Season VI, Epilogue – The New Man in Charge

Line of the night – “We Deserve Answers!” – Dharma Worker #2

Since I am already going through withdrawal knowing that there will never be a new episode of LOST ever again, I went out and bought Season 6 earlier today. It completes my collection of DVDs for the greatest drama ever to air on Network television, and more importantly, it provided me with 11 minutes of LOST-euphoria. The bonus disc contained a DVD-only epilogue that provided a little more closure to the series.

Don’t get me wrong, having the series end with Jack closing his eyes and ‘moving on’ was in my mind the official END to the show. This extra 11 minutes was more like a teaser to “what do Hurley and Ben do now that Jacob, Jack, and everyone else have left the island?”

So here’s how it went down:

Two Dharma workers in Dharma khaki jump suits are loading boxes of Dharma food onto pallets in a giant warehouse referred to as Dharma Logistics Warehouse in Guam. A familiar voice is heard, and Benjamin “Benry” Linus (I already miss referring to Benry in my daily conversations) walks in the warehouse stating that he’s from the home office and he’s there because the man in charge wants him to tie up a few loose ends, and to close up shop.

The Dharma workers are surprised and explain that they’ve been loading these pallets for 20 years! Ben gives them each an envelope full of cash (their severance package).

Then we get some more answers! One of the Dharma guys tries to explain that they are not closing up shop because they are still getting orders for food and supply drops. He says, “There’s a teletype before every drop.” So the workers are still getting instructions to drop the food. Ben explains that this is an automated system set up in the Lamp Post Station in Los Angeles. *If you remember from Season 5 we learned that the Lamp Post Station was able to determine where the island was going to be at any given TIME.

Ben starts to leave and asks the workers to lock up and shut off the lights on the way out, when suddenly Dharma worker #2 says, “WE DESERVE ANSWERS!” Spoken like a devout fan of the show. Ben allows them to ask 1 question each.

Question 1 – Where are the food-drops going? Ben says, “An island.” "So if that’s the case, then why are the coordinates different every time for the drop?" Ben’s response, “because the island moves.”

Question 2 – Worker #2 realizes the island is somewhere in the tropics, so he wants to know what’s up with the cases and cases of Polar Bear Biscuits they have in stock. Ben informs him that there were actually several polar bears on the island and offers to show them a DVD to explain more. I even laughed a little when Benry apologized about the quality of the video because he had to transfer it from an old Beta-Max tape.

Dr. Pierre Chang comes on the TV screen and narrates the Hydra Station Orientation video. He made me laugh again when he says not to mention his name to anyone, because he did not wish to resort to aliases. This now explains why he was also referred to as Dr. Marvin Candle, Dr. Halliwax, and Dr. Wickmund.

In the Hydra Orientation video Dr. Chang refers to Hybrid birds, or ‘Hybirds’, that they were genetically developing. One of these Hybirds flew over Hurley’s head in the Season 1 finale, (Betcha didn’t remember that).

Dr. Chang also reveals to us that they used polar bears in their experiments because of their keen sense of memory and adaptability. Once a polar bear passed the memory test in their cage (like Sawyer completed in the beginning of Season 3 to win a Fish Biscuit), they were taken to the Orchid station for more experiments. Dr. Chang gives us another long awaited answer when he says, “Be sure that the female polar bears are not impregnated when taking them to the Orchid station because the electromagnetic levels at the Orchid station have an extremely harmful effect on early term gestation.”

So are you telling me that the reason women could get pregnant on the island, but not carry their babies to full term was because of the electromagnetic levels coming from the Orchid station??? Why not say that during the show, and did Ben know this all along???

Dr. Chang also explains the leather polar bear collars are actually tracking devices. So when Charlotte finds the polar bear collar in Tunisia in Season 4, it was actually a tracking device.

The Dharma initiative also did human experimentation in Room 23. They would do tests on the Hostiles to acquire knowledge, to get a better understanding of their way of life, and their reasons for worshiping a deity known as “Jacob.” This is the same room where they took Alex’s boyfriend, Karl, to be held captive back in Season 3. The Dharma scientists would inject drugs into the patient’s neck and put the funky glasses on them. The dreamlike / acid-dropping qualities of the film combined with the drugs would create amnesia and cause the Hostiles to forget when and why they were there. I guess Ben was trying to do the same thing to Karl back in Season 3.

The video ends and the 2nd Dharma worker says, “I think we’re gonna need to see that again!” John Locke said the same sort of thing when he watched the Swan station’s orientation video back in Season 2 with Jack. Benry leaves them by saying Namaste.

We transition to Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute where Ben Linus asks to meet with a patient named Keith Johnson. Does anyone remember who “Kevin Johnson” was? Well we find out that it's Walt, and he’s playing Connect 4 by himself in the psych ward play room. As Ben approaches, Walt says, “Are you here to kidnap me again!” Ben apologizes and says he’s there “because you are special, and I bet no ones told you that in a very long time.” Walt wants to know why.

Ben and his boss need Walt’s help. “We need you, you have work to do…and you can start by helping your father.” (God I wish this show wasn’t over…)

Walt responds, “My father’s dead!!” Ben comes back with, “Well that doesn’t mean you can’t help him.” So Ben and his boss (Hurley) must want Walt to come back to the island and help Michael pass over to the other side (and move on), especially since we know that Hurley can see and talk to dead people.

We transition to our final scene in this epic 11 minute fantasyfest of Lost mythology, and Ben is leading Walt to an old 1970’s VW bus that looks a heck of a lot like the Dharma VW buses. Finally we get a glimpse of Hurley who is waiting for Walt in the Van.

Hurley - “What’s up Walt…dude it’s great to see you.”
Walt - “I kept hoping that one day someone would come back for me…I thought I was crazy.”
Hurley – “You’re not crazy, not even close. You just need to get back to the island where you belong. That’s where you’ve always belonged.”
Walt – “Why?”
Hurley – (Looks over to Ben and then back to Walt) “I wanna talk to you about a job! (as he grins) Alright Ben, let’s get out of here. Time for us ALL to go home.”

The VW bus pulls away……LOST

That’s it. It’s really officially all over now. Nothing more to write, but plenty to chew on and think about. Is Walt ultimately going to replace Hurley as the protector of the island? I guess we’ll never know, but it sure is fun to think about.

It stinks that we got a quick glimpse of what life was like AFTER Jack sacrificed himself for the island and his friends. Now I want to see what happened to everyone else that got off the island…I want to see the reunion of Claire and Aaron. I want to see Sawyer meet his daughter Clementine. I want to see what the hell happens to Richard now that he’s not Jacob’s right-hand man and immortal. Will he start to age at an exponential rate like Mel Gibson in "Forever Young"?


Until some sort of LOST spin-off (wishful thinking), Namaste and Good Luck!

-Slice

Explanations???

I've read on a couple other sites over the last 2 weeks that this was from a production assistant at Bad Robot, which is the production company owned by JJ Abrams. I've also read that this could be fake, but at least it gives you another perspective with some EXPLANATIONS now that we've had 2 weeks to digest "The End".

As always, thanks for reading....


"Good stuff on here! I can finally throw in my two cents! I've had to bite my tongue for far too long. Also, hopefully I can answer some of John's questions about Dharma and the "pointless breadcrumbs" that really, weren't so pointless ...

First ...
The Island:

It was real. Everything that happened on the island that we saw throughout the 6 seasons was real. Forget the final image of the plane crash, it was put in purposely to f*&k with people's heads and show how far the show had come. They really crashed. They really survived. They really discovered Dharma and the Others. The Island keeps the balance of good and evil in the world. It always has and always will perform that role. And the Island will always need a "Protector". Jacob wasn't the first, Hurley won't be the last. However, Jacob had to deal with a malevolent force (MIB) that his mother, nor Hurley had to deal with. He created the devil and had to find a way to kill him -- even though the rules prevented him from actually doing so.

Thus began Jacob's plan to bring candidates to the Island to do the one thing he couldn't do. Kill the MIB. He had a huge list of candidates that spanned generations. Yet everytime he brought people there, the MIB corrupted them and caused them to kill one another. That was until Richard came along and helped Jacob understand that if he didn't take a more active role, then his plan would never work.

Enter Dharma -- which I'm not sure why John is having such a hard time grasping. Dharma, like the countless scores of people that were brought to the island before, were brought there by Jacob as part of his plan to kill the MIB. However, the MIB was aware of this plan and interferred by "corrupting" Ben. Making Ben believe he was doing the work of Jacob when in reality he was doing the work of the MIB. This carried over into all of Ben's "off-island" activities. He was the leader. He spoke for Jacob as far as they were concerned. So the "Others" killed Dharma and later were actively trying to kill Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley and all the candidates because that's what the MIB wanted. And what he couldn't do for himself.

Dharma was originally brought in to be good. But was turned bad by MIB's corruption and eventually destroyed by his pawn Ben. Now, was Dharma only brought there to help Jack and the other Canditates on their overall quest to kill Smokey? Or did Jacob have another list of Canidates from the Dharma group that we were never aware of? That's a question that is purposley not answered because whatever answer the writers came up with would be worse than the one you come up with for yourself. Still ... Dharma's purpose is not "pointless" or even vague. Hell, it's pretty blantent.

