Sunday, May 09, 2010

"The Candidate" Analysis!

Last week, we established that Lost is a lot like life – there are big questions, mysteries that will never be answered, and it’s all about doing your best to leave the world better than you found it. This week, Lost reminded us that an important part of life is death. Thankfully, the Lost writers have always done death very well (except for maybe Ilana). When people on Lost die, it’s for a purpose – either saving others, or to drive the storyline forward. This week was no exception.


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Sun and Jin. It’s pretty clear that the writers have always wanted Jin to die in some sort of water accident – or are just really uncreative in figuring out ways to kill people. At the end of the first season, he was on the Raft that was blown up. At the end of the fourth season, he was on the Freighter that was blown up. This week, he was on the Submarine that was blown up. Unfortunately for Jin, after his miraculous survival the first two times, this week his luck was up.


Having said that, Jin probably didn’t have to die. In fact, most logical people out there have pointed out that he should have left Sun (sad as that may have been) in order to attempt to get back to Ji-Yeon to prevent her from being raised by the same crappy parents who raised Sun (as I’ve mentioned before, Sun really wasn’t that good of a person when you think about it. I blame bad parenting). To take it one step further, I think that Sun’s death scene would have actually been much more powerful if she did tell Jin “Leave me. Go raise Ji-Yeon”, followed by a shot of Jin absolutely losing it and then fighting to escape the submarine. Heck, even if Jin dies in the process, the scenes would have been ridiculously intense / sad.


But apparently Jin is a man of his word. When he says “I will never leave you again”, he means it – even if it means dying because of it. Good for him. I suppose it’s fairly Shakespearian that the two of them ended up dying together… after spending over three years apart. After keeping Sun and Jin apart for nearly two full seasons, the writers reunited them, then killed them one episode later (they were together for roughly one day in Island time). Why?


The deaths of Sun and Jin were necessary to “raise the stakes”. Up until this point, none of the Survivors (with the exception of Team Alpert and maybe of Jack) has really cared about stopping SmokeLocke. He’s wasn’t really a bad guy to them. They were simply focused on getting off the Island, regardless of if SmokeLocke was tagging along, left behind, or bringing about the end of the world. Heck, people on the Internet were still debating if SmokeLocke was really a “good guy” up until this week’s episode. It was time to lay the cards on the table, reveal SmokeLocke’s true nature (to both the characters and the audience) and ratchet things up a notch for the final four episodes. Now, not only will our characters be concerned about getting off the Island – but with stopping / killing the monster that killed their friends.


While the deaths of Sun and Jin are sad, they make sense. The driving force behind both the Sun and Jin storyline for the past two seasons have been the two of them reuniting. Once they reunited, what was left for them? Neither one of them had any interest in stopping SmokeLocke, finding Desmond, or trying to understand the mysteries of the Island. They just wanted to leave and get home to their daughter. There’s exactly two ways their story could have ended – leaving the Island and living happily ever after (something that might not be possible for ANY character on the show), or dying. The writers went with the second option, using their deaths as an opportunity to drive the story forward. I’m fine with that.

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The part that bothers me (a little) is that it seems like the writers really wasted an opportunity with Sun - what purpose did she really serve post-Oceanic Six? There were hints of a really interesting storyline where Sun would join Team Widmore and be a “double agent” in returning to the Island in an attempt to kill Ben – but nothing ever came from that. Once she returned to the Island, Christian Shephard (SmokeLocke) told Sun that she had “a long journey ahead”. I guess he really meant “you have to travel to Hydra Island in a two weeks, reunite with Jin, and then die.” Because that’s pretty much all she did this season. Remember the “Sun forgetting English” storyline? I’m guessing we’re not getting any more resolution to that one either. It’s hard to explain that it was an example of realities bleeding (as some hoped) when the character is dead.


