The End - First Thoughts

Jack is the only one who died at the end.  When Jack realizes he has died, he asks Christian if everyone else out there is dead now, too.  Christian tells him, "There is no now.  The most important time of your life, you spent with these people.  Some of them died before you, some of them died after you, but this is the place you made together, so that you could all be together."  This is further backed up by Hurley talking to Ben at the end, inviting him in, and when Ben declines, Hurley says, "You were a great number two, Dude."  "And you were a great number one," Ben answers, which means they clearly spent time together protecting the island as Jack left them. 

Jack saved the island and by saving the island he saved everyone. His last sight was the Ajira flight getting off the island while Vincent laid down to comfort him in the very bamboo field where he first woke up in season one.  The last shot, of Jack's eye finally closing, was poetic.

What we witnessed tonight was Jack's entry into heaven, where there is no "now" and everyone that meant the most to him, at the most important time of his life, was there with him.  The sheer joy on each character's face as they remembered their lives and rediscovered each other was sheer joy. 
 
And so very, very comforting.
 
No, the meaning of the numbers was not answered, but the story was so beautiful, touching, hopeful and meaningful, I loved it.  Full write up to come, in which I may find more unanswered questions to be annoyed about, but for now--for right now, for me---the questions this show answered and the way in which they were answered was nothing short of wonderful.
 
Bravo.

What they died for SE6 EP16

Care to join me outside to wait for the inevitable?

After last week’s mythology episode, it was great to get back to business. I thought this was an excellent episode, tying together all of the mythology elements from last week and setting us up perfectly for the final conflict of Jack vs. Locke. Especially delicious was the return of Ben the master manipulator. Even defanged, Benjamin Linus is simply one of the best characters ever written for television, but last night Michael Emerson positively shined.

Mistaking coincidence for fate
In Alt LA Jack wakes up to find a cut on his neck that he does not recall getting. Over cereal, his son, David is there and wants to know if he’s coming to his concert that evening. “Is mom coming too?” Jack wants to know. Cue patented teenage eye roll. “Don’t get weird, Dad.” Claire joins the family for breakfast when the phone rings. It’s a man claiming to be from Oceanic Airlines. They found Jack’s father’s coffin and it will be arriving at LAX tomorrow. “We at Oceanic are very sorry for your trouble,” says Desmond.

We next see Des stalking the recovering Locke at the school where Locke is subbing. Ben spots him and delivers the line, “I’m making a citizen’s arrest!” with absolute fussy perfection. Unfortunately for Ben, Desmond has other ideas about how he is going to be arrested. “I won’t let you hurt Mr. Locke again!” Ben says. “I’m not trying to hurt him, I trying to get him to let go.” “Who are you?” Ben asks, which is the wrong question, because it prompts Des to start beating the crap out of Ben while yelling, “You want to know who I am?” During the beating, Ben flashes on Desmond beating him up in the other life.

Which prompted a side discussion between my daughter and I in which we wondered exactly when Ben was beat up by Desmond. I mean, it goes without saying that Ben gets a beating in just about every episode and has been beat up by just about every cast member on the show, with the exception of Hurley, but neither one of us could remember the beating at Desmond’s hands.

So following the unsuccessful citizen’s arrest, the school nurse patches up Ben. “This may sting a bit, Mr. Linus,” she warns. “It’s Doctor Linus, actually,” Ben corrects. Enter Locke who is concerned to see his new friend somewhat worse for wear. “Are you all right?” he asks. “I got into a fight. I saw the man who ran you down, Mr. Locke. While he was beating me I saw…something. He wasn’t trying to hurt you. He was trying to get you to let go. Does that mean something to you?” Locke ponders this.

Desmond reports the hit and run and the assault at Washington Tustin High School and then turns himself in as the suspect for both crimes to LAPD detectives Strom and Ford. He is thrown into a holding cell with Sayid and Kate. Detectives Strom and Ford continue their discussion about the evening’s plans, which involve Miles attending a concert for his father’s museum. “Do you want to go?” Miles asks Sawyer. “Is that redhead going to be there?” Sawyer asks. “Charlotte? Yeah, she’ll be here.” Sawyer’s “Pass.” Is classic.

Meanwhile, back at Washington Tustin School, Alex runs across the injured Ben and insists her come for dinner at her house with her and her mother. Ben begs off, but Alex convinces him and a radiant Danielle emerges from the car and makes him promise to join them. At dinner, Danieele tells Ben how much he means to Alex, how her father died when she was two and how Ben is the closest thing she has to a father. Ben is touched, and sparks begin to fly between Danielle and Ben.

Locke, perhaps somehow convinced by Ben’s conversation coupled with the ever mounting incidences of weird coincidences, arrives at Jack’s office. “I still don’t want to be fixed.” Locke tells Jack. “The man who ran me down beat up a teacher in the parking lot. He said he was there to help me let go. Which is the exact same thing you said to me the last time I spoke to you.” Jack thinks maybe Locke thinks that Jack had something to do with this turn of events. Locke puts him at ease. “Maybe this is happening for a reason.”

“You’re mistaking coincidence for fate,” says Jack channeling Mr. Eko.

Locke smiles, “I think I’m ready to get out of this chair.”

Meanwhile, back at the police station, Des speaks to Kate and Sayid about bustin’ out of the joint. Sawyer comes in and announces that they are getting transferred to county. Kate tries to flirt with Sawyer into letting her go, and while he thinks about it, he decides against it. “I think it’s time to leave,” Desmond tells them. “Are you ready to get out of here? I’m gonna ask each of you to do something, and you’re going to have to promise to do it.” Kate and Sayid agree readily. Too readily, I think. The driver of the police van stops at a wharf. The cop that Desmond is bribing to let them go is Ana Lucia. She uncuffs them and asks where her money is. “On it’s way,” answers Des. We then see Hurley drive up in his Hummer. “Dude, you didn’t tell me that Ana Lucia was going to be here.” Ana Lucia is all WTF? “Do I know you?” she asks in that way she has that makes you feel like whatever answer you give her is going to be wrong. Then she pockets the cash and takes off. Hurley asks Des why she didn’t know him. “She’s not ready yet, brutha.” Des directs Sayid to go with Hurley and tells Kate she’s with him. He opens Hurley’s Camaro and pulls out a dress. “Ready to go to a concert?”

