life, and a little more

Sundown Recap

Mar 03

metalman777Lost recap, season 6 No Comments

[note...not a whole lot of talk in the blog-o-sphere as of yet about this episode!!  very odd!]

“Sundown” is the 6th episode in Season 6 of Lost and the 109th produced hour of the series as a whole. It was originally broadcast on March 2, 2010. Sayid is faced with a difficult decision, and Claire sends a warning to the Temple inhabitants.  (Lostpedia.com)

1. And what’s really interesting — and perhaps hints at the future of the flash-sideways segments — is that unlike the last two weeks, when Alt Jack and Alt Locke found a measure of redemption, Alt Sayid finds no such thing. He tries to reject violence. He even goes so far as to physically remove himself from a violent situation. But the violence still tracks him down. It drags him back in. So does that mean the “fallen” characters are beyond saving, even in the alternate universe?
2. Instead of retribution, Flocke tempts Sayid with the possibility of “seeing” the departed love of his life, Nadia, once again. He’s a little fuzzy on the details, though. Does this mean Sayid could actually reunite with Nadia? Or is this a mere glimpse? Also unclear is whether Flocke’s proposal is the catalyst for Sayid’s slide into full-fledged evil. I’m thinking it may have been a little push, but Sayid was already well on his way.
3. Ilana, Frank, Sun — Can someone please explain to me how Ilana et al got into the Temple? They just appear as Smokey lays waste to the place? And now they’re … what exactly? The anti-Flockes? If this is the cavalry, my money’s on Flocke.
4. Ben — Ben is technically part of Ilana’s group, but the moment he shares with Sayid deserves special notice. It was the first time Ben has ever looked genuinely scared. Think about that. This is the guy who endured interrogation at the hands of Sayid but never flinched. And now, with one look from Sayid’s evil, evil eyes, Ben squirms away? That’s a huge shift
5. As I mentioned up top, the most intriguing aspect of this episode’s alt timeline is that Sayid doesn’t find happiness or clarity or personal fulfillment. He doesn’t ride off with Nadia (even though she’s married to Sayid’s brother in the Happyverse, I’m sure she’d be up for a divorce if Sayid forced the issue). He doesn’t forgive himself for past sins (he’s actually got a wicked martyr complex). And when push comes to shove, he can’t help but shove back. This almost makes me want to see how Alt Claire plays out. Is there a connection between a character’s state in 2007 and their alternate timeline? If you go evil on the island, are you doomed in the Happyverse? We’ll see, I suppose.
6. What I’m interested in seeing is how the castaways come together in the alt timeline. I’m assuming Alt Sayid will release Alt Jin, and perhaps they’ll tag team in some way. Combine the “knowing mirror looks” we’ve seen from the likes of Jack and Kate with all the path-crossing (Claire and Kate, Jack and Locke, Hurley and Locke, Locke and Rose, Sayid and Jin, etc.), and I get the sense the Alt Timeline is driven by some sort of gravitational pull. (1-7 from The Lost Blog)
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7. So what’s Smokey’s overall plan and what will happen to all his recruits?Now that the Temple dwellers have either been recruited or killed, one would imagine that the only thing left for Smokey to do is to go home, wherever that is. But how simple is that going to be? I imagine there’s probably only one way Smokey is allowed to leave and I strongly suspect it involves killing more people. Dogan said Smokey once killed every living thing on the Island which certainly doesn’t bode well for his recruits and I’m sure he has no intention whatsoever in granting them “anything they ever wanted.”My guess is if there is a literal “magic box” on the Island, Smokey’s going to want to use it to go home. But I also suspect that he can’t use it directly – he needs one of his recruits to use it for him. Now this is a scenario where I can see Sawyer totally pulling the Long Con on him.
8. How did Dogan’s presence in the Temple keep Smokey out? Wasn’t that the ash ring’s job?So what exactly kept Smokey out of the Temple? In LA X, we saw the Temple dwellers pouring ash around the Temple perimeter, but Lennon said that Dogan himself was the only thing that was keeping Smokey out.
9. Is Dogan’s “scale” the same one used in the Weighing of the Heart ceremony?I’ve long thought that the Island’s purpose was the ground for the Weighing of the Heart ceremony in Eygptian Mythology, with Jacob as Osiris, the Nemesis as Set and Smokey as Ammit. I discarded this theory after Smokey and the Nemesis were revealed to be one and the same, but Dogan’s scale analogy makes me rethink this. The reason I discarded the theory is that Ammit really isn’t on the same level as Osiris, more of a servant (or a pet) to the gods rather than a god himself.  Didn’t Dogan say that once Sayid’s infection reaches his heart he will be gone? Perhaps the reason Smokey is trapped on the Island is that he’s a servant of Jacob rather than a true rival. That’s why he could be summoned to protect the Island and that’s why he judged people – it was his job when Jacob was around. But now that Jacob’s gone, he’s free to devour all the hearts his little black heart desires. And I imagine in the Alt verse he’s been feasting for decades.
10. Where the heck were Sawyer and Jin during all this?Claire mentioned Sawyer and Jin before she went into the Temple, but where were they? Off on some super-secret Smokey mission? I’m looking forward to Kate’s reaction when she sees Sawyer again, provided Sayid or Claire don’t kill her first. Assuming she survives though, I do wonder if she’ll pick up on the fact that Sawyer’s probably conning Smokey and play along.The fact Jin is with Smokey and Sun is with the rebels makes me think Smokey’s going to eventually use him as leverage to recruit her. After all, you have to think Smokey will be taking out every potential candidate he can
11. Are all the Alt storylines starting to converge?Given the cliffhanger for this week’s Alt installment (Sayid finding Jin in his brother’s restaurant’s cold room), I have to imagine we’ll be seeing some of the Alt storylines come together since I can’t imagine they’d leave this one dangling. And if next week’s episode is as Ben-centric as the preview suggested, I have to imagine we’ll see some more of Alt Locke in his flashes.But now it seems to me that outside of Flight 815, the lives of all the people on the flight would have been connected even if they hadn’t crashed on the Island. Here’s a list of the familiar faces we’ve seen in the Alt verse storylines so far:

