Filed under: Episode Recaps | Tags: ana lucia, ben, desmond, finale, hurley, jack, jacob, jin, kate, locke, lost, lost recap, man in black, MIB, recap, sawyer, sayid, season 6, smokey, sun, what they died for
Jacob explains what they died for....
In what is dubbed the “penultimate episode” (next-to-last), Jacob passes his torch on to Jack after nearly 2,000 years of service to the island. I think we all knew it was going to be Jack, but I kept expecting them to throw us for a loop. But maybe they still will. Jack drinks from the blessed cup and his eyes nearly pop with revelation. I wonder just what island secrets were downloaded from leader-to-successor in that moment… Looked pretty intense!
Sideways Timeline (2004)
Jack wakes in his apartment, and has another mirror moment. This time the nick on his neck is much bigger than on the Oceanic flight, and it’s bleeding quite a bit. I think they are showing his “symptoms” are more pronounced… He’s getting ready to cross-over to his island self. Showing a mirror incident from the season 6 premiere is indicating we’re about to come full circle on the season.
Jack's mysterious neck wound is still there... And it's getting bigger. Thanks Sideways mirror!
David prepares breakfast (cereal), and while they eat, they discuss going to the concert later. Jack asks if David’s mom will be there, and as they’ve kept her identity a secret all along, I think this was thrown in to get us wondering who she will be… So it’s someone important. Rule out every Sideways woman we’ve seen so far, and I think we’re left with… Juliet. And I believe that’s where she and Sawyer will reconnect (Sawyer said he wasn’t going if Charlotte was, but I bet Miles talks him into it.)
Shephard family breakfast, a hearty bowl of Super-Bran.
Claire joins them for breakfast, and while a quick scene, I liked how awkward it seemed… That they are all just strangers that are thrown into a family situation and getting used to having each other around. Jack gets a call from “Oceanic Air” (aka Desmond) saying they found his father’s coffin. Why would Desmond wreak this havoc in Jack’s life just as he’s finally getting over the whole thing? Perhaps he saw Jack getting too comfortable with his life with his loving son and new sister, and was trying to irritate Jack’s natural angst and destabilize his grounding in Sideways to keep him open to dabbling in his island life.
Desmond, fresh from running down Locke, is back on the scene getting his Candidates together in Sideways. As he spots Locke and starts the car, Ben recognizes and catches him, and Desmond beats the crap out of him. Desmond appears to do this to spur Ben’s memory. The experience (though not a near-death one) flashes Ben momentarily to his post-island 2007 self, who was once in that very same situation, getting pummeled by Desmond on the dock after his attempt on Penny’s life, again referenced later this episode (“Dead is Dead”). Ben seems moved and perplexed by his vision for the rest of the episode. Calmly Desmond tells him that he is not there to hurt him but to help Locke “let go”.
"You want to know who I am?"
Ben is being treated by the school nurse (who previously played an ER nurse who treated Desmond for his gunshot wounds in 2007… Ironically, wounds Ben himself inflicted!)
ER doctor/school nurse
Ben is having his Sideways mirror moment, fresh off his island vision, when Locke comes in. He tells Locke that the man was trying to get Locke to “let go”, not to hurt him, and that for some reason Ben believed him.
Locke is sporting a Sideways head wound, like Keamy, Jin, Sun, and now Ben.
Miles and Sawyer are discussing the benefit concert that evening at his father’s museum, Miles asks Sawyer to go as his “date” (I thought Miles was seeing someone?), but Sawyer declines because Charlotte will be there. Desmond arrives and turns himself in for running down Locke and beating Ben. He smiles as he joins Kate and Sayid in the holding cells. All is going according to plan!
Alex runs up to Ben, now sporting a sling and beat up pretty bad. She compares Ben to Napoleon because he holds his arm near his stomach as a result of the sling he wears as Napoleon was reputed to do. Napoleon was referenced earlier this season in teacher Ben’s classroom in “Recon”. Shots of Ben in a sling also recall injured Ben during his Swan hunger strike.
Ben's sling. Now I know there are a TON of color references in this show, but I totally noticed at the school that everyone was wearing red, blue, and purple. Including Ben, Alex, and Rousseau.
Alex is incredulous at the prospect of anyone wanting to hurt “the nicest guy ever” (cough cough). Alex insists that her mother give him a ride home, and as Danielle greets him they both insist he stay for dinner. Danielle words it, “even if we have to kidnap you.” (“One of Them” and “Dead Is Dead“). Nice to see Rousseau with heels, a dress, and combed hair! After dinner, Danielle says Alex’s father died when she was two, and Ben is the closest thing to a father she’s ever had. Ben’s eyes start to well up (was he connecting with his island self?) He passes it off as the onions, but Danielle says NEXT TIME she won’t use so many. And I love this storyline, because getting romantic with Danielle means he gets a second chance at both love and being the father he wanted to be to Alex.
Alex's fated-to-be father figure.
Locke stops by Jack’s office and explains that he doesn’t understand why, but it seems he’s meant to be fixed by Jack. He observes that his encounters with Jack have been serendipitous: he and Jack were on the same flight; when he was hit by a car, of “all the doctors in Los Angeles” he happened to be treated by Jack; the same man who ran him down beat up a teacher at his school and said that he wasn’t there to hurt him but to help him “let go” – and that these were the same words Jack had used when they were last together. Jack suggests that he is mistaking coincidence with fate (nod to the “Don’t mistake coincidence for fate” line spoken by Eko in “What Kate Did”). Locke says whatever it is called he is ready to get out of his wheelchair. We get the feeling his change of heart has to do less with walking than finding out the meaning behind all these darn Oceanic 815-related incidents.
Doc Jensen:
But more than anything, it was a choice. Like Island Jack, Sideways Locke seized the opportunity life had given him: the chance to decide who and what he wanted to be. [...] In the Sideways world, Jack will fix Locke’s spine and facilitate Locke’s awakening. On The Island, Guardian Jack will defeat Fake Locke and protect the spiritual circuit between the ”real Lockes” of both worlds. It’s sweet happily ever after… but I worry about the implications of what we saw in the opening moments of the season some 15 weeks or so ago, an ominous image that has been left for the last episode of Lost to explain: The Island, dead and underwater.
At the police station, the 3 criminals are being transferred. Kate makes a last ditch effort to flirt her way to freedom with Sawyer. While he looks tempted, he ultimately tells her it ain’t gonna happen. In the back of a holding van, Desmond proposes an escape plan, but in exchange for their freedom, he says he will exact a promise of each of them. They both agree skeptically. Just then, the van pulls over and Ana Lucia (still a dirty cop in this timeline as well), lets them go.
Sweet freedom!
Hurley arrives (in his Sideways yellow Hummer) with her payoff and instantly recognizes her as Ana Lucia. He asks if she’s coming too, but Desmond says she’s not ready yet. ”It was nice not knowing you,” Ana Lucia said, speaking more truth than she realized.
"Not ready yet." Not now, or not ever?
Hurley’s Camaro (that he originally got from his father) is parked nearby. Desmond hands Kate a dress. Recall this is the second time someone is handing her a dress to wear for a specific purpose, a la breakfast with Ben on the island in Alex’s dress then being held in the cages in “A Tale of Two Cities”, which coincidentally introduced us to Juliet (ahem, David’s mother). Desmond tells them they’re going to a concert. Aha, the concert is where it all goes down in The End! Desmond’s scheming Island Enlightenment on a GRAND scale, with everyone, all together at once. Perhaps a rousing rendition of ”You All Everybody’‘ will do the trick?
Kate's new cocktail dress, inset with her new dress for breakfast with Ben.
Known concert attendees:
- Jack
- David
- David’s mom (who may or may not be Juliet)
- Claire (might possibly tag along with her brother and nephew)
- Desmond
- Kate
- Sayid
- Hurley
- Miles
- Charlotte
- Pierre Chang
- Eloise (planning it)
- Widmore (financing it)
- Daniel (playing in it)
- Penny (on the guest list)
- Charlie (supposed to play as the rock act)
- Sawyer (who I think will change his mind, despite Charlotte, and go with Miles)
So who’s missing? Sun is still in the hospital and Jin is by her side, but if she is released, they could be there. Maybe Jack mentions something to Locke about it. And maybe, just maybe, this will be Ben and Danielle’s first date (wink wink!)
Doc Jensen:
”What They Died For” gave us a scene in the Sideways narrative that could be seen as a metaphor for the Jacob/Loststance on the relationship between free will and fate. Desmond, the Jacob analog, broke Kate and Sayid out of jail — but they had no idea they had been liberated until Desmond spelled it out in the van. And even then, they didn’t really believe it. Kate and Sayid had been oblivious to Desmond’s machinations, but they were also powerless to stop the prison wagon from reaching Desmond’s destination for them. Still, during the trip, they retained total authority over their inner lives, and upon their arrival, they had the freedom to do as they wish. Their actions may have forced Desmond into a response, but at no point did anyone hold a gun to their heads. In fact, the only manipulation Desmond used was holding them to their word to do as they promised — to have integrity, to be people of their word. We can’t control our circumstances, but we can control our response to our circumstances..
On the Island (2007)
BEACH AND JUNGLE:
On the beach, Jack prepares to stitch Kate up, which is definitely a nod back to the very first episode of season 1 when Kate needs to stitch up Jack. Kate had asked which color thread he preferred and he replied “basic black”, which is the same color he used on her last night.
Thread of choice? "Basic Black."
In the Pilot, Jack told her the story of counting to 5, which is how his father had taught him how to manage fear during crisis (“Pilot, Part 1“). Kate reflects on Ji Yeon, and remarks that Jin had never even met his own daughter. They both decide that “He” must be killed.
Jack stitches Kate.
Pieces of the destroyed sub and the red life vests wash up on shore, heartbreaking. Kate leans on Saywer’s shoulder and everyone pauses to mourn Sayid, Sun, Jin, Frank. Which was nice, because as last week was Jacob and the MIB’s story, they really didn’t give the castaways any time to deal with the loss of their friends.
Doc Jensen:
Perhaps they were also silently bidding adieu to the dream of returning to the home sweet home that lies somewhere across the sea. I think when you decide to kill the devil, you have to make peace with the prospect of not coming back alive. This isn’t a Fantastic Four story — this is a Suicide Squad mission. Did you see Kate slump against Sawyer? Was that Lost‘s way of telling us that Kate had ”made her choice”?
Reflecting on their loss.
At Jack’s urging, they set off in the jungle looking for Desmond. Because if the MIB wants him, they they’re going to need him. Sawyer, looking completely defeated, starts to take responsibility for the deaths on the sub by attempting to diffuse the bomb despite Jack’s advice. Where in the past, these two would normally settle their problems with their fists… It’s definitely different now. Jack interrupts Sawyer’s sad-sap admission, and says, hey, “I’ve made mistakes too.” They’ve come this far and finally made their peace with each other. Finally allies after all these years, just in time to team up for the final showdown.
Hurley sees a vision of boy-Jacob in the jungle, whom notably Kate cannot see. Yet. The boy demands the bag of ashes, then runs off. I think this is the first time they’ve shown a physical aspect to Hurley’s apparitions… He was able to grab an object from Hurley.
"They're mine." (PS - nice snaps on your vest, authentic Roman garbed boy Jacob!)
As Hurley chases him, he comes across adult Jacob seated at a fire. Jacob tells Hurley that the ashes are in the fire and that when the fire goes out, he will not be seen again. This is very reminiscent to the rules of The Source itself (if its light goes out, everyone will die). Good thing Ilana knew to save those ashes! And good thing Hurley found them. It was a convenient chain of events that led to a final scene with Jacob’s “essence” so he could pass the torch to his next Candidate. Jacob adds, for good measure, ”We are very close to the End“.
Jacob proudly welcomes his remaining Candidates.
Hurley leads the others back to the fire, and Jacob greets each of them by first name. Hurley is surprised that they can all see him. In the Big Scene of the night, Jacob provides them (and us) with some definitive answers: He did indeed create the smoke monster, it has been trying to kill him ever since in retaliation, and since Smokey succeeded, one of them must replace him as the island’s protector. Jacob didn’t drag them all out of a happy existence — they were all flawed. He chose them because they were all like him – alone, all looking for something that they couldn’t find.
Doc Jensen:
From a timeless, spiritual perspective, the castaways are better off than they were before they crashed on the Island. Yes, they have suffered, yet their adventures together have brought them to a place where they find themselves more self-aware and liberated from ruts of self-destructive behavior. Jacob has also given them something which I’m not sure they yet fully recognize and appreciate, at least not in the Island world: a community of fellow souls deeply invested in each other’s survival, growth, and flourishing.
We find out Kate was crossed out because when she left the island, she became a mother (while the rest of the Oceanic 6 remained flawed/incomplete). But she could still have the job if she wanted it. Jacob explains that they must do the one thing he couldn’t: kill the smoke monster. Jack wonders if this is even possible, and he says he hopes so. But how does one kill a cloud a smoke, a spectral being that’s made up of one angst-ridden soul? The answer will surely be one of the series’ biggest revelations.
In closing, Jacob says he is offering them a CHOICE about assuming this role, something he never had. Jack immediately steps up, knowing that this is what he’s on the island to do.
Jack eagerly takes the job on his own free will.
Jacob leads Jack to a stream in the distance, explaining that while Jack has never seen the light before, he will be able to find it now that he has been chosen to protect it. Jacob says it’s just beyond the bamboo field where Jack landed when he fell from the sky. Jack is disbelieving, but it appears he just didn’t have the eyes to be able to see it before, just like the Lighthouse he didn’t see until he was looking for it.
Doc Jensen:
I am reminded of the C.S. Lewis novel The Pilgrim’s Regress, about a spiritual seeker who has a dream as a child of an island offering the promise of great meaning to his life, but after years and years and years of searching, he discovers that the place he’s looking for… is right back where he started. See, Jack? You had the magic inside you all along…The Pilgrim's Regress by C.S. Lewis
Which actually makes a lot of sense… The Source, for Jack, is in the location where he first arrived on the island; just as the Source for Jacob was at the stream where Claudia delivered he and his brother. The Source can change locations depending on where it all began for its designated guardian.
Jacob says an incantation and takes some water into Jack’s cup and offers it to him. Before he drinks, Jack asks about the duration of the job – “as long as you can.” Jack drinks, Jacob embraces him and says “Now you are like me.” Interesting that it doesn’t have to be wine, the same cup, or even in front of the light of the Source to make this protector-deeming ceremony official. The other 3 watch from fire, and Hurley says ”I’m just glad it’s not me.” Famous last words… I’m now highly suspicious that Hurley might end up with the guardian-gig by the end.
Doc Jensen:
The Island needs The Source — but does The Source really need The Island? We’ve been told that a little bit of the light exists in everyone. Well, why not take a cue from Hurley’s Parable of the Hatch Pantry and just divide the rest of The Source equally among all people? Why not make humanity itself the exclusive dwelling place of The Source? It’s time to decentralize! It’s time for Mystic Reformation! That’s my theory of Desmond. I think super-Buddha is going to get dropped into the Holy Wormhole and will absorb all the energy into himself and then redistribute it throughout all of mankind. The Source needs a guardian. But what it needs even more is for all of us to guard it. And as I finish the preceding parenthetical, another one hit me. What if once upon a time, The Source did reside within all of humanity? What if we stopped believing in The Source, or we convinced ourselves that The Source stopped believing in us, so much so that now The Source exists as an anomaly that’s hidden away from us — as something lost that must be found. The Truth Is Out There — but once, The Truth Was In Here.
AT THE BARRACKS:
We finally see Richard, Ben, and Miles’ group again after a 3-episode absence. They are taking Ben’s shortcut to the Barracks to pick up some C4 to blow up the plane. In a big nod to the Sideways story, Miles senses Alex’s resting place, and Richard admits to burying her. Ben looks stricken for just a moment, and after only saying a quick “thank you”, offhandedly continues on to his secret room. He opens the safe and takes all 6 bricks of C4 (to “blow the plane to hell”), and when Miles asks about this other, secreter room, he said he thought he could summon the monster from here, although he later realized that the monster was summoning him.
Doc Jensen:
This is interesting to think about. If Ben has always been wrong about being Jacob’s chosen one for a period of time, then that means his tenure as the leader of the Others was fraudulent and invalid — which means that Charles Widmore was probably quite sincere in his persecution of Ben. Megabucks Chuck never wanted to get back to The Island to exploit it. He wanted to get back to The Island to save it from Ben’s corrupt administration.Collecting the C4. I'm guessing this will come in handy for the MIB (or Team Jack?) in their final mission.
They hear a noise in the kitchen and discover the world’s most awful actress, Zoe. Charles immediately appears and holds them at gunpoint while Zoe goes to check on the outrigger. She sees the MIB approaching and runs back. Charles, upon learning of their plan to rig the plane with C4, tells Ben he’s “three steps ahead”, as usual. He reveals Jacob visited him shortly after Ben destroyed the freighter and told him all he needed to know “for this exact purpose.”
As the MIB approaches, they all scramble about what to do. Miles runs, Charles and Zoe hide, and Ben says he will do neither because it’s no use. Richard decides to try talking to Smokey, but he overestimates Smokey’s desire for Richard’s help anymore and is immediately pummeled by the creature.
Well, I guess he didn't need Richard anymore after all!
Ben turns, wide-eyed, and very deliberately sits on the porch. The MIB comes around the corner as Locke to speak with Ben, “just the man he was looking for.” And he cuts right to the chase: He needs Ben to kill some people, and in return, the whole island could be his. Ben agrees, and the first order of business was to give up Widmore’s hiding spot. When MIB suggests he wait outside, Ben says he wants to see this.
"You can have the whole island to yourself." I'm wondering if Ben is genuinely joining him...or if he realizes he's being played, and merely playing along with hopes of conning the MIB back in the near future. Ben saw that he was needed... MIB was coming to him out of weakness, not strength. I hope Ben is playing upon that. Because I'd like to think his Sideways arc as "the nicest guy ever" proves his apparent island redemption in recent weeks wasn't all for naught.
Ben sarcastically apologizes to Charles for giving him up. MIB asks who Zoe is, and before she says anything, Widmore tells her not to speak (rendering her pointless). MIB reacts by cutting her throat. Bad-ass, and thoroughly awesome (hated her!!)
She even looked terrible dying... Good riddance!
Threatening Penny’s life, MIB gets Charles to talk. He whispers just what he needed to know (about Desmond’s usefulness) before Ben fires multiple bullets at Widmore. His reasoning? Widmore doesn’t deserve the chance to protect his daughter. Payback’s a bitch! MIB says that Ben never ceases to amaze him but luckily Widmore had already told him what he needed to know. Ben then asks whether there are some “other people to kill” (awesome, classic Ben). Locke gives a gloating look.
Ben finally takes his revenge on Widmore.
AT THE WELL:
MIB takes Ben to the well where he threw Desmond. Ben wonders why MIB chooses to walk, when he could just fly as the smoke, but MIB likes to feel the ground under his feet… It makes him feel human again. One wonders if his desire to feel human, or reignite his feeling of humanity, will be his downfall (the key to killing him). They arrive and surmise Sayid helped Desmond escape instead of killing him. MIB reveals Widmore’s secret: Desmond was a fail safe. That if he killed the “beloved candidates” he was one final way for Jacob to be sure that he would never leave this place. In 2004, Desmond turned the failsafe key and destroyed the Swan hatch. In 2007, the MIB believes Desmond is the Island’s failsafe that can destroy the island.
Ben wonders why he is happy that Desmond is still free, and he replies when he finds Desmond he will get him to do the one thing he could never do himself: “Destroy the Island.” (dum, dum, dummmm…) So now we know he’s not only trying to leave it, but also destroy it. By the way, nice blow to Ben: The MIB offers Ben the job of leader of the island, yet not long after reveals that he intends to destroy the island instead. Nice con, MIB.
Desmond is one in-demand guy right now!
Now, off to decide which character I’m going to dress up as for the finale party! Suggestions?
Happy FINALE-watching… *sniffle*
Jen / desmondismyconstant
Filed under: Episode Recaps | Tags: across the sea, adam, bad twin, black, eve, heaven, hell, island, jacob, locke, lost, lost recap, man in black, MIB, mother, recap, sea, smoke, smokey, twins, white
"For an episode that many fans allegedly disliked, “Across The Sea” has inspired some of the most spirited and thought-provoking commentary I’ve ever seen from Lost fandom." --Doc Jensen (And I couldn't agree more!)
Well, we finally got the history between Jacob and his twin brother, “He Who Shall Remain Nameless!” The story played out in one continuous narrative, à la the “Ricardos” episode earlier this season. The story was both mystical and intriguing, as it painted the forces of “good” (Jacob and his mother) as somewhat malevolent and prone to dabbling in the dark side from time to time… See Mother killing Claudia with a rock as soon as the twins were born, bashing MIB’s head against the cave wall, killing his people and burning their camp to the ground, as well as Jacob killing the MIB (sending him downstream to a fate he knew only as worse than death), and thus he himself creating the island’s resident killing machine, the Smoke Monster. The side that has long been associated with good, white, lightness, God, benevolence, etc. has had its image tarnished. And I thought that point of view was intriguing.
Doc Jensen:
”Across The Sea” promised oodles of noodle-cooking Island mythology, and we got just that — which is to say, a yarn that played like myth, albeit with a mean deconstructive streak. You got the sense that the drama that unfolded in this hour left some indelible grooves on the psychography of the living Island, laying track for all future drama to follow. Did the Mother/Jacob/Man In Black drama curse this world like the Biblical fall of man? Did this tragic trio doom future Island visitors to suffer through adaptations of their same sad story? So many shared elements. Shipwrecked castaways. A deadly first encounter with a supernatural Island entity. ”Special” children and child abduction. Ghosts. Suspicion and conflict with Others. Mystery boxes and games. The war between faith and reason. Betrayal and murder. Does the current iteration of this repeating myth involving Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and the rest of the surviving Oceanic 815 lot represent one more manifestation of the cycle that will continue forever and ever, Amen? Or is the great twist of the entire Lost saga is that everyone, friend or foe — from the castaways to Fake Locke to Dead Jacob — are actually striving toward the same end from different angles: reversing the curse; breaking the chain; cleaning the slate; reboot. We shall see.
Ancient Roman (?) Times
Claudia washed ashore approximately 2,000 years before the crash of Flight 815. She is immediately shown with a billowing RED dress, and heavily pregnant. She is now the 3rd woman to arrive on the island with an advanced pregnancy (Claire and Rousseau are the other two). She immediately finds a stream to have a drink of water, and in the reflection (how very Sideways world) of the water she sees a woman. They first converse in Latin, then switch to English, but as Claudia’s questions get too numerous, the woman tells her to get some rest. ”Every question I answer will simply lead to another question.’‘ I’m sure a lot of us would agree that’s the overarching theme of LOST, a source of much intrigue and frustration over the last 6 years… Probably the reason I’m writing and you’re reading this blog in the first place! (wink wink)
But Claudia quickly goes into labor. Jacob is born first, quiet and swaddled in a WHITE cloth. Claudia has chosen his name, and decides on it definitively. And then came the unexpected twin, the Baby in Black! Born agitated and restless, he is is swaddled in a BLACK cloth while his mother, stumped, says she has only chosen one name. But she doesn’t have time to decide on one, as the woman says “I’m sorry” and kills Claudia with a rock. Brutal!
Content Jacob, restless Baby in Black.
It is unclear as the story unfolds if the Baby in Black was ever given a name, as he is always referred to with pet names (“My Love”, “Brother”) and personal pronouns. Previously, Ben stated that “[they] don’t even have a word” for the Smoke Monster. Now we learn that he is literally nameless.
Doc Jensen:
We’ve been told repeatedly that names mean something on Lost. So what does a mean for a life to be denied a name? It suggests to me a life without meaning or challenged by meaninglessness — fitting, given the life in question was destined to lose his humanity and decohere into polymorphic smoke. Still, I’m going to say that Mother did give the Babe In Black a name and Lost decided to keep it from us to keep the character something of a blank slate for us to project ideas upon.
Thirteen Years Later
The Boy in Black (here on out, known as BIB!) finds an ancient Egyptian game on the beach called Senet, which is the oldest known board game in the world. Senet boards were often placed in the grave alongside other useful objects for the dangerous journey through the afterlife. For the BIB, the Senet box was exciting and exotic — proof of the “something more” from across the sea that Mother said did not exist.
Senet. Note that this is the same black beaded bracelet that Sideways Sawyer wears in his desk at the police station.
The BIB says he “just knows” how to play, and makes Jacob promise not to tell Mother they found it. However Jacob immediately tells Mother about the game, because as she says, Jacob “doesn’t know how to lie.”
I think this was a really important line for the show because it confirms that everything Jacob has ever said has been the TRUTH. And as she was comparing the two boys, one would assume that she mentioned this because the BIB does tell lies. She refers to his qualities as “special.” Besides being deceitful, he exhibits special insight such as intuitively knowing the rules to Senet, predicting the weather, and knowing that the wheel mechanism will help him leave the island. She tells the BIB she left the game for him to find, which I am not buying. It washed ashore, and saying it was her doing was damage control to keep him from thinking there was somewhere else to go.
He questions what is out across the sea (she says nothing), he asks what dead means (she says something he’ll never have to worry about). Interesting. At this point, she was hoping the BIB would take her place as island guardian. But as she herself AND Jacob can attest to… The island’s guardian is a mortal that may have stopped aging naturally, but can be killed. She knew her own death was imminent… So why wouldn’t he have to worry about death?
The boys chase a boar, but it is killed by three unknown hunters. They demand an explanation of the Others from Mother, and she says they’re not like them, “we are here for a reason.” (Sounds a lot like the original John Locke.) She tells them the Others are dangerous because “they come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt and it always ends the same.” (Sounds a lot like the MIB on the beach.) She tells the boys that she has made it so they can never hurt each other. So SHE is the reason they can’t kill each other, but they can urge others to kill them on their own free will.
The boys being led blindfolded...