The return of Benjamin Linus
Richard, Miles and Ben are on their way to New Otherton to pick up Ben’s supply of C4. Upon arriving back at the compound, Miles starts getting that old wonky dead body feeling. Before Miles can say anything else, Richard tells Ben, “It’s Alex. It’s your daughter. After you left I buried her.” “Thank you, Richard,” says Ben. They arrive at Ben’s house and Ben goes into his secret closet, then into what Miles calls, “a secret-er room.”

Ben tells them, “This is where I was told I could summon the monster…that’s before I realized that it was the one summoning me.” Hmmm…..that sounds like a significant line.

“Well Richard, are we looking to cripple the plane or blow it to hell?”

“Blow it to hell.”

“Then we better take it all, then.”

Wait a moment! Who’s that hiding in Ben’s house? Tina Fey? What the WHAT? Guns on her, but Widmore is behind them. “Hello Ben. May I come in?”

After the commercial, Ben has his gun trained on Widmore, who orders Tina Fey to go out to the jungle and scout for Locke. Widmore knows Ben will not shoot her, or him either: “If you shoot me, then your last chance of survival will be gone,” Widmore eyes Ben’s C4 and figures out his plan pretty quickly. “I’ve had that plane rigged with explosives for days,” he scoffs. “As usual, you are a step behind me.” “How did you get back here?” Ben asks. “Jacob invited me. He convinced me of the error of my ways. If you don’t want to die we need to hide.” Tina Fey walkie’s in from the beach and reports that Locke has landed with the second outrigger. Widmore orders her to run back to the house. Widmore, Tina Fey and Miles decide to hide. Ben decides not to. “He’s going to find me sooner or later. Care to join me, Richard?”

Smokey arrives and takes out Richard immediately. Ben, meanwhile, has a seat n the porch. Having transformed from smoke, Locke walks up and greets Ben, “Just the man I was looking for.”

“Well you found me. Can I get you a glass of lemonade?”

“I need you to kill some people for me Ben. Because once I leave this island, you can have it all to yourself. Who’s outrigger is that?” Ben dimes out Widmore. “Where can I find Charles Widmore?”

“He’s hiding in my closet.”

So Locke goes into the closet but tells Ben, “Wait out here, you don’t need to see this.”

“I want to see this.” They walk into the secret-er room and see Tina Fey and Widmore. “Sorry Charles,” says Ben, but he’s not really sorry. Locke wants to know why Widmore brought Desmond to the island and he starts questioning Tina Fey, who starts to answer, and then Widmore stops her, “Don’t talk to him,” Widmore says, and Locke slashes her throat. “You told her not to talk to me, and that made her pointless. Soon this will all be over. If you don’t tell me what I want to know, the first thing I’m going to do when I get off this island is kill your daughter,” Locke threatens. “If you want to save your daughter, you’d better talk.”

Widmore relents, “I brought Desmond back because his unique resistance to electromagneticism. I’m not saying any more in front of him,” Widmore says, indicating Ben, so he whispers into Locke’s ear and Ben shoots him.

“He doesn’t get to save his daughter,” Ben says.

“Fortunately he already told me what I needed to know,” Locke says.

Ben asks one of those questions that has been bothering us all season. “If you can turn into smoke, why do you walk?” “I like to feel my feet in the ground. It reminds me that I was human.” They come upon a well, which is now empty. “This is the well I put Desmond in,” Locke says. “Desmond was a failsafe for Widmore. I’m going to find Desmond and I’m going to use him to destroy the island.”

Stories around the campfire
Jack sews Kate up which is a nice parallel to the first episode where Kate stitches up Jack. A weeping Kate tells Jack about Ji Yeon and how Jin had not even met her yet. “Locke did this to her,” Kate says. “We need to kill him.” Jack agrees.

Jack tells Kate Sawyer and Hurley that they need to find Desmond because Locke wants him dead. As they are walking through the jungle, Sawyer mentions that Jack said Locke couldn’t kill them. “I’ve been wrong before,” Jack admits.

But Sawyer isn’t looking to place blame on Jack. “I killed ‘em, didn’t I?” Sawyer is hearsick.

“No. He killed them,” Jack says.

Suddenly, Hurley sees Little Jacob. “Gimme the ashes that you took from Ilanah’s things,” Little Jacob says.

“Why?”

“Because they’re mine,” Little Jacob says, snatching the satchel. Hurley chases him through the jungle and comes across Jacob sitting at a campfire. “Dude! Where have you been? I’ve been waiting for you to show up. You see a little kid running through here with your ashes?”

“My ashes are in that fire,” Jacob says. “When it burns out, you will never see me again. You better get your friends, Hugo. We’re very close to the end.”

Kate, Sawyer, Jack and Hurley arrive at the campfire. “You wrote our names on the wall,” Kate says. Jacobs says yes. “Sun and Jin Kwon. Sayid. I want to know why they died,” Kate yells.

“Come and sit down and I’ll tell you what they died for,” Jacob says. “I’ll tell you everything you need to know about protecting the island. Because by the time that fire burns out, one of you will have to do it.”

“I brought all of you here because I made a mistake, and now there’s a very good chance that every single one of you, and every person you care about is going to die. I made the monster. Ever since then he’s been trying to kill me. And when he did, someone would have to replace me. “

“Why do I have to replace you?” Sawyer wants to know. “I was doing just fine before you messed with my life.”

“No you weren’t. None of you were. You were all flawed. I did not pluck any of you out of a happy existence. You were all like me. All alone. Looking for something you couldn’t find.”

“Why was my name crossed off?” Kate asks.