    Kate – Claire, Sawyer, Ethan
    Locke – Jack, Hurley, Rose, Ben
    Jack – Dogan, and likely Jack’s mystery wife
    Sayid – Jack (in a background cameo), Keamy, Jin

    So should we have an Alt Jin episode, we’ll probably get more of Alt Sayid. Alt Sawyer might bring more of Alt Kate, Alt Hurley might bring us more Alt Locke, etc. And the fact the lives of these people are so involved without Jacob’s influcence makes me think that might be the reason he chose them – since they were all going to be linked anyway, why not just bring them all along? Regardless I’m greatly looking forward to next week – I just hope present day Ben doesn’t die – we really haven’t seen much of him this season and his absence is felt.  (7-11 from Mistaking Coincidence for Fate)
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12. ”Locke” was stuck on the Island because Jacob was alive, now that Jacob is dead he’s free.  Not exactly news, but it’s nice that it was spelled out.
13. Dogen says “Locke” wants to destroy every living thing on the Island.  He seems content to leave his followers alive.  This is where we get into the old Lost hearsay conundrum.  What do we want to believe?  This guy was probably just trying to get Sayid to anger “Locke” into killing him.  So he might have just said these things to give Sayid a reason to plunge that knife in his chest.  Or maybe he’s saying that because it’s true.  Or maybe he’s saying it because that is what he was led to believe.  Every episode we face this same thing.  What do we want to believe?  “He is evil incarnate”.  Again, I tend to believe that, but it’s coming from a very biased and unreliable source.
14. Dogen’s death was very confusing.  “He was the only thing keeping (Smokey) out”.  I could have sworn that the ash was the only think keeping it out.  I guess Sayid might have messed up the ash, or Smokey managed to do it himself with all of his tree ripping.  But if Dogen was powerful enough to keep Smokey out then why was he afraid of getting killed by him if he left the Temple?  I think Dogen’s death was important in that it meant that Jacob’s power is crumbling, “Locke” is winning.
15. “Locke” promised Sayid that he could resurrect Nadia if Sayid would deliver a message.  He didn’t say that directly, but I think we all agree that that was what he meant.

16. Jacob promised Dogen that he would resurrect his dead son if Dogen would serve Jacob at the Temple or at least on the Island. This sounded a lot like the promise made to Juliet about her sisters cancer. Except that a resurrection is a lot crazier. I get why they had Dogen tell that story, they wanted to show the similarities between Jacob and “Locke” but I still really didn’t like that story. It makes things very complicated. I’m very tempted to not even believe that Jacob resurrected Dogen’s kid. But what’s worse, lying to a guy to get him to serve you or holding someones dead loved one over a persons head so that they have not choice but to serve you?

17. Here’s the thing, I know there are a few people that are slowly boarding the “Locke” train, but I think we should stop and take a step back. Here’s what we’ve seen him do so far. He’s held three different carrots in front of three different people. He told Sawyer that he would tell him why he was on the Island and he promised to get him off the Island, he promised Claire that he would get Aaron back from the Others, and he promised Sayid that he would resurrect Nadia. If you ask me all of those promises are lies. Maybe he’ll get off the Island, but it’s just as likely that he’ll stab Sawyer in the back in order to get off. It was a straight up lie that he would get Aaron back. He knew that Kate had Aaron, he has all the memories that Locke had. And if he could resurrect Nadia, then why didn’t he offer to resurrect Charlie and Juliet too? That would have been great incentive for Claire and Sawyer. He’s lying and you’re falling for it.

18. Here are the facts. Sayid was dead, and he miraculously came back to life. Since he came back to life he’s been through a lot, but at the moment he’s very evil. There’s no doubt about that.

    Claire was in a building that blew up. she may have died in that explosion, we don’t know. All we know is that after that she’s been acting odd. She is currently bat-shit crazy and also pretty evil (remember the axe? yeah).

    Dogen told us about the Infection, and although it’s easy not to believe him, I think we should believe him about this. These two were probably Infected and it seems as though both of them are now lost causes.

    In the last scene of this episode I wondered whether or not all The Others were infected too. That group was just very robotic and unquestioning. I wonder if the Infection can be spread like that. If so then I really worry about Sawyer, Jin and Kate. (12-18 from Not Confused Just Lost)

Lighthouse Recap

Feb 24

metalman777Lost recap, season 6 No Comments

“Lighthouse” is the 5th episode of Season 6 of Lost and the 108th produced hour of the series as a whole. It was first broadcast on February 23, 2010.  (Lostpedia.com)

