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.
I cry at real life deaths, not fictional ones.
@Danie-The picture of Desmond and Penny is shown on the Lostpedia page as the reunion on the boat in There’s No Place Like Home parts 2 & 3.
http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/There's_No_Place_Like_Home,_Parts_2_%26_3
I’m devastated.
I mean come on. THREE CHARACTERS IN ONE EPISODE…THATS PLAIN CRUEL.
Y’all everybody!
@Daryl – Well stated indeed, and, I agree.
@Karen in Kitchener – Ditto the above. Not only that, but I feel I wrote your post, or you mine. Thanks much!!!
@Eric Kupers – Nice catch (dural sac forever). To anyone with medical knowledge, seriously irritating.
@JeffK – Thank you and welcome to Team Dark. I find other members of the team have reached their breaking point and have bailed. I will stay the course until the end is nigh. (not yet) We are involved with bigger issues than the individual wants, loves, and desires of our losties. What Flocke has in play is big, and will out in the end. I have faith in our writers, and Flocke is being beautifully framed as Mr. Bad. Oh, Knives, Nuckin’, you ducked.
@Coolpeace – very impressive, and I am not easily impressed. It certainly lends credence to Flocke’s “you have no idea what I’ve gone through…”
That we are here, on this site, posting like it all means something is testament to Lost, and anything I say further is less than redundant. What great 5 years of entertainment, and thought provoking creation.
I wrote on this site, some time ago, that many will be disappointed at the ending. The series is based on mystery, and the ending of a mystery is to either answering the questions, or not. The answers, if the mystery is truly compelling, rarely live up to that which our imaginations can provide, hence the smart thing to do (as writers) is to allude to possible answers, and head for the door. (Example from above of S King’s ‘Dome’, very applicable in its disappointing lameness, despite the overall excellence of the majority of the narrative.)
We are all invested, big time. I have ‘donated’ my time, and have been rewarded. I do not think the writers owe me anything as I have been fascinated, amazed, and compelled from the beginning. Yet, I have expectations for the same reasons I watch… excellence. I expect the ending to be excellent in some respect(s), and I fully hope that many, perhaps including me, will be disappointed in some ways. I just hope that ‘Lame’ is not one of those ways. I see warning signs, and some in this last episode. Yet, my faith leads me.
You can not buddy-breath with someone unconscious. Nope. Rather a major point. Jack leaves Sun and Jin to do something that cannot be done?? If that doesn’t disappoint you, you are giving the writers more than they are deserving from you.
And, yes, please stop with the dural sac.
I just realized that the 4 survivors of the sub explosion were the same 4 captured by the others at the end of season 2.
Fate? Coincidence? Foreshadowing?
Greetings, Ryan and Jen
I won’t add my reactions to the many great comments already posted here and just get to the theory that I wanted to share, before next week’s episode either discredits me or proves me correct.
Since watching Ab Aeterno, a theory has been rolling around in my head – what if the Man in Black is actually the manifestation of JACOB’S evil? Dogen mentions every man has good and evil in him. MiB’s claim of “you made me like this” possibly hints that Jacob created the Man in Black, so what if he did so purging his own evil, which resulted in MiB, while he himself became pure good? Could this be a requirement or process in becoming the island’s guardian?
We’ve seen the scales of black and white representing these two many times over, and it may represent them literally. We also have not heard MiB’s name yet, and perhaps it is because, going by this theory, he has no name of his own. But if he considers himself just as real as his “good” counterpart, there’s only one name he could have – Jacob.
I noticed that they didn’t have a “previously on Lost” opening. Was this unusual? Nothing important, but I am wondering why they didn’t…
THERE IS NO SAYID!
@ Jack ~ “Previously on Lost” is used most commonly to highlight various background scenes, possibly from several different episodes back, which tie into the current one… in order to freshen the audience’s memory and promote coherency of the plot.
The material covered on “The Candiate” directly followed the episode before it, so the writers probably felt it was already fresh enough and therefore no need, even with last week’s hiatus.
OR there was a squeeze for time.
The First time I have ever said this , but
HOLY FREAKIN POLARBEAR CRAP !!!
Sayid Redeemed by saving the losties playing “run with explosive device”
-Arzt
-Michael
-Illana
and now Sayid ,
if there is one message we take from lost its that explosives demand respect !
Jin and Sun drowing was the Saddest piece of TV i have seen in years
Sun Had to be a Candidate, because Jin died by his own hand , which the candidates cant do.
Frank has to be dead , got hit with Sub door in the Noggin, Who will Fly the Plane?
