I Am DB

Just when you thought you’d finally gotten it out of your system – the thrills, the chills, the spills, the several WTF moments – I bring you, for your reading or deleting pleasure – my final Lost summary of the season. I regret the two week delay, but as those of you who were with me last year may remember, twice the episode means twice the writing time, and this whole “having a job” thing kinda gets in the way sometimes. I’ll tell you right off the bat too: it’s not worth the wait. I loved the episode, but was utterly confounded by it, and even with two weeks to work on this, I was still down to the wire, up past a reasonable bedtime last night, trying to finalize it. I don’t even feel like I’ve been able to really take time to process what it all means. So be prepared for an illogical, humor-deficient summary that likely takes the prize for my crappiest Lost write-up ever!

SUDDEN IMPACT
It would be hard to talk about this episode and what each development means for the future if we don’t start at the end. In fact, the most crucial scenes of the episode are the first and the last. So let’s start at the end and go from there. We’ll come back around to the details, but for now it will suffice to say that the core of the hydrogen bomb winds up at the bottom of the hole being drilled at The Swan site, just as Jack intended it. But it doesn’t detonate on impact. Poor Juliet also finds herself at the bottom of that hole, and uses a rock to try and smash the bomb and set it off. Does it work? If so, what does that mean for our friends? Those two questions hover over nearly every other question posed by this episode.

DUEL OF THE FATES
Backtracking to the opening scene of the episode, we find ourselves in a sparse cave lit by torches and a circular fire pit. There are hieroglyphics on the wall, simple handmade jugs here and there, and a man in loose clothing working a loom. This man goes outside onto the beach, catches a fish, cooks it on the rocks and settles back to enjoy the serenity. A ship approaches in the distance, masts at full sail. It looks like a pirate ship. The Black Rock, I presume?

As he enjoys his breakfast, another man arrives on the scene, similarly dressed in sandals and loose, cloth garments (dark, as opposed to the first man’s light, furthering one of the series’ elemental themes). And, well, here it is:

So…that was Jacob. Lying in the shadow of the large Anubis statue. It all begs the question: what the hell just happened? Who is this other guy, and what are they talking about? Their language sounds contemporary, but their dress, Jacob’s living space, the pirate ship and the towering statue all suggest the scene takes place a long, long time ago. Are these two men part of a larger community, or is it just them? Despite all the signs pointing to Egyptian influences on the island, we have here a couple of white boys.

“They come, fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same,” says the man to Jacob. I took this to mean that people have come to the island over and over again through the centuries/decades/years, always playing out the scenario that he describes, and no matter who they are or where they come from, the end result is always the same. But I was talking with reader David Z., and he threw out the idea that the man is actually referring not to random groups of people that have come to the island over time, but the same group…over and over again. His idea was that the ship on the horizon, which I think we’re all assuming is the Black Rock, crashes on the island and sets off a chain of events that has been on a loop for who knows how long; a chain of events that eventually finds Oceanic 815 crashing on the island; a chain of events that may play out with differences each time, but which ultimately ends the same: visitors corrupting and destroying. (Any fans of The Matrix Reloaded out there? Does this scenario remind you of the film’s final scene, in which Neo encounters The Architect?)

The line which seems to be the key to this scene is Jacob saying, “It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.” I don’t fully understand the meaning; I mean, I get it, but how exactly it applies here eludes me. After he says it there’s a long pause before the man says how much he wants to kill Jacob. Why does that line stick in his craw?

Watching this exchange unfold, I get the impression of Gods lounging on Mount Olympus, ruminating on the existence of the little people below, manipulating their fates for their own games or experiments. As the episode continues, they do seem to exhibit some God-like powers. Or maybe they’re just a twist on The Duke Brothers from Trading Places, making a bet for yuks and giggles. Whatever exactly these two are playing at, Jacob seems to see the potential for goodness in human nature.

WE’RE OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD…
Locke, Sun and the Others continue their trek to see Jacob, who Ben admits, in a confession to Sun, he has never met – confirming Locke’s accusation from the previous episode. Locke notices that Richard keeps staring a him, and asks him to come out and say what’s on his mind, which it turns out is Ben having told him about killing Locke.

Richard: He said he was sure you were dead. He saw your coffin loaded onto that plane that you came back on. How are you alive?
Locke: Well you’ve been on this island much longer than I have, Richard. If anyone should have an explanation I’d think it would be you.
Richard: I have been here a long time, John, and I’ve seen things on this island that I can barely describe but…I’ve never seen someone come back to life.
Locke: And I’ve never seen anyone who doesn’t age. Doesn’t mean it can’t happen.
Richard: I’m this way because of Jacob. And if I had to guess, he’s the reason you’re not in that coffin anymore.
Locke: I agree completely, Richard. That’s why I’m doing this, so I can thank him. Once I’ve done that, we’re gonna to need to deal with the rest of the passengers from the Ajira flight that brought me here.
Richard: What do you mean deal with them?
Locke: You know what I mean.

That’s an awfully ominous statement that Locke slips into his otherwise folksy banter. Does he just want to get rid of all non-essential personnel, or does he know about Ilana, and that others from the plane are a threat to his plans?