They arrive blindfolded at the cave of light, The Source. The BIB says that it is beautiful, she agrees and tells them that a little bit of the same light that is in the cave is inside every man but that people always want more. Mother says that while the other people can’t take the light, they might try and if the light goes out here it goes out everywhere. I think this is exactly what will (or will attempt to) happen in the final act of the series… Widmore and others have come to take more of the light. They can try to possess it, but attempting to do so will put it out. If it goes out here, Sideways world (where the inactive island lies at the bottom of the ocean), will be the consequence: putting out the light of the world. But the Sideways characters are connecting with their island world counterparts… Does this mean the light can be put out, but not for good? She has protected the place but when she no longer can then it will have to be one of the twins who protects it.
The Source, bathed in light. But the light also harbors the darkness of the world, aka Smokey.
”I suddenly realized that in the language, or at any rate in the spirit of the Glass Bead Game, everything actually was all-meaningful, that every symbol and combination of symbols led not hither and yon, not to single examples, experiments, and proofs, but into the center, the mystery and innermost heart of the world, into primal knowledge. Every transition from major to minor in a sonata, every transformation of a myth or a religious cult, every classical or artistic formulation was, I realized in that flashing moment, if seen with truly a meditative mind, nothing but a direct route into the interior of the cosmic mystery, where in the alternation between inhaling and exhaling, between heaven and earth, between Yin and Yang, holiness is forever being created.” — Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game
Some time later, the boys are again playing Senet, and the BIB tells Jacob that he can’t make a move because it is against the rules. He says that one day Jacob can make up his own game and then everyone will have to follow his rules.
Doc Jensen:
BIB took delight in his power… but in that moment, I was reminded of the scene in ”The Substitute,” when Ghost Jacob stood over Fake Locke and reminded him of the rules of his game, and Fake Locke raged: ”Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” Turnabout’s a bitch, ain’t it, Nameless? The bottom line is that there is no bottom line when it comes ”the rules.” ”The rules” are, for the most part, pure whimsy — an expression of the unique interests and will of The Island’s guardian. They are arbitrary inventions of The Island’s custodian. And I suspect he or she can reinvent them any time he or she wants. I am reminded of the scene in season 4, when Keamy assassinated Alex and Ben said, ”He changed the rules.” I always thought Ben was referring to Charles Widmore. But after ”Across The Sea,” I’m thinking that Ben was talking about Jacob.
The game is interrupted by the BIB’s vision of Claudia in the jungle. Notably, Jacob can’t see her. BIB abruptly leaves to follow her. She reveals she is his real mother, and she was killed by Mother. Enraged, he wakes Jacob in the middle of the night and tries to persuade him to go to the Others’ camp. The boys fight, and the BIB leaves while Jacob stays behind with Mother.
Thirty Years Later
Jacob's weaving, in Candidate BLUE.
Jacob finishes a piece of cloth, and leaves for the other side of the island to visit his brother for a game of Senet. The MIB says Jacob is mistaken about his people seeming to be good since he is “looking down from above”, and crazy Mother was right — these people are BAD (the irony of his own greedy-manipulative-untrustworthy-selfishness went unacknowledged) — but he needs them to leave the island, they are merely a means to an end. He wildly throws his dagger at a well they’ve been working on, and it is magnetically pulled to the wall. This illustrates his method of leaving. Jacob insists on staying, as the island is his home. The dagger is the same one the MIB gave Richard to kill Jacob, Dogan gave Sayid to kill the MIB, and the MIB used to kill Mother.
Electromagnetism.
Doc Jensen:
”She’s never going to die!” MIB: ”Jacob! Everything dies!” This was a provocative exchange, and it made me wonder how much of this conflict is relevant to the castaway drama. Smokey’s conspiracy to kill the candidates is also a means to an end. But I wonder if the villain uses Jacob’s unhealthy denial of death to rationalize his evil. This could be Smokey’s defense: Jacob’s touchy-feeling tampering and his idealistic redemption schemes have undermined castaway free will and kept them alive longer than what is right and proper. Seen from this point of view, MIB’s assassinations are more like mercy killings and affirmations of the natural order of things. I’m not excusing MIB’s actions. But if my assessment of Jacob is correct, I think MIB’s critique is valid.
Jacob tattles to Mother about the MIB’s intentions, so she pays him a visit while he’s working down in the well. When she first arrives, she is bathed in light but he is tinkering in the darkness. She wonders how he knows that constructing a wheel mechanism will work (and does not deny that it WILL work), and he says he knows because he’s “special”. She feigns a goodbye hug, knocks his head against the wall, then kills the rest of the Others and burns their camp to the ground. The well is filled in, and the MIB is enraged. We know that the wheel chamber does eventually get built… So I’m thinking Smokey finished the job after taking the MIB’s body.
Early stages of the donkey wheel.
A very upset MIB with his hopes dashed, his livelihood in flames around him. A tragic aftermath of epic Smokey proportions, in fact! Just what WAS Mother... something of a smoke monster herself, perhaps?
Sure now that the MIB is not the chosen one, she takes Jacob to the cave of light and as she says, “You’re going to protect it now,” she symbolically passes her torch to him. Although she first asks Jacob to choose to protect the Source, Mother finally tells him he really doesn’t “have a choice.” She adds that she realizes “it was always” meant to be Jacob who would replace her (therefore cementing his fate regardless of his free will). In a ceremonial display, she makes him the island’s guardian. Drinking wine from the chalice and her incantation were almost exactly like the Catholic Holy Communion. With that, they were “the same”. Jacob asks what is in the cave, and she replies: Life, death, rebirth; it’s the source, the heart of the island.” To go down there would “be so much worse than dying.” (umm, yeah…you get Smokified! i.e. forever bound to the island, your immortal soul gets severed from your mortal body, and you are held captive for all eternity.) She tells him “It’s going to be you,” sensing that her death is approaching; Sayid says the same thing to Jack after telling him to rescue Desmond just before the C4 explodes. Hint, hint.
Doc Jensen:
Jacob tried to fight her on it. He called her out on preferring MIB over him. ”You wanted it to be him,” Jacob barked. ”But now I’m all you have!” Mother tried to convince him otherwise. She said if she had been grooming MIB for the job, she had come to realize she was wrong and that Jacob was always supposed to have the job. I don’t know if I believed her. I think at best, she was pulling an Obi Wan and telling the truth ”from a certain point of view.” I think she always saw her boys as a means to an end; she just didn’t know which one was going to play which part. I truly believe she wanted one of them to become The Island’s guardian — but I also think she wanted one of them to put her out of her misery. That misery? Loneliness. Madness. The endless dead end job of being Island guardian. Or maybe, just maybe, the fate-worse-than-death damnation of being a smoke monster. (!)
"It's going to be you."
When they arrive back, Mother finds the camp wrecked, says a “storm is coming”, and sends Jacob off for firewood. She finds the Senet pieces, and as she lifts the black piece, she is stabbed through the chest with the MIB’s ancient dagger. With tears in his eyes, he asks why he is not aloud to leave, and she says, “Because I love you… Thank you.” Sooo… Was he able to physically leave, but she just wanted to keep him there? And by killing her, and incurring Jacob’s revengeful wrath, did he cement his own unwanted fate of being forever bound to the island as Smokey? Very interesting… Mother was also killed per the same instructions we’ve heard given before — “Kill [the Monster] before [he] has a chance to speak… [He] can be very persuasive.”
Doc Jensen:
With her dying breath, she thanked the son she loved the most, the one that was most like her, the ”special” one with the angry spirit — the dreamer; the gamer; the liar; the cynic — for stabbing her in the back and through the heart. Were the boys nothing but an escape plan? Did she raise one to take her job and the other to take her life? Is this the way The Island works?
Backstabbed, and grateful.
Jacob discovers the MIB hovering over Mother’s dead body, and in a rage drags the MIB through the jungle to the cave of light. Production note: Titus Welliver (the MIB) broke 2 fingers in this scene because of Mark Pellegrino (Jacob)’s rough dragging. Jacob says he has no intention of killing him. Nope, worse than death in fact! The MIB is thrown into the stream, hitting his head on a rock…as he enters, the light goes out, and Smokey emerges. As does the MIB’s dead body. Makes me think that Smokey wouldn’t have been able to take the MIB’s form if he was alive when he entered the cave. That little unintended accident had very unfortunate consequences for both of them…
Smokey is born. And after Mother's peculiar and Smokey-esque story, we're left to wonder, does anyone who go down the chute to the Source emerge as a smoke monster? Are we dealing with multiples?
And just as Room 23′s brainwashing slideshow predicted, Jacob’s actions produced a major cause of his own suffering for many years to come.
That fateful day, Jacob (avenging his Mother's death), tossed the MIB down to the Source, and Smokey emerged to haunt the island's protector for more than a century.
As the MIB is laid to rest by his regretful brother, we get a big answer! The Adam + Eve skeletons were actually the MIB and Mother. The black and white rocks were their Senet game pieces. Jacob placed them next to each other and had them hold hands. On September 28, 2004, Jack and Kate discover the bodies at the caves, hides the rocks in his pocket (is this important?), and Locke comments that they’re our “very own Adam and Eve.” In the original scene, Jack says that judging by their clothing, they’re about 40 or 50 years old. But the likelihood of any clothes surviving unprotected in a tropical environment for 1500 years is nil. Details, details!
Admittedly, I was slightly let down by this revelation… I was hoping that either (A) it was Rose and Bernard, or (B) Hurley was right when he speculated that it was them, and they died here while time traveling. Though, upon further consideration, I suppose the fact that it was NEITHER of the options I was expecting, I’m glad the show can still keep me on my toes, haha…
The original Adam + Eve skeletons discovery.
Overall, we learned in this episode that the MIB seems to subscribe to a scientific worldview, associating with men who want to use technology to harness the power of the Source. Jacob faithfully follows his mother’s teachings. This makes the MIB the “man of science” and Jacob the “man of faith.” However, in a twist of irony, the MIB eventually assumes the form of John Locke, the “man of faith.”
–
I’m still in shock that the finale is less than a week away!!! Excited, sad, nervous, etc… Up next, the 2nd-to-last episode, the setup for the story’s endgame: “What They Died For.”
Thanks for reading!
Jen / desmondismyconstant
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Filed under: Episode Recaps | Tags: ben, claire, david, elizabeth, hurley, island, jack, jacob, jin, juliet, kate, lapidus, locke, lost, man in black, MIB, miles, recap, richard, sailboat, sawyer, sayid, smoke monster, sun, widmore, zoe
Reunited. And split. And reunited some more!
Well this week we got a story that furthered along the Sideways arcs of ALL our castaways in one fell swoop. And I’m beginning to think it’s also impossible for them to die in Sideways, as it is on the island (fate/the island/Jacob/God/etc. isn’t done with them yet, which was reiterated by Jack to Sawyer in this episode)… See Sun and her baby surviving a gunshot wound to the abdomen, and Locke being saved by Jack the surgeon after surviving being hit by a speeding car.
The title “The Last Recruit”, I think referred to quite a few people. Desmond seems to be hopping all over Sideways gathering up as many Oceanic passengers as he can, at least the ones he recognizes from his Island timeline. In that way, I think he’s been recruiting the castaways to open their eyes to their other timeline. Also, Jack ended up staying behind with the MIB, he is likely the most important recruit, and the last to arrive in MIB’s camp. Jin was also the only one not in MIB’s group at the end of the last episode. And Claire was wanted by some but not by others on the sailboat… Kate said she wasn’t leaving without Claire, so she hopped aboard. And what about Desmond himself… He was busy in Sideways recruiting others, but on the island, Widmore sure did want to get him back!
Doc Jensen:
‘The Last Recruit” didn’t blow me away. Some of it really bugged me, actually, but it was a necessary staging episode for the final act of the season (and the series!), and I won’t judge it too harshly. But can I just say that the Lapidus quip ”Looks like someone got their voice back” was maybe the most cornball line ever uttered on Lost? (Like I said: not too harshly.) Still, there were plenty of meaty things in this busybusybusy outing to chew and savor. Jack’s torchlight chat with [MIB] was dense with significance. (Mystery Resolution Alert! Christian Shephard has always been a Smokey apparition! But did you believe M-T’s claim?) Sayid’s wellside conversation with Desmond also captured my imagination (do you think Mr. Designated Assassin executed his kill order?), as did Sideways Sun’s freak-out over seeing Sideways John Locke. And then there was the set-up for the next episode: Sideways Jack’s scramble to save Sideways John’s life. That passing reference to Locke’s obliterated neural sac was a nod to the classic moment in the pilot when Jack recounted his most harrowing moment as a young doctor. It led me to wonder if Lost is about to come full circle and give Jack an encounter with mind-clouding fear in both worlds. Count to five, folks: I think things are about to get scary.
Some quick thoughts from each story:
Sideways Locke, Jin and Sun:
Sun exclaims in Korean “It’s him! It’s him!” as they are wheeled next to each other at the hospital. Seeing as how they haven’t run into each other in Sideways at all, she was most likely crossing over into her island life through her traumatic brush with death.
"It's Him!"
And I think Locke was having a similar experience in his traumatic state. In the ambulance he said “My name is John!” (just as his mother insisted “His name is John!” the day he was born), but he also remembered that he was supposed to marry Helen Norwood. The pathetic past tense of that statement is all John Locke, but as soon as Sun recognized him he smiled: MIB.
Also in this scene, the paramedic suggests Locke’s wheelchair probably saved his life. Just as in the island timeline, his missing a kidney saved his life after being shot in that very spot.
Sideways Sawyer, Kate and Sayid:
At the police department, Sawyer waltzed to his desk biting into an apple… symbol of the Tree of Knowledge, of course. Sawyer and Kate flirt but don’t hit it off like their island counterparts.
Sayid is on the run after killing Keamy and his men and heads back to Nadia’s to pack. Sawyer and Miles see Sayid on video surveillance footage and states: “That’s our bad guy.” As he escapes out the back door, he’s tripped by Sawyer holding a taut garden hose. This is reminiscent of Rousseau’s trapping methods used to catch Sayid back in season 1.
Sideways Desmond, Claire and Jack:
Desmond catches up with Claire, his next target, and creepily pushes her into Ilana the lawyer’s office so she can bring Jack and Claire together at the reading of their father’s will. Jack is taken aback, but gets called in to work to perform a complicated surgery. In other words, he is forced to abandon Claire at the lawyer’s office just after reuniting with her, just as he abandons her in the jungle on the island. But… Duty calls! At the hospital, Jack sees Locke’s reflection in the mirror (Sideways mirrors), and recognizes him immediately.
Island (2007):
Jack and MIB talk civilly apart from the group. We find out for sure that the MIB can only impersonate those who are dead, and whose bodies are on the island. He said he took the role of Christian simply to show Jack where to find water. Not sure we can believe this completely, but sounds plausible…
Doc Jensen:
”Because you needed to find water,” he said. There was an implied ”Duh!” in there, as well as some implied irony. Back in season 1, Ghost Christian was a storytelling device that revealed Jack’s character and solved a castaway survival issue (finding water) — but did it mean anything more than that? Did the writers really know that Ghost Christian was a manifestation of The Monster, or was that something they decided after the fact? I know many of you are debating the question today, and my answer is that I don’t really care because either way, I am satisfied with resolution of the Ghost Christian mystery.
Claire was following them, and when she gets time alone with her big brother, says cryptically that because Jack let the MIB talk to him, whether he likes it or not, he is now WITH HIM. So then all the rest of the castaways are with him too… right?
Doc Jensen:
To be honest, I think the Jack-Claire twist hasn’t panned out to be as cool as it first seemed to be. Making them related by blood nourished the important thematic idea of interconnection between characters that existed prior their Island meeting. It also ratcheted up Jack’s angst over abandoning the castaways and during his Oceanic days. Perhaps there’s time to squeeze more out of it.
Zoe comes into the MIB’s camp threatening to get Desmond back by nightfall (though she doesn’t refer to him by name. Widmore’s team refers to him as the “package”, MIB keeps him hidden from the rest of the Candidates, everyone’s trying to keep his presence on the island hush-hush). Zoe has a warning shot fired using her radio. She leaves the device with the MIB, who promptly smashes it. Just as Locke smashed Naomi’s radio from the freighter. He says “here we go” and lays out an elaborate plan for the group to split up, get the sailboat, and meet at Hydra. Sawyer has plans of his own, based on his deal with Widmore (why on earth did he still think that was valid??), and recruits Jack, Kate, and the rest of the castaways to steal the sailboat, rendezvous with Widmore, and take the sub off the island. Good point about the plane plan not working… Everyone comes and goes via sub!
Sayid goes to kill Desmond, but Desmond (presumably) talks him out of it. Sayid lies to the MIB later and says the job is done, hoping he’ll trust that it is.
"What will you tell her?" Desmond's question breathed life back to zombie-Sayid. Doc Jensen: Nadia's reaction (''Did you hurt someone?'' And then, chilling: ''What did you do, Sayid?'') only confirmed what Island Desmond had said to Island Sayid about the cost of reunion.
Jack decides that this “doesn’t feel right”, and after talking to Sawyer, jumps off the sailboat and heads back to the island. This is reminiscent of their last escape attempt via helicopter… Frank urged them to drop all the weight they could, when Sawyer decided one less passenger would help them make it out alive.
Doc Jensen: "We were brought here because we were supposed to do something, James. And if Locke — if that 'thing' — wants us to leave, then maybe it's afraid of what happens if we stay?'' In that line, it seemed to me that Jack was applying several lessons of his Island experience, including all the hard lessons Ben had taught him over the years about Island bad guys. Island bad guys figure out what you want most in life, then exploit it. They motivate you with fear and urgency, and make it sound like you share common interests, but in most cases, whatever it is they want you to do is actually the exact opposite of what you should be doing.
The sailboat arrives, and Sun and Jin are finally reunited after 29 episodes apart… yay! And with her constant back, she’s able to speak English again. The celebration is short-lived when Zoe gets word that Widmore’s deal is off and holds them all kneeling at gunpoint.
Jack makes it back to the beach and is met by Locke and his group, who guesses that Sawyer took his (well, Desmond’s) boat. After saving Jack from the explosions, he reassures him: “You’re with me now.” Eek! Also: Jack is saving Locke’s life in the flash-sideways timeline, while in the original timeline, the fake Locke is saving Jack’s life.
Sidenote: We didn’t see Richard, Miles, and Ben at all this episode. Methinks their quest to destroy Ajira over on Hydra will be key to the endgame!
Miscellaneous:
• Trailers for this episode featured the Pendulum song “Through The Loop“. The song features samples of The Rowing Song, as spoken by Gene Wilder in the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, which was again adapted from “The Rowers”, a 1959 poem by Roald Dahl. In the movie it is part of the selection process of choosing a Candidate to succeed Willy Wonka.
• Ilana’s office where Desmond, Claire, and Jack go is on the 15th floor.
• Drinking the Kool-Aid: Sawyer tells Kate that Claire can’t come with them because she “drank Locke’s Kool-Aid.” This may be a reference to the Jonestown cult mass suicide of 1978, when over 900 followers of Jim Jones committed suicide at their Guyana camp. Jones had cups of Flavor Aid or Kool-Aid dosed with cyanide.
Jonestown Massacre
• Regarding MIB’s role:
Doc Jensen:
My recap hinges on a reading of Lost that I’ve had since ”Ab Aeterno.” In the climactic scene of the episode, the Man In Black vowed to kill Jacob and any of his replacements. It’s been my stated theory since then that MIB has been lying to the castaway candidates about getting them off The Island alive. Instead, what he’s been conspiring to do is get them killed by either trying to escape — or by trying to stop him from escaping. MIB can’t kill the candidates himself, per the implied rules expressed by the Ghost Boy that’s been haunting him, so he needs to manipulate Widmore into slaying the castaways, or trick the castaways into killing each other. All this said, MIB’s homicidal ambitions may not be ”evil.” I have previously speculated that the castaways have lived long past their natural expiration date and need to pass into the afterlife, which may or may not be represented by the Sideways world. Thus, killing the castaways isn’t wrong, but rather the means to end their unnatural state of being. Among the flaws in my line of thinking: it does seem to be increasingly likely that the Sideways world is some manufactured reality that represents the pay-out of MIB’s happily-ever-after promises to the castaways. The following recap leans more on the latter perspective, though it doesn’t quite square with my characterization of MIB as a tough love angel/afterlife traffic cop. Indeed, with each passing week, it does truly seem that MIB is as Satanic as we fear him to be.
• Regarding Hurley’s role:
Doc Jensen:
Should we be skeptical about the legitimacy of Hurley’s ability to see and converse with the dead? Ghosts have visited Hurley since ”The Beginning of The End,” the season 4 premiere, when Charlie’s specter visited him at the mental hospital in the flash-forward time frame and began wooing him to go back to The Island. That was also the episode where Hurley got lost in the jungle and stumbled upon Jacob’s haunted shack and peeked in the window and saw Ghost Christian in a rocking chair. Then an eyeball popped into the frame and glared right back at him and scared the hell out of Hurley. Or maybe it scared the hell into Hurley. Assuming that Jacob’s haunted shack didn’t belong to Jacob at all, but was instead a prison for The Man In Black, I wonder if the dark man literally got into Hurley’s head in that eyeball moment and has been messing with him ever since. Consider Ghost Jacob. In the season premiere, he instructed Hurley to take Sayid to The Temple for healing. How did that turn out? Sayid came back to life and helped MIB lay waste to The Island’s spiritual epicenter. In ”Lighthouse,” Ghost Jacob instructed Hurley to take Jack to the lighthouse by evoking his father’s memory. (”You have what it takes.”) How did that turn out? The experience left Jack convinced that Jacob was a perverted voyeur who had been spying on him since childhood and further convinced him that The Island was not a place where he’d find healing for his brokenness. Putting Jack in such a place helps MIB’s cause because it sets Jack up for one of his Faustian bargains. What do you want most in the world, Jack? Reconciliation with someone you love? Your father, perhaps? Because I can do that.~ I wonder though if this can be true because (A) Hurley saw ghosts off-island in the original timeline before he came back to the island, and (B) Ilana mentioned quite a few episodes ago that the MIB is now stuck in John Locke’s body. We’ve since seen him turn into the smoke monster, but he hasn’t inhabited anyone else but Locke since then…
• Sawyer refers to Lapidus as a guy from a Burt Reynolds movie… People are saying this points specifically to the Burt Reynolds movie, Deliverance. I’ll be exploring this option eventually (as I’ve never seen the movie), but in the meantime I’m pointing you in the right direction. Take note!
Deliverance could hold some Lost clues.
Next week: “The Candidate” …But which one? I’m guessing another Jack episode, but we’ll see!
Sorry so short this week, I may add in if free time allows! Lost is taking a week off next week, and I wish they left us with a bigger cliffhanger to explore for 2 weeks, but maybe things will reveal themselves the longer I mull them over! Thanks for reading, as always. Comment and share!
Jen / desmondismyconstant
Filed under: Episode Recaps | Tags: desmond, Doc Jensen, everybody loves hugo, hugo, hurley, ilana, jacob, libby, lost, lostpedia, man in black, MIB, recap, season 6
The episode’s title, “Everybody Loves Hugo”, is a nod to the season 2 episode “Everybody Hates Hugo” both were written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. Ironically, in the island timeline, not everyone loves Hugo after he blows up the Black Rock and leads the group right into the MIB’s clutches.
Whereas in the original timeline, Hurley’s lottery winnings only brought him bad luck and despair, in Sideways he uses the money not to buy fancy cars and houses, but to give back to the community. The whole experience is fully rewarding for him… But he is still unlucky in love and feels unfulfilled. Until Libby comes along (again) and changes everything…
Everybody Loves Hugo
Sideways Timeline (2004)
The off-screen master of ceremonies, Pierre Chang, narrates over a short retrospective film and slideshow of Hugo Reyes’s life. Hurley didn’t get a conventional Sideways-mirror moment, but rather a retrospective film. Despite no apparent connection to the DHARMA Initiative or its orientation films, the Pierre Chang of Sideways world is nonetheless narrating a video presentation. He describes Hurley’s success at establishing Mr. Cluck’s empire and his philanthropic undertakings. The slideshow features Jorge Garcia’s actual baby pictures and his dog Nunu.
Hugo... What a guy! Noteworthy... He and everyone else are dressed in BLACK.
Mr. Cluck's ribbon cutting – Hurley and the kids in WHITE, everyone else in BLACK, also lots of RED.
Wow... Photoshop!
He announces that a new paleontology wing of the Golden State Natural History Museum (the museum where both Pierre Chang and Charlotte Lewis work) is being named after Hugo Reyes. Hugo is introduced as the Man of the Year. He stands up to the audience’s applause and accepts his sweet T-Rex award.
Doc Jensen:
The Sideways Hurley of ”Everybody Loves Hugo” leveraged the wealth, power and privilege generated from his ”lifelong love affair with chicken” to feel cherished and adored. ”Hugo and giving became synonymous,” Dr. Chang said in his ode to Hugo. What he didn’t mention was the unhealthy psychological return he got on his investment: a fraudulent sense of self-worth. Ah, the things we do for love.
- RED tie. WHITE dino.
[re: T-Rex] An interesting allusion for an episode about leadership, but also an ominous symbol for a season that finds the castaways shuddering under the dark cloud (literally) of potential extinction — provided, of course, you actually believe Charles Widmore and Richard Alpert when they say that some kind of reality-blotting catastrophic event will occur should Smokesaurus Rex succeed in escaping The Island. Yet the psycho-spiritual-celestial-quantum mechanics of the Lostverse seem to allow for the continuance of mind and/or spirit provided that one has love in their life. The best articulation of this Good News comes to us in Penelope’s ”Live Together, Die Alone” epistle. Bottom line: The castaways need a constant, a better half, an Eve to their Adam or vise versa. [...] ”Please don’t give up, Des. Because all we really need to survive is one person who truly loves us. And you have her. I will wait for you. Always. I Love you, Pen.” — The closing lines of Penelope’s letter to Desmond, ”Live Together, Die Alone,” Season 2
After the ceremony, Hugo walks out with his mother, who says everybody loves Hugo except women and that he needs to meet a girl. Harsh! He says he doesn’t have time. She then tells him she has set up a lunch date with a neighbor of friends, Rosalita.
