What’s this? A season finale analysis less than a week after it aired? This is a new record for Lost… and Gone Forever! Be forewarned, this is a monster of a post. You probably want to get a drink, plan on taking a break midway through, and have a pen and paper ready to take notes. Get ready to discuss two hours of television in an absurd amount of detail!
Before we get to the analysis of “The Incident”, we need to come up with a better name for “Man #2”. Technically, he was called “Man #2” on the Episode Description, but it’s kinda annoying to type a # each time I talk about him (because I suck at finding the shift-characters above the numbers on the keyboard without looking). We don’t know a lot about his character, but we do seem to know one thing – he’s the opposite of Jacob. He’s the yin to Jacob’s yang, the dark to Jacob’s light, the Seinfeld finale to Jacob’s Scrubs finale.
Based on all this, rather than make assumptions about a true name (like those going with "Esau" or "Samuel" – both fine names, granted) I’m going to keep it simple and call him Anti-Jacob, or AJ for short. Two letters vs. a name with a shift-character in it? Looks like someone just cut out hundreds of seconds on the time it’s going to take him to type this analysis. Booyah. Just call me Captain Efficiency.
With that behind us, let’s get down to business.
The Beginning. In the beginning, there were Jacob and AJ. From a timeline perspective, the opening scene of “The Incident” is the earliest thing we’ve ever seen on Lost. Granted, the existence of the Four-Toed Statue (which, by the way, is confirmed to be "Tawaret" in the ABC Episode Recap) in the scene proves that the Lost storyline could go back further to include the story of the people who built it, but for all intents and purposes, I think the opening scene was meant to tell us that from the beginning, Jacob and AJ were on the Island. They're the TRUE Island Originals. But who or what are they?
Well, if you follow the "Tawaret" path, you'll learn that in Egyptian mythology, Tawaret was originally the demon-wife of Apep, the original god of evil. Apep ruled the night, Tawaret ruled the day - but both were technically "bad guys". Tawaret, who had features like pregnant woman, was also viewed as a god of protection in pregnancy and childbirth. Since she was half-hippopotamus, the multi-purpose Tawaret was associated with the
It's easy to see the parallels between Tawaret and Apep vs. Jacob and AJ - except for the whole pregnancy thing… unless Jacob has a secret he's not telling us. However, while it's easy to find a lot of tie-ins from this Egyptian mythology to Lost (like the destruction of the statue leading to the pregnancy issues), I hesitate from taking it too far. Simply put, I don't think that Lost is going to easily boil down to a modern retelling of an ancient Egyptian story. There may be some parallels - but for me, Lost is a much bigger, more complex, and original story. I doubt the writers will ever come out and fully explain WHAT Jacob and AJ are (like how they don't age, yet can be killed by a knife) - as Damon and Carlton have said they aren't interested in explaining the WHY behind some of the more mysterious parts of the show (since it can't easily be done, would probably disappoint people, and would result in boring expository television). The moral of the story? I don’t think we should get overly caught up with these questions either. There are far more important things to get to… like WHO Jacob and AJ are.
We got a surprising amount of information on Jacob and AJ in the brief opening scene of "The Incident". Jacob is someone who has faith in mankind. AJ either never had faith in them, or has long since given up on them (“They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same”). Jacob continues to bring / lead people to the
Hmmmm – a rule preventing one person from killing another? Where have we heard that before? How about Season Four's "The Shape of Things To Come"?
WIDMORE: Have you come here to kill me, Benjamin?
BEN: We both know I can't do that.
Does this mean that Widmore and Ben are somehow a modern version of Jacob and AJ? Or are they all just followers of the same set of rules?
At the end of the episode we seemingly saw that it is POSSIBLE to kill Jacob – so even though Jacob and AJ haven't aged in hundreds of years, they aren't invincible. Heck, all it took was a few stabs from a knife and a little roll in the fire… what kind of god dies so easily? As much as AJ hates Jacob, you would think that if really wanted to kill him, he would he would be willing to break the rules to get it done long ago… unless there was some kind of serious negative repercussion to this act. This seems to eliminate the possibility that the "rule" is simply some moral obligation that the Others follow - because if AJ is following it as well, there's a bigger reason.
Given the apparent yin-yang nature of Jacob and AJ, it's entirely possible that if one were to kill the other, both would die. Without the bad, there's no good. Without the darkness, there's no light. This theory seems like a nice and easy fit for Jacob and AJ at first… but then I would think that it doesn't really matter WHO killed one of them, as long as one died, both would die - right? The loophole wouldn't help. Also, while this explanation seems logical for the mystical, all-knowing, never-aging, shape-shifting Jacob and AJ, it seems pretty absurd that the same magical rules would apply to Ben and Widmore, two seemingly normal people. Even if Widmore was a "true leader" of the Others, and received some special power from Jacob (the power of being a successful businessman?) - which resulted in having this magic "No Kill Rule" placed upon him, we confirmed this week that Ben was not. As previously theorized, he's never even seen Jacob. So I have a hard time believing that the same rule would apply to him.
The other explanation for the No Kill Rule is that it isn't a rule that is specific to Jacob and AJ or Widmore and Ben - but it applies to ALL the Others. Sure, they have no problem in killing "outsiders" (the 1954 Army, Dharma, our Survivors) - but have we actually ever seen them kill a fellow Other? The only ones I can think of are Patchy killing Ms. Klugh (but only after she told him to do so, so that might not count), and Widmore killing Jones (when he was about to reveal the location of the Others - so again, it might not count). Perhaps the No Kill Rule was simply something that was passed down by Jacob to the Others over the years as
Think back to earlier this season - when Ben returned to the
I know a lot of people have been theorizing that Smokey and AJ are one and the same, which makes sense. Both seemingly possess shape-shift-ability and we've seen Smokey "scan people", which would be a handy tool for AJ to impersonate someone (he did a pretty convincing job as John Locke, even pointing out the Swan Hatch and reminding Ben that was where they first met). On the other hand, almost every time we've seen Smokey, he's been accompanied by the clicking sounds, exploding trees, and general destruction. Sure, sometimes this is followed by a character impersonation (Yemi, Alex), but we've never actually seen Smokey morph into a person - only a giant hand. Maybe AJ just hangs around Smokey and shows up to pass along Smokey's message? I don't know. But assuming that AJ has been John Locke (and Christian Shephard) for the better part of the past two seasons, we haven't seen any of the normal Smokey signs… which makes me think that Smokey is actually a third entity - separate from Jacob and AJ. He's the
That is, until AJ finally found the loophole he was looking for.
