Intellectually, we knew the stakes were life and death. We knew not all of our cherished survivors would make it to the final act. Yet, knowing is one thing. Seeing and feeling the sudden and tragic loss of beloved characters is another thing entirely. The skeptic in me, the spoiler addict in me, saw it all coming. Yet still, I was devastated. I thought I’d stemmed the flood of tears, until Hurley, Kate, and even Jack broke down on screen. Jen was a wreck, literally speechless, and ended her evening with the final thud. Cling as we might to the flash-sideways as a possible escape hatch to happiness, and as warm and wonderful some of those off-island moments have been, it’s obvious tonight that our hearts were with the characters on the island. The ones we’ve followed for half a decade.
Sun and Jin were reunited only one episode back, and it was a moment that felt incomplete, rushed. We voiced fears that their days were numbered now that their characters’ primary objective had been met. But so soon? So beautifully cruel? I stopped breathing the moment we saw that Sun was trapped. I tried to muster at least an eye roll, but it was too late. I was a goner. Giacchino’s powerful “Life and Death” theme was perfectly cued, a bullet to the heart.
I half expected, hoped, and even rationalized that Jin would indeed leave Sun one last time. After all, don’t all “go on without me!” scenes end that way? And what of Ji-Yeon? But he chose to perish with her, the two of them indeed together forever, entombed in a submarine. The parallels to Charlie’s death were not accidental… and surprisingly powerful.
And Sayid! His heart to heart with Desmond did light a spark of goodness in him, as we’d hoped. But moments after he confirms that he did not kill our damp Scotsman, he makes his final move, his selfless act, giving up his life to a bomb blast so that others may live. He wasn’t, after all, what everyone said he was. Say what you will about how weakly his character had meandered through most of this season, I now can’t help but look back over his first days on the island. An Iraqi, a former member of the Republican Guard, a torturer, a born killer. That this Middle Eastern character dies by self-inflicted bomb in an act of heroism is… eerily poetic.
(Though the much ballyhooed ethnic diversity of “LOST” was certainly thinned tonight.)
And a brief salute to Frank, the hapless pilot, always ready with a one-liner as he was dragged hither and yon. We loved how his eyes twinkled as they returned to the plane, ready for the still seemingly impossible challenge of getting it airborne. Alas, he died but a passenger inside another metal tube. Last words: “Aw hell.”
Deaths aside, the most powerful scene tonight was the showdown between Jack and Sawyer. Jack, realizing that they were exactly where Unlocke wanted them, insists that the bomb won’t kill them unless they do something to allow it to do harm. It directly referenced the amazing scene on the Black Rock earlier this season, when Jack bet his life that the dynamite wouldn’t blow because he lit the fuse. They can’t kill themselves, but they can kill each other… as previous arrivals to the island no doubt did. But Sawyer couldn’t bring himself to trust Jack, especially given what happened the last time he believed Jack’s plan. I could wholly identify with both of them.
Yes, Sawyer pulled the wires, and his action did accelerate and ultimately lead to the C-4 sinking the sub. Why did that happen, when the fuse Jack lit went out? Well, Sawyer did survive the blast. It killed people, including other candidates, but it didn’t kill him.
Meanwhile, an endless debate is born: was Jack right? Had Sawyer not acted, would nothing have happened? It seems a heck of a gamble on Unlocke’s part, putting a timer on a bomb on a submarine (a very direct act), with the expectation that someone would discover it and set it off for him. Just how indirectly do his actions have to be to cause the death of a candidate without breaking the rules?
The one other top-shelf reveal in “The Candidate” seems to be the fact that Unlocke is The Bad Guy. Full stop. No more ambiguous hints and sympathetic overtures. After weeks of being merely menacing and threatening, this week he’s downright merciless, walking right into a hail of bullets and killing without breaking a sweat. And his plan all along was, indeed, to eliminate the candidates. He wanted them all together because they’d be easier to kill together. But he knows some survived, and he’soff to finish what he started.
Does this mean that Unlocke The Man in Black, the smoke monster, what have you — is actually the embodiment of a great and powerful evil? An evil from which the rest of the world must be protected? It would seem so. And given what Sayid said moments before he died, it sure looks like Jack is Jacob’s successor. He is The Candidate. He sure said that he’s not leaving the island enough times tonight. What else could his calling or purpose be at this point but to continue to confound Unlocke’s attempts to leave?
Desmond, though, remains key to the end game. And that’s something that Widmore seems to have known all along. And it’s Widmore’s role that remains a mystery to me. After all, the C-4 that blew up the submarine came from a booby trap on the plane, one that does seem to have been set by Widmore. If Widmore wanted to destroy the plane, he could’ve done so already. So, couldn’t he have helped Unlocke exterminate the candidates, had they all climbed aboard and turned the key?