During the journey, Locke also learns about Ben’s encounter with “Alex” beneath the Temple. Armed with the knowledge that Ben has been instructed to follow Locke’s orders, Locke informs him that he, Ben, will be carrying out Jacob’s murder.

They arrive at the 815ers beach camp, where Locke tells everyone that according to Richard, they’ll reach Jacob by nighttime and that they should take a rest and catch their breath. “Considering what I have planned for you, you’re gonna need it.” What does he have planned for them? Obviously something after he deals with Jacob…

Ben sits alone, processing the burden that has placed on him, when Locke sits down beside him…

Locke: What happened that day at the cabin? When you first took me to meet Jacob.
Ben: Well you clearly already know that I was talking to an empty chair, John. That I was pretending. Which is not to say that I wasn’t as surprised as you were when things started flying around in the room.
Locke: But why would you go to all the trouble to make something like that up?
Ben: I was embarrassed. I didn’t want you to know that I had never seen Jacob. So yes, I lied. That’s what I do.
Locke: Alright then.
Ben: Why do you want me to kill Jacob, John?
Locke: Because despite your loyal service to this island, you got cancer. You had to watch your own daughter gunned down right in front of you. And your reward for those sacrifices? You were banished. And you did all this in the name of a man you’d never even met. So the question is Ben, why the hell wouldn’t you want to kill Jacob?

This is a brilliant turning of the tables, given that Ben has played Locke like a fiddle from the beginning. When he was prisoner in the hatch, he undermined Locke by pointing out that Jack was the real decision-maker. When he was prisoner in the basement of his own house, he taunted Locke about not knowing what he was doing and incurring the doubt of his followers. Time and time and time again, Ben has manipulated Locke to get what he wants, and here Locke flips it, planting the seeds of unrest in Ben to accomplish his own ends. And as we know from the eventual encounter with Jacob, Ben falls for it. He always knew how to push Locke’s buttons, and now Locke pushes his right back.

Meanwhile, Sun sees Aaron’s tipped-over crib, and my heart leapt as she approached it. One of my tugging regrets over the last two seasons has been that Charlie, before swimming down to his death in the Looking Glass, left his Drive Shaft ring in the crib for Claire and she never had a chance to find them. Sun finds the ring (which prompts a memory of her own wedding day) ans I’m hoping it will still find its way to Claire somehow.

LONG TIME COMING
They arrive at the statue of the foot, and Locke asks Richard why they’re stopping. Richard says this is where Jacob lives. Ben’s look is hard to read; he doesn’t seem to show any sign of recognition. When Sun asks him what happened to the rest of the statue, he claims not to know, saying it was like that when he got here. “Do you really expect me to believe that?” she asks. “Not really,” he answers in as blasé a tone as possible. Still, that doesn’t mean he isn’t telling the truth.

Richard prepares to lead Locke in, but stops when he sees Ben following them. You don’t see Richard get riled very often, but now he becomes angry.

Richard: What are you doing?
Ben: John wants me to join him.
Richard: You can’t bring him in.
Locke: Why not?
Richard: Because only our leader can request an audience with Jacob, and there can only be one leader on the island at a time, John!
Locke: I’m beginning to think you just make these rules up as you go along, Richard. Ben is coming in with me and if that’s a problem, I’m sure Jacob and I can work it out.

Richard opens a secret door and leaves them to their business. Is he not supposed to enter with Locke, or is he refusing to go in as a small act of defiance for Locke’s attitude? Whatever the case, he remains outside. As they stand in the entryway, Locke gives Ben a knife. “I know it won’t be easy, but things will change once he’s gone. I promise.” He doesn’t say that they’ll change for the better, but…

They enter the room we saw at the beginning…

That unfeeling, emotionless answer from Jacob cuts Ben like a sword through the heart. The disdain, the thought that Jacob deems him utterly irrelevant, is about the worst thing Ben could imagine. Ben, who has sought power and importance all of his life and who seeks the validation that he never got from his father, is crushed by Jacob’s response…which makes it easy for him to follow through with his instructions. Jacob has seen the knife, he knows what Ben and Locke are there for…is he provoking Ben in that moment? Is he trying to get Ben to kill him, the way I still want to believe that Faraday deliberately instigated his death for some reason not yet clear to us? Is it sort of an Obi-Wan Kenobi, “If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine” taunt to his enemy?

So is this the end of Jacob? And what’s going on with Locke? In order to answer that – who am I kidding, I have no idea how to answer that – but in order to ask the right questions, we need to jump back and follow the other group on the island that has been coming to see Jacob.

TEAM AJIRA
Ilana, Bram and their little crew arrive on the main island, with Lapidus in tow. Ilana tells Bram that just because Frank couldn’t answer the riddle doesn’t mean he’s not important. She says he could be a “candidate,” something that is left hanging out there to be dealt with next season (meaning Frank will be back. Yay! He’s the only remaining member of the chopper team whose purpose on the island – or more accurately, whose connection to the island – is as-yet-unexplored).

