Here We Go

What an episode of Lost! The story was moving, the acting was great, things were happening, and bombs were literally dropped! As Flocke said, "Well, here we go."


Hurley pointed out that it was back to business as usual on Lost: "What's going on?" asked Claire. "Oh, people trying to kill us again" replied Hugo.

For years we've been hearing about what one blog called "the Great Almost-War of Lost Island". The two sides have been circling for dozens of episodes, and only recently started to really solidify. Then, this week it seemed that Flocke got Jack for his "Last Recruit" - as Claire tells Jack, "the moment" Flocke spoke Jack was, "just like all of us. You're with him."

And by the end Jack was again the last recruit, as just about everyone else had abandoned or escaped the Man in Black. "It's gonna be OK", Flocke tells a woozy Jack. "You're with me now." (Did anyone else get a little creepy-date-rape feeling just then? But who wouldn't trust that face?)


Meanwhile, the timing of events in the sideways ramped up to "Ludicrous Speed"! Somehow, Locke X was able to land in LA, get fired, find a new job, and then get run down by Desmond, in the same two days that we saw pass for Sun & Jin. I mean, how did they both show up in the hospital at the same time?!?


Not to mention, SuperCop Sawyer X was able to pull a surveillance video of Sayid, identify him, track him down to his brother's house, and then drive across LA in the time it takes to deliver Sun to the nearest hospital in an ambulance.


Considering how slowly the season started, I stand by my feelings that the pacing for this season has been very poor. They teased us along, and now they're just flinging out "answers" and plot developments left and right.

In a funny way (but not really "Ha Ha" funny if you know what I mean) it seems like the producers of Lost heard fans saying, "We want answers" and decided to retort, "Answers huh? We got your answers!"

Like, they made a check list and they're going down it: How did the Black Rock arrive on the Island? BAM! How was the Statue destroyed? BAM! What are the whispers? BAM! Was that really Christian, or was it the Smoke Monster? BAM! "Check, check, check. Now can we get back to the characters?"

It's like the producers are just throwing out "answers" without even trying to work them into the narrative (see Hurley's out-of-left-field "Oh, so the whispers are voices of the dead" revelation last week.)


At the end of the day, I just have to accept things, and say that dramatically speaking I was pretty satisfied with this episode. I was particularly drawn in by Claire's story, and Emilie de Ravin's acting as well. Crazy Claire took a big step up in my estimation (even though it would save everyone a lot of trouble if they would just say, "Hey! Cool it! You're the one who left Aaron alone in the jungle and disappeared!")

Claire was awesomely creepy as the "crazy mother" the Island requires. Yes, we saw some other perspectives in the flashes, but thematically this was a Claire episode all the way. The twin meetings of siblings Claire and Jack, and the repeated instances of Claire being abandoned really got to me. In particular, I was amazed at charming Claire letting down her guard to Desmond, contrasted with her hardened look (please forgive that hair!) at the dock demanding to know, "Why aren't you waiting for John?"


But that's not John anymore.

Now, we've been told that the Smoke Monster was appearing on the Island as Christian Shephard. In particular, Flocke admitted that was him back in White Rabbit, who lead Jack to water and shelter in the caves. We can pretty safely assume it was also MiB disguised as Christian who lured Claire away to the Cabin back in season four. So, somehow the Monster appears as the dead.


However, Smokey's limitations don't jibe with the appearances of Christian off-Island - to Jack in season four's Something Nice Back Home, and to Michael on the Kahana in the season four finale. Yet the Monster doesn't seem to be able to cross water, and he's supposed to be trapped on the Island.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that Christian appeared to Sun and Lapidus at the Barracks, but at the same time it seemed Flocke was with Ben on Hydra Island. Not to mention, in the mobisode So It Begins and when he appeared to Locke under the Orchid, Christian referred to Jack as "my son". It *almost* seems like we've seen two different Christian Shephards.

Taking this line of reasoning in a slightly different direction - several times we thought we saw "dead Christian Shephard" we were actually seeing the Man in Black taking his form. We can also be fairly certain ol' Smokey was using the form of Eko's brother Yemi back in season two. Knowing this, we have to be extremely suspicious of the appearance of "Michael" last week, especially because his advice delivered the remaining candidates right into Flocke's waiting hands. (Isn't it weird how I referred to the same character by at least four different names in that paragraph? Ah, Lost!)


But back to Claire - she was left behind in just about every way this week. She was already feeling bitter about her three year stint on the Island without the rest of the Losties, before they ditched her with Flocke and the Others yet again. I loved all the shots of Claire in the grass, around a corner, watching the Losties make their way to the docks and the Elizabeth without her.


And I loved how Ilana X asked Jack "Do you believe in fate?" before introducing him to Claire X, who had only just walked in. It was a miracle of synchronicity, but just as Claire revealed they were siblings Jack was suddenly called off to a medical emergency, leaving Claire abandoned in both realities. Somehow, the melancholy of her situation and the performance of the actress really won me over. I found myself loving her parts of the show.

Supposedly, Claire and Sayid are suffering from the same sickness. In the sideways, Sawyer looks at Sayid and says, "there's our bad guy." On the island Kate says, "He's different" and Sawyer is ready to abandon them both, but good old Hurley argues, "You can always bring people back from the dark side. I mean, Anakin!"


