There can be only one! HIGHLANDER!!!

Episode recap in 200 words (give me a break, it was movie-length!): Flash-sideways: Jack fixed Locke causing him to remember. Claire had Aaron, causing her and Kate to remember. Charlie sees Claire again causing him to remember more. Sawyer and Juliet meeting help them both remember. They all go to a church. Jack joins, finds his dad’s casket, and remembers. They all reunite and then pass on together. Island: Smocke finds Desmond, forces him to follow to the Light cave, where they meet up with Jack and co. Jack and Smocke lower Desmond into the cave, he unplugs the golden bath, causing the island to shake. Smocke goes off to his boat, Jack follows, they fight. Kate shoots Smocke after he stabs Jack. Jack pushes him off cliff into rocks and returns to cave. Sawyer and Kate take boat to Hydra where they hop aboard ascending plane with Lapidus, Miles, and Richard. Hurley and Ben return with Jack to cave and lower him in. He helps Desmond and plugs the pool again, saving the island. Hurley and Ben pull Des up and Jack gets spit up on the other side. Hurley is the new Jacob and asks Ben to be his #2. Jack stumbles into jungle and closes his eye to die.

Here’s the thing about the last episode. It does not matter whether you liked it, hated it, understood it, watched it. It’s over. The creators are no longer listening to audience thinks (although I am not sure they ever really did). The end is the end. “What happened, happened.” So we just have to take it as it was and figure out what it all means to you.

This is what LOST means to me.

LOVE. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. LOVE cemented these people together in life and in death. LOVE made them better people. LOVE reminded them of their past lives (that’s right, my theory was spot on! Sorry, it’s just that rarely do my LOST theories come to fruition so I like to relish it when they do.). Let’s recap this episode’s remembrances alone.

• Ji-Yeon -> Sun and Jin
• Regaining ability to walk -> Locke
• Shannon -> Sayid
• Sayid -> Shannon
• Aaron -> Kate and Claire
• Claire -> Charlie
• Juliet -> Sawyer
• Sawyer -> Juliet
• Kate + Christian -> Jack

This is my Kissy Face.

The love-birds ones make sense. Sayid loves Shannon, Charlie loves Claire, Jack loves Kate, etcetera, so the (intimate) touches between them spurred their memories. Similarly, Jin and Sun love their daughter Ji-Yeon and Kate and Claire both love Aaron, causing them to remember. As explained before, Jack finally came to love his father, inciting his memories. And the weirdest one, but also a really important one, Locke loved his ability to walk, so being able to do so again allowed him to remember his island life. Everything every character loves was on the island. As Christian said, “The most important part of your life was the time that you spent with these people.” Also, it was their love for each other that allowed the creation of the flash-sideways world. “This is a place that you all made together so you could find one another,” Christian tells Jack, but more importantly, the audience as well. So it is about LOVE and telling a love story, but it’s also about the power of love (cue Huey Lewis and the News song).

But LOST is also about interconnectedness and collective consciousness. The group needed each other (the ones they LOVED) to remember, and then when they remembered, they realized where they were (this in-between world they had created), and so they gathered at the church to collectively let go (because nothing else matters when you are surrounded by the ones you LOVE). It is important to realize how their lives would overlap no matter what. Some website has a character web that shows all the link between the characters. It is astounding how all of their lives intersected. Remember how exciting that was, first season, to learn about how the characters were connected? Well in the final episode we got to learn what such connections can do. I think connections like those exist in real life as well. Not to such a degree, but, for example, do you ever think of how many people you pass on the highway that you know? I passed my best friend Alexis on I-95 in D.C. last year when neither of us knew the other was in the area. Random overlaps and connections occur like that everyday. Think of those random people you friend on facebook and realize you have a completely obscure mutual friend. We are all connected. And because we are all connected, we can do powerful things together – like form a post-death, pre-afterlife world to reunite.

"This is my punchy face!"

The show is also about letting go. Just like Rose told Jack in this season’s premiere. Maybe the flash-sideways world was just a test for the characters to go through to let go before moving on. Maybe the island was. Either way, letting go is an important part of death in the cannon of LOST, but the show also showed us how important it is in life as well. Holding on can keep us from many great things in life and trap us in unhappiness. Letting go frees us. A lesson I myself am trying to deal with in the wake of graduating from the most magical place on earth.

And, of course, it’s about fate. What we are meant to do. What we can control and what we can’t (and letting go of that which we can’t). Life is made up of what happens to us and what we make happen.

Finally, LOST is about faith. It has been since the beginning. Locke was all about faith when he was on the island. And in the end, Jack’s faith in the island, in fate, in his purpose, led him to sacrifice his life for his friends and the island. And the viewers’ faith in the show and its creators kept us watching for six crazy seasons.

What a bold wardrobe choice for a statue of Jack

Speaking of faith and sacrifice, though, could the Christian imagery be more present? How many times did they focus on that Jesus statue? And Kate’s comment about Christian’s name! For those not as well-versed in the Bible (I am not claiming to be an expert, but my dad is a pastor and I do always rock the Bible category on Super Nintendo Jeopardy), let’s consider the biblical imagery in the episode. For one, Jack was clearly playing a Jesus part in this episode in particular. He was stabbed in the side, just as Jesus was as he hung on the cross. He also went into a cave (tomb) and rose again later. And the reason he descended into the cave was to save his friends. Sounds a lot like a certain Savior I know!

The Richmond Times-Dispatch ran an article in which writer Melissa Ruggieri said the show is about good versus evil. I thoroughly disagree, mostly as a result to my conversation with William Mapother, the actor who played Ethan Rom. It is not a battle of good versus evil. Was MIB really evil? He just wanted to get off the island. He did not really kill many more people than, say, Sayid. Yet we don’t call Sayid evil, he’s the tortured torturer. Everyone on the show has a little bit of good and evil in them. So it becomes more about what actions are good and what actions are evil. Hurley was portrayed as good. He killed some Others, but it was to save his friends. Writers depicted Michael as evil because he killed his friends, but it was to save his son. Do the ends justify the means? To Rose, Hurley is a great hero for saving Bernard’s life, but to Ryan Pryce’s significant other, Hurley is evil for killing his/her loved one. Good and evil are subjective, and therefore, in the end, relative. It’s about good and evil and exploring both possibilities within our own souls.

That is what LOST is to me. Here’s what the finale episode in particular meant to me.

The flash-sideways are, to me, like a dream. They can last as short as five seconds yet feel like an eternity. Juliet experienced her flash-sideways in an instant when she was dying in the hole with Sawyer. Sawyer caught up to her later when he died. But it happened at the same moment because time after death is not as we understand it in life. As Christian said, “There is no now, here.” Time is relative. Time can pass differently after death. I think they are also a way for the audience to understand what the characters’ lives could have been like without the island or the interference from Jacob. A life with free will (as Hurley told Sayid, “That’s your choice.”). The castaways felt trapped by fate and Jacob on the island and before getting there, but in the flash-sideways, they are freed from not only time but also determinism, so they can make their own choices and write their own lives.

Pulled from the Temple of Doom set.

Let’s revisit for a moment Jacob’s wine bottle explanation of the island to Richard: “Think of this wine as what you keep calling hell. There’s many other names for it too: malevolence, evil, darkness. And here it is, swirling around in the bottle, unable to get out because if it did, it would spread. The cork is this island and it’s the only thing keeping the darkness where it belongs.” I found it interesting that the thing keeping the LIGHT in the cave was a cork-like plug. We never got to see what would happen if the light fully escaped, besides sink the island presumably. I am not sure what it all means but I find it very interesting. Could the light be the darkness/malevolence/evil Jacob refers to?

I think I figured out why Ben did not enter the church. Christian said they were in the flash-sideways world to let go and move on. Because of Ben’s past misdeeds, he was not ready to let go and move on. He himself said, “I have some things I still need to work out. I think I’ll stay here a while.” He still felt the guilt of his actions and the blood on his hands – he only got an absolution from one of his victims, not the rest). He actually never remembered being on the island, he just remembered being beat up by Des after frozen-donkey-wheeling off the island. I think he might join the others when he is ready to let go. He might even pass with Alex or someone of equal importance in his life. He probably also did not go with the group because he was always on the outside (actually not fully accepted by the people but also, cinematically, set apart from the group in many shots). Either way, now was not the time for Ben.

