"The Incident" Instant Reactions!

Brian's Four Word Review That Is Also The Most Uttered Phrase By My Wife During Episodes of Lost: "I Don't Get It"

I feel like there were a lot of answers provided in that episode... but unfortunately I don't think we're to the point where we're able to understand them... yet. Let's get some discussion points out there as we muddle through the confusion...

Jacob. So Jacob and Man #2 have always been on-Island, and have been unable to kill each other - much like the "rules" that seem to exist between Ben and Widmore. Jacob has been visiting our Survivors throughout their lives, perhaps even "pushing them" along their way to ensure they end up on-Island. But why? It seems that the net result of our Survivors getting on-Island thus far is Jacob dying (in the grand scheme of things). Heck, he seemed to bring Locke back to life after he was pushed out of the window by his father (PS - how many of the flashback scenes were you able to "call" beforehand? It's sad how easily I recognize things like background shots from two seasons ago... ) and that definitely eventually lead to Man #2 impersonating him and killing him. Bad move, Jacob.

I'm also guessing that Man #2 was actually the guy we saw in the Cabin (since as I noted in my episode preview, he kinda looked like him), but "escaped" thanks to the gap in the ash around the Cabin. He was then able to impersonate John Locke to manipulate Ben and find a loophole to kill Jacob. So Man #2 is the "bad guy" and Jacob was the "good guy"... but unfortunately now he's dead.

Locke. Conversely, Locke is suddenly the "bad guy" on the Island. But it's not really Locke, it's Man #2, right? Turns out that "dead is dead" after all... and it was Man #2 who told Alpert to tell Locke that he had to die... so that Man #2 could eventually impersonate him as part of his master plan! Crazy.

It makes you wonder how Widmore fits into all this. He went out of his way to help Locke and get him back to the Island, which seems to put him on the side of Man #2. But without Ben killing Locke, the plan never could have worked out. Since Ben and Widmore seem to be enemies, I don't see him being in on the plan - but perhaps he was just a poor pawn in all of this wacky action. He was being used all along.

Alpert. What lies in the Shadow of the Statue? "Ille qui nos omnes servabit", which means "he whom we all serve." Alpert also said it was Jacob who made him "like he is" (never aging). So after one episode of teasing Alpert's true intentions, it turns out that Alpert isn't all knowing - but he is a servant of Jacob. If you consider that the "good guy", then he's on the right side.

Likewise, Ilana and the Shadow of the Statue are on the same side. So right now, pretty much every character we know in 2008 (I refuse to call it 2007 no matter what you say - check Lostpedia and do the math, it's 2008) is on the same side, except for Locke and Ben. Unfortunately, that side is also without their "leader" now that Jacob is dead. 

Who wants to bet that this opens the door for Widmore to return to the Island, setting up the "battle for the Island" between Widmore, Locke, and Ben vs. Alpert and our Survivors?

Survivors. Speaking of our Survivors, what now? We've been told that the "time travel" stuff ends with this season, which means they MUST end up in 2008 when Juliet causes The Incident - and it makes me wonder if that's what Jacob meant when he said "they're coming" as his last words... or was he referring to Widmore's men?

What about Juliet? Does she live or die? Logic would tell you that she would die... but the same logic would tell you that our Survivors (Jack, Kate, Sawyer) who were standing right above the Swan Hole would also be too close to survive either... and that doesn't even take into account Sayid - who unless the past is suddenly "undone" is now dead as well.

So I think there are four options:

1. Juliet, Sayid, Kate, Jack, and Sawyer are all dead.
   
2. Juliet, Sayid, Kate, Jack, and Sawyer are all alive and transported to 2008.
3. Juliet, Sayid, Kate, Jack, and Sawyer are all alive in an alternate 2004 where Oceanic 815 lands in Los Angeles... and who knows where this puts Juliet.
4. Juliet and Sayid are dead. Everyone else is alive and now in 2008. The past didn't change, but they did get transported back to the "present" as their work in 1977 was now done (note: this seemed to be a theme of the recap episode that aired before the finale - that they only jumped to time periods where they had something to accomplish... and then jumped out - interesting)

I will say that I was a tad disappointed in the character development in this episode. Juliet and Kate both seemed to change their emotions at a moment's notice, for now other reason than to extend the Love Rhombus further - even when it clearly should have ended with Juliet and Sawyer together, and Kate and Jack hating each other forever. It just seemed unrealistic.

So I guess that's it for Season Five. I need to reflect on the season and the finale a bit to see how I feel - but for now I stand by my Four Word Review. I don't quite get it yet - but clearly this episode sets the stage for next season.

Discuss!

http://facethewoods.com/lost/index.php?topic=458.0

Lost - "The Incident"

This is it. The final two hours of Lost in 2009. The thrilling conclusion to a Fifth Season that has without a doubt been the most confusing, audience-polarizing, and complex season of Lost ever. The Lost writers have basically asked the audience to juggle a six-front storyline with nearly twenty characters taking place over three or four time periods. It's insanity, but in a way, it's exactly the way the obsessive among us would want it.

 

Still, with the Season Finale staring us in the face, something is a little different about Season Five. I can't help but think back and compare it to the first four seasons of Lost. In each of them, you had a pretty good basic idea about how the season would end because most of the season had been spent slowly building up to it.

• In Season One, we had the efforts to open the Hatch.
• In Season Two, we had the repercussions of not entering the Numbers.
• In Season Three, we had the attempt to contact Naomi's people.
• In Season Four, we had the impending battle with the Freighters.

 

In each case, we were introduced to this "obstacle" around the midpoint of the season, and then worked towards overcoming / defeating / discovering it by the end of the season.

But what about Season Five? What has it all been building up to?

 

Logic would tell you that it's our 1977 Survivors getting back to 2008... but surprisingly none of our 1977 Survivors seem overly concerned about doing this - nor have they discussed how they would do this. If it happens in the Season Finale, it's going to be by accident - or as an unintended side effect of doing something else.

 

With the way Season Four ended, you might think it would be about Locke returning to the Island, coming back to life, and becoming the Leader of the Others… but this storyline has really been self-contained within a few episodes, and somehow feels like a "secondary storyline".

 

I suppose fittingly for this season, the big issue, the big event, the big question that needs to be answered is quite simply "can you change the past"? Did "whatever happened, happened", or is it possible to alter the past, thus changing the future? It's an interesting theme for the Season Finale because it seems as though we've already answered this question numerous times through events like Sayid shooting Young Ben, Jack refusing to help Young Ben, etc. Yet the writers are dipping back into the same pool one last time, with our characters making one last attempt to affect some type of change… and with Jack and Sayid trying to detonate a nuclear bomb inside the Swan Hatch, this time they aren't messing around.

 

One way or another, this attempt to change the past is going to result in "The Incident". Even though it was actually referenced for the first time this season by Faraday two episodes ago, we learned about The Incident way back in Season Two. Some (me) have been theorizing that Season Five would conclude with The Incident for quite some time. But even though it promises to be a pretty major event in the history of the Island, the build up for this event hasn't been anywhere close to the Season Finales of the first four seasons… because we still don't know what the heck it means. Will The Incident involve the Jughead? Will it play out the way that Faraday foretold, simply by drilling too close to the Island's gooey center at the Swan Station? Or will it be something totally different?

 

In a way, it's this uncertainty that makes this season's finale one of the most exciting ever. Although we haven't been anxiously awaiting for this event to happen all year long (like in the first four seasons), we also haven't been subjected to the inevitable "teases" that accompanied many of the first four seasons (I'm looking at you the many failed attempts to open the Hatch, and people ALMOST letting the 108 timer expire multiple times). Dare I say, this could be the most surprising episode of Lost ever? There are a lot of very interesting variables (no pun intended) on the table - all of which could factor in to these final two hours. The Swan Hatch, The Incident, The Jughead, Jacob, The Shadow of the Statue, and Time Travel could all come together in a jumbled, frantic conclusion that leaves us puzzled, enlightened, or furiously screaming at the TV in the end.

 

I have no idea what's going to happen next, and I absolutely love it.

