lost . . . what they died for

This LOST episode was all about people being led towards something, either known or unknown. The end, I'm afraid.

On the Island, Jack tells the surviving candidates that they need to find Desmond. As Jack sews up Kate's gunshot wound, nicely mirroring Kate sewing him up in season one, Kate expresses how pissed she is that Ji Yeon's now an orphan. "Locke did this to them. We have to kill him, Jack." "I know." Kate is still a mother first, by instinct. Sawyer watches the flotsam and jetsam wash up on the shore from the sunken submarine. Four candidates left, staring out at sea. Jack tells them they have to find Desmond. Sawyer is the first to follow him, guilt-stricken that he may have been responsible for the deaths of his friends.

Sideways, Desmond is herding the Losties back towards the Island. Jack's eye opens, another beautiful morning.  He checks himself out in the bathroom mirror and the cut on his neck is bleeding again. Is the Island reality literally bleeding through to the Sideways world? He and his son David and his sister Claire all seem as happy as clams at the breakfast table. So far, if Jack is having any flashes of his Island existence, he is suppressing them.

The phone rings, they've found Christian's coffin, but it's not flight 815 calling Jack, it's Desmond! I thought for sure that on the Island Jack & Co. would find Desmond and we would get to hear what his role would be, but Desmond on the Island remains elusive. Can he really be two places at once anymore? Maybe he is now the Island's constant. He is working overtime to get the Sideways Losties where they belong, back on the Island. First by stalking Locke. "Dr. Linus" sees him, in his car, revving the engine, and is about to call the cops when Desmond literally slaps Ben back to Island reality. Ben not only sees glimpses of his Island life, but believes Desmond when he tells him he's not trying to hurt Locke, but to "Help him let go."



Desmond then heads to the police station, asking to see the world's coolest cop team, Sawyer and Miles. He admits to the Locke hit-and-run and to his latest Sideways crime, beating up Ben. All to get into a cage with Sayid and Kate. Kate tries to work her magic on Sawyer, but he takes the high road. As the criminal trio are loaded into a van, presumably on their way to a larger lock-up, preternaturally calm Desmond tells them, "I think it's time to leave. Do want to get out of here or not? I'm going to set you free. I'm going to ask each of you to do something. Do you promise?" Sayid signs onto his as-yet-unrevealed plan without a thought (a touch of zombie here too?) Kate is more skeptical, but decides to go along with him. The van stops suddenly and the door opens to reveal Ana Lucia, a crooked cop, there for a pay-off to set them free. Desmond's friend with the pay-off cash-in-hand is of course . . . Hurley. Hurley asks him about Ana Lucia, "She's not coming with us?" Desmond replies, "She's not ready yet." Naturally Hurley, who was the first to follow Jacob, would also be the first to not only sign on to whatever Desmond is planning, but to instinctively know it's the right thing to do. Desmond hands Kate a fancy dress and tells her they're going to a concert. I don't think it's Drive Shaft, but Jack's kid's recital. David's mom is supposed to be there too, and we all already know who that is, right? (Jul - cough, cough - iet)

Locke shows up at Jack's office. He's connecting all the Sideways dots. "Maybe this is happening for a reason." Jack isn't interested in the mystical connections, but he's more than thrilled that Locke is willing to let him "fix" him. Maybe you guys have time to fit in a concert before surgery?

On the Island, Ben is leading Richard and Miles toward explosives. But does Desmond's Sideways Ben-slapping also slap some of the scheming, power-mad Ben back into Dr. Linus? Because in the Island reality, Ben is leading the cavalry of himself, Miles, and Richard back to the Dharma/Others village, towards Ben's "secret room." Brings back some creepy memories of Locke cooking eggs in Ben's kitchen . . . As they cross the white picket fence, Miles gets vibes from Ben's daughter Alex. Richard admits to burying her body after Ben left. "Thank you Richard." They go to Ben's house and the secret passages are all still intact. He opens up a safe and . . . oh no, not more C-4. And not in a backpack. Not a good idea. They hear noises from the kitchen. The trio investigates. It's Zoe—just shoot her! But Ben is gobsmacked at the sight of her boss, Widmore. Almost as much as he is Sideways by . . . Rousseau! It's a love connection. Rousseau tells him that Alex considers him the father she never had, which chokes him up. Sideways is the land of the good fathers.