The Loophole. It turns out, I was a week too early on my Dogma reference. It turns out that Jacob wasn't some "imprisoned God" like in Dogma… however, AJ was looking for a loophole to kill Jacob… just like Bartleby and Loki finding a loophole to get back into heaven! In Dogma, exploiting this loophole would bring about the end of the existence. Here's hoping on Lost, it isn't quite so dramatic (although how many times this season did I talk about our Survivors' time traveling escapades bringing about the end of existence?!). AJ mentioned how difficult it was to find and exploit this loophole, but until this analysis, I didn't quite put together all that was potentially involved in getting Ben and Locke to the ending scene of the season.
This is going to get complex.
Let's start with the assumption that Christian Shephard is AJ (which seems like a safe bet). When we first saw him on the
A concept that jumped out at me during the clip show that aired before the season finale was that there was a reason for each of the time skips. Damon and
Flash One: Ethan Rom shoots Locke in the leg. Before Ethan can kill him, a flash occurs.
Without Locke being shot, we wouldn't have had the necessity of...
Flash Two: Richard Alpert finds Locke and tends to Locke's bullet wound. He gives Locke a compass that he says Locke must return to him in another time. Richard tells Locke that the people on the helicopter are already back home. Richard also tells Locke that the only way to save the
While we later learn that it's really AJ who told Alpert to tell Locke to kill himself, without this scene, Locke probably would have never had thoughts of suicide off-Island. Without Alpert giving Locke the compass, Locke would have never been able to convince Alpert that he was from the future and destined to be the leader of the Others…
Flash Three: Daniel tells Desmond that he's special and the rules don't apply to him. He then tells Desmond that if he ever gets off the
This one stands out as seeming pretty important… but didn't actually lead to anything in AJ's master plan… which makes me wonder if perhaps Jacob was responsible for this flash, and it's actually important to his master plan (which we'll get to later).
Flash Four: Locke returns the compass to Richard and asks how he can get off of the
Again, important to establish Locke becoming the leader of the Others - proving to Alpert that there was something special about him, which we will see Alpert continue to struggle with and eventually confirm in 1977 with Jack.
Flash Five: Locke convinces the group to head to the Orchid using the Zodiac raft to try to end the
Locke continues on his mission to the FDW, convincing the other Survivors to go with him.
Flash Six: Juliet shoots someone in the Backriggers before another flash.
Something tells me this will prove important - either to Jacob or AJ's master plan - but for now, no idea how or why.
Flash Seven Through Thirteen: The CFL / Jin Flashes, and the ones that lead to
Unlike the Juliet kills a Backrigger flash, it's harder to see why these would be important - unless AJ just really hated
Flash Fourteen: Locke begins to climb down the well that leads to the FDW.
Think about how convenient it was that once Locke was far enough down the rope, a flash happened - this ensured that ONLY Locke would get to the FDW, and he alone would turn it. Good work, AJ.
Flash Fifteen: Locke turns the wheel and everyone ends up in 1974.
Why did the skipping stop? Sure, Locke got the FDW back on axis… but AJ also completed his mission. He used the time skips to convince Alpert that John Locke may be the future leader of the Others, got Locke off-Island with the thought in his head that he needed to kill himself, and left the rest of our Survivors back in 1974.
It already seems complicated enough - but it just gets complicateder (or some other word that is really a word). What about the Oceanic Six (Four) ending up in 1977, whereas everyone else on Ajira 316 stayed in 2007? Could this also be the work of AJ?
Enter the second part of AJ's master plan - setting up Benjamin Linus. Let's walk through the events that led to Bejamin Linus going through Nerdy Dharmite to Nerdy Leader of the Others:
- Young Ben is shot by Sayid (couldn't have happened without Sayid being sent back to 1977).
- Young Ben is taken to the Others to be saved (couldn't have happened without Sawyer already being in 1977, or Kate being sent back to 1977).
- Alpert takes Young Ben, but warns "his innocence will be gone. He will always be one of us."
Let's stop there for a moment. Who or what saved Young Ben's life?
If it was Jacob, it doesn't seem to explain why "his innocence would be gone", assuming Jacob is the "good guy" in the equation. However, if it was AJ, it would make a little more sense. AJ brings Young Ben back to life, knowing that he would eventually need him to become the "loophole" in his master plan. It seems a little odd that Alpert, a seeming follower of Jacob, would have enough of a connection to AJ to know he could bring people back from the brink of death. It's also odd that AJ could do this, but Jacob couldn't - perhaps this is some power that AJ has, but Jacob lacks? And maybe Jacob has some opposite power that AJ lacks? Maybe.
I guess the important thing here is that this seems to officially make Ben an Other. Suddenly the No Kill Rule would apply to him. Maybe the loss of innocence is tied to being "marked" by AJ as a result of being saved by him. Maybe this is why Jacob refused to see Ben all those years. Although Ben lived his whole life in "service" to the
This brings us to the 2007 events on-Island. Locke is dead, stowed away in Ajira 316. Once the plane lands, AJ immediately begins impersonating him (note: apparently, AJ can only impersonate dead people - and only one person at a time). He is quick to forgive Ben for killing him (since it's all part of the plan!) and joins Ben on his mission to stand judgment before Smokey. Along the way, they run into Sun (who, ran into AJ as Christian Shephard, that told her to wait and meet up with Locke). As Ben falls into the
It was almost too easy…
Jacob. One of the first questions that came to mind after "The Incident" ended was - why did Jacob stand there and take it? Why did he seemingly egg Ben on to kill him? All Jacob needed to do was to tell Ben "you know what, you're right - I'm sorry. I should have talked to you earlier. Are you free for lunch tomorrow?" and all of AJ's master plan would have fallen to pieces. But instead, Jacob stood there and coldly replied "what about you?" which set Ben off and pushed him over the edge. Why?