RED flower + lipstick.
The next day Hugo is waiting at a Mexican restaurant, Spanish Johnny’s.
Doc Jensen:
FUN FACT! Spanish Johnny is a character in a novel called The Song of The Lark, about an opera singer’s rise to artistic self-fulfillment. Of course, Spanish Johnny is also a character in the Bruce Springsteen song ”Incident at 57th Street,” in which the young romantic is described as being ”dressed just like dynamite.” You can find the song on the same album that includes the song that shares its title with the name of the woman Hurley was supposed to meet at the restaurant: Rosalita.Libby tentatively walks up and asks if he’s Hugo. He jumps up saying he wasn’t expecting someone so pretty. She admits that she is not Rosalita, his blind date. She takes his hands and asks whether he believes that two people can be connected like soulmates, and asks if he remembers her. Her doctor, Douglas Brooks, interrupts and takes her away. Hugo follows them out and watches as she gets into a van from Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute, where he himself used to live in another life.
Libby wore a whole lot of PURPLE this episode (as well as Ilana), which I theorize is the exact muddled mix between Candidate BLUE (Hurley's Sideways color) and Candidate-guiding RED (Hurley's island color). But purple is also a prominent religious color, specifically during Lent. Purple is the color of the garment that covered Jesus, when he was taken to the crucifix. Jesus Christ's face and eyes turned purple in color when he was tortured during crucifixion. Purple sashes are draped over crosses during Lent, leading up to Jesus' resurrection on Easter. So does PURPLE in Lost = Resurrection??
Hugo moodily orders a family size “bucket” at a Mr. Clucks store. And judging by the preview for next week (which contained the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory psychadelic boat trip song) his ordering a bucket was a pretty direct nod to the story’s star: Charlie Bucket.
One Bucket Please...
Charlie Bucket
Sidenote: Any Freaks & Geeks fans?? Did you catch NEIL working at the Mr. Cluck's counter?!
As he eats he sees Desmond staring. He has clearly procured the flight manifest over the past week and is tracking the passengers down, one by one. He comes over and asks if he was on Oceanic 815. Hugo explains that he eats when he is depressed, and that he met an awesome woman at the restaurant but there is one problem, she lives in a mental institute. She said they already know each other and that Hugo would certainly remember her if they did. Desmond tells him he should follow his gut and try to find out how she thinks they knew each other before he gives up on her. Desmond leaves when his order #42 comes up, having successfully sent Hugo on his mission to connect with his island counterpart. Well… that was easy!
Mission accomplished... Surrounded in guiding RED...
So off he goes to Santa Rosa to find Libby. Her psychiatrist (who also used to be his), Doctor Brooks, is reluctant to let Hugo see her because she has issues with reality. Hugo writes a donation check for $100,000 as a bribe to meet with her, and it works. (Fun Fact: Jin’s mother also demanded $100,000 for not revealing to the public that she was a prostitute.)
Dr. Brooks' office: BLUE and BLACK
When Hurley walks in, we see a chalk drawing of an island on the blackboard, butterflies on the wall (the Butterfly Effect?), and a patient playing Connect Four. It’s not Leonard, but in the original timeline, Connect Four was the game played by Leonard Simms, who played both colors at once while repeating the numbers over and over.
Leonard Simms
Island drawing, butterflies, and RED and BLUE plastic bins on the table.
Hurley asks where Libby thinks she knows him from she admits the explanation will not make sense. She saw him on TV a lot of memories came rushing back from her life, except that it was another life. She says there was a plane crash, that she was on an island and that they were there and they liked each other. She also believes he was at this clinic. He still doesn’t remember, but asks her if she wants to go on a date. She agrees, because she is after all in the clinic voluntarily.
Hugo refers to Libby’s knowledge of a “bizarro alternate universe”. “Bizarro World” is an alternate version of Earth in the DC comics (Superman) universe. It has all the same people as the original Earth, but everyone acts opposite to how they act on the original Earth.
Bizarro World
The picnic from another life.
On a beach, Hugo and Libby set up a cheese picnic. She says that being at the beach with Hugo is familiar, like a date they never had. He asks why she would want to be with him, and she says because she likes him, they kiss, and Hugo immediately has vivid visions of the time they had on the island. He hesitantly says that he thinks he remembers stuff, and he doesn’t think she is crazy after all. Similar to Desmond’s experience, Hugo is recalling future events from the original timeline.
Flashes of their island romance.
Desmond watches from a car nearby, looking pleased, then drives off. Blooper alert (?) When Desmond was watching Hurley and Libby on the beach the license plate was 4PCI264, when he runs over Locke it is 2FAN321.
Later, Desmond sits in his car outside the school where Ben and Locke work, watching Locke wheel himself across the parking lot. Ben knocks on his window, suspicious, asking him what he is doing. Desmond lies about moving to the neighborhood and looking for a school for his son, Charlie. (Was Des remembering his island-timeline son, pulling the name from his recent inspiration from Charlie Pace, or adding another nod to Charlie & the Chocolate Factory? All three? I thought so too!) Desmond keeps his eye on Locke and dismisses Ben politely, starts the car, and races across the parking lot and runs Locke down. He appears to be seriously injured but still alive. Ironically, Locke is murdered by Ben in the original timeline, but Sideways Ben is the first to run to his aid:
Ben to the rescue.
Well, this shot sure looks familiar....
Locke also lay on the verge of death, face up, with blood running down his cheeks, after he was pushed out the window by his father and Jacob showed up to revive him.
And just like that, Sideways Locke just bought himself a one-way ticket to the hospital… St. Sebastian’s hospital… To meet again with his island nemesis, Dr. Jack.
My Theories: I believe Desmond, now connected with his island timeline counterpart, knows that Locke now isn’t really Locke and is the masquerading evil MIB who pushed poor Desmond down the well. Each of Desmond’s characters has figured out what his ultimate purpose is: to stop the MIB… to make Sideways a reality… to destroy Sideways… Whatever it may be! So he has begun rectifying the situation. Personally, I think he is trying to keep the island INTACT with a new guardian in lieu of Jacob’s death (my money’s on Jack), which in turn creates a NEW timeline, similar to Sideways, but devoid of the MIB because the island that was keeping him contained is no longer rotting at the bottom of the ocean. The new timeline has our heroes connecting with their doppelgangers from another timeline, and leaves them free to decide if they will stay on the island and help the Jacob-replacement… Or begin anew in Sideways with a preserved memory of their past experiences in both timelines, allowing them a “new lease on life” to move forward in the direction of their choosing using experiences they regretted in the past. If the events of Sideways aren’t desirable (i.e. Sun getting shot), they may choose to stay on the island. It’s up to their own free will. After all, “whatever happened, happened” and cannot be changed. Therefore, I think Kate will stay with Jack on the island, as her life on the run doesn’t suit her anymore; Sun and Jin will sacrifice Ji Yeon to stay together; Sawyer will connect with Juliet in Sideways and have coffee; Hurley will stay with Libby who is alive in Sideways, etc. etc. etc.
Doc Jensen:
Again, another scene that left me chilled and baffled, which made me dig it even more. I think we have to wonder if Sideways Desmond is now fully self-aware with all of his Island memories, past, present and future. I don’t think Desmond ran down Sideways Locke for revenge. I think it’s possible that Desmond tried to kill Sideways Locke to prevent Fake Locke from migrating into Sideways Locke’s body, but that strikes me as cruel that Desmond would basically murder an innocent man just to prevent his future corruption. So I’m thinking the most likely scenario for a hero like Desmond is this: I think Fake Locke has been inside Sideways Locke all along, and Desmond tried to kill him to force Fake Locke back into the Island world.– That’s what I’ve been saying all along, folks (pats self on back, hehe).
Original Island Timeline (2007)
Hurley is at the survivors’ burial ground, placing a flower and talking to Libby at her grave. He asks why she hasn’t visited him, like Charlie, Ana-Lucia, and the others have. I think she doesn’t have anything keeping her in limbo, she was allowed to move on.
RED flower
Ilana interrupts and asks if he is ready to go to the Black Rock where they will get dynamite to destroy the plane. She isn’t sure that it is the right thing to do but it is the only move they have. Hurley tells her Libby was murdered before their first date. The Whispers precede Michael’s sudden appearance. He has come to stop Hurley from getting everyone killed. Hurley doesn’t trust Michael, as he murdered Libby, but Michael says that it doesn’t matter because if Hurley blows up the plane a lot of people will die and, due to the fact that people are listening to Hurley now (Jacob’s right-hand-man in persuasive/guiding RED), it will be his fault. Jack arrives and hurries him along.
Michael appears, but whose side is he on? If his wardrobe is any indication, he's on Team Jacob (WHITE). Also his arms are outstretched like Jesus/the mysterious blonde boy.
At the beach camp, Ilana arrives saying that they must make it to Hydra to destroy the plane before nightfall. She tells Richard that she has 4 sticks of dynamite. Hurley overhears and says this isn’t a good idea, especially since the dynamite is so unstable. Ilana says she must protect them, prompting Hurley to ask how blowing up the plane will protect them. Ilana thinks it’s the only way to prevent that “thing” from leaving, and repeats that Jacob said to follow Richard, and Richard says to blow up the plane. But as she speaks she drops her pack and the dynamite explodes, killing her and knocking the others down. Ilana had just finished talking about how she has “trained her whole life” to protect the candidates when she is suddenly killed by her careless handling of dynamite. Not so sure the island was “done” with her… Left to their own devices, the Candidates marched themselves right into MIB’s camp! They clearly still needed her.
So long, Ilana... Nice knowing you!
Hurley goes through Ilana’s possessions and finds a small bag, looks inside it and then keeps it. Jacob’s ashes.
It's assumed to be Jacob's ashes, since Ilana has been known to carry them around.
He also finds a book… Notes from Underground, a Russian-language copy of this 1864 short novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It deals with the conditions of existence of the individual and their emotions, actions and responsibilities principally attempting to validate free will as opposed to determinism.
Notes From The Underground
Doc Jensen:
This isn’t the first time this season Lost has cited a seminal text in the canon of existential lit. In ”LA X,” Lost cited Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard, a writer whose fingerprints seem to be all over the season. For example, have you noticed the conspicuously repetitive practice of presenting characters would either/or choices? Kierkegaard’s oeuvre includes a work called Either/Or. (And Repetition, too. And before I get the e-mails: Yes, maybe The Sickness Unto Death has something to do with The Sickness, as well.) But I think last week signaled an even deeper dive into existential thought with that rabbit named Angstrom. ”Angst:” a word that comes to us from Kierkegaard. ”Angstrom:” a unit of measurement in electromagnetic radiation and other natural sciences. It’s almost as if Lost is now declaring existentialism as the philosophy that fuels its intellectual engine, especially here in the mirror-fixated season 6; a key tenet of existentialism, be it the Christian brand endorsed by Kierkegaard or the godless kind represented by Jean Paul Sartre, is the idea that reflection creates identity. Perhaps The Island isn’t a magical place that traps souls or spirits. Maybe its unique physical properties allow it snare energy patterns of consciousness. Heck, maybe ”trapping” and ”snaring” are the wrong verbs. Maybe The Island unlocks, cultivates, or even makes consciousness. [...] But it was also an apt choice for an episode that offered a comic take on Dostoevsky’s tale of a not-so romantic date from hell, and also illustrated the author’s philosophy of the mind: tortured and tumultuous, torn between action and passivity, a riotous collection of conflicted voices that’s close to could be called neurotic and has been often likened to schizophrenia. In other words: chaotic. Or: ”highly unstable.”As you read the following excerpt from critic Richard Pevear about Notes From The Underground, think of Spiritually Numb Sayid and Spiritually Alive Hurley — points on an upward arcing curve of existential heroism, from sleepwalking to waking life, from lost to found:
”The one thing that [Dostoevsky's] negative characters share, and almost the only negativity his world view allows, is inner fixity, a sort of death-in-life, which can take on many forms and tonalities, from the broadly comic to the tragic, from the mechanical to the corpse-like… Inner movement, on the other hand, is always a condition of spiritual good, though it may also be a source of suffering, division, disharmony, in this life. What moves may always rise.”
Richard tells Hurley that they must get more dynamite or Ilana’s life will have been in vain, but Jack says the message is the dynamite is too dangerous to handle. He adds that he has promised Sun to get her off the Island, to which Richard replies that he wishes that Jack hadn’t made that promise, adding that Jack should put the blame on him for breaking it. Hurley speaks up authoritatively saying Richard is right and that it is the only choice they have, he looks Jack in the eye and asks him to trust him. After a long pause Jack agrees. After all, Hurley would never steer them in the wrong direction. It’s all about trust!
As the group treks to the Black Rock, Ben cynically says that Ilana, hand-picked by Jacob to protect the candidates, tells them who they are and then blows up. He adds that the island was done with her and he wonders what will happen when it is done with them. They arrive at the Black Rock to find Hurley running out of the ship, shouting to run. The Black Rock is destroyed.
Poof! Richard's bad memories are gone forever.
Richard demands to know why Hurley did it, to which he replies that he is protecting them. Ilana was done, and now Hurley is stepping up to the challenge. Richard storms off, and Miles also asks why he did it. Hurley says that Michael told him to, though Miles doesn’t know who he is talking about (he knows Michael but as Kevin Johnson). Hurley says he is one of the dead people who come and “yell” at him. Miles wonders why he just does whatever the dead people say, and Hurley says the dead people are more reliable than the living. Aha! It seems most of the people still living don’t really know what they should be doing, they’re blindly following one island power or another, unsure of their purpose or intent. Even Hurley is now blindly following ghost-Michael even thought it was clear he didn’t completely trust him. Plus, Miles was noticeably skeptical of Hurley’s encounters with the ghosts. He clearly hasn’t had the same experience with them.
Jacob's over there. Richard calls Hurley's bluff.
Jack suggests they should talk about it, but Hurley (falsely) says that he knows what they need to do and it is to go talk to Locke. Ben says he is trying to get them killed and Hurley points to a place in front of them, saying Jacob has told him that they have to talk to Locke. Hurley used the magic word: Jacob. Richard is disbelieving, he claims Hurley is lying because Jacob doesn’t tell people what to, yet ironically Jacob had recently given Ilana and Hurley specific instructions to carry out. Hurley approaches and, as he stands alongside Richard he says that he doesn’t have to prove anything to him, that he can either come with him or keep trying to blow stuff up. Jacob (as well as the MIB) are all about free will and not forcing anyone to do anything they don’t agree with. Which makes me think that the times Hurley thought he was talking to Jacob’s ghost was actually the MIB in disguise (giving him instructions). Richard adds that if that “thing” leaves the island, it’s over… Everything. Now I’m skeptical of what Richard says because we saw his backstory episode, and he knows about as much as we do at this point!
Richard asks for help to destroy the plane, and only Ben and Miles join him. Jack trusts Hurley and says they should talk to Locke. Sun and Lapidus join them, hence the group breaks up. With Ilana gone, the group ends up confused and in shambles.
On their hike, Sun writes a note to Frank asking whether they have made a mistake and he says "probably" (foreshadowing).
Hurley asks what they should say to Locke, Jack says not to worry because Locke will do most of the talking. Hurley admits that he didn’t see Jacob back there, which Jack already knew. He explains that ever since he got Juliet killed that all he wanted to do was to fix it. Jack muses that the lesson of all his failed attempts at fixing things is that he really ought to “let go” (a regularly spoken phrase).
Jack makes it clear that he is going to trust Hurley about talking to Locke. And just as any trustworthy individual would do, Hurley adds that he has no idea where they are going, haha. Just then the Whispers start and Hurley runs off to speak with Michael. Hurley asks if there are others like him. Michael says they are the ones who can’t move on. Yay, an answer! Unfortunately, it sounds a lot like purgatory… Damn you, Lost writers!! So does Hurley hear only the whispering of lost souls that are relevant to his mission? And why is Michael lingering behind… Is he being held for his relevance to the island’s endgame (guiding Hurley), or truly unable to reconcile his inner demons even though he appeared to before his death on the freighter? TBD. Michael shows Hurley where Locke’s camp is, and tells him not to get himself killed. He adds if he ever does see Libby again to tell her that he is very sorry.
MIB/Locke is working on a large wooden stick, Sawyer asks him if he is fashioning a spear, but Locke says he doesn’t know…when the time is right it will tell him. This reminds me of Mr. Eko’s inscribed walking stick, reminding Locke at one point to “look to the north”.
It will tell him what it is when the time is right. Cryptic much?
Eko's stick, an appropriate reference in an episode featuring 2 of Eko's tail-section pals: Michael and Libby.
Locke explains to Sawyer and Kate that they are waiting for Hugo, Sun and Jack to join them, because just as they needed to be together to return to the island, they also need to be together in order to leave “this god-forsaken rock”…interesting choice of words, it has been forsaken by God. Kate expresses doubt about the others joining them, just as Sayid returns from his mission and asks to speak with Locke in private.
Sayid says Widmore didn’t see him but that his people did. He didn’t see the point of killing them when he had what he came for (Desmond, who is tied to a tree, and the rope is wrapped around his chest 4 times.).
Desmond, sporting RED and needlessly being held captive.
Locke apologizes for tying him up and frees him. Desmond calmly says he understands, but he has nowhere to run anyway. Locke accepts it as a good reason against captivity and cuts his bonds. He took a second to consider this, as surely he was referring to himself being held captive on an island for hundreds of years… Nowhere to run? Clearly he wants to leave the island, but by this point he has nothing left in the outside world to run TO.
Locke asks Desmond why Widmore brought him to the Island. Desmond says that he was kidnapped (brought against his will), so that question will have to be directed to Widmore; he adds that he was thrown into a wood shack and blasted with a huge amount of electromagnetism, which he knows from “experience.” Desmond, perhaps not knowing yet or just playing coy, says that the MIB is John Locke. This prompts the MIB to take him for a walk. He offers his hand to Desmond and pulls him up saying that there is something he would like to show him.
Locke asks Desmond to remind him of long it was that Desmond was in the hatch pushing the button. Desmond says three years. Reflecting that here he is, back again, Locke says that if he didn’t know better he would say the island has it in for Desmond. Desmond says that there is nothing special about him and that the Island has it in for all of them. Locke agrees, and gets distracted by a mysterious boy standing nearby. Desmond asks who it is but Locke says to ignore him. As Desmond looks at the boy, the boy catches Desmond’s gaze, smiles and runs off. The boy in this episode had dark hair (MIB?) opposed to the blond in The Substitute (Jacob?), although the 2 boys are played by the same actor. Methinks they are supposed to be the same boy; one younger, one older.
The creepy boy is back, with darker hair.
Mysterious blonde boy who appeared earlier this season, in exactly the same pose as Michael appeared to Hurley at Libby's grave in this episode.
Doc Jensen:
I thought it was the same ghost kid, but older. My theory is that the ghost kid is Jacob, and that he is changing and growing rapidly on the Island and that when he reaches adulthood Jacob will become incarnate again. The ghost kid then is a kind of ticking clock for FLocke; I think he has to accomplish whatever it is he needs to accomplish before Jacob is restored to power.Locke leads Desmond to a well, one of several on the island. The existence of the well implies the presence or previous existence of another energy pocket in that location, just like the Swan and the Orchid. He drops a torch down and shows that it is very deep, then explains that the well is very old, that it was built by hand by people who were looking for answers. They had noticed that compass needles spun at points like this location. I think he was one of the people that dug the well looking for answers, thus became bound to the island forever.
Bad prop, guys!
But he says that digging the well did not give them answers, and that he brought Desmond to the well because Widmore is not interested in answers, that he is only interested in power and that Widmore has brought Desmond back so he could help him find what he was looking for. Desmond expresses doubt that this is the only reason Locke brought him to the well. He knows what’s coming. Locke asks Desmond why he isn’t afraid. Desmond asks what is the point of being afraid, and Locke pushes him into the well. We see in the previews for next week that he lives… whew! It seems Desmond’s island fate is to always end up in some kind of electromagnetic hole in the ground (a setup for Desmond’s coming need to time-jump and save them all). And while Locke pushes Desmond down a well, ironically Sideways Desmond runs over Locke with his car.
Doc Jensen:
You know what I loved about The Well? I can’t explain it. I literally have no idea what the hell happened there. I spent a lot of time researching the significance of Desmond getting thrown down the well. I found so many rich allusions, beginning with an Chinese folk tale called ”The Man Who Was Thrown Down A Well” that just feels so dead-on Lost and so specific to this episode that it gave me goosebumps. It tells the story of an unredeemed soul who gets unjustly thrown into a well where he encounters spirits who are trapped and yearn to move on into the afterlife. They help do his penance and become a better person, an then after three years (the same amount of time Desmond spent in The Hatch), he returns to the surface world, forgives the man who threw him into the well and fulfills his promise to the lost, trapped souls. Then again, there’s ”The Man Who Lived Underground” written by Richard Wright, a provocative existential novel whose anti-hero protagonist has a pretty irresistible Lost-esque name: Damon Cross. Then again, there’s the story of Joseph, the seer who was thrown into a pit by his brothers and sold into slavery, just because they were jealous that Daddy loved him so much to give him a technicolor dream coat. Daddy’s name? Jacob. And then there are number of ancient gods who resided deep below the Earth. They were known as Chthonic deities, and they include such names as Hades, The Furies, and Iacchus, born in the Underworld and considered the ”torch bearer” of mysteries and herald of the goddess Demeter. You know how the ancients paid homage to Iacchus? By tossing a torch. And what did Fake Locke do right before he told his strange tale of mystery hunters (Dowsers?) who dug in the dirt searching for answers and finding nothing? He tossed his torch into the well.Locke returns to the camp and tells Sayid that they don’t have to worry about Desmond anymore. Hurley walks into the camp and hesitantly calls for a truce so no one is killed. Locke gives Hurley his knife and his word. Frank, Sun and Jack then show themselves, but Locke only greets Jack and they stare at each other. Jack shows concern, Locke shows satisfaction. So by Hurley’s rash decision to go talk to the MIB instead of blowing up the plane, he unwittingly furthered the MIB’s plan to get the rest of the Candidates together, and even hand-delivered the PILOT who’s going to fly the Ajira plane home. DOH!!
MIB gains 3 Candidates and a pilot in his supergroup.
Ahh, the Man of Science vs. the Man of Faith: Round 2!
Last thought — Plato’s concept of Anamnesis could be exactly what the characters have been experiencing the last couple weeks. It means “recollection, reminiscence”, literally “loss of forgetfulness”) is a term used in medicine, philosophy, psychoanalysis and religion first used by the Greek philosopher Plato to equate learning with remembering.
Doc Jensen:
The epiphanies produced by anamnesis bring us closer to that which Plato and pals called ”The Good.” The emotional response to these discoveries: euphoria. In Plato’s dialogues, Socrates says that knowledge recovered by anamnesis is the only knowledge worth knowing, because the knowledge connects us, or rather reconnects us, to spiritual, eternal realms. Socrates says that any other kind of knowledge doesn’t matter. Think: Charlie’s testimony of secret knowledge, his experience of consciousness-altering love — and his zealous belief that ”nothing else matters” except to gain even more of that secret knowledge and remain in the light of transcendent revelation.
Raphael's Plato
Doc Jensen:
It means to recollect or remember. But it’s a special kind of recollecting or remembering. When a doctor asks you to recall your entire medical history for the sake of compiling a complete patient history so he or she can know how to treat you, that’s anamnesis. (Think: Smokey’s psychically probing the castaways; the Others and their extensive case files on each castaway.) When Christians partake in the Eucharist, i.e. Holy Communion, the remembrance of Christ’s ”last supper” with his disciples, that’s anamnesis. Or so Wikipedia tells me. (Were Lost‘s ”Last Supper” promos meant to point us toward anamnesis?)The Lost Supper
Next week… AWESOME preview:
The title is “The Last Recruit”. Now that the MIB has the rest of his Candidates, sounds like he’ll be off to recruit his last guy: Jin. The song from the preview was pulled from this creepy RED/BLUE-heavy Willy Wonka boat scene:
The complete Roald Dahl poem recited:
There’s no earthly way of knowing
Which direction they are going!
There’s no knowing where they’re rowing,
Or which way they river’s flowing!
Not a speck of light is showing,
So the danger must be growing,
For the rowers keep on rowing,
And they’re certainly not showing
Any signs that they are slowing…Other Charlie & the Chocolate Factory references:
- 5 Golden Tickets in the candy bars. The Oceanic Six in the island timeline received Golden Tickets good for lifetime free flights after they were rescued.
- One of the other ticket winners was the gluttonous overeater Augustus Gloop, while this episode was centered around Lost’s “gluttonous” golden ticket winner slash depressed overeater, Hurley.
- The Golden Ticket winners in both stories were huge celebrities.
- In the chocolate factory, the tour turns into a punishment for the bad children as one child after another falls victim to his or her particular vices and is removed. The MIB and Jacob appear to be exploiting the castaways’ vices as a sort of test of viability.
- Charlie is the only child who does not misbehave throughout the factory. Seeing that he is the only one left, Wonka announces that he has “won.” He receives the entire factory and will take over the company after Wonka retires. The reason Wonka had sent out the Golden Tickets was to find a child to be his heir, as he himself has no family to carry on his work. Sound familiar? (wink wink)
There's no earthly way of knowing, which direction they are going!
Sorry this was posted so late, but thanks for sticking with me!
Jen / desmondismyconstant
Filed under: Episode Recaps | Tags: charlie, desmond, happily ever after, hurley, island, jacob, lost, lost recap, man in black, MIB, penelope, penny, sideways, widmore
The end begins now! So what did we learn last night? Not space nor time nor parallel worlds could keep Desmond from his one true love, Ms. Penelope Widmore! (Awww.) But we also got a glimpse into what Sideways world actually is… A parallel universe, one in which the castaways don’t belong. They are starting to have glimpses into the lives of their island counterparts’ lives, and learning that everything that’s around them might not even be “real”… That they’re not supposed to be there, and their “happily ever after” may not exist…. Finally! Connection between the Island world and the Sideways world. Desmond is the first to travel between the two, distinguish them, and start on the road to changing things.
