What They Died For Recap

May 19

metalman777Lost recap, season 6 No Comments

“What They Died For” is the 16th episode in Season 6 of Lost and the 119th produced hour of the series as a whole. It was originally broadcast on May 18, 2010.

Desmond is really the Failsafe Key to both universes. Alt Desmond very clearly understands what he’s trying to do and seems to be executing it with ruthless efficiency. Present day Desmond also knows what his significance is and (presumably) headed to where he needed to be after escaping from the well. Speaking of which, who let him out? Sayid said he left him at the bottom the well, but there was clearly a rope there. My wild guess: Rose and Bernard. After all, they’re not Adam and Eve, right? And I have to think they time traveled with the rest of them since if they didn’t, Vincent would be dead in 2007. And we know Vincent will be in the finale in some way.
But I think Desmond knows how to kill Smokey using the EM energy on the Island and his counterpart in the Alt. I’m guessing it’s going to take a combination of the two to work. But how could Desmond destroy the Island? That’s certainly not his intention here, although it’s why Widmore brought him along. After this episode, I’m revising my previous prediction from this week – I now think that if Desmond enters The Source, the Island will be destroyed. The Source seems to act by separating the soul from the physical body, but if Desmond is resistant to this I think throwing him in the Source would act as a wrench in the gears – The Source would be unable to destroy him and it would start a chain reaction that would destroy the Island
Part of me feels like this might be leading up to a mind-switch thing where, if both of Jack and Locke’s counterparts remember the present day universe, they’ll be able to mind-switch with their on-Island counterparts. And maybe if that happens, Smokey will be trapped in a mortal body and can be killed (or can choose to live a “normal” life off the Island). Alt Locke becomes Smokey and gets to have the Island adventure he always wanted, playing backgammon (or Senet) with Jack for all eternity. As amusing as that ending would be, I think Smokey’s too crazy now to allow to live. They’re going to have to kill him.
This is really a bunch of questions all strung together. Jack is officially the new Jacob, and judging from his quality zen-like Jackface after he drained Jacob’s cup I imagine he knows everything that’s going on now. So the question is, since the Island has a new Jacob can he make up rules that Smokey has to abide by, especially rules like “No killing former candidates.”
Ben’s betrayal of Widmore was by far the most shocking (and enjoyable) scene of the episode. Understandable too, in that Ben wanted revenge on Widmore for Alex’s death – his motivations in that case were perfectly clear. But Ben doesn’t exactly like Smokey either – not only did Smokey manipulate him, but he’s inhabiting the body of the one man Ben hates most in the world as well. Plus, if Smokey’s backup plan is to destroy the Island, that probably doesn’t sit well with Ben, considering the Island is supposed to be his prize for helping Smokey escape.
Yes, Ben is completely self-serving, but sticking it to Smokey would be something he’d love to do anyway and he does have a backpack full of C4. I think Ben is going to double-cross Smokey first chance he gets and possibly get a modicum of redemption with his Island self as well.
So was Jacob making lists to protect the non-candidates? I think so. The Others were taking away “good people,” i.e. people without flaws (like Mihkail once pointedly told Sayid, Kate and Locke they weren’t). Jacob must have had them take the good people away to protect them from the Island and from the other candidates. I wonder how much of this Ben and Richard knew. (1-7 from Mistaking Confidence for Fate)
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Can we all agree that Smokey and Esau are the same character? Esau was transformed into Smokey, but Smokey wasn’t a separate being triggered into existence by Jacob. Jacob says, “I’m responsible for what happened to him, I made him that way.”
Also “Locke” says, “I was human”.
Widmore says that Jacob visited him “not long after (Ben’s) people destroyed (his) freighter.” That implies that Widmore was visited by Jacob before Widmore met with Locke, maybe even before the Oceanic 6 arrived or before Ben confronted Widmore. That’s interesting. Perhaps Widmore’s been on the good side for longer than we thought. Maybe he was working closely with Eloise after all.