Then again, Widmore did try to lock the candidates up in cages, telling them it was for their own good. If it’s as simple as that, though, what is Widmore up to?
As for the flash-sideways, more wonderful moments, to be sure. Just this week, they were greatly overshadowed by the island timeline.
I like that Jack knows himself well enough to see how strange it is that he’s compelled to learn why Locke doesn’t want an operation. Helen asks why it isn’t enough that he saved his life, and Jack says, “Because it’s not.” Seeing the once intimidating Anthony Cooper reduced to an invalid was a surprise. Discovering that it was Locke who caused his father’s paralysis, as well as his own, in a plane crash was cool twist. Locke had his crossover moment, mumbling “push the button” and “I wish you believed me.” And then Jack makes a connection, telling him the same. Their chat in the hospital hallway, when Jack tells Locke to let go even when he can’t let go himself, was great.
What of the music box from Christian? “Catch a Falling Star” has followed Claire around from the beginning. Will Christian be revealed, so very late in the season, as someone else who knew or saw “the truth”?
Two more Tuesday nights. Then, the two and a half hour (yes, they announced the extra 30 minutes tonight) series finale on May 23. There’s not much “LOST” left. I have to say, even if on a purely visceral level, “The Candidate” is the first episode of this last season to feel like I expected this last season to feel like. It shocked me. It angered me. It hurt me. I expect nothing less over the final hours of the best show on TV.
- Is it shocking to kill off several main characters in one episode? Yes. Is it unexpected? No. And stepping back a bit, I’m glad they hit us late and hard, rather than killing off one character every few episodes. Back in the early seasons, there was a “Survivor” like element as we bet on who would be the next to buy the farm. The deathwatch mindset kind of trivialized things. Sure, more characters will be lost over the next few hours, but in this last act, that comes with the territory.
- Flash-sideways Jack is increasingly likable. Standing there, looking dashing in his scrubs as Helen thanked him for saving Locke’s life, he seemed almost ready for a guest appearance on “Gray’s Anatomy.”
- All season long, the writers go out of their way to say, “We don’t know whether Sun or Jin is the candidate.” With both killed off, it looks like we’ll never know.
- Kate, meanwhile, hears twice that she’s not a candidate and not needed. The more that’s emphasized, the more it feels like she’s being set up to be a spoiler.
- Neat “mirror moment” with the music box, when we see both Claire and Jack reflected.
- Sawyer’s nickname for geeky Widmore thug: Dougboy. Jen had been calling him Pugsley.
- Locations: The hospital and care home were both the Rehab Hospital of the Pacific in Liliha. Bernard’s dental office was Kahala Dental Care in the Kahala Office Tower (adjacent to Kahala Mall).
What did you think? Please comment below! Or, you can also e-mail us at lost@hawaiiup.com or leave a brief message on the LOSTLine at (815) 310-0808.
And why couldn’t Sayid just throw the bomb down the hall rather than cradle it to his chest?
Daniel Dae Kim’s comment from Eonline re: his death.
How did you feel when you found out Jin would die? Obviously given that Sun and Jin just reunited, this really put the fans through the ringer.
It was a two-step process for us. I was told that my character was dying a week before the script came out. So I didn’t know any of the details of how he was going to die. When I read the script, I was relieved that it was given its proper weight, and I really appreciated that other characters took the time to mourn their deaths. That to me was very important. I didn’t want their deaths to exist in a vacuum. And to show Kate, Hurley and Jack breaking down, that was a big factor in making sure our deaths meant something. And for people who were unsatisfied with how Jin and Sun were reunited, they now know why it wasn’t as momentous as they’d hoped, because the writers wanted to give more weight to this scene.
Read more: http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b179561_what_about_ji_yeon_daniel_dae_kim.html#ixzz0n5MKJMzL
Ugh. I HAVE A LOST HANGOVER!!
My head hurts, my eyes are puffy and swollen. I have a definite LOST hangover from crying so much during last night’s episode. There was no dust, it was all me and my raw emotion. I was Jack and Hurley at the end. Someone said that Sun and Jin’s deaths happened “too fast” but I disagree. It was agonizingly played out and beautifully done.
At the end of the episode I was FURIOUS with Damon and Carlton, but I’ve calmed down a bit since then. I’m still upset, but over all, it was great story telling. My questions now are where are Miles, Ben, and Richard?
I started watching LOST in November and watched 5 seasons in prep for the final season. I feel like I’ve fallen in love in a short amount of time – like an intense Summer romance – only to have that love ripped away from me in a heartbreaking, gut-wrenching way.
I have a feeling I’m going to feel completely spent after the season finale, and need to go into some kind of rehab!
@ To all those heartbroken souls out there ~ I would say to ‘try’ to savor the beauty and purity of Jin & Sun’s love… Sadly, oftentimes the most dramatic love stories are the ones that are ripped apart far too soon!