Desmond gets it.
Doc Jensen:
Indeed, the most intriguing possibility to come out of ”Happily Ever After” — just a smidge more intriguing that the possibility that Charles Widmore could actually be a good guy — is that the castaways might actually have a choice between happily ever afters. Wow. See, Juliet? Free will does exist on The Island, after all!
Original Timeline (2007)
Desmond wakes in an unfamiliar room and Awful Zoe explains that he has been unconscious for 3 days. She gave him a shot to wake him up. Disoriented, and in need of his constant, he starts calling out for Penny. The last he remembers, he was shot by Ben Linus as he was unloading groceries where his boat was docked and Penny was waiting for him. He tackled Ben and a fight ensued, from which he still bears the battle scars. In the hospital, Eloise and Widmore dropped by. Clearly they were scheming to get Desmond out of the hospital and back to the island. When Desmond freaks out when told he’s back on the island, he is restrained and Widmore says, “the Island isn’t done with you yet.” It was the same line that Ms. Hawking had told Desmond after he refused to take part in her Ajira 316 plan.
Widmore gets a good whack to the head... And then sports a similar gash to Sideways Jin, Sideways Desmond, and Island Sun.
When Jin asks what Desmond is doing there, Widmore asks Zoe to take him to the generator. As Zoe leads Jin outside they pass generators and capacitor equipment and major cabling as well as one large central piece of equipment shaped like a cube (the magic box).
The Hydra compound.
Upstairs in the control room of the Hydra Station preparations are underway with laptops, monitors and electrical controls, but Seamus iterates that they aren’t even close to being ready yet. As they turn the controls up to full power, a circuit fails. Seamus sends a technician — Simmons — in to check the toroidal coils, as he tells a white rabbit named Angstrom that he’s next. The rabbit’s name references Harold C. “Rabbit” Angstrom, the main character in five of John Updike’s novels. The novels follow a theme of the human themes of life, death, and redemption. Also, Ångström is a unit of length often used to measure the wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation or other scales of wavelengths of light. It is named after the Swedish physicist Anders Jonas Ångström (1814 – 1874) who worked at the Stockholm Observatory in the field of astronomy. Ångström studied terrestial magnetism, light, and optical phenomena – including studying light spectrums and wave lengths of light.
John Updike novels: Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich; Rabbit at Rest; Rabbit Remembered
In the Orchid orientation film, Dr. Edgar Halliwax talked of a how the island’s properties allow Dharma ”to conduct unique experiments of both space and time”. He placed rabbit number 15 inside the “vault”, which was constructed adjacent to “negatively charged exotic particles”. He explained how the rabbit would travel 100ms ahead of four dimensional space — three consisting of space and one of time.
But back to the story, we all knows what happens next… Simmons = toast.
Ouch.
Doc Jensen:
EXTRA CREDIT! The Simmons Theory Challenge! Did you think Simmons referred to: A. John Simmons, noted philosophy professor and author of such pieces as The Lockean Theory of Rights and On The Edge of Anarchy, or B. the character Simmons from Red vs. Blue, the sci-fi animated series with Lost-esque themes and tropes (long con conflict, existentialism, ghosts, disembodied minds and spirits, electromagnetic hoo-ha) set within the world of theHalo videogame series?Simmons = RED, Desmond is wearing RED in the island timeline.
Widmore arrives and asks Zoe whether they are ready as Desmond is dragged, struggling, in. He looks aghast at the dead man but orders Desmond to be taken inside. He says if what he has heard about Desmond is true then he will be fine. Widmore tells Desmond that once the experiment is over he will ask him to make a sacrifice. Desmond cynically asks Widmore what he knows about sacrifice and he responds that his son (Daniel) died here for the sake of the Island, that Penny hates him and that he hasn’t even met his grandson (Charlie). In other words, he gave up the love of Eloise and his children and instead focused on material wealth (hint hint…that’s where Sideways Desmond seemed to be heading). He adds that if Desmond won’t help, it will all be for nothing as everyone will be gone forever. Desmond is locked inside and tied to a chair but is unable to escape before they power up the toroidal coils. It reminded me of Jacob’s chair in the cabin. I suppose it could’ve been the same one, hmm…
Jacob's chair? And there's the toroidal coil.
Doc Jensen:
Widmore then ordered his minions to prepare Desmond for ”the test.” Zoe objected. ”The test” was supposed to take place the next day. Interesting. It’s clear that Widmore came to The Island with a timetable for how and when stuff should be going down. But for the second time in as many episodes, Team Widmore conspicuously went off-script. Last week, it was Zoe abducting Jin a couple days early, incurring Widmore’s anger. Last night, it was Widmore caving to impatience and getting guff from Zoe. (The intrigue over the proper or expected timing of events was mirrored in the episode’s Sideways storyline; more on that in a minute.) I’m wondering if these improvised decisions and seemingly rash actions will make a difference in the end — if Team Widmore’s lack of discipline will yield an unintended, perhaps unwanted result.
Jin demands to know what is happening and Widmore explains Desmond is the only person known to have survived a catastrophic electromagnetic event (when he turned the failsafe key and the hatch blew up, sending his conscious into a time-traveling world where he first encounters Mrs. Hawking… But if he’s the only one that “survived”, then is everyone else dead??) He needs to know that Desmond can do it again “or we all die”, so he orders the equipment to be turned on. The closed circuit video shows Desmond free of his binds frantically trying to escape, but Widmore pulls the switches to start the toroidal coils himself and Desmond is engulfed by the flux.
Cue the Sideways whoosh!
Doc Jensen:
My comic book-soaked brained recalled Watchmen and the story of Jon Osterman, a physicist who was accidentally locked in a room and bombarded with energy that removed the ”intrinsic field” that held his being together and became unglued… only to reconstruct himself through sheer force of disembodied will into an omniscient, omnipotent Nietzschean Ubermench capable of experiencing past, present and future all at one. He became a superman. Codename: Dr. Manhattan. The problem? He found himself stripped of his humanity, neither needing nor wanting companionship or love. The story of Dr. Manhattan should remind you of the Man In Black, who told us in ”Ab Aeterno” that his humanity had also been stripped from him, hence his smokey physique. But it should also remind you of Desmond’s Sideways story in ”Happily Ever After,” for it told us the tale of a man considered something of a super-stud by the culture, but suffering from a malaise of emotional detachment. ”Happily Ever After” broke this Humpty Dumpty apart and put him back together again.Dr. Manhattan
Desmond
Sideways Timeline (2004)
Desmond is examining the Oceanic arrivals board (ahem, Alt-timeline mirror alert! Daniel’s reflection is later seen in Desmond’s car window.)
Desmond's own "looking glass"... How fitting that it's a fate-fulfilling Oceanic logo-emblazoned board.
The Oceanic flight schedule contains all six of the Numbers in various places. Hurley passes and tells him the baggage is at carousel 4 (a number). At the carousel Claire is struggling with her baggage and Desmond helps her. He asks whether she is expecting a boy or a girl, but she doesn’t know. He says she is braver than he as he is “not a fan of surprises”… Which is what MIB told Sawyer last week. It wasn’t the only time Desmond would be given a line previously uttered by one of the island’s two god-like power players. He offers her a lift and after she refuses he says that he bets the baby is a boy. His first premonition, which he doesn’t even realize he’s done many times in his past island life.
Desmond's encounter with the blonde girl of Charlie's dreams.
Desmond is met by George Minkowski… You know, the doomed time-traveling communications dude from the freighter. Desmond asks George (clad in sinister BLACK) to be taken to the office. George offers lovely ladies for companionship and when Desmond says he is here to work George says that that is why Desmond is the bosses right hand man and he is the driver.
A new Man in Black...
Doc Jensen:
Sideways George was an operator, too — a valet of vice, clad in sinister black. What’s your heart’s desire? He can fetch it for you. Perhaps George stands as an analog for Smokey during better days on The Island; perhaps once, Smokey functioned as Jacob’s right-hand bagman. [...] Back in season 4, George Minkowski was pretty consistently referred to as ”Minkowski,” while in ”Happily Ever After” he was exclusively referred to as ”George.” Minkowski, a reference to physicist Hermann Minkowski, was a definitely a good name for an era of Lost that was keenly interested in quantum physics and spacetime. But given how much George emphasized his role as Desmond’s personal Santa Claus, I wonder if Lost was repositioning George as a reference to George Santayana, famous for a saying that now looms large here in season 6: ”Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Santayana’s major philosophical work was The Life of Reason, which explored the ”phases of human progress” in various arenas. Santayana took as his project an attempt to find a way to motivate people to virtue ”without the stimulus of supernatural hopes and fears.” Apparently, he didn’t feel he succeeded. But he did place his faith that men might be motivated to selflessness by love and family. Which was exactly the theme ”Happily Ever After” took for itself, too.
Blooper alert (?) Desmond wears a wedding ring on Sideways Oceanic in the season premiere, however in this episode he is not wearing one and is clearly unattached.
I think we could be looking at a situation where the migration of consciousness from Island world to Sideways world is more than just a mind-swap. I think the combining of lives and minds and histories could create whole new people, reboots of individual timelines. Perhaps this process is volatile and ongoing. The mystery of Desmond’s peekaboo wedding ring? Perhaps his ”story” was in flux or even remains in flux until the entire matter of castaway transmigration is settled.
Glimmering little wedding band. Mistake or intended?
At the offices Desmond and Widmore greet each other warmly. Desmond looks at a sailing ship model and a super-in-your-face painting of a scale balanced with white and black rocks.
The painting... The sailboat... And lots of black and white.
Doc Jensen:
Assuming the painting means something (historically speaking, this has not always been the case), we could interpret it to mean that in the Sideways world, the opposing powers represented by Jacob and the Man In Black are balanced. I might argue that what the scale represents is the tension between the Dionysian and the Apollonian — the timeless conflict between chaos and order, passion and reason. Our aforementioned friend Nietzsche was a big fan of the Apollonian/Dionysian conflict; it formed the crux ofThe Birth of Tragedy, in which he suggested that effective, inspiring tragedy is one in which the hero of reason struggles to make sense of unreasonable fate — and loses. But in the process of the struggle, he affirms eternal values and stands as an inspiration to others. I would argue ”Happily Ever After” dramatized this idea by showing how Charlie’s seemingly meaningless tragic sacrifice three seasons ago provided an inspiring, redeeming moment for Desmond in the Sideways world.
The Birth of Tragedy
As Widmore speaks on the phone saying to “Get him arraigned and get him out of there” (Charlie). Widmore explains that his son, the musician (Daniel) wanted to combine classical music with rock (cue the Widmore eye roll) at a charity event that Mrs. Widmore (Eloise) is hosting. He says that the bassist for Driveshaft overdosed and was arrested, he asks Desmond to get him to the event otherwise Mrs. Widmore will “destroy” him… Interesting choice of words. When Desmond agrees to help Widmore is grateful that someone he trusts will do the job and adds that Desmond really has the life being free of all attachments… Ironically, Sideways Widmore is lamenting the relationships (aka the “sacrifices”) Island Widmore had to make and yearned for. It appears either life is lose-lose for him anyway. Widmore pours a 60-year-old glass of MacCutcheon’s whiskey to celebrate Desmond’s indispensability. While Island Desmond wasn’t worth the MacCutcheon’s… Sideways Widmore insists on it.
Here, have a nice glass of MacCutcheon's with me, son.
At the courthouse, Charlie walks out and Desmond introduces himself but Charlie ignores him and walks across the street into oncoming traffic (welcoming death), into a bar named Jax (paging Dr. Jack S.) The two share a pint. The moment evoked the season 3 episode ”Flashes Before Your Eyes,” when Desmond and Charlie forged their tragic rapport during an acrimonious night of drinking scotch.
Notice the "Exceptional Island Colors" sign.
Charlie asks him if he is happy, and when Desmond reels off evidence of his material success Charlie says that what he is talking about is “spectacular, consciousness altering love.” Charlie described Kate in handcuffs, and the marshal Edward Mars that was giving him the once-over and apparently knew he had drugs on him. Charlie didn’t try to kill himself as we initially thought, he was just spooked. At the exact moment he swallowed the bag of heroine, the plane hit turbulence and he choked. “I’ve seen something real. I’ve seen the truth.” Charlie had a vision. ”A woman. Blonde. Rapturously beautiful. And I know her. We’re together. It’s like we always will be. This feeling. This love. And just as I’m about to be engulfed by it…” Jack brings him back to life. Poor Charlie didn’t need to meet his demise to run into his lovely Claire, as she was on the same plane as him! Desmond says the real truth is not this vision of love but to make a choice between continuing to drink or coming with Desmond to play at the charity show. He is urged not to throw his life away. Charlie says that it didn’t seem like much of a choice (he doesn’t want this life anymore after glimpsing into the island world). He chooses the Widmore option anyway (or seemed to). Desmond says there is always a choice (fate vs. free will). Desmond did a great job of channeling the MIB in this scene: he impressed upon Charlie the idea of free will and then presented him two choices.
Charlie complies. For now. He'll exercise his free will when the timing is right.
In the car You All Everybody (does that song have any other lyrics? haha) is playing on the radio, which Charlie says was “the beginning of everything great”. Charlie says that Desmond THINKS he’s happy, and Desmond asks if he’s implying that this isn’t real (hint hint). Charlie then offered his own brand of MIB choices to Desmond: he could have a chance at the kind of epiphany Charlie had on the plane, or he could get out of the car. Desmond unwittingly makes his choice by refusing to get out of the car. Charlie grabs the steering wheel and they careen over a pier into the water.
What else is underwater in Sideways? The island. What a fitting place for Desmond to have his epiphany.
Desmond struggles to free himself and surfaces, but Charlie appears to be unconscious. His eyes suddenly open and he holds his hand up to the glass in the car window and in a flash, written on Charlie’s hand, are the all-too-familiar words NOT PENNY’S BOAT. The sound dropped out of the scene and Desmond was left staggered. He looks again and the vision has passed. Desmond gets the door open and brings Charlie to the surface. Desmond was not successful in rescuing Charlie from drowning in the original timeline, but is successful this time.
A staggering silent realization.
Doc Jensen:
‘NOT PENNY’S BOAT.” They might be the most chilling words in all of Lost lore. (Runner-up: ”We’re going to have to take the boy.” — Mr. Friendly, season 1.) When we first saw them penned in black marker on the palm of Charlie Pace’s hand in the finale of season 3, they expressed a heartbreaking discovery. Desmond Hume’s vision of escape, reunion with loved ones, and happily ever after for all the castaways was a lie at worst, plain wrong at best. Last night, a different Desmond plunged into the oceanic depths and read a different Charlie’s palm. He saw nothing at first — and then he saw everything. In a flash, Sideways Desmond Hume forged a link with his Island world doppelganger and downloaded his memory of ”NOT PENNY’S BOAT.” Yet what was a dispiriting moment for Island Desmond was full of spirit for Sideways Desmond. For him, ”NOT PENNY’S BOAT” was a call to hope; a call to faith; a call to something more hopeful than the lonely island of himself. In the gloomy shadows of a watery underworld, the Scotsman with the famous philosopher‘s name found enlightenment.
A doctor examines Desmond and asks whether he has had hallucinations; Desmond pauses and says that he’s not sure. The doctor wants to do an MRI but Desmond says he doesn’t have time and needs to find the person he was brought to the hospital with, but the doctor insists he have the MRI. He’s given a panic button and pushed inside the machine. Desmond immediately sees the vision of Charlie at the Looking Glass hatch showing the message on his palm. He then sees a glowing cavalcade of his life with Penny.
Charlie's ominous island warning, but Sideways indication of HOPE (for meeting Penny).
The OTHER Charlie... Little Charlie Hume.
Desmond, a little freaked out, pushes the button, just like his island counterpart’s job at the Swan hatch.
Desmond experiences flashes when subjected to electromagnetism. Notice the gash on his forehead, matching Sun's, Jin's, and Widmore's recent forehead boo-boo's.
Shortly after, he asks at the nurse’s desk where Charlie is… Mirroring this season’s Sawyer episode (“Recon”) when Charlie’s brother Liam was badgering a desk attendant as to Charlie’s whereabouts.
Everyone's always asking about Charlie's wherabouts 
He sees Jack and reintroduces himself. He starts to ask for help in finding Charlie, but just then Charlie runs down the passageway pursued by an orderly.
Could they make the BLUE in this hospital any more obvious??
Desmond gives chase and when he corners him Charlie says he is running because no one at the hospital can help him. He denies trying to kill Desmond but instead says that he was trying to show him something. Desmond wants to see his hand, and Charlie realizes that Desmond must have seen something. Desmond asks “Who is Penny?” Charlie says he is not going to perform because “none of this is real”. As he leaves, Charlie says to stop worrying about him and to start looking for Penny.
"None of this is real."
Desmond calls Widmore to say he has failed in securing Charlie for the show. Widmore says he can explain to Mrs. Widmore what happened himself. At the Widmore mansion George asks whether Desmond has met Mrs. Widmore before implying that she is a difficult person, but when Desmond introduces himself to Mrs. Widmore/Hawking she is charming and says it’s about time they met. She says her son will understand because employing rock stars means some unpredictability must come with the territory. I get the impression both Charles and Eloise hated Daniel’s idea from the beginning. Desmond asks if she is angry, Eloise says “Not at all dear, what happened, happened.“
The brooch Eloise is wearing in the shape of a starburst is very similar to the mark branded on Juliet. Eloise wears two of these brooches which may symbolize the two timelines.
TWO brooches.
As he leaves Desmond hears the name “Milton, Penelope (solo)” read from a LIST of guests. Widmore apparently raised Daniel in the flash-sideways timeline, while he raised Penny in the main timeline. The last names of Daniel (Widmore or Faraday) and Penny (Milton or Widmore) reflect their different relationships (and subsequent daddy issues). The surname Milton is likely a reference to poet John Milton, author of the epic poem Paradise Lost, a 17th Century poem which deals with themes of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
Wiki:
Milton incorporates Paganism, classical Greek references, and Christianity within the poem. It deals with diverse topics from marriage, politics [...]and monarchy, and grapples with many difficult theological issues, including fate, predestination, the Trinity, and the introduction of sin and death into the world, as well as angels, fallen angels, Satan and the war in heaven. Milton draws on his knowledge of languages, and diverse sources — primarily Genesis, much of the New Testament, the deuterocanonical Book of Enoch, and other parts of the Old Testament. This epic is generally considered one of the greatest works in the English language.Paradise Lost title page of the first edition (1668)
When Desmond tries to see the list Eloise intervenes sternly, and takes the list from him. She takes him aside and tells him to stop, that whatever it is that he thinks he is looking for he should stop looking for it. She says that he should not need to look for anything as he has the perfect life and has attained the thing he wanted more than anything, the approval of Charles Widmore. She adds that it is, in fact a violation. When he presses her about the list she says that he can’t see the list because he is not ready yet… Mirroring the last time his conscious time-traveled and he met with Mrs. Hawking after he turned the failsafe key in “Flashes Before Your Eyes“. Eloise definitely seemed to understand the origin, purpose, and more importantly the rules of the Sideways world. She also seemed to have knowledge or vision for what should be happening and when, and Desmond’s search for Penny threatened the implicit order. Again, we have this idea of plans and schedules being undermined by the variable of human free will.
Sidenote: Daniel is playing Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-Sharp Minor, by Frédéric Chopin, the same sheet music Jack found on David’s desk (“Lighthouse“) and the same song being played by Daniel as a young boy.
Daniel Fara...er, WIDMORE.
At his limo, Desmond has a drink when a knock comes at his window. The man knows Desmond’s name and introduces himself as Daniel Widmore and says they need to talk. Desmond starts to apologize for Charlie’s absence but Daniel asks if he believes in love at first sight. Daniel tells of his encounter with a REDhead with BLUE eyes who works at the museum (Charlotte). He says when he saw her it was as if he already loved her. That night he woke and wrote in his notebook, showing Desmond the entry and explains that a mathematician friend said that these were advanced quantum mechanics equations which would need a lifetime of study to understand, even though he is a musician. In the original timeline, the young Daniel wanted to be a pianist, but was convinced by Eloise to pursue physics instead. In Sideways, Daniel achieved his ambition of being a musician, as I believe Eloise was trying to protect him from his time-traveling island death at her hand in 1977. Daniel shows Desmond the same journal page he was studying on the beach in the original timeline. Daniel was also talking to Desmond then, albeit via satellite telephone. He tries to explain to Desmond that it is like something catastrophic was about to happen and the only way to stop it was to release a huge amount of energy, such as exploding a nuclear bomb. He rhetorically asks whether this life was not meant to be our life and that there was another “life” and for some reason “we changed things.” He adds that he doesn’t need to detonate a bomb because he thinks he already has. Well, actually, he didn’t… His mother shot him, and upon realizing her fatal error, helped his friends detonate the bomb to prevent this future of son-killing from becoming reality… It appears she has succeeded, and in Dan’s Sideways childhood, she nurtured his musical talents instead of forcing him to pursue science. In young Faraday’s piano scene, he insisted he could do both. ”I can make time,” he said. Eloise sighed. ”If only you could.” And it sounds like he did — if you believe Dan’s theory.
The quantum physics ramblings of a musician.
Desmond says he doesn’t know what this has to do with him, and Daniel asks why he is looking for Penny. He doesn’t know, and describes her as an “idea” that he doesn’t even know exists, but Daniel tells him “she’s my half sister”, and fills Desmond in on when and where to find her.
Back at the stadium...
Penny is exercising in the stadium doing a tour de stade, a nice twist on the Jack-meets-Desmond scene in the season 2 premiere, ”Man of Science, Man of Faith.” In the original timeline it was Desmond training for his race around the world, an exercise devised purely to prove his worth to Widmore. Desmond watches and then approaches her and asks if she is Penny, introduces himself and offers his hand. Penny takes it and they shake hands. A lingering handshake, much like the recent allusions to making a deal with the devil, sealed with a handshake. And then Desmond’s conscious decides to take him time-traveling… And in a breathtaking segue, quick and silent, we were back on the island.
Sealing the Sideways Deal.
Original Timeline (2007)
The technicians go into the chamber and find Desmond alive. Widmore asks how he is and when Desmond asks how long he has been unconscious, he is told that only a few seconds have passed, though his conscious was gone for quite a few hours. Having passed the test, Widmore says his talent is vital to the mission and begins to explain. Desmond interrupts, states that he understands and is ready to get started. Anything to be back with Penny. I couldn’t tell if Widmore was expecting this shift in Desmond, but he certainly welcomed it.
Desmond is escorted back to their base. Desmond explains his cooperativeness by saying a lot can happen in twenty minutes. Sayid leaps out, overtakes the two escorts and points a gun at Zoe telling her to run. She does. Awesome. He tells Desmond that “these people are extremely dangerous” (despite just snapping some necks himself) and that he and Desmond need to go now. Desmond cooperatively answers, “Of course, lead the way.”
MIB's primary henchman.
Doc Jensen:
But Desmond didn’t seem to mind being abducted by Sayid — mostly because I don’t think it really affects the mission he has now given himself. In fact, hooking up with Sayid might actually expedite his mission. We got a sense of what that mission might be when the story toggled back for a coda in the Sideways world….
Sideways Timeline (2004)
Desmond revives and Penny explains that he fainted and that she must have quite an effect on him. He agrees. It is clear he is only time-traveling in consciousness, like he had before on the island. Desmond invites Penny for coffee and she says she’ll meet him in an hour. Any connection with Juliet’s dying ramblings about meeting for coffee?? The coffee shop is on Melrose and Sweetzer in LA. There is no coffee shop at that location, however, there is an antique shop called “Thanks for the Memories” (fun fact!) Desmond returns to the limo with a huge smile. George asks Desmond whether he found what he was looking for and Desmond says he did. George asks if he can get Desmond anything else and Desmond asks for the Oceanic Flight 815 manifest saying, “I need to show them something.”
The "glow" of realization.
i.e. THIS, on the brink of death (or with the aid of some strong electromagnets), you can glimpse into a very different life. All of this isn’t real, it’s designed by the MIB to entice you to stay… All the material possessions you could want. But even these are no replacement for the meaningful human relationships they left behind in their former life. So will they choose to stay, or will glimpsing to their alt-selves with Desmond’s help void Sideways world entirely… OR ensure it’s their new reality?
Doc Jensen:
I think the great work that lies ahead for Desmond will require sacrifice, as Widmore indicated, because Desmond has the most to lose. By choosing to help Widmore and his friends in whatever capacity that is required — fighting Smokey; shepherding souls — it will mean giving up the life he fought so hard to attain in the Island world. His one consolation will be that he’s seemingly assured a second chance at the same happiness in the Sideways world. [...] I think Desmond’s ”talent” is to help each castaways open up a psychic channel for the crossing to occur. That means that Sideways Desmond has to work his people and Island Desmond has to work his people. And I think both iterations of the individual has to agree to create the channel. If Sideways Jack doesn’t want to merge with Island Jack, is isn’t going to happen.
Next week: Hurley! And he’s visiting Libby’s grave. Maybe we’ll finally find out what she was doing in the mental institution, haha… The episode is titled “Everybody Loves Hugo”, mirroring season 1′s original timeline episode “Everybody Hates Hugo”.
AND… It was just announced that the Lost series finale on May 23rd will be a FIVE HOUR EVENT… Too much Lost you say? Never. Hehe.
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Jen / desmondismyconstant
Filed under: Episode Recaps | Tags: desmond, jacob, jin, kwon, locke, lost, man in black, MIB, recap, season 6, sun, the package, widmore
Jin sees his daughter for the first time... touching.
