already & not yet

Let me say it up front: this episode was an adrenaline rush for me. Several classic scenes make this my favorite episode of the season thus far.

No matter the reality, Sayid seems destined to a life of torture, murder and…wearing the same ratty black wife beater. (How about a wardrobe reboot for this guy?) But the one Sayid tortures the most is himself. Despite his heart’s yearning for Nadia, he won’t allow himself to believe that he’s worthy of love. Nadia is married to Sayid’s brother, who uses Sayid’s feelings for her as a ploy for help. It seems that Sayid’s brother has been involved in some shady financial arrangements. He asks Sayid to use his “skills” to help protect him and his family. Sayid initially refuses, but we can all see where this is going. Our Iraqi torturer is like Pacino in “The Godfather, Part III”; no matter how much he tries to get out, they keep pulling him back in.

Those of you longing for a Keamy flash-sideways can finally rest easy. He and his little sidekick guy try to strong arm Sayid. (I love the line, “I make great eggs!”) Keamy was one of the surprises of Season Four — especially when he took Alex’s life — so it’s no surprise that we find him living out his wicked impulses in the sideways world. We could see this coming for miles: Sayid caps the two henchmen before bringing Keamy to justice as well. But the twist came at the end of the sideways-story. Jin is tied up in the freezer. How he got there is a mystery. But it looks as if our characters stories are beginning to converge in the sideways world.

Back on the Island, Sayid barges in to Dogen’s secret reading room / horticulture suite and demands answers. Dogen has a line that I think is very important: “For every man, there is a scale. On one side of the scale there is good; on the other side, evil.” Unfortunately for Sayid, Dogen was also right about his scale: by episode’s end, Sayid has fully given in — I think for the first time — to the darker side of his temperament.

We still should be asking ourselves who or what raised Sayid from the dead. Miles tells Sayid it wasn’t the Temple-dwelling Others; they were just as surprised to see Sayid alive as anybody. Could it have been Jacob? I suppose, but then why would Jacob do such a thing if Sayid would end up “infected”? It’s worth noting here that Jacob can’t even seem to raise himself from the dead. It’s probably more plausible to assume that Smokey is responsible for Sayid’s resurrection. If not him, then maybe it was “The Island”. Regardless, Sayid’s reanimation has now proven disastrous for Team Jacob.

At the Temple, Dogen downloads some significant mythology. For years, MIB has been trapped. But now with Jacob out of the way, he is free and he’s trying to destroy everyone on the Island. In fact, Dogen says Smokey is “evil incarnate”. And all along I thought that title was reserved for Urban Meyer. Go figure.

We learn that Dogen is lying to Sayid: Smokey can’t be killed. But what else is he lying about? Is MIB really intent on killing everyone on the Island? It doesn’t appear that way. He actually lets a good many of the Temple-dwellers to defect, including Sayid and Kate. We’re left again to wonder who the good guys really are in this conflict.

Did anybody else worry that Sayid was going to stab Kate when he saw her? I guess he didn’t because he knew she hadn’t died (since Dogen said MIB would approach as someone who had already died). But I’ll admit, I was worried there for a second. Sayid made a pretty quick decision, though, when he saw FLocke. Did you notice that the dagger had no blood on it when FLocke returned it to Sayid? When Jacob died he was spitting blood all over the place. Why is it that MIB has no “blood”? Is MIB really human? Was he ever human, as he claimed in his conversation with Sawyer a few weeks ago.

The scene between MIB and Locke is one of my favorites of the season, maybe of the series. FLocke tells Sayid to deliver a message for him; in return, FLocke tells him he’ll give him anything he wants. Sayid’s response was heart-wrenching: “The only thing I ever wanted died in my arms. And now I’ll never see it again.” MIB is convincing when his eyes twinkle and he asks, “What if you could?” I don’t know if FLocke can deliver on these kinds of promises, but I can only imagine what fun Terry O’Quinn is having with this character.

The scene between Claire and Kate was epic, too. We find Claire in a pit, humming “Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket…”, the same tune Kate used to sing to Aaron. Did you see how quickly Emilie de Ravin turned her performance on a dime when Kate acknowledged that she took Aaron off the Island? Another great performance. I almost got chills with her dementedly evil line: “He’s coming, Kate. He’s coming and they can’t stop him.”

I’ve been wondering why that baseball was so important to Dogen. (I keep looking for a Willie Mays autograph.) But last week’s sideways story tipped us off: it belonged to his son in this iteration of reality. Dogen was responsible for his son’s injuries, but at the 11th hour, Jacob stepped in and offered to save the young man. In return, Dogen would come to the Island to work for Jacob, presumably to protect it from MIB. (How is it that Dogen was the only one keeping Smokey out of the Temple, as Lennon claimed?)

