SPOILERS AHEAD
* “Hello, Lost viewers! It was great to have you swing by last week. This week, we’ll be shifting gears and focusing on characters you like doing awesome things like turning into smoke monsters, grabbing machetes, scaring the shit out of Immortal Guy in Eyeliner, climbing down Indiana Jones rope ladders, explaining the origin of the Numbers, and listening to Iggy and the Stooges. Meanwhile, in an alternate reality, we’ll show them being well-adjusted, becoming besties with their archnemeses, and marrying Katey Sagal.”
* In other words, ohhhhhhh maaaaaaannnnnnn that was outstanding.
* Because we’re so used to how Lost works structurally and in terms of the roles of the characters, shifting those things around really makes an impact. Normally this takes the form of flipping the “flashback/forward/sideways” switch. But they can do it with how the characters are behaving as opposed to how they used to behave, too. And in this episode they did that twice: First by taking Richard, whose primary superpower has been inflappability, and showing him absolutely frantic and terrified. Instead of striding up calmly to whoever we’re following, this time he sneaks up wild-eyed and panicked, and runs away mid-sentence like Tony Soprano seeing the Feds approaching across the snowy backyard. Second they do it by showing Ben actually admit that Locke shits bigger than him, going so far as to finally end his ruse about Locke’s death. Not about Jacob’s death, of course–let’s not get crazy here. But still. You do those two simple things and all of a sudden it’s like wow, new ballgame. The show even made reference to something similar diegetically, with Sawyer picking up on Fake Locke because Real Locke always had a tinge of false bravado to him. Say what you will about Real Locke, but that bravado ain’t false.
* Locke’s flashsideways was deeply, deeply satisfying, wasn’t it? The second I saw him in a big suburban house instead of a crappy apartment, I figured Katey Sagal would be returning, and that was wonderful to see, especially when it became apparent that they had a healthy relationship. But what really made it click for me was when he fell off the ramp and onto the front yard: Instead of throwing his usual rage-filled tantrum about his lot in life, he just grinned as the sprinkler kicked in, in a good-natured “man, ain’t that a kick in the head?” kinda way. Turns out he was still struggling with the same compulsion to prove himself capable of things he’s incapable of that we’ve always seen from him, but the struggle was less severe and damaging to him, and he was ultimately able to walk away and move on.
* The kicker to the sequence, of course, was when he meets Benjamin Linus, European History teacher, at which point I was literally holding my arms aloft in triumph and cheering. Terry O’Quinn’s magnificent smile at the very end–the look of a man who knows he’s just met someone who’ll be a great friend, which really does happen from time to time–is one of my all-time favorite Lost moments, full stop. This is what I’m talking about, man.
* The Island storyline was rad, too. I want to focus on the cave scene because I think it’s the first time we’ve ever seen little recap-style flashbacks presented to us while characters continue to speak in the flow of the narrative. Am I right? This technique is straight outta Murder She Wrote, or Wadsworth telling us how it was all done during the various endings of Clue. In other words? ANSWERS!
* I couldn’t help but think, even after they showed that the Numbers originated with Jacob’s list of people, of how Cuse and Lindelof have said that viewers will continue to demand that they drill down deeper into them, like a kid repeatedly asking “Why?” until you’re saying stuff like “Because God said ‘because'” or whatever.
* Why only one Kwon? Why no Austen? Were these just the 42 front-section passengers of Oceanic 815, or are they 42 people drawn from all sorts of groups–the Tailies, the Others, Not Penny’s Boat, Ajira, Widmore’s Army unit, Desmond, Dharma, etc.?
* Jumping back for a sec, if Locke’s on good terms with his dad, what happened to his spine?
* Fake Locke/Man in Black is obviously an unreliable narrator, but I didn’t get a whole lot of cues that he was not to be believed in this case. Maybe Jacob will turn out to be a straight-up White Hat, but the “rival puppetmasters with pawns in the middle” theory of Lost seems a lot more thematically resonant with what’s actually happened on the show.
* Sawyer joining forces with the MIB is like Wolverine going to work for Magneto.
* I’m totally buying it, by the way. Great new positioning for that character, and perfect for his inevitable heroic self-sacrifice.
* Who is the mysterious kid? I think everyone probably thought “Young Jacob” at first, especially when it seemed like Richard couldn’t see him and he just disappeared. But Richard wasn’t facing that direction, and he could have scooted away while Fake Locke was looking at Richard instead for that brief moment. Sawyer could see him, after all, though who knows what that means at this point. I started wondering if he’s some Walt-style superpowered real-live kid currently hanging out at the Temple or something. Was he that kid they kidnapped from the Tail Section, does anyone know?