 

 

Having said all this, I debated just totally skipping this week's episode preview. There's something really appealing to me about going into the finale totally clueless - it's a feeling I haven't felt on Lost since the early days of Season One - and there's always the risk that over-analyzing this episode will somehow reveal something that gives me new expectations for what I expect to have happen in the episode, thus opening the door for disappointment. I was close to ending this Blog right here, moving on with my life, and anxiously awaiting Wednesday night to roll around.

 

Close, but I couldn't go through with it.

 

I suppose I have a job to do, and that job is to get you prepared for the episode. However, I beg you to stop reading right now and go into this week's finale in the dark about the details. I kinda with that I could, but having already done my prep work for this post, it's too late for me. I already know too much! But you can save yourself. I implore you to show self-control, turn back now, relish the unknown, and maximize your blown-away-ness of the episode!

 

 

 

Still here? For shame. Well, even if you couldn't resist reading on, I'm going to try and make this Episode Preview as brief and high level as possible in an effort to keep me (and hopefully you) from over-thinking about what's about to happen. But as you know, keeping things simple and succinct really isn't my style so I'll probably fail miserably. Let's see how this all works out...

 

 

 

Episode Title: "The Incident"

 

 

Brian's Deeper Meaning Guess: Although there are a few "The Incident"s on Wikipedia (ranging from events in British History to 1960s movies) that I could pull obscure analogies to Lost from, let's not waste our time. We all know exactly what this episode title refers to - The Incident that took place on the Island in 1977. Here's a quick reminder of what we know about The Incident so far, courtesy of Lostpedia:

 

During the Swan Orientation Film, Dr. Marvin Candle mentioned that there was "an incident" which resulted in the creation of a protocol that required a code to be entered every 108 minutes. He issued a strict warning not to use the computer for communication with the outside world. He went on to say that failure to comply would compromise the integrity of the project and could result in another incident. Candle also seemed to indicate that the incident occurred shortly after the Swan station began operations.

 

Daniel Faraday explained that during construction of the Swan, the workers drilled into the magnetic force, causing a catastrophic discharge that required the protocol to be enacted. The protocol was created so that the magnetic anomaly could be discharged every 108 minutes, thus preventing an electromagnetic catastrophe. Failure to comply with this protocol leads to a system failure.

 

It is worth noting that, apparently counter to what Pierre Chang alluded to (that the station was "originally" a laboratory used for research), the Swan's protocol was established during the construction of the Swan itself due to the workers drilling into the magnetic energy field. This would seem to suggest that there wasn't even a brief period of time that the Swan was used for its original research purpose. However, it's not clear yet whether or not this is the same mythical Incident that Chang spoke of.

 

As I said, this episode (and this season) all comes down to one big question - "Can you change the past?"

 

If you can't, then The Incident will be exactly what Faraday predicted. Easy.

 

If you can, then there's no telling what The Incident will be. Complicated.

 

If Jack is successful in carrying out Faraday's gameplan, he will neutralize the magnetic anomaly and prevent the need for the pushing of the 108 Button. His actions may become "The Incident", but they certainly won't be the same Incident that Chang mentions on the video - because that video will never be made. There would be no need. Instead, The Incident would simply become an event for the Island History Books - one moment in time when the funky electromagnetism under the Island was neutralized, forever changing the future of the Island... even though those living through it wouldn't realize it at the time.

 

Whatever The Incident is, it's going to carry large repercussions. On one hand, you could have the rock solid proof that "whatever happened, happened" and Faraday was wrong in his hopes that people were Variables that could change the past. It would neatly tie up all our Survivors' time traveling adventures (assuming they end up back in the present) and squash any hopes of changing the events we've seen over the first four seasons, or the future that we are currently facing on Lost (the battle for the Island). On the other hand, if it is possible to change the past, Faraday was right about people being Variables and there's no telling what would happen. The events of the first four seasons of Lost would be thrown out the window, new doors would be open, or the repercussions would boggle the mind.

 

No matter what happens, it's pretty clear The Incident is going to be kinda a big deal.

 

 

Okay - this is your last chance to turn back. In my opinion, the Guest Star listing for this episode is so insane and revealing, I wish I hadn't read it myself.

 

I promise you won't miss out on anything good for the rest of this Blog post if you quit now.

 

Look, I'll even end it like a normal Blog so that it tricks your brain into thinking it's the end….

 

Happy Losting!

 

 

http://facethewoods.com/lost/index.php?topic=457.0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That didn't work?

 

I'm very disappointed in you.

 

 

Guest Stars: L. Scott Caldwell as Rose, Sam Anderson as Bernard, John Terry as Christian Shephard, Nestor Carbonell as Richard Alpert, Jeff Fahey as Frank Lapidus, Francois Chau as Dr. Pierre Chang, Patrick Fischler as Phil, Eric Lange as Radzinsky, Zuleikha Robinson as Ilana, Brad William Henke as Bram, Jon Gries as Roger Linus, Alice Evans as younger Eloise Hawking, Andrea Gabriel as Noor "Nadia" Abed Jaseem, Kevin Chapman as Mitch, Mark Pellegrino as man #1, Titus Welliver as man #2, Emily Rae Argenti as young Kate, Tanner Maguire as young Tom, George Gerdes as Mr. Springer, Agnes Kwak as Aunt Soo, Amy Stewart as mother, Rylee Fansler as young Juliet, Savannah Lathem as young Rachel, William Makozak as Captain Bird, Daniel James Kunkel as anesthesiologist, Sonya Masinovsky as Russian nurse, Keegan Boos as young Sawyer, Colby French as Uncle Doug, John Pete as prison clerk, Michael Trisler as father, Sally Davis as woman and Adam Bazzi as cab driver.

 

 

Guest Star Breakdown: Holy crap. With a whopping thirty-two guest stars (which I believe is a Lost record), it’s pretty clear that there is a LOT of story packed into these final two hours. Basically, any on-Island guest star from the entire season (that is still alive) is back – Others, Ajira 316ers, and Dharmites, oh my!

 

But of course, the big news here is the return of Rose and Bernard, suspiciously absent since the second episode of the season – back when the skipping through time began. Although a lot of people have theorized that Rose and Bernard died, and became the Adam and Eve statues in the cave from Season One, most struggle to come up with an explanation of how they could still be alive – living on the Island for three years potentially alone. The only explanation imaginable is that these two were somehow “adopted” by the Others – and have conveniently been at some other Other campground each time our Dharmite Survivors interacted with the Others. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but I think it’s the best we’ve got at this point… unless Bernard was really hiding some sweet survival skills all these years.

 

The other big surprise is the inclusion of “Young” forms of various characters – Kate, Tom, Juliet, and Rachel. Traditionally on Lost, the character with the flashback is the character most likely to die – which means we should all be very concerned about Kate and Juliet. Tom is safe this week since we know he will eventually be killed by Sawyer on-Island in 2004 – hmmmm… maybe “safe” isn’t the right word. Similarly, Young Rachel (Juliet’s sister) lives at least long enough to be cured of her cancer by Jacob (allegedly), but the lack of an Adult Rachel guest star means that her character will only appear in flashback form, alive and well.

 

But this raises the question – what is the connection between all these Young Characters? Or are we due to receive flashbacks for each that are in no way connected? (Also, Tom - really? Did anyone think we’d ever hear from him again? Was anyone clamoring for more Tom back story?) Aside from the these guaranteed flashbacks for Kate and Juliet, the inclusion of Nadia means we’ve got a Sayid-flashback coming our way as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if this episode unfolded similar to Season One’s “Exodus”, where we got one flashback per major character in the episode. The problem is, in “Exodus” we had something to connect them all – the boarding of Oceanic 815. What overall theme / event could possibly connect such a wide variety of characters, some of whom are in their youth? 

 

How about “Man #1” or “Man #2”. Initially, guest stars without names are simply throwaway background characters who don’t need names. Sometimes, they are an example of the Lost writers disguising the true identity of a character who fans would recognize if they saw the name ahead of time. Whenever I see one of these type of names pop-up, I do a Google Image Search on them to see who they look like. This time, the results were shocking.

