LOST Thoughts For S6E17 The End May 23rd, 2010 Part Four

I promised to be done with the last post but I just wanted to pass along some final thoughts. I don’t want to come off like one of those fanboys that spend WAAYYY too much time analyzing something but I gotta put on the whole BIG DORK button and wear it proud for this show. LOST spoke to a need in the television landscape. It was one of those shows that redefined how a story could effectively be told with compelling characters and intricate plot lines. The fact that it bordered on Science Fiction, Drama, Comedy, and Fantasy all made for a nice blend of genres that could attract any number of fans. At times it was tedious and I know a few people who gave up along the way.

However, like the island, the show had a source, a bright warm light that represented life, death, redemption, corruption, pop culture, religious themes, mysticism, literature, science, mathematics, logic, and plain old pulp. It went beyond its 60s and 70s B Grade predecessors like Lost in Space, Gilligan’s Island, Land of the Lost and even The Prisoner. It also combined elements of shows from the 80s and 90s like The X-Files and Twin Peaks to give it that edge. It was as ground breaking as Star Trek for including characters from all walks of life on the show as well as the people who portrayed them. You had actors from England, Australia, Canada, Korea, Brazil, Croatia, Scotland, Venezuela, and of course The U.S. There were social and ethnic issues surrounding the castaways predicament. LOST encapsulated a lot of the world we know into a microcosm of isolation and constant threat to survival, doled out in 121 hours, over six seasons spanning over 2000 years of storytelling. That’s quite an accomplishment for a show that was worried about being picked up and even proposed killing off it’s man character in the pilot. How ironic would that have been?

When I first posted my thoughts about the finale I ran down the pilot and much of the first season in order to wax nostalgic. Here I thought I would speak to the finale, "The End", and pass along a few of my personal insights, because, as you know, I am the pinnacle of compelling bloggers… pffft!

On the island we have a final standoff. Jack believes that Desmond is the key to killing Locke (MiB) and MiB believes that Desmond is the key to destroying the island. Desmond thinks he is going to go down a rabbit hole and meet up with his sideways self. This is one of the big problems I had with the whole coming together of both timelines. Desmond admits to Jack that he’s going to go to a place where everything is peaceful and he’s with his loved ones. And you and I were sitting on Oceanic 815 and we had a conversation, and you were there, and you were there. But Desmond was wrong. He simply pulled the plug on the island. So, did Desmond have an out of body experience when he was subjected to Widmore’s experiment?

Soon, the island began a quaking as if the source of the island’s life blood was the waters themselves. Pulling the plug left the island and its inhabitants vulnerable. The ultimate question of bragging rights was about to unfold. MiB revels in his premature victory telling Jack he was wrong. Jack, pissed off as hell tackles MiB and punches him. Blood shows up. He’s human again. Without the island’s source he’s just a man. He quickly makes his escape where Jack and MiB fight until MiB delivers a knife to the ribs, another Christian image. Then, Kate shoots him in the back. Jack kicks MiB over the cliff just like MiB kicked Jacob into the fire. MiB’s… err Locke’s body falls, as if out a window, to the rocks below.  However, this time, no one is around to touch him, resurrecting him as it were. MiB is finally dead. Plans are changed, last minute escapes are made, people stay behind. Ben chooses to go down with the ship, as does Hugo. Jack decides that his reign as King of the Island is short lived and passes the torch to the rightful heir, Hugo. It was always meant to be Hugo. He said he didn’t want it, but it needed to be him. He just needed to be persuaded. Jack was dying and the island needed a protector. Jack and Hugo both let go. Jack took the baton from Desmond and plugged the whole. “You have to lift it up" would have been a great line from Desmond at this point or from Jack, even, trying to help Desmond get into the rope sling. In any case, Jack did what he had to do and was now free to die. So, he made his way back past his father’s shoe, still hanging in the tree three years later. He took his original spot on the ground with Vincent, again, by his side and with witnessing the plane with his friends leaving for good, he realized his death was not for nothing as MiB told him. He could die, he finally fixed everything.  Hugo, now King of the Island chose Ben as his number 2, a fitting redemption for a man who did everything he did, good and bad, for the island.  He finally got his shot to be special.  He was never meant to be a leader but someone willing to show from experience how things should be done.   If anything, I fully expect the Harlem Globetrotters to show up not that Hugo is in charge.