Well, we found out what the package was — our good friend and constant, Desmond! Jin is also shuffled around from group to group as a sort of “item” to be traded (a package). What was the other one? That pesky little tomato…
Doc Jensen:
The dream of a happy ending for Jin and Sun died in me last night. Maybe it was the dispiriting experience of watching Sun’s systematic deconstruction across two different worlds in a story in which it seemed the God of all possible worlds had declared war on her. On the Island, she lost her voice — the consequence of dark magic that stripped away her English. In the Sideways reality, she was brought to the brink of losing her very life, plus the life of her unborn child, and was left to dangle there, her fate to be determined another time, in someone else’s story. Maybe it was the discouraging experience of watching Jin get so easily jerked around by some very powerful, very charismatic villains who could cloud his mind by playing to his heart. On the Island, it was Charles Widmore, promising him reunion with his family and deliverance from evil. In the Sideways reality, it was Martin Keamy, who mocked his romantic ideals to his face and managed to get him to say ”thank you” for doing so. But mostly, my despair comes from not knowing how the hell to parse the parable of the tomato, the lone living vegetable from Sun’s ravaged Island garden. Is it a symbol of stubborn hope? Or is it just a symbol of stubbornness? Is it a symbol of valentine red love? Or is it a symbol of blinding red rage? Do Jin and Sun need to learn to hold on to their dreams at all cost — or do they need to learn to let go lest those dreams damn their individual souls? Damn inscrutable tomato! Thou doest vex me!
Sideways Timeline (2004)
Sun is in a waiting room at LAX. The customs officer brings Jin out and returns his suitcase and the watch but explains that for the $25,000 to be returned to Jin, he’ll have to complete the necessary paperwork. They leave and Jin says he has missed the meeting at the restaurant. When Sun asks what all the money was for, Jin says that her father gave him the money and watch to be delivered and that he didn’t ask questions but just did what he was told. At first you think Sideways world is a lot like the original for these two… They are traveling together, Jin tells her to button her sweater like a jerk, and he’s delivering shady stuff for her father. HOWEVER… At the hotel, the desk clerk finds the booking for a room for Paik on the 8th floor and assumes it is for Sun and Jin. Jin corrects him, explaining that they are not married, and the desk clerk finds the second reservation for Kwon (number 842, 8th floor and Jacob’s designated number for them, 42). Guess we know why the customs lady called Sun “Ms. Paik” back in Sayid’s sideways story! ”The Package” took elements of the combined Jin/Sun narrative and scrambled them into a provocative, ironic new history for their Sideways counterparts….
Yes, watch. No, money. Note the RED passport (?) case...
Jin knocks on Sun’s hotel room door and says he is going to the restaurant to deliver the watch. Sun brings him inside and explains that as it is late, no one will be at the restaurant. She explains that the man works for her father so everything will be alright. Jin asks why she would care as she is in LA on a shopping trip. She asks if he thinks that that is the only reason she came to LA. She starts to flirt and unbuttons her top. ”Nobody is watching us,” she cooed, her line ringing ironic in an episode in which EVERYONE knew what they were up to. The boss’ daughter… Tisk tisk! Interesting how in the original, Mr. Paik hired Jin so he’d have a suitable job to support Sun after they are already romantically involved, and in Sideways, Mr. Paik willingly gave Jin a job (because he presumably earned the position), yet later finds him unsuitable for his daughter. Reminds me a LOT of the Widmore-Desmond-Penny debacle…. which I’m sure we’ll hear more about next week (yay!)
Meant to be together?
Sun and Jin awake in bed. Sun says they should elope using money in a secret account she has. I thought this was interesting because in the original timeline, she also has the secret account, but instead of starting a life with Jin in America, the money is for leaving Jin for her English-speaking beau, Jae Lee. In Sideways she doesn’t know English, so Jae Lee doesn’t exist in her life… But she’s still fulfilling a secret romance with her husband-from-another-life, Jin. Paik killed Jae Lee to preserve Sun’s life with Jin, but now he’s trying to kill Jin.
That's a whole lot of RED in their room...
Sun is about to tell Jin something (that she’s pregnant) when there is a knock at the door. Jin hides in the bathroom and as Sun checks herself in the mirror she gives a long quizzical look at her face…what is it with Sideways world and confused looks at mirrors?? She looks like she didn’t expect to see something about her appearance, such as her hair being so short (vs. her long hair on the island).
Mirrors, mirrors, mirrors!
At the door is Martin Keamy, the creepy crook with the Mayan death-god last name. He says that he is a friend of her father’s and pushes in saying she has something for him. Sun gives him the watch, but he asks for her bodyguard, Mr. Kwon, who has some money for him. He sees 2 champagne glasses and tells Omar to check the bathroom, where he finds Jin. He teases a bit that he was BUSTED with the boss’ daughter, but still demands the $25,000. Since neither of them speaks English, he tells Omar to call Danny’s friend Mikhail (who speaks 9 languages) to translate for them.
Our favorite Russian, Mikhail, is called in to translate.
“Danny” could refer to Daniel Faraday, which I think is most likely… Also Danny Pickett, one of the Others… Danny, the former lover of Ana Lucia… Or even Dan Norton, Ben’s attorney.
The "Danny" possibilities.
Mikhail is of course Mikhail Bakunin, the creepy Russian of Other security fame. In Sideways world, he doesn’t have a missing eye causing him to wear an eyepatch like his original-timeline counterpart. However, by the end of the story he ends up getting shot in the eye by Jin. Whether or not Mikhail survived this injury remains to be seen.
Doc Jensen:
Mikhail Bakunin is named after the historical Mikhail Bakunin, a philosopher and anarchist who believed in non-violent revolution and the abolishment of all government and religion. Leadership, if any, should come from an enlightened elite that benevolently and invisibly guided the masses. Famous sayings: ”Absolute freedom and absolute love — that is our aim; the freeing of humanity and the whole world — that is our purpose”; ”The idea of God implies the abdication of human reason and justice; it is the most decisive negation of human liberty, and necessarily ends in the enslavement of mankind, in theory and practice”; and ”If God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish Him.” Basically, the real-life Mikhail Bakunin would have admired Jacob’s kinda-sorta hands-off approach to human redemption and moral freedom — but he’d want Smokey to kill him, anyway. And then he’d want Smokey to kill himself and leave all of us alone.
Mikhail gets shot in his right eye, just like his island counterpart.
At any rate, Mikhail translates Sun’s explanation about where the money is. She offers to get the money from the bank. Keamy agrees that Mikhail will take Sun to the bank while he takes “Casanova” to the restaurant. Jin asks that Keamy not tell Mr. Paik about his relationship with Sun. Keamy says the secret is safe with him. Ironically, Jin’s loss of the money appeared to jeopardize his life, yet it is the reason that Keamy has to stall on killing him, so he was saved by fate.
Giacomo Casanova
The bank officer says that Sun’s account was closed. Sun is surprised as she says no one knew of the account but the Bank Officer says it was closed by Mr. Paik. When she asks Mikhail why her father wold close the account he says, “Why do you think?” Apparently Jin and Sun’s affair wasn’t such a secret after all. Turns out Mr. Paik put a $25,000 bounty on Jin’s head, a bounty he himself was supposed to deliver to his killer. He emptied Sun’s bank account so they couldn’t escape. BUT he didn’t think through this plan far enough to realize you can’t bring $25,000 in cash on an airplane… Doh!
The account was closed by Sun's father, who transferred all the money to his own account in SEOUL (hint, hint... sounds like "soul"...)
"Thank you"?
"Good luck!"
FYI: During the Jin-Keamy scene, Jin got his own mirror moment, his image reflected in the steel of a freezer — but Jin didn’t notice. Significant?
Later Mikhail arrives at the restaurant with Sun. They discover the carnage. Mikhail asks Keamy who did this, Keamy croaks that Mikhail should look behind him as Jin points a gun at Mikhail’s head. Mikhail asks who did this, then deduces that it was not Jin, otherwise Jin would already have shot him. He decided, perhaps incorrectly, that Jin was no killer despite being a hit-man for Paik. Mikhail and Jin struggle and Mikhail gets off two shots before trying to attack Jin with a carving knife. Jin shoots him twice in the right eye. Sun is seated on the ground crying. She has blood on her hands and is holding her abdomen. As Jin picks her up she cries that she is pregnant.
In the original timeline Sun shoots Colleen in the abdomen. In the flash-sideways timeline, it is Sun who is shot in the abdomen.
Sun, with a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
Doc Jensen:
Had Jin escaped from evil? Yes. But Sun had been touched by it, perhaps fatally. One if not two of those discharged bullets blasted into her abdomen, threatening her own precious package. ”I’m pregnant,” she told Jin, finishing the thought that had been interrupted by Keamy’s fateful arrival into their lives earlier that afternoon. We left the lovers lost in Los Angeles, one them dying, the whole of their love imperiled. Cliffhanger. Paging Dr. Jack Shephard! Paging Dr. Jack Shephard! Stop picking Sun’s Island tomatoes and report to your Sideways ER, stat!
Original Timeline – Island (2007)
MAN IN BLACK’S CAMP:
Night glasses observe MIB’s camp, as Sawyer offers Kate a cup of cocoa, and Claire and MIB are shown.
Night vision MIB. This was an odd scene for Lost, very disorienting. Reminded me of the episode that started with sub footage of the sunken fake Flight 815.
Jin bandages his leg and MIB joins him. MIB suggests that Jin should leave the bandages off and let the wound air out. Jin says he’ll do that, but continues wrapping anyway… He clearly doesn’t trust MIB.
He asks Jin whether Sawyer had told him about the names written in the cave. MIB explains that only a few names remain which haven’t been crossed off and that Kwon is one of them, though he is not sure whether it refers to Sun or Jin. (Apparently no one knows!) MIB says that the only way that they can leave the island is if all the names that are not crossed off (the remaining Candidates) leave together. When Jin points out that Sun is not with them Locke says that he is “working on it.” (He’s also missing Jack and Hurley.)
Jin keeps on wrapping despite MIB's suggestion.
MIB tells Sayid that he is leaving and that he will back in the morning, and for Sayid to keep an eye on the camp. Sayid says that he doesn’t feel anything — anger, happiness, pain. He confessed that he felt profoundly numb. Actually, Sayid sounded like he was… dead. Yet his lack of feeling alarms in him this current feeling of emptiness. So he clearly does feel something… MIB says that this (Sayid’s feeling of desensitization) may be best to get through what is coming… The impending war. MIB leaves. Jin and Sawyer see him leave and Jin immediately packs his kit. Sawyer asks him what he is doing and Jin says he’s getting out before “that thing” comes back. He berates Sawyer for just listening to whatever MIB tells him but Sawyer reminds Jin that he has a deal with Widmore. Jin says it doesn’t matter because he is going to find Sun. As Jin tries to leave he, Sawyer, Kate, Claire, Sayid and the rest of the MIB’s group are struck by darts and all pass out. Widmore’s team step amongst the bodies until they find Jin and Zoe (that god-awful actress / Tina Fey lookalike) says to take him.
MIB's group after the attack. Reminds me of the group of dead bodies over on Hydra that Widmore insists they didn't kill.
MIB returns to his camp and finds everyone unconscious, and pulls a dart from Sayid’s shoulder, revives him (a little TOO easily), and asks what happened. When Sayid says he doesn’t know who attacked them he asks “Where is Jin?”
"Where's Jin?" MIB = pissed.
MIB tells Sayid that he is taking the outrigger and asks whether Sayid is a good swimmer. He gives Sayid a gun and tells him to wrap it in plastic. Sawyer overhears. Locke asks Claire if there is something wrong and referring to the names on the wall she asks if her name is there too. Locke says it is not but that he still needs her and that there will be ample room on the plane for her too. She says that when they get home Aaron will not know her, thinking Kate is his mother. She asks if Kate’s name is on the wall. Locke says it isn’t but he needs her because she can help get the three people he needs to get off the Island. He adds that once Kate has helped get those people, then “whatever happens, happens“… A regularly spoken phrase in the series, always by Daniel Faraday… He’s getting a lot of references in this episode, eh? wink wink, nod nod….
“If we try to do anything different, we will fail every time. Whatever happened, happened.” - Daniel to Sawyer (“Because You Left“)
“Doesn’t matter what we do. Whatever happened, happened.” - Daniel to Miles (“LaFleur“)
Episode title (“Whatever Happened, Happened“)
“Can’t change the past. Can’t do it. Whatever happened, happened. All right? But then I finally realized… I had been spending so much time focused on the constants, I forgot about the variables.” - Daniel to Jack and Kate (“The Variable“)
MIB and Sayid start to leave, when Sawyer asks what they are doing. MIB says they are taking a boat to the other island, and with this, MIB implies that the Smoke Monster can’t go over the water. He’s confined to the main island but can take a vessel to leave (i.e. outrigger or plane). When Sawyer asks, MIB explains that Widmore took one of “his people” (Jin) so he is going to get him back. Ironic that he is referring to Jacob’s people as “his” people…
42-KWON on Jacob's wall.
MIB arrives on Hydra Island to find an array of sonar pylons lined up along the beach. Shots are fired and Widmore’s armed team jump out of the bushes. MIB grins as he says “I come in peace”… A joke about being extraterrestrial, also he clearly doesn’t come in peace, he declares war seconds later.
"I come in peace."
They walk down the beach with MIB remaining outside sonar fence. Widmore comes down and asks whether he knows who he is. Widmore replies that he is obviously not John Locke. Widmore asks why he came and MIB says that Widmore took one of his people – Jin Kwon. Widmore denies this, and MIB says “A wise man once said that war is coming to this island. I think it just got here,” referring to what Widmore himself told Locke in “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham“.
Two Sides of a Fence. Notice that they are wearing the exact same colors but opposite (MIB in brown shirt/black pants, Widmore in black shirt/brown pants.)
Sawyer sits next to Kate at her fire. She asks him why he is not worried but he admits he is, but also that he has a feeling that “this” is almost over, thinking that Widmore has captured MIB. The euphoria doesn’t last because just then MIB walks back into camp alone. Sawyer asks where Jin is and MIB says that he doesn’t believe them when they said they didn’t have him. Sawyer asks whether he had lost Sayid too, to which he replies by asking about the locked room on the submarine and then states that he doesn’t like secrets. He sent bad-Sayid to do a little “recon”.
BEACH CAMP:
Miles and Frank are playing cards while Ilana is cleaning her rifle and Ben asks what are they waiting for. Ilana says that they are waiting for Richard to return, to which Ben replies that he would bet, given what Richard said about being in Hell, that they will never see him again. Ilana says Hurley will bring him back. Miles is disparaging about Hurley’s ability to track anyone not covered in bacon grease (HAH!), but Ilana says Jacob has never lied to her and that therefore Richard knows what to do. She is convinced that Richard will come back and until he does they will wait. She has been blessed with Jacob’s unyielding faith. But we can’t say the same for his Candidates…as Sun walks off angrily.
Sun (wearing Jacob-WHITE) is clearly not a fan of waiting.
Sun goes to her vegetable garden, now overgrown. Jack joins her and reflects on when she planted the garden and that it seems like a 100 years ago. Jack tells her about Jacob’s lighthouse and the List but Sun says she doesn’t care about being a Candidate, or their “purpose” or “destiny” and she asks to be left alone. Jack sees this as a challenge… He needs to shepherd his errant flock, and fast! The war is coming and he has to rally the Candidates.
A little gardening to blow off steam.
Sun is weeding and cuts her finger on a leaf, and her hand is bloody just like the end of this episode’s Sideways story. “Blood on your hands” is also a metaphor for the guilt associated with killing someone, and in Sideways, Ji Yeon’s blood is on her hands.
Sun has blood on her hands.
MIB startles her by saying: “Bad day?” In “…And Found“, when Locke enters Sun’s garden, she is ripping it apart in frustration, and he asks her, “Bad day?” Here, she apprehensively steps away from him. He says that he found Jin and that he was keeping his promise to reunite them, though it took longer than he expected. He tells her that he is with his people at his camp across the island. He offers his outstretched hand (hopefully to get her to make a deal with the Devil via a handshake) but Sun says she doesn’t believe him, that he killed the people at the Temple. MIB says that those people were confused and lied to and they could have come with him. He says “I would never make you do anything against your will, please, I am asking you to come.” MIB is all about exploiting people’s weaknesses for his gain, but the rule is they must do it on their own volition, their own free will. That is how he convinced Ben to kill Jacob. Sun runs and the MIB chases her until she runs into a branch and falls.
Doc Jensen:
UnLocke got pissy and ran after her — on foot. Why didn’t he convert into a raging column of smoke and blow past her? Hmmm… Sun looked back. Oops. You never look back when you’re running from the devil (see: Persephone and Hades)
RED FLAG! Bright plant in the background in Candidate-guiding-RED serves as a warning for Sun. I also like how her shirt is PURPLE this episode... The equal mix of guiding-RED and Candidate-BLUE. So which is she? A little of both? Neither? TBD.
Ben finds Sun passed out while he is gathering mangos. She revives and speaking in Korean asks where “he” went. Ben asks that she speak in English and when he asks who did this to her she replies “Locke.” Ben’s redemption arc continues!
Jack is looking after Sun’s head wound. Ben is sensitive to a look Ilana gives him and asks why she won’t believe him that Sun was already unconscious when he found her. Ilana replies that it’s because Ben is speaking. Ironically, he’s telling the truth. Jack tells Sun that she has concussion and although she understands English she can only speak Korean. Jack thinks she has aphasia which affects the language center of the brain but that the condition is usually temporary. I find her inability to speak English after merely hitting her head a tad overdone for the on-island narrative (she can, after all, still understand and write in English). BUT. I can’t help but think she is reverting or morphing into her Sideways self as this impending war approaches. As I’ve been saying all along, Sideways world would be the result of the MIB being unleashed from his island captivity, possibly (most likely) taking the form of Sideways John Locke. So MIB’s success of getting himself and the Candidates off of the island puts Sideways into motion. And Sun is getting a head start by already losing her ability to speak English.
Doc Jensen:
Doc Shephard diagnosed her with aphasia; I diagnosed her with Genesis 11. The story of the Tower of Babel goes something like this: Once upon a time, there was a city unified by culture, language, and audacious human ambition: to build a tower that could reach heaven. God was alarmed by humanity’s outsized hubris and decided to humble them — and divide them up — by ”confusing their speech,” i.e. igniting an outbreak of foreign tongues. The denizens of the city dispersed into separate communities, cultures, and nations. Hence, The Bible’s mythic explanation for a world of difference and Otherness. However, different religious traditions tell slightly different versions of the story. In the Kabbalah version, for example, the Tower of Babel isn’t a tower at all — it’s a giant flying machine. The relevancy to Lost? It’s all about Fake Locke’s plan to get the candidates killed. Remember last episode that Richard had a spiritual revival in the Island’s Garden of Eden, underneath a massive Kabbalah-esque Tree of Life. Remember that Fake Locke witnessed that moment. Clearly, he knew Richard would be returning to the beach with a new sense of mission — a mission that I’m now beginning to wonder if Fake Locke/Man In Black gave him. A number of you last week speculated that when Isabella was speaking to Richard via Hurley, she was being controlled by — or was a manifestation of — Smokey. I didn’t want to believe that at the time, but I find myself believing in it now. Consider what Richard said when got back to the beach last night. He surmised that Fake Locke plans to flee the Island via a giant flying machine — the Ajira plane. The mission: Blow up the plane. My thinking? Fake Locke is basically running the same con that Sawyer’s been trying to run on him. He’s trying to bait Team Richard into making a move on Ajira so Charles Widmore will kill them. A more dastardly thought: Smokey is conspiring to get everyone onto that plane — specifically the candidates from his group plus the candidates from Richard’s group — in hopes that Widmore will blow it out of the sky. So why take away Sun’s speech? Because after she declined his offer, he knew she’d try to talk her friends out the plan — which she did try to do. Either that, or Fake Locke wasn’t thinking short term at all by taking away Sun’s English, but rather was planting a seed designed that will bare him fruit down the road when Team Richard executes its plan. In other words: Look for Sun’s loss of English to prove costly at a pivotal point in Operation: Ajirasplosion. But here’s another idea for you. There has been one other instance on Lost in which a character mysteriously lost the ability to communicate verbally. The episode was ”Further Instructions,” and the victim was Locke himself. The Island had taken away his speech in the aftermath of the Hatch explosion as a kind of punishment for his big season 2 sin: Straying from his Island mission and becoming obsessed with pushing the Button, abandoning the natural world of jungle for the unnatural environs of The Hatch. Stripping Locke of his speech was part of the Island’s way of dressing down its unfaithful servant and reminding him of who he was and what he was supposed to being doing. Perhaps Sun was stripped of her English for similar reasons. After all, she learned the language in order to run away from Jin. Moreover, she learned it from a man that became her lover. Sun’s English had once saved her husband from the false charge of setting fire to the raft. It helped her build bridges with the castaways. Otherwise, her English must be something of a bitter talent. To use a phrase from Dogen, she must ”hate the way it tastes on her tongue.” Regardless, she doesn’t need it anymore. Her future is in Korea, with her husband, with her daughter, and with a mother and father that need her forgiveness. So maybe losing her English wasn’t a psychic assault. Maybe it was a movement of the Island to reminder her of who she is — and what she needs redemption for.
No English.
Ilana smiles as Richard strides into the camp with Hurley following. Richard tells them all to pack their bags because they are leaving. Richard’s on a mission: STOP MIB FROM LEAVING! Miles is annoyed at Hurley for bringing Richard back, while this pleases Ilana by renewing her faith, just as Richard has just renewed his.
"Pack your bags!
When Jack asks where they are going, Richard asks Ben where MIB is. Ben tells him that he said he was on Hydra Island. Richard checks with Frank that that is where his plane landed. He says they are going to stop this “man” by destroying the plane. Sun says in Korean that the plane is the only way they can get off the Island. Richard asks why she is speaking in Korean and Jack explains that she was injured when “Locke” chased her. Richard asks her about “Locke” but Sun says that he is insane if he thinks he is going to destroy their only means of getting off the Island. She adds that she came to get Jin not “save the world” (what pushing the button was jokingly doing) and that, as Ilana thinks she is important, Richard needs her and he should understand that she is not going with them.
At night, Sun is staring out to sea by a fire. Jack suggests that she try to write in English because an aphasia patient he once had could still write. He says he went back to the garden and while looking for Locke found one perfect tomato (wrapped up very “Package”-like, hint hint) although all the vines appeared dead. He says no one told the stubborn tomato that it was supposed to die (referring of course to Sun and Jin’s relationship).
A nice ripe RED tomato! A special "package" meant especially for Sun to renew her faith in the island and especially finding Jin.
Sun writes that she didn’t go with “Locke” because she doesn’t trust him. When Jack asks Sun whether she trusts him, she nods. Jack asks her to come with them and promises that he will help her to find Jin and get them both on the plane; he offers his hand and Sun takes it. And with this scene, I think this solidifies what I’ve been suspecting all along: That Jack is indeed Jacob’s replacement. He has positioned himself as the island’s man of faith, and garners the trust and support of his flock. He seals the deal with Sun via a handshake, instilling upon her Jacob’s touch.
Jack and Sun's fireside "chat".
WIDMORE’S TEAM:
Jin wakes in a locked room (Room 23) with an array of loudspeakers. Jin throws a switch, the room darkens, and on screens are projected film with titles including “We are the causes of our own suffering” (free will), “think about your life” and “everything changes” (over a picture of BLACK and WHITE piano keys), accompanied by flashes of images and a discordant soundtrack. The only other time we saw Room 23 in use was when Karl was being punished by Ben for… dating his daughter Alex. Sideways Jin + Sun = Island Karl and Alex, both of whom were shot and killed by… Keamy.
brainwashing...
Jin throws the switch again. Zoe is in the room and says that they are in Room 23 and that the DHARMA Initiative were doing experiments on subliminal messaging in this room. As Jin goes to leave Zoe feebly zaps him with a stun gun. She apologizes, saying they went through a lot of trouble bringing him here. She shows him a grid map which DHARMA used to identify pockets of electromagnetism. She says that whoever signed the maps could help her out and that the signature looks like “Jin-Soo Kwon” . She asks whether it is him but Jin says he will only speak with Charles Widmore. Zoe says that Widmore would like to talk with him too.
Map of electromagnetic pockets.
In Hydra station, Widmore chastises Zoe saying that this should not have happened for days, with Zoe saying that he should have put a mercenary (ahem, Keamy, who failed) in charge instead of a geophysicist to which Widmore replies “what’s done is done”… A commonly used phrase:
“So, what’s done is done?” - Jack to Locke (“Lockdown“)
“What is done is done.” - Yemi to Eko (“?“)
“What’s done is done.” - Sawyer to Juliet (“The Little Prince“)
“What’s done is done.” - Uncle Doug to Sawyer (“The Incident, Part 1“)
“What’s done is done.” - Sawyer to Jack (“The Incident, Part 2“)
Realizing that Jin is watching, Widmore asks Zoe to get the Package from the submarine and take it to the infirmary. Widmore apologizes and introduces himself. He gives Jin a camera that Widmore found in Sun’s luggage at the Ajira plane. The camera contains shots of Ji Yeon, their adorable daughter:
Ji Yeon, wearing Candidate-guiding RED...
Ji Yeon, wearing Candidate BLUE...
Why is Ji Yeon's birthday banner in English?
Ji Yeon, looking ultra-cute, clutching a YELLOW flower, and wearing the same PURPLE her mother is currently wearing.
Widmore says he has a daughter too (Penny) and knows what it is like to be kept apart. Widmore explains that being reunited with Sun would be short lived if that “thing” ever got off the island. He says “your daughter, my daughter, everyone we know and love would simply cease to be.”