”Locke”‘s threat to kill Penny was shocking at first. But the more I think about it the more I see that it’s just one of those motivations “Locke” gives to everyone. He tells people exactly what they need to hear to make them do what he wants. In Mr. Widmore’s case that means threatening his daughter, she’s his weak point.
Miles’ idea to run into the jungle was the best, but only because of luck. If “Locke” had wanted to, and if Richard and Ben weren’t there to distract him, then Miles would be dead. As it stands he’s still not in a great position. He’s running away, but Ben still has a walkie-talkie with Miles on the other end.
We obviously don’t know everything about Jacob’s plans. But we do know that he took a few precautions, those precautions being, namely, Ilana and Mr. Widmore. Ironically Ilana’s Third Party was working against Widmore’s. So maybe one of them was lying. I like Ilana more than Widmore, so if that is proof of a lie then I’d side with Ilana.
Jacob seemed to have very few requirements of his Candidates. One was that they were alone in the world. Another was that they had pretty terrible lives in the real world. They were all looking for a purpose, and they weren’t going to find it. (8-13 from Not Confused Just Lost)
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What’s amazing is that Jack’s 180-degree transformation actually makes sense. This is an unbelievable bit of storytelling — taking a stubborn, flawed man who lives by empiricism and rage, and sending him on a journey that ends with that same man willingly accepting a job that is defined by fate. And yet, when Jack accepted Jacob’s offer, did it feel out of place? Did it feel like the wrong character was taking charge?
I hadn’t considered this before, but when Jacob tells Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley that they’re all like him — “all alone, all looking for something you couldn’t find out there” — it struck me that loneliness has been a sneaky theme lurking about the entire series. Almost all of the major characters were dreadfully lonely in their pre-island lives, and they’re brought to the island by a guy who’s been alone for centuries. Loneliness is a side-effect to a life poorly lived. I get that. But as a viewer, I’m pleasantly surprised — tickled, even — to see a “new” defining characteristic revealed this late in the game that, when you track it, has been with us since the very beginning. How cool is that?
Another bit of coolness: Jack seemed to be closest to the island’s heartlight, proximity-wise, when Oceanic 815 crashed. Remember that opening shot of Jack waking in the bamboo grove? The heartlight is right by there
Most of the alternate universe characters become aware of the island timeline through near-death experiences and/or love. But it’s fitting that the man who has absorbed more beatings than anyone else — Mr./Dr. Benjamin Linus — gains “island consciousness” only when Desmond beats the snot out of him.
After Ben shares his post-assault epiphany, the “Man of Faith” juices get flowing in Locke. That old Obi-Locke glow appears, and Locke now believes that fate or destiny or something along those lines is pushing him toward the spinal surgery Jack so desperately wants to perform.
Hurley: He’s a full-fledged member of Team Desmond now. He also recognizes Ana-Lucia from the island, so it appears his memories of the island timeline have solidified beyond the brief flashes seen in “Everybody Loves Hugo.”
Ana-Lucia: She has a a blink-and-you’ll-miss-her-sneer cameo. Interestingly, Desmond tells Hurley she won’t be participating in their island reunion because “she’s not ready yet.” If the show wasn’t ending next week, I’d find this off-hand comment very interesting. That said — and I don’t think this will happen, but I’m putting it out there nonetheless — the comment does make me wonder if we’re poised for an eternal return loop, whereby certain characters are repeating lifetimes/timelines in a quest to break their own cycles.
Widmore tells Flocke (allegedly) that Desmond is Jacob’s failsafe (i.e. he activated the hatch failsafe so now he’s become The Failsafe; sounds like a superhero origin story). Flocke interprets this to mean that Desmond can destroy the island, and that pleases Flocke greatly. How he reaches that conclusion is unknown. (14-21 from The lost Blog)

And below is a video of the cast saying their goodbyes. I don’t want this show to end!

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