The Incident

Wow, that was quite an episode of Lost! It wasn't the "Holy Shit!! game changer" that Season 3's "Through the Looking Glass" was, nor did it have the epic "Lost: The Movie" feeling of last year's "There's No Place Like Home". It did give me a lot to think about, and in a cool way this finale is perfectly in keeping with the other finales. Jack traipsing through the jungle with explosives strapped to his back, leading right up to the explosion and leaving us all wondering what's next, clearly echoes season 1's finale. Plus, from the finished Swan hatch, to the the Kahana freighter and now the early Swan site, they manage to blow something up just about every season finale. But this time, the season's big twist ending is when we realize it was not really John Locke at all in Season 5, but rather Jacob's unnamed Nemesis, who orchestrates the murder of Jacob. Clearly this war has been brewing for a long, long time.



There were a lot of things I really liked in this episode. One great moment - they throw the bomb in the Swan shaft, the music swells, they clinch their eyes....and nothing happens! They all stand around with "oh shit!" looks. Classic. Also, the return of Vincent who leads Sawyer to Rose & Bernard. Now more than ever it seems like they could be Adam & Eve, the two bodies found in the caves. I also have been loving Michael Emerson's Ben. He's become such a whipping boy he's practically a martyr, but he keeps up that creepy facade. In this episode, Ben claims he's never seen Jacob, has no idea how the statue was destroyed, and that he's a Pisces. Well, he's definitely a Sagittarius, and I'd say 2 out of every 3 things Ben says is a lie.

I had heard two major characters would die this season. As I wrote in my theories for "The Incident", I had a feeling one of them might be Sayid. I hadn't guessed the "love quadrangle" would be reduced to a triangle though. I thought the chains pulling Juliet into the shaft were terrifying - gave me a little "Evil Dead" feeling, like they were alive! And just think, in 2004 when Jack and Sayid stand in the Swan and wonder what's walled up in all that concrete...it's Juliet's bones. That's some dark stuff, like a mother sending her son back in time, only to shoot him dead herself. Lost has thrown in some really dark twists in lately.

There's so much in this episode to think and write about, I really don't know where to start. This episode certainly did leave my mind whirling and will give us all plenty to chew on until next year's final season! First, I'll focus on one of my favorite parts - Is John Locke the Smoke Monster?


The headline of the episode is that the John Locke we've seen return to the Island is really Jacob's Nemesis. In an earlier post I suggested it's possible he is the Smoke Monster. This obviously would inspire the Other's traditional burial service - a funeral pyre sent out to sea. That way the Nemesis can never animate their spirit, in the fashion of Christian, Claire, Yemi, Alex and now Locke - the dead bodies on the Island. It would seem that for a while now the Nemesis has been manipulating events, in the form of Christian Shepard and other various apparitions. The Lost mobisode "So It Begins" shows Christian ordering Vincent to wake his son, as "he has work to do" which leads into the very first scene of the series. Appearing as Walt, he repeats the phrase to John Locke, inspiring him to get up from his gunshot wound and try to stop Jack from contacting the freighter crew. We now can see that it was the Nemesis, not Jacob, in the Cabin giving orders and trying to get Locke to keep anyone else from getting to the Island. It was all part of a long con, to find a loophole to kill Jacob.

You can trace the work of this Nemesis all through the series. He sought out Mr. Eko as a possible tool, but when Eko could not be convinced The Monster killed him. With his dying breath, Mr. Eko says the Monster told him "you're next", a phrase which now seems to indicate Locke alone - that Locke would be the focus of the Smoke Monster in its attempt to create a loophole leading to Jacob's death. Maybe he was even Boone when he appeared in Locke's medicine hut, where the Island seemed to speak to John - that could have been the Nemesis setting up his long con. He finally used Locke to trick Ben into supporting him without question. That loophole he sought ended up being poor Benjamin Linus, the Leader of the Others.