Ben should channel his good side. He's going to need it back on the Island. Widmore tells them in that reality that he is back on the Island because "Jacob invited me." Are Ben and Widmore finally teaming up (!?) Smokey is coming, heading directly for them. Miles, never shy when it comes to expressing his terror, runs off. Richard and Ben choose to stay and face Smokey. Smokey, in his smoky form, grabs Richard and throws him. Far. Yikes? What the? Is Richard no longer immortal? Or is he just immortal and really banged up? No answers yet on that one. I still hold out hope that he will represent the left flank. And Miles is out there loose, running around the island, with all the whispering ghosts. That must be fun for him. Ben calmly takes a seat on his porch and appears to bargain with Smokey. Can Smokey not read people's minds any more? Or is Ben shifting allegiances yet again?





Ben leads Smokey directly to where Zoe and Widmore are hiding in his house. Smokey dispatches Zoe, dismissively, as soon as Widmore tells her not to talk, "She had nothing to tell me." He then threatens Penny, so Widmore starts to tell him about the amazing magnetic Desmond and why he brought him to the Island. This whispering conference is interrupted when Ben shoots Widmore dead, with multiple gun shots. "He doesn't get to save his daughter. You said there were other people to kill?" Ben, in all the previous seasons of LOST could twist with the wind, but I'm still hoping that he is trying to con Smokey big-time. I guess we won't be getting that in-depth Widmore origin story now, either. See ya, Charles.

Jacob is leading the candidates to their destiny. Ghost Boy Jacob steals his ashes from Hurley, who chases him, leading him to Ghost Man Jacob, who has thrown them in a fire. "When those ashes burn down you'll never see me again. We're getting close to the end." You can say that again. And that fact makes me sad, both not to see Jacob again and the inevitable end we seem to be hurtling toward, with the Losties.





Jack, Kate and Sawyer find Hurley and Jacob by the campfire, lit by the remains of Jacob's ashes. They can all see Jacob, which distinctly freaks Hurley. Jacob promises to tell them the ultimate campfire tale, "What they died for," and anything else they need to know before he goes up in a puff of smoke and one (or all?) of them decide to protect the Island.

Hurley asks the first question. "Why did you bring us to the Island?" "I made a mistake. You call him the monster. I made him that way. I brought you all here to replace me. I didn't pluck any of you out of a happy existence. I chose you because you were like me. You were all alone. You needed this place as much as it needed you."

Jack gets where this is all leading. "You want us to kill him. Is that possible?" "I hope so, because he will try to kill you." Jacob makes the case that there is a very important vacancy and one of them will need to take the job.



Jack jumps in, fixer to the end. "I'll do it. This is why I'm here. This is what I'm supposed to do." "Is that a question Jack?" "No." "Good. It's time."

Sawyer has the best line of the night, per usual, "I thought that guy had a God complex before . . . "

A relieved Hurley, "I'm just glad it's not me." Not so sure you're off the hook completely just yet, dude.

Jacob leads Jack off to perform the ritual, but the other three get to watch. Apparently you don't need wine and an ancient corked bottle. The protector just needs to bless some liquid for his or her successor to drink. "Now you're like me."

Smokey is still trying to write the story, not just follow it. Smokey and Ben are at the well. But Desmond isn't there. "Widmore told me that Desmond was a fail-safe. One final way to make sure that I never leave this place." For a moment it seems like Smokey is going to tip Ben into the well, but he's too busy bragging about his evil-super-genius plan. "I'm going to destroy the Island."



As I have suspected all along, the hall of mirrors that is the Sideways world, if it continues, is the result of Smokey on the loose. If he succeeds, the Island is sunk, under the ocean, and the Losties' lives are completely changed. The hard part will be convincing the ones who are gone in the Island world that the Sideways world is a wrong world. To explain to them what they died for.

Jack's got his work cut out for him. Even though he went through Jacob's ritual, I'm not convinced that the protector job should be a solo gig. That he should or can do it on his own. The best way to defeat Smokey will be as a group. I think they have to do it together. Desmond is trying to orchestrate a team effort in the Sideways world. Jack needs to do the same on the Island.

Protect together, or die alone.

Related articles by Zemanta

• To get creative, get "Lost" (superhypeblog.com)
• LOST Tribute: Fantastic To Freaky LOST-themed Fan Art [PICS] (weburbanist.com)

lost . . . across the sea

The Island is older than Jacob and his no-name Smokey Brother, older than dirt. Apparently Mother is looking for candidates to be the new Island protector, and she's willing to kill to secure some pure, untainted souls—the twin baby boys—twins . . . Jacob and . . . what's yer name again? I knew that crazy Mother was going to kill the poor new mother. Some shades of Rousseau here . . .




Many years later, TeenSmoke, who everyone seems to only refer to as Brother, finds a game of Senet washed up on the shore. Delighted, he begins to play a game with Jacob, "How do you know how?" "I just know." "Show me how." "Promise not to tell Mother." Typical teenagers, right? Typical teenagers who have never seen anyone except their spooky old Mother. Do they even realize they are lacking in cute girls?

Back at the cave, Mother weaves a tapestry, Jacob helps. "Do you love me Jacob? Then tell me what happened." She knows what's going on, a la Smokey in the present timeline, but wants to hear things from the boys of their own free will. In Jacob/Esau, Osiris/Set fashion, Mother is definitely favoring Brother over Jacob, "Jacob doesn't know how to lie. He's not like you. You're special." But Brother, although flattered, has his eyes trained across the sea. He's not as bound to the Island as his twin.

Mother is alarmed when the boys finally run across some "Others," also Island inhabitants. "They're not like us. We are here for a reason. They come, fight, corrupt—it always ends the same." Sound familiar? Jacob, of course, has used these same turns of phrase, but Mother also talks A LOT like John Locke used to talk. Is it what's in the Island water? Fanaticism? She takes the boys to see the Island's heart, its source. She has seen the [golden] light, much like Locke did when he saw the hatch [at the time not realizing Desmond was just flipping a light switch.] Mother is convinced the Island must be protected. Is this something she actually knows, has been taught, or is the light of idolatry what motivates her actions, what has made her crazy? Is the light good, or evil, or just energy, power?




"I've made it so you can never hurt each other, This is the reason we're here [golden grotto]. If the light goes out here, it goes out everywhere." Well, maybe Jacob and his Brother (is that his name, Brother? Or should we call him brutha?) can't exactly hurt each other, but the Island can hurt them. The smoke monster, we will learn, is part of that pretty golden light.

"It's against the rules." Brother talks to dead people (uh oh Hurley!) He sees his real mother's ghost and she tells him that their people come from the village, and originally from across the sea. Not everyone can speak to the dead on the Island, apparently. Jacob couldn't. But Ben could. Jack probably can, because I think he did see his father Christian, not Smokey. Claire may have seen both her father and Smokey pretending to be him—we may never know for sure.

Brother tries to get Jacob to leave the Island and their lying "Mother," but Jacob wants to stay. Mother tells Brother he'll never be able to leave the Island, and that the people in the village are bad. Brother takes off, never to return. Jacob tells her that he will stay with her, "For a while." But he ends up staying a long time, long enough to grow into the actor we have known as Jacob through most of the series, long enough to learn how to weave a tapestry like a pro. But possibly not long enough to build a statue of Tawaret. Guess that was done by another set of shipwrecked souls . . .




Grown-up Jacob visits Brother in the village, they play Senet again. Brother has come to hate the village people, even though he chose to live with them. He is building the donkey wheel. Brother shouldn't sneer about the villagers, as they must have some crazy cool science, introducing him to fields of magnetic energy and time travel and all.