 

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, say hello to Jacob. I have to assume that if we’re going to have flashbacks that go so far they require child actors to play Kate, Juliet, and Tom, we’re going to likewise require two actors to play Jacob. Man #1 is Jacob back in the day. Man #2 is quite obviously a “modern day” Jacob that lives in a Cabin. Do a side by side comparison – it seems like a good match, right?

 

 

I guess there are two possibilities here. One is that we see Jacob in 1977 (as Man #1) and 2008 (as Man #2) – both on-Island, offering a nice parallel reveal to our two major storylines this season. The other, way more intriguing theory, and actually what I predicted would happen in the Season One finale (go back and read! http://lost-and-gone-forever.blogspot.com/2005/06/lost-recap-memo.html ) would be that our Survivors have been watched – tracked – for the majority of their lives. The Others knew that eventually they would arrive there (thanks to their future time traveling hijinx) and began spying on them, gathering information on them, preparing to use them once they arrived on-Island. Much like Alpert was creepily watching Locke’s birth, what if Jacob were keeping tabs on Kate, Juliet, and Tom? It would be fantastic, open up all sorts of theories about whether or not it was “fate” or “arranged” that our Survivors ended up on Oceanic 815 (remember those debates from the first few seasons?), and prove that Jacob has been a much larger part of Lost than we ever realized – even if we’ve only seen him for three total seconds over the course of the series.

 

Or maybe “Man #1” and “Man #2” will just walk by in the background while Young Kate and Young Tom play in a sandbox at the park. Either way, sounds exciting to me!

 

 

Episode Description: Jack's decision to put a plan in action in order to set things right on the island is met with some strong resistance by those close to him, and Locke assigns Ben a difficult task.

 

Episode Breakdown: All this and we’re just now getting to the episode description? I should be getting paid double for this Blog post! Fortunately, the episode description is short and sweet, just like it should be for a Season Finale. Let’s finish this up so we can get on to counting down the hours, minutes, and seconds until the Finale starts… you know, doing something productive.

 

Jack’s decision to put a plan in action = using the Jughead (and from the looks of the episode preview, this also includes killing a bunch of innocent Dharmites along the way. Seriously, when did Jack go crazytown?)

 

I could also see Miles and Jin coming down on the same side as Jack. To Jin it might mean reunion with Sun, which is his number one priority. To Miles, it might mean saving his father (who he now understands and loves) from the Purge.

 

Strong resistance by those close to him = Kate, Sawyer, and Juliet (at least) will be opposing Jack. Kate’s already voiced her disagreement – and if you think about it, why would Sawyer and Juliet want Jack to erase the past? That would mean the two of them would never meet, fall in love, and spend a magical three years together in the swinging 1970’s on a hippie Island.

 

As for Hurley, he could go either way – but setting off a nuclear bomb doesn’t seem like something he’d be cool with. So I’ll throw him in the “Resistance Camp” for now. Which means, we’ve got:

 

Team Crazytown = Jack, Sayid, Jin, Miles

Team Resistance = Sawyer, Kate, Juliet, Hurley

 

Nice and even – just the way I like it.

 

The other half of the preview is a little more mysterious. What “difficult task” is Locke going to assign Ben? The first thing that comes to mind, and the thing that seems most likely at this point, is that Locke will make Ben kill Jacob. Why? Well, it serves a few purposes. For one, it’s Ben’s chance to “prove himself” to Locke, to follow Smokey’s demand to follow him. For two, it’s Locke’s chance to potentially discredit Ben in front of all the Others by having him kill their God. For three, it offers a nice parallel to when Ben demanded that Locke kill his Father to keep face among the Others. The tables are turned, and now Ben has to do the killing – in a potentially lose/lose situation. If he kills Jacob and Jacob turns out to be a good guy, he’ll be hated forever. If he kills Jacob and Jacob turns out to be a bad guy, he’ll still be guilty of killing someone, which may carry some negative connotation in the Religion of the Others.

 

Or perhaps Locke will simply turn to Ben and say “explain this season in thirty words or less.” Although, that might be “impossible”, rather than “difficult”.

 

 

And there you have it, ye of no self-control. Everything you need to know (actually more than you need to know) about “The Incident”. It’s the last Lost for the next seven months or so – so be sure to sit back, breathe it deep, and enjoy it. There will be plenty of time for over-thinking, researching, and debating the episode between now and 2010. For now, just enjoy the show.

 

For the last time in 2009, Happy Losting!

"Follow the Leader" Analysis!

(Before we get started this week, I need to apologize. I think the Blog has been fairly sucky the past few weeks despite my best efforts. I hate to say this - but those crafty Lost writers may have finally stumped me. For the first time ever with this series, I'm having a hard time coming up with plausible all-encompassing theories to tie together the various storyline strands they've started. This means one of three things - either they really are way smarter than me, I'm getting dumber as I get older, or the storylines aren't going to tie together in a nice, neat, and logical way. Personally, I'm hoping for the first scenario which allows me to stay smart and Lost to remain smarter. Time will tell...)

Looking back on “Follow the Leader”, it was what I would term a pretty typical “setup” episode. I’ve probably used the same phrases for the penultimate (big word alert!) episodes of Lost for its first four seasons, but once again they apply… so I’m going to use them again.

 

Although one could argue that not a lot truly “happened” this week, the episode’s main purpose was to set the stage for the finale... and it did just that. All the characters are where they are supposed to be (with a whopping six major “groups” to track this year – the Jugheaders, the 2008 Others, the Ajira 316ers, the Submariners, and the Dharmites), the drama has been sufficiently ratcheted up a notch (Kate vs. Jack, Ben/Alpert vs. Locke, the Shadow of the Statue vs. All), there’s impending doom (we’re mere hours away from “The Incident” and have people messing with atomic bombs), and much like last season, John Locke ended the episode with a line of dialogue that shocks everyone. Last year, it was “he wants us to move the Island”. This year, it’s “so I can kill him”.

 

I guess that’s as good a place as any to start this week’s analysis!

 

Jacob. An in-depth analysis of Jacob is long overdue on this Blog, but he’s been sitting on the back burner for good reason – his character has been entirely absent from this season. Even if you argue (and we will) that Christian Shephard is some manifestation of Jacob, he hasn’t even been around since Locke turned the FDW. But out of nowhere, with a single line of dialogue, Jacob becomes one of the predominant storylines for the Season Five Finale of Lost.

 

There has been a lot of discussion over the last few days about the true nature of Jacob. Theories are ranging from the twisty (“Jacob is going to be a character we already know! Jacob is going to be Faraday / Jack / Sawyer!”) to the absurd (“Jacob doesn’t really exist – Locke is just going to kill the idea of Jacob”). But what do we really know about this supposed all-knowing, all-powerful, all-creepy character?

 

Surprisingly, not a whole lot. We’ve only seen fleeting glimpses of Jacob – once sitting in a chair, and twice extreme close-ups on his eyes. But this at least proves that Jacob exists. He might be a spirit of a ghost, or an undead Black Rock Pirate, but based on this, he’s not some imaginary boogieman invented by Alpert / Ben in an attempt to scare Other children and keep people in line.

 

Likewise, since we’ve seen him (and his Cabin) magically appear and disappear – and be visible to some characters but not others, Jacob also isn’t a “normal” person. He’s even weirder than Alpert – who may not age, but at least he’s flesh and bones, needs to walk to get from one place to another, and is visible to everyone on the Island.

 

So what is Jacob? And how in the world are the Lost writers going to explain him using pseudo-science (or did that promise to the viewers go out the window once we entered this time traveling season?) Let’s dive a little deeper…

  

We also know that at least two characters have seen Jacob – Locke and Hurley. Given Locke’s apparent “chosen one-ness”, his ability to see Jacob makes sense – maybe Jacob only is visible and audible to certain “chosen people” on the Island. But what about Hurley? The only thing I can think of is that Hurley being semi-crazy makes him sometimes see dead people – and if Jacob is “dead”, maybe he was able to find a loophole to see Jacob.