Because Jacob had an even bigger plan in motion.
Somehow, Jacob saw all of this coming, and much like AJ, he’s been working on his own master plan counteract the whole thing. Like AJ, it seems like Jacob’s been putting the pieces in motion for many years. Clearly I’m talking about the flashbacks from this week, which featured Jacob touching (literally) Kate, Sawyer, Jack, Sun, Jin, Locke, and Hurley at some point in their lives. The interesting thing was that it didn’t seem like Jacob spent a lot of time observing or learning about any of our Survivors. In fact, most of his encounters with them lasted less than a minute. Instead, it seemed like his purpose was simply to touch them. But why?
Initially, there doesn’t seem a common thread between all the encounters. Some of those he touched went back to the past – but not all of them (Sun). You could argue that he “saved” some of them (most notably Locke and Sayid), but didn’t seem to have much effect on others (Jack). It makes me think there is something more mystical at play here. Did Jacob “download” everything he needed to know about each of the Survivors through that brief touch? Was it his way of judging them to see who would be worthy? Did this create some sort of “bond” between Jacob and the Survivors?
I haven’t settled on a definitive explanation for this one yet. My gut tells me that each person Jacob touched was deemed “worthy” of becoming one of his followers – maybe even going so far as becoming some sort of “candidate” to eventually become the Leader of the Others… or the “new Jacob” on the
What if Jacob’s death is necessary to somehow bring all these candidates together – regardless of when or where they are? With only 17 hours of Lost left, it would be a pretty convenient plot device to serve to bring all of our Survivors back together, suddenly standing on the Beach in 2007 (and maybe finding out that Jacob also touched some people like Desmond and Walt back in the day, magically bringing him back to the Island too… please?).
If you buy into my earlier argument that some combination of Jacob and AJ were responsible for our Survivors’ skipping through time, it would make sense that with his final breath Jacob would use his power for one final, big skip – calling them to him for assistance in the “battle for the Island”, knowing that they would be battling without him.
Yeah, it’s a stretch. It still seems like an alive Jacob would be more important to have in the “battle for the
The
What are the sides?
There have been a few clues as to how certain characters shake down in this battle:
- We know that The Shadow of the Statue are on the opposite side of Charles Widmore (since Bram tried to talk Miles out of working for Widmore, then told him he was on “the side that’s going to win”.)
- We know that The Shadow of the Statue and Alpert are on the same team, since Richardus knew the proper answer to the question “what lies in the shadow of the statue”.
- Given that the answer to “what lies in the shadow of the statue” is “Ille qui nos omnes servabit" ("He who will protect/save us all") – and Jacob lives in the shadow of the statue, it seems that The Shadow of the Statue are on Jacob’s team.
- Charles Widmore told John Locke that a war would take place on the island, and that if John didn't return, the wrong side was going to win.
So on the one side, we have Locke / AJ and Widmore. On the other side, we have the Shadow of the Statue, Alpert, and presumably the rest of the Others. With Ben recently killing Jacob, I can’t see him ending up on Team Jacob, which will ironically put him on the same team as Charles Widmore (although, this makes sense since Ben was the one who actually killed Locke – a critical piece of AJ’s master plan).
How did Widmore, former leader of the Others, end up on Team AJ? Was he recruited by AJ after being exiled from the
Lots to think about – but the big question is – which side do our Survivors end up on in this battle? Logic tells me that they’re going to become members of Team Jacob, especially with Jack’s newfound “faith” in the
Ever since Lost started, I thought the best possible series ending would be to find out that our Survivors, thinking they were doing the “right thing”, would actually end up doing the wrong thing and turn out to be the bad guys. Given that everything seems to be hinting that Team Jacob is good and Team AJ is bad, this sets the stage perfectly for precisely that to happen. My fingers are crossed.
The Incident. Wow – I’ve already typed nearly 5000 words and haven’t even gotten to the title event from the episode. Let’s rectify that.
The fundamental question of Lost’s fifth season centered around the ability to change the past. Lost spent the better part of 14 episodes telling us that “whatever happened, happened” only to then start teasing us with the possibility of blowing it all to hell with the help of a nuclear bomb. But what exactly happened in Lost’s final moments? Did our Survivors succeed in changing the past? Or did they merely succeed in causing “The Incident”, right according to plan?
Let me start out by saying I am 100% opposed to being able to change the past. In fact, last weekend I was a good Lost fan and supported JJ and Damon by going to see “Star Trek”. It absolutely killed me when they introduced the concept in the movie of changing the past. I spent the last half of the movie hoping and praying it wasn’t foreshadowing for Lost. In my mind, this totally cheapens (and ruins) the first five seasons of Lost. It’s changing the rules, bringing people back from the dead, undoing years worth of earned emotion and character relationships all for the sake of telling a story two different ways. It’s cheap – you should tell the story the way it’s meant to be told, rather than letting the audience see multiple iterations and letting them pick which one they like the best. If Season Six opens with Oceanic 815 landing in LAX and all our Survivors walking off as total strangers, I will be furious.
The good news is, I can’t possibly imagine that’s going to happen for one simple reason: we already had our “getting back to the
Note: this is why Jacob dying instantly bringing everyone to him is such a good plot device – it allows you to jump right into the meat of the story without wasting hours getting the characters in place!
So what happened when Juliet bashed the nuke to explosion with a rock? I’m guessing a big explosion – probably a Hatch Implosion style bright white light as the power of the bomb hit the funky electromagnetic pocket beneath the Hatch… but something big enough that a distant watching Alpert would look to the sky, send someone to investigate, and determine “they’re all dead” just like he told Sun. The explosion would bring down enough debris to plug the hole and allow the Others to cement the area in to prevent anyone from accidentally ever digging that deep again, and history continues as originally told.
