible support for the theory.  I will say that his theory offers the quite attractive possibility that Charles Widmore (Faraday’s father, who even now sits on Hydra Island, plotting seizure of the Island) is in fact the true personification of evil, as I have suggested in a few of my analyses.  Jensen’s theory also provides a means of tying together a number of disparate threads and may have proven more than a bit enticing to the writers.  I think it would take a good deal of quite nuanced writing to make this work, though, and I have my doubts about the idea.

Hannibal

I’ve found myself attracted to this idea ever since the end of Season Five.  Not only does the greatest military strategist of all time tie into Charlotte’s connection to Carthage and the Island, but there is also this gem, found on Wikipedia by LOST theorist Erowyn:

A youth of divine beauty appeared to Hannibal in the night. The youth told Hannibal he had been sent by supreme deity, Melqart, to guide the son of Hamilcar to Italy. “Follow me,” said the ghostly visitor, “and see that that thou look not behind thee.” Hannibal followed the instructions of the visitor. His curiosity, however, overcame him, and as he turned his head, Hannibal saw a serpent crashing through forest and thicket causing destruction everywhere. It moved as a black tempest with claps of thunder and flashes of lightning gathered behind the serpent. When Hannibal asked the meaning of the vision Melqart replied, “What thou beholdest is the desolation of Italy. Follow thy star and inquire no farther into the dark counsels of heaven.”

I find this connection most compelling.  And even though I find no evidence that Hannibal’s mother was crazy, the firm connection between Island and Carthage provided by this historical figure constitutes yet another way to bring together many of the loose threads on our favourite television programme.  Of all the Smoke Monster theories I have read, this one has most captured my attention.

The Party

Regardless of the Smoke Monster’s identity, key players will reconverge in coming weeks.  I have a feeling that the humble little wedding party at Locke’s house (or at the hall rented for the occasion) will reveal the immediate future course of events.  Perhaps it will become the event that triggers the final cascade toward the convergence of separate realities.  I still believe, and offer as reasonably supportable speculation, that the man of honour at that party will find himself offered a one-way trip to another dimension, and that once there, he will again find he has strong legs and, this time, an even stronger will.  Evil forces gather.  But the forces of trust, faith, and sacrifice converge, too.  It will be a fight worth engaging with every faculty of mind, body, and spirit.  I’m ready.

PM

Related posts:

1. Risk: A Cultural Thesis for LOST 6.03 “What Kate Does” by Pearson Moore
2. Mirror, Mirror (Part II): Cultural Reflections on LOST 6.05 “Lighthouse” by Pearson Moore
3. Mirror, Mirror: Cultural Themes in LOST 6.05 by Pearson Moore

Related posts:

1. New Jimmy Kimmel’s “Secrets of LOST” with Michael Emerson
2. Jimmy Kimmel’s “Secrets of LOST” #10 – Michael Emerson
3. VIDEOS: Michael Emerson on Jimmy Kimmel Live + “Secrets of LOST” *UPDATED*

This is my live reaction and recap video of episode 6 of season 6 of LOST, “Sundown,” which aired March 2, 2010 on ABC. This episode focused on Sayid’s life off the island in the flash sideways and gave us a deeper look into the life of the samurai guy at the temple. In the end, the man in black (Locke) convinces Sayid to join his side and insane dramatics ensue.

What did YOU think about this episode?

Leave your thoughts in the comments below and on my Twitter!

-Adam

Related posts:

1. LOST 6.04 The Substitute Live Reaction/Recap Video
2. LOST LA X Premiere Live Reaction/Recap Video
3. LOST Ep. 6.03 Live Reaction/Recap Video: What Kate Does

Prime Candidate:
Cultural Thoughts on LOST 6.04, “The Substitute”
by Pearson Moore

We know who he is.  We know his history and we understand his motivations.  The Prime Candidate was identified not only by name, but by number.

Carlton Cuse promised “illumination” in this episode, and he delivered:  illuminated integers, a child glowing in the jungle, and brilliantly coloured themes of balance, strength, and humanity.   “The Substitute” was a feast for the eyes and for the mind, and arguably the richest episode of the last six seasons.