CANDY BARS!!!

How awesome was the Sawyer and Juliet scene? “It worked” was referring to a snack machine, not the bomb! (Sometimes it’s not all about the bomb, Julia – sorry, inside joke!). It just reinforces how everyone dissects the meanings behind every little thing on LOST – sometimes too far. I took her statement to mean that the bomb did reset time, but not immediately. I was wrong. It just meant that they got Sawyer’s candy bar out. How completely different.

Along those lines, I think an important part of the show is reflected in Jacob’s line from the penultimate episode: “It’s just a line of chalk in a cave.” I think a lot of the things we viewers scrutinize are important, but a lot of other things are just arbitrary. The characters themselves give some of the things in the show undue importance. For example, I personally think the island drinking ritual is bullshit. Jack and Hurley did not have to drink island water to become like Jacob and guard the island. But in drinking the water, they felt that some profound power had washed over them so they were now prepared to guard the Island Light. I came to this conclusion based on the fact that Jack failed to bless the water for Hurley like Jacob had for him and fake mom Allison Janney had done for Jacob. I think the blessing made them all think it was a legit ceremony but in actuality, it was just a heart-shaped watch (Wizard of Oz). It’s all about mind over matter (a theme explored in season 4 when Hurley was able to make Jacob’s shack disappear).

I'll have a Smocke on the Rocks, please.

I had a hard time deciding what would trigger Jack’s memory. Obviously Kate came to mind, especially after their cliff-side kiss. And she did, but not completely. My friend Pete and I were throwing around all sort of ideas via text about what Jack LOVES (leading people, fixing people, the island now, his dad’s approval, everyone he was always trying to save). We both kind of envisioned him remembering just as he saw everyone gathered together. But I think it is important that it was Christian who triggered his memory. It showed Jack’s growth. He hated his father, resented him for so long. But after everything on and off and then back on the island, Jack came to understand and love his father, as evidenced by his father’s ability to help him remember.

Let’s also consider for a moment Desmond. He’s special, that is undeniable. He was special from the beginning (hello flashes of the future) and remained uniquely special (electromagnetic warrior). His weird actions after being placed in Widmore’s box resulted from his capacity to see the flash-sideways world. He might have misinterpreted the place and his ability to get there, as evidenced in his discussion with Jack, but he still caught a glimpse of it (perhaps he returned from the brink of death in that box?). Widmore called Desmond a “failsafe,” which MIB took to understand that Des would be able to save the island should Jacob’s plans fall through. I see him more as the ultimate facilitator though. He facilitated the island’s survival by pushing the button, he facilitated the crew in reaching the freighter by assisting Charlie in his suicide mission, he facilitated the death of MIB by unplugging the light in the cave, and he facilitated everyone’s remembrances and collective moving on in the flash-sideways. He is special, indeed.

Eye wide closed.

I loved the eye closing ending. I also called it. My friend and fellow watcher Travis claimed that it was going to end with Jack’s eye opening in his next life, but I contended that they would end differently than they began. My brother Seth called the ending cheesy, but I think it was important to have the series come full circle. Vincent’s presence was superfluous, but I know people love dogs.

Did anyone catch the question Jack asked Christian? “Where are we, Dad?” It sounds pretty similar to Charlie’s question in the pilot, “Guys, where are we?” Some people choose to believe that everyone died when Oceanic 815 crashed – especially based on the plane wreckage shots that were paired with the credits. I disagree. Like Jack said, “All of this matters.” And if they had all died on the island, they would not have all interacted and cared about meeting up again in the flash-sideways world. But his question also raises questions about what happens when we die. I am a Christian so I believe that we will all go to heaven or hell after we die. But who is there to say there is not a pit stop on the way? I think it would be pretty cool to land in William and Mary with my family, my sorority sisters, my D2E boys, and everyone at the Leafe (because that has been the most important part of my life thus far) after death in my own flash-sideways before moving on. Maybe when I die I’ll be echoing Christian and Charlie’s questions as well.

In fact, the more I think about the ending, the more I like it. I originally was disappointed with Christian’s explicit explanation of everything but as I discuss the finale with friends and continue to contemplate it myself, I find that I wrapped things up very nicely in my head based on my viewing, but everyone else has interpreted the ending their own way(s). And that is what a show like LOST should do. I was convinced they would end the show with something big happening that would be considered good or bad depending on the viewers’ personal beliefs. But instead they ended the show with all of this stuff going on that can be interpreted in a multitude of different ways. And the meanings behind the show and purposes of the characters change depending on the interpretation. Christian may have spelled out an explanation of a PassingOverLand created by friends to reunite, but his description does not tell the audience anything about what was “real life” and what happened in death or when everyone REALLY died or what the purpose of the island was. That’s for each viewer to figure it out themselves.

TLC warned us about these waterfalls

I know a lot of people are unhappy with a “choose your own adventure” conclusion, but soooo many more would have had a fit if they had closed everything up neatly with an explanation behind every (or not even every, but a lot of) mysteries. I’m going to understand LOST how I want to and I will be able to continue the debate with friends about the ending and the meanings forever.

A lot of fans wanted more answers to the mysteries that kept us watching for six years. But in the end, what does it matter? The show can not answer ALL of those mysteries! And really, who cares why Libby was in the mental hospital or what the Hanso Foundation was up to? It’s not about polar bears or hieroglyphics. It’s about Jack, Kate, Desmond, Ben, Sayid, Sun, Juliet. It’s about love, fate, faith, connectedness. It’s not about answering the mysteries. Those were just to get you to keep watching so they could show you so much more. My brother and his friends have likened the debate over who liked the ending and who did not to the Man of Science and Man of Faith opposition LOST formerly focused on. The Men of Faith loved the ending while the Men of Science are unfulfilled. I consider myself both though. I researched time travel and calculated those numbers every which way to find meaning in them, but I also was attached to the characters. And when I see what the characters did, it didn’t matter to me what the island did. In the long run, LOST challenged my ideas about what the world is capable of, but I still do not think a cave can turn a man into Smoke. I do, however, believe a group of people can impact each other so profoundly that they can change the rules of nature. For the record, however, I will always wonder about whose eye was in Jacob’s shack.

Beyond what the actual plot of the show represents, LOST means so much more. It has been my passion, as nerdy and pathetic as that might sound. It has taught me about quantum physics and doomsday equations and has inspired me to research Egyptian mythology and philosophers. But most importantly, and part of why I think it is such a great show, it has challenged my views on the world and what is possible. Both in nature and of people. What will one do in extenuating circumstances? What might I personally do in such an event? What am I capable of? Along with that, what is the world capable of? What are a group of people capable of together? How much power does LOVE have? In the end (and that’s exactly where we are), it is just a show. But for me it has also been a passion, an inspiration, a devotion, and, perhaps most importantly, a topic on conversation. I have made the most random friends because of LOST and have formed closer bonds with friends and family during weekly viewing sessions or over long post-episode G-Chat recaps. So, to the creators, writers, producers, directors, actors, fellow enthusiasts, etcetera, thank you.

And Behind Door Number One... A NEW BRIGHT LIGHT!

Well, folks, it’s been confusing, it’s been sad, it’s been funny, it’s been heart-wrenching, it’s been crazy, it’s been real, it’s been unbelievable, it’s been hard, it’s been great, it’s been inspiring, it’s been kick-ass, it’s been exciting, it’s been boring, it’s been confusing (did I already say that?), and for me, it’s been totally worth it. And so has this blog. I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Almost as much as I will miss the show, I will miss hearing all of your theories and having devoted readers run up to me at the Leafe telling me they read my latest post.  So, to my readers and my friends, thank YOU.

See ya in another life, brotha! (Like maybe in my W&M flash-sideways world).

Namaste!

Cliffside kiss.

The penultimate episode of our favorite show has come and gone and I am having trouble focusing on this week’s episode because all I can think about is Lost’s SERIES FINALE!

"Think it's time to leave."