What about our Survivors? Those that Jacob touched get pulled back to 2007, coinciding with Jacob’s death. That just leaves Miles and Juliet as the only non-touched Survivors in 1977.
Juliet worries me a bit. It seemed to me that the purpose of her flashback this episode was to show the audience that she didn’t get visited by Jacob, whereas all the other Survivors did (or to provide some background explanation for her “sometimes people love each other but aren’t meant to be together”). She also has a new series in the fall, which is usually the kiss of death for a character… and although the episode gave no evidence to prove this, I think she always knew she was going to die in the Incident.
Here’s a classic example of me thinking that the theory in my head is way better than what actually unfolded – what if Juliet, over the course of her time as an Other on the
This gives all of her actions in the episode mountains of more importance, explains why she’s always seemed to know a little more than everyone else, and gives her character a proper, noble, heroic death – one that she deserves.
As much as it saddens me to say, goodbye Juliet. You have given all of us an unrealistic expectation for how hot a 39 year old can be. Well done.
Miles is a trickier situation. He’s had some purpose on the Island, but it seems like he could be quite the valuable asset in explaining some of the AJ / Locke stuff in 2007 – and there must have been a reason why Bram was recruiting him in the first place, right? The easy out would be to discover that Jacob touched him at some point – we just haven’t seen it yet. Or maybe Bram was able to give him a pseudo-Jacob-touch when they grabbed him and threw him in a van.
I’d like to see Miles back. I just don’t have an explanation for how quite yet.
If you’ve made it this far, I congratulate you. What a long and winding post this has been. Just a few final notes:
Jacob’s Cabin. Since the Shadow of the Statue initially went there looking for Jacob, he obviously used to reside there… but it seems as though it was turned into a prison for AJ at some point in time. I wonder who was responsible for this – and who broke the circle to set him free. Since the circle was intact on Locke and Ben’s first visit, but Christian Shephard was walking around the Island and the cabin was “moving” after Hurley stumbled upon it, it seems like Hurley accidentally breaking the circle of ash is the most likely option… unless AJ had someone else working for him on the Island during the events of Season Three…
Rose and Bernard. Equal parts sweet and cheesy. Remember during the episode preview when I wondered how they would be explained and said “unless Bernard is way better than surviving in the wilderness, they should be dead”? Well, I was totally kidding about that because it would be absurd… but it turned out to be true.
On the other hand, there’s something very real about Rose and Bernard deciding to stop worrying about all the drama and just enjoying their time in paradise together on the
Many are calling for Rose and Bernard to become the Adam and Eve skeletons from Season One – but those were allegedly 40-50 years old, according to Jack. 1977 is only 30 years ago. Maybe nitpicking – but we also haven’t gotten our explanation for the black and white stones. The Lost writers said when we learned the truth about Adam and Eve, it would prove they weren’t making this story up as they went along – which makes me think we won’t find out until closer to the very end, complete with an explanation of the stones.
I think this might be the last we see of Rose and Bernard on the show, leaving us to assume that they lived out their days on the
However – we were promised that Vincent would live until the end of the show… so here’s hoping that Jacob pet him somewhere along the way, and he’ll end up back in 2007.
I would be perfectly happy with the final shot of Lost being of Vincent standing on the beach, looking out at the ocean, tongue and tail wagging as the sun goes down… and then maybe morphing into God and saying “I told you I was the most important character all along!” in a voice like Scooby Doo.
LOST.
…and I’m spent. Here’s where I traditionally make some promise to keep the Blog active over the long summer / fall drought, only to have me totally fail on those promises within a month or two. Basically, when there are things I feel like writing about, I’ll write about them. I can’t predict how often that will be, but hope you’ll check back from time to time just in case.
Before we pack up Season Five and put it away for the season, let’s do one last post – covering everything I missed in this analysis, over the course of the season, or my thoughts for the future. You ask me questions in the Comments Section or on the Message Board, I’ll respond in my Season Five Wrap-Up Post.
Sound like a plan?
As always, thanks for reading, commenting, and giving me a forum to over-obsess about Lost. Somehow writing volumes about a TV show is totally socially acceptable when there are thousands of people reading it… but if I was writing all of this for myself, I would probably be Hurley’d by now.
Happy Summer-ing!
http://facethewoods.com/lost/index.php?topic=460.0
61 comments:
Thanks, as always, Brian! I am curious about the further Egyptian suggestions beyond Tawaret, from Apep (a serpentine god representing chaos) to the story of brothers Osiris and Set. It's interesting stuff, with Ra going into the underworld each night to fight & defeat Apep (thus ensuring that the sun rises the next morning and order wins over chaos)--especially since a connection between Richard and Ra has already been suggested.
I want to know about Richard--is he really as (suddenly?) clueless as he now appears, when before he seemed so all-knowing? And since, according to Juliet, he's "always" been on the island.
Good job, Brian.
One question I have: was Hurley the only one that Jacob visited *after* the O6 returned to the US? Something about that encounter, plus the guitar case business, keeps eating at me. Everyone else got a visit way back in the day, but Hurley got his visit after all the weird island stuff had begun. If Jacob was post-facto visiting these people, he got to choose when the visits occurred for each person. I just wonder why he didn't go to Hurley when he was a kid, unless it was just to get the guitar case back to the island.
Sayid was visited post Island...
You talked a lot about how much it took for the "loophole" to take place (Ben killing Jacob), but you didn't ask the question I was asking--why is Ben a loophole? Right now it just looks like AJ could have gotten any old bloke with a knife to do some stabbin', if that was all it took. And Ben's never been all that "special" (in the magical sort of way, y'know). I'm hoping they'll explain the "loophole" further, because right now I don't get it.
I thought that Jacob was responsible for the death of Sayid's lover, since that was the thing that lead Sayid to working for Ben and consequently to the island to shoot Ben.
I am exhausted just by reading that analysis! Good exhausted though.