Still, despite his grand plan, Jacob wanted to give his "candidates" (our Lostaways) the one thing he, nor his brother, were ever afforded: free will. Hence him bringing a host of "candidates" through the decades and letting them "choose" which one would actually do the job in the end. Maybe he knew Jack would be the one to kill Flocke and that Hurley would be the protector in the end. Maybe he didn't. But that was always the key question of the show: Fate vs Free-will. Science vs Faith. Personally I think Jacob knew from the beginning what was going to happen and that everyone played a part over 6 seasons in helping Jack get to the point where he needed to be to kill Smokey and make Hurley the protector -- I know that's how a lot of the writers viewed it. But again, they won't answer that (nor should they) because that ruins the fun.

In the end, Jack got to do what he always wanted to do from the very first episode of the show: Save his fellow Lostaways. He got Kate and Sawyer off the island and he gave Hurley the purpose in life he'd always been missing. And, in Sideways world (which we'll get to next) he in fact saved everyone by helping them all move on ...

Now...

Sideways World:

Sideways world is where it gets really cool in terms of theology and metaphysical discussion (for me at least -- because I love history/religion theories and loved all the talks in the writer's room about it). Basically what the show is proposing is that we're all linked to certain people during our lives. Call them soulmates (though it's not exactly the best word). But these people we're linked to are with us duing "the most important moments of our lives" as Christian said. These are the people we move through the universe with from lifetime to lifetime. It's loosely based in Hinduisim with large doses of western religion thrown into the mix.

The conceit that the writers created, basing it off these religious philosophies, was that as a group, the Lostaways subconsciously created this "sideways" world where they exist in purgatory until they are "awakened" and find one another. Once they all find one another, they can then move on and move forward. In essence, this is the show's concept of the afterlife. According to the show, everyone creates their own "Sideways" purgatory with their "soulmates" throughout their lives and exist there until they all move on together. That's a beautiful notion. Even if you aren't religious or even spirtual, the idea that we live AND die together is deeply profound and moving.

It's a really cool and spirtual concept that fits the whole tone and subtext the show has had from the beginning. These people were SUPPOSED to be together on that plane. They were supposed to live through these events -- not JUST because of Jacob. But because that's what the universe or God (depending on how religious you wish to get) wanted to happen. The show was always about science vs faith -- and it ultimately came down on the side of faith. It answered THE core question of the series. The one question that has been at the root of every island mystery, every character backstory, every plot twist. That, by itself, is quite an accomplishment.

How much you want to extrapolate from that is up to you as the viewer. Think about season 1 when we first found the Hatch. Everyone thought that's THE answer! Whatever is down there is the answer! Then, as we discovered it was just one station of many. One link in a very long chain that kept revealing more, and more of a larger mosiac.

But the writer's took it even further this season by contrasting this Sideways "purgatory" with the Island itself. Remember when Michael appeared to Hurley, he said he was not allowed to leave the Island. Just like the MIB. He wasn't allowed into this sideways world and thus, was not afforded the opportunity to move on. Why? Because he had proven himself to be unworthy with his actions on the Island. He failed the test. The others, passed. They made it into Sideways world when they died -- some before Jack, some years later. In Hurley's case, maybe centuries later. They exist in this sideways world until they are "awakened" and they can only move on TOGETHER because they are linked. They are destined to be together for eternity. That was their destiny.

They were NOT linked to Anna Lucia, Daniel, Roussou, Alex, Miles, Lupidis, (and all the rest who weren't in the chuch -- basically everyone who wasn't in season 1). Yet those people exist in Sideways world. Why? Well again, here's where they leave it up to you to decide. The way I like to think about it, is that those people who were left behind in Sideways world have to find their own soulmates before they can wake up. It's possible that those links aren't people from the island but from their other life (Anna's parnter, the guy she shot --- Roussou's husband, etc etc).

A lot of people have been talking about Ben and why he didn't go into the Church. And if you think of Sideways world in this way, then it gives you the answer to that very question. Ben can't move on yet because he hasn't connected with the people he needs to. It's going to be his job to awaken Roussou, Alex, Anna Lucia (maybe), Ethan, Goodspeed, his father and the rest. He has to attone for his sins more than he did by being Hurley's number two. He has to do what Hurley and Desmond did for our Lostaways with his own people. He has to help them connect. And he can only move on when all the links in his chain are ready to. Same can be said for Faraday, Charlotte, Whidmore, Hawkins etc. It's really a neat, and cool concept. At least to me.

But, from a more "behind the scenes" note: the reason Ben's not in the church, and the reason no one is in the church but for Season 1 people is because they wrote the ending to the show after writing the pilot. And never changed it. The writers always said (and many didn't believe them) that they knew their ending from the very first episode. I applaud them for that. It's pretty fantastic. Originally Ben was supposed to have a 3 episode arc and be done. But he became a big part of the show. They could have easily changed their ending and put him in the church -- but instead they problem solved it. Gave him a BRILLIANT moment with Locke outside the church ... and then that was it. I loved that. For those that wonder -- the original ending started the moment Jack walked into the church and touches the casket to Jack closing his eyes as the other plane flies away. That was always JJ's ending. And they kept it.

For me the ending of this show means a lot. Not only because I worked on it, but because as a writer it inspired me in a way the medium had never done before. I've been inspired to write by great films. Maybe too many to count. And there have been amazing TV shows that I've loved (X-Files, 24, Sopranos, countless 1/2 hour shows). But none did what LOST did for me. None showed me that you could take huge risks (writing a show about faith for network TV) and stick to your creative guns and STILL please the audience. I learned a lot from the show as a writer. I learned even more from being around the incredible writers, producers, PAs, interns and everyone else who slaved on the show for 6 years.

In the end, for me, LOST was a touchstone show that dealt with faith, the afterlife, and all these big, spirtual questions that most shows don't touch. And to me, they never once waivered from their core story -- even with all the sci-fi elements they mixed in. To walk that long and daunting of a creative tightrope and survive is simply astounding."

Season VI, Deep Thoughts - The Finale

Just a quick FYI, the official recap of the show is the next blog entry down, so just keep scrolling down before reading this. As I said at the end of the recap, I plan on doing a few more blog entries to discuss the immense amount of questions that were left unanswered, and I will do my best to find resources to provide some sort of closure for each question. Plus, I love doing this, so it will help with my LOST withdrawal over the next few weeks.

So here’s what I think all went down in the finale. Once Juliet detonated the bomb in the season 5 finale, the intense amount of energy surged our friends from 1977 back to the present. I am still trying to grasp if the bomb explosion WAS the incident that killed a lot of the Dharma folks, or if it was the massive amount of electromagnetic energy that was released from the bottom of the drill rig. Regardless, the bomb was nothing more than a Flux Capacitor.

We are led to believe throughout this final season that the explosion of the atomic bomb actually created an alternate sideways time line where the characters are all well and good, living their lives and fulfilling their desires. However we all got the impression that something was missing in their lives. As my brother Dave had commented a while back, Desmond wanted approval from Widmore. He has it, but he is alone and doesn't know Penny. Charlie is still playing in Drive Shaft, but he is still a junky. Claire is going to raise Aaron herself, but she is all alone. Hurley has the best luck in the world, but has no luck with women. Locke is married to Peg Bundy and has a relationship with his dad, but he is still paralized. Jin and Sun are in America to start their lives together, but Sun's dad wants Jin dead. Sawyer didn't grow up to be a conman, but his dad still killed his mom and himself and "Sawyer" is still out there. Jack has a son, but he is divorced and his dad is still dead. Kate has escaped her past and the law, but she is still on the run.

I believe that Oceanic Flight 815 did crash on the island, and all of the survivors' experiences, interactions with the Others and the island we viewed over the past 6 years to the point where Jack dies in the bamboo garden really did happened. Whatever happened, happened. The sideways time line of Season 6 was thought to be an alternate reality, when it actually was a place, some call it purgatory, between our life on Earth and the afterlife.

Matthew Fox said it best on the “Aloha to LOST” special when he said, “After you die you go to a place, and this place can last a nanosecond or an extended period of time where you eventually have to remember your own death, and remember all the people that were instrumental in your life. The people you loved and were important to you, and in remembering them, you can let go and move on to the next after life (whatever that might be).” It was a great interpretation and I completely agree with him.

We were given clues throughout the final season that the sideways timeline was, indeed, a staging area before moving on to the afterlife or heaven. Rose told Jack in the season premiere (after all the turbulence on the plane), “you can let go now…you can let go.” These clues were consistent throughout the season. So Jack died in 2007, for all we know Kate could have died in 2077. Since the most important time of her life was spent on the island, when she died her spirit moved on to this ‘spiritual plane’ that looked a lot like Los Angeles in 2004. There is no NOW here, so time is indefinite in this purgatory state.


Christian Shephard eluded to the fact that some of his Oceanic friends died before him, and some long after him. The trials and tribulations that the characters experienced forever connected them. This show has been built off of connections from day 1. They always focused on relationships, like how Jack was connected to Christian, whom was connected to Claire, and so on and so forth.