Look forward to hearing the podcast, and the Barrage of HFC’s that come with it
Mahalo
Michael
@Coolpeace: I agree on how mib got Ben to kill Locke but I think you are wrong on your “1” answer and that might explain the “5” answer:
mib used the Cabin to make Locke special in front of Ben (who had kill his father in the name of Jacob and now is dismissed as a leader (and we know how “protective” he is since the “don’t you understand that you are mine” he told Juliet)). From that point on Ben wanted John dead because of that… he tried to kill him but got “revived” (maybe Walt was mib then). Got captured for the rest of the season and got his daughter killed by Widmore, when Locke told him someone was to move the Island he thought he could get revenge from Widmore (killing most of his men and finishing with his daughter). THAT is the reason he turned the wheel.
But when he learned that John had convinced Jack, he went to see John to know HOW he could get back to HIS Island… Once John told him he killed him (because he wanted to go back to HIS Island as THE leader).
mib set that up from the Cabin moment and from the compass moment… and by “ordering” the killing of Ben’s father for a “great man” that would betray him.
They could have done otherwise all along but remember mib point on how “men” are… They come, they corrupt, they destroy. And he has a point (again with the bomb this time).
mib said “you have no idea…” but Jacob answered him quite clearly BEFORE that… the very first line spoken “You like it? I did it myself. It takes a very long time when you’re making the thread, but, uh… I suppose that’s the point, isn’t it?” Jacob has a master plan.
@Abiron: In season1 we have seen Smokey letting go of John because of dynamite… And Widmore threat him with mortar last episode. Maybe explosive is a way to kill mib. And mib knew that the others would guess something was wrong if he didn’t go in the airplane so he rather used the submarine for his plan.
When Kate, Hurley and then Jack cried, it made me cry. I watched it 3 times too and every time I still cried. I think since I have invested so much of my life to this show. Wonderful episode
Can they kill themselves or not ????
Let me see if I understand it: Sawyer is the one that detonates (?) the bomb when he tried to stop it, so if Sayid didn’t take the bomb and run with it, and it was still near Sawyer, I assume it wouldn’t explode. (and Jack should know that because he proved it himself in his scene with Richard and the dynamite).
Anyway, Sayid and Jin decided to die, can we considered it as to “kill themselves”?.
Or there’s no such rules, and is THE ISLAND what decides if they live or die, like Ben said. Once the Island is done with you, it’ll kill you or let you die.
In closing, the plane is still there, and the only pilot is Lapidus. We didn’t really see him die, so is it possible that the Island (the writers) didn’t let him die because he still can (potentially) play an important role in the story? I hope so.
@flocke: I think Sayid running with a bomb clearly in his head he knew he would die (since he told Jack all he knew just before that) and Jin stated that he would not leave without Sun and so he knew he would die with her… I like my “choice” theory and I am probably going to stick to it.
Sawyer made a choice that could lead to their death when he pulled the wires and knew they could die. Jack choose to NOT die by inlighting the dynamite… that was the big difference.
I have also the Dogan/Hurley conversation in mind: “I am a Candidate, I can do whatever I want” included: die or not. It is a choice.
were we the only ones annoyed by Jin and Sun speaking English in this and the last episodes?
we were so annoyed by their english, we were almost happy to see them go…
arrggghh….that English was sooooooooooooo irritating…..
We have had near death experiences in both timelines and they give these individuals insight.
Juliette- as she is dying she tells Sawyer “it worked”
Sayid- dead, back to life, did the yin/yang darkness and back to good transformation, and sacrificed himself telling Jack that he’s the one
Now we Kate and Sawyer injured on the beach- will they now see the big picture and help Jack, Hurley and Desmond in the final act?
@Carol from Boston: Thanks for the link.
@Karen in Kitchener: Amen!
Oh my God!! Too many comments to read through but here are my thoughts on this amazing episode.
Ok the thing is i had a problem with completely falling on the floor and weeping over Sun and Jins death as well as Sayid because the constant reminder that there is the flash sideways reality where everyone is alive and well dimmed those Charlie-esque moments not as emotional for me. When Charlie died there were no other realities where he coexisted, thats what made that moment the most memorable of the series, because that was the end of that beloved character forever (Atleast thats what i thought then)
I keep feeling that the ones that have died in this episode will become aware in the flash sideways of the existence of the Island and another reality, however the brief encounter of Jin and Locke as he was leaving the Hospital and Jin was coming in with flowers somehow canceled out my hypothesis.