@ KK ~ yes, I saw that movie “Box Of Moonlight” years ago (I remember it was great, but don’t remember anything about it) ~ you’ve inspired me to rent it again.
Good episode, the only thing that bothers me, aside from some incoherences and unrealistic stuff, is that they always do the same with Jack. I think that, like it or not, we all know that Jack will be the ultimate hero of the show, but, to make him shine they always use other characters,mostly Locke (the real Locke) and Sawyer. They will always show how wrong they were and some catastrophic consequences to their acts, to make Jack a hero by comparison. I don’t like that.
wow. just wow. some thoughts; i’m starting to wonder what really happened to Sayid, in the temple. maybe he DIDN’T really die? or did the island bring him back? last week, his facial expressions when he bluffed UnLocke. zombies don’t really bluff. maybe the conversation with Desmond brought him back, but i wonder. I think his grabbing the c4 and running was simply Sayid being Sayid- a man and a soldier, doing the only logical thing.
as for Sun and Jin, i don’t need to talk about tears. i’ve never cried over a TV show before! again, i’m way impressed by the camera work. out of several great shots, the one with the hands was awesome. and the fact that they didn’t have to linger on dead faces, just great. what hit me right away was that we’ll still see them in the flash-sideways. i kind of feel that the flash-sideways are loops that need to play out, not sure how death on the island affects people still in their flashes. and speaking of, how many Losties are at the hospital right now? Locke hasn’t left,yet. and Locke’s double-take when he sees Jin…
did anyone else have a OMG flash when Kate got shot? i felt for a second that she was gone! and reading here, UnLocke shooting her makes sense. because let’s face it, UnLocke is NOT a human being. his picking up the watch before going on the plane, and knowing that not all of the Candidates weren’t dead in the sub, are probably something more supernatural. after all, isn’t that where we’re going? God/Devil kind of stuff? and i just had a thought – what if Ben is being saved to slow/stop Unlocke? and if UnLocke is the ‘Devil’, then who is God? Jack taking over for Jacob makes sense.
my biggest worry is that they won’t be able to explain the fairly sudden changes this season. but i can’t stop for a second. and i don’t think the kids are going to play into anything – not enough time left.
oh yah, and now Widmore is stuck on the island. and where was he when Ol’ Smoky was taking care of his helpers? and was anyone else gratified to see Doughboy get aced so quickly after butt-stroking Sawyer? not a nice thought, but oh well…
I think that Claire’s special music box she inherited from Christian will have a secret compartment in it with some kind of “key” to the story. Perhaps a literal key, a photograph of the island or the LOSTies on it, a phrase of some kind. It wil trigger the response or action needed to bridge the two storylines. No matter what I can’t believe that that box is just a box…
inching my way through the posts… i’m at 200 or so. Having a 2yr old is really impeding my lost progress (i’m being facetious)…
@Rusty and others — re: the names crossed off. I don’t think having your name crossed off means you’re dead. I think it just means you know longer qualify as a candidate.
@Laura in NY and others — re: smokey and water. I think in the form of the smoke monster he is unable to touch or cross over water. Since he survived water in the human form, it’s clear water doesn’t effect him as Man in Locke.
Sorry I’m not getting all of the tears over Jin and Sun. They have not been involved in any relevant storylines for a long time now. Their reunion was quick and abrupt. Their deaths seemed pointless; just a common writer’s tool to kill off major characters to create shock value.
I just don’t get the emotional attachment to two characters that have been pretty much irrelevant for years now.
No offense to those who cried. You just got something out of it that I did not.
Was the MIB a candidate at one time?
Is the little bloody armed boy, then later with darker hair another manifestation/ghost? Is it Jacob reborn?
Why were his hands bloody, symbolizes guilt for something? All those people who were brought to the island because they killed or accidentally caused the death of someone.
It only ends once, everything else is just progress. Sound like when you’re finally through being reborn through many lives and achieve Nirvana.
What was with the “Gilligan’s Island” type stairs to the Airija plane? And what was with the sloppy, obvious wiring to the C4 explosives MIB immediately spotted?
We’re not done with Anthony Cooper.
Frank Lapedis earned his wings. My wife and I preferred the Helicopter Frank “Look” and not the Corporate Pilot Frank “Look”. Great job, Jeff Fahey.
If the writers/director had done a better job at reuniting Sun and Jin, the effect would have been a real emotional stunner. Sentimental episode, none-the-less. Bravo! — Naveen Andrews, Yunjin Kim, Daniel Dae Kim.
I fear Frank is really gone, they spent enough time following him and gave him the great send of line…..aw, hell. A fitting end for a great character – way to lawnmower man.
Wow, so many posts! I did try to read through every one of YAE with thoughtful attention. I agree with Luke in California about the power of this show. We cry, we care, we get so involved/invested. Kudos to all – writers, producers, directors, actors, and every person (animals too) that has been so conscientious and creative in bringing Lost into our lives.