Character Inversion

Episode Four continued the theme of instability, focusing on unexpected character inversions.  Last week we saw Claire going through a very bad hair day, adopting many of the same jungle survival techniques innovated by her French predecessor sixteen years before.  This week we experienced an inversion even more unexpected in the sudden emotional instability and physical frailty of the most consistently unmoved character of the series.

While the other Others wore dirty, dusty, grimy clothes and almost certainly had lice-infested hair and rotting teeth, Richard Alpert wore only immaculate, perfectly starched shirts and not a single hair was ever out of place.  He could have modeled for GQ, Eddie Bauer, or Pepsodent.  He was the Superman of the Banana Republic.  Now he’s bloodied, unkempt, and disheveled.  More than that:  he’s lost his emotional and psychological bearings.  Always cool to this point, even in the most dire circumstances, after coming face to face with Cerberus he seemed short steps away from complete derangement.

The change in Richard was more severe than anything we have so far seen in the other characters, and seemed to be qualitatively different as well.  Jack was disoriented in sideways spacetime over the last three episodes, but he was not in a panic.  Kate seemed distracted both on-Island and off, but  for all her scurrying about and tracking wayward friends through the jungle, she appeared to be returning to the more confident footing of her first days on the Island.

Richard’s reaction to the Man in Black signaled a sense of immediate danger, consonant with Ilana’s feeling that they were confronting an enemy unlike any they have so far had to face.  His warning to Sawyer was clear:  Smokey intended to kill all of them.

The sideways versions of Hurley and Locke, on the other hand, seemed up to any challenge, virtually unphased by even the most stressful events.  The extent of the change from the last five years was striking, but I found it within the bounds of acceptability for these characters.  These changes again had the feel of something deeper, amounting to a shift not only in personality, but in the very character of the story.  Hurley and Locke exhibited a kind of equilibrium in response to the slings and arrows coming their way, and that balance played out in one scene after another during the episode.

Balance

The predominant leitmotif tonight was balance.

The most important scenes were imbued with measured emotion and symbols of balance and equilibrium.  The changes were not subtle.  The writers confronted us from the very first scene with a different John Locke than any nuance of character we have seen in the past five years.  When the chair lift became stuck, John made the impetuous decision to attempt a jump.  That was an action we could have imagined the old John Locke taking, but what happened next was unforeseen:  Locke, landing face first on the grass, pelted by lawn sprinklers, didn’t become upset.  He laughed.  Later, with his wife-to-be, he was at ease, confident of their strong relationship, appreciative of her attention yet not cloying as he had been in the past.  This was a very new John Locke.

Just to be sure we understood the gravity of this change, Locke was faced with one of the most stressful of all life events, when his boss, Randy, fired him for lying about attending a conference in Australia.  He did show some mild signs of being upset, but as in the earlier scene, he accepted his lot with emotional poise.

Hurley showed off a new emotional playbook, too.  When Locke confronted him about parking his big yellow Hummer too close to his van, Hurley listened attentively and responded in a cool and reasonable manner.  This was not the Hurley we’ve come to know over five years.  Here was a man dans sa peau, sure of himself, and ready not only to listen, but to help.  The altercation could have ended in a yelling match-and would have, in the mainline spacetime-but in sideways spacetime, the two parted as friends.

The balance between the two players, MIB and Jacob, provided the introduction to the scene in the cave.  “Two players, two sides”; we’ve heard the phrase echo in our minds for six years.  In any meaningful commentary on LOST, the invocation of the equal pairing of the Dark Player and the Light Player must be given centre position.

While the motif of Balance was central to this episode, I am going to argue that this is not a central motif of the series.  Based on events over the last six episodes, I believe another theme carries stronger support, and I intend to demonstrate this support in the next several paragraphs.

I believe the intention in lifting Balance to the dominant theme of the episode was three-fold.  First, it became a means of registering character change in a most memorable way.  More importantly, it was the second in a series of virtues to which the characters are being held.  Last week, trust was at issue.  Four major characters-Jack, Sayid, Kate, and Claire-were thrown into situations in which trust became a vehicle for rapid cementing of relationships.  The topic of the week tonight was balance.