1. In the Sideways world, Doc Shephard spotted his appendix scar in the mirror and struggled to recall the forgotten/suppressed memory of when the ruptured organ was removed. Again, he wondered: How did that get there? Again we wondered: What does it mean? This story ended with Jack looking into the episode’s most unusual and most miraculous of mirrors — the eyes of his son, David. What he saw in them was the very thing his Island self should have recognized in the Lighthouse: an invitation to let go of the past and move into the future.
2. You don’t have what it takes, Christian told Young Jack during a boozy stupor. That one left a mark. Father Shephard was actually trying to teach his son a lesson — that being a hero isn’t something you choose to be, but rather something that you just are, and that when you try to be a hero, and you fail, then what you become is a failure, at least in your own eyes, and that’s a mighty hard thing to live with, if you can live with it at all. If you’ve watched all of Lost, then you know the great irony of Christian’s harsh wisdom: Jack has pretty much proven his father correct. But did Christian correctly identify Jack’s fundamentally flawed nature — or did he nurture it with his problematic brand of parenting?
3. Anyway, this is all to say that the Sideways Jack that we got to know in ”Lighthouse” was a lot like the Castaway Jack we’ve come to know over the past five season, but also very different, in ways both obvious and not so obvious. (Has there ever been a less helpful sentence ever written than that last one?) We met him as he was washing a hard day’s work off himself and talking with his mother about the mystery of Christian’s missing coffin. Yep: still missing. Probably in Berlin, according to the airline, but nobody knew for sure. The Widow Shephard was flummoxed. How could someone possibly lose a dead body? The lack of resolution had left her proverbially paralyzed; she needed Jack’s help in settling Christian’s affairs. (In more ways than one.) It would be wrong to say Jack was unfazed by his father’s Lost-in-the-system corpse (he certainly seemed moved by his mother’s need), but at the same time I didn’t get the sense he was haunted by it, either.
4. But I wonder if the perplexing puzzle of Jack’s appendix scar told the real story of Jack’s seemingly mature serenity. Eyeballing the blemish, Jack suddenly realized he couldn’t recall when the damn thing has been cut out of him. His mother reminded him that it had happened when he was 7 or 8 years old, that he had collapsed at school and his father had wanted to perform the surgery himself but was denied. Now, we all know that the castaway version of Jack had his appendix removed on the Island back in season 4 (more on that episode in a sec), and I think Lost wanted us to once again wonder if these Sideways characters are psychically linked to their Island counterparts or possess their memories somewhere the backs of their fogged-up minds. Consider this: If we assume that Jack is about as old as Sawyer, then that means it’s very likely that Sideways Jack had his school collapse/appendix episode the very same year that a certain group of time traveling castaways were blowing up Jughead on the Island. What if Young Jack’s collapse was caused by Castaway Jack’s mind/soul getting blown into him? What if Young Jack’s appendicitis was reflexive a psychosomatic response to the appendix-free Castaway Jack’s sudden psychic migration into his mind? What if Castaway Jack’s mind/soul has lain dormant within Sideways Jack ever since, but now is starting to stir and take hold? What if Sideways’ Jack’s appendix confusion and other instances of spotty memory manifested in this episode are symptoms of an identity crisis caused by this trippy-tricky of mental operating systems?
5. For now, I’m going to say that the answer to every single one of those preceding ”What if…?” questions is a big fat NO. Instead, I’m going to say that Sideways Jack is a man who’s dangerously out of touch with his emotions and with others, because he’s a self-absorbed jerk, or because of pain he’s been spending most of his life trying to avoid, or both. As ”Lighthouse” progressed, we learned that Sideways Jack’s relationship with his father was also marked by fear and hurt; and so I wonder if a simple explanation for his fuzzy recall of the appendix drama was that he had suppressed the memory. The only psychic entity lurking within Sideway Jack is his own wounded child, and for his entire life, he’s kept him heavily tranquilized. His story in ”Lighthouse” was about choosing to recall and feel childhood pain, about rousing that sleeping, hurting kid… and then letting him go.
6. BURNING QUESTION: Who’s David’s Mom? Who’s the female participant in the creation of this inexplicably conceived Sideways child? Who’s this phantom woman that Sideways Jack was once with and now isn’t? Wouldn’t if be totally ironic and fitting if she was the Sideways iteration of Lost’s resident fertility doc/Jack dumpette, better known to us as Juliet? And you wanna know why she wasn’t home last night? That’s right, kids: Going dutch on coffee with new boyfriend Sawyer. (Your goosebumps? That’s right, I did that.)
7. Christian Shephard left something for Claire. My thought: Well, that answered that question. Sideways Dad was an intercontinental horndog, too
8. Jack arrived at the audition. He followed the sign directing ”the candidates” to the auditorium. Inside, Father Jack bore witness to his piano prodigy son exercising his awesome gift. It took his breath away. It was all very end-of-Billy Elliot. Jack swelled with pride, with joy, with selfless happiness for his son — with life. The piece: ”Fantasia Impromptu in C-sharp minor” by Chopin. Last season on Lost, another child prodigy played the same number for us. I am referring to Master Daniel Faraday in ”The Variable.” We remember his fate: how his mother cut him off his from art; how she redirected his brilliance toward physics in a doomed bid to save him from her future bullet; how she drove him and rode him and smothered him. He died, anyway. A failure, anyway. I felt Lost was offering a belated toast to the late Faraday in Sideways Jack’s surprising cross with Sideways Dogen, whose son was also auditioning for Williams. ”They are too young to have this kind of pressure,” Dogen said. ”It’s hard to watch and be unable to help.” Rest In Peace, Daniel. Sorry your Mom sucked. (I look forward to getting Island Dogen’s backstory and seeing how much of it ironically synchs with this small peek into his Sideways world.)
9. There was more to the statement, but let’s just begin with that phrase, an extraordinary admission of humility from a once-proud man of science who spent years arguing for the strength and supremacy of his own agency. But Jack’s full statement was: ”I came back here because I was broken, and I was stupid enough to think this place could fix me.” Jacob would later suggest to Hurley that Jack couldn’t be more wrong, but the good news was that Jack had grown enough in his journey to summon a magical beacon, one that could to light the way to the his journey’s homestretch. Literally.
10. Hurley thought — or hoped — that he could summon Jacob by cranking on a chain and turning the dial to its 108 setting. (Though I didn’t see it, the Web consensus seems to be that the name attached to this number was ”Wallace.”) But before the contraption could reach 108, Jack saw something in the mirrors — images of buildings that shouldn’t be there. He then got a scary thought: What would he see if he turned the dial to his number, 23. He pushed Hurley out of the way and changed the ”channel” and there on the ‘’screen” was a live shot of his childhood home. Jack then came to some conclusions. He concluded that the Lighthouse was a mystical surveillance device. He concluded that Jacob had used it to spy on him all his life. He concluded that Jacob wanted something from him, and he angrily demanded that Hurley summon Jacob ASAP to explain himself. Hurley explained that it didn’t work that way, that Jacob was a ghost — a sometimes there, sometimes not non-entity.
11. Meanwhile, Hurley and Jacob debriefed. Jacob seemed to suggest that contrary to Hurley’s panic (and armful of inky instructions), everything had gone according to plan. Jack was supposed to look in the magic mirrors. Jack was supposed to see what he saw. And maybe most importantly, Jack was supposed to have the response that he had, even at the expense of his magical mirror, mirrors on the Lighthouse walls. The purpose, I think, was to correct Jack of one misconception: He was not stupid to believe that the Island holds redemptive purpose for him. It does. Jack just needs to keep his eyes open and look for it. He also needs to do one thing more, and I think it’s the thing that Lighthouse mirrors were designed to show him. Hurley and Jack got it wrong. The Lighthouse doesn’t cast light outward. It casts light inward, and reveals the state of your heart. For Jack Shephard, his heart is still locked up in his childhood home, his father’s house, his past, and he won’t be free and realized until he leaves all of it behind.  (1-11 from Doc Jensen at EW.com)