I started watching Lost only this past summer when recovering from (TMI, you don’t have to know) and spending lots of time lying down. So I watched every episode in very compressed fashion and haven’t had the years of experience that many of you seem to have. Still, a lot of dust in my living room last night.
About this episode/season (and what I remember of your postings):
1. what was in the stocking thing that Claire packed up at the camp when the group set off for the sailboat last episode or one before that? looked like a big round thing but I fancied it might be used as a weapon, sort of a slingshot. is it nothing at all? It looked so strange and it was right in the middle of the framing.
2. Jack says to Claire in FS – we’re not strangers, we’re family – this seems to set up a strong alliance for them in island time (despite Claire seeming to be with Unlocke) – Claire might not be as with him as it first appeared.
3. Modes of transportation off the island – isn’t that sailboat still around?
4. And I’m not so sure Lapidus is dead – remember Jin and the explosion on the freighter?
5. Did the FS plane accident in which Anthony Cooper and Locke were injured really take place three years ago? Locke says he doesn’t remember what he did but “it was my fault”. What if he doesn’t remember what he did because he didn’t DO anything – what if the accident resulted from an “incident” similar to the one that brought down Oceanic 815 on the island?
6. Of course, Bernard – I love that wide ironic warm smile, and the what he said to Jack at the end of that scene – was it “I hope you find what you’re looking for”?
7. Hydra Island – well, I just of remembered but just looked up Hydra and it’s an ancient serpent-like chthonic (love that word) water beast from Greek mythology with nine heads only one of which is immortal. Fun to read about it as the story involves poisonous fumes, and guardians of the entrance to the underworld. Not that we have to take this literally, but it’s one more example of the brilliance of the writing and the deep cultural references.
see: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:92b3YjLM_ekJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lernaean_Hydra+hydra&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari
We’ve been speculating about the day/night issues, and rewatching it does seem to be just about the time things take to traverse the island and the time things take to happen. At the cages its dark, then in the jungle it looks like morning light, then at Ajira it looks like mid afternoon from the shadows of the wing, then at the dock it looks stormy on the horizons, but the light is getting lower like late afternoon light.
What gets me is we see Jack and Sawyer come out of the ocean and it’s already pitch dark. Not that much time had elapsed, they bring Kate on and try to stop the bleeding and find the bomb, the bomb goes off, they escape the sub…..maybe 20 minutes?
But I guess they dove pretty far in the sub and had to buddy breathe slowly to get to the top? Late evening and dusk can go pretty quick when there’s storm clouds?
@ScottB – They only had 2 weeks to film each episode and Oahu’s weather, especially in the winter/early spring months is very unpredictable. The probably need to get the shooting in whenever they can. Sometimes it may look like they jump from morning to night in mere minutes, but that’s a problem with filming on location with a limited time schedule.
Do they need to leave the island in a vessel or will something just happen? Like UnLocke merging with xtime Locke in the FS – malevolence released
UnLocke says they can all only leave the island together, an obvious prevarication. Why do we think he needs a boat or plane or sub to leave the island? It’s no easy thing to sail/fly off the island, you need the perfect vector right?
Maybe Jack kills UnLocke in the way Sayid couldn’t (he sure is stubborn enough to stand up to his persuasiveness) and then Jack and the other living souls merge with the FS counterparts, and all is a vague memory – like looking in a mirror and seeing someone slightly different than you expect somehow?
Ben should bring everyone to the orchid and use the donkey wheel to escape. Problem solved.
Time Loop Theory is still intact. (http://www.timelooptheory.com/index.html)
The Losties are ‘dead’ and MIB is not evil, he is just the human physical embodiment of the self correcting mechanism the Island uses to correct for a pre-determined future.
I like the idea that Flocke cant kill the candidates directly, because somehow, the candidates still have free will. The candidates will somehow create a ‘new’ pre-determined future and Flocke cant correct to what he doesn’t know is going to happen.
Interesting things to speculate about: Desmond as Richardus? Jack as Jacob? Sawyer as MIB?
As the season winds down, MIB is not stacking up as a “great” bad guy in the Lost pantheon. Compared to to multilayered, evolving Ben, MIB is not that interesting, a standard cardboard-cutout baddie. Darlton stated in a post-episode EW interview that Jin and Sun were killed off in part to show “how evil” MIB is. They didn’t need to drop a Jin and Sun shaped avil on my head to tell me something I already know. And since I don’t think Jacob is that wonderful anyway, it’s a Hobson’s choice between Jacob and MIB – at this point I hope Jack takes the third choice and leaves them both to play their little game for eternity.
@Craig “I just don’t get the emotional attachment to two characters that have been pretty much irrelevant for years now.”