The crew is more civil to him now, describing themselves as friends, offering him water and showing him the contents of that huge metal crate when he asks to see inside. We don’t get to see what’s in there, but he does. And it clearly concerns him. Bram says they need to show the contents of the box to a particular person, so that this person will know “who they’re up against: something a hell of a lot scarier than what’s in this box.” He says Frank is safe as long as he’s with them, reassuring him that they are the good guys. Frank replies, “In my experience, the people who go out of their way to tell you they’re the good guys, are the bad guys.” Bram doesn’t respond. Is Frank’s observation fair? And could it apply to Ben, who has often described himself and The Others as “the good guys?”

They arrive at Jacob’s cabin, with its now familiar gravel-like demarcation, which Bram describes as ash and which has been disturbed in one spot, prompting Ilana to look concerned. She enters alone, and we see the cabin is in poor condition. Holes in the wood, broken items, the painting of the dog is on the floor…like the Dharma barracks in 2007 where Sun and Lapidus encountered Christian Shephard, the cabin looks deserted and ransacked. There is a piece of parchment pinned to the wall by a machete. When Ilana looks at it, her expression seems to become sadly alarmed, or nervous. She goes back outside and says, “He isn’t there. Hasn’t been in a long time. Someone else has been using it.” This comment once again makes me question whether or not Christian Shephard has actually been speaking on Jacob’s behalf, or if he’s been exercising his own agenda (or the agenda of someone other than Jacob). He told Locke to return to the island with Jack and the others, and he confirmed that Locke would die in this effort. Yet Locke, back on the island and seemingly resurrected, turns out to be not quite himself, so which team does that leave Christian playing for?

Ilana shows Bram the parchment, which features a drawing of the statue, and orders the cabin burned. She watches the flames swallow it, and her look remains one of concern and sadness. What does she understand from her visit here?

That night, they arrive at the statue, where the Others sit on the beach waiting for Locke to return from his talk with Jacob.

What the fuck?

So what might be at play here? The Locke who went inside with Ben has, ever since showing up on the island post-Ajira crash, seemed to be a new and improved version, with an unflappable confidence and a direct plug-in to the Island. But he also has all of his memories intact. At several points in this episode alone, Locke references past events – meeting Ben in the hatch for the first time, going to visit Jacob’s cabin the first time, etc. When they arrive at the statue, he does not seem to recognize it as Jacob’s dwelling. If he is the new incarnation of Jacob’s nemesis from the first scene of the episode, passing himself off as Locke, would all those Locke memories be intact? Wouldn’t he recognize the statue? When Locke’s body is revealed in the crate, why does Richard not rush into the chamber to stop whatever might be happening? It’s possible that he does, but that we won’t see it until next season. After all, this encounter with Ilana must be happening concurrently with Locke and Ben meeting Jacob inside. When the dying Jacob tells Locke that “they’re coming,” is he referring to Ilana and her group, or to a larger group? Perhaps to the Oceanic gang caught in that time loop that begins with the arrival of the Black Rock, as David Z. suggested earlier. And what is Ilana’s role in all of this? I’m starting to think of her group as the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. They were an ancient society sworn to protect the resting place and integrity of the Holy Grail. Perhaps Ilana’s team serves a similar purpose for the Island….

BACK TO THE BEACH
A few other things have been going on throughout all this that we can now turn our attention to, like Sawyer, Juliet and Kate sitting on a submarine that’s heading away from the island. When Kate tells them what Jack plans to do, Sawyer resists going back and becoming embroiled in yet more island drama, but Juliet agrees with Kate that they can’t let Jack potentially kill everyone on the island. So they manage to escape from the sub and take a raft back to the island, where they are greeted by a surprise…one that answered a frequently asked question of late.

“OH HELL, NO…”
When Sawyer, Juliet and Kate arrive on the beach, Vincent the dog bounds out of the trees, followed by Rose, and a bearded Bernard. Turns out the couple has been living in nature for the last three years, deliberately avoiding attempts by Sawyer, Jin and the others to find them and bring them safely into The Dharma Initiative…because, as Rose says, “we’re retired.” They’ve built themselves a cabin, stocked up on Dharma canned goods and are perfectly happy with their simple life. Even when Kate explains what Jack is about to do, their attitude is, to paraphrase one of this season’s signature lines, whatever happens happens. They don’t care if they die; they just want to be together, and I think that their “all you need is love” message might play into the eventual decisions Sawyer, Juliet and Kate make when they encounter Jack.

Will we see Rose and Bernard again? Tough to say. There’s a heartfelt goodbye as they direct the trio toward the Dharma barracks, and we get the sense that this may be our goodbye to them as well.  The scene had the feel of a farewell, and of Damon and Carlton slyly saying to the fans, “Okay, you’ve all been haranguing us about the whereabouts of Rose and Bernard; now you know, and that’s it. We don’t want to hear about it again. These are two busy actors whose availability is often limited, and we can’t keep working around their schedules, so enjoy this moment. It’s the last you’re gonna get with them.”