Note that he says their daughters and everyone they know and love, not the more broad EVERYONE…
Which, for me, solidifies the THEORY I’ve been saying for weeks: That Sideways world is the timeline that is the result of the MIB getting off the island, still in the form of John Locke. The proof: If MIB gets off the island, Sideways world starts… Sun is pregnant, but she accidentally gets shot in the stomach. So in Sideways, Ji Yeon is conceived but is never born, hence she ceases to exist, and Sun may die from her gunshot wound, so Jin would lose her too. And if in Sideways the island doesn’t exist, then Widmore probably didn’t have his off-island tryst with Penny’s mother, hence she’d cease to exist as well. We saw Sideways Desmond on the plane, where he wasn’t supposed to be originally, with a wedding band on. He is likely married to someone else in Sideways. Which I think is what Widmore is going to use to motivate Desmond to join in the fight to stop MIB: losing Penny and his son Charlie forever because Penny would never have been born. (Sidenote: Sawyer called Widmore “Charlie” in this episode, I didn’t even think about Des + Penny’s son being named after both Charlie Pace and Charles Widmore). The thing is… How does Widmore know what will happen in Sideways world if it hasn’t happened yet??? MY GUESS: Widmore is from the future. He knows MIB won the war, escaped the island, and infiltrated the real world posing as John Locke. And with Eloise’s help, he managed to get back to the island in just enough time to stop the MIB. Just my guess!
But back to the story…
Jin asks how Widmore is going to prevent the MIB from leaving, and he replies that it’s time for Jin to see the Package, which is a “who” not “what.” Cut to Sayid surfacing near the sub dock. Zoe and Seamus are pulling someone out through the hatch. They drop the body and Zoe admits she gave him too much (tranquilizer for the sub ride). DESMOND opens his eyes as his head hangs over the edge of the dock. He and Sayid look at each other for a moment, quizzically, before Desmond is carried away, wearing Candidate-guiding-RED. Desmond has one thing in common with Sideways Jin: they both have fathers-in-law that want them dead. Might Desmond Hume actually be Sideways Desmond Hume? TBD. But I think Charles wants the Desmond who is in love with Penny to use him in his Master Plan.
Desmond... The "package", the constant... Who's the variable? Methinks either Dan Faraday or Kate.
—-
Next week: DESMOND! My favorite. The title: “Happily Ever After“… Not sure that bodes well (mid-season), but we’ll see!
Thanks for reading, share if you can, and leave your comments below!
Jen / desmondismyconstant
Filed under: Episode Recaps | Tags: ab aeterno, cerberus, hades, lost, man in black, recap, ricardos, richard, smoke monster
Ab Aeterno (latin) From eternity, since the beginning of time. The phrase comes from the Latin translation of the Bible found in Proverbs 8:23 (the numbers) : “I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began.”
Well, we finally got our nice long “Ricardo” back story, and found out a lot of the island’s secrets in the process! We are now 9 hours in on Lost’s 18-hour final season… Halfway there, we’re officially in the home stretch!
Ricardos, held captive for the last 140 years.
One thing I’d like to note before starting in on what we saw in the show… I was watching the FlashForward premiere over the weekend, and that show, while sharing the same network, writers, and 3 of the same actors as Lost, has also been known to throw in a Lost teaser/tie-in (see the FlashForward series premiere where they conspicuously showed an “Oceanic Airlines: Perfect Safety Record!” billboard in one of its scenes, prompting us to theorize that Lost’s new season was going to start with Oceanic Flight 815 never crashing — giving us Sideways World).
Oceanic billboard.
Anyway, I think they gave us another Lost clue in the latest episode. The main character, Mark (an FBI agent) was remembering more details about his flashforward (glimpse into 4 minutes from 4 months in his future — a Lost number!) He was in his office looking at his corkboard of leads in solving the flashforward case. Not shown before but prominently shown now was a poster of an illustration of Cerberus. I’ve mentioned Cerberus quite a few times in my recaps, but to refresh, it’s long-been speculated (since Season 1 actually) that the smoke monster was modeled after and represents Cerberus, the multi-headed black hound/serpent that guards the gates to Hades (the Underworld, abode of the dead). It is said the name Hades comes from the name Adam (the first man), saying it is because he was the first to enter there (see the island’s resident skeletons, Adam + Eve from the caves… Doomed to Hades after being tempted by the serpent). Cerberus is often depicted with a mane of serpents similar to Medusa’s hair. I’ve also compared the MIB/Smokey recently to the biblical serpent. At any rate, I caught right away that FlashForward was forcing this Cerberus image on us, and knew it related to Lost… Turns out that after last night, that was pretty on-point!
Mosaic board (Cerberus by his right arm).
7-headed serpent Cerberus.
Tenerife, Canary Islands (1867)
The subtitle at the beginning of Richard’s flashback places the events in 1867, yet the Black Rock was thought to be lost at sea following its departure from Portsmouth, England, March 22, 1845 (“The Constant“) and the ledger was discovered in 1852. Therefore I’m wondering if the Black Rock traveled back in time a bit when it arrived on the island?
FUN FACTS! Richard’s home island, Tenerife, is later made infamous by the deadliest plane crash in the history of aviation on March 27th, 1977. 1977 was also the year in the past that Jack, Kate and Hurley arrived from Ajira to meet their pals stuck back in the ‘ol Dharma days. Tenerife is known for its ancient pyramids believed by some to be a link between Egyptian and Mayan cultures.) There is a legend in the Canary Islands which tells that there exists an 8th island called “Isla de San Borondón” (St. Brendan Island). That island has allegedly been seen several times in the Islands’ history, and there are even some ancient maps where the 8th island is drawn. Stories about the mysterious island have been told by sailors who say they landed in its beaches.
Title screen: Tenerife, Canary Islands, 1867
“Ricardo” – brave ruler – arrives at his house in secluded Socorro (Spanish for “help”) to find his wife Isabella – God’s promise – on the verge of dying with a high fever and coughing up blood. Clutching her Bible, ready to make peace with mortality, she says they’ll always be together. He vows to save her and rides through a storm to find the doctor, armed with all the money he has and Isabella’s cross necklace. The difference between Richard and Isabella was where they stored their treasure. Isabella kept it in Heaven; Richard kept it on Earth (the chasm would prove significant).
Isabella's cross.
When he arrives, he barges in on the doctor eating dinner. The doctor – Mr. Black Vest – is disinterested in Richard’s pleading to help his dying wife, but eventually suggests he has medicine that will cure her, but it is expensive. I wonder how he even knew what was ailing her, much less what will save her. Richard hands over all of his money for the medicine, then reluctantly, the cross necklace. ”Now you have everything,” he says, meaning the symbol of her life, soul and eternal hope. The doctor tosses it aside, disgusted, saying it’s worthless (her life is worthless to him)… The cross comes to rest in front of the fiery inferno, the fireplace. The two start to grapple, and Richard accidentally pushes him into a table, where he fatally hits his head. With no way to save him, and racing against the clock to save Isabella, Richard takes the (pure white) medicine and runs. Richard arrives home and finds Isabella dead. Was he simply too late, or did she die because of his sin? The constabulary immediately burst through the door to apprehend him for murder.
The doctor, wearing black.
In jail, Richard is visited by a Catholic priest, Father Suarez. Richard seeks Absolution, which forgives the guilt associated with the penitent’s sins, and removes the eternal punishment (Hell) associated with mortal sins. The penitent is still responsible for the temporal punishment (Purgatory) associated with the confessed sins, unless an indulgence is applied. Suarez refused to grant him forgiveness, claiming that there is no absolution of sin for murder (contrary to Catholic doctrine, perhaps indicating some sort of corruption, as he is after all, another Man in Black!)
Father Suarez, another man in black.
Doc Jensen:
It made me wonder if the priest declined the confession because he saw that it wasn’t genuine. Ricardo didn’t really consider himself guilty of a crime. He called it accidental. He called it killing instead of murder. He didn’t view himself as a sinner who needed God. Rather, God was a means to an end — a last gasp hope to be reconciled with Isabella in the heaven of her faith.[...] as I listened to Father’s Black’s pitiless theology, I found myself thinking this theory-thought: If only there was some second-chance place somewhere in the land of the setting sun, where you and other last-chance souls can band together and fight smoke monsters and prove yourself to cryptic gods and successfully score a seat on a flight or sub to Heaven.
Father Suarez noticed that the Bible Richard is reading is in English and Richard tells him that he has taught himself English and dreamed of moving to the New World with his wife. (Sidenote: he called the United States the “New World” but the year was 1867, and Columbus discovered the “New World” in 1492. “New World” as a term originated in the 15th century. Way off. Wonder if this was intentional…)
The Bible passage he is reading is Luke Chapter 4, verse 24. The verse reads: “And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.” Also: ”The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind; to set free those who are downtrodden, and proclaim the year of the Lord.” In Chapter 4, Jesus has returned from his time in the desert, where he thwarted the temptation of the Devil, and attends Temple in Nazareth where he cast out “a spirit of an unclean demon” from a possessed man and healed a woman with a great fever. (hint hint)
Richard's bible, open to Luke chapter 4.
He told Richard that he would only gain absolution through penance, though he wouldn’t be able to achieve it because he had been sentenced to be hanged. However, the next day, Father Suarez sold Richard to Jonas Witfield, an officer of the Black Rock, who was searching for English-speaking slaves. And Richard was basically the kind of guy who’d do anything to stay alive — even suffer dehumanization. Satisfied with Richard’s English and willingness to work, Witfield pays the priest and declares that Richard is now the property of Magnus Hanso. Not shown in the episode, referenced only by name, Magnus Hanso was the captain of the Black Rock and the great-grandfather of Alvar Hanso. Alvar was the CEO of the Hanso Foundation (aiming to “reach out for a better tomorrow” and preserve life on Earth through science and technology), and was a friend and colleague of the DeGroots, who founded the DHARMA Initiative, which Alvar helped fund and also appeared in its 1975 orientation film. The DHARMA project began due to Alvar discovering the Valenzetti Equation, which had been commissioned by the United Nations in 1962. Its findings predicted the exact number of years and months until humanity extinguishes itself as a species. The Valenzetti numbers, you ask? 4-8-15-16-23-42, of course!
Valenzetti Equation
How was that for a tangent?!
Aboard the Black Rock, Richard and other slaves are in chains below deck while the ship is caught in a terrible storm… Not unlike the storm Richard rode through to get to the doctor’s house…
Riding in the storm
A fellow slave, Ignacio, looks out of the cracks in the ship and tells Richard he sees land. The man then sees the Statue of Taweret and he shrieks that he sees the Devil, ironically this is where Jacob resides. The ship then is carried up by a gigantic wave which throws it against the head of the statue… the Black Rock destroys the white statue… and everything goes to BLACK.
Approaching the Statue of Tawaret
On-Island (1867)
Doc Jensen:
I didn’t quite understand how The Black Rock survived The Island belly flop, but [...] It evoked one of Lost‘s key literary touchstones, The Wizard of Oz. Ricardo and The Black Rock touching down on The Island = Dorothy and her house landing in Oz. Indeed, just like Dorothy’s adventure was a fantastical mirror of her hard-luck dustbowl life and plucky spirit, Ricardo’s Island origin story played like a ”This is your life!” phantasmagoria of his hardscrabble underclass existence and religiously shaped/scarred psyche. VIDEO CLIP!Dorothy opening the door to her house after landing in Oz.
Richard and his fellow captives awaken to daylight to find only five officers remain alive. Witfield comes below deck and proceeds to kill the captives one by one with his sword because they have no water and limited supplies and it would only be a matter of time before they attempt to kill him. In other words (specifically the words of MIB): “It’s kill…or be killed.”
Witfield, after killing the rest of the crew.
Just as he is about to kill Richard, the familiar sounds that accompany the black smoke are heard above deck followed by thrashing and screaming, then there is silence before it kills Witfield too, sparing Richard. The smoke monster draws right up to Richard’s face, lightening flashes 4 times, examines him, and after acquiring the necessary intel from Richard’s head, it leaves. (Necessary intel being Isabella, his vice, and where he was told he was headed: Hell.) Other people with similar encounters with the smoke monster: Locke, who said his experience was “beautiful” and is now Smokey himself, and Ben, who was judged at the Temple and spared. But speaking of Ben’s encounter, the smoke monster used the same tactic for Richard using Isabella and he did using Alex against Ben… Isabella reiterates what the MIB later tells him: that they are both dead and the island is Hell and that she has come to save him before the monster returns. Last night’s encounter can clearly be likened to when Alex appeared to Ben in the Temple when he went to be judged… The smoke monster came, hovered over him, flashed his painful memories, then disappeared. Suddenly Alex (who was dead) appeared, pushed him up against the wall and said to do whatever John Locke tells him to do. Of course by then Locke was the smoke monster, and Alex, also the smoke monster, was telling him to follow itself, what is essentially the MIB. He uses people’s emotions, shape-shifts to make them think it’s real, then exploits them for his own gain… That little Devil
Richard is "judged" by Smokey.
Some time later, the MIB comes to Richard, gives him a nice long touch on the shoulder, and says he’s a friend. He continues the ruse by saying the “Devil” (Jacob) has Isabella, and the only way to get her back is to kill him. Richard, clearly willing to do anything to get her back, makes his deal with the Devil and is freed. MIB says: “it is good to see you out of those chains”, just as he had on the beach with Richard in 2007, posing as Locke.
Doc Jensen:
Then came the bargaining. ”I want to be free, too,” MIB explained. ”I need to know you will help me. You will do anything I ask. Then we are agreed?” Ricardo said Si. This Is Your Life, Richard: Another man in black, selling salvation at a price.
The MIB feeds Richard roasted boar, tells him the Devil lives in the base of the statue (thinking back to the riddle, it’s actually “he who will save us all”), and gives him an ornate dagger with the instructions not to hesitate or let the Devil speak because he is very persuasive. This mirrors exactly the dagger and instructions Dogen gave Sayid for killing the MIB. Both ended up being persuaded as their targets were allowed to speak. The dagger he uses is a Roman Pugio, on the sheath, it depicts the Roman she-wolf suckling Remus and Romulus.
A similar dagger with similar instructions.
Richard wonders how he can kill the Devil if he is black smoke but the MIB admits that HE is the black smoke. He claims that the Devil betrayed him and stole his body and his humanity (despite appearing here as a human). He explains that Isabella was not running from the black smoke but from the Devil. He adds that he saw the Devil take Isabella but couldn’t stop him. He deflects questions about the morality and reasons of the ship’s officials murders saying that if Richard wants to see his wife again he must hurry up. Very fishy.
Doc Jensen:
My guess is that hard-core theorists will spend the next week factoring that bit of info into their ”Who is Smokey?” conjectures. Some ideas I’m mulling over? Cain and Abel, the world’s first CSI murder case. Cain was punished to wander the world as an immortal entity because he murdered his brother. He was also given a dark mark to scare away anyone who’d want to do him harm. I’d dare say that Earth-bound immortality qualifies as a kind of body-nullifying, dehumanizing curse — and that being able to convert into black smoke and change shape can qualify as some kind of protective-spooky defensive mechanism. Abel’s final fate is more on-the-nose with Lost: Wikipedia cites an apocryphal Biblical text that says that Abel now resides in a ”netherworld,” an ”awful man” who is tasked with judging all creatures, and examining the righteous and the sinners.”The Body of Abel Found by Adam and Eve
Ricardo argued that he’d basically be damning his soul with the same sin that damned him in the first place. Again: shades of Sayid. MIB got pragmatic on him. ”My friend, you and I can talk all day long about what is right and what is wrong but the question before you remains the same: Do you ever want to see your wife again?” His utilitarian logic is located in the broad, contentious body of thought known as ”Consequentialism.” As you might glean from MIB’s sentiment, a weaknesses of ”Consequentialism” is its shaky, nebulous definition of justice.
Richard walks toward the base of the statue, and as he approaches with knife drawn Jacob attacks and disarms him. Jacob was framed against the blue sky, bright and elemental, a morning star. The Latin word for ”morning star”: Lucifer. Hmm. Richard asks where his wife is, and Jacob realizes he was talking with the MIB. Richard says the only way he could see his wife again was if he killed Jacob. Jacob says the person he saw was not his wife, that he is not dead and he is not in Hell. Richard remains convinced that he is dead so Jacob drags him into the sea and submerges him 4 times until Richard says, “I want to live!” This is exactly the test Dogen’s men performed on Sayid in the Temple’s pool (and also on Claire)… Therefore I’m surmising that both Sayid and Claire are actually dead at this point for having “failed” the test. This practice also clearly alludes to Baptism and rebirth. Jacob provides a blanket for Richard after submerging him in the surf. Earlier in Richard’s flashback blankets are ordered by a Man in Black for the floor instead of Richard.
Jacob overpowers Richard and retreives the dagger.
Richard's baptism.
On the beach the two sit together. Jacob says that he is not the Devil, and explains that he brought the Black Rock to the island. Which makes me think Jacob had a hand in EVERYTHING that happened to Richard back in Tenerife, perhaps even making his wife sick/die because it would ultimately end with getting him on the island. Richard of course asks why. Jacob uses a bottle of wine as a metaphor for the island, a sort of Pandora’s Box, if you will….
Jacob says:
‘Think of this wine for what you keep calling hell. There are many other names for it, too. Malevolence. Evil. Darkness. And here it is, swirling around in the bottle, unable to get out because if it did, it would spread. The cork is this island. And it’s the only thing keeping the darkness where it belongs. That man who sent you to kill me thinks that everyone is corruptible because it’s in their very nature to sin. I bring people here to prove him wrong. And when they get here, their past doesn’t matter.”
(Note that Jacob seems to be evoking the idea of Original Sin, humanity’s state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man – guilty disobedience to God.)
The Fall depicted in the Sistine Chapel by Michaelangelo
In Greek mythology, Pandora’s box is the large jar carried by Pandora that, when opened by her, unleashed many terrible things on mankind – ills, toils and sickness – but also hope. Perhaps by Jacob shielding the world from “darkness” he doesn’t give them a chance to reject it…
The island is containing the "darkness".
He says MIB believes everyone can be corrupted because it is in their nature to be bad and that he, Jacob brings people here to prove him wrong. Jacob says he wants people to know the difference between right and wrong without being told. He then offers the job of representative or intermediary for Jacob to the people he brings to the island, people that, regardless of what they had done, would leave their past behind. A clean slate. When Richard says that he wants his wife back, Jacob admits he cannot help, and neither can he absolve him of his sins. However, he can help with Richard’s third wish, to live forever and never die. (Kinda reminds you of a Genie with his 3 wishes, right?) Jacob gives him a touch on the shoulder, and BAM! The deal is sealed. As it goes back and forth constantly about which being (Jacob/MIB) is actually the Devil, this moment could potentially be Richard’s actual deal with the Devil.
Richard returns to the MIB who realizes that Richard didn’t kill Jacob when he gives him a white rock, a gift from Jacob. Checkmate!
White wins this round.
The white rock, a symbolic gesture of course that he brought a Black Rock to the island and returned it as a WHITE rock. ”He can be very persuasive,” MIB said. You got the sense that MIB’s current imprisonment had something to do with buying into something Jacob had once sold him long ago — something that hadn’t gone exactly as planned or promised. The MIB tells Richard that his offer of joining him will always still stand, he gives Richard the pendant and disappears. Richard buries his wife’s pendant and says goodbye to his love and hope of reuniting with her.
MIB is seated on a log overlooking a valley while tossing the white stone. Jacob joins him and asks whether MIB sent Richard to kill him. The MIB says he did it because he wants to leave the island and asks Jacob to let him go. Jacob tells him that as long as he is alive, that won’t happen. Which is precisely why MIB is trying to kill him, to which Jacob replies that someone will replace him. MIB then says that he’ll just kill them, too (meaning the Candidate). Jacob says that he’ll see the MIB later and gives him the wine bottle as a gift to pass the time, saying that he’ll see him around. MIB says to himself “sooner than you think” and then smashes the bottle, releasing the symbolic darkness.
Something to pass the time.
Doc Jensen:
Wine was one of several religious symbols of the Catholic-Christian stripe that ”Ab Aeterno” employed and subverted. I was reminded of the cryptic Last Supper images that ABC released prior to the season, particularly the one in which the castaways were seen serving and sipping the wine at Fake Locke’s Passover table. Jacob might say, ”They’re drinking poison!” Smokey’s interpretation? Judging from the way he smashed the bottle/metaphor to bits, maybe he’d say ”They’re drinking spirits. I mean, their souls. I’m pouring out and returning their souls to them.
MIB has uttered the words “sooner than you think” before, but I found it odd here, because he doesn’t actually find his loophole until 140 years later… Unless… His big trick is, by some magic of time travel, right around the corner!
MY BIG THEORY:
Okay… So you know how in Sideways world the island is underwater? Well we just found out that the island isn’t Heaven, Hell, OR the real world… It’s actually the barrier between Hell and the real world, the only thing containing the Devil (symbolically the “darkness”) in his captive Underworld. Well, in the Sideways timeline, at some point after the 1970s (we saw ruins of Dharmaville underwater) but before 2004, the island was defeated… It’s now lying at the bottom of the ocean. So if that barrier no longer functions/exists, that means Sideways has most likely been infiltrated by the “darkness” (aka the Devil/MIB). Which is actually ironic because Sideways world has been going, for the most part, a heck of a lot better for our characters than the original timeline! They have been playing the redeemed souls in Sideways… Which might actually show that they truly ARE redeemed: even in the face of darkness, they chose the right path, and have proven Jacob right… Checkmate!
Now, we are not sure why yet, but we’ve learned (from Ilana) that on the island the MIB is stuck in the body of John Locke. And because of this, I’ve been saying in my recaps for weeks that Sideways Locke is actually the MIB. And this week further supports my theory. Original Locke was embarrassed, frustrated, and held back by the limitations of his handicap… But Sideways Locke I think is EITHER (A) redeemed even in the face of darkness, like the others…or… (B) the MIB still trapped in Locke’s body, BUT, so thrilled to be out of captivity that he embraces the limitations of his mortal being.
Of course Sideways Locke wouldn’t just cease to exist once the MIB took over his body… Which is why I think the moment the switch occurred was in Sideways Locke’s death. If you recall, Original Locke became paralyzed when his father pushed him out an 8th story window and he landed on his back. He has a good relationship with his father in Sideways, but presumably this event still occurred with a “substitute”. Original Locke should have died from the fall, but Jacob was right there to revive him. He touched his shoulder and literally brought life back to Locke as he gasped for a breath. But in Sideways, the island is underwater, and perhaps Jacob doesn’t exist. So what if Sideways Locke actually died from the fall, then his body became the vessel the MIB used to inhabit the real world… Further proof? The last time we saw Sideways Locke, in Ben’s Sideways story, he was convincing Ben to make a grab for the position of power, the Principal’s job. In the same episode, MIB tried to use a position of power (leader of the island) to convince Ben to help him.
But I suppose this big question remains of the Sideways world: Does getting rid of the island gateway get rid of the evil influence… Or, according to Jacob, does getting rid of the barrier release the evil influence… I’m better on the latter.
And on a related note, thinking about Sideways world where the island is underwater, I remembered back when the freighter blew up and the helicopter was headed back to the island when they saw it suddenly got sucked into the ocean. I think that when Ben turned the wheel causing the island to disappear, that’s just like what will happen to cause the underwater island of Sideways world… I’m betting post-war, MIB (as Locke) turns the frozen wheel to move the island and gets a free ticket to the Tunisia desert. All along people have been assuming it’s due to Juliet detonating Jughead.. But everything in the underwater island remains intact (Dharmaville, foot statue), it’s just not on the surface so therefore uninhabitable.
Just some thoughts!
The island's amazing disappearing act.
Ilana (pre-2007)
The Eye
Ilana wakes up, and the camera is on her eye (just like SO many scenes tend to start.) She’s in a Russian hospital, heavily-bandaged, a scene we’ve seen before but is now expanded-upon. We find out the help Jacob needs from her is to protect the 6 Candidates on his List. He says this is what she has been preparing for.
Sometime later Ilana is speaking with Jacob. She is no longer bandaged. She asks what she should do after she has brought them to the Temple. Jacob tells her to ask Ricardus who will know what to do next.
Island Timeline (2007)
BEACH CAMP:
Jack, Hurley, Sun, Frank, Miles, Ben and Ilana are crowded around a fire, with Richard standing close by. Ilana and Sun explain that Sun, Jack and Hurley are Candidates to replace Jacob. So at this point, they are evenly split: 3 on Team Jacob, 3 on Team MIB (Sawyer, Sayid, possibly Jin). Ilana asks Richard what to do next, just like Jacob told her. Richard laughs hysterically and says that he has no idea, he was just trying to kill himself, and everything Jacob ever said was a lie. He reveals a secret that he has known a long time: that all of them are literally dead and that everything around them is not what it appears, that they are not on an island but actually in Hell. This turns out to be the lie that MIB told him long ago to try to recruit him. Richard says it’s time to stop listening to Jacob and to start listening to someone else (MIB) and he takes a flaming torch and heads into the jungle. I’m thinking that if a person actually makes a deal with MIB and believes that they are dead and in Hell and accepts it, then that’s what becomes of them. If they reject this, believe that they are alive, and fight his partnership, then they are saved.
Jack goes up to Hurley who is a few feet away speaking in Spanish to someone. Hurley says, “Ok.”, “What can you do?”, “Yes, I can help you.”, “But, I don’t know how to find him, if I don’t know where he went…” Hurley insists it’s not Jacob and it has nothing to do with Jack, then heads towards the jungle.
Hurley speaking with Isabella.
JUNGLE:
Richard has been trekking all night and it is now the next day. He returns to the spot in a grassy clearing where he buried Isabella’s cross at the base of a stone seat. He digs it up. 140 years later it’s still there despite being buried very close to the surface and it’s immaculate, imagine that! Distraught, he asks whether the MIB is listening to him and that he has changed his mind, that he was wrong. He calls out asking whether the offer still stood. We later see the MIB watching over the valley… I wonder why he didn’t answer Richard’s call. Maybe he doesn’t want him on his team anymore. Maybe Richard is too good at heart.
Hurley walks out of the jungle and asks Richard what offer he is speaking of. Richard gets angry that he was followed but Hurley blurts out that it was Isabella who sent him. Isabella wants to know why Richard buried the cross, and Hurley says she’s standing right next to Richard. Isabella says to Hurley that Richard doesn’t believe him and Hurley explains that it sometimes takes a while. This of course reminds me of when Ben took Locke to Jacob’s cabin… Turns out neither of them actually saw him (though Ben pretended to), but at the very end Locke heard him say “help me”. It apparently takes a while to train yourself to speak with the “dead” beings on the island.