But that’s nothing compared to what the writers potentially did to Frank…



Frank. Remember at the end of last season, when Bram and Ilana dragged Frank from Hydra Island to the Main Island, discussing if he was potentially a candidate? There were plenty of other survivors of the Ajira 316 Flight (until they were all killed by… someone. Still need to circle back to that mystery, I suppose) – but they specifically chose Frank to bring with them to the Main Island. We now know that Ilana knew EXACTLY who the candidates were (and Frank wasn’t one of them). Actually, if you go back and rewatch the scene, it’s Bram who is asking about if Frank is a candidate, with Ilana telling him that Frank “was important”.


But aside from rocking a sweet outfit and providing a little comedic relief, Frank has actually contributed zero to this season.


On a grander scale, remember the conversation between Frank and Ben earlier this season? Where Frank wondered how his life would have been different if he would have flown Oceanic 815, like he was originally supposed to?


FRANK: Can you believe it? Imagine how different my life would be had that alarm gone off.

BEN: How different would it have been? The island still got you in the end. Didn't it?


These little comments really made it seem like Frank had some greater purpose on the Island, some bigger role in the grand scheme of things – but instead, he potentially dies this week off-camera inside the Submarine?


This means one of two things:

  1. Frank is alive.
  2. The writers originally had different plans for Frank, but drastically changed them at some point this season.


After much soul searching and deliberation, I come down on the side of Option #1. I might be a trusting fool, but I trust that the writers are better than this. Frank still needs to do something “important” – save the Survivors or fly Ajira 316, I don’t care – but he needs to directly accomplish SOMETHING in the main storyline of the show, to justify his existence and inclusion in the past two seasons.


The only reason to kill Frank in this episode is if the writers are conceding that they actually have no idea what to do with him, changed their minds, and are tired of having him tag along in the background along with the more important characters to the storyline. If this is the case, then I’m really starting to worry about how they intend to wrap up the rest of the series. Basically, it comes down to this – if Frank is dead, it hints that the writers are making this up as they go. If Frank is alive, the writers really have known what they were doing all along.


No pressure, Lost writers. The fate of your show rests on Frank’s shoulders. Do the right thing.



Sayid. Finally, there was the expected death of Sayid. As I mentioned in “Death Watch 2010”, death was the only way out for Sayid. Thankfully, he got to die in a heroic way – and much like Sun and Jin, his death is definitely going to drive the overall storyline forward in a big way, thanks to this little conversation with Jack, right before the explosion:


SAYID: Listen carefully. There’s a well on the main island, half mile south from the camp we just left. Desmond’s inside it. Locke wants him dead, which means you’re going to need him. Do you understand me?


So not only did Sayid attempt to diffuse the bomb, and eventually sacrifice himself by running away with it – but before he did, he made sure that he gave Jack the best information he had about how to defeat SmokeLocke – and that somehow involves Desmond. Now, the remaining Survivors want to defeat SmokeLocke – and they know that Desmond is on the Island, and may be the key to doing just that.


What caused the change in Sayid?


It seems as though his conversation with Desmond last week made him realize that even though SmokeLocke promised to bring Nadia back from the dead, if he had to do terrible things to meet his end of the bargain, she wouldn’t respect him for doing so. The interesting thing here is that it means that SmokeLocke doesn’t really have 100% control over the dead that he claims. They’re not mindless zombies, they are just zombies that are really susceptible to his manipulation. Sayid demonstrated that even though he no longer felt anything, and kinda knew that he was supposed to be dead – that didn’t mean that he couldn’t do the right thing in the end and help his friends.


It makes you wonder if the same is possible for Claire…


One more thing – Sayid’s final words:


JACK: Why are you telling me this?

SAYID: Because it’s going to be you, Jack.


What exactly does this mean? I interpret this to mean that Sayid (somehow) knows that it’s going to be Jack that needs to take on, and take down SmokeLocke – that Sayid knows that Jack is the one who needs the information about Desmond, because he’s going to be another piece of the puzzle in defeating SmokeLocke / saving the world. It’s going to involve Desmond surviving a catastrophic electromagnetic event, and Jack being there afterwards to do… something. Four episodes left in the series, and I still can’t come up with a better theory for the ending that Desmond and Jack teaming up to sink it to the bottom of the ocean – which is actually pretty exciting.