Poor Ben has become the John Locke - he's a pawn and a patsy, just the way John got scammed all those times. I've been thinking for a while that what was happening to Ben was a crisis of faith - that the Island was testing him, like Job. If Ben would just take charge of his destiny, he could regain the mantle of Leader and save the Island. Well, it seems Ben finally did take hold of his destiny, and it was to kill Jacob. The Nemesis has created a whole scenario to break down Ben's confidence in himself. In 2008 he convinces Richard to give Locke the compass, which inspires Locke to approach Richard in 1954 and tell him Locke is to be the Leader. This results in a weakening of Ben's authority when Locke appears in 2004, and Ben is distraught when Jacob appears to speak to Locke in the Cabin. The Nemesis eventually convinces Ben he has to turn the wheel and leave the Island. When Ben finally schemes his way back to the Island he believes he has to seek the Smoke Monster's judgment. Using the spirit of Ben's daughter, it tells Ben to do "Locke's" bidding or else, and finally leads Ben to kill Jacob. The Nemesis couldn't kill Jacob directly, but manipulated Ben into doing it for him. Ben Linus has been brought so low, from imprisonment and constant beatings, to the loss of his position as Leader and then having to witness the murder of his daughter. It was quite a moment to see him lash out in fury - Ben is typically composed and in control, even when someone's beating the hell out of him. I thought the whole thing was fascinating, and really well played by Michael Emerson.

So, what lies in the shadow of the statue? The answer Richard says is, "He who will protect/save us all."

Battle lines are being drawn between two ancient forces, represented by Jacob and his Nemesis. Jacob offers everyone "choice" and keeps bringing people to the Island for some reason. The Nemesis opposes Jacob, believing in fate and wishing to keep people off the Island. In their support we have Ilana and Bram, who clearly oppose the Nemesis. There's Richard Alpert who appears to side with Jacob, and speak for the people called The Others. Then there's Charles Widmore and his wife Eloise Hawking, who were both members of the Others, but now manipulate events from off the Island. Widmore's employee Matthew Abbadon was the one who got Locke on Oceanic 815, and he also hired Naomi. Naomi recruited Miles, and before he traveled to the Island Bram jumped Miles and told him not to go, that he was "playing for the wrong team". This echoes Widmore's claim that if Locke doesn't return to the Island then "the wrong side" will win. Given how that turned out, it seems Widmore may side with, or even be the Nemesis. Whew! Crazy.

There's also a lot of various Egyptian iconography involved, but I think the two big ones are Jacob's statue, and the hieroglyphics in the Smoke Monster's chamber.


It appears the statue may not be Tawaret the hippo goddess of fertility, as it's clearly masculine with a crocodile face. After finally seeing the face, one possibility is Sobek the crocodile god, who first came out of the waters of chaos to create the world. Sobek also became a god of the Nile who gave life to vegetation and fertility to the land. Crocodiles were seen as terrifying and powerful, and Sobek was sometimes a fearsome god and sometimes a god of protection. Sobek was also an avatar of Ra, then known as Amun-Ra, and Sobek was sometimes called Sobek-Ra. These could tie in nicely with the theory that the statue is tied to fertility on the Island, and that Richard Alpert is Ra.





Then, there's the image Ben sees in the Temple on his way to be judged by the Smoke Monster. It looks like it could be Anubis, god of the afterlife holding a heart. In the underworld Anubis weighed the hearts of the dead. The hearts of those who were heavy with wrongdoing failed the test, and were given to Ammit to devour. Sounds suspiciously like the Smoke Monster. Is that it there in the picture?



So, where is this all going? I believe a big part of the Lost endgame will involve an Ancient Astronaut theory. Ultimately, these forces on the Island (which is probably a sort of advanced space craft) inspired much of human culture. Thanks to a portal on the Island that leads to Tunisia, in ancient Egypt they were the inspiration for multiple gods and legends. The Island was possibly once located in the Atlantic ocean, inspiring the Greek civilization and the legend of Atlantis. We'll see. There's been a lot of set up for this final season. I can't wait to see it all play out!