I disagree. Jin and Sun haven’t been irrelevant. While their story (thanks to Darlton) has been in the background moreso than other characters, they’re still very relevant. We’ve been with them from the beginning, when we thought Jin was an overprotective, overbearing, control freak and Sun was his trapped, submissive wife. We’ve learned that they each kept terrible secrets from each other, and struggled along the way. Their story has always fascinated and touched me. When the writers tricked us into thinking that Jin was there to witness Ji Yeun’s birth and we first saw his coffin, I cried. When Jin ended up on shore with Danielle Rousseau, I cheered. So many things they’ve been through along the way to find each other, only to be ripped from a happy ending and perish together in a watery grave, they most certainly weren’t irrelevant.
Wow, it’s taken me all day to read through the comments! Great stuff!
@Mallory: I’m with you. I’m thinking that MIB and Jacob can’t kill each other because they are 2 sides of the same person. The light side and the shadow side of a personality.
I think that the writers were trying to let us know that Jin Yun would be ok when Jin said “So, she’s with your mother”. It seemed a bit forced (esp. since no one bothered to tell Claire where Aaron was). It was nice to see them catch up, knowing now what was going to happen.
I liked how Jack explained the “fact” that they couldn’t be killed by MIB, as opposed to how Hurley explained the voices with “Hey I think I know what this is”.
Flipping’ awesome episode! What can I say but WOW!
I now see why they kept the Sun/Jin reunion to a minimum. It was just fantastically done.
Also loved the mirror image scenes between Jack and Locke in the hospital compared to the scene in season 4 at the Orchid St.
Keep up the great work guys.
I missed the definition of “dust in the livingroom” somewhere during my Lost journey… or maybe it’s a general TV reference like “jumping the shark” and “red shirt?” Could someone enlighten me, please? Namaste.
KK – “Dust in the livingroom” is an expression that means that a person cried and to save face they say it is dust. It is a kind of joke so macho men won’t admit to crying. 🙂
@KK – I should explain a little futher, a person pretends they have a piece of dust in their eye and that is causing their eyes to water.
@Embie — re: what Claire was putting in the sock. I thought she was just packing food, like Mangoes. Weird place to put food, but that’s what I thought she was doing…
@ScottB in DC — re: the daylight discrepancies. This topic does keep coming up, and many people seem anxious for it to be an editing glitch. I don’t think it’s that. I think it’s either a) a sign of passing time, like you (and others) mention, or b) the odd time phenomenon on the island. Specifically regarding the time surrounding the sub, it could be that the sub reached the outskirts of the island where time is not the same as on-island time, and when the losties return to the island the time is not the same as it was on the sub.
@Carol — thanks for the explanation! I get it now, and I’ve heard it before… said something like, “I think I have something in my eye…”
Wow. It feels like we’re getting closer and closer to Jack and UnLocke sitting on a beach overlooking the water with Locke commenting, “Do you know how badly I want to kill you?”
One question: why did UnLocke disarm the C4 from the plane when he could’ve just as easily let the Losties board and go BOOM? I find it hard to believe UnLocke truly has plans for the plane.
Amazing episode and I’m looking forward to the upcoming podcast!
–Brandon from Seattle, WA
I like the ideas above about something being in the music box (a key?), and the mirror images of 15/51 ~ Go Kate!
and remember, people in the flash-sideways tend to be the opposite of the persons on the island. Jack nicer, Sawyer a cop, hurley a businessman. so Jack inviting Clair home with him might make them closer in THAT reality, but on the island it might make them stronger enemies? just a whirling thought, lots of those today. and here’s another. might the fact that Kate is pretty much the same in both realities have something to do with her name being crossed off the list?
and i think some of the grief over Sun and Jin has to do with the changes that we’ve watched them go thru, and how they seemed, for a while, almost like regular people, at least compared to some of the story arcs in the show. and it was a massively romantic thing. “i’m never leaving you again.” i mean, c’mon. after all the time apart, how could he leave her?
Great episode, hated seein some of my favorite people go but wow what an emotional rollercoaster. The more I see it the more I think the little boy is jacob and the people were brought to the island to help jacob destroy MIB. I have a theory that the passangers will defeat MIB, the island will be sunk so he can’t come back and as payment for their help they land safely on flight 815 and continue their lives which have been made better as seen in the flashes sideways.
I’m still not recovered from last night’s powerful episode. My worst fears for Sun and Jin were realized and I just sobbed. It was a heartbreaking episode. There is no greater love than theirs that Jin would not let Sun die alone and was there to the end with her. Their reunion was so painfully brief and bitttersweet. And Sayid as I suspected came through at the end and sacrificed himself for the others. No evil manipulative entity like Man in Black could turn him against his friends when push came to shove. Jin gave his life to be with Sun when he could not save her. Sayid gave his to try to save his friends. There was a glimmer of the old Sayid there. We’ll miss you Sayid. And Frank we will miss you too making us laugh to the end. I guess they won’t be flying the plane off the island anytime soon. I don’t think their deaths will be the last of our beloved Losties I’m afraid, but I believe whoever does die on Lost on the island – their deaths will have a purpose. I think that’s the key. And I believe the sideways story will be tied into that in some way. What an incredible show!