When Desmond was exposed to the catastrophic EM (Electromagnetic) Field Power Test earlier this season, he actually died for a brief moment and his spirit/consciousness moved on to purgatory, not the 2004 alternate timeline. At some point Desmond figured out that he was dead, and was able to help the other Oceanic 815 passengers figure it out as well by putting them into situations that would recreate their most dramatic and emotionally driven times on the island. Kate helping Claire give birth to Aaron. Locke wiggling his toes for the first time after they crashed. Sun’s ultrasound experience with Juliet. These all helped them relive their life experiences and ultimately, relive their impending death.

By the end, they all remembered their island experience, their lives, deaths, and connections to each other. I kind of feel the writers stole this idea from Titanic. After Rose Dewitt dies as an old woman, she moves on to that spiritual place and joins Jack Dawson, and everyone else that has died (at one time or another) and shared in the tramatic experience of the Titanic sinking. That time was the most significant part of Rose’s life. Even though she died years and years later, her spirit took on the physical form of a young woman during the time in her life that was most significant to her.

So once everyone realized that they were dead by sharing in the emotionally intense experiences, they were able to let go, and move on. Michael was not there because his spirit was still trapped on the island as a lost soul. Walt was not there because the actor is 6’5” with facial hair and he’s only supposed to be 11 years old on the show. I get the impression that Ben did not want to move on because he was still repenting for his sins once he realized that he was dead. I am still on the fence if the spirits of Alex and Rousseau were also actually part of this collective purgatory, or were they just the figment of Ben’s imagination and past life placed there. It appears that Jack ‘created’ a son named David with his imagination so that he could be the father that he never had. It still boggles me why the writers sold out and made Juliet his ex-wife. It would have been ever so more astute to use my idea of Harper Stanhope as his ex-wife.

In the end, I was pleased that they could all remember their lives, and were able to move on to the next life together. No one does it alone.

I started watching LOST the summer after the first season. I always heard good things about it, but never had time due to the fact that we had a new born baby in the house. On a ‘dude, you’ll love it’ Hurley-type of recommendation, I started watching it. ABC was brilliant enough to re-air the entire first season during the summer leading right into Season II in the fall of 2005. I was immediately hooked with all of the plot twists, revelations, and classic Holy S-! moments. It’s been a blast to try and figure this show out along the way with all of you.

This whole blog started as an email between the Oceanic 6 (Joe, Dave, Bill, Andre, Dante and myself). I guess you could say Charlie Boo and Mike Mazz were Oceanic 7 and 8. We would just toss around theories and had fun with it. In Season III, I started emailing a brief recap of the show around, and we’d all ‘reply to all’ with questions and thoughts. It was basic, but germane… From 8 people it expanded to 23 to 42 to the weekly blog you are reading right now. Thank you for taking the time to read it. It’s hard to gauge how many people read it on a regular basis (I still haven’t figured that out with the website), so I never really knew if anyone was reading it at all…until this Monday morning when I got around 15 mutually exclusive emails asking “when are you going to post the blog…my brother’s uncle’s cousin’s former roommate is waiting for your recap”. I’ve heard that we actually have people from London reading this…crazy.

It truly has been a great ride with this show, and I wonder if when I eventually move on to the next spiritual plane, I’ll end up in a my living room typing away on the computer while my beautiful wife glares at me patiently waiting to check her facebook account... Just kidding Angela!

I hope that this blog was helpful to you as we experienced the show together. I know it helped me to remember what happened in past episodes, and get a better understanding of what in the hell was going on. It truly was a priveledge to share this with you.

See you in another life, brotha.

-Slice

Season VI, Episode 17 – The End

There were a few lines that topped off the finale – “Kinda true dude, he’s worse than Yoda!” – Hurley. “You all head over to your heart of the island, and I’ll get that magic leprechaun out of the well.” – Sawyer….and finally “We’re not candidates anymore…..WHACK!” followed by “oooooh” – Sawyer with an elbow to the face of Ben Linus.


The seasons may have changed, but the themes remained the same throughout:

- Live Together, Die Alone.
- Do not mistake coincidence for fate.
- It’s purgatory! (this was more of a fan-theme than a concept of the show).
- I can fix this!
- Whatever happened, happened!
- See you in another life, Brotha!
- Aaron is the key to the island (that was my theme, which pissed me off because it never came to fruition).

Let’s dive in. Christian Shephard’s coffin is being loaded off an Oceanic plane, and arrives at the same church where the Dharma Lamp Post station is located. They used this station to find the island. Desmond helps the courier, and then rejoins a well dressed Kate in Hurley’s car. “Christian Shephard, seriously?” Desmond’s response, “...seriously.” Kate asks why she is there. Desmond says, “No one can tell you why you’re here, Kate.” “Well you’re the one that brought me here!” Desmond responds, “I’m not talking about the church, I’m talking about…here!” (Watching this for a second time gives this line a whole new meaning.) Des is going to show her where they are going…

WHOOSH to the island and Jack looks like re-born man, he’s reflecting on what just happened (his ceremony with Jacob) and what he’ll do next. Sawyer says to him, “Come down off the mountaintop and tell us what the burning bush had to say for itself!” Nice reference Sawyer. Jack explains the game plan of getting to the heart of the island, and they collectively figure out that Desmond is going to be used by Flocke in some way to put out the light. Sawyer leaves to find Desmond in the well. Kate and Hurley leave with Jack for the heart of the island, the source. Hurley delivers a final classic Han Solo line, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

Then we cut to our first of 12 FREAKING COMMERCIAL BREAKS! Are you serious? Back from commercial and Hurley is with Sayid in the flash sideways. They are parked in front of the same motel complex that Sayid used as a safehouse when he broke Hurley out of Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute. Hurley knocks on one particular door, and Charlie Pace answers. Hurley is grinning from ear to ear, which makes me realize that Hurley really can remember everything that’s happened on the island. “Do not disturb…who are you, and why are you grinning like a soddy idiot?” Hurley’s smirk makes me chuckle, “Uhh you’ve got a concert to get ready for, and I’m here to pick you up!” Charlie’s not going, so Hurley has to use a tranquilizer gun to get him to the concert.

WHOOSH to the island. Jack’s explaining why he took the job as the new Jacob, “the island is all I’ve got left, the only thing I haven’t managed to ruin.” Kate’s response is “nothing is irreversible.” Jack said the SAME thing to Locke in this year’s season premiere when they met at the airport. Sawyer catches up with Flocke at the well where Desmond used to be. Sawyer informs Flocke and Ben that they are no longer candidates, which means one of them has replaced Jacob. Flocke doesn’t seem to care, since his intentions are to find Desmond and use him as a weapon to destroy the island.

We now shift our attention to an all too familiar season finale locale…Bernard and Rose’s retirement village. Rose now looks like one half of P.M. Dawn and Bernard looks like Bad Santa. They no longer get involved since retirement. Flocke and Ben show up, and Desmond agrees to go with Flocke as long as he leaves Rose and Bernard alone. As we leave the scene Desmond knows what is going on with the heart of the island.

We segue to Miles near New Otherton. He’s found Richard, whom appears to be alive! Richard wants to finish what they started by blowing up the Ajira Airways plane. (He’s really taking his wife’s orders to heart…much like we all do).

WHOOSH to the museum concert benefit thing and Miles sees Sayid in Hurley’s hummer. He warns Sawyer to get to the hospital to keep an eye on Sun Paik. I smell a Sawyer/Juliet reunion brewing. At the hospital, Juliet enters Sun’s room to take a look at the baby. Here comes Sun’s heightened state of emotion. Sun looks at Juliet in a very familiar way, as Juliet warns her that the gel ‘is a little cold.’ Again, the same line she said back in Season 3 to Sun when she first showed her the ultrasound of the baby. As she presses the probe to her belly she “remembers”. Looking at the monitor, Jin begins to experience the same rush of memories. They both say to each other, “Did you see?” And now that they’ve experienced their past lives, they can speak perfectly perfect English. “It’s a girl, her name is Ji Yeon.” I like the way this finale is going!

WHOOSH to the island. “Easy Bigfoot, it’s just me!” Sawyer warns them that Flocke has Desmond and Jack’s ok with it, “we are all going to the same place anyway!” Sawyer says, “then what?”…"Then it ends!"

WHOOSH to the hospital and Jack is prepping Locke for his spinal surgery. “Alright, I’ll see you on the other side.” This phrase takes on a whole new meaning now.

WHOOSH back the island, and Miles and Richard head over to Hydra Island in the outrigger. Richard finally realizes that he wants to live, as Miles pulls out his first gray hair. On the way they find…LAPIDAS ALIVE!!! Nice. Now they plan to take off in the plane instead of blowing it up. On the main island, we are shown a wide angle shot of Flocke/Ben/Desmond approaching Jack/Kate/Hurley/Sawyer. It reminds me of the Greasers/Socials face-off from The Outsiders. Kate just starts firing away at Flocke, and it’s kind of funny. Flocke seems surprised that Jack is the new Jacob since he is the obvious choice, but does not seem surprised that Jack intends to kill him once Desmond does what he is supposed to do.

WHOOSH back to the hospital and Jack informs his son, David, that he gave the concert tickets to his mother. We are about to find out the mystery mom! AND IT'S HARPER…what…Juliet…sorry but that was absolutely such a lame surprise. Especially considering that once we find out its purgatory, why would Jack be married to Juliet? Are you telling me that during there so-called marriage they never made an emotional connection to be able to remember their past lives? This was the weakest part of the episode for me…I guess because I thought the writers would be more clever. (So who magically created this son named David, Jack or Juliet, as part of their purgatory experience?)