I said before that I really loved the finale as a standalone episode. The afterlife, flash forwards, sideways world, etc. was a great complimentary bookend to the pilot episode. But coupled with the action of the island coming apart and the final battle for the lives of the castaways and perhaps the world as MiB tries to escape was all caddywampus. Don’t bother looking up that word. It only exists in Colloquialville. The two halves did not make a symmetrical whole. The ending was like Chinese food. I liked it. It filled me up, and then I was pissed because I was still hungry and it was all gone.

Often times shows become self aware of their impact and their own existence. Sometimes they end up playing off of that vibe and become self referential or a parody of themselves as the go to lengths to break the fourth wall. To give an example, two of my favorite shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural make references to them ‘being’ a television show with nearly the same line. Buffy’s sixth season made the quip, “Dawn's in trouble. Must be Tuesday." Supernatural’s latest season dealt with Christian religion and the apocalypse and one of the characters said, “Another Horseman. Awesome. Must be Thursday.” Both shows aired on days listed in the quotes. It’s all rather Brechtian or Pirandelloesque, I suppose. Sometimes the breakdown of what is fiction and what is real becomes silly as such was the case with an episode of Charles in Charge where Scott Baio’s character walks off set in one direction only to reenter from outside the “house” in an admittance that the entire house is simply a set with a backstage area beyond every door and that this is indeed a television show. To another end with LOST's farewell tour, people speculated the “Christian” implications of the publicity stills showing the cast in a sort of Last Supper scene, having dinner and breaking bread. “Oh his leg is hidden” or “She’s giving a look downward.” "These things must mean something." Nope. It was just what it was, the last supper for the cast, a nod to their fate as well as the show.

But in this episode the characters all experience a moment of realization where their lives in the world of the island connect the dots back to their time in Purgatory. It then becomes a sort of nod to the show ending as characters kind of reminisce with each other in their new found ‘awakening.’ The characters seem to detach themselves from the action and wax nostalgic with each other as if they were the actors playing them instead. When Jack finally gets it, he joins the others in a gathering, a sort of farewell tableau in the church, which incidentally looked much like the seating on a plane. As Christian Shephard opens the doors at the back of the church, it sets the tone for the cast to be captured one last time on screen together, like a yearbook photo. The show was ending and we were seeing their lives play out as characters and actors in a show that had a huge cultural impact. It was a chance to let them accept their fate. The remembered connections which allowed the characters to move on could have just as well meant the actors remembering their greatest hits on the show. Sometimes, for an actor, it’s hard to let go of a show or project that you’ve worked on for a while. You become so intertwined with the characters, the fans, the media, and the impact that you find it hard to separate from the role and move on to a new life. For some, they feel as if they aren’t ready to move on and kind of linger in that nostalgic place that they created, kind of like Ben choosing to hang out a bit and work on some things. He probably meant atonement for Rousseau and Alex.

I fought long and hard to understand why certain people were in the church and others weren’t. I especially had a hard time realizing what Desmond and Eloise were speaking of in regards to his meddling and her son. I think she knew all too well what she was experiencing and was afraid that moving on would leave her and her son in a fixed state, still broken. After all, she shot him in the past and even sent him to his eventual death in the present. Maybe she just wanted some time to enjoy the reunion. As it was, Daniel and Charlotte didn’t have that moment like Sawyer and Juliet or Charlie and Claire. Maybe they weren’t ready to take that next step. They certainly weren’t ready in real life as they never got together before Charlotte died. And where were Miles and his father? They weren’t in the church and neither was Michael or Walt. Miles didn’t have his moment of enlightenment. Not sure when he would have had it since he already had a pretty decent relationship with his Dad. Perhaps that was by design. Michael was not in the church because he is still a whisper on the island, unresolved in his sins. Walt… who knows? There is supposedly going to be a 20 minute extra on the DVD that kind of wraps things up. Sounds like a patch or a hot fix to satiate fan ire.

