"The Last Recruit" Analysis!

Somewhat ironically, we have a full two weeks to analyze “The Last Recruit”, since next week will be a repeat of “Ab Aeterno” before the final stretch of Lost EVER – and there really isn’t that much to analyze from “The Last Recruit”. Yes, a lot actually happened – but there wasn’t a lot of mystery to those actions. Still, we’ll do our best to make this a worthwhile post. Let’s do it!

Christian Shephard. Undoubtedly, the “big reveal” of the episode was SmokeLocke’s admission to Jack that he was the entity masquerading around as Christian Shephard ever since the show’s first season. Although some are questioning if SmokeLocke was telling the truth, I think we have to believe him. With only five hours of Lost remaining, I don’t feel like there is time for the writers to have characters lying about any of the “big mysteries” of the show. Now if SmokeLocke had told Jack about this at the start of this season… maybe – but even then, probably not.

Knowing this, let’s take a look back at some of the Christian Shephard actions from Lost’s earlier seasons (courtesy of Lostpedia):

The first appearance, and one that Jack referenced in this week’s episode, occurred during the first few episodes of Lost. Jack saw visions of his father, but chalked them up to being hallucinations brought on by lack of sleep and post-traumatic stress disorder… until Locke encouraged Jack to suspend his skeptic nature and follow the apparitions. Jack did, and ended up discovering the caves.

It wasn’t until three seasons later that we got more Christian Shephard action (which really does make it appear as though the writers originally intended his first appearance to be a hallucination, then realized they could use him for another purpose). When Hurley got separated from the group leaving the beach, he stumbled upon Jacob's cabin. Looking in the window, he saw Christian Shephard sitting in Jacob's rocking chair – apparently talking to someone else, although it now seems that it was just Anti-Jacob taking on multiple appearances?

Next we had Christian appear to Claire after she may or may not have died in the explosion at the Barracks. She finds him sitting, nonchalantly holding Aaron, recognizes him as “Dad”, and then follows him off in the middle of the night.

Later, when Locke returned to Jacob’s Cabin, he met Christian inside, who claimed to be speaking on Jacob's behalf. Claire was inside as well, acting all weird and telling Locke “it’s fine, I’m with him." Christian tells Locke that to save the Island, he has to move it (although he pulls the same move he did on Jack this week – when Locke starts to ask some real questions, he asks him to forget about them and focus on the one true question. For Locke, it was “how do I save the Island”. For Jack, it was about his father. Annoying.)

At the end of this Season Four, Christian appeared to Michael on the Freighter, telling him “you can go now” after the nitrogen ran out – just before the bomb exploded. This is one of the biggest example of inconsistencies in SmokeLocke’s explanation that he is Christian Shephard – since earlier this season he told Sawyer that he couldn’t travel in Smokey form across the water (which is the only logical way he could have gotten to the Freighter and back).

The other big hole in SmokeLocke’s explanation is when Christian appeared to Jack off the Island during the Oceanic Six days. Jack was working late, heard a smoke alarm going off (irony!) and found Christian sitting on a chair in the lobby. Jack chalked this up to hallucination, just like he did when he first saw his father in Season One – and maybe we’re supposed to do the same. Because there is no way that Christian could have appeared to Jack off-Island at this point in time.

Back on the Island, Christian appeared twice more. The first was in the pre-Orchid well, telling Locke that he had to turn the Frozen Donkey Wheel and die in his attempt to bring the Oceanic Six back to the Island. The second was to Sun and Frank at the Barracks, revealing that Jin was back in a 1977 photo from the Dharma Initiative and telling her that if she ever wanted to see Jin again, she should wait for John Locke.