“You became a mother,” Jacob explains. “It’s just a line of chalk in a cave. The job’s yours if you want it.”

“What is the job?” Jack asks.

“Make sure the you must do what I couldn’t. What I wasn’t able to do.” Kill Smokey. “I’m not going to pick one of you. I want you to have the one thing I was never given.”

“If none of us chooses it?” Kate challenges.

Then this ends very badly,” Jacob warns. Then Hurley is about to ask, “Dude, what’s the significance of the numbers?” and Jack jumps in and says, “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. Then it’s time.”

Hurley breathes a big sigh of relief, having never really found out about the numbers, Hurley says, “I’m just glad it’s not me.”

Meanwhile, Jacob tells Jack where to find the cave of wonders. “The bamboo field you woke up in on the day you crashed? Beyond that is the heart of the island.”

“There’s nothing there,” Jack says.

Jacob pours some water into Jacks cup and chants over it. Jack drinks. A change happens. “Now you’re like me,” Jacob tells him.

Thoughts on this episode:
Every line uttered by Michael Emerson is sheer perfection.

Every.

Single.

Line.

Again, kudos to the writers that this late in the game, we still don’t know what side he’s working for. I’m not ready to assume Ben has thrown in with Smokey just because he killed Widmore. And the alternate timeline for Ben is absolutely heartbreaking, watching him interact with Alex and Danielle.

In fact, the alternate timeline is really quite intriguing and well done. As that storyline comes together, it's becoming obvious that what happens in Alt LA matters to the characters in Real Island time.  But more on that below.  Seeing Ana Lucia last night was am awesome surprise, even though it was just a short scene. I am still waiting for Shannon.

The scene between Jack and Sawyer, when Sawyer blames himself for the deaths of the others and Jack reassures him, is my favorite scene of the night. Who do I love more at this point, Jack or Sawyer?  Tough call.

Where are Miles and Claire?  And when are they going to show up?  Also, I wanted to mention last week that Hurley seems to have a talent in common with MIB in that they can both see dead people and talk to them, as in MIB's back story last week, he saw his dead mother.  Hurley's reaction that everyone could see Jacob at the campfire was priceless.

Widmore’s death seems a little anti-climactic. I don’t think we’ve answered everything we need to know about him. Richard’s death by Smoke Monster also seemed a little too quick. Though the mystery and romance surroundig Richard was answered a few episodes ago with that Richard-centric episode, I still think he's earned a more meaningful death than just being slammed against a tree by Smokey.  Of course, it's always possible Richard is really not dead, anyway. Tina Fey’s death was rather quick too, but I don’t really care about her and was glad to see her go. She was clearly miscast and does not have that inner toughness that every other woman in Lost seemed to have; even though she tried really hard to pull off the Betty Bad Bitch character, I wasn't buying it.  At all.  Watch her be the only one who is actually still alive next week.  That will piss me off.

Which concert are Kate and Des going to? Jack’s kid’s concert or the concert at Miles’ Dad’s museum? Or are they one in the same, thus getting everyone in the same place at the same time? And will Juliet show up and ask James for coffee sometime?  And where are Sayid and Hurley heading off to?

It looks like the result of Jack’s operation on Locke’s back in Alt LA is going to be directly tied to what happens on the island.

Finally, does it occur to anyone else that the one question that was promised to be answered tonight—that is, "what they died for"--the TITLE of the Episode for Pete's sake!---was not really answered at all?
Next Week:
Ok, just to reiterate: The finale is over at 11:30. No way in HELL that the write up will be done Monday morning. And I want to do it justice anyway. So be patient. And get psyched.

Wrap up delay

A long day at the polls and some news on the personal front conspired to prevent me from getting out the blog last night. I have copious notes which need to be cleaned up, and quite frankly, some escapist television is therapy I could use right now. Needless to say, last night's episode was great, setting up the final battle between Locke/Smokey and Jack.

It's my goal to get the wrap up finished before the end of the week. Oh, and fair warning: since the finale isn't over until 11:30 Sunday night, don't think for a minute that you'll be seeing that wrap up next Monday morning.

Life after Lost

H/T to Sig's Facebook Page

Across the Sea SE6 EP 15

"Every question I answer will simply lead to another question."

Boy, does that quote just about sum up this whole series or what?

In the beginning
A very pregnant Claudia washes up on the beach and makes her way inland to fresh water. She is found by a woman speaking Latin (?) who claims she is the only inhabitant of the island. When Claudia asks how she got there, the woman answers, “The same way you did. By accident.” Claudia goes into labor and delivers a baby boy, who is wrapped in a white swaddling cloth. “His name is Jacob,” she pants, just before the labor pains begin again and she gives birth to a second boy, who is wrapped in a black swaddling cloth. “I only have one name.” So the second baby remains, to this very day, nameless. “Can I see them?” she asks. “I’m sorry,” the woman answers and kills her with a rock.

Lil MIB finds a game on the beach and asks Jacob to play. There are black and white pieces. Young Jacob is the boy we’ve seen haunting MIB in Lostie time. Jacob returns home and Mother asks where his brother is.
“Staring at the ocean.” As if this is something he does often.

“Do you love me Jacob?” Mother asks.

“Yes.”
“Then tell me what happened.” Even though Lil MIB told him not to tell their mother about the game, Jacob tells her anyway.

Lil MIB sees this right away when Mother finds him on the beach.

“He told you about the game, didn’t he?” MIB asks.

“Jacob doesn’t know how to lie. He’s not like you. You’re special.”

“Can I keep the game?”

“Of course you can, that’s why I left it for you. Where else would it come from?”

“Across the sea,” MIB says. “Somewhere else.”

“There is no place else,” Mother tells him.

Then MIB launches into that series of questions that children usually ask when they are about six. “Where did we come from?” He wants to know. Mother explains that they came from her mother, who is dead.

“What’s dead?” MIB wants to know.

“Something you will never have to worry about.”