@ Rusty : re MIB’s loophole…
Let me try and answer your points, although it will undoubtably result in a nosebleed and a headache, I do enjoy trying to solve these issues. It will be long so I apologize in advance.
Point by point:
1. That Ben turns the donkey wheel, causing the island to skip through time;
Christian (MIB) tells Locke that they will need to move the Island. Ben, who thinks that Locke is now in the good graces of Jacob and is the new leader to the Others, realizes that he (not Locke) must turn the wheel. Because he knows that to turn the wheel, means you leave the island. Ben understands that Locke must stay to lead his people – ergo: Ben will turn the wheel.
In the season 4 finale Ben and Locke discuss the turning of the wheel:
BEN: He told you what to do, but he didn’t tell you how because he wants me to suffer the consequences.
LOCKE: What consequences?
BEN: Whoever moves the island can never come back. So I’d like you to get on the elevator, John, and go back up. Richard and my people will be waiting 2 miles east of the Orchid.
Then when Ben starts to turn the wheel he says out loud :
BEN: I hope you’re happy now, Jacob.
2. Who would leave the island (Oceanic 6), and just as importantly who would stay behind;
Here it really is not very important who stays and who leaves so long as Locke stays. Regardless of who left, Locke would be told that they needed to be brought back.
3. What years the time travelers would visit, and what they would do (ie bury the bomb);
Because Richard was the person MIB needed to convince that Locke was special and the future leader and Richard was always on the Island (150 years) – it did not matter to MIB what time would be revisited or visited by Locke once they started to skip through time… at some point they would land in the far past and when Locke would cross paths with Richard Locke would tell him that he would be the future leader. of course the compass was already in play … MIB had told Richard to give Locke the compass and that he had to leave the Island and get the others back.
In the episode Jughead : Locke meets Richard in 1954. He already had given Locke the compass:
RICHARD: I gave you this?
LOCKE: Yes.
RICHARD: After you were shot in the leg and I… wandered out of the jungle to patch you up?
LOCKE: That’s right.
RICHARD: Then why don’t I remember… well, any of this?
LOCKE: Because it hasn’t happened yet.
RICHARD: [Chuckles] I’m not sure what you’re expecting me to say, John Locke.
LOCKE: I expect you to tell me how to get off the Island.
RICHARD: That’s very privileged information. Why would I share it with you?
LOCKE: Because you told me that I had something very important to do once I get there. And because I’m your leader.
RICHARD: You’re my leader?
LOCKE: That’s what you told me.
RICHARD: Look, I… certainly don’t want to contradict myself, but… we have a very specific process for selecting our leadership, and it starts at a v–very, very young age.
LOCKE: All right. All right. What year is it right now?
RICHARD: It’s 1954.
LOCKE: All right. May 30, 1956–2 years from now–that’s the day I’m born–Tustin, California, and if you don’t believe me, I suggest you come and visit me.
[Locke smiles at Richard, then perks his ears up and looks around. A high-pitched humming pervades the Island.]
LOCKE: Oh, no.
RICHARD: What’s wrong?
LOCKE: It’s about to happen again. You need to tell me now, Richard. How do I get off the Island? Please! Tell me!
… Too late they flashed out of that time period. But Locke knew he had to leave the Island because Richard told him to … by Locke, as MIB, in 2007.
4. That Locke could be persuaded to turn the donkey wheel back;
No persuasion needed, once he figured out where he needed to go… and where the wheel was …. at the bottom of the well. Christian again showed up to tell him what he had to do… Of course that Christian was MIB. pushing Locke to leave the Island and stopping the time traveling.
5. That Ben would kill Locke off island, and then bring back his dead body;
That point is not clear to me, I will grant you that. We know that Ben was working with Eloise Hawking trying to gather the group and taking them back on Aijra 316. Which leads me to question Eloise’s motives and by extension Ben’s… although I think Ben just wanted to get back to the Island…
6. That the Oceanic 6 would return, but some would travel back to 1977;
7. That the Incident would occur, and return the time travelers to the present
Your points 6 and 7 above, as far as MIB is concerned are moot. MIB only wanted to kill Jacob. All MIB needed was Locke’s body and Ben to be primed with Alex’s apparition and Ben’s past ‘relationship’ with Jacob. ie: that Jacob never interacted with Ben at any level… see above. But he needed Richard to trust Locke as leader so he would lead him to Jacob and let him into Jacob’s foot hideout. Hence all the shenanigans with the compass.