On the other hand, if we re-visit the Oceanic 815 crash next season, they could very well be back in the fold. We’ll see what happens. Whether we see them again or not, I would not be surprised if they turn out to be the answer to one of Lost‘s longest-lasting mysteries, set to be solved next season: who are the corpses Jack discovers in the caves, dubbed by Locke as Adam and Eve?

Future resolutions aside, one thing that did seem foreshadowed in this scene was ill tidings for Juliet. As her life with Sawyer has come unraveled over the last several episodes, she has seemed headed for a fall (no pun intended). Her lingering moment with Rose and Bernard – in which she declined a cup of tea but said “Maybe another time,” gave me the sense that there would not be another time for her.

TIME BOMB TOWN
Having followed instructions from Faraday’s journal for removing the core of the hydrogen bomb, Jack and Sayid are ready to head for The Swan. They’ll do so on their own, however, because Richard knocks Eloise unconscious to prevent her from leading them there and risking her life. He shows them how to get out of the tunnels and sends them on their way. Faced with the challenge of walking through Dharmaville unnoticed, Sayid grabs a jumpsuit from the house they’re cutting through and they try to make their way through the crowds that are still dealing with the evacuation, the alarm, etc. They’re almost clear when Roger Linus spots them, and shoots Sayid in the gut. Seeing Sayid take that bullet made me feel like I’d been shot in the gut too; could he possibly survive that wound?

Yet another shootout ensues, but Hurley, Miles and Jin pull up in a Dharma van. Jack helps Sayid onboard and off they go, with Jack instructing Hurley to head for The Swan. Things aren’t looking good for Sayid…or for Jack when Hurley slams on the brakes to avoid running over Sawyer, Juliet and Kate, blocking the van’s path and looking supremely badass while they’re at it.

Jack agrees to Sawyer’s request for five minutes to talk in the jungle. He tries to explain his reasons, but Sawyer’s not buying it. “I don’t speak destiny,” he says. (It was one of a few examples in this episode of Sawyer channeling Han Solo; “Kid, I’ve flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I seen a lot of strange stuff. But I’ve never seen anything to make me believe there’s one all powerful force controlling everything. There’s no mystical energy field controls my destiny.”)

In the end, Jack admits he’s doing this because he had Kate and he lost her, which baffles Sawyer even more, since Kate is just mere feet away and all Jack has to do is go tell her how he feels. Jack says it’s too late. Sawyer points out that if Jack is right and
Flight 815 lands in Los Angeles without incident, he and Kate will be strangers. Jack says that if it’s meant to be, it will be.

Now like many fans, I do wish that Jack’s motivation was grander, deeper or more epic. But at the same time, I appreciate the human frailty and weakness of it coming down to something so simple, emotional and personal for him. There’s something real about that kind of desperation. It was a great scene, not just because I always enjoy Sawyer and Jack trying to be civil to each other, but because it was a treat to see Sawyer play the therapist, digging in to get at the root of why Jack is pursuing this course, and to see Sawyer being so practical, reasonable and even, in a way, understanding. (“What I do understand is a man does what he does cause he wants something for himself. What do you want, Jack?”) This scene, along with a few others still to come, are further proof of what a stellar performance Josh Holloway has given throughout this season. He’s always kicked ass as Sawyer, but this season’s storylines gave him the opportunity to kick up his game in a huge way, and he nailed it at every turn.

Things get intense when Jack and Sawyer start kicking the bejesus out of each other. It’s getting pretty brutal when Juliet finally intervenes and expresses a change of mind and heart, telling Sawyer to let Jack follow through with his plan. Sawyer can’t believe it, and begs her to explain what she’s thinking. I have to say that I didn’t appreciate until I watched the episode a second time, having been too caught up in the forward momentum of the story the first time around, that it really captures something honest about the complexities of love, the frailty of relationships and the obstacles that we throw up in our own path which keep us from being happy or going after what we want. We’re all such fucked-up jumbles of neuroses, and the relationship stuff portrayed in this episode all plays into that. Juliet, for example, seems unable to allow herself the hope of a future with Sawyer – a decision she reaches based on baggage she creates herself. You can argue that her reasoning is irrational, that it doesn’t make sense, but you can also argue that that’s love, and sometimes it’s inexplicable.

MOMENT OF TRUTH
When Kate finds Jack again, bloody and bruised from his throwdown with Sawyer but no less determined to carry out Operation Do-Over, he tells her that nothing in his life has ever felt as right as what he’s about to do and that he needs her to believe that. He asks why she made him promise never to ask about Aaron, and points out that if he succeeds, the plane will land in L.A. and Claire and Aaron will be together. When she points out that Claire was going to give him up for adoption, he says that they don’t know what Claire would have done. “If you want to save Claire,” he tells her, “this is the only way to do it.” She finally agrees to help.

And not a moment too soon, because things aren’t going well down at The Swan. Chang has tried to warn Radzinsky of the danger involved in continuing to drill, but Radzinsky will not be deterred. He tells Chang that he came to the island to change the world through manipulation of electromagnetism and he intends to do just that (these guys all want to manipulate something; time, electromagnetism…). When he learns about the shootout back in Dharmaville, he radios Phil to drive out with a security team in case the insurgents show up.