So, this is it. Time to let go. I could speak forever about LOST and this episode; good and bad, but I think it’s time to move on. Thanks to the cast and crew for some of the best television I’ve had the pleasure of watching. Maybe, with it over, I can supplant LOST with something else that is worthy of the mysteries and theories and wasted hours of blogging.  Perhaps Flashforward… um, Happy Town… um never mind.



Namaste!

LOST Theories For S6E16 What They Died For May 18th, 2010

Responsibility. We all have responsibilities. I have ones to my work and my family. I also have a responsibility to act a certain way in accordance to rules established by society. For the island, responsibility plays a role in what the island is. There is someone responsible for protecting it and making sure that no one tries to destroy it. Desmond had a responsibility for pushing the button, like the castaways did for a season. Sawyer felt he was responsible for the deaths of Frank (maybe), Jin, Sun, and Sayid. Hurley feels he is responsible for making sure that Jacob’s wishes are carried out. It all comes back to having a stake in something. To that end. Jack feels it’s his responsibility to become the island protector. This is a huge ‘fix’ for him because he had been trying so hard to get off the island and now he’s going to stay there for a very long time.

DESMOND
Desmond still has some huge part to play and I feel that he will end up dying in the end. It’s his sacrifice that will allow Jack or whoever to kill MiB once and for all. But should he be killed? (More on that in a bit) So, who let him out? Did the Losties get there and rescue him ahead of MiB and Ben? Or did Sayid leave him a rope to help himself while he went off to play suicide savior?

In the Alterverse, Desmond tries to nail Locke again in the wheelchair, and I had to chuckle when he started up the car because I was so thinking that the same damn thing was going to happen. However, Ben, of all people, shows up to stop him and gets beat up by Desmond in two universes and that flicks on the Déjà vu switch that shows Ben his other self. How much does he know, though? It seems as if there is an ability to gain more memories than just what are shown in the flashes as evidenced by Hurley’s recognition of Ana Lucia. For that matter, Desmond knows more than he was originally shown because he has become a sort of shepherd, going after the rest of the castaways to show them the way.

MIB’S PLAN
All this time we’ve been wondering how Smokey, or whatever I choose to call him in this paragraph, plans to get off the island. I’ve been speculating that by simply turning the Donkey Wheel everyone could have been off the island in Season One but maybe that is not the case. Or it’s just a continuity error in the show. However, it seems as if this is Smokey’s only chance since all other means of escape are gone. But his plan had some snags along the way. First, Desmond was supposed to be killed by Sayid because he was a possible candidate, or so he thought. Turns out, Desmond is more. He is a failsafe. A key around the neck of Jacob that can make this all go away. I find it ironic that Desmond and Locke were both in the hatch when it blew in Season Two. Locke destroyed the computer controlling the button and Desmond had to use the failsafe key to release the built up electromagnetic energy. Here, it appears that once again, Locke, now Smokey, will try to destroy the island at its source and Desmond might be how he chooses to do it.

THE CHOOSEN ONE
First off, let me say that I have not been a fan of Kate since she started playing the middle of the road between Jack and Sawyer. Last night was a prime example of why I don’t like her. “What about me?” While Jacob gave her a more straightforward and kinder answer than he gave Ben back in the end of Season Five, I still felt as if she was whining. A friend pointed out that after all this trouble, she deserved to know why her name was crossed off the list. Frankly, I never thought she would have been the chosen one I am glad she’s not. She doesn’t exactly like to do what she’s told to do.

You have to love Hurley. He has been burdening such a load since the show began. He started the Island Golf League to help them blow off steam. He felt that he needed to destroy the food from the hatch pantry because it would have been gone quickly and people would have been mad at him. He feels unlucky at every turn and feels responsible for the bad things that have happened to those he cares about. The fact that he knows he has limits and doesn’t like to leave his comfort zone is evidenced ad he did not volunteer for the job of island janitor. But Hurley may be the best person of all in the world. It’s kind of like he has all the qualities that make an excellent leader except the desire to be one.