The aspect of balance and trust that I believe will have greatest effect is in the preparation of certain characters for important work in coming episodes.  As I noted in analyses of Episodes 6.01 to 6.03, I believe certain events could be interpreted as indicating instability or turbulence between the two spacetimes established by Faraday’s Boulder.  The characters have been experiencing this as fleeting connections or overlaps between the two realities.  The red mark on Jack’s neck, the sudden appearance and disappearance of Desmond to Jack on sideways Flight 815, Claire’s out-of-the-blue naming of Aaron in her womb, Kate’s feelings toward pregnant Claire, and so on, may be signs that the two streams will not long be separated, and will, probably at a time when no one is prepared, come crashing together again.

Some of the characters will herald the smashing of realities with activities banal.  Juliet and Sawyer apparently will do nothing more than go Dutch on a coffee date, if we believe her last words to Sawyer indicate her crossover to the other reality.  Other characters, I have to believe, are going to make full use of their new insights and strengths when they cross the spacetime barrier.  Arming these characters now means they will be all the more formidable when they confront the final and most difficult challenges of the story.

Limitations on Cerberus

The Smoke Monster revealed himself to be hemmed in by more rules and limitations that I would have guessed in previous episodes.  The twelve- or fourteen-year-old boy appearing in the jungle made a point of telling the MIB, “You can’t kill him,” probably referring to Sawyer.  When Cerberus tripped and fell and shouted, “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!”, I had to wonder if he had begun to absorb some of Locke’s personality.

The spontaneous recitation of Locke’s catch phrase surprised me, but the dynamic of the scene was governed by this truth:  Regardless of what happened to Jacob, the rules of the Island continued to apply in full force.  Smokey, in ways he considered of utmost importance, had no more freedom now than he did before he kicked Jacob into the fire.

Ilana believed the Smoke Monster to be “stuck this way.”  The MIB said he felt trapped, that he wanted to go home.  In his response to the boy, and in tripping and falling, he seemed less mature than even the teenager he was chasing.  Later, when he told Sawyer, “It’s just a damn island,” I thought of George Conway, the antagonist in James Hilton’s novel, Lost Horizon.

George saw the same miracles at Shangri-La that everyone else experienced, but he was ready at every turn to explain away even the most inexplicable of events.  Thieves, prostitutes, and hardened criminals were changed for the better by Shangri-La, but not George.  George refused to believe, and he came to despise everything about what he believed to be a false paradise.  When, near the end of the story, he discovered the place really was heaven on earth, he charged off a cliff, killing himself rather than accepting a place in paradise.

I don’t know if the MIB shares George’s obstinance,  but I am coming to think he suffers a kind of ignorance of the complete reality of the Island.  It’s not just “a damn island.”  The MIB is lying to Sawyer, or he has not the eyes to see what is clear to everyone else labouring to protect a unique and powerful place on Earth.  Either way, the Smoke Monster is more like a boy than a man.

This strong reminder of the MIB’s limitations served to reinforce yet another aspect of his relationship to Jacob:  For at least a couple of centuries, and probably for significantly longer than that, the two entities were in balance.  This notion was confirmed by the symbol of the equally weighted scale at the entrance to the cave.  The dark stone and the light stone had equal and opposite value.  Since Smokey seemed to suffer many of the same restrictions now as he did when his opposite lived, I have to wonder just what he accomplished in killing Jacob.  Was he kidding himself when he cast the light stone into the ocean?  Did he really think he had any more freedom than before, when Jacob lived?

Illumination

The mysterious boy in the jungle glowed.  The image of the boy flashed for only a split second, and it wasn’t really enough to make sense of the glow.  The still image showed unusual details.  The foliage around the boy was discoloured to a white or yellowish white.  Bright light shone down on the boy from above, but this light didn’t account for the discoloured plant life in his immediate proximity.  It’s as if the boy himself was radiating tremendous energy, wilting everything around him.  Did power emanating from the boy cause others, like the MIB, to become weak, or trip them up so they could not stand in his presence?