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12. But at least somebody at the Temple is making productive use of time. Hurley and Miles are playing X’s and O’s! There’s no ambiguity in X’s and O’s. Two sides: one is X, one is O. And their game plays out in a similar manner as the one being played between the Man in Black and Jacob – endless ties, one always blocking the other’s “three in a row”. Of course, if you play X’s and O’s enough times, someone wins a game, often out of sheer carelessness on the part of the other player. Is this what’s happened between Jacob and MIB?
13. Speaking of which, what was Jacob doing? I’ve rewatched it a dozen times, and he appears to be swirling a piece of string or a thin stick in the waters of the Spring. Honestly, it looks like he’s fishing. I’m not sure what to make of that, although if I was pressed to make some comparison, the first thing that comes to my mind mind is Jesus Christ, not just a fisherman but a “fisher of men”, who recruits his followers and gives them tasks that they often don’t understand and end up failing at.
14. From Justin and Claire we’re given two slightly different accounts of what’s happened to Claire over the last three years. I think it’s fair to say at this point that Claire didn’t do any time-traveling during the season 5 flashes, as the group from Dharma times only arrived in 2007 a day or so ago, which wouldn’t have been enough time for Claire and the Temple Others to establish their current relationship (nor would Claire have had ample time to build a shelter and set traps if she had only recently flashed to 2007). I can only assume that Claire wasn’t subject to the time traveling because of some sort of interference from the Christian Shephard apparition, which I’m 99% sure was actually the Man in Black.
15. So for the last three years, Claire has lived from 2004 to 2007, running from the Others and was at one point captured by them. She tells Jin that they tortured her, even showing him the scars. Based on this and what Dogen said about Claire being infected, it seems that she underwent a similar test as Sayid. I have no doubt that she failed, too, but I’m less sure that that means either of them are actually infected, as I have yet to see them become corrupted by the Smoke Monster the way that the French Team was (though it’s certainly possible that this did happen to Claire – we now know who she’s been buddy-buddy with lately.
16. For the record, I don’t think Claire recalls it happening that way. Remember her emotionless, zombie-like appearance with Christian in “Cabin Fever”? Christian must have brainwashed her or altered her memory somehow (which could very well be a side effect of becoming infected – Sayid doesn’t really understand what’s going on, either). If apparitions of Christian are indeed the Man in Black, it makes sense what he was doing. By brainwashing Claire into thinking that the Others had her baby, he turned her against them permanently, thwarting any future attempts on the part of Dogen to gather all the Losties at the Temple for the forces of good. This is why he continued to appear to her as her “friend”, deliberately feeding her lies, recruiting her in his efforts against Jacob and the Temple.
17. Last but not least in this story thread, Flocke shows up at Claire’s camp and is heralded as a friend of hers. A quick tally: Sawyer is with Flocke, Claire is with Flocke, Kate is heading to her doom, the Temple is probably about to be destroyed and Sayid is infected. Whoever Jacob wants Hurley to guide to the island better be pretty vital for the forces of good.
18. Anyway, Wallace could turn out to be no one. Last week I made a huge fuss about Kate not being a candidate and this week, there she is – not crossed off, no important number, just kind of there. My point is that there might be less rhyme and reason to these names and numbers than we suspect. Then again, Damon and Carlton know we’d be on the lookout for 108, so I have a hard time believing it says “Wallace” for no reason  (12-18 by Robz888 on DarkUFO.com)
19. I’m starting to think that all the candidates are pieces of a Jacob-constructed Rube Goldberg machine, one where if everyone is placed in the correct spot at the correct time Smokey will be defeated and a new Jacob will take the Island’s helm. The side-effect of all this is that all the candidates’ lives will have been made miserable up to that point because of Jacob’s machinations in getting them there; Jacob essentially sacrificing the good of the few or the one for the sake of the world. That’s why, without Jacob’s influence, everyone’s lives are better in the Alt universe (except for Kate, perhaps).
20. So let’s say that’s true – that Jacob essentially made everyone’s lives miserable because it was necessary to defeat Smokey. In that case, I can see Jacob being responsible for Jack fixing Sarah, Locke having issues with his Dad, Hurley thinking he’s cursed, etc… all these awful things that Jacob was actually responsible for in order to get them to the Island. Now with Jacob’s influence gone in the Alt, everyone is actually a lot happier, but the Island is destroyed. What the ramifications of that are for the world we just don’t know yet
21. Another nice nugget of info this provides, though, is that if totally all of the candidates were written on the lighthouse turntable, then there are only 360 total. Lostpedia has an updated list of all the candidate numbers from Jacob (or Smokey’s) Wall. Looking it over, there’s only one number above 360: Daniel Faraday. And even that could be wrong, given how illegible some parts of the wall were. Also note: Kate’s name is in the lighthouse at #51 and is NOT crossed out. Interesting, eh?
22. I really, really liked Claire this episode and props to Emilie de Raven for playing crazy as well as anyone on the show. The sickness has turned out to be one of the most interesting things about this season. Smokey’s appearance and the fact Infected Claire knew that he wasn’t the real Locke certainly suggests the sickness is something caused by Smokey.But what exactly does it do? In Sayid’s case, he definitely died and came back to life infected. In Claire’s case, we’re really not sure. It certainly seemed she died from wounds inflicted in the attacks on the Barracks, after all, the Claire Locke saw with Smokey in Jacob’s cabin seemed eerily calm – much different from this Claire. And Sayid certainly seems normal so far as well. Whatever is does there’s a definite progression. But are they really dead, zombie-like creatures or merely corrupted souls (something like a Ringwraith perhaps, an evil servant of Smokey)? (19-22 from Mistaking Confidence for Fate)
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23. The first time I watched this episode I was pretty sure that Claire revealed that Christian and “Locke” are the same people.  But when I watched it again she clearly says that first Christian told her that The Others took Aaron and then her friend told her.  Her friend was revealed to be “Locke” so if we’re going to believe Claire then they are still separate people.  I don’t know what to think.  If there was ever a time to reveal that Christian was “Locke” then that was it.
24. Jacob was watching Jack’s old house.  It was a white house so it was a light house.  Get it?   HA HA HA… anyways.  Jack was enraged when he found out Jacob was watching him.  But the truth is that he might not have been watching Jack.  Doesn’t it seem more likely that he was watching Christian?  Jack only lived there as a kid.  For Jack’s sake I hope I’m wrong about that.  (23-24 from Not Confused Just Lost)
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25. The Annotated Alice: Jack says he read it to David, and we saw him reading it to Aaron when he was living with Kate.
26. Claire isn’t just kinda crazy… she’s totally batshit bonkers creepy-skeleton-head-baby-lovin’ super crazy
27. Jack found the key under the rabbit, just like Miles reached under a rabbit in “Some Like It Hoth” to get into that apartment with the dead man when he was a kid.
28. Jacob says that Jack is here because he has to do something, and that he needs to look at the ocean for a while… Locke looked at the ocean for a long time before he sensed his destiny on the island. We also saw the Man in Black staring at the ocean when he returned looking like Locke.  (25-28 from Nik at Nite)
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29. There was an amazing number of black and white references this episode, and most of them were in LAX_Jack’s world. All throughout his home we saw black and white, especially amongst the paintings, photos, frames, and wall hangings. Ditto for Jack’s black and white office. And the icing on the cake? All those various shots of piano keys.
30. Figuring out Jack’s color is tough right now. Like Sawyer, he’s walked both sides of the fence. He’s been a man of science and a man of faith, and he’s also someone who walks “among us but is not one of us”. I suppose all of these references could be pointing out that Jack’s final role has yet to be determined, or that maybe he’s being played by both sides of LOST’s game.
31. We’re seeing a very distinct pattern in the LAX timeline, and here it is in a nutshell: the circle can be broken. People can change. Mistakes don’t need to be repeated, over and over again. Some examples so far:

    * Kate Austin is a fugitive on the run, only looking out for herself. She glances into a garage mirror and… BANG! Kate heads back to bring pregnant Claire her stuff, help her through false labor, and befriend her during a major crisis… all at great risk to her personal safety. Cue Claire’s credit cards and a makeover shopping spree.

    * John Locke is the same angry and defiant cripple he’s always been. Still struggling against his paralysis he calls Jack’s number, looks into a mirror and… BANG! Locke suddenly hangs up the phone and embraces his condition. Helen loves and accepts him for who he is, there’s a nice tearful hug, and everything is unicorns and rainbows.

    * Jack Shephard is a workaholic surgeon neglecting a son he only sees once a month. He looks in the mirror and… well, you get the picture. With some help from his mother Jack realizes the error of his ways, eases up on young David, and opens his loving arms to his son. Time for ice cream and some hair-rumpling.

    This is some exciting news, actually. It may be proof that Jacob is right. People don’t always have to fight, corrupt, and destroy. By stopping to take a good look at what they’ve become, people can actually reverse bad behavior and start making positive changes to their lives. Maybe broken people can be fixed after all.

32. Here’s a phrase you’ve heard me say before: “placed into being by requirement”. Charlie’s guitar, Locke’s knives, Jack’s sewing kit, Rose’s husband, Yemi’s crashed plane, the black rock’s dynamite, a shitload of heroin, the Swan’s washer/dryer, Christian’s coffin, the food drop, Sun’s pregnancy test, the marshal’s Haliburton case, Anthony Cooper, Jacob’s cabin, IM chats with Walt, batteries, radios, guns, canoes, explosives, medicine, a spinal surgeon, Aaron himself… and now, a giant stone lighthouse.

    The end of LOST is near. Answers are bigger, and they’re right in front of our eyes. The reason we never saw the lighthouse until now is because our characters never needed the lighthouse until now. So was it always there? Shoot me, but I say NO.

33. Listen to Dogen talk to Jack about his son David, and how it’s unfair that he’s under such a tremendous amount of pressure. “It’s hard to watch, and not be able to help”. This simple statement is one of the fundamental principals of LOST. It’s almost as if Jacob is speaking through Dogen here, looking on helplessly but hopefully. Jack and the other candidates are like his children: he can only sit back and watch as they walk their paths in life, unable to do much of anything to help. He can only push or nudge them in the right direction, but he cannot directly interfere.