Jacob and MIB are hunting boar when they come across a group of men who kill the boar they are chasing. The boys stay out of sight and observe, then run back to their mother to report. “Mother! We saw people, Men. They killed a boar.” Mother is concerned, “Stay away from them. They are not like us,” she warns. “We are here for a reason. They come, fight, destroy and corrupt. It always ends the same.” Lil MIB is intrigued. “If they can hurt each other, does that mean we can hurt each other?”

“I’ve made it so that you can never hurt each other,” She says, while leading them through the jungle. “We’re here,” she announces. They have arrived at a cave with yellow light pouring out of it and water pouring in. “What is it?” The boys want to know. “It’s the warmest light. A little bit of this light is inside of every man. But they always want more. If it goes out, it goes out everywhere. I’ve protected this light, but I can’t do it forever.”

“Who’s going to do it, then?” asks MIB.

“One of you.”

Later, the boys are playing the game when Claudia appears to MIB, but Jacob cannot see her because she is dead. “Come with me,” Claudia says. “I want to show you where you came from. A place you’ve never seen.” They come upon a little makeshift village. “They came 13 years ago. They are your people. You come from across the sea. She’s not your mother, I am.”

MIB wants Jacob to go with him to the other people. “They are your people too.” MIB tells Jacob that Mother killed their real mother. Mother catches up with them as Jacob is pounding on MIB for saying such things about Mother. MIB tells Mother he wants to leave, go back to his people, go across the sea and leave the island.

“Whatever you have been told, you will never be able to leave this island.” Mother tells him, but MIB leaves anyway.

Later on the beach, Jacob asks Mother, “Do you think he will come back?”

“No.”

“He said you killed our mother. Is that true?”

“Yes. If I let her live, she would take you back to those people. And those people are bad. Very, very bad. And I needed you to stay good.”

Jacob ponders this, then asks the question that has been on his mind. “Why do you love him more than me?”

“I love you in different ways,” she cries, practically admitting that what Jacob has said is true. “Stay with me, Jacob?” Jacob agrees.

Thirty years later, MIB is still living amongst his people, and he and Jacob are once again playing the game. “Does she know you visit me?” MIB wants to know.

“She never asks about you,” Jacob answers.

“Then I’m sorry I asked about her.” Jacob is curious about the people. “Are they bad?” he wants to know. “Worse than she told us,” MIB says. “Greedy, manipulative, but smart. I think we’ve found a way off this island.” And he takes out a dagger and throws it at a well, where the electromagnetic force sticks it to the side of the well. Jacob is fascinated. “There are places like this all over the island,” MIB tells him. “Whenever we find one, we dig.”

Jacob reports this back to Mother, who then goes to seek out MIB. She finds him in a well, where he is building the donkey wheel, and tending some stones on fire in a pot. MIB is caught by surprise to see her. “I’ve walked this island from one end to the other and I’ve never been able to find that place you showed us with the waterfall and the light. But I figured if the light is underneath the island, there must be a way to find it by digging.” He removes a rock from the wall and the warm yellow light pours forth. Mother is saddened by MIB’s determination to leave, tells him goodbye, then slams his head against the rock and knocks him out.

Mother approaches Jacob. “Jacob, it’s time,” she says. “I had to say goodbye to your brother.” “You’re letting him go?” Jacob asks. “You’re going to protect it now,” Mother says by way of answering. She leads him back to the cave of wonders. “What’s in there?” Jacob asks. “Life, death, rebirth. It’s the source. The heart of the island. Promise me no matter what you do, you will never go down there.” “What about when I die?” Jacob asks. “It would be worse than dying. Much worse.” Mother pours some wine and chants and gives it to Jacob. “Drink this.”

“Why?”

“It symbolizes that you accept this responsibility. The responsibility to protect this island.” But Jacob doesn’t want it.

“It has to be you,” Mother insists.

“No it doesn’t it. You wanted it to be him,” Jacob cries.

Mother looks at Jacob, acknowledging that he is right. “It was always supposed to be you. I see that now. Please, take the cup and drink.” Jacob does it. “Now, you and I are the same. You will protect the island until you can find a replacement.”

Later, MIB wakes up and sees his well filled in, and his village burned. Amidst the wreckage, he finds the game. He realizes he is now trapped on the island again, and he is enraged.

Mother and Jacob are walking through the jungle. “There’s a storm coming,” Mother warns. “You should go. Get some firewood before it rains.” Jacob turns to go. “And Jacob? Be careful.”

“I’ll see you back home,” Jacob says. Mother goes forward reluctantly. She finds the game in MIB’s cave. She sees the two stones, the black and the white. She’s holding the black stone, admiring it in the light when MIB stabs her from behind.

“Why wouldn’t you let me leave?”

“Because I love you,” she says. “Thank you.” For killing me.

Jacob comes in just as she dies. He is enraged, beats MIB and then drags him to the waterfall and the cave of wonders. He throws MIB into the cave. MIB goes over the waterfall and seconds later, the smoke monster emerges.

A short while later, Jacob finds the body of MIB on some rocks. He carries it back to the caves, lays it next to the body of Mother. He links their hands and places the bag with the two stones with them.

Many years later, they are found by Jack and Kate in the caves. “Our very own Adam and Eve.”

Thoughts on this episode
Good back story on the mythology, if a little, teensy bit hard to swallow. I was expecting this kind of an episode about now, knowing we would have to go deep into mythology territory and away from any kind of real life, scientific explanation. I am willing to take that leap of faith, providing the next three and a half hours of this show tie it in neatly. Until then, I will give the writers the benefit of the doubt and accept what they are telling us.

Jacob and MIB parallel Cain and Abel to some extent, though I defer to my Biblical expert Sig for further elaboration on this. The island could very well be a stand in for the Garden of Eden, however, I’m pretty sure that Eve was not a single mother.

Didn’t Jack and Kate find “Adam” and “Eve” wearing Dharma jumpsuits? I could have sworn that was the case. In any event, the question of Adam and Eve is now answered, in a tidy way.