WHOOSH the island, Flocke informs the entire group that he’ll be heading to the source with only Jack and Desmond. Hurley approaches, “Jack, I believe in you dude!” Des does not seem scared or worried in the least bit, in fact, he tells Jack “Doesn’t matter what happens, I’m going to go somewhere else, a place where we can be with the ones we love, and never have to think of this damn island again. The best part is Jack, you’re in this place. We sat next to each other on Oceanic 815, it never crashed, we spoke to each other and you seemed happy!” (The first time I watched this, I was ALL IN on the fact that whatever Desmond does was going to cause the 2 timelines to collide and everyone in the 2004 timeline would end up living their lives, and the 2007 timeline would cease to exist (at least for our Losties). Jack knows what’s up and says, “There are no shortcuts or do overs…whatever happened, happened!” Indeed it did Jack, indeed.

Back from commercial #8 and we are back in 2004. Hurley thinks Sayid is really a good guy, regardless of what others think about him. Sayid stops a bar fight after tall blonde gets pushed into some trash. Holy S-!, it’s Shannon. They touch, share a moment of heightened emotion and remember their past relationship. I wonder if Sayid recalls kissing Shannon when she was a complete bloody mess after getting shot in the gut. Boone seems so useless in this episode, I wonder how he remembered his past life…did Desmond put him in a Beechcraft 18 airplane and tip the plane off the side of a 50 foot cliff?

Still in 2004, Juliet is at the concert with David as she finally meets Aunt Claire. She has to scoot to the hospital for an emergency. Charlotte shows up again, and wakes up Charlie. “I was shot by a fat man.” Pretty funny delivery I must say. Daniel is also in the scene and formally meets Charlotte for the first time. But when they touch, there is no intense emotional connection. Hmmm... David and Aunt Claire join Desmond and Kate at Table 23 as Driveshaft and Daniel Widmore take the stage after being introduced by an ageless Dr. Pierre Chang. (They never explained if Dr. Chang was ever part of the Dharma Initiative in this universe…unless I missed something). Charlie takes the stage and sees Claire out in the crowd…he begins to drool like a baby. How coincidental because Claire goes into labor and is about to deliver a baby.

WHOOSH to the island, and Desmond is being lowered to the bottom of the glowing waterfall. At the bottom, the floor is covered with man-made stone structures, a walkway into a central glowing pool, and I noticed skeletons all over the place. I also noticed that we are running out of time in this finale and we’ll probably never get to learn what the island is, who made this underground ‘temple’ of sorts, and who were all the dead bodies lying around the floor? Des enters the Beverly Hillbillies bubbling crude. The pool has a central plug with hieroglyphics on it (again which we will probably never find out what they mean). Des gets a nasty nose-bleed, begins to glow himself, but manages to pull the plug. The light of the island, the source, has now been extinguished…and coincidentally Flocke is now MORTAL! Jack hits him with a right hook, and Flocke returns with a small boulder to the side of Jack’s skull. I’m guessing that probably hurt like hell.

We are half way there people, so like I always say in the Finale post…stick with me. I guess that’s my other recurring LOST theme.

Back at the concert in 2004, Eloise joins Desmond. “I thought I made it clear that you were to stop this!” Desmond just chose to ignore her threat. Eloise says, “once they know…what then?” Desmond replies, “Then…we are leaving.” Eloise is concerned that Desmond is going to take Daniel with him, but to my surprise he is not. Hmm, where is Desmond going to take them?!? We segue over to the museum where Claire is in labor, Charlie’s left to get the classic ‘towels and water’ associated with giving birth outside of a hospital, and Kate is coaching her. At this point, Kate has either experienced the intense emotion I’ve been describing, OR got a little grossed out by Claire’s Vajayjay because she has a wide-eyed crazy look on her face. Aaron is born, and Kate has experienced all of her past memories, and I think Claire has too. When Charlie returns, Claire instantly remembers who he is, and as Charlie takes Claire’s hand, he also experiences his past emotions and memories. They both look at the baby...“It’s Aaron…it’s Aaron.” I look across the room at our LOST party, and I can see my brother’s wife, Holly, and Joe Britz crying…it’s a special moment for us all.

WHOOSH back to the island. I can see stagehand #3 and stagehand #5 throwing styrofoam boulders at Ben, Hurley, Sawyer and Kate as they are making their way to the cliffs. They radio Miles who is helping Frank Lapidas fix the Boeing 737 with duct tape, a piece of plywood, aluminum foil, 2 bottlecaps, and some bamboo. Jack wakes up and goes after Flocke who is just about to climb down a ladder towards the boat. Jack initiates a fantastic Ryu Rising Dragon Fist Punch. A wrestling match ensues and Flocke manages to stab Jack in the side with his big-ass knife, that’s not good. Jack continues to fight, gets a nasty cut on his neck from Flocke’s knife (so that’s where the nick on his neck came from), and just as Flocke is about to attempt to finish Jack off, Kate shoots him in the back with her rifle. “I saved you a bullet.” (-3 points to the writers for that weak line). Jack kicks Flocke off the side of the cliff and it’s poetic. Smokey / Essau / MIB / Flocke is now…dead! Evil has been defeated, and Jack’s purpose has been fulfilled.

WHOOSH to 2004, and Jack’s neck begins to bleed, NICE. Jack checks on Locke who happens to be awake right after his major surgery, and he can move his toes. Locke begins to experience all of his past emotions, and remembers his life on the island. As I look across the room, my brother Dave is crying…what a sap. Jack can’t believe it, and he actually shares a brief memory of the time Jack and Locke were looking down the hatch shaft in Season I. He’s freaked out, and is going to the concert to see his son. Locke responds, "but you don’t have a son!" Jack and I say at the same time, “WHAT?!” “I hope somebody does for you, what you just did for me.”

Back to the island and Jack looks like your typical Benjamin Linus. “Find me some thread and I’ll count to 5.” Nice line Jack, seriously. Way to bring it all back to the beginning. The island still needs to be ‘fixed’ and Jack is the man to do it. “Whatever Desmond turned off needs to be turned back on again.” Jack says his final island goodbye to Sawyer and Kate. “Tell me I’m gonna see you again!” Jack starts to mumble something, and then stops…he proceeds to play tonsil hockey with Kate for one last time (on the island). Ben and Hurley are staying put. Kate says, “I love you” and I half-expected Jack to say, “ditto”. Don’t know why, that’s just what came to mind. Sawyer and Kate plummet into the ocean. Kate rips her spleen, and Sawyer now has brain damage from their heroic jumps.

WHOOSH to the hospital and Sawyer enters Jin and Sun’s hospital room. They greet him with smirks, because they now remember everything about James Sawyer Ford. Jin has a hilarious grin on his face as he says, “Hello….detective.” That was awesome. They are leaving and they inform Sawyer that they’ll seem him later… Sawyer leaves and attempts to grab an Apollo Bar from the vending machine. Enter Juliet, here we go. “It’s ok, I’m a cop!” Juliet responds, “well maybe you should read it its rights!” She tells him to unplug the machine and then plug it back in. “It worked”. (The same phrase she said to Miles from the Afterlife/Purgatory when she was first buried in the season premiere). They touch hands and share their past lives together. “We could go dutch!” As Juliet says this in the 2004 time line, and simultaneously in a flashback memory they realize they’ve been reunited. “I gotcha…I gotcha baby…” I look around the room and now Brian Zack is crying like a baby, I guess he always had a connection with Sawyer and Juliet.

Still in 2004, Jack’s late for the concert and is greeted by Kate. “It’s over,” she tells him (in more ways than one Kate). Jack still can’t figure out where he knows Kate from. She touches his face and says, “I’ve missed you….sooo much.” (Very important hint that prepares us for the surprise ending). He begins to experience visions of their shared past, and gets even more freaked out. Kate adds, “I know you don’t understand, but if you come with me, you will!”

We are coming very close to the end of an era with just 20 minutes left in the show. Jack is destined to go to the bottom of the, now dry, waterfall and turn the island back on. In doing so, he passes the Island Matrix of Leadership to Hurley. Jack says, “this is the way it’s supposed to happen, it was only supposed to be me so I could do this!” Hurley is not gonna let Jack die, but he accepts the Aquafina bottle of dirty water from Jack and takes over the leadership role anyway. Jack says, “I believe in you Hurley, and I believe in the fecal coliform bacteria that is now lining your stomach”. “Now you’re just like me.” And with that, Hurley is now the new protector of the island. Jack successfully climbs down the waterfall shaft and revives Desmond. Des is worried that it didn’t work, he thought that he would leave this place, “you were right, Jack!” Jack’s response, “There is a first time for everything, now you go and be with your wife and son…see you in another life brotha!” (What a great line that has captured our attention since the first episode of Season II). It's great that these two individuals are the ones that have saved the island.