In fact, I believe that points 6 and 7 were put in play by Jacob… When he said “They are coming” that is what he meant.
JACOB: Well, you found your loophole.
LOCKE: Indeed I did. And you have no idea what I’ve gone through to be here.
And that is what I think the loophole was … follow the compass. THE END. :p
I’ll be the first ‘man’ to admit… i cried during this episode..
sh*t, I cried during Dr. Linus and during Some Like it Hoth, just to name a FEW!!!
either im epically sensistive, or LOST knows just how to tug at my strings..
Sorry. Lame. And please remember that everything that follows is just MHO.
I’ve watched this show from the get-go, as have most of you. Like you, I have been calling it the best show on TV (and maybe the best TV show ever). I have agreed with Darlton in their calling it a novel, with chapters, and here I am reaching the end of that novel…but…
@Sobaika, @Jesse, @John Fischer, @Bob from Oxford, @Chris… I am with you, totally.
Ever since TPTB introduced an almost literal “deus ex machina” in Jacob/???, here in the last chapters, I’ve been worried. We had 5 years of character-driven plot with interesting and suggestive sci-fi elements now reduced to a simplistic good vs. evil fable, borrowing, nay, stealing its weight with a whole bunch of allusions to the Good Book.
Now time has almost run out, so it seems to be time to dispose of those same characters we can’t just seem to fit into our stolen fable. Sayid deserved better than this Season 6 “is he good? is he evil? is he a zombie?” nonsense. Sun and Jin? Don’t get me started on those “Charlie’s death–LITE!” “Titanic–LITE!” scenes. Lapidus? “Aw hell.” Seriously.
Just so I’m clear…I’m not angry that they were killed off. I’m angry at the almost thoughtless, cursory way they were killed off, what felt like a throwing-up-of-hands that said, “hey, we don’t know how to end this!”
“Lost,” tell me my trust in you–which you asked for at Comic Con, remember?– is not misplaced.
Of course I’ll continue watching. It’s like reading Stephen King’s “Under the Dome” (which has several “Lost” references), getting to page 850 and realizing that the thing that’s going to tie up the story is going to be very lame, but you figure, “hey, I’ve already committed so much time…I guess i’ll see it through.”
I won’t even go to a HFC because that, I must say is really annoying….but…
THAT WAS SO SAD!!! So many deaths. That was better than some of the finale’s.. Gosh…
So many things…I really liked the lighting and filming in this episode…I feel like I saw many colors that I’ve never seen in LOST.
Sayid back! Then BOOM. AHHH!
Claire coming back to normal?
“Fast Draw” Sawyer who screws everything up… ( I love how it wasn’t Jack again…
Side-flash Locke is different….and receives FLASHES!!! OMG. So excited…
It was great. Loved it.
Question: Do you think if Sawyer hadn’t pulled the plug….would they all have lived?
—–Eric from Oakland…(BUT NOT THE ONE WHO CALLS) (yeah I know weird…)
Just read the interview with Cuse/Lindelof. The point of the deaths, they say, was to establish that MIB is evil with “no ambiguity.”
“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.” So we lose (and they “choose” to end) complex, well-developed characters in a hasty, meaningless fashion, so that they can “make a statement” about a character introduced at the end of season 5, a statement which simplifies that once potentially complex character into a johnny one-note.
SUPER.
I liked the Sideways world better than Island world since 6.1 because, thank goodness, it retains complexity. And mystery.
What’s mysterious about good vs. evil? There’s a reason it’s “black versus white”. Nothing grey.
this is the first episode that made the living room a bit dusty for me.
In regards to crying over the deaths. No I didn’t cry when they died. I don’t cry over fictional characters being written out of a show by “dying”. I might get slightly tearyeyed, like when Charlie died (because he was my favorite). But I save flown blown crying for real deaths.
Great post Coolpeace ~ so thorough ~ I do agree that Locke was set up for a long time ~ it does become a lot more clear when watching episodes from previous seasons —- Was Richard always a pawn for MIB — How many pawns does that force have??!!
It is interesting that MIB is exposed as being pure evil, yet so many other characters seem to be many shades of grey (even Jacob doesn’t seem ‘all good’)
Haven’t read all the posts, so not sure if anyone else brought this up or not.
But is it possible the c4 was put there by richard, Ben and miles? We know they were going for explosives and we know the others did have c4 at ones point (flame station was rigged with it).
Would be a nice way to being them back inti the story.
2 issues with my thought.
1 they probably wouldn’t have rigged it to blow up when the plane was started, since it’s their friends (sort of).
2 not sure if they could make it to the barracks and over to hydra that fast.
Anyway just a thought.
I only cry when Sawyer cries. I blubber like a baby when he tears up. Son of a BITCH! Here I go again just thinkin’ about it!