Richard slowly turns toward where Hurley is speaking. Although he can’t see Isabella he now addresses her. Hurley suggests he close his eyes and he will tell Richard what she says. Isabella asked Ricardo why he had buried her cross — her soul, her love, his compass. It was a gentle indictment of his misplaced values, of finding treasure in the material, not spiritual, in what he can hold in the moment, not carry forever in his heart. She tells him it wasn’t his fault for her death but that it was her time and that he’s suffered enough. He tells her he misses her and would do anything to be with her again. Isabella says that they are already together. Does this mean Richard, despite thinking he is living forever is actually dead but in a different realm than Isabella? At the end, with eyes closed, Ricardo heard her voice, and in her words, he heard what he wanted to hear from the priest several lifetimes earlier: Absolution. She says, ”My love. We are already together.” Translation: It’s what Michael Landon said in that Little House on the Prairie clip from last week: It’s about ”knowing that people aren’t really gone when they die. We have all the good memories to sustain us until we see them again.” She kisses him and disappears. Richard puts the cross around his neck and thanks Hurley. Hurley reveals that Isabella also said that there is something else that Richard must do: stop the MIB from leaving the island. If Richard doesn’t do that, “We all go to Hell.”
We don’t know much about Isabella’s past, but perhaps she is in Hell and Richard was on his way there before Jacob saved him. This would make sense because Jacob said he couldn’t reunite him with his wife (he didn’t want Richard to join her in Hell). OR, we know the MIB embodied Isabella before to tug at Richard’s heartstrings… Maybe he has done it again, maybe her mission statement was meant as a TEST to see where Richard’s true loyalty lies?
Some distance away the MIB, in the guise of Locke, watches and then turns away. This is the same way Richard’s flashback ended, with the MIB with a brooding watch over the valley.
Man in Black
Doc Jensen:
I’m willing to cede that Jacob did right by Richard, fulfilling his promise of giving him purpose and clarity over the course of the episode. But I’m not sure he was telling us the truth about his wine bottle. I accept The Cork. The Cork makes sense. But I wonder if Jacob is wrong about the wine. I get the sense that Jacob isn’t keen on death. His only super-power is the one that Satan has: Fall into his clutches, and he gets to keep you forever. I’m not saying he’s evil. But I am saying that in so many heroic stories, the real, necessary reality of death is often mistaken for evil. So what if the wine in Jacob’s bottle = all the souls that have come to The Island and lost the wager with Smokey? What if all those souls are trapped on The Island because Jacob refuses to let them go? In fact, what if the terms of the wager are akin to one of those Old Testament bets that God would make with his prophets, whereby a while wicked city can be saved if one ”good soul” can be found? Maybe Jacob has been holding onto all those souls who’ve lost the wager because he’s holding out to find that one good man that can give them all a second chance at life? And maybe Smokey thinks that’s fundamentally wrong or unnatural, which is why he’s so desperate to just end this whole damn redemption game, so everyone can move on to whatever afterlife they deserve — including himself. Breaking the bottle doesn’t release a toxic cloud of evil — it just sets the prisoners of Jacob’s purgatory free.
Next week: “The Package” …Hmm…
Thanks for reading!
Jen / desmondismyconstant
Filed under: Episode Recaps | Tags: charlotte, con, indiana jones, lost, recon, sawyer, season 6, sideways
recon re·con (rē’kŏn’)
n. reconnaissance
v. to con again
Doc Jensen:
It seemed to me that Fake Locke was pulling another con, too, one that may have revealed his true character. The episode was called ”Recon,” which itself was a con. We were clearly supposed to assume it was short for ”reconnaissance mission.” But ”Recon” was also a pun for ”Re-con” — as in ”a previously executed con, done again.” The story flicked at all of Sawyer’s classic con man stories, from ”Confidence Man” to ”LaFleur.” I think FrankenLocke picked one of those scams to repeat anew — and I think I’m pretty creeped out by the implications.
Also:
…like a certain red-headed archaeologist who found great booty while digging through James Ford’s sock drawer, I found much to treasure and ogle within ”Recon.” I was riveted by the return of Sawyer to the narrative mainstage and loved the trickster, long-con storytelling; every line seemed to be possessed with double meanings, every scene seemed to be pregnant with possibilities.
No ‘Previously on Lost’ this time… wonder why?
Sideways Timeline (2004)
Sawyer is in bed with Ava, a new character in the series, when he looks at the clock and sees it’s 8:42 (the numbers), he realizes he is late for a meeting. (8=Reyes and 42=Kwon, and as of last night’s episode, Hurley and the Kwons were the only Jacob candidates who have not gotten a Sideways episode yet.) He rushes to gather his things and drops his briefcase, where it falls open and Ava sees the stacks of cash. Sawyer says that she wasn’t supposed to see the money, and explains it’s for a ‘potential investment’.
…And right from the very beginning of the very first scene, we know this episode is meant to mirror the very first Sawyer-centric episode of Season 1, “Confidence Man“. In the first flashback scene of that episode, Sawyer is in bed with a young woman, Jessica. After he declares his love for her, she realizes he is late for a meeting. As he rushes to leave, his briefcase falls open, revealing thousands of dollars in cash that she apparently was not supposed to have seen. Sawyer tells her about a too-good-to-be-true oil deal, in which the government will triple his money if he puts $300,000 towards a share in a rig. The only problem is that he has a mere $140,000 and needs someone to put in the remaining $160,000. Jessica suggests she might be able to supply the remaining money. Let the conning begin! But, Sawyer abandoned the ruse, however, upon seeing Jessica’s son… who presumably reminded him of the murder-suicide of his own parents after his mother fell victim to Anthony Cooper’s con.
But Ava is no Jessica… She knows what Sawyer is up to, and pulls a gun on him. He says the whole situation is a set-up, that there is a van outside, the room is bugged and is surrounded by cops. He explains that the cops just want her husband. Ava calls his bluff and Sawyer says the code word “La Fleur” and the police (including his partner Miles) burst into the room.
So we find out a few things at this moment:
1. In the original timeline Sawyer is a criminal, whereas in the flash-sideways timeline he is a police officer (who is still planning to commit a criminal act — murdering the “real” Sawyer.) Although it seems that he is still a con man, he is actually a cop working undercover posing as con man.
2. The code word, “La Fleur”, directly points to the redemptive time Sawyer spent on the island as 1977 Dharma’s chief of security. In that position, he was a confident leader and did his job well, with one exception: when his friends arrived, he conned Dharma into thinking they came on the sub, then continued conning the other Dharma leaders until the truth was eventually revealed. He also conned his way into his position as Dharma’s head of security by using a false backstory and name. Which makes me think he cheated his way into this position as detective for the LAPD, and perhaps still has a criminal past. But the Sideways timeline allowed him redemption, just as the 1977 time-jumping timeline did.
3. Miles and LaFleur still end up working together, but in Sideways they struggle with being equal partners, while in 1977 Dharmaville, Miles was unquestionably submissive to his boss (Jim LaFleur).
4. “La Fleur” itself obviously means “the flower” in French…. I’m not sure what the significance is to Sawyer that he chooses this as his code word and fake name in both the original AND Sideways timelines… But I’m guessing that since in both timelines his parents were conned and died horrifically, it’s probably something symbolic that reminds him of his mother, such as her favorite perfume maybe? At any rate, both in the episode “La Fleur” and in last night’s episode, Sawyer brings a woman a flower. Last night it was a sunflower for Charlotte, and back then it was a yellow lily for Juliet. Both were yellow flowers (like Sayid’s bunch of yellow roses earlier this season)… Yellow flowers meaning friendship. Sawyer’s sunflower, however is meant to be an apology for Charlotte, and his lily was a congratulations for Juliet.
Speaking of Charlotte… She now works at “the museum” with Miles’ dad, Pierre Chang. WHICH IMPLIES that the island either wasn’t blown up in 1977 in the Sideways timeline, but is STILL at the bottom of the ocean….OR he safely evacuated like the Linus men, which was mentioned in Ben’s sideways-flash with his father last week… They confirmed the island still existed in the not-too-distant-past, and they were able to leave it willingly at some point during Ben’s childhood. I personally don’t think the bomb was what set Sideways in motion… I think it’s an event that hasn’t happened yet… One put in motion by the upcoming war between the MIB and Widmore. The same one that gets MIB off the island and into Sideways Locke’s body!
But back to Charlotte… She is now a globe-trotting archaeologist, a la Indiana Jones, just like we saw of her in her original timeline backstory (uncovering the bones of a Dharma polar bear in Tunisia…the same polar bear that once resided in the cage Sawyer visits later). The show goes to great lengths to compare her to Indiana Jones, so I did a little digging around on the Indiana Jones wiki entry… Seems the Indy character was modeled, first and foremost, to be a REAL character, very relatable… Spielberg said there “was the willingness to allow our leading man to get hurt and to express his pain and to get his mad out and to take pratfalls and sometimes be the butt of his own jokes. I mean, Indiana Jones is not a perfect hero, and his imperfections, I think, make the audience feel that, with a little more exercise and a little more courage, they could be just like him.” Relevant to Charlotte? Maybe… But this part definitely is!
Indiana lacks a proper father figure because of his strained relationship with his father, Henry Senior. His own contained anger is misdirected at the likes of Professor Abner Ravenwood, his mentor at the University of Chicago, leading to a strained relationship with Marion Ravenwood.
Sounds like Charlotte’s Indiana Jones comparison is hitting pretty close to home for, not her (well maybe her) but also…Sawyer!
Psst… Charlotte has guiding-Candidates-in-the-right-direction-RED hair, and on the second day she’s wearing a red shirt. On a related note, the photo she finds of the Ford Family show Sawyer’s parents in protector-red and young Sawyer in Candidate-blue.
Were Sideways Charlotte and Miles born on the island? TBD. I’m betting they were, despite seeing Miles apparently isn’t using his island “gift”—talking to dead people—for personal gain anymore. But we’ll see!
Things get hot and heavy between Charlotte and Sawyer, and afterwards she asks for a T-shirt. She snoops around his dresser (typical archaeologist, always digging up the past, wink wink!)… But, is she merely a nosy girlfriend, or is she a con-artist as well? At any rate, she finds 3 books: “Watership Down” by Richard Adams, “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle, and “Lancelot” by Walker Percy. ALL THREE books have been seen in the show before, being read by Sawyer in the original timeline….
Lancelot…
Shared theme: The book is about Lancelot Lamar, a lawyer who, when he discovers that he is not the father of his youngest daughter, kills his wife by blowing up their house. Kate also killed her stepfather by blowing up his house. He ends up in a mental institution with his memories, where reality and the past get blurred for him (Hurley?) Sawyer was seen reading it on the beach in Season 1:
Watership Down…
Common theme: The book is often seen as a social commentary done using a group of rabbits as the main characters. The rabbits find what they think is utopia, but discover that it is a farm with traps and snares. They find that they have to live together or die alone (Jack’s popular saying), while establishing new rules by which to live. In last night’s episode, Kate says she is eating rabbit at the very end of the episode. The book originally belonged to Boone, with his luggage. Kate finds the book by the beach with Sawyer’s belongings, and he tells her, “Hell of a book. It’s about bunnies.” This was all in the aforementioned Sawyer-centric episode, “Confidence Man”. He is seen actually reading the book in 2 subsequent episodes. And last night, Miles tells Sawyer that he doesn’t want to “die alone”.
A Wrinkle in Time…
Shared themes: The story is about two children, accompanied by a friend, who search through space and time for their father, who is a scientist being held prisoner on an alien planet dominated by a large dark cloud called “The Black Thing”. It involves an evil that is expanding through the universe, “tesseracts” and multiple dimensions, culminating in a happy ending. This is one of the novels that Sawyer reads on the Island.
Charlotte rummages in the top drawer and finds a folder marked “Sawyer”. A family photo slips out and while replacing it she sees an old newspaper cutting about a man killing himself and his wife and their nine year old boy surviving. The photo in the clipping is the same as the one Charlotte found. She puts 2 and 2 together, but Sawyer comes in and flips out.
The next day, Liam Pace comes to pick up Charlie at LAPD on a drug charge (doesn’t he live in London?) Sawyer, while under arrest in the original timeline, had passed by Boone, a brother inquiring about his sister in the Sydney police station. Sawyer, the cop, passes by Liam as he is inquiring about his brother Charlie in the L.A. police station.
Miles pulls Sawyer aside and asks if there’s anything he wants to tell him. Sawyer thinks he’s referring to his treatment of Charlotte, but he’s actually talking about Sawyer lying about going to Palm Springs and going to Australia instead (Miles specifically mentions Oceanic Flight 815, so we know the Sideways plane was indeed the same flight). Sawyer lies about his trip to Australia, just as Locke did in “The Substitute“. Sawyer refuses to fess up about why he went, Miles leaves in a huff, and Sawyer smashes a mirror, just as Jack smashed the Lighthouse mirrors. Mirrors have been a major theme this year, I think most predominantly to show how the Sideways world mirrors the original. There have been mirrors prominent in every Sideways-flash so far this season (Jack, Kate, Sayid…)
That evening James arrives home, and watches an old episode of “Little House on the Prairie”. An inspired, perfect choice for a guy who, like the tragic hero of his favorite novel, Of Mice and Men, dreams doomed dreams of home and hearth and living off the fat of the land with family and friends. Laura Ingalls tells her father, Charles, that she would be devastated if anything ever happened to him and her mother. Charles tells her that “if you live your life worrying about the future, life will be over before you know it. People aren’t really gone once they die, and that you hold on to their good memories until you see them again.” Sawyer told Kate back in season 1 that he watched Little House when he was a kid, in “Tricia Tanaka is Dead”.
After his failed apology to Charlotte, she tells him to get “lost”…
Doc Jensen:
This seemed to take him aback — or perhaps startle him awake. He had lost his partner. Now, he had lost his mojo with women. No more charmed life magic-word salvation. No more sexual escapism. No more ”La Fleur.”
Sawyer decides to let Miles in on his little secret. He tells him about the “Sawyer” folder (in Candidate BLUE), and how he has been hunting down Cooper ever since he left the Academy.
Doc Jensen:
Sawyer’s vendetta was not unlike the dream of vengeance Fake Locke gave Claire: it was something that held his world together, gave it meaning, gave him purpose. Also see: the long con that Sawyer pulled in ”The Long Con”: creating a false nemesis to rally a community to order.
The sound of a police siren approaches, and a car (also Candidate BLUE) slams into Sawyer’s car, and someone gets out and immediately starts running. He catches up with her and it’s… Kate! Somehow since her last episode she’s ditched the cab and gotten a hold of another car.
The exact same theme music that is used as Kate makes her escape from LAX in “LA X, Part 2” is playing moments before James catches Kate running out of the alley.
Doc Jensen:
Kate’s hoodie was conspicuous. In the episode ”The Long Con,” the big twist — SPOILER ALERT! — was that Charlie had assisted Sawyer in his fake-crisis, fear-cultivating, gun-grabbing power coup. Charlie, wearing a hoodie, revealed that the only reason why he partnered with Sawyer was to humiliate Locke, who had humiliated him episodes earlier. Fittingly, ”Recon” re-teamed redeemed outlaw lovers Sawyer and Kate (now playing the Charlie role) in a bid to subvert Fake Locke and Nautilus away from the Island. They better hurry. As it happens, I think there was another reading of Little House on The Prairie we were meant to find. Did you know that there was a two-part episode of Prairie called ”The Lost Ones”? In those episodes, two siblings watch their parents die in a horrible accident. Now orphans, they yearn to stay with Charles, but he can’t afford them. The kids wind up with a man who says he’ll protect them… but he winds up abusing them and using them as slaves.
The first words that James speaks in the original timeline and the last words he speaks in the flash-sideways timeline are: “Son of a bitch.”
Doc Jensen:
The first line of the episode came from Island Sawyer as he burned himself on a coffee pot: ”Son of a bitch!” Of course, those were Juliet’s final words before detonating Jughead. Juliet’s name was never spoken in the episode, but she haunted the proceedings via association, as did several other dead friends, including hobbity dope fiend Charlie Pace and especially fate-screwed whiz kid Daniel Faraday. In fact, I was reminded of Eloise Hawking and her snake-eating-its-tail ouroboros broach when Sideways James issued the last line of his L.A. Confidential arc as he pinned fugitive Hoodie Kate against a fence: ”Son of a bitch!” ”Recon” spiraled through space and time and passed through metaphorical realms of limbo and worse to tell a story about Sawyer choosing to let go of the hell in his heart and replacing it with a dream of heaven.
Island Timeline (2007)
Sawyer is making tea at an open fire outside Claire’s camp. He wakes Jin and says they’ll be back by sunrise. Sawyer knows it’s not Locke, but sticks by him so he can finally get off the island. Jin says he has to stay and keep looking for Sun, and Sawyer vows to help. MIB and his new team (20 in all) waltz into camp, and Kate and Sawyer are reunited. She asks if he’s with Locke now, to which he replies he’s not with anybody.
Kate sees Claire seemingly caring for a creepy makeshift skeleton baby in a cradle and asks “What is THAT?” Claire chillingly replies, “It’s all I had.”
Doc Jensen:
Faux Baby — skull, button eyes, stuffed animal fur — totally looked to me like the infant version of Frank the Apocalyptic Bunny Suit Monster from Donnie Darko. (Those who know Donnie Darko well have seen many Lost parallels in the movie, i.e. plane crash, time travel, and alt reality interpretations; we shall investigate at another time.)
Claire mysteriously takes Kate’s hand, and Kate reacts with uncertainty. (Dwelling on this and then dwelling on the handshake between Widmore and Sawyer later makes me think this was a clue…)
MIB gets to a coastal clearing and suggests they make camp for the night and to get enough water because they’ll be there for a couple days. Sawyer, agitated, wants to know when they’ll “get off this rock”. MIB, annoyed, sends him over to Widmore’s team on the Hydra island to do a little recon. Sawyer asks what to do if he finds people over there who want to harm him. The Man in Black tells him that he’s not worried, because Sawyer is the best liar he ever met. Which is kind of odd, because the MIB literally just met Sawyer… So was he speaking as Locke again in that moment? At any rate, MIB tells Sawyer that he’s the best liar he’s ever met, whereas in the flash-sideways timeline, James seems to be a rather lousy liar who is called on it by everyone he meets.
Kate sits down to talk to a distant Sayid. She asks him if he believes Locke can get them off the Island and Sayid says yes but not him. She asks if he is okay and he says that he is not. Claire suddenly attacks Kate from behind, trying to stab her in the throat with a large knife. Kate screams for Sayid to help her as she is overpowered, but he looks on disinterestedly. MIB roughly throws Claire off of Kate, saying that Kate did what she had to do by taking Aaron when she couldn’t find Claire. He slaps Claire full in the face and grasping her, says her behavior is completely inappropriate. Kate is distraught and when the MIB asks her if she’s alright she angrily yells that she is not. She looks on in disbelief.
Sawyer finds the plane. Since I’ve been eagle-eyed lately looking for the colors RED and BLUE, I noticed that the Ajira plane (which carried Bram + Ilana) is protector/guidance-RED, while Oceanic’s plane (which carried the Candidates) is Candidate-BLUE. Neat!
Doc Jensen:
The plane, slightly jackknifed off the make-shift runway, resembling a proud, gleaming Pegasus waiting to be mounted and flown away. (Frank Lapidus! Paging Frank Lapidus! Your purpose in the season 6 narrative just arrived!)
He checks its condition and then finds charcoal from a fire. Drag marks in the sand lead him to a pile of decaying bodies. Reminded me of the mass grave as a result of the Purge.
Sidenote: forgot about this, but when I was just reading about the Purge, it said that when inhaled the toxic gas resulted in violent spasms, bleeding from the nose, and death. Sounds a lot (well, exactly) like the castaways’ time-skipping experience, and what ultimately killed Charlotte.
Sawyer hears someone and finds Zoe (Greek for “life”), saying she was the only one left alive from the Ajira flight. She asks a ton of questions, but hesitates when Sawyer asks her why she was going to Guam. This tips him off and he pulls his gun, but she whistles and her team rushes to her aide, just as Sawyer’s police team did when he used the code word “LaFleur”.
Kate is sobbing in a grove apart from the others. MIB joins her and apologizes Claire’s attack, saying he has to take responsibility because he told Claire the Others had her baby. Kate asks why he would say that and he tells her that because Claire was devastated without Aaron, he gave her something to hate in order to keep her going. That sure was nice of MIB to divert Claire’s anger away from Kate! But why is he protecting her? Methinks the MIB wants to protect Locke’s old friends… (more on this in a second)
Doc Jensen:
Strategy? I think Smokey sent Sawyer to the Widmore Zooropa — in part — to get Kate’s guardian angel out of his no-hair so he could isolate her for a Claire attack, then save her from it, so he could get a chance to spin her under this thumb.
MIB explains he knows what she is feeling because his mother was crazy. He says that a long time ago, before he looked like he does now he had a mother who was very disturbed and as a result of that he had some “growing pains” and problems that he is still trying to work his way through, problems that could have avoided had things been different. Kate asks him why he told her this story, he replies: “because now Aaron has a crazy mother too”. This story also refers to Crazy Claire and Aaron, Crazy Rousseau and Alex, maybe even Crazy Mrs. Hawking and Daniel and/or Crazy Emily and Locke…
Which makes me think the MIB is speaking AS Locke most of the time (crazy mother = Emily, lost love = Helen, he knows Sawyer’s a good liar, and wants to protect his friend Kate).
Doc Jensen:
To me, it sounded like he wanted Kate to move off the dream of reuniting Claire and Aaron. To me, it sounded like he wanted Kate to think about saving Aaron from Claire. To me, it sounded like FLocke was… setting Kate up to murder Claire.
As Sawyer is taken to the submarine (Another dagger to the heart: the last time he boarded a submarine, he and Juliet were being deported by Dharma back to the United States to continue their happily ever after away from the Island), he notices workers installing pylons similar to those surrounding the barracks to keep the smoke monster out. They are preparing for the upcoming war. Sawyer then negotiates a ticket off the island if he tells the MIB the coast is clear for his arrival on Hydra. So we find out that Widmore is on Team Jacob, which begs the question: If Widmore and Ben were both following Jacob, then why are they engaged in a war of their own?
Doc Jensen says, of last week’s Elba reference in “Dr. Linus”:
[Sawyer] made the acquaintance of the smaller island’s new regent, exiled uber-Other Charles Widmore — a little Elba for the Island’s deposed Napoleon.
Sawyer relates the entire plan back to MIB upon his arrival back on the main island, to MIB’s delight. He thanks Sawyer for his loyalty, but “a deal’s a deal”… MIB needs to get Sawyer off the island.
After nightfall, Sawyer sits down next to Kate who is poking at a fire…. She says she’s having “rabbit, i think” (which I noted earlier was a nod to the book, Watership Down). Sawyer tells him his plan, when MIB and Widmore are fighting it out they’ll take the sub and get the hell off the island. Seems that dress he found earlier in the Hydra cage had quite an effect on him! He’s remembering their hot cage lovemaking, pushing her up against the bars… Just as the Sideways story ends with Sawyer pushing her up against a chainlink fence.
Doc Jensen:
Standing in his old cage, Sawyer recalled the moment everything began to change for him — the moment when he began to change, into a lover, a hero, and even if he never wore the ring, a husband. He remembered his redemption. He remembered a vision of heaven to guide him out of hell.
Next time, on LOST! “Ab Aeterno”… FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY we get a Richard back story!
Ab Aeterno (latin)
- Since the beginning of time.
- (figuratively) Since a very long time ago.
How appropriate!
Jen / desmondismyconstant
Filed under: Miscellany | Tags: alice, alice in wonderland, lost, white rabbit
I was fortunate enough to see the new Alice in Wonderland move in IMAX 3D last night… The effects were incredible, as movies of that scale usually are! It was a great interpretation of the story, though I was surprised at how cheesy some parts were (hello Hatter’s dance at the end!) for a Tim Burton movie.
But this isn’t a movie review! So I’ll get right to it… As you know, much of Lost’s themes and imagery are based on Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Heck, we saw Jack’s Sideways son David reading Annotated Alice just a few weeks ago. So one of my main goals while seeing this movie (as I haven’t read the book since I was about 12), was to try to catch as many Lost references as I could find. And there were a LOT…
Alice falls down the rabbit hole, a narrow well-like and endlessly daunting hole… Much like Locke’s discovery of the Swan hatch, specifically after the door was blasted off, and when Juliet fell down it after getting caught in some chains being magnetically pulled towards the pocket of energy, where she detonated Jughead…which is one theory about how the Sideways world came to exist.
And speaking of rabbits, there’s the ever-present White Rabbit — both literally (Ben’s numbered rabbits, ceramic rabbit hiding the keys to houses, Looking Glass station logo) — and metaphorically (Jack is always chasing his white rabbit: his father’s image, his purpose on the island, etc.)
Additionally the White Rabbit in Alice has RED eyes, which has become an important color this year and to the series (my theory: protection and guidance), as well as a BLUE jacket (Candidate blue, more on this later). He carries a pocket-watch and stresses that Alice is going to be late. He’s a keeper of time, an appropriate reference to a show about time travel. His rabbit hole leads Alice to an upside-down BLACK and WHITE checkered room filled with locked doors (the fact that it’s upside down might indicate that in the show, things might be the opposite of what we expect (ex: black=good and white=bad). There is a table in the center with “Drink Me” potion to make her small, and a key that fits only one door: a tiny one behind a curtain (also referenced by “Man Behind the Curtain”? We know the obvious Wizard of Oz reference, but this is the first I’m considering Alice!)
Anyway, the rabbit is the keeper of the KEY… Just like the ceramic white rabbits in the show always hide house keys. Alice chases her white rabbit just as Jack chases his.