* I’m also thinking that this is where Walt’s importance will lie. I’m more confident than ever that we’ll get a satisfying answer for both him and the importance of childbirth and the lack thereof on the Island.
* Lapidus is priceless. Special to Kiel: Screw Hurley, that’s your mom’s audience-identification character.
GAH! My mom TOTALLY called out the Lapidus moment as her favorite part of the episode. You’ll see it all when I write my thing up.
Here’s my big question now, in the alternate time line, are Jacob and MIB still alive/active? If so, I think that gives that whole reality some importance aside from just showing how these characters may or may not have been destined to hang out together.
You know how internet people like to have snarky nicknames for the characters, etc? Are any of those people cool enough to call Frank Lapidus “Wayne Coyne”?
“Who is the mysterious kid?”
He sure looked like Claire to me. But maybe Jacob a bit, too?…
Very curious as to why Kate’s name wasn’t written on Rip Hunter’s caveboard.
They’ve definitely done something similar to those Murder She Wrote-style flashbacks at least once before, but I couldn’t for the life of me tell you where–I watched the first five seasons over the past month, and all the episodes are blending together in my head.
And mysterious jungle kid is not the kid they took from the tail section. He showed up in the season premiere, looking quite different from this new kid.
I’m pretty sure I saw Charlotte Lewis’s last name written (and crossed out) on the cave wall — so not just people on Oceanic 815, if that was the case.
(Lewis and (Claire) Littleton were the only two names I felt I could positively identify.)
Kiel: Ha! Damn I’m good.
TJ: That’s an excellent question. As I said in my post this morning, the continued existence of Ethan and Ben on Earth X raises a lot of questions about just what exactly happened to the Island and how far out the ramifications reach.
Matthew: Here’s hoping that a video of a nude Jeff Fahey being toted around in a giant plastic bubble by naked hipsters is one of the Season Six bonus features.
Eric: Yeah, he did look like Claire, didn’t he? Although who knows how much you can read into that on a TV show given the limits of casting. Also he’s too old to be Aaron, but on a show like this, who knows? Anyway, yeah, “young Jacob” was my first instinct.
Shags: LOL!
Gardner: Good eyes. I couldn’t remember what that kid looked like even though we’d seen him only two weeks ago.
Greg: Good eyes too! I’m sure Lostpedia will have this mapped out by lunchtime.
I found this site that has basically a screencap of every shot.
http://gallery.lost-media.com/thumbnails-1523-page-12.html
I couldn’t find any other names that seemed familiar, but a lot of them are so smudged it’s really hard to tell. When I was watching last night, I assumed that our numbers were assigned next to all the names, and just repeated, but it looks like those are actually only written with the characters we know.
It gives me the impression that Jacob picks a set of numbers for every group he summons to the island. And since we’ve seen Jacob approach young Sawyer, and since Rousseau stumbled across the numbers 20 years ago when she crashed, it seems like he’s had these numbers assigned to the survivors for quite some time.
And yeah, this episode was rad.
Loved the fact that Sawyer knew straight away that Locke wasn’t Locke. He managed to fool everybody else for a considerable portion of last season, but James Ford can instantly spot when somebody is playing a con game like that. In an episode that was full of fantastic little moments, that was my favourite.
Yeah, the kid obviously should be too old to be Aaron, and it’s likely a red herring, but looking at those screen shots linked to above, it’s amazing to me just how much he looks like Claire, the actors look like they could be related. Not just because they’re blonde, but those squinty eyes! Eerie resemblance.
What did you make of the comment by the nemesis (“Inside Joke.”) as he tossed away the white weighing stone from the balance?
Sam: What I took from the cave sequence is that the numbers aren’t “picked” or “assigned” at all. I think the idea is that Jacob listed at least 42 possible candidates more or less at random (they’re not alphabetical or by age order, based on the six we could clearly see), and crossed out the ones that were eliminated for whatever reason until he was left with those all-important six. THAT’S the significance of the Numbers. They became important because of who they randomly ended up next to, not the other way around, if you follow me.
Bob: Agreed. Matthew made the exact same point you did about how you can’t con a con. It was also such a Wolverine moment I half expected him to say that Fake Locke smelled different.
Eric: I know exactly what you mean. They really do look alike.