I think it makes a lot of sense. And I share you sentiments that not everything needs to be unraveled. The explanations will always have to end somewhere. I'm fine with taking as given the notion of two ancient (I'll even throw in an "eternal" here) factions of special god-like island beings clashing, with the fate of humans in the balance.
So, I'm liking the big story arc with Jacob and AJ more and more. The time skips do seem very directed and not at all random events and even more so after your revisited them step by step.
One thing you didn't bring up which has been nagging me: in the episode intro scene with Jacob and AJ, AJ seems to speak in plural. Didn't he say: "Do you know how bad THEY all want to kill you?". And then later a "WE". This indicates that AJ is only one among several other island originals. They all are against Jacob and his high hopes for humans.
I'm intrigued by the upcoming battle of the island. But I can't figure out what it will involve. Why are our survivors, among all humans, the ones chosen for it? What is it that they will do? As I wrote in the comments for the last post I think the maturity, experience and friendship they have gained throughout the seasons will be tested somehow. But how?
Finally, thank you so much for the writing Brian. It has been a thrill to read and it has, again, magnified the Lost experience.
Since the end of Lost now is in sight I think all of us writing comments here should think about giving something back to you. I'm thinking that we should somehow get in contact with the Lost creators and suggest that writers like you, who with great devotion and joy have delved into the Lost mysteries and made the show into an even greated experience for so many of us, should get an invitation to go on set when they are recording the final season. Or get a talk with some of the actors. Or at least get some free Dharma beer! Something! What say you all who frequent the comments?
This from TV guide writer Matt Mitovich:
"Juliet's trip down the rabbit hole/Swan station shaft may have a happy-ish ending after all.
Considering the Lost heroine's hands-on bomb detonation and portrayer Elizabeth Mitchell's new lead role in ABC's greenlit V remake, many have speculated that Juliet is a goner. But ABC entertainment president Stephen McPherson says that's not necessarily so.
"We're thrilled to be able to have her do both [shows]," McPherson said at the Tuesday news conference where ABC announced V's place on its midseason schedule. "It was a little bit of a juggling act ... and we're very thankful to the [accomodating Lost] producers, but I think we'll see her on Lost" during the show's final season."
Doesn't mean Juliet ISN'T dead. But it seems absolutely certain that she'll re-appear on Lost.
Look like Constantine movie..god and devil want humans soul. Demons and angels cannot make a person do anything, but they can whisper in your ear and give you an urge to do it.
Like Jacob vs AJ, the ''cannot do rules'', the long fight for something bigger..
Hard to explain in english.. someone catch my point and can continue ? :P
Brian-
As always this was a great analysis! Thanks for doing this for all of us.
#1 - you mentioned the rule about an Other not killing another Other. Juliette DID kill an Other - when she let Sawyer & Kate escape The Hydra island. Later she was judged and got her "scar".
#2 - you think AJ's power may be bringing someone back to life -i.e. Ben. What if Jacob's power is not aging - i.e. Richard. These powers are a blessing & a curse at the same time.
@salvar - I agree that it seems like the loophole is not based on Ben, but based on the idea that AJ can't outright kill Jacob - someone else has to do it. But AJ decided to accomplish it, he could manipulate Ben into being that guy.
@Jon - I thought the same thing at first also about AJ using "they" and "we". But according to the transcript, he said "I" and "I'm". I have a copy of the transcript and the video of that conversation at http://rob.orangejack.com/2009/05/17/could-jacob-be-the-bad-guy/
@Brian - dude, you rock. That's why I put you in the LOST soup: http://lost.soup.io
@pianopaul04 - right, just because the actress is in another show doesn't mean her character is dead or alive on LOST. She can be alive and not have much story any more, she could have survived and put back in Dharma or home with her dying sister, or dead and show up in flashbacks. Either way, it seems she won't be on the show much anymore :-(
goklemez -- another perspective is that Jacob saved Sayid from meeting the same fate as Nadyia (sp?) by distracting him before he crossed the road. thus, rather than thinking Jacob killed Nadyia, perhaps he accepts "whatever happens, happens" and helped to insure Sayid was not killed too.
Great idea to draft a letter (petition of sorts), get as many signatures of Lost....and Gone Forever fans as possible and request that Brian (other authors of popular LOST blogs welcome too)to be invited on the set, given an exit interview with C&L or some other meaningful perc. It would be a win for the networks/exec. producers too given how these type blogs help fuel further interest and maintain or even build viewership of most any TV show, especially one as complex as LOST.
Here are some food for thought !
Back in season 4, off Island, Alpert visiting 5y old Locke : Richard must have found John Locke at least a little special, since he drew smokie as a child. He also chooses the sand and the knife, which ARE already his. If Alpert was looking for some sort of reincarnation, he was wrong. But the test results made perfect sense. Locke is gonna become locke, and he already knew it deep down inside him.
If you wanna go further on this road, you can also assume that it was the same knife who would later kill Jacob. But i don’t think so.We know Locke will become a knife collector several years later.
So what does this mean ?.Could he be a reincarnation ? Of Jacob, or Anti Jacob ? Or was he always possessed by the anti Jacob? Or has he some recollections of his future life (which happened in a past when he wasn’t even born ?Sounds like a stretch to me.
What are the rules of the test ? What was Richard expecting ? Was he looking for the spirit of Jacob ? the Book of laws seemed important, so he was looking for a Ruler.
And as it happened, we saw that Locke wasn’t much of a good leader. He was more like a dictator, and more reacting than thinking. He never had the chance to lead for more than 10 minutes before time shifting. But when he came back (as Anti Jacob), the position of leader was still opened.
That leads me to another important point that I don’t fully understand : Richard doesn’t seem to understand what happenend to Locke during those 3 years. « You just disappeared ». But he saw him do the same thing back in 1954, and he can’t put the pieces together ? Either Alpert is dumb, either he’s playing a role, or he has been fooled, but I don’t think so, because he seems to get orders directly from Jacob.