Episode recap in 150 words: In the flashsideways, Ben recalls his past during a Des beatdown after confronting him for running over Locke, Locke decides to undergo Jack’s surgery, and Des springs Kate and Sayid from the police with help from Hurley and Ana Lucia. On the island, Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley meet Jacob, Jack steps up to take his place, and Jacob makes Jack like him through a ceremonial drink. Miles, Ben, and Richard go to Dharmaville to get dynamite to blow up the plane and happen upon Widmore and Zoe. Smokey approaches so Widmore and Zoe hide, Ben and Richard wait, and Miles flees. Smokey wrecks Richard then comes to Ben, who promptly reveals Widmore’s location. Smocke kills Zoe then asks Widmore why he returned. Ben subsequently shoots Widmore for killing Alex. Ben agrees to kill people for Smocke and they search for “fail-safe” Desmond. Smocke announces plans to destroy the island.

Where is Lapidus? I am guessing he will wash ashore somewhere down the beach just in time to kick some ass and save someone. He and Miles must still be around for some reason. Speaking of questionable characters, is Richard dead? Only if he fulfilled his purpose for the island, which I think he has. We know his backstory and why he is timeless, he helped guide some of the characters, and now he is done.

Remember how Ben used to have every move calculated forever in advance? I wonder now if he still does. This week he appeared to be living in the moment, acting however he felt. I am surprised he killed Widmore because I do not understand why he did not do the deed when he crept into Widmore’s room a few seasons back, but the fact that he was able to means that they are not related to MIB and Jacob (and therefore not bound by the rules) like I originally suspected. Which actually makes my Rules theory more plausible because I could not account for MIB and Jacob having offspring.

Smoking kills.

I absolutely love Jacob’s line, “It’s just a line of chalk in a cave.” My motto regarding Lost has always been that EVERYTHING has a purpose. Indeed, everything does. But maybe not as much importance as I/we assign it. Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar.

For the record, I am not ready to accept defeat on my LOVE theory since Ben did not flash back to the island as a result of the thrashing, he flashed back to a real world past. LOVE can still connect the characters to the island.

I think I saw a glimmer of jealousy in Sawyer’s eyes when Jacob made Jack like him (in a ceremony eerily similar to communion…drinking the blood of the island, perhaps?). Despite their buddy-buddy talk this week, I think Sawyer and the doc might be on opposing teams again soon. I would love the finale to end with Sawyer representing one side and Jack representing another, both sides equally good and bad, leaving the audience to decide if the ending is positive or negative, depending on their personal preferences. Similar to the end of Life of Pi (great book, by the way).

Cheers!

Now it is time for my HUMONGOUS, IMPRESSIVE, TOTALLY RIGHT SERIES FINALE THEORY. No spoilers here, just my prediction for how the last 5-10 minutes of the last episode ever will play out. Jack, Sawyer, Hurley, and Kate will go to the Island Light. Kate will profess her feelings for Jack and Sawyer will get jealous. They will find Desmond and he will help them reach the Light. Meanwhile, Ben and Smocke will head towards the Light as well. Jack and Smocke will meet face-to-face and battle it out. Jack will require help from his friends and they try but Smocke takes them out. All that is left is Sawyer, but he will switch sides to help Smocke because he is pissed about Jack being the new Jacob and the object of Kate’s affections. With all of his friends gone, and the existence of the island in peril, Jack weighs his options and decides to release the Light into the world (because Jack realizes that noone was very happy before crashing on the island, so maybe a little more Light will help everyone out) while Smocke simultaneously tries to destroy it, resulting in a sunk island and a time reboot (hence, the flash-sideways). In the flash-sideways, the crew will get together at the museum party and piece together their island past, but decide that they are all happier now than before so they make a pact to stay in touch but not ever search for the island. Cue floating “Lost” letters and Michael Giacchino music and it’s over!

Last chance to share your own theories about the imminent series finale of Lost! After the episode airs and you say “I knew that was going to happen,” no one is going to believe you if you do not share with me first!

See ya in another week, brotha!

Due to LOST’s hiatus this week, there will be no standard A Home on Huh!? Island instead we will post an interview with one of LOST’s resident MDs. William Mapother plays Ethan Rom, who has been everything from the original camp invader to Claire’s doc in residence. He recently visited the College of William and Mary where our resident LOST expert happens to be an intrepid student. And guess who was there with a pen and pad ready to gather info for her adoring readers!? She was!

For the record, Mapother (pronounced May-pother) is a funny dude. And extremely nice. Apparently he spent Friday night playing games with some of the Expo workers (me = jealous!) He even sat around for a long time after his presentation taking pictures, signing autographs, and answering everyone’s questions. Including (almost) all of mine.

The Man. The Actor. The Semi-Creeper

How did you get onto the show?

William Mapother: I got the offer the day before I was supposed to fly to Lake Michigan for a reunion with college friends. When my agent called I said I have never heard of this show and my agent said it premieres tonight. As an actor, I had to take it. I flew to Honolulu instead of to Lake Michigan. I was just lucky that the show was a hit right out of the gate.

How does the cast get along?

WM: They get along well which is surprising considering the size and how long they have been working together. Many have families and kids so at the end of a day or working they want to get back to them but it’s a terrific atmosphere.

Everyone “awwwed” in your presentation when you mentioned your character dying, but I have to be honest, I cheered when he died.

WM: But why did you cheer?

At this point, we got into a discussion about the nature of the characters on the show and I got particularly engaged in the discussion and stopped taking notes (oops!) so I will paraphrase. We talked about how Ethan might have been portrayed as bad originally, but we learned as time went on that the shots he was giving Claire were actually helping save her. And sure, Ethan was creepy, but we never saw him hang Charlie. And all of the fights he got into were started by others. Mapother made the point that so many people take their original impression of characters and do not change their minds past that point. In actuality, almost all of the characters have a bloody past but are still portrayed as “good guys.”

So is your character a good guy or a bad guy?

WM: Who isn’t a good guy or a bad guy?

What is your favorite episode?

WM: I would have to say the second episode in the first season.

Do you watch Lost?

WM: Yes I do. I have no idea what the hell is going on.

Theoretically, what would JJ Abrams or Damon Lindelof or Carlton Cuse do to you if you told us a secret about the show?

WM: Paolo got off easy. And only people who know the show know what that means.

What is your favorite part about the show?

WM: I like being a part of something that brings so much happiness, or entertainment, to so many people – or rather such healthy, thought-provoking entertainment. I feel very fortunate.

We talked with the other fans for a little while longer but I got so involved in the discussions I often forgot to take notes. But I can tell you that he is a devoted actor, who actually shook a papaya tree, and all of the crew’s nerves out of fear one would drop on him, when filming to bring reality to the fact that he was supposed to be picking papayas. And he filmed additional scenes that were cut because the creepy facing down but looking up face he makes was deemed sufficient enough.

Everyone's Favorite LOST Blogger Having Her Dreams Come TRUE

So my dreams of meeting someone from Lost have been fulfilled. He was tight lipped about our chances of seeing him again before the end, but I still hope we find out more about Ethan Rom because I thoroughly enjoyed finding out more about William Mapother!

See ya in a another week, brotha!

500 points!

So Hurley is a leader now. Unlikely choice, and one that he clearly does not feel comfortable in. But he is filling the shoes well, going with his heart and trusting his dead friends’ advice. And his living friends are trusting him and following him every step of the way.

Even Jack, who admitted to Hurley that his current back-seat attitude is hard for him to keep up, is following him. The doc told him that since he can not fix what happened to Juliet, which he feels responsible for, that he is going to try letting go, something he has never been able to do before. Jack’s acknowledgment that he can not fix everything is a huge step for Mr. Fix-It, but, as Hurley, said, maybe not a step forward if it means everyone will die. I appreciate Jack as a leader, but I think he needs this time as a follower and, more importantly, a truster, to truly rise as the leader he needs to be to save everyone.

Someone who was not keen to following Hurley was Ilana. She wanted to go blow up the plane, Hurley voiced his opposition to the idea, and then she blew herself up by not listening to Hurley’s advice about the unstable dynamite. Very intriguing – the island does seem to be helping Hurley out in his rise to leader. I am kind of bummed she is gone because I want to know more about her back story and why she has been training her whole life. Everyone else should presumably be pretty bummed as well since she was their personal bodyguard. But no one really shed a tear at her explosion.

Illana got (Black) ROCKED!