Also about Widmore, why do i get the feeling that the reason he came to the Island and rigged the plane with explosives is to ultimately achieve UnLockes goal. However while at the same time killing UnLocke and becoming the new Man in Black. This doesnt mean that he and Jack will share an eternity on the Island but it may be his reason for arriving at his beloved Island to achieve ultimate power and to become that force that can be feared if unleashed onto the world.
The scene with Sun and Jin reminds me of the scene in Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, when Maggie and Tom are in the boat, and it capsizes, and they drown in each other’s arms. It was such a powerful and poignant moment, that I never forgot that passage of a book I read decades ago!
@ KK – your idea regarding water and MiL is reasonable – as Smokey water could dim his charge and/or absorb is power. He would not be so affected in the Human form because he isn’t in is powerful Smoke-state.
@ Popokigirl and Docjkm: The Dome analogy is a very good one. It’s no accident the writers are King fans and SK is a fan of theirs.
@Abiron – yours was the best reason offered why Ben/Miles/Richard could be the ones that planted the C4 on the plane
@ Mattfromnd: good catch on the 4 survivors = 4 captured – further evidence of the mirroring we’ve discussed on the board
seem to have missed my “H” key up there, some of the “is”s should be His
MIB = Christian?
Concerning the question about whether this makes sense with MIBs aversion to water and the appearance of Christian in LA and on the freighter, I believe that this is part of the long con that MIB used on the losties.
Apart from MIB telling Sawyer that he had a problem with water was there any other reason for us to believe that he has a problem with water? So you have to ask why MIB would deliberately mislead Sawyer on this?
Well, first he is MIB and he lies as much or more than Ben ever did. But foremost, he had to expose a perceived vulnerability to Sawyer so that he could manipulate all the losties on the sub without him. If he comes across as too powerful how can Sawyer come up with a plan to get everyone on board without MIB.
It also now makes more sense why MIB purposely put Sawyer in a position where he could scheme against him. James, go to Hydra Island. James, go get the boat and take a friend with you. Oh, and by the way, I’ll leave the rest of you losties alone so that you can join up with James.
All part of the elaborate long con.
What annoys me about the death of Sun and Jin was the whole, “Which Kwon is it?” Debate. Now we will never know which one was a candidate. I suppose it could still be their daughter, but that would be pretty cheap bringing an orphaned todler to the island with only 4 hours to go in the season.
@ Coolpeace @ Yann @ You All ~ As per your/our discussion re: ‘The Long Con’ of MIB… can you clarify for me WHEN Richard was ‘used by Mib’ compared to when he ‘served Jacob’ compared to when he served himself?
Is Richard just as ‘dupe-able’ as Locke?
Thanx y’all for being so smart in delving into the nitty gritty of this show!!
Ten days away from this board (in three hours) ~ yikes ~ see ya on the other side brothas (and sistas)
Re: Sawyer couldn’t “buddy breathe”
But Jack could have forced air into his lungs mouth-to-mouth.
But is Jin dead? Someone mentioned seeing Sun and Jin’s bodies, but what we saw was Jin’s hand separating from Sun’s and disappearing off camera. Perhaps, as someone alluded above, Frank grabbed Jin and took him to the surface.
@Bronco: mib con with Sawyer was all about “I need you to come with me to leave the Island” if he told him he could leave in Smoke form their was no plan anymore. I guess it makes sense that he just lied about that… Him telling Michael he could go was probably due to the fact that if the Island was moved it was due to the Freighter threat. Once Ben was in the Orchid he didn’t needed the Freighter anymore and “you can go now”.
@greenberry: Richard was told in 50’s by Locke that Locke was special, he followed his life and thought he seemed more a threat than anything yet later Jack would tell him to keep faith in Locke (second attempt to contact him but Locke refused to go there). Locke is brought to the Island. Richard (probably) ask Ben to take him, Ben is taken. Locke has dream on how he is supposed to guide the Island (mib work probably). Locke goes to the Others who accept him as a new leader and Richard help him to do his “sacrifice”. Richard doesn’t act when Locke beats Ben up. Locke is shot by Ben who is jealous (especially since he sacrificed more! And thus he shows John what he had to do before shooting him). Locke tries to “save the Island” because “Walt” told him to do so. Richard is not scene for a moment because he probably went for the Temple due to the Freighter. John gets flashed through time so has no time to connect with Richard. When Ajira got back mib tells Richard to tell Locke that he is special…
Richard got manipulated by miL in the present, Locke “manipulated” Richard in the past due to that and Jack was the one who nailed it all by telling Richard to “keep faith in him” not knowing he would be taken over.