Why was the boy running?  Why were his hands and forearms covered in blood or red paint?  Why was he free of the blood or paint when we saw him later?  Who was the boy?  Aaron?  Jacob?  A young Locke?  Based on themes of the last several episodes, another possibility seems plausible, and I will discuss this shortly.

The numbers

Like the boy in the jungle, the numbers and names in the cave were also illuminated with bright light.  This was the big mythological revelation of the evening, and I believe the numbers/names connection will have significance to the endgame as well.  There have been several lists of names and several numbers, and I think a brief review will put the number/name connections into a more useful context.

The first list was the passenger manifest, and it allowed Hurley to determine that Ethan Rom was not on Flight 815.  The next list was compiled at the beginning of Season Two by Ana Lucia’s group, and was comprised of those who were abducted by the Others.

The Tail Section Nine:

Eli

Jim

Emma

Zach

Nancy

four others, unnamed

We didn’t see a list again until near the end of Season Two, when one of Ben’s people wrote down four names.

Bea Klugh’s List:

Jack Shephard

Kate Austen

Hugo Reyes

James Ford

The list at the end of Season Four was significant.

The Oceanic Six:

Jack Shephardd

Kate Austen

Hugo Reyes

Sayid Jarrah

Sun-Hwa Kwon

Aaron Littleton

The fact that Jacob touched nine individuals carries great moment.

Jacob’s Nine:

Kate Austen

James Ford

Jack Shephard

Sayid Jarrah

Hugo Reyes

Sun-Hwa Kwon

Jin Kwon

John Locke

Benjamin Linus (just after Ben stabbed him)

And now we have the Cave Numbers and corresponding names.

Cave Numbers:

4 Locke

8 Reyes

15 Ford

16 Jarrah

23 Shephard

42 Kwon

In Season Three we learned “Shephard wasn’t even on Jacob’s list” (Episode 3.06), Kate wasn’t on the list because she was “flawed,” Sayid’s name was absent “because he is weak and frightened” and Locke’s name didn’t appear because “he is angry.” (3.12)  Some of these statements didn’t make sense until Episode 5.16, when Ben indicated there was more than one list.

There are two nine-name lists and two six-name lists.  It seems fair to assume that the list of abducted tailies has lesser significance than the other lists.  Two of the people on that list, Emma and Zach, we now know to be safe in the Temple, and the other names have not been mentioned since the earliest days of the series.  Since the two most vulnerable members of the list (the two children) were shown to be unharmed, I am going to assume their survival indicates the others on the list were likewise given places in the Temple.

The Nine

The Season Five finale began with Jacob twisting fibres into yarn, turning yarn into thread, and weaving thread into a tapestry.  He was careful and deliberate, and his care was reflected in the meticulous preparations he made in weaving his way through time to touch nine individuals at precisely the correct instant to give them “a little push” toward the Island.  His tapestry was a kind of record of his efforts, depicting the nine individuals he touched, connected by unbroken lines to the Eye of Horus at the top of the tapestry.

The Seven

Below the Nine in Jacob’s tapestry was a group of Seven human figures.  While we have no list containing seven names, it seems possible that Jacob or some other name might be tacked onto a list of six to bring the number up to the required seven.  I believe great meaning attaches to the number seven, and I have posted detailed analyses of its possible significance.

One possibility that bears some contemplation:  The Cave Numbers prove seven players, not six.  Number 42, Kwon, could represent the combined strength inherent in marriage.  That is to say, perhaps number 42 represents both Sun and Jin.  This would constitute a most intriguing culmination of the Seven.

Four names were shared among the Oceanic Six and the Cave Numbers.  Kate and Aaron were absent from the Cave Numbers (though the name Littleton appeared, crossed out, on the cave ceiling), and Locke and Ford were not among the Oceanic Six.  If the Oceanic Six have any mythological value, the “Substitute” of the episode title could be Kate or Aaron or both of them.  Kate may be a replacement or substitute for Sawyer, if he dies or leaves the Island, and Aaron may be the replacement for the deceased John Locke.