As Jack goes out to do his thing with the bomb, he tells Sayid that the plan will save him. “Nothing can save me,” Sayid says. (God, I hope he’s wrong.) While the others wait by the van, Miles chimes in with a reasonable question. “Has it occurred to any of you that your buddy’s actually gonna cause the thing he says he’s trying to prevent? Perhaps that little nuke is the incident? So maybe the best thing to do is nothing?” It’s a good point, and they all look at each other acknowledging as much, leading him to add, “I’m glad you all thought this through.” But there’s no time to think it through any further, because they look down in the distance and see Phil and some security guys driving toward The Swan. Kate says Jack will be killed if they see him. (It’s like Marty McFly arriving back in 1985 Hill Valley and watching the Libyan’s bus – which, come to think of it, is the same kind of VW bus the Dharma Initiative uses – barreling toward the mall to kill Doc Brown.)

When Phil spots Jack hiding on a ledge above the dig, they all open fire on him and more shootout madness unfolds. The Dharma van speeds onto the scene with Kate, Juliet, Sawyer and Miles all firing at the Dharma goons to provide Jack with cover. Sawyer knocks Radzinsky down (though doesn’t have time to do the kind of damage I wish he could) and then grabs Phil while Dr. Chang keeps a gun on Radzinsky, which is great. I love that Chang is assisting them in trying to prevent the drilling – even if he doesn’t know what Jack is about to do. The remaining Dharma folks drop their guns, and Sawyer calls out to Jack, “Alright, you can come out now, Doc! Hurry up and do your business!” Not quite as supportive as Han Solo’s cry, “You’re all clear kid, now let’s blow this thing and go home!”…but it works.

Chang tries to turn the drill off, but something is pulling it downward. Radzinsky says they hit the pocket, as if Chang hasn’t been warning him about this and he’s suddenly shocked by it. Douchebag.

Jack drops the bomb and they all brace for impact. Nothing happens. And then everything starts to go haywire, with the powerful magnetic force pulling everything metal in the vicinity, just as we saw in The Swan at the end of Season Two. Could Miles have been right? Could the presence of the bomb have kick-started the process? Probably not; one thing doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the other, and the magnetic surge was likely about to happen anyway, but why didn’t the bomb detonate on impact?

As metal crunches, grinds and flies into the hole, Chang’s arm gets caught and crushed, which must explain the prosthetic he wears in The Swan orientation video. Miles frees him and sends him away. Radzinsky flees as well and Phil is fatally skewered by some metal rods. Then, in the most frightening moment of the show, chains fly at Juliet, wrap themselves around her waist and pull her down into the pit, which is already sucking down the metal rig, vehicles, and everything else metallic. Sawyer dives and grabs her, holding her hand while Kate tries to undo the chains, but she can’t reach. The force of the magnetism pulling Juliet down is excruciating and threatens to rip her in two. In the end they can’t free her, she can’t hold on, and if she tries they’ll all be crushed. She proclaims her love for Sawyer as she slips and disappears into the darkness. It’s the most harrowing death scene we’ve had on the show, with the possible exception of Charlie, whose final moments were powerful and emotional but not as violent. And of course, can we even call it a death scene? We soon see Juliet is still alive down there (perhaps the biggest leap of faith we’re asked to take in the whole episode). She’s broken and bleeding, but she’s alive. The un-detonated bomb lies within reach, and what happens next…we’ve already covered.

If they survive what happens, Sawyer may be going after Jack for another beatdown.

TOUCH AND GO
That covers all the action on the island, which leaves us with the chain of flashbacks. Like the Season One finale, this episode’s flashbacks cover multiple characters, devoting a scene to each one. The common link? Jacob. We see him visit each castaway in turn, and not only does he encounter them, he touches them. Literally. In one way or another, Jacob physically touches each person. Most of these flashbacks contain other significant moments, so let’s consider some of them.

-Kate: When young Kate is caught stealing a lunchbox, Jacob intercedes and pays for it. In a nod to past events, Kate is with her friend Thomas, who will eventually be killed when she tries to flee from a hospital after sneaking a visit to her mother. He is holding the toy plane that was in a time capsule which they buried as kids, dug up shortly before his death, and which Kate becomes obsessed with reclaiming from the Federal Marshall’s briefcase after the crash.

-Sawyer: On the day of his parents’ funeral, young James Ford begins to write his letter to Mr. Sawyer. When his pen runs out of ink, Jacob appears and gives him a new one. He offers his condolences and moves on. As James continues writing, another man approaches – a relative or family friend – and upon seeing the beginnings of the letter, tells the boy that while he has every right to be angry, what’s done is done and the desire for revenge will only cause him pain. He makes James promise not to finish the letter, and James agrees. But is he lying, or is this an instance of Jacob altering history? What if James Ford never writes that letter, never takes on the name Sawyer, never goes to Australia to kill the man he believes to be responsible for his parents’ deaths?