 

The irony here is that although Alpert and Ben have referenced Jacob the most over the past five seasons, we have no evidence that either one of them can actually see or communicate with Jacob. However, if you remember back to earlier this season, the reason that Locke was able to gain an audience with Alpert in 1954 was because he referenced Jacob’s name – which means that Alpert did know about Jacob pre-1954 (thus  eliminating the possibility that it was Locke referencing “Jacob” in 1954 that created the start of the Jacob myth in the first place – which would have been a cool closed loop theory – but unfortunately doesn’t work out).

 

This was part of the reason I always assumed Alpert was legit. After all, he had to have found out about Jacob somehow – either through personal interaction or through pre-1954 leaders of the Island who were able to communicate with him. But then there was his comment this week. Alpert said he was “starting to wonder if John Locke was going to be a problem” to Ben, as if the two shared a mutual understanding of how this whole Jacob-thing was going to work, and Locke could potentially ruin everything they’ve built up over the past twenty years.

 

But what had they built up?

 

The only words we have ever heard from Jacob are “help me” – told to Locke, but inaudible to Ben. As I theorized earlier this season, I don’t think Benjamin Linus could ever actually communicate with Jacob – he was simply clever enough to “work the system” by referencing Jacob to move himself into the position of “Leader of the Others” (partially thanks to Alpert’s lie about it being Jacob’s will when he saved Young Ben in 1977).

 

Remember back when we first saw Jacob’s Cabin? There was that line of ash powder around it – which the show’s creators have said was a controlling mechanism, such as a "magic circle". Someone must have put it there, and all signs point to that someone being Ben. After all, if he couldn’t really see Jacob, he would want to “cage” him to prevent Jacob from telling anyone else that Ben was a fraud (which would inevitably lead to Ben being ousted from a leadership role in the Others). This would also easily explain the “help me” comment from Jacob to Locke. He needed to be freed from that magic circle to help get the Island back on track (see: Cowboys and Indians Theory of how the Others fell out of touch with the Island).

 

(The only real hole in this theory is that Hurley stumbled upon a moving around Jacob’s Cabin at the start of Season Four – which one would think would be impossible if it was locked down inside the ash circle. No idea about that one.)

 

But if we’re following this path, it seems like Locke would want to help Jacob – to free him, to help the Others find their way back to Island Religion, to prove that Ben was a dirty liar for all those years, and have the Others at full strength for the forthcoming “battle for the Island”, not to kill Jacob.

 

Unless…

 

I’m reminded of the Kevin Smith classic movie “Dogma” (highly recommended for anyone raised in the Catholic faith). In it, God would periodically take on a human form (to play skeeball). When in human form, he lacked all the super powers… until his human form died and he would return to being all Godly. Long story short – the bad guys in the movie put a comatosed God on life support to keep him from dying, thus “trapping him” in the human body, which prevented him from regaining all his power while the bad guys tried to bring about the end of the world. In a huge ironic Catholic twist, the protagonist has to “kill God” in order to free him (her) from the human body, which allows God to kick the bad guy ass and save existence.

 

That’s my best guess as to why Locke – Johnny Island, himself – would say that he wants to “kill Jacob” – the potential spiritual embodiment of the Island. Just like Dogma, Locke needs to kill Jacob in order to free him – maybe to have him at full power for the upcoming “battle for the Island’. Perhaps the “ash cage” around Jacob’s Cabin isn’t only keeping him trapped in one place – but is also somehow keeping the Island Spirit from leaving Jacob’s body and regaining all his magic Island powers. See you later, pseudo-science.

 

What about Christian Shephard?

 

Well, although we have no idea who Jacob is, he kinda seemed like a pretty crusty old guy. Perhaps when Christian’s body ended up on the Island, Jacob saw this as a chance to “upgrade” to a younger model. Even if Ben’s imprisonment was keeping him from going from crusty body to supernatural being, maybe Jacob still has the ability to jump from one dead body to another.

 

I still don’t have a good explanation for the appearing / disappearing act that Jacob and Christian have down – because even if they were a spirit occupying a body, that body should always be visible. Still, all-in-all, the Dogma Theory would allow Locke’s comment to be one of those Losty twists that actually means the exact opposite of what we’re thinking. Killing Jacob is the only way to save him… and the Island.

 

But even though I like the Dogma Theory, there’s one other possible theory to explain Locke’s comment – Jacob is actually big time bad news.

 

In this scenario, Jacob is somewhat similar to Smokey – a mysterious all-powerful being that kicks ass first and takes names later, working based on his own set of “rules” that may or may not be clear to those on the Island. In this scenario, the Others are simply peons living beneath a vengeful Jacob that doesn’t really care about them – Jacob is a vengeful God, and the Others better do exactly what he says or else they’ll feel his wrath. This would make Alpert and Ben the “good guys” who worked together to “cage” Jacob in order to free their fellow Others to live their own lives on the Island.

 

The thing that give this theory some legs is that it means the “Island Spirit” is a totally separate entity from Jacob… which would make sense given Locke’s conversation with Ben this week:

 

BEN: Your timing was impeccable, John. How did you know when to be here?

LOCKE: The Island told me. Didn't it ever tell you things?

BEN: No, John. And clearly it hasn't told you where Jacob is, or you wouldn't need Richard to show you.

LOCKE: You've never seen him.

BEN: What?

LOCKE: Jacob. You've never seen him, have you?

 

One would think that if the Island Spirit (that is telling Locke when and what to do) and Jacob were one and the same, Locke wouldn’t need Alpert to take him to Jacob – the Island Spirit could just tell him where to go. Rather, they seem to be separate entities (dare I say even “opposing forces” on the Island?). Locke has the connection to the Island, but not Jacob. The Island is asking him to kill Jacob to take 100% control of the Island and everyone on it.

 

(The big hole in this theory, of course, is that Christian Shephard, speaking on Jacob’s behalf, helped Locke turn the FDW which set everything in motion. If Jacob was anti-Island, this doesn’t make a lot of sense… unless both Jacob and the Island are “fighting for Locke” similar to how Ben and Widmore both have referenced needing Locke on their side in the upcoming “battle for the Island”.)

 

I don’t know. Chances are the explanation of Jacob is going to be something totally different from either of these theories. Just like Locke’s comment about moving the Island last season, I can’t come up with a 100% logical theory about how this is all going to work out. But let’s be honest, how many of us saw Lost morphing into a time-traveling show at the end of last season? I can’t help but wonder if we’re about to see a similar “game changing event” this season, one that no analysis would be able to predict, no matter how in-depth.

 

Let’s move on.

 

Richard Alpert. Aside from Locke’s comment about Jacob, the next most shocking line of the episode belonged to Richard Alpert, during his brief conversation with Sun in 2008:

 

SUN: These people... Jack Shephard, Kate Austen, Hugo Reyes. They were here with my husband--Jin Kwon. Were you here? Do you remember them? A--any of them?

RICHARD: Yes, I was here 30 years ago. And I do. I remember these people. I remember meeting them very clearly, because... I watched them all die.

 

If you buy into the “whatever happened, happened” theory, it means that all of our Survivors really did die in 1977… or at least that’s how it appeared to Alpert at the time. It seems that this could be easily explained by having them “vanish” (which will bring them back to the present, hopefully) – something that Alpert could easily have interpreted as them dying… especially if this “skip” coincided with some big explosion or “Incident” on the Island.

 

The only problem is – after seeing our Survivors appear and disappear in 1954, if it happened again in 1977 wouldn’t Alpert be catching on at this point? Shouldn’t his comment to Sun have been “they either died… or jumped to some other point in time”? Not only that, but it seems likely that Alpert had some knowledge of our Survivors in 2004 – after all, Jack, Kate, and Sawyer lived with the Others for a few weeks in Season Three – plus, he gave Locke a full file on Sawyer to manipulate Sawyer into killing Locke’s Father. At the very least, this means that once 2004 rolled around and Alpert saw these characters, he would have realized that these were the same people he interacted with in 1977 -  so in 2008, unless Alpert is a complete idiot, he should have been able to put together the pieces and understand that time traveling is going on.

 

What does all of this mean?