The monologue about “it always ending the same” is something MIB said to Jacob in the season five finale episode.

The various wells around the island are explained by MIB’s digging. Also, it could be that along with Jacob, MIB may be bringing people to the island as well. MIB’s contingent could be the Dharma initiative; people who come to the island to use its power for their own ends while MIB is using their knowledge to get him closer to leaving the island. This could be why Jacob ordered Ben to exterminate the Dharma initiative.

The question on whether MIB is truly evil personified was not necessarily answered in this episode; in fact I believe that the waters were muddied a bit. MIB seems a creature driven by rage, not evil, unless his trip through the cave of wonders changed all that. Since we did not get a look at a post trip down the rabbit-hole MIB, I guess that will be answered in the next three and a half hours.

The Candidate SE6 EP14

“And…we’re dead.”
Holy CRAP! This episode was totally worth the repeat of last week’s episode. I thought the first half was by turns dull, predictable and cheesey. But the second half? My, my, my. The second half of this episode is what is called TELEVISION. Buckle up buttercups because we are in for a hell of a ride.

Crash
Jack is standing over Locke’s bed in AltLA. Locke has just come out of surgery. “I think you’re a candidate for a new type of surgery,” Jack tells him after explaining to Locke what he saw of his previous injury during surgery. “I think I can fix you.”

“No thanks,” answers Locke.

Jack is baffled by Locke’s unwillingness to undergo a surgery that could let him walk again, even though there is virtually no risk to him. So Jack tracks down the doctor who did reconstructive dental surgery on Locke following his accident. It just so happens to be Bernard Nadler. Of Oceanic 815 Bernard puts it together first: “I sat across the aisle from you. You were flirting with my wife Rose.“ Doctor patient confidentiality and a plethora of HIPPA laws will not allow Bernard to disclose to Jack the details of Locke’s accident, but Bernard does agree to direct him to the other man who was in the accident with him: Anthony Cooper. “I hope you find what you are looking for.” Bernard tells Jack.

Jack shows up at a nursing home, looking for Anthony Cooper. At first he finds Helen. “What do you want with Anthony?” Helen wants to know. Jack explains about the surgery for Locke and how he wants to find out how Locke was originally injured. “Leave this alone,” Helen begs him with tears of pain in her eyes. “You saved John’s life; why can’t that be enough?”

“Because it’s not,” Jack explains. Helen walks over to a table and turns Anthony Cooper around. Cooper is a vegetable.

Jack returns to Locke’s hospital room. “Mr. Locke, can you hear me?” Locke is unconscious, talking in his sleep. “Push the button. I wish you believed me.”

Jack sees Claire pass by the room and runs out to catch up with her. She was at the hospital looking for Jack. “My father wanted me to have this,” She says, pulling out a music box. “But I’m not sure why. I thought maybe you could help?” Jack is puzzled by the gift of the box as well. Claire asks how he died. “He was found in an alley in a bar outside of Sydney. I flew down to bring him back. The Airline lost the body.” Jack and Claire realize they were on 815 together. Claire opens the music box and “Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket” begins to play. I Jack asks Claire to come and stay with him. Claire protests and says they are strangers. “We’re not strangers,” Jack says. “We’re family.”

Jack catches up with Locke as he is leaving the hospital. He tells Locke that he went to see Anthony Cooper to find out how he was crippled. “I was in a plane crash,” Locke tells him. “I had just got my pilot’s license. And this man who I loved more than anything in the world, who was scared to death to fly, I looked him in the eye and I told him he could trust me. I don’t remember what I did wrong. It was my fault.”

“When we first met, you told me that my father was gone. Your father is gone, too, Mr. Locke. What happened, happened, and you can let it go.”

“Whoever said letting go was easy?”

“I never said it was easy. I can’t even do it myself. I was hoping you would go first.”

“Goodbye, Dr. Sheppard.”

“I can help you John. I wish you believed me.” This gives Locke pause, but he leaves anyway.

Sub Standard
Jack wakes up on Hydra Island where Sayid has paddled them over. Meanwhile, the other Lostaways are being frog-marched into the cages. Sawyer tries to take control, but Widmore pulls a gun on Kate (of course, because they ALWAYS pull the gun on Kate) and Sawyer thinks he’s bluffing at first, until Widmore explains that Kate is not on his list of names that includes Sawyer, Hurley and the Kwons. Sawyer recognizes that Widmore isn’t bluffing about this and submits. As Widmore closes the cage door on them, he tells Sawyer, “Believe me. I’m doing this for your own good.”

Jacks wonders where everyone else is, and Sayid tells him they have scattered into the jungle. “Its’ just the three of us now,” Meaning Jack, Locke and Sayid. Locke returns to camp with instructions. “Your friends got themselves captured and now we have to rescue them. Don’t worry, Jack. We’ll get your people back and get off this island.”

“They’re not my people and I’m not leaving the island.”

Locke grins. “I’m hoping you will change your mind about that. I need you to convince them to trust me.”
“Why should I trust you?” Jack wants to know, and Locke’s answer is as convoluted as anything we’ve ever heard on this show. “Because I can kill them and you, but I didn’t. I saved you.”

Back in the cages, Kate tells Sawyer he should not have fallen for the Widmore guy’s bluff, “He wouldn’t have killed me,” she insists. Sawyer breaks the painful truth to Kate: “That cave with all the names on it that I told you about? Your name was on there too, but it was crossed out. He doesn’t need you, Kate.”

We interrupt this drama for more Kwon cheesiness as Sun and Jin tell each other how much they love each other and admire their wedding rings. The music swells and….

Then the power goes off and we hear the trademark Smokey sounds of chaos and destruction. Smokey makes short work of the Widmorians and the one with the keys falls just outside Kate’s reach. Frank starts kicking his way out, Smokey is swirling all round and Jack shows up to let them out.

“What are you doing here?” Kate asks, shocked to see him.

“I’m with him.”