-Jack: Here we see the surgery that Jack told Kate about when they first met and she stitched his wound. Yet it unfolds a little differently than he had described it, and I wonder if that’s significant or not. The way he told it to Kate, when he made a potentially fatal mistake on his patient, he decided he was only going to give the fear five seconds to wash over him and do its thing; then he was going to brush it aside and fix her. But as we see, it is Jack’s father who helps him get control of himself and instructs him to count to five. After the surgery, Jack complains to Christian that his actions in the operating room
embarrassed him in front of his surgical team. “Dad, I know you don’t believe in me,” he says, “but I need them to.” Christian, weary at Jack’s history of accusations and insecurity, replies, “Are you sure I’m the one who doesn’t believe in you, Jack?”

So has this been another case of the writers violating the show’s continuity, or is it a deliberate attempt to show small differences between past events as we’ve been told they happened and how they actually did (or how they are being changed within the Great Loop of Time)? Is Jack’s future on the island altering, in small ways, his past? Or does Jack simply have an overinflated ego which led him to omit the part about his father when he told Kate the story?

As Jack’s father says his line, we hear the clink of coins dropping into the vending machine just a few steps away, and upon watching the scene a second time, I was acutely aware that Jacob is not only interacting with Jack in this moment, but he is sharing space with Christian as well. Although we don’t know if he sees Christian and they have no direct contact, the fact that both are present in the room intrigues me. After Christian walks away, Jacob offers Jack the candy bar which the machine had failed to deliver moments earlier (it’s an Apollo bar, the same candy Hurley discovers in the hatch). When Jack says it got stuck in the machine, Jacob says, “I guess it just needed a little push.” Something which could be said of Jack himself at times…

Locke: Jacob sits on a bench and we see, in very deliberate close-up, the cover of a book he’s reading: Everything That Rises Must Converge, by Flannery O’Connor. The cover picture is of a bird being pierced through the chest by an arrow. I thought of two things when I saw it: the Christ-like spread of the bird’s wings; and Walt, who had the odd trait of luring birds to their death – something we saw in the season one episode Special, as well as in the minisode Room 23. Walt’s birds didn’t die by arrow, but rather crashing into doors, walls and windows. Maybe I’m working too hard to make a connection; it wouldn’t be the first time. I’m sure EW.com’s Doc Jensen, who lives to explore Lost‘s literary references, will have plenty to say about the possible meaning of this book’s inclusion. Oh, and on the subject of Room 23: in that minisode, Ben says to Juliet of Walt, “Jacob wanted him here. He’s important. He’s…special.” I asked it then and I’ll ask it now; why, as Season Four was about to begin and Walt was long gone from the show save for an occasional cameo, would the producers remind us so prominently of his powers? I still say the show is not done with Walt. I don’t expect them to wrap up every single mystery and loose end, but if they don’t resolve this, I’ll be pissed.

Anyway, as Jacob sits reading, a body crashes to the ground in front of the building behind him. As if he’s been waiting for it, he gets up and walks over to an unconscious, bleeding John Locke, who has of course just been pushed out an eighth story window by his father. Jacob wakes Locke up when he places a firm hand on his shoulder, and says, “Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be alright. I’m sorry this happened to you.” Then he gets up and walks away.

It looks as normal as any of the other encounters Jacob has with our heroes, but is this one different because of Locke’s supposed destiny to come to the island? And is that destiny thrown into new light by the fact Locke seems to have been…re-purposed by Jacob’s enemy? When Locke turned the wheel and left the island, he encountered Charles Widmore, who told him, “There’s a war coming, John. And if you’re not back on the island when that happens, the wrong side is going to win.” Though we know he was loyal to Jacob at one point, did Widmore eventually move to the side of Jacob’s enemy? What kind of presence has that enemy had, if any, in the life of The Island and those who have spent time there? I also wondered if Locke was supposed to have been killed by that fall, and if Jacob’s touch brought him not merely back to consciousness, but back to life.

-Sun and Jin: The only time that Sun and Jin have been together all season was in this flashback to their wedding day. As she and Jin receive a line of well-wishers after their ceremony, they meet Jacob. In fluent Korean, he tells them, “Your love is a very special thing. Never take it for granted.” He touches their arms, bows to them and moves on,  leaving each of them to wonder how the other one knows him.

-Sayid: Is it just coincidence that Jacob stops Sayid for directions, indirectly resulting in Nadia getting mowed down (much the same way that Juliet’s ex-husband was hit by a bus, which she later seemed to think Richard might have caused)? Or did Jacob for some reason deliberately bring about Nadia’s death? He shows no emotion or shock on his face when she is struck, reacting only by gripping Sayid’s shoulder. Then he’s gone. This also throws into question whether or not Widmore was responsible for Nadia’s death, as Ben claimed. Was Sayid really a target? Was it random? Was it all Jacob’s doing?