The Candidate

I am not convinced that the MIB was telling the truth about the significance of the Cave Numbers, or that he understood their meaning.  It seems clear the Island was not “just a damn island.”  Also, the nature of the numbers and names, and the way they were recorded, seemed to contradict Cerberus’ statement that these were Jacob’s doing.

Jacob was careful, meticulous, and clean.  He did not scrawl graffiti all over the inside of the statue.  Except for his poorly supported idealism around the notion of “progress”, he seemed to have a mature outlook on life.  I have more than a little difficulty accepting the idea that the haphazard scrawling of names on the ceiling of a cave is anything Jacob would have contemplated doing.

The names and numbers are of different sizes, sometimes different sized letters even within the same name.  Some lines are dark, some are light and difficult to read.  The lack of uniformity in size and darkness indicates an unpracticed and uncaring hand.  Again, I don’t see Jacob being the agent behind this graffiti.

I don’t believe the Cave Numbers are the work of Jacob.  I believe they are the work of an impatient, sometimes immature man, like the MIB.  Or, they could be the result of an impatient youth-like the mysterious boy we saw twice in the jungle.

I believe the six Cave Numbers and names have greater significance than the MIB was willing to divulge.  Or the Smoke Monster may not have known what the true significance of the Cave Numbers was.  But I don’t think the Cave Numbers had anything to do with candidates for replacement of Jacob.  We learned at the end of Season Five, several hours before Jacob’s death, that Frank Lapidus might have been a “candidate”.  Ilana and Bram and their people were surprised to learn of Jacob’s death.  Thus, it seems unlikely they would have considered Frank a valid candidate to replace a man they were certain was still alive.  Frank may have been a candidate to replace Locke, or a candidate for joining their team, but not a substitute for Jacob.  When the MIB talked with Sawyer in the cave, he said Sawyer was a candidate to replace Jacob.  It seems likely the MIB was wrong, or he was lying.

The Prime Candidate

Only two names were shared among Bea’s List, the Oceanic Six, and the Cave Numbers:  8 Reyes and 23 Shephard.  Of the six Cave Numbers, only one is a prime number:  23.  Primes are significant if for no other reason than the fact that they cannot be evenly divided into smaller numbers.  They stand on their own, as they are, indivisible.  Jack Shephard is the indivisible, indispensable man.  He is the Prime Candidate, destined for some as yet unknown but singular, monumental task on the Island which he alone will be able to execute.  I believe his task may have been assigned not by Jacob, nor by the Man in Black, but rather by a force of destiny, by the Island itself or the Island’s rule maker, possibly as represented by the Boy On Fire.

Humanity

I don’t think six to ten key figures dropped ten thousand metres from the sky only to serve as police officers to enforce a centuries-old truce between equally opposed rival factions.  I think their task carries much greater significance.  I believe the essential message of the series is the ultimate goodness and practical efficacy of ideals, embodied in notions of culture or humanity, and expressed so far this season as two particular human virtues:  Trust (6.03), and Balance (6.04).  I think future episodes will highlight other important aspects of our common humanity, and that together these will be depicted as the true gifts of the Island, worthy of protection, even at the cost of certain of the characters’ lives.

A Strength sui generis

One man has so far been depicted as manifesting the full force of both Trust and Balance.  Although Locke was not highlighted in last week’s episode, he is unquestionably the character who has been most trusting, even to the point of gullibility, and he is the one who has most suffered because of his repeated willingness to trust just about anyone.

In tonight’s episode, we saw a strength of character given over almost entirely to a single person.  As I have stated in previous analyses, I believe John Locke’s infirmity has become a source of both physical and moral strength.  There are historical precedents for men of character rising to overcome paralysis.  In thousands of political cartoons in the 1930s, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was depicted as a man of great physical strength.  Running faster than an airplane, boxing with Hitler and giving him a knock-out blow, shooting the rapids in a canoe, piloting the ship of state or the train of  the economy, and so on.  That the President of the United States could not move or even feel his legs and spent every day of his life in a wheelchair had no consequences for the country.  That he rose above the most difficult challenges ever faced by a country made him arguably the most important leader of the twentieth century.