“Thanks for coming back for us, Doc,” Sawyer says, which come to think of it, is a pretty darn nice thing of Jack to do after Sawyer kicked him off the boat. Locke, meanwhile, has made it to the plane and walks through the hail of bullets from the two Widmorians waiting for him. He breaks one’s neck, takes his gun and shoots the other one. Before he boards the plane, he rips a watch off of one Widmorian’s wrist. Once on the plane, he finds a rather clumsily camouflaged bomb hidden in one of the overhead compartments. Meanwhile, the rest of Camp Locke shows up and Locke explains how they can’t go on the plane because he just found the bomb. “If Widmore really didn’t mean for us to board this plane, he would have had the pylons set up. Widmore wants to get us all in a confined space where we can’t get out and kill us all at once. We have to get to the sub. I need all of you to help.” Jack agrees to help, but he’s not leaving the island.

Sawyer hangs back and asks Jack to keep Locke off the sub. “Get him in the water. He can’t do anything from there.” There is no one guarding the sub, so they get on rather quickly. Locke gives Jack his pack and they take off. Locke asks if Jack won’t change his mind. “The man who told you that you needed to stay was wrong.”

“It was John Locke who told me I needed to stay.” Jack says, and knocks Locke into the water. Then Widmore’s people come up from behind and start firing on them. Claire, Jack and Locke return fire from up front; everyone else from the sub. Kate is shot, Jack grabs her and puts her on the sub. Sawyer sees Locke out of the water and heading for them but Claire has not yet gotten on the boat. Sawyer makes an executive decision and slams the hatch shut and tells the captain of the U-boat to dive. Claire runs after the sub, telling them to wait, but Locke holds her back. “You don’t want to be on that sub.”

Kate needs medical attention and Jack directs Hurley to find a first aid kit, which Hurley can’t locate. Jack tells Jin to hand him his pack because he is sure that he has something that will stop the bleeding in there. Jack opens the pack and finds the bomb wired to the watch Locke ripped off the Widmorian.

“We did exactly what he wanted us to do,” Jack says. There’s about three and a half minutes on the watch and they tell the sub captain to surface. It’s going to take five minutes to surface which is not enough time. Sayid looks at the bomb and starts to try to figure out how it is wired. Jack tells them all to stop.

“Leave it alone. Nothing is going to happen. It won’t go off. He can’t kill us,” Questioning looks all around lead Jack to elaborate. “He didn’t need us to leave the island, he can’t leave the island unless we’re all dead. He wanted to get us all together in an enclosed place where we couldn’t get out and kill us all at once.”

Sawyer isn’t buying it. He grabs the bomb from Sayid and starts to remove the wires. Jack stops him. “He can’t kill us, James. But he can get us to kill each other. You’re going to have to trust me.”

“Sorry, Doc, I can’t do that.” And Sawyer grabs the wires and pulls them out. The watch stops counting down…then restarts twice as fast. Sayid grabs the bomb and runs out, telling Jack to close the door behind him. The bomb goes off, blowing away Sayid and blowing a a hole in the sub. The sub starts to sink. Frank gets pummeled by the door blowing off, Sun is trapped behind equipment. Jack tells Hurley to get Kate out and the men work together to free Sun. Sawyer is bonked on the head by falling debris and soon Jin tells Jack to get Sawyer out. Jin struggles in vain to get Sun free, but she is trapped. Sun begs Jin to save himself, Jin refuses.

“I will never leave you again,” Jin tells her in Korean.

Jack and Sawyer, Hurley and Kate make it back to shore, but Sun and Jin never make it off the sub. The last we see of them is their hands linked even in death.

Back on the dock, Locke informs Claire that the sub has sunk. “Are they all dead?” asks Claire.

“Not all of them,” he says, suiting up.

“Where are you going?” Claire asks.

“To finish what I started.”

Thoughts on this episode
The fact that Sun and Jin die and that their death is so poignant makes me almost regret how harsh I was last episode about how cheesy their reunion was. Almost. It was still a cheesy scene, though, and totally unworthy of the writing this show is capable of, so no apologies. As evidence, the final scene between Sun and Jin is a true tear jerker. We almost forget that Sayid has died, too.

I think Sayid dies redeemed. When he was working on trying to diffuse the bomb, it was the first glimpse we had of the old Sayid since his soulless conversion to the Smokey side.

Since I did not see Frank on the island with Jack, Hurley, Kate and Sawyer, I assume that he died when the hatch door hit him.

When Hurley bursts into tears at the news of Sun and Jin’s deaths, I lose it with him.

I love the scene in the sub when Jack tells everyone that the bomb is not going to off and why it is not going to go off. Jack’s transformation to the man of faith is complete.

The AltLA backstory tonight shows us that John Locke’s alternate life is just as, if not more sad than his original storyline. The raw emotion on Terry O’Quinn’s face as he is explaining to Jack how he crippled the man he loved more than anything was heart wrenching. His self loathing and self imposed prison of the wheelchair is almost as horrible as his pathetic life before. I truly hope that the writers give John Locke a happy ending in some way.

Godspeed Sayid, Sun and Jin.

Next week:
There are two sides to every story; one dark, one light.

The Last Recruit SE6 EP13

“So nice to have everyone back together again.”

Nifty little episode with the alternate timeline paralleling the island timeline nicely with themes of reunion, redemption and faith.

The Gang’s all here
Ben is riding in the ambulance with Locke after he has been hit by Desmond. Ben doesn’t know Locke’s first name or anyone he can contact; all he knows is why Locke’s lower extremities are not responding. “He was in a wheel chair. Where is it?” Ben asks, “Smashed to pieces,” the paramedic answers. “That thing probably saved his life.” Locke comes to enough to tell them that they should call Helen Norwood, the woman he was going to marry. “You’re still going to marry her, Mr. Locke,” Ben reassures him. “John,” Locke answers.

Sun arrives at the hospital at the exact moment from her gunshot trauma. As they wheel her in beside Locke, she looks over and recognizes him. “It’s him! It’s him!” she tells Jin.