 

When Sun asks him the question in 2008, if there was any chance that our Survivors simply “skipped”, I have to think he would have referenced it (unless trying to be intentionally deceiving to Sun). So whatever happens to our Survivors, it’s gotta be something big – something more complicated than them simply disappearing – something that really made it appear to Alpert that they all died.

 

Let’s keep in mind the lesson of Daniel Faraday – it is entirely possible that all our Survivors could die in 1977… and they would be dead. Maybe the whole final season of Lost will be about Desmond going back in time and trying to save all their lives… but that would seem kinda cheap to me. Still, it would be incredibly ballsy of the Lost writers if they would kill off nearly all the “main characters” on Lost with this season’s finale.

 

So what happens to them?

 

The Incident. The most likely explanation for Alpert’s comment is that most of our Survivors are involved in “The Incident”. Right now, there are two obvious explanations for what The Incident is:

1. A release of big energy caused by drilling at the Swan Station (as Faraday warned).
2. The Jughead going off in an effort to neutralize that big energy at the Swan Station.

 

The problem here is that although the first scenario seems like it needs to happen (because “whatever happened, happened”), the second scenario seems like the only one that could cause our Survivors to appear to die to Alpert. Plus, it assumes that Jack, Sayid, Hot Ellie, and Alpert (the Jugheaders) are somehow able to get the Jughead from underneath the Barracks to the Swan Station – which is quite some distance away. Keep in mind the Jughead weighs 40,000 pounds. Assuming they find some way to get the Jughead above ground, would a Dharma Van even be able to carry something so heavy?

 

Based on my brief research on the Internet, the answer to this question is “hell no”. In fact, the maximum amount of weight that even modern vehicles seem able to carry is closer to 5000 pounds – about 35,000 pounds short of being able to lug around the Jughead.

 

So with less than six hours until the Incident happening, this would mean that the Jugheaders would need to somehow roll it miles and miles away to get to the Swan Station. I don’t buy it. Aside from a potential intervention by Smokey (turning into a giant hand and carrying the Jughead to the Swan Station), I don’t see the Jughead storyline factoring into the Incident – the timeline and locations just don’t seem to add up. Yet, all signs are pointing to the Jughead somehow being involved. Long story short, I think “The Incident’ is going to be exactly what we always thought it would be – digging at the Swan Station which puts into motion the events that crash Oceanic 815 (as Faraday laid out for us two weeks ago).

 

This isn’t to say that the Jughead won’t be involved in some huge tragedy on the Island, bringing our Survivors back to 2008, or making it appear as though they all died… it’s just I can’t figure out how. Let’s move on to some easier concepts before wrapping this week up…

- It appears as though this week moved Radzinsky from the role of “crazy paranoid guy obsessed with the Swan Station” to “crazy paranoid guy obsessed with the Swan Station who has usurped control of Dharma”. It looks like he is heading down the path of becoming obsessed with the mission of Dharma – which probably explains how he himself ended up being the guy locked inside the Swan Station… which may have saved him from the Purge, but also drove him crazy as he became one of the last people on the Island, shackled to the Swan Station to save the world, unable to do anything else with his life or his hopes and dreams for the goals of Dharma.

- As much as I would love for Sawyer, Juliet, and Kate to leave the Island – thus saving them from whatever bad news is about to happen on the Island, ensuring their safety and having their stories end as the three of them becoming millionaires in the 1970’s through the stock market and sports gambling, there’s no chance that three characters are major as they are will be sitting out the two hour season finale. Had Kate not entered the picture, I would have an easier time believing it – but with her around, it’s only a matter of time before she convinces Sawyer to go back to the Island and try to stop Jack from trying to change the past. I still have no idea about how they’re going to do this – since we know the submarine does end up going to the Real World with the rest of its passengers, but it’s going to happen… and it’s probably going to happen early on in the season finale to allow time for these three to join up with one of the other groups on the Island.

- Jack is an asshole.

KATE: And what about us? We just... go on living our life because we've never met?

JACK: All the misery that we've been through... we'd just wipe it clean. Never happened.

KATE: It was not all misery.

JACK: [Sighs] Enough of it was.

 

With the writers giving him lines like these, I can’t help but wonder if next season is going to feature a calm and confident Locke leading our Survivors against a crazy talking Jack, who has given up on life (and by “life”, I mean “ever hooking up with Kate again” – which are kinda the same thing).

 

- It looks like Eloise is pregnant with Faraday in 1977 (Widmore referenced “her condition” when she talked about taking Jack and Kate to the Jughead). This means that Faraday graduated from Oxford University when he was 17 years old (max). That’s pushing the timeline, but I guess I’ll allow it. I mean, if Doogie Howser can do it, Faraday could do it.

 

 

…and with that, I think I’m done for this week. As you can see, I’m probably as clueless about where Lost is going right now as I’ve ever been – which is somewhat surprising. You would think that as Lost winds down to its inevitable conclusion, things would become more obvious and we would have a feel for where the story was heading – even if we didn’t know the details. But as I sit right now, with two hours left in this season, I really have no idea. This should make this week’s Season Finale one of the more exciting – and potentially shocking – of the entire series.

 

I can’t wait!

 

http://facethewoods.com/lost/index.php?topic=456.0

"Follow the Leader" Instant Reactions

Brian's One Word Review of the Scrubs Series Finale: Perfection.

If you know me, you know that I'm famous for overhyping things to the point where it's nearly impossible for the actual event to live up to what I've got planned out in my head. Then an hour of television like the final episode of Scrubs comes along and proves that it is possible to exceed even my highest expectations and leave me speechless, with simulataneous feelings of happiness, hopefulness, sadness, and appreciation.

The biggest compliment I can give to any show is that there is nothing I could think of that would improve upon it. But I can honestly say that I can't think of a single way to improve the final episode of Scrubs. It hit on all the right beats - had the trademark goofy humor, plenty of JD-Turk guy love, numerous callbacks to the entire series, and ended with a five minute montage of not what happens - but what could happen... and that's what made Scrubs so great. On almost any other show, that ending montage would have come across as super cheesy and overly sappy - yet on Scrubs it's been earned over the course of eight long years... and in the end, it's nothing more than what JD hopes will come... and that thought that we can "have it all" and someday get a "happy ending" is something that is nothing more than honest - and gives us all reason to continue dreaming and working towards achieving it.

In the end, Scrubs will probably go down as one of my five favorite television series of all-time. But its series finale will probably go down as the greatest ending to a television series I have ever seen.

Well done, Scrubs. Well done. 

I miss you already.

Brian's One Word "Follow the Leader" Review: What?!?

Locke is going to attempt to kill Jacob? Does that mean that when Jacob said "help me" to Locke a few seasons back, that meant "put me out of my misery and free me from this Island?" That would certainly open the door for Locke to become the new "pope of the Island" - or is that role already filled by Christian Shephard.

Are Alpert and Ben in cahoots? Did you see the look the two shared when discussing how Locke might "be a problem"? Up until this point, I always assumed Alpert was a "good guy" - or at least an honest guy who was always working for the Island's best interests. He wasn't scheming against anyone, manipulating people, or brutally killing anyone. He was just doing what Jacob told him... right? Or does Alpert's "position" not allow him to communicate with Jacob either? Remember all my theories a few weeks back about how Alpert would selectively choose the best leader for the Others based on their current situation on the Island? Perhaps he really doesn't have any connection with Jacob either, and is simply making these decisions from a practical perspective rather than a spiritual "Island choosing" perspective.

I could not believe that the submarine containing Juliet, Sawyer, and Kate actually took off and dove underwater. Now what? We know that the women and children on that submarine end up back in the real world (see: Lara Chang and Miles, Charlotte and her mom), but I also refuse to believe that three main Lost characters are absent from the season finale. So does this mean the sub will make a pit stop before leaving the Island for good, where Juliet, Sawyer, and Kate will jump off? I'm extremely curious to see how the writers reconcile this storyline without it feeling cheap - because it definitely feels like they've written themselves in a corner with this one!