Wow. This episode is getting more mixed reviews than I had anticipated. 🙂
@popokigirl: I can’t say I feel the same about the plot being merely a “stolen fable.” All our most powerful stories tend to share tropes with one another. The same elements of myth get recycled through a culture’s narrative history. So when I start to see these epic good vs. evil themes, these images of self-sacrifice and heroism, I’m waiting to find out how they weave these familiar concepts and images into the lives of these, our beloved Losties.
I will admit, Sayid, Sun, Jin, and Lapidus were killed off very quickly and somewhat coldly, in terms of the story. It is true that the Kwons, in particular, had a weak exit, with no service to the plot. But, to me, that is more a consequence of the show’s contractually shortened season length, not the writers’ lack of vision or skill. We KNOW they can write a great show, but the truncated seasons have forced them to cut some corners. At least that’s my opinion.
That said, I stand by my original assessment of this episode as strong. For the first time this season, I was equally interested in both the on- and off-island story. And I really think the flash sideways is best enjoyed on its own, as a separate story, until the writers make clear the connection between the two world. We have to remember–the alternate reality has not been truly connected to the island yet. We don’t know if it is set up to undo the events on-island or not, or if the Losties will have some sort of choice between the two realities. There may be no happy ending for anyone, for all we know. It could be that the flash sideways is simply the result of the timeline being split by Jughead, and that, once the finale is over, the FS world will have ceased to exist because some rift in time has been healed. I’m just saying that, given the events of Season 6 thus far, we have NO IDEA how the two are connected. And there may yet be a way for the writers to link the two without negating our experience as viewers invested in the characters for the last five seasons, and also without resorting to cheesy, unsatisfying solutions. I’m not sure how they would do that, exactly–but that’s the point, isn’t it?
Is it possible — Frank Lapedis isn’t dead? Remember Illana suggested to Bram that Frank might be “a candidate” when Lapedis was faking being unconscious in the canoe. We were thinking that maybe Frank came-to and grabbed Jin in the nick of time to escape. That Airija aircraft is still vital to the story.
Regarding the C4 on the plane, which seems to be turning into a rather major point of consternation:
1. If it was set by Widmore and his scientists-turned-goons, why wasn’t it more…professional? I mean, scientific types should be able to hide a bunch of C4 somewhere a bit better than sticking it in an overhead compartment. Maybe in one of the engine cowlings, where it would be a lot more effective once the aircraft got airborne.
2. Placing the C4 inboard and tying it to the electrical system means that anyone powering up the plane – long before trying to take off – would set it off. And powering things up would be done from the cockpit, a good distance away from where we saw MiB pull the item from the bin. So placing it there would be no guarantee of killing, well, anyone…certainly not whomever was in the cockpit. It would, however, almost certainly render the aircraft unflyable.
3. I’m still thinking the C4 was a Richard/Ben/Miles thing. Theory: Ben leads Richard and Miles to the C4, stored in some Dharma location he is aware of…but there are no detonators. One of them sneaks aboard the plane – only 2 guards? – and rigs it up, but since they don’t have any way of detonating it – C4 requires an electrical or “spark” detonation – they rig it to the plane’s electrics. Maybe the person who set it there was in the cockpit getting ready to start things up and do serious damage when MiB showed up. In other words, if MiB hadn’t showed up when he did, the 2 useless guards may have been privy to the C4 blowing up and rendering the Ajira plane useless.
The only reason I’m stuck on this not being Widmore’s work is that I just can’t see any real reason for Widmore to have set the C4, knowing that it would likely kill the Candidates and let MiB leave. Richard and company moving forward with the plan to destroy or massively damage the plane seems more likely, especially since they have been working unseen for a couple of episodes.
A bit more…
Maybe Richard and company tied the C4 into the electrics but didn’t know *how* to turn things on to cause the detonation…but they assumed that the Losties would be with Frank in the cockpit when he did. A pretty gusty assumption, but given Richard’s obvious monomaniacal zeal to destroy the plane, perhaps not out of character.
Sawyer’s been knocked out…. In the flash sideways he’ll have island memories of Sayid and Kate, both caught by him.
and @Mattfromnd…
no one’s asking you to prove your manhood here by how much you don’t cry. it’s ok let go.
The deaths (yes I think Lapidus is a goner) had to happen in order to push the narrative along. Just like how Nick and several others were killed by Harold’s bomb in “The Stand”. I’m upset that the island Jin and Sun don’t get their happily ever after but hopefully FSW Jin and Sun get theirs.
It was a great performance by YunJin and DDK. I think it could have had a greater impact if all their last lines were spoken in Korean. But Jin’s “I’ll never leave you” was sufficient to wrench my heart.
I don’t think MiB can be killed. I think he will remain in Locke’s form by the end of the show. I think Jack, Kate and Sawyer will be killed and Hurley will be the sole surviving Candidate to remain on the island as Jacob’s replacement and MiB’s foil.