We transition over to Hydra Island where Sawyer and Kate find Claire on the beach. Claire refuses to go, “Look at me, this island has made me crazy. I don’t know how to be a mother anymore!” Kate responds, “None of us do, but you’re not alone, let me help you.” (When I first saw this I did not think it was a big deal, but now knowing how the show ends, I was expecting something more dramatic and better dialogue since it appears that we never get a chance to see Claire engage with a 3-4 year old Aaron. Very disappointed with this exchange, but I guess we are left to assume that Kate and Claire make it safely off the island, and raise Aaron together. They all make it on the plane that has now been duct taped together and safely fly away. Claire and Kate are holding hands, and you can see Sawyer begin to cry. This is the first time Sawyer and Claire have left the island since destiny called on September 22, 2004.

Back at the heart of the island, Jack heaves the rock-plug-peg back into the hole, and water begins to flow again. A golden girl, I mean golden glow, emits from the pool once more. Hurley and Ben pull up the rope, and Hurley makes me laugh when he says, “Desmond…NO!” I’m surprised that Hurley didn’t push Desmond back down the waterfall. Ben believes Desmond is going to be ok, and believes that Hurley should help Des get home to his family. When Jacob ran things you were not allowed to leave, but maybe there’s another way, a better way to get Des home! Ben becomes Hurley’s #2.

WHOOSH to Locke arriving at the church. He meets Ben Linus whom is sitting outside. He apologizes, “I was selfish, jealous, I wanted everything you had. You were special John, and I wasn’t.” Ben is not going inside with the others, he still needs to work some things out. John Locke forgives Ben…for strangling him in cold blood. Hurley comes out of the church and says to Ben, “you know, you were a good #2.” Ben responds, “and you were a great #1.” And I say, “what the hell is going on here!?” Just then, Jack pulls up with Kate. “I’ll be inside, waiting for you, when you’re ready.” Jack says, “ready for what?” To which Kate replies, “to leave…” Again, the first time around I am still wondering where on Earth are they all going together, back to the island?

Jack enters the rear of the church and I immediately notice various symbols from multiple religions on the book shelves (a Buddha statue, a Christian cross, and a menorah just to name a few). As the camera pans across the room, the stain glass window depicts emblems from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism. At this very moment, I realize what is going on, where they are, and where they are going…the final Holy S! moment of the series. I was happy that they left us with 1 last OMG! moment, and even more ecstatic that they gave us 1 last Jack’s getting a migraine, grab the temples look. It was fantastic. He touches the casket and the full wave of past experiences flashes before his eyes. I think he realizes where he is now…a celestial plane somewhere between life and the afterlife (whatever your personal beliefs might constitute an afterlife). He opens the coffin, and it’s empty. Now we, as LOST fanatics, experience our own rush of intense emotions as the explanation of the sideways timeline is revealed.

Christian - Hey kiddo!
Jack – Dad, you died, how are you here right now?
Christian – How are you here?
Jack begins to cry – I died too, are you real?
Christian – I sure hope so. You’re real, everything that’s happened to you is real, all those people in the church..they are real too!
Jack – They’re all dead?
Christian – Everyone dies sometime kiddo, some before you, some llllong after you.
Jack – Why are they here now?
Christian – There is no now here (as he begins to look around). You all made this place together, so you could find one another. The most important part of your life was the time you spent with these people. That’s why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone, Jack. You needed all of them just as much as they needed you.
Jack – For what?
Christian – To remember, and to…let go.
Jack – Kate said we were leaving?
Christian – Not leaving…moving on.
Jack – Where are we going?
Christian – Lets go find out (as he smiles and escorts his son into the congregation.)

Jack enters the church and sees all of the people he shared the most important part of his life with all hugging, smiling, and embracing the moment. Good thing Michael’s not there, or maybe he would have shot Libby. As we pan across the room, I can vaguely see Sayid torturing Sawyer at the base of one of the pews. The group includes, Sayid/Shannon, Boone, Sawyer/Juliet, Bernard/Rose, John Locke, Desmond/Penny, Hurley/Libby, Claire/Charlie, Jin/Sun, and finally Jack and Kate in the front pew.

WHOOSH to the island, and as the final score plays over the speakers, we see Jack lying on a rock outside of the cave of golden light. He’s barely alive and begins to walk through the jungle into the bamboo garden. I love the brilliance of this moment. Jack’s about to die on the island, in the exact same spot where he first landed on the island at 00:01 of Episode I.

Back to the church, and Christian opens the doors to an incandescent vibrant light. Our LOSTIES embrace the light as it touches their celestial bodies. Jack closes his eyes, and as he does, we quickly transition to Vincent lying next to Jack as he makes his peace with the island. He sees the Ajira airplane flying away, he smiles, and closes his eyes…

…LOST

There are 3 final shots of the original plane wreckage on the beach. My understanding is that this is simply the wreckage left behind from the original 2004 crash which included 48 survivors, nothing more.

121 hours of LOST is now complete, and I am more than satisfied with the ending. Some will criticize that they didn’t answer enough of the scientific and metaphysical questions, but I am ok with it for the most part…I’ll leave my questions for a blog entry next week. I created a separate blog entry for my final thoughts and theories, based on my interpretation of the show. Its posted above this entry. I would sincerely love to hear how any of you felt at the end. Were you personally satisfied with how it all worked out?

For the last recap entry, I bid you a final and gracious…Namaste and Good Luck!

-Slice

Season VI, Episode 16 – What They Died For

Line(s) of the night – “What’s that…a secreter room?” – Miles. And the other line was, “we insist (that you come over for dinner), even if we have to kidnap you!” – Rousseau


Before we dive into tonight’s episode, does anyone think the island could be Atlantis? From Plato’s ancient dialogues, “Atlantis sank into the ocean in a single day and night of misfortune" and has been referred to as a “LOST” continent. Just a thought.

Building off that idea, this is it everyone. As corny as it sounds, this is our last chance to bring up any theories / questions before the finale on Sunday night. After the finale it will all be carved in stone, so throw anything out there for S’s and G’s over the next couple of days in the Comment Section as we countdown to May 23rd.

We start off with a brief recap of the submarine catastrophe. Did anyone else notice that once they were on the beach, Kate went to Jack instead of an unconscious Sawyer to make sure Jack was ok? We flash sideways to Jack’s eyeball (just like the very first scene of Season I), and he goes to his bathroom where he notices a cut on his neck. The same nick that he noticed on the plane coming back from Sydney. Maybe this is a wound that just won’t heal, irregardless of the timeline.

Jack joins his son, David, for breakfast. David has a big concert that night and his mom is going to be there (SIDENOTE – there is no way it’s Juliet, so I am still guessing it’s Harper Stanhope who was Goodwin’s wife before Juliet ruined their marriage). Claire rises from her slumber, and as she comes to the breakfast table my wife, Angela, says “Oh my God, Claire’s pregnant!” I immediately look at her and say, WTF (Why the Face)? She then starts to laugh and realizes what is going on (we are in the sideways timeline, not on the island). Jack gets a call from Oceanic Airlines and they inform him they have found his missing cargo. We soon find out that its Desmond calling Jack from the car, apparently setting him up for something?

WHOOSH to the 2007 Island we go...and we have a role reversal from the first episode ever with Jack now stitching up Kate. Kate’s pissed, “Locke did this to them, we have to kill him Jack!” We see Sawyer, and I think “way to go Jackass…you caused the bomb to explode.” Sawyer obviously agrees with me and the rest of LOST nation, because he blames himself for everyone who was killed on the submarine. Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley are off to find Desmond in the well, because he obviously is a threat to Flocke. Side Note 2 – this is the same group of people from Ms. Klugh’s List that Michael was instructed to bring back with him to the Others in Season 2!

WHOOSH to the sideways 2004 and John Locke is back at school. He’s about to cross the street, when Desmond is spotted in the parking lot yet again. I laugh in spite of myself as I imagine John Locke getting run over for a 2nd time… Dr. Linus notices Desmond and attempts a citizen’s arrest just to get his face used as a punching bag. As he’s getting pummeled by Desmond, he experiences that ‘strong emotion’ I keep bringing up, and flashes to the moment when Desmond was beating his ass on the waterfront back in Season 5 (Penny and a 2-year old Charlie were on their sailboat). Desmond says, “I’m not here to hurt him, I’m here to help him let go.”

Desmond obviously remembers EVERYTHING from the alternate timeline, because he knew how to make Ben experience his alternate life. Maybe he threw in an extra punch because Ben shot Desmond at point blank range.

WHOOSH to the island and we finally see Ben, Miles and Richard walking through the jungle on their way to New Otherton. Miles delivers great sarcasm with, “oh yeah, I lived in those houses over 30 years ago, otherwise known as last week, and I have no idea where we are!” They arrive back at the Others / Dharma houses and Miles begins to go 6th Sense on them. Richard reveals that he buried Alex right at the edge of the white picket fence. Ben has a moment of insanity, and walks away towards his former home. At this point I am guessing some sort of switch has just gone off in his head. They enter Ben’s secret room, and Miles asks about the ‘secreter room’. Ben says, “That’s where I was told I could summon the monster, that’s before I realized it was the one summoning me!” Zoe and Charles Widmore enter the house, how convenient. Widmore reveals that Jacob visited Charles to convince him of the error of his ways, and to tell him everything he needed to know for their purpose. So Jacob must have directed Widmore to the island.