Sawyer is questioning Kate, reading her rap sheet. Kate seems unimpressed and is giving nothing up. “Is there something you want?” She asks, annoyed. Sawyer remarks how strange it is that they were on the same flight, met up in the lelvator and what a remarkable coincidence it is that she crashed her car into his. “It’s like someone was trying to put us together,” he says. “Are you hitting on me?” Saywer laughs and shakes his head no meaning yes, and says that it would never work since he’s a cop and she’s a murderer, which Kate denies. Kate wants to know why he didn’t arrest her in the elevator and totally calls him out on knowing that she had handcuffs on. When Sawyer tries to blow it off, Kate says, “You know what I think? I think you went to Australia and you didn’t want anyone to know you were there.” Caught, Sawyer smiles and says, “Oh, I like you.”

Miles interrupts with a multiple homicide. They have a picture of the perp from a surveillance character. “There’s our bad guy,” Sawyer says looking at the image of Sayid.

Claire arrives at an office building and Des is there as well. What a coincidence! He notices that Claire is going to an adoption agency and talks her into going to see his lawyer, who happens to be Illanah. Des introduces Ilannah to Claire. “Claire Littleton? From Austrialia? This is quite a coincidence. We’ve been looking for you.”

Sayid is packing up his stuff from Nadia’s. “Everything will be ok for you now. I took care of it.”

“What did you do, Sayid?”

“Nadia, I’m never going to be able to come back again.” LAPD rings the doorbell and Sayid tells Nadia to stall them. It’s Detective Strom. Sayid has gone out the back, but Sawyer is waiting for him and trips him up with the hose. “Sayid Jarrah, you are under arrest.”

Jack and his son show up in the same building that Claire just went into to hear his father’s will read. He shows up in Ilannah’s office, who tells him, “I’ve got a surprise for you. Do you believe in fate?” Ilannah introduces Claire to Jack and they find out that they are brother and sister. Jack is having trouble with the news when he gets a phone call with an emergency surgery. “I’m so sorry, there’s been an emergency. We’re going to have to reschedule.”

Sun wakes up in the hospital to find that she and the baby are both ok. It appears that Sun and Jin are going to live happily ever after now that they have escaped her father. The camera pans outside the room to Jack walking into the hospital with his son discussing the eventful meeting they just came from and how Jack’s father didn’t mention that he had a daughter. Jack starts scrubbing, looks at the films and says confidently, “I got this.” He goes in to begin operating and recognizes Locke from the airport.

Hello Jack. I was hoping you’d come.
Jack and Not Locke sit down to catch up. Jack questions “what the hell” Not Locke is, and why he takes Locke’s form. “Because he was stupid enough to believe he’d been brought here for a reason. Because he pursued that belief until it got him killed, and because you were kind enough to bring him back here in a nice wooden box.”

“So, he had to be dead before you looked like him?” When Not Locke verifies, Jack asks who else Not Locke has looked like. “Three days after we landed here, I chased my dead father throught he jungle. Was that you?”

Well it was him, and it seems that ole MIB has had a soft spot for Jack all along. He just wanted Jack to find water and all he’s ever wanted to do was help him. Help him leave the island. And since Jacob chose him, Jack, and all the rest of them, were trapped on this island before they ever crashed there. None of this is adding up for Jack (you’re not alone there, buddy).

“John Locke was the only one who believed in this place and he did everything he could to keep us from leaving.”

This statement kind of pisses MIB off and he says, “John Locke was not a believer, Jack. He was a sucker.”

There’s some noises in the jungle and Claire reveals herself. MIB wants to know why Claire was following them. “Cuz he’s my brother.” How did Claire know this? I think that despite MIB’s plain talking, forthrightness, he’s lying. The only way Claire could know that Jack was her brother is if Christian, whom she was hanging out with, told her. But since MIB just finished telling Jack that HE was Christian, clearly something isn’t adding up here and I think it’s MIB. When Locke first goes to the cabin to get instructions on how to save the island, it’s Christian who tells him first that he is not Jacob, but that he can speak for him, and secondly, to move the island. This is also the first time we see Claire hanging with Christian. And when Christian appeared to Locke when he turned the donkey wheel, he told Locke to tell his son he said hello. Unless MIB also takes the memories of the deceased, he has no way of knowing what Christian’s memories are. Again, I am reminded of The Stand and the similarities between MIB and Randall Flagg, who was a “plain spoke truth teller” and had much the same way about him as MIB.

“Did he tell you that he was the one pretending to be our father?” Claire asks. While Claire is all happy about reuniting with Jack, Jack’s a little put off by her overall creepiness and probably her stinkiness as well. “I’m just glad you’re with us,” she says. “Well, I haven’t really decided yet,” Jack protests. “Oh yeah. You have. You decided the moment you let him talk to you. So you’re with him now, whether you like it or not.”

Meanwhile, Sawyer continues plotting to get the Oceanic survivors, except Claire and Sayid, off the island. Hurley wants to know why they can’t take Sayid. “Because he’s gone over to the dark side, man.” “People can come back from the dark side. Anikin…?” Sawyer dismisses this theory (which I happen to think is correct based on what happens later) when Claire comes up looking all crazy and grimy and smelly. “Hi Claire,” Hurley says. “You look…great.”

Kate tells Jack that Sayid is different; Jack says they all are. Jack tells Kate that MIB wants to leave the island, but they all have to leave together. Jack isn’t sure if he believes him.

Tina Fey is frog-marched into camp, demanding that MIB return what he took from camp. She calls on the walkie asking if they have a fix on her position. “Show them what we’re capable of.” And a missile explodes just beyond the edge of the camp. “You have until nightfall to return it to us.” We assume she’s talking about Des, who’s still down in the well, but why be so coy about it? “Call me when you’re ready for us to pick him up,” she says, tossing him the walkie and walking off. MIB promptly crushes the walkie.