So, aside from the two inconsistencies off-Island (with really only Michael’s being unable to be explained), this explanation holds up much better than the reveal about the Whispers last week. When you add it all up, his involvement with our Survivors does seem to be part of a “master plan”. He had to lead the Survivors of Oceanic 815 to water to keep them alive in order to have Locke turn the FDW (although it took him two attempts to get this right), in order for Locke to die off the Island and come back in order to trick Ben into killing Jacob as part of the Loophole. I’m pretty satisfied (that’s what she said) with this theory aside from two outstanding questions:

1. Jacob’s Cabin – it’s been established that there was a ring of ash surrounding Jacob’s Cabin that could keep Smokey out / trapped inside. The line appeared to be intact in all occasions when it was found in 2004, but was seen to be broken in 2007 when Ilana's group arrived at the cabin. Since we still don’t know the original purpose of Jacob’s Cabin, if Jacob ever used it, or if it was always a jail for Anti-Jacob, it’s possible that this is irrelevant – but if it was truly being used as a jail for Anti-Jacob, and if the circle of ash was intact in 2004, Anti-Jacob couldn’t have appeared as Christian in Season One. This makes me think that the ring of ash has been broken ever since our Survivors crashed on the Island – which makes sense, as Anti-Jacob has been clever enough to outsmart the ring of ash other times.

(I’m a fan of the theory that Anti-Jacob was successfully contained within the Cabin for a number of years during the “glory days” of the Others post-Dharma, pre-Ben-in-charge – but that Ben, in his efforts to pretend that he was communicating with Jacob to become the Leader of the Others, accidentally was helping Anti-Jacob and broke the circle of ash.)

2. Why did he bother “claiming” Claire? Once she died – if she died – it seems like it would have been another potential Candidate checked off his list… unless she is part of some greater master plan.

Redemption. Is redemption possible for Claire and Sayid? This episode featured two scenes that hinted that there still might be a chance for our two undead Survivors.

First, we had Sayid’s meeting with Desmond. Although we didn’t actually see the outcome of their meeting, there is absolutely no chance that Sayid actually shot Desmond. You don’t kill a beloved series regular without actually showing it… plus Desmond still hasn’t carried out his “mission” on the Island, which will involve exposure to high amounts of electromagnetism. But the important thing here was that Desmond was able to draw upon Sayid’s love for Nadia to get him to do the right thing. He made Sayid realize that even if siding with SmokeLocke is the only way to return to Nadia, if he does horrible things in the process, he won’t be able to be happy with Nadia because of the guilt of the actions he took to be with her. For the first time since he has come back from the dead, Sayid disobeyed the commands of SmokeLocke, meaning that he’s more than a mindless servant.

Second, we had Claire’s meeting with Kate (and the rest of the Survivors on the Elizabeth). Claire is understandably upset about everyone trying to leave her – again, but Kate’s little speech about reuniting her with Aaron makes her give up her gun and join the crew of the Elizabeth. Unlike Sayid, there’s a chance that she’s doing this as a way to spy on our Survivors / sabotage them / turn them over to SmokeLocke in the end. But for the sake of argument, let’s say that this offered a glimmer of hope that normal Claire is still hiding underneath all that crazy hair.

Then what?

Even if Sayid finds a way to shake out of the power SmokeLocke has over him and reclaim his soul, it seems as though the only way to achieve redemption will be in sacrificing himself for a greater cause. He’s a soulless murderer in Reality #1 – and Nadia is dead. He has no one and no thing to go back to, even if he were to save the world and get off the Island. Meanwhile, he’s reverted back to his old murdering ways in Reality #2 – and even told Nadia this episode that they can never see each other again before being captured by the police. Things aren’t looking much brighter there. Out of all the characters on Lost, Sayid is the one person who will never get a happy ending – at least not until he dies and is reunited with Nadia in the afterlife (maybe).

If I were making a Death Watch 2010 List (which I actually will be doing), Sayid would go to the top of the list. Still, his death can at least have a hint of happiness if Sayid heroically sacrifices himself in the process… and maybe if it’s good enough, he’ll be able to atone for at least some of his sins in the process.

