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 Thoughts For S6E17 The End May 23rd, 2010 Part Three

So, how did I do in my predictions of what was going to happen this season? I’d give myself a C. I know that’s kind of vanilla but I was really way off on some of my theories. I could have never seen the big reveal with the Alterverse coming. That was a pretty nice touch.

Here’s the rundown of the remaining theories I had out there.

“Sundown”

1. The Flash Lefts are not reality and are just a metaphysical construct brought on by the MiB (Kind of like the Matrix) and Jack is becoming more aware of this in the Flash Lefts.

Result: DING! WRONG!
They were dead and the flash lefts, alterverse, etc. was a construct of their souls as a meeting place to find each other and make a spiritual connection in order to remember their lives so that they could move on to the afterlife. I don’t know if some accepted spiritual or religious doctrine speaks to this as a version of purgatory or the afterlife, but I connected with an 80s movie when I found out what the alternate timeline was. Made In Heaven was a movie with Timothy Hutton and Kelly McGillis as people who meet and fall in love each other after they are dead. McGillis’ character has not yet earned her wings and must do a tour of duty on Earth in order to do so. Hutton convinces the powers that be to send him to Earth, too but they will have no recollection of each other. They now have 30 years to find each other on Earth and fall in love or be fated to an unhappy life. Not quite the same thing but it came to my mind seeing how the characters didn’t remember one another.

“Dr. Linus”

1. The island sank after the Dharma Initiative left due to:
   
   1. The Incident minus the Jughead. Most DI non essential personal were off the island prior (Amy, Horace, Roger, Ben)
   2. The building of The Swan by the DI which hit the pocket of energy and with no way to contain it (i.e. Jughead, button) the island sank but not before Dharma Initiative were able to escape.

Result: WRONG! WRONG!
The sunken island was not real. And had it sunk for realsies it would have been because that stone carrot was removed.

2. Roger and Ben left the Dharma Initiative because:
   
   1. Roger did not want to be a Workman anymore and Horace couldn’t convince him to stay or was not there due to the birth of Ethan off island.
   2. He was fired.

Result: WRONG! WRONG!
They were dead.

“Happily Ever After”

1. Desmond is going to:
   
   1. Be the package.
   2. Deliver the package.
2. And his sacrifice will be:
   
   1. Die in the process.
   2. Become the new Jacob.
   3. Keep the alterverse the way it is.

Result: WRONG! on both parts.
Well, except if you count “being the package.”

3. Sayid is:
   
   1. Evil.
   2. Pulling a Sonny Crockett and playing evil
   3. Just plain crackers

Result: WRONG!
Redeemed.

4. The experiment was meant to:
   
   1. Show Desmond the alterverse and allow his doppelganger to realize the truth.
   2. Simply show that he can withstand a C.E.E. so that he can interact with the “Hot Pocket.”

Result: Indirectly DING! DING!
I was right on both counts but his doppleganger did not realize the truth because of this, it was just because of Charlie making the connection to his death on the island.

5. 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

Result: DING! DING!
Although I don’t know why, since we never found out what he planned to do with Desmond once he got to the island.  And I don't know that Wallace ever had anything to do with anything.  In fact, I don't really know what the purpose of the lighthouse really was or what is was showing since the Altervese was their purgatory after they all died.

“Everybody Loves Hugo”

1. Desmond plowed through Locke because:
   
   1. He loves Grand Theft Auto, brutha.
   2. He knows Locke is really MiB (The mirror to this is his response of “John Locke” when MiB asked if he knew who he was.)
   3. He wanted to show him something (Indirectly a nod to Charlie’s failed Lupe’s Escape move)

Result: DING! DING!

2. The pouch contains:
   
   1. Jacob’s ashes gathered by Ilana from the Foot.

Result: DING! DING!
That was an easy one.

3. MiB needs the others (no pun) because:
   
   1. He needs the conditions of the O6 leaving in order to be able to replicate it.
   2. He plans to just kill them in order to keep them from becoming the next Jacob.

Result: DING! DING!
He told the candidates that's why he needed them but it was really just to kill them.

The little boy is:

1. A rapidly growing Jacob getting ready to assume the persona of a candidate and that’s why his hair has changed color with every candidate that witnesses him in the presence of MiB. Blond for Sawyer, Brown for Desmond.

Result: DING! DING!
Although I was probably wrong about the hair color and that he was going to grow up to be the candidate. It was most likely a trick of the light or just casting.

“The Last Recruit”

1. Jack’s wife/ex-wife is Juliet. The age of David puts Jack’s age at the time of conception around 21. He could have conceivably met Juliet at medical school and fathered a child. Now that she is divorced or weary of men because of Jack she meets Sawyer and decides to get coffee but go Dutch. Perhaps Juliet will meet Sawyer at the hospital when he goes to talk with Sun about the shooting. Juliet will be the OB/GYN that helped save Sun’s baby.

Result: DING! DING! FULL OF WIN ON THAT ONE!
I made that prediction a month in advance.