Simon: I assume it’s gallows-humor reference to the fact that he’s the Man in Black and Jacob, who wore white, is now dead. So the white stone gets thrown off a cliff. I suppose it could also mean that the MiB, what with his access to Locke’s memories, now knows about that much-talked-about-by-fans bit in the pilot where Locke explains backgammon (and apparently the Island) to Walt: “Two players. Two sides. One is light. One is dark.” More here.
Ilana gathers up Jacob’s ashes into a bag.
The Others have a thing for making magic protective circles on the ground using bags full of ashes.
Have a whole lot of Jacobs been burned up before?
Lostpedia has a list of the names on the wall:
http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Candidate
Another insight from that site: the flash sideways this season are mirroring the order in which we got flashbacks in the first season. (Pilot-LA X, Tabula Rasa- What Kate Does, Walkabout – The Substitute). So it looks like next week will probably be a Jack episode.
This episode was amazing. Ben’s eulogy for Locke pretty much brought a tear to my eye. Also really enjoyed Sawyer calling out fake Locke even in a drunken stupor. MIB’s tossing of the white rock into the ocean and describing it as an “inside joke,” was quite interesting as well. I guess you can draw a lot from that one action. The white rock could just symbolize Jacob in a literal sense. It could mean that with Jacob gone, the balance of power on the Island has swung back to fake Locke (and as we have been led to believe thus far, evil). Probably signifies both.
In reference to the creepy little boy, my best guess is that it is a young Jacob. I say this for a few reasons. First, I believe the first time MIB sees the little boy, the young boy has blood stained clothes. Jacob was stabbed to death brutally. The little kid had his hands out and, from my view, seemed to be bloodied. This is a lot like how Jacob looked when he was murdered. Secondly, in their next encounter, the little boy warns MIB (or fake Locke or Smokey or Esau) that he cannot kill Sawyer according to these darn “rules” that we always hear about. If this kid was Aaron or Claire (which I don’t think at all) , how do those two characters no the rules that only seem to be privy to MIB and Jacob??? Whidmore and Ben also speak of rules obviously but who knows if they are referring to the same things as Jacob and MIB. Also, Claire is currently on the Island in the same time frame. She just shot the Others that were going to kill Jin. Why would she then show up as a little child in clothing that we have never seen her in? In addition, the leader of the “temple” Others has mentioned to Jack that Claire has been claimed much like Sayid. If that is the case, it seems logical that MIB is the person or entity doing the claiming, no? If Claire has been claimed since the time she disappeared and left Aaron, don’t you feel that she is already under the influence of MIB? The real Locke was basically led to his ultimate demise while following the advice of Christian Sheppard. If dead people or dead bodies are claimed and used by MIB, I think it is reasonable to conclude that MIB somehow knew enough to orchestrate Locke’s leaving the Island only to ultimately be killed by Ben and brought back to the Island so that “a candidate” (Locke and his image) could infiltrate Jacob’s lair with Ben and persuade Ben to end Jacob’s reign on the Island.
If Claire was claimed, did she physically die somehow on the Island after leaving Aaron? Maybe she actually died when the house was blown up and somehow came back to life only to carry Aaron so far and leave him to the other Oceanic crew we know so well and then went off with Smokey and Christian Sheppard.
I think that Sawyer could see the young boy (maybe Jacob) because he is a candidate.
Also, it seems like we can believe MIB when he says that Jacob wrote those names on the cave ceiling because of the flashbacks linking Jacob to the names on the cave walls. However, I only remember ever seeing Jacob on the beach or in the foot statue monument. Why would Jacob be living in a very shady cave on the side of a cliff that can only be reached by braving the rope ladders of death? Could it be possible that the names were not written by Jacob at all but by MIB? Perhaps through his activities as the Smoke monster, he knows about all the candidates and is systematically “claiming” or destroying them? Just a thought, it could easily be that he was telling the truth but you never know.
Richard’s frantic behavior is pretty funny. He does have the guts to stand up to fake Locke and tell him that he will not go anywhere with him though. It’s ironic that Ben Linus, the calculating leader of the others, could not tell that fake Locke was MIB and didn’t even really believe Locke was dead until Richard shoved his face near Locke’s lifeless corpse but Sawyer sniffed out fake Locke in about 1 minute of conversation.
The alternate reality is quite intriguing. I almost think that the writers want us to believe that certain things were destined to happen to the characters no matter what but other things can be changed. Rose and Locke (both healed by the powers of the Island) cross paths again in the alternate reality and again share the bond of their significant physical problems. In Claire’s alternate reality, she still seems destined to give birth and possibly raise Aaron as the adoption falls through the day she arrives in LA.