(Aside: I don’t know that I ever really put these thoughts into words, but this week’s episode again confirmed that Sayid died, and was brought back to life by Anti-Jacob… at least according to him. It’s an interesting parallel between the powers of Jacob and Anti-Jacob that it seems as though Jacob had the power of healing over the living, whereas Anti-Jacob has the power of bringing the dead back to life. Even if the two characters aren’t pure good and evil, it offers nice symbolism of one having the power over “life” and one having the power over “death”… which really makes you wonder if the Flash Sideways are some unholy union of the two forces. But I digress…)

Claire is a whole different story. She’s got the potential for a happy ending in both Realities… and yet I can’t shake the feeling that the only reason SmokeLocke would have kept her around for so long is to kill one of the Candidates – namely, Kate. It seems far too easy to have Claire pretend to be working with the Survivors only to turn around and ruin their plans / kill them in the end. Having her suddenly realize that SmokeLocke has been manipulating her and start working for the “good guys” is just way too easy. For all intents and purposes, Claire should have died during the fourth season – and up until this point, her contribution to the overall Lost storyline is that she provided a reason for Kate to come back to the Island. Now that she has fulfilled that purpose to the storyline (and to SmokeLocke), the writers (and SmokeLocke) could easily kill her. Even if they let her live, the path to redemption looks pretty rough. There’s no way she can be reunited with Aaron without a lot of psychological help, and even then, she’ll be living with the knowledge of all the Others she murdered on the Island. Yet without being reunited with Aaron, she’d have no purpose in life.

In the end, I come down on the side that Claire is going to betray our Survivors. Her only hope for a happy ending lies in Reality #2.

Flash Sideways. Speaking of Reality #2, in my Instant Reactions, I noted that no characters had epiphanies this week… which is somewhat true. No one had the full-on, memories of the Island flashing before their eyes, eye-opening revelation that the world they were living in is a fake, kind of epiphany – at least not that we saw. But there were two hints that there might be a little intra-reality bleeding going on:

While in the ambulance, John Locke used the phrase “I was going to marry her” when talking about Helen Norwood. Some people point to this as an example of Reality #1 John Locke speaking through Reality #2 John Locke’s body. But that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Helen Norwood was dead and gone in Reality #1. Why would Locke be talking about marrying her? If his knowledge from Reality #1 was bleeding over, it would know that she was dead, actually hated him, and was never close to marrying him. I’m chalking this one up to Reality #2 Locke thinking that he was about to die, and was lamenting that he wouldn’t get to have the wedding that was forthcoming with Helen.

When being wheeled past Locke at the hospital, Sun said “No! No! It’s him! It’s him!” when she saw Locke. Seeing as though she didn’t know Locke in Reality #2, this one does seem to be an example of Sun’s memories from Reality #1 bleeding over into Reality #2. Based on her apparent fear of Locke, it’s her memories from “present day” in Reality #1 – since she would have no reason to be afraid of Locke before he died. He didn’t become scary until he became SmokeLocke. However, it doesn’t seem like Sun had a total epiphany, since she didn’t mention anything about it once she came out of surgery. Granted, maybe she just hasn’t had the chance to talk with Jin in detail, but if I woke up and realized that I was living in an imaginary world, I think that would be one of the first things out of my mouth.

Sun’s ability to “see through realities” while hanging between life and death is consistent with what happened with Juliet. She seemed to be jumping back and forth between realities as she was dying. The same thing could have been happening to Sun – but since she was saved, she was yanked back into Reality #2 without having a full epiphany of realizing that the world there was a fake.

I know a lot of people are thinking that Reality #2 must be the surviving reality (especially if the majority of our characters have any chance of a happy ending), but I think the fact that we are only seeing “one way bleeding” is more proof that this isn’t going to happen. If the two Realities were separate but equal (meaning that both were actually “real”), you would think that the bleeding would go both ways. You would think that the Survivors in Reality #1 would be having similar epiphanies where they realized that there was a Reality #2 out there where things were totally different… but they aren’t.

I might be totally wrong on this, but everything is telling me that Reality #2 is fake, wrong, and going to disappear before it’s all said and done. I stand by my analysis from last week – it provides a tragic ending which will make for great TV as our characters give up happy lives to save the world… and shows how much they have grown due to their experiences on the Island. They’re going to save the world… no matter how much it costs each of them personally in the process.