Sayid gives in to his dark impulses and all Hades breaks loose. Smokey comes through and completely obliterates everything and everybody. I really thought Miles was toast until Ilana busted down the door. Did you notice that she asked about Shepherd, Reyes, Ford, and Jarrah? (And she called Ben “Linus”. What’s with all the last names?) Thankfully she knows her way around the Temple of Doom and all of it’s secret hiding places.

Question: Why couldn’t Smokey just bust in the Temple on his own? He tells Claire, “If I could do it myself, I wouldn’t ask you.” Clearly the ash has something to do with it. But then again we never see the ash get “moved” or anything. And then there’s the whole matter of Sayid sending the sundown message — “get out or die!” Perhaps this is where the whole notion of “the rules” fits in. We’ve heard Ben & Widmore discuss the rules; random Island boy reminded Smokey of presumably the same rules a few weeks ago. I guess maybe the rules govern who Smokey can and cannot kill. Maybe if people are given some kind of warning in advance — as Sayid warns the Temple-dwellers — then all bets are off. But maybe the rules dictate that Smokey can’t pull a sneak attack / ambush.

Unless you’re the pilot of 815.

Or Mr. Eko.

Or Nadine.

Or Bram.

Or Keamy’s crew.

Sigh.

Another great moment occurred at the end: the look on Ben’s face when he realized Sayid was “gone” was classic. Any reason to show Michael Emerson’s bugged out eyes works for me.

The closing scene — completely wordless — was incredible. FLocke, surrounded by followers, looking supremely satisfied after purging the Temple, marching off into the jungle to do who knows what.

Interesting little tidbit: Sunny noticed how often the time period of “two hours” occurred in this episode: Sayid was dead for 2 hours before coming back to life. Miles tells Kate that Claire had been back to the Temple 2 hours ago. Sayid tells Nadia he put the kids to bed 2 hours ago. I don’t know what it means, but hat tip to the ol’ wife. Nice job by you.

And where are Sawyer? And Jin? I’m guessing Sawyer stayed back to keep Jin company. Hopefully we’ll get to see some more of him next week.

All in all, I thought this was a great episode. What did you think?

EW has a bit of a scoop re: upcoming episodes of LOST. Nothing too spoilerish here, but if you don’t want to know anything, I suggest you stop reading here.

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According to an Entertainment Weekly reporter who chatted with the producers as they were gearing up to write the finale:

The answer is “yes” to the following: Will Richard and Ilana exchange some words soon? Will we see another painting by Bender? Do some of the characters’ last names have significance, particularly Jack’s? Is Jack married to someone we’ve met before? Was Jacob telling the truth when he said someone was coming to the island? Will we learn more about Hurley and Libby’s connection? Will we see Vincent and Charlie again? Will we learn if Desmond was really on the plane?

The answer is “no” to the following: Will we get a conclusion to the story of Ben’s love, Annie? Do the purple circles in Bender’s mural mean anything? Did Juliet’s ex-husband get killed by a smoke bus? Will there be a DVD release of the show in chronological order?

The answer is “maybe” to the following: Will the Hurley bird be explained? Will we see Walt again?

The answer is “no comment” to the following: Will we learn why women can’t have babies on the island?

Radio silence: After being bombarded with questions about the show for six years, Cuse said they do not plan on commenting on the series finale after it airs.

Final spoiler from Lindelof: “Water.”

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So, quick recap:

Jack’s married to someone we’ve met before. I’m predicting it’s Juliet, although I suppose they could go completely against the grain and go with somebody like Libby.

And we ARE going to get some more info re: Desmond. I’m hoping he’s the one coming to the Island.

What do you think?

So this was the classic pivot episode where our characters are all put into position for what comes next. The pace of this episode was more aligned with “What Kate Does”, more of a slow boil. But I really liked the episode and here are the reasons why:

• Jack. I know a lot of fans can’t stand the good doctor. Maybe it’s his insatiable desire to fix everything, even when things don’t need fixing. Maybe it’s his whole “live together, die alone” mantra. Maybe it’s his rapid fire blinking whenever he receives a shocking piece of news. I don’t know. But I’ve always liked the guy. Tonight’s episode made me hurt for him. When Hurley asks him why he returned to the Island, I love Jack’s response: “I came back here because I was broken. And I was stupid enough to think this place could fix me.” I think our erstwhile hero has finally reached the point of breakthrough. Whatever the reason for Jack being on the Island, I think he’s finally ready to accept his destiny. This Jack reminds me of the time-traveling Locke who, when reflecting on the painful experience of Boone’s death that leads him to bang on the hatch door, says, “I needed that pain to get to where I am now.” Jack Shepherd has needed his pain — every heart-wrenching moment of it — to get to where he is now: sitting on the coastline, staring at the ocean, reflecting on his destiny. I don’t know where the story goes from here, but I’m excited about Jack finally living into the hero role. Oh, and I LOVED the whole mirror destroying thing. Very cool.
• Hurley. Jorge Garcia may be one of the most unintentionally funny guys on television. The guy can read almost any line and crack me up. I love what the writers have done this season, pushing ghost-whisperer Hurley out front. I don’t know what to make of his interactions with Jacob (Is he dead? Undead? Good? Evil?), but I love the more prominent role Hurley is playing so far. But it seems that his Island buddy Jacob may not be the omniscient deity that some people think he is. Hang with me here: Jacob appeared to Hurley in the season premiere, telling Hurley how important it was to get Sayid to the Temple. Hurley followed orders, although not immediately — there was that whole matter of saving Juliet that they had to tend to. But we know that Sayid’s experience at the Temple did NOT go well; supposedly he’s “infected” and we assume he’ll eventually take sides with Smokey when this whole battle goes down. My question is this: If Jacob knew that the Temple baptistery was corrupted with murky water, why would he tell Hurley that it was important to get Sayid there? Maybe Sayid’s “corruption” is at least partially the result of Hurley and his friends not getting him to the Temple ASAP. But it still doesn’t make much sense for Jacob to have Hurley save Sayid if ultimately Sayid is going to end up playing for the other team. I think this is Jacob’s mea culpa. Does that make sense? It is interesting to note that Jacob is staring at the murky water at the beginning of the episode before he turns to give Hurley his instructions. It’s like he’s disappointed or something.
• Claire. For the first 100 days of her Island “journey”, Claire was one of the most boring castaways this side of Paulo and Nikki, especially after she gave birth to Aaron. Remember her whole carrier pigeon idea to get them rescued? Craziness. But this new Deliverance-esque Claire is way more fun. (And crazy, for that matter.) It seems that Smokey has been really doing a number on her over the past few years. She doesn’t seem to have any recollection of losing Aaron before walking off into the jungle with Christian. But with Smokey’s appearance at the end of the episode — and with the revelation that he’s been Claire’s “friend” these past few years — I feel pretty confident that the Christian Shepherd we saw on the Island was an earlier manifestation of our Man in Black. According to Claire, both Christian and FLocke have told her that the Others have her baby. It’ll be interesting to see if Claire believes Jin’s lie about lying (I don’t think she does) and what happens when Kate inevitably meets up with Claire of the Jungle. Showdown next week?

In his LA X reality, we learn that Jack has a son, David — a piano playing prodigy (could he be the student of another piano playing whiz, Daniel Farraday?) who has communication issues with his old man. (And how cool / biblical is it that David Shepherd is a song lover who amazes audiences with his gift?) This flash sideways did more for me than any other to date; I guess I’m a sucker for the Daddy-son themes that this episode plumbed. Basically, Jack and David seem destined to play out the same tired relationship Jack and Christian experienced…until Jack reaches a place of brokenness and honesty and tells his son that his love for him isn’t predicated on any level of achievement or ability. “I will always love you. No matter what you do. In my eyes you can never fail.”

The episode begins in this LA X reality with Jack reflecting in a mirror again, this time trying to remember when he had his appendix removed. Of course, in the Island reality, Juliet removed his appendix toward the end of Season Four; but in this reality, Jack seems to have no recollection of this. He goes so far as to ask his mother about it, only to find out his appendix has been removed for years. But there’s something significant about what’s happening to these castaways in their off-Island realities. There are these moments in each episode — Jack with his appendectomy scar; Kate with the whale plush doll — where our characters seem to be experiencing deja vu. It’s like they’re aware of the significance of some of these things, even if they can’t put their finger on exactly why.

This moment is paralleled in the Island story, which begins with Jack looking at his reflection in a reflecting pool. But this reflection is in flux; the turbulence of the water keeps Jack from seeing himself as he truly is. I could make a sweeping reference to how this serves as a metaphor for five seasons of Jack story-telling…but you get the point, right? Things are going to be clarified somewhat for Dr. Shepherd in this episode, an episode that I think will reap huge dividends down the line.

It was also no accident that Hurley and Jack made that little detour at the caves. The producers are wanting to call to mind Adam & Eve from Season One. Remember these are the corpses they found, one male and one female, one holding a black stone and the other holding a white stone. Of course, these were alluded to last week with the much larger stones hanging on the balance in Jacob’s cave. Hurley’s question is one that we’ve been asking for a while now — what if Adam & Eve are actually two of our castaways who somehow end up back in time living out their days in quiet serenity in the caves? Is Hurley’s question a foreshadowing device? Or is it meant to through us off? This is one of the show’s mysteries that interests me the most.