We had another death last night, or so they want us to believe. Smocke chucked Des down a well hole for unclear reasons. Could it be because he showed no fear of the Black Smoke Power? Or because he appeared to be cheeky when he was saying Smocke was Locke? I am not positive if he knew Smocke’s real identity, but I think he does not care either way. Des has a higher mission on the island now, and is determined to complete it. But he also knows the island will help him. After all, the island has it out for him…but maybe not in as bad of a way as everyone thinks. Anyway, there’s no way he’s dead. The previews showed him alive but I am interested to see how he gets out of the hole.

Just need to get that quar...ahhhhhhh

Only one interesting flash-sideways appearance this week: Pierre Chang gave the keynote address at a ceremony commemorating Hurley’s philanthropic gifts. We did, however, have a revealing appearance from Michael on the island. He sent Hurley a message, helped him find Locke’s camp, and confirmed that the island whispers were all of the people stuck on the island after death, like Michael. He said his past deeds were keeping him on the island in a sort of purgatory.

With Michael’s revelation we have now seen the island represented as the Garden of Eden (or, the closest thing to heaven on Earth), hell, and Purgatory. I am hesitant to say the island will ever be represented as heaven because it would have to be perfect to be so, but perhaps it could be if we saw a flash-back to the island before MIB got there. I am glad that we are given this other aspect of the island so that the hell theory that Richard gave us in episode nine can be debunked. Perhaps the island exists as a heaven, purgatory, earth, and hell wrapped in one, like its own universe.

About that little boy, we saw him in episode four and it looked like he scared the shit out of Smocke then, too. Last time her appeared, I said that I do not think he is Jacob, but that he could be a descendant of Jacob’s. Assuming this kid is the same one we saw the other time, and presupposing that the time between the sightings can not be more than a week, this kid has aged quickly! Smocke obviously recognizes him, and is scared of him, so perhaps this weird child is Jacob after all. Maybe Jacob is cyclical, so that when he dies he just comes back to life in baby form and grows up and then becomes a man. I do not really buy it but anything is possible on this island. The kid’s devilish smile definitely has me intrigued, however. He must have some power, or will have some power, that threatens Smocke.

Just creepin' ya out!

My theory about LOVE has gotten more backing in this week’s episode! It was a kiss from Libby that brought Hurley’s memories about the island back to him. How happy was everyone to see Hurley finally get some more lovin’ for Libby? I was especially glad that they finally got to have their picnic date! But back to the Love Theory: I am very interested to see how this plays out with the rest of characters.

Get an ISLAND you 2!

I was speaking with my best friends and weekly Lost viewers Travis  Grubbs and James McCulla today at lunch about Desmond’s sudden changes of heart in last week’s episode. After the whole electromagnetic box thing, Des decides to help arch nemesis Widmore, then changes his mind again to go with Sayid. The framing of the flash-sideways within the period that Desmond is passed out, coupled with his statement to Zoe, “A lot can happen in 20 minutes,” leads the audience to believe that Desmond lived out or flashed to the flash-sideways action. I am not convinced of this, exactly, however. For one, no other characters have shown evidence that they are cognizant of the flash-sideways. Second, I do not see why the flash-sideways would convince Desmond to follow Widmore or Sayid. I think Des was happy with where his life brought him (that is, husband to Penny and father to little Charlie), and would want to go back to that rather than change history to end up in the flash-sideways. The only possibility I am willing to accept at this moment is that the electromagnetic energy restored Desmond’s future-telling powers. This theory also backs up my long-held hypothesis that the flash-sideways are events that are coming in the future. Desmond saw the future flash-sideways as a result of the electromagnetic waves in the box and thus decided to do something about it (what, I do not know…yet).

I think people are still confused about my flash-sideways-as-the-future theory so I am going to play Lost out for you from Desmond’s point of view starting after this episode to help you understand. Desmond helps Widmore release the electromagnetic energy on the island which 1) sinks the island under the ocean and possibly destroys MIB, and 2) sends all of the characters back in time. The characters then live out their lives WITHOUT the interference of Jacob or MIB or electromagnetic energy pulling them to the island and they become the people we have met via the flash-sideways. Before releasing the energy, though, the characters are granted one wish for how they want their new lives to play out. Their wishes, however, are granted but with certain caveats and unexpected plot twists and they are still generally unhappy. Furthermore, they still retain some consciousness about their island lives and with the help of Desmond, they all reunite to…do something. So that was long and possibly vague but that is what I’m envisioning for the rest of the show.

Reader Jeff Dooley sent me an interesting theory this week. “LOST theory for you (completely my own, by the way, came to me in a DayQuil-induced haze yesterday): the mystery ‘Kwon’ on the contenders list is neither Sun nor Jin, but rather, wait for it … Ji-Yeon!” I have seen this theory mentioned on a few blogs and it would be a nice twist. However, she is completely ill-equipped to run an island, being that she is three years old. King Tut was at least nine when he came to power.

Keep sending me your thoughts and theories!

See ya in another week, brotha!

Summer Finck is a weekly contributor to Pop Ramblings, she simulwrites for The Flat Hat newspaper. She wants to hear your half-cocked theories so she can ridicule you for them use them in her posts. She is close to a mental meltdown folks, heed these warnings. But let’s be honest we’re all gonna be melted down.

This was me during the WHOLE episode! WHOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAA!

Episode recap in 150 words: On the island, Widmore puts Desmond in a deadly electromagnetic box. He survives and decides to help his nemesis before Sayid convinces him to go with him. In the flash-sideways, Des is Widmore’s unattached assistant and friend. Widmore orders him to fetch Charlie Pace for his family’s benefit concert and while doing so, the singer crashes their car into the water. While underwater, Des flashes to the “Not Penny’s Boat” scene and they both felt something. Des goes to Widmore’s wife Eloise to break the news that Driveshaft will not be playing and get curious when he overhears the name Penny. Eloise warns him to stop looking, but her pianist son Daniel has felt something too and tells Des where to find his half-sister. Penny and Des meet at the stadium and then Des starts a quest to understand his connection with the rest of his Oceanic 815 fellow fliers.

Now onto the good stuff. What an episode! We saw many familiar faces in the flash-sideways. The Widmore family of Charles, Eloise, and Daniel as a happy little family, Penny with the last name Milton, George Minkowski, Jack, Hurley, Claire, and Charlie all made an appearance. And we got a lot of information to chew on.

What is Widmore planning that he needs Des to go near the electromagnetic pockets? I am still betting that he is going to send his son-in-law to release the energy, which will sink the island and send the castaways to the lives we have seen featured in the flash-sideways. I am not sure Widmore knows the intended consequences of sinking the island. I am assuming that action will release Smocke, and therefore evil, into the world and I know he does not want that. But maybe it will just destroy him? The flash-sideways do not seem ridden with malevolence but I am betting it will kill Smocke or trap him elsewhere. Nonetheless, Faraday basically spells it all out, saying that if something catastrophic were to happen, it might be derailed by releasing a ton of energy, like it setting off a nuclear bomb – which he thinks he already did in some other life. He says, “What if this isn’t our life? What if we had some other life and for some reason we changed things.”

About those mysterious flash-sideways. This is the first time we have seen a character definitely recognize his island life. We have seen flashes of acknowledgment or at least confusion but no confirmation. But now that we know that the island stuff has not been erased from the characters’ subconsciouses, we can take what is becoming the Lost mantra, “What happened, happened,” seriously. Charlie seems to have some other knowledge about their previous lives or at least an unbelievable calm about the weird situation. Hawking also knows something about the situation, evidenced by her vehement denials of Des’ questions and her insistence that he back off. She even calls his questions a “violation.”

THAT JUST HAPPENED. Screencaps via lost-media.com

Her use of the term “violation” leads me to believe that everyone has made an agreement (similar to the Oceanic 815’s cover up) to forget their island experiences, be reset in life, and get something they want. I wrote a few weeks ago about the theory that the survivors have made a deal – perhaps with Widmore or Smocke – to receive their principal desire, but it did not turn out like they wanted. Could the show be giving us a huge lesson in “Be careful what you wish for?” Anyway, we have seen evidences of this: Sayid got Nadia back from the dead, but as his sister-in-law; Kate was free, but still pursued by the authorities; Sawyer lived a respectable life as a policeman, but was still haunted by his parents’ deaths and the original Sawyer; Jin and Sun are a happy couple, but unmarried and hated by Mr. Paik. And in Des’ case, Hawking explicitly explained, “You have the perfect life and have managed to get what you want the most, my husband’s approval,” but he does not have Penny. The title of the episode, “Happily Ever After,” seems sarcastic then. They got their “happily ever afters” but it is not what they really want.