WHOOSH to the high school nurse's office, and Dr. Linus looks a lot like the Benry Linus that was all ‘jacked’ up at the end of Season 3. Michael Emerson must get so sick and tired of all the make up and fake blood. Dr. Linus explains to John Locke that when he was getting hit, he saw something. He also told Locke that Desmond was trying to get John to let go. At the local police precinct, Desmond confesses to his hit and run with Locke, and his assault on Ben Linus. He’s thrown in a cell with Sayid, which is conveniently next to Kate’s cell.

WHOOSH back to the jungle and we join our 4 remaining candidates on their way to the well. Sawyer’s got a guilt trip, and Hurley sees…young Jacob? Young Jacob takes the ashes and bolts. Hurley comes out of the jungle to find…grown up Jacob? Jacob put his ashes in the fire, and when they burn off, Hurley will never see Jacob again. “You go get your friends; we are very close to the end, Hugo.”

We segue over to the dock near New Otherton and Flocke climbs out of the out-rigger to the theme music from JAWS?! Did anyone else notice that? Richard’s sure that he can occupy Flocke and buy everyone else some time. Miles makes a break for the jungle, Widmore and Zoe hide in Ben’s secret closet, and Ben is ready to face Smokey. Richard hears the pissed off ticka ticka sound and gets speared by Smokey like Goldberg used to do in WCW wrestling. So I am guessing Richard is dead or dying out in the jungle. Flocke appears to a shocked Benry Linus and enters the house. Flocke asks Ben to kill some people for him, and once he does, Ben can have the island all to himself.

WHOOSH to the high school parking lot in 2004. Alex approaches Dr. Linus and offers him a ride home, but only after she checks with her mom. It’s Rousseau, and it’s weird seeing her in a dress compared to her GI Jane gear. She offers to take him home, “after all that you’ve done for my daughter”. (I just grinned). Alex and Rousseau also insist that Ben joins them for dinner. At the house, Rousseau reveals that Alex’s father died when she was two, and he is the closest thing she has ever had to a father. How sweet, and terribly ironic.

WHOOSH back to the jungle, and Ben opens the secret closet to reveal Zoe and Widmore waiting there. Flocke starts a conversation with Zoe, and as soon as she speaks he slits her throat…shame on you Zoe for not knowing the rules. Flocke tells Widmore that the first thing he is going to do when he leaves the island is to kill Penny. In an effort to save Penny, Widmore reveals a portion of his plan, “Desmond Hume exhibits a unique resistance to electromagnetism, it was a measure of last resort.” He also whispers something in Flocke’s ear just before Benry shoots Charles in the chest. “He doesn’t get to save his daughter.” And now I understand why Ben is serving Flocke, because he wants revenge on anyone remotely responsible for Alex’s death. (It was Charles Widmore's mercenaries that killed Alex in cold blood back in Season 4).

On the other side of the island, Jacob appears to Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley. They can all see and hear him (which is kind of odd). Kate wants to know that they (Jin / Sun / Sayid) didn’t die for nothing. Jacob asks them to sit down so he can explain why he chose them, and then he’ll explain everything they need to know about protecting the island, because by the time the fire burns out, one of them is going to have to start doing it.

WHOOSH to the sideways 2004, and Locke is visiting Dr. Jack Shephard. John Locke is beginning to believe their interactions are more than just coincidence. “What if all this happened for a reason, maybe you are supposed to fix me?” John Locke is becoming a man of faith again.

Back to the Jungle and we finally get some ANSWERS! Jacob doesn’t know where to begin, so Hurley asks, “How about why you brought us to the island?” Jacob made a mistake, and because of that mistake, all of them and potentially everyone they love could die. Jacob knew it was a matter of time before ‘the monster’ figured out a way to kill him (for making him the way he is). Once Jacob is gone, one of the 4 will have to replace him. A bitter Sawyer says that he was doing just fine before he got on the Oceanic 815 flight, which is a lie. Jacob responds, “No you weren’t, none of you were.’ ‘You were all flawed.’ ‘I chose you because you were like me, all alone, looking for something, and you couldn’t find it out there.’ ‘You needed this place as much as it needed you.”

Kate’s name was crossed off in the cave because she became a mother (good answer Jacob). Jacob reveals, “it was just a line of chalk in a cave, Kate, the job is yours if you want it.” The job involves protecting the light at the center of the island, and to make sure that this light never goes out. Jacob gives them a choice (which is something he never had) and Jack volunteers, “I’ll do it, that’s why I’m here, that’s what I’m supposed to do.”

Jacob responds, “then it’s time.” When I left you I was but the learner...now I am the master.

Now that Jack has chosen to be the next protector of the island, he will be able to locate the light that is near the bamboo field where he landed the first time he arrived on the island, September 22, 2004. “How long am I going to have to do this job?” Jacob responds, “as long as you can, Jack.” Jacob then speaks in latin and captures the blessed holy water from the river. As he offers the cup to Jack, I’m reminded of the scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when Indy does the same sort of spiritual ritual with Holy Grail. You have chosen…wisely.

After drinking from the cup, Jacob says, “Now you are like me.” Again, just like Mother said last week.

WHOOSH to the sideways timeline and Desmond, Sayid and Kate are being transported to county lock up. Desmond believes it’s time to leave, and offers Sayid and Kate a get out of jail free card as long as they promise to do something for him. Sayid and Kate agree and the police van stops. Holy Crap its Ana Lucia! She’s agreed to let them go for $125,000. Hurley pulls up in his yellow Hummer and says one of the most important lines of the evening…”You didn’t tell me Ana Lucia was going to be here!” (So does this mean that Hurley can now recall everything that happened in his alternate reality from the island too?) Ana Lucia doesn’t recognize Hurley, and he plays it off pretty well, but does ask Desmond why Ana Lucia was not going with them. Desmond’s response, “She’s not ready yet.” Sayid leaves with Hurley, and Kate is off to a concert (most likely David Shephard’s concert at the museum) with Desmond.

WHOOSH to our final scene of the night and we find Ben walking to the well with Flocke. “Can I ask you something, if you can turn into smoke whenever you want, why do you walk around?” Flocke’s response, “I like to keep my feet on the ground, it reminds me that I was human.” Interesting point, but I would have asked, "How the hell do you turn into smoke, what are you?" Flocke seems a little ticked that Sayid did not kill Desmond while he was in the well. However, Widmore DID refer to Desmond Hume as a fail-safe, the last resort for keeping Smokey/Flocke on the island. Flocke is going to; instead, use Desmond to help him DESTROY THE ISLAND.

BAMMM…..LOST

Here we are at the precipice of the Series Finale. ABC is going to air the Pilot from 2004 on Saturday night and coverage of the Series Finale begins with a 2 hour recap at 7:00 pm, and the actual Finale show from 9:00 – 11:30 pm.

It would appear that there is going to be a showdown at the concert in the sideways timeline and a showdown at the “heart of the island” in our jungle present. In the sideways timeline, Desmond must have found a way to make the LOSTIES see/experience all of their past alternate lives, because Hurley seems to be the example of this phenomenon.

But what about Walt? What about Aaron? After 5 years of pumping each character up as a focal point of the series and their unique attributes, I get the impression that they won’t be in the finale.

Is Richard alive or dead? Where are the rest of Camp Flocke and Dirty Claire?

Will Rose and Bernard make an appearance?

Will Juliet and Shannon be in the finale in the sideways timeline?

Have we seen the last of Faraday and Mrs. Eloise Hawkins Widmore?

Will Jacob explain how he visited each of them off the island? I could go on and on and on.

Until SUNDAY NIGHT, Namaste and Good Luck!

-Slice

Season VI, Episode 15 – Across the Sea

Line of the night – “Every question I answer will simply lead to another question.” – Psycho Mom

The line of the night actually did make me laugh. Every time we get an answer to a burning question on this show it simply leads to more questions. For example, after 6 complicated seasons and 6 to the 10th power of theories, it is revealed that "Adam and Eve" are really a Mother Earth figure and the former body/corpus delicti of Smokey the Black Smoke Monster...which leads to even more questions. Questions like who did "Mother" replace, how did she end up on the island, and how long has she been there? Questions like, what the hell is Flocke/MIB, a ghost, the actual spirit of Essau, a phantom?

The episode starts out with wreckage in the ocean near the island, and for a moment I believe that we are going to see Frank Lapidas rise from the depths…but instead we find a very pregnant damsel in distress floating to the surface. The young woman receives care from Claudia Jean "C.J." Cregg of the West Wing. It’s kind of ironic that Allison Janney’s character “Mother” finds out that the young pregnant girl is named Claudia. They begin their conversation in Latin. Then I noticed a weird ringing sound, and all the sudden they were speaking English? (I guess that was for our benefit, gratias tibi ago LOST writers). Mother informs Claudia that she is all alone and she was brought to the island by accident, just like her. Claudia goes into labor and out comes a 14 pound, two month old baby covered in little to no vernix/amniotic fluid. How nice.

Mother seems elated and relieved that it is a boy! When all of the sudden Claudia begins to scream...which causes me to scream…”Holy S- they are twins!” Essau/MIB/Flocke is the brother of Jacob! This time Mother is not so happy to see a second boy come into the world. I love the imagery of Jacob all nice and clean wrapped in light swaddling clothes, and Essau (as I’ll refer to him the rest of the episode) / MIB is screaming as he is covered in a dark loin cloth that looks like it’s made out of thorns and burlap. “I’m sorry!”, says Mother as she nails Claudia with a grapefruit-size rock in the skull. And we have a WTF moment (Why the Face). Well that sucks, and I guess we are seeing why Flocke told Kate in the episode "Recon" that his mother was crazy.