“The Candidate”

1. The following are dead:
   
   1. Frank, Sayid, Jin and Sun
   2. Sayid, Jin and Sun (Frank is only mostly dead which means he’s slightly alive.)
   3. Sayid, Frank, and Sun (Jin is still a possible candidate and could not be killed, therefore he was able to swim away)
   4. THEY’RE ALL DEAD!?!?!?!?

Result: DING DING!
Yeah Frank!

2. The show will end with:
   
   1. Jack and Locke sitting on the beach having a conversation about killing each other.
   2. Locke and Locke sitting on the beach having the same conversation.

Result: WRONG!
Locke is lying in a broken bloodied mess over the cliff while Jack goes off to die in the bamboo where he woke up three years prior.

“What They Died For”

1. MiB will attempt to leave the island:
   
   1. Via the donkey wheel.
   2. Via Ajira 316 which will be disarmed.

Result: WRONG!
It was The Elizabeth.

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.

Result: WRONG!
They were dead.

3. MiB will attempt to destroy the island by:
   
   1. Throwing Desmond down the 100 watt cave.

Result: CLOSE! ½ credit.

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.

Result: ALMOST!
Jack, but Kate pulled a Schwarzenegger and one linered him after shooting him in the back.  But Jack did go kick ass on him.

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.

Result: DING DING!
Yeah Frank!

Ok, that was painful.   One mroe to go, I really promise this time.   Next I look at The End and after.

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

When the decision was made to end LOST after six seasons, I felt it was a sad, but great move. The problem with a show like LOST is that you can find yourself hard pressed to figure out the ending when you keep getting renewed each season. A lot of things can happen in a year’s time. The continuity of your storytelling model can sometimes be left to the mercy of contract negotiations and puberty, as in the case of Walt growing up faster than the timeline of the island being shown each season. Not to mention, if you find yourselves dragging out mysteries, you need to pay attention to what has already been shown in previous seasons. You need to establish the continuity of something an actor did three years ago with how they finish a plot line next year, as in the case of the skeletal remains of Jacob’s family (a.k.a Adam and Eve) appearing to change positions from season one to season six. So, I applaud the creative team for picking a point in space and moving towards it. That gives them some framework in which to explore and tie up story lines and mysteries on the island. Where they did come up short was that there was no shortage of additional mysteries being added to the mix in season six.

So, now that the show is over, are you satisfied with the way it ended in terms of answering all your questions? I’m not. It’s not that I’m and jumping up and down mad that there was some ambiguity left out on the field but man, they knew where we were heading. Don’t you think they could have tied everything up this season?

There’s a great video from collegehumor.com that illustrates the many, many questions that some LOST fans might still be asking. I know I’ve had a few of my own.  First and foremost the one question I thought would be answered above all others was never solved. Those who have read my posts about LOST can probably answer this without any prompting.

WHO WAS SHOOTING AT SAWYER?
This had to occur in the present day (2007) Why? Because there was an Ajira bottle in one of the outriggers. So, how hard would it have been to just show a scene of red shirts from Widmore’s team patrolling the shore in the other outrigger this season? No big mystery. Problem solved.

WHO WAS ZOE?
There was a lot of speculation that she was really important. She was searching the island for something. It made her character overly annoying and I was glad MiB killed her. It was almost a nod to the fan base. Nobody liked her. She was equal parts Nikki and Paulo.

WHO’S SIDE WAS WIDMORE REALLY ON?
From day one of his introduction he was labeled the bad guy. Since we know that Ben was acting on orders from MiB and not Jacob that makes it seem like Widmore was really the good guy. But if that’s the case then why didn’t Richard already know that and say, “Hey, everybody. I’ve been on the island longer than anybody else alive, I can vouch for this guy?”

WHY DID THEY KIDNAP WALT ONLY TO LET HIM GO?
It seems to me if you are going to make a big deal about a kid being special then you better at least explain why you kidnapped him, subjected him to Room 23, made him jump through all sorts of hoops and then just let him go. Beyond that, how the hell did Walt show up on the island in different places like talking backwards just before Shannon got shot and standing above John Locke who was lying in the D.I. burial pit. We know that MiB could only take the form of someone dead so we know it wasn’t him impersonating Walt. We also know that John Locke saw Walt after he left the island and there wasn’t a clear acknowledgement of that little pep talk at the edge of the pit. What gives?



WHERE WAS CHRISTIAN SHEPHARD’S BODY?
MiB impersonated Jack’s Dad in "White Rabbit." He led Jack to the caves. But, the coffin was empty both in that episode and… oddly enough at the end of the series. Where the hell was it? My one and only theory was that the body never left Australia. Remember when Jack fought with someone at the airport in Sydney about lacking the proper documentation to store the coffin on Oceanic 815? Well, what if they removed the body but left the coffin? We get a similar sense of this in the afterlife flash forwards as Jack finds out that the airline lost his dad’s body. I think Christian Shephard became a lost piece of luggage in Australia and was probably buried in an unknown location.