Let’s face it, none of the characters were happy in their lives before the island. And the Oceanic 815 were still unfulfilled after leaving the island. The flash-sideways have proved that they are discontent in these lives too, even with their biggest wish granted. They seem happiest on the island. Sure, there are Others and polar bears and Black Smoke Monsters, but the island gave Jack a chance to shine as a leader, Jin and Sun the opportunity to reconnect as husband and wife, and Hurley a release from his curse. Funny how that is possible on an island inhabited by evil that needs to be kept from the rest of the world. I have mentioned the possibility of the island being Eden. Everyone certainly seems happy enough to make that true. But what is the larger message? The world offers no happiness? We need to free ourselves from worldly concerns to be happy? Or at least buy a ticket from Sydney to LA and hope to crash on the island?

There were many interesting comments during the show that should be taken note of. Desmond (in response to Charlie’s comment that he feels sorry for Des because he thinks he has it all but he does not) says, “Why? Because none of this is real?” In the electromagnetic box and in the hospital Des is asked if he is wearing any metal or carrying any keys. Desmond says to Charlie in the bar, “There’s always a choice, brother.” Later, Charlie tells Des, “This doesn’t matter, none of this matters, all that matters is that we felt it.” Eloise Hawking repeats that good old phrase we know and love, “What happened, happened.”

In her conversation with Des, Hawking also interestingly tells him that he is “not ready yet.” Does this mean that, following some approved order of events, the flash-sideways Oceanic 815 will reunite in their other lives?

We now know that people are remembering their island experiences in the flash-sideways. The question is do they remember their flash-sideways on the island? Despite the pairing of the scenes of Des passing out, I do not think so because my theory holds that the flash-sideways have not happened yet. Also, I do not think Des would so whole-heartedly agree to help Widmore if he knew that doing so would propel him into a life without Penny (yet) and his son. But then why did Des decide to help Widmore? What in the electromagnetic waves convinced him? Widmore’s geophysicist employee Zoe asked him that exact question but Sayid intervened before we got the answer.

Finally, let’s talk about love. That appears to be the thing connecting the characters to their past lives. The thing that makes them “feel it.” Charlie talks about the all-consuming love he felt when he saw Claire. He called it not just love, but also “truth.” Will the loves, the constants, of each of these characters be the thing that draws them back into their true lives? Faraday too felt the love of Charlotte when he saw her at her museum. And Desmond felt the connection to Penny (so much so that he fainted when they touched! Awkward.). I am theorizing that the whole point of the show is love. Awwwww. But seriously, what is the thing missing from everyone’s lives that will give them the happiness they so desire? Love. The love they found on the island more specifically. Now for the big question: who will make Kate “feel it,” Sawyer or Jack? Or Aaron? Or someone else?

Keep sending me your thoughts and theories!

See ya in another week, brotha!

Summer Finck is a weekly contributor to Pop Ramblings and also writes for The Flat Hat on the topic of her much beloved LOST. She is fearing a mental breakdown following the series finale.

GUYS, Where are they!?

“You said that there is still good in your soul. Then prove it.”

Sayid has spent his entire life attempting to do the right things in order to redeem himself for the horrible torture he inflicted upon people while serving for the Iraqi Republican Guard. And, apparently, he’ll spend his flash-sideways life doing the same thing. Problem is, circumstances keep arising where killing or torturing someone is (or he is told is) the right thing.

In his flash-sideways, the Sayid was forced to do the “right thing” by some bad guys, led by none other than mercenary meanie Martin Keamy, who were extorting Sayid’s brother Omer and threatening his family. He stepped up, and killed them all, even after Keamy promised to forgive the debt and begged for his life.

On the island, Dogen attempted to trick Sayid into killing Smocke by feeding him the lines that begin this post. Always in search of redemption, Sayid took the bait, met Smocke out in the jungle, plunged a dagger into his side, and…didn’t kill him. Smocke removed the dagger, handed it back to Sayid and proceeded to promise him what he also guaranteed Sawyer: anything you want. Of course Sayid only wanted Nadia, who had already died, but Smocke claims he can give Sayid ANYTHING he wants, regardless of state of being.

So once again, Sayid was forced to do the “right thing,” this one according to Smocke. He went back to the temple and killed Dogen (the same way Dogen’s men first killed him in the temple pool) and his John Lennon-esque friend, which immediately opened the temple door for Smokey to come in and tear the place, and its inhabitants, to shreds. Before doing so, he told the temple dwellers that because Jacob is dead, no one has to stay at the temple. Smocke is leaving and whoever wants to join him may but whoever stays will die.

Sayid appears to be the only character who recognizes his shortcomings and misdeeds and has attempted to atone for them. So he’s a good model for repentance. But time and time again, he’s put in positions where he has to break out his torture tool kit or a glock and bring the noise in order to do the “right thing.” So does that just make him weak-willed? Or does he sometimes put himself in the position to wreck havoc because he needs that outlet of violence, fulfilling the typical stereotype of soldiers changed by war who become addicted to the thrill (see The Hurt Locker) of brutality. He is one of my favorite characters, and has been from the beginning, but I am beginning to think that Dogen may be right about him. Before he even came back from the dead, Sayid did seem to have the internal scale tipped more toward evil than good.

Now, it appears that resurrected Sayid is definitely a bad guy, but I suppose that judgment also rests upon the debate I opened last week (and would still like to continue since I only received one response) about whether Smokey/Man in Black/Smocke is good or evil.

“RPD” raised a valid point on this subject on the comment board last week: “If the theory you presented that Sawyer and Jack may be the protégés of Smocke and Jacob is factual then we should be able to compare the personalities of the doctor and con-man to assess the nature of the other two men. If this is the case then we can assume that the man in black is using the same techniques of a con-man, such as pathological lying for your own gain, where Jacob is using the same as doctors which is to give the impression of hope to benefit the lives of others.” WRITE SOMETHING MORE.

But back to the recap. Besides Sayid’s little tripartite slaughter, the most crucial aspect of Sayid’s flash-sideways is the appearance of Nadia. In Sayid’s flash-forward, the love of his life has married his brother Omer. Sayid still harbors a love for Nadia, but in yet another attempt to atone for his past, he pushed her toward his brother because his past transgressions preclude him from being with the girl of his dreams (apparently he has no regard for her desires).

Also in the flash-sideways, the now-expected Islander guest appearances: one from Jack Shephard (Sayid passes him in the hallway when he visits Omer at the hospital) and one from Jin (Sayid finds him in a walk-in freezer after killing the Keamy Trio- I like to think this is a really hip nouveau jazz group).

On the island, Claire has been captured and stuck in a hole in the temple by the other Others. Kate tells her she’s been raising Aaron and explains that she returned to rescue Claire but Claire tells her that she does not need rescuing. After Sayid’s murders lifted whatever barrier prevented Smokey’s entrance to the temple and the Black Smoke Monster began raising hell, Kate and Miles start to run away but Kate retreats into the temple to save Claire. Rousseau 2.0 tells Kate she’d be safer in the hole with her and as Smokey approaches, Kate hops in just in time to catch the Black Smoke Monster pass over her. Just as we saw with Eko in season two, flashes appeared in the smoke.

So once all was said and done, only three of our friends survived the Smoke-out. Miles, aided by Ilana, Lapidus, Ben, and Sun (where did they come from?) found shelter by pushing that ouroboros stone we talked about last week and uncovering a secret hiding place. No clue yet why Ilana knows the secret floorplan of the temple.