    Dogen’s final statement, “How long has he been playing?”, is much more than an innocent throwaway line of dialogue. It’s a direct reference to just how long LOST’s game has gone on, and how many times Jack himself has been through the loop. Iteration after iteration, Jack has been playing damned near forever. Yet perhaps this time through, maybe he’s come further than ever before. As the dark man told Sawyer last episode, “it would be a shame to turn back now after coming so far”.

    David is Jack’s direct reflection. To say what’s real or unreal is getting irrelevant at this late stage in the game. Suffice it to say that the Jack of this timeline – much like Kate and Locke – is finally learning. My guess is he’s gaining the important knowledge needed to go back to the island, where he’ll eventually win the war against Flocke and his recruits.

34. It was interesting to note Kate’s name on the wheel, at number 51. Even more interesting, her name was not crossed out. This reinforces my opinion from last recap: that although she’s not assigned one of the big six numbers, Kate is still a candidate. In fact, she’s a secret candidate, because the dark man knows only about Locke, Reyes, Jarrah, Shephard, Ford, and Kwon.

    So who’s coming to the island? Who’s number 108? The name on the wheel reads Wallace. Before I’d even seen the name, my money was on Desmond. Even afterward, I still like the idea that Desmond is on his way. He’ll arrive by boat, just as he did the last time he came to the island, just as the Oceanic six had to return by way of an airplane.  (29-34 by Vozzek69 at DarkUFO.com)
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35. In 6×05, The Lighthouse, we got to see… a lighthouse. The numbers corresponding in degrees to the heading of the lighthouse were affiliated with names… many familiar, some not. This seems to be a match with the numbers seen in the cave in the last episode. Of course, we also see that a person’s number can be dialed into and be observed from the lighthouse. Does it make any sense at all? Hmmmm…. no.  Click here to see close up pictures of the dial at Sledgeweb’s Lost Stuff

The Substitute Recap

Feb 17

metalman777Lost recap, season 6 No Comments

“The Substitute” is the 4th episode of Season 6 of Lost and the 107th produced hour of the series as a whole. It was originally broadcast on Feb 16, 2010. Locke goes in search of help to further his cause.  (lostpedia.com)