I would love nothing more than to have a Lost Sitcom Spinoff featuring Sawyer and Juliet living happily ever after in the 1970s, gambling on sporting events and making shrewd stock market decisions. It's the ultimate con for Sawyer! Stupid Kate had to come along and ruin everything. I swear, if Juliet or Sawyer end up dead this season (which is my greatest fear), I am totally going to blame Kate for it.

So the Jughead is actually under the Barracks in the "Tunnels", not the "Temple" - which makes a lot more sense... and it happens to be sitting directly underneath the Barracks. I'm guessing when Alpert said they were going to get it out "the same way they got it in", that means there is some type of ramp that goes straight through the heart of Dharmaville - which should make for a very interesting transportation of the Jughead next week - and how do they intend to transport it miles away to the Swan Hatch? And how are they going to detonate it without killing everyone? Again, very curious to see how this all plays out.

But in the end, they're not going to succeed, right? Like, even if they use the Jughead in the Swan Station, that's going to be what the "Incident" is, right? I'm feeling that this will somehow lead to a Universe "Course Correction" that sends our Survivors back to 2008 - and this will explain Alpert's comment that he saw all of our 1977 Survivors "die". Maybe they vanished before his eyes... although after living through the effects of time travel twice now, one would think he would have caught on and understood what really happened.

As predicted, this "Alpert-centric" episode really didn't reveal too much about him (sadly), but it definitely moved all the characters and storylines in place for next week's surely epic season finale. Even though I've been calling for this season to end with the Incident and sending our Survivors back to 2008 since mid-season, I honestly have no idea where the writers are going from here with the story - which is pretty fun and exciting.

Okay - that's enough yammering. Blame it on Scrubs, it's got me all introspective tonight! Discuss Lost and mourn / celebrate Scrubs below!

http://facethewoods.com/lost/index.php?topic=455.0

Lost - "Follow the Leader"

Episode Title: "Follow the Leader"

 

Brian's Deeper Meaning Guess: Say hello to the most exciting hyphenated word I've ever written about Lost.... ALPERT-CENTRIC. Aside from "Jacob-centric" or "Vincent-centric", it's probably the most exciting character-centric episode any true Lost fan can imagine. It's easy to get your hopes up and think that this will be the episode that answers all our questions, reveals the true nature of Alpert, and explains what his relationship with Jacob and the Island really are - but keep in mind that we have currently spent almost an entire season with Dharma and yet we still know very little about them or their experiments (kinda like how we spent half of Season Three with the Others but still know very little about them). Those tricky writers have a way of making it seem like it's the perfect opportunity for some reveals only to tip-toe around them, raise new questions, and leave us with just as many questions as when we started. But I rant. Based on this information, the episode title takes on a number of different meanings.

 

At a literal level, "follow the leader" could simply mean that Jack and Kate are going to follow Alpert. Last week ended with Faraday asking about the location of the Jughead - so it seems logical that if Jack and Kate are going to continue his "mission" (more on this later), they'll need Ellie or Alpert to lead them to the Jughead. Based on the episode preview, it sure does look like the place Alpert is going to lead them is right into the Temple...

 

 

 

Ever since we were introduced to the Jughead, the overwhelmingly popular theory about where the Others buried it was inside the Swan Hatch (since it had thick walls of concrete a la Chernobyl). The theory goes that Dharma, in their effort to build the Swan Hatch, accidentally got too close to the Jughead, which caused the Incident, made it necessary for the 108 Button, which led to Oceanic 815 crashing, etc, etc. However, that sure does look like a big veiled container sitting inside the Temple in the episode preview, doesn't it? If this is the case, it makes one wonder, why in the world would the Others put a nuclear bomb inside what appears to be their most "sacred" place on the Island? Wouldn't you dig a big hole and dump it in a crappy corner of the Island? I suppose the blast might be big enough to destroy the whole Island no matter where it was stored - but it seems more likely that someone could bump into it / knock it over / spill a drink on it sitting inside the Temple - where we know at least SOME others (like Alpert) visit once in a while, as opposed to burying it deep underground where no one would encounter it (unless they were digging a huge Dharma Swan Station there).

 

My best guess is that the Others didn't really have ready access to the "lead and concrete" Faraday told Young Ellie Hawking to use in sealing up the Jughead. Maybe the closest thing they had was the thick stone walls and deep cavern of the Temple, so they made the best of what's around. Or they were just no good lazy hippie slackers who thought it would be way easier to use a pre-existing hole than to dig a new one.

 

Back to the episode title. Even though this week is Alpert-centric (I can't even write that without getting excited!), "Follow the Leader" raises the question of "who is the actual leader of the Others"? Up until this point, we've all been under the assumption that although he's seemingly all-knowing and non-aging, Alpert is NOT the leader of the Others. He's the guy that finds the Dali Llama, not the Dali Llama himself. Which brings us to the "deeper" meaning portion of the program.

 

Just for fun, I Googled the phrase "follow the leader", which of course led me to a Wikipedia entry about it. This caught my eye:

 

"Follow the Leader (Game) - First a leader or "head of the line" is chosen, then the children all line up behind the leader. The leader then moves around and all the children have to mimic the leader's actions. Any players who mess up or do not do what the leader does are out of the game. The last person standing other than the leader is now the new leader."

 

Up until this point, most assume that the "leader of the Island" has been predestined and chosen by the Island well in advance. They're a "chosen one" rather than someone who won an election or overcame some challenge. But in the game Follow the Leader, the leader is chosen by being the last one standing - and one becomes the last one standing by following "the rules" when all others stop doing so. It's easy to see how this could relate to the Others and the Island. In this case, "the rules" are doing what is best for the Island - or being what the Island needs at the time. So in 1970s, when the Island needed a strong presence to deal with Dharma, Charles Widmore was the leader. In the 1990s, when the Island wanted to rid itself of Dharma once and for all, Benjamin Linus was the leader. And in the 2000s, when the Island needed its people to return to their spiritual roots, John Locke was the leader. Perhaps Richard Alpert's job is to keep around those Others who could someday become perspective leaders, and then wait for all but one to eliminate themselves from contention through falling out of line with the aims of the Island.

 

How about that for a far-fetched way to find deeper meaning with the episode title?

 

In the end, there are a number of ways to apply this episode title to the episode.

 

Over the past few weeks, we have seen there is at least some sort of rift between Alpert and Widmore. This week may feature the Others needing to decide which leader they are going to follow. How about this for a shocking twist? What if Alpert suggests using the Temple to heal Faraday, while Widmore refuses to do so... and this is what leads to him dying for good? That would certainly go a long way in explaining what could drive Hot Eloise Hawking and Baby Faraday off-Island, and explain why they seemingly cut off contact with him. Think about it – Kate was one of two Survivors who saw the Others promise to magically “heal” Young Ben. Upon seeing Daniel being shot, wouldn’t her first reaction be “no big deal, let’s get Alpert to take his innocence and it’ll all work out”? Having Widmore step in and refuse to allow it would make the audience absolutely hate him – which just makes it even more interesting if his character steps in as a “hero” to help save the Island next season. Keep blurring that line between good and evil, Lost writers!

 

On the other hand, it seems as though there's some debate between Jack and Kate on how to deal with Faraday's plan to change the past - and with it, their future. We may see the other Survivors meet up with Jack and Kate and need to help decide what to do - which leader to follow. In 2008, we've also got two leadership titles up for grabs. It seems that we're long overdue for Locke and Ben to reunite with the Others, which may finally determine if Locke is their true new leader, or if it was all a trick as Ben returns to the role. Lastly, we might even get a hint at who the leader of the Shadow of the Statue is. Is it a character we already know? A new character? Or are they actually not a third party, but just a part of some existing group on the Island?

 

As you can see, there are a number of battles for leadership on the Island - and even more people who are going to have to choose who to follow.

 

...or maybe Hurley will just be listening to a Korn CD in one scene, and that's the explanation for the episode title.

 

Guest Stars: Nestor Carbonell as Richard Alpert, Francois Chau as Dr. Pierre Chang, Doug Hutchison as Horace Goodspeed, Patrick Fischler as Phil, Eric Lange as Radzinsky, David S. Lee as younger Charles Widmore, Alice Evans as younger Eloise Hawking, Leslie Ishii as Lara, Sebastian Siegel as Erik, Kevin Chapman as Mitch, Elisabeth Blake as Vanessa, William Makozak as Captain Bird, Victoria Goring as mother and Maya Henssens as young girl.