Locke wasn’t going to let a frozen chair lift stop him, and even when he landed face-first in the grass, he took the momentary setback in stride.  By the time Rose gave her advice on accepting life as it was, Locke was ready to receive her wise counsel and apply it to the task of rising above.  The task Rose gave Locke was one I would not have accepted.  I taught high school for two years, but my assignment was in a French-speaking African country.  When I came into a classroom the students rose to their feet in respect, as they did for any of the professors on the faculty.  Teaching in an American high school is a whole different kettle of fish, and I have some experience in this role as well.  It is not a challenge to be taken lightly.  Yet Locke fulfilled his assigned task with poise and effectiveness.

The pivotal scene occurred in the bathroom, with his fiancée, Helen.  Locke called Jack Shephard’s office, but decided not to talk with anyone, and hung up the phone.  He told Helen, “I don’t want you to spend your life waiting for a miracle, because there’s no such thing.”  Helen had the last word, because as she said, the miracle of her life was Locke.  They had come to accept the limitations of their life together.  They recognised these limitations as inconsequential to everything they would share, and everything Locke would achieve.  They were not giving up hope in miracles.   Rather, they were shifting their focus to tangible, achievable goals, like teaching girls to play basketball.  In every one of their interactions during the course of the episode, Locke demonstrated unparalleled emotional balance.  He exuded confidence, the willingness and ability to overcome.  His disability was his source of strength.

The Substitute

Shangri-La, in Hilton’s masterpiece, Lost Horizon, is the place where miracles happen, but most of all, the place where the true nature of the world and the true nature of humanity can show through with full social and cultural ramifications.  Shangri-La is heaven on earth.  It is made possible by people of good will working together to make a society work for the good of all.

In Hilton’s novel, there was a Substitute, a replacement for the dying High Lama.  That Substitute was the great Robert Conway.  He was destined, years before fate and the High Lama pushed him across continents to arrive in Shangri-La, to become the leader of the perfect Tibetan community.

Robert Conway was the personification of the best aspects of our humanity.  He was the leader tested in the outside world and then chosen to lead Shangri-La, becoming the Substitute.

Something like this may be occurring on the Island.  But Lost is not a one-for-one recreation of Hilton’s Shangri-La, and I don’t think we can use the novel or Frank Capra’s cinematic masterpiece as an unerring guide in determining how the final chapters of the Island’s story will have to unfold.

The Candidate

For one thing, the structure of Lost Horizon did not impose a single antagonist as having a force equal to the High Lama in determining the fate of Shangri-La.  George Conway was the antagonist to his brother’s ascension to the post of High Lama and he had no other major effect on the community.  The structure of Lost is quite different, with Jacob and the MIB being portrayed as opposite and equal.

The Candidate could be Jacob’s Substitute, but this would achieve nothing more than continuity of the ongoing balanced struggle between the two immortals.  It is possible that Jacob’s Substitute could rise above, asserting herself as unrivaled leader of the Island, but this would be a different role than the one formerly enjoyed by Jacob, and really seems beyond his position description.  If the role changes, it would be open to a new player.  The position could be occupied by anyone able to fill it, and it doesn’t seem to me inherent in anything we have learned so far that Jacob is the only possible candidate.

It seems if there is a Candidate, she will  have to rise above the current stalemate, she’ll have to  offer something more than simple reconciliation of opposing forces.  If she is to become a Substitute, it is because she will substitute something greater than any force currently directing activities on the Island.

Infection, or On Being Clousseau

Erika (LongLiveLocke.com) claims not to have invented the term “Clousseau” to denote the Rousseau-like Claire of the Jungle, but I liked her use of the term.  I like the name because it implies something a bit off kilter.  I see the new mainline Claire as bringing up important questions about the nature of the Smoke Monster.