And how could Richard have been fooled by the Anti Jacob ? I think the answer to that question leaves in the shadow of the Temple. Who’s temple is it ? At this point, we can only speculate. I think the Temple is just for Smokey, and both of our semi-gods have access
Last point about Christian being anti Jacob : we don’t know when AJ took the body of Locke. Where was he when Lapidus and Sun talked to Christian ?If he was already in Locke’s body, then Christian is just Christian. I don’t think he can be both at the same time. Others theories mentionned the black and white shoes. This could explain why Christian sent Vincent to wake up Jack. I think a lot of this mess will be cleared when we’ll know more about the Shephard connection.
If anybody can help, i'm very open to suggestions ! And Brian, thanks for all your blogging, keep up !
Looking back form the conclusion of the episode, it's heart breaking to understand that it was AJ convincing (tricking) Locke into committing suicide.
So why did Ben stop Locke from doing it and kill him himself?
What about Claire and Aaron? How do they fit into all of this? Since she was hanging out with Christian, does that mean she's on team AJ? What about Aaron being so special... And how's he even going to get back on the island anyway, and who's he with off island??
Amazing job as always Brian.
I have some questions:
What's your take on Jacob not touching Ilana? and not only that, he was wearing gloves, as if to insure he doesn't touch her.
How is it that AJ didn't know Jacob lives in the statue?
What's your theory on who put the knife through that Taweret picture in the cabin, and the meaning of it?
That's it for now, just some observations:
If Widmore is in AJ's side (which I agree with), Widmore must not be privy to AJ's full plan, as he didn't want Locke to die and told him so.
AJ being able to take the form of any dead person makes us re-evaluate any vision of a dead person in the previous seasons.
Also, I haven't seen Star Trek yet, man! way to spoil me there! (it's ok, I forgive you, lol)
One, AJ didn't say, "how bad THEY all want to kill you". He said, "how BADLY I want to kill you". That's why it sounds similar.
Two, I don't think the Shadow of the Statue people went to the cabin looking for Jacob. I think they were looking for Anti-Jacob, knowing he was up to something. That's why they freaked out when they saw the ash was broken (he escaped!), and the knife in the picture of the statue on the wall was a sign of where he was going. Which means, by the way, that he DID know where Jacob was located all along. He must have just been pretending to not understand.
Three... I wonder if Anti-Jacob could maybe be Jacob's father? Everyone is guessing they're brothers, a la Jacob and Esau. But AJ seems to be older than Jacob, and it would fit with the whole father-son conflict theme of the show.
Tim, I was also thinking they went to the cabin looking for AJ and not Jacob (especially when their secret question involves Jacob and the statue).
The only thing bothering me about it is that if they know of AJ, or know AJ himself, they must know that he can take the form of dead people. But it's possible they don't know that.
Good theory on AJ and the knife. But the look he had when Alpert told him it's where Jacob lives makes me really doubt it. The look on his face really looked as if that was news to him.
But then again... he looked just as genuinely surprised when Ben told him about Smokey and Alex...
I'm also questioning whether Jacob ever lived in that cabin at all.
Makes you consider the circumstances around the fact that Alpert knew Jacob lives in the statue, yet Ben thought he lived in the cabin.
Maybe you already mentioned somewhere, but I'm wondering what happened to Claire? And what was the point in Aaron being brought off by Kate instead of Claire? Wasn't Claire told to raise him herself? She seemed determined to do that until she walked off into the woods w/ her dead dad....
Great analysis! One small problem, AJ can impersonate live people as well. He impersonated Walt when he spoke to Locke in the Purge Pit. Unless of course, this was some sort of instance of Walt being 'special,' but I always chalked it up to the same spirit that was impersonating Yemi, Boone, etc.
Ben stabs Jacob, but AJ kicks him into the fire. How does Jacob die then? If he dies in the fire before succumbing to his stab wounds, then it would be AJ who killed him, not Ben, and without a loop hole.
Jacob didn't touch Juliet? Well maybe not physicaly but after Nadia got creamed by that car what was the first thing you thought of?
If you're like me you instantly thought, "I knew it!! Jacob was responsible for the Bus that ran over her ex-husband".
Regardless of whether or not he "touched" her it seems pretty clear that the Bus was no accident.
Brian - still digesting / re-reading your post but just quickly wanted to point out that Mikhail / Patchy did kill Bonnie and the other girl (Other) down in the Looking Glass, and Juliet killed an Other to let Kate and Sawyer escape as Ben asked.
On the contary, the extreme anger the Others seem to to show when one of them is killed (e.g. Richard just 2 episodes ago, towards Juliet for above mentioned murder, towards the Sayid/Bernard/Jin on the beach) makes me think there is definitely some rule about Others not killing each other.
does the flannery o'connor book have any significance?
I don't have anything fancy or smart to say, other than to thank you for always providing one of the best blogs on Lost on the internets.
Now, sign up for a twitter account, and we're all set. I don't think I can go long chunks of time without reading your analysis. :)
Of course the shadow people knew AJ takes the form of dead people, and, more specifically, knew he took the form of Locke. Why else would they lug his heavy metal casket thru the jungle?
Also if you recall, i think in 3rd season, Mr. Friendly was whispering to his friend's ear that Jack was not even in the Jacob's list.
If we assume that this list is genuine than we can think of this way: Jack was serving somehow to AJ(may be in AJ's list (but Jacob visited and touched him)), cured BEN who in the end stabbed Jacob.
You are a genius! Thank you so much for always writing comprehensive posts about Lost. Much appreciated.
Why do you think that Ilana called Richard Ricardo? Was that maybe his original name from the Island beginigs?
Also, do you think that Ilana will be the next leader of the Others since she talks to Jacob? There is definiltey some connection between the two of them, when he visited her in the hospital I got the feeling that she had gotten injured in some sort of Island buisness. And when he asked for her help was he just talking about getting Sayid back to the Island?
I still don't understand who the Shadoe of the Statue people are...are they Island originals from different times who have been sent off Island for some reason?
I am also confused about Claire, if she is dead how did we see her with Christian since we now know that he was AJ not just some ghost, which stands to reason that she wouldn't be walking around as a ghost either.
So much to digest!!