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The Bomb. Aside from the fate of Frank, the big mystery of the week is where the C-4 that was planted inside Ajira 316 came from. Most people have narrowed it down to three candidates (pun):


  1. Widmore
  2. SmokeLocke
  3. Team Alpert


It’s easy to rule out Team Alpert right away. If they somehow got their hands on some C-4, they would just use it to blow up the plane, preventing SmokeLocke from using it to leave the Island. They wouldn’t be concerned about wiring it to the plane’s electrical system to only have it detonate when the plane starts up. Their intentions aren’t to kill our Survivors or SmokeLocke, it’s just to keep them here. Also, it seems illogical that they could have gotten to the Barracks, back to Hydra Island, and then back to the Main Island without someone on Team Widmore finding and capturing them. They aren’t invincible like SmokeLocke. The guard’s bullets would have hurt them.


As for SmokeLocke, it’s possible he went over to Hydra Island, planted the C-4, and then returned to the Main Island, all part of a master plan to trick our Survivors into thinking that he is saving them. After all, he knew to pick up the watch off of Widmore’s security guard before entering the plane, as if he knew that the C-4 would be on there. On the other hand, once he entered the plane, he actually took the time to seek out the C-4 by tracing the wiring back to where it was hidden – and upon finding it, gave a little smile as if he was happy to find that his assumptions were correct. If SmokeLocke had planted it, he shouldn’t have needed to follow wires to find it – he would have known exactly where it was.

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This leaves only Widmore – which actually makes sense. He didn’t want to destroy the plane right away, in case he needed it later – but wanted to be sure that if someone other than his people tried to use it to escape (like SmokeLocke), it would blow up. It was a safety precaution – but one that fit right into SmokeLocke’s plan. SmokeLocke knew that Jack wouldn’t board Ajira 316, since he didn’t want to leave the Island. However, by attempting to board the submarine, SmokeLocke knew that Widmore’s men would attack in an attempt to defend it. Did we ever actually see who shot Kate? I wouldn’t be surprised if it was actually SmokeLocke who shot her, knowing that this would force Jack into attempting to save her by boarding the submarine, giving him his best chance of killing them all in one place.


In a nutshell, it proves that even though Widmore knows a lot (like who the candidates are – how could he possibly know this unless Jacob told him?), and has a master plan, SmokeLocke is still one step ahead of him. Widmore’s only wild card remains Desmond – that seems to be the one piece of the puzzle that SmokeLocke hasn’t figured out, or doesn’t understand – which is why he’s going to be the key.



The Rules. The most debated topic of this week’s episode surrounds the “rules” on the Island around the killing on the candidates. Jack summed it up nicely during the episode:


JACK: Locke said that he can’t leave the island without us. I think that he can’t leave the island unless we’re all dead. He told me that he could kill anyone of us whenever he wanted. So, what if he hasn’t because he’s…he’s not allowed to. What if he’s trying to get us to kill each other?


All along we’ve known that SmokeLocke can’t directly kill the candidates – heck, even Young Jacob (I assume) has mocked him about this, reminding him about the rule. It presented SmokeLocke with a very difficult task: how do you get the candidates to kill themselves, if you can’t do it directly?


The answer: you create a bomb and hope that they set it off on themselves.


I think Jack is 100% right. If they just sat there and watched the bomb countdown to 0:00, nothing would have happened. That would have been SmokeLocke directly killing the candidates, which is not allowed. The Island would have prevented the bomb from going off. This would have saved both the candidates, and the non-candidates (like Kate). It was the right move.


Instead, Sawyer interfered with the bomb, pulling out the wires. In effect, he didn’t have the same “faith” in the Island that Jack did, and changed the situation. Now, it isn’t SmokeLocke directly killing the candidates, but Sawyer creating a situation where they could be killed. That’s the difference.


A lot of people are comparing the scene with Jack and Alpert from earlier this season with this one – since when Jack lit the dynamite, the fuse went out and no one was hurt. But in this case, when Sawyer manipulated the bomb, it still went off and people died. What’s the difference?


Maybe the “rules” around Richard Alpert are quite different than the rules around the candidates. Maybe Alpert can’t be killed, regardless of if it’s by his own hand, or by the hand of someone else (which makes me re-think his place on my Death Watch). If I were on the Island, I’d be sticking by this guy’s side, since it would potentially provide a halo of security from some methods of death (like explosions).


Or, maybe it all comes down to a matter of faith.


Jack had faith that nothing would happen when he lit the dynamite. He believed in the Island, and the Island saved him. On the submarine, Jack had faith that nothing would happen with the bomb. Sawyer did not. This lack of faith in the Island might have kept the same Island protecting powers from coming through in the submarine the same way they did inside the Black Rock.


Either way, this point is clear – SmokeLocke can’t directly kill any of the remaining candidates, which suddenly makes his job a lot more difficult. Hurley, Jack, and Sawyer now all know that SmokeLocke is a bad guy intent on killing them… but that he can’t do it directly. This means that he will either need to put them in scenarios where they get killed, or trick someone else into killing them. I really can’t see Claire killing them all, regardless of how much manipulating SmokeLocke does, which means I have no idea how SmokeLocke intends to complete his mission.


Again, that’s a very exciting thing for me.



Flash Sideways. Finally this week, let’s touch on the Flash Sideways – which were pretty fantastic… but did they offer any new revelations to help us better understand their role in the big picture?


Not really.


The writers teased that perhaps Bernard is living in the Flash Sidways post-epiphany, making somewhat cryptic and wise-sounding comments to Jack during his visit, and telling him “I hope you find what you’re looking for”. Does this mean that Bernard knows that Jack must come to his epiphany on his own, without someone flat out showing them (similar to what Desmond did with our Survivors – giving them a “push” to put them in the scenario to find out on their own), or is this just the writers toying with us, knowing that we would read deeper into the conversation that we were supposed to?


It would be a lot easier if we had seen what happens to a character after they have their epiphany in the Flash Sideways. But aside from Desmond, who is “special”, we don’t know. Is Hurley now enlightened, understanding the big picture and walking around making cryptic comments to people he meets? Or is he freaking out and back in the Santa Rosa Mental Hospital, blabbering about how the Flash Sideways world is a fake? It’s pretty obvious that the writers are intentionally keeping this from us since it would reveal where the Flash Sideways storyline is heading… and it’s driving me crazy.


It’s also interesting that Locke was speaking lines from Reality #1 while coming out of surgery in Reality #2. Does this mean the dreams of our Survivors offer a gateway between the two realities? In their subconscious dreaming state, do they have memories from both?


No idea there either.


In my Instant Reactions, I pondered whether the death of Sun and Jin in Reality #1 meant that those two must end up in Reality #2, or else it would be too depressing… but I want to take that back. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that if Lost ends with Sun and Jin living happily ever after in Reality #2, it totally cheapens the emotional death scene we just experienced. Dead is dead. You don’t get to magically come back to life in an alternate reality just because you want to. I think this will just add to the emotional weight of the final decisions of the remaining candidates in the final episodes of Lost. They know that they are going to “wake up” the Survivors in Reality #2, yanking them back to Reality #1… even if that means they will be “killing them”.


This week, my friend Sully asked me the question of what would make me hate the ending of Lost, and feel like the past seven years of my life were a waste. I came up with two scenarios:


  • If everyone gets to live happily ever after in Reality #2, wiping out the previous five seasons of the show and cheating us out of all the emotions that we had along the way.
  • If the show ends with Jack opening his eyes in the Jungle, in the same scene as the episode pilot, meaning that it’s all been one big loop that will continue on forever.


Both are cheap. Both are lame. Both will force me to sit down and re-write the ending of Lost.


I think the last conversation between Jack and Locke in the Flash Sideways summed up a lot of these feelings:


JACK: You can punish yourself as much as you want and that’s never gonna bring him back…What happened, happened…and…you can let it go.

LOCKE: What makes you think letting go is so easy?

JACK: It’s not. In fact, I don’t really know how to do it myself. And, that’s why I was hoping that…maybe you could go first.

LOCKE: Goodbye, Dr. Shephard.

JACK: I can help you, John…I wished you believed me.

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No matter how much we hope that our Survivors can carry out some heroic action in Reality #1 that will allow all their friends to survive and live on in Reality #2, it’s not going to happen. What happened, happened – but the hard part will be learning to let go. It’s not going to be easy. Things might have been different – had the Survivors believed in Locke initially, or Jack more recently. If only they had faith, things might have worked out better. But they didn’t… and now they have to deal with the consequences.


Okay – that’s all for this week.


Until Monday night!


http://facethewoods.com/lost/index.php?topic=553.0

26 comments:

Vagabond Trader said...

Brian
Excellent post, as usual.
First, I really hope that you continue posting after the "Lost" season is over. I look forward to your posts every week. You are a clear, concise writer, and are always very interesting to read (more so than most other on-line media). Maybe you can start posting random thoughts on various T.V. shows.

My prediction for an "ending scene" in Lost is Jack and Locke on the beach, where Lock says something like "you know how much I want to kill you?---One of these days I'm going to find a loophole...." or maybe "It always ends the same"......

mark said...

great analysis brian.

i'm there with you 100% about frank. i really hope he's alive and has some final purpose or way to contribute to defeating locke 2.0.

in your post during the rerun week, i noticed you didn't really address the question of ben and his story. what do you think is going to happen to ben? he's been noticeably on the sidelines this whole season, especially considering that his murder of jacob is what set everything in motion.

Brian said...

mark - good question. The only thing that I am sure of about Ben Linus is that we need to see a reunion between Ben and Widmore - to see some resolution to their conversation during "The Shape of Things to Come" where Widmore accuses Ben of stealing everything he's ever had from him, and about changing "the rules".

I assume that this is something the writers had to hold back on until the end of the season, as the answers to these questions will probably be pretty revealing - which has left Ben with not much to do this season, besides sit around and wait for it to happen.

I still expect Ben to play a large role in the final episodes of Lost, and to complete his character's redemption.

Brian said...

Vagabond Trader - Don't worry, I'm not quitting the Blogging Business after Lost wraps up. Not sure what I'll be writing about, but I'm sure I'll find something.

PS - this is a reminder to all you guys to keep thinking of things you would like to see on this Blog post-Lost. There have been some good suggestions in the past, but keep them coming!

Unknown said...

great post Brian...but after reading the end, I really think you need to prepare yourself for the fact that Reality #2 is the end game...this may disappoint you but i think its inevitable that in the finale Jack or Desmond will sink the island...(what we saw in sideways in LA X) and that somehow through the electromagnetism released or whatever will in result create the second reality with the all the characters having their island memories..the jughead bomb did not create the new timeline, thats the fake out I really believe...reality #2 is their redemption ..everyone I think is going to die in the island timeline...but I do have faith that the show will prove a point why they all have to have died and why the island needed to be effectively destroyed...no matter what they do in the finale there will be people pissed off one way or the other...but one thing the show always does..is have great finales..so we will see...
plus one thing I'll add is the show right now is about Jacob and MIB...does that mean the previous five seasons dont matter? because they didn't really have a ton to do with that feud..Others, Freightors, Dharma, etc...i think in the end its the journey the show has taken us all on that matters

Brian said...

Armand - here's my problem with that... it brings dead characters back to life, and they seem to know that Reality #2 is not "right". It also means that the remaining characters (Jack, Desmond, etc.) will be making the decision for EVERYONE to suddenly live in Reality #2. If you are familiar with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, bringing someone back from the dead is a terrible thing... because you are ripping a soul from the afterlife back into reality. To be forced to live out a fake life in a fake world is a terrible notion.

There's just no way that the writers would go that route. If they do, I will be pretty disappointed.

Unknown said...

wow quick response Brian!: yea I'm not saying this has to be right, it's just that if I were a betting man I would bet they would go that way...and i believe it more after this past episode...for the simple fact is where is everyone going?...are the characters gonna live their lives out on the island after they accomplish what their end mission is? are they then all gonna leave again?...on the Ajira plane?...and one thing the show always does when its done with a set piece is that it destroys it...ex. Swan, Black Rock, Freightor, Jacobs Cabin..I think the island is next...one other thing I'll say is that it may sound dumb on paper the second reality becoming the new one but on screen the idea may translate way better..for example..the two john lockes at the end of season five would probably have seemed bad or a ludicrous idea for some people before seeing and then people eventually buy into it...I just don't see sideways time line like evaporating into thin air..maybe something even crazier happens in the finale who knows lol

Daryl said...

Hey Brian,

I read this every week but first time commenting. I think the second ending with Jack opening his eye (or a variation of it) might be possible simply because we all know the Lost writers are fans of the Dark Tower series and that's pretty much how that series ends (and so does the Lost game, Via Domus).

Ending that way in itself wouldn't be so bad, but how we get there would matter a whole lot to not cheapen it.

.stephenjoseph said...

question. i dont know if you ever talked about it. but what about all the mirrors. jack looking in the mirror in LA X. sun doing the same and i forget what episode. and claire's little music box. i am not sure what that means. but we all know LOST has really good continuity. and ps. thanks for all the posts. i enjoy reading when i have down time at the job. take care.

stephen

Brian said...

Daryl - I think the fact that the Lost video game ends that way is 100% proof that the series will NOT end that way. No way that the writers would spoil their true ending years in advance for a video game. No way.

However, the fact that the video game does end this way confirms your other points - the writers are fans of Dark Tower (although I've never read it) and gave the video game a "homage ending" to it.

Brian said...

.stephenjoseph - There is definitely a "mirror theme" to this season, in more ways than one.

- The Flash Sideways offer a "mirror world" to the On-Island action.
- A lot of the situations and scenes in the Flash Sideways mirror / twist things from Reality #1.
- The mirror could be viewed as a gateway to the soul, with our characters looking in them and seeing that things aren't the way they are supposed to be in the Flash Sideways.

Will all these mirrors have a profound effect on the action in the Flash Sideways? Probably not - but they offer a nice thematic reference throughout the season. Perhaps in the end, we'll appreciate them even more.

Unknown said...

hey brian,
i enjoyed reading your post as usual im just sorry i found this blog in the last season of the show! i really like that you say 'no idea there' instead of guessing some crazy meaning for stuff on the show like other reviews. 2 things im guessing:
first i think that sayid put the c4 on the ajira plane on smokelocke's order (considering sayid's backround with this kind of stuff) that way smokelocke knew it would be in the plane but not exactly where.
the other thing is somehow it looks to me as if the smoke monster has almost the same effect on people as electromagnetism. in the last episode after the attack by smokey at the cages, one of the guards that got attacked looked the same as the guy that got burnt by the machine that they tested desmond in.
what do you think?

Ryan71 said...

If you actually think about it Frank did play an important role. If he wouldn't have been in the front of the sub directing the captain then somebody else would have been. Another candidate could have bit the dust as well. So if Franks death saved the life of a single candidate I'm pretty sure the island would be just find with that.

Thats IF he is dead.. with myself trying to give it a good reason!

Unknown said...

I don't think we can say for sure that Smokey can't kill the candidates, just that to get off the island and obey the rules he can't kill them.

He might now know that his plan is ruined and to "finish what he started" he decides to kill everyone left and start over with a new plan with new arrivals over the next few decades.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone else think that Sayid was in fact Jacob the whole time? He gave them instructions on how to bring Sayid back to life, didn't he? Perhaps he put on a show for Flocke the entire time.