Flocke had said to Kate, “My mother was crazy. A long time ago, before I... looked like this... I had a mother, just like everyone. She was a very disturbed woman. And, as a result of that, I had some growing pains. Problems that I'm still trying to work my way through. Problems that could have been avoided had things been different.” Maybe if Mother was honest with him from the get go, maybe he wouldn’t have murdered her?!? Thoughts on this?

Transition to the beach and I hear the melody to "We're all in this together..." from High School Musical. Next we see a young Zac Efron on the beach picking up a box that appears to have washed ashore. Are we going to see more Wildcats from East High? Yes, I’ve seen High School Musical approximately 37 times thanks to my daughter’s new obsession with everything Disney, and 4 times because it’s just a good movie…alas young Zac is joined by his brother, a young Matt Damon. It should be noted that this younger Jacob has appeared only to Flocke in 3 separate episodes earlier this season.

MIB/Essau doesn’t want to let Jacob play the game because he’s afraid Jacob will rat him out to their Mother, and she’ll take it away from them. Indeed Jacob does snitch on his brother’s game (snitches get stitches Jacob), and Mother playfully confronts Essau on the matter. She tells Essau that she left the game there for him to find, and she also tells Essau that “You’re Special!” Hmm we’ve heard that before,Walt and John Locke were special too.

We segue to Jacob and Essau hunting boar in the woods, and they spot other humans. “We saw people, they looked like us!” Mother responds, “they are not like us, they don’t belong here…we are here for a reason!” Essau asks her my same question, “What reason???” There is a long pause, and Mother takes her sons away without answering the question, darn it. She blindfolds both boys and leads them through the jungle to a stream leading to a glowing cave of light. On the way she says, “they come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt, it always ends the same.” Again, a line we heard from MIB/Essau in the Season 5 season finale. Mother goes on to explain that the people will hurt the boys, because that’s what people do, but she adds, “I’ve made it so you can never hurt eachother.” A rule of the island has been confirmed.

At the end of the stream is a golden cave of light, and THAT’S the reason they are on the island. The light is the warmest, brightest light you’ve ever seen or felt. This is "The Source". The tribe of people on the other side of the island will seek out this light because there is a little bit of this light in every man, but they always want more (man’s inherent greed). “If the light goes out here, then it goes out everywhere.” Everywhere? Like the island, or the whole Earth? So if we lose power at this one transformer, the whole neighborhood is screwed until Delmarva Power gets the power back on? Mother tells the boys that one of them will have to protect the island when she is gone.

Segue again to the boys playing the Pokemon stone game, Jacob calls out Essau for breaking the rules. “One day you can make up your own game, and everyone else will have to follow your rules.” Nicely said MIB. Essau sees the figure of Claudia, his birth mother and pursues her. It should also be noted that Jacob cannot see her because she is dead. Claudia reveals the truth about their origins, and she shows Essau the original “New Othertown”. She explains that this village is comprised of survivors from a shipwreck that occurred 13 years prior (the day before he was born). Essau later confronts Jacob and attempts to shed some light on the situation regarding their "Mother’s" lunacy and how she killed their birth mother. Essau leaves to go live with the tribe, and Jacob stays behind. Mother does reveal that she killed his birth mother because, “if I let her live, she would have taken you and I wouldn’t let you become one of them, I needed you to stay good.”

Jacob’s all grown up now, and he’s spying/watching Essau and some of his tribe working on the well (near the Orchid Station). Jacob and Essau play Essau’s black stone / white stone Husker Du board game. Essau explains that, “She may be insane, but she’s most definitely right about that.” (the fact that the people are greedy, manipulative, untrustworthy, and selfish). Essau exposes that he’s found a way off the island via the use of the electromagnetic fields at certain locations where metal behaves uniquely. When the tribe finds places like this, they dig into the ground. Jacob goes back and tells Mother about Essau’s plan to leave the island. Mother seeks out Essau and confronts him at the bottom of the well where it looks like he is working on something. Essau explains that he’s spent the last 30 years of his life trying to find the golden cave of light she had once shown them as boys. Then he realized that if he couldn’t find the cave of unearthly light, maybe there is another way to gain access to The Source!

Holy crap – it’s the donkey wheel! So another big reveal is that Essau (or Essau’s villagers) created the frozen donkey wheel mechanism. He plans to make an opening to the light, attach the wheel to a system that channels the water and the light, “and when I do, I’ll finally be able to leave this place”. I have an idea, Essau, why not just make a freaking boat like Michael did in Season I? When Mother asks how he knows that he’ll be able to leave, he responds with “because I’m special Mother!” Ooohhh burn.

Mother hugs her adopted son, and slams his head into the rock covering the source of the light. “I’m so sorry!” Mother leaves Essau and returns to Jacob. She informs Jacob that it is time, and she takes him back to the golden glowing cave. “You are going to protect it now.” Jacob asks her what’s down in the light and she says, “life, death, rebirth, it’s The Source, the heart of the island.” She also explains to him that if he were to go into the light, he would be worse than dying it would be much worse. She speaks some more latin (anyone know what she’s saying under her breath?) and shares a cup of wine (I think) with him. She pressures him into drinking from the cup much like Michael being forced to drink from David’s cup in The Lost Boys. By drinking from the cup he has accepted the responsibility to protect the island as long as he can until he, in turn, finds a replacement…hence the candidates. “Now you and I are the same.”

So does this mean that Mother and Jacob are both immortals/demi-gods? Essau wakes up and finds the well filled in with rubble and dirt, and his village has been torched to the ground. I wonder how Mother pulled that off? He looks pisssssed. Mother’s back at the caves where Jacob and her reside, and she finds the cave in shambles. Mother picks up a light stone and a dark stone from the cave floor, and WHAMM she gets a dagger through her heart. Essau is to blame, and he asks her as she’s dying, “why wouldn’t you let me leave mother.” With her dying breath she says, “because I love you…thank you.” She’s already passed the matrix of leadership onto Jacob, so I guess she can move on to the next life. Jacob returns to the cave from collecting firewood, “what did you do?” Jacob pounces on his brother and starts to beat the snot out of him.

Jacob leads Essau through the jungle to the stream going towards The Source. “You want to leave this place brother, then go!” Jacob forces Essau into the stream and his body floats down the waterfall and into the glowing golden light. I can hear the pissed off ticka ticka sound and smokey emerges from the cave. Jacob finds his body and it appears he is dead. A very upset Jacob returns to the caves and puts the black stone and white stone into a pouch…and now we know who Adam and Eve are.

It was a nice touch that they edited scenes from Season I into this portion of the episode. Jacob places the bodies of his Mother and Essau next to eachother in the cave. We see quick transitions between this scene and the scene from Season I where Kate, Jack and Locke discover their very own Adam and Eve. “Goodbye brother, goodbye.”

BAMMM…..LOST


So did you notice that once Smokey came out of the 'cavern of light' it was no longer emitting a heavenly golden glow?

Is this the Pandora's Box that Ben Linus explained to Locke back in Season 3?

Is this the portal or pathway that caused Anthony Cooper, Locke's Dad, to show up on the island?

Where did "Mother" come from? Is she supposed to be Mother Earth? Did she also share a glass of wine with someone at one point to become the protector of the island?

How is it that the younger version of Jacob is able to appear and scare the crap out of Flocke/Essau/Smokey throughout episodes of this final season?


People, we are down to our very last 1 hour episode. I still can't believe it. So post your theories and questions and let's trying and figure out as much as we can with so very little time left on the LOST clock.

Until next week, Namaste and Good Luck!

-Slice

Season VI, Episode 14 – The Candidate

Line of the night – “Now I’ve got the gun, dough boy.” – Sawyer (kind of weak, but ok).







All I can say is…WOW! I’d be willing to bet 23-42% of you cried at one point or another this evening. Joe Britz, I’m looking in your direction. Tonight was one of the most emotional episodes of the entire series. The LOST series is going down like the plot to Predator, i.e., main characters getting knocked off throughout the course of the story line with potentially only one protagonist in the end. In Predator, just when I started to enjoy Hawkins' sense of humor he gets killed, then just as I develop an affinity for Blaine's sarcasm, he gets a laser through the chest. The same theme has applied to LOST, just when we get to enjoy Sun and Jin being reunited, they drown??? Please tell me this fairytale has a happ ending...for the love of pete.

We begin with Jack welcoming John Locke (and the rest of us) back from his lethargic state of surgery. Dr. Shephard explains to John that he repaired his dural sac and noted the spinal injury that caused his paralysis, “I think you’re a candidate!” Jack begins to explain a new procedure that could restore feeling in John’s legs. “I think I can fix you.” - classic Jack Shepard. John is not interested, and I was hoping we would view yet another 'classic Jack move' wincing with the hand on the forehead, but to no avail.