WHAT WAS THE PURPOSE OF THE STATUE AND PREGNANCY ISSUES ON THE ISLAND?
I’ve theorized that all the different people brought to the island over the last few millennia were done so in order to debate the bargument that Jacob and his brother had. “You say that humanity is inherently evil and will always chose the wrong way and I say that free will exists and allows people to chose to do the right thing with little encouragement.” So, in that case, while they are stranded on the island bickering and killing and being generally naughty they have explained their surroundings and experiences in the form of structures (i.e. The Statue and The Temple) that are native to their own culture back home… Across The Sea. But… What the hell did it all mean in terms of the statue being depicted as Taweret in regards to pregnancies on the island? Jacob and his brother were conceived elsewhere and born on the island. Aaron was conceived elsewhere and born on the island. Sun and Jin conceived Ji Yeon on the island but gave birth away from it. Miles, while not specifically shown being BORN on the island was obviously conceived there. So, why is it that Juliet was really brought to the island? Why do pregnant woman die if the child is conceived on the island? Was this all part of Jacob’s plan? Did he intend for women to not be able to give birth on the island? Did his brother? WTF?!?!?!?

THE SWAN
What the hell did the Blast Door map have to do with anything? It showed the LOSTIES some of the stuff on the island such as other hatches but who cared? Kelvin took over for Radzinsky when he died… supposedly from suicide… I think Kelvin shot him. He was a tool. But why was Radzinsky stuck in the swan? Punishment for the Incident? Why did nobody bother to relieve him from DI? Was it because he was stuck down there during the purge and no one bothered to come back and find out what happened? It’s obvious that there were still Supply Drops made by… someone. I think if I spent a hell of a lot of money on something like the Dharma Initiative I’d want to check up on it from time to time. Was it like Isla Sorna in The Lost World Jurrasic Park… left for dead? Was the quarantine on the hatch written to keep people in because of the purge or a sick psychological experiment perpetrated by DI? Why would Ben tell Locke that nothing would happen if he pushed the button. He was in the Dharma Initiative? He ended the Dharma Initiative. He saw exactly what happened when you didn’t push the button (Oceanic 815) And why didn’t someone just turn the fail safe earlier?

THE DHARMA INITIATIVE ITSELF
Was this all red herring? Did the DI serve only to be the newest players in Jacob and MiB’s game of free will? Instead of Egyptians or Romans there were scientists and hippies? The hatches and stations were simply the temple and the statue of the latter 20th century? Who built the Lamp Post and why was Eloise Hawing off island, anyway? If Eloise was an Other, then why was she involved at all? After spending an entire season with the characters in the damn thing (D.I. circa 1977), did it mean nothing in the end? Probably. Just another plot line being launched into an open field somewhere in the framework of the show.

THE RULES
Jacob and his brother were told by their mother that they could never kill each other and that there were rules. So, are we to believe that MiB was not killed by being thrown down the into source waterfall? His body was merely resting in the caves for 2000 years. He was mostly dead? And why did the rules apply to Ben and Charles? Were they the same rules? Obviously, not since Ben unloaded a clip into Charles during the finale. Also, if Charles broke the rules by having a life as well as a family, off island, then why wasn’t Tom reprimanded for his little off island escapades? Was Charles’ indiscretions more about Eloise than anything else? Was his sentence proposed by the same governing body of Others that branded Juliet? Why was Richard Alpert not more vocal about their dealings as an advisor to Jacob?

OFF ISLAND ADVENTURES
Why is it, or more to the point how is it that Jacob knew where the Candidates were and were able to contact them? What means of transportation did he use? If we are to believe that Christian Shephard was primarily being worn as a suit by MiB then how did he appear to Jack in "Something Nice Back Home?" Was his appearance off island a hallucination? If not, then why the hell was MiB trapped on the island?

PENNY
Why did she appear to be in front of an Olan Mills photography backdrop in video communication with Charlie? Did she ever reunite with Desmond and how?

BEN
Why was he a globe trotter? Was he working for MiB all along and never for Jacob? Why didn’t Richard make that distinction? Why did Richard go to the foot and say, “Jacob, you know that cabin out in the woods? Do you still use it? Is that you telling Ben what to do?” How did Ben acquire so much money?

LIBBY
Why was she mental and how did she get out?

THE FROZEN DONKEY WHEEL
Who finished the work MiB started? Why was the chamber frozen? How did the DI get a polar down there to turn the wheel? Why does the island move? How is water involved? Why are you never allowed to return if you spin the wheel? Ben did. Locke did. If the wheel was just a piece of a larger mechanism how did that get built and did all the workers turn into smoke before completing the machine?

THE SOURCE
Why did the water stop flowing when the plug was removed? The water did not flow backwards. It did not continue to simply flow down the drain when it was removed. Where did that drain go? Why did the MiB instantly turn into a smoke monster upon falling over the waterfall but Jack and Desmond had to walk a ways before reaching the plug? Who drew on the plug and how did they do so without dying? If being in the pool caused a fate worse than death, then why did Jack die and go to church with his friends?

I could go on but you get the idea here. There were more questions left open than answered by series end. Next up, a report card on my theories throughout S6. I promise this is the last one…

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.