Claire, Sayid, and Kate were also spared. The scene where they walk out to meet Locke, climbing over carcasses and passing by burning rubble (anyone else catch the burning cross?) with “Catch a Falling Star” playing in the background CREEPED ME OUT. Capital letters are necessary because that moment was eerily uncomfortable.  I’m not sure yet why Kate decides to follow Smocke and the others. One obvious answer is that she is just fulfilling her mission of bringing Claire back to Aaron. She could also be just joining another group in the hopes of finding something that will make her happy (it’s only been like two days and she’s already tried out the temple crew, Sawyer and the lonely jungle). Or, and I’m not sure if I believe it but it is possible, she too has been claimed by whatever has taken hold of Claire and Sayid. Perhaps when Smokey passed over her in the hole. Another variation of this idea is that whatever she saw in the Smoke Monster flashes made her believe in whatever Smocke is about to do.

While on the island Sayid’s internal scale was weighed down with evil, the scale of the show was equally balanced with questions and answers. Let’s start with why Sayid failed to kill Smocke. I’ve mentioned a few times this idea of rules governing who can kill whom. I do not have much backing behind these rules, although I’ve posited that it relates to blood lines. I believe Smocke had to convince Ben to kill Jacob because the rules prevented him from doing it himself. In such a way, I believe the rules prevented Sayid from killing Smocke as well. Although now I’m thinking it has less to do with bloodlines, considering Sayid is Iraqi. But I still hold that there are certain rules behind who can murder who. This is the fourth example of it (Ben failed to kill Locke, Widmore got Keamy to kill Alex for him, Smocke got Ben to kill Jacob for him, and now Sayid failed to kill Smocke). Now we just need to figure out for sure how the rules operate and why they are in place.

My dear friend and Lost viewing buddy Kayley was more stuck on notion that Sayid couldn’t kill Smocke after he had spoken. Dogen does say that if he speaks it is too late. I am not sure if that was just a warning of “Do it fast before he has the chance to kill you or talk you out of it” or if the act of speaking has the power to negate the injury. I clearly like my rules theory so I am sticking with that one for the time being, but will consider adding in a “speaking clause.”

Next, we had an interesting parallel between stay-on-the-island-Locke and leave-the-island-Jack at the beginning of season four and what happened last night with Smocke giving everyone the choice to either stay or go again.

Finally, we’ve got an issue on the island with manipulation. It seems as if everyone in power on the island has about thirty strings they are pulling at any given moment to make people do what they want. We first saw this with Ben, that maniacal mastermind who was always thinking forty steps ahead of the game. Turns out he, much like all of the candidates, was just being manipulated by Jacob. Now we see both Smocke and Dogen offering promises, “telling the truth,” and just generally steering certain people in the direction they want them to go.

Two weeks ago I shared a theory my brother and I were tossing around that Jacob represents determinism while Smocke represents free will. After the past two episodes, I’m now more inclined to believe that no one has any control over their own lives at all. Lost is trying to tell us that even when you think you’re acting of your own accord, someone else is really pulling the strings. And if you are the puppet master, you’re either being controlled by another being or unconsciously reacting to someone else’s actions and not exercising free will at all. Bleak thought, but one that rings especially true to me. (Editor’s Note: WOW, DEPRESSING) My favorite professor of all time (and not just because she’s obsessed with Lost too), Julia Kaziewicz of the American Studies department, spent all last spring dropping her pen and explaining that we often only have the illusion of free will. The example she gave is that you wake up every morning and put on clothes, thinking that it is your choice to do so. But have you ever thought about what it would be like to not put on clothes? You get dressed because society tells you you have to be clothed, you have no choice in the matter after all. Similarly, on the island, no one has any agency; they are either being controlled or reacting.

Well now this is just getting long. So I will stop. But please comment below sharing your thoughts about whether the Man in Black/Smokey/Smocke is good or evil. And what you think about my free will rant. Or just share some theories of your own.

See ya in another week, brotha! (Actually, I’ll be on a tropical island of my own next week so the posting of the blog depends on the availability of WiFi. If I can watch, write, and send from my Spring Break locale, it’ll be up, otherwise you’ll have to wait until my return Sunday night.)

Speaking of Claire, we got to see more of her in this week’s episode as well. She helped pry Jin’s leg out of the trap he got caught in a few episodes ago and sewed him up in her jungle hideout. After that, she dragged the other Other that she shot at a few episodes ago as well to her hideout to be questioned about the whereabouts of Baby Aaron. She was convinced they were holding him, and when Jin told her that Kate had been caring for Aaron, she put a hatchet into the other Other. Jin recanted, saying he only told her to save the man, and Claire confessed that if it were true, she’d kill Kate. If all of that is not crazy enough for you, she also chatted it up with Smocke like they were old pals.

Elsewhere on the island, Hurley and Jack managed to escape the temple by following instructions Jacob gave Hurley via ghost sighting. How did Hurley and Jacob get Jack to agree to come along? By telling him “You have what it takes,” exactly the opposite of what his father had been telling him his whole life. The two men travel to the Lighthouse, where they find three mirrors and a big dial with names written at every degree that they were told to set at 108 degrees to help bring a friend of Jacob’s to the island. While spinning the mirrors, Jack sees a building in the reflection. When he sets the dial to the number where his name is written down, Jack sees in the mirror his childhood home. Before getting to 23, the audience catches glimpses of the church where the Kwons got married and the church where Saywer’s parents’ funeral was held. Infuriated and confused, Jack demands to see Jacob and when Hurley explains he can not make him appear, Jack smashes the mirrors. Shortly thereafter, Jacob does come back and tells Hurley that he could not just tell Jack to do something, he had to come to the realization himself. Jack had to realize how important he is on his own (or rather, with subtle Jacob manipulation).

After seeing the dial with all of the names written on it and scratched out, I am convinced that Jacob has been working so hard gathering these candidates because this is the end. I would bet money that Jacob and MIB’s names are written somewhere on that dial, as are the names of the people who were candidates when they were chosen and the people who came before them. But the dial is filling up, time is running out, and Jacob needs to find the final protector of the island.

Here’s a question I have: why so many candidates? And why is Kate not one of them? Her name was on the dial, but Smocke did not list her as a candidate. My guess is that Kate is there purely to help facilitate Jacob’s manipulations. What is Jacob looking for in the next island protector? And is he manipulating events to test the candidates?

My other question requires a response from my readers. Who is the good guy and who is the bad guy? At this point we are going to assume that the Man in Black = Smoke Monster = the thing inhabiting Locke’s body. So far, we know that Jacob has lied, manipulated, and controlled. MIB, on the other hand, claims to be honest and there is no evidence of the contrary thus far. Nonetheless, he is portrayed as evil and Jacob as good. Why does the audience insist that Jacob’s tricks are for good and MIB’s honesty is false? What do you think? Please comment below and tell me what you think!

There are a few things from the episode I want to point out in case you missed them.

The hieroglyphic Hurley stared at in the hallway represents an ouroboros, the snake eating its tail symbol of cyclicality that Mrs. Hawking has a pin of. Also, the name associated with number 108 on the dial is “Wallace.” And we got to see Adam and Eve – the skeletons in the cave – again. I especially enjoyed Hurley’s remark that possibly the skeletons belong to Jack and him after a time traveling mishap. The theory that the skeletons actually belong to two of the survivors has been circling since last season and the writers’ wink to the audience amused me. Finally, the song David is playing on the piano is the same song Daniel Faraday played in last season’s “The Variable” episode.

Some Lost enthusiasts are speculating that Faraday is David’s piano teacher. Others have posited that Jack got his appendix taken out the same year they blew up the island (if he got it removed when he was seven, he was born in 1970 and would have been thirty four when the plane crashed…it works!). Rumors are also flying that Juliet is David’s mother. But these are just wild guesses.

And I’ll end tonight with another fan theory to share with you all, this week courtesy of Rambler Chase Mizelle: “Jacob has his list of potential replacements, [and] given the necessary balance for white versus black, wouldn’t it make sense that the Man in Black needs a replacement too? Could this all end with Jack as the new Jacob and Sawyer as the new MIB – both bound to protect the island, Jack wanting to protect it and Sawyer wanting to leave?” After the whole Sawyer/Smocke (assuming Smocke = MIB) interaction in the episode two weeks ago, this theory seems quite plausible.

See ya in another week, brotha!

GUYS! WHERE ARE THEY!?

I felt like Lost was speaking directly to me in this week’s episode.

“But you are so close, it would be such a shame to turn back now.”