You and Me. Once again this week, there were references that once SmokeLocke talks to you, it’s too late. You’re already under his power. You’re “with him”. I don’t think we can take these statements quite literally – or else everyone would be hosed, since I believe SmokeLocke has now talked to every single character on the show. However, I think symbolically, these comments are meant to emphasize SmokeLocke’s ability to trick people into doing what he wants, like the devil tricking you into doing something by using fancy words, smoke, and mirrors (weird - those last two are pretty common themes this season, actually - Smokey and the mirrors in the Flash Sideways. Maybe it is all just a “deal with the devil”!)

However, at the end of the episode, SmokeLocke himself used the expression in quite a different way – telling Jack “it’s going to be okay. You’re with me now.” Some have theorized that this means that Jack died in the explosion and was claimed by SmokeLocke – but I think he meant it literally… like he was going to protect Jack now from the attacks from Widmore. Also, Jack is “with him” now because he has no other options. Jack doesn’t know that Desmond is on the main Island. We don’t know where Alpert, Ben, and Miles are right now. Jack doesn’t know if he trusts SmokeLocke or not, but you can bet that he’s going to stick around with him and gather more information.

This is all good news for the viewer, since the scene between SmokeLocke and Jack from this week’s episode was one of the best so far this season. After spending the better part of two seasons apart from each other, these two characters should be spending the majority of the final five hours of Lost with each other – which is quite the exciting prospect.

The Island. Finally, there’s the chance that this week’s episode marked the last time that Sawyer, Kate, Sun, Frank, and Claire will ever set foot on the Main Island. Now that they are on the Hydra Island, taken prisoner by Widmore, I don’t see any scenario where they would head back to the Main Island. If they somehow escape (which they most certainly will do, probably within the next two episodes), they would attempt to steal the Submarine or take Ajira 316 to get off the Island. They wouldn’t head back to the Main Island. Per Sawyer, “we’re done going back” (a nice reference to Jack’s “we have to go back!” speech to Kate from the end of Season Three).

But to take this thought one step further, doesn’t it seem like all the action is heading to the Hydra Island? Is it possible that the season will wrap up on the Hydra Island instead of the Main Island, as that is the home to Widmore, the Submarine, and Ajira 316? Or perhaps the next few episodes will feature the destruction of the Submarine and Ajira 316 forcing our Survivors to return to the Main Island for Plan B?

(It seems to me that this might be setting the stage for a group of our Survivors standing on Hydra Island, watching the Main Island sink to the bottom of the ocean after Desmond does his electromagnetic mojo in the finale. Sounds like a pretty awesome looking final shot for the series… assuming it isn’t ruined by terrible CGI.)

Anyways, although our Survivors may have escaped SmokeLocke for now, there is nothing stopping him from grabbing Jack and heading on an Outrigger out to Hydra Island, is there? Jack is wounded and could easily be thrown into the Outrigger as Locke and Sayid paddle out to the Hydra. This would accomplish his goal of having all the Candidates there together – he could take the battle to Widmore and do his best to carry out his master plan, leaving Desmond stuck in a well. The only wild card in play right now is Team Alpert, who I can envision showing up at the last moment and blowing up the Submarine / Ajira 316 just in time before SmokeLocke can carry out his plan.

Where Do We Go From Here? I didn’t think we would have this opportunity this season, but with a repeat next week, it looks like we’ll have time for a “Lost and Gone Forever Bye Week Spectacular”. At the suggestion of FOB Rob Patterson, I’ll try to come up with an overall “ending” for Lost, based on where we stand right now and what outstanding questions NEED to be answered. I’ll also be answering any questions that you guys pose in the Comments section below (queue the QUESTIONS WILL BE ANSWERED promo from every Lost commercial this season), and maybe even do some overall episode and season rankings. Who knows. We’ll see what inspires me.

This is the calm before the storm.

Until next week!

http://facethewoods.com/lost/index.php?topic=545.0