-Hurley: When Hurley is released from prison, he gets into a cab occupied by a stranger who offers to share the ride, as he’s only going a few blocks. The stranger is, of course, Jacob, and there is a guitar case between them. Jacob calmly asks Hurley why he doesn’t want to return to the island, and Hurley – relatively relaxed considering this stranger knows his name and is asking him about the island – says it’s because he’s cursed. But Jacob says he might be blessed, not cursed, and that he is definitely not crazy. He then tells Hurley that if wants to go back, he should be on Ajira 316 the next day. Touching his arm, he says that Hurley doesn’t have to do anything he doesn’t want to do. He exits the cab and when Hurley calls out that he forgot his guitar, Jacob says, “It’s not my guitar.” Is it his…something else, something other than a guitar? Is it someone else’s guitar? Someone else’s something else? Whatever it contains, it’s probably significant.

It’s also important to note that Jacob’s encounters with Hurley and Sayid come after they have returned from the island. The other flashbacks are all pre-island, which first led me to think that Jacob somehow brought them all to the island in the first place, but the fact that he meets Hurley and Sayid after they’ve been to the island and left makes it less clear what Jacob’s visits to the Oceanic survivors mean. Note that Sayid and Hurley remain behind when the others take the Dharma van directly to the Swan site to protect Jack. If the bomb does detonate, they might be somewhat protected by nature of their distance. Irrelevant? Maybe. Maybe not.

There is another flashback, which may or may not take place in the three years between the Oceanic Six’s rescue and their return: Ilana. It’s the first flashback centering on her (though she did appear in Sayid’s several episodes ago). In the scene, she is bedridden in a grimy hospital in an unknown foreign country, her face entirely bandaged except for her mouth and one eye. We can see cuts and bruises on the little skin that’s exposed. She is visited by Jacob, who is dressed all in black – jacket, scarf, gloves – and who sits at her side and speaks her language.

Jacob: I’m sorry I couldn’t make it sooner.
Ilana: I’m very happy to see you.
Jacob: I’m here because I need your help. Can you do that? Can you help me, Ilana?
Ilana: Yes.

She smiles when she answers, as if proud to be called to service and flattered that he would ask her. He doesn’t touch her; she’s the only one he doesn’t, and this, when taken with the dialogue, confirms that their relationship is different. They have history. So how do they know each other and what is Jacob asking her to help with? If she is going to the island to help Jacob, why does she bring Sayid with her? Is that her decision, or is it something Jacob requests? If Jacob intended to send Ilana to the island to stop Fake Locke from killing him, is she too late, or is Jacob’s death not as clear-cut as it seems?

As I watch these encounters with Jacob, I wonder if there were similar meetings that he had with Charlie, Boone, Shannon, Michael, Libby, Ana Lucia, Eko…or if only those who have made it this far had encounters with the mystery man. Ben mentions the lists when he confronts Jacob, and it’s the first mention of the lists we’ve heard in a long time. It would seem that these people Jacob meets off-island are on a list. But we still have no idea what all those lists mean. And what about Desmond? Has Jacob met Desmond? How will Desmond fit into the final season?

LOOSE ENDS/FOOD FOR THOUGHT
-According to Lostpedia, Richard’s Latin answer to “what lies in the shadow of the statue” roughly translates as, “He who will protect/save us all.”

-It only ends once. That line makes me wonder if we will see the end of the island by the time the show wraps up. Obviously we have no idea where things will land next year, but do you think that whatever happens, the island will be destroyed when all is said and done? Or will it continue to endure, lying in wait to ensnare more unsuspecting castaways, regardless of where the 815 gang lands? Or to ensnare the 815 gang all over again?

-Jack’s transition to Man of Faith gets another boost when Richard asks him about Locke, saying that in the times he’s gone off-island to see him, he’s never seemed particularly special. Jack defends Locke, suggesting that Richard not to give up on him.

-What if Christian Shephard is the new vessel for Jacob? What if Jacob can transfer his essence, soul, spirit, whatever you want to call it, and he’s put it into Christian so that the Jacob who gets stabbed by Ben might be the body of Jacob as we know him, but is not really him? I’m thinking out loud, and not really stopping to consider all the reasons that such a scenario surely makes no sense…

-Could this thing – this other being inside of Locke – have been lying dormant there his whole life? If Locke is fated to find the island, and if people really have been trying to get him there, could it be because of this thing inside him? Probably not…not if Jacob is the good guy and he’s there to overthrow Jacob, who is followed by all the people who seem to have an interest in Locke: Ben, Widmore, Richard…

-Richard told Sun that he watched Jack, Kate, Hurley (and presumably the others) die. But Richard wasn’t with that group at The Orchid, so did he mean what he said literally, or did he mean that he believed their plan to detonate the bomb would end in certain death, and he watched them march toward that?

-The episode’s one flashback that does not involve Jacob belongs to Juliet, whose bad luck with relationships is set-up in a scene depicting her parents announcing their divorce to Juliet and her sister. And we didn’t get a flashback for Miles at all…

-When Ben mentions Locke being marched in like Moses, a close-up of Locke shows him turning to look at Jacob. Is this just a dramatic gesture, or does that line of dialogue hold significance?