“Remain true to yourself, but move ever upward toward greater consciousness and greater love! At the summit you will find yourselves united with all those who, from every direction, have made the same ascent. For everything that rises must converge”
Lost is really “converging” right now… How many “mirrors”, how many quotes,how many previous scenes, how many encounter, how many patterns… Finally the thread is starting to look like a Tapestry.
@Yann. I don’t think they can choose to die or not. Michael chose to die several times but he couldn’t because the Island was not done with him. And Jack didn’t choose to live in his scene with the dynamite, he was proving to himself that he was brought to the Island for a reason, proving that the Island needed him. And in the last episode, Sawyer didn’t choose to die either, he chose to do something to live, because he thought they will all die if he didn’t.
There’s also the possibility that Sayid, Jin and Sun were no longer candidates (probably Sayid was not a candidate since his real death in LA X).
Am I the only one that heard the Willy Wonka music that had been in the promo a few weeks back? The melody was used in the scene when Smokie, Jack and Sayid were freeing the Losties from the cages. It was used again later in the episode in a scene when Terry O’Quinn was on screen looking scary.
Fantastic!
I think Locke did know Sayid did change over, that is why he was on the sub, and Claire was not. But I also think she’s starting to realise that her “friend” isn’t what she thought he was. She is going to be pissed about not being on the sub (being left behind again), but she’s going to turn back around before the end.
And Kate was crossed off the wall, but was she crossed off in the lighthouse? I thought not. So she could very well still be a candidate, and MIL doesn’t even realise it. Could be part of his un-doing.
I wonder if the name of the show itself is going to change meaning, somehow. At first, it seemed to be obvious, just that they were “lost” on an island. Once it had that meaning for me, I did not question it or think about it more deeply. Now, I wonder if the concept of being lost in some cosmic or deep philosophical sense is more the thing. Hmmm. I also might just be slow on the uptake, and this depth of meaning has been obvious to everyone else for a long time.
That “wondering” might also just be a symptom of over-thinking everything. When a story turns out to be this deeply symbolic, it is pretty easy to start assigning meaning to things that don’t have any extra meaning at all.
@Yann from France – “Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its highest. Live in fragments no longer.”
– E.M. Forster
Personally, I’m heavily invested in Kate’s bodaciously innate hotness. I wish the writers would do more to incorporate this quality into the story line. I’ll go so far as to say that if the series finale doesn’t dwell exclusively on this important theme, I will be seriously disappointed.
As always, keeping it truly in perpective,
Gene E.
@ Yann ~ I love that quote! — Your ‘Richard’ explanation is helping me to grasp the MIB LONG CON
I hate that there are people among us that work so hard for evil (I know it is ONLY a tv show… but it reflects glimmers of real life, yes?), but I am encouraged that there will also be many that “move ever upward toward greater consciousness and greater love.”
Here’s to our Losties ascending and converging!
@ Embie ~ another beautiful quote!
Maybe it should have been perpective. But, I meant perspective.
As always, Gene E., you keep me chuckling! I had a 30-second encounter with Evangeline Lilly (and Dominic Monaghan) on my nearby White Rock boardwalk in British Columbia in the Summer of 2008. She is even more ‘hot’ (gorgeous) in person and was very gracious toward me re: my excitement at spotting her and telling her I loved loved loved her in LOST (I was watching reruns of Seasons 1, 2, and 3 that summer with my daughter, and her image was fresh on my mind). Dominic gave me a cold, silent, hateful stare, so my hubby and I moved along quickly. I think they were with her two young nieces, since she is from British Columbia.
@Coolpeace – Wow! That’s really impressive. You’re probably correct (or pretty close anyway), but there are still too many variables fitting perfectly together for my taste.
For example, when the Ajira flight arrived, how could MIB have known that some of the passengers would be sent back to 1977? We’re lead to believe that the Ajira time travel happened because they could recreate the EXACT circumstances as flight 815. Something went wrong, and some passengers went back in time.
Well, what if Ben had traveled back to 1977? Or, what if Locke wasn’t murdered off island, and instead he time traveled along with Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid? If Ben or Locke time traveled, then MIB’s long con was screwed.
The counter argument is that MIB knew that the Incident would occur, thus returning all the time travelers to 2007. How could he know this? The only answer is that he planned on Daniel being left behind, then traveling to the past, then burying the bomb, then deciding to detonate the bomb in 1977, and finally convincing Jack to do so after he died. That’s quite a stretch.
Anyway, I doubt we’re going to get an answer in the final episodes – the MIB’s long con worked: Ben killed Jacob. Whatever MIB had to do, and however long it took him, is history at this point.
Great work, though. One of my favorite things about Lost is reading all of the fantastic fan theories.
Sequence:
1. Locke picks up the watch.
2. Locke enters the plane.
3. Locke sees wire. (Does he see any C4? I sure didn’t see any)
4. Locke tells losties the plane was rigged to explode.
5. Locke produces C4 from his bag to convince losties.
6. Locke builds bomb with C4, found watch and found wiring.
7. Locke puts bomb in backpack and gives it to Jack to take on the sub.
Everyone seems to take Locke at his word that the plane was rigged to explode. Both the characters and the viewers. Why exactly?
We did not see any explosives on the plane. We saw Locke notice wiring and look in the overhead compartment, and viewers were encouraged to infer that what he saw was the C4 he then produces for the losties.
As an alternative interpretaion of the sequence of events…
Locke picks up the watch to create a bomb. He goes into the plane not because he knows it is rigged to explode, but because he already has C4 and needs wiring to complete his bomb. He enters the plane looking for enough wiring and finds it. He builds then builds the bomb quickly so he can give it to Jack.
Why is it important that the plane was not rigged to explode as Locke suggests it was? Because this means Locke was lying about Widmore trying to kill the losties. Perhaps Widmore was telling Sawyer the truth that he had them in the cage for their own protection.
@ Reg ~ I always took/understood the title in a metaphorical sense (along with a literal sense) ~ that our Losties were ‘psychologically’ lost
@ Yann – love that convergence quote (4:14am)
@Reg and greenberry: a third meaning is in play (litteraly)… If all is a game between good and evil with Rules and everything “Lost” could mean that a side is going to win. But when you look at their live before the crash those guys where totally lost (hence the DHARMA stuff and how “we are the cause of our own suffering” and how Jacob brings them to “a blank state”… Now we saw how Lost until the very end those guys are)
@Greenberry: This quote lead to “Everything That Rises Must Converge”… The book Jacob was reading before Locke “fell”. When I read it I thought “Yes that’s exactly where Jacob wants the Losties to go”.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=114732158561879
I think we may see the backstory of Jacob and MIB, with a twisted sibling rivalry thing going on, including betrayl and manipulation, which will make us question, who was really the “good one”?
and jack said Locke was a “candidate” for the surgery. perhaps Locke, altough dead on the island, is still a candidate…
@Luke in California–very well said, and I agree with you about shared tropes in cultural narratives. Where we disagree is the use of “epic”–I feel the story has been subjected to hasty impositions of a trope that COULD be epic, but is not. If the self-sacrifice was a conscious choice and in the direction of saving other characters with whom the hero had a relationship, that sacrifice has meaning and is the source of the heroism (Charlie’s sacrifice so that Claire could survive; Sayid saying he wanted his death to have meaning and so insisting that Jack not come back for him; Sawyer jumping off the helicopter…). But this…the only one who kinda sorta even approaches that is Sayid, and it was not given the richness it deserved.
That said, you are undoubtedly right about the fact that time constraints are taking their toll. I did say that the writers were capable of so much more, or rather I certainly intended to imply that in saying, “Lost, you’re better than this.”
“My heart will go on…..” (Okay, one more cheesy Titanic reference.)
🙂
@Jesse – I felt the same way you did. Too rushed also and was foreshadowed when the Kwon’s had their moment of clarity last week anyway. They are now complete – time to “island die”, which to me means just leaving the “funhouse”.
You make choices and MIB/Jacob battle to get you to make one set of choices or another. You make MIB choices and he brings your piece home, like in Backgammon or something. Someone (Rose/Bernard or Jack) aren’t going to do the MIB choices and this will cause him to lose.
To me the island is just a big test facility of alien or supernatural origin…ie, purgatory, Atlantis, etc. So I view the outcomes by what choice they came from, not what happens. Anna found peace, Echo found peace, Kwon’s found peace. I expect that Sayid is on his “815 world” path to happiness since Sawyer caught him and he had his Desmond-redemption.
I also agree that Rose/Bernard might have island awareness that the others don’t.
What! I don’t log on for one day and there are 346 comments! I have a lot of catching up to do. I have been watching the Lost Paleyfest video and it is pretty good. TV Guide said the term “Spoiler alert” was invented for this show. LoL
@Ryan – Exactly what I have been thinking. Maybe the C4 has been in Locke’s backpack a while. We never saw what MIB took out and I feel that was deliberate.
Why Desmond is important..
Desmond is the “constant” that can remember events between the island and the sideways-world. He’s also able to complete tasks from one world to the other.
If Desmond can kill Locke in the sideways world, the MIB wouldn’t be able to use Locke’s body to communicate with the Lostie Candidates on the Island.