I thought the Sayid we saw in this episode was awesome. For the first time in a while, I felt like we were seeing a real character. His performance at the well was riveting. Desmond asked how Sayid could know that Flocke could bring back his dead love - "I was dead, and he brought me back." It was so simple, so raw. Even if he can't feel pain or fear or happiness, Sayid still remembers his love.


"But what will you tell her...when she asks what you did to be with her again?" It beautifully echoed Ben's words to Michael in season two - how could Michael ever tell anyone what he had to do to escape the island?

As they cut to sideways Sayid, he's trying to explain to Nadia. He's "hurt someone" again, and it's possible he's losing her forever here.


Now, more than ever, it appears that the sideways cannot be what some fans suggested - a universe the Man in Black has offered as a bargain to several characters including Sayid and Dogen. Also, I have a hard time believing Sayid killed Desmond at the end of this scene, so it was pretty interesting that he took the initiative to lie about it later when talking to the Man in Black.


Meanwhile, Flocke had a lot to say about John Locke in this episode, and I was really intrigued to see that it's a lot of what I've been saying all along. Here "John Locke - he's a pawn...John got scammed all those times." and here"who is John Locke? John is a patsy. In every situation we've ever seen John, he was being played for a fool by someone with something to gain. John's a loser. He always makes the wrong choice."

In this episode, Flocke says John was "stupid enough to believe he was brought here for a reason." "John Locke was not a believer...he was a sucker."

We flash sideways to John X in an ambulance where he says, "Helen...I was going to marry her..."

Was.


Who is in the body of Locke X? It seems like it might just be...John Locke. When I initially suggested that Flocke might be the Smoke Monster, one of my main reservations was that John Locke is just too cool to end up that way.

In the pilot episode, way back on the very second day on the Island, John Locke set up the entire series.

Playing backgammon with Walt, he holds up two pieces to illustrate his point:


"Two players. Two sides. One is light, one is dark."

Locke is important, and I can't shake the feeling that he's not gone. Maybe he can cross over from the sideways?

As the sideways converges with the Island reality, I'm more certain than ever that Jack X will fix Locke X's spine, allowing him to walk and triggering memories of the Island for both of them. How cool was that scene on the operating table, mirroring Jack having to operate on his enemy Ben Linus? Jack X really started to remember, "I think I know this guy?"


Back on the Island, the Sawyer/Jack conflict was awesome! The scene they had on the boat was top-notch Lost, and was an example of why this is the best series on television. "You want to take a leap of faith Jack? Take it. Get off my damn boat."

They've been at odds the entire series, but never more so than in season five when Jack returned to the Island to "save" everyone, only to discover that Sawyer was well in control as the law and order of the DHARMA Initiative.

Now, Sawyer is the one who stepped up with the master plan - to escape from Flocke and the Island, and it almost seemed like Jack was gonna go along with it. After he'd submitted to Hurley's leadership last week, Hugo expected it was back to "Takin' Charge!" when Jack clumsily called a few of them to split off from Flocke's group. As they ran into the jungle, Hurley said Sawyer would be pissed - "This is Sawyer's plan!" was Jack's retort.


But in the end, Jack wasn't ready to go. "The Island isn't done with us!" Jack plans to stick around, because whatever that Smoke Monster is, it seems evil. If it wants the candidates to leave, then maybe the most important thing is to stay on the Island.

We actually know more about this than Jack does - the Man in Black said he would kill Jacob and escape the Island. "Someone else will take my place", said Jacob. "Well, then I'll kill them too", said the Man in Black.


"It has to be all of us" who leave, says the Man in Black - and at first it seemed "leave" might be a euphemism for dying. It seemed like the Smoke Monster planned to kill all of the candidates - or even more specifically like he couldn't kill them himself, but he needed them to die.

Then at the end of this episode, we have a sudden twist when Flocke braves falling bomb shells to grab Jack and carry him safety. What's going on here? I really don't know.

My guess is that the Island needs to have a Jacob, but it has other roles that are required too. Whatever pattern is playing out on the Island contains a crazy mother archetype, and we've learned that she is the mother of the Man in Black. That's what happened to Rousseau, and why Claire seems so much like her now - there's a crazy mother "spirit" inhabiting them.


It remains to be seen if "she" is also the mother of Jacob, the mother of the mysterious boy, or if all those are faces of the same man. Who knows what other archetypes the Island requires. Flocke said it was "nice to have everyone together again" and he could mean the candidates, or he could mean his "family". His mother represented by Claire, Flocke, and the new Jacob is probably with them right now. Maybe all of these personalities are required by the Island, whomever is playing the part.

I don't expect to find the answers to those questions next episode. We'll be focused instead on more Jack, and we have to wait two weeks for "The Candidate". Then, in three weeks we get episode 6x15 which may finally fill in some of the back story for Jacob and his Nemesis.

Then, the epic two-hour finale, which will blow our minds for sure. All the past finales have been incredible, and this will be the ultimate. I'm excited, can't wait, but I don't want it all to end! "Well, here we go."