Other reasons:

1. When Sayid took Desmond from Widmore's crew - note the moves he used. Those were not Sayid's grizzled war moves. Those were textbook Martial Arts as seen when Richard Alpert tried to kill Jacob originally on the beach.

2. Sayid saying essentially said, "you're the one Jack".

Dave Harty said...

I like the idea of Jacob becoming Sayid - his killing sprees aside.

jack said...

one of the more curious things to see (if and how) resolved is Jin and Sun in realty #2. Are they alive or dead somehow?

Little doubt that we'll find out tomorrow that MIB and Jacob were brothers.

Tkhawk said...

Hey Brian, love the blog.
I was surfing through Lost videos on Youtube the other day, and I came upon video of the "Hurley Bird." This was/is one of the major mysteries of Lost, and I was wondering if you think it will be addressed in the remaining 4.5 hours of Lost. Also, what do you think the Hurley Bird is? I think it might be another helper of Jacob, as it defended the crew against the MIB in the season one finale.

Mike said...

My pick for an ending scene although I have no idea what format it will take is a Soprano's style scene where something that could have multiple possibilities or ways of guessing what next will happen - then the lost logo . Followed by the Internet exploding and overloading from all the forum traffic and calls for a Lost movie to give us some proper closure. Which is a good question, why not a lost movie in some format after the finale? great way to make a 100million, and lets be honest who wouldn't want to make 100 million . Worked for the Simpsons.

Leadfoot said...

Have you all see this?

http://i41.tinypic.com/2dgtld1.jpg

http://i41.tinypic.com/334i0lk.jpg

WTF?!

Unknown said...

I wouldn't consider Frank useless. It made more sense for the team to pursue the plane idea with a pilot.

Unknown said...

Hey Brian -
Like one of your other readers posted, I wish I would have found your blog sooner - I have only been reading it for the last 6 weeks or so, and have enjoyed your analysis thoroughly!
I have a question that has been bugging me, and was hoping that you or someone here had a theory on... why did SmokeLocke blow up the sub with Lapidus on it, when he was the only one who could fly the Ajira plane? There is the possibility that Frank is not dead, but SmokeLocke doesn't know that... so what is his plan now for him (and Widmore for that matter also) to get off the island?

Unknown said...

i reckon it is very possible that Jin AND Frank are still alive. the thing that makes me think this is that you dont see frank or jin after there is enough water in the sub to actually drown them and you see jins had moving away from sun, so i think its possible that frank got up at the end, found another tank of oxygen and grabbed Jin at the end and saved his life, thus making him play a very important role. i know its not the most likely thing but you never knowa

Steve said...

NOTE: The candidates are to replace Jacob, but whoever replaces smokey may not have to be a candidate.

John Seven said...

In regard to Sun and Jin, I read it this way ...

So one of the major themes of the show has been that not only will parents screw you up, but the way they fucked you up will cause you to screw with a lot of other people into a spiraling mess that will eventually create a web of screwed up. I think that we can all agree on. Dysfunction begins at home but spreads to the world.

So I was thinking about the death of Sun and Jin, and thinking about how sometimes parents screw up their kids without ever intending to and realizing that it's often only because parents have their own lives and concerns and emotions that they attend to as well as to those of their kids.

So think about - the death scene was terribly touching and you couldn't help but side with Jin's emotional decision to not only stay and die with the woman he loved but, like Charlie, take charge of his own death. However, he leaves behind a daughter that is going to be raised by her grandfather, the very man who screwed up he and his wife so badly. He is literally handing that poor girl over to the same situation his wife had to endure for years - and he only did it out of love for his wife.

She's the new Sawyer. 20 years from now you could make a sequel show all about her at the center, messed up because of the choice her parents made.

As lovely as they were, what is the difference between Jin and Sawyer's dad or Jack's dad? Jin's decision is consistent with the parental decisions made in this show for the last 6 years!

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