I totally agree with Jon. I love the idea that Brian should get invited to Hawaii to visit the set and somehow get a thank you from the show for making our experience so much more.
I always find I enjoy the Lost eps after reading his analysis here. Makes me go rewatch things. I don't always see things the same way but I always end up doing more thinking.
Here here. Let's get our Lost..and Gone Forever guy on set. :)
This is a great blog and I love to read it after each show. Thanks for writing it.
I remembered from the Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham episode Walt's conversation with Locke. Walt mentions having dreams of Locke in a suit with people around him wanting to hurt him. Could Walt have been foreshadowing AJ becoming Locke? :) Makes me hope that Walt will play a role in season 6.
Maybe Jacob touched everyone to leave a "piece of himself" or something so that when they returned he can come back in some form. That could be why his last words were "they're coming"...
Either that or he was marking them to be able to time travel somehow. Though that doesn't explain Juliet, Miles, Rose and Bernard...
Brian, great analysis, real pleasure to read. As someone said earlier it really magnifies our experience of LOST.
I am very interested in Illana's people's comment that Lapidus was a candidate - for what ? For AJ's reincarnation perhaps. They knew that AJ was looking for a vacant body ?
There is certainly a significance in Illana's calling Richard Ricardo (or as I heard it "Who is Ricardos ?"). By the way, name Richard means "powerful leader" in old-german. How about that ?
Also think that Jacob's death was some sort of a pre-arranged act to which Jacob has volunteered himself. I didn't think that Ben's rage was genuine enough, he seemed to act to. Have Ben and Jacob agreed (perhaps not personally but via RA) their roles beforehand.
I believe the white flash at the end of the episode wasnt Juliet making the bomb go off but one final flash....If "whatever happened, happened" then Juliet lives because she was "on island" when flight 815 originally crashed on the island...
Brian: one more thing that supports your view that the flashes were not random but guided by AJ (and perhaps in some cases Jacob): the AJ in Locke-form knew exactly WHEN the skipping real Locke would show up. That nagged me earlier on. It seemed hard to understand how Locke could know that. But it makes sense if AJ guided the skipping all along.
orangejack & timcourtois: you are right. I relistened to the intro scene and there's no "we" there. It was "badly I" not "bad we". Very easy to mishear though. So we seem to have two singular god-like island beings in clash then.
Rocket Science Mom: right on! Know we need to get more people on board with the idea and then do something. I don't know what and how though. A letter or something.
various people: we do not yet know if it is AJ that takes the form of Christian Shepard, do we? It might also be Jacob. Or some other party on the island.
have to point something here. My disclaimer is that as I write, I will use time & places interchangebly, so sorry for the confusion. You leave or arrive at a place or a time.
If there was a reason for each flash, what about the flashes that went back to back? what is the reason for that little one?
Here is my theory...we have always seen the "flashes" from the start of them..."there was a flash and then you were gone" the person sees the flash and then they appear on a new time.
However, I must point out that there is also a "flash" at the end of the warp. There is still "white light" around the destination (milliseconds).
Since no one has been around when someone popped up, no one has seen them appear. Dissapear, sure, we seen them from both the people that warp and the people that stay behind in the current time. But not "appear". Not until next season :). We have, however, seen people from the destination period somewhat agitated just after the flash. Why did Jin have his gun drawn when kate and jack and hurley arrived in 1977? what was he looking for? The answer: nothing...he was walking around, minding his own business when "poof" a white light all around him. He got concerned, drew his gun and started looking around for the source..same for the "others"
Now, this could explain some of the other flashes we have seen. The explosion in the latch was a flash, just like Juliet's bomb. White light means someone warped. Could be the main characters, but in other cases, looks like someone warped into the current time.
The two quick flashes we saw could have been an arrival and a departure. The protagonist nor the audience have any way to tell the difference, only when reference points are used. My point is that the second warp was someone else.
Could be Juliet & Co. after the incident. Could be Desmond going back in time after the hatch...on fire...stripping naked and then warping back...completely forgetting why he was naked.
Maybe the Locke that was around after the hatch explosion was Locke from another time...
Anyway.
Great catch about the loophole and kicking him into the fire...direct kill.
Haven't figured out Ilana yet. Elite Jacob follower? is everyone in her group also Elite? (Elite being people that seem to have direct contact with Jacob, enough to be somewhat relaxed around him. Not even Ricardus is at that level, IMO). One thing is for sure..she's HOT.
Another theory about Jacob and fakeLocke. Why can't they be more from the future than the rest? You figure out longetivity somehow, then go to the island, end up being looped to the past.
You get bored...you try to live on the island..you end up being like a semigod.
A couple questions:
1. How much, if any, John Locke is part of the fake-Locke?
2. Has Richard shown any awareness of AJ's existence? What if he only knows about Jacob? Would he be able to tell the difference if AJ were to appear to him like Jacob does?
I think anybody that says they "know" what/who all the walking around dead people are (other than Locke) are being presumptious. The one thing I know about the future of the show is that we don't know jack.
I think we do know Jack quite well...its fakelocke and Jacob.
im not sure if ill get spotted down here, but really nice post Brian, you've managed to get your head round stuff that it hurt mine thinking about!
i have a question, why did Ben kill Locke/stop him killing himself?
he said after it was because he needed to get infomation out of him, the location of Mrs Hawking, but werent Ben and Mrs Hawking already working together??
this is something i dont get. :s
stu -
It's true that locke mentioned ms. hawking but I'm pretty sure that wasn't the essential information.
another thing he talked about before ben strangled him was the fact that Jin was alive, which is the point where Ben definitely seemed genuinely surprised. The ms. hawking chatter was going on while Ben was prepping the rope and standing behind John.
Ben knew that he wouldn't be able to convince Sun to come back to the island, since he was one of 2 people she blamed for Jin's death. But once John told him that Jin was alive, Ben realized he could use that information to convince Sun to come to Ms. Hawking.
Brian--awesome post as always--helps ease the pain of the oncoming painfully long Lost hangover. :)
In your season wrap-up post I hope you can address a few things I haven't heard much discussion about...