Not that I ever contemplated turning away from my favorite show and, some may say, sole obsession, but after knocking last episode for being unimportant and rather boring, I needed that nudge from Smocke (Smoke Monster-Locke, for those who have not been keeping up) to tell me that the answers are coming. And then there they were.

Finally, we got some insight into how everyone ended up on the island. After failing to convince Richard to follow him, Smocke tracked down Sawyer and lured him to a cliff-side cave with the promise of answers. Inside the cave, Smocke showed Sawyer a wall covered in names and numbers apparently written by Jacob. All were crossed out, with the exception of Locke(4), Reyes(8), Ford(15), Jarrah(16), Shephard(23), Kwon(42) – this apparently being the previously mentioned “list.”

Photo Credit: Midwest Nerds

According to Smocke, Jacob approached each of the people at a weak point in their lives (that’s one point for Summer for correctly theorizing on that at the end of last season). From that moment on, Jacob controlled certain situations to bring them all to the island because they are all candidates for the job of island protector. Finally, Smocke and Sawyer show us where the rest of the season will probably be headed: a journey together to return “home,” as opposed to the other options of do-nothing-and-die or protect the island from imaginary dangers.

On the other side of the island, Ilana shed some – not much – light on Smocke’s intentions. She explains that he took Richard into the jungle for recruitment purposes and also that Smocke is stuck in Locke’s body for the time being. At Locke’s impromptu funeral, Ben also revealed to Ilana, Sun, and Lapidus his guilt (and repentance) in murdering Locke.

This is where they were! Credit: Jennie Flynn

In the flash-sideways, we also got answers about John Locke’s life sans-crash. He is engaged to Helen and apparently has a positive relationship with his father, two key differences from his pre-crash life. However, he is still the wheel-chair-bound box company employee who is bitter about being in a wheelchair and screaming about people telling him what he can not do. That changes when he comes to the realization that there are certain things he can not do and discovers that Helen will love him nonetheless.

Most importantly, Locke’s life features guest appearances by former friends, Hurley (who owns the box company), Rose (who works at a temp agency, also owned by Hurley), and Ben (a middle school history teacher). Still the nice guy, Hurley also showed a confidence and stability missing from the flashback portrayals of him. Without the healing power of the island, Rose has cancer on the mainland still, but has come to turns with her prognosis and helps Locke do the same. And Ben’s appearance was short, but he was a seemingly normal middle school history teacher as opposed to a manipulative, cold-hearted pawn so that is probably a change for the better too.

But, as we all know, it would not be Lost if at least a few questions did not come up as well. Most notably, who the heck is that little kid? My brother thinks the resemblance to Jacob is uncanny, leading him to believe that it actually is a younger Jacob who lives cyclically (progresses from childhood to teen to adult to death back to childhood and repeats it all over and over). Because the kid referred to Jacob as “him,” not “me,” I am more inclined to peg the boy as a young relative of Jacob’s. Either way, his comment about rules reinforced to me the theory I formed at the end of last season about the connection between the rules and family lines. Still need more info clearly but I am very intrigued about who made the rules and who will punish Smocke for breaking them.

Also, where was Kate’s name on the wall? Jacob visited her too. Is she simply a pawn Jacob uses to control Jack and Sawyer? Why is she not a candidate?

Finally, where/when is Smocke’s home and how are they going to get there?

Despite the (numerous) questions still lingering, I have a few theories. I know I am probably beating a dead horse with this one but I really think I may be onto something with my “flash-sideways are really in the past that something in the future has to set up” idea. I’m thinking the island-sinking, time-rewinding SOMETHING that has yet to occur sends everyone back to the moment Jacob would have touched them. It will not happen all at once, obviously, because they were visited at very different moments (also note: I am assuming here that Jacob visited Hurley and Sayid before the crash as well as after), but gradually one by one they will return to their lives at that point and live out their destinies without Jacob’s manipulation.

This leads me to another theory my brother and I are tossing about. Jacob represents determinism while Smocke represents free will. This season will deal with deciding which is better, or how to balance the two (hence the scale).

That’s all for this week. I really enjoyed this episode and hope that future ones will impress me as much as this one did with balance of questions answered, entertainment, and Lost style (i.e. raising more questions). Nonetheless, I am ready for everyone to be reunited once again.

And even though this is a little late, do yourself a favor and bookmark these Lost Valentines for next year. They may be outdated but they will still entertain any Lost fan.

See ya in another week, brotha!

Summer’s LOST recaps can also be read weekly at flathatnews.com on the TubeTalk Blog.

Accurate Map of the Island

This is it. The beginning of the end. Where to begin?

Let’s start with a simple recap. Ha. How can anything with “Lost” be simple? Especially after that mind-melting season premiere. But I’ll give it a go nonetheless.

So the beginning made us all believe that Juliet had succeeded. Jack and Rose are chatting on the plane about turbulence, the suitcases start falling but the plane keeps going. “You can let go. Looks like we made it,” Rose tells Jack. Desmond even makes an appearance on the plane, which he did not belong on, making us believe time has been reset. The camera even pans down from the plane into the water to a sunken island, barracks, four-toed foot statue and all. All signs point to a detonated bomb and a time rewind.

Then we get to the first commercial break and the show returns, in classic “Lost” fashion, with an eye. Kate’s eye. She’s on a tree, in the jungle, with ringing ears. After descending from the tree, she runs into Miles and they both discover their friends lying unconscious around the Swan site. Only its not 1977/H-Bomb/Hatch construction Swan site, its post-Desmond/Locke Swan hatch explosion. Sawyer immediately punches Jack, blaming his misguided advice for Juliet’s death.

The show then flashes back between the plane and the island. Some events on the plane indicate that things are the same, while others moments differ greatly from what we know. Jack runs into Kate on the plane, Hurley and Arzt meet, Hurley claims to be the “luckiest man alive,” Jin bosses Sun around, Locke went on a walkabout in Australia, Boone didn’t bring Shannon back with him, Jack saves Charlie from choking to death on his heroin, and Oceanic flight 815 lands safely in sunny L.A. and everyone walks off the plane — except Locke, who gets wheeled off.

In the meantime, back on the island, we find Hurley, Jin, and a very worse-for-the-wear Sayid hanging out by the van. Jin hears Sawyer and runs to the Swan site just as Kate hears Juliet faintly calling for help. Sawyer tells Kate he will kill Jack if Juliet is dead. They all work together to pull off the wreckage, using the van to pull away a heavy beam. Sawyer descends into the hole, knocking Desmond’s red exercise bicycle out of the way before reaching a barely-alive Juliet. She realizes the bomb’s explosion did not work and explains to Sawyer that she detonated it to save him. They hug and kiss before Juliet tells Sawyer she needs to tell him something very important, but she dies before she has the chance to spit it out. After crying, Sawyer emerges from the hole carrying his girl in his arms.

Sayid asks Hurley about his afterlife before Jacob approaches them. Jacob admits that he died an hour ago but tells Hurley to bring Sayid to the temple with Jin’s help. Jack comes along to help Sayid but admits that he can not help him, so Jin, Jack, Kate and Hurley put Sayid on a make-shift gurney all set out for the temple.

On the other side of the island, someone posing as John Locke cleans off the knife that Ben had just used to murder Jacob while Ben asks him why Jacob did not fight back. Locke orders Ben to fetch Richard but instead of following Ben, the ageless wonder throws Ben into Locke’s dead body. Bram (one of the Ajira passengers working with Ilana) then picks up Ben and forces him back into the statue so they can get some answers. Bram and his crew draw their guns on fake Locke, but he tells them they can go because, as Jacob’s bodyguards, they are free from responsibility since he is dead. Bram shoots fake Locke, but the bullet ricochets off of him and he disappears. Immediately, the Smoke Monster and his mechanical noises fill the room. It kills all of the bodyguards as they try to escape but before it makes it to Bram, he’s made a circle of ash around himself, making a light appear around him. Smart Smokey uses a rock to force him out of the circle in order to impale Bram on the giant loom, however. Smoke Monster disappears and — voila — fake Locke reappears, apologizing to Ben (the only one left alive) for having “to see [him] like that.”

At this point, the show continues to juggle the stories of the crew at the temple, the crew by the four-toed statue, Sawyer and Miles in the jungle, and everyone from Oceanic 815.