When Alice first arrives in Wonderland, the White Rabbit, Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum, the Mouse and then eventually the Caterpillar ALL debate about whether she’s the “right Alice.” This reminded me exactly of when the castaways discovered the Swan hatch and eventually got inside, Desmond asked Locke: “Are you him?” in “Adrift”, and again asks this of Faraday when the group is stuck constantly time traveling in “Because You Left”. Helen also asks this of Anthony Cooper in “Lockdown”, and Kelvin asks Desmond when he washes up on shore in “Live Together, Die Alone”. They always look stricken with an answer, just as Alice is… She “is” an Alice, but she does not know if she is the “right” Alice. The recipient of each “Are you him?” question “is” a him, but doesn’t know if they are the “right” him the other person is looking for…
And speaking of the Caterpillar (Absolem)… I think this character represents both Desmond and Mrs. Hawking. The Caterpillar possesses the scroll (or whatever it’s called) that indicates what Alice is supposed to do. It tells of the future, and the path she is supposed to take: defeating the Jabberwocky. Flash back to Desmond time traveling in his consciousness to off-island failed engagement with Penny, which happens to be the day he met Mrs. Hawking in the jewelry store. She told him he’s not supposed to marry Penny. By telling him what he was not supposed to do, Mrs. Hawking persuaded Desmond to throw the ring in the river, since he was resigned to his fate. Later, on the island, Desmond used his visions of the future – of Charlie’s imminent death – to save him. But in the end, Charlie was supposed to die, and Desmond resigned himself to let him die, because he didn’t think he could change the course of fate. True, the actions of the Caterpillar seem much more Mrs. Hawking than Desmond… But what does the Caterpillar say to Alice just before he is closed up in his cocoon (the end of that stage of life for a caterpillar)?? …See you in another life. Brutha!
Alice slaying the Jabberwocky, as foretold on the scroll:
The movie culminates with the forces of the White and Red Queens converging on a battlefield to decide the fate of Underland. The Queens meet in the middle and attempt compromise, but, unrelenting, the Red Queen declares war by summoning the Jabberwocky. The Red and White armies begin to battle.
Clearly, Lost is culminating in its final season with an impending war between the White side (Jacob) and the Black side (MIB/Locke/smoke monster). The armies are choosing their sides, and also their locations (White team = main island, Black team = Hydra island).
The Jabberwocky, summoned by the Red Queen, appears in the movie just as the smoke monster appears in Lost, with a creeping cloud of black smoke heralding its arrival. I can’t find an actual screen shot from the movie, so you’ll have to take my word for it! It looks something like this after it appears, but picture low, creeping black smoke before it rises:
So if the smoke monster in Lost was modeled after the Jabberwocky, then one of the characters needs to be the Alice that “chops its head off”… I now think they intentionally portray the smoke monster with multiple heads to resemble both Cerberus AND the Jabberwocky. My guess for Lost’s Alice? JACK SHEPHARD. (1) He has been chasing white rabbits on-island and off, ever since season 1. (2) He has been Locke’s rival ever since the beginning… Man of Science vs. Man of Faith. Jack is now one of Jacob’s front-running Candidates, and Locke has had his body stolen by the force that is the MIB. Role reversal! Jack is now the Man of Faith, and “Locke” just wants to get the hell off the island! My prediction: THEY BOTH WIN. Jack and the White team defeat the MIB. But Jack doesn’t take his head, instead he takes… his legs! MIB is banished off the island (just as the Red Queen is banished after Alice defeats the Jabberwocky). But as I mentioned in my recap, MIB doesn’t leave with his old body, the one we saw on the beach with Jacob in 1845… No, he’s still stuck in Locke’s body. So as Sideways world diverts from the intended path, Locke’s body becomes inhabited by the MIB. At first, he is embarrassed and feels helpless without the use of his legs, but then he comes to accept it. Because legs or no legs, it sure as heck beats the alternative: being trapped on that wretched island! And what did Sideways Locke (who could now be MIB) do in this last episode, “Dr. Linus”?? The brief time we saw him in the teacher’s lounge, Substitute Locke was talking Ben into scheming his way to a position of power: the Principal’s job. On-island, Fake-Locke/MIB also appeared to Ben. He came out of the jungle, talking Ben into scheming his way to a position of power: leader of the Island after he leaves.
So to recap: the Final Battle in Alice relates to Lost because MIB is the black, smokey Jabberwocky that is defeated by Alice, who is Jack (hero of the White team). Alice takes his head, but Jack takes his legs. But MIB wins too, because paralyzed or not, he’s gotten off the island. In Lost, maybe both teams win. White gets what it wants: control of the Island. And Black gets what it wants: getting off the Island.
HERE are all of the Alice references thus far (minus my speculations!), chronicled in Lostpedia.
So what do you think? Any other references you saw in the movie that I missed? Leave your comments below!
Jen / desmondismyconstant
Doctor Linus, as he insists he be called (a sign of his wannabe superiority to other teachers), finally atones for his sins in this episode, and lets go of his constant striving for power. In the original timeline, Ben sacrifices his daughter to maintain his power. In the flash-sideways timeline, he sacrifices his power to save Alex. Ben is redeemed.
Doc Jensen:
[In the episode] ”Expose,” a.k.a .the Nikki and Paulo vs. the Spiders episode, and the moment of truth came when Juliet asked Ben how he intended to get Jack to operate on his tumor-choked spine. ‘‘Same way I get anybody to do anything. I find out what he’s emotionally invested in and I exploit it,” Ben said, sounding sadly resigned about his own nefarious nature, as if his conniving character was innate and immutable, or at least fixed and unchangeable. In the divine election of all possible worlds (”divine election” being a fancy theological term of predestination), Ben Linus is forever doomed to manifest as some Machiavellian devil, some power-grabbing Brutus, some Jesus-betraying Judas, no matter the reality, no matter the world. Right? Wrong. In ”Dr. Linus,” Ben Linus was exposed as a soul who only has himself to blame for his woe-is-me bad self, whose corrupt nature is an accumulation of freely made choices. Which also means that Ben is also fully capable of resisting evil and selecting virtue, as well.
Another, more obscure title reference to Nash Bridges: William Atherton (Principal Reynolds) played Dr. Linus Mills in one episode of Nash Bridges, which was produced by none other than Lost’s Carlton Cuse!
Sideways Timeline (2004)
Ben is teaching his European history class about an island where everything became clear: Elba, where Napoleon faced his greatest test, his loss of power. Napolean was exiled to the Italian island in 1814. During the months Napoleon stayed on the island, he carried out a series of economic and social reforms to improve the quality of life, partly to pass the time and partly out of a genuine concern for the well-being of the islanders. Napoleon stayed on Elba for 300 days. Elba is the basis for the famous English language palindrome: ”Able was I ere I saw Elba.”
It is made to seem as if he were talking about the Island and his relationship to it (with particular emphasis on having and losing his power).
Doc Jensen:
Something to also think about: after Napoleon got booted out of power again, he was exiled to another, less desirable island, Saint Helena [HYDRA?], where he would die of stomach cancer/ulcer/poisoning. Foreshadowing for Smokey or Widmore’s final fate?
At the end of the class Principal Reynolds requires that Ben supervise detention all week. Ben explains that his after-school History Club (aka ALEX) needs him, but Reynolds says the class is really about Ben, not the students. Ben remarks to himself that “It’s ‘Dr. Linus.’”
“Reynolds” happens to be one of the names on wall in Jacob’s cave… So Principal Reynolds may have been a Candidate!
In the teachers’ lounge, the science teacher, Dr. Leslie Arzt, is complaining (go figure! it’s what he does best!) about a formaldehyde stain and his outdated lab equipment. Arzt was seen wiping off his shirt. In “Exodus, Part 2“, people were wiping Arzt off their shirts (gross!) after he blew up from the unstable dynamite (referenced to in this episode by Hurley).
Ben makes an impassioned statement about the importance of learning and “taking care of the kids” (on the island he used to steal kids), and that the head is merely an administrator not a teacher (he always has to be in charge). Ben says he refuses to give up his principles. Substitute teacher John Locke overhears and says that maybe Ben should be the principal because it sounds like Ben cares about the school. When Ben asks who would listen to him, Locke waves and says, “I’m listening.”
Doc Jensen:
Is Sideways Locke actually…
THE MAN IN BLACK/SMOKEY/FAKE LOCKE…Throughout his Others reign, Ben insisted he was hearing the voice of Jacob and heeding his will. He justified everything by putting it all on his Island god. But the time has come to begin wondering how attuned to Jacob that Ben has been — if he’s been attuned to him at all. In our real world, there are those who claim to know God and hear God’s voice in their lives, but they could be wrong. Doesn’t mean there isn’t a God, just that God ain’t talking to them. I suspect Ben is one of those people. ”What about you?” Jacob asked Ben last season. It sounded so dismissive. But Jacob could have also been challenging Ben on his self-deception, or basically saying, ”I’m sorry. Do I know you?” Ben’s either been faking his rapport with Jacob, or (and this is my theory) the supernatural entity that’s been speaking to him all along has been the Man In Black. Ben thought he was serving Jacob the Christ, but he was most likely the victim of a long con perpetrated by a snake oil-selling false messiah, Smokenstein the Anti-Christ, who was just using Ben in his master plan to escape the Island and live anew as a man in a separate reality, one with no Island and no Jacob to trap him: the Sideways world.
Whoa! Dead. On. The MIB, on the island, we know was stuck in Locke’s body. Perhaps after rebooting the timeline, he still is. Sideways Locke at first shows some embarrassment and frustration over his disability, but then comes to accept it. Maybe it isn’t actually Locke, but the MIB having to adjust to life in a wheelchair. At first, it’s annoying, it’s inconvenient, and maybe even degrading. However, it’s a heck of a lot better than the alternative — being trapped on the island! He then finds amusement in his limitations. I’d like to think it was Real Locke having an epiphany, but it also fits that it was the MIB inhabiting Locke’s body.
At home Ben is microwaving a frozen turkey dinner for his father, Roger (who had some fantastic makeup work done, by the way!) Ben reflects that with his qualifications he is babysitting burnouts in detention, and sometimes feels that he is a bigger loser than they. He adds that maybe he is more a loser when he’s at home. For a second, we thought Sideways Ben and Roger also had a strained relationship, but Roger says he wished better for Ben and that is why he signed up with Dharma Initiative and went to the island. Aww, how sweet… He says “Imagine how our lives would have been if we’d stayed… Who knows what you would have become?” Well, Roger would’ve been dead in the 80′s at Ben’s hand. Not so great! Interesting exchange though… They still initially joined the Dharma initiative in Sideways world… I wonder what made them leave?? What he said indicated they had a CHOICE in the matter.
Doc Jensen:
Until last night, it had been safe to assume that both the Island and Sideways worlds shared the same history until 1977, which is when the time-traveling castaways detonated Jughead. But the Linus men of the Sideways world blew up that thinking. I took the story to mean that Sideways Roger and Ben left the Island prior to its sinking. But Island Roger and Ben were still on the Island when Juliet banged the bomb. Implication: If the two worlds share a common history, the fork in the road is sometime before 1977. Rebooted Theory: The divergence begins on that fateful night when some phantom stranger struck John Locke’s teenage mother, causing her to give birth three months early. That phantom stranger? I’m saying it’s Charles Widmore.
All the while he has been changing his father’s oxygen bottle. He looks to have cancer, and from their exchange, it could be likely if he stayed on the island he wouldn’t have gotten sick. He might also be dead, but that’s besides the point! In Sideways world, Ben is CARING for his father, instead of killing him… He gives his father life-saving gas, versus deadly gas in the original timeline.
The doorbell rings and Ben greets Alex Rousseau who has come to ask where Ben was for History Club. She is disappointed to find out about the change in plans especially because she was hoping Ben would tutor her for a test. Ben offers to help her the next morning in the library.
Alex is still a Rousseau, which means Danielle likely raised (or continues to raise) her. The fact that she’s using her mother’s last name and not her father’s likely means that Robert is out of the picture in Sideways as well. I think this is why she’s clinging to Ben (however ironically) — daddy issues. Curiously, Alex doesn’t have her mother’s French accent, and they reside in the LA area, not France. Wonder how they ended up there…hmm… The following morning, when she can’t answer a question she becomes frustrated and then describes the importance of her succeeding given her mother’s sacrifices.
Ben is giving Alex a verbal test about the East India Trading Company. It was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China. The Company was granted an English Royal Charter by Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600. I’m not quite sure what this has to do with Lost, other than the illustration resembling the Black Rock!
Ben recruits Arzt, who agrees to hack into Nurse Kondracki’s email account for a better parking spot and lab equipment. When Ben confronts Reynolds and blackmails him for his job, Reynolds counters by threatening to “torch” Alex and her future if Ben proceeds with his threat. He wonders if his job, his power is that important to Ben. Perhaps to Island Ben, yes, but Sideways Ben, redeemed, chooses Alex over himself. I couldn’t help but wonder though, even if the Principal wrote a scathing letter, couldn’t she just not use it? And if Ben then became Principal HE could be the one to recommend her? Details, details, haha…
But this scene is important because Ben attempts to blackmail the school principal with knowledge of an illicit affair in order to usurp his position, but the principal threatens Alex causing Ben to relent. While on the island, Ben blackmailed Widmore with knowledge of his off-island affair (with Penelope’s mother) in order to usurp his position by exiling Widmore off the island, and Widmore retaliates by threatening Alex, but Ben calls his bluff, and Alex dies. So Ben gave up his power to benefit Alex, instead of giving up Alex to keep his power.
In this scene, Reynolds and his office were primarily BLACK and WHITE, then Alex’s shirt was RED:
Ben’s plan to get the Principal’s position didn’t work, but the redemptive quality of the Sideways timeline gave him a chance to choose between his beloved Alex and himself, and this time he chose her. Arzt also didn’t get his parking spot… But Ben offered him his. Whiner.
Doc Jensen:
We were left to wonder why Ben chose as he did. As a historian, Ben probably is familiar with the phrase from George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Maybe Sideways Ben was able to avoid duplicating the fate of his Island world counterpart because of some genetic or past life memory bubbled into his consciousness. Maybe he gleaned a lesson or two about power, priorities, regret and responsibility from what his otherworld avatar had learned in the trial-and-error spiritual classroom of the Island.
Island Timeline (2007)
BLACK ROCK:
Jack wakes Hurley who is sleeping in a field of flowers. See also: the poppy sequence in The Wizard of Oz…
Jack is in a rush to get back to the Temple. Hurley, knowing trouble was brewing tries to divert him with breakfast and a “shortcut” (i.e. the long or wrong way). Jack wants to proceed the way they came. It was hard to hear these lines and not think Lost was saying something about its two-track, parallel world structure.
None of these work though, and Jack only gives up when Richard Alpert appears (wearing Candidate BLUE along with Jack). Jack asks where Richard came from and Richard says that they wouldn’t believe him if he told them. INTERESTING… He says after this that he was at the Temple and everyone was dead, but where was he before that?? Jack says to try him but Richard says “Not yet” and leads them off. Hurley, having never met Richard before, asks Jack if he trusts him. Jack says to Hurley “at least he’s not stalling”… Ouch Hurley!
Richard leads them through the jungle and Hurley asks him how it is possible that Richard looks the same as he did 30 years ago (having apparently heard of Richard and his eternal youth). Richard says Jacob gave him a gift. Jacob touched him, just like he did the Oceanic Candidates. So just like Richard, the Candidates apparently have eternal life.
They arrive at the Black Rock, and find out Richard lied about going to the Temple (he just came from there and there were no survivors). Hurley says that Jacob had “hinted” at it. Richard is surprised and says that whatever Jacob said, not to believe him.
Richard has been a follower of Jacob’s for “longer than he can remember”… a very faithful follower at that. All that was shattered the moment Jacob died. The all-mighty, all-powerful leader of the Island left Richard hanging, after all his years of faithful service, Richard is now a lost soul, with no apparent purpose, in a thankless position as Jacob’s right-hand-man. He views Jacob’s gift as a curse… He’s trapped here, in his body, for eternity. Richard goes back to the Black Rock in order to try to kill himself, which ironically is the vessel that brought him here, to the island, to Jacob, and brought him eternal life… And of all people, Jack Shephard is the one to bring his faith back in the powers of the island, and their purpose for being there. Jack is again shepherding his straggling flock, and instilling in them a sense of importance. Methinks Jack is poised to take over the island, but we’ll see what the next 9 episodes bring!
Compare and contrast: Richard’s description of following a man who claimed everything happened for a reason before discovering the man had died without any resolution to his plan, feeling his life was worthless, also describes Jack’s relationship with Locke, Locke’s death, and Jack following Locke’s instructions to return to the island, where nothing has gone right.
Inside the hull Richard touches some chains and tells Jack this is the first time he’s been back since coming to the island. He’s evading his past as a prisoner on the ship. Nice to have confirmation to the speculation this is how Richard arrived on the island!
Richard gets Jack to help him ignite the dynamite, but Jack has faith that nothing will happen… He wasn’t brought here to blow up in an abandoned ship with Richard. See also: Season 2, when Jack dared Ben not to press the Button, and the recent episode in which Jack swallowed the poison pill and said, ”Let’s see how far trust gets us.”
This scene was EXACTLY like suicidal season 3 Jack, about to jump off a bridge but called away by heroic duty, AND what Michael experienced when he tried to kill himself off of the island in “Meet Kevin Johnson”… He crashed his car but survived, he even held a gun to his head and pulled the trigger…and nothing. Seems Michael had received Jacob’s gift as well. And when his purpose was fulfilled (blowing up the freighter), he was finally allowed to die. Which is odd because it was Christian (a supposed guise of the MIB) who appeared to Michael on the freighter. Is Christian actually a puppet of Jacob, not MIB… Or is it MIB who is bestowing eternal life and youth to his proteges until their destinies are fulfilled? TBD.
Also, this scene seemed to be overshadowed (literally) with a bad lighting choice… But was this intentional? Perhaps it was a nod to Caravaggio’s “The Incredulity of Saint Thomas”, which was shown last season in the episode “316“… According to the Gospel of St. John: Thomas missed one of Christ’s appearances to the Apostles after His resurrection. He therefore announced that, unless he could thrust his hand into Christ’s side, he would not believe what he had been told. A week later Christ appeared, asked Thomas to reach out his hands to touch Him and said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Which really speaks volumes about Richard’s state of mind right at this moment.
Jack shows huge relief before offering to try another stick. Richard says no, but that as Jack seems to have all the answers, now what? Jack says they should go back to where they started. Which would be…… THE BEACH CAMP! They’re going back to the beginning, a fresh start, new beginnings, yadda yadda…
BEACH CAMP:
Ben frantically runs through the jungle and catches up with Ilana’s group. The first thing she asks is where Jarrah is. Her apparent job is to protect the Candidates, and she looks upset that she has another man down. She asks Ben if he is SURE Jarrah won’t be joining them, and he replies “Since I saw him standing over the dead bodies with a bloody knife in his hand, I’m pretty sure.” This is the same position Ben was in after murdering Jacob:
Speaking of which, now seems a good time to mention that when Ben stabs Jacob, he falls into his killer, therefore touching him. I’d bet Ben is immortal now too… Unless different people get different gifts…
Anyway…
As they head for the beach, Miles falls back to ask Ben what “that thing” back there was. Ben says it was what killed his friends back at the statue. Ilana adds, “And Jacob, right, he killed Jacob too?” Ben stammers, “Yeah, of course, and Jacob too”. Ilana picks up on the inappropriate “of course” and she calls on Miles to find out what happened. Miles has that “look” and for a moment you think he’ll try to protect Ben… But no, he dimes him out: “Linus killed him.”
Ben instantly makes denials, but awkwardly, with nothing like his usual confidence and believability. Miles sarcastically retorts that “he was standing over the body with a bloody knife, so I’m pretty sure.” Ilana turns to Ben in quiet fury and says that Jacob was the closest thing she ever had to a father. So she has daddy issues too! Welcome to the club, Ilana.
Arriving back at the beach camp, Ben pokes around in Sawyer’s tent and finds an Oceanic water bottle, and a new book! “The Chosen” by Chaim Potok (1967). It tells the story of the friendship between two Jewish boys growing up in 1940’s Brooklyn. Reuven Malter, who has a mind for mathematics, wants to become a rabbi and follows modern methods of studying Judiasm. Danny is a genius son of a Hasidiac Rabbi, Reb Saunders, who expects him to take over his position as tzaddik eventually. Danny’s phenomenal mind compels him to seek knowledge outside what is permitted by his father (hint hint). They meet for the first time as rivals in a baseball game between their school teams that turns into a spiritual war. In the end, Danny is finally set free, and Reuven and Danny taste profoundly the pain in life, and the consolation of deep friendship.
”It makes us aware of how frail and tiny we are and of how much we must depend upon the Master of the Universe.”
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
He also finds an issue of Booty Babes (snicker) and a book bearing the name Benjamin Disraeli: Justice and Truth in Action and muses, “The things people bring on a trip.” No author’s name was shown on the dust jacket. It may be simply a prop, a mock-up, rather than an actual book. “Justice is truth in action” is a famous quotation of his, not a book title.
Benjamin Disraeli was the first Jewish British prime minister (1874-1880) and a literary figure. He mainly wrote romances, of which Sybil and Vivian Grey are perhaps the best-known. He is full of notable quotes, including: “Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power.”
Sun approaches Ilana repeating her catch phrase, “I have to find my husband, Jin”. She finds out Ilana shares the same goal while adding that she doesn’t know if she should be protecting Sun, Jin, or both. If Jacob’s touch is any indication… It’s both Kwons. Sun asks how many candidates there are, to which Ilana replies grimly, “There are only six left.” Hmm… Ilana knows Locke is dead, she knows Sayid has been taken by the MIB… So I’m guessing she’s counting both Kwons, but we’re still 1 short.
Ben remarks that he remembers Oceanic breaking apart like it was yesterday. Lapidus says he sounds nostalgic and Ben agrees (he was living a nice life in Dharmaville with his daughter still alive). Frank says he was supposed to pilot the flight but had slept in. He wonders how different his life would have been. Ben quips wryly, “How different would it have been?” and points out regardless, the Island still got Frank in the end. I like how they tied this line into Roger’s line earlier about how different their lives would be if they stayed on the island.
Ben is shackled (ahem, just like another big player in this episode was: Richard!) and instructed to build his own grave by Ilana. Miles approaches with food, and informs Ben that Jacob DID care about dying, saying that “right up until the second the knife went through his heart Jacob was hoping he was wrong about you”. I think Jacob touched Ben as he died to steer Ben in the right direction, and judging by his actions since that moment, I’d say it’s working.
Poor Ben was forced to dig a grave with a piece of bamboo. Bummer!
MIB arrives, first as the smoke monster then as Locke. He says he’s been looking for Ben and wants him to join his team. See, when MIB and his group leave the island for good, they need someone to be in charge, and he can’t think of anyone better than Ben. Ben, at first enticed by that power, breaks free, leads Ilana on a chase, then holds her at gunpoint. BUT, having been touched by Jacob, he can’t pull the trigger. He laments that he really doesn’t know what to do, as no one will have him. Ilana says she will (just as Locke said he was “listening” in Sideways world). Island Ben has redeemed himself, just as Sideways Ben would have, and chooses what’s right over his own personal gain. A wonderful moment for Ben!
Doc Jensen:
This time, Ben made the right [choice] — fulfilling, perhaps, Jacob’s dying thought hope that Ben had the capacity for change. Has Ben the flip-flop artist truly embraced redemption? If so, would his redemption have been possible without Jacob’s death? If so, did Jacob know that when he offered his chest for Ben to puncture?
…And I think I am narrowing down what the color RED means… In this episode, we’ve seen Ilana and Hurley in red shirts on the island. Both are protecting/steering someone in a certain direction. Hurley was protecting Jack from whatever danger was awaiting them at the Temple, and Ilana was saving Ben from the wrath of the MIB. In the Sideways flashes, Alex was sporting a red shirt on 2 different days. She was Ben’s constant reminder to do what is best for her (symbolically), instead of following his own selfish whims. She kept him on a righteous path. And another major instance of red this season was everyone’s clothing, etc. at the Temple. They were protecting their new visitors, the Candidates and their friends, from the invading MIB. Until the border was breached, at any rate. So I think RED = protection and guidance.
Ilana and Ben arrive back at the beach camp. Ben helps Sun with her tarp (what a good guy!) Frank adds wood to the fire (I think Ben instilled in him a sense of purpose). Miles holds up one of Nikki and Paulo’s diamonds (did he really just exhume the bodies???) A drained Ilana holds her pouch of what’s left of Jacob (maybe realizing he had his faults too). Jack, Hurley, and Richard appear and there’s a tearful reunion. All is right with the world! Right?
Wrong! Just offshore a little periscope pops up, surveying the group on the beach. WIDMORE! He’s arrived at the island just in time for the war (how convenient!), even though Ben told him he never would find the island again. When viewing the group on the beach, the periscope is pointed at the starboard (right) side of the submarine, at almost a 90° angle. Thus the submarine is traveling parallel to the beach. He tells the operator to “proceed as planned.” Uh oh!
Doc Jensen:
This moment was staged to deliberately echo the scene from the season 3 episode ”One Of Us,” when Jack, Kate, and Sayid returned from New Otherton, bringing Juliet with them. When the beach crew saw her, the happy-huggy moment abruptly ended, and everyone gave her the stink-eye (especially, ironically, Sawyer) — just like Jack and Ben traded suspicious looks in last night’s episode. We learned at the very end of ”One Of Us” that newbie Juliet was indeed shady; she had been sent by Ben to spy on the camp. (The moment was mirrored, I think, by having ”Dr. Linus” end with Widmore’s submarine spying on the castaways.)
Here’s a thought: On Jacob’s List, there was a “Linus”, but that could’ve been referring to either Roger or Alex (both have died) and not Ben. Regarding the ambiguity as to whether Linus and Rousseau refer to Alex: That would give a plausible explanation to why Ben said that Widmore “changed the rules” when Alex was killed, and why Linus was therefore crossed out. Sounds right to me!
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Sorry again this week’s recap is a day late… Hopefully it’s still insightful nonetheless! Leave your comments!
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Jen / desmondismyconstant.