1. Officially, there was John Locke the Island adventurer, now a ripe, sun-bleached corpse buried six feet under on Boone Hill after Captain Frank Lapidus declared the impromptu graveside service ”the weirdest damn funeral” he’d ever been to. There was ”John Locke,” aka the Locke-ness Monster, the fearsome Island entity now wearing the Ben-murdered castaway’s visage, who oozed sincerity as he/it/whatever downloaded oodles of noodle-expanding mythology… although can we really trust him/it/whatever? And there was Sideways John Locke, a tough and tender man, so superior to his dead Island doppelganger in many ways, save possibly one. We met him as he fell flat on his face, yet another humiliation for a soul who seems to be destined to suffer a daily diet of humiliations no matter which ”island universe” he happens to reside upon. But this John Locke can laugh when the fates make fun of him. This John Locke has the self-awareness and strength to grow and change. And this John Locke is loved, and better, he knows it, and we were reminded last night how much we need that kind of love, both to flourish and survive.
2. Sideways John Locke had self-confidence, self-awareness, and a genuine self. He also enjoyed the security of knowing he was loved by his soulmate, Helen. But I wonder if that’s part of the important point of these parallel world stories. Lost is creating the means for us to see these too-familiar people with fresh eyes. By presenting them as something profoundly different, as profoundly ”Other,” the castaways are revealed anew, or perhaps even for the first time, by the comparison.
3. We were told nothing about how this Locke and Helen met. But we were told they have an October wedding date, and given that it’s late September in the Sideways world, I’m predicting that their Big Day will serve as a key moment for the entire Sideways arc — perhaps the time and place when all the disparate story lines will converge. Does Sideways Locke have a better relationship with his father than Island Locke had? It’s possible. When Helen suggested they elope after a frustrating phone call with a caterer, she pitched him on the idea of bringing Papa Locke along for the ride. John didn’t respond to the mere mention of his existence by involuntarily punching her in the face, so I’m guessing Sideways Anthony Cooper had nothing to do with crippling his son. ARE YOU THINKING WHAT I’M THINKING? We know from season 1 that Boone Carlyle’s mother, Sabrina Carlyle, owned a massively successful wedding business, and that Boone served as the company’s chief operating officer. Methinks the Carlyle family biz will play a role in solving Helen’s catering crisis…
4. But this was a clearly a Locke who didn’t believe in higher power-directed fate like his dead Island world counterpart. I thought it was interesting the way he described the walkabout later in the episode. He called it ”an adventure” about ”man versus nature.” By contrast, when Island Locke described the Walkabout in the classic season 1 episode of the same name, he called it ”a journey of spiritual renewal, where one derives strength from the earth and becomes inseparable from it.” Island Locke wanted to be feel connected to the world, to something bigger than himself; Sideways Locke wanted to feel his own strength, to feel whole again — to feel like a man.
5. How to account for the discrepancies between the two Lockes? There were a couple moments when I wondered if Sideways Locke had learned a thing or two from the experiences of his Island doppelganger via… quantum entanglement? Psychic connection? Past-life memories? (”When we’re puzzled we have all the stories that have been handed down from people who had the same problems.” — A Serious Man) Still, this matter of cross-universe connection was hard to say this week. For the third straight episode, the episode’s lead character was given a conspicuous moment in the bathroom, looking long and hard in the mirror. Where Jack saw an explicable (continuity) flaw on his skin and Kate watched herself flutter through the déjà vu blinky-blinkies, Locke struck a more conventional, contemplative pose, absent of any hint that he might be aware of his Island self. Which makes sense, given that Island Locke is, like, dead.
6. he curious thing about both photos: Locke appeared to be standing. When and how did Locke become dependent on a wheelchair for pedestrian perambulation? TBD. Island Locke didn’t get thrown out of that eighth-floor window by Bad Dad leaving him below-the-belt paralyzed until after Helen dumped his father-fixated ass. So it appears that Locke’s loss of lower legs was a trauma that he and his soul mate experienced together.
7. Was it just me, or did you get a Jacobesque vibe from Hurley, all empathetic benevolence as he responded to his ex-employee’s prickly anger with patience and grace and supreme knowingness and the hooked him up with a new job via his temp agency, another division of Hurley’s financial empire? Watching this scene, I couldn’t help but think about Helen’s earlier line about destiny. And I found myself flashing back to this scene later in the episode, when Helen challenged Locke’s incredulity about miracles. Was the Locke-Hurley crossing total coincidence, quantum synchronicity, or divinely orchestrated appointment? An elemental faith/reason debate worthy of old school Lost.
8. Yep, he lied to Boone on the plane. Like his Island counterpart, Sideways Locke was denied his outback adventure. And like his Island counterpart, Sideways Locke raged in response: ”Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” But this John Locke is capable of reflecting upon moments and realizing: My god, I must have sounded like… a big douche! Interesting that in an episode that saw the Locke-ness Monster spout Locke’s famous catchphrase, Sideways Locke came to the same conclusion about his situation that Smokey articulated in the premiere. They were right to deny me the walkabout, because it’s true — there are things I simply can’t do. He told Helen he was sick of daydreaming about life outside his chair, tired of imagining himself walking her down the aisle on their wedding day. He wanted to move into the liberating grace of brutal truth about himself and move on with his life. He asked Helen to do the same: ”I don’t want you to spend your life waiting for miracles, Helen, because there is no such thing.”
9. For now, though, John Locke is a man of science. Literally. You caught that, right? He accepted a job as substitute teacher. Subject: Biology. First lesson: the human reproductive system. It also looked like he was either teaching physical education or coaching basketball. There were some deeply embedded ironies here. FLASHBACK WHOOSH TO… the season 4 episode ”Cabin Fever,” in which Teenage Locke was encouraged by a teacher to cultivate his natural talent for science by attending a summer camp run by Mittelos Biosciences, the Others’ company that recruited miracle-grow fertility doc Juliet Burke to The Island. But Locke didn’t want to hear that. He wanted to drive fast cars and play sports. When he was told his dreams were unrealistic, Young Locke bellowed, ”Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” What a difference a (Jughead-spawned?) parallel reality makes. Here in the Sideways world, Locke is teaching science, teaching sports, and looking very much like a man who just found his niche. Of course, there’s still ample time for his born again life to go horribly wrong. After all, he’s now working with Benjamin Linus….
10. I thought this was an interesting newsflash from Ilana: Smokey is losing his shapeshifting mojo. By choosing Locke has his avatar, he’s becoming stuck with it, and you really got the sense that this god-like entity was settling into his new skin, his new home. But I also wondered what else Smokey might lose as he becomes more human. Will he lose the ability to turn to smoke and snake and coil through the jungle? Too bad, because that effect was pretty damn neat. But did you wonder as I did if perhaps some vestige of John Locke that got absorbed by Smokey along the way might be ”infecting” him to ironically appropriate some Island parlance? I got that latter vibe from the moment when we heard Un-Locke bellow, ”Don’t tell me what I can’t do.”
11. Sawyer became a dark knight of faith, a sinister ‘’substitute” for the deceased Locke. Or so I think the show made it seem….
12. UnLocke is old
    He told Sawyer that he was a reader — but that Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, published in 1937, was after his time.
13. UnLocke used to be a man
    ”What I am is trapped,” Fake Locke told Sawyer at one point when James grew frustrated and pulled a gun on the Monster. (I was like, SHOOT HIM! Just see what happens!) ”I’ve been trapped for so long I don’t even remember what it feels like to be free. Maybe you understand that. But before I was trapped I was a man just like you. I know what its like to feel joy to feel pain, anger, fear, to experience betrayal. I know what it’s like to lose someone you love….” My gut is that hardcore Lost theorists will be pulling these lines apart, looking for clues they can research in hopes of ascertaining the Monster’s true identity. My guess is that we won’t find it in a book… but if we could, I’m betting that Un-Locke is either… Cain or Abel. I’ll explain why next week in my Doc Jensen column.
14. UnLocke and Richard have a special relationship
    The Monster stated again that he wants to leave the Island and go home. He told Richard that he wanted him to come along. Richard adamantly refused. More than that, Richard was pretty damn confused by almost everything FLocke was telling him, most importantly the whole concept of ”candidates,” Jacob’s picks for replacing him as Island protector (again, provided we can trust Un-Locke).
15. UnLocke is haunted by a ghost
    Smokey saw and was deeply ruffled by a vision of a sandy-haired boy with bloody hands wearing Others garb. He was also deeply bothered by the fact that Sawyer could see him, too. (If the boy is dead and appearing in spectral form, does that man that Sawyer has developed Hurley-like see dead people powers?) The boy later ventured close to Un-Locke, this time with no blood in his hands, and warned him that he could not kill him. THEORY: The boy functions as a referee in the Jacob-Man In Black skirmish. He got that honor because the boy represents the first person the Man In Black ever killed
16. The White and Black Rocks
    What Smokey Said: Upon arriving in Jacob’s cave, Un-Locke spotted two large stones, one white and one black, sitting on a scale. He grabbed the white rock and threw it out into the sea. Sawyer asked: Huh? Un-Locke replied, ”Inside joke.”
    Percentage Chance I Believe Smokey: 100% Or maybe 0%, because I got the sense from Smokey’s angry toss that this so-called ”inside joke” wasn’t all that funny for him. My guess is — obviously — that the white rock represented Jacob, and that tossing that rock was symbolic of Fake Locke’s (apparent) victory, and, perhaps, his rejection of the white/black categorization of his morality and his relationship with Jacob. My guess is also that whenever and whatever was decided between Jacob and his nemesis — the nature of their conflict/game; the roles they would play; the rules they would play by — it was all hashed out and settled in the cave, and the deal was sealed with some ceremonial putting-rocks-on-a-scale thing.
17. The Numbers
    What Smokey Said: Lost fans, prepare to rethink your Valenzetti Equations. With a dramatic reveal of the cave’s ceiling, we learned that Jacob assigned each of his potential replacements a number. He wrote their digits next to their last names on the ceiling of his cave with chalk. Locke: 4; [Hurley] Reyes: 8; [James ''Sawyer''] Ford: 15; [Sayid] Jarrah: 16; [Jack] Shephard: 23; [Jin or Sun?] Kwon: 42. Why? Un-Locke shrugged. ”Jacob had a thing for numbers,” he said.
    PCIBS: 49% It’s not that I think Jacob doesn’t have a thing for numbers — I just think that Jacob has good reason for assigning numbers to his candidates, and more, that Un-Locke knows what that reason is and isn’t telling Sawyer. DEBATE! Where’s Kate? (1-17 from Doc Jensen at ew.com)
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18. I haven’t had a chance to totally go over The Wall frame-by-frame (but Dark UFO has screencaps if you’re interested), but it seems nearly everyone on Flight 815 (or at least everyone who survived) was a candidate to replace Jacob (which seems very Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to me – who’s going to give up theirEverlasting Gobstopper, eh)? The Numbers represent six of our favorites:4 – Locke
    8 – Hurley
    15 – Sawyer
    16 – Sayid
    23 – Jack
    42 – Sun or Jin