WHOOSH to the island, Sayid welcomes Jack back from his lethargic state (I spy with my little eye parallelism). Sayid paddled to Hydra Island with Jack and Flocke. We transition over to Widmore’s camp where Sawyer, Kate, Claire, Lapidas, Hurley, Sun and Jin are being forced back into the Polar Bear cages…I wonder if there are any fish biscuits left? Widmore is attempting to protect the 4 candidates in his custody: Sawyer, Hurley, Jin and Sun. Kate’s name was not on the ‘list’. They are trying to get the pylon fence running because Flocke’s coming!!

WHOOSH to 2004, and Dr. Bernard Nadler is making bleaching trays (according to Angela). So let’s talk about the elephant in the room right now! Where the hell are Rose and Bernard? They were on the island in 1977, and theoretically should still be on the island now! Were Bernard and/or Rose ever a candidate? Dr. Jack asks Bernard the reason why he had to perform emergency oral surgery 3 years prior on John Locke. They also discover they were both on Oceanic Flight 815. Bernard doesn’t break the code of patient confidentiality, but he does inform Jack that John came to him with another man, Anthony Cooper. “Good luck Doc, I hope you find what you’re looking for.” (Hmmm, does that mean Bernard knows about their former lives on the island?)

WHOOSH to Hydra Island, “It’s just the 3 of us now.” Flocke’s goal is to get the rest of the LOSTIES from Widmore and get on the plane. Jack asks, “Why should I trust you?” (Which seems to be the theme of the episode, trust). Flocke reveals that he could have killed Jack at any time, but instead he saved him, and now he wants to save his friends too.

Back at the Polar Bear cages, Sawyer informs Kate that her name, indeed, was on the cave wall, but it was crossed out. Sun and Jin finally share some much anticipated dialogue, and Sun talks about their daughter, Ji Yeon. Just then the power shuts down and Frank Lapidas takes the words right out of my mouth, “Uh Oh!” Here comes the Whooo pissed off ticka ticka sound, and Hurley’s response is, “annnddd we’re dead.” Smokey takes out all of Widmore’s men and Jack frees them from the cell. They make it out into the jungle and Jack again reinforces that he is not going with them. Sayid appears out of the jungle and this is the first time in quite a long time that we have the entire original group together minus everyone that’s died (Boone, Shannon, Dr. Artz, Paulo, Nikki, Charlie, my boy Mr. Ecko, etc.).

Whoosh back to 2007 and Jack meets Peg Bundy at the nursing home that appears to be caring for Anthony Cooper. She takes him back to meet Anthony and as I look around, my twisted theory-driven mind begins to ponder if the rest of the nursing home patients are actually other influential island flashback characters, “maybe we’ll see Jack’s original wife, Sarah, really old!”…Wishful obscure thinking, I guess. Fun fact: Sarah Shephard is played by the same actress that captivated us in Happy Gilmore, and is currently on Modern Family. Jack meets Anthony Cooper and Mr. Cooper looks like he just got his bell rung by Sawyer.

WHOOSH to the island and Flocke is approaching the Ajira Airways plane. Bullets appear to have no effect on him, and he proceeds to kill 2 more of Widmore’s men. He takes one of their wrist watches…why? Flocke proceeds onto the plane and finds 4 sticks of C4 explosives. Flocke attempts to convince everyone that if they had turned on the electrical components of the plane, it would have blown up. “That's twice you’ve saved our asses, I guess I was wrong about you,” replies Sawyer. Flocke suggests they take the submarine to get off the island. Again, Jack states that he will help, but he is not going with them. As they start to walk to the sub, Sawyer grabs Jack and asks for 1 more favor. He still does not trust Flocke, so he tells Jack to force Flocke into water and Sawyer will take care of the rest. I wonder what happens when Flocke gets wet? Does he multiply like a mogwai?

WHOOSH to the hospital room and John Locke says the following in his sleep, “Boone…push the button…I wish you had believed me.” Locke’s having a relapse of his former past, and this moment deserves a semi 'fist pump like a champ'. Claire’s at the hospital to see her half-brother. Jack grabs a delicious Apollo Bar and they sit down to discuss their father. Jack informs Claire that their dad was found in an alley outside a bar in Sydney, he had drunk himself to death. (No change from the original time line which is surprising). Claire opens the gift from Christian Shepard, we have a reflection moment, and discover it’s a jewelry box that plays the melody to “Catch a Falling Star”, which is Claire’s famous nursery song. Claire and Jack also discover that they were on Oceanic 815 together. Jack has no idea why Christian gave Claire this gift. Jack offers Claire a place to stay while she is in Los Angeles, “we’re not strangers, we’re family.”

WHOOSH back to Hydra Island. Our LOSTIES are all lined up ready to commandeer the submarine. Frank and Sawyer make it on to the sub and take control of the crew. The rest of the group makes a break for the submarine, and for some reason the LOST writers want us to see that Flocke is handing Jack his backpack ever so gently (hmmmmm). At this point, I’m guessing Flocke put the C4 explosives in his pack, but for who…for what? “Are you sure you won’t reconsider Jack…whoever told you you needed to stay had no idea what they were talking about!” Jack’s response to Flocke, "John Locke told me I needed to stay!” Cue the shotgun handle to the gut, and Jack forces Flocke into the water… Widmore’s men begin to fire upon them from the tree line, and Kate takes a bullet to the left shoulder. It’s a scene from Young Guns, and we’ve got some great action going on for the first time in a long time. Flocke pulls himself out of the water, and I am guessing that he can’t transform into Smokey in this condition. So he takes a handgun and starts killing more of Widmore’s men (how many guys did Widmore bring with him???). Before Claire or Flocke can get on the sub, Sawyer closes the hatch and the submarine begins to dive.

Jack is on the sub, and asks Jin to find a shirt in his pack for compressing the gunshot wound to Kate’s shoulder. All Jin finds is 4 sticks of C4 attached to the wrist watch timer. Jack provides some key insight to the situation, “We did exactly what he wanted…nothing is going to happen. Locke can’t kill us. Everything he has done has been to get us here. He said he can’t leave without us, but I think he can’t leave this island unless we are all dead. He told me he could kill anyone of us anytime he wanted…what if he hasn't killed us because he’s not allowed to? What if he’s trying to get us to kill each other?”

“Stay out of my way Doc!” Jack interrupts Sawyer and adds, “if he wanted to kill us, why put a timer on the bomb? We are going to be ok Sawyer, you just have to TRUST ME!” “Sorry Doc, I don’t!”, and Sawyer proceeds to pull the 2 leads out of the bomb. This causes the bomb timer to speed up exponentially. Sayid grabs the C4 and tells Jack where to find Desmond, “you are going to need him.” Sayid also tells Jack, “Because it’s going to be you!” Sayid takes off running, and the bomb explodes! RIP Sayid Jarrah, I will miss your badass fight and torture scenes.

Interestingly enough the rupture in the submarine hull causes an alarm to go off that sounds exactly like the alarm that went off in the Swan Station if the timer went below the 4 minute mark. Lapidas gets nailed by a submarine hatch door and I guess he’s out cold. Hurley takes Kate, and Jack takes Sawyer out of the sinking submarine. Jin stays with Sun whose pinned by some bent pipes (rrrright). Jin can’t get her out, and they share their final moments of life together, “I won’t leave you!” Wow! That’s all I can say is, “Wow!” I was never a big fan of our Korean friends, but Wow! Didn’t think they would knock them both off…who is going to take care of Ji Yeon?

WHOOSH to 2004 and John Locke is leaving the hospital. Jin walks by and John does a double-take. Jack makes one last attempt to recruit John for the spine surgery. Locke still has yet to make a decision, but he does explain to Jack how he ended up in a wheel chair and how Anthony Cooper ended up in a catatonic state. Jack says, “Whatever happened, happened!” A recurring theme over the past several seasons. They both get pretty emotional at this juncture, so I hope they touch hands and experience a glimpse of their alternate worlds. Jack says, “I can help you, John. I wish you had believed me.” Well how about that…Jack’s the man of faith these days. Coincidentally, “I wish you had believed me” was the content of John’s suicide note to Jack Shephard.

WHOOSH to the final scene of the night, and only Hurley, Sawyer, Kate and Jack are alive from the sub. Jack walks to the waters edge, looks out into the ocean and just starts to cry. I get the impression that Jack is looking for Jacob to provide some guidance or reasoning behind what has transpired. I mean, seriously, 3 main characters that we've connected with over 6 seasons are now gone!? On the other side of the island, Flocke and Claire are alive and on the dock. Flocke explains that the submarine sank, but there are still people alive. Claire asks him what he is going to do, and his response is, “I’m going to finish what I just started.”

BAMM…LOST

So after one episode following the long awaited reunion of Sun and Jin, the writers decided that they both should drown. Wow! I still think all of the Losties will converge at St. Sebastian’s hospital and be fine in the end, or at least I hope!

I think Jack finally understands what has to be done, and his importance based on what Sayid said right before he became martyr, "it’s going to be you."

Sayid's been a zombie since his resurrection, following orders with no emotion. After his encounter with Desmond at the well, it appears that he's had a change of heart, and they 'old, badass' Sayid resurfaced to help his friends in their darkest hour.

I don’t think Sawyer will question Jack again, do you?

We should be seeing Miles, Richard and Ben Linus in the very near future, so I wonder if they will all be working together to stop Flocke?!?


Until next week, Namaste and Good Luck!

-Slice