-One thing I was really surprised not to see in this episode was the reappearance of Caesar. Despite Ben blowing his ass across the beach with a shotgun, I was sure we’d see him again. I’m still not convinced we won’t, though an appearance in the finale would have refreshed the audience’s memory since he didn’t get much screen time and we have a long wait ahead. The reason for my conviction is simple: when Damon and Carlton announced the casting for Caesar and Ilana last fall, they said the two characters would factor into the show’s overall mystery in important ways. Now sure, Damon and Carlton are cryptic with their clues, and they certainly keep their secrets, but I’ve never known them to deliberately mislead the audience with red herrings. Which means they either changed their minds about Caesar mid-way and decided the character wasn’t necessary, or we haven’t seen the last of him. Or this time, Damon and Carlton deliberately misled us with red herrings.

-So as we head into Season Six, we’ve got a long list of mysteries to be solved, and for the purposes of keeping my brain organized and uncluttered, I will attempt to list some of them here, as they come to me (not including the ones raised in this episode, like what Lapidus might be a candidate for, who Jacob’s enemy is, and hell, pretty much every damn thing that happened):

• Kidnapping children
• Pregnant women dying
• Lists
• Walt: what the hell?
• The Adam and Eve skeletons in the caves
• The Lamp Post (off-island Dharma station manned by Eloise Hawking)
• Eloise Hawking: what the hell?
• The Island’s power over people (not letting Michael kill himself, for example)
• Jacob’s cabin
• Christian Shephard: what the hell?
• The Smoke Monster
• The remaining details of the Charles Widmore/Benjamin Linus relationship (like why Ben can’t kill Widmore, how Ben really came to power, etc.)
• The Truce between The Dharma Initiative and the Hostiles/Others
• The Statue
• Jungle whispers
• The Purge
• Will the castaways turn out to have influenced future events by being in 1977?
• And probably many more that I just can’t think of right now…

-A final salute to the best of this season’s performances. There’s really not a weak link in the cast, so it’s almost a matter of who got the most great material than it is who gave the best performances. Michael Emerson is never less than remarkable as Ben; Jeremy Davies did great work as Faraday; Ken Leung makes Miles endlessly watchable; and Elizabeth Mitchell, though slightly underused as Juliet, remained a great presence. But whereas Emerson was the shining star of Season Four, this season was owned by three actors: Terry O’Quinn as Locke, matching if not exceeding his best work ever on the show in The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham; Jorge Garcia as Hurley, who continues to be not just brilliant comic relief, but also shines in his dramatic moments and has become the conscience of the show; and Josh Holloway, who simply blew the roof of the joint as Sawyer. From his earliest moments in the season to his last – demanding answers from Faraday about the time-warping; reacting to Locke disappearing down the well at The Orchid; coming into his own as LaFleur; or watching Juliet slip into the dark – Holloway did his best work yet, and deserves an Emmy nomination for his efforts.

There were also plenty of great guest stars and recurring  performances as well, so a raising of glasses to Nestor Carbonell as the fascinating Richard Alpert; Jeff Fahey as the eternally ruling Frank Lapidus; Fionnula Flanagan, who drenched Eloise Hawking in mystique; Alan Dale, never letting us trust him as Charles Widmore; Francois Chau, who got the welcome opportunity to expand his role as Dr. Chang; Eric Lange, who made for a great, paranoid prick as Radzinsky; Zuleikha Robinson, keeping us on our toes as Ilana; Lance Reddick as the much-missed Matthew Abbadon; L. Scott Caldwell and Sam Anderson, also missed for much of the season as Rose and Bernard; Sonya Walger, whose performance as Penny beautifully compliments Henry Ian Cusick; John Terry as Christian Shephard; and of course, Mark Pellegrino as Jacob.

-I also need to mention something that doesn’t get said often enough, which is that Michael Giacchino, who composes the music for the show, is a huge part of the reason it works so well.

-As usual, we have little information about what next season has in store. Damon and Carlton have said that the time-travel storylines will come to an end and that the season will be much more character-centric, like Season One…though they’ll need to work hard to solve all the lingering mysteries. Multiple sources have also confirmed that despite being cast on a new show, Elizabeth Mitchell will return – perhaps on a limited basis – as Juliet. No word on whether we can expect to see Naveen Andrews back as Sayid. And I’m still wondering if (depending on where and when the story goes) we might see some past cast members return to duty. Although Michael has come and gone twice, Harold Perrineau’s show The Unusuals was not renewed for next season, so maybe they could bring him back one more time and do right by him; Dominic Monaghan has always seemed receptive to coming back as Charlie; and as I said, we better get more of Malcolm David Kelly as Walt.

FINAL THOUGHTS
And that’s it. Like a hibernating polar bear, Lost has settled into slumber for the long winter of my discontent. Of course, there will be rumblings in the months to come – this summer’s Comic-Con is likely to bring a few Season Six teases, Emmy nominations will be revealed in July, etc. – and I’ll pop up again in your Inbox when there’s something newsworthy to share. But for now, I’m going home and deleting Season Five from my DVR, never to be seen again. Until I buy it on DVD December 8th.

Tonight’s Episode: Shit…does this mean I need to start watching Fringe? That season’s over too?!? Damnit! Looks like I’m goin’ to see Star Trek again…