Helen mentioning that it could be destiny that Locke runs into Jack (a spinal surgeon) at the airport is eerily similar to Ben’s appeal to Jack on the Island when he is trying to have the tumor removed from his spine. It is also interesting that Locke is about to get married in the alternate reality. Jack originally performed surgery on his future wife under the promise that she might be able to dance at her wedding. If Jack eventually does perform surgery on John in the alternate reality, maybe Locke will get to dance at his own wedding.
Did you guys ever discuss how Ben was able to summon the smoke monster to fight off Whidmore’s army of thugs? I still don’t get that.
Another thought:
Perhaps Christian Sheppard, as he appeared on the Island, was never really the spirit or ghost of Christian Sheppard. Perhaps it was MIB the whole time. I’m kind of figuring that MIB can use the form of dead bodies on the Island. The prime example is when Yemi appears to Eko. I don’t remember the tenor of the whole conversation but the main point of it was that Yemi (or MIB or Smokey perhaps) wanted Eko to atone for the live he had led up until that point. Eko wouldn’t and was consequently brutalized by the Smoke monster.
At one point when fake Locke is talking to Richard and Richard refuses to go with fake Locke….MIB states, “Are you sure about that Richard because people seldom get a second chance?” That almost brings me back to Eko’s encounter with Smokey.
Ilana later states in the Episode, I believe to Ben, that Smokey cannot change form anymore. My guess, is that now that Smokey has taken the image of a CANDIDATE, he can no longer change his image and use other bodies.
Smokey himself even says that he looks like John Locke so that he could gain access to Jacob. Hence, he had to take the form of a candidate.
Still think the lair where the names were written doesn’t seem like a place that Jacob would inhabit or hang out.
Smokey says also that he was once a man and had become trapped. So I think Smokey and Jacob have a long history together going back to when they were possibly even children. Therefore, seeing a young, bloodied ghost or image of Jacob would draw the reaction that Smokey had during the episode.
Eli: I definitely thought along those lines. However, Jacob’s ashes appeared white while the ashes we’ve seen used to guard against the Monster have been black. Who knows?
Charles: Outstanding link–thanks! That’s quite a list, and it answers a couple of my questions in that a) it’s longer than just a list of 42, and b) it includes all kinds of people, not just 815 survivors.
Ryan: Oh man, where do I begin? You just carpet-bombed me with Lost knowledge bombs, broseph. You’re getting a reply comment all your own…
It just occurred to me that all of the characters who correspond to the Numbers in Jacob’s cave (assuming “Kwon” is Jin and not Sun) are ones who, thanks to time travel, were on the island prior to Jacob meeting and touching them off-island–i.e. maybe this is one of those causality loop things where them being on the island in 1977 or earlier is what causes Jacob to “choose” them, which is what causes them to be on the island in 1977, etc. etc.
Gardner: Good thinking! That of course doubles down on the mystery of why Kate’s not represented, though. In fact, that link Charles provided says that fellow time-jumpers Miles, Charlotte, Faraday, and Juliet were all listed, but there’s no “Austen” to be found…
Personally I always thought Eko’s fatal beatdown by Smokey was a reaction to Eko’s independence– esp. coming as it did only a couple of eps. after John had baby cop at gunpoint & was told, “They chose you because your file said you were amenable to coercion.” Amenable? Locke took to coercion like a dog to a dinner bell. Eko, though: that man would not bend. So Smokey broke him.
Penitence is one of those things that’s always annoyed me: admitting to sin on one’s deathbed, trying to buy your way out of damnation… It’s a fake-out, a dodge. It’s the politician crying for forgiveness on tv for molesting the paperboy. It’s false, and I’d like to believe Eko knew that, hence his (to my mind) admirable & honest response: “I do not know if I am a bad man. All I know is I did the best I could.”
I ramble on. Anyway.
My theory’s probably totally boge, considering Triple A’s determination to leave LOST forced the writers into a corner, but I thought it fit well enough with the free will vs. fate riff. Call it one or the other, but either way, they’re applied philosophies. Call it god’s will, a curse, fate, whatever, you set yourself up to be fated. Call it free will, you choose to live by your own rules. It’s the same difference.
So when is a choice not a choice? When it’s Jacob telling you you’re free to not make with the stabby? Or when it’s MIB offering you the easiest out of three?