At the airport, Jack finds out the airline lost his dead dad, Kate kicks the marshal’s ass and escapes, Sawyer helps Kate slip by the airport personnel, Jin gets hauled away by customs for not reporting the wads of cash in his luggage (while Sun does not interject), Kate escapes the airport and gets into a cab with Claire, Locke offers Jack some insight about his father and Jack offers to consult Locke about his spinal injury.

Sawyer asks Miles to stay behind with them. They bury Juliet and Sawyer forces Miles to find out what Juliet wanted to tell him. Her message? “It worked.”

In Jacob’s statue lair, Smocke (Smoke Monster + Locke, nickname compliments of my brother Seth) cleans up the bodies and chats with Ben. He explains that he, unlike real Locke, wants to go home. He also mentions that real Locke was the only one of the bunch who realized how pitiful his pre-island life was. On the beach, Richard sees the flare before Smocke approaches him and immediately attacks him. “I am very disappointed in all of you,” he exclaims, before throwing Richard over his shoulder and walking away.

Sayid and crew arrive at the wall where Jin hung out with the French dudes. They slip down the hole into the temple cave. Kate follows voices, Jack follows Kate, and they all get kidnapped by some dudes in turbans and vests and thrown in front of… drumroll please… THE TEMPLE! Finally! At the temple, their deaths are ordered by the Asian leader of the pack, before Hurley invokes Jacob and the guitar case. Inside the guitar case, the leader finds a huge ankh (Egyptian cross), which he breaks in half in order to reveal a note saying that if Sayid dies, everyone is in trouble. The other Others push Sayid underwater (which has mysteriously turned from clear to maroon), despite his struggling and the survivors’ pleas, until sand in a huge hourglass ran out. They declared him dead. The crew drag Sawyer and Miles into the temple and Zach, Emma and stewardess Cindy, all Oceanic flight 815 survivors, try to feed them all. Hurley then tells the leader that Jacob is dead and the other Others go into a frenzy barricading themselves in for safety and setting signals into the air. Sawyer promises not to kill Jack, only because he wants him to suffer on the island still. The leader’s right hand man, who bears a resemblance to John Lennon, tells Jack to come talk to the leader by force or choice before they all turn and see Sayid sit up and ask, “What happened?”

My thoughts exactly. What the heck happened in those two hours?

For those of you still scratching your heads, keep in mind that we did learn some important details.

We finally caught a glimpse of the temple. They also showed us what in the temple heals people, although how it heals people could use some more explanation. We found out where Cindy and the kids have been hanging out. They showed us what was in the guitar case and we learned more about the Smoke Monster. They told us who Bram, Ilana and company were as well. “The List” also reappeared but we still have no explanation. Ash circles offer protection (no explanation offered, though). So while everyone is still talking about the big “WTF?!” of the two time lines, please keep in mind that it was not an empty episode.

Now onto the good stuff: the theories. I have to admit that my mind kind of hurts still but I will do my best to give it all I’ve got. Here we go…

Alternate realities. The h-bomb explosion created two different strands of time. The same people exist in both but neither have any knowledge of the either. My friend Monica posed the theory that everyone on the island would have to die one at a time until there was only one strand of time, the airplane, left. It’s possible, but I think the melding of the two time lines will be more complicated than that. It is “Lost,” after all.

On the other side, I’m also thinking it might fit into my previously mentioned cyclical theory. Basically I wrote that everyone will reset to the LAX flight and everything will happen the same way again, but differently. Perhaps the people on this flight will all make it back to the island in some way, shape, or form, go through their own crazy (and perhaps parallel) adventures, and then cause a catastrophic event (like a hydrogen bomb detonation) that reboots everything. And at that point, everything resets to the crew we saw at the Swan site hole. The more I write the less likely it seems but I am having a really hard time reconciling what I saw last night, so give me a break.

I woke up this morning with another epiphany as well. So remember season three’s finale? With the first flash-forward? Well I’m beginning to think that the two time lines are occurring at different times as well. As in, the plane stuff happens in the past, but also in the future. Bear with me here. So we saw them on the plane and we saw the island under water. We also saw that the Swan station was built and later exploded. Therefore, I am positing that the h-bomb’s purpose was to reset time and somehow harness the power of the pocket of electromagnetic energy. They succeeded in getting the record to skip back to the right period, matching up with Lapidus, Sun, Smocke, Ilana and all of them. Now they have to do something even more bad-ass in order to actually reset to the pre-crash plane to make it all go away as well as sink the entire island. So in a sense, what will happen to make them reset to the plane is still coming in the future, and what they do will send them back a few years in the past.

I have another theory. Maybe the whole plane landing part was just to remind the audience or the characters or both of their pitiful previous lives, as Smocke mentioned in this episode. I am not sure how it works in with the plot besides as a future as seen through a crystal ball like you’ve seen in other shows, but it is still a possibility.

A lot of people are discussing the possibility that Jacob is now inhabiting Sayid’s body. It would answer the question I posed in my last post about what Jacob’s power is if the Man in Black can shape-shift. Perhaps those two mysterious beings have the same powers but they are only harnessed when you are dead. I think it is possible (as my brother says, “What isn’tpossible?”) but because Sayid is my favorite character, and I really like people coming back from the dead, I want it to still be him. Nonetheless, that theory would then suggest that the Man in Black is dead and now inhabiting the bodies of dead people on the island or taking the form of black Smoke which begs the question of how he died (or, more likely, was murdered).

Now that I am writing the morning after and with a fresh brain, the theories keep coming to me! What if the Jacob seen wandering the jungle is not Jacob but the Man in Black? Since Jacob is dead, the Man in Black could have inhabited his body and given Hurley faulty advice. Also, we do not know how much the two timelines of the jungle action and the statue action match up so it is possible Locke could have smoked away while Ben was getting Richard or that it could have happened after he walked away (keeping that in mind, it would also be possible for the MIB to now occupy Sayid’s body, which kind of backs up this theory because maybe MIB knew that going to the temple would kill Sayid and he needed a new body).

Also, Smocke’s comment to Richard, “Nice to see you out of those chains,” might imply that Richard arrived at the island on The Black Rock slave ship. I think he did anyway, but I am not sure that the comment proves it. I think the comment refers more to a mysterious power Jacob exercised over Richard (like Richard physically could not betray Jacob even if he really wanted to) that is now over because Jacob is dead. You can choose what you think but I wanted to give you both thoughts that are floating around.

Wow, the possibilities are really endless. Let’s move on for now.

I also want to point out some elements that were integrated into the episode that I think might have some importance. Lost has a habit of dropping small hints and I try my best to note them when I see them — but please comment if you noticed some I missed.

Freedom. Smocke invokes this with Bram and Richard. I sense a tie to free will and the possibility that it does not exist for everyone on the island.

Interestingly worded comments on the plane. Rose to Jack: “You can let go. Looks like we made it.” Bernard: “I almost died in that bathroom.” Jack to Desmond: “Do I know you from somewhere?” Boone to Locke: “I wouldn’t make it two days without my cell phone,” and “This thing goes down, I’m sticking with you.” Charlie to Jack: “I was supposed to die.” The more I think about these comments, the more I’m wondering how much the survivors remember. I’m beginning to think they remember their experiences but will not or can not talk about them. For instance, remember how Jack recognized Desmond when he first met him in the Swan station? But he did not say anything. Perhaps they remember it all, and they are just putting on a grand charade because they are happy to have gone back, or they are bound by some inexplicable rules that forbid discussion of the ordeal. But their little comments let them connect with each other nonetheless. Just an idea.

Jack giving Sayid CPR parallels Jack giving Charlie CPR in season one. Except in season six he stopped when Kate asked him to while he continued until Charlie woke up in season one.

Also, I totally called the Smoke Monster inhabiting Locke thing! I think it’s pretty safe to equate the Smoke Monster with the Man in Black too, but if you think otherwise please let me know on the comment board.

Finally, let’s have a moment of silence for Juliet.

Alright folks, that’s about all I can handle for now. I am sorry I can’t offer you more insight but, despite my research and fanaticism, I am still as perplexed as you all. As always, please let me know what you’re thinking through the comment board below!

See ya in another week, brotha.

Reposted from The Flat Hat.