    Locke’s name is now crossed out and I imagine Sayid’s name will be too now that he’s infected. And if Sawyer goes along with Smokey and doesn’t double cross him (which is a distinct possibility, don’t forget), Sawyer will also be out. This leaves Hurley, Jack and Sun or Jin. As for the latter two, I’m thinking it’s Jin since Sun wasn’t transported back in time on Flight 316. Of course, neither was Frank and he’s a candidate according to Ilana, but perhaps she hasn’t seen an updated list yet. Another possibility: Jacob did touch both Sun and Jin – maybe they can only be a candidate together.

19. And moreover, why is Smokey stuck as Locke now? I guess he won’t be impersonating Christian again anytime soon. So what do we know about the rules so far:1) Smokey isn’t allowed to kill Jacob unless he finds a loophole
    2) Smokey isn’t allowed to leave the Island
    3) Smokey isn’t allowed to kill the candidates (at least certain ones)

    We can probably also add that Smokey has to protect the Island when summoned (as Ben did in the Barracks) and he needs help in order to leave the Island (which seems why he’s trying to “recruit” Sawyer and Richard).

20. So is the Island simply a giant prison for Smokey with Jacob as the warden?Seems like it right now. And this also explains Smokey’s snarky comment to Richard in LA X where he comments that it’s good to see him “out of those chains,” with the chains being his servitude to Jacob.
21. are the Numbers just related to the candidates or are they really part of the Valenzetti Equation as well?You can click the link above for the full lowdown on Valenzetti, but the short of it is:
    

    According to the 1975 orientation film in the Sri Lanka Video, the Valenzetti Equation “predicts the exact number of years and months until humanity extinguishes itself.” During the video, Alvar Hanso also states that the radio transmitter on the Island, will “broadcast the core numerical values of the Valenzetti Equation.” The numbers,4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42, are explained in the Sri Lanka Video, as the numerical values to the core environmental and human factors of the Valenzetti Equation. Alvar Hanso also states in the video that the purpose of the DHARMA Initiative is to change the numerical values of any one of the core factors in the equation in order to give humanity a chance to survive by, effectively, changing doomsday.

    Now these explanations are not mutually exclusive. I could easily see Jacob’s six candidates as being the variables that could prevent Doomsday (Smokey) from destroying the world. The interesting thing to me is that you need to change one of the variables to prevent destruction. Is this what Jacob is trying to do, get the candidates to change, possibly through redemption on the Island? I think that’s a really, really neat concept, don’t you?  (18-21 from Mistaking Confidence With Fate)

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22. “You know the rules…”
    Rules! They were first mentioned by Ben when Alex was killed and he muttered that Widmore had changed the rules. There’s always been a link between the Widmore/Ben war and the Jacob/MiB one, and in “The Shape of Things to Come,” Ben tells Widmore that he knows Ben can’t kill Widmore, and in “The Incident,” the MiB can’t kill Jacob. Here the mini-Jacob tells Not-Locke that he knows he can’t kill him. Does this mean that Jacob is only merely dead, and is NOT most sincerely dead?
23. Someone pointed this out in the comments: have you noticed, by the way, that the flashbacks are following the same sequence as S1? First ep a two-parter that covered off many of the survivors, ep 3 a Kate-centric one, ep 4 a Locke-centric one… does this mean next week is Jack-centric and the following week will focus on Sun? Presumably ep 7 won’t be about Chah-lie…
24. The loopy career counsellor who asks Locke what animal he would describe himself as was the fake fortune-teller that Papa Reyes hired to try to trick Hurley in “Tricia Tanaka Is Dead.”
25. I’m thinking Locke didn’t end up in the wheelchair because his father threw him out a window this time. Perhaps Cooper was still behind it somehow, but why else would Helen say they should invite his dad and her parents to a shotgun wedding? (Unless of course she meant that the shotgun was aimed at Cooper.)  (22-25 from Nik at Nite)
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to see some great screen caps about the mystery ghost boy, click here.

to see more screen caps of Jacob’s master list in the cave, click here.

Episode 5 trailer: