LOST (Season Finale Part 1!)

Lost Episode Title: "Exodus (Part 1)"

Character Involved: E V E R Y O N E. Walter. Michael. Claire. Sun. Charlie. Jack. Kate. Sawyer. Sayid. Shannon. Boone. Hurley. Jin. Locke. Vincent? The flashbacks allegedly are for all the main characters BEFORE Flight 815 takes off. (I'm thinking we'll see them all in the Sidney Airport.)

TV Guide Description: The French woman -- Rousseau -- shocks the survivors by showing up with a dire warning about "the others." Meanwhile, Michael and Jin ready the raft for sailing.

Brian's Deeper Meaning Guess: Wow - where to begin? Well, let's start at the beginning. The good book! The book of Exodus is the second book of the Bible, which traces the events from the time that the "chosen people" are enslaved to their escape from Egypt, led by Moses. As I hinted at earlier, doesn't it seem like each castaway was somewhat enslaved by their lives prior to the island? Kate was on the run, Locke was a cripple, Michael didn't know his own son, Walt's mom just died, Shannon and Boone had a freaky love / hate / incest thing going on, Hurley was literally cursed by the numbers, Sawyer unsuccessfully hunted down the man responsible for the death of his parents, Sayid's best buddy blew his brains away, Sun and Jin's marriage was about to evaporate, Claire had a devil spawn baby growing inside her, and Charlie just came off of the three Lord of the Rings movies, forcing him to come to grips with a future where he will never be a part of a bigger movie... oh, and the drug thing. Those might not be physical chains, but they sure are emotional and psychological chains. Who led them to the "freedom" of the island? Is Hurley our Moses figure, causing the plane to crash? Did Walt envision the plane crashing? Is it really Locke, who is guiding all the survivors to "let go" of their past and break the shackles of the chains of their former lives?

Want more? The major themes of Exodus are that of redemption and salvation, along with the making of the covenant between God and Israel. Sound familiar? Remember John Locke? He has seemingly found his heaven on this island, and is making it his job to redeem and save the others on the island (see: Boone, Charlie, Jack, Walt). More importantly, how about his crazy talk / pact with the island? Remember him and the Hatch? He is seemingly bartering with the Island for knowledge. He made the sacrifice of Boone in order to please the Island / open the Hatch. Is this the Island testing him? The religious imagery around Locke as Jesus is too strong to deny.

Still more? Greedy little pig! Okay, how about the part in the book of Exodus about the Israelites crossing the Red Sea? Similarities to the castaways about to set sail on the raft and cross the sea? It's too much. Let's put down the Bible and look to the world of Rastafarianism.

Check the following quote from Bob Marley's "Exodus":

"Open your eyes and look within -
Are you satisfied with the life you’re living?
We know where we’re going;
We know where we’re from.
We’re leaving Babylon, y’all!
We’re going to our father’s land."

Now, in all fairness, the song is also loosely based on the aforementioned book of the Bible, but if you look at the lyrics, were any of the castaways "satisfied with the life they're living?" (that's not a rhetorical question - the answer is no). How about the first line about "Open your eyes and look within - are you satisfied with the life you're living?" - doesn't that just sum up the lives of the survivors in a nutshell? It also seems awfully similar to Charlie's tattoo, which reads: "Living is easy with eyes closed."

Or we can look at it in the simple literal way - Exodus meaning leaving somewhere. The rafters leaving the island. The remaining survivors fleeing their camp to avoid the Others.

All are valid answers.

TV Guide Description Breakdown: So simple, yet so intriguing, just like the TV commercial preview! CFL comes back to warn the castaways about the Others. Does this mean that she now trusts these castaways? Did Hurley win her over when he hugged her back in "Numbers"? Is she trying to prevent other people from succumbing to the "sickness" in an attempt to increase her allies in a fight against the Others? Or does she have more sinister motives? Given the fact that she's crazy, it's hard to read her motives. I think the most likely bet is that the combination of Sayid (who did her no harm) and Hurley (who could relate to her) won her over, and she has the best intentions of the survivors at heart.

But how freaky is her warning? "The Others are coming. You can either run, or hide, or DIE." Besides being very powerful, is there more to read into this? The first thing that popped into my mind is "Why couldn't you fight them? That seems like the logical third choice besides run and hide..." Could it be that the Others aren't human? Or that they're super-strong, like Ethan was in his first fight with Jack? Or could it be that they are something that you can't fight? Could it be that the Others are one and the same to the Sickness? Are the Others infected with this disease, so exposure to them will bring it upon yourself? If you consider Ethan one of "The Others" (which I don't at this point), the only other thing we know about them is that they whisper in the trees. Which brings us to the next point...

Why are the Others coming? Why now? Are they trying to prevent the raft from sailing? This would feed into the whole "the Island is preventing anyone from leaving" theory. Did Locke's banging on the Hatch wake them up? There was the symbolic "light turning on" inside the Hatch after he sacrificed Boone and proved himself. Here's my thought. There is a radio tower on this island, near the Black Rock, that is transmitting CFL's crazy signal. That's pretty much the only radio beacon for quite a distance, given that no one besides the Australian guy who killed himself in Numbers and CFL's crew picked it up over the course of all these years. It stands to reason, that when Boone picked up and used the radio in the Nigerian plane, it was picked up by that radio tower or their equipment before it bounced to the tail end of the plane and was replied to (this is still conjecture at this point, but come on - it has to be!) The show's creators have said that Boone's death "sets in motion the rest of the season" - this could quite literally be the case if it causes the Others to find the survivors. It also gives much more meaning and purpose to his death. I like it.

So, after three paragraphs on the first sentence of the episode description, I should touch on the second sentence. Michael, Jin, Walt, and Sawyer seem to be locks to be on the raft - but what about Vincent? Would Walt leave behind his beloved dog, who may or may not have special powers and a connection to the island? Is the crazy science teacher's warnings true? Who else remembers when Sayid was looking at CFL's maps, there was a big picture of the island, then three smaller islands off the coast - seeing as they're many many many miles from anywhere else to land, I'd say it's most likely they either land on one of these other smaller islands (where they find the tail of the plane) or get blown around to the other side of the main island (where they find the tail of the plane).

Man, how stupid am I going to look when this whole "Tail Plane" idea doesn't happen?

Last Month’s Episode Discussion Points: Great episode. For one, we got to see Kate in makeup, which was a pleasant change (even though she looks better au natural on the island, in my opinion), learned the importance of the toy plane that has been tormenting me for three months, and got enough clues to piece together her full storyline! Also, the wheels were set in motion for the season finale. I'll take it!

DATE. What date did Kate and Tom bury their time capsule? AUGUST 15, 1989 - 8/15 to you and me! Fun with numbers is back! Also, they buried their stuff in an NKOTB lunchbox! Hangin' Tough!

TOYS. Probably most people's number one question after this episode is - "How did the plane get from the car to the safety deposit box?" Here's my theory. Someone must have understood the importance of that plane, and was using it as a way of torturing / blackmailing Kate as a means of punishment for her being responsible for Tom's death. I think the best bet would be Tom's wife, who is now a widow and a single mother, a la Murphy Brown. She was probably jealous of Tom's relationship with Kate all along, and disapproved of Tom's continual support of Kate even when doing so meant endangering himself or his career. I don't quite have all the details worked out, but it's pretty clear (based on Kate's saddened reaction to the discovery of the plane) that is was meant to remind her of the tragedy that her actions caused.

BLOOD. So what did Kate do? Sure, Tom's death was an accident, but remember how the episode started? Kate was changing the license plates to her car and showering the blood off of her hot body. She obviously just violently murdered someone or got off her night shift at the butcher shop. Was this the first crime that she committed? Not likely, she was a pro at this point - storing multiple license plates in her car, wearing a disguise, etc. She's done this before. Is she an assassin for hire? A vigilante going after the "criminals of the world that our justice system cannot punish"? Not sure - but she's not as innocent as we'd all like to believe. (PS - also, did you catch the homage to Psycho as the blood ran down the drain?)

PSYCHO. Speaking of Hitch, why was the mother screaming when Kate showed up at the hospital? I can only think of two reasons:

1. Kate killed her husband, her own father. Why would she do this? The easiest answer is that he had abused her in her childhood. The Kate on the audio tape from 1989 was already dreaming of running away from her life, and she made mentions of "You know why I can't go home." There was bad stuff happening at home. Bad enough to make her kill.

2. Kate faked her death and her mom thought she was seeing a ghost. Perhaps this was the only way that Kate could escape the long arm of the law... of course, the only problem with this is that there wouldn't be so many guards around Kate's Mom's room if Kate was dead. She had to be a wanted criminal. Big time criminal. They even sent a US Marshall to Australia to hunt her down!

TIMELINE. So the timeline of Kate's stories are Born to Run (last week's episode) --> Whatever the Case May Be (Kate robs a bank and gets the toy plane back) --> Tabula Rasa (Kate is in Australia and is captured by the Marshall). Everything fits together pretty well. I could see future episodes being at the very beginning (showing how she started down a path of crime) and one showing the blackmail that puts the toy plane in the safety deposit box. What does this mean? Kate isn't going to be dying in the next two episodes! Yes!

POISON. Every rose has its thorn. Just like every night has its dawn. Kate was the mastermind after all behind the poisoning! But in all fairness, I was right too when I guessed that Sun would be the one responsible. It's interesting that Sun still has such strong feelings for Jin even though he has basically swore her off and refuses to talk to her. He's abandoning the island on the raft, but he's also symbolically abandoning her and their relationship.

TOUCH. Previously, we knew that Walt got visions. Well, this episode ratcheted up his powers a notch. By touching Locke, Walt could see what Locke was thinking or sense the evil of the Hatch that was with him. Walt touches Locke's arm. I'm curious to go back through other episodes and see who else he has touched. Do you think he has insight into what's going on with everyone on the island? Does he know all their terrible secrets? Again, what is going to happen when he touches Turnip Head!?

OHIO. Lastly, in an obvious shout out to the Number One Lost fans in the country, JJ Abrams decided to have Kate driving around in a car with Ohio tags. Admittedly, I was pretty jealous that she was cruisin' in the old school Ohio License Plates that showed the county you were in instead of today's stupid plates that just have numbers representing the counties. How am I supposed to know who is from Cincinnati vs. who is from Cleveland (read: How do I know who to love vs. who to hate if I have to decipher numbers?) In looking for deeper meaning here, how about this? Researching the Shelby Ohio website (http://co.shelby.oh.us/), guess what the "County Seat" (whatever that is!) for Shelby County is? SIDNEY. As in the place that Flight 815 left from. Freaky!

AMSTERDAM. Oh yeah, and remember that letter that Kate was reading and crying about? I found a screen shot of it on the Internet. All I could make out was the following...

to the chemo and the doctors
and there's nothing else they can do. She's still as
and refuse to stay at the hospital
she's growing weaker and fear that
other choice
all of this may be
than anything that
different. I don't know know when this
but I am hoping it's soon
because she might not have much time left
you will be
and prayers.
Love

It seems to just reaffirm her mother was dying of Cancer and there was nothing anyone could do.

PUMPED. I'm not going to lie, I'm probably as excited for the Season Finale of Lost as I've ever been for a TV show. There's something very satisfying of having the mystery of the island revealed in thin layers, instead of huge sweeping explanations. It's like a great mystery that we're all reading together.

DELTA. Come one, come all to see the new and improved Delta House! Our average roommate height has increased by 4 inches! We can now comfortably seat up to 17 people (not including people who want to sit on our newly cleaned floor), and have upped our TV / roommate ratio to 2.5 / person! The couches are vastly more comfortable and the overall smell of the apartment has increased ten-fold! Lost is at 8:00, but feel free to stop by beforehand to get the full tour. It's like Delta House 2.0.

Late.