Sawyer is a candidate but still would never take the job of island protector, even though he’s been shown to serve and protect the Dharma Initiative and the people of Los Angeles in the job of law enforcement. But, he still wants off the island and he knows that taking this job saddles him on that rock for a long time.

Kwon was a name on the wall in the cave but we didn’t know which one it referred to. Was it Jin or Sun? Guess it doesn’t matter now because they both drowned in the sub. However, given that Kate was disqualified on account she was a “mom” leads me to believe that Sun would have been DQ’d as well. For that matter, Littleton was also a name but since she was a mother it was crossed out as well as Kates. So that leaves Jin, right? Why not say he’s disqualified for being a father? That leaves Ji Yeon and now that she’s an orphan, she could be a prime candidate, but Jack already stepped up.

In perhaps one of the biggest reveals of all, we finally get the low down on Jacob’s process. He chose people who were flawed yet had all the same qualities as him. They were unhappy where they were at and needed the island as much as the island needed them. Kate was on the run, Sawyer was filled with vengeance, Hurley was unlucky, Jack had father issues and a failed marriage. The Kwons were troubled by their families and their own problems. Sayid was haunted by his past and his search for Nadya made him melancholy. Michael had issues with his son and their relationship. Locke had a need to prove he was capable and was constantly put down. I could go on but there is your core castaways.

THEORY DEBUNK TIME
“Dr. Linus”

1. Widmore is able to find the island because:


1. He is the friend Jacob was guiding towards the island and his name is actually Wallace
2. Desmond is on that sub and his name his family name is actually Wallace.
3. Locke-Ness has killed Jacob leaving the island unveiled and seen by Widmore
4. He went to the Lamp Post

Ding Ding Ding. We have a winner. A: Jacob invited Widmore back. What that has to do with the name Wallace, I have no idea. Perhaps it means nothing. Perhaps by moving the dial to Wallace it was the only way to go past Shepherd giving Jack his much needed glimpse of responsibility.

“The Package”

2. Zoe is


1. A pain in the ass
2. The key to everything
3. A red herring
4. A geophysicist with a knack for finding pockets of electromagnetic energy.

Guess A: will have to be good enough as she is now dead. Yeah. I really hated her. She had no purpose. What the hell was she looking for anyway in Ben’s house? She said she was there looking for something and we never found out what that was. Oh well. She was the Nikki/Paulo of this season and the island demanded her disposal.

“The Candidate”

3. The next Jacob will be?


1. Jack (Sayid said it and he keeps saying he is not leaving the island.)
2. Locke (No not the Locke from the OT, Locke from The Alterverse. Somehow the two timelines will converge and Locke in the ALT will do battle with his doppelganger.)
3. Desmond (Jack must shepherd him from the well to a spot of concentrated electromagnetic energy in order to accept Jacob into his being.

Does anyone else get the feeling that the everyone on the list is not actually a list of candidates but a list of people who will be used to get the candidate into position? Once they fulfill their role, they are killed and removed like fallen pieces on a chessboard.

Yep. A: is the answer and my footnote was basically proven by Jacob’s revelations.

NEW THEORY TIME
Not much I haven’t already stated. I will throw out these little theories and hope that they come true.

1. MiB will attempt to leave the island:


1. Via the donkey wheel.
2. Via Ajira 316 which will be disarmed.


2. The Alterverse Castaways are going to:


1. Meet up on a boat to go to the spot where the island should be.
2. Fly in another plane and somehow get back to the sunken island.


3. MiB will attempt to destroy the island by:


1. Throwing Desmond down the 100 watt cave.


4. MiB will be killed by:


1. Blown up by the remainder of the C4 making Ben a suicide bomber who decides to kamikaze Smokey.
2. Jack will go all Neo on him like he did Mr. Smith
3. He won’t. Everything will simply go back to the way it was.


5. The Survivors will leave the island by:


1. Ajira 316. Frank really isn’t dead and has been spending the last two episodes disarming the bomb. He’ll show up at the last minute like Bishop did in Aliens.
2. Penny will arrive on Penny’s Boat and rescue them but will lose Desmond.
3. Each one will take a turn on the Donkey Wheel.