And as a little aside here, I am totally not buying this chick as some kind of Betty bad bitch. After Kate, Juliet, Charlotte, and even Claire—seriously, was Tina Fey the best they could come up with? What the WHAT?

MIB gathers the troops and tells them they have to get moving now. He tells Sawyer to take a small group and go and get the boat and meet them on the beach, using some contrived excuse about how a large group moves slower. Sawyer, meanwhile clues jack in on the plan and tells him to break away from Locke with Sun, Hurley and that pilot guy who “looks like he stepped off the set of a Burt Reynolds movie” and meet them at the boat. Claire’s out for trying to kill Kate and Sayid is a zombie.

MIB tells Sayid to go kill Desmond in the well. “You don’;t have a problem with that, do you? You do still want what you asked me for…?” MIB asks Sayid. Sayid says yes. “Then go do what I told you to do.” Desmond in the well and Sayid is pointing the gun at him:

“What did he offer ya? If your gonna shoot me in cold blood, brutha, I think I have a right to know what you’re getting’ in exchange?”

“Offered me back the woman I loved.”

“And where is she now?”

“Dead.”

“And you think Locke can bring her back?” Desmond asks, skeptically.

“I died and he brought me back.”

“So what will you tell her? This woman, when she asks you what you did to be with her again? What will you tell her?”

Sawyer and Kate make it to the boat and Sawyer tells Kate, “We’re gonna ditch Locke.” Sawyer tells Kate about taking jack, Hurley, Sun, and Frank off the island. Kate is pissed. “You didn’t say Claire.” “The Claire you came back for is gone,” Sawyer tells her. Kate looks unconvinced, since coming back for Claire was the only reason she came back.


Meanwhile, MIB’s party is trekking through the jungle and Jack asks Claire, “How long have you been with Locke?” Claire tells him that she’s been with him since they all left. She trusts him because, “He’s the only one that didn’t abandon me.”

MIB falls back and asks Sun, who still can’t speak, if she’s seen Sayid because he should be there by now. When Sun doesn’t answer, MIB accuses her of giving him the silent treatment and she accuses him of doing this to her. “I’m sorry Sun, but I didn’t to anything to you.” MIB decides to go back for Sayid and Jack sees his chance to make a break for it. “I think we should stick to Sawyer’s plan,” Hurley says. “This is Sawyer’s plan,” Jack says.

MIB catches up with Sayid and asks him where he’s been and if he’s done what he asked. “Of course I did. Go and check if you like.” Liar! Desmond has turned Sayid from the Dark side just like Anikin!

Meanwhile, Jack, Hurley, Frank and Sun make it to the boat and they are all set to leave when Claire walks up on them and wants to know what they are doing and why they aren’t waiting for John as she points the gun at Kate’s chest. Kate explains that they are leaving because, “That’s not John Locke. Whoever he is, he’s not one of us. Come with us. I can get you back to Aaron.” Sawyer starts to object, but Kate tells him to shut up. “Either she’s coming or I’m not. Come with us, Claire.”

“He promised me…”

“I’m promising you. I was there when he was born. And I never should have raised him. I came back to get you so you could be with him again. It’s the only reason I came back to the island. SO please come with us. Let’s go home.” And with that Claire gets on, and surrenders her weapon.

“If he finds out we’re gone, he’s gonna be mad.”

Frank delivers his contracted one line of dialog in this episode by asking what Sawyer’s plan is. Sawyer tells Frank that his plan is to get to Hydra Island, put a gun in someone’s face and make them take them off the island in a sub. Everyone but Sawyer, Kate and Jack goes below afterward. Sawyer notices that something’s not quite right with jack and goes over to hash it out with him. Jack tells Sawyer it doesn’t feel right leaving the island “We were brought here because we were supposed to do something, James. And if that thing really wanted us to stay , he wouldv’e made sure we did. Maybe he’s afraid of what will happen if we stay. The island’s not done with us yet.” Well this is CRAZY TALK, thinks Sawyer and tells Jack that if he wants to take a leap of faith, then to get off his damn boat, which Jack does by jumping overboard. But before he jumps, Jack tells Sawyer, “I’m sorry I got Juliet killed.”

Kate is freaked out and wants to know what Sawyer said. “We have to go back and get him.”

“We’re done goin’ back, Kate.”

Jack swims to shore and meets up with Locke who figures out that Sawyer has taken his boat. Meantime, Sawyer and the gang land on Hydra Island and Tina Fey and company pull guns on them. She radio’s back to Widmore for further instructions. Then Jin comes wandering out of the jungle and…

THE CHEESIEST SCENE IN THE HISTORY OF LOST COMMENCES.

The music swells. They embrace. They kiss. Sun’s first words of English are “I love you.” “Looks like someone got their voice back,” chuckles Frank. “We’ll never be apart again,” Jin says. Seriously, this scene was so absolutely barfy I threw up in my mouth a little bit watching it.

Tina Fey, having received instructions from Widmore, pulls guns and and puts the gang on their knees. They launch a grenade at MIB’s camp and Jack is tossed and disoriented. Locke grabs him and takes him into the jungle before the next grenade hits. He asks tries to get Jack oriented.

“Jack! You’re ok. You’re with me now.”

Thoughts on this episode
The dialog between Kate and Claire before Claire gets on the boat and the dialog between Desmond and Sayid before Sayid "shoots" Des demonstrate every characteristic of being “significant” dialog. Remember it.

I loved the nice closed loop of the alternate timeline how everyone met up with each other and their lives were still intertwined. I especially dug how they got Claire and jack together. Everyone saw Jack operating on Locke from a mile away, but the meeting in the lawyer’s office was cool.

Seriously, can I say it again? the Sun and Jin reunion was over-the-top cheesey. What a disappointment. I had hoped for a stronger emotional response. Instead of gettiing misty, I was all like "Give me a break!  Make it stop!"  It was a relief when Tina Fey pulled guns on them. 

Next week
Is there a next week? All I kept seeing were scenes for the finale over a month away.