 

Guest Star Breakdown: We’ve got the usual 1977 suspects again this week – Alpert (the star of the week), Mr. and Mrs. Chang (maybe featuring their “breakup” as Chang forces her off-Island?) Goodspeed, Phil, Radzinsky (holding our Survivors hostage), and Young Widmore, Hot Eloise, and Erik (for the Others portion of the storyline). The only other guest stars are “Mitch”, “Vanessa”, “Captain Bird”, “Mother”, and “Young Girl” – none of those names mean a lot to me, and Google Image Searching their names doesn’t reveal any huge giveaways (like looking like any other characters).

 

Worst Guest Star Breakdown ever!

 

Episode Description: Jack and Kate find themselves at odds over the direction to take to save their fellow island survivors, Locke further solidifies his stance as leader of "The Others," and Sawyer and Juliet come under scrutiny from the Dharma Initiative.

 

Episode Breakdown: Not a lot of huge reveals here either. It looks like Jack and Kate will indeed take opposing sides in the argument over whether to try and carry out Faraday’s plan to change the past – but the funny thing here is that the preview makes it look like Jack will be the one wanting to change the past and undo everything that happened over the past four years. Really? Isn’t this the same character who was a believer in a laissez-faire style of things like three episodes ago? Wanting to sit back and let the Island do whatever is supposed to happen? Now he’s trying to mess with the space-time continuum to undo the past, even though that past included repeated hookups with Hot Kate? It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Granted, Jack’s life was sucking pretty hard before he came back to the Island – but it wasn’t exactly awesome back in 2004 either. I’m curious to see how he rationalizes his decision on this one.

 

In the end, again – based on the episode preview, it looks like Jack either wins the argument, or just marches off on his own and decides he’s going to do it regardless of if Kate agrees or not. Oh Jack, how I’ve missed your strong but often illogical leadership skills!

 

The more interesting part of the preview for me is the reference to Locke solidifying his stance as “leader of the Others”. Will they welcome him back with open arms? Will they freak out when they see that Ben is with them? Will they have any idea how to get our other Survivors back to 2008? Will they know about the forthcoming Shadow of the Statue threat? Will we learn what they’ve been doing for the past three years? There’s a lot of questions – and remember, we have absolutely no idea what has been going on with the Others from 2005 (when our Survivors started skipping) to 2008 (when Ajira 316 crashed on Alcatraz).

 

Lastly, we have Sawyer and Juliet being captured by the Others. Their situation would look pretty grim – and they would be almost wholly relying on the other Survivors to rescue them and get them back to 2008 – if it weren’t for the fact that most members of Dharma seem to be bumbling idiots. Honestly, where are all the smart scientists hiding that are carrying out these super advanced experiments on the Island? Why do they surround themselves with pretty much anyone they can find willing to hop on a mysterious submarine and end up on a mysterious Island? Couldn’t they be pitching some of the super benefits of the Island to get the best and the brightest?

 

As I said before, if this season marks the end of our insight into Dharma, I’m leaving it disappointed. I wanted more explanation about what drew them to the Island, what each station was used for, what they were hoping to accomplish with their experiments, and what their end-game goal was. Instead, we got to know characters like Phil, Radzinsky, and Goodspeed a little better – but none of them really gave us any worthwhile information.

 

Long story short – expect Sawyer and Juliet to be freed before episode end.

 

…and that’s all I’ve got. Logic tells us that this week should be an insanely awesome episode (did I mention ALPERT-CENTRIC?!?), but I’ll try not to overhype it.

 

One last note – right before Lost, ABC will be airing what might as well be the Series Finale of “Scrubs”, one of the great underrated shows of this era. While there is a chance that ABC will spin it off with different characters next season, this is the end of Scrubs as we know it. Thinking back over the past eight years, I have nothing but fond memories of this quirky show. Although some of the seasons have been uneven – each has brought at least one or two episodes that had me laughing out loud, tearing up, and pondering the nature of life and death. In the end, there has perhaps never been a better series that brought together the fundamentals of comedy and drama than Scrubs. It will sorely be missed. You owe it to yourself to tune into Lost an hour early tomorrow night to catch Scrubs as an appetizer – but fair warning, you may find yourself so choked up once it is over, it may be hard to focus on Lost.

 

I know I will.

 

In Summary:

 

The Saddest Moment Ever:

 

Will Be Played at My Funeral:

 

Tear.

 

http://facethewoods.com/lost/index.php?board=56.0

"The Variable" Analysis

This is a tough one.

 

This week’s Faraday-centric outing not only crammed a lot of story into one hour… but it was complex, time-travel-y story that raised a lot more questions than answers it provided. So as I start this Blog Post, I’m really not sure how it’s going to end up. I certainly don’t have any “good answers” to those questions right now – but maybe through typing it all out, we’ll get somewhere. Keep your fingers crossed.

Words. In thinking about the episode, I keep coming back to two lines of dialogue that somewhat summarize all the heavy stuff to discuss from “The Variable”:

 

MILES: Hey! Hey! Hey! Are you out of your mind? What are you doing?

FARADAY: I'm just making sure that your father does what he's supposed to do.

MILES: And what's that?

FARADAY: You'll see.

 

MS. HAWKING: I don't know. For the first time in a long time, I don't know what's going to happen next.

 

Both lines seem to indicate one very important central theme of the episode - that characters know – or knew - precisely what events were going to happen. Given the time-jumping nature of this season, initially this seems to make perfect sense… until you start to think about it.

 

Let’s start with Daniel Faraday. Ever since he first arrived on the Island, Faraday seemed to know a lot more than he was letting on. Last season, he knew about the “funky time” on the Island, the potential need for “Constants”, the potential danger of the Tempest Station, and about the Orchid. In a deleted scene from last season, Miles says that the Journal contains “crazy equations and research on the Dharma Initiative”. This week, Daniel took it one step further by seemingly knowing exactly what was going to happen before it happened, stating Chang was “right on time” when he showed up at the Orchid.

 

But where would this information come from? Let’s revisit our “Daniel Faraday Perspective Timeline” from the episode preview, adding a few important notes:

 

1970ish - Daniel Faraday is born to Eloise Hawking and Charles Widmore (somewhere)

1994 – Faraday graduates from Oxford and receives a BLANK JOURNAL from his mother; Widmore begins funding Faraday's research

1996 - Faraday meets Desmond, who provides him with settings for his experiment

September 2004 - Faraday cries when seeing the Oceanic 815 wreckage

December 2004 - Faraday arrives on-Island from the Freighter with a JOURNAL FULL OF DHARMA / ISLAND INFORMATION

1954 - Faraday meets Eloise and the Others, helps them deal with the Jughead

1974 - Faraday leaves the Island

1974-1977 - Faraday spends three years off-Island, working with Dharma

1977 - Faraday returns to the Island, attempts to change the past by preventing the Incident, and is killed by his mother, Eloise Hawking

 

The first question is – how did Faraday acquire so much information about Dharma and the Island between 1994 (when he first received the Journal) and 2004 (when he first arrived on the Island).

 

My hopes before the episode was that 1977 Faraday would “mail” his journal to 1994-2004 Faraday, complete with all the information he learned during his time with Dharma and on-Island. But seeing that he now has the journal back on-Island… and might be dead, that scenario seems less likely (since I can’t imagine any other character thinking about doing such a thing).

 

Unfortunately, there’s a pretty slim list of people and places that Faraday could have gained this information on his own between 1994 and 2004. Knowledge about the Island could come from anyone who had ever been there – but to also have the knowledge about the Dharma stations would seem like it would need to come from someone inside the Dharma Initiative – most of whom died well before 1994 in the Purge.