Mother doesn't even waste time trying to pump Jacob for intel, but heads off for a confrontation with Brother. She wants to know what he's discovered, how he's found a way off of the Island. At first I thought she was jealous and wanted off of the Island herself, but she takes her Island protector role seriously. Throughout their brief interview Brother is making "the" knife. Creepy Dogen-reminiscent implications, but she goes with what she knows and bops him on the head instead. She doesn't kill him—is she still holding out some hope that he might stay and change his mind? But no, she goes ahead with her "spare," and decides to initiate Jacob as the island protector. Once again she takes him to the golden grotto, "Life, death, rebirth, the source, heart of the Island. Promise you will never go down there—it would be much worse than dying." Jacob doesn't want to go down there, much less the job as protector, but she forces the wine ritual upon him. "You don't really have a choice—take the cup and drink. (Tree of knowledge?) Now you and I are the same." Temporarily, it seems, there can be more than one protector (unlike the Highlander.)

Meanwhile Brother wakes up in the middle of a burning village, bodies strewn about, his magnetic well filled in with dirt. Is Mother also a smoke monster or did she summon it? I doubt she could run around killing and pillaging all by herself. Or maybe she could . . . Brother grabs his knife, charges up to the cave and dispatches a grateful Mother, much like Ben will do to Jacob, who knows exactly how many years later. Jacob walks in on the death scene, freaks out, and drags, hurls, his twin into the stream (Styx?), the chaos that is the golden grotto. He was listening closely to the "much worse than dying" part of her warning speech, apparently. And it's pretty terrible. His brother is killed by the smoke monster (Cerberus?) and hurled out into a tree. How much of his brother's soul or essence is taken up by the smoke monster? Smokey does seem to absorb some of the personality of the bodies it tends to take over. But the answer to its existence seems to be utter chaos, with a possible malevolent intent, if so directed. By the way, the Egyptian god Set, Osiris's brother, is the god of chaos, just sayin'.




Once again going back to magnetic Desmond, maybe when he flipped on that light down in the Hatch he and Locke were symbolically tuning into the greater force of the Island. There might be a quite different result if Desmond were to take a trip down the golden grotto's Stygian river, which may be exactly why Widmore brought him back to the Island. Except Widmore wants to harness the power, something Mother wouldn't have approved of, and the power of Desmond may nullify it . . . I'm going round in circles. I still think Desmond's greatest power is L-O-V-E.

Jacob lovingly inters his Mother and Brother, and for the few viewers who haven't been paying attention, a Season One snippet confirms that Adam and Eve are not Rose and Bernard. Sorry, theorists. For all of the fan boys and girls out there that have been wanting answers, this episode was chock-full, but I suspect that they might still be disappointed that the answers aren't . . . something else. That's the problem with over-analyzing every phrase and scene and entertaining great expectations. You're bound to be disappointed. LOST is great storytelling. It may not always take you where you want to go, but it takes you along for quite a ride. There's not much left, just a few hours to view, but there will be plenty left to ponder and argue about, I'm sure. Like Jacob's tapestry, there are bound to be some threads left dangling.

special delivery

LOST: as much as everything (and I mean everything) and everyone are finally all coming together, if not in one place, at least in one episode, the only way to sort out last night's episode is to write about the separate factions separately. So let's start with . . .

Smokey's camp:

Smokey wants the remaining six candidates off the Island. My interpretation—he wants them dead, so no new Jacob, no Island, no prison. If I'm right, then the Sideways world is actually "hell," with Smokey on the loose. He tries his twinkle smile magic on Jin, who isn't buying any. He checks in with his main evil crew, reassuring Claire that whatever happens, happens to Kate—after she gets the rest of the candidates to come with him. He chats with Sayid, who doesn't feel anything—happy, sad, etc., etc., and feels confused about it. Smokey tells him maybe it's best, instead of the truth, "You're a frickin' zombie, dude! Deal with it." He gives Kate and Sawyer and the rest of the cannon fodder a wide berth, striding off into the jungle, in pursuit of the other Kwon.