Dogen told Jack, “Your sister is infected.”  Since Claire is behaving in a manner quite similar to Rousseau (setting traps, shooting at people she doesn’t like, and so on), the natural conclusion is that Rousseau herself was likewise infected.  Since we have seen Claire with her dead father in Jacob’s cabin, and since the cabin was known to be under the control of someone other than Jacob, and since Christian has apparently been acting as the representative of the Smoke Monster (or Cerberus may have been taking Christian’s form), it seems possible that Rousseau’s infection was due to the Smoke Monster.  Now I recognise the syllogism is tenuous, so I don’t claim Rousseau’s infection by the Smoke Monster is the only logical conclusion.  But I think the possibility raises some level of valid concern that we may not know everything about the Smoke Monster necessary to understand his motivations or modes of action.

I write from a Tim Hortons in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.  Seems more than appropriate to write about our Island from a place that in these parts of Canada is often called simply “The Island.”

Over the main counter in front of everyone is a 1.2 metre flat panel television monitor flashing advertisements.  The most interesting one flashes the image of a steaming cup of coffee.  A second or two later the cup is flanked on both sides by the word “true” on the left side and “love” on the right side.  Coffee as true love.  Well, it works.  If you’ve ever had a cup of Tim Hortons, you’ll never go back to Starbucks.  But then a second or two later the character of the advertisement changes in a radical way, completing shifting the meaning.  Directly over the steaming cup the word “patriot” appears, and now the phrase crossing the monitor contains three words:  True Patriot Love.  It’s a quote from the Canadian National Anthem:

O Canada, Our home and native land,

True patriot love, in all thy sons command.

Suddenly, the command to drink Tim Hortons coffee is not an entreaty to express your true love, it is an invitation to express or enjoy the expression of patriotism, the love of country.

True Patriot Love is part of the Tim Hortons “A coffee all our own” campaign, possibly rolled out for the Vancouver Olympics.  The campaign includes complex and subtly constructed television commercials that portray “true love” between husband and wife or parent and child, but have the underlying context of devotion to Canada.

I think something along these lines may be occurring in the Clousseau sequences.  We understood Rousseau to have been saved from the clutches of Smokey.  But her behaviour in the jungle, Claire’s emulation of that behaviour, and the strong possibility that Claire has fallen under the spell or complete control of Cerberus may call for a careful re-evaluation of any conclusions we believe we might reasonably be able to draw regarding the nature of the Smoke Monster.

In particular, I feel the possibility that the Smoke Monster is a force for good on the Island must be kept in mind.  I have taken the position in some of my analyses that this is a useful conclusion that may help construct a more complete understanding of the final outcome of LOST.  Regardless of any theorising we may wish to offer, though, I feel the events of this episode and those of 6.03 ought to be taken as indication of Smokey’s possible intentions for the common good.

Tonight’s episode was rich in revelation and meaning.  I touched on only a few strands of the very complex proceedings, but I hope it was enough to stimulate thought and debate about the significance of events.  I would write more, but my extra large double-double is empty, and I’ve finished all my Timbits, and even more important, the Island calls…

I’m going to get a cup of True Patriot Love for the road, and I’ll see you next week!

PM
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
February 17, 2010

Related posts:

1. Magnificence: The Cultural Mythology of LOST 1.01 to 6.18
2. Impartial Risk: Cultural Musings on the Resurrection of John Locke
3. LOST 6.04 The Substitute Live Reaction/Recap Video

This week’s all new episode of LOST, The Substitute, was chock full of surprise appearances and semi-revelations. Do we finally know what the numbers mean?!

Check out my live reaction video from last night’s episode, guest starring my good friend Allison. (And make sure you watch till the end for her dramatic re-enactment of one of LOST’s most iconic scenes.)

Share your thoughts in the video comments and hit me up on Twitter.com/AdamRucker

Enjoy!

-Adam

Related posts:

1. LOST LA X Premiere Live Reaction/Recap Video
2. LOST Ep. 6.03 Live Reaction/Recap Video: What Kate Does
3. SL-LOST Video Podcast: “Because You Left” Recap