1)Lapidus - the Shadow people are discussing Lapidus as a candidate (as vft mentioned above), but obviously the nature of this is never revealed. Is he a candidate to become an other? A vessel for Jacob or AJ? Or something else entirely? I don't think there is much to go on, but the fact that Lapidus has basically been hanging around doing nothing for the whole season leads me to believe his role will be of growing importance next season.
2) This is probably way off the mark, but is there any correlation between Locke's corpse and AJ as Locke, and the doctor that washed up on shore from the freighter late in last season? The doctor seemed like a device to make us understand "funky time," and it woudn't make any sense for AJ to inhabit the doctor... but the whole body double theme seems important to me... somehow.
Anyway, great job this season---let's get Brian to Hawaii! Or at least get him some free T-shirts. :)
Thanks for the GREAT episode post... you have me thinking more about Miles.
Considering Miles has some connection to the dead, if the '70s group meets up with the '07 group is it a possibility Miles will be able to tell AJ has taken over Locke's body? He has some greater purpose that I can't wait to find out about.
Thanks again for keeping me thinking.
Side question: Does FakeLocke's eye match the eye in the cabin?
One of the things that I have learned from this show is that, usually, the simple answer makes the most sense.
We all assumed that Locke was the first ever "reincarnated" walking around person ever. Ben was shocked. Ricardus was shocked. The easier answer was that he never came back to life, someone was just using his image...(ok, simple answer since it has been done before...I'm going somewhere here)
How about this: Jacob is really dead. He realized the loophole was found..he knew what Ben was going to do...Smokey already had made it so that Ben would try to kill Jacob no matter what. Jacob chose not to fight it. Sure, he could have begged, he could have stalled, hell, he could have screamed like a teenage girl and ran around asking for help. "help, he gone have a knife...get in here! Ricky! lana! Oh Lord! please please please...don't kill me Ben...That's not Locke...he is crazy!!! he is Evil re-incarnate. Ben...be your own man...ahhhh! I'll make you rich".
He didn't do that...he knew he was going to die...he deduced it and knew the only logical option was to take it. Not a master plan...just resolute...just accepting fate.
More on the visitations from Jacob.
Every one of them was at A DEFINING MOMENT in their lives.
This is when Kate developed her personality. She always tries to do good things. Even the murder was for a reason.
This is when Sawyer became Sawyer.
The fear moment seemed to have been a defining moment for Jack, as he references it several times.
Locke is self-explanatory.
Jin & Sun's wedding is also self evident.
Syed when the love of his life gets murdered. His thirst for revenge started then.
What I can't figure out is Hugo's visit. What was defining about it? we'll find out, I guess.
@steam machine - thanks! that makes alot more sense!
Wauw - it is time to watch all the seasons of Lost again, to get all of these things in perspective.
1. One matter that bugs me: what happened to Locke when he visited Smokey in season 1, and how has this affected his 'future' actions (except for giving 'good'-Locke a feeling of the Island being special) ? The French crew and Ben have been affected by the encounter. Was this the defining moment which tagged Locked to become a vessel for AJ ? How does this link to 'present' pseudo-Locke.
2. Is it just me, or is their a marked resemblance between AJ, Christian and Lapidus ? This could speak in favor of Lapidus becoming a future 'vessel' of AJ's ? I may be far-fetched there - opinions ?
3. Why did Bernard ask Juliet to stay for tea (The Incident p1), with that certain grim look in his eyes - did he know what would happen to Juliet (the nuke) - did he try to prevent her from going ?
4. Who was shooting the flaming arrows early in S5 ?
5. Who was on the other boat (shooting on sea)
Maybe I simply missed the answers to 4+5 - if not, these events seem to important not to be discussed/shown in the series....which would provide an interesting perspective on chronology (when did these events occur)
Brain overload - any comments/suggestions would be appreciated -
I don't have the time/energy/intelligence to look it all up but I was reading an article today about some kid who figured out an equation that had stumped mathematician for over 300 years. It's called the Bernoulliu equation and I thought that name sounded familiar in regards to Lost mythology (regarding 'the numbers' I believe)? Does that ring a bell to anyone?
The guy's name is Jacob Bernoulli (of course).
Anyway, just thought it was an interesting tidbit of (sort of) related Lost offseason news...
are we still getting a season five wrap-up?
Sorry about that guys - been a busy few weeks. But yes, a Season Five wrap-up will be forthcoming. Hopefully taking a few weeks off in between my first analysis and my wrap-up analysis will result in some fresh ideas... or make it seem really stale and out of date.
Either way, it should be great!
the statue of taweret that was later half demolished could explain how horace's other half had a baby just fine and other women later in the series found themselves at deaths door. If this egyptian god was the proector of birth and fertality maybe the statue being knocked down symbolises the end of island childbirth when concieved on the islane itself?
i'm dying to print screen some parts of LOST where you can actually see the hyrogliphics and attempt to translate, but i know that would be far too time consuming and confusing.
Just google lost hieroglyphics
Someone else has already done this translation.
Jacob didn't just touch people, he GAVE them something. He gave Kate the lunch box. He gave Sawyer a pen. He gave Jack a candy bar. He gave Hurley a guitar case. He held out his map to Sayid but he didn't take it before Nadia was hit. But for Sayid, all of the members of the Oceanic 6 who were given something by Jacob were transported back to 1973.
The others we saw him visit, Sun, and Locke (as well as Ilana) that were aboard Ajira 316 were not transported back.
It has been 2 months and I am truly going through Lost Discussing withdrawal. When do you think we can expect your updated analysis. No pressure, just your blog is the only Lost fix I have for the next few months. How do they expect us to wait until 2010? It really isn't fair!
I heard this that season 6 will be last season of lost tv show, after that there is no more seasons will be air.
Man, way to make me feel bad about slacking off all summer.
I'm guessing Comic-Con next week will be just the jump-start my motivation to do my Season Five wrap up and start looking forward to the final season!
Thanks for the sharing. nice read. LOST Tv Show is one of my favorite tv show and just watch the last episode.
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