 

Once again, I’ll bring up this Pierre Chang video from this past summer:

 

 

Pierre Chang filmed the video in 1977 – and was sending it “roughly 30 years in the future”, which would be 2007 – but could be 2004ish. There could be a chance that Faraday was the person who received this video – along with perhaps some other information that is edited out of that video or sent in another one. Chang seems to be one of the few people inside Dharma who actually knows what is going on – and one of the few people who could provide this information for Faraday to jot down in his journal.

 

This would also provide an explanation to Faraday’s comment to Miles that he’s “making sure his father does what he is supposed to do”. Keep in mind that it sounds like Miles is the person filming the video and the pieces of the puzzle start to fall together. “You’ll see” Faraday tells Miles. He certainly will – when he’s a part of the making of the video.

 

It’s unlikely that Chang would be able to tell Faraday EVERYTHING he needs to know about the Island via some video – but he could direct him to the location of some Dharma records about the Island: old video from surveillance cameras, the documentation of the Dharma Scientists – from there, Faraday could pull out relevant pieces of information to include in his journal.

It’s a stretch, and there are definitely holes in the theory (how did he learn his mother was an Other if his intel came from Dharma? How did he learn about Desmond and the button if his intel came from 1977?) – but I can’t think of any other way that Faraday could acquire the information he seems to have.

 

But if this is the case, and Faraday did have a journal of “everything that happened on the Island”, that might explain why he would suddenly return to the Island after he saw the faxed picture of the Oceanic Six back in 1977. After having his mother tell him all his life about “destiny” and some variation of “whatever happened, happened”, he suddenly sees our Survivors in 1977 – something that perhaps wasn’t included in any of his notes and information about the Island. This might have given him the idea that it IS possible to change the past, and sets him on the mission to return to the Island and prevent Charlotte from dying… and our Survivors crashing on the Island in the first place by preventing the Incident (which really sets EVERYTHING in motion).

 

Unfortunately, it looks like mom was right all along.

 

Eloise Hawking. Let’s look at a timeline from Eloise Hawking’s Perspective:

 

1954 – Eloise meets her son but doesn’t know it, helps her deal with the Jughead

1977 – Eloise kills her son but doesn’t know it until it’s too late

1980ish – Eloise tells Faraday that he doesn’t have time for distractions like music

1994 – Eloise tells Faraday that he doesn’t have time for distractions like women

1996 – Eloise tells Desmond that he will end up on-Island pushing the button

2004 – Eloise convinces Faraday to go to the Island to “make her proud”

2008 – Eloise helps Ben and the Oceanic Six get back to the Island

2008 – Eloise apologizes to Penny and tells her that for the first time, she doesn’t know what is going to happen

Two major takeaways here:

1. Eloise Hawking knew that she was going to eventually kill her son, but didn’t do anything to prevent it. In fact, she seemed to do the exact opposite - ensuring that Daniel stayed on the path that would result in his eventual death.
2. Eloise Hawking knew all the events up until 2008, but that was the end of the line for her information.

 

Why 2008?

 

The logical explanation would be that Hawking received all her information from one of our Survivors in 1977 – who would know what happened all the way up until they went back to the Island in early 2008, but no farther (since they didn’t live it yet). This means that in the scenes to follow Faraday’s death (maybe) in 1977, either Kate, Jack, Hurley, or Sayid are going to sit down and tell her everything they know.

 

I must say, I’m a lot happier with this explanation for how Eloise knows so much than I am with how Faraday knew so much.

 

But the question is – when did Eloise suddenly become such a believer in “whatever happened, happened” that she would knowingly send her son to his death, as a necessary sacrifice for the Island? One would think that once our Survivors proved that Daniel was her son, her initial reaction would be to try and prevent it – and I think she did, at least for a while. I think the scene we saw of a tearful Ms. Hawking telling her young son that he needs to focus on science and math instead of music represented when she realized what needed to be done.

 

But where did this information come from? Who determined that it was necessary for Ms. Hawking to become the “gatekeeper” for the space-time continuum to ensure that everyone does everything that they are supposed to do? Why would this be necessary if you can’t change the universe anyways?

 

I can’t believe I’m going to say this – but it seems like the logical end to this line of questioning is that you can change the past.

 

Ugh. I can’t believe I went there.

 

But if you think about it, what if something happened – like Jack changing the past – and this caused some “Incident” to happen where they universe went wacky with course correction, resulting in all sorts of weird stuff happening (like our 1977 Survivors “skipping” back to 2008) – and upon witnessing it, the Others realized that in order to save the world, they would have to make sure that everything happened as it originally did – and there would be no other necessary “course corrections”. This would explain why Ms. Hawking would spend her life setting her son on the path to death (a necessary sacrifice), convince Desmond to end up on the Island, and generally convince everyone that “whatever happened, happened”, while still working so hard at ensuring things happen to prove that’s true.

 

I’m really not happy about this conclusion, but right now it’s the theory that makes the most sense. 

I still refuse to believe that when our 1977 Survivors change the past, it’s going to result in them magically skipping to 2004 with Oceanic 815 landing in Los Angeles as planned. Rather, I think there’s going to be a good dose of irony here as Jack’s actions to prevent the Incident are actually going to be the ones that lead to the Incident – and even though they might skip back to 2008, it’s going to be the same ol’ 2008 that Locke and the Ajira 316ers are living in. Nothing will change, people will not come back from the dead, and it’s not going to be all sunshine and puppies. This will give Jack his “reason” for needing to go back to 1977 (leaving Hurley as the only one whose purpose we don’t know – but smart money is on it dealing with the Numbers, right?).

Wait, maybe it's not that you can actually change the past - but if you get CLOSE to doing it, it causes one of these bad news universe course corrections which will be "The Incident" and send our Survivors back to 2008. I like that option better.

 

Daniel Faraday. The only major discussion point left is the fate of Daniel Faraday. Is he really dead? The storyline with Daniel and Eloise would lose a lot of “emotional punch” if he somehow survived – but it would also soften Eloise’s character a bit, since it would mean she only sent her son on a path to ALMOST DIE, not all the way die. Based on her reaction to Charles Widmore at the end of the episode and Faraday’s speech to Jack about “this is our present, any one of us can die”, I think his death sticks – which leaves only Miles and Frank as the surviving members of the Freighter. Why couldn’t Alpert carry him to the Temple to save him a la Young Ben? Is he too heavy? Did they already use their one “bring a guy back from the dead” card for the year? Or is it that Young Ben was just really sick – not actually dead – and the Island only heals people – doesn’t bring them back from the dead?

 

That last one seems like the most logical, so I’ll roll with that for now.

 

Wrap Up. Hmmm – that was a surprisingly short analysis for such a complicated episode – I guess because it really centered around two major themes, and there aren’t any easy answers for either of them. A few minor wrap up items and I’ll get you guys on your way:

• It’s strange that Eloise Hawking is the same person who gave the “then God help us all” speech to Ben about needing to get EVERYONE back to the Island (which we were reminded of in the “previously on Lost” that started this week’s episode), when it’s clear she would know perfectly well who ended up back on the Island and who didn’t since she ran into them in 1977.
• Most poignant line of the episode? Either Ms. Hawking telling Young Daniel “if only you could” when he says he can “make time” – or Faraday telling Young Charlotte that “I didn’t think I could change things – but maybe I can” – or Faraday asking his mother if going to the Island will make her proud of him. Poor Daniel Faraday. Right up there with Locke in terms of “guys who have been screwed over their whole life”.

• Initially the inclusion of Penny and Desmond in this episode seemed a little out of place… unless it’s setting the stage for their return to the Island. Desmond told her “I’ll never leave you again”, which means that not only will Desmond be returning to the Island – but Penny will too.
• I’m a little worried about Sawyer and Juliet. They’ve both had their “happy ending” living together in Dharma for three years (the Joss Whedon kiss of death), and their lines about “time to go” and “you still got my back”, coupled with the camera lingering a little longer on their sad acceptance that their happy lives were over makes me worry about their chances of making it back to 2008 alive. And that thought worries me more than any other character currently on the DeathWatch 2009 List.

 

Okay – that’s all for this episode. I’m not entirely in love with this analysis, so if you’ve got any better ideas, please let me know so I can pass them off as my own and continue to look smart in front of my peers and strangers on the Internet. Thanks!

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