Questions:

• Jack has a kid. Who’s the baby mama?
• Did LA X Christian leave his entire estate to Claire?
• Where and when will Desmond fit back in to the story? Remember the words of Eloise Hawking, aka Daniel Farraday’s mum from last season: “The Island’s not through with you yet, Desmond.” I wonder when we’ll get the rest of that story.
• So…candidates can do whatever they want? Interesting.
• Who’s coming to the Island? Hero Jack? Or someone else?
• And what was that thing in Claire’s baby bed? Talk about a Rosemary’s Baby moment. Yikes.
• Why does Jack refuse the drink his mother offers him? He didn’t have a problem asking for an extra drink on the plane.
• Did you notice the sign outside as Jack rushes into the school to see David’s performance? It reads: “Auditions. Williams Observatory. Welcome all candidates.” Is young David a “candidate” in the same way Jack is?

I’ve finally figured it out.

For weeks now, I’ve been voicing moderate levels of dissatisfaction re: the final season of the most daring and innovative show in network television history. Basically, I’ve had a really difficult time getting into the “alternate reality” or “alternative timeline” or whatever it is we’re supposed to be calling it. I’ve also been saying that this stage in the narrative process — 13 hours or so from the end — is not the time to introduce new characters (Dogen, Lennon, etc.) or give us “different” versions of the characters we’ve come to love (like Kate and Locke, whom we’ve seen featured in the new “flash sideways” episodes). And yes, I’ve even defaulted to the stereotypical mantra of many a forlorn LOST fan: it’s time for answers, Darlton! I have voiced these opinions — and more — right here on this blog.

But I’ve finally figured it out. It’s not the flash sideways per se that have been bothering me — it IS at least passably entertaining to get a glimpse of the “what if Oceanic 815 never crashed” reality. It’s not the introduction of the new characters that’s really bothered me that much either — there are relatively few of them this go around and they DO serve the narrative by giving us access to some of the Island mysticism that has always been an elemental feature of “the Others”. It’s not even the lack of answers that has bothered me, despite last week’s rant to the contrary.

What has bothered me so far is that the story-telling hasn’t been as satisfying as I’d hoped it would be. I realize this is completely subjective. And I realize we’re only a quarter of the way through the season. So I am totally giving Team Darlton the benefit of the doubt. They’ve always pulled it together in the past and they deserve some modicum of trust at this point. BUT, my frustration is that the flash sideways just hasn’t produced a satisfying result for me yet. And yes, I know they said we’d have to be patient with these sideways deals, so like I said, I’m prepared to judge the season as a whole, not as individual episodes. But after five seasons of “traditional” story-telling, it’s been hard to be satisfied with episodes that are 50% off-Island, alt-reality.

Anyway, I promise to stop bellyaching about this from here on out. I just felt the need to clarify and properly articulate the reason for my frustration thus far.

In other news, tonight’s episode is Jack-centric, which means it should be chock full of mythology. Can’t wait to see it. While we’re waiting, here are a few bullets to whet your appetite for tonight:

• If you’re not reading Doc Jensen, you should. He helps make a lot of sense out of the myriad plot points and cultural references in a show like LOST. Sometimes his stuff is purposefully over the top (see his article here claiming that 80s iconic group Huey Lewis and the News holds the key to understanding the Island’s mythology). But you should at least read his thoughts here re: Sawyer’s hero arc; I sure hope he’s right about our favorite rogue pulling a long can on Smokey.
• Here’s another interesting read on whether Smokey and Jacob are actually two halves of the same individual. (I know; out there, right?) But the article also comments on the possibility of the random boy from last week being the Man in Black’s son. Check it out.
• Speaking of that kid, remember his comment re: “the rules”? He tells Smokey, “You know the rules. You can’t kill him.” LOST has long teased us about these “rules”. Ben and Widmore seem to subscribe to a gentlemanly respect for said rules, at least until Widmore murders Ben’s daughter, Alex. Smokey is fundamentally incapable of killing Jacob, at least on his own, thus the incarnation of Locke and the manipulation of Ben. And now this comment. As the producers teased in the podcast, whatever war is coming between Smokey and Jacob (or his followers), expect these rules to provide the foundation.
• I hadn’t thought about until I watched the “Totally Lost” video over at EW, but it’s possible that we misread the names of at least some of the “candidates” scrawled on the cave last week. For instance, we all assumed “#23, Shepherd” was a reference to Jack. But what if it’s not? (Remember back in Season 3 when Danny quips something about Jack not even being on “Jacob’s list”?) What if the Shepherd listed here is actually Christian? Or “#42, Kwon”. What if it’s neither Sun nor Jin, but Ji Yeon? Could be. Something to think about.