Widmore's flunkies knock-out dart everyone in Smokey's camp to get to . . . Jin? Turns out Team Widmore needs Dharma Jin to interpret some old hippie maps that depict Island energy pockets. Uh oh, shades of Jughead . . . Smokey comes back to camp to find it all smoky—now you know how it feels, huh, pal? To walk into camp and see a bunch of bodies of . . . well, not people you care about, but people you need? Lucky for Smokey they are just unconscious. He goes first to his muscle, Zombie Sayid, who typically, knows nothing. Sayid, when you were alive, you were always full of ideas and answers. Sigh.

Sawyer's none too pleased to see Smokey and Sayid setting off for a repeat recon to Hydra Island. He and Kate are left to play a waiting game, similar to what's going on at . . .




Beach camp:

Yeah Jack, tell Sun about Jacob's Lighthouse, and how now you're a destiny junkie, and the cool numbers and the mirror . . . but leave out the part about how you busted up the mirror and any chance of finding out how it might help anyone. Yes, I'm still pissed about that.

Richard and Hurley come back from last week's ghost whispering, to the relief of everyone, sorta. Richard is in full Ricardus mode, ready to pack everyone up and get to Hydra Island to kick some Smokey butt. Sun, after hitting her head trying to escape Smokey in an earlier jungle encounter, can understand everything that is being said to her, but now is only speaking in Korean, just like in the Sideways world. She and Jack have a really nice moment on the beach, where he helps her regain her "voice," by suggesting she try writing things down, which she can still do in English. He also reaches over and touches her—but is it the Jacob touch? Sun is just as confused . . .

Sideways:

Jin & Sun are not married—no big surprise there. They still love each other, but seem less likely to be able to marry in this world, as he is already just a stooge of her father's. She is still lying to everyone she meets in this world, and planning an escape, but this time not away from, but with Jin. Keamy "the heart wants what it wants" may be wanting to cut Jin a break, but we'll never know. Mikhail and that eye are still out of luck. LOST is probably the best actor recycler of all time. Sun isn't quite as savvy about her father in this world. And she may be far more unlucky, as she seems in pretty bad shape after another Keamy-restaurant shoot-out. Oh, and she's pregnant, of course. LOST! Jin learns that he is a father Sideways, but back on the Island gets to see photos of his daughter for the first time while being held at . . .

Widmore's camp:

Smokey is as candidate-obsessed as Ilana. He arrives on Hydra Island to "rescue" Jin, while Sayid takes another dip underwater to perform his recon duty. Widmore faces him across a Smokey-repelling barrier, and seems none-too-impressed, suggesting that he is just a bogey-man, a ghost story, so a petulant Smokey declares war. He is just a brat and this is such a game, isn't it?

Is Widmore on Hydra Island because he can't step foot back on the main Island? When he was in charge of the Others was he just trying to keep the bottle corked? Was Ben's coup actually the result of his being the biggest Smokey dupe/dope of all time? Of course if Jacob had clued his right-hand man Ricardus in a tad more, Richard may not have supported Ben in his efforts. I'm still not clear about the Dharma purge and who, what, and why was behind that. Unless those crazy hippies were just as big a threat to the Island's destruction as Smokey. Maybe the experiment that Pierre Chang was trying to prevent would have uncorked the Island. Was Smokey behind the Dharma folk all along? It doesn't seem his usual modus operandi, which doesn't seem to have changed much since 1857—find someone, scan them for weaknesses and desires, make them an offer they won't want to refuse.

Widmore seems to be one of the good guys, but it's LOST . . . He does want to keep Smokey on the Island and prevent them all "ceasing to be," or in other words, prevent Sideways from happening. He thinks he can do that, with the help of "the package," or Desmond (knew it!) I don't know about the rest of you, but I have been waiting a LONG time to see you, brutha! And it looks like next week will be some epic, Scottish-accented, Island-mythological fun. Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride . . .

poor richard's almanac

LOST: As the episode begins, poor Richard's flipping out, spouting internet fan theories ("You're all dead! This is hell!) No one's buying it—not Jack, Sun, Ben, Ilana, or me, either. He strides off into the jungle, presumably in search of Smokey, and in order to give us the flashback we've all been waiting six seasons for.





Ricardo came from the Canary Islands, c. 1857—he killed a doctor (accidentally) who callously refused to treat his ailing wife, as Ricardo didn't have enough cash to secure his services. I think the doc was lying—he couldn't have helped her anyway. But when Ricardo returns home, his wife has died and he is arrested for murder. But hey, he was studying English, so his execution order is commuted in order to become a passenger, er, prisoner, on of course, the New World bound Black Rock. Losties across the world shout, "I knew it!"

Like Gilligan's Minnow, the Black Rock is caught up in a hell of a storm, and smacks into the statue of Tawaret (see everyone, they are explaining even some of the smaller show details), breaking it off at the feet (el diablo!) and ends up in the middle of the jungle where Smokey stops the first mate's "survival of the fittest" killing spree by going on one of his own and massacring the remaining crew members—except for Richard. Last week's pile of bodies had to be a result of Smokey too. The guy likes to mass-murder. Casts some doubt on who exactly masterminded the Dharma purge . . .

Ricardo, still in chains in the hold, has a ghost vision of his dead wife, followed by sounds of Smokey and her death (again). Very reminiscent of Ben, as a Dharma child, seeing his dead mother in the jungle before Richard shows up. Hmmm . . . On the Island, you shouldn't always believe everything you see, and definitely not what you hear. "It's good to see you out of those chains." Are you listening, Richard/Ricardo/Ricardus?

Richard is touched . . . by Smokey, who is still scheming to get off the island, still telling people exactly what they want to hear. Smokey's been playing this scene again and again—major echoes of Sayid's devil's bargain. Ricardo accepts [Dogen's] blade "If you let him speak, it's already too late." and heads off in search of he who lives in the base of the statue. Quick question—Jacob was yakking up a storm and Ben was still able to stab him and kill him—or did he? Is that just a silly, made-up god-killing no-talking knife rule?

Jacob is a badass ninja baptism machine! Maybe that's where Dogen learned his moves . . . He's also still keeping things to himself, as omnipotent beings do. But I still like Jacob, and I like his metaphors. And I like that Richard wants to live. A gentle touch is all it takes.






Back in the now—the moment I saw Hurley I knew who he had been talking to earlier on the beach. When Jack had so rudely interrupted. Beautiful scene with Hurley, Isabella and Richard, right up there with Dr. Linus's scene with Ilana and Ben. Jack schmack, if there was ever anyone to be a candidate to replace Jacob, a benevolent force with a core of iron to keep a cork in a bottle . . . let me just say that if Hurley's looking for a campaign manager, sign me up.

As much as a cross was waved throughout the episode, the Island mythology is not Christian mythology. As I have always suspected, the Island's mythology is more universal. Smokey is primordial evil, kept in check by the Island and Jacob's (or his successor's) presence. But this casts a serious new spin on the Sideways world. If the island, the cork, is under water in the Sideways world, that means that Smokey is on the loose. So is Sideways Locke actually Smokey? Is the Sideways world, which on the surface, seems "better" for our favorite castaways than the Island world, actually hell? Shades of Cocteau's Orphee, complete with mirror clues. I don't actually believe in hell, so I think a world full of Smokey and his particular brand of destruction is a metaphoric hell, rather than the Judeo-Christian concept of it.

I must say once again that I am really am beginning to think that Hurley will be the catalyst for saving the Island—keeping the proverbial bottle corked. As he warned a "saved" Richard, if he doesn't help keep Smokey "Locked" up, they really will all be going to hell—again, metaphorically speaking. So who exactly does Smokey have for sure on his team? Not Sawyer or Kate or Jin. Just Crazy Claire and Zombie Sayid. And some scared, nameless Others who are cannon fodder, let's face it. Seems like Smokey is as persuasive as ever. But look out, he's still recruiting—next week he may be making a play for Sun "Have you seen my husband?" Kwon . . .

Related articles by Zemanta

• Lost in Lost: season six, episode eight (guardian.co.uk)